he river, had each but a single regiment of
reserves. The men in the ditch at my side, when I first saw the cannon,
were so busily engaged in keeping out the rebels who filled the ditch on
the other side of the parapet, that I do not believe they ever saw the
two cannon posted to rake the ditch. Their conduct was most gallant.

For a brief period the rebels held possession of the inside of our
breastworks along the entire front of Strickland's brigade on the west
side, and of Reilly's brigade down to the cotton-gin on the east side of
the pike; and the ground in their possession was the key to Cox's entire
position. This break in our line was identical in extent with the front
covered by the great body of Wagner's men in falling back, and it was
occasioned by the panic and confusion created by Wagner's men in crossing
the breastworks. Cox's men, along this part of our line, seem to have lost
their nerve at the sight of the rebel army coming and on account of their
own helpless condition. They could not fire a single shot while Wagner's
men were between themselves and the rebels. The first rebels crossed the
breastworks side by side with the last of Wagner's men.

At some point a break started and then it spread rapidly until it reached
the men who were too busily occupied in firing on the rebels to become
affected by the panic. Opdycke's brigade was directly in the rear of where
this break occurred. At the sound of the firing in front, Opdycke had
deployed his brigade astride the pike, ready for instant action, and as
soon as he saw that a stampede was coming from the breastworks, without
waiting for any order, he instantly led his brigade forward. His brigade
restored the break in our line, charging straight through the rout, after
a desperate hand-to-hand encounter in which Opdycke himself, first firing
all the shots in his revolver and then breaking it over the head of a
rebel, snatched up a musket and fought with that for a club. It is true
that hundreds of brave men from the four broken brigades of Conrad, Lane,
Reilly, and Strickland, who were falling back, when they met Opdycke's
advancing line, saw that the position would not be given up without a
desperate struggle and faced about and fought as gallantly as any of
Opdycke's men in recovering and afterwards in holding our line; but if
Opdycke's brigade had not been where it was, the day undoubtedly would
have closed with the utter rout and ruin of our four divisi