Chapter IV Summary

Henry's brigade crouches among the trees at the edge of a grove and waits with their guns pointed ahead, trying to make out anything beyond the smoke. Some men came running out of the haze and the rumors and stories started to spread; the Rebels will be defeated in no time with the fighting that is going on here today. Then their tones change as a huge swarm of soldiers retreats with stragglers heading every which way. Bullets screamed over the heads of the men in the grove and their lieutenant took a bullet in his hand, carefully holding it away from his body so the blood wouldn't drip on his pants.

The men continued to swarm out from the battlefield amid catcalls and bullets whizzing by their heads. To the men in Henry's brigade, this was horror personified. Officers were...