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Private James Power Smith of the Rockbridge Artillery: “At once we were in motion. Have you ever seen a battery move into action? It is a spirited sight. Cannoneers swing to their seats on the limber chests, horses are spurred and lashed into a gallop, officers draw their sabers and shout their orders in ringing tones. Soon we met the wounded, limping, or bearing bleeding arms, or with blood on the face, and some borne by friends. A few were utterly demoralized and declared that the battle was lost. Up a lane, then to the right in the open field a little below the crest, and we dismounted and unlimbered. And there was a battlefield--lines of blue, with volleys and wreaths of smoke, batteries belching flames--before us. Right and left of us were our own people of the First Brigade. Back of us rode Beauregard and his staff. To and fro passed Jackson, holding up a bandaged hand. Our guns were shotted and fired, and it seemed the greatest noise we had ever heard. As I ran from caisson to gun carrying shot, a minnie ball flattened itself on the tire of the gun wheel and then struck my right arm, making a bruise like the blow of a stone. With some pride I carried that arm in a sling for a day or two.” -- Smith’s article “With Stonewall Jackson in the Army of Northern Virginia,” in Southern Historical Society Papers, volume 43 (1920), page 10
Major J. B. Walton, commanding the Washington Artillery of New Orleans: “As the enemy’s artillery would frequently get our range, we advanced by hand to the front until finally the battery was on the crest of the hill, entirely exposed to the view of their artillery and infantry. At this moment their fire fell fell like hail around us, the artillery in front of our position evidently suffering greatly from the concentration of fire from my guns and those of the battery on my right, and notwithstanding we were at this time also subjected to a terrific fire of infantry on our left, my guns were as rapidly and beautifully served by the cannoneers, with as much composure and silence as they are when upon the ordinary daily drill.” -- Walton’s battle report, in War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, volume 2, page 516
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