Meanwhile, we were not deceived for a moment. Wild and furious as was the confusion, and running, over the way, we knew, well, it was the wagoners and "bomb-proof" people, who were doing the running, and stirring up the confusion. We knew they were not _all_ running away. We had seen a good deal of artillery in that field, and we knew that we should soon hear from them. And we were not mistaken! In a few minutes the sound of our guns was suddenly varied by a sharp, venomous screech, clap of thunder, right over our heads, followed by a ripping, tearing, splitting crash, that filled the air; a regular blood freezer. We knew _that sound_! It was a bursting Parrott shell from a Federal gun! And they had the range. The enemy had run out about eighteen, or twenty guns, and they let in, mad as hornets. Another shell, and another, and another, came screaming over us. Then they began to _swarm_; the air seemed full of them,--bursting shells, jagged fragments, balls out of case-shot,--it sounded like a thousand devils, shrieking in the air all about us. Then, the roaring of our guns, the heavy smoke, the sulphurous smell, the shaking of the ground under the thunder of the guns,--it was a fit place for _devils_ to shriek in. And how _hot_ it was! Twenty guns, in full fire, can make it hot at the foot of the North Pole, and this was _not_ the North Pole! quite the reverse. In addition to the battle heat, the sun was pouring down, hot as blazes; and the labor of working a rapidly firing "Napoleon" gun, with four men, in deeply plowed ground, and the strong excitement of battle--altogether, it was the hottest place I ever saw, or hope I shall _ever_ see, in this world, or in the world to come. It nearly melted the marrow in our bones! A persimmon sapling stood near our gun. It was trimmed, and chipped down, twig by twig, and limb by limb, by pieces of shell, until it was a lot of _scraps scattered over the ground_. Sam Vaden, as he passed me, with a shell, said "Dame, just look back over this field behind us. A mosquito couldn't fly across that field without getting hit." It looked so! The dirt was being knocked up, wherever you looked, literally, by _shower_ of balls, and shell fragments. It had the appearance of hail striking on the surface of water, only it wasn't cold. Well! for three mortal hours this battle raged. They hammered us, and we hammered them. Occasionally, we saw a Federal caisson blown up, which refreshed us, and several of their guns ceased firing--disabled or cannoneers cleared out, we thought--and _this_ refreshed us. We wished they would _all_ blow up, and stop shooting.