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Updated: June 8, 2025
The valley of Oak Creek is there wider, deeper, and boggy. The slope, crowned by Buckland's brigade, was steep and bushy. A bend in its course gave some companies of the Seventieth Ohio an enfilading fire. Cleburne's regiments, tangled in the morass, struggled with uneven front up the wooded ascent, only to be driven back by Buckland's steady fire.
By this movement the British escaped the enfilading fire of the Lewiston batteries, the steep ascent of the heights in the teeth of the enemy's field-works, and compelled him to change front. The British of all ranks numbered less than one thousand. The United States troops, which had been heavily reinforced, consisted at this time of about one thousand fighting men, on and about the mountain.
Rifle pits, and breastworks of rails and stones, concealed thousands of infantry, who, from their secure position, poured volley after volley into the advancing column; while batteries, placed upon the heights, brought an enfilading fire upon the bridge and its approaches. In the face of this reception, the Ninth corps formed in line of battle.
Judah's division on our right had not succeeded in crossing Camp Creek, and our flank was exposed to a galling artillery fire, as the ridge on which we were had its shoulder bare when it came out into the valley, whose curve gave the enemy an enfilading fire upon us. His infantry sought also to drive us out of the position we had captured, and the fighting was heavy for an hour or two.
It was not until I had opened the coat for a closer investigation that I found I was worse scared than hurt. Some of the enemy had secured a position on our right flank, where they opened an enfilading fire, and it was one of their bullets that had hit me. To get out of that fire the regiment fell back towards the interior of the woods, where it was so close to our main line that it was called in.
Seeing McCook so fiercely attacked, in order to aid him I advanced Hescock's battery, supported by six regiments, to a very good position in front of a belt of timber on my extreme left, where an enfilading fire could be opened on that portion of the enemy attacking the right of the First Corps, and also on his batteries across Chaplin River.
It was half-past five, the sun had risen, radiant in the pure sky of a delightful morning. It was a Friday, the 19th of August. On the horizon, however, some small, heavy clouds already presaged a terrible day of stormy heat. And the oblique sunrays were enfilading the compartments of the railway carriage, filling them with dancing, golden dust.
"Somethink sickening, I call it, this enfilading racket; you never know which way it will take yer. I'm fairly fed up." To which the gloomy reply, "Enfiladed? Of course we've been enfiladed. This 'ere trench should have been wiggled about a bit, and then there would not have been quite so much of it. Yes, wiggled about that's what it should have been."
In point of grazing, plunging, oblique, or enfilading, or point-blank firing, the English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines of the American artillery. This fact need surprise no one.
From an advanced position in Nelson's front, upon his skirmish line, this battery succeeded in opening an enfilading fire upon the troops in front of McCook, and one section advanced far enough to take in reverse the batteries that were engaged with Crittenden and McCook. General Crittenden's division moved a little after five o'clock to Nelson's right.
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