CHAPTER XV
THE WILDERNESS
When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almostface to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole, hadfavored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell hadgained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind ofheart, he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, nomatter what the loss. He could afford to lose two men where theConfederacy lost one.
Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northerngeneral's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success, butGrant would be there to fight the following day with undiminishedresolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day wouldcome.
The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a rawchill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds ofsmoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets,poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as theybreathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and hishead felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a blackmist with a slightly reddish tint.
A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for thecommander-in-chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing thesupper, which was of the simplest kind. While they ate the food anddrank their coffee, the darkness increased, with the faint lights ofother fires showing here and there through it. Around the muddy placesfrogs croaked in defiance of armies, and, from distant points, came thecrackling fire of skirmishers prowling in the dusk.
Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away. Heknew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member ofthe staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet,although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and heand his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mightyattack came in the morning.
Hill, thin and pale, yet suffering from the effects of his wounds, butburning as usual with the fire of battle, rode up and consulted longand earnestly with Lee. Presently he went back to his own place nearerthe center, and then Lee began to send away his staff one by one withmessages. Harry was among the last to go, but he bore a dispatch toLongstreet.
He had heard that Longstreet had criticized Lee for ordering Pickett'sfamous charge at Gettysburg, but if so, Lee had taken no notice of it,and Longstreet had proved himself the same stalwart fighter as of old.He and the prompt arrival of his veterans had enabled Bragg to winChickamauga, and it was not Longstreet's fault that the advantagegained there was lost afterward. Now Harry knew that he would be up intime with his seasoned veterans.
As the young lieutenant rode away he saw General Lee walking back andforth before the low fire, his hands clasped behind him, and his eyesas serious as those of any human being could be. Harry appreciated theimmensity of his task, and in his heart was a sincere pity for the manwho bore so great a burden. He was familiar with the statement that toLee had been offered the command of the Northern armies at thebeginning of the war, but believing his first duty was to his State hehad gone with Virginia when Virginia reluctantly went out of the Union.Truly no one could regret the war more than he, and yet he had struckgiant blows for its success.
A moment more and the tall figure standing beside the low fire was lostto sight. Then Harry rode among the thickets in the rear of theConfederate line and it was a weird and ghastly ride. Now and then hishorse's feet sank in mud, and the frogs still dared to croak around thepools, making on such a night the most ominous of all sounds. Itseemed a sort of funeral dirge for both North and South, a croaktelling of the ruin and death that were to come on the morrow.
Damp boughs swept across his face, and the vapors, rising from theearth and mingled with the battle smoke, were still bitter to thetongue and poisonous to the breath. Rotten logs crushed beneath hishorse's feet and Harry felt a shiver as if the hoofs had cut through abody of the dead. Riflemen rose out of the thickets, but he alwaysgave them the password, and rode on without stopping.
Then came a space where he met no human being, the gap between Hill andLongstreet, and now the Wilderness became incredibly lonely and dreary.Harry felt that if ever a region was haunted by ghosts it was this. Thedead of last year's battle might be lying everywhere, and as the breezesprang up the melancholy thickets waved over them.
He was two-thirds of the way toward the point where he expected to findLongstreet when he heard the sough of a hoof in the mud behind him.
Harry listened and hearing the hoof again he was instantly on hisguard. He did not know it, but the character of the night and the wildaspect of the Wilderness were bringing out all the primeval andelemental qualities in his nature. He was the great borderer, HenryWare, in the Indian-haunted forest, feeling with a sixth sense, even aseventh sense, the presence of danger.
He was following a path, scarcely traceable, used by charcoal burnersand wood-cutters, but when he heard the hoof a second time he turnedaside into the deepest of the thickets and halted there. The hoofbeatcame a third time, a little nearer, and then no more. Evidently thehorseman behind him knew that he had turned aside, and was waiting andwatching. He was surely an enemy of great skill and boldness, and itwas equally sure that he was Shepard. Harry never felt a doubt that hewas pursued by the formidable Union spy, and he felt too that he hadnever been in greater danger, as Shepard at such a moment would notspare his best friend.
But he was not afraid. Danger had become so common that one lookedupon it merely as a risk. Moreover, he was never cooler or more ampleof resource. He dismounted softly, standing beside his horse's head,holding the reins with one hand and a heavy pistol with the other. Hesuspected that Shepard would do the same, but he believed that his eyesand ears were the keener. The man must have been inside theConfederate lines all the afternoon. Probably he had seen Harry ridingaway, and, deftly appropriating a horse, had followed him. There wasno end to Shepard's ingenuity and daring.
