th horror, but he saw that all his own immediate
friends were safe in the wood. A swarm of fugitives poured in after
them, and then came colonels and generals making desperate efforts to
reform their line of battle. But the Southern brigades gave them no
chance. Their leaders continually urged on the pursuit. The broken
regiments fell back still loading and firing, and they would soon be on
the banks of the creek again.

After a time that seemed almost infinite, Dick heard the roar of shells
over their heads. In their retreat the regiments had come upon another
Northern division which opposed a strong resistance to the Southern
advance. Winchester's men welcomed their friends joyfully. But the fresh
troops could not stop the advance. The fire of the Southern cannon and
rifles was so deadly that nearly all the Northern artillerymen were
killed around their guns.

The North again gave ground, seeking point after point for fresh
resistance. They rallied strongly around a building used as a hospital,
and filled it with riflemen. But they were driven from that, too,
although they inflicted terrible losses on their enemy.

"We've got to stop this backward slide somewhere," gasped Pennington.

"Yes, but where?" cried Dick.

Whether Warner made any reply he did not know, because he lost him then
in the flame and the smoke. An instant or two later the charging swarms
of infantry and cavalry drove them into one of the woods of red cedars,
where they lay shattered and gasping. The smoke lifted a little, and
Dick saw the field which he already regarded as lost. Then there was a
renewed burst of firing and cheering, as a regiment of veteran regulars
galloped into the open space and drove off the Southern cavalry which
was just about to seize the ammunition wagons and more cannon.

Encouraged by the charge of the regulars, the men in the cedar wood
rose and began to reform for battle. Now chance, or rather watchfulness,
interposed to save Dick and his comrades from destruction. Rosecrans, at
another point, confident that McCook could hold out against all attacks,
listened with amazement to the roar of battle coming nearer and nearer.
His officers called his attention to the fact that save at the opening
there was no cannon fire. All that approaching crash was made by rifles.
They judged from it that their cannon had been taken, but they did not
know that the rush of the Southern troops had been so fast that their
own batteries