THE BATTLE OF HOOK'S FARM 2

Category: The Battle Of Hook's Farm

"Red had now sighted us. Throughout the affair he showed a remarkably
poor stomach for gun-fire, and this was his undoing. Moreover, he was
tempted by the poorness of our cover on our right to attempt to outflank
and enfilade us there. Accordingly, partly to get cover from our two
central guns and partly to outflank us, he sent the whole of his left
wing to the left of Firely Church, where, except for the gun, it became
almost a negligible quantity. The gun came out between the church and
the wood into a position from which it did a considerable amount of
mischief to the infantry on our right, and nearly drove our rightmost
gun in upon its supports. Meanwhile, Red's two guns on his right came
forward to Hook's Farm, rather badly supported by his infantry.

"Once they got into position there I perceived that we should be done
for, and accordingly I rushed every available man forward in a vigorous
counter attack, and my own two guns came lumbering up to the farmhouse
corners, and got into the wedge of shelter close behind the house
before his could open fire. His fire met my advance, littering the
gentle grass slope with dead, and then, hot behind the storm of shell,
and even as my cavalry gathered to charge his guns, he charged mine.
I was amazed beyond measure at that rush, knowing his sabres to be
slightly outnumbered by mine. In another moment all the level space
round the farmhouse was a whirling storm of slashing cavalry, and
then we found ourselves still holding on, with half a dozen prisoners,
and the farmyard a perfect shambles of horses and men. The melee was
over. His charge had failed, and, after a brief breathing--space for
my shot--torn infantry to come up, I led on the counter attack. It was
brilliantly successful; a hard five minutes with bayonet and sabre,
and his right gun was in our hands and his central one in jeopardy.

"And now Red was seized with that most fatal disease of generals,
indecision. He would neither abandon his lost gun nor adequately attack
it. He sent forward a feeble little infantry attack, that we cut up
with the utmost ease, taking several prisoners, made a disastrous
demonstration from the church, and then fell back altogether from the
gentle hill on which Hook Farm is situated to a position beside and
behind an exposed cottage on the level. I at once opened out into a
long crescent, with a gun at either horn, whose crossfire completely
destroyed his chances of retreat from this ill-chosen last stand, and
there presently we disabled his second gun. I now turned my attention
to his still largely unbroken right, from which a gun had maintained a
galling fire on us throughout the fight. I might still have had some
stiff work getting an attack home to the church, but Red had had enough
of it, and now decided to relieve me of any further exertion by a
precipitate retreat. My gun to the right of Hook's Farm killed three of
his flying men, but my cavalry were too badly cut up for an effective
pursuit, and he got away to the extreme left of his original positions
with about 6 infantry-men, 4 cavalry, and 1 gun. He went none too soon.
Had he stayed, it would have been only a question of time before we shot
him to pieces and finished him altogether."


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