The shells and solid shot now hailed thick around the Confederate position on the mountain, and the Louisiana brigade, which had taken post there, enjoyed it hugely, some of the men being on the open ground in front, instead of in rear of the battery, where they belonged, would run to the places where the Yankee shot tore up the earth and coolly sit down, saying they were safe now, “as lightning never struck twice in the same place,” but some of them lost their heads by the operation in spite of the proverb.
The battle raged with great violence until dark, and even when her sable wing had spread over the wild scene of blood and death, the artillery continued to fire, and if there is anything in war that can be called splendidly beautiful, it is a night cannonade, when high overhead, in the very middle, apparently, of the black field, the hissing shells fly in curving lines of beauty, leaving behind them a track of sparkling flame, until the explosion blazes a lurid glare all around the sky, which can he likened to nothing better than to the fitful flashings of Aurora in her most gorgeous masquerades.
When the firing ceased White’s men had left the mountain and advanced to a house near where the Yankee battery which had been the recipient of Lattimer’s first compliment had stood, the enemy having been driven back a considerable distance, and here they laid down and slept soundly till daylight, when their first notion was to look around for Yankees and plunder, in which interesting occupation they passed the time until noon, having secured a number of prisoners and quite a large quantity of arms and other trophies of the battle-field.
About 1 o’clock the company retired to a large spring, near the house before spoken of, and unbitting their horses, turned them out to graze, while the men lay in the shade of the trees around the spring reading the Yankee papers they had gathered up. The Captain was very busily engaged in conversation with Mr. Henry Ball, who had just come from Loudoun, and brought to the Captain the delightful intelligence that his wife was near the old camp at Somerset, having accompanied Mr. Ball through the Yankee lines without difficulty.
A small detail of the company was assisting Major Christie, ordnance officer of the division, to remove a quantity of ammunition from a broken-down wagon, about a quarter of a mile above, when the officer in command of the infantry skirmish line passed along and informed the Captain that the pickets were all withdrawn from his front and he must look out for Yankees. “All right,” responded White, and straightway forgot all about it in the interest of his talk with Mr. Ball.