nister of name, they sent a sheet of death upon the Union
ranks. But the regiments, the new and the old, stood firm. Those that
had been beaten before by Jackson were resolved not to be beaten again
by him, and the new regiments from the west, one or two of which had
been at Shiloh, were resolved never to be beaten at all.

"The lads are steady," said Colonel Winchester. "It's a fine sign. I've
news, too, that two thousand men have come up. We shall now have nine
thousand with which to withstand the attack, and I don't believe they
can drive us away. Oh, why isn't Pope himself here with his whole army?
Then we could wipe Jackson off the face of the earth!"

But Pope was not there. The commander of a huge force, the man of
boastful words who was to do such great things, the man who sent such
grandiloquent dispatches from "Headquarters in the Saddle," to the
anxious Lincoln at Washington, had strung his numerous forces along in
detachments, just as the others had done before him, and the booming
of Jackson's cannon attacking the Northern vanguard with his whole army
could not reach ears so far away.

The fire now became heavy along the whole Union front. All the batteries
on both sides were coming into action, and the earth trembled with the
rolling crash. The smoke rose and hung in clouds over the hills, the
valley and the cornfield. The hot air, surcharged with dust, smoke and
burned gunpowder, was painful and rasping to the throat. The frightful
screaming of the shells filled the air, and then came the hissing of the
bullets like a storm of sleet.

Colonel Winchester and his staff dismounted, giving their horses to an
orderly who led them to the rear. Horses would not be needed for the
present, at least, and they had learned to avoid needless risk.

The attack was coming closer, and the bullets as they swept through
their ranks found many victims. Colonel Winchester ordered his regiment
to kneel and open fire, being held hitherto in reserve. Dick snatched up
a rifle from a soldier who had fallen almost beside him, and he saw that
Warner and Pennington had equipped themselves in like fashion.

A strong gust of wind lifted the smoke before them a little. Dick saw
many splashes of water on the surface of the creek where bullets struck,
and there were many tiny spurts of dust in the road, where other bullets
fell. Then he saw beyond the dark masses of the Southern infantry. It
seemed to him that they were strangely cl