Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 190.

I'm Tracey, hello y'all, thanks for tuning into the podcast. Previously on the show, we looked at the fighting for the sunken road at the Bala Van Tiedem on September 17th, 1862, and as y'all recall, by the end of the last episode, through a combination of Confederate mistakes and skillful federal maneuvering, the entire center of Robert E. Lee's line had been shattered.

A blue tide of federals was rushing across the sunken road and into the Piper Cornfield beyond.

Second Corps Division Commander Israel B. Richardson, realizing the golden opportunity that lay before the federals, drove troops forward relentlessly to exploit the breakthrough.

Meanwhile, desperate Confederate officers worked to dam the break in the line and to reform broken units to meet Richard Senn's continuing assault.

To blunt the Union advance and gain precious time, the rebels sent encounter attacks that were little more than for Lorne Hoep's.

On the Piper Farm beyond the sunken road, D. A. Chill and his officers rallied a mixed lot of troops and sent them forward to counterattack the Yankees.

A soldier in the 9th Alabama later remembered how, quote,

at this point, D. A. Chill was with us in person walking up and down our lines and speaking words of encouragement.

General Hill in a clear loud voice gave the order attention, charge.

The men of the 5th New Hampshire, crouched among the broken and bloodied enemy bodies in the sunken road to meet the counterattack.

The Confederates came at them through the Piper Cornfield screeching the rebel yell.

That unique battle cry was sometimes known to unnerve even veteran federal troops, but the 5th New Hampshire's Colonel, Edward Cross, had a novel way of counteracting it.

Cross shouted to his men, put on the war paint, and they tore open cartridges and smeared their faces with black gunpowder.

Then Cross yelled, give him the war wound, and the soldiers from the Granite State answered with a high-pitched Indian war cry that rang out in competition with the rebel yell.

A federal lieutenant admitted he wasn't sure how this affected the enemy, but he thought that at least, quote, it let him know we were unterrified.

The Confederate counterattack was pressed forward so hard that same federal lieutenant wrote that a rebel color bear reached a spot within 15 yards of the road.

In virtual unison, a dozen Yankees shouted, shoot the man with the flag, and in the answering volley of shots, quote, he went down in a twinkling, and the flag was not raised inside again.

The 81st Pennsylvania came up in support, and finally the Confederate counterattack was repulsed.

Soon afterward, D.H. Hill picked up a musket and personally led 200 men in another charge, acting more like a sergeant rather than a major general.

Hill would later write, quote, we met however with a warm reception, and the little command was broken and dispersed.

But each of these doomed counterattacks kept the federal soft balance and bought precious time for more Confederate cannon to come up and take up position behind the Shattered rebel line.

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