General Ifon,/'* Jirt'f/ade. 305
by this rapid and almost matchless display of daring and desperate valor, the well-disciplined Federals continued in retreat to fight with stubborn resistance." And he further remarked, "that the men who carried this position were soldiers indeed. ' '
General Fitz John Porter, the Federal commander, says: "As if for a final effort, as the shades of evening were coming upon us and the woods were filled with smoke limiting the view therein to a few yards, the enemy again massed his fresher and reformed regiments, and turned them in rapid succession against our thinned and wearied battalions, now almost without ammunition, and with guns so foul that they could not be loaded rapidly. The attacks, though coming like a series of irresistible avalanches, had thus far made no inroads upon our firm and disciplined ranks. Even in this last attack we successfully resisted, driving back our assailants with immense loss, or holding them beyond our lines, except in one instance near the centre of Morrell's line, where, by force of numbers and undercover of the smoke of battle, our line was penetrated and broken." Mor- rell's line of battle was opposite the position carried by the Texas Brigade.
AT SECOND MANASSAS.
I pass hurriedly to the second battle of Manassas, where the Texas brigade was again destined to turn the tide of war. It is not neces- sary to recount how we arrived upon that field, further than to state that the seven days' battles around Richmond had driven McClellan to seek a new base, and he had taken boat and gone to the neigh- borhood of Washington, and Lee was merely seeking him out. Meantime, McClellan had been superceded, and Pope was in com- mand of the army. On the same battle-field which had witnessed the first great shock of arms between the Federal and Confederate forces in 1861, on the 2Qth of August, 1862, General Pope, with about 150,000 Federal troops, confronted General Lee, in command of about 75,000 Confederates. During the greater part of the 2Qth a fierce conflict raged between the forces of Jackson, on the Confed- erate left, and the Federal troops opposite him, but nothing appears to have been gained on either side, except the loss of many lives. The morning of the 3Oth dawned bright and clear, the atmosphere was heavy, and every man felt that to-day the decisive battle would be fought, but somehow the morning passed and the real struggle had not begun. In the evening the fighting again began on the left of our line.
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