esh spirit to the
charge--stimulating to new energy the battalions that were checked. His
clothing had been torn by balls which were unheeded.

Once he had ridden along the rear of a brave Arkansas Regiment, which
had just recoiled from a terrible fire. "Where now," he said, striking
some of the men encouragingly upon the shoulder, "are the Arkansas boys,
who boasted that they would fight with their bowie knives? You have a
nobler weapon in your grasp--will you dare to use it?" He spoke to men
who could not hear such words in vain--they rushed forward and won the
position.

Statham's magnificent brigade had at length faltered. General Johnson,
bare-headed and with his hand elevated, rode out in front of the
brigade, and called on it to follow. His dress, majestic presence,
imposing gesture and large gray horse, made him a conspicuous mark. A
ball pierced his leg, severing the artery. He paid no notice to the
wound, but continued to follow the troops, who, incited by his example,
had charged successfully. Suddenly he grew faint and reeled in his
saddle. His staff came to his assistance, but too late. They bore him
into a ravine for shelter, and in a few moments he died. I cannot
venture to speak of General Johnson in the ordinary terms of
eulogy--such applied to him would seem frivolous and profane. He was too
great for it in life--and it would little accord with the veneration,
silent, but profound, with which we, his people, cherish his memory. If
he had lived but a few days more! Shortly after this great disaster the
lines were pressed forward rapidly again at all points. Our troops were
still instinct with the spirit of the lost leader. His genius had
prepared effects, accomplished after he was gone. The left had swept far
around--the center, where the latest check had been felt, was a little
behind--the right driving everything before it, when, by hard fighting
the resistance opposed to it at noon had been overcome, was approaching
the river.

Now the word was passed through the army, "Let every order be forward."
In the last determined stand which the enemy made, Major General
Prentice and two thousand of his division were captured. His troops
stood, until the advancing Confederates closed in on two sides, and
escape had become impossible.

Our army was now near the river, and a victory absolutely complete and
decisive, was just within its grasp. The fighting had been hard and our
success blood-bought but bril