It has been stated that the 10th Maine was the extreme left of Hooker's
command (1st and 12th corps) during the 40 minutes, more or less, the
regiment was engaged. The Confederate troops opposed to us and to our
neighbors[14] on the right were from Hood's division.[15]
The 4th Alabama was the right regiment of all, and they came up the
Smoketown road from the West Woods in a hurry. On reaching East Woods they
deployed and advanced "in line." On nearing the woods Maj. Robbins met
what he understood at the time was a half regiment of Georgia troops, who
told him they had already been in the fight and would go in again. He
ordered them to form on his right and advance in line with him. All was
done in great haste, and in consequence of this and the broken character
of the woods and the rush for shelter, the two commands were mixed all
together, the Georgians, however, being naturally in preponderance on the
Confederate right. Some time after they had been engaged the 5th Texas,
under Capt. Turner, was sent in by Gen. Hood, and they mixed in with the
others wherever a chance offered. All this I have learned by
correspondence with many members from each of Hood's regiments.
After a long and intensely exciting hunt for the Georgia regiment that
this battalion belonged to--Major Robbins remembering only that their
number was "in the twenties"--I have learned that it was the skirmisher
battalion of Gen. Colquitt's brigade of D. H. Hill's division, composed of
one company each (Co. A generally) from the five regiments of his brigade,
viz: 6th, 23d, 27th and 28th Georgia and 13th Alabama, under Capt. Wm. M.
Arnold, of the 6th Georgia. We therefore made a mistake in the number only
when we marked those head boards "20 Georgia." This battalion got into the
fight an hour or more before their brigade and fought independently of it.
The troops under Robbins, Turner and Arnold are the only Confederates, so
far as I can learn, that did heavy fighting in East Woods.[16] There were
no better troops in the Confederate army; they suffered a loss in killed
and wounded of nearly one-half, and probably inflicted a still larger
numerical loss upon the Union troops.