ickets, eventually sustained the attack of
Longstreet, and the Stonewall Brigade reinforced the shattered ranks
of D.H. Hill. Yet the attack was strong, and in front of Old Cold
Harbour six batteries had forced their way through the forest.

As this long line of guns covered McGehee's Hill with a storm of
shells, and the louder crash of musketry told him that his lagging
brigades were coming into line, Jackson sent his last orders to his
divisional commanders: "Tell them," he said, "this affair must hang
in suspense no longer; let them sweep the field with the bayonet."
But there was no need for further urging. Before the messengers
arrived the Confederate infantry, in every quarter of the
battlefield, swept forward from the woods, and a vast wave of men
converged upon the plateau. Lee, almost at the same moment as
Jackson, had given the word for a general advance. As the supports
came thronging up the shout was carried down the line, "The Valley
men are here!" and with the cry of "Stonewall Jackson!" for their
slogan, the Southern army dashed across the deep ravine. Whiting,
with the eight regiments of Hood and Law, none of which had been yet
engaged, charged impetuously against the centre. The brigades of A.P.
Hill, spent with fighting but clinging stubbornly to their ground,
found strength for a final effort. Longstreet threw in his last
reserve against the triple line which had already decimated his
division. Lawton's Georgians bore back the regulars. D.H. Hill,
despite the fire of the batteries on McGehee's Hill, which,
disregarding the shells of Jackson's massed artillery, turned with
canister on the advancing infantry, made good his footing on the
ridge; and as the sun, low on the horizon, loomed blood-red through
the murky atmosphere, the Confederate colours waved along the line of
abandoned breastworks.

As the Federals retreated, knots of brave men, hastily collected by
officers of all ranks, still offered a fierce resistance, and,
supported by the batteries, inflicted terrible losses on the crowded
masses which swarmed up from the ravine; but the majority of the
infantry, without ammunition and with few officers, streamed in
disorder to the rear. For a time the Federal gunners stood manfully
to their work. Porter's reserve artillery, drawn up midway across the
upland, offered a rallying point to the retreating infantry. Three
small squadrons of the 5th United States Cavalry made a gallant but
useless charg