the infantry and our Napoleon guns tore them to pieces. It
was deadly, and bloody work! They were a helpless mob, now; a swarming
multitude of confused men! They were falling by scores, hundreds! The
mass was simply melting away under the fury of our fire. Then, they
broke in panic, and headlong rout!

Many fearing to retreat under that deadly fire, dropped down behind the
stumps near our line, and when the others had gone, we ordered them to
come in. Several hundred prisoners were captured in this way. To show
what our works were,--I saw one tall fellow jump up from behind a stump,
run to our work, and with "a hop, skip, and a jump," he leaped entirely
over it, and landed inside our line. And a foolish looking fellow he
was, when he picked himself up!

Just as the enemy broke, Ben Lambert, "No. 1" at "4th" gun, was severely
wounded, in the right arm, just as he raised it to swab his gun. One of
the boys took his place, and the fire kept on.

The great assault was over and had failed! Only ten or fifteen minutes
was its fury raging! In that ten minutes, thirteen thousand Federal
soldiers lay stricken, with death, or wounds. In those few moments,
Grant lost nearly as many men as the whole British Army lost in the
entire battle of Waterloo.

Just to our right the enemy got over our works, and the guns right and
left of the break were turned on them. We heard a "yell" behind us, and
round a piece of pines came Eppa Hunton's Brigade of Virginians, at a
run; General Eppa on horse-back leading them in, at a gallop. The
Virginians delivered their volley at the Federals inside our lines, then
sprang on them like tigers. Next minute the few, left of them, were
flying back over the works.

In the thick of the fight, Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, now
commanded by General Humphreys, to which our Battery had been attached,
being unengaged just at that time, heard that the infantry supporting us
was not effective, and that the "Howitzers" were in danger of being run
over. They requested permission to come to our help, and two Regiments
came tearing down the lines to our position, manned the line by us, and
went to work. What work these splendid fellows could do in a fight! We
had been very uneasy about our supports, and were delighted to see the
Mississippians, especially, as they had voluntarily come to our help, in
such a handsome manner.

The spectacle in front of our line was simply _sickening_! The horrible
heaps of de