t a heavy blow
about the middle of his back. His thought was, "Can that color-bearer
have repeated his blow, or am I struck by a ball, which has deadened
the sense of feeling?" There being no flow of blood, however, he
concluded he was not much hurt. After a run of forty yards he came to
the dry bed of a stream between two hills. Here he paused to
reconnoitre. The morning fog and the smoke of battle obscured the
view, except close to the ground. Crouching on all-fours, he peered
below the cloud of smoke toward the crest of the hill where the
battery was. He soon saw that the case was hopeless, and the battery
in possession of the enemy. Looking to the left, he read in the
anxious countenance of an aide-de-camp on horseback that matters at
that point were in a desperate case. Running up the bed of the stream,
he reached the shelter of the woods on his left. So far he had run
parallel to the line of battle. When well in the woods, turning at
right angles, it seemed that he had made his escape. Meeting just then
with an officer of the battery (the only one who escaped) and several
comrades, a brief consultation was held, suddenly cut short by a
continuous roar of musketry in the rear and near the heel of the
Horseshoe, showing that the party were in danger of being enclosed and
cut off within the circle. The consultation was summarily ended, and
flight again resumed. This time they ran well out of the Horseshoe and
out of danger, stopping not until they met Lee's reinforcements going
to the front. Here, from a point of safety, they could hear war
holding high revelry in the bottom below. Now, for the first time the
soldier took occasion to examine his knapsack. A minie-ball had
entered the lower part, passing through sixteen folds of tent-cloth,
many folds of a blanket, riddling several articles of underwear, and
finally burying itself in a small Bible. Such was its force that not a
leaf from Revelations to Genesis remained without impress of the ball,
and half the leaves were actually penetrated.

Just at this time he was overjoyed to see his brother (about whom he
had been painfully anxious) returning to the rear with a company of
the Richmond Howitzers, who, having spent all their ammunition, came
to replenish their chests. This young man had been color-bearer of the
company, and when the battery first reached the hill, had turned to
the woods on his left to tie his horse. Hearing a wild yell, which he
supposed to be t