A battery of sixteen heavy guns met their advancing line with a storm of canister, before which they were compelled to retreat, leaving many dead and wounded behind.
Yet the entire Union attack on Jackson had been driven back, the Northern troops suffering terrible losses.

The watchers on the Phillips porch on the other side of the river saw the repulse, and again their hearts sank like lead.
The watchers turned their field glasses anew to the Southern center and left, where the battle raged with undiminished ferocity.

Marye's Hill was a formidable position and along its slope ran a heavy stone wall.
Behind it the Southern sharpshooters were packed in thousands, and every battery was well placed.
Hancock, following Burnside's orders, led the attack upon the ensanguined slopes.

Forty thousand men, almost the flower of the Union army, charged again and again up those awful slopes, and again and again they were hurled back.

The top of the hill was a leaping mass of flame and the stone wall was always crested with living fire.