"Lieutenant Tompkins, you expose yourself needlessly," said Harry Smith, touching his officer on the sleeve. "The other officers do not stand constantly in front."
Oleah lowered the field-glass, through which he had been looking at the young captain in blue across the river, and with a sad smile turned toward the speaker.
"Harry," he said, "do you know who we are fighting, who those men are across the river?"
"No," said Harry, "only that they are enemies."
"Once they were neighbors, friends and brothers. That is the company commanded by my brother Abner and raised in and about our village. Every shot we fire, whose aim is true, drinks the blood of one who was once a friend."
"Once friends," said Harry, "but enemies now."
Harry, who at first could not brook to take up arms against the Stars and Stripes, had joined the Home Guards, under the belief that they were only to protect their homes. He found himself in the Confederate army as many others did, and determined to make the best of it.
Blood is thicker than water, and--in spite of the fierce hatred Oleah Tompkins had for the Northern armies--it was with a sinking heart that he entered into combat with Colonel Holdfast's regiment.
While McClellan's main body was pressing Garnett's army closely in front, and threatening each moment to cross the ford, a portion of two Indiana regiments crossed about three miles above the ford and came crashing down on the Confederate's right wing. In a few minutes the right flank of the rebels was turned and the Union soldiers, with wild cheers, dashed into the stream and pushed across to the opposite side. The whole rebel line began to waver. General Garnett, seeing the danger his army was in, rode gallantly forward, and strove to rally his panic-stricken men. It was in vain, and, in the midst of his useless efforts to turn the tide of battle, he was struck by a ball and fell dead to the earth. His fall completed the panic which had already begun.
Corporal Diggs, who had displayed a vast amount of coolness, as he lay crouched behind his tree shivering in every limb, was the first in his regiment to determine how the battle would go. No sooner had the right flank been struck by the Hoosier troops than, with far-seeing military judgment, he declared the day lost and, bounding to his feet, sprang toward his horse which was snorting and plunging in its endeavors to get away.