on the Matthews Hill, advanced with confidence, and soon pushed forward past the Henry House.  “The contest that ensued,” says General Imboden, “was terrific.  Jackson ordered me to go from battery to battery and see that the guns were properly aimed and the fuses cut the right length.  This was the work of but a few minutes.  On returning to the left of the line of guns, I stopped to ask General Jackson’s permission to rejoin my battery.  The fight was just then hot enough to make him feel well.  His eyes fairly blazed.  He had a way of throwing up his left hand with the open palm towards the person he was addressing.  And, as he told me to go, he made this gesture.  The air was full of flying missiles, and as he spoke he jerked down his hand, and I saw that blood was streaming from it.  I exclaimed, “General, you are wounded.”  “Only a scratch—­a mere scratch,” he replied, and binding it hastily with a handkerchief, he galloped away along his line."* (* Battles and Leaders volume 1 page 236.)

1.30 P.M.

When the battle was at its height, and across that narrow space, not more than five hundred yards in width, the cannon thundered, and the long lines of infantry struggled for the mastery, the two Federal batteries, protected by two regiments of infantry on their right, advanced to a more effective position.  The movement was fatal.  Stuart, still guarding the Confederate left, was eagerly awaiting his opportunity, and now, with 150 troopers, filing through the fences on Bald Hill, he boldly charged the enemy’s right.  The regiment thus assailed, a body of Zouaves, in blue and scarlet, with white turbans, was ridden down, and almost at the same moment the 33rd Virginia, posted on Jackson’s left, charged forward from the copse in which they had been hidden.  The uniforms in the two armies at this time were much alike, and from the direction of their approach it was difficult at first for the officers in charge of the Federal batteries to make sure that the advancing troops were not their own.  A moment more and the doubtful regiment proved its identity by a deadly volley, delivered at a range of seventy yards.  Every gunner was shot down; the teams were almost annihilated, and several officers fell killed or wounded.  The Zouaves, already much shaken by Stuart’s well-timed charge, fled down the slopes, dragging with them another regiment of infantry.

Three guns alone escaped the marksmen of the 33rd.  The remainder stood upon the field, silent and abandoned, surrounded by dying horses, midway between the opposing lines.

This success, however, brought but short relief to the Confederates.  The enemy was not yet done with.  Fresh regiments passed to the attack.  The 33rd was driven back, and the thin line upon the plateau was hard put to it to retain its ground.  The Southerners had lost heavily.  Bee and Bartow had been killed, and Hampton wounded.  Few reinforcements had reached the Henry Hill.  Stragglers and skulkers