eets him and tears open his breast. He drops dead and the horses gallop
away. No more than a minute since the first shot was fired, and I am
mounted and riding after the General. The mighty din that now rises to
heaven and shakes the earth is not all of it the voice of the rebellion;
for our guns, the guardian lions of the crest, quick to awake when
danger comes, have opened their fiery jaws and begun to roar--the great
hoarse roar of battle. I overtake the General half way up to the line.
Before we reach the crest his horse is brought by an orderly. Leaving
our horses just behind a sharp declivity of the ridge, on foot we go up
among the batteries. How the long streams of fire spout from the guns,
how the rifled shells hiss, how the smoke deepens and rolls. But where
is the infantry? Has it vanished in smoke? Is this a nightmare or a
juggler's devilish trick? All too real. The men of the infantry have
seized their arms, and behind their works, behind every rock, in every
ditch, wherever there is any shelter, they hug the ground, silent,
quiet, unterrified, little harmed. The enemy's guns now in action are in
position at their front of the woods along the second ridge that I have
before mentioned and towards their right, behind a small crest in the
open field, where we saw the flags this morning. Their line is some two
miles long, concave on the side towards us, and their range is from one
thousand to eighteen hundred yards. A hundred and twenty-five rebel
guns, we estimate, are now active, firing twenty-four pound, twenty,
twelve and ten-pound projectiles, solid shot and shells, spherical,
conical, spiral. The enemy's fire is chiefly concentrated upon the
position of the Second Corps. From the Cemetery to Round Top, with over
a hundred guns, and to all parts of the enemy's line, our batteries
reply, of twenty and ten-pound Parrotts, ten-pound rifled ordnance, and
twelve-pound Napoleons, using projectiles as various in shape and name
as those of the enemy. Captain Hazard commanding the artillery brigade
of the Second Corps was vigilant among the batteries of his command, and
they were all doing well. All was going on satisfactorily. We had
nothing to do, therefore, but to be observers of the grand spectacle of
battle. Captain Wessels, Judge Advocate of the Division, now joined us,
and we sat down behind the crest, close to the left of Cushing's
Battery, to bide our time, to see, to be ready to act when the time
should com