itadels, with the
rush of headlong charges, with daring raids in starless autumn nights,
with bivouacs in trackless Western forests, with desert-thirst in
parching summer heats, with winters of such frozen roofless misery as he
had never even dreamed--five years of ceaseless danger, of frequent
suffering, of habitual renunciation; but five years of _life_--real,
vivid, unselfish--and Bertie was a better man for them. What he had done
at the head of Eight Hundred was but a sample of whatever he did
whenever duty called, or opportunity offered, in the service of the
South; and no man was better known or better trusted in all Lee's
divisions than Bertie Winton, who sat now at the head of his regiment,
waiting Longstreet's orders. An aide galloped up before long.

"The General desires you to charge and break the enemy's square to the
left, Colonel."

Bertie bowed with the old Pall Mall grace, turned, and gave the word to
advance. Like greyhounds loosed from leash, the squadrons thundered down
the slope, and swept across the plain in magnificent order, charging
full gallop, riding straight down on the bristling steel and levelled
rifles of the enemy's kneeling square. They advanced in superb
condition, in matchless order, coming on with the force of a whirlwind
across the plain; midway they were met by a tremendous volley poured
direct upon them; half their saddles were emptied; the riderless
chargers tore, snorting, bleeding, terrified, out of the ranks; the line
was broken; the Virginians wavered, halted, all but recoiled; it was one
of those critical moments when hesitation is destruction. Bertie saw the
danger, and, with a shout to the men to come on, he spurred his horse
through the raking volley of shot, while a shot struck his sombrero,
leaving his head bare, and urging the animal straight at the Federal
front, lifted him in the air as he would have done before a fence, and
landed him in the midst of the square, down on the points of the
levelled bayonets. With their fierce war-cheer ringing out above the
sullen uproar of the firing, his troopers followed him to a man, charged
the enemy's line, broke through the packed mass opposed to them, cut
their way through into the centre, and hewed their enemies down as
mowers hew the grass. Longstreet's work was done for him; the Federal
square was broken, never again to rally.

But the victory was bought with a price; as his horse fell, pierced and
transfixed by the crosse