tream, without recalling the story of the officer who called to a
soldier making the best time he could to get out of a hot fire: "Stop,
my man! What are you running for?"

"Because I have no wings to fly with," called back the soldier over his
shoulder while increasing his efforts to make better time.

As we descended into the valley we uncovered our pursuers to the fire of
the battery at the village, which opened with shrapnel shells, firing
over our heads. General Stanley, who was in the battery, reported that
not less than eight guns opened fire. As soon as Cleburne encountered
that fire he hastily drew back over the ridge, out of sight. All pursuit
with its accompanying direct and cross-fire having thus ceased,
Bradley's men stopped running and walked on back to the vicinity of the
battery where a new line was formed without trouble or confusion. When
coming down the slope towards the stream Major Coulter, whose horse had
been killed, was running a few feet in front of me, and I was just
speculating whether my short legs could keep up with his long ones, when
he called back over his shoulder: "Rally at this fence," meaning a rail
fence we were approaching. I had a poor opinion of the fence as a place
to attempt a rally, for we would still be exposed to a cross-fire, but
wishing to obey orders I made for the strongest looking fence corner in
my front, and, jumping over and stopping behind it, looked around to see
if any concerted effort would be made to reform behind the fence. In my
brief halt there I had some opportunity to observe the effect of our
artillery fire on the enemy. I saw by the smoke where a number of our
shells exploded, and they all seemed too high in the air and too far to
the rear, for I could not see any men knocked down by them. No doubt the
fear of killing some of our own men caused our gunners to aim high, and
it is probable that the noise made by so many guns and exploding shells
had more to do with stopping the enemy than the execution that was done.
Their after-actions showed that they believed Bradley's brigade to have
been an outpost; that our main line was where the battery was posted,
and that so much artillery must have a correspondingly strong infantry
support.

General Bradley reported a loss of 198 men in his brigade, nearly all of
it falling on the three regiments on the exposed flank, the other three
regiments falling back with light loss because their position had become
untena