several times during the forenoon. Neither army had buried its dead of
the first day's battle. We held the ground on which were strewn the
corpses of both Blue and Gray, in some places lying side by side. The
hot August sun had parched the grass to a crisp, and it was frequently
ignited by bursting shells. In this way the clothes of the dead were
sometimes burned off, and the bodies partially roasted! Such spectacles
made little or no impression at the time, and we moved to and fro over
the field, scarcely heeding them.

About two o'clock we were ordered some distance forward, to fire on a
battery posted on a low ridge near a piece of woods. By skirting along a
body of woods on our left, and screened by it, we came out in full view
of this battery and on its right flank. My gun, being in front and the
first seen by them, attracted their whole fire; but most of their shells
passed over our heads and burst among the guns in our rear and among the
trees. None of us was hurt, and in a few minutes all four of our guns
were unlimbered and opened on them most vigorously. In five or six
rounds their guns ceased firing and were drawn by hand from the crest of
the ridge entirely out of view and range.

As we stood by our guns, highly satisfied with our prowess, General
Jackson came riding up to the first detachment and said, "That was
handsomely done, very handsomely done," then passed on to the other
detachments and to each one addressed some complimentary remark. In half
an hour we were again at our rendezvous, the haystack, and he at his
headquarters, and all quiet. But this time it was the calm before the
real storm.

Across the open plains on which we stood, and some three hundred yards
distant from us, was an extensive body of woods in which Longstreet's
corps had quietly formed in line of battle. In front of this was open
ground, sloping gently for one-fourth of a mile, and on its crest the
enemy's line of battle. To our left another large body of woods extended
toward our front, and concealed the movements of both armies from view
in that direction. General Jackson had dismounted from his horse and was
sitting on the rail-fence, and ours and one or two other batteries were
in bivouac close by, and all as calm and peaceful as if the armies were
in their respective winter quarters, when a roar and crash of musketry
that was almost deafening burst forth in the woods in our immediate
front, and a shower of Minie-bullets w