“Dick,” he said, “it can’t be more than an hour till dawn.”

“Just about that I should say.”

“And the scene, that is as far as we can see it, is most peaceful.”

Dick made no answer, but stood a long time listening.  Then he said: 

“My ears are pretty good, George, and sound will carry very far in this silence just before the dawn.  I thought I heard a faint sound like the clank of a cannon.”

“I think I hear it, too,” said Warner, “and here is the dawn closer at hand than we thought.  Look at those cold rays over there, behind that hill in the east.  They are the vanguard of the sun.”

“So they are.  And this is the vanguard of the Southern army!”

He spoke the last words quickly and with excitement.

In front of them down the road they heard the crackle of a dozen rifle shots.  The Southern advance undoubtedly had come into contact with the Union sentinels and skirmishers.  After the first shots there was a moment’s breathless silence, and then came a scattered and rapid fire, as if at least a hundred rifles were at work.

Dick’s pulse began to beat hard, and he strained his eyes through the darkness, but he could not yet see the enemy.  He saw instead little jets of fire like red dots appearing on the horizon, and then the sound of the rifles came again.  Warner was with him and both stood by the side of Major Hertford, ready to receive and deliver his orders.  Dick now heard besides the firing in front the confused murmur and moving of the Union army.

Few of these troops had been in battle before—­the same could be said of the soldiers on the other side—­and this attack in the half-light troubled them.  They wished to see the men who were going to shoot at them, in order that they might have a fair target in return.  Fighting in the night was scarcely fair.  One never knew what to do.  But Thomas, the future “Rock of Chickamauga,” was already showing himself a tower of strength.  He reassured his nervous troops, he borrowed Dick and Warner and sent them along the line with messages from himself that they had nothing to do but stand firm and the victory was theirs.

Meanwhile the line of red dots in front was lengthening.  It stretched farther to left and right than Dick could see, and was rapidly coming nearer.  Already the sentinels and skirmishers were waging a sharp conflict, and the shouts of the combatants increased in volume.  Then the cold sun swung clear of the earth, and its wintry beams lighted up both forest and open.  The whole Southern army appeared, advancing in masses, and Dick, who was now with Major Hertford again, saw the pale rays falling on rifles and bayonets, and the faces of his own countrymen as they marched upon the Union camp.

“There’s danger for our army!  Lots of it!” said Warner, as he watched the steady advance of the Southern brigades.

Dick remembered Bull Run, but his thoughts ran back to the iron general who commanded now.