The Sixth South Carolina at Seven Pines. 123
front and to the right for several hundred yards, as far as I could see on both sides. They opened upon us a terrific fire, direct from the front and oblique from both sides, but we continued steadily to advance until within thirty or forty yards of them, when our line was stag- gered, checked, and finally borne down by the weight of this con- verging fire. The men, checked though they were, and borne down by force when they wished to proceed, were nevertheless unhacked, and opened a fierce and rapid fire on the enemy in front. Not know- ing at the time why the Fifth had not come out of the abattis with us (their gallant Colonel was killed by the volley we met there, and they were embarrassed and delayed by his fall), I looked anxiously for them to come up arid relieve us from a portion of the fire, but neither they nor any other help were in sight. I was unwilling to undertake a retreat over such ground as was in our rear, and de- termined to make another effort to break through the enemy's line. Amid the roar of that fierce storm no human voice could have been heard by even a company, and to secure that unity of action which the emergency demanded, it was necessary to convey to the com- manders of companies instructions to notify their men and have them prepared to rise up at a concerted signal, and push through the line in front. This consumed time, and held our men under this de- structive fire longer than was desirable, but it could not be helped. As soon as possible the signal was given. All, except the dead and dying (who, unhappily for us, were numerous enough to mark our line from one end to the other, after we left it), rose and moved, though crouching as they breasted the pelting storm, steadily and unfalteringly forward without firing a gun, until the enemy gave way, when we poured in our volley of buck and ball at close range and with telling effect.
Although their lines were broken and shattered, they yielded the ground with great reluctance. They for some time made strenuous efforts to reform close in our front, and repeatedly gathered in groups about their colors and around their officers, who made heroic efforts to rally them, only to be piled in heaps by the shot and ball belched from our old smooth bores. These efforts they stubbornly continued until there seemed not a standard left, not an officer to rally them. While we were pressing this, the most valiant foe that we had yet met, being apprehensive of attack from the enemy on either the right or left of the point of their line penetrated by us, or on both, which, promptly made, would certainly and easily have crushed us before our supports could come up, I was anxiously looking to both, and
