"Come on to Richmond"

"Come on to Richmond". May 24, 1864 6:00pm. Despite the disaster that had befallen the 35th Massachusetts, General Ledlie became even more determined to secure Ox Ford. Against the orders of his division commander, the drunken general ordered his unsupported brigade to assault the Confederate trenches before you. Mahone’s Confederates allowed the Federals to advance well into the field and, when Ledlie’s soldiers were within two hundred yards, opened on them with a deadly artillery and rifle fire. As rain from a heavy thunderstorm burst into their faces, Ledlie’s men took shelter from the Confederate fire in the ravine just before you., “After proceeding a short distance all semblance of a line became lost. It was just a wild tumultuous rush where the more reckless were far to the front and the cautious ones scattered along back, but still coming on.... Many of the Confederate soldiers stood upon their breastworks and called out in a tantalizing manner, ‘Come on Yank, come on to Richmond.’” Captain John Anderson, 57th Massachusetts Infantry, “I hardly know what to say this day, but before I say any more I must again thank the Almighty God for my safety.... I was under the worst fire yesterday that I have been in during the war.... 1 lost 8 out of my company which was 38 strong.... God only knows how I escaped [with] men drop[p]ing all around me....” 2d Lieutenant Gerhard Luhn, 4th United States Infantry, (sidebar) , Presented to the people of the United States by the friends of Edwin cole Bearss, Chief Historian Emiritus, National Park Service, in honor of his 74th birthday -- June 1997., (captions) , Soldiers of the 57th Massachusetts Infantry, Ledlie's Brigade , Line of Battle, 56th Massachusetts Infantry, Ledlie's Brigade