march against the Confederate center. The center was held by D. H. Hill. Three of his brigades had been used since early morning in the battle on the left; of these, Ripley’s, the first to be engaged, had retired with Walker; Garland s had been badly broken; Colquitt’s, after the fall of most of its officers, was withdrawn, but some of its men in desultory squads went back to active work on the line. So Hill was left with only the Alabama brigade of Rodes and the North Carolina brigade of G. B. Anderson to stand against the divisions of French and Richardson. To his left, the Twenty-seventh North Carolina and Third Alabama of Walker’s brigade were still bravely in line. Against these two brigades and some regimental fragments, Richardson and French moved. "They came," says General Longstreet, "in brave style, in full appreciation of the work in hand, marched better than on drill, unfolded banners making gay their gallant step." But these were no holiday soldiers; they struck long and hard,[1] and in vastly superior force.
So immovably, however, did the battle-tried North Carolinians and Alabamians, aided later by R. H. Anderson’s division,[2] die in piles on the sunken road in which they fought, that they have made it immortal as "Bloody Lane." Colonel Allan says: "After a most gallant resistance, Hill was driven from the Bloody Lane. Anderson was involved in the defeat, and it looked as if the enemy was about to pierce the Confederate center. The noble efforts of many brave men prevented this result. The artillery was managed and served with a skill never surpassed. Fragments of commands fought with a splendid determination. As General Longstreet says, the brave Col. J. R. Cooke (Twenty-seventh North Carolina) showed front to the enemy when he no longer
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