igh had been ripped
open in a ghastly manner by a piece of shell, and three bullets were
lodged deep in his body, and from his wounds the blood oozed and ran
down his sides and legs and with the sweat formed a bloody foam. Dick's
was no mean part in that battle. Good conduct in men under such
circumstances as he was placed in might result from a sense of duty--his
was the result of his bravery. Most horses would have been unmanageable
with the flash and roar of arms about and the shouting. Dick was utterly
cool, and would have obeyed the rein had it been a straw. To Dick
belongs the honor of first mounting that stormy crest before the enemy,
not forty yards away, whose bullets smote him, and of being the only
horse there during the heat of the battle. Even the enemy noticed Dick,
and one of their reports of the battle mentions the "_solitary
horseman_" who rallied our wavering line. He enabled me to do twelve
times as much as I could have done on foot. It would not be dignified
for an officer on foot to run; it is entirely so, mounted, to gallop. I
do not approve of officers dismounting in battle, which is the time of
all when they most need to be mounted, for thereby they have so much
greater facilities for being everywhere present. Most officers, however,
in close action, dismount. Dick deserves well of his country, and one
day should have a horse-monument. If there be "_ut sapientibus placit_,"
and equine elysium, I will send to Charon the brass coin, the fee for
Dick's passage over, and on the other side of the Styx in those shadowy
clover-fields he may nibble the blossoms forever.

I had been struck upon the thigh by a bullet which I think must have
glanced and partially spent its force upon my saddle. It had pierced the
thick cloth of my trowsers and two thicknesses of underclothing, but had
not broken the skin, leaving me with an enormous bruise that for a time
benumbed the entire leg. At the time of receiving it, I heard the thump,
and noticed it and the hole in the cloth into which I thrust my finger,
and I experienced a feeling of relief I am sure, when I found that my
leg was not pierced. I think when I dismounted my horse after that fight
that I was no very comely specimen of humanity. Drenched with sweat, the
white of battle, by the reaction, now turned to burning red. I felt like
a boiled man; and had it not been for the exhiliration at results I
should have been miserable. This kept me up, however, and hav