Existing comment:
Mayhem in the Forest:
In the confused fighting around Chancellorsville, units collided, leaders fell killed or wounded, and soldiers often found themselves face to face with their enemy. Their view of the battlefield usually consisted only of the trees and men around them.
I saw the arm and shoulder fly from the man just in front... Others sank to earth as if to rest, and some plunged forward, as though tripped by a snare, never to rise again. I had just about made up my mind that "this is hell sure enough" when one, two, three, and the fourth shell dropped almost in the same spot as fast as one could count, exploding as they struck the ground. All was darkness around me... blackness to black and thick I could feel it, and my feet seemed to rest on a sheet of flame.
-- Nicholas Weeks, 3d Alabama
Flags were prized and essential parts of the battlefield landscape. Soldiers risked everything to protect their flags -- and to take those of their enemies. Many flags were won and lost in the woods around Chancellorsville, and many a soldier died capturing or defending them. |