John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

We of the other sections had now ceased firing, and were watching the charging party with eager interest. They press on quite steadily without serious opposition, and have almost reached the bridge,¹ when a sharp musketry fire breaks out in the woods to our left rear, and the line is immediately faced about. We are flanked and cut off!is our first thought. What else can it mean? The stoutest heart trembles at the possibilities of the immediate future. We can stand a hot fire from the front when allowed to give in return, and feel as comfortable as the situation warrants; but to be so sharply and unexpectedly assailed in the rear, is weakening to the strongest nerves. The roar of musketry increases, and the whiz of bullets coming up from the fray² makes us anxious for the order to fire to the rear; and soon it comes from Sergeant Townsend, in the absence of Lieut. Granger. At once we send Hotchkiss percussion shells crashing into the woods at point-blank range, for the enemy are less than three hundred yards distant. But just as we have become engaged in dead earnest, the guns across the Run, relieved from the pressure of the charging party, treat us to a fire from the flank, whereat, taking advantage of a temporary lull in our new front, we turn and give them a good pounding. The roar soon breaks out again behind, and feeling that the most is at stake in that direction,