In the wood to the right Ewell met with even fiercer opposition.  So hastily had the Confederate line been formed, and so difficult was it for the brigades to maintain touch and direction in the thick covert, that gaps soon opened along the front; and of these gaps, directly the Southerners gained the edge of the timber, the Northern brigadiers took quick advantage.  Not content with merely holding their ground, the regular regiments, changing front so as to strike the flanks of the attack, came forward with the bayonet, and a vigorous counterstroke, delivered by five battalions, drove Ewell across the swamp.  Part of Trimble’s brigade still held on in the wood, fighting fiercely; but the Louisiana regiments were demoralised, and there were no supports on which they might have rallied.

Jackson, when he ordered Hill to the front, had sent verbal instructions-always dangerous-for the remainder of his troops to move forward inline of battle.*

(* The instructions, according to Dr. Dabney, ran as follows:—­

“The troops are standing at ease along our line of march.  Ride back rapidly along the line and tell the commanders to advance instantly en echelon from the left.  Each brigade is to follow as a guide the right regiment of the brigade on the left, and to keep within supporting distance.  Tell the commanders that if this formation fails at any point, to form line of battle and move to the front, pressing to the sound of the heaviest firing and attack the enemy vigorously wherever found.  As to artillery, each commander must use his discretion.  If the ground will at all permit tell them to take in their field batteries and use them.  If not, post them in the rear.”  Letter to the author.)

The young staff officer to whom these instructions were entrusted, misunderstanding the intentions of his chief, communicated the message to the brigadiers with the addition that “they were to await further orders before engaging the enemy.”  Partly for this reason, and partly because the rear regiments of his division had lost touch with the leading brigades, Ewell was left without assistance.  For some time the error was undiscovered.  Jackson grew anxious.  From his station near Old Cold Harbour little could be seen of the Confederate troops.  On the ridge beyond the valley the dark lines of the enemy’s infantry were visible amongst the trees, with their well-served batteries on the crests above.  But in the valley immediately beneath, and as well as in the forest to the right front, the dense smoke and the denser timber hid the progress of the fight.  Yet the sustained fire was a sure token that the enemy still held his own; and for the first time and the last his staff beheld their leader riding restlessly to and fro, and heard his orders given in a tone which betrayed the storm within.* (* It may be noted that Jackson’s command had now been increased by two divisions, Whiting’s and D.H.  Hill’s,