377 files changed, 35922 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/23340-8.txt b/23340-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec8abd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11926 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by George Alfred Townsend
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,
+       and His Romaunt Abroad During the War
+
+Author: George Alfred Townsend
+
+Release Date: November 5, 2007 [EBook #23340]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CAMPAIGNS
+
+OF
+
+A NON-COMBATANT,
+
+AND HIS
+
+ROMAUNT ABROAD DURING THE WAR.
+
+BY
+GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+BLELOCK & COMPANY,
+19 BEEKMAN STREET,
+1866.
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
+
+GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND,
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+Southern District of New York.
+
+SCRYMGEOUR, WHITCOMB & CO.,
+
+Stereotypers,
+
+15 WATER STREET, BOSTON.
+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's note: Inconsistency in hyphenation in this etext is as in|
+|the original book.                                                     |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+TO
+
+"Miles O'Reilly,"
+
+Who saw the war as vividly as he sang it; and whose aims for the peace
+that has ensued, are even nobler than the noble influence he exerted
+during the struggle, these chapters of travel are inscribed by his
+friend and colleague.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In the early part of 1863, while I was resident in London,--the first of
+the War Correspondents to go abroad,--I wrote, at the request of Mr.
+George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill Magazine, a series of chapters
+upon the Rebellion, thus introduced:--
+
+     "Few wars have been so well chronicled, as that now desolating
+     America. Its official narratives have been copious; the great
+     newspapers of the land have been represented in all its campaigns;
+     private enterprise has classified and illustrated its several
+     events, and delegates of foreign countries have been allowed to
+     mingle freely with its soldiery, and to observe and describe its
+     battles. The pen and the camera have accompanied its bayonets, and
+     there has not probably been any skirmish, however insignificant,
+     but a score of zealous scribes have remarked and recorded it.
+
+     "I have employed some leisure hours afforded me in Europe, to
+     detail those parts of the struggle which I witnessed in a civil
+     capacity. The Sketches which follow are entirely personal, and
+     dwell less upon routine incidents, plans, and statistics, than upon
+     those lighter phases of war which fall beneath the dignity of
+     severe history and are seldom related. I have endeavored to
+     reproduce not only the adventures, but the impressions of a
+     novitiate, and I have described not merely the army and its
+     operations, but the country invaded, and the people who inhabit it.
+
+     "The most that I have hoped to do, is so to simplify a campaign
+     that the reader may realize it as if he had beheld it, travelling
+     at will, as I did, and with no greater interest than to see how
+     fields were fought and won."
+
+To those chapters, I have added in this collection, some estimates of
+American life in Europe, and some European estimates of American life;
+with my ultimate experiences in the War after my return to my own
+country. I cannot hope that they will be received with the same favor,
+either here or abroad, as that which greeted their original publication.
+But no man ought to let the first four years of his majority slip away
+unrecorded. I would rather publish a tolerable book now than a possibly
+good one hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT,
+
+AND HIS
+
+Romaunt abroad during the War.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+MY IMPRESSMENT.
+
+
+"Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. Townsend," said
+Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other day,--"Ben. Franklin wrote for the
+paper, and set type upon it. The press was imported from England in
+1730, or thereabouts."
+
+He produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and then laid it away in
+its drawer very sacredly.
+
+"I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said,--"there would
+be no necessity in such a case of getting off six columns for to-night's
+mail."
+
+"Well!" said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, "I have a theory that a man
+grows up to machinery. As your day so shall your strength be. I believe
+you have telegraphed up to a House instrument, haven't you?"
+
+"Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, "your memory is too good.
+This is Newport, and I have come down to see the surf. Pray, do not
+remind me of hot hours in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse
+dispatch, and work far into the midnight!"
+
+So I left Mr. Pratt, of the Newport _Mercury_, with an ostentation of
+affront, and bade James Brady, the boatman, hoist sail and carry me over
+to Dumpling Rocks.
+
+On the grassy parapet of the crumbling tower which once served the
+purposes of a fort, the transparent water hungering at its base, the
+rocks covered with fringe spotting the channel, the ocean on my right
+hand lost in its own vastness, and Newport out of mind save when the
+town bells rang, or the dip of oars beat in the still swell of
+Narragansett,--I lay down, chafing and out of temper, to curse the
+only pleasurable labor I had ever undertaken.
+
+To me all places were workshops: the seaside, the springs, the summer
+mountains, the cataracts, the theatres, the panoramas of islet-fondled
+rivers speeding by strange cities. I was condemned to look upon them all
+with mercenary eyes, to turn their gladness into torpid prose, and speak
+their praises in turgid columns. Never nepenthe, never _abandonne_,
+always wide-awake, and watching for saliences, I had gone abroad like a
+falcon, and roamed at home like a hungry jackal. Six fingers on my hand,
+one long and pointed, and ever dropping gall; the ineradicable stain
+upon my thumb; the widest of my circuits, with all my adventure, a
+paltry sheet of foolscap; and the world in which I dwelt, no place for
+thought, or dreaminess, or love-making,--only the fierce, fast, flippant
+existence of news!
+
+And with this inward execration, I lay on Dumpling Rocks, looking to
+sea, and recalled the first fond hours of my newspaper life.
+
+To be a subject of old Hoe, the most voracious of men, I gave up the
+choice of three sage professions, and the sweet alternative of idling
+husbandry.
+
+The day I graduated saw me an _attaché_ of the Philadelphia _Chameleon_.
+I was to receive three dollars a week and be the heir to lordly
+prospects. In the long course of persevering years I might sit in the
+cushions of the night-editor, or speak of the striplings around me as
+"_my_ reporters."
+
+"There is nothing which you cannot attain," said Mr. Axiom, my
+employer,--"think of the influence you exercise!--more than a clergyman;
+Horace Greeley was an editor; so was George D. Prentice; the first has
+just been defeated for Congress; the last lectured last night and got
+fifty dollars for it."
+
+Hereat I was greatly encouraged, and proposed to write a leader for next
+day's paper upon the evils of the Fire Department.
+
+"Dear me," said Mr. Axiom, "you would ruin our circulation at a wink;
+what would become of our ball column? in case of a fire in the building
+we couldn't get a hose to play on it. Oh! no, Alfred, writing leaders is
+hard and dangerous; I want you first to learn the use of a beautiful
+pair of scissors."
+
+I looked blank and chopfallen.
+
+"No man can write a good hand or a good style," he said, "without
+experience with scissors. They give your palm flexibility and that is
+soon imparted to the mind. But perfection is attained by an alternate
+use of the scissors and the pen; if a little paste be prescribed at the
+same time, cohesion and steadfastness is imparted to the man."
+
+His reasoning was incontrovertible; but I damned his conclusions.
+
+So, I spent one month in slashing several hundred exchanges a day, and
+paragraphing all the items. These reappeared in a column called "THE
+LATEST INFORMATION," and when I found them copied into another journal,
+a flush of satisfaction rose to my face.
+
+The editor of the _Chameleon_ was an old journalist, whose face was a
+sealed book of Confucius, and who talked to me, patronizingly, now and
+then, like the Delphic Oracle. His name was Watch, and he wore a
+prodigious pearl in his shirt-bosom. He crept up to the editorial room
+at nine o'clock every night, and dashed off an hour's worth of
+glittering generalities, at the end of which time two or three
+gentlemen, blooming at the nose, and with cheeks resembling a map drawn
+in red ink, sounded the pipe below stairs, and Mr. Watch said--
+
+"Mr. Townsend, I look to you to be on hand to-night; I am called away by
+the Water-Gas Company."
+
+Then, with enthusiasm up to blood-heat, aroused by this mark of
+confidence, I used to set to, and scissor and write till three o'clock,
+while Mr. Watch talked water-gas over brandy and water, and drew his
+thirty dollars punctually on Saturdays.
+
+So it happened that my news paragraphs, sometimes pointedly turned into
+a reflection, crept into the editorial columns, when water-gas was
+lively. Venturing more and more, the clipper finally indited a leader;
+and Mr. Watch, whose nose water-gas was reddening, applauded me, and
+told me in his sublime way, that, as a special favor, I might write all
+the leaders the next night. Mr. Watch was seen no more in the sanctum
+for a week, and my three dollars carried on the concern.
+
+When he returned, he generously gave me a dollar, and said that he had
+spoken of me to the Water-Gas Company as a capital secretary. Then he
+wrote me a pass for the Arch Street Theatre, and told me, benevolently,
+to go off and rest that night.
+
+For a month or more the responsibility of the _Chameleon_ devolved
+almost entirely upon me. Child that I was, knowing no world but my own
+vanity, and pleased with those who fed its sensitive love of approbation
+rather than with the just and reticent, I harbored no distrust till one
+day when Axiom visited the office, and I was drawing my three dollars
+from the treasurer, I heard Mr. Watch exclaim, within the publisher's
+room--
+
+"Did you read my article on the Homestead Bill?"
+
+"Yes," answered Axiom; "it was quite clever; your leaders are more alive
+and epigrammatic than they were."
+
+I could stand it no more. I bolted into the office, and cried--
+
+"The article on the Homestead Bill is mine, so is every other article in
+to-day's paper. Mr. Watch does not tell the truth; he is ungenerous!"
+
+"What's this, Watch?" said Axiom.
+
+"Alfred," exclaimed Mr. Watch, majestically, "adopts my suggestions very
+readily, and is quite industrious. I recommend that we raise his salary
+to five dollars a week. That is a large sum for a lad."
+
+That night the manuscript was overhauled in the composing room. Watch's
+dereliction was manifest; but not a word was said commendatory of my
+labor; it was feared I might take "airs," or covet a further increase of
+wages. I only missed Watch's hugh pearl, and heard that he had been
+discharged, and was myself taken from the drudgery of the scissors, and
+made a reporter.
+
+All this was very recent, yet to me so far remote, that as I recall it
+all, I wonder if I am not old, and feel nervously of my hairs. For in
+the five intervening years I have ridden at Hoe speed down the groove of
+my steel-pen.
+
+The pen is my traction engine; it has gone through worlds of fancy and
+reflection, dragging me behind it; and long experience has given it so
+great facility, that I have only to fire up, whistle, and fix my
+couplings, and away goes my locomotive with no end of cars in train.
+
+Few journalists, beginning at the bottom, do not weary of the ladder ere
+they climb high. Few of such, or of others more enthusiastic, recall the
+early associations of "the office" with pleasure. Yet there is no world
+more grotesque, none, at least in America, more capable of fictitious
+illustration. Around a newspaper all the dramatis personæ of the world
+congregate; within it there are staid idiosyncratic folk who admit of
+all kindly caricature.
+
+I summon from that humming and hurly-burly past, the ancient
+proof-reader. He wears a green shade over his eyes and the gas burner is
+drawn very low to darken the bald and wrinkled contour of his forehead.
+He is severe in judgment and spells rigidly by the Johnsonian standard.
+He punctuates by an obdurate and conscientious method, and will have no
+italics upon any pretext. He will lend you money, will eat with you,
+drink with you, and encourage you; but he will not punctuate with you,
+spell with you, nor accept any of your suggestions as to typography or
+paragraphing whatsoever. He wears slippers and smokes a primitive clay
+pipe; he has everything in its place, and you cannot offend him more
+than by looking over any proof except when he is holding it. A chip of
+himself is the copyholder at his side,--a meagre, freckled, matter of
+fact youth, who reads your tenderest sentences in a rapid monotone, and
+is never known to venture any opinion or suggestion whatever. This boy,
+I am bound to say, will follow the copy if it be all consonants, and
+will accompany it if it flies out of the window.
+
+The office clerk was my bane and admiration. He was presumed by the
+verdant patrons of the paper to be its owner and principal editor, its
+type-setter, pressman, and carrier. His hair was elaborately curled, and
+his ears were perfect racks of long and dandyfied pens; a broad,
+shovel-shaped gold pen lay forever opposite his high stool; he had an
+arrogant and patronizing address, and was the perpetual cabbager of
+editorial perquisites. Books, ball-tickets, season-tickets, pictures,
+disappeared in his indiscriminate fist, and he promised notices which he
+could not write to no end of applicants. He was to be seen at the
+theatre every night, and he was the dashing escort of the proprietor's
+wife, who preferred his jaunty coat and highly-polished boots to the
+less elaborate wardrobe of us writers. That this noble and fashionable
+creature could descend to writing wrappers, and to waiting his turn with
+a bank-book in the long train of a sordid teller, passed all speculation
+and astonishment. He made a sorry fag of the office boy, and advised us
+every day to beware of cutting the files, as if that were the one vice
+of authors. To him we stole, with humiliated faces, and begged a
+trifling advance of salary. He sternly requested us not to encroach
+behind the counter--his own indisputable domain--but sometimes asked us
+to watch the office while he drank with a theatrical agent at the
+nearest bar. He was an inveterate gossip, and endowed with a damnable
+love of slipshod argument; the only oral censor upon our compositions,
+he hailed us with all the complaints made at his solicitation by
+irascible subscribers, and stood in awe of the cashier only, who
+frequently, to our delight and surprise, combed him over, and drove him
+to us for sympathy.
+
+The foreman was still our power behind the throne; he left out our copy
+on mechanical grounds, and put it in for our modesty and sophistry. In
+his broad, hot room, all flaring with gas, he stood at a flat stone like
+a surgeon, and took forms to pieces and dissected huge columns of
+pregnant metal, and paid off the hands with fabulous amounts of
+uncurrent bank bills. His wife and he went thrice a year on excursions
+to the sea-side, and he was forever borrowing a dollar from somebody to
+treat the lender and himself.
+
+The ship-news man could be seen towards the small-hours, writing his
+highly imaginative department, which showed how the Sally Ann, Master
+Todd, arrived leaky in Bombay harbor; and there were stacks of newsboys
+asleep on the boilers, fighting in their dreams for the possession of a
+fragment of a many-cornered blanket.
+
+These, like myself, went into the halcyon land of Nod to the music of a
+crashing press, and swarmed about it at the dawn like so many gad flies
+about an ox, to carry into the awakening city the rhetoric and the
+rubbish I had written.
+
+And still they go, and still the great press toils along, and still am I
+its slave and keeper, who sit here by the proud, free sea, and feel like
+Sinbad, that to a terrible old man I have sold my youth, my convictions,
+my love, my life!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WAR CORRESPONDENT'S FIRST DAY.
+
+
+Looking back over the four years of the war, and noting how indurated I
+have at last become, both in body and in emotion, I recall with a sigh
+that first morning of my correspondentship when I set out so
+light-hearted and yet so anxious. It was in 1861. I was accompanied to
+the War department by an _attaché_ of the United States Senate. The new
+Secretary, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, referred me to a Mr. Sanford, "Military
+Supervisor of Army Intelligence," and after a brief delay I was
+requested to sign a parole and duplicate, specifying my loyalty to the
+Federal Government, and my promise to publish nothing detrimental to its
+interests. I was then given a circular, which stated explicitly the kind
+of news termed contraband, and also a printed pass, filled in with my
+name, age, residence, and newspaper connection. The latter enjoined upon
+all guards to pass me in and out of camps; and authorized persons in
+Government employ to furnish me with information.
+
+Our Washington Superintendent sent me a beast, and in compliment to what
+the animal might have been, called the same a horse. I wish to protest,
+in this record, against any such misnomer. The creature possessed no
+single equine element. Experience has satisfied me that horses stand on
+four legs; the horse in question stood upon three. Horses may either
+pace, trot, run, rack, or gallop; but mine made all the five movements
+at once. I think I may call his gait an eccentric stumble. That he had
+endurance I admit; for he survived perpetual beating; and his beauty
+might have been apparent to an anatomist, but would be scouted by the
+world at large. I asked, ruefully, if I was expected to go into battle
+so mounted; but was peremptorily forbidden, as a valuable property might
+be endangered thereby. I was assigned to the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps
+in the anticipated advance, and my friend, the _attaché_, accompanied me
+to its rendezvous at Hunter's Mills. We started at two o'clock, and
+occupied an hour in passing the city limits. I calculated that,
+advancing at the same ratio, we should arrive in camp at noon next day.
+We presented ludicrous figures to the grim sabremen that sat erect at
+street corners, and ladies at the windows of the dwellings smothered
+with suppressed laughter as we floundered along. My friend had the
+better horse; but I was the better rider; and if at any time I grew
+wrathful at my sorry plight, I had but to look at his and be happy
+again. He appeared to be riding on the neck of his beast, and when he
+attempted to deceive me with a smile, his face became horribly
+contorted. Directly his breeches worked above his boots, and his bare
+calves were objects of hopeless solicitude. Caricatures, rather than
+men, we toiled bruisedly through Georgetown, and falling in the wake of
+supply teams on the Leesburg turnpike, rode between the Potomac on one
+side and the dry bed of the canal on the other, till we came at last to
+Chain Bridge.
+
+There was a grand view from the point of Little Falls above, where a
+line of foamy cataracts ridged the river, and the rocks towered gloomily
+on either hand: and of the city below, with its buildings of pure
+marble, and the yellow earthworks that crested Arlington Heights. The
+clouds over the Potomac were gorgeous in hue, but forests of melancholy
+pine clothed the sides of the hills, and the roar of the river made such
+beautiful monotone that I almost thought it could be translated to
+words. Our passes were now demanded by a fat, bareheaded officer, and
+while he panted through their contents, two privates crossed their
+bayonets before us.
+
+"News?" he said, in the shortest remark of which he was capable. When
+assured that we had nothing to reveal, he seemed immeasurably relieved,
+and added--"Great labor, reading!" At this his face grew so dreadfully
+purple that I begged him to sit down, and tax himself with no further
+exertion. He wiped his forehead, in reply, gasping like a triton, and
+muttering the expressive direction, "right!" disappeared into a
+guard-box. The two privates winked as they removed their muskets, and we
+both laughed immoderately when out of hearing. Our backs were now turned
+to the Maryland shore, and jutting grimly from the hill before us, the
+black guns of Fort Ethan Allen pointed down the bridge. A double line of
+sharp abattis protected it from assault, and sentries walked lazily up
+and down the parapet. The colors hung against the mast in the dead calm,
+and the smoke curled straight upward from some log-huts within the fort.
+The wildness of the surrounding landscape was most remarkable. Within
+sight of the Capital of the Republic, the fox yet kept the covert, and
+the farms were few and far apart. It seemed to me that little had been
+done to clear the country of its primeval timber, and the war had
+accomplished more to give evidence of man and industry, than two
+centuries of occupation. A military road had been cut through the solid
+rocks here; and the original turnpike, which had been little more than a
+cart track, was now graded and macadamized. I passed multitudes of
+teams, struggling up the slopes, and the carcasses of mules littered
+every rod of the way. The profanity of the teamsters was painfully
+apparent. I came unobserved upon one who was berating his beasts with a
+refinement of cruelty. He cursed each of them separately, swinging his
+long-lashed whip the while, and then damned the six in mass. He would
+have made a dutiful overseer. The soldiers had shown quite as little
+consideration for the residences along the way. I came to one dwelling
+where some pertinacious Vandal had even pried out the window-frames, and
+imperilled his neck to tear out the roof-beams; a dead vulture was
+pinned over the door by pieces of broken bayonets.
+
+"Langley's,"--a few plank-houses, clustering around a tavern and a
+church,--is one of those settlements whose sounding names beguile the
+reader into an idea of their importance. A lonesome haunt in time of
+peace, it had lately been the winter quarters of fifteen thousand
+soldiers, and a multitude of log huts had grown up around it. I tied my
+horse to the window-shutter of a dwelling, and picked my way over a
+slimy sidewalk to the ricketty tavern-porch. Four or five privates lay
+here fast asleep, and the bar-room was occupied by a bevy of young
+officers, who were emptying the contents of sundry pocket-flasks. Behind
+the bar sat a person with strongly-marked Hebrew features, and a
+watchmaker was plying his avocation in a corner. Two great dogs crouched
+under a bench, and some highly-colored portraits were nailed to the
+wall. The floor was bare, and some clothing and miscellaneous articles
+hung from beams in the ceiling.
+
+"Is this your house?" I said to the Hebrew.
+
+"I keepsh it now."
+
+"By right or by conquest?"
+
+"By ze right of conquest," he said, laughing; and at once proposed to
+sell me a bootjack and an India-rubber overcoat. I compromised upon a
+haversack, which he filled with sandwiches and sardines, and which I am
+bound to say fell apart in the course of the afternoon. The watchmaker
+was an enterprising young fellow, who had resigned his place in a large
+Broadway establishment, to speculate in cheap jewelry and do itinerant
+repairing. He says that he followed the "Army Paymasters, and sold
+numbers of watches, at good premiums, when the troops had money."
+Soldiers, he informed me, were reckless spendthrifts; and the prey of
+sutlers and sharpers. When there was nothing at hand to purchase, they
+gambled away their wages, and most of them left the service penniless
+and in debt. He thought it perfectly legitimate to secure some silver
+while "going," but complained that the value of his stock rendered him
+liable to theft and murder. "There are men in every regiment," said he,
+"who would blow out my brains in any lonely place to plunder me of these
+watches."
+
+At this point, a young officer, in a fit of bacchanal laughter,
+staggered rather roughly against me.
+
+"Begurpardon," he said, with an unsteady bow, "never ran against person
+in life before."
+
+I smiled assuringly, but he appeared to think the offence unpardonable.
+
+"Do asshu a, on honor of gentlemand officer, not in custom of behaving
+offensively. Azo! leave it to my friends. Entirely due to injuries
+received at battle Drainesville."
+
+As the other gentlemen laughed loudly here, I took it for granted that
+my apologist had some personal hallucination relative to that
+engagement.
+
+"What giggling for, Bob?" he said; "honor concerned in this matter,
+Will! Do asshu a, fell under Colonel's horse, and Company A walked over
+small of my back." The other officers were only less inebriated and most
+of them spoke boastfully of their personal prowess at Drainesville. This
+was the only engagement in which the Pennsylvania Reserves had yet
+participated, and few officers that I met did not ascribe the victory
+entirely to their own individual gallantry. I inquired of these
+gentlemen the route to the new encampments of the Reserves. They lay
+five miles south of the turnpike, close to the Loudon and Hampshire
+railroad, and along both sides of an unfrequented lane. They formed in
+this position the right wing of the Army of the Potomac, and had been
+ordered to hold themselves in hourly readiness for an advance. By this
+time, my friend S. came up, and leaving him to restore his mortified
+body, I crossed the road to the churchyard and peered through the open
+door into the edifice. The seats of painted pine had been covered with
+planks, and a sick man lay above every pew. At the ringing of my spurs
+in the threshold, some of the sufferers looked up through the red eyes
+of fever, and the faces of others were spectrally white. A few groaned
+as they turned with difficulty, and some shrank in pain from the glare
+of the light. Medicines were kept in the altar-place, and a doctor's
+clerk was writing requisitions in the pulpit. The sickening smell of the
+hospital forbade me to enter, and walking across the trampled yard, I
+crept through a rent in the paling, and examined the huts in which the
+Reserves had passed the winter. They were built of logs, plastered with
+mud, and the roofs of some were thatched with straw. Each cabin was
+pierced for two or more windows; the beds were simply shelves or berths;
+a rough fireplace of stones and clay communicated with the wooden
+chimney; and the floors were in most cases damp and bare. Streets,
+fancifully designated, divided the settlement irregularly; but the
+tenements were now all deserted save one, where I found a whole family
+of "contrabands" or fugitive slaves. These wretched beings, seven in
+number, had escaped from a plantation in Albemarle county, and
+travelling stealthily by night, over two hundred miles of precipitous
+country, reached the Federal lines on the thirteenth day. The husband
+said that his name was "Jeems," and that his wife was called "Kitty;"
+that his youngest boy had passed the mature age of eight months, and
+that the "big girl, Rosy," was "twelve years Christmas comin'." While
+the troops remained at Langley's, the man was employed at seventy-five
+cents a week to attend to an officer's horse. Kitty and Rose cooked and
+washed for soldiers, and the boys ran errands to Washington and
+return,--twenty-five miles! The eldest boy, Jefferson, had been given
+the use of a crippled team-horse, and traded in newspapers, but having
+confused ideas of the relative value of coins, his profits were only
+moderate. The nag died before the troops removed, and a sutler, under
+pretence of securing their passage to the North, disappeared with the
+little they had saved. They were quite destitute now, but looked to the
+future with no foreboding, and huddled together in the straw, made a
+picture of domestic felicity that impressed me greatly with the
+docility, contentment, and unfailing good humor of their dusky tribe.
+The eyes of the children were large and lustrous, and they revealed the
+clear pearls beneath their lips as they clung bashfully to their
+mother's lap. The old lady was smoking a clay pipe; the man running over
+some castaway jackets and boots. I remarked particularly the broad
+shoulders and athletic arms of the woman, whose many childbirths had
+left no traces upon her comeliness. She asked me, wistfully: "Masser,
+how fur to de nawf?"
+
+"A long way," said I, "perhaps two hundred miles."
+
+"Lawd!" she said, buoyantly--"is dat all? Why, Jeems, couldn't we foot
+it, honey?"
+
+"You a most guv out before, ole 'oman," he replied; "got a good ruff
+over de head now. Guess de white massar won't let um starve."
+
+I tossed some coppers to the children and gave each a sandwich.
+
+"You get up dar, John Thomas!" called the man vigorously; "you tank de
+gentleman, Jefferson, boy! I wonda wha your manners is. Tank you,
+massar! know'd you was a gentleman, sar! Massar, is your family from ole
+Virginny?"
+
+It was five o'clock when I rejoined S., and the greater part of our
+journey had yet to be made. I went at his creeping pace until courtesy
+yielded to impatience, when spurring my Pegasus vigorously, he fell into
+a bouncing amble and left the _attaché_ far behind. My pass was again
+demanded above Langley's by a man who ate apples as he examined it, and
+who was disposed to hold a long parley. I entered a region of scrub
+timber further on, and met with nothing human for four miles, at the end
+of which distance I reached Difficult Creek, flowing through a rocky
+ravine, and crossed by a military bridge of logs. Through the thick
+woods to the right, I heard the roar of the Potomac, and a finger-board
+indicated that I was opposite Great Falls. Three or four dead horses lay
+at the roadside beyond the stream, and I recalled the place as the scene
+of a recent cavalry encounter. A cartridge-box and a torn felt hat lay
+close to the carcasses: I knew that some soul had gone hence to its
+account.
+
+The road now kept to the left obliquely, and much of my ride was made
+musical by the stream. Darkness closed solemnly about me, with seven
+miles of the journey yet to accomplish, and as, at eight o'clock, I
+turned from the turnpike into a lonesome by-road, full of ruts, pools,
+and quicksands, a feeling of delicious uneasiness for the first time
+possessed me. Some owls hooted in the depth of the woods, and wild pigs,
+darting across the road, went crashing into the bushes. The
+phosphorescent bark of a blasted tree glimmered on a neighboring knoll,
+and as I halted at a rivulet to water my beast, I saw a solitary star
+floating down the ripples. Directly I came upon a clearing where the
+moonlight shone through the rents of a crumbling dwelling, and from the
+far distance broke the faint howl of farm dogs. A sense of insecurity
+that I would not for worlds have resigned, now tingled, now chilled my
+blood. At last, climbing a stony hill, the skies lay beneath me
+reddening with the flame of camps and flaring and falling alternately,
+like the beautiful Northern lights. I heard the ring of hoofs as I
+looked entranced, and in a twinkling, a body of horsemen dashed past me
+and disappeared. A little beyond, the road grew so thick that I could
+see nothing of my way; but trusting doubtfully to my horse, a deep
+challenge came directly from the thicket, and I saw the flash of a
+sabre, as I stammered a reply. Led to a cabin close at hand, my pass
+was examined by candle-light, and I learned that the nearest camp of the
+Reserves was only a mile farther on, and the regiment of which I was in
+quest about two miles distant. After another half hour, I reached Ord's
+brigade, whose tents were pitched in a fine grove of oaks; the men
+talking, singing, and shouting, around open air fires; and a battery of
+brass Napoleons unlimbered in front, pointing significantly to the West
+and South. For a mile and a half I rode by the light of continuous
+camps, reaching at last the quarters of the ----th, commanded by a
+former newspaper associate of mine, with whom I had gone itemizing,
+scores of times. His regiment had arrived only the same afternoon, and
+their tents were not yet pitched. Their muskets were stacked along the
+roadside, and the men lay here and there wrapped in their blankets, and
+dozing around the fagots. The Colonel was asleep in a wagon, but roused
+up at the summons of his Adjutant, and greeting me warmly, directed the
+cook to prepare a supper of coffee and fried pork. Too hungry to feel
+the chafing of my sores and bruises, I fell to the oleaginous repast
+with my teeth and fingers, and eating ravenously, asked at last to be
+shown to my apartments. These consisted of a covered wagon, already
+occupied by four teamsters, and a blanket which had evidently been in
+close proximity to the hide of a horse. A man named "Coggle," being
+nudged by the Colonel, and requested to take other quarters, asked
+dolorously if it was time to turn out, and roared "woa," as if he had
+some consciousness of being kicked. When I asked for a pillow, the
+Colonel laughed, and I had an intuition that the man "Coggle" was
+looking at me in the darkness with intense disgust. The Colonel said
+that he had once put a man on double duty for placing his head on a
+snowball, and warned me satirically that such luxuries were preposterous
+in the field. He recommended me not to catch cold if I could help it,
+but said that people in camp commonly caught several colds at once, and
+added grimly that if I wished to be shaved in the morning, there was a
+man close by, who had ground a sabre down to the nice edge of a razor,
+and who could be made to accommodate me. There were cracks in the bottom
+of the wagon, through which the cold came like knives, and I was
+allotted a space four feet in length, by three feet in width.
+
+Being six feet in height, my relation to these Procrustean quarters was
+most embarassing; but I doubled up, chatteringly, and lay my head on my
+arm. In a short time I experienced a sensation akin to that of being
+guillotined, and sitting bolt upright, found the teamsters in the
+soundest of Lethean conditions. As the man next to me snored very
+loudly, I adopted the brilliant idea of making a pillow of his thigh;
+which answered my best expectations. I was aroused after a while, by
+what I thought to be the violent hands of this person, but which, to my
+great chagrin, proved to be S., intent upon dividing my place with me.
+Resistance was useless. I submitted to martyrdom with due resignation,
+but half resolved to go home in the morning, and shun, for the future,
+the horrible romance of camps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A GENERAL UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.
+
+
+When I awoke at Colonel Taggert's tent the morning afterward, I had
+verified the common experience of camps by "catching several colds at
+once," and felt a general sensation of being cut off at the knees. Poor
+S., who joined me at the fire, states that he believed himself to be
+tied in knots, and that he should return afoot to Washington. Our horses
+looked no worse, for that would have been manifestly impossible. We were
+made the butts of much jesting at breakfast; and S. said, in a spirit of
+atrocity, that camp wit was quite as bad as camp "wittles." I bade him
+adieu at five o'clock A. M., when he had secured passage to the city in
+a sutler's wagon. Remounting my own fiery courser, I bade the Colonel a
+temporary farewell, and proceeded in the direction of Meade's and
+Reynold's brigades. The drum and fife were now beating _reveillé_, and
+volunteers in various stages of undress were limping to roll-call. Some
+wore one shoe, and others appeared shivering in their linen. They stood
+ludicrously in rank, and a succession of short, dry coughs ran up and
+down the line, as if to indicate those who should escape the bullet for
+the lingering agonies of the hospital. The ground was damp, and fog was
+rising from the hollows and fens. Some signal corps officers were
+practising with flags in a ploughed field, and negro stewards were
+stirring about the cook fires. A few supply wagons that I passed the
+previous day were just creaking into camp, having travelled most of the
+night. I saw that the country was rude, but the farms were close, and
+the dwellings in many cases inhabited. The vicinity had previously been
+unoccupied by either army, and rapine had as yet appropriated only the
+fields for camps and the fences for fuel. I was directed to the
+headquarters of Major-General M'Call,--a cluster of wall tents in the
+far corner of a grain-field, concealed from public view by a projecting
+point of woods. A Sibley tent stood close at hand, where a soldier in
+blue overcoat was reading signals through a telescope. I mistook the
+tent for the General's, and riding up to the soldier was requested to
+stand out of the way. I moved to his rear, but he said curtly that I was
+obstructing the light. I then dismounted, and led my horse to a clump of
+trees a rod distant.
+
+"Don't hitch there," said the soldier; "you block up the view."
+
+A little ruffled at this manifest discourtesy, I asked the man to denote
+some point within a radius of a mile where I would _not_ interfere with
+his operations. He said in reply, that it was not his business to denote
+hitching-stalls for anybody. I thought, in that case, that I should stay
+where I was, and he politely informed me that I might stay and
+be--jammed. I found afterward that this individual was troubled with a
+kind of insanity peculiar to all headquarters, arising out of an
+exaggerated idea of his own importance. I had the pleasure, a few
+minutes afterward, of hearing him ordered to feed my horse. A thickset,
+gray-haired man sat near by, undergoing the process of shaving by a very
+nervous negro. The thickset man was also exercising the privileges of
+his rank; but the more he berated his attendant's awkwardness, the more
+nervous the other became. I addressed myself mutually to master and man,
+in an inquiry as to the precise quarters of the General in command. The
+latter pointed to a wall tent contiguous, and was cursed by the thickset
+man for not minding his business. The thickset man remarked
+substantially, that he didn't know anything about it, and was at that
+moment cut by the negro, to my infinite delight. Before the wall tent in
+question stood a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman in shirt-sleeves and
+slippers, warming his back and hands at a fire. He was watching, through
+an aperture in the tent, the movements of a private who was cleaning his
+boots. I noticed that he wore a seal ring, and that he opened and shut
+his eyes very rapidly. He was, otherwise, a very respectable and
+dignified gentleman.
+
+"Is this General M'Call?" said I, a little discomposed. The gentleman
+looked abstractedly into my eyes, opening and shutting his own several
+times, as if doubtful of his personality, and at last decided that he
+_was_ General M'Call.
+
+"What is it?" he said gravely, but without the slightest curiosity.
+
+"I have a letter for you, sir, I believe."
+
+He put the letter behind his back, and went on warming his hands. Having
+winked several times again, apparently forgetting all about the matter,
+I ventured to add that the letter was merely introductory. He looked at
+it, mechanically.
+
+"Who opened it?" he said.
+
+"Letters of introduction are not commonly sealed, General."
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, indifferently.
+
+I told him that the contents of the letter would explain my errand; but
+he had, meantime, relapsed into abstractedness, and winked, and warmed
+his hands, for at least, five minutes. At the end of that time, he read
+the letter very deliberately, and said that he was glad to see me in
+camp. He intimated, that if I was not already located, I could be
+provided with bed and meals at headquarters. He stated, in relation to
+my correspondence, that all letters sent from the Reserve Corps, must,
+without any reservations, be submitted to him in person. I was obliged
+to promise compliance, but had gloomy forebodings that the General
+would occupy a fortnight in the examination of each letter. He invited
+me to breakfast, proposed to make me acquainted with his staff, and was,
+in all respects, a very grave, prudent, and affable soldier. I may say,
+incidentally, that I adopted the device of penning a couple of gossipy
+epistles, the length and folly of which, so irritated General M'Call,
+that he released me from the penalty of submitting my compositions for
+the future.
+
+I took up my permanent abode with quartermaster Kingwalt, a very prince
+of old soldiers, who had devoted much of a sturdy life to promoting the
+militia interests of the populous county of Chester. When the war-fever
+swept down his beautiful valley, and the drum called the young men from
+villages and farms, this ancient yeoman and miller--for he was
+both--took a musket at the sprightly age of sixty-five, and joined a
+Volunteer company. Neither ridicule nor entreaty could bend his purpose;
+but the Secretary of War, hearing of the case, conferred a brigade
+quartermastership upon him. He threw off the infirmities of age, stepped
+as proudly as any youngster, and became, emphatically, the best
+quartermaster in the Division. He never delayed an advance with tardy
+teams, nor kept the General tentless, nor penned irregular requisitions,
+nor wasted the property of Government. The ague seized him,
+occasionally, and shook his grey hairs fearfully; but he always
+recovered to ride his black stallion on long forages, and his great
+strength and bulk were the envy of all the young officers.
+
+He grasped my hand so heartily that I positively howled, and commanded a
+tall sergeant, rejoicing in the name of Clover, to take away my horse
+and split him up for kindling wood.
+
+"We must give him the blue roan, that Fogg rides," said the
+quartermaster, to the great dejection of Fogg, a short stout youth, who
+was posting accounts. I was glad to see, however, that Fogg was not
+disposed to be angry, and when informed that a certain iron-gray nag was
+at his disposal, he was in a perfect glow of good humor. The other
+_attachés_ were a German, whose name, as I caught it, seemed to be
+Skyhiski; and a pleasant lad called Owen, whose disposition was so mild,
+that I wondered how he had adopted the bloody profession of arms. A
+black boy belonged to the establishment, remarkable, chiefly, for
+getting close to the heels of the black stallion, and being frequently
+kicked; he was employed to feed and brush the said stallion, and the
+antipathy between them was intense.
+
+The above curious military combination, slept under a great tarpaulin
+canopy, originally used for covering commissary stores from the rain.
+Our meals were taken in the open air, and prepared by Skyhiski; but
+there was a second tent, provided with desk and secretary, where Mr.
+Fogg performed his clerk duties, daily. When I had relieved my Pegasus
+of his saddle, and penned some paragraphs for a future letter, I
+strolled down the road with the old gentleman, who insisted upon showing
+me Hunter's mill, a storm-beaten structure, that looked like a great
+barn. The mill-race had been drained by some soldiers for the purpose of
+securing the fish contained in it, and the mill-wheel was quite dry and
+motionless. Difficult Creek ran impetuously across the road below, as if
+anxious to be put to some use again; and the miller's house adjoining,
+was now used as a hospital, for Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, and some
+inferior officers. It was a favorite design of the Quartermaster's to
+scrape the mill-stone, repair the race, and put the great breast-wheel
+to work. One could see that the soldier had not entirely obliterated the
+miller, and as he related, with a glowing face, the plans that he had
+proposed to recuperate the tottering structure, and make it serviceable
+to the army, I felt a regret that such peaceful ambitions should have
+ever been overruled by the call to arms.
+
+While we stood at the mill window, watching the long stretches of white
+tents and speculating upon the results of war, we saw several men
+running across the road toward a hill-top cottage, where General Meade
+made his quarters. A small group was collected at the cottage,
+reconnoitring something through their telescopes. As I hastened in that
+direction, I heard confused voices, thus: "No, it isn't!" "It is!" "Can
+you make out his shoulder-bar?" "What is the color of his coat?" "Gray!"
+"No, it's butternut!" "Has he a musket!" "Yes, he is levelling it!" At
+this the group scattered in every direction. "Pshaw!" said one, "we are
+out of range; besides, it is a telescope that he has. By----, it is a
+Rebel, reconnoitring our camp!" There was a manifest sensation here, and
+one man wondered how he had passed the picket. Another suggested that he
+might be accompanied by a troop, and a third convulsed the circle by
+declaring that there were six other Rebels visible in a woods to the
+left. Mr. Fogg had meantime come up and proffered me a field-glass,
+through which I certainly made out a person in gray, standing in the
+middle of the road just at the ridge of a hill. When I dropped my glass
+I saw him distinctly with the naked eye. He was probably a mile distant,
+and his gray vesture was little relieved by the blue haze of the forest.
+
+"He is going," exclaimed a private, excitedly; "where's the man that was
+to try a lead on him?" Several started impulsively for their pieces, and
+some officers called for their horses. "There go his knees!" "His body
+is behind the hill!" "Now his head----"
+
+"Crack! crack! crack!" spluttered musketry from the edge of the mill,
+and like as many rockets darted a score of horsemen through the creek
+and up the steep. Directly a faint hurrah pealed from the camp nearest
+the mill. It passed to the next camp and the next; for all were now
+earnestly watching; and finally a medley of cheers shook the air and the
+ear. Thousands of brave men were shouting the requiem of one paltry
+life. The rash fool had bought with his temerity a bullet in the brain.
+When I saw him--dusty and still bleeding--he was beset by a full
+regiment of idlers, to whom death had neither awe nor respect. They
+talked of the delicate shot, as connoisseurs in the art of murder,--and
+two men dug him a grave on the green before the mill, wherein he was
+tossed like a dog or a vulture, to be lulled, let us hope, by the music
+of the grinding, when grain shall ripen once more.
+
+I had an opportunity, after dinner, to inspect the camp of the
+"Bucktails," a regiment of Pennsylvania backwoodsmen, whose efficiency
+as skirmishers has been adverted to by all chroniclers of the civil war.
+They wore the common blue blouse and breeches, but were distinguished by
+squirrel tails fastened to their caps. They were reputed to be the best
+marksmen in the service, and were generally allowed, in action, to take
+their own positions and fire at will. Crawling through thick woods, or
+trailing serpent-like through the tangled grass, these mountaineers were
+for a time the terror of the Confederates; but when their mode of
+fighting had been understood, their adversaries improved upon it to such
+a degree that at the date of this writing there is scarcely a Corporal's
+guard of the original Bucktail regiment remaining. Slaughtered on the
+field, perishing in prison, disabled or paroled, they have lost both
+their prestige and their strength. I remarked among these worthies a
+partiality for fisticuffs, and a dislike for the manual of arms. They
+drilled badly, and were reported to be adepts at thieving and unlicensed
+foraging.
+
+The second night in camp was pleasantly passed. Some sociable
+officers--favorites with Captain Kingwalt--congregated under the
+tarpaulin, after supper-hour, and when a long-necked bottle had been
+emptied and replenished, there were many quaint stories related and
+curious individualities revealed. I dropped asleep while the hilarity
+was at its height, and Fogg covered me with a thick blanket as I lay.
+The enemy might have come upon us in the darkness; but if death were
+half so sound as my slumber afield, I should have bid it welcome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A FORAGING ADVENTURE.
+
+
+There was a newsboy named "Charley," who slept at Captain Kingwalt's
+every second night, and who returned my beast to his owner in
+Washington. The aphorism that a Yankee can do anything, was exemplified
+by this lad; for he worked my snail into a gallop. He was born in
+Chelsea, Massachusetts, and appeared to have taken to speculation at the
+age when most children are learning A B C. He was now in his fourteenth
+year, owned two horses, and employed another boy to sell papers for him
+likewise. His profits upon daily sales of four hundred journals were
+about thirty-two dollars. He had five hundred dollars in bank, and was
+debating with Captain Kingwalt the propriety of founding an army express
+and general agency. Such a self-reliant, swaggering, far-sighted, and
+impertinent boy I never knew. He was a favorite with the Captain's
+black-boy, and upon thorough terms of equality with the Commanding
+General. His papers cost him in Washington a cent and a half each, and
+he sold them in camp for ten cents each. I have not the slightest doubt
+that I shall hear of him again as the proprietor of an overland mail, or
+the patron and capitalist of Greenland emigration.
+
+I passed the second and third days quietly in camp, writing a couple of
+letters, studying somewhat of fortification, and making flying visits to
+various officers. There was but one other Reporter with this division of
+the army. He represented a New York journal, and I could not but
+contrast his fine steed and equipments with the scanty accommodations
+that my provincial establishment had provided for me. His saddle was a
+cushioned McClellan, with spangled breast-strap and plump saddle-bags,
+and his bridle was adorned with a bright curb bit and twilled reins. He
+wore a field-glass belted about his body, and was plentifully provided
+with money to purchase items of news, if they were at any time difficult
+to obtain. I resolved inwardly to seize the first opportunity of
+changing establishments, so that I might be placed upon as good a
+footing. My relations with camp, otherwise, were of the happiest
+character; for the troops were State-people of mine, and, as reporters
+had not yet abused the privileges accorded them, my profession was held
+in some repute. I made the round of various "messes," and soon adopted
+the current dissipations of the field,--late hours, long stories,
+incessant smoking, and raw spirits. There were some restless minds about
+me, whose funds of anecdote and jest were apparently inexhaustible. I do
+not know that so many eccentric, adventurous, and fluent people are to
+be found among any other nationality of soldiers, not excepting the
+Irish.
+
+The blue roan of which friend Fogg had been deprived, exhibited
+occasional evidences of a desire to break my neck. I was obliged to
+dispense with the spur in riding him, but he nevertheless dashed off at
+times, and put me into an agony of fear. On those occasions I managed to
+retain my seat, and gained thereby the reputation of being a very fine
+equestrian. As there were few civilians in camp, and as I wore a gray
+suit, and appeared to be in request at head-quarters, a rumor was
+developed and gained currency that I was attached to the Division in the
+capacity of a scout. When my horse became unmanageable, therefore, his
+speed was generally accelerated by the cheers of soldiers, and I became
+an object of curiosity in every quarter, to my infinite mortification
+and dread.
+
+The Captain was to set off on the fourth day, to purchase or seize some
+hay and grain that were stacked at neighboring farms. We prepared to go
+at eight o'clock, but were detained somewhat by reason of Skyhiski being
+inebriated the night before, and thereby delaying the breakfast, and
+afterward the fact that the black stallion had laid open the black-boy's
+leg. However, at a quarter past nine, the Captain, Sergeant Clover,
+Fogg, Owen, and myself, with six four-horse wagons, filed down the
+railroad track until we came to a bridge that some laborers were
+repairing, where we turned to the left through some soggy fields, and
+forded Difficult Creek. As there was no road to follow, we kept straight
+through a wood of young maples and chestnut-trees. Occasionally a trunk
+or projecting branch stopped the wagons, when the teamsters opened the
+way with their axes. After two hours of slow advance, we came to the end
+of the wood, and climbed a succession of hilly fields. From the summit
+of the last of these, a splendid sweep of farm country was revealed,
+dotted with quaint Virginia dwellings, stackyards, and negro-cabins, and
+divided by miles of tortuous worm-fence. The eyes of the Quartermaster
+brightened at the prospect, though I am afraid that he thought only of
+the abundant forage; but my own grew hazy as I spoke of the peaceful
+people and the neglected fields. The plough had furrowed none of these
+acres, and some crows, that screamed gutturally from a neighboring
+ash-tree, seemed lean and pinched for lack of their plunder of corn.
+
+Many of the dwellings were guarded by soldiers; but of the resident
+citizens only the women and the old men remained. I did not need to ask
+where the young men were exiled. The residue that prayed with their
+faces toward Richmond, told me the story with their eyes. There was,
+nevertheless, no melodramatic exhibition of feeling among the bereaved.
+I did not see any defiant postures, nor hear any melting apostrophies.
+Marius was not mouthing by the ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel
+weeping for her Hebrew children. But there were on every hand
+manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except among a few
+males who feared unutterable things, and were disposed to cringe and
+prevaricate. The women were not generally handsome; their face was
+indolent, their dress slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They
+lopped off the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally
+commencing with a verb, as thus: "Told soldiers not to carr' off the
+rye; declared they would; said they bound do jest what they pleased. Let
+'em go!"
+
+The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached by a long lane,
+and on knocking at the porch with his ponderous fist, a woman came
+timidly to the kitchen window.
+
+"Who's thar?" she said, after a moment.
+
+"Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly; "we don't intend
+to murder or rob you, ma'am!"
+
+There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, but three young
+women, followed by a very deaf old man, who appeared to think that the
+Captain's visit bore some reference to the hencoop.
+
+"I wish to buy for the use of the United States Government," said the
+Captain, "some stacks of hay and corn fodder, that lie in one of your
+fields."
+
+"The last hen was toted off this morning before breakfast," said the old
+man; "they took the turkeys yesterday, and I was obliged to kill the
+ducks or I shouldn't have had anything to eat."
+
+Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through his nose, and the
+man Clover appeared to be suddenly interested in something that lay in a
+mulberry-tree opposite.
+
+"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your produce, and you
+cannot do better than to let me take the stacks: leaving you, of course,
+enough for your own horses and cattle."
+
+Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he hadn't heard of
+any recent battle; for his part, he had never been a politician; but
+thought that both parties were a little wrong; and wished that peace
+would return: for he was a very old man, and was sorry that folks
+couldn't let quiet folks' property alone. How far his garrulity might
+have betrayed him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking
+his hand and leading him submissively into the house.
+
+The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the stacks at his
+own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a soldier, and as he seemed,
+a gentleman, to deal justly by them. There could be no crop harvested
+for a twelvemonth, and beggary looked them in the face. I have never
+beheld anything more chivalrously gallant, than the sturdy old
+quartermaster's attitude. He blended in tone and face the politeness of
+a diplomat and the gentleness of a father. They asked him to return to
+the house, with his _officers_, when he had loaded the wagons; for
+dinner was being prepared, and they hoped that Virginians could be
+hospitable, even to their enemies. As to the hay and fodder, none need
+be left; for the Confederates had seized their horses some months
+before, and driven off their cows when they retired from the
+neighborhood.
+
+I so admired the queer gables and great brick ovens of the house, that I
+resolved to tie my horse, and rest under the crooked porch. The eldest
+young lady had taken me to be a prisoner, and was greatly astonished
+that the Quartermaster permitted me to go at large. She asked me to have
+a chair in the parlor, but when I made my appearance there, the two
+younger sisters fled precipitately. The old man was shaking his head
+sadly by the fireplace. Some logs burned on the andirons with a red
+flame. The furniture consisted of a mahogany sideboard, table, and
+chairs,--ponderous in pattern; and a series of family portraits, in a
+sprawling style of art, smirked and postured on the wall. The floor was
+bare, but shone by reason of repeated scrubbing, and the black
+mantel-piece was a fine specimen of colonial carving in the staunchest
+of walnut-wood.
+
+Directly the two younger girls--though the youngest must have been
+twenty years of age--came back with averted eyes and the silliest of
+giggles. They sat a little distance apart, and occasionally nodded or
+signalled like school children.
+
+"Wish you _would_ stop, Bell!" said one of these misses,--whose flaxen
+hair was plastered across her eyebrows, and who was very tall and
+slender.
+
+"See if I don't tell on you," said the other,--a dark miss with roguish
+eyes and fat, plump figure, and curls that shook ever so merrily about
+her shoulders.
+
+"Declar' I never said so, if he asks me; declar' I will."
+
+"Tell on you,--you see! Won't he be jealous? How he will car' on!"
+
+I made out that these young ladies were intent upon publishing their
+obligations to certain sweethearts of theirs, who, as it afterward
+seemed, were in the army at Manassas Junction. I said to the
+curly-haired miss, that she was endangering the life of her enamored;
+for it would become an object with all the anxious troops in the
+vicinity to shorten his days. The old man roused up here, and remarked
+that his health certainly was declining; but he hoped to survive a while
+longer for the sake of his children; that he was no politician, and
+always said that the negroes were very ungrateful people. He caught his
+daughter's eye finally, and cowered stupidly, nodding at the fire.
+
+I remarked to the eldest young woman,--called Prissy (Priscilla) by her
+sister,--that the country hereabout was pleasantly wooded. She said, in
+substance, that every part of Virginia was beautiful, and that she did
+not wish to survive the disgrace of the old commonwealth.
+
+"Become right down hateful since Yankees invaded it!" exclaimed Miss
+Bell. "_Some_ Yankee's handsome sister," said Miss Bessie, the
+proprietor of the curls, "think some Yankees puffick gentlemen!"
+
+"Oh, you traitor!" said the other,--"wish _Henry_ heard you say that!"
+
+Miss Bell intimated that she should take the first opportunity of
+telling him the same, and I eulogized her good judgment. Priscilla now
+begged to be excused for a moment, as, since the flight of the negro
+property, the care of the table had devolved mainly upon her. A single
+aged servant, too feeble or too faithful to decamp, still attended to
+the menial functions, and two mulatto children remained to relieve them
+of light labor. She was a dignified, matronly young lady, and, as one of
+the sisters informed me, plighted to a Major in the Confederate service.
+The others chattered flippantly for an hour, and said that the old place
+was dreadfully lonesome of late. Miss Bell was _sure_ she should die if
+another winter, similar to the last, occurred. She loved company, and
+had always found it _so_ lively in Loudon before; whereas she had
+positively been but twice to a neighbor's for a twelvemonth, and had
+quite forgotten the road to the mill. She said, finally, that, rather
+than undergo another such isolation, she would become a _Vivandiere_ in
+the Yankee army. The slender sister was altogether wedded to the idea of
+her lover's. "_Wouldn't_ she tell Henry? and _shouldn't_ she write to
+Jeems? and oh, Bessie, you would not _dare_ to repeat that before
+_him_." In short, I was at first amused, and afterwards annoyed, by this
+young lady, whereas the roguish-eyed miss improved greatly upon
+acquaintance.
+
+After a while, Captain Kingwalt came in, trailing his spurs over the
+floor, and leaving sunshine in his wake. There was something galvanic in
+his gentleness, and infectious in his merriment. He told them at dinner
+of his own daughters on the Brandywine, and invented stories of Fogg's
+courtships, till that young gentleman first blushed, and afterward
+dropped his plate. Our meal was a frugal one, consisting mainly of the
+ducks referred to, some vegetables, corn-bread, and coffee made of
+wasted rye. There were neither sugar, spices, nor tea, on the premises,
+and the salt before us was the last in the dwelling. The Captain
+promised to send them both coffee and salt, and Fogg volunteered to
+bring the same to the house, whereat the Captain teased him till he left
+the table.
+
+At this time, a little boy, who was ostensibly a waiter, cried: "Miss
+Prissy, soldiers is climbin' in de hog-pen."
+
+"I knew we should lose the last living thing on the property," said this
+young lady, much distressed.
+
+The Captain went to the door, and found three strolling Bucktails
+looking covetously at the swine. They were a little discomposed at his
+appearance, and edged off suspiciously.
+
+"Halt!" said the old man in his great voice, "where are you men going?"
+
+"Just makin' reconnoissance," said one of the freebooters; "s'pose a
+feller has a right to walk around, hain't he?"
+
+"Not unless he has a pass," said the Quartermaster; "have you written
+permission to leave camp?"
+
+"Left'nant s'posed we might. Don't know as it's your business. Never see
+_you_ in the regiment."
+
+"It is my business, as an officer of the United States, to see that no
+soldier strays from camp unauthorizedly, or depredates upon private
+property. I will take your names, and report you, first for straggling,
+secondly for insolence!"
+
+"Put to it, Bill!" said the speaker of the foragers; "run, Bob! go it
+hearties!" And they took to their heels, cleared a pair of fences, and
+were lost behind some outbuildings. The Captain could be harsh as well
+as generous, and was about mounting his horse impulsively, to overtake
+and punish the fugitives, when Priscilla begged him to refrain, as an
+enforcement of discipline on his part might bring insult upon her
+helpless household. I availed myself of a pause in the Captain's wrath,
+to ask Miss Priscilla if she would allow me to lodge in the dwelling.
+Five nights' experience in camp had somewhat reduced my enthusiasm, and
+I already wearied of the damp beds, the hard fare, and the coarse
+conversation of the bivouac. The young lady assented willingly, as she
+stated that the presence of a young man would both amuse and protect the
+family. For several nights she had not slept, and had imagined footsteps
+on the porch and the drawing of window-bolts. There was a bed, formerly
+occupied by her brother, that I might take, but must depend upon rather
+laggard attendance. I had the satisfaction, therefore, of seeing the
+Captain and retinue mount their horses, and wave me a temporary good by.
+Poor Fogg looked back so often and so seriously that I expected to see
+him fall from the saddle. The young ladies were much impressed with the
+Captain's manliness, and Miss Bell wondered _how_ such a _puffick_
+gentleman could _reconcile_ himself to the Yankee cause. She had felt a
+desire to speak to him upon that point as she was _sure_ he was of fine
+stock, and entirely averse to the invasion of such territory as that of
+_dear_ old Virginia. There was something in his manner that _so_
+reminded her of some one who should be _nameless_ for the present; but
+the "nameless" was, _of course_, young, _handsome_, and _so_ brave. I
+ruthlessly dissipated her theory of the Captain's origin, by stating
+that he was of humble German descent, so far as I knew, and had probably
+never beheld Virginia till preceded by the bayonets of his neighbors.
+
+After tea Miss Bessie produced a pitcher of rare cider, that came from a
+certain mysterious quarter of the cellar. A chessboard was forthcoming
+at a later hour, when we amused ourselves with a couple of games,
+facetiously dubbing our chessman Federals and Confederates. Miss Bell,
+meanwhile, betook herself to a diary, wherein she minutely related the
+incidents and sentiments of successive days. The quantity of words
+underscored in the same autobiography would have speedily exhausted the
+case of italics, if the printer had obtained it. I was so beguiled by
+these patriarchal people, that I several times asked myself if the
+circumstances were real. Was I in a hostile country, surrounded by
+thousands of armed men? Were the incidents of this evening portions of
+an historic era, and the ground about me to be commemorated by
+bloodshed? Was this, in fact, revolution, and were these simple country
+girls and their lovers revolutionists? The logs burned cheerily upon the
+hearth, and the ancestral portraits glowered contemplatively from the
+walls. Miss Prissy looked dreamily into the fire, and the old man snored
+wheezily in a corner. A gray cat purred in Miss Bell's lap, and Miss
+Bessie was writing some nonsense in my note-book.
+
+A sharp knock fell upon the door, and something that sounded like the
+butt of a musket shook the porch without. The girls turned pale, and I
+think that Miss Bessie seized my arm and clung to it. I think also, that
+Miss Bell attempted to take the other arm, to which I demurred.
+
+"Those brutal soldiers again!" said Priscilla, faintly.
+
+"I think one of the andirons has fallen down, darter!" said the old man,
+rousing up.
+
+"Tremble for my life," said Miss Bell; "_sure_ shall die if it's _a
+man_."
+
+I opened the door after a little pause, when a couple of rough privates
+in uniform confronted me.
+
+"We're two guards that General Meade sent to protect the house and
+property," said the tallest of these men; "might a feller come in and
+warm his feet!"
+
+I understood at once that the Quartermaster had obtained these persons;
+and the other man coming forward, said--
+
+"I fetched some coffee over, and a bag o' salt, with Corporal Fogg's
+compliments."
+
+They deposited their muskets in a corner, and balanced their boots on
+the fender. Nothing was said for a time.
+
+"Did you lose yer poultry?" said the tall man, at length.
+
+"All," said Miss Priscilla.
+
+"Fellers loves poultry!" said the man, smacking his lips.
+
+"Did you lose yer sheep?" said the same man, after a little silence.
+
+"The Bucktails cut their throats the first day that they encamped at the
+mill," said Miss Priscilla.
+
+"Them Bucktails great fellers," said the tall man; "them Bucktails awful
+on sheep: they loves 'em so!"
+
+He relapsed again for a few minutes, when he continued: "You don't like
+fellers to bag yer poultry and sheep, do you?"
+
+Miss Priscilla replied that it was both dishonest and cruel. Miss Bell
+intimated that none but Yankees would do it.
+
+"P'raps not," said the tall soldier, drily; "did you ever grub on fat
+pork, Miss? No? Did you ever gnaw yer hard tack after a spell o'
+sickness, and a ten-hour march? No? P'raps you might like a streak o'
+mutton arterwards! P'raps you might take a notion for a couple o'
+chickens or so! No? How's that, Ike? What do you think, pardner? (to me)
+I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't think the Bucktails is over
+and above dishonest to home, mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I _would_
+bag a chicken any day! I say that above board. Hey, Ike?"
+
+When the tall man and his inferior satellite had warmed their boots till
+they smoked, they rose, recovered their muskets, and bowed themselves
+into the yard. Soon afterward I bade the young ladies good night, and
+repaired to my room. The tall man and his associate were pacing up and
+down the grass-plot, and they looked very cold and comfortless, I
+thought. I should have liked to obtain for them a draught of cider, but
+prudently abstained; for every man in the army would thereby become
+cognizant of its existence. So I placed my head once more upon a soft
+pillow, and pitied the chilled soldiers who slept upon the turf. I
+thought of Miss Bessie with her roguish eyes, and wondered what themes
+were now engrossing her. I asked myself if this was the romance of war,
+and if it would bear relating to one's children when he grew as old and
+as deaf as the wheezy gentleman down-stairs. In fine, I was a little
+sentimental, somewhat reflective, and very drowsy. So, after a while,
+processions of freebooting soldiers, foraging Quartermasters, deaf
+gentlemen, Fogg's regiment, and multitudes of ghosts from Manassas,
+drifted by in my dreams. And, in the end, Miss Bessie's long curls
+brushed into my eyes, and I found the morning, ruddy as her cheeks,
+blushing at the window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHAT A MARCH IS IN FACT.
+
+
+I found at breakfast, that Miss Bessie had been placed beside me, and I
+so far forgot myself as to forget all other persons at the table. Miss
+Priscilla asked to be helped to the corn-bread, and I deposited a
+quantity of the same upon Miss Bessie's plate. Miss Bell asked if I did
+not love _dear_ old Virginia, and I replied to Miss Bessie that it had
+lately become very attractive, and that, in fact, I was decidedly
+rebellious in my sympathy with the distressed Virginians. I _did_
+except, however, the man darkly mooted as "Henry," and hoped that he
+would be disfigured--not killed--at the earliest engagement. The deaf
+old gentleman bristled up here and asked _who_ had been killed at the
+recent engagement. There was a man named Jeems Lee,--a distant
+connection of the Lightfoots,--not the Hampshire Lightfoots, but the
+Fauquier Lightfoots,--who had distinctly appeared to the old gentleman
+for several nights, robed in black, and carrying a coffin under his arm.
+Since I had mentioned his name, he recalled the circumstance, and hoped
+that Jeems Lightfoot had not disgraced his ancestry. Nevertheless, the
+deaf gentleman was not to be understood as expressing any opinion upon
+the merits of the war. For _his_ part he thought both sides a little
+wrong, and the crops were really in a dreadful state. The negroes were
+very ungrateful people and property should be held sacred by all
+belligerents.
+
+At this point he caught Miss Priscilla's eye, and was transfixed with
+conscious guilt.
+
+I had, meantime, been infringing upon Miss Bessie's feet,--very pretty
+feet they were!--which expressive but not very refined method of
+correspondence caused her to blush to the eyes. Miss Bell, noticing the
+same, was determined to tell '_Henry_' at once, and I hoped in my heart
+that she would set out for Manassas to further that purpose.
+
+The door opened here, and the rubicund visage of Mr. Fogg appeared like
+the head of the Medusa. He said that 'Captain' had ordered the blue roan
+to be saddled and brought over to me, but I knew that this was a cunning
+device on his part, to revisit the dwelling. Miss Bell, somehow caught
+the idea that Fogg was enamored of her, and the poor fellow was
+subjected to a volley of tender innuendos and languishing glances, that
+by turn mortified and enraged him.
+
+I bade the good people adieu at eight o'clock, promising to return for
+dinner at five; and Miss Bessie accompanied me to the lane, where I took
+leave of her with a secret whisper and a warm grasp of the hand. One of
+her rings had somehow adhered to my finger, which Fogg remarked with a
+bilious expression of countenance. I had no sooner got astride of the
+blue roan than he darted off like the wind, and subjected me to great
+terror, alternating to chagrin, when I turned back and beheld all the
+young ladies waving their handkerchiefs. They evidently thought me an
+unrivalled equestrian.
+
+I rode to a picket post two miles from the mill, passing over the spot
+where the Confederate soldier had fallen. The picket consisted of two
+companies or one hundred and sixty men. Half of them were sitting around
+a fire concealed in the woods, and the rest were scattered along the
+edges of a piece of close timber. I climbed a lookout-tree by means of
+cross-strips nailed to the trunk, and beheld from the summit a long
+succession of hazy hills, valleys, and forests, with the Blue Ridge
+Mountains bounding the distance, like some mighty monster, enclosing the
+world in its coils. This was the country of the enemy, and a Lieutenant
+obligingly pointed out to me the curling smoke of their pickets, a few
+miles away. The cleft of Manassas was plainly visible, and I traced the
+line of the Gap Railway to its junction with the Orange and Alexandria
+road, below Bull Run. For aught that I knew, some concealed observer
+might now be watching me from the pine-tops on the nearest knoll. Some
+rifleman might be running his practised eye down the deadly groove, to
+topple me from my perch, and send me crashing through the boughs. The
+uncertainty, the hazard, the novelty of my position had at this time an
+indescribable charm: but subsequent exposures dissipated the romance and
+taught me the folly of such adventures.
+
+The afternoon went dryly by: for a drizzling rain fell at noon; but at
+four o'clock I saddled the blue roan and went to ride with Fogg. We
+retraced the road to Colonel T----s, and crossing a boggy brook, turned
+up the hills and passed toward the Potomac. Fogg had been a
+schoolmaster, and many of his narrations indicated keen perception and
+clever comprehension. He so amused me on this particular occasion that I
+quite forgot my engagement for dinner, and unwittingly strolled beyond
+the farthest brigade.
+
+Suddenly, we heard a bugle-call from the picket-post before us, and, at
+the same moment, the drums beat from the camp behind. Our horses pricked
+up their ears and Fogg stared inquiringly. As we turned back we heard
+approaching hoofs and the blue roan exhibited intentions of running
+away. I pulled his rein in vain. He would neither be soothed nor
+commanded. A whole company of cavalry closed up with him at length, and
+the sabres clattered in their scabbards as they galloped toward camp at
+the top of their speed. With a spring that almost shook me from the
+saddle and drove the stirrups flying from my feet, the blue roan dashed
+the dust into the eyes of Fogg, and led the race.
+
+Not the wild yager on his gait to perdition, rode so fearfully. Trees,
+bogs, huts, bushes, went by like lightning. The hot breath of the nag
+rose to my nostrils and at every leap I seemed vaulting among the
+spheres.
+
+I speak thus flippantly now, of what was then the agony of death. I
+grasped the pommel of my saddle, mechanically winding the lines about my
+wrist, and clung with the tenacity of sin clutching the world. Some
+soldiers looked wonderingly from the wayside, but did not heed my shriek
+of "stop him, for God's sake!" A ditch crossed the lane,--deep and
+wide,--and I felt that my moment had come: with a spring that seemed to
+break thew and sinew, the blue roan cleared it, pitching upon his knees,
+but recovered directly and darted onward again. I knew that I should
+fall headlong now, to be trampled by the fierce horsemen behind, but
+retained my grasp though my heart was choking me. The camps were in
+confusion as I swept past them. A sharp clearness of sense and thought
+enabled me to note distinctly the minutest occurrences. I marked long
+lines of men cloaked, and carrying knapsacks, drummer-boys beating music
+that I had whistled in many a ramble,--field-officers shouting orders
+from their saddles, and cannon limbered up as if ready to move,--tents
+taken down and teams waiting to be loaded; all the evidences of an
+advance, that I alas should never witness, lying bruised and mangled by
+the roadside. A cheer saluted me as I passed some of Meade's regiments.
+"It is the scout that fetched the orders for an advance!" said several,
+and one man remarked that "that feller was the most reckless rider he
+had ever beheld." The crisis came at length: a wagon had stopped the
+way; my horse in turning it, stepped upon a stake, and slipping rolled
+heavily upon his side, tossing me like an acrobat, over his head, but
+without further injury than a terrible nervous shock and a rent in my
+pantaloons.
+
+I employed a small boy to lead the blue roan to Captain Kingwalt's
+quarters, and as I limped wearily after, some regiments came toward me
+through the fields. General McCall responded to my salute; he rode in
+the advance. The Quartermaster's party was loading the tents and
+utensils. The rain fell smartly as dusk deepened into night, and the
+brush tents now deserted by the soldiers, were set on fire. Being
+composed of dry combustible material, they burned rapidly and with an
+intense flame. The fields in every direction were revealed, swarming
+with men, horses, batteries, and wagons. Some of the regiments began the
+march in silence; others sang familiar ballads as they moved in column.
+A few, riotously disposed, shrieked, whistled, and cheered. The
+standards were folded; the drums did not mark time; the orders were few
+and short. The cannoneers sat moodily upon the caissons, and the
+cavalry-men walked their horses sedately. Although fifteen thousand men
+comprised the whole corps, each of its three brigades would have seemed
+as numerous to a novice. The teams of each brigade closed up the rear,
+and a quartermaster's guard was detailed from each regiment to march
+beside its own wagons. When the troops were fairly under way, and the
+brush burning along from continuous miles of road, the effect was grand
+beyond all that I had witnessed. The country people gathered in fright
+at the cottage doors, and the farm-dogs bayed dismally at the unwonted
+scene. I refused to ride the blue roan again, but transferred my saddle
+to a team horse that appeared to be given to a sort of equine
+somnambulism, and once or twice attempted to lie down by the roadside.
+At nine o'clock I set out with Fogg, who slipped a flask of spirits into
+my haversack. Following the tardy movement of the teams, we turned our
+faces toward Washington. I was soon wet to the skin, and my saddle
+cushion was soaking with water. The streams crossing the road were
+swollen with rain, and the great team wheels clogged on the slimy banks.
+We were sometimes delayed a half hour by a single wagon, the storm
+beating pitilessly in our faces the while. During the stoppages, the
+Quartermaster's guards burned all the fence rails in the vicinity, and
+some of the more indurated sat round the fagots and gamed with cards.
+
+Cold, taciturn, miserable, I thought of the quiet farm, house, the ruddy
+hearth-place, and the smoking supper. I wondered if the roguish eyes
+were not a little sad, and the trim feet a little restless, the chessmen
+somewhat stupid, and the good old house a trifle lonesome. Alas! the
+intimacy so pleasantly commenced, was never to be renewed. With the
+thousand and one airy palaces that youth builds and time annihilates, my
+first romance of war towered to the stars in a day, and crumbled to
+earth in a night.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning we halted at Metropolitan Mills, on the
+Alexandria and Leesburg turnpike. A bridge had been destroyed below, and
+the creek was so swollen that neither artillery nor cavalry could ford
+it. The meadows were submerged and the rain still descended in torrents.
+The chilled troops made bonfires of some new panel fence, and stormed
+all the henroosts in the vicinity. Some pigs, that betrayed their
+whereabouts by inoportune whines and grunts, were speedily confiscated,
+slaughtered, and spitted. We erected our tarpaulin in a ploughed field,
+and Fogg laid some sharp rails upon the ground to make us a dry bed.
+Skyhiski fried a quantity of fresh beef, and boiled some coffee; but
+while we ate heartily, theorizing as to the destination of the corps,
+the poor Captain was terribly shaken by his ague.
+
+I woke in the morning with inflamed throat, rheumatic limbs, and every
+indication of chills and fever. Fogg whispered to me at breakfast that
+two men of Reynold's brigade had died during the night, from fatigue and
+exposure. He advised me to push forward to Washington and await the
+arrival of the division, as, unused to the hardships of a march, I
+might, after another day's experience, become dangerously ill. I set
+out at five o'clock, resolving to ford the creek, resume the turnpike,
+and reach Long Bridge at noon. Passing over some dozen fields in which
+my horse at every step sank to the fetlocks, I travelled along the brink
+of the stream till I finally reached a place that seemed to be shallow.
+Bracing myself firmly in the saddle, I urged my unwilling horse into the
+waters, and emerged half drowned on the other side. It happened,
+however, that I had crossed only a branch of the creek and gained an
+island. The main channel was yet to be attempted, and I saw that it was
+deep, broad, and violent. I followed the margin despairingly for a
+half-mile, when I came to a log footbridge, where I dismounted and swam
+my horse through the turbulent waters. I had now so far diverged from
+the turnpike that I was at a loss to recover it, but straying forlornly
+through the woods, struck a wagon track at last, and pursued it
+hopefully, until, to my confusion, it resolved itself to two tracks,
+that went in contrary directions. My horse preferred taking to the left,
+but after riding a full hour, I came to some felled trees, beyond which
+the traces did not go. Returning, weak and bewildered, I adopted the
+discarded route, which led me to a worm-fence at the edge of the woods.
+A house lay some distance off, but a wheat-field intervened, and I might
+bring the vengeance of the proprietor upon me by invading his domain.
+There was no choice, however; so I removed the rails, and rode directly
+across the wheat to some negro quarters, a little removed from the
+mansion. They were deserted, all save one, where a black boy was singing
+some negro hymns in an uproarious manner. The words, as I made them out,
+were these:--
+
+    "Stephen came a runnin',
+      His Marster fur to see;
+    But Gabriel says he is not yar';
+      He gone to Calvary!
+          O,--O,--Stephen, Stephen,
+                Fur to see;
+          Stephen, Stephen, get along up Calvary!"
+
+I learned from this person two mortifying facts,--that I was farther
+from Washington than at the beginning of my journey, and that the morrow
+was Sunday. War, alas! knows no Sabbaths, and the negro said,
+apologetically--
+
+"I was a seyin' some ole hymns, young Mars'r. Sence dis yer war we don't
+have no more meetin's, and a body mos' forgits his pra'rs. Dere hain't
+been no church in all Fairfax, sah, fur nigh six months."
+
+Washington was nineteen miles distant, and another creek was to be
+forded before gaining the turnpike. The negro sauntered down the lane,
+and opened the gate for me. "You jes keep from de creek, take de mill
+road, and enqua' as ye get furder up," said he; "it's mighty easy, sah,
+an' you can't miss de way."
+
+I missed the way at once, however, by confounding the mill road with the
+mill lane, and a shaggy dog that lay in a wagon shed pursued me about a
+mile. The road was full of mire; no dwellings adjoined it, and nothing
+human was to be seen in any direction. I came to a crumbling negro cabin
+after two plodding hours, and, seeing a figure flit by the window,
+called aloud for information. Nobody replied, and when, dismounting, I
+looked into the den, it was, to my confusion, vacant.
+
+The soil, hereabout, was of a sterile red clay, spotted with scrub
+cedars. Country more bleak and desolate I have never known, and when, at
+noon, the rain ceased, a keen wind blew dismally across the barriers. I
+reached a turnpike at length, and, turning, as I thought, toward
+Alexandria, goaded my horse into a canter. An hour's ride brought me to
+a wretched hamlet, whose designation I inquired of a cadaverous old
+woman--
+
+"Drainesville," said she.
+
+"Then I am not upon the Alexandria turnpike?"
+
+"No. You're sot for Leesburg. This is the Georgetown and Chain Bridge
+road."
+
+With a heavy heart, I retraced my steps, crossed Chain Bridge at five
+o'clock, and halted at Kirkwood's at seven. After dinner, falling in
+with the manager of the Washington Sunday morning _Chronicle_, I penned,
+at his request, a few lines relative to the movements of the Reserves;
+and, learning in the morning that they had arrived at Alexandria, set
+out on horseback for that city.
+
+Many hamlets and towns have been destroyed during the war. But, of all
+that in some form survive, Alexandria has most suffered. It has been in
+the uninterrupted possession of the Federals for twenty-two months, and
+has become essentially a military city. Its streets, its docks, its
+warehouses, its dwellings, and its suburbs, have been absorbed to the
+thousand uses of war.
+
+I was challenged thrice on the Long Bridge, and five times on the road,
+before reaching the city. I rode under the shadows of five earthworks,
+and saw lines of white tents sweeping to the horizon. Gayly caparisoned
+officers passed me, to spend their Sabbath in Washington, and trains
+laden with troops, ambulances, and batteries, sped along the line of
+railway, toward the rendezvous at Alexandria. A wagoner, looking
+forlornly at his splintered wheels; a slovenly guard, watching some
+bales of hay; a sombre negro, dozing upon his mule; a slatternly Irish
+woman gossiping with a sergeant at her cottage door; a sutler in his
+"dear-born," running his keen eye down the limbs of my beast; a spruce
+civilian riding for curiosity; a gray-haired gentleman, in a threadbare
+suit, going to camp on foot, to say good by to his boy,--these were some
+of the personages that I remarked, and each was a study, a sermon, and a
+story. The Potomac, below me, was dotted with steamers and shipping. The
+bluffs above were trodden bare, and a line of dismal marsh bordered some
+stagnant pools that blistered at their bases. At points along the
+river-shore, troops were embarking on board steamers; transports were
+taking in tons of baggage and subsistence. There was a schooner, laden
+to the water-line with locomotive engines and burden carriages; there,
+a brig, shipping artillery horses by a steam derrick, that lifted them
+bodily from the shore and deposited them in the hold of the vessel.
+Steamers, from whose spacious saloons the tourist and the bride have
+watched the picturesque margin of the Hudson, were now black with
+clusters of rollicking volunteers, who climbed into the yards, and
+pitched headlong from the wheel-houses. The "grand movement," for which
+the people had waited so long, and which McClellan had promised so
+often, was at length to be made. The Army of the Potomac was to be
+transferred to Fortress Monroe, at the foot of the Chesapeake, and to
+advance by the peninsula of the James and the York, upon the city of
+Richmond.
+
+I rode through Washington Street, the seat of some ancient residences,
+and found it lined with freshly arrived troops. The grave-slabs in a
+fine old churchyard were strewn with weary cavalry-men, and they lay in
+some side yards, soundly sleeping. Some artillery-men chatted at
+doorsteps, with idle house-girls; some courtesans flaunted in furs and
+ostrich feathers, through a group of coarse engineers; some sergeants of
+artillery, in red trimmings, and caps gilded with cannon, were reining
+their horses to leer at some ladies, who were taking the air in their
+gardens; and at a wide place in the street, a Provost-Major was
+manoeuvring some companies, to the sound of the drum and fife. There
+was much drunkenness, among both soldiers and civilians; and the people
+of Alexandria were, in many cases, crushed and demoralized by reason of
+their troubles. One man of this sort led me to a sawmill, now run by
+Government, and pointed to the implements.
+
+"I bought 'em and earned 'em," he said. "My labor and enterprise set 'em
+there; and while my mill and machinery are ruined to fill the pockets o'
+Federal sharpers, I go drunk, ragged, and poor about the streets o' my
+native town. My daughter starves in Richmond; God knows I can't get to
+her. I wish to h----l I was dead."
+
+Further inquiry developed the facts that my acquaintance had been a
+thriving builder, who had dotted all Northeastern Virginia with
+evidences of his handicraft. At the commencement of the war, he took
+certain contracts from the Confederate government, for the construction
+of barracks at Richmond and Manassas Junction; returning inopportunely
+to Alexandria, he was arrested, and kept some time in Capitol-Hill
+prison; he had not taken the oath of allegiance, consequently, he could
+obtain no recompense for the loss of his mill property. Domestic
+misfortunes, happening at the same time, so embittered his days that he
+resorted to dissipation. Alexandria is filled with like ruined people;
+they walk as strangers through their ancient streets, and their property
+is no longer theirs to possess, but has passed into the hands of the
+dominant nationalists. My informant pointed out the residences of many
+leading citizens: some were now hospitals, others armories and arsenals;
+others offices for inspectors, superintendents, and civil officials. The
+few people that remained upon their properties, obtained partial
+immunity, by courting the acquaintance of Federal officers, and, in many
+cases, extending the hospitalities of their homes to the invaders. I do
+not know that any Federal functionary was accused of tyranny, or
+wantonness, but these things ensued, as the natural results of civil
+war; and one's sympathies were everywhere enlisted for the poor, the
+exiled, and the bereaved.
+
+My dinner at the City Hotel was scant and badly prepared. I gave a negro
+lad who waited upon me a few cents, but a burly negro carver, who seemed
+to be his father, boxed the boy's ears and put the coppers into his
+pocket. The proprietor of the place had voluntarily taken the oath of
+allegiance, and had made more money since the date of Federal occupation
+than during his whole life previously. He said to me, curtly, that if by
+any chance the Confederates should reoccupy Alexandria, he could very
+well afford to relinquish his property. He employed a smart barkeeper,
+who led guests by a retired way to the drinking-rooms. Here, with the
+gas burning at a taper point, cobblers, cocktails, and juleps were mixed
+stealthily and swallowed in the darkness. The bar was like a mint to the
+proprietor; he only feared discovery and prohibition. It would not
+accord with the chaste pages of this narrative to tell how some of the
+noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious
+purposes; nor how, by night, the parlors of cosey homes flamed with riot
+and orgie. I stayed but a little time, having written an indiscreet
+paragraph in the Washington Chronicle, for which I was pursued by the
+War Department, and the management of my paper, lacking heart, I went
+home in a pet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DOWN THE CHESAPEAKE.
+
+
+Disappointed in the unlucky termination of my adventures afield, I now
+looked ambitiously toward New York. As London stands to the provinces,
+so stands the empire city to America. Its journals circulate by hundreds
+of thousands; its means are only rivalled by its enterprise; it is the
+end of every young American's aspiration, and the New Bohemia for the
+restless, the brilliant, and the industrious. It seemed a great way off
+when I first beheld it, but I did not therefore despair. Small matters
+of news that I gathered in my modest city, obtained space in the columns
+of the great metropolitan journal, the----. After a time I was delegated
+to travel in search of special incidents, and finally, when the noted
+Tennessee Unionist, "Parson" Brownlow, journeyed eastward, I joined his
+_suite_, and accompanied him to New York. The dream of many months now
+came to be realized. A correspondent on the ----'s staff had been
+derelict, and I was appointed to his division. His horse, saddle,
+field-glasses, blankets, and pistols were to be transferred, and I was
+to proceed without delay to Fortress Monroe, to keep with the advancing
+columns of McClellan.
+
+At six in the morning I embarked; at eleven I was whirled through my own
+city, without a glimpse of my friends; at three o'clock I dismounted at
+Baltimore, and at five was gliding down the Patapsco, under the shadows
+of Fort Federal Hill, and the white walls of Fort McHenry. The latter
+defence is renowned for its gallant resistance to a British fleet in
+1813, and the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was
+written to commemorate that bombardment. Fort Carroll, a massive
+structure of hewn stone, with arched bomb-proof and three tiers of
+mounted ordnance, its smooth walls washed by the waves, and its
+unfinished floors still ringing with the trowel and the adze,--lies some
+miles below, at a narrow passage in the stream. Below, the shores
+diverge, and at dusk we were fairly in the Chesapeake, under steam and
+sail, speeding due southward.
+
+The _Adelaide_ was one of a series of boats making daily trips between
+Baltimore and Old Point. Fourteen hours were required to accomplish the
+passage, and we were not to arrive till seven o'clock next morning. I
+was so fortunate as to obtain a state-room, but many passengers were
+obliged to sleep upon sofas or the cabin floor. These boats monopolized
+the civil traffic between the North and the army, although they were
+reputed to be owned and managed by Secessionists. None were allowed to
+embark unless provided with Federal passes; but there were,
+nevertheless, three or four hundred people on board. About one fourth of
+these were officers and soldiers; one half sutlers, traders,
+contractors, newsmen, and idle civilians, anxious to witness a battle,
+or stroll over the fields of Big Bethel, Lee's Mills, Yorktown,
+Gloucester, Williamsburg, or West Point; the rest were females on
+missions of mercy, on visits to sons, brothers, and husbands, and on the
+way to their homes at Norfolk, Suffolk, or Hampton. Some of these were
+citizens of Richmond, who believed that the Federals would occupy the
+city in a few days, and enable them to resume their professions and
+homes. The lower decks were occupied by negroes. The boat was heavily
+freighted, and among the parcels that littered the hold and steerage, I
+noticed scores of box coffins for the removal of corpses from the field
+to the North. There were quantities of spirits, consigned mainly to
+Quartermasters, but evidently the property of certain Shylocks, who
+watched the barrels greedily. An embalmer was also on board, with his
+ghostly implements. He was a sallow man, shabbily attired, and appeared
+to look at all the passengers as so many subjects for the development of
+his art. He was called "Doctor" by his admirers, and conversed in the
+blandest manner of the triumphs of his system.
+
+"There are certain pretenders," he said, "who are at this moment
+imposing upon the Government. I regret that it is necessary to repeat
+it, but the fact exists that the Government is the prey of harpies. And
+in the art of which I am an humble disciple,--that of injecting,
+commonly called embalming,--the frauds are most deplorable. There was
+Major Montague,--a splendid subject, I assure you,--a subject that any
+_Professor_ would have beautifully preserved,--a subject that one
+esteems it a favor to obtain,--a subject that I in particular would have
+been proud to receive! But what were the circumstances? I do assure you
+that a person named Wigwart,--who I have since ascertained to be a
+veterinary butcher; in plain language, a doctor of horses and
+asses,--imposed upon the relatives of the deceased, obtained the body,
+and absolutely ruined it!--absolutely _mangled_ it! I may say,
+shamefully disfigured it! He was a man, sir, six feet two,--about your
+height, I think! (to a bystander.) About your weight, also! Indeed quite
+like you! And allow me to say that, if you should fall into my hands, I
+would leave your friends no cause for offence! (Here the bystander
+trembled perceptibly, and I thought that the doctor was about to take
+his life.) Well! _I_ should have operated thus:--"
+
+Then followed a description of the process, narrated with horrible
+circumstantiality. A fluid holding in solution pounded glass and certain
+chemicals, was, by the doctor's "system," injected into the
+bloodvessels, and the subject at the same time bled at the neck. The
+body thus became hard and stony, and would retain its form for years. He
+had, by his account, experimented for a lifetime, and said that little
+"Willie," the son of President Lincoln, had been so preserved that his
+fond parents must have enjoyed his decease.
+
+It seemed to me that the late lamented practitioners, Messrs. Burke and
+Hare, were likely to fade into insignificance, beside this new light of
+science.
+
+I went upon deck for some moments, and marked the beating of the waves;
+the glitter of sea-lights pulsing on the ripples; the sweep of belated
+gulls through the creaking rigging; the dark hull of a passing vessel
+with a grinning topmast lantern; the vigilant pilot, whose eyes glared
+like a fiend's upon the waste of blackness; the foam that the panting
+screw threw against the cabin windows; the flap of fishes caught in the
+threads of moonlight; the depths over which one bent, peering half
+wistfully, half abstractedly, almost crazily, till he longed to drop
+into their coolness, and let the volumes of billow roll musically above
+him.
+
+A woman approached me, as I stood against the great anchor, thus
+absorbed. She had a pale, thin face, and was scantily clothed, and spoke
+with a distrustful, timorous voice:--
+
+"You don't know the name of the surgeon-general, do you sir!"
+
+"At Washington, ma'am?"
+
+"No, sir; at Old Point."
+
+I offered to inquire of the Captain: but she stopped me, agitatedly.
+"It's of no consequence," she said,--"that is, it is of great
+consequence to me; but perhaps it would be best to wait." I answered, as
+obligingly as I could, that any service on my part would be cheerfully
+rendered.
+
+"The fact is, sir," she said, after a pause, "I am going to
+Williamsburg, to--find--the--the body--of my--boy."
+
+Here her speech was broken, and she put a thin, white hand tremulously
+to her eyes. I thought that any person in the Federal service would
+willingly assist her, and said so.
+
+"He was not a Federal soldier, sir. He was a Confederate!"
+
+This considerably altered the chances of success, and I was obliged to
+undeceive her somewhat. "I am sure it was not my fault," she continued,
+"that he joined the Rebellion. You don't think they'll refuse to let me
+take his bones to Baltimore, do you, sir? He was my oldest boy, and his
+brother, my second son, was killed at Ball's Bluff: _He_ was in the
+Federal service. I hardly think they will refuse me the poor favor of
+laying them in the same grave."
+
+I spoke of the difficulty of recognition, of the remoteness of the
+field, and of the expense attending the recovery of any remains,
+particularly those of the enemy, that, left hastily behind in retreat,
+were commonly buried in trenches without headboard or record. She said,
+sadly, that she had very little money, and that she could barely afford
+the journey to the Fortress and return. But she esteemed her means well
+invested if her object could be attained.
+
+"They were both brave boys, sir; but I could never get them to agree
+politically. William was a Northerner by education, and took up with the
+New England views, and James was in business at Richmond when the war
+commenced. So he joined the Southern army. It's a sad thing to know that
+one's children died enemies, isn't it? And what troubles me more than
+all, sir, is that James was at Ball's Bluff where his brother fell. It
+makes me shudder to think, sometimes, that his might have been the ball
+that killed him."
+
+The tremor of the poor creature here was painful to behold. I spoke
+soothingly and encouragingly, but with a presentiment that she must be
+disappointed. While I was speaking the supper-bell rang, and I proposed
+to get her a seat at the table.
+
+"No, thank you," she replied, "I shall take no meals on the vessel; I
+must travel economically, and have prepared some lunch that will serve
+me. Good by, sir!"
+
+Poor mothers looking for dead sons! God help them! I have met them often
+since; but the figure of that pale, frail creature flitting about the
+open deck,--alone, hungry, very poor,--troubles me still, as I write. I
+found, afterward, that she had denied herself a state-room, and intended
+to sleep in a saloon chair. I persuaded her to accept my berth, but a
+German, who occupied the same apartment, was unwilling to relinquish his
+bed, and I had the power only to give her my pillow.
+
+Supper was spread in the forecabin, and at the signal to assemble the
+men rushed to the tables like as many beasts of prey. A captain opposite
+me bolted a whole mackerel in a twinkling, and spread the half-pound of
+butter that was to serve the entire vicinity upon a single slice of
+bread. A sutler beside me reached his fork across my neck, and plucked a
+young chicken bodily, which he ate, to the great disgust of some others
+who were eyeing it. The waiter advanced with some steak, but before he
+reached the table, a couple of Zouaves dragged it from the tray, and
+laughed brutally at their success. The motion of the vessel caused a
+general unsteadiness, and it was absolutely dangerous to move one's
+coffee to his lips. The inveterate hate with which corporations are
+regarded in America was here evidenced by a general desire to empty the
+ship's larder.
+
+"Eat all you can," said a soldier, ferociously,--"fare's amazin' high.
+Must make it out in grub."
+
+"I always gorges," said another, "on a railroad or a steamboat. Cause
+why? You must eat out your passage, you know!"
+
+Among the passengers were a young officer and his bride. They had been
+married only a few days, and she had obtained permission to accompany
+him to Old Point. Very pretty, she seemed, in her travelling hat and
+flowing robes; and he wore a handsome new uniform with prodigious
+shoulder-bars. There was a piano in the saloon, where another young lady
+of the party performed during the evening, and the bride and groom
+accompanied her with a song. It was the popular Federal parody of "Gay
+and Happy:"
+
+    "Then let the South fling aloft what it will,--
+    We are for the Union still!
+        For the Union! For the Union!
+    We are for the Union still!"
+
+The bride and groom sang alternate stanzas, and the concourse of
+soldiers, civilians, and females swelled the chorus. The reserve being
+thus broken, the young officer sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," and the
+refrain must have called up the mermaids. Dancing ensued, and a soldier
+volunteered a hornpipe. A young man with an astonishing compass of lungs
+repeated something from Shakespeare, and the night passed by gleefully
+and reputably. One could hardly realize, in the cheerful eyes and active
+figures of the dance, the sad uncertainties of the time. Youth trips
+lightest, somehow, on the brink of the grave.
+
+The hilarities of the evening so influenced the German quartered with
+me, that he sang snatches of foreign ballads during most of the night,
+and obliged me, at last, to call the steward and insist upon his good
+behavior.
+
+In the gray of the morning I ventured on deck, and, following the
+silvery line of beach, made out the shipping at anchor in Hampton Roads.
+The _Minnesota_ flag-ship lay across the horizon, and after a time I
+remarked the low walls and black derricks of the Rip Raps. The white
+tents at Hampton were then revealed, and finally I distinguished
+Fortress Monroe, the key of the Chesapeake, bristling with guns, and
+floating the Federal flag. As we rounded to off the quay, I studied with
+intense interest the scene of so many historic events. Sewall's Point
+lay to the south, a stretch of woody beach, around whose western tip
+the dreaded _Merrimac_ had so often moved slowly to the encounter. The
+spars of the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_ still floated along the
+strand, but, like them, the invulnerable monster had become the prey of
+the waves. The guns of the Rip Raps and the terrible broadsides of the
+Federal gunboats, had swept the Confederates from Sewall's Point,--their
+flag and battery were gone,--and farther seaward, at Willoughby Spit,
+some figures upon the beach marked the route of the victorious Federals
+to the city of Norfolk.
+
+The mouth of the James and the York were visible from the deck, and long
+lines of shipping stretched from each to the Fortress. The quay itself
+was like the pool in the Thames, a mass of spars, smoke-stacks, ensigns
+and swelling hills. The low deck and quaint cupola of the famous
+_Monitor_ appeared close into shore, and near at hand rose the thick
+body of the _Galena_. Long boats and flat boats went hither and thither
+across the blue waves: the grim ports of the men of war were open and
+the guns frowned darkly from their coverts; the seamen were gathering
+for muster on the flagship, and drums beat from the barracks on shore;
+the Lincoln gun, a fearful piece of ordnance, rose like the Sphynx from
+the Fortress sands, and the sodded parapet, the winding stone walls, the
+tops of the brick quarters within the Fort, were some of the features of
+a strangely animated scene, that has yet to be perpetuated upon canvas,
+and made historic.
+
+At eight o'clock the passengers were allowed to land, and a provost
+guard marched them to the Hygeia House,--of old a watering-place
+hotel,--where, by groups, they were ushered into a small room, and the
+oath of allegiance administered to them. The young officer who
+officiated, repeated the words of the oath, with a broad grin upon his
+face, and the passengers were required to assent by word and by gesture.
+Among those who took the oath in this way, was a very old sailor, who
+had been in the Federal service for the better part of his life, and
+whose five sons were now in the army. He called "Amen" very loudly and
+fervently, and there was some perceptible disposition on the part of
+other ardent patriots, to celebrate the occasion with three cheers. The
+quartermaster, stationed at the Fortress gave me a pass to go by steamer
+up the York to White House, and as there were three hours to elapse
+before departure, I strolled about the place with our agent. In times of
+peace, Old Point was simply a stone fortification, and one of the
+strongest of its kind in the world. Many years and many millions of
+dollars were required to build it, but it was, in general, feebly
+garrisoned, and was, altogether, a stupid, tedious locality, except in
+the bathing months, when the beauty and fashion of Virginia resorted to
+its hotel. A few cottages had grown up around it, tenanted only in "the
+season;" and a little way off, on the mainland, stood the pretty village
+of Hampton.
+
+By a strange oversight, the South failed to seize Fortress Monroe at the
+beginning of the Rebellion; the Federals soon made it the basis for
+their armies and a leading naval station. The battle of Big Bethel was
+one of the first occurrences in the vicinity. Then the dwellings of
+Hampton were burned and its people exiled. In rapid succession followed
+the naval battles in the Roads, the siege and surrender of Yorktown, the
+flight of the Confederates up the Peninsula to Richmond, and finally the
+battles of Williamsburg, and West Point, and the capture of Norfolk.
+These things had already transpired; it was now the month of May; and
+the victorious army, following up its vantages, had pursued the
+fugitives by land and water to "White House," at the head of navigation
+on the Pamunkey river. Thither it was my lot to go, and witness the
+turning-point of their fortunes, and their subsequent calamity and
+repulse.
+
+I found Old Point a weary place of resort, even in the busy era of civil
+war. The bar at the Hygeia House was beset with thirsty and idle
+people, who swore instinctively, and drank raw spirits passionately. The
+quantity of shell, ball, ordnance, camp equipage, and war munitions of
+every description piled around the fort, was marvellously great. It
+seemed to me that Xerxes, the first Napoleon, or the greediest of
+conquerors, ancient or modern, would have beheld with amazement the
+gigantic preparations at command of the Federal Government. Energy and
+enterprise displayed their implements of death on every hand. One was
+startled at the prodigal outlay of means, and the reckless summoning of
+men. I looked at the starred and striped ensign that flaunted above the
+Fort, and thought of Madame Roland's appeal to the statue by the
+guillotine.
+
+The settlers were numbered by regiments here. Their places of business
+were mainly structures or "shanties" of rough plank, and most of them
+were the owners of sloops, or schooners, for the transportation of
+freight from New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, to their depots at
+Old Point. Some possessed a dozen wagons, that plied regularly between
+these stores and camps. The traffic was not confined to men; for women
+and children kept pace with the army, trading in every possible article
+of necessity or luxury. For these--disciples of the dime and the
+dollar--war had no terrors. They took their muck-rakes, like the man in
+Bunyan, and gathered the almighty coppers, from the pestilential camp
+and the reeking battle-field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+ON TO RICHMOND.
+
+
+Yorktown lies twenty-one miles northwestward from Old Point, and thither
+I turned my face at noon, resolving to delay my journey to "White
+House," till next day morning. Crossing an estuary of the bay upon a
+narrow causeway, I passed Hampton,--half burned, half desolate,--and at
+three o'clock came to "Big Bethel," the scene of the battle of June 11,
+1861. A small earthwork marks the site of Magruder's field-pieces, and
+hard by the slain were buried. The spot was noteworthy to me, since
+Lieutenant Greble, a fellow alumnus, had perished here, and likewise,
+Theodore Winthrop, the gifted author of "Cecil Dreeme" and "John Brent."
+The latter did not live to know his exaltation. That morning never came
+whereon he "woke, and found himself famous."
+
+The road ran parallel with the deserted defences of the Confederates for
+some distance. The country was flat and full of swamps, but marked at
+intervals by relics of camps. The farm-houses were untenanted, the
+fences laid flat or destroyed, the fields strewn with discarded
+clothing, arms, and utensils. By and by, we entered the outer line of
+Federal parallels, and wound among lunettes, crémaillères, redoubts, and
+rifle-pits. Marks of shell and ball were frequent, in furrows and holes,
+where the clay had been upheaved. Every foot of ground, for fifteen
+miles henceforward, had been touched by the shovel and the pick. My
+companion suggested that as much digging, concentred upon one point,
+would have taken the Federals to China. The sappers and miners had made
+their stealthy trenches, rod by rod, each morning appearing closer to
+their adversaries, and finally, completed their work, at less than a
+hundred yards from the Confederate defences. Three minutes would have
+sufficed from the final position, to hurl columns upon the opposing
+outworks, and sweep them with the bayonet. Ten days only had elapsed
+since the evacuation (May 4), and the siege guns still remained in some
+of the batteries. McClellan worshipped great ordnance, and some of his
+columbiads, that were mounted in the water battery, yawned cavernously
+through their embrasures, and might have furnished sleeping
+accommodations to the gunners. A few mortars stood in position by the
+river side, and there were Parrott, Griffin, and Dahlgren pieces in the
+shore batteries.
+
+However numerous and powerful were the Federal fortifications, they bore
+no comparison, in either respect, to those relinquished by the
+revolutionists. Miniature mountain ranges they seemed, deeply ditched,
+and revetted with sods, fascines, hurdles, gabions or sand bags. Along
+the York riverside there were water batteries of surpassing beauty, that
+seemed, at a little distance, successions of gentle terraces. Their
+pieces were likewise of enormous calibre, and their number almost
+incredible. The advanced line of fortifications, sketched from the mouth
+of Warwick creek, on the South, to a point fifteen miles distant on the
+York: one hundred and forty guns were planted along this chain of
+defences; but there were two other concentric lines, mounting, each, one
+hundred and twenty, and two hundred and forty guns. The remote series
+consisted of six forts of massive size and height, fronted by swamps and
+flooded meadows, with frequent creeks and ravines interposing; sharp
+_fraise_ and _abattis_ planted against scarp and slope, pointed cruelly
+eastward. There were two water batteries, of six and four thirty-two
+columbiads respectively, and the town itself, which stands upon a red
+clay bluff, was encircled by a series of immense rifled and smooth-bore
+pieces, including a powerful pivot-gun, that one of McClellan's shells
+struck during the first day's bombardment, and split it into fragments.
+At Gloucester Point, across the York river, the great guns of the
+_Merrimac_ were planted, it is said, and a fleet of fire-rafts and
+torpedo-ships were moored in the stream. By all accounts, there could
+have been no less than five hundred guns behind the Confederate
+entrenchments, the greater portion, of course, field-pieces, and, as the
+defending army was composed of one hundred thousand men, we must add
+that number of small arms to the list of ordnance. If we compute the
+Federals at so high a figure,--and they could scarcely have had less
+than a hundred thousand men afield,--we must increase the enormous
+amount of their field, siege, and small ordnance, by the naval guns of
+the fleet, that stood anchored in the bay. It is probable that a
+thousand cannon and two hundred thousand muskets were assembled in and
+around Yorktown during this memorable siege. The mind shudders to see
+the terrible deductions of these statistics. The monster, who wished
+that the world had but one neck, that he might sever it, would have
+gloated at such realization! How many days or hours would have here
+sufficed to annihilate all the races of men? Happily, the world was
+spared the spectacle of these deadly mouths at once aflame. Beautiful
+but awful must have been the scene, and the earth must have staggered
+with the shock. One might almost have imagined that man, in his
+ambition, had shut his God in heaven, and besieged him there.
+
+While the fortifications defending it amazed me, the village of Yorktown
+disappointed me. I marvelled that so paltry a settlement should have
+been twice made historic. Here, in the year 1783, Lord Cornwallis
+surrendered his starving command to the American colonists and their
+French allies. But the entrenchments of that earlier day had been
+almost obliterated by these recent labors. The field, where the Earl
+delivered up his sword, was trodden bare, and dotted with ditches and
+ramparts; while a small monument, that marked the event, had been hacked
+to fragments by the Southerners, and carried away piecemeal. Yet,
+strange to say, relics of the first bombardment had just been
+discovered, and, among them, a gold-hilted sword.
+
+I visited, in the evening, the late quarters of General Hill, a small
+white house with green shutters, and also the famous "Nelson House," a
+roomy mansion where, of old, Cornwallis slept, and where, a few days
+past, Jefferson Davis and General Lee had held with Magruder, and his
+associates, a council of war. It had been also used for hospital
+purposes, but some negroes were now the only occupants.
+
+The Confederates left behind them seventy spiked and shattered cannon,
+some powder, and a few splintered wagons; but in all material respects,
+their evacuation was thorough and creditable. Some deserters took the
+first tidings of the retreat to the astonished Federals, and they raised
+the national flag within the fortifications, in the gray of the morning
+of the 4th of May. Many negroes also escaped the vigilance of their
+taskmasters, and remained to welcome the victors. The fine works of
+Yorktown are monuments to negro labor, for _they_ were the hewers and
+the diggers. Every slave-owner in Eastern Virginia was obliged to send
+one half of his male servants between the ages of sixteen and fifty to
+the Confederate camps, and they were organized into gangs and set to
+work. In some cases they were put to military service and made excellent
+sharpshooters. The last gun discharged from the town was said to have
+been fired by a negro.
+
+I slept on board a barge at the wharf that evening, and my dreams ran
+upon a thousand themes. To every American this was hallowed ground. It
+had been celebrated by the pencil of Trumbull, the pen of Franklin, and
+the eloquence of Jefferson. Scarce eighty years had elapsed since those
+great minds established a fraternal government; but the site of their
+crowning glory was now the scene of their children's shame. Discord had
+stolen upon their councils and blood had profaned their shrine.
+
+I visited next day a bomb-proof postern, or subterranean passage,
+connecting the citadel with the outworks, and loitered about the
+fortifications till noon, when I took passage on the mail steamer, which
+left the Fortress at eleven o'clock, and reached White House at dusk the
+same evening. The whole river as I ascended was filled with merchant and
+naval craft. They made a continuous line from Old Point to the mouth of
+York River, and the masts and spars environing Yorktown and Gloucester,
+reminded one of a scene on the Mersey or the Clyde. At West Point, there
+was an array of shipping scarcely less formidable, and the windings of
+the interminably crooked Pamunkey were marked for leagues by sails,
+smoke-stacks, and masts. The landings and wharves were besieged by
+flat-boats and sloops, and Zouaves were hoisting forage and commissary
+stores up the red bluffs at every turn of our vessel.
+
+The Pamunkey was a beautiful stream, densely wooded, and occasional
+vistas opened up along its borders of wheat-fields and meadows, with
+Virginia farm-houses and negro quarters on the hilltops. Some of the
+houses on the river banks appeared to be tenanted by white people, but
+the majority had a haunted, desolate appearance, the only signs of life
+being strolling soldiers, who thrust their legs through the second story
+windows, or contemplated the river from the chimney-tops, and groups of
+negroes who sunned themselves on the piazza, or rushed to the margin to
+gaze and grin at the passing steamers. There were occasional residences
+not unworthy of old manorial and baronial times, and these were attended
+at a little distance by negro quarters of logs, arranged in rows, and
+provided with mud chimneys built against their gables. Few of the
+Northern navigable rivers were so picturesque and varied.
+
+We passed two Confederate gunboats, that had been half completed, and
+burned on the stocks. Their charred elbows and ribs, stared out, like
+the remains of some extinct monsters; a little delay might have found
+each of them armed and manned, and carrying havoc upon the rivers and
+the seas. West Point was simply a tongue, or spit of land, dividing the
+Mattapony from the Pamunkey river at their junction; a few houses were
+built upon the shallow, and some wharves, half demolished, marked the
+terminus of the York and Richmond railroad. A paltry water-battery was
+the sole defence. Below Cumberland (a collection of huts and a wharf), a
+number of schooners had been sunk across the river, and, with the aid of
+an island in the middle, these constituted a rather rigid blockade. The
+steamboat passed through, steering carefully, but some sailing vessels
+that followed required to be towed between the narrow apertures. The
+tops only of the sunken masts could be discerned above the surface, and
+much time and labor must have been required to place the boats in line
+and sink them. Vessels were counted by scores above and below this
+blockade, and at Cumberland the masts were like a forest; clusters of
+pontoons were here anchored in the river, and a short distance below we
+found three of the light-draught Federal gunboats moored in the stream.
+It was growing dark as we rounded to at "White House;" the camp fires of
+the grand army lit up the sky, and edged the tree-boughs on the margin
+with ribands of silver. Some drums beat in the distance; sentries paced
+the strand; the hum of men, and the lowing of commissary cattle, were
+borne towards us confusedly; soldiers were bathing in the river;
+team-horses were drinking at the brink; a throng of motley people were
+crowding about the landing to receive the papers and mails. I had at
+last arrived at the seat of war, and my ambition to chronicle battles
+and bloodshed was about to be gratified.
+
+At first, I was troubled to make my way; the tents had just been
+pitched; none knew the location of divisions other than their own, and
+it was now so dark that I did not care to venture far. After a vain
+attempt to find some flat-boats where there were lodgings and meals to
+be had, I struck out for general head-quarters, and, undergoing repeated
+snubbings from pert members of staff, fell in at length, with a very
+tall, spare, and angular young officer, who spoke broken English, and
+who heard my inquiries, courteously; he stepped into General Marcy's
+tent, but the Chief of Staff did not know the direction of Smith's
+division; he then repaired to Gen. Van Vleet, the chief Quartermaster,
+but with ill success. A party of officers were smoking under a "fly,"
+and some of these called to him, thus--
+
+"Captain! Duke! De Chartres! What do you wish?"
+
+It was, then, the Orleans Prince who had befriended me, and I had the
+good fortune to hear that the division, of which I was in search, lay a
+half mile up the river. I never spoke to the Bourbon afterward, but saw
+him often; and that he was as chivalrous as he was kind, all testimony
+proved.
+
+A private escorted me to a Captain Mott's tent, and this officer
+introduced me to General Hancock. I was at once invited to mess with the
+General's staff, and in the course of an hour felt perfectly at home.
+Hancock was one of the handsomest officers in the army; he had served in
+the Mexican war, and was subsequently a Captain in the Quartermaster's
+department. But the Rebellion placed stars in many shoulder-bars, and
+few were more worthily designated than this young Pennsylvanian. His
+first laurels were gained at Williamsburg; but the story of a celebrated
+charge that won him the day's applause, and McClellan's encomium of the
+"Superb Hancock," was altogether fictitious. The musket, not the
+bayonet, gave him the victory. I may doubt, in this place, that any
+extensive bayonet charge has been known during the war. Some have gone
+so far as to deny that the bayonet has ever been used at all.
+
+Hancock's regiments were the 5th Wisconsin, 49th Pennsylvanian, 43d New
+York, and 6th Maine. They represented widely different characteristics,
+and I esteemed myself fortunate to obtain a position where I could so
+eligibly study men, habits, and warfare. During the evening I fell in
+with the Colonel of each of these regiments, and from the conversation
+that ensued, I gleaned a fair idea of them all.
+
+The Wisconsin regiment was from a new and ambitious State of the
+Northwest. The men were rough-mannered, great-hearted farmers,
+wood-choppers, and tradesmen. They had all the impulsiveness of the
+Yankee, with less selfishness, and quite as much bravery. The Colonel
+was named Cobb, and he had held some leading offices in Wisconsin. A
+part of his life had been adventurously spent, and he had participated
+in the Mexican war. He was an ardent Republican in politics, and had
+been Speaker of a branch of the State Legislature. He was an attorney in
+a small county town when the war commenced, and his name had been
+broached for the Governorship. In person he was small, lithe, and
+capable of enduring great fatigue. His hair was a little gray, and he
+had no beard. He did not respect appearances, and his sword, as I saw,
+was antique and quite different in shape from the regulation weapon. He
+had penetrating gray eyes, and his manners were generally reserved. One
+had not to regard him twice to see that he was both cautious and
+resolute. He was too ambitious to be frank, and too passionate not to be
+brave. In the formula of learning he was not always correct; but few
+were of quicker perception or more practical and philosophic. He might
+not, in an emergency, be nicely scrupulous as to means, but he never
+wavered in respect to objects. His will was the written law to his
+regiment, and I believed his executive abilities superior to those of
+any officer in the brigade, not excepting the General's.
+
+The New York regiment was commanded by a young officer named Vinton. He
+was not more than thirty-five years of age, and was a graduate of the
+United States Military Academy. Passionately devoted to engineering, he
+withdrew from the army, and passed five years in Paris, at the study of
+his art. Returning homeward by way of the West Indies, he visited
+Honduras, and projected a filibustering expedition to its shores from
+the States. While perfecting the design, the Rebellion commenced, and
+his old patron, General Scott, secured him the colonelcy of a volunteer
+regiment. He still cherished his scheme of "Colonization," and half of
+his men were promised to accompany him. Personally, Colonel Vinton was
+straight, dark, and handsome. He was courteous, affable, and brave,--but
+wedded to his peculiar views, and, as I thought, a thorough "Young
+American."
+
+The Maine regiment was fathered by Colonel Burnham, a staunch old yeoman
+and soldier, who has since been made a General. His probity and
+good-nature were adjuncts of his valor, and his men were of the better
+class of New Englanders. The fourth regiment fell into the hands of a
+lawyer from Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He had been also in the Mexican
+war, and was remarkable mainly for strictness with regard to the
+sanitary regulations of his camps. He had wells dug at every stoppage,
+and his tents were generally fenced and canopied with cedar arbors.
+General Hancock's staff was composed of a number of young men, most of
+whom had been called from civil life. His brigade constituted one of
+three commanded by General Smith. Four batteries were annexed to the
+division so formed; the entire number of muskets was perhaps eight
+thousand. The Chief of Artillery was a Captain Ayres, whose battery
+saved the three months' army at Bull Run. It so happened that he came
+into the General's during the evening, and recited the particulars of a
+gunboat excursion, thirty miles up the Pamunkey, wherein he had landed
+his men, and burned a quantity of grain, some warehouses, and shipping.
+I pencilled the facts at once, made up my letter, and mailed it early in
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+RUSTICS IN REBELLION.
+
+
+At White House, I met some of the mixed Indians and negroes from
+Indiantown Island, which lies among the osiers in the stream. One of
+these ferried me over, and the people received me obsequiously, touching
+their straw hats, and saying, "Sar, at your service!" They were all
+anxious to hear something of the war, and asked, solicitously, if they
+were to be protected. Some of them had been to Richmond the previous
+day, and gave me some unimportant items happening in the city. I found
+that they had Richmond papers of that date, and purchased them for a few
+cents. They knew little or nothing of their own history, and had
+preserved no traditions of their tribe. There was, however, I
+understood, a very old woman extant, named "Mag," of great repute at
+medicines, pow-wows, and divination. I expressed a desire to speak with
+her, and was conducted to a log-house, more ricketty and ruined than any
+of the others. About fifty half-breeds followed me in respectful
+curiosity, and they formed a semicircle around the cabin. The old woman
+sat in the threshold, barefooted, and smoking a stump of clay pipe.
+
+"Yaw's one o' dem Nawden soldiers, Aunt Mag!" said my conductor. "He
+wants to talk wid ye."
+
+"Sot down, honey," said the old woman, producing a wooden stool; "is you
+a Yankee, honey? Does you want you fauchun told by de ole 'oman?"
+
+I perceived that the daughter of the Delawares smelt strongly of
+fire-water, and the fumes of her calumet were most unwholesome. She was
+greatly disappointed that I did not require her prophetic services, and
+said, appealingly--
+
+"Why, sar, all de gen'elmen an' ladies from Richmond has dere fauchuns
+told. I tells 'em true. All my fauchuns comes out true. Ain't dat so,
+chillen?"
+
+A low murmur of assent ran round the group, and I was obviously losing
+caste in the settlement.
+
+"Here is a dime," said I, "that I will give you, to tell me the result
+of the war. Shall the North be victorious in the next battle? Will
+Richmond surrender within a week? Shall I take my cigar at the Spotswood
+on Sunday fortnight?"
+
+"I'se been a lookin' into dat," she said, cunningly; "I'se had dreams on
+dat ar'. Le'um see how de armies stand!"
+
+She brought from the house a cup of painted earthenware containing
+sediments of coffee. I saw her crafty white eyes look up to mine as she
+muttered some jargon, and pretended to read the arrangement of the
+grains.
+
+"Honey," she said, "gi' me de money, and let de ole 'oman dream on it
+once mo'! It ain't quite clar' yit, young massar. Tank you, honey! Tank
+you! Let de old 'oman dream! Let de ole 'oman dream!"
+
+She disappeared into the house, chuckling and chattering, and the sons
+of the forest, loitering awhile, dispersed in various directions. As I
+followed my conductor to the riverside, and he parted the close bushes
+and boughs to give us exit, the glare of the camp-fires broke all at
+once upon us. The ship-lights quivered on the water; the figures of men
+moved to and fro before the fagots; the stars peeped timorously from the
+vault; the woods and steep banks were blackly shadowed in the river.
+Here was I, among the aborigines; and as my dusky acquaintance sent his
+canoe skimming across the ripples, I thought how inexplicable were the
+decrees of Time and the justice of God. Two races united in these
+people, and both of them we had wronged. From the one we had taken
+lands; from the other liberties. Two centuries had now elapsed. But the
+little remnant of the African and the American were to look from their
+Island Home upon the clash of our armies and the murder of our braves.
+
+By the 19th of May the skirts of the grand army had been gathered up,
+and on the 20th the march to Richmond was resumed. The troops moved
+along two main roads, of which the right led to New Mechanicsville and
+Meadow Bridges, and the left to the railroad and Bottom Bridges. My
+division formed the right centre, and although the Chickahominy fords
+were but eighteen miles distant, we did not reach them for three days.
+On the first night we encamped at Tunstalls, a railroad-station on Black
+Creek; on the second at New Cold Harbor, a little country tavern, kept
+by a cripple; and on the night of the third day at Hogan's farm, on the
+north hills of the Chickahominy. The railroad was opened to Despatch
+Station at the same time, but the right and centre were still compelled
+to "team" their supplies from White House. In the new position, the army
+extended ten miles along the Chickahominy hills; and while the engineers
+were driving pile, tressel, pontoon, and corduroy bridges, the cavalry
+was scouring the country, on both flanks, far and wide.
+
+The advance was full of incident, and I learned to keep as far in front
+as possible, that I might communicate with scouts, contrabands, and
+citizens. Many odd personages were revealed to me at the farm-houses on
+the way, and I studied, with curious interest, the native Virginian
+character. They appeared to be compounds of the cavalier and the boor.
+There was no old gentleman who owned a thousand barren acres, spotted
+with scrub timber; who lived in a weather-beaten barn, with a
+multiplicity of porch and a quantity of chimney; whose means bore no
+proportion to his pride, and neither to his indolence,--that did not
+talk of his ancestry, proffer his hospitality, and defy me to an
+argument. I was a civilian,--they had no hostility to me,--but the
+blue-coats of the soldiers seared their eyeballs. In some cases their
+daughters remained upon the property; but the sons and the negroes
+always fled,--though in contrary directions. The old men used to peep
+through the windows at the passing columns; and as their gates were
+wrenched from the hinges, their rails used to pry wagons out of the mud,
+their pump-handles shaken till the buckets splintered in the shaft, and
+their barns invaded by greasy agrarians, they walked to and fro,
+half-weakly, half-wrathfully, but with a pluck, fortitude, and devotion
+that wrung my respect. Some aged negro women commonly remained, but
+these were rather incumbrances than aids, and they used the family meal
+to cook bread for the troops. An old, toothless, grinning African stood
+at every lane and gate, selling buttermilk and corn-cakes. Poor mortal,
+sinful old women! They had worked for nothing through their three-score
+and ten, but avarice glared from their shrivelled pupils, and their last
+but greatest delight lay in the coppers and the dimes. One would have
+thought that they had outlived the greed of gold; but wages deferred
+make the dying miserly.
+
+The lords of the manors were troubled to know the number of our troops.
+For several days the columns passed with their interminable teams,
+batteries, and adjuncts, and the old gentlemen were loth to compute us
+at less than several millions.
+
+"Why, look yonder," said one, pointing to a brigade; "I declar' to
+gracious, there ain't no less than ten thousand in _them_!"
+
+"Tousands an' tousands!" said a wondering negro at his elbow. "I wonda
+if dey'll take Richmond dis yer day?"
+
+Many of them hung white flags at their gate-posts, implying neutrality;
+but nobody displayed the Federal colors. If there were any covert
+sympathizers with the purposes of the army, they remembered the
+vengeance of the neighbors and made no demonstrations. There was a
+prodigious number of stragglers from the Federal lines, as these were
+the bane of the country people. They sauntered along by twos and threes,
+rambling into all the fields and green-apple orchards, intruding their
+noses into old cabins, prying into smoke-houses, and cellars, looking at
+the stock in the stables, and peeping on tiptoe into the windows of
+dwellings. These stragglers were true exponents of Yankee
+character,--always wanting to know,--averse to discipline, eccentric in
+their orbits, entertaining profound contempt for everything that was not
+up to the measure of "to hum."
+
+"Look here, Bill, I say!" said one, with a great grin on his face; "did
+you ever, neow! I swan! they call that a plough down in these parts."
+
+"Devilishest people I ever see!" said Bill, "stick their meetin'-houses
+square in the woods! Build their chimneys first and move the houses up
+to 'em! All the houses breakin' out in perspiration of porch! All their
+machinery with Noah in the ark! Pump the soil dry! Go to sleep a milkin'
+a keow! Depend entirely on Providence and the nigger!"
+
+There was a mill on the New Bridge road, ten miles from White House,
+with a tidy farm-house, stacks, and cabins adjoining. The road crossed
+the mill-race by a log bridge, and a spreading pond or dam lay to the
+left,--the water black as ink, the shore sandy, and the stream
+disappearing in a grove of straight pines. A youngish woman, with
+several small children, occupied the dwelling, and there remained,
+besides, her fat sister-in-law and four or five faithful negroes. I
+begged the favor of a meal and bed in the place one night, and shall not
+forget the hospitable table with its steaming biscuit; the chubby baby,
+perched upon his high stool; the talkative elderly woman, who took
+snuff at the fireplace; the contented black-girl, who played the Hebe;
+and above all, the trim, plump, pretty hostess, with her brown eyes and
+hair, her dignity and her fondness, sitting at the head of the board.
+When she poured the bright coffee into the capacious bowl, she revealed
+the neatest of hands and arms, and her dialect was softer and more
+musical than that of most Southerners. In short, I fell almost in love
+with her; though she might have been a younger playmate of my mother's,
+and though she was the wife of a Quartermaster in a Virginia regiment.
+For, somehow, a woman seems very handsome when one is afield; and the
+contact of rough soldiers, gives him a partiality for females. It must
+have required some courage to remain upon the farm; but she hoped
+thereby to save the property from spoliation. I played a game of whist
+with the sister-in-law, arguing all the while; and at nine o'clock the
+servant produced some hard cider, shellbarks, and apples. We drank a
+cheery toast: "an early peace and old fellowship!"--to which the wife
+added a sentiment of "always welcome," and the baby laughed at her knee.
+How brightly glowed the fire! I wanted to linger for a week, a month, a
+year,--as I do now, thinking it all over,--and when I strolled to the
+porch,--hearing the pigeons cooing at the barn; the water streaming down
+the dam; the melancholy monotony of the pine boughs;--there only lacked
+the humming mill-wheel, and the strong grip of the miller's hand, to
+fill the void corner of one's happy heart.
+
+But this was a time of war, when dreams are rudely broken, and mine
+could not last. The next day some great wheels beat down the bridge, and
+the teams clogged the road for miles; the waiting teamsters saw the
+miller's sheep, and the geese, chickens, and pigs, rashly exposed
+themselves in the barnyard; these were killed and eaten, the mill
+stripped of flour and meal, and the garden despoiled of its vegetables.
+A quartermaster's horse foundered, and he demanded the miller's, giving
+therefor a receipt, but specifying upon the same the owner's relation to
+the Rebellion; and, to crown all, a group of stragglers, butchered the
+cows, and heaped the beef in their wagons to feed their regimental
+friends. When I presented myself, late in the afternoon, the yard and
+porches were filled with soldiers; the wife sat within, her head thrown
+upon the window, her bright hair unbound, and her eyes red with weeping.
+The baby had cried itself to sleep, the sister-in-law took snuff
+fiercely, at the fire; the black girl cowered in a corner.
+
+"There is not bread in the house for my children," she said; "but I did
+not think they could make me shed a tear."
+
+If there were Spartan women, as the story-books say, I wonder if their
+blood died with them! I hardly think so.
+
+If I learned anything from my quiet study of this and subsequent
+campaigns, it was the heartlessness of war. War brutalizes! The most
+pitiful become pitiless afield, and those who are not callous, must do
+cruel duties. If the quartermaster had not seized the horses, he would
+have been accountable for his conduct; had he failed to state the
+miller's disloyalty in the receipt, he would have been punished. The men
+were thieves and brutes, to take the meal and meat; but they were
+perhaps hungry and weary, and sick of camp food; on the whole, I became
+a devotee of the George Fox faith, and hated warfare, though I knew
+nothing to substitute for it, in _crises_.
+
+Besides, the optimist might have seen much to admire. Individual merits
+were developed around me; I saw shop-keepers and mechanics in the ranks,
+and they looked to be better men. Here were triumphs of engineering;
+there perfections of applied ingenuity. I saw how the weakest natures
+girt themselves for great resolves, and how fortitude outstripped
+itself. It is a noble thing to put by the fear of death. It was a grand
+spectacle, this civil soldiery of both sections, supporting their
+principles, ambitions, or whatever instigated them, with their bodies;
+and their bones, lie where they will, must be severed, when the
+plough-share some day heaves them to the ploughman.
+
+One morning a friend asked me to go upon a scout.
+
+"Where are your companies?" said I.
+
+"There are four behind, and we shall be joined by six at Old Cold
+Harbor."
+
+I saw, in the rear, filing through a belt of woods, the tall figures of
+the horsemen, approaching at a canter.
+
+"Do you command?" said I again.
+
+"No! the Major has charge of the scout, and his orders are secret."
+
+I wheeled beside him, as the cavalry closed up, waved my hand to
+Plumley, and the girls, and went forward to the rendezvous, about six
+miles distant. The remaining companies of the regiment were here drawn
+up, watering their nags. The Major was a thick, sunburnt man, with
+grizzled beard, and as he saw us rounding a corner of hilly road, his
+voice rang out--
+
+"Attention! Prepare to mount!"
+
+Every rider sprang to his nag; every nag walked instinctively to his
+place; every horseman made fast his girths, strapped his blankets
+tightly, and lay his hands upon bridle-rein and pommel.
+
+"Attention! Mount!"
+
+The riders sprang to their seats; the bugles blew a lively strain; the
+horses pricked up their ears; and the long array moved briskly forward,
+with the Captain, the Major, and myself at the head. We were joined in a
+moment by two pieces of flying artillery, and five fresh companies of
+cavalry. In a moment more we were underway again, galloping due
+northward, and, as I surmised, toward Hanover Court House. If any branch
+of the military service is feverish, adventurous, and exciting, it is
+that of the cavalry. One's heart beats as fast as the hoof-falls; there
+is no music like the winding of the bugle, and no monotone so full of
+meaning as the clink of sabres rising and falling with the dashing pace.
+Horse and rider become one,--a new race of Centaurs,--and the charge,
+the stroke, the crack of carbines, are so quick, vehement, and dramatic,
+that we seem to be watching the joust of tournaments or following fierce
+Saladins and Crusaders again. We had ridden two hours at a fair canter,
+when we came to a small stream that crossed the road obliquely, and
+gurgled away through a sandy valley into the deepnesses of the woods. A
+cart-track, half obliterated, here diverged, running parallel with the
+creek, and the Major held up his sword as a signal to halt; at the same
+moment the bugle blew a quick, shrill note.
+
+"There are hoof-marks here!" grunted the Major,--"five of 'em.
+The Dutchman has gone into the thicket. Hulloo!" he added,
+precipitately--"there go the carbines!"
+
+I heard, clearly, two explosions in rapid succession; then a general
+discharge, as of several persons firing at once, and at last, five
+continuous reports, fainter, but more regular, and like the several
+emptyings of a revolver. I had scarcely time to note these things, and
+the effect produced upon the troop, when strange noises came from the
+woods to the right: the floundering of steeds, the cries and curses of
+men, and the ringing of steel striking steel. Directly the boughs
+crackled, the leaves quivered, and a horse and rider plunged into the
+road, not five rods from my feet. The man was bareheaded, and his face
+and clothing were torn with briars and branches. He was at first riding
+fairly upon our troops, when he beheld the uniform and standards, and
+with a sharp oath flung up his sword and hands.
+
+"I surrender!" he said; "I give in! Don't shoot!"
+
+The scores of carbines that were levelled upon him at once dropped to
+their rests at the saddles; but some unseen avenger had not heeded the
+shriek; a ball whistled from the woods, and the man fell from his
+cushion like a stone. In another instant, the German sergeant bounded
+through the gap, holding his sabre aloft in his right hand; but the left
+hung stiff and shattered at his side, and his face was deathly white. He
+glared an instant at the dead man by the roadside, leered grimly, and
+called aloud--
+
+"Come on, Major! Dis vay! Dere are a squad of dem ahead!"
+
+The bugle at once sounded a charge, the Major rose in the stirrups, and
+thundered "Forward!" I reined aside, intuitively, and the column dashed
+hotly past me. With a glance at the heap of mortality littering the way,
+I spurred my nag sharply, and followed hard behind. The riderless horse
+seemed to catch the fever of the moment, and closed up with me, leaving
+his master the solitary tenant of the dell. For perhaps three miles we
+galloped like the wind, and my brave little traveller overtook the
+hindmost of the troop, and retained the position. Thrice there were
+discharges ahead; I caught glimpses of the Major, the Captain, and the
+wolfish sergeant, far in the advance; and once saw, through the cloud of
+dust that beset them, the pursued and their individual pursuers, turning
+the top of a hill. But for the most part, I saw nothing; I _felt_ all
+the intense, consuming, burning ardor of the time and the event. I
+thought that my hand clutched a sabre, and despised myself that it was
+not there. I stood in the stirrups, and held some invisible enemy by the
+throat. In a word, the bloodiness of the chase was upon me. I realized
+the fierce infatuation of matching life with life, and standing arbiter
+upon my fellow's body and soul. It seemed but a moment, when we halted,
+red and panting, in the paltry Court House village of Hanover; the
+field-pieces hurled a few shells at the escaping Confederates, and the
+men were ordered to dismount.
+
+It seemed that a Confederate picket had been occupying the village, and
+the creek memorized by the skirmish was an outpost merely. Two of the
+man Otto's party had been slain in the woods, where also lay as many
+Southerners.
+
+Hanover Court House is renowned as the birthplace of Patrick Henry, the
+colonial orator, called by Byron the "forest Demosthenes." In a little
+tavern, opposite the old Court House building, he began his humble
+career as a measurer of gills to convivials, and in the Court House,--a
+small stone edifice, plainly but quaintly constructed,--he gave the
+first exhibitions of his matchless eloquence. Not far away, on a
+by-road, the more modern but not less famous orator, Henry Clay, was
+born. The region adjacent to his father's was called the "Slashes of
+Hanover," and thence came his appellation of the "Mill Boy of the
+Slashes." I had often longed to visit these shrines; but never dreamed
+that the booming of cannon would announce me. The soldiers broke into
+both the tavern and court-house, and splintered some chairs in the
+former to obtain relics of Henry. I secured Richmond newspapers of the
+same morning, and also some items of intelligence. With these I decided
+to repair at once to White House, and formed the rash determination of
+taking the direct or Pamunkey road, which I had never travelled, and
+which might be beset by Confederates. The distance to White House, by
+this course, was only twenty miles; whereas it was nearly as far to
+head-quarters; and I believed that my horse had still the persistence to
+carry me. It was past four o'clock; but I thought to ride six miles an
+hour while daylight lasted, and, by good luck, get to the depot at nine.
+The Major said that it was foolhardiness; the Captain bantered me to go.
+I turned my back upon both, and bade them good by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PUT UNDER ARREST.
+
+
+While daylight remained, I had little reason to repent my wayward
+resolve. The Pamunkey lay to my left, and the residences between it and
+the road were of a better order than others that I had seen. This part
+of the country had not been overrun, and the wheat and young corn were
+waving in the river-breeze. I saw few negroes, but the porches were
+frequently occupied by women and white men, who looked wonderingly
+toward me. There were some hoof-marks in the clay, and traces of a broad
+tire that I thought belonged to a gun-carriage. The hills of King
+William County were but a little way off, and through the wood that
+darkened them, sunny glimpses of vari-colored fields and dwellings now
+and then appeared. I came to a shabby settlement called New Castle, at
+six o'clock, where an evil-looking man walked out from a frame-house,
+and inquired the meaning of the firing at Hanover.
+
+I explained hurriedly, as some of his neighbors meantime gathered around
+me. They asked if I was not a soldier in the Yankee army, and as I rode
+away, followed me suspiciously with their eyes and wagged their heads.
+To end the matter I spurred my pony and soon galloped out of sight.
+Henceforward I met only stern, surprised glances, and seemed to read
+"murder" in the faces of the inhabitants. A wide creek crossed the road
+about five miles further on, where I stopped to water my horse. The
+shades of night were gathering now; there was no moon; and for the
+first time I realized the loneliness of my position. Hitherto, adventure
+had laughed down fear; hereafter my mind was to be darkened like the
+gloaming, and peopled with ghastly shadows.
+
+I was yet young in the experience of death, and the toppled corpse of
+the slain cavalry-man on the scout, somehow haunted me. I heard his
+hoof-falls chiming with my own, and imagined, with a cold thrill, that
+his steed was still following me; then, his white rigid face and
+uplifted arms menaced my way; and, at last, the ruffianly form of his
+slayer pursued him along the wood. They glided like shadows over the
+foliage, and flashed across the surfaces of pools and rivulets. I heard
+their steel ringing in the underbrush, and they flitted around me,
+pursuing and retreating, till my brain began to whirl with the motion.
+Suddenly my horse stumbled, and I reined him to a halt.
+
+The cold drops were standing on my forehead. I found my knees a-quiver
+and my breathing convulsive. With an expletive upon my unmanliness, I
+touched the nag with my heel, and whistled encouragingly. Poor pony!
+Fifty miles of almost uninterrupted travel had broken his spirit. He
+leaped into his accustomed pace: but his legs were unsteady and he
+floundered at every bound. There were pools, ruts, and boughs across the
+way, with here and there stretches of slippery corduroy; but the thick
+blackness concealed these, and I expected momentarily to be thrown from
+the saddle. By and by he dropped from a canter into a rock; from a rock
+to an amble; then into a walk, and finally to a slow painful limp. I
+dismounted and took him perplexedly by the bit. A light shone from the
+window of a dwelling across some open fields to the left, and I thought
+of repairing thither; but some deep-mouthed dogs began to bay directly,
+and then the lamp went out. A tiny stream sang at the roadside, flowing
+toward some deeper tributary; lighting a cigar, I made out, by its
+fitful illuminings, to wash the limbs of the jaded nag. Then I led him
+for an hour, till my own limbs were weary, troubled all the time by
+weird imaginings, doubts, and regrets. When I resumed the saddle the
+horse had a firmer step and walked pleasantly. I ventured after a time
+to incite him to a trot, and was going nicely forward, when a deep
+voice, that almost took my breath, called from the gloom--
+
+"Who comes there? Halt, or I fire! Guard, turn out!"
+
+Directly the road was full of men, and a bull's-eye lantern flashed upon
+my face. A group of foot-soldiery, with drawn pistols and sabres,
+gathered around me, and I heard the neigh of steeds from some
+imperceptible vicinity. "Who is it, Sergeant?" said one. "Is there but
+one of 'em?" said another. "Cuss him!" said a third; "I was takin' a
+bully snooze." "Who are yeou?" said the Sergeant, sternly; "what are
+yeou deouin' aout at this hour o' the night? Are yeou a rebbil?"
+
+"No!" I answered, greatly relieved; "I am a newspaper correspondent of
+Smith's division, and there's my pass!"
+
+I was taken over to a place in the woods, where some fagots were
+smouldering, and, stirring them to a blaze, the Sergeant read the
+document and pronounced it right.
+
+"Yeou hain't got no business, nevertheless, to be roamin' araound
+outside o' picket; but seein' as it's yeou, I reckon yeou may trot
+along!"
+
+I offered to exchange my information for a biscuit and a drop of coffee,
+for I was wellnigh worn out; while one of the privates produced a
+canteen more wholesome than cleanly, another gave me a lump of fat pork
+and a piece of corn bread. They gathered sleepily about me, while I told
+of the scout, and the Sergeant said that my individual ride was "game
+enough, but nothin' but darn nonsense." Then they fed my horse with a
+trifle of oats, and after awhile I climbed, stiff and bruised, to the
+saddle again, and bade them good night.
+
+I knew now that I was at "Putney's," a ford on the Pamunkey, and an hour
+later I came in sight of the ship-lights at White House, and heard the
+steaming of tugs and draught-boats, going and coming by night. I hitched
+my horse to a tree, pilfered some hay and fodder from two or three nags
+tied adjacent, and picked my way across a gangway, several barge-decks,
+and a floating landing, to the mail steamer that lay outside. Her deck
+and cabin were filled with people, stretched lengthwise and crosswise,
+tangled, grouped, and snoring, but all apparently fast asleep. I coolly
+took a blanket from a man that looked as though he did not need it, and
+wrapped myself cosily under a bench in a corner. The cabin light flared
+dimly, half irradiating the forms below, and the boat heaved a little on
+the river-swells. The night was cold, the floor hard, and I almost dead
+with fatigue. But what of that! I felt the newspapers in my breast
+pocket, and knew that the mail could not leave me in the morning.
+Blessed be the news-gatherer's sleep! I think he earned it.
