nd A. P. Hill was
hurrying with another of infantry. Messenger after messenger from them
came to Lee that on the fateful day they with their fourteen thousand
bayonets would be in line when they were needed most.

Few of those who fought for the Lost Cause ever cherished anything more
vividly than those hours between midnight and the next noon when they
marched at the double quick across hill and valley and forest to the
relief of their great commander. There was little need for the officers
to urge them on, and at sunrise the rolling of the cannon was calling to
them to come faster, always faster.

CHAPTER X. ANTIETAM

Dick arose at the first flash of dawn. All the men of the Winchester
regiment were on their feet. The officers had sent their horses to the
rear, knowing that they would be worse than useless among the rocks and
in the forest in front of them.

A mist arising from the two rivers floated over everything, but Dick
knew that the battle was at hand. The Northern trumpets were calling,
and in the haze in front of them the Southern trumpets were calling,
too.

The fog lifted, and then Dick saw the Confederate lines stretched
through forest, rock and ploughed ground. Near the front was a rail
fence with lines of skirmishers crouching behind it. As the last bit of
mist rolled away the fence became a twisted line of flame. The fire of
the Southern skirmishers crashed in the Union ranks, and the Northern
skirmishers, pressing in on the right replied with a fire equally swift
and deadly. Then came the roar of the Southern cannon, well aimed and
tearing gaps in the Union lines.

"Its time to charge!" exclaimed Pennington. "It scares me, standing
still under the enemy's fire, but I forget about it when I'm rushing
forward."

The Winchester regiment did not move for the present, although the
battle thickened and deepened about it. The fire of the Confederate
cannon was heavy and terrible, yet the Union masses on either wing had
begun to press forward. Hooker hurled in two divisions, one under Meade,
and one under Doubleday, and another came up behind to support them.
The western men were here and remembering how they had been decimated at
Manassas, they fought for revenge as well as patriotism.

At last the Winchester regiment in the center moved forward also. They
struck heavy ploughed land, and as they struggled through it they met a
devastating fire. It seemed to Dick that the last of the little r