The fire of the Southern cannon and rifles was so deadly that nearly all the Northern artillerymen were killed around their guns.
The North again gave ground, seeking point after point for fresh resistance.

They rallied strongly around a building used as a hospital, and filled it with riflemen.

But they were driven from that, too, although they inflicted terrible losses on their enemy.
"We've got to stop this backward slide somewhere," gasped Pennington.
"Yes, but where ?" cried Dick.
Whether Warner made any reply he did not know, because he lost him then in the flame and the smoke.

An instant or two later the charging swarms of infantry and cavalry drove them into one of the woods of red cedars, where they lay shattered and gasping.

The smoke lifted a little, and Dick saw the field which he already regarded as lost.