ded
banks out upon the bridge. It belched black smoke mingled with sparks;
behind it were cars, and these were burning. The whole came full upon
the broken bridge. It swayed beneath the weight; but before it could
fall, and before the roaring engine reached the gap, the flames of the
kindled cars touched the huge stores of ammunition sent thus to
destruction by the retreating column. In the night, over the
Chickahominy, occurred a rending and awful explosion.... Steve, coming
to himself, rose to his knees in the black mire. The lightning flashed,
and he stared with a contorted face. The bridge, too, was gone. There
was only the churned water, filled with scantlings and torn branches of
trees. The rain was falling, a great hissing sweep of rain, and the wind
howled beneath the thunder. Steve turned blindly; he did not know where
he was going, but he had a conviction that the river was rising and
would come after him. A hundred yards from the water, in the midnight
wood, as he hurried over earth that the rain was fast turning into
morass, he stumbled over some obstacle and fell. Putting out his hands,
they came flat against a dead man's face. He rose and fled with a
screech, southwardly now, in the direction of White Oak Swamp.

CHAPTER XXXV

WHITE OAK SWAMP

The Grapevine Bridge being at last rebuilt, Stonewall Jackson's fourteen
brigades crossed the Chickahominy, the movement occupying a great part
of the night. Dawn of the thirtieth found the advance at Savage Station.

The storm in the night had swelled the myriad creeks, and extended all
morasses. The roads were mud, the wild tangles of underwood held water
like a sponge. But the dawn was glorious, with carmine and purple towers
and the coolest fresh-washed purity of air and light. Major-General
Richard Ewell, riding at the head of his division, opined that it was as
clear as the plains. A reconnoitring party brought him news about
something or other to the eastward. He jerked his head, swore
reflectively, and asked where was "Old Jackson."

"He rode ahead, sir, to speak to General Magruder."

"Well, you go, Nelson, and tell him--No, you go, Major Stafford."

Stafford went, riding through the cool, high glory of the morning. He
found Jackson and Magruder at the edge of the peach orchard. All around
were Magruder's troops, and every man's head was turned toward the stark
and dust-hued figure on the dust-hued nag. The first had come from the
Valley with