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Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, commanding the 20th Maine Infantry: “We opened a brisk fire at close range, which was so sudden and effective that they soon fell back among the rocks and low trees in the valley, only to burst forth again with a shout, and rapidly advance, firing as they came. They pushed up to within a dozen yards of us before the terrible effectiveness of our fire compelled them to break and take shelter. They renewed the assault on our whole front, and for an hour the fighting was severe Squads of the enemy broke through our line in several places, and the fight was literally hand to hand. The edge of the fight rolled backward and forward like a wave...The enemy seemed to have gathered all their energies for their final assault...It was imperatrive to strike before we were struck by this overwhelming force in a hand-to-hand fight, which we could not probably have withstood or survived. As that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man, and rose into a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away. The effect was surprising; many of the enemy’s first line threw down their arms and surrendered, [then] the enemy’s second line broke and fell back, fighting from tree to tree, many being captured, until we had swept the valley and cleared the front of nearly our entire brigade.” -- Chamberlain’s battle report, in War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, volume 27, part 1, page 624
Colonel William C. Oates, commanding the 15th Alabama: “With a withering and deadly fire pouring in on us from every direction, it seemed that the regiment was doomed to destruction...My dead and wounded were then nearly as great in number as those still on duty. They literally covered the gorund. The blood stood in puddles in some places on the rocks; the ground was soaked with the blood of as brave men as ever fell on the red field of battle...I waited until the next charge of the Twentieth Maine was repulsed, and then ordered the retreat...When the signal was given we ran like a herd of wild cattle....” -- Oates’ memoirs The War between the Union and the Confederacy, page 220
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