Meanwhile, there is a lull in the firing. For the first time since sunrise you fail to catch the angry rattle of musketry or the heavy booming of the field-guns. Either the enemy must be preparing for the grand, final rush that is to crown the day's success and save the Southern Confederacy, or they are puzzled by our last retreat, and are moving cautiously, lest we spring some trap upon them. Let us embrace the opportunity, and look about the Landing. We pass the old log-house, lately post office, now full of wounded and surgeons, which constitute the "Pittsburgh" part of the landing. General Grant and staff are in a group beside it. The general is confident. "We can hold them off till to-morrow; and they'll be exhausted, and we'll go at them, with fresh troops." A great crowd is collected around the building--all in uniforms, most of them with guns. And yet we are needing troops in the front so sorely!
On the bluffs above the river is a sight that may well make our cheeks tingle. There are not less than five thousand skulkers lining the banks! Ask them why they don't go to their places in the line: "Oh! our regiment is all cut to pieces." "Why don't you go to where it is forming again?" "I can't find it," and the hulk looks as if that would be the very last thing he would want to do.
Officers are around among them, trying to hunt up their men, storming, coaxing, commanding--cursing I am afraid. One strange fellow--a Major, if I remember aright--is making a sort of elevated, superfine Fourth of July speech to everybody that will listen to him. He means well, certainly: "Men of Kentucky, of Illinois, of Ohio, of Iowa, of Indiana, I implore you, I beg of you, come up now. Help us through two hours more. By all that you hold dear, by the homes you hope to defend, by the flag you love, by the States you honor, by all our love of country, by all your hatred of treason, I conjure you, come up and do your duty, now!" And so on for quantity. "That feller's a good speaker," was the only response I heard, and the fellow who gave it nestled more snugly behind his tree as he spoke.
I knew well enough the nature of the skulking animal in an army during a battle. I had seen their performances before, but never on so large a scale, never with such an utter sickness of heart while I look, as now. Still, I do not believe there was very much more than the average percentage. It was a big army, and the runaways all sought the landing.