Colonel Winchester, his brows knitted and anxious, watched the fire of the cannon.

He confided at last to his favorite aide his belief that what lay behind the cannonade was more important than the cannonade itself.
"It must be a feint or a blind," he said.

"They fire a great deal, but they don't make any dash for the stream.

Now, the rebels haven't ammunition to waste." "Then what do you think they're up to, sir ?" "They must be sending a heavy force higher up the river to cross where there is no resistance.

And we must meet them there, with my regiment only, if we can obtain no other men." The colonel obtained leave to go up the Rappahannock until nightfall, but only his own regiment, now reduced to less than four hundred men, was allotted to him.