A terrific rain storm the night
before had flooded a stream and it was impossible for him to cross.
Late in the afternoon Longstreet and Hill hurled their divisions through
the thick woods and marshes on McClellan.
Longstreet's men drove before them the clouds of blue skirmishers,
plunged into the marshes with water two feet deep and dashed on the
fortified lines of the enemy. The Southerners crept through the dense
underbrush to the very muzzles of the guns in the redoubts, charged,
cleared them, grappling hand to hand with the desperate men who fought
like demons.
Line after line was thus carried until at nightfall McClellan's left
wing had been pushed back over two miles through swamp and waters red
with blood.
The slaughter had been frightful in the few hours in which the battle
had raged. On the Confederate left where Johnston commanded in person
the Union army held its position until dark, unbroken.
Johnston fell from his horse wounded and Davis on the field immediately
appointed General Lee to command.
The appointment of Lee to be Commander-in-Chief not only intensified the
hatred of Johnston for the President, it made G. W. Smith, the man who
was Johnston's second, his implacable enemy for life. Technically G.
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