. Martha Stevens. She would not leave
before the battle, though warned and warned again to do so. She said she
had an idea that she could help. She stayed, and wounded men dragged
themselves or were dragged upon her little porch, and within her doors.
General Cobb of Georgia died there; wherever a man could be laid there
were stretched the ghastly wounded. Past the house shrieked the shells;
bullets imbedded themselves in its walls. To and fro went Martha
Stevens, doing what she could, bandaging hurts till the bandages gave
out. She tore into strips what cloth there was in the little meagre
house--her sheets, her towels, her tablecloths, her poor wardrobe. When
all was gone she tore her calico dress. When she saw from the open door
a man who could not drag himself that far, she went and helped him, with
as little reck as may be conceived of shell or minie.

The sun sank, a red ball, staining the snow with red. The dark came
rapidly, a very cold dark night, with myriads of stars. The smoke slowly
cleared. The great, opposed forces lay on their arms, the one closely
drawn by the river, the other on the southern hills. Between was the
plain, and the plain was a place of drear sound--oh, of drear sound!
Neither army showed any lights; for all its antagonist knew either might
be feverishly, in the darkness, preparing an attack. Grey and blue, the
guns yet dominated that wide and mournful level over which, to leap upon
the other, either foe must pass. Grey and blue, there was little
sleeping. It was too cold, and there was need for watchfulness, and the
plain was too unhappy--the plain was too unhappy.

The smoke vanished slowly from the air. The night lay sublimely still,
fearfully clear and cold. About ten o'clock Nature provided a spectacle.
The grey troops, huddled upon the hillsides, drew a quickened breath. A
Florida regiment showed alarm. "What's that? Look at that light in the
sky! Great shafts of light streaming up--look! opening like a fan!
What's that, chaplain, what's that?--Don't reckon the Lord's tired of
fighting, and it's the Judgment Day?"

"No, no, boys! It's an aurora borealis."

"Say it over, please. Oh, northern lights! Well, we've heard of them
before, but we never saw them. Having a lot of experiences here in
Virginia!"--"Well, it's beautiful, any way, and I think it's terrible. I
wish those northern lights would do something for the northern wounded
down there. Nothing else that's northern seems lik