Harry's horse was trained to stand still indefinitely, and the youngman, with the heavy pistol, who held the reins was also immovable. Thesilence about him was so deep that Harry could hear the frogs croakingat a distant pool.
He waited a full five minutes, and now, like the wild animals, herelied more upon ear than eye. He had learned the faculty ofconcentration and he bent all his powers upon his hearing. Not theslightest sound could escape the tightly drawn drums of his ears.
He was motionless a full ten minutes. Nor did the horse beside himstir. It was a test of human endurance, the capacity to keep himselfabsolutely silent, but with every nerve attuned, while he waited for aninvisible danger. And those minutes were precious, too. The value ofnot a single one of them could have been measured or weighed. It washis duty to reach Longstreet at speed, because the general and hisveterans must be in line in the morning, when the battle was joined.Yet the incessant duel between Shepard and himself was at its heightagain, and he did not yet see how he could end it.
Harry felt that it must be essentially a struggle of patience, but whenhe waited a few minutes longer, the idea to wait with ears close to theearth, one of the oldest devices of primitive man, occurred to him. Itwas fairly dry in the bushes, and he lay down, pressing his ear to thesoil. Then he heard a faint sound, as if some one crawling through thegrass, like a wild animal stalking its prey. It was Shepard, ofcourse, and then Harry planned his campaign. Shepard had left hishorse, and was endeavoring to reach him by stealth.
Leaving his own horse, he crept a little to the right, and then risingcarefully in another thicket he picked out every dark spot in thegloom. He made out presently the figure of a riderless horse, standingpartly behind the trunk of an oak, larger than most of those that grewin the Wilderness.
Harry knew that it was Shepard's mount and that Shepard himself wassome distance in front of it creeping toward the thicket which hesupposed sheltered his foe. There was barely enough light for Harry tosee the horse's head and regretfully he raised his heavy pisto
l. Butit had to be done, and when his aim was true he pulled the trigger.
The report of the pistol was almost like the roar of a cannon in thedesolate Wilderness and made Harry himself jump. Then he promptlythrew himself flat upon his face. Shepard's answering fire came from apoint about thirty yards in front of the horse, and the bullet passedvery close over Harry's head. It was a marvelous shot to be mademerely at the place from which a sound had come. It all passed in aflash, and the next moment Harry heard the sound of a horse falling andkicking a little. Then it too was still.
He remained only a half minute in the grass. Then he began to creepback, curving a little in his course, toward his own horse. He did notbelieve that Shepard's faculty of hearing was as keen as his own, andhe moved with the greatest deftness. He relied upon the fact thatShepard had not yet located the horse, and if Harry could reach itquickly it would not be hard for him, a mounted man, to leave behindShepard, dismounted. It might be possible, too, that Shepard had goneback to see about his own horse, not knowing that it was slain.
He saw the dusky outline of his horse, and, rising, made two or threejumps. Then he snatched the rein loose, sprang upon his back, andlying down upon his neck to avoid bullets, crashed away, reckless ofbushes and briars. He heard one bullet flying near him, but he laughedin delight and relief as his horse sped on toward Longstreet.
He did not diminish his speed until he had gone two or three miles, andthen, knowing that Shepard had been left hopelessly behind, even if hehad attempted pursuit, he brought his horse down to a walk, andlaughed. There was a bit of nervous excitement in the laugh. He hadoutwitted Shepard again. He had never seen the man, but it did notenter his mind that it was not he. Each had scored largely over theother from time to time, but Harry believed that he was at least even.
He steadied his nerves now and rode calmly toward Longstreet, comingsoon upon his scouts, who informed him that the heavy columns were notfar behind, marching with stalwart step to their appointed place in theline. But it was Harry's business to see Longstreet himself, and hecontinued his way toward the center of the division, where they toldhim the general could be found.
He rode forward and in the moonlight recognized Longstreet at once, aheavy-set, bearded man, mounted on a strong bay horse. He had a verysmall staff, and he was first to notice the young lieutenant advancing.He knew Harry well, having seen him with Lee at Gettysburg and withJackson before. He stopped and said abruptly:
"You come from the commander-in-chief, do you not?"
