CHAPTER XVI
SPOTTSYLVANIA
Harry secured a little sleep toward morning, and, although his nervoustension had been very great, when he lay down, he felt greatlystrengthened in body and mind. He awakened Dalton in turn, and thetwo, securing a hasty breakfast, sat near the older members of thestaff, awaiting orders. The commander-in-chief was at the edge of thelittle glade, talking earnestly with Hill, and several other importantgenerals.
Harry often saw through the medium of his own feelings, and the rim ofthe sun, beginning to show over the eastern edge of the Wilderness, wasblood red. The same crimson and sinister tinge showed through the westwhich was yet in the dusk. But in east and west there were certainareas of light, where the forest fires yet smoldered.
Both sides had thrown up hasty breastworks of earth or timber, but thetwo armies were unusually silent. A space of perhaps a mile and a halflay between them, but as the light increased neither moved. There wasno crackle of rifle fire along their fronts. The skirmishers, usuallyso active, seemed to be exhausted, and the big guns were at rest. Thefierce and tremendous fighting of the two days before seemed to havetaken all the life out of both North and South.
Harry, inured to war, understood the reasons for silence and lack ofmovement. Grant had been drawn into a region that he did not like,where he could not use his superior numbers to advantage, and he mustbe shuddering at the huge losses he had suffered already. He wouldseek better ground. Lee too, was in no condition to take advantage ofhis successful defense. The old days when he could send Jackson on agreat turning movement, to fall with all the crushing impact of asurprise upon the Northern flank, were gone forever. Stuart, thebrilliant cavalryman, was there, but his men were not numerous enough,and, however brilliant, he was not Jackson.
The sun rose higher. Midmorning came, and the two armies still layclose. Harry grew stronger in his opinion that they would not fightagain that day, although he watched, like the others, for any sign ofmovement in the Northern camp.
Noon came, and the same dead silence. The fires had burned themselvesout now and the dusk that had reigned over the Wilderness, before thebattle, recovered its ground, thickened still further by the vastquantities of smoke still hanging low under a cloudy sky. But theaspect of the Wilderness itself was more mournful than ever. Coalssmoldered in the burned areas, and now and then puffs of wind picked upthe hot ashes and sent them in the faces of the soldiers. Thickets andbushes had been cut down by bullets and cannon balls, and lay heapedtogether in tangled confusion. Back of the lines, the surgeons, withaching backs, toiled over the wounded, as they had toiled through thenight.
Harry saw nearly the whole Southern front. The members of Lee's staffwere busy that day, carrying orders to all his generals to rectifytheir lines, and to be prepared, to the last detail, for anothertremendous assault. It was not until the afternoon that he was able tolook up the Invincibles again. The two colonels and the twolieutenants were doing well, and the colonels were happy.
"We've already been notified," said Colonel Talbot, "that we're toretain our organization as a regiment. We're to have about a hundrednew men now, the fragments of destroyed regiments. Of course, theywon't be like the veterans of the Invincibles, but a half-dozen battleslike that of yesterday should lick them into shape."
"I should think so," said Harry.
"Do you believe that Grant is retreating?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel St.Hilaire.
"Our scouts don't say so."
"Then he is merely putting off the evil day. The sooner he withdrawsthe more men he will save. No Yankee general can ever get by GeneralLee. Keep that in your mind, Harry Kenton."
Harry was silent, but rejoicing to find that his friends would soonrecover from their wounds, he went back to his place, and saw all theafternoon pass, without any movement indicating battle.
Night came again and the scouts reported to Lee that the Union army wasbreaking camp, evidently with the intention of getting out of theWilderness and marching to Fredericksburg. Harry was with the generalwhen he received the news, and he saw him think over it long. Otherscouts brought in the same evidence.
Harry did not know what the general thought, but as for himself,although he was too young to say anything, it was incredible that Grantshould retreat. It was not at all in accordance with his character,now tested on many fields, and his resources also were too great forwithdrawal.
But the night was very dark and no definite knowledge yet came out ofit. Lee stayed by his little campfire and received reports. Far afterdusk Harry saw the look of doubt disappear from his eyes, and then hebegan to send out messengers. It was evident that he had formed hisopinion, and intended to act upon it at once.
He beckoned to Harry and Dalton, and bade them go together with writteninstructions to General Anderson, who had taken the place of GeneralLongstreet.
