wise they would all have
been either killed or captured. None of the enemy came into our clearing
that I saw. We must have corralled upward of eight thousand of our
demoralized men. Some had their arms, most of them had none, which
confirmed the story of their surprise narrated in the last chapter. They
were marched to the rear under guard, and thus the further spread of the
panic was avoided.

It was now dark and the firing ceased, but only for a few moments, for
the two picket-lines were posted so close together, neither knowing
exactly where the other was, that both were exceedingly nervous; and the
slightest movement, the stepping of a picket, the scurry of a rabbit,
would set the firing going again. First it would be the firing of a
single musket, then the quick rattle of a half-dozen, then the whole
line with the reserves, for all were on the line together there; and
then the batteries, of which there were now at least a half-dozen massed
right around us, would open with terrific vigor, all firing into the
darkness, whence the enemy was supposed to be coming. This continued at
short intervals all night long.

After the mob of fugitives had been disposed of, our division had formed
in line of battle directly in front of the Chancellorsville House,
supporting the provisional line which had been hurriedly thrown in to
cover the break of the Eleventh Corps, and we were "resting (?) on our
arms." At each of these alarms every man was instantly on his feet, with
guns at a "ready." General French and staff were close to us, and
General Couch and his staff only a few feet away. All were exceedingly
nervous and keenly on the alert. It was a night of terrific experience
long to be remembered.

The nervous strain upon all was simply awful. We knew that the Eleventh
Corps had been stampeded by the impetuous charge of Stonewall Jackson,
and we felt sure he would seek to reap the fruits of the break he had
made by an effort to pierce our centre, and this we would have to meet
and repel when it came. We did not then know that in the general mix-up
of that fateful afternoon that able and intrepid leader had himself
fallen and was then dying. This fact, fortunate for us, undoubtedly
accounts for the failure of the expected onset to materialize. We could
probably have held him, for we had two divisions of the Second Corps and
part of the Third Corps in double lines, all comparatively fresh, and
before midnight the First Corps wa