"Yes, sir," replied Harry, "and I've been coming as fast as I could."
He did not deem it necessary to say anything about his encounter withShepard.
"There has been heavy fighting. What are his orders?"
Harry told him, also giving him a written message, which the generalread by the light of a torch an aide held.
"You can tell General Lee that all my men will be in position forbattle before dawn," said the Georgian crisply.
Even as he spoke, Harry heard the heavy, regular tread of the brigadesmarching forward through the Wilderness. He saluted General Longstreet.
"I shall return at once with your message," he said.
But Harry, having had one such experience, was resolved not to riskanother. He would make a wider circuit in the rear of the army.Shepard, on foot, and anxious to avenge his defeat, might be waitingfor him, but he would go around him. So when he started back he made awide curve, and soon was in the darkness and silence again.
He had a good horse and his idea of direction being very clear he rodeswiftly in the direction he had chosen. But his curve was so greatthat when he reached the center of it he was so far in the rear of thearmy that no sound came from it. If the skirmishers were still firingthe reports of their rifles were lost in the distance. Where he rodethe only noises were those made by the wild animals that inhabited theWilderness, creatures that had settled back into their usual hauntsafter the armies had passed beyond.
Once a startled deer sprang from a clump of bushes and crashed awaythrough the thickets. Rabbits darted from his path, and an owl,wondering what all the disturbance was about, hooted mournfully from abough.
Long before dawn Harry reached the Southern sentinels in the center andwas then passed to General Lee, who remained at the same camp, sittingon a log by some smothered coals. Several other members of his staffhad returned already, and the general, looking up when Harry cameforward, merely said:
"Well!"
"I have seen General Longstreet, sir," said Harry, "and he bids me tellyou that he and his men will be in position before dawn. He was nearlyup when I left, and he has also sent you this note."
He handed the note to General Lee, who, bending low over the coals,read it.
"Everything goes well," he said with satisfaction. "We shall be readyfor them. What time is it, Peyton?"
"Five minutes past four o'clock, sir."
"Then I think the attack should come within an hour."
"Perhaps before daybreak, sir."
"Perhaps. And even after the sun begins to rise it will be liketwilight in this gloomy place."
Grant, in truth, prompt and ready as always, had ordered the advance tobe begun at half-past four, but Meade, asking more time forarrangements and requesting that it be delayed until six, he hadconsented to a postponement until five o'clock and no more.
Harry had one more message to carry, a short distance only, and on hisreturn he found the Invincibles posted on the commander-in-chief'sright, and not more than two hundred yards away.
"You must be a body guard for the general," he said to Colonel LeonidasTalbot.
"There could be no greater honor for the Invincibles, nor could GeneralLee have a better guard."
"I'm sure of that, sir."
"What's happening, Harry? Tell us what's been going on in the night!"
"Our line of battle has been formed. General Longstreet and his men onthe right are soon to be in touch with General Hill. I returned fromhim a little while ago. I can't yet smell the dawn, but I think thebattle will come before then."
Harry rode back and resumed his place beside Dalton. The troopseverywhere were on their feet, cannon and rifles ready, because it wasa certainty that the two armies would meet very early.
In fact, the Army of Northern Virginia began to slide slowly forward.It was not the habit of these troops to await attack. Lee nearlyalways had taken the offensive, and the motion of his men wasinvoluntary. They felt that the enemy was there and they must go tomeet him.
"What time is it now?" whispered Dalton.
Harry was barely able to discern the face of his watch.
"Ten minutes to five," he replied.
"And the dawn comes early. It won't be long before Grant comes pokinghis nose through the Wilderness."
Harry was silent. A few minutes more, and there was a sudden crackleof rifles in front of them.
"The dawn isn't here, but Grant is," said Harry.
The crackling fire doubled and tripled, and then the fire of theSouthern rifles replied in heavy volume. The lighter field guns openedwith a crash, and the heavier batteries followed with rolling thunder.Leaves and twigs fell in showers, and men fell with them. The deepNorthern cheer swelled through the Wilderness and the fierce rebel yellreplied.
Gray dawn, rising as if with effort, over the sodden Wilderness foundtwo hundred thousand men locked fast in battle. It might have been abright sun elsewhere, but not here among the gloomy shades and the pinebarrens. The firing was already so tremendous that the smoke hung lowand thick, directly over the tops of the bushes, and the men, as theyfought, breathed mixed and frightful vapors.
