CHAPTER IV
ON THE RAPPAHANNOCK
The division of Jackson reached Fredericksburg the next day and wentinto camp, partly in the rear of the town, and a portion of it furtherdown the Rappahannock. Harry, as an aide, rode back and forth on manyerrands while the troops were settling into place. Once more he sawGeneral Lee on his famous white horse, Traveler, conferring with Jacksonon Little Sorrel. And the stalwart and bearded Longstreet was there,too.
But Harry's heart bled when he rode into the ancient town ofFredericksburg, a place homelike and picturesque in peaceful days,but now lying between two mighty armies, directly within their line offire, and abandoned for a time by its people, all save a hardy few.
The effect upon him was startling. He rode along the deserted streetsand looked at the closed windows, like the eyeless sockets of a blindman. In the streets mud and slush and snow had gathered, with noattempt of man to clean them away, but the wheels of the cannon had cutruts in them a foot deep. The great white colonial houses, with theirgreen shutters fastened tightly, stood lone and desolate amid theirdeserted lawns. No smoke rose from the chimneys. The shops wereclosed. There was no sound of a child's voice in the whole town.It was the first time that Harry had ever ridden through a deserted city,and it was truly a city of the dead to him.
"It's almost as bad as a battlefield after the battle is over," he saidto Dalton, who was with him.
"It gives you a haunted, weird feeling," said Dalton, looking at theclosed windows and smokeless chimneys.
But the people of Fredericksburg had good cause to go. Two hundredthousand men, hardened now to war, faced one another across the twohundred yards of the Rappahannock. Four hundred Union cannon on theother side of the river could easily smash their little city to pieces.The people were scattered among their relatives in the farmhouses andvillages about Fredericksburg, eagerly awaiting the news that theinvincible Lee and Jackson had beaten back the hated invader.
But the Southern army, save for a small force, did not occupyFredericksburg itself.
Along the low ridge, a mile or so west of the town, Longstreet had beenposted and he had dug trenches and gunpits. The crest of this ridge,called Marye's Hill, was bare, and here, in addition to the pits andtrenches, Longstreet threw up breastworks. Down the slopes were ravinesand much timber, making the whole position one of great strength.Harry gazed at it as he carried one of his messages from general togeneral, and he was enough of a soldier to know that an enemy whoattacked here was undertaking a mighty task.
But Burnside did not move, and the somber blanket of winter thickened.More snows fell and the icy rains came again. Then the mercury sliddown until it reached zero. Thick ice formed over everything and someof the shallower brooks froze solidly in their beds. The Southern ladswere not nearly so well equipped against the winter as their foes.Not many had heavy overcoats, and blankets and shoes were thin and worn.
The forest was now their refuge. The river was lined thickly with it,running for a long distance, and thousands of axes began to bite intothe timber. Hardy youths, skilled in such work, they rapidly built loghuts or shelters for themselves, and within these or outside under thetrees innumerable fires blazed along the Rappahannock, the cracklingflames sending a defiance to other such flames beyond the frozen river.
Harry had a letter from Dr. Russell, which had come by the way of themountains and Richmond. He had already heard of the terrible day ofPerryville in Kentucky, and the doctor had been able to confirm hisearlier news that his father, Colonel Kenton, had passed through itsafely. But the hostile armies in the west had gone down into Tennessee,and there were reports that they would soon move toward each other fora great battle. It seemed that the rival forces in both east and westwould meet at nearly the same time in terrible conflict.
Dr. Russell told that Dick Mason had been wounded in the combat atPerryville, but had been nursed back to health by his mother, who withothers had found him upon the field. He had since gone into Tennesseeto rejoin the Union army, and his mother had returned to Pendleton.
Harry folded the letter, put it in his pocket, and for a while he wasvery thoughtful.
It was a great relief to be sure that his father had gone safely throughPerryville, and that Dick Mason, although wounded there, was well again.His heart yearned over both. His devotion to his father had always beenstrong and Dick Mason had stood in the place of a brother. They werealive for the present at least, but Harry knew of the sinister threatthat hung over the west. The terrible battle that was to be fought atStone River was already sending forth its preliminary signals, and fora little while Harry thought more of those marching forces in Tennesseethan of the great army to which he belonged and of the one yet morenumerous that faced it.
