d furious." Over in the
Federal lines, taken by surprise, all was confusion, worse confounded.
We could see men running wildly about, teamsters, jumping into the
saddle, and frantically lashing their horses,--wagons, ambulances,
ordnance carts, battery forges, tearing furiously, in every direction.
Several vehicles upset, and many teams, maddened by the lash, and the
confusion, and bursting shells, dashing away uncontrollable. We saw
_one_ wagon, flying like the wind, strike a stump, and thrown, team and
all, a perfect wreck, on top of a low rail fence, crushing it down, and
rolling over it.

This was the only time I ever saw a big army wagon, and team, thrown
over a fence.

All that lively time they were having over among the enemy was very
amusing to us; we were highly delighted, and enjoyed it very much.
Laughter, and jocular remarks on the scene were heard all about, as we
worked the gun, and we did our best to keep up the show.

Meanwhile, we were not deceived for a moment. Wild and furious as was
the confusion, and running, over the way, we knew, well, it was the
wagoners and "bomb-proof" people, who were doing the running, and
stirring up the confusion. We knew they were not _all_ running away. We
had seen a good deal of artillery in that field, and we knew that we
should soon hear from them. And we were not mistaken!

In a few minutes the sound of our guns was suddenly varied by a sharp,
venomous screech, clap of thunder, right over our heads, followed by a
ripping, tearing, splitting crash, that filled the air; a regular blood
freezer. We knew _that sound_! It was a bursting Parrott shell from a
Federal gun! And they had the range.

The enemy had run out about eighteen, or twenty guns, and they let in,
mad as hornets. Another shell, and another, and another, came screaming
over us. Then they began to _swarm_; the air seemed full of
them,--bursting shells, jagged fragments, balls out of case-shot,--it
sounded like a thousand devils, shrieking in the air all about us. Then,
the roaring of our guns, the heavy smoke, the sulphurous smell, the
shaking of the ground under the thunder of the guns,--it was a fit
place for _devils_ to shriek in.

And how _hot_ it was! Twenty guns, in full fire, can make it hot at the
foot of the North Pole, and this was _not_ the North Pole! quite the
reverse. In addition to the battle heat, the sun was pouring down, hot
as blazes; and the labor of working a rapidly firing "Napol