CHAPTER XIII
GETTYSBURG
Harry took many messages that night, and he witnessed the gathering ofthe generals about Lee. He saw Ewell come, hobbling on his crutches,eager for battle and disappointed that they had not pushed the victory.Hill returned again, refusing to yield to his illness. And there wasLongstreet, thick-bearded, the best fighter that Lee had since the deathof Jackson; McLaws, Hood, Heth, Pender, Jubal Early, Anderson and others,veterans of many battles, great and small.
They talked long and earnestly and pointed many times to the battlefieldand the opposing heights. While they talked, a man appeared among themen in blue on Cemetery Hill, accompanied only by a staff officer and anorderly. He had ridden a long distance, and naturally lean and haggard,these traits in his appearance were exaggerated by weariness andanxiety. He looked as little like a great general as Jackson had lookedin those days before he had sprung into fame.
His military hat was black and broad of brim, and the brim, havingbecome limp, drooped down over his face. There were spectacles on hisnose, and it is said of him that he could have been taken more easilyfor a teacher than for a commander-in-chief. Thus Meade came to hisarmy in the decisive moment of his country's life. He inspired neitherenthusiasm nor discouragement. He looked upon those left from thebattle and upon the brigades which had come since, thousands of menalready sound asleep among the white stones of the churchyard. Thenhe turned in a calm and businesslike manner to the task of arranging astern front for the storm which he knew would burst upon them to-morrow.The respect of his officers for him increased.
Lee's generals went to their respective commands. Harry once more tookorders, and, as he carried messages or brought them back, he neverfailed to see all that he could. The great corps of Ewell was drawn upon the battlefield of the day, Hill's forces extended to Willoughby Run,and the Southern line was complete along the whole curve. They also hadthe welcome news that Stuart at Carlisle had heard of the battle andwould be present with the cavalry on the morrow.
Harry, riding about in the darkness, recovered much of his spirits.The whole Southern army would be present in the morning, and whileJackson was dead, his spirit might ride again at their head. Now heawaited the dawn with confidence, believing that Lee would win anothergreat victory.
Harry was sent on his last errand far after midnight, and it took him toone of Ewell's divisions, in the edge of Gettysburg. It was a clearnight, with a bright summer sky, a good moon and the stars in theirmyriads twinkling peacefully over the panorama of human passion anddeath. But they seemed very far away and cold to the boy, who waschilled by the night and the impending sense of mighty conflict.In Virginia they were fighting against the invader and in defense oftheir own soil. Now they were the invader, and it was the men in bluewho defended.
As he passed over that battlefield, on which the dead and the badly hurtyet lay, his heart was dissolved for the time in sadness. The dead werethick all around him, and there were many hurt seriously who were sostill that he did not know whether they were alive or not. He heardvery few groans. He noticed often on the battlefields that the hurtusually shut their teeth together and endured in silence. As heapproached one of the little streams, a form twisted itself suddenlyfrom his path, and a weak voice exclaimed:
"For God's sake don't step on me!"
Harry looked down. It was a boy with yellow hair, younger than himself.He could not have been over sixteen, but he wore a blue uniform and abullet had gone through his shoulder. Harry had a powerful sensation ofpity.
"I would not have stepped on you," he said. His duty urged him on,but his feelings would not let him go, and he added:
"I'll help you."
He lifted the lad, rapidly cut away his coat, and slicing it into strips,bound up tightly the two wounds in his shoulder where the bullet hadgone in and where it had come out.
"You've lost a lot of blood," he said, "but you've got enough left tolive on until you gather another supply, and you won't lose any morenow."
"Thank you," murmured the boy; "but you're very good for--for a rebel."
Harry laughed.
"Why, you innocent child!" he said. "Have they been filling your headwith tales of our ferocity and cruelty?"
He went down to the stream, dipped up water in his cap, and broughtit back to the boy, who drank eagerly. Then he placed him in a morecomfortable position on the turf, and patting his head, said:
"You'll get well sure, and maybe you and I will meet after the war andbe friends."
All of which came true. Its like happened often in this war. But hewent out of Harry's mind, as he walked on and delivered his messagein the edge of Gettysburg. He could not return before seeking theInvincibles, who were surely here in the vanguard--if they were yetalive. Harry shuddered. All his friends might have perished in thatwhirlwind of death. He soon learned that they had suffered greatly,but that those who were left were lying on the grass of what had beena lawn.
He found the lawn quickly and saw dark figures strewed about upon theground. They were so still and silent that they looked like the dead,but Harry knew that it was the stupor of exhaustion. As they wereinside the lines and needing no watch, there was no sentinel.
Harry stepped over the low fence and looked again at the figures.The moonlight silvered them and they did not stir. He could not see asingle form move. It was weird, uncanny, and the blood chilled in hisveins. But he shook himself violently, angry at his weakness, andwalked among them, looking for the two colonels and the two lieutenants.A figure suddenly sat up before him and a dignified voice said:
"Your footstep awakened me, Harry, and if there is a message, I am hereto receive it. But I ask you in the name of mercy to be quick. I wasnever before so much overpowered that I could not hold up my head aminute."
