the annals of the South for bloody and disastrous defeat. One man alone could reverse this picture of ruin. General Lee, as we have said, awaited anxiously, near Cold Harbor, the noise of guns upon his left, informing him that Jackson had arrived. Suddenly the hearts of all throbbed fiercely; and cheers rose and ran along the shattered lines of Hill, as the welcome sound was heard. From the woods on the left came the rattle of small-arms, mingled with the roar of artillery; and, with every passing moment, it grew louder and louder. General Lee pushed on in the direction of the sound, and saw Jackson coming to meet him.

“Ah, General,” said Lee, "I am very glad to see you. I hoped to have been with you before."

Then pausing a moment, and listening to the long-streaming roar in the woods, he added: "That fire is very heavy! Do you think your men can stand it?"

Jackson turned his head to one side, as was his custom, listened, and then said, in his brief tones: "They can stand almost any thing. They can stand that!"

After a brief interview, he then returned to the command of his corps. His appearance on this day was not imposing. He rode a gaunt sorrel horse, slow, and somewhat awkward in movement, and his seat in the saddle was in strong contrast to that of General Lee, who is very erect and graceful on horseback. Jackson leaned forward like a tyro in riding; was clad in a dingy gray uniform, without decorations, and wore his famous old sun-scorched cap drawn down low upon the forehead. He was sucking a lemon, and rode about slowly, often wholly unattended, listening with outward calmness, but evidently with intense inward solicitude, to the continuous roar of musketry from the woods. His position during the battle was near the Old Cold Harbor house, on the left of his line; and riding slowly to and fro across the fields, he was subjected to a heavy fire of shell, which he appeared wholly unconscious of, retaining his calm, almost absent air through all. His appearance is best described by the statement, that he seemed to have lost all

personal consciousness of time and place. His brain seemed to be busy with the hot struggle in the woods in front of him, and he appeared to be absorbed in thought upon the great tragedy being played before him-to have concentrated on the bloody drama all the resources of his mind, and heart, and soul, until he had become oblivious of his personal identity. When spoken to, his head turned quickly, and the dark eyes flashed at you, from beneath the rim of the old cap. A quick response, or an order in the briefest tones, followed, and the General returned to his absorbing thoughts.

Jackson had never seen the ground before; and this, he said, greatly embarrassed him. But his quick eye, as at Manassas, soon took in its general features, and his dispositions were promptly made. Stuart took position in the extensive fields near the Old Cold Harbor house, to charge and intercept the enemy if they attempted to retreat toward the Pamunkey-his men having been informed by their commander that they "had tough work before them, and they must perform it like men and the infantry was rapidly moved to the points where the Southern lines were weakest.

Whiting's division was hurried forward to assist Longstreet in his assault upon the Federal left, and formed on the left of his line, joining the right of General A. P. Hill. On the left of Hill, and opposite the enemy's centre, was a part of Jackson's old division, the remainder being sent to the right; on the left of that, Ewell's; and on the extreme left, D. H. Hill's division.

The artillery had not yet arrived; but General Stuart's horse artillery, under the gallant Captain Pelham, had already opened on the left, near the Old Cold Harbor house; and the moment had now come when the Federal positions must be carried, or the day be lost. We have described the ground over which the men of Jackson were now about to charge. In their front a swamp, and sluggish stream, a wood of tangled undergrowth, and heavy masses of felled timber, made successful attack almost hopeless. But that attack must be made. The troops of Hill were worn out by the long and tremendous struggle, of two days'

duration, and it was now the turn of their comrades. Jackson's men had charged and swept over the stone walls of the Valley, lined with long rows of marksmen; and they must now show that they were able to struggle through swamps, in which the feet sunk at every step; to clamber over the enemy's abatis of felled trees, with the boughs lopped and sharpened; to penetrate undergrowth, wade through deep ditches, and charge masked-batteries, which were vomiting masses of shell and canister in their faces. The work was hard, and required all their manhood; but it could not be avoided. The hour had came for them to conquer or die.

Jackson gave the order, and his whole line swept forward in one grand charge, with tumultuous cheers, and a long roar of musketry, which thundered through the woods. The action had begun in earnest.

Narratives of battles are chiefly valuable for the insight which they afford into the depths of profound intellects, planning and executing great movements upon arenas of decisive struggle. It is the work of the brain, not the labor of the hand, which attracts the attention of the student; the conception of the commander rather than the fighting of the troops, which advance or retire like puppets at the bidding of the controlling and responsible intellect presiding over all. This is fortunate for the narrator, who, deprived of the colors of the painter, finds his subject too vast and exciting for his powers. What follows that order to 66 charge with the bayonet," but smoke, uproar, the smell of blood, the groans of the dying, and the shouts of those who, perhaps, at the next moment will be riddled with bullets, or mangled with shell, and hurled in an instant into eternity?

After five o'clock on the 27th of June, 1862, the banks of the Chickahominy, near Powhite Creek, were enveloped in a vast lurid canopy, through which were seen long lines sweeping forward to the charge, and from whose depths came up in a long frightful roll, the crash of small-arms and the din of artillery, mingled with wild cheers, as the opposing ranks clashed one against the other. From the moment when Jackson gave the

order for his lines to advance, the battle raged with indescribable fury. Through the dense ascending clouds, we shall endeavor to follow the movements of the troops commanded by Jackson, and briefly describe the part which each took in the struggle. D. H. Hill's troops, on the left, first came in contact with the Federal line. The men rushed through the swamp, underwood, and felled trees, in face of a heavy fire; and after a fierce and bloody contest drove the enemy back on their reserve. They took position behind a fence and ditch; and Hill determined to press on, when his attention was called to a battery which was so posted as to pour a destructive enfilading fire upon his advancing line. It was necessary first to silence this battery; and Colonel Iverson, with the 1st, 3d, and 20th North Carolina, charged and captured it. The enemy immediately attacked them in force, and succeeded in recapturing the guns, but not until General Hill had advanced over the dangerous ground, and was engaged in an obstinate contest with the entire Federal force in front of him.

Meanwhile General Ewell had a hard fight upon General Hill's right. The same obstacles barred his advance upon the Federal position, but he charged through the swamp, up the hill in face of a terrible fire, and fought with that daring which had so often excited the admiration of his commander. Reënforced by Lawton and Trimble, General Ewell continued the struggle until dusk, when his ammunition being completely exhausted, he fell back.

Jackson's old division was the third in the line, counting from left to right, and was held as a species of reserve, to be sent to the support of any part of the line which was hard pressed. The 1st "Stonewall" brigade moved on the enemy's front through the swamp, so frequently mentioned, and did some of the hardest fighting of the whole day.

It is related that when his lines at this point were hard pressed, Jackson turned to an officer of his staff, and said quickly: "Where is the 1st brigade?"

"In the woods, yonder, General."

"Order it to advance!" was Jackson's brief response, and soon the lines were seen sweeping forward. As they charged, the officers and men were heard shouting, "Jackson! Jackson!"

The enemy contended with especial obstinacy for the possession of the ground at this point, which was the key of his position; and the roar of his artillery and musketry, as his fire converged upon it, was appalling. Jackson said that night, in the hearing of the writer, that it was "the most terrible fire of musketry he ever heard," and all who heard it will recognize the truth of the description. The old brigade did not flinch from the ordeal. Under its brave leader, General Charles Winder, it moved steadily on, amid the tempest of projectiles, and driving the enemy from point to point, stormed his last position, three hundred yards beyond McGee's, with the bayonet. The 2d brigade was sent to reënforce General Wilcox, at his own request, but arrived too late to take part in the engagement. The 3d brigade, sent to support Whiting, also came too late. The 4th brigade took part in the general charge late in the evening.

General Whiting's division, which held the right of Jackson's line, advanced through the wood and swamp, in face of a murderous fire. Hood's 4th (Texas) brigade charged with a loud yell, and rushing down the precipitous ravine, leaping ditch and stream, pressed forward over the enemy's abatis, and every obstruction, driving all before them. They lost 1,000 men, but took 14 pieces of cannon, and nearly a regiment of prisoners. It was of the Texans that Jackson said on the next day, when he surveyed the ditch and abatis, over which they charged:

"The men who carried this position were soldiers indeed!" Of General Hood's decisive charge upon the Federal works near McGee's house, one of his Texans gives an animated sketch, of which a portion is here presented. "While Hood's brigade," says the writer, was formed in line of battle, the 4th Texas was held in partial reserve, and soon became separated from the other regiments of the brigade. After remaining in

66