nswered the Captain.

"All right. Take Co. A. Push them as far as you can, for the orders are
to develop their strength at once. I'll follow close behind and help you
develop, if you need me."

An instant later the two companies rushed across the field, making a
bewildering transformation in the rebels' minds from charging to
being charged. The rebels were caught before they could complete their
formation. There was a brief tumult of rushes and shots and yells, and
they were pushed back through the woods, with some losses In killed and
wounded and stampeded horses.

Si had led his squad straight across the field, against a group engaged
in pulling down the fence. They were caught without their arms, and two
were run down and captured. Palpitating with success, the boys rushed
over to where the regiment was gathering itself together at the edge of
the woods on the brow of the ridge.

"Why don't they go ahead? What're they stoppin' for? The whole
rijimint's up," Si asked, with a premonition of something wrong.

"Well, I should say there was something to stop for," answered Shorty,
as they arrived where they could see, and found the whole country in
front swarming with rebel cavalry as far as their eyes could reach.

"Great Scott," muttered Si, with troubled face, for the sight was
appalling. "Is the whole Confederacy out there on hossback?"

"O, my, do we have to fight all them?" whimpered little Pete, scared as
much by the look on Shorty's face as at the array.

"Shut up, Pete," said Shorty petulantly, as a shell from a rebel battery
shrieked through the woods with a frightful noise. "Git behind this
stump here, and lay your gun across it. I'll stand beside you. Don't
shoot till you've a bead on a man. Keep quiet and listen to orders."

A rebel brigade was rapidly preparing to charge. It stretched out far
beyond the flanks of the regiment.

"Steady, men! Keep cool!" rang out the clear, calm voice of the Colonel.
"Don't fire till they come to that little run in the field, and then
blow out the center of that gang."

The brigade swept forward with a terrific yell. Si walked behind his
squad, and saw that every muzzle was depressed to the proper level.

The brigade came on grandly, until they reached the rivulet, and then a
scorching blast broke out from the muzzles of the 200th Ind., which made
them reel and halt.

Yells of "Close up, Alabamians!" "This way, Tennesseeans!" "Form on your
colors, Georgians!" c