l. Then above both shots
and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle.

"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment
the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and
the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the
charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant.
Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it
struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven
back. Harry felt it yielding, as if the ground were sliding under his
feet.

There was so much flame and smoke that he could not see well, but the
sensation of slipping was distinct. General Ewell was near him, shouting
orders. His hat had fallen off, and his round, bald head had turned red,
either from the rush of blood or the cannon's glare. It shone like a red
dome, but Harry knew that there was no better man in such a crisis than
this veteran lieutenant of Stonewall Jackson.

The Wilderness, usually so silent, was an inferno now. The battle,
despite its tremendous beginning, increased in violence and fury.
Although Grant himself was not there, the spirit that had animated him
at Shiloh and Vicksburg was. He had communicated it to his generals,
and Warren brought every ounce of his strength into action. The long
line of his bayonets gleamed through the thickets and the Northern
artillery, superb as usual, rained shells upon the Southern army.

Ewell's men, fighting with all the courage and desperation that they had
shown on so many a field, were driven back further and further. Ewell,
strapped in his saddle, flourishing his sword, his round, bald head
glowing, rode among them, bidding them to stand, that help would soon
come. They continued to go backward, but those veterans of so many
campaigns never lost cohesion nor showed sign of panic. Their own
artillery and rifles replied in full volume. The heads of the charging
columns were blown away, but other men took their places, and Warren's
force came on with undiminished fire and strength.

Harry wondered if the attack at other points had been made with such
impetuosity, but there was such a roar and crash about him that it was
impossible to hear sounds of battle elsewhere. Men were falling very
fast, but the general was unharmed, and neither the young lieutenant nor
his horse was touched.

A sudden shout arose, and it was immediately followed by the piercin