Before Harry could speak another figure rose.
"Yes, Harry, be quick if you can, and let us go back to sleep," saidLieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire in a pleading voice.
"Thank God I've found you both. I have no message for you. I wasmerely looking to see if all of you were alive."
"You've always had a kind heart, Harry," said Colonel Talbot, "and wecan't tell you how much we appreciate what you've done."
"Are St. Clair and Happy Tom here?"
"I cannot tell you. We suffered from such tremendous exhaustion thatour men fell upon the grass, we with them, and all of us sank intostupor. But, Harry, they must be here! We couldn't have lost thoseboys! Why, I can't think of them as not living!"
"If you'll let me make a suggestion, lie down and go to sleep again,"said Harry. "I'll find 'em."
The two colonels stretched a little, as if they were about to rise andgo with him, but the effort was beyond their powers. They sank back andreturned to sleep. Harry went on, his heart full of fear for the twoyoung friends who were so dear to him.
The survivors of the Invincibles lay in all sorts of positions, someon their backs, some on their sides, some on their faces, and othersdoubled up like little children. It was hard to recognize those darkfigures, but he came at last to one in a lieutenant's uniform, and hewas sure that it was Langdon. He was afraid at first that he was dead,but he put his hand on his shoulder and shook it.
There was no response, but Harry felt the warmth of the body passthrough the cloth to his hand, and he knew that Langdon was living.He shook him again.
Happy opened his eyes slowly and regarded Harry with a long stare.
"Are you a ghost?" he asked solemnly.
"No, I was never more alive than I am now."
"I don't believe you, Harry. You're a ghost and so am I. Look at thedead men lying all around us. We're just the first up. Why, Harry,nobody could go through the crater of an active volcano, as we've done,and live. I was either burned to death or shot to death with a bulletor blown to pieces with a shell. I don't know which, but it doesn'tmatter. What kind of a country is this, Harry, into which we've beenresurrected?"
> "Stop your foolishness, Happy. You're alive, all right, although youmay not be to-morrow night. The whole Army of the Potomac is coming upand there's going to be another great battle."
"Then it's just as well that I'm alive, because General Lee will needme. But, Harry, don't you think I've answered enough questions and thatI've been awake long enough? Harry, remember that I'm your friend andcomrade, almost your brother, and let me go back to sleep."
"Where is St. Clair? Was he killed?"
"No. A million shells burst over both of us, but we escaped them all.But Arthur will be dead to the world for a while, just the same.His is the fourth figure beyond me, but you couldn't wake him if youfired a cannon at his ear, and in two minutes you won't be able to wakeme with another cannon."
Happy's head fell back as he spoke, and in less than half the time hegave he had joined the band of the original seven sleepers. Harry,stepping lightly over the slumbering figures--he had left his horseon the hill--went back to the staff, where he saw that many were yetwatching. At the urgent advice of an older officer he stretched himselfbetween two blankets to protect his body from dew and slept a littlebefore dawn. He, too, had felt the exhaustion shown by the Invincibles,but his nervous system was keyed highly, too high, in fact, to sleeplong. Moreover, he seemed to find some new reserve of strength, andwhen Dalton put his hand upon his shoulder he sprang to his feet,eager and active. Dalton had not been sent on many errands the nightbefore, and, sleeping longer than Harry, he had been up a half hourearlier.
"You'll find coffee and food for the staff back a little," said Dalton,"and I'd advise you to take breakfast, Harry."
"I will. What's going on?"
"Nothing, except the rising of the sun. See it, Harry, just coming overthe edge of the horizon behind those two queer hills."
The rim of the eastern sky was reddening fast, and Round Top and LittleRound Top stood out against it, black and exaggerated. They were raisedin the dawn, yet dim, to twice their height, and rose like gigantictowers.
But there was light enough already for Harry to see masses of men on theopposing slopes, and stone fences running along the hillsides, some ofwhich had been thrown up in the night by soldiers.
"I take it that the whole Army of the Potomac is here," he said.
"So our scouts tell us," replied Dalton. "Our forces are gathered, too,except the six thousand infantry under Pickett and McLaws and thecavalry under Stuart. But they'll come."
Harry and Dalton ate breakfast quickly, and, hurrying back, stood neartheir chief, ready for any service. All the Southern forces were inline. Heth held the right, Pender the left, and Anderson, Hood, andMcLaws and the others were stationed between. The brilliant sun movedslowly on and flooded the town, the hills and the battlefield of theday before with light. The officers of either side with their powerfulglasses could plainly see the hostile troops. Harry had glasses ofhis own, and he looked a long time. But he saw little movement in thehostile ranks. Meade and Hancock and the others had worked hard in thehours of darkness and the Army of the Potomac was ready.
Harry expected to hear the patter of rifles. Surely the battle wouldopen at once. But there was no sound of strife. It seemed insteadthat a great silence had settled over the two armies and all between.Perhaps each was waiting for the other to make the first cast of thedice.
