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Title: The Tree of Appomattox
A Story of the Civil War's End
Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
Posting Date: August 24, 2014 [EBook #17677]
First Posted: February 4, 2006
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX ***
Produced by Ken Reeder. HTML version by Al Haines.
THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR'S CLOSE
by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
This book, now in the public domain in the USA, was originally:
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1944, By Sallie B. Altsheler
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS, INC.
NEW YORK
FOREWORD
"The Tree of Appomattox" concludes the series of connected romances
dealing with the Civil War, begun in "The Guns of Bull Run," and
continued successively through "The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of
Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam," "The Star of Gettysburg," "The
Rock of Chickamauga" and "The Shades of the Wilderness" to the present
volume. It has been completed at the expense of vast labor, and the
author has striven at all times to be correct, wherever facts are
involved. So far, at least, no historic detail has been challenged by
critic or reader.
More than half a century has passed since the Civil War's close. Not
many of the actors in it are left. It was one of the most tremendous
upheavals in the life of any nation, and it was the greatest of all
struggles, until the World War began, but scarcely any trace of
partisan rancor or bitterness is left. So, it has become easier to
write of it with a sense of fairness and detachment, and the lapse of
time has made the perspective clear and sharp.
However lacking he may be in other respects, the author perhaps had an
advantage in being born, and having grown up in a border state, where
sentiment was about equally divided concerning the Civil War. He was
surrounded during his early youth by men who fought on one side or the
other, and their stories of camp, march and battle were almost a part
of the air he breathed. So he hopes that this circumstance has aided
him to give a truthful color to the picture of the mighty combat, waged
for four such long and terrible years.
THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
THE GUNS OF BULL RUN.
THE GUNS OF SHILOH.
THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL.
THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM.
THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG.
THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.
THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS.
THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX.
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side.
DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side.
COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton.
MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason.
JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant.
COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander.
COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles,
a Southern Regiment.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the
Invincibles.
ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader.
PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader.
WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy.
DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains.
GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics.
FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason.
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton.
TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton.
GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton.
BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla.
TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief.
SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer.
IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew.
AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess.
BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide.
JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana.
JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer.
DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School.
ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer.
JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South.
JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel.
JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer.
JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor.
WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner.
MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis.
HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond.
DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer.
VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer.
JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville.
CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville.
COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer.
CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer.
JOHN LANHAM, An Editor.
JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer.
MR. CULVER, A State Senator.
MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower.
ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator.
HISTORICAL CHARACTERS
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy.
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet.
U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander.
ROBERT E. LEE, Southern Commander.
STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General.
PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General.
GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga."
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General.
A. P. HILL, Southern General.
W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General.
GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General.
AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General.
TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader.
J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader.
JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General.
RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General.
JUBAL EARLY, Southern General.
WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General.
SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General.
LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop.
BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General.
NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader.
JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader.
GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General.
DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General.
W. T. SHERMAN, Northern General.
JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General.
P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, Southern General.
WILLIAM L. YANCEY, Alabama Orator.
JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards President of
the United States.
And many others
IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
BULL RUN
KERNSTOWN
CROSS KEYS
WINCHESTER
PORT REPUBLIC
THE SEVEN DAYS
MILL SPRING
FORT DONELSON
SHILOH
PERRYVILLE
STONE RIVER
THE SECOND MANASSAS
ANTIETAM
FREDERICKSBURG
CHANCELLORSVILLE
GETTYSBURG
CHAMPION HILL
VICKSBURG
CHICKAMAUGA
MISSIONARY RIDGE
THE WILDERNESS
SPOTTSYLVANIA
COLD HARBOR
FISHER'S HILL
CEDAR CREEK
APPOMATTOX
CONTENTS
I. THE APPLE TREE
II. THE WOMAN AT THE HOUSE
III. OVER THE HILLS
IV. THE FIGHT AT THE CROSSWAYS
V. AN OLD ENEMY
VI. THE FISHERMEN
VII. SHERIDAN'S ATTACK
VIII. THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND
IX. AT GRIPS WITH EARLY
X. AN UNBEATEN FOE
XI. CEDAR CREEK
XII. IN THE COVE
XIII. DICK'S GREAT EXPLOIT
XIV. THE MOUNTAIN SHARPSHOOTER
XV. BACK WITH GRANT
XVI. THE CLOSING DAYS
XVII. APPOMATTOX
XVIII. THE FINAL RECKONING
CHAPTER I
THE APPLE TREE
Although he was an officer in full uniform he was a youth in years, and
he had the spirits of youth. Moreover, it was one of the finest apple
trees he had ever seen and the apples hung everywhere, round, ripe and
red, fairly asking to be taken and eaten. Dick Mason looked up at them
longingly. They made him think of the orchards at home in his own
state, and a touch of coolness in the air sharpened his appetite for
them all the more.
"If you want 'em so badly, Dick," said Warner, "why don't you climb the
tree and get 'em? There's plenty for you and also for Pennington and
me."
"I see. You're as anxious for apples as I am, and you wish me to
gather 'em for you by making a strong appeal to my own desires. It's
your clever New England way."
"We're forbidden to take anything from the people, but it won't hurt to
keep a few apples from rotting on the ground. If you won't get 'em
Pennington will."
"I understand you, George. You're trying to play Frank against me,
while you keep yourself safe. You'll go far. Never mind. I'll gather
apples for us all."
He leaped up, caught the lowest bough, swung himself lightly into the
fork, and then climbing a little higher, reached for the reddest and
ripest apples, which he flung down in a bountiful supply.
"Now, gluttons," he said, "satiate yourselves, but save a lot for me."
Then he went up as far as the boughs would sustain him and took a look
over the country. Apple trees do not grow very tall, but Dick's tree
stood on the highest point in the orchard, and he had a fine view, a
view that was in truth the most remarkable the North American continent
had yet afforded.
He always carried glasses over his shoulder, and lately Colonel
Winchester had made him a gift of a splendid pair, which he now put
into use, sweeping the whole circle of the horizon. With their
powerful aid he was able to see the ancient city of Petersburg, where
Lee had thrown himself across Grant's path in order to block his way to
Richmond, the Southern capital, and had dug long lines of trenches in
which his army lay. It was Lee who first used this method of defense
for a smaller force against a larger, and the vast trench warfare of
Europe a half century later was a repetition of the mighty struggle of
Lee and Grant on the lines of Petersburg.
Dick through his glasses saw the trenches, lying like a brown bar
across the green country, and opposite them another brown bar, often
less than a hundred yards away, which marked where the Northern troops
also had dug in. The opposing lines extended a distance of nearly
forty miles, and Richmond was only twenty miles behind them. It was
the nearest the Army of the Potomac had come to the Southern capital
since McClellan had seen the spires of its churches, and that was more
than two years away.
Warner and Pennington were lying on the ground, eating big red apples
with much content and looking up lazily at Mason.
"You're curving those glasses about a lot. What do you see, Dick?"
asked Pennington at length.
"I see Petersburg, an old, old town, half buried in foliage, and with
many orchards and gardens about it. A pity that two great armies
should focus on such a pleasant place."
"No time for sentiment, Dick. What else do you see?"
"Jets of smoke and flame from the trenches, an irregular sort of
firing, sometimes a half-dozen shots at one place, and then a long and
peaceful break until you come to another place, where they're
exchanging bullets."
"What more do you see, Brother Richard?"
"I see a Johnny come out of his trench hands up and advance toward one
of our Yanks opposite, who also has come out of his trench hands up."
"What are they trading?" asked Warner.
"The Reb offers a square of plug tobacco, and the Yank a bundle of
newspapers. Now they've made the exchange, now they've shaken hands
and each is going back to his own trench."
"It's a merry world, my masters, as has been said before," resumed
Warner, "but I should add that it's also a mad wag of a world. Here we
are face to face for forty miles, at some points seeking to kill one
another in a highly impersonal way, and at other points conducting sale
and barter according to the established customs of peace. People at
home wouldn't believe it, and later on a lot more won't believe it,
when the writers come to write about it. But it's true just the same.
What else do you see from the apple tower, Brother Richard?"
"A long line of wagons approaching a camp some distance behind the
Confederate trenches. They must be loaded pretty heavily, because the
drivers are cracking their whips over the horses and mules."
"That's bad. Provisions, I suppose," said Warner. "The more these
Johnnies get to eat the harder they fight, and they're not supposed to
be receiving supplies now. Our cavalry ought to have cut off that
wagon train. I shall have to speak to Sheridan about it. This is no
way to starve the Johnnies to death. Seest aught more, Brother
Richard?"
"I do! I do! Jump up, boys, and use your own glasses! I behold a
large man on a gray horse, riding slowly along, as if he were
inspecting troops away behind the trenches. Wherever he passes the
soldiers snatch off their caps and, although I can't hear 'em, I know
they're cheering. It's Lee himself!"
Both Warner and Pennington swung themselves upon the lower boughs of
the tree and put their glasses to their eyes.
"It's surely Lee," said Warner. "I'm glad to get a look at him. He's
been giving us a lot of trouble for more than three years now, but I
think General Grant is going to take his measure."
"They're terribly reduced," said Pennington, "and if we stick to it
we're bound to win. Still, you boys will recall for some time that
we've had a war. What else do you see from the heights of the apple
tree, Dick?"
"Distant dust behind our own lines, and figures moving in it dimly.
Cavalry practicing, I should say. Have you fellows fruit enough?"
"Plenty. You can climb down and if the farmer hurries here with his
dog to catch you we'll protect you."
"This is a fine apple tree," said Dick, as he descended slowly. "Apple
trees are objects of beauty. They look so well in the spring all in
white bloom, and then they look just as well in the fall, when the red
or yellow apples hang among the leaves. And this is one of the finest
I've ever seen."
He did not dream then that he should remember an apple tree his whole
life, that an apple tree, and one apple tree in particular, should
always call to his mind a tremendous event, losing nothing of its
intensity and vividness with the passing years. But all that was in
the future, and when he joined his comrades on the ground he made good
work with the biggest and finest apple he could find.
"Early apples," he said, looking up at the tree. "It's not the end of
July yet."
"But good apples, glorious apples, anyhow," said Pennington, taking
another. "Besides, it's fine and cool like autumn."
"It won't stay," said Dick. "We've got the whole of August coming.
Virginia is like Kentucky. Always lots of hot weather in August. Glad
there's no big fighting to be done just now. But it's a pity, isn't
it, to tear up a fine farming country like this. Around here is where
the United States started. John Smith and Rolfe and Pocahontas and the
rest of them may have roamed just where this orchard stands. And later
on lots of the great Americans rode about these parts, some of the
younger ones carrying their beautiful ladies on pillions behind them.
You are a cold-blooded New Englander, Warner, and you believe that
anyone fighting against you ought to burn forever, but as for me I feel
sorry for Virginia. I don't care what she's done, but I don't like to
see the Old Dominion, the Mother of Presidents, stamped flat."
"I'm not cold-blooded at all, but I don't gush. I don't forget that
this state produced George Washington, but I want victory for our side
just the same, no matter how much of Virginia we may have to tread
down. Is that farm house over there still empty?"
"Of course, or we wouldn't have taken the apples. It belongs to a man
named Haynes, and he left ahead of us with his family for Richmond. I
fancy it will be a long time before Haynes and his people sleep in
their own rooms again. Come, fellows, we'd better be going back.
Colonel Winchester is kind to us, but he doesn't want his officers to
be prowling about as they please too long."
They walked together toward the edge of the orchard and looked at the
farm house, from the chimneys of which no smoke had risen in weeks.
Dick felt sure it would be used later on as headquarters by some
general and his staff, but for the present it was left alone. And
being within the Union lines no plunderer had dared to touch it.
It was a two-story wooden house, painted white, with green shutters,
all closed now. The doors were also locked and sealed until such time
as the army authorities wished to open them, but on the portico, facing
the Southern lines were two benches, on which the three youths sat, and
looked again over the great expanse of rolling country, dotted at
intervals by puffs of smoke from the long lines of trenches. Where
they sat it was so still that they could hear the faint crackle of the
distant rifles, and now and then the heavier crash of a cannon.
Dick's mind went back to the Wilderness and its gloomy shades, the
sanguinary field of Spottsylvania, and then the terrific mistake of
Cold Harbor. The genius of Lee had never burned more brightly. He had
handled his diminishing forces with all his old skill and resolution,
but Grant had driven on and on. No matter what his losses the North
always filled up his ranks again, and poured forward munitions and
supplies in a vast and unbroken stream. A nation had summoned all its
powers for a supreme effort to win, and Dick felt that the issue of the
war was not now in doubt. The genius of Lee and the bravery of his
devoted army could no longer save the South. The hammer strokes of
Grant would surely crush it.
And then what? He had the deepest sympathy for these people of
Virginia. What would become of them after the war? Defeat for the
South meant nearer approach to destruction than any nation had suffered
in generations. To him, born south of the Ohio River, and so closely
united by blood with these people, victory as well as defeat had its
pangs.
Warner and Pennington rose and announced that they would return to the
regiment which was held in reserve in a little valley below, but Dick,
their leave not having run out yet, decided to stay a while longer.
"So long," said Warner. "Let the orchard alone. Leave apples for
others. Remember that they are protected by strict orders against all
wandering and irresponsible officers, but ourselves."
"Yes, be good, Dick," said Pennington, and the two went down the slope,
leaving Dick on the portico. He liked being alone at times. The
serious cast of mind that he had inherited from his famous great
grandfather, Paul Cotter, demanded moments of meditation. It was
peaceful too on the portico, and a youth who had been through Grant's
Wilderness campaign, a month of continuous and terrible fighting, was
glad to rest for a while.
The distant rifle fire and the occasional cannon shot had no
significance and did not disturb him. They blended now with the breeze
that blew among the leaves of the apple trees. He had never felt more
like peace, and the pleasant open country was soothing to the eye.
What a contrast to that dark and sodden Wilderness where men fought
blindly in the dusk. He shuddered as he remembered the forests set on
fire by the shells, and burning over the fallen.
A light step aroused him and a large man sat down on the bench beside
him. Dick often wondered at the swift and almost noiseless tread of
Shepard, with whom he was becoming well acquainted. He was tall, built
powerfully and must have weighed two hundred pounds, yet he moved with
the ease and grace of a boy of sixteen. Dick thought it must come from
his trade.
"I don't want to intrude, Mr. Mason," said Shepard, "but I saw you
sitting here, looking perhaps too grave and thoughtful for one of your
years."
"You're most welcome, Mr. Shepard, and I was thinking, that is in a
vague sort of way."
"I saw your face and you were wondering what was to become of Virginia
and the Virginians."
"So I was, but how did you know it?"
"I didn't know it. It was just a guess, and the guess was due to the
fact that I was having the same thoughts myself."
"So you regard the war as won?" asked Dick, who had a great respect for
Shepard's opinion.
"If the President keeps General Grant in command, as he will, it's a
certainty, but it will take a long time yet. We can't force those
trenches down there. Remember what Cold Harbor cost us."
Dick shuddered.
"I remember it," he said.
"It would be worse if we tried to storm Lee's lines. After Cold Harbor
the general won't attempt it, and I see a long wait here. But we can
afford it. The South grows steadily weaker. Our blockade clamps like
a steel band, and presses tighter and tighter all the time. Food is
scarce in the Confederacy. So is ammunition. They receive no
recruits, and every day the army of Lee is smaller in numbers than it
was the day before."
"You go into Richmond, Mr. Shepard. I've heard from high officers that
you do. How do they feel there with our army only about twenty miles
away?"
"They're quiet and seem to be confident, but I believe they know their
danger."
"Have you by any chance seen or heard of my cousin, Harry Kenton, who
is a lieutenant on the staff of the Southern commander-in-chief?"
Shepard smiled, as if the question brought memories that pleased him.
"A fine youth," he said. "Yes, I've seen him more than once. I'm free
to tell you, Lieutenant Mason, that I know a lot about this rebel
cousin of yours. He and I have come into conflict on several
occasions, and I did not win every time."
"Nobody could beat Harry always," exclaimed Dick with youthful loyalty.
"He was always the strongest and most active among us, and the best in
forest and water. He could hunt and fish and trail like the scouts of
our border days."
"I found him in full possession of all these qualities and he used them
against me. I should grieve if that cousin of yours were to fall, Mr.
Mason. I want to know him still better after the war."
Dick would have asked further questions about the encounters between
Harry and the spy, but he judged that Shepard did not care to answer
them, and he forbore. Yet the man aroused the most intense curiosity
in him. There were spies and spies, and Shepard was one of them, but he
was not like the others. He was unquestionably a man of great mental
power. His calm, steady gaze and his words to the point showed it. No
one patronized Shepard.
"I should like to go into Richmond with you some dark night," said
Dick, who hid a strong spirit of adventure under his quiet exterior.
"You're not serious, Lieutenant Mason?"
"I wasn't, maybe, when I began to say it, but I believe I am now. Why
shouldn't I be curious about Richmond, a place that great armies have
been trying to take for three years? Just at present it's the center
of the world to me in interest."
"You must not think of such a thing, Mr. Mason. Detection means
certain death."
"No more for me than for you."
"But I have had a long experience and I have resources of which you
can't know. Don't think of it again, Mr. Mason."
"I was merely jesting. I won't," said Dick.
He involuntarily looked toward the point beyond the horizon where
Richmond lay, and Shepard meanwhile studied him closely. Young Mason
had not come much under his notice until lately, but now he began to
interest the spy greatly. Shepard observed what a strong, well-built
young fellow he was, tall and slender but extremely muscular. He also
bore a marked resemblance to his cousin, Harry Kenton, and such was the
quality of Shepard that the likeness strongly recommended Dick to him.
Moreover, he read the lurking thought that persisted in Dick's mind.
"You mustn't dream of such a thing as entering Richmond, Mr. Mason," he
said.
"It was just a passing thought. But aren't you going in again?"
"Later on, no doubt, but not just now. I understand that we're
planning some movement. I don't know what it is, but I'm to wait here
until it's over. Good-by, Mr. Mason. Since things are closing in it's
possible that you and I will see more of each other than before."
"Of course, when I'm personally conducted by you on that trip into
Richmond."
Shepard, who had left the portico, turned and shook a warning finger.
"Dismiss that absolutely and forever from your mind, Mr. Mason," he
said.
Dick laughed, and watched the stalwart figure of the spy as he strode
away. Again the singular ease and lightness of his step struck him. To
the lad's fancy the grass did not bend under his feet. Upon Dick as
upon Harry, Shepard made the impression of power, not only of strength
but of subtlety and courage.
"I'm glad that man's on our side," said Dick to himself, as Shepard's
figure disappeared among the trees. Then he left the portico and went
down in the valley to Colonel Winchester's regiment, where he was
received with joyous shouts by several young men, including Warner and
Pennington, who had gone on before. Colonel Winchester himself smiled
and nodded, and Dick saluted respectfully.
The Winchesters, as they loved to call themselves, were faring well at
this particular time. Like the Invincibles on the other side, this
regiment had been decimated and filled up again several times. It had
lost heavily in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania, but its colonel
had escaped without serious hurt and had received special mention for
gallantry and coolness. It had been cut up once more at Cold Harbor,
and because of its great services and losses it was permitted to remain
a while in the rear as a reserve, and obtain the rest it needed so
sorely.
The brave youths were recovering fast from their wounds and exertions.
Their camp was beside a clear brook and there were tents for the
officers, though they were but seldom used, most of them, unless it
should be raining, preferring to sleep in their blankets under the
trees. The water was good to drink, and farther down were several deep
pools in which they bathed. Food, as usual in the Northern army, was
good and plentiful, and for the Winchesters it seemed more a period of
play than of war.
"What did you see at the house, Dick?" asked Colonel Winchester.
"The spy, Shepard. I talked a while with him. He says the Confederacy
is growing weaker every day, but if we try to storm Lee's lines we'll
be cut to pieces."
"I think he's right in both respects, although I feel sure that some
kind of a movement will soon be attempted. But Dick, a mail from the
west has arrived and here is a letter for you."
He handed the lad a large square envelope, addressed in tall, slanting
script, and Dick knew at once that it was from his mother. He seized
it eagerly, and Colonel Winchester, suppressing the wish to know what
was inside, turned away.
* * * *
I have not heard from my dearest boy since the terrible battles in the
east [Mrs. Mason wrote], but I hope and pray that you have come safely
through them. You have escaped so many dangers that I feel you must
escape all the rest. The news reaches us that the fighting in Virginia
has been of the most dreadful character, but when it arrives in
Pendleton it has two meanings. Those of our little town who are for
the Confederacy say General Grant's losses have been so enormous that
he can go no farther, and that the last and greatest effort of the
North has failed.
Those who sympathize with the Union say General Lee has been reduced so
greatly that he must be crushed soon and with him the Confederacy. As
you know, I wish the latter to be true, but I suspect that the truth is
somewhere between the two statements.
But the truth either way brings me great grief. I cannot hate the
Southern people. We are Southern ourselves in all save this war, and,
although our dear little town is divided in feeling, I have received
nothing but kindness from those on the other side. Dr. Russell often
asks about you. He says you were the best Latin scholar in the
Academy, and he expects you to have a great future, as a learned man,
after the war. He speaks oftenest of you and Harry Kenton, and I
believe that you two were his favorite pupils. He says that Harry's is
the best mathematical mind he has ever found in his long years of
teaching.
Your room remains just as it was when you left. Juliana brushes and
airs it every day, and expects at any time to see her young Master Dick
come riding home. She keeps in her mind two pictures of you,
absolutely unlike. In one of these pictures you are a great officer,
carrying much of the war's weight on your shoulders, consulted
continually by General Grant, who goes wrong only when he fails to take
your advice. In the other you are a little boy whom she alternately
scolds and pets. And it may be that I am somewhat like Juliana in this
respect.
The garden is very fine this year. The vegetables were never more
plentiful, and never of a finer quality. I wish you were here for your
share. It must be a trial to have to eat hard crackers and tough beef
and pork day after day. I should think that you would grow to hate the
sight of them. Sam, the colored man who has been with us so long, has
proved as faithful and trustworthy as Juliana. He makes a most
excellent farmer, and the yield of corn in the bottom land is going to
be amazing.
They say that since the Federal successes in the West the operations of
Skelly's band of guerrillas have become bolder, but he has not
threatened Pendleton again. They say also that a little farther south
a band of like character, who call themselves Southern, under a man
named Slade, are ravaging, but I suppose that you, who see great
generals and great armies daily, are not much concerned about outlaws.
Always keep your feet dry and warm if you can, and never fail to spread
a blanket between you and the damp grass. Give my respects to Colonel
Winchester. Tell him that we hear of him now and then in Kentucky and
that we hear only good. Don't forget about the blanket.
* * * *
There was more, but it was these passages over which Dick lingered
longest.
He read the letter three times--letters were rare in those years, and
men prized them highly--and put it away in his strongest pocket.
Colonel Winchester was standing by the edge of the brook, and Dick,
saluting him, said:
"My mother wishes me to deliver to you her respects and best wishes."
A flush showed through the tan of the colonel's face, and Dick,
noticing it, was startled by a sudden thought. At first his feeling
was jealousy, but it passed in an instant, never to come again. There
was no finer man in the world than Colonel Winchester.
"She is well," he added, "and affairs could go no better at Pendleton."
"I am glad," said Colonel Winchester simply. Then he turned to a man
with very broad shoulders and asked:
"How are the new lads coming on?"
"Very well, sir," replied Sergeant Daniel Whitley. "Some of 'em are a
little awkward yet, and a few are suffering from change of water, but
they're good boys and we can depend on 'em, sir, when the time comes."
"Especially since you have been thrashing 'em into shape for so many
days, sergeant."
"Thank you, sir."
An orderly came with a message for Colonel Winchester, who left at
once, but Dick and the sergeant, his faithful comrade and teacher,
stood beside the stream. They could easily see the bathers farther
down, splashing in the water, pulling one another under, and, now and
then, hurling a man bodily into the pool. They were all boys to the
veteran. Many of them had been trained by him, and his attitude toward
them was that of a school teacher toward his pupils.
"You have ears that hear everything, sergeant," said Dick. "What is
this new movement that I've heard two or three men speak of? Something
sudden they say."
"I've heard too," replied Sergeant Whitley, "but I can't guess it.
Whatever it is, though, it's coming soon. There's a lot of work going
on at a point farther down the line, but it's kept a secret from the
rest of us here."
The sergeant went away presently, and Dick, going down stream, joined
some other young officers in a pool. He lay on the bank afterward,
but, shortly after dark, Colonel Winchester returned, gave an order,
and the whole regiment marched away in the dusk. Dick felt sure that
the event Sergeant Whitley had predicted was about to happen, but the
colonel gave no hint of its nature, and he continued to wonder, as they
advanced steadily in the dusk.
CHAPTER II
THE WOMAN AT THE HOUSE
The men marched on for a long time, and, after a while, they heard the
hum of many voices and the restless movements that betokened the
presence of numerous troops. Dick, who had dismounted, walked forward
a little distance with Colonel Winchester, and, in the moonlight, he
was able to see that a large division of the army was gathered near,
resting on its arms. It was obvious that the important movement, of
which he had been hearing so much, was at hand, but the colonel
volunteered nothing concerning its nature.
The troops were allowed to lie down, and, with the calmness that comes
of long experience, they soon fell asleep. But the officers waited and
watched, and Dick saw other regiments arriving. Warner, who had pushed
through some bushes, came back and said in a whisper:
"I've seen a half-dozen great mounds of fresh earth."
"Earth taken out to make a trench, no doubt," said Dick.
But Warner shook his head.
"There's too much of it," he said, "and it's been carried too far to
the rear. In my opinion extensive mining operations have been going on
here."
"For what?" asked Pennington. "Not for silver or gold. We're no
treasure hunters, and besides, there's none here."
Warner shook his head again.
"I don't know," he replied, "but I'm quite sure that it has something
to do, perhaps all to do, with the movement now at hand. To the right
of us, regiments, including several of colored troops, are already
forming in line of battle, and I've no doubt our turn will come before
long."
"We must be intending to make an attack," said Dick, "but I don't
suppose we'll move until day."
He had learned long since that night attacks were very risky. Friend
was likely to fire into friend and the dusk and confusion invariably
forbade victory. But the faculties that create anxiety and alarm had
been dulled for the time by immense exertions and dangers, and he
placidly awaited the event, whatever it might be.
"What time is it?" asked Pennington.
"Half past three in the morning," replied Dick, who was able to see the
face of his watch.
"Not such a long wait then. Day comes early this time of the year."
"You lads can sit down and make yourselves comfortable," said Colonel
Winchester. "It's desirable for you to be as fresh as possible when
you're wanted. I'm glad to see the men sleeping. They'll receive a
signal in ample time."
The young officers followed his suggestion, but they kept very wide
awake, talking for a little while in whispers and then sinking away
into silence. The noise from the massed troops near them decreased
also and Dick's curiosity began to grow again. He stood up, but he saw
no movement, nothing to indicate the nature of any coming event. He
looked at his watch again. Dawn was almost at hand. A narrow band of
gray would soon rim the eastern hills. An aide arrived, gave a
dispatch to Colonel Winchester, and quickly passed on.
The men were awakened and stood up, shaking the sleep from their eyes
and then, through habit, looking to their arms and ammunition. The
thread of gray showed in the east.
"Whatever it is, it will come soon," whispered Warner to Dick.
The gray thread broadened and became a ribbon of silver. The silver,
as it widened, was shot through with pink and red and yellow, the
colors of the morning. Dick caught a glimpse of massed bayonets near
him, and of the Southern trenches rising slowly out of the dusk not far
away. Then the earth rocked.
He felt a sudden violent and convulsive movement that nearly threw him
from his feet, and the whole world in front of him blazed with fire, as
if a volcano, after a long silence, had burst suddenly into furious
activity. Black objects, the bodies of men, were borne upon the mass
of shooting flames, and the roar was so tremendous that it was heard
thirty miles away.
Dick had been expecting something, but no such red dawn as this, and
when the fires suddenly sank, and the world-shaking crash turned to
echoes he stood for a few moments appalled. He believed at first that
a magazine had exploded, but, as the dawn was rapidly advancing, he
beheld in front of them, where Southern breastworks had stood, a vast
pit two or three hundred feet long and more than thirty feet deep. At
the bottom of it, although they could not be seen through the smoke,
lay the fragments of Confederate cannon and Confederate soldiers who
had been blown to pieces.
"A mine breaking the rebel line!" cried Warner, "and our men are to
charge through it!"
Trumpets were already sounding their thrilling call, and blue masses,
before the smoke had lifted, were rushing into the pit, intending to
climb the far side and sever the Southern line. But Colonel Winchester
did not yet give the word to his own regiment, and Dick knew that they
were to be held in reserve.
Into the great chasm went white troops and black troops, charging
together, and then Dick suddenly cried in horror. Those were veterans
on the other side, and, recovering quickly from the surprise, they
rushed forward their batteries and riflemen. Mahone, a little, alert
man, commanded them, and in an instant they deluged the pit, afterward
famous under the name of "The Crater," with fire. The steep slope held
back the Union troops and from the edges everywhere the men in gray
poured a storm of shrapnel and canister and bullets into the packed
masses.
Colonel Winchester groaned aloud, and looked at his men who were eager
to advance to the rescue, but it was evident to Dick that his orders
held him, and they stood in silence gazing at the appalling scene in
the crater. A tunnel had been run directly under the Confederates, and
then a huge mine had been exploded. All that part was successful, but
the Union army had made a deep pit, more formidable than the earthwork
itself.
Never had men created a more terrible trap for themselves. The name,
the crater, was well deserved. It was a seething pit of death filled
with smoke, and from which came shouts and cries as the rim of it
blazed with the fire of those who were pouring in such a stream of
metal. Inside the pit the men could only cower low in the hope that the
hurricane of missiles would pass over their heads.
"Good God!" cried Dick. "Why don't we advance to help them!"
"Here we go now, and we may need help ourselves!" said Warner.
Again the trumpets were sending forth their shrill call to battle and
death, and, as the colonel waved his sword, the regiment charged
forward with others to rescue the men in the crater. A bright sun was
shining now, and the Southern leaders saw the heavy, advancing column.
They were rapidly bringing up more guns and more riflemen, and,
shifting a part of their fire, a storm of death blew in the faces of
those who would go to the rescue.
As at Cold Harbor, the men in blue could not live before such a fire at
close quarters, and the regiments were compelled to recoil, while those
who were left alive in the crater surrendered. The trumpets sounded
the unwilling call to withdraw, and the Winchester men, many of them
shedding tears of grief and rage, fell back to their old place, while
from some distant point, rising above the dying fire of the cannon and
rifles, came the long, fierce rebel yell, full of defiance and triumph.
The effect upon Dick of the sight in the crater was so overwhelming
that he was compelled to lie down.
"Why do we do such things?" he exclaimed, after the faintness passed.
"Why do we waste so many lives in such vain efforts?"
"We have to try," replied Warner, gloomily. "The thing was all right
as far as it went, but it broke against a hedge of fire and steel,
crowning a barrier that we had created for ourselves."
"Let's not talk about it," said Pennington, who had been faint too.
"It's enough to have seen it. I am going to blot it out of my mind if
I can."
But not one of the three was ever able wholly to forget that hideous
dawn. Luckily the Winchesters themselves had suffered little, but they
were quite content to remain in their old place by the brook, where the
next day a large man in civilian dress introduced himself to Dick.
"Perhaps you don't remember me, Mr. Mason," he said, "but in such times
as these it's easy to forget chance acquaintances."
Dick looked at him closely. He was elderly, with heavy pouches under
his eyes and a rotund figure, but he looked uncommonly alert and his
pale blue eyes had a penetrating quality. Then Dick recalled him.
"You're Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
"Right. Shake hands."
Dick shook his hand, and he noticed that, while it was fat, it was
strong and dry. He hated damp hands, which always seemed to him to
have a slimy touch, as if their owner were reptilian.
"I suppose business is good with you, Mr. Watson," he said.
"It couldn't be better, and such affairs as the one I witnessed this
morning mean more. But doubtless I have grieved over it as much as
you. I may profit by the great struggle, but I have not wished either
the war or its continuance. Someone must do the work I am doing.
You're a bright boy, Lieutenant Mason, and I want you still to bear in
mind the hint that I gave you once in Washington."
"I don't recall it, this instant."
"That to go into business with me is a better trade than fighting."
"I thank you for the offer, but my mind turns in other directions. I'm
not depreciating your occupation, Mr. Watson, but I'm interested in
something else."
"I knew that you were not, Lieutenant Mason. You have too much sense.
Your kind could not fight if my kind did not find the sinews, and after
the war the woods will be full of generals, and colonels and majors who
will be glad to get jobs from men like me."
"I've no doubt of it," said Dick, "but what happened this morning made
me think the war is yet far from over."
"We shall see what we shall see, but if you ever want a friend write to
me in Washington. General delivery, there will do. Good-by."
"Good-by," said Dick, and, as he watched the big man walk away, he felt
that he was beginning to understand him. He had never been interested
greatly in mercantile pursuits. Public and literary life and the soil
were the great things to him. Now he realized that the vast strength
of the North, a strength that could survive any number of defeats, lay
largely in her trade and commerce. The South, almost stationary upon
the soil, had fallen behind, and no amount of skill and courage could
save her.
Colonel Winchester gave the young officers who had been awake all night
permission to sleep, and Dick was glad to avail himself of it. He
still felt weak, and ill, and, with a tender smile, remembering his
mother's advice about the blanket, he spread one in the shade of a
small oak and lay down upon it.
Despite the terrible repulse of the morning most of the men had
regained their usual spirits. Several were playing accordions, and the
others were listening. The Winchesters were known as a happy regiment,
because they had an able colonel, strong but firm, efficient and
tactful minor officers. They seldom got into mischief, and always they
pooled their resources.
One lad was reading now to a group from a tattered copy of "Les
Miserables," which had just reached them. He was deep in Waterloo and
Dick heard their comments.
"You wait till the big writers begin to tell about Chickamauga and
Gettysburg and Shiloh," said one. "They'll class with Waterloo or
ahead of it, and the French and English never fought any such campaign
as that when Grant came down through the Wilderness. What's that about
the French riding into the sunken road? I'm willin' to bet it was
nothing but a skirmish beside Pickett's charge at Gettysburg."
"And both failed," said Warner. "There are always brave men on every
side in any war. I don't know whether Napoleon was right or wrong--I
suppose he was wrong at that time--but it always makes me feel sad to
read of Waterloo."
"Just as a lot of our own people were grieved at the death of Stonewall
Jackson, although next to Lee he was our most dangerous foe," said
Pennington.
The reader resumed, and, although he was interrupted from time to time
by question or comment, his monotone was pleasant and soothing, and
Dick fell asleep. When he awoke his nerves were restored, and he could
think of the crater without becoming faint again.
That night Colonel Hertford of the cavalry came to their camp and
talked with Colonel Winchester in the presence of Dick and his comrades
of the staff. The disastrous failure of the morning, so the cavalryman
said, had convinced all the generals that Lee's trenches could not be
forced, and the commander-in-chief was turning his eye elsewhere.
While the deadlock before Petersburg lasted he would push the
operations in some other field. He was watching especially the Valley
of Virginia, where Early, after his daring raid upon the outskirts of
Washington, was being pursued by Sheridan, though not hard enough in
the opinion of General Grant.
"It's almost decided that help will be sent to Sheridan," said
Hertford, "and in that event my regiment is sure to go. Yours has
served as a mounted regiment, and I think I have influence enough to
see that it is sent again as cavalry, if you wish."
Colonel Winchester accepted the offer gladly, and his young officers,
in all eagerness, seconded him. They were tiring of inactivity, and of
the cramped and painful life in the trenches. To be on horseback
again, riding over hills and across valleys, seemed almost Heaven to
them, and, as Colonel Hertford walked away, earnest injunctions to use
his influence to the utmost followed him.
"It will take the sight of the crater from my mind," said Warner.
"That's one reason why I want to go."
Dick, searching his own mind, concluded it was the chief reason with
him, although he, too, was eager enough for a more spacious life than
that of the trench.
"I'm going to wish so hard for it," said Pennington, "that it'll come
true."
Whether Pennington's wish had any effect or not, they departed two days
later, three mounted regiments under the general command of Hertford,
his right as a veteran cavalry leader. All regiments, despite new men,
had been reduced greatly by the years of fighting, and the three
combined did not number more than fifteen hundred horse. But there was
not one among them from the oldest to the youngest who did not feel
elation as they rode away on the great curve that would take them into
the Valley of Virginia.
"It's glorious to be on a horse again, with the world before you," said
Pennington. "I was born horseback, so to speak, and I never had to do
any walking until I came to this war. The great plains and the free
winds that blow all around the earth for me."
"But you don't have rivers and hills and forests like ours," said Dick.
"I know it, but I don't miss them. I suppose it's what you're used to
that you like. I like a horizon that doesn't touch the ground anywhere
within fifteen or eighteen miles of me. And think of seeing a buffalo
herd, as I have, that's all day passing you, a million of 'em, maybe!"
"And think of being scalped by the Sioux or Cheyennes, as your people
out there often are," said Warner.
Pennington took off his cap and disclosed an uncommonly thick head of
hair.
"You see that I haven't lost mine yet," he said. "If a fellow can live
through big battles as I've lived through 'em he can escape Sioux and
Cheyennes."
"So you should. Look back now, and you can see the armies face to
face."
They were on the highest hill, and all the cavalry had turned for a
last glance. Dick saw again the flashes from occasional rifle fire,
and a dark column of smoke still rising from a spot which he knew to be
the crater. He shuddered, and was glad when the force, riding on
again, passed over the hill. Before them now stretched a desolated
country, trodden under foot by the armies, and his heart bled again for
Virginia, the most reluctant of all the states to secede, and the
greatest of them all to suffer.
Colonel Hertford, Colonel Winchester, and the colonel of the third
regiment, a Pennsylvanian named Bedford, rode together and their young
officers were just behind. All examined the country continually
through glasses to guard against ambush. Stuart was gone and Forrest
was far away, but they knew that danger from the fierce riders of the
South was always present. Just when the capital seemed safest Early's
men had appeared in its very suburbs, and here in Virginia, where the
hand of every man and of every woman and child also was against them,
it was wise to watch well.
As they rode on the country was still marked by desolation. The fields
were swept bare or trampled down. Many of the houses and barns and all
the fences had been burned. The roads had been torn up by the passage
of artillery and countless wagons. All the people seemed to have gone
away.
But when they came into rougher and more wooded regions they were shot
at often by concealed marksmen. A half-dozen troopers were killed and
more wounded, and, when the cavalrymen forced a path through the brush
in pursuit of the hidden sharpshooters, they found nothing. The enemy
fairly melted away. It was easy enough for a rifleman, knowing every
gully and thicket, to send in his deadly bullet and then escape.
"Although it's merely the buzzing and stinging of wasps," said Warner,
"I don't like it. They can't stop our advance, but I hate to see any
good fellow of ours tumbled from his horse."
"Makes one think of that other ride we took in Mississippi," said Dick.
"In one way, yes, but in others, no. This is hard, firm ground, and
we're not persecuted by mosquitoes. Nor is the country suitable for an
ambush by a great force. Ouch, that burnt!"
A bullet fired from a thicket had grazed Warner's bridle hand. Dick
was compelled to laugh.
"You're free from mosquitoes, George," he said, "but there are still
little bullets flying about, as you see."
A dozen cavalrymen were sent into the thicket, but the sharpshooter was
already far away. Colonel Hertford frowned and said:
"Well, I suppose it's the price we have to pay, but I'd like to see the
people to whom we have to pay it."
"Not much chance of that," said Colonel Winchester. "The Virginians
know their own ground and the lurking sharpshooters won't fire until
they're sure of a safe retreat."
But as they advanced the stinging fire became worse. There was no
Southern force in this part of the country strong enough to meet them
in open combat, but there was forest and thicket sufficient to shelter
many men who were not only willing to shoot, but who knew how to shoot
well. Yet they never caught anybody nor even saw anybody. A stray
glimpse or two of a puff of smoke was the nearest they ever came to
beholding an enemy.
It became galling, intolerable. Three more men were killed and the
number of wounded was doubled. The three colonels held a consultation,
and decided to extend groups of skirmishers far out on either flank.
Dick was chosen to lead a band of thirty picked men who rode about a
mile on the right, and he had with him as his second, and, in reality,
as his guide and mentor in many ways, the trusty Sergeant Whitley. It
was altogether likely that Colonel Winchester would not have sent Dick
unless he had been able to send the wise sergeant with him.
"While you are guarding us from ambush," he said to Dick, "be sure you
don't fall into an ambush yourself."
"Not while Whitley, here, is with us," replied Dick. "He learned while
out on the plains, not only to have eyes in the back of his head, but
to have 'em in the sides of it as well. In addition he can hear the
fall of a leaf a mile away."
The sergeant shook his head and uttered an emphatic no in protest, but
in his heart he was pleased. He was a sergeant who liked being a
sergeant, and he was proud of all his wilderness and prairie lore.
Dick gave the word and the little troop galloped away to the right,
zealous in its task and beating up every wood and thicket for the
hidden riflemen who were so dangerous. At intervals they saw the
cavalry force riding steadily on, and again they were hidden from it by
forest or bush. More than an hour passed and they saw no foe. Dick
concluded that the sharpshooters had been scared off by the flanking
force, and that they would have no further trouble with them. His
spirits rose accordingly and there was much otherwise to make them rise.
It was like Heaven to be on horseback in the pleasant country after
being cramped up so much in narrow trenches, and there was the thrill
of coming action. They were going to join Sheridan and where he rode
idle moments would be few.
"Ping!" a bullet whistled alarmingly near his head and then cut leaves
from a sapling beyond him. The young lieutenant halted the troop
instantly, and Sergeant Whitley pointed to a house just visible among
some trees.
"That's where it came from, and, since it hasn't been followed by a
second, it's likely that only one man is there, and he is lying low,
waiting a chance for another bullet," he said.
"Then we'll rout him out," said Dick.
He divided his little troop, in order that it could approach the house
from all sides, and then he and the sergeant and six others advanced
directly in front. He knew that if the marksman were still hidden
inside he would not fire now, but would seek rather to hide, since he
could easily observe from a window that the building was surrounded.
It was a small house, but it was well built and evidently had been
occupied by people of substance. It was painted white, except the
shutters which were green, and a brick walk led to a portico, with fine
and lofty columns. There was nobody outside, but as the shutters were
open it was probable that someone was inside.
Dick disliked to force an entrance at such a place, but he had been
sent out to protect the flank and he could not let a rifleman lie
hidden there, merely to resume his deadly business as soon as they
passed on. They pushed the gate open and rode upon the lawn, an act of
vandalism that he regretted, but could not help. They reached the door
without any apparent notice being taken of them, and as the detachments
were approaching from the other sides, Dick dismounted and knocked
loudly. Receiving no answer, he bade all the others dismount.
"Curley, you hold the horses," he said, "and Dixon, you tell the men in
the other detachments to seize anybody trying to escape. Sergeant, you
and I and the others will enter the house. Break in the lock with the
butt of your rifle, sergeant! No, I see it's not locked!"
He turned the bolt, and, the door swinging in, they passed into an
empty hall. Here they paused and listened, which was a wise thing for
a man to do when he entered the house of an enemy. Dick's sense of
hearing was not much inferior to that of the sergeant, and while at
first they heard nothing, they detected presently a faint click, click.
He could not imagine what made the odd sound, and, listening as hard as
he could, he could detect no other with it.
He pushed open a door that led into the hall and he and his men entered
a large room with windows on the side, opening upon a rose garden. It
was a pleasant room with a high ceiling, and old-fashioned, dignified
furniture. A blaze of sunlight poured in from the windows, and, where
a sash was raised, came the faint, thrilling perfume of roses, a
perfume to which Dick was peculiarly susceptible. Yet, for years
afterward, the odor of roses brought back to him that house and that
room.
He thought at first that the room, although the faint clicking noise
continued, contained no human being. But presently he saw sitting at a
table by the open window a woman whose gray dress and gray hair blended
so nearly with the gray colors of the chamber that even a soldier could
have been excused for not seeing her at once. Her head and body were
perfectly still, but her hands were moving rapidly. She was knitting,
and it was the click of her needles that they had heard.
She did not look up as Dick entered, and, taking off his cap, he stood,
somewhat abashed. He knew at once by her dress and face, and the
dignity, disclosed even by the manner in which she sat, that she was a
great lady, one of those great ladies of old Virginia who were great
ladies in fact. She was rather small, Martha Washington might have
looked much like her, and she knitted steadily on, without showing by
the least sign that she was aware of the presence of Union soldiers.
A long and embarrassed silence followed. Dick judged that she was
about sixty-five years of age, though she seemed strong and he felt
that she was watching them alertly from covert eyes. There was no
indication that anyone else was in the building, but it did not seem
likely that a great lady of Virginia would be left alone in her house,
with a Union force marching by.
He approached, bowed and said:
"Madame!"
She raised her head and looked at him slowly from head to foot, and
then back again. They were fierce old eyes, and Dick felt as if they
burned him, but he held his ground knowing that he must. Then she
turned back to her knitting, and the needles clicked steadily as before.
"Madame!" repeated Dick, still embarrassed.
She lifted the fierce old eyes.
"I should think," she said, "that the business of General Grant's
soldiers was to fight those of General Lee rather than to annoy lone
women."
Dick flushed, but angry blood leaped in his veins.
"Pardon me, madame," he said, "but we have not come here to annoy a
woman. We were fired upon from this house. The man who did it has had
no opportunity to escape, and I'm sure that he's still concealed within
these walls."
"Seek and ye shall--not find," she half quoted.
"I must search the house."
"Proceed."
"First question her," the sergeant whispered in the young lieutenant's
ear.
Dick nodded.
"Pardon me, madame," he said, "but I must obtain information from you.
This is war, you know."
"I have had many rude reminders that it is so."
"Where is your husband?"
She pointed upward.
"Forgive me," said Dick impulsively. "I did not intend to recall a
grief."
"Don't worry. You and your comrades will never intrude upon him there."
"Perhaps you have sons here in this house?"
"I have three, but they are not here."
"Where are they?"
"One fell with Jackson at Chancellorsville. It was a glorious death,
but he is not dead to me. I shall always see him, as he was when he
went away, a tall, strong man with brown hair and blue eyes. Another
fell in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. They told me that his body lay
across one of the Union guns on Cemetery Hill. That, too, was a
glorious death, and like his brother he shall live for me as long as I
live. The third is alive and with Lee."
She had stopped knitting, but now she resumed it, and, during another
embarrassed pause, the click, click of the needles was the only sound
heard in the room.
"I regret it, madame," resumed Dick, "but we must search the house
thoroughly."
"Proceed," she said again in that tone of finality.
"Take the men and look carefully through every room," said Dick to the
sergeant. "I will remain here."
Whitley and the troopers withdrew quietly. When the last of them had
disappeared he walked to one of the windows and looked out. He saw his
mounted men beyond the rose garden on guard, and he knew that they were
as vigilant on the other sides of the house. The sharpshooter could
not escape, and he was firmly resolved not to go without him. Yet his
conscience hurt him. It was hard, too, to wait there, while the woman
said not a word, but knitted on as placidly as if he did not exist.
"Madame," he said at last, "I pray that you do not regard this as an
intrusion. The uses of war are hard. We must search. No one can
regret it more than I do, in particular since I am really a Southerner
myself, a Kentuckian."
"A traitor then as well as an enemy."
Dick flushed deeply, and again there was angry blood in his veins, but
he restrained his temper.
"You must at least allow to a man the liberty of choice," he said.
"Provided he has the intelligence and honesty to choose right."
Dick flushed again and bit his lip. And yet he felt that a woman who
had lost two sons before Northern bullets might well be unforgiving.
There was nothing more for him to say, and while he turned back to the
window the knitting needles resumed their click, click.
He waited a full ten minutes and he knew that the sergeant and his men
were searching the house thoroughly. Nothing could escape the notice
of Whitley, and he would surely find the sharpshooter. Then he heard
their footsteps on a stairway and in another minute they entered the
great room. The face of the sergeant clearly showed disappointment.
"There's nobody in the house," he said, "or, if he is he's so cleverly
hidden, that we haven't been able to find him--that is so far. Perhaps
Madame here can tell us something."
"I know nothing," she said, "but if I knew anything I would not tell it
to you."
The sergeant smiled sourly, but Dick said:
"We must look again. The man could not have escaped with the guard
that we've set around the house."
The sergeant and his men made another search. They penetrated every
place in which a human being could possibly hide. They thrust their
rifle barrels up the chimneys, and they turned down the bed covers, but
again they found nothing. Dick meanwhile remained as before in the
large room, covertly watching the woman, lest she give a signal to the
rifleman who must be somewhere.
All the while the perfume of the roses was growing stronger and more
penetrating, a light wind that had sprung up bringing it through the
open window. It thrilled Dick in some singular manner, and the
strangeness of the scene heightened its effect. It was like standing
in a room in a dim old castle to which he had been brought as a
prisoner, while the terrible old woman was his jailer. Then the click
of the knitting needles brought him back to the present and reality,
but reality itself, despite the sunshine and the perfume of the roses,
was heavy and oppressive.
Dick apparently was looking from the window at the garden, brilliant
with flowers, but in fact he was closely watching the woman out of the
corner of his eye. He had learned to read people by their own eyes,
and he had seen how hers burned when she looked at them. Strength of
will and intent lie in the human eye. Unless it is purposely veiled it
tells the mind and power that are in the brain back of it.
A fear of her crept slowly over him. Perhaps the fear came because,
obviously, she had no fear at all of him, or of Whitley or of the
soldiers. After their short dialogue she had returned to her old
immobility. Neither her body nor her head moved, only her hands, and
the motion was wholly from the wrists. She was one of the three Fates,
knitting steadily and knitting up the destiny of men.
He shook himself. His was a sound and healthy mind, and he would allow
no taint of morbidness to enter it. He knew that there was nothing
supernatural in the world, but he did believe that this woman with the
gray hair, the burning eyes and the sharp chin, looking as if it had
been cut from a piece of steel, was the possessor of uncanny wisdom.
Beyond a doubt she knew where the marksman was hidden, and, unless he
watched her ceaselessly, she would give him a signal of some kind.
Perhaps he was hidden in the garden among the rose bushes, and he would
see her hand, if it was raised ever so slightly. Maybe that was why
the window was open, because the clearest glass even could obscure a
signal meant to be faint, unnoticed by all except the one for whom it
was intended. He would have that garden searched thoroughly when the
sergeant returned, and his heart beat with a throb of relief when he
heard the stalwart Whitley's footstep once more at the door.
"We have found nothing, sir," said the sergeant. "We've explored every
place big enough to hide a cat."
"Search the garden out there," said Dick. "Look behind every vine and
bush."
"You will at least spare my roses," said the woman.
"They shall not be harmed," replied the lieutenant, "but my men must
see what, if anything, is in the garden."
She said no more. She had not even raised her head when she spoke, and
the sergeant and his men went into the garden. They looked everywhere
but they damaged nothing. They did not even break off a single flower
for themselves. Dick had felt confident that after the failure to find
the sharpshooter in the house he would be discovered there, but his net
brought in no fish.
He glanced at the sergeant, who happened to glance at him at the same
time. Each read the look in the eyes of the other. Each said that
they had failed, that they were wasting time, that there was nothing to
be gained by hunting longer for a single enemy, that it was time to
ride on, as flankers on the right of the main column.
"Madame," said Dick politely, "we leave you now. I repeat my regret at
being compelled to search your house in this manner. My duty required
it, although we have found nobody."
"You found nobody because nobody is here."
"Evidently it is so. Good-by. We wish you well."
"Good-by. I hope that all of you will be shot by our brave troops
before night!"
The wish was uttered with the most extraordinary energy and fierceness.
For the first time she had raised her level tone, and the lifted eyes
that looked into Dick's were blazing with hate. He uttered an
exclamation and stepped back. Then he recovered himself and said
politely:
"Madame, I do not wish any such ill to you or yours."
But she had resumed her knitting, and Dick, without another word,
walked out of the house, followed by the sergeant and his men.
"I did not know a woman could be so vindictive," he said.
"Our army has killed two of her sons," said the sergeant. "To her we,
like all the rest of our troops, are the men who killed them."
"Perhaps that is so," said Dick thoughtfully, as he remounted.
They rode beside the walk and out at the open gate. Dick carried a
silver whistle, upon which he blew a signal for the rest of his men to
join them, and then he and the sergeant went slowly up the road. He
was deeply chagrined at the escape of the rifleman, and the curse of
the woman lay heavily upon him.
"I don't see how it was done," he said.
"Nor I," said the sergeant, shaking his head.
There was a sharp report, the undoubted whip-like crack of a rifle, and
a man just behind, uttering a cry, held up a bleeding arm. Dick had a
lightning conviction that the bullet was intended for himself. It was
certain also that the shot had come from the house.
"Back with me, sergeant!" he exclaimed. "We'll get that fellow yet!"
They galloped back, sprang from their horses, and rushed in, followed
by the original little troop that had entered, Dick shouting a
direction to the others to remain outside. The fierce little old woman
was sitting as before by the table, knitting, and she had never
appeared more the great lady.
"Once was enough," she said, shooting him a glance of bitter contempt.
"But twice may succeed," Dick said. "Sergeant, take the men and go
through all the house again. Our friend with the rifle may not have
had time to get back into his hidden lair. I will remain here."
The sergeant and his men went out and he heard their boots on the
stairway and in the other rooms. The window near him was still open
and the perfume of the roses came in again, strangely thrilling,
overpowering. But something had awakened in Dick. The sixth, and even
the germ of a seventh sense, which may have been instinct, were up and
alive. He did not look again at the rose garden, nor did he listen any
longer to the footsteps of his men.
He had concentrated all his faculties, the known, and the unknown,
which may have been lying dormant in him, upon a single object. He
heard only the click of the knitting needles, and he saw only the
small, strong hands moving swiftly back and forth. They were very
white, and they were firm like those of a young woman. There were none
of the heavy blue veins across the back that betoken age.
The hands fascinated him. He stared at them, fairly pouring his gaze
upon them. They were beautiful, as the hands of a great lady should be
kept, and it was all the more wonderful then that the right should have
across the back of it a faint gray smudge, so tiny that only an eye
like his, and a concentrated gaze like his, could have seen it.
He took four swift steps forward, seized the white hand in his and held
it up.
