y by Richmond, old Unconditional Surrender Grant's got Bob
Lee by the throat, and's just wipin' up the State of Virginny with him.
Lee's eyes is bulging out like gooseberries on a limb, and his tongue's
hanging down like a dog's on a hot day--"

"Get down off that stump at once, and go back to your place," said the
Aid authoritatively.

"Don't mind him. He's only a staff officer. He can't order you. Go
ahead," shouted the rest.

"I see a couple o' young Second Lieutenants," started Monty, but the Aid
sprang at him, and in an instant there was a rush of the other boys to
defend him. Capt. McGillicuddy, who was usually conveniently deaf and
blind to the boys' skylarking, looked up from the paper he was reading,
hurried to the scene, quieted the disturbance, ordered Monty to get down
and go back, and spoke sharply to the Aid about paying any attention to
the men's harmless capers.

The bugle blew "Attention," and everybody sprang to his place, and
waited eagerly for the next command.

"Men," said the Colonel, in his gentle, sweet voice, which, however,
was distinctly audible to the farthest flank of the regiment, "we are
ordered to help our comrades by attacking the mountain over there. You
see what is before you, and that it will be terrible work, but I know
that you will do all that you can do for the honor of dear old Indiana."

An enthusiastic cheer answered him.

"Battalion--Take--Arms!" commanded the Colonel. "Right
face--Forward--File left--March!"

The regiment filed down through the woods on the hillside, and as it
came into the opening at the bottom was greeted by a volley from a
battery on Rocky Face Ridge. The shells screamed viciously over the
heads of the men, and cut through the tops of the trees with a deafening
crash.

"Wastin' good cast-iron on the landscape, as usual," laughed Shorty, to
encourage the boys. "I always wonder how the rebels pick out the fellers
they make cannoneers of. When they git hold of a feller who can't shoot
so's to hit anything less'n a Township set up edgewise, they put him in
the artillery."

"Mebbe they'll come closter next time," said little Pete with a shiver,
as he trotted a little nearer Shorty.

"Naah, they'll never come no closter," said Shorty, contemptuously.
"They couldn't hit even the side o' the mountain if it wasn't in their
way and no place else for the ball to go."

Just then a shell screamed so close above Shorty that he involuntarily
ducked his he