generally behaving like a junior comman-
der whose blood was up. While at first he
appeared to the men as “a calm and digni-
fied old gentleman,” he soon seemed “the
personification of vigor, dash and enthusi-
asm,” riding “with a proud, martial air and
full of military ardor.” By 6:30 AM, the
head of his lead column had reached the
middle of an open field west of John Pof-
fenberger’s woods, and Mansfield rode for-
ward to personally reconnoiter the ground.
Williams then ordered Brig. Gen. Samuel
W. Crawford’s brigade of regulars and
green Pennsylvania men to abandon the
massed formation and deploy into line of
battle. At the same time, Mansfield was
informed that I Corps was hard pressed
and needed immediate help.
Riding back to his command, Mansfield
saw Crawford’s men maneuvering and
immediately ordered Williams to halt the
deployment. Even though the men were
still under intense artillery fire, he ordered
them again to mass in dense columns.
Williams protested, but Mansfield refused
to allow the men to spread out in the open
field, repeating once again his concerns that
if the green volunteers were deployed in line
they would be impossible to control and
might break and run.
Mansfield planned to move his corps via
the Smoketown Road to the northwest cor-
ner of the Cornfield and into the East
Woods and renew the attack against the left
of the Confederate line held by Maj. Gen.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The earlierattack by Hooker’s I Corps had nearly bro-
ken through, dissolving only after terrible
losses. Another push might crack the weak-
ened enemy line, and the old soldier was
determined to make the attempt at the head
of his corps. Ignoring his staff, Mansfield
personally guided the veteran 10th Maine
Volunteers to its position in the van of
Crawford’s brigade as it entered the East
Woods. He then turned back to guide the
green 128th Pennsylvania to the field.
Astride his horse on a knoll just behind
the front line, Mansfield paused with a
group of officers and watched the rest of
Crawford’s brigade move into position. As
soon as his men opened fire, however,
Mansfield spurred his mount and rode up
to the front rank of the 10th Maine. Fear-
ing that they were shooting at Hooker’s
men retreating through the East Woods
from the carnage of the Cornfield, he
started screaming, “Stop, you are firing
into our own men!” The Maine veterans,
whose colonel had just been felled by Rebel
sharpshooters, insisted that the men to their
front were the enemy.
Sergeant E.J. Libby and Private Thomas
Waite, standing close by, told Mansfield
that “we were not firing at our own men
for those that were firing at us from behind
the trees had been firing at us from the
first.” Other members of Company K also
pointed out that the men facing them—vet-
erans of the 21st Georgia and 4th Alabama
Regiments—were dressed in gray and wereLibrary of Congress
Soldiers from the 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery pose beside their guns at Fort Stevens, one of a series
of earthwork fortifications erected by Mansfield to protect Washington, D.C., from Confederate attack.Continued on page 98CWQ-Sum16 Soldiers *missing London Laurel_Layout 1 4/22/16 10:57 AM Page 13