his division.  Lawton’s Georgians bore back the regulars.  D.H.  Hill, despite the fire of the batteries on McGehee’s Hill, which, disregarding the shells of Jackson’s massed artillery, turned with canister on the advancing infantry, made good his footing on the ridge; and as the sun, low on the horizon, loomed blood-red through the murky atmosphere, the Confederate colours waved along the line of abandoned breastworks.

As the Federals retreated, knots of brave men, hastily collected by officers of all ranks, still offered a fierce resistance, and, supported by the batteries, inflicted terrible losses on the crowded masses which swarmed up from the ravine; but the majority of the infantry, without ammunition and with few officers, streamed in disorder to the rear.  For a time the Federal gunners stood manfully to their work.  Porter’s reserve artillery, drawn up midway across the upland, offered a rallying point to the retreating infantry.  Three small squadrons of the 5th United States Cavalry made a gallant but useless charge, in which out of seven officers six fell; and on the extreme right the division of regulars, supported by a brigade of volunteers, fell back fighting to a second line.  As at Bull Run, the disciplined soldiers alone showed a solid front amid the throng of fugitives.  Not a foot of ground had they yielded till their left was exposed by the rout of the remainder.  Of the four batteries which supported them only two guns were lost, and on their second position they made a determined effort to restore the fight.  But their stubborn valour availed nothing against the superior numbers which Lee’s fine strategy had concentrated on the field of battle.

Where the first breach was made in the Federal line is a matter of dispute.  Longstreet’s men made a magnificent charge on the right, and D.H.  Hill claimed to have turned the flank of the regulars; but it is abundantly evident that the advent of Jackson’s fresh troops, and the vigour of their assault, broke down the resistance of the Federals.* (* Porter himself thought that the first break in his line was made by Hood, “at a point where he least expected it.”  Battles and Leaders volume 2 pages 335 and 340.) When the final attack developed, and along the whole front masses of determined men, in overwhelming numbers, dashed against the breastworks, Porter’s troops were well-nigh exhausted, and not a single regiment remained in reserve.  Against the very centre of his line the attack was pushed home by Whiting’s men with extraordinary resolution.  His two brigades, marching abreast, were formed in two lines, each about 2000 strong.  Riding along the front, before they left the wood, the general had enjoined his men to charge without a halt, in double time, and without firing.  “Had these orders,” says General Law, “not been strictly obeyed the assault would have been a failure.  No troops could have stood long under the withering storm of lead and iron that beat in their faces as they became