fatal thirtieth of August, Pope, self-deluded and
self-sufficient as before, dismayed his best officers by ordering
his sixty-five thousand men to be "immediately thrown forward in
pursuit of the enemy," whose own fifty thousand were now far readier
than on the previous day.

Then the dense blue masses marched to their doom. Twenty thousand
bayonets shone together from Groveton to Bull Run. Forty thousand
more supported them on the slopes in rear, while every Federal
gun thundered forth protectingly from the heights behind. The
Confederate batteries were pointed out as the objective of attack.
Not one glint of steel appeared between these batteries and the
glittering Federal host. To the men in the ranks and to Pope himself
victory seemed assured. But no sooner had that brave array come
within rifle range of the deserted railroad line than, high and
clear, the Confederate bugles called along the hidden edges of
the flat-topped Ridge; when instantly the great gray host broke
cover, ran forward as one man, and held the whole embankment with
a line of fire and steel.

A shock of sheer amazement ran through the Federal mass. Then,
knightly as any hero of romance, a mounted officer rode out alone,
in front of the center, and, with his sword held high, continued
leading the advance, which itself went on undaunted. The Confederate
flank batteries crossed their fire on this devoted center. Bayonets
flashed out of line in hundreds as their owners fell. Colors were
cut down, raised high, cut down again. But still that gallant horse
and man went on, unswerving and untouched. Even the sweeping volleys
spared them both, though now, as the Federals closed, these volleys
cut down more men than the cross-fire of the guns. At last the
unscathed hero waved his sword and rode straight up the deadly
embankment, followed by the charging line. "Don't kill him! Don't
kill him!" shouted the admiring Confederates as his splendid figure
stood, one glorious moment, on the top. The next, both horse and man
sank wounded, and were at once put under cover by their generous
foes.

For thirty-five dire minutes the fight raged face to face. One
Federal color rose, fell, and rose again as fast as living hands
could take it from the dead. Over a hundred men lay round it when
the few survivors drew back to re-form. Pope fed his front line
with reserves, who advanced with the same undaunted gallantry, but
also with the same result. As if to make this s