t difficulty, were present, and the remainder of the
artillery was not far distant.* (* Twenty pieces had been ordered to
the front soon after the infantry moved forward. The dense woods,
however, proved impenetrable to all but three horse-artillery guns,
and one of these was unable to keep up.) Taliaferro, on the right,
had two brigades (A. G. Taliaferro's and the Stonewall) in first
line; Starke was in second line, and Bradley Johnson near Groveton
village. Ewell, on the left, had placed Lawton and Trimble in front,
while Early and Forno formed a general reserve. This force numbered
in all about 8000 men, and even the skirmishers, thrown out well to
the front, were concealed by the undulations of the ground.

The Federal division commanded by General King, although unprovided
with cavalry and quite unsupported, was no unworthy enemy. It was
composed of four brigades of infantry, led by excellent officers, and
accompanied by four batteries. The total strength was 10,000 men. The
absence of horsemen, however, placed the Northerners at a
disadvantage from the outset.

The leading brigade was within a mile of Groveton, a hamlet of a few
houses at the foot of a long descent, and the advanced guard,
deployed as skirmishers, was searching the woods in front. On the
road in rear, with the batteries between the columns, came the three
remaining brigades--Gibbon's, Doubleday's, and Patrick's--in the
order named.

The wood in which the Confederates were drawn up was near a mile from
the highway, on a commanding ridge, overlooking a broad expanse of
open ground, which fell gently in successive undulations to the road.
The Federals were marching in absolute unconsciousness that the
enemy, whom the last reports had placed at Manassas, far away to the
right, was close at hand. No flank-guards had been thrown out.
General King was at Gainesville, sick, and a regimental band had just
struck up a merry quickstep. On the open fields to the left, bathed
in sunshine, there was not a sign of life. The whitewashed cottages,
surrounded by green orchards, which stood upon the slopes, were
lonely and untenanted, and on the edge of the distant wood, still and
drooping in the heat, was neither stir nor motion. The troops trudged
steadily forward through the dust; regiment after regiment
disappeared in the deep copse which stands west of Groveton, and far
to the rear the road was still crowded with men and guns. Jackson's
time had come.

Tw