+
+It was very pleasant, at dawn, to receive the congratulations of our
+agent, with whom I breakfasted, and to whom I consigned a hastily
+written letter and all the Richmond papers of the preceding day. He was
+a shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man, of large experience and good
+standing in our establishment. He was sent through the South at the
+beginning of the Rebellion, and introduced into all public bodies and
+social circles, that he might fathom the designs of Secession, and
+comprehend its spirit. Afterward he accompanied the Hatteras and Port
+Royal expeditions, and witnessed those celebrated bombardments. Such a
+thorough individual abnegation I never knew. He was a part of the
+establishment, body and soul. He agreed with its politics, adhered to
+all its policies, defended it, upheld it, revered it. The Federal
+Government was, to his eye, merely an adjunct of the paper. Battles and
+sieges were simply occurrences for its columns. Good men, brave men, bad
+men, died to give it obituaries. The whole world was to him a Reporter's
+district, and all human mutations plain matters of news. I hardly think
+that any city, other than New York, contains such characters. The
+journals there are full of fever, and the profession of journalism is a
+disease.
+
+He cashed me a draft for a hundred dollars, and I filled my saddle-bags
+with smoking-tobacco, spirits, a meerschaum pipe, packages of sardines,
+a box of cigars, and some cheap publications. Then we adjourned to the
+quay, where the steamer was taking in mails, freight and passengers. The
+papers were in his side-pocket, and he was about to commit them to a
+steward for transmission to Fortress Monroe, when my name was called
+from the strand by a young mounted officer, connected with one of the
+staffs of my division. I thought that he wished to exchange salutations
+or make some inquiries, and tripped to his side.
+
+"General McClellan wants those newspapers that you obtained at Hanover
+yesterday!"
+
+A thunderbolt would not have more transfixed me. I could not speak for a
+moment. Finally, I stammered that they were out of my possession.
+
+"Then, sir, I arrest you, by order of General McClellan. Get your
+horse!"
+
+"Stop!" said I, agitatedly, "--it may not be too late. I can recover
+them yet. Here is our agent,--I gave them to him."
+
+I turned, at the word, to the landing where he stood a moment before. To
+my dismay, he had disappeared.
+
+"This is some frivolous pretext to escape," said the Lieutenant; "you
+correspondents are slippery fellows, but I shall take care that you do
+not play any pranks with me. The General is irritated already, and if
+you prevaricate relative to those papers he may make a signal example of
+you."
+
+I begged to be allowed to look for----; but he answered cunningly, that
+I had better mount and ride on. An acquaintance of mine here interfered,
+and testified to the existency of the agent and his probable connection
+with the journals. Pale, flurried, excited, I started to discover him,
+the Lieutenant following me closely meantime. We entered every booth and
+tent, went from craft to craft, sought among the thick clusters of
+people, and even at the Commissary's and Quartermaster's pounds, that
+lay some distance up the railroad.
+
+"I am sorry for you, old fellow," said the Lieutenant, "but your
+accomplice has probably escaped. It's very sneaking of him, as it makes
+it harder for you; but I have no authority to deal with him, though I
+shall take care to report his conduct at head-quarters."
+
+I found that the Lieutenant was greatly gratified with the duty
+entrusted to him. He had been at the cavalry quarters on the return of
+the scouting party, and had overheard the Major muttering something as
+to McClellan's displeasure at receiving no Richmond journals. The Major
+had added that one of the correspondents took them to White House, and,
+mentioning me by name, this young and aspiring satellite had blurted out
+that he knew me, and could doubtless overtake me at the mail-boat in the
+morning. The Commanding General authorised him to arrest me _with the
+papers_, and report at head-quarters. This was then a journey to
+recommend him to authority, and it involved no personal danger. I was
+not so intimidated that I failed to see how the Lieutenant would lose
+his gayest feather by failing to recover the journals, and I dexterously
+insinuated that it would be well to recommence the search. This time we
+were successful. The shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man was coolly
+contemplating the river from an outside barge, concealed from the shore
+by piled boxes of ammunition. He was reading a phonetic pamphlet, and
+appeared to take his apprehension as a pleasant morning call. I caught
+one meaning glance, however, that satisfied me how clearly he understood
+the case.
+
+"Ha! Townsend," said he, smilingly, "back already? I thought we had lost
+you. One of your military friends? Good-day, Lieutenant."
+
+"I am under arrest, my boy," said I, "and you will much aggravate
+General McClellan, if you do not consign those Richmond journals to his
+deputy here."
+
+"Under arrest? You surprise me! I am sorry, Lieutenant that you have had
+so fatiguing a ride, but the fact is, those papers have gone down the
+river. If the General is not in a great hurry, he will see their columns
+reproduced by us in a few days."
+
+"How did they go?" said the Lieutenant, with an oath, "if by the
+mail-boat I will have General Van Vliet despatch a tug to overhaul her."
+
+"I am very sorry again," said the bland civilian, smoothing his hands:
+"but they went by the _South America_ at a much earlier hour."
+
+I looked appealingly to him; the satellite stared down the river
+perplexedly, but suddenly his eye fell upon something that absorbed it;
+and he turned like a madman to----
+
+"By! ---- sir, you are lying to me. There is the _South America_ moored
+to a barge, and her steam is not up!"
+
+"Those words are utterly uncalled for," said the agent,--"but you cannot
+irritate me, my dear sir! I know that youth is hot,--particularly
+military youth yet inexperienced; and therefore I pardon you. I made a
+mistake. It was not the _South America_, it was--it was--upon my word I
+cannot recall the name!"
+
+"You do not mean to!" thundered the young Ajax, to whose vanity, ----'s
+speech had been gall; "my powers are discretionary: I arrest you in the
+name of General McClellan."
+
+"Indeed! Be sure you understand your orders! It isn't probable that such
+a fiery blade is allowed much discretionary margin. The General himself
+would not assume such airs. Why don't you shoot me? It might contribute
+to your promotion, and that is, no doubt, your object. I know General
+McClellan very well. He is a personal friend of mine."
+
+His manner was so self-possessed, his tone so cutting, that the young
+man of fustian--whose name was Kenty--fingered his sword hilt, and
+foamed at the lips.
+
+"March on," said he,--"I will report this insolence word for word."
+
+He motioned us to the quay; we preceded him. The sanguine gentleman
+keeping up a running fire of malevolent sarcasm.
+
+"Stop!" said he quietly, as we reached his tent,--"I have not sent them
+at all. They are here. And you have made all this exhibition of yourself
+for nothing. I am the better soldier, you see. You are a drummer-boy,
+not an officer. Take off your shoulder-bars, and go to school again."
+
+He disappeared a minute, returned with two journals, and looking at me,
+meaningly, turned to their titles.
+
+"Let me see!" he said, smoothly,--"_Richmond Examiner_, May 28,
+_Richmond Enquirer_, May 22. There! You have them! Go in peace! Give my
+respects to General McClellan! Townsend, old fellow, you have done your
+full duty. Don't let this young person frighten you. Good by."
+
+He gave me his hand, with a sinister glance, and left something in my
+palm when his own was withdrawn. I examined it hastily when I girt up my
+saddle. It said: "_Your budget got off safe, old fellow._" He had given
+Kenty some old journals that were of no value to anybody. When we were
+mounted and about to start, the Lieutenant looked witheringly upon his
+persecutor--
+
+"Allow me to say, sir," he exclaimed, "that you are the most unblushing
+liar I ever knew."
+
+"Thank you, kindly," said----, taking off his hat, "you do me honor!"
+
+Our route was silent and weary enough. The young man at my side,
+unconscious of his wily antagonist's deception, boasted for some time
+that he had attained his purposes. As I could not undeceive him, I held
+my tongue; but feared that when this trick should be made manifest, the
+vengeance would fall on me alone. I heartily wished the unlucky papers
+at the bottom of the sea. To gratify an adventurous whim, and obtain a
+day's popularity at New York, I had exposed my life, crippled my nag,
+and was now to be disgraced and punished. What might or might not befall
+me, I gloomily debated. The least penalty would be expulsion from the
+army; but imprisonment till the close of the war, was a favorite
+amusement with the War Office. How my newspaper connection would be
+embarrassed was a more grievous inquiry. It stung me to think that I had
+blundered twice on the very threshold of my career. Was I not acquiring
+a reputation for rashness that would hinder all future promotion and
+cast me from the courts of the press. Here the iron entered into my
+soul; for be it known, I loved Bohemia! This roving commission, these
+vagabond habits, this life in the open air among the armies, the white
+tents, the cannon, and the drums, they were my elysium, my heart! But to
+be driven away, as one who had broken his trust, forfeited favor and
+confidence, and that too on the eve of grand events, was something that
+would embitter my existence.
+
+We passed the familiar objects that I had so often buoyantly
+beheld,--deserted encampments, cross-roads, rills, farm-houses, fields,
+and at last came to Daker's. I called out to them, and explained my
+woful circumstances with rueful conciseness.
+
+It was growing dark when we came to general headquarters, two miles
+beyond Gaines's Mill. The tents were scattered over the surface of a
+hill, and most of them were illumined by candles.
+
+The Lieutenant gave our horses to an orderly, and led the way through
+two outer circles of wall-tents, between which and the inner circle,
+guards were pacing, to deny all vulgar ingress.
+
+A staff officer took in our names, and directly returned with the reply
+of "Pass in!" We were now in the sacred enclosure, secured by flaming
+swords. Four tents stood in a row, allotted respectively to the Chief of
+Staff, the Adjutant-General, the telegraph operators, and the select
+staff officers. Just behind them, embowered by a covering of cedar
+boughs, stood the tent of General McClellan. Close by, from an open plot
+or area of ground, towered a pine trunk, floating the national flag.
+Lights burned in three of the tents: low voices, as of subdued
+conversation, were heard from the first.
+
+A little flutter of my heart, a drawing aside of canvas, two steps, an
+uncovering, and a bow,--I stood at my tribunal! A couple of candles were
+placed upon a table, whereat sat a fine specimen of man, with kindly
+features, dark, grayish, flowing hair, and slight marks of years upon
+his full, purplish face. He looked to be a well-to-do citizen, whose
+success had taught him sedentary convivialities. A fuming cigar lay
+before him; some empty champagne bottles sat upon a pine desk; tumblers
+and a decanter rested upon a camp-stool; a bucket, filled with water and
+a great block of ice, was visible under the table. Five other gentlemen,
+each with a star in his shoulder-bar, were dispersed upon chairs and
+along a camp bedside. The tall, angular, dignified gentleman with
+compressed lips and a "character" nose, was General Barry, Chief of
+Artillery. The lithe, severe, gristly, sanguine person, whose eyes
+flashed even in repose, was General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry. The
+large, sleepy-eyed, lymphatic, elderly man, clad in dark, civil gray,
+whose ears turned up habitually as from deafness, was Prince de
+Joinville, brother to Louis Philippe, King of France. The little man
+with red hair and beard, who moved quickly and who spoke sharply, was
+Seth Williams, Adjutant-General. The stout person with florid face,
+large, blue eyes, and white, straight hair, was General Van Vliet,
+Quartermaster-General. And the man at the table, was General Marcy,
+father-in-law to McClellan, and Executive officer of the army.
+
+Maps, papers, books, and luggage lay around the room; all the gentlemen
+were smoking and wine sparkled in most of the glasses. Some swords were
+lying upon the floor, a pair of spurs glistened by the bed, and three of
+the officers had their feet in the air.
+
+"What is it you wish, Lieutenant?" said General Marcy, gravely.
+
+The boor in uniform at my side, related his errand and order, gave the
+particulars of my arrest, declaimed against our agent, and submitted the
+journals. He told his story stammeringly, and I heard one of the
+officers in the background mutter contemptuously when he had finished.
+
+"Were you aware of the order prohibiting correspondents from keeping
+with the advance?" said the General, looking up.
+
+"I had not been notified from head-quarters. I have been with the army
+only a week."
+
+"You knew that you had no business upon scouts, forages, or
+reconnoissances; why did you go?"
+
+"I went by invitation."
+
+"Who invited you?"
+
+"I would prefer not to state, since it would do him an injury."
+
+Here the voices in the background muttered, as I thought, applaudingly.
+Gaining confidence as I proceeded, I spoke more boldly--
+
+"I am sure I regret that I have disobeyed any order of General
+McClellan's; but there can nothing occur in the rear of an army.
+Obedience, in this case, would be indolence and incompetence; for only
+the reliable would stay behind and the reckless go ahead. If I am
+accredited here as a correspondent, I must keep up with the events. And
+the rivalries of our tribe, General, are so many, that the best of us
+sometimes forget what is right for what is expedient. I hope that
+General McClellan will pass by this offence."
+
+He heard my rambling defence quietly, excused the Lieutenant, and
+whistled for an orderly.
+
+"I don't think that you meant to offend General McClellan," he said,
+"but he wishes you to be detained. Give me your pass. Orderly, take this
+gentleman to General Porter, and tell him to treat him kindly. Good
+night."
+
+When we got outside of the tent, I slipped a silver half-dollar into the
+orderly's hand, and asked him if he understood the General's final
+remark. He said, in reply, that I was directed to be treated with
+courtesy, kindness, and care, and asked me, in conclusion, if there were
+any adjectives that might intensify the recommendation. When we came to
+General Porter, the Provost-Marshal, however, he pooh-poohed the
+qualifications, and said that _his_ business was merely to put me under
+surveillance. This unamiable man ordered me to be taken to Major
+Willard, the deputy Provost, whose tent we found after a long search.
+The Major was absent, but some young officers of his mess were taking
+supper at his table, and with these I at once engaged in conversation.
+
+I knew that if I was to be spared an immersion in the common guardhouse,
+with drunkards, deserters, and prisoners of war, I must win the favor of
+these men. I gave them the story of my arrest, spoke lightly of the
+offence and jestingly of the punishment, and, in fact, so improved my
+cause that, when the Major appeared, and the Sergeant consigned me to
+his custody, one of the young officers took him aside, and, I am sure,
+said some good words in my favor.
+
+The Major was a bronzed, indurated gentleman, scrupulously attired, and
+courteously stern. He looked at me twice or thrice, to my confusion; for
+I was dusty, wan, and running over with perspiration. His first remark
+had, naturally, reference to the lavatory, and, so far as my face and
+hair were concerned, I was soon rejuvenated. I found on my return to the
+tent, a clean plate and a cup of steaming coffee placed for me, and I
+ate with a full heart though pleading covertly the while. When I had
+done, and the tent became deserted by all save him and me, he said,
+simply--
+
+"What am I to do with you, Mr. Townsend?"
+
+"Treat me as a gentleman, I hope, Major."
+
+"We have but one place of confinement," said he, "the guardhouse; but I
+am loth to send you there. Light your pipe, and I will think the matter
+over."
+
+He took a turn in front, consulted with some of his associates, and
+directly returning, said that I was to be quartered in his office-tent,
+adjoining. A horror being thus lifted from my mind, I heard with sincere
+interest many revelations of his military career. He had been a common
+soldier in the Mexican war, and had fought his way, step by step, to
+repeated commissions. He had garrisoned Fort Yuma, and other posts on
+the far plains, and at the beginning of the war was tendered a volunteer
+brigade, which he modestly declined. His tastes were refined, and a warm
+fancy, approaching poetry, enhanced his personal reminiscences. His face
+softened, his eyes grew milder, his large, commanding mouth relaxed,--he
+was young again, living his adventures over. We talked thus till almost
+midnight, when two regulars appeared in front,--stiff, ramrodish
+figures, that came to a jerking "present," tapped their caps with two
+fingers, and said, explosively; "Sergeant of Guard, Number Five!"
+
+The Major rose, gave me his hand, and said that I would find a candle in
+my tent, with waterproof and blankets on the ground. I was to give
+myself no concern about the nag, and might, if I chose, sit for an hour
+to write, but must, on no account, attempt to leave the canvas, for the
+guard would instantly shoot me down. The guard in question had a
+_doppel-ganger_,--counterpart of himself in inflexibility,--and both
+were appendages of their muskets. He was not probably a sentient being,
+certainly not a conversational one. He knew the length of a stride, and
+the manual of bayonet exercise, but was, during his natural life, a
+blind idolater of a deity, called "Orders." The said "Orders," for the
+present evening, were walking, not talking, and he was dumb to all
+conciliatory words. He took a position at one end of my tent, and his
+double at the other end. They carried their muskets at "support arms,"
+and paced up and down, measuredly, like two cloaked and solemn ghosts. I
+wrapped myself in the damp blankets, and slept through the bangs of four
+or five court-martials and several executions. At three o'clock, they
+changed ramrods,--the old doppel-gangers going away, and two new ones
+fulfilling their functions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AFTER THE VICTORY.
+
+
+The two ramrods were still pacing to and fro, when I aroused in the gray
+of the morning; but they looked very misty and moist, as if they were
+impalpables that were shortly to evaporate. The Major poked his head
+between the flaps at eight o'clock, and said that breakfast was ready;
+but the ramrod nearest me kept vigilantly alongside, and I thought he
+had been invited also. The other ramrod guarded the empty tent, and I
+think that he believed me a doppel-ganger likewise.
+
+I wondered what was to be done with me, as the hours slipped rapidly by.
+The guards were relieved again at ten o'clock, and Quartermaster's men
+commenced to take down the tents. Camps were to be moved, and I inquired
+solicitously if I was to be moved also. The Major replied that prisoners
+were commonly made to walk along the road, escorted by horsemen, and I
+imagined, with dread, the companionship of negroes, estrays, ragged
+Confederates, and such folk, while the whole army should witness my
+degradation. Finally, all the tents were lifted and packed in wagons, as
+well as the furniture. I adhered to a stool, at which the teamster
+looked wistfully, and the implacable sentinels walked to and fro. A
+rumor became current among the private soldiers, that I was the nephew
+of the southern General Lee, whose wife had been meantime captured at
+Hanover Court House. Curious groups sauntered around me, and talked
+behind their hands. One man was overheard to say that I had fought
+desperately, and covered myself with glory, and another thought that I
+favored my uncle somewhat, and might succeed to his military virtues.
+
+"I guess I'll take that cheer, if you ain't got no objection," said the
+teamster, and he slung it into the wagon. What to do now troubled me
+materially; but one of the soldiers brought a piece of rail, and I
+"squatted" lugubriously on the turf.
+
+"If you ever get to Richmond," said I, "you shall be considerately
+treated." (Profound sensation.)
+
+"Thankee!" replied the man, touching his cap; "but I'm werry well
+pleased _out_ o' Richmond, Captain."
+
+Here the Major was seen approaching, a humorous smile playing about his
+eyes.
+
+"You are discharged," said he; "General Marcy will return your pass, and
+perhaps your papers."
+
+I wrung his hand with indescribable relief, and he sent the "ramrod" on
+guard, to saddle my horse. In a few minutes, I was mounted again, much
+to the surprise of the observers of young Lee, and directly I stood
+before the kindly Chief of Staff. At my request, he wrote a note to the
+division commander, specifying my good behavior, and restoring to me all
+privileges and immunities. He said nothing whatever as to the mistake in
+the papers, and told me that, on special occasions, I might keep with
+advances, by procuring an extraordinary pass at head-quarters. In short,
+my arrest conduced greatly to my efficiency. I invariably carried my
+Richmond despatches to General Marcy, thereafter, and, if there was
+information of a legitimate description, he gave me the benefit of it.
+
+My own brigade lay at Dr. Gaines's house, during this time, and we did
+not lack for excitement. Just behind the house lay several batteries of
+rifled guns, and these threw shells at hourly intervals, at certain
+Confederate batteries across the river. The distance was two miles or
+less; but the firing was generally wretched. Crowds of soldiers gathered
+around, to watch the practice, and they threw up their hats applaudingly
+at successful hits. Occasionally a great round shot would bound up the
+hill, and a boy, one day, seeing one of these spent balls rolling along
+the ground, put out his foot to stop it, but shattered his leg so
+dreadfully that it had to be amputated. Dr. Gaines was a rich,
+aristocratic, and indolent old Virginian, whose stables, summerhouses,
+orchards, and negro-quarters were the finest in their district. The
+shooting so annoyed him that he used to resort to the cellar; several
+shots passed through his roof, and one of the chimneys was knocked off.
+His family carriages were five in number, and as his stables were turned
+into hospitals, these were all hauled into his lawn, where their
+obsolete trimmings and queer shape constantly amused the soldiers. About
+this time I became acquainted with some officers of the 5th Maine
+regiment, and by permission, accompanied them to Mechanicsville. I was
+here, on the afternoon of Thursday, May 27, when the battle of Hanover
+Court House was fought. We heard the rapid growl of guns, and continuous
+volleys of musketry, though the place was fourteen miles distant. At
+evening, a report was current that the Federals had gained a great
+victory, and captured seven hundred prisoners. The truth of this was
+established next morning; for detachments of prisoners were from time to
+time brought in, and the ambulances came to camp, laden with the
+wounded. I took this opportunity of observing the Confederate soldiers,
+as they lay at the Provost quarters, in a roped pen, perhaps one hundred
+rods square.
+
+It was evening, as I hitched my horse to a stake near-by, and pressed up
+to the receptacle for the unfortunates. Sentries enclosed the pen,
+walking to-and-fro with loaded muskets; a throng of officers and
+soldiers had assembled to gratify their curiosity; and new detachments
+of captives came in hourly, encircled by sabremen, the Southerners
+being disarmed and on foot. The scene within the area was ludicrously
+moving. It reminded me of the witch-scene in Macbeth, or pictures of
+brigands or Bohemian gypsies at rendezvous, not less than five hundred
+men, in motley, ragged costumes, with long hair, and lean, wild, haggard
+faces, were gathered in groups or in pairs, around some fagot fires. In
+the growing darkness their expressions were imperfectly visible; but I
+could see that most of them were weary, and hungry, and all were
+depressed and ashamed. Some were wrapped in blankets of rag-carpet, and
+others wore shoes of rough, untanned hide. Others were without either
+shoes or jackets, and their heads were bound with red handkerchiefs.
+Some appeared in red shirts; some in stiff beaver hats; some were
+attired in shreds and patches of cloth; and a few wore the soiled
+garments of citizen gentlemen; but the mass adhered to homespun suits of
+gray, or "butternut," and the coarse blue kersey common to slaves. In
+places I caught glimpses of red Zouave breeches and leggings; blue
+Federal caps, Federal buttons, or Federal blouses; these were the spoils
+of anterior battles, and had been stripped from the slain. Most of the
+captives were of the appearances denominated "scraggy" or "knotty." They
+were brown, brawny, and wiry, and their countenances were intense,
+fierce, and animal. They came from North Carolina, the poorest and least
+enterprising Southern State, and ignorance, with its attendant virtues,
+were the common facial manifestations. Some lay on the bare ground, fast
+asleep; others chatted nervously as if doubtful of their future
+treatment; a few were boisterous, and anxious to beg tobacco or coffee
+from idle Federals; the rest--and they comprehended the greater
+number--were silent, sullen, and vindictive. They met curiosity with
+scorn, and spite with imprecations. A child--not more than four years of
+age, I think--sat sleeping in a corner upon an older comrade's lap. A
+gray-bearded pard was staunching a gash in his cheek with the tail of
+his coat. A fine-looking young fellow sat with his face in his hands,
+as if his heart were far off, and he wished to shut out this bitter
+scene. In a corner, lying morosely apart, were a Major, three Captains,
+and three Lieutenants,--young athletic fellows, dressed in rich gray
+cassimere, trimmed with black, and wearing soft black hats adorned with
+black ostrich-feathers. Their spurs were strapped upon elegantly fitting
+boots, and they looked as far above the needy, seedy privates, as lords
+above their vassals.
+
+After a time, couples and squads of the prisoners were marched off to
+cut and carry some firewood, and water, for the use of their pen, and
+then each Confederate received coffee, pork, and crackers; they were
+obliged to prepare their own meals, but some were so hungry that they
+gnawed the raw pork, like beasts of prey. Those who were not provided
+with blankets, shivered through the night, though the rain was falling,
+and the succession of choking coughs that ran through the ranks, told
+how ill they could afford the exposure. Major Willard had charge of
+these men, and he sent a young officer to get me admittance to the pen,
+that I might speak with them.
+
+"Good evening, Major," I said, to the ranking Confederate officer, and
+extended my hand. He shook it, embarrassedly, and ran me over with his
+eye, as if to learn my avocation. "Can I obtain any facts from you," I
+continued, "as to the battle of Hanover?"
+
+"Fuh what puhpose?" he said, in his strong southern dialect.
+
+"For publication, sir."
+
+He sat up at once, and said that he should be happy to tell me anything
+that would not be a violation of military honor. I asked him, therefore,
+the Confederate Commandant at Hanover, the number of brigades,
+regiments, and batteries engaged, the disposition of forces, the
+character of the battle, and the losses, so far as he knew, upon his own
+side. Much of this he revealed, but unguardedly let out other matters,
+that direct inquiry could not have discovered. I took notes of the
+legitimate passages, trusting to memory for the rest; and think that I
+possessed his whole stock of information, in the course of an hour's
+manoeuvring. It seemed that General Branch, formerly a member of the
+Federal congress, had been sent with some thousands of Carolina troops
+across the upper Chickahominy, to see if it would not be possible to
+turn the Federal right, and cut off one of its brigades; but a stronger
+Federal reconnoissance had gone northward the day before, and
+discovering Branch's camp-fires, sent, during the night, for
+reinforcements. In the end, the "North State" volunteers were routed,
+their cannon silenced or broken, and seven hundred of their number
+captured. The Federals lost a large number of men killed, and the
+wounded upon both sides, were numerous.
+
+The Confederate Major was of the class referred to in polite American
+parlance, as a "blatherskite." He boasted after the manner of his
+fellow-citizens from the county of "Bunkum," but nevertheless feared and
+trembled, to the manifest disgust of one of the young Captains.
+
+"Majuh!" said this young man, "what you doin' thah! That fellow's makin'
+notes of all your slack; keep your tongue! aftah awhile you'll tell the
+nombah of the foces! Don't you s'pose he'll prent it all?"
+
+The Major had, in fact, been telling me how many regiments the "old
+Nawth State, suh," had furnished to the "suhvice," and I had the names
+of some thirty colonels, in order. The young Captain gave me a sketch of
+General Branch, and was anxious that I should publish something in
+extenuation of North Carolina valor.
+
+"We have lost mo' men," said he, "than any otha' Commonwealth; but these
+Vuhginians, whose soil, by----! suh, we defend suh! Yes, suh! whose soil
+we defend; these Vuhginians, stigmatize us as cowads! _We_, suh! yes
+suh, _we_, that nevah wanted to leave the Union,--_we cowads_! Look at
+ou' blood, suh, ou' blood! That's it, by----! look at that! shed on
+every field of the ole Dominion,--killed, muhdud, captued, crippled! We
+_cowads_! I want you prent that!"
+
+I was able to give each of the officers a drop of whiskey from my flask,
+and I never saw men drink so thirstily. Their hands and lips trembled as
+they took it, and their eyes shone like lunacy, as the hot drops sank to
+the cold vitals, and pricked the frozen blood. Mingling with the
+privates, I stirred up some native specimens of patriotism, that
+appeared to be in great doubt as to the causes and ends of the war. They
+were very much in the political condition of a short, thick, sententious
+man, in blue drilling breeches, who said--
+
+"Damn the country! What's to be done with _us_?"
+
+One person said that he enlisted for the honor of his family, that "fit
+in the American Revolution;" and another came out to "hev a squint et
+the fightin'." Several were northern and foreign lads, that were working
+on Carolina railroads, and could not leave the section, and some labored
+under the impression that they were to have a "slice" of land and a
+"nigger," in the event of Southern independence. A few comprehended the
+spirit of the contest, and took up arms from principle; a few, also,
+declared their enmity to "Yankee institutions," and had seized the
+occasion to "polish them off," and "give them a ropein' in;" but many
+said it was "dull in our deestreeks, an' the niggers was runnin' away,
+so I thought I'ud jine the foces." The great mass said, that they never
+contemplated "this box," or "this fix," or "these suckemstances," and
+all wanted the war to close, that they might return to their families.
+Indeed, my romantic ideas of rebellion were ruthlessly profaned and
+dissipated. I knew that there was much selfishness, peculation, and
+"Hessianism" in the Federal lines, but I had imagined a lofty
+patriotism, a dignified purpose, and an inflexible love of personal
+liberty among the Confederates. Yet here were men who knew little of
+the principles for which they staked their lives;--who enlisted from the
+commonest motives of convenience, whim, pelf, adventure, and foray; and
+who repented, after their first misfortune, with the salt rheum in their
+eyes. I think that all "great uprisings" resolve to this complexion.
+With due reverence for my own ancestry, I think that they sometimes
+stooped from greatness to littleness. I must confess that certain
+admissions in my revolutionary textbook are much clearer, now that I
+have followed a campaign. And if, as I had proposed, I could have
+witnessed the further fortunes of the illustrious Garibaldi, I think
+that some of his compatriots would have been found equally inconsistent.
+Let no man believe that the noblest cause is fought out alone by the
+unerring motives of duty and devotion. The masses are never so constant.
+They cannot appreciate an abstraction, however divine. Any of the
+gentlemen in question would have preferred their biscuit and fat pork
+before the political enfranchisement of the whole world!
+
+I rode across the fields to the Hogan, Curtis, and Gaines mansions; for
+some of the wounded had meantime been deposited in each of them. All the
+cow-houses, wagon-sheds, hay-barracks, hen-coops, negro cabins, and
+barns were turned into hospitals. The floors were littered with
+"corn-shucks" and fodder; and the maimed, gashed, and dying lay
+confusedly together. A few, slightly wounded, stood at windows, relating
+incidents of the battle; but at the doors sentries stood with crossed
+muskets, to keep out idlers and gossips. The mention of my vocation was
+an "open sesame," and I went unrestrained, into all the largest
+hospitals. In the first of these an amputation was being performed, and
+at the door lay a little heap of human fingers, feet, legs, and arms. I
+shall not soon forget the bare-armed surgeons, with bloody instruments,
+that leaned over the rigid and insensible figure, while the comrades of
+the subject looked horrifiedly at the scene. The grating of the
+murderous saw drove me into the open air, but in the second hospital
+which I visited, a wounded man had just expired, and I encountered his
+body at the threshold. Within, the sickening smell of mortality was
+almost insupportable, but by degrees I became accustomed to it. The
+lanterns hanging around the room streamed fitfully upon the red eyes,
+and half-naked figures. All were looking up, and saying, in pleading
+monotone: "Is that you, doctor?" Men with their arms in slings went
+restlessly up and down, smarting with fever. Those who were wounded in
+the lower extremities, body, or head, lay upon their backs, tossing even
+in sleep. They listened peevishly to the wind whistling through the
+chinks of the barn. They followed one with their rolling eyes. They
+turned away from the lantern, for it seemed to sear them. Soldiers sat
+by the severely wounded, laving their sores with water. In many wounds
+the balls still remained, and the discolored flesh was swollen
+unnaturally. There were some who had been shot in the bowels, and now
+and then they were frightfully convulsed, breaking into shrieks and
+shouts. Some of them iterated a single word, as, "doctor," or "help," or
+"God," or "oh!" commencing with a loud spasmodic cry, and continuing the
+same word till it died away in cadence. The act of calling seemed to
+lull the pain. Many were unconscious and lethargic, moving their fingers
+and lips mechanically, but never more to open their eyes upon the light;
+they were already going through the valley and the shadow. I think,
+still, with a shudder, of the faces of those who were told mercifully
+that they could not live. The unutterable agony; the plea for somebody
+on whom to call; the longing eyes that poured out prayers; the looking
+on mortal as if its resources were infinite; the fearful looking to the
+immortal as if it were so far off, so implacable, that the dying appeal
+would be in vain; the open lips, through which one could almost look at
+the quaking heart below; the ghastliness of brow and tangled hair; the
+closing pangs; the awful _quietus_. I thought of Parrhasius, in the
+poem, as I looked at these things:--
+
+                         "Gods!
+    Could I but paint a dying groan----."
+
+And how the keen eye of West would have turned from the reeking cockpit
+of the _Victory_, or the tomb of the Dead Man Restored, to this old
+barn, peopled with horrors. I rambled in and out, learning to look at
+death, studying the manifestations of pain,--quivering and sickening at
+times, but plying my avocation, and jotting the names for my column of
+mortalities.
+
+At eleven o'clock there was music along the high-road, and a general
+rushing from camps. The victorious regiments were returning from
+Hanover, under escort, and all the bands were pealing national airs. As
+they turned down the fields towards their old encampments, the several
+brigades stood under arms to welcome them, and the cheers were many and
+vigorous. But the solemn ambulances still followed after, and the red
+flag of the hospitals flaunted bloodily in the blue midnight.
+
+Both the prisoners and the wounded were removed between midnight and
+morning to White House, and as I had despatches to forward by the
+mail-boat, I rode down in an ambulance, that contained six wounded men
+besides. The wounded were to be consigned to hospital boats, and
+forwarded to hospitals in northern cities, and the prisoners were to be
+placed in a transport, under guard, and conveyed to Fort Delaware, near
+Philadelphia.
+
+Ambulances, it may be said, incidentally, are either two-wheeled or
+four-wheeled. Two-wheeled ambulances are commonly called "hop, step, and
+jumps." They are so constructed that the forepart is either very high or
+very low, and may be both at intervals. The wounded occupants may be
+compelled to ride for hours in these carriages, with their heels
+elevated above their heads, and may finally be shaken out, or have their
+bones broken by the terrible jolting. The four-wheeled ambulances are
+built in shelves, or compartments, but the wounded are in danger of
+being smothered in them. It was in one of these latter that I rode,
+sitting with the driver. We had four horses, but were thrice "swamped"
+on the road, and had to take out the wounded men once, till we could
+start the wheels. Two of these men were wounded in the face, one of them
+having his nose completely severed, and the other having a fragment of
+his jaw knocked out. A third had received a ball among the thews and
+muscles behind his knee, and his whole body appeared to be paralyzed.
+Two were wounded in the shoulders, and the sixth was shot in the breast,
+and was believed to be injured inwardly, as he spat blood, and suffered
+almost the pain of death. The ride with these men, over twenty miles of
+hilly, woody country, was like one of Dante's excursions into the
+Shades. In the awful stillness of the dark pines, their screams
+frightened the hooting owls, and the whirring insects in the leaves and
+tree-tops quieted their songs. They heard the gurgle of the rills, and
+called aloud for water to quench their insatiate thirst. One of them
+sang a shrill, fierce, fiendish ballad, in an interval of relief, but
+plunged, at a sudden relapse, in prayers and curses. We heard them
+groaning to themselves, as we sat in front, and one man, it seemed, was
+quite out of his mind. These were the outward manifestations; but what
+chords trembled and smarted within, we could only guess. What regrets
+for good resolves unfulfilled, and remorse for years misspent, made
+hideous these sore and panting hearts? The moonlight pierced through the
+thick foliage of the wood, and streamed into our faces, like invitations
+to a better life. But the crippled and bleeding could not see or feel
+it,--buried in the shelves of the ambulance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BALLOON BATTLES.
+
+
+Some days ago, as I was sitting in Central Park, under a tree no bigger
+than Jonah's gourd, broiling nicely brown, and seasoning the process by
+reading what the lesser weeklies said about me, I saw at the Park gate a
+great phantasm, like a distended sausage, swaying to and fro as if
+striving to burst, and directly the horrible thing blew upwards,
+spilling all the stuffing from the case.
+
+I saw in a moment that the apparition was a balloon, and that the
+aeronaut was only emptying ballast.
+
+Straight toward me the floating vessel came, so close to the ground that
+I could hear the silk crackle and the ropes creak, till, directly, a man
+leaned over the side and shouted--
+
+"Is that you, Townsend?"
+
+"Hallo, Lowe!"
+
+"I want you to get on your feet and be spry about it: we have a literary
+party here, and wish you to write it up. I'll let one bag of ballast go,
+as we touch the grass, and you must leap in simultaneously. Thump!"
+
+Here the car collided with the ground, and in another instant, I found
+quantities of dirt spilled down my back, and two or three people lying
+beneath me. The world slid away, and the clouds opened to receive me.
+Lowe was opening a bottle of Heidsick, and three or four gentlemen with
+_heads sick_ were unclosing the petals of their lips to get the
+afternoon dew.
+
+These were the various critics and fugitive writers of the weekly and
+daily press. They looked as if they wanted to put each other over the
+side of the car, but smothered their invective at my advent, as if I
+were so much pearl-ash.
+
+It was just seven o'clock, and the Park lay like a veined and mottled
+blood-stone in the red sunset. The city wilted to the littleness of a
+rare mosaic pin, its glittering point parting the blue scarf of the bay,
+and the white bosom of the ocean swelling afar, all draped with purple
+clouds like golden hair, in which the entangled gems were the sails of
+the white ships.
+
+I said this aloud, and all the party drew their lead pencils. They
+forgot the occasion in my eloquence, and wanted to report me.
+
+Just here, I drew a field-glass from the aeronaut, and reconnoitred the
+streets of the city. To my dismay there was nobody visible on Broadway
+but gentlemen. I called everybody's attention to the fact, and it was
+accounted for on the supposition that the late bank forgeries and
+defalcations, growing out of the extravagance of womankind, had prompted
+all the husbands to make of their homes nunneries.
+
+We observed, however, close by every gentleman, something that resembled
+a black dog with his tail curled over his back.
+
+"Stuff!" said one, "they're hay wagons."
+
+"No!" cried Lowe, "they're nothing of the sort; they are waterfalls, and
+the ladies are, of course, invisible under them."
+
+We accepted the explanation, and thought the trip very melancholy. No
+landscape is complete without a woman. Very soon we struck the great
+polar current, and passed Harlem river; the foliage of the trees, by
+some strange anomaly, began to ascend towards us, but Lowe caught two
+or three of the supposed leaves, and they proved to be greenbacks.
+
+There was at once a tremendous sensation in the car; we knew that we
+were on the track of Ketchum and his carpet-bag of bank-notes.
+
+"Is there any reward out?" cried Lowe.
+
+"Not yet!"
+
+"Then we won't pursue him."
+
+As we slowly drifted to the left, the Hudson shone through the trees,
+and before dusk we swept across Lake Mahopec. I heard a voice singing to
+the dip of oars, and had to be held down by five men to restrain an
+involuntary impulse to quit my company.
+
+"Townsend," said Lowe, "have you the copy of that matter you printed
+about me in England? This is the time to call you to account for it. We
+are two or three miles above _terra firma_, and I might like to drop you
+for a parachute."
+
+I felt Lowe's muscle, and knew myself secure. Then I unrolled the pages,
+which I fortunately carried with me, and told him the following news
+about himself:--
+
+The aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac was Mr. S. T. C. Lowe; he had
+made seven thousand ascensions, and his army companion was invariably
+either an artist, a correspondent, or a telegrapher.
+
+A minute insulated wire reached from the car to headquarters, and
+McClellan was thus informed of all that could be seen within the
+Confederate works. Sometimes they remained aloft for hours, making
+observations with powerful glasses, and once or twice the enemy tested
+their distance with shell.
+
+On the 13th of April, the Confederates sent up a balloon, the first they
+had employed, at which Lowe was infinitely amused. He said that it had
+neither shape nor buoyancy, and predicted that it would burst or fall
+apart after a week. It certainly occurred that, after a few fitful
+appearances, the stranger was seen no more, till, on the 28th of June,
+it floated, like a thing of omen, over the spires of Richmond. At that
+time the Federals were in full retreat, and all the acres were covered
+with their dead.
+
+On the 11th of April, at five o'clock, an event at once amusing and
+thrilling occurred at our quarters. The commander-in-chief had appointed
+his personal and confidential friend, General Fitz John Porter, to
+conduct the siege of Yorktown. Porter was a polite, soldierly gentleman,
+and a native of New Hampshire, who had been in the regular army since
+early manhood. He fought gallantly in the Mexican war, being thrice
+promoted and once seriously wounded, and he was now forty years of
+age,--handsome, enthusiastic, ambitious, and popular. He made frequent
+ascensions with Lowe, and learned to go aloft alone. One day he ascended
+thrice, and finally seemed as cosily at home in the firmament as upon
+the solid earth. It is needless to say that he grew careless, and on
+this particular morning leaped into the car and demanded the cables to
+be let out with all speed. I saw with some surprise that the flurried
+assistants were sending up the great straining canvas with a single rope
+attached. The enormous bag was only partially inflated, and the loose
+folds opened and shut with a crack like that of a musket. Noisily,
+fitfully, the yellow mass rose into the sky, the basket rocking like a
+leather in the zephyr; and just as I turned aside to speak to a comrade,
+a sound came from overhead, like the explosion of a shell, and something
+striking me across the face laid me flat upon the ground.
+
+Half blind and stunned, I staggered to my feet, but the air seemed full
+of cries and curses. Opening my eyes ruefully, I saw all faces turned
+upwards, and when I looked above,--the balloon was adrift.
+
+The treacherous cable, rotted with vitriol, had snapped in twain; one
+fragment had been the cause of my downfall, and the other trailed, like
+a great entrail, from the receding car, where Fitz John Porter was
+bounding upward upon a Pegasus that he could neither check nor direct.
+
+The whole army was agitated by the unwonted occurrence. From battery No.
+1, on the brink of the York, to the mouth of Warwick river, every
+soldier and officer was absorbed. Far within the Confederate lines the
+confusion extended. We heard the enemy's alarm-guns, and directly the
+signal flags were waving up and down our front.
+
+The General appeared directly over the edge of the car. He was tossing
+his hands frightenedly, and shouting something that we could not
+comprehend.
+
+"O--pen--the--valve!" called Lowe, in his shrill tones;
+"climb--to--the--netting--and--reach--the--valve--rope."
+
+"The valve!--the valve!" repeated a multitude of tongues, and all gazed
+with thrilling interest at the retreating hulk that still kept straight
+upward, swerving neither to the east nor the west.
+
+It was a weird spectacle,--that frail, fading oval, gliding against the
+sky, floating in the serene azure, the little vessel swinging silently
+beneath, and a hundred thousand martial men watching the loss of their
+brother in arms, but powerless to relieve or recover him. Had Fitz John
+Porter been drifting down the rapids of Niagara, he could not have been
+so far from human assistance. But we saw him directly, no bigger than a
+child's toy, clambering up the netting and reaching for the cord.
+
+"He can't do it," muttered a man beside me; "the wind blows the
+valve-rope to and fro, and only a spry, cool-headed fellow can catch
+it."
+
+We saw the General descend, and appearing again over the edge of the
+basket, he seemed to be motioning to the breathless hordes below, the
+story of his failure. Then he dropped out of sight, and when we next saw
+him, he was reconnoitring the Confederate works through a long black
+spy-glass. A great laugh went up and down the lines as this cool
+procedure was observed, and then a cheer of applause ran from group to
+group. For a moment it was doubtful that the balloon would float in
+either direction; it seemed to falter, like an irresolute being, and
+moved reluctantly southeastward, towards Fortress Monroe. A huzza, half
+uttered, quivered on every lip. All eyes glistened, and some were dim
+with tears of joy. But the wayward canvas now turned due westward, and
+was blown rapidly toward the Confederate works. Its course was fitfully
+direct, and the wind seemed to veer often, as if contrary currents,
+conscious of the opportunity, were struggling for the possession of the
+daring navigator. The south wind held mastery for awhile, and the
+balloon passed the Federal front amid a howl of despair from the
+soldiery. It kept right on, over sharpshooters, rifle-pits, and
+outworks, and finally passed, as if to deliver up its freight, directly
+over the heights of Yorktown. The cool courage, either of heroism or
+despair, had seized upon Fitz John Porter. He turned his black glass
+upon the ramparts and masked cannon below, upon the remote camps, upon
+the beleaguered town, upon the guns of Gloucester Point, and upon
+distant Norfolk. Had he been reconnoitring from a secure perch at the
+tip of the moon, he could not have been more vigilant, and the
+Confederates probably thought this some Yankee device to peer into their
+sanctuary in despite of ball or shell. None of their great guns could be
+brought to bear upon the balloon; but there were some discharges of
+musketry that appeared to have no effect, and finally even these
+demonstrations ceased. Both armies in solemn silence were gazing aloft,
+while the imperturbable mariner continued to spy out the land.
+
+The sun was now rising behind us, and roseate rays struggled up to the
+zenith, like the arcs made by showery bombs. They threw a hazy
+atmosphere upon the balloon, and the light shone through the network
+like the sun through the ribs of the skeleton ship in the _Ancient
+Mariner_. Then, as all looked agape, the air-craft "plunged, and tacked,
+and veered," and drifted rapidly toward the Federal lines again.
+
+The allelujah that now went up shook the spheres, and when he had
+regained our camp limits, the General was seen clambering up again to
+clutch the valve-rope. This time he was successful, and the balloon fell
+like a stone, so that all hearts once more leaped up, and the cheers
+were hushed. Cavalry rode pell-mell from several directions, to reach
+the place of descent, and the General's personal staff galloped past me
+like the wind, to be the first at his debarkation. I followed the throng
+of soldiery with due haste, and came up to the horsemen in a few
+minutes. The balloon had struck a canvas tent with great violence,
+felling it as by a bolt, and the General, unharmed, had disentangled
+himself from innumerable folds of oiled canvas, and was now the cynosure
+of an immense group of people. While the officers shook his hands, the
+rabble bawled their satisfaction in hurrahs, and a band of music
+marching up directly, the throng on foot and horse gave him a vociferous
+escort to his quarters.
+
+Five miles east of Richmond, in the middle of May, we found the balloon
+already partially inflated, resting behind a ploughed hill that formed
+one of a ridge or chain of hills, bordering the Chickahominy. The stream
+was only a half-mile distant, but the balloon was sheltered from
+observation by reason of its position in the hollow.
+
+Heretofore the ascensions had been made from remote places, for there
+was good reason to believe that batteries lined the opposite hills; but
+now, for the first time, Lowe intended to make an ascent whereby he
+could look into Richmond, count the forts encircling it, and note the
+number and position of the camps that intervened. The balloon was named
+the "Constitution," and looked like a semi-distended boa-constrictor, as
+it flapped with a jerking sound, and shook its oiled and painted folds.
+It was anchored to the ground by stout ropes affixed to stakes, and also
+by sand-bags which hooked to its netting. The basket lay alongside; the
+generators were contained in blue wooden wagons, marked "U. S.;" and
+the gas was fed to the balloon through rubber and metallic pipes. A tent
+or two, a quantity of vitriol in green and wicker carboys, some horses
+and transportation teams, and several men that assisted the inflation,
+were the only objects to be remarked. As some time was to transpire
+before the arrangements were completed, I resorted to one of the tents
+and took a comfortable nap. The "Professor" aroused me at three o'clock,
+when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and emitting a hollow
+sound, as of escaping gas. The basket was made fast directly, the
+telescopes tossed into place; the Professor climbed to the side, holding
+by the network; and I coiled up in a rope at the bottom.
+
+"Stand by your cables," he said, and the bags of ballast were at once
+cut away. Twelve men took each a rope in hand, and played out slowly,
+letting us glide gently upward. The earth seemed to be falling away, and
+we poised motionless in the blue ether. The tree-tops sank downward, the
+hills dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the Chickahominy
+was visible beyond us, winding like a ribbon of silver through the ridgy
+landscape.
+
+Far and wide stretched the Federal camps. We saw faces turned upwards
+gazing at our ascent, and heard clearly, as in a vacuum, the voices of
+soldiers. At every second the prospect widened, the belt of horizon
+enlarged, remote farmhouses came in view; the earth was like a perfectly
+flat surface, painted with blue woods, and streaked with pictures of
+roads, fields, fences, and streams. As we climbed higher, the river
+seemed directly beneath us, the farms on the opposite bank were plainly
+discernible, and Richmond lay only a little way off, enthroned on its
+many hills, with the James stretching white and sinuous from its feet to
+the horizon. We could see the streets, the suburbs, the bridges, the
+outlaying roads, nay, the moving masses of people. The Capitol sat white
+and colossal on Shockoe Hill, the dingy buildings of the Tredegar works
+blackened the river-side above, the hovels of rockets clustered at the
+hither limits, and one by one we made out familiar hotels, public
+edifices, and vicinities. The fortifications were revealed in part only,
+for they took the hue of the soil, and blended with it; but many camps
+were plainly discernible, and by means of the glasses we separated tent
+from tent, and hut from hut. The Confederates were seen running to the
+cover of the woods, that we might not discover their numbers, but we
+knew the location of their camp-fires by the smoke that curled toward
+us.
+
+A panorama so beautiful would have been rare at any time, but this was
+thrice interesting from its past and coming associations. Across those
+plains the hordes at our feet were either to advance victoriously, or be
+driven eastward with dusty banners and dripping hands. Those white
+farm-houses were to be receptacles for the groaning and the mangled;
+thousands were to be received beneath the turf of those pasture fields;
+and no rod of ground on any side, should not, sooner or later, smoke
+with the blood of the slain.
+
+"Guess I got 'em now, jest where I want 'em," said Lowe, with a
+gratified laugh; "jest keep still as you mind to, and squint your eye
+through my glass, while I make a sketch of the roads and the country.
+Hold hard there, and anchor fast!" he screamed to the people below. Then
+he fell imperturbably to work, sweeping the country with his hawk-eye,
+and escaping nothing that could contribute to the completeness of his
+jotting.
+
+We had been but a few minutes thus poised, when close below, from the
+edge of a timber stretch, puffed a volume of white smoke. A second
+afterward, the air quivered with the peal of a cannon. A third, and we
+heard the splitting shriek of a shell, that passed a little to our left,
+but in exact range, and burst beyond us in the ploughed field, heaving
+up the clay as it exploded.
+
+"Ha!" said Lowe, "they have got us foul! Haul in the cables--quick!" he
+shouted, in a fierce tone.
+
+At the same instant, the puff, the report, and the shriek were repeated;
+but this time the shell burst to our right in mid-air, and scattered
+fragments around and below us.
+
+"Another shot will do our business," said Lowe, between his teeth; "it
+isn't a mile, and they have got the range."
+
+Again the puff and the whizzing shock. I closed my eyes, and held my
+breath hard. The explosion was so close, that the pieces of shell seemed
+driven across my face, and my ears quivered with the sound. I looked at
+Lowe, to see if he was struck. He had sprung to his feet, and clutched
+the cordage frantically.
+
+"Are you pulling in there, you men?" he bellowed, with a loud
+imprecation.
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter!" broke a third shell, and my heart
+was wedged in my throat.
+
+I saw at a glimpse the whole bright landscape again. I hoard the voices
+of soldiers below, and saw them running across fields, fences, and
+ditches, to reach our anchorage. I saw some drummer-boys digging in the
+field beneath for one of the buried shells. I saw the waving of signal
+flags, the commotion through the camps,--officers galloping their
+horses, teamsters whipping their mules, regiments turning out, drums
+beaten, and batteries limbered up. I remarked, last of all, the site of
+the battery that alarmed us, and, by a strange sharpness of sight and
+sense, believed that I saw the gunners swabbing, ramming, and aiming the
+pieces.
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"
+
+"My God!" said Lowe, hissing the words slowly and terribly, "_they have
+opened upon us from another battery_!"
+
+The scene seemed to dissolve. A cold dew broke from my forehead. I grew
+blind and deaf. I had fainted.
+
+"Pitch some water in his face," said somebody. "He ain't used to it.
+Hallo! there he comes to."
+
+I staggered to my feet. There must have been a thousand men about us.
+They were looking curiously at the aeronaut and me. The balloon lay
+fuming and struggling on the clods.
+
+"Three cheers for the Union bal-loon!" called a little fellow at my
+side.
+
+"Hip, hip--hoorooar! hoorooar! hoorooar!"
+
+"Tiger-r-r--yah! whoop!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+SEVEN PINES AND FAIROAKS.
+
+
+Returning from White House on Saturday, May 29, I heard the cannon of
+"Seven Pines." The roar of artillery came faintly upon the ear in the
+dells and woods, but in the open stretches of country, or from cleared
+hill-tops, I could hear also the volleys of musketry. It was the battle
+sound that assured me of bloody work; for the musket, as I had learned
+by experience, was the only certain signification of battle. It is
+seldom brought into requisition but at close quarters, when results are
+intended; whereas, cannon may peal for a fortnight, and involve no other
+destruction than that of shell and powder. I do not think that any throb
+of my heart was unattended by some volley or discharge. Dull, hoarse,
+uninterrupted, the whole afternoon was shaken by the sound. It was with
+a shudder that I thought how every peal announced flesh and bone riven
+asunder. The country people, on the way, stood in their side yards,
+anxiously listening. Riders or teamsters coming from the field, were
+beset with inquiries; but in the main they knew nothing. As I stopped at
+Daker's for dinner, the concussion of the battle rattled our plates, and
+the girls entirely lost their appetites, so that Glumley, who listened
+and speculated, observed that the baby face was losing all the lines of
+art, and was quite flat and faded in color. Resuming our way, we
+encountered a sallow, shabby person, driving a covered wagon, who
+recognized me at once. It was the "Doctor" who had lightened the
+journey down the Chesapeake, by a discourse upon embalming. He pointed
+toward the field with a long bony finger, and called aloud, with a smirk
+upon his face--
+
+"I have the apparatus here, you see. They will need me out yonder, you
+know. There's opportunity there for the development of the 'system.'"
+
+I did not reach my own camp at Gaines's Farm, till late in the day. The
+firing had almost entirely ceased, but occasional discharges still broke
+the repose of evening, and at night signal rockets hissed and showered
+in every direction. Next day the contest recommenced; but although not
+farther in a direct line, than seven miles, from our encampment, I could
+not cross the Chickahominy, and was compelled to lie in my tent all day.
+
+These two battles were offered by the Confederates, in the hope of
+capturing that portion of the Federal army that lay upon the Richmond
+side of the river. Some days previously, McClellan had ordered Keyes's
+corps, consisting of perhaps twelve thousand men, to cross Bottom
+Bridge, eight miles down the Chickahominy, and occupy an advanced
+position on the York River railroad, six miles east of Richmond. Keyes's
+two divisions, commanded by Generals Couch and Casey, were thus encamped
+in a belt of woods remote from the body of the army, and little more
+than a mile from the enemy's line. Heintzelman's corps was lying at the
+Bridge, several miles in their rear, and the three finest corps in the
+army were separated from them by a broad, rapid river, which could be
+crossed at two places only. The troops of Keyes were mainly
+inexperienced, undisciplined volunteers from the Middle States. When
+their adversaries advanced, therefore, in force, on the twenty-ninth
+instant, they made a fitful, irregular resistance, and at evening
+retired in panic and disorder. The victorious enemy followed them so
+closely, that many of the Federals were slain in their tents. During
+that night, the Chickahominy, swollen by rains, overflowed its banks,
+and swept away the bridges. The beaten and disorganized relic of the
+fight of "Seven Pines," was thus completely isolated, and apparently to
+be annihilated at daybreak. But during the night, twenty thousand fresh
+men of Sumner's corps, forded the river, carrying their artillery, piece
+by piece across, and at dawn they assumed the offensive, seconded by the
+encouraged columns of Keyes. The fight was one of desperation; at night
+the Federals reoccupied their old ground at Fairoaks, and the
+Confederates retired, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. They
+lost, among their prisoners, General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, who
+was severely wounded, and with whom I talked as he lay in bed at
+Gaines's Mansion. He appeared to be a chivalrous, gossipy old gentleman,
+and said that he was the last South Carolinian to stand by the Union.
+
+On the succeeding day, Monday, June 2, I rode to "Grape-Vine Bridge,"
+and attempted to force my horse through the swamp and stream; but the
+drowned mules that momentarily floated down the current, admonished me
+of the folly of the hazard. The bridge itself was a swimming mass of
+poles and logs, that yielded with every pressure; yet I saw many wounded
+men, who waded through the water, or stepped lightly from log to log,
+and so gained the shore, wet from head to foot. Long lines of supply
+teams and ambulances were wedged in the depth of the thick wood,
+bordering the river; but so narrow were the corduroy approaches to the
+bridge, and so fathomless the swamp on either hand, that they could
+neither go forward, nor return. The straggling troops brought the
+unwelcome intelligence, that their comrades on the other side were
+starving, as they had crossed with a single ration of food, and had long
+ago eaten their last morsels. While I was standing close by the bridge,
+General McClellan, and staff, rode through the swamp, and attempted to
+make the passage. The "young Napoleon," urged his horse upon the
+floating timber, and at once sank over neck and saddle. His staff
+dashed after him, floundering in the same way; and when they had
+splashed and shouted, till I believed them all drowned, they turned and
+came to shore, dripping and discomfited. There was another Napoleon,
+who, I am informed, slid down the Alps into Italy; the present
+descendant did not slide so far, and he shook himself, after the manner
+of a dog. I remarked with some surprise, that he was growing obese;
+whereas, the active labors of the campaign had reduced the dimensions of
+most of the Generals.
+
+I secured my horse, and placed a drummer-boy beside him, to prevent
+abduction or mistake; then stripping from top to toe, and holding my
+garments above my head, I essayed the difficult passage; as a
+commencement, I dropped my watch, but the guard-hook caught in a log and
+held it fast. Afterward, I slipped from the smooth butt of a tree, and
+thoroughly soused myself and clothing; a lumber-man from Maine, beheld
+my ill luck, and kindly took my burden to the other side. An estuary of
+the Chickahominy again intervened, but a rough scow floated upon it,
+which the Captain of Engineers sent for me, with a soldier to man the
+oars. I neglected to "trim boat," I am sorry to add, although admonished
+to that effect repeatedly by the mariner; and we swamped in four feet of
+water. I resembled a being of one of the antediluvian eras, when I came
+to land, finally, and might have been taken for a slimy Iguanodon. I
+sacrificed some of my under clothing to the process of cleansing and
+drying, and so started with soaking boots, and a deficiency of dress, in
+the direction of Savage's. Passing the "bottom," or swamp-land, I
+ascended a hill, and following a lane, stopped after a half hour at a
+frame-mansion, unpainted, with some barns and negro-quarters contiguous,
+and a fine grove of young oaks, shading the porch. An elderly gentleman
+sat in the porch, sipping a julep, with his feet upon the railing, and
+conversing with a stout, ruddy officer, of decidedly Milesian
+physiognomy. When I approached, the latter hurriedly placed a chair
+between himself and me, and said, with a stare--
+
+"Bloodanowns! And where have ye been? Among the hogs, I think?" I
+assured him that I did not intend to come to close quarters, and that it
+would be no object on my part to contaminate him. The old gentleman
+called for "William," a tall, consumptive servant, whose walk reminded
+me of a stubborn convict's, in the treadmill, and ordered him to scrape
+me, which was done, accordingly, with a case-knife. The young officer
+proposed to dip me in the well and wring me well out, but I demurred,
+mainly on the ground that some time would be so consumed, and that my
+horse was waiting on the other side. He at once said that he would send
+for it, and called "Pat," a civilian servant, in military blue, who was
+nursing a negro baby with an eye, it seemed, to obtain favor with the
+mother. The willingness of the man surprised me, but he said that it was
+a short cut of four miles to the railroad bridge, which had been
+repaired and floored, and that he could readily recover the animal and
+return at three o'clock. My benefactor, the officer, then mixed a julep,
+which brought a comfortable glow to my face, and said, without parley--
+
+"You're a reporter, on the----"
+
+He said further, that he had been Coroner's Surgeon in New York for many
+years, and had learned to know the representatives of newspapers, one
+from the other, by generic manner and appearance. Three correspondents
+rode by at the time, neither of whom he knew personally, but designated
+them promptly, with their precise connections. In short, we became
+familiar directly, and he told me that his name was O'Gamlon,
+Quartermaster of Meagher's Irish brigade, Sumner's corps. He was
+established with the elderly gentleman,--whose name was Michie,--and had
+two horses in the stable, at hand. He proposed to send me to the field,
+with a note of introduction to the General, and another to Colonel
+Baker, of the New York 88th (Irish), who could show me the lines and
+relics of battle, and give me the lists of killed, wounded, and missing.
+I repaired to his room, and arrayed myself in a fatigue officer's suit,
+with clean underclothing, after which, descending, I climbed into his
+saddle, and dashed off, with a mettlesome, dapper pony. The railroad
+track was about a mile from the house, and the whole country, hereabout,
+was sappy, dank, and almost barren. Scrub pines covered much of the
+soil, and the cleared fields were dotted with charred stumps. The houses
+were small and rude; the wild pigs ran like deer through the bushes and
+across my path; vultures sailed by hundreds between me and the sky; the
+lane was slippery and wound about slimy pools; the tree-tops, in many
+places, were splintered by ball and shell. I crossed the railroad, cut
+by a high bridge, and saw below the depot, at Savage's, now the
+head-quarters of General Heintzelman. Above, in full view, were the
+commands at Peach Orchard and Fairoaks, and to the south, a few furlongs
+distant, the Williamsburg and Richmond turnpike ran, parallel with the
+railway, toward the field of Seven Pines. The latter site, was simply
+the junction of the turnpike with a roundabout way to Richmond, called
+the "Nine Mile Road," and Fairoaks was the junction of the diverging
+road with the railroad. Toward the latter I proceeded, and soon came to
+the Irish brigade, located on both sides of the way, at Peach Orchard.
+
+They occupied the site of the most desperate fighting.
+
+A small farm hollowed in the swampy thicket and wood, was here divided
+by the track, and a little farm-house, with a barn, granary, and a
+couple of cabins, lay on the left side. In a hut to the right General
+Thomas Francis Meagher made his head-quarters, and a little beyond, in
+the edges of the swamp timber, lay his four regiments, under arms.
+
+A guard admonished me, in curt, lithe speech, that my horse must come no
+further; for the brigade held the advance post, and I was even now
+within easy musket range of the imperceptible enemy. An Irish boy
+volunteered to hold the rein, while I paid my respects to the Commander.
+I encountered him on the threshold of the hut, and he welcomed me in the
+richest and most musical of brogues. Large, corpulent, and powerful of
+body; plump and ruddy--or as some would say, bloated--of face; with
+resolute mouth and heavy animal jaws; expressive nose, and piercing
+blue-eyes; brown hair, mustache, and eyebrows; a fair forehead, and
+short sinewy neck, a man of apparently thirty years of age, stood in the
+doorway, smoking a cigar, and trotting his sword fretfully in the
+scabbard. He wore the regulation blue cap, but trimmed plentifully with
+gold lace, and his sleeves were slashed in the same manner. A star
+glistened in his oblong shoulder-bar; a delicate gold cord seamed his
+breeches from his Hessian boots to his red tasselled sword-sash; a
+seal-ring shone from the hand with which he grasped his gauntlets, and
+his spurs were set upon small aristocratic feet.
+
+A tolerable physiognomist would have resolved his temperament to an
+intense sanguine. He was fitfully impulsive, as all his movements
+attested, and liable to fluctuations of peevishness, melancholy, and
+enthusiasm. This was "Meagher of the Sword," the stripling who made
+issue with the renowned O'Connell, and divided his applauses; the
+"revolutionist," who had outlived exile to become the darling of the
+"Young Ireland" populace in his adopted country; the partisan, whose
+fierce, impassioned oratory had wheeled his factious element of the
+Democracy into the war cause; and the soldier, whose gallant bearing at
+Bull Run had won him a brigadiership. He was, to my mind, a realization
+of the Knight of Gwynne, or any of the rash, impolitic, poetic
+personages in Lever and Griffin. Ambitious without a name; an adventurer
+without a definite cause; an orator without policy; a General without
+caution or experience, he had led the Irish brigade through the hottest
+battles, and associated them with the most brilliant episodes of the
+war.
+
+Every adjunct of the place was strictly Hibernian. The emerald green
+standard entwined with the red, white, and blue; the gilt eagles on the
+flag-poles held the Shamrock sprig in their beaks; the soldiers lounging
+on guard, had "69" or "88" the numbers of their regiments, stamped on a
+green hat-band; the brogue of every county from Down to Wexford fell
+upon the ear; one might have supposed that the "year '98" had been
+revived, and that these brawny Celts were again afield against their
+Saxon countrymen. The class of lads upon the staff of Meagher, was an
+odd contrast to the mass of staff officers in the "Grand Army."
+Fox-hunters they all seemed to me, and there was one, who wore a long,
+twisted, pomatumed moustache, who talked of steeple chases, all the
+while, and wanted to have "a healthy dash" of some kind. A class of
+Irish exquisites, they appeared to be,--good for a fight, a card-party,
+or a hurdle jumping,--but entirely too Quixotic for the sober
+requirements of Yankee warfare. When anything absurd, forlorn, or
+desperate was to be attempted, the Irish brigade was called upon. But,
+ordinarily, they were regarded, as a party of mad fellows, more
+ornamental than useful, and entirely too clannish and factious to be
+entrusted with power. Meagher himself seemed to be less erratic than his
+subordinates; for he had married a New York lady, and had learned, by
+observation, the superiority of the pelfish, plodding native before his
+own fitful, impracticable race. His address was infatuating: but there
+was a certain airiness, indicative of vanity, that revealed his great
+characteristic. He loved applause, and to obtain it had frittered away
+his fine abilities, upon petty, splendid, momentary triumphs. He was
+generous to folly, and, I have no doubt, maintained his whole staff.
+
+When I requested to be shown the field, and its relics, Meagher said, in
+his musical brogue, that I need only look around.
+
+"From the edge of that wood," he said, "the Irish brigade charged across
+this field, and fell upon their faces in the railway cutting below. A
+regiment of Alabamians lay in the timber beyond, with other Southerners
+in their rear, and on both flanks. They thought that we were charging
+bayonets, and reserved their fire till we should approach within
+butchering distance. On the contrary, I ordered the boys to lie down,
+and load and fire at will. In the end, sir, we cut them to pieces, and
+five hundred of them were left along the swamp fence, that you see.
+There isn't fifty killed and wounded in the whole Irish brigade."
+
+A young staff officer took me over the field. We visited first the
+cottage and barns across the road, and found the house occupied by some
+thirty wounded Federals. They lay in their blankets upon the
+floors,--pale, helpless, hollow-eyed, making low moans at every breath.
+Two or three were feverishly sleeping, and, as the flies revelled upon
+their gashes, they stirred uneasily and moved their hands to and fro. By
+the flatness of the covering at the extremities, I could see that
+several had only stumps of legs. They had lost the sweet enjoyment of
+walking afield, and were but fragments of men, to limp forever through a
+painful life. Such wrecks of power I never beheld. Broad, brawny,
+buoyant, a few hours ago, the loss of blood, and the nervous shock,
+attendant upon amputation, has wellnigh drained them to the last drop.
+Their faces were as white as the tidy ceiling; they were whining like
+babies; and only their rolling eyes distinguished them from mutilated
+corpses. Some seemed quite broken in spirit, and one, who could speak,
+observing my pitiful glances toward his severed thigh, drew up his mouth
+and chin, and wept as if with the loss of comeliness all his ambitions
+were frustrated. A few attendants were brushing off the insects with
+boughs of cedar, laving the sores, or administering cooling draughts.
+The second story of the dwelling was likewise occupied by wounded, but
+in a corner clustered the terrified farmer and his family, vainly
+attempting to turn their eyes from the horrible spectacle. The farmer's
+wife had a baby at her breast, and its little blue eyes were straying
+over the room, half wonderingly, half delightedly. I thought, with a
+shudder, of babyhood thus surrounded, and how, in the long future, its
+first recollections of existence should be of booming guns and dying
+soldiers! The cow-shed contained seven corpses, scarcely yet cold, lying
+upon their backs, in a row, and fast losing all resemblance to man. The
+farthest removed, seemed to be a diminutive boy, and I thought if he had
+a mother, that she might sometime like to speak with me. When I took
+their names, I thought what terrible agencies I was fulfilling. Beyond
+my record, falsely spelled, perhaps, they would have no history. And
+people call such deaths glorious!
+
+Upon a pile of lumber and some heaps of fence-rails, close by, sat some
+dozens of wounded men, mainly Federals, with bandaged arms and faces,
+and torn clothing. There was one, shot in the foot, who howled at every
+effort to remove his boot; the blood leaked from a rent in the side, and
+at last, the leather was cut, piecemeal from the flesh. These ate
+voraciously, though in pain and fear; for a little soup and meat was
+being doled out to them.
+
+The most horrible of all these scenes--which I have described perhaps
+too circumstantially--was presented in the stable or barn, on the
+premises, where a bare dingy floor--the planks of which tilted and
+shook, as one made his way over them--was strewn with suffering people.
+Just at the entrance sat a boy, totally blind, both eyes having been
+torn out by a minnie-ball, and the entire bridge of the nose shot away.
+He crouched against the gable, in darkness and agony, tremulously
+fingering his knees. Near at hand, sat another, who had been shot
+through the middle of the forehead, but singular to relate, he still
+lived, though lunatic, and evidently beyond hope. Death had drawn blue
+and yellow circles beneath his eyes, and he muttered incomprehensibly,
+wagging his head. Two men, perfectly naked, lay in the middle of the
+place, wounded in bowels and loins; and at a niche in the
+weather-boarding, where some pale light peeped in, four mutilated
+wretches were gaming with cards. I was now led a little way down the
+railroad, to see the Confederates. The rain began to fall at this time,
+and the poor fellows shut their eyes to avoid the pelting of the drops.
+There was no shelter for them within a mile, and the mud absolutely
+reached half way up their bodies. Nearly one third had suffered
+amputation above the knee. There were about thirty at this spot, and I
+was told that they were being taken to Meadow Station on hand cars. As
+soon as the locomotive could pass the Chickahominy, they would be
+removed to White House, and comfortably quartered in the Sanitary and
+hospital boats. Some of them were fine, athletic, and youthful, and I
+was directed to one who had been married only three days before.
+
+"Doctor," said one, feebly, "I feel very cold: do you think that this is
+death? It seems to be creeping to my heart. I have no feeling, in my
+feet, and my thighs are numb."
+
+A Federal soldier came along with a bucket of soup, and proceeded to
+fill the canteens and plates. He appeared to be a relative of Mark
+Tapley, and possessed much of that estimable person's jollity--
+
+"Come, pardner," he said, "drink yer sup! now, old boy, this'ill warm
+ye; sock it down and ye'll see yer sweetheart soon. You dead,
+Ally-bammy? Go way, now. You'll live a hundred years, you will. That's
+wot you'll do. Won't he, lad? What? Not any? Get out! You'll be slap on
+your legs next week and hev another shot at me the week a'ter that. You
+know you will! Oh! you Rebil! You, with the butternut trousers! Say!
+Wake up and take some o' this. Hello! lad, pardner. Wake up!"
+
+He stirred him gently with his foot; he bent down to touch his face. A
+grimness came over his merriment. The man was stiff and dumb.
+
+Colonel Baker, commanding the 88th New York, was a tall, martial
+Irishman, who opened his heart and bottle at the same welcome, and took
+me into the woods, where some of the slain still remained. He had slept
+not longer than an hour, continuously, for seventy hours, and during the
+past night had been called up by eight alarums. His men lay in the dark
+thickets, without fires or blankets, as they had crossed the
+Chickahominy in light marching order.
+
+"Many a lad," said he, "will escape the bullet for a lingering
+consumption."
+
+We had proceeded but a very little way, when we came to a trodden place
+beneath the pines, where a scalp lay in the leaves, and the imprint of a
+body was plainly visible. The bayonet scabbard lay at one side, the
+canteen at the other. We saw no corpses, however, as fatigue parties had
+been burying the slain, and the whole wood was dotted with heaps of
+clay, where the dead slept below in the oozy trenches. Quantities of
+cartridges were scattered here and there, dropped by the retreating
+Confederates. Some of the cartridge-pouches that I examined were
+completely filled, showing that their possessors had not fired a single
+round; others had but one cartridge missing. There were fragments of
+clothing, hair, blankets, murderous bowie and dirk knives, spurs,
+flasks, caps, and plumes, dropped all the way through the thicket, and
+the trees on every hand were riddled with balls. I came upon a squirrel,
+unwittingly shot during the fight. Not those alone who make the war must
+feel the war! At one of the mounds the burying party had just completed
+their work, and the men were throwing the last clods upon the remains.
+They had dug pits of not more than two feet depth, and dragged the
+bodies heedlessly to the edges, whence they were toppled down and
+scantily covered. Much of the interring had been done by night, and the
+flare of lanterns upon the discolored faces and dead eyes must have
+been hideously effective. The grave-diggers, however, were practical
+personages, and had probably little care for dramatic effects. They
+leaned upon their spades, when the rites were finished, and a large, dry
+person, who appeared to be privileged upon all occasions, said,
+grinningly--
+
+"Colonel, your honor, them boys 'ill niver stand forninst the Irish
+brigade again. If they'd ha' known it was us, sur, begorra! they 'ud ha'
+brought coffins wid 'em."
+
+"No, niver!" "They got their ticket for soup!" "We kivered them, fait',
+will inough!" shouted the other grave-diggers.
+
+"Do ye belave, Colonel," said the dry person, again, "that thim
+ribals'll lave us a chance to catch them. Be me sowl! I'm jist wishin to
+war-rum me hands wid rifle practice."
+
+The others echoed loudly, that they were anxious to be ordered up, and
+some said that "Little Mac'll give 'em his big whack now." The presence
+of death seemed to have added no fear of death to these people. Having
+tasted blood, they now thirsted for it, and I asked myself,
+forebodingly, if a return to civil life would find them less ferocious.
+
+I dined with Colonel Owen of the 69th Pennsylvania (Irish) volunteers.
+He had been a Philadelphia lawyer, and was, by all odds, the most
+consistent and intelligent soldier in the brigade. He had been also a
+schoolmaster for many years, but appeared to be in his element at the
+head of a regiment, and was generally admitted to be an efficient
+officer. He shared the prevailing antipathy to West Point graduates; for
+at this time the arrogance of the regular officers, and the pride of the
+volunteers, had embittered each against the other. His theory of
+military education was, the establishment of State institutions, and the
+reorganization of citizenship upon a strict militia basis. After dinner,
+I rode to "Seven Pines," and examined some of the rifle pits used during
+the engagement. A portion of this ground only had been retaken, and I
+was warned to keep under cover; for sharpshooters lay close by, in the
+underbrush. A visit to the graves of some Federal soldiers completed the
+inspection. Some of the regiments had interred their dead in trenches;
+but the New Englanders were all buried separately, and smooth slabs were
+driven at the heads of the mounds, whereon were inscribed the names and
+ages of the deceased. Some of the graves were freshly sodded, and
+enclosed by rails and logs. They evidenced the orderly, religious habits
+of the sons of the Puritans; for, with all his hardness of manner and
+selfishness of purpose, I am inclined to think that the Yankee is the
+best manifestation of Northern character. He loves his home, at least,
+and he reveres his deceased comrades.
+
+When I returned to Michie's, at six o'clock, the man "Pat," with a
+glowing face, came out to the gate.
+
+"That's a splendid baste of yours, sur," he said,--"and sich a boi to
+gallop."
+
+"My horse doesn't generally gallop," I returned, doubtfully.
+
+When I passed to the barn in the rear, I found to my astonishment, a
+sorrel stallion, magnificently accoutred. He thrust his foot at me
+savagely, as I stood behind him, and neighed till he frightened the
+spiders.
+
+"Pat," said I, wrathfully, "you have stolen some Colonel's nag, and I
+shall be hanged for the theft."
+
+"Fait, sur," said Pat, "my ligs was gone intirely, wid long walkin', and
+I sazed the furst iligant baste I come to."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STUART'S RAID.
+
+
+The old Chickahominy bridges were soon repaired, and the whole of
+Franklin's corps crossed to the south side. McClellan moved his
+head-quarters to Dr. Trent's farm, a half-mile from Michie's, and the
+latter gentleman's fields and lawn were made white with tents. Among
+others, the Chief of Cavalry, Stoneman, pitched his canopy under the
+young oaks, and the whole reserve artillery was parked in the woods,
+close to the house. The engineer brigade encamped in the adjacent
+peach-orchard and corn-field, and the wheat was trampled by battery and
+team-horses. Smith's division now occupied the hills on the south side
+of the Chickahominy, and the Federal line stretched southeastward,
+through Fairoaks, to White Oak Swamp, seven miles away. Porter's corps
+still lay between Mechanicsville and New Bridge, on the north bank of
+the river, and my old acquaintances, the Pennsylvania Reserves, had
+joined the army, and now formed its extreme right wing. This odd
+arrangement of forces was a subject of frequent comment: for the right
+was thus four miles, and the left fourteen miles, from Richmond. The
+four corps at once commenced to entrench, and from Smith's redoubt on
+the river bluffs, to Casey's entrenched hill at White Oak, a continuous
+line of moderately strong earthworks extended. But Porter and the
+Reserves were not entrenched at all, and only a few horsemen were
+picketed across the long reach of country from Meadow Bridge to Hanover
+Court House. Both flanks, in fact, were open, and the left was a day's
+march from the right. We were, meantime, drawing our supplies from White
+House, twenty miles in the rear; there were no railroad guards along the
+entire line, and about five companies protected the grand depot. Two
+gunboats lay in the river, however, and as the teams still went to and
+fro, a second depot was established at a place called Putney's or
+"Garlic," five miles above White House. I went often, and at all hours
+of the day and night, over this exposed and lonely route. My horse had
+been, meantime, returned to the Provost Quarters, and the rightful owner
+had obtained his stallion in exchange. I rode the said stallion but
+once, when he proceeded to walk sideways, and several times rivalled the
+renowned Pegasus in his aerial flights. The man named "Pat" essayed to
+show his paces one day, but the stallion took him straight into
+Stoneman's wall-tent, and that officer shook the Irishman blind. My
+little bob-tailed brownie was thrice endeared to me by our separation;
+but I warned the man "Pat" to keep clear of him thereafter. The man
+"Pat" was a very eccentric person, who slept on the porch at Michie's,
+and used to wake up the house in the small hours, with the story that
+somebody was taking the chickens and the horses. He was the most
+impulsive person that I ever knew, and when I entrusted despatches to
+him once, he put them on the hospital boat by mistake, and they got to
+New York at the close of the campaign.
+
+Michie's soon became a correspondents' rendezvous, and we have had at
+one time, at dinner, twelve representatives of five journals. The Hon.
+Henry J. Raymond, Ex-Lieutenant Governor of New York, and proprietor of
+the _Times_ newspaper, was one of our family for several weeks. He had
+been a New Hampshire lad, and, strolling to New York, took to journalism
+at the age of nineteen years. His industry and probity obtained him both
+means and credit, and, also, what few young journalists obtain, social
+position. He was the founder of Harper's Magazine, one of the most
+successful serials in America, and many English authors are indebted to
+him for a trans-Atlantic recognition of their works. He edited an
+American edition of _Jane Eyre_ before it had attracted attention in
+England, and conducted the _Courier and Enquirer_ with great success for
+many years. The _Times_ is now the most reputable of the great New York
+dailies, and Mr. Raymond has made it influential both at home and
+abroad. He has retained, amidst his social and political successes, a
+predilection for "Bohemia," and became an indefatigable correspondent. I
+rode out with him sometimes, and heard, with interest, his accounts of
+the Italian war, whither he also went in furtherance of journalism.
+Among our quill cavalry-men was a fat gentleman from Philadelphia, who
+had great fear of death, and who used to "tear" to White House, if the
+man "Pat" shot a duck in the garden. He was a hearty, humorous person,
+however, and an adept at searching for news.
+
+O'Ganlon rode with me several times to White House, and we have crossed
+the railroad bridge together, a hundred feet in the air, when the planks
+were slippery, the sides sloping, and the way so narrow that two horses
+could not pass abreast. He was a true Irishman, and leaped barricades
+and ditches without regard to his neck. He had, also, a partiality for
+by-roads that led through swamps and close timber. He discovered one day
+a cow-path between Daker's and an old Mill at Grapevine Bridge. The long
+arms of oaks and beech trees reached across it, and young Absalom might
+have been ensnared by the locks at every rod therein. Through this
+devious and dangerous way, O'Ganlon used to dash, whooping, guiding his
+horse with marvellous dexterity, and bantering me to follow. I so far
+forgot myself generally, as to behave quite as irrationally, and once
+returned to Michie's with a bump above my right eye, that rivalled my
+head in size. At other times I rode alone, and my favorite route was an
+unfrequented lane called the "Quaker Road," that extended from Despatch
+Station, on the line of rail, to Daker's, on the New Bridge Road. Much
+of this way was shut in by thick woods and dreary pine barrens; but the
+road was hard and light, and a few quiet farms lay by the roadside.
+There was a mill, also, three miles from Daker's, where a turbulent
+creek crossed the route, and at an oak-wood, near by, I used to frighten
+the squirrels, so that they started up by pairs and families; I have
+chased them in this way a full mile, and they seemed to know me after a
+time. We used to be on the best of terms, and they would, at length,
+stand their ground saucily, and chatter, the one with the other,
+flourishing their bushy appendages, like so many straggling "Bucktails."
+When I turned from the beaten road, where the ruts were like a ditch and
+parapet, and dead horses blackened the fields; where teams went creaking
+day and night, and squads of sabremen drove pale, barefooted prisoners
+to and fro like swine or cattle, the silence and solitude of this
+by-lane were beautiful as sleep. Many of the old people living in this
+direction had not seen even a soldier or a sutler, save some mounted
+scouts that vanished in clouds of dust; but they had listened with awe
+to the music of cannon, though they did not know either the place or the
+result of the fighting. If fate has ordained me to survive the
+Rebellion, I shall some day revisit these localities; they are stamped
+legibly upon my mind, and I know almost every old couple in New Kent or
+Hanover counties. I have lunched at all the little springs on the road,
+and eaten corn-bread and bacon at most of the cabins. I have swam the
+Pamunkey at dozens of places, and when my finances were low, and my nag
+hungry, have organized myself into a company of foragers, and broken
+into the good people's granaries. I do not know any position that
+admitted of as much adventure and variety. There was always enough
+danger to make my journeys precariously pleasant, and, when wearied of
+the saddle, my friends at Daker's and Michie's had a savory julep and a
+comfortable bed always prepared. I had more liberty than General
+McClellan, and a great deal more comfort.
+
+Mrs. Michie was a warm-hearted, impulsive Virginia lady, with almost New
+England industry, and from very scanty materials she contrived to spread
+a bountiful table. Her coffee was bubbling with rich cream, and her
+"yellow pone" was overrunning with butter. A cleanly black girl shook a
+fly-brush over our shoulders as we ate, and the curious custom was
+maintained of sending a julep to our bedrooms before we rose in the
+mornings. Our hostess was too hospitable to be a bitter partisan, and
+during five weeks of tenure at her residence, we never held an hour's
+controversy. She had troubles, but she endured them patiently. She saw,
+one by one, articles of property sacrificed or stolen; she heard the
+servants speaking impudently; and her daughters and son were in a remote
+part of the State. The young man was a Confederate Surgeon at Lynchburg,
+and the young ladies had taken refuge in Rockbridge County. The latter
+were, from all accounts, pretty and intelligent, and one day, as I
+examined some parcels of books in the parlors, I found a volume of
+amateur poems that some laboring bard had dedicated to the youngest of
+them. Mr. Michie was a fine old Virginia gentleman, who remembered
+Thomas Jefferson well, as he had been reared in that great statesman's
+village, Charlottesville. He told me many anecdotes of Patrick Henry,
+John Randolph, and other distinguished patriots.
+
+I wrote in one of the absent daughter's albums the following lines:--
+
+    Alas! for the pleasant peace we knew,
+      In the happy summers of long ago,
+    When the rivers were bright, and the skies were blue,
+      By the homes of Henrico:
+    We dreamed of wars that were far away,
+      And read, as in fable, of blood that ran,
+    Where the James and Chickahominy stray,
+      Through the groves of Powhattan.
+
+    'Tis a dream come true; for the afternoons
+      Blow bugles of war, by our fields of grain,
+    And the sabres clink, as the dark dragoons
+      Come galloping up the lane;
+    The pigeons have flown from the eves and tiles,
+      The oat-blades have grown to blades of steel,
+    And the Huns swarm down the leafy aisles
+      Of the grand old Commonweal.
+
+    They have torn the Indian fisher's nets,
+      Where flows Pamunkey toward the sea,
+    And blood runs red in the rivulets,
+      That babbled and brawled in glee;
+    The corpses are strewn in Fairoak glades,
+      The hoarse guns thunder from Drury's Ridge,
+    The fishes that played in the cove, deep shades,
+      Are frightened from Bottom Bridge.
+
+    I would that the year were blotted away,
+      And the strawberry grew in the hedge again;
+    That the scythe might swing in the tangled hay,
+      And the squirrel romp in the glen;
+    The walnut sprinkle the clover slopes,
+      Where graze the sheep and the spotted steer;
+    And the winter restore the golden hopes,
+      That were trampled in a year.
+
+On Friday, June 13, I made one of my customary trips to White House, in
+the company of O'Ganlon. The latter individual, in the course of a
+"healthy dash" that he made down the railroad ties,--whereby two shoes
+shied from his mare's hoofs,--reined into a quicksand that threatened to
+swallow his steed. He afterward left his sword at Summit Station, and I,
+obligingly, rode back three miles to recover it. We dined at Daker's,
+where Glumley sat beside the baby-face, pursuant to his art-duties, and
+the plump, red-cheeked miss sat beside me. O'Ganlon was entertained by
+the talkative daughter, who drove him quite mad; so that, when we
+resumed our horses, he insisted upon a second "healthy dash," and
+disappeared through a strip of woods. I followed, rationally, and had
+come to a blacksmith's shop, at the corner of a diverging road, when I
+was made aware of some startling occurrence in my rear. A mounted
+officer dashed past me, shouting some unintelligible tidings, and he was
+followed in quick succession by a dozen cavalry-men, who rode as if the
+foul fiend was at their heels. Then came a teamster, bare-backed, whose
+rent harness trailed in the road, and directly some wagons that were
+halted before the blacksmith's, wheeled smartly, and rattled off towards
+White House.
+
+"What is the matter, my man?" I said to one of these lunatics,
+hurriedly.
+
+"The Rebels are behind!" he screamed, with white lips, and vanished.
+
+I thought that it might be as well to take some other road, and so
+struck off, at a dapper pace, in the direction of the new landing at
+Putney's or "Garlic." At the same instant I heard the crack of carbines
+behind, and they had a magical influence upon my speed. I rode along a
+stretch of chestnut and oak wood, attached to the famous Webb estate,
+and when I came to a rill that passed by a little bridge, under the way,
+turned up its sandy bed and buried myself in the under-brush. A few
+breathless moments only had intervened, when the roadway seemed shaken
+by a hundred hoofs. The imperceptible horsemen yelled like a war-party
+of Camanches, and when they had passed, the carbines rang ahead, as if
+some bloody work was being done at every rod.
+
+I remained a full hour under cover; but as no fresh approaches added to
+my mystery and fear, I sallied forth, and kept the route to Putney's,
+with ears erect and expectant pulses. I had gone but a quarter of a
+mile, when I discerned, through the gathering gloom, a black, misshapen
+object, standing in the middle of the road. As it seemed motionless, I
+ventured closer, when the thing resolved to a sutler's wagon, charred
+and broken, and still smoking from the incendiaries' torch. Further on,
+more of these burned wagons littered the way, and in one place two slain
+horses marked the roadside. When I emerged upon the Hanover road, sounds
+of shrieks and shot issued from the landing at "Garlic," and, in a
+moment, flames rose from the woody shores and reddened the evening. I
+knew by the gliding blaze that vessels had been fired and set adrift,
+and from my place could see the devouring element climbing rope and
+shroud. In a twinkling, a second light appeared behind the woods to my
+right, and the intelligence dawned upon me that the cars and houses at
+Tunstall's Station had been burned. By the fitful illumination, I rode
+tremulously to the old head-quarters at Black Creek, and as I
+conjectured, the depot and train were luridly consuming. The vicinity
+was marked by wrecked sutler's stores, the embers of wagons, and toppled
+steeds. Below Black Creek the ruin did not extend: but when I came to
+White House the greatest confusion existed. Sutlers were taking down
+their booths, transports were slipping their cables, steamers moving
+down the stream. Stuart had made the circuit of the Grand Army to show
+Lee where the infantry could follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FEVER DREAMS IN WAR.
+
+
+A subtle enemy had of late joined the Confederate cause against the
+invaders. He was known as Pestilence, and his footsteps were so soft
+that neither scout nor picket could bar his entrance. His paths were
+subterranean,--through the tepid swamp water, the shallow graves of the
+dead; and aerial,--through the stench of rotting animals, the nightly
+miasms of bog and fen. His victims were not pierced, or crushed, or
+mangled, but their deaths were not less terrible, because more
+lingering. They seemed to wither and shrivel away; their eyes became at
+first very bright, and afterward lustreless; their skins grew hard and
+sallow; their lips faded to a dry whiteness; all the fluids of the body
+were consumed; and they crumbled to corruption before life had fairly
+gone from them.
+
+This visitation has been, by common consent, dubbed "the Chickahominy
+fever," and some have called it the typhus fever. The troops called it
+the "camp fever," and it was frequently aggravated by affections of the
+bowels and throat. The number of persons that died with it was fabulous.
+Some have gone so far as to say that the army could have better afforded
+the slaughter of twenty thousand men, than the delay on the
+Chickahominy. The embalmers were now enjoying their millennium, and a
+steam coffin manufactory was erected at White House, where twenty men
+worked day and night, turning out hundreds of pine boxes. I had,
+occasion, in one of my visits to the depot, to repair to the tent of one
+of the embalmers. He was a sedate, grave person, and when I saw him,
+standing over the nude, hard corpse, he reminded me of the implacable
+vulture, looking into the eyes of Prometheus. His battery and tube were
+pulsing, like one's heart and lungs, and the subject was being drained
+at the neck. I compared the discolored body with the figure of _Ianthe_,
+as revealed in Queen Mab, but failed to see the beautifulness of death.
+
+"If you could only make him breathe, Professor," said an officer
+standing by.
+
+The dry skin of the embalmer broke into chalky dimples, and he grinned
+very much as a corpse might do:--
+
+"Ah!" he said, "_then_ there would be money made."
+
+To hear these embalmers converse with each other was like listening to
+the witch sayings in Macbeth. It appeared that the arch-fiend of
+embalming was a Frenchman named Sonça, or something of that kind, and
+all these worthies professed to have purchased his "system." They told
+grisly anecdotes of "operations," and experimented with chemicals, and
+congratulated each other upon the fever. They would, I think, have piled
+the whole earth with catacombs of stony corpses, and we should have no
+more green graves, but keep our dead with us as household ornaments.
+
+The negroes did not suffer with the fever, although their quarters were
+close and filthy. Their Elysium had come; there was no more work. They
+slept and danced and grinned, and these three actions made up the sum of
+their existence. Such people to increase and multiply I never beheld.
+There were scores of new babies every day; they appeared to be born by
+twins and triplets; they learned to walk in twenty-four hours; and their
+mothers were strong and hearty in less time. Such soulless, lost,
+degraded men and women did nowhere else exist. The divinity they never
+had; the human they had forgotten; they did no great wrongs,--thieving,
+quarrelling, deceiving,--but they failed to do any rights, and their
+worship was animal, and almost profane. They sang incongruous mixtures
+of hymns and field songs:--
+
+    "Oh! bruddern, watch an' pray, _watch_ an' pray!
+    De harvest am a ripenin' our Lord an' Marser say!
+      Oh! ho! yo! dat ole coon, de serpent, ho! oh!
+                        Watch an' pray!"
+
+I have heard them sing such medleys with tears in their eyes, apparently
+fervid and rapt. A very gray old man would lead off, keeping time to the
+words with his head and hands; the mass joining in at intervals, and
+raising a screaming alleluja. Directly they would all rise, link hands,
+and proceed to dance the accompaniment. The motion would be slow at
+first, and the method of singing maintained; after a time they would
+move more rapidly, shouting the lines together; and suddenly becoming
+convulsed with strange excitement, they would toss up their arms, leap,
+fall, groan, and, seemingly, lose consciousness. Their prayers were
+earnest and vehement, but often degenerated to mere howls and noises.
+Some of both sexes had grand voices, that rang like bugles, and the very
+impropriety of their music made it fascinating. It used to seem to me
+that any of the great composers might have borrowed advantageously some
+of those original negro airs. In many cases, their owners came within
+the lines, registered their allegiance, and recovered the negroes. These
+were often veritable Shylocks, that claimed their pounds of flesh, with
+unblushing reference to the law. The poor Africs went back cowed and
+tearful, and it is probable that they were afterward sent to the far
+South, that terrible _terra incognita_ to a border slave.
+
+Among the houses to which I resorted was that of a Mr. Hill, one mile
+from White House. He had a thousand acres of land and a valuable fishery
+on the Pamunkey. The latter was worth, in good seasons, two thousand
+dollars a year. He had fished and farmed with negroes; but these had
+leagued to run away, and he sent them across the river to a second farm
+that he owned in King William County. It was at Hill's house that the
+widow Custis was visiting when young Washington reined at the gate, on
+his road to Williamsburg. With reverent feelings I used to regard the
+old place, and Hill frequently stole away from his formidable military
+household, to talk with me on the front porch. Perhaps in the same
+moonlights, with the river shimmering at their feet, and the grapevine
+shadowing the creaky corners,--their voices softened, their chairs drawn
+very close, their hands touching with a thrill,--the young soldier and
+his affianced had made their courtship. I sometimes sat breathless,
+thinking that their figures had come back, and that I heard them
+whispering.
+
+Hill was a Virginian,--large, hospitable, severe, proud,--and once I
+ventured to speak upon the policy of slavery, with a view to develop his
+own relation to the "institution." He said, with the swaggering manner
+of his class, that slavery was a "domestic" institution, and that
+therefore no political law could reach it. I insinuated, quietly, that
+no political law should therefore sustain it, and took exception to the
+idea that what was domestic was therefore without the province of
+legislation. When I exampled polygamy, Hill became passionate, and asked
+if I was an abolitionist. I opined that I was not, and he so far
+relented as to say that slavery was sanctioned by divine and human laws;
+that it was ultimately to be embraced by all white nationalities, and
+that the Caucasian was certain, in the end, to subjugate and possess
+every other race. He pointed, with some shrewdness, to the condition of
+the Chinese in California and Australia, and epitomized the gradual
+enslaving of the Mongol and Malay in various quarters of the world.
+
+"As to our treatment of niggers," he said, curtly, "I never prevaricate,
+as some masters do, in that respect. I whip my niggers when they want
+it! If they are saucy, or careless, or lazy, I have 'em flogged. About
+twice a year every nigger has to be punished. If they ain't roped over
+twice a year, they take on airs and want to be gentlemen. A nigger is
+bound by no sentiment of duty or affection. You must keep him in trim by
+fear."
+
+Among the victims of the swamp fever, were Major Larrabee, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, of the Fifth Wisconsin regiment; I had been
+indebted to them for many a meal and draught of spirits. I had talked
+with each of them, when the camps were darkened and the soldiery asleep.
+Larrabee was a soldier by nature,--adventurous, energetic, intrepid,
+aggressive. He had been a country Judge in Wisconsin, and afterwards a
+member of Congress. When the war commenced, he enlisted as a common
+soldier, but public sentiment forced the State Government to make him a
+Major. Emory was a mild, reflective, unimpassioned gentleman,--too
+modest to be eminent, too scrupulous to be ambitious. The men were
+opposites, but both capital companions, and they were seized with the
+fever about the same time. The Major was removed to White House, and I
+visited him one day in the hospital quarters. Surgeon General Watson,
+hospital commandant, took me through the quarters; there was quite a
+town of sick men; they lay in wall-tents--about twenty in a tent,--and
+there were daily deaths; those that caught the fever, were afterwards
+unfit for duty, as they took relapses on resuming the field. The tents
+were pitched in a damp cornfield; for the Federals so reverenced their
+national shrines, that they forbade White House and lawn to be used for
+hospital purposes. Under the best circumstances, a field hospital is a
+comfortless place; but here the sun shone like a furnace upon the tents,
+and the rains drowned out the inmates. If a man can possibly avoid it,
+let him never go to the hospital: for he will be called a "skulker," or
+a "shyster," that desires to escape the impending battle. Twenty hot,
+feverish, tossing men, confined in a small tent, like an oven, and
+exposed to contumely and bad food, should get a wholesome horror of war
+and glory.
+
+So far as I could observe and learn, the authorities at White House
+carried high heads, and covetous hands. In brief, they lived like
+princes, and behaved like knaves. There was one--whose conduct has never
+been investigated--who furnished one of the deserted mansions near by,
+and brought a lady from the North to keep it in order. He drove a span
+that rivalled anything in Broadway, and his wines were luscious. His
+establishment reminded me of that of Napoleon III. in the late Italian
+war, and yet, this man was receiving merely a Colonel's pay. My
+impression is that everybody at White House robbed the Government, and
+in the end, to cover their delinquencies, these scoundrels set fire to
+an immense quantity of stores, and squared their accounts thus: "Burned
+on the Pamunkey, June 28, commissary, quartermaster's, and hospital
+stores, one million dollars."
+
+The time was now drawing to a close that I should pass amid the familiar
+scenes of this region. The good people at Daker's were still kindly; but
+having climbed into the great bed one night, I found my legs aching, my
+brain violently throbbing, my chest full of pain and my eyes weak. When
+I woke in the morning my lips were fevered, I could eat nothing, and
+when I reached my saddle, it seemed that I should faint. In a word, the
+Chickahominy fever had seized upon me. My ride to New Bridge was marked
+by great agony, and during much of the time I was quite blind. I turned
+off, at Gaines's Mill, to rest at Captain Kingwalt's; but the old
+gentleman was in the grip of the ague, and I forebore to trouble him
+with a statement of my grievances. Skyhiski made me a cup of tea, which
+I could not drink, and Fogg made me lie on his "poncho." It was like old
+times come back, to hear them all speak cheerfully, and the man Clover
+said that if there "warn't" a battle soon, he knew what he'd do, he
+did! he'd go home, straight as a buck!
+
+"Becoz," said the man Clover, flourishing his hands, "I volunteered to
+fight. To _fight_, sir! not to dig and drive team. Here we air, sir,
+stuck in the mud, burnin' with fever, livin' on hardtack. And thair's
+Richmond! Just thair! You can chuck a stone at it, if you mind to. A'ter
+awhile them rebbils'll pop out, and fix us. Why ain't we led up,
+sa-a-y?"
+
+The man Clover represented common sentiment among the troops at this
+time; but I told him that in all probability he would soon be gratified
+with a battle. My prediction was so far correct, that when I met the man
+Clover on the James River, a week afterward, he said, with a rueful
+countenance--
+
+"Sa-a-a-y! It never rains but it pours, does it?"
+
+As I rode from the camp of the Pennsylvania Reserves, at noon, on the
+21st of June, I seemed to feel a gloomy premonition of the calamities
+that were shortly to fall upon the "Army of the Potomac." I passed in
+front of Hogan house; through the wood above the mill; along Gaines's
+Lane, between his mansion and his barn; across a creek, tributary to the
+Chickahominy; and up the ploughed hills by a military road, toward
+Grapevine Bridge. Lieutenant-Colonel Heath, of the Fifth Maine Regiment,
+was riding with me, and we stopped at the tip of an elevated field to
+look back upon the scene. I was very sick and weary, and I lay my head
+upon the mane of my nag, while Heath threw a leg across his saddle
+pommel, and straightened his slight figure; we both gazed earnestly.
+
+The river lay in the hollow or ravine to the left, and a few farm-houses
+sat among the trees on the hill-tops beyond. A battery was planted at
+each house, and we could see the lines of red-clay parapets marking the
+sites. From the roof of one of the houses floated a speck of
+canvas,--the revolutionary flag. A horseman or two moved shadow-like
+across a slope of yellow grain. Before and back the woods belted the
+landscape, and some pickets of both sides paced the river brink: they
+did not fire upon each other.
+
+Our side of the Chickahominy was not less peaceful. A couple of
+batteries lay below us, in the meadows; but the horses were dozing in
+the harness, and the gunners, standing bolt upright at the breech,
+seemed parts of their pieces; the teamsters lay grouped in the long
+grass. Immediately in front, Gaines's Mansion and outhouses spotted a
+hillside, and we could note beyond a few white tents shining through the
+trees. The roof of the old mill crouched between a medley of wavy fields
+and woods, to our right, and just at our feet a tiny rill divided
+Gaines's Mill from our own. Behind us, over the wilderness of swamp and
+bog-timber, rose Smith's redoubt, with the Federal flag flaunting from
+the rampart.
+
+"Townsend," said Heath, as he swept the whole country with his keen eye,
+"do you know that we are standing upon historic ground?"
+
+He had been a poet and an orator, and he seemed to feel the solemnity of
+the place.
+
+"It may become historic to-morrow," I replied.
+
+"It is so to-day," he said, earnestly; "not from battle as yet; _that_
+may or may not happen; but in the pause before the storm there is
+something grand; and this is the pause."
+
+He took his soft beaver in his hand, and his short red hair stood
+pugnaciously back from his fine forehead.
+
+"The men that have been here already," he added, "consecrated the place;
+young McClellan, and bluff, bull-headed Franklin; the one-armed devil,
+Kearney, and handsome Joe Hooker; gray, gristly Heintzelman;
+white-bearded, insane Sumner; Stuart, Lee, Johnston, the Hills----"
+
+"Why not," said I, laughingly, "Eric the red,--the redoubtable Heath!"
+
+"Why not?" he said, with a flourish; "Fate may have something in store
+for me, as well as for these."
+
+I have thought, since, how terribly our light conversation found
+verification in fact. If I had said to Heath, that, at the very moment,
+Jefferson Davis and his Commander-in-chief were sitting in the dwelling
+opposite, reconnoitring and consulting; that, even now, their telescopes
+were directed upon us; that the effect of their counsel was to be
+manifest in less than a week; that one of the bloodiest battles of
+modern times was to be fought beside and around us; that six days of the
+most terrible fighting known in history were to ensue; that my friend
+and comrade was standing upon the same clods which would be reddened, at
+his next coming, with his heart's blood; and that the trenches were to
+yawn beneath his hoofs, to swallow himself and his steed,--if I had
+foretold these things as they were to occur, I wonder if the "pause
+before the storm" would have been less awful, and our ride campward less
+sedate. Poor Heath! Gallant New Englander! he called at my bedside, the
+sixth day following, as I lay full of pain, fear, and fever, and after
+he bade me good by, I heard his horse's hoofs ringing down the lane. Ten
+minutes afterward he was shot through the head.
+
+When I reached Michie's, at three o'clock, I had to be helped from the
+saddle, and the fever was raging in my whole body before nightfall. My
+hands were flushed, my face hot, but my feet were quite cold, and I was
+seized with chills that seemed to shake my teeth from my head. Mrs.
+Michie made me a bowl of scorching tea, and one of the black-girls
+bathed my limbs in boiling water. The fever dreams came to me that
+night, in snatches of burning sleep, and toward morning I lay restlessly
+awake, moving from side to side, famishing for drink, but rejecting it,
+when they brought it to my lips. The next day, my kind hostess gave me
+some nourishing soup, but after a vain effort to partake of it, I was
+compelled to put it aside. O'Ganlon procured some pickled fruit and
+vegetables from a sutler, which I ate voraciously, quaffing the vinegar
+like wine. Some of my regimental friends heard of my illness, and they
+sent me quiet luxuries, which gladdened me, though I did not eat. During
+the day I had some moments of ease, when I tried to read. There was a
+copy of Wordsworth's poems in the house, and I used to repeat stanzas
+from "Peter Bell," till they rang, in eddies of rhyme, through my weak
+brain, and continued to scan and jangle far into the nights. Some of
+these fever-dreams were like delusions in delirium: peopled with
+monsters, that grinned and growled. Little black globules used to leer
+from corners, and after a time they began to revolve toward me,
+increasing as they came, and at length rolling like mountains of surge.
+I frequently woke with a scream, and found my body in profuse
+perspiration. There were fiery snakes, also, that, at first, moved
+slowly around me, and I followed them with red and terrified eyes. After
+awhile they flashed in circles of lightning, and hissed showers of
+sparks, until I became quite crazed with fear. The most horrible
+apparitions used to come to my bedside, and if I dropped to sleep with
+any thought half formed or half developed, the odd half of that thought
+became impregnated, somehow, and straightway loomed up a goblin, or a
+giant, or a grotesque something, that proceeded to torture me, like a
+sort of Frankenstein, for having made it. Amid all these ghastly things,
+there came beautiful glimpses of form, scene, and sensation, that
+straightway changed to horrors. I remember, for example, that I was
+gliding down a stream, where the boughs overhead were as shady as the
+waters, and there were holy eyes that seemed to cool my fever; but
+suddenly the stream became choked with corpses, that entangled their
+dead limbs with mine, until I strangled and called aloud,--waking up
+O'Ganlon and some reporters who proposed to give me morphine, that I
+might not alarm the house.
+
+How the poor soldiers fared, in the hot hospitals, I shudder to think;
+but a more merciful decree spared my life, and kind treatment met me at
+every hand. Otherwise, I believe, I should not be alive to-day to write
+this story; for the fever had seized me in its severest form, and I had
+almost tutored myself to look upon my end, far from my home and on the
+very eve of my manhood.
+
+O'Ganlon, at last, resolved to send me to White House, and started
+thither one day, to obtain a berth for me upon a Sanitary steamer. The
+next day an ambulance came to the door. I tried to sit up in bed, and
+succeeded; I feebly robed myself and staggered to the stairs. I crawled,
+rather than walked, to the hall below; but when I took a chair, and felt
+the cool breeze from the oaks fanning my hair, I seemed to know that I
+should get well.
+
+"Boom! Boom! Boom!" pealed some cannon at the moment, and all the
+windows shook with the concussion.
+
+Directly we heard volleys of musketry, and then the camps were astir.
+Horses went hither and thither; signal flags flashed to-and-fro; a
+battery of the Reserve Artillery dashed down the lane.
+
+I felt my strength coming back with the excitement; I even smiled feebly
+as the guns thundered past.
+
+"Take away your ambulance, old fellow," I said, "I shan't go home till I
+see a battle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TWO DAYS OF BATTLE.
+
+
+The Confederates had been waiting two months for McClellan's advance.
+Emboldened by his delay they had gathered the whole of their available
+strength from remote Tennessee, from the Mississippi, and from the
+coast, until, confident and powerful, they crossed Meadow Bridge on the
+26th of June, 1862, and drove in our right wing at Mechanicsville. The
+reserves of Gen. McCall were stationed here; they made a wavering
+resistance,--wherein four companies of Bucktails were captured
+bodily,--and fell back at nightfall upon Porter's Corps, at Gaines's
+Mill. Fitz John Porter commanded the brigades of Gens. Sykes and
+Morrell,--the former made up solely of regulars. He appeared to have
+been ignorant of the strength of the attacking party, and he telegraphed
+to McClellan, early on Thursday evening, that he required no
+reinforcements, and that he could hold his ground. The next morning he
+was attacked in front and flank; Stewart's cavalry fell on his right,
+and turned it at Old Church. He formed at noon in new line of battle,
+from Gaines's House, along the Mill Road to New Coal Harbor; but
+stubbornly persisted in the belief that he could not be beaten. By three
+o'clock he had been driven back two miles, and all his energies were
+unavailing to recover a foot of ground. He hurled lancers and cavalry
+upon the masses of Jackson and the Hills, but the butternut infantry
+formed impenetrable squares, hemmed in with rods of steel, and as the
+horsemen galloped around them, searching for previous points, they were
+swept from their saddles with volleys of musketry. He directed the
+terrible fire of his artillery upon them, but though the gray footmen
+fell in heaps, they steadily advanced, closing up the gaps, and their
+lines were like long stretches of blaze and ball. Their fire never
+slackened nor abated. They loaded and moved forward, column on column,
+like so many immortals that could not be vanquished. The scene from the
+balloon, as Lowe informed me, was awful beyond all comparison,--of
+puffing shells and shrieking shrapnel, with volleys that shattered the
+hills and filled the air with deathly whispers. Infantry, artillery, and
+horse turned the Federal right from time to time, and to preserve their
+order of battle the whole line fell back toward Grapevine Bridge. At
+five o'clock Slocum's Division of volunteers crossed the creek from the
+south side, and made a desperate dash upon the solid columns of the
+Confederates. At the same time Toombs's Georgia Brigade charged Smith's
+redoubt from the south side, and there was a probability of the whole of
+both armies engaging before dark.
+
+My fever of body had so much relinquished to my fever of mind, that at
+three o'clock I called for my horse, and determined to cross the bridge,
+that I might witness the battle.
+
+It was with difficulty that I could make my way along the narrow
+corduroy, for hundreds of wounded were limping from the field to the
+safe side, and ammunition wagons were passing the other way, driven by
+reckless drivers who should have been blown up momentarily. Before I had
+reached the north side of the creek, an immense throng of panic-stricken
+people came surging down the slippery bridge. A few carried muskets, but
+I saw several wantonly throw their pieces into the flood, and as the
+mass were unarmed, I inferred that they had made similar dispositions.
+Fear, anguish, cowardice, despair, disgust, were the predominant
+expressions of the upturned faces. The gaunt trees, towering from the
+current, cast a solemn shadow upon the moving throng, and as the evening
+dimness was falling around them, it almost seemed that they were
+engulfed in some cataract. I reined my horse close to the side of a
+team, that I might not be borne backward by the crowd; but some of the
+lawless fugitives seized him by the bridle, and others attempted to pull
+me from the saddle.
+
+"Gi' up that hoss!" said one, "what business you got wi' a hoss?"
+
+"That's my critter, and I am in for a ride; so you get off!" said
+another.
+
+I spurred my pony vigorously with the left foot, and with the right
+struck the man at the bridle under the chin. The thick column parted
+left and right, and though a howl of hate pursued me, I kept straight to
+the bank, cleared the swamp, and took the military route parallel with
+the creek, toward the nearest eminence. At every step of the way I met
+wounded persons. A horseman rode past me, leaning over his pommel, with
+blood streaming from his mouth and hanging in gouts from his saturated
+beard. The day had been intensely hot and black boys were besetting the
+wounded with buckets of cool lemonade. It was a common occurrence for
+the couples that carried the wounded on stretchers to stop on the way,
+purchase a glass of the beverage, and drink it. Sometimes the blankets
+on the stretchers were closely folded, and then I knew that the man
+within was dead. A little fellow, who used his sword for a cane, stopped
+me on the road, and said--
+
+"See yer! This is the ball that jes' fell out o' my boot."
+
+He handed me a lump of lead as big as my thumb, and pointed to a rent in
+his pantaloons, whence the drops rolled down his boots.
+
+"I wouldn't part with that for suthin' handsome," he said; "it'll be
+nice to hev to hum."
+
+As I cantered away he shouted after me--
+
+"Be sure you spell my name right! it's Smith, with an 'E'--S-M-I-T-H-E."
+
+In one place I met five drunken men escorting a wounded sergeant; the
+latter had been shot in the jaw, and when he attempted to speak, the
+blood choked his articulation.
+
+"You let go him, pardner," said one of the staggering brutes, "he's not
+your sergeant. Go 'way!"
+
+"Now, sergeant," said the other, idiotically, "I'll see you all right,
+sergeant. Come, Bill, fetch him over to the corn-crib and we'll give him
+a drink."
+
+Here the first speaker struck the second, and the sergeant, in wrath,
+knocked them both down. All this time the enemy's cannon were booming
+close at hand.
+
+I came to an officer of rank, whose shoulder-emblem I could not
+distinguish, riding upon a limping field-horse. Four men held him to his
+seat, and a fifth led the animal. The officer was evidently wounded,
+though he did not seem to be bleeding, and the dust of battle had
+settled upon his blanched, stiffening face, like grave-mould upon a
+corpse. He was swaying in the saddle, and his hair--for he was
+bare-headed--shook across his white eyeballs. He reminded me of the
+famous Cid, whose body was sent forth to scare the Saracens.
+
+A mile or more from Grapevine Bridge, on a hill-top, lay a frame
+farm-house, with cherry trees encircling it, and along the declivity of
+the hill were some cabins, corn-sheds, and corn-bins. The house was now
+a Surgeon's headquarters, and the wounded lay in the yard and lane,
+under the shade, waiting their turns to be hacked and maimed. I caught a
+glimpse through the door, of the butchers and their victims; some
+curious people were peeping through the windows at the operation. As the
+processions of freshly wounded went by, the poor fellows, lying on their
+backs, looked mutely at me, and their great eyes smote my heart.
+
+Something has been written in the course of the war upon straggling
+from the ranks, during battle. But I have seen nothing that conveys an
+adequate idea of the number of cowards and idlers that so stroll off. In
+this instance, I met squads, companies, almost regiments of them. Some
+came boldly along the road; others skulked in woods, and made long
+detours to escape detection; a few were composedly playing cards, or
+heating their coffee, or discussing the order and consequences of the
+fight. The rolling drums, the constant clatter of file and
+volley-firing,--nothing could remind them of the requirements of the
+time and their own infamy. Their appreciation of duty and honor seemed
+to have been forgotten; neither hate, ambition, nor patriotism could
+force them back; but when the columns of mounted provosts charged upon
+them, they sullenly resumed their muskets and returned to the field. At
+the foot of the hill to which I have referred the ammunition wagons lay
+in long lines, with the horses' heads turned from the fight. A little
+beyond stood the ambulances; and between both sets of vehicles,
+fatigue-parties were going and returning to and from the field. At the
+top of the next hill sat many of the Federal batteries, and I was
+admonished by the shriek of shells that passed over my head and burst
+far behind me, that I was again to look upon carnage and share the
+perils of the soldier.
+
+The question at once occurred to me: Can I stand fire? Having for some
+months penned daily paragraphs relative to death, courage, and victory,
+I was surprised to find that those words were now unusually significant.
+"Death" was a syllable to me before; it was a whole dictionary now.
+"Courage" was natural to every man a week ago; it was rarer than genius
+to-day. "Victory" was the first word in the lexicon of youth yesterday
+noon; "discretion" and "safety" were at present of infinitely more
+consequence. I resolved, notwithstanding these qualms, to venture to the
+hill-top: but at every step flitting projectiles took my breath. The
+music of the battle-field, I have often thought, should be introduced
+in opera. Not the drum, the bugle, or the fife, though these are
+thrilling, after their fashion; but the music of modern ordnance and
+projectile, the beautiful whistle of the minie-ball, the howl of shell
+that makes unearthly havoc with the air, the whiz-z-z of solid shot, the
+chirp of bullets, the scream of grape and canister, the yell of immense
+conical cylinders, that fall like redhot stoves and spout burning coals.
+
+All these passed over, beside, beneath, before, behind me. I seemed to
+be an invulnerable something at whom some cunning juggler was tossing
+steel, with an intent to impinge upon, not to strike him. I rode like
+one with his life in his hand, and, so far as I remember, seemed to
+think of nothing. No fear, _per se_; no regret; no adventure; only
+expectancy. It was the expectancy of a shot, a choking, a loud cry, a
+stiffening, a dead, dull tumble, a quiver, and--blindness. But with this
+was mingled a sort of enjoyment, like that of the daring gamester, who
+has played his soul and is waiting for the decision of the cards. I felt
+all his suspense, _more_ than his hope; and withal, there was excitement
+in the play. Now a whistling ball seemed to pass just under my ear, and
+before I commenced to congratulate myself upon the escape, a shell, with
+a showery and revolving fuse, appeared to take the top off my head. Then
+my heart expanded and contracted, and somehow I found myself conning
+rhymes. At each clipping ball,--for I could hear them coming,--a sort of
+coldness and paleness rose to the very roots of my hair, and was then
+replaced by a hot flush. I caught myself laughing, syllabically, and
+shrugging my shoulders, fitfully. Once, the rhyme that came to my
+lips--for I am sure there was no mind in the iteration--was the simple
+nursery prayer--
+
+    "Now I lay me down to sleep,"
+
+I continued to say "down to sleep," "down to sleep," "down to sleep,"
+till I discovered myself, when I ceased. Then a shell, apparently just
+in range, dashed toward me, and the words spasmodically leaped up:
+"Now's your time. This is your billet." With the same insane pertinacity
+I continued to repeat "Now's your time, now's your time," and "billet,
+billet, billet," till at last I came up to the nearest battery, where I
+could look over the crest of the hill; and as if I had looked into the
+crater of a volcano, or down the fabled abyss into hell, the whole grand
+horror of a battle burst upon my sight. For a moment I could neither
+feel nor think. I scarcely beheld, or beholding did not understand or
+perceive. Only the roar of guns, the blaze that flashed along a zigzag
+line and was straightway smothered in smoke, the creek lying glassily
+beneath me, the gathering twilight, and the brownish blue of woods! I
+only knew that some thousands of fiends, were playing with fire and
+tossing brands at heaven,--that some pleasant slopes, dells, and
+highlands were lit as if the conflagration of universes had commenced.
+There is a passage of Holy Writ that comes to my mind as I write, which
+explains the sensation of the time better than I can do:--
+
+"_He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit,
+as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened
+by reason of the smoke of the pit._
+
+"_And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth._"--Revelation,
+ix. 2, 3.
+
+In a few moments, when I was able to compose myself, the veil of cloud
+blew away or dissolved, and I could see fragments of the long columns of
+infantry. Then from the far end of the lines puffed smoke, and from man
+to man the puff ran down each line, enveloping the columns again, so
+that they were alternately visible and invisible. At points between the
+masses of infantry lay field-pieces, throbbing with rapid deliveries,
+and emitting volumes of white steam. Now and then the firing slackened
+for a short time, when I could remark the Federal line, fringed with
+bayonets, stretching from the low meadow on the left, up the slope, over
+the ridge, up and down the crest, until its right disappeared in the
+gloaming of wood and distance. Standards flapped here and there above
+the column, and I knew, from the fact that the line became momentarily
+more distinct, that the Federals were falling stubbornly back. At times
+a battery would dash a hundred yards forward, unlimber, and fire a score
+of times, and directly would return two hundred yards and blaze again. I
+saw a regiment of lancers gather at the foot of a protecting swell of
+field; the bugle rang thrice, the red pennons went upward like so many
+song birds, the mass turned the crest and disappeared, then the whole
+artillery belched and bellowed. In twenty minutes a broken, straggling,
+feeble group of horsemen returned; the red pennons still fluttered, but
+I knew that they were redder for the blood that dyed them. Finally, the
+Federal infantry fell back to the foot of the hill on which I stood; all
+the batteries were clustering around me, and suddenly a column of men
+shot up from the long sweep of the abandoned hill, with batteries on the
+left and right. Their muskets were turned towards us, a crash and a
+whiff of smoke swept from flank to flank, and the air around me rained
+buck, slug, bullet, and ball!
+
+The incidents that now occurred in rapid succession were so thrilling
+and absorbing that my solicitude was lost in their grandeur. I sat like
+one dumb, with my soul in my eyes and my ears stunned, watching the
+terrible column of Confederates. Each party was now straining every
+energy,--the one for victory, the other against annihilation. The
+darkness was closing in, and neither cared to prolong the contest after
+night. The Confederates, therefore, aimed to finish their success with
+the rout or capture of the Federals, and the Federals aimed to maintain
+their ground till nightfall. The musketry was close, accurate, and
+uninterrupted. Every second was marked by a discharge,--the one firing,
+the other replying promptly. No attempt was now made to remove the
+wounded; the coolness of the fight had gone by, and we witnessed only
+its fury. The stragglers seemed to appreciate the desperate emergency,
+and came voluntarily back to relieve their comrades. The cavalry was
+massed, and collected for another grand charge. Like a black shadow
+gliding up the darkening hillside, they precipitated themselves upon the
+columns: the musketry ceased for the time, and shrieks, steel strokes,
+the crack of carbines and revolvers succeeded. Shattered, humiliated,
+sullen, the horse wheeled and returned. Then the guns thundered again,
+and by the blaze of the pieces, the clods and turf were revealed,
+fitfully strewn with men and horses.
+
+The vicinity of my position now exhibited traces of the battle. A
+caisson burst close by, and I heard the howl of dying wretches, as the
+fires flashed like meteors. A solid shot struck a field-carriage not
+thirty yards from my feet, and one of the flying splinters spitted a
+gunner as if he had been pierced by an arrow. An artillery-man was
+standing with folded arms so near that I could have reached to touch
+him; a whistle and a thumping shock and he fell beneath my nag's head. I
+wonder, as I calmly recall these episodes now, how I escaped the death
+that played about me, chilled me, thrilled me,--but spared me! "They are
+fixing bayonets for a charge. My God! See them come down the hill."
+
+In the gathering darkness, through the thick smoke, I saw or seemed to
+see the interminable column roll steadily downward. I fancied that I
+beheld great gaps cut in their ranks though closing solidly up, like the
+imperishable Gorgon. I may have heard some of this next day, and so
+confounded the testimonies of eye and ear. But I knew that there was a
+charge, and that the drivers were ordered to stand by their saddles, to
+run off the guns at any moment. The descent and bottom below me, were
+now all ablaze, and directly above the din of cannon, rifle, and
+pistol, I heard a great cheer, as of some salvation achieved.
+
+"The Rebels are repulsed! We have saved the guns!"
+
+A cheer greeted this announcement from the battery-men around me. They
+reloaded, rammed, swabbed, and fired, with naked arms, and drops of
+sweat furrowed the powder-stains upon their faces. The horses stood
+motionless, quivering not half so much as the pieces. The gristly
+officers held to their match-strings, smothering the excitement of the
+time. All at once there was a running hither and thither, a pause in the
+thunder, a quick consultation--
+
+"'Sdeath! They have flanked us again."
+
+In an instant I seemed overwhelmed with men. For a moment I thought the
+enemy had surrounded us.
+
+"It's all up," said one; "I shall cross the river."
+
+I wheeled my horse, fell in with the stream of fugitives, and was borne
+swiftly through field and lane and trampled fence to the swampy margin
+of the Chickahominy. At every step the shell fell in and among the
+fugitives, adding to their panic. I saw officers who had forgotten their
+regiments or had been deserted by them, wending with the mass. The
+wounded fell and were trodden upon. Personal exhibitions of valor and
+determination there were; but the main body had lost heart, and were
+weary and hungry.
+
+As we approached the bridge, there was confusion and altercation ahead.
+The people were borne back upon me. Curses and threats ensued.
+
+"It is the Provost-guard," said a fugitive, "driving back the boys."
+
+"Go back!" called a voice ahead. "I'll blow you to h--ll, if you don't
+go back! Not a man shall cross the bridge without orders!"
+
+The stragglers were variously affected by this intelligence. Some cursed
+and threatened; some of the wounded blubbered as they leaned languidly
+upon the shoulders of their comrades. Others stoically threw themselves
+on the ground and tried to sleep. One man called aloud that the "boys"
+were stronger than the Provosts, and that, therefore, the "boys" ought
+to "go in and win."
+
+"Where's the man that wants to mutiny?" said the voice ahead; "let me
+see him!"
+
+The man slipped away; for the Provost officer spoke as though he meant
+all he said.
+
+"Nobody wants to mutiny!" called others.
+
+"Three cheers for the Union."
+
+The wounded and well threw up their hats together, and made a sickly
+hurrah. The grim officer relented, and he shouted stentoriously that he
+would take the responsibility of passing the wounded. These gathered
+themselves up and pushed through the throng; but many skulkers plead
+injuries, and so escaped. When I attempted to follow, on horseback,
+hands were laid upon me and I was refused exit. In that hour of terror
+and sadness, there were yet jests and loud laughter. However keenly I
+felt these things, I had learned that modesty amounted to little in the
+army; so I pushed my nag steadily forward and scattered the camp
+vernacular, in the shape of imprecations, left and right.
+
+"Colonel," I called to the officer in command, as the line of bayonets
+edged me in, "may I pass out? I am a civilian!"
+
+"No!" said the Colonel, wrathfully. "This is no place for a civilian."
+
+"That's why I want to get away."
+
+"Pass out!"
+
+I followed the winding of the woods to Woodbury's Bridge,--the next
+above Grapevine Bridge. The approaches were clogged with wagons and
+field-pieces, and I understood that some panic-stricken people had
+pulled up some of the timbers to prevent a fancied pursuit. Along the
+sides of the bridge many of the wounded were washing their wounds in the
+water, and the cries of the teamsters echoed weirdly through the trees
+that grew in the river. At nine o'clock, we got under way,--horsemen,
+batteries, ambulances, ammunition teams, infantry, and finally some
+great siege 32s. that had been hauled from Gaines's House. One of these
+pieces broke down the timbers again, and my impression is that it was
+cast into the current. When we emerged from the swamp timber, the hills
+before us were found brilliantly illuminated with burning camps. I made
+toward head-quarters, in one of Trent's fields; but all the tents save
+one had been taken down, and lines of white-covered wagons stretched
+southward until they were lost in the shadows. The tent of General
+McClellan alone remained, and beneath an arbor of pine boughs, close at
+hand, he sat, with his Corps Commanders and Aides, holding a council of
+war. A ruddy fire lit up the historical group, and I thought at the
+time, as I have said a hundred times since, that the consultation might
+be selected for a grand national painting. The crisis, the hour, the
+adjuncts, the renowned participants, peculiarly fit it for pictorial
+commemoration.
+
+The young commander sat in a chair, in full uniform, uncovered.
+Heintzelman was kneeling upon a fagot, earnestly speaking. De Joinville
+sat apart, by the fire, examining a map. Fitz John Porter was standing
+back of McClellan, leaning upon his chair. Keyes, Franklin, and Sumner,
+were listening attentively. Some sentries paced to and fro, to keep out
+vulgar curiosity. Suddenly, there was a nodding of heads, as of some
+policy decided; they threw themselves upon their steeds, and galloped
+off toward Michie's.
+
+As I reined at Michie's porch, at ten o'clock, the bridges behind me
+were blown up, with a flare that seemed a blazing of the Northern
+Lights. The family were sitting upon the porch, and Mrs. Michie was
+greatly alarmed with the idea that a battle would be fought round her
+house next day.
+
+O'Ganlon, of Meagher's staff, had taken the fever, and sent anxiously
+for me, to compare our symptoms.
+
+I bade the good people adieu before I went to bed, and gave the man
+"Pat" a dollar to stand by my horse while I slept, and to awake me at
+any disturbance, that I might be ready to scamper. The man "Pat," I am
+bound to say, woke me up thrice by the exclamation of--
+
+"Sure, yer honor, there's--well--to pay in the yard! I think ye and the
+Doctor had better ride off."
+
+On each of those occasions, I found that the man Pat had been lonesome,
+and wanted somebody to speak to.
+
+What a sleep was mine that night! I forgot my fever. But another and a
+hotter fever burned my temples,--the fearful excitement of the time!
+Whither were we to go, cut off from the York, beaten before
+Richmond,--perhaps even now surrounded,--and to be butchered to-morrow,
+till the clouds should rain blood? Were we to retreat one hundred miles
+down the hostile Peninsula,--a battle at every rod, a grave at every
+footstep? Then I remembered the wounded heaped at Gaines's Mill, and how
+they were groaning without remedy, ebbing at every pulse, counting the
+flashing drops, calling for water, for mercy, for death. So I found
+heart; for I was not buried yet. And somehow I felt that fate was to
+take me, as the great poet took Dante, through other and greater
+horrors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+M'CLELLAN'S RETREAT.
+
+
+The scene presented in Michie's lawn and oak grove, on Saturday morning,
+was terribly picturesque, and characteristic of the calamity of war. The
+well was beset by crowds of wounded men, perishing of thirst, who made
+frantic efforts to reach the bucket, but were borne back by the stronger
+desperadoes. The kitchen was swarming with hungry soldiers who begged
+corn-bread and half-cooked dough from the negroes. The shady side-yard
+was dotted with pale, bruised, and bleeding people, who slept out their
+weariness upon the damp grass, forgetful, for the moment, of their
+sores. Ambulances poured through the lane, in solemn procession, and now
+and then, couples of privates bore by some wounded officer, upon a
+canvas "stretcher." The lane proving too narrow, at length, for the
+passing vehicles, the gate-posts and fence were torn up, and finally,
+the soldiers made a footway of the hall of the dwelling.
+
+The retreat had been in progress all night, as I had heard the wagons
+through my open windows. By daylight the whole army was acquainted with
+the facts, that we were to resign our depot at White House, relinquish
+the North bank of the river, and retire precipitately to the shores of
+the James. A rumor--indignantly denied, but as often repeated--prevailed
+among the teamsters, surgeons, and drivers, that the wounded were to be
+left in the enemy's hands. It shortly transpired that we were already
+cut off from the Pamunkey. A train had departed for White House at dawn,
+and had delivered its cargo of mortality safely; but a second train,
+attempting the passage, at seven o'clock had been fired into, and
+compelled to return. A tremendous explosion, and a shaft of white smoke
+that flashed to the zenith, informed us, soon afterward, that the
+railroad bridge had been blown up.
+
+About the same time, the roar of artillery recommenced in front, and
+regiments that had not slept for twenty hours, were hurried past us, to
+take position at the entrenchments. A universal fear now found
+expression, and helpless people asked of each other, with pale lips--
+
+"How far have we to walk to reach the James?"
+
+It was doubtful, at this time, that any one knew the route to that
+river. A few members of the signal corps had adventured thither to open
+communication with the gunboats, and a small cavalry party of Casey's
+division had made a foray to New Market and Charles City Court House.
+But it was rumored that Wise's brigade of Confederates was now posted at
+Malvern Hills, closing up the avenue of escape, and that the whole right
+wing of the Confederate army was pushing toward Charles City. Malvern
+Hills, the nearest point that could be gained, was about twenty miles
+distant, and Harrison's Landing--presumed to be our final
+destination--was thirty miles away. To retreat over this distance,
+encumbered with baggage, the wounded and the sick, was discarded as
+involving pursuit, and certain calamity. Cavalry might fall upon us at
+every turning, since the greater portion of our own horse had been
+scouting between White House and Hanover, when the bridges were
+destroyed, and was therefore separated from the main army. At eight
+o'clock--weak with fever and scarcely able to keep in the saddle--I
+joined Mr. Anderson of the _Herald_, and rode toward the front, that I
+might discover the whereabouts of the new engagement. Winding through a
+cart-track in Michie's Woods, we came upon fully one third of the whole
+army, or the remnant of all that portion engaged at Gaines's Mill;--the
+Reserves, Porter's Corps, Slocum's division, and Meagher's
+brigade,--perhaps thirty-thousand men. They covered the whole of Tent's
+farm, and were drawn up in line, heavily equipped, with their colors in
+position, field officers dismounted, and detachments from each regiment
+preparing hot coffee at certain fires. A very few wagons--and these
+containing only ammunition--stood harnessed beside each regiment. In
+many cases the men lay or knelt upon the ground. Such hot, hungry, weary
+wretches, I never beheld. During the whole night long they had been
+crossing the Chickahominy, and the little sleep vouchsafed them had been
+taken in snatches upon the bare clay. Travelling from place to place, I
+saw the surviving heroes of the defeat: Meagher looking very yellow and
+prosaic; Slocum,--small, indomitable, active; Newton,--a little gray, a
+trifle proud, very mercurial, and curiously enough, a Virginian;
+Meade,--lithe, spectacled, sanguine; and finally General McCall, as
+grave, kindly odd and absent, as I had found him four months before. The
+latter worthy was one of the first of the Federal Generals to visit
+Richmond. He was taken prisoner the second day afterward, and the half
+of his command was slain or disabled.
+
+I went to and fro, obtaining the names of killed, wounded and missing,
+with incidents of the battle as well as its general plan. These I
+scrawled upon bits of newspaper, upon envelopes, upon the lining of my
+hat, and finally upon my shirt wristbands. I was literally filled with
+notes before noon, and if I had been shot at that time, endeavors to
+obtain my name would have been extremely difficult. I should have had
+more titles than some of the Chinese princes; some parts of me would
+have been found fatally wounded, and others italicized for gallant
+behavior. Indeed, I should have been shot in every part, taken prisoner
+at every place, killed outright in every skirmish, and marvellously
+saved through every peril. My tombstone would have been some hundreds of
+muster-rolls and my obituary a fortune to a newspaper. I recollect, with
+some amusement, the credit that each regiment took upon itself for
+distinguished behavior. There were few Colonels that did not claim all
+the honors. I fell in with a New Jersey brigade, that had been decimated
+of nearly half its _quota_, and a spruce young Major attempted to convey
+an idea of the battle to me. He said, in brief, that the New Jersey
+brigade, composed mainly of himself and his regiment, and some few
+organizations of little consequence,--although numbering ten thousand
+odd soldiers,--had received the whole shock of a quantity of "Rebels."
+The said "Rebels" appeared to make up one fourth part of the population
+of the globe. There was no end to them. They seemed to be several miles
+deep, longer and more crooked than the Pamunkey, and stood with their
+rear against Richmond, so that they couldn't fall back, even if they
+wanted to. In vain did the New Jersey brigade and his regiment attack
+them with ball and bayonet. How the "Rebels" ever withstood the
+celebrated charge of his regiment was altogether inexplicable.
+
+In the language of the Major,--"the New Jersey brigade,--and my
+regiment,--fit, and fit, and fit, and give 'em 'get out!' But sir, may I
+be----, well there (expression inadequate), we couldn't budge 'em. No,
+sir! (very violently,) not budge 'em, sir! _I_ told the boys to walk at
+'em with cold steel. Says I: 'Boys, steel'ill fetch 'em, or nothin'
+under heaven!' Well, sir, at 'em we went,--me and the boys. There ain't
+been no sich charge in the whole war! Not in the whole war, sir!
+(intensely fervid;) leave it to any impartial observer if there has
+been! We went up the hill, square in the face of all their artillery,
+musketry, cavalry, sharpshooters, riflemen,--everything, sir!
+Everything! (energetically.) One o' my men overheard the Rebel General
+say, as we came up: says he,--'that's the gamest thing I ever see.'
+Well! we butchered 'em frightful. We must a killed a thousand or two of
+'em, don't you think so, Adjutant? But, sir,--it was all in vain. No go,
+sir! no, sir, no go! (impressively.) And the New Jersey brigade and my
+regiment fell back, inch by inch, with our feet to the foe
+(rhetorically.) Is that so, boys?"
+
+The "boys," who had meantime gathered around, exclaimed loudly, that it
+was "true as preachin," and the Major added, in an undertone that his
+name was spelled * * *.
+
+"But where were Porter's columns?" said I, "and the Pennsylvania
+Reserves?"
+
+"I didn't see 'em," said the Major: "I don't think they was there. If
+they had a been, why wa'n't they on hand to save my regiment, and the
+New Jersey brigade?"
+
+It would be wrong to infer from these vauntings, that the Federals did
+not fight bravely and endure defeat unshrinkingly. On the contrary, I
+have never read of higher exemplifications of personal and moral
+courage, than I witnessed during this memorable retreat. And the young
+Major's boasting did not a whit reduce my estimate of his efficiency.
+For in America, swaggering does not necessarily indicate cowardice. I
+knew a Captain of artillery in Smith's division, who was wordier than
+Gratiano, and who exaggerated like Falstaff. But he was a lion in
+action, and at Lee's Mills and Williamsburg his battery was handled with
+consummate skill.
+
+From Trent's farm the roadway led by a strip of corduroy, through
+sloppy, swampy woods, to an open place, beyond a brook, where Smith's
+division lay. The firing had almost entirely ceased, and we heard loud
+cheers running up and down the lines, as we again ventured within cannon
+range. On this spot, for the second time, the Federals had won a decided
+success. And in so far as a cosmopolitan could feel elated, I was proud,
+for a moment, of the valor of my division. The victors had given me
+meals and a bed, and they had fed my pony when both of us were hungry.
