Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/93

Rh of officers to hold the men to it. The men immediately to our right began finally to give way, and the Federal sharpshooters advanced so as almost to enfilade our right flank. About the same time the roar of artillery began on the ridges to our right, and also to resound from the hills yet farther to the west. The roar of the guns created the impression that our lines must run in an irregular, serni-horseshoe shape around the high ridges. After the roar of the artillery, the grandest and most terrific we had ever heard, had ceased, several hundred of the enemy's skirmishers were thrown forward to reinforce and extend the right of their skirmish-line. We viewed the approach of these troops as they descended from the highland beyond the bottom with some anxiety because our left was already in danger of being turned. We soon discovered another body of the enemy, emerging from a distant grove to our left. They marched until they reached the fence which crossed the plain, and connected with the right of the line already in the field, and then halting along the fence, opened a hot rifle fire upon our new force, which was now moving up directly in front of them. This fire did not check our men, but, advancing steadily until close upon them, they rushed at the enemy with a hearty yell, which was echoed down the entire line, and the men in blue, running from all points, were pursued by our men so rapidly and with such ardor that they could not be recalled in time to save them from the charge of a mounted regiment which, passing through them, captured some.

The mounted men of our brigade were now ordered to charge. They passed through the yard of the barn, under a raking fire from the guns to our right, and, doubling the head of the bottom, dashed up the slope to meet the foe. The little band led by Chambliss did not apparently exceed two hundred men. Reaching a fence which separated them from the enemy, they halted in line, and used their carbines until the fence was thrown down. It seemed to one who stood in a place of comparative safety that the enemy slackened their