Again the smoking front of gray receded, and again, as the enemy's
third line emerged from its leafy covert, it pushed forward across the
piles of dead and wounded to threaten with protruded steel. Never was seen
so striking a proof of the paramount importance of numbers. Within an area
of three hundred yards by fifty there struggled for front places no fewer
than six regiments; and the accession of each, after the first collision,
had it not been immediately counterpoised, would have turned the scale.
As matters stood, we were now very evenly matched, and how long we might
have held out God only knows. But all at once something appeared to have
gone wrong with the enemy's left; our men had somewhere pierced his line.
A moment later his whole front gave way, and springing forward with fixed
bayonets we pushed him in utter confusion back to his original line. Here,
among the tents from which Grant's people had been expelled the day
before, our broken and disordered regiments inextricably intermingled, and
drunken with the wine of triumph, dashed confidently against a pair of
trim battalions, provoking a tempest of hissing lead that made us stagger
under its very weight. The sharp onset of another against our flank sent
us whirling back with fire at our heels and fresh foes in merciless
pursuit--who in their turn were broken upon the front of the invalided
brigade previously mentioned, which had moved up from the rear to assist
in this lively work.
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