The skirmishers soon became engaged, and a battery
concealed in woods on rising ground beyond, played upon the troops in
line. The skirmishers retired to the line, but were sent back to their
original position, while Bartlett's battery silenced the hostile
battery, and, by accurate fire, compelled it several times to shift its
position. A line of battle appearing in the timber preparing to charge,
the skirmishers were called back, Bartlett swept the bushes with
canister and shrapnell, Boyle's brigade charged into the brush,
encountered the fire of the Confederate line at close quarters, replied,
charged, and drove the enemy through the timber to an open field beyond.
The enemy rapidly crossed the field and took position in woods on its
farther side. A line of cavalry appearing at one end of the field, which
was also commanded by the enemy's battery, Boyle withdrew his regiments
to their original position. Bartlett's battery, aided by Mendenhall's,
was in constant activity. The infantry, with intervening pauses of
cessation, met and made charges into the chapparal. Mendenhall's
battery, in the course of the day, expended five hundred and twenty-six
rounds of ammunition, or about eighty-eight to the gun. Bartlett, by
noon, had fired his entire supply, six hundred rounds, and took his
battery to the landing to replenish. When he returned, the fighting had
ceased. After an hour of quiet, a furious attack was made on Smith's
brigade. The contest that ensued is described in Colonel Smith's report:
"The enemy soon yielded, when a running fight commenced, which extended
about a mile to our front, where we captured a battery and shot the
horses and many of the cannoneers. Owing to the obstructed nature of the
ground, the enthusiastic courage of the majority of our men, the laggard
discharge of their duty by many, and the disgraceful cowardice of some,
our line had been transformed into a column of attack, representing the
various grades of courage, from reckless daring to ignominious fear. At
the head of this column stood a few heroic men, not adequately
supported, when the enemy returned to the attack with three fresh
regiments in good order. We were driven back by these nearly to the
first position occupied by our line, when we again rallied and moved
forward toward the battery. Reaching a ravine to the right, and about
six hundred paces from the battery, we halted and awaited the assistance
of Mendenhall's battery, which was br