.

THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.
Dick, after eating the cold food which was served to him, sank into a state which was neither sleep nor stupor.

It was a mystic region between the conscious and the unconscious, in which all things were out of proportion, and some abnormal.
He saw before him a vast stretch of dead blackness which he knew nevertheless was peopled by armed hosts ready to spring upon them at dawn.

The darkness and silence were more oppressive than sound and light, even made by foes, would have been.

It numbed him to think there was so little of stirring life, where nearly two hundred thousand men had fought.
Then a voice arose that made him shiver.