"Madame," he said, and now his tone was as fierce as hers had ever
been, "where is the rifle?"
She made no attempt to release her hand, nor did she move at all, save
to lift her head. Then her eyes, hard, defiant and ruthless, looked
into his. But his look did not flinch from hers. He knew, and,
knowing, he meant to act.
"Madame," he repeated, "where is the rifle? It is useless for you to
deny."
"Have I denied?"
"No, but where is the rifle?"
He was wholly unconscious of it, but his surprise and excitement were
so great that his hand closed upon hers in a strong muscular
contraction. Thrills of pain shot through her body, but she did not
move.
"The rifle! The rifle!" repeated Dick.
"Loose my hand, and I will give it to you."
His hand fell away and she walked to the end of the room where a rug,
too long, lay in a fold against the wall. She turned back the fold and
took from its hiding place a slender-barreled cap-and-ball rifle.
Without a word she handed it to Dick and he passed his hand over the
muzzle, which was still warm.
He looked at her, but she gave back his gaze unflinching.
"I could not believe it, were it not so," he said.
"But it is so. The bullets were not aimed well enough." Dick felt an
emotion that he did not wholly understand.
"Madame," he said, "I shall take the rifle, and again say good-by. As
before, I wish you well."
She resumed her seat in the chair and took up the knitting. But she
did not repeat her wish that Dick and all his men be shot before night.
He went out in silence, and gently closed the door behind him. In the
hall he met Sergeant Whitley and said:
"We needn't look any farther. I know now that the man has gone and we
shall not be fired upon again from this house."
The sergeant glanced at the rifle Dick carried and made no comment. But
when they were riding away, he said:
"And so that was it?"
"Yes, that was it."
CHAPTER III
OVER THE HILLS
Dick and his little troop rode on through the silent country, and they
were so watchful and thorough that they protected fully the right flank
of the marching column. One or two shots were fired, but the reports
came from such distant points that he knew the bullets had fallen short.
But while he beat up the forests and fields for sharpshooters he was
very thoughtful. He had a mind that looked far ahead, even in youth,
and the incident at the house weighed upon him. He foresaw the coming
triumph of the North and of the Union, a triumph won after many great
disasters, but he remembered what an old man at a blacksmith shop in
Tennessee had told him and his comrades before the Battle of Stone
River. Whatever happened, however badly the South might be defeated,
the Southern soil would still be held by Southern people, and their
bitterness would be intense for many a year to come. The victor
forgives easily, the vanquished cannot forget. His imagination was
active and vivid, often attaining truths that logic and reason do not
reach, and he could understand what had happened at the house, where
the ordinary mind would have been left wondering.
It is likely also that the sergeant had a perception of it, though not
as sharp and clear as Dick's.
"When the war is over and the soldiers all go back, that is them that's
livin'," he said, "it won't be them that fought that'll keep the
grudge. It's the women who've lost their own that'll hate longest."
"I think what you say is true, Whitley," said Dick, "but let's not talk
about it any more. It hurts."
"Me too," said the sergeant. "But don't you like this country that
we're ridin' through, Mr. Mason?"
"Yes, it's fine, but most of it has been cropped too hard. I remember
reading somewhere that George Washington himself said, away back in the
last century, that slave labor, so careless and reckless, was ruining
the soil of Virginia."
"Likely that's true, sir, but it won't have much chance to keep on
ruinin' it. Wouldn't you say, sir, that was a Johnny on his horse up
there?"
"I can soon tell you," said Dick, unslinging his glasses.
On their right was a hill towering above the rest. The slopes were
wooded densely, but the crest was quite bare. Upon it sat a solitary
figure on horseback, evidently watching the marching column.
Dick put his glasses to his eyes. The hill and the lone sentinel
enlarged suddenly and came nearer. The pulses in his temples beat
hard. Although he could not see the watcher's face clearly, because he
too was using glasses, he knew him instantly. He would have known that
heroic figure and the set of the shoulders and head anywhere. He felt
astonishment at first, but it passed quickly. It was likely that they
should meet again some time or other, since the field of battle had
narrowed so much.
Sergeant Whitley, who invariably saw everything, had seen Dick's slight
start.
"Someone you know, sir?" he asked.
"Yes, sergeant. It's my cousin, Harry Kenton. You've heard me talk of
him often. A finer and braver and stronger fellow never lived. He's
using glasses too and I've no doubt he's recognized me."
Dick suddenly waved his glasses aloft, and Harry Kenton replied in like
manner.
"He sees and knows me!" cried Dick.
But the sergeant was very sober. He foresaw that these youths, bound
by such ties of blood and affection, might come into battle against
each other. The same thought was in Dick's mind, despite his pleasure
at the distant view of Harry.
"We exchanged shots in the Manassas campaign," said Dick. "We were
sheltered and we didn't know each other until several bullets had
passed."
"Three more horsemen have joined him," said the sergeant.
"Those are his friends," said Dick, who had put the glasses back to his
eyes. "Look how they stand out against the sun!"
The four horsemen in a row, at equal distances from one another, were
enlarged against a brilliant background of red and gold. Their
attitude was impressive, as they sat there, unmoving, like statues cut
in stone. They were in truth Harry and Dalton, St. Clair and Happy Tom,
and farther on the Invincibles were marching, the two colonels at their
head, to the Valley of Virginia to reinforce Early, and to make
headway, if possible, against Sheridan.
Harry was deeply moved. Kinship and the long comradeship of youth
count for much. Perhaps for more in the South than anywhere else.
Stirred by a sudden emotion he took off his cap and waved it as a
signal of hail and farewell. The four removed their own caps and waved
them also. Then they turned their horses in unison, rode over the hill
and were gone from Dick's sight.
Sergeant Whitley was not educated, but his experience was vast, he knew
men and he had the gift of sympathy. He understood Dick's feelings.
"All civil wars are cruel," he said. "The killing of one's own people
is worst of all."
But as they went on, Dick's melancholy fell from him, and he had only
pleasant recollections of the meeting. Besides, the continued movement
and freedom were inspiriting in the highest degree to youth. Although
it was August the day was cool, and the blue sky of Virginia was never
brighter. A refreshing breeze blew from dim, blue mountains that they
could see far ahead, and, as they entered a wide stretch of open
country where ambush was impossible, the trumpets called in the
flankers.
"We shall make the lower mountains about midnight, and we'd better camp
then until dawn. Don't you think so, gentlemen?" asked Colonel
Hertford of his associate colonels, Winchester and Bedford.
"The plan seems sound to me," replied Bedford, the Pennsylvanian. "Of
course, we want to reach Sheridan as soon as possible, but if we push
the horses too hard we'll break them down."
Dick had dropped back with Warner and Pennington, but he heard the
colonels talking.
"We all saw General Sheridan at the great battles in the West," he
said. "I particularly remember how he planted himself and the batteries
at Perryville and saved us from defeat, but he seems to be looming up
so much more now in the East."
"He's become the Stuart of our side," said Warner. "I've heard some of
the people at Washington don't believe in him, but he has General
Grant's confidence and that's enough for me. Not that I put military
authority over civil rule, but war has to be fought by soldiers. I
look for lively times in the Valley of Virginia."
"Anyway, the Lord has delivered me from the trenches at Petersburg,"
said Pennington. "Think of me, used to roaming over a thousand miles
of plains, shut up between mud walls only four or five feet apart."
"I believe that, with Sheridan, you're going to have all the roaming
you want," said Dick.
They passed silent farm houses, but took nothing from them. Ample
provision was carried on extra horses or their own, and the three
colonels were anxious not to inflame the country by useless seizures.
Twilight came, and the low mountains sank away in the dusk. But they
had already reached a higher region where nearly all the hills were
covered with forest, and Colonel Hertford once more spread out the
flankers, Dick and the sergeant, as before, taking the right with their
little troop.
The night was fortunately clear, almost as light as day, with a
burnished moon and brilliant stars, and they did not greatly fear
ambush. Dick shrewdly reckoned that Early would need all his men in
the valley, and, after the first day at sharpshooting, they would
withdraw to meet greater demands.
Nevertheless he took a rather wide circuit and came into a lonely
portion of the hills, where the forest was unbroken, save for the
narrow path on which they rode. The sergeant dismounted once and
examined the ground.
"Nothing has passed here," he said, "and the woods and thickets are so
dense that men can't ride through 'em."
The path admitted of only two abreast, and the forest was so heavy that
it shut out most of the moonlight. But they rode on confidently, Dick
and the sergeant leading. If it had not been for the size of the
trees, Dick would have thought that he was back in the Wilderness.
They heard now and then the wings of night birds among the leaves, and
occasionally some small animal would scuttle across the path. They
forded a narrow but deep stream, its waters black from decayed
vegetation, and continued to push on briskly through the unbroken
forest, until the sergeant said in a low voice to Dick:
"I think I hear something ahead of us."
They pulled back on the reins so suddenly that those behind almost rode
into them. Then they sat there, a solid, compact little group, while
Dick and the sergeant listened intently.
"It's hoofbeats," said Dick, "very faint, because they are far away."
"I think you are right, sir," said the sergeant.
"But they're coming this way."
"Yes, and at a steady pace. No stops and no hesitation."
"Which shows that it's somebody who doesn't fear any harm."
"The beats are pretty solid. A heavy man on a heavy horse."
"About three hundred yards away, don't you think?"
"About that, sir."
"Maybe a farmer going home?"
"Maybe, but I don't think so, sir."
"At any rate, we'll soon see, because our unknown comes on without a
break. There he is now!"
They had a comparatively clear view straight ahead, and the figure of a
man and a horse emerged from the shadows.
The sergeant raised his rifle, but, as the man came on without fear, he
dropped it again. Some strange effect of the moonlight exaggerated the
rider and his horse, making both look gigantic, blending them together
in such manner that a tremendous centaur seemed to be riding them down.
In an instant or two the general effect vanished and as a clear beam
fell upon the man's face Dick uttered an exclamation of relief.
"Shepard!" he said, and he felt then that he should have known before
that it was Shepard who was coming. He, alone of all men, seemed to
have the gift of omniscience and omnipresence. The spy drew his horse
to a halt directly in front of him and saluted:
"Lieutenant Mason, sir?" he said.
"I'm glad it's you, Mr. Shepard," said Dick. "I think that in this
wood we'll need the hundred eyes that once belonged to Argus, but which
he has passed on to you."
"Thank you, sir," said Shepard.
But the man at whom he looked most was the sergeant, and the sergeant
looked most at him. One was a sergeant and the other was a spy, but
each recognized in the other a king among men. Eyes swept over
powerful chests and shoulders and open, bold countenances, and
signified approval. They had met before, but they were more than well
met here in the loneliness and the dark, amid dangers, where skill and
courage, and not rank, counted. Then they nodded without speaking, as
an Indian chief would to an Indian chief, his equal.
"You were coming to meet us, Mr. Shepard?" said Dick.
"I expected to find you on this path."
"And you have something to tell?"
"A small Confederate force is in the mountains, awaiting Colonel
Hertford. It is inferior to his in numbers, but it knows the country
thoroughly and has the sympathy of all the inhabitants, who bring to it
news of everything."
"Do you know these Confederate troops?"
"Yes, sir. Their corps is a regiment called in General Lee's army the
Invincibles, but it includes two other skeleton regiments. Colonel
Talbot who leads the Invincibles is the commander of them all. He has,
I should say, slightly less than a thousand men."
"You know a good deal about this regiment called the Invincibles, do
you not, Mr. Shepard?"
"I do, sir. Its colonel, Talbot, and its lieutenant-colonel, St.
Hilaire, are as brave men as any that ever lived, and the regiment has
an extraordinary reputation in the Southern army for courage. Two of
General Lee's young staff officers are also with them now."
"Who are they?"
"Lieutenant Harry Kenton and Lieutenant George Dalton."
Dick with his troop rode at once to Colonel Hertford and reported.
Colonel Hertford listened and then glanced at Dick.
"Kenton is your cousin, I believe," he said.
"Yes, sir," replied Dick. "He has been in the East all the time. Once
in the second Manassas campaign we came face to face and fired at each
other, although we did not know who was who then."
"And now here you are in opposing forces again. With the war
converging as it is, it was more than likely that you should confront
each other once more."
"But I don't expect to be shooting at Harry, and I don't think he'll be
shooting at me."
"Will you ride into the woods again on the right, Mr. Shepard?" said
Colonel Hertford. "Perhaps you may get another view of this
Confederate force. Dick, you go with him. Warner, you and Pennington
come with me."
Dick and Shepard entered the woods side by side, and the youth who had
a tendency toward self-analysis found that his liking and respect for
the spy increased. The general profession of a spy might be disliked,
but in Shepard it inspired no repulsion, rather it increased his heroic
aspect, and Dick found himself relying upon him also. He felt
intuitively that when he rode into the forest with Shepard he rode into
no danger, or if by any chance he did ride into danger, they would,
under the guidance of the spy, ride safely out of it again.
Shepard turned his horse toward the deeper forest, which lay on the
left, and very soon they were out of sight of the main column, although
the sound of hoofs and of arms, clinking against one another, still
came faintly to them. Yet peace, the peace for which Dick longed so
ardently, seemed to dwell there in the woods. The summer was well
advanced and as the light winds blew, the leaves, already beginning to
dry, rustled against one another. The sound was pleasant and soothing.
He and Harry Kenton and other lads of their age had often heard it on
autumn nights, when they roamed through the forests around Pendleton in
search of the raccoon and the opossum. It all came back to him with
astonishing vividness and force.
He was boy and man in one. But he could scarcely realize the three
years and more of war that had made him a man. In one way it seemed a
century, and in another it seemed but yesterday. The water rose in his
eyes at the knowledge that this same cousin who was like a brother to
him, one with whom he had hunted, fished, played and swum, was there in
the woods less than a mile away, and that he might be in battle with
him again before morning.
"You were thinking of your cousin, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard suddenly.
"Yes, but how did you know?" asked Dick in surprise.
"Because your face suddenly became melancholy--the moonlight is good,
enabling me to read your look--and sadness is not your natural
expression. You recall that your cousin, of whom you think so much, is
at hand with your enemies, and the rest is an easy matter of putting
two and two together."
"You're right in all you say, Mr. Shepard, but I wish Harry wasn't
there."
Shepard was silent and then Dick added passionately:
"Why doesn't the South give up? She's worn down by attrition. She's
blockaded hard and fast! When she loses troops in battle she can't
find new men to take their places! She's short in food, ammunition,
medicines, everything! The whole Confederacy can't be anything but a
shell now! Why don't they quit!"
"Pride, and a lingering hope that the unexpected will happen. Yes,
we've won the war, Mr. Mason, but it's yet far from finished. Many a
good man will fall in this campaign ahead of us in the valley, and in
other campaigns too, but, as I see it, the general result is already
decided. Nothing can change it. Look between these trees, and you can
see the Southern force now."
Dick from his horse gazed into a valley down which ran a good turnpike,
looking white in the moonlight. Upon this road rode the Southern force
in close ranks, but too far away, for any sound of their hoof beats to
come to the watchers. The moon which was uncommonly bright now colored
them all with silver, and Dick, with his imaginative mind, easily
turned them into a train of the knights of old, clad in glittering
mail. They created such a sense of illusion and distance, time as well
as space, that the peace of the moment was not disturbed. It was a
spectacle out of the past, rather than present war.
"You are familiar with the country, of course," said Dick.
"Yes," replied Shepard. "Our road, as you know, is now running
parallel with that on which the Southern force is traveling, with a
broad ridge between. But several miles farther on the ridge becomes
narrower and the roads merge. We're sure to have a fight there. Like
you, I'm sorry your cousin Harry Kenton is with them."
"It seems that you and he know a good deal of each other."
"Yes, circumstances have brought us into opposition again and again
from the beginning of the war, but the same circumstances have made me
know more about him than he does about me. Yet I mean that we shall be
friends when peace comes, and I don't think he'll oppose my wish."
"He won't. Harry has a generous and noble nature. But he wouldn't
stand being patronized, merely because he happened to be on the beaten
side."
"I shouldn't think of trying to do such a thing. Now, we've seen
enough, and I think we'd better go back to the colonels, with our news."
They rode through the woods again, and, for most of the distance, there
was no sound from the marching troops. The wonderful feeling of peace
returned. The sky was as blue and soft as velvet. The great stars
glittered and danced, and the wind among the rustling leaves was like
the soft singing of a violin. At one point they crossed a little brook
which ran so swiftly down among the trees that it was a foam of water.
They dismounted, drank hastily, and then let the horses take their fill.
"I like these hills and forests and their clear waters," said Dick,
"and judging by the appearance it must be a fine country to which we're
coming."
"It is. It's something like your Kentucky Blue Grass, although it's
smaller and it's hemmed in by sharper and bolder mountains. But I
should say that the Shenandoah Valley is close to a hundred and twenty
miles long, and from twenty-five to forty miles wide, not including its
spur, the Luray Valley, west of the Massanuttons."
"As large as one of the German Principalities."
"And as fine as any of them."
"It's where Stonewall Jackson made that first and famous campaign of
his."
"And it's lucky for us that we don't have to face him there now. Early
is a good general, they say, but he's no Stonewall Jackson."
"And we're to be led by Sheridan. I think he saved us at Perryville in
Kentucky, but they say he's become a great cavalry commander. Do you
know him, Mr. Shepard?"
"Well. A young man, and a little man. Why, you'd overtop him more
than half a head, Mr. Mason, but he has a great soul for battle. He's
the kind that will strike and strike, and keep on striking, and that's
the kind we need now."
"Here are our own men just ahead. I see the three colonels riding
together."
They went forward swiftly and told what they had seen, Shepard also
describing the nature of the ground ahead, and the manner in which the
two roads converged.
"Which column do you think will reach the junction first?" asked
Colonel Hertford.
"They'll come to it about the same time," replied Shepard.
"And so a clash is unavoidable. It was not our purpose to fight before
we reached General Sheridan, but since the enemy wants it, it must be
that way."
Orders were issued for the column to advance as quietly as possible,
while skirmishers were thrown out to prevent any ambush. Shepard rode
again into the forest but Dick remained with Warner and Pennington.
Warner as usual was as cool as ice, and spoke in the precise, scholarly
way that he liked.
"We march parallel with the enemy," he said, "and yet we're bound to
meet him and fight. It's a beautiful mathematical demonstration. The
roads are not parallel in an exact sense but converge to a point.
Hence, it is not our wish, but the convergence of these roads that
brings us together in conflict. So we see that the greatest issues of
our life are determined by mathematics. It's a splendid and romantic
study. I wish you fellows would pay more attention to it."
"Mathematics beautiful and romantic!" exclaimed Pennington. "Why,
George, you're out of your head! There's nothing in the world I hate
more than the sight of an algebra!"
"The trouble is with you and not with the algebra. You were alluding
in a depreciatory manner to my head but it's your own head that fails.
When I said algebra was a beautiful and romantic study I used the
adjectives purposely. Out of thousands of adjectives in the dictionary
I selected those two to fit the case. What could be more delightful
than an abstruse problem in algebra? You never know along what
charming paths of the mind it will lead you. Moreover there is over it
a veil of mystery. You can't surmise what delightful secrets it will
reveal later on. What will the end be? What a powerful appeal such a
question will always make to a highly intelligent and imaginative mind
like mine! No poetry! No beauty! Why every algebraic problem from the
very nature of its being is surcharged with it! It's like the mystery
of life itself, only in this case we solve the mystery! And if I may
change the metaphor, an algebraic formula is like a magnificent
diamond, cutting its way through the thick and opaque glass, which
represents the unknown! I long for the end of the war for many reasons,
but chief among them is the fact that I may return to the romantic and
illimitable fields of the mathematical problem!"
"I didn't know anyone could ever become dithyrambic about algebra,"
said Dick.
"What's dithyrambic?" asked Pennington.
"Spouting, Frank. But George, as we know, is a queer fellow. They
grow 'em in Vermont, where they love steep mountains, deep ravines and
hard mathematics."
They had been speaking in low tones, but now they ceased entirely.
Shepard had come back from the forest, reporting that the junction of
the roads was near, and the Confederate force was marching toward it at
the utmost speed.
The hostile columns might be in conflict in a half hour now, and the
men prepared themselves. Innumerable battles and skirmishes could
never keep their hearts from beating harder when it became evident that
they were to go under fire once more. After the few orders necessary,
there was no sound save that of the march itself. Meanwhile the moon
and stars were doing full duty, and the night remained as bright as
ever.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIGHT AT THE CROSSWAYS
Colonel Hertford was near the head of the Union column, while the three
youths rode a little farther back with Colonel Winchester, the regiment
of Colonel Bedford bringing up the rear. Just behind Dick was Sergeant
Whitley, mounted upon a powerful bay horse. The sergeant had shown
himself such a woodsman and scout, and he was so valuable in these
capacities that Colonel Winchester had practically made him an aide,
and always kept him near for orders.
Dick noticed now that the sergeant leaned a little forward in his
saddle and was using his eyes and ears with all the concentration of
the great plainsman that he was. In that attitude he was a formidable
figure, and, though he lacked the spy's subtlety and education, he
seemed to have much in common with Shepard.
As for Dick himself his nerves had not been so much on edge since he
went into his first battle, nor had his heart beat so hard, and he knew
it was because Harry Kenton and those comrades of his would be at the
convergence of the roads, and they would meet, not in the confused
conflict of a great battle, when a face might appear and disappear the
next second, but man to man with relatively small numbers. The moon
was dimmed a little by fleecy clouds, but the silvery color, instead of
vanishing was merely softened, and when Dick looked back at the Union
column it, like the troop of the South, had the quality of a ghostly
train. But the clouds floated away and then the light gleamed on the
barrels of the short carbines that the horsemen carried. From a point
on the other side of the forest came the softened notes of a trumpet
and the great pulse in Dick's throat leaped. Only a few minutes more
and they would be at the meeting of the ways.
Colonel Hertford sent a half dozen mounted skirmishers into the road,
but the column moved forward at its even pace, still silvered in the
moonlight, but ready for battle, wounds and death. Sergeant Whitley
whispered to Dick:
"Other men than our own are moving in the forest. I can hear the tread
of horses' hoofs on the dry leaves and twigs at the far edge. Our
scouts should meet them in a moment or two."
It came as the sergeant had predicted, and Dick saw a tiny flash of
fire, not much larger than a pink dot in the woods, heard the sharp
report of a rifle and then the crack of another rifle in reply.
Silence followed for an instant, but it was evident that the hostile
forces were in touch and then in another moment or two the horses of
the scouts crashed in the brush, as they rode back to the main column.
They had seen enough.
Colonel Hertford gave the order and the entire Union force now advanced
at a gallop. Through the woods, narrowing so rapidly, came the swift
beat of hoofs on the other side, and it was apparent that coincidence
would bring the two forces to the point of convergence at the same
time. The moonlight seemed to Dick to grow so bright and intense that
it had almost the quality of sunlight. Nature, in the absence of day,
was making the field of battle as light as possible.
"What's the lay of the land at the point of meeting?" he whispered
hurriedly to Shepard who had ridden up by his side.
"Almost level," came the quick response.
A few more rapid hoofbeats and the shrouding woods between disappeared.
One column saw another column, both clad in the moonlight, in Dick's
fancy, all in silver mail. The two forces wheeled and faced each other
across the open space, their horses staring with red eyes, and the men
looking intently at their opponents. Both were oppressed for an
instant or two by a deep and singular silence.
Dick's eyes swept fearfully along the gray column of the South, and he
saw the one whom he did not wish to see--at least not there--Harry
Kenton himself, sitting on his bay horse with his friends around him.
The two elderly men must be Colonel Leonidas Talbot and
Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, and the three youths beside
Harry were surely St. Clair, Langdon and Dalton.
As he looked, Colonel Leonidas Talbot raised his sword, and at the same
time came the sharp command of Colonel Hertford. Rifles and carbines
flashed from either side across the open space, and two streams of
bullets crossed. In an instant the silver of the moonlight was hidden
by clouds of smoke through which flashed the fire from hundreds of
rifles and carbines. All around Dick's ears was the hissing sound of
bullets, like the alarm from serpents.
The fire at close range was so deadly to both sides that holes were
smashed in the mounted ranks. The shrill screams of wounded horses,
far more terrible than the cries of wounded men, struck like knife
points on the drums of Dick's ears. He saw Shepard's horse go down,
killed instantly by a heavy bullet, but the spy himself leaped clear,
and then Dick lost him in the smoke. A bullet grazed his own wrist and
he glanced curiously at the thin trickle of blood that came from it.
Yet, forgetting it the next instant, he waved his saber above his head,
and began to shout to the men.
Rifles and pistols emptied, the Southern horsemen were preparing to
charge. The lifting smoke disclosed a long line of tossing manes and
flashing steel. At either end of the line a shrill trumpet was
sounding the charge, and the Northern bugles were responding with the
same command. The two forces were about to meet in that most terrible
of all combats, a cavalry charge by either side, when enemies looked
into the eyes of one another, and strong hands swung aloft the naked
steel, glittering in the moonlight.
"Bend low in the saddle," exclaimed the sergeant, "and then you'll miss
many a stroke!"
Dick obeyed promptly and their whole line swept forward over the grass
to meet the men in gray who were coming so swiftly against them. He
saw a thousand sabers uplifted, making a stream of light, and then the
two forces crashed together. It seemed to him that it was the impact
of one solid body upon another as solid, and then so much blood rushed
to his head that he could not see clearly. He was conscious only of a
mighty crash, of falling bodies, sweeping sabers, that terrible neigh
again of wounded horses, of sun-tanned faces, and of fierce eyes
staring into his own, and then, as the red mist thinned a little, he
became conscious that someone just before him was slashing at him with
a long, keen blade. He bent yet lower, and the sword passed over him,
but as he rose a little he cut back. His edge touched only the air,
but he uttered a gasp of horror as he saw Harry Kenton directly before
him, and knew that they had been striking at each other. He saw, too,
the appalled look in Harry's eyes, who at the same time had recognized
his opponent, and then, in the turmoil of battle, other horsemen drove
in between.
That shiver of horror swept over Dick once more, and then came relief.
The charging horsemen had separated them in time, and he did not think
it likely that the chances of battle would bring Harry and him face to
face more than once. Then the red blur enclosed everything and he was
warding off the saber strokes of another man. The air was yet filled
with the noise of shouting men, and neighing horses, of heavy falls and
the ring of steel on steel. Neither gave way and neither could
advance. The three Union colonels rode up and down their lines
encouraging their men, and the valiant Talbot and St. Hilaire were
never more valiant than on that night.
A combat with sabers cannot last long, and cavalry charges are soon
finished. North and South had met in the center of the open space, and
suddenly the two, because all their force was spent, fell back from
that deadly line, which was marked by a long row of fallen horses and
men. They reloaded their rifles and carbines and began to fire at one
another, but it was at long range, and little damage was done. They
fell back a bit farther, the firing stopped entirely, and they looked
at one another.
It was perhaps the effect of the night, with its misty silver coloring,
and perhaps their long experience of war, giving them an intuitive
knowledge, that made these foes know nothing was to be gained by
further combat. They were so well balanced in strength and courage
that they might destroy one another, but no one could march away from
the field victorious. Perhaps, too, it was a feeling that the God of
Battles had already issued his decree in regard to this war, and that
as many lives as possible should now be spared. But whatever it was,
the finger fell away from the trigger, the saber was returned to the
scabbard, and they sat on their horses, staring at one another.
Dick took his glasses from his shoulder and began to scan the hostile
line. His heart leaped when he beheld Harry in the saddle, apparently
unharmed, and near him three youths, one with a red bandage about his
shoulder. Then he saw the two colonels, both erect men with long, gray
hair, on their horses near the center of the line, and talking
together. One gestured two or three times as he spoke, and he moved
his arm rather stiffly.
The three Union colonels were in a little group not far from Dick, and
they also were talking with one another. Dick wondered what they would
do, but he was saved from long wonderment by the call of a trumpet from
the Southern force, and the appearance of a horseman not older than
himself riding forward and bearing a white flag.
"They want a truce," said Colonel Hertford. "Go and meet them, Mason."
Dick, willing enough, turned his horse toward the young man who,
heavily tanned, was handsome, well-built and dressed with scrupulous
care in a fine gray uniform.
"My name is St. Clair," he said, "and I'm an officer on the staff of
Colonel Leonidas Talbot, who commands the force behind me."
"I think we've met once before," said Dick. "My name is Mason, Richard
Mason, and I am with Colonel Arthur Winchester, who commands one of the
regiments that has just been fighting you."
"It's so! Upon my life it's so, and you're the same Dick Mason that's
the cousin of our Harry Kenton, the fellow he's always talking about!
He's on General Lee's staff, but he's been detached for temporary duty
with us. He's over there all right. But I've come to tell you that
Colonel Talbot, who commands us, offers a flag of truce to bury the
dead. He sees that neither side can win, that to continue the battle
would only involve us in mutual destruction. He wishes, too, that I
convey to your commander his congratulations upon his great skill and
courage. I may add, myself, Mr. Mason, that Colonel Talbot knows a
brave man when he sees him."
"I've no doubt the offer will be accepted. Will you wait a moment?"
"Certainly," replied St. Clair, giving his most elegant salute with his
small sword.
Dick went back to the Union colonels, and they accepted at once. That
long line of dead and wounded, and the mournful song of the wind
through the trees, affected the colonels on both sides. More flags of
truce were hoisted, and the officers in blue or gray rode forward to
meet one another, and to talk together as men who bore no hate in their
hearts for gallant enemies.
The troopers rapidly dug shallow graves with their bayonets in the soft
soil, and the dead were laid away. The feeling of friendship and also
of curiosity among these stern fighters grew. They were anxious to see
and talk a little with men who had fought one another so hard more than
three years. Nearly all of them had lost blood at one time or another,
and the venom of hate had gone out with it.
Dick found Harry dismounted and standing with a group of officers,
among whom were St. Clair and Langdon. The two cousins shook hands
with the greatest warmth.
"Well, Dick," said Harry, "we didn't think to meet again in this way,
did we?"
"No, but both of us at least have come out of it alive, and unwounded.
I'm sorry to see that your friend there is hurt."
"It's nothing," said Langdon, whose left arm was in a hasty bandage. "A
scratch only. I'll be able to use my arm as well as ever three days
from now."
"Your force," said St. Clair, "was marching to reinforce General
Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia. I'm not asking for information,
which of course you wouldn't give. I'm merely stating the fact."
"And yours," said Dick, "was marching to reinforce General Early in the
same valley. I, like you, am just making a statement."
"We've met, but you haven't been able to stop us."
"Nor have you been able to stop _us_."
"And so it's checkmate."
"Checkmate it is."
"Why don't you fellows give up and go home?" exclaimed Dick, moved by
an irresistible impulse. "You know that your armies are wearing out,
while ours are growing stronger!"
"We couldn't think of such a thing," replied St. Clair, in a tone of
cool assurance. "My friend Langdon here, has taken an oath to sleep in
the White House. We also intend to make a triumphal march through
Philadelphia, and then down Broadway in New York. You would not have
us break our oaths or change our purposes."
"It's true, Dick," said Harry, "we can't do either. We'd like to
oblige you Yankees, but we must make those triumphal parades through
Philadelphia and New York."
"I should have known that I couldn't reason with you Johnny Rebs," said
Dick, smiling, "but I hope that none of you will get killed, and here
and now I make you a promise."
"What is it, Dick?" asked Harry.
"When you suffer your final defeat, and all of you become my prisoners,
I'll treat you well. I'll turn you loose in a Blue-grass pasture, and
you can roam as you please within its limits."
"Thank you," said Happy Tom, "but I'm no Nebuchadnezzar. I can't live
on grass. If I become a prisoner at any time I demand the very best of
food, especially as you Yankees already have more than your share."
"There go the trumpets recalling us," said St. Clair. "The men have
finished the gruesome task. I want you to know, Mr. Mason, that we
bear you no animosity, and we're quite sure that you bear us none."
He extended his hand and Dick's met it in a warm grasp. Langdon also
shook hands with him, and as his eyes twinkled he said:
"Don't fail to notice my haughty bearing when I march at the head of a
triumphal troop down Broadway!"
"I promise," said Dick. Then he and Harry gave each other the final
clasp. But with the pride of the young they strove not to show emotion.
"Take care of yourself, Dick, old man!" said Harry. "Don't get in the
way of bullets and shell. Remember they're harder than you are."
"The same to you, Harry. It's not worth while to take any more risks
than necessary."
Then, obeying the call of the trumpets, they mounted and rode to their
own commands. There was something strange in this brief half hour of
friendship, when they buried the dead together. Blue and gray formed
again in long lines facing one another, but midway between was another
long line of fresh earth, and it rose up suddenly, an impassable
barrier to a charge by either force.
"We can't beat them and they can't beat us. That's been proved," said
Colonel Hertford to Colonel Winchester and Colonel Bedford.
"So it has," said Colonel Winchester, "and I'd like to march from here.
I don't care for any more fighting on this spot."
"Nor I. Hark, they've decided it for us!"
The Southern trumpet sounded another call, and the line of men in gray,
turning away, began to march into the southwest. Colonel Hertford
promptly gave an order, the Union trumpet sounded also, and the men in
blue, curving also, rode toward the northwest.
Dick and his comrades were silent a long time. Their feelings were
perhaps the same. To youth a year is a long time, and two years are
almost a life time. Three years and more of it had made war to them a
normal state. They had not thought much before of an end to the great
struggle between North and South, and of what was to come after. Now
they realized that peace, not war, was normal, and that it must return.
The moonlight faded and then the stars were dimmed, as the darkness
that precedes the dawn came. The silvery veil that had been thrown
over them vanished and the column became a ghostly train riding in the
dusk. But the road into which Shepard guided them led over a pleasant
land of hills and clear streams. Although the scouts on their flanks
kept vigilant watch, many of the men slept soundly in their saddles.
Dick himself dozed awhile, and slept awhile, and, when he roused
himself from his last nap, the dawn was breaking over the brown hills
and the column was halting for food and a little rest.
It was August, the time of great heat in Virginia, but they were
already building fires to cook the breakfast and make coffee, and most
of the men had dismounted. Dick sprang down also and turned his horse
loose to graze with the others. Then he joined Warner and Pennington
and fell hungrily to work. When he thought of it afterward he could
scarcely remember a time in the whole war when he was not hungry.
The sense of unreality disappeared with the brilliant dawn, though the
night itself with the battle in the moonlight seemed to be almost a
dream. Yet the combat had been fought, and he had met Harry Kenton and
his friends. The empty saddles proved it.
"I see a great country opening out before us," said Warner. "I suppose
it's this Valley of Virginia, of which we've all heard and seen so
much, and in which once upon a time Stonewall Jackson thumped us so
often."
"It's a branch of it," said Pennington, "but Stonewall Jackson is gone,
God rest his soul--I say that from the heart, even if he was against
us--and I've an idea that instead of getting thumped we're going to do
the thumping. There's something about this man Sheridan that appeals
to me. We've seen him in action with artillery, but now he's a cavalry
commander. They say he rides fast and far and strikes hard. People
are beginning to talk about Little Phil. Well, I approve of Little
Phil."
"He'll be glad to hear of it," said Dick. "It will brace him up a lot."
"He may be lucky to get it," replied Pennington calmly. "There are
many generals in this war, and two or three of them have been
commander-in-chief, of whom I don't approve at all. I think you'll
find, too, that history will have a habit of agreeing with me."
"But don't make predictions," said Dick. "There have been no genuine,
dyed-in-the-wool prophets since those ancient Hebrews were gathered to
their fathers, and that was a mighty long time ago."
"There you're wrong, Dick," said Warner, earnestly. "It's all a matter
of mathematics, the scientific application of a romantic and
imaginative science to facts. Get all your premises right, arrange
them correctly, and the result follows as a matter of course."
The trumpet sounded boots and saddles, and cut him short. In a few
more minutes they were all up and away, riding over the hills and
across the dips toward the main sweep of the famous valley which played
such a great part in the tactics and fighting of the Civil War. It had
already been ravaged much by march and battle and siege, but its
heavier fate was yet to come.
But Dick did not think much of what might happen as he rode with his
comrades across the broken country and saw, rising before them, the dim
blue line of the mountains that walled in the eastern side of the
valley. The day was not so warm as usual, and among the higher hills a
breeze was blowing, bringing currents of fresh, cool air that made the
lungs expand and the pulses leap. The three youths felt almost as if
they had been re-created, and Pennington became vocal.
"Woe is the day!" he said. "I lament what I have lost!"
"If what you have lost was worth keeping I lament with you," said Dick.
"O, woe is the day!"
"O, woe is the day for me, too!" said Warner, "but why do we utter
cries of woe, Frank?"
"Because of the narrow, little, muddy little, ugly little, mean little
trench we've left behind us! O, woe is me that I've left such a
trench, where one could sit in mud to the knees and touch the mud wall
on either side of him, for this open, insecure world, where there is
nothing but fresh air to breathe, nothing but water to drink, nothing
but food to eat, and no world but blue skies, hills, valleys, forests,
fields, rivers, creeks and brooks!"
"O, woe is me!" the three chanted together. "We sigh for our narrow
trench, and its muddy bottom and muddy sides and foul air and lack of
space, and for the shells bursting over our heads, and for the hostile
riflemen ready to put a bullet through us at the first peep! Now, do
we sigh for all those blessings we've left behind us?"
"Never a sigh!" said Dick.
"Not a tear from me," said Pennington.
"The top of the earth for me," said Warner.
Their high spirits spread to the whole column. So thoroughly inured
were they to war that their losses of the night before were forgotten,
and they lifted up their voices and sang. Youth and the open air would
have their way and the three colonels did not object. They preferred
men who sang to men who groaned.
"Do you know just where we're going, and where we expect to find this
Little Phil of yours?" asked Warner.
"I've heard that we're to report to him at Halltown, a place south of
the Potomac, and about four miles from Harper's Ferry," replied Dick.
"As that's a long distance, we'll have a long ride to reach it," said
Warner, "and I'm glad of it. I'm enjoying this great trail, and I hope
we won't meet again those fire-eating friends of yours, Dick, who gave
us so much trouble last night."
"I hope so too," said Dick, "for their sake as well as ours. I don't
like fighting with such close kin. They must be well along on the
southwestern road now to join Early."
"There's no further danger of meeting them, at least before this
campaign opens," said Warner. "Shepard has just come back from a long
gallop and he reports that they are now at least twenty miles away,
with the distance increasing all the time."
Dick felt great relief. He was softening wonderfully in these days,
and while he had the most intense desire for the South to yield he had
no wish for the South to suffer more. He felt that the republic had
been saved and he was anxious for the war to be over soon. His heart
swelled with pride at the way in which the Union states had stood fast,
how they had suffered cruel defeats, but had come again, and yet again,
how mistakes and disaster had been overcome by courage and tenacity.
"A Confederate dollar for your thoughts," said Warner.
"You can have 'em without the dollar," replied Dick. "I was thinking
about the end of the war and after. What are all the soldiers going to
do then?"
"Go straight back to peace," replied Warner promptly. "I know my own
ambition. I've told you already that I intend to be president of
Harvard University, and, barring death, I'm bound to succeed. I give
myself twenty-five years for the task. If I choose my object now and
bend every energy toward it for twenty-five years I'm sure to obtain
it. It's a mathematical certainty."
"I'm going to be a great ranchman in Western Nebraska with my father,"
said Pennington. "He's under fifty yet, and he's as strong as a horse.
The buffalo in Western Nebraska must go and then Pennington and Son
will have fifty thousand fine cattle in their place. And you, Dick,
have you already chosen the throne on which you're going to sit?"
"Yes, I've been thinking about it for some time. I've made up my mind
to be an editor. After the war I'm going to the largest city in our
state, get a place on a newspaper there and strive to be its head.
Then I'll try to cement the reunion of North and South. That will be
my greatest topic. We soldiers won't hate one another when the war is
over, and maybe the fact that I've fought through it will give weight
to my words."
"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Warner. "When I'm president of
Harvard I'll invite the great Kentucky editor, Richard Mason, to
deliver the annual address to my young men. I like that idea of yours
about making the Union firmer than it was before the war. Since the
Northern States and the Southern States must dwell together the more
peace and brotherly love we have the better it will be for all of us."
"When you give me that invitation, George, you'd better ask my cousin,
Harry Kenton, at the same time, because it's almost a certainty that he
will then be governor of Kentucky. His great grandfather, the famous
Henry Ware, was the greatest governor the state ever had, and, as I
know that Harry intends to study law and enter politics, he's bound to
follow in his footsteps."
"Of course I'll ask him," said Warner in all earnestness, "and he shall
speak too. You can settle it between you who speaks first. It will be
an exceedingly effective scene, the two cousins, the great editor who
fought on the Northern side and the great governor who fought on the
Southern side, speaking from the same stage to the picked youth of New
England. Pennington, the representative of the boundless West, shall
be there too, and if the owner of fifty thousand fine cattle roaming
far and wide wants to make an address he shall do so."
"I don't think I'd care to speak, George," said Pennington. "I'm not
cut out for oratory, but I certainly accept right now your invitation
to come. I'll sit on the stage with Dick and the Johnny Reb, his
cousin Harry, and I'll smile and smile and applaud and applaud, and
after it's all over I'll choose a few of your picked youth of New
England, take 'em out west with me, teach 'em how to rope cattle, how
to trail stray steers and how to take care of themselves in a blizzard.
Oh, I'll make men of 'em, I will! Now, what is that on the high hill
to the south?"
The three put their glasses to their eyes and saw a man on horseback
waving a flag. The head of the horse was turned toward some hill
farther south, and the man was evidently making signals to another
patrol there.
"A Johnny," said Pennington. "I suppose they're sending the word on
toward Early that we're passing."
"From hill to hill," said Dick. "A message can be sent a long way in
that manner."
"I don't think it will interfere with us," said Warner. "They're
merely telling about us. They don't intend to attack us. They haven't
the men to spare."
"No, they won't attack, they know I'm here," said Pennington.
The three colonels did not stop the column, but they watched the
signals as they rode. Nobody was able to interpret them, not even
Shepard, but they felt that they could ignore them. Colonel Hertford,
nevertheless, sent off a strong scouting party in that direction, but
as it approached the horseman on the hill rode over the other side and
disappeared.
All that day they advanced through a lonely and hostile country. It
was a region intensely Southern in its sympathies, and it seemed that
everybody, including the women and children, had fled before them.
Horses and cattle were gone also and its loneliness was accentuated by
the fact that not so long before it had been a well-peopled land, where
now the houses stood empty and silent. They saw no human beings, save
other watchmen on the hills making signals, but they were far away and
soon gone.
By noon both horses and men showed great fatigue. They had slept but
little the night before, and, toughened as they were by war, they had
reached the limit of endurance. So the trumpet sounded the halt in a
meadow beside a fine stream, and all, save those who were to ride on
the outskirts and watch for the enemy, dismounted gladly. A vast
drinking followed. The water was clear, running over clean pebbles,
and a thousand men knelt and drank again and again. Then the horses
were allowed to drink their fill, which they did with mighty gurglings
of satisfaction, and the men cooked their midday meal.
Meanwhile they talked of Sheridan. All expected battle and then battle
again when they joined him, and they looked forward to a great campaign
in the valley. That valley was not so far away. The blue walls of the
mountains that hemmed its eastern edge were very near now. Dick looked
at them through his glasses, not to find an enemy, but merely for the
pleasure of bringing out the heavy forests on their slopes. It was
true that the leaves were already touched by the summer's heat, but in
the distance at least the mass looked green. He knew also that under
the screen of the leaves the grass preserved its freshness and there
were many little streams, foaming in white as they rushed down the
steep slopes. It was a marvelously pleasing sight to him, and, as the
wilderness thus called, he was once more deeply grateful that he had
escaped from the muddy trench.
"We'll pass through a gap, sir, tomorrow morning," said Sergeant
Whitley, "and go into the main valley."
"The gap would be the place for the Southern force to meet us."
But Sergeant Whitley shook his head.
"There are too many gaps and too few Southern troops," he said. "I
think we'll find this one clear. Besides, Colonel Hertford is sure to
send a scouting party ahead tonight. But if you don't mind taking a
little advice from an old trooper, sir, I'd lie on the grass and sleep
while we're here. An hour even will do a lot of good."
Dick followed his advice gladly and thanked him. He was always willing
to receive instruction from Sergeant Whitley, who had proved himself
his true friend and who in reality was able to teach men of much higher
rank. He lay down upon the brown grass, and despite all the noise,
despite all the excitement of past hours, fell fast asleep in a few
minutes. He slept an hour, but it seemed to him that he had scarcely
closed his eyes, when the trumpets were calling boots and saddles
again. Yet he felt refreshed and stronger when he sprang up, and
Sergeant Whitley's advice, as always, had proved good.
The column resumed its march before mid-afternoon, continuing its
progress through a silent and empty country. The blue wall came closer
and closer and Dick and his comrade saw the lighter line, looking in
the distance like the slash of a sword, that marked the gap. Shepard,
who rode a very swift and powerful horse, came back from another
scouting trip and reported that there was no sign of the enemy, at
least at the entrance to the gap.
Later in the afternoon, as they were passing through a forest several
shots were fired at them from the covert. No damage was done beyond
one man wounded slightly, and Dick, under orders, led a short pursuit.
He was glad that they found no one, as prisoners would have been an
incumbrance, and it was not the custom in the United States to shoot
men not in uniform who were defending the soil on which they lived. He
had no doubt that those who had fired the shots were farmers, but it
had been easy for them to make good their escape in the thickets.
He thought he saw relief on Colonel Hertford's face also, when he
reported that the riflemen had escaped, and, after spreading out
skirmishers a little farther on either flank, the column, which had
never broken its march, went on at increased pace. It was growing warm
now, and the dust and heat of the long ride began to affect them. The
blue line of the mountains, as they came close, turned to green and
Dick, Warner and Pennington looked enviously at the deep shade.
"Not so bad," said Warner. "Makes me think a little of the Green
Mountains of Vermont, though not as high and perhaps not as green."
"Of course," said Dick. "Nothing outside of Vermont is as good as
anything inside of it."
"I'm glad you acknowledge it so readily, Dick. I have found some
people who would not admit it at first, and I was compelled to talk and
persuade them of the fact, a labor that ought to be unnecessary. The
truth should always speak for itself. Vermont isn't the most fertile
state in the Union and it's not the largest, but it's the best producer
of men, or I should say the producer of the best men."
"What will Massachusetts say to that? I've read Daniel Webster's
speech in reply to Hayne."
"Oh, Massachusetts, of course, has more people, I'm merely speaking of
the average."
"Nebraska hasn't been settled long," said Pennington, "but you just
wait. When we get a population we'll make both Vermont and
Massachusetts take a back seat."
"And that population, or at least the best part of it," rejoined the
undaunted Warner, "will come from Vermont and Massachusetts and other
New England states."
"Sunset and the gap together are close at hand," said Dick, "and
however the mountains of Virginia may compare with those of Vermont,
it's quite certain that the sun setting over the two states is the
same."
"I concede that," said Warner; "but it looks more brilliant from the
Vermont hills."
Nevertheless, the sun set in Virginia in a vast and intense glow of
color, and as the twilight came they entered the gap.
CHAPTER V
AN OLD ENEMY
Despite the brilliant sunset the night came on very dark and heavy with
damp. The road through the gap was none too good and the lofty slopes
clothed in forest looked menacing. Many sharpshooters might lurk
there, and the three colonels were anxious to reach Sheridan with their
force intact, at least without further loss after the battle with
Colonel Talbot's command.
The column was halted and it was decided to send out another scouting
party to see if the way was clear. Twenty men, of whom the best for
such work were Shepard and Whitley, were chosen, and Dick, owing to his
experience, was put in nominal command, although he knew in his heart
that the spy and the sergeant would be the real leaders, a fact which
he did not resent. Warner and Pennington begged to go too, but they
were left behind.
Shepard had received a remount, and, as all of them rode good horses,
they advanced at a swift trot through the great gap. The spy, who knew
the pass, led the way. The column behind, although it was coming
forward at a good pace, disappeared with remarkable quickness. Dick,
looking back, saw a dusky line of horsemen, and then he saw nothing.
He did not look back again. His eyes were wholly for Shepard and the
dim path ahead.
The aspect of the mountains, which had been so inviting before they
came to them, changed wholly. Dick did not long so much for green
foliage now, as a chill wind began to blow. All of them carried cloaks
or overcoats rolled tightly and tied to their saddles, which they
loosed and put on. The wind rose, and, confined within the narrow
limits of the pass, it began to groan loudly. A thin sheet of rain
came on its edge, and the drops were almost as cold as those of winter.
Dick's first sensation of uneasiness and discomfort disappeared
quickly. Like his cousin, Harry, he had inherited a feeling for the
wilderness. His own ancestor, Paul Cotter, had been a great woodsman
too, and, as he drew on the buckskin gauntlets and wrapped the heavy
cloak about his body, his second sensation was one of actual physical
pleasure. Why should he regard the forest with a hostile eye? His
ancestors had lived in it and often its darkness had saved them from
death by torture.
He looked up at the dark slopes, but he could see only the black masses
of foliage and the thin sheets of driven rain. For a little while, at
least, his mind reproduced the wilderness. It was there in all its
savage loneliness and majesty. He could readily imagine that the
Indians were lurking in the brush, and that the bears and panthers were
seeking shelter in their dens. But his own feeling of safety and of
mental and physical pleasure in the face of obstacles deepened.
"I've been just that way myself," said Sergeant Whitley, who was riding
beside him and who could both see and read his face. "On the plains
when we were so well wrapped up that the icy winds whistling around us
couldn't get at us then we felt all the better. But it was best when
we were inside the fort and the winter blizzard was howling."
"A lot of us were talking a little while back about what they were
going to do after the war. What's your plan, sergeant, if you have
any?"
"I do have a plan, Mr. Mason. I was a lumberman, as you know, before I
entered the regular army, and when the fighting's done I think I'll go
back to it. I can swing an axe with the best of 'em, but I mean after
a while to have others swinging axes for me. If I can I'm going to
become a big lumberman. I'd rather be that than anything else."
"It's a just and fine ambition, sergeant, I feel sure that you're going
to become a man of money and power. Mr. Warner means to become
president of Harvard, twenty or twenty-five years from now, and my
cousin Harry Kenton, a reconstructed rebel, is going to deliver an
address there to the new president's young men, while Mr. Pennington
and I, as the president's guests, are going to sit on the stage and
smile. Right now, and with authority from Mr. Warner, I'm going to
invite you as the lumber king of the Northwest to sit on the stage with
us on that occasion, as the guest of President Warner, and smile with
us."
"If I become what you predict I'll accept," said the sergeant.
The chances were a thousand to one against the prophecy, but it all
came true, just as they wished.
The rain increased a little, although it was not yet able to penetrate
Dick's heavy coat, but they were compelled to go more slowly on account
of the thickening darkness. They reached very soon the crest of the
pass and halted there a little while to see or hear any sign of a human
being. But no sound came to them and they resumed the scout in the
darkness, riding now down the slope which would end before long in a
great valley.
The ground softened by the rain deadened the footsteps of their horses,
and they made little noise as they rode down the narrow pass, examining
as well as they could the dripping forest on either side of the road.
Shepard was a bit ahead, and Dick and the sergeant, riding side by
side, came next. Behind were the troopers, a small picked band, daring
horsemen, used to every kind of danger.
They did not really anticipate the presence of an enemy in the pass.
They knew that Colonel Talbot's command had turned toward the
southwest. All the other Confederate forces must be gathering far up
the valley to meet Sheridan, and the South was too much reduced to
raise new men. Yet after a half hour's moderate riding down the slope
Dick became sure that some one was in the narrow belt of forest on
their right, where the slope was less steep than on their left.
At first it seemed to be an intuition, merely a feeling brought on
waves of air that men, enemies, were in the wood. Then he knew that
the feeling was due to sounds as of someone moving lightly through a
wet thicket, but unable to keep the boughs from giving forth a rustle.
He was about to call to Shepard, but before he could do so the spy
stopped. Then all the others stopped also.
"Did you hear it?" Dick whispered to Sergeant Whitley.
"Yes," replied the sergeant. "Men are moving in the thicket on our
right. I couldn't hear much, but they must be as numerous as we are.
They're enemies or they'd have come out. They're on foot, too, as they
couldn't manage horses in those deep woods. Likely they've left their
mounts with a guard on top of a ridge, as men on foot wouldn't be
abroad at such a time on such a night."
"Then it's an ambush!" said Dick, and he added in a sharp voice:
"Pull away to the left, men, under cover!"
Shepard was the first to turn and all the others followed instantly.
Three jumps of the horses and they were among the bushes and trees on
the left. It was lucky for them that they had heard the sound of the
wet bushes rustling together, as a dozen rifles flashed in the dusk on
the other side of the road. Bullets cut the leaves about them. Two or
three buried themselves with a plunk in the trunks of trees, one killed
a horse, the trooper springing clear without hurt, and one man was
wounded slightly in the arm.
"Take cover," called Dick, "but don't lose your horses!"
They dismounted and concealed themselves behind the trunks of trees.
Some hastily tethered their horses to bushes, but others hung the
bridle over an arm. They knew that if a combat was to occur it must be
fought on foot, but, for the present, they were compelled to wait. Yet
if their enemy was hidden from them they also were hidden from him.
All the conditions of an old Indian battle in darkness and ambush were
reproduced, and Dick was deeply grateful that he had at his elbow two
redoubtable champions like Whitley and Shepard. They were peculiarly
fitted for such work as that which lay before them, and he was ready
and willing to take advice from either.
"It's a small party," whispered Shepard, "probably not much larger than
ours. They must have expected to make a complete ambush, but we heard
them too soon."
"It's surely not a part of Colonel Talbot's command," said Dick. "If
so, Harry Kenton and his friends would certainly be there and I
shouldn't like to be in battle with them again."
"Never a fear of that," said Sergeant Whitley. "It's more likely to be
some guerrilla band, roaming around as it pleases. The condition of
the country and these mountains give such fellows a chance. I'm going
to lie down and creep forward as we used to do on the plains. I want
to get a sight of those fellows, that is, if you say so, sir."
"Of course," said Dick, "but don't take too big risks, sergeant. We
can't afford to let you be shot."
"Never fear," said the sergeant, dropping almost flat upon his face,
and creeping slowly forward.
