History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

50 FIFTY-SECOND REGIMYENT. 1862
batteries and a portion of Stuart's Cavalry, all under command of General
Stuart. Returning to my command at twelve Iv[., I deployed the Fifty-second
on the right of the Williaamsb-rg road, and extended it across the railroadc
The One Htmdred and Fourthl was deployed to the left of the Williamsburg
road without iuch resistance, and we pressed forward until we came to the
wood next beyond Savage Station, where the enemy was prepared to resist
olur firther advance. Regan's Battery was placed in position in the front edge
of the timber on the right of the road, and shelled the wood on the left of the
road, which was about six h1ndred yards from the battery; this wood extended
about foer hundred yards along the road, and terminated in a line perpendicular
with it, which line produced across the road was the commencement of the
wood on the right of the road parallel to which the Fifty-second had been deploy.ed, and toward which it was ordered to advance, until it should be protected by some houses and sheds, and an orchard and a fence, three hundred
yards from the wood. This movement of the Fifty-second, with the shelling
from Regan's Battery, lessened materially the fire of the enemy on the left, and
the One Hundred and Fourth was ordered forward.
" Our attention was now directed to the wood in front of the Fifty-second,
where the fire was increasing, and, at the same time, to the batteries of the
enemy, which some time before had opened, and had been directing their fire
upon our batteries and the One Hundred and Fourth. From the front of the
wood, now occupied by the One Hundred and Fourth, I discovered that the line
of battle of the enemy was formed just within the edge of the wood which
crosses the Williamsburg road, about half a mile from the Seven Pines Corner;
that his artillery wa's in front near the house on the left of the road supported
by infantry lying in the hollow, and that the wood in front of the Fifty-second
on the right of the road was occupied by a regiment of skirmishers. Bringing
the oblique fire of the One Hundred and Fourth to assist the direct fire of the
Ffty-second, I pushed forward the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania, along and behind the railroad, and ordered the Fifty-second to advance from the fence and
buildings directly into the wood in front of it.
4 This combined movement forced the enemy to leave precipitately the
wood on the right. It was now about half-past four P. M.; the batteries of
the enemy had annoyed us considerably, and it became necessary to drive them
from their position. The sharpshooters of the Fifty-second, selected from men
that had lived with the rifle constantly by them, in the lumbering counties of
Pennsylvania, were ordered forward under Captain Davis; at the same time a
section of Mink's Battery was added to Began's. Having thus advanced our
right, we soon corrected the ranges of our artillery, and within half an hour
the effects were apparent; the artillery of the enemy could no longer stand
against the fire of our artillery and sharpshooters, and were compelled to withdraw. At the same time I discovered an unsteadiness in the ranks of the enemy, and I hurried forward Gregg's Cavalry, followed by the remaining two sections of Mink's Battery, which were brought into action within four hundred
yards of the enemy's lines, supported by the Eighty-fifth New York, and One
Hundred and Fourth; the Ffty-second being on the right, these movements
threw the enemy into disorder, and Gregg was ordered to charge; but after
proceeding some two hundred yards, he received a volley from some skirmishers that occupied a thicket on the right of the road, and he dismounted his
command, fired his carbines, and wheeled into a depression in the ground. I