But these thoughts could not last long. The events in which he was tohave a part were too imminent and mighty for anyone to detach himselffrom them more than a few minutes. He quickly returned, heart and soul,to his duties, which in these days took all his time. Many messageswere passing between Lee and Jackson and Longstreet and the commandersnext to them in rank, and Harry carried his share.
A few days after the letter from Dr. Russell the cold abatedconsiderably. The ice in the river broke, the melting snows made thecountry a sea of mud and slush and horses often became mired so deeplythat it took a dozen soldiers to drag them out again. It was on such aday as this that Dalton came to him, his grave face wearing a look ofimportance.
"General Jackson has just told me," he said, "to take you and joinGeneral Stuart, who is going with his horse to the neighborhood of PortRoyal on the river."
"What's up?"
"Nothing's up yet. But we understand that some of the Yankee gunboatsare trying to get up, now that they have a clear passage through theice."
"Cavalry can't stop them."
"No, but Stuart is taking horse artillery with him, and he's likely tomake it warm for the enemy in the water. Harry, if we only had a navy,too, this war wouldn't be doubtful."
"But, as we haven't got a navy, it is doubtful, very doubtful."
They quickly joined General Stuart, who was eager for the duty, andfalling in line with the troop of Sherburne rode swiftly toward PortRoyal, the cavalrymen carrying with them several light guns.
As they galloped along, mixed mud and snow flew in every direction,but most of them had grown so used to it that they paid littleattention. The river flowed a deep and somber stream, and all the hillsabout were yet white with snow. At that time, colored too, as it wasby his feelings, it was the most sinister landscape that Harry had everlooked upon. Black winter and red war, neither of which spared, wereallied against man.
But his pulses began to leap when they saw coils of black smoke blowna little to one side by the wind. He knew that the smoke came fromgunboats. They must be endeavoring to land troops, and Stuart was noman to allow a detached force to pass the Rappahannock and appear intheir rear.
As the cavalry burst into a gallop from the snowy forest Harry saw thathe was right. A fleet of gunboats was gathered in the stream and onthe far shore they were embarking troops. But his quick eye caught ahorseman on their own side of the river who was galloping away. He wasalready too distant for a rifle shot, but Harry instinctively knew thatit was Shepard. He had seen the man under such extraordinarily vividcircumstances that the set of his figure was familiar.
Nor was he surprised to behold Shepard now. He merely wondered thathe had not seen him earlier, so great was his activity and daring, andhe had no doubt that he had brought the gunboats and the Union troopswarning that Stuart was coming. He was sure of it the moment thecavalry emerged from the woods, because one of the gunboats instantlyturned loose with two heavy guns which sent shells whistling andscreaming over their heads. Had they been a little better aimed theywould have done much destruction, and Harry saw at once that they weregoing to have an ugly time with these saucy little demons of the water.
Another boat fired. One of the cavalrym
en was killed and severalwounded. Stuart promptly drew his men back to the edge of the wood,unlimbered and posted his cannon. Quick as they were, the black waspson the river buzzed and stung as fast. Shells and solid shot werewhistling among them and about them. They were good gunners on thoseboats and the men in gray acknowledged it by the rapidity with whichthey took to shelter.
But Stuart's blood was at its utmost heat. He had no intention of beingdriven off, and soon his own light guns were sending shell and solidshot toward the boats, which had relanded their troops on the other side,and which were now puffing up and down the river like the angry littledemons they were, sending shells, solid shot, grape and canister intothe woods and along the slopes where the horsemen had disappeared.
Harry and Dalton were glad to dismount and to get behind both thetrees and the curve of the embankment. Harry, despite a pretty fullexperience now, could not repress involuntary shivers as the deadlysteel flew by. He and Dalton had nothing to do but hold their horsesand watch the combat, which they did with the keenest interest.
