binding it hastily with a handkerchief, he galloped away along
his line."

Five hundred yards apart the opposing cannon thundered, while the
musketry of the long lines of infantry swelled the deafening
roar. Suddenly two Federal batteries of regulars dashed forward
to even shorter range, covered by two battalions on their flank.
But the gaudy Zouaves of the outer battalion lost formation in
their advance; whereupon "Jeb" Stuart, with only a hundred and
fifty horsemen, swooped down and smashed them to pieces by a
daring charge. Then, just as the scattered white turbans went
wildly bobbing about, into the midst of the inner battalion, out
rushed the Thirty-third Virginians, straight at the guns. The
battery officers held their fire, uncertain in the smoke whether
the newcomers were friend or foe, till a deadly volley struck
home at less than eighty yards. Down went the gunners to a man;
down went the teams to a horse; and off ran the Zouaves and the
other supporting battalion, helter-skelter for the rear.

But other Federals were still full of fight and in superior
numbers. They came on with great gallantry, considering they were
raw troops who were now without the comfort of the guns. Once
more a Federal victory seemed secure; and if the infantry had
only pressed on (not piecemeal, by disjoined battalions, but by
brigades) without letting the Confederates recover from one blow
before another struck them, the day would 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