Si Klegg, Book 2

by John McElroy

  CHAPTER II. SECOND DAY'S MARCH

  THE LONG COLUMN CRAWLS THROUGH RAIN AND COLD TO MURFREESBORO.

  SI KLEGG was generous with his rail, as he was with all things among hiscomrades. He selected the softest part, in the center, for him self andShorty, and then invited the other boys to share its hospitalities. Theycrowded up close to him and Shorty on either side, and there seemed tocome a little warmth and dryness from the close contact of their bodies.

  Si was so mortally tired that it seemed a great relief just to sit stilland rest, though the rain continued to pour down.

  Shorty fished some hardtack and fried pork out of his haversack, andalso gave him a handful of ground coffee. Si munched the crackers andmeat, with an occasional nip at the coffee. His spirits began torise just a trifle. He was too healthy in body and mind to be totallydowncast for long.

  "'Tis n't much of a supper," he said to himself, "but it beats nothin'at all miles and miles. Besides, I was mighty lucky in gettin' thebiggest rail. Some that the other boys has are no good at all. They'lllet 'em right down in the mud. And most o' the boys has no rails at all.I'm awfully sorry for 'em."

  Then he began to wonder if they were not {27}overcautious about thenearness of the enemy. He had been in the army just long enough to havecontempt for the stories that were always current with a certain classabout the proximity and strength of the enemy. Shorty was not of thatkind; but, then, Shorty was as liable to be imposed upon as anybody.

  "How do you know there's a rebel battery on the hill out there?" hefinally asked Shorty.

  "They belted into the Oshkosh Terrors, out there to our right, killeda mule, scared two teamsters to death, and knocked over three or fourkittles of coffee. It was awful unlucky about the coffee," an sweredShorty.

  "How long ago was that?"

  "O, several hours ago. Just after we turned into the field, and longbefore you come up."

  "Mebbe they've gone off now. Mebbe, if they're there yet, theirammynition's so soaked that they can't shoot. What do you say tostartin' a little fire? It'd be an immense comfort. Unless we can dryout a little we'll be soaked into such mush before morning that we can'tkeep our shape, and they'll have to ladle us up with dippers."

  "It's strictly against orders."

  "You mean it was against orders several hours ago. I can't see nothin'on that hill over there. I've been watchin' for half an hour. There'snothin' movin'. Mebbe the orders has been changed, an' you haint heardabout it," persisted Si. "Mebbe the Orderly that was bringing 'em 'sstuck in the mud. Mebbe the rain's soaked 'em so's they can't be read.If anybody's got any dry matches I'm goin' to chance{28} it."

  Word was passed along the rail, and at length one of the boys was foundto have some matches in a tin box which was proof against the rain.

  Si got out his knife and whittled down a corner of the rail untilhe came to the dry part, and got off some shavings. Splinters werecontributed by the others, and after several failures a small flame wasstarted.

  "Here, what in the world are you men doing there?" came in thestentorian tones of the Colonel, who it startled Si to discover wassitting a short distance behind him. "Put that light out this instant."

  Even before the command could be obeyed, four great flashes burnedout like lightning in the murky darkness on the hill-top. Four cannonroared, and four shells screeched toward Si and his companions, whoinstinctively toppled over backward into the mud. One of the shellsstruck in the mud a few yards in front, burst with a deafening report,and sent over them a deluge of very wet Tennessee real estate.

  "The battery's out there yit, Si," said Shorty, as they gatheredthemselves up and carefully stamped out every spark of fire.

  "It's 'tendin' strictly to business," remarked Wes Williams.

  "Its ammynition don't seem to be a mite wet," added Jim Hutchinson.

  "There, you see, now," said the Colonel sternly. "I'll tie up by thethumbs the next man that dares scratch a match."

  "You jest kin if I do," muttered Si, scraping off some of thesuperabundant mud, and resuming his{29} seat on the rail. "This dog'scured of suckin' eggs." He set the butt of his gun down in front of him,clasped his hands around the barrel, leaned his head on them, and wentto sleep.

