rted signal the long and mellow peal of many trumpets
came from the front, the officers uttered the shout to charge, the wild
and terrible rebel yell swelled from forty thousand throats, and the
Southern army rushed upon its foe.

The red dawn of Shiloh had come.

CHAPTER XV. THE RED DAWN OF SHILOH

Dick stood appalled when he heard that terrible shout in the dawn, and
the crash of cannon and rifles rolling down upon the Union lines. It was
already a shout of triumph and, as he gazed, he saw through the woods
the red line of flame, sweeping on without a halt.

The surprise had been complete. Hardee, leading the Southern advance,
struck Peabody's Northern brigade and smashed it up instantly. The men
did not have time to seize their rifles. They had no chance to form
into ranks, and the officers themselves, as they shouted commands,
were struck down. Men killed or wounded were falling everywhere. Almost
before they had time to draw a free breath the remnants of the brigade
were driven upon those behind it.

Hardee also rushed upon Sherman, but there he found a foe of tough
mettle. The man who had foreseen the enormous extent of the war,
although taken by surprise, too, did not lose his courage or presence of
mind. His men had time to seize their arms, and he formed a hasty line
of battle. He also had the forethought to send word to the general in
his rear to close up the gap between him and the next general in the
line. Then he shifted one of his own brigades until there was a ravine
in front of it to protect his men, and he hurried a battery to his
flank.

Never was Napoleon's maxim that men are nothing, a man is everything,
more justified, and never did the genius of Sherman shine more
brilliantly than on that morning. It was he, alone, cool of mind and
steady in the face of overwhelming peril, who first faced the Southern
rush. He inspired his troops with his own courage, and, though pale of
face, they bent forward to meet the red whirlwind that was rushing down
upon them.

Like a blaze running through dry grass the battle extended in almost an
instant along the whole front, and the deep woods were filled with the
roar of eighty thousand men in conflict. And Grant, as at Donelson, was
far away.

The thunder and blaze of the battle increased swiftly and to a frightful
extent. The Southern generals, eager, alert and full of success, pushed
in all their troops. The surprised Northern army was giving away