were small. In our little set of college boys only one,
was hurt; he receiving a wound in the leg, which caused its amputation.
The bayonet of my gun was shot off, but possibly that was done by some
man behind me, firing just as I threw the muzzle of my gun into his
way. I didn't notice it until, in loading my gun, I struck my hand
against the jagged end of the broken piece.

The Confederates had all they wanted of charging across the field, and
let us alone. But just to our left General Johnston had personally
organized and started a heavy assaulting column. Overwhelmed by
numbers, the Forty-first and Thirty-second Illinois gave way from the
position they had so tenaciously held, but one of their last shots
mortally wounded the Confederate general. The gallant Lieutenant-Colonel
of the Forty-first, whom we had cheered as we moved out in the morning,
was killed, and his regiment, broken and cut to pieces, did not renew
the fight. Making that break in our line, after four or five hours of
as hard fighting as ever occurred on this continent, was the turning
point of the day. American had met American in fair, stand-up fight,
and our side was beaten, because we could not reinforce the point which
was assailed by the concentrated forces of the enemy.

Of course, the giving way on our left necessitated our abandoning the
side of the field from whence we had annihilated an assaulting column.
We moved back a short distance in the woods, and a crowd of our enemies
promptly occupied the position we had left. Then began the first real,
prolonged fighting experienced by our regiment that day. Our success in
crushing the first attack had exhilarated us. We had tasted blood and
were thoroughly aroused. Screening ourselves behind every log and tree,
all broken into squads, the enemy broken up likewise, we gave back shot
for shot and yell for yell. The very madness of bloodthirstiness
possessed us. To kill, to exterminate the beings in front of us was our
whole desire. Such energy and force was too much for our enemies, and
ere long we saw squads of them rising from the ground and running away.
Again there was no foe in our front. Ammunition was getting short, but
happily a wagon came up with cartridges, and we took advantage of the
lull to fill our boxes. We had not yet lost many men and were full of
fight.

This contest exploded all my notions derived from histories and
pictures, of the way men stand up in the presence of the enem