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centre and left, and the anticipated attempt to turn that flank was speedily made. Under cover of the attack upon Early, a strong column moved at a double-quick from the wood, through the corn and wheat-field, swept forward over every obstacle, and turning the Confederate left flank, poured a hot and deadly fire into Jackson's rear. So sudden and determined was this assault, that the troops were almost surrounded before they knew it; and nothing remained for them but to fall back to a new position. The enemy gave them no time to reflect. They rushed forward with deafening yells, pouring a terrific fire into the wavering lines, and the day seemed lost. In vain did the Confederate officers attempt to hold the men steady. Captain B. W. Leigh, commanding the 1st Virginia battalion, took the colors of his battalion and rode in front, directly down the road, exposed to a concentrated fire; and his brother officers exposed themselves with equal gallantry. But these efforts were useless. The left of Taliaferro's brigade was turned, and fell back; this exposed Early, and his left also retired in confusion, though the remainder of his line maintained its ground.

The fate of the day, in that portion of the field at least, seemed now decided. The infantry had been flanked and driven back; the artillery, finding itself in imminent danger of capture, was rushed from the position which it had occupied, toward the rear, and as it disappeared the enemy redoubled their volleys, pressing the retreating Confederates with all the vigor of anticipated triumph.

At this moment of disaster and impending ruin Jackson appeared, amid the clouds of smoke, and his voice was heard rising above the uproar and the thunder of the guns. The man, ordinarily so cool, silent, and deliberate, was now mastered by the genius of battle. In feature, voice, and bearing, burned the gaudium certaminis-the resolve to conquer or die. Galloping to the front, amid the heavy fire directed upon his disordered lines, now rapidly giving way-with his eyes flashing, his face flushed, his voice rising and ringing like a clarion on every ear, he rallied the confused troops and brought them into line. At

the same moment the old Stonewall Brigade and Branch's brigade advanced at a double-quick, and shouting, "Stonewall Jackson! Stonewall Jackson!" the men poured a galling fire into the Federal lines. The presence of Jackson, leading them in person, seemed to produce an indescribable influence on the troops, and as he rode to and fro, amid the smoke, encouraging the men, they greeted him with resounding cheers. This was one of the few occasions when he is reported to have been mastered by excitement. He had forgotten apparently that he commanded the whole field, and imagined himself a simple colonel leading his regiment. Everywhere, in the thickest of the fire, his form was seen and his voice heard, and his exertions to rally the men were crowned with success. The Federal advance was checked, the repulsed troops re-formed, and led once more into action, and with Jackson in front the troops swept forward and reëstablished their lines upon the ground from which they had been driven.

Those who saw Jackson when he thus galloped to the front, and thus rallied his men in the very jaws of destruction, declare that he resembled the genius of battle incarnate.

The advance of the Federal forces was thus checked. They were forced to retire still more rapidly, and the Stonewall Brigade closed in on their right, and drove them back with terrible slaughter through the woods. This brigade and that of Branch maintained their position in spite of vigorous attempts on the part of the enemy to dislodge them, and were at length reënforced by the brigades of Archer and Pender. These were hurried forward to the threatened point, the lines were re-formed, and a general charge was made all along the Confederate front. This charge swept every thing before it. The enemy were driven across the field, into the opposite woods.

To retrieve this disaster they had recourse to their cavalry. As Jackson's lines swept forward, the men heard the tramp of horsemen, and all at once a column of Federal cavalry made an

Jackson's report.

impetuous charge. At the next moment it retired in disorder before the determined volleys poured into it. Taliaferro had met it in front and Branch assailed it in flank. From this combined attack it recoiled and hastily retreated from the field.

On the right Ewell had been forced to remain inactive. The incessant fire of the Confederate batteries in the valley, sweeping the only approaches to the Federal left, had prevented him from advancing. This difficulty now no longer existed, and he promptly threw forward his column. His front was covered by skirmishers from the 15th Alabama, which had performed a similar duty with so much gallantry at Cross Keys, and the brigades advanced in échelon of regiments, Trimble in advance, under a furious fire of artillery, with which the Federal guns endeavored to check their progress. As Ewell advanced against the Federal left, the confusion into which their right had been thrown by the obstinate and determined attack of Jackson in person, was communicated to their entire line. They wavered; and thus repulsed from the Confederate left and centre, and now pressed steadily by the right centre and left, they fell back at every point, broke in confusion, and leaving their dead and wounded on the field, retreated to the shelter of the woods, into which they were pursued.