The dusky figure worming itself through the bushes heightened the
illusion of an old Indian combat. The sergeant was a scout and trailer
feeling for the enemy and he reminded Dick of his famous ancestor, Paul
Cotter. Several more shots were fired by the foe, but they did not
hurt anybody, all of them flying overhead. Dick's men were anxious to
send random bullets in reply into the thickets, but he restrained them.
It would be only a waste, and while it was annoying to be held there,
it could not be helped. Some of the horses reared and plunged with
fright at the shots, but silence soon came.
Dick still watched the sergeant as he edged forward, inch by inch. Had
not his eyes been following the dusky figure he could not have picked
it out from the general darkness. But he still saw it faintly, a
darker blur against the dark earth. Yielding a little to his own
anxiety, he handed the bridle of his horse to his orderly, and moved
toward the edge of the woodland strip, bending low, and using the tree
trunks for shelter.
At the last tree he knelt and looked for those on the other side. The
sergeant was already beyond cover, but he lay so low in the grass that
Dick himself could scarcely discern him.
The wind was still driving the thin sheets of rain before it, and was
keeping up a howling and whistling in the pass, a most sinister sound
to one not used to the forest and darkness, although Dick paid no
attention to it.
Twice the clouds parted slightly and showed a bit of moonlight, but the
gleam was so brief that it was gone in a second or two. Nevertheless
at the second ray Dick saw crouched beside a tree at the far side of
the road a small hunched figure holding a rifle, the head crowned by an
enormous flap-brimmed hat. His imagination also made him see small,
close-set, menacing red eyes, and he knew at once that it was Slade,
the same guerrilla leader who had once pursued him with such deadly
vindictiveness through the Mississippi forest and swamps. He had heard
that he had come farther north and had united his band with that of
Skelly, who pretended to be on the other side. But one could never
tell about these outlaws. When they were distant from the regular
armies nobody was safe from them.
"Did you see?" whispered Dick to the sergeant who had crept to his side.
"Yes, I caught a glimpse of him. It was Slade, who tried so hard to
kill you down there in the Vicksburg campaign. If we get another ray
of the moonlight I'll pick him off, that is if you say so, sir."
"I've no objection, sergeant. Such a man as Slade cumbers the earth.
Besides, he'll do everything he can now to kill us."
The sergeant knelt, carbine raised, and waited for the ray of
moonlight. He was a dead shot, and he believed that he would not miss,
but when the ray came at last Slade was not there. Whitley uttered a
low exclamation of disgust.
"A good chance gone," he said, "and it may never come again. I'd have
saved the lives of a lot of good men."
But a flash came from the thicket, and the sergeant from the grass
replied. A cry followed his shot, showing that some one had received
his bullet, but Dick knew instinctively that it was not Slade, the
crafty leader he was sure now being safe behind the trunk of a tree.
Presently the sergeant fired from another point, and then crept hastily
away lest the flash of his rifle betray him. A dozen shots were fired
by Slade's band, but no harm was done, and then, the sergeant coming
back, Dick held a consultation with his two lieutenants and advisers.
"Perhaps we may flank them," he said. "We can divide our force, and
taking them by surprise drive them out of the wood."
But Sergeant Whitley, wary and weatherwise, was against it.
"The risk would be too great, sir," he said. "We can afford to wait
while they can't. Our whole column will be up in time, while it's not
likely that anybody can come to help Slade. It's true too, sir, that
this rain is going to stop. The clouds are beginning to clear away,
and when there's light we'll have a fair chance at 'em."
"I think," said Dick, "that it will be best for Mr. Shepard to return
and hurry up a relieving column. What do you say?"
"I think so too, sir," said Shepard. "I can lead my horse back some
distance through the forest, then mount and gallop up the road. They
may be gone before I come again, but if they are not we can soon drive
them away."
"We'll cover you with our rifles against any rush made by Slade's men,"
said Dick.
But it did not become necessary to fire. Shepard was able to lead his
horse through the woods without noise, until he was at least three
hundred yards on the return journey. Then he mounted and galloped at
great speed up the pass. Dick heard the distant thud of hoofs growing
fainter and fainter until they died away altogether, and he knew that
Slade must have heard them too. And a man as acute and experienced as
the guerrilla chief would easily divine their meaning.
The rain ceased, and the moaning and whistling of the wind in the pass
became a murmur. The clouds parted and sank away toward every horizon,
leaving the full dome of the sky, shot with a bright moon and millions
of dancing stars. A silvery light over the woods and thickets drove
away the deep darkness, and when Sergeant Whitley crept forward again
to spy out the enemy he found that they were gone. He trailed them up
the lofty slope and discovered, as he had surmised, that they had left
their horses there while they attempted the ambush. He was sure now
that they were far away, and he returned with his story, just as
Shepard arrived with the vanguard of the column, led by Colonel
Winchester.
"And so it was Slade!" said the Colonel.
"Undoubtedly, sir," said Dick. "I saw him plainly, and so did Sergeant
Whitley."
"I'm not sorry he's here," said Colonel Winchester thoughtfully, "and I
hope the story that he and Skelly have joined bands is true, because if
they are in this region they're so far away from Pendleton that your
people are safe from mischief at their hands."
"I hadn't thought of it in that way, sir, but it's just as you say. I'd
rather have to fight them here than have them attacking our innocent
people at home. In the early part of the war Skelly called himself a
Unionist, did he not?"
"Yes, and he may do so yet, but names are nothing to him. He'd rob,
and murder, too, with equal zest under either flag."
"It's so," said Dick, and he felt the full truth as he thought of
Pendleton, and his beautiful young mother, alone in her house, save for
the gigantic and faithful Juliana. But Juliana was an armed host
herself, and Dick smiled at the recollection of the strong and honest
black face that had bent over him so often. He prayed without words
that these ruthless guerrillas, no matter what flag they bore, should
never come to Pendleton.
"I don't think our column on its present march need fear anything from
Slade and his band," said Colonel Winchester. "Such as he can operate
only from ambush, and so far as Virginia is concerned, in the
mountains. Shepard says we'll be out of the pass in another hour, and
by that time it will be day. I'll be glad, too, as the cold rain and
the darkness and the long ride are beginning to affect the men."
The column resumed its march, Dick rode by the side of Colonel
Winchester. Time, propinquity, genuine esteem, and a fourth influence
which Dick did not as yet suspect, were fast knitting these two,
despite the difference in age, into a friendship which nothing could
break. The meeting with Slade was forgotten quickly, by all except
those concerned, and by most of those too, so vast was the war and so
little space did it afford for the memory of brief events. Yet it
lingered a while with Dick. Twice now he had met Slade and he felt
that he would meet him yet again at points far apart.
Dawn came slow and gray in a cloudy sky, but the sun soon broke
through. The heat returned and the earth began to dry. The three
colonels felt it necessary to give their men rest and food, and let
them dry their uniforms, which had become wet in many cases, despite
their overcoats and heavy cloaks.
They were now in a deep cove of the great Valley of Virginia, with the
steep mountains just behind them, and far beyond the dim blue outline
of other mountains enclosing it on the west. As the fires blazed up
and the men made coffee and cooked their breakfasts, Dick's heart
leaped. This was the great valley once more, where so much history had
been made. Lee and Grant were deadlocked in the trenches before
Petersburg, but here in the valley history would be made again. It was
the finest part of Virginia, the greatest state of the Confederacy, and
Dick knew in his heart that some heavy blows would soon be struck,
where fields already had been won and lost in desperate strife.
But the men were very cheerful. The little band of skirmishers or
sharpshooters under Slade had been brushed aside easily, and now that
they were in the valley they did not foresee any further attempt to
stop their march to Sheridan. The three colonels shared in the view,
and when the men had finished breakfast and dried themselves at their
fires they remounted and rode away gaily. High spirits rose again in
youthful veins, and some lad of a mellow voice began to sing. By and
by all joined and a thousand voices thundered out:
"Oh, share my cottage, gentle maid,
It only waits for thee
To give a sweetness to its shade
And happiness to me.
"Here from the splendid, gay parade
Of noise and folly free
No sorrows can my peace invade
If only blessed with thee.
"Then share my cottage, gentle maid,
It only waits for thee
To give a sweetness to its shade
And happiness to me."
Colonel Hertford made no attempt to check them as they rode across the
fields, yet green here, despite the summer's heat.
"They're bravest when they sing," he said to Colonel Winchester.
"It encourages them," said Colonel Winchester, "and I like to hear it
myself. It's a wonderful effect, a thousand or more strong lads
singing, as they sweep over the valley toward battle."
Dick, Pennington and Warner had joined in the song, but the youth some
distance ahead of them was leader. They finished "Gentle Maid" and
then, with the same lad leading them, swung into a song that made Dick
start and that for a moment made other mountains and another valley
stand out before him, sharp and clear.
"Soft o'er the fountain, ling'ring falls the Southern moon
Far o'er the mountain, breaks the day too soon.
In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the warm light loves to dwell,
Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell.
Nita! Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part,
Nita! Juanita! Lean thou on my heart.
"When in thy dreaming moons like these shall shine again,
And daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain,
Wilt thou not, relenting, for thy absent lover sigh?
In thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by!
Nita! Juanita! Let me linger by thy side.
Nita! Juanita! Be my own fair bride."
They put tremendous heart and energy into the haunting old song as they
sang, and Dick still saw Sam Jarvis, the singer of the hills, and his
valley, where the paths of Harry Kenton and himself had crossed, though
at times far apart.
"Now!" shouted the young leader, "The last verse again!" and with
increased heart and energy they thundered out:
"When in thy dreaming moons like these shall shine again,
And daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain,
Wilt thou not, relenting, for thy absent lover sigh?
In thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by!
Nita! Juanita! Let me linger by thy side.
Nita! Juanita! Be my own fair bride."
The mighty chorus sank away and the hills gave it back in echoes until
the last one died.
"It's sung mostly in the South," said Dick to Warner and Pennington.
"True," said Warner, "but before the war songs were not confined to one
section. They were the common property of both. We've as much right
to sing Juanita as the Johnnies have."
All that day they rode and sang, going north toward Halltown, where the
forces of Sheridan were gathering, and the valley, although lone and
desolate, continually unfolded its beauty before them. The mountains
were green near by and blue in the distance, and the fertile floor that
they enclosed, like walls, was cut by many streams. Here, indeed, was
a region that had bloomed before the war, and that would bloom again,
no matter what war might do.
They found inhabited houses now and then, but all the men of military
age were gone away and the old men, the women and the children would
answer nothing. The women were not afraid to tell the Yankees what
they thought of them, and in this war which was never a war on women
the troopers merely laughed, or, if they felt anger, they hid it.
On they went through night and day, and now they drew near to Sheridan.
Scouts in blue met them and the gallant column shook their sabers and
saluted. Yes, it was true, they said, that Sheridan was gathering a
fine army and he and all of his men were eager to march, but Colonel
Hertford's force, sent by General Grant to help, would be welcomed with
shouts. The fame of its three colonels had gone on before.
It was bright noon when they approached the northern end of the valley,
and Dick saw a horseman followed by a group of about twenty men
galloping toward them. The leader was a short, slender man, sitting
firmly in his saddle.
"General Sheridan!" exclaimed Shepard.
Colonel Hertford instantly ordered his trumpeter to sound a signal, and
the troopers, stopping and drawing up in a long line, awaited the man
who was to command them, and who was coming on so fast. Again Dick
examined him closely through his glasses, and he saw the young, tanned
face under the broad brim of his hat, and the keen, flashing eyes. He
noticed also how small he was. Sheridan was but five feet five inches
in height and he weighed in the momentous campaign now about to begin,
only one hundred and fifteen pounds! As slight as a young boy, he
gave, nevertheless, an impression of the greatest vigor and endurance.
He reined in his horse a score of yards in front of the long line and
was about to speak to Colonel Hertford, who sat his saddle before it,
Colonel Winchester and Colonel Bedford on either side of him, but there
was a sudden interruption.
Fifteen hundred sabers flashed aloft, the blazing sunlight glittering
for a moment on their broad blades. Then they swept in mighty curves,
all together, and from fifteen hundred throats thundered:
"Sheridan! Sheridan! Sheridan!"
The sabers made another flashing curve, sank back into their scabbards,
and the men were silent.
Sheridan's tanned face flushed deeply, and a great light leaped up in
his eyes, as he received the magnificent salute. His own sword sprang
out, and made the salute in reply. Then, riding a little closer, he
said in a loud, clear tone that all could hear:
"Men, I have been looking for you! I have come forward to meet you! I
knew that you were great horsemen, gallant soldiers, but I see that you
are even greater and more gallant men than I had hoped. The Army of
the Potomac has sent its best as a gift to the Army of the Shenandoah.
Men, I thank you for this welcome, the warmest I have ever received!"
Again the sabers flashed aloft, made their glittering curve, and again
from muscular throats came the thunderous cheer:
"Sheridan! Sheridan! Sheridan!"
Then the young general shook hands heartily with the three colonels,
the young aides were introduced, and with Sheridan himself at their
head the whole column swept off toward the north, and to the camp of
the Army of the Shenandoah which lay but a little distance away.
CHAPTER VI
THE FISHERMEN
The welcome that the column found in Sheridan's camp was as warm as
they had hoped, and more. Fifteen hundred sabers such as theirs were
not to be valued lightly, and Sheridan knew well the worth of three
such colonels as Hertford, Winchester and Bedford, with all three of
whom he was acquainted personally, and with whose records he was
familiar. Dick, Pennington and Warner also came in for his notice, and
he recalled having seen Dick at the fierce battle of Perryville in
Kentucky, a fact of which Dick was very proud.
"Now don't become too haughty because he remembers you," said Warner
reprovingly. "Bear in mind that trifles sometimes stick longer in our
minds than more important things."
"It's just jealousy on your part," said Dick. "You New Englanders are
able people, but you can't bear for anybody else to achieve
distinction."
"We don't have to feel that jealousy often," said Warner calmly.
"Merit like charity begins with you at home."
"And modesty can't keep us from admitting it, but you Kentuckians do
fight well--under our direction."
"Don't talk with him, Dick," said Pennington. "Against his wall of
mountainous conceit wisdom breaks in vain."
"I'm glad to see you expressing yourself so poetically, Frank," said
Warner. "The New England seed planted in Nebraska will flower into
bloom some day."
Sergeant Whitley came at that moment and asked them to go and see the
new horses provided for them, and the three went with him, friends
bound to one another by hooks of steel. The horses given to them by
special favor of Sheridan in place of their worn-out mounts, were
splendid animals, and Sergeant Whitley himself had prepared them for
their first appearance before their new masters.
"They'll do! They'll do!" said Dick with enthusiasm. "Grand fellows!
They ought to carry us anywhere!"
"Upon this point I must confess myself somewhat your inferior," said
Warner in his precise manner. "The mountainous character of our state
keeps us from making horses a specialty. You, I believe, in Kentucky,
pay great attention to their breeding, and so I ask you, young Mr.
Mason, if the horse chosen for me is all that he should be."
"He asks it as a matter of condescension, Dick, and not as a favor,"
said Pennington.
"It's all right any way you take it," laughed Dick. "Yes, George, your
horse has no defect. You can always lead the charge on him against
Early."
"If I'm not at the very front I expect to be somewhere near it," said
Warner. "But don't you like the looks of this camp, boys? It shows
order, method and precision. Everything has been done according to the
best algebraic formulae. I call it mathematics, charged with fire. Our
Little Phil is a great commander. One can feel his spirit in the air
all about us."
Dick himself had noticed the military workmanship and that, too, of a
high order, and he understood thoroughly that Sheridan had gathered a
most formidable army. It was not much short of thirty thousand men,
veteran troops, and he had with him Wright, Emory, Crook, Merritt,
Averill, Torbert, Wilson and Grover, all able generals. Nor had
Sheridan neglected to inform himself of the country over which he
intended to march. With his lieutenant of engineers, Meigs, a man of
great talent, he had spent days and nights studying maps of the valley.
Now he knew all the creeks and brooks and roads and towns, and he
understood the country as well as Early himself, who faced him with as
large a Confederate force as he could gather.
Dick and his comrades expected immediate action, but it did not come.
They lingered for days, due, they supposed, to orders from Washington,
but they did not bother themselves about it, as they liked their new
camp and were making many new friends. September days passed and they
saw the summer turning into autumn. The mountains in the distance
looked blue, but, near at hand, their foliage had turned brown. The
great heat gave way to a crisper air and the lads who had come from the
trenches before Petersburg enjoyed for a little while the luxury of
early autumn and illimitable space.
They rode now and then with the cavalry outposts. Early and his men
stretched across the valley to oppose them, and often Northern and
Southern pickets were in touch, though they seldom fired upon one
another. Dick, whenever he rode with the advanced guard, watched for
Harry Kenton, St. Clair and Langdon, but it was nearly a week before he
saw them. Then they rode with a small group, headed by two elderly but
very upright men, whom he knew to be Colonel Leonidas Talbot and
Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.
He felt genuine gladness, and, shouting at the top of his voice, he
waved his hand. They recognized him, and all waved a welcome in
return. He saw the two colonels studying him through their glasses, but
he knew that no attack would be made upon him and the little party with
which he rode. It was one of those increasing intervals of peace and
friendship between battles. The longer the war and the greater the
losses the less men troubled themselves to shoot one another save when
real battle was joined.
They were about four hundred yards apart and Dick used his glasses
also, enabling him to see that the young Southern officers were
unwounded--Langdon's slight hurt had healed long since--and were strong
and hearty. He thought it likely that they, as well as he, had found
the brief period of rest and freedom from war a genuine luxury.
He waved his hand once more, and they waved back as before. Then the
course of the two little troops took them away from each other, and the
Southerners were hid from his view by a belt of forest. But he was
very glad that he had seen them. It had been almost as if there were
no war.
Dick rode back to the camp, gave his horse to an orderly, and, walking
toward his tent, was met by Warner and Pennington, carrying long
slender rods on their shoulders--Warner in fact carrying two.
"What's this?" he exclaimed.
"We're going fishing," replied Warner. "We've permission for you also.
There's a fine stream about a half mile west of us, running through the
woods, and it's been fished in but little since the war started. Here,
take your rod! You don't expect me to carry it for you any longer do
you? It has a good hook and line and it's easy for us to find bait
under a big stone on soft soil."
"Thank you, George," said Dick happily. "You couldn't keep me from
going with you two. Do you know, I haven't been fishing in more than
three years, and me not yet of age?"
"Well, now's your chance, and you may not have another until after the
war is over. They say it's a fine stream, though, of course, it's not
like the beautiful little rivers of Vermont, that come dashing down
from the mountains all molten silver, where they're not white foam.
Splendid fish! Splendid rivers! Splendid sport! Dick, do you think
I'm facing now in the exact direction of Vermont?"
He had turned about and was gazing with a rapt look into the northeast.
"I should say," said Dick, "that if your gaze went far enough it would
strike squarely upon the Green Mountains of Vermont."
Warner's hand rose in a slow and majestic salute.
"Great little state, mother of men, I salute thee!" he said. "Thou art
stern and yet beautiful to the eye and thy sons love thee! I, who am
but one among them, love all thy rocks, and clear streams, and noble
mountains and green foliage! Here, from the battle fields and across
the distance I salute thee, O great little state! O mother of men!"
"Quite dithyrambic," said Dick, "and now that your burst of rhetoric is
over let's go on and catch our fish. Will you also use your romantic
science of mathematics in fishing? By the way, what has become of that
little algebra book of yours?"
"It's here," said Warner, taking it from the breast pocket of his
tunic. "I never part with it and I most certainly expect to use its
principles when I reach the fishing stream. Let x express my equipment
and myself, let y equal skill and patience; x we shall say also equals
the number 7, while y equals the number 5. Now the fish are
represented by z which is equal to 12. It is obvious even to slow
minds like yours and Pennington's that neither x nor y alone can equal
z, the fish, otherwise 12, but when combined they represent that value
exactly, that is x plus y equals 12. So, if I and my equipment
coordinate perfectly with my skill and patience, which most certainly
will happen, the fish are as good as caught by me already. The rest is
a mere matter of counting."
"Best give in, Dick," said Pennington. "He'll always prove to you by
his algebra that he knows everything, and that everything he does is
right. Of course, he's the best fisherman in the world!"
"I'd have you to know, Francis Pennington," said Warner, with dignity,
"that I was a very good fisherman when I was five years old, and that
I've been improving ever since, and that Vermont is full of fine deep
streams, in which one can fish with pleasure and profit. What do you
know, you prairie-bred young ruffian, about fishing? I've heard that
your creeks and brooks are nothing but strips of muddy dew. The Platte
River itself, I believe, is nearly two inches deep at its deepest
parts. I don't suppose there's another stream in America which takes up
so much space on the map and so little on the ground."
"The Platte is a noble river," rejoined Pennington. "What it lacks in
depth it makes up in length, and I'll not have it insulted by anybody
in its absence."
While they talked they passed through the brown woods and came to the
creek, flowing with a fine volume of water down from the mountains into
one of the rivers of the valley.
"It's up to its advertisements," said Warner, looking at it with
satisfaction. "It's clear, deep and it ought to have plenty of good
fish. I see a snug place between the roots of that oak growing upon
the bank, and there I sit."
"There are plenty of good places," said Dick, as they seated themselves
and unwrapped their lines, "and I've a notion that our fishing is going
to prove good. Isn't it fine? Why, it's like being back home!"
"Time's rolled back and we're just boys again," said Pennington.
"Don't try to be poetic, Frank," said Warner. "I've told you already
that a man who has nothing but muddy streaks of dew to fish in can't
know anything about fishing."
"Stop quarreling, you two," said Dick. "Don't you know that such
voices as yours raised in loud tones would scare away the boldest fish
that ever swam?"
The three cast their lines out into the stream. They were of the
old-fashioned kind, a hook, a lead sinker, and a cork on the line to
keep it from sinking too far. Dick had used just such an equipment
since he was eight years old, in the little river at Pendleton, and now
he was anxious to prove to himself that he had not lost his skill. All
three were as eager to catch a fish as they were to win a battle, and,
for the time, the war was forgotten. It seemed to Dick as he sat on
the brown turf between the enclosing roots of the tree, and leaning
against its trunk, that his lost youth had returned. He was just a boy
again, fishing and with no care save to raise something on his hook.
The wood, although small, was dense, and it shut out all view of the
army. Nor did any martial sounds come to them. The rustle of the
leaves under the gentle wind was soothing. He was back at Pendleton.
Harry Kenton was fishing farther up the stream, and so were other boys,
his old friends of the little town.
The bit of forest was to all intents a wilderness just then, and it was
so pleasant in the comfortable place between the supporting roots of
the tree that Dick fell into a dreamy state, in which all things were
delightful. It was perhaps the power of contrast, but after so much
riding and fighting he felt a sheer physical pleasure in sitting there
and watching the clear stream flow swiftly by. He smiled too at the
way in which his cork bobbed up and down on the water, and he began to
feel that it would not matter much whether he caught any fish or not.
It was just enough to sit there and go through all the motions of
fishing.
A shout from a point twenty yards below and he looked up, startled,
from his dream.
"A bite!" exclaimed Warner, "I thought I had him, but he slipped off
the hook! I raised him to the surface and I know he was two feet long!"
"Nine inches, probably," said Dick. "Allow at least fifteen inches for
your imagination, George."
"I suppose you're right, Dick. At least, I have to do it down here. If
it were a Vermont river he'd be really two feet long."
Dick heard his line and sinker strike the water again, and then silence
returned to the little wood, but it did not endure long. From a point
beyond Warner came a shout, and this was undeniably a cry of triumph.
It was accompanied by a swishing through the air and the sound of an
object striking the leaves.
"I got him! I got him! I got him!" exclaimed Pennington, dancing
about as if he were only twelve years old.
Dick stood up and saw that Pennington, in truth, had caught a fine
fish, at least a foot long, which was now squirming over the leaves,
its silver scales gleaming.
"It seems to me," said Dick, "that the very young Territory of Nebraska
has scored over the veteran State of Vermont."
"A victor merely in a preliminary skirmish," said Warner serenely. "The
fish happened to be there. Frank's baited hook was close by. The fish
was hungry and the result was a mathematical certainty. Frank is
entitled to no credit whatever. As for me, I lure my fish within the
catching area."
As Dick resumed his seat he felt a sharp pull at his own line, and
drawing it in smartly he drew with it a fish as large as Pennington's,
a fact that he announced with pride.
"I think, Frank," he called, "that this is not good old Vermont's day.
Either we're more skillful or the fish like us better than they do
Warner. Which do you think it is?"
"It's both, Dick."
"On second thought, I don't agree with you, Frank. The fish in this
river are entirely new to us. They've never seen us before, and they
know nothing about us by hearsay and reputation. It's a case of skill,
pure skill, Frank. We've got Mr. Vermont down, and we're going to hold
him down."
Warner said nothing, but Dick rose up a little and saw his face. It
was red, the teeth clenched tightly, and the mouth drawn down at the
corners. His eyes were fixed eagerly on his cork in the hope of seeing
it bob for a moment and then be drawn swiftly under.
"Good old George," said Dick, under his breath. "He hates to be
beaten--well, so do we all."
Pennington caught another fish and then Dick drew in his second.
Warner did not have a bite since his first miss and his two comrades
did not spare him. They insinuated that there were no fish in Vermont,
and they doubted whether the state had any rivers either. In any event
it was obvious that Warner had never fished before. For several
minutes they carried on this conversation, the words, in a way, as they
went back and forth, passing directly by his head. But Warner did not
speak. He merely clenched his teeth more tightly and watched his
floating cork. Meanwhile Dick caught his third fish and then Pennington
equaled him. Now their taunts, veiled but little, became more numerous.
Warner never spoke, nor did he take his eyes from his cork. He had
heard every word, but he would not show annoyance. He was compelled to
see Dick draw in yet another fine fellow, while his own cork seemed to
have all the qualities of a lifeboat. It danced and bobbed around, but
apparently it had not the slightest intention of sinking. Why did he
have such luck, or rather lack of it? Was fortune going to prove
unkind to the good old rock-ribbed Green Mountain State?
There came a tremendous jerk upon the line! The cork shot down like a
bullet, but Warner, making a mighty pull and snap with the rod, landed
a glorious gleaming fish upon the bank, a full two feet in length,
probably as large as any that had ever been caught in that stream. He
detached the hook and looked down at his squirming prize, while Dick
and Pennington also came running to see.
"I've been waiting for you, my friend," said Warner serenely to the
fish. "Various small brothers of yours have come along and looked at my
bait, but I've always moved it out of reach, leaving them to fall a
prey to my friends who are content with little things. I had to wait
for you some time, O King of Fishes, but you came at last and you are
mine."
"You can't put him down, Dick, and it's not worth while trying," said
Pennington, and Dick agreeing they went back to their own places.
The fishing now went on with uninterrupted success. Dick caught a big
fellow too, and so did Pennington. Fortune, after wavering in her
choice, decided to favor all three about equally, and they were
content. The silvery heaps grew and they rejoiced over the splendid
addition they would make to their mess. The colonels would enjoy this
fine fresh food, and they were certainly enjoying the taking of it.
They ran out of chaff and fell into silence again, while they fished
industriously. Dick, who was farthest up the stream, noticed a small
piece of wood floating in the center of the current. It seemed to have
been cut freshly. "Loggers at work farther up," he said to himself.
"May be cutting wood for the army."
He caught another fish and a fresh chip passed very near his line. Then
came a second, and a third touched the line itself. Dick's curiosity
was aroused. Loggers at such a time would not take the trouble to
throw their chips into the stream. He lifted his line, caught an
unusually large white chip on the hook and drew it to the land. When
he picked it up and looked at it he whistled. Someone had cut upon its
face with a sharp penknife these clear and distinct words:
Yankees Beware
This is our River
Don't Fish in It
These Fish are Ours.
JOHNNY REBS.
"Well, this is surely insolence," said Dick, and calling his comrades
he showed them the chip. Both were interested, but Warner had
admiration for its sender.
"It shows a due consideration for us," he said. "He merely warns us
away as trespassers before shooting at us. And perhaps he's right.
The river and the fish in it really belong to them. We're invaders.
We came down here to crush rebellion, not to take away property."
"But I'm going to keep my fish, just the same," said Pennington. "You
can't crush a rebellion without eating. Nor am I going to quit fishing
either."
"Here comes another big white chip," said Dick.
Warner caught it on his hook and towed it in. It bore the inscription,
freshly cut:
Let our river alone
Take in your lines
You're in danger,
As you'll soon see.
It was unsigned and they stared at it in wonder.
"Do you think this is really a warning?" said Pennington, "or is it
some of the fellows playing tricks on us?"
"I believe it's a warning," said Warner soberly. "Probably a farmer a
little distance up the stream has been cutting wood, and these chips
have come from his yard, but he didn't send them. Dick, can you tell
handwriting when it's done with a knife?"
Dick looked at the chip long and critically.
"It may be imagination," he said, "but the words cut there bear some
resemblance to the handwriting of Harry Kenton. He makes a peculiar L
and a peculiar A and they're just the same way on this chip. The
writing is different on the other chip, but on this one I believe
strongly that it's Harry's."
"It looks significant to me," said Warner thoughtfully. "A mile or two
farther up, this stream, so I'm told, makes an elbow, and beyond that
it comes with a rush out of the mountains. Its banks are lined with
woods and thickets and some of the enemy may have slipped in and
launched these chips. I've a sort of feeling, Dick, that it's really
your cousin and his friends who have done it."
"I incline to that belief myself," said Dick. "You know they're ready
to dare anything, and they don't anticipate any great danger, because
we don't care to shoot at one another, until the campaign really
begins."
"At least," said Warner, "it's best to apply to the problem a good
algebraic formula. Here we are in a wood, some distance from our main
camp. Messages, bearing a warning either in jest or in earnest, have
come floating down from a point which may be within the enemy's
country. One of the facts is x and the other is y, but what they amount
to is an unknown quantity. Hence we are left in doubt, and when you're
in doubt it's best to do the safe thing."
"Which means that we should go back to the camp," said Dick. "But
we'll take our fish with us, that's sure."
They began to wind up their lines, but knowing that departure would be
prudent they were yet reluctant to go in the face of a hidden danger,
which after all might not be real.
"Suppose I climb this tree," said Pennington, indicating a tall elm,
"and I may be able to get a good look over the country, while you
fellows keep watch."
"Up you go, Frank," said Dick. "George and I will be on guard, pistols
in one hand and fish in the other."
Pennington climbed the elm rapidly and then announced from the highest
bough able to support him that he saw open country beyond, then more
woods, a glimpse of the stream above the elbow, but no human being. He
added that he would remain a few minutes in the tree and continue his
survey of the country.
Dick's eyes had followed Frank's figure until it disappeared among the
brown leaves, and he had listened to him carefully, while he was
telling the result of his outlook, but his attention now turned back to
the river. No more chips were floating down its stream. Nothing
foreign appeared upon the clear surface of its waters, but Dick's sharp
vision caught sight of something in a thicket on the far shore that
made his heart beat.
It was but little he saw, merely the brown edge of an enormous
flap-brimmed hat, but it was enough. Slade and his men undoubtedly
were there--practically within the Union lines--and he was the danger!
He called up the tree in a fierce sibilant whisper that carried
amazingly far:
"Come down, Frank! Come down at once, for your life!"
It was a call so alarming and insistent that Pennington almost dropped
from the tree. He was upon the ground, breathless, in a half minute,
his fish in one hand and the pistol that he had snatched from his belt
in the other.
"What is it?" exclaimed Warner, who had not yet seen anything.
"Slade and his men are in the bush on the other side of the river. The
warning was real and I've no doubt Harry sent it. They've seen Frank
come down the tree! Drop flat for your lives!"
Again his tone was so compelling that the other two threw themselves
flat instantly, and Dick went down with them. They were barely in
time. A dozen rifles flashed from the thickets beyond the stream, but
all the bullets passed over their heads.
"Now we run for it!" exclaimed Dick, once more in that tone of
compelling command. All three rose instantly, though not forgetting
their fish and their fishing rods, and ran at their utmost speed for
fifty or sixty yards, when at Dick's order they threw themselves flat
again. Three or four more shots were fired from the thickets, but they
did not come near their targets.
"Thank God for that little river in between us!" said Pennington,
piously and sincerely. "Rivers certainly have their uses!"
Then they heard a sharp, shrill note blown upon a whistle.
"That's Slade recalling his men," said Dick. "I heard him use the same
whistle in Mississippi and I know it. His wicked little scheme to
slaughter us has failed and knowing it he prudently withdraws."
"For which, perhaps, we have a chip to thank," said Warner. "Shall we
rise and run again?"
"Yes," said Dick. "I think they've gone, but fifty yards farther and
nobody in those thickets can reach us."
They stooped as they ran, and they ran fast, but, when they dropped
down again, it was behind a little hill, and they knew that all danger
had passed. The thumping of their hearts ceased, and they looked
thankfully at one another.
"Our lives were in danger," said Warner proudly, "but I didn't forget
my fish. See, the silver beauties!"
"And here are mine too!" said Pennington, holding up his string.
"And mine also!" said Dick.
"I don't like the way we had to run," said Warner. "We were
practically within our own lines and we were compelled to be
undignified. I've been insulted by that flap-brimmed scoundrel, Slade,
and I shall not forget it. If he hangs upon our flank in this campaign
I shall make a point of it, if I am able, to present him with a bullet."
The sound of thudding hoofs came, and Colonel Winchester and a troop
galloped up.
"We heard shots!" he exclaimed. "What was it?"
Dick held up his fish.
"We've been fishing, sir," he replied, "and as you can see, we've had
success, but we were interrupted by the guerrilla Slade, whom I met in
Mississippi, and his men. We got off, though, unhurt, and brought our
fish with us."
Colonel Winchester's troop numbered more than a hundred men, and
crossing the river they beat up the country thoroughly, but they saw no
Confederate sign. When he came back Dick told him all the details of
the episode, and Colonel Winchester agreed with him that Harry had sent
the warning.
"You'd better keep it to yourself," he said. "It's too vague and
mysterious to make a peg upon which to hang anything. Since we've
cleared the bush of enemies we'll go eat the fish you and your friends
have caught."
Sergeant Whitley cooked them, and, as Dick and a score of others sat
around the fire and ate fish for supper, they were so exuberant and
chaffed so much that he forgot for the time all about Slade.
CHAPTER VII
SHERIDAN'S ATTACK
More days passed and the army of Sheridan lay waiting at the head of
the valley, apparently without any aim in view. But Dick knew that if
Little Phil delayed it was with good cause. As Colonel Winchester was
high in the general's confidence Dick saw the commander every day. He
soon learned that he was of an intensely energetic and active nature,
and that he must put a powerful rein upon himself to hold back, when he
had such a fine army to lead.
Many of the younger officers expressed impatience and Dick saw by the
newspapers that the North too was chafing at the delay. Newspapers
from the great cities, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, reached their
camp and they always read them eagerly. Criticisms were leveled at
Sheridan, and from the appearance of things they had warrant, but Dick
had faith in their leader. Yet another period of depression had come
in the North. The loss of life in Grant's campaign through the
Wilderness had been tremendous, and now he seemed to be held
indefinitely by Lee in the trenches before Petersburg. The
Confederacy, after so many great battles, and such a prodigious roll of
killed and wounded, was still a nut uncracked, and Sheridan, who was
expected to go up the valley and turn the Southern flank, was resting
quietly in his camp.
Such was the face of matters, but Dick knew that, beneath, great plans
were in the making and that the armies would soon stir. The more he
saw of Sheridan the more he was impressed by him. He might prove to be
the Stonewall Jackson of the North. Young, eager, brave, he never fell
into the fault some of the other Union commanders had of overestimating
the enemy. He always had a cheery word for his young officers, and
when he was not poring over the maps with his lieutenant of engineers,
Meigs, he was inspecting his troops, and seeing that their equipment
and discipline were carried to the highest pitch. He was the very
essence of activity and the army, although not yet moving, felt at all
times the tonic of his presence.
Cavalry detachments were sent out on a wider circle. Slade and his men
had no opportunity to come so close again, but Shepard informed Dick
that he was in the mountains hemming in the valley on the west, and
that the statement of his having formed a junction with a band under
Skelly from the Alleghanies was true. He had seen the big man and the
little man together and they had several hundred followers.
Shepard in these days showed an almost superhuman activity. He would
leave the camp, disguised as a civilian, and after covering a great
distance and risking his life a dozen times he would return with
precious information. A few hours of rest and he was gone again on a
like errand. He seemed to be burning with an inward fire, not a fire
that consumed him, but a fire of triumph. Dick, who had formed a great
friendship with him and who saw him often, had never known him to speak
more sanguine words. Always cautious and reserved in his opinions, he
talked now of the certainty of victory. He told them that the South
was not only failing in men, having none to fill up its shattered
ranks, but that food also was failing. The time would come, with the
steel belt of the Northern navy about it and the Northern armies
pressing in on every side, when the South would face starvation.
But a day arrived when there were signs of impending movements in the
great Northern camp. Long columns of wagons were made ready and orders
were issued for the vanguard of cavalry to start at an appointed time.
Then, to the intense disappointment of the valiant young troops, the
orders were countermanded and the whole army settled back into its
quarters. Dick, who persistently refused to be a grumbler, knew that a
cause must exist for such an action, but before he could wonder about
it long Colonel Winchester told him, Warner and Pennington to have
their horses saddled, and be ready to ride at a moment's notice.
"We're to be a part of General Sheridan's escort," he said, "and we're
to go to a little place called Charlestown."
The three were delighted. They were eager to move, and above all in
the train of Sheridan. The mission must be of great importance or the
commander himself would not ride upon it. Hence they saddled up in
five minutes, hoping that the call would come in the next five.
"Did Colonel Winchester tell you why we were going to ride?" asked
Warner of Dick.
"No."
"Then perhaps we're going to receive the surrender of Early and all his
men."
Dick laughed.
"I've heard that old Jube Early is one of the hardest swearers in the
Southern army," he said, "and I've heard, too, that he's just as hard a
fighter. I don't think he'll be handing us his surrender on a silver
platter at Charlestown or anywhere else."
"I know it," said Warner. "I was only joking, but I'm wondering why we
go."
In ten minutes an orderly came with a message for them and they were in
the saddle as quickly as if they intended to ride to a charge.
Sheridan himself and his staff and escort were as swift as they, and
the whole troop swept away with a thunder of hoofs and the blood
leaping in their veins. It was now almost the middle of September, and
the wind that blew down from the crest of the mountains had a cool
breath. It fanned Dick's face and the great pulse in his throat
leaped. He felt that this ride must portend some important movement.
Sheridan would not gallop away from his main camp, except on a vital
issue.
It was not a long distance to Charlestown, and when they arrived there
they dismounted and waited. Dick saw Colonel Winchester's face express
great expectancy and he must know why they waited, but the youth did
not ask him any questions, although his own curiosity increased.
An hour passed, and then a short, thickset, bearded man, accompanied by
a small staff, appeared. Dick drew a deep breath. It was General
Grant, Commander-in-Chief of all the armies of the Union, and Sheridan
hastened forward to meet him. Then the two, with several of the senior
officers, went into a house, while the younger men remained outside,
and on guard.
"I knew that we were waiting for somebody of importance," said Warner,
"but I didn't dream that it was the biggest man we've got in the field."
"Didn't your algebra give you any hint of it?" asked Dick.
"No. An algebra reasons. It doesn't talk and waste its time in idle
chatter."
The young officers with their horses walked back and forth a long time,
while Grant and Sheridan talked. Dick, surprised that Grant had left
the trenches before Petersburg and had come so far to meet his
lieutenant, felt that the meeting must be momentous. But it was even
more crowded with the beginnings of great events than he thought.
Grant, as he wrote long afterward, had come prepared with a plan of
campaign for Sheridan, but, as he wrote, "seeing that he was so clear
and so positive in his views I said nothing about this and did not take
it out of my pocket." It was a quality of Grant's greatness, like that
of Lee, to listen to a lieutenant, and when he thought his plan was
better than his own to adopt the lieutenant's and put his own away.
In that memorable interview, from which such stirring campaigns dated,
Grant was impressed more and more by the earnestness and clearness of
the famous Little Phil, and, when they parted, he gave him a free rein
and an open road. Sheridan, when they rode away from the conference,
was sober and thoughtful. He was to carry out his own plan, but the
full weight of the responsibility would be his, and it was very great
for a young man who was not much more than thirty.
But Dick and his comrades felt exultation, and did not try to hide it.
Now that Grant himself had come to see Sheridan the army was bound to
move. Pennington looked toward the South and waved his hand.
"You've been waiting for us a long time, old Jube," he said, "but we're
coming. And you'll see and hear our resistless tread."
"But don't forget, Frank," said Warner soberly, "that we'll have a big
bill of lives to pay. We don't ride unhurt over the Johnnies."
"Don't I know it?" said Pennington. "Haven't I been learning it every
day for three years?"
Action was prompt as the young officers had hoped. The very next day
after the meeting with his superior, Sheridan prepared to march, and
the hopes of Dick and his friends rose very high. They did not know
that daring Southern spies had learned of the meeting of Grant and
Sheridan, and Early, judging that it portended a great movement against
him, was already consolidating his forces and preparing to meet it.
And Jubal Early was an able and valiant general.
Dick did not sleep that night. All had received orders to hold
themselves in readiness for an instant march, and his blood tingled
with expectancy. At midnight the Winchester regiment rode off to the
left to join the cavalry under Wilson which was to lead the advance,
moving along a pike road and then crossing the little river Opequan.
Dick rode close behind Colonel Winchester and Warner and Pennington
were on either side of him. Not far away from them was Sergeant
Whitley, ready for use as a scout. Shepard had disappeared already in
the darkness. They joined Wilson's command and waited in silence. At
three o'clock in the morning the word to advance was given and the
whole division marched forward in the starlight.
They had not gone far before Shepard rode back telling them that the
crossing of the Opequan was guarded by Confederate troops. The cavalry
increased their speed. After the long period of inaction they were
anxious to come to grips with their foe. Dick still rode knee to knee
with Warner and Pennington, as they went on at a rapid pace in the
starlight, the fields and strips of forest gliding past. Men on
horseback talk less at night than in the day and moreover these had
little to say. Their part was action, and they were waiting to see
what the little Opequan would disclose to them.
"Do you think they'll have a big force at the river?" asked Pennington.
"No," replied Dick. "I fancy from what we've heard of Early's army
that he won't have the men to spare."
"But we can look for a brush there," said Warner.
The night began to darken as a premonition of the coming dawn, a veil
of vapor was drawn before the stars, trees blended together and the air
became chill. Then the vapor was pierced in the east by a lance of
light. The rift widened, and the pale light of the first dawn appeared
over the hills. Dick, using his glasses, saw a flash which he knew was
the Opequan. And with that silvery gleam of water came other flashes
of red and rapid crackling reports. The Southern sharpshooters along
the stream were already opening fire.
A great shout went up from the cavalry. All the forces restrained so
long in these young men burst forth. The dawn was now deepening
rapidly, its pallor turning to silver, and the river, for a long
length, lay clear to view before them. Trumpets to right and left and
in the center sounded the charge, the mellow notes coming back in many
echoes.
The horsemen firing their own carbines and swinging aloft their sabers,
galloped forward in a mighty rush. The beat of hundreds of hoofs made
a steady sound, insistent and threatening. The yellow light of the
sun, replacing the silver of the first dawn, gilded them with gold,
glittering on the upraised blades and tense faces. The bullets of the
Southern sharpshooters, in the bushes and trees along the Opequan,
crashed among them, and horses and men went down, but the mighty sweep
of the mass was not delayed for an instant.
Dick was flourishing the cavalry saber that he now carried and was
shouting with the rest. Nearer and nearer came the belt of clear
water, and the fire of the Southern skirmishers increased in volume and
accuracy. No great Southern force was there, but the men were full of
courage and activity. Their rifle fire emptied many of the Northern
saddles. A bullet went through the sleeve of Dick's tunic and grazed
the skin, but he only felt a slight burning touch and then soon forgot
it.
Then the whole column started together, as they swept into the Opequan,
driving before them through sheer weight of mass the skirmishers and
sharpshooters, who were hidden among the trees and thickets. The water
itself proved but little obstacle. It was churned to foam by hundreds
of trampling hoofs, and Dick felt it falling upon him like rain, but
the drops were cool and refreshing.
Still at a gallop, they emerged from the river, wet and dripping, so
much water had been dashed up by the beating hoofs, and charged
straight on, driving the scattered Southern riflemen before them.
Dick's exultation swelled, and so did that of Warner and Pennington.
The young Nebraskan was compelled to give voice to his.
"Hurrah!" he shouted. "We'll gallop the whole length of the valley!
Nothing can stop us!"
But Warner, naturally cautious, despite his rejoicings, would not go so
far.
"Not the whole length of the valley, Frank!" he exclaimed. "Only half
of it!"
"All or nothing!" shouted Pennington, carried away by his enthusiasm.
"Hurrah! Hurrah!"
Before them now lay a small earthwork, from which field pieces began to
send ugly gusts of fire, but so great was the sweep of the cavalry that
they charged directly upon it. The defenders, too few to hold it,
withdrew and retreated in haste, and in a few minutes the Northern
cavalry were in possession.
"Didn't I tell you," exclaimed Pennington, "that we were going to
gallop the whole length of the valley! We've taken a fort with
horsemen!"
"Yes," said Warner, "but we'll stop here a while. Listen to the
trumpets sounding the halt, and yonder you can see the main lines of
the Johnnies."
It was obvious that it was unwise to go farther until the whole army
came up, as they heard other trumpets calling now, and they were not
their own but those of their enemies. Early had not been caught
napping. The dark lines of his infantry were advancing to retake the
little fort. The cavalry was reduced in an instant from the offensive
to the defensive, and dismounting and sending their horses to the rear,
where they were held by every tenth man, they waited with carbines
ready, the masses of men in gray bearing down upon them. Dick wondered
if the Invincibles were there before him. Second thought told him that
it was unlikely, as the advancing troops were infantry, and he knew
that the Invincibles were now mounted.
"Now, lads," said Colonel Winchester, going down the ranks, "ready with
your rifles!"
The Southern infantry came on to the steady beating of a drum
somewhere, but as they drew near the fort a sheet of bullets poured
upon them, and drove them back, leaving the ground sprinkled with the
fallen. Again and again they reformed and returned to the charge always
to meet the same fate.
"Brave fellows!" exclaimed Warner, "but they can't retake this fort
from us!"
After the last repulse Colonel Winchester drew out his men, mounted
them, and charging the infantry in flank sent them far down the road
toward Winchester, where heavy columns came to their support. But the
Winchester men had time to breathe, and also to exult, as they had
suffered but little loss. While they remained at the captured fort,
awaiting further orders, they watched the battle elsewhere, flaring in
a long irregular line across the valley.
The rifle fire was heavy and the big guns of Early were sweeping the
roads with shell and grapeshot. As well as Dick could see through his
glasses, the only success yet achieved was that of the cavalry at the
fort. Sheridan himself had not yet appeared, and the hopes of the
three sank a little. They had seen so many triumphs nearly achieved
and then lost that they could believe in nothing until it was done.
But the morning was yet very young. While the east had long been full
of light, the golden glow was just enveloping the west. The rifles
crashed incessantly and the heavy thunder of the cannon gave the steady
sound a deeper note. The fire of the defending Southern force made a
red stream across the hills and fields.
"It's too early to have a battle," said Warner, looking at the sun,
which was not yet far above the horizon.
"Too early for us or too early for the Johnnies?" said Pennington. "I
think, Dick, I see those rebel friends of yours. Turn your glasses to
the right, and look at that regiment of horses by the edge of the
grove. I see at the head of it two men with longish hair. Apparently
they are elderly, and they must be Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant
Colonel St. Hilaire."
Dick turned his glasses eagerly and the officers of the Invincibles
were at once recognizable to his more familiar eye. He could not
mistake Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St.
Hilaire, both of whom were watching the progress of the battle through
glasses, and he knew that the four young men who sat their horses just
behind them were Harry, St. Clair, Dalton and Langdon.
As no further attack was made on the fort, and Colonel Winchester's
troop remained stationary for the time, Dick kept his glasses bearing
continually upon the Invincibles. The glasses were powerful and they
told him much. He inferred from the manner in which the men were drawn
up that they would charge soon. Near them a battery of four
Confederate guns was planted on a hill, and it was firing rapidly and
effectively, sending shell and shrapnel into advancing lines of blue
infantry.
A singular feeling took hold of him, one of which he was not then
conscious. He knew six of the officers who sat in the front of the
Invincibles, and one of them was his own cousin, almost his brother. He
did not know a soul in the blue columns advancing upon them, and his
hopes and fears centered suddenly around that little group of six.
The wood was filled with Southern infantry, as it was now spouting
flame, and the battery continued to thunder as fast as the men could
reload and fire. The Invincibles who carried short rifles, much like
the carbines of the North, raised them and pulled the triggers. Many
in the blue column fell, but the others went on without faltering.
Dick knew from long experience what would follow, and he watched it
alike with the eye and the mind that divines. Either his eye or his
fancy saw the Invincibles lean forward a little, fasten their rifles,
shake loose the reins with one hand, and drop the other hand to the
hilt of the saber. It was certain that in the next minute they would
charge.
He saw a trumpeter raise a trumpet to his lips and blow, loud and
shrill. Then the column of the Invincibles leaped forward, the necks of
the horses outstretched, the men raising their sabers and flashing them
above their heads. Dick drew deep breaths and his pulses beat
painfully. Had he realized what his wishes were then he would have
considered himself a traitor. In those swift moments his heart was
with the Invincibles and not with the blue columns that stood up
against them.
He saw the gray horsemen sweep forward into a cloud of fire and smoke,
in which he caught the occasional flash of a saber. The combat behind
the veil lasted only a minute or two, though it seemed an hour to Dick,
and then he saw the blue infantry reeling back, their advance checked
by the charge of the Invincibles. A cheer rose in Dick's throat, but
he checked it, and then, remembering, he trembled in a brief chill, as
if shaken by the knowledge that for a few moments at least he had not
been true to the cause for which he fought.
"A gallant charge those Johnnies made," said Warner, "and it's been
effective, too. Our men are falling back, while the Johnnies are
returning to their place near the wood."
Dick was straining his eyes through the glasses to see whether any one
of the five whom he knew had fallen, but as the Invincibles returned
from their victorious charge in a close mass it was impossible for him
to tell. A number of saddles had been emptied, as riderless horses
were galloping wildly over the plain. He sighed a little and replaced
his glasses in their case.
"Here come more of our cavalry!" said Warner.
They heard the heavy beat of many hoofs and in an instant many horsemen
swarmed about them. It was Sheridan himself who led them, his face
flushed and eager and his eyes blazing. He was a little man, but he
was electric in his energy, and his very presence seemed to communicate
more spirit and fire to the troops. The officers crowded about him,
and, while he swept the field with his glasses, he also gave a rapid
command.
The Southern resistance, despite inferior numbers, was valiant and
enduring. Their heavy guns were pouring a deadly fire upon the
Northern center. Beyond the taking of the fort by the cavalry the Army
of the Shenandoah had made no progress, and the Southern troops were
rapidly concentrating at every critical point. Old Jube Early, mighty
swearer, was proving himself a master of men.
Dick could not watch Sheridan long, as the cavalry were quickly sent
off to the left to clear away skirmishers, and let the infantry and
artillery get up on that front. There were many groups of trees, and
from every one of these the Southern riflemen sent swarms of bullets.
It seemed to Dick that he was preserved miraculously. Many a bullet
coming straight for his head must have turned aside at the last moment
to seek a target elsewhere. To him at least these bullets were
merciful that morning.
But they cleared the ground, though some of their own saddles were
emptied, and the infantry and the artillery came up behind them. The
big guns were planted and began to reply to those of the South. Yet
the Confederate lines still held fast. Clouds of smoke floated over
the field, but whenever they lifted sufficiently Dick saw the gray army
maintaining all its positions. He looked for the Invincibles again but
could not find them. Doubtless they were hid from his view by the
hills.
"It's anybody's fight," said Warner, surveying the field with his cool,
mathematical eye. "We have the greater numbers but our infantry are
coming up slowly and, besides, the enemy has the advantage of interior
lines."
"And the morning wanes," said Dick. "I thought we'd make a grand rush
and sweep over 'em!"
"Oh, these Johnnies are tough. They have to be. There's not much
marching over the other by either side in this war."
A heavy battle of cannon and rifles, with no advantage to either side,
went on for a long time. Dick saw Sheridan galloping here and there,
and urging on his troops, but the reserves were slow in coming and he
was not yet able to hurl his full strength upon his enemy. Noon came,
the battle already having lasted four or five hours, and Sheridan had
no triumph to show, save the little fort that the cavalry had seized
early in the morning.
"Do you think we'll have to draw off?" asked Pennington.
"Maybe we'll have to, but we won't," replied Dick. "Sheridan refuses
to recognize necessities when they're not in his favor. You'll now see
the difference between a man and men."
Colonel Winchester's regiment was sent off further to the left to
prevent any flanking movement, but they could still see most of the
field. For the moment they were not engaged, and they watched the
thrilling and terrific panorama as it passed before them.
Colonel Winchester himself suddenly broke from his calm and pointed to
the rear of the Union lines.
"Look!" he exclaimed. "All our reserves of artillery and infantry are
coming up! The whole army will now advance!"
They saw very clearly the deepening of the lines in the center.
Sheridan was there massing the new troops for the attack, and soon the
trumpets sounded the charge along the whole front. The Northern
batteries redoubled their fire, and the South, knowing that a heavier
shock of battle was coming, replied in kind.
"Here we go again!" cried Pennington, and the horsemen rode straight at
their enemy. It seemed to Dick that the Southern regiments came
forward to meet them and a battle long, fierce and wavering in its
fortunes ensued. The wing to which the Winchesters belonged pressed
forward, driving their enemy before them, only to be caught when they
went too far by a savage flanking fire of artillery. Early had brought
in his reserve guns, and so powerful was their attack that at this
point the Northern line was almost severed, and a Southern wedge was
driven into the gap.
But Sheridan did not despair. He had a keen eye and a collected mind,
infused with a fiery spirit. Where his line had been weakened he sent
new troops. With charge after charge he drove the Confederates out of
the gap and closed it up. A whole division was then hurled with its
full weight against the Southern line and broke it, although the
gallant general who led the column fell shot through the heart.
