r-thirsty John Bankhead Magruder--the pet of
_Newport_ and the petter of _old wine_." The rebels moved forward in
good order; slowly at first, and then, as if spurred on irresistibly
from behind in all parts of the field, the whole dingy-gray mass broke
from the "common time" step into that "dog-trot" known in the tactics of
the present day as the "double-quick." At the same moment they broke
into those shrieks of horrible dissonance, remarked in the fight of the
morning, rising even above the din of the opening artillery, and more
resembling the whoops of the copper-skinned warriors of the renegade
Albert Pike, than soldiers of what is called a Christian nation, led on
by a commander believing himself the very "pink of chivalry."

[Footnote 13: White--"Mexican War Sketches."]

Gallantly, it must be owned by all who saw the movement, did the
gray-clads spring forward to the encounter, rushing over the field at
an accelerating speed which soon increased to a full run. Then and not
till then again burst the deadly storm of defence. From the Federal
lines across the hill there belched murderous blasts of grape and
canister into their front, and from the rifle-pits and woods went
shrieking showers of rifle shots and Minie balls into their flanks, the
two terrible influences almost sweeping them away like leaves caught by
the gale. They fell by hundreds at a discharge, encumbering the ground
and leaving wide gaps in their ranks; yet still their dense columns
closed again and dashed resolutely up, until more than two-thirds the
distance across Carter's Field was accomplished. Here the carnage, from
the combined effects of artillery and small-arms at short range, became
absolutely terrible among the rebels--such a spectacle as even loyal
soldiers, gazing at it, could not but feel to be a species of wholesale
murder for which the cause could no more than give excuse. The bones in
the rebel regiments seemed to be crushed like window-glass in a
hailstorm; masses of gory pulp that had but a few moments before been
men, began to form an absolute coating for the ground; and the fierce
yells of attack had become awfully commingled with the shrieks of those
mangled beyond endurance and dying in agony. It was too much for human
bravery to withstand--probably no troops in the world would have stood
longer under that withering fire, than the brave but misguided tools of
the secession heresy. Their lines began to waver with a ricketty,
s