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left.
The firing indicated that
Whiting and
Pettigrew were being fully occupied by the enemy in their immediate front.’
Hatton coming up, he was put in immediately between
Hampton and
Pettigrew, and
Gen. G. W. Smith ordered the line forward to carry the
Federal position.
The woods were dense, the undergrowth thick, and the smoke so great that officers leading their troops could not see ‘more than a limited number of their men at any one time.’
General Smith continues: ‘Various attempts were made to charge the enemy, but without that concert of action necessary to success. . . . On no part of the line where I was, did the enemy at any time leave their cover or advance one single foot.
Our troops held their position close to the enemy's line until it was too dark to distinguish friend from foe.’
The attack had been in progress for nearly two hours when darkness put an end to it. The gallant
Hatton was killed, and that noble and accomplished soldier,
Pettigrew, had fallen, badly wounded, so near the
Federal line that he was made prisoner.
Brig.-Gen. Wade Hampton was seriously wounded, but kept his horse, had the ball extracted by
Surg. E. S. Gaillard on the field, and refused to leave his troops.
In this affair,
Whiting's brigade (commanded by
Col. E. M. Law) lost in killed, wounded and missing, 356;
Pettigrew's, 341;
Hampton's, 329, and
Hatton's, 244; total, 1,270.
The
Hampton legion infantry,
General Smith reported, suffered a greater loss by far in proportion to its numbers than any other regiment of the division, being 21 killed and 120 wounded out of 350.
These numbers were furnished by
Surg. John T. Darby,
acting chief surgeon of
Whiting's division.
Near the close of the action, General Johnston was unhorsed and seriously wounded by a fragment of shell, and the command of the Confederate army devolved upon Maj.-Gen. G. W. Smith, next in rank, who was succeeded by Gen. R. E. Lee on the following day.
