GDG- Winter Stomp

[Chuck Teague]

>
>
> << I fully agree. That is an important point. Surprisingly, most modern
> histories of this part of the action seem not to consider the Conferate
> accounts. Chuck >>
>
> >> Why would you say that?  I find plenty of such citations in Pfanz's
> footnotes, just as one example. Jim


Pfanz is a wonderful exception and I respect him for offering perhaps the
first caution by a modern historian for those (like Stewart and
Coddington) who would dismiss Wright altogether. Pfanz concludes the section
with what he calls "the important thing," namely that *"the Georgians did go
beyond the wall that marked the main line of Gibbon's division on to the
crest of the ridge."*

He does not pinpoint where that occurred, but I think he was quite accurate
in his bottom-line assessment. From what I gather from the comments of some
on GDG, they do not agree with Pfanz but have concluded that Wright was
stopped *in front of* Gibbon's position. In reading the succession of
histories on this action, it is apparent to me that many subsequent
historians have grappled with Pfanz's conclusion.

>
> How about Smyth's brigade.  It held the sector of the 2nd Corps line north
> of the Copse.  There's nothing at all in the reports from that brigade to
> suggest any break in the Union line north of the copse, or, that either
> Cushing or Arnold were overrun.


Smyth's Brigade held the sector farther north in Zeigler's Grove, supporting
Woodruff. The Brigade that had responsibility for the sector in question was
Willard's, and they, of course, were gone by this point. Smyth's Brigade had
their own issues to deal with, confronting the efforts by the 16th and 19th
Mississippi Regiments in their charge.

>> As far as Reichart's diary entry, you keep repeating that, perhaps for
lack
of anything better to offer.  But as has been pointed out, the entry in
question is a very general one, covering the entire period from afternoon
until at least 9:00 at night.  I don't have a copy of the entire entry, but
Elwood Christ quotes it as follows in his book on the Bliss farm fighting.
"Out battery was in action all afternoon....[raging] until nine o'clock at
night.  One time it seemed as if we were all surrounded.  Battery A, Fourth
regulars [Cushing's] reversed their pieces ready to fire to the rear."

Yes, that's about all there is. I'm afraid there may be nothing else to cite
from Arnold's Battery. The account is brief and without the details you and
I would desire. Exactly when Reichert felt his battery was surrounded is not
detailed. It could reference Avery and Hays, it could reference Wright.