rand Army" is mixed in a straining, struggling, chaotic mass in
the race for life--the battle is won!

I have heard the fight discussed by actors in it on both sides; have
read accounts from northern penny a-liners, and English correspondents
whose pay depended upon their neutrality; and all agree that the battle
was saved by the advent of Kirby Smith, just at that critical moment
when the numbers of the North were sweeping resistlessly over the
broken and worn troops of the South. Elzey's brigade no doubt saved the
day, for they created the panic.

"But I look upon it as a most causeless one," once said an Austrian
officer to me, "for had the Federals stood but half an hour
longer--which, with their position and supports, there was no earthly
reason for their not doing--there could have been but one result.
Smith's forces could not have held their own that much longer against
overwhelming numbers; and the weary troops who had been fighting all
day could not even have supported them in a heavy fight. Had Smith
reached the scene of action at morning instead of noon, he, too, might
have shared the general fate, and a far different page of history been
written. Coming as he did, I doubt not the battle turned upon his
advent. The main difference I see," he added, "is that the Confederates
were whipped for several hours and didn't know it; but just as the
Federals found it out and were about to close their hands upon the
victory already in their grasp, they were struck with a panic and ran
away from it!"

By midnight the anxious crowds in Richmond streets knew that the fight
was over,

"And the red field was won!"

But the first arrivals were ominous ones--splashed and muddy hospital
stewards and quartermaster's men, who wanted more stretchers and
instruments, more tourniquets and stimulants; and their stories threw a
deeper gloom over the crowds that--collected at departments, hotels and
depots--spoke in hushed whispers their words of solemn triumph, of
hope, or of suspense. They told that almost every regiment had been
badly cut up--that the slaughter of the best and bravest had been
terrible--that the "Hampton Legion" was annihilated--Hampton himself
killed--Beauregard was wounded--Kirby Smith killed--the first Virginia
was cut to pieces and the Alabama troops swept from the face of the
earth. These were some of the wild rumors they spread; eagerly caught
up and echoed from mouth to mouth with a reliance on thei