Nevertheless he knew that the enemy would
come. Grant having set out to find his foe, would never draw back when
he found him.
A much longer period of silence than he had expected passed. The sun,
flaming red, was moving on toward the zenith, and no sounds of battle
came from either right or left. The suspense became acute, almost
unbearable, and it was made all the more trying by the blindness of that
terrible forest. Harry felt at times as if he would rather fight in the
open fields; but he knew that his commander-in-chief was right when he
drew Grant into the shades of the Wilderness.
When the suspense became so great that heavy weights seemed to be
pressing upon his nerves, rifle shots were fired in front, and
skirmishers uttered the long, shrill rebel yell. Then above both shots
and shouts rose the far, clear call of a bugle.
"Here they come!" Harry heard Ewell say to himself, and the next moment
the sound of human voices was drowned in the thunder of great guns and
the crash of fifty thousand rifles. The battle was so sudden and the
charge so swift that it seemed to leap into full volume in an instant.
Warren, a resolute and daring general, led the Northern column and it
struck with such weight and force that the Southern division was driven
back.
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