head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swords flew from
their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison. Close behind
them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted in like manner.
Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About to die, we salute
thee," he murmured under his breath.

Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head, plunged
into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. But he could
not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a few minutes he was
riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bear steadily toward Hill,
that the gap might be closed entirely, and as soon as possible.

He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, and often
a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter and poisonous.
Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odors of burned
gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But he kept on,
without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who had divined his
message.

"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while the battle
was still at its height on the long front he touched hands with Hill.
Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock, rushing to
the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of death that had
proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despite the most
desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped. Then he was
driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost was lost and the
Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on, pouring in a terrible
rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode a little ahead of his
troops to see the result. Turning back, he was mistaken in the smoke
by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, and they fired upon him, just
as Jackson had been shot down by his own troops in the dusk at
Chancellorsville.

The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troops
advancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreet
had been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the charge
stopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident or
heard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick of the
command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right and left with
others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, and he sent it
anew to the attack.

The battle now closed in with the full s