mountain road.
Often, when they stopped, the blowing of the horses and the murmuring
of the river in its bed below were the only sounds heard, and the tired
voices of the men when they spoke among themselves seemed hardly more
articulate sounds than they. Then the voice of the mounted figure on the
roan horse half hidden in the mist would cut in, clear and inspiring, in
a tone of encouragement more than of command, and everything would wake
up: the drivers would shout and crack their whips; the horses would bend
themselves on the collars and flounder in the mud; the men would spring
once more to the mud-clogged wheels, and the slow ascent would begin
again.

The orders to the Colonel, as has been said, were brief: To hold the
pass until he received further instructions, and not to lose his guns.
To be ordered, with him, was to obey. The last streak of twilight
brought them to the top of the pass; his soldier's instinct and a brief
recognizance made earlier in the day told him that this was his place,
and before daybreak next morning the point was as well fortified as a
night's work by weary and supperless men could make it. A prettier spot
could not have been found for the purpose; a small plateau, something
over an acre in extent, where a charcoal-burner's hut had once stood,
lay right at the top of the pass. It was a little higher on either
side than in the middle, where a small brook, along which the
charcoal-burner's track was yet visible, came down from the wooded
mountain above, thus giving a natural crest to aid the fortification on
either side, with open space for the guns, while the edge of the wood
coming down from the mountain afforded shelter for the camp.

As the battery was unsupported it had to rely on itself for everything,
a condition which most soldiers by this time were accustomed to. A dozen
or so of rifles were in the camp, and with these pickets were armed and
posted. The pass had been seized none too soon; a scout brought in the
information before nightfall that the invading force had crossed the
farther range before that sent to meet it could get there, and taking
the nearest road had avoided the main body opposing it, and been met
only by a rapidly moving detachment, nothing more than a scouting party,
and now were advancing rapidly on the road on which they were posted,
evidently meaning to seize the pass and cross the mountain at this
point. The day was Sunday; a beautiful Spring Sunday; but