ers excelled themselves.
The question became pretty plainly, whether one was willing to meet
death, not merely to run the chances of it. There was no further
cessation of fire, after the pause before described. Every now and
then a regular volley would be hurled at us from what we supposed a
fresh line of Federals, but it would gradually tone down to the slow,
particular, fatal firing of the siege. The prisoners who ran into us
now and then informed us that Grant's whole energies were directed
against this point. They represented the wood on the other side as
filled with dead, wounded fighters, and skulkers. We were told that
if we would hold the place till dark, we would be relieved. Dark came,
but no relief. The water became a deeper crimson, the corpses grew
more numerous. Every tree about us, for thirty feet from the ground,
was barked by balls. Just before night a tree six or eight inches in
diameter, just behind the works, was cut down by the bullets of the
enemy. We noticed at the same time a large oak hacked and torn in such
a manner never before seen. Some predicted its fall before morning,
but the most of us considered that out of the question. But about
10 o'clock it did fall forward on our works, wounding some men and
startling a great many more. An officer, who afterwards measured this
tree, informed me that it was twenty-two inches in diameter. This was
entirely the work of rifle balls. Midnight came, still no relief; no
cessation of the firing. Numbers of the troops sank, overpowered, into
the muddy trenches and slept soundly. The rain continued. Just before
daylight we were ordered, in a whisper, which was passed along the
line, to slowly and noiselessly retire from the works.... Day dawned,
and the evacuation was complete.

Thus ended one of the most stubbornly contested battles of the war,
if not of the century. The whole army, from one end to the other, sung
the praises of the gallant South Carolinians, who, by their deeds of
valor, made immortal the "Bloody Angle."

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXI

From North Anna to Cold Harbor--Joined by the Twentieth South
Carolina.

It was while entrenched south of North Anna that our troops heard of
the death of our great cavalry leader, General J.E.B. Stuart, who fell
mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, on May the 18th. If the death of
Jackson was a blow to the army and the South, the death of Stuart was
equally so. He was the M