sen for the attack.

The two brigades of the 2d Division were formed in two ranks, stretching
across a great corn-field, while the 3d Division formed behind them.
Sabers were drawn and, at the bugle signal, all galloped forward. The
Confederates saw the movement and tried valiantly to stem the onset.
Shells screamed overhead and grape and canister rattled like hail. Their
smaller arms, too, played briskly. It was a scene of wild and fierce
excitement. Owing to the irregular nature of the ground, after leaving
the corn-field no regular alignment was possible, and it soon became a
charge of squadrons, companies, squads, and single riders. Bullets
whistled and comrades fell, but the command spurred on to increased
speed--shouted, yelled and still dashed on. Over fences and gullies, and
then a wide ravine; through brush and dense timber, whose gnarled and
low-hanging branches literally tore men from their saddles; across a
great marsh where horses almost swamped--onward the resistless force
rushes and strikes the enemy fully and fairly. Sabers flash in the air,
pistols and carbines belch forth sulphur smoke. The unexpected movement,
the sudden and impetuous charge, as of victorious ranks rather than
desperate battalions essaying a forlorn hope, had amazed the confronting
foe; the fierce onset shattered his lines; he resists stubbornly for a
little while, then gives ground, turns to escape, and is routed
completely. But, meanwhile, his fire on our flank had been sharp and we
suffered severely. On a knoll on the left were two guns belching out
grape and canister. So galling was their fire that the charge was
greatly retarded on that flank. These must be silenced, and a force
dashes up the aclivity "into the very jaws of death." Every gunner is
killed or captured.

At such a time artillery was an awkward encumbrance, yet one piece was
brought off safely. Prisoners, too, were an encumbrance, and few were
taken along. They were simply disarmed and left on the field where
captured. Had time and circumstance permitted the rebel battery could
have been brought off as a trophy, and some hundreds of prisoners.
Consternation had evidently seized the rebel ranks, for they threw down
their arms by scores and begged for quarter. Our business was to cut
through and _get out_, and this was done, though many a noble fellow
was left behind. Among those who fell that day was Capt. Wm. H. Scott,
an associate of the writer on Gen. Eli Long's s