+But the sight of the prisoners and the collected dead, saddened me
+somewhat.
+
+These two engagements have received the name of the First and Second
+battles of Golding's Farm. They resulted from an effort of Toombs's
+Georgia brigade to carry the redoubt and breastworks of General Smith.
+Toombs was a civilian, and formerly a senator from Georgia. He had no
+military ability, and his troops were driven back with great slaughter,
+both on Friday and Saturday. Among the prisoners taken was Colonel Lamar
+of (I think) the 7th Georgia regiment. He passed me, in a litter,
+wounded, as I rode toward the redoubt.
+
+Lamar was a beautiful man, shaped like a woman, and his hair was long,
+glossy, and wavy with ringlets. He was a tiger, in his love of blood,
+and in character self-willed and vehement. He was of that remarkable
+class of Southern men, of which the noted "Filibuster" Walker was the
+great exponent. I think I may call him an apostle of slavery. He
+believed it to be the destiny of our pale race to subdue all the dusky
+tribes of the earth, and to evangelize, with the sword, the whole
+Western continent, to the uses of master and man. Such people were
+called disciples of "manifest destiny." He threw his whole heart into
+the war; but when I saw him, bloodless, panting, quivering, I thought
+how little the wrath of man availed against the justice of God. From
+Smith's on the right, I kept along a military road, in the woods, to
+Sedgwick's and Richardson's divisions, at Fairoaks. Richardson was
+subsequently slain, at the second battle of Bull Run. He was called
+"Fighting Dick," and on this particular morning was talking composedly
+to his wife, as she was about to climb to the saddle. His tent had been
+taken down, and soldiers were placing his furniture in a wagon. A
+greater contrast I never remarked, than the ungainly, awkward, and
+rough General, with his slight, trim, pretty companion. She had come to
+visit him and had remained until commanded to retire. I fancied, though
+I was separated some distance, that the little woman wept, as she kissed
+him good by, and he followed her, with frequent gestures of good-hap,
+till she disappeared behind the woods. I do not know that such prosaic
+old soldiers are influenced by the blandishments of love; but "Fighting
+Dick" never wooed death so recklessly as in the succeeding engagements
+of New Market and Malvern Hills.
+
+From Seven Pines to the right of Richardson's head-quarters, ran a line
+of alternate breastwork, redoubt, and stockade. The best of these
+redoubts was held by Captain Petit, with a New York Volunteer battery. I
+had often talked with Petit, for he embodied, as well as any man in the
+army, the martial qualifications of a volunteer. He despised order.
+Nobody cared less for dress and dirt. I have seen him, sitting in a hole
+that he hollowed with his hands, tossing pebbles and dust over his head,
+like another Job. He had profound contempt for any man and any system
+that was not "American." I remember asking him, one day, the meaning of
+the gold lace upon the staff hats of the Irish brigade.
+
+"Means run like shell!" said Petit, covering me with dirt.
+
+"Don't the Irish make the best soldiers?" I ventured.
+
+"No!" said Petit, raining pebbles, "I had rather have one American than
+ten Irishmen."
+
+The fighting of Petit was contrary to all rule; but I think that he was
+a splendid artillery-man. He generally mounted the rampart, shook his
+fist at the enemy, flung up his hat, jumped down, sighted the guns
+himself, threw shells with wonderful accuracy, screamed at the gunners,
+mounted the rampart again, halloed, and, in short, managed to do more
+execution, make more noise, attract more attention and throw more dirt
+than anybody in the army. His redoubt was small, but beautifully
+constructed, and the parapet was heaped with double rows of sandbags. It
+mounted rifled field-pieces, and, at most times, the gunners were lying
+under the pieces, asleep. Not any of the entrenched posts among the
+frontier Indians were more enveloped in wilderness than this. The trees
+had been felled in front to give the cannon play, but behind and on each
+side belts of dense, dwarf timber covered the boggy soil. To the left of
+Petit, on the old field of Seven Pines, lay the divisions of Hooker and
+Kearney, and thither I journeyed, after leaving the redoubtable
+volunteer. Hooker was a New Englander, reputed to be the handsomest man
+in the army. He fought bravely in the Mexican war, and afterwards
+retired to San Francisco, where he passed a Bohemian existence at the
+Union Club House. He disliked McClellan, was beloved by his men, and was
+generally known as "Old Joe." He has been one of the most successful
+Federal leaders, and seems to hold a charmed life. In all probability he
+will become Commander-in-chief of one of the grand armies.
+
+Kearney has passed away since the date of which I speak. He was known as
+the "one-armed Devil," and was, by odds, the best educated of all the
+Federal military chiefs. But, singularly enough, he departed from all
+tactics, when hotly afield. His personal energy and courage have given
+him renown, and he loved to lead forlorn hopes, or head
+storming-parties, or ride upon desperate adventures. He was rich from
+childhood, and spent much of his life in Europe. For a part of this time
+he served as a cavalry-man with the French, in Algiers. In private life
+he was equally reckless, but his tastes were scholarly, and he was
+generous to a fault. Both Kearney and Hooker were kind to the reporters,
+and I owe the dead man many a favor. General Daniel Sickles commanded a
+brigade in this corps. To the left, and in the rear of Heintzelman's
+corps, lay the divisions of Casey and Couch, that had relapsed into
+silence since their disgrace at Seven Pines. General Casey was a
+thin-haired old gentleman, too gracious to be a soldier, although I
+believe that he is still in the service. His division comprised the
+extreme left of the Grand Army, and bordered upon a deep, impenetrable
+bog called "White Oak Swamp." It was the purpose of McClellan to place
+this swamp between him and the enemy, and defend its passage till his
+baggage and siege artillery had obtained the shelter of the gunboats, on
+the shores of the James. I rode along this whole line, to renew my
+impressions of the position, and found that sharp skirmishing was going
+on at every point. When I returned to Savage's, where McClellan's
+headquarters had temporarily been pitched, I found the last of the
+wagons creaking across the track, and filing slowly southward. The
+wounded lay in the out-houses, in the trains of cars, beside the hedge,
+and in shade of the trees about the dwelling. A little back, beside a
+wood, lay Lowe's balloon traps, and the infantry "guard," and cavalry
+"escort" of the Commander-in-chief were encamped close to the new
+provost quarters, in a field beyond the orchard. An ambulance passed me,
+as I rode into the lane; it was filled with sufferers, and two men with
+bloody feet, crouched in the trail. From the roof of Savage's house
+floated the red hospital flag. Savage himself was a quiet Virginia
+farmer, and a magistrate. His name is now coupled with a grand battle.
+
+I felt very hungry, at four o'clock, but my weak stomach revolted at
+coarse soldier fare, and I determined to ride back to Michie's. I was
+counselled to beware; but having learned little discretion afield, I
+cantered off, through a trampled tillage of wheat, and an interminable
+woods. In a half hour I rode into the familiar yard; but the place was
+so ruined that I hardly recognized it. Not a panel of fence remained:
+the lawn was a great pool of slime; the windlass had been wrenched from
+the well; a few gashed and expiring soldiers lay motionless beneath the
+oaks, the fields were littered with the remains of camps, and the old
+dwelling stood like a haunted thing upon a blighted plain. The idlers,
+the teamsters, and the tents were gone,--all was silence,--and in the
+little front porch sat Mrs. Michie, weeping; the old gentleman stared at
+the desolation with a working face, and two small yellow lads lay
+dolorously upon the steps. They all seemed to brighten up as I appeared
+at the gate, and when I staggered from my horse, both of them took my
+hands. I think that tears came into all our eyes at once, and the little
+Ethiops fairly bellowed.
+
+"My friends," I said, falteringly, "I see how you have suffered, and
+sympathize with you, from my heart."
+
+"Our beautiful property is ruined," said Mrs. Michie, welling up.
+
+"Yer's five years of labor,--my children's heritage,--the home of our
+old age,--look at it!"
+
+The old gentleman stood up gravely, and cast his eyes mournfully around.
+
+"I have nobody to accuse," he said; "my grief is too deep for any hate.
+This is war!"
+
+"What will the girls say when they come back?" was the mother's next
+sob; "they loved the place: do you think they will know it?"
+
+I did not know how to reply. They retained my hands, and for a moment
+none of us spoke.
+
+"Don't think, Mr. Townsend," said the chivalrous old gentleman again,
+"that we like you less because some of your country people have stripped
+us. Mother, where is the gruel you made for him?"
+
+The good lady, expecting my return, had prepared some nourishing chicken
+soup, and directly she produced it. I think she took heart when I ate so
+plentifully, and we all spoke hopefully again. Their kindness so touched
+me, that as the evening came quietly about us, lengthening the shadows,
+and I knew that I must depart, I took both their hands again, doubtful
+what to say.
+
+"My friends,--may I say, almost my parents? for you have been as
+kind,--good by! In a day, perhaps, you will be with your children again.
+Richmond will be open to you. You may freely go and come. Be comforted
+by these assurances. And when the war is over,--God speed the time!--we
+may see each other under happier auspices."
+
+"Good by!" said Mr. Michie; "if I have a house at that time, you shall
+be welcome."
+
+"Good by," said Mrs. Michie; "tell your mother that a strange lady in
+Virginia took good care of you when you were sick."
+
+I waved a final adieu, vaulted down the lane, and the wood gathered its
+solemn darkness about me. When I emerged upon Savage's fields, a
+succession of terrible explosions shook the night, and then the flames
+flared up, at points along the railroad. They were blowing up the
+locomotives and burning the cars. At the same hour, though I could not
+see it, White House was wrapped in fire, and the last sutler, teamster,
+and cavalry-man had disappeared from the shores of the Pamunkey.
+
+I tossed through another night of fever, in the captain's tent of the
+Sturgis Rifles,--McClellan's body guard. And somehow, again, I dreamed
+fitfully of the unburied corpses on the field of Gaines's Mill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A BATTLE SUNDAY.
+
+
+In the dim of the morning of our Lord's Sabbath, the twenty-ninth of
+June, 1862, I sat in my saddle at Savage's. The gloom was very
+cheerless. A feeling of hopeless vagabondism oppressed me. I remembered
+the Disinherited Knight, the Wandering Jew, Robinson Crusoe, and other
+poor errants in the wide world, and wondered if any of them ever looked
+so ruefully as I, when the last wagon of the Grand Army disappeared
+through the shadow.
+
+The tent had been taken down at midnight. I had been dozing in the
+saddle, with parched lips and throbbing temples, waiting for my comrade.
+Head-quarters had been intending to move, without doing it, for four
+hours, and he informed me that it was well to stay with the Commanding
+General, as the Commanding General kept out of danger, and also kept in
+provisions. I was sick and petulant, and finally quarrelled with my
+friend. He told me, quietly, that I would regret my harshness when I
+should be well again. I set off for White Oak, but repented at "Burnt
+Chimneys," and turned back. In the misty dawn I saw the maimed still
+lying on the ground, wrapped in relics of blankets, and in one of the
+outhouses a grim embalmer stood amid a family of nude corpses. He dealt
+with the bodies of high officers only; for, said he--
+
+"I used to be glad to prepare private soldiers. They were wuth a five
+dollar bill apiece. But, Lord bless you, a Colonel pays a hundred, and
+a Brigadier-General two hundred. There's lots of them now, and I have
+cut the acquaintance of everything below a Major. I might," he added,
+"as a great favor, do a Captain, but he must pay a Major's price. I
+insist upon that! Such windfalls don't come every day. There won't be
+another such killing for a century."
+
+A few horsemen of the escort loitered around head-quarters. All the
+tents but one had been removed, and the staff crouched sleepily upon the
+refuse straw. The rain began to drizzle at this time, and I unbuckled a
+blanket to wrap about my shoulders. Several people were lying upon dry
+places, here and there, and espying some planks a little remote, I tied
+my horse to a peach-tree, and stretched myself languidly upon my back.
+The bridal couch or the throne were never so soft as those knotty
+planks, and the drops that fell upon my forehead seemed to cool my
+fever.
+
+I had passed into a sort of cognizant sleep when a harsh, loud, cruel
+voice awakened me, and I seemed to see a great Polyphemus, stretching
+his hands into the clouds, and gaping like an earthquake.
+
+"Boy," I heard him say, to a slight figure, near at hand, "boy, what are
+you standing there for? What in ---- do you want?"
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"Take it, and go, ---- ---- you! Take it, and go!"
+
+I peeped timorously from my place, and recognized the Provost-General of
+the Grand Army. He had been sleeping upon a camp chest, and did not
+appear to be refreshed thereby.
+
+"I feel sulky as ----!" he said to an officer adjoining; "I feel ----
+bad-humored! Orderly!"
+
+"General!"
+
+"Whose horses are these?"
+
+"I don't know, General!"
+
+"Cut every ---- ---- one of 'em loose. Wake up these ---- ---- loafers
+with the point of your sabre! Every ---- ---- one of 'em! That's what I
+call ---- ----boldness!"
+
+He strutted off like the great Bomba or the Czar, and I thought I never
+beheld a more exceptional person in any high position.
+
+With a last look at Savage's white house, the abandoned wretches in the
+lawn, the blood-red hospital flag, the torn track and smouldering cars,
+I turned my face southward, crossed some bare plains, that had once been
+fields, and at eight o'clock passed down the Williamsburg road, toward
+Bottom Bridge. The original roadway was now a bottomless stretch of
+sand, full of stranded wheels, dead horses, shreds of blankets,
+discarded haversacks, and mounds of spilled crackers. Other routes for
+wagons had been opened across fields, over bluffs, around pits and bogs,
+and through thickets and woods. The whole country was crossed with
+deeply-rutted roads, as if some immense city had been lifted away, and
+only its interminably sinuous streets remained. Near Burnt Chimneys, a
+creek crossing the road made a ravine, and here I overtook the hindmost
+of the wagons. They had been stalled in the gorge, and a provost guard
+was hurrying the laggard teamsters. The creek was muddy beyond
+comparison, and at the next hill-top I passed "Burnt Chimneys," a few
+dumb witnesses that pointed to heaven. A mile or two further, I came to
+some of the retreating regiments, and also to five of the siege
+thirty-twos with which Richmond was to have been bombarded. The main
+army still lay back at their entrenchments to cover the retreat, and at
+ten o'clock I heard the roar of field guns; the pursuit had commenced,
+and the Confederates were pouring over the ramparts at Fairoaks. I did
+not go back; battles were of no consequence to me. I wanted some
+breakfast. If I could only obtain a cup of warm coffee and a fragment of
+meat, I thought that I might recover strength. But nothing could be
+obtained anywhere, for money or charity. The soldiers that I passed
+looked worn and hungry, for their predecessors had swept the country
+like herds of locusts; but one cheerful fellow, whom I addressed,
+produced a lump of fat pork that I tried to eat, but made a signal
+failure. All my baggage had been left at Michie's, where it remains to
+this moment. None cared to be hospitable to correspondents at this
+despondent hour, and a horrible idea of starvation took possession of my
+mind. A mile from White Oak Swamp, some distance back of the road, lay
+the Engineer Brigade. They were now on the eve of breaking camp, and
+when I reached Colonel McCloud Murphy's, his chests were packed, and all
+his provisions had gone ahead. He gave me, however, a couple of hard
+crackers and a draught of whiskey and quinine, whereby I rallied for a
+moment. At General Woodbury's I observed a middle-aged lady, making her
+toilet by a looking-glass hung against the tent-pole. She seemed as
+careful of her personal appearance, in this trying time, as if she had
+been at some luxurious court. There were several women on the retreat,
+and though the guns thundered steadily behind, they were never flurried,
+but could have received company, or accepted offers of marriage, with
+the utmost complacency. If there was any one that rouged, I am sure that
+no personal danger would have disturbed her while she heightened her
+roses; and she would have tied up her back hair in defiance of shell or
+grape.
+
+At Casey's ancient head-quarters, on the bluff facing White Oak Swamp, I
+found five correspondents. We fraternized immediately, and they all
+pooh-poohed the battle, as such an old story that it would be absurd to
+ride back to the field. We knew, however, that it was occurring at Peach
+Orchard, on a part of the old ground at Fairoaks. These gentlemen were
+in rather despondent moods, and there was one who opined that we were
+all to be made prisoners of war. In his own expressive way of putting
+it, we were to be "gobbled up." This person was stout and inclined to
+panting and perspiration. He wore glasses upon a most pugnacious nose,
+and his large, round head was covered with short, bristly, jetty hair.
+
+"I promised my wife," said this person, who may be called Cindrey, "to
+stay at home after the Burnside business. The Burnside job was very
+nearly enough for me. In fact I should have quite starved on the
+Burnside job, if I hadn't took the fever. And the fever kept me so busy
+that I forgot how hungry I was. So I lived over that."
+
+At this point he took off his glasses and wiped his face; the water was
+running down his cheeks like a miniature cataract, and his great neck
+seemed to emit jets of perspiration.
+
+"Well," he continued, "the Burnside job wasn't enough for me; I must
+come out again. I must follow the young Napoleon. And the young Napoleon
+has made a pretty mess of it. I never expect to get home any more; I
+know I shall be gobbled up!"
+
+A youngish, oldish, oddish fellow, whom they called "Pop," here told Mr.
+Cindrey to keep his pulse up and take a drink. A tall, large person, in
+semi-quaker garb, who did not look unlike George Fox, run to seed, said,
+with a flourish, that these battles were nothing to Shiloh. He was
+attached to the provincial press, and had been with the army of the West
+until recently. Without any exception, he was the "fussiest," most
+impertinent, most disagreeable man that I ever knew. He always made a
+hero of himself in his reports, and if I remember rightly, their
+headings ran after this fashion:--
+
+"_Tremendous Battle at_ ROANOKE! _The Correspondent of_ THE BLUNDERBUSS
+_hoists the_ NATIONAL FLAG above the REBEL RAMPARTS!!!" or
+again--"_Grand Victory at_ SHILOH! _Mr. Twaddle, our Special
+Correspondent_, TAKEN PRISONER!!! _He_ ESCAPES!!! _He is_ FIRED UPON!!!
+_He wriggles through_ FOUR SWAMPS and SEVEN HOSTILE CAMPS! _He is_ AGAIN
+CAPTURED! _He_ STRANGLES _the sentry_! _He drinks the Rebel Commander,
+Philpot_, BLIND! _Philpot gives him_ THE PASSWORD!! --> _Philpot
+compliments the Blunderbuss._ <-- OUR _Correspondent gains the
+Gunboats_! _He is_ TAKEN ABOARD! _His welcome!_ _Description of_ HIS
+BOOTS! _Remarks, etc._, ETC., ETC!!!"
+
+This man was anxious to regulate not only his own newspaper, but he
+aspired to control the entire press. And his self adulation was
+incessant. He rung all the changes upon Shiloh. Every remark suggested
+some incident of Shiloh. He was a thorough Shilohite, and I regretted in
+my heart that the "Rebels" had not shut him away at Shiloh, that he
+might have enjoyed it to the end of his days.
+
+The man "Pop" produced some apple whiskey, and we repaired to a spring,
+at the foot of the hill, where the man "Pop" mixed a cold punch, and we
+drank in rotation. I don't think that Cindrey enjoyed his draught, for
+it filtered through his neck as if he had sprung a leak there; but the
+man Twaddle might have taken a tun, and, as the man "Pop" said, the
+effect would have been that of "pouring whiskey through a knot-hole." It
+was arranged among our own reporters, that I, being sick, should be the
+first of the staff to go to New York. The man "Pop" said jocosely, that
+I might be allowed to die in the bosom of my family. The others gave me
+their notes and lists, but none could give me what I most needed,--a
+morsel of food. At eleven o'clock our little party crossed White Oak
+Creek. There was a corduroy bridge upon which the teams travelled, and a
+log bridge of perilous unsteadiness for foot passengers. But the
+soldiers were fording the stream in great numbers, and I plunged my
+horse into the current so that he spattered a group of fellows, and one
+of them lunged at me with a bayonet. Beyond the creek and swamp, on the
+hillsides, baggage wagons and batteries were parked in immense numbers.
+The troops were taking positions along the edge of the bottom, to oppose
+incursions of the enemy, when they attempted pursuit, and I was told
+that the line extended several miles westward, to New Market Cross
+Roads, where, it was thought, the Confederates would march out from
+Richmond to offer battle. The roadway, beyond the swamp, was densely
+massed with horse, foot, cannon, and teams. The latter still kept toward
+the James, but the nags suffered greatly from lack of corn. Only
+indispensable material had been hauled from the Chickahominy, and the
+soldiers who fought the ensuing protracted battles were exhausted from
+hunger. Everything had an uncomfortable, transient, expectant
+appearance, and the feeble people that limped toward the _ultima thule_
+looked fagged and wretched.
+
+There were some with balls in the groin, thigh, leg, or ankle, that made
+the whole journey, dropping blood at every step. They were afraid to lie
+down, as the wounded limbs might then grow rigid and stop their
+progress. While I pitied these maimed persons, I held the sick in
+greater sympathy. The troubles of the one were local; the others were
+pained in every bone. Bullets are fearful tenants, but fevers are worse.
+And some of the flushed, staggering folk, that reeled along the
+roadside, were literally out of their minds. They muttered and talked
+incoherently, and shouted ribald songs till my blood curdled to see
+them. At the first house on the right of the road, a half-mile past the
+Creek, I noticed many idle soldiers climbing the white palings, to watch
+something that lay in the yard. A gray-haired man was expiring, under
+the coolness of a spreading tree, and he was even now in the closing
+pangs. A comrade at his side bathed his brow with cool water, but I saw
+that he would shortly be with Lazarus or Dives. His hands were stretched
+stiffly by his sides, his feet were rigidly extended, and death was
+hardening into his bleached face. The white eyeballs glared sightlessly
+upward: he was looking into the other world.
+
+The heat at this time was so intolerable that our party, in _lieu_ of
+any other place of resort, resolved to go to the woods. The sun set in
+heaven like a fiery furnace, and we sweat at every pore. I was afraid,
+momentarily, of sunstroke, and my horse was bathed in foam. Some
+companies of cavalry were sheltered in the edges of the woods, and,
+having secured our nags, we penetrated the depths, and spread out our
+blankets that we might lie down. But no breath of air stirred the
+foliage. The "hot and copper sky" found counterpart in the burning
+earth, and innumerable flies and insects fastened their fangs in our
+flesh. Cindrey was upon the rack, and it seemed to me that he possessed
+a sort of capillary perspiration, for the drops stood at tips of each
+separate bristle. He appeared to be passing from the solid to the fluid
+state, and I said, ungenerously, that the existing temperature was his
+liquifying point.
+
+"Then," said the man "Pop," with a youngish, oldish smile, "we may as
+well liquor up."
+
+"I don't drink!" said Twaddle, with a flourish. "During all the perilous
+hours of Shiloh, I abstained. But I am willing to admit, in respect to
+heat, that Shiloh is nowhere at present. And, therefore, I drink with a
+protest."
+
+"No man can drink from my bottle, with a protest," said "Pop." "It isn't
+regular, and implies coercion. Now I don't coerce anybody, particularly
+you."
+
+"Oh!" said Twaddle, drinking like a fish, or, as "Pop" remarked, enough
+to float a gunboat; "oh! we often chaffed each other at Shiloh."
+
+"If you persist in reminding me of Shiloh," blurted Cindrey, "you'll be
+the ruin of me,--you and the heat and the flies. You'll have me
+dissolving into a dew."
+
+Here he wiped his forehead, and killed a large blue fly, that was
+probing his ear. We all resolved to go to sleep, and Twaddle said that
+_he_ slept like a top, in the heat of action, at Shiloh. "Pop" asked
+him, youngishly, to be kind enough to capture no redoubts while we
+slumbered, and not to raise the national flag over any ramparts for
+fifteen minutes. Then he grinned oldishly, and commenced to snore, with
+his flask in his bosom. I am certain that nobody ever felt a tithe of
+the pain, hunger, heat, and weariness, which agonized me, when I awoke
+from a half-hour's sweltering nap. My clothing was soaking with water; I
+was almost blind; somebody seemed to be sawing a section out of my head;
+my throat was hot and crackling; my stomach knew all the pangs of
+emptiness; I had scarcely strength to motion away the pertinacious
+insects. A soldier gave me a trifle of boiling water from his canteen;
+but I gasped for air; we were living in a vacuum. Sahara could not have
+been so fierce and burning. Two of us started off to find a spring. We
+made our way from shade to shade, expiring at every step, and finally,
+at the base of the hill, on the brink of the swamp, discovered a rill of
+tepid water, that evaporated before it had trickled a hundred yards. If
+a sleek and venomous water-snake--for there were thousands of them
+hereabout--had coiled in the channel, I would still have sucked the
+draught, bending down as I did. Then I bethought me of my pony. He had
+neither been fed nor watered for twenty hours, and I hastened to obtain
+him from his place along the woodside. To my terror, he was gone.
+Forgetful of my weakness, I passed rapidly, hither and thither,
+inquiring of cavalry-men, and entertaining suspicions of every person in
+the vicinity. Finally, I espied him in charge of a rough, thievish
+sabreman, who affected not to see me. I went up to the animal, and
+pulled the reins from his shoulder, to discover the brand mark,--"U. S."
+As I surmised, he had not been branded, and I turned indignantly upon
+the fellow:--
+
+"My friend, how came you by this horse?"
+
+"Quartermaster!" said the man, guiltily.
+
+"No sir! He belongs to me. Take off that cavalry-saddle, and find mine,
+immediately."
+
+"Not if the court knows itself," said the man--"and it thinks it do!"
+
+"Then," said I, white with rage, "I shall report you at once, for
+theft."
+
+"You may, if you want to," replied the man, carelessly.
+
+I struck off at once for the new Provost Quarters, at a farm-house,
+close by. The possible failure to regain my animal, filled me with
+rueful thoughts. How was I, so dismounted, to reach the distant river? I
+should die, or starve, on the way. I thought I should faint, when I came
+to the end of the first field, and leaned, tremblingly, against a tree.
+I caught myself sobbing, directly, like a girl, and my mind ran upon the
+coolness of my home with my own breezy bedroom, soft paintings, and
+pleasant books. These themes tortured me with a consciousness of my
+folly. I had forsaken them for the wickednesses of this unhappy
+campaign. And my body was to blacken by the road-side,--the sable birds
+of prey were to be my mourners.
+
+But, looking through my tears, a moving something passed between me and
+the sky. A brownish bay pony, trailing a fence-rail by his halter, and
+browsing upon patches of oats. I whistled thrice and the faithful animal
+trotted to my feet, and extended his great nose to be rubbed. I believe
+that this horse was the only living thing in the army that sympathized
+with me. He knew that I was sick, and I thought once, that, like the
+great dogs of Saint Bernard, he was about to get upon his knees, that I
+might the more readily climb upon his back. He did, however, stand
+quietly, while I mounted, and I gave him a drink at the foot of the
+hill. Returning, I saw the soldier, wrongfully accused, eyeing me from
+his haunt beneath the trees. I at once rode over to him, and apologized
+for my mistake.
+
+"Never mind," said the man, complacently. "You was all right. I might a
+done the same thing. Fact is," he added, "I did hook this hoss, but I
+knew you wan't the party."
+
+During the rest of the day I travelled disconsolately, up and down the
+road, winding in and out of the lines of teams.
+
+I was assured that it would be impossible to get to the James till next
+day, as no portion of that army had yet advanced so far. The moody
+minutes of that afternoon made the longest part of my life, while the
+cannon at Peach Orchard and Savage's, roared and growled incessantly.
+Toward the close of the day I fell in with Captain Hill, of the New York
+Saratoga regiment, who gave me the outline of the fight.
+
+The Confederates had discovered that we were falling back, by means of a
+balloon, of home manufacture,--the first they had been able to employ
+during the entire war. They appeared at our entrenchments on Sunday
+morning, and finding them deserted, commenced an irregular pursuit,
+whereby, they received terrible volleys of musketry from ambuscaded
+regiments, and retired, in disorder, to the ramparts. This was the
+battle of "Peach Orchard," and was disastrous to the Southerners. In the
+afternoon, they again essayed to advance, but more cautiously. The
+Federals, meantime, lay in order of battle upon Savage's, Dudley's, and
+Crouch's farms, their right resting on the Chickahominy, their centre on
+the railroad, and their left beyond the Williamsburg turnpike. For a
+time, an artillery contest ensued, and the hospitals at Savage's, where
+the wounded lay, were thrice fired upon. The Confederates finally
+penetrated the dense woods that belted this country, and the battle, at
+nightfall, became fervid and sanguinary. The Federals held their ground
+obstinately, and fell back, covered by artillery, at midnight. The woods
+were set on fire, in the darkness, and conflagration painted fiery
+terrors on the sky. The dead, littered all the fields and woods. The
+retreating army had marked its route with corpses. This was the battle
+of "Savage's," and neither party has called it a victory.
+
+During the rest of the night the weary fugitives were crossing White Oak
+Creek and Swamp. Toward daybreak, the last battery had accomplished the
+passage; the bridge was destroyed; and preparations were made to
+dispute the pursuit in the morning.
+
+I noted these particulars and added to my lists of dead and captured. At
+dusk I was about to sleep, supperless, upon the bare ground, when my
+patron, Colonel Murphy, again came in sight, and invited me to occupy a
+shelter-tent, on the brow of the hill at White Oak. To my great joy, he
+was able to offer me some stewed beef, bread and butter, and hot coffee.
+I ate voraciously, seizing the food in my naked fingers, and rending it
+like a beast.
+
+The regiment of Colonel Murphy was composed of laborers, and artificers
+of every possible description. There were blacksmiths, moulders, masons,
+carpenters, boat-builders, joiners, miners, machinists, riggers, and
+rope-makers. They could have bridged the Mississippi, rebuilt the
+Tredegar works, finished the Tower of Babel, drained the Chesapeake,
+constructed the Great Eastern, paved Broadway, replaced the Grand Trunk
+railroad, or tunnelled the Straits of Dover. I have often thought that
+the real greatness of the Northern army lay in its ingenuity and
+industry, not in its military qualifications.
+
+Our conversation turned upon these matters, as we sat before the
+Colonel's tent in the evening, and a Chaplain represented the feelings
+of the North in this manner: "We must whip them. We have got more money,
+more men, more ships, more ingenuity. They are bound to knuckle at last.
+If we have to lose man for man with them, their host will die out before
+ours. And we wont give up the Union,--not a piece of it big enough for a
+bird or a bee to cover,--though we reduce these thirty millions one
+half, and leave only the women and children to inherit the land." The
+heart of the army was now cast down, though a large portion of the
+soldiers did not know why we were falling back. I heard moody,
+despondent, accusing mutterings, around the camp-fires, and my own mind
+was full of grief and bitterness. It seemed that our old flag had
+descended to a degenerate people. It was not now, as formerly, a proud
+recollection that I was an American. If I survived the retreat, it would
+become my mission to herald the evil tidings through the length and
+breadth of the land. If I fainted in their pursuit, a loathsome prison,
+or a grave in the trenches, were to be my awards. When I lay down in a
+shelter-tent, rolling from side to side, I remembered that this was the
+Sabbath day. A battle Sabbath! How this din and slaughter contrasted
+with my dear old Lord's days in the prayerful parsonage! The chimes in
+the white spire, where the pigeons cooed in the hush of the singing,
+were changed to cannon peals; and the boys that dozed in the "Amen
+corner," were asleep forever in the trampled grain-fields. The good
+parson, whose clauses were not less truthful, because spoken through his
+nose, now blew the loud trumpet for the babes he had baptized, to join
+the Captains of fifties and thousands; and while the feeble old women in
+the side pews made tremulous responses to the prayer for "thy soldiers
+fighting in thy cause," the banners of the Republic were craped, dusty,
+and bloody, and the scattered regiments were resting upon their arms for
+the shock of the coming dawn.
+
+Thus I thought, tossing and talking through the long watches, and toward
+morning, when sleep brought fever-dreams, a monstrous something leered
+at me from the blackness, saying, in a sort of music--
+
+"Gobbled up! Gobbled up!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BY THE RIVERSIDE.
+
+
+A crash and a stunning shock, as of a falling sphere, aroused me at nine
+o'clock. A shell had burst in front of our tent, and the enemy's
+artillery was thundering from Casey's old hill, beyond the swamp. As I
+hastily drew on my boots,--for I had not otherwise undressed,--I had
+opportunity to remark one of those unaccountable panics which develop
+among civilian soldiers. The camps were plunged into disorder. As the
+shells dropped here and there, among the tents and teams, the wildest
+and most fearful deeds were enacted. Here a caisson blew up, tearing the
+horses to pieces, and whirling a cannoneer among the clouds. There an
+ammunition wagon exploded, and the air seemed to be filled with
+fragments of wood, iron, and flesh. A boy stood at one of the fires,
+combing out his matted hair; suddenly his head flew off, spattering the
+brains, and the shell--which we could not see--exploded in a piece of
+woods, mutilating the trees. The effect upon the people around me was
+instantaneous and appalling. Some, that were partially dressed, took to
+their heels, hugging a medley of clothing. The teamsters climbed into
+the saddles, and shouted to their nags, whipping them the while. If the
+heavy wheels hesitated to revolve, they left horses and vehicles to
+their fate, taking themselves to the woods; or, as in some cases, cut
+traces and harness, and galloped away like madmen. In a twinkling our
+camps were almost deserted, and the fields, woods, and roads were alive
+with fugitives, rushing, swearing, falling, and trampling, while the
+fierce bolts fell momentarily among them, making havoc at every rod.
+
+To join this flying, dying mass was my first impulse; but after-thought
+reminded me that it would be better to remain. I must not leave my
+horse, for I could not walk the whole long way to the James, and the
+fever had so reduced me that I hardly cared to keep the little life
+remaining. I almost marvelled at my coolness; since, in the fulness of
+strength and health, I should have been one of the first of the
+fugitives; whereas, I now looked interestedly upon the exciting
+spectacle, and wished that it could be daguerreotyped.
+
+Before our artillery could be brought to play, the enemy, emboldened at
+his success, pushed a column of infantry down the hill, to cross the
+creek, and engage us on our camping-ground. For a time I believed that
+he would be successful, and in that event, confusion and ruin would have
+overtaken the Unionists. The gray and butternut lines appeared over the
+brow of the hill,--they wound at double quick through the narrow
+defile,--they poured a volley into our camps when half-way down, and
+under cover of the smoke they dashed forward impetuously, with a loud
+huzza. The artillery beyond them kept up a steady fire, raining shell,
+grape, and canister over their heads, and ploughing the ground on our
+side, into zigzag furrows,--rending the trees, shattering the
+ambulances, tearing the tents to tatters, slaying the horses, butchering
+the men. Directly Captain Mott's battery was brought to bear; but before
+he could open fire, a solid shot struck one of his twelve-pounders,
+breaking the trunnion and splintering the wheels. In like manner one of
+his caissons blew up, and I do not think that he was able to make any
+practise whatever. A division of infantry was now marched forward, to
+engage the Confederates at the creek side; but two of the
+regiments--and I think that one was the 20th New York--turned bodily,
+and could not be rallied. The moment was full of significance, and I
+beheld these failures with breathless suspense. In five minutes the
+pursuers would gain the creek, and in ten, drive our dismayed
+battalions, like chaff before the wind. I hurried to my horse, that I
+might be ready to escape. The shell and ball still made music around me.
+I buckled up my saddle with tremulous fingers, and put my foot upon the
+stirrup. But a cheer recalled me and a great clapping of hands, as at
+some clever performance in the amphitheatre. I looked again. A battery
+from our position across the road, had opened upon the Confederate
+infantry, as they reached the very brink of the swamp. For a moment the
+bayonets tossed wildly, the dense column staggered like a drunken man,
+the flags rose and fell, and then the line fell back disorderly. At that
+instant a body of Federal infantry, that I had not seen, appeared, as by
+invocation; their steel fell flashingly, a column of smoke enveloped
+them, the hills and skies seemed to split asunder with the shock,--and
+when I looked again, the road was strewn with the dying and dead; the
+pass had been defended.
+
+As the batteries still continued to play, and as the prospect of
+uninterrupted battle during the day was not a whit abated, I decided to
+resume my saddle, and, if possible, make my way to the James. The
+geography of the country, as I had deciphered it, satisfied me that I
+must pass "New Market," before I could rely upon my personal safety. New
+Market was a paltry cross-road's hamlet, some miles ahead, but as near
+to Richmond as White Oak Creek. The probabilities were, that the
+Confederates would endeavor to intercept us at this point, and so attack
+us in flank and rear. As I did not witness either of these battles,
+though I heard the discharge of every musket, it may be as well to
+state, in brief, that June 30 was marked by the bloodiest of all the
+Richmond struggles, excepting, possibly, Gaines's Mill. While the
+Southern artillery engaged Franklin's corps, at White Oak Crossing, and
+their left made several unavailing attempts to ford the creek with
+infantry,--their entire right and centre, marched out the Charles City
+Road, and gave impetuous battle at New Market. The accounts and the
+results indicate that the Federals won the day at New Market, sheerly by
+good fighting. They were parching with thirst, weak with hunger, and it
+might have been supposed that reverses had broken their spirit. On the
+contrary they did not fall back a rod, during the whole day, and at
+evening Heintzelman's corps crowned their success by a grand charge,
+whereat the Confederates broke and were pursued three miles toward
+Richmond. The gunboats Galena and Aroostook, lying in the James at
+Turkey Bend, opened fire at three o'clock, and killed promiscuously,
+Federals and Confederates. But the Southern soldiers were superstitious
+as to gunboats, and they could not be made to approach within range of
+the Galena's monstrous projectiles.
+
+I shall always recall my journey from White Oak to Harrison's Bar, as
+marked by constantly increasing beauties of scenery, and terrors of
+event. At every hoof-fall I was leaving the low, boggy, sparsely settled
+Chickahominy region, for the high farm-lands of the James. The
+dwellings, as I progressed, became handsome; the negro quarters were
+less like huts and cattle-sheds; the ripe wheatfields stretched almost
+to the horizon; the lawns and lanes were lined with ancient shade-trees;
+there were picturesque gates and lodges; the fences were straight and
+whitewashed, there were orchards, heavy with crimson apples, where the
+pumpkins lay beneath, like globes of gold, in the rows of amber corn.
+Into this patriarchal and luxuriant country, the retreating army wound
+like a great devouring serpent. It was to me, the coming back of the
+beaten _jetters_ through _Midgards_, or the repulse of the fallen angels
+from heaven, trampling down the river-sides of Eden. They rode their
+team-horses into the wavy wheat, and in some places, where the reapers
+had been at work, they dragged the sheaves from the stacks, and rested
+upon them. Hearing of the coming of the army, the proprietors had vainly
+endeavored to gather their crops, but the negroes would not work, and
+they had not modern implements, whereby to mow the grain rapidly. The
+profanation of those glorious stretches of corn and rye were to me some
+of the most melancholy episodes of the war. No mind can realize how the
+grain-fields used to ripple, when the fresh breezes blew up and down the
+furrows, and the hot suns of that almost tropical climate, had yielded
+each separate head till the whole landscape was like a bright cloud, or
+a golden sea. The tall, shapely stalks seemed to reach out imploringly,
+like sunny-haired virgins, waiting to be gathered into the arms of the
+farmer. They were the Sabine women, on the eve of the bridal, when the
+insatiate Romans tore them away and trampled them. The Indian corn was
+yet green, but so tall that the tasselled tops showed how cunningly the
+young ears were ripening. There were melons in the corn-rows, that a
+week would have developed, but the soldiers dashed them open and sucked
+the sweet water. They threw clubs at the hanging apples till the ground
+was littered with them, and the hogs came afield to gorge; they slew the
+hogs and divided the fresh pork among themselves. As I saw, in one
+place, dozens of huge German cavalry-men, asleep upon bundles of wheat,
+I recalled their Frankish forefathers, swarming down the Apennines, upon
+Italy.
+
+The air was so sultry during a part of the day, that one was constantly
+athirst. But there was a belt of country, four miles or more in width,
+where there seemed to be neither rills nor wells. Happily, the roads
+were, in great part, enveloped in stately timber, and the shade was very
+grateful to men and horses. The wounded still kept with us, and many
+that were fevered. They did not complain with words; but their red eyes
+and painful pace told all the story. If we came to rivulets, they used
+to lie upon their bellies, along the margins, with their heads in the
+flowing water. The nags were so stiff and hot, that, when they were
+reined into creeks, they refused to go forward, and my brown animal once
+dropped upon his knees, and quietly surveyed me, as I pitched upon my
+hands, floundering in the pool. I remember a stone dairy, such as are
+found upon Pennsylvania grazing farms, where I stopped to drink. It lay
+up a lane, some distance from the road, and two enormous tulip poplar
+trees sheltered and half-concealed it. A tiny creek ran through the
+dairy, over cool granite slabs, and dozens of earthen milk-bowls lay in
+the water, with the mould of the cream brimming at the surface. A pewter
+drinking-mug hung to a peg at the side, and there were wooden spoons for
+skimming, straining pails, and great ladles of gourd and cocoanut. A
+cooler, tidier, trimmer dairy, I had not seen, and I stretched out my
+body upon the dry slabs, to drink from one of the milk-bowls. The cream
+was sweet, rich, and nourishing, and I was so absorbed directly, that I
+did not heed the footfalls of a tall, broad, vigorous man, who said in a
+quiet way, but with a deep, sonorous voice, and a decided Northern
+twang--
+
+"Friend, you might take the mug. Some of your comrades will want to
+drink from that bowl."
+
+I begged his pardon hastily, and said that I supposed he was the
+proprietor.
+
+"I reckon that I must give over my ownership, while the army hangs
+around here," said the man; "but I must endure what I can't cure."
+
+Here he smiled grimly, and reached down the pewter cup. Then he bent
+over a fresh bowl, and dexterously dipped the cup full of milk, without
+seeming to break the cream.
+
+"Drink that," he said; "and if there's any better milk in these parts, I
+want to know the man."
+
+He looked at me critically, while I emptied the vessel, and seemed to
+enjoy my heartiness.
+
+"If you had been smart enough to come this way, victorious," added the
+man, straightforwardly, "instead of being out-generalled, whipped, and
+driven, I should enjoy the loss of my property a great deal more!"
+
+There was an irresistible heartiness in his tone and manner. He had,
+evidently, resolved to bear the misfortunes of war bravely.
+
+"You are a Northern man?" I said, inquiringly.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"There are no such dairies in Virginia; a Virginian never dipped a mug
+of milk after your fashion; you haven't the Virginia inflection, and
+very weak Virginia principles."
+
+The man laughed dryly, and filled himself a cup, which he drank
+sedately.
+
+"I reckon you are correct," he said; "pretty much correct, any way. I'm
+a New Yorker, from the Mohawk Valley, and I have been showing these
+folks how they can't farm. If there's anybody that farms better than I
+do, I want to know the man!"
+
+He looked at the flowing water, the clean slabs and walls, the shining
+tins, and smacked his lips satisfactorily. I asked him if he farmed with
+negroes, and if the prejudices of the country affected either his social
+or industrial interests. He answered that he was obliged to employ
+negroes, as he had thrice tried the experiment of working with whites,
+but with ill success.
+
+"_I_ would have kept 'em," he added, in his great voice, closing a
+prodigious fist, "but the men would not stay. I couldn't make the
+neighbors respect them. There was nobody for 'em to associate with. They
+were looked upon as niggers, and they got to feel it after a while. So I
+have had only niggers latterly; but I get more work from them than any
+other man in these parts. If there's anybody that gets more work out of
+niggers than I do, I want to know the man!"
+
+There was a sort of hard, hearty defiance about him, typical of his
+severe, angular race, and I studied his large limbs and grim, full face
+with curious admiration. He told me that he hired his negro hands from
+the surrounding slave-owners, and that he gave them premiums upon excess
+of work, approximating to wages. In this way they were encouraged to
+habits of economy, perseverance, and sprightliness.
+
+"I don't own a nigger," he said, "not one! But I don't think a nigger's
+much too good to be a slave. I won't be bothered with owning 'em. And I
+won't be conquered into 'the institution.' I said, when I commenced,
+that I should not buy niggers, and I won't buy niggers, because I said
+so! As to social disadvantages, every Northern man has 'em here. They
+called me an abolitionist; and a fellow at the hotel in Richmond did so
+to my face. I knocked him into a heap, and nobody has meddled with me
+since." "Of course," he said, after a moment, "it won't do to inflame
+these people. These people are like my bulls, and you mustn't shake a
+red stick at 'em. Besides, I'm not a fanatic. I never was. My wife's one
+of these people, and I let her think as she likes. But, if there's
+anybody in these parts that wants to interfere with me, I should like to
+know the man!"
+
+The contemptuous tone in which he mentioned "these people" amused me
+infinitely, and I believed that his resolute, indomitable manner would
+have made him popular in any society. He was shrewd, withal, and walked
+beside me to his gate. When the regiments halted to rest, by the
+wayside, he invited the field officers to the dairy, and so obtained
+guards to rid him of depredators. He would have escaped very handsomely,
+but the hand of war was not always so merciful, and a part of the battle
+of Malvern Hills was fought upon his property. I have no doubt that he
+submitted unflinchingly, and sat more stolidly amid the wreck than old
+Marius in battered Carthage.
+
+Until two o'clock in the afternoon I rode leisurely southward, under a
+scorching sky, but still bearing up, though aflame with fever. The guns
+thundered continuously behind, and the narrow roads were filled, all the
+way, with hurrying teams, cavalry, cannon, and foot soldiers. I stopped,
+a while, by a white frame church,--primly, squarely built,--and read the
+inscriptions upon the tombs uninterestedly. Some of the soldiers had
+pried open the doors, and a wounded Zouave was delivering a mock sermon
+from the pulpit. Some of his comrades broke up the meeting by singing--
+
+    "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"
+
+and then a Major ordered them out, and put a guard upon the building.
+The guard played cards upon the door sills.
+
+I was frequently obliged, by the crowded state of the roads, to turn
+aside into woods, fens, and fields, and so make precarious progress.
+Sometimes I strayed, unwittingly, a good way from the army, and
+recovered the route with difficulty. On one of these occasions, I was
+surprised by a person in civil dress, who seemed to shoot up out of the
+ground. He was the queerest, grimmest, fearfulest man that I have ever
+known, and, at first, I thought that the arch fiend had appeared before
+me. The wood was very deep here, and there were no wayfarers but we two.
+It was quite still; but now and then we heard the rumble of wagons, and
+the crack of teamster's whips. The man in question wore dead black
+beard, and his eyebrows were of the same intense, lustreless hue. So
+were his eyes and his hair; but the latter formed a circle or cowl
+around his head. He had a pale skin, his fingers, were long and bony,
+and he rode dexterously in and out, among the tree boles, with his hat
+in his hand. His horse was as black as himself, and, together, they made
+a half-brigandish, half-satanic appearance.
+
+I reined in sharply, when I saw this person, and he looked at me like
+the evil-eye, through his great owlish orbs.
+
+"Good day," he said, in profound basso, as low I think as "double G,"
+and when he opened his mouth, I saw that his teeth were very white.
+
+I saluted him gravely, and, not without a shudder, rode beside him. He
+proved to be a sort of Missionary, from the Evangelical religious
+denominations of the North, to inquire into the spiritual condition of
+the soldiers. Camps were full of such people, but I had not found any
+man who appeared to be less qualified for his vocation; to have such a
+figure at one's deathbed, would be like a foretaste of the great fiend.
+He had a fashion of working his scalp half way down to his eyes, as he
+spoke, and when he smiled,--though he never laughed aloud,--his
+eyelashes did not contract, as with most people, but rather expanded,
+till his eyeballs projected from his head. On such occasions, his white
+teeth were revealed like a row of fangs, and his leprous skin grew yet
+paler.
+
+"The army has not even the form of godliness," said this man. In the
+course of his remarks, he had discovered that I was a correspondent, and
+at once turned the conversation into a politico-religious channel.
+
+"The form of godliness is gone," said the man again in "double G." "This
+is a calamitous fact! I would it were not so! I grieve to state it! But
+inquiry into the fact, has satisfied me that the form of godliness does
+not exist. Ah!"
+
+When the man said "Ah!" I thought that my horse would run away, and
+really, the tone was like the deep conjuration in Hamlet:
+"_swear-r-r-r_!"
+
+"For example," said the man, who told me that his name was Dimpdin,--"I
+made some remarks to the 1st New Jersey, on Sabbath week. The field
+officers directed the men to attend; I opened divine service with a
+feeling hymn; a very feeling hymn! A long measure hymn. By Montgomery!
+I commenced earnestly in prayer. In appropriate prayer! I spoke
+advisedly for a short hour. What were the results? The deplorable
+results? There were men, sir, in that assembly, who went to sleep. To
+sleep!"
+
+He must have gone a great way below "double G," this time, and I did not
+see how he could get back. He drew his scalp quite down to the bridge of
+his nose, and, seeing that my horse pricked up his ears, timorously
+smiled like the idol of Baal.
+
+"There were men, sir, who did worse. Not simply failing to be hearers of
+the word! But doers of evil! Men who played cards during the service.
+Played cards! Gambled! Gambled! And some,--abandoned wretches!--who
+mocked me! Lifted up their voices and mocked! Mockers, gamblers,
+slumberers!"
+
+I never heard anything so awful as the man Dimpdin's voice, at the
+iteration of these three words. They seemed to come from the bowels of
+the earth, and rang through the wood like the growl of a lion. He told
+me that he was engaged upon a Memorial to the Evangelical Union, which
+should state the number of unconverted men in the ranks, and the number
+of castaways. He accredited the loss of the campaign to the prevailing
+wickedness, but was unwilling to admit that the Southern troops were
+more religious. His theory of reform, if I remember it, embraced the
+raising of Chaplains to the rank of Major, with proportionate pay and
+perquisites, the establishment of a military religious bureau, and a
+Chaplain-General with Aides. Each soldier, officer, teamster, and
+drummer-boy was to have a Testament in his knapsack, and services should
+be held on the eve of every battle, and at roll-call in the mornings.
+There was to be an inspection of Testaments as of muskets. For swearing,
+a certain sum should be subtracted from the soldier's pay, and conferred
+upon the Chaplains.
+
+"In fact," said Dimpdin, tragically,--scalping himself meanwhile,--"the
+church must be recognized in every department, and if my Memorial be
+acted upon favorably, we shall have such victories, in three months, as
+will sweep Rebellion into the grave. Yes! Into the grave! The grave!"
+
+I was obliged to say, here, that my horse could not stand these
+sepulchral noises, and that my nerves, being shattered by the fever,
+were inadequate to bear the shock. So the man Dimpdin smiled, like a
+window-mummy, and contented himself with looking like Apollyon. We
+reached a rill directly, and he produced a wicker flask, with a
+Britannia drinking-case.
+
+"Young men love stimulating drinks," said Dimpdin,--"strong drinks!
+alcoholic drinks! Here is a portion of Monongahela! old Monongahela! We
+will refresh ourselves!"
+
+He found a lemon, accidentally, in his saddle-bag, and contrived an
+informal punch, with wonderful dexterity. I took a draught modestly, and
+he emptied the rest, with an "Ah!" that shook the woods.
+
+I wondered if the man Dimpdin would suggest the apportionment of flasks
+to soldiers, in his Evangelical report!
+
+He left me, when we regained the road, to ride with a lithe, bronchial
+person, in white neckcloth and coat cut close at the collar. They looked
+like the fox and the fiend, in the fable, and I seemed to hear the man
+Dimpdin's voice for three succeeding weeks.
+
+At three o'clock, I climbed a gentle hill,--and I was now very weary and
+weak,--and from the summit, looked upon the river James, flowing far off
+to the right, through woods, and bluffs, and grainfields, and reedy
+islands. At last, I had gained the haven. The bright waters below me
+seemed to cool my red, fiery eyes, and a sort of blessed blindness fell
+for a time upon me, so that, when I looked again my lashes were wet. The
+prospect was truly beautiful. Far to the west, standing out from the
+chalky bluffs, were scattered the white camps of Wise's Confederate
+brigade. Beyond, on the remote bank of the river, lay farm-lands, and
+stately mansions, and some one showed me, rising faintly in the
+distance, "Drury's Bluff," the site of Fort Darling, where the gunboats
+were repulsed in the middle of May. Below, in the river, lay the
+_Galena_, and a little way astern, the _Aroostook_. Signal-men, with
+flags, were elevated upon the masts of each, and the gunners stood upon
+the decks, as waiting some emergency. The vessels had steam up, and
+seemed to be ready for action at any moment. This was Grand Turkey Bend,
+and the rising ground on which I stood, was known as "Malvern Hills." A
+farm-house lay to my left, and repairing thither, I cast myself from the
+nag, and lay down in the shady yard, thankful that I had reached the
+haven, and only solicitous now to escape the further privations of
+McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT.
+
+
+An earnest desire now took possession of me, to be the first of the
+correspondents to reach New York. The scenes just transpired had been
+unparalleled in the war, and if, through me, the ---- should be the
+first to make them public, it would greatly redound to my credit.
+Perhaps no profession imparts an enthusiasm in any measure kindred to
+that of the American Newsgatherer. I was careless of the lost lives and
+imperilled interests, the suffering, the defeat: no emotions either of
+the patriot or the man influenced me. I only thought of the _eclat_ of
+giving the story to the world, and nurtured an insane desire to make to
+Fortress Monroe, by some other than the common expedient. That this was
+a paltry ambition I know; but I write what happened, and to the
+completion of my sketch of a correspondent, this is necessary to be
+said. I found Glumley at the old mansion referred to, and stealthily
+suggested to him the seizing of an open boat, whereby we might row down
+to the Fortress. He rejected it as impracticable, but was willing to
+hazard a horseback ride down the Peninsula. I knew that this would not
+do, and after a short time I continued my journey down the riverside,
+hopeful of finding some transport or Despatch boat. I was now in Charles
+City County, and the river below me was dotted with woodland islands. I
+soon got upon the main road to Harrison's Point or Bar, and followed the
+stream of ambulances and supply teams for more than an hour. At last we
+reached a diverging lane, through which we passed to a landing, close to
+a fine dwelling, whose style of architecture I may denominate, the
+"Gothic run mad." An old cider-press was falling into rottenness on the
+lawn; four soldiers were guarding the well, that the mob might not
+exhaust its precious contents, and between some negro-huts and the brink
+of the bluff, stood a cluster of broad-armed trees, beneath whose shade
+the ambulance-drivers were depositing the wounded.
+
+I have made these chapters sufficiently hideous, without venturing to
+transcribe these new horrors. Suffice it to say that the men whom I now
+beheld had been freshly brought from the fight of New Market, and were
+suffering the first agonies of their wounds. One hour before, they had
+felt all the lustiness of life and adventure. Now, they were whining
+like babes, and some had expired in the ambulances. The act of lifting
+them to the ground so irritated their wounds that they howled dismally,
+and yet were so exhausted that after lying upon the ground awhile, they
+quietly passed into sleep. Such are the hardening results of war, that
+some soldiers, who were unhurt, actually refused to give a trifle of
+river water from their canteens to their expiring comrades. At one time
+a brutal wrangle occurred at the well, and the guard was compelled to
+seek reinforcement, or the thirsty people would have massacred them.
+
+I was now momentarily adding to my notes of the battles, and the wounded
+men very readily gave me their names; for they were anxious that the
+account of their misfortunes should reach their families, and I think
+also, that some martial vanity lingered, even among those who were
+shortly to crumble away. A longboat came in from the Galena, after a
+time, and General McClellan, who had ridden down to the pier, was taken
+aboard. He looked to be very hot and anxious, and while he remained
+aboard the vessel, his staff dispersed themselves around the banks and
+talked over the issues of the contest. As the General receded from the
+strand, every sweep of the long oars was responded to from the hoarse
+cannon of the battle-field, and when he climbed upon deck, the steamer
+moved slowly up the narrow channel, and the signal-man in the foretop
+flourished his crossed flag sturdily. Directly, the _Galena_ opened fire
+from her immense pieces of ordnance, and the roar was so great that the
+explosions of field-guns were fairly drowned. She fired altogether by
+the direction of the signals, as nothing could be seen of the
+battle-field from her decks. I ascertained afterward that she played
+havoc with our own columns as well as the enemy's, but she brought hope
+to the one, and terror to the other. The very name of gunboat affrighted
+the Confederates, and they were assured, in this case, that the
+retreating invaders, had at length reached a haven. The _Galena_ kept up
+a steady fire till nightfall, and the Federals, taking courage, drove
+their adversaries toward Richmond, at eve. Meanwhile the Commanding
+General's escort and body-guard had encamped around us, and during the
+night the teams and much of the field cannon fell back. I obtained
+shelter and meals from Quartermaster Le Duke of Iowa, whose canvas was
+pitched a mile or more below, and as I tossed through the watches I
+heard the splashing of water in the river beneath, where the tired
+soldiers were washing away the powder of the battle.
+
+In the morning I retraced to head-quarters, and vainly endeavored to
+learn something as to the means of going down the river. Commanders are
+always anxious to grant correspondents passes after a victory; but they
+wish to defer the unwelcome publication of a defeat. I was advised by
+Quartermaster-General Van Vliet, however, to proceed to Harrison's Bar,
+and, as I passed thither, the last day's encounters--those of "Malvern
+Hills"--occurred. The scenes along the way were reiterations of terrors
+already described,--creaking ambulances, staggering foot soldiers,
+profane wagoners, skulking officers and privates, officious Provost
+guards, defiles, pools and steeps packed with teams and cannon, wayside
+houses beset with begging, gossiping, or malicious soldiers, and wavy
+fields of wheat and rye thrown open to man and beast. I was amused at
+one point, to see some soldiers attack a beehive that they might seize
+the honey. But the insects fastened themselves upon some of the
+marauders, and after indescribable cursing and struggling, the bright
+nectar and comb were relinquished by the toilers, and the ravishers
+gorged upon sweetness.
+
+Harrison's Bar is simply a long wharf, extending into the river, close
+by the famous mansion, where William Henry Harrison, a President of the
+United States, was born, and where, for two centuries, the scions of a
+fine old Virginia family have made their homestead. The house had now
+become a hospital, and the wounded were being conveyed to the pier,
+whence they were delivered over to some Sanitary steamers, for passage
+to Northern cities. I tied my horse to the spokes of a wagon-wheel, and
+asked a soldier to watch him, while I repaired to the quay. A half
+drunken officer was guarding the wharf with a squad of men, and he
+denied me admittance, at first, but when I had said something in
+adulation of his regiment--a trick common to correspondents--he passed
+me readily. The ocean steamer _Daniel Webster_ was about being cast
+adrift when I stepped on board, and Colonel Ingalls, Quartermaster in
+charge, who freely gave me permission to take passage in her, advised me
+not to risk returning to shore. So, reluctantly, I resigned my pony,
+endeared to me by a hundred adventures, and directly I was floating down
+the James, with the white teams and the tattered groups of men, receding
+from me, and each moment the guns of Malvern Hills growing fainter.
+Away! praised be a merciful God! away from the accursed din, and terror,
+and agony, of my second campaign,--away forever from the Chickahominy.
+
+For awhile I sat meditatively in the bow of the boat, full of strange
+perplexities and thankfulness. I had escaped the bullet, and fever, and
+captivity, and a great success in my profession was about to be accorded
+to me, but there was much work yet to be done. The rough material I had
+for a grand account of the closing of the campaign; but these
+fragmentary figures and notes must be wrought into narrative, and to
+avail myself of their full significance, I must lose no moment of
+application. I found that I was one of four correspondents on board, and
+we resolved to district the boat, each correspondent taking one fourth
+of the names of the sick and wounded. The spacious saloons, the clean
+deck, the stairways, the gangways, the hold, the halls,--all were filled
+with victims. They lay in rows upon straw beds, they limped feverishly
+here and there; some were crazed from sunstroke, or gashes; and one man
+that I remember counted the rivets in the boilers over the whole hundred
+miles of the journey, while another,--a teamster,--whipped and cursed
+his horses as if he had mistaken the motion of the boat for that of his
+vehicle.
+
+The _Daniel Webster_ was one of a series of transports supplied for the
+uses of the wounded by a national committee of private citizens. Her
+wood work was shining and glossy, her steel shone like mirrors, and she
+was cool as Paradise. Out of the smoke, and turmoil, and suffocation of
+battle these wretched men had emerged, to enjoy the blessedness,
+unappreciated before, of shelter, and free air and cleanliness. There
+was ice in abundance on board, and savory lemonade lay glassily around
+in great buckets. Women flitted from group to group with jellies,
+_bonbons_, cigars, and oranges, and the grateful eyes of the prostrate
+people might have melted one to tears. These women were enthusiasts of
+all ages and degrees, who proffered themselves, at the beginning of the
+war, as stewardesses and nurses. From the fact that some of them were of
+masculine natures, or, in the vocabulary of the times, "strong-minded,"
+they were the recipients of many coarse jests, and imputations were
+made upon both their modesty and their virtue. But I would that any
+satirist had watched with me the good offices of these Florence
+Nightingales of the West, as they tripped upon merciful errands, like
+good angels, and left paths of sunshine behind them. The soldiers had
+seen none of their countrywomen for months, and they followed these
+ambassadors with looks half-idolatrous, half-downcast, as if consciously
+unworthy of so tender regard.
+
+"If I could jest die, now," said one of the poor fellows to me, "with
+one prayer for my country, and one for that dear young lady!"
+
+There was one of these daughters of the good Samaritan whose face was so
+full of coolness, and her robes so airy, flowing, and graceful, that it
+would have been no miracle had she transmuted herself to something
+divine. She was very handsome, and her features bore the imprint of that
+high enthusiasm which may have animated the maid of Arc. One of the more
+forward of the correspondents said to her, as she bore soothing
+delicacies to the invalids, that he missed the satisfaction of being
+wounded, at which she presented an orange and a cigar to each of us in
+turn. Among the females on board, I remarked one, very large, angular,
+and sanguine, who sat at a small table, dispensing luxuries with the
+manners of a despot and the charity of a child. She had a large vessel
+of boiling coffee, from which she drew spicy quantities at intervals;
+and when the troops thronged around eagerly, she rebuked the more
+forward, and called up some emaciated, bashful fellows, giving them
+the preference. Every soldier who accepted coffee was obliged to
+take a religious tract, and she gave them away with a grim satisfaction
+that was infinitely amusing and interesting. I ventured to ask
+this imperative person for a bottle of ink, and after some
+difficulty,--arising out of a mistaken notion on her part that I was
+dangerously wounded,--she vaulted over a chair, and disappeared into a
+state-room. When she returned, her arms were filled with a perfect
+wilderness of stationery, and having supplied each of us in turn, she
+addressed herself to me in the following sententious manner:--
+
+"See here! You reporter! (There's ink!) I want to be put in the
+newspapers! Look at me! Now! Right straight! (Pens?) Here I am; thirteen
+months at work; been everywhere; done good; country; church; never
+noticed. Never!--Now! I want to be put in newspapers."
+
+At this point the Imperatress was called off by some soldiers, who
+presumed to draw coffee without her consent. She slapped one of them
+soundly, and at once overpowered him with kindnesses, and tracts; then
+she returned and gave me a photograph, representing herself with a
+basket of fruit, and a quantity of good books. I took note of her name,
+but unfortunately lost the memorandum, and unless she has been honored
+by some more careful scribe, I fear that her labors are still
+unrecognized.
+
+During much of the trip, I wrote material parts of my report, copied
+portions of my lists, and managed before dusk, to get fairly underway
+with my narrative. From the deck of the steamer I beheld at five
+o'clock, what I had long wished to see,--the famous island of Jamestown,
+celebrated in the early annals of the New World, as the home of John
+Smith, and of Nathaniel Bacon, and as the resort of the Indian Princess,
+Pocahontas. A single fragment of a tower, the remnant of the Colonial
+church, was the only ruin that I could see.
+
+At seven o'clock we dropped anchor in Hampton Roads, and a boat let down
+from the davits. Some of my wily compeers endeavored to fill all the
+stern seats, that I might not be pulled to shore; but I swung down by a
+rope, and made havoc with their shins, so that they gained nothing; the
+surf beat so vehemently against the pier at Old Point, that we were
+compelled to beach the boat, and I ran rapidly through the ordnance
+yard to the "Hygeia House," where our agent boarded; he had gone into
+the Fortress to pass the night, and when I attempted to follow him
+thither, a knot of anxious idlers, who knew that I had just returned
+from the battle-fields, attempted to detain me by sheer force. I dashed
+rapidly up the plank walk, reached the portal, and had just vaulted into
+the area, when the great gates swung to, and the tattoo beat; at the
+same instant the sergeant of guard challenged me:--
+
+"Who comes there? Stand fast! Guard prime!"
+
+A dozen bright musket-barrels were levelled upon me, and I heard the
+click of the cocks as the fingers were laid upon the triggers. When I
+had explained, I was shown the Commandant's room, and hastening in that
+direction, encountered Major Larrabee, my old patron of the fifth
+Wisconsin regiment. He took me to the barracks, where a German officer,
+commanding a battery, lodged, and the latter accommodated me with a camp
+bedstead. Here I related the incidents of the engagements, and before I
+concluded, the room was crowded with people. I think that I gave a
+sombre narration, and the hearts of those who heard me were cast down.
+Still, they lingered; for the bloody story possessed a hideous
+fascination, and I was cross-examined so pertinaciously that my host
+finally arose, protesting that I needed rest, and turned the party out
+of the place. The old fever-dreams returned to me that night, and my
+brain spun round for hours before I could close my eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ON FURLOUGH AWHILE.
+
+
+Counter winds and tides had so delayed the _Adelaide_, on which I
+departed for New York with my despatches, that it became a doubtful
+question as to whether we could make connection with the early train for
+New York. The captain shook his head distrustfully when he had looked at
+his watch, and told me that he frequently failed to land his passengers
+in time. The bitterness of the doubt so troubled me, that I paced the
+decks, looking at the approaching city, and thinking that all my labor
+was to be disappointed in the end. I could not telegraph my narrative
+and lists, for Government controlled the wires; and moreover, the
+Associated Press regulations forbade any newspaper to telegraph
+exclusive news from any point but Washington. I half resolved to hire a
+special locomotive, but it was doubtful that the railway authorities
+could procure one, at 60 short notice. Unless I overtook the eight
+o'clock A. M. train, I could not get to New York before two o'clock next
+morning,--too late for the press. Besides, how did I know that some
+correspondent had not reached Washington, by way of one of the Potomac
+vessels, and so forestalled me? Here was an opportunity to be the first
+of all our correspondents to publish the incidents and results of six
+days' stupendous warfare,--but escaping at the very moment of
+realization. The seconds were hours as we swept past Fort Carroll,
+rounded Fort McHenry, and swung toward our moorings, under Fort Federal
+Hill.
+
+"If we make a prompt landing," said the Captain, "you may barely get the
+train."
+
+I stood with my bundles of notes upon the high deck, and signalled a
+cab-driver. He caught the precious manuscript, and bolted for his cab.
+In another second he was 'dashing like a runaway up the pier, over the
+bridge, through Pratt Street, and--out of sight. Slowly the great hulk
+turned awkwardly about; one turn of her paddles brought us close enough
+to fling a rope, a second drew her very near the shore; the distance was
+fearful, but I braced myself for the leap.
+
+"Stand clear!" I called to the score of hackmen.
+
+A little run, a spring,--and I fell upon my feet, rolled over upon my
+face, gathered myself to the arms of all the Jehus, and was carried off
+bodily by a man with a great knob on his forehead as big as the end of
+his whip-handle.
+
+"G'lang! Who-o-o-oh! Swis-s-s!"
+
+I think that I promised that man everything under the sun to catch the
+train. I recollect that the knob on his forehead grew black and bulging
+as he lashed his horse. I found myself standing up in the cab, screaming
+like the driver. We were both insane, and the horse must have been of
+the breed of _Pegasus_, for I could feel the vehicle gyrating in the
+air. Now we turned a lamp-post, and the glass splintered somewhere; a
+dog howled as we drove over his appendage; a woman with a baby gave a
+short scream and disappeared into the earth; a policeman gave chase, but
+we laughed him to scorn.
+
+Huzza! Here we are! The train stands puffing at the long platform. "Your
+bundle, yer honor! Wasn't I the boy to make the keers?" "Didn't I
+projuce yer honor in good time, sur?" I only know that I flung a
+greenback to the two,--that I vainly besought the ticket agent to give
+me no change, but consign it to the first engineer who failed to make
+time,--that I wrote on the back of my hat for four hours,--that I
+devoured a chicken and as many eggs as she had laid in a lifetime, at
+Havre de Grace,--that I leaped upon the platform at Broad and Prime
+streets, Philadelphia, at noon,--that I plunged into a cab, and said,
+significantly--
+
+"New York Ferry!"
+
+It chafed me to pass through the promenade street of my home-city,
+without a moment to spare for my family or friends. The cab-horse
+slipped in Chestnut Street, and I went over the rest of the route on
+foot, at a dog-trot pace, passing in various quarters for a sportsman, a
+professional runner, and a lunatic. I was greatly aggravated between
+Amboy and Camden, by persons making inquiries for brothers, sons, and
+acquaintances. At last, when I attained the steamer, the Captain kindly
+shut me up in his office, and I went on with my narrative till my eyes
+were burning and my hands failed in their function. Kill von Kull and
+its picturesque shores went by; we emerged into the beautiful bay, and
+winding among its buoys, harbor lights, and shipping, came to, at
+length, at the foot of Christopher Street. I repaired to the office at
+once, and wrote far into the night, refraining, finally, from sheer
+blindness and exhaustion, and dropped asleep in the carriage as I was
+taken toward the Metropolitan Hotel.
+
+The next day was Friday, July 4, the anniversary of American
+Independence, and my version of the six-days' battles caused universal
+gloom and grief. I had furnished five pages or forty columns of closely
+printed matter, and thousands of tremulous fingers were tracing out the
+names of their dead dear ones, while I sipped my wine and rehearsed for
+the hundredth time, the incidents of the retreat to a multitude of men.
+Cards and letters came to me by the gross, from bereaved countrymen, and
+I was obliged, finally, to add a postscript to my account, and a protest
+that I knew no more, and could answer no interrogatories. A bath, fresh
+clothing, and rich food so far improved my appearance in a few days,
+that I presented no other traces of sickness and travel than a sunburnt
+face, and a rheumatic walk.
+
+With restoration came a revival of old desires, appetites, and
+attachments. It required one additional campaign to sober me in these
+respects, and I was not a little relieved, to receive an order on the
+fourth day, to proceed to Washington, and attach myself to the "Army of
+Virginia" at the head of which Major-General John Pope had just been
+placed. After two quieter days' enjoyment, in the Quaker City, I
+reported myself at the Capital, but was debarred from taking the field
+at once, owing to the tardiness of the new Commander. For two weeks or
+more, I loitered around Washington, and although the time passed
+monotonously, I saw many persons and events which have much to do with
+the history of the Rebellion. The story of "Washington During the War"
+has yet to be written in all its vividness of enterprise, devotion, and
+infamy. It has been, in periods of peace, a dull, dolorous town, of
+mammoth hotels, paltry dwellings, empty lots, prodigiously wide avenues,
+a fossil population, and a series of gigantic public buildings, which
+seemed dropped by accident into a fifth-rate backwoods settlement.
+During the sessions Washington was overrun with "Smartness": Smart
+pages, smart messengers, smart cabmen, smart publicans, smart
+politicians, smart women, smart scoundrels! Greatness became commonplace
+here, and Mr. Douglas might drink at Willard's Bar, with none so poor to
+do him reverence, or General Winfield Scott strut like a colossus along
+"the Avenue," and the sleepy negroes upon their backs would give him the
+attention of only one eye. It was interesting, to notice how rapidly
+provincial eminence lost caste here. Slipkins, who was "Honorable" at
+home, and of whom his county newspaper said that "this distinguished
+fellow citizen of ours will be heard from, among the greatest of the
+free,"--Slipkins moved to and fro unnoticed, and voted with his party,
+and drank much brandy and water, and left no other record at the Capital
+than some unpaid bills, and perhaps an unacknowledged heir. A gaping
+rustic and his new bride, or a strolling foreigner, marvelling and
+making notes at every turn, might be observed in the Patent Office
+examining General Washington's breeches, but these were at once called
+"greenies," and people put out their tongues and winked at them. The
+Secretaries' ladies gave parties now and then, attended by the folks who
+sold them horses, or carpets, or wines; the President gave a "levee,"
+whereat a wonderfully Democratic horde gathered to pinch his hands and
+ogle his lady; the Marine band (in _red_ coats), played twice a week in
+the Capital grounds, and Senators, Cyprians, Ethiops, and children
+rallied to enjoy; a theatre or two played time-honored dramas with
+Thespian companies; a couple of scholars lectured in the sombre
+Smithsonian Institution; an intrigue and a duel filled some most doleful
+hiatus; and a clerk absconded with half a million, or an Indian agent
+robbed the red men and fell back to the protection of his "party." A
+very dismal, a very dirty, and a very Democratic settlement was the
+American Capital, till the war came.
+
+Even the war lost half its interest in Washington. A regiment marching
+down Broadway was something to see, but the same regiment in
+Pennsylvania Avenue looked mean and matter-of-fact. A General in the
+field, or riding uncovered through Boston or Baltimore, or even lounging
+at the bar of the Continental or the Astor House or the Tremont, was
+invested with an atmosphere half heroic, half poetic; but Generals
+in Washington may be counted by pairs, and I used to sit at dinner
+with eight or a dozen of them in my eye. There was the new
+Commander-in-Chief, Halleck, a short, countryfied person, whose blue
+coat was either threadbare or dusty, or lacked some buttons, and who
+picked his teeth walking up and down the halls at Willard's, and argued
+through a white, bilious eye and a huge mouth. There was General
+Mitchel, also, who has since passed away,--a little, knotty gentleman,
+with stiff, gray, Jacksonian hair. And General Sturgis passed in and out
+perpetually, with impressive, individual Banks, or some less prominent
+person, all of them wearing the gold star upon their shoulders, and
+absolute masters of some thousands of souls. The town, in fact, was
+overrun with troops. Slovenly guards were planted on horseback at
+crossings, and now and then they dashed, as out of a profound sleep, to
+chase some galloping cavalier. Gin and Jews swarmed along the Avenue,
+and I have seen gangs of soldiers of rival regiments, but oftener of
+rival nationalities, pummelling each other in the highways, until they
+were marched off by the Provosts. The number of houses of ill-fame was
+very great, and I have been told that Generals and Lieutenants of the
+same organization often encountered and recognized each other in them.
+Contractors and "jobbers" used to besiege the offices of the Secretaries
+of War and Navy, and the venerable Welles (who reminded me of Abraham in
+the lithographs), and the barnacled Stanton, seldom appeared in public.
+Simple-minded, straightforward A. Lincoln, and his ambitious, clever
+lady, were often seen of afternoons in their barouche; the little
+old-fashioned Vice-President walked unconcernedly up and down; and when
+some of the Richmond captives came home to the Capital, immense meetings
+were held, where patriotism bawled itself hoarse. A dining hour at
+Willard's was often wondrously adapted for a historic picture, when
+accoutred officers, and their beautiful wives,--or otherwise,--sat at
+the _table d'-hôte_, and sumptuous dishes flitted here and there, while
+corks popped like so many Chinese crackers, and champagne bubbled up
+like blood. At night, the Provost Guard enacted the farce of coming by
+deputations to each public bar, which was at once closed, but reopened
+five minutes afterward. Congress water was in great demand for weak
+heads of mornings, and many a young lad, girt up for war, wasted his
+strength in dissipation here, so that he was worthless afield, and
+perhaps died in the hospital. The curse of civil war was apparent
+everywhere. One had but to turn his eye from the bare Heights of
+Arlington, where the soldiers of the Republic lay demoralized, to the
+fattening vultures who smoked and swore at the National, to see the true
+cause of the North's shortcomings,--its inherent and almost universal
+corruption. Human nature was here so depraved, that man lost faith in
+his kind. Death lurked behind ambuscades and fortifications over the
+river, but Sin, its mother, coquetted _here_, and as an American, I
+often went to bed, loathing the Capital, as but little better than
+Sodom, though its danger had called forth thousands of great hearts to
+throb out, in its defence. For every stone in the Capitol building, a
+man has laid down his life. For every ripple on the Potomac, some
+equivalent of blood has been shed.
+
+I lodged for some time in Tenth Street, and took my meals at Willard's.
+The legitimate expenses of living in this manner were fourteen dollars a
+week; but one could board at Kirkwood's or Brown's for seven or eight
+dollars, very handsomely. A favorite place of excursion, near the city,
+was "Crystal Spring," where some afternoon orgies were enacted, which
+should have made the sun go into eclipse. I repaired once to Mount
+Vernon, and looked dolorously at the tomb of the _Pater Patris_, and
+once to Annapolis, on the Chesapeake, which the war has elevated into a
+fine naval station.
+
+At length Pope's forces were being massed along the line of the
+Rappahannock, below the Occoquan river, and upon the "Piedmont"
+highlands. "Piedmont" is the name applied to the fine table-lands of
+Northern Virginia, and the ensuing campaign has received the designation
+of the "Piedmont Campaign." Pope's army proper was composed of three
+corps, commanded respectively by Generals Irvin McDowell, Franz Siegel,
+and Nathaniel P. Banks. But a portion of General McClellan's peninsular
+army had meantime returned to the Potomac, and the corps of General
+Burnside was stationed at Fredericksburg, thirty miles or more below
+Pope's head-quarters at Warrenton.
+
+I presented myself to General Pope on the 12th of July, at noon. His
+Washington quarters consisted of a quiet brick house, convenient to the
+War office, and the only tokens of its importance were some guards at
+the threshold, and a number of officers' horses, saddled in the shade of
+some trees at the curb. The lower floor of the dwelling was appropriated
+to quartermasters' and inspectors' clerks, before whom a number of
+people were constantly presenting themselves, with applications for
+passes;--sutlers, in great quantities, idlers, relic-hunters, and
+adventurers in still greater ratio, and, last of all, citizens of
+Virginia, solicitous to return to their farms and families. The mass of
+these were rebuffed, as Pope had inaugurated his campaign with a show of
+severity, even threatening to drive all the non-combatants out of his
+lines, unless they took the Federal oath of allegiance. He gave me a
+pass willingly, and chatted pleasantly for a time. In person he was
+dark, martial, and handsome,--inclined to obesity, richly garbed in
+civil cloth, and possessing a fiery black eye, with luxuriant beard and
+hair. He smoked incessantly, and talked imprudently. Had he commenced
+his career more modestly, his final discomfiture would not have been so
+galling; but his vanity was apparent to the most shallow observer, and
+although he was brave, clever, and educated, he inspired distrust by his
+much promising and general love of gossip and story-telling. He had all
+of Mr. Lincoln's garrulity (which I suspect to be the cause of their
+affinity), and none of that good old man's unassuming common sense.
+
+The next morning, at seven o'clock, I embarked for Alexandria, and
+passed the better half of the forenoon in negotiating for a pony. At
+eleven o'clock, I took my seat in a bare, filthy car, and was soon
+whirled due southward, over the line of the Orange and Alexandria
+railroad. The country between Alexandria and Warrenton Junction, or,
+indeed, between Washington and Richmond, was not unlike those masterly
+descriptions of Gibbon, detailing the regions overrun by Hyder Ali. The
+towns stood like ruins in a vast desert, and one might write musing
+epitaphs at every wind-beaten dwelling, whence the wretched denizens had
+fled in cold and poverty to a doubtful hospitality in the far South.
+Fences there were none, nor any living animals save the braying hybrids
+which limped across the naked plains to eke out existence upon some
+secluded patches of grass. These had been discharged from the army, and
+they added rather than detracted from the lonesomeness of the wild.
+Their great mournful eyes and shaggy heads glared from copses, and in
+places where they had lain down beside the track to expire. If we
+sometimes pity these dumb beasts as they drag loaded wains, or heavy
+omnibuses, or sub-soil ploughs, we may also bestow a tender sentiment
+upon the army mules. Flogged by teamsters, cursed by quartermasters,
+ridiculed by roaring regiments of soldiers, strained and spavined by
+fearful draughts, stalled in bogs and fainting upon hillsides,--their
+bones will evidence the sites of armies, when the skeletons of men have
+crumbled and become reabsorbed. I have seen them die like martyrs, when
+the inquisitor, with his bloody lash, stood over them in the closing
+pangs, and their last tremulous howl has almost moved to tears. Some of
+the dwellings seemed to be occupied, but the tidiness of old times was
+gone. The women seemed sunburnt and hardened by toil. They looked from
+their thresholds upon the flying train, with their hair unbraided and
+their garters ungyved,--not a negro left to till the fields, nor a son
+or brother who had not travelled to the wars. They must be now hewers of
+wood, and drawers of water, and the fingers whereon diamonds used to
+sparkle, must clench the axe and the hoe.
+
+At last we came to Bull Run, the dark and bloody ground where the first
+grand armies fought and fled, and again to be consecrated by a baptism
+of fire. The railway crossed the gorge upon a tall trestle bridge, and
+for some distance the track followed the windings of the stream. A
+black, deep, turgid current, flowing between gaunt hills, lined with
+cedar and beech, crossed here and there by a ford, and vanishing, above
+and below, in the windings of wood and rock; while directly beyond, lie
+the wide plains of Manassas Junction, stretching in the far horizon, to
+the undulating boundary of the Blue Ridge. As the Junction remains
+to-day, the reader must imagine this splendid prospect, unbroken by
+fences, dwellings, or fields, as if intended primevally to be a place
+for the shock of columns, with redoubts to the left and right, and
+fragments of stockades, dry rifle pits, unfinished or fallen
+breastworks, and, close in the foreground, a medley of log huts for the
+winter quartering of troops. The woods to the north mark the course of
+Bull Run; a line of telegraph poles going westward points to Manassas
+Gap; while the Junction proper is simply a point where two single track
+railways unite, and a few frame "shanties" or sheds stand contiguous.
+These are, for example, the "New York Head-quarters," kept by a person
+with a hooked nose, who trades in cakes, lemonade, and (probably)
+whiskey, of the brand called "rotgut;" or the "Union Stores," where a
+person in semi-military dress deals in India-rubber overcoats,
+underclothing, and boots. As the train halts, lads and negroes propose
+to sell sandwiches to passengers, and soldiers ride up to take mail-bags
+and bundles for imperceptible camps. In the distance some teams are
+seen, and a solitary horseman, visiting vestiges of the battle; sidings
+beside the track are packed with freight cars, and a small mountain of
+pork barrels towers near by; there are blackened remains of locomotives
+a little way off, but these have perhaps hauled regiments of
+Confederates to the Junction; and over all--men, idlers, ruins, railway,
+huts, entrenchments--floats the star-spangled banner from the roof of a
+plank depot.
+
+The people in the train were rollicking and well-disposed, and black
+bottles circulated freely. I was invited to drink by many persons, but
+the beverage proffered was intolerably bad, and several convivials
+became stupidly drunk. A woman in search of her husband was one of the
+passengers, and those contiguous to her were as gentlemanly as they knew
+how to be. "A pretty woman, in war-time," said a Captain, aside, to me,
+"is not to be sneezed at." At "Catlett's," a station near Warrenton
+Junction, we narrowly escaped a collision with a train behind, and the
+occupants of our train, women included, leaped down an embankment with
+marvellous agility. Here we switched off to the right, and at four
+o'clock dismounted at the pleasant village of Warrenton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CAMPAIGNING WITH GENERAL POPE.
+
+
+The court-house village of Fauquier County contained a population of
+twelve or fifteen hundred at the commencement of the war. Its people
+embraced the revolutionary cause at the outstart, and furnished some
+companies of foot to the Confederate service, as well as a mounted
+company known as the "Black Horse Cavalry." The guns of Bull Run were
+heard here on the day of battle, and hundreds of the wounded came into
+town at nightfall. Thenceforward Warrenton became prominently identified
+with the struggle, and the churches and public buildings were transmuted
+to hospitals. After the Confederates retired from Manassas Junction, the
+vicinity of Warrenton was a sort of neutral ground. At one time the
+Southern cavalry would ride through the main street, and next day a body
+of mounted Federals would pounce upon the town, the inhabitants,
+meanwhile, being apprehensive of a sabre combat in the heart of the
+place. Some people were ruined by the war; some made fortunes. The Mayor
+of the village was named Bragg, and he was a trader in horses, as well
+as a wagon-builder. There were two taverns, denominated respectively,
+the "Warrenton Inn," and the "Warren Green Hotel." I obtained a room at
+the former. A young man named Dashiell kept it. He was a
+fair-complexioned, clever, high-strung Virginian, and managed to obtain
+a great deal of paper money from both republics. It is an encomium in
+America, to say that a man "Can keep a hotel," but what shall be said of
+the man who can keep a hotel in war-time? I observed young Dashiell's
+movements from day to day, and I am satisfied that his popularity arose
+from his fairness and frankness. He charged nine dollars a week for
+room, and "board," of three meals, but could, with difficulty, obtain
+meat and vegetables for the table. His mother and his brother-in-law
+lived in the house. The latter was a son of Mayor Bragg, and had been
+twice in the Confederate service. He was engaged both at Bull Run and at
+Fairfax Court House, and made no secret of his activity at either place.
+But he was treated considerately, though he vaunted intolerably. The
+"Inn" was a frame dwelling, with a first floor of stone, surrounded by a
+double portico. The first room (entering from the street) was the
+office, consisting of a bare floor, some creaking benches, some chairs
+with whittled and broken arms, a high desk, where accounts were kept, a
+row of bells, numbered, communicating with the rooms. Hand-bills were
+pinned to the walls, announcing that William Higgins was paying good
+prices for "likely" field hands, that Timothy Ingersoll's stock of dry
+goods was the finest in Piedmont, that James Mason's mulatto woman,
+named Rachel, had decamped on the night of Whitsuntide, and that one
+hundred dollars would be paid by the subscriber for her return. Most of
+these bills were out of date, but some recent ones were exhibited to me
+calling for volunteers, labelled, "Ho! for winter-quarters in
+Washington;" "Sons of the South arise!"--"Liberty, glory, and no
+Yankeedom!" A bellcord hung against the "office" door, communicating
+with the stables, where a deaf hostler might _not_ be rung up. In the
+back yard, suspended from a beam, and upright, hung a large bell, which
+called the boarders to meals. It commonly rung thrice, and I was told on
+inquiry, by the cook--
+
+"De fust bell, sah, is to prepah to prepah for de table; dat bell, when
+de fust cook don't miss it, is rung one hour befo' mealtime. De second
+bell, sah, is to _prepah_ for de table; de last bell, to _come_ to de
+table."
+
+I should have been better pleased with the ceremony, if the food had
+been more cleanly, more wholesome, and more abundant. We used to clear
+the plates in a twinkling, and if a person asked twice for beef, or
+butter, he was stared at by the negroes, as if he had eaten an entire
+cow. I soon brought the head-waiter to terms by promising him a dollar a
+week for extra attendance, and could even get ice after a time, which
+was a luxury. There was a bar upon the premises, which opened
+stealthily, when there were liquors to be sold. Cider (called
+champaigne) could be purchased for three dollars a bottle, and whiskey
+came to hand occasionally. There were cigars in abundance, and I used to
+sit on the upper porch of evenings, puffing long after midnight, and
+watching the sentinels below.
+
+There was some female society in Warrenton, but the blue-coats engrossed
+it all. The young women were ardent partisans, but also very pretty; and
+treason, somehow, heightened their beauty. Disloyalty is always
+pardonable in a woman, and these ladies appreciated the fact. They
+refused to walk under Federal flags, and stopped their ears when the
+bands played national music; but every evening they walked through the
+main street, arm in arm with dashing Lieutenants and Captains. Many
+flirtations ensued, and a great deal of gossip was elicited. In the end,
+some of the misses fell out among themselves, and hated each other more
+than the common enemy. I overheard a young lady talking in a low tone
+one evening, to a Captain in the Ninth New York regiment.
+
+"If you knew my brother," she said, "I am sure you would not fire upon
+_him_."
+
+As there were plain, square, prim porches to all the dwellings, the
+ladies commonly took positions therein of evenings, and a grand
+promenade commenced of all the young Federals in the town. The streets
+were pleasantly shaded, and a leafy coolness pervaded the days, though
+sometimes, of afternoons, the still heat was almost stifling. A jaunt
+after supper often took me far into the country, and the starlights were
+softer than one's peaceful thoughts. To be a civilian was a
+distinguished honor now, and I enjoyed the staring of the citizens, who
+pondered as to my purposes and pursuits, as only villagers can do. There
+is a quiet pleasure in being a strange person in a country town, and so
+far from objecting to the inquisitiveness of the folk, I rather like it.
+One may be passing for a young duke, or tourist, or clergyman, or what
+not?
+
+The Ninth New York (militia) regiment guarded Warrenton, and it was
+composed of clever, polite young fellows, who had taken to volunteering
+before there was any promise of war, and who turned out, pluckily, when
+the strife began. Perhaps public sentiment or pride of organization
+influenced them. They were all good-looking and tidy, and their
+dress-parades, held in the main street, were handsome affairs. I have
+never seen better disciplined columns, and the youthful faces of the
+soldiers, with the staid locality of the exhibition,--young women,
+negroes, dogs and babies, and old men looking on,--seemed to contradict
+the bloody mission of the troops. The old men, referred to, were
+villagers of such long standing that had the Court of Saint James, or
+the Vatican, or the battle of Waterloo been moved into their country,
+they would have still been villagers to the last. They met beside the
+Warrenton Inn, under the shade of the trees, at eleven o'clock every
+morning, and borrowed the New York papers of the latest date. One
+individual, slightly bald, would read aloud, and the rest crouched or
+stood about him, making grunts and remarks at intervals. They did not
+wish to believe the Federal reports, but they must needs read, and as
+most of them had sons in the other army, their pulses were constantly
+tremulous with anxiety. I think that Pope's resolve to transport these
+harmless old people beyond his lines was very barbarous, and the
+soldiers denounced it in similar terms. They spoke of Pope, as of some
+terrible despot, and wished to know when he was coming to town, as they
+had appointed a committee, and drafted a petition, asking his
+forbearance and charity. When these villagers found me out to be a
+Newspaper Correspondent, they regarded me with amusing interest, and
+marvelled what I would say of their town. A villager is very sensitive
+as to his place of residence, and these good people read the----daily,
+confounding me with all the paper,--editorial, correspondence, and, I
+verily believe, advertisements. One of them wished me to board at his
+residence, and I was, after a time, invited out to dinner and tea
+frequently.
+
+The negroes remained in Warrenton, in great numbers, and held carnival
+of evenings when the bands played. "Contrabands" were coming daily into
+town, and idleness and vice soon characterized the mass of them. They
+were ignorant, degraded, animal beings, and many of them loved rum; it
+was the last link that bound them to human kind. Servants could be hired
+for four dollars a month and "keep;" but they were "shiftless" and
+unprofitable. The Provost-Marshal of the place was a Captain
+Hendrickson. His quarters were in the Court House building, and he kept
+a zealous eye upon sutlers and citizens. The former trespassed in the
+sales of liquors to soldiers, and the latter were accused of maintaining
+a contraband mail, and of conspiring to commit divers offences. There
+were a number of churches in the village, all of which served as
+hospitals, and in the quiet cemetery west of the town, two hundred slain
+soldiers were interred. A stake of white pine was driven at the head of
+each grave. Here lay some of the men who had helped to change the
+destinies of a continent. No public worship was held in the place. The
+Sundays were busy as other days: trains came and went, teams made dust
+in the streets, cavalry passed through the village, music arose from all
+the outlying camps; parades and inspections were made, and all the
+preparations for killing men were relentlessly forwarded. A pleasant
+entertainment occurred one evening, when a plot of ground adjoining the
+Warrenton Inn, was appropriated for a camp theatre. Candle footlights
+were arranged, and the stage was canopied with national flags. The
+citizens congregated, and the performers deferred to their prejudices by
+singing no Federal songs. Tho negroes climbed the trees to listen, and
+their gratified guffaws made the night quiver. The war lost half its
+bitterness at such times; but I thought with a shudder of Stuart's
+thundering horsemen, charging into the village, and closing the night's
+mimicry with a horrible tragedy.
+
+Some of the dwellings about the place were elegant and spacious, but
+many of these were closed and the owners removed. Two newspapers had
+been published here of old, and while ransacking the office of one of
+them, I discovered that the type had been buried under the floor. The
+planks were speedily torn away, and the cases dragged to light. I
+obtained some curious relics, in the shape of "cuts" of recruiting
+officers, runaway negroes, etc., as well as a column of a leader, in
+type, describing the first battle of Bull Run. For two weeks I had
+little to do, as the campaign had not yet fairly commenced, and I passed
+many hours every day reading. A young lawyer, in the Confederate
+service, had left an ample library behind him, and the books passed into
+the hands of every invader in the town.
+
+Pope finally arrived at Warrenton, and as the troops seemed to be
+rapidly concentrating, I judged it expedient to procure a horse at once,
+and canvassed the country with that object. By paying a quartermaster
+the Government price ($130), I could select a steed from the pound, but
+inspection satisfied me that a good saddle nag could not be obtained in
+this way. After much parleying with Hebrews and chaffing with country
+people, I heard that Mayor Bragg kept some fair animals, and when I
+stated my purpose at his house, he commenced the business after a
+fashion immemorial at the South, by producing some whiskey.
+
+When Mayor Bragg had asked me pertinently, if I knew much about the
+"pints of a hoss," and what "figger in the way of price" would suit me,
+he told an erudite negro named "Jeems" to trot out the black colt. The
+black colt made his appearance by vaulting over a gate, and playfully
+shivering a panel of fence with his "off" hoof. Then he executed a
+flourish with his tail, leaped thrice in the air, and bit savagely at
+the man "Jeems."
+
+When I asked Mayor Bragg if the black colt was sufficiently gentle to
+stand fire, he replied that he was gentle as a lamb and offered to put
+me astride him. I had no sooner taken my seat, however, than the black
+colt backed, neighed, flourished, and stood erect, and finally ran away.
+
+A second animal was produced, less mettlesome, but also black, finely
+strung, daintily hoofed, and as Mayor Bragg said, "just turned four
+year." The price of this charger was one hundred and ninety dollars; but
+in consideration of my youth and pursuit, Mayor Bragg proposed to take
+one hundred and seventy-five; we compromised upon a hundred and fifty
+dollars, Major Bragg throwing in a halter, and by good luck I procured a
+saddle the same evening, so that I rode triumphantly through the streets
+of Warrenton, and fancied that all the citizens were admiring my new
+purchase.
+
+I was struck with the fact, that Mayor Bragg, though an ardent patriot,
+would accept of neither Confederate nor Virginia money; he required
+payment for his animal, in Father Chase's "greenbacks."
+
+Mounted anew, I fell into my former active habits, and made two
+journeys, to Sperryville and Little Washington, in one direction, to
+Madison in another; each place was probably twenty miles distant; the
+latter was merely a cavalry outpost, where Generals Hatch and Bayard
+were stationed, and the former villages were the head-quarters,
+respectively, of General Banks and General Siegel.
+
+Madison was, at this time, a precarious place for a long tarrying. I
+went to sleep in the inn on the night of my arrival, and at that time
+the place was thronged with cavalry and artillery-men. Next morning,
+when I aroused, not a blue-coat could be seen. They had fallen back in
+the darkness, and prudently abstaining from breakfast, I galloped
+northward, as if the whole Confederate army was at my heels. These old
+turnpike roads were now marked by daily chases and rencontres. A few
+Virginians, fleetly mounted, would provoke pursuit from a squad of
+Federals, and the latter would be led into ambuscades. A quaint incident
+happened in this manner, near Madison.
+
+Captain T. was chasing a party of Confederates one afternoon, when his
+company was suddenly fired upon from a wheatfield, parties rising up on
+both sides of the road, and discharging carbines through the fence
+rails. Three or four men, and as many horses were slain; but the
+ambushing body was outnumbered, and several of its members killed. Among
+others, a young lieutenant took deliberate aim at Captain T. at the
+distance of twelve yards; and, seeing that he had missed, threw up his
+carbine to surrender. The Captain had already drawn his revolver, and,
+amazed at the murderous purpose, he shot the assassin in the head,
+killing him instantly. Nobody blamed Captain T., but he was said to be a
+humane person, and the affair preyed so continually upon his mind, that
+he committed suicide one night in camp.
+
+At Sperryville I saw and talked with Franz Siegel, the idol of the
+German Americans. He had been a lieutenant in his native country, but
+subsided, in St. Louis, to the rank of publican, keeping a beer saloon.
+When the war commenced, he was appointed to a colonelcy, in deference to
+the large German republican population of Missouri. His abilities were
+speedily manifested in a series of engagements which redeemed the
+Southern border, and he finally fought the terrible battle of Pea Ridge,
+Arkansas, which broke the spirit of the Confederates west of the
+Mississippi. The man who fought "mit Siegel" in those days, was always
+told in St. Louis: "Py tam! you pays not'ing for your lager." Siegel
+now commanded one of Pope's corps. He was a diminutive person, but
+well-knit, emaciated by his active career, feverish and sanguine of
+face, and, as it appeared to me, consuming with energy and ambition. As
+a General he was prompt to decide and do, and his manner of dealing with
+Confederate property was severer than that of any American. He battered
+the splendid mansion hotel of White Sulphur Springs to the ground, for
+example, when somebody discharged a rifle from its window. He preferred
+to fight by retreating, and if pursued, generally unmasked his guns and
+made massacre with the scattered opponents. Another German commander was
+Blenker, whose corps of Germans might have belonged to the free bands of
+the Black forest. They were the most lawless men in the Federal service,
+and what they did not steal they destroyed. Such volunteers were
+mercenaries, in every sense of the word. I have been told that they
+slaughtered sheep and cattle in pure wantonness, and the rats of
+Ehrenfels did not make a cleaner sweep of provisions. The Germans, as a
+rule, lacked the dash of the Irish troops and the tact of the Americans.
+They thought and fought in masses, had little individuality, and were
+thick-skulled; but they were persevering and had their hearts in the
+cause.
+
+General Banks was a fine representative of the higher order of Yankee.
+Originally a machinist in a small manufacturing town near Boston, he
+educated himself, and was elected successively Legislator, Governor,
+Congressman, and General of volunteers. His personal graces were
+equalled by his energy, and his ability was considerable. He has been
+very successful in the field, and has conducted a retreat unparalleled
+in the war; these things being always reckoned among American successes.
+The country hereabout was mountainous, healthy, and well adapted for
+campaigning. Streams and springs were numerous, and there were fine
+sites for camps. The deserted toll-houses along the way glowered
+mournfully through the rent windows, and I fancied them, sometimes, as I
+rode at night, haunted by the shambling tollman.
+
+    Ancient road that wind'st deserted,
+      Through the level of the vale,--
+    Sweeping toward the crowded market,
+      Like a stream without a sail,
+
+    Standing by thee, I look backward,
+      And, as in the light of dreams,
+    See the years descend and vanish,
+      Like thy tented wains and teams.--T. B. READ.
+
+To provide myself with thorough equipment for Pope's campaign, I
+returned to Washington, and purchased a patent camp-bed, which strapped
+to my saddle, saddle bags of large capacity, India-rubber blankets, and
+a full suit of waterproof cloth,--hat, coat, _genoullieres_, and
+gauntlets. I had my horse newly shod, I drew upon my establishment for
+an ample sum of money, and, to properly inaugurate the campaign, I gave
+an entertainment in the parlor of the inn.
+
+Pipes, cold ham, a keg of beer, and a demijohn of whiskey comprised the
+attractions of the night. The guests were three Captains, two Adjutants,
+two Majors, a Colonel, four Correspondents, several Lieutenants, and a
+signal officer. There was some jesting, and much laughing, considerable
+story-telling, and (toward the small hours) a great deal of singing.
+Much heroism was evolved; all the guests were devoted to death and their
+country; and there was one person who took off his coat to fight an
+imaginary something, but changed his mind, and dropped asleep directly.
+At length, a gallant Captain, to demonstrate his warlike propensities,
+fired a pistol through the front window; and somebody blowing out the
+candles, the whole party retired to rest upon the floor. In this
+delightful way my third campaign commenced, and next evening I set off
+for the advance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ARMY MORALS.
+
+
+Some of General McDowell's aides had invited me to pass a night with
+them at Warrenton Springs. Fully equipped, I joined Captain Ball, of
+Cincinnati, and we rode southward, over a hard, picturesque turnpike,
+under a clear moonlight. The distance was seven miles, and a part of
+this route was enlivened by the fires, halloos, and the music of camps.
+Volunteers are fond of serenading their officers; and this particular
+evening was the occasion of much merry-making, since a majority of the
+brass bands were to be mustered out of the service to-morrow. We could
+hear the roll of drums from imperceptible localities, and the sharp
+winding of bugles broke upon the silence like the trumpet of the
+Archangel. Stalwart shapes of horsemen galloped past us, and their hoofs
+made monotone behind, till the cadence died so gradually away that we
+did not know when the sound ceased and when the silence began. The
+streams had a talk to themselves, as they strolled away into the meadow,
+and an owl or two challenged us, calling up a corporal hawk. This latter
+fellow bantered and blustered, and finally we fell into an ambush of
+wild pigs, which charged across the road and plunged into the woods.
+There were despatch stations at intervals, where horses stood saddled,
+and the couriers waited for hoof-beats, to be ready to ride fleetly
+toward head-quarters. Anon, we saw wizard lights, as of Arctic skies,
+where remote camps built conflagration; and trudging wearily down the
+stony road, poor ragged, flying negroes, with their families and their
+worldly all, came and went--God help them!--and touched their hats so
+obsequiously that my heart was wrung, and I felt a nervous impulse to
+put them upon my steed and take their burdens upon my back. Little sable
+folk, asleep and ahungered, drawn to that barefoot woman's breast; and
+the tired boy, weeping as he held to his father's hand; and the father
+with the sweat of fatigue and doubt upon his forehead,--children of
+Ishmael all; war raging in the land, but God overhead! These are the
+"wandering Jews" of our day, hated North and South, because they are
+poor and blind, and do no harm; but out of their wrongs has arisen the
+abasement of their wrongers. Is there nothing over all?
+
+We entered the beautiful lawn of the Springs' hotel, at ten o'clock, and
+a negro came up to take our horses. By the lamplight and moonlight I saw
+McDowell's tent, a sentry pacing up and down before it, and the thick,
+powerful figure of the General seated at a writing-table within. Irvin
+McDowell was one of the oldest officers in the service, and when the war
+commenced he became a leading commander in the Eastern army. At Bull Run
+he had a responsible place, and the ill success of that battle brought
+him into unpleasant notoriety. Though he retained a leading position he
+was still mistrusted and disliked. None bore ingratitude so stolidly. He
+may have flinched, but he never replied; and though ambitious he tried
+to content himself with subordinate commands. Some called him a traitor,
+others an incompetent, others a plotter. If McClellan failed, McDowell
+was cursed. If Pope blundered, McDowell received half the contumely. But
+he loosened no cord of discipline to make good will. Implacable,
+dutiful, soldierly, rigorous in discipline, sententious, brave,--the
+most unpopular man in America went on his way, and I think that he is
+recovering public favor again. The General of a republic has a thorny
+path to tread, and almost every public man has been at one time
+disgraced during the civil war. McDowell, I think, has been treated
+worse than any other.
+
+Our nags being removed, we repaired to one of the rustic cottages which
+bounded the lawn, and I was introduced to several members of the staff;
+among others, to a Count Saint Alb, an Austrian. He had been an officer
+in his native country; but came to America, anxious for active service,
+and was appointed to Gen. McDowell's Staff with the rank of Captain. I
+understood that he was writing a book upon America. There are many such
+adventurers in the Federal service, but the present one was clever and
+amusing, and he spoke English fluently.
+
+Our tea was plain but abundant, consisting of broiled beef, fresh bread,
+butter, and cheese; and the inveterate whiskey was produced afterward,
+when we assembled on the piazza, so that the hours passed by pleasantly,
+if not profitably, and we retired at two o'clock.
+
+In the morning I bathed in the clear, cold sulphur spring, where
+thousands of invalid people had come for healing waters. A canopy
+covered the spring, and a soldier stood on guard at the top of the
+descending steps, to preserve the property in its original cleanliness.
+This was one of the most famous medical springs on the American
+continent; the water was so densely impregnated that its peculiarly
+offensive smell could be detected at the distance of a mile. The place
+was going to ruin now. All the bathing-rooms were falling apart, the
+pipes had been carried off to be moulded into bullets, and the great
+hotel was desolate. I walked into the ball-room; but the large gilded
+mirrors had been splintered, and lewd writings defaced the wall. Some
+idlers were asleep upon the piazzas, and the furniture was removed or
+broken. Some rustic cottages dotted the lawn, but these were now
+inhabited by officers and their servants. A few days were to finish the
+work of rapine, and a heap of ashes was to mark the scene of
+tournament, coquetry, and betrothal. I witnessed a review of troops in a
+field contiguous, at nine o'clock. The heat was so intense that many men
+fell out of line and were carried off to their camps. McDowell passed
+exactingly from man to man, examined muskets, clothing, and knapsacks,
+and the inspection was proceeding, when I bade my friends good by and
+set out for Culpepper.
+
+I crossed the North Rappahannock, or Hedgemain river, upon a precarious
+bridge of planks. A new bridge for artillery was being constructed close
+by; for the river beneath had a swift, deep current, and could with
+difficulty be forded. Patches of wagons, squads of horse, and now and
+then a regiment of infantry, varied the monotony of the journey. The
+country was high, woody, and sparsely settled. At noon I overtook
+Tower's brigade, and observing the 94th N. Y. Regiment resting in the
+woods, I dismounted and made the acquaintance of its Colonel. He was at
+this juncture greatly enraged with some of his soldiers who had been
+plucking green apples.
+
+"Boy," he said to one, "put down that fruit! Drop it, or I'll blow your
+head off! Directly you'll double up, pucker, and say that you have the
+"di-o-ree," and require an ambulance. Orderly!"
+
+A sergeant came up and touched his cap.
+
+"Take your musket," said the Colonel; "go out to that orchard, and order
+those men away. If they hesitate or object, shoot them!"
+
+A few such colonels would marvellously improve the volunteer
+organization.
+
+The Hazel or North Anne river, a branch of the Hedgemain, interposed a
+few miles further on, and passing through a covered bridge, I turned
+down the north bank, crossed some spongy fields, and at length came to a
+dry place in the edge of a woods, where I tied my nag, spread out my
+bed, and prepared to dine. A box of sardines, a lemon, and some fresh
+sandwiches constituted the repast, and being dusty and parched I
+stripped afterward and swam across the river. Seeing that my horse
+plunged and neighed, with swollen eyeballs, and every evidence of
+terror, I hastened toward him and discovered a black snake, six feet or
+more in length, which seemed about to coil itself around the nag's leg.
+The size and contiguity of the reptile at first appalled me, and my mind
+was not more composed when the serpent, at my approach, manifested an
+inclination to assume the offensive. Its folds were thicker than my arm,
+and it commenced to revolve rapidly, at length running up a sapling,
+suspending itself by the tail, and hissing vehemently. It belonged to
+the family of "racers," and was hideous and powerful beyond any specimen
+that I had seen. I blew it into halves at the second discharge of my
+pistol, and at once resumed my saddle, indisposed to remain longer
+amidst such acquaintances.
+
+At four o'clock I saw Culpepper, a trim little village, lying in the
+hollow of several hills. A couple of steeples added to its
+picturesqueness, and a swift creek, crossed by a small bridge,
+interposed between myself and the main part of the place. It looked like
+Sunday when I rode through the principal street. The shutters were
+closed in the shop windows, the dwellings seemed tenantless, no citizens
+were abroad, no sutlers had invaded the country; only a few cavalry-men
+clustered about an ancient pump to water their nags, and some military
+idlers were sitting upon the long porch of a public house, called the
+Virginia Hotel. I tied my horse to a tree, the bole of which had been
+gnawed bare, and found the landlord to be an old gentleman named Paine,
+who appeared to be somewhat out of his head. Two days before the
+Confederate cavalry had vacated the village, and the army had been
+encamped about the town for many months. A sabre conflict had taken
+place in the streets; and these events, happening in rapid succession,
+combined with the insolence of some Federal outriders, had so agitated
+the host that his memory was quite gone, and he could not perform even
+the slightest function. There is a panacea for all these things, which
+the faculty and philanthropy alike forbid, but which my experience in
+war-matters has invariably found unfailing. I produced my flask, and
+gently insinuated it to the old gentleman's lips. He possessed instinct
+sufficient to uncork and apply it, and the results were directly
+apparent, in a partial recovery of memory. He said that meals were one
+dollar each, board four dollars a day, or by the week twenty-five
+dollars. These terms are unknown in America; but when Mr. Paine added
+that horse provender was one dollar per "feed," I looked aghast, and
+required some stimulant myself to appreciate the enormity of the
+reckoning. I discovered, however, that the people of the village were
+almost starving; that beef had been fifty cents a pound during the whole
+winter, flour twenty-five dollars per barrel, coffee one dollar and a
+quarter a pound, and corn one dollar per bushel. The army had swept the
+country like famine, and the citizens had pinched, pining faces, with
+little to eat to-day and nothing for to-morrow.
+
+I acquiesced in the charge, as no choice remained, and asked to be shown
+to my room. A burly negro, apparently suffering _delirium tremens_,
+seized my baggage with quaking hands, and lifting a pair of red eyes
+upon me, shuffled through a bare hall, up a stairway, and into a
+bedroom. I never saw a more hideous being in my life, and when he had
+flung my luggage upon the floor, he sank into a chair, and glared
+wofully into my face, breathing like one about to expire.
+
+"Young Moss," said he, "cant you give a po' soul a drop o' sperits? Do
+for de good Lord's sake! Do, Moss, fo' de po' nigga's life. Do! do!
+Moss."
+
+I poured him out a little in a tumbler, less from charity than from
+fear; for he knew that I was provided with a bottle, and I seemed to
+read murder in his eyes.
+
+He drank like one athirst and scant of breath, making a dry, chuckling
+noise with his throat. When he had finished, he leaned his powerful neck
+and head upon the bed and groaned terribly.
+
+"Moss," he said again, "ain't you got no tobacco, Moss? I haint had none
+since Christmas. I's mos dead I'm po' sinful nigga'. Do give some
+tobacco to po' creature, do!"
+
+I told him that I did not chew the weed, but gave him a crushed cigar,
+and he thrust it into his mouth, as if it was food and he was perishing.
+This wretched animal performed the duties of a chambermaid upon the
+premises; he made the beds, attended to the toilets, answered the bells,
+etc. He finally became so offensive that I forbade him my room, and he
+revenged himself by paltry thefts. There were two other servants, a
+woman with a baby, and a shrewd, dishonest mulatto man, who was the
+steward and carver. This fellow secreted provender in the kitchen and
+sold it stealthily to hungry soldiers. A public house so mismanaged I
+had nowhere met. Sometimes we could get no breakfast till noon, and
+finally the price of dinner went up to one dollar and a half, with
+nothing to eat. The table was protected from flies by a series of paper
+fans, pendant from the ceiling and connected by a cord, which an ebony
+boy pulled, at the foot of the room to keep them in motion. This boy
+being worked day and night, often fell asleep upon his stool, when the
+yellow man boxed his ears, or knocked him down; and then he would fan
+with such vigor that a perfect gale swept down the table. The landlord
+was a kindly old man, but he could not "keep a hotel," and the
+strong-minded part of the house consisted of his wife and four
+daughters. Gen. Ben Butler would have sent these young women to Ship
+Island, five times of a day. They were very bad-mannered and always sat
+apart at one end of the cloth, talking against the "Yankees." As there
+was no direct provocation to do so, this boldness was gratuitous, and
+detracted rather than added to my estimate of the heroism of Southern
+women. I have known them to burst into the office, crowded with
+blue-coats, and scream--
+
+"Pop, Yankees thieving in garden!" or, "Pop, drive these Yankees out of
+parlor!"
+
+Every afternoon when the pavement was unusually patronized by young
+officers, these women would sally out, promenade in crinoline, silk
+stockings, and saucy hoods, and the crowd would fall respectfully back
+to let them pass. A flag hung from a hospital over the sidewalk, and
+with a pert flourish, the landlord's daughters filed off the pavement,
+around the ensign, and back again. This was amusing, I thought, but not
+very clever, and rather immodest. Had they been handsome, some romance
+might have attached to the act; but being homely and not marriageable, I
+smiled at the occurrence and entered it in my diary as "patriotism run
+mad." The stable arrangements were, if possible, worse. One had to be
+certain, from actual presence, that his horse was fed at all, and during
+the first three days of my tenure, the black hostler lost me a breast
+strap, a halter, a crupper strap, and finally emptied my saddle-bags.
+
+Now and then a woman made her appearance at a front window, stealthily
+peeping into the street, or a neighboring farmer ventured into town upon
+a lean consumptive mule. The very dogs were skinny and savage for want
+of sustenance, and when a long, cadaverous hog emerged from nowhere one
+day, and tottered up the main street, he was chased, killed, and
+quartered so rapidly, that the famous steam process seemed to have been
+applied to him, of being dropped into a hopper, and tumbling out, a
+medley of hams, ribs, lard, and penknives. The stock of provisions at
+the hotel finally gave out, and I was compelled to purchase morsels of
+meat from the steward. Dreadful visions of famishing ensued, but
+ultimately the railway was opened to town, and a sutler started a shop
+in the village. I lived upon sardines and crackers for two days, and a
+Major Fifield, Superintendent of Military Railroads, gave me savory
+breakfasts of ham afterward. Troops were now concentrating in the
+neighborhood of Culpepper, and a bevy of camps encircled the little
+village. Crawford's Brigade, of Banks's Corps, garrisoned the place, and
+a Provost Marshal occupied the quaint Court House. Reconnoissances were
+made southward daily, and I joined one of these, which left the village
+on the second of August, at three o'clock, for Orange Court House,
+seventeen miles on the way to Richmond. Detachments of a Vermont and a
+New York cavalry regiment composed the reconnoitring party, and the
+whole was commanded by Gen. Crawford, a clever and unostentatious
+soldier. We bivouacked that night near Raccoon Ford, on the river
+Rapidan. No fires were built; for we knew that the enemy was all around
+us, and we slept coldly and imperfectly till the gray of Sunday morning.
+At daylight we galloped into the main street of Orange Court House,
+having first sent a squadron around the village, to ride in at the other
+end. At the very moment of our entry, a company or more of Confederate
+horse was also trotting into town. Both parties sounded the charge
+simultaneously, and the carbines exploded in the very heart of the
+village. For a minute or more a sabre fight ensued, alternated by the
+firing of revolvers; but the defenders were overmatched, and several of
+them having been slain, they turned to escape. At that moment, however,
+our other squadron charged upon them, effectually blocking up the
+street, and the whole party surrendered. A major, who exhibited some
+obstinacy, was felled from the saddle by a terrible cut, which clove his
+skull, and a very dexterous young fellow, who attempted to escape by a
+side street, dodged a bevy of pursuers and saved his head by the loss of
+both his ears. The disfigured corpses of those freshly slain were laid
+along the sidewalk in a row; and after some invasion of henroosts and
+private pantries, we remounted, and with fifty or more prisoners
+crossed the Rapidan, and were welcomed into Culpepper with cheers. The
+prisoners were lodged in the loft of the Court House, and their officers
+were paroled, and boarded among the neighbors. They complied with the
+terms of their parole very honorably, and bore testimony to the courtesy
+of their captors. I talked with them often upon the tavern porch, but an
+undue intimacy with any of them might have brought me into disrepute.
+Although the larders of the village were supposed to be empty, savory
+meals were nevertheless sent daily to these cavalry-men, and it was
+evident that the people on all hands sympathized with their soldiery.
+
+The stringent orders of Pope, relative to removing the disaffected
+beyond his lines, were never enforced. I doubt if the veritable
+commander himself meant to do more than intimidate evil doers; but I saw
+frequent evidences of scrupulous humanity on the part of his general
+officers.
+
+One day, when I was negotiating with the Provost for the purchase of
+some port wine, stored upon the premises of a village druggist, a
+sergeant elbowed his way into the presence of the Marshal, and pushed
+forward two very dirty lads, who gave their ages respectively, as ten
+and thirteen years. They were of Hibernian parentage, and belonged to
+the class of newsboys trading with the different brigades. The younger
+lad was wiping his nose and eyes with a relic of a coat sleeve, and the
+elder was studying the points of the case, with a view to an elaborate
+defence. The sergeant produced a thick roll of bills and laid them upon
+the desk.
+
+"Gineral Crawford," said he, "orders these boys to be locked up in the
+jail. They have been passing this stuff upon the country folks, and
+belong to a gang of young varmints who follers the 'lay.' The Gineral is
+going to have 'em brought up at the proper time and punished."
+
+The bills were fair imitations of Confederate currency, and were openly
+sold in the streets of Northern cities at the rate of thousands of
+dollars for a penny. These lads probably purchased horses, swine, or
+fowls with them, or perhaps paid some impoverished widow for board in
+the worthless counterfeit.
+
+The younger lad sobbed and howled when the order for his incarceration
+had been announced, but the elder made a stout remonstrance.
+
+He didn't know the Gineral would arrest him. Everybody else passed the
+bills. He thought they wos good bills; some man gave 'em to him. They
+wan't passed, nohow, upon nobody but _Rebels_! He could prove that! He
+"know'd" a quartermaster that passed 'em. Wouldn't they let him and Sam
+off this wunst?
+
+They were both sent to Coventry, despite their tears, and down to the
+last day of our tenure in Culpepper, I saw these wicked urchins peeping
+through the grates of the old brick jail, where they lay in the steam
+and vapor, among negroes, drunkards, and thieves,--an evidence of
+justice, which it is a pleasure to record, in this free narrative.
+
+I joined a mess in the Ninth New York regiment finally, and contrived to
+exist till the fifth of the month, when Pope moved his head-quarters to
+a hill back of Culpepper, and thereafter I lived daintily for a little
+while. On the 8th of August, however, an event occurred, which disturbed
+the wisest calculations of the correspondent and the Generals, THE
+BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+GOING INTO ACTION.
+
+
+While General Pope's army was concentrating between the Rappahannock and
+Rapidan rivers, the army of General Stonewall Jackson was lying upon the
+south bank of the Rapidan, and that renowned commander's head-quarters
+were at Gordonsville, about thirty miles from Culpepper. It was
+generally presumed that Jackson had fortified Gordonsville, intending to
+lie in wait there, or possibly to oppose the crossing of Pope upon the
+banks of the river. It was not believed that Jackson's force was very
+great, because the main body of the Confederates were held below
+Richmond, where McClellan's army still remained. The Southern capital
+seemed to be menaced both from the North and the South; but in reality,
+the Grand Army was re-embarking at Harrison's Bar, and sailing up the
+Chesapeake in detachments, to effect a junction with Pope on the plains
+of Piedmont. So important a movement could not be concealed from the
+Confederates, and they had resolved to annihilate Pope before
+McClellan's reinforcements could arrive. It was the work of two weeks to
+transport eighty or a hundred thousand men three hundred miles, and
+finding that Burnside's corps had already landed upon the Potomac,
+Stonewall Jackson determined to cross the Rapidan and cripple the
+fragment of Pope's forces stationed at Culpepper.
+
+Stonewall Jackson is one of the many men whose extraordinary military
+genius has been developed by the civil war. But unlike the mass who have
+become famous in a day, and lost their laurels in a week, Jackson's
+glory has steadily increased. He was first brought into notice at
+Winchester, where he fought a fierce battle with Banks, and derived the
+_sobriquet_ which he has retained to the present time. Soon afterward,
+he chased Banks's army down the Shenandoah Valley, and across the
+Potomac. Afterward, he bore a conspicuous part in the engagement below
+Richmond, and was now to become prominent in the most daring episodes of
+the whole war. His excellence was _activity_. He scrupled at no fatigue,
+marched his troops over steep and circuitous roads, was everywhere when
+unexpected, and nowhere when sought, and his boldness was equal to his
+energy. He did not fear to attack overpowering numbers, if the situation
+demanded it. All that General Lee might plan, General Jackson would dare
+to execute; and he has been, above all others, the Soult of the Southern
+war, while Stuart was its Murat, and Lee its Napoleon.
+
+We first had intimation of the advance of Jackson on the afternoon of
+the 7th of August. Two regiments of cavalry, picketed upon the Rapidan,
+rode pell-mell into Culpepper, reporting a large Southern force at the
+fords, and rapidly advancing. Pope at once ordered the whole of one of
+these regiments under arrest, and it was the opinion of the army that
+the approach was a feint, or, at most, a reconnoissance in force.
+Subsequent information satisfied the incredulous, however, that a
+considerable body of troops were marching northward, and their outriding
+scouts had been seen at Cedar Mountain, only six miles from Culpepper.
+The latter is one of the many woody knobs or heights that environ the
+village, but it is nearer than any other, and should have been occupied
+by Pope, simultaneously with his arrival. It is scarcely a mountain in
+elevation, but so high that the clouds often envelope its crest, and it
+commands a view of all the surrounding country. There are cleared
+patches up its sides, and the highest of these constitutes the farm of a
+clergyman, after whom the eminence is sometimes called "Slaughter's
+Mountain." At its base lie a few pleasant farms; and a shallow rivulet
+or creek, called Cedar Run, crosses the road between the mountain and
+Culpepper. Upon the mountain side Jackson had placed his batteries, and
+his infantry lay in dense thickets and belts of woods before the hill
+and on each side of it. The position was a powerful, though not an
+impregnable one; for batteries might readily be pushed up the slope, and
+our infantry had often ascended steeper eminences. But an opposing army
+scattered about the meadow lands below, would find its several
+components exposed to shot and shell, thrown from points three or four
+hundred feet above them.
+
+When it had been discovered that the enemy had anticipated us in seizing
+this strong position, word was at once despatched to Banks and Siegel to
+bring up their columns without delay. The brigade of General Crawford
+was marched through Culpepper at noon on Friday; and that afternoon,
+foot-sore, but enthusiastic, regiments began to arrive in rapid
+succession.
+
+I had been passing the morning of Friday with Colonel Bowman, a modest
+and capable gentleman, when the serenity of our converse was disturbed
+by a sergeant, who rode into camp with orders for a prompt advance in
+light marching order. In a twinkling all the camps in the vicinity were
+deserted, and the roads were so blocked with soldiers on my return, that
+I was obliged to ride through fields.
+
+I trotted rapidly into the village, and witnessed a scene exciting and
+martial beyond anything which I had remarked with the Army of Virginia.
+Regiments were pouring by all the roads and lanes into the main street,
+and the spectacle of thousands of bayonets, extending as far as the eye
+could reach, was enhanced by the music of a score of bands, throbbing
+all at the same moment with wild music. The orders of officers rang out
+fitfully in the din, and when the steel shifted from shoulder to
+shoulder, it was like looking down a long sparkling wave. Above the
+confusion of the time, the various nativities of volunteers roared their
+national ballads. "St. Patrick's Day," intermingled with the weird
+refrain of "Bonnie Dundee," and snatches of German sword-songs were
+drowned by the thrilling chorus of the "Star-Spangled Banner." Then some
+stentor would strike a stave of--
+
+    "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"
+
+and the wild, mournful music would be caught up by all,--Germans, Celts,
+Saxons, till the little town rang with the thunder of voices, all
+uttering the name of the grim old Moloch, whom--more than any one save
+Hunter--Virginia hates. Suddenly, as if by rehearsal, all hats would go
+up, all bayonets toss and glisten, and huzzas would deafen the winds,
+while the horses reared upon their haunches and the sabres rose and
+fell. Then, column by column, the masses passed eastward, while the
+prisoners in the Court-House cupola looked down, and the citizens peeped
+in fear through crevices of windows.
+
+Being unattached to the staff of any General at the time, and therefore
+at liberty as a mere spectator, I rode rapidly after the troops, passed
+the foremost regiments, and unwittingly kept to the left, which I did
+not discover in the excitement of the ride, till my horse was foaming
+and my face furrowed with heat drops. I saw that the way had been little
+travelled, and inquiry at a log farm-house, some distance further,
+satisfied me that I had mistaken the way. Two men in coarse brown suits,
+were chopping wood here, and they informed me, with an oath, that the
+last soldiers seen in the neighborhood, had been Confederate pickets. A
+by-road enabled me to recover the proper route, and from the top of a
+hill overlooking Culpepper, I had a view of the hamlet, nestling in its
+hollow; the roads entering it, black with troops, and all the slopes
+covered with wagon-trains, whose white canopies seemed infinite. The
+skies were gorgeously dyed over the snug cottages and modest spires;
+some far woods were folded in a pleasant haze; and the blue mountains
+lifted their huge backs, voluming in the distance, like some boundary
+for humanity, with a happier land beyond. Here I might have stood, a few
+months before, and heard the church bells; and the trees around me might
+have been musical with birds. But now the parsons and the choristers
+were gone; the scaffold was erected, the axe bare, and with a good by
+glance at the world and man, some hundreds of wretches were to drop into
+eternity. We have all read of the guillotine in other lands; it was now
+before me in my own.
+
+As I passed into the highway again, and riding through narrow passages,
+grazing officers' knees, turning vicious battery horses, winding in and
+out of woods, making detours through pasture fields, leaping ditches,
+and so making perilous progress, I passed many friends who hailed me
+cheerfully,--here a brigadier-general who waved his hand, or a colonel
+who saluted, or a staff officer who rode out and exchanged inquiries or
+greetings, or a sergeant who winked and laughed. These were some of the
+men whose bodies I was to stir to-morrow with my foot, when the eyes
+that shone upon me now would be swollen and ghastly.
+
+Some of the privates seeing me in plain clothes, as I had joined the
+army merely as a visitor and with no idea of seeing immediate service
+there, mistook me for a newspaper correspondent, which in one sense I
+was; and I was greeted with such cries as--
+
+"Our Special Artist!"
+
+"Our Own Correspondent!"
+
+"Give our Captain a setting up, you sir!"
+
+"Puff our Colonel!"
+
+"Give me a good obituary!"
+
+"Where's your pass, bub?"
+
+"Halloo! Jenkins. Three cheers for Jenkins!"
+
+I shall not soon forget one fellow, who planted himself in my path (his
+regiment had halted), and leaning upon his musket looked steadily into
+my eyes.
+
+"Ef I had a warrant for the devil," he said, "I'd arrest that feller."
+
+Many of the soldiers were pensive and thoughtful; but the mass were
+marching to their funerals with boyish outcries, apparently anxious to
+forget the responsibilities of the time.
+
+"Let's sing, boys." "Oh! Get out, or I'll belt you over the snout."
+"Halloo! Pardner, is there water over there?" "Three groans for old
+Jeff!" "Hip-hip--hoo-roar! Hi! Hi!"
+
+A continual explosion of small arms, in the shape of epithets, jests,
+imitations of the cries of sheep, cows, mules, and roosters, and
+snatches of songs, enlivened the march. If something interposed, or a
+halt was ordered, the men would throw themselves in the dust, wipe their
+foreheads, drink from their canteens, gossip, grin, and shout
+confusedly, and some sought opportunities to straggle off, so that the
+regiments were materially decimated before they reached the field. The
+leading officers maintained a dignity and a reserve, and reined their
+horses together in places, to confer. At one time, a private soldier
+came out to me, presenting a scrap of paper, and asked me to scrawl him
+a line, which he would dictate. It was as follows:--
+
+"_My dear Mary, we are going into action soon, and I send you my love.
+Kiss baby, and if I am not killed I will write to you after the fight._"
+The man asked me to mail the scrap at the first opportunity; but the
+same post which carried his simple billet, carried also his name among
+the rolls of the dead.
+
+At five o'clock I overtook Crawford's brigade, drawn up in front of a
+fine girdle of timber, in a grass field, and on the edge of Cedar Creek.
+Their ambulances had been unhitched, and ranged in a row against the
+woods and the soldiers were soon formed in line of battle, extending
+across the road, with their faces toward the mountain. In this order
+they moved through the creek, and disappeared behind the ridge of a
+cornfield. The hill towered in front, but with the naked eye I could
+distinguish only a speck of floating something above the roof of
+Slaughter's white house. This was said to be a flag, though I did not
+believe it; and as there were no evidences of any enemy, which I could
+determine, I turned my attention to the immediate necessities of myself
+and my horse. A granary lay at a little distance, and as I was hastening
+thither, a trooper came along with a blanket full of corn. Fortuitously,
+he dropped about a dozen ears, which I secured, and hitched my animal to
+a tree, where he munched until I had fallen asleep. The latter event
+happened in this wise.
+
+I had observed a slight person in the uniform of a surgeon. He was
+dividing a large lump of pork at the time, and three great crackers lay
+before him. I approached and introduced myself, and in a few minutes I
+was a partial proprieter of the meat, and he a recipient of some drink.
+The same person directed me to occupy a shelf of the ambulance, and when
+we lay down together he narrated some of his experiences in Martinsburg,
+when the Confederates occupied the place after Banks's retreat. He had
+charge of a hospital at that time, and witnessed the entrance of the
+Confederate army. The wildness of the people was unbounded, he said, and
+all who had given so much as a drop of cold water to the invaders were
+pointed out and execrated. The properties of a few, said to be
+Unionists, were endangered; and ruffianly soldiers climbed to the
+windows of the hospital, hooting and taunting the sick. Not to be
+outdone in bitterness, the tenants flung up their crutches and cheered
+for the "Union,"--that darling idea, which has marshalled a million of
+men and filled hecatombs with its champions. In a few days the Federals
+took possession of the town anew, and the Southern element was in turn
+oppressed. This is Civil War,--more cruel than the excesses of
+hereditary enemies. A year before these people of the Shenandoah were
+fellow-countrymen of the soldiery they contemned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CEDAR MOUNTAIN.
+
+
+There being nothing to eat in the vicinity of the ambulances, I mounted
+anew at five o'clock and rode back toward Culpepper. No portion of the
+troops of Crawford were visible now, and only some gray smoke moved up
+the side of the mountain. A few stragglers were bathing their faces in
+Cedar Creek, and some miles in the rear lay several of McDowell's
+brigades under arms. Their muskets were stacked along the sides of the
+road, the men lay sleepily upon the ground,--company by company, each in
+its proper place,--the field-officers gossiping together, and the colors
+upright and unfurled. I was stopped, all the way along the lines, and
+interrogated as to what was happening in front.
+
+"Any Reb-bils out yonder?" asked a grim, snappish Colonel.
+
+"Guess they don't mean to fight before breakfast!" blurted a Captain.
+
+"Wish they'd cut away, anyway, if they goin' to!" muttered a chorus of
+privates.
+
+At the village there was nothing to be purchased, although some sutlers'
+stores lay at the depot, guarded by Provost officers. I persuaded a
+negro to give me a mess of almost raw pork, and a woman, with a child at
+the breast, cooked me some biscuit. There were many civilians and idle
+officers in the town, and the streets were lined with cavalry. Mr.
+Paine, the landlord, was losing the remnant of his wits, and the young
+ladies were playing the "Bonnie Blue Flag," and laughing satirically at
+some young officers who listened. The correspondents began to show
+themselves in force, and a young fellow whom I may call Chitty,
+representing a provincial journal, greatly amused me, with the
+expression of fears that there might be no engagement after all. Chitty
+was an attorney, who had forsaken a very moderate practice, for a press
+connection, and he informed me, in confidence, that he was gathering
+materials for a history of the war. By reason of his attention to this
+weighty project, he failed to do any reporting, and as his mind was not
+very well balanced, he was commonly taken to be a simpleton. As there
+was nobody else to talk to, I amused myself with Chitty during the
+forenoon, and he narrated to me some doubtful intrigues which had varied
+his career in Piedmont. But Chitty had mingled in no battles, and now
+that a contest was about to take place, his heart warmed in
+anticipation. He asked me if the hottest fighting would not probably
+occur on the right, and intimated, in that event, his desire to carry
+despatches through the thickest of the fray. Death was welcome to Chitty
+if he could so distinguish himself. Between Chitty and a nap in a wagon,
+I managed to loiter out the morning, and at three o'clock, a cannon
+peal, so close that it shook the houses, brought my horse upon his
+haunches. For awhile I did not leave the village. Cannon upon cannon
+exploded; the young ladies ceased their mirth; the landlord staggered
+with white lips into the air, and after a couple of hours, I heard the
+signal that I knew so well--a volley of musketry. Full of all the old
+impulses, I climbed into the saddle, and spurred my horse towards the
+battle-field.
+
+The ride over six miles of clay road was a capital school for my pony.
+Every hoof-fall brought him closer to the cannon, and the sound had
+become familiar when he reached the scene. At four o'clock, the musketry
+was close and effective beyond anything I had known, and now and then I
+could see, from secure places, the spurts of white cannon-smoke far up
+the side of the mountain. The action was commenced by emulous
+skirmishers, who crawled from the woodsides, and annoyed each other from
+coverts of ridge, stump, and stone heap. A large number of Southern
+riflemen then threw themselves into a corner of wood, considerably
+advanced from their main position. Their fire was so destructive that
+General Banks felt it necessary to order a charge. Two brigades, when
+the signal was given, marched in line of battle, out of a wood, and
+charged across a field of broken ground toward the projecting corner. As
+soon as they appeared, sharpshooters darted up from a stretch of scrub
+cedars on their right, and a battery mowed them down by an oblique fire
+from the left. The guns up the mountain side threw shells with beautiful
+exactness, and the concealed rifle-men in front poured in deadly showers
+of bullet and ball. As the men fell by dozens out of line, the survivors
+closed up the gaps, and pressed forward gallantly. The ground was
+uneven, however, and solid order could not be observed throughout. At
+length, when they had gained a brookside at the very edge of the wood,
+the column staggered, quailed, fell into disorder, and then fell back.
+Some of the more desperate dashed singly into the thicket, bayoneting
+their enemies, and falling in turn in the fierce grapple. Others of the
+Confederates ran from the wood, and engaged hand to hand with
+antagonists, and, in places, a score of combatants met sturdily upon the
+plain, lunging with knife and sabre bayonet, striking with clubbed
+musket, or discharging revolvers. But at last the broken lines regained
+the shelter of the timber, and there was a momentary lull in the
+thunder.
+
+For a time, each party kept in the edges of the timber, firing at will,
+but the Confederates were moving forward in masses by detours, until
+some thousands of them stood in the places of the few who were at first
+isolated. Distinct charges were now made, and a large body of Federals
+attempted to capture the battery before Slaughter's house, while
+separate brigades charged by front and flank upon the impenetrable
+timber. The horrible results of the previous effort were repeated; the
+Confederates preserved their position, and, at nightfall, the Federals
+fell back a mile or more. From fifteen hundred to two thousand of the
+latter were slain or wounded, and, though the heat of the battle had
+lasted not more than two hours, nearly four thousand men upon both sides
+were maimed or dead. The valor of the combatants in either cause was
+unquestionable. But no troops in the world could have driven the
+Confederates out of the impregnable mazes of the wood. It was an error
+to expose columns of troops upon an open plain, in the face of
+imperceptible sharpshooters. The batteries should have shelled the
+thickets, and the infantry should have retained their concealment. The
+most disciplined troops of Europe would not have availed in a country of
+bog, barren, ditch, creek, forest, and mountain. Compared to the bare
+plain of Waterloo, Cedar Mountain was like the antediluvian world, when
+the surface was broken by volcanic fire into chasms and abysses. In this
+battle, the Confederate batteries, along the mountain side, were
+arranged in the form of a crescent, and, when the solid masses charged
+up the hill, they were butchered by enfilading fires. On the Confederate
+part, a thorough knowledge of the country was manifest, and the best
+possible disposition of forces and means; on the side of the Federals,
+there was zeal without discretion, and gallantry without generalship.
