Hooker hurled in two divisions, one under Meade, and one
under Doubleday, and another came up behind to support them. The western
men were here and remembering how they had been decimated at Manassas,
they fought for revenge as well as patriotism.
At last the Winchester regiment in the center moved forward also.
They struck heavy ploughed land, and as they struggled through it they
met a devastating fire. It seemed to Dick that the last of the little
regiment was about to be blown away, but as he looked through the fire
and smoke he saw Warner and Pennington still by his side, and the colonel
a little ahead, waving his sword and shouting orders that could not be
heard.
Dick saw shining far before him the white walls of the Dunkard church,
and he was seized with a frantic desire to reach it. It seemed to him if
they could get there that the victory would be won. Yet they made little
progress. The cannon facing them fairly spouted fire, and thousands of
expert riflemen in front of them lying behind ridges and among rocks and
bushes sent shower after shower of leaden balls that swept away the front
ranks of the charging Union lines.
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