ng. He, Warner and Pennington, for the lack of
something else to do, lay on the dry grass, whispering and watching as
well as they could what was going on in Sharpsburg.

Meanwhile Sharpsburg itself seemed a monument to peace. It was deep in
dust and the sun blazed on the roofs. Staff officers rode up, and when
they dismounted they lazily led their horses to the best shade that
could be found. Within a residence Lee sat in close conference with his
lieutenants, Stonewall Jackson and Longstreet. Now and then, they looked
at the reports of brigade commanders and sometimes they studied the maps
of Maryland and Virginia. Lee was calm and confident. The odds against
him--and he knew what they were--apparently mattered nothing.

He knew the strength and spirit of his army and to what a pitch it was
keyed by victory. Moreover, he knew McClellan, whom he had met at the
Seven Days, and he believed, in truth he felt positive that McClellan
would delay long enough for the remainder of Jackson's troops to come
up. Upon this belief he staked the future of the Confederacy in the
battle to be fought there between the Potomac and the Antietam. His
troops were worn by battles and tremendous marches. Jackson's men in
three days had marched sixty miles, and had fought a battle at Harper's
Ferry within that time, also, taking more than thirteen thousand
prisoners. Never before had the foot cavalry marched so hard.

The men in gray, ragged and many of them barefooted, slept in the woods
about Sharpsburg all through the hot hours of the day. Their officers
had told them that the drums and bugles would call them when needed, and
they sank quietly into the deepest of slumbers. From where they lay Red
Hill, a spur of a mountain, separated them from the Union army. It was
only those like Dick and his comrades who mounted elevations and who
had powerful field glasses who could see into Sharpsburg. The main Union
force saw only the top of a church spire or two in the village. But each
felt fully the presence of the other and knew that the battle could not
be delayed long.

Dick, in his anxiety and excitement, fell asleep. The heat and the
waiting seemed to overpower him. He did not know how long he had slept,
but he was awakened by the sharp call of a trumpet, and when he sprang
to his feet Warner told him it was about four o'clock.

"What's up?" he cried, as he wiped the haze of heat and dust from his
eyes.

"We're about to march," replied