r heard what they said,
but he believed that they had discussed the possibility of a night
attack and then had decided in the negative.

When Jackson returned to his own force the twilight was thickening into
night, and as darkness sank down over the field the appalling fire of
the Union artillery ceased. Thirteen thousand dead or wounded Union
soldiers had fallen, and the Southern loss was much less than half.

All of Harry's comrades and friends had escaped this battle uninjured,
yet many of them believed that another battle would be fought on the
morrow. Harry, however, was not one of these. He remembered some words
that had been spoken by Jackson in his presence:

"We can defeat the enemy here at Fredericksburg, but we cannot destroy
him, because he will escape over his bridges, while we are unable to
follow."

Nevertheless the young men and boys were exultant. They did not look so
far ahead as Jackson, and they had never before won so great a victory
with so little loss. Harry, sent on a message beyond Deep Run, found
the Invincibles cooking their suppers on a spot that they had held
throughout the day. They had several cheerful fires burning and they
saluted Harry gladly.

"A great victory, Harry," said Happy Tom.

"Yes, a great victory," interrupted Colonel Leonidas Talbot; "but,
my friends, what else could you have expected? They walked straight
into our trap. But I have learned this day to have a deep respect for
the valor of the Yankees. The way they charged up Marye's Hill in
the face of certain death was worthy of the finest troops that South
Carolina herself ever produced."

"That is saying a great deal, Leonidas," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector
St. Hilaire, "but it is true."

Harry talked a little with the two colonels, and also with Langdon and
St. Clair. Then he returned to his own headquarters. Both armies,
making ready for battle to-morrow, if it should come, slept on their
arms, while the dead and the wounded yet lay thick in the forest and
on the slopes and plain.

But Harry was not among those who slept, at least not until after
midnight. He and Dalton sat at the door of Jackson's tent, awaiting
possible orders. Jackson knew that Burnside, with a hundred thousand
men yet in line and no artillery lost, was planning another attack on
the morrow, despite his frightful losses of the day.

The news of it had been sent to him by Lee, and Lee in turn had learned
it from a captured