n front of the shell, which carried away one heel.
He continued down the hill at greatly accelerated speed, but now hopping
on one foot. Had he remained where he was the missile would have passed
him harmlessly. Except when nearly spent, shells are not seen until they
have passed, but the screeching, whizzing, hissing noise is sufficient
to make one believe they are hunting him personally. Veteran troops get
to discount the terrors of these noises in a measure, and pay little
attention to them, on the theory that if one is going to be hit by them
he will be anyway, and no amount of dodging will save him, so they go
right on and "take their chances." But with new troops the effect of a
shell shrieking over or past them is often very ludicrous. An
involuntary salaam follows the first sound, with a wild craning of the
necks to see where it went. Upon marching troops, the effect is like
that of a puff of wind chasing a wave across a field of grain.

Returning to our artillery duel, so far as we could judge, our battery
had the best of the practice, but not without paying the price, for the
second rebel shell killed the major (chief of artillery of our
division), who sat on his horse directing the fire, and besides there
were a number of casualties among the battery men. I had seen many a
battery practice on parade occasions with blank cartridges. How utterly
different was the thing in war. Infinitely more savage, the noise
deafeningly multiplied, each gun, regardless of the others, doing its
awful worst to spit out and hurl as from the mouth of a hell-born dragon
these missiles of death at the enemy.

The duel continued for upwards of two hours, until the enemy's battery
hauled off, having apparently had enough. Evidences of the conflict were
sadly abundant. A number were killed, others wounded and several of the
battery horses were killed. The work of the men in this hell of fire
was magnificent. They never flagged for a moment, and at the conclusion
were not in the least disabled, notwithstanding their losses. I think it
was Nimm's battery from Pittsburg. This was the chief incident of the
day. It was said the two armies were manoeuvring for position, and
that a great battle was imminent. This from my diary. It proved to be
true, and that all the skirmishes and "affaires" for the preceding ten
days had been only preliminary to the great battle of Antietam, fought
on the next day, the 17th.

We remained in bivouac here t