Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

STAMPEDE. 181 who resolved to keep him in view during the day, if possible. Along the slope the blaze of musketry was deafen- ing, but above the roar of the strife arose the sharp screech of Early’s veterans—the yell that our men had learned so well. On they come, on and on, column after column of getay, an unending mass it seemed to the astonished Unionists, who, as yet, had barely got their eyes open. ‘“Hold the hill, boys! We must check them here, else all is lost!’’? shouted Captain Chetwood, loudly. But, of a sudden, a new danger stared the men of the Nineteenth Corps in the face. Without attempting to break the line of battle formed loosely by the remnants of the Federal Army, the enemy poured on down the turnpike, and would soon be in the rear of the troop composing the Nine- teenth Corps. “Heaven! we are to be surrounded !”’ A panic seized the Unionists, and soon the ragged, ill-formed lines broke and were again in retreat. A few guns were saved in the mad flight, but many were abandoned on the road, for the Confederates having gained a position on the flank of the Union troops, poured in a terrible fire from musket and field-piece. There was no stemming the tide. Soon the broken fragments of the Nineteenth Corps went in headlong flight toward the hill occu- pied by the Sixth Corps, where Wright was marshal- ing his troops to stay, if possible, the woeful wreck that Early had made in the front, and hold the enemy in check until the fleeing fugitives could be reformed, and brought into line of battle once more. ‘What in tarnation are they runnin’ for?’ cried Andy Potter, as the blue-coats broke and dashed at a mad run from the hill. comicbooks