But Early formed new lines. It was only a temporary success for
Sheridan. An important division of cavalry sent on a wide flanking
movement had not yet arrived, and he wondered why. Perhaps the thought
came into his own dauntless heart that he might not succeed at all,
but, if so, he hid it, and called up fresh resources of strength and
courage. It was now far into the afternoon but he resolved nevertheless
to win victory before the day was over. Everywhere the call for a new
charge was sounded.
The Winchesters had a good trumpeter, a deep-chested young fellow who
loved to blow forth mellow notes, and now as his brazen instrument sang
the song that summoned men to death the young men unconsciously
tightened the grip of the knee on their horses, and leaned a little
forward, as if they would see the enemy more closely. To the right the
fire grew heavier and heavier, and most of the field was hidden by a
thick veil of smoke.
Dick saw other cavalry massing on either side of the Winchester
regiment, and he knew their charge was to be one of great weight and
importance.
"I feel that we're going to win or lose here," he said to Warner.
"Looks like it," replied the Vermonter, "but I think you can put your
money on the cavalry today. It's Sheridan's great striking arm."
"It'll have to strike with all its might, that's sure," said Dick.
He did not know that the force in front of him was commanded by a
general from his own state, Breckinridge, once Vice-President of the
United States and also high in the councils of the Confederacy.
Breckinridge was inspiring his command with the utmost vigor and
already his heavy guns were sweeping the front of the Union cavalry,
while the riflemen stood ready for the charge.
The great mass of Northern horsemen were eager and impatient. A thrill
of anticipation seemed to run through them, as if through one body, and
when the final command was given they swept forward in a mighty,
irresistible line. In Dick's mind then anticipation became knowledge.
He was as sure as he was of his own name that they were going to win.
Again he was knee to knee with Warner and Pennington, and with these
good comrades on his right and left he rode into the Southern fire,
among the shell and shrapnel and grapeshot and bullets that had swept
so often around him. In spite of the most desperate courage, the
Southern troops gave way before the terrific onset--they had to give
ground or they would have been trampled under the feet of the horses.
Cannon and many rifles were taken, and the whole Confederate division
was driven in disorder down the road.
Warner's stern calm was broken, and he shouted in delight "We win! We
win!" Then Dick and Pennington shouted with him: "We win! We win!"
and as the smoke of their own battle lifted they saw that the Union
army elsewhere was triumphant also. Sheridan along his whole line was
forcing the enemy back toward Winchester, raking him with his heavy
guns, and sending charge after charge of cavalry against him. Unable
to withstand the weight hurled upon them the Southern troops gave
ground at an increased rate.
Yet Early and his veterans never showed greater courage than on that
day. His brave officers were everywhere, checking the fugitives and,
his best division turning a front of steel to the enemy, covered the
retreat. Neither infantry nor cavalry could break it, although every
man in the Southern command knew that the battle was lost. Yet they
were resolved that it should not become a rout, and though many were
falling before the Union force they never shrank for a moment from
their terrible task.
The Invincibles were in the division that covered the retreat, and they
were exposed at all times to the full measure of the Union attack.
Dalton had joined them that morning, but the bullets and shells seemed
resolved to spare the four youths and the two colonels, or at least not
to doom them to death. Nearly every one of them bore slight wounds,
and often men had been killed only a few feet away, but the valiant
band, led by its daring officers, fought with undimmed courage and
resolution.
"I fear that we have been defeated, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas
Talbot.
"Don't call it a defeat, Leonidas. It's merely a masterly retreat
before superior numbers, after having inflicted great loss upon the
enemy. As you see, we are protecting our withdrawal. Every attack of
the enemy upon our division has been beaten back, and we will continue
to beat him back as long as he comes."
"True, true, Hector, and the Invincibles are bearing a great part in
this glorious feat of arms! But the Yankee general, Sheridan, is not
like the other Yankee generals who operated in the valley earlier in
the war. We're bound to admit that."
"We do admit it, Leonidas, and alas! we have now no Stonewall Jackson
to meet him, brave and capable as General Early is!"
The two colonels looked at the setting sun, and hoped that it would go
down with a rush. The division could not hold forever against the
tremendous pressure upon it that never ceased, but darkness would put
an end to the battle. The first gray of twilight was already showing
on the eastern hills, and Early's men still held the broad turnpike
leading into the South. Here, fighting with all the desperation of
imminent need, they beat off every effort of the Northern cavalry to
gain their ground, and when night came they still held it, withdrawing
slowly and in good order, while Sheridan's men, exhausted by tremendous
marches and heavy losses, were unable to pursue. Yet the North had
gained a great and important victory.
* * * *
Darkness closed over a weary but exultant army. It had not destroyed
the forces of Early, and it had been able to pursue only three miles.
It had lost five thousand men in killed and wounded, but the results,
nevertheless, were great and the soldiers knew it. The spell of
Southern invincibility in the famous valley, where Jackson had won so
often, was broken, and the star of Sheridan had flashed out with
brilliancy, to last until the war's close. They knew, too, that they
now held all of the valley north of Winchester, and they were soon to
know that they would continue to hold it. They commanded also a great
railway and a great canal, and the South was cut off from Maryland and
Pennsylvania, neither of which it could ever invade again.
Although a far smaller battle than a dozen that had been fought, it was
one of the greatest and most complete victories the North had yet won.
After a long and seemingly endless deadlock a terrible blow had been
struck at the flank of Lee, and the news of the triumph filled the
North with joy. It was also given on this occasion to those who had
fought in the battle itself to know what they had done. They were not
blinded by the dust and shouting of the arena.
Dick with his two young comrades sat beneath an oak and ate the warm
food and drank the hot coffee the camp cook brought to them. They had
escaped without hurt, and they were very happy over the achievement of
the day. The night was crisp, filled with starshine, and the cooking
fires had been built along a long line, stretching away like a series
of triumphant bonfires.
"I felt this morning that we would win," said Dick.
"I've felt several times that we would win, when we didn't," said
Pennington.
"But this time I felt it right. They say that Stonewall Jackson always
communicated electricity to his men, and I think our Little Phil has
the same quality. Since we first came to him here I haven't doubted
that we would win, and when I saw him and Grant talking I knew that
we'd be up and doing."
"It's the spirit that Grant showed at Vicksburg," said Warner,
seriously. "Little Phil--I intend to call him that when I'm not in his
presence, because it's really a term of admiration--is another Grant,
only younger and on horseback."
"It's fire that does it," said Dick. "No, Frank, I don't mean this
material fire burning before us, but the fire that makes him see
obstacles little, and advantages big, the fire that makes him rush over
everything to get at the enemy and destroy him."
"Well spoken, Dick," said Warner. "A bit rhetorical, perhaps, but that
can be attributed to your youth and the region from which you come."
"It's a great pity, George, about my youth and the region from which I
come. If so many youths in blue didn't come from that same region the
whole Mississippi Valley might now be in the hands of the Johnnies."
"Didn't I tell you, Dick, not to argue with him?" said Pennington.
"What's the use? New England has the writers and when this war is
ended victoriously they'll give the credit of all the fighting to New
England. And after a while, through the printed word, they'll make
other people believe it, too."
"Then you Nebraskans and Kentuckians should learn to read and write.
Why blame me?" said Warner with dignity.
Colonel Winchester joined them at that moment, having returned from a
brief council with Sheridan and his officers. Dick, without a word,
passed him a plate of hot ham and a tin cup of sizzling coffee. The
colonel, who looked worn to the bone but triumphant, ate and drank.
Then he settled himself into an easy place before one of the fires and
said:
"A messenger has gone to General Grant with the news of our victory,
and it will certainly be a most welcome message. The news will also be
sent to the nearest telegraph station, and then it will travel on
hundreds of wires to every part of the North, but while it's flashing
through space we'll be riding forward to new battle."
"I expected it, sir," said Dick. "I suppose we advance again at dawn."
"And maybe a little sooner. Now you boys must rest. You've had
eighteen hours of marching and fighting. I've been very proud of my
regiment today, and fortunately we have escaped without large losses."
"And you sleep, too, sir, do you not?" said Warner, respectfully. "If
we've been marching and fighting for eighteen hours so have you."
"I shall do so a little later, but that's no reason why the rest of you
should delay. How that coffee and ham refreshed me! I didn't know I
was so nearly dead."
"Here's more, Colonel!"
"Thank you, Dick. I believe I will. But as I say, go to sleep. I
want all my regiment to sleep. We don't know what is before us
tomorrow, but whatever it is it won't be easy. Now you boys have had
enough to eat and drink. Into the blankets with you!"
He did not wait to see his order obeyed, but strode away on another
hasty errand. But it was obeyed and that, too, without delay. The
young warriors rolled themselves in their blankets and hunted a soft
place for their heads. But their nerves were not yet quiet, and sleep
did not come for a little while. The long lines of fires still glowed,
and the sounds of an army came to them. Dick looked up into the
starshine. He was still rejoicing in the victory, not because the
other side had lost, but because, in his opinion, it brought peace much
nearer. He realized as he lay there gazing into the skies that the
South could never win as long as the North held fast. And the North
was holding fast. The stars as they winked at him seemed to say so.
He propped himself upon his elbow and said:
"George, does your little algebra tell you anything about the meaning
of this victory?"
Warner tapped his breast.
"That noble book is here in the inside pocket of my tunic," he replied.
"It's not necessary for me to take it out, but tucked away on the 118th
page is a neat little problem which just fits this case. Let x equal
the Army of Northern Virginia, let y equal the army of Early here in
the valley, and let x plus y equal a possibly successful defense by the
South. But when y is swept away it's quite certain that x standing
alone cannot do so. My algebra tells you on the 118th page, tucked
away neatly in a paragraph, that this is the beginning of the end."
"It sounds more like a formula than a problem, George, but still I'm
putting my faith in your little algebra book."
"George's algebra is all right," said Pennington, "but it doesn't
always go before, it often comes after. It doesn't show us how to do a
thing, but proves how we've done it. As for me, I'm pinning my faith
to Little Phil. He won a great victory today, when all our other
leaders for years have been beaten in the Valley of Virginia, and
sometimes beaten disgracefully too."
"Your argument is unanswerable, Frank," said Dick. "I didn't expect
such logic from you."
"Oh, I think I'm real bright at times."
"Despite popular belief," said Warner.
"I don't advertise my talents," said Pennington.
"But you ought to. They need it."
Dick laughed.
"Frank," he said, "I give you your own advice to me. Don't argue with
him. With him the best proof that he's always right is because he
thinks he is."
"I think clearly and directly, which can be said of very few of my
friends," rejoined Warner.
Then all three of them laughed and lay down again, resting their heads
on soft lumps of turf.
They were under the boughs of a fine oak, on which the leaves were yet
thick. Birds, hidden among the leaves, began to sing, and the three,
astonished, raised themselves up again. It was a chorus, beautiful and
startling, and many other soldiers listened to the sound, so unlike
that which they had been hearing all day.
"Strange, isn't it?" said Pennington.
"But fine to hear," said Warner.
"Likely they were in the tree this morning when the battle began," said
Dick, "and the cannon and the rifles frightened 'em so much that they
stayed close within the leaves. Now they're singing with joy, because
it's all over."
"A good guess, I think, Dick," said Warner, "but isn't it beautiful at
such a time and such a place? How these little fellows must be
swelling their throats! I don't believe they ever sang so well before."
"I didn't think today that I'd be sung to sleep tonight," said Dick,
"but it's going to happen."
When his eyes closed and he floated away to slumberland it was to the
thrilling song of a bird on a bough above his head.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND
It seemed that Dick and his comrades were to see an activity in the
valley under Sheridan much like that which Harry and his friends had
experienced under Stonewall Jackson earlier in the war. All of the men
before they went to sleep that night had felt confirmed in the belief
that a strong hand was over them, and that a powerful and clear mind
was directing them. There would be no more prodigal waste of men and
supplies. No more would a Southern general have an opportunity to beat
scattered forces in detail. The Union had given Sheridan a splendid
army and a splendid equipment, and he would make the most of both.
Their belief in Sheridan's activity and energy was justified fully,
perhaps to their own discomfort, as the trumpets sounded before dawn,
and they ate a hasty breakfast, while the valley was yet dark. Then
they were ordered to saddle and ride at once.
"What, so early?" exclaimed Pennington. "Why, it's not daylight yet.
Isn't this new general of ours overdoing it?"
"We wanted a general who would lead," said Warner, "and we've got him."
"But a battle a day! Isn't that too large an allowance?"
"No. We've a certain number of battles to fight, and the sooner we
fight them the sooner the war will be over."
"Here comes the dawn," said Dick, "and the bugles are singing to us to
march. It's the cavalry that are to show the way."
The long line of horsemen rode on southward, leaving behind them
Winchester, the little city that had been beloved of Jackson, and
approached the Massanuttons, the bold range that for a while divided
the valley into two parts. The valley was twenty miles wide before
they came to the Massanuttons, but after the division the western
extension for some distance was not more than four miles across, and it
was here that they were going. At the narrower part, on Fisher's Hill,
Early had strong fortifications, defended by his finest infantry, and
Colonel Winchester did not deem it likely that Sheridan would make a
frontal attack upon a position so well defended.
It was about noon when the cavalry arrived before the Southern works.
Dick, through his glasses, clearly saw the guns and columns of
infantry, and also a body of Southern horse, drawn up on one flank of
the hill. He fancied that the Invincibles were among them, but at the
distance he could not pick them from the rest.
The regiment remained stationary, awaiting the orders of Sheridan, and
Dick still used his glasses. He swept them again and again across the
Confederate lines, and then he turned his attention to the mountains
which here hemmed in the valley to such a straitened width. He saw a
signal station of the enemy on a culminating ridge called Three Top
Mountain, and as the flags there were waving industriously he knew that
every movement of the Union army would be communicated to Early's
troops below.
Yet the whole scene despite the fact that it was war, red war, appealed
to Dick's sense of the romantic and beautiful. The fertile valley
looked picturesque with its woods and fields, and on either side rose
the ranges as if to protect it. Mountains like trees always appealed
to him, and the steep slopes were wooded densely. Lower down they were
brown, with touches of green that yet lingered, but higher up the
glowing reds and golds of autumn were beginning to appear. The wind
that blew down from the crests was full of life.
Sheridan arrived and, riding before the center of his army, looked long
and well at the Southern defenses. Then he called his generals, and
some of the colonels, including Winchester, and held a brief council.
"It means," said Warner, while the colonel was yet away at the meeting,
"that we won't fight any this afternoon, but that we'll do a lot of
riding tonight. That position is too strong to be attacked. It would
cost us too many men to take it straight away, but having seen a
specimen of Little Phil's quality we know that he'll try something
else."
"You mean get on their flank," said Dick. "Maybe we can make a passage
along the slopes of the mountains."
"As the idea has occurred to me I take it that it will occur to Little
Phil also," said Warner.
"Are you sure that he hasn't thought of it first?"
"My politeness forbids an answer. I am but a lieutenant and he is our
commander."
The rest of the day was spent in massing the troops across the valley,
the Winchester regiment being sent further west until it was against
the base of the Massanuttons. Here Shepard came in the twilight and
conferred with Colonel Winchester, who called Dick.
"Dick," he said, "Mr. Shepard thinks he can obtain information of value
on the mountain. He has an idea that some fighting may occur, and so
it's better for a small detachment to go with him. I've selected you
to lead the party, because you're at home in the woods."
"May I take Lieutenant Warner and Lieutenant Pennington with me? It
would hurt their feelings to be left behind."
"Yes. Under no circumstances must the feelings of those two young men
be hurt," laughed Colonel Winchester.
"And Sergeant Whitley, too? He's probably the best scout in our army.
He can follow a trail where there is no trail. He can see in the
pitchy dark, and he can hear the leaves falling."
"High recommendations, but they're almost true. Take the sergeant by
all means. I fancy you'll need him."
The whole party numbered about a dozen, and Shepard was the guide. It
was dismounted, of course, as the first slope they intended to carry
was too steep for a horse to climb. They were also heavily armed, it
being absolutely certain that Southern riflemen were on Massanutton
Mountain.
Dick and Shepard were in the lead, and, climbing up at a sharp angle,
they quickly disappeared from the view of those below. It was as if
night and the wilderness had blotted them out, but every member of the
little party felt relief and actual pleasure in the expedition.
Something mysterious and unknown lay before them, and they were anxious
to find out what it was.
Shepard whispered to Dick of the care that they must take against their
foes, and Warner whispered to Pennington that the mountain was really
fine, although finer ridges could be found in Vermont.
Two hundred yards up, and Shepard, touching Dick's shoulder, pointed to
the valley. The whole party stopped and looked back. Although
themselves buried in brown foliage they saw the floor of the valley all
the way to the mountains on the other side, and it was a wonderful
sight, with its two opposing lines of camp fires that shot up redly and
glowed across the fields. Now and then they saw figures of men moving
against a crimson background, but no sound of the armies came to them.
Peace and silence were yet supreme on the mountain.
"It makes you feel that you're not only above it in the body, but that
you are not a part of it at all," said Shepard.
Dick was not surprised at his words. He had learned long since that
the spy was an uncommon man, much above most of those who followed his
calling.
"It gives me a similar feeling of detachment," he said, "but we know
just the same that they're going to fight again tomorrow, and that
we'll probably be in the thick of it. I hope, Mr. Shepard, that our
victory yesterday marks the beginning of the end."
"I think it does, Mr. Mason. If we clean up the valley, and we'll do
it, Lee's flank and Richmond will be exposed. He'll have to come out
of his trenches then, and that will give Grant a chance to attack him
with an overwhelming force. The Confederacy is as good as finished,
but I've never doubted the result for a moment."
"I've worried a little at times. It seemed to me now and then that all
those big defeats in Virginia might make our people too weary to go on.
Why is that light flaring so high on Fisher's Hill?"
"It may be a signal. Possibly the Southerners are replying to it with
another fiery signal on this mountain. We can't see the crest of
Massanutton from this slope."
"You seem to know every inch of the ground in this region. How did you
manage to learn it so thoroughly?"
"I was born in the valley not far from here. I've climbed over
Massanutton many a time. Not far above us is a grove of splendid nut
trees, and along the edge of it runs a ravine. I mean to lead the way
up the ravine, Mr. Mason. It will give us shelter from the scouts and
spies of the enemy."
"Shelter is what we want. I've no taste for being shot obscurely here
on the side of the mountain."
"Then keep close behind me, all of you," said Shepard. "We're above
the steepest part now, and I know a little path that leads to the
ravine. Don't stumble if you can help it."
The path was nothing more than a trace, but it sufficed to give them a
surer footing, and in eight or ten minutes they reached the ravine
which ran in a diagonal line across the face of the mountain, gradually
ascending to the summit. The ravine itself was not more than three or
four feet deep, but as its banks were thickly lined with dwarfed cedar
they were completely hidden unless they should chance to meet the
Southern riflemen, coming down the mountain by the same way.
The ravine at one point led out on a bare shoulder of the slope, and
looking over the little pines they clearly saw a fire blazing on the
crest and waving flags silhouetted before its glow. Far below, at
Fisher's Hill, flags were waving also.
"Quite a lively talk," whispered Shepard. "I suppose the lookouts are
telling a lot about our army."
"But it won't make much difference," said Dick. "By the time they've
spelled out from the flags what Sheridan is doing he'll be doing
something else."
They resumed their climb and the ravine led again into dense forest.
Sergeant Whitley had moved up by the side of Shepard, as they were now
near the enemy, and his great scouting abilities were needed. It was a
wise precaution, as presently he held up his hand, and then, at a
signal from him, the whole party climbed softly out of the ravine, and
crouched among the little cedars.
Now Dick himself heard what the sergeant had heard perhaps a half
minute earlier, that is, the footsteps of two men coming swiftly down
the ravine. In another minute they came in sight, Confederate
troopers, obviously scouting. Luckily, the ravine being stony and the
light bad, they did not see any trail, left by Shepard's troop, and
they went on down the ravine.
"Shall we go on?" asked Dick.
"Not yet, sir," replied Shepard. "They don't suspect that we're up
here, and it's likely they're trying for a good view of our army. But
I fancy they'll be returning in a few minutes. We'd best be very
quiet, sir."
Dick cautioned the men, and they lay as still as wild animals in their
coverts. In about ten minutes the two riflemen came back up the
ravine, and the hidden troopers could hear them talking.
"We'll try some other part of the slope, Jack," said one.
"Yes, that was a bad view," rejoined the other. "We couldn't tell a
thing about the Yankee movements from down there. We can leave the
ravine higher up, and I know a path that leads toward the north."
"There's not much good in finding out about 'em anyway. That fellow
Sheridan is going to press us hard, and they have everything, numbers,
arms, food, while we have next to nothing."
"But we'll fight 'em anyhow. Still, I wish old Stonewall was here."
"But he ain't here, and we'll have to do the best we can without him."
Their voices were lost, as they passed up the ravine and disappeared.
Then Dick and his little party came out cautiously, and followed.
"I gather from what those two said that Early's men are depressed,"
said Dick.
"They've a right to be," replied Shepard. "Their army is in bad shape,
besides being small, and now that we have a real leader we are, I
think, sure to clean up the valley."
"But there'll be plenty of hard fighting."
"Yes. We'll have to win what we get."
The ravine widened and deepened a little, and they stopped. Sergeant
Whitley in his capacity of chief scout and trailer climbed up the rocky
side and looked about a little, while the others waited. He returned
in two or three minutes, and Dick saw, by the moonlight, that his face
expressed surprise.
"What is it, sergeant?" asked Dick.
"A woman is on the mountain. She passed by the ravine not long since,
perhaps not a half hour ago."
"A woman at such a time? Why, sergeant, it's impossible!"
"No, sir, it isn't. See here!"
He opened his left hand. Within the palm lay a tiny bit of thin gray
cloth.
"There may not be more than a dozen threads here," he said, "but I
found 'em sticking to a thorn bush not twenty yards away. A half hour
ago they were a part of a woman's dress. A thorn bush grows among the
cedars above. She was in a hurry, and when her dress caught in it she
jerked it loose."
"But how do you know it was only a half hour or less ago?" asked Dick.
"Because she broke two 'or three of the thorns when she jerked, and it
was so late that their wounds are still bleeding, that is, a faint bit
of sap is oozing out at the fractures."
"That sounds conclusive," said Dick, "but likely it was a mountain
woman who lives somewhere along the slope."
The sergeant shook his head.
"No, sir, it was no mountain woman," he said. "When I found the cloth
on the thorns I knelt and looked for a trail. It's hard ground mostly,
but I thought I might find the trace of a footstep somewhere. I found
several, and not one of them was made by the flat, broad shoe that
mountain women wear. I found small rounded heel prints which the shoes
worn by city women make."
"If any city woman is on this mountain she's a long way from home,"
said Warner.
"But I'm quite sure of what I say, sir," said the sergeant.
"And so am I," said Shepard, who had been listening with the keenest
attention. "Will you mind letting me lead the way for a little while,
sir?"
"Go ahead, of course," said Dick. "In such work as this we rely upon
the sergeant and you."
"Then I'd like to take a look at those heel prints also."
Dick thought he detected a quiver of excitement or emotion in the voice
of Shepard, always so calm and steady hitherto, and he wondered.
Nevertheless he asked no questions as he led the way out of the ravine.
The sergeant showed the heel prints to Shepard, and beyond question
they had been made by a woman. By careful scrutiny they found a half
dozen more leading in a diagonal direction up the side of the mountain,
but beyond that the ground was so hard and rocky that they could
discover no further traces.
"You agree with me that the tracks have just been made?" said the
sergeant to Shepard.
"I do," replied the spy, his voice showing growing excitement, "and I
think I know who made them. I didn't believe it at first. It seemed
incredible. I want to try a little experiment. Will all of you remain
perfectly still?"
"Of course," said Dick.
He took a small whistle from his pocket and blew upon it. The sound
was not shrill like that of Slade's whistle, but was very low, soft and
musical. He blew only a few notes. Then he took the whistle from his
lips and waited. Dick saw that his excitement was growing. It showed
clearly in the spy's eyes, and he felt his own excitement increasing,
too. He divined that something extraordinary was going to happen.
Out of the cedars to their right and a little higher up the slope came
the notes of a whistle, exactly similar, low, soft and musical.
"Ah, I knew it!" breathed Shepard. He waited perhaps half a minute and
then blew again, notes similar and just the same in number. In a few
moments came the reply, a precise duplicate.
"We'll wait," said Shepard. "She'll be here in a minute or two."
Dick and his comrades looked eagerly toward the point from which the
sound of the second whistle had come. This was something amazing,
something beyond their experience, but the excitement of Shepard seemed
to have passed. His face had become a mask once more, and he was
waiting with certainty.
Dick's sharp ear caught the sound of a light footstep approaching them,
evidently coming straight and with confidence. He realized that until
now he had not really believed, despite the footprints, despite
everything, that a woman was on the mountain. But he knew at last. He
even heard the swish of her skirts once or twice against the bushes.
Then she came through the dwarfed cedars, stepping boldly, and stood
before them.
The stranger stood full in the moonlight, and Dick saw her very
clearly. She was thin, small and elderly, clothed in a gray riding
suit, and with a sort of small gray turban on her head. But despite
her smallness and thinness and years there was nothing insignificant in
her appearance. As she stood there looking at them, she showed a pair
of the brightest and most intelligent eyes that Dick had ever seen.
Her small, pointed chin had the firmness of steel, and figure, manner
and appearance alike betokened courage and resolution in the highest
degree.
All these impressions were made upon Dick in a single instant, as if in
a flash of light, and he also noticed in her face a resemblance to some
one, although he could not recall, for a moment, who it was. But the
silence that endured for a half minute, while the men regarded the
woman and the woman regarded the men, was broken by Shepard, who
uttered a low cry and strode forward.
"Henrietta," he exclaimed, "you here at such a time!"
He put his arms around her and kissed her.
She returned his kiss, laughed a little, and the two turned toward the
others. Then Dick saw whom she resembled. As they stood side by side
the likeness was marked, the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth,
the same chin, only hers were in miniature, in comparison with his, and
in addition she was eight or ten years older.
"Mr. Mason," said Shepard, addressing himself directly to their nominal
leader. "This is my sister. She also serves as I do, and for her,
hardships and dangers are not less than mine for me. She works chiefly
in Richmond itself. But as you see, she has now come alone into the
mountains, and also into the very fringe of the armies."
"Then," said Dick, "she must come on a mission of great importance and
it is for us to honor so brave a messenger."
He and all the others took off their caps in silence. They might have
cheered, but every one knew that the foe was not far away in the
thickets. There was sufficient light for him to see a little flush of
pride appear for a moment on the face of the woman. Strange as her
position was, she seemed easy and confident, lightly swinging in her
hand a small riding whip.
"I'll not ask you for the present, Henrietta, how you come to be here,"
said Shepard, "but I'll ask instead what you've brought. These young
men are Lieutenant Mason, Lieutenant Warner and Lieutenant Pennington.
As I've indicated already, Lieutenant Mason leads us."
"I bring information," she replied, "information that you will be glad
to carry to General Sheridan. As a woman I could go where men could
not, and you remember, Brother William, that I know the country."
"Almost as well as I do," said Shepard. "As a girl you rode like a man
and were afraid of nothing. Nor do you fear anything today."
"Tell General Sheridan," she said, turning to Dick, "that the
Confederate numbers are even less than he thinks, that a large area at
the base of Little North Mountain is wholly unoccupied."
"And if we get there," exclaimed Dick, eagerly, "we can crash in on the
flank of Early."
"I'm not a soldier," she said, "but that plan was in my mind. A large
division could be hidden in the heavy timber along Cedar Creek, and
then, if the proper secrecy were observed, reach the Confederate flank
tomorrow night, unseen."
"And that's on the other side of the valley," said Dick.
"But at this point it's only four or five miles across."
"I wasn't making difficulties, I was merely locating the places as you
tell them."
"I've drawn a map of the Confederate position. It's in pencil, but it
ought to help."
"It will be beyond price!" exclaimed Dick. "You will give it to me?"
"Of course! But you must wait a minute! Until I heard my brother's
whistle I didn't know whether it was North or South that I was going to
meet on the mountain."
She disappeared in the bushes, and Dick heard a light rustling, but in
a few moments she returned and held out a broad sheet of heavy paper,
upon which a map had been drawn with care and skill. He had divined
already its great value, and now his opinion was confirmed.
"I can't thank you," he said, as he took it, "but General Sheridan and
General Grant can. And I've no doubt they'll do it when the time
comes."
Again the light flush appeared in her cheeks and she looked actually
handsome.
"Since my present task is finished," she said, "I'd better go."
"Where did you leave your horse?" asked Shepard.
"He's tethered in the bushes about a hundred yards farther down the
side of the mountain. I'll mount and ride back in the direction of
Richmond. I know all the roads."
Sergeant Whitley, who had gone a little higher up and who was watching
while they talked, whistled softly. Yet the whistle, low as it was,
was undoubtedly a signal of alarm.
"Go at once, Henrietta," whispered Shepard, urgently. "It's important
that you shouldn't be held here, that you be left with a free hand."
"It's so," she said.
He stooped and kissed her on the brow, and, without another word, she
vanished among the cedars on the lower slope. Dick thought he heard a
moment later the distant beat of hoofs and he felt sure she was riding
fast and far. Then he turned his attention to the danger confronting
them, because a danger it certainly was, and that, too, of the most
formidable kind. But, first, he gave the map to Shepard to carry.
Sergeant Whitley came down the slope and joined them.
"I think we'd better lie down, all of us," he said.
Now the real leadership passed to the sergeant, scout, trailer and
skilled Indian fighter. It passed to him, because all of them knew
that the conditions made him most fit for the place. They knelt or lay
but held their weapons ready. The sergeant knelt by Dick's side and
the youth saw that he was tense and expectant.
"Is it a band of the Johnnies?" he whispered.
"I merely heard 'em. I didn't see 'em," replied the sergeant, "but I'm
thinkin' from the way they come creepin' through the woods that it's
Slade and his gang."
"If that's so we'd better look out. Those fellows are woodsmen and
they'll be sure to see signs that we're here."
"Right you are, Mr. Mason. It's well the lady left so soon, and that
we're between them and her."
"It looks as if this fellow Slade had set out to be our evil genius.
We're always meeting him."
"Yes, sir, but we can take care of him. I don't specially mind this
kind of fighting, Mr. Mason. We had to do a lot of it in the heavy
timber on the slopes of some of them mountains out West, the names of
which I don't know, and generally we had to go up against the Sioux and
Northern Cheyennes, and them two tribes are king fighters, I can tell
you. Man for man they're a match for anybody."
"Slade's men don't appear to be moving," said Shepard, who was on the
other side of the sergeant.
"Not so's you could hear 'em," said Sergeant Whitley. "They heard us
and they're creeping now so's to see what we are and then fall on us by
surprise. Guess them that's kneeling had better bend down a little
lower."
Warner, who had been crouched on his knees, lay down almost flat. He
did not understand forests and darkness as Dick did, nor did he have
the strong hereditary familiarity with them, and he felt uncomfortable
and apprehensive.
"I don't like it," he said to Pennington. "I'd rather fight in the
open."
"So would I," said Pennington. "It's awful to lie here and feel
yourself being surrounded by dangers you can't see. I guess a man in
the African wilderness stalked at night by a dozen hungry lions would
feel just about as I do."
"I'm going to creep a little distance up the slope again," said the
sergeant, "and try to spy 'em out."
"A good idea, but be very careful."
"I certainly will, Mr. Mason. I want to live."
He slid among the bushes so quietly that Dick did not hear the noise of
him passing, nor was there any sound until he came back a few minutes
later.
"I saw 'em," he whispered. "They're lying among the bushes, and
they're not moving now, 'cause they're not certain what's become of us.
It's Slade sure. I saw him sitting under a tree, wearing that big
flap-brimmed hat, and sitting beside him was a great, black-haired,
red-faced man, a most evil-looking fellow, too."
"Skelly! Bill Skelly, beyond a doubt!" said Dick.
"That's him! From what you said Skelly started out by being for the
Union. Now, as we believed before, he's joined hands with Slade who's
for the South."
"They're just guerrillas, sergeant. They're for themselves and nobody
else."
"I reckon that's true, and they're expecting to get some plunder from
us. But if you'll listen to me, Mr. Mason, we'll burn their faces while
they're about it."
"You're our leader now, sergeant. Tell us what to do."
"Just to our right is a shallow gully, running through the cedars. We
can take shelter in it, crawl up it, and open fire on 'em. They don't
know our numbers, and if we take 'em by surprise maybe we can scatter
'em for the time."
"I suppose we'll have to. I'd like to get away with this map at once,
but they'd certainly follow and force us to a fight."
"That's true. We must deal with 'em, now. I'll have to ask all of you
to be very careful. Don't slip, and look out for the dead wood lying
about. If a piece of it cracks under you Slade and Skelly will be sure
to notice it, and it'll be all up with our surprise."
"You hear," whispered Dick to the others. "If you don't do as the
sergeant says, very likely you'll get shot by Slade's men."
With life as the price it was not necessary to say anything more about
the need of silence, and nobody slipped and no stick broke as they
crept into the gully after the sergeant. The cedars and thickets
almost met over the narrow depression, shutting out the moonlight, but
every one was able to discern the man before him creeping forward like
a wild animal. It was easy enough for Dick to imagine himself that
famous great grandfather of his, Paul Cotter reincarnated, and that the
days of the wilderness and the Indian war bands had come back again.
He even felt exultation as he adapted himself so readily to the
situation, and became equal to it. But Warner was grieved and
exasperated. It hurt his dignity to prowl on his knees through the
dark.
They advanced about two hundred yards in a diagonal course along the
side of the mountain until they came to a point where the cedars
thinned out a little. Then the sergeant whispered to the others to
stop, rose from his knees, and Dick rose beside him.
"See!" he said, nodding his head in the direction in which he wished
Dick to look.
Dick saw a number of dark figures standing among the trees. Two were
in close conference, evidently trying to decide upon a plan. One, a
giant in size, was Skelly, and the other, little, weazened and wearing
an enormous flap-brimmed hat, could be none but Slade.
"A pretty pair," said Dick, "but I don't like to fire on 'em from
ambush."
"Nor do I," said the sergeant, "but we've got to do it, or we won't get
the surprise we need so bad."
But they were saved from firing the first shot as some one in the
gully--they never knew or asked his name--stumbled at last. Slade and
Skelly instantly sprang for the trees and Slade blew sharply upon his
whistle. Twenty shots were fired in the direction of the gully, but
they whistled harmlessly over the heads of its occupants.
It was Dick who gave the command for the return volley, and with a
mighty shouting they swept the woods with their breech-loading rifles.
They were not sure whether they hit anything, but as the gully blazed
with fire they presented all the appearance of a formidable force that
might soon charge.
"Cease firing!" said Dick, presently.
A cloud of smoke rose from the gully, and, as it lifted, they could see
nothing in the woods beyond, but the sergeant announced that for an
instant or two he heard the sound of running feet.
"It means they've gone," said Dick, "and that being the case we'll be
off, too. I fancy we've a great prize in this map. Your sister, Mr.
Shepard, must be a woman of extraordinary daring and ability."
"She's all that," replied the spy earnestly. "I think sometimes that
God gave to me the size and physical strength of the family, but to her
the mind. Think of her life there in Richmond, surrounded by dangers!
She has done great service to our cause tonight, and she has done other
services, equally as great, before."
Shepard was silent for a little while and then he began to chuckle to
himself, almost under his breath, but Dick heard.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I was thinking of my sister," Shepard replied. "Your cousin, Harry
Kenton, if you should ever meet him again--and I know that you
will--could tell you a story of a dark night in Richmond, or at least a
part of it, and he could also tell an interesting story, or a part of
it, of another map, almost as valuable as this, which disappeared
mysteriously from the house of a rich man in Richmond where he and
other Southern officers were being entertained. It vanished almost
from under their hands."
"Tell me now," said Dick, feeling great curiosity.
"I think I'd better wait, if you'll pardon me, sir," said Shepard.
"I'll have to wait anyhow," said Dick, "because I hear the tread of men
coming toward us."
"But they're our own," said Sergeant Whitley, who was a little ahead,
peering between the cedars.
"I suppose they heard the shots and are hurrying to our relief," said
Dick. "But we routed the enemy, we did not lose a man, and we've
brought away the prize."
The two forces joined and they were shortly back with Colonel
Winchester, who fully appreciated the great value of the information
obtained by such a remarkable coordination of effort.
"Dick," he said, "you and Mr. Shepard shall ride at once with me and
this map to General Sheridan."
CHAPTER IX
AT GRIPS WITH EARLY
Dick felt great excitement and elation as he rode before dawn with
Colonel Winchester and the spy to see Sheridan. They found him sitting
by a small fire receiving or sending reports, and talking with a
half-dozen of his generals. It was not yet day, but the flames lighted
up the commander's thin, eager face, and made him look more boyish than
ever.
Dick felt as he had felt before that he was in the presence of a man.
He had had the same impression when he stood near Grant and Thomas. Did
strong men send off electric currents of will and power which were
communicated to other men, by which they could know them, or was it the
effect of deeds achieved? He could not decide the question for
himself, but he knew that he believed implicitly in their leader.
Colonel Winchester paused near Sheridan, but the general's keen eye
caught him at once.
"Good morning, Colonel Winchester!" he exclaimed. "You bring news of
value. I can tell it by your face!"
"I do, sir," replied the colonel, "but it was Mr. Shepard here, whom
you know, and Lieutenant Mason who obtained it. Mr. Shepard, show
General Sheridan the map."
It was characteristic of Colonel Winchester, a man of the finest
feelings, that he should have Shepard instead of himself carry the map
to General Sheridan. He wanted the spy to have the full measure of
credit, including the outward show, for the triumph he had achieved
with the aid of his sister. And Shepard's swift glance of thanks
showed that he appreciated it. He drew the map from his pocket and
handed it to the general.
Sheridan held it down, where the full glow of the flames fell upon it,
and he seemed to comprehend at once the meaning of the lines. A great
light sprang up in his eyes.
"Ah!" he exclaimed. "The location of the Confederate forces and the
openings between them and the mountains! This is important! Splendid!
Did you make it yourself, Mr. Shepard?"
"No, sir. It was made by my sister who came from Richmond. We met her
on the mountain."
Sheridan looked at Shepard and the eyes of general and spy met in
complete understanding.
"I know of her," the general murmured. "A noble woman! There are many
such as she who have done great service to our cause that can never be
repaid! But this is a stroke of fortune!"
"Look, Merritt, Averill and all of you," he said aloud. "Here lies our
path! Mr. Shepard, you will go over the details of this with us and,
Colonel Winchester, you and your aide remain also to help."
Dick felt complimented, and so did Colonel Winchester. Sheridan knew
how to handle men. While the sentinels, rifle on shoulder, walked up
and down a little distance away, a dozen eager faces were soon poring
over the map, Shepard filling in details as to the last little hill or
brook.
"Since we know where they are and how many they are," said Sheridan,
"we'll make a big demonstration in front of Fisher's Hill, where
Early's works are too strong to be carried, and while we keep him
occupied there we'll turn his left flank with a powerful force,
marching it just here into the open space that Mr. Shepard's map shows.
Tomorrow--or rather today, for I see the dawn comes--will be a day of
great noise and of much burning of powder. But behind the curtain of
smoke we'll make our movements. Merritt with his cavalry shall go to
the right and Averill will go with him. Crook shall take his two
divisions and hold the north bank of Cedar Creek, and later on Crook
shall be the first to strike. Gentlemen, we've won one victory, and I
know that all of you appreciate the value of a second and a third. The
opportunity of the war lies here before us. We can uncover the entire
left flank of the Confederacy here in Virginia, and who knows what will
follow!"
He looked up, his eyes glowing and his confidence was communicated to
them all. They were mostly young men and they responded in kind to his
burning words. Sheridan knew that he could command from them the
utmost fidelity and energy, and he uttered a little exclamation of
confidence.
"I shall consider the victory already won," he said.
The generals left for their commands, and Sheridan again thanked
Colonel Winchester, Dick and Shepard.
"I recommend that all three of you take some rest," he said, "you won't
have much to do this morning."
They saluted, mounted and rode back. "You take his advice, Dick, and
roll yourself in your blanket," said Colonel Winchester, when they were
on the way.
"I will, sir," said Dick, "although I know that great history is being
made now."
"I feel that way, too," said the colonel. "Look, the sun is coming up,
and you can see the Confederate outposts."
The thin, clear air of September was brilliant with morning light, and
through glasses the Confederate outposts and works around Fisher's Hill
were quite clear and distinct. Some of the Northern and Southern
sentinels were already exchanging compliments with one another, and
they heard the faint popping of rifles. But Dick well knew from
Sheridan's words that this early firing meant nothing. It would grow
much heavier bye and bye and it would yet be but the cover for
something else.
He found Warner and Pennington already sound asleep, and wrapping
himself in his blanket he lay down under a tree and fell asleep to the
distant crackle of rifles and the occasional thud of great guns. He
slept on through the morning while the fire increased, and great
volumes of smoke rolled, as the wind shifted up or down the valley.
But it did not disturb him, nor did he dream. His slumbers were as
sound as if he lay in his distant bed in Pendleton.
While Dick and his comrades slept Sheridan was moving the men on his
chess board. Young in years, but great in experience, he was never
more eager and never more clear of mind than on this, one of the most
eventful days of his life. He saw the opportunity, and he was resolved
that it should not escape him. Two great reputations were made in the
valley by men very unlike, Stonewall Jackson and Little Phil Sheridan.
In the earlier years of the war the Union armies had suffered many
disasters there at the hands of the leader under the old slouch hat,
and now Sheridan was resolved to retrieve everything, not with one
victory alone, but with many.
There was firing in the valley all day long, the crackling of the
rifles, the thudding of the great guns, and the occasional charge of
horsemen. The curtain of smoke hung nearly always. Sometimes it grew
thicker, and sometimes it became thinner, but Sheridan's mind was not
upon these things, they were merely the veil before him, while behind
it, as a screen, he arranged the men on his chess board. When night
came his whole line was pushed forward. His vanguard held the northern
part of the little town of Strasburg, while Early's held the southern
part, only a few hundred yards away. In the night the large force
under Crook was moved into the thick forest along Cedar Creek, where it
was to lie silent and hidden until it received the word of command.
All the next day the movements were continued, while Crook's force,
intended to be the striking arm, was still concealed in the timber. Yet
before dark there was a heavy combat, in which the Southern troops were
driven out of Strasburg, enabling the Northern batteries to advance to
strong positions. That night Crook's whole strength was brought across
Cedar Creek, but was hidden again in heavy timber. To the great
pleasure of its colonel and other officers the Winchester regiment was
sent to join it as a cavalry support.
It was quite dark when they rode their horses across the creek and
Shepard was again with them as guide. Although he concealed it, the
spy felt a great exultation. The map that he had brought from his
sister had proved invaluable. Sheridan was using it every hour, and
Shepard was giving further assistance through his thorough knowledge of
the ground. Dick was glad to ride beside him and whisper with him, now
and then.
"I haven't known things to go so well before," Dick said, when they
were across the creek.
"They're going well, Mr. Mason," said Shepard, "because everything is
arranged. There is provision against every unlucky chance. It's
leadership. The difference between a good general and a bad general is
about fifty thousand men."
The entire division moved forward in the dusk at a fair pace, but so
many troops with cavalry and guns could not keep from making some
noise. Dick with Shepard and the sergeant rode off in the woods towards
the open valley to see if the enemy were observing them. Dick's chief
apprehensions were in regard to Slade and Skelly, but they found no
trace of the guerrillas, nor of any other foes.
The night was fairly bright, and from the edge of the wood they saw far
over hills and fields, dotted with two opposing lines of camp fires. A
dark outline was Fisher's Hill, and lights burned there too. From a
point in front of it a gun boomed now and then, and there was still an
intermittent fire of skirmishers and sharpshooters.
"That hill will be ours inside of twenty-four hours," said Shepard.
"We'll fall upon Early from three sides and he'll have to retreat to
save himself. He hasn't numbers enough to stand against an army driven
forward by a hand like that of General Sheridan."
* * * *
While Dick, the sergeant and the spy looked from the woods upon the
lights of Fisher's Hill the Invincibles lay in an earthwork before it
facing their enemy. Harry Kenton sat with St. Clair, Langdon and
Dalton. The two colonels were not far away. For almost the first time,
Harry's heart failed him. He did not wish to depreciate Early, but he
felt that he was not the great Jackson or anything approaching him. He
knew that the troops felt the same way. They missed the mighty spirit
and the unfaltering mind that had led them in earlier years to victory.
They were ragged and tired, too, and had but little food.
Happy Tom, who concealed under a light manner uncommonly keen
perceptions, noticed Harry's depression.
"What are you thinking about, Harry?" he asked.
"Several things, Happy. Among them, the days when we rode here with
Stonewall from one victory to another."
"We'll have to think of something else. Cheer up. Remember the old
saying that the darkest hour is just before the dawn."
"Whose dawn?"
"That's not like you, Harry. You've usually put up the boldest front
of us all."
"Happy's giving you good advice," said St. Clair.
"So he is," said Harry, as he shook himself. "We'll fight 'em off
tomorrow. They can't beat us again. The spirit of Old Jack will hover
over us."
"If we only had more men," said Dalton. "Then we could spread out and
cover the slopes of the mountains on either side. I wish I knew
whether those dark fringes hid anything we ought to know."
"They hide rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, birds and maybe a black bear
or two," said Happy Tom. "When we shatter Sheridan's army and drive
the fragments across the Potomac I think I'll come back here and do a
little hunting, leaving to Lee the task of cleaning up the Army of the
Potomac."
"I'd like to come with you," said St. Clair, "but I wouldn't bring any
gun. I'd just roam through the woods for a week and disturb nothing.
If I saw a bear I'd point my finger at him and say: 'Go away, young
fellow, I won't bother you if you won't bother me,' and then he'd amble
off peacefully in one direction, and I'd amble off peacefully in
another. I wouldn't want to hear a gun fired during all that week. I'd
just rest, rest, rest my nerves and my soul. I wouldn't break a bough
or a bush. I'd even be careful how hard I stepped on the leaves. Birds
could walk all over me if they liked. I'd drink from those clear
streams, and I'd sleep in my blanket on a bed of leaves."
"But suppose it rained, Arthur?"
"I wouldn't let it rain in that enchanted week of mine. Nothing would
happen except what I wanted to happen. It would be a week of the most
absolute peace and quiet the world has ever known. There wouldn't be
any winds, they would be zephyrs. The skies would all be made out of
the softest and finest of blue satin and any little clouds that floated
before 'em would be made of white satin of the same quality. The
nights would be clear with the most wonderful stars that ever shone.
Great new stars would come out for the first time, and twinkle for me,
and the man in the most silvery moon known in the history of time would
grin down at me and say without words: 'St. Clair, old fellow, this is
your week of peace, everything has been fixed for you, so make the most
of it.' And then I'd wander on. The birds would sing to me and every
one of 'em would sing like a prima donna. Wherever I stepped, wild
flowers would burst into bloom as I passed, and if a gnat should happen
to buzz before my face I wouldn't brush him away for fear of hurting
him. The universe and I would be at peace with each other."
"Hear him! O, hear him!" exclaimed Happy Tom. "Old Arthur grows
dithyrambic and hexametrical. He fairly distills the essence of
highfalutin poetry."
"I don't know that he's so far fetched," said sober Dalton. "I feel a
good deal that way myself. I suppose, Thomas Langdon, that the colors
of the world depend upon one's own eyes. What I call green may appear
to you like the color of blue to me. Now, Arthur really sees all these
things that he's telling about, because he has the eye of the mind with
which to see them. I've quit saying that people don't see things,
because I don't see 'em myself."
"Good for you, Professor," said Langdon. "That's quite a lecture you
gave me, long though not windy, and I accept it. Those Elysian fields
that Arthur was painting are real and he's going to have his enchanted
week as he calls it. Arthur is a poet, sure enough."
"I have written a few little verses which were printed in the
Charleston Mercury," said St. Clair.
"What's this? What's this?" asked a mellow voice. "Can it be possible
that young gentlemen are discussing poetry between battles and with the
enemy in sight?"
It was Colonel Leonidas Talbot, coming down the trench, and Lieutenant
Colonel Hector St. Hilaire was just behind him. The young officers
rose and saluted promptly, but they knew there was no reproof in
Colonel Talbot's tone.
"We had to do it, sir," said Harry respectfully. "Something struck
Arthur here, and like a fountain he gushed suddenly into poetry. He
had a most wonderful vision of the Elysian fields and of himself
wandering through them for a week, knee deep in flowers, and playing
the softest of music on a guitar."
"He's put that in about the guitar," protested St. Clair. "I never
mentioned such a thing, but all the rest is true."
"Well, if I had my way," said the colonel, "you should have a guitar,
too, if you wanted it, and I like that idea of yours about a week in
the Elysian fields. We'll join you there and we'll all walk around
among the flowers, and Hector's relative, that wonderful musician,
young De Langeais, shall play to us on his violin, and maybe the famous
Stonewall will come walking to us through the flowers, and he'll have
with him Albert Sidney Johnston, and Turner Ashby and all the great
ones that have gone."
The colonel stopped, and Harry felt a slight choking in his throat.
"In the course of this lull, Leonidas and I had some thought of
resuming our unfinished game of chess," said Lieutenant Colonel St.
Hilaire, "but the time is really unpropitious and too short. It may be
that we shall have to wait until the war is over to conclude the match.
The enemy is pressing us hard, and I need not conceal from you lads
that he will press us harder tomorrow."
"So he will," agreed Colonel Talbot. "There was some heavy and
extremely accurate artillery fire from his ranks this afternoon. The
way the guns were handled and the remarkable rapidity and precision
with which the discharges came convinces me that John Carrington is
here in the valley, ready to concentrate all the fire of the Union
batteries upon us. It is bad, very bad for us that the greatest
artilleryman in the world should come with Sheridan, and yet we shall
have the pleasure of seeing how he achieves wonders with the guns. It
was in him, even in the old days at West Point, when we were but lads
together, and he has shown more than once in this war how the flower
that was budding then has come into full bloom."
As if in answer to his words the deep boom of a cannon rolled over the
hills, and a shell burst near the earthwork.
"That, I think, was John talking to us," said Colonel Talbot. "He was
saying to us: 'Beware of me, old friends. I'm coming tomorrow, not
with one gun but with many!' Well, be it so. We shall give John and
Sheridan a warm welcome, and we shall try to make it so very warm that
it will prove too hot for them. Now, my lads, there is no immediate
duty for you, and if you can sleep, do so. Good-night."
They rose and saluted again as the two colonels went back to their own
particular place.
"I hope those two will be spared," said St. Clair. "I want them to
finish their chess game, and I'd like, too, to see their meeting after
the war with their old friend, John Carrington."
"It will all come to pass," said Harry. "If Arthur is a poet as he
seems to be, then I'm a prophet, as I know I am."
"At least you're an optimist," said Dalton.
"Go to sleep, all of you, as the colonel told you to do," said Harry.
"If you don't stop talking you'll keep the enemy awake all night."
But Harry himself was the last of them to sleep. He could not keep
from rising at times, and, in the starlight, looking at the fires of
the foe and the dark slopes of the mountains. His glasses passed more
than once over the forests along Cedar Creek, but no prevision, no
voice out of the dark, told him that Dick was there, one of a
formidable force that was lying hidden, ready to strike the fatal blow.
His last dim sight, as he fell asleep, was a spectacle evoked from the
past, a vision of Old Jack riding at the head of his phantom legions to
victory.
* * * *
At dawn all of Crook's forces marched out of the woods along Cedar
Creek, the Winchester men, Shepard at their head, leading, but they
still kept to the shelter of the forest and wide ravines along the
lower slopes of the mountain. The sun was not clear of the eastern
hills before the heavy thudding of the great guns and the angry buzz of
the rifles came from the direction of Fisher's Hill.
The demonstration had begun and it was a big one, big enough to make
the defenders think it was reality and not a sham. Before Early's
earthworks a great cloud of smoke was gathering. Dick looked over his
shoulder at it. It gave him a curious feeling to be marching past,
while all that crash of battle was going on in the valley. It almost
looked as if they were deserting their general.
"How far are we going?" he asked Warner.
"I don't know," replied the Vermonter, "but I fancy we'll go far
enough. My little algebra, although it remains unopened in my pocket,
tells me that we shall continue our progress unseen until we reach the
desired point. These woods have grown up and these gullies have been
furrowed at a very convenient time for us."
The light was yet dim in the forests along the slopes, but the valley
itself was flooded with the sun's rays. The echoes of the firing
rolled continuously through the gorges and multiplied it. Despite the
clouds about the earthworks and the hill, Dick saw continual flashes of
light, and he knew now that the battle below was a reality and not a
sham. Early and all his men would be kept too busy to see the march of
Crook and his force on his flank, and Dick, like Warner, became sure
that the great movement would be a success.
But their progress, owing to the nature of the ground and the need to
keep under cover, was slow. It seemed to Dick that they marched an
interminable time under the trees, while the battle flashed and roared
in the plain. He saw noon pass and the sun rise to the zenith. He saw
the brilliant light dim on the eastern mountains, and they were still
marching through the forests.
The battle was now behind them and the sun was very low, but the
command halted and turned toward the east. Nevertheless, they were
still hidden by the woods and the low hills of the valley. Yet they
lay behind and on the side of their enemy who would speedily be exposed
where he was weakest, to their full weight. The long flanking movement
had been a complete success so far.
Little of the day was left. The sun was almost hidden behind the
eastern mountains but it still flamed in the west, glittering along the
bayonets of the men in the forest, and showing their eager faces.
Dick's heart throbbed. In that moment of anticipated victory he forgot
all about Harry and his friends who were in the closing trap. Then
trumpets sang the charge, and the cavalry thundered out of the wood,
followed by the infantry and the artillery.
At the same time, another powerful division that had been moved forward
by Sheridan, charged, while those in front increased their fire. The
unfortunate Southern army was overwhelmed by troops who had moved
forward in such complete unison. They were swept out of their
earthworks, driven from their fortified hill, and those who did not
fall or were not taken were sent in rapid flight down the valley.
The battle was short. Completeness of preparation and superiority in
numbers and resources made it so. Early and what was left of his army
had no choice but the flight they made. The sun had nearly set when
the deadly charge issued from the wood, and, by the time it had set,
the pursuit was thundering along the valley, the Winchester men in the
very forefront of it. Long after dark it continued. Several miles
from the field the fragments of the Invincibles and some others rallied
on a hill, posted two cannon and made a desperate resistance. But the
attack upon them was so fierce that they were compelled to retreat
again, and they did not have time to take the guns with them.
