A dozen cannon came into action, then twenty, fifty, a hundred and more, and the earth trembled with the mighty concussion.
Dick felt the surge of triumph.

They had yet met no answering fire.
Perhaps General Pope and not Colonel Winchester had been right after all, and the Confederates were crushed.

Awaiting them was only a rear guard which would flee at the first flash of the bayonets in the wood.
The great line marched steadily onward, and the cannon thundered and roared over the heads of the men raking the wood with steel.

Still no reply.

Surely the sixty thousand Union men would now march over everything.