Lane and Archer. So thick was the growth, so boggy the earth, that at
the last it had been pronounced impenetrable and left unrazed. Now the
mistake was paid for--in bloody coin.

Meade's line of battle rushed across the open, brushed the edge of the
coppice, discovered that it was empty, and plunging in, found cover. The
grey batteries could not reach them. Almost before the situation was
realized, forth burst the blue from the thicket. Lane was flanked; in
uproar and confusion the grey gave way. Meade sent in another brigade.
It left the first to man-handle Lane, hurled itself on, and at the
outskirt of the wood, struck Archer's left, taking Archer by surprise
and creating a demi-rout. A third brigade entered on the path of the
first and second. The latter, leaving Archer to this new strength,
hurled itself across the military road and upon a thick and tall wood
held by Maxey Gregg and his South Carolinians. Smoke, cloud, and forest
growth--it was hard to distinguish colours, hard to tell just what was
happening! Gregg thought that the smoke-wrapped line was Archer falling
back. He withheld his fire. The line came on and in a moment, amid
shouts, struck his right. A bullet brought down Gregg himself, mortally
wounded. His troops broke, then rallied. A grey battery near Bernard's
Cabin brought its guns to bear upon Gibbon, trying to follow the blue
triumphant rush. Archer reformed. Stonewall Jackson, standing on
Prospect Hill, sent orders to his third line. "Generals Taliaferro and
Early, advance and clear the front with bayonets."

_Yaaaiih! Yaaaiiih! Yaaaaihh!_ yelled Jubal Early's men, and did as they
were bid. _Yaaaaiiih! Yaaiiihhh! Yaaaaiiihhhh!_ yelled the Stonewall
Brigade and the rest of Taliaferro's, and did as they were bid. Back,
back were borne Meade's brigades. Darkness of smoke, denseness of forest
growth, treachery of swampy soil!--all order was lost, and there came no
support. Back went the blue--all who could go back. A. P. Hill's second
line was upon them now; Gibbon was attacked. The grey came down the long
slopes like a torrent loosed. Walker's guns joined in. The uproar was
infernal. The blue fought well and desperately--but there was no
support. Back they went, back across the Richmond Road--all who could
get back. They left behind in the marshy coppice, and on the wooded
slopes and by the embankment, four thousand dead and wounded. The Light
Division, Taliaferro and Early, now held the railroad e