denly, bugles sounded, and the regiments, drawn up in line,
rushed at the outer fortifications.

Colonel Winchester and his staff had dismounted, but Dick and
Pennington, keeping by the colonel's side, drew their swords and rushed
on shouting. The Southerners inside the fort fired their cannon as fast
as they could now, and at closer range opened with the rifles. Dick
heard once again that terrible shrieking of metal so close to his ears,
and then he heard, too, cries of pain. Many of the young soldiers behind
him were falling.

The fire now grew so hot and deadly that the Union regiments were forced
to give ground. It was evident that they could not carry the formidable
earthworks, but on the right, where Dick's regiment charged, and just
above the little town of Dover, they pressed in far enough to secure
some hills that protected them from the fire of the enemy, and from
which Southern cannon and rifles could not drive them. Then, at the
order of Grant, his troops withdrew elsewhere and the battle of the
day ceased. But on the low hills above Dover, which they had taken, the
Union regiments held their ground, and from their position the Northern
cannon could threaten the interior of the Southern lines.

Dick's regiment stood here, and beside them were the few companies
of Pennsylvanians so far from their native state. Neither Dick nor
Pennington was wounded. Warner had a bandaged arm, but the wound was so
slight that it would not incapacitate him. The officers were unhurt.

"They've driven our army back," said Pennington, "and it was not so hard
for them to do it either. How can we ever defeat an army as large as our
own inside powerful works?"

But Dick was learning fast and he had a keen eye.

"We have not failed utterly," he said. "Don't you see that we have here
a projection into the enemy's lines, and if those reinforcements come it
will be thrust further and further? I tell you that general of ours is a
bull dog. He will never let go."

Yet there was little but gloom in the Union camp. The short winter day,
somber and heavy with clouds, was drawing to a close. The field upon
which the assault had taken place was within the sweep of the Southern
guns. Some of the Northern wounded had crawled away or had been carried
to their own camp, but others and the numerous dead still lay upon the
ground.

The cold increased. The Southern winter is subject to violent changes.
The clouds which had floated up without