y
long to hold off, as in the event they did, the flank and rear
attacks of Rosser and of Lomax? What if the Longstreet message
were true and yet a third surprise in store? Time, time was needed,
whether to bring up the troops or to change front, to march to the
rear past the faces of the advancing enemy, to hold him in check,
and to re-form. Whatever was to be done was to be done quickly;
and Wright, throwing prudence into the balance, made up his mind
for a retreat to a fresh position, where his line of communications
would be preserved and its flanks protected. Middletown and the
cavalry camp pointed out the ground. Accordingly he gave the word
to Getty, Ricketts being wounded, to retire on Middletown, guiding
on the valley road, and to Emory to form on Getty's right--that
is, on the left of the Sixth Corps in retreat. The battle had been
raging for nearly an hour when Wright gave this order to abandon
Belle Grove. The retreat threw upon Getty's division, now under
Grant, the severe task of covering the exposed right flank of the
army in retreat, while the left was gradually swinging into the
direction of the new line. Getty, having handsomely performed this
service, crossed Meadow Brook abreast with Middletown and took
position on the high and partly wooded ground that rises beyond
the brook to the west of the village and on a line with Merritt's
camp. Here, on the southern edge of the village cemetery and on
the crest behind it, Getty planted his artillery, posted Grant to
hold the immediate front, and somewhat in his rear, under the trees,
following the contour of the hill, as it rises toward the west, he
placed Wheaton and Keifer.

To reach his position on the left of Getty in retreat, Emory had
to gain ground to the westward, to descend the hill from Belle
Grove, to cross Meadow Brook, and climbing the opposite slope to
face about and re-form his line in good order on the crest of Red
Hill. Here, before Dr. Shipley's house, nearly across the ground
where the men of Wheaton and of Getty had slept the night before,
for the best part of an hour Emory stood at bay. Kershaw followed
over the Belle Grove Hill, across Meadow Brook, up the slope of
Red Hill, and formed line facing north; but then, seeing the fighting
part of Emory's infantry before him and the formidable array of
Merritt's cavalry in close support, he refrained from renewing the
attack until Early could send Gordon to his aid. Thus the bol