“The whole West Woods erupted in a volcano of gunfire so heavy that the color-bearer of the 34th New York was hit five times in rapid succession before he toppled to the ground. The attack of Sedgwick’s division had turned into a crimson nightmare. Men were falling everywhere.75 As the gap widened between Greene’s Twelfth Corps brigades and Sedgwick’s left, the situation became critical. Early’s and Anderson’s Confederate brigades, along with Barksdale’s Mississippians, surged around the church, up the Hagerstown Turnpike and into the fields in the rear of Sedgwick’s hapless division.76” American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterAntietam Campaign Book:Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander Source: Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander
“To Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing and his men, the first sign of Hooker’s intention to abandon the Fredericksburg-Falmouth front came in the form of a telegram received at Second Corps headquarters on June 6, which directed that the soldiers of the corps have three days’ rations in their haversacks, and that all wagons be loaded with stores and the trains put in readiness for any order to move. The order, the telegram stated, “may possibly be given to move early tomorrow.”8” American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacGettysburg CampaignAmerican Civil War Biography Book:Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander Source: Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander