CHAPTER XXXIX
THE FIELD OF MANASSAS
The column, after an extraordinary march attended by skirmishes, mostwearily winding through a pitch black night, heard the "Halt!" withrejoicing. "Old Jack be thanked! So we ain't turning on our tail andgoing back through Thoroughfare Gap after all! See anything of MarseRobert?--Go away! he ain't any nearer than White Plains. He andLongstreet won't get through Thoroughfare until to-morrow--_Breakranks!_ Oh Lord, yes! with pleasure."
Under foot there was rough, somewhat rolling ground. In the dark nightmen dropped down without particularity as to couch or bedchamber. Natureand the time combined to spread for them a long and echoing series ofsleeping rooms, carpeted and tapestried according to Nature's whim,vaulted with whistling storm or drift of clouds or pageantry of stars.The troops took the quarters indicated sometimes with, sometimes withoutremark. To-night there was little speech of any kind before falling intodreamless slumber. "O hell! Hungry as a dog!"--"Me, too!"--"Can't youjust _see_ Manassas Junction and Stuart's and Trimble's fellows gorgingthemselves? Biscuit and cake and pickles and 'desecrated' vegetables andcanned peaches and sardines and jam and coffee!--freight cars and wagonsand storehouses just filled with jam and coffee and canned peaches andcigars and--" "I wish that fool would hush! I wasn't hungrybefore!"--"and nice cozy fires, and rashers of bacon broiling, andplenty of coffee, and all around just like daisies in the field, cleannew shirts, and drawers and socks, and handkerchiefs and shoes andwriting paper and soap."--"Will you go to hell and stop talking as yougo?"--"Seems somehow an awful lonely place, boys!--dark and a wind. Hearthat whippoorwill? Just twenty thousand men sloshin' round--and Pope maybe right over there by the whippoorwill. Jarrow says that with McCalland Heintzelman and Fitz John Porter, there are seventy thousand ofthem. Well? They've got Headquarters-in-the-saddle and we've gotStonewall Jackson--That's so! that's so! Good-night."
Dawn came calmly up, dawn of the twenty-eighth of August. The ghostlytrumpets blew--the grey soldiers stirred and rose. In the sky were yet astar or two and a pale quarter moon. These slowly faded and the faintestcoral tinge overspread that far and cold eastern heaven. The men werebusied about breakfast, but now this group and presently that suspendedoperations. "What's there about this place anyhow? It has an awful,familiar look. The stream and the stone bridge and the woods and thehill--the Henry Hill. Good God! it's the field of Manassas!"
The field of Manassas, in the half light, somehow inspired a faint awe,a creeping horror. "God! how young we were that day! It seems so longago, and yet it comes back. Do you remember how we crashed together atthe Stone Bridge? There's the Mathews Hill where we first met Sykes andRicketts--seen them often since. The Henry Hill--there's the house--Mrs.Henry was killed. Hampton and Cary came along there and Beauregard withhis sword out and Old Joe swinging the colours high, restoring thebattle!--and Kirby Smith, just in time--just in time, and the yell hiscolumn gave! Next day we thought the war was over."--"I didn't."--"Yes,you did! You said, 'Well, boys, we're going back to every day, but byjiminy! we've got something to tell our grandchildren!' The ravinerunning up there--that was where Bee was killed! Bee! I can see him now.Then we were over there." "Yes, on the hilltop by the pine wood.'Jackson standing like a stone wall.' Look, the light's touching it.Boys, I could cry, just as easy--"
The August morning strengthened. "Our guns were over there by thecharred trees. There's where we charged, there's where we came down onGriffin and Ricketts!--the 33d, the 65th. The 65th made its fight there.Richard Cleave--" "Don't!"--"Well, that's where we came down on Griffinand Ricketts. Manassas! Reckon Old Jack and Marse Robert want a _second_battle of Manassas?"
The light grew full. "Ewell's over there--A. P. Hill's over there. Alltogether, north of the Warrenton turnpike. Where's Marse Robert andLongstreet?"
Colonel Fauquier Cary, riding by, heard the last remark and answered it."Marse Robert and Longstreet are marching by the road we've marchedbefore them. To-night, perhaps, we'll be again a united family."
"Colonel, are we going to have a battle?"
"I wasn't at the council, friends, but I can tell you what I think."
"Yes, yes! We think that you think pretty straight--"
"McCall and Heintzelman and Fitz John Porter have joined General Pope."
"Yes. So we hear."
"And others of the Army of the Potomac are on the way."
"Yes, undoubtedly."
"But are not here yet."
"No."
"Well, then, I think that the thing above all others that General Leewants is an immediate battle."
He rode on. The men to whom he had been speaking looked after himapprovingly. "He's a fine piece of steel! Always liked that wholefamily--Isn't he a cousin of ----? Yes. Wonder what he thinks about thatmatter! Heigho! Look at the stealing light and the grey shadows!Manassas!"
Cary, riding by Ewell's lines, came upon Maury Stafford lying stretchedbeneath an oak, studying, too, the old battlefield. The sun was up; themorning cool, fresh, and pure. Dismounting, Cary seated himself besidethe other. "You were not in the battle here? On the Peninsula, were younot?"
"Yes, with Magruder. Look at that shaft of light."
"Yes. It strikes the crest of the hill--just where was the StonewallBrigade."
Silence fell. The two sat, brooding over the scene, each with his ownthoughts. "This field will be red again," said Stafford at last.
"No doubt. Yes, red again. I look for heavy fighting."
"I saw you when you came in with A. P. Hill on the second. But we havenot spoken together, I think, since Richmond."
"No," said Cary. "Not since Richmond."
"One of your men told me that, coming up, you stopped in Albemarle."
"Yes, I went home for a few hours."
"All at Greenwood are well and--happy?"
"All at Greenwood are well. Southern women are not precisely happy. Theyare, however, extremely courageous."
"May I ask if Miss Cary is at Greenwood?"
"She remained at her work in Richmond through July. Then the need at thehospital lessening, she went home. Yes, she is at Greenwood."
"Thank you. I am going to ask another question. Answer it or not as yousee fit. Does she know that--most unfortunately--it was I who carriedthat order from General Jackson to General Winder?"
"I do not think that she knows it." He rose. "The bugles are sounding. Imust get back to Hill. General Lee will be up, I hope, to-night. Untilhe comes we are rather in the lion's mouth. Happily John Pope is hardlythe desert king." He mounted his horse, and went. Stafford laid himselfdown beneath the oak, looked sideways a moment at Bull Run and the hillsand the woods, then flung his arm upward and across his eyes, and wentin mind to Greenwood.
The day passed in a certain still and steely watchfulness. In the Augustafternoon, Jeb Stuart, feather in hat, around his horse's neck a garlandof purple ironweed and yarrow, rode into the lines and spoke for tenminutes with General Jackson, then spurred away to the Warrentonturnpike. Almost immediately Ewell's and Taliaferro's divisions wereunder arms and moving north.
Near Groveton they struck the force they were going against--King'sdivision of McDowell's corps moving tranquilly toward Centreville. Thelong blue column--Doubleday, Patrick, Gibbon, and Hatch'sbrigades--showed its flank. It moved steadily, with jingle and creak ofaccoutrements, with soldier chat and laughter, with a band playing aquickstep, with the rays of the declining sun bright on gun-stock andbayonet, and with the deep rumble of the accompanying batteries. Thehead of the column came in the gold light to a farmhouse and an appleorchard. Out of the peace and repose of the scene burst a roar of greyartillery.
The fight was fierce and bloody, and marked by a certain savagepicturesqueness. Gibbon and Doubleday somehow deployed and seized aportion of the orchard. The grey held the farmhouse and the larger partof the fair, fruit-bearing slopes. The blue brought their artillery intoaction. The grey batteries, posted high, threw their shot and shell overthe heads of the grey skirmishers into
the opposing ranks: Wooding,Poague, and Carpenter did well; and then, thundering through the woods,came John Pelham of Stuart's Horse Artillery, and he, too, did well.
As for the infantry, grey and blue, they were seasoned troops. There wasno charging this golden afternoon. They merely stood, blue and grey, onehundred yards apart, in the sunset-flooded apple orchard, and then in atwilight apple orchard, and then in an apple orchard with the starsconceivably shining above the roof of smoke, and directed each againstthe other a great storm of musketry, round shot, and canister.
It lasted two and a half hours, that tornado, and it never relaxed inintensity. It was a bitter fight, and there was bitter loss. Doubledayand Gibbon suffered fearfully, and Ewell and Taliaferro suffered. Greyand blue, they stood grimly, and the tornado raged. The ghosts of thequiet husbandmen who had planted the orchard, of the lovers who may havewalked there, of the children who must have played beneath thetrees--these were scared far, far from the old peaceful haunt. It was abitter fight.
Stafford was beside Ewell when the latter fell, a shell dreadfullyshattering his leg. The younger man caught him, drew him quite from poorold Rifle, and with the help of the men about got him behind the slight,slight shelter of one of the little curtsying trees. Old Dick's facetwitched, but he could speak. "Of course I've lost thatleg! ----! ---- ----! Old Jackson isn't around, is he? Never mind! Occasionmust excuse. Go along, gentlemen. Need you all there. Doctors andchaplains and the teamsters, and Dick Ewell will forgather allright ----! ----! Damn you, Maury, I don't want you to stay! What's thatthat man says? Taliaferro badly wounded ----! ---- ----! Gentlemen, oneand all you are ordered back to your posts. I've lost a leg, but I'm notgoing to lose this battle!"
Night came with each stark battle line engaged in giving and receivingas deadly a bombardment as might well be conceived. The orchard grew aplace tawny and red and roaring with sound. And then at nine o'clock thesound dwindled and the light sank. The blue withdrew in good order,taking with them their wounded. The battle was drawn, the grey rested onthe field, the loss of both was heavy.
Back of the apple orchard, on the long natural terrace where he hadposted his six guns, that tall, blond, very youthful officer whom, alittle later, Stuart called "the heroic chivalric Pelham," whom Leecalled "the gallant Pelham," of whom Stonewall Jackson said, "Every armyshould have a Pelham on each flank"--Major John Pelham surveyed thehavoc among his men and horses. Then like a good and able leader, hebrought matters shipshape, and later announced that the Horse Artillerywould stay where it was for the night.
The farmhouse in the orchard had been turned into a field hospital.Thither Pelham's wounded were borne. Of the hurt horses those thatmight be saved were carefully tended, the others shot. The pickets wereplaced. Fires were kindled, and from a supply wagon somewhere in therear scanty rations brought. An embassy went to the farmhouse. "Ma'am,the major--Major Pelham--says kin we please have a few roasting ears?"The embassy returned. "She says, sir, just to help ourselves. Corn,apples--anything we want, and she wishes it were more!"
The six guns gleamed red in the light of the kindled fires. The men sator lay between them, tasting rest after battle. Below this platform, inthe orchard and on the turnpike and in the woods beyond, showed alsofires and moving lights. The air was yet smoky, the night close andwarm. There were no tents nor roofs of any nature. Officers and menrested in the open beneath the August stars. Pelham had a log beneath aLombardy poplar, with a wide outlook toward the old field of Manassas.Here he talked with one of his captains. "Too many men lost! I feel itthrough and through that there is going to be heavy fighting. We'll haveto fill up somehow."
"Everybody from this region's in already. We might get somefifteen-year-olds or some sixty-five-year-olds, though, or we might askthe department for conscripts--"
"Don't like the latter material. Prefer the first. Well, we'll thinkabout it to-morrow--It's late, late, Haralson! Good-night."
"Wait," said Haralson. "Here's a man wants to speak to you."
Running up the hillside, from the platform where were the guns to alittle line of woods dark against the starlit sky, was acornfield--between it and the log and the poplar only a little grassydepression. A man had come out of the cornfield. He stood ten feetaway--a countryman apparently, poorly dressed.
"Well, who are you?" demanded Pelham, "and how did you get in my lines?"
"I've been," said the man, "tramping it over from the mountains. Andwhen I got into this county I found it chock full of armies. I didn'twant to be taken up by the Yankees, and so I've been mostly travellingby night. I was in that wood up there while you all were fighting. I hada good view of the battle. When it was over I said to myself, 'Afterall they're my folk,' and I came down through the corn. I was lyingthere between the stalks; I heard you say you needed gunners. I said tomyself, 'I might as well join now as later. We've all got to join oneway or another, that's clear,' and so I thought, sir, I'd join you--"
"Why haven't you 'joined,' as you call it, before?"
"I've been right sick for a year or more, sir. I got a blow on the headin a saw mill on Briony Creek and it made me just as useless as a bit ofpith. The doctor says I am all right now, sir. I got tired of staying onBriony--"
"Do you know anything about guns?"
"I know all about a shotgun. I could learn the other."
"What's your name?"
"Philip Deaderick."
"Well, come into the firelight, Deaderick, so that I can see you."
Deaderick came, showed a powerful figure, and a steady bearded face."Well," said the Alabamian, "the blow on your head doesn't seem to haveput you out of the running! I'll try you, Deaderick."
"I am much obliged to you, sir."
"I haven't any awkward squad into which to put you. You'll have tolearn, and learn quickly, by watching the others. Take him and enrollhim, Haralson, and turn him over to Dreux and the Howitzer. Now,Deaderick, the Horse Artillery is heaven to a good man who does hisduty, and it's hell to the other kind. I advise you to try for heaven.That's all. Good-night."
Day broke over the field of Groveton, over the plains of Manassas.Stonewall Jackson moved in force westward from the old battle-ground.South of Bull Run, between Young's Branch and Stony Ridge, ran anunfinished railroad. It was bordered by woods and rolling fields. Therewere alternate embankments and deep railroad cuts. Behind was the longridge and Catharpin Run, in front, sloping gently to the little stream,green fields broken to the north by one deep wood. Stonewall Jacksonlaid his hand on the railroad with those deep cuts and on the rough andrising ground beyond. In the red dawn there stretched a battle front ofnearly two miles. A. P. Hill had the left. Trimble and Lawton of Ewell'shad the centre, Jackson's own division the right, Jubal Early and Fornoof Ewell's a detached force on this wing. There were forty guns, andthey were ranged along the rocky ridge behind the infantry. Jeb Stuartguarded the flanks.
The chill moisture of the morning, the dew-drenched earth, the quietwoods, the rose light in the sky--the troops moving here and there totheir assigned positions, exchanged opinions. "Ain't it like thetwenty-first of July, 1861?"--"It air and it ain't--mostlyain't!"--"That's true! Hello! they are going to give us the railroadcut! God bless the Manassas Railroad Company! If we'd dug a whole day wecouldn't have dug such a ditch as that!"--"Look at the boys behind theembankment! Well, if that isn't the jim-dandiest breastwork! 'N look atthe forty guns up there against the sky!"--"Better tear those vines awayfrom the edge. Pretty, aren't they? All the blue morning glories.Regiment's swung off toward Manassas Junction! Now if Longstreet shouldcome up!"--"Maybe he will. Wouldn't it be exciting? Come up with a yellsame as Kirby Smith did last year! Wonder where the Yankees are?""Somewhere in the woods, the whole hell lot of them."--"Some of themaren't a hell lot. Some of them are right fine. Down on the ChickahominyI acquired a real respect for the Army of the Potomac--and a lot ofit'll be here to-day. Yes, sir, I like Fitz John Porter and Sykes andReynolds and a lot of them first rate! They can't help being commandedby The-
Man-without-a-Rear. That's Washington's fault, nottheirs."--"Yes, sir, Ricketts and Meade and Kearney and a lot of themare all right."--"Good Lord, what a shout! That's either Old Jack or arabbit."--"It's Old Jack! It's Old Jack! He's coming along the front.Stonewall Jackson! Stonewall Jackson! Stonewall Jackson! He's passed. OGod! I wish that Bee and Bartow and all that fell here could see him andus now."--"There's Stuart passing through the fields. What guns arethose going up Stony Ridge?--Pelham and the Horse Artillery."--"Listen!Bugles! There they come! There they come! Over the Henry Hill."_Attention!_
About the middle of the morning the cannonading ceased. "There's amovement this way," said A. P. Hill on the left. "They mean to turn us.They have ploughed this wood with shells, and now they're coming to sowit. All right, men! General Jackson's looking!--and General Lee will behere to-night to tell the story to. I suppose you'd like Marse Robert tosay, 'Well done!' All right, then, do well!--I don't think we're any toorich, Garrett, in ammunition. Better go tell General Jackson so."
The men talked, Hill's men and Ewell's men on Hill's right--not volubly,but with slow appreciation. "Reynolds? Like Reynolds all right. Milroy?Don't care for the gentleman. Sigel--Schurz--Schenck--Steinwehr? _Nein.Nein!_ Wonder if they remember Cross Keys?"--"They've got a powerfullong line. There isn't but one thing I envy them and that's thosebeautiful batteries. I don't envy them their good food, and their good,whole clothes or anything but the guns."--"H'm, I don't envy themanything--our batteries are doing all right! We've got a lot of theirguns, and to-night we'll have more. Artillery's done fine to-day."--"Soit has! so it has!"--"Listen, they're opening again. That's Pelham--nowPegram--now Washington Artillery--now Rockbridge!"--"Yes sir, yes sir!We're all right. We're ready. Music! They always come on with music.Funny! but they've got the bands. What are they playing? Never heard itbefore. Think it's 'What are the Wild Waves Saying?'"--"I think it's'When this Cruel War is Over.'"--"Go 'way, you boys weren't in theValley! We've heard it several times. It's 'Der Wacht am Rhein.'"--"Allright, sir! All right. Now!"
Sometime in the middle of the afternoon, after the third great bluecharge, Edward Cary, lips blackened from tearing cartridges, lock andbarrel of his rifle hot within his hands, his cap shot away, his sleevetorn to ribbons where he had bared and bandaged a flesh wound in thearm, Edward Cary straightened himself and wiped away the sweat andpowder grime which blinded him. An officer's voice came out of the murk."The general asks for volunteers to strip the field of cartridges."
There were four men lying together, killed by the same shell. The headof one was gone, the legs of another; the third was disembowelled, thefourth had his breast crushed in. Their cartridge boxes when opened werefound to be half full. Edward emptied them into the haversack he carriedand went on to the next. This was a boy of sixteen, not dead yet,moaning like a wounded hound. Edward gave him the little water that wasin his canteen, took four cartridges from his box, and crept on. A miniesang by him, struck a yard away, full in the forehead of the dead mantoward whom he was making. The dead man had a smile upon his lips; itwas as though he mocked the bullet. All the field running back from therailroad cuts and embankment was overstormed by shot and shell, andeverywhere from the field rose groans and cries for water. The word"water" never ceased from use. _Water!--Water, Water!--Water!--Water!_On it went, mournfully, like a wind.--_Water!--Water!_ Edward gatheredcartridges steadily. All manner of things were wont to come into hismind. Just now it was a certain field behind Greenwood covered withblackberry bushes--and the hot August sunshine--and he and Easter's Jimgathering blackberries while Mammy watched from beneath a tree. He heardagain the little thud of the berries into the bucket. He took thecartridges from two young men--brothers from the resemblance and fromthe fact that, falling together, one, the younger, had pillowed his headon the other's breast, while the elder's arm was around him. They laylike children in sleep. The next man was elderly, a lonely,rugged-looking person with a face slightly contorted and a great hole inhis breast. The next that Edward came to was badly hurt, but not toobadly to take an interest. "Cartridges?--yes, five. I'm awfulthirsty!--Well, never mind. Maybe it will rain. Who's charging now?Heintzelman, Kearney, and Reno--Got 'em all? You can draw one from mygun, too. I was just loading when I got hit. Well, sorry you got to go!It's mighty lonely lying here."
Edward returned to the front, gave up his haversack, and got another. Ashe turned to resume the cartridge quest there arose a cry. "Steady, men!steady! Hooker hasn't had enough!" Edward, too, saw the blue wall comingthrough the woods on the other side of the railroad. He took a musketfrom a dead man near by and with all the other grey soldiers lay flat inthe grass above the cut. Hooker came within range--within close range.The long grey front sprang to its feet and fired, dropped and loaded,rose and fired. A leaden storm visited the wood across the track. TheAugust grass was long and dry. Sparks set it afire. Flames arose andcaught the oak scrub. Through it all and through the storm of bulletsthe blue line burst. It came down on the unfinished track, it crossed,it leaped up the ten-foot bank of earth, it clanged against the greyline atop. The grey gave back, the colours fell and rose; the airrocked, so loud was the din. Stonewall Jackson appeared. "General Hill,order in your second line." Field's Virginians, Thomas's Georgianscharged forward. They yelled, all their rifles flashed at once, theydrove Hooker down into the cut, across the track, up into the burningbrushwood and the smoke-filled woods. But the blue were staunch andseasoned troops; they reformed, they cheered. Hooker brought up a freshbrigade. They charged again. Down from the woods plunged the blue wave,through the fire, down the bank, across and up. Again din and smoke andflame, all invading, monstrous. Jackson's voice rose higher. "GeneralHill, order in General Pender."
North Carolina was, first and last, a stark fighter. Together with Greggand Field and Thomas, Pender drove Hooker again down the red escarpment,across the railroad, through the burning brush, into the wood; evendrove him out of the wood, took a battery and dashed into the openbeyond. Then from the hills the blue artillery opened and from theplains below volleyed fresh infantry. Pender was borne back through thewood, across the railroad, up the red side of the cut.
