in shape, and extended nearly six hundred
yards beyond the embankment. The base, which faced the Federals, was
five hundred yards long. Beyond the apex the ground was swampy and
covered with scrub, and the ridge, depressed at this point to a level
with the plain, afforded no position from which artillery could
command the approach to or issue from this patch of jungle. A space
of seven hundred yards along the front was thus left undefended by
direct fire.

Early, who with D.H. Hill had marched in shortly after daybreak,
formed the right of the third line, Taliaferro the left. The division
of D.H. Hill, with several batteries, formed the general reserve, and
a portion of Early's artillery was posted about half a mile in rear
of his division, in readiness, if necessary, to relieve the guns on
Prospect Hill.

Jackson's line was two thousand six hundred yards in length, and his
infantry 30,000 strong, giving eleven rifles to the yard; but nearly
three-fourths of the army corps, the divisions of Early, Taliaferro,
and D.H. Hill, were in third line and reserve. Of his one hundred and
twenty-three guns only forty-seven were in position, but the wooded
and broken character of the ground forbade a further deployment of
his favourite arm. His left, near Deep Run, was in close touch with
Hood's division of Longstreet's army corps; and in advance of his
right, already protected by the Massaponax, was Stuart with two
brigades and his horse-artillery. One Whitworth gun, a piece of great
range and large calibre, was posted on the wooded heights beyond the
Massaponax, north-east of Yerby's House.

Jackson's dispositions were almost identical with those which he had
adopted at the Second Manassas. His whole force was hidden in the
woods; every gun that could find room was ready for action, and the
batteries were deployed in two masses. Instead, however, of giving
each division a definite section of the line, he had handed over the
whole front to A.P. Hill. This arrangement, however, had been made
before D.H. Hill and Early came up, and with the battle imminent a
change was hazardous. In many respects, moreover, the ground he now
occupied resembled that which he had so successfully defended on
August 29 and 30. There was the wood opposite the centre, affording
the enemy a covered line of approach; the open fields, pasture and
stubble, on either hand; the stream, hidden by timber and difficult
of passage, on the one flank, and Longstr