r Chancellorsville, or Gettysburg, or Cold Harbor.
Duncan had not doubted their response for one moment, and he was not
disappointed in the vigor with which they followed him as he led them
into this final fight. As they dashed forward their advance was quickly
discovered by the alert enemy, and a destructive fire of carbines was
opened upon them. At that moment they were at the trot. Instantly Duncan
gave the commands:

"Gallop! Charge!"

With that demoniacal huntsman's cry which is known in history as the
"Rebel Yell," the little squad dashed forward and plunged into the far
heavier lines of the enemy. There was a detached Federal gun there doing
its work. It was a superb twelve-pounder, and Duncan's men quickly
captured it with its limber-chest. Instantly dismounting, and without
waiting for orders from him, they turned it upon the enemy with vigorous
effect. But they were so fearfully over-matched in numbers that their
work endured for scarcely more than a minute. They fired a dozen shots,
perhaps, but they were speedily overwhelmed, and in another instant
Duncan ordered them to mount and retire again, firing Parthian shots
from their pistols as they went.

When he again reached the little hill to which he had retired at the
beginning of the action, Duncan looked around him and saw that only
seven of his eleven men remained. The other four had paid a final
tribute of their lives to what was now obviously "The Lost Cause."

By this time the fight was over, and practically all that remained of
the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia was in possession of the
enemy.

But that enemy was a generous one, and, foreseeing as it did the
surrender that must come with the morning, it made no assault upon this
wandering squad of brave but beaten men, who were sadly looking upon the
disastrous end of the greatest war in human history.

Captain Duncan's party were on a bald hill within easy range of the
carbines of Sheridan's men, but not a shot was fired at them, and not so
much as a squad was sent out to demand their surrender.

Night was now near at hand and Guilford Duncan turned to his men and
said:

"The war is practically over, I suppose; but I for one intend to stick
to the game as long as it lasts. General Lee will surrender his army
to-night or to-morrow morning, but General Johnston still has an army
in the field in North Carolina. It is barely possible that we may get to
him. It is my purpose to try. H