The very ground round them was torn up by bullet and ball.
Many fell, but there was no flinching; while on their right, Long's
batteries, though swept by a hail of missiles from unseen foes,
maintained a continuous fire at Fort Wylie.
"It is awful!" Peters exclaimed as he lowered his glasses. "I thought it
would be dreadful, but I never dreamt of anything like this. Look at the
bodies dotting the ground our men are passing over, and yet the others
go on as if it was a shower of rain through which they were passing. I
can't look at it any longer." "It is as bad for the artillery," Chris
said, with his glasses still riveted upon them. "I saw a lot of the
horses go down before they were unlimbered, and I can see the men are
falling fast. Surely they can never have been meant to go within five or
six hundred yards of magazine rifles. I thought everyone had agreed that
artillery could not live within range of breech-loaders. Why doesn't
Barton's brigade move down towards them, and try and keep down the fire?
How is Hart getting on?"
But it was not easy to see this even with glasses. They had not become
engaged until a little later than the others, but as they approached the
river an equally terrible fire opened upon them.
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