Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[365] line (which seemed to be the only vulnerable points, for the right was too, strongly posted to be moved by assault), the Nationals had to go through the narrow pass among wooded hills already mentioned. This was undertaken at ten o'clock, first by Ricketts's division of the Sixth Corps, followed by Grover's of the Nineteenth. These pressed forward vigorously over the rough country, in the face of a terrible storm of shells, and charging Early's center furiously, carried his first line, and inflicted upon him the loss of the gallant General Rodes, who was killed. Early quickly hurled upon the assailing columns two of his most powerful divisions, hoping to succeed in his plan of breaking the line and seizing the pass. The Nationals were thrown back in great disorder, and with heavy loss, the confusion and the bereavement being greatly increased by a heavy fire on their flank, as they reeled toward the pass from which they had emerged, and which the victors were striving to reach first. It seemed, for a moment, as if the day was lost to the Nationals, when Captain Rigby, with a sergeant and twelve men of the Twenty-fourth Iowa, on reaching a designated rallying point, turned and faced the pursuers. In the

Battle of Winchester.

space of a few minutes, scores of brave men were added to their number.. At the same time, .Grover ordered two guns of the First Maine Battery, Captain Bradbury, to a position in a gap. These opened upon the Confederates, who were pressing forward to seize them, and at the same moment the enemy received a volley in their rear from the One Hundred and Thirty-first New York, which Emory had rallied and placed in a projecting wood. This caused the Confederates to recoil, when the new-forming line poured upon them a shower of musketry that sent them flying back to their lines. This was followed by a rapid rallying of the broken columns, and re-forming of