Harry studied Lee's face, but he could read nothing there. Like Jacksonhe had the power of dismissing all expression. He wore a splendid newuniform which had recently been sent to him by the devoted people ofVirginia, and with his height and majestic figure, his presence hadnever seemed more magnificent than on that morning. It was usually hewho opened the battle, never waiting for the enemy, but as yet he gaveno order.
Longstreet, Hill and Hood presently joined Lee, and the four walked alittle higher up the ridge, where they examined the Northern army for along time through their glasses. Lee must have recognized the strengthof that position, the formidable ridges, the stone walls bristling withbatteries, all crowned with an army of veterans more numerous than hisown, and, even when Stuart and Pickett should come, more numerous yetby fifteen thousand men. But his army, with the habit of victory, waseager for battle, sure that it could win, despite the numbers andposition of the enemy.
The generals came back, but Lee said little. Harry often wished thathe could have penetrated the mind of the great commander that morning,a mind upon which so much hung and which must have been assailed bydoubts and fears, despite the impenetrable mask of his face. But he didnot yet give any orders to attack, and Harry and Dalton, who had nothingto do but look on, were amazed. There was the Army of the Potomacwaiting, and it was not Lee's habit to let it wait.
Slow though the sun was, it was now far up the blue arch and the day wasintensely hot. The golden beams poured down and everything seemed toleap out into the light. Harry clearly saw the Northern cannon andnow and then he saw an officer moving about. But the men in blue weremostly still, lying upon their arms. The troops of his own army werequiet also, and they, too, were lying down.
It suddenly occurred to Harry that no more fitting field for a greatand decisive battle could have been chosen. It was like a vast arena,enclosed by the somber hills and the two Round Tops, on both of whichflew the flags of the Union signalmen.
Yet the day drew on. The two armies of nearly two hundred thousand menmerely sat and stared at each other. Noon passed and the afternoonadvanced. Harry yet wondered, as many another did. But it was not forhim to criticize. They were led by a man of genius, and the great mindmust be working, seeking the best way.
He and Dalton and some others lay down on the grass, while the heavysilence still endured. Not a single cannon shot had been fired all thatday, and soon the sun would begin its decline from the zenith.
"I think I'll go to sleep," said Dalton.
"You couldn't if you tried," said Harry, "and you know it. If GeneralLee is waiting, it's because he has good reasons for waiting, and youknow that, too."
"You're right in both instances, Harry. I could never shut my eyes ona scene like this, and, late as it grows, there will yet be a battleto-day. Weren't some orders sent along the line a little while ago?"
"Yes, the older men took 'em. What time is it, George?"
"Four o'clock." Then he closed his watch with a snap, and added:
"The battle has begun."
The heavy report of a cannon came from the Southern right underLongstreet. It sped up the valleys and returned in sinister echoes.It was succeeded by silence for a moment, and then the whole earth shookbeneath a mighty shock. All the batteries along the Southern lineopened, pouring a tremendous volume of fire upon the whole Northernposition.
The young officers leaped to their feet. A volcano had burst. TheUnion batteries were replying, and the front of both armies blazed withfire. The smoke hung high and Harry and Dalton could see in the valleybeneath it. They caught the gleam of bayonets and saw the troops ofLongstreet advancing in heavy masses to the assault of the slope wherethe peach trees grew, now known as the Peach Orchard. Here stoodthe New Yorkers who had been thrust forward under Sickles, a roughpolitician, but brave and in many respects capable. There was someconfusion among them as they awaited the Confederates, Sickles, it ischarged, having gone too far in his zeal, and then endeavoring to fallback when it was too late. But the men under him were firm. On thisfield the two great states of New York and Pennsylvania, through thenumber of troops they furnished for it, bore the brunt of the battle.
Harry and Dalton, crouched down in order that they might see betterunder the smoke, watched the thrilling and terrible spectacle. TheSouthern vanguard was made up of Texans, tall, strong, tanned men,led by the impetuous Hood, and shouting the fierce Southern war cry theyrushed straight at the corps of Sickles. The artillery and rifle fireswept through their ranks, but they did not falter. Many fell, but theothers rushed on, and Harry, although unconscious of it, began to shoutas he saw them cross a li
ttle stream and charge with all their mightagainst the enemy.
The combat was stubborn and furious. The men of Sickles redoubledtheir efforts. At some points their line was driven in and the Texanssought to take their artillery, but at others they held fast and eventhreatened the Southern flank. They knew, too, that reinforcements werepromised to them and they encouraged one another by saying they werealready in sight.
Harry could not turn his eyes away from this struggle, much of which washidden in the smoke, and all of which was confused. The cannon of Hilland Ewell were thundering elsewhere, but here was the crucial point.The Round Tops rose on one side of the combatants. Round Top itselfseemed too lofty and steep for troops, but Little Round Top, accessibleto both men and cannon, would dominate the field, and he believed thatHood, as soon as his men crushed Sickles, would whirl about and seizeit. But he could not yet tell whether fortune favored the Blue or theGray.
The generals from both sides watched the struggle with intense anxietyand hurried forward fresh troops. Woods and rocks and slopes helpedthe defense, but the attack was made with superior numbers. Longstreethimself was directing the action and a part of Hill's men were comingup to his aid. Sedgwick and Sykes, able generals, were rushing tohelp Sickles. The whole combat was beginning to concentrate about thefurious struggle for the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top.
