ACHIEVEMENTS OE FIELD ARTILLERY. 
625 
case and canister, giving’ at the same time the order to load without 
sponging the pieces , for, as he naively remarks in his report of the 
battle, f minutes were now of more value than arms. 5 We are glad to 
know that although this order was strictly carried out no casualties 
arose therefrom. His battery opened such a destructive fire on the 
advancing troops that they could not stand before it, but broke and 
fled in every direction, and in less than 15 minutes not a living man 
could be seen on the ground which so recently had swarmed with 
them.” The Confederate official report characterises this fire as a 
“ murderous shower.” 1 It scattered the attacking column as if by 
enchantment, and affords an instance of the power of guns to hold their 
own unsupported by any other troops. When Hunt brought his 
battery out of action he found to his disgust a general retreat ordered. 
After vainly protesting against such a decision, he brought the battery 
off the field with no loss soever u save that of a single bridle ,” and its 
steadiness subsequently, and the energetic exertions of Hunt and his 
officers, prevented a stampede and panic, such as had demoralised the 
right, from taking place. 
The Confederate Commander-in-Chief, General J. E. Johnston, bas 
borne testimony to what these guns accomplished when, with reference 
to their commanding officer, he wrote :—“In that action he commanded 
the artillery of the left with which he repulsed the attack on that wing 
unaided by other troops.” 
At the battle of Malvern Hill, one of the sanguinary battles fought 
in front of Richmond between the 26th of June and the 1st of July, 
we have an excellent example of what artillery fire can accomplish 
when guns are utilised in a mass. The importance of having a large 
body of guns in hand, we purposely omit to use the word “ reserve ” 
as a term distasteful to our modern notions, ready to be thrown into 
the scale whenever opportunity may occur, is likewise evidenced in the 
history of this action. 
McClellan had selected Harrison's Landing on the James River as his 
base, and his camps were covered by the fire of the gun-boats upon it. 
At the close of the several engagements on the 30th, in one of which, 
that known as the affair of Malvern Cliff, the attack of Holmes's 
division along the river road to Richmond was shattered by the Federal 
guns posted on the western crest of the hill, his whole army was 
drawn up in position on Malvern Hill, an eminence near the north 
bank of the river about sixty feet high, and having a level plateau on 
its top. His force was formed on an arc round this high ground, the 
flanks resting on the river. General Morell occupied the extreme left, 
with head-quarters at the Crew house; the brigade of Griffin in advance; 
Martindale's brigade in the Crew field, north of the Richmond Road ; 
and Butterfield's in its rear, lying down south of the Richmond Road. 
General Griffin had command of all the artillery on the left. The position 
was one specially favourable for the use of guns, and General Hunt, 
whose deeds at the battle of Bull Run we have just given an account of, 
and to whose enlightened views the reforms in organisation gradually in- 
i “ The Outbreak of the Rebellion,” by J. G. Nicolay. 
