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CHAPTER IX.

EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN—OUR ARMY ON THE DOUBLE QUICK—PURSUIT OF THE FUGITIVES—THE ENEMY's WORKS— A BATTLE ON THE FIELD—A "WOUNDED," AND NOT INJURED COLONEL—CARRYING THE WOUNDED—FORT MAGRUDER SILENCED—THE VICTORY WON—BURYING THE DEAD—STORY OF A RING—WOUNDED REBELS—A BRAVE YOUNG SERGEANT—CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS—A SOLDIER'S DEATH-BED—CLOSING SCENES—LAST WORDS.

THE next day the continuous roar of cannon all along the Imes of the enemy was kept up incessantly. "Nor did it cease at night, for when darkness settled over the encampment, from the ramparts that stretched away from Yorktown there were constant gushes of flame, while the heavy thunder rolled far away in the gloom." A little after midnight the cannonading ceased, and a strange silence rested upon hill and valley. The first dawn of day which broke peacefully over the landscape discovered to the practiced eye of Professor Lowe that the entrenchments*of the enemy were deserted; the rebels had abandoned their stronghold during the night and had fled toward Hichmond.

The news spread throughout the Federal army like lightning ; from right to left and from center