Confederate Futility

Confederate Futility. . The Confederate plan called for dozens of cannon to gather here and on the Poindexter Farm, nearly a mile to the east (your left). Their combined fire, directed at the Union batteries atop Malvern Hill, would clear the way for an infantry assault up the hill., But everything went wrong. Officers failed to collect enough cannon. Batteries came up to this ridge one at a time, were pounded by stronger and more numerous Union guns, and left the field in disarray. A similar scenario played out a short distance to the east on the Poindexter farm. The Confederate infantry attack went forward anyway, many of the soldiers marching directly through the smoking debris on this high ground and coming under direct, short-range fire for the first time., “Entering the field at the point where our artillery had been posted, I came upon numbers of dead and dying horses, who, with the drivers and gunners, laid in a pile together; their several dismantled guns, their caissons, fired and blown up by the enemy’s balls, all presenting an aspect of desolation and ruin.” John S. Hard, 7th South Carolina Infantry