in all directions but the rear.  Lee on the one side and Stuart on the other had closed upon the enemy, their wings joining just in front of the house.  Some of the pieces of the enemy’s artillery were not more than fifty yards in our front, and the discharges seemed to blaze fire in our very ranks.  Infantry, too, was there massed all over the yard, and in rear of this one vast, mingling, moving body of humanity, dead horses lay in all directions, while the dead and wounded soldiers lay heaped and strewn with the living.  But a few volleys from our troops in the road soon silenced all opposition from the infantry, while cannoneers were hitching up their horses to fly away.  Some were trying to drag away their caissons and light pieces by hand, while thousands of “blue coats,” with and without arms, were running for cover to the rear.  In less than twenty minutes the firing ceased in our front, and men were ordered to prepare breastworks.  Our soldiers, like the beaver in water, by this time had become accustomed to burrow in the ground as soon as a “halt” was made.  A shovel and a spade were carried at all times by each company to guard against emergencies.  The bursting of a shell near my company caused a fragment to strike one of my own men on the shoulder.  He claimed to be desperately wounded, and wished to go to the hospital.  I examined him hastily to see if I could give him any assistance.  He claimed his shoulder was broken.  Just then the order was given to “commence to fortify.”  “G.,” the wounded man, was the first to grasp the shovel, and threw dirt with an energy that caused my Orderly Sergeant, a brave and faithful soldier, but who never allowed the comic side of any transaction to pass him, to say:  “Captain, look at the ‘wild pigeon;’ see how he scratches dirt.”  All soldiers carried a “nick-name,” a name given by some physical disability or some error he had made, or from any circumstance in his life out of the usual order.  Hardly had we taken possession of the turn-pike road and began fortifying, than the sound of shells down the river was heard, and we were hurriedly marched down the road.  McLaws’ and Andersen’s Divisions were doubled-quicked down the turn-pike road and away from the battle to meet Sedgwick, who had crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, stormed Mayree’s Heights, routed and captured the most of Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade, and was making his way rapidly upon Lee’s rear.

This Battle of Chancellorsville certainly had its many sides, with its rapid marching, changing of positions, and generalship of the highest order.  On the day before Jackson had gone around the right flank of Hooker and fell upon his rear, while to-day we had the novel spectacle of Sedgwick in the rear of Lee and Stuart in rear of Hooker.  No one can foretell the result of the battle, had Hooker held his position until Sedgwick came up.  But Lee’s great mind ran quick and fast.  He knew the country and was well posted by his scouts of every move and turn of the enemy on the chessboard of battle.  Anderson, with his division, being on our right, led the advance down the road to meet Sedgwick.  We passed great parks of wagons (ordnance and commissary) on either side of the road.  Here and there were the field infirmaries where their wounded were being attended to and where all the surplus baggage had been stacked before the battle.