A Stillness at Appomattox (47 page)

Officers
were
taken
out
to
the
edge
of
the
open
space
and were
shown
the
ground,
everything
was
carefully
explained, and
then
the
twelve
regiments
moved
forward.
They
got
to the
edge
of
the
woods,
Upton
took
them
out
into
the
open, and
they
set
out
up
the
slope
on
a
dead
run,
yelling
like maniacs.

A
sharp
fire
greeted
them,
and
getting
through
the
abatis was
tough,
but
the
solid
column
kept
on
going
and
swept
up to
the
trench
without
a
halt.
At
the
parapet
there
was
brief, desperate,
hand-to-hand
fighting.
As
Upton
remarked
in
his report,
the
Confederates
"absolutely
refused
to
yield
the ground,"
and
the
first
Yankees
who
got
up
on
the
parapet were
shot
down
or
bayoneted.
Others
pitched
their
bayoneted rifles
over
the
parapet
like
deep-sea
harpooners
spearing whales,
or
held
their
pieces
out
at
arm's
length,
pointing downward
over
the
parapet,
and
fired.
Then
men
began
to |ump
over
into
the
trench,
clubbing
and
stabbing,
the
weight of
numbers
began
to
tell,
the
defenders
were
killed
or
driven away,
and
Upton's
leading
regiments
swept
down
the
line
to right
and
left
while
the
next
wave
dashed
across
the
open ground
and
seized
the
second
trench.
All
in
all,
the
thing
had worked,
and
the
twelve
regiments
had
broken
the
Confederate
line
wide
open
right
where
it
was
strongest,
taking
prisoners
and
waving
their
flags
and
shouting
with
triumph.
²

But
to
break
the
line
was
only
half
of
it.
Upton's
men
were three
quarters
of
a
mile
away
from
the
rest
of
the
Union army,
and
the
Rebels
were
bringing
up
strong
reinforcements and
opening
a
heavy
fire
from
in
front
and
from
both
flanks. Now
the
twelve
regiments
must
hold
on
while
their
comrades
in
the
rear
came
up
to
exploit
the
break-through.

This
had
been
arranged
for.
On
high
ground
off
to
the
left and
rear
Mott's
division
from
the
II
Corps
was
lined
up
ready for
the
word,
and
it
was
sent
forward
as
soon
as
Upton's
men got
their
grip
on
the
Rebel
position.
But
Mott's
was
an
ill-fated
division,
and
most
of
the
fire
was
burnt
out
of
it.
Its morale
had
been
ruined
when
it
was
transferred
from
the
defunct
III
Corps,
early
that
spring,
and
in
the
Wilderness fighting
it
had
been
shot
up
and
driven
in
panic,
and
Mott seems
not
to
have
been
the
officer
who
could
pull
the
men
together.
In
addition,
the
division
had
to
advance
down
a
broad open
glade,
half
a
mile
long
and
400
yards
wide,
and
at
the end
of
the
glade
the
Confederates
had
twenty-two
cannon
in line,
waiting.
These
guns
had
a
direct
line
of
fire
down
the glade,
and
they
could
not
miss,
and
they
broke
Mott's
division
before
it
got
fairly
started.
Better
troops
might
have got
farther,
but
the
artillery
would
probably
have
taken charge
anyway,
and
this
assault
went
entirely
awry
and
never got
within
a
quarter
of
a
mile
of
the
Rebel
line.
³

Down
to
the
right
were
the
troops
which
had
made
the
unsuccessful
attack
earlier
in
the
day,
and
it
was
resolved
to send
them
in
again.
The
men
had
just
succeeded
in
re-forming
their
lines
after
their
repulse
when
a
staff
officer
came galloping
up,
riding
from
brigade
to
brigade
with
orders
for a
new
attack.
One
of
the
men
who
had
to
make
this
charge wrote
afterward
that
"there
was
an
approach
to
the
ridiculous"
in
the
way
in
which
these
orders
were
given.
He
specified:

"No
officer
of
higher
rank
than
a
brigade
commander
had examined
the
approaches
to
the
enemy's
works
on
our
front, and
the
whole
expression
of
the
person
who
brought
the
message
seemed
to
say,
The
general
commanding
is
doubtful
of your
success.
The
moment
the
order
was
given
the
messenger put
spurs
to
his
horse
and
rode
off,
lest
by
some
misunderstanding
the
assault
should
begin
before
he
was
safe
out
of range
of
the
enemy's
responsive
fire."
⁴

That
kind
of
spirit
never
broke
any
Confederate
lines,
and this
charge
was
beaten
before
it
was
made.
The
men
moved out
sluggishly,
convinced
that
their
job
was
hopeless.
After
a brief
advance
they
halted
and
opened
fire,
but
before
long they
seem
to
have
concluded
that
there
was
no
sense
in
it, and
everybody
turned
and
ran
for
the
rear.
Rebel
fire
followed
them,
and
the
dead
pines
in
the
thicket
took
fire,
and what
began
as
a
fairly
orderly
retreat
ended
as
a
rout.
The soldier
who
wrote
so
bitterly
about
the
way
the
charge
was directed
confessed
that
some
of
the
best
men
in
the
army "not
only
retired
without
any
real
attempt
to
carry
the
enemy's
works,
but
actually
retreated
in
confusion
to
a
point far
in
the
rear
of
the
original
line
and
remained
there
until nearly
night."
Staff
officers
sent
to
recall
them
found
the
men quietly
grouped
around
their
regimental
flags,
making
coffee.
⁵

So
Upton's
regiments
were
left
out
on
a
limb,
with
a
good part
of
the
Rebel
army
gathering
to
destroy
them
and
no
help coming
up;
and
the
young
colonel
at
last
had
to
lead
his
men back
to
their
lines,
with
a
thousand
of
them
left
dead
or wounded
on
the
ground.
They
brought
a
thousand
prisoners back
with
them,
and
they
had
made
an
authentic
break
in
a formidable
line,
but
in
the
end
it
had
all
been
a
failure.