uick
under a galling fire from the opposite side of the ravine. Unshaken by
fearful odds, they held their ground and replied with spirit. The 15th
Georgia Regiment, under Colonel McIntosh then entered the fight, and
this gallant officer was mortally wounded. The 17th Georgia charged on
the left and the 20th on the right. The engagement was a very bloody
one. Over 200 of Toombs' men were lost and several valuable officers
were killed. The opposing troops were a part of General Hancock's
command, and the firing ceased only with the night. Next morning the
enemy retreated, and Toombs' men pressed forward and held their
position. General Toombs was censured for this engagement, for which, it
seems, he was in no wise responsible.

On the 1st of July, about three o'clock in the afternoon, commenced one
of the famous battles of the war. McClellan's army had gotten away from
its perilous position astride the Chickahominy, and now found itself
united and strongly intrenched on the heights of Malvern Hill. All hope
of destroying that army was gone, and it was evident that an engagement
must ensue, with the odds in favor of the Union army. It was in many
respects like the battle of Gettysburg, except that the Confederate
forces were not handled with the precision and effectiveness of the
historic sorties against Cemetery Heights. The battlefield was in plain
range of the enemy's gunboats, and there was much surprise that General
Lee should have sanctioned an engagement at that point. General D. H.
Hill misunderstood the signal for attack at Malvern Hill, and late in
the afternoon ordered the charge. Toombs' brigade had been marching and
countermarching all day, and went into action much thinned from the
effects of the sharp fighting at Labor-in-Vain Ravine. There was no
concerted attack. The charge seems to have been made by brigades, even
single regiments being thrown forward. They advanced through a swamp,
and the difficulties of the charge, owing to a murderous fire which
raked the plain from the hills, 600 yards away, cannot be exaggerated.
Toombs' brigade was one of the first to reach the plateau swept by
fifty guns. It advanced with Anderson's brigade, but obliqued to the
left about half-way up the hill, and took position near a fence, where
the troops, suffering fearfully from the cool, deadly aim of the Federal
gunners, were ordered to lie down and secure some shelter from the
cannon-shot. It was at this time that General