our army! Lots of it!" said Warner, as he watched
the steady advance of the Southern brigades.

Dick remembered Bull Run, but his thoughts ran back to the iron general
who commanded now.

"Thomas will save us," he said.

The skirmishers on both sides were driven in. Their scattered fire
ceased, but a moment later the whole front of the Southern army burst
into flame. It seemed to Dick that one vast sheet of light like a sword
blade suddenly shot forward, and then a storm of lead, bearing many
messengers of death, beat upon the Northern army, shattering its front
lines and carrying confusion among its young troops. But the officers
and a few old regulars like Sergeant Whitley steadied them and they
returned the fire.

Major Hertford, Dick and Warner were all on foot, and their own little
band, already tried in battle, yielded not an inch. They formed a core
of resistance around which others rallied and Thomas himself was passing
along the line, giving heart to the lads fresh from the farms.

But the Southern army fired again, and shouting the long fierce rebel
yell, charged with all its strength. Dick saw before him a vast cloud
of smoke, through which fire flashed and bullets whistled. He heard men
around him uttering short cries of pain, and he saw others fall, mostly
sinking forward on their faces. But those who stood, held fast and
loaded and fired until the barrels of their rifles burned to the touch.

Dick felt many tremors at first, but soon the passion of battle seized
him. He carried no rifle, but holding his officer's small sword in his
hand he ran up and down the line crying to the men to stand firm, that
they would surely beat back the enemy. That film of fire and smoke was
yet before his eyes, but he saw through it the faces of his countrymen
still coming on. He heard to his right the thudding of the great guns
that Thomas had planted on a low hill, but the rifle fire was like the
beat of hail, a crackling and hissing that never ceased.

The farm lads, their rifles loaded afresh, fired anew at the enemy,
almost in their faces, and the Southern line here reeled back against so
firm and deadly a front.

But an alarming report ran down the line that their left was driven
back, and it was true. The valiant Zollicoffer leading his brigade in
person, had rushed upon this portion of the Northern army which was
standing upon another low hill and struck it with great violence. It was
wavering and would give