Both sides fought for a long time in a heavy, smoky dusk, that waspractically night. Officers coming from far points, led, compass inhand, having no other guide save the roar of battle. As the Southernleaders had foreseen, Grant was throwing in the full strength of hispowerful army, hoping with superior numbers and better equipment tocru
sh Lee utterly that day.
The great Northern artillery was raking the whole Southern front.Hancock, the superb, was hurling the heavy Northern masses directlyupon the main position of the South. He had half the Army of thePotomac, and at other points Warren, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and Burnsidewere advancing with equal energy and contempt of death. Fiercer andfiercer grew the conflict. Hancock, remembering how he had held thefatal hill at Gettysburg, and resolved to win a complete victory now,poured in regiment after regiment. But in all the fire and smoke andexcitement and danger he did not neglect to keep a cool head. Hearingthat a portion of Longstreet's corps was near, he sent a division andnumerous heavy artillery to attack it, driving it back after asanguinary struggle of more than an hour.
Then he redoubled his attack upon the Southern center, compelling it togive ground, though slowly. Harry felt that gliding movement backwardand a chill ran through his blood. The heavy masses of Grant and hispowerful artillery were prevailing. The strongest portion of theSouthern army was being forced back, and a gap was cut between Hill andLongstreet. Had Hancock perceived the gap that he had made he mighthave severed the Southern army, inflicting irretrievable retreat, butthe smoke and the dusk of the Wilderness hid it, and the moment passedinto one of the great "Ifs" of history.
Harry, on horseback, witnessed this conflict, all the more terriblebecause of the theater in which it was fought. The batteries and theriflemen alike were frequently hidden by the thickets. The great banksof smoke hung low, only to be split apart incessantly by the flashes offire from the big guns. But the bullets were more dangerous than thecannon balls and shells. They whistled and shrieked in thousands andcountless thousands.
Lee sat on his horse impassive, watching as well as he could the tideof battle. Messengers covered with smoke and sweat had informed him ofthe gap between Hill and Longstreet, and he was dispatching freshtroops to close it up. Harry saw the Invincibles march by. The twocolonels at their head beheld Lee on his white horse, and their swordsflew from their scabbards as they made a salute in perfect unison.Close behind them rode St. Clair and Happy Tom, and they too saluted inlike manner. Lee took off his hat in reply and Harry choked. "About todie, we salute thee," he murmured under his breath.
Then with a shout the Invincibles, their officers at their head,plunged into the fire and smoke, and were lost from Harry's view. Buthe could not stay there long and wonder at their fate. In a fewminutes he was riding to Longstreet with a message for him to bearsteadily toward Hill, that the gap might be closed entirely, and assoon as possible.
He galloped behind the lines, but bullets fell all around him, andoften a shell tore the earth. The air had become more bitter andpoisonous. Fumes from swamps seemed to mingle with the smoke and odorsof burned gunpowder. His lips and his tongue were scorched. But hekept on, without exhaustion or mishap, and reached Longstreet, who haddivined his message.
"The line will be solid in a few minutes," he said, and while thebattle was still at its height on the long front he touched hands withHill. Then both drove forward with all their might against Hancock,rushing to the charge, with the Southern fire and recklessness of deaththat had proved irresistible on so many fields. The advance, despitethe most desperate efforts of Hancock and his generals, was stopped.Then he was driven back. All the ground gained at so much cost waslost and the Southern troops, shouting in exultation, pushed on,pouring in a terrible rifle fire. Longstreet, in his eagerness, rode alittle ahead of his troops to see the result. Turning back, he wasmistaken in the smoke by his own men for a Northern cavalryman, andthey fired upon him, just as Jackson had been shot down by his owntroops in the dusk at Chancellorsville.
The leader fell from his horse, wounded severely, and the troopsadvancing to victory became confused. The rumor spread that Longstreethad been killed. There was no one to give orders, and the chargestopped. Harry and a half-dozen others who had seen the accident orheard of it, galloped to Lee, who at once rode into the very thick ofthe command, giving personal orders and sending his aides right andleft with others. The whole division was reformed under his eye, andhe sent it anew to the attack.
The battle now closed in with the full strength of both armies.Hancock strove to keep his place. The valiant Wadsworth had beenkilled already. The dense thickets largely nullified Grant's superiornumbers. Lee poured everything on Hancock, who was driven from everyposition. Fighting furiously behind a breastwork built the nightbefore, he was driven from that too.