The bloody contest had thus terminated in the complete repulse of the Federal forces. Jackson had captured 400 prisoners, among them a brigadier-general, 5,302 small-arms, one Napoleon gun and caisson, with two other caissons and a limber,

and three stands of colors. His loss was 223 killed, and 1,060 wounded. The Federal loss was not known. Among the Confederate officers who fell, the fate of none excited more sympathy than that of General Charles Winder and Colonel Richard H. Cunningham. They were both in feeble health, and had been strenuously advised by their physicians not to take part in the action, but the sound of the guns was irresistible. They took command of their men, and fell in the action.

Such was the battle of Cedar Run. It completely checked General Pope's advance, and will take its place among Jack

son's most important successes. The Federal force opposed to him was undoubtedly much larger than his own, and we have seen that at one period of the battle the Confederate line was in imminent danger of a complete repulse. That repulse, however, had been prevented by the timely arrival of Jackson, who, by a reckless exposure of his person, rallied the troops, and led them again in the charge which drove back the enemy.

As night descended upon the battle-field, a full moon rose, pouring upon the scene of carnage its melancholy radiance. The pallid beams fell on the upturned faces of the dead, the forms of the wounded, and upon countenances distorted in the last agony. Jackson had added another to the roll of his victories, and the weary troops who had won the day with so much difficulty lay down to sleep, the red battle-flags fluttering above them in the dim moonlight.

CHAPTER X.

JACKSON PURSUES.

THUS commenced that important movement of the Confederate forces northward, which drove the enemy from Virginia, and obliged him, finally, to concentrate his entire available strength in Maryland, for the defence of his own soil.

General Pope had commenced his campaign with an apparent conviction that nothing could resist his triumphal progress, but his imposing advance had been entirely checked, and he was now rapidly retreating to that "rear," where, to use his own words, "lurked disaster and shame." The hand which had thus heavily struck him was that of the ubiquitous leader of the Valley. Two months before, Jackson had defeated Generals Shields and Fremont, at Port Republic; within three weeks thereafter, his troops had suddenly appeared near Richmond, and throwing themselves upon General McClellan had decided the

fortunes of the day at Cold Harbor. Now the same men under their active and indefatigable commander had emerged from the woods of Culpepper, in front of General Pope, and checked his advance. The presence of Jackson at this point had greatly astonished the Federal forces. But a short time before the battle, he was supposed to be rapidly advancing down the Valley upon Winchester. The Federal camps there had been thrown into a tumult by this intelligence, the drums beat to arms, and the Federal soldiers, we are informed by one of their own writers, reminded each other of the blunt words of Jackson, when he had been compelled to retire from the town in May, that he would "return again shortly, and as certainly as now." When the troops there were thus beating the long roll in expectation of his coming, he was near Gordonsville; and before their apprehensions had subsided, he had crossed the Rapidan, and driven back General Pope. There was some ground for the statement, that the enemy began to experience toward Jackson the sentiment of the Scottish mothers of the middle ages, when they quieted their crying children with the threat, "Hush! or the Black Douglas will get you!"

General Pope evidently anticipated a different result from the engagement at Cedar Run. When the firing commenced he was in rear of Culpepper Court House, and he announced the fact to his Government by telegraph, adding: "I go to the front to see." He is said, however, not to have reached the scene of action, or taken any part in the engagement.

The battle of Cedar Run was disputed obstinately, and continued until night. The Confederate troops were much exhausted by their march, and the hard fighting combined, and the hours of darkness were not propitious for an advance; but Jackson was so anxious to follow up his success and reach the Federal stronghold at Culpepper Court-House before morning, that he determined to pursue without delay. An advance was accordingly ordered, with Hill's division in front, and after proceeding cautiously for a mile and a half the troops came upon the Federal forces. Jackson sent forward Pegram's battery,

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