r and making off toward Winchester.
It was not a hundred rods from our own camp to the place where we went
into position on a road running north. General Wright, the temporary
commander of the army, bareheaded, and with blood trickling from his
beard, sat on his horse near by, as if bewildered or in a brown study.
The ground was cleared in front of the road and sloped off some thirty
rods to a stream, on the opposite side of which it rose for about an
equal distance to a piece of woods in which the advance rebel line had
already taken position. The newly risen sun, huge and bloody, was on
their side in more senses than one. Our line faced directly to the
east and we could see nothing but that enormous disk, rising out of
the fog, while they could see every man in our line and could take
good aim. The battalion lay down, and part of the men began to fire,
but the shape of the ground afforded little protection and large
numbers were killed and wounded. Four fifths of our loss for the
entire day occurred during the time we lay here,--which could not have
been over five minutes,--by the end of which time the Second
Connecticut found itself in an isolated position not unlike that at
Cold Harbor. The fog had now thinned away somewhat and a firm rebel
line with colors full high advanced came rolling over the knoll just
in front of our left not more than three hundred yards distant. 'Rise
up,--Retreat,' said Mackenzie,--and the battalion began to move back.

"For a little distance the retreat was made in very good order, but it
soon degenerated into a rout. Men from a score of regiments were mixed
up in flight, and the whole corps was scattered over acres and acres
with no more organization than a herd of buffaloes. Some of the
wounded were carried for a distance by their comrades, who were at
length compelled to leave them to their fate in order to escape being
shot. About a mile from the place where the retreat commenced there
was a road running directly across the valley. Here the troops were
rallied and a slight defence of rails thrown up. The regimental and
brigade flags were set up as beacons to direct each man how to steer
through the mob and in a very few minutes there was an effective line
of battle established. A few round shot ricochetted overhead, making
about an eighth of a mile at a jump, and a few grape were dropped into
a ditch just behind our line, quickly clearing out some soldiers who
had crawled in there, bu