It
is for my child. You will have a home at Lagunitas if you ever go
to California."
He discusses a few points of the movement of the morrow. There is
no extra solemnity in going under fire. They have lived in a zone
of fire since Sherman's pickets crossed the open, months ago. But
this supreme effort of Hood marks a solemn epoch. The great shops
and magazines of Atlanta, the railroad repair works, foundries and
arsenals, the geographical importance, studied fortifications, and
population to be protected, make the city a stronghold of ultimate
importance to the enfeebled South.
If the Northern bayonets force these last doors of Georgia, then
indeed the cause is desperate.
When midnight approached, Colonel Valois calmly bade his friend
"Good-night." Escorting him to his tent, he whispers, "Peyton, take
your coffee with me to-morrow. I will send for you."
Slumber wraps friend and foe alike. All too soon the gray dawn
points behind the hills. There is bustle and confusion. Shadowy
groups cluster around the waning fires long before daybreak. The
gladiators are falling into line. Softly, silently, day steals over
the eastern hills. Is it the sun of Austerlitz or of Waterloo?
Uneasy picket-firing ushers in the battle day.
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