ramount importance of numbers. Within an area
of three hundred yards by fifty there struggled for front places no fewer
than six regiments; and the accession of each, after the first collision,
had it not been immediately counterpoised, would have turned the scale.

As matters stood, we were now very evenly matched, and how long we might
have held out God only knows. But all at once something appeared to have
gone wrong with the enemy's left; our men had somewhere pierced his line.
A moment later his whole front gave way, and springing forward with fixed
bayonets we pushed him in utter confusion back to his original line. Here,
among the tents from which Grant's people had been expelled the day
before, our broken and disordered regiments inextricably intermingled, and
drunken with the wine of triumph, dashed confidently against a pair of
trim battalions, provoking a tempest of hissing lead that made us stagger
under its very weight. The sharp onset of another against our flank sent
us whirling back with fire at our heels and fresh foes in merciless
pursuit--who in their turn were broken upon the front of the invalided
brigade previously mentioned, which had moved up from the rear to assist
in this lively work.

As we rallied to reform behind our beloved guns and noted the ridiculous
brevity of our line--as we sank from sheer fatigue, and tried to moderate
the terrific thumping of our hearts--as we caught our breath to ask who
had seen such-and-such a comrade, and laughed hysterically at the
reply--there swept past us and over us into the open field a long regiment
with fixed bayonets and rifles on the right shoulder. Another followed,
and another; two--three--four! Heavens! where do all these men come from,
and why did they not come before? How grandly and confidently they go
sweeping on like long blue waves of ocean chasing one another to the cruel
rocks! Involuntarily we draw in our weary feet beneath us as we sit, ready
to spring up and interpose our breasts when these gallant lines shall come
back to us across the terrible field, and sift brokenly through among the
trees with spouting fires at their backs. We still our breathing to catch
the full grandeur of the volleys that are to tear them to shreds. Minute
after minute passes and the sound does not come. Then for the first time
we note that the silence of the whole region is not comparative, but
absolute. Have we become stone deaf? See; here comes a stretcher-bear