Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets.  The forest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid light over the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves and twigs.  The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas of the forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the two armies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other.

Harry’s horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtained another, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message to Ewell.  He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, and he shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle.  The smoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not see the combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burning trees lighted up a segment of the circle.

Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures, sitting on a log.  They were elderly men in uniforms riddled by bullets.  The right arm of one and the left leg of the other were tightly bandaged.  Their faces were very white and it was obvious that they were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand.

Harry stopped.  No message, no matter how important, could have kept him from stopping.

“Colonel Talbot!  Colonel St. Hilaire!” he cried.

“Yes, here we are, Harry,” replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice, thin but full of courage.  “Hector has been shot through the leg and has lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done as much for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by a bullet, which must have been as large as my fist.”

“And so for a few minutes,” said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, valiantly, “we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone.”

“And the Invincibles!” exclaimed Harry, horrified.  “Are they all gone but you?”

“Not at all,” replied Colonel Talbot.  “There is so much smoke about that you can’t see much, but if it clears a little you will behold Lieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and some three score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you, giving thorough attention to the enemy.”

“And is that all that’s left of the Invincibles?”

“It’s a wonder that they’re so many.  You were right about this man, Grant, Harry.  He’s a fighter, and their artillery is numerous and wonderful.  John Carrington himself must be in front of us.  We have not seen him, but the circumstantial evidence is conclusive.  Nobody else in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness with shell and shrapnel in such a manner.  Why, he has mowed down the bushes in long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down our men with them.  How does the battle go elsewhere?”

“We’re succeeding.  We’re driving ’em back.  I can stop only a moment now.  I’m on my way to General Ewell.”