Dick shouted aloud in despair as the brigades steadily gave back.
The great Union batteries were firing over their heads again, but even
they could not arrest the Southern advance. Their regiments were coming
now across the shorn cornfield. Dick saw the galloping horses drawing
their batteries up closer and around the flanks. And the rebel yell of
victory which he had heard too often was now swelling from thousands of
throats, as the fierce sons of the South rushed upon their foe.
But the North refused to abandon the battle here. These were splendid
troops, so tenacious and so much bent upon victory that they scarcely
needed leaders. Sedgwick, another of their gallant generals, fell and
was carried off the field, wounded severely. Richardson, yet another,
was killed a little later, but heavy reinforcements arrived, and the
Southerners were driven back in their turn.
These were picked troops who met here, veterans almost all of them,
and neither would yield. The superior weight and range of the Northern
guns gave them an advantage in artillery, and it was used to the utmost.
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