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Atwell’s cannons, on Guard Hill to the north, attempted to
sweep the peninsula as the Confederates rushed to the
Winchester Pike Bridge.
The Federals had held Guard Hill for almost an hour
while Wheat’s and Johnson’s men moved gravely forward,
Lusk’s Confederate battery posted on Richardson’s Hill,
managed to hurl a few effective shells into Kenly’s newest
position.
Kenly, going to check on the progress of his
bridge-destruction orders, reached the trestle just in
time to see “the river below the bridges…alive with
horsemen, crossing in two different places by fording.”
|
| The
battery joined Stonewall Jackson serving with distinction
at Front Royal and Cross Keys in the Shenandoah Valley and
at Fredericksburg in 1862. They marched with Jackson on
his famous flank attack at Chancellorsville in May, 1863
to drive Hooker’s army back across the Rappahannock. The
Second Rockbridge Battery fired the opening guns at
Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. These same “hot” guns from
Gettysburg would be later lost in a heroic stand at
Bristoe Station in October 1863.
These rearmed guns would participate in repelling
Meade’s army at Mine Run in November. These gunners served
with valor in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and
Cold Harbor. They would later foil the attack on the
Crater at Petersburg in July 1864. The gunners of the 2nd
Rockbridge Artillery helped Lee’s army defend Petersburg
until overrun in the gallant struggle for the defenses at
Fort Virginia on April 2, 1865. Lieutenant William T.
Wilson surrendered 28 men at Appomattox Court House on
April 9, 1865. |
