The Long Roll

opposite bank the woods rose huddled, indistinct, and dream-like. The air was still, cool, and pure, a Sunday morning waiting for church bells. There were no bells; t

d hardly died when, upon the wooded banks o

d Stuart, at the Island, Ball and Lewis fords, were Cocke's Brigade and Hampton's Legion, and farther yet, at the Stone Bridge, Evans with a small brigade. Upon the northern bank of the Run, in the thick woods opposite Mitchell's and Blackburn's fords, was believed to be the mass of the inv

and waxed again. The First Brigade, nervous, impatient, chilled by the dawn, peered across its own reach of misty stream, and saw naught but the dream-like woods. Tyler's d

st crumb swallowed, they waited again, lying on the brown earth beneath the pines. The mounted officers, advanced upon the bank of the stream and seen through the mist, loomed larger, man and horse,

t the hills and woods across the stream. The Confederates kept their position masked, made no reply. The shells fell short, and did harm only to the forest and its crea

y of the driver with a startled curiosity. There was a sense of a sudden and vivid flash from behind the veil, and they as suddenly perceived that the veil was both cold and dark. This, then, was one of the ways in which death came, shrieking like this, ugly and resistless! The Ju

s,

r the battle send me the man you think wou

well

se of mounted men. "Black Horse, I reckon!" said the 65th. "Wish they'd go ask Old Joe what he and Beauregard have got against us!-No, 'taint Black Horse-I see them through the trees-gray slouch hats and no feathers in them! Infantry, too-more infantry than horse. Hampton, m

l Jackson. What troops

rginia

Fauquier Cary? I am glad to see you, sir. We never

f you, general. Magruder chanted your praises day and

arged, a smile came to his lips. His stiffly held, awkwardly erect figure relaxed, though very slightly. "I loved it in Mexico. I have never forgotten

in Virginia!" He laughed. "Dabney Maury's wedding in '52 at Cleveland, and Burnside happy as a king singing 'Old Virginia never tire!' stealing kisses from the bridesmaids, hunting with the harde

as God made it and a

efore this struggle's over, we'll agree on Satan. That firing's growing louder, I th

h readiness." He beckoned, and when Cleave came up, turned away with

e you,

, Fauquier

. I haven't asked. You've

light in his eyes. "By God, Fauquier, we'll win if st

ght. When you were a boy y

y hook or by crook, I'll get into tha

d most of his belongings in life. "I always liked you, Richard. Now don't you go get killed in this

'twould have broken his heart to leave

d. 'Why,' said he, 'you see it hurts his pride-and, beside, some one must cook. Jeames cooks.'" Cary laughed. "I left him getting up hi

heek. "Thank them for me when you

a Spanish nunnery. Maury Stafford

es

in the affair at Bethel.-What's this

took and opened the missive with his usual deliberation, glanced over the contents, and pushed Little Sorrel nearer to Fauquier Cary. "General," he read aloud, though in a low voice, "the signal officer reports a turning column of the enemy app

Au revoir-and laurels to us all!" With a wave of his hand to Cleave, he was gone,

behind; oak copse succeeded, then the up and down of grassy fields. Wooden fences stretched across the way, streamlets presented themselves, here and there gaped a ravine, ragged and de

rnfield. They stumbled over the furrows, they broke down the stalks, they tore aside the intertwining small, blue morning-glories. Wet with the dew of the field, they left it and dipped again into woods. T

ir. After all, there was something wide, it seemed, in war, something sweet. It was bright and hot-they were going, clean and childlike, to help their fellows at the bridge. When, near at hand, a bugle blew, high as a

d Allan, then, very soberly. "

ly, scrambled up the opposite bank, and fought again with the dewberry vines. "When the battle's over y

ran like schoolboys. A gray zigzag of rail fence, a little plashy stream, another hillside, and at the top

s,

r companies there, and with the 4th South Carolina and the Louisiana Tigers is getting into position across

ral Jackson's complim

rode down the column. "You're doing well, men, but you've got

e is no bagatelle. It beat hard to-day, and to many in these ranks there was in this July Sunday an awful strangeness. At home-ah, at home!-crushed ice and cooling fans, a pleasant and shady ride to a pleasant, shady church, a little dozing t

ping-jack, half liked and half distasted by the men. The need of some breathing time, however slight, was now so imperative that at a stake and rider fence, overgrown with creepers, a five minutes'

s, s

row it away! I should think you'd find that old flintl

otch on it for every Yank I kill. When we get back to Thunder Run I air a-goin' to hang it over the fireplace. I reckon it air a-goi

fin sharply. "It isn't re

. It air my stick, an' I air a-goi

he fence corner. "Throw that stick away, or I'll put you in the guardhouse! T

"An' if 't were Thunder

battle in a minute, and you want to be there, don't you? The lieutenant's right-that oak tree surely

the lieutenant sharply. "Do

somethin' brittle!" He put the thick sapling across his knee like a sword, broke it in twain, broke in their turn the two halves, and tossed the four pieces over the fence. "Thar, now! It's did.

nd continuous firing. Apparently Evans had m

they call it. The top of the hill is a kind of plateau, with deep gulleys across it. Nearly in the middle is the Widow Henry's house, and beyond it the house of the free negro Robinson. Chinn's house is on the other side, near Chinn's Branch. It's called the Henry Hill, and Mrs. Henry is old and bedridden. I don't know what she'll do, anyway! The hill's m

of the hill you'll see! They're thicker than bees from a sweet gum-they're thicker than bolls in a cotton-field! They've got three thousand Regulars, and fifteen thousand o

compliments, and

me upon the wounded of Evans's brigade. An invisible line joined with suddenness the early morning picture, the torn and dying mule, the headless driver, to this. Breathless, heated, excited, the 65th swept on, yet it felt the cold air from the cavern. It had, of course, seen accidents, men injured in various ways, but never had it viewed so many, nor so much blood, and never befor

wearing blue! We've been there-we've been in hell since daybreak-damned if we haven't! Evans all cut to pieces! Bee and Bartow have gone in now. They'll find it hell, jest like we did. Twenty thousand of them dressed in blue." A man began to weep. "All cut to pieces. Major Wheat's lying there in a little piney wood. He was bleeding and bleeding-I saw him-but I reckon the blood has stopped. And we were all so hungry. I didn't get no breakfast. There's a plateau and the Henry House, and then there's a dip and Young's Branch, and then there's a hill called the Mathews Hill. We were there-on the Mathews Hill-we ain't on it now." Two officers appeared, one on foot, the other mounted, both pale with rage. "You'll be on it again, if you

rses-the rest being killed-and conducted by wounded, exhausted, powder-grimed and swearing artillerymen. Imboden, in front, was setting the pitch. "-- --! -- --! -- -- --!" Jacks

by the Robinson House, and Ricketts and Griffin-Regulars by the Lord!-and the devil knows how many batteries beside playing on us with Parrotts and twelve-pounder howitzers like all the fountains at Versailles! The ground looks as though it had been rooted by hogs! No support, and no orders, and on the turnpike a bank of blue massing to ru

asion, Captain Imboden, that justified profanity. As for

land, cut by gullies, furred with knots of pine and oak, held in the middle a flower garden, a few locust trees, and a small house-the Henry House-in which, too old and ill to be borne away to safety, lay a withered woman, awaiting death. Beyond the house the ground fell sharply. At the foot of the hill ran the road, and beyond the road were the marshy banks of a little stream, and on the other side of the stream rose the Mathews Hil