Hood, in all the height of the struggle, saw the value of Little RoundTop and tried his utmost to seize it. Again the Northern generals wereto show that they had learned how to see what should be done and to doit at once. Little Round Top rose up, dominant over the whole field,a prize of value beyond all computation. Just then it was the mostvaluable hill in all the world.
A Northern general, Warren, the chief engineer of the army, had seen thevalue of Little Round Top as quickly as Hood. The signalmen were aboutto leave, but he made them stay. An entire brigade, hurrying to thebattle, was passing the slope, when Warren literally seized upon them byforce of command and rushed the men and their cannon to the crest.
Hood's soldiers were already climbing the slopes, when the fire ofthe brigade, shell and bullets, struck almost in their faces. Harry,watching through his glasses, saw them reel back and then go on again,firing their own rifles as they climbed over the rocky sides of LittleRound Top. Again that fierce volley assailed them, crashing throughtheir ranks, and again they went on into the flame and the smoke.
Harry saw the battle raging around the crest of Little Round Top.Then he uttered a cry of despair. The Southerners, with their ranksthin--woefully thin--were falling back slowly and sullenly. They haddone all that soldiers could do, but the commanding towers of LittleRound Top remained in Union hands, and the Union generals were sooncrowding it with artillery that could sweep every point in the fieldbelow.
But Sickles himself was not faring so well. His men, fighting forevery inch of ground about the Peach Orchard, were slowly driven back.Sickles himself fell, a leg shattered, and walked on one leg for morethan fifty years afterwards. Hood, his immediate opponent, also fell,losing an arm then and a leg later at Chickamauga, but Longstreet stillpushed the attack, and the Northern generals who had stood aroundSickles resisted with the stubbornness of men who meant to succeed ordie.
Early in the battle Harry had seen General Lee walk forward to a pointin the center of his line and sit down on a smooth stump. There he sata long time, apparently impassive. Harry sometimes took his eyes awayfrom the combat for the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top to watch hiscommander-in-chief. But the general never showed emotion. Now and thenGeneral Hill or his military secretary, General Long, came to him andthey would talk a little together, but they made no gestures. Lee wouldrise when the generals came, but when they left he would resume hisplace on the stump and watch the struggle through his glasses.Throughout the whole battle of that day he sent a single order andreceived but one message. He had given his orders before the advance,and he left the rest to his lieutenants.
"I wish I could be as calm as he is," said Harry.
"I'll risk saying that he isn't calm inside," said Dalton. "How couldany man be at such a time?"
"You're right. Duck! Here comes a shell!"
But the shell fell short and exploded on the slope.
"Now listen, will you!" exclaimed Harry. "That's the spirit!"
Immediately after the shell burst a Southern band began to play.And it played the merriest music, waltzes and polkas and all kinds ofdances. Harry felt his feet move to the tunes, while the battle below,at its very height, roared and thundered.
But he promptly forgot the musicians as he watched the battle. He knewthat the Invincibles were somewhere in that volcano of fire and smoke,and it was almost too much to hope that they would again come unhurtout of such a furious conflict. But they, too, passed quickly from hismind. The struggle would let nothing else remain there long.
He saw that the Union troops were still in the Peach Orchard and thatthey were pouring a deadly fire also from Little Round Top. Hancock hadcome to take the place of Sickles, and he was drawing every man he couldto his support. The afternoon was waning, but the battle was still atits height. Men were falling by thousands, and generals, colonels,majors, officers of all kinds were falling with them. The Southernershad not encountered such resistance in any other great battle, and theground, moreover, was against them.
Yet the grim fighter, Longstreet, never ceased to push on his brigades.The combat was now often face to face, and sharpshooters, hidden inevery angle and hollow of the earth, picked off men by hundreds.The great rocky mass known as the Devil's Den was filled with Northernsharpshooters and for a long time they stung the Southern flank terribly,until a Southern battery, noticing whence the deadly stream ofbullets issued, sprayed it with grape and canister until most of thesharpshooters were killed, while those who survived fled like wolvesfrom their lairs.
The day was now passing, but Harry could see no decrease in the fury ofthe battle. Longstreet was still hurling his men forward, and they weremet with cannon and rifle and bayonet. The Confederate line now grewmore compact. The brigades were brought into closer touch, and,gathering their strength anew, they rushed forward in a charge, heavierand more desperate than any that had gone before. Generals and colonelsled them in person. Barksdale, young, but with snow-white hair, wasriding at the very front of the line, and he fell, dying, in the Unionranks.
The Southern charge was stopped again on the left wing of the Union army,and with the coming of the night the battle there sank, but elsewherethe South was meeting with greater success. Ewell, making a renewed andfierce attack at sunset, drove in the Northern right, and, seconded byEarly, took their defenses there. But the darkness was coming fast,and although the firing went on for a long time, it ceased at last,with the two enemies still face to face and the battle drawn.
