eastworks, while two
brigades, one from Rodes' division and one from Colston's, were
ordered to guard the roads from Hazel Grove.

8.45 P.M.

These arrangements made, Jackson proceeded to join his advanced line.
At the point where the track to the White House and United States
ford strikes the plank road he met General Lane, seeking his
instructions for the attack. They were sufficiently brief: "Push
right ahead, Lane; right ahead!" As Lane galloped off to his command,
General Hill and some of his staff came up, and Jackson gave Hill his
orders. "Press them; cut them off from the United States Ford, Hill;
press them." General Hill replied that he was entirely unacquainted
with the topography of the country, and asked for an officer to act
as guide. Jackson directed Captain Boswell, his chief engineer, to
accompany General Hill, and then, turning to the front, rode up the
plank road, passing quickly through the ranks of the 18th North
Carolina of Lane's brigade. Two or three hundred yards eastward the
general halted, for the ringing of axes and the words of command were
distinctly audible in the enemy's lines.

While the Confederates were re-forming, Hooker's reserves had reached
the front, and Berry's regiments, on the Fairview heights, using
their bayonets and tin-plates for intrenching tools, piling up the
earth with their hands, and hacking down the brushwood with their
knives, were endeavouring in desperate haste to provide some shelter,
however slight, against the rush that they knew was about to come.

After a few minutes, becoming impatient for the advance of Hill's
division, Jackson turned and retraced his steps towards his own
lines. "General," said an officer who was with him, "you should not
expose yourself so much." "There is no danger, sir, the enemy is
routed. Go back and tell General Hill to press on."

Once more, when he was only sixty or eighty yards from where the 18th
North Carolina were standing in the trees, he drew rein and
listened--the whole party, generals, staff-officers, and couriers,
hidden in the deep shadows of the silent woods. At this moment a
single rifle-shot rang out with startling suddenness.

A detachment of Federal infantry, groping their way through the
thickets, had approached the Southern lines.

The skirmishers on both sides were now engaged, and the lines of
battle in rear became keenly on the alert. Some mounted officers
galloped hastily back to their commands. The so