[Footnote 62: Jackson's Report, Southern History, Vol. II. p. 132.]
Meade's men went cheerily to the work. They began at long range to give their volleys; they were in the hollow, northeast of Miller's. Lawton's troops looked down upon them from their shelter beneath the trees and behind the hills.
The Reserves began to drop beneath the galling fire. Hooker rode up to them upon a powerful white horse. The bullets flew past him, cutting down the corn, and bursting shells sprinkled him with earth; but he was calm amid it all, directing the troops and holding them up to the work by his mighty will.
Nearer to the woods now, shorter the range, more deadly the fire. Ricketts came up on the left with Duryea's and Christian's brigades.
There were heavier volleys from the cornfield and open ground, fainter replies from the woods. It was an indication that Lawton was growing weaker.
"Forward!" It was an electric word. The Reserves, with Ricketts's two brigades, went up with a cheer into the woods, through into the open field, following the fleeing Rebels, who were streaming past Miller's, over the field in front of the church, into the woods behind it. The Reserves reached the middle of the field; but now from the woods into which Lawton had fled there were quick volleys of musketry and rapid cannon shots from Hayes's, and Trimble's, and Walker's, and Douglas's, and Starke's brigades of Jackson's division.
The Reserves stopped in the middle of the field. They gave a few volleys. The men dropped fast. Some of the wounded crawled, some hobbled away; others lay where they fell, motionless forever. The living turned and sought the shelter of the woods, from which they had driven the enemy.
The aspect of affairs suddenly changed. Jackson moved forward his whole line, not only across the field in front of the church, but extended farther north, towards Poffenberger's. "Send me your best brigade," was the message from Hooker to Ricketts. Hartsuff, of Ricketts's division, had not been engaged. A portion only of Doubleday's troops had been in. Hartsuff was on the hill behind Poffenberger. His troops, the Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts, Ninth New York, and Eleventh Pennsylvania, went down the hill upon the run, south towards Miller's, past the retreating brigades, closing in like an iron gate between them and the exultant enemy. They came into line upon the crest of the hill, crowning it with their dark forms, and covering it with flame and smoke.