A reply came.
“I must have the guns in fifteen minutes.”
“Well,” Doc coolly remarked, “then he’ll have to take ’em by force, and I shall not be responsible.”
He was in the armory with less than forty men, only twenty-five of whom were members of the militia company; the others having fled there unarmed, for protection.
“Now boys,” said he, “we may as well settle down to work, for we are in for it, shor. Yo’ keep away from them windows, for any of ’em will be firing in here. I’ll go on top of the roof, and see what they’re doing.”
So saying he ascended through a scuttle, and took observations
General Baker was riding hither and thither, assisted by his aid, the Colonel of the same name. As he waved his gloved hand, and indicated their positions, the men immediately assumed them.
First, twenty-five or thirty men were stationed in front of the armory. The building, as has already been stated, stood facing the river, and the broad street before it was not less than one hundred and fifty feet in width.
Next, behind an abutment of one of the railroad bridges fifteen or twenty more were placed, and still further down the stream thirty or forty more. A continuous double line of cavalry encircled the entire square, while up the river’s bank, near and above the scene of the encounter of the young men and the militia company on the 4th, stood some hundreds more in reserve.