him and enroll
him, Haralson, and turn him over to Dreux and the Howitzer. Now,
Deaderick, the Horse Artillery is heaven to a good man who does his
duty, and it's hell to the other kind. I advise you to try for heaven.
That's all. Good-night."
Day broke over the field of Groveton, over the plains of Manassas.
Stonewall Jackson moved in force westward from the old battle-ground.
South of Bull Run, between Young's Branch and Stony Ridge, ran an
unfinished railroad. It was bordered by woods and rolling fields. There
were alternate embankments and deep railroad cuts. Behind was the long
ridge and Catharpin Run, in front, sloping gently to the little stream,
green fields broken to the north by one deep wood. Stonewall Jackson
laid his hand on the railroad with those deep cuts and on the rough and
rising ground beyond. In the red dawn there stretched a battle front of
nearly two miles. A. P. Hill had the left. Trimble and Lawton of Ewell's
had the centre, Jackson's own division the right, Jubal Early and Forno
of Ewell's a detached force on this wing. There were forty guns, and
they were ranged along the rocky ridge behind the infantry. Jeb Stuart
guarded the flanks.
The chill moisture of the morning, the dew-drenched earth, the quiet
woods, the rose light in the sky--the troops moving here and there to
their assigned positions, exchanged opinions. "Ain't it like the
twenty-first of July, 1861?"--"It air and it ain't--mostly
ain't!"--"That's true! Hello! they are going to give us the railroad
cut! God bless the Manassas Railroad Company! If we'd dug a whole day we
couldn't have dug such a ditch as that!"--"Look at the boys behind the
embankment! Well, if that isn't the jim-dandiest breastwork! 'N look at
the forty guns up there against the sky!"--"Better tear those vines away
from the edge. Pretty, aren't they? All the blue morning glories.
Regiment's swung off toward Manassas Junction! Now if Longstreet should
come up!"--"Maybe he will. Wouldn't it be exciting? Come up with a yell
same as Kirby Smith did last year! Wonder where the Yankees are?"
"Somewhere in the woods, the whole hell lot of them."--"Some of them
aren't a hell lot. Some of them are right fine. Down on the Chickahominy
I acquired a real respect for the Army of the Potomac--and a lot of
it'll be here to-day. Yes, sir, I like Fitz John Porter and Sykes and
Reynolds and a lot of them first rate! They can't help being commanded
by The-Man-without-a-Rear. That
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