he shrinking sands. Running to the front with uplifted
swords, the officers gave the signal for the charge. The men answered
with a yell of triumph; the second line, closing rapidly on the
first, could no longer be restrained; and as the grey masses,
crowding together in their excitement, breasted the last slope, the
Federal infantry, in every quarter of the field, gave way before
them; the ridge was abandoned, and through the dark pines beyond
rolled the rout of the Eleventh Army Corps.

7 P.M.

It was seven o'clock. Twilight was falling on the woods; and Rodes'
and Colston's divisions had become so inextricably mingled that
officers could not find their men nor men their officers. But
Jackson, galloping into the disordered ranks, directed them to press
the pursuit. His face was aglow with the blaze of battle. His swift
gestures and curt orders, admitting of no question, betrayed the
fierce intensity of his resolution. Although the great tract of
forest, covering Chancellorsville on the west, had swallowed up the
fugitives, he had no need of vision to reveal to him the extent of
his success. 10,000 men had been utterly defeated. The enemy's right
wing was scattered to the winds. The Southerners were within a
mile-and-a-half of the Federals' centre and completely in rear of
their intrenchments; and the White House or Bullock road, only
half-a-mile to the front, led directly to Hooker's line of retreat by
the United States Ford. Until that road was in his possession Jackson
was determined to call no halt. The dense woods, the gathering
darkness, the fatigue and disorder of his troops, he regarded no more
than he did the enemy's overwhelming numbers. In spirit he was
standing at Hooker's side, and he saw, as clearly as though the
intervening woods had been swept away, the condition to which his
adversary had been reduced.

To the Federal headquarters confusion and dismay had come, indeed,
with appalling suddenness. Late in the afternoon Hooker was sitting
with two aides-de-camp in the verandah of the Chancellor House. There
were few troops in sight. The Third Corps and Pleasonton's cavalry
had long since disappeared in the forest. The Twelfth Army Corps,
with the exception of two brigades, was already advancing against
Anderson; and only the trains and some artillery remained within the
intrenchments at Hazel Grove. All was going well. A desultory firing
broke out at intervals to the eastward, but it was not sustained