Stuart's cannon had unlimbered in a good place, where they wereprotected partly by a ridge, and their deep booming note soon showed thegunboats that they had an enemy worthy of their fire. Dalton and Harrylooked on with growing excitement. Dalton, for once, grew garrulous,talking in an excited monotone.
"Look at that, Harry!" he cried. "See the water spurt right by thebow of that boat! A shell broke there! And there goes another! Thatstruck, too! See the fallen men on the boat! Look at that little blackfellow coming right out in the middle of the stream! And it got home,too, with that shot! By George, how the shell raked our ranks! Ah, but,you saucy little creature, that shell paid you back! See, Harry,its wheel is smashed, and it's floating away with the stream! Gunson land have an advantage over guns on the water! As the negro said,'When the boat blows up, whar are you? But if the explosion is on dryland, dar you are!' Ah, another has caught it, and is going out ofaction! Oh my, little boats, you're brave and saucy, but you can'tstand up to Stuart's guns."
Dalton was right. The gunboats, sinkable and fully exposed, wererapidly getting the worst of it. Stuart's guns, protected by the ridge,were inflicting so much damage that they were compelled to drop down thestream, two or three of them disabled and in tow of the others.
A covering Union battery of much heavier guns opened fire from a hillbeyond the river, but it was unable either to protect the gunboats orto demolish Stuart's horse artillery, which was sheltered well by theridge. The men in gray began to cheer. It soon became obvious thatthey would win. Gradually all of the gunboats, having suffered muchloss, dropped down the stream and passed out of range. The heavybattery was also withdrawn from the hill and the detached attempt tocross the Rappahannock had failed.
Stuart and his men rode back exultant, but Dalton said to Harry that hethought it merely a forerunner.
"A good omen, you mean?" said Harry.
"Good, I hope, but I meant chiefly a sign of much greater things tocome. I'm thinking that Burnside will attack in a day or two now.Lots of Northern newspapers find their way into our lines, and the wholeNorth is urging him on. They demand that a great victory be won in theeast right away."
"I feel sorry for a general who is pushed on like that."
"So do I, because he hasn't a ghost of a chance. He'll be able to crossthe river under cover of his great batteries, but look, Harry, look atthose frowning heights around Fredericksburg, covered with the finestriflemen in the world, the ditches and trenches sown with artillery,and the best two military brains on the globe there to direct. Whatchance have they, Harry? What chance have they?"
"Very little that I can see, but a battle is never won or lost untilit's fought. We'd better report now to General Jackson."
They saluted General Stuart, and rode away over the icy mud. GeneralJackson received their report with pleasure.
"Excellent! Excellent!" he said. "General Stuart has routed them withhorse artillery! A capable man! A most wonderful man!"
He said the last words to himself, rather than to Harry, and Stuart soonproved that his horse artillery was not underrated by winning a secondencounter with the gunboats a day or two later. Early also beat back anattempt to cross the river at a third place, and it became apparent nowthat the Union army could make no flanking attack upon its enemy southof the Rappahannock. It must be made, if at all, directly on its frontat Fredericksburg.
But Harry had no doubt that it would be made. The reports of theirnumerous scouts and spies told with detail of the immense preparationsgoing on in the Union camp. He could often watch them himself with hisglasses from the hills. He did not see much of St. Clair and Langdonthese days, as they remained closely with their regiment, theInvincibles, but Dalton and he were much together.
It was well into December when they were watching through the glassesthe concentration of Union cannon on Stafford Heights across the river.One hundred and fifty great guns were in position there and they couldeasily blow Fredericksburg to pieces. Harry looked down again at thislittle city which had jumped suddenly into fame by getting itselfsquarely between the two armies arrayed for battle.
He felt the old sensation of pity as he gazed at the closed shutters andthe smokeless chimneys. Nobody was stirring in the streets, except someMississippi soldiers who had been placed there to oppose the passage,and who were fortifying themselves in the houses and cellars along theriver front.
"It's no good looking any more," Harry said to Dalton. "There's nothingto do now but wait. That's what General Jackson is doing. I saw himin his tent to-day, reading a book on theology that Dr. Graham has justsent him."
