demonstration in our front be only a feint to draw our attention from
other parts of the line, where the chief blow was to be struck? So some
thought. Gradually the night wore away.

A little after six o'clock the next morning, the enemy suddenly opened a
furious cannonade. This was mostly directed against Fort Sanders; but
several shots struck the Powell House, in rear of Battery Noble. Roemer
immediately responded from College Hill. In about twenty minutes the
enemy's fire slackened, and in its stead rose the well-known Rebel yell,
in the direction of the fort. Then followed the rattle of musketry, the
roar of cannon, and the bursting of shells. The yells died away, and
then rose again. Now the roar of musketry and artillery was redoubled.
It was a moment of the deepest anxiety. Our straining eyes were fixed on
the fort. The Rebels had reached the ditch and were now endeavoring to
scale the parapet. Whose will be the victory,--O, whose? The yells again
died away, and then followed three loud Union cheers,--"Hurrah, hurrah,
hurrah!" How those cheers thrilled our hearts, as we stood almost
breathless at our posts in the trenches! They told us that the enemy had
been repulsed, and that the victory was ours. Peering through the rising
fog towards the fort, not a hundred yards away,--O glorious sight!--we
dimly saw that our flag was still there.

Let us now go back a little. Under cover of the ridge on which Fort
Sanders was built, Longstreet had formed his columns for the assault.
The men were picked men,--the flower of his army. One brigade was to
make the assault, two brigades were to support it,[A] and two other
brigades were to watch our lines and keep up a constant fire. Five
regiments formed the brigade selected for the assaulting column. These
were placed in position not more than eighty yards from the fort. They
were "in column by division, closed in mass." When the fire of their
artillery slackened, the order for the charge was given. The salient of
the northwest bastion was the point of attack. The Rebel lines were much
broken in passing the abatis. But the wire entanglements proved a
greater obstacle. Whole companies were prostrated. Benjamin now opened
his triple-shotted guns. Nevertheless, the weight of their column
carried the Rebels forward, and in two minutes from the time the charge
was commenced they had filled the ditch around the fort, and were
endeavoring to scale the parapet. The guns, which had be