nd
probing the work. One man in the trench was killed, by this shot, and
the rest ran (just as our skirmishers dashed forward) and retreated
across the open ground to the work in the woods beyond. Now the serious
business commenced. Artillery could not be used to dislodge them from
the position which was meant to be defended in earnest. This open
ground, between the points where were constructed the rifle-pit (which
was only a blind) and the strong work where Moore intended to fight, is
the flat summit (for crest, properly speaking, it has none) of a hill,
or rather swell of land, which slopes gently away on both the northern
and southern sides. Guns planted anywhere, except upon this plateau, and
near its center, could not have borne upon the enemy's position at
all--and, if they had been planted there, every cannoneer would have
been killed before a shot could have been fired. The only way to take
the work was by a straight forward attack upon it, and Colonel Johnson
moved against it his brigade, or rather the two regiments of it, left on
the southern side of the river. The men, gallantly led, dashed across
the open ground and plunged into the woods beyond.

The Federal force, some four hundred strong, was disposed behind the
work and abattis, holding a line not much more than a hundred yards
long. The first rush carried the men close to the work, but they were
stopped by the fallen timber, and dropped fast under the close fire of
the enemy. Colonel Chenault was killed in the midst of the abattis--his
brains blown out as he was firing his pistol into the earthwork and
calling on his men to follow. The second brigade had started with an
inadequate supply of ammunition, and the fire of the attacking party
soon slackened on that account. General Morgan ordered me to send a
regiment to Colonel Johnson's assistance, and I sent the Fifth Kentucky.
Colonel Smith led his men at a double-quick to the abattis, where they
were stopped as the others had been, and suffered severely. The rush
through a hundred yards of undergrowth, succeeded by a jam and crowding
of a regiment into the narrow neck, and confronted by the tangled mass
of prostrate timber and the guns of the hidden foe--was more than the
men could stand. They would give way, rally in the thick woods, try it
again, but unsuccessfully. The fire did not seem, to those of us who
were not immediately engaged, to be heavy. There were no sustained
volleys. It was a common re