the moral
interest that would otherwise attach to it.

VII

Owing to the darkness, the storm and the absence of a road, it had been
impossible to move the artillery from the open ground about the Landing.
The privation was much greater in a moral than in a material sense. The
infantry soldier feels a confidence in this cumbrous arm quite unwarranted
by its actual achievements in thinning out the opposition. There is
something that inspires confidence in the way a gun dashes up to the
front, shoving fifty or a hundred men to one side as if it said, "_Permit
me!_" Then it squares its shoulders, calmly dislocates a joint in its
back, sends away its twenty-four legs and settles down with a quiet
rattle which says as plainly as possible, "I've come to stay." There is a
superb scorn in its grimly defiant attitude, with its nose in the air; it
appears not so much to threaten the enemy as deride him.

Our batteries were probably toiling after us somewhere; we could only hope
the enemy might delay his attack until they should arrive. "He may delay
his defense if he like," said a sententious young officer to whom I had
imparted this natural wish. He had read the signs aright; the words were
hardly spoken when a group of staff officers about the brigade commander
shot away in divergent lines as if scattered by a whirlwind, and galloping
each to the commander of a regiment gave the word. There was a momentary
confusion of tongues, a thin line of skirmishers detached itself from the
compact front and pushed forward, followed by its diminutive reserves of
half a company each--one of which platoons it was my fortune to command.
When the straggling line of skirmishers had swept four or five hundred
yards ahead, "See," said one of my comrades, "she moves!" She did indeed,
and in fine style, her front as straight as a string, her reserve
regiments in columns doubled on the center, following in true
subordination; no braying of brass to apprise the enemy, no fifing and
drumming to amuse him; no ostentation of gaudy flags; no nonsense. This
was a matter of business.

In a few moments we had passed out of the singular oasis that had so
marvelously escaped the desolation of battle, and now the evidences of the
previous day's struggle were present in profusion. The ground was
tolerably level here, the forest less dense, mostly clear of undergrowth,
and occasionally opening out into small natural meadows. Here and there
were small pools--m