March 29, 1865, the twelve-day campaign began. The cavalry swung out towards Five Forks, where Lee's right wing lay behind deep entrenchments. April 1, Sheridan attacked in force. Americans fought Americans with stubborn bravery on both sides. The issue was long in doubt. Sheridan and his staff were close to the firing-line, so that Tom had but a few hundred yards to gallop under fire when his general said to him: [Illustration: STATUE OF GEN. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN Sheridan Square, Washington, D. C. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York.] "Tell General Griffin to charge and keep charging." Griffin's order to his troops was so quickly given that it seemed an echo of the order Tom brought him. It was the boy's business to return forthwith and report upon his mission, but he simply couldn't do it. There were the Confederate lines manned with hungry soldiers in the remnants of their gray uniforms, the Stars-and-Bars flying above them. And there were battalions of blue-clad cavalry, men and horses in prime condition, straining to start like hounds upon a leash. Griffin's order was the electric spark that fired the battery. The men shouted with joy as they spurred their horses into a mad gallop. The shout was answered by the shrill "rebel yell" from the dauntless foe in the trenches. The charging column shook the ground. In its foremost files rode Second-lieutenant Tom Strong, forgetful of everything else in the world but the joy of battle. Musketry and artillery tore bloody lanes in the close-packed column. Men and horses fell in heaps upon the blood-stained ground. But the column went on. At dusk of that April day it poured over the parapets so bravely held. Even then the fight was not over. There was still stout resistance. The two armies were a mass of struggling men, shooting, stabbing, striking. The battle had become a series of duels man to man. Tom, pistol in hand, rode at a big Kentuckian, but the gray-clad giant dodged the bullet, caught his own unloaded musket by the muzzle, and dealt the boy a blow with its butt that knocked him off his horse and left him senseless on the ground.