Often in the dense shades the soldiers met one another face to face andfurious struggles hand-to-hand ensued. Bushes and trees, set on fireby the shells, burned slowly like torches put there to light up theghastly scene of man's bravery and folly. Jenkins, a Confederategeneral, was killed and colonels and majors fell by the dozen. Butneither side would yield, and Grant hurried help to his hard-pressedtroops.
Harry had been grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, but his horse wasunharmed, and he kept close to Lee, who continued to direct the battlepersonally. He knew that they were advancing. Once more the genius ofthe great Confederate leader was triumphing. Grant, the redoubtableand tenacious, despite his numbers, could set no trap for him! Insteadhe had been drawn into battle on a field of Lee's own choosing.
The conflict had now continued for a long time, and was terrible in allits aspects. It was far past noon, and for miles a dense cloud ofsmoke hung over the Wilderness, which was filled with the roar ofcannon, the crash of rifles and the shouts of two hundred thousand menin deadly conflict. The first meeting of the two great protagonists ofthe war, Lee and Grant, was sanguinary and terrible, beyond allexpectation.
Hundreds fell dead, their bodies lying hidden under the thickets. Theforest burned fiercely here and there, casting circles of lurid lightover the combatants, while the wind rained down charred leaves andtwigs. The fires spread and joined, and at points swept wide areas ofthe forest, yet the fury of the battle was not diminished, the twoarmies forgetting everything else in their desire to crush each other.
Harry's horse was killed, as he sat near Lee, but he quickly obtainedanother, and not long afterward he was sent with a second message toEwell. He rode on a long battle front, not far behind the lines, andhe shuddered with awe as he looked upon the titanic struggle. Thesmoke was often so heavy and the bushes so thick that he could not seethe combatants, except when the flame of the firing or the burningtrees lighted up a segment of the circle.
Halfway to Ewell and he stopped when he saw two familiar figures,sitting on a log. They were elderly men in uniforms riddled bybullets. The right arm of one and the left leg of the other weretightly bandaged. Their faces were very white and it was obvious thatthey were sitting there, because they were not strong enough to stand.
Harry stopped. No message, no matter how important, could have kepthim from stopping.
"Colonel Talbot! Colonel St. Hilaire!" he cried.
"Yes, here we are, Harry," replied Colonel Leonidas Talbot in a voice,thin but full of courage. "Hector has been shot through the leg andhas lost much blood, but I have bound up his wound, and he has done asmuch for my arm, which has been bored through from side to side by abullet, which must have been as large as my fist."
"And so for a few minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire,valiantly, "we must let General Lee conduct the victory alone."
"And the Invincibles!" exclaimed Harry, horrified. "Are they all gonebut you?"
"Not at all," replied Colonel Talbot. "There is so much smoke aboutthat you can't see much, but if it clears a little you will beholdLieutenant St. Clair and the youth rightly called Happy Tom and somethree score others, lying among the bushes, not far ahead of you,giving thorough attention to the enemy."
"And is that all that's left of the Invincibles?"
"It's a wonder that they're so many. You were right about this man,Grant, Harry. He's a fighter, and their artillery is numerous andwonderful. John Carrington himself must be in front of us. We havenot seen him, but t
he circumstantial evidence is conclusive. Nobodyelse in the world could have swept this portion of the Wilderness withshell and shrapnel in such a manner. Why, he has mowed down the bushesin long swathes as the scythe takes the grass and he has cut down ourmen with them. How does the battle go elsewhere?"
"We're succeeding. We're driving 'em back. I can stop only a momentnow. I'm on my way to General Ewell."
"Then hurry. Don't be worried about us. I'll help Hector and Hectorwill help me. And do you curve further to the rear, Harry. The worstthing that a dispatch bearer can do is to get himself shot."
Waving his hand in farewell Harry galloped away. He knew that ColonelTalbot had given him sound advice, and he bore back from the front,coming once more into lonely thickets, although the flash of the battlewas plainly visible in front of him, and its roar filled his ears. Yetwhen he rode alone he almost expected to see Shepard rise up beforehim, and bid him halt. His encounters with this man had been undersuch startling circumstances that it now seemed the rule, and not theexception, for him to appear at any moment.
