division of cavalry guarding our right. An assault was ordered for the
3d, to be made mainly by the corps of Hancock, Wright and Smith; but
Warren and Burnside were to support it by threatening Lee's left, and to
attack with great earnestness if he should either reinforce more
threatened points by drawing from that quarter or if a favorable
opportunity should present itself.

The corps commanders were to select the points in their respective
fronts where they would make their assaults. The move was to commence
at half-past four in the morning. Hancock sent Barlow and Gibbon
forward at the appointed hour, with Birney as a reserve. Barlow pushed
forward with great vigor, under a heavy fire of both artillery and
musketry, through thickets and swamps. Notwithstanding all the
resistance of the enemy and the natural obstructions to overcome, he
carried a position occupied by the enemy outside their main line where
the road makes a deep cut through a bank affording as good a shelter for
troops as if it had been made for that purpose. Three pieces of
artillery had been captured here, and several hundred prisoners. The
guns were immediately turned against the men who had just been using
them. No (*33) assistance coming to him, he (Barlow) intrenched under
fire and continued to hold his place. Gibbon was not so fortunate in
his front. He found the ground over which he had to pass cut up with
deep ravines, and a morass difficult to cross. But his men struggled on
until some of them got up to the very parapet covering the enemy.
Gibbon gained ground much nearer the enemy than that which he left, and
here he intrenched and held fast.

Wright's corps moving in two lines captured the outer rifle-pits in
their front, but accomplished nothing more. Smith's corps also gained
the outer rifle-pits in its front. The ground over which this corps