colours led the charge.  But the Federal infantry had yet to be encountered.  Lying behind their shelter they had not yet fired a shot; but as the Confederates reached close range, regiment after regiment, springing to their feet, poured a devastating fire into the charging ranks.  The rush was checked.  Here and there small bodies of desperate men, following the colours, still pressed onward, but the majority lay down, and the whole front of battle rang with the roar of musketry.  But so thin was the Confederate line that it was impossible to overcome the sustained fire of the enemy.  The brigade reserves had already been thrown in; there was no further support at hand; the Federal gunners, staunch and resolute, held fast to their position, and on every part of the line Porter’s reserves were coming up.  As one regiment emptied its cartridge-boxes it was relieved by another.  The volume of fire never for a moment slackened; and fresh batteries, amongst which were the 32-pounders of the siege train, unlimbering on the flanks, gave further strength to a front which was already impregnable.

(Map of the battle of Malvern hill)

Jackson, meanwhile, on receiving a request for reinforcements, had sent forward three brigades of his own division and a brigade of Hill’s.  But a mistake had been committed in the disposition of these troops.  The order for attack had undoubtedly named only D.H.  Hill’s division.  But there was no good reason that it should have been so literally construed as to leave the division unsupported.  Whiting was guarding the left flank, and was not available; but Ewell and Winder were doing nothing, and there can be no question but that they should have advanced to the edge of the woods directly D.H.  Hill moved forward, and have followed his brigades across the open, ready to lend aid directly his line was checked.  As it was, they had been halted within the woods and beyond the swamp, and the greater part, in order to avoid the random shells, had moved even further to the rear.  It thus happened that before the reinforcements arrived Hill’s division had been beaten back, and under the tremendous fire of the Federal artillery it was with difficulty that the border of the forest was maintained.

While Hill was retiring, Huger, and then Magruder, came into action on the right.  It had been reported to Lee that the enemy was beginning to fall back.  This report originated, there can be little doubt, in the withdrawal of the Federal regiments and batteries which had exhausted their ammunition and were relieved by others; but, in any case, it was imperative that D.H.  Hill should be supported, and the other divisions were ordered forward with all speed.  Huger’s and Magruder’s men attacked with the same determination as had been displayed by Hill’s, but no better success attended their endeavours.  The brigades were not properly formed when the order arrived, but scattered over a wide front, and they went in piecemeal.  Magruder’s losses were even greater than Hill’s; and with his defeat the battle ceased.