Hand-to-Hand Combat at the Railroad

Just before 2 p.m., Gen. John Gibbon ordered Col. Adrian Root's men to cross the railroad in front of you and enter the woods beyond. With flags in front and bayonets fixed, Root's and remnants from Taylor's and Lyle's brigades advanced through a hail of iron and lead. Soldiers went "down like wheat before the reaper." In the edge of the woods, the Union troops and Gen. James H. Lane's North Carolinians fought with clubbed muskets, bayonets,swords, and pistols.

"With a shout and a run, the brigade leaped the ditches, charged across the railway, and occupied the wood beyond, driving the enemy from their position, [and] killing a number with bayonet."
- Col. Adrian Root, USA

"We was laying in a rale road cut and when the Yankees come upon us we all lef the cut. ... We dug a long grave and buried all that was killed out of our company, side and side."
- Pvt. J.T. Carpenter, 28th North Carolina Infantry, CSA

Outnumbered and out of ammunition, the Confederates fell back with Union troops in close pursuit - dead and wounded soldiers trampled in the process. But just like Gen. George G. Meade, to his left, Gibbon's penetration of the Confederate line was in vain. His troops were disorganized, low on ammunition, and without support. The Confederates had ample reserves that soon arrived in force and pushed the reluctant Union troops back across the railroad.

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