Harry, who had expected to see a glorious victory won by the setting ofthe sun, was deeply depressed. His youth did not keep him from seeingthat very little advantage had been won in that awful conflict ofthe afternoon, and he saw also that the Army of the Potomac had beenfighting as if it had been improved by defeat. Nor had Lee thrown inhis whole force where it was needed most. If Jackson had only beenthere! Harry pictured his swift flank movement, his lightning stroke,and the crumpling up of the enemy. Jackson loomed larger than ever nowto his disappointed and excited mind.
Harry had been all day long and far into the night on Seminary Hill.Often he had scarcely moved for an hour, and now, when the firing ceasedand he stood up and tried to peer into the valley of death, he found hislimbs so stiff for a minute or two that he could scarcely move. Hiseyes ached and his throat was raw from smoke and the fumes of burnedgunpowder. But as he shook himself and stretched his muscles, heregained firmness of both mind and body.
"We didn't win much," he said to Dalton.
"Not to-day, but we will to-morrow. Harry, wasn't it awful? It looksto me down there like a pit of destruction."
; And Dalton described it truly. The losses of the day before had beendoubled. Thirty thousand men on the two sides had now fallen, and therewas another day to come.
Harry saw that the generals themselves were assailed by doubts andfears. He with other young staff officers witnessed the council ofLee and his leading officers in the moonlight on Seminary Ridge. Somespoke of retreat. A drawn battle in the enemy's country, and with aninferiority of numbers, was for them equivalent to a defeat. Otherspointed out, however, that while their losses had been enormous, thecourage and spirit of the Army of Northern Virginia were unshaken.Stuart with the cavalry, expected earlier, would certainly be up soon,and, after all, the day had not been without its gains. Longstreet heldthe Peach Orchard and Ewell was in the Union defenses on the flank ofGettysburg.
But Lee thought most of the troops. These ragged veterans of hiswho had been invincible asked to be led once more against the enemy.A spirit so high as theirs could not be denied. His decision was given.They would stay and smash the Union army on the morrow.
Harry heard of the decision. He had never doubted that it would be so.They must surely win the next day with the addition of Pickett's menand Stuart's cavalry. He wondered why Stuart had not come up already,but he learned the next morning that a good reason had held him back.
The Union cavalry, always vigilant now, had intercepted Stuart in theafternoon and had given him battle, just when the combat of the secondday had begun at Gettysburg. Gregg led the horsemen in blue and therewas another combat like that at Brandy Station, now about five thousandsabres on a side. There was a long and desperate struggle in whichneither force could win, young Custer in particular showing uncommonskill and courage for the North, while Wade Hampton performed prodigiesfor the South. At last they drew off by mutual consent, Gregg into theforest, while Stuart, with his reduced force, rode on in the night toLee. But Gregg in holding back Stuart had struck the Southern army agreat blow.
Harry and Dalton with nothing to do received permission to go among thesoldiers, and as they marked their spirits, their own rose. Then theypassed down toward the battlefield. Harry had some idea that they mightagain find the Invincibles, as they had found them the night before,but their time was too short. The Invincibles were somewhere in thefront, he learned, and, disappointed, he and Dalton turned back into thevalley.
The night was clear and bright, and they saw many men coming and goingfrom a cold spring under the shadow of the trees. Some of them werewounded and limped painfully. Others carried away water in their hatsand caps for comrades too badly wounded to move. Harry observed thatsome wore the blue, and some the gray. Both he and Dalton were assailedby a burning thirst at the sight of the water, and they went to thespring.
Here men who an hour or two ago had been striving their utmost to killone another were gathered together and spoke as friends. When one wentaway another took his place. No thought of strife occurred to them,although there would be plenty of it on the morrow. They even jestedand foes complimented foes on their courage. Harry and Dalton drank,and paused a few moments to hear the talk.
The moon rode high, and it has looked down upon no more extraordinaryscene than this, the enemies drinking together in friendship at thespring, and all about them the stony ramparts of the hills, bristlingwith cannon, and covered with riflemen, ready for a red dawn, and thefields and ridges on which thirty thousand had already fallen, dead orwounded.
"Another meeting, Mr. Kenton," said a man who had been bent downdrinking. As he rose the moonlight shone full upon his face and Harrywas startled. And yet it was not strange that he should be there.The face revealed to Harry was one of uncommon power. It seemed to himthat the features had grown more massive. The powerful chin and thelarge, slightly curved nose showed indomitable spirit and resolution.The face was tanned almost to blackness by all kinds of weather.Harry would not have known him at first, had it not been for his voice.
"We do meet in unexpected places and at unexpected times, Mr. Shepard,"he said.
"I'm not merely trying to be polite, when I tell you that I'm glad tofind you alive. You and I have seen battles, but never another likethis."
"And I can truthfully welcome you, Mr. Shepard, as an old acquaintanceand no real enemy."
It was an impulse but a noble one that made the two, different in yearsand so unlike, shake hands with a firm and honest grip.
"Your army will come again in the morning," said Shepard, not as aquestion, but as a statement of fact.
"Can you doubt it?"
"No, I don't, but to-morrow night, Mr. Kenton, you will recall what Itold you at our first meeting in Montgomery more than two years ago."
