It was a fearful contest in front of Sumner. Miller's cornfield was all aflame. The woods by the church smoked like a furnace. Hooker's cannon were silent, cooling their brazen lips after the morning's fever; but the men stood beside the guns, looking eagerly into the forest beyond the turnpike, watching for the first sign of advance from the Rebels.
All the houses and barns near Hoffman's were taken for hospitals. There were thousands of wounded. Long lines of ambulances were coming down from the field. The surgeons were at work. It was not a pleasant sight to see so many torn, mangled arms, legs, heads; men with their eyes shot out, their arms off at the shoulders, their legs broken and crushed by cannon shot. But they were patient, cheerful, and hopeful. The nurses and attendants made them comfortable beds of straw upon the ground. The agents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions gave them coffee and crackers. Many a noble hero said, "I thank you! God bless you!"
In the hollow between Poffenberger's and Hoffman's were the Pennsylvania Reserves, what was left of them. Once they were fifteen thousand; now, a remnant. They were sad, but not disheartened. "We have had a terrible fight," said one. "Yes, and we thrashed the Rebels. Joe Hooker knows how to do it," another said. "We are badly cut up, though. We can't lose many more, because there ar'n't many more to lose," said the first.
"I am sorry Hooker is wounded. We had licked the Rebels fairly when he left the field. I guess they won't put us in again to-day; we have done our share; but if they do, we are ready," said the others.
The shells and solid shot from the Rebel batteries in the woods north of the church were dropping around us.
"See there! see it tear the ground!" one shouted, and pointed towards the spot where a solid shot was throwing up the earth. "The man who owns that land is getting his plowing done for nothing," said another.
"Ha! ha! ha!"
Another shot struck near a soldier, and covered him with earth. "Fire away! you can't do that again, I'll bet," he said, as he brushed the dirt from his clothes.
"Stand by the guns!" was the quick, imperative order. The men sprang to their feet. Those who were at the spring, in the hollow of the field, filling their canteens, came to the lines upon the run.