dy fire, answered occasionally by our few cannon; but the
infantry rested on their arms, the front covered by a watchful line
of skirmishers, every man at his tree. The Confederate guns had so
perfectly the range of the sloping fields about and behind us, that
their canister shot made long furrows in the sod with a noise like
the cutting of a melon rind, and the shells which skimmed the crest
and burst in the tree-tops at the lower side of the fields made a
sound like the crashing and falling of some brittle substance,
instead of the tough fibre of oak and pine. We had time to notice
these things as we paced the lines waiting for the renewal of the
battle.

Willcox's division reported to me about two o'clock, and would have
been up earlier, but for a mistake in the delivery of a message to
him. He had sent from Middletown to ask me where I desired him to
come, and finding that the messenger had no clear idea of the roads
by which he had travelled, I directed him to say that General
Pleasonton would point out the road I had followed, if inquired of.
Willcox understood the messenger that I wished him to inquire of
Pleasonton where he had better put his division in, and on doing so,
the latter suggested that he move against the crests on the north of
the National road. He was preparing to do this when Burnside and
Reno came up and corrected the movement, recalling him from the
north and sending him by the old Sharpsburg road to my position. As
his head of column came up, Longstreet's corps was already forming
with its right outflanking my left. I sent two regiments [Footnote:
In my official report I said one regiment, but General Willcox
reported that he sent two, and he is doubtless right. For his
official report, see Official Records, vol. xix. pt. ii. p. 428.] to
extend my left, and requested Willcox to form the rest of the
division on my right facing the summit. He was doing this when he
received an order from General Reno to take position overlooking the
National road facing northward. [Footnote: _Ibid_.] I can hardly
think the order could have been intended to effect this, as the
turnpike is deep between the hills there, and the enemy quite
distant on the other side of the gorge. But Willcox, obeying the
order as he received it, formed along the Sharpsburg road, his left
next to my right, but his line drawn back nearly at right angles to
it. He placed Cook's battery in the angle, and this opened a rapid
fire on one