Gen. Meade had sent word for the 6th and 24th corps who were near Farmville, to cross the river and attack Lee from that side with a view of crushing his army. Lee had, however, destroyed the bridges, the Appomattox was too deep to ford, the pontoon trains had not got up, consequently the two corps mentioned were unable to render the Second any assistance, else it is more than likely that Appomattox would not have become famous in history. While waiting for assistance the Second corps did considerable maneuvering. About 5 o’clock firing was heard in the direction of Farmville which Gen. Humphreys assumed was the 6th corps. He immediately contracted his left line and pushed out on the right intending to flank the enemy if possible. The execution of the movement left our division face to face with Gen. Mahone’s and Gen. Anderson’s troops who were formed in close column supported by Poague’s ten gun battery, who were in a position that enabled them to give us (as the boys used to express it), h--ll with grape and cannister trimmings thrown in. Our regiment came to a halt in a dense growth of small pines and waited for orders. Some of the officers went out in the edge of the woods to look around and as they came back Capt. Mike Foy danced a little jig as he said: “Boys there’s another wagon train for us over behind the rebel lines.” Poor, brave Foy, who had fought his way up from the ranks, little realized that he and scores of others would go down in less than fifteen minutes. Our brigade had the right of line and were the first to advance across an open rolling field in full view of the enemy. The troops came to a halt in a little ravine and the bugles sounded “Fix bayonets!” Then an advance was made and when about 50 rods from the enemy the bugles sang out “Forward--double quick, charge!” The cheers of our men were answered by the rebel yell, the real old genuine “Ki, yi, yi, yi!” that all veterans remember so well. Then a tongue of flame leaped from all along their intrenchments, and all other sounds were drowned with the roar of cannon, the crash of musketry and the whizzing and screeching of grape and cannister. Some of the troops reached the enemy’s works in the face of tremendous odds and fought to the death. But they were unsupported by other troops as well as artillery, consequently they had to retreat. The 5th New Hampshire had all of their color guards killed after reaching the rebel intrenchments and lost their colors, but they were recovered by the 81st Pennsylvania. History makes but little mention of the battle of Farmville, as events of greater importance followed so closely, but the participants know that troops never fought more valiantly than did Lee’s soldiers in their last effort when they repulsed the assault of the veterans of the 2d corps. CHAPTER XVI. AN ACT OF HEROISM.