n,
but obscuring knowledge of the field by an enemy attempting to
reconnoitre from a distance; several regiments were thrown into the
woods right and left; and a considerable portion of the command awaited
the attack on open ground, without other protection than God, the
justice of their cause, and their own valor. Kern's Pennsylvania
Battery, Martin's Massachusetts, and Carlisle's and Tidball's Regular
Batteries, were on the ground. They moved up nearer the front than they
had before been lying, the Regular Batteries in the main road and upon
an eminence to the right. Kern took position near the edge of the swamp
on the left; and Martin found post in a wheat-field to the right.
Several brigades of infantry were also thrown well in advance, though
not in range of the artillery; and so prepared, the Union troops awaited
what they felt was to be a decisive conflict.

Gradually the "crack! crack! crack!" of a scattering fire of small-arms,
which had been heard for a quarter of an hour to the westward, came
nearer and nearer, as the pickets were driven in, contesting their
ground stubbornly as they fell back. On came the Confederates, slowly at
first and afterwards with more rapidity, throwing out clouds of
skirmishers, in the rear of which the main body marched in such
formations as the nature of the ground permitted. Whenever they deployed
in line of battle, instead of the customary arrangement of a single line
of two ranks, they formed in three lines "closed _en masse_," thus
making their front six ranks deep. This disposition of course was
calculated to give increased weight in a bayonet charge, and indeed to
make it well nigh irresistible; but besides the fact that the solid
formation would render the execution of artillery among them much more
destructive, in the event of a repulse it would be almost impossible to
rally them, as the different regiments would necessarily lack space in
which to manoeuvre, the lines inevitably mix up in an inextricable mass,
and the whole body become a disorganized mob. Some of the rebel
divisions were formed in column, either of division or company, all
closed up at half distance.

It was a matter of remark to the Union officers who saw the advance of
the Confederate forces on that day--the most formidable advance,
perhaps, that they have made during any battle of the war,--that there
were no flashing and showy uniforms, and that but few flags were seen.
The same remark had before bee