Rifle fire gave way to bayonet charges by either side, and after swaying back and forth the Union men held the wood for a while, but at last they were driven out to stay, and as they retreated cannon and rifles decimated their ranks.
The regiment had suffered so terribly that after its retreat it was compelled to lie down a while and rest.

Dick gasped for breath, but he was not as much excited as he had been earlier in the day.

Perhaps one can become hardened to anything.

Although he and his immediate comrades were resting he could see no diminution of the battle.
As far to left and right as the eye reached, cannon and rifles blazed and thundered.

In front of their own exhausted regiment hundreds of sharpshooters, creeping forward, were now pouring a deadly fire among the Southern troops who held the wood.