Long after the battle was over, Dick’s heart beat hard with exertion and excitement.  But he shared too in the joy.  He would not have been human, and he would not have been young if he had not.  Warner and Pennington and he had collected four more small wounds among them, but they were so slight that they had not noticed them in the storm and fury of the battle.  Colonel Winchester had not been touched.

When Dick was at last able to sit still, he joined his comrades about one of the fires, where they were serving supper to the victors.  Shepard had just galloped back from a long ride after the enemy to say that they had been scattered to the winds, and that another surprise was not possible, because there were no longer enough Southern soldiers in the valley to make an army.

“They made a great effort,” said Colonel Winchester.  “We must give them credit for what they achieved against numbers and resources.  They organized and carried out their surprise in a wonderful manner, and perhaps they would be the victors tonight if we didn’t have such a general as Sheridan.”

“It was a great sight,” said Warner, “when he appeared, galloping before our line, calling upon us to renew our courage and beat the enemy.”

“One man can influence an army.  I’ve found out that,” said Dick.

They rose and saluted as General Sheridan walked past with some of the higher officers.  He returned the salutes, congratulated them on their courage and went on.  After a long while the exhausted victors fell asleep.

* * * *

That night a band of men, a hundred perhaps, entered the woods along the slopes of the Massanuttons.  They were the remains of the Invincibles.  Throughout those fatal hours they had fought with all the courage and tenacity for which they had been famous so long and so justly.  In the heat and confusion of the combat they had been separated from the other portions of Early’s army, and, the Northern cavalry driving in between, they had been compelled to take refuge in the forest, under cover of darkness.  They might have surrendered with honor, but not one among them thought of such a thing.  They had been forced to leave their dead behind them, and of those who had withdrawn about a third were wounded.  But, their hurts bandaged by their comrades, they limped on with the rest.

The two colonels were at the head of the sombre little column.  It had seemed to Harry Kenton as they left the field that each of them had suddenly grown at least ten years older, but now as they passed within the deep shadows they became erect again and their faces grew more youthful.  It was a marvelous transformation, but Harry read their secret.  All the rest of the Invincibles were lads, or but little more, and they two middle-aged men felt that they were responsible for them.  In the face of defeat and irretrievable disaster they recovered their courage, and refused to abandon hope.