Once more the air was filled with the shriek of shells and the whistling of rifle bullets.

Men were falling fast, and through the rising clouds of smoke Harry saw the blue lines still coming on.
It seemed to him that they would be overwhelmed, trampled under foot, routed, but he heard Colonel Talbot shouting: "Steady, Invincibles! Steady!" And Lieutenant-Colonel St.Hilaire, walking up and down the lines, also uttered the same shout.

But the blue line never ceased coming.
Harry could see the faces dark with sweat and dust and powder still pressing on.

It was well for the Southerners that nearly all of them had been trained in the use of the rifle, and it was well for them, too, that most of their officers were men of skill and experience.

Recruits, they stood fast nevertheless and their rifles sent the bullets in an unceasing bitter hail straight into the advancing ranks of blue.
There was no sound from the bands now.