The two Generals put spurs to their horses and dashed to the scene of
action, sending their couriers flying to countermand their first orders.
They reached the scene at the moment Bee's and Evans' shattered lines
were taking refuge in a wooded ravine and Jackson had moved his men into
a position to breast the shock of the enemy's avalanche.
In his excitement Johnston seized the colors of the fourth Alabama
regiment and offered to lead them in a charge.
Beauregard leaped from his horse, faced the troops and shouted:
"I have come to die with you!"
The first of the reserves were rushing to the front in a desperate
effort to save the day. But in spite of the presence of the two
Commanding Generals, in spite of the living stone wall Jackson had
thrown in the path of the Union hosts, a large part of the crushed left
wing could not be stopped and in mad panic broke for the rear toward
Manassas Junction.
The fate of the Southern army hung on the problem of holding the hill
behind Jackson's brigade. On its bloody slopes his men crouched with
rifles leveled and from them poured a steady flame into the ranks of the
charging Union columns.
Beauregard led the right wing of his newly formed battle line and
Jackson the center in a desperate charge.
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