Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/356

330 each displayed the undaunted courage of their common, fighting, ancestral stock; but the skill of leadership had again asserted itself against the mere power of numbers, and history, in all its annals, nowhere records braver deeds of heroic and daring defense and persistent courage than were exhibited by Jackson's men through all that long day of steady contention against fearful odds. The invincible Stonewall had unflinchingly held the left, confident that the equally invincible Lee was not only watching the contest, but would, in the crisis of the day, throw his sword into the scale and decide the unequal contest.

The battle over, Jackson's men cared for their wounded, gathered their dead for burial, and prepared for another day of conflict, which they well knew was impending; gathered in groups, praying for further aid to the God of Battles, and then, in trusting confidence, slept on their arms awaiting the coming day.

The 30th of August, as the summer neared its end, opened clear and bright, with the two armies ready for the renewal of the mighty conflict. The position of Lee's two wings was unchanged, except that he had massed thirty-six guns, under Col. Stephen D. Lee, on the commanding watershed swell in the center of his lines, where their lines of fire led down the center of the depression followed by Young's branch and threaded by the turnpike leading through the midst of the Federal host to the stone bridge over Bull run. The brigades of Longstreet, from the center southward, were those of Wilcox, Hood, Kemper and D. R. Jones. R. H. Anderson was in reserve, with his 6,000 men, on the turnpike to the rear. Lee then had about 50,000 men at command in his two far-reaching wings, the great jaws of the war monster,