by the havoc in the command.
He shouted an order to his men, which could not be understood in the
woods; but it was inferred when the men suddenly dismounted, and began
to lead their animals, placing them between themselves and the forest.

CHAPTER XVII

THE OVERWHELMING DEFEAT OF THE ENEMY

Sergeant Knox had marched the platoon of dismounted cavalry to a
position near the end of the road, in readiness to move to the
assistance of the train escort, as ordered by Lieutenant Lyon, when he
saw the enemy marching over the meadow towards the wagons. When Deck
realized the havoc made by the sharpshooters in the ranks of the
Confederate company, he suspended the command to move, and watched the
flow of events from the woods. He saw the enemy on the meadow drop upon
the ground, and those in the water remount their horses.

Leaving Life in command, with orders to move to the train if the enemy
approached it, he made his way over to the point where he could obtain
a better view of the troopers in the water. He found them wading in the
stream, covered by their horses. Butters was a great horse-fancier, as
well as a dead shot with his rifle, and had ordered his men by message
along his line not to kill the animals if they could help it.

"You are not doing as much execution among the enemy as you were,
Lieutenant Butters," said Deck as he came up with the head of the
sharpshooters.

"I am not, for the Cornfeds have made breastworks of their horses,"
replied the volunteer lieutenant. "I ordered my men not to kill the
poor beasts if they could help it."

"I think that was a mistake," added Deck.

"The hosses ain't Seceshers," replied Butters, not exactly pleased with
his superior's criticism.

"But every one of the horses is doing more soldier work than any of the
men; for he is saving his rider from certain death, and the soldiers
can't do that for each other," replied Deck, made somewhat earnest by
the tone of the commander of the sharpshooters. "I love and respect a
good horse as much as you do; and I sometimes think Ceph, the animal I
ride, knows as much as I do, and in his way more. Your men are the most
skilful with the rifle as a body I ever saw or heard of. But those
horses are not such as you raise in this part of Kentucky, or where I
came from. They are mean stock, and though I am sorry to do so, I must
order you to shoot the horses; for your compassion for the poor beasts
has brought the action to a stan