The shelling from the enemy on the ridge in front had, up to this time, been mostly confined to replying to our batteries, but as soon as this long array of bristling bayonets moved over the crest and burst out suddenly in the open, in full view of the cannon-crowned battlements, all guns were turned upon us.  The shelling from Round Top was terrific enough to make the stoutest hearts quake, while the battery down at the base of the ridge, in the orchard, was raking Barksdale and Kershaw right and left with grape and shrapnell.  Semmes’ Georgians soon moved up on our right and between Kershaw and Hood’s left, but its brave commander fell mortally wounded at the very commencement of the attack.  Kershaw advanced directly against little Round Top, the strongest point in the enemy’s line, and defended by Ayer’s Regulars, the best disciplined and most stubborn fighters in the Federal army.  The battery in the orchard began grapeing Kershaw’s left as soon as it came in range, the right being protected by a depression in the ground over which they marched.  Not a gun was allowed to be fired either at sharpshooters that were firing on our front from behind boulders and trees in a grove we were nearing, or at the cannoneers who were raking our flank on the left.  Men fell here and there from the deadly minnie-balls, while great gaps or swaths were swept away in our ranks by shells from the batteries on the hills, or by the destructive grape and canister from the orchard.  On marched the determined men across this open expanse, closing together as their comrades fell out.  Barksdale had fallen, but his troops were still moving to the front and over the battery that was making such havoc in their ranks.  Semmes, too, had fallen, but his Georgians never wavered nor faltered, but moved like a huge machine in the face of these myriads of death-dealing missiles.  Just as we entered the woods the infantry opened upon us a withering fire, especially from up the gorge that ran in the direction of Round Top.  Firing now became general along the whole line on both sides.  The Fifteenth Regiment met a heavy obstruction, a mock-orange hedge, and it was just after passing this obstacle that Colonel Dessausure fell.  The center of the Third Regiment and some parts of the other regiments, were partially protected by boulders and large trees, but the greater part fought in the open field or in sparsely timbered groves of small trees.  The fight now waged fast and furious.

Captain Malloy writes thus of the 8th:  “We occupied the extreme left of the brigade, just fronting the celebrated ‘Peach Orchard.’  The order was given.  We began the fatal charge, and soon had driven the enemy from their guns in the orchard, when a command was given to ‘move to the right,’ which fatal order was obeyed under a terrible fire, this leaving the ‘Peach Orchard’ partly uncovered.  The enemy soon rallied to their guns and turned them on the flank of our brigade.  Amid a storm of shot and shell from flank and front, our gallant old brigade pushed towards the Round Top, driving all before them, till night put an end to the awful slaughter.  The regiment went in action with 215 in ranks, and lost more than half its number.  We lost many gallant officers, among whom were Major McLeod, Captain Thomas E. Powe, Captain John McIver, and others.”  The move to the right was to let Wofford in between Barksdale and Kershaw.