A Fierce Tangle in Morgan's Woods
March 7, 1862 - Late Afternoon
...this battle...was a mass of mixed up confusion from beginning to end...Would to God it was night or reinforcements would come.
William Watson, sergeant, 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment
Four regiments of volunteers from Arkansas and Louisiana, moving "with all the vim and vigor [of] regulars," ran headlong and unawares into two Illinois regiments near here. The close-range fighting was so intense that men from both armies threw themselves flat on the ground to survive the hurricane of flying lead.
Military order dissolved. Squads of soldiers rushed from stump to log to tree in the thick, tangled undergrowth, kneeling to fire. An Illinois soldier later said he could not see even 20 feet ahead. Chaos and combat raged through Morgan's Woods all afternoon, as dense smoke from thousands of muskets obscured the darkening forest.
(Caption under portrait on the right):
Colonel Louis Hebert led the Confederate attack here. When Hebert became disoriented in the smoke-filled woods, Union soldiers took the Louisianan and two other colonels prisoner. Without leaders the Confederate regiments here lost momentum and focus.
Marker is on Military Park Road (County Road 65), on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
