So he had evaded them.
Preoccupied, still conscious of the lingering sense of uneasiness, he turned on his pillows and looked out of the window.
An enormous cloud of white smoke rose curling from the river, another, another; and boom! boom! boom! came the solid thunder of cannon.

The gunboats at the Landing were opening fire; cavalry were leading their horses aboard transports; and far down the road the sun glistened on a long column of scarlet, where the 3rd Zouaves were marching to their boats.
The sharpshooters had already begun to trouble them.

Their officers ordered them to lie down while awaiting their turn to embark.

After a while many of the men sat up on the ground to stretch and look about them, Stephen among the others.

And a moment later a conoidal bullet struck him square in the chest and knocked him flat in the dirt among his comrades..