Hooker had a brigade in column behind a tree-clad hill. Screened fromsight it now moved forward, swift and silent, then with suddenness brokefrom the wood in a splendid charge. With a gleam of bayonets, with aflash of colours, with a loud hurrah, with a staggering volley itsregiments plunged into the cut, swarmed up the red side and fell upon A.P. Hill's weakened lines. The grey wavered. Stonewall Jackson's voicewas heard again. "General Hill, I have ordered up Forno from the rightand a regiment of Lawton's." He jerked his hand into the air. "Here theyare. Colonel Forno, give them the bayonet!"
Louisiana and Georgia swept forward, Tennessee, Alabama, and Virginiasupporting. They swept Grover's brigade down and back. There was bitterfighting, hand-to-hand, horrible work: the dead lay in the railroad cutthick as fallen leaves. The dead lay thick on either bank and thick inthe grass that was afire and thick in the smoky wood. The blue gave way,went back; the grey returned to their lines.
Edward went again for cartridges. He was beside Gregg's SouthCarolinians when a courier came up. "General Jackson wishes to know eachbrigade's amount of ammunition," and he heard Gregg's answer, "TellGeneral Jackson that this brigade has one round to the man, but I'llhold the position with the bayonet." Edward gleaned steadily. "Water!water! water!" cried the field. "O God! water!"
It was growing late, the long, hot day declining. There had been ninehours of fighting. "Nine hours--ninety hours--ninety minutes?" thoughtEdward. "Time's plastic like everything else. Double it, fold it back onitself, stretch it out, do anything with it--" He took the cartridgesfrom a trunk of a man, crept on to a soldier shot through the hip. Thelatter clutched him with a blackened hand. "Has Marse Robert come? HasGeneral Lee come?"
"They say he has. Over there on Stuart's Hill, holding Reynolds andMcDowell and Fitz John Porter in check."
The man fell back. "Oh, then it is all right. Stonewall Jackso
n andRobert Edward Lee. It's all right--" He spoke drowsily. "It's all right.I'll go to sleep."
Edward looking sideways toward Stony Ridge saw the forty guns blackagainst the sun. As he looked they blazed and thundered. He turned hiseyes. Kearney and Reno, five brigades, were coming at a double acrossthe open. As he looked they broke into the charge. With his bag ofcartridges he made for the nearest grey line. The blue came on, aformidable wave indeed. Stonewall Jackson rode along the grey front.
"Men, General Early and two regiments of Lawton's are on their way. Youmust stand it till they come. If you have only one cartridge, save ituntil they are up from the cut. Then fire, and use your bayonets. Don'tcheer! It makes your hand less steady."
The blue wave plunged into the railroad cut. "I think," said a greysoldier, "that I hear Jubal Early yelling." The blue wave mounted to thelevel. "_Yaaaiih! Yaaaaiih!_" came out of the distance. "We know that wedo," said the men. "Now, our friend, the enemy, you go back!" Out of thedun cloud and roar came a deep "Steady, men! You've got your bayonetsyet. Stand it for five minutes. General Early's coming. This isManassas--Manassas--Manassas! God is over us! Stand it for fiveminutes--for three minutes.--General Early, drive them with thebayonet."
Late that night on the banks of Bull Run the general "from the West,where we have always seen the backs of our enemy" sent a remarkabletelegram to Halleck at Washington. _"We fought a terrific battle hereyesterday with the combined forces of the enemy, which lasted withcontinuous fury from daylight until dark, by which time the enemy wasdriven from the field which we now occupy. The enemy is still in ourfront, but badly used up. We lost not less than eight thousand menkilled and wounded, but from the appearance of the field the enemy losttwo to one. The news has just reached me from the front that the enemyis retreating toward the mountains."_
The delusion holding, he, at noon of the thirtieth, ordered a generaladvance. "The troops to be immediately thrown forward in pursuit of theenemy and to press him vigorously." One of his officers undertook acomment. "By the Lord Harry, it will be the shortest pursuit that evenhe ever saw! Why, damn it all! they're still here! I tell you the placeis unlucky!"
Twenty thousand blue soldiers formed the front that came down from thehills and moved toward the Groveton wood and the railroad track. Behindthem were supporting masses, forty thousand strong. On every slopegleamed the great blue guns. The guns opened; they shelled withvehemence the wood, the railroad cut, and embankment, the fieldimmediately beyond. A line of grey pickets was seen to leave the woodand make across the track and into cover. Pope at the Stone House sawthese with his field glass. "The last of their rear guard," he said.
