right, other batteries were brought into play, still the enemy pressed forward.  Stone Bridge being uncovered, Tyler crossed his troops over, and joined those of Hunter and Heintzelman coming from Sudley’s Ford.  This united the three divisions of the enemy, and they made a vigorous and pressing assault upon the demoralized Confederates.  The roar of the cannon became continuous, the earth trembled from this storm of battle, sulphurous smoke obscures the sky, the air vibrates with shrieking shot and shell, men rush madly to the charge.  Our small six-pounders against their twelve and twenty-pounders, manned by the best artillerists at the North, was quite an uneven combat.  Johnston and Beauregard had now come upon the field and aided in giving order and confidence to the troops now badly disorganized by the fury of the charge.  The battle raged in all its fierceness; the infantry and artillery, by their roaring and thunder-like tone, gave one the impression of a continued, protracted electrical storm, and to those at a distance it sounded like “worlds at war.”  On the plateau between the Lewis House and the Henry House the battle raged fast and furious with all the varying fortunes of battle.  Now victorious—­now defeated—­the enemy advances over hill, across plateaus, to be met with stubborn resistance first, then driven flying from the field.  Around the Henry House the battle was desperate and hand to hand.  Here the Louisiana Battalion, under Major Wheat, immortalized itself by the fury of its assault.  Again and again was the house taken and lost, retaken and lost again; the men, seeking cover, rushed up around and into it, only to be driven away by the storm of shot and shell sent hurling through it.  Now our troops would be dislodged, but rallying they rushed again to the assault and retook it.  Twelve o’clock came, and the battle was far from being decided.  Bartow fell, then Bee.  The wounded and dead lay strewn over the entire field from the Henry House to the bridge.  Away to the left is seen the glitter of advancing bayonets, with flags waving, and the steady tread of long lines of soldiers marching through the open field.  They are first thought to be the enemy, seeking to turn our left.  Officers and men turned pale at the sight of the unexpected foe.  Couriers were sent to Longstreet and Bonham to prepare to cover the retreat, for the day was now thought to be lost, and a retreat inevitable.  The troops proved to be friends.  Elzeys and Kirby Smith on the way from the Valley to Manassas, hearing the firing of the guns, left the cars and hurried to the scene of action.  Cheer after cheer now rent the air, for relief was now at hand.  They were put in on the left, but soon General Kirby Smith fell wounded, and had to be borne from the field.  Other reinforcements were on the way to relieve the pressure that was convincing to the generals commanding, even, that the troops could not long endure.  The Second and Eighth South Carolina Regiments, under the command of Colonels