Grant's
army was ambushed with its general absent. The other armies which were
almost at hand were delayed for one reason or another. While as for the
South, the genius that had planned the attack and that had carried it
forward was quenched in death, when victory was at its height.
But for the present the lad had little time for such thoughts as these.
The success of Sherman in holding the new position infused new courage
into him and those around him. The men in gray, wearied with their
immense exertions, and having suffered frightful losses themselves,
abated somewhat the energy and fierceness of their attack.
The dissolved Northern regiments had time to reform. Grant seized a
new position along a line of hills, in front of which ran a deep ravine
filled with brushwood. He and his officers appreciated the advantage
and they massed the troops there as fast as they could.
Now Fortune, after having brought Grant to the verge of the pit, was
disposed to throw chances in his way. The hills and the ravine were
one. Another, and most important it was, was the presence of guns of
the heaviest calibre landed some days ago from the fleet, and left there
until their disposition could be determined. A quick-witted colonel,
Webster by name, gathered up all the gunners who had lost their own
guns and who had been driven back in the retreat, and manned this great
battery of siege guns, just as the Southern generals were preparing to
break down the last stand of the North.
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