[Maclightpoc-developers] Attack the enemy at the time Gen. Sickles with his Third Corps was

[Mitchem <cla...@ef...>]

At the movement was, without, however, quoting the source of his
information. The Confederate reports state that this attack was met and
repulsed by the Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth, and Thirty-third
North-Carolina regiments, with small difficulty or loss. It is, however,
probable that these as much underrate the vigor and effect of the
attack, as Sickles may overstate it. It is not impossible that some
portion of the Eleventh Corps position was actually reached by these
columns. The road down which the movement was made strikes the plank
road but a short distance east of the position of Buschbeck's line. This
ground was not held in force by Jackson's corps at the moment, and it
was not difficult for Sickles to possess himself temporarily of some
portion of that position. But it must have been a momentary occupation.
Birney retired to Hazel Grove after this sally, having recovered part of
Whipple's train, and one or two guns. There can be found in the
Confederate and Union reports alike, numerous statements which are not
sustained by other testimony. As a sample, Gen. Lane of A. P. Hill's
division states that a Lieut. Emack and four men captured an entire
Pennsylvania regiment, under Lieut.-Col. Smith. The nearest approach to
this is found in the capture of Col. Mathews and two hundred men of the
One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Pennsylvania, while Williams was moving by
his left to regain his old ground. But it is highly probable that it
required more than five men to effect the capture. A wise rebuke of
careless statements in official reports is found in the following
indorsements on a report made of the operations of the One Hundred and
Fourteenth Pennsylvania:-- In forwarding this report, which I do merely
as a matter of duty, it is incumbent upon me to say that it is a
complete romance from beginning to end. Col. Collis has had his
attention