But Shepard did not come. Instead Harry began to see the badly woundedof his own side drifting to the rear, helping one another as hurtsoldiers learn to do. Two of them he allowed to hang on his stirrups alittle while.
"They're fighting hard," said one, a long, gaunt Texan, "an' they're somany they might lap roun' us. This man of theirs, Grant, ain't much ofa fellow to get scared, but I guess Marse Bob will take care of himjust ez he has took care of the others who came into Virginia."
"They're led in the main attack by Hancock," said the other, aVirginian. "I caught a glimpse of him through the smoke, just as I hada view of him for a minute back there by the clump of trees on theridge at Gettysburg."
"Are you one of Pickett's men?" asked Harry.
"I am, sir, one of the few that's left. I went clear to the clump oftrees and how I got back I've never known. It was a sort of red dream,in which I couldn't pick out anything in particular, but I was backwith the army, carrying three bullets that the doctors took away fromme, and here I've gathered up two more they'll rob me of in just thesame way."
He spoke quite cheerfully, and when Harry, curving again, was compelledto release them, both, although badly wounded, wished him good luck.
He found General Ewell in front, stamping back and forth on hiscrutches, watching the battle with excitement.
"And so you're here again, Harry. Well it's good news at present!" hecried. "It seems that their man, Grant, is going to school to Lee justlike the others."
"But some pupils learn too fast, sir!"
"That's so, but, Harry, I wish I could see more of the field. Aninvisible battle like this shakes my nerves. Batteries that we can'tsee send tornadoes of shot and shell among us. Riflemen, by thethousands, hidden in the thickets rain bullets into our ranks. It'sinhuman, wicked, and our only salvation lies in the fact that it's asbad for them as it is for us. If we can't see them they can't see us."
"You can hold your ground here?"
"Against anything and everything. Tell General Lee that we intend toeat our suppers on the enemy's ground."
"That's all he wants to know."
As Harry rode back he saw that the first fires were spreading, passingover new portions of the battlefield. Sparks flew in myriads and fine,thin ashes were mingled with the powder smoke. The small trees, burntthrough, fell with a crash, and the flames ran as if they were alive upboughs. Other trees fell too, cut through by cannon balls, and somewere actually mown down by sheets of bullets, as if they had been grass.
His way now led through human wreckage, made all the more appalling byan approaching twilight, heavy with fumes and smoke, and reddened withthe cannon and rifle blaze. His frightened horse pulled wildly at thebit, and tried to run away, but Harry held him to the path, although hestepped more than once in hot ashes and sprang wildly. The dead werethick too and Harry was in horror lest the hoof of his horse be plantedupon some unheeding face.
He knew that the day was waning fast and that the dark was due in somedegree to the setting sun, and not wholly to the smoke and ashes. Yetthe fury of the battle was sustained. The southern left maintained theground that it had gained, and in the center and right it could not bedriven back. It became obvious to Grant that Lee was not to be beatenin the Wilderness. His advance suffered from all kinds ofdisadvantages. In the swamps and thickets he could mass neither hisguns nor his cannon. Communications were broken, the telegraph wirescould be used but little and as the twilight darkened to night he letthe attack die.
Harry was back with the commander-in-chief, when the great battle ofthe Wilderness, one of the fiercest ever fought, sank under cover ofthe night. It was not open and spectacular like Gettysburg, but it hada gloomy and savage grandeur all its own. Grant had learned, like theothers before him, that he could not drive headlong over Lee, butsitting in silence by his campfire, chewing his cigar, he had nothought, unlike the others, of turning back. Nearly twenty thousand ofhis men had fallen, but huge resources and a President who supportedhim absolutely were behind him and he was merely planning a new methodof attack.
In the Southern camp there was exultation, but it was qualified andrather grim. These men, veterans of many battles and able to judge forthemselves, believed that they had won the victory, but they knew thatit was by no means decisive. The numerous foe with his powerfulartillery was still before them. They could see his campfires shiningthrough the thickets, and their spies told them that, despite his greatlosses, there was no sign of retreat in Grant's camp.
An appalling night settled down on the Wilderness. The North AmericanContinent never saw one more savage and terrible. Twenty thousandwounded were scattered through the thickets and dense shades, andspreading fires soon brought death to many whom the bullets had notkilled at once. The smoke, the mists and vapors gathered into onedense cloud, that hung low and made everything clammy to the touch.
