d have certainly been theirs. Moreover, they
would have inflicted not simply a defeat but a severe disaster
on their enemy, who would have been caught in flank by the troops
at the Stone Bridge; for these troops, however dilatory, must have
known what to do with a broken and flying Confederate flank right
under their very eyes. Premonitory symptoms of such a flight were
not wanting. Confederate wounded, stragglers, and skulkers were
making for the rear; and the rallied brigades were again in disorder,
with Bee and Bartow, two first-rate brigadiers, just killed, and
other seniors wounded. Another ominous sign was the limbering up
of Confederate guns to cover the expected retreat from the Henry
Hill.

But on its reverse slope lay Jackson's Shenandoahs, three thousand
strong, and by far the best drilled and disciplined brigade that
either side had yet produced--apart, of course, from regulars.
Jackson had ridden up and down before them, calm as they had ever
seen him on parade, quietly saying, "Steady, men, steady! All's
well." In this way he had held them straining at the leash for
hours. Now, at last, their time had come. Riding out to the center
of his line he gave his final orders: "Reserve your fire till they
come within fifty yards. Then fire and give them the bayonet; and yell
like furies when you charge!" Five minutes later, as the triumphant
Federals topped the crest, the long gray line rose up, stood fast,
fired one crashing point-blank volley, and immediately charged home
with the first of those wild, high rebel yells that rang throughout
the war. The stricken and astounded Federal front caved in, turned
round, and fled. At the same instant the last of the Shenandoahs--Kirby
Smith's brigade, detrained just in the nick of time--charged the
wavering flank. Then, like the first quiver of an avalanche, a
tremor shook the whole massed Federals one moment on that fatal
hill: the next, like a loosened cliff, they began the landslide
down.

There, in the valley, along Young's Branch, McDowell established
his last line of battle, based on the firm rock of the regulars.
But by this time the Confederates had brought up troops from the
whole length of their line; the balance of numbers was at last in
their favor; and nothing could stay the Federal recoil. Lack of
drill and discipline soon changed this recoil into a disorderly
retreat. There was no panic; but most of the military units dissolved
into a mere mob whose hea