or dissolved, and I could see fragments of the long columns of
infantry. Then from the far end of the lines puffed smoke, and from man
to man the puff ran down each line, enveloping the columns again, so
that they were alternately visible and invisible. At points between the
masses of infantry lay field-pieces, throbbing with rapid deliveries,
and emitting volumes of white steam. Now and then the firing slackened
for a short time, when I could remark the Federal line, fringed with
bayonets, stretching from the low meadow on the left, up the slope, over
the ridge, up and down the crest, until its right disappeared in the
gloaming of wood and distance. Standards flapped here and there above
the column, and I knew, from the fact that the line became momentarily
more distinct, that the Federals were falling stubbornly back. At times
a battery would dash a hundred yards forward, unlimber, and fire a score
of times, and directly would return two hundred yards and blaze again. I
saw a regiment of lancers gather at the foot of a protecting swell of
field; the bugle rang thrice, the red pennons went upward like so many
song birds, the mass turned the crest and disappeared, then the whole
artillery belched and bellowed. In twenty minutes a broken, straggling,
feeble group of horsemen returned; the red pennons still fluttered, but
I knew that they were redder for the blood that dyed them. Finally, the
Federal infantry fell back to the foot of the hill on which I stood; all
the batteries were clustering around me, and suddenly a column of men
shot up from the long sweep of the abandoned hill, with batteries on the
left and right. Their muskets were turned towards us, a crash and a
whiff of smoke swept from flank to flank, and the air around me rained
buck, slug, bullet, and ball!

The incidents that now occurred in rapid succession were so thrilling
and absorbing that my solicitude was lost in their grandeur. I sat like
one dumb, with my soul in my eyes and my ears stunned, watching the
terrible column of Confederates. Each party was now straining every
energy,--the one for victory, the other against annihilation. The
darkness was closing in, and neither cared to prolong the contest after
night. The Confederates, therefore, aimed to finish their success with
the rout or capture of the Federals, and the Federals aimed to maintain
their ground till nightfall. The musketry was close, accurate, and
uninterrupted. Every second was marked