ance as the scissors progressed, making a clean
sweep at every cut. We were thus making much noise with our fun at Bob's
expense, until the shears had moved up to the top of his head, leaving
the whole right half of the head as clean of hair as the palm of your
hand, while the other half was still covered with this long, kinky, jet
black hair, which in the absence of the departed locks looked twice as
long as before--and Bob did present a spectacle that would make a dog
laugh. It was just as funny as it could be.

=A Surprise Attack=

Just at that moment, in the midst of all this hilarity, suddenly we
heard a man yell out something as he came running down the hill from the
guns. We could not hear what he said. The next moment, he burst
excitedly into our midst, and shouted out, "For God's sake, men, get
your guns. The Yankees are across the river and making for the guns.
They will capture them before you get there, if you don't hurry up."

This was a bolt out of a clear sky--but we jumped to the call. Everybody
instantly forgot everything else and raced for the guns. I saw McCreery
running with the scissors in his hand; he forgot that he had them--but
it was funny to see a soldier going to war with a pair of scissors! I
found myself running beside Bob McIntosh, with his hat off, his head
half shaved and that towel, still tied round his neck, streaming out
behind him in the wind.

Just before we got to the guns, Bob suddenly halted and said, "Good
Heavens, Billy, it has just come to me what a devil of a fix I am in
with my head in this condition. I tell you now that if the Yankees get
too close to the guns, I am going to run. If they got me, or found me
dead, they would say that General Lee was bringing up the convicts from
the Penitentiary in Richmond to fight them. I wouldn't be caught dead
with my head looking like this."

We got to the guns on the hill top and looked to the front. Things were
not as bad as that excited messenger had said, but they were bad enough.
One brigade of the enemy was across the river and moving on us; another
brigade was fording the river; and we could see another brigade moving
down to the river bank on the other side. Things were serious, because
the situation was this: an Infantry Brigade from Ewell's Corps, lying in
winter quarters in the country behind us, was kept posted at the front,
whose duty it was to picket the river bank. It was relieved at regular
times by another Brigade w