"You're right, Harry. If the general can rest, so can we. Well,not much of this day is left. See how the Yankee batteries are fadingaway in the twilight."
"Yes, Harry, fading now, but they'll come back again, massive metal andas sinister as ever, in the morning."
"Which won't keep me from sleeping soundly to-night. Funny how you getused to anything. Neither the presence nor the absence of the Yankeearmy will interfere with my sleep unless the general wants to send me onan errand."
"And we also grow used to sights so tremendous in their nature that theyturn the whole current of our history. Look at that winter sun settingthere over the western hills. It may be my fancy, Harry, but it seemsto have the colors of bronze and steel in it, a sort of menace, onemight call it."
"I see the same colors, George, but I suppose it's fancy. The whole skyis one of steel to me. I see the gleaming of steel everywhere, over thehills, the river and the armies."
"Our imaginations are too vivid, Harry. But look how that darknesscloses in on everything! Now the Yankee cannon and the Yankee armyare gone! The river itself is fading, and there goes the town! Now,see the lights spring up on the far shore!"
"It's supper and sleep for me," said Harry. "It doesn't do to let yourimagination run away with you. You know that Lee and Old Jack and JimLongstreet have arranged for everything."
They ate their suppers, and, the general giving them leave, they laydown in the tent next to his, wrapped in their blankets. Harry sleptsoundly, but while the pitchy darkness of a winter night still enclosedthe land he was awakened by a heavy rumbling noise. His nerves had beenattuned so highly by exciting days that he was awake in an instant andsprang to his feet, Dalton also springing up with equal promptness.
They saw General Jackson standing in front of his tent and peering downin the darkness toward the river. Other officers were already gatheringnear him. Harry and Dalton stood at attention, where he could see them,if he wished to send them on any errand. But Jackson was silent andlistening.
The heavy rumbling reports--cannon shots--came again, but they werefired on their side of the river.
"Gentlemen," said General Jackson, "the enemy has begun the passage.Those are our guns giving the signal to the army."
Harry's pulses began to throb. But, although fires flared up h
ere andthere, little was to be seen in the darkness. Fortune seemed to haveshifted suddenly to the side of the Union. Not night alone protectedthe bridge builders, but a thick, impenetrable fog, rising from theriver and the muddy earth, covered the stream and its shores. TheSoutherners could not see just where the bridge head was and theircannon must fire at random through the heavy darkness. Sixteen hundredMississippians were stationed in Fredericksburg below, well concealedin cellars and rifle pits, but they could not see either, and for thepresent their rifles were silent.
But Harry's imagination immediately became intensely vivid again.He fancied that he could hear through all the shifting gloom the soundof axes and hammers and saws at work upon that bridge. These armyengineers could throw a bridge across a river in half a day. Herecognized at all times the great resources and the mechanical genius ofthe North. The South had good bridge builders herself, but she had bentall her powers to the development of public men and soldiers. Harryfelt more intensely all the time the one-sided character of her growthand its defects.
Dalton stood by Harry's side, and the darkness was so intense that heseemed but a shadow. A little further away was Jackson. No fires hadbeen lighted in his camp, but nevertheless he was not a shadow. Thatpersonality, quiet and modest, was so intense, so powerful that itseemed to Harry to become luminous, to radiate light in the blacknessof the night. It was imagination, he knew, at work again, but it wasJackson who had loosed its springs.
"Can you see your watch, George?" he whispered to Dalton.
"Yes, and its says only twenty minutes past three in the morning."
"And our signal guns began about twenty minutes ago. They will havenearly four hours in which to work before the sun rises and we can seethem well enough to take good aim."
"And maybe longer than that, Harry. The whole night is permeated withthe heaviest inland fog I ever knew. Maybe it will take the sun a longtime to strike through it or drive it away. It's bad for us."
"But we'll win anyhow. I tell you, we'll win anyhow! Do you hear me,George?"
"Yes, Harry, I hear you. You're excited. So am I. There are mightyfew who wouldn't be at such a time; but look at the general! He standslike a statue!"