"You said that we could not win."
"And you cannot. It was never possible. Oh, I know that you've wongreat victories against odds! You've done better than anybody couldhave expected, but you had genius to help you, while we were led bymediocrity in the saddle. But you have reached your zenith. Mark howthe Union veterans fought to-day. They're as brave and resolute as youare, and we have the position and the men. You'll never get beyondGettysburg. Your invasion is over. Hereafter you fight always on thedefensive."
Harry was startled by his emphasis. The man spoke like an inspiredprophet of old. His eyes sparkled like coals of fire in the dark,tanned face. The boy had never before seen him show so much emotion,and his heart sank at the appalling prophecy. Then his courage cameback.
"You predict as you hope, Mr. Shepard," he said.
Shepard laughed a little, though not with mirth, and said:
"It is well that it should be settled here. There will be death on agreater scale than any the war has yet seen, but it will have to comesooner or later, and why not at Gettysburg? Good-bye, I go back to theheights. May we both be alive to-morrow night to see which is right."
"The wish is mine, too," said Harry sincerely.
Shepard turned away and disappeared in the darkness. Harry rejoinedDalton who was on the other side of the spring, and the two returned toSeminary Ridge, where they walked among sleeping thousands. They foundtheir way to their comrades of the staff, and their physical powerscollapsing at last they fell on the ground where they soon sank into aheavy sleep. The great silence came again. Sentinels walked back andforth along the hostile lines, but they made no noise. There was littlemoving of brigades or cannon now. The town itself became a town ofphantom houses in the moonlight, nearly all of them still and deserted.On all the slopes of the hostile ridges lay the sleeping soldiers,and on the rocks and fields between lay the dead in thousands. But fromthe crest of Little Round Top, the precious hill so hardly won, theUnion officers watched all through the night, and, now and then, theywent through the batteries for which they were sure they were going tohave great use.
Harry and Dalton awoke at the same time. Another day, hot and burning,had come, and the two armies once more looked across the valley at eachother. Harry soon heard the booming of cannon off to his right, whereEwell's corps stood. It came from the Northern guns and for a long timethose of the South did not answer. But after a while Harry's practicedear detected the reply. The hostile wings facing each other wereengaged in a fierce battle. He saw the flash of the guns and the risingsmoke, but the center of the Army of Northern Virginia and the otherwing did not yet move. He looked questioningly at Dalton and Daltonlooked questioningly at him.
They expected every instant that the combat would spread along theentire front, but it did not. For several hours they listened to thethunder of the guns on the left, and then they knew by the movement ofthe sound that the Southern wing had been driven back, not far it istrue, but still it had been compelled to yield, and again Harry's heartsank.
But it rose once more when he concluded that Lee must be massing hisforces in the center. The left wing had been allowed to fight againstoverwhelming numbers in order that the rest of the army might be leftfree to strike a crushing blow.
Then noon came and the battle on their le
ft died completely. Once morethe great silence held the field and Harry was mystified and awed.Lee, as calm and impassive as ever, said little. The ridges confrontedone another, bristling with cannon but the armies were motionless.The day was hotter than either of those that had gone before. The sun,huge and red, poised in the heavens, shot down fiery rays in millions.Harry gasped for breath, and when at last he spoke in the stillness hisvoice sounded loud and harsh in his own ears.
"What does it mean, George?" he said.
"I don't know, but I think they are massing behind us for a charge."
"Not against the sixty or seventy thousand men and the scores of cannonon those heights?"
"Maybe not yet. It's likely there will be a heavy artillery fire first.Yes, I'm right! There go the guns!"
One cannon shot was followed by many others, and then for a while atremendous cannonade raged along the front of the armies, but it toodied, the smoke lifted, and then came the breathless, burning heat again.
The fire of the sun and of the battle entered Harry's brain. The valley,the town, the hills, the armies, everthing swam in a red glare. Thegreat pulses leaped in his throat. He was anxious for them to go on,and get it over. Why were the generals lingering when there was abattle to be finished? Half the day was gone already and nothing wasdecided.
Conscious that he was about to lose control of himself he clasped hishands to his temples and pressed them tightly. At the same time he madea mighty effort of the will. The millions of black specks that had beendancing before his eyes went away. The solid earth ceased to quiver andsettled back into its place, careless of the armies that trampled overit. Again he clearly saw through his glasses the long lines of men inblue along the slopes and on the crest of Cemetery Hill. He marked, too,there, at the highest point, a clump of trees waving their summer greenin the hot sunshine. Turning his glasses yet further he saw the massedartillery on Little Round Top, and the gunners leaning on their guns.A house, set on fire purposely or by shells, was burning brightly,like some huge torch to light the way to death.
"You told me they were preparing for a charge," he said to Dalton.
"So they are, Harry. Pickett's men, who have not been here long,are forming up in the rear, but their advance will be preceded by acannonade. You can see them wheeling guns into line."