  He was so tired that he could have slept anywhere and in any position.He was dimly conscious during the night that the rain ceased and that itturned bitter cold. He was not going to wake up for trifles like that,though. When Si went to sleep he devoted himself entirely to thatand nothing else. It {30} was one thing that he never allowed anyinterference with.

  But with the first gray streaks of dawn in the east some uneasy,meddlesome spirit in the 200th Ind. happened to be awake, and heawakened the Adjutant, who cuffed and shook the headquarters drummeruntil he awakened and beat the reveille. This aroused the wearyOrderly-Sergeants, who started upon the task of getting up thebone-wracked, aching-muscled men. In 10 minutes there was enoughdiscontent and bitter grumbling in the 200th Ind. to have furnishedforth a new political party.

  The awakening process finally reached those of Co. Q who had roosted onSi's rail all night.

  Si vigorously insisted on being let alone; that he hadn't been asleepfive minutes, and that, anyhow, it was not his turn to go on guard. Butthe Orderly-Sergeant of Co. Q was a persistent fellow, and would not bedenied.

  When Si finally tried to rise he found that, in addition to theprotests of his stiff legs, he was pinned firmly down. Feeling around toascertain the cause, he discovered that the tail of his overcoat and hisshoes had become deeply imbedded in the mud, and frozen solidly there.Shorty was in the same fix.

  FROZEN IN THE MUD 29]

  "Got to shuck yourself out o' your overcoat, and leave them gunboatsanchored where they are," remarked Shorty, doing as he said, and fallingin for roll-call in his stocking feet.

  After roll-call Si got a hatchet from one of the boys and chopped hisand Shorty's shoes out. The overcoats were left for subsequenteffort, for the first thing was to get some wood and water and cookbreakfast.{31}

  The morning was bitter cold and the sky overcast, but Si felt that thiswas a thousand times better than the cheerless rain, which seemed tosoak his very life out of him.

  He pounded most of the frozen mud off his shoes, picked up thecamp-kettle, and started off for wood and water, broke the ice on thecreek, took a good wash, and presently came back with a load of dry pineand a kettle full of water.

  "My joints feel like I think an old wagon does after it's gone abouta year without greasing," he remarked to Shorty, who had a good firegoing; "but I think that after I get about a quart o' hot coffee, insideof me, with a few pounds o' pork and crackers, I'll be nearly as good asnew again. My, how good that grub does smell! An' did you ever see sucha nice fire?"

  He chopped his and Shorty's overcoats out while Shorty was cookingbreakfast, and when at last he sat down on one end of his rail and ateenough toasted hard bread and crisp fried side-meat to feed a smallfamily for a week, washing it down with something near a quart of blackcoffee sweetened with coarse brown sugar, life began again to have somecharms for him.

  "You're sure that dumbed battery's gone that shot at us last night, areyou, Shorty?" he said, as he drained his cup, fastened it again to thestrap of his haversack, and studied the top of the hill with a criticaleye.

  "They say it is," said Shorty, between bites. "While you was down at thecrick a man come over from the camp o' the Oshkosh Terrors, and said twoo' their{32} companies 'd been onto the hill, and the rebels had gone."

  "I wish them Oshkosh fellers'd mind their own business," said Si,irritably, as he picked up his gun and began rubbing the mud and rustoff. "They're entirely too fresh for a new regiment. That battery wasnone of theirs. It was ours, right in our front, an' if they'd let italone till after breakfast we'd gone up and taken it. It was just theright size for the 200th Ind., and we wanted a chance at it. But nowthey've had to stick in and run it off."

  "Don't worry," said Shorty, fishing out another cracker; "it hasn'
t gonetoo far. 'Taint lost. You'll have a chance at it some other time. Mebbeto-day yet."

  The army began to move out very promptly, and soon the 200th Ind. wascalled to take its place in the long column that crawled over the hillsand across the valleys toward Murfreesboro, like some gigantic blueserpent moving toward his prey.

