They rallied, and charged again, but again they were handled terribly, and were forced back by the charging masses of the Southerners.
Dick had been at Shiloh.

He had seen the men of the west in a great battle, and now he saw the men of the east in a battle yet greater.
There it had been largely in the forest, here it was mostly in the open, yet he saw but little more.

One of the extraordinary features of this battle was dust.

Trampled up from the dry fields by fighting men in scores of thousands it rose in vast floating clouds that permeated everything.

It was even more persistent than the smoke.