It was a strange night to Dick, alike joyous and terrible. He believed
that the army of the enemy was practically destroyed, and yet he had a
great sympathy for some who were in it. He was in constant fear lest
he should find them dead, or wounded mortally. But he had no time to
look for them. Sheridan was pressing the pursuit to the utmost.
Midnight did not stop it. Fugitives were captured continually. Here
and there an abandoned cannon was taken. Rifles flashed all through
the darkness, and the horses of the Union cavalry were driven to the
utmost.
Neither Dick nor his companions felt exhaustion. Their excitement was
too great, and the taste of triumph was too strong. They had seen no
such victory before, and eager and willing they still led the advance.
Midnight passed and the pursuit never ceased until it reached
Woodstock, ten miles from Fisher's Hill. By that time Sheridan's
infantry was exhausted, and as Early was beginning to draw together the
remains of his force he would prove too strong for the cavalry alone.
At dawn the army of Sheridan stopped, the troopers almost falling from
their horses in exhaustion, while Early used the opportunity to escape
with what was left of his men, leaving behind many prisoners and twenty
cannon. Yet the triumph had been great, and again, when the telegraph
brought the news of it, the swell of victory passed through the North.
The Winchester regiment was drawn up near Woodstock, already
dismounted, the men standing beside their horses. The camp cooks were
lighting the fires for breakfast, but many of the young cavalrymen fell
asleep first. Dick managed to keep awake long enough for his food, and
then, at the order of the colonel, he slept on the ground, awaiting the
command of Sheridan which might come at any moment.
CHAPTER X
AN UNBEATEN FOE
Dick's belief that he would not be allowed to sleep long was justified.
In three or four hours the whole Winchester regiment was up, mounted
and away again. Early and his army left the great valley pike, and
took a road leading toward the Blue Ridge, where he eventually entered
a gap, and fortified to await supplies and fresh men from Richmond,
leaving all the great Valley of Virginia, where in former years the
Northern armies had suffered so many humiliations, in the possession of
Sheridan. It was the greatest and most solid triumph that the Union had
yet achieved and Dick and the youths with him rejoiced.
After many days of marching and fighting they lay once more in the
shadow of the mountains, within a great grove of oak and beech, hickory
and maple. The men and then the horses had drunk at a large brook
flowing near by, and both were content. The North, as always, sent
forward food in abundance to its troops, and now, just as the twilight
was coming, the fires were lighted and the pleasant aromas of supper
were rising. Colonel Winchester and his young staff sat by one of the
fires near the edge of the creek. They had not taken off their clothes
in almost a week, and they felt as if they had been living like
cave-men. Nevertheless the satisfaction that comes from deeds well
done pervaded them, and as they lay upon the leaves and awaited their
food and coffee they showed great good humor.
"Have you any objection, sir, to my taking a census?" said Warner to
Colonel Winchester.
"No, Warner, but what kind of a census do you mean?"
"I want to count our wounds, separately and individually and then make
up the grand total."
"All right, George, go ahead," said Colonel Winchester, laughing.
"Dick," said Warner, "what hurts have you sustained in the past week?"
"A bullet scratch on the shoulder, another on the side, a slight cut
from a saber on my left arm, about healed now, a spent bullet that hit
me on the head, raising a lump and ache for the time being, and a kick
from one of our own horses that made me walk lame for a day."
"The kick from a horse, as it was one of our horses, doesn't go."
"I didn't put it forward seriously. I withdraw my claim on its
account."
"That allows you four wounds. Now, Pennington, how about you?"
"First I had a terrible wound in the foot," replied the Nebraskan. "A
bullet went right through my left shoe and cut the skin off the top of
my little toe."
"Leave out the 'terrible.' That's no dreadful wound."
"No, but it burned like the sting of a wasp and bled in a most
disgraceful manner all over my sock. Then my belt buckle was shot
away."
"That doesn't count either. A wound's a wound only when you're hit
yourself, not when some piece of your clothing is struck."
"All right. The belt buckle's barred, although it gave me a shock when
the bullet met it. A small bullet went through the flesh of my left
arm just above the elbow. It healed so fast that I've hardly noticed
it, due, of course, to the very healthy and temperate life I've led. I
suppose, George, it would have laid up a fellow of your habits for a
week."
"Never mind about my habits, but go on with the list of your wounds. A
great beauty of mathematics is that it compels you to keep to your
subject. When you're solving one of those delightful problems in
mathematics you can't digress and drag in irrelevant things. Algebra
is the very thing for a confused mind like yours, Frank, one that
doesn't coordinate. But get on with your list."
"When we were in pursuit my horse stumbled in a gully and fell so hard
that I was thrown over his shoulder, giving my own shoulder a painful
bruise that's just getting well."
"We'll allow that, since it happened in battle. What else now? Speak
up!"
"That's all. Three good wounds, according to your own somewhat severe
definition of a wound. I'm one behind Dick, but I believe that when I
was thrown over my horse's head I was hurt worse than he was at any
time."
"Frank Pennington, you're a good comrade, but you're a liar, an
unmitigated liar."
"George, if I weren't so tired and so unwilling to be angry with
anybody I'd get up and belt you on the left ear for that."
"But you're a liar, just the same. You're holding something back."
"What are you driving at, you chattering Green Mountaineer?"
"Why don't you tell something about the time the trooper fell from his
horse wounded, and you, dismounting under the enemy's fire, helped him
on your own horse, although you got two wounds in your body while doing
it, and brought him off in safety? Didn't I say that you were a liar,
a convicted liar from modesty?"
Pennington blushed.
"I didn't want to say anything about that," he muttered. "I had to do
it."
"Lots of men wouldn't have had to do it. You go down for five good
wounds, Frank Pennington."
"Now, then, what about yourself, George?" asked Dick.
"One in the arm, one on the shoulder and one across the ankle. I don't
waste time in words, like you two, my verbose friends. That gives the
three of us combined twelve wounds, a fair average of four apiece."
"And it's our great good luck that not one of the twelve is a disabling
hurt," said Dick.
"But we get the credit for the full twelve, all the same," said Warner,
"and we maintain our prestige in the army. Our consciences also are
satisfied. But the last two or three weeks of battles and marches have
fairly made me dizzy. I can't remember them or their sequence. All I
know is that we've cleaned up the valley, and here we are ready at last
to take a couple of minutes of well earned rest."
"Do you know," said Pennington, "there were times when I clear forgot
to be hungry, and I've been renowned in our part of Nebraska for my
appetite. But nature always gets even. For all those periods of
forgetfulness memory is now rushing upon me. I'm hungry not only for
the present but from the past. It'll take a lot to satisfy me."
The briskness of the night also sharpened Pennington's appetite. They
were deep in autumn, and the winds from the mountains had an edge. The
foliage had turned and it glowed in vivid reds and yellows on the
slopes, although the intense colors were hidden now by the coming of
night.
The wind was cold enough to make the fires feel good to their relaxed
systems, and they spread out their hands to the welcome flames, as they
had often done at home on wintry nights, when children. Beyond the
trees the horses, under guard, were grazing on what was left of the
late grass, but within the wood the men themselves, save those who were
preparing food, were mostly lying down on the dry leaves or their
blankets, and were talking of the things they had done, or the things
they were going to do.
"I wonder what the bill of fare will be tonight," said Pennington, who
was growing hungrier and hungrier.
"I had several engraved menus," said Warner, "but I lost them, and so
we won't be able to order. We'll just have to take what they offer us."
"A month or so later they'll be having fresh sausage and spare ribs in
old Kentucky," said Dick, "and I wish we had 'em here now."
"And a month later than that," said Pennington, "they'll be having a
roasted bull buffalo weighing five thousand pounds for Christmas dinner
in Nebraska."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Warner. "No buffalo ever weighed five thousand
pounds."
Pennington looked at him pityingly.
"You have no romance or poetry after all, George," he said. "Why can't
you let me put on an extra twenty-five hundred or three thousand pounds
for the sake of effect?"
"Besides, you don't roast buffaloes whole and bring them in on a
platter!"
"No, we don't, but that's no proof that we can't or won't. Now, what
would you like to have, George?"
"After twelve or fifteen other things, I'd like to finish off with a
whole pumpkin pie, and a few tin cups of cider would go along with it
mighty well. That's the diet to make men, real men, I mean."
"Any way," said Dick, raising a tin cup of hot coffee, "here's to food.
You may sleep without beds, and, in tropical climates, you may go
without clothes, but in whatever part of the world you may be, you must
have food. And it's best when you've ridden hard all day, and, in the
cool of an October evening, to sit down by a roaring fire in the woods
with the dry leaves beneath you, and the clear sky above you."
"Hear! hear!" said Warner. "Who's dithyrambic now? But you're right,
Dick. War is a terrible thing. Besides being a ruthless slaughter
it's an economic waste,--did you ever think of that, you reckless
youngsters?--but it has a few minor compensations, and one of them is
an evening like this. Why, everything tastes good to us. Nothing
could taste bad. Our twelve wounds don't pain us in the least, and
they'll heal absolutely in a few days, our blood being so healthy. The
air we breathe is absolutely pure and the sky over our heads is all
blue and silver, spangled with stars, a canopy stretched for our
especial benefit, and upon which we have as much claim of ownership as
anybody else has. We've lived out of doors so much and we've been
through so much hard exercise that our bodies are now pretty nearly
tempered steel. I doubt whether I'll ever be able to live indoors
again, except in winter."
"I'm the luckiest of all," said Pennington. "Out on the plains we
don't have to live indoors much anyway. I've lived mostly in the
saddle since I was seven or eight years old, but the war has toughened
me just the same. I'll be able to sleep out any time, except in the
blizzards."
"As soon as you finish devouring the government stores," said a voice
behind them, "it would be well for all of you to seek the sleep you're
telling so much about."
It was Colonel Winchester who spoke, and they looked at him,
inquiringly.
"Can I ask, sir, which way we ride?" said Dick.
"Northward with General Sheridan," replied the Colonel.
"But there is no enemy to the north, sir!"
"That's true, but we go that way, nevertheless. Although you're
discreet young officers I'm not going to tell you any more. Now, as
you've eaten enough food and drunk enough coffee, be off to your
blankets. I want all of you to be fresh and strong in the morning."
Fresh and strong they were, and promptly General Sheridan rode away,
taking with him all the cavalry, his course taking him toward Front
Royal. The news soon spread among the horsemen that from Front Royal
the general would go on to Washington for a conference with the War
Department, while the cavalry would turn through a gap in the
mountains, and then destroy railroads in order to cut off General
Early's communications with Richmond.
"We're to be an escort and then a fighting and destroying force," said
Dick. "But it's quite sure that we'll meet no enemy until we go
through the gap. Meanwhile we'll enjoy a saunter along the valley."
But when they reached Front Royal a courier, riding hard, overtook
them. He demanded to be taken at once to the presence of General
Sheridan, and then he presented a copy of a dispatch which read:
To Lieutenant-General Early:
Be ready to move as soon as my forces join you, and we will
crush Sheridan.
Longstreet, Lieutenant-General.
Sheridan read the dispatch over and over again, and pondered it
gravely. The courier informed him that it was the copy of a signal made
by the Confederate flags on Three Top Mountain, and deciphered by Union
officers who had obtained the secret of the Confederate code. General
Wright, whom he had left in command, had sent it to him in all haste
for what it was worth.
The young general not only pondered the message gravely, but he
pondered it long. Finally he called his chief officers around him and
consulted with them. If the grim and bearded Longstreet were really
coming into the valley with a formidable force, then indeed it would be
the dance of death. Longstreet, although he did not have the genius of
Stonewall Jackson, was a fierce and dangerous fighter. All of them
knew how he had come upon the field of Chickamauga with his veterans
from Virginia, and had turned the tide of battle. His presence in the
valley might quickly turn all of Sheridan's great triumphs into
withered laurels.
But Sheridan had a great doubt in his mind. The Confederate signal
from Three Top Mountain that his own officers had read might not be
real. It might have been intended to deceive, Early's signalmen
learning that the Union signalmen had deciphered their code, or it
might be some sort of a grim joke. He did not believe that the Army of
Northern Virginia could spare Longstreet and a large force, as it would
be weakened so greatly that it could no longer stand before Grant, even
with the aid of the trenches.
His belief that this dispatch, upon which so much turned, as they were
to learn afterward, was false, became a conviction and most of his
officers agreed with him. He decided at last that the coming of
Longstreet with an army into the valley was an impossibility, and he
would go on to Washington. But Sheridan made a reservation, and this,
too, as the event showed, was highly important. He ordered all the
cavalry back to General Wright, while he proceeded with a small escort
to the capital.
It was Dick who first learned what had happened, and soon all knew.
They discussed it fully as they rode back on their own tracks, and on
the whole they were glad they were to return.
"I don't think I'd like to be tearing up railroads and destroying
property," said Dick. "I prefer anyhow for the valley to be my home at
present, although I believe that dispatch means nothing. Why, the
Confederates can't possibly rally enough men to attack us!"
"I think as you do," said Warner. "I suppose it's best for the cavalry
to go back, but I wish General Sheridan had taken me on to Washington
with him. I'd like to see the lights of the capital again. Besides,
I'd have given the President and the Secretary of War some excellent
advice."
"He isn't jesting. He means it," said Pennington to Dick.
"Of course I do," said Warner calmly. "When General Sheridan failed to
take me with him, the government lost a great opportunity."
But their hearts were light and they rode gaily back, unconscious of
the singular event that was preparing for them.
* * * *
The army of Early had not been destroyed entirely. Sheridan, with all
his energy, and with all the courage and zeal of his men could not
absolutely crush his foe. Some portions of the hostile force were
continually slipping away, and now Early, refusing to give up, was
gathering them together again, and was meditating a daring counter
stroke. The task might well have appalled any general and any troops,
but if Early had one quality in preeminence it was the resolution to
fight. And most of his officers and men were veterans. Many of them
had ridden with Jackson on his marvelous campaigns. They were familiar
with the taste of victory, and defeat had been very bitter to them.
They burned to strike back, and they were willing to dare anything for
the sake of it.
Orders had already gone to all the scattered and ragged fragments, and
the men in gray were concentrating. Many of them were half starved.
The great valley had been stripped of all its live stock, all its grain
and of every other resource that would avail an army. Nothing could be
obtained, except at Staunton, ninety miles back of Fisher's Hill, and
wagons could not bring up food in time from such a distant place.
Nevertheless the men gleaned. They searched the fields for any corn
that might be left, and ate it roasted or parched. Along the slopes of
the mountains they found nuts already ripening, and these were prizes
indeed.
Among the gleaners were Harry Kenton, the staunch young Presbyterian,
Dalton, and the South Carolinians, St. Clair and Langdon. St. Clair
alone was impeccable of uniform, absolutely trim, and Langdon alone
deserved his nickname of Happy.
"Don't be discouraged, boys," he said as he pulled from the stalk an
ear of corn that the hoofs of the Northern cavalry had failed to
trample under. "Now this is a fine ear, a splendid ear, and if you
boys search well you may be able to find others like it. All things
come to him who looks long enough. Remember how Nebuchadnezzar ate
grass, and he must have had to do some hunting too, because I
understand grass didn't grow very freely in that part of the world, and
then remember also that we are not down to grass yet. Corn, nuts and
maybe a stray pumpkin or two. 'Tis a repast fit for the gods, noble
sirs."
"I can go without, part of the time," said Harry, "but it hurts me to
have to hunt through a big field for a nubbin of corn and then feel
happy when I've got the wretched, dirty, insignificant little thing.
My father often has a hundred acres of corn in a single field,
producing fifty bushels to the acre."
"And my father," said Dalton, "has a single field of fifty acres that
produces fifteen hundred bushels of wheat, but it's been a long time
since I've seen a shock of wheat."
"Console yourself with the knowledge," said Harry, "that it's too late
in the year for wheat to be in the stack."
"Or anywhere else, either, so far as we're concerned."
"Don't murmur," said Happy. "Mourners seldom find anything, but
optimists find, often. Didn't I tell you so? Here's another ear."
Harry had approached the edge of the field and he saw something red
gleaming through a fringe of woods beyond. The experienced eye of
youth told him at once what it was, and he called to his comrades.
"Come on, boys," he said. "There's a little orchard beyond the wood. I
know there is because I caught a glimpse of a red apple hanging from a
tree. I suppose the skirt of forest kept the Yankee raiders from
seeing it."
They followed with a shout of joy.
"Treasure trove!" exclaimed Happy.
"Who's an optimist now?" asked Harry.
"All of us are," said St. Clair.
They passed through the wood and entered a small orchard of not more
than half an acre. But it was filled with apple trees loaded with red
apples, big juicy fellows, just ripened by the October sun. A little
beyond the orchard in a clearing was a small log house, obviously that
of the owner of the orchard, and also obviously deserted. No smoke
rose from the chimneys, and windows and doors were nailed up. The
proprietor no doubt had gone with his family to some town and the
apples would have rotted on the ground had the young officers not found
them.
"There must be bushels and bushels here," said St. Clair. "We'll fill
up our sacks first and then call the other men."
They had brought sacks with them for the corn, but the few ears they
had found took up but little space.
"I'll climb the trees, and shake 'em down," said Harry. He was up a
tree in an instant, all his boyhood coming back to him, and, as he
shook with his whole strength, the red apples, held now by twigs nearly
dead, rained down. They passed from tree to tree and soon their sacks
were filled.
"Now for the colonels," said St. Clair, "and on our way we'll tell the
others."
Bending under the weight of the sacks, they took their course toward a
snug cove in the first slope of the Massanuttons, hailing friends on
the way and sending them with swift steps toward the welcome orchard.
They passed within the shadow of a grove, and then entered a small open
space, where two men sat on neighboring stumps, with an empty box
between them. Upon the box reposed a board of chessmen and at
intervals the two intent players spoke.
"If you expect to capture my remaining knight, Hector, you'll have to
hurry. We march tomorrow."
"I can't be hurried, Leonidas. This is an intellectual game, and if
it's played properly it demands time. If I don't take your remaining
knight before tomorrow I'll take him a month from now, after this
campaign is over."
"I have my doubts, Hector; I've heard you boast before."
"I never boast, Leonidas. At times I make statements and prophecies,
but I trust that I'm too modest a man ever to boast."
"Then advance your battle line, Hector, and see what you can do. It's
your move."
The two gray heads bent so low over the narrow board that they almost
touched. For a little space the campaign, the war, and all their
hardships floated away from them, their minds absorbed thoroughly in
the difficult game which had come in the dim past out of the East.
They did not see anything around them nor did they hear Harry as he
approached them with the heavy sack of apples upon his back.
Harry's affection for both of the colonels was strong and as he looked
at them he realized more than ever their utter unworldliness. He,
although a youth, saw that they belonged to a passing era, but in their
very unworldliness lay their attraction. He knew that whatever the
fortunes of the war, they would, if they lived, prove good citizens
after its close. All rancor--no, not rancor, because they felt
none--rather all hostility would be buried on the battlefield, and the
friend whom they would be most anxious to see and welcome was John
Carrington, the great Northern artilleryman, who had done their cause
so much damage.
He opened his sack and let the red waterfall of apples pour down at
their feet. Startled by the noise, they looked up, despite a critical
situation on the board. Then they looked down again at the scarlet
heap upon the grass, and, powerful though the attractions of chess
were, they were very hungry men, and the shining little pyramid held
their gaze.
"Apples! apples, Harry!" said Colonel Talbot. "Many apples,
magnificent, red and ripe! Is it real?"
"No, Leonidas, it can't be real," said Lieutenant Colonel Hector St.
Hilaire. "It can't be possible in a country that Sheridan swept as
bare as the palm of my hand. It's only an idle dream, Leonidas. I was
deceived by it myself, for a moment, but we will not yield any longer
to such weakness. Come, we will return to our game, where every move
has now become vital."
"But it isn't a dream, sir! It's real!" exclaimed Harry joyfully. "We
found an abandoned orchard, and it was just filled with 'em. Help
yourselves!"
The colonels put away their chessmen, remembering well where every one
had stood, and fell on with the appetites of boys. Other officers, and
then soldiers who were made welcome, joined them. Harry and Dalton,
after having eaten their share, were walking along the slope of the
mountain, when they heard the sound of a shot. It seemed to come from
a dense thicket, and, as no Northern skirmishers could be near, their
curiosity caused them to rush forward. When they entered the thicket
they heard Langdon's voice raised in a shout of triumph.
"I got him! I got him!" he cried. Then they heard a heavy sliding
sound, as of something being dragged, and the young South Carolinian
appeared, pulling after him by its hind legs a fine hog which he had
shot through the head.
"It was fair game," he cried, as he saw his friends. "Piggy here was
masterless, roaming around the woods feeding on nuts until he was fat
and juicy! My, how good he will taste! At first I thought he was a
bear, but bear or hog he was bound to fall to my pistol!"
Langdon had indeed found a prize, and he had robbed no farmer to obtain
it. Harry and Dalton stood by for a half minute and gloated with him.
Then they helped him drag the hog into the cove, where the colonels
sat. A half dozen experts quickly dressed the animal, and the
Invincibles had a feast such as they had not tasted in a long time.
"Didn't I tell you," said Happy as he gazed contentedly into the coals
over which the hog had been roasted in sections, "that those who look
hard generally discover, that is, 'seek and ye shall find.' It's the
optimists who arrive. Your pessimist quits before he comes to the
apple trees, or before he reaches the thicket that conceals the fine
fat pig. As for me, I'm always an optimist, twenty-four carats fine,
and therefore I'm the superior of you fellows."
"You're happier than we are because you don't feel any sense of
responsibility," said Dalton. "I'd rather be unhappy than have an
empty head."
"Oh, it's just jealous you are, George Dalton. Born with a sour
disposition you can't bear to see me shedding joy and light about me."
Dalton laughed.
"It's true, Happy," he said. "You do help, and for that reason we
tolerate you, not because of your prowess in battle."
"Has anybody seen that fellow Slade again?" asked St. Clair.
"I'm thankful to say no," replied Harry. "He came out of the Southwest
promising big things, and he certainly does have great skill in the
forest, but our officers don't like his looks. Nor did I. If there
was ever a thorough villain I'm sure he's one. I've heard that he's
drawn off and is operating with a band of guerrillas in the mountains,
robbing and murdering, I suppose."
"And they say that a big ruffian from the Kentucky mountains with
another band has joined him," said Happy.
"What's his name?" asked Harry with sudden interest.
"Skelly, I think, Bill Skelly."
"Why, I know that fellow! He comes from the hills back of our town of
Pendleton, and he claimed to be on the Union side. He and his band
fired upon me at the very opening of the war."
"If you are not careful he'll be firing upon you again. He may have
started out as a Union man, but he's shifting around now, I fancy, to
suit his own plundering and robbing forces. We'll hear of their
operations later, and it won't be a pretty story."
They talked of many things, and after a while Harry and St. Clair were
sent with a message to the crest of Three Top Mountain, where the
Confederate signal station was located, and from which the Union
officers had taken the dispatch about the coming of Longstreet with a
strong force. Both were fully aware of the great movement contemplated
by Early and their minds now went back to march and battle.
The climb up the mountain was pleasant to such muscles and sinews as
theirs, and they stopped at intervals to look over the valley, now a
great desolation, until nature should come again with her healing
touch. Harry smothered a sigh as he recalled their early and wonderful
victories there, and the tremendous marches with the invincible
Stonewall. Old Jack, as he sat somewhere with Washington and Cromwell
and all the group of the mighty, must feel sad when he looked down upon
this, his beloved valley, now trodden into a ruin by the heel of the
invader.
He resolutely put down the choking in his throat, and would not let St.
Clair see his emotion. They reached the signal station, which at that
hour was in charge of a young officer named Mortimer, but little older
than themselves. They delivered to him their message and stood by,
while he talked with flags to another station on the opposite mountain.
Harry watched curiously although he could read none of the signals.
"This is our only newspaper and I can't read it," he said when Mortimer
had finished. "What's the news?"
"There's a lot of it, and it's heavy with importance," replied Mortimer.
"Tell us a bit of it, can't you?"
"Sheridan has left his army and gone north. That's one bit."
"What?"
"It's so. We know absolutely, and we've signaled it to General Early.
But we don't know why he has gone."
"That is important."
"It surely is, and he's taken his cavalry with him. Our men have seen
the troops riding northward. Since Sheridan went away, the Union
commander, whoever he is, has been strengthening his right, fearing an
attack there, since he learned of our reappearance in the valley."
"Therefore General Early will attack on the left?"
"Correct. You can see now the value of signal stations like ours. We
can look down upon the enemy and see his movements. Then we know what
to do."
"And what have they on their left?" asked Harry. "Do you know that,
too?"
"Of course. General Crook with two divisions is there. He has Cedar
Creek in front of him, and on his own left the north fork of the
Shenandoah. He's considerably in front of the main Union force, and
they haven't posted much of a picket line."
"I suppose they're relying upon the natural strength of the ground."
"That's it, I take it, but we may give them a surprise."
Harry and Dalton used their glasses and far to the north they saw dim
figures, not larger than toys. At first view they appeared to be
stationary, but, as the eyes became used to the distance, Harry knew
they were moving. Apparently they were infantry going toward the Union
right, where danger was feared, and he felt a grim satisfaction in
knowing that the real danger lay on their left. But could Early with
his small numbers, with the habit now of defeat, make any impression
upon the large Union armies flushed with victories?
Harry wondered if Dick was among those moving troops, but his second
thought told him it was not likely. They had learned from spies that
the Winchester regiment was mounted, and in all probability it was part
of the cavalry that had gone north with Sheridan. But he thought again
how strange it was that the two should have been face to face at the
Second Manassas, and then after a wide separation, involving so many
great battles and marches, should come here into the Valley of
Virginia, face to face once more.
Mortimer and his assistants presently began to manipulate the flags
again, and Confederate signalmen, on a far peak, replied. Harry and
St. Clair watched them with all the curiosity that a mystery inspires.
"Can we ask again," said Harry, when they had finished, "what you
fellows were saying?"
Mortimer laughed.
"It was a quick dialogue," he replied, "but it was intended for the
Yankees down in the valley, who, we learn, have deciphered some of our
signals. I said to Strother on the other peak: 'Six thousand?' He
replied: 'No, eight thousand!' I said: 'In center or on their right
flank?' He replied: 'On their right flank.' I said: 'Two thousand
fresh horses?' He replied: 'Nearer twenty-five hundred.' I said:
'Five hundred fresh beeves from the other side of the Blue Ridge.' He
replied: 'Great news, we need 'em!' I wish it was true, but it will
set our Yankee friends to thinking."
"I see. Your talk was meant to fool the Yankees."
"Yes, and we need to fool 'em as much as we can. It's a daring venture
that we're entering upon, but it's great luck for us to have Sheridan
away. It looks like a good omen to me."
"And to me, too. We used to say that Old Jack was an army corps, and
he was, two of them for that matter. Then Sheridan is worth at least
ten thousand men to the Yankees. Good-by, we'd like to see more of
your work with the flags, but down below they need Captain St. Clair,
who is a terrible fighter. We can't hope to beat the Yankees with St.
Clair away."
Mortimer smiled, waved them farewell, and, a few minutes later, was at
work once more with the flags. Meanwhile, Harry and St. Clair were
descending the mountain, pausing now and then to survey the valley with
their glasses, where they could yet mark the movements of the Northern
troops. When they reached the cove they found that the board and the
chess men were put away, and the two colonels were inspecting the
Invincibles to see that the last detail was done, while Early made
ready for his desperate venture.
Harry and his comrades were fully conscious that it was a forlorn hope.
They had been driven out of the valley once by superior numbers and
equipment, directed by a leader of great skill and energy, but now they
had come back to risk everything in a daring venture. The Union
forces, of course, knew of their presence in the old lines about
Fisher's Hill--Shepard alone was sufficient to warn them of it--but
they could scarcely expect an attack by a foe of small numbers, already
defeated several times.
Harry's thought of Shepard set him to surmising. The spy no longer
presented himself to his mind as a foe to be hated. Rather, he was an
official enemy whom he liked. He even remembered with a smile their
long duel when Lee was retreating from Gettysburg, and particularly
their adventure in the river. Would that duel between them be renewed?
Intuition told him that Shepard was in the valley, and if Sheridan was
worth ten thousand men the spy was worth at least a thousand.
The Invincibles were ready to the last man, and it did not require any
great counting to reach the last. Yet the two colonels, as they rode
before their scanty numbers, held themselves as proudly as ever, and
the hearts of their young officers, in spite of all the odds, began to
beat high with hope. The advance was to be made after dark, and their
pulses were leaping as the twilight came, and then the night.
The march of the Southern army to deal its lightning stroke was
prepared well, and, fortunately for it, a heavy fog came up late in the
night from the rivers and creeks of the valley to cover its movements
and hide the advancing columns from its foe. When Harry felt the damp
touch of the vapor on his face his hopes rose yet higher. He knew that
weather, fog, rain, snow and flooding rivers played a great part in the
fortunes of war. Might not the kindly fog, encircling them with its
protection, be a good omen?
"Chance favors us," he said to St. Clair and Langdon, as the fog grew
thicker and thicker, almost veiling their faces from one another.
"I told you that the optimists usually had their way," said Happy. "We
persisted and found that orchard of apples. We persisted and found
that fat porker. Now, I have been wishing for this fog, and I kept on
wishing for it until it came."
Harry laughed.
"You do make the best of things, Happy," he said.
The fog thickened yet more, but the Invincibles made their sure way
through it, the different portions of the army marching in perfect
coordination. Gordon led three divisions of infantry, supported by a
brigade of cavalry across the Shenandoah River and marched east of
Fisher's Hill. Then he went along the slope of the Massanuttons,
recrossed the river, and silently came in behind the left flank of the
Union force under Crook.
Early himself, with two divisions of infantry and all the artillery,
marched straight toward Cedar Creek, where he would await the sound of
firing to tell him that Gordon had completed his great circling
movement. Then he would push forward with all his might, and he and
Gordon appearing suddenly out of the fog and dark would strike sledge
hammer blows from different sides at the surprised Union army. It was
a conception worthy of Old Jack himself, although there was less
strength with which to deal the blows.
The Invincibles were with Early, and they arrived in position before
Cedar Creek long before Gordon could complete his wide flanking
movement. Both artillery and infantry were up, and there was nothing
for them to do but wait. The officers dismounted and naturally those
who led the Invincibles kept close together. The wait was long.
Midnight came, and then the hours after it passed one by one.
It was late in the year, the eighteenth of October, and the night was
chill. The heavy fog which hung low made it chillier. Harry as he
stood by his horse felt it cold and damp on his face, but it was a true
friend for all that. Whether Happy wishing for the fog had made it
come or not they could have found no better aid.
He could not see far, but out of the vapors came the sound of men
moving, because they were restless and could not help it. He heard too
the murmur of voices, and now and then the clank of a cannon, as it was
advanced a little. More time passed. It was the hour when it would be
nearly dawn on a clear day, and thousands of hearts leaped as the sound
of shots came from a distant point out of the fog.
CHAPTER XI
CEDAR CREEK
The Winchester Regiment and the rest of the cavalry returned to the
Union army, and, on the memorable night of the eighteenth of October,
they were north of Cedar Creek with the Eighth Corps, most of the men
being then comfortably asleep in tents. A courier had brought word to
General Wright that all was quiet in front, and the same word was sent
to Sheridan, who, returning, had come as far as Winchester where he
slept that night, expecting to rejoin his command the next day.
But there were men of lower rank than Wright and Sheridan who were
uneasy, and particularly so Sergeant Daniel Whitley, veteran of the
plains, and of Indian ambush and battle. None of the Winchester
officers had sought sleep either in the tents or elsewhere, and, in the
night, Dick stood beside the suspicious sergeant and peered into the
fog.
"I don't like it," said the veteran. "Fogs ain't to be taken lightly.
I wish this one hadn't come at this time. I'm generally scared of most
of the things I can't see."
"But what have we to be afraid of?" asked Dick. "We're here in strong
force, and the enemy is too weak to attack."
"The Johnnies are never too weak to attack. Rec'lect, too, that this
is their country, and they know every inch of it. I wish Mr. Shepard
was here."
"I think he was detailed for some scout duty off toward the Blue Ridge."
"I don't know who sent him, but I make bold to say, Mr. Mason, that he
could do a lot more good out there in the fog on the other side of
Cedar Creek, a-spyin' and a-spyin', a-lookin' and a-lookin',
a-listenin' and a-listenin'."
"And perhaps he would neither see nor hear anything"
"Maybe, sir, but if I may make bold again, I think you're wrong. Why,
I just fairly smell danger."
"It's the fog and your fear of it, sergeant."
"No, sir; it's not that. It's my five senses working all together and
telling me the truth."
"But the pickets have brought in no word."
"In this fog, pickets can't see more'n a few yards beyond their beats.
What time is it, Mr. Mason?"
"A little past one in the morning, sergeant."
"Enough of the night left yet for a lot of mischief. I'm glad, sir, if
I may make bold once more, that the Winchester men stay out of the
tents and keep awake."
Warner joined them, and reported that fresh messengers from the front
had given renewed assurances of quiet. Absolutely nothing was stirring
along Cedar Creek, but Sergeant Daniel Whitley was still dissatisfied.
"It's always where nothin' is stirrin' that most is doin', sir," he
said to Dick.
"You're epigrammatic, sergeant."
"I'm what, sir? I was never called that before."
"It doesn't depreciate you. It's a flattering adjective, but you've
set my own nerves to tingling and I don't feel like sleeping."
"It never hurts, sir, to watch in war, even when nothing happens. I
remember once when we were in a blizzard west of the Missouri, only a
hundred of us. It was in the country of the Northern Cheyennes, an' no
greater fighters ever lived than them red demons. We got into a kind
of dip, surrounded by trees, an' managed to build a fire. We was so
busy tryin' to keep from freezin' to death that we never gave a thought
to Indians, that is 'ceptin' one, the guide, Jim Palmer, who knowed
them Cheyennes, an' who kept dodgin' about in the blizzard, facin' the
icy blast an' the whirlin' snow, an' always lookin' an' listenin'. I
owe my life to him, an' so does every other one of the hundred. Shore
enough the Cheyennes come, ridin' right on the edge of the blizzard,
an' in all that terrible storm they tried to rush us. But we'd been
warned by Palmer an' we beat 'em off at last, though a lot of good men
bit the snow. I say again, sir, that you can't ever be too careful in
war. Do everything you can think of, and then think of some more. I
wish Mr. Shepard would come!"
They continued to walk back and forth, in front of the lines, and, at
times, they were accompanied by Colonel Winchester or Warner or
Pennington. The colonel fully shared the sergeant's anxieties. The
fact that most of the Union army was asleep in the tents alarmed him,
and the great fog added to his uneasiness. It came now in heavy drifts
like clouds sweeping down the valley, and he did not know what was in
the heart of it. The pickets had been sent far forward, but the vast
moving column of heavy whitish vapor hid everything from their eyes,
too, save a circle of a few yards about them.
Toward morning Dick, the colonel and the sergeant stood together,
trying to pierce the veil of vapor in front of them. The colonel did
not hesitate to speak his thought to the two.
"I wish that General Sheridan was here," he said.
"But he's at Winchester," said Dick. "He'll join us at noon."
"I wish he was here now, and I wish, too, that this fog would lift, and
the day would come. Hark, what was that?"
"It was a rifle shot, sir," said the sergeant.
"And there are more," exclaimed Dick. "Listen!"
There was a sudden crackle of firing, and in front of them pink dots
appeared through the fog.
"Here comes the Southern army!" said Sergeant Whitley.
Out of the fog rose a tremendous swelling cry from thousands of
throats, fierce, long-drawn, and full of menace. It was the rebel
yell, and from another point above the rising thunder of cannon and
rifles came the same yell in reply, like a signal. The surprise was
complete. Gordon had hurled himself upon the Union flank and at the
same moment Early, according to his plan, drove with all his might at
the center.
Dick was horrified, and, for a moment or two, the blood was ice in his
veins.
"Back!" cried Colonel Winchester to him and the sergeant, and then
after shouting, "Up men! Up!" he blew long and loud upon his whistle.
All of his men were on their feet in an instant, and they were first to
return the Southern fire, but it had little effect upon the torrent
that was now pouring down upon them. Other troops, so rudely aroused
from sleep, rushed from their tents, still dazed, and firing wildly in
the fog.
Again that terrible yell arose, more distinct than ever with menace and
triumph, and so great was the rush of the men in gray that they swept
everything before them, their rifles and cannon raking the Union camp
with a withering fire. The Winchesters, despite their quickness to
form in proper order, were driven back with the others, and the whole
corps, assailed with frightful force on the flank also, was compelled
continually to give ground, and to leave long rows of dead and wounded.
"Keep close to me!" shouted Colonel Winchester to his young officers,
and then he added to the sergeant, who stood beside him: "Whitley, you
were right!"
"I'm sorry to say I was, sir," replied the sergeant. "It was a great
ambush, and it's succeeding so far."
"But we must hold them! We must find some way to hold them!" cried the
colonel.
He said more, but it was lost in the tremendous uproar of the firing
and the shouting. All the officers were dismounted--their horses
already had been taken by the enemy--and now, waving their swords, they
walked up and down in front of the lines, seeking to encourage their
own troops. Despite the surprise and the attack from two sides, the men
in blue sustained their courage and made a stubborn fight.
Nevertheless the attack in both front and flank was fatal. Again and
again they sought to hold a position, but always they were driven from
it, leaving behind more dead and wounded and more prisoners.
Dick's heart sank. It was bitter to see a defeat, after so many
victories. Perhaps the fortunes of the South had not passed the zenith
after all! If Sheridan were defeated and driven from the valley, and
Lee's flank left protected, Grant might sit forever before him at
Petersburg and not be able to force his trenches. All these thoughts
and fears swept before him, vague, disconnected, and swift.
But he saw that Warner, Pennington and the colonel were still unhurt,
and that the Winchesters, despite their exposed position, had not
suffered as much loss as some of the other regiments. General Wright
in the absence of Sheridan retained his head, and formed a strong core
of resistance which, although it could not yet hold the ground, might
give promise of doing so, if help arrived.
Dawn came, driving the fog away, and casting a red glow over the field
of battle. The ground where the Union troops had slept the night
before was now left far behind, and the Southern army, full of fire and
the swell of victory, was pushing on with undiminished energy, its
whole front blazing with the rapid discharge of cannon and rifles.
The terrible retreat lasted a long time, and the whole Union army was
driven back a full five miles before it could make a permanent stand.
Then, far in the morning, the regiments reformed, held their ground,
and Dick, for the first time, took a long free breath.
"We've been defeated but not destroyed," he said.
"No, we haven't," said a voice beside him, "but the fact that the
Johnnies were so hungry has saved us a lot."
It was Shepard, who seemed to have risen from the ground.
"I've got back from places farther north," he said. "Chance kept me
away from here last night."
"What do you mean about the Southern hunger helping us?" asked Dick.
"I've been on the flank, and I saw that when they drove us out of our
camps the temptation was too great for many of their men. They
scattered, seizing our good food and devouring it. It was impossible
for their officers to restrain them. They've suffered losses too, and
they can drive us no farther."
Then Shepard spoke briefly with Colonel Winchester, and disappeared
again. The fire had now died somewhat and the banks of smoke were
rising, enabling Dick to see the field with a degree of clearness.
Union batteries and regiments were in line, but behind them a mass of
fugitives, who had not yet recovered from the surprise and who thought
the defeat complete, were pouring along the turnpike toward Winchester.
When Dick saw their numbers his fears were renewed. He believed that
if the Southern army could gather up all its forces and attack once
more it would win another success.
But while he looked at the long line of fire in front of them a sudden
roar of cheering rose from the Union ranks. It became a shout,
tremendous and thrilling. Dick turned in excitement and he was about
to ask what it meant, when he distinguished a name thundered again and
again:
"Sheridan! Sheridan! Sheridan!"
Then before them galloped their own Little Phil, seeming to bring
strength, courage and victory with him. His hat was thrown back, his
face flushed, and his eyes sparkling. Everywhere the men rallied to
his call and the shouts: "Sheridan! Sheridan!" rolled up and down.
The fugitives too came pouring back to swell the line of battle. Dick
caught the enthusiasm at once, and felt his own pulses leaping. He and
Pennington and Warner joined in the shouts: "Sheridan! Sheridan!" and
snatching off their caps waved them with all their vigor.
It was an amazing transformation. A beaten and dispirited army,
holding on from a sense of duty, suddenly became alive with zeal, and
asked only to be led against the enemy by the general they trusted.
One man alone had worked the miracle and as his enemies had truly said
his presence was worth ten thousand men.
His coming had been dramatic. He had spent the night quietly at
Winchester, but, early in the morning, he had heard the sounds of
firing which steadily grew louder. Apprehensive, he rode at once
toward the distant field, and, before he had gone two miles, he met the
first stragglers, bringing wild tales that the army had been routed,
and that the Southerners were hot on their heels. Sheridan rode
rapidly now. He met thicker streams of fugitives, but turned them back
toward the enemy, and when he finally came upon the field itself he
brought with him all the retreating regiments.
Dick never beheld a more thrilling and inspiring sight than that which
occurred when Sheridan galloped among them, swinging his hat in his
hand.
"What troops are these?" he had asked.
"The Sixth Corps!" hundreds of voices shouted in reply.
"We are all right! We'll win!" cried Sheridan.
And then, as he galloped along the line he added:
"Never mind, boys, we'll whip 'em yet! We'll whip 'em yet! We'll
sleep in their quarters tonight!"
The roar of cheering swept up and down the line again, and Sheridan and
his officers began to prepare the restored army for a new battle. All
the time the Union numbers swelled, and, as the Southern army was
hesitating, Sheridan was able to post his divisions as he pleased.
The Winchester regiment was drawn up towards the flank. All the
officers were still on foot, but they stood a little in front, ready to
lead their men into the new battle. It was now about noon, and there
was a pause in the combat, enabling the smoke to lift yet higher, and
disclosing the whole field. Sheridan was still riding up and down the
lines, cool, determined and resolved to turn defeat into victory.
Wherever he went he spoke words of encouragement to his troops, but all
the time his eye, which was the eye of a true general, swept the field.
He put the gallant young Custer with his cavalry on the right, Crook
and Merritt with their horse on the left, while the infantry were
massed in the center. The Winchester men were sent to the right.
The doubts in the ranks of the South helped Sheridan. Early after his
victory in the morning was surprised to see the Union army gather
itself together again and show such a formidable front. Neither he nor
his lieutenants could understand the sudden reversal, and the pause,
which at first had been meant merely to give the troops opportunity for
fresh breath, grew into a long delay. Here and there, skirmishers were
firing, feeling out one another, but the masses of the army paid no
attention to those scattered shots.
The Winchester men were elated. Colonel Winchester and the young
officers knew that delay worked steadily for them. All the defeated
troops of the morning were coming back into line, and now they were
anxious to retrieve their disaster. Dick, through his glasses, saw
that the Confederates so far from continuing the advance were now
fortifying behind stone fences and also were spreading across the
valley to keep from being flanked on either side by the cavalry. But
he saw too that their ranks were scanty. If they spread far enough to
protect their flanks they would become dangerously thin in the center.
He handed his glasses to the sergeant, and asked him to take a look.
"Their surprise," said Whitley, "has spent its force. Their army is
not big enough. Our general has seen it, and it's why he delays so
long. Time works for us, because we can gather together much greater
numbers than they have."
The delay lasted far into the afternoon. The smoke and dust settled,
and the October sun gleamed on cannon and bayonets. Dick's watch
showed that it was nearly four o'clock.
"We attack today surely," said Pennington, who was growing nervous with
impatience.
"Don't you worry, young man," said Warner. "The two armies are here in
line facing each other and as it would be too much trouble to arrange
it all again tomorrow the battle will be fought today. The whole
program will be carried out on time."
"I think," said Dick, "that the attack is very near, and that it's we
who are going to make it. Here is General Sheridan himself."
The general rode along the line just before the Winchesters and nodded
to them approvingly. He came so close that Dick saw the contraction of
his face, and his eager burning look, as if the great moment had
arrived. Suddenly, he raised his hand and the buglers blew the fierce
notes of the charge.
"Now we go!" cried Pennington in uncontrollable excitement, and the
whole right wing seemed to lift itself up bodily and rush forward. The
men, eager to avenge the losses of the morning, began to shout, and
their cheers mingled with the mighty tread of the charge, the thunder
of the cannon and the rapid firing of thousands of rifles. They knew,
too, that Sheridan's own eye was upon them, and it encouraged them to a
supreme effort.
Infantry and cavalry swept on together in an overwhelming mass. Cannon
and rifles sent a bitter hail upon them, but nothing could stop their
rush. Dick felt all his pulses beating heavily and he saw a sea of
fire before him, but his excitement was so intense that he forgot about
danger.
The center also swung into the charge and then the left. All the
divisions of the army, as arranged by Sheridan, moved in perfect time.
The soldiers advanced like veterans going from one victory to another,
instead of rallying from a defeat. The war had not witnessed another
instance of such a quick and powerful recovery.
Dick knew, as their charge gathered force at every step, that they were
going to certain triumph. The thinness of the Southern lines had
already told him that they could not withstand the impact of Sheridan.
A moment later the crash came and the whole Union force rushed to
victory. Early's army, exhausted by its efforts of the morning, was
overwhelmed. It was swept from the stone fences and driven back in
defeat, while the men in blue, growing more eager as they saw success
achieved, pressed harder and harder.
No need for bugle and command to urge them on now. The Southern army
could not withstand anywhere such ardor and such weight. Position
after position was lost, then there was no time to take a new stand,
and the defeat became a rout. Early's army which had come forward so
gallantly in the morning was compelled to flee in disorder in the
afternoon. The brave Ramseur, fighting desperately, fell mortally
wounded, Kershaw could save but a few men, Evans held a ford a little
while, but he too was soon hurled from it. The Invincibles were driven
on with the rest, cannon and wagons were lost, and all but the core of
Early's force ceased to exist.
The sun set upon the Union army in the camps that it had lost in the
fog of the morning. It had been driven five miles but had come back
again. It had recovered all its own guns, and had taken twenty-four
belonging to the South. It was the most complete victory that had yet
been won by either side in the war, and it had been snatched from the
very jaws of defeat and humiliation. Small wonder that there was great
rejoicing in the ranks of northern youth! Despite their immense
exertions and the commands of their officers they could not yet lie
down and sleep or rest. Now and then a tremendous cheer for Little Phil
who had saved them arose. Huge bonfires sprang up in the night, where
they were burning the captured Confederate ambulances and wagons,
because they did not have the horses with which to take them away.
Long after the battle was over, Dick's heart beat hard with exertion
and excitement. But he shared too in the joy. He would not have been
human, and he would not have been young if he had not. Warner and
Pennington and he had collected four more small wounds among them, but
they were so slight that they had not noticed them in the storm and
fury of the battle. Colonel Winchester had not been touched.
When Dick was at last able to sit still, he joined his comrades about
one of the fires, where they were serving supper to the victors.
Shepard had just galloped back from a long ride after the enemy to say
that they had been scattered to the winds, and that another surprise
was not possible, because there were no longer enough Southern soldiers
in the valley to make an army.
"They made a great effort," said Colonel Winchester. "We must give
them credit for what they achieved against numbers and resources. They
organized and carried out their surprise in a wonderful manner, and
perhaps they would be the victors tonight if we didn't have such a
general as Sheridan."
"It was a great sight," said Warner, "when he appeared, galloping
before our line, calling upon us to renew our courage and beat the
enemy."
"One man can influence an army. I've found out that," said Dick.
They rose and saluted as General Sheridan walked past with some of the
higher officers. He returned the salutes, congratulated them on their
courage and went on. After a long while the exhausted victors fell
asleep.
* * * *
That night a band of men, a hundred perhaps, entered the woods along
the slopes of the Massanuttons. They were the remains of the
Invincibles. Throughout those fatal hours they had fought with all the
courage and tenacity for which they had been famous so long and so
justly. In the heat and confusion of the combat they had been
separated from the other portions of Early's army, and, the Northern
cavalry driving in between, they had been compelled to take refuge in
the forest, under cover of darkness. They might have surrendered with
honor, but not one among them thought of such a thing. They had been
forced to leave their dead behind them, and of those who had withdrawn
about a third were wounded. But, their hurts bandaged by their
comrades, they limped on with the rest.
The two colonels were at the head of the sombre little column. It had
seemed to Harry Kenton as they left the field that each of them had
suddenly grown at least ten years older, but now as they passed within
the deep shadows they became erect again and their faces grew more
youthful. It was a marvelous transformation, but Harry read their
secret. All the rest of the Invincibles were lads, or but little more,
and they two middle-aged men felt that they were responsible for them.
In the face of defeat and irretrievable disaster they recovered their
courage, and refused to abandon hope.
"A dark sunset, Hector," said Colonel Talbot, "but a bright dawn will
come, even yet."
"Who can doubt it, Leonidas? We won a glorious victory over odds in
the morning, but when a million Yankees appeared on the field in the
afternoon it was too much."
"That's always the trouble, Hector. We are never able to finish our
victories, because so many of the enemy always come up before the work
is done."
"It's a great pity, Leonidas, that we didn't count the Yankees before
the war was started."
"It's too late now. Don't call up a sore subject, Hector. We've got
to take care of these lads of ours, and try to get them across the
mountain somehow to Lee. It's useless to seek Early and we couldn't
reach him if we tried. He's done for."
"Alas! It's true, Leonidas! We're through with the valley for this
autumn at least, and, since the organization of the army here is broken
up, there is nothing for us to do but go to Lee. Harry, is this a high
mountain?"
"Not so very high, sir," replied Harry Kenton, who was just behind him,
"but I don't think we can cross it tonight."
"Maybe we don't want to do so," said Colonel Talbot. "You boys have
food in your knapsacks, taken from the Union camps, which we held for a
few short and glorious hours. At least we have brought off those
valuable trophies, and, when we have climbed higher up the mountain
side, we will sup and rest."
The colonel held himself very erect, and spoke in a firm proud tone. He
would inspire a high spirit into the hearts of these boys of his, and
in doing so he inspired a great deal of it into his own. He looked
back at his column, which still limped bravely after him. It was too
dark for him to see the faces of the lads, but he knew that none of
them expressed despair.
"That's the way, my brave fellows," he said. "I know we'll find a warm
and comfortable cove higher up. We'll sleep there, and tomorrow we'll
start toward Lee. When we join him we'll whip Grant, come back here
and rout Sheridan and then go on and take Washington."
"Where I mean yet, sir, to sleep in the White House with my boots on,"
said the irrepressible Happy.
"You are a youth frivolous of speech, Thomas Langdon," said Colonel
Leonidas Talbot gravely, "but I have always known that beneath this
superficiality of manner was a brave and honest heart. I'm glad to see
that your courage is so high."
"Thank you, sir," said Happy sincerely.
Half way up the mountain they found the dip they wished, sheltered by
cedars and pines. Here they rested and ate, and from their covert saw
many lights burning in the valley. But they knew they were the lights
of the victorious foe, and they would not look that way often.
The October winds were cold, and they had lost their blankets, but the
dry leaves lay in heaps, and they raked them up for beds. The lads,
worn to the bone, fell asleep, and, after a while, only the two
colonels remained awake.
"I do not feel sleepy at all, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.
"I could not possibly sleep, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel St.
Hilaire.
"Then shall we?"
"Why not?"
Colonel Talbot produced from under his coat a small board, and
Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire took from under his own coat a small box.
They put the board upon a broad stone, arranged the chessmen, as they
were at the latest interruption, and, as the moonlight came through the
dwarfed pines and cedars, the two gray heads bent over the game.
CHAPTER XII
IN THE COVE
General Sheridan permitted the Winchester men to rest a long time, or
rather he ordered them to do so. No regiment had distinguished itself
more at Cedar Creek or in the previous battles, and it was best for it
to lie by a while, and recover its physical strength--strength of the
spirit it had never lost. It also gave a needed chance to the sixteen
slight wounds accumulated by Dick, Pennington and Warner to heal
perfectly.
"Unless something further happens," said Warner, regretfully, "I won't
have a single honorable scar to take back with me and show in Vermont."
"I'll have one slight, though honorable, scar, but I won't be able to
show it," said Pennington, also with regret.
"I trust that it's in front, Frank," said Dick.
"It is, all right. Don't worry about that. But what about you, Dick?"
"I had hopes of a place on my left arm just above the elbow. A bullet,
traveling at the rate of a million miles a minute, broke the skin there
and took a thin flake of flesh with it, but I'm so terribly healthy
it's healed up without leaving a trace."
"There's no hope for us," said Warner, sighing. "We can never point to
the proof of our warlike deeds. You didn't find your cousin among the
prisoners?"
"No, nor was he among their fallen whom we buried. Nor any of his
friends either. I'm quite sure that he escaped. My intuition tells me
so."
"It's not your intuition at all," said Warner reprovingly. "It's a
reasonable opinion, formed in your mind by antecedent conditions. You
call it intuition, because you don't take the trouble to discover the
circumstances that led to its production. It's only lazy minds that
fall back upon second sight, mind-reading and such things."
"Isn't he the big-word man?" said Pennington admiringly. "I tell you
what, George, General Early is still alive somewhere, and we're going
to send you to talk him to death. They say he's a splendid swearer,
one of the greatest that ever lived, but he won't be able to get out a
single cuss, with you standing before him, and spouting the whole
unabridged dictionary to him."
"At least when I talk I say something," replied Warner sternly. "It
seems strange to me, Frank Pennington, that your life on the plains,
where conditions, for the present at least, are hard, has permitted you
to have so much frivolity in your nature."
"It's not frivolity, George. It's a gay and bright spirit, in the rays
of which you may bask without price. It will do you good."
"Do you know what's to be our next duty?"
"No, I don't, and I'm not going to bother about it. I'll leave that
directly to Colonel Winchester, and indirectly to General Sheridan.
When you rest, put your mind at rest. Concentration on whatever you
are doing is the secret of continued success."
They were lying on blankets near the foot of the mountain, and the time
was late October. The days were growing cold and the nights colder,
but a fine big fire was blazing before them, and they rejoiced in the
warmth and brightness, shed from the flames and the heaps of glowing
coals.
"I'll venture the prediction," said Pennington, "that our next march is
not against an army, but against guerrillas. They say that up there in
the Alleghanies Slade and Skelly are doing a lot of harm. They may
have to be hunted out and the Winchester men have the best reputation
in the army for that sort of work. We earned it by our work against
these very fellows in Tennessee."