"You will stay with General Anderson subject to his orders," he said,as Harry and Dalton, saluting, rode toward Anderson's command.
Their way led through torn, tangled and burned thickets. Sometimes ahorse sprang violently to one side and neighed in pain. His hoof hadcome down on earth, yet so hot that it scorched like fire. Now andthen sparks fell upon them, but they pursued their way, disregardingall obstacles, and delivered their sealed orders to General Anderson,who at once gathered up his full force, and marched away from the heartof the Wilderness toward Spottsylvania Court House.
Harry surmised that Grant was attempting some great turning movement,and Lee, divining it, was sending Anderson to meet his advance. Henever knew whether it was positive knowledge or a happy guess.
But he was quite sure that the night's ride was one of the mostsingular and sinister ever made by an army. If any troops ever marchedthrough the infernal regions it was they. In this part of theWilderness the fires had been of the worst. Trees still smoldered. Inthe hollows, where the bushes had grown thickest, were great beds ofcoals. The smoke which the low heavy skies kept close to the earth wasthick and hot. Gusts of wind sent showers of sparks flying, and,despite the greatest care to protect the ammunition, they marched inconstant danger of explosion.
Harry thought at one time that General Anderson intended to camp in theWilderness for the night, but he soon saw that it was impossible. Onecould not camp on hot ground in a smoldering forest.
"I believe it's a march till day," he said to Dalton. "It's bound tobe. If a man were to lie down here, he'd find himself a mass of cindersin the morning, and it will take us till daylight and maybe past to getout of the Wilderness."
"If he didn't burn to death he'd choke to death. I never breathed suchsmoke before."
"That's because it's mixed with ashes and the fumes of burnedgunpowder. A villainous compound like this can't be called air. Howlong is it until dawn?"
"About three hours, I think."
"You remember those old Greek stories about somebody or other goingdown to Hades, and then having a hard climb out again. We're themodern imitators. If this isn't Hades then I don't know what it is."
"It surely is. Phew, but that hurt!"
"What happened?"
"I brushed my hand against a burning bush. The result was not happy.Don't imitate me."
Dalton's horse leaped to one side, and he had difficulty in keeping thesaddle. His hoof had been planted squarely in the midst of a mass ofhot twigs.
"The sooner I get out of this Inferno or Hades of a place the happierI'll be!" said Dalton.
"I've never seen the like," said Harry, "but there's one thing about itthat makes me glad."
"And what's the saving grace?"
"That it's in Virginia and not in Kentucky, though for the matter ofthat it couldn't be in Kentucky."
"And why couldn't it be in Kentucky?"
"Because there's no such God-forsaken region in all that state of mine."
"It certainly gets upon one's soul," said Dalton, looking at the gloomyregion, so terribly torn by battle.
"But if we
keep going we're bound to come out of it some time or other."
"And we're not stopping. A man can't make his bed on a mass of coals,and there'll be no rest for us until we're clear out of the Wilderness."
They marched on a long time, and, as day dawned, hundreds of voicesunited in a shout of gladness. Behind them were the shades of theWilderness, that dismal region reeking with slaughter and ruin, andbefore them lay firm soil, and green fields, in all the flush of abrilliant May morning.
"Well, we did come out of Hades, Harry," said Dalton.
"And it does look like Heaven, but the trouble with our Hades, George,is that the inmates will follow us. Put your glasses to your eyes andlook off there."
"Horsemen as sure as we're sitting in our own saddles."
"And Northern horsemen, too. Their uniforms are new enough for me totell their color. I take it that Grant's vanguard has moved by ourright flank and has come out of the Wilderness."
"And our surmises that we were to meet it are right. SpottsylvaniaCourt House is not far away, and maybe we are bound for it."
"And maybe the Yankees are too."
Harry's words were caused by the sound of a distant and scatteringfire. In obedience to an order from Anderson, he and Dalton gallopedforward, and, from a ridge, saw through their glasses a formidableUnion column advancing toward Spottsylvania. As they looked they sawmany men fall and they also saw flashes of flame from bushes and fencesnot far from its flank.
"Our sharpshooters are there," said Harry. And he was right. Whilethe Union force was advancing in the night Stuart had dismounted manyof his men and using them as skirmishers had incessantly harassed themarch of Grant's vanguard led by Warren.
