, bursting
like a tornado upon their foe.

One of Jackson's Virginia regiments gave way and then another. The men
in blue from the wood and Colonel Winchester's regiment joined, their
shouts rising above the smoke while they steadily pushed the enemy
before them.

Dick as he shouted with the rest felt a wild exultation. They were
showing Jackson what they could do! They were proving to him that he
could not win always. His joy was warranted. No such confusion had ever
before existed in Jackson's army. The Northern charge was driven like a
wedge of steel into its ranks.

Jackson had able generals, valiant lieutenants, with him, Ewell and
Early, and A. P. Hill and Winder, and they strove together to stop
the retreat. The valiant Winder was mortally wounded and died upon the
field, and Jackson, with his wonderful ability to see what was happening
and his equal power of decision, swiftly withdrew that wing of his army,
also carrying with it every gun.

A great shout of triumph rose from the men in blue as they saw the
Southern retreat.

"We win! We win!" cried Pennington again.

"Yes, we win!" shouted Warner, usually so cool.

And it did seem even to older men that the triumph was complete. The
blue and the gray were face to face in the smoke, but the gray were
driven back by the fierce and irresistible charge, and, as their flight
became swifter, the shells and grape from the Northern batteries plunged
and tore through their ranks. Nothing stopped the blue wave. It rolled
on and on, sweeping a mass of fugitives before it, and engulfing others.

Dick had no ordered knowledge of the charge. He was a part of it, and he
saw only straight in front of him, but he was conscious that all around
him there was a fiery red mist, and a confused and terrible noise of
shouting and firing. But they were winning! They were beating Stonewall
Jackson himself. His pulses throbbed so hard that he thought his
arteries would burst, and his lips were dry and blackened from smoke,
burned gunpowder and his own hot breath issuing like steam between them.

Then came a halt so sudden and terrible that it shook Dick as if by
physical contact. He looked around in wonder. The charge was spent, not
from its lack of strength but because they had struck an obstacle. They
had reckoned ill, because they had not reckoned upon all the resources
of Stonewall Jackson's mind. He had stemmed the rout in person and now
he was pushing forward the Stonewal