heir shelter they had not
yet fired a shot; but as the Confederates reached close range,
regiment after regiment, springing to their feet, poured a
devastating fire into the charging ranks. The rush was checked. Here
and there small bodies of desperate men, following the colours, still
pressed onward, but the majority lay down, and the whole front of
battle rang with the roar of musketry. But so thin was the
Confederate line that it was impossible to overcome the sustained
fire of the enemy. The brigade reserves had already been thrown in;
there was no further support at hand; the Federal gunners, staunch
and resolute, held fast to their position, and on every part of the
line Porter's reserves were coming up. As one regiment emptied its
cartridge-boxes it was relieved by another. The volume of fire never
for a moment slackened; and fresh batteries, amongst which were the
32-pounders of the siege train, unlimbering on the flanks, gave
further strength to a front which was already impregnable.

(MAP OF THE BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL)

Jackson, meanwhile, on receiving a request for reinforcements, had
sent forward three brigades of his own division and a brigade of
Hill's. But a mistake had been committed in the disposition of these
troops. The order for attack had undoubtedly named only D.H. Hill's
division. But there was no good reason that it should have been so
literally construed as to leave the division unsupported. Whiting was
guarding the left flank, and was not available; but Ewell and Winder
were doing nothing, and there can be no question but that they should
have advanced to the edge of the woods directly D.H. Hill moved
forward, and have followed his brigades across the open, ready to
lend aid directly his line was checked. As it was, they had been
halted within the woods and beyond the swamp, and the greater part,
in order to avoid the random shells, had moved even further to the
rear. It thus happened that before the reinforcements arrived Hill's
division had been beaten back, and under the tremendous fire of the
Federal artillery it was with difficulty that the border of the
forest was maintained.

While Hill was retiring, Huger, and then Magruder, came into action
on the right. It had been reported to Lee that the enemy was
beginning to fall back. This report originated, there can be little
doubt, in the withdrawal of the Federal regiments and batteries which
had exhausted their ammunition and were reliev