Dick and his comrades in the front of their own regiment. The whole
Northern line was now engaged. Grant, true to his resolution, had hurled
every man and every gun upon his foe.

The Southern generals felt the immense weight of the numbers that were
now driving down upon them. Their decimated ranks could not withstand
the charge of two armies. In the center where Buell's men, having stood
fast from the first, were now advancing, they were compelled to give
way and lost several guns. On the wings the heavy Northern brigades were
advancing also, and the whole Southern line was pushed back. So much
inferior was the South in numbers that her enemy began to overlap her on
the flanks also.

A tremendous shout of exultation swept through the Northern ranks, as
they felt themselves advancing. The promises of their generals were
coming true, and there is nothing sweeter than victory after defeat.
Fortune, after frowning upon her so long, was now smiling upon the
North. The exultant cheer swept through the ranks again, and back came
the defiant rebel yell.

A young soldier often feels what is happening with as true instinct as a
general. Dick now knew that the North would recover the field, and that
the South, cut down fearfully, though having performed prodigies of
valor, must fight to save herself. He felt that the resistance in front
of them was no longer invincible. He saw in the flash of the firing that
the Southern ranks were thin, very thin, and he knew that there was no
break in their own advance.

Now the sanguine Northern generals planned the entire destruction of the
Southern army. There was only one road by which Beauregard could retreat
to Corinth. A whole Northern division rushed in to block the way.
Sherman, in his advance, came again to the ground around the little
Methodist chapel of Shiloh which he had defended so well the day before,
and crowded his whole force upon the Southern line at that point. Once
more the primitive church in the woods looked down upon one of the most
sanguinary conflicts of the whole war. If Sherman could break through
the Southern line here Beauregard's whole army would be lost.

But the Southern soldiers were capable of another and a mighty effort.
Their generals saw the danger and acted with their usual promptness and
decision. They gathered together their shattered brigades and hurled
them like a thunderbolt upon the Union left and center. The shock was
terrific. Sherman, wit