ain Pettit, who commanded the famous battery of that name, which was
posted immediately in our rear, had spent much of his time in the
forenoon of Saturday high up in a tall tree which stood just in front of
the Chancellorsville House and close to our line, with his field glass
reconnoitring. Several times he had come down with information that
heavy bodies of the enemy were massing for a blow upon our front and
where he believed they would strike. This information, we were told, he
imparted to Hooker's chief of staff, and begged permission to open at
long range with his rifled guns, but no attention was paid to him. I saw
him up the tree and heard some of his ejaculating, which indicated that
he was almost wild with apprehension of what was coming. Once on coming
down he remarked to General Hancock that we would "catch h----l in less
than an hour." The latter seemed to be thoroughly alive to the situation
and exceedingly anxious, as were Couch and French, to do something to
prepare for what was coming, yet nothing more was done until suddenly
the firing, which had been growing in volume and intensity and gradually
drawing nearer, developed in a storm of musketry of terrific fury
immediately in our right front, apparently not more than three hundred
yards away.

We could not see a thing. What there might be between us and it, or
whether it was the onslaught of the enemy or the firing of our troops,
we knew not. But we had not long to wait. Soon stragglers, few in
numbers, began to appear, emerging from the woods into our clearing, and
then more of them, these running, and then almost at once an avalanche
of panic-stricken, flying men without arms, without knapsacks, many
bareheaded, swearing, cursing, a wild, frenzied mob tearing to the rear.
Instantly they began to appear, General Couch, commanding our corps,
took in the situation and deployed two divisions to catch and hold the
fugitives. Part of the Third Corps was also deployed on our left. We
were ordered to charge bayonets and permit no man to pass through our
ranks. We soon had a seething, howling mob of Dutchmen twenty to thirty
feet in depth in front of our line, holding them back on the points of
our bayonets, and still they came. Every officer of our division, with
drawn sword and pistol, was required to use all possible endeavor to
hold them, and threatening to shoot the first man who refused to stand
as ordered. General French and staff were galloping up and