Shot and shell cut
through the clouds of dust and among the ranks of the men in blue.
Now came from the forest a vast shout, the defiant rebel yell and nobody
in the column doubted that Jackson was there. He had swung away toward
the Gap, where Lee could come to him more readily, and he would fight the
whole Union army until Lee came up.
As the roar of the first discharge from the batteries was dying swarms of
skirmishers sprang up from ambush and poured a storm of bullets upon the
Union front and flanks. A cry as of anguish arose from the column and it
reeled back, but the men, many of them hardy young farmers from the West,
men of staunch stuff, were eager to get at the enemy and the terrible
surprise could not daunt them. Uttering a tremendous shout they charged
directly upon the Southern force.
It was a case largely of vanguards, the main forces not yet having come
up, but the two detachments charged into each other with a courage and
fierceness that was astounding. In a minute the woods and fields were
filled with fire and smoke, and hissing shells and bullets.
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