trength of both armies. Hancock
strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had been killed already.
The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superior numbers. Lee
poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from every position.
Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the night before, he was
driven from that too.

Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face and
furious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fire by
the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up the ghastly
scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederate general,
was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. But neither side
would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressed troops.

Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse was
unharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battle
personally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius of
the great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtable and
tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Instead he
had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing.

The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in all
its aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud of smoke
hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar of cannon,
the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand men in deadly
conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists of the war,
Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond all expectation.

Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets.
The forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light
over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and twigs.
The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of the forest,
yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two armies forgetting
everything else in their desire to crush each other.

Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained
another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to
Ewell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and he
shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. The smoke
was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see the
combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning trees
lighted up a segment of