There were bushes about it, and, at that point, the cliff seemed to be almost perpendicular.

He was safe from observation and he looked over a vast expanse of country.

The morning was dazzlingly clear, and he saw sections of the Confederate earthworks with their men and guns, and far beyond them other earthworks and other guns, which he knew were those of his own people.
While he stood there alone, free from the tension that had lasted while Slade was present, he realized the great volume of fire that the Northern cannon were pouring without ceasing upon Vicksburg.

The deep rumble was continually in his ears, and at times his imagination made the earth shake.

He saw two shells burst in the air, and a shattering explosion told that a third struck near by.