It was plain that the enemy had retreated to Corinth. The arrival of our
fresh troops and their successful passage of the river had disheartened
him. Three or four of his gray cavalry videttes moving amongst the trees
on the crest of a hill in our front, and galloping out of sight at the
crack of our skirmishers' rifles, confirmed us in the belief; an army face
to face with its enemy does not employ cavalry to watch its front. True,
they might be a general and his staff. Crowning this rise we found a level
field, a quarter of a mile in width; beyond it a gentle acclivity, covered
with an undergrowth of young oaks, impervious to sight. We pushed on into
the open, but the division halted at the edge. Having orders to conform to
its movements, we halted too; but that did not suit; we received an
intimation to proceed. I had performed this sort of service before, and in
the exercise of my discretion deployed my platoon, pushing it forward at a
run, with trailed arms, to strengthen the skirmish line, which I overtook
some thirty or forty yards from the wood. Then--I can't describe it--the
forest seemed all at once to flame up and disappear with a crash like that
of a great wave upon the beach--a crash that expired in hot hissings, and
the sickening "spat" of lead against flesh. A dozen of my brave fellows
tumbled over like ten-pins. Some struggled to their feet, only to go down
again, and yet again. Those who stood fired into the smoking brush and
doggedly retired. We had expected to find, at most, a line of skirmishers
similar to our own; it was with a view to overcoming them by a sudden
_coup_ at the moment of collision that I had thrown forward my little
reserve. What we had found was a line of battle, coolly holding its fire
till it could count our teeth. There was no more to be done but get back
across the open ground, every superficial yard of which was throwing up
its little jet of mud provoked by an impinging bullet. We got back, most
of us, and I shall never forget the ludicrous incident of a young officer
who had taken part in the affair walking up to his colonel, who had been a
calm and apparently impartial spectator, and gravely reporting: "The enemy
is in force just beyond this field, sir."