fully exposed to view from the Federal line."* (* Battles and Leaders volume 2 page 363.) The assault was met with a courage that was equally admirable.* (* “The Confederates were within ten paces when the Federals broke cover, and leaving their log breastworks, swarmed up the hill in rear, carrying the second line with them in their rout.”—­General Law, Battles and Leaders volume 2 page 363.) But the Confederate second line reinforced the first at exactly the right moment, driving it irresistibly forward; and the Federal regiments, which had been hard pressed through a long summer afternoon, and had become scattered in the thickets, were ill-matched with the solid and ordered ranks of brigades which had not yet fired a shot.  It was apparently at this point that the Southerners first set foot on the plateau, and sweeping over the intrenchments, outflanked the brigades which still held out to right and left, and compelled them to fall back.  Inspired by his soldierly enthusiasm for a gallant deed, Jackson himself has left us a vivid description of the successful charge.  “On my extreme right,” he says in his report, “General Whiting advanced his division through the dense forest and swamp, emerging from the wood into the field near the public road and at the head of the deep ravine which covered the enemy’s left.  Advancing thence through a number of retreating and disordered regiments he came within range of the enemy’s fire, who, concealed in an open wood and protected by breastworks, poured a destructive fire for a quarter of a mile into his advancing line, under which many brave officers and men fell.  Dashing on with unfaltering step in the face of these murderous discharges of canister and musketry, General Hood and Colonel Law, at the heads of their respective brigades, rushed to the charge with a yell.  Moving down a precipitous ravine, leaping ditch and stream, clambering up a difficult ascent, and exposed to an incessant and deadly fire from the intrenchments, those brave and determined men pressed forward, driving the enemy from his well-selected and fortified position.  In this charge, in which upwards of 1000 men fell killed and wounded before the fire of the enemy, and in which 14 pieces of artillery and nearly a whole regiment were captured, the 4th Texas, under the lead of General Hood, was the first to pierce these strongholds and seize the guns."* (* Jackson’s Report, O.R. volume 11 part 1 pages 555, 556.)

How fiercely the Northern troops had battled is told in the outspoken reports of the Confederate generals.  Before Jackson’s reserves were thrown in the first line of the Confederate attack had been exceedingly roughly handled.  A.P.  Hill’s division had done good work in preparing the way for Whiting’s assault, but a portion of his troops had become demoralised.  Ewell’s regiments met the same fate; and we read of them “skulking from the front in a shameful manner; the woods on our left and rear full of troops in safe cover, from which they never stirred;”