The conflict had been going on for about an hour, and the result was doubtful, when Porter came up and poured a heavy fire upon Evans's left, which made his whole column waver and bend. Just then a strong force was seen coming over a ridge, in the direction of Bull's Run, to the assistance of the Nationals, and the head of Heintzelman's division, which had not reached the ford above when the battle commenced, was coming upon the field. The column on the left was Sherman's brigade, from Tyler's right wing, led by Colonel Corcoran, with his New York Sixty-ninth, sixteen hundred strong. Using a high tree for an observatory, an officer of Tyler's staff had watched the movements of the columns of Hunter and Heintzelman from the moment when they crossed Bull's Run; and when there seemed danger that the tide of battle might be turned against the attacking force of his division, Tyler promptly ordered Sherman to cross just above the
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| Michael Corcoran. |
Stone Bridge to their assistance. He did so without much molestation, when his advance (the Sixty-ninth) soon encountered some of the Confederates flying before Hunter's forces.
Sherman's approach was timely. Those in conflict, having been on their feet most of the time since midnight, and having fought for an hour in the scorching sun, were much exhausted. Sherman's troops were fresh, and the Confederates knew it. Menaced by these on their right, heavily pressed by Burnside and Sykes on their center, and terribly galled by. Porter on their left, they gave way, and their shattered column fled in confusion up the slopes of the plateau and across it, beyond the Robinson and Henry houses. The final blow that broke the Confederate line into fragments, and sent them flying, was a furious charge directly on their center by the New York Twenty-seventh, Colonel Henry W. Slocum.1
The fugitives found General T. J. Jackson, with Stanard's battery, on the plateau. He was in command of reserves next behind Bee, and had just arrived and taken position on the eastern edge of the table-land. When Bee hurriedly exclaimed, “They are beating us back!” Jackson calmly replied, “Well, Sir, we will give them the bayonet.” This firmness encouraged Bee, and he tried to rally his men. “Form! Form!” he cried. “There stands Jackson like a stone wall.” The force of that idea was wonderful. The flight was checked, and comparative order was soon evolved out of the direst confusion.
