numbers handled by Stuart. As the blue
lines would start forward, calling to our artillery to pour in the
shells again, he would urge on his sharpshooters to meet them half-way.
The failure of a strong force of Federals to advance farther is
explained, no doubt, by the fact that two of their army corps and one
division had suffered terribly a short time before near the same ground.

Colonel Allan states, in his "Army of Northern Virginia, 1862," page
409, "Of Hooker's and Mansfield's corps, and of Sedgwick's division, was
nothing left available for further operations"; and General Palfrey, the
Northern historian, says, "In less time than it takes to tell it, the
ground was strewn with the bodies of the dead and wounded, while the
unwounded were moving off rapidly to the north." (Palfrey, "Antietam and
Fredericksburg," page 87.)

While engaged in one of these artillery duels a thirty-two pound shot
tore by the gun and struck close by Henry Rader, a driver, who was lying
on the ground, holding the lead-horses at the limber. The shell tore a
trench alongside of him and hoisted him horizontally from the ground. As
he staggered off, dazed by the shock, the horses swung around to run,
when young R. E. Lee, Jr., with bare arms and face begrimed with powder,
made a dash from the gun, seized the bridle of each of the leaders at
the mouth, and brought them back into position before the dust had
cleared away.

In the constant changes from knoll to knoll, in accordance with orders
to "move when the fire became too hot," some of the batteries with us
withdrew, perhaps prematurely. In this way the Rockbridge guns were left
to receive the whole of the enemy's fire. In just such a situation as
this, it not being to our liking, I asked Lieutenant Graham if we should
pull out when the others did. Before he could answer the question a
shell burst at our gun, from which an iron ball an inch in diameter
struck me on the right thigh-joint, tearing and carrying the clothes in
to the bone. I fell, paralyzed with excruciating pain. Graham rode off,
thinking I was killed, as he afterward told me. The pain soon subsided,
and I was at first content to lie still; but, seeing the grass and earth
around constantly torn up, and sometimes thrown on me, I made fruitless
efforts to move. The strict orders against assisting the wounded
prevented my being carried off until the firing had ceased, when I was
taken back about fifty yards and my wound exami