with Longstreet’s division following. A.P.
Hill’s troops were securing Mechanicsville
when Lee arrived and learned to his dis-
may that he had attacked without Jackson.
Lee was now in an extremely difficult sit-
uation: two-thirds of his army was north
of the river, battle had been joined, Union
forces were consolidating east of Mechan-
icsville behind Beaver Dam Creek, and
Richmond was left virtually unguarded.
Although he desperately wanted to avoid
a clash with entrenched Federals, Lee
decided there was nothing to do but con-
tinue the assault.
With the sun starting its descent and
President Jefferson Davis and his
entourage now on hand to watch the bat-
tle, A.P. Hill eagerly led three full
brigades—those of Anderson, Archer, and
Field—eastward, planning to strike hard
at Porter’s right where he believed Jackson
would momentarily appear. Anderson’s
troops moved obliquely in that direction
and deployed north of Old Church Road
with a lone artillery battery in support.
Archer’s brigade followed and took uppositions astride Old Church Road on
Anderson’s right. Field then posted his
brigade on Archer’s right, south of Old
Church Road. Gregg, Pender, and Branch
remained uncommitted. As Hill’s men
deployed in lines of battle and went for-
ward, McCall’s batteries on the high
ground behind Beaver Dam Creek opened
fire, dividing their attention between the
attacking lines of infantry and a few Con-
federate batteries that were soon silenced
with heavy loss.
As the Confederates moved down the
slope and neared the creek, McCall’s
troops prepared for action. A Pennsylva-
nia private remembered his major encour-
aging him and his comrades to “give them
hell, or get it ourselves.” Reynolds rode
along the line pointing out targets to his
Pennsylvania regulars, exhorting, “Look
at them, boys, in the swamp there, they
are as thick as flies on gingerbread. Fire
low, fire low.” His riflemen waited until
the attacking line was within 100 yards
before opening up. One Pennsylvania pri-
vate recalled that “the enemy chargedbayonets on us three times, but we cut
them down. I fired until my gun got so hot
that I could barely hold it in my hands.
We piled them up by the hundreds, mak-
ing a perfect bridge across the swamp.”
McCall later described the assault: “At
about 3 PM, the enemy’s lines were formed
in my front and the skirmishers rapidly
advanced, delivering their fire as they
approached our lines. They were
answered by my artillery and a rather gen-
eral discharge of musketry. The Georgians
rushed with headlong energy against the
Second Regiment, only to be mowed
down by the steady fire of that gallant reg-
iment, whose commander soon sent to the
rear some seven or eight prisoners taken in
the encounter.”
“We fought under many disadvan-
tages,” color-bearer Martin Ledbetter of
the 5th Alabama Battalion recalled. “ItUnion artillery fires over the heads of advancing
Union infantry belonging to Brig. Gen. George
McCall’s 8,000-man Pennsylvania Reserve Division.
One major implored his men to “give them hell, or
get it ourselves.”CWQ-Sum16 Mechanicsville_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:15 PM Page 51