The fine uniform was stained and bedraggled.

Sherburne himself had lost more than twenty pounds and his face was lined and anxious far more than the face of a mere boy of twenty-three should have been.
"I think they'll press harder than ever," said Sherburne.
"Why ?" "The Shenandoah river, or rather the north fork of it, isn't far ahead.
They'd like to coop us up against it and make us fight, while their army under Shields and all their other armies--God knows how many they have--are coming up." "The river is bridged, isn't it ?" "Yes, but it takes a good while to get an army such as ours, loaded down with prisoners and spoil, across it, and if they rushed us just when we were starting over it, we'd have to turn and give battle.

Jupiter, how it rains! Behold the beauties of war, Harry!" The wind suddenly veered a little, and with it the rain came hard and fast.

It seemed to blow off the mountains in sheets and for a moment or two Harry was blinded.

The beat of the storm upon leaves and earth was so hard that the cracking of the rifles was dulled and deadened.
Nevertheless the rifle fire went on, and as well as Harry could judge, without any decrease in violence.
"Hear the bugles now!" said Sherburne.