ification of battle. It is
seldom brought into requisition but at close quarters, when results are
intended; whereas, cannon may peal for a fortnight, and involve no other
destruction than that of shell and powder. I do not think that any throb
of my heart was unattended by some volley or discharge. Dull, hoarse,
uninterrupted, the whole afternoon was shaken by the sound. It was with
a shudder that I thought how every peal announced flesh and bone riven
asunder. The country people, on the way, stood in their side yards,
anxiously listening. Riders or teamsters coming from the field, were
beset with inquiries; but in the main they knew nothing. As I stopped at
Daker's for dinner, the concussion of the battle rattled our plates, and
the girls entirely lost their appetites, so that Glumley, who listened
and speculated, observed that the baby face was losing all the lines of
art, and was quite flat and faded in color. Resuming our way, we
encountered a sallow, shabby person, driving a covered wagon, who
recognized me at once. It was the "Doctor" who had lightened the
journey down the Chesapeake, by a discourse upon embalming. He pointed
toward the field with a long bony finger, and called aloud, with a smirk
upon his face--

"I have the apparatus here, you see. They will need me out yonder, you
know. There's opportunity there for the development of the 'system.'"

I did not reach my own camp at Gaines's Farm, till late in the day. The
firing had almost entirely ceased, but occasional discharges still broke
the repose of evening, and at night signal rockets hissed and showered
in every direction. Next day the contest recommenced; but although not
farther in a direct line, than seven miles, from our encampment, I could
not cross the Chickahominy, and was compelled to lie in my tent all day.

These two battles were offered by the Confederates, in the hope of
capturing that portion of the Federal army that lay upon the Richmond
side of the river. Some days previously, McClellan had ordered Keyes's
corps, consisting of perhaps twelve thousand men, to cross Bottom
Bridge, eight miles down the Chickahominy, and occupy an advanced
position on the York River railroad, six miles east of Richmond. Keyes's
two divisions, commanded by Generals Couch and Casey, were thus encamped
in a belt of woods remote from the body of the army, and little more
than a mile from the enemy's line. Heintzelman's corps was lying at the
Bridge, several m