But Jackson was silent and listening.
The heavy rumbling reports--cannon shots--came again, but they were fired on their side of the river.
"Gentlemen," said General Jackson, "the enemy has begun the passage.
Those are our guns giving the signal to the army." Harry's pulses began to throb.

But, although fires flared up here and there, little was to be seen in the darkness.

Fortune seemed to have shifted suddenly to the side of the Union.

Not night alone protected the bridge builders, but a thick, impenetrable fog, rising from the river and the muddy earth, covered the stream and its shores.

The Southerners could not see just where the bridge head was and their cannon must fire at random through the heavy darkness.