anything but an error of judgment, or possibly the belief that under any
circumstances he was bound to obey the order of the major-general
commanding the division, could have induced him to abandon me.

Supposing my regiments and General Negley to be still on the field, I
again dispatched Captain Wilson in search of them, and in the meantime
stationed myself near a fragment of the Second Brigade of our division,
and gave such general directions to the troops about me as under the
circumstances I felt warranted in doing. I found abundant opportunity to
make myself useful. Gathering up scattered detachments of a dozen
different commands, I filled up an unoccupied space on the ridge between
Harker, of Wood's division, on the left, and Brannan, on the right, and
this point we held obstinately until sunset. Colonel Stoughton, Eleventh
Michigan; Lieutenant-Colonel Rappin, Nineteenth Illinois;
Lieutenant-Colonel Grosvenor, Eighteenth Ohio; Colonel Hunter,
Eighty-second Indiana; Colonel Hays and Lieutenant-Colonel Wharton,
Tenth Kentucky; Captain Stinchcomb, Seventeenth Ohio; and Captain
Kendrick, Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania, were there, each having a few men
of their respective commands; and they and their men fought and
struggled and clung to that ridge with an obstinate, persistent,
desperate courage, unsurpassed, I believe, on any field. I robbed the
dead of cartridges and distributed them to the men; and once when, after
a desperate struggle, our troops were driven from the crest, and the
enemy's flag waved above it, the men were rallied, and I rode up the
hill with them, waving my hat, and shouting like a madman. Thus we
charged, and the enemy only saved his colors by throwing them down the
hill. However much we may say of those who held command, justice compels
the acknowledgment that no officer exhibited more courage on that
occasion than the humblest private in the ranks.

About four o'clock we saw away off to our rear the banners and
glittering guns of a division coming toward us, and we became agitated
by doubt and hope. Are they friends or foes? The thunder, as of a
thousand anvils, still goes on in our front. Men fall around us like
leaves in autumn. Thomas, Garfield, Wood, and others are in consultation
below the hill just in rear of Harker. The approaching troops are said
to be ours, and we feel a throb of exultation. Before they arrive we
ascertain that the division is Steedman's; and finally, as they come up,