+
+During the action, "Stonewall" Jackson occupied a commanding position on
+the side of the mountain, where, glass in hand, he observed every change
+of position, and directed all the operations. General Banks was
+indefatigable and courageous; but he was left to fight the whole battle,
+and not a regiment of the large reserve in his rear, came forward to
+succor or relieve him. As usual, McDowell was cursed by all sides, and
+some of Banks's soldiers threatened to shoot him. But the unpopular
+Commander had no defence to make, and said nothing to clear up the
+doubts relative to him. He exposed himself repeatedly, and so did Pope.
+The latter rode to the front at nightfall,--for what purpose no one
+could say, as he had been in Culpepper during the whole afternoon,--and
+he barely escaped being captured. The loss of Federal officers was very
+heavy. Fourteen commissioned officers were killed and captured out of
+one regiment. Sixteen commissioned officers only remained in four
+regiments. One General was taken prisoner and several were wounded. A
+large number of field-officers were slain.
+
+During the progress of the fight I galloped from point to point along
+the rear, but could nowhere obtain a panoramic view. The common
+sentiment of civilians, that it is always possible to see a battle, is
+true of isolated contests only. Even the troops engaged, know little of
+the occurrences around them, and I have been assured by many soldiers
+that they have fought a whole day without so much as a glimpse of an
+enemy. The smoke and dust conceal objects, and where the greatest
+execution is done, the antagonists have frequently fired at a line of
+smoke, behind which columns may, or may not have been posted.
+
+It was not till nightfall, when the Federals gave up the contested
+ground, and fell back to some cleared fields, that I heard anything of
+the manner of action and the resulting losses. As soon as the firing
+ceased, the ambulance corps went ahead and began to gather up the
+wounded. As many of these as could walk passed to the rear on foot, and
+the spectacle at eight o'clock was of a terrible character. The roads
+were packed with ambulances, creaking under fearful weights, and rod by
+rod, the teams were stopped, to accommodate other sufferers who had
+fallen or fainted on the walk. A crippled man would cling to the tail of
+a wagon, while the tongue would be burdened with two, sustaining
+themselves by the backs of the horses. Water was sought for everywhere,
+and all were hungry. I met at sundry times, friends who had passed me,
+hopeful and humorous the day before, now crawling wearily with a
+shattered leg or dumb with a stiff and dripping jaw. To realize the
+horror of the night, imagine a common clay road, in a quiet, rolling
+country, packed with bleeding people,--the fences down, horsemen riding
+through the fields, wagons blocking the way, reinforcements in dark
+columns hurrying up, the shouting of the well to the ill, and the feeble
+replies,--in a word, recall that elder time when the "earth was filled
+with violence," and add to the idea that the time was in the night.
+
+I assumed my old rôle of writing the names of the wounded, but when, at
+nine o'clock, the 10th Maine regiment--a fragment of the proud column
+which passed me in the morning--returned, I hailed Colonel Beale, and
+reined with him into a clover-field, the files following wearily.
+Tramping through the tall garbage, with few words, and those spoken in
+low tones, we stopped at length in a sort of basin, with the ground
+rising on every side of us. The men were placed in line, and the Company
+Sergeants called the rolls. Some of the replies were thrilling, but all
+were prosaic:--
+
+"Smith!"
+
+"Smith fell at the first fire, Sergeant. Bill, here, saw him go down."
+
+"Sturgis!"
+
+"Sam's in the ambulance, wi' his thigh broke. I don't believe he'll
+live, Sergeant!"
+
+"Thompson!"
+
+"Dead."
+
+"Vinton!"
+
+"Yar! (feebly said) four fingers shot off!"
+
+In this way, the long lists were read over, while the survivors chatted,
+laughed, and disputed, talking of the incidents of the day. Most of the
+men lay down in the clover, and some started off in couples to procure
+water. The field-officers gave me some items relative to the conflict,
+and as they were ordered to remain here, I resolved to pass the night
+with them. Obtaining a great fence-rail, I lashed my horse to it by his
+halter, and, removing his saddle and bridle, left him free to graze in
+the vicinity. Then I unfolded my camp-bed, covered myself with a rubber
+blanket, and continued to listen to the conversation. Of course,
+accusations, bitter mutterings, moodiness, and melancholy, prevailed. I
+heard these for some time, interspersed with sententious eulogies upon
+particular persons, and references to isolated events. The evening was
+one of the pleasantest of the year, in all that nature could contribute;
+a fine starlight, a transparent atmosphere, a coolness, and a fragrance
+of sweet-clover blossoms. I had laid my head upon my arm, and shut my
+eyes, and felt drowsiness come upon me, when something hurtled through
+the air, and another gun boomed on the stillness. A shell, describing an
+arc of fire, fell some distance to our left, and, in a moment, a second
+shell passed directly over our heads.
+
+"----!" said an officer; "have they moved a battery so close? See! it is
+just at the end of this field!"
+
+I looked back! At the top of the basin in which we lay, something
+flashed up, throwing a glare upon the woody background, and a shell,
+followed by a shock, crashed ricochetting, directly in a line with us,
+but leaped, fortunately, above us, and continued its course far beyond.
+
+"They mean 'em for us," said the same voice; "they see these lights
+where the fools have been warming their coffee. Halloo!"
+
+Another glare of fire revealed the grouped men and horses around the
+battery, and for a moment I thought the missile had struck among us.
+There was a splutter, as of shivering metal flying about, and, with a
+sort of intuition, the whole regiment rose and ran. I started to my feet
+and looked for my horse. His ears were erect, his eyeballs distended,
+and his nostrils were tremulous with fright. A fifth shell, so perfectly
+in range that I held my breath, and felt my heart grow cold, came toward
+and passed me, and, with a toss of his head, the nag flung up the rail
+as if it had been a feather. He seemed literally to juggle it, and it
+flitted here and there, so that I dared not approach him. A favorable
+opportunity at length ensued, and I seized the animal by his halter. He
+was now wild with panic, and sprang toward me as if to trample me. In
+vain I endeavored to pull him toward the saddle. Fresh projectiles
+darted beside and above us, and the last of these seemed to pass so
+close that I could have reached and touched it. The panic took
+possession of me. I grasped my camp-bed, rather by instinct than by
+choice, and, holding it desperately under my arm, took to my heels.
+
+It was a long distance to the bottom of the clover-field, and the swift
+iron followed me remorselessly. At one moment, when a shell burst full
+in my face, half blinding me, I felt weak to faintness, but still I ran.
+I had wit enough to avoid the high road, which I knew to be packed with
+fugitives, and down which, I properly surmised, the enemy would send his
+steady messengers. Once I fell into a ditch, and the breath was knocked
+out of my body, but I rolled over upon my feet with marvellous
+sprightliness, till, at last, when I gained a corn-field, my attention
+was diverted to a strange, rattling noise behind me. I turned and
+looked. It was my horse, the rail dangling between his legs, his eyes on
+fire in the night. As we regarded each other, a shell burst between us.
+He dashed away across the inhospitable fields, and I fell into the high
+road among the routed. Expletives like these ensued:--
+
+"Sa-a-ay! Hoss! Pardner! Are you going to ride over this wounded
+feller?"
+
+"Friend, have you a drop of water for a man that's fainted here?"
+
+"Halloo! Buster! Keep that bayonit out o' my eye, if you please!"
+
+"Where's Gen. Banks? I hearn say he's a prisoner."
+
+"I do' know!"
+
+"Was we licked, do you think?"
+
+"No! We warn't nothin' o' the kind. Siegel's outflanked 'em and okkepies
+the field. A man jus' told me so."
+
+"Huzza! Hearties, cheer up! Siegel's took the field, and Stonewall
+Jackson's dead."
+
+"Three cheers for Siegel."
+
+"Hoorooar, hoor--"
+
+"Oh! Get out! That's all blow. Don't try stuff me! We're lathered;
+that's the long and shawt of it."
+
+"Is that so? Boys, I guess we're beat!"
+
+Such was the character of exclamations that ran here and there, and
+after a little volley of them had been let off, a long pause succeeded,
+when only the sighs of the injured and the tramp of men and nags broke
+the silence. Overhead the starlight and the blue sky; on either side the
+rolling, shadowy fields; and wrapping the horizon in a gray, grisly
+girdle, the reposing woods plentiful with dew. Nature was putting forth
+all her still, sweet charms, as if to make men witness the damned
+contrast of their own wrath, violence, and murder. Even thus,
+perhaps,--I reasoned,--in the days of old, did the broken multitudes of
+Xerxes return by the shores of the golden Archipelago; and the
+Hellespont shone as peacefully as these silvernesses of earth and
+firmament. The dulness of history became invested with new intelligence.
+I filled in the details of a thousand routs conned in school-days, when
+only the dry outlines lay before me. They were mysteries before, and
+lacked the warmness of life and truth; but now I _saw_ them! The armor
+and the helmets fell away, with all other trappings of custom, language,
+and ceremony. This pale giant, who walked behind the ambulance, leaning
+upon the footboard, was the limping Achilles, with the arrow of Paris
+festering in his heel. This ancient veteran, with his back to the field,
+was the fugitive Æneas, leaving Troy behind. And these, around me,
+belonged to the columns of Barbazona, scattered at Legnano by the
+revengeful Milanese. Cobweb, and thick dust, and faded parchment had
+somewhat softened those elder events; but in their day they were
+tangible, practical, and prosaic, like this scene. Years will roll over
+this, as over those, and folks will read at firesides, half doubtfully,
+half wonderingly, the story of this bafflement, when no fragment of its
+ruin remains. It was a profound feeling that I should thus be walking
+down the great retreat of time, and that the occurrences around me
+should be remembered forever!
+
+There were a few prisoners in the mass, walking before cavalry-men.
+Nobody interfered with them, and they were not in a position to feel
+elated. Now and then, when we reached an ambulance, the fugitives would
+press around it to inquire if any of their friends were within. Rough
+recognitions would ensue, as thus:--
+
+"Bobby, is that you, back there?--Bobby Baker?"
+
+"Who is it?" (feebly uttered.)
+
+"Me, Bobby--Josh Wiggins. Are you shot bad, Bobby?"
+
+"Shot in the thigh; think the bone's broke. You haven't got a drop of
+water, have you?"
+
+"No, Bobby; wish I had. Have anymore of our boys been hurt that you know
+of?"
+
+"Switzer is dead; Bill Cringle and Jonesy are prisoners; 'Pud' White is
+in the ambulance ahead; 'Fol' Thompson's lost an arm; that's all I
+know."
+
+When we had gone two miles or more, we found a provost column drawn
+across the road, and a mounted officer interrogating all who attempted
+to pass:--
+
+"Stop there! You're not wounded."
+
+"Yes, I am."
+
+"Pass on! Halt boy! Go back. Men, close up there. Stop that boy."
+
+"I am sun-struck, Major."
+
+"You lie! Drive him back. Go back, now!"
+
+Beyond this the way was comparatively clear; but as I knew that other
+guards held the road further on, I passed to the right, and with the
+hope of finding a rill of water, went across some grass fields, keeping
+toward the low places. The fields were very still, and I heard only the
+subdued noises wafted from the road; but suddenly I found myself
+surrounded by men. They were lying in groups in the tall grass, and
+started up suddenly, like the clansmen of Roderick Dhu. At first I
+thought myself a prisoner, and these some cunning Confederates, who had
+lain in wait. But, to my surprise, they were Federal uniforms, and were
+simply skulkers from various regiments, who had been hiding here during
+the hours of battle. Some of these miserable wretches asked me the
+particulars of the fight, and when told of the defeat, muttered that
+they were not to be hood-winked and slaughtered.
+
+"I was sick, anyway," said one fellow, "and felt like droppin' on the
+road."
+
+"I didn't trust my colonel," said another; "he ain't no soldier."
+
+"I'm tired of the war, anyhow," said a third, "and my time's up soon; so
+I shan't have my head blown off."
+
+As I progressed, dozens of these men appeared; the fields were strewn
+with them; a true man would rather have been lying with the dead on the
+field of carnage, than here, among the craven and base. I came to a
+spring at last, and the stragglers surrounded it in levies. One of them
+gave me a cup to dip some of the crystal, and a prayerful feeling came
+over me as the cooling draught fell over my dry palate and parched
+throat. Regaining the road, I encountered reinforcements coming rapidly
+out of Culpepper, and among them was the 9th New York. My friend
+Lieutenant Draper, recognized me, and called out that he should see me
+on the morrow, if he was not killed meantime. Culpepper was filling with
+fugitives when I passed up the main street, and they were sprinkled
+along the sidewalks, gossiping with each other. The wounded were being
+carried into some of the dwellings, and when I reached the Virginia
+Hotel, many of them lay upon the porch. I placed my blanket on a clean
+place, threw myself down exhaustedly, and dropped to sleep directly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+OUT WITH A BURYING PARTY.
+
+
+When I rose, at ten o'clock on the morning of Sunday, August 10, the
+porch was covered with wounded people. Some fierce sunbeams were gliding
+under the roof, shining in the poor fellows' eyes, and they were
+stirring wearily, though asleep. Picking my way among the prostrate
+figures, I resorted to the pump in the rear of the tavern for the
+purpose of bathing my face. A soldier stood there on guard, and he
+refused to give me so much as a draught of water. The wounded needed
+every drop, and there were but a few wells in the town. I strolled
+through the main street, now crowded with unfortunates, and pausing at
+the Court House, found the seat of justice transmuted to a headquarters
+for surgeons, where amputations were being performed. Continuing by a
+street to the left, I came to the depot, and here the ambulances were
+gathered with their scores of inmates. A tavern contiguous to the
+railway was also a hospital, but in the basement I found the
+transportation agents at breakfast, and they gave me a bountiful meal.
+
+It was here arranged between myself and an old friend--a newspaper
+correspondent who had recently married, and whose wife awaited him at
+Willard's in Washington--that he should proceed at once to New York with
+the outline of the fight, and that I should follow him next day (having,
+indeed, to report for duty and fresh orders at Head-quarters of the
+army in Washington,) with particulars and the lists of killed. I
+commenced my part of the labors at once, employing three persons to
+assist me, and we districted Culpepper, so that no one should interfere
+with the grounds of the other. My own part of the work embraced both
+hotel-hospitals, the names and statements of the prisoners of the Court
+House loft, and interviews with some of the generals and colonels who
+lay at various private residences. The business was not a desirable one;
+for hot hospital rooms were now absolutely reeking, and many of the
+victims were asleep. It would be inhuman to awaken these; but in many
+cases those adjacent knew nothing, and with all assiduity the rolls must
+be imperfect. I found one man who had undergone a sort of mental
+paralysis and could not tell me his own name. However, I groped through
+the several chambers where the bleeding littered the bare floors. Some
+of them were eating voraciously, and buckets of ice-water were being
+carried to and fro that all might drink. Some male nurses were fanning
+the sleeping people with boughs of cedar; but the flies filled the
+ceiling, and, attracted by the wounds, they kept up a constant buzzing.
+I imagined that mortification would rapidly ensue in this broiling
+atmosphere. A couple of trains were being prepared below, to transport
+the sufferers to Washington, and from time to time individuals were
+carried into the air and deposited in common freight-cars upon the hard
+floors. Here they were compelled to wait till late in the evening, for
+no trains were allowed to leave the village during the day. At the
+Virginia Hotel, I visited, among others, the room in which I had lodged
+when I first came to Culpepper. Eight persons now occupied it, and three
+of them lay across the bed. I took the first man's name, and as the man
+next to him seemed to be asleep, I asked the first man to nudge him
+gently.
+
+"I don't think he is alive," said the man; "he hasn't moved since
+midnight. I've spoken to him already."
+
+I pulled a blanket from the head of the figure, and the tangled hair,
+yellow skin, and stiffened jaw told all the story. The other man looked
+uneasily into the face of the corpse and then lay down with his back
+toward it.
+
+"I hope they'll take it out," said he, "I don't want to sleep beside it
+another night."
+
+The guard at the Court House allowed me to ascend to the loft, and the
+prisoners--forty or fifty in number--clustered around me. They had
+received, a short time before, their day's allotment of crackers and
+bread, and some of them were sitting in the cupola, with their bare legs
+hanging over the rails. They were anxious to have their names printed,
+and I learned from the less cautious the names of the brigades to which
+they belonged. Before I left the room I had obtained the number of
+regiments in Jackson's command and the names of his brigadier-generals.
+Some prisoners arrived while I was noting these matters. They had been
+sent to pick up arms, canteens, cartridge-boxes, etc., from the
+battle-field, and some of our cavalry had ridden them down and captured
+them. They were a little discomposed, but said, for the most part, that
+they were weary of the war and glad to be in custody. As a rule,
+Northern and Southern troops have the same general manners and
+appearances. These were more ragged than any Federals I had ever known,
+and their appetites were voracious.
+
+I found General Geary, a Pennsylvania brigade Commander, in the dwelling
+of a lady near the end of the town. He had received a bullet in the arm,
+and, I believe, submitted to amputation afterward. He was a tall,
+athletic man, upwards of six feet in height, and a citizen of one of the
+mountainous interior counties of the Quaker State. His life had been
+marked by much adventure, and he had been elevated to many important
+civil positions in various quarters of the Republic. He occupied a
+leading place, in the Mexican war, and was afterward Mayor of San
+Francisco and Governor of Kansas. He acted with the Southern wing of
+the Democratic party, and was discreetly ambitious, promoting the
+agricultural interests of his commonwealth, and otherwise fulfilling
+useful civil functions. He was a fine exemplar of the American
+gentleman, preserving the better individualities of his countrymen, but
+discarding those grosser traits, which have given us an unenviable name
+abroad. Geary could not do a mean thing, and his courage came so
+naturally to him that he did not consider it any cause of pride. The
+bias of party, which in America diseases the best natures, had in some
+degree affected the General. He was prone to go with his party in any
+event, when often, I think, his fine intelligence would have prompted
+him to an independent course. But I wish that all our leading men
+possessed his manliness, for then more dignity and self-respect, and
+less "smartness," might be apparent in our social and political
+organizations.
+
+He was lying on his back, with his shattered arm bandaged, and resting
+on his breast. Twitches of keen pain shot across his face now and then,
+but he received me with a simple courtesy that made his patience thrice
+heroic. He did not speak of himself or his services, though I knew both
+to be eminent; but McDowell had insulted him, as he rode disabled from
+the field, and Geary felt the sting of the word more than the bullet. He
+had ventured to say to McDowell that the Reserves were badly needed in
+front, and the proud "Regular" had answered the officious "Volunteer,"
+to the effect that he knew his own business. Not the least among the
+causes of the North's inefficiency will be found this ill feeling
+between the professional and the civil soldiery. A Regular contemns a
+Volunteer; a Volunteer hates a Regular. I visited General Augur--badly
+wounded--in the drawing-room of the hotel, and paused a moment to watch
+Colonel Donnelly, mortally wounded, lying on a spread in the hall. The
+latter lingered a day in fearful agony; but he was a powerful man in
+physique, and he fought with death through a bloody sweat, never
+moaning nor complaining, till he fell into a blessed torpidity, and so
+yielded up his soul. The shady little town was a sort of Golgotha now.
+Feverish eyes began to burn into one's heart, as he passed along the
+sidewalks. Red hospital flags, hung like regalia from half the houses. A
+table for amputations was set up in the open air, and nakedness glared
+hideously upon the sun. How often have they brought out corpses in plain
+boxes of pine, and shut them away without sign, or ceremony, or tears,
+driving a long stake above the headboard. The ambulances came and went,
+till the line seemed stretching to the crack of doom; while, as in
+contemplation of further murder, the white-covered ammunition-teams
+creaked southward, and mounted Provosts charged upon the skulkers,
+driving them to a pen, whence they were forwarded to their regiments.
+Old Mr. Paine, the landlord, tottered up to me, with a tear in his eye,
+and said--
+
+"My good Lord, sir! Who is responsible for this?"
+
+He did not mean to suggest argument. It was the language of a human
+heart pitying its brotherhood.
+
+At twelve o'clock I started anew for the field, and fell in with Captain
+Chitty on the way. He stated that his courage during the fight surpassed
+his most heroic expectations, and added, in an undertone, that he was
+deliberating as to whether he should allow his name to be mentioned
+officially, since several military men were urging that honor upon him.
+I dissuaded Chitty from this intent, upon the ground that his reputation
+for modesty might be sacrificed. Chitty at once said that he would take
+my advice. We encountered Surgeon Ball, of Ohio, after a time, and he
+informed us that a day's armistice had been agreed upon, to allow for
+the burial of the dead. The work of interment was already commenced in
+front, and the surgeon had been ordered to see to the wounded, some of
+whom still lay on the places where they fell. He allowed us to accompany
+him in the capacity of cadets, but we first diverged a little from the
+road, that he might obtain his portmanteau of instruments. I fell into a
+little difficulty here, by unwittingly asking aloud of the 28th
+Pennsylvania regiment, if that was not the organization which hid itself
+during the fight? The 28th had been ordered, on the morning of Saturday,
+to occupy Telegraph Mountain,--an elevation in the rear of Cedar
+Mountain,--which was used for a Federal signal-post. Nobody having
+notified the 28th to return to camp, they remained on the mountain,
+passively witnessing the carnage, and came away in the night. But
+although my remark was jestingly said, the knot of soldiers who heard it
+were intensely excited. They spoke of taking me "off that hoss," and
+called me a New York "Snob," who "wanted his head punched." This irate
+feeling may be attributed to the rivalry which exists between the
+"Empire" and the "Keystone" States, the latter being very jealous of the
+former, and claiming to have sent more troops to the war than any other
+commonwealth. The 28th volunteers doubtless expected a terrific
+onslaught from the next issue of the Philadelphia papers.
+
+The reserve, which had lain some miles in the rear the previous evening,
+were now massed close to the field, but in the woods, that the enemy
+might not count their numbers from his high position. Stopping at times
+to chat with brother officers, at last I reached the meadow whence I had
+been driven the previous evening. I looked for my nag in vain. One
+soldier told me that he had seen him at daylight limping along the high
+road; but after sundry wild-goose chases, I gave up the idea of
+recovering him.
+
+At last I passed the outlying batteries, with their black muzzles
+scanning the battle-ground, and ascending the clover field, came upon
+the site of the battery which had so discomfited us the previous night.
+A signal vengeance had overtaken it. Some splinters of wheel and an
+overturned caisson, with eight horses lying in a group,--their hoofs
+extended like index boards, their necks elongated along the ground, and
+their bodies swollen--were the results of a single shell trained upon
+the battery by a cool artillerist. Beyond, the road and fields were
+strown with knapsacks, haversacks, jackets, canteens, cartridge-boxes,
+shoes, bayonets, knives, buttons, belts, blankets, girths, and sabres.
+Now and then a mule or a horse lay at the roadside, with the clay
+saturated beneath him; and some of the tree-tops, in the depth of the
+woods, were scarred, split, and barked, as if the lightning had blasted
+them. Now passing a disabled wagon, now marking a dropped horseshoe, now
+turning a capsized ambulance, now regarding a perfect wilderness of old
+clothes, we emerged from the timber at last, and came to the place where
+I had slept on the eve of the battle. A hurricane had apparently swept
+the country here, and the fences had been transported bodily. Sometimes
+the ground looked, for limited areas, as if there had been a rain of
+kindling-wood; and there were furrows in the clay, like those made by
+some great mole which had ploughed into the bowels of the earth. All the
+tree boles were pierced and perforated, and boughs had been severed so
+that they littered the way. Cedar Creek ran merrily across what had been
+the road,--the waters limpid and cool as before,--and when I passed
+beyond, I entered the region of dead men. Some poisonous Upas had
+seemingly grown here, so that adventurers were prostrated by its
+exhalations. A tributary rivulet formed with the creek a triangular
+enclosure of ground, where most of the Federals had fallen. To the left
+of the road stood a cornfield; to the right a stubble-field, dotted with
+stone heaps: deep woods formed the background to these, and
+scrub-timber, irregularly disposed, the foreground. On the right of the
+stubble lay a great stretch of "barren," spotted with dwarf cedars, and
+on the left of the cornfield stood a white farm-house, with orchards and
+outbuildings; beyond, the creek had hollowed a ravine among the hills,
+and the far distance was bounded by the mountains on the Rapidan. In the
+immediate front, towered Cedar Mountain, with woods at its base; and
+the roadway in which I stood, lost itself a little way on in the mazes
+of the thicket. Looking down one of the rows of corn, I saw the first
+corpse--the hands flung stiffly back, the feet set stubbornly, the chin
+pointing upward, the features losing their sharpness, the skin
+blackening, the eyes great and white--
+
+    "A heap of death--a chaos of cold clay."
+
+Turning into the cornfield, we came upon one man with a spade, and
+another man lying at his feet. He was digging a grave, and when we
+paused to note the operation, he touched his cap:--
+
+"Pardner o' mine," he said, indicating the body; "him and I fit side by
+side, and we agreed, if it could be done, to bury each other. There
+ain't no sich man as that lost out o' the army, private or
+officer,--with all respect to you."
+
+It was a eulogy that sounded as if more deserved, because it was homely.
+There are some that I have read, much finer, but not as honest. At
+little distances we saw parties of ten or twenty, opening trenches, the
+tributary brook, only, dividing the Confederate and Federal fatigue
+parties. Close to this brook, in the cornfield, lay a fallen trunk of a
+tree, and four men sat upon it. Two of them wore gray uniforms, two wore
+blue. The latter were Gens. Roberts and Hartsuff of the Federal army.
+They were waiting for Gens. Stuart and Early, of the Confederate army:
+and the four were to define the period of the armistice. The men in gray
+were Major Hintham of Mississippi, and Lieut. Elliott Johnston of
+Maryland. Hintham was a lean, fiery, familiar man, who wore the uniform
+of several field-marshals. An ostrich feather was stuck in his soft hat
+and clasped by a silver star upon a black velvet ground. A golden cord
+formed his hat-band, and two tassels, as huge as those of drawing-room
+curtains, fell upon his back. His collar was plentifully embroidered as
+well as his coat-sleeves, and a black seam ran down his trousers. He
+wore spurs of prodigious size, and looked, in the main, like a tragedian
+about to appear upon the stage. The other man was young, stout, and good
+humored; and he talked sententiously, with a little vanity, but much
+courtesy. The Federals had nothing to say to these, they dealt only with
+equals in rank. It became a matter of professional ambition, now, to
+obtain the greatest amount of information from these Confederates,
+without appearing to depart from any conventionality of the armistice. I
+got along very well till Chitty came up, and his interrogatives were so
+pert and pointed that he very nearly spoiled the entire labor. Young
+Johnston was a Baltimorean, and wished his people to know something of
+him; he gave me a card, stated that he was one of Gen. Garnett's aids,
+and had opened the armistice, early in the day, by riding into the
+Federal lines with a flag of truce. By detachments, new bodies of
+Confederate officers joined us, most of them being young fellows in gray
+suits: and at length Gen. Early rode down the hillside and nodded his
+head to our party.
+
+It was the custom of our newspapers to publish, with its narrative of
+each battle, a plan of the field; and in furtherance of this object,
+having agreed to act for my absent friend, I moved a little way from the
+place of parley, and laying my paper on the pommel of my saddle
+proceeded to sketch the relative positions of road, brook, mountain, and
+woodland. While thus busily engaged, and congratulating myself upon the
+fine opportunities afforded me, a lithe, indurated, severe-looking
+horseman rode down the hill, and reining beside me, said--
+
+"Are you making a sketch of our position?"
+
+"Not for any military purpose."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For a newspaper engraving."
+
+"Umph!"
+
+The man rode past me to the log, and when I had finished my transcript,
+I resumed my place at the group. The new comer was Major General J. E.
+B. Stuart, one of the most famous cavalry leaders in the Confederate
+army. He was inquiring for General Hartsuff, with whom he had been a
+fellow-cadet at West Point; but the Federal General had strolled off,
+and in the interval Stuart entered into familiar converse with the
+party. He described the Confederate uniform to me, and laughed over some
+reminiscences of his raid around McClellan's army.
+
+"That performance gave me a Major-Generalcy, and my saddle cloth there,
+was sent from Baltimore as a reward, by a lady whom I never knew."
+
+Stuart exhibited what is known in America as "airiness," and evidently
+loved to talk of his prowess. Directly Gen. Hartsuff returned, and the
+forager rose, with a grim smile about his mouth--
+
+"Hartsuff, God bless you, how-de-do?"
+
+"Stuart, how are you?"
+
+They took a quiet turn together, speaking of old school-days, perhaps;
+and when they came back to the log, Surgeon Ball produced a bottle of
+whiskey, out of which all the Generals drank, wishing each other an
+early peace.
+
+"Here's hoping you may fall into our hands," said Stuart; "we'll treat
+you well at Richmond!"
+
+"The same to you!" said Hartsuff, and they all laughed.
+
+It was a strange scene,--this lull in the hurricane. Early was a North
+Carolinian, who lost nearly his whole brigade at Williamsburg. He wore a
+single star upon each shoulder, and in other respects resembled a homely
+farmer. He kept upon his horse, and had little to say. Crawford was gray
+and mistrustful, calmly measuring Stuart with his eye, as if he intended
+to challenge him in a few minutes. Hartsuff was fair and burly, with a
+boyish face, and seemed a little ill at ease. Stuart sat upon a log, in
+careless posture, working his jaw till the sandy gray beard brushed his
+chin and became twisted in his teeth. Around, on foot and on horse,
+lounged idle officers of both armies; and the little rill that trickled
+behind us was choked in places with corpses. A pleasanter meeting could
+not have been held, if this were a county training. The Surgeon told
+Gen. Stuart that some of his relatives lived near the Confederate
+Capital, and as the General knew them, he related trifling occurrences
+happening in their neighborhoods, so that the meeting took the form of a
+roadside gossip, and Stuart might have been a plain farmer jaunting home
+from market. The General, who was called "JEB" by his associates, so far
+relented finally as to give me leave to ride within the Confederate
+outer lines, and Lieut. Johnson accompanied me. The corpses lay at
+frequent points, and some of the wounded who had not been gathered up,
+remained at the spots where they had fallen. One of these, whose leg had
+been broken, was incapable of speaking, and could hardly be
+distinguished from the lifeless shapes around him. The number of those
+who had received their death wound on the edge of the brook, while in
+the act of leaping across was very great. I fancied that their faces
+retained the mingled ardor and agony of the endeavor and the pang. There
+seemed to be no system in the manner of interment, and many of the
+Federals had thrown down their shovels, and strolled across the
+boundary, to chaff and loiter with the "Butternuts." No one, whom I saw,
+exhibited any emotion at the strewn spectacles on every side, and the
+stories I had read of the stony-heartedness during the plague, were more
+than rivalled by these charnel realities. Already corruption was
+violating the "temples of the living God." The heat of the day and the
+general demoralizing influences of the climate, were making havoc with
+the shapely men of yesterday, and nature seemed hastening to reabsorb,
+and renew by her marvellous processes, what was now blistering and
+burdening her surface. Enough, however, of this. Satiated with the
+scenes of war, my ambition now was to extend my observations to the
+kingdoms of the Old World.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+The boy's vague dream of foreign adventure had passed away; my purpose
+was of a tamer and more practical cast; it was resolved to this problem:
+"How could I travel abroad and pay my expenses?"
+
+Evidently no money could be made by home correspondence. The new order
+of journals had no charity for fine moral descriptions of church
+steeples, ruined castles, and picture galleries; I knew too little of
+foreign politics to give the Republic its semi-weekly "sensation;" and
+exchange was too high at the depreciated value of currency to yield me
+even a tolerable reward. But might I not reverse the policy of the
+peripatetics, and, instead of turning my European experiences into
+American gold, make my knowledge of America a bill of credit for
+England?
+
+What capital had I for this essay? I was twenty-one years of age; the
+last three years of my minority had been passed among the newspapers; I
+knew indifferently well the distribution of parties, the theory of the
+Government, the personalities of public men, the causes of the great
+civil strife. And I had mounted to my saddle in the beginning of the
+war, and followed the armies of McClellan and Pope over their sanguinary
+battle-fields. The possibility thrilled me like a novel discovery, that
+the Old World might be willing to hear of the New, as I could depict it,
+fresh from the theatre of action. At great expense foreign
+correspondents had been sent to our shores, whose ignorance and
+confidence had led them into egregious blunders; for their travelling
+outlay merely, I would have guaranteed thrice the information, and my
+sanguine conceit half persuaded me that I could present it as
+acceptably. I did not wait to ponder upon this suggestion. The guns of
+the second action of Bull Run growled a farewell to me as I resigned my
+horse and equipments to a successor. With a trifle of money, I took
+passage on a steamer, and landed at Liverpool on the first of October,
+1862.
+
+Among my acquaintances upon the ship was a semi-literary adventurer from
+New England. I surmised that his funds were not more considerable than
+my own; and indeed, when he comprehended my plans, he confessed as much,
+and proposed to join enterprises with me.
+
+"Did you ever make a public lecture?" he asked.
+
+Now I had certain blushing recollections of having entertained a
+suburban congregation, long before, with didactic critiques upon Byron,
+Keats, and the popular poets. I replied, therefore, misgivingly, in the
+affirmative, and Hipp, the interrogator, exclaimed at once--
+
+"Let us make a lecturing tour in England, and divide the expenses and
+the work; you will describe the war, and I will act as your agent."
+
+With true Yankee persistence Hipp developed his idea, and I consented to
+try the experiment, though with grave scruples. It would require much
+nerve to talk to strange people upon an excitable topic; and a camp
+fever, which among other things I had gained on the Chickahominy, had
+enfeebled me to the last degree.
+
+However, I went to work at once, inditing the pages in a snug parlor of
+a modest Liverpool inn, while Hipp sounded the patrons and landlord as
+to the probable success of our adventure. Opinions differed; public
+lectures in the Old World had been generally gratuitous, except in rare
+cases, but the genial Irish proprietor of the _Post_ advised me to go on
+without hesitation.
+
+We selected for the initial night a Lancashire sea-side town, a summer
+resort for the people of Liverpool, and filled at that time with
+invalids and pleasure-seekers. Hipp, who was a sort of American
+Crichton, managed the business details with consummate tact. I was
+announced as the eye-witness and participator of a hundred actions,
+fresh from the bloodiest fields and still smelling of saltpetre. My
+horse had been shot as I carried a General's orders under the fire of a
+score of batteries, and I was connected with journals whose reputations
+were world-wide. Disease had compelled me to forsake the scenes of my
+heroism, and I had consented to enlighten the Lancashire public, through
+the solicitation of the nobility and gentry. Some of the latter had
+indeed honored the affair with their patronage.
+
+We secured the three village newspapers by writing them descriptive
+letters. The parish rector and the dissenting preachers were waited upon
+and presented with family tickets; while we placarded the town till it
+was scarcely recognizable to the oldest inhabitant.
+
+On the morning of the eventful day I arrived in the place. The best room
+of the best inn had been engaged for me, and waiters in white aprons,
+standing in rows, bowed me over the portal. The servant girls and
+gossips had fugitive peeps at me through the cracks of my door, and I
+felt for the first time all the oppressiveness of greatness. As I walked
+on the quay where the crowds were strolling, looking out upon the misty
+sea, at the donkeys on the beach, and at the fishing-smacks huddled
+under the far-reaching pier, I saw my name in huge letters borne on the
+banner of a bill-poster, and all the people stopping to read as they
+wound in and out among them.
+
+How few thought the thin, sallow young man, in wide breeches and
+square-toed boots, who shambled by them so shamefacedly, to be the
+veritable Mentor who had crossed the ocean for their benefit. Indeed,
+the embarrassing responsibility I had assumed now appeared to me in all
+its vividness.
+
+My confidence sensibly declined; my sensitiveness amounted to
+nervousness; I had half a mind to run away and leave the show entirely
+to Hipp. But when I saw that child of the Mayflower stolidly, shrewdly
+going about his business, working the wires like an old operator, making
+the largest amount of thunder from so small a cloud, I was rebuked of my
+faintheartedness. In truth, not the least of my misgivings was Hipp's
+extraordinary zeal. He gave the townsmen to understand that I was a
+prodigy of oratory, whose battle-sketches would harrow up their souls
+and thrill them like a martial summons. It brought the blush to my face
+to see him talking to knots of old men after the fashion of a town crier
+at a puppet-booth, and I wondered whether I occupied a more reputable
+rank, after all, than a strolling gymnast, giant, or dwarf.
+
+As the twilight came on my position became ludicrously unenviable. The
+lights in the town-hall were lit. I passed pallidly twice or thrice, and
+would have given half my fortune if the whole thing had been over. But
+the minutes went on; the interval diminished; I faced the crisis at last
+and entered the arena.
+
+There sat Hipp, taking money at the head of the stairs, with piles of
+tickets before him; and as he rose, gravely respectful, the janitor and
+some loiterers took off their hats while I passed. I entered the little
+bare dressing-room; my throat was parched as fever, my hands were hot
+and tremulous; I felt my heart sag. How the rumble of expectant feet in
+the audience-room shook me! I called myself a poltroon, and fingered my
+neck-tie, and smoothed my hair before the mirror. Another burst of
+impatient expectation made me start; I opened the door, and stood before
+my destiny.
+
+The place was about one third filled with a representative English
+audience, the males preponderating in number. They watched me intently
+as I mounted the steps of the rostrum and arranged my port-folio upon a
+musical tripod; then I seated myself for a moment, and tried to still
+the beating of my foolish heart.
+
+How strangely acute were my perceptions of everything before me! I
+looked from face to face and analyzed the expressions, counted the lines
+down the corduroy pantaloons, measured the heavily-shod English feet,
+numbered the rows of benches and the tubes of the chandeliers, and
+figured up the losing receipts from this unremunerative audience.
+
+Then I rose, coughed, held the house for the last time in severe review,
+and repeated--
+
+"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--A grand contest agitates America and the world.
+The people of the two sections of the great North American Republic,
+having progressed in harmony for almost a century, and become a
+formidable power among the nations, are now divided and at enmity; they
+have consecrated with blood their fairest fields, and built monuments of
+bones in their most beautiful valleys," etc.
+
+For perhaps five minutes everything went on smoothly. I was pleased with
+the clearness of my voice; then, as I referred to the origin of the war,
+and denounced the traitorous conspiracy to disrupt the republic, faint
+mutterings arose, amounting to interruptions at last. The sympathies of
+my audience were, in the main, with the secession. There were cheers and
+counter cheers; storms of "Hear, hear," and "No, no," until a certain
+youth, in a sort of legal monkey-jacket and with ponderously
+professional gold seals, so distinguished himself by exclamations that I
+singled him out as a mark for my bitterest periods.
+
+But while I was thus the main actor in this curious scene, a strange,
+startling consciousness grew apace upon me; the room was growing dark;
+my voice replied to me like a far, hollow echo; I knew--I knew that I
+was losing my consciousness--that I was about to faint! Words cannot
+describe my humiliation at this discovery. I set my lips hard and
+straightened my limbs; raised my voice to a shrill, defiant pitch, and
+struggled in the dimming horror to select my adversary in the
+monkey-jacket and overwhelm him with bitter apostrophes. In vain! The
+novelty, the excitement, the enervation of that long, consuming fever,
+mastered my overtaxed physique. I knew that, if I did not cease, I
+should fall senseless to the floor. Only in the last bitter instant did
+I confess my disability with the best grace I could assume.
+
+"My friends," I said, gaspingly, "this is my first appearance in your
+country, and I am but just convalescent; my head is a little weak. Will
+you kindly bear with me a moment while the janitor gets me a glass of
+water?"
+
+A hearty burst of applause took the sting from my mortification. A bald
+old gentleman in the front row gravely rose and said, "Let me send for a
+drop of brandy for our young guest." They waited patiently and kindly
+till my faintness passed away, and when I rose, a genuine English cheer
+shook the place.
+
+I often hear it again when, here in my own country, I would speak
+bitterly of Englishmen, and it softens the harshness of my condemnation.
+
+But I now addressed myself feverishly to my task, and my disgrace made
+me vehement and combative. I glared upon the individual in the
+monkey-jacket as if he had been Mr. Jefferson Davis himself, and read
+him a scathing indictment. The man in the monkey-jacket was not to be
+scathed. He retorted more frequently than before; he was guilty of the
+most hardy contempt of court. He was determined not to agree with me,
+and said so.
+
+"Sir," I exclaimed at last, "pray reserve your remarks till the end of
+the lecture, and you shall have the platform."
+
+"I shall be quite willing, I am sure," said the man in the monkey-jacket
+with imperturbable effrontery.
+
+Then, as I continued, the contest grew interesting; explosions of "No,
+no," were interrupted with volleys of "Ay, ay," from my adherents.
+Hipp, who had squared accounts, made all the applause in his power,
+standing in the main threshold, and the little auditory became a ringing
+arena, where we fought without flinching, standing foot to foot and
+drawing fire for fire. The man in the monkey-jacket broke his word:
+silence was not his forte; he hurled denials and counter-charges
+vociferously; he was full of gall and bitterness, and when I closed the
+last page and resumed my chair, he sprang from his place to claim the
+platform.
+
+"Stop," cried Hipp, in his hard nasal tone, striding forward; "you have
+interrupted the lecturer after giving your parole; we recall our
+promise, as you have not stood by yours. Janitor, put out the lights!"
+
+The bald old gentleman quietly rose. "In England," he said, "we give
+everybody fair play; tokens of assent and dissent are commonly made in
+all our public meetings; let us have a hearing for our townsman."
+
+"Certainly," I replied, giving him my hand at the top of the stairs,
+"nothing would afford me more pleasure."
+
+The man in the monkey-jacket then made a sweeping speech, full of loose
+charges against the Americans, and expressive of sympathy with the
+Rebellion; but, at the finishing, he proposed, as the sentiment of the
+meeting, a vote of thanks to me, which was amended by another to include
+himself. Many of the people shook hands with me at the door, and the
+bald old gentleman led me to his wife and daughter, whose benignities
+were almost parental.
+
+"Poor young man!" said the old lady; "a must take care of 'is 'ealth;
+will a come hoom wi' Tummas and me and drink a bit o' tea?"
+
+I strolled about the place for twenty-four hours on good terms with many
+townsmen, while Hipp, full of pluck and business, was posting me against
+all the dead walls of a farther village. Again and again I sketched the
+war-episodes I had followed, gaining fluency and confidence as by
+degrees my itinerant profession lost its novelty, but we as steadily
+lost money. The houses were invariably bad; we had the same fiery
+discussions every evening, but the same meagre receipts, and in every
+market town of northwestern Lancashire we buried a portion of our little
+capital, till once, after talking myself hoarse to a respectable
+audience of empty benches, Hipp and I looked blankly into each other's
+faces and silently put our last gold pieces upon the table. We were
+three thousand miles from home, and the possessors of ten sovereigns
+apiece. I reached out my hand with a pale smile:--
+
+"Old fellow," I said, "let us comfort ourselves by the assurance that we
+have deserved success. The time has come to say good by."
+
+"As you will," said Hipp: "it is all the fault of this pig-headed
+nation. Now I dare say if we had brought a panorama of the war along, it
+would have been a stunning success; but standing upon high literary and
+forensic ground, of course they can't appreciate us. Confound 'em!"
+
+I think that Hipp has since had but two notions,--the exhibition of that
+panorama, or, in the event of its failure, a declaration of war against
+the British people. He followed me to Liverpool, and bade me adieu at
+Birkenhead, I going Londonward with scarcely enough money to pay my
+passage, and he to start next day for Belfast, to lecture upon his own
+hook, or, failing (as he afterward did), to recross the Atlantic in the
+steerage of a ship.
+
+My feelings, as the train bore me steadily through the Welsh border, by
+the clustering smoke-stacks of Birmingham, by the castled tower of
+Warwick, and along the head waters of the Thames and Avon, were not of
+the most enthusiastic description. I had no money and no friends; I had
+sent to America for a remittance, but in the interval of six weeks
+required for a reply, must eat and drink and lodge, and London was wide
+and pitiless, even if I dared stoop to beg assistance.
+
+Let no young man be tempted to put the sea between his home and himself,
+how seductive soever be the experiences of book-makers and poetic
+pedestrians. One hour's contemplation of poverty in foreign lands will
+line the boy's face with the wrinkles of years, and burn into his soul
+that withering dependency which will rankle long after his privations
+are forgotten.
+
+In truth, my circumstances were so awkward that my very desperation kept
+me calm. I had a formal letter to one English publisher, but not any
+friendly line whatever to anybody; and as the possibilities of sickness,
+debt, enemies, came to mind, I felt that I was no longer the hero of a
+romance, but face to face with a hard, practical, terrible reality. It
+was night when I landed at the Paddington Station, and taking an omnibus
+for Charing Cross, watched the long lines of lamps on Oxford Street, and
+the glitter of the Haymarket theatres, and at last the hard plash of the
+fountains in Trafalgar Square, with the stony statues grouped so rigidly
+about the column to Nelson.
+
+I walked down Strand with my carpet-bag in my hands, through Fleet
+Street and under Temple Bar, till, weary at last from sheer exercise, I
+dropped into a little ale-house under a great, grinning lantern, which
+said, in the crisp tone of patronage, the one word, "beds." They put me
+under the tiles, with the chimney-stacks for my neighbors, and I lay
+awake all night meditating expedients for the morrow: so far from regret
+or foreboding, I longed for the daylight to come that I might commence
+my task, confident that I could not fail where so many had succeeded.
+They were, indeed, inspirations which looked in upon me at the dawn. The
+dome of St. Paul's guarding Paternoster Row, with Milton's school in the
+background, and hard by the Player's Court, where, in lieu of
+Shakespeare's company, the American presses of the _Times_ shook the
+kingdom and the continent. I thought of Johnson, as I passed Bolt Alley,
+of Chatterton at Shoe Lane, of Goldsmith as I put my foot upon his grave
+under the eaves of the Temple.
+
+The public has nothing to do with the sacrifices by which my private
+embarrassment received temporary relief. Though half the race of authors
+had been in similar straits, I would not, for all their success, undergo
+again such self-humiliation. It is enough to say that I obtained
+lodgings in Islington, close to the home of Charles Lamb, and near
+Irving's Canterbury tower; and that between writing articles on the
+American war, and strategic efforts to pay my board, two weeks of
+feverish loneliness drifted away.
+
+I made but one friend; a young Englishman of radical proclivities, who
+had passed some years in America among books and newspapers, and was now
+editing the foreign column of the _Illustrated London News_. He was a
+brave, needy fellow, full of heart, but burdened with a wife and
+children, and too honestly impolitic to gain money with his fine
+abilities by writing down his own unpopular sentiments. He helped me
+with advice and otherwise.
+
+"If you mean to work for the journals," he said, "I fear you will be
+disappointed. I have tried six years to get upon some daily London
+paper. The editorial positions are always filled; you know too little of
+the geography and society of the town to be a reporter, and such
+miscellaneous recollections of the war as you possess will not be
+available for a mere newspaper. But the magazines are always ready to
+purchase, if you can get access to them. In that quarter you might do
+well."
+
+I found that the serials to which my friend recommended me shared his
+own advanced sentiments, but were unfortunately without money. So I made
+my way to the counter of the Messrs. Chambers, and left for its junior
+partner an introductory note. The reply was to this effect. I violate no
+confidence, I think, in reproducing it:--
+
+     "SIR,--I shall be glad to see any friend of----, and may be
+     found," etc., etc. "I fear that articles upon the American war,
+     written by an American, will not, however, be acceptable in this
+     journal, as the public here take a widely different view of the
+     contest from that entertained in your own country, and the feeling
+     of horror is deepening fast."
+
+Undeterred by this frank avowal, I waited upon the publisher at the
+appointed time,--a fine, athletic, white-haired Scotchman, whose name is
+known where that of greater authors cannot reach, and who has written
+with his own hand as much as Dumas _père_. He met me with warm
+cordiality, rare to Englishmen, and when I said--
+
+"Sir, I do not wish the use of your paper to circulate my
+opinions,--only my experiences," he took me at once to his editor, and
+gave me a personal introduction. Fortunately I had brought with me a
+paper which I submitted on the spot; it was entitled, "Literature of the
+American War," collated from such campaign ballads as I could remember,
+eked out with my own, and strung together with explanatory and critical
+paragraphs. The third day following, I received this announcement in
+shockingly bad handwriting:--
+
+"D'r S'r,
+        "Y'r article will suit us.
+                                 "The ed. C. J."
+
+For every word in this communication, I afterward obtained a guinea. The
+money not being due till after the appearance of the article, I
+anticipated it with various sketches, stories, etc., all of which were
+largely fanciful or descriptive, and contained no paragraph which I wish
+to recall. In other directions, I was less successful. Of two daily
+journals to which I offered my services, one declined to answer my
+letter, and the other demanded a quarto of credentials.
+
+So I lived a fugitive existence, a practical illustration of Irving's
+"Poor Devil Author," looking as often into pastry-shop windows, testing
+all manner of cheap Pickwickian veal-pies, breakfasting upon a chop, and
+supping upon a herring in my suburban residence, but keeping up pluck
+and _chique_ so deceptively, that nobody in the place suspected me of
+poverty.
+
+I went for some American inventors, to a rifle ground, and explained to
+the Lords of the Admiralty the merits of a new projectile; wrote letters
+to all the Continental sovereigns for an itinerant and independent
+embassador, and was at last so poor that my only writing papers were a
+druggist's waste bill-heads. An article with no other "backing" than
+this was fortunate enough to stray into the _Cornhill Magazine_. I found
+that its proprietor kept a banking-house in Pall Mall, and doubtful of
+my welcome on Cornhill, ventured one day in my unique American
+costume,--slouched hat, wide garments, and squared-toed boots,--to send
+to him directly my card. He probably thought from its face that a
+relative of Mr. Mason's was about to open an extensive account with him.
+As it was, once admitted to his presence, he could not escape me. The
+manuscript lay in his hands before he fully comprehended my purpose. He
+was a fine specimen of the English publisher,--robust, ruddy,
+good-naturedly acute,--and as he said with a smile that he would waive
+routine and take charge of my copy, I knew that the same hands had
+fastened upon the crude pages of Jane Eyre, and the best labors of
+Hazlitt, Ruskin, Leigh Hunt, and Thackeray.
+
+Two more weary weeks elapsed; I found it pleasant to work, but very
+trying to wait. At the end my courage very nearly failed. I reached the
+era of self-accusation; to make myself forget myself I took long, ardent
+marches into the open country; followed the authors I had worshipped
+through the localities they had made reverend; lost myself in
+dreaminesses,--those precursors of death in the snow,--and wished myself
+back in the ranks of the North, to go down in the frenzy, rather than
+thus drag out a life of civil indigence, robbing at once my brains and
+my stomach.
+
+One morning, as I sat in my little Islington parlor, wishing that the
+chop I had just eaten had gone farther, and taking a melancholy
+inventory of the threadbare carpet and rheumatic chairs, the
+door-knocker fell; there were steps in the hall; my name was mentioned.
+
+A tall young gentleman approached me with a letter: I received him with
+a strange nervousness; was there any crime in my record, I asked
+fitfully, for which I had been traced to this obscure suburb for condign
+arrest and decapitation? Ha! ha! it was my heart, not my lips, that
+laughed. I could have cried out like Enoch Arden in his dying
+apostrophe:--
+
+               "A sail! a sail!
+    I am saved!"
+
+for the note, in the publisher's own handwriting, said this, and more:--
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--I shall be glad to send you fifteen guineas
+     immediately, in return for your article on General Pope's Campaign,
+     if the price will suit you."
+
+But I suppressed my enthusiasm. I spoke patronizingly to the young
+gentleman. Dr. Johnson, at the brewer's vendue, could not have been more
+learnedly sonorous.
+
+"You may say in return, sir, that the sum named will remunerate me."
+
+At the same time the instinct was intense to seize the youth by the
+throat, and tell him that if the remittance was delayed beyond the
+morning, I would have his heart's-blood! I should have liked to thrust
+him into the coal-hole as a hostage for its prompt arrival, or send one
+of his ears to the publishing house with a warning, after the manner of
+the Neapolitan brigands.
+
+That afternoon I walked all the way to Edmonton, over John Gilpin's
+route, and boldly invested two-pence in beer at the time-honored Bell
+Inn. I disdained to ride back upon the omnibus for the sum of
+threepence, but returned on foot the entire eight miles, and thought it
+only a league. Next day my check came duly to hand,--a very formidable
+check, with two pen-marks drawn across its face. I carried it to
+Threadneedle Street by the unfrequented routes, to avoid having my
+pockets picked, and presented it to the cashier, wondering if he knew me
+to be a foreign gentleman who had written for the _Cornhill Magazine_.
+The cashier looked rather contemptuous, I thought, being evidently a
+soulless character with no literary affinities.
+
+"Sir," he said, curtly, "this check is crossed."
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"We can't cash the check; it is crossed."
+
+"What do you mean by crossed?"
+
+"Just present it where you got it, and you will find out."
+
+The cashier regarded me as if I had offered a ticket of leave rather
+than an order for the considerable amount of seventy-five dollars. I
+left that banking-house a broken man, and stopped with a long, long face
+at a broker's to ask for an explanation.
+
+"Yesh, yesh," said the little man, whose German silver spectacles sat
+upon a bulbously Oriental nose; "ze monish ish never paid on a crossed
+shequc. If one hash a bank-account, you know, zat ish different. Ze
+gentleman who gif you dis shequc had no bishness to crosh it if you have
+no banker."
+
+I was too vain to go back to Cornhill and confess that I had neither
+purse nor purser; so I satisfied the broker that the affair was correct,
+and he cashed the bill for five shillings.
+
+That was the end of my necessities; money came from home, from this and
+that serial; my published articles were favorably noticed, and opened
+the market to me. Whatever I penned found sale; and some correspondence
+that I had leisure to fulfil for America brought me steady receipts.
+
+Had I been prudent with my means, and prompt to advantage myself of
+opportunities, I might have obtained access to the best literary
+society, and sold my compositions for correspondingly higher prices.
+Social standing in English literature is of equal consequence with
+genius. The poor Irish governess cannot find a publisher, but Lady
+Morgan takes both critics and readers by storm. A duchess's name on the
+title-page protects the fool in the letter-press; irreverent
+republicanism is not yet so great a respecter of persons. I was often
+invited out to dinner, and went to the expense of a dress-coat and kids,
+without which one passes the genteel British portal at his peril; but
+found that both the expense and the stateliness of "society" were
+onerous. In this department I had no perseverance; but when, one
+evening, I sat with the author of "Vanity Fair," in the concert rooms at
+Covent Garden, as Colonel Newcome and Clive had done before me, and took
+my beer and mutton with those kindly eyes measuring me through their
+spectacles, I felt that such grand companionship lifted me from the
+errantry of my career into the dignity of a renowned art.
+
+I moved my lodgings, after three months, to a pleasant square of the
+West End, where I had for associates, among others, several American
+artists. Strange men were they to be so far from home; but I have since
+found, that the poorer one is the farther he travels, and the majority
+of these were quite destitute. Two of them only had permanent
+employment; a few, now and then, sold a design to a magazine; the mass
+went out sketching to kill time, and trusted to Providence for dinner.
+But they were good fellows for the most part, kindly to one another, and
+meeting in their lodgings, where their tenure was uncertain, to score
+Millais, or praise Rosetti, or overwhelm Frith.
+
+My own life meantime passed smoothly. I had no rivals of my own
+nationality; though one expatriated person, whose name I have not heard,
+was writing a series of prejudiced articles for _Fraser_, which he
+signed "A White Republican." I thought him a very dirty white. One or
+two English travellers at the same time were making amusingly stupid
+notices of America in some of the second-rate monthlies; and Maxwell, a
+bustling Irishman, who owns _Temple Bar_, the _Saint James_, and
+_Sixpenny Magazine_, and some half dozen other serials, was employing a
+man to invent all varieties of rubbish upon a country which he had never
+beheld nor comprehended.
+
+After a few months the passages of the war with which I was cognizant
+lost their interest by reason of later occurrences. I found myself, so
+to speak, wedged out of the market by new literary importations. The
+enforcement of the draft brought to Europe many naturalized countrymen
+of mine, whose dislike of America was not lessened by their
+unceremonious mode of departure from it; and it is to these, the mass of
+whom are familiarly known in the journals of this country, that we owe
+the most insidious, because the best informed, detraction of us.
+_Macmillan's Magazine_ did us sterling service through the papers of
+Edward Dicey, the best literary _feuilletonist_ in England; and
+Professor Newman, J. Stuart Mill, and others, gave us the limited
+influence of the _Westminster Review_. The _Cornhill_ was neutral;
+_Chambers's_ respectfully inimical; _Bentley_ and _Colburn_
+antagonistically flat; Maxwell's tri-visaged publications grinningly
+abusive; _Good Words_ had neither good nor bad words for us; _Once a
+Week_ and _All the Year Round_ gave us a shot now and then. _Blackwood_
+and _Fraser_ disliked our form of Government, and all its
+manifestations. The rest of the reviews, as far as I could see, pitied
+and berated us pompously. It was more than once suggested to me to write
+an experimental paper upon the failure of republicanism; but I knew only
+one American--a New York correspondent--who lent himself to a systematic
+abuse of the Government which permitted him to reside in it. He obtained
+a newsboy's fame, and, I suspect, earned considerable. He is dead: let
+any who love him shorten his biography by three years.
+
+However, I at last concluded a book,--if I may so call what never
+resulted in a volume,--at which, from the first, I had been pegging
+away. I called it "The War Correspondent," and made it the literal
+record of my adventures in the saddle. When some six hundred MS. pages
+were done I sent it to a publisher; he politely sent it back. I
+forwarded it to a rival house; in this respect only both houses were
+agreed. Having some dim recollection of the early trials of authors I
+perseveringly gave that copy the freedom of the city; the verdict upon
+it was marvellously identical, but the manner of declension was always
+soothing. They separately advised me not to be content with one refusal,
+but to try some other house, though I came at last to think, by the
+regularity of its transit to and fro, that one house only had been its
+recipient from the first.
+
+At last, assured of its positive failure, I took what seemed to be the
+most philosophic course,--neither tossing it into the Thames, after the
+fashion of a famous novelist, nor littering my floor with its fragments,
+and dying amidst them like a _chiffonnier_ in his den: I cut the best
+paragraphs out of it, strung them together, and published it by separate
+articles in the serials. My name failed to be added to the British
+Museum Catalogue; but that circumstance is, at the present time, a
+matter of no regret whatever.
+
+When done with the war I took to story-writing, using many
+half-forgotten incidents of American police-reporting, of border
+warfare, of the development of civilization among the pioneers, of
+thraldom in the South, and the gold search on the Pacific. The majority
+of these travelled across the water, and were republished. And when
+America, in the garb of either fact or fiction, lost novelty, I entered
+the wide field of miscellaneous literature among a thousand competitors.
+
+An author's ticket to the British Museum Reading-room put the whole
+world so close around me that I could touch it everywhere. I never
+entered the noble rotunda of that vast collection without an emotion of
+littleness and awe. Lit only from the roof, it reminded me of the Roman
+Pantheon; and truly all the gods whom I had worshipped sat, not in
+statue, but in substance, along its radiating tables, or trod its
+noiseless floors. Half the literature of our language flows from thence.
+One may see at a glance grave naturalists knee-deep in ichthyological
+tomes, or buzzing over entomology; pale zealots copying Arabic
+characters, with the end to rebuild Bethlehem or the ruins of Mecca;
+biographers gloating over some rare original letter; periodical writers
+filching from two centuries ago for their next "new" article. The
+Marquis of Lansdowne is dead; you may see the _Times_ reporter yonder
+running down the events of his career. Poland is in arms again, and the
+clever compiler farther on means to make twenty pounds out of it by
+summing up her past risings and ruins. The bruisers King and Mace fought
+yesterday, and the plodding person close by from _Bell's Life_ is
+gleaning their antecedents. Half the _literati_ of our age do but like
+these bind the present to the past. A great library diminishes the
+number of thinkers; the grand fountains of philosophy and science ran
+before types were so facile or letters became a trade.
+
+The novelty of this life soon wore away, and I found myself the creature
+of no romance, but plodding along a prosy road with very practical
+people.
+
+I carried my MSS. into Paternoster Row like anybody's book-keeper, and
+accused the world of no particular ingratitude that it could not read my
+name with my articles, and that it gave itself no concern to discover
+me. Yet there was a private pleasure in the congeniality of my labor,
+and in the consciousness that I could float upon my quill even in this
+vast London sea. Once or twice my articles went across the Channel and
+returned in foreign dress. I wonder if I shall ever again feel the
+thrill of that first recognition of my offspring coming to my knee with
+their strange French prattle.
+
+I was not uniformly successful, but, if rejected, my MSS. were
+courteously returned, with a note from the editor. As a sample I give
+the following. The original is a lithographed fac-simile of the
+handwriting of Mr. Dickens, printed in blue ink, the date and the title
+of the manuscript being in another handwriting.
+
+     OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND."
+
+     A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+                     NO. 26 WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W. C.
+                                                 _January 27, 1863._
+
+
+ Mr. Charles Dickens begs to thank the writer of the paper entitled
+ "A Battle Sunday" for having done him the favor to offer it as a
+ contribution to these pages. He much regrets, however, that it is
+ not suited to the requirements of "All the Year Round."
+
+ The manuscript will be returned, under cover, if applied for as
+ above.
+
+The prices of miscellaneous articles in London are remunerative.
+Twenty-four shillings a magazine page is the common valuation: but
+specially interesting papers rate higher. Literature as a profession, in
+England, is more certain and more progressive than with us. It is not
+debased with the heavy leaven of journalism. Among the many serial
+publications of London, ability, tact, and industry should always find a
+liberal market. There is less of the vagrancy of letters,--Bohemianism,
+Mohicanism, or what not,--in London than in either New York or Paris.
+
+I think we have the cleverer fugitive writers in America, but those of
+England seemed to me to have more self-respect and conscientiousness.
+The soul of the scribe need never be in pledge if there are many
+masters.
+
+While a good writer in any department can find work across the water, I
+would advise no one to go abroad with this assurance solely. My
+success--if so that can be called which yielded me life, not
+profit--was circumstantial, and cannot be repeated. I should be loth to
+try it again upon purely literary merits.
+
+After nine months of experiment I bade the insular metropolis adieu, and
+returned no more. The Continent was close and beckoning; I heard the
+confusion of her tongues, and saw the shafts of her Gothic Babels
+probing the clouds, and for another year I roamed among her cities, as
+ardent and errant as when I went afield on my pony to win the spurs of a
+War Correspondent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+SPURS IN THE PICTURE GALLERIES.
+
+
+Florence, city of my delight! how do I thrill at the recollection of the
+asylum afforded me by thee in the Via Parione. The room was tiled, and
+cool, and high, and its single window looked out upon a real palace,
+where the family of Corsini, presided over by a porter in cocked hat and
+an exuberance of gold lace, gave me frequent glimpses of gauze dresses
+and glorious eyes, whose owners sometimes came to the casement to watch
+the poor little foreigner, writing so industriously.
+
+Every young traveller has two or three subjects of unrest. Mine were
+girls and art. The copyists in the galleries were more beautiful studies
+to me than the paintings. The next time I go to Europe, I shall take
+enough money along to give all the pretty ones an order; this will be an
+introduction, and I shall know how they live, and how much money they
+make, and what passions have heaved their beautiful bosoms, to make
+their slow, quiet lives forever haunted and longing.
+
+Love, love! There are only two grand, unsatiated passions, which keep us
+forever in freshness and fever,--love and art.
+
+In Italy I breathed the purest atmosphere; all the world was a
+landscape picture; all the skies were spilling blueness and crimson
+upon the mountains; all the faces were Madonnas; all the perspectives
+were storied architecture. Westward the star of Empire takes its way,
+but that of art shines steadily in the East. Thither look our American
+young men, no matter at which of its altars they make their
+devotions,--painting, sculpture, or architecture. And I, who had known
+some fondness for the pencil till lured into the wider, wilder field of
+letters, felt almost an artist's joy when I stood in the presence of
+those solemn masters whose works are inspired and imperishable, like
+religion.
+
+Having passed the first thrill and disappointment,--for pure art speaks
+only to the pure by intuition or initiation, and I was yet a novice,--my
+old newspaper curiosity revived to learn of the successful living rather
+than of the grand dead.
+
+Correspondents, like poets, are born, not made: the venerable
+associations around me--monuments, cloisters, palaces, the homes and
+graves of great men whom I revered, the aisles where every canvas bore a
+spell name--could not wean me from that old, reportorial habit of asking
+questions, peeping into private nooks, and making notes upon
+contemporary things, just as I had done for three years, in cities, on
+routes, on battle-fields. And as the old world seemed to me only a great
+art museum, I longed to look behind the tapestry at the Ghobelin
+weavers, pulling the beautiful threads.
+
+"Where dwell these gay and happy students, who quit our hard, bright
+skies, and land of angularities, to inhale the dews of these sedative
+mosses, and, by attrition with masterpieces, glean something of the
+spirit of the masters?"
+
+Straightway the faery realm opened to me, and two months of Italian
+rambling were spent in association with the folk I esteemed only less
+than my own exemplars.
+
+Art, in all ages, is the flowery way. No pursuit gives so great joy in
+the achieving, none achieved yields higher meed of competence,
+contentment, and repute. Its ambition is more genial and subdued than
+that of literature, its rivalry more courteous and exalting; its daily
+life should be pastoral and domestic, free from those feverish mutations
+and adventures which cross the incipient author, and it is forever
+surrounded by bright and beautiful objects which linger too long upon
+the eye to stir the mind to more than emulation.
+
+Is it harsh to say that artists have been too well rewarded, and
+thinkers and writers too ill? Vasari dines at the ducal table, while
+Galileo's pension is the rack; the mob which carries Cimabue's canvas in
+triumph, drives Dante into exile; Rubens is a king's ambassador, and
+Grotius is sent to jail; to Reynolds's levees, poor, bankrupt Goldsmith
+steals like an unwelcome guest, and Apelles's gold is paid to him in
+measures, while Homer, singing immortal lines, goes blind and begging.
+
+Art students take rank in Italy among the best of travellers, but
+Bohemianism in art is at one's peril. There are many wasted lives among
+the clever fellows who go abroad ostensibly for study. I recall Jimman,
+who was an expert with the pencil, and who colored with excellent
+discrimination. He went to Dusseldorf at first, and became known to
+Leutze, who praised his sketches. He began to associate at once with
+students and tipplers, and dissipated less by drinking than by talking.
+I have a theory that more men are lost to themselves and the age by a
+love of "gabbing" than by drinking. It is not hard to eschew cognac and
+claret, but there is no cure for "buzzing." There is a drunkenness of
+talk which takes possession of one, and Jimman would have had the
+_delirium tremens_ in a week, with nobody to listen to him. To my mind
+the Trappiste takes the severest of monastic vows.
+
+Jimman used to rise in the morning betimes, full of inflexible
+resolution. Having stretched his canvas, and carefully prepared his
+pigments, he went to breakfast, pondering great achievements. Here he
+fell in with a lot of Germans,--the most incurable race of gossipers in
+the world,--and while they discussed, in a learned way, every subject
+under the sun, the meal extended into the afternoon, and Jimman
+concluded that it was then too late to undertake anything. In this way
+his ambition burnt away, his money was squandered, he lost facility of
+manipulation, and came back to Paris at the age of twenty-eight, to
+pursue the same listless, garrulous existence; debts and grisettes,
+buzzing and brandy, the utterance of resolves which expired in the
+utterance, and Jimman finally became, perforce, a common apprentice to a
+moulder, that he might not entirely starve.
+
+I saw him, for the last time, in the Louvre, looking at Zurbaran's
+"Kneeling Monk."
+
+"Ah, Townsend," he said, "I might have done something like that. All my
+zeal is gone."
+
+And he began to chat in the same loose, familiar way. Dumbness and
+deafness would have been endowments rather than deprivations for him.
+
+I had rooms in Florence with Gypsum and Stagg. The former was a young,
+industrious fellow, of German descent, who worked hard, but not wisely.
+He spent half a year in copying a face by Paul Veronese, and the other
+half in sketching an old convent yard. But he did not visit, and an
+artist, to get orders and take rank, must be seen as well as be earnest.
+He need not be hail-fellow, but should keep well in the circle of
+respectable travellers; for these are to be his patrons, if he pleases
+them. Gypsum was over-modest and too conscientious; he had only a trifle
+of money, and was careless of his attire. So he disregarded society, and
+society forgot him. Therefore, at dawn, he betook himself to the old
+convent-yard, and stood at his easel bravely, never so unhappy as when
+one of the church's innumerable holy days arrived, for then he was
+forbidden to work upon the convent premises. With all his
+conscientiousness he received no orders; while Stagg, who was not more
+clever, proportioned to his longer experience, was befriended on every
+hand, because he went to the American chapel regularly and wore a
+dress-coat at the sociables.
+
+Stagg used the old studio of Buchanan Read, just off the Via Seragli.
+
+I stumbled upon him one morning, and saw more than I anticipated.
+
+A young, plump girl, without so much as a fig-leaf upon her, was posing
+before his easel, so motionless that she scarcely winked, one hand
+extended and clasping her loosened tresses, and bending upon one white
+and dimpled knee.
+
+She had the large dark eyes of the professional _modello_, and a bosom
+as ripe as Titian's Venus. Her feet were small, and her hands very white
+and beautiful. But of me she took no more notice than if I had been a
+bird alighting upon the window, or a mouse peeping at her from the edge
+of his knot-hole.
+
+Old Stagg, who was commonly grave as a clergyman, now and then left his
+easel to alter her position, and when he was done, she gathered up her
+clothes, which had lain in a heap on the floor, and took her few silver
+pieces with a "_Mille grazie, Signore!_" and went home to take dinner
+with her little brothers.
+
+A studio in Florence costs only fifteen or twenty francs a
+month,--seldom so much. There are a series of excellent ones in the same
+Via Seragli, in a very large dismantled convent. There is a well in the
+centre of its great courtyard, and innumerable ropes lead from it to the
+various high windows of the building, on which buckets of water are
+forever ascending. All this of which I speak refers to a year ago, when
+Florence was not a capital; doubtless, studios command more at present.
+
+The models at Florence were to me strange personages. There was a
+drawing-school which I sometimes attended, where one old woman kept
+three daughters, aged respectively twenty, seventeen, and thirteen
+years. They lived pretty much as they were born, and while they posed
+upon a high platform, the old woman took her seat near the door and
+looked on with grim satisfaction. She was very careful of their moral
+habits, but the second one she lost by an excess of greed. She resolved
+to make them useful by day, as well as by night, and put them to work at
+the studios of individual artists. But as no one artist wanted three
+models, the girls had to separate, and, out of the mother's vigilance,
+the second one, Orsolo, went to the atelier of a wicked and handsome
+fellow, and met with the usual romance of her class.
+
+The oldest girl, Luigia, married a man-model, and their nuptials must
+have been of a most prosaic character.
+
+Among the many men who thus stood for the artists, was one old fellow,
+tall, and bearded, and massively characterized, who used to remain
+motionless for hours; until he seemed to be dead. He had been a model in
+every stage of life, from childhood to the grave, and represented every
+subject from Garibaldi to Moses.
+
+The walks in and around Florence occupied all my Sabbaths. Stagg and I
+used to stroll up to Fiesole, by the villa where Boccaccio's party of
+story-tellers met, and look up old pictures in the village church; we
+measured the proportions of the chapel on the hill of Saint Miniato, and
+he endeavored in vain to imitate the hue of the light as it fell through
+the veined marble of Serravezza; we spent contemplative afternoons in
+the house of Michael Angelo, and went up to Vallambrosa, at the risk of
+our necks, to look at a Giotto no bigger than a tea-plate. In Florence
+there is enough out-of-door statuary to make one of the finest galleries
+in the world. The majesty of Donatello's "Saint George" arises before me
+when I would conceive of any noble humanity, and the sweep of Orgagna's
+great arches give me an idea of vastness like the sea; in the Pitti
+palace only giants should abide; the Campanile goes up to heaven as
+beautiful as Jacob's ladder, and in the perpetual twilight of the Duomo
+I was not of half the stature I believed when roaming under the loftier
+sky.
+
+I saw a jail in Florence, and it troubled me; who in that beautiful city
+could do a crime? How should old age, or bad passions, or sickness, or
+shame, exist in that limpid atmosphere, in the shadow of such
+architecture, in the presence of those pictures?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A CORRESPONDENT ONCE MORE.
+
+
+Again on the way to Washington! I have made the trip more than sixty
+times. I saw the Gunpowder Bridge in flames when Baltimore was in arms
+and the Capital cut off from the North. I saw from Perryville the State
+flag of Maryland waving at Havre de Grace across the Susquehanna. I saw
+at the Washington Navy Yard the blackened body of Ellsworth, manipulated
+by the surgeons. I moved through the city with McClellan's onward army
+toward the transports which were to carry it to the Peninsula. The awful
+tidings of the seven days' retreat came first through the Capital in my
+haversack, and before Stonewall Jackson fell upon the flank of Pope, I
+crossed the Long Bridge with the story of the disaster of Cedar
+Mountain. In like manner the crowning glory of Five Forks made me its
+earliest emissary, and the murder of the President brought me hot from
+Richmond to participate in the pursuit of Booth and chronicle his
+midnight expiation.
+
+Again am I on the way to the city of centralization, to paint by
+electricity the closing scenes of the conspirators, and, as I pass the
+Pennsylvania line, the recollection of those frequent pilgrimages--pray
+God this be the last!--comes upon me like the sequences of delirium.
+
+As I look abroad upon the thrifty fields and the rich glebe of the
+ploughman, I wonder if the revolutions of peace are not as sweeping and
+sudden as those of war. He who wrote the certain downfall of this
+Nation, did not keep his eye upon the steadily ascending dome of the
+capitol, nor remark, during the thunders of Gettysburg, the as energetic
+stroke of the pile-drivers upon the piers of the great Susquehanna
+bridge. We built while we desolated. No fatalist convert to Mohammed had
+so sure faith in the eternity of his institutions. More masonry has been
+laid along the border during the war than in any five previous years. We
+have finished the Treasury, raised the bronze gates on the Capitol,
+double-railed all the roads between New York and the Potomac, and gone
+on as if architecture were imperishable, while thrice the Rebels swept
+down toward the Relay.
+
+And we have done one strategic thing, which, I think, will compare with
+the passing of Vicksburg or the raid of Sherman; we have turned
+Philadelphia.
+
+This modern Pompeii used to be the stumbling-block on the great highway.
+It was to the direct Washington route what Hell-gate was to the Sound
+Channel. We were forbidden the right of way through it, on the ground
+that by retarding travel Philadelphia would gain trade, and had to cross
+the Delaware on a scow, or lay up in some inn over night. New Jerseymen,
+I hear, pray every morning for their daily stranger; Philadelphia has
+much sinned to entrap its daily customer. But Maillefert--by which name
+I designate the inevitable sledge which spares the grand and pulverizes
+the little--has built a road around the Quaker City. It is a very
+curious road, going by two hypothenuses of about fifteen miles to make a
+base of three or four, so that we lose an hour on the way to the
+Capital, all because of Philadelphia's overnight toil.
+
+The bridge at Perryville will be one of the staunchest upon our
+continent: the forts around Baltimore make the outlying landscapes
+scarcely recognizable to the returning Maryland Rebels. At last,--woe be
+the necessity! we have garrisoned our cities. The Relay House is the
+most picturesque spot between the two foci of the country. Wandering
+through the woods, I see the dirty blouses of the remnant of "the boys"
+and the old abatis on the height looks sunburnt and rusty; away through
+the gorge thunders the Baltimore and Ohio train, over what ruins and
+resurrections, torn up a hundred times, and as obstinately relaid, until
+all its engineers are veteran officers, and can stand fire both of the
+furnace and the musket. Everybody in the country is a veteran; the
+contractor, who ran his schooner of fodder past the Rebel batteries; the
+correspondent, whose lean horse slipped through the crevices of dropping
+shells; the teamster, who whipped his mule out of the mud-hole, while
+his ammunition wagon behind grew hot with the heaviness of battle; the
+old farmer, who took to his cellar while the fight raged in his
+chimneys, but ventured out between the bayonet charges to secure his
+fatted calf.
+
+Annapolis Junction has still the sterile guise of the campaign, where
+the hills are bare around the hospitals, and the railway taverns are
+whittled to skeletons. I have really seen whole houses, little more than
+shells, reduced to meagreness by the pocket-knife. The name of almost
+everybody on the continent is cut somewhere in the South; Virginia has
+more than enough names carved over her fireside altars to inscribe upon
+all her multitudinous graves.
+
+There are close to the city fine bits of landscape, where the fields dip
+gracefully into fertile basins, and rise in swells of tilled fields and
+orchard to some knoll, enthroning a porticoed home. Two years ago all
+these fields were quagmires, where stranded wheels and the carcasses of
+hybrids, looked as if a mud-geyser had opened near by. The grass has
+spread its covering, as the birds spread their leaves over the poor
+babes in the wood, and we walk we know not where, nor over what
+struggles, and shadows, and sorrows.
+
+I pity the army mule, though he never asked me for sympathy. Who ever
+loved a mule? You can love a lion, and make him lick your hand: some
+people love parrots, and owls; and I once knew a person who could catch
+black snakes and carry them lovingly in his bosom; but I never knew a
+beloved mule. Yet this war has been fought and won by hybrids. They have
+pulled us out of ruts and fed us, and starved for us. The mule is the
+great quartermaster. See him and his brethren yonder in
+corral,--miserable veterans of no particular race, slab-sided, and
+capable of holding ink between their ribs. They mounch, and mounch, and
+wear the same stolid eye which you have seen under the driver's lash,
+and in the vaulting moment of victory. No stunning receptions greet
+them, no cheers and banquets when Muley comes marching home; over at
+_Giesboro_ they come in crippled, die by the musket without a murmur,
+and are immediately boiled down and forgotten.
+
+I was once beaten by a rival correspondent upon a prominent battle, by
+riding a mule with my despatches. He walked into a mud-puddle just half
+way between the field and the post-office, and stopped there till
+morning.
+
+Here we are, at Washington. I have been in most of the cities of Europe:
+some of them have dirty suburbs, but the first impression of the Capitol
+City is dreary in the extreme; a number of the lost tribes have
+established booths contiguous to the terminus, wherein the filthiest
+people in the world eat the filthiest dishes; a man's sense of
+cleanliness vanishes when he enters the District of Columbia. I have
+been astonished to remark how greatness loses its stature here. Mr.
+Charles Sumner is a handsome man on Broadway or Beacon Street, but
+eating dinner at Thompson's, his shoulders seem to narrow and his fine
+face to grow commonplace.
+
+Above the squalid wideness of ungraded streets and the waste of shanties
+propped upon poles above abysses of vacant lots, where two drunken
+soldiers are pummelling each other, towers the marvellous dome with its
+airy genius firmly planted above, like the ruins of Palmyra above
+contemporary meanness. Moving up the streets, in dust and mud-puddle,
+you see shabbily ambitious churches, with wooden towers; hotels, the
+curbs whereof are speckled with human blemishes, sustaining like
+hip-shotten caryatides the sandstone-wooden columns. Within there is a
+pandemonium of legs in the air, and an agglomeration of saliva, ending
+with an impertinent clerk and two crescents of lazy waiters, who shy
+whisks, and are ambitious to run superfluous errands, for the warrant to
+rob you. Of people, you see squads; of residents, none. The public
+edifices have not picked their company, neither have the public
+functionaries. There is a quantity of vulgar statuary lying around,
+horses standing on their tails, and impossible Washingtons imbedded in
+arm-chairs; but the noble facade of the treasury always suggests to me
+Couture's great picture of the Decadence, where, under a pure colonnade,
+some tipplers are carousing. If we are to have statues at the Capital,
+let us make them with uplifted hands, and shame upon their grave,
+contemplative faces.
+
+Shall we ever make Washington the representative Capital of the country?
+
+Certainly all efforts to improve the site worthy of the seat of gigantic
+legislation have hitherto failed. The sword and the malaria have
+attacked it. Every year sees the President driven from his Mansion by
+pestilential vapors, and the sanitary condition of the city is
+extraordinarily bad. The carcasses of slain horses at Giesboro send
+their effluvia straight into Washington on the wind, and the "Island,"
+or that part of the city between the river and the canal, is dangerous
+almost all the year.
+
+Moreover, the entire river front of the city seems to be untenable,
+except for negroes; the Washington monument stands on the yielding plain
+in the rear of the Chief Magistrate's, a stunted ruin, finding no
+foundation; and much of the great Capital reserve near by, would be a
+dead weight, if any effort were made to dispose it of, as building lots.
+The small portion of Washington lying upon Capitol Hill, is the most
+salubrious and covetable; but it is a lonesome journey by night around
+the Capitol grounds to the city. The finest residences lie north of the
+President's house, but the number of these grows apace, and the quantity
+of capital invested in private real estate, remains almost stationary.
+
+We recall but two or three citizens of Washington who have spent their
+money on the spot where they have made it. Corcoran was the most
+generous; he erected a museum of art, and Government has made it a
+Commissary depot! But how few of the illustrious Senators, Chief
+Justices, Generals, etc., who draw their sustenance from the Capital,
+care a penny to decorate it? Compare the home of Governor Sprague on 6th
+Street, to his splendid mansion at Providence, or the Club House of the
+Secretary of State, to his place at Auburn. Washington has power, but it
+cannot attract. It is the solitary monarch, at whose feet all kneel, but
+by none beloved. Strangers repair to it, grow rich, and quit it with
+their earnings. Government works nobly to imitate the Palaces of the
+Cæsars, and the public edifices leave our municipal structures far
+beneath, but these marble and granite piles seem to mock the littleness
+of individual ambition. Two hotels have been built during the war, both
+of the caravansary class, but the city, for four years, has been
+miserably incompetent to entertain its guests, or to command their
+respect.
+
+Washington, to be a city, lacks three elements--commerce,
+representation, health; the environs are picturesque, and the new forts
+on the hill-tops little injure the landscape.
+
+But the question is not premature, whether Washington city will ever
+answer the purposes of a stable seat of government, and reflect the
+enterprise, patriotism, and taste of the American people.
+
+I have sometimes thought that these huge public buildings,--now
+inadequate to accommodate the machinery of the Government,--would, at
+some future day, be the nucleus of a great _lycee_, and that Washington
+would become the Padua of the Republic, its University and Louvre, while
+legislation and administration, despairing of giving dignity to the
+place, would depart for a more congenial locality.
+
+At any rate, the old Federal theory of a sylvan seat of government has
+failed.
+
+For a sequestered and virtuous retreat of legislation, we have
+corruption augmented by dirt, and business stagnation aggravated by
+disease. There are virtues in the town; but these must be searched for,
+and the vices are obvious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+FIVE FORKS.
+
+
+I commence my account on the battle-field, but must soon make the long
+and lonely ride to Humphrey's Station, where I shall continue it.
+
+I am sitting by Sheridan's camp-fire, on the spot he has just signalized
+by the most individual and complete victory of the war. All his veterans
+are around him, stooping by knots over the bright fagots, to talk
+together, or stretched upon the leaves of the forest, asleep, with the
+stains of powder yet upon their faces. There are dark masses of horses
+blackened into the gray background, and ambulances are creaking to and
+fro. I hear the sobs and howls of the weary, and note, afar off, among
+the pines, moving lights of burying parties, which are tumbling the
+slain into the trenches. A cowed and shivering silence has succeeded the
+late burst of drums, trumpets, and cannon; the dead are at rest; the
+captives are quiet; the good cause has won again, and I shall try to
+tell you how.
+
+Many months ago the Army of the Potomac stopped before Petersburg,
+driven out of its direct course to Richmond. It tried the Dutch Gap and
+the powder-ship, and shelled and shovelled till Sherman had cut five
+States in half, and only timid financiers, sutlers, and congressional
+excursionists paid the least attention to the armies on the James. We
+had fights without much purpose at our breastworks, and at Hatcher's
+Run, but the dashing achievements of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+overtopped all our dull infantry endeavors, and he shared with Sherman
+the entire applause of the country. No one knows but that behind these
+actors stood the invisible prompter, Grant; yet prompters, however
+assiduous, never divide applauses with the _dramatis personæ_; and
+therefore, when Sheridan, the other day, by one of those slashing
+adventures which hold us breathless, appeared on the Pamunkey and
+crossed the peninsula to City Point, even the armies of the Potomac and
+James were agitated. The _personnel_ of the man, not less than his
+renown, affected people. A very Punch of soldiers, a sort of Rip Van
+Winkle in regimentals, it astonished folks, that with so jolly and
+grotesque a guise, he held within him energies like lightning, the bolts
+of which had splintered the fairest parts of the border. But nobody
+credited General Sheridan with higher genius than activity; we expected
+to hear of him scouring the Carolina boundary, with the usual
+destruction of railways and mills, and therefore said at once that
+Sheridan would cut the great Southside road. But in this last chapter
+Sheridan must take rank as one of the finest military men of our
+century. The battle of "Five Forks" was, perhaps, the most ingeniously
+conceived and skilfully executed that we have ever had on this
+continent. It matches in secretiveness and shrewdness the cleverest
+efforts of Napoleon, and shows also much of that soldier's broadness of
+intellect and capacity for great occasions.
+
+Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horses' shoes before he was
+off, and after him much of our infantry also moved to the left. We
+passed our ancient breastworks at Hatcher's Run, and extended our lines
+southwestward till they touched Dinwiddie Court House, thirty miles from
+City Point. The Rebels fell back with but little skirmishing, until we
+faced northward and reached out toward their idolized Southside Railway;
+then they grew uneasy, and, as a hint of their opposition, fought us the
+sharp battle of Quaker Road on Thursday. Still, we reached farther and
+farther, marvelling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee always
+overmatched us at every point of attack; but on Friday we quitted our
+intrenchments on the Boydtown plank-road, and made a bold push for the
+White Oak road. This is one of the series of parallel public ways
+running east and west, south of the Southside, the Vaughan road being
+the first, the Boydtown plank-road the second, and the old Court-House
+road the third. It became evident to the Rebels that we had two direct
+objects in view: the severing of their railway, and the occupation of
+the "Five Forks." The latter is a magnificent strategic point. Five good
+roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered forest, three of
+them radiating to the railway, and their tributaries unlocking all the
+country. Farther south, their defences had been paltry, but they
+fortified this empty solitude as if it had been their capital. Upon its
+principal road, the "White Oak," aforenamed, they had a ditched
+breastwork with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching east and west
+three miles, and this was covered eastward and southeastward by
+rifle-pits, masked works, and felled timber; the bridges approaching it
+were broken; all the roads picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold to
+it averred. This point of "Five Forks" may be as much as eight miles
+from Dinwiddie Court House, four from the Southside road, and eighteen
+from Humphrey's, the nearest of our military railway stations. A crooked
+stream called Gravelly Run, which, with Hatcher's, forms Rowanty Creek,
+and goes off to feed the Chowan in North Carolina, rises near "Five
+Forks," and gives the name of Gravelly Run Church to a little Methodist
+meeting-house, built in the forest a mile distant. That meeting-house is
+a hospital to-night, running blood, and at "Five Forks" a victor's
+battle-flags are flying.
+
+The Fifth Army Corps of General Warren, has had all of the flank
+fighting of the week to do. It lost five or six hundred men in its
+victory of Thursday, and on Friday rested along the Boydtown plank-road,
+at the house of one Butler, chiefly, which is about seven miles from
+Five Forks. On Friday morning, General Ayres took the advance with one
+of its three divisions, and marched three-quarters of a mile beyond the
+plank-road, through a woody country, following the road, but crossing
+the ubiquitous Gravelly Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a
+mile and a half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a wood,
+with a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery of field-pieces
+to the right, mounted in a bastioned earthwork, and on the left the
+woods drew near, encircling a little farm-land and negro-buildings.
+General Ayres's skirmish-line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell
+back upon his main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway the
+enemy charged headlong, while their battery opened a cross fire, and
+their skirmishers on our left, creeping down through the woods, picked
+us off in flank. They charged with a whole division, making their
+memorable yell, and soon doubled up Ayres's line of battle, so that it
+was forced in tolerable disorder back upon General Crawford, who
+commanded the next division. Crawford's men do not seem to have
+retrieved the character of their predecessors, but made a feint to go
+in, and, falling by dozens beneath the murderous fire, gave up the
+ground. Griffin's division, past which the fugitives ran, halted awhile
+before taking the doubtful way; the whole corps was now back to the
+Boydtown plank-road, and nothing had been done to anybody's credit
+particularly.
+
+General Griffin rode up to General Chamberlain in this extremity.
+Chamberlain is a young and anxious officer, who resigned the
+professorship of modern languages in Bowdoin College to embrace a
+soldier's career. He had been wounded the day before, but was zealous to
+try death again.
+
+"Chamberlain," said Griffin, "can't you save the honor of the Fifth
+corps?"
+
+The young General formed his men at once,--they had tasted powder
+before,--the One Hundred and eighty-fifth New York and the One Hundred
+and ninety-eighth Pennsylvania. Down they went into the creek waist
+deep, up the slope and into the clearing, muskets to the left of them,
+muskets in front of them, cannon to the right of them; but their pace
+was swift, like their resolve; many of them were cut down, yet they kept
+ahead, and the Rebels, who seemed astonished at their own previous
+success, drew off and gave up the field. Almost two hours had elapsed
+between the loss and the recovery of the ground. The battle might be
+called Dabney's Farm, or more generally the fight of Gravelly Run. The
+brigades of Generals Bartlett and Gregory rendered material assistance
+in the pleasanter finale of the day. An order was soon after issued to
+hasten the burial of the dead and quit the spot, but Chamberlain
+petitioned for leave to charge the Rebel earthwork in the rear, and the
+enthusiasm of his brigade bore down General Warren's more prudent doubt.
+In brief, Griffin's division charged the fort, drove the Rebels out of
+it, and took position on the White Oak road, far east of Five Forks.
+While Griffin's division must be credited with this result, it may be
+said that their luck was due as much to the time as the manner of their
+appearance; the Rebel divisions of Pickett and Bushrod Johnston were, in
+the main, by the time Griffin came up, on their way westward to attack
+Sheridan's cavalry. Ayres and Crawford had charged as one to four, but
+the forces were quite equalized when Chamberlain pushed on. The corps
+probably lost twelve hundred men. In this action, the Rebels, for the
+first time for many weeks, exhibited all their traditional
+irresistibility and confidence. The merit of the affair, I am inclined
+to think, should be awarded to them; but a terrible retribution remained
+for them in the succeeding day's decrees.
+
+The ill success of the earlier efforts of Sheridan, show conclusively
+the insufficiency of ever so good cavalry to resist well organized and
+resolute infantry. Concentrating at Dinwiddie Court House, he proceeded
+to scour so much of the country that he almost baffled conjecture as to
+where his quarters really were. As many thousand cavalry as constitute
+his powerful force seem magnified, thus mounted and ever moving here and
+there, to an incredible number. The Court House, where he remained
+fittingly for a couple of days, is a cross-road's patch, numbering about
+twelve scattered buildings, with a delightful prospect on every side of
+sterile and monotonous pines. This is, I believe, the largest village in
+the district, though Dinwiddie stands fourth in population among
+Virginia counties. At present there is almost as great a population
+underground as the ancient county carried on its census. Indeed, one is
+perplexed at every point to know whence the South draws its prodigious
+armies. Some English officers have been visiting Dinwiddie during the
+week, and one of them said, curtly: "Blast the country! it isn't worth
+such a row, you know. A very good place to be exiled, to be sure, but
+what can you ever make of it!"
+
+This soulless Briton had never read any of the poems about the
+"boundless continent," and had no distinct conception of "size."
+
+From Dinwiddie fields, Sheridan's men went galloping, by the aid of maps
+and cross-examination, into every by-road; but it was soon apparent that
+the Rebel infantry meant to give them a push. This came about on Friday,
+with a foretaste on Thursday.
+
+Little Five Forks, is a cross-road not far from Dinwiddie Court House,
+in the direction of Petersburg. Big Five Forks, which, it must be borne
+in mind, gives name to the great battle of Saturday, is farther out by
+many miles, and does not lie within our lines. But, if the left of the
+army be at Dinwiddie, and the right at Petersburg, Little Five Forks
+will be first on the front line, though when Sheridan fought there, it
+was neutral ground, picketed but not possessed. Very early in the week,
+when the Rebels became aware of the extension of our lines, they added
+to the regular force which encamped upon our flank line at least a
+division of troops. These were directed to avoid an infantry fight, but
+to seek out the cavalry, and, by getting it at disadvantage, rid the
+region both of the harmfulness of Sheridan, and that prestige of his
+name, so terrifying to the Virginia house-wife. So long as Sheridan
+remained upon the far left, the Southside road was unsafe, and the
+rapidity with which his command could be transferred from point to point
+rendered it a formidable balance of power. The Rebels knew the country
+well, and the peculiar course of the highways gave them every advantage.
+The cavalry of Sheridan's army proper, is divided into two corps,
+commanded by Generals Devin and Custer; the cavalry of the Potomac is
+commanded by General Crook; Mackenzie has control of the cavalry of the
+James. On Friday, these were under separate orders, and the result was
+confusion. The infantry was beaten at Gravelly Run, and the cavalry met
+in flank and front by overwhelming numbers, executed some movements not
+laid down in the manual. The centre of the battle was Little Five Forks,
+though the Rebels struck us closer to Dinwiddie Court House, and drove
+us pell mell up the road into the woods, and out the old Court House
+road to Gravelly Run. We rallied several times, and charged them into
+the woods, but they lay concealed in copses, and could go where sabres
+were useless. The plan of this battle-field will show a series of
+irregular advances to puzzle anybody but a cavalry-man. The full
+division of Bushrod Johnston and General Pickett, were developed against
+us, with spare brigades from other corps. Our cavalry loss during the
+day was eight hundred in killed and wounded; but we pushed the Rebels so
+hard that they gave us the field, falling back toward Big Five Forks,
+and we intrenched immediately. Two thousand men comprise our losses of
+Friday in Warren's corps and Sheridan's command, including many valuable
+officers. We shall see how, under a single guidance, splendid results
+were next day obtained with half the sacrifice.
+
+On Friday night General Grant, dissatisfied, like most observers, with
+the day's business, placed General Sheridan in the supreme command of
+the whole of Warren's corps and all the cavalry. General Warren reported
+to him at nightfall, and the little army was thus composed:--
+
+_General Sheridan's Forces, Saturday April 1, 1865._
+
+Three divisions of infantry, under Generals Griffin, Ayres, and
+Crawford.
+
+Two divisions of cavalry, formerly constituting the Army of the
+Shenandoah, now commanded by General Merritt, under Generals Devin and
+Custer.
+
+One division cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, under General Crook.
+
+Brigade or more cavalry Army of the James, under General Mackenzie.
+
+In this composition the infantry was to the cavalry in the proportion of
+about two to one, and the entire force a considerable army, far up in
+the teens. Sheridan was absolute, and his oddly-shaped body began to bob
+up and down straightway; he visited every part of his line, though it
+stretched from Dinwiddie Court House to the Quaker road, along the
+Boydtown Plank and its adjuncts. At daybreak on Saturday he fired four
+signal-guns, to admonish Warren he was off; and his cavalry, by
+diverging roads, struck their camps. Just south of Culpepper is a
+certain Stony creek, the tributaries to which wind northward and control
+the roads. Over Stony creek went Crook, making the longest detour.
+Custer took a bottom called Chamberlain's bed; and Devin advanced from
+Little Five Forks, the whole driving the Rebels toward the left of their
+works on White Oak road.
+
+We must start with the supposition that our own men far outnumbered the
+Rebels. The latter were widely separated from their comrades before
+Petersburg, and the adjustment of our infantry as well as the great
+movable force at Sheridan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they
+could have returned. At any rate they did not do so, whether from choice
+or necessity, and it was a part of our scheme to push them back into
+their entrenchments. This work was delegated to the cavalry entirely,
+but, as I have said before, mounted carbineers, are no match for
+stubborn, bayoneted infantry. So when the horsemen were close up to the
+Rebels, they were dismounted, and acted as infantry to all intents. A
+portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie, still adhered to the saddle,
+that they might be put in rapid motion for flanking and charging
+purposes; but fully five thousand indurated men, who had seen service in
+the Shenandoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of battle on foot, and
+by charge and deploy essayed the difficult work of pressing back the
+entire Rebel column. This they were to do so evenly and ingeniously,
+that the Rebels should go no farther than their works, either to escape
+eastward or to discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were
+already forming. Had they espied the latter they might have become so
+discouraged as to break and take to the woods; and Sheridan's object was
+to capture them as well as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the
+cavalry pushed them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and
+terrifically. I have no space in this hurried despatch to advert either
+to individual losses or to the many thrilling episodes of the fight. It
+was fought at so close quarters that our carbines were never out of
+range; for had this been otherwise, the long rifles of the enemy would
+have given them every advantage. With their horses within call, the
+cavalry-men, in line of battle, stood together like walls of stone,
+swelling onward like those gradually elevating ridges of which Lyell
+speaks. Now and then a detachment of Rebels would charge down upon us,
+swaying the lines and threatening to annihilate us; for at no part of
+the action, till its crisis, did the Southern men exhibit either doubt
+or dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant treason the
+world has ever had, and here and there showing some of those wonderful
+feats of individual courage which are the miracles of the time.
+
+A colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a charge. The
+bayonets were fixed; the men came on with a yell; their gray uniforms
+seemed black amidst the smoke; their preserved colors, torn by grape and
+ball, waved yet defiantly; twice they halted, and poured in volleys, but
+came on again like the surge from the fog, depleted, but determined;
+yet, in the hot faces of the carbineers, they read a purpose as
+resolute, but more calm, and, while they pressed along, swept all the
+while by scathing volleys, a group of horsemen took them in flank. It
+was an awful instant; the horses recoiled; the charging column trembled
+like a single thing, but at once the Rebels, with rare organization,
+fell into a hollow square, and with solid sheets of steel defied our
+centaurs. The horsemen rode around them in vain; no charge could break
+the shining squares, until our dismounted carbineers poured in their
+volleys afresh, making gaps in the spent ranks, and then in their
+wavering time the cavalry thundered down. The Rebels could stand no
+more; they reeled and swayed, and fell back broken and beaten. And on
+the ground their colonel lay, sealing his devotion with his life.
+
+Through wood and brake and swamp, across field and trench, we pushed the
+fighting defenders steadily. For a part of the time, Sheridan himself
+was there, short and broad, and active, waving his hat, giving orders,
+seldom out of fire, but never stationary, and close by fell the long
+yellow locks of Custer, sabre extended, fighting like a Viking, though
+he was worn and haggard with much work. At four o'clock the Rebels were
+behind their wooden walls at Five Forks, and still the cavalry pressed
+them hard, in feint rather than solemn effort, while a battalion
+dismounted, charged squarely upon the face of their breastworks which
+lay in the main on the north side of the White Oak road. Then, while the
+cavalry worked round toward the rear, the infantry of Warren, though
+commanded by Sheridan, prepared to take part in the battle.
+
+The genius of Sheridan's movement lay in his disposition of the
+infantry. The skill with which he arranged it, and the difficult
+manoeuvres he projected and so well executed, should place him as high
+in infantry tactics as he has heretofore shown himself superior in
+cavalry. The infantry which had marched at 2½ P. M. from the house of
+Boisseau, on the Boydtown plank-road, was drawn up in four battle lines,
+a mile or more in length, and in the beginning facing the White Oak road
+obliquely; the left or pivot was the division of General Ayres, Crawford
+had the center and Griffin the right. These advanced from the Boydtown
+plank-road, at ten o'clock, while Sheridan was thundering away with the
+cavalry, mounted and dismounted, and deluding the Rebels with the idea
+that he was the sole attacking party; they lay concealed in the woods
+behind the Gravelly Run meeting-house, but their left was not a
+half-mile distant from the Rebel works, though their right reached so
+far off that a novice would have criticized the position sharply. Little
+by little, Sheridan, extending his lines, drove the whole Rebel force
+into their breastworks; then he dismounted the mass of his cavalry and
+charged the works straight in the front, still thundering on their
+flank. At last, every Rebel was safe behind his intrenchments. Then the
+signal was given, and the concealed infantry, many thousand strong,
+sprang up and advanced by eçhelon to the right. Imagine a great barndoor
+shutting to, and you have the movement, if you can also imagine the door
+itself, hinge and all, moving forward also. This was the door:--
+
+     AYRES--CRAWFORD--GRIFFIN.
+
+Stick a pin through Ayres and turn Griffin and Crawford forward as you
+would a spoke in a wheel, but move your pin up also a very little. In
+this way Ayres will advance, say half a mile, and Griffin, to describe a
+quarter revolution, will move through a radius of four miles. But to
+complicate this movement by eçhelon, we must imagine the right when half
+way advanced cutting across the centre and reforming, while Crawford
+became the right and Griffin the middle of the line of battle. Warren
+was with Crawford on this march. Gregory commanded the skirmishers.
+Ayres was so close to the Rebel left that he might be said to hinge upon
+it; and at 6 o'clock the whole corps column came crash upon the full
+flank of the astonished Rebels. Now came the pitch of the battle.
+
+We were already on the Rebel right in force, and thinly in their rear.
+Our carbineers were making feint to charge in direct front, and our
+infantry, four deep, hemmed in their entire left. All this they did not
+for an instant note, so thorough was their confusion; but seeing it
+directly, they, so far from giving up, concentrated all their energy and
+fought like fiends. They had a battery in position, which belched
+incessantly, and over the breastworks their musketry made one unbroken
+roll, while against Sheridan's prowlers on their left, by skirmish and
+sortie, they stuck to their sinking fortunes, so as to win unwilling
+applause from mouths of wisest censure.
+
+It was just at the coming up of the infantry that Sheridan's little band
+was pushed the hardest. At one time, indeed, they seemed about to
+undergo extermination; not that they wavered, but that they were so
+vastly overpowered. It will remain to the latest time a matter of marvel
+that so paltry a cavalry force could press back sixteen thousand
+infantry; but when the infantry blew like a great barndoor--the simile
+best applicable--upon the enemy's left, the victory that was to come had
+passed the region of strategy and resolved to an affair of personal
+courage. We had met the enemy; were they to be ours? To expedite this
+consummation every officer fought as if he were the forlorn hope.
+Mounted on his black pony, the same which he rode at Winchester,
+Sheridan galloped everywhere, his flushed face all the redder, and his
+plethoric, but nervous figure all the more ubiquitous. He galloped once
+straight down the Rebel front, with but a handful of his staff. A dozen
+bullets whistled for him together; one grazed his arm, at which a
+faithful orderly rode; the black pony leaped high, in fright, and
+Sheridan was untouched, but the orderly lay dead in the field, and the
+saddle dashed afar empty. General Warren rode with Crawford most of the
+afternoon, mounted likewise, and making two or three narrow escapes. He
+was dark, dashing, and individual as ever, but for some reason or other
+was relieved of his command after the battle, and Griffin was instated
+in his place. General Sheridan ordered Warren to report to General
+Grant's head-quarters, sending the order by an aid. Warren, on his own
+hook, did not meet on Friday with his general success, and on Saturday
+Sheridan was the master-spirit; but Warren is a General as well as a
+gentleman, and is only overshadowed by a greater genius,--not
+obliterated. Ayres, accounted the best soldier in the Fifth corps, but
+too quietly modest for his own favor, fought like a lion in this pitch
+of battle, making all the faint-hearted around him ashamed to do ill
+with such an example contiguous. General Bartlett, keen-faced and active
+like a fiery scimitar, was leading his division as if he were an
+immortal! He was closest at hand in the most gallant episodes, and held
+at nightfall a bundle of captured battle-flags. But Griffin, tall and
+slight, was the master-genius of the Fifth corps, to which by right he
+has temporarily succeeded. He led the charge on the flank, and was the
+first to mount the parapet with his horse, riding over the gunners as
+May did at Cerro Gordo, and cutting them down. Bartlett's brigade,
+behind him, finished the business, and the last cannon was fired for the
+day against the conquering Federals. General Crawford fulfilled his
+full share of duties throughout the day, amply sustained by such
+splendid brigade commanders as Baxter, Coulter, and Kellogg, while Gwin
+and Boweryman were at hand in the division of General Ayres; not to omit
+the fallen Winthrop, who died to save a friend and win a new laurel.
+What shall I say for Chamberlain, who, beyond all question, is the first
+of our brigade commanders, having been the hero of both Quaker Road and
+Gravelly Run, and in this action of Five Forks making the air ring with
+the applauding huzzas of his soldiers, who love him? His is one of the
+names that will survive the common wreck of shoulder-straps after the
+war.
+
+But I am individualizing; the fight, as we closed upon the Rebels, was
+singularly free from great losses on our side, though desperate as any
+contest ever fought on the continent. One prolonged roar of rifle shook
+the afternoon; we carried no artillery, and the Rebel battery, until its
+capture, raked us like an irrepressible demon, and at every foot of the
+intrenchments a true man fought both in front and behind. The birds of
+the forest fled afar; the smoke ascended to heaven; locked in so mad
+frenzy, none saw the sequel of the closing day. Now Richmond rocked in
+her high towers to watch the impending issue, but soon the day began to
+look gray, and a pale moon came tremulously out to watch the meeting
+squadrons. Imagine along a line of a full mile, thirty thousand men
+struggling for life and prestige; the woods gathering about them--but
+yesterday the home of hermit hawks and chipmonks--now ablaze with
+bursting shells, and showing in the dusk the curl of flames in the
+tangled grass, and, rising up the boles of the pine trees, the scaling,
+scorching tongues. Seven hours this terrible spectacle had been enacted,
+but the finale of it had almost come.
+
+It was by all accounts in this hour of victory when the modest and brave
+General Winthrop of the first brigade, Ayres division, was mortally
+wounded. He was riding along the breastworks, and in the act as I am
+assured, of saving a friend's life, was shot through to the left lung.
+He fell at once, and his men, who loved him, gathered around and took
+him tenderly to the rear, where he died before the stretcher on which he
+lay could be deposited beside the meeting-house door. On the way from
+the field to the hospital he wandered in mind at times, crying out,
+"Captain Weaver how is that line? Has the attack succeeded?" etc. When
+he had been resuscitated for a pause he said: "Doctor, I am done for."
+His last words were: "Straighten the line!" And he died peacefully. He
+was a cousin of Major Winthrop, the author of "Cecil Dreeme." He was
+twenty-seven years of age. I had talked with him before going into
+action, as he sat at the side of General Ayres, and was permitted by the
+guard of honor to uncover his face and look upon it. He was pale and
+beautiful, marble rather than corpse, and the uniform cut away from his
+bosom showed how white and fresh was the body, so pulseless now.
+
+General Griffin said to me: "This victory is not worth Winthrop's life."
+
+Winthrop went into the service as a simple color-bearer. He died a
+brevet brigadier.
+
+At seven o'clock the Rebels came to the conclusion that they were
+outflanked and whipped. They had been so busily engaged that they were a
+long time finding out how desperate were their circumstances; but now,
+wearied with persistent assaults in front, they fell back to the left,
+only to see four close lines of battle waiting to drive them across the
+field, decimated. At the right the horsemen charged them in their vain
+attempt to fight "out," and in the rear straggling foot and cavalry
+began also to assemble; slant fire, cross fire, and direct fire, by file
+and volley rolled in perpetually, cutting down their bravest officers
+and strewing the fields with bleeding men; groans resounded in the
+intervals of exploding powder, and to add to their terror and despair,
+their own artillery, captured from them, threw into their own ranks,
+from its old position, ungrateful grape and canister, enfilading their
+breastworks, whizzing and plunging by air line and ricochet, and at last
+bodies of cavalry fairly mounted their intrenchments, and charged down
+the parapet, slashing and trampling them, and producing inexplicable
+confusion. They had no commanders, at least no orders, and looked in
+vain for some guiding hand to lead them out of a toil into which they
+had fallen so bravely and so blindly. A few more volleys, a new and
+irresistible charge, a shrill and warning command to die or surrender,
+and, with a sullen and tearful impulse, five thousand muskets are flung
+upon the ground, and five thousand hot, exhausted, and impotent men are
+Sheridan's prisoners of war.
+
+Acting with his usual decision, Sheridan placed his captives in care of
+a provost-guard, and sent them at once to the rear. Those which escaped,
+he ordered the fiery Custer to pursue with brand and vengeance; and they
+were pressed far into the desolate forest, spent and hungry, many
+falling by the way of wounds or exhaustion, many pressed down by hoof or
+sabre-stroke, and many picked up in mercy and sent back to rejoin their
+brethren in bonds. We captured in all fully six thousand prisoners.
+General Sheridan estimated them modestly at five thousand, but the
+provost-marshal assured me that he had a line four abreast a full mile
+long. I entirely bear him out, having ridden for forty minutes in a
+direction opposite to that they were taking, and growing weary at last
+of counting or of seeing them. They were fine, hearty fellows, almost
+all Virginians, and seemed to take their capture not unkindly. They wore
+the gray and not very attractive uniform of the Confederacy, but looked
+to be warm and fat, and passing along in the night, under the fir-trees,
+conveyed at most a romantic idea of grief and tribulation. They were put
+in a huge pen, midway between Big and Little Five Forks, for the night,
+the officers sharing the same fare with the soldiers, from whom,
+indeed, they were undistinguishable.
+
+Thus ended the splendid victory of Five Forks, the least bloody to us,
+but the most successful, proportionate to numbers engaged, that has been
+fought during the war. One man out of every three engaged took a
+prisoner. We captured four cannon, an ambulance train and baggage-teams,
+eight thousand muskets, and twenty-eight battle-flags. General
+Longstreet, it is thought, commanded. Neither he nor Pickett nor Bushrod
+Johnston, division commanders, were taken; they were wise enough to see
+that the day was lost, and imitated Bonaparte after Waterloo.
+
+I attribute this victory almost entirely to Sheridan; it was won by
+strategy and persistence, and in great part by men who would not stand
+fire the day before. The happy distribution of duties between cavalry
+and infantry excited a fine rivalry, and the consciousness of Sheridan's
+guidance inspired confidence. Has any battle so successful ever been
+fought in Virginia? or, indeed, in the East? I think not. It has opened
+to us the enemy's flank, so that we can sweep down upon the Appomattox
+and inside of his breastworks, enabling us to shorten our lines of
+intrenchments one half, if no more, and putting out of Lee's service
+fifteen thousand of his choicest troops. And all this, General Sheridan
+tells me, has cost him personally no more than eight hundred men, and
+the service no more than fifteen hundred. Compare this with
+Chancellorsville, Williamsburg, the Wilderness, Bull Run, and what shall
+we say? The enemy must have lost in this fight three thousand in killed
+and wounded.
+
+The scene at Gravelly Run meeting-house at 8 and at 10 o'clock on
+Saturday night, is one of the solemn contrasts of the war, and, I hope,
+the last of them. A little frame church, planted among the pines, and
+painted white, with cool, green window-shutters, holds at its foot a
+gallery for the negroes, and at the head a varnished pulpit. I found
+its pews moved to the green plain over the threshold, and on its bare
+floors the screaming wounded. Blood ran in little rills across the
+planks, and, human feet treading in them, had made indelible prints in
+every direction; the pulpit-lamps were doing duty, not to shed holy
+light upon holy pages, but to show the pale and dusty faces of the
+beseeching; and as they moved in and out, the groans and curses of the
+suffering replace the gush of peaceful hymns and the deep responses to
+the preacher's prayers. Federal and Confederate lay together, the
+bitterness of noon assuaged in the common tribulation of the night, and
+all the while came in the dripping stretchers, to place in this golgotha
+new recruits for death and sorrow. I asked the name of the church, but
+no one knew any more than if it had been the site of some obsolete
+heathen worship. At last, a grinning sergeant smacked his thumbs as if
+the first idea of his life had occurred to him, and led me to the
+pulpit. Beneath some torn blankets and rent officers' garments, rested
+the hymn book and Bible, which he produced. Last Sunday these doled out
+the praises of God, and the frightened congregation worshipped at their
+dictation. Now they only served by their fly leaves to give me my
+whereabouts, and said:--
+
+_Presented to Gravelly Run Meeting House by the Ladies._
+
+Over the portal, the scenes within were reiterated, except that the
+greatness of a starry night replaced the close and terrible arena of the
+church. Beneath the trees, where the Methodist circuit-rider had tied
+his horse, and the urchins, daring class-meeting, had wandered away to
+cast stones at the squirrels, and measure strength at vaulting and
+running, the gashed and fevered lay irregularly, some soul going out at
+each whiff of the breeze in the fir-tops; and the teams and surgeons,
+and straggling soldiers, and galloping orderlies passed all the night
+beneath the old and gibbous moon and the hushed stars, and by the
+trickle of Gravelly Run stealing off, afeared. But the wounded had no
+thought that night; the victory absorbed all hearts; we had no losses to
+notice where so much was won.
+
+A mile past the church, going away from head-quarters all the time, lies
+Five Forks, the object and name of the battle. A large open field of
+perhaps thirty acres, interposes between the church and the commencement
+of the Rebel works. Their left is only some rails and logs to mask
+marksmen, but the work proper is a very long stretch of all obstructions
+of a man's height in relief.
+
+The White Oak road runs directly in front of these intrenchments, and
+was, at the time I passed, the general highway for infantry returning
+from the field and cavalry-men concentrating at General Sheridan's
+bivouac. Riding a mile I came upon the Five Forks proper, and just to
+the left, at the foot of some pines, the victor and his assistants were
+congregated. Sheridan sat by some fagots, examining a topographical map
+of the country he had so well traversed; possibly with a view to design
+further aggressive movements in the morning. He is opposite me now as I
+pen these paragraphs by the imperfect blaze of his bivouac fire. He is
+good humored and talkative, like all men conscious of having achieved a
+great work, and has been good enough to sketch for me the plan of the
+day's operations, from which I have compiled much of the statement
+above. Close by lies Custer, trying to sleep, his long yellow hair
+covering his face; and General Griffin, now commanding the Fifth corps,
+goes here and there issuing orders, while aides and orderlies rode in
+and out, bearing further fresh messages of deeds consummated or
+proposed. We shall have a hot night no doubt, for away off to the right,
+continue volleys of musketry and discharges of artillery, intermixed
+with what seem to be thunderbolts of our men-of-war at anchor in the
+Appomatox and James,--if such can be heard at this great
+distance,--which tell us that the lines are in motion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+RICHMOND DESOLATE.
+
+
+The scenes of entering the doomed stronghold, when Grant had burst its
+gates, ought to be made vivid as the spectacle of death. With my good
+and talented associate, Mr. Jerome B. Stillson, I hold the Spotswood
+Hotel, and from this caravansary of the late capital as thoroughly
+identified with Rebellion as the inn at Bethlehem with the gospel, we
+date our joint paragraphs upon the condition of the city. A week cannot
+have exhausted the curiosity of the North to learn the exact appearance
+of a city which has stood longer, more frequent, and more persistent
+sieges, than any in Christendom. This town is the Rebellion; it is all
+that we have directly striven for; quitting it, the Confederate leaders
+have quitted their sheet-anchor, their roof-tree, their abiding hope.
+Its history is the epitome of the whole contest, and to us, shivering
+our thunderbolts against it for more than four years, Richmond is still
+a mystery.
+
+Know then, that, whether coming from Washington or Baltimore, the two
+points of embarkation, all bound hitherward must rendezvous at Fortress
+Monroe; thence, in such excellent steamers as the _Dictator_, start up
+the broad James River. To own a country-house upon the "Jeems" river is
+the Virginia gentleman's ultimate aspiration. There, with a
+tobacco-farm, and wide wheatlands, his feet on his front-porch rails, a
+Havana cigar between his teeth, and a colored person to bring him
+frequent juleps, the Virginia gentleman, confident in the divinity of
+slavery, hopes in his natural, refined idleness, to watch the little
+family graveyard close up to his threshold, till it shall kindly open
+and give him sepulture.
+
+Elsewhere men aim to be successful, or enterprising, or eloquent, or
+scholarly, but that nobleness of hospitality, high spirit, dignity, and
+affability which constitute our idea of chivalry is everywhere save here
+an exotic. We say that chivalry is "played out," and that the prestige
+of "first families" is gone with the hurried retreat before Grant's
+salamanders. Not so. Secession as a cause is past the range of
+possibilities. But no people in their subjugation wear a better front
+than these brave old spirits, whose lives are not their own. Fire has
+ravaged their beautiful city, soldiers of the color of their servants,
+guard the crossings and pace the pavement with bayoneted muskets. But
+gentlemen they are still, in every pace, and inch, and syllable,--such
+men as we were wont to call brothers and countrymen. However, the James
+River, at which we commenced, has not a town upon it between the sea and
+the head of navigation. It is a strong commentary upon this patriarchal
+civilization, judged by our gregarious tastes, that one of the noblest
+streams in the world should show to the traveller only here and there a
+pleasant mansion, flanked by negro cabins, but nowhere a church-spire
+nor a steam-mill. All that we see from Fortress Monroe to City Point are
+ridges of breastworks, rifle-pits, and forts, lying bare, yellow, and
+deserted, to defend its passage, excepting at James Island, where the
+solitary and broken tower of the ancient colony holds guard over some
+bramble and ruin. Here Smith founded the celebrated settlement, which
+wooed to its threshold the gentle Pocahontas, and fell to fragments at
+the behest of the fiery Bacon. The ramparts on the James will remain
+forever; great as they are, they would hardly hold the bones of the
+slain in the capture and defence. Four hours from Fortress Monroe we
+pass Harrison's Landing, where two grand armies, _beaten_ aside from
+Richmond, sought the shelter of the river, and at City Point quit our
+large craft, to be transferred to a light draught vessel, which is to
+carry the first mail going to Richmond under the national flag since the
+beginning of the war.
+
+City Point is still a populous place, and the millions of mules upon it
+bray hoarsely; but we leave all these behind, as well as the national
+standard, which flaunts over General Grant's late head-quarters, and
+steam past the mouth of the Appomattox to go through the enemy's lines.
+
+Henceforward every foot of the way is freshly interesting. The Rebel ram
+_Atlanta_ in tow of a couple of tugs, goes past us with a torpedo boat
+at the rear. She is raking, slant, and formidable; but "old glory" is
+waving on her. Directly our own leviathan, the _Roanoke_ drifts up, and
+all her storm-throated tars cheer like the belch of her guns. We see to
+the right, the tip of Malvern Hill, ever sorrowful and sacred, and soon
+a great unfinished ram careens by, which never grew to battle-size; the
+true colors shine above her bulwarks like a flower growing in a carcass.
+Then at little intervals there are frequent prizes from the docks of
+Richmond, tugs, transports, barges, some of which show under our
+beautiful banner the Rebel cross, pale and contemptible. These
+malcontents committed as great crime against good taste in substituting
+for our starry emblem this artistic abomination, as against law and
+policy in changing the configuration of the Union. There is another
+flag, however, which we see, half exultantly, half vindictively,--the
+cross of St. George,--flying from a British cutter.
+
+By and by we come to our intrenchments upon the upper James and at
+Bermuda Hundred. Now they are very listless and half empty. The boys
+have gone off to tread on Lee's shanks. Only a few vessels stand at the
+landings, and the few remnants have laid down the rifle, and taken up
+the fishing-pole. One should come up this river to get a conception of
+our splendid navy. Sharp-pointed gunboats, with bullet-proof crows'
+nests and swivels that are the gentlest murderers ever polished;
+monitors through whose eyeholes a ball a big as a cook-stove squints
+from a columbiad socket; ferry-boats which are speckled with brass
+cannon, and all sorts of craft that can float and manoeuvre, provided
+they look at us through deadly muzzles are there to the number of fifty
+or sixty, as many as make the entire navies of all other American
+nations. After the war we must have a great naval review, and invite all
+the crowned heads to attend it. Soon we reach Dutch Gap, where lies
+Butler's canal, or "Butler's gut," as the sailors call it. The river at
+this point is so crooked that Butler must have laid it out by the aid of
+his wrong eye. The canal is meant to cut on a long elbow; but being
+almost at right angles to the course of the river, only the most
+obliging tide would run through it. As a consequence, it is a sort of a
+sluice merely, of insufficient width, and as a "sight" very
+disappointing to great expectations. Between the points of debouch of
+this canal crosses a drawbridge of pontoons, for the use of our troops,
+and just beyond it Aiken's Landing, where the flag of truce boat
+stopped. A fine brick mansion stands in shore, with a wharf abreast it.
+The banks around it are trodden here with many feet. These are the
+traces of the poor prisoners who reached here, fevered, and starving and
+naked, to catch for the first time the sight of cool waters and friends,
+and the bright flag which they had followed to the edge of the grave.
+How they threw up their hats, and cheered to the feeblest, and wept, and
+danced, and laughed. Long be the place remembered, as holy, neutral
+ground, where death never trod, and multitudes passed from suffering, to
+freedom and home. Beyond this point, the most formidable Rebel works we
+have seen, line the high bluffs and ridges. They are monuments of
+patient labor, and make of themselves hills as great as nature's. But
+the siege pieces, which often bellowed upon them like thunderbolts
+along the mountain-tops, are gone now, and only straggling, meddling
+fellows pass them at all. The highest of these works commands both ends
+of the Dutch Gap canal, and while our lads were digging they often hid
+themselves in caves which they dug in the cliff-sides.
+
+We reach the first torpedo at length; a little red flag marks it, by
+which the boat slips tremulously, though another and another are before,
+at the sight of which our nervous folks are agitated. Here is a monitor
+with a drag behind it, which has just fished up one; and the sequel is
+told by a bloody and motionless figure upon the deck. These torpedoes
+are the true dragon teeth of Cadmus, which spring up armed men.
+
+Happily for us, the Rebels have sown but few of them, and the position
+of these was pointed out by one of their captains who deserted to our
+side. In the midst of these lie the obstructions. Great hulks of vessels
+and chained spars, and tree-tops which reach quite across the river,
+except where our pioneers have hewn a little gap to let the steamer
+through. Upon these obstructions a hundred cannon bear from the cliffs
+before us, and as we go further we see the whole river-bed sprinkled
+with strange contrivances to keep back our thunder-bearers. We think it
+absolutely impossible, under any circumstances, that our fleet could
+have got to Richmond so long as the Rebels contested the passage; each
+step forward finds new and greater obstacles. The channel is as narrow
+as Harlem River and as crooked as a walk in the ramble of Central Park.
+Each elbow of the stream is muscular with snag and snare wherever the
+swift stream swoops around abruptly. Jagged abatis, driven piles, and
+artificial lumber, bar the way before us. To the right of us, to the
+left of us, behind us, stand up the bare parapets, crowned with airy
+lookout towers, where, at the coming of a nautilus, the whole horizon
+and foreground would rain crossfires of shell and iron bolts, to sweep
+into annihilation the tiniest or the staunchest opposition from the
+earth's surface, and under the earth and above the earth death waited to
+leap up and draw the daring to its bosom. Not one, nor two, nor three
+lines of defences frowned down as we cautiously steamed along, but every
+precipice was bristling with defiance, as if the deep subterranean fires
+underlying our race had burst here fitfully and frequently, heaving up
+the swells of the hills till they lay hard and barren for human
+ingenuity to garnish them with anxious artillery. All along were the
+deep funnel-shaped cases of the torpedoes just disentombed. But at
+nightfall Drury's Bluff flitted by like the battlemented wall of a city,
+and then we saw no more.
+
+The band that greeted us from a distance stops playing as the boat nears
+the wharf.
+
+There is a stillness, in the midst of which Richmond, with her ruins,
+her spectral roof, afar, and her unchanging spires, rests beneath a
+ghastly, fitful glare,--the night stain which a great conflagration
+leaves behind it for weeks,--struggling silently with colossal shadows
+along the foreground, two hideous walls alone arise in front, shutting
+these gleams. They are the Libby Prison and Castle Thunder. Right and
+left, and far in the moonlighted perspective beyond, there is a soft
+glitter upon cornices and domes. A haggard glow of candles, faintly
+defines the thoroughfares that have not suffered ruin; while massive,
+and upon a height overlooking all, stands the Capitol, flying its black
+shadow from the sinking moon across a hundred crumbling walls, until its
+edges touch the windows of the Libby.
+
+But over its massive roof, dimly seen through the mists of the river,
+and, as before, "through the mists of the deep," the banner of the
+Union, banished for four years, is shaken out again, broad and
+beautiful, by the breath of an April night. Upon the face of every
+leaning figure on the steamer's deck, in sight of that radiant signal,
+is the same half-melancholy, half-triumphant smile.
+
+The thought of the battle which has passed, of the army, which, after
+struggling through years for this majestic procession, has swept by and
+beyond without the view for which its straining eyes have yearned, is
+sad and strange. There comes back dimly suggestive, a story of Iran and
+his host, thundering at the gates of Tupelo, for the possession of a
+wondrous jewel, and awakening once upon a dawn to learn that Tupelo was
+an empty casket,--to turn back longing, "wondering eyes upon the city,
+and to hunt the fleeing prize afar." Yet unto those legions of the
+republic which have emptied Richmond of a prize which yet they may have
+easily clutched, there go out reverence and blessing even larger than
+might be bestowed upon them resting in camp, upon these overlooking
+hills. That true allegiance, that calm and stern self-sacrifice which
+impels an army forward past the sweet applauses and rewarding calms to
+which great victories might entitle it, are the purest sources of its
+glory and its fame. God bless the army that has permitted us to
+consummate this journey and to gaze upon this spectacle, while it does
+not impress us too proudly, too triumphantly. Both pride and triumph
+have, of course, a place in the tumultuous feeling that surges through
+the hearts of all; yet as in every true man is born an instinct of
+compassion for a fallen foe, we prefer that the shout should go up in
+honor of our victory alone, and not because these have suffered.
+
+The boat touches the shore at Rockett's, the foot of Richmond. A few
+minutes' walk and we tread the pavements of the capital. There are no
+noisy and no beseeching runners; there is no sound of life, but the
+stillness of a catacomb, only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted
+sidewalk, and a funeral troop of echoes bump their elfin heads against
+the dead walls and closed shutters in reply, and this is Richmond. Says
+a melancholy voice: "And this is Richmond."
+
+We are under the shadow of ruins. From the pavements where we walk far
+off into the gradual curtain of the night, stretches a vista of
+desolation. The hundreds of fabrics, the millions of wealth, that
+crumbled less than a week ago beneath one fiery kiss, here topple and
+moulder into rest. A white smoke-wreath rising occasionally, enwraps a
+shattered wall as in a shroud. A gleam of flame shoots a grotesque
+picture of broken arches and ragged chimneys into the brain. Huge piles
+of debris begin to encumber the sidewalks, and even the pavements, as we
+go on. The streets in some places are quite choked up from walking. We
+are among the ruins of half a city. The wreck, the loneliness, seem
+interminable. The memory of lights in houses above, beheld while upon
+the steamer, alone keeps despondency from a victory over hope; and
+although the continued existence of the Spottswood Hotel is vouched for
+by authority, my lodge in such a wilderness seems next to impossible.
+Away to the right, above the waste of blackened walls, around the
+phantom-looking flag upon the capitol,--the only sign betwixt heaven and
+earth, or upon the earth, that Richmond is not wholly deserted,--beyond
+and out of the ruins, we walk past one of two open doorways where the
+moon serves as candle to a group of talking negroes. The gas works,
+injured by fire, are not working, and "ile" has not been struck in the
+Confederacy. Not a white man appears until we reach the
+Spottswood,--there before the entrance is a conclave of officers,--then,
+at last, entering, we stand in that most famous of Southern hotels, the
+interior of which is filled with the very aroma of the Rebellion. A
+thankful yielding up of carpet-bags and valises to the indignant negro
+waiters, and then a brief moonlight stroll toward the capitol.
+
+Within the gates of the Square, that swing on their hinges silent as the
+hour we pass alone, before us stands the magnificent monument crowned
+with Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington. The right hand of the
+rider, lifted against the sky, points a prophetic finger toward the
+southwest. Dark, and motionless, and grand, it is the one symbol
+belonging solely to the Union, which they have not dared to desecrate;
+which they have strangely chosen to consider neither as an insult nor a
+rebuke.
+
+Gazing beyond at the capitol itself, and back again at the figure which
+overlooks the building, it is not hard to imagine that, while the noisy
+debates of a congress of traitors to the Union that he founded were in
+progress, those bronze lips sometimes smiled in scorn.
+
+Leaving Richmond proper, and descending into the low, squalid portion of
+the town known as Rocketts, one sees among the many large warehouses,
+used without exception for the storage of tobacco, a certain one more
+irregular than the rest. An archway leads into it, and upon the outside
+of the second story windows runs a long ledge or footway, whereupon
+sentries used to stride, guarding the miserable people within. This is
+the jail of Castle Thunder, and it was the civil or State prison of the
+capital. Ill as were the accommodations of prisoners of war, the
+treatment of their own unoffending citizens by the Rebel government was
+ten times more infamous. We could not repress indignation, nor by any
+philosophic or charitable effort excuse the atrocious tyranny which here
+lashed, chained, handcuffed, tortured, shot, and hung, hundreds of
+people whom it could not stultify or impress. We may grant that the
+Confederacy had become a government; that, in its perilous incipiency,
+it had apology for severity and rigor with all malcontents; that, in its
+own struggle for death or life, it might, in self-defence, absorb all
+private liberty; but even thus the terrible testimony of this Castle
+Thunder is an everlasting stigma upon the Southern cause. We entered its
+strong portal, and there in the new commandant's room lay the record
+left behind by the Confederates. Its pages made one shudder.
+
+These are some of the entries:--
+
+     "George Barton,--giving food to Federal prisoners of war; forty
+     lashes upon the bare back. Approved. Sentence carried into effect
+     July 2.
+
+     "Peter B. Innis,--passing forged government notes; chain and ball
+     for twelve months; forty lashes a day. Approved.
+
+     "Arthur Wright,--attempting to desert to the enemy; sentenced to be
+     shot. Approved. Carried into effect, March 26.
+
+     "John Morton,--communicating with the enemy; to be hung. Approved.
+     Carried into effect, March 26."
+
+In an inner room are some fifty pairs of balls and chains, with anklets
+and handcuffs upon them, which have bent the spirit and body of many a
+resisting heart. Within are two condemned cells, perfectly dark,--a
+faded flap over the window peep-hole,--the smell from which would knock
+a strong man down.
+
+For in their centre lies the sink, ever open, and the floors are sappy
+with uncleanliness. To the right of these, a door leads to a walled yard
+not forty feet long, nor fifteen wide, overlooked by the barred windows
+of the main prison rooms, and by sentry boxes upon the wall-top. Here
+the wretched were shot and hung in sight of their trembling comrades.
+The brick wall at the foot of the yard is scarred and crushed by balls
+and bullets which first passed through some human heart and wrote here
+their damning testimony. The gallows had been suspended from a wing in
+the ledge, and in mid-air the impotent captive swung, none daring or
+willing to say a good word for him; and not for any offence against
+God's law, not for wronging his neighbor, or shedding blood, or making
+his kind miserable, but for standing in the way of an upstart
+organization, which his impulse and his judgment alike impelled him to
+oppose. This little yard, bullet-marked, close, and shut from all
+sympathy, is to us the ghastliest spot in the world. Can Mr. Davis visit
+it, and pray as he does so devoutly afterward? When men plead the
+justice of the South, and arguments are prompt to favor them, let this
+prison yard rise up and say that no such crimes in liberty's name have
+ever been committed, on this continent, at least. Up stairs, in Castle
+Thunder, there are two or three large rooms, barred and dimly lit, and
+two or three series of condemned cells, pent-up and pitchy, where, by a
+refinement of cruelty, the ceiling has been built low so that no man can
+stand upright. Here fifteen or twenty were crowded together, and, in the
+burning atmosphere, they stripped themselves stark naked, so that when
+in the morning the cell-doors were opened, they came forth as from the
+grave, begging for death. There are women's cells too; for this great
+and valiant government recognized women as belligerents, and locked them
+up close to a sentry's cartridge, so that, in the bitterness of
+solitude, they were unsexed, and railed, and blasphemed, like wanton
+things. On the pavements before the jail, were hidden numberless guards,
+who shot at every rag fluttering from the cages, and all this little
+circle of death and terror was enacted close to the bright river, and
+airy pediment of that high capitol, where bold men hoped by war to wring
+from a reluctant Union, acknowledgment of arrogant independence to rein
+civilization as it pleased, and warp the destinies of our race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE RUINS OF THE REBELLION.
+
+
+When Richmond was a plain city, a county seat, and the residence of a
+governor and commonwealth legislature, its enterprise was as gradual as
+its hospitality and private probity were steadfast. It was always a
+fierce political arena, and its two great journals, the _Whig_ and
+_Enquirer_, were not more violently partisan than its hustings. In the
+latter its debaters were wide-famed. No such "stump" has ever existed in
+America, commencing with Patrick Henry, whose eloquence was as intense
+and telling as his statesmanship was errant and inconsistent, and
+passing through the shrill and bitter apostrophies of John Randolph down
+to the latest era of Henry A. Wise, the most sufferable and interminable
+campaign orator extant, and John Minor Botts, scarcely his inferior.
+With us, out of door rhetoric is dry, studied, and argumentative; here
+an inspiration, based upon feeling rather than reason, and so earnest
+that it knew no personal friendship where its political affinities
+stopped. Whig and Democrat were not men of the same race or family in
+Richmond; they passed each other on the sidewalk with a sneer or a
+scowl, and knew no coalition even in the house of God. Even when the
+Whig party as an organization deceased, the Whigs, as individuals,
+retained their traditional antipathy, and the advent of secession was
+decried by these, not because they loved the Union more, but the
+triumphant Democracy the less. Separation was a feature of the hated
+faith, and no good could come out of Nazareth. The Union men of Richmond
+who have hungered in Castle Thunder, and been driven, needy and naked,
+from the South, were all old line Whigs, distrusting the North, but
+disliking Democracy. However, the war burst at last, heralded by that
+mysterious lunatic who appeared like a warning giant in the twilight day
+of the Union,--old John Brown; and as the Gulf States wheeled into line
+and pulled down the old colors, the Old Dominion, Southern and
+slaveholding, was too impulsive not to follow the whirlwind. She did not
+go for policy's sake, nor for principle's sake, but for emotion's sake.
+How wild and jubilant, and confident, were those Richmond mass meetings,
+at which separation was counselled! How awful seems their levity at this
+distance, with the city conquered and in ruins! On the Capitol Hill the
+mad orators inveighed; within the Capitol met the disunion assembly in
+secret and prolonged session; before the American, the Exchange, and the
+Spottswood hotels, visiting commissioners harangued the crowd; the
+people went to ballot on the day of State suicide, with laughing and
+wagging, and at the decree that Virginia and her people had resolved to
+quit the fabric of their fathers, bonfires and illuminations lit up the
+river and the sky.
