he lowered the glasses. "General, they have a
very strong position, and they are in great force."

"Good! I wish you to take fifty pieces of artillery and crush that
force."

Stephen D. Lee was a brave man. He said nothing now, but he stood a
moment in silence, and then he took his field-glass and looked again. He
looked now at the many and formidable Federal batteries clustered like
dark fruit above the Antietam, and now at the masses of blue infantry,
and now at the positions, under artillery and musketry fire, which the
Confederate batteries must take. He put the glass down again. "Yes,
general. Where shall I get the fifty guns?"

"How many have you?"

"I had thirty. Some were lost, a number disabled. I have twelve."

"Just so. Well, colonel, I could give you a few, and General Lee tells
me he can furnish some."

The other fingered a button on his coat for a moment, then, "Yes,
general. Shall I go for the guns?"

"No, not yet." Stonewall Jackson laid his large hands in their worn old
brown gauntlets, one over the other, upon his saddle bow. He, too,
looked at the Federal right and the guns on the heights like dark fruit.
His eyes made just a glint of blue light below the forage cap. "Colonel
Lee, can you crush the Federal right with fifty guns?"

The artillerist drew a quick breath, let the button alone, and raised
his head higher. "I can try, general. I can do it if any one can."

"That is not what I asked you, sir. If I give you fifty guns can you
crush the Federal right?"

The other hesitated. "General, I don't know what you want of me. Is it
my technical opinion as an artillery officer? or do you want to know if
I will make the attempt? If you give me the order of course I will make
it!"

"Yes, colonel. But I want your positive opinion, yes or no. Can you
crush the Federal right with fifty guns?"

The artillerist looked again, steadying arm and glass against a charred
bough. "General, it cannot be done with fifty guns and the troops you
have here."

Hilltop and withered wood hung a moment silent in the air, sunny but yet
with a taste of all the powder that had been burned. Then said Jackson,
"Good! Let us ride back, colonel."

They turned their horses, but Stephen Lee with some emotion began to put
the case. "You forced me, general, to say what I did say. If you send
the guns, I beg of you not to give them to another! I will fight them to
the last extremity--" He looked to the other anxiously.