while below the sharp incessant rattle of the musketry told of the
fierce struggle that was going on. Before us ran the straight,
white, dusty road, choked with artillery, ambulances, caissons,
ammunition trains, all pressing forward to the field of battle,
while mixed among them, their bayonets gleaming through the dust
like wavelets on a river of steel, tired, foot-sore, hungry,
thirsty, begrimed with sweat and dust, the gallant infantry of
Sedgwick's corps hurried to the sound of the cannon as men might
have flocked to a feast. Moving rapidly forward, we crossed the
brook which ran so prominently across the map of the field of
battle, and halted on its further side to await our orders. Hardly
had I dismounted from my horse when, looking back, I saw that the
head of the column had reached the brook and deployed and halted on
its other bank, and already the stream was filled with naked men
shouting with pleasure as they washed off the sweat of their long
day's march. Even as I looked, the noise of the battle grew louder,
and soon the symptoms of movement were evident. The rappel was
heard, the bathers hurriedly clad themselves, the ranks were formed,
and the sharp, quick snap of the percussion caps told us the men
were preparing their weapons for action. Almost immediately a
general officer rode rapidly to the front of the line, addressed to
it a few brief, energetic words, the short sharp order to move by
the flank was given, followed immediately by the "double-quick"; the
officer placed himself at the head of the column, and that brave
infantry which had marched almost forty miles since the setting of
yesterday's sun,--which during that day had hardly known either
sleep, or food, or rest, or shelter from the July heat,--now, as
the shadows grew long, hurried forward on the run to take its place
in the front of battle and to bear up the reeling fortunes of the
day.