e direction
in which I had left Longstreet. I soon began to meet many wounded men
returning from the front; many of them asked in piteous tones the way to
a doctor or an ambulance. The further I got, the greater became the
number of the wounded. At last I came to a perfect stream of them
flocking through the woods in numbers as great as the crowd in Oxford
Street in the middle of the day. Some were walking alone on crutches
composed of two rifles, others were supported by men less badly wounded
than themselves, and others were carried on stretchers by the ambulance
corps; but in no case did I see a sound man helping the wounded to the
rear, unless he carried the red badge of the ambulance corps. They were
still under a heavy fire; the shells were continually bringing down
great limbs of trees, and carrying further destruction amongst this
melancholy procession. I saw all this in much less time than it takes to
write it, and although astonished to meet such vast numbers of wounded,
I had not seen _enough_ to give me any idea of the real extent of the
mischief.

When I got close up to General Longstreet, I saw one of his regiments
advancing through the woods in good order; so, thinking I was just in
time to see the attack, I remarked to the General that "_I wouldn't have
missed this for anything_." Longstreet was seated at the top of a snake
fence at the edge of the wood, and looking perfectly calm and
imperturbed. He replied, laughing, "_The devil you wouldn't! I would
like to have missed it very much; we've attacked and been repulsed: look
there!_"

For the first time I then had a view of the open space between the two
positions, and saw it covered with Confederates slowly and sulkily
returning towards us in small broken parties, under a heavy fire of
artillery. But the fire where we were was not so bad as further to the
rear; for although the air seemed alive with shell, yet the greater
number burst behind us.

The General told me that Pickett's division had succeeded in carrying
the enemy's position and capturing his guns, but after remaining there
twenty minutes, it had been forced to retire, on the retreat of Heth and
Pettigrew on its left. No person could have been more calm or
self-possessed than General Longstreet under these trying circumstances,
aggravated as they now were by the movements of the enemy, who began to
show a strong disposition to advance. I could now thoroughly appreciate
the term bulldog, wh