Thoburn's Flank Attack

Thoburn's Flank Attack. "Come on Boys, Here's Where I Want You!". , Mid-Afternoon, Having turned back two Union assaults across the ground to your left, Confederate Gen. William E. Jones shifted troops in preparation for a counterattack - but his aggression would cost him and his army dearly., Union Gen. David Hunter and his staff, positioned near the Shaver House 3/4 mile to your left, spotted Confederate Gen. John C. Vaughn's Tennesseans as they marched to reinforce Jones's left wing from a position 600 yards to the south. When Lt. John R. Meigs alerted Hunter to the gap in the Confederate line along the road in front of you - a gap created when Jones repositioned troops that had been posted in this area - Hunter ordered Col. Joseph Thoburn to attack the vulnerable opening., Shortly after 3:00 p.m., Thoburn began marching his men through the low ground east of the road as Union artillery roared into action. The cannon fire pinned down and demoralized the Confederates as it crashed into the woods, smashing the sheltering timber "all to pieces." A Confederate in the Thomas Legion wrote, "Men that was at the battle of Seven Pines say they never heard no harder.", When Thoburn reached a point opposite the Confederate flank, 700 yards in front of you, his troops deployed into line of battle in the low ground across the road to your front, then climbed the slope - unobserved by the southerners until it was too late. Upon reaching the crest, Thoburn's men attacked the stunned Confederates. Gen. Jones ordered the 60th Virginia to change front to meet the attack, but it collapsed under a torrent of Union rifle fire. The 12th West Virginia's flagbearer, Corp. Joseph Halstead, leapt atop the Confederate rail fortifications, waved the regimental flag, and cried out, "Come on boys, here's where I want you!" A bullet cut him down, but the Mountaineers poured over the works and routed the Thomas Legion after a vicious hand-to-hand struggle. Simultaneously, the 54th Pennsylvania and 34th Massachusetts charged through the woods behind the Confederate line, throwing it into further confusion., (Captions):, Union Col. Joseph Thoburn. , Nicholas Picerno Collection., Union Col. George Wells, commander of the 34th Massachusetts. , Nicholas Picerno Collection., Union Corp. Joseph Halstead