stretched
another long stone wall. Beyond it, on the gentle slopes, were guns
enough and blue soldiers enough--blue soldiers, with bright flags above
them and somewhere still that insistent music. They huzzahed when they
saw the Confederates, and the Confederates answered with that strangest
battle shout, that wild and high and ringing cry called the "rebel
yell."

In the woods along the ridge and in the old field itself the infantry
deployed. There were portions of three brigades,--Fulkerson's, Burk's,
and the Stonewall. Fulkerson held the left, Burk with the Irish
Battalion the right, and Garnett the centre. The position was
commanding, the Confederate strength massed before the Federal right,
Shields's centre well to the eastward, and his left under Sullivan in
the air, on the other side of the pike. It was Stonewall Jackson's
desire to turn that right flank, to crumple it back upon the centre, and
to sweep by on the road to Winchester--the loved valley town so near
that one might see its bourgeoning trees, hear its church bells.

He rode, on Little Sorrel, up and down the forming lines, and he spoke
only to give orders, quiet and curt, much in his class-room tone. He was
all brown like a leaf with Valley dust and sun and rain. The old cadet
cap was older yet, the ancient boots as grotesquely large, the curious
lift of his hand to Heaven no less curious than it had always been. He
was as awkward, as hypochondriac, as literal, as strict as ever.
Moreover, there should have hung about him the cloud of disfavour and
hostility raised by that icy march to Romney less than three months ago.
And yet--and yet! What had happened since then? Not much, indeed. The
return of the Stonewall Brigade to Winchester, Loring's representations,
the War Department's interference, and Major-General T. J. Jackson's
resignation from the service and request to be returned to the Virginia
Military Institute. General Johnston's remonstrance, Mr. Benjamin's
_amende honorable_, and the withdrawal of "Old Jack's" resignation.
There had been some surprise among the men at the effect upon themselves
of this withdrawal. They had greeted the news with hurrahs; they had
been all that day in extraordinary spirits. Why? To save them they could
not have told. He had not won any battles. He had been harsh, hostile,
pedantic, suspected, and detested upon that unutterable Bath and Romney
trip. And yet--and yet! He was cheered when, at Winchester, it was kn