advance. Winchester's men welcomed their friends joyfully. But the
fresh troops could not stop the advance. The fire of the Southern cannon
and rifles was so deadly that nearly all the Northern artillerymen were
killed around their guns.

The North again gave ground, seeking point after point for fresh
resistance. They rallied strongly around a building used as a hospital,
and filled it with riflemen. But they were driven from that, too,
although they inflicted terrible losses on their enemy.

"We've got to stop this backward slide somewhere," gasped Pennington.

"Yes, but where?" cried Dick.

Whether Warner made any reply he did not know, because he lost him then
in the flame and the smoke. An instant or two later the charging swarms
of infantry and cavalry drove them into one of the woods of red cedars,
where they lay shattered and gasping. The smoke lifted a little, and
Dick saw the field which he already regarded as lost. Then there was a
renewed burst of firing and cheering, as a regiment of veteran regulars
galloped into the open space and drove off the Southern cavalry which was
just about to seize the ammunition wagons and more cannon.

Encouraged by the charge of the regulars, the men in the cedar wood rose
and began to reform for battle. Now chance, or rather watchfulness,
interposed to save Dick and his comrades from destruction. Rosecrans,
at another point, confident that McCook could hold out against all
attacks, listened with amazement to the roar of battle coming nearer and
nearer. His officers called his attention to the fact that save at the
opening there was no cannon fire. All that approaching crash was made by