+
+Done, these were the men to stand fast. Done in dream, the first acts
+were mirages rather than comprehensible events. They marched upon
+Harper's Ferry; they suppressed the Unionists in their midst; they
+erased the sacred mottoes of amity and unity from their monuments, and
+won to the new cause they so blindly embraced every inch of their soil
+except Old Point, where Fortress Monroe still stood defiant, to be in
+the end the source of their downfall. Gayly went the populace of
+Richmond, and splendid parties made the nights lustrous. When they heard
+that their town was mentioned, among many others, as the probable
+Confederate capital, they threw their hearts into the suggestion and
+offered lands and edifices as free gifts for the honor of being the
+centre of the South. A few, more interested, beheld in the coming of the
+seat of government higher rents and increased patronage, crowded hotels,
+and railway stock at a premium; but the mass, with the enthusiasm of
+women or children, thought only of their beloved city growing in rank
+and power; the home of legislators, orators, and savans; the seat of all
+rank and the depository of archives. At last the good news came;
+Richmond was the capital of a great nation; that courtesy bound all
+grateful Virginian hearts to the common cause forever; the heyday and
+gratulation were renewed; the new President, and the reverend senators
+appeared on Richmond streets; the citizens were proud and happy.
+
+There was no spectre of the mighty North, slowly rising from lethargy
+like those Medicean figures of Michael Angelo, which leap from stone to
+avengers. There was no mutter of coming storm, no clank of coming sabres
+and bayonets, no creak of great wheels rolling southward, and war in its
+extremest and most deadly phase. Richmond and Virginia laughed at these,
+flushed in the present, and invincible in the past. They only held high
+heads,--and trade, with vanity, grew strong, till every citizen wondered
+why all this glory had been so long delayed, and despised the ten years
+preceding the rupture, if not, indeed, the whole past of the Union.
+
+The President of the United States proclaimed war; an army marched upon
+the city. Not until the battle of Bull Run, when the dead and mangled
+came by hundreds into the town, did any one discover the consequences of
+Richmond's new distinction; but by this time the Rebel government had
+absorbed Virginia, and was master of the city. Thenceforward Richmond
+was the scene of all terrors, the prey of all fears and passions.
+Campaign after campaign was directed against her; she lived in the
+perpetual thunder of cannon; raiders pressed to her gates; she was a
+great garrison and hospital only, besieged and cut off from her own
+provinces; armies passed through her to the sound of drums, and returned
+to the creak of ambulances. She lost her social prestige, and became a
+barrack-city, filled with sutlers, adventurers, and refugees, till,
+bearing bravely up amid domestic riot and horrible demoralization,--a
+jail, a navy-yard, a base of operations,--she grew pinched, and base,
+and haggard, and, at last, deserted. Given over to sack and fire, the
+wretches who used her retreated in the night, and the enemies she had
+provoked marched over her defences, and laid her--spent, degenerate, and
+disgraced--under martial law.
+
+The outline of the scenes immediately associated with the evacuation of
+Richmond has been told by telegraph. Now that the stupefied citizens
+have recovered reason and memory so well as to tell us the story, it
+seems the most dramatic and fearful of the war. On Saturday the city was
+calm and trusting; Lee, its idol, held Grant, at Petersburg, fast; the
+daily journals came out as usual, filled with soothing accounts; that
+night came vague rumors of reverses; in the morning vaguer rumors of
+evacuation; by Sunday night the public records were burned in the
+streets, and the only remaining railway carried off the specie of the
+banks; before daylight on Monday, the explosions of bridges and
+half-built ships of war shook the houses; in the imperfect day, women,
+and old men, and children began to sway and surge before the guarded
+depot, which refused to admit them; then the town fell afire; no
+remonstrance could pacify the incendiaries; the spring wind carried the
+flame from the burning boats on the canal to the great Galligo Mills, to
+files of massive warehouses groaning with tobacco, into the heart of the
+town, where stores, and vaults, and banks, and factories lined the wide,
+undulating streets; it filled the gray concave with flame till the stars
+of the dawn shrank to pale invisibility in the advancing glare, and the
+crackle of hot roofs and beams, and the crash of walls and timbers,
+drowned the cries of the frightened and bankrupt, who beheld their
+fortunes wither in an hour, and the inheritance of their children fall
+to ashes. By the red, consuming light, poured past the straggling
+Confederate soldiers, dead to the acknowledgment of private rights, and
+sacking shop and home with curses and ribaldry; the suburban citizens
+and the menial negroes adopted their examples; carrying off whatever
+came next their hands, and with arms full of "swag," dropping it in the
+highway, lured by some dearer plunder. Negroes, with baskets of stolen
+champagne and rare jars of tamarinds, sought their dusky quarters to
+swill and carouse; and whites of the middle, and even of the higher
+class, lent themselves to theft, who, before this debased era, would
+have died before so surrendering their honor. All was peril, terror, and
+license; all who had nothing to lose were thieves; all who had anything
+left to lose were cowards. The conflagration swept through the densest,
+proudest blocks, driving off, not only the resident worthy, but the
+resident corrupt. Where were the lewd contractors, who had hoarded
+Confederate scrip by the basest exactions? With the fall of the capital
+their dollars dwindled to dust; four years of crime had resulted in
+beggary; still, with grasping palms, they adhered to their valueless
+paper, bearing it away. But of all the wretched, the Cyprians were the
+foremost. These inhabited the dense and business part of the town, where
+their houses were serried and compact; and, driven forth by the fire,
+they sought the street in their plumes and calicoes, to spend a cold and
+shivering bivouac in the square of the Capitol. From afar, the rich men
+of Sunday watched the flames of Monday sweeping on in terrible
+impetuosity, knowing that every tongue of light which leaped on high
+carried with it the competence they had sinned to acquire. And behind
+all, plunderer, incendiary, and straggler, came the one vague,
+overlapping, dreadful fear of--the enemy. Would they finish what friends
+had commenced,--the sack, the desolation, the slaughter of the place?
+Richmond had cost them half a million of lives, a mountain of blood and
+wealth, four years of deadly struggle; would they not complete its ruin?
+
+The morning came; the Confederates were gone; cavalry in blue galloped
+up the streets; a brigade of white infantry filed after them; then came
+the detested negroes. Behold! the victors, the subjugators, assist to
+quench the flames,--and Richmond is captured, but secure!
+
+Many of the churches were open on the Sunday of April 9, 1865, and were
+thinly attended by the more adventurous of the citizens, with a
+sprinkling of soldiers and Northern civilians. Mr. Woodbridge, at the
+Monument Church, built on the site of a famous burnt theatre, prayed for
+"all in authority," and held his tongue upon dangerous topics. The First
+Baptist Negro Church has been occupied all the week by Massachusetts
+chaplains, and Northern negro preachers, who have talked the gospel of
+John Brown to gaping audiences of wool, white-eyeball, and ivory,
+telling them that the day of deliverance has come, and that they have
+only to possess the land which the Lord by the bayonet has given them.
+To-day, Mr. Allen, the regular white preacher, occupied the pulpit, and
+told the negroes that slavery was a divine institution, which would
+continue forever, and that the duty of every good servant was to stay at
+home and mind his master. Half of the enlightened Africans got up midway
+of the discourse and left; the rest were in doubt, and two or three
+black class-leaders, whom the parson had wheeled over, prayed lustily
+that the Lord would keep Old Virginny from new ideas and all Yankee
+salvations; so that in the end the population were quite tangled up, as
+much so as if they had read the book of Revelation. I attended Saint
+Paul's, the fashionable Episcopalian church, where Lee, Davis,
+Memminger, and the rest had been communicants, and heard Doctor
+Minnegerode discourse. He was one of the Prussian refugees of 1848,
+and, though a hot Jacobin there, became a more bitter secessionist here.
+He is learned, fluent, and thoughtful, but speaks with a slight Teutonic
+accent. Jeff Davis's pew was occupied by nobody, the door thereof being
+shut. Jeff was a very devout man, but not so much so as Lee, who made
+all the responses fervently, and knelt at every requirement. This church
+is capable of "seating" fifteen hundred persons, has galleries running
+entirely around it, and is sustained at the roof within by composite
+pilasters of plaster, and at the pulpit by columns of mongrel
+Corinthian; the _tout ensemble_ is very excellent; a darkey sexton gave
+us a pew, and there were some handsome ladies present, dark Richmond
+beauties, haughty and thinly clothed, with only here and there a
+jockey-feathered hat, or a velvet mantilla, to tell of long siege and
+privation. We saw that those who dressed the shabbiest had yet preserved
+some little article of jewelry--a finger-ring, a brooch, a bracelet,
+showing how the last thing in woman to die is her vanity. Poor, proud
+souls! Last Sunday many of them were heiresses; now many of them could
+not pay the expenses of their own funerals. There were some Confederate
+officers in the house. They reminded me of the captive Jews holding
+worship in their gutted Temple. Some ruffians broke into this church
+after the occupation, and wrote ribaldry in the Bible and hymn-book. Dr.
+Minnegerode dared not pray for the Confederate States, and his sermon
+was trite, based upon the text of the eleventh chapter of the Acts--"The
+disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." In the opening
+lesson, however, he aimed poison at the North, selecting the
+forty-fourth and following Psalms, commencing, "We have heard with our
+ears, O God! our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their
+days, in the times of old." Then it spoke of the heathen being driven
+out and the chosen people planted; afflicted by God's disfavor, the
+forefathers held the territory, and the generation extant would yet rout
+its enemies. But now the old stock were put to shame, a reproach to
+their neighbors and those that dwelt round about them. "Thou hast broken
+us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,"
+going not forth with our armies, bowing our souls to the dust till our
+bellies cleave unto the earth; we are killed all the day long, and
+counted as sheep for the slaughter.
+
+Let all who would drink the essence of sorrow and anguish, read this
+wonderful Psalm, to learn how after this recapitulation, the parson said
+aloud the thrilling invocation.
+
+"Arise! for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake."
+
+Then came the next Psalm, light and tripping, full of praise for the
+king and his bride, coming to the nuptials with her virgin train:
+"instead of thy fathers, shall be thy children, whom thou mayst make
+princes in all the earth." A poetic parallel might be drawn between all
+this and the early hopes of Richmond; but the third Psalm came in like a
+beautiful peroration.
+
+"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,--the
+Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah! He
+maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow and
+cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire."
+
+Clear, direct, and in meaning monotone, the captive high-priest read all
+this, so fearfully applicable to the subjugated and ruined town, and
+then the organ threw its tender music into the half-empty concave,
+sobbing like a far voice of multitudes, until the sweet singing of
+Madame Ruhl, the chorister, swept into the moan of pipes, and rose to a
+grand peal, quivering and trilling, like a nightingale wounded, making
+more tears than the sublimest operatic effort and the house reeled and
+trembled, as if Miriam and her chanting virgins were lifting praises to
+God in the midst of the desert.
+
+That part of the New Testament read, by some strange fatuity, touches
+also the despair of the city. It told of Christ betrayed by Iscariot,
+deserted by his disciples, saying to his few trusty ones: "I will smite
+the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."
+"Can ye not watch with me one hour?" he says to the timid and sleeping;
+and turning to his conquerors, avers that the Son of Man shall return to
+Jerusalem, "sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds
+of heaven." All this, of course, was the prescribed lesson for the
+Sunday before Easter, which to-day happened to be; but had the pastor
+searched it out to meet the exigencies of the place and time, it could
+not have been more _apropos_. He read also from Daniel, where the king's
+dream was interpreted; his realm, like a tree worn down to the root, and
+the king himself making his dwelling with the wild asses, but in the end
+"thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known
+that the heavens do rule."
+
+Again the organ rang, and the wonderful voice of the choristers
+alternated with deep religious prayers, whose refrain was, "Have mercy
+upon us."
+
+Only one Sunday gone by, the church was densely packed with Rebel
+officers and people; Mrs. Lee was there, and the president, in his high
+and whitened hairs. Midway of the discourse a telegram came up the
+aisle, borne by a rapid orderly. The president read it, and strode away;
+the preacher read it, and faltered, and turned pale; it said:
+
+     My lines are broken; Richmond must be evacuated by midnight.
+                                                   ROBERT E. LEE.
+
+Ill news travels without words; the whole house felt that the great
+calamity had come; they broke for the doors, and left the rector, alone
+and frightened, to finish the solemn services.
+
+Now the enemy is here; the music and the prayer are not interrupted. God
+is over all, whether Davis or Lincoln be uppermost.
+
+This campaign, so gloriously and promptly finished, has consumed just
+eleven days. It took three to flank the Rebel army, one to capture
+Petersburg, one to occupy Richmond, and six to pursue, overtake, and
+capture the Army of Northern Virginia. No such memorable fighting has
+ever been known on our continent, and it parallels the Italian, the
+Austerlitz, and the Jena campaigns; in breadth of conception, it
+outrivals them all; it took less men to do it than the last two; it
+shows equal sagacity with any of them, but none of their brilliant
+episodes; and, unlike them, we cannot trace its full credit to any
+single personality. It has made the army immortal, but the lustre of it
+is diffused, not concentrating upon any single head. Grant must be
+credited with most of the combinations; yet without the genius and
+activity of Sheridan, the bewildering rapidity of Sherman, and the
+steadfastness of such reliable men as Wright, Parke, and Griffin, these
+combinations would have fallen apart. It is said that Stoneman and
+Sheridan were to have joined their separate cavalry commands at
+Lynchburg, and effect a simultaneous junction with the Army of the
+Potomac. This failed, through a miscalculation of distance or time; but
+had they succeeded, we should have been less than three days in turning
+Lee's right, and so made the campaign even more concise. But Grant's
+talent has been marked and signal. He is the long-expected "coming man."
+None can be lukewarm in surveying the nice adjustment of so many
+separate and converging routes to a grand series of victories. Sherman
+leaves the Rebellion no Gulf city to inhabit, and cuts off Lee's retreat
+while he absorbs Johnston; the navy closes the last seaport; Sheridan
+severs all communication with Richmond, and swells the central forces;
+then the Rebels are lured from their lines and scattered on their right;
+the same night the intrenchments of Petersburg are stormed, Richmond
+falls as this prop is removed, being already hungry-hearted, and the
+flushed army falls upon Lee and finishes the war. Is not this work for
+gratulation? Glory to the army, perfect at last, and to Grant, to
+Sheridan, to each of its commanders!
+
+Let us not do injustice to Lee. His tactics at the close of his career
+were as brilliant as necessity would permit. He could not feed Richmond,
+even though its impregnable works were behind him to retire to. So he
+gave his government time to evacuate, and, with his thinned and
+famishing ranks, made a bold push to join Johnston, some of whose
+battalions had already reinforced him; overtaken on the way, and
+punished anew, he did as any great and humane commander would
+do,--stopped the effusion of blood uselessly, and gave up his sword.
+
+Unless Davis has been captured, we would think it improbable that he had
+given up the Rebel cause. He was born to revolutionize, containing
+within himself all the elements of a Rebel leader, and too proud to
+yield, even when, like Macbeth, pursued to his castle-keep. I am assured
+by those who know him best that he has been, throughout, the absolute
+master of the Confederacy, overawing Lee, who, from the first, was a
+reluctant Rebel; and his design was, until abandoned by his army, to
+hold Richmond, even through starvation, making, behind its tremendous
+fortifications, a defence like that of Leyden or Genoa.
+
+There is no more faith in the Rebellion; it will be a long time before
+the United States is greatly beloved, but it will be always obeyed. Our
+soldiers look well, most of them being newly uniformed, and behave like
+gentlemen. Courtesy will conquer all that bayonets have not won. The
+burnt district is still hideously yawning in the heart of the town, a
+monument to the sternness of those bold revolutionists who are being
+hunted to their last quarry. Despotism, under the plea of necessity, has
+met with its end here as it must everywhere. We shall have no more
+experiments for liberty out of the Union, if the new Union will grant
+all that it gave before. Yesterday, when our splendid levies were
+paraded in the street, with foot, cavalry, and cannon, in admirable
+order, and kindly-eyed men in command, I looked across their cleanly
+lines, tipped with bayonets, to the Capitol they had won, bearing at
+last the tri-color we all love and honor, as the symbol of our homes and
+the hope of the world, and thought how more grandly, even in her ruin,
+Richmond stood in the light of its crowding stars, rather than the den
+of a desperate cabal, whose banner was known in no city nor sea, but as
+the ensign of corsairs, and hailed only by fustian peers, now rent in
+the grip of our eagle, and without a fane or an abiding-place. Let us go
+on, not conquerors, but Republicans, battering down only to rebuild more
+gloriously,--not narrowing the path of any man, but opening to high and
+low a broader destiny and a purer patriotism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+WAR EXECUTIONS.
+
+
+To have looked upon seventeen beings of human organism, ambition, sense
+of pain and of disgrace, brought forward with all the solemnities of a
+living funeral, and launched from absolute cognition to direct death,
+should put one in the category of Calcraft, Ketch, and Isaacs.
+
+Yet, I do not think it would be right to so classify me. I know an
+excellent clergyman, who has seen and assisted in fifty odd executions.
+He says, as I say, that each new one is an augmented terror. But he is
+upon the spot to smooth the felon's troubled spirit, and I am with him
+to teach the felon's boon companions the direness of the penalty.
+Without either the Chaplain or myself, capital punishment would lose
+half its effectiveness.
+
+And this is why I write the present article,--to relieve myself from the
+pertinacious inquiries with which I have been assailed since my return
+from the melancholy episodes of the executions at Washington. I am
+button-holed at every corner, and put through a cross-examination, to
+which Holt's or Bingham's had no searchingness: "How did Mrs. Suratt
+die?" "Was the rope attached to her left ear?" "What sort of rope was
+it, for example?" "Do her pictures look like her?" "Pray describe how
+Payne twisted, and whether you think Atzeroth's neck was dislocated?"
+
+And, after answering these questions, replete as they are with horrible
+curiosity, the questioner turns away, saying, "Dear me! I wouldn't see a
+man hung for a thousand dollars."
+
+I am weary of such hypocrisy, and I shall, in this paper, speak of some
+executions I have witnessed.
+
+I was quite a small boy, at school, when my chum and model, Bill
+Everett, dragged me off to Wayland's Mill, to see old Mrs. Kitty White
+suspended. She was a very infamous old woman, who had been in the habit
+of kidnapping black children, and running them by night from the Eastern
+shore across the bay to Virginia, where they were sold. If they became
+noisy and obstreperous before they left her house, and suspicion fell
+upon her, she clove their skulls with a hatchet, and buried them in her
+garden. When finally discovered, the remains of nearly a score marked
+how wholesale had been her wickedness.
+
+This old woman was very drunk when she came to be hanged, and so was the
+sheriff who assisted her. She called him impolite names, and carried a
+pipe in her mouth, and went off smoking and cursing. I remember that I
+cried very loudly, so that Bill Everett had to choke me, and saw ghosts
+for so many nights succeeding, that Crouch, our maid of all work, had to
+sit at my bedside till I fell asleep.
+
+The atrocity of a crime makes great difference in one's desire to see
+its after tragedy; and the next hanging I attended was almost
+world-famed. Four men were suspended for shooting down an entire family
+in cold blood. They had embarked on a raid of robbery, and emerging from
+the barren scrub of Delaware Forest, fell upon a snug and secluded
+Maryland farm-house, where the farmer's family were taking their supper.
+They fired through the ruddy windows, and brought the man down at his
+wife's feet; she, in turn, fell upon her threshold, rushing forth into
+the darkness, and the remnant of the family perished except two boys,
+who slipped away and gave the alarm.
+
+The jailer's boys of Chestertown went to school with me, and I was
+invited by the least of them to visit the jail,--a tumble-down old
+structure with goggly windows, and so unsafe that the felons had to be
+ironed to almost their own weight. And into the cell where the four
+fiends were lying, the jailer's big boy, for a big joke, pushed me, and
+locked the door upon me.
+
+I was alone with the same bloody-handed men who had so recently, and for
+a trifle of gold, made the fireside a shamble, and the night a howling
+terror.
+
+They appreciated the joke, and drew me to them, while their chains
+clanked, and pressed to my face their wild and prickly beards. There was
+one of them, named Drummond, who swore he would cut my heart out, and
+they executed a sort of death-tune on the floor with their balls and
+links. I lost all knowledge and perception in my fright, and cannot, at
+this interval, remember anything succeeding, but the execution. They
+were put to death upon a single long scaffold, the counterpart of that
+erected for the Booth conspirators, and the rope attached to the neck of
+the least guilty, broke when the drop fell, and cast him upon the
+ground, lacerated, but conscious, to be picked up and again suspended,
+while he begged for life, like a child.
+
+The sixth miscreant murdered from revenge, which is just a trifle better
+than avarice: his girl preferred another, and the disappointed man,
+Bowen, went to sea. Returning, he found the united lovers in the
+exultation of happiness; a child had just been born to them, and,
+touched by their content, Bowen gave the old rival his hand, and asked
+him out to accept a bumper. They drank again and again,--the spirits
+burning their blood to fire, and reviving again the bitter story of
+Bowen's love and shame. Within the hour, the husband lay at the jilted
+man's feet! He was condemned to death, and I undertook to describe his
+exit for a weekly newspaper.
+
+Still I see him, broad and muscular, climbing the gallows stair with
+his peaked cap, deathly white, and looking up at the sun as if he
+dreaded its eye. There was the muttering of prayers, the spasm of one
+spectator taken sick at the crisis, and the dull thump of the scaffold
+falling in.
+
+The preacher Harden, who fondled his wife on his knee, and fed her the
+while with poison, passed away so recently, that I need not revive the
+scene into which all his bad life should have been prolonged.
+
+The death of Armstrong, expiating a hypocrite's life at Philadelphia, is
+not so well remembered: he killed an old man in the heart of the city,
+riding in a wagon, and dumped him out when he reached the suburbs. His
+life, to the end, was marked by all insolence and infamy, and on the day
+of the execution, he made a pretended confession, inculpating two
+innocent persons. One hour after this, he made the following speech:--
+
+     MY FRIENDS: I have a few words to say to you; I am going to die;
+     and let me say, in passing, I die in peace with my Maker; and if,
+     at this moment, a pardon was offered me on condition of giving up
+     my Maker, I would not take it; and I die in peace with all the
+     world, and forgive all my enemies. I desire you to take warning by
+     my fate. Sabbath-breaking was the first cause. I bid you farewell,
+     gentlemen, (here he mentioned various officers), and I bid you all
+     farewell. I die in peace with everybody.
+
+The Sheriff, very nervous, gave a signal to the drop-man too soon, and a
+serious accident very nearly occurred. The props were readjusted, all
+but the main support removed, and that unhinged; the Sheriff waved his
+handkerchief, and with the dead thump of the trap-lids against their
+cushions, and the heavy jerking of the noose knot against the victim's
+throat, the young murderer hung dangling in the air, not a limb
+quivering, and only a convulsive movement of the shoulders, to indicate
+the struggle which life maintained when giving up its place in the
+body.
+
+There was a rush forward. The doctors grasped his wrist. Some spectators
+passed their hands across his knees to feel the tremulous sinews; one or
+two felt a faintness, and a dozen made coarse jokes; and one or more
+speculated as to the issue of his immortal part, or the degree of his
+pain, or the probability of his cognizance. In seven minutes he was
+beyond the reach of execution or executioner, and a hurdle being wheeled
+from the stable, they cut down his body, while a few scrambled for the
+rope, and it was wheeled on a run into the convict's corridor for his
+old father to claim. The neck was not broken, nor the flesh discolored.
+Some said that he died "game;" and all went away, leaving the old man
+and a brother to sit by the remains and weep, that so great calamity had
+darkened their home and blighted their lives. Few lamented him, for he
+had youth, but none of its elements of sympathy; and those who would
+make, even of his dying speech, a text and a lesson, are instancing a
+lie more grievous than the murder which he did.
+
+In England, I saw two men and a woman suffer death on the common
+sidewalk; just as if we were to hang people in New York on the pavement
+before the Tombs.
+
+No man, anxious to see an execution in London, need be disappointed.
+Once or twice a month the wolves are brought to the slaughter, and all
+the people are invited to enjoy the spectacle. A woman, one Catharine
+Wilson, was to be hanged for poisoning. She was middle aged, and had
+been reputable. Her manner of making way with folks was to act as
+sick-nurse, and mingling poison with their medicine, possess herself of
+the trifles upon their persons. She had sent six souls to their account
+in this way; but, discovered in the seventh attempt, all the other cases
+leaked out. She was condemned, of course, and on the Sunday evening
+previous to the execution, as I was returning from Spurgeon's
+Tabernacle, the omnibus upon which I sat passed through the Old Bailey.
+There were the carpenters joining the timbers of the scaffold, and
+building black barricades across the street. A murmuring crowd stood
+around in the solemn night, and the funereal walls of old Newgate
+glowered like a horrible vault upon the dimly-lit street. The public
+houses across the way were filled up with guests. All the front parlors
+and front bedrooms had been let at fat prices, and suppers were spread
+in them for the edification of their tenants. Do you remember the
+thrilling chapter of "The Jew's last night alive," in "Oliver Twist?"
+Well, this was the scene! These were the same beams and uprights. There,
+huge, massive, and blackened with smoky years, rose the cold, impervious
+stones; and yonder, casting its sharp pinnacles into the sky, is the
+tower of St. Sepulchre's Church, where the bell hangs muffled for the
+morrow's tolling away of a sinner's life. Old Fagin heard it, though it
+was no new sound to him; for Field Lane, where he kept his "fence," lies
+a very little way off,--little more than a stone's throw, and when, in
+the morning, I dressed at an early hour and hurried to the place of
+execution, I saw Charley Bates, and the Dodger, and Nancy, and Toby
+Crackit, and the rest, shying men's hats in the air, and looking out for
+the "wipes" and the "tickers." All the streets leading to Newgate were
+like great conduits, where human currents babbled along, emptying
+themselves into the Old Bailey. Mothers by the dozen were out with their
+infants, holding them aloft tenderly, to show them the noose and the
+cross-beam. Fathers came with their sons, and explained very carefully
+to them the method of strangulation. Little girls, on their way to
+workshops, had turned aside to see the playful affair, and traders in
+fancy soap and shoe-blacking, pea-nuts and shrimps, Banbury cakes, and
+Chelsea buns, and Yarmouth bloaters, were making the morning hilarious
+with their odd cries and speeches. Along the chimney-pots of Green
+Arbour Court, where Goldsmith penned the "Vicar of Wakefield," lads and
+maidens were climbing, that they might have commanding places. There
+was one young woman who had some difficulty in climbing over a
+battlement, and the mob hailed her failure with roars of mirth. But she
+persevered, though there was a high wind blowing, and then called loudly
+for her male attendant to follow her. He obeyed dutifully, and they both
+seated themselves upon a chimney-top,--a picture of love rewarded,--and
+waited for the show. The moments, as marked upon St. Sepulchre's clock,
+went grudgingly, as if the index-hands were unwilling to shoulder the
+responsibility of what was to come. Meantime, the police had their hands
+full; for some merry urchins were darting between their legs, and it was
+dangerous to keep one's hat on his head, for it hazarded plucking off
+and shying here and there. At the chamber-windows aforesaid, crowded the
+tipsy occupants, men and women, red-eyed with drinking, and leering
+stupidly upon the surging heads below. Some asked if Calcraft did the
+"job," and others volunteered sketches of Calcraft's life. One man
+boasted that he had taken a pot of beer with him, and another added that
+the hangman's children and his own went to school together. "He
+pockets," said the man, "two-pun ten for every one he drops, besides his
+travelling expenses, and he has put away three hundred and twenty folks.
+He is a clever fellow, is Calcraft, and he is going to retire soon."
+
+So the hours passed; the great clock-hands journeyed onward; all eyes
+watched them attentively; suddenly the deep bells struck a terrible
+one--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight, and the bells of the
+neighborhood answered, some hoarsely, others musically, others faintly,
+as if ashamed.
+
+Before the tones had died away, three persons appeared upon the
+scaffold,--a woman, pinioned and wearing a long, sharp, snowy, shrowdy,
+death-cap; a man in loose black robes with a white neckhandkerchief, and
+a burly, surly fellow, in black cloth, bareheaded, and having a curling
+jetty beard around his heavy jaws. It is but a moment, that, standing
+on tiptoe, you catch this scene. The priest stretches his hand toward
+the people, and says some unintelligible words; those of the mob curse
+each other, and some scream out that they are dying in the press. Then
+the scaffold is clear; the woman stands alone,--God forgive her!--and
+when you look again, a bundle of old clothes, tipped with a sugar-loaf,
+is all that is visible, and the gallows-cord is very straight and tight.
+For the last chapter, consult the graveyard within the jail walls!
+
+The guillotining which I witnessed in Paris, in the month of June, 1864,
+may be deemed worthy of an extended description:--
+
+Couty de la Pommerais was a young physician of Paris, descended from a
+fine family, and educated beyond the requirements of a French Faculty.
+He was handsome and manly, and gave evidences of ambition at an early
+age. He was popularly called the Comte de la Pommerais, and at the time
+of his apprehension, was expecting a decoration from the Papal
+Government, with the rank he desired. Like all French students, he was
+incontinent, and had several mistresses. The last of these was a widow
+named Pauw, who appears to have loved him sincerely. She had some little
+fortune, which they consumed together; and then la Pommerais married a
+rich young lady, with whom he lived one year. Her mother died suddenly
+at the end of that time, and as la Pommerais was interested in getting
+certain moneys which the elder lady controlled, the manner of her death
+led to suspicions of poisoning. However, the woman was interred, but the
+son-in-law was not so fortunate as he supposed, and he ceased to live
+with his wife, but returned to Madame Pauw, who still adored him. Upon
+this fond, foolish woman he seems to have premeditated a deep and
+intricate crime; and it was for this that he suffered death. She must
+have been dishonest like himself, for she consented to a scheme of
+swindling the insurance companies; but, unlike himself, she lacked the
+wit to be silent, and was heard to hint mysteriously that she should
+soon be grand and happy. La Pommerais persuaded her to have her life
+insured, which was done for 515,000 francs, or upward of $100,000. When
+the matter had transpired some time, he persuaded her to feign sickness.
+The simple woman asked why she should do so.
+
+"The insurance people," he replied, "will, when they consider that you
+are dangerously ill, prefer to give you 100,000f., rather than pay the
+515,000f. in the certainty of your death. You can give them up your
+policy, accept the compromise, get well again, and be rich."
+
+Yet this counterfeited sickness was meant by the villain to prepare the
+neighbors of Mme. Pauw for the death which he intended to ensue. He was
+to make it known to all, that she was dangerously ill; she was to uphold
+his testimony; and he was to kill her in due time, and take the whole of
+the insurance. At length, the farce was finished. La Pommerais gave to
+Mme. Pauw, a poison difficult to detect, called _digitalline_, the
+essential principle of our common foxglove; she died unconscious of his
+deception, loving him to the last, and he claimed the 515,000 francs at
+the insurance office. He was suspected, accused, and tried. The old
+suspicions relative to his mother-in-law were revived; the bodies were
+exhumed and examined; upon evidence entirely circumstantial and
+technical, he was convicted, and sentenced to be guillotined. His
+learning and standing made the trial a famous one; his bearing during
+the long proceedings was calm and collected; he was handsome, and had
+much sympathy: but the jury found him guilty, and the Emperor refused to
+extend his clemency to the case. He was put in a strait jacket and
+locked up in La Roquette, the prison for the condemned.
+
+The prison of _La Roquette_ (or the Rocket Prison) is situated in the
+eastern suburbs of Paris, a mile beyond the Bastile. It does not look
+unlike our American jails; a high exterior wall of rough stone, over the
+top of which one gets a glimpse of the prison gables, with a huge gate
+in the arched portal, guarded forever by sentinels. Before this gate is
+a small open plot of ground, planted with trees. _Rue de la Roquette_
+passes between it and a second prison, immediately facing the first,
+called the _Prison des Jeunes Detenus_, or, as we would say in America,
+the "House of Refuge." Standing between the two jails, and looking away
+from Paris, one will see the great metropolitan cemetery of _Père la
+Chaise_, scarcely a stone's throw distant, and behind him will be the
+great _abbatoir_ or public slaughter-house of Menilmontant, with the
+vast area of roofs and spires of Paris stretching beyond it to the
+horizon. It was to this region of vacant lots and lonesome, glowering
+houses, that thousands of Parisians bent their steps the night before
+the execution. The news had gone abroad that la Pommerais would not be
+pardoned. It was also generally credited that this would be the last
+execution ever held in Paris, since there is a general desire for the
+abolition of capital punishment in France, and a conviction that the
+Legislature, at its next session, will substitute life-imprisonment.
+This, with the rarity of the event, and that terrible allurement of
+blood which distinguishes all populaces, brought out all the excitable
+folk of the town; and at dusk, on the night before the expiation, the
+whole neighborhood of La Roquette was crowded with men and women. All
+classes of Parisians were there,--the _blouses_, or workingmen, standing
+first in number; the students from the Latin Quartier being well
+represented, and idlers, and well-dressed nondescripts without
+enumeration,--distributing themselves among women, dogs, and babies.
+
+Venders of _gateaux_, muscles, and fruit were out in force. The "Savage
+of Paris," clothed in his war plumes, paint, greaves, armlets, and
+moccasins, was selling razors by gaslight; here and there ballad-mongers
+were singing the latest songs, and boys, with chairs to let, elbowed
+into the intricacies of the crowd, which amused itself all the night
+long by smoking, drinking, and hallooing. At last, the mass became
+formidable in numbers, covering every inch of ground within sight of the
+prison, and many soldiers and _sergeants de ville_, mounted and on foot,
+pushed through the dense mass to restore order.
+
+At midnight, a body of cavalry forced back the people from the square of
+La Roquette. A number of workmen, issuing from the prison-gates,
+proceeded to set up the instrument of death by the light of blazing
+torches. The flame lit up the dark jail walls, and shone on the helmets
+and cuirasses of the sabre-men, and flared upon spots of the upturned
+faces, now bringing them into strong, ruddy relief, now plunging them
+into shadow. When the several pieces had been framed together, we had a
+real guillotine in view,--the same spectre at which thousands of good
+and bad men had shuddered; and the folks around it, peering up so
+eagerly, were descendants of those who stood on the _Place de la
+Concorde_ to witness the head of a king roll into the common basket.
+Imagine two tall, straight timbers, a foot apart, rising fifteen feet
+from the ground. They are grooved, and spring from a wide platform,
+approached by a flight of steps. At the base, rests a spring-plank or
+_bascule_, to which leather thongs are attached to buckle down the
+victim, and a basket or _pannier_ filled with sawdust to receive the
+severed head. Between these, at their summit, hangs the shining knife in
+its appointed grooves, and a cord, which may be disconnected by a jerk,
+holds it to its position. Two men will be required to work the
+instrument promptly,--the one to bind the condemned, the other to drop
+the axe. The _bascule_ is so arranged that the whole weight and length
+of the trunk will rest upon it, leaving the head and neck free, and when
+prone it will reach to the grooves, leaving space for the knife to pass
+below it. The knife itself is short and wide, with a bright concave
+edge, and a rim of heavy steel ridges it at the top; it moves easily in
+the greased grooves, and may weigh forty pounds. It has a terrible
+fascination, hanging so high and so lightly in the blaze of the torches,
+which play and glitter upon it, and cast stains of red light along its
+keen blade, as if by their brilliance all its past blood-marks had
+become visible again. A child may send it shimmering and crashing to the
+scaffold, but only God can fasten together the warm and throbbing parts
+which it shall soon dissever. And now that the terrible creature has
+been recreated, the workmen slink away, as if afraid of it, and a body
+of soldiers stand guard upon it, as if they fear that it might grow
+thirsty and insatiate as in the days of its youth. The multitude press
+up again, reinforced every hour, and at last the pale day climbs over
+the jail-walls, and waiting people see each other by its glimmer. The
+bells of Notre Dame peal out; a hundred towers fall into the march of
+the music; the early journals are shrieked by French newsboys, and folks
+begin to count the minutes on their watches. There are men on the ground
+who saw the first guillotine at work. They describe the click of the
+cleaver, the steady march of victims upon the scaffold-stairs, the
+rattle of the death-cart turning out of the _Rue Saint Honore_, the
+painted executioners, with their dripping hands, wiping away the jets of
+blood from the hard, rough faces; nay! the step of the young queen,
+white-haired with care, but very beautiful, who bent her body as she had
+never bent her knee, and paid the penalty of her pride with the neck
+which a king had fondled.
+
+At four minutes to six o'clock on Thursday morning, the wicket in the
+prison-gate swung open; the condemned appeared, with his hands tied
+behind his back, and his knees bound together. He walked with
+difficulty, so fettered; but other than the artificial restraints, there
+was no hesitation nor terror in his movements. His hair, which had been
+long, dark, and wavy, was severed close to his scalp; his beard had
+likewise been clipped, and the fine moustache and goatee, which had set
+off his most interesting face, no longer appeared to enhance his
+romantic, expressive physiognomy. Yet his black eyes and cleanly cut
+mouth, nostrils, and eyebrows, demonstrated that Couty de la Pommerais
+was not a beauty dependent upon small accessories. There was a dignity
+even in his painful gait; the coarse prison-shirt, scissored low in the
+neck, exhibited the straight columnar throat and swelling chest; for the
+rest, he wore only a pair of black pantaloons and his own shapely boots.
+As he emerged from the wicket, the chill morning air, laden with the dew
+of the truck gardens near at hand, blew across the open spaces of the
+suburbs, and smote him with a cold chill. He was plainly seen to
+tremble; but in an instant, as if by the mere force of his will, he
+stood motionless, and cast a first and only glance at the guillotine
+straight before him. It was the glance of a man who meets an enemy's
+eye, not shrinkingly, but half-defiant, as if even the bitter
+retribution could not abash his strong courage. The dramatic manner
+which is characteristic of the most real and earnest incidents of French
+life had its fascination for la Pommerais, even at his death-hour. Not
+Mr. Booth nor Mr. Forrest could have expressed the rallying, startling,
+almost thrilling recognition of an instrument of death, better than this
+actual criminal, whose last winkful of daylight was blackened by the
+guillotine. It reminded one of Damon, in the pitch of the tragedy:--
+
+    "I stand upon the scaffold--I am standing on my throne."
+
+His dark eye was scintillant; his nostril grew full; his shoulders fell
+back as if to exhibit his broad, compact figure in manlier outline; he
+seemed to feel that forty thousand men and women, and young children
+were looking upon him to see how he dared to die, and that for a
+generation his bearing should go into fireside descriptions. Then he
+moved on between the files of soldiers at his shuffling pace, and before
+him went the _aumonier_ or chaplain, swaying the crucifix, behind him
+the executioner of Versailles--a rough and bearded man--to assist in the
+final horror.
+
+It was at this intense moment a most wonderful spectacle. As the
+prisoner had first appeared, a single great shout had shaken the
+multitude. It was the French word "_Voila!_" which means "Behold!"
+"See!" Then every spectator stood on tiptoe; the silence of death
+succeeded; all the close street was undulant with human motion; a few
+house roofs near by were dizzy with folks who gazed down from the tiles;
+all the way up the heights of Père la Chaise, among the pale chapels and
+monuments of the dead, the thousands of stirred beings swung and shook
+like so many drowned corpses floating on the sea. Every eye and mind
+turned to the little structure raised among the trees, on the space
+before _La Roquette_, and there they saw a dark, shaven, disrobed young
+man, going quietly toward his grave.
+
+He mounted the steps deliberately, looking toward his feet; the priest
+held up the crucifix, and he felt it was there, but did not see it; his
+lips one moment touched the image of Christ, but he did not look up nor
+speak; then, as he gained the last step, the _bascule_ or swingboard
+sprang up before him; the executioner gave him a single push, and he
+fell prone upon the plank, with his face downward; it gave way before
+him, bearing him into the space between the upright beams, and he lay
+horizontally beneath the knife, presenting the back of his neck to it.
+Thus resting, he could look into the _pannier_ or basket, into whose
+sawdust lining his head was to drop in a moment. And in that awful
+space, while all the people gazed with their fingers tingling, the
+legitimate Parisian executioner gave a jerk at the cord which held the
+fatal knife. With a quick, keen sound, the steel became detached; it
+fell hurtling through the grooves; it struck something with a dead, dumb
+thump; a jet of bright blood spurted into the light, and dyed the face
+of an attendant horribly red; and Couty de la Pommerais's head lay in
+the sawdust of the pannier, while every vein in the lopped trunk
+trickled upon the scaffold-floor! They threw a cloth upon the carcass
+and carried away the pannier; the guillotine disappeared beneath the
+surrounding heads; loud exclamations and acclaims burst from the
+multitude; the venders of trash and edibles resumed their cheerful
+cries, and a hearse dashed through the mass, carrying the warm body of
+the guillotined to the cemetery of Mt. Parnasse. In thirty minutes,
+newsboys were hawking the scene of the execution upon all the quays and
+bridges. In every café of Paris some witness was telling the incidents
+of the show to breathless listeners, and the crowds which stopped to see
+the funeral procession of the great Marshal Pelissier divided their
+attention between the warrior and the poisoner,--the latter obtaining
+the preponderance of fame.
+
+I wonder sometimes, if the ultimate penalty, however enforced, greatly
+assists example, or dignifies justice. But this would involve a very
+long controversy, over which many sage heads have sadly ached.
+
+In the open daylight, when my face is shining, and my life secure, I
+take the humanitarian side, and denounce the barbarities of the gibbet.
+
+But when I come down the dark stairs of the daily paper office, after
+midnight, and see three or four stealthy fellows hiding in the shadows,
+and go up the black city unarmed with my pocket full of greenbacks, I
+think the gallows quite essential as a warning, and indorse it, even
+after seventeen executions.
+
+So end my desultory chapters of desultory life. It has been, in the
+arranging of them, difficult to reject material,--not to select it. I am
+amazed to find what a world of dead leaves lies around my feet, as if I
+were a tree that blossomed and shed its covering every day. There are
+baskets-full of copy still remaining, from which the temptation is great
+to gather. It is sad to have written so much at twenty-five, and yet to
+have only drifting convictions. I may have succeeded in depicting the
+lives of certain young gentlemen who reported the war. All of us, who
+were young, loved the business, and were glad to quit it. For myself, I
+am weary of travel; rather than publish again from these fragments of my
+fugitive life, let me weave their material into a more poetic story,
+softened by some years of stay at home.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by 
+George Alfred Townsend
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23340-8.txt or 23340-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/3/4/23340/
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/23340-8.zip b/23340-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0524651
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-8.zip
diff --git a/23340-h.zip b/23340-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fe8007
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-h.zip
diff --git a/23340-h/23340-h.htm b/23340-h/23340-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4fb35a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-h/23340-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,12054 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Campaigns Of A Non-combatant, by Geo. Alfred Townsend.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+             visibility: hidden;
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+
+
+    div.trans-note {border-style: solid; border-width: 1px;
+          margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: center;}
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i11     {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i12     {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i6     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by George Alfred Townsend
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,
+       and His Romaunt Abroad During the War
+
+Author: George Alfred Townsend
+
+Release Date: November 5, 2007 [EBook #23340]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>CAMPAIGNS</h1>
+
+<h4>OF</h4>
+
+<h1>A NON-COMBATANT,</h1>
+
+<h4>AND HIS</h4>
+
+<h3>ROMAUNT ABROAD DURING THE WAR.</h3>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK:<br />
+BLELOCK &amp; COMPANY,<br />
+19 <span class="smcap">Beekman Street</span>,<br />
+1866.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by</p>
+
+<p class="center">GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND,</p>
+
+<p class="center">In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+Southern District of New York.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scrymgeour, Whitcomb &amp; Co.</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="center">Stereotypers,</p>
+
+<p class="center">15 <span class="smcap">Water Street, Boston</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="trans-note">
+<p class="center">Inconsistency in hyphenation in this etext is as in the original book.</p>
+
+      </div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="TO" id="TO"></a>TO</h3>
+
+<h2>"Miles O'Reilly,"</h2>
+<p>Who saw the war as vividly as he sang it; and whose aims for the peace
+that has ensued, are even nobler than the noble influence he exerted
+during the struggle, these chapters of travel are inscribed by his
+friend and colleague.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the early part of 1863, while I was resident in London,&mdash;the first of
+the War Correspondents to go abroad,&mdash;I wrote, at the request of Mr.
+George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill Magazine, a series of chapters
+upon the Rebellion, thus introduced:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Few wars have been so well chronicled, as that now desolating
+America. Its official narratives have been copious; the great
+newspapers of the land have been represented in all its campaigns;
+private enterprise has classified and illustrated its several
+events, and delegates of foreign countries have been allowed to
+mingle freely with its soldiery, and to observe and describe its
+battles. The pen and the camera have accompanied its bayonets, and
+there has not probably been any skirmish, however insignificant,
+but a score of zealous scribes have remarked and recorded it.</p>
+
+<p>"I have employed some leisure hours afforded me in Europe, to
+detail those parts of the struggle which I witnessed in a civil
+capacity. The Sketches which follow are entirely personal, and
+dwell less upon routine incidents, plans, and statistics, than upon
+those lighter phases of war which fall beneath the dignity of
+severe history and are seldom related. I have endeavored to
+reproduce not only the adventures, but the impressions of a
+novitiate, and I have described not merely the army and its
+operations, but the country invaded, and the people who inhabit it.</p>
+
+<p>"The most that I have hoped to do, is so to simplify a campaign
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>that the reader may realize it as if he had beheld it, travelling
+at will, as I did, and with no greater interest than to see how
+fields were fought and won." </p></div>
+
+<p>To those chapters, I have added in this collection, some estimates of
+American life in Europe, and some European estimates of American life;
+with my ultimate experiences in the War after my return to my own
+country. I cannot hope that they will be received with the same favor,
+either here or abroad, as that which greeted their original publication.
+But no man ought to let the first four years of his majority slip away
+unrecorded. I would rather publish a tolerable book now than a possibly
+good one hereafter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CAMPAIGNS_OF_A_NON-COMBATANT" id="CAMPAIGNS_OF_A_NON-COMBATANT"></a>CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT,</h2>
+
+<h4>AND HIS</h4>
+
+<h3>Romaunt abroad during the War.</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_1" id="CHAPTER_1"></a>CHAPTER 1.</h2>
+
+<h3>MY IMPRESSMENT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. Townsend," said
+Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other day,&mdash;"Ben. Franklin wrote for the
+paper, and set type upon it. The press was imported from England in
+1730, or thereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>He produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and then laid it away in
+its drawer very sacredly.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said,&mdash;"there would
+be no necessity in such a case of getting off six columns for to-night's
+mail."</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, "I have a theory that a man
+grows up to machinery. As your day so shall your strength be. I believe
+you have telegraphed up to a House instrument, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, "your memory is too good.
+This is Newport, and I have come down to see the surf. Pray, do not
+remind me of hot hours in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse
+dispatch, and work far into the midnight!"</p>
+
+<p>So I left Mr. Pratt, of the Newport <i>Mercury</i>, with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> ostentation of
+affront, and bade James Brady, the boatman, hoist sail and carry me over
+to Dumpling Rocks.</p>
+
+<p>On the grassy parapet of the crumbling tower which once served the
+purposes of a fort, the transparent water hungering at its base, the
+rocks covered with fringe spotting the channel, the ocean on my right
+hand lost in its own vastness, and Newport out of mind save when the
+town bells rang, or the dip of oars beat in the still swell of
+Narragansett,&mdash;&mdash; I lay down, chafing and out of temper, to curse the
+only pleasurable labor I had ever undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>To me all places were workshops: the seaside, the springs, the summer
+mountains, the cataracts, the theatres, the panoramas of islet-fondled
+rivers speeding by strange cities. I was condemned to look upon them all
+with mercenary eyes, to turn their gladness into torpid prose, and speak
+their praises in turgid columns. Never nepenthe, never <i>abandonne</i>,
+always wide-awake, and watching for saliences, I had gone abroad like a
+falcon, and roamed at home like a hungry jackal. Six fingers on my hand,
+one long and pointed, and ever dropping gall; the ineradicable stain
+upon my thumb; the widest of my circuits, with all my adventure, a
+paltry sheet of foolscap; and the world in which I dwelt, no place for
+thought, or dreaminess, or love-making,&mdash;only the fierce, fast, flippant
+existence of news!</p>
+
+<p>And with this inward execration, I lay on Dumpling Rocks, looking to
+sea, and recalled the first fond hours of my newspaper life.</p>
+
+<p>To be a subject of old Hoe, the most voracious of men, I gave up the
+choice of three sage professions, and the sweet alternative of idling
+husbandry.</p>
+
+<p>The day I graduated saw me an <i>attach&eacute;</i> of the Philadelphia <i>Chameleon</i>.
+I was to receive three dollars a week and be the heir to lordly
+prospects. In the long course of persevering years I might sit in the
+cushions of the night-editor, or speak of the striplings around me as
+"<i>my</i> reporters."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing which you cannot attain," said Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> Axiom, my
+employer,&mdash;"think of the influence you exercise!&mdash;more than a clergyman;
+Horace Greeley was an editor; so was George D. Prentice; the first has
+just been defeated for Congress; the last lectured last night and got
+fifty dollars for it."</p>
+
+<p>Hereat I was greatly encouraged, and proposed to write a leader for next
+day's paper upon the evils of the Fire Department.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," said Mr. Axiom, "you would ruin our circulation at a wink;
+what would become of our ball column? in case of a fire in the building
+we couldn't get a hose to play on it. Oh! no, Alfred, writing leaders is
+hard and dangerous; I want you first to learn the use of a beautiful
+pair of scissors."</p>
+
+<p>I looked blank and chopfallen.</p>
+
+<p>"No man can write a good hand or a good style," he said, "without
+experience with scissors. They give your palm flexibility and that is
+soon imparted to the mind. But perfection is attained by an alternate
+use of the scissors and the pen; if a little paste be prescribed at the
+same time, cohesion and steadfastness is imparted to the man."</p>
+
+<p>His reasoning was incontrovertible; but I damned his conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>So, I spent one month in slashing several hundred exchanges a day, and
+paragraphing all the items. These reappeared in a column called "<span class="smcap">THE
+LATEST INFORMATION</span>," and when I found them copied into another journal,
+a flush of satisfaction rose to my face.</p>
+
+<p>The editor of the <i>Chameleon</i> was an old journalist, whose face was a
+sealed book of Confucius, and who talked to me, patronizingly, now and
+then, like the Delphic Oracle. His name was Watch, and he wore a
+prodigious pearl in his shirt-bosom. He crept up to the editorial room
+at nine o'clock every night, and dashed off an hour's worth of
+glittering generalities, at the end of which time two or three
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>gentlemen, blooming at the nose, and with cheeks resembling a map drawn
+in red ink, sounded the pipe below stairs, and Mr. Watch said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Townsend, I look to you to be on hand to-night; I am called away by
+the Water-Gas Company."</p>
+
+<p>Then, with enthusiasm up to blood-heat, aroused by this mark of
+confidence, I used to set to, and scissor and write till three o'clock,
+while Mr. Watch talked water-gas over brandy and water, and drew his
+thirty dollars punctually on Saturdays.</p>
+
+<p>So it happened that my news paragraphs, sometimes pointedly turned into
+a reflection, crept into the editorial columns, when water-gas was
+lively. Venturing more and more, the clipper finally indited a leader;
+and Mr. Watch, whose nose water-gas was reddening, applauded me, and
+told me in his sublime way, that, as a special favor, I might write all
+the leaders the next night. Mr. Watch was seen no more in the sanctum
+for a week, and my three dollars carried on the concern.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned, he generously gave me a dollar, and said that he had
+spoken of me to the Water-Gas Company as a capital secretary. Then he
+wrote me a pass for the Arch Street Theatre, and told me, benevolently,
+to go off and rest that night.</p>
+
+<p>For a month or more the responsibility of the <i>Chameleon</i> devolved
+almost entirely upon me. Child that I was, knowing no world but my own
+vanity, and pleased with those who fed its sensitive love of approbation
+rather than with the just and reticent, I harbored no distrust till one
+day when Axiom visited the office, and I was drawing my three dollars
+from the treasurer, I heard Mr. Watch exclaim, within the publisher's
+room&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Did you read my article on the Homestead Bill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Axiom; "it was quite clever; your leaders are more alive
+and epigrammatic than they were."</p>
+
+<p>I could stand it no more. I bolted into the office, and cried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The article on the Homestead Bill is mine, so is every other article in
+to-day's paper. Mr. Watch does not tell the truth; he is ungenerous!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's this, Watch?" said Axiom.</p>
+
+<p>"Alfred," exclaimed Mr. Watch, majestically, "adopts my suggestions very
+readily, and is quite industrious. I recommend that we raise his salary
+to five dollars a week. That is a large sum for a lad."</p>
+
+<p>That night the manuscript was overhauled in the composing room. Watch's
+dereliction was manifest; but not a word was said commendatory of my
+labor; it was feared I might take "airs," or covet a further increase of
+wages. I only missed Watch's hugh pearl, and heard that he had been
+discharged, and was myself taken from the drudgery of the scissors, and
+made a reporter.</p>
+
+<p>All this was very recent, yet to me so far remote, that as I recall it
+all, I wonder if I am not old, and feel nervously of my hairs. For in
+the five intervening years I have ridden at Hoe speed down the groove of
+my steel-pen.</p>
+
+<p>The pen is my traction engine; it has gone through worlds of fancy and
+reflection, dragging me behind it; and long experience has given it so
+great facility, that I have only to fire up, whistle, and fix my
+couplings, and away goes my locomotive with no end of cars in train.</p>
+
+<p>Few journalists, beginning at the bottom, do not weary of the ladder ere
+they climb high. Few of such, or of others more enthusiastic, recall the
+early associations of "the office" with pleasure. Yet there is no world
+more grotesque, none, at least in America, more capable of fictitious
+illustration. Around a newspaper all the dramatis person&aelig; of the world
+congregate; within it there are staid idiosyncratic folk who admit of
+all kindly caricature.</p>
+
+<p>I summon from that humming and hurly-burly past, the ancient
+proof-reader. He wears a green shade over his eyes and the gas burner is
+drawn very low to darken the bald and wrinkled contour of his forehead.
+He is severe in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> judgment and spells rigidly by the Johnsonian standard.
+He punctuates by an obdurate and conscientious method, and will have no
+italics upon any pretext. He will lend you money, will eat with you,
+drink with you, and encourage you; but he will not punctuate with you,
+spell with you, nor accept any of your suggestions as to typography or
+paragraphing whatsoever. He wears slippers and smokes a primitive clay
+pipe; he has everything in its place, and you cannot offend him more
+than by looking over any proof except when he is holding it. A chip of
+himself is the copyholder at his side,&mdash;a meagre, freckled, matter of
+fact youth, who reads your tenderest sentences in a rapid monotone, and
+is never known to venture any opinion or suggestion whatever. This boy,
+I am bound to say, will follow the copy if it be all consonants, and
+will accompany it if it flies out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>The office clerk was my bane and admiration. He was presumed by the
+verdant patrons of the paper to be its owner and principal editor, its
+type-setter, pressman, and carrier. His hair was elaborately curled, and
+his ears were perfect racks of long and dandyfied pens; a broad,
+shovel-shaped gold pen lay forever opposite his high stool; he had an
+arrogant and patronizing address, and was the perpetual cabbager of
+editorial perquisites. Books, ball-tickets, season-tickets, pictures,
+disappeared in his indiscriminate fist, and he promised notices which he
+could not write to no end of applicants. He was to be seen at the
+theatre every night, and he was the dashing escort of the proprietor's
+wife, who preferred his jaunty coat and highly-polished boots to the
+less elaborate wardrobe of us writers. That this noble and fashionable
+creature could descend to writing wrappers, and to waiting his turn with
+a bank-book in the long train of a sordid teller, passed all speculation
+and astonishment. He made a sorry fag of the office boy, and advised us
+every day to beware of cutting the files, as if that were the one vice
+of authors. To him we stole, with humiliated faces, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> begged a
+trifling advance of salary. He sternly requested us not to encroach
+behind the counter&mdash;his own indisputable domain&mdash;but sometimes asked us
+to watch the office while he drank with a theatrical agent at the
+nearest bar. He was an inveterate gossip, and endowed with a damnable
+love of slipshod argument; the only oral censor upon our compositions,
+he hailed us with all the complaints made at his solicitation by
+irascible subscribers, and stood in awe of the cashier only, who
+frequently, to our delight and surprise, combed him over, and drove him
+to us for sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>The foreman was still our power behind the throne; he left out our copy
+on mechanical grounds, and put it in for our modesty and sophistry. In
+his broad, hot room, all flaring with gas, he stood at a flat stone like
+a surgeon, and took forms to pieces and dissected huge columns of
+pregnant metal, and paid off the hands with fabulous amounts of
+uncurrent bank bills. His wife and he went thrice a year on excursions
+to the sea-side, and he was forever borrowing a dollar from somebody to
+treat the lender and himself.</p>
+
+<p>The ship-news man could be seen towards the small-hours, writing his
+highly imaginative department, which showed how the Sally Ann, Master
+Todd, arrived leaky in Bombay harbor; and there were stacks of newsboys
+asleep on the boilers, fighting in their dreams for the possession of a
+fragment of a many-cornered blanket.</p>
+
+<p>These, like myself, went into the halcyon land of Nod to the music of a
+crashing press, and swarmed about it at the dawn like so many gad flies
+about an ox, to carry into the awakening city the rhetoric and the
+rubbish I had written.</p>
+
+<p>And still they go, and still the great press toils along, and still am I
+its slave and keeper, who sit here by the proud, free sea, and feel like
+Sinbad, that to a terrible old man I have sold my youth, my convictions,
+my love, my life!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WAR CORRESPONDENT'S FIRST DAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Looking back over the four years of the war, and noting how indurated I
+have at last become, both in body and in emotion, I recall with a sigh
+that first morning of my correspondentship when I set out so
+light-hearted and yet so anxious. It was in 1861. I was accompanied to
+the War department by an <i>attach&eacute;</i> of the United States Senate. The new
+Secretary, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, referred me to a Mr. Sanford, "Military
+Supervisor of Army Intelligence," and after a brief delay I was
+requested to sign a parole and duplicate, specifying my loyalty to the
+Federal Government, and my promise to publish nothing detrimental to its
+interests. I was then given a circular, which stated explicitly the kind
+of news termed contraband, and also a printed pass, filled in with my
+name, age, residence, and newspaper connection. The latter enjoined upon
+all guards to pass me in and out of camps; and authorized persons in
+Government employ to furnish me with information.</p>
+
+<p>Our Washington Superintendent sent me a beast, and in compliment to what
+the animal might have been, called the same a horse. I wish to protest,
+in this record, against any such misnomer. The creature possessed no
+single equine element. Experience has satisfied me that horses stand on
+four legs; the horse in question stood upon three. Horses may either
+pace, trot, run, rack, or gallop; but mine made all the five movements
+at once. I think I may call his gait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> an eccentric stumble. That he had
+endurance I admit; for he survived perpetual beating; and his beauty
+might have been apparent to an anatomist, but would be scouted by the
+world at large. I asked, ruefully, if I was expected to go into battle
+so mounted; but was peremptorily forbidden, as a valuable property might
+be endangered thereby. I was assigned to the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps
+in the anticipated advance, and my friend, the <i>attach&eacute;</i>, accompanied me
+to its rendezvous at Hunter's Mills. We started at two o'clock, and
+occupied an hour in passing the city limits. I calculated that,
+advancing at the same ratio, we should arrive in camp at noon next day.
+We presented ludicrous figures to the grim sabremen that sat erect at
+street corners, and ladies at the windows of the dwellings smothered
+with suppressed laughter as we floundered along. My friend had the
+better horse; but I was the better rider; and if at any time I grew
+wrathful at my sorry plight, I had but to look at his and be happy
+again. He appeared to be riding on the neck of his beast, and when he
+attempted to deceive me with a smile, his face became horribly
+contorted. Directly his breeches worked above his boots, and his bare
+calves were objects of hopeless solicitude. Caricatures, rather than
+men, we toiled bruisedly through Georgetown, and falling in the wake of
+supply teams on the Leesburg turnpike, rode between the Potomac on one
+side and the dry bed of the canal on the other, till we came at last to
+Chain Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>There was a grand view from the point of Little Falls above, where a
+line of foamy cataracts ridged the river, and the rocks towered gloomily
+on either hand: and of the city below, with its buildings of pure
+marble, and the yellow earthworks that crested Arlington Heights. The
+clouds over the Potomac were gorgeous in hue, but forests of melancholy
+pine clothed the sides of the hills, and the roar of the river made such
+beautiful monotone that I almost thought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>it could be translated to
+words. Our passes were now demanded by a fat, bareheaded officer, and
+while he panted through their contents, two privates crossed their
+bayonets before us.</p>
+
+<p>"News?" he said, in the shortest remark of which he was capable. When
+assured that we had nothing to reveal, he seemed immeasurably relieved,
+and added&mdash;"Great labor, reading!" At this his face grew so dreadfully
+purple that I begged him to sit down, and tax himself with no further
+exertion. He wiped his forehead, in reply, gasping like a triton, and
+muttering the expressive direction, "right!" disappeared into a
+guard-box. The two privates winked as they removed their muskets, and we
+both laughed immoderately when out of hearing. Our backs were now turned
+to the Maryland shore, and jutting grimly from the hill before us, the
+black guns of Fort Ethan Allen pointed down the bridge. A double line of
+sharp abattis protected it from assault, and sentries walked lazily up
+and down the parapet. The colors hung against the mast in the dead calm,
+and the smoke curled straight upward from some log-huts within the fort.
+The wildness of the surrounding landscape was most remarkable. Within
+sight of the Capital of the Republic, the fox yet kept the covert, and
+the farms were few and far apart. It seemed to me that little had been
+done to clear the country of its primeval timber, and the war had
+accomplished more to give evidence of man and industry, than two
+centuries of occupation. A military road had been cut through the solid
+rocks here; and the original turnpike, which had been little more than a
+cart track, was now graded and macadamized. I passed multitudes of
+teams, struggling up the slopes, and the carcasses of mules littered
+every rod of the way. The profanity of the teamsters was painfully
+apparent. I came unobserved upon one who was berating his beasts with a
+refinement of cruelty. He cursed each of them separately, swinging his
+long-lashed whip the while, and then damned the six in mass. He would
+have made a dutiful overseer. The sol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>diers had shown quite as little
+consideration for the residences along the way. I came to one dwelling
+where some pertinacious Vandal had even pried out the window-frames, and
+imperilled his neck to tear out the roof-beams; a dead vulture was
+pinned over the door by pieces of broken bayonets.</p>
+
+<p>"Langley's,"&mdash;a few plank-houses, clustering around a tavern and a
+church,&mdash;is one of those settlements whose sounding names beguile the
+reader into an idea of their importance. A lonesome haunt in time of
+peace, it had lately been the winter quarters of fifteen thousand
+soldiers, and a multitude of log huts had grown up around it. I tied my
+horse to the window-shutter of a dwelling, and picked my way over a
+slimy sidewalk to the ricketty tavern-porch. Four or five privates lay
+here fast asleep, and the bar-room was occupied by a bevy of young
+officers, who were emptying the contents of sundry pocket-flasks. Behind
+the bar sat a person with strongly-marked Hebrew features, and a
+watchmaker was plying his avocation in a corner. Two great dogs crouched
+under a bench, and some highly-colored portraits were nailed to the
+wall. The floor was bare, and some clothing and miscellaneous articles
+hung from beams in the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this your house?" I said to the Hebrew.</p>
+
+<p>"I keepsh it now."</p>
+
+<p>"By right or by conquest?"</p>
+
+<p>"By ze right of conquest," he said, laughing; and at once proposed to
+sell me a bootjack and an India-rubber overcoat. I compromised upon a
+haversack, which he filled with sandwiches and sardines, and which I am
+bound to say fell apart in the course of the afternoon. The watchmaker
+was an enterprising young fellow, who had resigned his place in a large
+Broadway establishment, to speculate in cheap jewelry and do itinerant
+repairing. He says that he followed the "Army Paymasters, and sold
+numbers of watches, at good premiums, when the troops had money."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+Soldiers, he informed me, were reckless spendthrifts; and the prey of
+sutlers and sharpers. When there was nothing at hand to purchase, they
+gambled away their wages, and most of them left the service penniless
+and in debt. He thought it perfectly legitimate to secure some silver
+while "going," but complained that the value of his stock rendered him
+liable to theft and murder. "There are men in every regiment," said he,
+"who would blow out my brains in any lonely place to plunder me of these
+watches."</p>
+
+<p>At this point, a young officer, in a fit of bacchanal laughter,
+staggered rather roughly against me.</p>
+
+<p>"Begurpardon," he said, with an unsteady bow, "never ran against person
+in life before."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled assuringly, but he appeared to think the offence unpardonable.</p>
+
+<p>"Do asshu a, on honor of gentlemand officer, not in custom of behaving
+offensively. Azo! leave it to my friends. Entirely due to injuries
+received at battle Drainesville."</p>
+
+<p>As the other gentlemen laughed loudly here, I took it for granted that
+my apologist had some personal hallucination relative to that
+engagement.</p>
+
+<p>"What giggling for, Bob?" he said; "honor concerned in this matter,
+Will! Do asshu a, fell under Colonel's horse, and Company A walked over
+small of my back." The other officers were only less inebriated and most
+of them spoke boastfully of their personal prowess at Drainesville. This
+was the only engagement in which the Pennsylvania Reserves had yet
+participated, and few officers that I met did not ascribe the victory
+entirely to their own individual gallantry. I inquired of these
+gentlemen the route to the new encampments of the Reserves. They lay
+five miles south of the turnpike, close to the Loudon and Hampshire
+railroad, and along both sides of an unfrequented lane. They formed in
+this position the right wing of the Army of the Potomac, and had been
+ordered to hold themselves in hourly readiness for an advance. By this
+time, my friend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> S. came up, and leaving him to restore his mortified
+body, I crossed the road to the churchyard and peered through the open
+door into the edifice. The seats of painted pine had been covered with
+planks, and a sick man lay above every pew. At the ringing of my spurs
+in the threshold, some of the sufferers looked up through the red eyes
+of fever, and the faces of others were spectrally white. A few groaned
+as they turned with difficulty, and some shrank in pain from the glare
+of the light. Medicines were kept in the altar-place, and a doctor's
+clerk was writing requisitions in the pulpit. The sickening smell of the
+hospital forbade me to enter, and walking across the trampled yard, I
+crept through a rent in the paling, and examined the huts in which the
+Reserves had passed the winter. They were built of logs, plastered with
+mud, and the roofs of some were thatched with straw. Each cabin was
+pierced for two or more windows; the beds were simply shelves or berths;
+a rough fireplace of stones and clay communicated with the wooden
+chimney; and the floors were in most cases damp and bare. Streets,
+fancifully designated, divided the settlement irregularly; but the
+tenements were now all deserted save one, where I found a whole family
+of "contrabands" or fugitive slaves. These wretched beings, seven in
+number, had escaped from a plantation in Albemarle county, and
+travelling stealthily by night, over two hundred miles of precipitous
+country, reached the Federal lines on the thirteenth day. The husband
+said that his name was "Jeems," and that his wife was called "Kitty;"
+that his youngest boy had passed the mature age of eight months, and
+that the "big girl, Rosy," was "twelve years Christmas comin'." While
+the troops remained at Langley's, the man was employed at seventy-five
+cents a week to attend to an officer's horse. Kitty and Rose cooked and
+washed for soldiers, and the boys ran errands to Washington and
+return,&mdash;twenty-five miles! The eldest boy, Jefferson, had been given
+the use of a crippled team-horse, and traded in news<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>papers, but having
+confused ideas of the relative value of coins, his profits were only
+moderate. The nag died before the troops removed, and a sutler, under
+pretence of securing their passage to the North, disappeared with the
+little they had saved. They were quite destitute now, but looked to the
+future with no foreboding, and huddled together in the straw, made a
+picture of domestic felicity that impressed me greatly with the
+docility, contentment, and unfailing good humor of their dusky tribe.
+The eyes of the children were large and lustrous, and they revealed the
+clear pearls beneath their lips as they clung bashfully to their
+mother's lap. The old lady was smoking a clay pipe; the man running over
+some castaway jackets and boots. I remarked particularly the broad
+shoulders and athletic arms of the woman, whose many childbirths had
+left no traces upon her comeliness. She asked me, wistfully: "Masser,
+how fur to de nawf?"</p>
+
+<p>"A long way," said I, "perhaps two hundred miles."</p>
+
+<p>"Lawd!" she said, buoyantly&mdash;"is dat all? Why, Jeems, couldn't we foot
+it, honey?"</p>
+
+<p>"You a most guv out before, ole 'oman," he replied; "got a good ruff
+over de head now. Guess de white massar won't let um starve."</p>
+
+<p>I tossed some coppers to the children and gave each a sandwich.</p>
+
+<p>"You get up dar, John Thomas!" called the man vigorously; "you tank de
+gentleman, Jefferson, boy! I wonda wha your manners is. Tank you,
+massar! know'd you was a gentleman, sar! Massar, is your family from ole
+Virginny?"</p>
+
+<p>It was five o'clock when I rejoined S., and the greater part of our
+journey had yet to be made. I went at his creeping pace until courtesy
+yielded to impatience, when spurring my Pegasus vigorously, he fell into
+a bouncing amble and left the <i>attach&eacute;</i> far behind. My pass was again
+demanded above Langley's by a man who ate apples as he examined it, and
+who was disposed to hold a long parley.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> I entered a region of scrub
+timber further on, and met with nothing human for four miles, at the end
+of which distance I reached Difficult Creek, flowing through a rocky
+ravine, and crossed by a military bridge of logs. Through the thick
+woods to the right, I heard the roar of the Potomac, and a finger-board
+indicated that I was opposite Great Falls. Three or four dead horses lay
+at the roadside beyond the stream, and I recalled the place as the scene
+of a recent cavalry encounter. A cartridge-box and a torn felt hat lay
+close to the carcasses: I knew that some soul had gone hence to its
+account.</p>
+
+<p>The road now kept to the left obliquely, and much of my ride was made
+musical by the stream. Darkness closed solemnly about me, with seven
+miles of the journey yet to accomplish, and as, at eight o'clock, I
+turned from the turnpike into a lonesome by-road, full of ruts, pools,
+and quicksands, a feeling of delicious uneasiness for the first time
+possessed me. Some owls hooted in the depth of the woods, and wild pigs,
+darting across the road, went crashing into the bushes. The
+phosphorescent bark of a blasted tree glimmered on a neighboring knoll,
+and as I halted at a rivulet to water my beast, I saw a solitary star
+floating down the ripples. Directly I came upon a clearing where the
+moonlight shone through the rents of a crumbling dwelling, and from the
+far distance broke the faint howl of farm dogs. A sense of insecurity
+that I would not for worlds have resigned, now tingled, now chilled my
+blood. At last, climbing a stony hill, the skies lay beneath me
+reddening with the flame of camps and flaring and falling alternately,
+like the beautiful Northern lights. I heard the ring of hoofs as I
+looked entranced, and in a twinkling, a body of horsemen dashed past me
+and disappeared. A little beyond, the road grew so thick that I could
+see nothing of my way; but trusting doubtfully to my horse, a deep
+challenge came directly from the thicket, and I saw the flash of a
+sabre, as I stammered a reply. Led to a cabin close at hand, my pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+was examined by candle-light, and I learned that the nearest camp of the
+Reserves was only a mile farther on, and the regiment of which I was in
+quest about two miles distant. After another half hour, I reached Ord's
+brigade, whose tents were pitched in a fine grove of oaks; the men
+talking, singing, and shouting, around open air fires; and a battery of
+brass Napoleons unlimbered in front, pointing significantly to the West
+and South. For a mile and a half I rode by the light of continuous
+camps, reaching at last the quarters of the &mdash;&mdash;th, commanded by a
+former newspaper associate of mine, with whom I had gone itemizing,
+scores of times. His regiment had arrived only the same afternoon, and
+their tents were not yet pitched. Their muskets were stacked along the
+roadside, and the men lay here and there wrapped in their blankets, and
+dozing around the fagots. The Colonel was asleep in a wagon, but roused
+up at the summons of his Adjutant, and greeting me warmly, directed the
+cook to prepare a supper of coffee and fried pork. Too hungry to feel
+the chafing of my sores and bruises, I fell to the oleaginous repast
+with my teeth and fingers, and eating ravenously, asked at last to be
+shown to my apartments. These consisted of a covered wagon, already
+occupied by four teamsters, and a blanket which had evidently been in
+close proximity to the hide of a horse. A man named "Coggle," being
+nudged by the Colonel, and requested to take other quarters, asked
+dolorously if it was time to turn out, and roared "woa," as if he had
+some consciousness of being kicked. When I asked for a pillow, the
+Colonel laughed, and I had an intuition that the man "Coggle" was
+looking at me in the darkness with intense disgust. The Colonel said
+that he had once put a man on double duty for placing his head on a
+snowball, and warned me satirically that such luxuries were preposterous
+in the field. He recommended me not to catch cold if I could help it,
+but said that people in camp commonly caught several colds at once, and
+added grimly that if I wished to be shaved in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> morning, there was a
+man close by, who had ground a sabre down to the nice edge of a razor,
+and who could be made to accommodate me. There were cracks in the bottom
+of the wagon, through which the cold came like knives, and I was
+allotted a space four feet in length, by three feet in width.</p>
+
+<p>Being six feet in height, my relation to these Procrustean quarters was
+most embarassing; but I doubled up, chatteringly, and lay my head on my
+arm. In a short time I experienced a sensation akin to that of being
+guillotined, and sitting bolt upright, found the teamsters in the
+soundest of Lethean conditions. As the man next to me snored very
+loudly, I adopted the brilliant idea of making a pillow of his thigh;
+which answered my best expectations. I was aroused after a while, by
+what I thought to be the violent hands of this person, but which, to my
+great chagrin, proved to be S., intent upon dividing my place with me.
+Resistance was useless. I submitted to martyrdom with due resignation,
+but half resolved to go home in the morning, and shun, for the future,
+the horrible romance of camps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>A GENERAL UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When I awoke at Colonel Taggert's tent the morning afterward, I had
+verified the common experience of camps by "catching several colds at
+once," and felt a general sensation of being cut off at the knees. Poor
+S., who joined me at the fire, states that he believed himself to be
+tied in knots, and that he should return afoot to Washington. Our horses
+looked no worse, for that would have been manifestly impossible. We were
+made the butts of much jesting at breakfast; and S. said, in a spirit of
+atrocity, that camp wit was quite as bad as camp "wittles." I bade him
+adieu at five o'clock <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, when he had secured passage to the city in
+a sutler's wagon. Remounting my own fiery courser, I bade the Colonel a
+temporary farewell, and proceeded in the direction of Meade's and
+Reynold's brigades. The drum and fife were now beating <i>reveill&eacute;</i>, and
+volunteers in various stages of undress were limping to roll-call. Some
+wore one shoe, and others appeared shivering in their linen. They stood
+ludicrously in rank, and a succession of short, dry coughs ran up and
+down the line, as if to indicate those who should escape the bullet for
+the lingering agonies of the hospital. The ground was damp, and fog was
+rising from the hollows and fens. Some signal corps officers were
+practising with flags in a ploughed field, and negro stewards were
+stirring about the cook fires. A few supply wagons that I passed the
+previous day were just creaking into camp,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> having travelled most of the
+night. I saw that the country was rude, but the farms were close, and
+the dwellings in many cases inhabited. The vicinity had previously been
+unoccupied by either army, and rapine had as yet appropriated only the
+fields for camps and the fences for fuel. I was directed to the
+headquarters of Major-General M'Call,&mdash;a cluster of wall tents in the
+far corner of a grain-field, concealed from public view by a projecting
+point of woods. A Sibley tent stood close at hand, where a soldier in
+blue overcoat was reading signals through a telescope. I mistook the
+tent for the General's, and riding up to the soldier was requested to
+stand out of the way. I moved to his rear, but he said curtly that I was
+obstructing the light. I then dismounted, and led my horse to a clump of
+trees a rod distant.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't hitch there," said the soldier; "you block up the view."</p>
+
+<p>A little ruffled at this manifest discourtesy, I asked the man to denote
+some point within a radius of a mile where I would <i>not</i> interfere with
+his operations. He said in reply, that it was not his business to denote
+hitching-stalls for anybody. I thought, in that case, that I should stay
+where I was, and he politely informed me that I might stay and
+be&mdash;jammed. I found afterward that this individual was troubled with a
+kind of insanity peculiar to all headquarters, arising out of an
+exaggerated idea of his own importance. I had the pleasure, a few
+minutes afterward, of hearing him ordered to feed my horse. A thickset,
+gray-haired man sat near by, undergoing the process of shaving by a very
+nervous negro. The thickset man was also exercising the privileges of
+his rank; but the more he berated his attendant's awkwardness, the more
+nervous the other became. I addressed myself mutually to master and man,
+in an inquiry as to the precise quarters of the General in command. The
+latter pointed to a wall tent contiguous, and was cursed by the thickset
+man for not minding his business. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> thickset man remarked
+substantially, that he didn't know anything about it, and was at that
+moment cut by the negro, to my infinite delight. Before the wall tent in
+question stood a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman in shirt-sleeves and
+slippers, warming his back and hands at a fire. He was watching, through
+an aperture in the tent, the movements of a private who was cleaning his
+boots. I noticed that he wore a seal ring, and that he opened and shut
+his eyes very rapidly. He was, otherwise, a very respectable and
+dignified gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this General M'Call?" said I, a little discomposed. The gentleman
+looked abstractedly into my eyes, opening and shutting his own several
+times, as if doubtful of his personality, and at last decided that he
+<i>was</i> General M'Call.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he said gravely, but without the slightest curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a letter for you, sir, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>He put the letter behind his back, and went on warming his hands. Having
+winked several times again, apparently forgetting all about the matter,
+I ventured to add that the letter was merely introductory. He looked at
+it, mechanically.</p>
+
+<p>"Who opened it?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Letters of introduction are not commonly sealed, General."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" he asked, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>I told him that the contents of the letter would explain my errand; but
+he had, meantime, relapsed into abstractedness, and winked, and warmed
+his hands, for at least, five minutes. At the end of that time, he read
+the letter very deliberately, and said that he was glad to see me in
+camp. He intimated, that if I was not already located, I could be
+provided with bed and meals at headquarters. He stated, in relation to
+my correspondence, that all letters sent from the Reserve Corps, must,
+without any reservations, be submitted to him in person. I was obliged
+to promise compliance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> but had gloomy forebodings that the General
+would occupy a fortnight in the examination of each letter. He invited
+me to breakfast, proposed to make me acquainted with his staff, and was,
+in all respects, a very grave, prudent, and affable soldier. I may say,
+incidentally, that I adopted the device of penning a couple of gossipy
+epistles, the length and folly of which, so irritated General M'Call,
+that he released me from the penalty of submitting my compositions for
+the future.</p>
+
+<p>I took up my permanent abode with quartermaster Kingwalt, a very prince
+of old soldiers, who had devoted much of a sturdy life to promoting the
+militia interests of the populous county of Chester. When the war-fever
+swept down his beautiful valley, and the drum called the young men from
+villages and farms, this ancient yeoman and miller&mdash;for he was
+both&mdash;took a musket at the sprightly age of sixty-five, and joined a
+Volunteer company. Neither ridicule nor entreaty could bend his purpose;
+but the Secretary of War, hearing of the case, conferred a brigade
+quartermastership upon him. He threw off the infirmities of age, stepped
+as proudly as any youngster, and became, emphatically, the best
+quartermaster in the Division. He never delayed an advance with tardy
+teams, nor kept the General tentless, nor penned irregular requisitions,
+nor wasted the property of Government. The ague seized him,
+occasionally, and shook his grey hairs fearfully; but he always
+recovered to ride his black stallion on long forages, and his great
+strength and bulk were the envy of all the young officers.</p>
+
+<p>He grasped my hand so heartily that I positively howled, and commanded a
+tall sergeant, rejoicing in the name of Clover, to take away my horse
+and split him up for kindling wood.</p>
+
+<p>"We must give him the blue roan, that Fogg rides," said the
+quartermaster, to the great dejection of Fogg, a short stout youth, who
+was posting accounts. I was glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> to see, however, that Fogg was not
+disposed to be angry, and when informed that a certain iron-gray nag was
+at his disposal, he was in a perfect glow of good humor. The other
+<i>attach&eacute;s</i> were a German, whose name, as I caught it, seemed to be
+Skyhiski; and a pleasant lad called Owen, whose disposition was so mild,
+that I wondered how he had adopted the bloody profession of arms. A
+black boy belonged to the establishment, remarkable, chiefly, for
+getting close to the heels of the black stallion, and being frequently
+kicked; he was employed to feed and brush the said stallion, and the
+antipathy between them was intense.</p>
+
+<p>The above curious military combination, slept under a great tarpaulin
+canopy, originally used for covering commissary stores from the rain.
+Our meals were taken in the open air, and prepared by Skyhiski; but
+there was a second tent, provided with desk and secretary, where Mr.
+Fogg performed his clerk duties, daily. When I had relieved my Pegasus
+of his saddle, and penned some paragraphs for a future letter, I
+strolled down the road with the old gentleman, who insisted upon showing
+me Hunter's mill, a storm-beaten structure, that looked like a great
+barn. The mill-race had been drained by some soldiers for the purpose of
+securing the fish contained in it, and the mill-wheel was quite dry and
+motionless. Difficult Creek ran impetuously across the road below, as if
+anxious to be put to some use again; and the miller's house adjoining,
+was now used as a hospital, for Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, and some
+inferior officers. It was a favorite design of the Quartermaster's to
+scrape the mill-stone, repair the race, and put the great breast-wheel
+to work. One could see that the soldier had not entirely obliterated the
+miller, and as he related, with a glowing face, the plans that he had
+proposed to recuperate the tottering structure, and make it serviceable
+to the army, I felt a regret that such peaceful ambitions should have
+ever been overruled by the call to arms.</p>
+
+<p>While we stood at the mill window, watching the long stretches of white
+tents and speculating upon the results of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> war, we saw several men
+running across the road toward a hill-top cottage, where General Meade
+made his quarters. A small group was collected at the cottage,
+reconnoitring something through their telescopes. As I hastened in that
+direction, I heard confused voices, thus: "No, it isn't!" "It is!" "Can
+you make out his shoulder-bar?" "What is the color of his coat?" "Gray!"
+"No, it's butternut!" "Has he a musket!" "Yes, he is levelling it!" At
+this the group scattered in every direction. "Pshaw!" said one, "we are
+out of range; besides, it is a telescope that he has. By&mdash;&mdash;, it is a
+Rebel, reconnoitring our camp!" There was a manifest sensation here, and
+one man wondered how he had passed the picket. Another suggested that he
+might be accompanied by a troop, and a third convulsed the circle by
+declaring that there were six other Rebels visible in a woods to the
+left. Mr. Fogg had meantime come up and proffered me a field-glass,
+through which I certainly made out a person in gray, standing in the
+middle of the road just at the ridge of a hill. When I dropped my glass
+I saw him distinctly with the naked eye. He was probably a mile distant,
+and his gray vesture was little relieved by the blue haze of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>"He is going," exclaimed a private, excitedly; "where's the man that was
+to try a lead on him?" Several started impulsively for their pieces, and
+some officers called for their horses. "There go his knees!" "His body
+is behind the hill!" "Now his head&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Crack! crack! crack!" spluttered musketry from the edge of the mill,
+and like as many rockets darted a score of horsemen through the creek
+and up the steep. Directly a faint hurrah pealed from the camp nearest
+the mill. It passed to the next camp and the next; for all were now
+earnestly watching; and finally a medley of cheers shook the air and the
+ear. Thousands of brave men were shouting the requiem of one paltry
+life. The rash fool had bought with his temerity a bullet in the brain.
+When I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> saw him&mdash;dusty and still bleeding&mdash;he was beset by a full
+regiment of idlers, to whom death had neither awe nor respect. They
+talked of the delicate shot, as connoisseurs in the art of murder,&mdash;and
+two men dug him a grave on the green before the mill, wherein he was
+tossed like a dog or a vulture, to be lulled, let us hope, by the music
+of the grinding, when grain shall ripen once more.</p>
+
+<p>I had an opportunity, after dinner, to inspect the camp of the
+"Bucktails," a regiment of Pennsylvania backwoodsmen, whose efficiency
+as skirmishers has been adverted to by all chroniclers of the civil war.
+They wore the common blue blouse and breeches, but were distinguished by
+squirrel tails fastened to their caps. They were reputed to be the best
+marksmen in the service, and were generally allowed, in action, to take
+their own positions and fire at will. Crawling through thick woods, or
+trailing serpent-like through the tangled grass, these mountaineers were
+for a time the terror of the Confederates; but when their mode of
+fighting had been understood, their adversaries improved upon it to such
+a degree that at the date of this writing there is scarcely a Corporal's
+guard of the original Bucktail regiment remaining. Slaughtered on the
+field, perishing in prison, disabled or paroled, they have lost both
+their prestige and their strength. I remarked among these worthies a
+partiality for fisticuffs, and a dislike for the manual of arms. They
+drilled badly, and were reported to be adepts at thieving and unlicensed
+foraging.</p>
+
+<p>The second night in camp was pleasantly passed. Some sociable
+officers&mdash;favorites with Captain Kingwalt&mdash;congregated under the
+tarpaulin, after supper-hour, and when a long-necked bottle had been
+emptied and replenished, there were many quaint stories related and
+curious individualities revealed. I dropped asleep while the hilarity
+was at its height, and Fogg covered me with a thick blanket as I lay.
+The enemy might have come upon us in the darkness; but if death were
+half so sound as my slumber afield, I should have bid it welcome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A FORAGING ADVENTURE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was a newsboy named "Charley," who slept at Captain Kingwalt's
+every second night, and who returned my beast to his owner in
+Washington. The aphorism that a Yankee can do anything, was exemplified
+by this lad; for he worked my snail into a gallop. He was born in
+Chelsea, Massachusetts, and appeared to have taken to speculation at the
+age when most children are learning A B C. He was now in his fourteenth
+year, owned two horses, and employed another boy to sell papers for him
+likewise. His profits upon daily sales of four hundred journals were
+about thirty-two dollars. He had five hundred dollars in bank, and was
+debating with Captain Kingwalt the propriety of founding an army express
+and general agency. Such a self-reliant, swaggering, far-sighted, and
+impertinent boy I never knew. He was a favorite with the Captain's
+black-boy, and upon thorough terms of equality with the Commanding
+General. His papers cost him in Washington a cent and a half each, and
+he sold them in camp for ten cents each. I have not the slightest doubt
+that I shall hear of him again as the proprietor of an overland mail, or
+the patron and capitalist of Greenland emigration.</p>
+
+<p>I passed the second and third days quietly in camp, writing a couple of
+letters, studying somewhat of fortification, and making flying visits to
+various officers. There was but one other Reporter with this division of
+the army. He rep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>resented a New York journal, and I could not but
+contrast his fine steed and equipments with the scanty accommodations
+that my provincial establishment had provided for me. His saddle was a
+cushioned McClellan, with spangled breast-strap and plump saddle-bags,
+and his bridle was adorned with a bright curb bit and twilled reins. He
+wore a field-glass belted about his body, and was plentifully provided
+with money to purchase items of news, if they were at any time difficult
+to obtain. I resolved inwardly to seize the first opportunity of
+changing establishments, so that I might be placed upon as good a
+footing. My relations with camp, otherwise, were of the happiest
+character; for the troops were State-people of mine, and, as reporters
+had not yet abused the privileges accorded them, my profession was held
+in some repute. I made the round of various "messes," and soon adopted
+the current dissipations of the field,&mdash;late hours, long stories,
+incessant smoking, and raw spirits. There were some restless minds about
+me, whose funds of anecdote and jest were apparently inexhaustible. I do
+not know that so many eccentric, adventurous, and fluent people are to
+be found among any other nationality of soldiers, not excepting the
+Irish.</p>
+
+<p>The blue roan of which friend Fogg had been deprived, exhibited
+occasional evidences of a desire to break my neck. I was obliged to
+dispense with the spur in riding him, but he nevertheless dashed off at
+times, and put me into an agony of fear. On those occasions I managed to
+retain my seat, and gained thereby the reputation of being a very fine
+equestrian. As there were few civilians in camp, and as I wore a gray
+suit, and appeared to be in request at head-quarters, a rumor was
+developed and gained currency that I was attached to the Division in the
+capacity of a scout. When my horse became unmanageable, therefore, his
+speed was generally accelerated by the cheers of soldiers, and I became
+an object of curiosity in every quarter, to my infinite mortification
+and dread.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Captain was to set off on the fourth day, to purchase or seize some
+hay and grain that were stacked at neighboring farms. We prepared to go
+at eight o'clock, but were detained somewhat by reason of Skyhiski being
+inebriated the night before, and thereby delaying the breakfast, and
+afterward the fact that the black stallion had laid open the black-boy's
+leg. However, at a quarter past nine, the Captain, Sergeant Clover,
+Fogg, Owen, and myself, with six four-horse wagons, filed down the
+railroad track until we came to a bridge that some laborers were
+repairing, where we turned to the left through some soggy fields, and
+forded Difficult Creek. As there was no road to follow, we kept straight
+through a wood of young maples and chestnut-trees. Occasionally a trunk
+or projecting branch stopped the wagons, when the teamsters opened the
+way with their axes. After two hours of slow advance, we came to the end
+of the wood, and climbed a succession of hilly fields. From the summit
+of the last of these, a splendid sweep of farm country was revealed,
+dotted with quaint Virginia dwellings, stackyards, and negro-cabins, and
+divided by miles of tortuous worm-fence. The eyes of the Quartermaster
+brightened at the prospect, though I am afraid that he thought only of
+the abundant forage; but my own grew hazy as I spoke of the peaceful
+people and the neglected fields. The plough had furrowed none of these
+acres, and some crows, that screamed gutturally from a neighboring
+ash-tree, seemed lean and pinched for lack of their plunder of corn.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the dwellings were guarded by soldiers; but of the resident
+citizens only the women and the old men remained. I did not need to ask
+where the young men were exiled. The residue that prayed with their
+faces toward Richmond, told me the story with their eyes. There was,
+nevertheless, no melodramatic exhibition of feeling among the bereaved.
+I did not see any defiant postures, nor hear any melting apostrophies.
+Marius was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> mouthing by the ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel
+weeping for her Hebrew children. But there were on every hand
+manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except among a few
+males who feared unutterable things, and were disposed to cringe and
+prevaricate. The women were not generally handsome; their face was
+indolent, their dress slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They
+lopped off the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally
+commencing with a verb, as thus: "Told soldiers not to carr' off the
+rye; declared they would; said they bound do jest what they pleased. Let
+'em go!"</p>
+
+<p>The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached by a long lane,
+and on knocking at the porch with his ponderous fist, a woman came
+timidly to the kitchen window.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's thar?" she said, after a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly; "we don't intend
+to murder or rob you, ma'am!"</p>
+
+<p>There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, but three young
+women, followed by a very deaf old man, who appeared to think that the
+Captain's visit bore some reference to the hencoop.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to buy for the use of the United States Government," said the
+Captain, "some stacks of hay and corn fodder, that lie in one of your
+fields."</p>
+
+<p>"The last hen was toted off this morning before breakfast," said the old
+man; "they took the turkeys yesterday, and I was obliged to kill the
+ducks or I shouldn't have had anything to eat."</p>
+
+<p>Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through his nose, and the
+man Clover appeared to be suddenly interested in something that lay in a
+mulberry-tree opposite.</p>
+
+<p>"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your produce, and you
+cannot do better than to let me take the stacks: leaving you, of course,
+enough for your own horses and cattle."</p>
+
+<p>Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> hadn't heard of
+any recent battle; for his part, he had never been a politician; but
+thought that both parties were a little wrong; and wished that peace
+would return: for he was a very old man, and was sorry that folks
+couldn't let quiet folks' property alone. How far his garrulity might
+have betrayed him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking
+his hand and leading him submissively into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the stacks at his
+own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a soldier, and as he seemed,
+a gentleman, to deal justly by them. There could be no crop harvested
+for a twelvemonth, and beggary looked them in the face. I have never
+beheld anything more chivalrously gallant, than the sturdy old
+quartermaster's attitude. He blended in tone and face the politeness of
+a diplomat and the gentleness of a father. They asked him to return to
+the house, with his <i>officers</i>, when he had loaded the wagons; for
+dinner was being prepared, and they hoped that Virginians could be
+hospitable, even to their enemies. As to the hay and fodder, none need
+be left; for the Confederates had seized their horses some months
+before, and driven off their cows when they retired from the
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>I so admired the queer gables and great brick ovens of the house, that I
+resolved to tie my horse, and rest under the crooked porch. The eldest
+young lady had taken me to be a prisoner, and was greatly astonished
+that the Quartermaster permitted me to go at large. She asked me to have
+a chair in the parlor, but when I made my appearance there, the two
+younger sisters fled precipitately. The old man was shaking his head
+sadly by the fireplace. Some logs burned on the andirons with a red
+flame. The furniture consisted of a mahogany sideboard, table, and
+chairs,&mdash;ponderous in pattern; and a series of family portraits, in a
+sprawling style of art, smirked and postured on the wall. The floor was
+bare, but shone by reason of repeated scrub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>bing, and the black
+mantel-piece was a fine specimen of colonial carving in the staunchest
+of walnut-wood.</p>
+
+<p>Directly the two younger girls&mdash;though the youngest must have been
+twenty years of age&mdash;came back with averted eyes and the silliest of
+giggles. They sat a little distance apart, and occasionally nodded or
+signalled like school children.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish you <i>would</i> stop, Bell!" said one of these misses,&mdash;whose flaxen
+hair was plastered across her eyebrows, and who was very tall and
+slender.</p>
+
+<p>"See if I don't tell on you," said the other,&mdash;a dark miss with roguish
+eyes and fat, plump figure, and curls that shook ever so merrily about
+her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Declar' I never said so, if he asks me; declar' I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell on you,&mdash;you see! Won't he be jealous? How he will car' on!"</p>
+
+<p>I made out that these young ladies were intent upon publishing their
+obligations to certain sweethearts of theirs, who, as it afterward
+seemed, were in the army at Manassas Junction. I said to the
+curly-haired miss, that she was endangering the life of her enamored;
+for it would become an object with all the anxious troops in the
+vicinity to shorten his days. The old man roused up here, and remarked
+that his health certainly was declining; but he hoped to survive a while
+longer for the sake of his children; that he was no politician, and
+always said that the negroes were very ungrateful people. He caught his
+daughter's eye finally, and cowered stupidly, nodding at the fire.</p>
+
+<p>I remarked to the eldest young woman,&mdash;called Prissy (Priscilla) by her
+sister,&mdash;that the country hereabout was pleasantly wooded. She said, in
+substance, that every part of Virginia was beautiful, and that she did
+not wish to survive the disgrace of the old commonwealth.</p>
+
+<p>"Become right down hateful since Yankees invaded it!" exclaimed Miss
+Bell. "<i>Some</i> Yankee's handsome sister," said Miss Bessie, the
+proprietor of the curls, "think some Yankees puffick gentlemen!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you traitor!" said the other,&mdash;"wish <i>Henry</i> heard you say that!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bell intimated that she should take the first opportunity of
+telling him the same, and I eulogized her good judgment. Priscilla now
+begged to be excused for a moment, as, since the flight of the negro
+property, the care of the table had devolved mainly upon her. A single
+aged servant, too feeble or too faithful to decamp, still attended to
+the menial functions, and two mulatto children remained to relieve them
+of light labor. She was a dignified, matronly young lady, and, as one of
+the sisters informed me, plighted to a Major in the Confederate service.
+The others chattered flippantly for an hour, and said that the old place
+was dreadfully lonesome of late. Miss Bell was <i>sure</i> she should die if
+another winter, similar to the last, occurred. She loved company, and
+had always found it <i>so</i> lively in Loudon before; whereas she had
+positively been but twice to a neighbor's for a twelvemonth, and had
+quite forgotten the road to the mill. She said, finally, that, rather
+than undergo another such isolation, she would become a <i>Vivandiere</i> in
+the Yankee army. The slender sister was altogether wedded to the idea of
+her lover's. "<i>Wouldn't</i> she tell Henry? and <i>shouldn't</i> she write to
+Jeems? and oh, Bessie, you would not <i>dare</i> to repeat that before
+<i>him</i>." In short, I was at first amused, and afterwards annoyed, by this
+young lady, whereas the roguish-eyed miss improved greatly upon
+acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>After a while, Captain Kingwalt came in, trailing his spurs over the
+floor, and leaving sunshine in his wake. There was something galvanic in
+his gentleness, and infectious in his merriment. He told them at dinner
+of his own daughters on the Brandywine, and invented stories of Fogg's
+courtships, till that young gentleman first blushed, and afterward
+dropped his plate. Our meal was a frugal one, consisting mainly of the
+ducks referred to, some vegetables, corn-bread, and coffee made of
+wasted rye. There were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> neither sugar, spices, nor tea, on the premises,
+and the salt before us was the last in the dwelling. The Captain
+promised to send them both coffee and salt, and Fogg volunteered to
+bring the same to the house, whereat the Captain teased him till he left
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>At this time, a little boy, who was ostensibly a waiter, cried: "Miss
+Prissy, soldiers is climbin' in de hog-pen."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew we should lose the last living thing on the property," said this
+young lady, much distressed.</p>
+
+<p>The Captain went to the door, and found three strolling Bucktails
+looking covetously at the swine. They were a little discomposed at his
+appearance, and edged off suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt!" said the old man in his great voice, "where are you men going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just makin' reconnoissance," said one of the freebooters; "s'pose a
+feller has a right to walk around, hain't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless he has a pass," said the Quartermaster; "have you written
+permission to leave camp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Left'nant s'posed we might. Don't know as it's your business. Never see
+<i>you</i> in the regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"It is my business, as an officer of the United States, to see that no
+soldier strays from camp unauthorizedly, or depredates upon private
+property. I will take your names, and report you, first for straggling,
+secondly for insolence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Put to it, Bill!" said the speaker of the foragers; "run, Bob! go it
+hearties!" And they took to their heels, cleared a pair of fences, and
+were lost behind some outbuildings. The Captain could be harsh as well
+as generous, and was about mounting his horse impulsively, to overtake
+and punish the fugitives, when Priscilla begged him to refrain, as an
+enforcement of discipline on his part might bring insult upon her
+helpless household. I availed myself of a pause in the Captain's wrath,
+to ask Miss Priscilla if she would allow me to lodge in the dwelling.
+Five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> nights' experience in camp had somewhat reduced my enthusiasm, and
+I already wearied of the damp beds, the hard fare, and the coarse
+conversation of the bivouac. The young lady assented willingly, as she
+stated that the presence of a young man would both amuse and protect the
+family. For several nights she had not slept, and had imagined footsteps
+on the porch and the drawing of window-bolts. There was a bed, formerly
+occupied by her brother, that I might take, but must depend upon rather
+laggard attendance. I had the satisfaction, therefore, of seeing the
+Captain and retinue mount their horses, and wave me a temporary good by.
+Poor Fogg looked back so often and so seriously that I expected to see
+him fall from the saddle. The young ladies were much impressed with the
+Captain's manliness, and Miss Bell wondered <i>how</i> such a <i>puffick</i>
+gentleman could <i>reconcile</i> himself to the Yankee cause. She had felt a
+desire to speak to him upon that point as she was <i>sure</i> he was of fine
+stock, and entirely averse to the invasion of such territory as that of
+<i>dear</i> old Virginia. There was something in his manner that <i>so</i>
+reminded her of some one who should be <i>nameless</i> for the present; but
+the "nameless" was, <i>of course</i>, young, <i>handsome</i>, and <i>so</i> brave. I
+ruthlessly dissipated her theory of the Captain's origin, by stating
+that he was of humble German descent, so far as I knew, and had probably
+never beheld Virginia till preceded by the bayonets of his neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>After tea Miss Bessie produced a pitcher of rare cider, that came from a
+certain mysterious quarter of the cellar. A chessboard was forthcoming
+at a later hour, when we amused ourselves with a couple of games,
+facetiously dubbing our chessman Federals and Confederates. Miss Bell,
+meanwhile, betook herself to a diary, wherein she minutely related the
+incidents and sentiments of successive days. The quantity of words
+underscored in the same autobiography would have speedily exhausted the
+case of italics, if the printer had obtained it. I was so beguiled by
+these pa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>triarchal people, that I several times asked myself if the
+circumstances were real. Was I in a hostile country, surrounded by
+thousands of armed men? Were the incidents of this evening portions of
+an historic era, and the ground about me to be commemorated by
+bloodshed? Was this, in fact, revolution, and were these simple country
+girls and their lovers revolutionists? The logs burned cheerily upon the
+hearth, and the ancestral portraits glowered contemplatively from the
+walls. Miss Prissy looked dreamily into the fire, and the old man snored
+wheezily in a corner. A gray cat purred in Miss Bell's lap, and Miss
+Bessie was writing some nonsense in my note-book.</p>
+
+<p>A sharp knock fell upon the door, and something that sounded like the
+butt of a musket shook the porch without. The girls turned pale, and I
+think that Miss Bessie seized my arm and clung to it. I think also, that
+Miss Bell attempted to take the other arm, to which I demurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Those brutal soldiers again!" said Priscilla, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think one of the andirons has fallen down, darter!" said the old man,
+rousing up.</p>
+
+<p>"Tremble for my life," said Miss Bell; "<i>sure</i> shall die if it's <i>a
+man</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I opened the door after a little pause, when a couple of rough privates
+in uniform confronted me.</p>
+
+<p>"We're two guards that General Meade sent to protect the house and
+property," said the tallest of these men; "might a feller come in and
+warm his feet!"</p>
+
+<p>I understood at once that the Quartermaster had obtained these persons;
+and the other man coming forward, said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I fetched some coffee over, and a bag o' salt, with Corporal Fogg's
+compliments."</p>
+
+<p>They deposited their muskets in a corner, and balanced their boots on
+the fender. Nothing was said for a time.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you lose yer poultry?" said the tall man, at length.</p>
+
+<p>"All," said Miss Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Fellers loves poultry!" said the man, smacking his lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you lose yer sheep?" said the same man, after a little silence.</p>
+
+<p>"The Bucktails cut their throats the first day that they encamped at the
+mill," said Miss Priscilla.</p>
+
+<p>"Them Bucktails great fellers," said the tall man; "them Bucktails awful
+on sheep: they loves 'em so!"</p>
+
+<p>He relapsed again for a few minutes, when he continued: "You don't like
+fellers to bag yer poultry and sheep, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Priscilla replied that it was both dishonest and cruel. Miss Bell
+intimated that none but Yankees would do it.</p>
+
+<p>"P'raps not," said the tall soldier, drily; "did you ever grub on fat
+pork, Miss? No? Did you ever gnaw yer hard tack after a spell o'
+sickness, and a ten-hour march? No? P'raps you might like a streak o'
+mutton arterwards! P'raps you might take a notion for a couple o'
+chickens or so! No? How's that, Ike? What do you think, pardner? (to me)
+I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't think the Bucktails is over
+and above dishonest to home, mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I <i>would</i>
+bag a chicken any day! I say that above board. Hey, Ike?"</p>
+
+<p>When the tall man and his inferior satellite had warmed their boots till
+they smoked, they rose, recovered their muskets, and bowed themselves
+into the yard. Soon afterward I bade the young ladies good night, and
+repaired to my room. The tall man and his associate were pacing up and
+down the grass-plot, and they looked very cold and comfortless, I
+thought. I should have liked to obtain for them a draught of cider, but
+prudently abstained; for every man in the army would thereby become
+cognizant of its existence. So I placed my head once more upon a soft
+pillow, and pitied the chilled soldiers who slept upon the turf. I
+thought of Miss Bessie with her roguish eyes, and wondered what themes
+were now engrossing her. I asked myself if this was the romance of war,
+and if it would bear relating to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> one's children when he grew as old and
+as deaf as the wheezy gentleman down-stairs. In fine, I was a little
+sentimental, somewhat reflective, and very drowsy. So, after a while,
+processions of freebooting soldiers, foraging Quartermasters, deaf
+gentlemen, Fogg's regiment, and multitudes of ghosts from Manassas,
+drifted by in my dreams. And, in the end, Miss Bessie's long curls
+brushed into my eyes, and I found the morning, ruddy as her cheeks,
+blushing at the window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT A MARCH IS IN FACT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I found at breakfast, that Miss Bessie had been placed beside me, and I
+so far forgot myself as to forget all other persons at the table. Miss
+Priscilla asked to be helped to the corn-bread, and I deposited a
+quantity of the same upon Miss Bessie's plate. Miss Bell asked if I did
+not love <i>dear</i> old Virginia, and I replied to Miss Bessie that it had
+lately become very attractive, and that, in fact, I was decidedly
+rebellious in my sympathy with the distressed Virginians. I <i>did</i>
+except, however, the man darkly mooted as "Henry," and hoped that he
+would be disfigured&mdash;not killed&mdash;at the earliest engagement. The deaf
+old gentleman bristled up here and asked <i>who</i> had been killed at the
+recent engagement. There was a man named Jeems Lee,&mdash;a distant
+connection of the Lightfoots,&mdash;not the Hampshire Lightfoots, but the
+Fauquier Lightfoots,&mdash;who had distinctly appeared to the old gentleman
+for several nights, robed in black, and carrying a coffin under his arm.
+Since I had mentioned his name, he recalled the circumstance, and hoped
+that Jeems Lightfoot had not disgraced his ancestry. Nevertheless, the
+deaf gentleman was not to be understood as expressing any opinion upon
+the merits of the war. For <i>his</i> part he thought both sides a little
+wrong, and the crops were really in a dreadful state. The negroes were
+very ungrateful people and property should be held sacred by all
+belligerents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At this point he caught Miss Priscilla's eye, and was transfixed with
+conscious guilt.</p>
+
+<p>I had, meantime, been infringing upon Miss Bessie's feet,&mdash;very pretty
+feet they were!&mdash;which expressive but not very refined method of
+correspondence caused her to blush to the eyes. Miss Bell, noticing the
+same, was determined to tell '<i>Henry</i>' at once, and I hoped in my heart
+that she would set out for Manassas to further that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened here, and the rubicund visage of Mr. Fogg appeared like
+the head of the Medusa. He said that 'Captain' had ordered the blue roan
+to be saddled and brought over to me, but I knew that this was a cunning
+device on his part, to revisit the dwelling. Miss Bell, somehow caught
+the idea that Fogg was enamored of her, and the poor fellow was
+subjected to a volley of tender innuendos and languishing glances, that
+by turn mortified and enraged him.</p>
+
+<p>I bade the good people adieu at eight o'clock, promising to return for
+dinner at five; and Miss Bessie accompanied me to the lane, where I took
+leave of her with a secret whisper and a warm grasp of the hand. One of
+her rings had somehow adhered to my finger, which Fogg remarked with a
+bilious expression of countenance. I had no sooner got astride of the
+blue roan than he darted off like the wind, and subjected me to great
+terror, alternating to chagrin, when I turned back and beheld all the
+young ladies waving their handkerchiefs. They evidently thought me an
+unrivalled equestrian.</p>
+
+<p>I rode to a picket post two miles from the mill, passing over the spot
+where the Confederate soldier had fallen. The picket consisted of two
+companies or one hundred and sixty men. Half of them were sitting around
+a fire concealed in the woods, and the rest were scattered along the
+edges of a piece of close timber. I climbed a lookout-tree by means of
+cross-strips nailed to the trunk, and beheld from the summit a long
+succession of hazy hills, valleys, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> forests, with the Blue Ridge
+Mountains bounding the distance, like some mighty monster, enclosing the
+world in its coils. This was the country of the enemy, and a Lieutenant
+obligingly pointed out to me the curling smoke of their pickets, a few
+miles away. The cleft of Manassas was plainly visible, and I traced the
+line of the Gap Railway to its junction with the Orange and Alexandria
+road, below Bull Run. For aught that I knew, some concealed observer
+might now be watching me from the pine-tops on the nearest knoll. Some
+rifleman might be running his practised eye down the deadly groove, to
+topple me from my perch, and send me crashing through the boughs. The
+uncertainty, the hazard, the novelty of my position had at this time an
+indescribable charm: but subsequent exposures dissipated the romance and
+taught me the folly of such adventures.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon went dryly by: for a drizzling rain fell at noon; but at
+four o'clock I saddled the blue roan and went to ride with Fogg. We
+retraced the road to Colonel T&mdash;&mdash;s, and crossing a boggy brook, turned
+up the hills and passed toward the Potomac. Fogg had been a
+schoolmaster, and many of his narrations indicated keen perception and
+clever comprehension. He so amused me on this particular occasion that I
+quite forgot my engagement for dinner, and unwittingly strolled beyond
+the farthest brigade.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, we heard a bugle-call from the picket-post before us, and, at
+the same moment, the drums beat from the camp behind. Our horses pricked
+up their ears and Fogg stared inquiringly. As we turned back we heard
+approaching hoofs and the blue roan exhibited intentions of running
+away. I pulled his rein in vain. He would neither be soothed nor
+commanded. A whole company of cavalry closed up with him at length, and
+the sabres clattered in their scabbards as they galloped toward camp at
+the top of their speed. With a spring that almost shook me from the
+saddle and drove the stirrups flying from my feet, the blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> roan dashed
+the dust into the eyes of Fogg, and led the race.</p>
+
+<p>Not the wild yager on his gait to perdition, rode so fearfully. Trees,
+bogs, huts, bushes, went by like lightning. The hot breath of the nag
+rose to my nostrils and at every leap I seemed vaulting among the
+spheres.</p>
+
+<p>I speak thus flippantly now, of what was then the agony of death. I
+grasped the pommel of my saddle, mechanically winding the lines about my
+wrist, and clung with the tenacity of sin clutching the world. Some
+soldiers looked wonderingly from the wayside, but did not heed my shriek
+of "stop him, for God's sake!" A ditch crossed the lane,&mdash;deep and
+wide,&mdash;and I felt that my moment had come: with a spring that seemed to
+break thew and sinew, the blue roan cleared it, pitching upon his knees,
+but recovered directly and darted onward again. I knew that I should
+fall headlong now, to be trampled by the fierce horsemen behind, but
+retained my grasp though my heart was choking me. The camps were in
+confusion as I swept past them. A sharp clearness of sense and thought
+enabled me to note distinctly the minutest occurrences. I marked long
+lines of men cloaked, and carrying knapsacks, drummer-boys beating music
+that I had whistled in many a ramble,&mdash;field-officers shouting orders
+from their saddles, and cannon limbered up as if ready to move,&mdash;tents
+taken down and teams waiting to be loaded; all the evidences of an
+advance, that I alas should never witness, lying bruised and mangled by
+the roadside. A cheer saluted me as I passed some of Meade's regiments.
+"It is the scout that fetched the orders for an advance!" said several,
+and one man remarked that "that feller was the most reckless rider he
+had ever beheld." The crisis came at length: a wagon had stopped the
+way; my horse in turning it, stepped upon a stake, and slipping rolled
+heavily upon his side, tossing me like an acrobat, over his head, but
+without further injury than a terrible nervous shock and a rent in my
+pantaloons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I employed a small boy to lead the blue roan to Captain Kingwalt's
+quarters, and as I limped wearily after, some regiments came toward me
+through the fields. General McCall responded to my salute; he rode in
+the advance. The Quartermaster's party was loading the tents and
+utensils. The rain fell smartly as dusk deepened into night, and the
+brush tents now deserted by the soldiers, were set on fire. Being
+composed of dry combustible material, they burned rapidly and with an
+intense flame. The fields in every direction were revealed, swarming
+with men, horses, batteries, and wagons. Some of the regiments began the
+march in silence; others sang familiar ballads as they moved in column.
+A few, riotously disposed, shrieked, whistled, and cheered. The
+standards were folded; the drums did not mark time; the orders were few
+and short. The cannoneers sat moodily upon the caissons, and the
+cavalry-men walked their horses sedately. Although fifteen thousand men
+comprised the whole corps, each of its three brigades would have seemed
+as numerous to a novice. The teams of each brigade closed up the rear,
+and a quartermaster's guard was detailed from each regiment to march
+beside its own wagons. When the troops were fairly under way, and the
+brush burning along from continuous miles of road, the effect was grand
+beyond all that I had witnessed. The country people gathered in fright
+at the cottage doors, and the farm-dogs bayed dismally at the unwonted
+scene. I refused to ride the blue roan again, but transferred my saddle
+to a team horse that appeared to be given to a sort of equine
+somnambulism, and once or twice attempted to lie down by the roadside.
+At nine o'clock I set out with Fogg, who slipped a flask of spirits into
+my haversack. Following the tardy movement of the teams, we turned our
+faces toward Washington. I was soon wet to the skin, and my saddle
+cushion was soaking with water. The streams crossing the road were
+swollen with rain, and the great team wheels clogged on the slimy banks.
+We were sometimes delayed a half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> hour by a single wagon, the storm
+beating pitilessly in our faces the while. During the stoppages, the
+Quartermaster's guards burned all the fence rails in the vicinity, and
+some of the more indurated sat round the fagots and gamed with cards.</p>
+
+<p>Cold, taciturn, miserable, I thought of the quiet farm, house, the ruddy
+hearth-place, and the smoking supper. I wondered if the roguish eyes
+were not a little sad, and the trim feet a little restless, the chessmen
+somewhat stupid, and the good old house a trifle lonesome. Alas! the
+intimacy so pleasantly commenced, was never to be renewed. With the
+thousand and one airy palaces that youth builds and time annihilates, my
+first romance of war towered to the stars in a day, and crumbled to
+earth in a night.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock in the morning we halted at Metropolitan Mills, on the
+Alexandria and Leesburg turnpike. A bridge had been destroyed below, and
+the creek was so swollen that neither artillery nor cavalry could ford
+it. The meadows were submerged and the rain still descended in torrents.
+The chilled troops made bonfires of some new panel fence, and stormed
+all the henroosts in the vicinity. Some pigs, that betrayed their
+whereabouts by inoportune whines and grunts, were speedily confiscated,
+slaughtered, and spitted. We erected our tarpaulin in a ploughed field,
+and Fogg laid some sharp rails upon the ground to make us a dry bed.
+Skyhiski fried a quantity of fresh beef, and boiled some coffee; but
+while we ate heartily, theorizing as to the destination of the corps,
+the poor Captain was terribly shaken by his ague.</p>
+
+<p>I woke in the morning with inflamed throat, rheumatic limbs, and every
+indication of chills and fever. Fogg whispered to me at breakfast that
+two men of Reynold's brigade had died during the night, from fatigue and
+exposure. He advised me to push forward to Washington and await the
+arrival of the division, as, unused to the hardships of a march, I
+might, after another day's experience, become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> dangerously ill. I set
+out at five o'clock, resolving to ford the creek, resume the turnpike,
+and reach Long Bridge at noon. Passing over some dozen fields in which
+my horse at every step sank to the fetlocks, I travelled along the brink
+of the stream till I finally reached a place that seemed to be shallow.
+Bracing myself firmly in the saddle, I urged my unwilling horse into the
+waters, and emerged half drowned on the other side. It happened,
+however, that I had crossed only a branch of the creek and gained an
+island. The main channel was yet to be attempted, and I saw that it was
+deep, broad, and violent. I followed the margin despairingly for a
+half-mile, when I came to a log footbridge, where I dismounted and swam
+my horse through the turbulent waters. I had now so far diverged from
+the turnpike that I was at a loss to recover it, but straying forlornly
+through the woods, struck a wagon track at last, and pursued it
+hopefully, until, to my confusion, it resolved itself to two tracks,
+that went in contrary directions. My horse preferred taking to the left,
+but after riding a full hour, I came to some felled trees, beyond which
+the traces did not go. Returning, weak and bewildered, I adopted the
+discarded route, which led me to a worm-fence at the edge of the woods.
+A house lay some distance off, but a wheat-field intervened, and I might
+bring the vengeance of the proprietor upon me by invading his domain.
+There was no choice, however; so I removed the rails, and rode directly
+across the wheat to some negro quarters, a little removed from the
+mansion. They were deserted, all save one, where a black boy was singing
+some negro hymns in an uproarious manner. The words, as I made them out,
+were these:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Stephen came a runnin',<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His Marster fur to see;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But Gabriel says he is not yar';<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He gone to Calvary!<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">O,&mdash;O,&mdash;Stephen, Stephen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i12">Fur to see;<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">Stephen, Stephen, get along up Calvary!"<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>I learned from this person two mortifying facts,&mdash;that I was farther
+from Washington than at the beginning of my journey, and that the morrow
+was Sunday. War, alas! knows no Sabbaths, and the negro said,
+apologetically&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I was a seyin' some ole hymns, young Mars'r. Sence dis yer war we don't
+have no more meetin's, and a body mos' forgits his pra'rs. Dere hain't
+been no church in all Fairfax, sah, fur nigh six months."</p>
+
+<p>Washington was nineteen miles distant, and another creek was to be
+forded before gaining the turnpike. The negro sauntered down the lane,
+and opened the gate for me. "You jes keep from de creek, take de mill
+road, and enqua' as ye get furder up," said he; "it's mighty easy, sah,
+an' you can't miss de way."</p>
+
+<p>I missed the way at once, however, by confounding the mill road with the
+mill lane, and a shaggy dog that lay in a wagon shed pursued me about a
+mile. The road was full of mire; no dwellings adjoined it, and nothing
+human was to be seen in any direction. I came to a crumbling negro cabin
+after two plodding hours, and, seeing a figure flit by the window,
+called aloud for information. Nobody replied, and when, dismounting, I
+looked into the den, it was, to my confusion, vacant.</p>
+
+<p>The soil, hereabout, was of a sterile red clay, spotted with scrub
+cedars. Country more bleak and desolate I have never known, and when, at
+noon, the rain ceased, a keen wind blew dismally across the barriers. I
+reached a turnpike at length, and, turning, as I thought, toward
+Alexandria, goaded my horse into a canter. An hour's ride brought me to
+a wretched hamlet, whose designation I inquired of a cadaverous old
+woman&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Drainesville," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am not upon the Alexandria turnpike?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. You're sot for Leesburg. This is the Georgetown and Chain Bridge
+road."</p>
+
+<p>With a heavy heart, I retraced my steps, crossed Chain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> Bridge at five
+o'clock, and halted at Kirkwood's at seven. After dinner, falling in
+with the manager of the Washington Sunday morning <i>Chronicle</i>, I penned,
+at his request, a few lines relative to the movements of the Reserves;
+and, learning in the morning that they had arrived at Alexandria, set
+out on horseback for that city.</p>
+
+<p>Many hamlets and towns have been destroyed during the war. But, of all
+that in some form survive, Alexandria has most suffered. It has been in
+the uninterrupted possession of the Federals for twenty-two months, and
+has become essentially a military city. Its streets, its docks, its
+warehouses, its dwellings, and its suburbs, have been absorbed to the
+thousand uses of war.</p>
+
+<p>I was challenged thrice on the Long Bridge, and five times on the road,
+before reaching the city. I rode under the shadows of five earthworks,
+and saw lines of white tents sweeping to the horizon. Gayly caparisoned
+officers passed me, to spend their Sabbath in Washington, and trains
+laden with troops, ambulances, and batteries, sped along the line of
+railway, toward the rendezvous at Alexandria. A wagoner, looking
+forlornly at his splintered wheels; a slovenly guard, watching some
+bales of hay; a sombre negro, dozing upon his mule; a slatternly Irish
+woman gossiping with a sergeant at her cottage door; a sutler in his
+"dear-born," running his keen eye down the limbs of my beast; a spruce
+civilian riding for curiosity; a gray-haired gentleman, in a threadbare
+suit, going to camp on foot, to say good by to his boy,&mdash;these were some
+of the personages that I remarked, and each was a study, a sermon, and a
+story. The Potomac, below me, was dotted with steamers and shipping. The
+bluffs above were trodden bare, and a line of dismal marsh bordered some
+stagnant pools that blistered at their bases. At points along the
+river-shore, troops were embarking on board steamers; transports were
+taking in tons of baggage and subsistence. There was a schooner, laden
+to the water-line with locomotive engines and burden car<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>riages; there,
+a brig, shipping artillery horses by a steam derrick, that lifted them
+bodily from the shore and deposited them in the hold of the vessel.
+Steamers, from whose spacious saloons the tourist and the bride have
+watched the picturesque margin of the Hudson, were now black with
+clusters of rollicking volunteers, who climbed into the yards, and
+pitched headlong from the wheel-houses. The "grand movement," for which
+the people had waited so long, and which McClellan had promised so
+often, was at length to be made. The Army of the Potomac was to be
+transferred to Fortress Monroe, at the foot of the Chesapeake, and to
+advance by the peninsula of the James and the York, upon the city of
+Richmond.</p>
+
+<p>I rode through Washington Street, the seat of some ancient residences,
+and found it lined with freshly arrived troops. The grave-slabs in a
+fine old churchyard were strewn with weary cavalry-men, and they lay in
+some side yards, soundly sleeping. Some artillery-men chatted at
+doorsteps, with idle house-girls; some courtesans flaunted in furs and
+ostrich feathers, through a group of coarse engineers; some sergeants of
+artillery, in red trimmings, and caps gilded with cannon, were reining
+their horses to leer at some ladies, who were taking the air in their
+gardens; and at a wide place in the street, a Provost-Major was
+man&oelig;uvring some companies, to the sound of the drum and fife. There
+was much drunkenness, among both soldiers and civilians; and the people
+of Alexandria were, in many cases, crushed and demoralized by reason of
+their troubles. One man of this sort led me to a sawmill, now run by
+Government, and pointed to the implements.</p>
+
+<p>"I bought 'em and earned 'em," he said. "My labor and enterprise set 'em
+there; and while my mill and machinery are ruined to fill the pockets o'
+Federal sharpers, I go drunk, ragged, and poor about the streets o' my
+native town. My daughter starves in Richmond; God knows I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>can't get to
+her. I wish to h&mdash;&mdash;l I was dead."</p>
+
+<p>Further inquiry developed the facts that my acquaintance had been a
+thriving builder, who had dotted all Northeastern Virginia with
+evidences of his handicraft. At the commencement of the war, he took
+certain contracts from the Confederate government, for the construction
+of barracks at Richmond and Manassas Junction; returning inopportunely
+to Alexandria, he was arrested, and kept some time in Capitol-Hill
+prison; he had not taken the oath of allegiance, consequently, he could
+obtain no recompense for the loss of his mill property. Domestic
+misfortunes, happening at the same time, so embittered his days that he
+resorted to dissipation. Alexandria is filled with like ruined people;
+they walk as strangers through their ancient streets, and their property
+is no longer theirs to possess, but has passed into the hands of the
+dominant nationalists. My informant pointed out the residences of many
+leading citizens: some were now hospitals, others armories and arsenals;
+others offices for inspectors, superintendents, and civil officials. The
+few people that remained upon their properties, obtained partial
+immunity, by courting the acquaintance of Federal officers, and, in many
+cases, extending the hospitalities of their homes to the invaders. I do
+not know that any Federal functionary was accused of tyranny, or
+wantonness, but these things ensued, as the natural results of civil
+war; and one's sympathies were everywhere enlisted for the poor, the
+exiled, and the bereaved.</p>
+
+<p>My dinner at the City Hotel was scant and badly prepared. I gave a negro
+lad who waited upon me a few cents, but a burly negro carver, who seemed
+to be his father, boxed the boy's ears and put the coppers into his
+pocket. The proprietor of the place had voluntarily taken the oath of
+allegiance, and had made more money since the date of Federal occupation
+than during his whole life previously. He said to me, curtly, that if by
+any chance the Confederates should reoccupy Alexandria, he could very
+well afford to relinquish his property. He employed a smart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> barkeeper,
+who led guests by a retired way to the drinking-rooms. Here, with the
+gas burning at a taper point, cobblers, cocktails, and juleps were mixed
+stealthily and swallowed in the darkness. The bar was like a mint to the
+proprietor; he only feared discovery and prohibition. It would not
+accord with the chaste pages of this narrative to tell how some of the
+noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious
+purposes; nor how, by night, the parlors of cosey homes flamed with riot
+and orgie. I stayed but a little time, having written an indiscreet
+paragraph in the Washington Chronicle, for which I was pursued by the
+War Department, and the management of my paper, lacking heart, I went
+home in a pet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>DOWN THE CHESAPEAKE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Disappointed in the unlucky termination of my adventures afield, I now
+looked ambitiously toward New York. As London stands to the provinces,
+so stands the empire city to America. Its journals circulate by hundreds
+of thousands; its means are only rivalled by its enterprise; it is the
+end of every young American's aspiration, and the New Bohemia for the
+restless, the brilliant, and the industrious. It seemed a great way off
+when I first beheld it, but I did not therefore despair. Small matters
+of news that I gathered in my modest city, obtained space in the columns
+of the great metropolitan journal, the&mdash;&mdash;. After a time I was delegated
+to travel in search of special incidents, and finally, when the noted
+Tennessee Unionist, "Parson" Brownlow, journeyed eastward, I joined his
+<i>suite</i>, and accompanied him to New York. The dream of many months now
+came to be realized. A correspondent on the &mdash;&mdash;'s staff had been
+derelict, and I was appointed to his division. His horse, saddle,
+field-glasses, blankets, and pistols were to be transferred, and I was
+to proceed without delay to Fortress Monroe, to keep with the advancing
+columns of McClellan.</p>
+
+<p>At six in the morning I embarked; at eleven I was whirled through my own
+city, without a glimpse of my friends; at three o'clock I dismounted at
+Baltimore, and at five was gliding down the Patapsco, under the shadows
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Fort Federal Hill, and the white walls of Fort McHenry. The latter
+defence is renowned for its gallant resistance to a British fleet in
+1813, and the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was
+written to commemorate that bombardment. Fort Carroll, a massive
+structure of hewn stone, with arched bomb-proof and three tiers of
+mounted ordnance, its smooth walls washed by the waves, and its
+unfinished floors still ringing with the trowel and the adze,&mdash;lies some
+miles below, at a narrow passage in the stream. Below, the shores
+diverge, and at dusk we were fairly in the Chesapeake, under steam and
+sail, speeding due southward.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Adelaide</i> was one of a series of boats making daily trips between
+Baltimore and Old Point. Fourteen hours were required to accomplish the
+passage, and we were not to arrive till seven o'clock next morning. I
+was so fortunate as to obtain a state-room, but many passengers were
+obliged to sleep upon sofas or the cabin floor. These boats monopolized
+the civil traffic between the North and the army, although they were
+reputed to be owned and managed by Secessionists. None were allowed to
+embark unless provided with Federal passes; but there were,
+nevertheless, three or four hundred people on board. About one fourth of
+these were officers and soldiers; one half sutlers, traders,
+contractors, newsmen, and idle civilians, anxious to witness a battle,
+or stroll over the fields of Big Bethel, Lee's Mills, Yorktown,
+Gloucester, Williamsburg, or West Point; the rest were females on
+missions of mercy, on visits to sons, brothers, and husbands, and on the
+way to their homes at Norfolk, Suffolk, or Hampton. Some of these were
+citizens of Richmond, who believed that the Federals would occupy the
+city in a few days, and enable them to resume their professions and
+homes. The lower decks were occupied by negroes. The boat was heavily
+freighted, and among the parcels that littered the hold and steerage, I
+noticed scores of box coffins for the removal of corpses from the field
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> the North. There were quantities of spirits, consigned mainly to
+Quartermasters, but evidently the property of certain Shylocks, who
+watched the barrels greedily. An embalmer was also on board, with his
+ghostly implements. He was a sallow man, shabbily attired, and appeared
+to look at all the passengers as so many subjects for the development of
+his art. He was called "Doctor" by his admirers, and conversed in the
+blandest manner of the triumphs of his system.</p>
+
+<p>"There are certain pretenders," he said, "who are at this moment
+imposing upon the Government. I regret that it is necessary to repeat
+it, but the fact exists that the Government is the prey of harpies. And
+in the art of which I am an humble disciple,&mdash;that of injecting,
+commonly called embalming,&mdash;the frauds are most deplorable. There was
+Major Montague,&mdash;a splendid subject, I assure you,&mdash;a subject that any
+<i>Professor</i> would have beautifully preserved,&mdash;a subject that one
+esteems it a favor to obtain,&mdash;a subject that I in particular would have
+been proud to receive! But what were the circumstances? I do assure you
+that a person named Wigwart,&mdash;who I have since ascertained to be a
+veterinary butcher; in plain language, a doctor of horses and
+asses,&mdash;imposed upon the relatives of the deceased, obtained the body,
+and absolutely ruined it!&mdash;absolutely <i>mangled</i> it! I may say,
+shamefully disfigured it! He was a man, sir, six feet two,&mdash;about your
+height, I think! (to a bystander.) About your weight, also! Indeed quite
+like you! And allow me to say that, if you should fall into my hands, I
+would leave your friends no cause for offence! (Here the bystander
+trembled perceptibly, and I thought that the doctor was about to take
+his life.) Well! <i>I</i> should have operated thus:&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a description of the process, narrated with horrible
+circumstantiality. A fluid holding in solution pounded glass and certain
+chemicals, was, by the doctor's "system," injected into the
+bloodvessels, and the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> at the same time bled at the neck. The
+body thus became hard and stony, and would retain its form for years. He
+had, by his account, experimented for a lifetime, and said that little
+"Willie," the son of President Lincoln, had been so preserved that his
+fond parents must have enjoyed his decease.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that the late lamented practitioners, Messrs. Burke and
+Hare, were likely to fade into insignificance, beside this new light of
+science.</p>
+
+<p>I went upon deck for some moments, and marked the beating of the waves;
+the glitter of sea-lights pulsing on the ripples; the sweep of belated
+gulls through the creaking rigging; the dark hull of a passing vessel
+with a grinning topmast lantern; the vigilant pilot, whose eyes glared
+like a fiend's upon the waste of blackness; the foam that the panting
+screw threw against the cabin windows; the flap of fishes caught in the
+threads of moonlight; the depths over which one bent, peering half
+wistfully, half abstractedly, almost crazily, till he longed to drop
+into their coolness, and let the volumes of billow roll musically above
+him.</p>
+
+<p>A woman approached me, as I stood against the great anchor, thus
+absorbed. She had a pale, thin face, and was scantily clothed, and spoke
+with a distrustful, timorous voice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know the name of the surgeon-general, do you sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"At Washington, ma'am?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; at Old Point."</p>
+
+<p>I offered to inquire of the Captain: but she stopped me, agitatedly.
+"It's of no consequence," she said,&mdash;"that is, it is of great
+consequence to me; but perhaps it would be best to wait." I answered, as
+obligingly as I could, that any service on my part would be cheerfully
+rendered.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, sir," she said, after a pause, "I am going to
+Williamsburg, to&mdash;find&mdash;the&mdash;the body&mdash;of my&mdash;boy."</p>
+
+<p>Here her speech was broken, and she put a thin, white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> hand tremulously
+to her eyes. I thought that any person in the Federal service would
+willingly assist her, and said so.</p>
+
+<p>"He was not a Federal soldier, sir. He was a Confederate!"</p>
+
+<p>This considerably altered the chances of success, and I was obliged to
+undeceive her somewhat. "I am sure it was not my fault," she continued,
+"that he joined the Rebellion. You don't think they'll refuse to let me
+take his bones to Baltimore, do you, sir? He was my oldest boy, and his
+brother, my second son, was killed at Ball's Bluff: <i>He</i> was in the
+Federal service. I hardly think they will refuse me the poor favor of
+laying them in the same grave."</p>
+
+<p>I spoke of the difficulty of recognition, of the remoteness of the
+field, and of the expense attending the recovery of any remains,
+particularly those of the enemy, that, left hastily behind in retreat,
+were commonly buried in trenches without headboard or record. She said,
+sadly, that she had very little money, and that she could barely afford
+the journey to the Fortress and return. But she esteemed her means well
+invested if her object could be attained.</p>
+
+<p>"They were both brave boys, sir; but I could never get them to agree
+politically. William was a Northerner by education, and took up with the
+New England views, and James was in business at Richmond when the war
+commenced. So he joined the Southern army. It's a sad thing to know that
+one's children died enemies, isn't it? And what troubles me more than
+all, sir, is that James was at Ball's Bluff where his brother fell. It
+makes me shudder to think, sometimes, that his might have been the ball
+that killed him."</p>
+
+<p>The tremor of the poor creature here was painful to behold. I spoke
+soothingly and encouragingly, but with a presentiment that she must be
+disappointed. While I was speaking the supper-bell rang, and I proposed
+to get her a seat at the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you," she replied, "I shall take no meals on the vessel; I
+must travel economically, and have prepared some lunch that will serve
+me. Good by, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>Poor mothers looking for dead sons! God help them! I have met them often
+since; but the figure of that pale, frail creature flitting about the
+open deck,&mdash;alone, hungry, very poor,&mdash;troubles me still, as I write. I
+found, afterward, that she had denied herself a state-room, and intended
+to sleep in a saloon chair. I persuaded her to accept my berth, but a
+German, who occupied the same apartment, was unwilling to relinquish his
+bed, and I had the power only to give her my pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Supper was spread in the forecabin, and at the signal to assemble the
+men rushed to the tables like as many beasts of prey. A captain opposite
+me bolted a whole mackerel in a twinkling, and spread the half-pound of
+butter that was to serve the entire vicinity upon a single slice of
+bread. A sutler beside me reached his fork across my neck, and plucked a
+young chicken bodily, which he ate, to the great disgust of some others
+who were eyeing it. The waiter advanced with some steak, but before he
+reached the table, a couple of Zouaves dragged it from the tray, and
+laughed brutally at their success. The motion of the vessel caused a
+general unsteadiness, and it was absolutely dangerous to move one's
+coffee to his lips. The inveterate hate with which corporations are
+regarded in America was here evidenced by a general desire to empty the
+ship's larder.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat all you can," said a soldier, ferociously,&mdash;"fare's amazin' high.
+Must make it out in grub."</p>
+
+<p>"I always gorges," said another, "on a railroad or a steamboat. Cause
+why? You must eat out your passage, you know!"</p>
+
+<p>Among the passengers were a young officer and his bride. They had been
+married only a few days, and she had obtained permission to accompany
+him to Old Point. Very pretty, she seemed, in her travelling hat and
+flowing robes;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> and he wore a handsome new uniform with prodigious
+shoulder-bars. There was a piano in the saloon, where another young lady
+of the party performed during the evening, and the bride and groom
+accompanied her with a song. It was the popular Federal parody of "Gay
+and Happy:"</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Then let the South fling aloft what it will,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We are for the Union still!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For the Union! For the Union!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We are for the Union still!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The bride and groom sang alternate stanzas, and the concourse of
+soldiers, civilians, and females swelled the chorus. The reserve being
+thus broken, the young officer sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," and the
+refrain must have called up the mermaids. Dancing ensued, and a soldier
+volunteered a hornpipe. A young man with an astonishing compass of lungs
+repeated something from Shakespeare, and the night passed by gleefully
+and reputably. One could hardly realize, in the cheerful eyes and active
+figures of the dance, the sad uncertainties of the time. Youth trips
+lightest, somehow, on the brink of the grave.</p>
+
+<p>The hilarities of the evening so influenced the German quartered with
+me, that he sang snatches of foreign ballads during most of the night,
+and obliged me, at last, to call the steward and insist upon his good
+behavior.</p>
+
+<p>In the gray of the morning I ventured on deck, and, following the
+silvery line of beach, made out the shipping at anchor in Hampton Roads.
