Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-14
AYANKEE IN GRAY
By CHARLES B. LEWIS (M. OUAp(
tUOpyright, 1894, by American Press Assoeia:
 tlon.l
 CHAPTER XVI.

tached and left in the valley The Shen
 andoah guards. which had dropped tn
 title when transferred to the cavalry
 were a portion of Imboden s command
 The Federals poured into the Shenan
 doah and Luray from the north and re
 captured everything and pressed tn, ! Confederates slowly back to Staunton
 Neither side was strong enough to pos
 sess and hold the valley. The Confed crate occupation defended one of thu
 roads to Richmond. The Federal occu | patton defended one of the roads tC ! Washington. There were scouting anC
 raiding and clashing Of sabers, but noth
 ing like general battle resulted. Bott commanders had been instructed tC
 avoid this and watch the mighty move ments developing elsewhere.
 What Is battle like-a battle ir ] which .OOO men fall Tn their tracks ] to die with the roar of the guns still | sounding in their ears and as many
 more lie there for hours Cursing and grooming and praying with the pain ot i their wounds? Mcclellan was on both sides of the ChickahOminy, with the i spires of Richmond i'll view. His front was miles long and defended by rifle pits, earthworks. felled trees and nat
 ural Instructions. More than 100, GOO
 Federals faced Lee along this llne. Be-
 hind them were camps and wagon trains
 and field hospitals and supplies cumber-
 ing the ground for miles and miles.
 Mcclellan was about to attack. He
 was even writing his order when Lee
 fell upon his wing at Mechanicsville
 That was feint. The fight at Meadow Bridge. directly in front of his center, was a piece of strategy. The assault upon his wing at Cold Harbor was meant to annihilate him. The battle ground was made upof swamps, cleared fields, patches of forest. timber covered hills and old fields grown up to bushes and hricrs. Mcclellan had two and three lines of carthwOrkS here, and here his guns were planted as thickly as men could work them. Longstreet and Hill attacked here. They knew the strength of the position; they had counted the odds. There was no skirmishing, no waiting. On q front three miles long the Confederates suddenly appeared and rushed forward to the attack. Had ' would have been beaten back. They were rpulsed again and again by the fire which seemed to burn them off the face of the earth, but those who lived came back again more desperate than before. Only their leaders knew why tLls terrible sacrifice was being offered up to tie god of war. Lee had planned with Jackson. Jackson had left the val ley by way of Browns gap to fall upon Mcclellan flank at Cold Harbor. The sacrifice in front was to give Jackson Il Me and to mask his movement.
 And so Longstreet and Hill advanced again and again to the sacrifice until their dead and wounded outnum bered the living. The afternoon sun was sink ing lower and lower. By and by it was only an hour high. Then the roar of battle along the front suddenly ceased. Had the remnants of regiments and brigadCs become panic stricken at the awful waste of life and fled from the field: Had they sullenly refused to obey CrdeTs to advance again? Had Lee given up all hope of success and with drawn from that front? For five min utes scarcely a musket was discharged. Then from the heavy forest directly on the flank of the position Jackson ap- peared. The flank of an army is its weak spot. Even if attacked in the rear it can face about and fight with hope of success, but if the flank gives way disaster follows. Jackson's coming was a surprise. His attack was as sudden as the stroke of a bell. It dumfounded and di>mayed the Federal flank, but only for q few minutes Mcclellan was not far away. He had fathOlned Lees plans and discovered his true object The flank gave back until it had front of q mile long, and then it halted and battled to save that great army. What was to be done must be done right there. Re-CnfOrCements were ordered up, guns advanced. and for an hour there was such fighting as war had never witnessed before
 On the Federal flank were swamp and forest and tangled thicket. Engineers had said that the nature of the ground protected this flank. Wading through swamps deep with ooze, bursting through thiCkets which caught off their caps and left their jackets in rags, ad- vancing their lines amid the thick forests, Jackson men rushed to the at tack. Time and time again the lines were repnlsed, but fresh troops poured out of the woods to take the places of the dead and wounded. and the battle grew more vindictive and murderous. There Is key to every battlefield There Is always a key within q key. Cold Harbor was the key ot this great field of slaughter. The exposed flank was the key within the key. Jackson could Count his dead by the thousand. His entire toIce was up, and he had charged and stormed and battered in vain.
 The coming of night does not always end battle, but as darkness shuts down the combatants lose thelr desperation and become more wary of each other. Hunger, thirst and fatigue begin to tell. As the fire Of artillery and musketry slackens the cries of the wounded are heard, and those who have escaped un- hurt begin to estimate the losses. If Jackson could not break that flank be- fore night shut down. then his sacrifices had been in vain. Then the thousands of dead and wounded belongings to Longstreet and Hill had simply been led to slaughter. An order was sent to General Hood, whose brigade of Texans had been held in reserve for an emer- gency. Hood placed himself at the head of his f. 900 men and dashed forward They had to traverse swamp and then cross an open space on which the dead already lay tOucilng each other. The Texans had only begun their forward movement when every piece of artillery and every musket on that flank was turned upon them. With yells of defi- ance they rushed forward. The skeIe- tons of men struck down in that swamp were dug out years afterward as burial parties sought for the dead of the war. Wounded men fell into the pools of or kI,o