Lee, with Hill and Longstreet, had recently ridden along the linesfollowed by the older staff officers, and often shells and the bulletsof sharpshooters had struck about them, but they remained unhurt.Now Lee stopped at one of his old points of observation. It was nowabout one o'clock in the afternoon, and as the last gun took itsplace the whole artillery of the Southern army opened with a fire sotremendous that Harry felt the earth trembling, and he was compelledto put his fingers in his ears lest he be deafened.
A storm of metal flew across the valley toward the Northern ranks,but the guns there did not reply yet. The Union troops lay close behindtheir intrenchments and mostly the storm beat itself to pieces on theside of the hill. The smoke soon became so great that Harry could nottell even with glasses what was going on in the enemy's ranks, but heinferred from the fact that they were not yet replying that they werenot suffering much.
But in a quarter of an hour the tremendous cannonade was suddenlydoubled in volume. The Union guns were now answering. Two hundredcannon facing one another across the valley were fighting the mostterrible artillery duel ever known in America. The air was filled withshells, shot, grape, shrapnel, canister and every form of deadly missile.
Harry and Dalton sprang to cover, as some of the shells struck aboutthem, but they stood up again when they saw that Lee was talking calmlywith his generals.
The Southern fire was accurate. General Meade's headquarters wereriddled. Many important officers were wounded, but the Northern gunners,superb always, never flinched from their guns. They fell fast, butothers took their places. Guns were dismounted but those in the reservewere brought up instead.
The appalling tumult increased. The shells shrieked as they flewthrough the air in hundreds, and shrapnel and grape whined incessantly.Harry thought it in very truth the valley of destruction, and it was arelief to him when he received an order to carry and could turn away fora little while. He saw now in the rear the brigades of Pickett whichwere forming up for the charge, about four thousand five hundred men whohad not yet been in the battle, while nearly ten thousand more, underTrimble, Pettigrew and Wilcox, were ready to march on their flanks.Pickett's men were lying on their arms patiently waiting. The time hadnot quite come.
When Harry came back from his errand the cannonade was still at itsheight. The roar was continuous, deafening, shaking the earth allthe time. A light wind blew the smoke back on the Southern position,but it helped, concealing their batteries to a certain extent, whilethose of the North remained uncovered.
The Northern army was now suffering terribly, although its infantrystood unflinching under the fire. But the South was suffering too.Guns were shattered, and the deadly rain of missiles carried destructioninto the waiting regiments. Harry saw Lee and Longstreet continuallyunder the Union fire. They visited the batteries and encouraged themen. Showers of shells struck around them, but they went on unharmed.Wherever Lee appeared the tremendous cheering could be heard amid theroar of the guns.
Now the Southern artillerymen saw that their ammunition was diminishingfast. Such a furious and rapid fire could not be carried on much longer,and Lee sent the word to Pickett to charge. Harry stood by when themen of Pickett arose--but not all of them. Some had been struck by theshells as they lay on the ground and had died in silence, but theircomrades marched out in splendid array, and a vast shout arose from theSouthern army as they strove straight into the valley of death.
Harry shouted with the rest. He was wild with excitement. Every nervein him tingled, and once more the black specks danced before his eyes inmyriads. Peace or war! Right or wrong! He was always glad that he sawPickett's charge, the charge that dimmed all other charges in history,the most magnificent proof of man's courage and ability to walk straightinto the jaws of death.
The dauntless Virginians marched out in even array, stepping steadilyas if they were on parade, instead of aiming straight at the center ofthe Union army, where fifty thousand riflemen and a hundred guns wereawaiting them. Their generals and those of the supporting divisionsrode on their flanks or at their head. Besides Pickett, Garnett, Wilcox,Armistead, Pettigrew and Trimble were there.
The Southern cannon were firing over the heads of the marchingVirginians, covering them with their fire, but the light breezestrengthened a little, driving away the smoke. There they were in thevalley, visible to both friend and foe, marching on that long mile fromhill to hill. The Southern army shouted again, and it is true that,at this moment, the Union ranks burst into a like cry of admiration,at the sight of a foe so daring, men of their own race and country.
But Harry never took his eyes for a moment from Pickett's column.He was using his glasses, and everything stood out strong and clear.The sun was at the zenith, pouring down rays so fiery that the wholefield blazed in light. The nature of the ground caused the Virginiansto turn a little, in order to keep the line for the Union center,but they preserved their even ranks, and marched on at a steady pace.
Harry began to shout again, but in an instant or two he saw a lineof fire pass along the Union front. Forty guns together opened uponthe charging column, and Hancock at the Union center, seeing andunderstanding the danger, was heaping up men and cannon to meet it.
The shells began to crash into the ranks of the Virginians and the tenthousand on their flanks. Men fell in hundreds and now the batterieson Little Round Top added to the storm of fire. The clouds of smokegathered again, but the wind presently scattered them and Harry, waitingin agony, saw Pickett's division marching straight ahead, neverfaltering.
But he groaned when he saw that there was trouble on the flanks.The men of Pettigrew, exhausted by the great efforts they
had alreadymade in the battle, wavered and lost ground. Another division wasdriven back by a heavy flank attack. Others were lost in the vast banksof smoke that at times filled the valley. Only the Virginians keptunbroken ranks and a straight course for the Union center.