+The <i>Minnesota</i> flag-ship lay across the horizon, and after a time I
+remarked the low walls and black derricks of the Rip Raps. The white
+tents at Hampton were then revealed, and finally I distinguished
+Fortress Monroe, the key of the Chesapeake, bristling with guns, and
+floating the Federal flag. As we rounded to off the quay, I studied with
+intense interest the scene of so many historic events. Sewall's Point
+lay to the south, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> stretch of woody beach, around whose western tip
+the dreaded <i>Merrimac</i> had so often moved slowly to the encounter. The
+spars of the <i>Congress</i> and the <i>Cumberland</i> still floated along the
+strand, but, like them, the invulnerable monster had become the prey of
+the waves. The guns of the Rip Raps and the terrible broadsides of the
+Federal gunboats, had swept the Confederates from Sewall's Point,&mdash;their
+flag and battery were gone,&mdash;and farther seaward, at Willoughby Spit,
+some figures upon the beach marked the route of the victorious Federals
+to the city of Norfolk.</p>
+
+<p>The mouth of the James and the York were visible from the deck, and long
+lines of shipping stretched from each to the Fortress. The quay itself
+was like the pool in the Thames, a mass of spars, smoke-stacks, ensigns
+and swelling hills. The low deck and quaint cupola of the famous
+<i>Monitor</i> appeared close into shore, and near at hand rose the thick
+body of the <i>Galena</i>. Long boats and flat boats went hither and thither
+across the blue waves: the grim ports of the men of war were open and
+the guns frowned darkly from their coverts; the seamen were gathering
+for muster on the flagship, and drums beat from the barracks on shore;
+the Lincoln gun, a fearful piece of ordnance, rose like the Sphynx from
+the Fortress sands, and the sodded parapet, the winding stone walls, the
+tops of the brick quarters within the Fort, were some of the features of
+a strangely animated scene, that has yet to be perpetuated upon canvas,
+and made historic.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock the passengers were allowed to land, and a provost
+guard marched them to the Hygeia House,&mdash;of old a watering-place
+hotel,&mdash;where, by groups, they were ushered into a small room, and the
+oath of allegiance administered to them. The young officer who
+officiated, repeated the words of the oath, with a broad grin upon his
+face, and the passengers were required to assent by word and by gesture.
+Among those who took the oath in this way, was a very old sailor, who
+had been in the Federal service for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> the better part of his life, and
+whose five sons were now in the army. He called "Amen" very loudly and
+fervently, and there was some perceptible disposition on the part of
+other ardent patriots, to celebrate the occasion with three cheers. The
+quartermaster, stationed at the Fortress gave me a pass to go by steamer
+up the York to White House, and as there were three hours to elapse
+before departure, I strolled about the place with our agent. In times of
+peace, Old Point was simply a stone fortification, and one of the
+strongest of its kind in the world. Many years and many millions of
+dollars were required to build it, but it was, in general, feebly
+garrisoned, and was, altogether, a stupid, tedious locality, except in
+the bathing months, when the beauty and fashion of Virginia resorted to
+its hotel. A few cottages had grown up around it, tenanted only in "the
+season;" and a little way off, on the mainland, stood the pretty village
+of Hampton.</p>
+
+<p>By a strange oversight, the South failed to seize Fortress Monroe at the
+beginning of the Rebellion; the Federals soon made it the basis for
+their armies and a leading naval station. The battle of Big Bethel was
+one of the first occurrences in the vicinity. Then the dwellings of
+Hampton were burned and its people exiled. In rapid succession followed
+the naval battles in the Roads, the siege and surrender of Yorktown, the
+flight of the Confederates up the Peninsula to Richmond, and finally the
+battles of Williamsburg, and West Point, and the capture of Norfolk.
+These things had already transpired; it was now the month of May; and
+the victorious army, following up its vantages, had pursued the
+fugitives by land and water to "White House," at the head of navigation
+on the Pamunkey river. Thither it was my lot to go, and witness the
+turning-point of their fortunes, and their subsequent calamity and
+repulse.</p>
+
+<p>I found Old Point a weary place of resort, even in the busy era of civil
+war. The bar at the Hygeia House was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> beset with thirsty and idle
+people, who swore instinctively, and drank raw spirits passionately. The
+quantity of shell, ball, ordnance, camp equipage, and war munitions of
+every description piled around the fort, was marvellously great. It
+seemed to me that Xerxes, the first Napoleon, or the greediest of
+conquerors, ancient or modern, would have beheld with amazement the
+gigantic preparations at command of the Federal Government. Energy and
+enterprise displayed their implements of death on every hand. One was
+startled at the prodigal outlay of means, and the reckless summoning of
+men. I looked at the starred and striped ensign that flaunted above the
+Fort, and thought of Madame Roland's appeal to the statue by the
+guillotine.</p>
+
+<p>The settlers were numbered by regiments here. Their places of business
+were mainly structures or "shanties" of rough plank, and most of them
+were the owners of sloops, or schooners, for the transportation of
+freight from New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, to their depots at
+Old Point. Some possessed a dozen wagons, that plied regularly between
+these stores and camps. The traffic was not confined to men; for women
+and children kept pace with the army, trading in every possible article
+of necessity or luxury. For these&mdash;disciples of the dime and the
+dollar&mdash;war had no terrors. They took their muck-rakes, like the man in
+Bunyan, and gathered the almighty coppers, from the pestilential camp
+and the reeking battle-field.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ON TO RICHMOND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Yorktown lies twenty-one miles northwestward from Old Point, and thither
+I turned my face at noon, resolving to delay my journey to "White
+House," till next day morning. Crossing an estuary of the bay upon a
+narrow causeway, I passed Hampton,&mdash;half burned, half desolate,&mdash;and at
+three o'clock came to "Big Bethel," the scene of the battle of June 11,
+1861. A small earthwork marks the site of Magruder's field-pieces, and
+hard by the slain were buried. The spot was noteworthy to me, since
+Lieutenant Greble, a fellow alumnus, had perished here, and likewise,
+Theodore Winthrop, the gifted author of "Cecil Dreeme" and "John Brent."
+The latter did not live to know his exaltation. That morning never came
+whereon he "woke, and found himself famous."</p>
+
+<p>The road ran parallel with the deserted defences of the Confederates for
+some distance. The country was flat and full of swamps, but marked at
+intervals by relics of camps. The farm-houses were untenanted, the
+fences laid flat or destroyed, the fields strewn with discarded
+clothing, arms, and utensils. By and by, we entered the outer line of
+Federal parallels, and wound among lunettes, cr&eacute;maill&egrave;res, redoubts, and
+rifle-pits. Marks of shell and ball were frequent, in furrows and holes,
+where the clay had been upheaved. Every foot of ground, for fifteen
+miles henceforward, had been touched by the shovel and the pick. My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+companion suggested that as much digging, concentred upon one point,
+would have taken the Federals to China. The sappers and miners had made
+their stealthy trenches, rod by rod, each morning appearing closer to
+their adversaries, and finally, completed their work, at less than a
+hundred yards from the Confederate defences. Three minutes would have
+sufficed from the final position, to hurl columns upon the opposing
+outworks, and sweep them with the bayonet. Ten days only had elapsed
+since the evacuation (May 4), and the siege guns still remained in some
+of the batteries. McClellan worshipped great ordnance, and some of his
+columbiads, that were mounted in the water battery, yawned cavernously
+through their embrasures, and might have furnished sleeping
+accommodations to the gunners. A few mortars stood in position by the
+river side, and there were Parrott, Griffin, and Dahlgren pieces in the
+shore batteries.</p>
+
+<p>However numerous and powerful were the Federal fortifications, they bore
+no comparison, in either respect, to those relinquished by the
+revolutionists. Miniature mountain ranges they seemed, deeply ditched,
+and revetted with sods, fascines, hurdles, gabions or sand bags. Along
+the York riverside there were water batteries of surpassing beauty, that
+seemed, at a little distance, successions of gentle terraces. Their
+pieces were likewise of enormous calibre, and their number almost
+incredible. The advanced line of fortifications, sketched from the mouth
+of Warwick creek, on the South, to a point fifteen miles distant on the
+York: one hundred and forty guns were planted along this chain of
+defences; but there were two other concentric lines, mounting, each, one
+hundred and twenty, and two hundred and forty guns. The remote series
+consisted of six forts of massive size and height, fronted by swamps and
+flooded meadows, with frequent creeks and ravines interposing; sharp
+<i>fraise</i> and <i>abattis</i> planted against scarp and slope, pointed cruelly
+eastward. There were two water batteries, of six and four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> thirty-two
+columbiads respectively, and the town itself, which stands upon a red
+clay bluff, was encircled by a series of immense rifled and smooth-bore
+pieces, including a powerful pivot-gun, that one of McClellan's shells
+struck during the first day's bombardment, and split it into fragments.
+At Gloucester Point, across the York river, the great guns of the
+<i>Merrimac</i> were planted, it is said, and a fleet of fire-rafts and
+torpedo-ships were moored in the stream. By all accounts, there could
+have been no less than five hundred guns behind the Confederate
+entrenchments, the greater portion, of course, field-pieces, and, as the
+defending army was composed of one hundred thousand men, we must add
+that number of small arms to the list of ordnance. If we compute the
+Federals at so high a figure,&mdash;and they could scarcely have had less
+than a hundred thousand men afield,&mdash;we must increase the enormous
+amount of their field, siege, and small ordnance, by the naval guns of
+the fleet, that stood anchored in the bay. It is probable that a
+thousand cannon and two hundred thousand muskets were assembled in and
+around Yorktown during this memorable siege. The mind shudders to see
+the terrible deductions of these statistics. The monster, who wished
+that the world had but one neck, that he might sever it, would have
+gloated at such realization! How many days or hours would have here
+sufficed to annihilate all the races of men? Happily, the world was
+spared the spectacle of these deadly mouths at once aflame. Beautiful
+but awful must have been the scene, and the earth must have staggered
+with the shock. One might almost have imagined that man, in his
+ambition, had shut his God in heaven, and besieged him there.</p>
+
+<p>While the fortifications defending it amazed me, the village of Yorktown
+disappointed me. I marvelled that so paltry a settlement should have
+been twice made historic. Here, in the year 1783, Lord Cornwallis
+surrendered his starving command to the American colonists and their
+French allies. But the entrenchments of that earlier day had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+almost obliterated by these recent labors. The field, where the Earl
+delivered up his sword, was trodden bare, and dotted with ditches and
+ramparts; while a small monument, that marked the event, had been hacked
+to fragments by the Southerners, and carried away piecemeal. Yet,
+strange to say, relics of the first bombardment had just been
+discovered, and, among them, a gold-hilted sword.</p>
+
+<p>I visited, in the evening, the late quarters of General Hill, a small
+white house with green shutters, and also the famous "Nelson House," a
+roomy mansion where, of old, Cornwallis slept, and where, a few days
+past, Jefferson Davis and General Lee had held with Magruder, and his
+associates, a council of war. It had been also used for hospital
+purposes, but some negroes were now the only occupants.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederates left behind them seventy spiked and shattered cannon,
+some powder, and a few splintered wagons; but in all material respects,
+their evacuation was thorough and creditable. Some deserters took the
+first tidings of the retreat to the astonished Federals, and they raised
+the national flag within the fortifications, in the gray of the morning
+of the 4th of May. Many negroes also escaped the vigilance of their
+taskmasters, and remained to welcome the victors. The fine works of
+Yorktown are monuments to negro labor, for <i>they</i> were the hewers and
+the diggers. Every slave-owner in Eastern Virginia was obliged to send
+one half of his male servants between the ages of sixteen and fifty to
+the Confederate camps, and they were organized into gangs and set to
+work. In some cases they were put to military service and made excellent
+sharpshooters. The last gun discharged from the town was said to have
+been fired by a negro.</p>
+
+<p>I slept on board a barge at the wharf that evening, and my dreams ran
+upon a thousand themes. To every American this was hallowed ground. It
+had been celebrated by the pencil of Trumbull, the pen of Franklin, and
+the eloquence of Jef<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>ferson. Scarce eighty years had elapsed since those
+great minds established a fraternal government; but the site of their
+crowning glory was now the scene of their children's shame. Discord had
+stolen upon their councils and blood had profaned their shrine.</p>
+
+<p>I visited next day a bomb-proof postern, or subterranean passage,
+connecting the citadel with the outworks, and loitered about the
+fortifications till noon, when I took passage on the mail steamer, which
+left the Fortress at eleven o'clock, and reached White House at dusk the
+same evening. The whole river as I ascended was filled with merchant and
+naval craft. They made a continuous line from Old Point to the mouth of
+York River, and the masts and spars environing Yorktown and Gloucester,
+reminded one of a scene on the Mersey or the Clyde. At West Point, there
+was an array of shipping scarcely less formidable, and the windings of
+the interminably crooked Pamunkey were marked for leagues by sails,
+smoke-stacks, and masts. The landings and wharves were besieged by
+flat-boats and sloops, and Zouaves were hoisting forage and commissary
+stores up the red bluffs at every turn of our vessel.</p>
+
+<p>The Pamunkey was a beautiful stream, densely wooded, and occasional
+vistas opened up along its borders of wheatfields and meadows, with
+Virginia farm-houses and negro quarters on the hilltops. Some of the
+houses on the river banks appeared to be tenanted by white people, but
+the majority had a haunted, desolate appearance, the only signs of life
+being strolling soldiers, who thrust their legs through the second story
+windows, or contemplated the river from the chimney-tops, and groups of
+negroes who sunned themselves on the piazza, or rushed to the margin to
+gaze and grin at the passing steamers. There were occasional residences
+not unworthy of old manorial and baronial times, and these were attended
+at a little distance by negro quarters of logs, arranged in rows, and
+provided with mud chimneys built against their gables. Few of the
+Northern navigable rivers were so picturesque and varied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We passed two Confederate gunboats, that had been half completed, and
+burned on the stocks. Their charred elbows and ribs, stared out, like
+the remains of some extinct monsters; a little delay might have found
+each of them armed and manned, and carrying havoc upon the rivers and
+the seas. West Point was simply a tongue, or spit of land, dividing the
+Mattapony from the Pamunkey river at their junction; a few houses were
+built upon the shallow, and some wharves, half demolished, marked the
+terminus of the York and Richmond railroad. A paltry water-battery was
+the sole defence. Below Cumberland (a collection of huts and a wharf), a
+number of schooners had been sunk across the river, and, with the aid of
+an island in the middle, these constituted a rather rigid blockade. The
+steamboat passed through, steering carefully, but some sailing vessels
+that followed required to be towed between the narrow apertures. The
+tops only of the sunken masts could be discerned above the surface, and
+much time and labor must have been required to place the boats in line
+and sink them. Vessels were counted by scores above and below this
+blockade, and at Cumberland the masts were like a forest; clusters of
+pontoons were here anchored in the river, and a short distance below we
+found three of the light-draught Federal gunboats moored in the stream.
+It was growing dark as we rounded to at "White House;" the camp fires of
+the grand army lit up the sky, and edged the tree-boughs on the margin
+with ribands of silver. Some drums beat in the distance; sentries paced
+the strand; the hum of men, and the lowing of commissary cattle, were
+borne towards us confusedly; soldiers were bathing in the river;
+team-horses were drinking at the brink; a throng of motley people were
+crowding about the landing to receive the papers and mails. I had at
+last arrived at the seat of war, and my ambition to chronicle battles
+and bloodshed was about to be gratified.</p>
+
+<p>At first, I was troubled to make my way; the tents had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> just been
+pitched; none knew the location of divisions other than their own, and
+it was now so dark that I did not care to venture far. After a vain
+attempt to find some flat-boats where there were lodgings and meals to
+be had, I struck out for general head-quarters, and, undergoing repeated
+snubbings from pert members of staff, fell in at length, with a very
+tall, spare, and angular young officer, who spoke broken English, and
+who heard my inquiries, courteously; he stepped into General Marcy's
+tent, but the Chief of Staff did not know the direction of Smith's
+division; he then repaired to Gen. Van Vleet, the chief Quartermaster,
+but with ill success. A party of officers were smoking under a "fly,"
+and some of these called to him, thus&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Captain! Duke! De Chartres! What do you wish?"</p>
+
+<p>It was, then, the Orleans Prince who had befriended me, and I had the
+good fortune to hear that the division, of which I was in search, lay a
+half mile up the river. I never spoke to the Bourbon afterward, but saw
+him often; and that he was as chivalrous as he was kind, all testimony
+proved.</p>
+
+<p>A private escorted me to a Captain Mott's tent, and this officer
+introduced me to General Hancock. I was at once invited to mess with the
+General's staff, and in the course of an hour felt perfectly at home.
+Hancock was one of the handsomest officers in the army; he had served in
+the Mexican war, and was subsequently a Captain in the Quartermaster's
+department. But the Rebellion placed stars in many shoulder-bars, and
+few were more worthily designated than this young Pennsylvanian. His
+first laurels were gained at Williamsburg; but the story of a celebrated
+charge that won him the day's applause, and McClellan's encomium of the
+"Superb Hancock," was altogether fictitious. The musket, not the
+bayonet, gave him the victory. I may doubt, in this place, that any
+extensive bayonet charge has been known during the war. Some have gone
+so far as to deny that the bayonet has ever been used at all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hancock's regiments were the 5th Wisconsin, 49th Pennsylvanian, 43d New
+York, and 6th Maine. They represented widely different characteristics,
+and I esteemed myself fortunate to obtain a position where I could so
+eligibly study men, habits, and warfare. During the evening I fell in
+with the Colonel of each of these regiments, and from the conversation
+that ensued, I gleaned a fair idea of them all.</p>
+
+<p>The Wisconsin regiment was from a new and ambitious State of the
+Northwest. The men were rough-mannered, great-hearted farmers,
+wood-choppers, and tradesmen. They had all the impulsiveness of the
+Yankee, with less selfishness, and quite as much bravery. The Colonel
+was named Cobb, and he had held some leading offices in Wisconsin. A
+part of his life had been adventurously spent, and he had participated
+in the Mexican war. He was an ardent Republican in politics, and had
+been Speaker of a branch of the State Legislature. He was an attorney in
+a small county town when the war commenced, and his name had been
+broached for the Governorship. In person he was small, lithe, and
+capable of enduring great fatigue. His hair was a little gray, and he
+had no beard. He did not respect appearances, and his sword, as I saw,
+was antique and quite different in shape from the regulation weapon. He
+had penetrating gray eyes, and his manners were generally reserved. One
+had not to regard him twice to see that he was both cautious and
+resolute. He was too ambitious to be frank, and too passionate not to be
+brave. In the formula of learning he was not always correct; but few
+were of quicker perception or more practical and philosophic. He might
+not, in an emergency, be nicely scrupulous as to means, but he never
+wavered in respect to objects. His will was the written law to his
+regiment, and I believed his executive abilities superior to those of
+any officer in the brigade, not excepting the General's.</p>
+
+<p>The New York regiment was commanded by a young officer named Vinton. He
+was not more than thirty-five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> years of age, and was a graduate of the
+United States Military Academy. Passionately devoted to engineering, he
+withdrew from the army, and passed five years in Paris, at the study of
+his art. Returning homeward by way of the West Indies, he visited
+Honduras, and projected a filibustering expedition to its shores from
+the States. While perfecting the design, the Rebellion commenced, and
+his old patron, General Scott, secured him the colonelcy of a volunteer
+regiment. He still cherished his scheme of "Colonization," and half of
+his men were promised to accompany him. Personally, Colonel Vinton was
+straight, dark, and handsome. He was courteous, affable, and brave,&mdash;but
+wedded to his peculiar views, and, as I thought, a thorough "Young
+American."</p>
+
+<p>The Maine regiment was fathered by Colonel Burnham, a staunch old yeoman
+and soldier, who has since been made a General. His probity and
+good-nature were adjuncts of his valor, and his men were of the better
+class of New Englanders. The fourth regiment fell into the hands of a
+lawyer from Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He had been also in the Mexican
+war, and was remarkable mainly for strictness with regard to the
+sanitary regulations of his camps. He had wells dug at every stoppage,
+and his tents were generally fenced and canopied with cedar arbors.
+General Hancock's staff was composed of a number of young men, most of
+whom had been called from civil life. His brigade constituted one of
+three commanded by General Smith. Four batteries were annexed to the
+division so formed; the entire number of muskets was perhaps eight
+thousand. The Chief of Artillery was a Captain Ayres, whose battery
+saved the three months' army at Bull Run. It so happened that he came
+into the General's during the evening, and recited the particulars of a
+gunboat excursion, thirty miles up the Pamunkey, wherein he had landed
+his men, and burned a quantity of grain, some warehouses, and shipping.
+I pencilled the facts at once, made up my letter, and mailed it early in
+the morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>RUSTICS IN REBELLION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>At White House, I met some of the mixed Indians and negroes from
+Indiantown Island, which lies among the osiers in the stream. One of
+these ferried me over, and the people received me obsequiously, touching
+their straw hats, and saying, "Sar, at your service!" They were all
+anxious to hear something of the war, and asked, solicitously, if they
+were to be protected. Some of them had been to Richmond the previous
+day, and gave me some unimportant items happening in the city. I found
+that they had Richmond papers of that date, and purchased them for a few
+cents. They knew little or nothing of their own history, and had
+preserved no traditions of their tribe. There was, however, I
+understood, a very old woman extant, named "Mag," of great repute at
+medicines, pow-wows, and divination. I expressed a desire to speak with
+her, and was conducted to a log-house, more ricketty and ruined than any
+of the others. About fifty half-breeds followed me in respectful
+curiosity, and they formed a semicircle around the cabin. The old woman
+sat in the threshold, barefooted, and smoking a stump of clay pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Yaw's one o' dem Nawden soldiers, Aunt Mag!" said my conductor. "He
+wants to talk wid ye."</p>
+
+<p>"Sot down, honey," said the old woman, producing a wooden stool; "is you
+a Yankee, honey? Does you want you fauchun told by de ole 'oman?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I perceived that the daughter of the Delawares smelt strongly of
+fire-water, and the fumes of her calumet were most unwholesome. She was
+greatly disappointed that I did not require her prophetic services, and
+said, appealingly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sar, all de gen'elmen an' ladies from Richmond has dere fauchuns
+told. I tells 'em true. All my fauchuns comes out true. Ain't dat so,
+chillen?"</p>
+
+<p>A low murmur of assent ran round the group, and I was obviously losing
+caste in the settlement.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a dime," said I, "that I will give you, to tell me the result
+of the war. Shall the North be victorious in the next battle? Will
+Richmond surrender within a week? Shall I take my cigar at the Spotswood
+on Sunday fortnight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'se been a lookin' into dat," she said, cunningly; "I'se had dreams on
+dat ar'. Le'um see how de armies stand!"</p>
+
+<p>She brought from the house a cup of painted earthenware containing
+sediments of coffee. I saw her crafty white eyes look up to mine as she
+muttered some jargon, and pretended to read the arrangement of the
+grains.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey," she said, "gi' me de money, and let de ole 'oman dream on it
+once mo'! It ain't quite clar' yit, young massar. Tank you, honey! Tank
+you! Let de old 'oman dream! Let de ole 'oman dream!"</p>
+
+<p>She disappeared into the house, chuckling and chattering, and the sons
+of the forest, loitering awhile, dispersed in various directions. As I
+followed my conductor to the riverside, and he parted the close bushes
+and boughs to give us exit, the glare of the camp-fires broke all at
+once upon us. The ship-lights quivered on the water; the figures of men
+moved to and fro before the fagots; the stars peeped timorously from the
+vault; the woods and steep banks were blackly shadowed in the river.
+Here was I, among the aborigines; and as my dusky acquaintance sent his
+canoe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> skimming across the ripples, I thought how inexplicable were the
+decrees of Time and the justice of God. Two races united in these
+people, and both of them we had wronged. From the one we had taken
+lands; from the other liberties. Two centuries had now elapsed. But the
+little remnant of the African and the American were to look from their
+Island Home upon the clash of our armies and the murder of our braves.</p>
+
+<p>By the 19th of May the skirts of the grand army had been gathered up,
+and on the 20th the march to Richmond was resumed. The troops moved
+along two main roads, of which the right led to New Mechanicsville and
+Meadow Bridges, and the left to the railroad and Bottom Bridges. My
+division formed the right centre, and although the Chickahominy fords
+were but eighteen miles distant, we did not reach them for three days.
+On the first night we encamped at Tunstalls, a railroad-station on Black
+Creek; on the second at New Cold Harbor, a little country tavern, kept
+by a cripple; and on the night of the third day at Hogan's farm, on the
+north hills of the Chickahominy. The railroad was opened to Despatch
+Station at the same time, but the right and centre were still compelled
+to "team" their supplies from White House. In the new position, the army
+extended ten miles along the Chickahominy hills; and while the engineers
+were driving pile, tressel, pontoon, and corduroy bridges, the cavalry
+was scouring the country, on both flanks, far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>The advance was full of incident, and I learned to keep as far in front
+as possible, that I might communicate with scouts, contrabands, and
+citizens. Many odd personages were revealed to me at the farm-houses on
+the way, and I studied, with curious interest, the native Virginian
+character. They appeared to be compounds of the cavalier and the boor.
+There was no old gentleman who owned a thousand barren acres, spotted
+with scrub timber; who lived in a weather-beaten barn, with a
+multiplicity of porch and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> quantity of chimney; whose means bore no
+proportion to his pride, and neither to his indolence,&mdash;that did not
+talk of his ancestry, proffer his hospitality, and defy me to an
+argument. I was a civilian,&mdash;they had no hostility to me,&mdash;but the
+blue-coats of the soldiers seared their eyeballs. In some cases their
+daughters remained upon the property; but the sons and the negroes
+always fled,&mdash;though in contrary directions. The old men used to peep
+through the windows at the passing columns; and as their gates were
+wrenched from the hinges, their rails used to pry wagons out of the mud,
+their pump-handles shaken till the buckets splintered in the shaft, and
+their barns invaded by greasy agrarians, they walked to and fro,
+half-weakly, half-wrathfully, but with a pluck, fortitude, and devotion
+that wrung my respect. Some aged negro women commonly remained, but
+these were rather incumbrances than aids, and they used the family meal
+to cook bread for the troops. An old, toothless, grinning African stood
+at every lane and gate, selling buttermilk and corn-cakes. Poor mortal,
+sinful old women! They had worked for nothing through their three-score
+and ten, but avarice glared from their shrivelled pupils, and their last
+but greatest delight lay in the coppers and the dimes. One would have
+thought that they had outlived the greed of gold; but wages deferred
+make the dying miserly.</p>
+
+<p>The lords of the manors were troubled to know the number of our troops.
+For several days the columns passed with their interminable teams,
+batteries, and adjuncts, and the old gentlemen were loth to compute us
+at less than several millions.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, look yonder," said one, pointing to a brigade; "I declar' to
+gracious, there ain't no less than ten thousand in <i>them</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tousands an' tousands!" said a wondering negro at his elbow. "I wonda
+if dey'll take Richmond dis yer day?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many of them hung white flags at their gate-posts, implying neutrality;
+but nobody displayed the Federal colors. If there were any covert
+sympathizers with the purposes of the army, they remembered the
+vengeance of the neighbors and made no demonstrations. There was a
+prodigious number of stragglers from the Federal lines, as these were
+the bane of the country people. They sauntered along by twos and threes,
+rambling into all the fields and green-apple orchards, intruding their
+noses into old cabins, prying into smoke-houses, and cellars, looking at
+the stock in the stables, and peeping on tiptoe into the windows of
+dwellings. These stragglers were true exponents of Yankee
+character,&mdash;always wanting to know,&mdash;averse to discipline, eccentric in
+their orbits, entertaining profound contempt for everything that was not
+up to the measure of "to hum."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Bill, I say!" said one, with a great grin on his face; "did
+you ever, neow! I swan! they call that a plough down in these parts."</p>
+
+<p>"Devilishest people I ever see!" said Bill, "stick their meetin'-houses
+square in the woods! Build their chimneys first and move the houses up
+to 'em! All the houses breakin' out in perspiration of porch! All their
+machinery with Noah in the ark! Pump the soil dry! Go to sleep a milkin'
+a keow! Depend entirely on Providence and the nigger!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a mill on the New Bridge road, ten miles from White House,
+with a tidy farm-house, stacks, and cabins adjoining. The road crossed
+the mill-race by a log bridge, and a spreading pond or dam lay to the
+left,&mdash;the water black as ink, the shore sandy, and the stream
+disappearing in a grove of straight pines. A youngish woman, with
+several small children, occupied the dwelling, and there remained,
+besides, her fat sister-in-law and four or five faithful negroes. I
+begged the favor of a meal and bed in the place one night, and shall not
+forget the hospitable table with its steaming biscuit; the chubby baby,
+perched upon his high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> stool; the talkative elderly woman, who took
+snuff at the fireplace; the contented black-girl, who played the Hebe;
+and above all, the trim, plump, pretty hostess, with her brown eyes and
+hair, her dignity and her fondness, sitting at the head of the board.
+When she poured the bright coffee into the capacious bowl, she revealed
+the neatest of hands and arms, and her dialect was softer and more
+musical than that of most Southerners. In short, I fell almost in love
+with her; though she might have been a younger playmate of my mother's,
+and though she was the wife of a Quartermaster in a Virginia regiment.
+For, somehow, a woman seems very handsome when one is afield; and the
+contact of rough soldiers, gives him a partiality for females. It must
+have required some courage to remain upon the farm; but she hoped
+thereby to save the property from spoliation. I played a game of whist
+with the sister-in-law, arguing all the while; and at nine o'clock the
+servant produced some hard cider, shellbarks, and apples. We drank a
+cheery toast: "an early peace and old fellowship!"&mdash;to which the wife
+added a sentiment of "always welcome," and the baby laughed at her knee.
+How brightly glowed the fire! I wanted to linger for a week, a month, a
+year,&mdash;as I do now, thinking it all over,&mdash;and when I strolled to the
+porch,&mdash;hearing the pigeons cooing at the barn; the water streaming down
+the dam; the melancholy monotony of the pine boughs;&mdash;there only lacked
+the humming mill-wheel, and the strong grip of the miller's hand, to
+fill the void corner of one's happy heart.</p>
+
+<p>But this was a time of war, when dreams are rudely broken, and mine
+could not last. The next day some great wheels beat down the bridge, and
+the teams clogged the road for miles; the waiting teamsters saw the
+miller's sheep, and the geese, chickens, and pigs, rashly exposed
+themselves in the barnyard; these were killed and eaten, the mill
+stripped of flour and meal, and the garden despoiled of its vegetables.
+A quartermaster's horse foundered, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> he demanded the miller's, giving
+therefor a receipt, but specifying upon the same the owner's relation to
+the Rebellion; and, to crown all, a group of stragglers, butchered the
+cows, and heaped the beef in their wagons to feed their regimental
+friends. When I presented myself, late in the afternoon, the yard and
+porches were filled with soldiers; the wife sat within, her head thrown
+upon the window, her bright hair unbound, and her eyes red with weeping.
+The baby had cried itself to sleep, the sister-in-law took snuff
+fiercely, at the fire; the black girl cowered in a corner.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not bread in the house for my children," she said; "but I did
+not think they could make me shed a tear."</p>
+
+<p>If there were Spartan women, as the story-books say, I wonder if their
+blood died with them! I hardly think so.</p>
+
+<p>If I learned anything from my quiet study of this and subsequent
+campaigns, it was the heartlessness of war. War brutalizes! The most
+pitiful become pitiless afield, and those who are not callous, must do
+cruel duties. If the quartermaster had not seized the horses, he would
+have been accountable for his conduct; had he failed to state the
+miller's disloyalty in the receipt, he would have been punished. The men
+were thieves and brutes, to take the meal and meat; but they were
+perhaps hungry and weary, and sick of camp food; on the whole, I became
+a devotee of the George Fox faith, and hated warfare, though I knew
+nothing to substitute for it, in <i>crises</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, the optimist might have seen much to admire. Individual merits
+were developed around me; I saw shop-keepers and mechanics in the ranks,
+and they looked to be better men. Here were triumphs of engineering;
+there perfections of applied ingenuity. I saw how the weakest natures
+girt themselves for great resolves, and how fortitude outstripped
+itself. It is a noble thing to put by the fear of death. It was a grand
+spectacle, this civil soldiery of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> both sections, supporting their
+principles, ambitions, or whatever instigated them, with their bodies;
+and their bones, lie where they will, must be severed, when the
+plough-share some day heaves them to the ploughman.</p>
+
+<p>One morning a friend asked me to go upon a scout.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are your companies?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"There are four behind, and we shall be joined by six at Old Cold
+Harbor."</p>
+
+<p>I saw, in the rear, filing through a belt of woods, the tall figures of
+the horsemen, approaching at a canter.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you command?" said I again.</p>
+
+<p>"No! the Major has charge of the scout, and his orders are secret."</p>
+
+<p>I wheeled beside him, as the cavalry closed up, waved my hand to
+Plumley, and the girls, and went forward to the rendezvous, about six
+miles distant. The remaining companies of the regiment were here drawn
+up, watering their nags. The Major was a thick, sunburnt man, with
+grizzled beard, and as he saw us rounding a corner of hilly road, his
+voice rang out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Attention! Prepare to mount!"</p>
+
+<p>Every rider sprang to his nag; every nag walked instinctively to his
+place; every horseman made fast his girths, strapped his blankets
+tightly, and lay his hands upon bridle-rein and pommel.</p>
+
+<p>"Attention! Mount!"</p>
+
+<p>The riders sprang to their seats; the bugles blew a lively strain; the
+horses pricked up their ears; and the long array moved briskly forward,
+with the Captain, the Major, and myself at the head. We were joined in a
+moment by two pieces of flying artillery, and five fresh companies of
+cavalry. In a moment more we were underway again, galloping due
+northward, and, as I surmised, toward Hanover Court House. If any branch
+of the military service is feverish, adventurous, and exciting, it is
+that of the cavalry. One's heart beats as fast as the hoof-falls; there
+is no music like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> winding of the bugle, and no monotone so full of
+meaning as the clink of sabres rising and falling with the dashing pace.
+Horse and rider become one,&mdash;a new race of Centaurs,&mdash;and the charge,
+the stroke, the crack of carbines, are so quick, vehement, and dramatic,
+that we seem to be watching the joust of tournaments or following fierce
+Saladins and Crusaders again. We had ridden two hours at a fair canter,
+when we came to a small stream that crossed the road obliquely, and
+gurgled away through a sandy valley into the deepnesses of the woods. A
+cart-track, half obliterated, here diverged, running parallel with the
+creek, and the Major held up his sword as a signal to halt; at the same
+moment the bugle blew a quick, shrill note.</p>
+
+<p>"There are hoof-marks here!" grunted the Major,&mdash;"five of 'em. The
+Dutchman has gone into the thicket. Hulloo!" he added,
+precipitately&mdash;"there go the carbines!"</p>
+
+<p>I heard, clearly, two explosions in rapid succession; then a general
+discharge, as of several persons firing at once, and at last, five
+continuous reports, fainter, but more regular, and like the several
+emptyings of a revolver. I had scarcely time to note these things, and
+the effect produced upon the troop, when strange noises came from the
+woods to the right: the floundering of steeds, the cries and curses of
+men, and the ringing of steel striking steel. Directly the boughs
+crackled, the leaves quivered, and a horse and rider plunged into the
+road, not five rods from my feet. The man was bareheaded, and his face
+and clothing were torn with briars and branches. He was at first riding
+fairly upon our troops, when he beheld the uniform and standards, and
+with a sharp oath flung up his sword and hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I surrender!" he said; "I give in! Don't shoot!"</p>
+
+<p>The scores of carbines that were levelled upon him at once dropped to
+their rests at the saddles; but some unseen avenger had not heeded the
+shriek; a ball whistled from the woods, and the man fell from his
+cushion like a stone. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> another instant, the German sergeant bounded
+through the gap, holding his sabre aloft in his right hand; but the left
+hung stiff and shattered at his side, and his face was deathly white. He
+glared an instant at the dead man by the roadside, leered grimly, and
+called aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Major! Dis vay! Dere are a squad of dem ahead!"</p>
+
+<p>The bugle at once sounded a charge, the Major rose in the stirrups, and
+thundered "Forward!" I reined aside, intuitively, and the column dashed
+hotly past me. With a glance at the heap of mortality littering the way,
+I spurred my nag sharply, and followed hard behind. The riderless horse
+seemed to catch the fever of the moment, and closed up with me, leaving
+his master the solitary tenant of the dell. For perhaps three miles we
+galloped like the wind, and my brave little traveller overtook the
+hindmost of the troop, and retained the position. Thrice there were
+discharges ahead; I caught glimpses of the Major, the Captain, and the
+wolfish sergeant, far in the advance; and once saw, through the cloud of
+dust that beset them, the pursued and their individual pursuers, turning
+the top of a hill. But for the most part, I saw nothing; I <i>felt</i> all
+the intense, consuming, burning ardor of the time and the event. I
+thought that my hand clutched a sabre, and despised myself that it was
+not there. I stood in the stirrups, and held some invisible enemy by the
+throat. In a word, the bloodiness of the chase was upon me. I realized
+the fierce infatuation of matching life with life, and standing arbiter
+upon my fellow's body and soul. It seemed but a moment, when we halted,
+red and panting, in the paltry Court House village of Hanover; the
+field-pieces hurled a few shells at the escaping Confederates, and the
+men were ordered to dismount.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that a Confederate picket had been occupying the village, and
+the creek memorized by the skirmish was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> an outpost merely. Two of the
+man Otto's party had been slain in the woods, where also lay as many
+Southerners.</p>
+
+<p>Hanover Court House is renowned as the birthplace of Patrick Henry, the
+colonial orator, called by Byron the "forest Demosthenes." In a little
+tavern, opposite the old Court House building, he began his humble
+career as a measurer of gills to convivials, and in the Court House,&mdash;a
+small stone edifice, plainly but quaintly constructed,&mdash;he gave the
+first exhibitions of his matchless eloquence. Not far away, on a
+by-road, the more modern but not less famous orator, Henry Clay, was
+born. The region adjacent to his father's was called the "Slashes of
+Hanover," and thence came his appellation of the "Mill Boy of the
+Slashes." I had often longed to visit these shrines; but never dreamed
+that the booming of cannon would announce me. The soldiers broke into
+both the tavern and court-house, and splintered some chairs in the
+former to obtain relics of Henry. I secured Richmond newspapers of the
+same morning, and also some items of intelligence. With these I decided
+to repair at once to White House, and formed the rash determination of
+taking the direct or Pamunkey road, which I had never travelled, and
+which might be beset by Confederates. The distance to White House, by
+this course, was only twenty miles; whereas it was nearly as far to
+head-quarters; and I believed that my horse had still the persistence to
+carry me. It was past four o'clock; but I thought to ride six miles an
+hour while daylight lasted, and, by good luck, get to the depot at nine.
+The Major said that it was foolhardiness; the Captain bantered me to go.
+I turned my back upon both, and bade them good by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>PUT UNDER ARREST.</h3>
+
+
+<p>While daylight remained, I had little reason to repent my wayward
+resolve. The Pamunkey lay to my left, and the residences between it and
+the road were of a better order than others that I had seen. This part
+of the country had not been overrun, and the wheat and young corn were
+waving in the river-breeze. I saw few negroes, but the porches were
+frequently occupied by women and white men, who looked wonderingly
+toward me. There were some hoof-marks in the clay, and traces of a broad
+tire that I thought belonged to a gun-carriage. The hills of King
+William County were but a little way off, and through the wood that
+darkened them, sunny glimpses of vari-colored fields and dwellings now
+and then appeared. I came to a shabby settlement called New Castle, at
+six o'clock, where an evil-looking man walked out from a frame-house,
+and inquired the meaning of the firing at Hanover.</p>
+
+<p>I explained hurriedly, as some of his neighbors meantime gathered around
+me. They asked if I was not a soldier in the Yankee army, and as I rode
+away, followed me suspiciously with their eyes and wagged their heads.
+To end the matter I spurred my pony and soon galloped out of sight.
+Henceforward I met only stern, surprised glances, and seemed to read
+"murder" in the faces of the inhabitants. A wide creek crossed the road
+about five miles further on, where I stopped to water my horse. The
+shades<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> of night were gathering now; there was no moon; and for the
+first time I realized the loneliness of my position. Hitherto, adventure
+had laughed down fear; hereafter my mind was to be darkened like the
+gloaming, and peopled with ghastly shadows.</p>
+
+<p>I was yet young in the experience of death, and the toppled corpse of
+the slain cavalry-man on the scout, somehow haunted me. I heard his
+hoof-falls chiming with my own, and imagined, with a cold thrill, that
+his steed was still following me; then, his white rigid face and
+uplifted arms menaced my way; and, at last, the ruffianly form of his
+slayer pursued him along the wood. They glided like shadows over the
+foliage, and flashed across the surfaces of pools and rivulets. I heard
+their steel ringing in the underbrush, and they flitted around me,
+pursuing and retreating, till my brain began to whirl with the motion.
+Suddenly my horse stumbled, and I reined him to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>The cold drops were standing on my forehead. I found my knees a-quiver
+and my breathing convulsive. With an expletive upon my unmanliness, I
+touched the nag with my heel, and whistled encouragingly. Poor pony!
+Fifty miles of almost uninterrupted travel had broken his spirit. He
+leaped into his accustomed pace: but his legs were unsteady and he
+floundered at every bound. There were pools, ruts, and boughs across the
+way, with here and there stretches of slippery corduroy; but the thick
+blackness concealed these, and I expected momentarily to be thrown from
+the saddle. By and by he dropped from a canter into a rock; from a rock
+to an amble; then into a walk, and finally to a slow painful limp. I
+dismounted and took him perplexedly by the bit. A light shone from the
+window of a dwelling across some open fields to the left, and I thought
+of repairing thither; but some deep-mouthed dogs began to bay directly,
+and then the lamp went out. A tiny stream sang at the roadside, flowing
+toward some deeper tributary; lighting a cigar, I made out, by its
+fitful illuminings, to wash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the limbs of the jaded nag. Then I led him
+for an hour, till my own limbs were weary, troubled all the time by
+weird imaginings, doubts, and regrets. When I resumed the saddle the
+horse had a firmer step and walked pleasantly. I ventured after a time
+to incite him to a trot, and was going nicely forward, when a deep
+voice, that almost took my breath, called from the gloom&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who comes there? Halt, or I fire! Guard, turn out!"</p>
+
+<p>Directly the road was full of men, and a bull's-eye lantern flashed upon
+my face. A group of foot-soldiery, with drawn pistols and sabres,
+gathered around me, and I heard the neigh of steeds from some
+imperceptible vicinity. "Who is it, Sergeant?" said one. "Is there but
+one of 'em?" said another. "Cuss him!" said a third; "I was takin' a
+bully snooze." "Who are yeou?" said the Sergeant, sternly; "what are
+yeou deouin' aout at this hour o' the night? Are yeou a rebbil?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" I answered, greatly relieved; "I am a newspaper correspondent of
+Smith's division, and there's my pass!"</p>
+
+<p>I was taken over to a place in the woods, where some fagots were
+smouldering, and, stirring them to a blaze, the Sergeant read the
+document and pronounced it right.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeou hain't got no business, nevertheless, to be roamin' araound
+outside o' picket; but seein' as it's yeou, I reckon yeou may trot
+along!"</p>
+
+<p>I offered to exchange my information for a biscuit and a drop of coffee,
+for I was wellnigh worn out; while one of the privates produced a
+canteen more wholesome than cleanly, another gave me a lump of fat pork
+and a piece of corn bread. They gathered sleepily about me, while I told
+of the scout, and the Sergeant said that my individual ride was "game
+enough, but nothin' but darn nonsense." Then they fed my horse with a
+trifle of oats, and after awhile I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> climbed, stiff and bruised, to the
+saddle again, and bade them good night.</p>
+
+<p>I knew now that I was at "Putney's," a ford on the Pamunkey, and an hour
+later I came in sight of the ship-lights at White House, and heard the
+steaming of tugs and draught-boats, going and coming by night. I hitched
+my horse to a tree, pilfered some hay and fodder from two or three nags
+tied adjacent, and picked my way across a gangway, several barge-decks,
+and a floating landing, to the mail steamer that lay outside. Her deck
+and cabin were filled with people, stretched lengthwise and crosswise,
+tangled, grouped, and snoring, but all apparently fast asleep. I coolly
+took a blanket from a man that looked as though he did not need it, and
+wrapped myself cosily under a bench in a corner. The cabin light flared
+dimly, half irradiating the forms below, and the boat heaved a little on
+the river-swells. The night was cold, the floor hard, and I almost dead
+with fatigue. But what of that! I felt the newspapers in my breast
+pocket, and knew that the mail could not leave me in the morning.
+Blessed be the news-gatherer's sleep! I think he earned it.</p>
+
+<p>It was very pleasant, at dawn, to receive the congratulations of our
+agent, with whom I breakfasted, and to whom I consigned a hastily
+written letter and all the Richmond papers of the preceding day. He was
+a shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man, of large experience and good
+standing in our establishment. He was sent through the South at the
+beginning of the Rebellion, and introduced into all public bodies and
+social circles, that he might fathom the designs of Secession, and
+comprehend its spirit. Afterward he accompanied the Hatteras and Port
+Royal expeditions, and witnessed those celebrated bombardments. Such a
+thorough individual abnegation I never knew. He was a part of the
+establishment, body and soul. He agreed with its politics, adhered to
+all its policies, defended it, upheld it, revered it. The Federal
+Government was, to his eye, merely an adjunct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> of the paper. Battles and
+sieges were simply occurrences for its columns. Good men, brave men, bad
+men, died to give it obituaries. The whole world was to him a Reporter's
+district, and all human mutations plain matters of news. I hardly think
+that any city, other than New York, contains such characters. The
+journals there are full of fever, and the profession of journalism is a
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>He cashed me a draft for a hundred dollars, and I filled my saddle-bags
+with smoking-tobacco, spirits, a meerschaum pipe, packages of sardines,
+a box of cigars, and some cheap publications. Then we adjourned to the
+quay, where the steamer was taking in mails, freight and passengers. The
+papers were in his side-pocket, and he was about to commit them to a
+steward for transmission to Fortress Monroe, when my name was called
+from the strand by a young mounted officer, connected with one of the
+staffs of my division. I thought that he wished to exchange salutations
+or make some inquiries, and tripped to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"General McClellan wants those newspapers that you obtained at Hanover
+yesterday!"</p>
+
+<p>A thunderbolt would not have more transfixed me. I could not speak for a
+moment. Finally, I stammered that they were out of my possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sir, I arrest you, by order of General McClellan. Get your
+horse!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" said I, agitatedly, "&mdash;it may not be too late. I can recover
+them yet. Here is our agent,&mdash;I gave them to him."</p>
+
+<p>I turned, at the word, to the landing where he stood a moment before. To
+my dismay, he had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"This is some frivolous pretext to escape," said the Lieutenant; "you
+correspondents are slippery fellows, but I shall take care that you do
+not play any pranks with me. The General is irritated already, and if
+you prevaricate relative to those papers he may make a signal example of
+you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>I begged to be allowed to look for&mdash;&mdash;; but he answered cunningly, that
+I had better mount and ride on. An acquaintance of mine here interfered,
+and testified to the existency of the agent and his probable connection
+with the journals. Pale, flurried, excited, I started to discover him,
+the Lieutenant following me closely meantime. We entered every booth and
+tent, went from craft to craft, sought among the thick clusters of
+people, and even at the Commissary's and Quartermaster's pounds, that
+lay some distance up the railroad.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for you, old fellow," said the Lieutenant, "but your
+accomplice has probably escaped. It's very sneaking of him, as it makes
+it harder for you; but I have no authority to deal with him, though I
+shall take care to report his conduct at head-quarters."</p>
+
+<p>I found that the Lieutenant was greatly gratified with the duty
+entrusted to him. He had been at the cavalry quarters on the return of
+the scouting party, and had overheard the Major muttering something as
+to McClellan's displeasure at receiving no Richmond journals. The Major
+had added that one of the correspondents took them to White House, and,
+mentioning me by name, this young and aspiring satellite had blurted out
+that he knew me, and could doubtless overtake me at the mail-boat in the
+morning. The Commanding General authorised him to arrest me <i>with the
+papers</i>, and report at head-quarters. This was then a journey to
+recommend him to authority, and it involved no personal danger. I was
+not so intimidated that I failed to see how the Lieutenant would lose
+his gayest feather by failing to recover the journals, and I dexterously
+insinuated that it would be well to recommence the search. This time we
+were successful. The shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man was coolly
+contemplating the river from an outside barge, concealed from the shore
+by piled boxes of ammunition. He was reading a phonetic pamphlet, and
+appeared to take his apprehension as a pleasant morning call. I caught
+one meaning glance, however, that satisfied me how clearly he understood
+the case.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Townsend," said he, smilingly, "back already? I thought we had lost
+you. One of your military friends? Good-day, Lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"I am under arrest, my boy," said I, "and you will much aggravate
+General McClellan, if you do not consign those Richmond journals to his
+deputy here."</p>
+
+<p>"Under arrest? You surprise me! I am sorry, Lieutenant that you have had
+so fatiguing a ride, but the fact is, those papers have gone down the
+river. If the General is not in a great hurry, he will see their columns
+reproduced by us in a few days."</p>
+
+<p>"How did they go?" said the Lieutenant, with an oath, "if by the
+mail-boat I will have General Van Vliet despatch a tug to overhaul her."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry again," said the bland civilian, smoothing his hands:
+"but they went by the <i>South America</i> at a much earlier hour."</p>
+
+<p>I looked appealingly to him; the satellite stared down the river
+perplexedly, but suddenly his eye fell upon something that absorbed it;
+and he turned like a madman to&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"By! &mdash;&mdash; sir, you are lying to me. There is the <i>South America</i> moored
+to a barge, and her steam is not up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Those words are utterly uncalled for," said the agent,&mdash;"but you cannot
+irritate me, my dear sir! I know that youth is hot,&mdash;particularly
+military youth yet inexperienced; and therefore I pardon you. I made a
+mistake. It was not the <i>South America</i>, it was&mdash;it was&mdash;upon my word I
+cannot recall the name!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do not mean to!" thundered the young Ajax, to whose vanity, &mdash;&mdash;'s
+speech had been gall; "my powers are discretionary: I arrest you in the
+name of General McClellan."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Be sure you understand your orders! It isn't probable that such
+a fiery blade is allowed much dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>cretionary margin. The General himself
+would not assume such airs. Why don't you shoot me? It might contribute
+to your promotion, and that is, no doubt, your object. I know General
+McClellan very well. He is a personal friend of mine."</p>
+
+<p>His manner was so self-possessed, his tone so cutting, that the young
+man of fustian&mdash;whose name was Kenty&mdash;fingered his sword hilt, and
+foamed at the lips.</p>
+
+<p>"March on," said he,&mdash;"I will report this insolence word for word."</p>
+
+<p>He motioned us to the quay; we preceded him. The sanguine gentleman
+keeping up a running fire of malevolent sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" said he quietly, as we reached his tent,&mdash;"I have not sent them
+at all. They are here. And you have made all this exhibition of yourself
+for nothing. I am the better soldier, you see. You are a drummer-boy,
+not an officer. Take off your shoulder-bars, and go to school again."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared a minute, returned with two journals, and looking at me,
+meaningly, turned to their titles.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see!" he said, smoothly,&mdash;"<i>Richmond Examiner</i>, May 28,
+<i>Richmond Enquirer</i>, May 22. There! You have them! Go in peace! Give my
+respects to General McClellan! Townsend, old fellow, you have done your
+full duty. Don't let this young person frighten you. Good by."</p>
+
+<p>He gave me his hand, with a sinister glance, and left something in my
+palm when his own was withdrawn. I examined it hastily when I girt up my
+saddle. It said: "<i>Your budget got off safe, old fellow.</i>" He had given
+Kenty some old journals that were of no value to anybody. When we were
+mounted and about to start, the Lieutenant looked witheringly upon his
+persecutor&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me to say, sir," he exclaimed, "that you are the most unblushing
+liar I ever knew."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, kindly," said&mdash;&mdash;, taking off his hat, "you do me honor!"</p>
+
+<p>Our route was silent and weary enough. The young man at my side,
+unconscious of his wily antagonist's deception, boasted for some time
+that he had attained his purposes. As I could not undeceive him, I held
+my tongue; but feared that when this trick should be made manifest, the
+vengeance would fall on me alone. I heartily wished the unlucky papers
+at the bottom of the sea. To gratify an adventurous whim, and obtain a
+day's popularity at New York, I had exposed my life, crippled my nag,
+and was now to be disgraced and punished. What might or might not befall
+me, I gloomily debated. The least penalty would be expulsion from the
+army; but imprisonment till the close of the war, was a favorite
+amusement with the War Office. How my newspaper connection would be
+embarrassed was a more grievous inquiry. It stung me to think that I had
+blundered twice on the very threshold of my career. Was I not acquiring
+a reputation for rashness that would hinder all future promotion and
+cast me from the courts of the press. Here the iron entered into my
+soul; for be it known, I loved Bohemia! This roving commission, these
+vagabond habits, this life in the open air among the armies, the white
+tents, the cannon, and the drums, they were my elysium, my heart! But to
+be driven away, as one who had broken his trust, forfeited favor and
+confidence, and that too on the eve of grand events, was something that
+would embitter my existence.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the familiar objects that I had so often buoyantly
+beheld,&mdash;deserted encampments, cross-roads, rills, farm-houses, fields,
+and at last came to Daker's. I called out to them, and explained my
+woful circumstances with rueful conciseness.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing dark when we came to general headquarters, two miles
+beyond Gaines's Mill. The tents were scattered over the surface of a
+hill, and most of them were illumined by candles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Lieutenant gave our horses to an orderly, and led the way through
+two outer circles of wall-tents, between which and the inner circle,
+guards were pacing, to deny all vulgar ingress.</p>
+
+<p>A staff officer took in our names, and directly returned with the reply
+of "Pass in!" We were now in the sacred enclosure, secured by flaming
+swords. Four tents stood in a row, allotted respectively to the Chief of
+Staff, the Adjutant-General, the telegraph operators, and the select
+staff officers. Just behind them, embowered by a covering of cedar
+boughs, stood the tent of General McClellan. Close by, from an open plot
+or area of ground, towered a pine trunk, floating the national flag.
+Lights burned in three of the tents: low voices, as of subdued
+conversation, were heard from the first.</p>
+
+<p>A little flutter of my heart, a drawing aside of canvas, two steps, an
+uncovering, and a bow,&mdash;I stood at my tribunal! A couple of candles were
+placed upon a table, whereat sat a fine specimen of man, with kindly
+features, dark, grayish, flowing hair, and slight marks of years upon
+his full, purplish face. He looked to be a well-to-do citizen, whose
+success had taught him sedentary convivialities. A fuming cigar lay
+before him; some empty champagne bottles sat upon a pine desk; tumblers
+and a decanter rested upon a camp-stool; a bucket, filled with water and
+a great block of ice, was visible under the table. Five other gentlemen,
+each with a star in his shoulder-bar, were dispersed upon chairs and
+along a camp bedside. The tall, angular, dignified gentleman with
+compressed lips and a "character" nose, was General Barry, Chief of
+Artillery. The lithe, severe, gristly, sanguine person, whose eyes
+flashed even in repose, was General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry. The
+large, sleepy-eyed, lymphatic, elderly man, clad in dark, civil gray,
+whose ears turned up habitually as from deafness, was Prince de
+Joinville, brother to Louis Philippe, King of France. The little man
+with red hair and beard, who moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> quickly and who spoke sharply, was
+Seth Williams, Adjutant-General. The stout person with florid face,
+large, blue eyes, and white, straight hair, was General Van Vliet,
+Quartermaster-General. And the man at the table, was General Marcy,
+father-in-law to McClellan, and Executive officer of the army.</p>
+
+<p>Maps, papers, books, and luggage lay around the room; all the gentlemen
+were smoking and wine sparkled in most of the glasses. Some swords were
+lying upon the floor, a pair of spurs glistened by the bed, and three of
+the officers had their feet in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you wish, Lieutenant?" said General Marcy, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>The boor in uniform at my side, related his errand and order, gave the
+particulars of my arrest, declaimed against our agent, and submitted the
+journals. He told his story stammeringly, and I heard one of the
+officers in the background mutter contemptuously when he had finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you aware of the order prohibiting correspondents from keeping
+with the advance?" said the General, looking up.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not been notified from head-quarters. I have been with the army
+only a week."</p>
+
+<p>"You knew that you had no business upon scouts, forages, or
+reconnoissances; why did you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I went by invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"Who invited you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would prefer not to state, since it would do him an injury."</p>
+
+<p>Here the voices in the background muttered, as I thought, applaudingly.
+Gaining confidence as I proceeded, I spoke more boldly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I regret that I have disobeyed any order of General
+McClellan's; but there can nothing occur in the rear of an army.
+Obedience, in this case, would be indolence and incompetence; for only
+the reliable would stay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> behind and the reckless go ahead. If I am
+accredited here as a correspondent, I must keep up with the events. And
+the rivalries of our tribe, General, are so many, that the best of us
+sometimes forget what is right for what is expedient. I hope that
+General McClellan will pass by this offence."</p>
+
+<p>He heard my rambling defence quietly, excused the Lieutenant, and
+whistled for an orderly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that you meant to offend General McClellan," he said,
+"but he wishes you to be detained. Give me your pass. Orderly, take this
+gentleman to General Porter, and tell him to treat him kindly. Good
+night."</p>
+
+<p>When we got outside of the tent, I slipped a silver half-dollar into the
+orderly's hand, and asked him if he understood the General's final
+remark. He said, in reply, that I was directed to be treated with
+courtesy, kindness, and care, and asked me, in conclusion, if there were
+any adjectives that might intensify the recommendation. When we came to
+General Porter, the Provost-Marshal, however, he pooh-poohed the
+qualifications, and said that <i>his</i> business was merely to put me under
+surveillance. This unamiable man ordered me to be taken to Major
+Willard, the deputy Provost, whose tent we found after a long search.
+The Major was absent, but some young officers of his mess were taking
+supper at his table, and with these I at once engaged in conversation.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that if I was to be spared an immersion in the common guardhouse,
+with drunkards, deserters, and prisoners of war, I must win the favor of
+these men. I gave them the story of my arrest, spoke lightly of the
+offence and jestingly of the punishment, and, in fact, so improved my
+cause that, when the Major appeared, and the Sergeant consigned me to
+his custody, one of the young officers took him aside, and, I am sure,
+said some good words in my favor.</p>
+
+<p>The Major was a bronzed, indurated gentleman, scrupu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>lously attired, and
+courteously stern. He looked at me twice or thrice, to my confusion; for
+I was dusty, wan, and running over with perspiration. His first remark
+had, naturally, reference to the lavatory, and, so far as my face and
+hair were concerned, I was soon rejuvenated. I found on my return to the
+tent, a clean plate and a cup of steaming coffee placed for me, and I
+ate with a full heart though pleading covertly the while. When I had
+done, and the tent became deserted by all save him and me, he said,
+simply&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do with you, Mr. Townsend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Treat me as a gentleman, I hope, Major."</p>
+
+<p>"We have but one place of confinement," said he, "the guardhouse; but I
+am loth to send you there. Light your pipe, and I will think the matter
+over."</p>
+
+<p>He took a turn in front, consulted with some of his associates, and
+directly returning, said that I was to be quartered in his office-tent,
+adjoining. A horror being thus lifted from my mind, I heard with sincere
+interest many revelations of his military career. He had been a common
+soldier in the Mexican war, and had fought his way, step by step, to
+repeated commissions. He had garrisoned Fort Yuma, and other posts on
+the far plains, and at the beginning of the war was tendered a volunteer
+brigade, which he modestly declined. His tastes were refined, and a warm
+fancy, approaching poetry, enhanced his personal reminiscences. His face
+softened, his eyes grew milder, his large, commanding mouth relaxed,&mdash;he
+was young again, living his adventures over. We talked thus till almost
+midnight, when two regulars appeared in front,&mdash;stiff, ramrodish
+figures, that came to a jerking "present," tapped their caps with two
+fingers, and said, explosively; "Sergeant of Guard, Number Five!"</p>
+
+<p>The Major rose, gave me his hand, and said that I would find a candle in
+my tent, with waterproof and blankets on the ground. I was to give
+myself no concern about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> nag, and might, if I chose, sit for an hour
+to write, but must, on no account, attempt to leave the canvas, for the
+guard would instantly shoot me down. The guard in question had a
+<i>doppel-ganger</i>,&mdash;counterpart of himself in inflexibility,&mdash;and both
+were appendages of their muskets. He was not probably a sentient being,
+certainly not a conversational one. He knew the length of a stride, and
+the manual of bayonet exercise, but was, during his natural life, a
+blind idolater of a deity, called "Orders." The said "Orders," for the
+present evening, were walking, not talking, and he was dumb to all
+conciliatory words. He took a position at one end of my tent, and his
+double at the other end. They carried their muskets at "support arms,"
+and paced up and down, measuredly, like two cloaked and solemn ghosts. I
+wrapped myself in the damp blankets, and slept through the bangs of four
+or five court-martials and several executions. At three o'clock, they
+changed ramrods,&mdash;the old doppel-gangers going away, and two new ones
+fulfilling their functions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>AFTER THE VICTORY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The two ramrods were still pacing to and fro, when I aroused in the gray
+of the morning; but they looked very misty and moist, as if they were
+impalpables that were shortly to evaporate. The Major poked his head
+between the flaps at eight o'clock, and said that breakfast was ready;
+but the ramrod nearest me kept vigilantly alongside, and I thought he
+had been invited also. The other ramrod guarded the empty tent, and I
+think that he believed me a doppel-ganger likewise.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered what was to be done with me, as the hours slipped rapidly by.
+The guards were relieved again at ten o'clock, and Quartermaster's men
+commenced to take down the tents. Camps were to be moved, and I inquired
+solicitously if I was to be moved also. The Major replied that prisoners
+were commonly made to walk along the road, escorted by horsemen, and I
+imagined, with dread, the companionship of negroes, estrays, ragged
+Confederates, and such folk, while the whole army should witness my
+degradation. Finally, all the tents were lifted and packed in wagons, as
+well as the furniture. I adhered to a stool, at which the teamster
+looked wistfully, and the implacable sentinels walked to and fro. A
+rumor became current among the private soldiers, that I was the nephew
+of the southern General Lee, whose wife had been meantime captured at
+Hanover Court House. Curious groups sauntered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> around me, and talked
+behind their hands. One man was overheard to say that I had fought
+desperately, and covered myself with glory, and another thought that I
+favored my uncle somewhat, and might succeed to his military virtues.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I'll take that cheer, if you ain't got no objection," said the
+teamster, and he slung it into the wagon. What to do now troubled me
+materially; but one of the soldiers brought a piece of rail, and I
+"squatted" lugubriously on the turf.</p>
+
+<p>"If you ever get to Richmond," said I, "you shall be considerately
+treated." (Profound sensation.)</p>
+
+<p>"Thankee!" replied the man, touching his cap; "but I'm werry well
+pleased <i>out</i> o' Richmond, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>Here the Major was seen approaching, a humorous smile playing about his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You are discharged," said he; "General Marcy will return your pass, and
+perhaps your papers."</p>
+
+<p>I wrung his hand with indescribable relief, and he sent the "ramrod" on
+guard, to saddle my horse. In a few minutes, I was mounted again, much
+to the surprise of the observers of young Lee, and directly I stood
+before the kindly Chief of Staff. At my request, he wrote a note to the
+division commander, specifying my good behavior, and restoring to me all
+privileges and immunities. He said nothing whatever as to the mistake in
+the papers, and told me that, on special occasions, I might keep with
+advances, by procuring an extraordinary pass at head-quarters. In short,
+my arrest conduced greatly to my efficiency. I invariably carried my
+Richmond despatches to General Marcy, thereafter, and, if there was
+information of a legitimate description, he gave me the benefit of it.</p>
+
+<p>My own brigade lay at Dr. Gaines's house, during this time, and we did
+not lack for excitement. Just behind the house lay several batteries of
+rifled guns, and these threw shells at hourly intervals, at certain
+Confederate batteries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> across the river. The distance was two miles or
+less; but the firing was generally wretched. Crowds of soldiers gathered
+around, to watch the practice, and they threw up their hats applaudingly
+at successful hits. Occasionally a great round shot would bound up the
+hill, and a boy, one day, seeing one of these spent balls rolling along
+the ground, put out his foot to stop it, but shattered his leg so
+dreadfully that it had to be amputated. Dr. Gaines was a rich,
+aristocratic, and indolent old Virginian, whose stables, summerhouses,
+orchards, and negro-quarters were the finest in their district. The
+shooting so annoyed him that he used to resort to the cellar; several
+shots passed through his roof, and one of the chimneys was knocked off.
+His family carriages were five in number, and as his stables were turned
+into hospitals, these were all hauled into his lawn, where their
+obsolete trimmings and queer shape constantly amused the soldiers. About
+this time I became acquainted with some officers of the 5th Maine
+regiment, and by permission, accompanied them to Mechanicsville. I was
+here, on the afternoon of Thursday, May 27, when the battle of Hanover
+Court House was fought. We heard the rapid growl of guns, and continuous
+volleys of musketry, though the place was fourteen miles distant. At
+evening, a report was current that the Federals had gained a great
+victory, and captured seven hundred prisoners. The truth of this was
+established next morning; for detachments of prisoners were from time to
+time brought in, and the ambulances came to camp, laden with the
+wounded. I took this opportunity of observing the Confederate soldiers,
+as they lay at the Provost quarters, in a roped pen, perhaps one hundred
+rods square.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening, as I hitched my horse to a stake near-by, and pressed up
+to the receptacle for the unfortunates. Sentries enclosed the pen,
+walking to-and-fro with loaded muskets; a throng of officers and
+soldiers had assembled to gratify their curiosity; and new detachments
+of captives came in hourly, encircled by sabremen, the Southerners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+being disarmed and on foot. The scene within the area was ludicrously
+moving. It reminded me of the witch-scene in Macbeth, or pictures of
+brigands or Bohemian gypsies at rendezvous, not less than five hundred
+men, in motley, ragged costumes, with long hair, and lean, wild, haggard
+faces, were gathered in groups or in pairs, around some fagot fires. In
+the growing darkness their expressions were imperfectly visible; but I
+could see that most of them were weary, and hungry, and all were
+depressed and ashamed. Some were wrapped in blankets of rag-carpet, and
+others wore shoes of rough, untanned hide. Others were without either
+shoes or jackets, and their heads were bound with red handkerchiefs.
+Some appeared in red shirts; some in stiff beaver hats; some were
+attired in shreds and patches of cloth; and a few wore the soiled
+garments of citizen gentlemen; but the mass adhered to homespun suits of
+gray, or "butternut," and the coarse blue kersey common to slaves. In
+places I caught glimpses of red Zouave breeches and leggings; blue
+Federal caps, Federal buttons, or Federal blouses; these were the spoils
+of anterior battles, and had been stripped from the slain. Most of the
+captives were of the appearances denominated "scraggy" or "knotty." They
+were brown, brawny, and wiry, and their countenances were intense,
+fierce, and animal. They came from North Carolina, the poorest and least
+enterprising Southern State, and ignorance, with its attendant virtues,
+were the common facial manifestations. Some lay on the bare ground, fast
+asleep; others chatted nervously as if doubtful of their future
+treatment; a few were boisterous, and anxious to beg tobacco or coffee
+from idle Federals; the rest&mdash;and they comprehended the greater
+number&mdash;were silent, sullen, and vindictive. They met curiosity with
+scorn, and spite with imprecations. A child&mdash;not more than four years of
+age, I think&mdash;sat sleeping in a corner upon an older comrade's lap. A
+gray-bearded pard was staunching a gash in his cheek with the tail of
+his coat. A fine-looking young fellow sat with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> face in his hands,
+as if his heart were far off, and he wished to shut out this bitter
+scene. In a corner, lying morosely apart, were a Major, three Captains,
+and three Lieutenants,&mdash;young athletic fellows, dressed in rich gray
+cassimere, trimmed with black, and wearing soft black hats adorned with
+black ostrich-feathers. Their spurs were strapped upon elegantly fitting
+boots, and they looked as far above the needy, seedy privates, as lords
+above their vassals.</p>
+
+<p>After a time, couples and squads of the prisoners were marched off to
+cut and carry some firewood, and water, for the use of their pen, and
+then each Confederate received coffee, pork, and crackers; they were
+obliged to prepare their own meals, but some were so hungry that they
+gnawed the raw pork, like beasts of prey. Those who were not provided
+with blankets, shivered through the night, though the rain was falling,
+and the succession of choking coughs that ran through the ranks, told
+how ill they could afford the exposure. Major Willard had charge of
+these men, and he sent a young officer to get me admittance to the pen,
+that I might speak with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Major," I said, to the ranking Confederate officer, and
+extended my hand. He shook it, embarrassedly, and ran me over with his
+eye, as if to learn my avocation. "Can I obtain any facts from you," I
+continued, "as to the battle of Hanover?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fuh what puhpose?" he said, in his strong southern dialect.</p>
+
+<p>"For publication, sir."</p>
+
+<p>He sat up at once, and said that he should be happy to tell me anything
+that would not be a violation of military honor. I asked him, therefore,
+the Confederate Commandant at Hanover, the number of brigades,
+regiments, and batteries engaged, the disposition of forces, the
+character of the battle, and the losses, so far as he knew, upon his own
+side. Much of this he revealed, but unguardedly let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> out other matters,
+that direct inquiry could not have discovered. I took notes of the
+legitimate passages, trusting to memory for the rest; and think that I
+possessed his whole stock of information, in the course of an hour's
+man&oelig;uvring. It seemed that General Branch, formerly a member of the
+Federal congress, had been sent with some thousands of Carolina troops
+across the upper Chickahominy, to see if it would not be possible to
+turn the Federal right, and cut off one of its brigades; but a stronger
+Federal reconnoissance had gone northward the day before, and
+discovering Branch's camp-fires, sent, during the night, for
+reinforcements. In the end, the "North State" volunteers were routed,
+their cannon silenced or broken, and seven hundred of their number
+captured. The Federals lost a large number of men killed, and the
+wounded upon both sides, were numerous.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederate Major was of the class referred to in polite American
+parlance, as a "blatherskite." He boasted after the manner of his
+fellow-citizens from the county of "Bunkum," but nevertheless feared and
+trembled, to the manifest disgust of one of the young Captains.</p>
+
+<p>"Majuh!" said this young man, "what you doin' thah! That fellow's makin'
+notes of all your slack; keep your tongue! aftah awhile you'll tell the
+nombah of the foces! Don't you s'pose he'll prent it all?"</p>
+
+<p>The Major had, in fact, been telling me how many regiments the "old
+Nawth State, suh," had furnished to the "suhvice," and I had the names
+of some thirty colonels, in order. The young Captain gave me a sketch of
+General Branch, and was anxious that I should publish something in
+extenuation of North Carolina valor.</p>
+
+<p>"We have lost mo' men," said he, "than any otha' Commonwealth; but these
+Vuhginians, whose soil, by&mdash;&mdash;! suh, we defend suh! Yes, suh! whose soil
+we defend; these Vuhginians, stigmatize us as cowads! <i>We</i>, suh! yes
+suh, <i>we</i>, that nevah wanted to leave the Union,&mdash;<i>we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> cowads</i>! Look at
+ou' blood, suh, ou' blood! That's it, by&mdash;&mdash;! look at that! shed on
+every field of the ole Dominion,&mdash;killed, muhdud, captued, crippled! We
+<i>cowads</i>! I want you prent that!"</p>
+
+<p>I was able to give each of the officers a drop of whiskey from my flask,
+and I never saw men drink so thirstily. Their hands and lips trembled as
+they took it, and their eyes shone like lunacy, as the hot drops sank to
+the cold vitals, and pricked the frozen blood. Mingling with the
+privates, I stirred up some native specimens of patriotism, that
+appeared to be in great doubt as to the causes and ends of the war. They
+were very much in the political condition of a short, thick, sententious
+man, in blue drilling breeches, who said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Damn the country! What's to be done with <i>us</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>One person said that he enlisted for the honor of his family, that "fit
+in the American Revolution;" and another came out to "hev a squint et
+the fightin'." Several were northern and foreign lads, that were working
+on Carolina railroads, and could not leave the section, and some labored
+under the impression that they were to have a "slice" of land and a
+"nigger," in the event of Southern independence. A few comprehended the
+spirit of the contest, and took up arms from principle; a few, also,
+declared their enmity to "Yankee institutions," and had seized the
+occasion to "polish them off," and "give them a ropein' in;" but many
+said it was "dull in our deestreeks, an' the niggers was runnin' away,
+so I thought I'ud jine the foces." The great mass said, that they never
+contemplated "this box," or "this fix," or "these suckemstances," and
+all wanted the war to close, that they might return to their families.
+Indeed, my romantic ideas of rebellion were ruthlessly profaned and
+dissipated. I knew that there was much selfishness, peculation, and
+"Hessianism" in the Federal lines, but I had imagined a lofty
+patriotism, a dignified purpose, and an inflexible love of personal
+liberty among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the Confederates. Yet here were men who knew little of
+the principles for which they staked their lives;&mdash;who enlisted from the
+commonest motives of convenience, whim, pelf, adventure, and foray; and
+who repented, after their first misfortune, with the salt rheum in their
+eyes. I think that all "great uprisings" resolve to this complexion.
+With due reverence for my own ancestry, I think that they sometimes
+stooped from greatness to littleness. I must confess that certain
+admissions in my revolutionary textbook are much clearer, now that I
+have followed a campaign. And if, as I had proposed, I could have
+witnessed the further fortunes of the illustrious Garibaldi, I think
+that some of his compatriots would have been found equally inconsistent.
+Let no man believe that the noblest cause is fought out alone by the
+unerring motives of duty and devotion. The masses are never so constant.
+They cannot appreciate an abstraction, however divine. Any of the
+gentlemen in question would have preferred their biscuit and fat pork
+before the political enfranchisement of the whole world!</p>
+
+<p>I rode across the fields to the Hogan, Curtis, and Gaines mansions; for
+some of the wounded had meantime been deposited in each of them. All the
+cow-houses, wagon-sheds, hay-barracks, hen-coops, negro cabins, and
+barns were turned into hospitals. The floors were littered with
+"corn-shucks" and fodder; and the maimed, gashed, and dying lay
+confusedly together. A few, slightly wounded, stood at windows, relating
+incidents of the battle; but at the doors sentries stood with crossed
+muskets, to keep out idlers and gossips. The mention of my vocation was
+an "open sesame," and I went unrestrained, into all the largest
+hospitals. In the first of these an amputation was being performed, and
+at the door lay a little heap of human fingers, feet, legs, and arms. I
+shall not soon forget the bare-armed surgeons, with bloody instruments,
+that leaned over the rigid and insensible figure, while the comrades of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+the subject looked horrifiedly at the scene. The grating of the
+murderous saw drove me into the open air, but in the second hospital
+which I visited, a wounded man had just expired, and I encountered his
+body at the threshold. Within, the sickening smell of mortality was
+almost insupportable, but by degrees I became accustomed to it. The
+lanterns hanging around the room streamed fitfully upon the red eyes,
+and half-naked figures. All were looking up, and saying, in pleading
+monotone: "Is that you, doctor?" Men with their arms in slings went
+restlessly up and down, smarting with fever. Those who were wounded in
+the lower extremities, body, or head, lay upon their backs, tossing even
+in sleep. They listened peevishly to the wind whistling through the
+chinks of the barn. They followed one with their rolling eyes. They
+turned away from the lantern, for it seemed to sear them. Soldiers sat
+by the severely wounded, laving their sores with water. In many wounds
+the balls still remained, and the discolored flesh was swollen
+unnaturally. There were some who had been shot in the bowels, and now
+and then they were frightfully convulsed, breaking into shrieks and
+shouts. Some of them iterated a single word, as, "doctor," or "help," or
+"God," or "oh!" commencing with a loud spasmodic cry, and continuing the
+same word till it died away in cadence. The act of calling seemed to
+lull the pain. Many were unconscious and lethargic, moving their fingers
+and lips mechanically, but never more to open their eyes upon the light;
+they were already going through the valley and the shadow. I think,
+still, with a shudder, of the faces of those who were told mercifully
+that they could not live. The unutterable agony; the plea for somebody
+on whom to call; the longing eyes that poured out prayers; the looking
+on mortal as if its resources were infinite; the fearful looking to the
+immortal as if it were so far off, so implacable, that the dying appeal
+would be in vain; the open lips, through which one could almost look at
+the quaking heart below; the ghastli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>ness of brow and tangled hair; the
+closing pangs; the awful <i>quietus</i>. I thought of Parrhasius, in the
+poem, as I looked at these things:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">"Gods!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could I but paint a dying groan&mdash;&mdash;."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And how the keen eye of West would have turned from the reeking cockpit
+of the <i>Victory</i>, or the tomb of the Dead Man Restored, to this old
+barn, peopled with horrors. I rambled in and out, learning to look at
+death, studying the manifestations of pain,&mdash;quivering and sickening at
+times, but plying my avocation, and jotting the names for my column of
+mortalities.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o'clock there was music along the high-road, and a general
+rushing from camps. The victorious regiments were returning from
+Hanover, under escort, and all the bands were pealing national airs. As
+they turned down the fields towards their old encampments, the several
+brigades stood under arms to welcome them, and the cheers were many and
+vigorous. But the solemn ambulances still followed after, and the red
+flag of the hospitals flaunted bloodily in the blue midnight.</p>
+
+<p>Both the prisoners and the wounded were removed between midnight and
+morning to White House, and as I had despatches to forward by the
+mail-boat, I rode down in an ambulance, that contained six wounded men
+besides. The wounded were to be consigned to hospital boats, and
+forwarded to hospitals in northern cities, and the prisoners were to be
+placed in a transport, under guard, and conveyed to Fort Delaware, near
+Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>Ambulances, it may be said, incidentally, are either two-wheeled or
+four-wheeled. Two-wheeled ambulances are commonly called "hop, step, and
+jumps." They are so constructed that the forepart is either very high or
+very low, and may be both at intervals. The wounded occupants may be
+compelled to ride for hours in these carriages, with their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> heels
+elevated above their heads, and may finally be shaken out, or have their
+bones broken by the terrible jolting. The four-wheeled ambulances are
+built in shelves, or compartments, but the wounded are in danger of
+being smothered in them. It was in one of these latter that I rode,
+sitting with the driver. We had four horses, but were thrice "swamped"
+on the road, and had to take out the wounded men once, till we could
+start the wheels. Two of these men were wounded in the face, one of them
+having his nose completely severed, and the other having a fragment of
+his jaw knocked out. A third had received a ball among the thews and
+muscles behind his knee, and his whole body appeared to be paralyzed.
+Two were wounded in the shoulders, and the sixth was shot in the breast,
+and was believed to be injured inwardly, as he spat blood, and suffered
+almost the pain of death. The ride with these men, over twenty miles of
+hilly, woody country, was like one of Dante's excursions into the
+Shades. In the awful stillness of the dark pines, their screams
+frightened the hooting owls, and the whirring insects in the leaves and
+tree-tops quieted their songs. They heard the gurgle of the rills, and
+called aloud for water to quench their insatiate thirst. One of them
+sang a shrill, fierce, fiendish ballad, in an interval of relief, but
+plunged, at a sudden relapse, in prayers and curses. We heard them
+groaning to themselves, as we sat in front, and one man, it seemed, was
+quite out of his mind. These were the outward manifestations; but what
+chords trembled and smarted within, we could only guess. What regrets
+for good resolves unfulfilled, and remorse for years misspent, made
+hideous these sore and panting hearts? The moonlight pierced through the
+thick foliage of the wood, and streamed into our faces, like invitations
+to a better life. But the crippled and bleeding could not see or feel
+it,&mdash;buried in the shelves of the ambulance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>BALLOON BATTLES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some days ago, as I was sitting in Central Park, under a tree no bigger
+than Jonah's gourd, broiling nicely brown, and seasoning the process by
+reading what the lesser weeklies said about me, I saw at the Park gate a
+great phantasm, like a distended sausage, swaying to and fro as if
+striving to burst, and directly the horrible thing blew upwards,
+spilling all the stuffing from the case.</p>
+
+<p>I saw in a moment that the apparition was a balloon, and that the
+aeronaut was only emptying ballast.</p>
+
+<p>Straight toward me the floating vessel came, so close to the ground that
+I could hear the silk crackle and the ropes creak, till, directly, a man
+leaned over the side and shouted&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Townsend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Lowe!"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to get on your feet and be spry about it: we have a literary
+party here, and wish you to write it up. I'll let one bag of ballast go,
+as we touch the grass, and you must leap in simultaneously. Thump!"</p>
+
+<p>Here the car collided with the ground, and in another instant, I found
+quantities of dirt spilled down my back, and two or three people lying
+beneath me. The world slid away, and the clouds opened to receive me.
+Lowe was opening a bottle of Heidsick, and three or four gentlemen with
+<i>heads sick</i> were unclosing the petals of their lips to get the
+afternoon dew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These were the various critics and fugitive writers of the weekly and
+daily press. They looked as if they wanted to put each other over the
+side of the car, but smothered their invective at my advent, as if I
+were so much pearl-ash.</p>
+
+<p>It was just seven o'clock, and the Park lay like a veined and mottled
+blood-stone in the red sunset. The city wilted to the littleness of a
+rare mosaic pin, its glittering point parting the blue scarf of the bay,
+and the white bosom of the ocean swelling afar, all draped with purple
+clouds like golden hair, in which the entangled gems were the sails of
+the white ships.</p>
+
+<p>I said this aloud, and all the party drew their lead pencils. They
+forgot the occasion in my eloquence, and wanted to report me.</p>
+
+<p>Just here, I drew a field-glass from the aeronaut, and reconnoitred the
+streets of the city. To my dismay there was nobody visible on Broadway
+but gentlemen. I called everybody's attention to the fact, and it was
+accounted for on the supposition that the late bank forgeries and
+defalcations, growing out of the extravagance of womankind, had prompted
+all the husbands to make of their homes nunneries.</p>
+
+<p>We observed, however, close by every gentleman, something that resembled
+a black dog with his tail curled over his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Stuff!" said one, "they're hay wagons."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" cried Lowe, "they're nothing of the sort; they are waterfalls, and
+the ladies are, of course, invisible under them."</p>
+
+<p>We accepted the explanation, and thought the trip very melancholy. No
+landscape is complete without a woman. Very soon we struck the great
+polar current, and passed Harlem river; the foliage of the trees, by
+some strange anomaly, began to ascend towards us, but Lowe caught two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+or three of the supposed leaves, and they proved to be greenbacks.</p>
+
+<p>There was at once a tremendous sensation in the car; we knew that we
+were on the track of Ketchum and his carpet-bag of bank-notes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any reward out?" cried Lowe.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then we won't pursue him."</p>
+
+<p>As we slowly drifted to the left, the Hudson shone through the trees,
+and before dusk we swept across Lake Mahopec. I heard a voice singing to
+the dip of oars, and had to be held down by five men to restrain an
+involuntary impulse to quit my company.</p>
+
+<p>"Townsend," said Lowe, "have you the copy of that matter you printed
+about me in England? This is the time to call you to account for it. We
+are two or three miles above <i>terra firma</i>, and I might like to drop you
+for a parachute."</p>
+
+<p>I felt Lowe's muscle, and knew myself secure. Then I unrolled the pages,
+which I fortunately carried with me, and told him the following news
+about himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac was Mr. S. T. C. Lowe; he had
+made seven thousand ascensions, and his army companion was invariably
+either an artist, a correspondent, or a telegrapher.</p>
+
+<p>A minute insulated wire reached from the car to headquarters, and
+McClellan was thus informed of all that could be seen within the
+Confederate works. Sometimes they remained aloft for hours, making
+observations with powerful glasses, and once or twice the enemy tested
+their distance with shell.</p>
+
+<p>On the 13th of April, the Confederates sent up a balloon, the first they
+had employed, at which Lowe was infinitely amused. He said that it had
+neither shape nor buoyancy, and predicted that it would burst or fall
+apart after a week. It certainly occurred that, after a few fitful
+appearances, the stranger was seen no more, till, on the 28th of June,
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> floated, like a thing of omen, over the spires of Richmond. At that
+time the Federals were in full retreat, and all the acres were covered
+with their dead.</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th of April, at five o'clock, an event at once amusing and
+thrilling occurred at our quarters. The commander-in-chief had appointed
+his personal and confidential friend, General Fitz John Porter, to
+conduct the siege of Yorktown. Porter was a polite, soldierly gentleman,
+and a native of New Hampshire, who had been in the regular army since
+early manhood. He fought gallantly in the Mexican war, being thrice
+promoted and once seriously wounded, and he was now forty years of
+age,&mdash;handsome, enthusiastic, ambitious, and popular. He made frequent
+ascensions with Lowe, and learned to go aloft alone. One day he ascended
+thrice, and finally seemed as cosily at home in the firmament as upon
+the solid earth. It is needless to say that he grew careless, and on
+this particular morning leaped into the car and demanded the cables to
+be let out with all speed. I saw with some surprise that the flurried
+assistants were sending up the great straining canvas with a single rope
+attached. The enormous bag was only partially inflated, and the loose
+folds opened and shut with a crack like that of a musket. Noisily,
+fitfully, the yellow mass rose into the sky, the basket rocking like a
+leather in the zephyr; and just as I turned aside to speak to a comrade,
+a sound came from overhead, like the explosion of a shell, and something
+striking me across the face laid me flat upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Half blind and stunned, I staggered to my feet, but the air seemed full
+of cries and curses. Opening my eyes ruefully, I saw all faces turned
+upwards, and when I looked above,&mdash;the balloon was adrift.</p>
+
+<p>The treacherous cable, rotted with vitriol, had snapped in twain; one
+fragment had been the cause of my downfall, and the other trailed, like
+a great entrail, from the receding car, where Fitz John Porter was
+bounding upward upon a Pegasus that he could neither check nor direct.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The whole army was agitated by the unwonted occurrence. From battery No.
+1, on the brink of the York, to the mouth of Warwick river, every
+soldier and officer was absorbed. Far within the Confederate lines the
+confusion extended. We heard the enemy's alarm-guns, and directly the
+signal flags were waving up and down our front.</p>
+
+<p>The General appeared directly over the edge of the car. He was tossing
+his hands frightenedly, and shouting something that we could not
+comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>"O&mdash;pen&mdash;the&mdash;valve!" called Lowe, in his shrill tones;
+"climb&mdash;to&mdash;the&mdash;netting&mdash;and&mdash;reach&mdash;the&mdash;valve&mdash;rope."</p>
+
+<p>"The valve!&mdash;the valve!" repeated a multitude of tongues, and all gazed
+with thrilling interest at the retreating hulk that still kept straight
+upward, swerving neither to the east nor the west.</p>
+
+<p>It was a weird spectacle,&mdash;that frail, fading oval, gliding against the
+sky, floating in the serene azure, the little vessel swinging silently
+beneath, and a hundred thousand martial men watching the loss of their
+brother in arms, but powerless to relieve or recover him. Had Fitz John
+Porter been drifting down the rapids of Niagara, he could not have been
+so far from human assistance. But we saw him directly, no bigger than a
+child's toy, clambering up the netting and reaching for the cord.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't do it," muttered a man beside me; "the wind blows the
+valve-rope to and fro, and only a spry, cool-headed fellow can catch
+it."</p>
+
+<p>We saw the General descend, and appearing again over the edge of the
+basket, he seemed to be motioning to the breathless hordes below, the
+story of his failure. Then he dropped out of sight, and when we next saw
+him, he was reconnoitring the Confederate works through a long black
+spy-glass. A great laugh went up and down the lines as this cool
+procedure was observed, and then a cheer of applause ran from group to
+group. For a moment it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> doubtful that the balloon would float in
+either direction; it seemed to falter, like an irresolute being, and
+moved reluctantly southeastward, towards Fortress Monroe. A huzza, half
+uttered, quivered on every lip. All eyes glistened, and some were dim
+with tears of joy. But the wayward canvas now turned due westward, and
+was blown rapidly toward the Confederate works. Its course was fitfully
+direct, and the wind seemed to veer often, as if contrary currents,
+conscious of the opportunity, were struggling for the possession of the
+daring navigator. The south wind held mastery for awhile, and the
+balloon passed the Federal front amid a howl of despair from the
+soldiery. It kept right on, over sharpshooters, rifle-pits, and
+outworks, and finally passed, as if to deliver up its freight, directly
+over the heights of Yorktown. The cool courage, either of heroism or
+despair, had seized upon Fitz John Porter. He turned his black glass
+upon the ramparts and masked cannon below, upon the remote camps, upon
+the beleaguered town, upon the guns of Gloucester Point, and upon
+distant Norfolk. Had he been reconnoitring from a secure perch at the
+tip of the moon, he could not have been more vigilant, and the
+Confederates probably thought this some Yankee device to peer into their
+sanctuary in despite of ball or shell. None of their great guns could be
+brought to bear upon the balloon; but there were some discharges of
+musketry that appeared to have no effect, and finally even these
+demonstrations ceased. Both armies in solemn silence were gazing aloft,
+while the imperturbable mariner continued to spy out the land.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was now rising behind us, and roseate rays struggled up to the
+zenith, like the arcs made by showery bombs. They threw a hazy
+atmosphere upon the balloon, and the light shone through the network
+like the sun through the ribs of the skeleton ship in the <i>Ancient
+Mariner</i>. Then, as all looked agape, the air-craft "plunged, and tacked,
+and veered," and drifted rapidly toward the Federal lines again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The allelujah that now went up shook the spheres, and when he had
+regained our camp limits, the General was seen clambering up again to
+clutch the valve-rope. This time he was successful, and the balloon fell
+like a stone, so that all hearts once more leaped up, and the cheers
+were hushed. Cavalry rode pell-mell from several directions, to reach
+the place of descent, and the General's personal staff galloped past me
+like the wind, to be the first at his debarkation. I followed the throng
+of soldiery with due haste, and came up to the horsemen in a few
+minutes. The balloon had struck a canvas tent with great violence,
+felling it as by a bolt, and the General, unharmed, had disentangled
+himself from innumerable folds of oiled canvas, and was now the cynosure
+of an immense group of people. While the officers shook his hands, the
+rabble bawled their satisfaction in hurrahs, and a band of music
+marching up directly, the throng on foot and horse gave him a vociferous
+escort to his quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Five miles east of Richmond, in the middle of May, we found the balloon
+already partially inflated, resting behind a ploughed hill that formed
+one of a ridge or chain of hills, bordering the Chickahominy. The stream
+was only a half-mile distant, but the balloon was sheltered from
+observation by reason of its position in the hollow.</p>
+
+<p>Heretofore the ascensions had been made from remote places, for there
+was good reason to believe that batteries lined the opposite hills; but
+now, for the first time, Lowe intended to make an ascent whereby he
+could look into Richmond, count the forts encircling it, and note the
+number and position of the camps that intervened. The balloon was named
+the "Constitution," and looked like a semi-distended boa-constrictor, as
+it flapped with a jerking sound, and shook its oiled and painted folds.
+It was anchored to the ground by stout ropes affixed to stakes, and also
+by sand-bags which hooked to its netting. The basket lay alongside; the
+generators were contained in blue wooden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> wagons, marked "U. S.;" and
+the gas was fed to the balloon through rubber and metallic pipes. A tent
+or two, a quantity of vitriol in green and wicker carboys, some horses
+and transportation teams, and several men that assisted the inflation,
+were the only objects to be remarked. As some time was to transpire
+before the arrangements were completed, I resorted to one of the tents
+and took a comfortable nap. The "Professor" aroused me at three o'clock,
+when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and emitting a hollow
+sound, as of escaping gas. The basket was made fast directly, the
+telescopes tossed into place; the Professor climbed to the side, holding
+by the network; and I coiled up in a rope at the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by your cables," he said, and the bags of ballast were at once
+cut away. Twelve men took each a rope in hand, and played out slowly,
+letting us glide gently upward. The earth seemed to be falling away, and
+we poised motionless in the blue ether. The tree-tops sank downward, the
+hills dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the Chickahominy
+was visible beyond us, winding like a ribbon of silver through the ridgy
+landscape.</p>
+
+<p>Far and wide stretched the Federal camps. We saw faces turned upwards
+gazing at our ascent, and heard clearly, as in a vacuum, the voices of
+soldiers. At every second the prospect widened, the belt of horizon
+enlarged, remote farmhouses came in view; the earth was like a perfectly
+flat surface, painted with blue woods, and streaked with pictures of
+roads, fields, fences, and streams. As we climbed higher, the river
+seemed directly beneath us, the farms on the opposite bank were plainly
+discernible, and Richmond lay only a little way off, enthroned on its
+many hills, with the James stretching white and sinuous from its feet to
+the horizon. We could see the streets, the suburbs, the bridges, the
+outlaying roads, nay, the moving masses of people. The Capitol sat white
+and colossal on Shockoe Hill, the dingy buildings of the Tredegar works
+blackened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the river-side above, the hovels of rockets clustered at the
+hither limits, and one by one we made out familiar hotels, public
+edifices, and vicinities. The fortifications were revealed in part only,
+for they took the hue of the soil, and blended with it; but many camps
+were plainly discernible, and by means of the glasses we separated tent
+from tent, and hut from hut. The Confederates were seen running to the
+cover of the woods, that we might not discover their numbers, but we
+knew the location of their camp-fires by the smoke that curled toward
+us.</p>
+
+<p>A panorama so beautiful would have been rare at any time, but this was
+thrice interesting from its past and coming associations. Across those
+plains the hordes at our feet were either to advance victoriously, or be
+driven eastward with dusty banners and dripping hands. Those white
+farm-houses were to be receptacles for the groaning and the mangled;
+thousands were to be received beneath the turf of those pasture fields;
+and no rod of ground on any side, should not, sooner or later, smoke
+with the blood of the slain.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess I got 'em now, jest where I want 'em," said Lowe, with a
+gratified laugh; "jest keep still as you mind to, and squint your eye
+through my glass, while I make a sketch of the roads and the country.
+Hold hard there, and anchor fast!" he screamed to the people below. Then
+he fell imperturbably to work, sweeping the country with his hawk-eye,
+and escaping nothing that could contribute to the completeness of his
+jotting.</p>
+
+<p>We had been but a few minutes thus poised, when close below, from the
+edge of a timber stretch, puffed a volume of white smoke. A second
+afterward, the air quivered with the peal of a cannon. A third, and we
+heard the splitting shriek of a shell, that passed a little to our left,
+but in exact range, and burst beyond us in the ploughed field, heaving
+up the clay as it exploded.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" said Lowe, "they have got us foul! Haul in the cables&mdash;quick!" he
+shouted, in a fierce tone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the same instant, the puff, the report, and the shriek were repeated;
+but this time the shell burst to our right in mid-air, and scattered
+fragments around and below us.</p>
+
+<p>"Another shot will do our business," said Lowe, between his teeth; "it
+isn't a mile, and they have got the range."</p>
+
+<p>Again the puff and the whizzing shock. I closed my eyes, and held my
+breath hard. The explosion was so close, that the pieces of shell seemed
+driven across my face, and my ears quivered with the sound. I looked at
+Lowe, to see if he was struck. He had sprung to his feet, and clutched
+the cordage frantically.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you pulling in there, you men?" he bellowed, with a loud
+imprecation.</p>
+
+<p>"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter!" broke a third shell, and my heart
+was wedged in my throat.</p>
+
+<p>I saw at a glimpse the whole bright landscape again. I hoard the voices
+of soldiers below, and saw them running across fields, fences, and
+ditches, to reach our anchorage. I saw some drummer-boys digging in the
+field beneath for one of the buried shells. I saw the waving of signal
+flags, the commotion through the camps,&mdash;officers galloping their
+horses, teamsters whipping their mules, regiments turning out, drums
+beaten, and batteries limbered up. I remarked, last of all, the site of
+the battery that alarmed us, and, by a strange sharpness of sight and
+sense, believed that I saw the gunners swabbing, ramming, and aiming the
+pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"</p>
+
+<p>"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" said Lowe, hissing the words slowly and terribly, "<i>they have
+opened upon us from another battery</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>The scene seemed to dissolve. A cold dew broke from my forehead. I grew
+blind and deaf. I had fainted.</p>
+
+<p>"Pitch some water in his face," said somebody. "He ain't used to it.
+Hallo! there he comes to."</p>
+
+<p>I staggered to my feet. There must have been a thousand men about us.
+They were looking curiously at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> aeronaut and me. The balloon lay
+fuming and struggling on the clods.</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for the Union bal-loon!" called a little fellow at my
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"Hip, hip&mdash;hoorooar! hoorooar! hoorooar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tiger-r-r&mdash;yah! whoop!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SEVEN PINES AND FAIROAKS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Returning from White House on Saturday, May 29, I heard the cannon of
+"Seven Pines." The roar of artillery came faintly upon the ear in the
+dells and woods, but in the open stretches of country, or from cleared
+hill-tops, I could hear also the volleys of musketry. It was the battle
+sound that assured me of bloody work; for the musket, as I had learned
+by experience, was the only certain signification of battle. It is
+seldom brought into requisition but at close quarters, when results are
+intended; whereas, cannon may peal for a fortnight, and involve no other
+destruction than that of shell and powder. I do not think that any throb
+of my heart was unattended by some volley or discharge. Dull, hoarse,
+uninterrupted, the whole afternoon was shaken by the sound. It was with
+a shudder that I thought how every peal announced flesh and bone riven
+asunder. The country people, on the way, stood in their side yards,
+anxiously listening. Riders or teamsters coming from the field, were
+beset with inquiries; but in the main they knew nothing. As I stopped at
+Daker's for dinner, the concussion of the battle rattled our plates, and
+the girls entirely lost their appetites, so that Glumley, who listened
+and speculated, observed that the baby face was losing all the lines of
+art, and was quite flat and faded in color. Resuming our way, we
+encountered a sallow, shabby person, driving a covered wagon, who
+recognized me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> at once. It was the "Doctor" who had lightened the
+journey down the Chesapeake, by a discourse upon embalming. He pointed
+toward the field with a long bony finger, and called aloud, with a smirk
+upon his face&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have the apparatus here, you see. They will need me out yonder, you
+know. There's opportunity there for the development of the 'system.'"</p>
+
+<p>I did not reach my own camp at Gaines's Farm, till late in the day. The
+firing had almost entirely ceased, but occasional discharges still broke
+the repose of evening, and at night signal rockets hissed and showered
+in every direction. Next day the contest recommenced; but although not
+farther in a direct line, than seven miles, from our encampment, I could
+not cross the Chickahominy, and was compelled to lie in my tent all day.</p>
+
+<p>These two battles were offered by the Confederates, in the hope of
+capturing that portion of the Federal army that lay upon the Richmond
+side of the river. Some days previously, McClellan had ordered Keyes's
+corps, consisting of perhaps twelve thousand men, to cross Bottom
+Bridge, eight miles down the Chickahominy, and occupy an advanced
+position on the York River railroad, six miles east of Richmond. Keyes's
+two divisions, commanded by Generals Couch and Casey, were thus encamped
+in a belt of woods remote from the body of the army, and little more
+than a mile from the enemy's line. Heintzelman's corps was lying at the
+Bridge, several miles in their rear, and the three finest corps in the
+army were separated from them by a broad, rapid river, which could be
+crossed at two places only. The troops of Keyes were mainly
+inexperienced, undisciplined volunteers from the Middle States. When
+their adversaries advanced, therefore, in force, on the twenty-ninth
+instant, they made a fitful, irregular resistance, and at evening
+retired in panic and disorder. The victorious enemy followed them so
+closely, that many of the Federals were slain in their tents. During
+that night, the Chicka<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>hominy, swollen by rains, overflowed its banks,
+and swept away the bridges. The beaten and disorganized relic of the
+fight of "Seven Pines," was thus completely isolated, and apparently to
+be annihilated at daybreak. But during the night, twenty thousand fresh
+men of Sumner's corps, forded the river, carrying their artillery, piece
+by piece across, and at dawn they assumed the offensive, seconded by the
+encouraged columns of Keyes. The fight was one of desperation; at night
+the Federals reoccupied their old ground at Fairoaks, and the
+Confederates retired, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. They
+lost, among their prisoners, General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, who
+was severely wounded, and with whom I talked as he lay in bed at
+Gaines's Mansion. He appeared to be a chivalrous, gossipy old gentleman,
+and said that he was the last South Carolinian to stand by the Union.</p>
+
+<p>On the succeeding day, Monday, June 2, I rode to "Grape-Vine Bridge,"
+and attempted to force my horse through the swamp and stream; but the
+drowned mules that momentarily floated down the current, admonished me
+of the folly of the hazard. The bridge itself was a swimming mass of
+poles and logs, that yielded with every pressure; yet I saw many wounded
+men, who waded through the water, or stepped lightly from log to log,
+and so gained the shore, wet from head to foot. Long lines of supply
+teams and ambulances were wedged in the depth of the thick wood,
+bordering the river; but so narrow were the corduroy approaches to the
+bridge, and so fathomless the swamp on either hand, that they could
+neither go forward, nor return. The straggling troops brought the
+unwelcome intelligence, that their comrades on the other side were
+starving, as they had crossed with a single ration of food, and had long
+ago eaten their last morsels. While I was standing close by the bridge,
+General McClellan, and staff, rode through the swamp, and attempted to
+make the passage. The "young Napoleon," urged his horse upon the
+floating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> timber, and at once sank over neck and saddle. His staff
+dashed after him, floundering in the same way; and when they had
+splashed and shouted, till I believed them all drowned, they turned and
+came to shore, dripping and discomfited. There was another Napoleon,
+who, I am informed, slid down the Alps into Italy; the present
+descendant did not slide so far, and he shook himself, after the manner
+of a dog. I remarked with some surprise, that he was growing obese;
+whereas, the active labors of the campaign had reduced the dimensions of
+most of the Generals.</p>
+
+<p>I secured my horse, and placed a drummer-boy beside him, to prevent
+abduction or mistake; then stripping from top to toe, and holding my
+garments above my head, I essayed the difficult passage; as a
+commencement, I dropped my watch, but the guard-hook caught in a log and
+held it fast. Afterward, I slipped from the smooth butt of a tree, and
+thoroughly soused myself and clothing; a lumber-man from Maine, beheld
+my ill luck, and kindly took my burden to the other side. An estuary of
+the Chickahominy again intervened, but a rough scow floated upon it,
+which the Captain of Engineers sent for me, with a soldier to man the
+oars. I neglected to "trim boat," I am sorry to add, although admonished
+to that effect repeatedly by the mariner; and we swamped in four feet of
+water. I resembled a being of one of the antediluvian eras, when I came
+to land, finally, and might have been taken for a slimy Iguanodon. I
+sacrificed some of my under clothing to the process of cleansing and
+drying, and so started with soaking boots, and a deficiency of dress, in
+the direction of Savage's. Passing the "bottom," or swamp-land, I
+ascended a hill, and following a lane, stopped after a half hour at a
+frame-mansion, unpainted, with some barns and negro-quarters contiguous,
+and a fine grove of young oaks, shading the porch. An elderly gentleman
+sat in the porch, sipping a julep, with his feet upon the railing, and
+conversing with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> stout, ruddy officer, of decidedly Milesian
+physiognomy. When I approached, the latter hurriedly placed a chair
+between himself and me, and said, with a stare&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bloodanowns! And where have ye been? Among the hogs, I think?" I
+assured him that I did not intend to come to close quarters, and that it
+would be no object on my part to contaminate him. The old gentleman
+called for "William," a tall, consumptive servant, whose walk reminded
+me of a stubborn convict's, in the treadmill, and ordered him to scrape
+me, which was done, accordingly, with a case-knife. The young officer
+proposed to dip me in the well and wring me well out, but I demurred,
+mainly on the ground that some time would be so consumed, and that my
+horse was waiting on the other side. He at once said that he would send
+for it, and called "Pat," a civilian servant, in military blue, who was
+nursing a negro baby with an eye, it seemed, to obtain favor with the
+mother. The willingness of the man surprised me, but he said that it was
+a short cut of four miles to the railroad bridge, which had been
+repaired and floored, and that he could readily recover the animal and
+return at three o'clock. My benefactor, the officer, then mixed a julep,
+which brought a comfortable glow to my face, and said, without parley&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You're a reporter, on the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He said further, that he had been Coroner's Surgeon in New York for many
+years, and had learned to know the representatives of newspapers, one
+from the other, by generic manner and appearance. Three correspondents
+rode by at the time, neither of whom he knew personally, but designated
+them promptly, with their precise connections. In short, we became
+familiar directly, and he told me that his name was O'Gamlon,
+Quartermaster of Meagher's Irish brigade, Sumner's corps. He was
+established with the elderly gentleman,&mdash;whose name was Michie,&mdash;and had
+two horses in the stable, at hand. He proposed to send me to the field,
+with a note of introduction to the General,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> and another to Colonel
+Baker, of the New York 88th (Irish), who could show me the lines and
+relics of battle, and give me the lists of killed, wounded, and missing.
+I repaired to his room, and arrayed myself in a fatigue officer's suit,
+with clean underclothing, after which, descending, I climbed into his
+saddle, and dashed off, with a mettlesome, dapper pony. The railroad
+track was about a mile from the house, and the whole country, hereabout,
+was sappy, dank, and almost barren. Scrub pines covered much of the
+soil, and the cleared fields were dotted with charred stumps. The houses
+were small and rude; the wild pigs ran like deer through the bushes and
+across my path; vultures sailed by hundreds between me and the sky; the
+lane was slippery and wound about slimy pools; the tree-tops, in many
+places, were splintered by ball and shell. I crossed the railroad, cut
+by a high bridge, and saw below the depot, at Savage's, now the
+head-quarters of General Heintzelman. Above, in full view, were the
+commands at Peach Orchard and Fairoaks, and to the south, a few furlongs
+distant, the Williamsburg and Richmond turnpike ran, parallel with the
+railway, toward the field of Seven Pines. The latter site, was simply
+the junction of the turnpike with a roundabout way to Richmond, called
+the "Nine Mile Road," and Fairoaks was the junction of the diverging
+road with the railroad. Toward the latter I proceeded, and soon came to
+the Irish brigade, located on both sides of the way, at Peach Orchard.</p>
+
+<p>They occupied the site of the most desperate fighting.</p>
+
+<p>A small farm hollowed in the swampy thicket and wood, was here divided
+by the track, and a little farm-house, with a barn, granary, and a
+couple of cabins, lay on the left side. In a hut to the right General
+Thomas Francis Meagher made his head-quarters, and a little beyond, in
+the edges of the swamp timber, lay his four regiments, under arms.</p>
+
+<p>A guard admonished me, in curt, lithe speech, that my horse must come no
+further; for the brigade held the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> advance post, and I was even now
+within easy musket range of the imperceptible enemy. An Irish boy
+volunteered to hold the rein, while I paid my respects to the Commander.
+I encountered him on the threshold of the hut, and he welcomed me in the
+richest and most musical of brogues. Large, corpulent, and powerful of
+body; plump and ruddy&mdash;or as some would say, bloated&mdash;of face; with
+resolute mouth and heavy animal jaws; expressive nose, and piercing
+blue-eyes; brown hair, mustache, and eyebrows; a fair forehead, and
+short sinewy neck, a man of apparently thirty years of age, stood in the
+doorway, smoking a cigar, and trotting his sword fretfully in the
+scabbard. He wore the regulation blue cap, but trimmed plentifully with
+gold lace, and his sleeves were slashed in the same manner. A star
+glistened in his oblong shoulder-bar; a delicate gold cord seamed his
+breeches from his Hessian boots to his red tasselled sword-sash; a
+seal-ring shone from the hand with which he grasped his gauntlets, and
+his spurs were set upon small aristocratic feet.</p>
+
+<p>A tolerable physiognomist would have resolved his temperament to an
+intense sanguine. He was fitfully impulsive, as all his movements
+attested, and liable to fluctuations of peevishness, melancholy, and
+enthusiasm. This was "Meagher of the Sword," the stripling who made
+issue with the renowned O'Connell, and divided his applauses; the
+"revolutionist," who had outlived exile to become the darling of the
+"Young Ireland" populace in his adopted country; the partisan, whose
+fierce, impassioned oratory had wheeled his factious element of the
+Democracy into the war cause; and the soldier, whose gallant bearing at
+Bull Run had won him a brigadiership. He was, to my mind, a realization
+of the Knight of Gwynne, or any of the rash, impolitic, poetic
+personages in Lever and Griffin. Ambitious without a name; an adventurer
+without a definite cause; an orator without policy; a General without
+caution or experience, he had led the Irish brigade through the hottest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+battles, and associated them with the most brilliant episodes of the
+war.</p>
+
+<p>Every adjunct of the place was strictly Hibernian. The emerald green
+standard entwined with the red, white, and blue; the gilt eagles on the
+flag-poles held the Shamrock sprig in their beaks; the soldiers lounging
+on guard, had "69" or "88" the numbers of their regiments, stamped on a
+green hat-band; the brogue of every county from Down to Wexford fell
+upon the ear; one might have supposed that the "year '98" had been
+revived, and that these brawny Celts were again afield against their
+Saxon countrymen. The class of lads upon the staff of Meagher, was an
+odd contrast to the mass of staff officers in the "Grand Army."
+Fox-hunters they all seemed to me, and there was one, who wore a long,
+twisted, pomatumed moustache, who talked of steeple chases, all the
+while, and wanted to have "a healthy dash" of some kind. A class of
+Irish exquisites, they appeared to be,&mdash;good for a fight, a card-party,
+or a hurdle jumping,&mdash;but entirely too Quixotic for the sober
+requirements of Yankee warfare. When anything absurd, forlorn, or
+desperate was to be attempted, the Irish brigade was called upon. But,
+ordinarily, they were regarded, as a party of mad fellows, more
+ornamental than useful, and entirely too clannish and factious to be
+entrusted with power. Meagher himself seemed to be less erratic than his
+subordinates; for he had married a New York lady, and had learned, by
+observation, the superiority of the pelfish, plodding native before his
+own fitful, impracticable race. His address was infatuating: but there
+was a certain airiness, indicative of vanity, that revealed his great
+characteristic. He loved applause, and to obtain it had frittered away
+his fine abilities, upon petty, splendid, momentary triumphs. He was
+generous to folly, and, I have no doubt, maintained his whole staff.</p>
+
+<p>When I requested to be shown the field, and its relics, Meagher said, in
+his musical brogue, that I need only look around.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"From the edge of that wood," he said, "the Irish brigade charged across
+this field, and fell upon their faces in the railway cutting below. A
+regiment of Alabamians lay in the timber beyond, with other Southerners
+in their rear, and on both flanks. They thought that we were charging
+bayonets, and reserved their fire till we should approach within
+butchering distance. On the contrary, I ordered the boys to lie down,
+and load and fire at will. In the end, sir, we cut them to pieces, and
+five hundred of them were left along the swamp fence, that you see.
+There isn't fifty killed and wounded in the whole Irish brigade."</p>
+
+<p>A young staff officer took me over the field. We visited first the
+cottage and barns across the road, and found the house occupied by some
+thirty wounded Federals. They lay in their blankets upon the
+floors,&mdash;pale, helpless, hollow-eyed, making low moans at every breath.
+Two or three were feverishly sleeping, and, as the flies revelled upon
+their gashes, they stirred uneasily and moved their hands to and fro. By
+the flatness of the covering at the extremities, I could see that
+several had only stumps of legs. They had lost the sweet enjoyment of
+walking afield, and were but fragments of men, to limp forever through a
+painful life. Such wrecks of power I never beheld. Broad, brawny,
+buoyant, a few hours ago, the loss of blood, and the nervous shock,
+attendant upon amputation, has wellnigh drained them to the last drop.
+Their faces were as white as the tidy ceiling; they were whining like
+babies; and only their rolling eyes distinguished them from mutilated
+corpses. Some seemed quite broken in spirit, and one, who could speak,
+observing my pitiful glances toward his severed thigh, drew up his mouth
+and chin, and wept as if with the loss of comeliness all his ambitions
+were frustrated. A few attendants were brushing off the insects with
+boughs of cedar, laving the sores, or administering cooling draughts.
+The second story of the dwelling was likewise occupied by wounded, but
+in a corner clustered the terrified farmer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> and his family, vainly
+attempting to turn their eyes from the horrible spectacle. The farmer's
+wife had a baby at her breast, and its little blue eyes were straying
+over the room, half wonderingly, half delightedly. I thought, with a
+shudder, of babyhood thus surrounded, and how, in the long future, its
+first recollections of existence should be of booming guns and dying
+soldiers! The cow-shed contained seven corpses, scarcely yet cold, lying
+upon their backs, in a row, and fast losing all resemblance to man. The
+farthest removed, seemed to be a diminutive boy, and I thought if he had
+a mother, that she might sometime like to speak with me. When I took
+their names, I thought what terrible agencies I was fulfilling. Beyond
+my record, falsely spelled, perhaps, they would have no history. And
+people call such deaths glorious!</p>
+
+<p>Upon a pile of lumber and some heaps of fence-rails, close by, sat some
+dozens of wounded men, mainly Federals, with bandaged arms and faces,
+and torn clothing. There was one, shot in the foot, who howled at every
+effort to remove his boot; the blood leaked from a rent in the side, and
+at last, the leather was cut, piecemeal from the flesh. These ate
+voraciously, though in pain and fear; for a little soup and meat was
+being doled out to them.</p>
+
+<p>The most horrible of all these scenes&mdash;which I have described perhaps
+too circumstantially&mdash;was presented in the stable or barn, on the
+premises, where a bare dingy floor&mdash;the planks of which tilted and
+shook, as one made his way over them&mdash;was strewn with suffering people.
+Just at the entrance sat a boy, totally blind, both eyes having been
+torn out by a minnie-ball, and the entire bridge of the nose shot away.
+He crouched against the gable, in darkness and agony, tremulously
+fingering his knees. Near at hand, sat another, who had been shot
+through the middle of the forehead, but singular to relate, he still
+lived, though lunatic, and evidently beyond hope. Death had drawn blue
+and yellow circles beneath his eyes, and he mut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>tered incomprehensibly,
+wagging his head. Two men, perfectly naked, lay in the middle of the
+place, wounded in bowels and loins; and at a niche in the
+weather-boarding, where some pale light peeped in, four mutilated
+wretches were gaming with cards. I was now led a little way down the
+railroad, to see the Confederates. The rain began to fall at this time,
+and the poor fellows shut their eyes to avoid the pelting of the drops.
+There was no shelter for them within a mile, and the mud absolutely
+reached half way up their bodies. Nearly one third had suffered
+amputation above the knee. There were about thirty at this spot, and I
+was told that they were being taken to Meadow Station on hand cars. As
+soon as the locomotive could pass the Chickahominy, they would be
+removed to White House, and comfortably quartered in the Sanitary and
+hospital boats. Some of them were fine, athletic, and youthful, and I
+was directed to one who had been married only three days before.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," said one, feebly, "I feel very cold: do you think that this is
+death? It seems to be creeping to my heart. I have no feeling, in my
+feet, and my thighs are numb."</p>
+
+<p>A Federal soldier came along with a bucket of soup, and proceeded to
+fill the canteens and plates. He appeared to be a relative of Mark
+Tapley, and possessed much of that estimable person's jollity&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come, pardner," he said, "drink yer sup! now, old boy, this'ill warm
+ye; sock it down and ye'll see yer sweetheart soon. You dead,
+Ally-bammy? Go way, now. You'll live a hundred years, you will. That's
+wot you'll do. Won't he, lad? What? Not any? Get out! You'll be slap on
+your legs next week and hev another shot at me the week a'ter that. You
+know you will! Oh! you Rebil! You, with the butternut trousers! Say!
+Wake up and take some o' this. Hello! lad, pardner. Wake up!"</p>
+
+<p>He stirred him gently with his foot; he bent down to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> touch his face. A
+grimness came over his merriment. The man was stiff and dumb.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Baker, commanding the 88th New York, was a tall, martial
+Irishman, who opened his heart and bottle at the same welcome, and took
+me into the woods, where some of the slain still remained. He had slept
+not longer than an hour, continuously, for seventy hours, and during the
+past night had been called up by eight alarums. His men lay in the dark
+thickets, without fires or blankets, as they had crossed the
+Chickahominy in light marching order.</p>
+
+<p>"Many a lad," said he, "will escape the bullet for a lingering
+consumption."</p>
+
+<p>We had proceeded but a very little way, when we came to a trodden place
+beneath the pines, where a scalp lay in the leaves, and the imprint of a
+body was plainly visible. The bayonet scabbard lay at one side, the
+canteen at the other. We saw no corpses, however, as fatigue parties had
+been burying the slain, and the whole wood was dotted with heaps of
+clay, where the dead slept below in the oozy trenches. Quantities of
+cartridges were scattered here and there, dropped by the retreating
+Confederates. Some of the cartridge-pouches that I examined were
+completely filled, showing that their possessors had not fired a single
+round; others had but one cartridge missing. There were fragments of
+clothing, hair, blankets, murderous bowie and dirk knives, spurs,
+flasks, caps, and plumes, dropped all the way through the thicket, and
+the trees on every hand were riddled with balls. I came upon a squirrel,
+unwittingly shot during the fight. Not those alone who make the war must
+feel the war! At one of the mounds the burying party had just completed
+their work, and the men were throwing the last clods upon the remains.
+They had dug pits of not more than two feet depth, and dragged the
+bodies heedlessly to the edges, whence they were toppled down and
+scantily covered. Much of the interring had been done by night, and the
+flare of lanterns upon the discolored faces and dead eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> must have
+been hideously effective. The grave-diggers, however, were practical
+personages, and had probably little care for dramatic effects. They
+leaned upon their spades, when the rites were finished, and a large, dry
+person, who appeared to be privileged upon all occasions, said,
+grinningly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel, your honor, them boys 'ill niver stand forninst the Irish
+brigade again. If they'd ha' known it was us, sur, begorra! they 'ud ha'
+brought coffins wid 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"No, niver!" "They got their ticket for soup!" "We kivered them, fait',
+will inough!" shouted the other grave-diggers."</p>
+
+<p>"Do ye belave, Colonel," said the dry person, again, "that thim
+ribals'll lave us a chance to catch them. Be me sowl! I'm jist wishin to
+war-rum me hands wid rifle practice."</p>
+
+<p>The others echoed loudly, that they were anxious to be ordered up, and
+some said that "Little Mac'll give 'em his big whack now." The presence
+of death seemed to have added no fear of death to these people. Having
+tasted blood, they now thirsted for it, and I asked myself,
+forebodingly, if a return to civil life would find them less ferocious.</p>
+
+<p>I dined with Colonel Owen of the 69th Pennsylvania (Irish) volunteers.
+He had been a Philadelphia lawyer, and was, by all odds, the most
+consistent and intelligent soldier in the brigade. He had been also a
+schoolmaster for many years, but appeared to be in his element at the
+head of a regiment, and was generally admitted to be an efficient
+officer. He shared the prevailing antipathy to West Point graduates; for
+at this time the arrogance of the regular officers, and the pride of the
+volunteers, had embittered each against the other. His theory of
+military education was, the establishment of State institutions, and the
+reorganization of citizenship upon a strict militia basis. After dinner,
+I rode to "Seven Pines," and examined some of the rifle pits used during
+the engagement. A portion of this ground only had been retaken,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and I
+was warned to keep under cover; for sharpshooters lay close by, in the
+underbrush. A visit to the graves of some Federal soldiers completed the
+inspection. Some of the regiments had interred their dead in trenches;
+but the New Englanders were all buried separately, and smooth slabs were
+driven at the heads of the mounds, whereon were inscribed the names and
+ages of the deceased. Some of the graves were freshly sodded, and
+enclosed by rails and logs. They evidenced the orderly, religious habits
+of the sons of the Puritans; for, with all his hardness of manner and
+selfishness of purpose, I am inclined to think that the Yankee is the
+best manifestation of Northern character. He loves his home, at least,
+and he reveres his deceased comrades.</p>
+
+<p>When I returned to Michie's, at six o'clock, the man "Pat," with a
+glowing face, came out to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a splendid baste of yours, sur," he said,&mdash;"and sich a boi to
+gallop."</p>
+
+<p>"My horse doesn't generally gallop," I returned, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>When I passed to the barn in the rear, I found to my astonishment, a
+sorrel stallion, magnificently accoutred. He thrust his foot at me
+savagely, as I stood behind him, and neighed till he frightened the
+spiders.</p>
+
+<p>"Pat," said I, wrathfully, "you have stolen some Colonel's nag, and I
+shall be hanged for the theft."</p>
+
+<p>"Fait, sur," said Pat, "my ligs was gone intirely, wid long walkin', and
+I sazed the furst iligant baste I come to."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>STUART'S RAID.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The old Chickahominy bridges were soon repaired, and the whole of
+Franklin's corps crossed to the south side. McClellan moved his
+head-quarters to Dr. Trent's farm, a half-mile from Michie's, and the
+latter gentleman's fields and lawn were made white with tents. Among
+others, the Chief of Cavalry, Stoneman, pitched his canopy under the
+young oaks, and the whole reserve artillery was parked in the woods,
+close to the house. The engineer brigade encamped in the adjacent
+peach-orchard and corn-field, and the wheat was trampled by battery and
+team-horses. Smith's division now occupied the hills on the south side
+of the Chickahominy, and the Federal line stretched southeastward,
+through Fairoaks, to White Oak Swamp, seven miles away. Porter's corps
+still lay between Mechanicsville and New Bridge, on the north bank of
+the river, and my old acquaintances, the Pennsylvania Reserves, had
+joined the army, and now formed its extreme right wing. This odd
+arrangement of forces was a subject of frequent comment: for the right
+was thus four miles, and the left fourteen miles, from Richmond. The
+four corps at once commenced to entrench, and from Smith's redoubt on
+the river bluffs, to Casey's entrenched hill at White Oak, a continuous
+line of moderately strong earthworks extended. But Porter and the
+Reserves were not entrenched at all, and only a few horsemen were
+picketed across the long reach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> of country from Meadow Bridge to Hanover
+Court House. Both flanks, in fact, were open, and the left was a day's
+march from the right. We were, meantime, drawing our supplies from White
+House, twenty miles in the rear; there were no railroad guards along the
+entire line, and about five companies protected the grand depot. Two
+gunboats lay in the river, however, and as the teams still went to and
+fro, a second depot was established at a place called Putney's or
+"Garlic," five miles above White House. I went often, and at all hours
+of the day and night, over this exposed and lonely route. My horse had
+been, meantime, returned to the Provost Quarters, and the rightful owner
+had obtained his stallion in exchange. I rode the said stallion but
+once, when he proceeded to walk sideways, and several times rivalled the
+renowned Pegasus in his aerial flights. The man named "Pat" essayed to
+show his paces one day, but the stallion took him straight into
+Stoneman's wall-tent, and that officer shook the Irishman blind. My
+little bob-tailed brownie was thrice endeared to me by our separation;
+but I warned the man "Pat" to keep clear of him thereafter. The man
+"Pat" was a very eccentric person, who slept on the porch at Michie's,
+and used to wake up the house in the small hours, with the story that
+somebody was taking the chickens and the horses. He was the most
+impulsive person that I ever knew, and when I entrusted despatches to
+him once, he put them on the hospital boat by mistake, and they got to
+New York at the close of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Michie's soon became a correspondents' rendezvous, and we have had at
+one time, at dinner, twelve representatives of five journals. The Hon.
+Henry J. Raymond, Ex-Lieutenant Governor of New York, and proprietor of
+the <i>Times</i> newspaper, was one of our family for several weeks. He had
+been a New Hampshire lad, and, strolling to New York, took to journalism
+at the age of nineteen years. His industry and probity obtained him both
+means and credit, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> also, what few young journalists obtain, social
+position. He was the founder of Harper's Magazine, one of the most
+successful serials in America, and many English authors are indebted to
+him for a trans-Atlantic recognition of their works. He edited an
+American edition of <i>Jane Eyre</i> before it had attracted attention in
+England, and conducted the <i>Courier and Enquirer</i> with great success for
+many years. The <i>Times</i> is now the most reputable of the great New York
+dailies, and Mr. Raymond has made it influential both at home and
+abroad. He has retained, amidst his social and political successes, a
+predilection for "Bohemia," and became an indefatigable correspondent. I
+rode out with him sometimes, and heard, with interest, his accounts of
+the Italian war, whither he also went in furtherance of journalism.
+Among our quill cavalry-men was a fat gentleman from Philadelphia, who
+had great fear of death, and who used to "tear" to White House, if the
+man "Pat" shot a duck in the garden. He was a hearty, humorous person,
+however, and an adept at searching for news.</p>
+
+<p>O'Ganlon rode with me several times to White House, and we have crossed
+the railroad bridge together, a hundred feet in the air, when the planks
+were slippery, the sides sloping, and the way so narrow that two horses
+could not pass abreast. He was a true Irishman, and leaped barricades
+and ditches without regard to his neck. He had, also, a partiality for
+by-roads that led through swamps and close timber. He discovered one day
+a cow-path between Daker's and an old Mill at Grapevine Bridge. The long
+arms of oaks and beech trees reached across it, and young Absalom might
+have been ensnared by the locks at every rod therein. Through this
+devious and dangerous way, O'Ganlon used to dash, whooping, guiding his
+horse with marvellous dexterity, and bantering me to follow. I so far
+forgot myself generally, as to behave quite as irrationally, and once
+returned to Michie's with a bump above my right eye, that rivalled my
+head in size. At other times I rode<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> alone, and my favorite route was an
+unfrequented lane called the "Quaker Road," that extended from Despatch
+Station, on the line of rail, to Daker's, on the New Bridge Road. Much
+of this way was shut in by thick woods and dreary pine barrens; but the
+road was hard and light, and a few quiet farms lay by the roadside.
+There was a mill, also, three miles from Daker's, where a turbulent
+creek crossed the route, and at an oak-wood, near by, I used to frighten
+the squirrels, so that they started up by pairs and families; I have
+chased them in this way a full mile, and they seemed to know me after a
+time. We used to be on the best of terms, and they would, at length,
+stand their ground saucily, and chatter, the one with the other,
+flourishing their bushy appendages, like so many straggling "Bucktails."
+When I turned from the beaten road, where the ruts were like a ditch and
+parapet, and dead horses blackened the fields; where teams went creaking
+day and night, and squads of sabremen drove pale, barefooted prisoners
+to and fro like swine or cattle, the silence and solitude of this
+by-lane were beautiful as sleep. Many of the old people living in this
+direction had not seen even a soldier or a sutler, save some mounted
+scouts that vanished in clouds of dust; but they had listened with awe
+to the music of cannon, though they did not know either the place or the
+result of the fighting. If fate has ordained me to survive the
+Rebellion, I shall some day revisit these localities; they are stamped
+legibly upon my mind, and I know almost every old couple in New Kent or
+Hanover counties. I have lunched at all the little springs on the road,
+and eaten corn-bread and bacon at most of the cabins. I have swam the
+Pamunkey at dozens of places, and when my finances were low, and my nag
+hungry, have organized myself into a company of foragers, and broken
+into the good people's granaries. I do not know any position that
+admitted of as much adventure and variety. There was always enough
+danger to make my journeys precariously pleasant, and, when wearied of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> saddle, my friends at Daker's and Michie's had a savory julep and a
+comfortable bed always prepared. I had more liberty than General
+McClellan, and a great deal more comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Michie was a warm-hearted, impulsive Virginia lady, with almost New
+England industry, and from very scanty materials she contrived to spread
+a bountiful table. Her coffee was bubbling with rich cream, and her
+"yellow pone" was overrunning with butter. A cleanly black girl shook a
+fly-brush over our shoulders as we ate, and the curious custom was
+maintained of sending a julep to our bedrooms before we rose in the
+mornings. Our hostess was too hospitable to be a bitter partisan, and
+during five weeks of tenure at her residence, we never held an hour's
+controversy. She had troubles, but she endured them patiently. She saw,
+one by one, articles of property sacrificed or stolen; she heard the
+servants speaking impudently; and her daughters and son were in a remote
+part of the State. The young man was a Confederate Surgeon at Lynchburg,
+and the young ladies had taken refuge in Rockbridge County. The latter
+were, from all accounts, pretty and intelligent, and one day, as I
+examined some parcels of books in the parlors, I found a volume of
+amateur poems that some laboring bard had dedicated to the youngest of
+them. Mr. Michie was a fine old Virginia gentleman, who remembered
+Thomas Jefferson well, as he had been reared in that great statesman's
+village, Charlottesville. He told me many anecdotes of Patrick Henry,
+John Randolph, and other distinguished patriots.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote in one of the absent daughter's albums the following lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Alas! for the pleasant peace we knew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the happy summers of long ago,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the rivers were bright, and the skies were blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By the homes of Henrico:<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span><span class="i0">We dreamed of wars that were far away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And read, as in fable, of blood that ran,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where the James and Chickahominy stray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through the groves of Powhattan.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis a dream come true; for the afternoons<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Blow bugles of war, by our fields of grain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the sabres clink, as the dark dragoons<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Come galloping up the lane;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The pigeons have flown from the eves and tiles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The oat-blades have grown to blades of steel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the Huns swarm down the leafy aisles<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of the grand old Commonweal.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They have torn the Indian fisher's nets,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where flows Pamunkey toward the sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And blood runs red in the rivulets,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That babbled and brawled in glee;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The corpses are strewn in Fairoak glades,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The hoarse guns thunder from Drury's Ridge,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fishes that played in the cove, deep shades,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Are frightened from Bottom Bridge.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I would that the year were blotted away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the strawberry grew in the hedge again;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That the scythe might swing in the tangled hay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the squirrel romp in the glen;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The walnut sprinkle the clover slopes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where graze the sheep and the spotted steer;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the winter restore the golden hopes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That were trampled in a year.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>On Friday, June 13, I made one of my customary trips to White House, in
+the company of O'Ganlon. The latter individual, in the course of a
+"healthy dash" that he made down the railroad ties,&mdash;whereby two shoes
+shied from his mare's hoofs,&mdash;reined into a quicksand that threatened to
+swallow his steed. He afterward left his sword at Summit Station, and I,
+obligingly, rode back three miles to recover it. We dined at Daker's,
+where Glumley sat beside the baby-face, pursuant to his art-duties, and
+the plump, red-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>cheeked miss sat beside me. O'Ganlon was entertained by
+the talkative daughter, who drove him quite mad; so that, when we
+resumed our horses, he insisted upon a second "healthy dash," and
+disappeared through a strip of woods. I followed, rationally, and had
+come to a blacksmith's shop, at the corner of a diverging road, when I
+was made aware of some startling occurrence in my rear. A mounted
+officer dashed past me, shouting some unintelligible tidings, and he was
+followed in quick succession by a dozen cavalry-men, who rode as if the
+foul fiend was at their heels. Then came a teamster, bare-backed, whose
+rent harness trailed in the road, and directly some wagons that were
+halted before the blacksmith's, wheeled smartly, and rattled off towards
+White House.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, my man?" I said to one of these lunatics,
+hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"The Rebels are behind!" he screamed, with white lips, and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>I thought that it might be as well to take some other road, and so
+struck off, at a dapper pace, in the direction of the new landing at
+Putney's or "Garlic." At the same instant I heard the crack of carbines
+behind, and they had a magical influence upon my speed. I rode along a
+stretch of chestnut and oak wood, attached to the famous Webb estate,
+and when I came to a rill that passed by a little bridge, under the way,
+turned up its sandy bed and buried myself in the under-brush. A few
+breathless moments only had intervened, when the roadway seemed shaken
+by a hundred hoofs. The imperceptible horsemen yelled like a war-party
+of Camanches, and when they had passed, the carbines rang ahead, as if
+some bloody work was being done at every rod.</p>
+
+<p>I remained a full hour under cover; but as no fresh approaches added to
+my mystery and fear, I sallied forth, and kept the route to Putney's,
+with ears erect and expectant pulses. I had gone but a quarter of a
+mile, when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> discerned, through the gathering gloom, a black, misshapen
+object, standing in the middle of the road. As it seemed motionless, I
+ventured closer, when the thing resolved to a sutler's wagon, charred
+and broken, and still smoking from the incendiaries' torch. Further on,
+more of these burned wagons littered the way, and in one place two slain
+horses marked the roadside. When I emerged upon the Hanover road, sounds
+of shrieks and shot issued from the landing at "Garlic," and, in a
+moment, flames rose from the woody shores and reddened the evening. I
+knew by the gliding blaze that vessels had been fired and set adrift,
+and from my place could see the devouring element climbing rope and
+shroud. In a twinkling, a second light appeared behind the woods to my
+right, and the intelligence dawned upon me that the cars and houses at
+Tunstall's Station had been burned. By the fitful illumination, I rode
+tremulously to the old head-quarters at Black Creek, and as I
+conjectured, the depot and train were luridly consuming. The vicinity
+was marked by wrecked sutler's stores, the embers of wagons, and toppled
+steeds. Below Black Creek the ruin did not extend: but when I came to
+White House the greatest confusion existed. Sutlers were taking down
+their booths, transports were slipping their cables, steamers moving
+down the stream. Stuart had made the circuit of the Grand Army to show
+Lee where the infantry could follow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FEVER DREAMS IN WAR.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A subtle enemy had of late joined the Confederate cause against the
+invaders. He was known as Pestilence, and his footsteps were so soft
+that neither scout nor picket could bar his entrance. His paths were
+subterranean,&mdash;through the tepid swamp water, the shallow graves of the
+dead; and aerial,&mdash;through the stench of rotting animals, the nightly
+miasms of bog and fen. His victims were not pierced, or crushed, or
+mangled, but their deaths were not less terrible, because more
+lingering. They seemed to wither and shrivel away; their eyes became at
+first very bright, and afterward lustreless; their skins grew hard and
+sallow; their lips faded to a dry whiteness; all the fluids of the body
+were consumed; and they crumbled to corruption before life had fairly
+gone from them.</p>
+
+<p>This visitation has been, by common consent, dubbed "the Chickahominy
+fever," and some have called it the typhus fever. The troops called it
+the "camp fever," and it was frequently aggravated by affections of the
+bowels and throat. The number of persons that died with it was fabulous.
