m while they drove the enemy, hearing their firing, and at
every halt sending out patrols. At last we drew near the firing line,
which had been pretty hard at work, but which drew aside by the roadside
(being either dead or out of ammunition) to let us go by, while we
acclaimed them as having died heroically in our defense. Then came urgent
work on our part, till now, as we halt, the platoon leader is telling us
that we are to go forward over a wire fence, deploy behind a stone wall,
and wait for the field battery to shell the enemy.

--And now we have crawled through the wire, and are comfortably watching
the lieutenant of artillery while, with his instruments all fixed, he is
getting the range of the enemy, these, you know, being the cavalry, who
every day, I suppose, will precede us out of camp and try to make it
lively for us during the morning. A voice asks, "Where are the cavalry?"
and someone answers "Intrenched," which is not so foolish as it sounds,
they being equipped for the purpose, and being drilled to fight
dismounted. But intrenching should not be necessary in a country
provided, as this one is, with stone walls. Other companies are deploying
on our left, and we wait before that most dangerous of all attempts, a
direct frontal attack. The enemy, the captain has just explained, is a
half mile away across a slight depression. At Bunker Hill our men waited
till they could see the whites of the red-coats' eyes. At Fredericksburg
our attacking men were helpless at a hundred yards. But here as soon as
we have crossed the wall we shall be exposed to a deadly fire, not only
of rifles, but of machine guns. Of these the enemy have two on motor
tricycles, and it is understood that the call of their sirens is a signal
that they are in action.

(And again resting.)

We have the machine guns, mother dear. The cavalry got away, all but
three or four of them. This was how it went.

When the field artillery had sufficiently pounded the enemy (and having
but few rounds this did not last very long) we were given the order to
advance. First we went over the wall,--and you must remember that every
fence in this country, stone, snake, or otherwise, is decorated with
barbed wire--and formed our line, lying flat, a couple of rods beyond it.
Now we put in practice for the whole battalion the tactics we had studied
by platoons, sending men forward from the right by squads in rushes,
making a new line by degrees, always keeping