drifted over and about
the idle infantry, until one command was hidden from another.

Stonewall Jackson, seated on the stump of a felled oak, his sabre across
his knees, his hands rigid upon it, his great booted feet squarely
planted, his cap drawn low, sent the aide beside him with some order to
the working party at the bridge. A moment later the courier went, too,
to D. H. Hill, with a query about prisoners. The thunders continued, the
smoke drifted heavily, veiling all movements. Jackson spoke without
turning. "Whoever is there--"

No one was there at the moment but Maury Stafford. He came forward. "You
will find the 1st Brigade," said Jackson. "Tell General Winder to move
it nearer the stream. Tell him to cross from his right, with caution, a
small reconnoitring party. Let it find out the dispositions of the
enemy, return and report."

Stafford went, riding westward through the smoke-filled forest, and came
presently to the Stonewall Brigade and to Winder, walking up and down
disconsolately. "An order from General Jackson, sir. You will move your
brigade nearer the stream. Also you will cross, from your right, with
caution, a small reconnoitring party. It will discover the dispositions
of the enemy, return and report."

"Very good," said Winder. "I'll move at once. The 65th is already on the
brink--there to the right, beyond the swamp. Perhaps, you'll take the
order on to Colonel Cleave?--Very good! Tell him to send a picked squad
quietly across and find out what he can. I hope to God there'll come
another order for us all to cross at its heels!"

Stafford, riding on, presently found himself in a strip of bog and
thicket and tall trees masking a narrow, sluggish piece of water. The
brigade behind him was hidden, the regiment in front not yet visible.
Despite the booming of the guns, there was here an effect of stillness.
It seemed a lonely place. Stafford, traversing it slowly because the
ground gave beneath his horse's feet, became aware of a slight movement
in a laurel thicket and of two eyes gleaming behind the leaves. He
reined in his horse. "What are you doing in there? Straggling or
deserting? Come out!" There was a pause; then Steve Dagg emerged.
"Major, I ain't either stragglin' or desertin'. I was just seperated--I
got seperated last night. The regiment's jes' down there--I crept down
an' saw it jes' now. I'm goin' back an' join right away--send me to hell
if I ain't!--though Gawd knows my foot's awful