+Some have gone so far as to say that the army could have better afforded
+the slaughter of twenty thousand men, than the delay on the
+Chickahominy. The embalmers were now enjoying their millennium, and a
+steam coffin manufactory was erected at White House, where twenty men
+worked day and night, turning out hundreds of pine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> boxes. I had,
+occasion, in one of my visits to the depot, to repair to the tent of one
+of the embalmers. He was a sedate, grave person, and when I saw him,
+standing over the nude, hard corpse, he reminded me of the implacable
+vulture, looking into the eyes of Prometheus. His battery and tube were
+pulsing, like one's heart and lungs, and the subject was being drained
+at the neck. I compared the discolored body with the figure of <i>Ianthe</i>,
+as revealed in Queen Mab, but failed to see the beautifulness of death.</p>
+
+<p>"If you could only make him breathe, Professor," said an officer
+standing by.</p>
+
+<p>The dry skin of the embalmer broke into chalky dimples, and he grinned
+very much as a corpse might do:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he said, "<i>then</i> there would be money made."</p>
+
+<p>To hear these embalmers converse with each other was like listening to
+the witch sayings in Macbeth. It appeared that the arch-fiend of
+embalming was a Frenchman named Son&ccedil;a, or something of that kind, and
+all these worthies professed to have purchased his "system." They told
+grisly anecdotes of "operations," and experimented with chemicals, and
+congratulated each other upon the fever. They would, I think, have piled
+the whole earth with catacombs of stony corpses, and we should have no
+more green graves, but keep our dead with us as household ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>The negroes did not suffer with the fever, although their quarters were
+close and filthy. Their Elysium had come; there was no more work. They
+slept and danced and grinned, and these three actions made up the sum of
+their existence. Such people to increase and multiply I never beheld.
+There were scores of new babies every day; they appeared to be born by
+twins and triplets; they learned to walk in twenty-four hours; and their
+mothers were strong and hearty in less time. Such soulless, lost,
+degraded men and women did nowhere else exist. The divinity they never
+had; the human they had forgotten; they did no great wrongs,&mdash;thieving,
+quarrelling, deceiving,&mdash;but they failed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> to do any rights, and their
+worship was animal, and almost profane. They sang incongruous mixtures
+of hymns and field songs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh! bruddern, watch an' pray, <i>watch</i> an' pray!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">De harvest am a ripenin' our Lord an' Marser say!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh! ho! yo! dat ole coon, de serpent, ho! oh!<br /></span>
+<span class="i12">Watch an' pray!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I have heard them sing such medleys with tears in their eyes, apparently
+fervid and rapt. A very gray old man would lead off, keeping time to the
+words with his head and hands; the mass joining in at intervals, and
+raising a screaming alleluja. Directly they would all rise, link hands,
+and proceed to dance the accompaniment. The motion would be slow at
+first, and the method of singing maintained; after a time they would
+move more rapidly, shouting the lines together; and suddenly becoming
+convulsed with strange excitement, they would toss up their arms, leap,
+fall, groan, and, seemingly, lose consciousness. Their prayers were
+earnest and vehement, but often degenerated to mere howls and noises.
+Some of both sexes had grand voices, that rang like bugles, and the very
+impropriety of their music made it fascinating. It used to seem to me
+that any of the great composers might have borrowed advantageously some
+of those original negro airs. In many cases, their owners came within
+the lines, registered their allegiance, and recovered the negroes. These
+were often veritable Shylocks, that claimed their pounds of flesh, with
+unblushing reference to the law. The poor Africs went back cowed and
+tearful, and it is probable that they were afterward sent to the far
+South, that terrible <i>terra incognita</i> to a border slave.</p>
+
+<p>Among the houses to which I resorted was that of a Mr. Hill, one mile
+from White House. He had a thousand acres of land and a valuable fishery
+on the Pamunkey. The latter was worth, in good seasons, two thousand
+dollars a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> year. He had fished and farmed with negroes; but these had
+leagued to run away, and he sent them across the river to a second farm
+that he owned in King William County. It was at Hill's house that the
+widow Custis was visiting when young Washington reined at the gate, on
+his road to Williamsburg. With reverent feelings I used to regard the
+old place, and Hill frequently stole away from his formidable military
+household, to talk with me on the front porch. Perhaps in the same
+moonlights, with the river shimmering at their feet, and the grapevine
+shadowing the creaky corners,&mdash;their voices softened, their chairs drawn
+very close, their hands touching with a thrill,&mdash;the young soldier and
+his affianced had made their courtship. I sometimes sat breathless,
+thinking that their figures had come back, and that I heard them
+whispering.</p>
+
+<p>Hill was a Virginian,&mdash;large, hospitable, severe, proud,&mdash;and once I
+ventured to speak upon the policy of slavery, with a view to develop his
+own relation to the "institution." He said, with the swaggering manner
+of his class, that slavery was a "domestic" institution, and that
+therefore no political law could reach it. I insinuated, quietly, that
+no political law should therefore sustain it, and took exception to the
+idea that what was domestic was therefore without the province of
+legislation. When I exampled polygamy, Hill became passionate, and asked
+if I was an abolitionist. I opined that I was not, and he so far
+relented as to say that slavery was sanctioned by divine and human laws;
+that it was ultimately to be embraced by all white nationalities, and
+that the Caucasian was certain, in the end, to subjugate and possess
+every other race. He pointed, with some shrewdness, to the condition of
+the Chinese in California and Australia, and epitomized the gradual
+enslaving of the Mongol and Malay in various quarters of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"As to our treatment of niggers," he said, curtly, "I never prevaricate,
+as some masters do, in that respect. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> whip my niggers when they want
+it! If they are saucy, or careless, or lazy, I have 'em flogged. About
+twice a year every nigger has to be punished. If they ain't roped over
+twice a year, they take on airs and want to be gentlemen. A nigger is
+bound by no sentiment of duty or affection. You must keep him in trim by
+fear."</p>
+
+<p>Among the victims of the swamp fever, were Major Larrabee, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, of the Fifth Wisconsin regiment; I had been
+indebted to them for many a meal and draught of spirits. I had talked
+with each of them, when the camps were darkened and the soldiery asleep.
+Larrabee was a soldier by nature,&mdash;adventurous, energetic, intrepid,
+aggressive. He had been a country Judge in Wisconsin, and afterwards a
+member of Congress. When the war commenced, he enlisted as a common
+soldier, but public sentiment forced the State Government to make him a
+Major. Emory was a mild, reflective, unimpassioned gentleman,&mdash;too
+modest to be eminent, too scrupulous to be ambitious. The men were
+opposites, but both capital companions, and they were seized with the
+fever about the same time. The Major was removed to White House, and I
+visited him one day in the hospital quarters. Surgeon General Watson,
+hospital commandant, took me through the quarters; there was quite a
+town of sick men; they lay in wall-tents&mdash;about twenty in a tent,&mdash;and
+there were daily deaths; those that caught the fever, were afterwards
+unfit for duty, as they took relapses on resuming the field. The tents
+were pitched in a damp cornfield; for the Federals so reverenced their
+national shrines, that they forbade White House and lawn to be used for
+hospital purposes. Under the best circumstances, a field hospital is a
+comfortless place; but here the sun shone like a furnace upon the tents,
+and the rains drowned out the inmates. If a man can possibly avoid it,
+let him never go to the hospital: for he will be called a "skulker," or
+a "shyster," that desires to escape the impending battle. Twenty hot,
+feverish, tossing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> men, confined in a small tent, like an oven, and
+exposed to contumely and bad food, should get a wholesome horror of war
+and glory.</p>
+
+<p>So far as I could observe and learn, the authorities at White House
+carried high heads, and covetous hands. In brief, they lived like
+princes, and behaved like knaves. There was one&mdash;whose conduct has never
+been investigated&mdash;who furnished one of the deserted mansions near by,
+and brought a lady from the North to keep it in order. He drove a span
+that rivalled anything in Broadway, and his wines were luscious. His
+establishment reminded me of that of Napoleon III. in the late Italian
+war, and yet, this man was receiving merely a Colonel's pay. My
+impression is that everybody at White House robbed the Government, and
+in the end, to cover their delinquencies, these scoundrels set fire to
+an immense quantity of stores, and squared their accounts thus: "Burned
+on the Pamunkey, June 28, commissary, quartermaster's, and hospital
+stores, one million dollars."</p>
+
+<p>The time was now drawing to a close that I should pass amid the familiar
+scenes of this region. The good people at Daker's were still kindly; but
+having climbed into the great bed one night, I found my legs aching, my
+brain violently throbbing, my chest full of pain and my eyes weak. When
+I woke in the morning my lips were fevered, I could eat nothing, and
+when I reached my saddle, it seemed that I should faint. In a word, the
+Chickahominy fever had seized upon me. My ride to New Bridge was marked
+by great agony, and during much of the time I was quite blind. I turned
+off, at Gaines's Mill, to rest at Captain Kingwalt's; but the old
+gentleman was in the grip of the ague, and I forebore to trouble him
+with a statement of my grievances. Skyhiski made me a cup of tea, which
+I could not drink, and Fogg made me lie on his "poncho." It was like old
+times come back, to hear them all speak cheerfully, and the man Clover
+said that if there "warn't" a battle soon, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> knew what he'd do, he
+did! he'd go home, straight as a buck!</p>
+
+<p>"Becoz," said the man Clover, flourishing his hands, "I volunteered to
+fight. To <i>fight</i>, sir! not to dig and drive team. Here we air, sir,
+stuck in the mud, burnin' with fever, livin' on hardtack. And thair's
+Richmond! Just thair! You can chuck a stone at it, if you mind to. A'ter
+awhile them rebbils'll pop out, and fix us. Why ain't we led up,
+sa-a-y?"</p>
+
+<p>The man Clover represented common sentiment among the troops at this
+time; but I told him that in all probability he would soon be gratified
+with a battle. My prediction was so far correct, that when I met the man
+Clover on the James River, a week afterward, he said, with a rueful
+countenance&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sa-a-a-y! It never rains but it pours, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>As I rode from the camp of the Pennsylvania Reserves, at noon, on the
+21st of June, I seemed to feel a gloomy premonition of the calamities
+that were shortly to fall upon the "Army of the Potomac." I passed in
+front of Hogan house; through the wood above the mill; along Gaines's
+Lane, between his mansion and his barn; across a creek, tributary to the
+Chickahominy; and up the ploughed hills by a military road, toward
+Grapevine Bridge. Lieutenant-Colonel Heath, of the Fifth Maine Regiment,
+was riding with me, and we stopped at the tip of an elevated field to
+look back upon the scene. I was very sick and weary, and I lay my head
+upon the mane of my nag, while Heath threw a leg across his saddle
+pommel, and straightened his slight figure; we both gazed earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>The river lay in the hollow or ravine to the left, and a few farm-houses
+sat among the trees on the hill-tops beyond. A battery was planted at
+each house, and we could see the lines of red-clay parapets marking the
+sites. From the roof of one of the houses floated a speck of
+canvas,&mdash;the revolutionary flag. A horseman or two moved shadow-like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+across a slope of yellow grain. Before and back the woods belted the
+landscape, and some pickets of both sides paced the river brink: they
+did not fire upon each other.</p>
+
+<p>Our side of the Chickahominy was not less peaceful. A couple of
+batteries lay below us, in the meadows; but the horses were dozing in
+the harness, and the gunners, standing bolt upright at the breech,
+seemed parts of their pieces; the teamsters lay grouped in the long
+grass. Immediately in front, Gaines's Mansion and outhouses spotted a
+hillside, and we could note beyond a few white tents shining through the
+trees. The roof of the old mill crouched between a medley of wavy fields
+and woods, to our right, and just at our feet a tiny rill divided
+Gaines's Mill from our own. Behind us, over the wilderness of swamp and
+bog-timber, rose Smith's redoubt, with the Federal flag flaunting from
+the rampart.</p>
+
+<p>"Townsend," said Heath, as he swept the whole country with his keen eye,
+"do you know that we are standing upon historic ground?"</p>
+
+<p>He had been a poet and an orator, and he seemed to feel the solemnity of
+the place.</p>
+
+<p>"It may become historic to-morrow," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so to-day," he said, earnestly; "not from battle as yet; <i>that</i>
+may or may not happen; but in the pause before the storm there is
+something grand; and this is the pause."</p>
+
+<p>He took his soft beaver in his hand, and his short red hair stood
+pugnaciously back from his fine forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"The men that have been here already," he added, "consecrated the place;
+young McClellan, and bluff, bull-headed Franklin; the one-armed devil,
+Kearney, and handsome Joe Hooker; gray, gristly Heintzelman;
+white-bearded, insane Sumner; Stuart, Lee, Johnston, the Hills&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not," said I, laughingly, "Eric the red,&mdash;the redoubtable Heath!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he said, with a flourish; "Fate may have something in store
+for me, as well as for these."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I have thought, since, how terribly our light conversation found
+verification in fact. If I had said to Heath, that, at the very moment,
+Jefferson Davis and his Commander-in-chief were sitting in the dwelling
+opposite, reconnoitring and consulting; that, even now, their telescopes
+were directed upon us; that the effect of their counsel was to be
+manifest in less than a week; that one of the bloodiest battles of
+modern times was to be fought beside and around us; that six days of the
+most terrible fighting known in history were to ensue; that my friend
+and comrade was standing upon the same clods which would be reddened, at
+his next coming, with his heart's blood; and that the trenches were to
+yawn beneath his hoofs, to swallow himself and his steed,&mdash;if I had
+foretold these things as they were to occur, I wonder if the "pause
+before the storm" would have been less awful, and our ride campward less
+sedate. Poor Heath! Gallant New Englander! he called at my bedside, the
+sixth day following, as I lay full of pain, fear, and fever, and after
+he bade me good by, I heard his horse's hoofs ringing down the lane. Ten
+minutes afterward he was shot through the head.</p>
+
+<p>When I reached Michie's, at three o'clock, I had to be helped from the
+saddle, and the fever was raging in my whole body before nightfall. My
+hands were flushed, my face hot, but my feet were quite cold, and I was
+seized with chills that seemed to shake my teeth from my head. Mrs.
+Michie made me a bowl of scorching tea, and one of the black-girls
+bathed my limbs in boiling water. The fever dreams came to me that
+night, in snatches of burning sleep, and toward morning I lay restlessly
+awake, moving from side to side, famishing for drink, but rejecting it,
+when they brought it to my lips. The next day, my kind hostess gave me
+some nourishing soup, but after a vain effort to partake of it, I was
+compelled to put it aside. O'Ganlon procured some pickled fruit and
+vegetables from a sutler, which I ate voraciously, quaffing the vinegar
+like wine. Some of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> regimental friends heard of my illness, and they
+sent me quiet luxuries, which gladdened me, though I did not eat. During
+the day I had some moments of ease, when I tried to read. There was a
+copy of Wordsworth's poems in the house, and I used to repeat stanzas
+from "Peter Bell," till they rang, in eddies of rhyme, through my weak
+brain, and continued to scan and jangle far into the nights. Some of
+these fever-dreams were like delusions in delirium: peopled with
+monsters, that grinned and growled. Little black globules used to leer
+from corners, and after a time they began to revolve toward me,
+increasing as they came, and at length rolling like mountains of surge.
+I frequently woke with a scream, and found my body in profuse
+perspiration. There were fiery snakes, also, that, at first, moved
+slowly around me, and I followed them with red and terrified eyes. After
+awhile they flashed in circles of lightning, and hissed showers of
+sparks, until I became quite crazed with fear. The most horrible
+apparitions used to come to my bedside, and if I dropped to sleep with
+any thought half formed or half developed, the odd half of that thought
+became impregnated, somehow, and straightway loomed up a goblin, or a
+giant, or a grotesque something, that proceeded to torture me, like a
+sort of Frankenstein, for having made it. Amid all these ghastly things,
+there came beautiful glimpses of form, scene, and sensation, that
+straightway changed to horrors. I remember, for example, that I was
+gliding down a stream, where the boughs overhead were as shady as the
+waters, and there were holy eyes that seemed to cool my fever; but
+suddenly the stream became choked with corpses, that entangled their
+dead limbs with mine, until I strangled and called aloud,&mdash;waking up
+O'Ganlon and some reporters who proposed to give me morphine, that I
+might not alarm the house.</p>
+
+<p>How the poor soldiers fared, in the hot hospitals, I shudder to think;
+but a more merciful decree spared my life, and kind treatment met me at
+every hand. Otherwise, I be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>lieve, I should not be alive to-day to write
+this story; for the fever had seized me in its severest form, and I had
+almost tutored myself to look upon my end, far from my home and on the
+very eve of my manhood.</p>
+
+<p>O'Ganlon, at last, resolved to send me to White House, and started
+thither one day, to obtain a berth for me upon a Sanitary steamer. The
+next day an ambulance came to the door. I tried to sit up in bed, and
+succeeded; I feebly robed myself and staggered to the stairs. I crawled,
+rather than walked, to the hall below; but when I took a chair, and felt
+the cool breeze from the oaks fanning my hair, I seemed to know that I
+should get well.</p>
+
+<p>"Boom! Boom! Boom!" pealed some cannon at the moment, and all the
+windows shook with the concussion.</p>
+
+<p>Directly we heard volleys of musketry, and then the camps were astir.
+Horses went hither and thither; signal flags flashed to-and-fro; a
+battery of the Reserve Artillery dashed down the lane.</p>
+
+<p>I felt my strength coming back with the excitement; I even smiled feebly
+as the guns thundered past.</p>
+
+<p>"Take away your ambulance, old fellow," I said, "I shan't go home till I
+see a battle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO DAYS OF BATTLE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Confederates had been waiting two months for McClellan's advance.
+Emboldened by his delay they had gathered the whole of their available
+strength from remote Tennessee, from the Mississippi, and from the
+coast, until, confident and powerful, they crossed Meadow Bridge on the
+26th of June, 1862, and drove in our right wing at Mechanicsville. The
+reserves of Gen. McCall were stationed here; they made a wavering
+resistance,&mdash;wherein four companies of Bucktails were captured
+bodily,&mdash;and fell back at nightfall upon Porter's Corps, at Gaines's
+Mill. Fitz John Porter commanded the brigades of Gens. Sykes and
+Morrell,&mdash;the former made up solely of regulars. He appeared to have
+been ignorant of the strength of the attacking party, and he telegraphed
+to McClellan, early on Thursday evening, that he required no
+reinforcements, and that he could hold his ground. The next morning he
+was attacked in front and flank; Stewart's cavalry fell on his right,
+and turned it at Old Church. He formed at noon in new line of battle,
+from Gaines's House, along the Mill Road to New Coal Harbor; but
+stubbornly persisted in the belief that he could not be beaten. By three
+o'clock he had been driven back two miles, and all his energies were
+unavailing to recover a foot of ground. He hurled lancers and cavalry
+upon the masses of Jackson and the Hills, but the butternut infantry
+formed impenetrable squares, hemmed in with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> rods of steel, and as the
+horsemen galloped around them, searching for previous points, they were
+swept from their saddles with volleys of musketry. He directed the
+terrible fire of his artillery upon them, but though the gray footmen
+fell in heaps, they steadily advanced, closing up the gaps, and their
+lines were like long stretches of blaze and ball. Their fire never
+slackened nor abated. They loaded and moved forward, column on column,
+like so many immortals that could not be vanquished. The scene from the
+balloon, as Lowe informed me, was awful beyond all comparison,&mdash;of
+puffing shells and shrieking shrapnel, with volleys that shattered the
+hills and filled the air with deathly whispers. Infantry, artillery, and
+horse turned the Federal right from time to time, and to preserve their
+order of battle the whole line fell back toward Grapevine Bridge. At
+five o'clock Slocum's Division of volunteers crossed the creek from the
+south side, and made a desperate dash upon the solid columns of the
+Confederates. At the same time Toombs's Georgia Brigade charged Smith's
+redoubt from the south side, and there was a probability of the whole of
+both armies engaging before dark.</p>
+
+<p>My fever of body had so much relinquished to my fever of mind, that at
+three o'clock I called for my horse, and determined to cross the bridge,
+that I might witness the battle.</p>
+
+<p>It was with difficulty that I could make my way along the narrow
+corduroy, for hundreds of wounded were limping from the field to the
+safe side, and ammunition wagons were passing the other way, driven by
+reckless drivers who should have been blown up momentarily. Before I had
+reached the north side of the creek, an immense throng of panic-stricken
+people came surging down the slippery bridge. A few carried muskets, but
+I saw several wantonly throw their pieces into the flood, and as the
+mass were unarmed, I inferred that they had made similar dispositions.
+Fear, anguish, cowardice, despair, disgust, were the predom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>inant
+expressions of the upturned faces. The gaunt trees, towering from the
+current, cast a solemn shadow upon the moving throng, and as the evening
+dimness was falling around them, it almost seemed that they were
+engulfed in some cataract. I reined my horse close to the side of a
+team, that I might not be borne backward by the crowd; but some of the
+lawless fugitives seized him by the bridle, and others attempted to pull
+me from the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Gi' up that hoss!" said one, "what business you got wi' a hoss?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's my critter, and I am in for a ride; so you get off!" said
+another.</p>
+
+<p>I spurred my pony vigorously with the left foot, and with the right
+struck the man at the bridle under the chin. The thick column parted
+left and right, and though a howl of hate pursued me, I kept straight to
+the bank, cleared the swamp, and took the military route parallel with
+the creek, toward the nearest eminence. At every step of the way I met
+wounded persons. A horseman rode past me, leaning over his pommel, with
+blood streaming from his mouth and hanging in gouts from his saturated
+beard. The day had been intensely hot and black boys were besetting the
+wounded with buckets of cool lemonade. It was a common occurrence for
+the couples that carried the wounded on stretchers to stop on the way,
+purchase a glass of the beverage, and drink it. Sometimes the blankets
+on the stretchers were closely folded, and then I knew that the man
+within was dead. A little fellow, who used his sword for a cane, stopped
+me on the road, and said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"See yer! This is the ball that jes' fell out o' my boot."</p>
+
+<p>He handed me a lump of lead as big as my thumb, and pointed to a rent in
+his pantaloons, whence the drops rolled down his boots.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't part with that for suthin' handsome," he said; "it'll be
+nice to hev to hum."</p>
+
+<p>As I cantered away he shouted after me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Be sure you spell my name right! it's Smith, with an 'E'&mdash;<span class="smcap">S-m-i-t-h-e</span>."</p>
+
+<p>In one place I met five drunken men escorting a wounded sergeant; the
+latter had been shot in the jaw, and when he attempted to speak, the
+blood choked his articulation.</p>
+
+<p>"You let go him, pardner," said one of the staggering brutes, "he's not
+your sergeant. Go 'way!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sergeant," said the other, idiotically, "I'll see you all right,
+sergeant. Come, Bill, fetch him over to the corn-crib and we'll give him
+a drink."</p>
+
+<p>Here the first speaker struck the second, and the sergeant, in wrath,
+knocked them both down. All this time the enemy's cannon were booming
+close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>I came to an officer of rank, whose shoulder-emblem I could not
+distinguish, riding upon a limping field-horse. Four men held him to his
+seat, and a fifth led the animal. The officer was evidently wounded,
+though he did not seem to be bleeding, and the dust of battle had
+settled upon his blanched, stiffening face, like grave-mould upon a
+corpse. He was swaying in the saddle, and his hair&mdash;for he was
+bare-headed&mdash;shook across his white eyeballs. He reminded me of the
+famous Cid, whose body was sent forth to scare the Saracens.</p>
+
+<p>A mile or more from Grapevine Bridge, on a hill-top, lay a frame
+farm-house, with cherry trees encircling it, and along the declivity of
+the hill were some cabins, corn-sheds, and corn-bins. The house was now
+a Surgeon's headquarters, and the wounded lay in the yard and lane,
+under the shade, waiting their turns to be hacked and maimed. I caught a
+glimpse through the door, of the butchers and their victims; some
+curious people were peeping through the windows at the operation. As the
+processions of freshly wounded went by, the poor fellows, lying on their
+backs, looked mutely at me, and their great eyes smote my heart.</p>
+
+<p>Something has been written in the course of the war<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> upon straggling
+from the ranks, during battle. But I have seen nothing that conveys an
+adequate idea of the number of cowards and idlers that so stroll off. In
+this instance, I met squads, companies, almost regiments of them. Some
+came boldly along the road; others skulked in woods, and made long
+detours to escape detection; a few were composedly playing cards, or
+heating their coffee, or discussing the order and consequences of the
+fight. The rolling drums, the constant clatter of file and
+volley-firing,&mdash;nothing could remind them of the requirements of the
+time and their own infamy. Their appreciation of duty and honor seemed
+to have been forgotten; neither hate, ambition, nor patriotism could
+force them back; but when the columns of mounted provosts charged upon
+them, they sullenly resumed their muskets and returned to the field. At
+the foot of the hill to which I have referred the ammunition wagons lay
+in long lines, with the horses' heads turned from the fight. A little
+beyond stood the ambulances; and between both sets of vehicles,
+fatigue-parties were going and returning to and from the field. At the
+top of the next hill sat many of the Federal batteries, and I was
+admonished by the shriek of shells that passed over my head and burst
+far behind me, that I was again to look upon carnage and share the
+perils of the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>The question at once occurred to me: Can I stand fire? Having for some
+months penned daily paragraphs relative to death, courage, and victory,
+I was surprised to find that those words were now unusually significant.
+"Death" was a syllable to me before; it was a whole dictionary now.
+"Courage" was natural to every man a week ago; it was rarer than genius
+to-day. "Victory" was the first word in the lexicon of youth yesterday
+noon; "discretion" and "safety" were at present of infinitely more
+consequence. I resolved, notwithstanding these qualms, to venture to the
+hill-top: but at every step flitting projectiles took my breath. The
+music of the battle-field, I have often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> thought, should be introduced
+in opera. Not the drum, the bugle, or the fife, though these are
+thrilling, after their fashion; but the music of modern ordnance and
+projectile, the beautiful whistle of the minie-ball, the howl of shell
+that makes unearthly havoc with the air, the whiz-z-z of solid shot, the
+chirp of bullets, the scream of grape and canister, the yell of immense
+conical cylinders, that fall like redhot stoves and spout burning coals.</p>
+
+<p>All these passed over, beside, beneath, before, behind me. I seemed to
+be an invulnerable something at whom some cunning juggler was tossing
+steel, with an intent to impinge upon, not to strike him. I rode like
+one with his life in his hand, and, so far as I remember, seemed to
+think of nothing. No fear, <i>per se</i>; no regret; no adventure; only
+expectancy. It was the expectancy of a shot, a choking, a loud cry, a
+stiffening, a dead, dull tumble, a quiver, and&mdash;blindness. But with this
+was mingled a sort of enjoyment, like that of the daring gamester, who
+has played his soul and is waiting for the decision of the cards. I felt
+all his suspense, <i>more</i> than his hope; and withal, there was excitement
+in the play. Now a whistling ball seemed to pass just under my ear, and
+before I commenced to congratulate myself upon the escape, a shell, with
+a showery and revolving fuse, appeared to take the top off my head. Then
+my heart expanded and contracted, and somehow I found myself conning
+rhymes. At each clipping ball,&mdash;for I could hear them coming,&mdash;a sort of
+coldness and paleness rose to the very roots of my hair, and was then
+replaced by a hot flush. I caught myself laughing, syllabically, and
+shrugging my shoulders, fitfully. Once, the rhyme that came to my
+lips&mdash;for I am sure there was no mind in the iteration&mdash;was the simple
+nursery prayer&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Now I lay me down to sleep,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I continued to say "down to sleep," "down to sleep," "down to sleep,"
+till I discovered myself, when I ceased. Then a shell, apparently just
+in range, dashed toward me, and the words spasmodically leaped up:
+"Now's your time. This is your billet." With the same insane pertinacity
+I continued to repeat "Now's your time, now's your time," and "billet,
+billet, billet," till at last I came up to the nearest battery, where I
+could look over the crest of the hill; and as if I had looked into the
+crater of a volcano, or down the fabled abyss into hell, the whole grand
+horror of a battle burst upon my sight. For a moment I could neither
+feel nor think. I scarcely beheld, or beholding did not understand or
+perceive. Only the roar of guns, the blaze that flashed along a zigzag
+line and was straightway smothered in smoke, the creek lying glassily
+beneath me, the gathering twilight, and the brownish blue of woods! I
+only knew that some thousands of fiends, were playing with fire and
+tossing brands at heaven,&mdash;that some pleasant slopes, dells, and
+highlands were lit as if the conflagration of universes had commenced.
+There is a passage of Holy Writ that comes to my mind as I write, which
+explains the sensation of the time better than I can do:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit,
+as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened
+by reason of the smoke of the pit.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<i>And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth.</i>"&mdash;Revelation,
+ix. 2, 3.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments, when I was able to compose myself, the veil of cloud
+blew away or dissolved, and I could see fragments of the long columns of
+infantry. Then from the far end of the lines puffed smoke, and from man
+to man the puff ran down each line, enveloping the columns again, so
+that they were alternately visible and invisible. At points between the
+masses of infantry lay field-pieces, throbbing with rapid deliveries,
+and emitting volumes of white steam. Now and then the firing slackened
+for a short time, when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> could remark the Federal line, fringed with
+bayonets, stretching from the low meadow on the left, up the slope, over
+the ridge, up and down the crest, until its right disappeared in the
+gloaming of wood and distance. Standards flapped here and there above
+the column, and I knew, from the fact that the line became momentarily
+more distinct, that the Federals were falling stubbornly back. At times
+a battery would dash a hundred yards forward, unlimber, and fire a score
+of times, and directly would return two hundred yards and blaze again. I
+saw a regiment of lancers gather at the foot of a protecting swell of
+field; the bugle rang thrice, the red pennons went upward like so many
+song birds, the mass turned the crest and disappeared, then the whole
+artillery belched and bellowed. In twenty minutes a broken, straggling,
+feeble group of horsemen returned; the red pennons still fluttered, but
+I knew that they were redder for the blood that dyed them. Finally, the
+Federal infantry fell back to the foot of the hill on which I stood; all
+the batteries were clustering around me, and suddenly a column of men
+shot up from the long sweep of the abandoned hill, with batteries on the
+left and right. Their muskets were turned towards us, a crash and a
+whiff of smoke swept from flank to flank, and the air around me rained
+buck, slug, bullet, and ball!</p>
+
+<p>The incidents that now occurred in rapid succession were so thrilling
+and absorbing that my solicitude was lost in their grandeur. I sat like
+one dumb, with my soul in my eyes and my ears stunned, watching the
+terrible column of Confederates. Each party was now straining every
+energy,&mdash;the one for victory, the other against annihilation. The
+darkness was closing in, and neither cared to prolong the contest after
+night. The Confederates, therefore, aimed to finish their success with
+the rout or capture of the Federals, and the Federals aimed to maintain
+their ground till nightfall. The musketry was close, accurate, and
+uninterrupted. Every second was marked by a discharge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>&mdash;the one firing,
+the other replying promptly. No attempt was now made to remove the
+wounded; the coolness of the fight had gone by, and we witnessed only
+its fury. The stragglers seemed to appreciate the desperate emergency,
+and came voluntarily back to relieve their comrades. The cavalry was
+massed, and collected for another grand charge. Like a black shadow
+gliding up the darkening hillside, they precipitated themselves upon the
+columns: the musketry ceased for the time, and shrieks, steel strokes,
+the crack of carbines and revolvers succeeded. Shattered, humiliated,
+sullen, the horse wheeled and returned. Then the guns thundered again,
+and by the blaze of the pieces, the clods and turf were revealed,
+fitfully strewn with men and horses.</p>
+
+<p>The vicinity of my position now exhibited traces of the battle. A
+caisson burst close by, and I heard the howl of dying wretches, as the
+fires flashed like meteors. A solid shot struck a field-carriage not
+thirty yards from my feet, and one of the flying splinters spitted a
+gunner as if he had been pierced by an arrow. An artillery-man was
+standing with folded arms so near that I could have reached to touch
+him; a whistle and a thumping shock and he fell beneath my nag's head. I
+wonder, as I calmly recall these episodes now, how I escaped the death
+that played about me, chilled me, thrilled me,&mdash;but spared me! "They are
+fixing bayonets for a charge. My God! See them come down the hill."</p>
+
+<p>In the gathering darkness, through the thick smoke, I saw or seemed to
+see the interminable column roll steadily downward. I fancied that I
+beheld great gaps cut in their ranks though closing solidly up, like the
+imperishable Gorgon. I may have heard some of this next day, and so
+confounded the testimonies of eye and ear. But I knew that there was a
+charge, and that the drivers were ordered to stand by their saddles, to
+run off the guns at any moment. The descent and bottom below me, were
+now all ablaze, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> directly above the din of cannon, rifle, and
+pistol, I heard a great cheer, as of some salvation achieved.</p>
+
+<p>"The Rebels are repulsed! We have saved the guns!"</p>
+
+<p>A cheer greeted this announcement from the battery-men around me. They
+reloaded, rammed, swabbed, and fired, with naked arms, and drops of
+sweat furrowed the powder-stains upon their faces. The horses stood
+motionless, quivering not half so much as the pieces. The gristly
+officers held to their match-strings, smothering the excitement of the
+time. All at once there was a running hither and thither, a pause in the
+thunder, a quick consultation&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Sdeath! They have flanked us again."</p>
+
+<p>In an instant I seemed overwhelmed with men. For a moment I thought the
+enemy had surrounded us.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all up," said one; "I shall cross the river."</p>
+
+<p>I wheeled my horse, fell in with the stream of fugitives, and was borne
+swiftly through field and lane and trampled fence to the swampy margin
+of the Chickahominy. At every step the shell fell in and among the
+fugitives, adding to their panic. I saw officers who had forgotten their
+regiments or had been deserted by them, wending with the mass. The
+wounded fell and were trodden upon. Personal exhibitions of valor and
+determination there were; but the main body had lost heart, and were
+weary and hungry.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the bridge, there was confusion and altercation ahead.
+The people were borne back upon me. Curses and threats ensued.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the Provost-guard," said a fugitive, "driving back the boys."</p>
+
+<p>"Go back!" called a voice ahead. "I'll blow you to h&mdash;ll, if you don't
+go back! Not a man shall cross the bridge without orders!"</p>
+
+<p>The stragglers were variously affected by this intelligence. Some cursed
+and threatened; some of the wounded blubbered as they leaned languidly
+upon the shoulders of their comrades. Others stoically threw themselves
+on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> ground and tried to sleep. One man called aloud that the "boys"
+were stronger than the Provosts, and that, therefore, the "boys" ought
+to "go in and win."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's the man that wants to mutiny?" said the voice ahead; "let me
+see him!"</p>
+
+<p>The man slipped away; for the Provost officer spoke as though he meant
+all he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody wants to mutiny!" called others.</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for the Union."</p>
+
+<p>The wounded and well threw up their hats together, and made a sickly
+hurrah. The grim officer relented, and he shouted stentoriously that he
+would take the responsibility of passing the wounded. These gathered
+themselves up and pushed through the throng; but many skulkers plead
+injuries, and so escaped. When I attempted to follow, on horseback,
+hands were laid upon me and I was refused exit. In that hour of terror
+and sadness, there were yet jests and loud laughter. However keenly I
+felt these things, I had learned that modesty amounted to little in the
+army; so I pushed my nag steadily forward and scattered the camp
+vernacular, in the shape of imprecations, left and right.</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel," I called to the officer in command, as the line of bayonets
+edged me in, "may I pass out? I am a civilian!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said the Colonel, wrathfully. "This is no place for a civilian."</p>
+
+<p>"That's why I want to get away."</p>
+
+<p>"Pass out!"</p>
+
+<p>I followed the winding of the woods to Woodbury's Bridge,&mdash;the next
+above Grapevine Bridge. The approaches were clogged with wagons and
+field-pieces, and I understood that some panic-stricken people had
+pulled up some of the timbers to prevent a fancied pursuit. Along the
+sides of the bridge many of the wounded were washing their wounds in the
+water, and the cries of the teamsters echoed weirdly through the trees
+that grew in the river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> At nine o'clock, we got under way,&mdash;horsemen,
+batteries, ambulances, ammunition teams, infantry, and finally some
+great siege 32s. that had been hauled from Gaines's House. One of these
+pieces broke down the timbers again, and my impression is that it was
+cast into the current. When we emerged from the swamp timber, the hills
+before us were found brilliantly illuminated with burning camps. I made
+toward head-quarters, in one of Trent's fields; but all the tents save
+one had been taken down, and lines of white-covered wagons stretched
+southward until they were lost in the shadows. The tent of General
+McClellan alone remained, and beneath an arbor of pine boughs, close at
+hand, he sat, with his Corps Commanders and Aides, holding a council of
+war. A ruddy fire lit up the historical group, and I thought at the
+time, as I have said a hundred times since, that the consultation might
+be selected for a grand national painting. The crisis, the hour, the
+adjuncts, the renowned participants, peculiarly fit it for pictorial
+commemoration.</p>
+
+<p>The young commander sat in a chair, in full uniform, uncovered.
+Heintzelman was kneeling upon a fagot, earnestly speaking. De Joinville
+sat apart, by the fire, examining a map. Fitz John Porter was standing
+back of McClellan, leaning upon his chair. Keyes, Franklin, and Sumner,
+were listening attentively. Some sentries paced to and fro, to keep out
+vulgar curiosity. Suddenly, there was a nodding of heads, as of some
+policy decided; they threw themselves upon their steeds, and galloped
+off toward Michie's.</p>
+
+<p>As I reined at Michie's porch, at ten o'clock, the bridges behind me
+were blown up, with a flare that seemed a blazing of the Northern
+Lights. The family were sitting upon the porch, and Mrs. Michie was
+greatly alarmed with the idea that a battle would be fought round her
+house next day.</p>
+
+<p>O'Ganlon, of Meagher's staff, had taken the fever, and sent anxiously
+for me, to compare our symptoms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I bade the good people adieu before I went to bed, and gave the man
+"Pat" a dollar to stand by my horse while I slept, and to awake me at
+any disturbance, that I might be ready to scamper. The man "Pat," I am
+bound to say, woke me up thrice by the exclamation of&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, yer honor, there's&mdash;well&mdash;to pay in the yard! I think ye and the
+Doctor had better ride off."</p>
+
+<p>On each of those occasions, I found that the man Pat had been lonesome,
+and wanted somebody to speak to.</p>
+
+<p>What a sleep was mine that night! I forgot my fever. But another and a
+hotter fever burned my temples,&mdash;the fearful excitement of the time!
+Whither were we to go, cut off from the York, beaten before
+Richmond,&mdash;perhaps even now surrounded,&mdash;and to be butchered to-morrow,
+till the clouds should rain blood? Were we to retreat one hundred miles
+down the hostile Peninsula,&mdash;a battle at every rod, a grave at every
+footstep? Then I remembered the wounded heaped at Gaines's Mill, and how
+they were groaning without remedy, ebbing at every pulse, counting the
+flashing drops, calling for water, for mercy, for death. So I found
+heart; for I was not buried yet. And somehow I felt that fate was to
+take me, as the great poet took Dante, through other and greater
+horrors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>M'CLELLAN'S RETREAT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The scene presented in Michie's lawn and oak grove, on Saturday morning,
+was terribly picturesque, and characteristic of the calamity of war. The
+well was beset by crowds of wounded men, perishing of thirst, who made
+frantic efforts to reach the bucket, but were borne back by the stronger
+desperadoes. The kitchen was swarming with hungry soldiers who begged
+corn-bread and half-cooked dough from the negroes. The shady side-yard
+was dotted with pale, bruised, and bleeding people, who slept out their
+weariness upon the damp grass, forgetful, for the moment, of their
+sores. Ambulances poured through the lane, in solemn procession, and now
+and then, couples of privates bore by some wounded officer, upon a
+canvas "stretcher." The lane proving too narrow, at length, for the
+passing vehicles, the gate-posts and fence were torn up, and finally,
+the soldiers made a footway of the hall of the dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>The retreat had been in progress all night, as I had heard the wagons
+through my open windows. By daylight the whole army was acquainted with
+the facts, that we were to resign our depot at White House, relinquish
+the North bank of the river, and retire precipitately to the shores of
+the James. A rumor&mdash;indignantly denied, but as often repeated&mdash;prevailed
+among the teamsters, surgeons, and drivers, that the wounded were to be
+left in the enemy's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> hands. It shortly transpired that we were already
+cut off from the Pamunkey. A train had departed for White House at dawn,
+and had delivered its cargo of mortality safely; but a second train,
+attempting the passage, at seven o'clock had been fired into, and
+compelled to return. A tremendous explosion, and a shaft of white smoke
+that flashed to the zenith, informed us, soon afterward, that the
+railroad bridge had been blown up.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time, the roar of artillery recommenced in front, and
+regiments that had not slept for twenty hours, were hurried past us, to
+take position at the entrenchments. A universal fear now found
+expression, and helpless people asked of each other, with pale lips&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How far have we to walk to reach the James?"</p>
+
+<p>It was doubtful, at this time, that any one knew the route to that
+river. A few members of the signal corps had adventured thither to open
+communication with the gunboats, and a small cavalry party of Casey's
+division had made a foray to New Market and Charles City Court House.
+But it was rumored that Wise's brigade of Confederates was now posted at
+Malvern Hills, closing up the avenue of escape, and that the whole right
+wing of the Confederate army was pushing toward Charles City. Malvern
+Hills, the nearest point that could be gained, was about twenty miles
+distant, and Harrison's Landing&mdash;presumed to be our final
+destination&mdash;was thirty miles away. To retreat over this distance,
+encumbered with baggage, the wounded and the sick, was discarded as
+involving pursuit, and certain calamity. Cavalry might fall upon us at
+every turning, since the greater portion of our own horse had been
+scouting between White House and Hanover, when the bridges were
+destroyed, and was therefore separated from the main army. At eight
+o'clock&mdash;weak with fever and scarcely able to keep in the saddle&mdash;I
+joined Mr. Anderson of the <i>Herald</i>, and rode toward the front, that I
+might discover the whereabouts of the new engagement. Wind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>ing through a
+cart-track in Michie's Woods, we came upon fully one third of the whole
+army, or the remnant of all that portion engaged at Gaines's Mill;&mdash;the
+Reserves, Porter's Corps, Slocum's division, and Meagher's
+brigade,&mdash;perhaps thirty-thousand men. They covered the whole of Tent's
+farm, and were drawn up in line, heavily equipped, with their colors in
+position, field officers dismounted, and detachments from each regiment
+preparing hot coffee at certain fires. A very few wagons&mdash;and these
+containing only ammunition&mdash;stood harnessed beside each regiment. In
+many cases the men lay or knelt upon the ground. Such hot, hungry, weary
+wretches, I never beheld. During the whole night long they had been
+crossing the Chickahominy, and the little sleep vouchsafed them had been
+taken in snatches upon the bare clay. Travelling from place to place, I
+saw the surviving heroes of the defeat: Meagher looking very yellow and
+prosaic; Slocum,&mdash;small, indomitable, active; Newton,&mdash;a little gray, a
+trifle proud, very mercurial, and curiously enough, a Virginian;
+Meade,&mdash;lithe, spectacled, sanguine; and finally General McCall, as
+grave, kindly odd and absent, as I had found him four months before. The
+latter worthy was one of the first of the Federal Generals to visit
+Richmond. He was taken prisoner the second day afterward, and the half
+of his command was slain or disabled.</p>
+
+<p>I went to and fro, obtaining the names of killed, wounded and missing,
+with incidents of the battle as well as its general plan. These I
+scrawled upon bits of newspaper, upon envelopes, upon the lining of my
+hat, and finally upon my shirt wristbands. I was literally filled with
+notes before noon, and if I had been shot at that time, endeavors to
+obtain my name would have been extremely difficult. I should have had
+more titles than some of the Chinese princes; some parts of me would
+have been found fatally wounded, and others italicized for gallant
+behavior. Indeed, I should have been shot in every part, taken prisoner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+at every place, killed outright in every skirmish, and marvellously
+saved through every peril. My tombstone would have been some hundreds of
+muster-rolls and my obituary a fortune to a newspaper. I recollect, with
+some amusement, the credit that each regiment took upon itself for
+distinguished behavior. There were few Colonels that did not claim all
+the honors. I fell in with a New Jersey brigade, that had been decimated
+of nearly half its <i>quota</i>, and a spruce young Major attempted to convey
+an idea of the battle to me. He said, in brief, that the New Jersey
+brigade, composed mainly of himself and his regiment, and some few
+organizations of little consequence,&mdash;although numbering ten thousand
+odd soldiers,&mdash;had received the whole shock of a quantity of "Rebels."
+The said "Rebels" appeared to make up one fourth part of the population
+of the globe. There was no end to them. They seemed to be several miles
+deep, longer and more crooked than the Pamunkey, and stood with their
+rear against Richmond, so that they couldn't fall back, even if they
+wanted to. In vain did the New Jersey brigade and his regiment attack
+them with ball and bayonet. How the "Rebels" ever withstood the
+celebrated charge of his regiment was altogether inexplicable.</p>
+
+<p>In the language of the Major,&mdash;"the New Jersey brigade,&mdash;and my
+regiment,&mdash;fit, and fit, and fit, and give 'em 'get out!' But sir, may I
+be&mdash;&mdash;, well there (expression inadequate), we couldn't budge 'em. No,
+sir! (very violently,) not budge 'em, sir! <i>I</i> told the boys to walk at
+'em with cold steel. Says I: 'Boys, steel'ill fetch 'em, or nothin'
+under heaven!' Well, sir, at 'em we went,&mdash;me and the boys. There ain't
+been no sich charge in the whole war! Not in the whole war, sir!
+(intensely fervid;) leave it to any impartial observer if there has
+been! We went up the hill, square in the face of all their artillery,
+musketry, cavalry, sharpshooters, riflemen,&mdash;everything, sir!
+Everything! (energetically.) One o' my men over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>heard the Rebel General
+say, as we came up: says he,&mdash;'that's the gamest thing I ever see.'
+Well! we butchered 'em frightful. We must a killed a thousand or two of
+'em, don't you think so, Adjutant? But, sir,&mdash;it was all in vain. No go,
+sir! no, sir, no go! (impressively.) And the New Jersey brigade and my
+regiment fell back, inch by inch, with our feet to the foe
+(rhetorically.) Is that so, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>The "boys," who had meantime gathered around, exclaimed loudly, that it
+was "true as preachin," and the Major added, in an undertone that his
+name was spelled * * *.</p>
+
+<p>"But where were Porter's columns?" said I, "and the Pennsylvania
+Reserves?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't see 'em," said the Major: "I don't think they was there. If
+they had a been, why wa'n't they on hand to save my regiment, and the
+New Jersey brigade?"</p>
+
+<p>It would be wrong to infer from these vauntings, that the Federals did
+not fight bravely and endure defeat unshrinkingly. On the contrary, I
+have never read of higher exemplifications of personal and moral
+courage, than I witnessed during this memorable retreat. And the young
+Major's boasting did not a whit reduce my estimate of his efficiency.
+For in America, swaggering does not necessarily indicate cowardice. I
+knew a Captain of artillery in Smith's division, who was wordier than
+Gratiano, and who exaggerated like Falstaff. But he was a lion in
+action, and at Lee's Mills and Williamsburg his battery was handled with
+consummate skill.</p>
+
+<p>From Trent's farm the roadway led by a strip of corduroy, through
+sloppy, swampy woods, to an open place, beyond a brook, where Smith's
+division lay. The firing had almost entirely ceased, and we heard loud
+cheers running up and down the lines, as we again ventured within cannon
+range. On this spot, for the second time, the Federals had won a decided
+success. And in so far as a cosmopolitan could feel elated, I was proud,
+for a moment, of the valor of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> division. The victors had given me
+meals and a bed, and they had fed my pony when both of us were hungry.
+But the sight of the prisoners and the collected dead, saddened me
+somewhat.</p>
+
+<p>These two engagements have received the name of the First and Second
+battles of Golding's Farm. They resulted from an effort of Toombs's
+Georgia brigade to carry the redoubt and breastworks of General Smith.
+Toombs was a civilian, and formerly a senator from Georgia. He had no
+military ability, and his troops were driven back with great slaughter,
+both on Friday and Saturday. Among the prisoners taken was Colonel Lamar
+of (I think) the 7th Georgia regiment. He passed me, in a litter,
+wounded, as I rode toward the redoubt.</p>
+
+<p>Lamar was a beautiful man, shaped like a woman, and his hair was long,
+glossy, and wavy with ringlets. He was a tiger, in his love of blood,
+and in character self-willed and vehement. He was of that remarkable
+class of Southern men, of which the noted "Filibuster" Walker was the
+great exponent. I think I may call him an apostle of slavery. He
+believed it to be the destiny of our pale race to subdue all the dusky
+tribes of the earth, and to evangelize, with the sword, the whole
+Western continent, to the uses of master and man. Such people were
+called disciples of "manifest destiny." He threw his whole heart into
+the war; but when I saw him, bloodless, panting, quivering, I thought
+how little the wrath of man availed against the justice of God. From
+Smith's on the right, I kept along a military road, in the woods, to
+Sedgwick's and Richardson's divisions, at Fairoaks. Richardson was
+subsequently slain, at the second battle of Bull Run. He was called
+"Fighting Dick," and on this particular morning was talking composedly
+to his wife, as she was about to climb to the saddle. His tent had been
+taken down, and soldiers were placing his furniture in a wagon. A
+greater contrast I never remarked, than the ungainly, awkward, and
+rough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> General, with his slight, trim, pretty companion. She had come to
+visit him and had remained until commanded to retire. I fancied, though
+I was separated some distance, that the little woman wept, as she kissed
+him good by, and he followed her, with frequent gestures of good-hap,
+till she disappeared behind the woods. I do not know that such prosaic
+old soldiers are influenced by the blandishments of love; but "Fighting
+Dick" never wooed death so recklessly as in the succeeding engagements
+of New Market and Malvern Hills.</p>
+
+<p>From Seven Pines to the right of Richardson's head-quarters, ran a line
+of alternate breastwork, redoubt, and stockade. The best of these
+redoubts was held by Captain Petit, with a New York Volunteer battery. I
+had often talked with Petit, for he embodied, as well as any man in the
+army, the martial qualifications of a volunteer. He despised order.
+Nobody cared less for dress and dirt. I have seen him, sitting in a hole
+that he hollowed with his hands, tossing pebbles and dust over his head,
+like another Job. He had profound contempt for any man and any system
+that was not "American." I remember asking him, one day, the meaning of
+the gold lace upon the staff hats of the Irish brigade.</p>
+
+<p>"Means run like shell!" said Petit, covering me with dirt.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't the Irish make the best soldiers?" I ventured.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Petit, raining pebbles, "I had rather have one American than
+ten Irishmen."</p>
+
+<p>The fighting of Petit was contrary to all rule; but I think that he was
+a splendid artillery-man. He generally mounted the rampart, shook his
+fist at the enemy, flung up his hat, jumped down, sighted the guns
+himself, threw shells with wonderful accuracy, screamed at the gunners,
+mounted the rampart again, halloed, and, in short, managed to do more
+execution, make more noise, attract more attention and throw more dirt
+than anybody in the army. His redoubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> was small, but beautifully
+constructed, and the parapet was heaped with double rows of sandbags. It
+mounted rifled field-pieces, and, at most times, the gunners were lying
+under the pieces, asleep. Not any of the entrenched posts among the
+frontier Indians were more enveloped in wilderness than this. The trees
+had been felled in front to give the cannon play, but behind and on each
+side belts of dense, dwarf timber covered the boggy soil. To the left of
+Petit, on the old field of Seven Pines, lay the divisions of Hooker and
+Kearney, and thither I journeyed, after leaving the redoubtable
+volunteer. Hooker was a New Englander, reputed to be the handsomest man
+in the army. He fought bravely in the Mexican war, and afterwards
+retired to San Francisco, where he passed a Bohemian existence at the
+Union Club House. He disliked McClellan, was beloved by his men, and was
+generally known as "Old Joe." He has been one of the most successful
+Federal leaders, and seems to hold a charmed life. In all probability he
+will become Commander-in-chief of one of the grand armies.</p>
+
+<p>Kearney has passed away since the date of which I speak. He was known as
+the "one-armed Devil," and was, by odds, the best educated of all the
+Federal military chiefs. But, singularly enough, he departed from all
+tactics, when hotly afield. His personal energy and courage have given
+him renown, and he loved to lead forlorn hopes, or head
+storming-parties, or ride upon desperate adventures. He was rich from
+childhood, and spent much of his life in Europe. For a part of this time
+he served as a cavalry-man with the French, in Algiers. In private life
+he was equally reckless, but his tastes were scholarly, and he was
+generous to a fault. Both Kearney and Hooker were kind to the reporters,
+and I owe the dead man many a favor. General Daniel Sickles commanded a
+brigade in this corps. To the left, and in the rear of Heintzelman's
+corps, lay the divisions of Casey and Couch, that had relapsed into
+silence since their disgrace at Seven Pines. General Casey was a
+thin-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>haired old gentleman, too gracious to be a soldier, although I
+believe that he is still in the service. His division comprised the
+extreme left of the Grand Army, and bordered upon a deep, impenetrable
+bog called "White Oak Swamp." It was the purpose of McClellan to place
+this swamp between him and the enemy, and defend its passage till his
+baggage and siege artillery had obtained the shelter of the gunboats, on
+the shores of the James. I rode along this whole line, to renew my
+impressions of the position, and found that sharp skirmishing was going
+on at every point. When I returned to Savage's, where McClellan's
+headquarters had temporarily been pitched, I found the last of the
+wagons creaking across the track, and filing slowly southward. The
+wounded lay in the out-houses, in the trains of cars, beside the hedge,
+and in shade of the trees about the dwelling. A little back, beside a
+wood, lay Lowe's balloon traps, and the infantry "guard," and cavalry
+"escort" of the Commander-in-chief were encamped close to the new
+provost quarters, in a field beyond the orchard. An ambulance passed me,
+as I rode into the lane; it was filled with sufferers, and two men with
+bloody feet, crouched in the trail. From the roof of Savage's house
+floated the red hospital flag. Savage himself was a quiet Virginia
+farmer, and a magistrate. His name is now coupled with a grand battle.</p>
+
+<p>I felt very hungry, at four o'clock, but my weak stomach revolted at
+coarse soldier fare, and I determined to ride back to Michie's. I was
+counselled to beware; but having learned little discretion afield, I
+cantered off, through a trampled tillage of wheat, and an interminable
+woods. In a half hour I rode into the familiar yard; but the place was
+so ruined that I hardly recognized it. Not a panel of fence remained:
+the lawn was a great pool of slime; the windlass had been wrenched from
+the well; a few gashed and expiring soldiers lay motionless beneath the
+oaks, the fields were littered with the remains of camps, and the old
+dwelling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> stood like a haunted thing upon a blighted plain. The idlers,
+the teamsters, and the tents were gone,&mdash;all was silence,&mdash;and in the
+little front porch sat Mrs. Michie, weeping; the old gentleman stared at
+the desolation with a working face, and two small yellow lads lay
+dolorously upon the steps. They all seemed to brighten up as I appeared
+at the gate, and when I staggered from my horse, both of them took my
+hands. I think that tears came into all our eyes at once, and the little
+Ethiops fairly bellowed.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," I said, falteringly, "I see how you have suffered, and
+sympathize with you, from my heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Our beautiful property is ruined," said Mrs. Michie, welling up.</p>
+
+<p>"Yer's five years of labor,&mdash;my children's heritage,&mdash;the home of our
+old age,&mdash;look at it!"</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman stood up gravely, and cast his eyes mournfully around.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nobody to accuse," he said; "my grief is too deep for any hate.
+This is war!"</p>
+
+<p>"What will the girls say when they come back?" was the mother's next
+sob; "they loved the place: do you think they will know it?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not know how to reply. They retained my hands, and for a moment
+none of us spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think, Mr. Townsend," said the chivalrous old gentleman again,
+"that we like you less because some of your country people have stripped
+us. Mother, where is the gruel you made for him?"</p>
+
+<p>The good lady, expecting my return, had prepared some nourishing chicken
+soup, and directly she produced it. I think she took heart when I ate so
+plentifully, and we all spoke hopefully again. Their kindness so touched
+me, that as the evening came quietly about us, lengthening the shadows,
+and I knew that I must depart, I took both their hands again, doubtful
+what to say.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends,&mdash;may I say, almost my parents? for you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> have been as
+kind,&mdash;good by! In a day, perhaps, you will be with your children again.
+Richmond will be open to you. You may freely go and come. Be comforted
+by these assurances. And when the war is over,&mdash;God speed the time!&mdash;we
+may see each other under happier auspices."</p>
+
+<p>"Good by!" said Mr. Michie; "if I have a house at that time, you shall
+be welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Good by," said Mrs. Michie; "tell your mother that a strange lady in
+Virginia took good care of you when you were sick."</p>
+
+<p>I waved a final adieu, vaulted down the lane, and the wood gathered its
+solemn darkness about me. When I emerged upon Savage's fields, a
+succession of terrible explosions shook the night, and then the flames
+flared up, at points along the railroad. They were blowing up the
+locomotives and burning the cars. At the same hour, though I could not
+see it, White House was wrapped in fire, and the last sutler, teamster,
+and cavalry-man had disappeared from the shores of the Pamunkey.</p>
+
+<p>I tossed through another night of fever, in the captain's tent of the
+Sturgis Rifles,&mdash;McClellan's body guard. And somehow, again, I dreamed
+fitfully of the unburied corpses on the field of Gaines's Mill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BATTLE SUNDAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the dim of the morning of our Lord's Sabbath, the twenty-ninth of
+June, 1862, I sat in my saddle at Savage's. The gloom was very
+cheerless. A feeling of hopeless vagabondism oppressed me. I remembered
+the Disinherited Knight, the Wandering Jew, Robinson Crusoe, and other
+poor errants in the wide world, and wondered if any of them ever looked
+so ruefully as I, when the last wagon of the Grand Army disappeared
+through the shadow.</p>
+
+<p>The tent had been taken down at midnight. I had been dozing in the
+saddle, with parched lips and throbbing temples, waiting for my comrade.
+Head-quarters had been intending to move, without doing it, for four
+hours, and he informed me that it was well to stay with the Commanding
+General, as the Commanding General kept out of danger, and also kept in
+provisions. I was sick and petulant, and finally quarrelled with my
+friend. He told me, quietly, that I would regret my harshness when I
+should be well again. I set off for White Oak, but repented at "Burnt
+Chimneys," and turned back. In the misty dawn I saw the maimed still
+lying on the ground, wrapped in relics of blankets, and in one of the
+outhouses a grim embalmer stood amid a family of nude corpses. He dealt
+with the bodies of high officers only; for, said he&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I used to be glad to prepare private soldiers. They were wuth a five
+dollar bill apiece. But, Lord bless you, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> Colonel pays a hundred, and
+a Brigadier-General two hundred. There's lots of them now, and I have
+cut the acquaintance of everything below a Major. I might," he added,
+"as a great favor, do a Captain, but he must pay a Major's price. I
+insist upon that! Such windfalls don't come every day. There won't be
+another such killing for a century."</p>
+
+<p>A few horsemen of the escort loitered around head-quarters. All the
+tents but one had been removed, and the staff crouched sleepily upon the
+refuse straw. The rain began to drizzle at this time, and I unbuckled a
+blanket to wrap about my shoulders. Several people were lying upon dry
+places, here and there, and espying some planks a little remote, I tied
+my horse to a peach-tree, and stretched myself languidly upon my back.
+The bridal couch or the throne were never so soft as those knotty
+planks, and the drops that fell upon my forehead seemed to cool my
+fever.</p>
+
+<p>I had passed into a sort of cognizant sleep when a harsh, loud, cruel
+voice awakened me, and I seemed to see a great Polyphemus, stretching
+his hands into the clouds, and gaping like an earthquake.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy," I heard him say, to a slight figure, near at hand, "boy, what are
+you standing there for? What in &mdash;&mdash; do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, and go, &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; you! Take it, and go!"</p>
+
+<p>I peeped timorously from my place, and recognized the Provost-General of
+the Grand Army. He had been sleeping upon a camp chest, and did not
+appear to be refreshed thereby.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel sulky as &mdash;&mdash;!" he said to an officer adjoining; "I feel &mdash;&mdash;
+bad-humored! Orderly!"</p>
+
+<p>"General!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose horses are these?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, General!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>"Cut every &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; one of 'em loose. Wake up these &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; loafers
+with the point of your sabre! Every &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; one of 'em! That's what I
+call &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;boldness!"</p>
+
+<p>He strutted off like the great Bomba or the Czar, and I thought I never
+beheld a more exceptional person in any high position.</p>
+
+<p>With a last look at Savage's white house, the abandoned wretches in the
+lawn, the blood-red hospital flag, the torn track and smouldering cars,
+I turned my face southward, crossed some bare plains, that had once been
+fields, and at eight o'clock passed down the Williamsburg road, toward
+Bottom Bridge. The original roadway was now a bottomless stretch of
+sand, full of stranded wheels, dead horses, shreds of blankets,
+discarded haversacks, and mounds of spilled crackers. Other routes for
+wagons had been opened across fields, over bluffs, around pits and bogs,
+and through thickets and woods. The whole country was crossed with
+deeply-rutted roads, as if some immense city had been lifted away, and
+only its interminably sinuous streets remained. Near Burnt Chimneys, a
+creek crossing the road made a ravine, and here I overtook the hindmost
+of the wagons. They had been stalled in the gorge, and a provost guard
+was hurrying the laggard teamsters. The creek was muddy beyond
+comparison, and at the next hill-top I passed "Burnt Chimneys," a few
+dumb witnesses that pointed to heaven. A mile or two further, I came to
+some of the retreating regiments, and also to five of the siege
+thirty-twos with which Richmond was to have been bombarded. The main
+army still lay back at their entrenchments to cover the retreat, and at
+ten o'clock I heard the roar of field guns; the pursuit had commenced,
+and the Confederates were pouring over the ramparts at Fairoaks. I did
+not go back; battles were of no consequence to me. I wanted some
+breakfast. If I could only obtain a cup of warm coffee and a fragment of
+meat, I thought that I might recover strength. But nothing could be
+obtained anywhere, for money or charity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> The soldiers that I passed
+looked worn and hungry, for their predecessors had swept the country
+like herds of locusts; but one cheerful fellow, whom I addressed,
+produced a lump of fat pork that I tried to eat, but made a signal
+failure. All my baggage had been left at Michie's, where it remains to
+this moment. None cared to be hospitable to correspondents at this
+despondent hour, and a horrible idea of starvation took possession of my
+mind. A mile from White Oak Swamp, some distance back of the road, lay
+the Engineer Brigade. They were now on the eve of breaking camp, and
+when I reached Colonel McCloud Murphy's, his chests were packed, and all
+his provisions had gone ahead. He gave me, however, a couple of hard
+crackers and a draught of whiskey and quinine, whereby I rallied for a
+moment. At General Woodbury's I observed a middle-aged lady, making her
+toilet by a looking-glass hung against the tent-pole. She seemed as
+careful of her personal appearance, in this trying time, as if she had
+been at some luxurious court. There were several women on the retreat,
+and though the guns thundered steadily behind, they were never flurried,
+but could have received company, or accepted offers of marriage, with
+the utmost complacency. If there was any one that rouged, I am sure that
+no personal danger would have disturbed her while she heightened her
+roses; and she would have tied up her back hair in defiance of shell or
+grape.</p>
+
+<p>At Casey's ancient head-quarters, on the bluff facing White Oak Swamp, I
+found five correspondents. We fraternized immediately, and they all
+pooh-poohed the battle, as such an old story that it would be absurd to
+ride back to the field. We knew, however, that it was occurring at Peach
+Orchard, on a part of the old ground at Fairoaks. These gentlemen were
+in rather despondent moods, and there was one who opined that we were
+all to be made prisoners of war. In his own expressive way of putting
+it, we were to be "gobbled up." This person was stout and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> inclined to
+panting and perspiration. He wore glasses upon a most pugnacious nose,
+and his large, round head was covered with short, bristly, jetty hair.</p>
+
+<p>"I promised my wife," said this person, who may be called Cindrey, "to
+stay at home after the Burnside business. The Burnside job was very
+nearly enough for me. In fact I should have quite starved on the
+Burnside job, if I hadn't took the fever. And the fever kept me so busy
+that I forgot how hungry I was. So I lived over that."</p>
+
+<p>At this point he took off his glasses and wiped his face; the water was
+running down his cheeks like a miniature cataract, and his great neck
+seemed to emit jets of perspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he continued, "the Burnside job wasn't enough for me; I must
+come out again. I must follow the young Napoleon. And the young Napoleon
+has made a pretty mess of it. I never expect to get home any more; I
+know I shall be gobbled up!"</p>
+
+<p>A youngish, oldish, oddish fellow, whom they called "Pop," here told Mr.
+Cindrey to keep his pulse up and take a drink. A tall, large person, in
+semi-quaker garb, who did not look unlike George Fox, run to seed, said,
+with a flourish, that these battles were nothing to Shiloh. He was
+attached to the provincial press, and had been with the army of the West
+until recently. Without any exception, he was the "fussiest," most
+impertinent, most disagreeable man that I ever knew. He always made a
+hero of himself in his reports, and if I remember rightly, their
+headings ran after this fashion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Tremendous Battle at</i> <span class="smcap">Roanoke</span>! <i>The Correspondent of</i> <span class="smcap">the Blunderbuss</span>
+<i>hoists the</i> <span class="smcap">National Flag</span> above the REBEL RAMPARTS!!!" or again&mdash;<i>Grand
+Victory at</i> <span class="smcap">Shiloh</span>! <i>Mr. Twaddle, our Special Correspondent</i>, TAKEN
+PRISONER!!! <i>He</i> <span class="smcap">ESCAPES</span>!!! <i>He is</i> <span class="smcap">FIRED UPON</span>!!! <i>He wriggles through</i>
+<span class="smcap">FOUR SWAMPS</span> and SEVEN HOSTILE CAMPS! <i>He is</i> <span class="smcap">AGAIN CAPTURED</span>! <i>He</i>
+STRANGLES <i>the sentry</i>! <i>He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> drinks the Rebel Commander, Philpot</i>,
+BLIND! <i>Philpot gives him</i> <span class="smcap">THE PASSWORD</span>!!
+<img src="images/finger.gif" width="30" height="13" alt="Right pointing hand" title="" />
+<i>Philpot compliments the Blunderbuss.</i>
+<img src="images/fingerl.gif" width="30" height="13" alt="Left pointing hand" title="" />
+ OUR <i>Correspondent gains the Gunboats</i>! <i>He is</i> <span class="smcap">TAKEN ABOARD</span>! <i>His
+welcome!</i> <i>Description of</i> HIS BOOTS! <i>Remarks, etc.</i>, <span class="smcap">ETC.</span>, ETC!!!"</p>
+
+<p>This man was anxious to regulate not only his own newspaper, but he
+aspired to control the entire press. And his self adulation was
+incessant. He rung all the changes upon Shiloh. Every remark suggested
+some incident of Shiloh. He was a thorough Shilohite, and I regretted in
+my heart that the "Rebels" had not shut him away at Shiloh, that he
+might have enjoyed it to the end of his days.</p>
+
+<p>The man "Pop" produced some apple whiskey, and we repaired to a spring,
+at the foot of the hill, where the man "Pop" mixed a cold punch, and we
+drank in rotation. I don't think that Cindrey enjoyed his draught, for
+it filtered through his neck as if he had sprung a leak there; but the
+man Twaddle might have taken a tun, and, as the man "Pop" said, the
+effect would have been that of "pouring whiskey through a knot-hole." It
+was arranged among our own reporters, that I, being sick, should be the
+first of the staff to go to New York. The man "Pop" said jocosely, that
+I might be allowed to die in the bosom of my family. The others gave me
+their notes and lists, but none could give me what I most needed,&mdash;a
+morsel of food. At eleven o'clock our little party crossed White Oak
+Creek. There was a corduroy bridge upon which the teams travelled, and a
+log bridge of perilous unsteadiness for foot passengers. But the
+soldiers were fording the stream in great numbers, and I plunged my
+horse into the current so that he spattered a group of fellows, and one
+of them lunged at me with a bayonet. Beyond the creek and swamp, on the
+hillsides, baggage wagons and batteries were parked in immense numbers.
+The troops were taking positions along the edge of the bottom, to oppose
+incursions of the enemy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> when they attempted pursuit, and I was told
+that the line extended several miles westward, to New Market Cross
+Roads, where, it was thought, the Confederates would march out from
+Richmond to offer battle. The roadway, beyond the swamp, was densely
+massed with horse, foot, cannon, and teams. The latter still kept toward
+the James, but the nags suffered greatly from lack of corn. Only
+indispensable material had been hauled from the Chickahominy, and the
+soldiers who fought the ensuing protracted battles were exhausted from
+hunger. Everything had an uncomfortable, transient, expectant
+appearance, and the feeble people that limped toward the <i>ultima thule</i>
+looked fagged and wretched.</p>
+
+<p>There were some with balls in the groin, thigh, leg, or ankle, that made
+the whole journey, dropping blood at every step. They were afraid to lie
+down, as the wounded limbs might then grow rigid and stop their
+progress. While I pitied these maimed persons, I held the sick in
+greater sympathy. The troubles of the one were local; the others were
+pained in every bone. Bullets are fearful tenants, but fevers are worse.
+And some of the flushed, staggering folk, that reeled along the
+roadside, were literally out of their minds. They muttered and talked
+incoherently, and shouted ribald songs till my blood curdled to see
+them. At the first house on the right of the road, a half-mile past the
+Creek, I noticed many idle soldiers climbing the white palings, to watch
+something that lay in the yard. A gray-haired man was expiring, under
+the coolness of a spreading tree, and he was even now in the closing
+pangs. A comrade at his side bathed his brow with cool water, but I saw
+that he would shortly be with Lazarus or Dives. His hands were stretched
+stiffly by his sides, his feet were rigidly extended, and death was
+hardening into his bleached face. The white eyeballs glared sightlessly
+upward: he was looking into the other world.</p>
+
+<p>The heat at this time was so intolerable that our party,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> in <i>lieu</i> of
+any other place of resort, resolved to go to the woods. The sun set in
+heaven like a fiery furnace, and we sweat at every pore. I was afraid,
+momentarily, of sunstroke, and my horse was bathed in foam. Some
+companies of cavalry were sheltered in the edges of the woods, and,
+having secured our nags, we penetrated the depths, and spread out our
+blankets that we might lie down. But no breath of air stirred the
+foliage. The "hot and copper sky" found counterpart in the burning
+earth, and innumerable flies and insects fastened their fangs in our
+flesh. Cindrey was upon the rack, and it seemed to me that he possessed
+a sort of capillary perspiration, for the drops stood at tips of each
+separate bristle. He appeared to be passing from the solid to the fluid
+state, and I said, ungenerously, that the existing temperature was his
+liquifying point.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the man "Pop," with a youngish, oldish smile, "we may as
+well liquor up."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't drink!" said Twaddle, with a flourish. "During all the perilous
+hours of Shiloh, I abstained. But I am willing to admit, in respect to
+heat, that Shiloh is nowhere at present. And, therefore, I drink with a
+protest."</p>
+
+<p>"No man can drink from my bottle, with a protest," said "Pop." "It isn't
+regular, and implies coercion. Now I don't coerce anybody, particularly
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Twaddle, drinking like a fish, or, as "Pop" remarked, enough
+to float a gunboat; "oh! we often chaffed each other at Shiloh."</p>
+
+<p>"If you persist in reminding me of Shiloh," blurted Cindrey, "you'll be
+the ruin of me,&mdash;you and the heat and the flies. You'll have me
+dissolving into a dew."</p>
+
+<p>Here he wiped his forehead, and killed a large blue fly, that was
+probing his ear. We all resolved to go to sleep, and Twaddle said that
+<i>he</i> slept like a top, in the heat of action, at Shiloh. "Pop" asked
+him, youngishly, to be kind enough to capture no redoubts while we
+slumbered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> and not to raise the national flag over any ramparts for
+fifteen minutes. Then he grinned oldishly, and commenced to snore, with
+his flask in his bosom. I am certain that nobody ever felt a tithe of
+the pain, hunger, heat, and weariness, which agonized me, when I awoke
+from a half-hour's sweltering nap. My clothing was soaking with water; I
+was almost blind; somebody seemed to be sawing a section out of my head;
+my throat was hot and crackling; my stomach knew all the pangs of
+emptiness; I had scarcely strength to motion away the pertinacious
+insects. A soldier gave me a trifle of boiling water from his canteen;
+but I gasped for air; we were living in a vacuum. Sahara could not have
+been so fierce and burning. Two of us started off to find a spring. We
+made our way from shade to shade, expiring at every step, and finally,
+at the base of the hill, on the brink of the swamp, discovered a rill of
+tepid water, that evaporated before it had trickled a hundred yards. If
+a sleek and venomous water-snake&mdash;for there were thousands of them
+hereabout&mdash;had coiled in the channel, I would still have sucked the
+draught, bending down as I did. Then I bethought me of my pony. He had
+neither been fed nor watered for twenty hours, and I hastened to obtain
+him from his place along the woodside. To my terror, he was gone.
+Forgetful of my weakness, I passed rapidly, hither and thither,
+inquiring of cavalry-men, and entertaining suspicions of every person in
+the vicinity. Finally, I espied him in charge of a rough, thievish
+sabreman, who affected not to see me. I went up to the animal, and
+pulled the reins from his shoulder, to discover the brand mark,&mdash;"U. S."
+As I surmised, he had not been branded, and I turned indignantly upon
+the fellow:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My friend, how came you by this horse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quartermaster!" said the man, guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>"No sir! He belongs to me. Take off that cavalry-saddle, and find mine,
+immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if the court knows itself," said the man&mdash;"and it thinks it do!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then," said I, white with rage, "I shall report you at once, for
+theft."</p>
+
+<p>"You may, if you want to," replied the man, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>I struck off at once for the new Provost Quarters, at a farm-house,
+close by. The possible failure to regain my animal, filled me with
+rueful thoughts. How was I, so dismounted, to reach the distant river? I
+should die, or starve, on the way. I thought I should faint, when I came
+to the end of the first field, and leaned, tremblingly, against a tree.
+I caught myself sobbing, directly, like a girl, and my mind ran upon the
+coolness of my home with my own breezy bedroom, soft paintings, and
+pleasant books. These themes tortured me with a consciousness of my
+folly. I had forsaken them for the wickednesses of this unhappy
+campaign. And my body was to blacken by the road-side,&mdash;the sable birds
+of prey were to be my mourners.</p>
+
+<p>But, looking through my tears, a moving something passed between me and
+the sky. A brownish bay pony, trailing a fence-rail by his halter, and
+browsing upon patches of oats. I whistled thrice and the faithful animal
+trotted to my feet, and extended his great nose to be rubbed. I believe
+that this horse was the only living thing in the army that sympathized
+with me. He knew that I was sick, and I thought once, that, like the
+great dogs of Saint Bernard, he was about to get upon his knees, that I
+might the more readily climb upon his back. He did, however, stand
+quietly, while I mounted, and I gave him a drink at the foot of the
+hill. Returning, I saw the soldier, wrongfully accused, eyeing me from
+his haunt beneath the trees. I at once rode over to him, and apologized
+for my mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said the man, complacently. "You was all right. I might a
+done the same thing. Fact is," he added, "I did hook this hoss, but I
+knew you wan't the party."</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the day I travelled disconsolately, up and down the
+road, winding in and out of the lines of teams.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was assured that it would be impossible to get to the James till next
+day, as no portion of that army had yet advanced so far. The moody
+minutes of that afternoon made the longest part of my life, while the
+cannon at Peach Orchard and Savage's, roared and growled incessantly.
+Toward the close of the day I fell in with Captain Hill, of the New York
+Saratoga regiment, who gave me the outline of the fight.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederates had discovered that we were falling back, by means of a
+balloon, of home manufacture,&mdash;the first they had been able to employ
+during the entire war. They appeared at our entrenchments on Sunday
+morning, and finding them deserted, commenced an irregular pursuit,
+whereby, they received terrible volleys of musketry from ambuscaded
+regiments, and retired, in disorder, to the ramparts. This was the
+battle of "Peach Orchard," and was disastrous to the Southerners. In the
+afternoon, they again essayed to advance, but more cautiously. The
+Federals, meantime, lay in order of battle upon Savage's, Dudley's, and
+Crouch's farms, their right resting on the Chickahominy, their centre on
+the railroad, and their left beyond the Williamsburg turnpike. For a
+time, an artillery contest ensued, and the hospitals at Savage's, where
+the wounded lay, were thrice fired upon. The Confederates finally
+penetrated the dense woods that belted this country, and the battle, at
+nightfall, became fervid and sanguinary. The Federals held their ground
+obstinately, and fell back, covered by artillery, at midnight. The woods
+were set on fire, in the darkness, and conflagration painted fiery
+terrors on the sky. The dead, littered all the fields and woods. The
+retreating army had marked its route with corpses. This was the battle
+of "Savage's," and neither party has called it a victory.</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the night the weary fugitives were crossing White Oak
+Creek and Swamp. Toward daybreak, the last battery had accomplished the
+passage; the bridge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> was destroyed; and preparations were made to
+dispute the pursuit in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>I noted these particulars and added to my lists of dead and captured. At
+dusk I was about to sleep, supperless, upon the bare ground, when my
+patron, Colonel Murphy, again came in sight, and invited me to occupy a
+shelter-tent, on the brow of the hill at White Oak. To my great joy, he
+was able to offer me some stewed beef, bread and butter, and hot coffee.
+I ate voraciously, seizing the food in my naked fingers, and rending it
+like a beast.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment of Colonel Murphy was composed of laborers, and artificers
+of every possible description. There were blacksmiths, moulders, masons,
+carpenters, boat-builders, joiners, miners, machinists, riggers, and
+rope-makers. They could have bridged the Mississippi, rebuilt the
+Tredegar works, finished the Tower of Babel, drained the Chesapeake,
+constructed the Great Eastern, paved Broadway, replaced the Grand Trunk
+railroad, or tunnelled the Straits of Dover. I have often thought that
+the real greatness of the Northern army lay in its ingenuity and
+industry, not in its military qualifications.</p>
+
+<p>Our conversation turned upon these matters, as we sat before the
+Colonel's tent in the evening, and a Chaplain represented the feelings
+of the North in this manner: "We must whip them. We have got more money,
+more men, more ships, more ingenuity. They are bound to knuckle at last.
+If we have to lose man for man with them, their host will die out before
+ours. And we wont give up the Union,&mdash;not a piece of it big enough for a
+bird or a bee to cover,&mdash;though we reduce these thirty millions one
+half, and leave only the women and children to inherit the land." The
+heart of the army was now cast down, though a large portion of the
+soldiers did not know why we were falling back. I heard moody,
+despondent, accusing mutterings, around the camp-fires, and my own mind
+was full of grief and bitterness. It seemed that our old flag had
+descended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> to a degenerate people. It was not now, as formerly, a proud
+recollection that I was an American. If I survived the retreat, it would
+become my mission to herald the evil tidings through the length and
+breadth of the land. If I fainted in their pursuit, a loathsome prison,
+or a grave in the trenches, were to be my awards. When I lay down in a
+shelter-tent, rolling from side to side, I remembered that this was the
+Sabbath day. A battle Sabbath! How this din and slaughter contrasted
+with my dear old Lord's days in the prayerful parsonage! The chimes in
+the white spire, where the pigeons cooed in the hush of the singing,
+were changed to cannon peals; and the boys that dozed in the "Amen
+corner," were asleep forever in the trampled grain-fields. The good
+parson, whose clauses were not less truthful, because spoken through his
+nose, now blew the loud trumpet for the babes he had baptized, to join
+the Captains of fifties and thousands; and while the feeble old women in
+the side pews made tremulous responses to the prayer for "thy soldiers
+fighting in thy cause," the banners of the Republic were craped, dusty,
+and bloody, and the scattered regiments were resting upon their arms for
+the shock of the coming dawn.</p>
+
+<p>Thus I thought, tossing and talking through the long watches, and toward
+morning, when sleep brought fever-dreams, a monstrous something leered
+at me from the blackness, saying, in a sort of music&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Gobbled up! Gobbled up!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY THE RIVERSIDE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A crash and a stunning shock, as of a falling sphere, aroused me at nine
+o'clock. A shell had burst in front of our tent, and the enemy's
+artillery was thundering from Casey's old hill, beyond the swamp. As I
+hastily drew on my boots,&mdash;for I had not otherwise undressed,&mdash;I had
+opportunity to remark one of those unaccountable panics which develop
+among civilian soldiers. The camps were plunged into disorder. As the
+shells dropped here and there, among the tents and teams, the wildest
+and most fearful deeds were enacted. Here a caisson blew up, tearing the
+horses to pieces, and whirling a cannoneer among the clouds. There an
+ammunition wagon exploded, and the air seemed to be filled with
+fragments of wood, iron, and flesh. A boy stood at one of the fires,
+combing out his matted hair; suddenly his head flew off, spattering the
+brains, and the shell&mdash;which we could not see&mdash;exploded in a piece of
+woods, mutilating the trees. The effect upon the people around me was
+instantaneous and appalling. Some, that were partially dressed, took to
+their heels, hugging a medley of clothing. The teamsters climbed into
+the saddles, and shouted to their nags, whipping them the while. If the
+heavy wheels hesitated to revolve, they left horses and vehicles to
+their fate, taking themselves to the woods; or, as in some cases, cut
+traces and harness, and galloped away like madmen. In a twinkling our
+camps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> were almost deserted, and the fields, woods, and roads were alive
+with fugitives, rushing, swearing, falling, and trampling, while the
+fierce bolts fell momentarily among them, making havoc at every rod.</p>
+
+<p>To join this flying, dying mass was my first impulse; but after-thought
+reminded me that it would be better to remain. I must not leave my
+horse, for I could not walk the whole long way to the James, and the
+fever had so reduced me that I hardly cared to keep the little life
+remaining. I almost marvelled at my coolness; since, in the fulness of
+strength and health, I should have been one of the first of the
+fugitives; whereas, I now looked interestedly upon the exciting
+spectacle, and wished that it could be daguerreotyped.</p>
+
+<p>Before our artillery could be brought to play, the enemy, emboldened at
+his success, pushed a column of infantry down the hill, to cross the
+creek, and engage us on our camping-ground. For a time I believed that
+he would be successful, and in that event, confusion and ruin would have
+overtaken the Unionists. The gray and butternut lines appeared over the
+brow of the hill,&mdash;they wound at double quick through the narrow
+defile,&mdash;they poured a volley into our camps when half-way down, and
+under cover of the smoke they dashed forward impetuously, with a loud
+huzza. The artillery beyond them kept up a steady fire, raining shell,
+grape, and canister over their heads, and ploughing the ground on our
+side, into zigzag furrows,&mdash;rending the trees, shattering the
+ambulances, tearing the tents to tatters, slaying the horses, butchering
+the men. Directly Captain Mott's battery was brought to bear; but before
+he could open fire, a solid shot struck one of his twelve-pounders,
+breaking the trunnion and splintering the wheels. In like manner one of
+his caissons blew up, and I do not think that he was able to make any
+practise whatever. A division of infantry was now marched forward, to
+engage the Confederates at the creek side; but two of the
+regi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>ments&mdash;and I think that one was the 20th New York&mdash;turned bodily,
+and could not be rallied. The moment was full of significance, and I
+beheld these failures with breathless suspense. In five minutes the
+pursuers would gain the creek, and in ten, drive our dismayed
+battalions, like chaff before the wind. I hurried to my horse, that I
+might be ready to escape. The shell and ball still made music around me.
+I buckled up my saddle with tremulous fingers, and put my foot upon the
+stirrup. But a cheer recalled me and a great clapping of hands, as at
+some clever performance in the amphitheatre. I looked again. A battery
+from our position across the road, had opened upon the Confederate
+infantry, as they reached the very brink of the swamp. For a moment the
+bayonets tossed wildly, the dense column staggered like a drunken man,
+the flags rose and fell, and then the line fell back disorderly. At that
+instant a body of Federal infantry, that I had not seen, appeared, as by
+invocation; their steel fell flashingly, a column of smoke enveloped
+them, the hills and skies seemed to split asunder with the shock,&mdash;and
+when I looked again, the road was strewn with the dying and dead; the
+pass had been defended.</p>
+
+<p>As the batteries still continued to play, and as the prospect of
+uninterrupted battle during the day was not a whit abated, I decided to
+resume my saddle, and, if possible, make my way to the James. The
+geography of the country, as I had deciphered it, satisfied me that I
+must pass "New Market," before I could rely upon my personal safety. New
+Market was a paltry cross-road's hamlet, some miles ahead, but as near
+to Richmond as White Oak Creek. The probabilities were, that the
+Confederates would endeavor to intercept us at this point, and so attack
+us in flank and rear. As I did not witness either of these battles,
+though I heard the discharge of every musket, it may be as well to
+state, in brief, that June 30 was marked by the bloodiest of all the
+Richmond struggles, excepting, possibly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> Gaines's Mill. While the
+Southern artillery engaged Franklin's corps, at White Oak Crossing, and
+their left made several unavailing attempts to ford the creek with
+infantry,&mdash;their entire right and centre, marched out the Charles City
+Road, and gave impetuous battle at New Market. The accounts and the
+results indicate that the Federals won the day at New Market, sheerly by
+good fighting. They were parching with thirst, weak with hunger, and it
+might have been supposed that reverses had broken their spirit. On the
+contrary they did not fall back a rod, during the whole day, and at
+evening Heintzelman's corps crowned their success by a grand charge,
+whereat the Confederates broke and were pursued three miles toward
+Richmond. The gunboats Galena and Aroostook, lying in the James at
+Turkey Bend, opened fire at three o'clock, and killed promiscuously,
+Federals and Confederates. But the Southern soldiers were superstitious
+as to gunboats, and they could not be made to approach within range of
+the Galena's monstrous projectiles.</p>
+
+<p>I shall always recall my journey from White Oak to Harrison's Bar, as
+marked by constantly increasing beauties of scenery, and terrors of
+event. At every hoof-fall I was leaving the low, boggy, sparsely settled
+Chickahominy region, for the high farm-lands of the James. The
+dwellings, as I progressed, became handsome; the negro quarters were
+less like huts and cattle-sheds; the ripe wheatfields stretched almost
+to the horizon; the lawns and lanes were lined with ancient shade-trees;
+there were picturesque gates and lodges; the fences were straight and
+whitewashed, there were orchards, heavy with crimson apples, where the
+pumpkins lay beneath, like globes of gold, in the rows of amber corn.
+Into this patriarchal and luxuriant country, the retreating army wound
+like a great devouring serpent. It was to me, the coming back of the
+beaten <i>jetters</i> through <i>Midgards</i>, or the repulse of the fallen angels
+from heaven, trampling down the river-sides of Eden.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> They rode their
+team-horses into the wavy wheat, and in some places, where the reapers
+had been at work, they dragged the sheaves from the stacks, and rested
+upon them. Hearing of the coming of the army, the proprietors had vainly
+endeavored to gather their crops, but the negroes would not work, and
+they had not modern implements, whereby to mow the grain rapidly. The
+profanation of those glorious stretches of corn and rye were to me some
+of the most melancholy episodes of the war. No mind can realize how the
+grain-fields used to ripple, when the fresh breezes blew up and down the
+furrows, and the hot suns of that almost tropical climate, had yielded
+each separate head till the whole landscape was like a bright cloud, or
+a golden sea. The tall, shapely stalks seemed to reach out imploringly,
+like sunny-haired virgins, waiting to be gathered into the arms of the
+farmer. They were the Sabine women, on the eve of the bridal, when the
+insatiate Romans tore them away and trampled them. The Indian corn was
+yet green, but so tall that the tasselled tops showed how cunningly the
+young ears were ripening. There were melons in the corn-rows, that a
+week would have developed, but the soldiers dashed them open and sucked
+the sweet water. They threw clubs at the hanging apples till the ground
+was littered with them, and the hogs came afield to gorge; they slew the
+hogs and divided the fresh pork among themselves. As I saw, in one
+place, dozens of huge German cavalry-men, asleep upon bundles of wheat,
+I recalled their Frankish forefathers, swarming down the Apennines, upon
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The air was so sultry during a part of the day, that one was constantly
+athirst. But there was a belt of country, four miles or more in width,
+where there seemed to be neither rills nor wells. Happily, the roads
+were, in great part, enveloped in stately timber, and the shade was very
+grateful to men and horses. The wounded still kept with us, and many
+that were fevered. They did not complain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> with words; but their red eyes
+and painful pace told all the story. If we came to rivulets, they used
+to lie upon their bellies, along the margins, with their heads in the
+flowing water. The nags were so stiff and hot, that, when they were
+reined into creeks, they refused to go forward, and my brown animal once
+dropped upon his knees, and quietly surveyed me, as I pitched upon my
+hands, floundering in the pool. I remember a stone dairy, such as are
+found upon Pennsylvania grazing farms, where I stopped to drink. It lay
+up a lane, some distance from the road, and two enormous tulip poplar
+trees sheltered and half-concealed it. A tiny creek ran through the
+dairy, over cool granite slabs, and dozens of earthen milk-bowls lay in
+the water, with the mould of the cream brimming at the surface. A pewter
+drinking-mug hung to a peg at the side, and there were wooden spoons for
+skimming, straining pails, and great ladles of gourd and cocoanut. A
+cooler, tidier, trimmer dairy, I had not seen, and I stretched out my
+body upon the dry slabs, to drink from one of the milk-bowls. The cream
+was sweet, rich, and nourishing, and I was so absorbed directly, that I
+did not heed the footfalls of a tall, broad, vigorous man, who said in a
+quiet way, but with a deep, sonorous voice, and a decided Northern
+twang&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, you might take the mug. Some of your comrades will want to
+drink from that bowl."</p>
+
+<p>I begged his pardon hastily, and said that I supposed he was the
+proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon that I must give over my ownership, while the army hangs
+around here," said the man; "but I must endure what I can't cure."</p>
+
+<p>Here he smiled grimly, and reached down the pewter cup. Then he bent
+over a fresh bowl, and dexterously dipped the cup full of milk, without
+seeming to break the cream.</p>
+
+<p>"Drink that," he said; "and if there's any better milk in these parts, I
+want to know the man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He looked at me critically, while I emptied the vessel, and seemed to
+enjoy my heartiness.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had been smart enough to come this way, victorious," added the
+man, straightforwardly, "instead of being out-generalled, whipped, and
+driven, I should enjoy the loss of my property a great deal more!"</p>
+
+<p>There was an irresistible heartiness in his tone and manner. He had,
+evidently, resolved to bear the misfortunes of war bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a Northern man?" I said, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no such dairies in Virginia; a Virginian never dipped a mug
+of milk after your fashion; you haven't the Virginia inflection, and
+very weak Virginia principles."</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed dryly, and filled himself a cup, which he drank
+sedately.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you are correct," he said; "pretty much correct, any way. I'm
+a New Yorker, from the Mohawk Valley, and I have been showing these
+folks how they can't farm. If there's anybody that farms better than I
+do, I want to know the man!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the flowing water, the clean slabs and walls, the shining
+tins, and smacked his lips satisfactorily. I asked him if he farmed with
+negroes, and if the prejudices of the country affected either his social
+or industrial interests. He answered that he was obliged to employ
+negroes, as he had thrice tried the experiment of working with whites,
+but with ill success.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> would have kept 'em," he added, in his great voice, closing a
+prodigious fist, "but the men would not stay. I couldn't make the
+neighbors respect them. There was nobody for 'em to associate with. They
+were looked upon as niggers, and they got to feel it after a while. So I
+have had only niggers latterly; but I get more work from them than any
+other man in these parts. If there's anybody that gets more work out of
+niggers than I do, I want to know the man!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a sort of hard, hearty defiance about him, typical of his
+severe, angular race, and I studied his large limbs and grim, full face
+with curious admiration. He told me that he hired his negro hands from
+the surrounding slave-owners, and that he gave them premiums upon excess
+of work, approximating to wages. In this way they were encouraged to
+habits of economy, perseverance, and sprightliness.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't own a nigger," he said, "not one! But I don't think a nigger's
+much too good to be a slave. I won't be bothered with owning 'em. And I
+won't be conquered into 'the institution.' I said, when I commenced,
+that I should not buy niggers, and I won't buy niggers, because I said
+so! As to social disadvantages, every Northern man has 'em here. They
+called me an abolitionist; and a fellow at the hotel in Richmond did so
+to my face. I knocked him into a heap, and nobody has meddled with me
+since." "Of course," he said, after a moment, "it won't do to inflame
+these people. These people are like my bulls, and you mustn't shake a
+red stick at 'em. Besides, I'm not a fanatic. I never was. My wife's one
+of these people, and I let her think as she likes. But, if there's
+anybody in these parts that wants to interfere with me, I should like to
+know the man!"</p>
+
+<p>The contemptuous tone in which he mentioned "these people" amused me
+infinitely, and I believed that his resolute, indomitable manner would
+have made him popular in any society. He was shrewd, withal, and walked
+beside me to his gate. When the regiments halted to rest, by the
+wayside, he invited the field officers to the dairy, and so obtained
+guards to rid him of depredators. He would have escaped very handsomely,
+but the hand of war was not always so merciful, and a part of the battle
+of Malvern Hills was fought upon his property. I have no doubt that he
+submitted unflinchingly, and sat more stolidly amid the wreck than old
+Marius in battered Carthage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Until two o'clock in the afternoon I rode leisurely southward, under a
+scorching sky, but still bearing up, though aflame with fever. The guns
+thundered continuously behind, and the narrow roads were filled, all the
+way, with hurrying teams, cavalry, cannon, and foot soldiers. I stopped,
+a while, by a white frame church,&mdash;primly, squarely built,&mdash;and read the
+inscriptions upon the tombs uninterestedly. Some of the soldiers had
+pried open the doors, and a wounded Zouave was delivering a mock sermon
+from the pulpit. Some of his comrades broke up the meeting by singing&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and then a Major ordered them out, and put a guard upon the building.
+The guard played cards upon the door sills.</p>
+
+<p>I was frequently obliged, by the crowded state of the roads, to turn
+aside into woods, fens, and fields, and so make precarious progress.
+Sometimes I strayed, unwittingly, a good way from the army, and
+recovered the route with difficulty. On one of these occasions, I was
+surprised by a person in civil dress, who seemed to shoot up out of the
+ground. He was the queerest, grimmest, fearfulest man that I have ever
+known, and, at first, I thought that the arch fiend had appeared before
+me. The wood was very deep here, and there were no wayfarers but we two.
+It was quite still; but now and then we heard the rumble of wagons, and
+the crack of teamster's whips. The man in question wore dead black
+beard, and his eyebrows were of the same intense, lustreless hue. So
+were his eyes and his hair; but the latter formed a circle or cowl
+around his head. He had a pale skin, his fingers, were long and bony,
+and he rode dexterously in and out, among the tree boles, with his hat
+in his hand. His horse was as black as himself, and, together, they made
+a half-brigandish, half-satanic appearance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I reined in sharply, when I saw this person, and he looked at me like
+the evil-eye, through his great owlish orbs.</p>
+
+<p>"Good day," he said, in profound basso, as low I think as "double G,"
+and when he opened his mouth, I saw that his teeth were very white.</p>
+
+<p>I saluted him gravely, and, not without a shudder, rode beside him. He
+proved to be a sort of Missionary, from the Evangelical religious
+denominations of the North, to inquire into the spiritual condition of
+the soldiers. Camps were full of such people, but I had not found any
+man who appeared to be less qualified for his vocation; to have such a
+figure at one's deathbed, would be like a foretaste of the great fiend.
+He had a fashion of working his scalp half way down to his eyes, as he
+spoke, and when he smiled,&mdash;though he never laughed aloud,&mdash;his
+eyelashes did not contract, as with most people, but rather expanded,
+till his eyeballs projected from his head. On such occasions, his white
+teeth were revealed like a row of fangs, and his leprous skin grew yet
+paler.</p>
+
+<p>"The army has not even the form of godliness," said this man. In the
+course of his remarks, he had discovered that I was a correspondent, and
+at once turned the conversation into a politico-religious channel.</p>
+
+<p>"The form of godliness is gone," said the man again in "double G." "This
+is a calamitous fact! I would it were not so! I grieve to state it! But
+inquiry into the fact, has satisfied me that the form of godliness does
+not exist. Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>When the man said "Ah!" I thought that my horse would run away, and
+really, the tone was like the deep conjuration in Hamlet:
+"<i>swear-r-r-r</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"For example," said the man, who told me that his name was Dimpdin,&mdash;"I
+made some remarks to the 1st New Jersey, on Sabbath week. The field
+officers directed the men to attend; I opened divine service with a
+feeling hymn; a very feeling hymn! A long measure hymn. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> Montgomery!
+I commenced earnestly in prayer. In appropriate prayer! I spoke
+advisedly for a short hour. What were the results? The deplorable
+results? There were men, sir, in that assembly, who went to sleep. To
+sleep!"</p>
+
+<p>He must have gone a great way below "double G," this time, and I did not
+see how he could get back. He drew his scalp quite down to the bridge of
+his nose, and, seeing that my horse pricked up his ears, timorously
+smiled like the idol of Baal.</p>
+
+<p>"There were men, sir, who did worse. Not simply failing to be hearers of
+the word! But doers of evil! Men who played cards during the service.
+Played cards! Gambled! Gambled! And some,&mdash;abandoned wretches!&mdash;who
+mocked me! Lifted up their voices and mocked! Mockers, gamblers,
+slumberers!"</p>
+
+<p>I never heard anything so awful as the man Dimpdin's voice, at the
+iteration of these three words. They seemed to come from the bowels of
+the earth, and rang through the wood like the growl of a lion. He told
+me that he was engaged upon a Memorial to the Evangelical Union, which
+should state the number of unconverted men in the ranks, and the number
+of castaways. He accredited the loss of the campaign to the prevailing
+wickedness, but was unwilling to admit that the Southern troops were
+more religious. His theory of reform, if I remember it, embraced the
+raising of Chaplains to the rank of Major, with proportionate pay and
+perquisites, the establishment of a military religious bureau, and a
+Chaplain-General with Aides. Each soldier, officer, teamster, and
+drummer-boy was to have a Testament in his knapsack, and services should
+be held on the eve of every battle, and at roll-call in the mornings.
+There was to be an inspection of Testaments as of muskets. For swearing,
+a certain sum should be subtracted from the soldier's pay, and conferred
+upon the Chaplains.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact," said Dimpdin, tragically,&mdash;scalping himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> meanwhile,&mdash;"the
+church must be recognized in every department, and if my Memorial be
+acted upon favorably, we shall have such victories, in three months, as
+will sweep Rebellion into the grave. Yes! Into the grave! The grave!"</p>
+
+<p>I was obliged to say, here, that my horse could not stand these
+sepulchral noises, and that my nerves, being shattered by the fever,
+were inadequate to bear the shock. So the man Dimpdin smiled, like a
+window-mummy, and contented himself with looking like Apollyon. We
+reached a rill directly, and he produced a wicker flask, with a
+Britannia drinking-case.</p>
+
+<p>"Young men love stimulating drinks," said Dimpdin,&mdash;"strong drinks!
+alcoholic drinks! Here is a portion of Monongahela! old Monongahela! We
+will refresh ourselves!"</p>
+
+<p>He found a lemon, accidentally, in his saddle-bag, and contrived an
+informal punch, with wonderful dexterity. I took a draught modestly, and
+he emptied the rest, with an "Ah!" that shook the woods.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered if the man Dimpdin would suggest the apportionment of flasks
+to soldiers, in his Evangelical report!</p>
+
+<p>He left me, when we regained the road, to ride with a lithe, bronchial
+person, in white neckcloth and coat cut close at the collar. They looked
+like the fox and the fiend, in the fable, and I seemed to hear the man
+Dimpdin's voice for three succeeding weeks.</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock, I climbed a gentle hill,&mdash;and I was now very weary and
+weak,&mdash;and from the summit, looked upon the river James, flowing far off
+to the right, through woods, and bluffs, and grainfields, and reedy
+islands. At last, I had gained the haven. The bright waters below me
+seemed to cool my red, fiery eyes, and a sort of blessed blindness fell
+for a time upon me, so that, when I looked again my lashes were wet. The
+prospect was truly beauti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>ful. Far to the west, standing out from the
+chalky bluffs, were scattered the white camps of Wise's Confederate
+brigade. Beyond, on the remote bank of the river, lay farm-lands, and
+stately mansions, and some one showed me, rising faintly in the
+distance, "Drury's Bluff," the site of Fort Darling, where the gunboats
+were repulsed in the middle of May. Below, in the river, lay the
+<i>Galena</i>, and a little way astern, the <i>Aroostook</i>. Signal-men, with
+flags, were elevated upon the masts of each, and the gunners stood upon
+the decks, as waiting some emergency. The vessels had steam up, and
+seemed to be ready for action at any moment. This was Grand Turkey Bend,
+and the rising ground on which I stood, was known as "Malvern Hills." A
+farm-house lay to my left, and repairing thither, I cast myself from the
+nag, and lay down in the shady yard, thankful that I had reached the
+haven, and only solicitous now to escape the further privations of
+McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>An earnest desire now took possession of me, to be the first of the
+correspondents to reach New York. The scenes just transpired had been
+unparalleled in the war, and if, through me, the &mdash;&mdash; should be the
+first to make them public, it would greatly redound to my credit.
+Perhaps no profession imparts an enthusiasm in any measure kindred to
+that of the American Newsgatherer. I was careless of the lost lives and
+imperilled interests, the suffering, the defeat: no emotions either of
+the patriot or the man influenced me. I only thought of the <i>eclat</i> of
+giving the story to the world, and nurtured an insane desire to make to
+Fortress Monroe, by some other than the common expedient. That this was
+a paltry ambition I know; but I write what happened, and to the
+completion of my sketch of a correspondent, this is necessary to be
+said. I found Glumley at the old mansion referred to, and stealthily
+suggested to him the seizing of an open boat, whereby we might row down
+to the Fortress. He rejected it as impracticable, but was willing to
+hazard a horseback ride down the Peninsula. I knew that this would not
+do, and after a short time I continued my journey down the riverside,
+hopeful of finding some transport or Despatch boat. I was now in Charles
+City County, and the river below me was dotted with woodland islands. I
+soon got upon the main road to Harrison's Point or Bar, and followed the
+stream of ambulances and supply teams for more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> an hour. At last we
+reached a diverging lane, through which we passed to a landing, close to
+a fine dwelling, whose style of architecture I may denominate, the
+"Gothic run mad." An old cider-press was falling into rottenness on the
+lawn; four soldiers were guarding the well, that the mob might not
+exhaust its precious contents, and between some negro-huts and the brink
+of the bluff, stood a cluster of broad-armed trees, beneath whose shade
+the ambulance-drivers were depositing the wounded.</p>
+
+<p>I have made these chapters sufficiently hideous, without venturing to
+transcribe these new horrors. Suffice it to say that the men whom I now
+beheld had been freshly brought from the fight of New Market, and were
+suffering the first agonies of their wounds. One hour before, they had
+felt all the lustiness of life and adventure. Now, they were whining
+like babes, and some had expired in the ambulances. The act of lifting
+them to the ground so irritated their wounds that they howled dismally,
+and yet were so exhausted that after lying upon the ground awhile, they
+quietly passed into sleep. Such are the hardening results of war, that
+some soldiers, who were unhurt, actually refused to give a trifle of
+river water from their canteens to their expiring comrades. At one time
+a brutal wrangle occurred at the well, and the guard was compelled to
+seek reinforcement, or the thirsty people would have massacred them.</p>
+
+<p>I was now momentarily adding to my notes of the battles, and the wounded
+men very readily gave me their names; for they were anxious that the
+account of their misfortunes should reach their families, and I think
+also, that some martial vanity lingered, even among those who were
+shortly to crumble away. A longboat came in from the Galena, after a
+time, and General McClellan, who had ridden down to the pier, was taken
+aboard. He looked to be very hot and anxious, and while he remained
+aboard the vessel, his staff dispersed themselves around the banks and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+talked over the issues of the contest. As the General receded from the
+strand, every sweep of the long oars was responded to from the hoarse
+cannon of the battle-field, and when he climbed upon deck, the steamer
+moved slowly up the narrow channel, and the signal-man in the foretop
+flourished his crossed flag sturdily. Directly, the <i>Galena</i> opened fire
+from her immense pieces of ordnance, and the roar was so great that the
+explosions of field-guns were fairly drowned. She fired altogether by
+the direction of the signals, as nothing could be seen of the
+battle-field from her decks. I ascertained afterward that she played
+havoc with our own columns as well as the enemy's, but she brought hope
+to the one, and terror to the other. The very name of gunboat affrighted
+the Confederates, and they were assured, in this case, that the
+retreating invaders, had at length reached a haven. The <i>Galena</i> kept up
+a steady fire till nightfall, and the Federals, taking courage, drove
+their adversaries toward Richmond, at eve. Meanwhile the Commanding
+General's escort and body-guard had encamped around us, and during the
+night the teams and much of the field cannon fell back. I obtained
+shelter and meals from Quartermaster Le Duke of Iowa, whose canvas was
+pitched a mile or more below, and as I tossed through the watches I
+heard the splashing of water in the river beneath, where the tired
+soldiers were washing away the powder of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I retraced to head-quarters, and vainly endeavored to
+learn something as to the means of going down the river. Commanders are
+always anxious to grant correspondents passes after a victory; but they
+wish to defer the unwelcome publication of a defeat. I was advised by
+Quartermaster-General Van Vliet, however, to proceed to Harrison's Bar,
+and, as I passed thither, the last day's encounters&mdash;those of "Malvern
+Hills"&mdash;occurred. The scenes along the way were reiterations of terrors
+already described,&mdash;creaking ambulances, staggering foot soldiers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+profane wagoners, skulking officers and privates, officious Provost
+guards, defiles, pools and steeps packed with teams and cannon, wayside
+houses beset with begging, gossiping, or malicious soldiers, and wavy
+fields of wheat and rye thrown open to man and beast. I was amused at
+one point, to see some soldiers attack a beehive that they might seize
+the honey. But the insects fastened themselves upon some of the
+marauders, and after indescribable cursing and struggling, the bright
+nectar and comb were relinquished by the toilers, and the ravishers
+gorged upon sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>Harrison's Bar is simply a long wharf, extending into the river, close
+by the famous mansion, where William Henry Harrison, a President of the
+United States, was born, and where, for two centuries, the scions of a
+fine old Virginia family have made their homestead. The house had now
+become a hospital, and the wounded were being conveyed to the pier,
+whence they were delivered over to some Sanitary steamers, for passage
+to Northern cities. I tied my horse to the spokes of a wagon-wheel, and
+asked a soldier to watch him, while I repaired to the quay. A half
+drunken officer was guarding the wharf with a squad of men, and he
+denied me admittance, at first, but when I had said something in
+adulation of his regiment&mdash;a trick common to correspondents&mdash;he passed
+me readily. The ocean steamer <i>Daniel Webster</i> was about being cast
+adrift when I stepped on board, and Colonel Ingalls, Quartermaster in
+charge, who freely gave me permission to take passage in her, advised me
+not to risk returning to shore. So, reluctantly, I resigned my pony,
+endeared to me by a hundred adventures, and directly I was floating down
+the James, with the white teams and the tattered groups of men, receding
+from me, and each moment the guns of Malvern Hills growing fainter.
+Away! praised be a merciful God! away from the accursed din, and terror,
+and agony, of my second campaign,&mdash;away forever from the Chickahominy.</p>
+
+<p>For awhile I sat meditatively in the bow of the boat, full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> of strange
+perplexities and thankfulness. I had escaped the bullet, and fever, and
+captivity, and a great success in my profession was about to be accorded
+to me, but there was much work yet to be done. The rough material I had
+for a grand account of the closing of the campaign; but these
+fragmentary figures and notes must be wrought into narrative, and to
+avail myself of their full significance, I must lose no moment of
+application. I found that I was one of four correspondents on board, and
+we resolved to district the boat, each correspondent taking one fourth
+of the names of the sick and wounded. The spacious saloons, the clean
+deck, the stairways, the gangways, the hold, the halls,&mdash;all were filled
+with victims. They lay in rows upon straw beds, they limped feverishly
+here and there; some were crazed from sunstroke, or gashes; and one man
+that I remember counted the rivets in the boilers over the whole hundred
+miles of the journey, while another,&mdash;a teamster,&mdash;whipped and cursed
+his horses as if he had mistaken the motion of the boat for that of his
+vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Daniel Webster</i> was one of a series of transports supplied for the
+uses of the wounded by a national committee of private citizens. Her
+wood work was shining and glossy, her steel shone like mirrors, and she
+was cool as Paradise. Out of the smoke, and turmoil, and suffocation of
+battle these wretched men had emerged, to enjoy the blessedness,
+unappreciated before, of shelter, and free air and cleanliness. There
+was ice in abundance on board, and savory lemonade lay glassily around
+in great buckets. Women flitted from group to group with jellies,
+<i>bonbons</i>, cigars, and oranges, and the grateful eyes of the prostrate
+people might have melted one to tears. These women were enthusiasts of
+all ages and degrees, who proffered themselves, at the beginning of the
+war, as stewardesses and nurses. From the fact that some of them were of
+masculine natures, or, in the vocabulary of the times, "strong-minded,"
+they were the recipients of many coarse jests,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> and imputations were
+made upon both their modesty and their virtue. But I would that any
+satirist had watched with me the good offices of these Florence
+Nightingales of the West, as they tripped upon merciful errands, like
+good angels, and left paths of sunshine behind them. The soldiers had
+seen none of their countrywomen for months, and they followed these
+ambassadors with looks half-idolatrous, half-downcast, as if consciously
+unworthy of so tender regard.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could jest die, now," said one of the poor fellows to me, "with
+one prayer for my country, and one for that dear young lady!"</p>
+
+<p>There was one of these daughters of the good Samaritan whose face was so
+full of coolness, and her robes so airy, flowing, and graceful, that it
+would have been no miracle had she transmuted herself to something
+divine. She was very handsome, and her features bore the imprint of that
+high enthusiasm which may have animated the maid of Arc. One of the more
+forward of the correspondents said to her, as she bore soothing
+delicacies to the invalids, that he missed the satisfaction of being
+wounded, at which she presented an orange and a cigar to each of us in
+turn. Among the females on board, I remarked one, very large, angular,
+and sanguine, who sat at a small table, dispensing luxuries with the
+manners of a despot and the charity of a child. She had a large vessel
+of boiling coffee, from which she drew spicy quantities at intervals;
+and when the troops thronged around eagerly, she rebuked the more
+forward, and called up some emaciated, bashful fellows, giving them the
+preference. Every soldier who accepted coffee was obliged to take a
+religious tract, and she gave them away with a grim satisfaction that
+was infinitely amusing and interesting. I ventured to ask this
+imperative person for a bottle of ink, and after some
+difficulty,&mdash;arising out of a mistaken notion on her part that I was
+dangerously wounded,&mdash;she vaulted over a chair, and disappeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> into a
+state-room. When she returned, her arms were filled with a perfect
+wilderness of stationery, and having supplied each of us in turn, she
+addressed herself to me in the following sententious manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"See here! You reporter! (There's ink!) I want to be put in the
+newspapers! Look at me! Now! Right straight! (Pens?) Here I am; thirteen
+months at work; been everywhere; done good; country; church; never
+noticed. Never!&mdash;Now! I want to be put in newspapers."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the Imperatress was called off by some soldiers, who
+presumed to draw coffee without her consent. She slapped one of them
+soundly, and at once overpowered him with kindnesses, and tracts; then
+she returned and gave me a photograph, representing herself with a
+basket of fruit, and a quantity of good books. I took note of her name,
+but unfortunately lost the memorandum, and unless she has been honored
+by some more careful scribe, I fear that her labors are still
+unrecognized.</p>
+
+<p>During much of the trip, I wrote material parts of my report, copied
+portions of my lists, and managed before dusk, to get fairly underway
+with my narrative. From the deck of the steamer I beheld at five
+o'clock, what I had long wished to see,&mdash;the famous island of Jamestown,
+celebrated in the early annals of the New World, as the home of John
+Smith, and of Nathaniel Bacon, and as the resort of the Indian Princess,
+Pocahontas. A single fragment of a tower, the remnant of the Colonial
+church, was the only ruin that I could see.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock we dropped anchor in Hampton Roads, and a boat let down
+from the davits. Some of my wily compeers endeavored to fill all the
+stern seats, that I might not be pulled to shore; but I swung down by a
+rope, and made havoc with their shins, so that they gained nothing; the
+surf beat so vehemently against the pier at Old Point, that we were
+compelled to beach the boat, and I ran rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> through the ordnance
+yard to the "Hygeia House," where our agent boarded; he had gone into
+the Fortress to pass the night, and when I attempted to follow him
+thither, a knot of anxious idlers, who knew that I had just returned
+from the battle-fields, attempted to detain me by sheer force. I dashed
+rapidly up the plank walk, reached the portal, and had just vaulted into
+the area, when the great gates swung to, and the tattoo beat; at the
+same instant the sergeant of guard challenged me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who comes there? Stand fast! Guard prime!"</p>
+
+<p>A dozen bright musket-barrels were levelled upon me, and I heard the
+click of the cocks as the fingers were laid upon the triggers. When I
+had explained, I was shown the Commandant's room, and hastening in that
+direction, encountered Major Larrabee, my old patron of the fifth
+Wisconsin regiment. He took me to the barracks, where a German officer,
+commanding a battery, lodged, and the latter accommodated me with a camp
+bedstead. Here I related the incidents of the engagements, and before I
+concluded, the room was crowded with people. I think that I gave a
+sombre narration, and the hearts of those who heard me were cast down.
+Still, they lingered; for the bloody story possessed a hideous
+fascination, and I was cross-examined so pertinaciously that my host
+finally arose, protesting that I needed rest, and turned the party out
+of the place. The old fever-dreams returned to me that night, and my
+brain spun round for hours before I could close my eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>ON FURLOUGH AWHILE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Counter winds and tides had so delayed the <i>Adelaide</i>, on which I
+departed for New York with my despatches, that it became a doubtful
+question as to whether we could make connection with the early train for
+New York. The captain shook his head distrustfully when he had looked at
+his watch, and told me that he frequently failed to land his passengers
+in time. The bitterness of the doubt so troubled me, that I paced the
+decks, looking at the approaching city, and thinking that all my labor
+was to be disappointed in the end. I could not telegraph my narrative
+and lists, for Government controlled the wires; and moreover, the
+Associated Press regulations forbade any newspaper to telegraph
+exclusive news from any point but Washington. I half resolved to hire a
+special locomotive, but it was doubtful that the railway authorities
+could procure one, at 60 short notice. Unless I overtook the eight
+o'clock <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> train, I could not get to New York before two o'clock next
+morning,&mdash;too late for the press. Besides, how did I know that some
+correspondent had not reached Washington, by way of one of the Potomac
+vessels, and so forestalled me? Here was an opportunity to be the first
+of all our correspondents to publish the incidents and results of six
+days' stupendous warfare,&mdash;but escaping at the very moment of
+realization. The seconds were hours as we swept past Fort Carroll,
+rounded Fort McHenry, and swung toward our moorings, under Fort Federal
+Hill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If we make a prompt landing," said the Captain, "you may barely get the
+train."</p>
+
+<p>I stood with my bundles of notes upon the high deck, and signalled a
+cab-driver. He caught the precious manuscript, and bolted for his cab.
+In another second he was 'dashing like a runaway up the pier, over the
+bridge, through Pratt Street, and&mdash;out of sight. Slowly the great hulk
+turned awkwardly about; one turn of her paddles brought us close enough
+to fling a rope, a second drew her very near the shore; the distance was
+fearful, but I braced myself for the leap.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand clear!" I called to the score of hackmen.</p>
+
+<p>A little run, a spring,&mdash;and I fell upon my feet, rolled over upon my
+face, gathered myself to the arms of all the Jehus, and was carried off
+bodily by a man with a great knob on his forehead as big as the end of
+his whip-handle.</p>
+
+<p>"G'lang! Who-o-o-oh! Swis-s-s!"</p>
+
+<p>I think that I promised that man everything under the sun to catch the
+train. I recollect that the knob on his forehead grew black and bulging
+as he lashed his horse. I found myself standing up in the cab, screaming
+like the driver. We were both insane, and the horse must have been of
+the breed of <i>Pegasus</i>, for I could feel the vehicle gyrating in the
+air. Now we turned a lamp-post, and the glass splintered somewhere; a
+dog howled as we drove over his appendage; a woman with a baby gave a
+short scream and disappeared into the earth; a policeman gave chase, but
+we laughed him to scorn.</p>
+
+<p>Huzza! Here we are! The train stands puffing at the long platform. "Your
+bundle, yer honor! Wasn't I the boy to make the keers?" "Didn't I
+projuce yer honor in good time, sur?" I only know that I flung a
+greenback to the two,&mdash;that I vainly besought the ticket agent to give
+me no change, but consign it to the first engineer who failed to make
+time,&mdash;that I wrote on the back of my hat for four hours,&mdash;that I
+devoured a chicken and as many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> eggs as she had laid in a lifetime, at
+Havre de Grace,&mdash;that I leaped upon the platform at Broad and Prime
+streets, Philadelphia, at noon,&mdash;that I plunged into a cab, and said,
+significantly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"New York Ferry!"</p>
+
+<p>It chafed me to pass through the promenade street of my home-city,
+without a moment to spare for my family or friends. The cab-horse
+slipped in Chestnut Street, and I went over the rest of the route on
+foot, at a dog-trot pace, passing in various quarters for a sportsman, a
+professional runner, and a lunatic. I was greatly aggravated between
+Amboy and Camden, by persons making inquiries for brothers, sons, and
+acquaintances. At last, when I attained the steamer, the Captain kindly
+shut me up in his office, and I went on with my narrative till my eyes
+were burning and my hands failed in their function. Kill von Kull and
+its picturesque shores went by; we emerged into the beautiful bay, and
+winding among its buoys, harbor lights, and shipping, came to, at
+length, at the foot of Christopher Street. I repaired to the office at
+once, and wrote far into the night, refraining, finally, from sheer
+blindness and exhaustion, and dropped asleep in the carriage as I was
+taken toward the Metropolitan Hotel.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was Friday, July 4, the anniversary of American
+Independence, and my version of the six-days' battles caused universal
+gloom and grief. I had furnished five pages or forty columns of closely
+printed matter, and thousands of tremulous fingers were tracing out the
+names of their dead dear ones, while I sipped my wine and rehearsed for
+the hundredth time, the incidents of the retreat to a multitude of men.
+Cards and letters came to me by the gross, from bereaved countrymen, and
+I was obliged, finally, to add a postscript to my account, and a protest
+that I knew no more, and could answer no interrogatories. A bath, fresh
+clothing, and rich food so far improved my appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> in a few days,
+that I presented no other traces of sickness and travel than a sunburnt
+face, and a rheumatic walk.</p>
+
+<p>With restoration came a revival of old desires, appetites, and
+attachments. It required one additional campaign to sober me in these
+respects, and I was not a little relieved, to receive an order on the
+fourth day, to proceed to Washington, and attach myself to the "Army of
+Virginia" at the head of which Major-General John Pope had just been
+placed. After two quieter days' enjoyment, in the Quaker City, I
+reported myself at the Capital, but was debarred from taking the field
+at once, owing to the tardiness of the new Commander. For two weeks or
+more, I loitered around Washington, and although the time passed
+monotonously, I saw many persons and events which have much to do with
+the history of the Rebellion. The story of "Washington During the War"
+has yet to be written in all its vividness of enterprise, devotion, and
+infamy. It has been, in periods of peace, a dull, dolorous town, of
+mammoth hotels, paltry dwellings, empty lots, prodigiously wide avenues,
+a fossil population, and a series of gigantic public buildings, which
+seemed dropped by accident into a fifth-rate backwoods settlement.
+During the sessions Washington was overrun with "Smartness": Smart
+pages, smart messengers, smart cabmen, smart publicans, smart
+politicians, smart women, smart scoundrels! Greatness became commonplace
+here, and Mr. Douglas might drink at Willard's Bar, with none so poor to
+do him reverence, or General Winfield Scott strut like a colossus along
+"the Avenue," and the sleepy negroes upon their backs would give him the
+attention of only one eye. It was interesting, to notice how rapidly
+provincial eminence lost caste here. Slipkins, who was "Honorable" at
+home, and of whom his county newspaper said that "this distinguished
+fellow citizen of ours will be heard from, among the greatest of the
+free,"&mdash;Slipkins moved to and fro unnoticed, and voted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> with his party,
+and drank much brandy and water, and left no other record at the Capital
+than some unpaid bills, and perhaps an unacknowledged heir. A gaping
+rustic and his new bride, or a strolling foreigner, marvelling and
+making notes at every turn, might be observed in the Patent Office
+examining General Washington's breeches, but these were at once called
+"greenies," and people put out their tongues and winked at them. The
+Secretaries' ladies gave parties now and then, attended by the folks who
+sold them horses, or carpets, or wines; the President gave a "levee,"
+whereat a wonderfully Democratic horde gathered to pinch his hands and
+ogle his lady; the Marine band (in <i>red</i> coats), played twice a week in
+the Capital grounds, and Senators, Cyprians, Ethiops, and children
+rallied to enjoy; a theatre or two played time-honored dramas with
+Thespian companies; a couple of scholars lectured in the sombre
+Smithsonian Institution; an intrigue and a duel filled some most doleful
+hiatus; and a clerk absconded with half a million, or an Indian agent
+robbed the red men and fell back to the protection of his "party." A
+very dismal, a very dirty, and a very Democratic settlement was the
+American Capital, till the war came.</p>
+
+<p>Even the war lost half its interest in Washington. A regiment marching
+down Broadway was something to see, but the same regiment in
+Pennsylvania Avenue looked mean and matter-of-fact. A General in the
+field, or riding uncovered through Boston or Baltimore, or even lounging
+at the bar of the Continental or the Astor House or the Tremont, was
+invested with an atmosphere half heroic, half poetic; but Generals in
+Washington may be counted by pairs, and I used to sit at dinner with
+eight or a dozen of them in my eye. There was the new
+Commander-in-Chief, Halleck, a short, countryfied person, whose blue
+coat was either threadbare or dusty, or lacked some buttons, and who
+picked his teeth walking up and down the halls at Willard's, and argued
+through a white, bilious eye and a huge mouth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> There was General
+Mitchel, also, who has since passed away,&mdash;a little, knotty gentleman,
+with stiff, gray, Jacksonian hair. And General Sturgis passed in and out
+perpetually, with impressive, individual Banks, or some less prominent
+person, all of them wearing the gold star upon their shoulders, and
+absolute masters of some thousands of souls. The town, in fact, was
+overrun with troops. Slovenly guards were planted on horseback at
+crossings, and now and then they dashed, as out of a profound sleep, to
+chase some galloping cavalier. Gin and Jews swarmed along the Avenue,
+and I have seen gangs of soldiers of rival regiments, but oftener of
+rival nationalities, pummelling each other in the highways, until they
+were marched off by the Provosts. The number of houses of ill-fame was
+very great, and I have been told that Generals and Lieutenants of the
+same organization often encountered and recognized each other in them.
+Contractors and "jobbers" used to besiege the offices of the Secretaries
+of War and Navy, and the venerable Welles (who reminded me of Abraham in
+the lithographs), and the barnacled Stanton, seldom appeared in public.
+Simple-minded, straightforward A. Lincoln, and his ambitious, clever
+lady, were often seen of afternoons in their barouche; the little
+old-fashioned Vice-President walked unconcernedly up and down; and when
+some of the Richmond captives came home to the Capital, immense meetings
+were held, where patriotism bawled itself hoarse. A dining hour at
+Willard's was often wondrously adapted for a historic picture, when
+accoutred officers, and their beautiful wives,&mdash;or otherwise,&mdash;sat at
+the <i>table d'-h&ocirc;te</i>, and sumptuous dishes flitted here and there, while
+corks popped like so many Chinese crackers, and champagne bubbled up
+like blood. At night, the Provost Guard enacted the farce of coming by
+deputations to each public bar, which was at once closed, but reopened
+five minutes afterward. Congress water was in great demand for weak
+heads of mornings, and many a young lad, girt up for war, wasted his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+strength in dissipation here, so that he was worthless afield, and
+perhaps died in the hospital. The curse of civil war was apparent
+everywhere. One had but to turn his eye from the bare Heights of
+Arlington, where the soldiers of the Republic lay demoralized, to the
+fattening vultures who smoked and swore at the National, to see the true
+cause of the North's shortcomings,&mdash;its inherent and almost universal
+corruption. Human nature was here so depraved, that man lost faith in
+his kind. Death lurked behind ambuscades and fortifications over the
+river, but Sin, its mother, coquetted <i>here</i>, and as an American, I
+often went to bed, loathing the Capital, as but little better than
+Sodom, though its danger had called forth thousands of great hearts to
+throb out, in its defence. For every stone in the Capitol building, a
+man has laid down his life. For every ripple on the Potomac, some
+equivalent of blood has been shed.</p>
+
+<p>I lodged for some time in Tenth Street, and took my meals at Willard's.
+The legitimate expenses of living in this manner were fourteen dollars a
+week; but one could board at Kirkwood's or Brown's for seven or eight
+dollars, very handsomely. A favorite place of excursion, near the city,
+was "Crystal Spring," where some afternoon orgies were enacted, which
+should have made the sun go into eclipse. I repaired once to Mount
+Vernon, and looked dolorously at the tomb of the <i>Pater Patris</i>, and
+once to Annapolis, on the Chesapeake, which the war has elevated into a
+fine naval station.</p>
+
+<p>At length Pope's forces were being massed along the line of the
+Rappahannock, below the Occoquan river, and upon the "Piedmont"
+highlands. "Piedmont" is the name applied to the fine table-lands of
+Northern Virginia, and the ensuing campaign has received the designation
+of the "Piedmont Campaign." Pope's army proper was composed of three
+corps, commanded respectively by Generals Irvin McDowell, Franz Siegel,
+and Nathaniel P. Banks. But a portion of General McClellan's peninsular
+army had mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>time returned to the Potomac, and the corps of General
+Burnside was stationed at Fredericksburg, thirty miles or more below
+Pope's head-quarters at Warrenton.</p>
+
+<p>I presented myself to General Pope on the 12th of July, at noon. His
+Washington quarters consisted of a quiet brick house, convenient to the
+War office, and the only tokens of its importance were some guards at
+the threshold, and a number of officers' horses, saddled in the shade of
+some trees at the curb. The lower floor of the dwelling was appropriated
+to quartermasters' and inspectors' clerks, before whom a number of
+people were constantly presenting themselves, with applications for
+passes;&mdash;sutlers, in great quantities, idlers, relic-hunters, and
+adventurers in still greater ratio, and, last of all, citizens of
+Virginia, solicitous to return to their farms and families. The mass of
+these were rebuffed, as Pope had inaugurated his campaign with a show of
+severity, even threatening to drive all the non-combatants out of his
+lines, unless they took the Federal oath of allegiance. He gave me a
+pass willingly, and chatted pleasantly for a time. In person he was
+dark, martial, and handsome,&mdash;inclined to obesity, richly garbed in
+civil cloth, and possessing a fiery black eye, with luxuriant beard and
+hair. He smoked incessantly, and talked imprudently. Had he commenced
+his career more modestly, his final discomfiture would not have been so
+galling; but his vanity was apparent to the most shallow observer, and
+although he was brave, clever, and educated, he inspired distrust by his
+much promising and general love of gossip and story-telling. He had all
+of Mr. Lincoln's garrulity (which I suspect to be the cause of their
+affinity), and none of that good old man's unassuming common sense.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, at seven o'clock, I embarked for Alexandria, and
+passed the better half of the forenoon in negotiating for a pony. At
+eleven o'clock, I took my seat in a bare, filthy car, and was soon
+whirled due southward, over the line of the Orange and Alexandria
+railroad. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> country between Alexandria and Warrenton Junction, or,
+indeed, between Washington and Richmond, was not unlike those masterly
+descriptions of Gibbon, detailing the regions overrun by Hyder Ali. The
+towns stood like ruins in a vast desert, and one might write musing
+epitaphs at every wind-beaten dwelling, whence the wretched denizens had
+fled in cold and poverty to a doubtful hospitality in the far South.
+Fences there were none, nor any living animals save the braying hybrids
+which limped across the naked plains to eke out existence upon some
+secluded patches of grass. These had been discharged from the army, and
+they added rather than detracted from the lonesomeness of the wild.
+Their great mournful eyes and shaggy heads glared from copses, and in
+places where they had lain down beside the track to expire. If we
+sometimes pity these dumb beasts as they drag loaded wains, or heavy
+omnibuses, or sub-soil ploughs, we may also bestow a tender sentiment
+upon the army mules. Flogged by teamsters, cursed by quartermasters,
+ridiculed by roaring regiments of soldiers, strained and spavined by
+fearful draughts, stalled in bogs and fainting upon hillsides,&mdash;their
+bones will evidence the sites of armies, when the skeletons of men have
+crumbled and become reabsorbed. I have seen them die like martyrs, when
+the inquisitor, with his bloody lash, stood over them in the closing
+pangs, and their last tremulous howl has almost moved to tears. Some of
+the dwellings seemed to be occupied, but the tidiness of old times was
+gone. The women seemed sunburnt and hardened by toil. They looked from
+their thresholds upon the flying train, with their hair unbraided and
+their garters ungyved,&mdash;not a negro left to till the fields, nor a son
+or brother who had not travelled to the wars. They must be now hewers of
+wood, and drawers of water, and the fingers whereon diamonds used to
+sparkle, must clench the axe and the hoe.</p>
+
+<p>At last we came to Bull Run, the dark and bloody ground<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> where the first
+grand armies fought and fled, and again to be consecrated by a baptism
+of fire. The railway crossed the gorge upon a tall trestle bridge, and
+for some distance the track followed the windings of the stream. A
+black, deep, turgid current, flowing between gaunt hills, lined with
+cedar and beech, crossed here and there by a ford, and vanishing, above
+and below, in the windings of wood and rock; while directly beyond, lie
+the wide plains of Manassas Junction, stretching in the far horizon, to
+the undulating boundary of the Blue Ridge. As the Junction remains
+to-day, the reader must imagine this splendid prospect, unbroken by
+fences, dwellings, or fields, as if intended primevally to be a place
+for the shock of columns, with redoubts to the left and right, and
+fragments of stockades, dry rifle pits, unfinished or fallen
+breastworks, and, close in the foreground, a medley of log huts for the
+winter quartering of troops. The woods to the north mark the course of
+Bull Run; a line of telegraph poles going westward points to Manassas
+Gap; while the Junction proper is simply a point where two single track
+railways unite, and a few frame "shanties" or sheds stand contiguous.
+These are, for example, the "New York Head-quarters," kept by a person
+with a hooked nose, who trades in cakes, lemonade, and (probably)
+whiskey, of the brand called "rotgut;" or the "Union Stores," where a
+person in semi-military dress deals in India-rubber overcoats,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>underclothing, and boots. As the train halts, lads and negroes propose
+to sell sandwiches to passengers, and soldiers ride up to take mail-bags
+and bundles for imperceptible camps. In the distance some teams are
+seen, and a solitary horseman, visiting vestiges of the battle;
+sidelings beside the track are packed with freight cars, and a small
+mountain of pork barrels towers near by; there are blackened remains of
+locomotives a little way off, but these have perhaps hauled regiments of
+Confederates to the Junction; and over all&mdash;men, idlers, ruins, railway,
+huts, entrenchments&mdash;floats the star-spangled banner from the roof of a
+plank depot.</p>
+
+<p>The people in the train were rollicking and well-disposed, and black
+bottles circulated freely. I was invited to drink by many persons, but
+the beverage proffered was intolerably bad, and several convivials
+became stupidly drunk. A woman in search of her husband was one of the
+passengers, and those contiguous to her were as gentlemanly as they knew
+how to be. "A pretty woman, in war-time," said a Captain, aside, to me,
+"is not to be sneezed at." At "Catlett's," a station near Warrenton
+Junction, we narrowly escaped a collision with a train behind, and the
+occupants of our train, women included, leaped down an embankment with
+marvellous agility. Here we switched off to the right, and at four
+o'clock dismounted at the pleasant village of Warrenton.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>CAMPAIGNING WITH GENERAL POPE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The court-house village of Fauquier County contained a population of
+twelve or fifteen hundred at the commencement of the war. Its people
+embraced the revolutionary cause at the outstart, and furnished some
+companies of foot to the Confederate service, as well as a mounted
+company known as the "Black Horse Cavalry." The guns of Bull Run were
+heard here on the day of battle, and hundreds of the wounded came into
+town at nightfall. Thenceforward Warrenton became prominently identified
+with the struggle, and the churches and public buildings were transmuted
+to hospitals. After the Confederates retired from Manassas Junction, the
+vicinity of Warrenton was a sort of neutral ground. At one time the
+Southern cavalry would ride through the main street, and next day a body
+of mounted Federals would pounce upon the town, the inhabitants,
+meanwhile, being apprehensive of a sabre combat in the heart of the
+place. Some people were ruined by the war; some made fortunes. The Mayor
+of the village was named Bragg, and he was a trader in horses, as well
+as a wagon-builder. There were two taverns, denominated respectively,
+the "Warrenton Inn," and the "Warren Green Hotel." I obtained a room at
+the former. A young man named Dashiell kept it. He was a
+fair-complexioned, clever, high-strung Virginian, and managed to obtain
+a great deal of paper money from both republics. It is an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> encomium in
+America, to say that a man "Can keep a hotel," but what shall be said of
+the man who can keep a hotel in war-time? I observed young Dashiell's
+movements from day to day, and I am satisfied that his popularity arose
+from his fairness and frankness. He charged nine dollars a week for
+room, and "board," of three meals, but could, with difficulty, obtain
+meat and vegetables for the table. His mother and his brother-in-law
+lived in the house. The latter was a son of Mayor Bragg, and had been
+twice in the Confederate service. He was engaged both at Bull Run and at
+Fairfax Court House, and made no secret of his activity at either place.
