t the house windows, or lying on their faces in the wet grass
of the cemetery, went to sleep with a unanimity charming to witness; the
heaviest shelling only eliciting a growl from some discontented private,
that "it was a blasted humbug for the rebs. to try to keep a fellar awake
in that manner;" the remark ending generally in a prolonged snore that
proved the unsuccessfulness of the attempt.

Some time before dawn, preparations were made to receive the attack, which
was expected to follow the instant that the first streak of daylight
discovered our position. Officers bustled nervously around, the sleepers
were cautiously awakened, and all stood to arms with the stern
determination to resist to the bitter end; but judge of our gratification,
when the shelling gradually ceased; and in a short time the announcement
that the rebels had retreated, gave us an opportunity to look around, and
ascertain the damages.

From the incessant uproar, the scream and report of the bursting shells,
the glare of the flames, the smashing of buildings, and the other sounds
incident to a bombardment, which had greeted our ears during the preceding
night, the general expectation in the morning was to find the town a heap
of ruins, and the great majority, both of troops and inhabitants, bleeding
in the streets.

Never was there a greater mistake. It was really wonderful to think that
so much cold iron could be fired into a place and cause so little loss of
life and limb. To be sure much property had been destroyed, any amount of
houses struck, many greatly damaged, and roofs and windows generally
looked dilapidated enough; but, as in the other bombardments of the war,
the destruction had been far from universal, and the escape of the
occupants perfectly miraculous.

The citizens, concealed in their cellars, and the soldiers lying flat
behind the cemetery walls and in the fields, had almost entirely escaped
the iron tempest; shells had gone under and over any amount of people, but
had really _hit_ very few. Some of the townspeople were hurt, but the
exact number is unknown. A few of the Reserves who were rushing around the
streets, instead of obeying orders and keeping under cover, suffered
heavily; the Thirty-seventh, always unlucky, had some hurt; while the
Twenty-second, with more than their usual good fortune, got off with one
or two slightly bruised. The rebel loss is almost unknown, but is supposed
to have been severe.

As soon as i