Cut to pieces.

posted by LockeProposal on TheGrittyPast

[The following takes place during the American Civil War.]

”Our lines melted under their fire like snow in thaw,” reported a rebel captain.

With no choice but to retreat men did so frantically, companies dissolving into fragments. Some of them grabbed at bridles of Yankee horses that were hitched in front of the Tishomingo and swung themselves into the saddles. But whether on horseback or on foot, the retreat was more perilous than the advance. “No description is adequate to picture the gauntlet of death that these fugitives ran,” an Iowan reported. “Very few reached the timber alive… they had been cut to pieces in the most intense meaning of that term.”

All around, the same was happening to other rebel brigades. Just down the line, Confederates assailed Battery Robinett, the largest of the Union gun fortresses, with catastrophic results. Robinett was a stout earthen and log redan near the Memphis and Charleston rail line, with three Parrott guns atop it, masked by two enormous oak trees.

Almost 1,900 rebels attacked the battery three times, led by Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas astride his horse. On the third charge, the rebels screamed through a shallow ravine and came up the steep bank at a dead run. At fifty yards, the Yankees sprang up and fired, mowing them down in hundreds. The rebels still reached the base of the battery, where they clustered in a ditch at the foot of the bulwark and climbed upward in a hand-to-hand, musket-swinging death struggle. Men used their bayonets “like pitch forks,” and stabbed each other through. Rogers spurred his black mare up the incline, but “he had no more than straightened up until he was full of bullet holes,” according to one Iowan. He toppled backward into the ditch. In just a few minutes, 272 Southerners fell, killed or wounded around Robinett.

Source:

Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “Corinth.” The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy. Anchor Books, 2010. 34-5. Print.

Further Reading:

Siege of Corinth / First Battle of Corinth

[**The following takes place during the American Civil War.**] >”Our lines melted under their fire like snow in thaw,” reported a rebel captain. >With no choice but to retreat men did so frantically, companies dissolving into fragments. Some of them grabbed at bridles of Yankee horses that were hitched in front of the Tishomingo and swung themselves into the saddles. But whether on horseback or on foot, the retreat was more perilous than the advance. “No description is adequate to picture the gauntlet of death that these fugitives ran,” an Iowan reported. “Very few reached the timber *alive*… they had been *cut to pieces* in the most intense meaning of that term.” >All around, the same was happening to other rebel brigades. Just down the line, Confederates assailed Battery Robinett, the largest of the Union gun fortresses, with catastrophic results. Robinett was a stout earthen and log redan near the Memphis and Charleston rail line, with three Parrott guns atop it, masked by two enormous oak trees. >Almost 1,900 rebels attacked the battery three times, led by Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas astride his horse. On the third charge, the rebels screamed through a shallow ravine and came up the steep bank at a dead run. At fifty yards, the Yankees sprang up and fired, mowing them down in hundreds. The rebels still reached the base of the battery, where they clustered in a ditch at the foot of the bulwark and climbed upward in a hand-to-hand, musket-swinging death struggle. Men used their bayonets “like pitch forks,” and stabbed each other through. Rogers spurred his black mare up the incline, but “he had no more than straightened up until he was full of bullet holes,” according to one Iowan. He toppled backward into the ditch. In just a few minutes, 272 Southerners fell, killed or wounded around Robinett. ______________________________ **Source:** Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “Corinth.” *The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy*. Anchor Books, 2010. 34-5. Print. ______________________________ **Further Reading:** [Siege of Corinth / First Battle of Corinth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Corinth)

2 comments

[–] sidewalker_Principle 1 points (+1|-0)

Chilling. The depths that we go to, brother pitted against brother. Is this a historical document or is it fiction? Either way it's very well written. I have that battlefield in my mind.

Cut to pieces.

2 comments

/s/TheGrittyPast