"Each army has been trying to catch the other napping," said Dalton.
"And neither has succeeded," said Harry.
"Now we make a race for the Spottsylvania ridge," said Dalton. "Yousee if we don't! I know this country. It's a strong position there,and both generals want it."
Dalton was right. A small Union force had already occupiedSpottsylvania, but the heavy Southern division crossing the narrow, butdeep, river Po, drove it out and seized the defensive position.
Here they rested, while the masses of the two armies swung toward them,as if preparing for a new battlefield, one that Harry surveyed withgreat interest. They were in a land of numerous and deep rivers. Herewere four spreading out, like the fingers of a human hand, without thethumb, and uniting at the wrist. The fingers were the Mat, the Ta, thePo, and the Nye, and the unit when they united was called the Mattopony.
Lee's army was gathering behind the Po. A large Union force crossed iton his flank, but, recognizing the danger of such a position, withdrew.Lee himself came in time. Hill, overcome by illness and old wounds,was compelled to give up the command of his division, and Early tookhis place. Longstreet also was still suffering severely from hisinjuries. Lee had but few of the able and daring generals who hadserved him in so many fields. But Stuart, the gay and brilliant, themedieval knight who had such a strong place in the commander-in-chief'saffections, was there. Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. Theyellow feather stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on thebroad yellow sash and his undimmed courage was contagious.
But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead,knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had provedto be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superiorto any other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted byhis repulse and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing fora new battle, before the fire from the other had grown cold.
He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to thesouth of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts hadbrought word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upontheir flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army ofNorthern Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was aboutto begin another, and by its dauntless commander.
The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man,can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that hecreated in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him withyouth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in verytruth to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better. The long list ofhis triumphs, as youth counted them, was indeed superior to those ofthe great Carthaginian, and he believed that Lee would repel this newdanger.
Nearly all that day the two armies constructed breastworks which stoodfor many years afterward, but neither made any attempt at serious work,although there was incessant firing by the skirmishers and anoccasional cannon shot. Harry, whether carrying an order or not, hadample chance to see, and he noted with increasing alarm the growingmasses of the Union army, as they gathered along the Spottsylvaniafront.
"Can we beat them?" "Can we beat them?" was the question that hecontinually asked himself. He wondered too where the Winchesterregiment and Dick Mason lay, and where the spy, Shepard, was. ButShepard was not likely to remain long in one place. Skill and couragesuch as his would be used to the utmost in a time like this. Doubtlesshe was somewhere in the Confederate lines, discovering for Grant therelatively small size of the army that opposed him.
Near dusk and having the time he followed his custom and sought theInvincibles. Both colonels had recovered considerable strength, and,although one of them could not walk, he would be helped upon his horsewhenever the battle began, and would ride into the thick of it. Butthe faces of St. Clair and Happy Tom glowed and their wounds apparentlywere forgotten.
"Lieutenant Arthur St. Clair and Lieutenant Thomas Langdon are goneforever," said Colonel Talbot. "In their places we have Major ArthurSt. Clair and Captain Thomas Langdon. All our majors and captains havebeen killed, and with our reduced numbers these two will fill theirplaces, as best they can; and that they can do so most worthily we allknow. They received their promotions this afternoon."
Harry congratulated them both with the greatest warmth. They were veryyoung for such rank, but in this war the toll of officers was so greatthat men sometimes became generals when they were but little older.
"Is it to be to-morrow?" asked Colonel Talbot.
"I think it likely that we'll fight again then," said Harry.
"And Grant has not yet had enough. He wants a little more of the same,does he!"
"It would appear so, sir."
"Then I take it without consulting General Lee that he is ready to dealwith the Yankees as he dealt with them in the Wilderness."
"I hope so. Good night."
"Good night!" they called to him, and Harry returned to the staff.Taylor, the adjutant general, told him and Dalton to lie down and seeka little sleep. Harry was not at all averse, as he was completelyexhausted again after the tremendous excitement of the battle, and thelong hours of strain and danger. But his nerves were so much on edgethat he could not yet sleep. His eyes were red and smarting from thesmoke and burned powder, and he felt as if accumulated smoke and dustencased him like a suit of armor.
