d; and
thus it was that, merely stopping to take a double ration of hard
bread, twelve minutes later the head of his column filed into the
road and marched to the front. At this hour the battle was just
beginning, and the first sounds, rolling to the rear, served to
quicken the march of Emory's men. About a quarter before five he
was met by an aide-de-camp with orders to hasten, coupled with the
first direct information that an engagement was in progress. A
mile farther on an ambulance was met bearing Ransom to the rear.
Emory exchanged a few words with the wounded officer, and then
ordered his division to take the double-quick. A mile beyond, the
usual rabble of camp followers and stragglers was encountered, and
soon the road was filled with the swollen stream of fugitives,
crying that the day was lost.

And now from Emory down to the smallest drummer-boy every man saw
that the hour had come to show what the First division was made
of. The leading regiments and flankers instantly fixed bayonets;
the staff-officers drew their swords; hardly a man fell out, but
at a steady and even quickened pace, Emory's men forced their way
through the confused mass in the eager endeavor to reach a position
where the enemy might be held in check. This, in that country,
was not an easy task, and it was not until the last rush of the
flying crowd and the dropping of stray bullets here and there told
that the pursuing enemy was close at hand, that Emory found room
to deploy on ground affording the least advantage for the task
before him. He was now less than three miles from the field where
Lee had been beaten back and Ransom had been overwhelmed. The
scene was a small clearing with a fenced farm, traversed by a narrow
by-road and by a little creek flowing toward the St. Patrice. Here
the Confederates could be plainly seen coming on at such a pace
that for some moments it was even doubtful whether Emory might not
have delayed just too long the formation of his line of battle.
Such was his own though as in the dire need of the crisis he
determined to sacrifice his leading regiment in order to gain time
and room for the division to form. Happily the Confederates helped
him by stopping to loot the train and the rejoice loudly over each
discovery of some special luxury to them long unfamiliar.

Then rapidly sending orders to Dwight to hold the road at any cost,
to McMillan to form on the right, to Benedict to deploy on Dwight's