"Colonel, you handle your men well; were you educated at a military
school?'

"The Colonel answered:

"'No; I am a lawyer.'

"General Silent remarked:

"'I am very sorry for that,' and walked on.

"Tom wrote his wife a full report of this battle. He called it the
battle of Bell Mountain. It is, however, called Two Rivers. He said that
Gen. Silent was a curious little man, rather careless in his dress;
no military bearing whatever, quite unostentatious and as gentle as a
woman; that he did not give any orders during the battle, but merely
sat and looked on, the presumption being that while everything was going
well it was well enough to let it alone. In his report he spoke highly
of Col. Anderson as an officer and brave man.

"This letter of the Colonel's filled his wife's heart with all the
enthusiasm a woman could possess. She was proud of her husband. She
read and re-read the letter to my wife and Jennie, and called her little
daughter and told her about her father fighting so bravely. We were all
delighted. He spoke so well of Peter also. Said 'he was as cool as an
icebox during the whole engagement.' He never mentioned to his wife
about meeting her brother Jo on the field until long afterwards.

"The troops of this army were put in camp and shortly recruited to their
maximum limit. Volunteering by this time was very active. No longer did
our country have to wait to drum up recruits. The patriotic fires were
lighted up and burning brightly: drums and the shrill notes of the fife
were heard in almost every direction. Sympathizers with rebellion had
hushed in silence for the present--but for the present only."

[Illustration: The Charge of Col. Anderson's Regiment 045]

"Uncle Daniel," said Major Isaac Clymer, who had been silent up to this
time, "I was in that engagement, in command of a troop of cavalry, and
saw Col. Anderson make his bayonet charge. He showed the most cool and
daring courage that I have ever witnessed during the whole war, and I
was through it all. Gen. Pokehorne was in command of the rebels, and
showed himself frequently that day, urging his men forward. He was
afterwards killed at Kensington Mountain, in Georgia. We got the
information very soon after he fell, from our Signal Corps. They had
learned to interpret the rebel signals, and read the news from their
flags."

"Yes, I have heard it said by many that our Signal Corps could do that,
and I suppose the same was true of the other