Then, while the Southern defense was diverted to
this new attack, the Winchester and the Ohio regiment attacked in front,
shouting with triumph.
Hovey's rush was overpowering. He drove in the Southern flank, taking
four cannon and hundreds of prisoners, but the dauntless Confederate
commander, withdrawing his men in perfect order, retreated to a second
ridge, where he took up a stronger position than the first.
Resolute and dangerous, the men in gray turned their faces anew to the
enemy and sent back a withering fire that burned away the front ranks of
the Union army. Osterhaus, in spite of every effort, was driven back,
and the Winchesters and their Ohio friends were compelled to give ground
too. It seemed that the utmost of human effort and defiance of death
could not force the narrow passage.
But a new man, a host in himself, came upon the field. Grant, who had
been on foot for two days, endeavoring to get his army through the
thickets and morasses, heard the booming of the cannon and he knew that
the vanguards had clashed. He borrowed a cavalry horse and, galloping
toward the sound of the guns, reached the field at mid-morning.
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