"Good news!" flashed through the ranks as they eagerly devoured the news of the battle of Iuka, with Rosecrans at the head.
"It was a daring attempt," Ralph read aloud to the eager group; "the account says that the Union forces attacked Price's men in a narrow front, with ravines filled with undergrowth, where it was difficult to maintaining a foothold, with but one battery, and with hosts against them, three to one. Yet they swept down the enemy, and fought till darkness overtook them, and in the night the Confederates beat a hasty retreat."
This { 137}news cheered the hearts of the boys in blue, and while they were giving vent to their joy in different ways, Ralph's heart was filled with a solemn thankfulness, for to him it seemed as if One above surely ruled their destinies.
HE beautiful { 138}autumn days grew shorter. Novembers blasts were keenly felt, even in that sunny clime, and the boys looked forward with dismay to a winter passed in inaction.
"Why, we'll have to fight to keep warm," jolly Fred Greene said to the comrades gathered round.
Old Bill had been in hospital for many months. Ralph visited him often, and the sick man's face would brighten, and his voice grow stronger,'whenever the boy came to his bedside. But he seemed to have lost interest in everything pertaining to this life. Ralph tried earnestly to induce him to talk of the events passing around them, but without success.
One morning early in November, when he went to pay his usual visit, the boy said:
"Bill, this is my first experience as a soldier. But you have seen plenty of service before?"
The sick man shook his head slowly, but made no reply. Ralph waited a few moments, and began to think his question had not been considered worthy of an answer, when Bill suddenly spoke:
"Yes, I have been out on the border fighting Indians, for years. How I detest the redskins. They seldom come out and give a man a fair show, but they just go on the warpath, and then it's skulk and lie in ambush, and burn sleeping villages, massacring women and children. Their mode of warfare don't suit me." And the disdainful curl of the lip showed what he thought of them. After a long pause, he resumed:
"Then I was in the Mexican War. I was quite a stripling then, and I fought under General Phil Kearney. He was a fighter, { 139}brave as a lion, and when he lost his arm not a man under him but would rather it had been his own arm shot away. He's one 01 General McClellan's most trusty officers. His experience is worth millions to younger men. How I'd like to see noble Phil Kearney!"