General Jackson did not move, save to lift his glasses now and then,as if with their magnifying powers he could pierce the dark. But thenight and the swollen fog still hid everything going on beyond the riverfrom those on the heights. Down by the shore the Mississippians intheir rifle pits might see a little, and the scouts undoubtedly had seenmuch, else the signal guns would not be firing.
Harry's pulses, after a while, began to beat more smoothly and there wasnot such a painful and insistent drumming in his head. Emotions yieldednow to will and he waited patiently. General Jackson for the first timetold some of his young officers that they could lie down and rest.
"There can be no action before daylight," he said, "and it's best to befresh and ready."
He spoke to them with the grave kindness that he always used, save whensome great fault was committed, and then his words burned like fire.Harry and Dalton procured their blankets from their tents, wrapped themabout their bodies and lay down on the dryest spots they could find,but they had no thought of sleep. They permitted their limbs to relax,and that was a help to the nerves, but neither closed his eyes.
Those dark hours seemed an eternity to Harry. The floating fog seemedto grow thicker and to enter his very bones. He shivered and drew theblanket close. Now, with his ears close to the earth, he was sure thathe could hear the axes and the saws and the hammers beating on steelrivets on the other side of the Rappahannock.
The Confederate cannon still fired the signals of alarm at regularintervals, but the night and the fog always closed in again quickly overthe flash that the discharge had made. After a while a murmur came fromthe long Southern line along the heights and on the ridges. Horsesstirred here and there, cannon, moved to new positions, made sighingsounds as their wheels sank in the mud; sabres and bayonets clanked,thousands of men whispered to one another. All these varying soundsunited into one great soft voice which was like the murmur of a windthrough the summer night.
Toward five o'clock in the morning, when the darkness had not diminisheda whit, a messenger from General Lee rode up with a note for GeneralJackson. It merely stated that all was ready and to hold the positionsthat he had taken up the night before. Jackson wrote a brief reply bythe light of a lantern that an orderly held, and the messenger gallopedaway with it. It was the only incident that had occurred in a long time.
"They're not using many lights on the other side of the river," saidHarry, although he noted an occasional flame in the darkness. "Ofcourse, they want to hide their bridge building, but you'd think they'dhave fires burning elsewhere."
"They've learned the value of caution," said Dalton. "I'm bound to saythey're going about the first part of their work with skill."
He spoke with the calm superiority of a young Officer.
Harry took out his own watch, and by holding it close to his eyes wasable to read its face.
"A quarter to six," he said. "According to the watch it is less thanthree hours since we first heard those alarm guns, but my five knownsenses and all the unknown tell me that it has been at least a week."
"In an hour we should see something," said Dalton. "Confound this fog.If it weren't so thick we could see now."
Harry's pulses began to beat hard again in the next hour. He strovewith glasses even for a glimpse of the winter sun which he knew wouldcome so late, but as yet the fog showed nothing save a faint luminoustinge low down in the east. An orderly brought food to them, and whilethey ate they saw the luminous tinge broaden and deepen.
"The sun's rising behind that fog," said Dalton, "but here comes alittle wind that will drive away the fog or thin it out so we can see."
"Yes, I feel it," said Harry, "and you can see the dull, somber red ofthe sun trying to break through. Look, George, unless I'm mistaken thefog's moving down the river!"
"So it is, there's the flash of the stream, the color of steel, and byall the stars, there's their bridge two-thirds of the way across!"
Heavier puffs of wind came and the fog billowed off down the river.The whole gigantic theater of action sprang at once into the light.There were the two great armies clustered on opposing ridges, there wasthe deserted town, there was the deep river, the color of lead, flowingbetween the foes, two-thirds of its width already spanned by the Unionbridge, the bridge itself covered with workmen, and boats swarming byits side.
Harry felt a thrill and a shudder which were almost simultaneous.Then came a deep muffled roar from the two armies on the ridges lookingat each other. But as the roar died it was succeeded by the rapid,stinging fire of rifles. The Mississippians in their pits and cellarsnear the bank of the river were sending a hail of bullets upon thebridge builders.