"For which most of the credit is due to Sergeant Whitley," said Dick.
"He's a grand trailer, and he can lead us with certainty, when other
regiments can't find the way."
Dick gazed westward beyond the dim blue line of the Alleghanies, and he
knew that he would feel no surprise if Pennington's prediction should
come true. The nest of difficult mountains was a good shelter for
outlaws, and the Winchesters, with the sergeant picking up the trail,
were the very men to hunt them.
He knew too that, unless the task was begun soon, it would prove a
supreme test of endurance, and there would be dangers in plenty. Snow
would be falling before long on the mountains, and they would become a
frozen wilderness, almost as wild and savage as they were before the
white man came.
But it seemed for a while that the intuition of both Dick and
Pennington had failed. They spent many days in the valley trying to
catch the evasive Mosby and his men, although they had little success.
Mosby's rangers knowing the country thoroughly made many daring raids,
although they could not become a serious menace.
When they returned through Winchester from the last of these
expeditions the Winchester men were wrapped in heavy army cloaks, for
the wind from the mountains could now cut through uniforms alone.
Dick, glancing toward the Alleghanies, saw a ribbon of white above
their blue line.
"Look, fellows! The first snow!" he said.
"I see," said Warner. "It snows on the just and the unjust, the unjust
being Slade and Skelly, who are surely up there."
"Just before we went out," sad Pennington, "the news of some fresh and
special atrocity of theirs came in. I'm thinking the time is near when
we'll be sent after them."
"We'll need snow shoes," said Warner, shivering as he looked. "I can
see that the snow is increasing. Which way is the wind blowing, Dick?"
"Toward us."
"Then we're likely to get a little of that snow. The clouds will blow
off the mountains and sprinkle us with flakes in the valley."
"I like winter in peace, but not in war," said Pennington. "It makes
campaigning hard. It's no fun marching at night in a driving storm of
snow or hail."
"But what we can't help we must stand," said Warner with resignation.
Both predictions, the one about the snow and the other concerning the
duty that would be assigned to them, quickly came to pass. Before
sunset the blue line of the Alleghanies was lost wholly in mist and
vapor. Then great flakes began to fall on the camp, and the young
officers were glad to find refuge in their tents.
It was not a heavy snow fall where they were, but it blew down at
intervals all through the night, and the next morning it lay upon the
ground to the depth of an inch or so. Then the second part of the
prophecy was justified. Colonel Winchester himself aroused all his
staff and heads of companies.
"A fine crisp winter morning for us to take a ride," he said
cheerfully. "General Sheridan has become vexed beyond endurance over
the doings of Slade and Skelly, and he has chosen his best band of
guerrilla-hunters to seek 'em out in their lairs and annihilate 'em."
"I knew it," groaned Pennington in an undertone to Dick. "I was as
certain of it as if I had read the order already." But aloud he said
as he saluted: "We're glad we're chosen for the honor, sir. I speak
for Mr. Mason, Mr. Warner and myself."
"I'm glad you're thankful," laughed the colonel. "A grateful and
resolute heart always prepares one for hardships, and we'll have plenty
of them over there in the high mountains, where the snow lies deep. But
we have new horses, furnished especially for this expedition, and
Sergeant Whitley and Mr. Shepard will guide us. The sergeant can hear
or see anything within a quarter of a mile of him, and Mr. Shepard,
being a native of the valley, knows also all the mountains that close
it in."
The young lieutenants were sincerely glad the sergeant and Shepard were
to go along, as with them they felt comparatively safe from ambush, a
danger to be dreaded where Slade and Skelly were concerned.
"We agreed that General Sheridan was worth ten thousand men," said
Warner, "and I believe that the battle of Cedar Creek proved it. Now
if Sheridan is worth ten thousand, the sergeant and Shepard are
certainly worth a thousand each. It's a simple algebraic problem which
I could demonstrate to you by the liberal use of x and y, but in your
case it's not necessary. You must accept my word for it."
"We'll do it! We'll do it! say no more!" exclaimed Pennington hastily.
It was a splendid column of men that rode out from the Union camp and
General Sheridan himself saw them off. Colonel Winchester at their
head was a man of fine face and figure, and he had never looked more
martial. The hardships of war had left no mark upon him. His face was
tanned a deep red by the winds of summer and winter, and although a
year or two over forty he seemed to be several years less. Behind him
came Dick, Pennington and Warner, hardy and well knit, who had passed
through the most terrible of all schools, three and a half years of
incessant war, and who although youths were nevertheless stronger and
more resourceful than most men.
Near them rode the sergeant, happy in his capacity as scout and guide,
and welcoming the responsibility that he knew would be his, as soon as
they reached the mountains, looming so near and white. He felt as if
he were back upon the plains, leading a troop in a great blizzard, and
guarding it with eye and ear and all his five senses against Sioux or
Cheyenne ambush. He was not a mere trainer of a squad of men, he was,
in a real sense, a leader of an army.
Shepard, the spy, also felt a great uplift of the spirits. He was a
man of high ideals, whose real nature the people about him were just
beginning to learn. He did not like his trade of a spy, but being
aware that he was peculiarly fitted for it intense patriotism had
caused him to accept its duties. Now he felt that most of his work in
such a capacity was over. He could freely ride with the other men and
fight openly as they did. But if emergency demanded that he renew his
secret service he would do so instantly and without hesitation.
Colonel Winchester looked back with pride at his column. Like most of
the regiments at that period of the war it was small, three hundred
sinewy well-mounted young men, who had endured every kind of hardship
and who could endure the like again. All of them were wrapped in heavy
overcoats over their uniforms, and they rode the best of horses,
animals that Colonel Winchester had been allowed to choose.
The colonel felt so good that he took out his little silver whistle,
and blew upon it a mellow hunting call. The column broke into a trot
and the snow flew behind the beating hoofs in a long white trail.
Spontaneously the men burst into a cheer, and the cold wind blowing
past them merely whipped their blood into high exaltation.
But as they rode across the valley Dick could not help feeling some
depression over its ruined and desolate appearance, worse now in winter
than in summer. No friendly smoke rose from any chimney, there were no
horses nor cattle in the fields, the rails of the fences had gone long
since to make fires for the soldiers and the roads rutted deep by the
rains had been untouched. Silence and loneliness were supreme
everywhere.
He was glad when they left it all behind, and entered the mountains
through a pass fairly broad and sufficient for horsemen. He did not
feel so much oppression here. It was natural for mountains to be
lonely and silent also, particularly in winter, and his spirits rose
again as they rode between the white ridges.
At the entrance to the pass a mountaineer named Reed met them. It was
he who had brought the news of the latest exploit by Slade and Skelly,
but he had returned quickly to warn some friends of his in the
foothills and was back again in time to meet the soldiers. He was a
long thin man of middle age, riding a large black mule. An immense
gray shawl was pinned about his shoulders, and woollen leggings came
high over his trousers. As he talked much he chewed tobacco
vigorously. But Dick saw at once that like many of the mountaineers he
was a shrewd man, and, despite lack of education, was able to look, see
and judge.
Reed glanced over the column, showed his teeth, yellowed by the
constant use of tobacco, and the glint of a smile appeared in his eyes.
"Look like good men. I couldn't hev picked 'em better myself,
colonel," he said, with the easy familiarity of the hills.
"They've been in many battles, and they've never failed," said the
colonel with some pride.
"You'll hev to do somethin' more than fight up thar on the high
ridges," said the mountaineer, showing his yellow teeth again. "You'll
hev to look out fur traps, snares an' ambushes. Slade an' Skelly ain't
soldiers that come out an' fight fa'r an' squar' in the open. No,
sirree, they're rattlesnakes, a pair uv 'em an' full uv p'ison. We've
got to find our rattlesnakes an' ketch 'em. Ef we don't, they'll be
stingin' jest the same after you've gone."
"That's just the way I look at it, Mr. Reed. Sergeant Whitley here is
a specialist in rattlesnakes. He used to hunt down and kill the big
bloated ones on the plains, and even the snow won't keep him from
tracing 'em to their dens here in the mountains."
Reed, after the custom of his kind, looked the sergeant up and down
with a frank stare.
"'Pears to be a good man," he said, "hefty in build an' quick in the
eye. Glad to know you, Mr. Whitley. You an' me may take part in a
shootin' bee together an' this old long-barreled firearm uv mine kin
give a good account uv herself."
He patted his rifle affectionately, a weapon of ancient type, with a
long slender barrel of blue steel, and a heavy carved stock. It was
just such a rifle as the frontiersmen used. Dick's mind, in an
instant, traveled back into the wilderness and he was once more with
the great hunters and scouts who fought for the fair land of
Kain-tuck-ee. His imagination was so vivid that it required only a
touch to stir it into life, and the aspect of the mountains, wild and
lonely and clothed in snow, heightened the illusion.
"I s'pose from what you tell us that you'll have the chance to use it,
Mr. Reed," said the sergeant.
"I reckon so," replied the mountaineer emphatically. "'Bout five miles
up this pass you'll come to a cove in which Jim Johnson's house stood.
Some uv them gorillers attacked it, three nights ago. Jim held 'em off
with his double-barreled shotgun, 'til his wife an' children could git
out the back way. Then he skedaddled hisself. They plundered the
house uv everythin' wuth carryin' off an' then they burned it plum' to
the groun'. Jim an' his people near froze to death on the mounting,
but they got at last to the cabin uv some uv their kin, whar they are
now. Then they've carried off all the hosses an' cattle they kin find
in the valleys an' besides robbin' everybody they've shot some good
men. Thar is shorely a good dose uv lead comin' to every feller in that
band."
The mountaineer's face for a moment contracted violently. Dick saw
that he was fairly burning for revenge. Among his people the code of
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth still prevailed,
unquestioned, and there would be no pity for the guerrilla who might
come under the muzzle of his rifle. But his feelings were shown only
for the moment. In another instant, he was a stoic like the Indians
whom he had displaced. After a little silence he added:
"That man Slade, who is the brains uv the outfit, is plum' devil. So
fur ez his doin's in these mountings are concerned he ain't human at
all. He hez no mercy fur nuthin' at no time."
His words found an echo in Dick's own mind. He remembered how
venomously Slade had hunted for his own life in the Southern marshes,
and chance, since then, had brought them into opposition more than
once. Just as Harry had felt that there was a long contest between
Shepard and himself, Dick felt that Slade and he were now to be pitted
in a long and mortal combat. But Shepard was a patriot, while Slade
was a demon, if ever a man was. If he were to have a particular enemy
he was willing that it should be Slade, as he could see in him no
redeeming quality that would cause him to stay his hand, if his own
chance came.
"Have you any idea where the guerrillas are camped now?" asked Colonel
Winchester.
"When we last heard uv 'em they wuz in Burton's Cove," replied the
mountaineer, "though uv course they may hev moved sence then. Still,
the snow may hev held 'em. It's a-layin' right deep on the mountings,
an' even the gorillers ain't so anxious to plough thar way through it."
"How long will it take us to reach Burton's Cove?"
"It's jest ez the weather sez, colonel. Ef the snow holds off we might
make it tomorrow afore dark, but ef the snow makes up its mind to come
tumblin' down ag'in, it's the day after that, fur shore."
"At any rate, another fall of snow is no harder for us than it is for
them," said the colonel, who showed the spirit of a true leader. "Now,
Mr. Reed, do you think we can find anybody on this road who will tell
us where the band has gone?"
"It ain't much uv a road an' thar ain't many people to ride on it in
the best uv times, so I reckon our chance uv meetin' a traveler who
knows much is jest about ez good as our chance uv findin' a peck uv
gold in the next snowdrift."
"Which means there's no chance at all."
"I reckon that's 'bout the size uv it. But, colonel, we don't hev to
look to the road fur the word."
"What do you mean?"
"We'll turn our eyes upward, to the mounting heights. Some uv us who
are jest bound to save the Union are settin' up on top uv high ridges,
whar that p'ison band can't go, waitin' to tell us whar _we_ ought to
go. They've got some home-made flags, an' they'll wave 'em to me."
"Mr. Reed, you're a man of foresight and perception."
"Foresight? I know what that is. It's the opposite uv hindsight, but
I ain't made the acquaintance uv perception."
"Perception is what you see after you think, and I know that you're a
man who thinks."
"Thank you, colonel, but I reckon that in sech a war ez this a man hez
jest got to set right plum' down, an' think sometimes. It's naterally
forced upon him. Them that starts a war mebbe don't do much thinkin',
but them that fights it hev to do a power uv it."
"Your logic is sound, Mr. Reed."
"I hev a pow'ful good eye, colonel, an' I think I see a man on top uv
that high ridge to the right. But my eye ain't ez good ez your
glasses, an' would you min' takin' a look through 'em? Foller a line
from that little bunch of cedars to the crest."
"Yes, it's a man. I can see him quite plainly. He has a big, gray
shawl like your own, wrapped around his shoulders. Perhaps he's one of
your friends."
"I reckon so, but sence he ain't makin' no signs he ain't got nuthin'
to tell. It wuz agreed that them that didn't know nuthin' wuz to keep
it to theirselves while we rode on until we come to them that did. It
saves time. Now he's gone, ain't he, colonel?"
"Yes, something has come in between."
"It's the first thin edge uv the mist. Them's clouds out thar in the
northwest, floatin' over the mountings. I'm sorry, colonel, but more
snow is comin'. The signs is too plain. Look through that gap an' see
what big brown clouds are sailin' up! They're just chock full uv
millions uv millions uv tons uv snow!"
"You know your own country and its winter ways, Mr. Reed. How long
will it be before the snow comes?"
"Lend me your glasses a minute, colonel."
He examined the clouds a long time through the powerful lenses, and
when he handed them back he replied:
"Them clouds are movin' up in a hurry, colonel. They hev saw us here
ridin' into the mountings, an' they want to pour their snow down on us
afore we git whar we want to go."
Colonel Winchester looked anxious.
"I don't like it," he said. "It doesn't suit cavalry to be plunging
around in snowdrifts."
"You're right, colonel. Deep snow is shorely hard on hosses. It looks
ez ef we'd be holed up. B'ars an' catamounts, how them clouds are
a-trottin' 'cross the sky! Here come the fust flakes an' they look ez
big ez feathers!"
The colonel's anxiety deepened, turning rapidly to alarm.
"You spoke of our being holed up, Mr. Reed, what did you mean by it?"
he asked.
"Shet in by the snow. But I know a place, colonel, that we kin reach,
an' whar we kin stay ef the snow gits too deep fur us. These mountings
are full uv little valleys an' coves. They say the Alleghanies run
more than a thousand miles one way an' mebbe three hundred or so
another. I reckon that when the Lord made 'em, an' looked at His job,
he wondered how He wuz goin' to hev people live in sech a mass uv
mountings. Then He took His fingers an' pressed 'em down into the
ground lots an' lots uv times, an' He made all sorts of purty valleys
an' ravines through which the rivers an' creeks an' branches could run,
an' snug little coves in which men could build thar cabins an' be
sheltered by the big cliffs above an' the forest hangin' on 'em. I
reckon that He favored us up here, 'cause the mountings jest suit me.
Nuthin' on earth could drive me out uv 'em."
He looked up at the lofty ridges hidden now and then by the whirling
snow, and his eyes glistened. It was a stern and wild scene, but he
knew that it made the snug cove and the log cabins all the snugger.
The flakes were increasing now, and an evil wind was driving them hard
in the men's faces. The wind, as it came through the gorges, had many
voices, too, howling and shrieking in wrath. The young troopers were
devoutly grateful for the heavy overcoats and gloves with which a
thoughtful general had provided them.
But there was one man in the regiment to whom wind and snow brought a
certain pleasure. It took Sergeant Whitley back to earlier days. He
was riding once more with his command over the great plains, and the
foe they sought was a Cheyenne or Sioux band. Here, they needed him
and his wilderness lore, and he felt that a full use for them all would
come.
The mountaineer now led them on rapidly, but the snow was increasing
with equal rapidity. Fortunately, the road through the pass was level
enough to provide good footing for the horses, and they proceeded
without fear of falls. Soon the entire column turned into a white
procession. Men and horses alike were covered with snow, but, after
their first chill, the hardy young riders began to like it. They sang
one of their marching songs, and the colonel made no effort to restrain
them, knowing that it was raising their spirits.
"It's all rather picturesque," said Warner, when the song was over,
"but it'll be a good thing when Reed leads us into one of those
heavenly coves that he talks so much about. I think this snow is going
to be about forty feet deep, and it will be hard for a column of three
hundred men to proceed by means of tunnels."
The mountaineer riding by the side of Colonel Winchester was looking
eagerly, whenever a break in the clouds occurred. At length, he asked
him for the glasses again and, after looking intently, said:
"Jest between the edges uv two clouds I caught a glimpse uv a man, an'
he wuz wavin' a flag, which wuz a sheet from his own bed. It would be
Jake Hening, 'cause that wuz his place, an' he told me to go straight
on to the cove, ez they wuz now expectin' us thar!"
"Who is expecting us?"
"Friends uv ours. People 'roun' here in the mountings who want to see
you make hash uv them gorillers. I reckon they're fixin' things to
keep you warm. We oughter see another man an' his sheet afore long.
Thar would be no trouble 'bout it, ef this snow wuzn't so thick."
As they advanced farther into the mountains the noise of the wind
increased. Confined in the gorges it roared in anger to get out, and
then whistled and shrieked as it blew along the slopes. The snow did
not cease to fall. The road had long since been covered up, but Reed
led them on with sure eye and instinct.
An hour later he was able to detect another figure on the crest of a
ridge, this time to their left, and he observed the waving of the
signal with great satisfaction.
"It's all right," he said to Colonel Winchester. "They're waitin' for
us in the cove, not many uv 'em, uv course, but they'll help."
"Have we much more riding?" asked the colonel. "I don't think the men
are suffering, but our horses can't stand it much longer."
"Not more'n an hour."
They passed soon between high cliffs, and faced a fierce wind which
almost blinded them for the time, but, when they emerged they found
better shelter and, presently, Reed led them off the main road, then
through another narrow gorge and into the cove. They had passed around
a curving wall of the mountain and, as it burst upon them suddenly, the
spectacle was all the more pleasant.
Before them, like a sunken garden, lay a space of twenty or thirty
acres, hemmed in by the high mountains, which seemed fairly to overhang
its level spaces. A small creek flowed down from a ravine on one side,
and dashed out of a ravine on the other. Splendid oaks, elms and
maples grew in parts of the valley, and there was an orchard and a
garden, but the greater part of it was cleared, and so well protected
by the lofty mountains that most of the snow seemed to blow over it.
In the snuggest corner of the cove stood a stout double log cabin and,
in the open space around, great fires were roaring and sending up lofty
flames, a welcome sight to the stiff and cold horsemen. Fully twenty
mountaineers, long and lank like Reed, were gathered around them, and
were feeding them constantly.
"What's this I see?" exclaimed Warner. "A little section of heaven?"
"Not heaven, perhaps," said Dick, "but the next door to it."
"This wuz Dick Snyder's home an' place, colonel," said Reed. "On
account uv the gorillers he found it convenient to light out with his
folks three or four days ago, but he's come back hisself, an' he's here
to he'p welcome you. Thar's room in the house, an' the stable, which
you can't see 'cause uv the trees, fur all the officers, an' they're
buildin' lean-tos here to protect the soldiers an' the hosses. A lot
uv the fellers hev brought forage down on thar own hosses fur yourn."
"Mr. Reed," said the colonel, gratefully, "you and your men are true
friends. But there's no danger of an ambush here?"
"Nary a chance, colonel. We've got watchers on the mountings, men that
hev lived here all thar lives, an' them gorillers hev about ez much
chance to steal up on us ez the snowflakes hev to live in the fires
thar."
"That being so, we'll all alight and prepare for the night."
When Dick sprang from his horse he staggered at first, not realizing
how much the cold had affected him, but a little vigorous flexing of
the muscles restored the circulation, and, when an orderly had taken
their mounts, his comrades and he went to one of the fires, where they
spread out their hands and basked in the glow.
They had brought food on extra horses, and expert cooks were at work at
once. Colonel Winchester knew that if his men had plenty to eat and
good shelter they would be better fitted for the fierce work before
them, and he spared nothing. Bacon and ham were soon frying on the
coals and the pots of coffee were bubbling.
The horses were put behind the high trees which formed a kind of
windrow, and there they ate their forage, and raised their heads now
and then to neigh in content. Around the fires the hardy youths were
jesting with one another, and were dragging up logs, on which they
could sit before the fires, while they ate their food and drank their
coffee. Far over their heads the wind was screaming among the ridges,
but they did not heed it nor did they pay any attention to the flakes
falling around them. The sheltered cove caused such a rebound after the
long cold ride that they were boys again, although veterans of a
hundred battles large and small.
Dick shared the exaltation of the rest, and had words of praise for the
mountaineer who had guided them to so sheltered a haven. He had no
doubt that his famous ancestor, Paul Cotter, and the great Henry Ware
had often found refuge in such cosy nooks as this, and it pleased him
to think that he was following in their steps. But he was surrounded
by comrades and the great fires shed warmth and light throughout the
whole basin.
"It's a good log house," said Warner, who had been investigating, "and
as it's two stories, with two rooms on each floor, a lot of us can
sleep there. The stable and the corn crib will hold many more, but, as
for me, I think I'll sleep against one of these lean-tos the
mountaineers are throwing up. With that behind me, a big fire before
me, two heavy blankets around me, and dead leaves under me, I ought to
fare well. It will at least have better air than those sod houses in
which some of the best families of Nebraska live, Frank Pennington."
"Never mind about the sod houses," rejoined Pennington, cheerfully.
"They're mighty good places in a blizzard. But I think I'll stay
outside too, if Colonel Winchester will let us."
The colonel soon disposed his force. The younger officers were to
sleep before a fire as they wished, although about half way between
midnight and morning they were to join the watch, which he intended to
be strong and vigilant. Meanwhile they ate supper and their spirits
were so high that they almost made a festival of it. The aroma of the
ham and bacon, broiled in the winter open, would have made a jaded
epicure hungry. They had sardines and oysters, in tins, and plenty of
coffee, with army biscuits which were not hard to them. Some of them
wanted to sing, but the colonel would not allow it in the cove,
although they could chatter as much as they pleased around the fires.
"We don't need to sing," said Dick. "The wind is doing it for us. Just
listen to it, will you?"
All the mountain winds were blowing that night, coming from every
direction, and then circling swiftly in vast whirlwinds, while the
ridges and peaks and gorges made them sing their songs in many keys.
Now it was a shriek, then a whistle, and then a deep full tone like an
organ. Blended, it had a majestic effect which was not lost on the
young soldiers.
"I've heard it in the Green Mountains," said Warner, "but not under
such conditions as we have here. I'm glad I have so much company. I
think it would give me the creeps to be in the cove alone, with that
storm howling over my head."
"Not to mention Slade and Skelly hunting through the snowdrifts for
you," said Pennington. "They'd take a good long look for you, George,
knowing what a tremendous fellow you are, and then Dick and I would be
compelled to take the trouble and danger of rescuing you."
"I hold you to that," said Warner. "You do hereby promise and solemnly
pledge yourselves in case of my capture by Slade, Skelly or anybody
else, to come at once through any hardship and danger to my rescue."
"We do," they said together, and they meant it.
Their situation was uncommon, and their pleasure in it deepened. The
snow still fell, but the lean-tos, built with so much skill by soldiers
and mountaineers, protected them, and the fires before them sank to
great beds of gleaming coals that gave out a grateful warmth. Far
overhead the wind still shrieked and howled, as if in anger because it
could not get at them in the deep cleft. But for Dick all these
shrieks and howls were transformed into a soothing song by his feeling
of comfort, even of luxury. The cove was full of warmth and light and
he basked in it.
Pennington and Warner fell asleep, but Dick lay a while in a happy,
dreaming state. He felt as he looked up at the cloudy sky and driving
snow that, after all, there was something wild in every man that no
amount of civilization could drive out. An ordinary bed and an
ordinary roof would be just as warm and better sheltered, but they
seldom gave him the same sense of physical pleasure that he felt as he
lay there with the storm driving by.
His dreamy state deepened, and with it the wilderness effect which the
little valley, the high mountains around it and the raging winter made.
His mind traveled far back once more and he easily imagined himself his
great ancestor, Paul Cotter, sleeping in the woods with his comrades
and hidden from Indian attack. While the feeling was still strong upon
him he too fell asleep, and he did not awaken until it was time for him
to take the watch with Pennington and Warner.
It was then about two o'clock in the morning, and the snow had ceased
to fall, but it lay deep in all places not sheltered, while the wind
had heaped it up many feet in all the gorges and ravines of the
mountains. Dick thought he had never beheld a more majestic world. All
the clouds were gone and hosts of stars glittered in a sky of brilliant
blue. On every side of them rose the lofty peaks and ridges, clothed in
gleaming white, the forests themselves a vast, white tracery. The air
was cold but pure and stimulating. The wind had ceased to blow, but
from far points came the faint swish of sliding snow.
Dick folded his blankets, laid them away carefully, put on his heavy
overcoat and gloves, and was ready. Colonel Winchester maintained a
heavy watch, knowing its need, fully fifty men, rifle on shoulder and
pistol at belt, patrolling all the ways by which a foe could come.
Dick and his comrades were with a picket at the farther end of the
valley, where the creek made its exit, rushing through a narrow and
winding gorge. There was a level space on either side of the creek,
but it was too narrow for horsemen, and, clogged as it was with snow,
it looked dangerous now for those on foot too. Nevertheless, the
picket kept a close watch. Dick and his friends were aware that
guerrillas knew much of the craft and lore of the wilderness, else they
could never have maintained themselves, and they did not cease for an
instant to watch the watery pass.
They were joined very soon by Shepard, upon whose high boots snow was
clinging to the very tops, and he said when Dick looked at him
inquiringly:
"I see that you're an observer, Mr. Mason. Yes, I've been out on the
mountainside. Colonel Winchester suggested it, and I was glad to do as
he wished. It was difficult work in the snow, but Mr. Reed, our guide,
was with me part of the time, and we climbed pretty high."
"Did you see anything?"
"No footsteps. That was impossible, because of the falling snow, but I
think our friends, the enemy, are abroad in the mountains. The heavy
snow may have kept them from coming much nearer to us than they are
now."
"What makes you think so?"
Shepard smiled.
"We heard sounds, odd sounds," he replied.
"Were they made by a whistle?" Dick asked eagerly. Shepard smiled
again.
"It was natural for you to ask that question, Mr. Mason," he replied,
"but it was not a whistle. It was a deeper note, and it carried much
farther, many times farther. Mr. Reed explained it to me. Somebody
with powerful lungs was blowing on a cow's horn."
"I've heard 'em. They use 'em in the hills back of us at home. The
sound will carry a tremendous distance on a still night like this. Do
you think it was intended as a signal?"
"It's impossible to say, but I think so. I think, too, that the
bands--there were two of them, one replying to the other--belong to the
Slade and Skelly outfit. Skelly has lived all his life in the
mountains and Slade is learning 'em fast."
"Then it behooves us to be watchful, and yet more watchful."
"It does. Maybe they're attempting an ambush, with which they might
succeed against an ordinary troop, but not against such a troop as
this, led by such a man as Colonel Winchester. Hark, did you hear that
noise?"
All of them listened. It sounded at first like the cow's horn, but
they concluded that it was the rumble, made by sliding snow, which
would be sending avalanches down the slopes all through the night.
"Are you going out again, Mr. Shepard?" Dick asked.
"I think not, sir. Colonel Winchester wants me to stay here, and, even
if the enemy should come, we'll be ready for him."
They did not speak again for a while and they heard several times the
noise of the sliding snow. Then they heard a note, low and deep, which
they were sure was that of the cow's horn, or its echo. It was
multiplied and repeated, however, so much by the gorges that it was
impossible to tell from what point of the compass it came.
But it struck upon Dick's ears like a signal of alarm, and he and all
the others of the picket stiffened to attention.
CHAPTER XIII
DICK'S GREAT EXPLOIT
It was a singular and weird sound, the blowing of the great cow's horn
on the mountain, and then the distant reply from another horn as great.
It was both significant and sinister, such an extraordinary note that,
despite Dick's experience and courage, his hair lifted a little. He
was compelled to look back at the camp and the coals of the fire yet
glowing to reassure himself that everything was normal and real.
"I wish there wasn't so much snow," said Shepard, "then the sergeant,
Mr. Reed and myself could scout all over the country around here,
mountains or no mountains."
They were joined at that moment by Reed, the long mountaineer, who had
also been listening to the big horns.
"That means them gorillers, shore," he said. "We've got some p'ison
people uv our own, an' when the gorillers come in here they j'ined 'em,
and knowin' ev'ry inch uv the country, they kin guide the gorillers
wharever they please."
"You agree then with Mr. Shepard that these signals are made by Slade
and Skelly's men?" asked Dick.
"Shorely," replied the mountaineer, "an' I think they're up to some
sort uv trick. It pesters me too, 'cause I can't guess it nohow. I
done told the colonel that we'd better look out."
Colonel Winchester joined them as he was speaking, and listened to the
double signal which was repeated later. But it did not come again,
although they waited some time. Instead they heard, as they had heard
all through the night, the occasional swish of the soft snow sliding
down the slopes. But Dick saw that the colonel was uneasy, and that
his apprehensions were shared both by Shepard and the mountaineer.
"Do you know how many men these brigands have?" Colonel Winchester
asked of Reed.
"I reckon thar are five hundred uv them gorillers," replied the
mountaineer. "Some uv our people spied on 'em in Burton's Cove an'
counted 'bout that number."
Colonel Winchester glanced at his sleeping camp.
"I have three hundred," he said, "but they're the very flower of our
youth. In the open they could take care of a thousand guerrillas and
have something to spare. Still in here--"
He stopped short, but the shrewd mountaineer read his meaning.
"In the mountings it ain't sech plain sailin'," he said, "an' you've
got to watch fur tricks. I reckon that when it comes to fightin' here,
it's somethin' like the old Injun days."
"I can't see how they can get at us here," said Colonel Winchester,
more to himself than to the others. "A dozen men could hold the exit
by the creek, and fifty could hold the entrance."
Despite his words, his uneasiness continued and he sent for the
sergeant, upon whose knowledge and instincts he relied greatly in such
a situation. The sergeant, who had been watching at the other end of
the valley, came quickly and, when the colonel looked at him with eyes
of inquiry, he said promptly:
"Yes, sir; I think there's mischief a-foot. I can't rightly make out
where it's going to be started, but I can hear it, smell it an' feel
it. It's like waitin' in a dip on the prairies for a rush by the wild
Sioux or Cheyenne horsemen. The signs seem to come through the air."
Dick's oppression increased. A mysterious danger was the worst of all,
and his nerves were on edge. Think as he might, he could not conceive
how or where the attack would be made. The only sound in the valley
was the occasional stamp of the horses in the woods and behind the
windrows. The soldiers themselves made no noise. The steps of the
sentinels were softened in the snow, and the fires, having sunk to beds
of coals, gave forth no crackling sounds.
He stared down the gap, and then up at the white world of walls
circling them about. The sky seemed to have become a more dazzling
blue than ever, and the great stars with the hosts of their smaller
brethren around them gleamed and quivered. The stamp of a horse came
again, and then a loud shrill neigh, a piercing sound and full of
menace in the still night.
"What was that?" exclaimed the sergeant in alarm. "A horse does not
neigh at such a time without good reason!"
And then the storm broke loose in the valley. There was a series of
short, fierce shouts. Torches were suddenly waved in the air. Many
horses neighed in the wildest terror and, all of them breaking through
the forest and windrows, poured in a confused and frightened stream
toward the entrance of the valley.
Then the experience of the sergeant in wild Indian warfare was worth
more than gold and diamonds. He knew at once what was occurring and he
shouted:
"It's a stampede! There have been traitors here, and they've driven
the horses with fire!"
"And maybe some of them have managed to slip down the mountain side!"
said Shepard.
It was well for them all that they were men of decision and supreme
courage. The terrible tumult in the valley was increasing. The
horses, a stampeded mass, were driving directly for the entrance. Only
one thing could stop them and that the guards then did. They snatched
many burning brands from the nearest fire and waved them furiously in
the face of the frightened herd, which turned and ran back the other
way, only to be confronted by other waving brands that filled them with
terror. Then the horses, instinctively following some leader, turned
again and ran back to their old places among the trees and behind the
windrows, where they stood, quivering with terror.
A crackling of rifles had begun before the horses were driven back, and
bullets pattered in the valley. Dark figures appeared crouched against
the slopes, and jets of fire ran like a red ribbon upon the white of
the snow.
"The gorillers!" cried Reed. "They've crep' over the ridges, spite uv
all our watchin'."
Colonel Winchester did not lose his head for an instant, nor did any of
his young soldiers, who had been trained to think as well as obey.
Without waiting for orders they had already won an important victory by
turning the horses back with fire, and the colonel, with the help of
his officers, formed them rapidly to meet the attack. The house, the
stable and the corn crib were filled with sharpshooters and others lay
down among the trees or behind any shelter they could find. A number
were detailed rapidly to tether the horses, and make them secure
against a second fright. Warner was sent to the men guarding the
entrance, Pennington to those at the exit, while Dick was kept with the
colonel, who crouched, after his arrangements were made, in a little
clump of trees near the center of the valley.
Colonel Winchester was willing enough to risk his life but knowing that
it was of the highest importance now to preserve it he did not take any
risks through false pride. Besides Dick he kept Reed, Shepard and the
sergeant with him.
The ring of fire on the slopes had been increasing fast, and the
assailants found much shelter there among the dwarf pines and cedars.
Bullets were pattering all over the valley. Several of the Winchesters
had been slain in the early firing, and they lay where they had fallen.
Others were wounded, but they bound up their own hurts and used their
rifles, whenever they could pick out a figure on the slopes.
"You spoke of traitors, Mr. Reed," said the colonel. "Did you know
well all the men who came to help in the preparations for us?"
"All but two," replied the mountaineer. "One was named Leonard and the
other Bosley. They come from the other side uv the mounting with some
uv the boys an' we thought they wuz all right, but I reckon they must
be the traitors, an' I reckon too they must hev helped some uv the
gorillers into the camp. I ain't seed a sign uv either sence them
hosses wuz headed back. I guess we wuz took in, an' I'm pow'ful sorry,
colonel."
"You're not to blame, Mr. Reed. It's not always possible to guard
against treachery, but since we've defeated their attempt to stampede
our horses we'll defeat all other efforts of theirs."
"Colonel, would you mind lendin' me them glasses uv yourn fur a look?
The night's so bright I guess I kin use 'em nigh ez well ez in the day."
"Certainly you can have them, Mr. Reed. Here they are."
The mountaineer took a long look through them, and when he handed them
back he uttered a clucking sound, significant of satisfaction.
"I 'lowed it was him, when I saw him crawlin' behind that bush," he
said, "an' now I know."
"Who is who?" said Dick.
"It's that feller Bosley what came with the rest uv the boys. I know
that gray comfort what's tied 'roun' his neck, an' the 'coonskin cap
what's on his head. He jest crawled behind that little twisted pine up
thar, an' took a pot shot at some uv us down here."
"I wish I could reach him," said Shepard.
"Ef you could I wouldn't let you," said the mountaineer grimly.
"Why?"
"'Cause he's my meat. He come here with my people, an' played a trick
on us, a trick that might hev wiped out all uv Colonel Winchester's
men. No man kin do that with me an git away. He's piled up a pow'ful
big score an' I'm goin' to settle it myself."
"How?"
"See this rifle uv mine? I reckon it ain't got all the fancy tricks
that some uv the new repeatin' breech-loadin' rifles hev. It's jest a
cap an' ball rifle, but it's got a long, straight barrel an' a delicate
trigger, an' it sends a bullet wherever you p'int it. It's killed
squirrels, an' rabbits, an' wil' turkeys an' catamounts, an' b'ars, an'
now I reckon it's goin' to hunt higher game."
The man was talking very quietly, but when Dick caught the light in his
eye he knew that he meant every word. It was a cold, implacable look,
and the face of the mountaineer was like that of an avenging fate.
"I loaded it with uncommon care," he continued, looking affectionately
at his rifle, and then looking up again, "an' now that the colonel's
glasses hev showed the way I kin see that feller peepin' from roun' his
bush, tryin' to git another shot, mebbe at me an' mebbe at you. It's a
long carry, but I'm shore to hit. I had a chance at him then, but I
'low to wait a little!"
"Why do you wait?" asked Dick curiously.
"I'm givin' him time to say his prayers."
"Why, he doesn't know that you're going to shoot at him, and he
wouldn't pray, even if he did."
"Mebbe not, but I was raised right, an' I know my duty. I ain't goin'
to send no man to kingdom without givin' him _time_ to pray. Ef he
won't use it the blame is his'n, but that ain't no reason why I
oughtn't to give him the _time_."
"How long?"
"Wa'al, I reckon 'bout three minutes is 'nough fur a right good prayer.
Thar, he's shot ag'in, but I don't know whar his bullet went. He's
usin' up his prayin' time fast."
Reed never altered his quiet, assured tone. He reminded Dick of
Warner, talking about his algebra, and the lad was impressed so much by
his manner that he believed he was going to do as he said. He began
unconsciously to count the seconds.
"Time's up," said Reed at length, "an' that traitor is pokin' his head
'roun' fur another shot."
He raised suddenly his long-barreled rifle, took a quick aim, and
pulled the trigger. A stream of fire poured from the muzzle, the
figure of a man leaped from the bush and then rolled down the snowy
slope.
"I give him plenty uv time," said Reed as he reloaded. "Now I reckon
I'll look fur that other feller, Leonard. I'll know him when I see
him, an' this old cap-an'-ball rifle uv mine knows too how to talk to
traitors."
Dick left presently with a message to a captain who was in command of
the force detached to hold the entrance to the valley. He ran part of
the way in the shelter of the trees and crept the rest, reaching the
captain in safety. Warner was there also, and the fire upon them from
the slopes was hot.
"There has been no attempt to force the gate-way here," said Warner.
"Since they failed with the horses they wouldn't dare try it. Besides,
our sharpshooters are doing execution. Those in the upper story of the
house have an especially good chance. Look at the black dots in the
snow high up on the slopes. Those are dead guerrillas. There, two men
fell! Perhaps if they had known the kind of regiment it was they were
coming after they wouldn't have been in such a hurry to attack us."
He spoke with pride, but Dick felt some chagrin.
"That's true," he said, "though I don't like our regiment to be
besieged here by a lot of guerrillas. It's an ignominy. It's not
enough for us to hold our own against 'em, because they're the people
we came to get, and we ought to get 'em."
"I dare say the colonel thinks as you do and he's already planning how
to do it. This is a smart little battle, as it is. Those
sharpshooters of ours in the houses are certainly making it warm for
the enemy!"
The firing was now very fast, and, as long as the brilliancy of the
night remained unobscured, much of it was deadly, but a great amount of
smoke gathered, and, as it rose, it formed a cloud. The showers of
bullets then decreased in volume and a comparative lull came. But the
men of Slade and Skelly could yet be seen on the crests and slopes, and
there was no indication that they would draw off.
Dick made his way back to Colonel Winchester, who was still in the
clump of trees, a central point, from which he could direct the
defense. The colonel, as Dick clearly saw, felt chagrin. While they
had prevented the stampede of the horses, and were holding off Slade
and Skelly, the roles which he had intended for the forces to play were
reversed. They had come forth to destroy the guerrillas, and now they
had to fight hard to keep the guerrillas from destroying them. Despite
their shelter, about fifteen of the Winchester men had been slain, and
perhaps twenty-five wounded, a loss over which the colonel grieved.
Doubtless as many of the guerrillas had fallen or had been hurt, but
that was a poor consolation.
It was obvious too that Slade and Skelly were handling their forces
with much skill, utilizing for shelter every bush and dwarfed tree on
the slopes, and never exposing themselves, except for a moment or two.
Had there not been so many sharpshooters among the Winchester men they
might have escaped almost without any damage, but for some of the
deadly riflemen in the valley a single glimpse was enough.
Nevertheless Colonel Winchester's dissatisfaction remained. He felt
that a force such as his, which had come forth to do so much, should do
it, and he ransacked his brain for a plan.
"Mr. Reed," he said to the mountaineer, who had remained with him, "do
you think we could send a detachment through the pass down the stream
and take them in the rear? That is, this force might climb the slopes
behind them, and attack from above?"
The mountaineer chewed his tobacco thoughtfully, looked up at the
ridges, and then at the gorge down which they could hear the waters of
the little creek rushing.
"It's a big risk," he replied, "but I 'low it kin be done, though
you'll hev to pick your men, colonel. You let me be guide and be shore
to send the sergeant, 'cause he's a full fo'-hoss team all by hisself.
An' Mr. Shepard ought to go along too. All the others ought to be
youngsters, an' spose you let Mr. Mason here lead 'em."
Colonel Winchester did not resent at all these suggestions, which he
knew to be excellent, and, while at first, for personal reasons of his
own, he hesitated about sending Dick on so perilous an errand, he knew
that he was better fitted for it than any other young officer in his
command, and so he chose him. The plan, too, appealed to him strongly.
He had taken lessons from the grand tactics of Lee and Jackson. Lee
would keep up a great demonstration in front, while Jackson, circling
in silence, would strike a tremendous and deadly blow on the flank.
The longer he thought about it the more he was pleased with it. If the
flanking force could cut through the gorge the prospect of success was
good, and fortunately the night had turned darker, the snow clouds
reappearing.
The colonel picked one hundred and fifty of his best men, with Shepard,
Reed and Whitley to guide, and Dick to lead them. Warner and
Pennington protested when they were not allowed to go, but the colonel
quieted them with the assurance that they would soon have plenty of
dangerous work to do in the valley. To Dick he said gravely:
"Before now you've nearly always been a staff officer and messenger,
and this is the most important command you've ever held. I know you'll
acquit yourself well, but trust a lot to your guides."
"I will, sir," said Dick earnestly. He felt the full weight of his
responsibility, but his courage rose to meet it. It was the largest
task yet confided to him, and he was resolved to make it a success. He
noticed also that fortune, as if determined to help the brave, was
already giving him aid. More stars were withdrawing into the void, and
the clouds were increasing. The night had grown much darker, and a few
flakes of snow wandered lazily down, messengers of the multitude that
might follow.
The increasing dusk did not diminish the activity of the brigands on
the slopes. It was obvious that they had an unlimited supply of
ammunition, as they sent an unbroken stream of bullets into the valley,
and pink dots ran like ribbons around its entire snowy rim. But in the
valley itself all the fires had been put out, and it was fairly dark
there, enabling Dick's command to gather unseen by the enemy.
"Now, Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "I trust you. Go, and may luck
go with you."
He led his men away, the three guides by his side, and they used every
particle of cover they could find, in order that the movement might
remain invisible until the last possible moment. They hugged the
fringe of forest, and when they reached the gorge he felt sure they
were still unseen, although it was only the easy part of their task
that had yet been done. But the lazy flakes had increased in number,
and the canopy of cloud was still being drawn across the heavens. He
gave the word to his men to be as silent as possible, not to let any
weapon rattle or fall, and then they entered the gorge in two files
separated by the creek, the narrow ledges affording room for only one
man on either side.
Dick kept his outward calm, but the great pulses in his throat and
temples were beating hard. Reed was just ahead of him, and on the
other side of the creek the sergeant led, with Shepard following.
Large flakes of snow fell on his face and melted there, but they were
welcome messengers, telling him that the cloak for the movement would
not only remain, but would increase in extent.
After the first curve the stream took a sharp descent, but the land on
either side widened a little, permitting two to walk abreast. The
valley and the slopes encircling it were now entirely shut out from
their view, but they heard the crackling of the rifles in greater
volume than ever. Colonel Winchester, true to Lee and Jackson's plan of
grand tactics, had opened an extremely heavy fire on the enemy, as soon
as his flanking column had disappeared in the gorge.
"I 'low the signs are good," whispered Reed. "Them that lay an ambush
sometimes git laid in an ambush theirselves. I felt pow'ful bad at
bein' held in a trap here in my own mountings by them gorillers, but
mebbe we'll do some trap-layin' uv our own."
"I feel sure of it," said Dick. "Look! the stream ahead of us is lined
with bushes which will afford concealment for our march, and the slopes
beyond are covered with scrub forest."
"Like ez not the gorillers come that way, an' when we circle about we
kin foller in thar tracks."
Dick felt that fortune was showering her favors upon him. The last
star was now gone, and the entire sky was veiled. The big flakes of
snow were falling fast enough to help their concealment, but not fast
enough to impede their movements. A mile down the gorge and they
halted, still unseen by the enemy, due doubtless to the heavy firing in
the valley which was engrossing all the attention of the guerrillas.
They could hear it very distinctly where they were, and they were quite
sure that it would not permit Slade and Skelly to detach any part of
their force for purposes of observation. So Dick gave orders for his
men to turn and begin the ascent of the slope, under shelter of the
scrub forest of cedars. They were to go in a column four abreast,
carefully treading in the tracks of one another, in order that they
might not start a slide of snow.
Dick's pulses beat hard, until they reached the shelter of the cedars,
but no lurking guerrilla or posted sentinel saw them and they drew into
the forest in silence and unobserved. Here they paused a few minutes
and listened to the heavy rifle fire in the valley.
"It looks like a success, sir," said Shepard. "If we catch 'em between
two fires victory is surely ours."
"Besides beatin' 'em, thar's one thing I hope fur," said Reed. "Ef
that traitor Leonard hasn't fell already I'm prayin' that I git a look
at him. My old cap-an'-ball rifle here is jest ez true ez ever."
The mountaineer's eyes glittered again, and Dick did not feel that
Leonard's fate was in any doubt. But there was little time for talk,
as the column began the march again and pressed on under cover of the
cedars until they came without interruption and triumphantly to the
very crest of the slope. The firing was still distinctly audible here,
and the other half of the army was undoubtedly keeping the guerrillas
busy.
On the summit Dick gave his men another brief breathing spell, and then
they began their advance toward the battle. He threw in advance the
best of the sharpshooters and scouts, including Whitley, Shepard and
Reed, and then followed swiftly with the others. Half the distance and
a man behind a tree saw them, shouted, fired and ran toward the
guerrillas.
Dick, knowing that concealment was no longer possible, cried to his men
to rush forward at full speed. A light, scattering fire met them. Two
or three were wounded but none fell, and the entire column swept on at
as much speed as the deep snow would allow, sending in shot after shot
from their own rifles at the guerrillas clustered along the crests and
slopes. The light was sufficient for them to take aim, and as they
were sharpshooters the fire was accurate and deadly.
Their shout of victory rose and swelled, and the mountain gave it back
in many echoes. Dick, feeling his responsibility, managed to keep
cool, but he continually shouted to his men to press on, knowing how
full advantage should be taken of a surprise. But they needed no
urging. Aflame with fire and zeal they charged upon the guerrillas,
pulling the trigger as fast as they could slip in the cartridges, and
Slade and Skelly, despite all their cunning and quickness, were unable
to make a stand against them.
A great shout came up from the valley. The moment Colonel Winchester
heard the fire on the flank he knew that his plan, executed with skill
by one of his lieutenants, was a success, and, gathering up his own
force, he crept up the slopes, his men sending their fire into the
guerrillas, who were already breaking.
Dick's troop was doing great damage. The guerrillas in their rovings
and robberies had never before faced such a fire and they fell fast,
the deep snow making flight difficult. Reed, who was at Dick's side,
suddenly uttered a cry.
"I see him! I see him!" he shouted.
The long-barreled cap-and-ball rifle leaped to his shoulder, and when
the stream of fire gushed from the muzzle, Leonard, the mountaineer,
fell in the snow and would never betray anybody else. Most of the
guerrillas were now fleeing in panic, and Dick heard the shrill,
piercing notes of Slade's whistle as he tried to draw his men off in
order. For a moment or two he forgot his duties as a leader as, pistol
in hand, he looked for the little man under the enormous slouch hat.
Once more the feeling seized him that it was a long duel between Slade
and himself that must end in the death of one or the other, and he
meant to end it now. Despite the fierce notes of the whistle, coming
from one point and then another, he did not see him. He caught a
glimpse of the gigantic form of Skelly, but he too was soon gone, and
then when he felt the restraining hand of Shepard upon his arm he came
out of his rage.
"Look there!" cried Shepard.
About a score of the guerrillas had been cut off from their comrades
and were driven toward the valley, where they remained on its edge,
crouched down, and firing. The deep snow in which they knelt was
quivering. Dick shouted to his men to draw back. Then the huge bank of
snow gave way and slid down the slope, carrying the guerrillas, and
gathering volume and force as it went. A terrified shouting came from
the thick of it, as the avalanche hurled itself into the valley, where
the bruised and broken guerrillas were taken prisoners without
resistance.
Dick, after one glance at their fate, continued the pursuit of the main
band down the other slope. He knew that they were robbers and
murderers, and he felt little scruple. His sharpshooters fairly mowed
them down as they fled in terror, but all who threw up their hands or
signified otherwise that they wished to surrender were spared.
Still bearing in mind that it was their duty not merely to scatter but
to destroy, he urged on the pursuit continually, and Shepard and the
sergeant aided him. They gave Slade and Skelly no time to reform their
men, driving them from every clump of trees, when they attempted it,
and continually reducing their numbers.
The rout was complete, and Dick's heart beat high with triumph, because
he knew that his force had been the striking arm. They were nearly at
the foot of the far side of the mountain, when he saw Slade among the
bushes. He shouted to him to surrender, but the outlaw, suddenly
aiming a pistol, fired pointblank at the young lieutenant's face. Dick
felt the bullet grazing his head, and he raised his own pistol to fire,
but Slade was gone, and, although they trailed him a long distance in
the snow, they did not find him.
CHAPTER XIV
THE MOUNTAIN SHARPSHOOTER
Colonel Winchester's own mellow whistle finally recalled his men, as he
did not wish them to become scattered among the mountains in pursuit of
detached guerrillas. Although the escape of both Slade and Skelly was
a great disappointment the victory nevertheless was complete. The two
leaders could not rally the brigand force again, because it had ceased
to exist. Nearly half, caught between the jaws of the Union vise, had
fallen, and most of the others were taken. Perhaps not more than fifty
had got away, and they would be lucky if they were not captured by the
mountaineers.
Dick's head was bound up hastily but skillfully by Sergeant Whitley and
Shepard. Slade's bullet had merely cut under the hair a little, and
the bandage stopped the flow of blood. The sting, too, left, or in his
triumph he did not notice it. His elation, in truth, was great, as he
had succeeded in carrying out the hardest part of a difficult and
delicate operation.
As he led his men back toward the valley, their prisoners driven before
them, he felt no weariness from his great exertions, and both his head
and his feet were light. At the rim of the valley Colonel Winchester
met him, shook his hand with great heartiness, and congratulated him on
his success, and Warner and Pennington, who were wholly without envy,
added their own praise.
"I think it will be Captain Mason before long," said Warner. "Lots of
boys under twenty are captains and some are colonels. Your right to
promotion is a mathematical certainty, and I can demonstrate it with
numerous formulae from the little algebra which even now is in the
inside pocket of my tunic."
"Don't draw the algebra!" exclaimed Pennington. "We take your word for
it, of course."
"I shouldn't want to be a captain," said Dick sincerely, "unless you
fellows became captains too."
Further talk was interrupted by the necessity for care in making the
steep descent into the valley, where the fires were blazing anew from
the fresh wood which the young soldiers in their triumph had thrown
upon the coals. Nor did Colonel Winchester and his senior officers
make any effort to restrain them, knowing that a little exultation was
good for youth, after deeds well done.
It was still snowing lazily, but the flames from a dozen big fires
filled the valley with light and warmth and illuminated the sullen
faces of the captives. They were a sinister lot, arrayed in faded
Union or Confederate uniforms, the refuse of highland and lowland,
gathered together for robbery and murder, under the protecting shadow
of war. Their hair was long and unkempt, their faces unshaven and
dirty, and they watched their captors with the restless, evasive eyes
of guilt. They were herded in the center of the valley, and Colonel
Winchester did not hesitate to bind the arms of the most evil looking.
"What are you going to do with us?" asked one bold, black-browed
villain.
"I'm going to take you to General Sheridan," replied the colonel. "I'm
glad I don't have the responsibility of deciding your fate, but I think
it very likely that he'll hang some of you, and that all of you richly
deserve it."
The man muttered savage oaths under his breath and the colonel added:
"Meanwhile you'll be surrounded by at least fifty guards with rifles of
the latest style, rifles that they can shoot very fast, and they are
instructed to use them if you make the slightest sign of an attempt to
escape. I warn you that they will obey with eagerness."
The man ceased his mutterings and he and the other captives cowered by
the fire, as if their blood had suddenly grown so thin that they must
almost touch the coals to secure warmth. Then Colonel Winchester
ordered the cooks to prepare food and coffee again for his troopers,
who had done so well, while a surgeon, with amateur but competent
assistants, attended to the hurt.
While they ate and drank and basked in the heat, the mountaineer, Reed,
came again to Colonel Winchester. Dick, who was standing by, observed
his air of deep satisfaction, and he wondered again at the curious
mixture of mountain character, its strong religious strain, mingled
with its merciless hatred of a foe. He knew that much of Reed's great
content came from his slaying of the two traitors, but he did not feel
that he had a right, at such a time, to question the man's motives and
actions.
"Colonel," said Reed, "it's lucky that my men brought along plenty of
axes, an' that your men ez well ez mine know how to use 'em."
"Why so, Mr. Reed?"
"'Cause it's growin' warmer."
"But that doesn't hurt us. We're certainly not asking for more cold."
"It will hurt us, ef we don't take some shelter ag'in it. It's snowin'
now, colonel, an' ef it gits a little warmer it'll turn to rain, an' it
kin rain pow'ful hard in these mountings."
"Thank you for calling my attention to it, Mr. Reed. I can't afford to
have the troops soaked by winter rains. Not knowing what we had to
expect in the mountains I fortunately ordered about twenty of my own
men to bring axes at their saddlebows. We'll put 'em all at work."
In a few minutes thirty good axmen were cutting down trees, saplings
and bushes, and more than a hundred others were strengthening the
lean-tos, thatching roofs, and making rude but serviceable floors.
Dick, owing to his slight wound, but much against his wish, was ordered
into the house, where he spread his blankets near a window, although he
could not yet sleep, all the heat of the battle and pursuit not yet
having left him. His nerves still tingling with excitement, he stood at
the window and looked out.
