Existing comment:
(Stop 16) Assault on Loomis' Heights:
Reaching the top of this ridge, Jones' Confederate brigade was met with a deadly surprise. On the hill across the valley, six Union cannon and thousands of Federal soldiers faced Jones' lone brigade.
The outnumbered Southerners tried to charge down into the valley, but they were forced back. Withdrawing to this position, dozens of Confederate dead and wounded were left scattered over the hillside.
As the muskets fire and the cannon roared, a haze of black-powder smoke covered the valley between the two positions. According to local legend, the fighting was so severe that a sinkhole at the base of the hill ran red with blood.
With hundreds of men killed and wounded, Jones withdrew, allowing Brown's brigade to attempt to take the Federal position.
Luckily for Brown, the Union soldiers were running out of ammunition. When the Union artillery retreated, their infantry was left unsupported. Brown's Confederates then charged down the valley, up the steep slope across from you, and forced the Federals troops back.
"... never will I forget it: I of course had many narrow escapes, men shot down on every side of me, balls striking near me & once as I lay on the ground taking aim a ball so filled my eyes with dirt as to blind me for some time, but that was the nearest I came to being hurt..."
-- Confederate Private William A. Bryant, 3rd Florida Infantry |