Lee stood under the boughs of an oak, and ate food that had beenprepared for him hastily. But, as Harry saw, the act was purelymechanical. He was watching as well as he could what was going on infront, and he was giving orders in turns to his aides. Harry's timehad not yet come, and he kept his eyes on his chief.
There was no exultation in the face of Lee. He had drawn Grant intothe Wilderness and then he had held him fast in a battle of uncommonsize and fierceness. But nothing was decided. He had studied thecareer of Grant, and he knew that he had a foe of great qualities withwhom to deal. He would have to fight him again, and fight very soon.He heard too with a sorrow, hard to conceal, the reports of his ownlosses. They were heavy enough and the gaps now made could never berefilled. The Army of Northern Virginia, which had been such apowerful instrument in his hands, must fight with ever diminishingnumbers.
Harry was sent to inquire into the condition of Longstreet, whom hefound weak physically and suffering much pain. But the veteran wasupborne by the success of the day and his belief in ultimate victory.He bade Harry tell the commander-in-chief that his men were fit tofight again and better than ever, at the first shoot of dawn.
Harry rode back in the night, the burning trees serving him fortorches. Nearly all the soldiers were busy. Some were gathering up thewounded and others were building breastworks. His eyes were reddenedby the powder-smoke, and often the heavy black masses of vapor wereimpenetrable, save where the forest burned. Now he came to a regionwhere the dead and wounded were so thick that he dismounted and led hishorse, lest a hoof be planted upon any one of them. But he noticedthat here as in other battles the wounded made but little complaint.They suffered in silence, waiting for their comrades to take them away.
Then he passed around a section of forest that was burning fiercely.Here Southern and Union soldiers had met on terms of peace and weremaking desperate efforts to save their helpless comrades. Harry wouldhave been glad to give aid himself, but he was too well trained now toturn aside when he rode for Lee.
He sa
w many dark figures passing before the flaming background, and ashe walked more slowly than he thought, he saw one that lookedremarkably familiar to him. It was impossible to see the face, but heknew the walk and the lift of the shoulders. Discipline gave way toimpulse now, and he ran forward crying:
"Dick! Dick!"
Dick Mason, who had just dragged a wounded man beyond the range of theflames, turned at the sound of the voice. Even had Harry seen his faceat first he would not have known him nor would Dick have known Harry.Both were black with ashes, smoke and burned gunpowder. But Dick knewthe voice in an instant. Once more were the two cousins to meet inpeace on an unfinished battlefield.
Each driven by the same impulse stepped forward, and their hands met inthe strong grasp of blood kindred and friendship, which war itselfcould not sever.
"You're alive, Harry!" said Dick. "It seems almost impossible afterwhat has happened to-day."
"And you too are all right. Not harmed, I see, though your face is anAfrican black."
"I should call your own color dark and smoky."
"I wasn't sure that you were in the East. When did you come?"
"With General Grant, and I knew that you were on General Lee's staff.I've a message to give him by you. Oh! you needn't laugh. It's a goodstraight talk."
"Go ahead then and say it to me."
"You say to General Lee that it's all over. Tell him to quit and sendhis soldiers home. If he doesn't he'll be crushed."
Harry laughed again and waved his finger at the somber battlefield,upon which he stood.
"Does this look like it?" he asked. "We're farther forward to-nightthan we were this morning. Wouldn't General Grant be glad if he couldsay as much?"
"It makes no difference. I know you don't believe me, but it's so. TheNorth is prepared as it never was before. And Grant will hammer andhammer forever. We know what a man Lee is. The whole North admits it,but I tell you the sun of the South is setting."
"You're growing poetical and poetry is no argument."
"But unlimited men, unlimited cannon and rifles, unlimited ammunitionand supplies and a general who is willing to use them, are. Of courseI know that you can't carry any such message to General Lee, but I feelit to be the truth."
"We've a great general and a great army that say, no."
Nobody paid any attention to the two. It was merely another one ofthose occasions when men of the opposing sides stood together amid thedead and wounded, and talked in friendly fashion. But Harry knew thathe could not delay long.
"I've got to go, Dick," he said. "And I've a message too, one that Iwant you to deliver to General Grant."
"What is it?"
"Tell him that we've more than held our own to-day, and that we'llthrash him like thunder to-morrow, and whenever and wherever he maychoose, no matter what the odds are against us."
Dick laughed.
