Lee had come, but McClellan and the Army
of the Potomac were far away.
Dick heard the trumpets calling again, and once more they charged,
hurling heavy masses now upon the wood, which was held by the Southern
general, A. P. Hill. Rifle fire gave way to bayonet charges by either
side, and after swaying back and forth the Union men held the wood for a
while, but at last they were driven out to stay, and as they retreated
cannon and rifles decimated their ranks.
The regiment had suffered so terribly that after its retreat it was
compelled to lie down a while and rest. Dick gasped for breath, but he
was not as much excited as he had been earlier in the day. Perhaps one
can become hardened to anything. Although he and his immediate comrades
were resting he could see no diminution of the battle.
As far to left and right as the eye reached, cannon and rifles blazed
and thundered. In front of their own exhausted regiment hundreds of
sharpshooters, creeping forward, were now pouring a deadly fire among
the Southern troops who held the wood. They were men of the west and
northwest, accustomed all their lives to the use of firearms, and if a
Confederate officer in the forest showed himself for a moment it was at
the risk of his life.
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