The rest of the Southern army stood by and watched. Harry knew thatLee and Jackson would make their chief defense on the ridges, but theMississippians were there to keep the enemy from being too forward.So deadly were their rifles that every workman fled off the bridge tothe Union shore, save those who were struck down upon it, falling intothe water.
Then came a pause, a period of intense waiting, short, but seeminglylong, even to the veteran generals, after which the gallant builders,who truly deserved the name of the bravest of the brave, ventured againupon the bridge in the face of those terrible Mississippi rifles.A blast of death again blew upon them. Bullets in hundreds struck uponbodies or rattled on timbers. The workmen could not live in the face ofsuch a fire, and those who had not been slain retreated again to theirown side of the stream. A third time the heroic bridge buildersreturned to their work, and a third time they were driven back by thedeadly Mississippi hail. Harry felt pity for them.
"I never saw anything braver," he said to Dalton.
"Nor did I, Harry, nor anything more useless. The bridge builders neverhad a chance before the
rifles. But now their supports, which shouldhave been there all the time, are coming up."
Heavy columns of Union riflemen moved forward to the edge of the riverand replied to the Mississippians. But the Southerners, in the shelterof the cellars and pits, held their ground. But few of them were hitand they kept up that deadly hail which swept the uncompleted bridgeclear of every workman who attempted to go upon it.
The rapid fire of the rifles crashed up and down both sides of the river,two sheets of flame seeming to reach out as if they would meet eachother. The wind that had driven away the fog also carried off the smoke,and the river still gleamed like steel between. Then, as the rifle firedied again, there was another silence for a while.
"It will take more than rifles," said Harry, "to drive out thoseintrenched Mississippians."
"So it will, Harry," said Dalton, who was watching through glasses,"and here it comes. Their great batteries are about to open."
The next instant the whole earth seemed to be shaken by the roar ofheavy cannon. The opposing hills and ridges fairly poured forth flame,and shells and solid shot crashed upon the whole devoted town. Nor didthis tremendous fire from a hundred and fifty great guns cease for aninstant. The roar and crash were appalling. Harry saw houses crumblingin Fredericksburg, with flames leaping up from others.
The artillery of Longstreet immediately facing the Union batteries wastoo light and weak to reply, and the gunners remained quiet in theirtrenches while the storm rained its showers of steel upon the town.Yet the Mississippians in the rifle pits held fast, their earthenshelters protecting them. While the bombardment was at its very heightworkmen ran out on the bridge for the fourth time to complete it,and while the shells and solid shot were whistling over their heads,the rifles of the Mississippians once more swept it clean. Harrygroaned. He could not help it at the sight of men so brave who were cutdown like grass by the scythe. Then his attention turned away from thebridge to the mighty cannonade which seemed to be growing in volume.The wind took much of the smoke across the river and it floated in agreat cloud over Fredericksburg, through which shot the flames of theburning buildings.
But the main army of the South, stretched along a front of six miles,remained silent. Jackson on the right scarcely moved, but all the whilehe attentively watched through his glasses the great cannonade. Nearlyall the soldiers were lying down, and to most of them the earth seemedto heave with the shock of all those blazing cannon.
Harry and Dalton walked once to the point where the Invincibles lay.That is, all but Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-ColonelSt. Hilaire were lying down. They stood rigidly erect, their eyes onthe great cannonade, and as Harry approached they were exchanging briefcomments with each other.
"What harm does that cannonade do, Hector?" asked Colonel Talbot.
"Much to the town, little to us."
"What a pity we don't have an artillery equal to theirs."
"A great pity, Leonidas."
"They will presently move forward in much greater force to finish thebridge."
"Undoubtedly, Leonidas. They have shown folly, wasting the lives ofsuch brave men in small efforts one after another. They will trysomething else."
"I see a great many boats against the bank on their side of the river.I fancy they will use them in their next attempt, whatever it may be."
"I agree with you. Good morning, Lieutenant Kenton. A mighty andappalling sight."
"Truly it is, sir," said Harry, saluting the two officers.
"The Yankees will force the passage," said Colonel Talbot. "Ourartillery is not strong enough to reply to their covering cannonade.We are glad to see you safe and whole, Harry. You'll find your friendslying in that ravine just behind us."
