Long before the earliest robin had trilled its matin song, they had been on the move, their bristling bayonets glittering in the brilliant moonlight like the December frost, as with regular, even tread they kept on their winding way, knowing not if the pale stars watching their course so pityingly, as it were, would ever shine on them again. Onward,—onward,—onward still they pressed; over the hills, through the ravines, down the valleys, across the fields, till the same sun which shone so softly on their distant homes rose also over the _Federal Fly_, as it has been aptly termed, moving onward to the _Web_ which lay beyond, so well concealed and so devoid of sound that none could guess that the treacherous woods, wearing so cool, so inviting a look, were sheltering a mighty, expectant host, watching as eagerly for the advancing foe as ever ambushed spider waited for its deluded prey. Backward,—backward, stretched the Confederate army, line after line, rank after rank, battalion after battalion, until in numbers it more than quadrupled that handful of men steadily moving on. From out their leafy covert the enemy peered, exulting that the fortunes of the great Republic, their whilom mother, were so surely within their power, and pausing for a time in sheer wantonness, just as a kitten sports with the mouse she has already captured, and knows cannot escape. Onward,—onward,—onward swept the Federal troops; their polished arms and glittering uniforms flashing in the morning sunlight just as the flag for which they fought waved in the morning breeze. They were weary and worn, and their lips were parched with feverish thirst, for hours had passed since they had tasted food or water. But not for this did they tarry; there was no faltering in their ranks, no faintly beating heart, no wild yearning to be away, no timid shrinking from what the woods, now just before them, might hold in store, and when the whisper ran along the lines that the enemy was in view, there was nought felt save joy, that the long suspense was ended and the fray about to commence. * * * * *