ents were moving hastily to the front. At more than
one point on the edge of the distant woods guns were coming into
action; the hill near Talley's Farm was covered with projectiles; men
were falling, and the Confederate first line was already in some
confusion.

Galloping up the turnpike, and urging the artillery forward with
voice and gesture, Jackson passed through the ranks of his eager
infantry; and then Rodes's division, rushing down the wooded slopes,
burst from the covert, and, driving their flying foes before them,
advanced against the trenches on the opposite ridge. Here and there
the rush of the first line was checked by the bold resistance of the
German regiments. On the right, especially, progress was slow, for
Colquitt's brigade, drawn off by the pressure of Federal outposts in
the woods to the south, had lost touch with the remainder of the
division; Ramseur's brigade in rear had been compelled to follow
suit, and on this flank the Federals were most effectively supported
by their artillery. But Iverson, O'Neal, and Doles, hardly halting to
reform as they Left the woods, and followed closely by the second
line, swept rapidly across the fields, dashed back the regiments
which sought to check them, and under a hot fire of grape and
canister pressed resolutely forward.

The rifle-pits on the ridge were occupied by the last brigade of
Howard's Army Corps. A battery was in rear, three more were on the
left, near Dowdall's Tavern, and many of the fugitives from Talley's
Farm had rallied behind the breastwork. But a few guns and four or
five thousand rifles, although the ground to the front was clear and
open, were powerless to arrest the rush of Jackson's veterans. The
long lines of colours, tossing redly above the swiftly moving ranks,
never for a moment faltered; the men, running alternately to the
front, delivered their fire, stopped for a moment to load, and then
again ran on. Nearer and nearer they came, until the defenders of the
trenches, already half demoralised, could mark through the
smoke-drift the tanned faces, the fierce eyes, and the gleaming
bayonets of their terrible foes. The guns were already flying, and
the position was outflanked; yet along the whole length of the ridge
the parapets still blazed with fire; and while men fell headlong in
the Confederate ranks, for a moment there was a check. But it was the
check of a mighty wave, mounting slowly to full volume, ere it falls
in thunder on t