School of Infantry,
were on the right, the whole force forming a huge half-moon
around the mouth of the _coulee_. The brush was densely
thick, and as rain was falling, the smoke hung in clouds
a few feet off the muzzles of the rifles.

Here the 90th lost heavily. Ferguson was the first to
fall. The bandsmen came up and carried off the injured
to the rear, where Dr. Whiteford and other surgeons had
extemporized a small camp, the men being laid some on
camp-stretchers and some on rude beds of branches and
blankets. "E" company of the 90th, under Capt. Whitla,
guarded the wounded and the ammunition. General Middleton
appeared to be highly pleased with the bearing of the
90th as they pushed on, and repeatedly expressed his
admiration. He seemed to think, however, that the men
exposed themselves unnecessarily. When they got near the
_coulee_ in skirmishing order, they fired while lying
prostrate, but some of them either through nervousness
or a desire to get nearer the unseen enemy, kept rising
to their feet, and the moment they did so Dumont's men
dropped them with bullets or buckshot. The rebels, on
the other hand, kept low. They loaded, most of them having
powder and shot bags below the edge of the ravine or
behind the thicket, and then popped up for an instant
and fired. They had not time to take aim except at the
outset, when the troops were advancing.

Meanwhile the right wing had gone into action also. Two
guns of "A" Battery, under Capt. Peters, dashed up at
10:40 o'clock, and at once opened on the _coulee_. A
couple of old barns far back to the right were knocked
into splinters at the outset, it being supposed that
rebels were concealed there; and three haystacks were
bowled over and subsequently set on fire by the shells
or fuses. Attention was then centred on the ravine. At
first, however, the battery's fire had no effect, as from
the elevation on which the guns stood, the shot went
whizzing over it. Dumont had sent thirty men to a small
bluff, covered with boulder and scrub, within 450 yards
of the battery, and these opened a sharp fire. The battery
could not fire into this bluff without running the risk
of killing some of the 90th, who had worked their way up
towards the right of it. Several men of "A" were struck
here. The rebels saw that their sharpshooters were causing
confusion in this quarter, and about twenty of them ran
clear from the back of the ravine past the fire of "C"
and "D" companies to