He could not mistake Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St.Hilaire, both of whom were watching the progress of the battle through glasses, and he knew that the four young men who sat their horses just behind them were Harry, St.Clair, Dalton and Langdon.
As no further attack was made on the fort, and Colonel Winchester's troop remained stationary for the time, Dick kept his glasses bearing continually upon the Invincibles.

The glasses were powerful and they told him much.

He inferred from the manner in which the men were drawn up that they would charge soon.

Near them a battery of four Confederate guns was planted on a hill, and it was firing rapidly and effectively, sending shell and shrapnel into advancing lines of blue infantry.
A singular feeling took hold of him, one of which he was not then conscious.

He knew six of the officers who sat in the front of the Invincibles, and one of them was his own cousin, almost his brother.
He did not know a soul in the blue columns advancing upon them, and his hopes and fears centered suddenly around that little group of six.
The wood was filled with Southern infantry, as it was now spouting flame, and the battery continued to thunder as fast as the men could reload and fire.