Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/100

 having fired a few shots, when it saw some of our regiments deploy for attack. Besides, the rebel battery posted on the top of Lookout Mountain pitched some shells at us, without effect. But from the same height the enemy could easily observe every one of our movements, and it occurred to some of us that the separation by nearly three miles of bad road of Geary's small force from ours was really an invitation to an attack under circumstances very favorable to the enemy. However, such was the disposition made by General Hooker, and all we could do was to surround ourselves by strong picket lines, well thrown out, to guard against a surprise. So we went into bivouac.

All remained quiet until about midnight, when we were disturbed by a few shots fired on our picket line. Then profound stillness again, which, however, lasted only about half an hour. Then very lively firing was heard in the direction of Wauhatchie. This evidently meant something more serious. We could not doubt that the enemy was attacking Geary in order to overwhelm him, and thus to break the line of communication we had established. Prompt action was necessary. The troops abruptly waked from their first and best sleep, tumbled out of their blankets with alacrity, and were under arms in a few minutes, ready to march. Night combats are apt to be somewhat uncomfortable affairs under any circumstances. Napoleon is quoted to have said that “the two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage” is the true test of the soldier's quality. To be called upon to fight when, as he feels, he ought to be permitted to sleep, and to fight, too, with a sensation of peculiar emptiness in his stomach, of dullness in his head, and of shiver in his back and limbs, and with a darkness surrounding him which prevents him from seeing the things he ought to see, and sometimes makes him see things which do not exist, is apt to