Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/112

84 Berryville was reached, and here the Twenty-third was placed on picket duty. Toward dark the Confederates came up and opened a scattering fire, which gradually developed into a regular battle, lasting until after ten o'clock that night. This is one of the few contests fought after dark, and it is said that the flashes of gun and cannon fire, and the bursting of shells, made a more picturesque than deadly display. Few soldiers were hurt, and in the end the Confederates withdrew to the camp they had previously occupied.

As night closed in on the armies. Captain McKinley was directed to go out and take orders to the colonel of a regiment that had missed its proper station. The way was dark and uncertain, and presently the young staff officer found himself off the road and in the midst of a dense growth of underbrush.

"I scarcely knew what to do," he said, in speaking of this afterward. "I walked on a short distance, when a voice out of the darkness called, 'Who goes dar?' That was a Southern voice, and without reply I stepped back and took another