advanced against the Henry Hill.

6 P.M.

On the very ground which Jackson had held in his first battle the
best troops of the Federal army were rapidly assembling. Here were
Sykes' regulars and Reynolds' Pennsylvanians; where the woods
permitted batteries had been established; and Porter's Fifth Army
Corps, who at Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill had proved such stubborn
fighters, opposed a strong front once more to their persistent foes.

Despite the rapid fire of the artillery the Southerners swept forward
with unabated vigour. But as the attack was pressed the resistance of
the Federals grew more stubborn, and before long the Confederate
formation lost its strength. The lines in rear had been called up.
The assistance of the strong centre had been required to rout the
defenders of Bald Hill; and although Anderson and Wilcox pressed
forward on his left, Jones had not sufficient strength to storm the
enemy's last position. Moreover, the Confederate artillery had been
unable to follow the infantry over the broken ground; the cavalry,
confronted by Buford's squadrons and embarrassed by the woods, could
lend no active aid, and the Federals, defeated as they were, had not
yet lost all heart. Whatever their guns could do, in so close a
country, to relieve the infantry had been accomplished; and the
infantry, though continually outflanked, held together with
unflinching courage. Stragglers there were, and stragglers in such
large numbers that Bayard's cavalry brigade had been ordered to the
rear to drive them back; but the majority of the men, hardened by
months of discipline and constant battle, remained staunch to the
colours. The conviction that the battle was lost was no longer a
signal for "the thinking bayonets" to make certain of their
individual safety; and the regulars, for the second time on the same
field, provided a strong nucleus of resistance.

Thrown into the woods along the Sudley-Manassas road, five battalions
of the United States army held the extreme left, the most critical
point of the Federal line, until the second brigade relieved them. To
their right Meade and his Pennsylvanians held fast against Anderson
and Wilcox; and although six guns fell into the hands of the
Confederate infantry, and four of Longstreet's batteries, which had
accompanied the cavalry, were now raking their left, Pope's soldiers,
as twilight descended upon the field, redeemed as far as soldiers
could the errors of their general.