Johnny Reb and Billy Yank . on the right opened up on our lines, the ballssailing through the empty space, then the men, almost deliriouswith terror, would hang close and swing around on the oppositeside, but only for a second. Here would come a shell from theleft, and away would go the line like a pendulum, back throughthe half arc of the circle, and hardly a moment for breathing timebefore a half hundred weight of iron would rush by the tree witha demoniac yell, and the long, agonized queue described anotherparabolic curve. And so the band of brothers were kept shiftingto and fro; the fortun
Johnny Reb and Billy Yank . on the right opened up on our lines, the ballssailing through the empty space, then the men, almost deliriouswith terror, would hang close and swing around on the oppositeside, but only for a second. Here would come a shell from theleft, and away would go the line like a pendulum, back throughthe half arc of the circle, and hardly a moment for breathing timebefore a half hundred weight of iron would rush by the tree witha demoniac yell, and the long, agonized queue described anotherparabolic curve. And so the band of brothers were kept shiftingto and fro; the fortunate ones next to the tree having nothing todo comparatively, while those who composed the end of the stringwere kept on the swing all the time. It was well enough, as longas they knew exactly upon which side to expect the shells, butwhat if both batteries had serenaded at the same time? What. BUIvIv RUN 59 then ? Laugh ! Take it all in all, it would have made the solemn-est old veteran grin. The violence of the fire was redoubled on our left, as if theenemy were preparing for a charge farther up the stream; Minie-balls swept in showers over our heads. The men wavered; the officers, hoarse with shouting, stoodsullenly leaning on their swords; the dribbling of the men to therear commenced,—the most potent sign of disaster,—and it seemedas if defeat and retreat were now but questions of a very shorttime. Just at the critical moment, General Longstreet, with thedivination of the born soldier, rode up and ordered a chargeacross the run. The men obeyed the summons and made a rush for the were not formed into line, but streamed across like a pack ofhounds after a buck. Once in the woods most of the men scat-tered instead of forming in a skirmish line. They, like a lot ofschool boys, roamed at will, all eyes. As soldiers we were asgreen as the budding grass; had our
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