Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

CHARGE AND COUNTERCHARGE. 157 The whole squad did not ntimber two score, and at their head rode a youth of effeminate cast of coun- reel with sallow face and waving masses of black air Colonel Trafton gave a slight start as he caught sight of the slim figure that rode at the head of the Union troop. Merritt and Custer were falling back, and this squad of Unionists was evidently reconnoitering a bit on the flank, before following the rest of the army in retirement from the bloody field. Colonel Trafton needed but one glance at the leader of the Union troop to satisfy himself of the truth. ‘“Loyal Mose’’ was before him, and with but a handful of men. Now was the time to sweep his foe from his path forever. Every man in Colonel Trafton’s command beheld the Unionists at the same time, and a shout ran along the line as Colonel Trafton pointed with his sword toward the moving troop. ‘Yonder are the Virginia traitors! Forward, lads, and give them no quarter!”’ With a yell that would have done credit to a band of Indians, the cavalrymen dashed forward, and soon the crack of carbines rang loudly through the woods. Almost insane with joy at the prospect of crushing | his most deadly foe, Colonel Trafton galloped for- ward at the head of his troop, yelling like mad. Yells are not always deadly weapons, however. In this case they did not prove so. The squad of Unionists had discovered the enemy almost, if not quite as soon, as they had been discov- ered by the foe. T'wo-score of carbines were Suddenly leveled, and when the two hundred raiders dashed forward, a long | sheet of red flashed in their front, and two-score of guns awoke the echoes of the wood, Eomichboo cS ((0)