Sumner, as brave and daring as any, had gathered twenty thousand men,
and they were advancing in splendid order over the wreck of the dead and
the dying, apparently an irresistible force.
Jackson, standing at the edge of a wood, saw the magnificent advance,
and while the officers around him despaired, he did not think of awaiting
the Northern attack, but prepared instead for an attack of his own.
There was word that McLaws and the Harper's Ferry men had come. Jackson
galloped to meet them, formed them quickly with his own, and then the
Southern drums rolled out the charge. The weary veterans, gathering
themselves anew for another burst of strength, fell with all their might
on the Northern flank.
Dick felt the force of that charge. Men seemed to be driven in upon him.
He was hurled down, how he knew not, but he sprang up again, and then he
saw that their advance was stopped. Long lines of bayonets advanced upon
them, and a terrible artillery fire crashed through and through their
ranks. Two or three thousand men in blue fell in a moment or so.
Fortune in an instant had made a terrible change of front.
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