The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-17 00:00:00

caution.
About 12 o'clock skirmishing commenced on our
left centre, and was kept up on both sides quite
briskly by the sharpshooters. Gen. Robinson re-
marked that this was only a feint of the enemy—
that he would soon appear in force somewhere else.
True enough, about 4 o'clock cannonading and shell-
ing commenced moderately on our extreme left,
where the Third corps, Gen. Sickles, and Second,
Gen. Hancock, were posted, and in the course of an
hour increased to the most terrific degree, accom-
panied with repeated onslaughts from their infantry,
who yelled like so many hyenas.
Their intention was undoubtedly to turn our left,

to accomplish which purpose they had, as usual,
massed their full force upon our extreme left.
General Lee conjectured that our ammunition trains
were parked in that quarter, and he wished to cap-
ture them, but General Meade had taken the pre-
caution to place his old corps—the gallant Fifth—
there in reserve, to guard against any such sur-

prise.
Between 5 and 6 o'clock the third corps, having
withstood with frightful loss many successive
charges of the enemy's infantry, of many times their
numbers, began to show signs of weakness, and the
F fth were ordered to ch6rge in and relieve them,
which they did with a will, and forced the enemy
back a mile and a half, making many PriE,:ecr:n
Persons who have never witnessed a ba_ tette.
have no conception of the grandeur of tb
the bursting
The air was perfectly thick with - filled the
shells, and the firing of the musketrya
summer's
space with bullets like hailstone in.
shower, scattering death and destruction on every
_ _

side. the fiercest contest of the
This was undoubtedly t h
Bides must be terrible.
war, and the loss on desperate in their attacks.
The enemy were moaue
Brigade after brigad were marched up against
B
Nancock's columns, with the
and havingdelivered their fire
Generals Sickles' and
spent, they would fall down
most demoniac fury,
perform the
till their strength W"
march over, rd
while they would deploy and re.
and let another
mance (lyre.,
of the same role.
same
repetition
ourboys stood like walls of stone
uit for a
cr
Meanwhile'
and received their fire, returning it with interest,
while our light batteries mowed the enemy down
Fifth
grape and canister, till the withcorps came
to their support and delivered their fire. Then it
was that with one magnificent, combined, enthu-
siastic charge they dispersed the rebels, and drove
them back from their designs upon our left.
It was in this attack
that the brave and gallant
Colonel Ed. Everett Cross, of Arizona, Colonel of
the Fifth New Hampshire, and commanding the
First brigade of the First division of the Second
corps, received his mortal wound. Colonel Cross
was a native of Lancaster, N.H., but has been much
on the Plains_ He settled in Arizona, and was
secretary of a silver mining company there. He
published the Arizonian newspaper, and got
into a difficulty with Silvester Mowry, who
claimed to be elected a delegate in Congress from
the Territory. They fought w ith rifles, and Cross's
piece having gone off first, he stood while Mowry
took deliberate aim at him, but fortunately did not
hit him. Colonel Cross raised the Fifth New
Hampshire Regiment at the commencement of the
war, and has been in the service ever since. He was
highly recommended for military governor of Ari-
zona last winter, but the office was not created.
He was wounded by a minie ball in the abdomen,
which came out at the spine, at about six or half-
past six o'clock, and lived till half-past twelve last
, night. He was cheerful to the last with the know-