ly torn, but still closing up and keeping
up a wonderful alignment they moved right on. To us spectators, it
seemed that they would overwhelm our own lines of battle. The enemy had
not stopped to fire a rifle, neither had our infantry discharged a
piece. Suddenly a change came over the wonderful scene. The Twenty-third
Corps opened with terrific volleys, followed closely by the Ninth. The
lines of the rebels halted, opened fire and sought such cover as the
surface of the ground afforded them.

Soon the smoke of battle shut in the grand scene and we looked to our
own commands. The Washington artillery began throwing over our way its
twenty-pounder compliments. As the flank of our battery was nearly in
line with the fire from the rebel battery, it seemed sometimes as if
they would rake our whole front. Fortunately for us, they did little
damage. Lieutenant Benjamin, chief of artillery, paid his special
attention to the Washingtonians, and the result was that they were
satisfied to keep quiet, one of their guns burst in full view, and this
seemed to take their attention away from us.

Soon a regiment or two of the enemy were seen to pass to our extreme
right under cover of the skirting woodland and into the wood. At once we
were ordered to open fire upon this piece of woodland with shell and
shrapnel. We sent twenty-five or thirty shells in rapid succession into
the wood, and soon we saw the rebels going to their rear upon the run.
It seems that a portion of the Ninth Corps was in position to enfilade
the rebel line, and after they had received a few volleys and our shells
they beat a hasty retreat. During the remainder of the battle there was
no further trouble on our right flank. This affair on our right flank
convinced us that however strong mules were for drawing over heavy roads
our artillery, they were not at all well behaved in battle. Of course,
as soon as we opened upon the flanking rebels, several batteries of the
enemy gave us special attention. The shells burst fast and furious all
around us, but it did not interfere with our shelling the woods. I heard
deep and loud profanity, and turning around saw my two mule teams start
towards each other, and when they met they began to climb up each other.

We had extra men detailed from the infantry to help us manage the mules,
and it was from our infantry friends that the loud talk came. After
getting up in the air a good distance, the leading pairs of each team
fell