A Deadly Volley
Near this location, the 21st Massachusetts regiment was nearly slaughtered by a single volley of Confederate musket fire. The blast killed or wounded nearly a hundred men and forced the withdrawal of the regiment.
The devastating encounter occurred after two regiments of General Jesse Reno’s division were ordered to probe the woods east of Ox Road and “find the enemy”. The 51st New York entered the woods and moved northeast. The 21st Massachusetts followed, but angled northward, stumbling through the darkened woods as a heavy thunderstorm erupted. Then, amid crashes of lightning and pouring rain, they halted to reform their lines.
A body of troops in dark uniforms was sighted only 25 yards ahead, barely visible. More than one man said, “Those are rebels!” But some thought otherwise. Then, the deadly volley came.
The fatal encounter occurred about the same time that attacking Union troops struck Hays’ brigade west of Ox Road, causing it to panic and fall back. The panic then spread across the road to Trimble’s brigade which had just fired the deadly volley. Trimble’s Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama regiments then caught the panic and they too fell back; but their officers halted the retrograde movement and they quickly returned to their positions.
Capt. William C. Oates, 15th Alabama, remembered the panic. He said that brigade commander, Capt. Brown, “his black plume in his hat, his long saber in hand … looked like Goliath with his weaver’s beam. His tall form was conspicuous along the line among the retreating men, trying to halt them, and cursing like a trooper, when a Federal bullet struck him in the head killing him instantly.”