f every great
battle."

"We surely needed wisdom and everything else we could get at
Antietam--leadership, tenacity and the willingness to die," said Dalton,
the sober young Virginia Presbyterian. "Boys, we were in the deepest
of holes there, and we had to lift ourselves out almost by our own boot
straps."

Harry's face clouded. The field of Antietam often returned to him,
almost as real and vivid as on that terrible day, when the dead lay
heaped in masses around the Dunkard church and the Southern army called
forth every ounce of courage and endurance for its very salvation.

"Antietam is a month away," he said, "and I still shudder at the name.
We didn't think McClellan would come up and attack Lee while Jackson was
away at Harper's Ferry, but he did. How did it happen? How did he know
that our army was divided?"

"I've heard a strange story," said Dalton. "It's come through some
Union prisoners we've taken. They say that McClellan found a copy of
General Lee's orders in Frederick, and learned from them exactly where
all our troops were and what they intended. Then, of course, he
attacked."

"A strange tale, as you say, a most extraordinary chance," said Harry.
"Do you think it's true, George?"

"I've no doubt it fell out that way. The same report comes from other
sources."

"At any rate," said Happy Tom, "it gave us a chance to show how less
than fifty thousand men could stand off nearly ninety thousand. Besides,
we didn't lose any ground. We went over into Maryland to give the
Marylanders a chance to rise for the South. They didn't rise worth a
cent. I suppose we didn't get more than five hundred volunteers in that
state. 'The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland,' and
it can stay on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland, if that's the way you
treat us. I feel a lot more at home here in Virginia."

"It is fine," said Harry, stirring comfortably on the leaves and looking
down at the clear stream of the Opequon. "One can't fight all the time.
I feel as if I had been in a thousand battles, and two or three months
of the year are left. It's fine to lie here by the water, and breathe
pure air instead of dust."

"I've heard that every man eats a peck of dirt in the course of his
life," said Happy Tom, "but I know that I've already beat the measure
a dozen times over. Why, I took in a bushel at least at the Second
Manassas, but I still live, and here I am, surveying this peaceful
do