nd confused mass beyond it.

He saw something lying at his feet. It was a Confederate military cloak
which some officer had cast off as he rushed to the charge. He picked it
up, threw it about his own shoulders, and then tossed away his cap. If
he fell in with Confederate troops they would not know him from one of
their own, and it was no time now to hold cross-examinations.

He took a wide curve, and, after another mile, came to a hillock, upon
which he stood a little while, panting. Again he was appalled at the
sight he beheld. Bull Run and Donelson were small beside this. Here
eighty thousand men were locked fast in furious conflict. Raw and
undisciplined many of these farmer lads of the west and south were, but
in battle they showed a courage and tenacity not surpassed by the best
trained troops that ever lived.

The floating smoke reached Dick where he stood and stung his eyes, and
a powerful odor of burned gunpowder assailed his nostrils. But
neither sight nor odors held him back. Instead, they drew him on with
overwhelming force. He must rejoin his own and do his best however
little it counted in the whole.

It was now well on into the morning of a brilliant and hot Sunday. He
did not know it, but the combat was raging fiercest then around the
little church, which should have been sacred. Drawing a deep breath
of an air which was shot with fire and smoke, and which was hot to
his lungs, Dick began to run again. Almost before he noticed it he was
running by the side of a Southern regiment which had been ordered to
veer about and attack some new point in the Northern line. Keeping his
presence of mind he shouted with them as they rushed on, and presently
dropped away from them in the smoke.

He was conscious now of a new danger. Twigs and bits of bark began to
rain down upon him, and he heard the unpleasant whistle of bullets over
his head. They were the bullets of his own people, seeking to repel the
Southern charge. A minute later a huge shell burst near him, covering
him with flying earth. At first he thought he had been hit by fragments
of the shell, but when he shook himself he found that he was all right.

He took yet a wider curve and before he was aware of the treacherous
ground plunged into a swamp bordering one of the creeks. He stood for
a few moments in mud and water to his waist, but he knew that he had
passed from the range of the Union fire. Twigs and bark no longer fell
around him and that mos