One of his generals spoke. "Their guns are undoubtedly yet on thatridge, sir."
"I am perfectly well aware of that, sir. But they will not be there longafter our line has crossed the track. Either we will gloriously takethem, or they will limber up and scamper after Jackson. He, I take it,is well on his way to Thoroughfare Gap. All that we need is expedition.Crush him, and then when Longstreet is up, crush _him_."
"And those troops on Stuart Hill?"
"Give you my word they are nothing, general! A rebel regiment, at themost a brigade, thrown out from Jackson's right. I have positiveinformation. Fitz John Porter is mistaken--arrogantly mistaken.--Ah, therebel guns are going to indulge in a little bravado."
The twenty thousand gleaming bayonets passed the turnpike, passedDogan's house, moved on toward the wood. It rose torn and thin and blackfrom yesterday's handling. Immediately beyond was the railroad cut. Onthe other side of the railroad ran a stretch of field and scrub,mounting to Stony Ridge, that rose from the base of the woods. StonyRidge looked grey itself and formidable, and all about it was the smokeof the forty grey guns. The twenty thousand bayonets pressed on.
There came a blare of bugles. Loud and high they rang--the bugles of theLight Division, of Ewell's, of Jackson's own. They pierced the thunderof the guns, they came from the wood at the base of Stony Ridge. Therewas a change in the heart-beat below the twenty thousand bayonets.Porter and Ricketts and Hatch stared, and saw start from the wood adownward moving wall. It moved fast; it approached with a certainimpetuous steadiness. Behind it were shorter lines, detached masses.Together all came down from Stony Ridge like an avalanche. The avalanchecame to and took the field of yesterday, and stood revealed,--StonewallJackson holding the railroad cut. "I thought as much," said Fitz JohnPorter. "Go ask him to give us Reynolds."
After the third charge the 65th and another regiment of the StonewallBrigade, finding their ammunition exhausted, armed themselves withstones. Those of the Thunder Run men who had not fallen at White OakSwamp proved themselves expert. Broken rock lay in heaps by the railroadbed. They brought these into the lines, swung and threw them. Withstones and bayonets they held the line. Morell and Sykes were greatfighters; the grey men recognized worthy foes. The battle grew Titanic.Stonewall Jackson signalled to Lee on the Warrenton turnpike, "Hill hardpressed. Every brigade engaged. Would like more guns."
Lee sent two batteries, and Stephen D. Lee placed them. There arose aterrific noise, and presently a wild yelling. Lee signalled:--
_General Jackson. Do you still need reinforcements? Lee._
The signal officer on the knoll behind the Stonewall wigwagged back.
_No. The enemy are giving way. Jackson._
They gave way, indeed. The forty guns upon the ridge, the eight that Leehad sent, strewed the green field beyond the Groveton wood with shot andshrapnel. Morell fell back, Hatch fell back; the guns became deadly,mowing down the blue lines. Stonewall Jackson rode along the front.
"General Hill, it is time for the counterstroke. Forward, and drivethem!"
The signaller wigwagged to the Warrenton turnpike:--
_General Lee. I am driving them. Jackson._
The signaller on the turnpike signalled back:--
_General Jackson. General Longstreet is advancing. Look out for andprotect his left flank. Lee._
* * * * *
Lee's great battle was over and won. Every division, brigade, regiment,battery, fifty thousand infantry and cavalry brought by the great leaderinto simultaneous action, the Army of Northern Virginia moved as in avast parade over plain and hill. Four miles in length, swept the firstwave with, in the centre, seven grey waves behind it. It was late. Thegrey sea moved in the red and purple of a great sunset. From Stony Ridgethe forty guns thundered like grey breakers, while the guns ofLongstreet galloped toward the front. Horses and men and guns were atthe martial height of passion. To the right Jeb Stuart appeared,magnificent. On swept the resistless sea. A master mind sent it overthose Manassas hills and plains, here diverting a portion of its waves,here curbing a too rapid onslaught, here harking the great mass forward,surmounting barriers, overwhelming a stubborn opposition, crumbling andbreaking to pieces. Wave on wave, rapid, continuous, unremitting,thundered the assault, in the red sunset of the thirtieth of August.Pope's Army fought bravely, but in the dusk it melted away.