"The End of the Confederacy Was In Sight"

"The End of the Confederacy Was In Sight". . , Major General Edwin Sumner commanded the Second Corps, largest corps in the Union Army of the Potomac - but he never could get his three divisions together., His lead division was broken in the West Woods. Brigadier General William French's division smashed itself on the Confederate line in the Sunken Road. Finally Major General Israel Richardson's division came up beside French's and gained a position from which they could fire down the length of the Sunken Road. Then, as a Southerner remembered: , "The minnie balls, shot and shell rained upon us from every direction except the rear." , Orders were misunderstood. Two Confederate regiments pulled out of the line. The rest of the line crumbled: , "We had either to run or surrender; we ran rapidly through a large orchard." , "The slaughter was terrible" , Southern commanders pulled in men and guns from all directions to form a new line on the Piper farm. , "Lee's army was ruined and the end of the Confederacy was in sight.", General Richardson saw the chance. He tried desperately to mount the attack that would break Lee's army in half. He was wounded by a shellburst and the attack was never made. , "No one but a soldier could understand our sorrow at seeing him carried off the field." , Richardson died of his wound November 3., Southern Major General James Longstreet wrote: , "I put my staff officers to the guns while I held their horses...They seemed to forget they had known fatigue. The guns were played with life, and the brave spirits manning them claimed that they were there to hold or go down with the guns." , The Rebel line held., Hours later the 7th Maine Regiment was ordered across the Sunken road, now Bloody Lane. Half of the men were killed or wounded in the fields around the Piper farm. The regimental commander was sure the attack had been ordered by a drunken colonel: , "I wish I had been old enough, or distinguished enough, to have dared to disobey orders."