Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IN THE ENEMY’S HANDS. 451 blue-coat, not twenty feet from where Captain Chet- wood was firing his revolver into the foe. ‘‘Hold the Johnnies back. Give it to ’em—give it to ’em!”? Leaden pellets struck the trees, and pattered like tain-drops through the wood. Men were falling on every side. Ever and anon the wild, fierce screech was heard reverberating along the skies. “Hold them back, boys!—hold them back!?? An officer’s voice rang over the field. The fight was waxing hotter each moment. The Unionists had no thought of winning the vic- tory; only to hold the enemy in check for a brief time, until the army could form outside the confusion of battle and prepare to meet the foe in battle array. Captain Chetwood’s horse seemed to enjoy the ex- citement, and became imbued with the spirit of the contest, dashing forward into the thickest of the fray. This might be a commendable thing in the brute, but when the animal insisted on carrying the Yankee captain beyond the front, into the enemy’s lines, Captain Chetwood did not appreciate the steed’s bravery. In vain he jerked the rein. For a time the animal seemed crazy, and became utterly unmanageable. “T 50k out thar! Don’t go thar!’’ was the warning cry of a soldier. Chetwood was not anxious to ‘‘go thar, ” but his” horse dashed forward in spite of all his efforts to prevent. T’‘he horse had been hit by a bullet, and was crazed so that neither hand nor voice of the rider had any power to stay the animal’s movements. Beyond the Union line, directly into the muzzles of guns, the horse dashed, before the astounded cap- tain had time to throw himself from the saddle. Eomicbooks m a (G(0)