634 
ACHIEVEMENTS OE FIELD ARTILLERY. 
attack, but their opponents, hampered by want of room, could only 
place about 80 in position on the opposite heights against them. In 
the morning some desultory fighting took place, but about noon all was 
“ silent as a churchyard.” The Federals confident in the strength of 
their position sat still and waited. The Confederates were grimly 
busy with their preparations. 
At 1 o’clock two signal guns were fired and 150 pieces at once opened 
a tremendous cannonade on the Federals. On their side the reply was 
prompt, and, although outnumbered, their guns did great execution. 
Brigadier-General Alexander says, “ the enemy’s position seemed to 
have broken out with guns everywhere, and from Bound Top to Cemetery 
Hill was blazing like a volcano.” He says that during this day’s 
fighting his own battalion (consisting of 26 guns) lost 144 men and 116 
horses, “ nearly all by artillery fire,” while he congratulates himself on 
having caused a loss to one of his opponent’s batteries of “27 out of 36 
horses in ten minutes.” 
General Doubleday, who witnessed the combat from the other side, 
speaks of the severity of the Federal losses, and says that 11 of their 
caissons were blown up at this time. 1 “When the smoke went up 
from these explosions rebel yells of exultation could be heard along a 
line of several miles.” 
General Hunt, who commanded the artillery on the Federal side, 
wishing to preserve as many guns as possible intact, and with ample 
ammunition to withstand the inevitable assault, after two hours with¬ 
drew 18 guns from the Cemetery Hill and ordered the Federal artillery 
to cease firing. 
This manoeuvre quite deceived General Alexander. He imagined 
that he had silenced the enemy’s artillery, and sent back to tell Pickett 
and Longstreet, and the assault was launched with much misgiving on 
the part of the latter, who felt the enterprise was an extremely hazard¬ 
ous one. 
Meanwhile General Hunt replenished his limber-boxes, and substi¬ 
tuted batteries from his reserve for those that had been much knocked 
about. 
Pickett’s division, after a pause for preparation, came on magnifi¬ 
cently. They must traverse a mile and-a-half from the woods where 
they had been posted ere they could gain their goal. 
Meanwhile the ammunition of the Confederate guns had run low, 
and only about 18 had enough to push forward with this advance. 
But no sooner had they debouched on the plain than the 18 guns 
were back on Cemetery Hill, and artillery fire burst forth all along 
the Federal line. Doubleday says “ they suffered severely from our 
artillery, which opened on them with solid shot as soon as they came 
in sight; when half way across the plain they were vigorously shelled; 
double canisters were reserved for their nearer approach.” The guns 
of their own side were silent as they passed between them, then they 
opened over their heads when they had got a couple of hundred yards 
away. The Federal artillery let this artillery alone, and only fired at 
the infantry. Yet Pickett’s division swept bravely on and eventually 
1 “ Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.” 
