Charging in Dashing Style: With the 5th Alabama at Chancellorsville
F or one soldier in the 5 th Alabama, the hardest fighting at Chancellorsville didn’t occur during Jackson’s celebrated flank attack on the evening of May 2 nd . It occurred when the regiment erroneously charged against General John Geary’s entrenched Federal division on the morning of May 3 rd which resulted in not only heavy casualties but the loss of the regiment’s colors. The men had recently advanced and were firing upon a Federal battery when they found themselves under a crossfire. “In a few moments, the crossfire slackened and supposing that they were being driven back on the left, we were ordered to charge,” the soldier stated. “We did so in dashing style, or least a portion of the regiment (the rest not hearing the order) and carried the redoubts of Chancellorsville Heights. Just as we were ordered to charge, our color sergeant was wounded and George Nutting, seizing the colors, waved them in proud triumph and cried, “Come on, boys!” That portion of the regiment