Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/355

Rh The Federal soldiers, well led, with the skill of veterans and the courage of brave men, marched to the very front of Jackson's lines, which, by determined efforts, they several times broke and carried, but were every time driven back, once partly with cobblestones, picked from the fills of the unfinished railway, when the supply of ammunition gave out.

Lee anxiously watched these fierce assaults and desperate repulses, and urged his stubborn lieutenant to join in the combat and relieve the pressure upon his other and indomitable lieutenant, who, with another sort of stubbornness, held to his lines and drove back the successive waves of Federal assaults. At 5 p. m., when less than two hours of the day remained, Pope massed the divisions of Kearney and Stevens for a last assault upon Jackson's left. Gregg had exhausted his ammunition and sent for more, adding that his Carolinians would hold on with the bayonet; but these were forced backward, when the Georgians and the North Carolinians of Branch, dropped in behind them, and all, like Indian fighters, took advantage of every rock and tree as the stubborn Federals forced them back. Jackson promptly moved from his center the Virginians of Field and Early, the Georgians of Lawton, and the Louisianians of Hays, threw these into A. P. Hill's hot contest on his left, and routed and dispersed the brave Federal attack, shattering the brigades of Pope's right.

Again Lee, with all the earnestness of his heroic nature, urged Longstreet to participate and help Jackson in meeting this furious attack. But he persisted in his refusal to move, claiming that it was now too late in the day for so doing. But Lee had one force obedient to his commands, or rather his requests, for thus were the orders of that high-toned gentleman expressed. He had massed Hood's batteries on Longstreet's left, on commanding ground, and as Pope's left, under Reynolds, moved forward to attack, a hot fire from these guns drove him back, and just at set of sun, when Longstreet yielded for what he called a reconnoissance in force, he turned loose Hood's courageous Texans, who fell upon the Federal center and drove King back with heavy loss, capturing three of his battleflags and one of his guns; and so the night closed on this long day of furious and bloody battle, in which the contending armies had