From various and hitherto unknown paths through the woods and marshes, the gray-clads came on in swarms, every moment adding to the formidable character of the attack, the evident numbers of the assailants, and the certainty that the struggle was to be a close and terrible one. But the gathering thousands were fiercely met by the blue-clad veterans of the Union, and repeatedly driven back in confusion. Let this be recorded, from the personal knowledge of sharers in that combat--whatever after-history may choose to consider authority on the subject,--that _the Federal troops never permanently yielded one foot of ground during the fight_, however worn-out with fatigue, embarrassed by a cramped position, outnumbered and at one time half-surrounded. It has before been said that the Battle of Malvern Hill was one of the most magnificent artillery duels known to the history of war; and though the most splendid effects of that terrible arm were shown at a later period, when the whole range of McClellan's heavy pieces came into play, yet even now the effects were such as to have satisfied the very Moloch of destructive war. The play of the Union regular batteries was beautiful, (if such a term can be applied to that which defaces the beauty of God's handiwork, in however holy a cause.) Every shot could be seen to tear open the dense masses of the enemy in wide spaces, through which the white background could be distinctly seen until they were closed again by almost superhuman efforts. The volunteer batteries seemed little behind in their practice--their solid shot and bursting shell falling in a perpetual shower and making fearful havoc alternately in the solid masses of the rebels and among the gunners of their artillery. When the Confederates opened with their batteries, General Porter, accompanied by a part of his staff, was occupying the upper slope of an eminence to the right, from which a tolerably good view of the battle-ground could be obtained. It was not one of those points "from which all the details of the fight could be taken in at a glance," according to the phraseology of many of the graphic describers of modern battles; for no such spot has ever been known, in the neighborhood of any extensive conflict, since the use of artillery covered every field with smoke and destroyed the romantic opportunities for observation which existed in the days of the lance and the cross-bow. But it was the very best position for a general oversight of the field, attainable under the circumstances; and that it was within easy range of the enemy's missiles was demonstrated by one of the very first shot, which struck a tree immediately behind the General, shattering it to pieces and severely wounding one of the aid-de-camps with the flying splinters.