(Gordon's,) which had become powder-blackened
and sulphur-fumed with the baptism of battle for the several weeks
previous, were to escape the assaulting might and vengeance of the
Federals, and many an old soldier, while listening to the distant roar,
congratulated himself and his command that they were to escape _this
time_. But they reckoned without their host.

The battle opened on Gordon's front at 3-1/2 o'clock on the morning of the
2d, and the conflict then seemed general along the whole line. The earth
shook under the jar and sound. The air was thick with death-dealing
missiles, and the whole atmosphere lit up luridly from the firing of
cannon, the bursting of shell and the flash of the rifle. In the darkness
it seemed as if the hand of Deity had let loose its hold upon the world,
its attraction was gone, and, amid thunder and lightning and tempest, the
chaotic masses of earth and sky were commingling together in grand
confusion.

But this was only the interlude foreshadowing the tragedy of the dawn.
Grant did not intend to surprise the Confederates by rushing madly and
headlong at a given point, without warning or notice. He put them on the
alert all along the entire line, but they were unaware where he intended
to strike in deadly earnest. At dawn earnest charges, in double column,
were made at different points on the line, but without success. Still the
continuous roar was kept up from fort and battery, by cannon and mortar,
and one no longer knew how the battle was going, away from one's own
immediate front, except by the assurance given by the answering thunder of
the guns. About noon, it seemed as if the battle raged fiercer if
possible. The god of war was reveling incarnately. Huge masses of
sulphurous smoke hung over the scene of conflict. Every piece of artillery
in the thickly studded forts, batteries and mortar-beds on both sides were
at their best, and their reports savagely, terrifically crashing through
the narrow streets and lanes of Petersburg, echoed upwards, and made it
appear as if invisible fiends of the air were engaged, like us, in bloody
conflict.

It was at this moment that the Federals made their most determined effort
on Gordon's lines, and by heroic bravery and daring, and amid great
slaughter, succeeded in taking a portion of the breastworks near the
Appomattox. But they could not use the advantage they had struggled so
hard to obtain. The works were so constructed that the men could