It was a rather deep ravine, and when Harry looked over its edge,St. Clair and Langdon greeted him gladly.
"Come down, Harry," said Langdon, "and be joyful. This gully is prettywell dried out and you can rest. We've got a West Point fellow here andhe's humming one of his old songs to about the biggest chorus a songever had. Captain Swayne, Lieutenant Kenton, once of the Invincibles,but now of General Jackson's personal staff. Swayne's from Tennessee,Harry, and you two are well met. Swayne belongs to a regiment a fewyards beyond the gully. He was at the Seven Days and the SecondManassas. We three thought we won those battles ourselves, but it seemsthat Swayne was at both all the time, helping us. Take off your cap,Harry, and thank the gentleman."
Swayne, a slender, fair man, not over twenty-three, smiled and extendeda hearty hand, which Harry received with equal heartiness. The smileturned into a slight twinkle.
"I've been glad to meet your friends here, Mr. Kenton," he said, "butthe meeting has brought a disappointment with it."
"How's that?"
"Until we began talking I thought I had won the Seven Days and theSecond Manassas all by myself. Now, it seems that I have to share thehonors with you fellows."
"So you do," said Langdon, and then he sang:
"There comes a voice from Florida, From Tampa's lonely shore, It speaks of one we've lost, O'Brien is no more. In the land of sun and flowers, His head lies pillowed low, No more he'll drink the gin cocktail, At Benjamin Haven's, Oh! At Benny Haven's, Oh! At Benny Haven's, Oh!"
"Do I get it right, Swayne? Remember that I heard you sing it onlythree times."
"Fine! Fine!" said Swayne with enthusiasm. "You have it right, or asnear right as need be, and you're using it in a much better voice than Ican."
"I'm a great soldier, but my true place is on the operatic stage,"said Langdon modestly.
"It's an old West Point song of ours, Kenton," said Swayne. "While Iwas lying here listening to the continued roar of all those great guns,I couldn't keep from humming it as a sort of undernote."
"This gully has a queer effect," said St. Clair, who, lying on a blanket,was dusting every minute particle of dried mud from his uniform."It seems to soften the sounds of all those guns--and they must be acouple of hundred at least. It produces a kind of harmony."
"It's the old god Vulcan and a thousand assistants of his hammering awayon their anvils," said Harry, "and they hammer out a regular tune."
"Besides hammering out a tune," said St. Clair, "they're also hammeringout swords and bayonets to be used against us."
As he spoke he drew from his pocket a tiny round mirror, not more thanthree inches in diameter, and carefully examined the collar of his coat.
"Have you found a speck, Arthur?" asked Langdon. "If I hadn't seen yourisk your life fifteen or twenty thousand times I'd say you're a dandy."
"I am a dandy," said St. Clair. "At least, I mean to be one, if I comeout of the war alive."
"What do you intend to wear?" asked Harry.
"Depends upon what I can afford. If I have the money, it's going to bethe best, the very best any market can afford."
"A dozen suits, I suppose."
"At least as many, with hats, shoes, overcoats, cloaks, shirts and allthe et ceteras to match. Why shouldn't I wear fine clothes if I want'em? Do you demand that instead I spend it on fiery whisky to pour downme, as so many public men and leading citizens do? The clothes at leastdon't burn me out and finally burn me to death."
Langdon put up his hands in defense.
"I haven't jumped on you, Arthur," he said. "I admire you, though Ican't equal you. And as I'm not willing to be second even to you,I'm going to our sea island, near the Carolina coast, when this war isover, lie down under the shade of a live oak, have our big colored man,Sam, to bring me luxurious food about once every three hours, andbetween these three-hour periods I'll be fanned by Julius, another bigcolored man of ours, and I won't make any exertion except to tell day byday to admiring visitors how I whipped the Yankees every time I couldget near enough to see 'em, and how a lot more were scared to death justbecause they heard me crashing through the brush."
"You'll do the bragging part, all right, Happy," said
St. Clair."I believe you could keep up the sort of existence you describe fora year at least."
"I'd like to try. Now, what under the stars is that?"
