midnight
Dick saw the officer who had made himself the leader of the charge gallop straight at a breastwork that the Southerners had built , reach and stand , horse and rider , a moment at the top , then both fall in a limp heap . The next instant the officer , not dead but wounded , was dragged a prisoner behind the embankment by generous foes who had refused to shoot at him until compelled to do so . The Union men , with a roar , followed their champion , and Dick felt a very storm burst upon them . The Southerners had thrown up earthworks at midnight and thousands of riflemen lying behind them sent in a fire at short range that caused the first Union line to go down like falling grain . Cannon from the wood and elsewhere raked them through and through . It was a vortex of fire and death . The Confederates themselves were losing heavily , but taught by the stern Jackson and knowing that his eye was upon them they refused to yield .