5 The Battle Begins

CHAPTER 5 The Battle Begins The men were stopped at the edge of a grove. They crouched among the trees, pointed their restless guns out at the fields, and tried to look beyond the smoke. Out of the haze they could see other men running. Some shouted and gestured as they ran. The men in Henry's troop watched and listened eagerly. They kept busy by talking about the rumors they had heard. "I met one of the boys from Maine," one of the men said. "He says his brigade fought the whole rebel army for four hours and killed

about five thousand of them. He says one more fight like that and the war will be over." The noise in front of them grew, and Henry and his friends were frozen into silence. They could see a flag waving angrily in the smoke. Near it were the blurred shapes of troops. A confused stream of men fled across the fields. A shell screaming like a storm went over the heads of the reserves. It landed in the grove and exploded, flinging brown earth and a shower of pine needles everywhere. Bullets began to whistle among the branches and nip at the trees. Twigs and leaves came sailing down. It was as if a thousand small invisible axes were flying at them. Many of the men had to dodge and duck their heads. The lieutenant of Henry's company was shot in the hand. He cursed so much that a nervous laugh went through the troop. He held his wound carefully so no blood would

drip onto his pants. Then the captain of the company wrapped a handkerchief around the wound. The battle flag in the distance waved about madly. It seemed to be struggling to free itself. The swirling smoke was filled with horizontal flashes. Men running quickly away from the fight appeared to come out of the smoke. They grew in numbers until it was obvious that the whole troop was fleeing. The flag suddenly sank down as if dying. Its motion as it fell seemed to be a sign of despair. The looks on the faces of the men running away scared Henry. He felt like nothing in the world would hold him still if he was given the chance to run. But the men in his troop had to hold their ground. They stood together as a group, shaking and growing pale. Henry had one little thought in the middle

of all this chaos. The monster that had made the other troops flee had not yet appeared. He decided to get a look at it. If he could do that, he thought, he might run faster than anyone else.