the river?"--"At Williamsport
they told us there was a rebel spy got away this morning--galloped down
a cliff like Israel Putnam and took to the river, and if he was drowned
or not they don't know--" "No, he wasn't drowned; he got away, but he
was shot. Anyhow, they say he hadn't been there long enough to find out
anything."--"Wish _I_ could find out something--wish I could find out
when we're going to fight!"--"Low braidge!"--"That's a pretty big dam.
What's the troops over there in the field? Indiana? That's a right nice
picnic-ground--

'Kiss me good-bye, my dear,' he said;
'When I come back, we will be wed.'
Crying, she kissed him, 'Good-bye, Ned!'
And the soldier followed the drum,
The drum,
The echoing, echoing drum!"

Over on the Virginia side, behind the friendly woods paced through by
Ashby's men, the height of the afternoon saw the arrival of the advance
guard of that portion of the Army of the Valley which was to cover
operations against Dam No. 5. Later in the day came Garnett with the
remainder of the Stonewall Brigade and a two-gun detachment of the
Rockbridge Artillery, and by sunset the militia regiments were up. Camp
was pitched behind a line of hills, within the peninsula made by the
curve of the river. This rising ground masked the movement; moreover,
with Ashby between any body of infantry and an enemy not in unreasonable
force, that body worked and ate and slept in peace of mind. Six miles
down the river, over on the Maryland side, was Williamsport, with an
infantry command and with artillery. Opposite Dam No. 5 in the Maryland
fields beyond the canal, troops were posted, guarding that very stretch
of river. From a little hill above the tents frowned their cannon. At
Hancock, at Hagerstown, and at Frederick were other thousands, and all,
from the general of the division to the corporal drilling an awkward
squad in the fields beside the canal, thought of the Army of the Valley
as at Winchester.

With the Confederate advance guard, riding Little Sorrel, his cadet cap
over his eyes, his uniform whole and clean, but discoloured like a
November leaf from rain and dust and dust and rain, with great boots and
heavy cavalry spurs, with his auburn beard and his deep-set grey-blue
eyes, with his forehead broad and high, and his aquiline nose, and his
mouth, wide and thin-lipped, came Jackson. T