"I'd give a hundred dollars for a good long drink, just as long as Iliked to make it," he groaned, "and I mean a drink of pure cold water,too."
"Confederate paper or money?" said Dalton.
"I mean real money, but at the same time you oughtn't to make invidiouscomparisons."
"Then the money's mine, but you can pay me whenever you feel like it,which I suppose will be never. There's a spring in the thick woodsjust back of your quarters. It flows out from under rocks, at thedistance of several yards makes a deep pool, and then the overflow ofthe pool goes on through the forest to the Po. Come on, Harry! We'llluxuriate and then tell the others."
Harry found that it was a most glorious spring, indeed; clear and cold.He and Dalton drank slowly at first, and then deeply.
"I didn't know I could hold so much," said Dalton.
"Nor I," said Harry.
"Let's take another."
"I'm with you
."
"Let's make it two more."
"I still follow you."
"Horace wrote about his old Falernian, and the other wines which heenjoyed, as he and the leading Roman sports sat around the fountain,flirting with the girls," said Dalton, "but I don't believe any wineever brewed in Latium was the equal of this water."
"I've always had an idea that Horace wasn't as gay as he pretended tobe, else he wouldn't have written so much about Chloe and her comrades.I imagine that an old Roman boy would keep pretty quiet about hisdancing and singing, and not publish it to the public."
"Well, let him be. He's dead and the Romans are dead, and theAmericans are doing their best to kill off one another, but let'sforget it for a few minutes. That pool there is about four feet deep,the water is clear and the bottom is firm ground; now do you know whatI'm going to do?"
"Yes, and I'm going to do the same. Bet you even that I beat you intothe water."
"Taken."
They threw off their clothes rapidly, but the splashes weresimultaneous as their bodies struck the water. Although the limits ofthe pool were narrow they splashed and paddled there for a while, andit was a long time since they had known such a luxury. Then theywalked out, dried themselves and spread the good news. All night longthe pool was filled with the bathers, following one another in turn.
The water taken internally and externally soothed Harry's nerves. Hisexcitement was gone. A great army with which they were sure to fighton the morrow was not far away, but for the time he was indifferent.The morrow could take care of itself. It was night, and he hadpermission to go to sleep. Hence he slumbered fifteen minutes later.
He slept almost through the night, and, when he was awakened shortlybefore dawn, he found that his strength and elasticity had returned. Heand Dalton went down to the spring again, drank many times, and thenate breakfast with the older members of the staff, a breakfast thatdiffered very little from that of the common soldiers.
Then a day or two of waiting, and watching, and of confused butterrible fighting ensued. The forests were again set on fire by thebursting shells and they were not able to rescue many of the woundedfrom the flames. Vast clouds again floated over the whole region,drawing a veil of dusk between the soldiers and the sun. But neitherarmy was willing to attack the other in full force.
Grant commanding all the armies of the East was moving meanwhile. Apowerful cavalry division, he heard, had got behind Beauregard, who wasto protect Richmond, and was tearing up an important railway line usedby the Confederacy. The daring Sheridan with another great division ofcavalry had gone around Lee's left and was wrecking another railway,and with it the rations and medical supplies so necessary to theConfederates. Grant, recognizing his antagonist's skill and courageand knowing that to succeed he must destroy the main Southern army,resolved to attack again with his whole force.
The day had been comparatively quiet and the Army of Northern Virginiahad devoted nearly the whole time to fortifying with earthworks andbreastworks of logs. The young aides, as they rode on their missions,could easily see the Northern lines through their glasses. Harry'sheart sank as he observed their extent. The Southern army was sadlyreduced in numbers, and Grant could get reinforcement continually.
But such is the saving grace of human nature that even in these momentsof suspense, with one terrible battle just over and another about tobegin, soldiers of the Blue and Gray would speak to one another infriendly fashion in the bushes or across the Po. It was on the banksof this narrow river that Harry at last saw Shepard once more. Hehappened to be on foot that time, the slope being too densely woodedfor his horse, and Shepard hailed him from the other side.
"Good day, Mr. Kenton. Don't fire! I want to talk," he said, holdingup both hands as a sign of peace.
"A curious place for talking," Harry could not keep from saying.
"So it is, but we're not observed here. It was almost inevitable whilethe armies remained face to face that we should meet in time. I wantto tell you that I've met your cousin, Richard Mason, here, and hiscommanding officer, Colonel Winchester. Oh, I know much more about youand your relationships than you think."