He saw the great fire blazing and many persons passing and repassing
before the red glow. He saw the captives crouching together, and the
red gleam on the bayonets of the men who guarded them. He saw Warner
and Pendleton go into one of the lean-tos, and he saw Colonel
Winchester, accompanied by Shepard and the sergeant, go down the valley
toward the exit.
After a while the prisoners moved to the lean-tos, and then everybody
took shelter. The crackle of the big fires changed to a hiss, and more
smoke arose from them. The reason was obvious. The big flakes of snow
had ceased to fall, and big drops of rain were falling in their place.
Reed had been a true prophet, and he had not given his warning too soon.
The rain increased. Dick heard it driving on the window panes and
beating on the roof. All the fires in the valley were out now, and
rising mists and vapors hid nearly everything. The faint, sliding
sound of more snow-falls precipitated by the rain came to his ears. He
realized suddenly how fine a thing it was to be inside four walls, and
with it came a great feeling of comfort. It was the same feeling that
he had known often in childhood, when he lay in his bed and heard the
storm beat against the house.
There were others in the room--the floor was almost covered with
them--but all of them were asleep already, and Dick, wrapping himself
in his blanket, joined them, the last thing that he remembered being
the swish of the rain against the glass. He slept heavily and was not
awakened until nearly noon, when he saw through the window a world
entirely changed. The rain had melted only a portion of the snow, and
when it ceased after sunrise the day had turned much colder, freezing
every thing hard and tight. The surface of valley, slopes and ridges
was covered with a thick armor of ice, smooth as glass, and giving back
the rays of a brilliant sun in colors as vivid and varied as those of a
rainbow. Every tree and bush, to the last little twig, was sheathed
also in silver, and along the slopes the forests of dwarfed cedar and
pines were a vast field of delicate and complex tracery.
It was a glittering and beautiful world, but cold and merciless. Dick
saw at once that the whole force, captors and captured, was shut in for
the time. It was impossible for horses to advance over a field of ice,
and it was too difficult even for men to be considered seriously. There
was nothing to do but remain in the valley until circumstances allowed
them to move, and reflection told him they would not lose much by it.
They had done the errand on which they were sent, and there was little
work left in the great valley itself.
The big fires had been lighted again, the cove furnishing wood enough
for many days, and within its limited area they brought back glow and
cheeriness. Dick went outside and found all the men in high spirits.
They expected to be held there until a thaw came, but there would be no
difficulty, except to obtain forage for the horses, which they must dig
from under the snow, or which some of the surest footed mountaineers
must bring over the ridge. He heard that Colonel Winchester was
already making arrangements with Reed, and he was too light-hearted to
bother himself any more about it.
Warner and Pennington saluted him with bows as a coming captain, and
declared that he looked extremely interesting with a white bandage
around his head.
"It's merely to prevent bleeding," said Dick. "The bullet didn't
really hurt me, and it won't leave a scar under the hair."
"Then since you're not even an invalid," said Pennington, "come on and
take your bath. The boys have broken the ice for a long distance on
the creek and all of us early risers have gone there for a plunge, and
a short swim. It'll do you a world of good, Dick, but don't stay in
too long."
"Not over a half hour," said Warner.
"O, a quarter of an hour will be long enough," said Pennington, "but
I'd advise you to rub yourself down thoroughly, Dick."
"I'll do just as you did," laughed Dick.
"And what's that?"
"I'll go to the edge of the creek, look at it, and shiver when I see
how cold its waters are. Then I'll kneel down on the bank, bathe my
face, and come away."
"You've estimated him correctly, Dick," said Warner, "but you don't
have to shiver as much as Frank did."
The cold bath, although it was confined to the face only, made his
blood leap and sparkle. He was not a coming captain but a boy again,
and he began to think about pleasant ways of passing the time while the
ice held them. After his breakfast he joined Colonel Winchester, who
debated the question further with a group of officers. But there was
only one conclusion to which they could come, and that had presented
itself already to Dick's mind, namely, to wait as patiently as they
could for a thaw, while Shepard, the sergeant and two or three others
made their way on foot into the Shenandoah valley to inform Sheridan of
what had transpired.
The messengers departed as soon as the conference closed, and the
little army was left to pass the time as it chose in the cove. But
time did not weigh heavily upon the young troops. As it grew colder
and colder they added to the walls and roofs of their improvised
shelters. There was scarcely a man among them who had not been bred to
the ax, and the forest in the valley rang continually with their
skillful strokes. Then the logs were notched and in a day or two rude
but real cabins were raised, in which they slept, dry and warm.
The fires outside were never permitted to die down, the flames always
leaped up from great beds of coals, and warmth and the comforts that
follow were diffused everywhere. The lads, when they were not working
on the houses, mended their saddles and bridles or their clothes, and
when they had nothing else to do they sang war songs or the sentimental
ballads of home. It was a fine place for singing--Warner described the
acoustics of the valley as perfect--and the ridges and gorges gave back
the greatest series of echoes any of them had ever heard.
"If this place didn't have a name already," said Pennington, "I'd call
it Echo Cove, and the echoes are flattering, too. Whenever George
sings his voice always comes back in highly improved tones, something
that we can stand very well."
"My voice may not be as mellow as Mario's," said Warner calmly, "but my
technique is perfect. Music is chiefly an affair of mathematics, as
everybody knows, or at least it is eighty per cent, the rest being
voice, a mere gift of birth. So, as I am unassailable in mathematics,
I'm a much better singer than the common and vulgar lot who merely have
voice."
"That being the case," said Pennington, "you should sing for yourself
only and admire your own wonderful technique."
"I never sing unless I'm asked to do so," said Warner, with his old
invincible calm, "and then the competent few who have made an
exhaustive study of this most complex science appreciate my
achievement. As I said, I should consider it a mark of cheapness if I
pleased the low, vulgar and common herd."
"With that iron face and satisfied mind of yours you ought to go far,
George," said Pennington.
"Everything is arranged already. I will go far," said Warner in even
tones.
"I wonder what's happening outside in the big valley," said Dick.
"Whatever it is it's happening without us," said Warner. "But I fancy
that General Sheridan will be more uneasy about us than we are about
him. We know what we have done, that our task is finished, but for all
he knows we may have been trapped and destroyed."
"But Shepard or the sergeant will get through to him."
"Not for three or four days anyhow. Not even men on foot can travel
fast on a glassy sheet of ice. Every time I look at it on the mountain
it seems to grow smoother. If I were standing on top of that ridge and
were to slip I'd come like a catapult clear into the camp."
"Nothing could tempt me to go up there now," said Dick.
"Maybe not, nor me either, but as I live somebody is on top of that
ridge now."
Dick's eyes followed his pointing finger, saw a black dot on the utmost
summit, and then he snatched up his glasses.
"It's Slade, his very self!" he exclaimed in excitement. "I'd know
that hat anywhere. Now, how under the sun did he come there!"
"It's more important to know why he has come," said Warner, using his
own glasses. "I see him clearly and there is no doubt that it's the
same robber, traitor and assassin who, unfortunately, escaped when we
shot his horde to pieces."
"He has a rifle with him, and as sure as we live he's sitting down on
the ice, and picking out a target here in the valley."
"A risky business for Slade. Shooting upward we can take better aim at
him than he can at us."
There was a great stir in the valley, as others saw the figure on the
mountain and read Slade's intentions. Fifty men sprang to their feet
and seized their rifles. But the guerrilla moved swiftly along the
knife-edge of the ridge, obviously sure of his footing, and before any
of them could fire, dropped down behind a little group of cedars.
Every stem and bough was cased in a sheath of silver mail, but they hid
him well. Dick, with his glasses, could not discern a single outline
of the man behind the glittering tracery.
But as they looked, a head of red appeared suddenly in the silver,
smoke floated away, and a bullet knocked up the ice near them. They
scattered in lively fashion, and from shelter watched the silver bush.
A second bullet came from its foliage and wounded slightly a man who
was carrying wood to one of the fires. But the annoying sharpshooter
remained invisible.
"He's lying down on the ice like a Sioux or Cheyenne in a gully," said
Pennington.
"Maybe he has a gully in the ice," said Dick, "and he can crouch here
and shoot at us all day, almost in perfect safety."
But Colonel Winchester appeared and ordered a score of the men, with
the heaviest rifles, to shoot away the entire clump of cedars. They
did it with a method and a regard for mathematics that filled Warner's
soul with delight, firing in turn and planting their bullets in a line
along the front of the clump, cutting down everything like a mower with
a scythe.
Dick with the glasses saw the ice fly into the air in a silver spray as
bush after bush fell. Presently they were all cut away by that stream
of heavy bullets, but no human being was disclosed.
"He's just gone over the other side of the ridge," said Warner in
disgust, "and is waiting there until we finish. We couldn't shoot
through a mountain, even if we had one of our biggest cannon here.
He'll find another clump of bushes soon and be potting us from it."
"But we can shoot that away too," said Dick hopefully.
"We can't shoot down all the forests on the mountain. He must have
heavy hobnails, or, like the mountaineers, he has drawn thick yarn
socks over his boots, else he couldn't scoot about on the ice the way
he does."
"Ah, there goes his rifle, behind the clump of bushes to the right of
the one that we shot away!"
A second man was wounded by the bullet, and then an extraordinary siege
ensued, a siege of three hundred men by a single sharpshooter on top of
a mountain as smooth as glass. Whenever they shot his refuge away he
moved to another, and, while they were shooting at it he had nothing to
do but drop down a few feet on the far side of the ridge and remain in
entire safety until he chose another ambush.
"I suppose this was visited upon us because we were puffed up with
pride over our exploits," said Pennington, "but it's an awful jolt to
us to have the whole Winchester regiment penned up here and driven to
hiding by a single brigand."
"It's not a jolt," said Warner, "it's a tragedy. Unless we get him we
can never live it down. We may win another Gettysburg all by
ourselves, but history and also the voice of legend and ironic song
will tell first of the time when Slade, the outlaw, held us all in the
cove at the muzzle of his rifle."
Colonel Winchester, although he did not show it, raged the most of them
all. The great taunt would be for him rather than his young officers
and troopers, and the blood burned in his veins as he watched the
operations of the sharpshooter on the ridges. One of his men had been
killed, three had been wounded, and all of them were compelled to seek
shelter for their lives as none knew where Slade's bullet would strike
next. In his perplexity he called in Reed, the mountaineer, who
fortunately was in camp, and he suggested that they send out a group of
men through the entrance, who might stalk him from the far side in the
same way that they had crushed his band.
"But how are they to climb on the smooth ice?" asked the colonel.
"Wrap the feet uv the men in blankets, an' let 'em use their bayonets
for a grip in the ice," replied the mountaineer, "an' ef you don't
mind, colonel, I'd like to go along with the party. Mebbe I'd git a
shot at that big hat uv Slade's."
The idea appealed to the colonel, especially as none other offered, and
Warner, to his great delight, received command of the party detailed
for the difficult and dangerous duty. Several of the coarsest and
heaviest blankets were cut up, and the feet of the men were wrapped in
them in such manner that they would not slip on the ice, although
retaining full freedom of movement. They tried their "snow shoes"
behind the house, where they were sheltered from Slade's bullets, and
found that they could make good speed over the ice.
"Now be careful, Warner," said Colonel Winchester. "Remember that your
party also may present a fair target to him, and we don't wish to lose
another man."
"I'll use every precaution possible, sir," replied Warner, "and I thank
you for giving me this responsibility."
Then keeping to the shelter of trees he led his men out through the
pass, and the soul of Warner, despite his calm exterior, was aflame.
Dick had achieved his great task with success, and, in the lesser one,
he wished to do as well. It was not jealousy of his comrade, but
emulation, and also a desire to meet his own exacting standards. As he
disappeared with his picked sharpshooters and turned the shoulder of
the mountain his blood was still hot, but his Vermont head was as cool
as the ice upon which he trod.
Warner heard the distant reports of Slade's rifle, and also the crackle
of the firing in reply. He knew the colonel would keep Slade so busy
that he was not likely to notice the flank movement, and he pressed
forward with all the energy of himself and his men. The heavy cloth
around their shoes gave them a secure foothold until they reached the
steeper slopes, and there, in accordance with Reed's suggestion, they
used their bayonets as alpenstocks.
A third of the way up the slope, and they reached one of the clumps of
cedars, into which they crawled. Although a glittering network of
silver it was a cold covert, but they lay on the ice there and watched
for Slade's next shot. They heard it a minute later, and then saw him
behind a pine about five hundred yards away. After sending his bullet
into the valley he had withdrawn a little and was slipping another
cartridge into the fine breech-loading rifle that he carried, the most
modern and highly improved weapon then used, as Warner could clearly
see.
"Would you let me take a look at him through your glasses?" asked Reed.
"Certainly," replied Warner, handing them to him.
"Jest as I thought," said Reed, as he took a long look. "He's done
gone plum' mad with the wish to kill. It strikes them evil-minded
critters that way sometimes, an' he's had so much luck shootin' down at
us, an' keepin' a whole little army besieged that it's mounted to his
head. Ef he had his way he'd jest wipe us all out."
"A sanguinary and savage mind," said Warner. "It's the spirit of the
rattlesnake or the cobra, and we must exterminate him. He's moving
further along the ridge, and he's exactly between us and that clump of
cedars, higher up and about three hundred yards away. If we could make
those cedars we would bring him within range. It's a pretty steep
climb, but I want to try it."
"We kin do it shore by stabbin' our bayonets into the ice and hangin'
on to 'em ez we edge up," said Reed optimistically. "The clump itself
will help hide us, an' Slade ain't likely to look this way. Ez I told
you he hez gone plum' mad with the blood fever, an' he ain't got eyes
for anythin' except the soldiers in the valley what he wants to shoot."
"Poison, nothing but poison," said Warner. "We must remove him as
speedily as possible for the sake of the universe. Come on! I mean to
lead."
He emerged from the clump and took his way toward the second cluster,
digging a heavy hunting knife into the ice whenever he felt that he was
about to slip. Reed was just behind him, breathing hard from the
climb, and then came the whole detachment. Warner felt a momentary
shiver lest the guerrilla see them. If he caught them on the steep ice
between the two cedar clumps he could decimate them with ease.
But fortune was kind and they breathed mighty sighs of relief as they
drew into the second network of silver, where they lay close watching
for Slade, who had fired three times into the valley while they were on
the way.
He had gone farther down the ridge, but they saw him partially as he
kneeled for another shot. If he moved again in the same direction
after firing they would not be able to reach him, and Warner, Reed
agreeing with him, decided that they must make the attempt to remove
him now or never. It was a hard target, not much of Slade's body
showing, but the entire party took aim and fired together at the
leader's word.
Slade threw up his arms, fell back on their side of the mountain and
then slid down the slippery slope. Warner watched him with a kind of
horrified fascination as he shot over the clear ice. His body struck a
small pine presently and shattered it, the broken pieces of the icy
sheath flying in the air like crystals. After a momentary pause from
the resistance Slade went on, slid over a shelf, and disappeared in a
deep drift.
"He's out o' business," said Reed. "I reckon we'd better go down thar,
an' see ef he's all broke to pieces."
They climbed down slowly and painfully, reaching the drift, but to
their amazement Slade was not there. They found his rifle and spots of
blood, but the outlaw was gone, a thin red trail that led down a rift
showing the way he went.
"We hit our b'ar an' took the bite out uv him," said Reed
philosophically, "but we ain't got his hide to show. Still he's all
broke up, jest the same, 'cause he didn't even think to take his gun,
an' this red trail shows that we won't be bothered by him ag'in fur a
long time."
Warner would have preferred the annihilation or capture of Slade, whom
he truly called a rattlesnake or cobra, but he was satisfied,
nevertheless. He had destroyed the guerrilla's power to harm for a long
time, at least, and not a man of his had been hurt. He was sure to
receive Colonel Winchester's words of approval, and he felt the swell
of pride, but did not show it by word or manner.
Carrying the rifle, as the visible proof of victory, they returned to
the cove, and received from Colonel Winchester the words for which they
were grateful. Further proof was the failure of Slade to return and
the lifting of the terrible weight which a single man had put upon
them. They could now go about in the open, as they pleased, the big
fires were built up again, and cheerfulness returned.
The mountaineers brought in more food the next day, and the following
night Reed and another mountaineer crossed the ridge and were lucky
enough to shoot a fat bear in a ravine. They dressed it there, and,
between them, managed to bring the body back to the camp. A day later
they secured another, and there was a great feast of fresh meat.
That night the weather rapidly turned warmer and all knew the big thaw
was at hand. A long heavy rain that lasted almost until daylight
hastened it and great floods roared down the slopes. Tons and tons of
melting snow also slid into the valley, and the creek became a booming
torrent. They were more thankful than ever for their huts and
lean-tos, and all except the sentinels clung closely to their shelter.
Throughout the day the mountains were veiled in vapors from the rain
and the melting snow, and, after another night, the troop saddled and
departed, the horses treading ankle deep in mud, but their riders eager
to get away.
"We overstayed our time," said Dick, looking back, "but it was a good
cove for us. Our presence there tempted the enemy to battle, and we
destroyed him. Then we had shelter and a home when the great storm
came."
"A good cove, truly," said Pennington, "and we sha'n't forget it."
When they reached the main pass they found it also deep in mud and
melting snow, and their progress was slow and painful. But before noon
they met Shepard and the sergeant returning with news that they had
carried an account of the victory to General Sheridan, but that nothing
had happened in the main valley save a few raids by Mosby. Shepard,
who acted as spokesman, was too tactful to say much, but he indicated
very clearly that the commander-in-chief was highly pleased with the
destruction of the Slade and Skelly band, the maraudings of which had
become a great annoyance and danger. Dick was eager to hear more, and,
when the opportunity presented itself, he questioned the sergeant
privately.
"What do we hear from Petersburg?" he asked. "Is the deadlock there
broken?"
"Not yet, sir," replied the sergeant. "The winter being so very severe
the troops are not able to do much. General Lee still holds his lines."
"I suppose that General Grant doesn't care to risk another Cold Harbor,
but what has been done here in the Valley of Virginia should enable him
to turn Lee's flank in the spring."
"I take it that you're right, sir. General Lee is a hard nut to crack,
as we all know, but his army is wearing away. In the spring the shell
of the nut will be so thin that we'll smash it."
The column, after its exploit, reported to Sheridan at Winchester, the
little city around which and through which the war rolled for four long
years, and where two great commanders, one of the gray and the other of
the blue, had their headquarters at times. But Colonel Winchester and
his young staff officers rode through streets that were faced by closed
shutters and windows. Nowhere was the hostility to the Northern troops
more bitter and intense than in Winchester, the beloved city of the
great Stonewall which had seen with its own eyes so many of his
triumphs.
Dick and his comrades had learned long since not to speak to the women
and girls for fear of their sharp tongues, and in his heart he could
not blame them. Youth did not keep him from having a philosophical and
discerning mind, and he knew that in the strongest of people the
emotions often triumph over logic and reason. Warner's little algebra
was all right, when the question was algebraic, but sentiment and
passion had a great deal to do with the affairs of the world, and,
where they were concerned, the book was of no value at all.
Dick's new rank of captain was conferred upon him by General Sheridan
himself, and it was accompanied by a compliment which though true made
him blush in his modesty. A few days later Warner received the same
rank for his achievement in driving away Slade, and it was conferred
upon Pennington too for general excellence. The three were supremely
happy and longed for more enemies to conquer, but a long period of
comparative idleness ensued. The winter continued of unexampled
severity, and they spent most of the time in camp, although they did
not waste it. Several books of mathematics came from the North to
Warner and he spent many happy evenings in their study. Dick got hold
of a German grammar and exercise book, and, several others joining him,
they made a little class, which though it met irregularly, learned
much. Pennington was a wonder among the horses. When the
veterinarians were at a loss they sent for him and he rarely failed of
a cure. He modestly ascribed his merit to his father who taught him
everything about horses on the great plains, where a man's horse was so
often the sole barrier between him and death.
Thus the winter went on, and they longed eagerly for spring, the
breaking up of the great cold, and the last campaign.
CHAPTER XV
BACK WITH GRANT
Despite the inevitable hostility of the people their stay at Winchester
was pleasant and fruitful. All three of the new young captains
experienced a mental growth, and their outlook upon the enemy was
tempered greatly. They had been through so many battles and they had
measured their strength and courage against the foe so often that all
hatred and malice had departed. North and South, knowing too little of
each other before the war, had now learned mutual respect upon the
field of combat. And Dick, Warner and Pennington, feeling certain that
the end was at hand, could understand the loss and sorrow of the South,
and sympathize with the fallen. Their generous young hearts did not
exult over a foe whom they expected soon to conquer.
Late in January of the fateful year 1865 Dick was walking through the
streets of Winchester one cold day. The wind from the mountains had a
fierce edge, and, as he bent his head to protect his face from it, he
did not see a stout, heavily built man of middle age coming toward him,
and did not stop until the stranger, standing squarely in his way,
hailed him.
"Does the fact that you've become a captain keep you from seeing
anything in your path, Mr. Mason?" asked the man in a deep bass, but
wholly good-natured voice.
Dick looked up in surprise, because the tones were familiar. He saw a
ruddy face, with keen, twinkling eyes and a massive chin, a face in
which shrewdness and a humorous view of the world were combined. He
hesitated a moment, then he remembered and held out his hand.
"It's Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
"So it is, lad," said John Watson, grasping the outstretched hand and
shaking it heartily. "Don't mind my calling you lad, even if you are a
captain. All things are comparative, and to me, a much older man,
you're just a lad. I've heard of your deed in the mountains, in fact,
I keep track of all of you, even of General Sheridan himself. It's my
business to know men and what they do."
"I hope you're still making money," said Dick, smiling.
"I am. That's part of a merchant's duty. If he doesn't make money he
oughtn't to be a merchant. Oh, I know that a lot of you soldiers look
down upon us traders and contractors."
"I don't and I never did, Mr. Watson."
"I know it, Captain Mason, because you're a lad of intelligence. The
first time I saw you I noticed that the reasoning quality was strong in
you, and that was why I made you an offer to enter my employ after the
war. That offer is still open and will remain open at all times."
"I thank you very much, Mr. Watson, but I can't accept it, as I have
other ambitions."
"I was sure you wouldn't take it, but I like to feel it's always
waiting for you. It's well to look ahead. This war, vast and terrible
as it has been, will be over before the year is. Two or three million
men who have done nothing but fighting for four years will be out of
employment. Vast numbers of them will not know which way to turn. They
will be wholly unfit, until they have trained themselves anew, for the
pursuits of peace. Captains, majors, colonels and, yes, generals, will
be besieging me for jobs, as zealously as they're now besieging Lee's
army in the trenches before Petersburg, and with as much cause. When
the war is over the soldier will not be of so much value, and the man
of peace will regain his own. I hope you've thought of these things,
Captain Mason."
"I've thought of them many times, Mr. Watson, and I've thought of them
oftener than ever this winter. My comrades and I have agreed that as
soon as the last battle is fought we'll plunge at once into the task of
rebuilding our country. We amount to little, of course, in such a
multitude, but one can do only what one can."
"That's so, but if a million feel like you and push all together, they
can roll mountains away."
"You're not a man to come to Winchester for nothing. You've been doing
business with the army?"
"I've been shoeing, clothing and bedding you. I deliver within two
weeks thirty thousand pairs of shoes, thirty thousand uniforms, and
sixty thousand blankets. They are all honest goods and the price is
not too high, although I make the solid and substantial profit to which
I am entitled. You soldiers on the battle line don't win a war alone.
We who feed and clothe you achieve at least half. I regret again,
Captain Mason, that you can't join me later. Mine's a noble calling.
It's a great thing to be a merchant prince, and it's we, as much as any
other class of people, who spread civilization over the earth."
"I know it," said Dick earnestly. "I'm not blind to the great arts of
peace. Now, here come my closest friends, Captain Warner and Captain
Pennington, who have understanding. I want you to meet them."
Dick's hearty introduction was enough to recommend the contractor to
his comrades, but Warner already knew him well by reputation.
"I've heard of you often from some of our officers, Mr. Watson," he
said. "You deliver good goods and you're a New Englander, like myself.
Ten years from now you'll be an extremely rich man, a millionaire,
twenty years from now you'll be several times a millionaire. About
that time I'll become president of Harvard, and we'll need money--a
great university always needs money--and I'll come to you for a
donation of one hundred thousand dollars to Harvard, and you'll give it
to me promptly."
John Watson looked at him fixedly, and slowly a look of great
admiration spread over his face.
"Of course you're a New Englander," he said. "It was not necessary for
you to say so. I could have told it by looking at you and hearing you
talk. But from what state do you come?"
"Vermont."
"I might have known that, too, and I'm glad and proud to meet you,
Captain Warner. I'm glad and proud to know a young man who looks ahead
twenty years. Nothing can keep you from being president of Harvard,
and that hundred thousand dollars is as good as given. Your hand
again!"
The hands of the two New Englanders met a second time in the touch of
kinship and understanding. Theirs was the clan feeling, and they had
supreme confidence in each other. Neither doubted that the promise
would be fulfilled, and fulfilled it was and fourfold more.
"You New Englanders certainly stand together," said Dick.
"Not more than you Kentuckians," replied the contractor. "I was in
Kentucky several times before the war, and you seemed to be one big
family there."
"But in the war we've not been one big family," said Dick, somewhat
sadly. "I suppose that no state has been more terribly divided than
Kentucky. Nowhere has kin fought more fiercely against kin."
"But you'll come together again after the war," said Watson cheerfully.
"That great bond of kinship will prove more powerful than anything
else."
"I hope so," said Dick earnestly.
They had the contractor to dinner with them, and he opened new worlds
of interest and endeavor for all of them. He was a mighty captain of
industry, a term that came into much use later, and mentally they
followed him as he led the way into fields of immense industrial
achievement. They were fascinated as he talked with truthful eloquence
of what the country could become, the vast network of railroads to be
built, the limitless fields of wheat and corn to be grown, the mines of
the richest mineral continent to be opened, and a trade to be acquired,
that would spread all over the world. They forgot the war while he
talked, and their souls were filled and stirred with the romance of
peace.
"I leave for Washington tonight," said the contractor, when the dinner
was finished. "My work here is done. Our next meeting will be in
Richmond."
All three of the young men took it as prophetic and when John Watson
started north they waved him a friendly farewell. Another long wait
followed, while the iron winter, one of the fiercest in the memory of
man, still gripped both North and South. But late in February there
was a great bustle, portending movement. Supplies were gathered,
horses were examined critically, men looked to their arms and
ammunition, and the talk was all of high anticipation. An electric
thrill ran through the men. They had tasted deep of victory since the
previous summer, and they were eager to ride to new triumphs.
"It's to be an affair of cavalry altogether," said Warner, who obtained
the first definite news. "We're to go toward Staunton, where Early and
his remnants have been hanging out, and clean 'em up. Although it's to
be done by cavalry alone, as I told you, it'll be the finest cavalry
you ever saw."
And when Sheridan gathered his horsemen for the march Warner's words
came true. Ten thousand Union men, all hardy troopers now, were in the
saddle, and the great Sheridan led them. The eyes of Little Phil
glinted as he looked upon his matchless command, bold youths who had
learned in the long hard training of war itself, to be the equals of
Stuart's own famous riders. And the eyes of Sheridan glinted again
when they passed over the Winchesters, the peerless regiment, the
bravest of the brave, with the colonel and the three youthful captains
in their proper places.
The weather was extremely cold, but they were prepared for it, and when
they swung up the valley, and forty thousand hoofs beat on the hard
road, giving back a sound like thunder, their pulses leaped, and they
took with delight deep draughts of the keen frosty air.
While they carried food for the entire march, the rest of their
equipment was light, four cannon, ammunition wagons, some ambulances
and pontoon boats. Dick thought they would make fast time, but fortune
for awhile was against them. The very morning the great column started
the weather rapidly turned warmer, and then a heavy rain began to fall.
The hard road upon which the forty thousand hoofs had beat their
marching song turned to mud, and forty thousand hoofs made a new sound,
as they sank deep in it, and were then pulled out again.
"If it keeps us from going fast," said the philosophical sergeant,
"it'll keep them that we're goin' after from gettin' away. We're as
good mud horses as they are."
"Do you think we'll go through to Staunton?" asked Dick of Warner.
"I've heard that we will, and that we'll go on and take Lynchburg too.
Then we're to curve about and in North Carolina join Sherman who has
smashed the Confederacy in the west."
"I don't like the North Carolina part," said Dick. "I hope we'll go to
Grant and march with him on Richmond, because that's where the death
blow will be dealt, if it's dealt at all."
"And that it will be dealt we don't doubt, neither you, nor I nor any
of us."
"Yes, that's so."
While mud and rain could impede the progress of the great column they
could not stop it. Neither could they dampen the spirits of the young
troopers who rode knee to knee, and who looked forward to new
victories. Through the floods of rain the ten thousand, scouts and
skirmishers on their flanks, swept southward, and they encountered no
foe. A few Southern horsemen would watch them at a great distance and
then ride sadly away. There was nothing in the valley that could
oppose Sheridan.
Dick's leggings, and his overcoat with an extremely high collar, kept
him dry and warm and he was too seasoned to mind the flying mud which
thousands of hoofs sent up, and which soon covered them. The swift
movement and the expectation of achieving something were exhilarating
in spite of every hardship and obstacle.
That night they reached the village of Woodstock, and the next day they
crossed the north fork of the Shenandoah, already swollen by the heavy
rains. The engineers rapidly and dexterously made a bridge of the
pontoon boats, and the ten thousand thundered over in safety.
The next night they were at a little place called Lacy's Springs, sixty
miles from Winchester, a wonderful march for two days, considering the
heavy rains and deep mud, and they had not yet encountered an enemy.
How different it would have been in Stonewall Jackson's time! Then,
not a mile of the road would have been safe for them. It was ample
proof of the extremities to which the Confederacy was reduced. Lee, at
Petersburg, could not reinforce Early, and Early, at Staunton, could
not reinforce Lee!
They intended to move on the next day, and they heard that night that
Rosser, a brave Confederate general, had gathered a small Confederate
force and was hastening forward to burn all the bridges over the middle
fork of the Shenandoah, in order that he might impede Sheridan's
progress. Then it was the call of the trumpet and boots and saddles
early in the morning in order that they might beat Rosser to the
bridges.
"I hope for their own sake that they won't try to fight us," said Dick.
"I'm with you on that," said Pennington. "They can't be more than a
few hundreds, and it would take thousands, even with a river to help,
to stop an army like ours."
It was not raining now and the roads growing dryer thundered with the
hoofs of ten thousand horses. The Winchesters had an honored place in
the van, and, as they approached the middle fork of the Shenandoah, the
three young captains raised themselves in their saddles to see if the
bridge yet stood. It was there, but on the other side of the stream a
small body of cavalrymen in gray were galloping forward, and some had
already dismounted for the attempt to destroy it. The arrival of the
two forces was almost simultaneous, but the Union army, overwhelming in
numbers, exulting in victory, swept forward to the call of the trumpets.
"They're not more than five or six hundred over there," said Warner,
"too few to put up a fight against us. I feel sorry for 'em, and wish
they'd go away."
The Southerners nevertheless were sweeping the narrow bridge with a
heavy rifle fire, and Sheridan drew back his men for a few minutes.
Then followed a series of mighty splashes, as two West Virginia
regiments sent their horses into the river, swam it, and, as they
emerged dripping on the farther shore, charged the little Confederate
force in flank, compelling it to retreat so swiftly that it left behind
prisoners and its wagons.
It was all over in a few minutes, and the whole army, crossing the
river, moved steadily on toward Staunton, where Early had been in camp,
and where Sheridan hoped to find him. The little victory did not bring
Dick any joy. He knew that the Confederacy could now make no stand in
the Valley of Virginia, and it was like beating down those who were
already beaten. He sincerely hoped that Early would not await them at
Staunton or anywhere else, but would take his futile forces out of the
valley and join Lee.
The heavy rains began again. Winter was breaking up and its transition
into spring was accompanied by floods. The last snow on the mountains
melted and rushed down in torrents. The roads, already ruined by war,
became vast ruts of mud, but Sheridan was never daunted by physical
obstacles. The great army of cavalry, scarcely slacking speed, pressed
forward continually, and Dick knew that Early did not have the shadow
of a chance to withstand such an army.
The next day they entered Staunton, another of the neat little Virginia
cities devoted solidly and passionately to the Southern cause. Here,
they were faced again by blind doors and windows, but Early and his
force were gone. Shepard brought news that he had prepared for a stand
at Waynesborough, although he had only two thousand men.
"Our general will attack him at once," said Warner, when he heard of
it. "He sweeps like a hurricane."
"He is surely the general for us at such a time," said Pennington, who
began to feel himself a military authority.
"It's humane, at least," said Dick. "The quicker it's over the smaller
the toll of ruin and death."
Nor had they judged Sheridan wrongly. His men advanced with speed,
hunting Early, and they found him fortified with his scanty forces on a
ridge near the little town of Waynesborough. The daring young leader,
Custer, and Colonel Winchester, riding forward, found his flank
exposed, and it was enough for Sheridan. He formed his plan with
rapidity and executed it with precision. The Custer and Winchester men
were dismounted and assailed the exposed flank at once, while the
remainder of the army made a direct and violent charge in front.
It seemed to Dick that Early was swept away in an instant, and the
attack was so swift and overwhelming that there was but little loss of
life on either side. Four fifths of the Southern men and their cannon
were captured, while Early, several of his generals and a few hundred
soldiers escaped to the woods. His army, however, had ceased to exist,
and Sheridan and his muddy victors rode on to the ancient town of
Charlottesville, which, having no forces to defend it, the mayor and
the leading citizens surrendered.
Dick, Warner and Pennington walked through the silent halls of the
University of Virginia, the South's most famous institution of
learning, founded by Thomas Jefferson, one of the republic's greatest
men.
"I hope they will re-open it next year," said Warner generously, "and
that it will grow and grow, until it becomes a rival of Harvard. We
want to defeat the South, but not to destroy it. Since it is to be a
part of the Union again, and loyal forever I hope and believe, we want
it strong and prosperous."
"I'm with you in that," said Dick, "and I feel it with particular
strength while I am here. There have been many great Virginians and I
hope there'll be many more."
They also visited Monticello, the famous colonial mansion which the
great Jefferson had built, and in which he had lived and planned for
the republic. They trod there with light steps, feeling that his
spirit was still present. Virginia was the greatest of the border
states, but it seemed to Dick that here he was in the very heart of the
South. Virginia was the greatest of the Southern fighting states too,
and it had furnished most of the great Southern leaders, at least two
of her sons ranking among the foremost military geniuses of modern
times. For nearly four years they had barred the way to every Northern
advance, and had won great victories over numbers, but Dick was sure as
he stood on a portico at Monticello, in the very heart of valiant
Virginia, that the fate of the South was sealed.
They did not stay long at Charlottesville and Monticello, but a portion
of the army, including the Winchester men, went on, tearing up the
railroad, while another column demolished a canal used for military
purposes. Then the two forces united at a town called New Market, but
they could go no farther. The heavy rains and the melting snows had
swollen the rivers enormously, all the bridges before them were
destroyed, and their own pontoons proved inadequate in face of the
great rushing streams. Then they turned back.
Dick and his comrades were secretly glad. The rising of the waters had
prevented them from going into North Carolina and joining Sherman.
Hence, they deduced that so active a man as Sheridan would march for a
junction with Grant, and that was where they wanted to go. They did
not believe that the Confederacy was to be finished in North Carolina,
but at Richmond. They knew that Lee's army yet stood between Grant and
the Southern capital, and, there, would be the heart of great affairs.
Spring was now opening and Sheridan's army marched eastward. Men and
horses were covered with mud, but they still had the flush of victories
won, and the incentive of others expected. They were even yet worn by
hard marching and some fighting, but it was a healthy leanness, making
their muscles as tough as whipcord, while their eyes were keen like
those of hawks.
Dick did not rejoice now in the work they were doing, although he saw
its need. Theirs was a task of destruction. For a distance of more
than fifty miles they ruined a canal important to the Confederacy.
Boats, locks, everything went, and they also made cuts by which the
swollen James poured into the canal, flooding it and thrusting it out
of its banks. They met no resistance save a few distant shots, and
Sheridan rejoiced over his plan to join the Army of the Potomac,
although he had not yet been able to send word of it to Grant.
But the omens remained propitious. They saw now that there were no
walls in the rear of the Confederacy and they had little to do but
march. The heavy rains followed them, roads disappeared, and it seemed
to the young captains that they lived in eternal showers of mud.
Horses and riders alike were caked with it, and they ceased to make any
effort to clean themselves.
"This is not a white army," said Warner, looking down a long column,
"it's brown, although it would be hard to name the shade of brown."
"It's not always brown," said Pennington. "Lots of the Virginia mud is
a rich, ripe red. Bet you anything that before tomorrow night we will
have turned to some hue of scarlet."
"We won't take the wager," said Dick, "because you bet on a certainty."
That afternoon the scouts surprised a telegraph station on the
railroad, and found in it a dispatch from General Early. To the great
amazement of Sheridan, Early was not far away. He had only two hundred
men, but with them the grim old fighter prepared to attack the Union
army. Sheridan himself felt a certain pity for his desperate opponent,
but he promptly sent Custer in search of him. The young cavalryman
quickly found him and scattered or captured the entire band.
Early escaped from the fight with a lone orderly as his comrade, and
the next day the general who had lost all through no fault of his own,
rode into Richmond with his single companion, and from him Jefferson
Davis, President of the Confederacy, heard the full tale of Southern
disaster in the Valley of Virginia.
Meanwhile Sheridan and his victorious army rode on to a place called
White House, where they found plenty of stores, and where they halted
for a long rest, and also to secure new mounts, if they could. Their
horses were worn out completely by the great campaign and were wholly
unfit for further service. But it was hard to obtain fresh ones and
the delay was longer than the general had intended. Nevertheless his
troops profited by it. They had not realized until they stopped how
near they too had come to utter exhaustion, and for several days they
were in a kind of physical torpor while their strength came back
gradually.
"I think I've removed the last trace of the Virginia mud from my
clothes and myself," said Warner on the morning of the second day, "but
I've had to work hard to do it, as time seemed to have made it almost a
part of my being."
"I've spent most of my time learning to walk again, and getting the
bows out of my legs," said Dick. "I've been a-horse so long that I
felt like a sailor coming ashore from a three years' cruise."
"Agreed with me pretty well, all except the mud, since I was born on
horseback," said Pennington. "But I don't like to ride in a brown
plaster suit of armor. What do you think is ahead, boys?"
"Junction with General Grant," said Dick. "They say, also, that
General Sherman, after completing his great work in Georgia and North
Carolina, is coming to join them too. It will be a great meeting, that
of the three successful generals who have destroyed the Confederacy,
because there's nothing of it left now but Lee's army, and that they
say is mighty small."
It was in reality a triumphant march that they began after they left
White House, refreshed, remounted and ready for new conquests. They
soon came into touch with the Army of the Potomac, and the great
meeting between Grant, Sherman and Sheridan took place, Sherman having
come north especially for the purpose. Then Sheridan's force became
attached to the Army of the Potomac, and his cavalry columns advanced
into the marshes about Petersburg. All fear that they would be sent to
cooperate with Sherman passed, and Dick knew that the Winchester men
would be in the final struggle with Lee, a struggle the success of
which he felt assured.
April was not far away. The fierce winter was broken up completely,
but the spring rains were uncommonly heavy and much of the low country
about Petersburg was flooded, making it difficult for cavalry and
impossible for infantry. Nevertheless the army of Grant, with Sheridan
now as a striking arm, began to close in on the beleaguered men in
gray. Lee had held the trenches before Petersburg many months, keeping
at bay a resolute and powerful army, led by an able and tenacious
general, but it was evident now that he could not continue to hold
them. Sheridan's victorious force on his flank made it impossible.
The Winchester men were in a skirmish or two, but for a few days most
of their work was maneuvering, that is, they were continually riding in
search of better positions. At times, the rain still poured, but the
three young captains were so full of expectancy that they scarcely
noticed it. Dick often heard the trumpets singing across the marshes,
and now and then he saw the Confederate skirmishers and the roofs of
Petersburg. He beheld too with his own eyes the circle of steel
closing about the last hope of the Confederacy, and he felt every day,
with increasing strength, that the end was near.
But the outside world did not realize that the great war was to close
so suddenly. It had raged with the utmost violence for four years and
it seemed the normal condition in America. Huge battles had been
fought, and they had ended in nothing. Three years before, McClellan
had been nearer to Richmond than Grant now was, and yet he had been
driven away. Lee and Jackson had won brilliant victories or had held
the Union numbers to a draw, and to those looking from far away the end
seemed as distant as ever. At that very moment, they were saying in
Europe that the Confederacy was invincible, and that it was stronger
than it had been a year or two years earlier.
Dick, all unconscious of distant opinion, watched the tightening of the
steel belt, and helped in the task. He and his comrades never doubted.
They knew that Sherman had crushed the Southeast, and that Thomas, that
stern old Rock of Chickamauga, had annihilated the Southern army of
Hood at Nashville. Dick was glad that the triumph there had gone to
Thomas, whom he always held in the greatest respect and admiration.
He often saw Grant in those days, a silent, resolute man, thinner than
of old and stooped a little with care and responsibility. Dick, like
the others, felt with all the power of conviction that Grant would
never go back, and Shepard, who had entered Petersburg twice at the
imminent risk of his life, assured him that Lee's force was wearing
away. There was left only a fraction of the great Army of Northern
Virginia that had fought so brilliantly at Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg, the Wilderness and on many another battlefield.
"Only we who are here and who can see with our own eyes know what is
about to happen," said the spy. "Even our own Northern states, so long
deluded by false hopes, can't yet believe, but we know."
"Did you hear anything of the Invincibles when you were in Petersburg?"
asked Dick.
"I heard of them, and I also saw them, although they did not know I was
near. I suppose Harry Kenton could scarcely have contained himself had
he known it was my sister who filched that map from the Curtis house in
Richmond and that it was to me she gave it."
"But he was all right? He escaped unhurt from the Valley?"
"Yes, or if he took a hurt it was but a slight one, from which he soon
recovered. He and his comrades, Dalton, St. Clair and Langdon, and the
two Colonels, Talbot and St. Hilaire, are back with Lee, and they've
organized another regiment called the Invincibles, which Talbot and St.
Hilaire lead, although your cousin and Dalton are on Lee's staff again."
"I suppose we'll come face to face again, and this time at the very
last," said Dick. "I hope they'll be reasonable about it, and won't
insist on fighting until they're all killed. Have you heard anything
of those two robbers and murderers, Slade and Skelly?"
"Not a thing. But I didn't expect it. They'd never leave the
mountains. Instead they'll go farther into 'em."
That night many messengers rode with dispatches, and the lines of the
Northern army were tightened. Dick saw all the signs that portended a
great movement, signs with which he had long since grown familiar. The
big batteries were pushed forward, and heavy masses of infantry were
moved closer to the Confederate trenches. He felt quite sure that the
final grapple was at hand.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CLOSING DAYS
Within the Southern lines and just beyond the range of the Northern
guns, two men sat playing chess. They were elderly, gray and thin, but
never had the faces of the two colonels been more defiant. With the
Confederacy crumbling about them it was characteristic of both that
they should show no despair, if in truth they felt it. Their
confidence in Lee was sublime. He could still move mountains, although
he had no tools with which to move them, and the younger officers, mere
boys many of them, would come back to them again and again for
encouragement. Spies had brought word that Grant, after nine months of
waiting, and with Sheridan and a huge cavalry force on his flank, was
about to make his great attack. But the dauntless souls of Colonel
Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire remained
unmoved.
"I'm glad the rains are apparently about to cease, Hector," said
Colonel Talbot. "When the ground grows firmer it will give General Lee
a chance to make one of his great circling swoops, and rout the Yankee
army."
"So it will, Leonidas. We've been waiting for it a long time, but the
chance is here at last. We've had enough of the trenches. It's a
monotonous life at best. Ah, I take your pawn, the one for which I've
been lying in ambush more than a month."
"But that pawn dies in a good cause, Hector. When he fell, he
uncovered the path to your remaining knight, as a dozen more moves will
show you. What is it, Harry?"
Harry Kenton, thin, but hardy and strong, saluted.
"We have news, sir," he replied, "that the portion of the Union army
under General Sheridan is moving. I bring you a dispatch from General
Lee to march and meet them. Other regiments, of course, will go with
you."
They put away the chessmen and with St. Clair and Langdon marshaled the
troops in line of battle. Harry felt a sinking of the heart when he
saw how thin their ranks were, but the valiant colonels made no
complaint. Then he went back to General Lee, whose manner was calm in
face of the storm that was so obviously impending. The information had
come that Grant and the bulk of his army were marching to the attack on
the White Oak road, and, if he broke through there, nothing could save
the Army of Northern Virginia.
Harry, after taking the dispatch to the Invincibles, carried orders to
another regiment, while Dalton was engaged on similar errands. It was
obvious to him that Lee was gathering his men for a great effort, and
his heart sank. There was not much to gather. Throughout all that
long autumn and winter the Army of Northern Virginia had disintegrated
steadily. Nobody came to take the place of the slain, the wounded and
the sick. All the regiments were skeletons. Many of them could not
muster a hundred men apiece.
But Harry saw no sign of discouragement on the face of the chief whom
he respected and admired so much. Lee was thinner and his hair was
whiter, but his figure was as erect and vigorous as ever, and his face
retained its ruddy color. Yet he knew the odds against him. Grant
outside his works mustered a hundred thousand trained fighters, not raw
levies, and the seasoned Army of the Potomac, that had persisted alike
through victory and defeat, and proof now against any adversity, saw
its prize almost in its hand. And the worn veterans whom the Southern
leader could marshal against Grant were not one third his numbers.
The orderly who usually brought Lee's horse was missing on another
errand, and Harry himself was proud to bring Traveler. The general was
absorbed in deep thought, and he did not notice until he was in the
saddle who held the bridle.
"Ah, it is you, Lieutenant Kenton!" he said. "You are always where you
are needed. You have been a good soldier."
Harry flushed deeply with pleasure at such a compliment from such a
source.
"I've tried to do my best, sir," he replied modestly.
"No one can do any more. You and Mr. Dalton keep close to me. We must
go and deal with those people, once more."
His calm, steady tones brought Harry's courage back. To the young
hero-worshiper Lee himself was at least fifty thousand men, and even
with his scanty numbers he would pluck victory from the very heart of
defeat.
There could no longer be any possible doubt that Grant was about to
attack, and Lee made his dispositions rapidly. While he led the bulk
of his army in person to battle, Longstreet was left to face the army
north of the James, while Gordon at the head of Ewell's old corps stood
in front of Petersburg. Then Lee turned away to the right with less
than twenty thousand men to meet Grant, and fortified himself along the
White Oak Road. Here he waited for the Union general, who had not yet
brought up his masses, but Harry and Dalton felt quite sure that
despite the disparity of numbers Lee was the one who would attack. It
had been so all through the war, and they knew that in the offensive
lay the best defensive. The event soon proved that they read their
general's mind aright.
It was the last day of March when Lee suddenly gave the order for his
gaunt veterans to advance, and they obeyed without faltering. The
rains had ceased, a bright sun was shining, and the Southern trumpets
sang the charge as bravely as at the Second Manassas or
Chancellorsville. They had only two thousand cavalry on their flank,
under Fitz Lee, but the veteran infantry advanced with steadiness and
precision. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St.
Hilaire were on foot now, having lost their horses long since, but,
waving their small swords, they walked dauntlessly at the head of their
little regiment, St. Clair and Langdon, a bit farther back, showing
equal courage.
The speed of the Southern charge increased and they were met at first
by only a scattering fire. The Northern generals, not expecting Lee to
move out of his works, were surprised. Before they could take the
proper precautions Lee was upon them and once more the rebel yell that
had swelled in victory on so many fields rang out in triumph. The
front lines of the men in blue were driven in, then whole brigades were
thrown back, and Harry felt a wild thrill of delight when he beheld
success where success had not seemed possible.
He saw near him the Invincibles charging home, and the two colonels
still waving their swords as they led them, and he saw also the worn
faces of the veterans about him suffused once more with the fire of
battle. He watched with glowing eyes as the fierce charge drove the
Northern masses back farther and farther.
But the Union leaders, though taken by surprise, did not permit
themselves and their troops to fall into a panic. They had come too
far and had fought too many battles to lose the prize at the very last
moment. Their own trumpets sounded on a long line, calling back the
regiments and brigades. Although the South had gained much ground
Harry saw that the resistance was hardening rapidly. Grant and
Sheridan were pouring in their masses. Heavy columns of infantry
gathered in their front, and Sheridan's numerous and powerful cavalry
began to cut away their flanks. The Southern advance became slow and
then ceased entirely.
Harry felt again that dreadful sinking of the heart. Leadership, valor
and sacrifice were of no avail, when they were faced by leadership,
valor and sacrifice also added to overwhelming numbers.
The battle was long and fierce, the men in gray throwing away their
lives freely in charge after charge, but they were gradually borne
back. Lee showed all his old skill and generalship, marshaling his men
with coolness and precision, but Grant and Sheridan would not be
denied. They too were cool and skillful, and when night came the
Southern army was driven back at all points, although it had displayed
a valor never surpassed in any of the great battles of the war. But
Lee's face had not yet shown any signs of despair, when he gathered his
men again in his old works.
It was to Harry, however, one of the gloomiest nights that he had ever
known. As a staff officer, he knew the desperate position of the
Southern force, and his heart was very heavy within him. He saw across
the swamps and fields the innumerable Northern campfires, and he heard
the Northern bugles calling to one another in the dusk. But as the
night advanced and he had duties to do his courage rose once more.
Since their great commander-in-chief was steady and calm he would try
to be so too.
The opposing sentinels were very close to one another in the dark and
as usual they often talked. Harry, as he went on one errand or
another, heard them sometimes, but he never interfered, knowing that
nothing was to be gained by stopping them. Deep in the night, when he
was passing through a small wood very close to the Union lines, a
figure rose up before him. It was so dark that he did not know the man
at first, but at the second look he recognized him.
"Shepard!" he exclaimed. "You here!"
"Yes, Mr. Kenton," replied the spy, "it's Shepard, and you will not try
to harm me. Why should you at such a moment? I am within the
Confederate lines for the last time."
"So, you mean to give up your trade?"
"It's going to give me up. Chance has made you and me antagonists, Mr.
Kenton, but our own little war, as well as the great war in which we
both fight, is about over. I will not come within the Southern lines
again because there is no need for me to do so. In a few days there
will be no Southern lines. Don't think that I'm trying to exult over
you, but remember what I told you four years ago in Montgomery. The
South has made a great and wonderful fight, but it was never possible
for her to win."
"We are not beaten yet, Mr. Shepard."
"No, but you will be. I suppose you'll fight to the last, but the end
is sure as the rising of tomorrow's sun. We have generals now who
can't be driven back."
Harry was silent because he had no answer to make, and Shepard resumed:
"I'm willing to tell you, Mr. Kenton, that your cousin, Mr. Mason, a
captain now, is here with General Sheridan, and that he went through
today's battle uninjured."
"I'm glad at any rate that Dick is now a captain."
"He has earned the rank. He is my good friend, as I hope you will be
after the war."
"I see no reason why we shouldn't. You've served the North in your own
way and I've served the South in mine. I want to say to you, Mr.
Shepard, that if in our long personal struggle I held any malice
against you it's all gone now, and I hope that you hold none against
me."
"I never felt any. Good-by!"
"Good-by!"
Shepard was gone so quickly and with so little noise that he seemed to
vanish in the air, and Harry turned back to his work, resolved not to
believe the man's assertion that the war was over. He slept a little,
and so did Dalton, but both were awake, when a red dawn came alive with
the crash of cannon and rifles.
Shepard had spoken truly, when he said that the North now had generals
who would not be driven back. Nor would they cease to attack. As soon
as the light was sufficient, Grant and Sheridan began to press Lee with
all their might. Pickett, who had led the great charge at Gettysburg,
and Johnson, who held a place called Five Forks, were assailed fiercely
by overpowering numbers, and, despite a long and desperate resistance,
their command was cut in pieces and the fragments scattered, leaving
Lee's right flank uncovered.
The day, like the one before it, ended in defeat and confusion, and, at
the next dawn, Grant, silent, tenacious, came anew to the attack, his
dense columns now assailing the front before Petersburg, and carrying
the trenches that had held them so long. The thin Confederate lines
there fought in vain to hold them, but the Union brigades, exultant and
cheering, burst through everything, flung aside those of their foes
whom they did not overthrow, and advanced toward the city. Here fell
the famous Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, a man of frail body and
valiant soul, beloved of Lee and the whole army.
The next noon came, somber to Harry beyond all description. The
youngest officer knew that while General Lee was still in Petersburg he
could no longer hold it, and that they were nearly surrounded by the
victorious and powerful Union host. The break in the lines had been
made just after sunrise, and had been widened in the later hours of the
morning. Now there was a momentary lull in the firing, but the lifting
clouds of smoke enabled them to see vast masses of men in blue
advancing and already in the suburbs of the town.
Lee's headquarters were about a mile and a half west of Petersburg,
where he stood on a lawn and watched the progress of the combat.
Nearly opposite him was a tall observatory that the Union men had
erected, and from its summit the Northern generals also were watching.
Harry and Dalton stood near Lee, awaiting with others his call, and
every detail he saw that day always remained impressed upon Harry
Kenton's mind.
He intently watched his general. Feeling that the Southern army was so
near destruction he thought that the face of Lee would show agitation.
But it was not so. His calm and grave demeanor was unchanged. He was
in full uniform of fine gray, and had even buckled to his belt his
dress sword which he seldom carried. It was told of him that he said
that morning if he were compelled to surrender he would do so in his
best. But he had not yet given up hope.
Harry turned his eyes away from Lee to the enemy. Without the aid of
glasses now, he saw the great columns in blue advancing, preceded by a
tremendous fire of artillery that filled the air with bursting shells.
The infantry themselves were advancing with the bayonet, the sunlight
gleaming on the polished metal. As far as he could see the ring of
fire and steel extended. One heavy column was advancing toward the
very lawn on which they stood.
"Looks as if they were going to trample us under foot," said Dalton.
"Yes, but the general may still find a way out of it," said Harry.
"They are still coming," said Dalton.
