into them.” An officer in the 34th Massa-
chusetts had a similar recollection: “We
waited until they were close enough, and
then rose up and gave it to them. They
halted and kept up a hot fire. Three times
their colors fell and were raised.”
The Confederate left-center faltered and
collapsed. Within the space of a few min-
utes, the 62nd Virginia lost nearly half its
strength, the right-half of the 51st Virginia
was caved in, and the 1st Missouri and
30th Virginia were also badly broken up.
The VMI cadets, following in reserve,
again took casualties. Privates Henry Jones
and Charles Crockett of Company D were
killed instantly by an exploding shell.
With the Confederates reeling, there was
an opportunity for a well-placed and well-
led counterattack. “Just here a cavalry
charge would have won the day for the
Yankees,” conceded a wounded officer of
the 30th Virginia. However, rather than
striking a blow where the enemy had just
been driven back in confusion, Sigel
launched his weakened cavalry against the
enemy right, where Echols’s brigade had
yet to be engaged and where Breckinridge
had placed 10 cannons and ordered the
guns to be double-shotted with canister.
An aide to the general reported, “It had
scarcely been done before they were seen
advancing in squadron front, when, com-ing in range, the artillery opened.”
Among the massed artillery were two
guns from VMI. “We got quickly into
action with canister against cavalry charg-
ing down the road and adjacent fields.
When the smoke cleared away the cavalry
seemed to have been completely broken
up,” recalled Lieutenant Collier Minge. A
Federal sergeant noted succinctly, “They
mowed us down like grass.” About this
time, Sigel’s infantry was preparing its own
counterattack aimed at the weakened Con-
federate center. The result was a series of
disjointed, badly coordinated lunges at the
enemy. “We were receiving fire not only
from our front, but from our left, and
almost our rear. In fact, we were nearly
surrounded,” lamented an officer in the
34th Massachusetts.
To make matters worse, there was no
cavalry support on the Union left, having
been decimated in the earlier attempt to
break the Confederate right. “The enemy
pressed forward his right, which extended
some distance beyond our left, and was
rapidly flanking me in that direction,”
reported Colonel Jason Campbell of the
54th Pennsylvania. Anxiously watching
the attack unfold, a Federal gunner
observed, “Our infantry forms for the
charge; they move forward, with the glo-
rious old flag to the front. I felt that theday was ours, for their line was already
giving ground. But alas, they do not go
more than a hundred yards till they waver
and fall back, and we now felt it would be
a desperate struggle for the battery, for
every man knew we were whipped.”
An ugly gap opened in the Confederate
center, directly in front of Breckinridge’s
only available reserves—the 26th Virginia
Battalion and the VMI cadets. An aide,
Major Charles Semple, suggested putting
the cadets into line. Breckinridge resisted
briefly, then conceded the inevitable. “Put
the boys in,” he said, “and may God for-
give me for the order.” The cadets swept
forward with a wild yell, heading into the
orchard below Bushong’s Hill. “The fire
was withering,” recalled Commandant
Shipp. “It seemed impossible than any liv-
ing creature could escape.” Private Beverly
“Jack” Stanard fell mortally wounded
with a shattered leg; his comrade, Private
Thomas G. Jefferson, was fatally shot in
the stomach. Shipp was struck in the left
shoulder by a spent shell fragment and
turned over command to senior tactical
officer Henry A. Wise. One cadet remem-
bered a regular officer’s attempt to rally his
shattered command: “I shall never forget
his language—‘Rally men and go to the
front. Here you are running to the rear like
a lot of frightened sheep. Look at those
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