Didn't Hood's Texas brigade successfully charge entrenched troops, including artillery, at Gains Mill in 1862?
John
OK...I have a bit of a "nit to pick" with the assertion that Hood's Texas Brigade broke Porter's line at Gaines Mill. While I count myself as one of the top fans of the Texas Brigade, at Gaines Mill unless one is also willing to share credit for the breakthrough with Law's Brigade, I have a problem.
In my understanding of the breakthrough at Gaines Mill, it went something like this. Piecemeal attacks against Porter’s center and left had only resulted in heavy Confederate casualties and units being repulsed or pinned down. The rear of the Confederate lines became so chaotic and confused that entire units trying to move forward against the Federals became separated and lost in a sea of human flotsam – wounded and stragglers. Whiting’s Division was the last to arrive on the battlefield. It made its way to a position behind A. P. Hill, just to the right of the Confederate center. As the sun was beginning to fade from view, Lee ordered Whiting forward against the entrenched Federals.
When Colonel Law received the order to advance , he moved out with his brigade in two lines. In the front line was the 11
th Mississippi on the left and 4
th Alabama on the right. In the rear line was the 2
nd Mississippi and 6
th North Carolina, respectively. The Texas Brigade formed on Law’s
left, also in two lines. Hood’s first line contained, from left to right, Hampton’s Legion, the 5
th Texas, and 1
st Texas, with the 18
th Georgia and 4
th Texas in the second line.
After the advance began, General Hood apparently saw that a gap was developing between Law’s
right and the
left of Brigadier General George E. Pickett’s brigade of Virginians who were moving forward with Law. Hood took personal command of the
4th Texas and maneuvered it across Law’s rear to fill the
gap. Apparently some of the men of the
18th Georgia also followed the Texans.
So, if we assume Hood led the demi-brigade (4th Texas and [part of] the 18th Georgia) and personally broke Porter's line with just these men, then fine, I'll go along with that. Personally I think we must give Law some credit also as I doubt just the 4th Texas and part of the 18th GA were enough to punch through the line (I'm willing to be proven wrong). The
majority of the Texas Brigade (1st Texas, 5th Texas, and Hampton's Legion) were deployed to Law's
left. That is my reasoning behind the fact that if you give the Texas Brigade credit for the breakthrough at Gaines Mill, you must be willing to share the credit with Law's Brigade (unless you're willing to give full credit to Hood's demi-brigade for the breakthrough).
Now to get back to the discussion point at hand, I agree with some others and think that Hood learned the
wrong lesson at Gaines Mill.