"I see that you won't believe even a little bit of what I tell you," hesaid "and maybe if I were in your place I wouldn't either. But it'strue all the same. Good-by, Harry."
The two hands, covered with battle grime, met again in the strong graspof blood kindred and friendship.
"Take care of yourself, old man!"
The words, exactly alike, were uttered by the two simultaneously.
Both were stirred deeply. Harry sprang on his horse, looked back once,waving his hand, and rode rapidly to General Lee. Later in the night,he received permission to hunt up the Invincibles, his heart full offear that they had perished utterly in the gloomy pit called theWilderness, lit now only by the fire of death.
He left his horse with an orderly and walked toward the point where hehad last seen them. He passed thousands of soldiers, many wounded, butsilent as usual, while the unhurt were sleeping where they had dropped.The Invincibles were not at the point where he had seen them last, andthe colonels of several scattered regiments could not tell him what hadbecome of them. But he continued to seek them although the fear wasgrowing in his heart that the last man of the Invincibles had diedunder the Northern cannon.
His search led toward the enemy's lines. Almost unconsciously he wentin that direction, however, his knowledge of the two colonels tellinghim that they would take the same course. He turned into a littlecove, partly sheltered by the dwarfed trees and he heard a thin voicesaying:
"Nonsense, Leonidas. I scarcely felt it, but yours, old friend, ispretty bad. You must let me attend to it. Keep still! I'll adjustthe bandage."
"Hector, why do you make a fuss over me, when I'm only slightly hurt,and sacrifice yourself, a severely injured man!"
"With all due respect you'd better let me attend to you both," said avoice that Harry recognized as St. Clair's.
"And maybe I could help a little," said another that he knew to beHappy Tom's. But their voices, like those of the colonels, were weak.Still he had positive proof that they were alive, and, as his heartgave a joyful throb or two, he stepped into the glade. There wasenough light for him to see Colonel Leonidas Talbot, andLieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, sitting side by side on thegrass with their backs against the earthly wall, very pale from loss ofblood, but with heads erect and eyes shining with a certain pride. St.Clair and Langdon lay on the grass, one with an old handkerchief,blood-soaked, bound about his head and the other with a bandage tightlyfastened over his left shoulder. Beyond them lay a group of soldiers.
"Good evening, heroes!" said Harry lightly as he stepped forward.
He was welcomed with an exclamation of joy from them all.
"We meet again, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and it is the second timesince morning. I fancy that second meetings to-day have not beencommon. We have the taste of success in our mouths, but you'll excuseus for not rising to greet you. We are all more or less affected bythe missiles of the enemy and for some hours at least neither walkingnor standing will be good for us."
"Mohammed must come to all the mountains," said St. Clair, weaklyholding out a hand.
Harry greeted them all in turn, and sat down with them. He wasoverflowing with sympathy, but it was not needed.
"A glorious day," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.
"Truly," said Harry.
"A most glorious day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.
"Most truly," said Harry.
"An especially glorious day for the Invincibles," said Colonel Talbot.
"The most glorious of all possible days for the Invincibles," saidLieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.
There was an especial emphasis to their words that aroused Harry'sattention.
"The Invincibles have had many glorious days," he said. "Why shouldthis be the most glorious of them all?"
"We went into battle one hundred and forty-seven strong," repliedColonel Talbot quietly, "and we came out with one hundred andforty-seven casualties, thirty-nine killed and one hundred and eightwounded. We lay no claim to valor, exceeding that of many otherregiments in General Lee's glorious army, but we do think we've made afairly excellent record. Do you see those men?"
He pointed to a silent group stretched upon the turf, and Harry nodded.
"Not one of them has escaped unhurt, but most of us will muster upstrength enough to meet the enemy again to-morrow, when our greatgeneral calls."
Harry's throat contracted for a moment.
"I know it, Colonel Talbot," he said. "The Invincibles have provedthemselves truly worthy of their name. General Lee shall hear of this."
"But in no boastful vein, Harry," said Colonel Talbot. "We would nothave you to speak thus of your friends."
"I do not have to boast for you. The simple truth is enough. I shallsee that a surgeon comes here at once to attend to your wounded. Goodnight, gentlemen."
"Good night," said the four together. Harry walked back toward GeneralLee's headquarters, full of pride in his old comrades.
The Shades of the Wilderness: A Story of Lee's Great Stand Page 17
