d
away--they know that the foe is there.

An aid comes spurring down the bank, waving his hand and splashing into
the stream.

"Forward, men! forward!"

Hunter gallops to meet him, with his staff clattering at his horse's
heels.

"Break the heads of regiments from the column and push on--push on!"

The field officers dash along the ranks, and the men spring to their
work, as the word of command is echoed from mouth to mouth.

Crossing the stream, their course extended for a mile through a thick
wood, but soon they came to the open country, with undulating fields,
rolling toward a little valley through which a brooklet ran. And beyond
that stream, among the trees and foliage which line its bank and extend
in wooded patches southward, the left wing of the enemy are in battle
order.

From a clump of bushes directly in front, came a puff of white smoke
wreathed with flame; the whir of the hollow ball is heard, and it
ploughs the moist ground a few rods from our advance.

Scarcely had the dull report reverberated, when, in quick succession, a
dozen jets of fire gleamed out, and the shells came plunging into the
ranks. Burnside's brigade was in advance and unsupported, but under the
iron hail the line was formed, and the cry "Forward!" was answered with
a cheer. A long grey line spread out upon the hillside, forming rapidly
from the outskirts of the little wood. It was the Southern infantry,
and soon along their line a deadly fire of musketry was opened.

Meanwhile the heavy firing from the left and further on, announced that
the centre and extreme left were engaged. A detachment of regulars was
sent to Burnside's relief, and held the enemy in check till a portion of
Porter's and Heintzelman's division came up and pressed them back from
their position.

The battle was fiercely raging in the centre, where the 69th had led the
van and were charging the murderous batteries with the bayonet. We must
leave their deeds to be traced by the historic pen, and confine our
narrative to the scene in which Harold bore a part. The nearest battery,
supported by Carolinians, had been silenced. The Mississippians had
wavered before successive charges, and an Alabama regiment, after four
times hurling back the serried ranks that dashed against them, had
fallen back, outflanked and terribly cut up. On the left was a
farm-house, situated on an elevated ridge a little back from the road.
Within, while the fiercest battle raged, was i