two of the
regiments--and I think that one was the 20th New York--turned bodily,
and could not be rallied. The moment was full of significance, and I
beheld these failures with breathless suspense. In five minutes the
pursuers would gain the creek, and in ten, drive our dismayed
battalions, like chaff before the wind. I hurried to my horse, that I
might be ready to escape. The shell and ball still made music around me.
I buckled up my saddle with tremulous fingers, and put my foot upon the
stirrup. But a cheer recalled me and a great clapping of hands, as at
some clever performance in the amphitheatre. I looked again. A battery
from our position across the road, had opened upon the Confederate
infantry, as they reached the very brink of the swamp. For a moment the
bayonets tossed wildly, the dense column staggered like a drunken man,
the flags rose and fell, and then the line fell back disorderly. At that
instant a body of Federal infantry, that I had not seen, appeared, as by
invocation; their steel fell flashingly, a column of smoke enveloped
them, the hills and skies seemed to split asunder with the shock,--and
when I looked again, the road was strewn with the dying and dead; the
pass had been defended.

As the batteries still continued to play, and as the prospect of
uninterrupted battle during the day was not a whit abated, I decided to
resume my saddle, and, if possible, make my way to the James. The
geography of the country, as I had deciphered it, satisfied me that I
must pass "New Market," before I could rely upon my personal safety. New
Market was a paltry cross-road's hamlet, some miles ahead, but as near
to Richmond as White Oak Creek. The probabilities were, that the
Confederates would endeavor to intercept us at this point, and so attack
us in flank and rear. As I did not witness either of these battles,
though I heard the discharge of every musket, it may be as well to
state, in brief, that June 30 was marked by the bloodiest of all the
Richmond struggles, excepting, possibly, Gaines's Mill. While the
Southern artillery engaged Franklin's corps, at White Oak Crossing, and
their left made several unavailing attempts to ford the creek with
infantry,--their entire right and centre, marched out the Charles City
Road, and gave impetuous battle at New Market. The accounts and the
results indicate that the Federals won the day at New Market, sheerly by
good fighting. They were parching with thirst, weak with hu