Battle of Lewisburg - 2
It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many guns Heth brought along. His report of May 23 speaks of "three batteries." Crook's report of the same date notes: "Attacked this morning about 5 a.m. by Gen. Heth with 3,000 men, 6 or 8 pieces of artillery. . ." Crook wrote on May 24 that the force engaged included . . . six pieces of artillery."
One can not be absolutely certain as to placement of the batteries. It is thought at least one gun was on the brow of the hill beside Teaberry Road to Ronceverte which swings off at a right angle from the far end of Holt Lane and goes uphill past "Windy Summit." The gun emplacement supposedly was just to the right of this road near the top. It does seem a likely spot for an artillery piece to be placed. Others later on were on ground where now stands the General Lewis Motor Inn, named for the hero of an earlier battle, Point Pleasant, fought Oct. 11, 1774. Of this there is direct mention in the accounts of the battle, and the whereabouts of one of those guns is known.
Momentarily surprised by the early shelling, George Crook was not a man of indecision. He immediately sent his wagons west and formed his own line of battle, almost certainly following a predetermined plan.
Heth had chosen the terrain and the time of attack. He confidently expected to win the day. That he did not do so would be called, in present day sports parlance, "a real upset."
In his report, Heth gave his troop dispositions: "As my regiments and batteries arrived they were deployed as follows: Finney's battalion on the left, the 45th Regiment in the center, and the 22nd Virginia Regiment on the right; Lt. Co!. Cook's battalion of dismounted men and 8th Virginia Cavalry as the reserve. U
Crook countered by sending the 44th Ohio Volunteers, under Colonel Samuel A. Gilbert, to form on the south side of Washington Street and advance up the hill toward Heth's left. They moved sturdily up the hill through the beautiful oak grove where Van Sickler Drive is today. This movement threatened to flank the Confederate left.
The Union left, which evidently formed up about where the courthouse now stands, was the 26th Ohio under Lt. Colonel M. Clark. He wrote later he was "at the foot of a steep declivity having an altitude of some 500 feet along the brow of which were several houses surrounded by enclosures beyond which the larger portion of the enemy's infantry, commanded by Gen. Heth in person, were formed."
Clearly Clark was leading his men up present Randolph and Chestnut streets to cross and probably form a line along present Lee Street, where stands today both the Lewisburg Junior High School and Greenbrier Military School!. (Randolph Street, steep and rough, was known as Hardscrabble Hill.)
Clark's nine companies, some 600 men, advanced under heavy fire to within about 40 yards of Heth's position. It is probable they took shelter behind the log fence which Heth's men might have used to advantage had they been able to advance that far.
Heth directed Colonel Finney to occupy the "small body of timber" on the left. This would have made it easier to repulse the Federal drive up the slope. But it meant crossing an open wheat field, situated on what is now the slope from Oak Terrace between Dennis Street, Echols Lane and Holt Lane.
The three Union companies under Gilbert opened a severe fire on Finney's battalion. The men, many of them new recruits or conscripts, wavered and broke. Finney, as well as some of the captains, "threw themselves between the enemy and the retreating men, but threats and persuasions were alike unavailing. The result is, we mourn the loss of many a brave officer." So reported Heth to Major General W. W. Loring that same evening.
With the left crumpling fast, the Confederate center was forced to begin a withdrawal to avoid being outflanked. The 44th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Samuel A. Gilbert, pushed up the hill in the face of Confederate fire, succeeded in capturing Heth's battery of two rifled ten pounders and two twelve-pound field howitzers, managed as best they could to turn the guns on their departing foe, possibly with some effect.