“Gentlemen,” he said, “I want you to see your field of battle.  The enemy occupy that long ridge.  How shall we reach it?”

“I think, if we go at it straight from here, we shan’t miss it,” promptly judged Old Crumps, his red-oak countenance admirably cheerful and hopeful, and his jealousy all dissolved in the interest of approaching combat.

“Nor they won’t miss us nuther,” laughed Major Gahogan.  “Betther slide our infantree into thim wuds, push up our skirmishers, play wid our guns for an hour, an’ thin rowl in a couple o’ col’ms.”

There was a general murmur of approval.  The limits of volunteer invention in tactics had been reached by Gahogan.  The other regimental commanders looked upon him as their superior in the art of war.

“That would be well, Major, if we could do nothing better,” said Waldron.  “But I do not feel obliged to attack the front seriously at all.  The rebels have been thoughtless enough to leave that long semicircle of wooded knolls unoccupied, even by scouts.  It stretches from the front of their centre clear around their right flank.  I shall use it as a veil to cover us while we get into position.  I shall throw out a regiment, a battery, and five companies of cavalry, to make a feint against their centre and left.  With the remainder of the brigade I shall skirt the woods, double around the right of the position, and close in upon it front and rear.”

“Loike scissors blades upon a snip o’ paper,” shouted Gahogan, in delight.  Then he turned to Fitz Hugh, who happened to be nearest him, and added, “I tell ye he’s got the God o’ War in um.  He’s the burrnin’ bussh of humanity, wid a God o’ Battles inside on’t.”

“But how if they come down on our thin right wing?” asked a cautious officer, Taylor, of the Eighth.  They might smash it and seize our line of retreat.”

“Men who have taken up a strong position, a position obviously chosen for defence, rarely quit it promptly for an attack,” replied Waldron.  “There is not one chance in ten that these gentlemen will make a considerable forward movement early in the fight.  Only the greatest geniuses jump from the defensive to the offensive.  Besides, we must hold the wood.  So long as we hold the wood in front of their centre we save the road.”

Then came personal and detailed instructions.  Each regimental commander was told whither he should march, the point where he should halt to form line, and the direction by which he should attack.  The mass of the command was to advance in marching column toward a knoll where the highway entered and traversed the wood.  Some time before reaching it Taylor was to deploy the Eighth to the right, throw out a strong skirmish line and open fire on the enemy’s centre and left, supported by the battery of Parrotts, and, if pushed, by five companies of cavalry.  The remaining troops would reach the knoll, file to the left under cover of the forest, skirt it for a