I am yours. You have
given your life to our cause--"
"I am but a soldier of fortune--"
"You are my soldier--you have given your life because I asked it. I give
you mine in return--"
"Swear to me that you'll love me always!"
She answered with a kiss.
"I swear it."
Again he clasped her in his arms and hurried from the house. The
twilight was falling. Artillery wagons were rumbling through the
streets. A troop train had arrived from the South. Its regiments were
rushing across the city to reenforce McGruder's thin lines on the
Peninsula. McClellan's guns were already thundering on the shores.
He hurried to the house on Church Hill, his dark face flushed with
happiness, his heart beating a reveille of fear and joy.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE PANIC IN RICHMOND
Richmond now entered the shadows of her darkest hour. Three armies were
threatening from the west commanded by Fremont, Milroy, and Banks, whose
forces were ordered to unite. McDowell with forty thousand men lay at
Fredericksburg and threatened a junction with McClellan, who was moving
up the Peninsula with an effective army of 105,000.
Joseph E. Johnston had under his command more than fifty thousand with
which to oppose McClellan's advance. It was the opinion of Davis and Lee
that the stand for battle should be made on the narrow neck of the
Peninsula which lent itself naturally to defense.
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