Never had the genius and resolution of the two
great Southern leaders burned more brightly.
As the brazen sun swung slowly up Dick felt that the intense nervous
excitement he had felt the night before was seizing him again. The
officers of the regiment remained on foot. Colonel Winchester had sent
their horses away to some cavalrymen who had lost their own. He and his
staff and other officers, dismounted, could lead the men better into
battle.
And that it was battle, great and bloody, the youngest of them all could
see. Never had an August day been brighter and hotter. Every object
seemed to swell into new size in the vivid and burning sunlight. Plain
before them lay Jackson's army. Two of his regiments were between them
and a turnpike that Dick remembered well. Off to the left ran the dark
masses in gray, until they ended against a thick wood. In the center was
a huge battery, and Dick from his position could see the mouths of the
cannon waiting for them.
But he also saw the great line of the Northern Army. It was both deeper
and longer than that of the South, and he knew that the men were full of
resolve and courage.
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