anew. It seemed to their bloodshot eyes that the whole Southern army
was bearing down upon them. The Southern generals, skillful and daring,
were resolved to break through the Northern left, and the attack attained
all the violence of a convulsion.

The great Southern line, blazing with fire and steel, advanced, never
stopping for a moment, while the fire of their cannon beat incessantly
upon the devoted brigades. It was well for the Northern army, well for
the Union that here was the Rock of Chickamauga. Amid all the terrible
uproar and the yet more terrible danger, Thomas never lost his courage
and presence of mind for a moment. Dick saw him more than once, and he
knew how he doubly and triply earned the famous name which that day and
the next were to give him.

But the weight was so tremendous that they began to give ground. They
went back slowly, but they went back. Dick felt as if the whole weight
were pressing upon his own chest, and when he tried to shout no words
would come.

Back they went, inch by inch, leaving the ground covered with their dead.
Dick was conscious only of a vast roar and shouting and the continuous
blaze of cannon and rifles in his very face. But he understood the
immensity of the crisis. By a huge victory in the West the Confederacy
would redress the loss of Gettysburg in the East. And now it seemed that
they were gaining it. For the first and only time in the war they had
the larger numbers in a great battle, and the ground was of their own
choosing.

Elated over success gained and greater success hoped, the Southern
leaders poured their troops continually upon Thomas. If they could break