ck Run. Both seemed eager to make the attack,
but our forces were first in motion, and with a quick-step movement they
advanced against the enemy. The firing opened all along the line. First
one and then the other line staggered and swayed to and fro. The forces
on both sides seemed determined to win or die on their ground. At last
Wilkins crossed Hawks Run and struck the enemy in his flank, causing
consternation to seize him, and he gradually gave way, his left flank
doubling back on the main line nearer the center. At this moment Gen.
Silent ordered an advance with infantry and artillery simultaneously.
This was executed in good order, the firing again became general. The
roar of artillery now was almost deafening. The yell of the enemy was
heard in every direction as though assaulting, but they could no longer
stand against our determined forces. Steadily on the advance continued;
the enemy stood, delivering his fire with deadly results, until our
army approached to the point where one or the other must give way.
The rebels, seeing that our force was coming with a steady step and
determination unmoved by their fire, broke in different parts of their
line, and finally the moment arrived when they could no longer stand our
deadly aim, and their whole line gave way. They retreated through the
woods and on different roads in great disorder; our forces followed up
their lines of retreat and kept a constant fire upon them until night
intervened, which protected them from any further disaster. This closed
one of the bloody battles of the war. That night our army again slept
upon their arms. Some supplies were brought to them during the night,
which stayed their hunger. The next morning the enemy was nowhere to
be seen or heard; he had made his retreat in the night, leaving many
wagons, ambulances and guns. The roads being made almost impassable by
the rain of the night before, their dead and wounded were left in our
hands, save those whom they had removed to the rear the night of
the first day's contest, when they held the ground. The battlefield
presented a ghastly and sickening sight,--the dead, the dying, the
wounded; the hospital in the rear, near the river; the parties burying
the dead, finding Union men and rebels piled up in heaps together;
the long trenches being prepared; the soldiers being wrapped in their
blankets and buried without any knowledge of who they were, or to what
command they belonged; the words of the