Nothing had happened. Something had merely ceased to happen. The greatcannonade had stopped in an instant, as if by a preconcerted signal,and their nerves, attuned so long to such a continuous roar, seemed tocollapse, because some support was withdrawn. Harry's face turned whiteand his heart beat very fast, but in a few moments he recovered himself.
"I suppose they've given it up for the time being," he said, "butthey're sure to try it again in some other way."
"That's a safe prediction," said St. Clair. "Burnside is trying to getacross the Rappahannock to attack us, because the whole North is drivinghim on, and he hasn't got the moral courage to hold back until he canchoose his time and place. Funny how this silence oppresses one."
The whole Southern army, along its six miles of length, was now standingup and looking toward the point on the other shore of the Rappahannockwhere the Union batteries were massed. All work seemed to have beenabandoned there, although the troops were still clustered along theshore and about the bridge head. Clouds of smoke from the greatbatteries floated down the river.
"A Yankee failure so far, Harry," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot. "Thebridge has advanced no further, and I should say that our shore is nowenriched by about fifty thousand pounds of steel hurled from thosebatteries and with little harm to us."
"I've no doubt you're right, sir," said Harry, "and now that a period ofrest has come, I shall hurry back to General Jackson, who may need me tocarry some order."
"A moment, please, Harry, my boy," said Colonel Talbot, twirling hismustaches. "You are near to General Jackson, of course, being hispersonal aide. If it should fall out conveniently, would you do myselfand my most excellent friend and second, Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire,a small favor?"
"Of course, Colonel. Gladly. What is it?"
"If the enemy should cross the river, as he probably will, and if youshould be near enough to Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson,and if the moment should be propitious, would you kindly whisper inhis ear that the skeleton regiment, known as the Invincibles, LeonidasTalbot, Colonel, and Hector St. Hilaire, Lieutenant-Colonel, would beoverjoyed at the honor of leading the attack upon the intrusive andinvading Yankee army?"
"Promise, Harry, promise!" seconded Lieutenant-Colonel HectorSt. Hilaire in his softest and most persuasive South Carolina accent."You really owe that to us."
"I promise gladly," replied Harry; "but you know what General Jacksonis. He makes his plans without telling anybody what they are, and hecarries them out. If it is a part of his plan for the Invincibles tolead the attack, so far as his division is concerned, you'll lead it.If not, you won't."
"But still a word in his ear might have some influence," persistedColonel Talbot. "It might come at the very moment when he washesitating over a choice, and it would probably decide him in our favor."
"Then I shall do my best, sir," said Harry. "You can rely upon me"
He returned to General Jackson, but found that his commander was yetinactive. He was still waiting and watching with a patience that seemedequal to that of the Sphinx. Noon came, food was served, and the hourstrailed their slow length on.
Then they saw a great movement in the Union army. The Northern generalswere about to make their supreme effort. Hooker, who had shown suchdesperate courage at Antietam and who had won the name of Fighting Joe,called for men who would cross the river in boats under the fire ofthe Mississippi rifles. It looked like certain death, but four entireregiments came forward at once. They entered the boats, which promptlypulled for the right bank, and the great batteries at once opened acovering fire.
The Mississippians once more sent forth their hail of bullets, but theboats were so numerous that, although some were stopped, the majoritycame on. Man after man, shot through, fell over the sides into thedeep river. Sometimes a boat itself sank, but the main force rapidlyapproached the Southern side.
"They have lost many men, but they will make the crossing at last,Harry," said Dalton.
"So it seems," said Harry. "I suppose our generals could bring upenough men to drive them back, but it looks as if they don't want todo it."
"It may be that they're holding the trap open for the victim to walk in."
"However it may be, they're across. See, they're landing in thousands,and the Mississippians, leaving their rifle pits, are retreating.Now they can finish the bridge and as many more as they need at theirleisure."
The retreating Mississippians rejoined their comrades, and still theSouthern army did not stir. The Northern army, almost unmolested,continued its bridge building, and the afternoon and a dark night passed.
The Star of Gettysburg: A Story of Southern High Tide Page 5
