ays that's White Oak
Swamp!--Guide says that's White Oak Swamp!" Firing broke out ahead.
"Cavalry rumpus!--Hello! Artillery butting in, too!--everybody but us!
Well, boys, I always did think infantry a mighty no-'count, undependable
arm--infantry of the Army of the Valley, anyway! God knows the moss has
been growing on us for a week!"

Munford sent back a courier to Jackson, riding well before the head of
the column. "Bridge is burned, sir. They're in strong force on the other
side--"

"Good!" said Jackson. "Tell Colonel Crutchfield to bring up the guns."

He rode on, the aide, the courier, and Maury Stafford yet with him. They
passed a deserted Federal camp and hospital, and came between tall trees
and through dense swamp undergrowth to a small stream with many arms. It
lay still beneath the blue sky, overhung by many a graceful, vine-draped
tree. The swamp growth stretched for some distance on either side, and
through openings in the foliage the blue glint of the arms could be
seen. To the right there was some cleared ground. In front the road
stopped short. The one bridge had been burned by the retreating Federal
rearguard. Two blue divisions, three batteries--in all over twenty
thousand men--now waited on the southern bank to dispute the White Oak
Crossing.

Stafford again pushed his horse beside Jackson's. "Well, sir?"

"I hunted once through this swamp, general. There is an old crossing
near the bridge--"

"Passable for cavalry, sir?"

"Passable by cavalry and infantry, sir. Even the guns might somehow be
gotten across."

"I asked, sir, if it was passable for cavalry."

"It is, sir."

Jackson turned to his aide. "Go tell Colonel Crutchfield I want to see
him."

Crutchfield appeared. "Where are your guns, colonel?"

"General, their batteries on the ridge over there command the road, and
the thick woods below their guns are filled with sharpshooters. I want
to get the guns behind the crest of the hill on this side, and I am
opening a road through the wood over there. They'll be up
directly--seven batteries, Carter's, Hardaway's, Nelson's, Rhett's,
Reilly's, and Balthis'. We'll open then at a thousand yards, and we'll
take them, I think, by surprise."

"Very good, colonel. That is all."

The infantry began to arrive. Brigade by brigade, as it came up, turned
to right or to left, standing under arms in the wood above the White Oak
Swamp. As the Stonewall Brigade came, under tall trees and over earth