seek shelter. The whole Southern column halted for a few
minutes, but recovered itself and advanced again.

The battle blazed up with a suddenness and violence that astonished
Harry. The air was filled in an instant with the whistling of shells
and bullets. He heard many cries. Men were falling all around him,
but so far he and Dalton were untouched. Heth, Davis, Archer and the
others were pushing on their troops, shouting encouragement to them,
and occasionally, through the clouds of smoke, which were thickening
fast, Harry saw the tanned faces of their enemies loading and firing
as fast as they could handle rifle and cannon. The Northern men had
shelter, but were fewer in number. The soldiers in gray were suffering
the heavier losses, but they continued to advance.

The battle swelled in volume and fierceness along the banks of
Willoughby Run. There was a continuous roar of rifles and cannon,
and the still, heavy air of the morning conducted the sound to the
divisions that were coming up and to the trembling inhabitants of the
little town who had fled for refuge to the farmhouses in the valley.

Harry and George had still managed to keep close together. Both had
been grazed by bullets, but these were only trifles. They saw that the
division was not making much progress. The men in blue were holding
their ground with extraordinary stubbornness. Although the Southern
fire, coming closer, had grown much more deadly, they refused to yield.

Buford, who had chosen that battlefield and who was the first to command
upon it, would not let his men give way. His great hour had come,
and he may have known it. Watching through his glasses he had seen long
lines of Southern troops upon the hills, marching toward Gettysburg.
He knew that they were the corps of Hill, drawn by the thunder of the
battle, and he felt that if he could hold his ground yet a while longer
help for him too would come, drawn in the same manner.

Harry once caught sight of this officer, a native of Kentucky like
himself. He was covered with dust and perspiration, but he ran up and
down, encouraging his men and often aiming the cannon himself. It was
good fortune for the North that he was there that day. The Southern
generals, uncertain whether to push the battle hard or wait for Lee,
recoiled a little before his tremendous resistance.

But the South hesitated only for a moment. Hill, pale from an illness,
but always full of fire and re