On went the brave fellows like a wall of iron, and precipitated themselves upon the rebels, buoyant with hope as they followed up their temporary advantage. The point of attack was all in their favor, and their exhilarating shouts as they sprang upon the foe kindled up the expiring enthusiasm of the yielding brigade to whose assistance they had come. The shock was terrible--more fearful and destructive than any which our boys had before experienced. "Steady, my men!" shouted Captain Benson. "Give it to them!" roared Tom, maddened to desperation by the awful strife around him, and by seeing so many of our men fall by his side. "Stand up to it!" shouted the excited colonel. "They run!" At this moment an inequality of the ground beneath the men of Company K placed them in a bad position, and the rebels in front of them, taking advantage of the circumstance, pressed forward, and actually broke through the line, trampling some of our soldiers beneath their feet, and transfixing them with their bayonets. A terrible scene ensued at this gap in the ranks, for the whole rebel regiment began to press into the weak place. The breach was made by the side of our sergeant, so that he was not borne down by the pressure of the rebel battalion. "Close up!" yelled Tom. "Close up! Hail, Columbia! and give it to them!" Drawing a revolver which he had been permitted to retain after the capture of the contraband craft on the Potomac, he discharged its six barrels into the foremost of the assailants; and Hapgood and Fred Pemberton, who were armed in like manner from the same source, imitated the example of the sergeant. "Now give them the bayonet, boys!" screamed Tom, hoarsely, as he plunged into the midst of the rebels. The men on the other side of the gap pushed forward with equal energy, and the ranks closed up again over a pile of dead and wounded rebels, and Federals, who had fallen in that sharp encounter. "Bravo!" shouted General Hooker, whose attention had been drawn to the break in the line. "Bravo, sergeant! You shall have a commission! Forward, my brave boys! Massachusetts sees you!" "Up and at them," cried Tom, as the rebels began to yield and break before the tremendous charge of our regiment. The young sergeant's throat was raw with the shouting he had done, and his limbs were beginning to yield to the fatigues of the day; but the words of the commander of the division made him over new again, and his husky voice still rang along the line, full of new courage and new energy to his exhausted comrades. The rebels were driven back for the time, and fled before the iron masses that crowded upon them. The regiment was recalled, and the weary troops, now almost decimated by the slaughter which had taken place in their ranks, were permitted to breathe once more. "This is awful," said the veteran of Company K, panting from the violence of his exertions. "I never saw any thing like this before."