ke. Franklin and Howard and
Wilcox, who have been pushing south, turn towards the southeast. There
are desperate hand-to-hand encounters. Cannon are taken and retaken.
Gunners on both sides are shot while loading their pieces. Hundreds
fall, and other hundreds leave the ranks. The woods toward Sudley
Springs are filled with wounded men and fugitives, weak, thirsty,
hungry, exhausted, worn down by the long morning march, want of sleep,
lack of food, and the excitement of the hour.

Across the plains, towards Manassas, are other crowds,--disappointed,
faint-hearted, defeated soldiers, fleeing for safety.

"We are defeated!"

"Our regiments are cut to pieces!"

"General Bartow is wounded and General Bee is killed!"

Thus they cry, as they hasten towards Manassas.[3] Officers and men in
the Rebel ranks feel that the battle is all but lost. Union officers and
men feel that it is almost won.

[Footnote 3: Rebel reports in Rebellion Record.]

The Rebel right wing, far out upon the turnpike, has been folded back
upon the centre; the centre has been driven in upon the left wing, and
the left wing has been pushed back beyond Mr. Lewis's house. Griffin's
and Rickett's batteries, which had been firing from the ridge west of
the toll-gate, were ordered forward to the knoll from which the Rebel
batteries had been driven.

"It is too far in advance," said General Griffin.

"The Fire Zouaves will support you," said General Barry.

"It is better to have them go in advance till we come into position;
then they can fall back," Griffin replied.

"No; you are to move first, those are the orders. The Zouaves are
already to follow on the double-quick."

"I will go; but, mark my words, they will not support me."

The battery galloped over the fields, descended the hill, crossed the
ravine, advancing to the brow of the hill near Mrs. Henry's, followed by
Rickett's battery, the Fire Zouaves, and the Fourteenth New York. In
front of them, about forty or fifty rods distant, were the Rebel
batteries, supported by infantry. Griffin and Ricketts came into
position, and opened a fire so terrible and destructive that the Rebel
batteries and infantry were driven beyond the crest of the hill.

The field was almost won. Read what General Johnston says: "The long
contest against fivefold odds, and heavy losses, especially of field
officers, had greatly discouraged the troops of General Bee and Colonel
Evans. The aspect of affairs was criti