more
among the Invincibles. He plunged through the smoke almost into the arms
of Langdon.

"And here is our Harry again!" shouted the irrepressible South
Carolinian. "Stonewall Jackson has lost a battle, but he hasn't lost an
army. Night and our courage will save us! Here, take this rifle!"

He picked up a loaded rifle which some falling soldier had dropped and
thrust it into Harry's hand.

The boy took the rifle and began mechanically to fire and load and fire
again at the advancing blue masses. He resolved himself for a minute
into a private soldier, and shouted and fired with the rest. The
twilight deepened and darkened in the east, but the battle did not
cease. The Northern leaders, grim and determined men, seeing their
victory sought to press it to the utmost, and always hurried forward
infantry, cavalry and artillery. Had the Southern army been commanded by
any other than Jackson it would have been destroyed utterly.

Jackson, resourceful and unconquerable, never ceased his exertions.
Wherever he appeared he infused new courage into his men. Harry had
seized a riderless horse and was once more in the saddle, following his
leader, taking orders and helping him whenever he could. The Virginians
who had seized the stone fence and the wood held fast. The eye of
Jackson was on them, and they could do nothing else. An Ohio and a
Virginia regiment on either side lost and retook their colors six times
each. One of the flags had sixty bullets through it. An Indiana regiment
gave way, but reinforced by another from the state rallied and returned
anew to the attack. A Virginia regiment also retreated but was brought
back by its colonel, and fought with fresh courage.

The numerous Northern cavalry forced its way around the Southern
flanks, and cut in on the rear, taking many prisoners. Then the horsemen
appeared in a great mass on the Southern left, and had not time and
chance intervened at the last moment Stonewall Jackson might have passed
into obscurity.

The increasing twilight was now just merging into night, and a wood
stretched between the Northern cavalry and the Southern flank. The
Northern horsemen hesitated, not wishing to become entangled among
trees and brush in the dark, and in a few minutes the Southern infantry,
falling back swiftly after beating off the attacks on their front,
passed out of the trap. Sherburne and Funsten, two of Ashby's most
valiant cavalry leaders, came up with their squadrons, and