notony of the muskets was broken by a few discharges of
artillery, which seemed to come in as a double bass in this concert of
death, but so impenetrable was the forest that little use was made of
artillery, and the work of destruction was carried on with the rifles.

Warren's corps, first engaged, had nobly withstood the fierce assaults
upon the center of the line, and had even advanced considerably.
Hancock's command was also hotly engaged. In the commencement of the
battle, three brigades of the Second division, the First, Second and
Fourth, with our commander, General Getty, were taken from the Sixth
corps and sent to the right of Warren's corps, to seize and hold the
intersection of the Brock road and the Orange county turnpike, a point
of vital importance, and which, as Hancock's corps was still far to the
left near Chancellorsville, was entirely exposed. Toward this point Hill
was hastening his rebel corps down the turnpike, with the design of
interposing between Hancock and the main army. No sooner had the
division reached the crossing of the two roads than the First brigade,
General Wheaton's, became hotly engaged with Hill's corps, which was
coming down the road driving some of our cavalry before it. The Vermont
brigade quickly formed on the left of the plank road, and the Fourth
brigade on the right of the First. The engagement became general at
once, and each brigade was suffering heavy losses. The men hugged the
ground closely, firing as rapidly as possible.

Hancock's corps was advancing from the left, but thus far the division
was holding the ground alone. An attack by the three brigades was
ordered, and the line was considerably advanced. Again the men hugged
the ground, the rebels doing the same.

Thus, holding the ground against vastly superior numbers, the division
sustained the weight of the rebel attacks until long after noon, when
some of Hancock's regiments came to its support. With the heroic valor
for which the division was so well known throughout the army, it
withstood the force of the rebels until its lines were terribly thinned.
The First brigade had held the ground with desperate valor, and our
friends, the Vermonters, fought with that gallantry which always
characterized the sons of the Green Mountain State. Their noblest men
were falling thickly, yet they held the road.

As Hancock joined his corps on the left of Getty's division, he ordered
a charge along the whole line, and again the