A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A CAR. 209 



with a bullet-hole in his head, his shock of coarse 

 black hair matted with blood, and his stony eyes 

 looking into mine. Well, I bandaged up my limb 

 the best I might, and started to crawl away, for 

 our batteries had opened, and the grape and canis- 

 ter that came hurtling down the slope passed but 

 a few feet over my head. It was slow and painful 

 work, as you can imagine, but at last, by dint of 

 perseverance, I had dragged myself away to the 

 left of the direct range of the batteries, and, creej^- 

 ing to the verge of the wood, looked off over the 

 green slope. I understood by the crash and roar 

 of the guns, the yells and cheers of the men, and 

 that hoarse murmur which those who have been 

 in battle know, but which I cannot describe in 

 words, that there was hot work going on out there ; 

 but never have I seen, no, not in that three days' 

 desperate melee at the Wilderness, nor at that ter- 

 rific repulse we had at Cold Harbor, such absolute 

 slaughter as I saw that afternoon on the green 

 slope of Malvern Hill. The guns of the entire 

 army were massed on the crest, and thirty thousand 

 of our infantry lay, musket in hand, in front. For 

 eight hundred yards the hiU sank in easy declen- 

 sion to the wood, and across the smooth expanse 

 the Rebs must charge to reach our lines. It was 

 nothing short of downright insanity to order men 

 to charge that liill ; and so his generals told Lee, 

 but he would not listen to reason that day, and so 



