cellorsville toward morning, and
at once the labor of reestablishing the hospitals commenced. Tents were
erected, the ambulances unloaded, and the surgeons, already worn out by
forty hours of incessant toil, resumed their work.

When the Sixth corps reoccupied the breastworks at dark on the 6th, it
was desirable that the right flank should be protected by old and
reliable troops. Neill's Third brigade was assigned to that position,
the Seventy-seventh being upon the extreme right, the Sixty-first
Pennsylvania thrown out at right angles to protect the rear. On the left
of the Seventy-seventh was the Forty-ninth New York, the Seventh Maine
was next, then the One Hundred and Twenty-second, and the Forty-third
New York was on the left of the brigade.

All was now quiet. No sound was heard except now and then the suppressed
tones of officers in command. The stars shone through the openings among
the trees upon a long line of dusky forms lying close behind the
sheltering breastworks, as silent as death but ready at an instant to
pour out a storm of destruction. A row of bayonets projected over the
breastworks; an abattis of steel awaiting the momentarily expected onset
of the enemy.

At ten o'clock the low tones of command of the rebel officers were heard
as they urged their men against our rear and flank. Colonel Smith of the
Sixty-first Pennsylvania, ordered his men to lie down, for they had no
breastworks, and to reserve their fire. Nearer and nearer came the dark
line, until within twenty feet of the recumbent Pennsylvanians, but not
a sound from them. Still nearer the rebel line approached, to within a
distance of ten feet, when the sharp command rang out, "_Fire_;" and
rising the Pennsylvanians delivered a withering fire into the rebel
ranks that sent them reeling back into the darkness from whence they
came; but a line of prostrate forms where the fire from our line had met
the advancing column, told of its terrible execution. Twenty minutes
after this repulse they advanced silently but in stronger force,
directly in front of our breastworks. They advanced slowly and in
silence until within a few feet of the Union line, when with wild yells
they leaped forward, some even mounting the breastworks. But a sheet of
flame instantly flashed along the whole line of our works; the
astonished rebels wavered for a moment and then beat a hasty retreat,
relinquishing with this last desperate effort the attempt to drive back
the