Author: Joseph Alexander Altsheler

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 9781230264813

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XLII THE DEVIL'S DEN The day came, the armies awoke, and, standing up, looked at each other. They were all there, or soon would be, one hundred and sixty thousand men face to face--ninety thousand for the North, seventy thousand for the South. The sun, slow and majestic, rose above the hills; its light in sheaves of red and yellow fell over the two armies. The brilliant rays lingered in the crannies of the rocks, and gilded the bodies of the dead. The night dews dried up, the vapours were gone, and the air felt pure and fresh. There was Gettysburg, looking from our lines like the peaceful country town it had always been before yesterday, with its trim houses and the red gold of the young sun shining on dome and cupola. The two armies gazed at each other curiously and without hostility. The fierceness, the bitterness, the hatred that marked this war in common with other wars, was not theirs. Such emotions were for the people behind them; their own, if they had felt them, had long since disappeared in the shock of battle. The soldiers on the opposite hill were enemies, veterans like themselves, worthy of respect; it was not for them to malign men who might soon prove themselves their conquerors. Shaftoe and I stood side by side. Neither had slept in that night between battles, but I did not feel the need of rest. I had forgotten such things in the deep satisfaction that followed the rescue of Elinor. We rubbed the vapours from our eyes and turned our faces to the west, where stood the Army of Northern Virginia, glittering in the sunlight. A bird alighted on a bush near us, and, unafraid of armies, began to pour out a stream of song. Shaftoe looked at him as he sung, full-throated, upon his bough, and repeated aloud: "0 for a beaker...