If he fell in with Confederate troops they would not know him from one
of their own, and it was no time now to hold cross-examinations.
He took a wide curve, and, after another mile, came to a hillock,
upon which he stood a little while, panting. Again he was appalled at
the sight he beheld. Bull Run and Donelson were small beside this.
Here eighty thousand men were locked fast in furious conflict. Raw and
undisciplined many of these farmer lads of the west and south were,
but in battle they showed a courage and tenacity not surpassed by the
best trained troops that ever lived.
The floating smoke reached Dick where he stood and stung his eyes,
and a powerful odor of burned gunpowder assailed his nostrils. But
neither sight nor odors held him back. Instead, they drew him on with
overwhelming force. He must rejoin his own and do his best however
little it counted in the whole.
It was now well on into the morning of a brilliant and hot Sunday.
He did not know it, but the combat was raging fiercest then around the
little church, which should have been sacred. Drawing a deep breath
of an air which was shot with fire and smoke, and which was hot to his
lungs, Dick began to run again. Almost before he noticed it he was
running by the side of a Southern regiment which had been ordered to
veer about and attack some new point in the Northern line. Keeping his
presence of mind he shouted with them as they rushed on, and presently
dropped away from them in the smoke.
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