Then the guns on the Northern side ceased suddenly, bugles sounded, and the regiments, drawn up in line, rushed at the outer fortifications.
Colonel Winchester and his staff had dismounted, but Dick and Pennington, keeping by the colonel's side, drew their swords and rushed on shouting.

The Southerners inside the fort fired their cannon as fast as they could now, and at closer range opened with the rifles.

Dick heard once again that terrible shrieking of metal so close to his ears, and then he heard, too, cries of pain.

Many of the young soldiers behind him were falling.
The fire now grew so hot and deadly that the Union regiments were forced to give ground.

It was evident that they could not carry the formidable earthworks, but on the right, where Dick's regiment charged, and just above the little town of Dover, they pressed in far enough to secure some hills that protected them from the fire of the enemy, and from which Southern cannon and rifles could not drive them.