round could be obtained. It was not one of those points "from
which all the details of the fight could be taken in at a glance,"
according to the phraseology of many of the graphic describers of modern
battles; for no such spot has ever been known, in the neighborhood of
any extensive conflict, since the use of artillery covered every field
with smoke and destroyed the romantic opportunities for observation
which existed in the days of the lance and the cross-bow. But it was the
very best position for a general oversight of the field, attainable
under the circumstances; and that it was within easy range of the
enemy's missiles was demonstrated by one of the very first shot, which
struck a tree immediately behind the General, shattering it to pieces
and severely wounding one of the aid-de-camps with the flying splinters.

It is impossible to describe, in such form that it can be realized by
the reader, this fiercest of battle-fields for the two hours which
followed the first attack. Many men felt it, and of those who live to
tell the tale, all will remember it; but it may be said that no man saw
it. The canvas best depicting it would be deprived of all the essentials
of a picture, and merely made a chaos of destruction, with here the
glint of a gun and there the flash of a sabre; here a momentary view of
a black piece of heavy artillery, and there a head, an arm and a leg of
one of the combatants; here a puff of smoke, and there a volley of
belching flame--but all indistinct, terrible and indescribable. Solid
shot, conical shell and spherical case went humming, hurtling and
howling through the air, blotting out rebels and slaying loyalists. The
leaden messengers of the sharp-shooters went shrieking to their living
targets, killing, crippling and intimidating; buck, ball and Minie
bullets missed and made their marks; and the rattling volleys of
companies and platoons became at length blended in one general and
irregular burst of all destructive sounds known to modern warfare.

The Union ranks were of course sadly thinned by the murderous discharges
from those of the rebels, even if their own fire was so effective. The
odds in point of numbers and weight of fire was heavily against them,
and they knew it. The prestige of success was not theirs, for though the
enemy had been beaten in almost every trial of arms since the first
landing on the Peninsula, yet the irresistible force of circumstances
(and what the world will alw