e timber,
driving before it the wild creatures of the forest, deer, and hares,
and foxes, the broad front of the mighty torrent bore down upon
Howard's flank. For a few moments the four regiments which formed his
right, supported by two guns, held staunchly together, and even
checked for a brief space the advance of O'Neal's brigade. But from
the right and from the left the grey infantry swarmed round them; the
second line came surging forward to O'Neal's assistance; the gunners
were shot down and their pieces captured; and in ten minutes the
right brigade of the Federal army, submerged by numbers, was flying
in panic across the clearing, Here, near Talley's Farm, on the fields
south of the turnpike and in the forest to the north, another
brigade, hastily changing front, essayed to stay the rout. But
Jackson's horse-artillery, moving forward at a gallop, poured in
canister at short range; and three brigades, O'Neal's, Iverson's, and
Doles', attacked the Northerners fiercely in front and flank. No
troops, however brave, could have long withstood that overwhelming
rush. The slaughter was very great; every mounted officer was shot
down, and in ten or fifteen minutes the fragments of these hapless
regiments were retreating rapidly and tumultuously towards the
Wilderness Church.

The first position had been captured, but there was no pause in the
attack. As Jackson, following the artillery, rode past Talley's Farm,
and gazed across the clearing to the east, he saw a sight which
raised high his hopes of a decisive victory. Already, in the green
cornfields, the spoils of battle lay thick around him. Squads of
prisoners were being hurried to the rear. Abandoned guns, and waggons
overturned, the wounded horses still struggling in the traces, were
surrounded by the dead and dying of Howard's brigades. Knapsacks,
piled in regular order, arms, blankets, accoutrements, lay in
profusion near the breastworks; and beyond, under a rolling cloud of
smoke and dust, the bare fields, sloping down to the brook, were
covered with fugitives. Still further eastward, along the plank road,
speeding in wild confusion towards Chancellorsville, was a dense mass
of men and waggons; cattle, maddened with fright, were rushing to and
fro, and on the ridge beyond the little church, pushing their way
through the terror-stricken throng like ships through a heavy sea, or
breaking into fragments before the pressure, the irregular lines of a
few small regim