They were to blaze the way for the army and they made a
far out-flung line, through which no hostile scout could pass and see the
marching army within. At the close of the day they were still marching,
and when the sun was setting Jackson stood by the dusty roadside and
watched his men as they passed. For the first time in that long march
they broke through restraint and thundering cheers swept along the whole
line as they took off their caps to the man whom they deemed at once
their friend and a very god of war. The stern Jackson giving way so
seldom to emotion was heard to say to himself:
"Who can fail to win battles with such men as these?"
Jackson's column did not stop until midnight. They had been more than
twenty-four hours on the march, and they had not seen a hostile soldier.
Harry Kenton himself did not know where they were going. But he lay down
and gratefully, like the others, took the rest that was allowed to him.
But a few hours only and they were marching again under a starry sky.
Morning showed the forest lining the slopes of the mountains and then all
the men seemed to realize suddenly which way they were going.
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