Existing comment:
Battling Without a Decision:
September 19, 7am-7pm:
... whistling, seething, crackling bullets, the piercing, screaming fragments of shells, the whirring sound of shrapnel and the savage shower of canister, mingled with the fierce answering yells of defiance, all united in one horrible sound.
-- Col. Thomas Berry, CSA
Confusion reigned as the thick forest made it almost impossible to see. Neither army knew much about the positions and movements of the other. "I was totally ignorant," recalled a frustrated Union general, and "found myself embarrassed for the want of information."
The battle opened on the Union left with a misguided Federal attempt to capture a Confederate brigade. The surprised Southerners responded with force, hurtling attack after attack, progressing from north to south, eventually extending the battle lines for more than three miles nearly parallel to the Lafayette Road. Smoke, noise, scattered fires, and the trees themselves crippled the orderly formations of both armies. The fighting "very much resembled guerrilla warfare on a vast scale, in which one army was bushwhacking the other."
At day's end, neither side had gained any advantage. All knew the morning would bring more bloody butchery. |