"
The colonel obtained leave to go up the Rappahannock until nightfall,
but only his own regiment, now reduced to less than four hundred men,
was allotted to him. In truth his division commander thought his purpose
useless, but yielded to the insistence of Winchester who was known to be
an officer of great merit. It seemed to the Union generals that they
must defend the fords where the Southern army lay massed before them.
Dick learned that there was a little place called Sulphur Springs some
miles ahead, and that the river there was spanned by a bridge which
the Union cavalry had wrecked the day before. He divined at once that
Colonel Winchester had that ford in mind, and he was glad to be with him
on the march to it.
They left behind them the sound of the cannonade which they learned
afterward was being carried on by Longstreet, and followed the course of
the stream as fast as they could over the hills and through the woods.
But with so many obstacles they made slow progress, and, in the close
heat, the men soon grew breathless. It was also late in the afternoon
and Dick was quite sure that they would not reach Sulphur Springs before
nightfall.
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