Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[153] for the hills which on the south overlook the entrance to the Villetoe Gap. Johnson follows them closely, and soon his soldiers, reaching the boundary of the wood, debouch with serried ranks in Dyer's extensive and undulating fields.

It is a thrilling spectacle for the two armies. For the Confederates it is the abrupt emergence from dark shadows, in which they were feeling their way as they marched into the battlefield flooded with light, animated with scattered groups of the enemy's infantry in full retreat, and the firing suddenly opened by the artillery, which crowns with smoke the heights in the background of the picture. For the Unionists it is the curtain rising upon the struggle, the vicissitudes of which they guessed without being able to follow them; it is the first sight of the adversary, who, emboldened by success, at last shows himself unmasked. For those among them who can, through the smoke, distinguish the details of this scene, the defeat of the Federals is not doubtful: their artillery alone cannot check the movement of the enemy. McCook, as soon he saw the enemy come out of the woods, placed himself at the head of Laiboldt's brigade, which was in the fields behind Carlin, and led it forward. But the stream of the fugitives around him soon impedes his progress and prevents him from responding to the well-kept fire that Johnson's soldiers pour upon the brigade. It vainly tries to disengage itself and make resistance. Its ranks are broken; it is carried away in the rout, and McCook is borne with it.

Still, we have seen that a rather wide space separated Davis' right from the Glenn house, which Sheridan has just quit with Lytle's and Bradley's brigades, leaving there only Wilder's brigade. By a singular chance, a like gap was made in the Confederate line. Hindman, placed on the left of Johnson, has followed his movement, passed the main road, and carried a portion of the enemy's line of skirmishers, whose resistance had checked him for a moment. But, instead of making on the right the required wheel, he allows still less deflection than Johnson in the direction pursued by his guides, separates from Johnson, and arrives in front of the Glenn house. Wilder alone occupies this position, yet Sheridan, who is near by, seeing the woods filled with smoke, halts and forms his force on the hillside covered with brush which