e
than half its numbers, was borne back by an appalling weight.

Then hope deserted the boy for the first time. The Union was not to be
saved here on this field. It was instead another lost Manassas, but far
greater than the first. The genius of Lee and Jackson which bore up
the Confederacy was triumphing once again. Dick shut his teeth in grim
despair. He heard the triumphant shouts of the advancing enemy, and he
saw that not only his own regiment, but the whole Northern line, was
being driven back, slowly it is true, but they were going.

Now at the critical moment, Lee was hurling forward every man and gun.
Although his army was inferior in numbers he was always superior at the
point of contact, and his exultant veterans pressed harder and harder
upon their weakening foes. Only the artillery behind them now protected
Dick and his comrades. But the Confederates still came with a rush.

Jackson was leading on his own men who had stood so long on the
defensive. The retreating Union line was broken, guns were lost, and
there was a vast turmoil and confusion. Yet out of it some order finally
emerged, and although the Union army was now driven back at every point
it inflicted heavy losses upon its foe, and under the lead of brave
commanders great masses gathered upon the famous Henry Hill, resolved,
although they could not prevent defeat, to save the army from
destruction.

Night was coming down for the second time upon the field of battle, lost
to the North, although the North was ready to fight again.

Lee and Jackson looked upon the heavy Union masses gathered at the Henry
Hill, and then looking at the coming darkness they stopped the attack.
Night heavier than usual came down over the field, covering with
its friendly veil those who had lost and those who had won, and the
twenty-five thousand who had fallen.

CHAPTER VI. THE MOURNFUL FOREST

As the night settled down, heavy and dark, and the sounds of firing
died away along the great line, Dick again sank to the ground exhausted.
Although the battle itself had ceased, it seemed to him that the drums
of his ears still reproduced its thunder and roar, or at least the echo
of it was left upon the brain.

He lay upon the dry grass, and although the night was again hot and
breathless, surcharged with smoke and dust and fire, he felt a
chill that went to the bone, and he trembled all over. Then a cold
perspiration broke out upon him. It was the collapse afte