y
a stout-hearted soldier, knowing what was there, wished that if he were
to be hit at all, he might be struck dead at once, and so avoid such
sickening horrors.

For the second time on that memorable day it looked for a few moments as
if Palmer would have to face his men about and fight to the rear.
Preparations to do this were made on the right of the division, but,
fortunately, the appalling disaster which seemed imminent in the
complete encompassing of the four divisions of the left was averted. The
enemy yielded at last to the stubborn resistance, and Reynolds
re-established his line--not upon the old ground entirely, but to
conform to the altered situation. He was now the right of the army upon
the original field, and four divisions comprised all that was left of
the Army of the Cumberland in the position of the morning.

The divisions of the centre and the right--where were they? Brannan, and
Wood, and Negley, and Davis, and Van Cleve, and gallant Sheridan, who
held stubbornly his division even amid the panic at Stone River--where
were they? And Rosecrans, commander of the army; Thomas, the hero in
every fight; rash McCook and unfortunate Crittenden, chiefs of corps?
Gone with the centre and the right of the army; gone with the reserves
and the artillery; gone with the ammunition-trains; gone with everything
that belonged to the Army of the Cumberland except four divisions of
unconquered soldiers with half-filled cartridge-boxes and with hearts
that knew no fear.

All gone? No! In the hush which came after Reynolds's desperate defence,
and while hearts were yet beating fast from watching the doubtful fight,
there arose far off to the right and rear a roar of musketry, telling
that somewhere in the distance the flags of the Army of the Cumberland
still waved before the foe, as they did with us. Long afterward we knew
that this was Thomas--he who would not leave the field amid the wreck
which surrounded him--Thomas, with his fragments, posted on a commanding
ridge and bravely beating off the thickening foes about him.

The story of the disaster is an old one. It is hardly necessary to tell
how Wood, in the main line on the right of Brannan, received an order
from Rosecrans to support Reynolds, the second division in line to the
left of Wood; how the gallant soldier hesitated to obey an order from
which such disaster might come; how McCook, chief of corps, told Wood
the order was imperative, and promised to put