"The Virginians know their own ground and the lurking sharpshooters won't fire until they're sure of a safe retreat." But as they advanced the stinging fire became worse.

There was no Southern force in this part of the country strong enough to meet them in open combat, but there was forest and thicket sufficient to shelter many men who were not only willing to shoot, but who knew how to shoot well.
Yet they never caught anybody nor even saw anybody.

A stray glimpse or two of a puff of smoke was the nearest they ever came to beholding an enemy.
It became galling, intolerable.

Three more men were killed and the number of wounded was doubled.

The three colonels held a consultation, and decided to extend groups of skirmishers far out on either flank.
Dick was chosen to lead a band of thirty picked men who rode about a mile on the right, and he had with him as his second, and, in reality, as his guide and mentor in many ways, the trusty Sergeant Whitley.