THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 55 cried to his soldiers, as he waved his cap, “ Non7, gentlemen, the bayonet!” and charged with his brigade. The enemy could not withstand the shock, broke and fled, strewing the field with his dead. At this very moment General McClellan, who had been detained at Yorktown, appeared on the field. It was dusk, the night was coming on, the rain still falling in torrents. On three sides of the plateau on which the general was, the cannon and the musketry were rattling uninterruptedly. The success of Hancock had been decisive, and the reserves brought up by the General-in-Chief, charging upon the field settled the affair. Then it was that I saw General McClellan, passing in front, of the Sixth cavalry, give his hand to Major Williams with a few words on his brilliant charge of the day before. The regiment did not hear what he said, but it knew what he meant, and from every heart went up one of those masculine, terrible shouts, which are only to be heard on the field of battle. These shouts, taken up along the whole line, struck terror to the enemy. We saw them come upon the parapetsand look out in silence and motionless upon the scene. Then the firing died away and night fell on the combat which in America is called “ the battle of Williamsburg. IV. worn Miniamsburcji fa ^air (Dahs* The next day dawned clear and cloudless. The atmosphere had that purity which in warm countries succeeds a storm; the woods breathed all the freshness of a fair spring .corning. All around us lay a smiling landscape, decked with splendid flowers new to European eyes; but all this only deepened the mournful contrast of the battle field, strewn with the dead and dying, with wrecks and ruin. The confederates had evacuated their works during the night. We soon entered them and
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