Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1862-05-23

ei turned to their WORK. but without car
tridges it seemed useless, and soon
struggling into the woods again com
menced. Heintzleman, having no aiC
within miles of him, took bis escort o
Sd Pennsylvanians, commanded by Capt
]. C. White, and persuaded them to re
turn to their ranks and resume thei
ground. II was heroic of any portion o
the 5000 exhausted, and now subsian
ially unarmed men, to lace $4,000 com
+ paratively fresh troops, pouring in upo
them with fierce and steady increas,
, But a Massachusetts regiment-Go
bless that State, and God bless her pee
pie. greatly assisted this devotion b
fixing bayonets on their empty muske
barrels and standing still for the coming
avalanche.
1t was now that death passed tastes
through our ranks. Officers fell thickly
and men went to earth in heaps. Tel
minutes more would have ruined US
for demi-gods could not have sustained
such an inequality as 5000 to $4,000
Ten minutes more would have saved the
rebellion, and caused the recognition OF
the revolted states ten minutes more
would have crushed military reputation,
and driven a political party out of pow
er-and its administrators, perhaps, out
of life. But now Brigadier Berry, of
the stout state Of Maine, wading through
the mud and rain at such speed that he
actually overlook and passed three other
brigades, came in sight. Heintzleman
shouted with gratitude. He ran to the
nearest band, and ordered it to meet the
coming regiments with Yankee Doodle,
and to give them marching time into the
field with the spangled Banner
A wild 'huTrah = went up from the army
and with a yell that was electric, three
regiments of Berry's brigade went TO
the front, formed line nearly half
mile long, and commenced a Yolley fir
ing that no troops on earth could stand
before-then at the double-quick dashed
with the bayonet at the rebel array, and
sent them flying from the field into their
earthworks, pursued them into the largest
of them, and drove them out behind with
the pure steel, and then invited them to
retake it. The attempt was repeatedly
made and repeatedly repulsed. The
count of the rebel dead in that battery
at the close of the fight was So. They
we're principally Michigan men who did
this work.
The equilibrium of the battle was re-
stored. 1t was now 4 o'clock, and jam
eson and Birney came up with their bri-
gades, covered with mud, aud steaming
with the rain, but eager for a share in
the blessed work. They went to the
front, and soon the tide of the flight
turned backward. But Berry's timely
arrival, for which he is entitled to both
gratitude and honor, saved the day. AT
dark his troops were in unresisted pos
session of the battery they had captured
the rest of Heintzleman's force was
well placed, and in full front of the ene-
my's line, while the enemy themselves
had withdrawn from the plain to the
cover OF their earthworks. We were
ready for the renewal of the fight on
the morrow. They were whipped. Our
men lighted their fires, and cooked their
coffee, and tried to dry their clothes
Theirs were strapping their knapsacks
on their shoulders for a fight. They
had met the Yankees on an open field,
and knew that at last they had met their
masters. So through the mists Of the
rainy night, the Confederate army of the !
Potomac stole out of their intrenchments
and Obeyed the order to retreat. Bull
Run was avenged. The Williamsburg
run began at 8 o'clock in the evening,
and now, 80 hours after, is in full panic
and disorder, under the sabreing of our
cavalry and the shelling of our artillery |
far away here toward Richmond.
1t was not ;ill after sunrise that the
last of the rebel army, composed of cav
airy, passed through Williamsburg
They left one large gun in their works
abandoned a splendid brass piece on the
road, with two cassions; strewed every
rod of their path with muskets, bayonets,
knapsacks, blankets, and overcoats lit ,
tered the way with all the wreck and
ruin of beaten and demoralized army
in full fight from imaginary as we'll as
real terrors. There was a harvest for
the blacks who had not been driven in
cofiles by their owners to Richmond
From all parts they alighted upon this
abandoned property, much of it new and