In my youth, my brother and I had a favorite spot in an upper field of my father's farm,

from which we were accustomed, after spotting the first symptoms of a coming storm, to

watch the operations of the contending winds, the sudden gusts and whirlwinds, the sideling

swallows excitedly seeking shelter, the swift and swifter, black and blacker clouds,

ever rising higher and pushing their angry fronts toward us.

As we listened, we heard the low rumbling from afar.

As the storm came nearer, the woods bent forward and shook fiercely their thick branches.

The lightning zig-zagged and flashes and the deep-based thunder echoed more loudly,

till there was scarcely an interval between its ominous crashing discharges.

In some such manner came on that battle of May 2.

Major General Oliver Otis Howard, Commander, Eleventh Corps, Army of the Potomac.

Hey everyone, welcome to the 265th episode of our Civil War Podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

As y'all recall by the end of the last episode, it was the evening of Saturday, May 2,

1663, and Stonewall Jackson's famous flank march at the Battle of Chancellor's Bill was

over, and the Confederate Juggernaut was just about to sweep out of the woods and into

the Union Army's exposed right flank.

Yep, in his book, Chancellor's Bill, 1863, The Souls of the Brave, Ernest B. Ferguson

writes,

...