A savage battle began, with considerable melee action with rifle butts and bayonets due to short visibility in the corn. Officers rode about cursing and yelling orders no one could hear in the noise. Rifles became hot and fouled from too much firing; the air was filled with a hail of bullets and shells.
Starting this turn with the left flank of Hooker's 1st Corps, I see I lost the US Regular battery I had moved to Mumma Lane, destroyed by cannon fire from Bachman's German South Carolina battery. I rush the Rhode Island battery there anyway, then move the caisson two hexes away. It's vital that Ewell is stopped from reaching the East Woods, thereby flanking the 1st Corps. Truman's brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves, by now the longest-suffering unit in this fight, has to hold its position, while Magilton's brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves, detached from Meade, files into line on Truman's left flank.
The rebs have some damn big guns around the Dunker Church.. the German battery is even fielding a 6.3-inch Blakely Rifle!
The fighting in the cornfield has become a bloody mess, both sides having been standing and blasting away at each other two full turns. I keep trying to advance deeper into the cornfield but the reb musketry and cannonades are too intense. My artillery can't do any good here, because the nearest high ground is out of range of Hood's line and they can't see into the cornfield through all the smoke. On the Hagerstown Pike, I send a brigade, in column formation, from Meade's division to drive into the gap between Hood's division in the cornfield and Jones's division in the West Woods.
Back at Doubleday's line, Phelps's New Yorkers launch a charge that causes Taliaferro's brigade of Alabamians and Virginians to break! Two regiments from Patrick's brigade also charge, seizing an objective flag, and it's bayonets and rifle butts between the 19th Indiana and the 48th Alabama. The Alabamians, stunned by the Yankee charge, disperse and cease to exist as a regiment for the rest of this battle. The other two regiments of Patrick's brigade are shot to pieces, and are too suppressed to participate. The remaining regiments comprising Doubleday's right flank are also pretty damaged, and there are still lots of rebels securing Jones's left flank, so for now they'll trade volleys while Phelps's brigade does what it can. Between them and Anderson's brigade driving toward the Hagerstown Pike, I can split Jones and Hood, thereby causing a serious rift in Jackson's line.
nb - I really doubt Jackson would have allowed this to happen in real life.