The shells were bursting about them and bullets too soon began to
strike upon the lawn. A battery that sought to drive back the
advancing column was exposed to such a heavy fire that it was compelled
to limber up and retreat. The officers urged Lee to withdraw and at
length, mounting Traveler, he rode back slowly and deliberately to his
inner line. Harry often wondered what his feelings were on that day,
but whatever they were his face expressed nothing. When he stopped in
his new position he said to one of his staff, but without raising his
voice:
"This is a bad business, colonel."
Harry heard him say a little later to another officer:
"Well, colonel, it has happened as I told them it would at Richmond.
The line has stretched until it has broken."
But the general and his staff were not permitted to remain long at
their second stop. The Union columns never ceased to press the
shattered Southern army. Their great artillery, served with the
rapidity and accuracy that had marked it all through the war, poured
showers of shell and grape and canister upon the thin ranks in gray,
and the rifles were close enough to add their own stream of missiles to
the irresistible fire.
Harry was in great fear for his general. It seemed as if the Northern
gunners had recognized him and his staff. Perhaps they knew his famous
war horse, Traveler, as he rode slowly away, but in any event, the
shells began to strike on all sides of the little group. One burst
just behind Lee. Another killed the horse of an officer close to him,
and the bursting fragments inflicted slight wounds upon members of the
staff. Lee, for the first time, showed emotion. Looking back over his
shoulder his eyes blazed, and his cheeks flushed. Harry knew that he
wished to turn and order a charge, but there was nothing with which to
charge, and, withdrawing his gaze from the threatening artillery, he
rode steadily on.
The general's destination now was an earthwork in the suburbs of the
city, manned by a reserve force, small but ardent and defiant. It
welcomed Lee and his staff with resounding cheers, and Harry's heart
sprang up again. Here, at least, was confidence, and as they rode
behind them the guns replied fiercely to the advancing Northern
batteries, checking them for a little while, and giving the retreating
troops a chance to rest.
Now came a lull in the fighting, but Harry knew well that it was only a
lull. Presently Grant and Sheridan would press harder than ever. They
were fully aware of the condition of the Southern army, its smallness
and exhaustion, and they would never cease to hurl upon it their
columns of cavalry and infantry, and to rake it with the numerous
batteries of great guns, served so well. Once more his heart sank low,
as he thought of what the next night might bring forth. He knew that
General Lee had sent in the morning a messenger to the capital with the
statement that Petersburg could be held no longer and that he would
retreat in the night.
Every effort was made to gather the remaining portion of the Southern
army into one strong, cohesive body. Longstreet, at the order of Lee,
left his position north of the James River, while Gordon took charge of
the lines to the east of Petersburg. It was when they gathered for
this last stand that Harry realized fully how many of the great
Confederate officers were gone. It was here that he first heard of the
death of A. P. Hill, of whom he had seen so much at Gettysburg. And he
choked as he thought of Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Turner Ashby and
all the long roll of the illustrious fallen, who were heroes to him.
The Northern infantry and cavalry did not charge now, but the cannon
continued their work. Battery after battery poured its fire upon the
earthworks, although the men there, sheltered by the trenches, did not
suffer so much for the present.
Harry found time to look up his friends, and discovered the Invincibles
in a single trench, about sixty of them left, but all showing a
cheerfulness, extraordinary in such a situation. It was characteristic
of both Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire that they
should present a bolder front, the more desperate their case. Nor were
the younger officers less assured. Captain Arthur St. Clair was
carefully dusting from his clothing dirt that had been thrown there by
bursting shells, and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon was contemplating with
satisfaction the track of a bullet that had gone through his left
sleeve without touching the arm.
"The sight of you is welcome, Harry," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot in
even tones. "It is pleasant to know at such a time that one's friend
is alive, because the possibilities are always against it. Still,
Harry, I've always felt that you bear a charmed life, and so do St.
Clair and Langdon. Tell me, is it true that we evacuate Petersburg
tonight?"
"It's no secret, sir. The orders have been issued and we do."
"If we must go, we must, and it's no time for repining. Well, the town
has been defended long and valiantly against overwhelming numbers. If
we lose it, we lose with glory. It can never be said of the South that
we were not as brave and tenacious as any people that ever lived."
"The Northern armies that fight us will be the first to give us that
credit, sir."
"That is true. Soldiers who have tested the mettle of one another on
innumerable desperate fields do not bear malice and are always ready to
acknowledge the merits of the foe. Ah, see how closely that shell
burst to us! And another! And a third! And a fourth! Hector, you
read the message, do you not?"
"Certainly, Leonidas, it's as plain as print to you and me. John
Carrington--good old John! honest old John!--is now in command of that
group of batteries on the right. He has been in charge of guns
elsewhere, and has been suddenly shifted to this point. The great
increase in volume and accuracy of fire proves it."
"Right, Hector! He's as surely there as we are here. The voice of
those cannon is the voice of John Carrington. Well, if we're to be
crushed I prefer for good old John to do it."
"But we're not crushed, Leonidas. We'll go out of Petersburg tonight,
beating off every attack of the enemy, and then if we can't hold
Richmond we'll march into North Carolina, gather together all the
remaining forces of the Confederacy, and, directed by the incomparable
genius of our great commander, we'll yet win the victory."
"Right, Hector! Right! Pardon me my moment of depression, but it was
only a moment, remember, and it will not occur again. The loss of a
capital--even if it should come to that--does not necessarily mean the
loss of a cause. Among the hills and mountains of North Carolina we
can hold out forever."
Harry was cheered by them, but he did not fully share their hopes and
beliefs.
"Aren't they two of the greatest men you've ever known?" whispered St.
Clair to him.
"If honesty and grandeur of soul make greatness they surely are,"
replied Harry feelingly.
He returned now to his general's side, and watched the great
bombardment. Scores of guns in a vast half circle were raining shells
upon the slender Confederate lines. The blaze was continuous on a long
front, and huge clouds of smoke gathered above. Harry believed that
the entire Union army would move forward and attack their works, but
the charge did not come. Evidently Grant remembered Cold Harbor, and,
feeling that his enemy was in his grasp, he refrained from useless
sacrifices.
Another terrible night, lighted up by the flash of cannon and
thundering with the crash of the batteries came, and Lee, collecting
his army of less than twenty thousand men, moved out of Petersburg. It
tore Harry's heart to leave the city, where they had held Grant at bay
so long, but he knew the necessity. They could not live another day
under that concentrated and awful fire. They might stay and surrender
or retreat and fight again, and valiant souls would surely choose the
latter.
The march began just after twilight turned to night, and the darkness
and clouds of skirmishers hid it from the enemy. They crossed the
Appomattox, and then advanced on the Hickory road on the north side of
the river. General Lee stood on foot, but with the bridle of Traveler
in his hand and his staff about him, at the entrance to the road, and
watched the troops as they marched past.
His composure and steadiness seemed to Harry as great as ever, and his
voice never broke, as he spoke now and then to the marching men. Nor
was the spirit of the men crushed. Again and again they cheered as
they saw the strong figure of the gray commander who had led them so
often to victory. Nor were they shaken by the booming of the cannon
behind them, nor by the tremendous crashes that marked the explosions
of the magazines in Petersburg.
When the last soldier had passed, General Lee and his staff mounted
their horses and followed the army in the dusk and gloom. Behind them
lofty fires shed a glaring light over fallen Petersburg.
CHAPTER XVII
APPOMATTOX
The morning after Lee's retreat the Winchester regiment rode into
Petersburg and looked curiously at the smoldering fires and what was
left of the town. They had been before it so long it seemed almost
incredible to Dick Mason that they were in it now. But the Southern
leader and his army were not yet taken. They were gone, and they still
existed as a fighting power.
"We have Petersburg at last," he said, "but it's only a scorched and
empty shell."
"We've more than that," said Warner.
"What do you mean?"
"We've Richmond, too. The capital of the Confederacy, inviolate for
four years, has fallen, and our troops have entered it. Jefferson
Davis, his government and its garrison have fled, burning the army
buildings and stores as they went. A part of the city was burned also,
but our troops helped to put out the fires and saved the rest. Dick,
do you realize it? Do you understand that we have captured the city
over which we have fought for four years, and which has cost more than
a half million lives?"
Dick was silent, because he had no answer to make. Neither he nor
Warner nor Pennington could yet comprehend it fully. They had talked
often of the end of the war, they had looked forward to the great
event, they had hoped for the taking of Richmond, but now that it was
taken it scarcely seemed real.
"Tell it over, George," he said, "was it Richmond you were speaking of,
and did you say that it was taken?"
"Yes, Dick, and it's the truth. Of course it doesn't look like it to
you or to me or to Frank, but it's a fact. Today or tomorrow we may go
there and see it with our own eyes, and then if we don't believe the
sight we can read an account of it in the newspapers."
It was a process of saturation, but in the next hour or two they
believed it and understood it fully. On the following day they rode
into the desolate and partly burned capital, now garrisoned heavily by
the North, and looked with curiosity at the little city for which such
torrents of blood had been shed. But as at Winchester and Petersburg,
they gazed upon blind doors and windows. Nor did they expect anything
else. It was only natural, and they refrained carefully from any
outward show of exultation.
Richmond was to hold them only a few hours, as Grant and Sheridan
continued hot on the trail of Lee. They knew that he was marching
along the Appomattox, intending to concentrate at Amelia Court House,
and they were resolved that he should not escape. Sheridan's cavalry,
with the Winchester regiment in the van, advanced swiftly and began to
press hard upon the retreating army. The firing was almost continuous.
Many prisoners and five guns were taken, but at the crossing of a creek
near nightfall the men in gray, still resolute, turned and beat off
their assailants for the time.
The pursuit was resumed before the next daylight, and both Grant and
Sheridan pressed it with the utmost severity. In the next few days
Dick felt both pity and sympathy for the little army that was defending
itself so valiantly against extermination or capture. It was almost
like the chase of a fox now, and the hounds were always growing in
number and power.
The Northern cavalry spread out and formed a great net. The Southern
communications were cut off, their scouts were taken, and all the
provision trains intended for Lee were captured. The prisoners
reported that the Southern army was starving, and the condition of
their own bodies proved the truth of their words. As Dick looked upon
these ragged and famished men his feeling of pity increased, and he
sincerely hoped that the hour of Lee's surrender would be hastened.
During these days and most of the nights too Dick lived in the saddle.
Once more he and his comrades were clothed in the Virginia mud, and all
the time the Winchester regiment brought in prisoners or wagons. They
knew now that Lee was seeking to turn toward the South and effect a
junction with Johnston in North Carolina, but Dick, his thoughts being
his own, did not see how it was possible. When the Confederacy began
to fall it fell fast. It was only after they passed through Richmond
that he saw how frail the structure had become, and how its supporting
timbers had been shot away. It was great cause of wonder to him that
Lee should still be able to hold out, and to fight off cavalry raids,
as he was doing.
And the Army of Northern Virginia, although but a fragment, was
dangerous. In these its last hours, reduced almost to starvation and
pitiful in numbers, it fought with a courage and tenacity worthy of its
greatest days. It gave to Lee a devotion that would have melted a
heart of stone. Whenever he commanded, it turned fiercely upon its
remorseless pursuers, and compelled them to give ground for a time.
But when it sought to march on again the cavalry of Sheridan and the
infantry of Grant followed closely once more, continually cutting off
the fringe of the dwindling army.
Dick saw Lee himself on a hill near Sailor's Creek, as Sheridan pressed
forward against him. The gray leader had turned. The troops of Ewell
and Anderson were gathered at the edge of a forest, and other infantry
masses stood near. Lee on Traveler sat just in front of them, and was
surveying the enemy through his glasses. Dick used his own glasses,
and he looked long, and with the most intense curiosity, mingled with
admiration, at the Lion of the South, whom they were about to bring to
the ground. The sun was just setting, and Lee was defined sharply
against the red blaze. Dick saw his features, his gray hair, and he
could imagine the defiant blaze of his eyes. It was an unforgettable
picture, the one drawn there by circumstances at the closing of an era.
Then he took notice of a figure, also on horseback, not far behind Lee,
a youthful figure, the face thin and worn, none other than his cousin,
Harry Kenton. Dick's heart took a glad leap. Harry still rode with
his chief, and Dick's belief that he would survive the war was almost
justified.
Then followed a scattering fire to which sunset and following darkness
put an end, and once more the Southern leader retreated, with Sheridan
and his cavalry forever at his heels, giving him no rest, keeping food
from reaching him, and capturing more of his men. The wounded lion
turned again, and, in a fierce attack drove back Sheridan and his men,
but, when the battle closed, and Lee resumed his march, Sheridan was at
his heels as before, seeking to pull him down, and refusing to be
driven off.
Grant also dispatched Custer in a cavalry raid far around Lee, and the
daring young leader not only seized the last wagon train that could
possibly reach the Confederate commander, but also captured twenty-five
of his guns that had been sent on ahead. Dick knew now that the end,
protracted as it had been by desperate courage, was almost at hand, and
that not even a miracle could prevent it.
The column with which he rode was almost continually in sight of the
Army of Northern Virginia, and the field guns never ceased to pour shot
and shell upon it. The sight was tragic to the last degree, as the
worn men in gray retreated sullenly along the muddy roads, in rags,
blackened with mire, stained with wounds, their horses falling dead of
exhaustion, while the pursuing artillery cut down their ranks. Then
the news of Custer's exploit came to Grant and Sheridan, and the circle
of steel, now complete, closed in on the doomed army.
It was the seventh of April when the Winchester men rested their weary
horses, not far from the headquarters of General Grant, and also gave
their own aching bones and muscles a chance to recover their strength.
Dick, after his food and coffee, watched the general, who was walking
back and forth before his tent.
"He looks expectant," said Dick.
"He has the right to look so," said Warner. "He may have news of
earth-shaking importance."
"What do you mean?"
"I know that he sent a messenger to Lee this morning, asking him to
surrender in order to stop the further effusion of blood."
"I wish Lee would accept. The end is inevitable."
"Remember that they don't see with our eyes."
"I know it, George, but the war ought to stop. The Confederacy is gone
forever."
"We shall see what we shall see."
They didn't see, but they heard, which was the same thing. To the
polite request of Grant, Lee sent the polite reply that his means of
resistance were not yet exhausted, and the Union leader took another
hitch in the steel girdle. The second morning afterward, Lee made a
desperate effort to break through at Appomattox Court House, but
crushing numbers drove him back, and when the short fierce combat
ceased, the Army of Northern Virginia had fired its last shot.
The Winchester men had borne a gallant part in the struggle, and
presently when the smoke cleared away Dick uttered a shout.
"What is it?" exclaimed Colonel Winchester.
"A white flag! A white flag!" cried Dick in excitement. "See it
waving over the Southern lines."
"Yes, I see it!" shouted the colonel, Warner and Pennington all
together. Then they stood breathless, and Dick uttered the words:
"The end!"
"Yes," said Colonel Winchester, more to himself than to the others.
"The end! The end at last!"
Thousands now beheld the flag, and, after the first shouts and cheers,
a deep intense silence followed. The soldiers felt the immensity of
the event, but as at the taking of Richmond, they could not comprehend
it all at once. It yet seemed incredible that the enemy, who for four
terrible years had held them at bay, was about to lay down his arms.
But it was true. The messenger, bearing the flag, was now coming
toward the Union lines.
The herald was received within the Northern ranks, bearing a request
that hostilities be suspended in order that the commanders might have
time to talk over terms of surrender, and, at the same time, General
Grant, who was seven or eight miles from Appomattox Court House in a
pine wood, received a note of a similar tenor, the nature of which he
disclosed to his staff amid much cheering. The Union chief at once
wrote to General Lee:
Your note of this date is but at this moment (11:50 A. M.) received,
in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg
road to the Farmville and Lynchburg road. I am at this writing
about four miles west of Walker's Church, and will push forward to
the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on
this road where you wish the interview to take place will meet me.
It was a characteristic and modest letter, and yet the heart under the
plain blue blouse must have beat with elation at the knowledge that he
had brought, what was then the greatest war of modern times, to a
successful conclusion. The dispatch was given to Colonel Babcock of
his staff, who was instructed to ride in haste to Lee and arrange the
interview. The general and his staff followed, but missing the way,
narrowly escaped capture by Confederate troops, who did not yet know of
the proposal to suspend hostilities. But they at last reached Sheridan
about a half mile west of Appomattox Court House.
Dick and his comrades meanwhile spent a momentous morning. It would
have been impossible for him afterward to have described his own
feelings, they were such an extraordinary compound of relief, elation,
pity and sympathy. The two armies faced each other, and, for the first
time, in absolute peace. The men in blue were already slipping food
and tobacco to their brethren in gray whom they had fought so long and
so hard, and at many points along the lines they were talking freely
with one another. The officers made no effort to restrain them, all
alike feeling sure that the bayonets would now be rusting.
The Winchester men were dismounted, their horses being tethered in a
grove, and Dick with the colonel, Warner and Pennington were at the
front, eagerly watching the ragged little army that faced them. He saw
soon a small band of soldiers, at the head of whom stood two elderly
men in patched but neat uniforms, their figures very erect, and their
faces bearing no trace of depression. Close by them were two tall
youths whom Dick recognized at once as St. Clair and Langdon. He waved
his hand to them repeatedly, and, at last, caught the eye of St. Clair,
who at once waved back and then called Langdon's attention. Langdon
not only waved also, but walked forward, as if to meet him, bringing
St. Clair with him, and Dick, responding at once, advanced with Warner
and Pennington.
They shook hands under the boughs of an old oak, and were unaffectedly
glad to see one another, although the three youths in blue felt
awkwardness at first, being on the triumphant side, and fearing lest
some act or word of theirs might betray exultation over a conquered
foe. But St. Clair, precise, smiling, and trim in his attire, put them
at ease.
"General Lee will be here presently," he said, "and you, as well as we,
know that the war is over. You are the victors and our cause is lost."
"But you have lost with honor," said Dick, won by his manner. "The
odds were greatly against you. It's wonderful to me that you were able
to fight so long and with so much success."
"It was a matter of mathematics, Captain St. Clair," said Warner. "The
numbers, the big guns and the resources were on our side, If we held on
we were bound to win, as anyone could demonstrate. It's certainly no
fault of yours to have been defeated by mathematics, a science that
governs the world."
St. Clair and Langdon smiled, and Langdon said lightly:
"It would perhaps be more just to say, Mr. Warner, that we have not
been beaten, but that we've worn ourselves out, fighting. Besides, the
spring is here, a lot of us are homesick, and it's time to put in the
crops."
"I think that's a good way to leave it," said Dick. "Do you know where
my cousin, Harry Kenton, is?"
"I saw him this morning," replied St. Clair, "and I can assure you that
he's taken no harm. He's riding ahead of the commander-in-chief, and
he should be here soon."
A trumpet sounded and they separated, returning respectively to their
own lines. Standing on a low hill, Dick saw Harry Kenton and Dalton
dismount and then stand on one side, as if in expectancy. Dick knew
for whom they were waiting, and his own heart beat hard. A great hum
and murmur arose, when the gray figure of an elderly man riding the
famous war horse, Traveler, appeared.
It was Lee, and in this moment, when his heart must have bled, his
bearing was proud and high. He was worn somewhat, and he had lost
strength from the great privations and anxieties of the retreat, but he
held himself erect. He was clothed in a fine new uniform, and he wore
buckled at his side a splendid new sword, recently sent to him as a
present.
Near by stood a farm house belonging to Wilmer McLean, but, Grant not
yet having come, the Southern commander-in-chief dismounted, and, as
the air was close and hot, he remained a little while under the shade
of an apple tree, the famous apple tree of Appomattox, around which
truth and legend have played so much.
Dick was fully conscious of everything now. He realized the greatness
of the moment, and he would not miss any detail of any movement on the
part of the principals. It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon
when Grant and his staff rode up, the Union leader still wearing his
plain blue blouse, no sword at his side, his shoulder straps alone
signifying his rank.
The two generals who had faced each other with such resolution in that
terrible conflict shook hands, and Dick saw them talking pleasantly as
if they were chance acquaintances who had just met once more.
Presently they went into the McLean house, several of General Grant's
staff accompanying him, but Lee taking with him only Colonel Thomas
Marshall.
Before the day was over Dick learned all that had occurred inside that
unpretentious but celebrated farm house. The two great commanders, at
first did not allude to the civil war, but spoke of the old war in
Mexico, where Lee, the elder, had been General Winfield Scott's chief
of staff, and the head of his engineer corps, with Grant, the younger,
as a lieutenant and quartermaster. It never entered the wildest dreams
of either then that they should lead the armies of a divided nation
engaged in mortal combat. Now they had only pleasant recollections of
each other, and they talked of the old days, of Contreras, Molino del
Rey, and other battles in the Valley of Mexico.
They sat down at a plain table, and then came in the straightforward
manner characteristic of both to the great business in hand. Colonel
Marshall supplied the paper for the historic documents now about to be
written and signed.
General Grant, humane, and never greater or more humane than in the
hour of victory, made the terms easy. All the officers of the Army of
Northern Virginia were to give their parole not to take up arms against
the United States, until properly exchanged, and the company or
regimental commanders were to sign a like parole for their men. The
artillery, other arms and public property were to be turned over to the
Union army, although the officers were permitted to retain their side
arms and their own horses and baggage. Then officers and men alike
could go to their homes.
It was truly the supreme moment of Grant's greatness, of a humanity and
greatness of soul the value of which to his nation can never be
overestimated. Surrenders in Europe at the end of a civil war had
always been followed by confiscations, executions and a reign of terror
for the beaten. Here the man who had compelled the surrender merely
told the defeated to go to their homes.
Lee looked at the terms and said:
"Many of the artillerymen and cavalrymen in our army own their horses,
will the provisions allowing the officers to retain their horses apply
to them also?"
"No, it will not as it is written," replied Grant, "but as I think this
will be the last battle of the war, and as I suppose most of the men in
the ranks are small farmers who without their horses would find it
difficult to put in their crops, the country having been swept of
everything movable, and as the United States does not want them, I will
instruct the officers who are to receive the paroles of your troops to
let every man who claims to own a horse or mule take the animal to his
home."
"It will have a pleasant effect," said Lee, and then he wrote a formal
letter accepting the capitulations. The two generals, rising, bowed to
each other, but as Lee turned away he said that his men had eaten no
food for several days, except parched corn, and he would have to ask
that rations, and forage for their horses, be given to them.
"Certainly, general," replied Grant. "For how many men do you need
them?"
"About twenty-five thousand," was Lee's reply.
Then General Grant requested him to send his own officers to Appomattox
Station for the food and forage. Lee thanked him. They bowed to each
other again, and the Southern leader who no longer had an army, but who
retained always the love and veneration of the South, left the McLean
house. Thus and in this simple fashion--the small detached fighting
elsewhere did not count--did the great civil war in America, which had
cost six or seven hundred thousand lives, and the temporary ruin of one
section, come to an end.
Dick saw Lee come out of the house, mount Traveler and, followed by
Colonel Marshall, ride back toward his own men who already had divined
the occurrences in the house. The army saluted him with undivided
affection, the troops crowding around him, cheering him, and, whenever
they had a chance, shaking his hand. The demonstration became so great
that Lee was moved deeply and showed it. The water rose in his eyes
and his voice trembled as he said, though with pride:
"My lads, we have fought through the war together. I have done the
best I could for you. My heart is too full to say more."
He could not be induced to speak further, although the great
demonstration continued, but rode in silence to his headquarters in a
wood, where he entered his tent and sat alone, no one ever knowing what
his thoughts were in that hour.
Twenty-six thousand men who were left of the Army of Northern Virginia
surrendered the next day, and the blue and the gray fraternized. The
Union soldiers did not wait for the rations ordered by Grant, but gave
of their own to the starved men who were so lately their foes. Dick
and his friends hastened at once to find Harry Kenton and his comrades,
and presently they saw them all sitting together on a log, thin and
pale, but with no abatement of pride. Harry rose nevertheless, and
received his cousin joyfully.
"Dick," he said as their hands met, "the war is over, and over forever.
But you and I were never enemies."
"That's so, Harry," said Dick Mason, "and the thing for us to do now is
to go back to Kentucky, and begin life where we left it off."
"But you don't start this minute," said Warner. "There is a small
matter of business to be transacted first. We know all of you, but
just the same we've brought our visiting cards with us."
"I don't understand," said Harry.
"We'll show you. Frank Pennington, remove that large protuberance from
beneath your blouse. Behold it! A small ham, my friends, and it's for
you. That's Frank's card. And here I take from my own blouse the half
of a cheese, which I beg you to accept with my compliments. Dick, you
rascal, what's that you have under your arm?"
"It's a jar of prime bacon that I've brought along for the party,
George."
"I thought so. We're going to have the pleasure of dining with our
friends here. We've heard, Captain Kenton, that you people haven't
eaten anything for a month."
"It's not that bad," laughed Harry. "We had parched corn yesterday."
"Well, parched corn is none too filling, and we're going to prepare the
banquet at once. A certain Sergeant Whitley will arrive presently with
a basket of food, such as you rebels haven't tasted since you raided
our wagon trains at the Second Manassas, and with him will come one
William Shepard, whom you have met often, Mr. Kenton."
"Yes," said Harry, "we've met often and under varying circumstances,
but we're going to be friends now."
"Will you tell me, Captain St. Clair," said Dick, "what has become of
the two colonels of your regiment, which I believe you call the
Invincibles?"
St. Clair led them silently to a little wood, and there, sitting on
logs, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire
were bent intently over the chess board that lay between them.
"Now that the war is over we'll have a chance to finish our game, eh,
Hector?" said Colonel Talbot.
"A just observation, Leonidas. It's a difficult task to pursue a game
to a perfect conclusion amid the distractions of war, but soon I shall
checkmate you in the brilliant fashion in which General Lee always
snares and destroys his enemy."
"But General Lee has yielded, Hector."
"Pshaw, Leonidas! General Lee would never yield to anybody. He has
merely quit!"
"Ahem!" said Harry loudly, and, as the colonels glanced up, they saw
the little group looking down at them.
"Our friends, the enemy, have come to pay you their respects," said
Harry.
The two colonels rose and bowed profoundly.
"And to invite you to a banquet that is now being prepared not far from
here," continued Harry. "It's very tempting, ham, cheese, and other
solids, surrounded by many delicacies."
The two colonels looked at each other, and then nodded approval.
"You are to be the personal guests of our army," said Dick, "and we act
as the proxies of General Grant."
"I shall always speak most highly of General Grant," said Colonel
Leonidas Talbot. "His conduct has been marked by the greatest
humanity, and is a credit to our common country, which has been
reunited so suddenly."
"But reunited with our consent, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel St.
Hilaire. "Don't forget that I, for one, am tired of this war, and so
is our whole army. It was a perfect waste of life to prolong it, and
with the North reannexed, the Union will soon be stronger and more
prosperous than ever."
"Well spoken, Hector! Well spoken. It is perhaps better that North
and South should remain together. I thought otherwise for four years,
but now I seem to have another point of view. Come, lads, we shall
dine with these good Yankee boys and we'll make them drink toasts of
their own excellent coffee to the health and safety of our common
country."
The group returned to a little hollow, in which Sergeant Whitley and
Shepard had built a fire, and where they were already frying strips of
bacon and slices of ham over the coals. Shepard and Harry shook hands.
"I may as well tell you now, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard, "that Miss
Henrietta Carden, whom you met in Richmond, is my sister, and that it
was she who hid in the court at the Curtis house and took the map.
Then it was I who gave you the blow."
"It was done in war," said Harry, "and I have no right to complain. It
was clever and I hope that I shall be able to give your sister my
compliments some day. Now, if you don't mind, I'll take a strip of
that wonderful bacon. It is bacon, isn't it? It's so long since I've
seen any that I'm not sure of its identity, but whatever it is its odor
is enticing."
"Bacon it surely is, Mr. Kenton. Here are three pieces that I broiled
myself and a broad slice of bread for them. Go ahead, there's plenty
more. And see this dark brown liquid foaming in this stout tin pot!
Smell it! Isn't it wonderful! Well, that's coffee! You've heard of
coffee, and maybe you remember it."
"I do remember tasting it some years ago and finding it good. I'd like
to try it again. Yes, thank you. It's fine."
"Here's another cup, and try the ham also."
Harry tried it, not once but several times. Langdon sat on the ground
before the fire, and his delight was unalloyed and unashamed.
"We have raided a Yankee wagon train again," he said, "and the looting
is splendid. Arthur, I thought yesterday that I should never eat
again. Food and I were such strangers that I believed we should never
know each other, any more, or if knowing, we could never assimilate.
And yet we seem to get on good terms at once."
While they talked a tall thin youth of clear dark complexion, carrying
a long bundle under his arm, approached the fire and Lieutenant Colonel
St. Hilaire welcomed him with joy.
"Julien! Julien de Langeais, my young relative!" he cried. "And you
are indeed alive! I thought you lost!"
"I'm very much alive, sir," said young De Langeais, "but I'm starved."
"Then this is the place to come," said Dick, putting before him food,
which he strove to eat slowly, although the effort at restraint was
manifestly great. Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire introduced him to the
Union men, and then asked him what was the long black bag that he
carried under his arm.
"That, sir," replied De Langeais, smiling pathetically, "is my violin.
I've no further use for my rifle and sword, but now that peace is
coming I may be able to earn my bread with the fiddle."
"And so you will! You'll become one of the world's great musicians.
And as soon as we've finished with General Grant's hospitality, which
will be some time yet, you shall play for us."
De Langeais looked affectionately at the black bag.
"You're very good to me, sir," he said, "to encourage me at such a
time, and, if you and the others care for me to play, I'll do my best."
"Paganini himself could do no more, but, for the present, we must pay
due attention to the hospitality of General Grant. He would not like
it, if it should come to his ears that we did not show due
appreciation, and since, in the course of events, and in order to
prevent the mutual destruction of the sections, it became necessary for
General Lee to arrange with someone to stop this suicidal war, I am
glad the man was General Grant, a leader whose heart does him infinite
credit."
"General Grant is a very great man, and he has never proved it more
fully than today," said Dick, who sat near the colonels--his first
inclination had been to smile, but he restrained it.
"Truly spoken, young sir," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. "General Lee
and General Grant together could hold this continent against the world,
and, now that we have quit killing one another, America is safe in
their hands. Harry, do you think I've eaten too much? I wouldn't go
beyond the exploits of a gentleman, but this food has a wonderful
savor, and I can't say that I have dined before in months."
"Not at all, sir, you have just fairly begun. As Lieutenant Colonel
St. Hilaire pointed out, General Grant would be displeased if we didn't
fully appreciate his hospitality and prove it by our deeds. Here are
some sardines, sir. You haven't tasted 'em yet, but you'll find 'em
wonderfully fine."
Colonel Leonidas Talbot took the sardines, and then he and Lieutenant
Colonel St. Hilaire rose suddenly and simultaneously to their feet, a
look of wonder and joy spreading over their faces.
"Is it really he?" exclaimed Colonel Talbot.
"It's he and none other," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire.
A tall, powerfully built, gray-haired man was coming toward them, his
hands extended. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire
stepped forward, and each grasped a hand.
"Good old John!"
"Why, John, it's worth a victory to shake your hand again!"
"Leonidas, I've been inquiring, an hour or two, for you and Hector."
"John Carrington, you've fulfilled your promise and more. We always
said at West Point that you'd become the greatest artilleryman in the
world, and in this war you've proved it on fifty battle fields. We've
often watched your work from the other side, and we've always admired
the accuracy with which you sent the shells flying about us. It was
wonderful, John, wonderful, and it did more than anything else to save
the North from complete defeat!"
A smile passed over John Carrington's strong face, and he patted his
old comrade on the shoulder.
"It's good to know, Leonidas, that neither you nor Hector has been
killed," he said, "and that we can dine together again."
"Truly, truly, John! Sit down! It's the hospitality of your own
general that you share when you join us. General Lee would never make
terms with men like McClellan, Burnside and Hooker. No, sir, he
preferred to defeat them, much as it cost our Union in blood and
treasure, but with a man of genius like General Grant he could agree.
Really great souls always recognize one another. Is it not so, John?"
"Beyond a doubt, Leonidas. We fully admit the greatness and lofty
character of General Lee, as you admit the greatness and humanity of
General Grant. One nation is proud to have produced two such men."
"I agree with you, John. All of us agree with you. The soldiers of
General Lee's army who are here today will never dispute what you say.
Now fall on, and join us at this board which, though rustic, is indeed
a most luxurious and festive one. As I remember at West Point, you
were a first-class trencherman."
"And I am yet," said John Carrington, as he took his share. They were
joined a little later by a gallant young Southern colonel, Philip
Sherburne, who had led in many a cavalry attack, and then the equally
gallant Northern colonel, Alan Hertford, came also, and as everybody
was introduced to everybody else the good feeling grew. At last the
hunger that had been increasing so long was satisfied, and as they
leaned back, Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire turned to Julien de
Langeais:
"Julien," he said, "take out your violin. There is no more fitting
time than this to play. Julien, John, is a young relative of mine from
Louisiana who has a gift. He is a great musician who is going to
become much greater. Perhaps it was wrong to let a lad of his genius
enter this war, but at any rate he has survived it, and now he will
show us what he can do."
De Langeais, after modest deprecations, took out his violin and played.
Upon his sensitive soul the war had made such a deep impression that
his spirit spoke through his instrument. He had never before played so
well. His strings sang of the march, the camp, of victory and defeat,
and defeat and victory, and as he played he became absorbed in his
music. The people around him, although they were rapidly increasing in
numbers, were not visible to him. Yet he played upon their hearts.
There was not one among them who did not see visions and dream dreams
as he listened. At last his bow turned into the old and ever young,
"Home Sweet Home."
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain,
Oh! give me my lowly, thatched cottage again.
Into the song he poured all his skill and all his heart, and as he
played he saw the house in which he was born on the far Louisiana
plantation. And those who listened saw also, in spirit, the homes which
many of them had not seen in fact for four years. Stern souls were
softened, and water rose to eyes which had looked fearlessly and so
often upon the charging bayonets of the foe.
He stopped suddenly and put away his violin. There was a hush, and
then a long roll of applause, not loud, but very deep.
"I hear Pendleton calling," said Harry to Dick.
"So do I," said Dick. "I wonder what they're doing there. Have you
heard from your father?"
"Not for several months. I think he's in North Carolina with Johnston,
and I mean to go home that way. I've a good horse, and he'll carry me
through the mountains. I think I'll find father there. An hour or two
ago, Dick, I felt like a man and I was a man, but since De Langeais
played I've become a boy again, and I'm longing for Pendleton, and its
green hills, and the little river in which we used to swim."
"So am I, Harry, and it's likely that I'll go with you. The war is
over and I can get leave at once. I want to see my mother."
They stayed together until night came over Appomattox and its famous
apple tree, and a few days later Harry Kenton was ready to start on
horseback for Kentucky. But he was far from being alone. The two
colonels, St. Clair, Langdon, Dick, De Langeais, Colonel Winchester and
Sergeant Whitley were to ride with him. Warner was to go north and
Pennington west as soon as they were mustered out. Dick wrung their
hands.
"Good-by, George! Good-by, Frank! Old comrades!" he said. "But
remember that we are to see a good deal of one another all through our
lives!"
"Which I can reduce to a mathematical problem and demonstrate by means
of my little algebra here," said Warner, fumbling for his book to hide
his emotion.
"I may come through Kentucky to see you and Harry," said Pennington,
"when I start back to Nebraska."
"Be sure to come," said Dick with enthusiasm, "and remember that the
latch string is hanging out on both doors."
Then, carrying their arms, and well equipped with ammunition, food and
blankets, the little party rode away. They knew that the mountains
were still extremely unsettled, much infested by guerrillas, but they
believed themselves strong enough to deal with any difficulty, and, as
the April country was fair and green, their hearts, despite everything,
were light.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE FINAL RECKONING
They rode a long time through a war-torn country, and the days bound
the young men together so closely that, at times, it seemed to them
they had fought on the same side all through the war. Sergeant Whitley
was usually their guide and he was an expert to bargain for food and
forage. He exhibited then all the qualities that afterward raised him
so high in the commercial world.
Although they were saddened often by the spectacle of the ruin the long
war had made, they kept their spirits, on the whole, wonderfully well.
The two colonels, excellent horsemen, were an unfailing source of
cheerfulness. When they alluded to the war they remembered only the
great victories the South had won, and invariably they spoke of its end
as a compromise. They also began to talk of Charleston, toward which
their hearts now turned, and a certain handsome Madame Delaunay whom
Harry Kenton remembered well.
As they left Virginia and entered North Carolina they heard that the
Confederate troops everywhere were surrendering. The war, which had
been so terrible and sanguinary only two or three months before, ended
absolutely with the South's complete exhaustion. Already the troops
were going home by the scores of thousands. They saw men who had just
taken off their uniforms guiding the ploughs in the furrows. Smoke
rose once more from the chimneys of the abandoned homes, and the boys
who had faced the cannon's mouth were rebuilding rail fences. The odor
of grass and newly turned earth was poignant and pleasant. The two
colonels expanded.
"Though my years have been devoted to military pursuits, Hector," said
Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "the agricultural life is noble, and many of
the hardy virtues of the South are due to the fact that we are chiefly
a rural population."
"Truly spoken, Leonidas, but for four years agriculture has not had
much chance with us, and perhaps agriculture is not all. It was the
mechanical genius of the North that kept us from taking New York and
Boston."
"Which reminds me, Happy," said St. Clair to Langdon, "that, after all,
you didn't sleep in the White House at Washington with your boots on."
"I changed my mind," replied Happy easily. "I didn't want to hurt
anybody's feelings."
Soon they entered the mountains, and they met many Confederate soldiers
returning to their homes. Harry always sought from them news of his
father, and he learned at last that he was somewhere in the western
part of the state. Then he heard, a day or two later, that a band of
guerrillas to the south of them were plundering and sometimes
murdering. They believed from what details they could gather that it
was Slade and Skelly with a new force, and they thought it advisable to
turn much farther toward the west.
"The longest way 'round is sometimes the shortest way through," said
Sergeant Whitley, and the others agreed with him. They came into a
country settled then but little. The mountains were clothed in deep
forest, now in the full glory of early spring, and the log cabins were
few. Usually they slept, the nights through, in the forest, and they
helped out their food supply with game. The sergeant shot two deer,
and they secured wild turkeys and quantities of smaller game.
Although they heard that the guerrillas were moving farther west, which
necessitated the continuation of their own course in that direction,
they seemed to have entered another world. Where they were, at least,
there was nothing but peace, the peace of the wilderness which made a
strong appeal to all of them. In the evenings by their campfire in the
forest De Langeais would often play for them on his violin, and the
great trees about them seemed to rustle with approval, as a haunting
melody came back in echoes from the valleys.
They had been riding a week through a wilderness almost unbroken when,
just before sunset, they heard a distant singing sound, singularly like
that of De Langeais' violin.
"It is a violin," said De Langeais, "but it's not mine. The sound
comes from a point at the head of the cove before us."
They rode into the little valley and the song of the violin grew
louder. It was somebody vigorously playing "Old Dan Tucker," and as the
woods opened they saw a stout log cabin, a brook and some fields. The
musician, a stalwart young man, sat in the doorway of the house. A
handsome young woman was cooking outside, and a little child was
playing happily on the grass.
"I'll ride forward and speak to them," said Harry Kenton. "That man
and I are old friends."
The violin ceased, as the thud of hoofs drew near, but Harry, springing
from his horse, held out his hand to the man and said:
"How are you, Dick Jones? I see that the prophecy has come true!"
The man stared at him a moment or two in astonishment, and then grasped
his hand.
"It's Mr. Kenton!" he cried, "an' them's your friends behind you.
'Light, strangers, 'light! Yes, Mr. Kenton, it's come true. I've been
back home a week, an' not a scratch on me, though I've fit into nigh
onto a thousand battles. I reckon my wife, that's Mandy there, wished
so hard fur me to come back that the Lord let her have her way. But
'light, strangers! 'Light an' hev supper!"
"We will," said Harry, "but we're not going to crowd you out of your
house. We've plenty of food with us, and we're accustomed to sleeping
out of doors."
Nevertheless the hospitality of Dick Jones and his wife, Mandy, was
unbounded. It was arranged that the two colonels should sleep inside,
while the others took to the grass with their blankets. Liberal
contributions were made to the common larder by the travelers, and they
had an abundant supper, after which the men sat outside, the colonels
smoking good old North Carolina weed, and Mrs. Jones knitting in the
dusk.
"Don't you and your family get lonesome here sometimes, Mr. Jones?"
asked Harry.
"Never," replied the mountaineer. "You see I've had enough o' noise
an' multitudes. More than once I've seen two hundred thousand men
fightin', and I've heard the cannon roarin', days without stoppin'. I
still git to dreamin' at night 'bout all them battles, an' when I
awake, an' set up sudden like an' hear nothin' outside but the
tricklin' o' the branch an' the wind in the leaves, I'm thankful that
them four years are over, an' nobody is shootin' at nobody else. An'
it's hard now an' then to b'lieve that they're really an' truly over."
"But how about Mrs. Jones?"
"She an' the baby stayed here four whole years without me, but we've
got neighbors, though you can't see 'em fur the trees. Jest over the
ridge lives her mother, an' down Jones' Creek, into which the branch
runs, lives her married sister, an' my own father ain't more'n four
miles away. The settlements are right thick 'roun' here, an' we hev
good times."
Mrs. Jones nodded her emphatic assent.
"Which way do you-all 'low to be goin' tomorrow?" asked Jones.
"We think we'd better keep to the west," replied Colonel Talbot.
"We've heard of a guerrilla band under two men, Slade and Skelly, who
are making trouble to the southward."
"I've heard of 'em too," said Jones, "an' I reckon they're 'bout the
meanest scum the war hez throwed up. The troops will be after 'em
afore long, an' will clean 'em out, but I guess they'll do a lot o'
damage afore then. You gen'lemen will be wise to stick to your plan,
an' keep on toward the west."
They departed the next morning, taking with them the memory of a very
pleasant meeting, and once more pursued their way through the
wilderness. Harry, despite inquiries at every possible place, heard
nothing more of his father, and concluded that, after the surrender, he
must have gone at once to Kentucky, expecting his son to come there by
another way.
But the reports of Slade and Skelly were so numerous and so sinister
that they made a complete change of plan. The colonels, St. Clair and
Langdon, would not try to go direct to South Carolina, but the whole
party would cling together, ride to Kentucky, and then those who lived
farther south could return home chiefly by rail. It seemed, on the
whole, much the wiser way, and, curving back a little to the north,
they entered by and by the high mountains on the line between Virginia
and Kentucky. Other returning soldiers had joined them and their party
now numbered thirty brave, well-armed men.
They entered Kentucky at a point near the old Wilderness Road, and,
from a lofty crest, looked down upon a sea of ridges, heavy with green
forest, and narrow valleys between, in which sparkled brooks or little
rivers. The hearts of Harry and Dick beat high. They were going home.
What awaited them at Pendleton? Neither had heard from the town or
anybody in it for a long time. Anticipation was not unmingled with
anxiety.
Two days later they entered a valley, and when they stopped at noon for
their usual rest Harry Kenton rode some distance up a creek, thinking
that he might rouse a deer out of the underbrush. Although the country
looked extremely wild and particularly suited to game, he found none,
but unwilling to give up he continued the hunt, riding much farther
than he was aware.
He was just thinking of the return, when he heard a rustling in a
thicket to his right, and paused, thinking that it might be the deer he
wanted. Instead, a gigantic figure with thick black hair and beard rose
up in the bush. Harry uttered a startled exclamation. It was Skelly,
and beside him stood a little man with an evil face, hidden partly by
an enormous flap-brimmed hat. Both carried rifles, and before Harry
could take his own weapon from his shoulder Skelly fired. Harry's
horse threw up his head in alarm, and the bullet, instead of hitting
the rider, took the poor animal in the brain.
As the horse fell, Harry sprang instinctively and alighted upon his
feet, although he staggered. Then Slade pulled trigger, and a searing,
burning pain shot through his left shoulder. Dizzy and weak he raised
his rifle, nevertheless, and fired at the hairy face of the big man.
He saw the huge figure topple and fall; he heard another shot, and
again felt the thrill of pain, this time in the head, heard a shrill
whistle repeated over and over, and did not remember anything definite
until some time afterward.
When his head became clear once more Harry believed that he had
wandered a long distance from that brief but fierce combat, but he did
not know in what direction his steps had taken him. Nearly all his
strength was gone, and his head ached fearfully. He had dropped his
rifle, but where he did not know nor care. He sat down on the ground
with his back against a tree, and put his right hand to his head. The
wound there had quit bleeding, clogged up with its own blood. He was
experienced enough to know that it was merely a flesh wound, and that
any possible scar would be hidden by his hair.
But the wound in his left shoulder was more serious. The bullet had
gone entirely through, for which he was glad, but the hurt was still
bleeding. He made shift to bandage it with strips torn from his
underclothing, and, after a long rest, he undertook to walk back to the
camp. He was not sure of the way, and after two or three hundred yards
he grew dizzy and sat down again. Then he shouted for help, but his
voice sounded so weak that he gave it up.
He was never sure, but he thought another period of unconsciousness
followed, because when he aroused himself the sun seemed to be much
farther down in the west. His head was still aching, though not quite
so badly as before, and he made a new effort to walk. He did not know
where he was going, but he must go somewhere. If he remained there in
the wilderness, and his comrades could not find him, he would die of
weakness and starvation. He shuddered. It would be the very irony of
fate that one who had gone through Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and all
the great battles in the East should be slain on his way home by a
roving guerrilla.
He rested again and summoned all his strength and courage, and he was
able to go several hundred yards farther. As he advanced the forest
seemed to thin and he was quite sure that he saw through it a valley
and open fields. The effect upon him was that of a great stimulant,
and he found increased strength. He tottered on, but stopped soon and
leaned against a tree. He dimly saw the valley, the fields, and a
distant roof, and then came something that gave him new strength. It
was a man's voice singing, a voice clear, powerful and wonderfully
mellow:
They bore him away when the day had fled,
And the storm was rolling high,
And they laid him down in his lonely bed
By the light of an angry sky.
The lightning flashed and the wild sea lashed
The shore with its foaming wave,
And the thunder passed on the rushing blast
As it howled o'er the rover's grave.
He knew that voice. He had heard it years ago, a century it seemed. It
was the voice of a friend, the voice of Sam Jarvis, the singer of the
mountains. He rushed forward, but overtaxing his strength, fell. He
pulled himself up by a bush and stood, trembling with weakness and
anxiety. Still came the voice, but the song had changed:
Soft o'er the fountain, lingering falls the Southern moon,
Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon,
In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the warm light loves to dwell,
Weary looks yet tender speak their fond farewell,
Nita! Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part,
Nita! Juanita! Lean thou on my heart!
It was an old song of pathos and longing, but Harry remembered well
that mellow, golden voice. If he could reach Sam Jarvis he would
secure help, and there was the happy valley in which he lived. As he
steadied himself anew fresh strength and courage poured into his veins,
and leaving the fringe of forest he entered a field, at the far end of
which Jarvis was ploughing.
The singer was happy. He drove a stout bay horse, and as he walked
along in the furrow he watched the rich black earth turn up before the
ploughshare. He hated no man, and no man hated him. The war had never
invaded his valley, and he sang from the sheer pleasure of living. The
world about him was green and growing, and the season was good. His
nephew, Ike Simmons, was ploughing in another field, and whenever he
chose he could see the smoke rising from the chimney of the strong log
house in which he lived.
Harry thought at first that he would go down the end of the long field
to Jarvis, but the ploughed land pulled at his feet, and made him very
weak again. So he walked straight across it, though he staggered, and
approached the house, the doors of which stood wide open.
He was not thinking very clearly now, but he knew that rest and help
were at hand. He opened the gate that led to the little lawn, went up
the walk and, scarcely conscious of what he was doing, stood in the
doorway, and stared into the dim interior. As his eyes grew used to
the dusk the figure of an old, old woman, lean and wrinkled, past a
hundred, suddenly rose from a chair, stood erect, and regarded him with
startled, burning eyes.
"Ah, it's the governor, the great governor, Henry Ware!" she exclaimed.
"Didn't I say to you long ago: 'You will come again, and you will be
thin and pale and in rags, and you will fall at the door.' I see you
coming with these two eyes of mine!"
As she spoke, the young man in the tattered Southern uniform, stained
with the blood of two wounds, reeled and fell unconscious in the
doorway.
When Harry came back to the world he was lying in a very comfortable
bed, and all the pain had gone from his head. A comfortable, motherly
woman, whom he recognized as Mrs. Simmons, was sitting beside him, and
Colonel Leonidas Talbot, looking very tall, very spare and very
precise, was standing at a window.
"Good morning, Mrs. Simmons," said Harry in a clear, full voice.
She uttered an exclamation of joy, and Colonel Talbot turned from the
window.
"So you've come back to us, Harry," he said. "We knew that it was only
a matter of time, although you did lose a lot of blood from that wound
in the shoulder."
"I never intended to stay away, sir."
"But you remained in the shadowy world three days."
"That long, sir?"
"Yes, Harry, three days, and a great deal of water has flowed under the
bridge in those three days."
"What do you mean, colonel?"
"There was a military operation of a very sharp and decisive character.
When you fell in the doorway here, Mrs. Simmons, who happened to be in
the kitchen, ran at once for her brother, Mr. Jarvis, a most excellent
and intelligent man. You were past telling anybody anything just then,
but he followed your trail, and met some of us, led by Sergeant
Whitley, who were also trailing you."
"And Slade and Skelly, what of them?"
"They'll never plunder or murder more. We divined much that had
happened. You were ambushed, were you not?"
"Yes, Slade and Skelly fired upon me from the bushes. I shot back and
saw Skelly fall."
"You shot straight and true. We found him there in the bushes, where
your bullet had cut short his murderous life. Then we organized,
pursued and surrounded the others. They were desperate criminals, who
knew the rope awaited them, and all of them died with their boots on.
Slade made a daring attempt to escape, but the sergeant shot him
through the head at long range, and a worse villain never fell."
"And our people, colonel, where are all of them?"
"Most of the soldiers have gone on, but the members of our own
immediate group are scattered about the valley, engaged chiefly in
agricultural or other homely pursuits, while they await your recovery,
and incidentally earn their bread. Sergeant Whitley, Captain St. Clair
and Captain Mason are putting a new roof on the barn, and, as I
inspected it myself, I can certify that they are performing the task in
a most workmanlike manner. Captain Thomas Langdon is ploughing in the
far field, by the side of that stalwart youth, Isaac Simmons, and each
is striving in a spirit of great friendliness to surpass the other. My
associate and second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire,
has gone down the creek fishing, a pursuit in which he has had much
success, contributing greatly to the larder of our hostess, Mrs.
Simmons."
"And where is Sam Jarvis?"
The colonel raised the window.
"Listen!" he said:
Up from the valley floated the far mellow notes:
I'm dreaming now of Hallie, sweet Hallie,
For the thought of her is one that never dies.
She's sleeping in the valley
And the mocking bird is singing where she lies.
Listen to the mocking bird singing o'er her grave,
Listen to the mocking bird, where the weeping willows wave.
"The words of the song are sad," said Colonel Talbot, "but sad music
does not necessarily make one feel sad. On the contrary we are all
very cheerful here, and Mr. Jarvis is the happiest man I have ever
known. I think it's because his nature is so kindly. A heart of gold,
pure gold, Harry, and that extraordinary old woman, Aunt Suse, insists
that you are your own greatgrandfather, the famous governor of
Kentucky."
"I was here before in the first year of the war, colonel, and she
foretold that I would return just as I did. How do you account for
that, sir?"
"I don't try to account for it. A great deal of energy is wasted in
trying to account for the unknowable. I shall take it as it is."
"What has become of Colonel Winchester, sir?"
"He rode yesterday to a tiny hamlet about twenty miles away. We had
heard from a mountaineer that an officer returning from the war was
there, and since we old soldiers like to foregather, we decided to have
him come and join our party. They are due here, and unless my eyes
deceive me--and I know they don't--they're at the bead of the valley
now, riding toward this house."
Harry detected a peculiar note in Colonel Talbot's voice, and his mind
leaped at once to a conclusion.
"That officer is my father!" he exclaimed.
"According to all the descriptions, it is he, and now you can sit up
and welcome him."
The meeting between father and son was not demonstrative, but both felt
deep emotion.
"Fortune has been kind to us, Harry, to bring us both safely out of the
long war," said Colonel Kenton.
"Kinder than we had a right to hope," said Harry.
The entire group rode together to Pendleton, and Dick was welcomed like
one risen from the dead by his mother, who told him a few weeks later
that he was to have a step-father, the brave colonel, Arthur Winchester.
"He's the very man I'd have picked for you, mother," said Dick
gallantly.
The little town of Pendleton was unharmed by the war, and, since bitter
feeling had never been aroused in it, the reunion of North and South
began there at once. In an incredibly short period everything went on
as before.
The two colonels and their younger comrades remained a while as the
guests of Colonel Kenton and his son, and then they started for the
farther south where St. Clair and Langdon were to begin the careers in
which they achieved importance.
Harry and Dick in Pendleton entered upon their own life work, which
they were destined to do so well, but often, in their dreams and for
many years, they rode again with Stonewall in the Valley, charged with
Pickett at Gettysburg, stood with the Rock of Chickamauga, or advanced
with Grant to the thunder of the guns through the shades of the
Wilderness.
Appendix: Transcription notes:
The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed
book to etext:
Chapter 6
Page 103, para 11, change "Turner" to "Warner"
Chapter 7
Page 112, para 6, insert missing period
Chapter 11
Page 186, para 2, fix punctuation typos
Chapter 17
Page 290, para 2, fix typo "unforgetable"
The following words were printed with accented vowels, but I chose not
to post an 8-bit version of this text:
Chapter 6
Page 94, para 1, "coordinate" with accented "o"
Chapter 15
Page 270, para 1, accented "o" in "cooperate"
As is typical in this series, there are a number of instances where the
use of the comma in the printed book seems to me inappropriate.
However, I have adhered to the punctuation as printed (except for
obvious printing errors, which are noted above).
For example:
The horses given to them by special favor of Sheridan in place of
their worn-out mounts, were splendid animals, and Sergeant Whitley
himself had prepared them for their first appearance before their
new masters.
The horsemen firing their own carbines and swinging aloft their
sabers, galloped forward in a mighty rush.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Tree of Appomattox, by Joseph A. Altsheler
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