deadly hail of shot and shell, tearing the trees and splintering the
rocks of the farther side, and sending the thunder reverberating through
the pass and down the mountain, startling from its slumber the sleeping
camp on the hills below, and driving the browsing deer and the prowling
mountain-fox in terror up the mountain.

There was silence among the men about the guns for one brief instant
and then such a cheer burst forth as had never broken from them even in
battle: cheer on cheer, the long, wild, old familiar rebel yell for the
guns they had fought with and loved.

The noise had not died away and the men behind were still trying to
quiet the frightened horses when the sergeant, the same who had written,
received from the hand of the Colonel a long package or roll which
contained the records of the battery furnished by the men and by the
Colonel himself, securely wrapped to make them water-tight, and it was
rammed down the yet warm throat of the nearest gun: the Cat, and then
the gun was tamped to the muzzle to make her water-tight, and, like
her sisters, was spiked, and her vent tamped tight. All this took but a
minute, and the next instant the guns were run up once more to the edge
of the cliff; and the men stood by them with their hands still on them.
A deadly silence fell on the men, and even the horses behind seemed to
feel the spell. There was a long pause, in which not a breath was heard
from any man, and the soughing of the tree-tops above and the rushing
of the rapids below were the only sounds. They seemed to come from far,
very far away. Then the Colonel said, quietly, "Let them go, and God be
our helper, Amen." There was the noise in the darkness of trampling and
scraping on the cliff-top for a second; the sound as of men straining
hard together, and then with a pant it ceased all at once, and the
men held their breath to hear. One second of utter silence; then one
prolonged, deep, resounding splash sending up a great mass of white foam
as the brass-pieces together plunged into the dark water below, and then
the soughing of the trees and the murmur of the river came again with
painful distinctness. It was full ten minutes before the Colonel spoke,
though there were other sounds enough in the darkness, and some of the
men, as the dark, outstretched bodies showed, were lying on the ground
flat on their faces. Then the Colonel gave the command to fall in in the
same quiet, grave tone he had used all night.