at last held at the point of the bayonet by
the hardy sons of North Carolina.

The battle, grand and awful in its sublimity, raged from the morning's
opening till two o'clock, without the least abatement along the whole
line. From the extreme right to our left at Taylor's Hill was a sea
of fire. But Mayree's Hill was the center, around which all the other
battles revolved. It was the key to Lee's position, and this had
become the boon of contention. It was in the taking of Mayree's Hill
and the defeat of the troops defending it that the North was pouring
out its river of blood. Both commanders were still preparing to stake
their all upon this hazard of the die--the discipline of the North
against the valor of the South.

Our loss was heavy, both in officers and men. The brave, chivalric
Cobb, of Georgia, had fallen. Of the Third South Carolina, Colonel
Nance, Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford, and Major Maffett had all been
severely wounded in the early part of the engagement. Captain Hance,
while commanding, fell pierced through the heart. Then the next in
command, Captain Summer, met a similar fate; then Captain Foster.
Captain Nance, the junior Captain in the regiment, retained the
command during the continuance of the fight, although painfully
wounded. The dead of the Third Regiment lay in heaps, like hogs in
a slaughter pen. The position of the Second Regiment gave it great
advantage over the advancing column. From a piazza in rear of the
sunken road, Colonel Kennedy posted himself, getting a better view,
and to better direct the firing Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace
remained with the men in the road, and as the column of assault
reached the proper range, he ordered a telling fire on the enemy's
flank. Men in the road would load the guns for those near the wall,
thus keeping up a continual fire, and as the enemy scattered over the
plain in their retreat, then was the opportunity for the Second and
Third, from their elevated positions and better view, to give them
such deadly parting salutes. The smoke in front of the stone wall
became so dense that the troops behind it could only fire at the
flashing of the enemy's guns. From the Third's position, it was more
dangerous for its wounded to leave the field than remain on the battle
line, the broad, level plateau in rear almost making it suicidal to
raise even as high as a stooping posture.

From the constant, steady, and uninterrupted roll of musketry far to
the