they
were thus utterly unprepared Jackson's gray-clad veterans pushed
straight through the forest and rushed fiercely to the attack. The first
notice the troops of the Eleventh Corps received did not come from the
pickets, but from the deer, rabbits and foxes which, fleeing from their
coverts at the approach of the Confederates, suddenly came running over
and into the Union lines. In another minute the frightened pickets came
tumbling back, and right behind them came the long files of charging,
yelling Confederates; With one fierce rush Jackson's men swept over
the Union lines, and at a blow the Eleventh Corps became a horde of
panicstruck fugitives. Some of the regiments resisted for a few moments,
and then they too were carried away in the flight.

For a while it seemed as if the whole army would be swept off; but
Hooker and his subordinates exerted every effort to restore order. It
was imperative to gain time so that the untouched portions of the army
could form across the line of the Confederate advance.

Keenan's regiment of Pennsylvania cavalry, but four hundred sabers
strong, was accordingly sent full against the front of the ten thousand
victorious Confederates.

Keenan himself fell, pierced by bayonets, and the charge was repulsed
at once; but a few priceless moments had been saved, and Pleasanton had
been given time to post twenty-two guns, loaded with double canister,
where they would bear upon the enemy.

The Confederates advanced in a dense mass, yelling and cheering, and the
discharge of the guns fairly blew them back across the work's they had
just taken. Again they charged, and again were driven back; and when the
battle once more began the Union reinforcements had arrived.

It was about this time that Jackson himself was mortally wounded. He had
been leading and urging on the advance of his men, cheering them with
voice and gesture, his pale face flushed with joy and excitement,
while from time to time as he sat on his horse he took off his hat and,
looking upward, thanked heaven for the victory it had vouchsafed him.
As darkness drew near he was in the front, where friend and foe were
mingled in almost inextricable confusion. He and his staff were fired
at, at close range, by the Union troops, and, as they turned, were fired
at again, through a mistake, by the Confederates behind them. Jackson
fell, struck in several places. He was put in a litter and carried back;
but he never lost consciousness