show that the men burned from five to thirty rounds each.
But without avail. They were telescoped. Their defences were rendered
useless. The enemy was on both sides of and perpendicular to them. It
is an open question whether, at that time, any two divisions of the
army could have changed front and made a good defence under these
circumstances. Later in the war our soldiers were more habituated,
particularly in the West, to fighting on either side of their
breastworks. But these were raw troops. And this was not the first, nor
was it the last, panic in the Army of the Potomac. But the corps had,
as ill-luck willed it, nothing in its rear to repair or conceal its
discomfiture.

Buschbeck's brigade had better opportunities, and acted correspondingly
better. It had time to occupy the rifle-pits facing west before the
enemy had completed the destruction of the first and third divisions.
Buschbeck's stand covered a full half-hour. He was re-enforced by many
fragments of broken regiments, holding together under such officers as
had escaped utter demoralization. The troops remained behind these works
until outflanked on right and left, for Jackson's front of over two
miles easily enveloped any line our little force could form.

During the early part of the attack, Colquitt's brigade ran across the
pickets of Devens's and Schurz's south front, which there had been no
time to call in. Instead of joining in the advance, Colquitt remained
to engage these latter, deeming it essential to protect Jackson's right.
This was the nucleus of one of the many detached engagements of this
day. Several bodies of Union troops thus isolated were captured en
masse.

The reports of the officers concerned, as a rule, possess the merit of
frankness. As an instance, Col. Hartung, of the Seventy-Fourth New York,
relates that he had no opportunity to fire a shot until after he arrived
behind the Buschbeck intrenchments. The facts would appear to be given
in an even-handed way, in all the reports rendered.

Little remains to be said. The Eleventh Corps was panic-stricken, and
did run, instead of retreating. It was a mere disorganized mass in a
half-hour from the beginning of the attack, with but a few isolated
regiments, and one brigade, retaining a semblance of orderliness.

But was it so much the misbehavior of the troops as the faultiness of
the position they occupied?

The corps was got together again before Sunday morning, in a condition
t