  Miles ahead of the 200th Ind.'s place in the column the rebels wereoffering annoying disputation of farther progress. Lines as brown asthe dried leaves on the oak trees would form on the hilltops, batterieswould gallop into position, and there would be sharp bangs by the cannonand a sputter of musketry-fire.

  Then the long, blue serpent would wriggle out of the road into thefields, as if coiling to strike. Union batteries would rush on tohilltops and fire across valleys at the rebel cannon, and a sputter ofmusketry would answer that from the leaf-brown ranks on the hilltops,which would dissolve and march back{33} to the next hilltop, where thething would be gone over again. The 200th Ind. would occasionally seeone of these performances as it marched over and down one of the hills.

  As the afternoon was wearing away the 200th{34} Ind. kept nearing thefront, where this was going on. Finally, when the dull day was shadinginto dusk, and the brigade ahead of it was forming in the field at thefoot of a hill to open a bickering fire against the dun line at the top,the 200th Ind. was taken off the road and marched away over to the left,where it was put into line in front of a dense grove of cedars.

  "Capt. McGillicuddy," commanded the Colonel to the Captain of Co. Q,"advance your company as skirmishers to the edge of the cedars, and senda Corporal and five men into the thicket to see if there is anythingthere."

  "Corporal Klegg," said the Captain, "take five men off the left of thecompany and go in and see what's in there."

  Si was instantly fired with the importance of the duty assigned him. Hesent two of his men to the left, two to the right, while he and Shorty,a little distance apart, struck for the heart of the thicket. They madetheir way with difficulty through the dense chaparral for some minute's,and then stopped, as they heard voices and the crashing of branches infront.

  Si's heart thumped against his ribs. He looked over to his left, andsaw Shorty standing there peering earnestly into the brush, with his guncocked and ready to fire. He ran over to him and whispered:

  "What do you see, Shorty?"

  WHAT DO YOU SEE, SHORTY?' 33]

  "Nothin' yit, but I expect to every minute," replied Shorty, withoutturning his intent eyes. Si's gun was already cocked, and he benthis head {35}forward eagerly, to get a better view. But he could seenothing, except that the tops of the bushes were shaking.

  "Shall we skip back an' report?" asked Si.

  "I ain't goin' till I see something," said Shorty, stoutly.

  "Nor me," echoed Si, rather ashamed that he had suggested it.

  "Steady, there; steady, on the right! Come for ward with that leftcompany," called out a stern voice in front.

  "Must be a full regiment in there," whispered Si, craning his neck stillfarther. The tramping and crashing increased.

  "Steady, men, I tell you! Steady! Press on the center," commanded theunseen Colonel. "Forward! Forward!"

  In spite of his perturbation, Si noticed that the sounds did not seem tobe coming any nearer.

  "We must get a squint at 'em," he said, desperately, to Shorty. "Let'sgit down an' crawl forward. There must be an openin' somewhere."

  They got down on their hands and knees, so as to avoid as many aspossible of the thickly-interlaced branches. Soon they came to a riftwhich led to an opening of some rods in circumference. Raising theirheads cautiously above a moss-covered log, they saw in the opening astalwart Sergeant with five or six men. The Sergeant was standing therewith his eyes fixed on the tops of the trees, apparently thinking of thenext series of commands he was to give, while the men were busy breakinglimbs off the cedars.

  Si and Shorty immediately grasped the situation.{36}

  "Forward, Co. Q!" yelled Si at the top of his lungs. "Surrender, youconsarned rebels, or we'll blow your heads off," he added, as he andShorty jumped forward into the opening and leveled their guns on thesquad.

  "What'n thunder was you fellers makin' all that racket fur," Si askedthe Sergeant as he was marching him back to the skirmish-line.

  "Ouah Cunnel," explained the Sergeant, "wuz afeared you'ns 'd try toflank us through the thicket, and sent me down to make a rumpus and holdyou back while he fit you in front. But whar's your company?"

  "We'll come to it soon," said Si.