ome. Besides, it is in accord with the character of their
generals. Both Lee and Jackson are always for the swift offensive, and
Early, Longstreet and the Hills are the same way. Hear that booming
ahead! They're attacking one of the fords now!"

At a ford a mile above and also at another a mile or two further on, the
Southern troops had begun a heavy fire, and gathered in strong masses
were threatening every moment to attempt the passage. But the Union
guns posted on hills made a vigorous reply and the time passed in heavy
cannonades. Colonel Winchester, his brows knitted and anxious, watched
the fire of the cannon. He confided at last to his favorite aide his
belief that what lay behind the cannonade was more important than the
cannonade itself.

"It must be a feint or a blind," he said. "They fire a great deal,
but they don't make any dash for the stream. Now, the rebels haven't
ammunition to waste."

"Then what do you think they're up to, sir?"

"They must be sending a heavy force higher up the river to cross where
there is no resistance. And we must meet them there, with my regiment
only, if we can obtain no other men."

The colonel obtained leave to go up the Rappahannock until nightfall,
but only his own regiment, now reduced to less than four hundred men,
was allotted to him. In truth his division commander thought his purpose
useless, but yielded to the insistence of Winchester who was known to
be an officer of great merit. It seemed to the Union generals that they
must defend the fords where the Southern army lay massed before them.

Dick learned that there was a little place called Sulphur Springs some
miles ahead, and that the river there was spanned by a bridge which
the Union cavalry had wrecked the day before. He divined at once that
Colonel Winchester had that ford in mind, and he was glad to be with him
on the march to it.

They left behind them the sound of the cannonade which they learned
afterward was being carried on by Longstreet, and followed the course of
the stream as fast as they could over the hills and through the woods.
But with so many obstacles they made slow progress, and, in the close
heat, the men soon grew breathless. It was also late in the afternoon
and Dick was quite sure that they would not reach Sulphur Springs before
nightfall.

"I've felt exactly this same air on the great plains," said Pennington,
as they stopped on the crest of a hill for the troops to rest a little.