facing another.  But after much maneuvering, McLaw’s got the troops disentangled and moved upon the line, and after several rounds at close range, the enemy retreated.  Hardee was then ordered to charge with his wing of the army, composed of troops under Stuart and a division under Taliaferro, while Bragg was to follow by brigades from right to left.  The firing was now confusing, our troops advancing in different direction, and the sound of our guns and cannon echoing and reverberating through the dense forest, made it appear as if we were surrounded by a simultaneous fire.  But finding our way the best we could by the whizzing of the bullets, we rushed up to the enemy’s first line of entrenchments, which they had abandoned without an effort, and took position behind the second line of works.  After firing a round or two, the Confederates raised the old Rebel yell and went for their second line with a rush.  Here General Hardee led his men in person, charging at their head on horseback.  The troops carried everything before them; the enemy in double columns and favorably entrenched, was glad to take cover in the thicket in the rear.  On the extreme left our troops were less successful, being held in check by strong breastworks and a dense thicket between the enemy and the troops of General Bragg.  After sweeping the enemy from the field, General Hardee found it necessary to halt and reform his line and during this interval the enemy made an unsuccessful assault upon the troops of General Stuart.  After nightfall and after all the killed and wounded had been removed from the field, General Johnston moved the troops back to the line occupied in the morning and threw up fortifications.  Here we remained until the 21st; McLaws was detached and placed on the left of Hoke; the cavalry deployed as skirmishers to our left.  There was a considerable gap between our extreme left and the main body of cavalry, and this break the writer commanded with a heavy Hue of skirmishers.  Late in the day the enemy made a spirited attack upon us, so much so that General McLaws sent two companies of boys, formerly of Fizer’s Brigade of Georgia Militia.  The boys were all between sixteen and eighteen, and a finer body of young men I never saw.  He also sent a regiment of North Carolina Militia, consisting of old men from fifty to sixty, and as these old men were coming up on line the enemy were giving us a rattling fire from their sharpshooters.  The old men could not be induced to come up, however.  The Colonel, a Venerable old gray-beard, riding a white horse, as soon as the bullets began to pelt the pines in his front, leaped from his horse and took refuge behind a large tree.  I went to him and tried every inducement to get him to move up his men on a line with us, but all he would do was to grasp me by the hand and try to jerk me down beside him.  “Lie down, young man,” said he, “or by God you’ll be shot to pieces.  Lie down!” The old militiaman I saw was too old for war, and was “not built that way.”  But when I returned to the skirmish line, on which were my own brigade skirmishers, reinforced by the two boy companies, the young men were fighting with a glee and abandon I never saw equalled.  I am sorry to record that several of these promising young men, who had left their homes so far behind, were killed and many wounded.