He was dead in a moment. General A. J. Vaughan, commanding General
Preston Smith's brigade, had his foot shot off by a cannon ball a few
minutes afterwards.
It seemed that both Confederate and Federal armies were celebrating the
Fourth of July. I cannot now remember a more severe artillery duel.
Two hundred cannon were roaring and belching like blue blazes. It was
but a battle of cannonade all day long. It seemed as though the
Confederate and Federal cannons were talking to each other. Sometimes a
ball passing over would seem to be mad, then again some would seem to be
laughing, some would be mild, some sad, some gay, some sorrowful, some
rollicking and jolly; and then again some would scream like the ghosts of
the dead. In fact, they gave forth every kind of sound that you could
imagine. It reminded one of when two storms meet in mid-ocean--the
mountain billows of waters coming from two directions, lash against the
vessel's side, while the elements are filled with roaring, thundering and
lightning. You could almost feel the earth roll and rock like a drunken
man, or a ship, when she rides the billows in an awful storm. It seemed
that the earth was frequently moved from its foundations, and you could
hear it grate as it moved.
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