Pickett paused a few moments at the burning house for the others to getin touch with him, but they could not do so, and he marched on, withCemetery Hill now only two hundred yards away. The covering fire of theSouthern cannon had ceased long since. It would have been as dangerousnow to friend as to foe. Harry, watching through his glasses, utteredanother cry. Pickett and his men were marching alone at the hill.Half of them it seemed to him were gone already, but the other halfnever paused. The fire of a hundred guns had been poured upon them,as they advanced that deadly mile, but with ranks still even they rushedstraight at their mark, the Union center.
Then Harry saw all the slopes and the crest of Cemetery Hill blaze withfire. The Virginians were near enough for the rifles now, and thebullets came in sheets. Harry saw it, and he groaned aloud. He nolonger had any hope for those brave men. The charge could not succeed!
Yet he saw them rush into the Union ranks and disappear. A group ingray, still cleaving through the multitude, reappeared far up the slope,and then burst, a little band of a few dozen men, into the very heart ofthe Union center, the point to which they had been sent.
A battle raged for a few minutes under the clump of trees where Hancockhad stood directing. There Armistead, who had led them, his hat on thepoint of his sword, fell dead among the Northern guns, and Cushing,his brave foe who commanded the battery, died beside him. All theothers fell quickly or were taken. A few hundreds on the slopes cuttheir way back through the Union army and reached their own. Pickett,preserved by some miracle, was among them.
Harry gasped and threw down his glasses. Now he knew that the wordsShepard had spoken to him the night before at the spring were true.The Southern invasion had been rolled back forever.
He looked at General Lee, who on foot had been watching the charge.The impenetrable mask was gone for a moment, and his face expressed deepemotion. Then the great soul reasserted itself and mounting his horsewent forward to meet the fugitives and encourage them. He rode back andforth among them, and Harry heard him say once:
"All will come right in the end. We'll talk it over afterward, butmeanwhile every good man must rally. We want all good and true men justnow."
His manner was that of a father to his children, and, though they hadfailed, the spontaneous cheers again burst forth wherever he passed.The wounded as they were carried to the rear raised themselves up to seehim, and their cheers were added to the others.
Harry never forgot anything that he saw or heard then. Although thebattle, in effect, was over, the Northern artillery, roaring andthundering triumphantly, was sending its shells across the valley andupon Seminary Ridge. But he did not think anything of them, even whenthey struck near him. It would be days before he could feel fear again.He heard Lee say to an officer who rode up, and stated, between sobbingbreaths, that his whole brigade was destroyed:
"Never mind, General. All this has been my fault. It is I who havelost this fight, and you must help me out of it in the best way you can."
To another he said:
"This has been a sad day for us, a sad day. But we can't expect alwaysto gain victories."
Beholding such greatness of soul, Harry regained his own composure.He rejoined Dalton, and soon they saw the Southern army reform its lines,and turn a bristling front to the enemy. The Northern cannon were stillflashing and thundering, but the Northern army made no return attack.Gettysburg, in all respects the greatest battle ever fought on theAmerican continent, was over, and fifty thousand men had fallen.
The sun set, and Harry at last sank on the ground overpowered. Thenext day the two armies stood on their hills looking at each other, butneither cared to renew the battle after such frightful losses. Thatafternoon a fearful storm of thunder, lightning and rain burst over thefield. It seemed to Harry an echo of the real battle of the day before.
That night Lee, having gathered up his wounded, his guns and his wagons,began his retreat toward the South. His army had lost, but it was stillin perfect order, willing, even anxious to fight again. The wagonscontaining the wounded and the stores stretched for many miles, movingalong in the rain, and the cavalry rode on their flanks to protect them.
It was not until the next morning that Harry discovered anything of theInvincibles. In the dawn he saw a covered wagon by the side of whichrode an officer, much neater in appearance than the others. He knew atonce that it was St. Clair and he galloped forward with a joyous shout.
"Arthur! Arthur!" he cried.
St. Clair turned a pale face that lighted up at the sight of his friend.
"Thank God, you're alive, Harry!" he said, as their hands clasped.
"Are you alone left?" asked Harry.
"Look into the wagon," he said.
Harry lifted a portion of the flap, and, looking in, saw ColonelLeonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire sitting onrolls of blankets facing each other. One had his right arm in a slingand the other the left, but the chessmen rested on a board between themand they were playing intently. They stopped a moment or two to giveHarry a glad welcome. Then he let the flap drop back.
"They began at daylight," said St. Clair.
"Where's Happy?"
"He's in the wagon, too. He's lying on some blankets behind them."
"Not hurt badly?"
"He was nipped in the shoulder, but it doesn't amount to anything.What he wanted was sleep and he's getting it. He told me not to wakehim up again for a month."
"Well, Arthur, we lost."
"Yes, and I don't know just how it happened."
"But we're here, ready to fight them again whenever they come."
"So we are, Harry, and if they ever reach Richmond it will be many along day before they do it."
"I say so, too."
The great train toiled on through the mud, and the Army of NorthernVirginia continued its slow march southward.
The Star of Gettysburg: A Story of Southern High Tide Page 14
