Then from the rear of the marching lines suddenly came a burst of martial music.

The Northern bands, by a queer inversion, were playing Dixie: "In Dixie's land I'll take my stand, To live and die for Dixie.
Look away! Look away! Down South in Dixie." Harry's feet beat to the tune, the wild and thrilling air played for the first time to troops going into battle.
"We must answer that," he said to St.Clair.
"Here comes the answer," said St.Clair, and the Southern bands began to play "The Girl I Left Behind Me." The music entered Harry's veins.
He could not look without a quiver upon the great mass of men bearing down upon them, but the strains of fife and drum put courage in him and told him to stand fast.

He saw the face of Colonel Talbot grow darker and darker, and he had enough experience himself to know that the odds were heavily against them.
The intense burning sun poured down a flood of light, lighting up the opposing ranks of blue and gray, and gleaming along swords and bayonets.
Nearer and nearer came the piercing notes of Dixie.
"They march well," murmured Colonel Talbot, "and they will fight well, too." He did not know that McDowell himself, the Northern commander, was now before them, driving on his men, but he did know that the courage and skill of his old comrades were for the present in the ascendant.
Burnside was at the head of the division and it seemed long enough to wrap the whole Southern command in its folds and crush it.
Scattered rifle shots were heard on either flank, and the young Invincibles began to breathe heavily.

Millions of black specks danced before them in the hot sunshine, and their nervous ears magnified every sound tenfold.
"I wish that tune the Yankees are playing was ours," said Tom Langdon.
"I think I could fight battles by it." "Then we'll have to capture it," said Harry.
Now the time for talking ceased.

The rifle fire on the flanks was rising to a steady rattle, and then came the heavy boom of the cannon on either side.