"How is Dick?"
"He has not been hurt, nor has Colonel Winchester. Mr. Mason hasreceived a letter from his home and your home in Pendleton in Kentucky.The outlaws to the eastward are troublesome, but the town is occupiedby an efficient Union garrison and is in no danger. His mother and allof his and your old friends, who did not go to the war, are in goodhealth. He thought that in my various capacities as ranger, scout andspy I might meet you, and he asked me, if it so happened, to tell thesethings to you."
"I thank you," said Harry very earnestly, "and I'm truly sorry, Mr.Shepard, that you and I are on different sides."
"I suppose it's too late for you to come over to the Union and the truecause."
Harry laughed.
"You know, Mr. Shepard, there are no traitors in this war."
"I know it. I was merely jesting."
He slipped into the underbrush and disappeared. Harry confessed tohimself once more that he liked Shepard, but he felt more strongly thanever that it had become a personal duel between them, and they wouldmeet yet again in violence.
That night he had little to do. It was a typical May night inVirginia, clear and beautiful with an air that would have been a tonicto the nerves, had it not been for the bitter smoke and odors that yetlingered from the battle of the Wilderness.
Before dawn the scouts brought in a rumor that there was a heavymovement of Federal troops, although they did not know its meaning. Itmight portend another flank march by Grant, but a mist that had begunto rise after midnight hid much from them. The mist deepened into afog, which made it harder for the Southern leaders to learn the meaningof the Northern movement.
Just as the dawn was beginning to show a little through the fog,Hancock and Burnside, with many more generals, led a tremendous attackupon the Southern right center. They had come so silently through thethickets that for once the Southern leaders were surprised. The Unionveterans, rushing forward in dense columns, stormed and took thebreastworks with the bayonet.
Many of the Southern troops, sound asleep, awoke to find themselves inthe enemy's hands. Others, having no time to fire them, fought withclubbed rifles.
Harry, dozing, was awakened by the terrific uproar. Even before thedawn had fairly come the battle was raging on a long front. The centerof Lee's army was broken, and the Union troops were pouring into thegap. Grant had already taken many guns and thousands of prisoners, andthe bulldog of Shiloh and Vicksburg and Chattanooga was hurrying freshdivisions into the combat to extend and insure his victory. Throughthe forests swelled the deep Northern cry of triumph.
Harry had never before seen the Southern army in such danger, and helooked at General Lee, who had now mounted Traveller. The turmoil andconfusion in front of them was frightful and indescribable. The Uniontroops had occupied an entire Confederate salient, and their generals,feeling that the moment was theirs, led them on, reckless of life, andswept everything before them.
Harry never took his eyes from Lee. The rising sun shot golden beamsthrough the smoke and disclosed him clearly. His face was calm and hisvoice did not shake as he issued his orders with rapidity andprecision. The lion at bay was never more the lion.
A new line of battle was formed, and the fugitives formed up with it.Then the Southern troops, uttering once more the fierce rebel yell,charged directly upon their enemy and under the eye of the great chiefwhom they almost worshiped.
Now Harry for the first time saw his general show excitement. Leegalloped to the head of one of the Virginia regiments, and ranging hishorse beside the colors snatched off his hat and pointed it at theenemy. It was a picture which with all the hero worship of youth henever forgot. It did not even grow dim in his memory--the great leaderon horseback, his hat in his hand, his eyes fiery, his face flushed,his hand pointing the way to victory or death.
It was an occasion, too, when the personal presence of a leader meanteverything. Every man knew Lee and tremendous rolling cheers greetedhis arrival, cheers that could be heard above the thunder of cannon andrifles. It infused new courage into them and they gathered themselvesfor the rush upon their victorious foe.
Gordon of Georgia, spurring through the smoke, seized Lee's horse bythe bridle. He did not mean to have their commander-in-chiefsacrificed in a charge.
"This is no place for you, General Lee!" he cried. "Go to the rear!"
Lee did not yet turn, and Gordon shouted:
"These men are Virginians and Georgians who have never failed. Goback, I entreat you!"
Then Gordon turned to the troops and cried, as he rose on his toes inhis stirrups:
"Men, you will not fail now!"
