Dick shouted with joy, too, when he saw the new troops.  The next moment the enemy was upon them, charging directly through a frightful discharge from the great guns.  The riddled regiments, which had fought so long, gave way before the bayonets, but the fresh troops took their places and poured a terrible fire into the assaulting columns.  And the great guns of the battery hurled a new storm of shell and solid shot.  The ranks of the Southern troops, worn by a full day of desperate fighting, were broken.  They had crossed the ravine into the very mouths of the Northern guns, but now they were driven back into the ravine and across it.  Cannon and rifles rained missiles upon them there, and they withdrew into the woods, while for the first time in all that long day a shout of triumph rose from the Union lines.

Another lull came in the battle.

“What are they doing now, Dick?” asked the Vermonter.

“I can’t see very well, but they seem to be gathering in the forest for a fresh attack.  Do you know, George, that the sun is almost down?”

“It’s certainly time.  It’s been at least a month since the Johnnies ran out of the forest in the dawn, and jumped on us.”

It was true that the day was almost over, although but few had noticed the fact.  The east was already darkening, and a rosy glow from the west fell across the torn forest.  Here and there a dead tree, set on fire by the shells, burned slowly, little flames creeping along trunk and boughs.

Bragg was preparing to hurl his entire force upon Sherman and the battery.  At that moment Beauregard, now his chief, arrived.  But a few minutes of daylight were left and the swarthy Louisianian looked at the great losses in his own ranks.  He believed that the army of Buell was so far away that it could not arrive that night and he withheld the charge.

The Southern army withdrew a little into the woods, the night rushed down, and Shiloh’s terrible first day was over.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIERCE FINISH OF SHILOH

Dick, who had been lying under cover just behind the crest of one of the low ridges, suddenly heard the loud beating of his heart.  He did not know, for a moment or two, that the sound came so distinctly because the mighty tumult which had been raging around him all day had ceased, as if by a concerted signal.  Those blinding flashes of flame no longer came from the forest before him, the shot and shell quit their horrible screaming, and the air was free from the unpleasant hiss of countless bullets.

He stretched himself a little and stood up.  The lads all around him were standing up, and were beginning to talk to each other in the high-pitched, shouting voices that they had been compelled to use all day long, not yet realizing to the full that the tumult of the battle had ceased.  The boy felt stiff and sore in every bone and muscle, and, although the cannon and rifles were silent, there was still a hollow roaring in his ears.  His eyes were yet dim from the smoke, and his head felt heavy and dull.  He gazed vacantly at the forest in front of him, and wondered dimly why the Southern army was not still there, attacking, as it had attacked for so many hours.