excitement. I think this must have been the first
time he had smelled gunpowder, except at a distance, and he supposed
they were doing grandly. There was no telling how much effort it had
cost him to get his courage screwed up sufficiently to bring him thus
far; and to have this dirty, mud-bedraggled scrub of a boy intimate
that the whole outfit should be furnished with long ears, was too much.
As Homer would say, "his diaphragm became black all over." At this point
Captain Birkman appeared on the scene and announced that he was
responsible for me. This ended the matter.

After firing awhile, this brigade started to advance across the field.
The regiment on the left moved up in good order as far as the edge of
the woods. The others straggled forward in disorder. Both officers and
men seemed to be confused. By the time they reached the woods they were
little better than a mob, and had to halt to re-form. I think the man in
command of the brigade was responsible for this. I now started out to
skirmish again, intending to keep in front of the regiment on the left.
As I reached the point where the road entered the woods, I met Mike
Coleman coming on a run, and greatly excited.

"Why, Mike, I thought you were kilt! I heard you were shot in the head
back yonder."

Scarcely pausing for a reply, he went on:

"We've got them! we've got them! We're right in their rear. We'll take
them all! Why don't these men come on?"

With this he hurried back to the men just behind us, and in a breath
told them the situation, and urged them to come on without delay. To his
great disgust, his appeals were unheeded, and he turned to me saying we
would go alone. But now we saw some of the Bucktails coming forward, and
soon about twenty of us were deployed at skirmish distance, advancing on
the rebel rear. Their line could be seen stretching far to right and
left. Our Spencers rattled among the trees as we rained the bullets upon
them. They turned on us savagely, and their rifles blazed and flashed in
reply. Presently their fire slackened. They right-faced, and began to
move off toward the west, at first with some order; but soon they were
only a panic-stricken mob, fleeing in all directions, some to the right,
some to the left, others toward us. The latter we disarmed and sent to
the rear without any guard, and kept up a fire on those who were running
to the right. They threw down their guns by hundreds, and surrendered.

Toward the close a