Skirmishers Pull Back

Skirmishers Pull Back. "Let him alone and make their escape". The Confederate line began to crumble as Union artillery fire took its toll and Federal infantry threatened the southern flanks., A two-gun section of the 4th U.S. Artillery had come onto the field with the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry. Capt. Edward Hudson, commander of the section, kept his cannons on the road as the infantry deployed, but once the foot soldiers came under Confederate fire, he unlimbered the guns on high ground west of the road and opened fire on the Confederate skirmishers on the Porterfield Farm., The booming, crashing shellfire set the barn and corn crib ablaze. Confederate Col. Kenton Harper, commander of the 5th Virginia, was at first determined to hold the farm, as he considered the buildings key to his position - but then he spied Union troops extending, ominously, beyond his flanks. Fearing being cut off, he ordered his men to fall back, but while making a stand whenever possible., The skirmishers closest to the road took shelter behind fences and the large pile of wood near the Porterfield house. One of the soldiers was 17-year-old James L. Avis, who was carrying a rifle that famed abolitionist John Brown had used during his attempted uprising at Harper's Ferry in 1859. When cannon fire smashed into the woodpile, Avis was thrown across the road, but survived his wound., Not all were so fortunate. The southerners behind the now-burning barn hurried into an open wheatfield east of the road, moving along a shallow ravine that partially sheltered them from the growing Union fire. Most made it away safely, but Pvt. George Rupe was hit in the thigh, the bullet striking with a "dull thud", and seriously wounded; he later died on the field after insisting that he be left behind.

"[Private Rupe] urged his four comrades who were carrying him off the field to let him alone and make their escape, 'twas better to leave a dying man to his fate, than four should be killed to save him.'." -Staunton Spectator, July 16, 1861

(captions) , Union Capt. Edward Hudson was a veteran among the mostly-green Union troops, a West Point grade who had served in the 4th US Artillery since 1850. He later became an aide de camp to Gen. George McClellan. He continued to serve in the army after the war, retiring in 1870., Part of the 4th U.S. Artillery in action at Gettysburg.