--a crowd even denser than that we saw in the distant dusty yards.
Here, too, among them were faces grave with anxiety. Here, too, among
the women were eyes red with tears; but here all was silence and order.
Suddenly from within the huge brown walls there rose the shrill summons
of the bugle, sounding in quick, spirited call the well-known
"assembly," and in company rooms, crowded to suffocation by wives,
mothers, sisters, sweethearts, and friends of the guardsmen, the men of
the --th regiment fell in for roll-call. Almost at the same moment, in
other sections of the city, the same signal called two other commands to
their ranks. The State was waking up at last, but waking up in earnest.

Down in the paved court below the chargers of the field and staff
officers were awaiting their riders, every swish of their tails slashing
the faces of boys and men wedged in an almost solid mass about them.
Orders had been given that only members of the regiment and people
having important business with its officers should be allowed within the
walls; but the summons for duty had reached over eight hundred of its
men while still at their places of business downtown. There was no time
to go home, and the Colonel could not resist the pleas that came from
without. First by threes and fours, then by dozens, scores, and finally
in one uninterrupted stream, relatives and friends, followed by mere
curiosity-seekers, swept past the guarded gates, until the great
interior was packed, and there was no room for more. Before it was
possible to form the command in the big drill-hall the guards had to
clear the court, then drive all men and boys into the space thus
redeemed, and post a solid section across the sally-port to hold it
against further ingress. It was 3.50 when the Colonel was handed his
orders, and touched the button that flashed the summons to each company
commander. It was just 5.45 when he reported his command in readiness,
and just 6.30 when, amidst a storm of cheers, tears, and God-speeds,
through a flashing sea of white handkerchiefs he guided his startled,
spirited horse, and followed by his staff and a solid column of fours,
eight hundred strong, turned into the broad avenue and led the way. No
exultant strain of martial music, no gayly decked bandsmen at the head
of the regiment; only the hoarse throb of the drums. No nodding plumes
and snowy helmets, cross-belts, trousers. This was war's array,
magnificently stern, but as mag