CONTENTS I. IN FLIGHT II. THE MOUNTAIN LIGHTS III. THE TELEGRAPH STATION IV. THE FIGHT IN THE PASS V. THE SINGER OF THE HILLS VI. MILL SPRING VII. THE MESSENGER VIII. A MEETING AT NIGHT IX. TAKING A FORT X. BEFORE DONELSON XI. THE SOUTHERN ATTACK XII. GRANT'S GREAT VICTORY XIII. IN THE FOREST XIV. THE DARK EVE OF SHILOH XV. THE RED DAWN OF SHILOH XVI. THE FIERCE FINISH OF SHILOHTHE GUNS OF SHILOHCHAPTER I. IN FLIGHTDick Mason, caught in the press of a beaten army, fell back slowly withhis comrades toward a ford of Bull Run. The first great battle of theCivil War had been fought and lost. Lost, after it had been won! Youngas he was Dick knew that fortune had been with the North until the veryclosing hour. He did not yet know how it had been done. He did not knowhow the Northern charges had broken in vain on the ranks of StonewallJackson's men. He did not know how the fresh Southern troops from theValley of Virginia had hurled themselves so fiercely on the Union flank.But he did know that his army had been defeated and was retreating onthe capital.Cannon still thundered to right and left, and now and then showers ofbursting shell sprayed over the heads of the tired and gloomy soldiers.Dick, thoughtful and scholarly, was in the depths of a bitterness anddespair reached by few of those around him. The Union, the Republic, hadappealed to him as the most glorious of experiments. He could not bearto see it broken up for any cause whatever. It had been founded withtoo much blood and suffering and labor to be dissolved in a day on aVirginia battlefield.But the army that had almost grasped victory was retreating, and thecamp followers, the spectators who had come out to see an easy triumph,and some of the raw recruits were running. A youth near Dick cried thatthe rebels fifty thousand strong with a hundred guns were hot upon theirheels. A short, powerful man, with a voice like the roar of thunder,bade him hush or he would feel a rifle barrel across his back. Dickhad noticed this man, a sergeant named Whitley, who had shown singularcourage and coolness throughout the battle, and he crowded closer to himfor companionship. The man observed the action and looked at him withblue eyes that twinkled out of a face almost black with the sun."Don't take it so hard, my boy," he said. "This battle's lost, but thereare others that won't be. Most of the men were raw, but they did somemighty good fightin', while the regulars an' the cavalry are coverin'the retreat. Beauregard's army is not goin' to sweep us off the face ofthe earth."