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This is part two of a Cold Harbor series. Part one, located here , describes Barlow's breakthrough on June 3, 1864, as well as the defense mounted by the 2nd Maryland Infantry of Bradley T Johnson's 'Maryland Line.' This thread will examine the role of Finegan's Florida brigade in helping to seal the breach in the Confederate line. When Barlow's breakthrough occurred, the Floridians were resting in reserve behind Breckenridge's line. Quickly formed in line of battle, the Florida brigade charged the advancing Federals to the left of the Marylanders. Capt. Council Allen Bryan C/5th Florida provides the commentary here:
The enemy advanced in five lines of battle against Breckenridge - whose whole line fled panic stricken [back] over our breastworks and far to the rear - hatless, leaving their guns and everything that impeded their flight. As soon as they had passed out of our way, our boys rose with a yell - poured two volleys into the advancing droves of Yankees then jumped the breastworks and charged them. Five to one but each one a hero.
They advanced to within fifty yards of each other. The Yankees halt, waver and run. One more volley and Breckenridge's breastworks so ingloriously lost are ours. The breastworks recaptured the battle is won. The Yankee dead and wounded cover the field - while strange to say twenty will cover the loss of the whole Florida force. The new troops fought like 'tigers' and we feel proud of them.
According to B. Welch Owens of Andrew's Battalion, Maryland Artillery, as described in part 1 of this series, the 2nd Maryland arrived ahead of the Floridians; engaged Barlow's Federals in hand-to-hand combat taking heavy casualties, including by the bayonet; and drove the Union troops from the breastworks. Council Bryan's account above sure makes it sound like the Floridians deserve their fair share of the credit. On one point, both accounts agree: Union losses in the assault and the repulse were heavy. Owens eloquently describes the aftermath:
The elation and exultation incident to victory speedily subsided, giving way to sympathy for the dead and dying, and the suffering before and around us in painful, hideous array. Sickening scene - sickening then - sickening in retrospective contemplation even at this remote period of time. Many soldiers are considered hardened, but it is not the rule by any means. Inured to privations, hardships and dangers, familiar with the scenes of carnage, the soldier may appear stoical, but the fact is that after the battle, if he bleed not from wounds himself, his brave heart bleeds in sympathy for the misery around him and the conqueror is conquered.
Sources:
Captain Council Bryan to "My Dear Wife" June 3, 1864. Council Bryan Papers, Florida State Archives (Tallahassee, FL) M87-035, folder 7.
Council Allen Bryan Find A Grave Memorial
B. Welch Owens. "The Maryland Boys." Richmond Dispatch., March 09, 1902, page 9.
Zach T Waters."'Tell Them I Died like a Confederate Soldier': Finegan's Florida Brigade at Cold Harbor." The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2 (Oct., 1990), pp. 156-177.
"Wounded Civil War Soldiers" Allen C. Redwood. 1868.
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