Back came the answering shout:
"No! No!" and the whole mass of troops burst into one thunderous,echoing cry:
"Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!"
Nor would they move until Lee turned and rode back. Then, led byGordon, they charged straight upon their foe, who met them with anequal valor. All day long the battle of Spottsylvania, equal infierceness and desperation to that of the Wilderness, swayed to andfro. To Harry as he remembered them they were much alike. Charge anddefense, defense and charge. Here they gained a little, and there theylost a little. Now they were stumbling through sanguinary thickets, andthen they rushed across little streams that ran red.
The firing was rapid and furious to an extraordinary degree. The airrained shell and bullets. Areas of forest between the two armies weremowed down. More than one large tree was cut through entirely by riflebullets. Other trees here, as in the Wilderness, caught fire andflamed high.
Midnight put an end to the battle, with neither gaining the victory andboth claiming it. Harry had lost another horse, killed under him, andnow he walked almost dazed over the terrible field of Spottsylvania,where nearly thirty thousand men had fallen, and nothing had yet beendecided.
Yet in Harry's heart the fear of the grim and silent Grant was growing.The Northern general had fought within a few days two battles, each theequal of Waterloo, and Harry felt sure that he was preparing for athird. The combat of the giants was not over, and with an anxious soulhe waited the next dawn. They remained some days longer in theWilderness, or the country adjacent to it, and there was muchskirmishing and firing of heavy artillery, but the third great pitchedbattle did not come quite as soon as Harry expected. Even Grant,appalled by the slaughter, hesitated and began to maneuver again by theflank to get past Lee. Then the fighting between the skirmishers andheavy detached parties became continuous.
During the days that immediately followed Harry was much withSherburne. The brave colonel was one of Stuart's most trusted officers.Despite the forests and thickets there was much work for the cavalry todo, while the two armies circled and circled, each seeking to get theadvantage of the other.
Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen andreach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's,was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It wasnear the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight tobreathe after the awful Wilderness.
Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and whenhe overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern heattacked with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of thecharge, Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through thebody. He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brillianthorseman of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who hadgone before. Harry was one of the little group who carried the news toLee, and he saw how deeply the great leader was affected. So many ofhis brave generals had fallen that he was like the head of a family,bereft.
Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike. Itwas barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strongposition at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers andpowerful artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn.
Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seenon the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade chargedto certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the fieldwith a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairlymelted away before them and when the half-hour was over more thantwelve thousand men in blue lay upon the red field.
Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun toanticipate a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed itsdisappointment as best it could, and prepared for another campaign.
Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines ofCold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after thevictory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although hekept his thoughts to himself.
The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, andColonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire,sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess.
Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either sinceearly spring.
"That was quite a victory," he said.
"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!"
"And why not, Hector?"
"Because you've left the way to your king easier. I shall promptlymove along that road."
"As Grant moved through the Wilderness."
"Don't depreciate Grant, Leonidas. He never stops pounding. We'vefought two great battles with him in the Wilderness and a third at ColdHarbor, but he's still out there facing us. Can't you see the Yankeeswith your glasses, Harry?"
"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gunin a wood. There it goes!"
The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolledback in echoes like a threat.
Appendix: Transcription notes:
The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printedbook to etext:
Chapter 1 Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman" Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing"
Chapter 2 Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief"
Chapter 3 Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever" Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess as to what it should be
Chapter 4 Page 74, para 7, add missing period
Chapter 7 Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth" Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton"
Chapter 10 Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes
Chapter 11 Page 208, para 6, add missing close-quotes
Chapter 12 Page 229, para 3, fix typo, "dulplicate"
Chapter 13 Page 245, para 3, change "with" to "was"
Chapter 14 Page 260, para 2, removed a badly-misplaced comma
Chapter 16 Page 301, para 4, moved a badly-misplaced comma
Chapter 2, page 34, para 3 contains the phrase "rest and realization".Probably should be "relaxation", but maybe not, so I left it as is.
The following words were printed with accented vowels or with the "ae"ligature, but these few occurrences hardly warrant an 8-bit version ofthe text: cooperation fete reentered Plataea Thermopylae
As with all the books in this series, there are many instances wherecommas seem to be missing or misplaced, but, except as noted above, Irefrained from "fixing" these.
The Shades of the Wilderness: A Story of Lee's Great Stand Page 18
