The War for the Union, 1862-- A Bayonet Charge

Harper's stressed that Winslow Homer "drew his figures from life." The writer continued, "It is notorious to military men that soldiers seldom actually cross bayonets with each other in battle. . . . At Fair Oaks the rebels almost invariably broke and fled before our bayonets reached them. In one or two instances, however, there were hand-to-hand tussles. . . . One of these is realized in our picture."
Fair Oaks refers to Virginia's Battle of Seven Pines (May 31- June 1, 1862). The Confederates tried to push McClellan further back from their capital of Richmond but the fight was bloody and inconclusive.