The battle grew more desperate with the arrival of fresh troops. Again
it was charge and repulse, charge and repulse, and the continuous swaying
to and fro by two combatants, each resolved to win. There were the Union
men who had forced the passes through the mountains to reach this field,
and they were struggling to follow up those successes by a victory far
greater, and there were the Confederates resolved upon another glorious
success.
The fire became so tremendous that the men could no longer hear orders.
Here was a field of ripe corn, the stems and blades higher than a man's
head, forty acres or so, nearly a quarter of a mile each way, but the
corn soon ceased to hide the combatants from one another. The fire from
the cannon and rifles came in such close sheets that scarcely a stalk
stood upright in that whole field.
Long this mighty conflict swayed back and forth. Dick had seen nothing
like it before, not even at the Second Manassas. It was almost hand to
hand. Cannons were lost and retaken by each side. Stuart, finding the
ground too rough for his cavalry, dismounted them and put them at the
guns.
Pages:
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287