+But he was treated considerately, though he vaunted intolerably. The
+"Inn" was a frame dwelling, with a first floor of stone, surrounded by a
+double portico. The first room (entering from the street) was the
+office, consisting of a bare floor, some creaking benches, some chairs
+with whittled and broken arms, a high desk, where accounts were kept, a
+row of bells, numbered, communicating with the rooms. Hand-bills were
+pinned to the walls, announcing that William Higgins was paying good
+prices for "likely" field hands, that Timothy Ingersoll's stock of dry
+goods was the finest in Piedmont, that James Mason's mulatto woman,
+named Rachel, had decamped on the night of Whitsuntide, and that one
+hundred dollars would be paid by the subscriber for her return. Most of
+these bills were out of date, but some recent ones were exhibited to me
+calling for volunteers, labelled, "Ho! for winter-quarters in
+Washington;" "Sons of the South arise!"&mdash;"Liberty, glory, and no
+Yankeedom!" A bellcord hung against the "office" door, communicating
+with the stables, where a deaf hostler might <i>not</i> be rung up. In the
+back yard, suspended from a beam, and upright, hung a large bell, which
+called the boarders to meals. It commonly rung thrice, and I was told on
+inquiry, by the cook&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"De fust bell, sah, is to prepah to prepah for de table; dat bell, when
+de fust cook don't miss it, is rung one hour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> befo' mealtime. De second
+bell, sah, is to <i>prepah</i> for de table; de last bell, to <i>come</i> to de
+table."</p>
+
+<p>I should have been better pleased with the ceremony, if the food had
+been more cleanly, more wholesome, and more abundant. We used to clear
+the plates in a twinkling, and if a person asked twice for beef, or
+butter, he was stared at by the negroes, as if he had eaten an entire
+cow. I soon brought the head-waiter to terms by promising him a dollar a
+week for extra attendance, and could even get ice after a time, which
+was a luxury. There was a bar upon the premises, which opened
+stealthily, when there were liquors to be sold. Cider (called
+champaigne) could be purchased for three dollars a bottle, and whiskey
+came to hand occasionally. There were cigars in abundance, and I used to
+sit on the upper porch of evenings, puffing long after midnight, and
+watching the sentinels below.</p>
+
+<p>There was some female society in Warrenton, but the blue-coats engrossed
+it all. The young women were ardent partisans, but also very pretty; and
+treason, somehow, heightened their beauty. Disloyalty is always
+pardonable in a woman, and these ladies appreciated the fact. They
+refused to walk under Federal flags, and stopped their ears when the
+bands played national music; but every evening they walked through the
+main street, arm in arm with dashing Lieutenants and Captains. Many
+flirtations ensued, and a great deal of gossip was elicited. In the end,
+some of the misses fell out among themselves, and hated each other more
+than the common enemy. I overheard a young lady talking in a low tone
+one evening, to a Captain in the Ninth New York regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew my brother," she said, "I am sure you would not fire upon
+<i>him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>As there were plain, square, prim porches to all the dwellings, the
+ladies commonly took positions therein of evenings, and a grand
+promenade commenced of all the young Federals in the town. The streets
+were pleasantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> shaded, and a leafy coolness pervaded the days, though
+sometimes, of afternoons, the still heat was almost stifling. A jaunt
+after supper often took me far into the country, and the starlights were
+softer than one's peaceful thoughts. To be a civilian was a
+distinguished honor now, and I enjoyed the staring of the citizens, who
+pondered as to my purposes and pursuits, as only villagers can do. There
+is a quiet pleasure in being a strange person in a country town, and so
+far from objecting to the inquisitiveness of the folk, I rather like it.
+One may be passing for a young duke, or tourist, or clergyman, or what
+not?</p>
+
+<p>The Ninth New York (militia) regiment guarded Warrenton, and it was
+composed of clever, polite young fellows, who had taken to volunteering
+before there was any promise of war, and who turned out, pluckily, when
+the strife began. Perhaps public sentiment or pride of organization
+influenced them. They were all good-looking and tidy, and their
+dress-parades, held in the main street, were handsome affairs. I have
+never seen better disciplined columns, and the youthful faces of the
+soldiers, with the staid locality of the exhibition,&mdash;young women,
+negroes, dogs and babies, and old men looking on,&mdash;seemed to contradict
+the bloody mission of the troops. The old men, referred to, were
+villagers of such long standing that had the Court of Saint James, or
+the Vatican, or the battle of Waterloo been moved into their country,
+they would have still been villagers to the last. They met beside the
+Warrenton Inn, under the shade of the trees, at eleven o'clock every
+morning, and borrowed the New York papers of the latest date. One
+individual, slightly bald, would read aloud, and the rest crouched or
+stood about him, making grunts and remarks at intervals. They did not
+wish to believe the Federal reports, but they must needs read, and as
+most of them had sons in the other army, their pulses were constantly
+tremulous with anxiety. I think that Pope's resolve to transport these
+harmless old people beyond his lines was very barbarous, and the
+soldiers denounced it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> in similar terms. They spoke of Pope, as of some
+terrible despot, and wished to know when he was coming to town, as they
+had appointed a committee, and drafted a petition, asking his
+forbearance and charity. When these villagers found me out to be a
+Newspaper Correspondent, they regarded me with amusing interest, and
+marvelled what I would say of their town. A villager is very sensitive
+as to his place of residence, and these good people read the&mdash;&mdash;daily,
+confounding me with all the paper,&mdash;editorial, correspondence, and, I
+verily believe, advertisements. One of them wished me to board at his
+residence, and I was, after a time, invited out to dinner and tea
+frequently.</p>
+
+<p>The negroes remained in Warrenton, in great numbers, and held carnival
+of evenings when the bands played. "Contrabands" were coming daily into
+town, and idleness and vice soon characterized the mass of them. They
+were ignorant, degraded, animal beings, and many of them loved rum; it
+was the last link that bound them to human kind. Servants could be hired
+for four dollars a month and "keep;" but they were "shiftless" and
+unprofitable. The Provost-Marshal of the place was a Captain
+Hendrickson. His quarters were in the Court House building, and he kept
+a zealous eye upon sutlers and citizens. The former trespassed in the
+sales of liquors to soldiers, and the latter were accused of maintaining
+a contraband mail, and of conspiring to commit divers offences. There
+were a number of churches in the village, all of which served as
+hospitals, and in the quiet cemetery west of the town, two hundred slain
+soldiers were interred. A stake of white pine was driven at the head of
+each grave. Here lay some of the men who had helped to change the
+destinies of a continent. No public worship was held in the place. The
+Sundays were busy as other days: trains came and went, teams made dust
+in the streets, cavalry passed through the village, music arose from all
+the outlying camps; parades and inspections were made, and all the
+preparations for killing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> men were relentlessly forwarded. A pleasant
+entertainment occurred one evening, when a plot of ground adjoining the
+Warrenton Inn, was appropriated for a camp theatre. Candle footlights
+were arranged, and the stage was canopied with national flags. The
+citizens congregated, and the performers deferred to their prejudices by
+singing no Federal songs. Tho negroes climbed the trees to listen, and
+their gratified guffaws made the night quiver. The war lost half its
+bitterness at such times; but I thought with a shudder of Stuart's
+thundering horsemen, charging into the village, and closing the night's
+mimicry with a horrible tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the dwellings about the place were elegant and spacious, but
+many of these were closed and the owners removed. Two newspapers had
+been published here of old, and while ransacking the office of one of
+them, I discovered that the type had been buried under the floor. The
+planks were speedily torn away, and the cases dragged to light. I
+obtained some curious relics, in the shape of "cuts" of recruiting
+officers, runaway negroes, etc., as well as a column of a leader, in
+type, describing the first battle of Bull Run. For two weeks I had
+little to do, as the campaign had not yet fairly commenced, and I passed
+many hours every day reading. A young lawyer, in the Confederate
+service, had left an ample library behind him, and the books passed into
+the hands of every invader in the town.</p>
+
+<p>Pope finally arrived at Warrenton, and as the troops seemed to be
+rapidly concentrating, I judged it expedient to procure a horse at once,
+and canvassed the country with that object. By paying a quartermaster
+the Government price ($130), I could select a steed from the pound, but
+inspection satisfied me that a good saddle nag could not be obtained in
+this way. After much parleying with Hebrews and chaffing with country
+people, I heard that Mayor Bragg kept some fair animals, and when I
+stated my purpose at his house, he commenced the business after a
+fashion immemorial at the South, by producing some whiskey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Mayor Bragg had asked me pertinently, if I knew much about the
+"pints of a hoss," and what "figger in the way of price" would suit me,
+he told an erudite negro named "Jeems" to trot out the black colt. The
+black colt made his appearance by vaulting over a gate, and playfully
+shivering a panel of fence with his "off" hoof. Then he executed a
+flourish with his tail, leaped thrice in the air, and bit savagely at
+the man "Jeems."</p>
+
+<p>When I asked Mayor Bragg if the black colt was sufficiently gentle to
+stand fire, he replied that he was gentle as a lamb and offered to put
+me astride him. I had no sooner taken my seat, however, than the black
+colt backed, neighed, flourished, and stood erect, and finally ran away.</p>
+
+<p>A second animal was produced, less mettlesome, but also black, finely
+strung, daintily hoofed, and as Mayor Bragg said, "just turned four
+year." The price of this charger was one hundred and ninety dollars; but
+in consideration of my youth and pursuit, Mayor Bragg proposed to take
+one hundred and seventy-five; we compromised upon a hundred and fifty
+dollars, Major Bragg throwing in a halter, and by good luck I procured a
+saddle the same evening, so that I rode triumphantly through the streets
+of Warrenton, and fancied that all the citizens were admiring my new
+purchase.</p>
+
+<p>I was struck with the fact, that Mayor Bragg, though an ardent patriot,
+would accept of neither Confederate nor Virginia money; he required
+payment for his animal, in Father Chase's "greenbacks."</p>
+
+<p>Mounted anew, I fell into my former active habits, and made two
+journeys, to Sperryville and Little Washington, in one direction, to
+Madison in another; each place was probably twenty miles distant; the
+latter was merely a cavalry outpost, where Generals Hatch and Bayard
+were stationed, and the former villages were the head-quarters,
+respectively, of General Banks and General Siegel.</p>
+
+<p>Madison was, at this time, a precarious place for a long tarrying. I
+went to sleep in the inn on the night of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> arrival, and at that time
+the place was thronged with cavalry and artillery-men. Next morning,
+when I aroused, not a blue-coat could be seen. They had fallen back in
+the darkness, and prudently abstaining from breakfast, I galloped
+northward, as if the whole Confederate army was at my heels. These old
+turnpike roads were now marked by daily chases and rencontres. A few
+Virginians, fleetly mounted, would provoke pursuit from a squad of
+Federals, and the latter would be led into ambuscades. A quaint incident
+happened in this manner, near Madison.</p>
+
+<p>Captain T. was chasing a party of Confederates one afternoon, when his
+company was suddenly fired upon from a wheatfield, parties rising up on
+both sides of the road, and discharging carbines through the fence
+rails. Three or four men, and as many horses were slain; but the
+ambushing body was outnumbered, and several of its members killed. Among
+others, a young lieutenant took deliberate aim at Captain T. at the
+distance of twelve yards; and, seeing that he had missed, threw up his
+carbine to surrender. The Captain had already drawn his revolver, and,
+amazed at the murderous purpose, he shot the assassin in the head,
+killing him instantly. Nobody blamed Captain T., but he was said to be a
+humane person, and the affair preyed so continually upon his mind, that
+he committed suicide one night in camp.</p>
+
+<p>At Sperryville I saw and talked with Franz Siegel, the idol of the
+German Americans. He had been a lieutenant in his native country, but
+subsided, in St. Louis, to the rank of publican, keeping a beer saloon.
+When the war commenced, he was appointed to a colonelcy, in deference to
+the large German republican population of Missouri. His abilities were
+speedily manifested in a series of engagements which redeemed the
+Southern border, and he finally fought the terrible battle of Pea Ridge,
+Arkansas, which broke the spirit of the Confederates west of the
+Mississippi. The man who fought "mit Siegel" in those days, was always
+told in St. Louis: "Py tam! you pays not'ing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> for your lager." Siegel
+now commanded one of Pope's corps. He was a diminutive person, but
+well-knit, emaciated by his active career, feverish and sanguine of
+face, and, as it appeared to me, consuming with energy and ambition. As
+a General he was prompt to decide and do, and his manner of dealing with
+Confederate property was severer than that of any American. He battered
+the splendid mansion hotel of White Sulphur Springs to the ground, for
+example, when somebody discharged a rifle from its window. He preferred
+to fight by retreating, and if pursued, generally unmasked his guns and
+made massacre with the scattered opponents. Another German commander was
+Blenker, whose corps of Germans might have belonged to the free bands of
+the Black forest. They were the most lawless men in the Federal service,
+and what they did not steal they destroyed. Such volunteers were
+mercenaries, in every sense of the word. I have been told that they
+slaughtered sheep and cattle in pure wantonness, and the rats of
+Ehrenfels did not make a cleaner sweep of provisions. The Germans, as a
+rule, lacked the dash of the Irish troops and the tact of the Americans.
+They thought and fought in masses, had little individuality, and were
+thick-skulled; but they were persevering and had their hearts in the
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>General Banks was a fine representative of the higher order of Yankee.
+Originally a machinist in a small manufacturing town near Boston, he
+educated himself, and was elected successively Legislator, Governor,
+Congressman, and General of volunteers. His personal graces were
+equalled by his energy, and his ability was considerable. He has been
+very successful in the field, and has conducted a retreat unparalleled
+in the war; these things being always reckoned among American successes.
+The country hereabout was mountainous, healthy, and well adapted for
+campaigning. Streams and springs were numerous, and there were fine
+sites for camps. The deserted toll-houses along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the way glowered
+mournfully through the rent windows, and I fancied them, sometimes, as I
+rode at night, haunted by the shambling tollman.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ancient road that wind'st deserted,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through the level of the vale,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sweeping toward the crowded market,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like a stream without a sail,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Standing by thee, I look backward,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, as in the light of dreams,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">See the years descend and vanish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like thy tented wains and teams.&mdash;<span class="smcap">T. B. Read.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To provide myself with thorough equipment for Pope's campaign, I
+returned to Washington, and purchased a patent camp-bed, which strapped
+to my saddle, saddle bags of large capacity, India-rubber blankets, and
+a full suit of waterproof cloth,&mdash;hat, coat, <i>genoullieres</i>, and
+gauntlets. I had my horse newly shod, I drew upon my establishment for
+an ample sum of money, and, to properly inaugurate the campaign, I gave
+an entertainment in the parlor of the inn.</p>
+
+<p>Pipes, cold ham, a keg of beer, and a demijohn of whiskey comprised the
+attractions of the night. The guests were three Captains, two Adjutants,
+two Majors, a Colonel, four Correspondents, several Lieutenants, and a
+signal officer. There was some jesting, and much laughing, considerable
+story-telling, and (toward the small hours) a great deal of singing.
+Much heroism was evolved; all the guests were devoted to death and their
+country; and there was one person who took off his coat to fight an
+imaginary something, but changed his mind, and dropped asleep directly.
+At length, a gallant Captain, to demonstrate his warlike propensities,
+fired a pistol through the front window; and somebody blowing out the
+candles, the whole party retired to rest upon the floor. In this
+delightful way my third campaign commenced, and next evening I set off
+for the advance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ARMY MORALS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some of General McDowell's aides had invited me to pass a night with
+them at Warrenton Springs. Fully equipped, I joined Captain Ball, of
+Cincinnati, and we rode southward, over a hard, picturesque turnpike,
+under a clear moonlight. The distance was seven miles, and a part of
+this route was enlivened by the fires, halloos, and the music of camps.
+Volunteers are fond of serenading their officers; and this particular
+evening was the occasion of much merry-making, since a majority of the
+brass bands were to be mustered out of the service to-morrow. We could
+hear the roll of drums from imperceptible localities, and the sharp
+winding of bugles broke upon the silence like the trumpet of the
+Archangel. Stalwart shapes of horsemen galloped past us, and their hoofs
+made monotone behind, till the cadence died so gradually away that we
+did not know when the sound ceased and when the silence began. The
+streams had a talk to themselves, as they strolled away into the meadow,
+and an owl or two challenged us, calling up a corporal hawk. This latter
+fellow bantered and blustered, and finally we fell into an ambush of
+wild pigs, which charged across the road and plunged into the woods.
+There were despatch stations at intervals, where horses stood saddled,
+and the couriers waited for hoof-beats, to be ready to ride fleetly
+toward head-quarters. Anon, we saw wizard lights, as of Arctic skies,
+where remote camps built conflagration;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> and trudging wearily down the
+stony road, poor ragged, flying negroes, with their families and their
+worldly all, came and went&mdash;God help them!&mdash;and touched their hats so
+obsequiously that my heart was wrung, and I felt a nervous impulse to
+put them upon my steed and take their burdens upon my back. Little sable
+folk, asleep and ahungered, drawn to that barefoot woman's breast; and
+the tired boy, weeping as he held to his father's hand; and the father
+with the sweat of fatigue and doubt upon his forehead,&mdash;children of
+Ishmael all; war raging in the land, but God overhead! These are the
+"wandering Jews" of our day, hated North and South, because they are
+poor and blind, and do no harm; but out of their wrongs has arisen the
+abasement of their wrongers. Is there nothing over all?</p>
+
+<p>We entered the beautiful lawn of the Springs' hotel, at ten o'clock, and
+a negro came up to take our horses. By the lamplight and moonlight I saw
+McDowell's tent, a sentry pacing up and down before it, and the thick,
+powerful figure of the General seated at a writing-table within. Irvin
+McDowell was one of the oldest officers in the service, and when the war
+commenced he became a leading commander in the Eastern army. At Bull Run
+he had a responsible place, and the ill success of that battle brought
+him into unpleasant notoriety. Though he retained a leading position he
+was still mistrusted and disliked. None bore ingratitude so stolidly. He
+may have flinched, but he never replied; and though ambitious he tried
+to content himself with subordinate commands. Some called him a traitor,
+others an incompetent, others a plotter. If McClellan failed, McDowell
+was cursed. If Pope blundered, McDowell received half the contumely. But
+he loosened no cord of discipline to make good will. Implacable,
+dutiful, soldierly, rigorous in discipline, sententious, brave,&mdash;the
+most unpopular man in America went on his way, and I think that he is
+recovering public favor again. The Gen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>eral of a republic has a thorny
+path to tread, and almost every public man has been at one time
+disgraced during the civil war. McDowell, I think, has been treated
+worse than any other.</p>
+
+<p>Our nags being removed, we repaired to one of the rustic cottages which
+bounded the lawn, and I was introduced to several members of the staff;
+among others, to a Count Saint Alb, an Austrian. He had been an officer
+in his native country; but came to America, anxious for active service,
+and was appointed to Gen. McDowell's Staff with the rank of Captain. I
+understood that he was writing a book upon America. There are many such
+adventurers in the Federal service, but the present one was clever and
+amusing, and he spoke English fluently.</p>
+
+<p>Our tea was plain but abundant, consisting of broiled beef, fresh bread,
+butter, and cheese; and the inveterate whiskey was produced afterward,
+when we assembled on the piazza, so that the hours passed by pleasantly,
+if not profitably, and we retired at two o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I bathed in the clear, cold sulphur spring, where
+thousands of invalid people had come for healing waters. A canopy
+covered the spring, and a soldier stood on guard at the top of the
+descending steps, to preserve the property in its original cleanliness.
+This was one of the most famous medical springs on the American
+continent; the water was so densely impregnated that its peculiarly
+offensive smell could be detected at the distance of a mile. The place
+was going to ruin now. All the bathing-rooms were falling apart, the
+pipes had been carried off to be moulded into bullets, and the great
+hotel was desolate. I walked into the ball-room; but the large gilded
+mirrors had been splintered, and lewd writings defaced the wall. Some
+idlers were asleep upon the piazzas, and the furniture was removed or
+broken. Some rustic cottages dotted the lawn, but these were now
+inhabited by officers and their servants. A few days were to finish the
+work of rapine, and a heap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> of ashes was to mark the scene of
+tournament, coquetry, and betrothal. I witnessed a review of troops in a
+field contiguous, at nine o'clock. The heat was so intense that many men
+fell out of line and were carried off to their camps. McDowell passed
+exactingly from man to man, examined muskets, clothing, and knapsacks,
+and the inspection was proceeding, when I bade my friends good by and
+set out for Culpepper.</p>
+
+<p>I crossed the North Rappahannock, or Hedgemain river, upon a precarious
+bridge of planks. A new bridge for artillery was being constructed close
+by; for the river beneath had a swift, deep current, and could with
+difficulty be forded. Patches of wagons, squads of horse, and now and
+then a regiment of infantry, varied the monotony of the journey. The
+country was high, woody, and sparsely settled. At noon I overtook
+Tower's brigade, and observing the 94th N. Y. Regiment resting in the
+woods, I dismounted and made the acquaintance of its Colonel. He was at
+this juncture greatly enraged with some of his soldiers who had been
+plucking green apples.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy," he said to one, "put down that fruit! Drop it, or I'll blow your
+head off! Directly you'll double up, pucker, and say that you have the
+"di-o-ree," and require an ambulance. Orderly!"</p>
+
+<p>A sergeant came up and touched his cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your musket," said the Colonel; "go out to that orchard, and order
+those men away. If they hesitate or object, shoot them!"</p>
+
+<p>A few such colonels would marvellously improve the volunteer
+organization.</p>
+
+<p>The Hazel or North Anne river, a branch of the Hedgemain, interposed a
+few miles further on, and passing through a covered bridge, I turned
+down the north bank, crossed some spongy fields, and at length came to a
+dry place in the edge of a woods, where I tied my nag, spread out my
+bed, and prepared to dine. A box of sardines, a lemon, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> some fresh
+sandwiches constituted the repast, and being dusty and parched I
+stripped afterward and swam across the river. Seeing that my horse
+plunged and neighed, with swollen eyeballs, and every evidence of
+terror, I hastened toward him and discovered a black snake, six feet or
+more in length, which seemed about to coil itself around the nag's leg.
+The size and contiguity of the reptile at first appalled me, and my mind
+was not more composed when the serpent, at my approach, manifested an
+inclination to assume the offensive. Its folds were thicker than my arm,
+and it commenced to revolve rapidly, at length running up a sapling,
+suspending itself by the tail, and hissing vehemently. It belonged to
+the family of "racers," and was hideous and powerful beyond any specimen
+that I had seen. I blew it into halves at the second discharge of my
+pistol, and at once resumed my saddle, indisposed to remain longer
+amidst such acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>At four o'clock I saw Culpepper, a trim little village, lying in the
+hollow of several hills. A couple of steeples added to its
+picturesqueness, and a swift creek, crossed by a small bridge,
+interposed between myself and the main part of the place. It looked like
+Sunday when I rode through the principal street. The shutters were
+closed in the shop windows, the dwellings seemed tenantless, no citizens
+were abroad, no sutlers had invaded the country; only a few cavalry-men
+clustered about an ancient pump to water their nags, and some military
+idlers were sitting upon the long porch of a public house, called the
+Virginia Hotel. I tied my horse to a tree, the bole of which had been
+gnawed bare, and found the landlord to be an old gentleman named Paine,
+who appeared to be somewhat out of his head. Two days before the
+Confederate cavalry had vacated the village, and the army had been
+encamped about the town for many months. A sabre conflict had taken
+place in the streets; and these events, happening in rapid succession,
+combined with the insolence of some Federal outriders, had so agitated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+the host that his memory was quite gone, and he could not perform even
+the slightest function. There is a panacea for all these things, which
+the faculty and philanthropy alike forbid, but which my experience in
+war-matters has invariably found unfailing. I produced my flask, and
+gently insinuated it to the old gentleman's lips. He possessed instinct
+sufficient to uncork and apply it, and the results were directly
+apparent, in a partial recovery of memory. He said that meals were one
+dollar each, board four dollars a day, or by the week twenty-five
+dollars. These terms are unknown in America; but when Mr. Paine added
+that horse provender was one dollar per "feed," I looked aghast, and
+required some stimulant myself to appreciate the enormity of the
+reckoning. I discovered, however, that the people of the village were
+almost starving; that beef had been fifty cents a pound during the whole
+winter, flour twenty-five dollars per barrel, coffee one dollar and a
+quarter a pound, and corn one dollar per bushel. The army had swept the
+country like famine, and the citizens had pinched, pining faces, with
+little to eat to-day and nothing for to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>I acquiesced in the charge, as no choice remained, and asked to be shown
+to my room. A burly negro, apparently suffering <i>delirium tremens</i>,
+seized my baggage with quaking hands, and lifting a pair of red eyes
+upon me, shuffled through a bare hall, up a stairway, and into a
+bedroom. I never saw a more hideous being in my life, and when he had
+flung my luggage upon the floor, he sank into a chair, and glared
+wofully into my face, breathing like one about to expire.</p>
+
+<p>"Young Moss," said he, "cant you give a po' soul a drop o' sperits? Do
+for de good Lord's sake! Do, Moss, fo' de po' nigga's life. Do! do!
+Moss."</p>
+
+<p>I poured him out a little in a tumbler, less from charity than from
+fear; for he knew that I was provided with a bottle, and I seemed to
+read murder in his eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He drank like one athirst and scant of breath, making a dry, chuckling
+noise with his throat. When he had finished, he leaned his powerful neck
+and head upon the bed and groaned terribly.</p>
+
+<p>"Moss," he said again, "ain't you got no tobacco, Moss? I haint had none
+since Christmas. I's mos dead I'm po' sinful nigga'. Do give some
+tobacco to po' creature, do!"</p>
+
+<p>I told him that I did not chew the weed, but gave him a crushed cigar,
+and he thrust it into his mouth, as if it was food and he was perishing.
+This wretched animal performed the duties of a chambermaid upon the
+premises; he made the beds, attended to the toilets, answered the bells,
+etc. He finally became so offensive that I forbade him my room, and he
+revenged himself by paltry thefts. There were two other servants, a
+woman with a baby, and a shrewd, dishonest mulatto man, who was the
+steward and carver. This fellow secreted provender in the kitchen and
+sold it stealthily to hungry soldiers. A public house so mismanaged I
+had nowhere met. Sometimes we could get no breakfast till noon, and
+finally the price of dinner went up to one dollar and a half, with
+nothing to eat. The table was protected from flies by a series of paper
+fans, pendant from the ceiling and connected by a cord, which an ebony
+boy pulled, at the foot of the room to keep them in motion. This boy
+being worked day and night, often fell asleep upon his stool, when the
+yellow man boxed his ears, or knocked him down; and then he would fan
+with such vigor that a perfect gale swept down the table. The landlord
+was a kindly old man, but he could not "keep a hotel," and the
+strong-minded part of the house consisted of his wife and four
+daughters. Gen. Ben Butler would have sent these young women to Ship
+Island, five times of a day. They were very bad-mannered and always sat
+apart at one end of the cloth, talking against the "Yankees." As there
+was no direct provocation to do so, this boldness was gratuitous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> and
+detracted rather than added to my estimate of the heroism of Southern
+women. I have known them to burst into the office, crowded with
+blue-coats, and scream&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pop, Yankees thieving in garden!" or, "Pop, drive these Yankees out of
+parlor!"</p>
+
+<p>Every afternoon when the pavement was unusually patronized by young
+officers, these women would sally out, promenade in crinoline, silk
+stockings, and saucy hoods, and the crowd would fall respectfully back
+to let them pass. A flag hung from a hospital over the sidewalk, and
+with a pert flourish, the landlord's daughters filed off the pavement,
+around the ensign, and back again. This was amusing, I thought, but not
+very clever, and rather immodest. Had they been handsome, some romance
+might have attached to the act; but being homely and not marriageable, I
+smiled at the occurrence and entered it in my diary as "patriotism run
+mad." The stable arrangements were, if possible, worse. One had to be
+certain, from actual presence, that his horse was fed at all, and during
+the first three days of my tenure, the black hostler lost me a breast
+strap, a halter, a crupper strap, and finally emptied my saddle-bags.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a woman made her appearance at a front window, stealthily
+peeping into the street, or a neighboring farmer ventured into town upon
+a lean consumptive mule. The very dogs were skinny and savage for want
+of sustenance, and when a long, cadaverous hog emerged from nowhere one
+day, and tottered up the main street, he was chased, killed, and
+quartered so rapidly, that the famous steam process seemed to have been
+applied to him, of being dropped into a hopper, and tumbling out, a
+medley of hams, ribs, lard, and penknives. The stock of provisions at
+the hotel finally gave out, and I was compelled to purchase morsels of
+meat from the steward. Dreadful visions of famishing ensued, but
+ultimately the railway was opened to town, and a sutler started a shop
+in the village. I lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> upon sardines and crackers for two days, and a
+Major Fifield, Superintendent of Military Railroads, gave me savory
+breakfasts of ham afterward. Troops were now concentrating in the
+neighborhood of Culpepper, and a bevy of camps encircled the little
+village. Crawford's Brigade, of Banks's Corps, garrisoned the place, and
+a Provost Marshal occupied the quaint Court House. Reconnoissances were
+made southward daily, and I joined one of these, which left the village
+on the second of August, at three o'clock, for Orange Court House,
+seventeen miles on the way to Richmond. Detachments of a Vermont and a
+New York cavalry regiment composed the reconnoitring party, and the
+whole was commanded by Gen. Crawford, a clever and unostentatious
+soldier. We bivouacked that night near Raccoon Ford, on the river
+Rapidan. No fires were built; for we knew that the enemy was all around
+us, and we slept coldly and imperfectly till the gray of Sunday morning.
+At daylight we galloped into the main street of Orange Court House,
+having first sent a squadron around the village, to ride in at the other
+end. At the very moment of our entry, a company or more of Confederate
+horse was also trotting into town. Both parties sounded the charge
+simultaneously, and the carbines exploded in the very heart of the
+village. For a minute or more a sabre fight ensued, alternated by the
+firing of revolvers; but the defenders were overmatched, and several of
+them having been slain, they turned to escape. At that moment, however,
+our other squadron charged upon them, effectually blocking up the
+street, and the whole party surrendered. A major, who exhibited some
+obstinacy, was felled from the saddle by a terrible cut, which clove his
+skull, and a very dexterous young fellow, who attempted to escape by a
+side street, dodged a bevy of pursuers and saved his head by the loss of
+both his ears. The disfigured corpses of those freshly slain were laid
+along the sidewalk in a row; and after some invasion of henroosts and
+private pantries, we remounted, and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> fifty or more prisoners
+crossed the Rapidan, and were welcomed into Culpepper with cheers. The
+prisoners were lodged in the loft of the Court House, and their officers
+were paroled, and boarded among the neighbors. They complied with the
+terms of their parole very honorably, and bore testimony to the courtesy
+of their captors. I talked with them often upon the tavern porch, but an
+undue intimacy with any of them might have brought me into disrepute.
+Although the larders of the village were supposed to be empty, savory
+meals were nevertheless sent daily to these cavalry-men, and it was
+evident that the people on all hands sympathized with their soldiery.</p>
+
+<p>The stringent orders of Pope, relative to removing the disaffected
+beyond his lines, were never enforced. I doubt if the veritable
+commander himself meant to do more than intimidate evil doers; but I saw
+frequent evidences of scrupulous humanity on the part of his general
+officers.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when I was negotiating with the Provost for the purchase of
+some port wine, stored upon the premises of a village druggist, a
+sergeant elbowed his way into the presence of the Marshal, and pushed
+forward two very dirty lads, who gave their ages respectively, as ten
+and thirteen years. They were of Hibernian parentage, and belonged to
+the class of newsboys trading with the different brigades. The younger
+lad was wiping his nose and eyes with a relic of a coat sleeve, and the
+elder was studying the points of the case, with a view to an elaborate
+defence. The sergeant produced a thick roll of bills and laid them upon
+the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Gineral Crawford," said he, "orders these boys to be locked up in the
+jail. They have been passing this stuff upon the country folks, and
+belong to a gang of young varmints who follers the 'lay.' The Gineral is
+going to have 'em brought up at the proper time and punished."</p>
+
+<p>The bills were fair imitations of Confederate currency, and were openly
+sold in the streets of Northern cities at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> rate of thousands of
+dollars for a penny. These lads probably purchased horses, swine, or
+fowls with them, or perhaps paid some impoverished widow for board in
+the worthless counterfeit.</p>
+
+<p>The younger lad sobbed and howled when the order for his incarceration
+had been announced, but the elder made a stout remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p>He didn't know the Gineral would arrest him. Everybody else passed the
+bills. He thought they wos good bills; some man gave 'em to him. They
+wan't passed, nohow, upon nobody but <i>Rebels</i>! He could prove that! He
+"know'd" a quartermaster that passed 'em. Wouldn't they let him and Sam
+off this wunst?</p>
+
+<p>They were both sent to Coventry, despite their tears, and down to the
+last day of our tenure in Culpepper, I saw these wicked urchins peeping
+through the grates of the old brick jail, where they lay in the steam
+and vapor, among negroes, drunkards, and thieves,&mdash;an evidence of
+justice, which it is a pleasure to record, in this free narrative.</p>
+
+<p>I joined a mess in the Ninth New York regiment finally, and contrived to
+exist till the fifth of the month, when Pope moved his head-quarters to
+a hill back of Culpepper, and thereafter I lived daintily for a little
+while. On the 8th of August, however, an event occurred, which disturbed
+the wisest calculations of the correspondent and the Generals, <span class="smcap">The
+Battle of Cedar Mountain</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>GOING INTO ACTION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>While General Pope's army was concentrating between the Rappahannock and
+Rapidan rivers, the army of General Stonewall Jackson was lying upon the
+south bank of the Rapidan, and that renowned commander's head-quarters
+were at Gordonsville, about thirty miles from Culpepper. It was
+generally presumed that Jackson had fortified Gordonsville, intending to
+lie in wait there, or possibly to oppose the crossing of Pope upon the
+banks of the river. It was not believed that Jackson's force was very
+great, because the main body of the Confederates were held below
+Richmond, where McClellan's army still remained. The Southern capital
+seemed to be menaced both from the North and the South; but in reality,
+the Grand Army was re-embarking at Harrison's Bar, and sailing up the
+Chesapeake in detachments, to effect a junction with Pope on the plains
+of Piedmont. So important a movement could not be concealed from the
+Confederates, and they had resolved to annihilate Pope before
+McClellan's reinforcements could arrive. It was the work of two weeks to
+transport eighty or a hundred thousand men three hundred miles, and
+finding that Burnside's corps had already landed upon the Potomac,
+Stonewall Jackson determined to cross the Rapidan and cripple the
+fragment of Pope's forces stationed at Culpepper.</p>
+
+<p>Stonewall Jackson is one of the many men whose ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>traordinary military
+genius has been developed by the civil war. But unlike the mass who have
+become famous in a day, and lost their laurels in a week, Jackson's
+glory has steadily increased. He was first brought into notice at
+Winchester, where he fought a fierce battle with Banks, and derived the
+<i>sobriquet</i> which he has retained to the present time. Soon afterward,
+he chased Banks's army down the Shenandoah Valley, and across the
+Potomac. Afterward, he bore a conspicuous part in the engagement below
+Richmond, and was now to become prominent in the most daring episodes of
+the whole war. His excellence was <i>activity</i>. He scrupled at no fatigue,
+marched his troops over steep and circuitous roads, was everywhere when
+unexpected, and nowhere when sought, and his boldness was equal to his
+energy. He did not fear to attack overpowering numbers, if the situation
+demanded it. All that General Lee might plan, General Jackson would dare
+to execute; and he has been, above all others, the Soult of the Southern
+war, while Stuart was its Murat, and Lee its Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>We first had intimation of the advance of Jackson on the afternoon of
+the 7th of August. Two regiments of cavalry, picketed upon the Rapidan,
+rode pell-mell into Culpepper, reporting a large Southern force at the
+fords, and rapidly advancing. Pope at once ordered the whole of one of
+these regiments under arrest, and it was the opinion of the army that
+the approach was a feint, or, at most, a reconnoissance in force.
+Subsequent information satisfied the incredulous, however, that a
+considerable body of troops were marching northward, and their outriding
+scouts had been seen at Cedar Mountain, only six miles from Culpepper.
+The latter is one of the many woody knobs or heights that environ the
+village, but it is nearer than any other, and should have been occupied
+by Pope, simultaneously with his arrival. It is scarcely a mountain in
+elevation, but so high that the clouds often envelope its crest, and it
+com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>mands a view of all the surrounding country. There are cleared
+patches up its sides, and the highest of these constitutes the farm of a
+clergyman, after whom the eminence is sometimes called "Slaughter's
+Mountain." At its base lie a few pleasant farms; and a shallow rivulet
+or creek, called Cedar Run, crosses the road between the mountain and
+Culpepper. Upon the mountain side Jackson had placed his batteries, and
+his infantry lay in dense thickets and belts of woods before the hill
+and on each side of it. The position was a powerful, though not an
+impregnable one; for batteries might readily be pushed up the slope, and
+our infantry had often ascended steeper eminences. But an opposing army
+scattered about the meadow lands below, would find its several
+components exposed to shot and shell, thrown from points three or four
+hundred feet above them.</p>
+
+<p>When it had been discovered that the enemy had anticipated us in seizing
+this strong position, word was at once despatched to Banks and Siegel to
+bring up their columns without delay. The brigade of General Crawford
+was marched through Culpepper at noon on Friday; and that afternoon,
+foot-sore, but enthusiastic, regiments began to arrive in rapid
+succession.</p>
+
+<p>I had been passing the morning of Friday with Colonel Bowman, a modest
+and capable gentleman, when the serenity of our converse was disturbed
+by a sergeant, who rode into camp with orders for a prompt advance in
+light marching order. In a twinkling all the camps in the vicinity were
+deserted, and the roads were so blocked with soldiers on my return, that
+I was obliged to ride through fields.</p>
+
+<p>I trotted rapidly into the village, and witnessed a scene exciting and
+martial beyond anything which I had remarked with the Army of Virginia.
+Regiments were pouring by all the roads and lanes into the main street,
+and the spectacle of thousands of bayonets, extending as far as the eye
+could reach, was enhanced by the music of a score of bands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> throbbing
+all at the same moment with wild music. The orders of officers rang out
+fitfully in the din, and when the steel shifted from shoulder to
+shoulder, it was like looking down a long sparkling wave. Above the
+confusion of the time, the various nativities of volunteers roared their
+national ballads. "St. Patrick's Day," intermingled with the weird
+refrain of "Bonnie Dundee," and snatches of German sword-songs were
+drowned by the thrilling chorus of the "Star-Spangled Banner." Then some
+stentor would strike a stave of&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and the wild, mournful music would be caught up by all,&mdash;Germans, Celts,
+Saxons, till the little town rang with the thunder of voices, all
+uttering the name of the grim old Moloch, whom&mdash;more than any one save
+Hunter&mdash;Virginia hates. Suddenly, as if by rehearsal, all hats would go
+up, all bayonets toss and glisten, and huzzas would deafen the winds,
+while the horses reared upon their haunches and the sabres rose and
+fell. Then, column by column, the masses passed eastward, while the
+prisoners in the Court-House cupola looked down, and the citizens peeped
+in fear through crevices of windows.</p>
+
+<p>Being unattached to the staff of any General at the time, and therefore
+at liberty as a mere spectator, I rode rapidly after the troops, passed
+the foremost regiments, and unwittingly kept to the left, which I did
+not discover in the excitement of the ride, till my horse was foaming
+and my face furrowed with heat drops. I saw that the way had been little
+travelled, and inquiry at a log farm-house, some distance further,
+satisfied me that I had mistaken the way. Two men in coarse brown suits,
+were chopping wood here, and they informed me, with an oath, that the
+last soldiers seen in the neighborhood, had been Confederate pickets. A
+by-road enabled me to recover the proper route, and from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> the top of a
+hill overlooking Culpepper, I had a view of the hamlet, nestling in its
+hollow; the roads entering it, black with troops, and all the slopes
+covered with wagon-trains, whose white canopies seemed infinite. The
+skies were gorgeously dyed over the snug cottages and modest spires;
+some far woods were folded in a pleasant haze; and the blue mountains
+lifted their huge backs, voluming in the distance, like some boundary
+for humanity, with a happier land beyond. Here I might have stood, a few
+months before, and heard the church bells; and the trees around me might
+have been musical with birds. But now the parsons and the choristers
+were gone; the scaffold was erected, the axe bare, and with a good by
+glance at the world and man, some hundreds of wretches were to drop into
+eternity. We have all read of the guillotine in other lands; it was now
+before me in my own.</p>
+
+<p>As I passed into the highway again, and riding through narrow passages,
+grazing officers' knees, turning vicious battery horses, winding in and
+out of woods, making detours through pasture fields, leaping ditches,
+and so making perilous progress, I passed many friends who hailed me
+cheerfully,&mdash;here a brigadier-general who waved his hand, or a colonel
+who saluted, or a staff officer who rode out and exchanged inquiries or
+greetings, or a sergeant who winked and laughed. These were some of the
+men whose bodies I was to stir to-morrow with my foot, when the eyes
+that shone upon me now would be swollen and ghastly.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the privates seeing me in plain clothes, as I had joined the
+army merely as a visitor and with no idea of seeing immediate service
+there, mistook me for a newspaper correspondent, which in one sense I
+was; and I was greeted with such cries as&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Our Special Artist!"</p>
+
+<p>"Our Own Correspondent!"</p>
+
+<p>"Give our Captain a setting up, you sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Puff our Colonel!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Give me a good obituary!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where's your pass, bub?"</p>
+
+<p>"Halloo! Jenkins. Three cheers for Jenkins!"</p>
+
+<p>I shall not soon forget one fellow, who planted himself in my path (his
+regiment had halted), and leaning upon his musket looked steadily into
+my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ef I had a warrant for the devil," he said, "I'd arrest that feller."</p>
+
+<p>Many of the soldiers were pensive and thoughtful; but the mass were
+marching to their funerals with boyish outcries, apparently anxious to
+forget the responsibilities of the time.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's sing, boys." "Oh! Get out, or I'll belt you over the snout."
+"Halloo! Pardner, is there water over there?" "Three groans for old
+Jeff!" "Hip-hip&mdash;hoo-roar! Hi! Hi!"</p>
+
+<p>A continual explosion of small arms, in the shape of epithets, jests,
+imitations of the cries of sheep, cows, mules, and roosters, and
+snatches of songs, enlivened the march. If something interposed, or a
+halt was ordered, the men would throw themselves in the dust, wipe their
+foreheads, drink from their canteens, gossip, grin, and shout
+confusedly, and some sought opportunities to straggle off, so that the
+regiments were materially decimated before they reached the field. The
+leading officers maintained a dignity and a reserve, and reined their
+horses together in places, to confer. At one time, a private soldier
+came out to me, presenting a scrap of paper, and asked me to scrawl him
+a line, which he would dictate. It was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My dear Mary, we are going into action soon, and I send you my love.
+Kiss baby, and if I am not killed I will write to you after the fight.</i>"
+The man asked me to mail the scrap at the first opportunity; but the
+same post which carried his simple billet, carried also his name among
+the rolls of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>At five o'clock I overtook Crawford's brigade, drawn up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> in front of a
+fine girdle of timber, in a grass field, and on the edge of Cedar Creek.
+Their ambulances had been unhitched, and ranged in a row against the
+woods and the soldiers were soon formed in line of battle, extending
+across the road, with their faces toward the mountain. In this order
+they moved through the creek, and disappeared behind the ridge of a
+cornfield. The hill towered in front, but with the naked eye I could
+distinguish only a speck of floating something above the roof of
+Slaughter's white house. This was said to be a flag, though I did not
+believe it; and as there were no evidences of any enemy, which I could
+determine, I turned my attention to the immediate necessities of myself
+and my horse. A granary lay at a little distance, and as I was hastening
+thither, a trooper came along with a blanket full of corn. Fortuitously,
+he dropped about a dozen ears, which I secured, and hitched my animal to
+a tree, where he munched until I had fallen asleep. The latter event
+happened in this wise.</p>
+
+<p>I had observed a slight person in the uniform of a surgeon. He was
+dividing a large lump of pork at the time, and three great crackers lay
+before him. I approached and introduced myself, and in a few minutes I
+was a partial proprieter of the meat, and he a recipient of some drink.
+The same person directed me to occupy a shelf of the ambulance, and when
+we lay down together he narrated some of his experiences in Martinsburg,
+when the Confederates occupied the place after Banks's retreat. He had
+charge of a hospital at that time, and witnessed the entrance of the
+Confederate army. The wildness of the people was unbounded, he said, and
+all who had given so much as a drop of cold water to the invaders were
+pointed out and execrated. The properties of a few, said to be
+Unionists, were endangered; and ruffianly soldiers climbed to the
+windows of the hospital, hooting and taunting the sick. Not to be
+outdone in bitterness, the tenants flung up their crutches and cheered
+for the "Union,"&mdash;that darling idea, which has marshalled a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> million of
+men and filled hecatombs with its champions. In a few days the Federals
+took possession of the town anew, and the Southern element was in turn
+oppressed. This is Civil War,&mdash;more cruel than the excesses of
+hereditary enemies. A year before these people of the Shenandoah were
+fellow-countrymen of the soldiery they contemned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>CEDAR MOUNTAIN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There being nothing to eat in the vicinity of the ambulances, I mounted
+anew at five o'clock and rode back toward Culpepper. No portion of the
+troops of Crawford were visible now, and only some gray smoke moved up
+the side of the mountain. A few stragglers were bathing their faces in
+Cedar Creek, and some miles in the rear lay several of McDowell's
+brigades under arms. Their muskets were stacked along the sides of the
+road, the men lay sleepily upon the ground,&mdash;company by company, each in
+its proper place,&mdash;the field-officers gossiping together, and the colors
+upright and unfurled. I was stopped, all the way along the lines, and
+interrogated as to what was happening in front.</p>
+
+<p>"Any Reb-bils out yonder?" asked a grim, snappish Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess they don't mean to fight before breakfast!" blurted a Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish they'd cut away, anyway, if they goin' to!" muttered a chorus of
+privates.</p>
+
+<p>At the village there was nothing to be purchased, although some sutlers'
+stores lay at the depot, guarded by Provost officers. I persuaded a
+negro to give me a mess of almost raw pork, and a woman, with a child at
+the breast, cooked me some biscuit. There were many civilians and idle
+officers in the town, and the streets were lined with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> cavalry. Mr.
+Paine, the landlord, was losing the remnant of his wits, and the young
+ladies were playing the "Bonnie Blue Flag," and laughing satirically at
+some young officers who listened. The correspondents began to show
+themselves in force, and a young fellow whom I may call Chitty,
+representing a provincial journal, greatly amused me, with the
+expression of fears that there might be no engagement after all. Chitty
+was an attorney, who had forsaken a very moderate practice, for a press
+connection, and he informed me, in confidence, that he was gathering
+materials for a history of the war. By reason of his attention to this
+weighty project, he failed to do any reporting, and as his mind was not
+very well balanced, he was commonly taken to be a simpleton. As there
+was nobody else to talk to, I amused myself with Chitty during the
+forenoon, and he narrated to me some doubtful intrigues which had varied
+his career in Piedmont. But Chitty had mingled in no battles, and now
+that a contest was about to take place, his heart warmed in
+anticipation. He asked me if the hottest fighting would not probably
+occur on the right, and intimated, in that event, his desire to carry
+despatches through the thickest of the fray. Death was welcome to Chitty
+if he could so distinguish himself. Between Chitty and a nap in a wagon,
+I managed to loiter out the morning, and at three o'clock, a cannon
+peal, so close that it shook the houses, brought my horse upon his
+haunches. For awhile I did not leave the village. Cannon upon cannon
+exploded; the young ladies ceased their mirth; the landlord staggered
+with white lips into the air, and after a couple of hours, I heard the
+signal that I knew so well&mdash;a volley of musketry. Full of all the old
+impulses, I climbed into the saddle, and spurred my horse towards the
+battle-field.</p>
+
+<p>The ride over six miles of clay road was a capital school for my pony.
+Every hoof-fall brought him closer to the cannon, and the sound had
+become familiar when he reached the scene. At four o'clock, the musketry
+was close and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> effective beyond anything I had known, and now and then I
+could see, from secure places, the spurts of white cannon-smoke far up
+the side of the mountain. The action was commenced by emulous
+skirmishers, who crawled from the woodsides, and annoyed each other from
+coverts of ridge, stump, and stone heap. A large number of Southern
+riflemen then threw themselves into a corner of wood, considerably
+advanced from their main position. Their fire was so destructive that
+General Banks felt it necessary to order a charge. Two brigades, when
+the signal was given, marched in line of battle, out of a wood, and
+charged across a field of broken ground toward the projecting corner. As
+soon as they appeared, sharpshooters darted up from a stretch of scrub
+cedars on their right, and a battery mowed them down by an oblique fire
+from the left. The guns up the mountain side threw shells with beautiful
+exactness, and the concealed rifle-men in front poured in deadly showers
+of bullet and ball. As the men fell by dozens out of line, the survivors
+closed up the gaps, and pressed forward gallantly. The ground was
+uneven, however, and solid order could not be observed throughout. At
+length, when they had gained a brookside at the very edge of the wood,
+the column staggered, quailed, fell into disorder, and then fell back.
+Some of the more desperate dashed singly into the thicket, bayoneting
+their enemies, and falling in turn in the fierce grapple. Others of the
+Confederates ran from the wood, and engaged hand to hand with
+antagonists, and, in places, a score of combatants met sturdily upon the
+plain, lunging with knife and sabre bayonet, striking with clubbed
+musket, or discharging revolvers. But at last the broken lines regained
+the shelter of the timber, and there was a momentary lull in the
+thunder.</p>
+
+<p>For a time, each party kept in the edges of the timber, firing at will,
+but the Confederates were moving forward in masses by detours, until
+some thousands of them stood in the places of the few who were at first
+isolated. Distinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> charges were now made, and a large body of Federals
+attempted to capture the battery before Slaughter's house, while
+separate brigades charged by front and flank upon the impenetrable
+timber. The horrible results of the previous effort were repeated; the
+Confederates preserved their position, and, at nightfall, the Federals
+fell back a mile or more. From fifteen hundred to two thousand of the
+latter were slain or wounded, and, though the heat of the battle had
+lasted not more than two hours, nearly four thousand men upon both sides
+were maimed or dead. The valor of the combatants in either cause was
+unquestionable. But no troops in the world could have driven the
+Confederates out of the impregnable mazes of the wood. It was an error
+to expose columns of troops upon an open plain, in the face of
+imperceptible sharpshooters. The batteries should have shelled the
+thickets, and the infantry should have retained their concealment. The
+most disciplined troops of Europe would not have availed in a country of
+bog, barren, ditch, creek, forest, and mountain. Compared to the bare
+plain of Waterloo, Cedar Mountain was like the antediluvian world, when
+the surface was broken by volcanic fire into chasms and abysses. In this
+battle, the Confederate batteries, along the mountain side, were
+arranged in the form of a crescent, and, when the solid masses charged
+up the hill, they were butchered by enfilading fires. On the Confederate
+part, a thorough knowledge of the country was manifest, and the best
+possible disposition of forces and means; on the side of the Federals,
+there was zeal without discretion, and gallantry without generalship.</p>
+
+<p>During the action, "Stonewall" Jackson occupied a commanding position on
+the side of the mountain, where, glass in hand, he observed every change
+of position, and directed all the operations. General Banks was
+indefatigable and courageous; but he was left to fight the whole battle,
+and not a regiment of the large reserve in his rear, came forward to
+succor or relieve him. As usual, McDow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>ell was cursed by all sides, and
+some of Banks's soldiers threatened to shoot him. But the unpopular
+Commander had no defence to make, and said nothing to clear up the
+doubts relative to him. He exposed himself repeatedly, and so did Pope.
+The latter rode to the front at nightfall,&mdash;for what purpose no one
+could say, as he had been in Culpepper during the whole afternoon,&mdash;and
+he barely escaped being captured. The loss of Federal officers was very
+heavy. Fourteen commissioned officers were killed and captured out of
+one regiment. Sixteen commissioned officers only remained in four
+regiments. One General was taken prisoner and several were wounded. A
+large number of field-officers were slain.</p>
+
+<p>During the progress of the fight I galloped from point to point along
+the rear, but could nowhere obtain a panoramic view. The common
+sentiment of civilians, that it is always possible to see a battle, is
+true of isolated contests only. Even the troops engaged, know little of
+the occurrences around them, and I have been assured by many soldiers
+that they have fought a whole day without so much as a glimpse of an
+enemy. The smoke and dust conceal objects, and where the greatest
+execution is done, the antagonists have frequently fired at a line of
+smoke, behind which columns may, or may not have been posted.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till nightfall, when the Federals gave up the contested
+ground, and fell back to some cleared fields, that I heard anything of
+the manner of action and the resulting losses. As soon as the firing
+ceased, the ambulance corps went ahead and began to gather up the
+wounded. As many of these as could walk passed to the rear on foot, and
+the spectacle at eight o'clock was of a terrible character. The roads
+were packed with ambulances, creaking under fearful weights, and rod by
+rod, the teams were stopped, to accommodate other sufferers who had
+fallen or fainted on the walk. A crippled man would cling to the tail of
+a wagon, while the tongue would be burdened with two, sustaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+themselves by the backs of the horses. Water was sought for everywhere,
+and all were hungry. I met at sundry times, friends who had passed me,
+hopeful and humorous the day before, now crawling wearily with a
+shattered leg or dumb with a stiff and dripping jaw. To realize the
+horror of the night, imagine a common clay road, in a quiet, rolling
+country, packed with bleeding people,&mdash;the fences down, horsemen riding
+through the fields, wagons blocking the way, reinforcements in dark
+columns hurrying up, the shouting of the well to the ill, and the feeble
+replies,&mdash;in a word, recall that elder time when the "earth was filled
+with violence," and add to the idea that the time was in the night.</p>
+
+<p>I assumed my old r&ocirc;le of writing the names of the wounded, but when, at
+nine o'clock, the 10th Maine regiment&mdash;a fragment of the proud column
+which passed me in the morning&mdash;returned, I hailed Colonel Beale, and
+reined with him into a clover-field, the files following wearily.
+Tramping through the tall garbage, with few words, and those spoken in
+low tones, we stopped at length in a sort of basin, with the ground
+rising on every side of us. The men were placed in line, and the Company
+Sergeants called the rolls. Some of the replies were thrilling, but all
+were prosaic:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Smith!"</p>
+
+<p>"Smith fell at the first fire, Sergeant. Bill, here, saw him go down."</p>
+
+<p>"Sturgis!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sam's in the ambulance, wi' his thigh broke. I don't believe he'll
+live, Sergeant!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thompson!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Vinton!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yar! (feebly said) four fingers shot off!"</p>
+
+<p>In this way, the long lists were read over, while the survivors chatted,
+laughed, and disputed, talking of the inci<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>dents of the day. Most of the
+men lay down in the clover, and some started off in couples to procure
+water. The field-officers gave me some items relative to the conflict,
+and as they were ordered to remain here, I resolved to pass the night
+with them. Obtaining a great fence-rail, I lashed my horse to it by his
+halter, and, removing his saddle and bridle, left him free to graze in
+the vicinity. Then I unfolded my camp-bed, covered myself with a rubber
+blanket, and continued to listen to the conversation. Of course,
+accusations, bitter mutterings, moodiness, and melancholy, prevailed. I
+heard these for some time, interspersed with sententious eulogies upon
+particular persons, and references to isolated events. The evening was
+one of the pleasantest of the year, in all that nature could contribute;
+a fine starlight, a transparent atmosphere, a coolness, and a fragrance
+of sweet-clover blossoms. I had laid my head upon my arm, and shut my
+eyes, and felt drowsiness come upon me, when something hurtled through
+the air, and another gun boomed on the stillness. A shell, describing an
+arc of fire, fell some distance to our left, and, in a moment, a second
+shell passed directly over our heads.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;&mdash;!" said an officer; "have they moved a battery so close? See! it is
+just at the end of this field!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked back! At the top of the basin in which we lay, something
+flashed up, throwing a glare upon the woody background, and a shell,
+followed by a shock, crashed ricochetting, directly in a line with us,
+but leaped, fortunately, above us, and continued its course far beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"They mean 'em for us," said the same voice; "they see these lights
+where the fools have been warming their coffee. Halloo!"</p>
+
+<p>Another glare of fire revealed the grouped men and horses around the
+battery, and for a moment I thought the missile had struck among us.
+There was a splutter, as of shivering metal flying about, and, with a
+sort of intuition, the whole regiment rose and ran. I started to my feet
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> looked for my horse. His ears were erect, his eyeballs distended,
+and his nostrils were tremulous with fright. A fifth shell, so perfectly
+in range that I held my breath, and felt my heart grow cold, came toward
+and passed me, and, with a toss of his head, the nag flung up the rail
+as if it had been a feather. He seemed literally to juggle it, and it
+flitted here and there, so that I dared not approach him. A favorable
+opportunity at length ensued, and I seized the animal by his halter. He
+was now wild with panic, and sprang toward me as if to trample me. In
+vain I endeavored to pull him toward the saddle. Fresh projectiles
+darted beside and above us, and the last of these seemed to pass so
+close that I could have reached and touched it. The panic took
+possession of me. I grasped my camp-bed, rather by instinct than by
+choice, and, holding it desperately under my arm, took to my heels.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long distance to the bottom of the clover-field, and the swift
+iron followed me remorselessly. At one moment, when a shell burst full
+in my face, half blinding me, I felt weak to faintness, but still I ran.
+I had wit enough to avoid the high road, which I knew to be packed with
+fugitives, and down which, I properly surmised, the enemy would send his
+steady messengers. Once I fell into a ditch, and the breath was knocked
+out of my body, but I rolled over upon my feet with marvellous
+sprightliness, till, at last, when I gained a corn-field, my attention
+was diverted to a strange, rattling noise behind me. I turned and
+looked. It was my horse, the rail dangling between his legs, his eyes on
+fire in the night. As we regarded each other, a shell burst between us.
+He dashed away across the inhospitable fields, and I fell into the high
+road among the routed. Expletives like these ensued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sa-a-ay! Hoss! Pardner! Are you going to ride over this wounded
+feller?"</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, have you a drop of water for a man that's fainted here?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Halloo! Buster! Keep that bayonit out o' my eye, if you please!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Gen. Banks? I hearn say he's a prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"I do' know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Was we licked, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! We warn't nothin' o' the kind. Siegel's outflanked 'em and okkepies
+the field. A man jus' told me so."</p>
+
+<p>"Huzza! Hearties, cheer up! Siegel's took the field, and Stonewall
+Jackson's dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for Siegel."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoorooar, hoor&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Get out! That's all blow. Don't try stuff me! We're lathered;
+that's the long and shawt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Boys, I guess we're beat!"</p>
+
+<p>Such was the character of exclamations that ran here and there, and
+after a little volley of them had been let off, a long pause succeeded,
+when only the sighs of the injured and the tramp of men and nags broke
+the silence. Overhead the starlight and the blue sky; on either side the
+rolling, shadowy fields; and wrapping the horizon in a gray, grisly
+girdle, the reposing woods plentiful with dew. Nature was putting forth
+all her still, sweet charms, as if to make men witness the damned
+contrast of their own wrath, violence, and murder. Even thus,
+perhaps,&mdash;I reasoned,&mdash;in the days of old, did the broken multitudes of
+Xerxes return by the shores of the golden Archipelago; and the
+Hellespont shone as peacefully as these silvernesses of earth and
+firmament. The dulness of history became invested with new intelligence.
+I filled in the details of a thousand routs conned in school-days, when
+only the dry outlines lay before me. They were mysteries before, and
+lacked the warmness of life and truth; but now I <i>saw</i> them! The armor
+and the helmets fell away, with all other trappings of custom, language,
+and ceremony. This pale giant, who walked behind the ambulance, leaning
+upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> footboard, was the limping Achilles, with the arrow of Paris
+festering in his heel. This ancient veteran, with his back to the field,
+was the fugitive &AElig;neas, leaving Troy behind. And these, around me,
+belonged to the columns of Barbazona, scattered at Legnano by the
+revengeful Milanese. Cobweb, and thick dust, and faded parchment had
+somewhat softened those elder events; but in their day they were
+tangible, practical, and prosaic, like this scene. Years will roll over
+this, as over those, and folks will read at firesides, half doubtfully,
+half wonderingly, the story of this bafflement, when no fragment of its
+ruin remains. It was a profound feeling that I should thus be walking
+down the great retreat of time, and that the occurrences around me
+should be remembered forever!</p>
+
+<p>There were a few prisoners in the mass, walking before cavalry-men.
+Nobody interfered with them, and they were not in a position to feel
+elated. Now and then, when we reached an ambulance, the fugitives would
+press around it to inquire if any of their friends were within. Rough
+recognitions would ensue, as thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bobby, is that you, back there?&mdash;Bobby Baker?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" (feebly uttered.)</p>
+
+<p>"Me, Bobby&mdash;Josh Wiggins. Are you shot bad, Bobby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shot in the thigh; think the bone's broke. You haven't got a drop of
+water, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Bobby; wish I had. Have anymore of our boys been hurt that you know
+of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Switzer is dead; Bill Cringle and Jonesy are prisoners; 'Pud' White is
+in the ambulance ahead; 'Fol' Thompson's lost an arm; that's all I
+know."</p>
+
+<p>When we had gone two miles or more, we found a provost column drawn
+across the road, and a mounted officer interrogating all who attempted
+to pass:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stop there! You're not wounded."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pass on! Halt boy! Go back. Men, close up there. Stop that boy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sun-struck, Major."</p>
+
+<p>"You lie! Drive him back. Go back, now!"</p>
+
+<p>Beyond this the way was comparatively clear; but as I knew that other
+guards held the road further on, I passed to the right, and with the
+hope of finding a rill of water, went across some grass fields, keeping
+toward the low places. The fields were very still, and I heard only the
+subdued noises wafted from the road; but suddenly I found myself
+surrounded by men. They were lying in groups in the tall grass, and
+started up suddenly, like the clansmen of Roderick Dhu. At first I
+thought myself a prisoner, and these some cunning Confederates, who had
+lain in wait. But, to my surprise, they were Federal uniforms, and were
+simply skulkers from various regiments, who had been hiding here during
+the hours of battle. Some of these miserable wretches asked me the
+particulars of the fight, and when told of the defeat, muttered that
+they were not to be hood-winked and slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>"I was sick, anyway," said one fellow, "and felt like droppin' on the
+road."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't trust my colonel," said another; "he ain't no soldier."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm tired of the war, anyhow," said a third, "and my time's up soon; so
+I shan't have my head blown off."</p>
+
+<p>As I progressed, dozens of these men appeared; the fields were strewn
+with them; a true man would rather have been lying with the dead on the
+field of carnage, than here, among the craven and base. I came to a
+spring at last, and the stragglers surrounded it in levies. One of them
+gave me a cup to dip some of the crystal, and a prayerful feeling came
+over me as the cooling draught fell over my dry palate and parched
+throat. Regaining the road, I encountered reinforcements coming rapidly
+out of Culpepper, and among them was the 9th New York. My friend
+Lieutenant Dra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>per, recognized me, and called out that he should see me
+on the morrow, if he was not killed meantime. Culpepper was filling with
+fugitives when I passed up the main street, and they were sprinkled
+along the sidewalks, gossiping with each other. The wounded were being
+carried into some of the dwellings, and when I reached the Virginia
+Hotel, many of them lay upon the porch. I placed my blanket on a clean
+place, threw myself down exhaustedly, and dropped to sleep directly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>OUT WITH A BURYING PARTY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When I rose, at ten o'clock on the morning of Sunday, August 10, the
+porch was covered with wounded people. Some fierce sunbeams were gliding
+under the roof, shining in the poor fellows' eyes, and they were
+stirring wearily, though asleep. Picking my way among the prostrate
+figures, I resorted to the pump in the rear of the tavern for the
+purpose of bathing my face. A soldier stood there on guard, and he
+refused to give me so much as a draught of water. The wounded needed
+every drop, and there were but a few wells in the town. I strolled
+through the main street, now crowded with unfortunates, and pausing at
+the Court House, found the seat of justice transmuted to a headquarters
+for surgeons, where amputations were being performed. Continuing by a
+street to the left, I came to the depot, and here the ambulances were
+gathered with their scores of inmates. A tavern contiguous to the
+railway was also a hospital, but in the basement I found the
+transportation agents at breakfast, and they gave me a bountiful meal.</p>
+
+<p>It was here arranged between myself and an old friend&mdash;a newspaper
+correspondent who had recently married, and whose wife awaited him at
+Willard's in Washington&mdash;that he should proceed at once to New York with
+the outline of the fight, and that I should follow him next day (having,
+indeed, to report for duty and fresh orders at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Head-quarters of the
+army in Washington,) with particulars and the lists of killed. I
+commenced my part of the labors at once, employing three persons to
+assist me, and we districted Culpepper, so that no one should interfere
+with the grounds of the other. My own part of the work embraced both
+hotel-hospitals, the names and statements of the prisoners of the Court
+House loft, and interviews with some of the generals and colonels who
+lay at various private residences. The business was not a desirable one;
+for hot hospital rooms were now absolutely reeking, and many of the
+victims were asleep. It would be inhuman to awaken these; but in many
+cases those adjacent knew nothing, and with all assiduity the rolls must
+be imperfect. I found one man who had undergone a sort of mental
+paralysis and could not tell me his own name. However, I groped through
+the several chambers where the bleeding littered the bare floors. Some
+of them were eating voraciously, and buckets of ice-water were being
+carried to and fro that all might drink. Some male nurses were fanning
+the sleeping people with boughs of cedar; but the flies filled the
+ceiling, and, attracted by the wounds, they kept up a constant buzzing.
+I imagined that mortification would rapidly ensue in this broiling
+atmosphere. A couple of trains were being prepared below, to transport
+the sufferers to Washington, and from time to time individuals were
+carried into the air and deposited in common freight-cars upon the hard
+floors. Here they were compelled to wait till late in the evening, for
+no trains were allowed to leave the village during the day. At the
+Virginia Hotel, I visited, among others, the room in which I had lodged
+when I first came to Culpepper. Eight persons now occupied it, and three
+of them lay across the bed. I took the first man's name, and as the man
+next to him seemed to be asleep, I asked the first man to nudge him
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he is alive," said the man; "he hasn't moved since
+midnight. I've spoken to him already."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I pulled a blanket from the head of the figure, and the tangled hair,
+yellow skin, and stiffened jaw told all the story. The other man looked
+uneasily into the face of the corpse and then lay down with his back
+toward it.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they'll take it out," said he, "I don't want to sleep beside it
+another night."</p>
+
+<p>The guard at the Court House allowed me to ascend to the loft, and the
+prisoners&mdash;forty or fifty in number&mdash;clustered around me. They had
+received, a short time before, their day's allotment of crackers and
+bread, and some of them were sitting in the cupola, with their bare legs
+hanging over the rails. They were anxious to have their names printed,
+and I learned from the less cautious the names of the brigades to which
+they belonged. Before I left the room I had obtained the number of
+regiments in Jackson's command and the names of his brigadier-generals.
+Some prisoners arrived while I was noting these matters. They had been
+sent to pick up arms, canteens, cartridge-boxes, etc., from the
+battle-field, and some of our cavalry had ridden them down and captured
+them. They were a little discomposed, but said, for the most part, that
+they were weary of the war and glad to be in custody. As a rule,
+Northern and Southern troops have the same general manners and
+appearances. These were more ragged than any Federals I had ever known,
+and their appetites were voracious.</p>
+
+<p>I found General Geary, a Pennsylvania brigade Commander, in the dwelling
+of a lady near the end of the town. He had received a bullet in the arm,
+and, I believe, submitted to amputation afterward. He was a tall,
+athletic man, upwards of six feet in height, and a citizen of one of the
+mountainous interior counties of the Quaker State. His life had been
+marked by much adventure, and he had been elevated to many important
+civil positions in various quarters of the Republic. He occupied a
+leading place, in the Mexican war, and was afterward Mayor of San
+Francisco<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> and Governor of Kansas. He acted with the Southern wing of
+the Democratic party, and was discreetly ambitious, promoting the
+agricultural interests of his commonwealth, and otherwise fulfilling
+useful civil functions. He was a fine exemplar of the American
+gentleman, preserving the better individualities of his countrymen, but
+discarding those grosser traits, which have given us an unenviable name
+abroad. Geary could not do a mean thing, and his courage came so
+naturally to him that he did not consider it any cause of pride. The
+bias of party, which in America diseases the best natures, had in some
+degree affected the General. He was prone to go with his party in any
+event, when often, I think, his fine intelligence would have prompted
+him to an independent course. But I wish that all our leading men
+possessed his manliness, for then more dignity and self-respect, and
+less "smartness," might be apparent in our social and political
+organizations.</p>
+
+<p>He was lying on his back, with his shattered arm bandaged, and resting
+on his breast. Twitches of keen pain shot across his face now and then,
+but he received me with a simple courtesy that made his patience thrice
+heroic. He did not speak of himself or his services, though I knew both
+to be eminent; but McDowell had insulted him, as he rode disabled from
+the field, and Geary felt the sting of the word more than the bullet. He
+had ventured to say to McDowell that the Reserves were badly needed in
+front, and the proud "Regular" had answered the officious "Volunteer,"
+to the effect that he knew his own business. Not the least among the
+causes of the North's inefficiency will be found this ill feeling
+between the professional and the civil soldiery. A Regular contemns a
+Volunteer; a Volunteer hates a Regular. I visited General Augur&mdash;badly
+wounded&mdash;in the drawing-room of the hotel, and paused a moment to watch
+Colonel Donnelly, mortally wounded, lying on a spread in the hall. The
+latter lingered a day in fearful agony; but he was a powerful man in
+physique, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> fought with death through a bloody sweat, never
+moaning nor complaining, till he fell into a blessed torpidity, and so
+yielded up his soul. The shady little town was a sort of Golgotha now.
+Feverish eyes began to burn into one's heart, as he passed along the
+sidewalks. Red hospital flags, hung like regalia from half the houses. A
+table for amputations was set up in the open air, and nakedness glared
+hideously upon the sun. How often have they brought out corpses in plain
+boxes of pine, and shut them away without sign, or ceremony, or tears,
+driving a long stake above the headboard. The ambulances came and went,
+till the line seemed stretching to the crack of doom; while, as in
+contemplation of further murder, the white-covered ammunition-teams
+creaked southward, and mounted Provosts charged upon the skulkers,
+driving them to a pen, whence they were forwarded to their regiments.
+Old Mr. Paine, the landlord, tottered up to me, with a tear in his eye,
+and said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My good Lord, sir! Who is responsible for this?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not mean to suggest argument. It was the language of a human
+heart pitying its brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p>At twelve o'clock I started anew for the field, and fell in with Captain
+Chitty on the way. He stated that his courage during the fight surpassed
+his most heroic expectations, and added, in an undertone, that he was
+deliberating as to whether he should allow his name to be mentioned
+officially, since several military men were urging that honor upon him.
+I dissuaded Chitty from this intent, upon the ground that his reputation
+for modesty might be sacrificed. Chitty at once said that he would take
+my advice. We encountered Surgeon Ball, of Ohio, after a time, and he
+informed us that a day's armistice had been agreed upon, to allow for
+the burial of the dead. The work of interment was already commenced in
+front, and the surgeon had been ordered to see to the wounded, some of
+whom still lay on the places where they fell. He allowed us to accompany
+him in the capacity of cadets, but we first diverged a little from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+road, that he might obtain his portmanteau of instruments. I fell into a
+little difficulty here, by unwittingly asking aloud of the 28th
+Pennsylvania regiment, if that was not the organization which hid itself
+during the fight? The 28th had been ordered, on the morning of Saturday,
+to occupy Telegraph Mountain,&mdash;an elevation in the rear of Cedar
+Mountain,&mdash;which was used for a Federal signal-post. Nobody having
+notified the 28th to return to camp, they remained on the mountain,
+passively witnessing the carnage, and came away in the night. But
+although my remark was jestingly said, the knot of soldiers who heard it
+were intensely excited. They spoke of taking me "off that hoss," and
+called me a New York "Snob," who "wanted his head punched." This irate
+feeling may be attributed to the rivalry which exists between the
+"Empire" and the "Keystone" States, the latter being very jealous of the
+former, and claiming to have sent more troops to the war than any other
+commonwealth. The 28th volunteers doubtless expected a terrific
+onslaught from the next issue of the Philadelphia papers.</p>
+
+<p>The reserve, which had lain some miles in the rear the previous evening,
+were now massed close to the field, but in the woods, that the enemy
+might not count their numbers from his high position. Stopping at times
+to chat with brother officers, at last I reached the meadow whence I had
+been driven the previous evening. I looked for my nag in vain. One
+soldier told me that he had seen him at daylight limping along the high
+road; but after sundry wild-goose chases, I gave up the idea of
+recovering him.</p>
+
+<p>At last I passed the outlying batteries, with their black muzzles
+scanning the battle-ground, and ascending the clover field, came upon
+the site of the battery which had so discomfited us the previous night.
+A signal vengeance had overtaken it. Some splinters of wheel and an
+overturned caisson, with eight horses lying in a group,&mdash;their hoofs
+extended like index boards, their necks elongated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> along the ground, and
+their bodies swollen&mdash;were the results of a single shell trained upon
+the battery by a cool artillerist. Beyond, the road and fields were
+strown with knapsacks, haversacks, jackets, canteens, cartridge-boxes,
+shoes, bayonets, knives, buttons, belts, blankets, girths, and sabres.
+Now and then a mule or a horse lay at the roadside, with the clay
+saturated beneath him; and some of the tree-tops, in the depth of the
+woods, were scarred, split, and barked, as if the lightning had blasted
+them. Now passing a disabled wagon, now marking a dropped horseshoe, now
+turning a capsized ambulance, now regarding a perfect wilderness of old
+clothes, we emerged from the timber at last, and came to the place where
+I had slept on the eve of the battle. A hurricane had apparently swept
+the country here, and the fences had been transported bodily. Sometimes
+the ground looked, for limited areas, as if there had been a rain of
+kindling-wood; and there were furrows in the clay, like those made by
+some great mole which had ploughed into the bowels of the earth. All the
+tree boles were pierced and perforated, and boughs had been severed so
+that they littered the way. Cedar Creek ran merrily across what had been
+the road,&mdash;the waters limpid and cool as before,&mdash;and when I passed
+beyond, I entered the region of dead men. Some poisonous Upas had
+seemingly grown here, so that adventurers were prostrated by its
+exhalations. A tributary rivulet formed with the creek a triangular
+enclosure of ground, where most of the Federals had fallen. To the left
+of the road stood a cornfield; to the right a stubble-field, dotted with
+stone heaps: deep woods formed the background to these, and
+scrub-timber, irregularly disposed, the foreground. On the right of the
+stubble lay a great stretch of "barren," spotted with dwarf cedars, and
+on the left of the cornfield stood a white farm-house, with orchards and
+outbuildings; beyond, the creek had hollowed a ravine among the hills,
+and the far distance was bounded by the mountains on the Rapidan. In the
+immediate front,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> towered Cedar Mountain, with woods at its base; and
+the roadway in which I stood, lost itself a little way on in the mazes
+of the thicket. Looking down one of the rows of corn, I saw the first
+corpse&mdash;the hands flung stiffly back, the feet set stubbornly, the chin
+pointing upward, the features losing their sharpness, the skin
+blackening, the eyes great and white&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A heap of death&mdash;a chaos of cold clay."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Turning into the cornfield, we came upon one man with a spade, and
+another man lying at his feet. He was digging a grave, and when we
+paused to note the operation, he touched his cap:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pardner o' mine," he said, indicating the body; "him and I fit side by
+side, and we agreed, if it could be done, to bury each other. There
+ain't no sich man as that lost out o' the army, private or
+officer,&mdash;with all respect to you."</p>
+
+<p>It was a eulogy that sounded as if more deserved, because it was homely.
+There are some that I have read, much finer, but not as honest. At
+little distances we saw parties of ten or twenty, opening trenches, the
+tributary brook, only, dividing the Confederate and Federal fatigue
+parties. Close to this brook, in the cornfield, lay a fallen trunk of a
+tree, and four men sat upon it. Two of them wore gray uniforms, two wore
+blue. The latter were Gens. Roberts and Hartsuff of the Federal army.
+They were waiting for Gens. Stuart and Early, of the Confederate army:
+and the four were to define the period of the armistice. The men in gray
+were Major Hintham of Mississippi, and Lieut. Elliott Johnston of
+Maryland. Hintham was a lean, fiery, familiar man, who wore the uniform
+of several field-marshals. An ostrich feather was stuck in his soft hat
+and clasped by a silver star upon a black velvet ground. A golden cord
+formed his hat-band, and two tassels, as huge as those of drawing-room
+curtains, fell upon his back. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> collar was plentifully embroidered as
+well as his coat-sleeves, and a black seam ran down his trousers. He
+wore spurs of prodigious size, and looked, in the main, like a tragedian
+about to appear upon the stage. The other man was young, stout, and good
+humored; and he talked sententiously, with a little vanity, but much
+courtesy. The Federals had nothing to say to these, they dealt only with
+equals in rank. It became a matter of professional ambition, now, to
+obtain the greatest amount of information from these Confederates,
+without appearing to depart from any conventionality of the armistice. I
+got along very well till Chitty came up, and his interrogatives were so
+pert and pointed that he very nearly spoiled the entire labor. Young
+Johnston was a Baltimorean, and wished his people to know something of
+him; he gave me a card, stated that he was one of Gen. Garnett's aids,
+and had opened the armistice, early in the day, by riding into the
+Federal lines with a flag of truce. By detachments, new bodies of
+Confederate officers joined us, most of them being young fellows in gray
+suits: and at length Gen. Early rode down the hillside and nodded his
+head to our party.</p>
+
+<p>It was the custom of our newspapers to publish, with its narrative of
+each battle, a plan of the field; and in furtherance of this object,
+having agreed to act for my absent friend, I moved a little way from the
+place of parley, and laying my paper on the pommel of my saddle
+proceeded to sketch the relative positions of road, brook, mountain, and
+woodland. While thus busily engaged, and congratulating myself upon the
+fine opportunities afforded me, a lithe, indurated, severe-looking
+horseman rode down the hill, and reining beside me, said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Are you making a sketch of our position?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for any military purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"For a newspaper engraving."</p>
+
+<p>"Umph!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The man rode past me to the log, and when I had finished my transcript,
+I resumed my place at the group. The new comer was Major General J. E.
+B. Stuart, one of the most famous cavalry leaders in the Confederate
+army. He was inquiring for General Hartsuff, with whom he had been a
+fellow-cadet at West Point; but the Federal General had strolled off,
+and in the interval Stuart entered into familiar converse with the
+party. He described the Confederate uniform to me, and laughed over some
+reminiscences of his raid around McClellan's army.</p>
+
+<p>"That performance gave me a Major-Generalcy, and my saddle cloth there,
+was sent from Baltimore as a reward, by a lady whom I never knew."</p>
+
+<p>Stuart exhibited what is known in America as "airiness," and evidently
+loved to talk of his prowess. Directly Gen. Hartsuff returned, and the
+forager rose, with a grim smile about his mouth&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hartsuff, God bless you, how-de-do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stuart, how are you?"</p>
+
+<p>They took a quiet turn together, speaking of old school-days, perhaps;
+and when they came back to the log, Surgeon Ball produced a bottle of
+whiskey, out of which all the Generals drank, wishing each other an
+early peace.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's hoping you may fall into our hands," said Stuart; "we'll treat
+you well at Richmond!"</p>
+
+<p>"The same to you!" said Hartsuff, and they all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange scene,&mdash;this lull in the hurricane. Early was a North
+Carolinian, who lost nearly his whole brigade at Williamsburg. He wore a
+single star upon each shoulder, and in other respects resembled a homely
+farmer. He kept upon his horse, and had little to say. Crawford was gray
+and mistrustful, calmly measuring Stuart with his eye, as if he intended
+to challenge him in a few minutes. Hartsuff was fair and burly, with a
+boyish face, and seemed a little ill at ease. Stuart sat upon a log, in
+careless posture, working his jaw till the sandy gray beard brushed his
+chin and became twisted in his teeth. Around, on foot and on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> horse,
+lounged idle officers of both armies; and the little rill that trickled
+behind us was choked in places with corpses. A pleasanter meeting could
+not have been held, if this were a county training. The Surgeon told
+Gen. Stuart that some of his relatives lived near the Confederate
+Capital, and as the General knew them, he related trifling occurrences
+happening in their neighborhoods, so that the meeting took the form of a
+roadside gossip, and Stuart might have been a plain farmer jaunting home
+from market. The General, who was called "JEB" by his associates, so far
+relented finally as to give me leave to ride within the Confederate
+outer lines, and Lieut. Johnson accompanied me. The corpses lay at
+frequent points, and some of the wounded who had not been gathered up,
+remained at the spots where they had fallen. One of these, whose leg had
+been broken, was incapable of speaking, and could hardly be
+distinguished from the lifeless shapes around him. The number of those
+who had received their death wound on the edge of the brook, while in
+the act of leaping across was very great. I fancied that their faces
+retained the mingled ardor and agony of the endeavor and the pang. There
+seemed to be no system in the manner of interment, and many of the
+Federals had thrown down their shovels, and strolled across the
+boundary, to chaff and loiter with the "Butternuts." No one, whom I saw,
+exhibited any emotion at the strewn spectacles on every side, and the
+stories I had read of the stony-heartedness during the plague, were more
+than rivalled by these charnel realities. Already corruption was
+violating the "temples of the living God." The heat of the day and the
+general demoralizing influences of the climate, were making havoc with
+the shapely men of yesterday, and nature seemed hastening to reabsorb,
+and renew by her marvellous processes, what was now blistering and
+burdening her surface. Enough, however, of this. Satiated with the
+scenes of war, my ambition now was to extend my observations to the
+kingdoms of the Old World.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT IN ENGLAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The boy's vague dream of foreign adventure had passed away; my purpose
+was of a tamer and more practical cast; it was resolved to this problem:
+"How could I travel abroad and pay my expenses?"</p>
+
+<p>Evidently no money could be made by home correspondence. The new order
+of journals had no charity for fine moral descriptions of church
+steeples, ruined castles, and picture galleries; I knew too little of
+foreign politics to give the Republic its semi-weekly "sensation;" and
+exchange was too high at the depreciated value of currency to yield me
+even a tolerable reward. But might I not reverse the policy of the
+peripatetics, and, instead of turning my European experiences into
+American gold, make my knowledge of America a bill of credit for
+England?</p>
+
+<p>What capital had I for this essay? I was twenty-one years of age; the
+last three years of my minority had been passed among the newspapers; I
+knew indifferently well the distribution of parties, the theory of the
+Government, the personalities of public men, the causes of the great
+civil strife. And I had mounted to my saddle in the beginning of the
+war, and followed the armies of McClellan and Pope over their sanguinary
+battle-fields. The possibility thrilled me like a novel discovery, that
+the Old World might be willing to hear of the New, as I could depict it,
+fresh from the theatre of action. At great expense foreign
+correspond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>ents had been sent to our shores, whose ignorance and
+confidence had led them into egregious blunders; for their travelling
+outlay merely, I would have guaranteed thrice the information, and my
+sanguine conceit half persuaded me that I could present it as
+acceptably. I did not wait to ponder upon this suggestion. The guns of
+the second action of Bull Run growled a farewell to me as I resigned my
+horse and equipments to a successor. With a trifle of money, I took
+passage on a steamer, and landed at Liverpool on the first of October,
+1862.</p>
+
+<p>Among my acquaintances upon the ship was a semi-literary adventurer from
+New England. I surmised that his funds were not more considerable than
+my own; and indeed, when he comprehended my plans, he confessed as much,
+and proposed to join enterprises with me.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever make a public lecture?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Now I had certain blushing recollections of having entertained a
+suburban congregation, long before, with didactic critiques upon Byron,
+Keats, and the popular poets. I replied, therefore, misgivingly, in the
+affirmative, and Hipp, the interrogator, exclaimed at once&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Let us make a lecturing tour in England, and divide the expenses and
+the work; you will describe the war, and I will act as your agent."</p>
+
+<p>With true Yankee persistence Hipp developed his idea, and I consented to
+try the experiment, though with grave scruples. It would require much
+nerve to talk to strange people upon an excitable topic; and a camp
+fever, which among other things I had gained on the Chickahominy, had
+enfeebled me to the last degree.</p>
+
+<p>However, I went to work at once, inditing the pages in a snug parlor of
+a modest Liverpool inn, while Hipp sounded the patrons and landlord as
+to the probable success of our adventure. Opinions differed; public
+lectures in the Old World had been generally gratuitous, except in rare
+cases, but the genial Irish proprietor of the <i>Post</i> advised me to go on
+without hesitation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We selected for the initial night a Lancashire sea-side town, a summer
+resort for the people of Liverpool, and filled at that time with
+invalids and pleasure-seekers. Hipp, who was a sort of American
+Crichton, managed the business details with consummate tact. I was
+announced as the eye-witness and participator of a hundred actions,
+fresh from the bloodiest fields and still smelling of saltpetre. My
+horse had been shot as I carried a General's orders under the fire of a
+score of batteries, and I was connected with journals whose reputations
+were world-wide. Disease had compelled me to forsake the scenes of my
+heroism, and I had consented to enlighten the Lancashire public, through
+the solicitation of the nobility and gentry. Some of the latter had
+indeed honored the affair with their patronage.</p>
+
+<p>We secured the three village newspapers by writing them descriptive
+letters. The parish rector and the dissenting preachers were waited upon
+and presented with family tickets; while we placarded the town till it
+was scarcely recognizable to the oldest inhabitant.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the eventful day I arrived in the place. The best room
+of the best inn had been engaged for me, and waiters in white aprons,
+standing in rows, bowed me over the portal. The servant girls and
+gossips had fugitive peeps at me through the cracks of my door, and I
+felt for the first time all the oppressiveness of greatness. As I walked
+on the quay where the crowds were strolling, looking out upon the misty
+sea, at the donkeys on the beach, and at the fishing-smacks huddled
+under the far-reaching pier, I saw my name in huge letters borne on the
+banner of a bill-poster, and all the people stopping to read as they
+wound in and out among them.</p>
+
+<p>How few thought the thin, sallow young man, in wide breeches and
+square-toed boots, who shambled by them so shamefacedly, to be the
+veritable Mentor who had crossed the ocean for their benefit. Indeed,
+the embarrassing responsibility I had assumed now appeared to me in all
+its vividness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My confidence sensibly declined; my sensitiveness amounted to
+nervousness; I had half a mind to run away and leave the show entirely
+to Hipp. But when I saw that child of the Mayflower stolidly, shrewdly
+going about his business, working the wires like an old operator, making
+the largest amount of thunder from so small a cloud, I was rebuked of my
+faintheartedness. In truth, not the least of my misgivings was Hipp's
+extraordinary zeal. He gave the townsmen to understand that I was a
+prodigy of oratory, whose battle-sketches would harrow up their souls
+and thrill them like a martial summons. It brought the blush to my face
+to see him talking to knots of old men after the fashion of a town crier
+at a puppet-booth, and I wondered whether I occupied a more reputable
+rank, after all, than a strolling gymnast, giant, or dwarf.</p>
+
+<p>As the twilight came on my position became ludicrously unenviable. The
+lights in the town-hall were lit. I passed pallidly twice or thrice, and
+would have given half my fortune if the whole thing had been over. But
+the minutes went on; the interval diminished; I faced the crisis at last
+and entered the arena.</p>
+
+<p>There sat Hipp, taking money at the head of the stairs, with piles of
+tickets before him; and as he rose, gravely respectful, the janitor and
+some loiterers took off their hats while I passed. I entered the little
+bare dressing-room; my throat was parched as fever, my hands were hot
+and tremulous; I felt my heart sag. How the rumble of expectant feet in
+the audience-room shook me! I called myself a poltroon, and fingered my
+neck-tie, and smoothed my hair before the mirror. Another burst of
+impatient expectation made me start; I opened the door, and stood before
+my destiny.</p>
+
+<p>The place was about one third filled with a representative English
+audience, the males preponderating in number. They watched me intently
+as I mounted the steps of the rostrum and arranged my port-folio upon a
+musical tripod;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> then I seated myself for a moment, and tried to still
+the beating of my foolish heart.</p>
+
+<p>How strangely acute were my perceptions of everything before me! I
+looked from face to face and analyzed the expressions, counted the lines
+down the corduroy pantaloons, measured the heavily-shod English feet,
+numbered the rows of benches and the tubes of the chandeliers, and
+figured up the losing receipts from this unremunerative audience.</p>
+
+<p>Then I rose, coughed, held the house for the last time in severe review,
+and repeated&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>&mdash;A grand contest agitates America and the world.
+The people of the two sections of the great North American Republic,
+having progressed in harmony for almost a century, and become a
+formidable power among the nations, are now divided and at enmity; they
+have consecrated with blood their fairest fields, and built monuments of
+bones in their most beautiful valleys," etc.</p>
+
+<p>For perhaps five minutes everything went on smoothly. I was pleased with
+the clearness of my voice; then, as I referred to the origin of the war,
+and denounced the traitorous conspiracy to disrupt the republic, faint
+mutterings arose, amounting to interruptions at last. The sympathies of
+my audience were, in the main, with the secession. There were cheers and
+counter cheers; storms of "Hear, hear," and "No, no," until a certain
+youth, in a sort of legal monkey-jacket and with ponderously
+professional gold seals, so distinguished himself by exclamations that I
+singled him out as a mark for my bitterest periods.</p>
+
+<p>But while I was thus the main actor in this curious scene, a strange,
+startling consciousness grew apace upon me; the room was growing dark;
+my voice replied to me like a far, hollow echo; I knew&mdash;I knew that I
+was losing my consciousness&mdash;that I was about to faint! Words cannot
+describe my humiliation at this discovery. I set my lips hard and
+straightened my limbs; raised my voice to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> shrill, defiant pitch, and
+struggled in the dimming horror to select my adversary in the
+monkey-jacket and overwhelm him with bitter apostrophes. In vain! The
+novelty, the excitement, the enervation of that long, consuming fever,
+mastered my overtaxed physique. I knew that, if I did not cease, I
+should fall senseless to the floor. Only in the last bitter instant did
+I confess my disability with the best grace I could assume.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," I said, gaspingly, "this is my first appearance in your
+country, and I am but just convalescent; my head is a little weak. Will
+you kindly bear with me a moment while the janitor gets me a glass of
+water?"</p>
+
+<p>A hearty burst of applause took the sting from my mortification. A bald
+old gentleman in the front row gravely rose and said, "Let me send for a
+drop of brandy for our young guest." They waited patiently and kindly
+till my faintness passed away, and when I rose, a genuine English cheer
+shook the place.</p>
+
+<p>I often hear it again when, here in my own country, I would speak
+bitterly of Englishmen, and it softens the harshness of my condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>But I now addressed myself feverishly to my task, and my disgrace made
+me vehement and combative. I glared upon the individual in the
+monkey-jacket as if he had been Mr. Jefferson Davis himself, and read
+him a scathing indictment. The man in the monkey-jacket was not to be
+scathed. He retorted more frequently than before; he was guilty of the
+most hardy contempt of court. He was determined not to agree with me,
+and said so.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," I exclaimed at last, "pray reserve your remarks till the end of
+the lecture, and you shall have the platform."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be quite willing, I am sure," said the man in the monkey-jacket
+with imperturbable effrontery.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as I continued, the contest grew interesting; explosions of "No,
+no," were interrupted with volleys of "Ay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> ay," from my adherents.
+Hipp, who had squared accounts, made all the applause in his power,
+standing in the main threshold, and the little auditory became a ringing
+arena, where we fought without flinching, standing foot to foot and
+drawing fire for fire. The man in the monkey-jacket broke his word:
+silence was not his forte; he hurled denials and counter-charges
+vociferously; he was full of gall and bitterness, and when I closed the
+last page and resumed my chair, he sprang from his place to claim the
+platform.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop," cried Hipp, in his hard nasal tone, striding forward; "you have
+interrupted the lecturer after giving your parole; we recall our
+promise, as you have not stood by yours. Janitor, put out the lights!"</p>
+
+<p>The bald old gentleman quietly rose. "In England," he said, "we give
+everybody fair play; tokens of assent and dissent are commonly made in
+all our public meetings; let us have a hearing for our townsman."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," I replied, giving him my hand at the top of the stairs,
+"nothing would afford me more pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>The man in the monkey-jacket then made a sweeping speech, full of loose
+charges against the Americans, and expressive of sympathy with the
+Rebellion; but, at the finishing, he proposed, as the sentiment of the
+meeting, a vote of thanks to me, which was amended by another to include
+himself. Many of the people shook hands with me at the door, and the
+bald old gentleman led me to his wife and daughter, whose benignities
+were almost parental.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor young man!" said the old lady; "a must take care of 'is 'ealth;
+will a come hoom wi' Tummas and me and drink a bit o' tea?"</p>
+
+<p>I strolled about the place for twenty-four hours on good terms with many
+townsmen, while Hipp, full of pluck and business, was posting me against
+all the dead walls of a farther village. Again and again I sketched the
+war-episodes I had followed, gaining fluency and confidence as by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>
+degrees my itinerant profession lost its novelty, but we as steadily
+lost money. The houses were invariably bad; we had the same fiery
+discussions every evening, but the same meagre receipts, and in every
+market town of northwestern Lancashire we buried a portion of our little
+capital, till once, after talking myself hoarse to a respectable
+audience of empty benches, Hipp and I looked blankly into each other's
+faces and silently put our last gold pieces upon the table. We were
+three thousand miles from home, and the possessors of ten sovereigns
+apiece. I reached out my hand with a pale smile:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Old fellow," I said, "let us comfort ourselves by the assurance that we
+have deserved success. The time has come to say good by."</p>
+
+<p>"As you will," said Hipp: "it is all the fault of this pig-headed
+nation. Now I dare say if we had brought a panorama of the war along, it
+would have been a stunning success; but standing upon high literary and
+forensic ground, of course they can't appreciate us. Confound 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>I think that Hipp has since had but two notions,&mdash;the exhibition of that
+panorama, or, in the event of its failure, a declaration of war against
+the British people. He followed me to Liverpool, and bade me adieu at
+Birkenhead, I going Londonward with scarcely enough money to pay my
+passage, and he to start next day for Belfast, to lecture upon his own
+hook, or, failing (as he afterward did), to recross the Atlantic in the
+steerage of a ship.</p>
+
+<p>My feelings, as the train bore me steadily through the Welsh border, by
+the clustering smoke-stacks of Birmingham, by the castled tower of
+Warwick, and along the head waters of the Thames and Avon, were not of
+the most enthusiastic description. I had no money and no friends; I had
+sent to America for a remittance, but in the interval of six weeks
+required for a reply, must eat and drink and lodge, and London was wide
+and pitiless, even if I dared stoop to beg assistance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Let no young man be tempted to put the sea between his home and himself,
+how seductive soever be the experiences of book-makers and poetic
+pedestrians. One hour's contemplation of poverty in foreign lands will
+line the boy's face with the wrinkles of years, and burn into his soul
+that withering dependency which will rankle long after his privations
+are forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, my circumstances were so awkward that my very desperation kept
+me calm. I had a formal letter to one English publisher, but not any
+friendly line whatever to anybody; and as the possibilities of sickness,
+debt, enemies, came to mind, I felt that I was no longer the hero of a
+romance, but face to face with a hard, practical, terrible reality. It
+was night when I landed at the Paddington Station, and taking an omnibus
+for Charing Cross, watched the long lines of lamps on Oxford Street, and
+the glitter of the Haymarket theatres, and at last the hard plash of the
+fountains in Trafalgar Square, with the stony statues grouped so rigidly
+about the column to Nelson.</p>
+
+<p>I walked down Strand with my carpet-bag in my hands, through Fleet
+Street and under Temple Bar, till, weary at last from sheer exercise, I
+dropped into a little ale-house under a great, grinning lantern, which
+said, in the crisp tone of patronage, the one word, "beds." They put me
+under the tiles, with the chimney-stacks for my neighbors, and I lay
+awake all night meditating expedients for the morrow: so far from regret
+or foreboding, I longed for the daylight to come that I might commence
+my task, confident that I could not fail where so many had succeeded.
+They were, indeed, inspirations which looked in upon me at the dawn. The
+dome of St. Paul's guarding Paternoster Row, with Milton's school in the
+background, and hard by the Player's Court, where, in lieu of
+Shakespeare's company, the American presses of the <i>Times</i> shook the
+kingdom and the continent. I thought of Johnson, as I passed Bolt Alley,
+of Chatterton at Shoe Lane, of Goldsmith as I put my foot upon his grave
+under the eaves of the Temple.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The public has nothing to do with the sacrifices by which my private
+embarrassment received temporary relief. Though half the race of authors
+had been in similar straits, I would not, for all their success, undergo
+again such self-humiliation. It is enough to say that I obtained
+lodgings in Islington, close to the home of Charles Lamb, and near
+Irving's Canterbury tower; and that between writing articles on the
+American war, and strategic efforts to pay my board, two weeks of
+feverish loneliness drifted away.</p>
+
+<p>I made but one friend; a young Englishman of radical proclivities, who
+had passed some years in America among books and newspapers, and was now
+editing the foreign column of the <i>Illustrated London News</i>. He was a
+brave, needy fellow, full of heart, but burdened with a wife and
+children, and too honestly impolitic to gain money with his fine
+abilities by writing down his own unpopular sentiments. He helped me
+with advice and otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean to work for the journals," he said, "I fear you will be
+disappointed. I have tried six years to get upon some daily London
+paper. The editorial positions are always filled; you know too little of
+the geography and society of the town to be a reporter, and such
+miscellaneous recollections of the war as you possess will not be
+available for a mere newspaper. But the magazines are always ready to
+purchase, if you can get access to them. In that quarter you might do
+well."</p>
+
+<p>I found that the serials to which my friend recommended me shared his
+own advanced sentiments, but were unfortunately without money. So I made
+my way to the counter of the Messrs. Chambers, and left for its junior
+partner an introductory note. The reply was to this effect. I violate no
+confidence, I think, in reproducing it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;I shall be glad to see any friend of&mdash;&mdash;, and may be
+found," etc., etc. "I fear that articles upon the American war,
+written by an American, will not, however, be acceptable in this
+journal, as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>public here take a widely different view of the
+contest from that entertained in your own country, and the feeling
+of horror is deepening fast." </p></div>
+
+<p>Undeterred by this frank avowal, I waited upon the publisher at the
+appointed time,&mdash;a fine, athletic, white-haired Scotchman, whose name is
+known where that of greater authors cannot reach, and who has written
+with his own hand as much as Dumas <i>p&egrave;re</i>. He met me with warm
+cordiality, rare to Englishmen, and when I said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I do not wish the use of your paper to circulate my
+opinions,&mdash;only my experiences," he took me at once to his editor, and
+gave me a personal introduction. Fortunately I had brought with me a
+paper which I submitted on the spot; it was entitled, "Literature of the
+American War," collated from such campaign ballads as I could remember,
+eked out with my own, and strung together with explanatory and critical
+paragraphs. The third day following, I received this announcement in
+shockingly bad handwriting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+"D'r S'r,<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Y'r article will suit us.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">"The ed. C. J."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>For every word in this communication, I afterward obtained a guinea. The
+money not being due till after the appearance of the article, I
+anticipated it with various sketches, stories, etc., all of which were
+largely fanciful or descriptive, and contained no paragraph which I wish
+to recall. In other directions, I was less successful. Of two daily
+journals to which I offered my services, one declined to answer my
+letter, and the other demanded a quarto of credentials.</p>
+
+<p>So I lived a fugitive existence, a practical illustration of Irving's
+"Poor Devil Author," looking as often into pastry-shop windows, testing
+all manner of cheap Pickwickian veal-pies, breakfasting upon a chop, and
+supping upon a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> herring in my suburban residence, but keeping up pluck
+and <i>chique</i> so deceptively, that nobody in the place suspected me of
+poverty.</p>
+
+<p>I went for some American inventors, to a rifle ground, and explained to
+the Lords of the Admiralty the merits of a new projectile; wrote letters
+to all the Continental sovereigns for an itinerant and independent
+embassador, and was at last so poor that my only writing papers were a
+druggist's waste bill-heads. An article with no other "backing" than
+this was fortunate enough to stray into the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>. I found
+that its proprietor kept a banking-house in Pall Mall, and doubtful of
+my welcome on Cornhill, ventured one day in my unique American
+costume,&mdash;slouched hat, wide garments, and squared-toed boots,&mdash;to send
+to him directly my card. He probably thought from its face that a
+relative of Mr. Mason's was about to open an extensive account with him.
+As it was, once admitted to his presence, he could not escape me. The
+manuscript lay in his hands before he fully comprehended my purpose. He
+was a fine specimen of the English publisher,&mdash;robust, ruddy,
+good-naturedly acute,&mdash;and as he said with a smile that he would waive
+routine and take charge of my copy, I knew that the same hands had
+fastened upon the crude pages of Jane Eyre, and the best labors of
+Hazlitt, Ruskin, Leigh Hunt, and Thackeray.</p>
+
+<p>Two more weary weeks elapsed; I found it pleasant to work, but very
+trying to wait. At the end my courage very nearly failed. I reached the
+era of self-accusation; to make myself forget myself I took long, ardent
+marches into the open country; followed the authors I had worshipped
+through the localities they had made reverend; lost myself in
+dreaminesses,&mdash;those precursors of death in the snow,&mdash;and wished myself
+back in the ranks of the North, to go down in the frenzy, rather than
+thus drag out a life of civil indigence, robbing at once my brains and
+my stomach.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, as I sat in my little Islington parlor, wish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>ing that the
+chop I had just eaten had gone farther, and taking a melancholy
+inventory of the threadbare carpet and rheumatic chairs, the
+door-knocker fell; there were steps in the hall; my name was mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>A tall young gentleman approached me with a letter: I received him with
+a strange nervousness; was there any crime in my record, I asked
+fitfully, for which I had been traced to this obscure suburb for condign
+arrest and decapitation? Ha! ha! it was my heart, not my lips, that
+laughed. I could have cried out like Enoch Arden in his dying
+apostrophe:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"A sail! a sail!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am saved!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>for the note, in the publisher's own handwriting, said this, and more:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I shall be glad to send you fifteen guineas
+immediately, in return for your article on General Pope's Campaign,
+if the price will suit you." </p></div>
+
+<p>But I suppressed my enthusiasm. I spoke patronizingly to the young
+gentleman. Dr. Johnson, at the brewer's vendue, could not have been more
+learnedly sonorous.</p>
+
+<p>"You may say in return, sir, that the sum named will remunerate me."</p>
+
+<p>At the same time the instinct was intense to seize the youth by the
+throat, and tell him that if the remittance was delayed beyond the
+morning, I would have his heart's-blood! I should have liked to thrust
+him into the coal-hole as a hostage for its prompt arrival, or send one
+of his ears to the publishing house with a warning, after the manner of
+the Neapolitan brigands.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon I walked all the way to Edmonton, over John Gilpin's
+route, and boldly invested two-pence in beer at the time-honored Bell
+Inn. I disdained to ride back upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> the omnibus for the sum of
+threepence, but returned on foot the entire eight miles, and thought it
+only a league. Next day my check came duly to hand,&mdash;a very formidable
+check, with two pen-marks drawn across its face. I carried it to
+Threadneedle Street by the unfrequented routes, to avoid having my
+pockets picked, and presented it to the cashier, wondering if he knew me
+to be a foreign gentleman who had written for the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>.
+The cashier looked rather contemptuous, I thought, being evidently a
+soulless character with no literary affinities.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he said, curtly, "this check is crossed."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"We can't cash the check; it is crossed."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by crossed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just present it where you got it, and you will find out."</p>
+
+<p>The cashier regarded me as if I had offered a ticket of leave rather
+than an order for the considerable amount of seventy-five dollars. I
+left that banking-house a broken man, and stopped with a long, long face
+at a broker's to ask for an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yesh, yesh," said the little man, whose German silver spectacles sat
+upon a bulbously Oriental nose; "ze monish ish never paid on a crossed
+shequc. If one hash a bank-account, you know, zat ish different. Ze
+gentleman who gif you dis shequc had no bishness to crosh it if you have
+no banker."</p>
+
+<p>I was too vain to go back to Cornhill and confess that I had neither
+purse nor purser; so I satisfied the broker that the affair was correct,
+and he cashed the bill for five shillings.</p>
+
+<p>That was the end of my necessities; money came from home, from this and
+that serial; my published articles were favorably noticed, and opened
+the market to me. Whatever I penned found sale; and some correspondence
+that I had leisure to fulfil for America brought me steady receipts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Had I been prudent with my means, and prompt to advantage myself of
+opportunities, I might have obtained access to the best literary
+society, and sold my compositions for correspondingly higher prices.
+Social standing in English literature is of equal consequence with
+genius. The poor Irish governess cannot find a publisher, but Lady
+Morgan takes both critics and readers by storm. A duchess's name on the
+title-page protects the fool in the letter-press; irreverent
+republicanism is not yet so great a respecter of persons. I was often
+invited out to dinner, and went to the expense of a dress-coat and kids,
+without which one passes the genteel British portal at his peril; but
+found that both the expense and the stateliness of "society" were
+onerous. In this department I had no perseverance; but when, one
+evening, I sat with the author of "Vanity Fair," in the concert rooms at
+Covent Garden, as Colonel Newcome and Clive had done before me, and took
+my beer and mutton with those kindly eyes measuring me through their
+spectacles, I felt that such grand companionship lifted me from the
+errantry of my career into the dignity of a renowned art.</p>
+
+<p>I moved my lodgings, after three months, to a pleasant square of the
+West End, where I had for associates, among others, several American
+artists. Strange men were they to be so far from home; but I have since
+found, that the poorer one is the farther he travels, and the majority
+of these were quite destitute. Two of them only had permanent
+employment; a few, now and then, sold a design to a magazine; the mass
+went out sketching to kill time, and trusted to Providence for dinner.
+But they were good fellows for the most part, kindly to one another, and
+meeting in their lodgings, where their tenure was uncertain, to score
+Millais, or praise Rosetti, or overwhelm Frith.</p>
+
+<p>My own life meantime passed smoothly. I had no rivals of my own
+nationality; though one expatriated person, whose name I have not heard,
+was writing a series of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> prejudiced articles for <i>Fraser</i>, which he
+signed "A White Republican." I thought him a very dirty white. One or
+two English travellers at the same time were making amusingly stupid
+notices of America in some of the second-rate monthlies; and Maxwell, a
+bustling Irishman, who owns <i>Temple Bar</i>, the <i>Saint James</i>, and
+<i>Sixpenny Magazine</i>, and some half dozen other serials, was employing a
+man to invent all varieties of rubbish upon a country which he had never
+beheld nor comprehended.</p>
+
+<p>After a few months the passages of the war with which I was cognizant
+lost their interest by reason of later occurrences. I found myself, so
+to speak, wedged out of the market by new literary importations. The
+enforcement of the draft brought to Europe many naturalized countrymen
+of mine, whose dislike of America was not lessened by their
+unceremonious mode of departure from it; and it is to these, the mass of
+whom are familiarly known in the journals of this country, that we owe
+the most insidious, because the best informed, detraction of us.
+<i>Macmillan's Magazine</i> did us sterling service through the papers of
+Edward Dicey, the best literary <i>feuilletonist</i> in England; and
+Professor Newman, J. Stuart Mill, and others, gave us the limited
+influence of the <i>Westminster Review</i>. The <i>Cornhill</i> was neutral;
+<i>Chambers's</i> respectfully inimical; <i>Bentley</i> and <i>Colburn</i>
+antagonistically flat; Maxwell's tri-visaged publications grinningly
+abusive; <i>Good Words</i> had neither good nor bad words for us; <i>Once a
+Week</i> and <i>All the Year Round</i> gave us a shot now and then. <i>Blackwood</i>
+and <i>Fraser</i> disliked our form of Government, and all its
+manifestations. The rest of the reviews, as far as I could see, pitied
+and berated us pompously. It was more than once suggested to me to write
+an experimental paper upon the failure of republicanism; but I knew only
+one American&mdash;a New York correspondent&mdash;who lent himself to a systematic
+abuse of the Government which permitted him to reside in it. He obtained
+a newsboy's fame, and, I suspect, earned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> considerable. He is dead: let
+any who love him shorten his biography by three years.</p>
+
+<p>However, I at last concluded a book,&mdash;if I may so call what never
+resulted in a volume,&mdash;at which, from the first, I had been pegging
+away. I called it "The War Correspondent," and made it the literal
+record of my adventures in the saddle. When some six hundred MS. pages
+were done I sent it to a publisher; he politely sent it back. I
+forwarded it to a rival house; in this respect only both houses were
+agreed. Having some dim recollection of the early trials of authors I
+perseveringly gave that copy the freedom of the city; the verdict upon
+it was marvellously identical, but the manner of declension was always
+soothing. They separately advised me not to be content with one refusal,
+but to try some other house, though I came at last to think, by the
+regularity of its transit to and fro, that one house only had been its
+recipient from the first.</p>
+
+<p>At last, assured of its positive failure, I took what seemed to be the
+most philosophic course,&mdash;neither tossing it into the Thames, after the
+fashion of a famous novelist, nor littering my floor with its fragments,
+and dying amidst them like a <i>chiffonnier</i> in his den: I cut the best
+paragraphs out of it, strung them together, and published it by separate
+articles in the serials. My name failed to be added to the British
+Museum Catalogue; but that circumstance is, at the present time, a
+matter of no regret whatever.</p>
+
+<p>When done with the war I took to story-writing, using many
+half-forgotten incidents of American police-reporting, of border
+warfare, of the development of civilization among the pioneers, of
+thraldom in the South, and the gold search on the Pacific. The majority
+of these travelled across the water, and were republished. And when
+America, in the garb of either fact or fiction, lost novelty, I entered
+the wide field of miscellaneous literature among a thousand competitors.</p>
+
+<p>An author's ticket to the British Museum Reading-room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> put the whole
+world so close around me that I could touch it everywhere. I never
+entered the noble rotunda of that vast collection without an emotion of
+littleness and awe. Lit only from the roof, it reminded me of the Roman
+Pantheon; and truly all the gods whom I had worshipped sat, not in
+statue, but in substance, along its radiating tables, or trod its
+noiseless floors. Half the literature of our language flows from thence.
+One may see at a glance grave naturalists knee-deep in ichthyological
+tomes, or buzzing over entomology; pale zealots copying Arabic
+characters, with the end to rebuild Bethlehem or the ruins of Mecca;
+biographers gloating over some rare original letter; periodical writers
+filching from two centuries ago for their next "new" article. The
+Marquis of Lansdowne is dead; you may see the <i>Times</i> reporter yonder
+running down the events of his career. Poland is in arms again, and the
+clever compiler farther on means to make twenty pounds out of it by
+summing up her past risings and ruins. The bruisers King and Mace fought
+yesterday, and the plodding person close by from <i>Bell's Life</i> is
+gleaning their antecedents. Half the <i>literati</i> of our age do but like
+these bind the present to the past. A great library diminishes the
+number of thinkers; the grand fountains of philosophy and science ran
+before types were so facile or letters became a trade.</p>
+
+<p>The novelty of this life soon wore away, and I found myself the creature
+of no romance, but plodding along a prosy road with very practical
+people.</p>
+
+<p>I carried my MSS. into Paternoster Row like anybody's book-keeper, and
+accused the world of no particular ingratitude that it could not read my
+name with my articles, and that it gave itself no concern to discover
+me. Yet there was a private pleasure in the congeniality of my labor,
+and in the consciousness that I could float upon my quill even in this
+vast London sea. Once or twice my articles went across the Channel and
+returned in foreign dress. I wonder if I shall ever again feel the
+thrill of that first recognition of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> my offspring coming to my knee with
+their strange French prattle.</p>
+
+<p>I was not uniformly successful, but, if rejected, my MSS. were
+courteously returned, with a note from the editor. As a sample I give
+the following. The original is a lithographed fac-simile of the
+handwriting of Mr. Dickens, printed in blue ink, the date and the title
+of the manuscript being in another handwriting.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><p><span class="i4">OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND."</span></p>
+
+<p>A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="i12"><span class="smcap">No. 26 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W. C.</span></span><br />
+<span class="i20"><i>January 27, 1863.</i></span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Mr. Charles Dickens begs to thank the writer of the paper entitled
+"A Battle Sunday" for having done him the favor to offer it as a
+contribution to these pages. He much regrets, however, that it is
+not suited to the requirements of "All the Year Round."</p>
+
+<p>The manuscript will be returned, under cover, if applied for as
+above. </p></div>
+
+<p>The prices of miscellaneous articles in London are remunerative.
+Twenty-four shillings a magazine page is the common valuation: but
+specially interesting papers rate higher. Literature as a profession, in
+England, is more certain and more progressive than with us. It is not
+debased with the heavy leaven of journalism. Among the many serial
+publications of London, ability, tact, and industry should always find a
+liberal market. There is less of the vagrancy of letters,&mdash;Bohemianism,
+Mohicanism, or what not,&mdash;in London than in either New York or Paris.</p>
+
+<p>I think we have the cleverer fugitive writers in America, but those of
+England seemed to me to have more self-respect and conscientiousness.
+The soul of the scribe need never be in pledge if there are many
+masters.</p>
+
+<p>While a good writer in any department can find work across the water, I
+would advise no one to go abroad with this assurance solely. My
+success&mdash;if so that can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> called which yielded me life, not
+profit&mdash;was circumstantial, and cannot be repeated. I should be loth to
+try it again upon purely literary merits.</p>
+
+<p>After nine months of experiment I bade the insular metropolis adieu, and
+returned no more. The Continent was close and beckoning; I heard the
+confusion of her tongues, and saw the shafts of her Gothic Babels
+probing the clouds, and for another year I roamed among her cities, as
+ardent and errant as when I went afield on my pony to win the spurs of a
+War Correspondent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SPURS IN THE PICTURE GALLERIES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Florence, city of my delight! how do I thrill at the recollection of the
+asylum afforded me by thee in the Via Parione. The room was tiled, and
+cool, and high, and its single window looked out upon a real palace,
+where the family of Corsini, presided over by a porter in cocked hat and
+an exuberance of gold lace, gave me frequent glimpses of gauze dresses
+and glorious eyes, whose owners sometimes came to the casement to watch
+the poor little foreigner, writing so industriously.</p>
+
+<p>Every young traveller has two or three subjects of unrest. Mine were
+girls and art. The copyists in the galleries were more beautiful studies
+to me than the paintings. The next time I go to Europe, I shall take
+enough money along to give all the pretty ones an order; this will be an
+introduction, and I shall know how they live, and how much money they
+make, and what passions have heaved their beautiful bosoms, to make
+their slow, quiet lives forever haunted and longing.</p>
+
+<p>Love, love! There are only two grand, unsatiated passions, which keep us
+forever in freshness and fever,&mdash;love and art.</p>
+
+<p>In Italy I breathed the purest atmosphere; all the world was a landscape
+picture; all the skies were spilling blueness and crimson upon the
+mountains; all the faces were Madonnas; all the perspectives were
+storied architecture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> Westward the star of Empire takes its way, but
+that of art shines steadily in the East. Thither look our American young
+men, no matter at which of its altars they make their
+devotions,&mdash;painting, sculpture, or architecture. And I, who had known
+some fondness for the pencil till lured into the wider, wilder field of
+letters, felt almost an artist's joy when I stood in the presence of
+those solemn masters whose works are inspired and imperishable, like
+religion.</p>
+
+<p>Having passed the first thrill and disappointment,&mdash;for pure art speaks
+only to the pure by intuition or initiation, and I was yet a novice,&mdash;my
+old newspaper curiosity revived to learn of the successful living rather
+than of the grand dead.</p>
+
+<p>Correspondents, like poets, are born, not made: the venerable
+associations around me&mdash;monuments, cloisters, palaces, the homes and
+graves of great men whom I revered, the aisles where every canvas bore a
+spell name&mdash;could not wean me from that old, reportorial habit of asking
+questions, peeping into private nooks, and making notes upon
+contemporary things, just as I had done for three years, in cities, on
+routes, on battle-fields. And as the old world seemed to me only a great
+art museum, I longed to look behind the tapestry at the Ghobelin
+weavers, pulling the beautiful threads.</p>
+
+<p>"Where dwell these gay and happy students, who quit our hard, bright
+skies, and land of angularities, to inhale the dews of these sedative
+mosses, and, by attrition with masterpieces, glean something of the
+spirit of the masters?"</p>
+
+<p>Straightway the faery realm opened to me, and two months of Italian
+rambling were spent in association with the folk I esteemed only less
+than my own exemplars.</p>
+
+<p>Art, in all ages, is the flowery way. No pursuit gives so great joy in
+the achieving, none achieved yields higher meed of competence,
+contentment, and repute. Its ambition is more genial and subdued than
+that of literature, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> rivalry more courteous and exalting; its daily
+life should be pastoral and domestic, free from those feverish mutations
+and adventures which cross the incipient author, and it is forever
+surrounded by bright and beautiful objects which linger too long upon
+the eye to stir the mind to more than emulation.</p>
+
+<p>Is it harsh to say that artists have been too well rewarded, and
+thinkers and writers too ill? Vasari dines at the ducal table, while
+Galileo's pension is the rack; the mob which carries Cimabue's canvas in
+triumph, drives Dante into exile; Rubens is a king's ambassador, and
+Grotius is sent to jail; to Reynolds's levees, poor, bankrupt Goldsmith
+steals like an unwelcome guest, and Apelles's gold is paid to him in
+measures, while Homer, singing immortal lines, goes blind and begging.</p>
+
+<p>Art students take rank in Italy among the best of travellers, but
+Bohemianism in art is at one's peril. There are many wasted lives among
+the clever fellows who go abroad ostensibly for study. I recall Jimman,
+who was an expert with the pencil, and who colored with excellent
+discrimination. He went to Dusseldorf at first, and became known to
+Leutze, who praised his sketches. He began to associate at once with
+students and tipplers, and dissipated less by drinking than by talking.
+I have a theory that more men are lost to themselves and the age by a
+love of "gabbing" than by drinking. It is not hard to eschew cognac and
+claret, but there is no cure for "buzzing." There is a drunkenness of
+talk which takes possession of one, and Jimman would have had the
+<i>delirium tremens</i> in a week, with nobody to listen to him. To my mind
+the Trappiste takes the severest of monastic vows.</p>
+
+<p>Jimman used to rise in the morning betimes, full of inflexible
+resolution. Having stretched his canvas, and carefully prepared his
+pigments, he went to breakfast, pondering great achievements. Here he
+fell in with a lot of Germans,&mdash;the most incurable race of gossipers in
+the world,&mdash;and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> while they discussed, in a learned way, every subject
+under the sun, the meal extended into the afternoon, and Jimman
+concluded that it was then too late to undertake anything. In this way
+his ambition burnt away, his money was squandered, he lost facility of
+manipulation, and came back to Paris at the age of twenty-eight, to
+pursue the same listless, garrulous existence; debts and grisettes,
+buzzing and brandy, the utterance of resolves which expired in the
+utterance, and Jimman finally became, perforce, a common apprentice to a
+moulder, that he might not entirely starve.</p>
+
+<p>I saw him, for the last time, in the Louvre, looking at Zurbaran's
+"Kneeling Monk."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Townsend," he said, "I might have done something like that. All my
+zeal is gone."</p>
+
+<p>And he began to chat in the same loose, familiar way. Dumbness and
+deafness would have been endowments rather than deprivations for him.</p>
+
+<p>I had rooms in Florence with Gypsum and Stagg. The former was a young,
+industrious fellow, of German descent, who worked hard, but not wisely.
+He spent half a year in copying a face by Paul Veronese, and the other
+half in sketching an old convent yard. But he did not visit, and an
+artist, to get orders and take rank, must be seen as well as be earnest.
+He need not be hail-fellow, but should keep well in the circle of
+respectable travellers; for these are to be his patrons, if he pleases
+them. Gypsum was over-modest and too conscientious; he had only a trifle
+of money, and was careless of his attire. So he disregarded society, and
+society forgot him. Therefore, at dawn, he betook himself to the old
+convent-yard, and stood at his easel bravely, never so unhappy as when
+one of the church's innumerable holy days arrived, for then he was
+forbidden to work upon the convent premises. With all his
+conscientiousness he received no orders; while Stagg, who was not more
+clever, proportioned to his longer experience, was befriended on every
+hand, because he went to the American chapel regularly and wore a
+dress-coat at the sociables.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Stagg used the old studio of Buchanan Read, just off the Via Seragli.</p>
+
+<p>I stumbled upon him one morning, and saw more than I anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>A young, plump girl, without so much as a fig-leaf upon her, was posing
+before his easel, so motionless that she scarcely winked, one hand
+extended and clasping her loosened tresses, and bending upon one white
+and dimpled knee.</p>
+
+<p>She had the large dark eyes of the professional <i>modello</i>, and a bosom
+as ripe as Titian's Venus. Her feet were small, and her hands very white
+and beautiful. But of me she took no more notice than if I had been a
+bird alighting upon the window, or a mouse peeping at her from the edge
+of his knot-hole.</p>
+
+<p>Old Stagg, who was commonly grave as a clergyman, now and then left his
+easel to alter her position, and when he was done, she gathered up her
+clothes, which had lain in a heap on the floor, and took her few silver
+pieces with a "<i>Mille grazie, Signore!</i>" and went home to take dinner
+with her little brothers.</p>
+
+<p>A studio in Florence costs only fifteen or twenty francs a
+month,&mdash;seldom so much. There are a series of excellent ones in the same
+Via Seragli, in a very large dismantled convent. There is a well in the
+centre of its great courtyard, and innumerable ropes lead from it to the
+various high windows of the building, on which buckets of water are
+forever ascending. All this of which I speak refers to a year ago, when
+Florence was not a capital; doubtless, studios command more at present.</p>
+
+<p>The models at Florence were to me strange personages. There was a
+drawing-school which I sometimes attended, where one old woman kept
+three daughters, aged respectively twenty, seventeen, and thirteen
+years. They lived pretty much as they were born, and while they posed
+upon a high platform, the old woman took her seat near the door<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> and
+looked on with grim satisfaction. She was very careful of their moral
+habits, but the second one she lost by an excess of greed. She resolved
+to make them useful by day, as well as by night, and put them to work at
+the studios of individual artists. But as no one artist wanted three
+models, the girls had to separate, and, out of the mother's vigilance,
+the second one, Orsolo, went to the atelier of a wicked and handsome
+fellow, and met with the usual romance of her class.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest girl, Luigia, married a man-model, and their nuptials must
+have been of a most prosaic character.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many men who thus stood for the artists, was one old fellow,
+tall, and bearded, and massively characterized, who used to remain
+motionless for hours; until he seemed to be dead. He had been a model in
+every stage of life, from childhood to the grave, and represented every
+subject from Garibaldi to Moses.</p>
+
+<p>The walks in and around Florence occupied all my Sabbaths. Stagg and I
+used to stroll up to Fiesole, by the villa where Boccaccio's party of
+story-tellers met, and look up old pictures in the village church; we
+measured the proportions of the chapel on the hill of Saint Miniato, and
+he endeavored in vain to imitate the hue of the light as it fell through
+the veined marble of Serravezza; we spent contemplative afternoons in
+the house of Michael Angelo, and went up to Vallambrosa, at the risk of
+our necks, to look at a Giotto no bigger than a tea-plate. In Florence
+there is enough out-of-door statuary to make one of the finest galleries
+in the world. The majesty of Donatello's "Saint George" arises before me
+when I would conceive of any noble humanity, and the sweep of Orgagna's
+great arches give me an idea of vastness like the sea; in the Pitti
+palace only giants should abide; the Campanile goes up to heaven as
+beautiful as Jacob's ladder, and in the perpetual twilight of the Duomo
+I was not of half the stature I believed when roaming under the loftier
+sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I saw a jail in Florence, and it troubled me; who in that beautiful city
+could do a crime? How should old age, or bad passions, or sickness, or
+shame, exist in that limpid atmosphere, in the shadow of such
+architecture, in the presence of those pictures?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CORRESPONDENT ONCE MORE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Again on the way to Washington! I have made the trip more than sixty
+times. I saw the Gunpowder Bridge in flames when Baltimore was in arms
+and the Capital cut off from the North. I saw from Perryville the State
+flag of Maryland waving at Havre de Grace across the Susquehanna. I saw
+at the Washington Navy Yard the blackened body of Ellsworth, manipulated
+by the surgeons. I moved through the city with McClellan's onward army
+toward the transports which were to carry it to the Peninsula. The awful
+tidings of the seven days' retreat came first through the Capital in my
+haversack, and before Stonewall Jackson fell upon the flank of Pope, I
+crossed the Long Bridge with the story of the disaster of Cedar
+Mountain. In like manner the crowning glory of Five Forks made me its
+earliest emissary, and the murder of the President brought me hot from
+Richmond to participate in the pursuit of Booth and chronicle his
+midnight expiation.</p>
+
+<p>Again am I on the way to the city of centralization, to paint by
+electricity the closing scenes of the conspirators, and, as I pass the
+Pennsylvania line, the recollection of those frequent pilgrimages&mdash;pray
+God this be the last!&mdash;comes upon me like the sequences of delirium.</p>
+
+<p>As I look abroad upon the thrifty fields and the rich glebe of the
+ploughman, I wonder if the revolutions of peace are not as sweeping and
+sudden as those of war. He who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> wrote the certain downfall of this
+Nation, did not keep his eye upon the steadily ascending dome of the
+capitol, nor remark, during the thunders of Gettysburg, the as energetic
+stroke of the pile-drivers upon the piers of the great Susquehanna
+bridge. We built while we desolated. No fatalist convert to Mohammed had
+so sure faith in the eternity of his institutions. More masonry has been
+laid along the border during the war than in any five previous years. We
+have finished the Treasury, raised the bronze gates on the Capitol,
+double-railed all the roads between New York and the Potomac, and gone
+on as if architecture were imperishable, while thrice the Rebels swept
+down toward the Relay.</p>
+
+<p>And we have done one strategic thing, which, I think, will compare with
+the passing of Vicksburg or the raid of Sherman; we have turned
+Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>This modern Pompeii used to be the stumbling-block on the great highway.
+It was to the direct Washington route what Hell-gate was to the Sound
+Channel. We were forbidden the right of way through it, on the ground
+that by retarding travel Philadelphia would gain trade, and had to cross
+the Delaware on a scow, or lay up in some inn over night. New Jerseymen,
+I hear, pray every morning for their daily stranger; Philadelphia has
+much sinned to entrap its daily customer. But Maillefert&mdash;by which name
+I designate the inevitable sledge which spares the grand and pulverizes
+the little&mdash;has built a road around the Quaker City. It is a very
+curious road, going by two hypothenuses of about fifteen miles to make a
+base of three or four, so that we lose an hour on the way to the
+Capital, all because of Philadelphia's overnight toil.</p>
+
+<p>The bridge at Perryville will be one of the staunchest upon our
+continent: the forts around Baltimore make the outlying landscapes
+scarcely recognizable to the returning Maryland Rebels. At last,&mdash;woe be
+the necessity! we have garrisoned our cities. The Relay House is the
+most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> picturesque spot between the two foci of the country. Wandering
+through the woods, I see the dirty blouses of the remnant of "the boys"
+and the old abatis on the height looks sunburnt and rusty; away through
+the gorge thunders the Baltimore and Ohio train, over what ruins and
+resurrections, torn up a hundred times, and as obstinately relaid, until
+all its engineers are veteran officers, and can stand fire both of the
+furnace and the musket. Everybody in the country is a veteran; the
+contractor, who ran his schooner of fodder past the Rebel batteries; the
+correspondent, whose lean horse slipped through the crevices of dropping
+shells; the teamster, who whipped his mule out of the mud-hole, while
+his ammunition wagon behind grew hot with the heaviness of battle; the
+old farmer, who took to his cellar while the fight raged in his
+chimneys, but ventured out between the bayonet charges to secure his
+fatted calf.</p>
+
+<p>Annapolis Junction has still the sterile guise of the campaign, where
+the hills are bare around the hospitals, and the railway taverns are
+whittled to skeletons. I have really seen whole houses, little more than
+shells, reduced to meagreness by the pocket-knife. The name of almost
+everybody on the continent is cut somewhere in the South; Virginia has
+more than enough names carved over her fireside altars to inscribe upon
+all her multitudinous graves.</p>
+
+<p>There are close to the city fine bits of landscape, where the fields dip
+gracefully into fertile basins, and rise in swells of tilled fields and
+orchard to some knoll, enthroning a porticoed home. Two years ago all
+these fields were quagmires, where stranded wheels and the carcasses of
+hybrids, looked as if a mud-geyser had opened near by. The grass has
+spread its covering, as the birds spread their leaves over the poor
+babes in the wood, and we walk we know not where, nor over what
+struggles, and shadows, and sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>I pity the army mule, though he never asked me for sym<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>pathy. Who ever
+loved a mule? You can love a lion, and make him lick your hand: some
+people love parrots, and owls; and I once knew a person who could catch
+black snakes and carry them lovingly in his bosom; but I never knew a
+beloved mule. Yet this war has been fought and won by hybrids. They have
+pulled us out of ruts and fed us, and starved for us. The mule is the
+great quartermaster. See him and his brethren yonder in
+corral,&mdash;miserable veterans of no particular race, slab-sided, and
+capable of holding ink between their ribs. They mounch, and mounch, and
+wear the same stolid eye which you have seen under the driver's lash,
+and in the vaulting moment of victory. No stunning receptions greet
+them, no cheers and banquets when Muley comes marching home; over at
+<i>Giesboro</i> they come in crippled, die by the musket without a murmur,
+and are immediately boiled down and forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>I was once beaten by a rival correspondent upon a prominent battle, by
+riding a mule with my despatches. He walked into a mud-puddle just half
+way between the field and the post-office, and stopped there till
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>Here we are, at Washington. I have been in most of the cities of Europe:
+some of them have dirty suburbs, but the first impression of the Capitol
+City is dreary in the extreme; a number of the lost tribes have
+established booths contiguous to the terminus, wherein the filthiest
+people in the world eat the filthiest dishes; a man's sense of
+cleanliness vanishes when he enters the District of Columbia. I have
+been astonished to remark how greatness loses its stature here. Mr.
+Charles Sumner is a handsome man on Broadway or Beacon Street, but
+eating dinner at Thompson's, his shoulders seem to narrow and his fine
+face to grow commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>Above the squalid wideness of ungraded streets and the waste of shanties
+propped upon poles above abysses of vacant lots, where two drunken
+soldiers are pummelling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> each other, towers the marvellous dome with its
+airy genius firmly planted above, like the ruins of Palmyra above
+contemporary meanness. Moving up the streets, in dust and mud-puddle,
+you see shabbily ambitious churches, with wooden towers; hotels, the
+curbs whereof are speckled with human blemishes, sustaining like
+hip-shotten caryatides the sandstone-wooden columns. Within there is a
+pandemonium of legs in the air, and an agglomeration of saliva, ending
+with an impertinent clerk and two crescents of lazy waiters, who shy
+whisks, and are ambitious to run superfluous errands, for the warrant to
+rob you. Of people, you see squads; of residents, none. The public
+edifices have not picked their company, neither have the public
+functionaries. There is a quantity of vulgar statuary lying around,
+horses standing on their tails, and impossible Washingtons imbedded in
+arm-chairs; but the noble facade of the treasury always suggests to me
+Couture's great picture of the Decadence, where, under a pure colonnade,
+some tipplers are carousing. If we are to have statues at the Capital,
+let us make them with uplifted hands, and shame upon their grave,
+contemplative faces.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we ever make Washington the representative Capital of the country?</p>
+
+<p>Certainly all efforts to improve the site worthy of the seat of gigantic
+legislation have hitherto failed. The sword and the malaria have
+attacked it. Every year sees the President driven from his Mansion by
+pestilential vapors, and the sanitary condition of the city is
+extraordinarily bad. The carcasses of slain horses at Giesboro send
+their effluvia straight into Washington on the wind, and the "Island,"
+or that part of the city between the river and the canal, is dangerous
+almost all the year.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, the entire river front of the city seems to be untenable,
+except for negroes; the Washington monument stands on the yielding plain
+in the rear of the Chief Magistrate's, a stunted ruin, finding no
+foundation; and much of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> the great Capital reserve near by, would be a
+dead weight, if any effort were made to dispose it of, as building lots.
+The small portion of Washington lying upon Capitol Hill, is the most
+salubrious and covetable; but it is a lonesome journey by night around
+the Capitol grounds to the city. The finest residences lie north of the
+President's house, but the number of these grows apace, and the quantity
+of capital invested in private real estate, remains almost stationary.</p>
+
+<p>We recall but two or three citizens of Washington who have spent their
+money on the spot where they have made it. Corcoran was the most
+generous; he erected a museum of art, and Government has made it a
+Commissary depot! But how few of the illustrious Senators, Chief
+Justices, Generals, etc., who draw their sustenance from the Capital,
+care a penny to decorate it? Compare the home of Governor Sprague on 6th
+Street, to his splendid mansion at Providence, or the Club House of the
+Secretary of State, to his place at Auburn. Washington has power, but it
+cannot attract. It is the solitary monarch, at whose feet all kneel, but
+by none beloved. Strangers repair to it, grow rich, and quit it with
+their earnings. Government works nobly to imitate the Palaces of the
+C&aelig;sars, and the public edifices leave our municipal structures far
+beneath, but these marble and granite piles seem to mock the littleness
+of individual ambition. Two hotels have been built during the war, both
+of the caravansary class, but the city, for four years, has been
+miserably incompetent to entertain its guests, or to command their
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>Washington, to be a city, lacks three elements&mdash;commerce,
+representation, health; the environs are picturesque, and the new forts
+on the hill-tops little injure the landscape.</p>
+
+<p>But the question is not premature, whether Washington city will ever
+answer the purposes of a stable seat of government, and reflect the
+enterprise, patriotism, and taste of the American people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I have sometimes thought that these huge public buildings,&mdash;now
+inadequate to accommodate the machinery of the Government,&mdash;would, at
+some future day, be the nucleus of a great <i>lycee</i>, and that Washington
+would become the Padua of the Republic, its University and Louvre, while
+legislation and administration, despairing of giving dignity to the
+place, would depart for a more congenial locality.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, the old Federal theory of a sylvan seat of government has
+failed.</p>
+
+<p>For a sequestered and virtuous retreat of legislation, we have
+corruption augmented by dirt, and business stagnation aggravated by
+disease. There are virtues in the town; but these must be searched for,
+and the vices are obvious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIVE FORKS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I commence my account on the battle-field, but must soon make the long
+and lonely ride to Humphrey's Station, where I shall continue it.</p>
+
+<p>I am sitting by Sheridan's camp-fire, on the spot he has just signalized
+by the most individual and complete victory of the war. All his veterans
+are around him, stooping by knots over the bright fagots, to talk
+together, or stretched upon the leaves of the forest, asleep, with the
+stains of powder yet upon their faces. There are dark masses of horses
+blackened into the gray background, and ambulances are creaking to and
+fro. I hear the sobs and howls of the weary, and note, afar off, among
+the pines, moving lights of burying parties, which are tumbling the
+slain into the trenches. A cowed and shivering silence has succeeded the
+late burst of drums, trumpets, and cannon; the dead are at rest; the
+captives are quiet; the good cause has won again, and I shall try to
+tell you how.</p>
+
+<p>Many months ago the Army of the Potomac stopped before Petersburg,
+driven out of its direct course to Richmond. It tried the Dutch Gap and
+the powder-ship, and shelled and shovelled till Sherman had cut five
+States in half, and only timid financiers, sutlers, and congressional
+excursionists paid the least attention to the armies on the James. We
+had fights without much purpose at our breastworks, and at Hatcher's
+Run, but the dashing achievements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+overtopped all our dull infantry endeavors, and he shared with Sherman
+the entire applause of the country. No one knows but that behind these
+actors stood the invisible prompter, Grant; yet prompters, however
+assiduous, never divide applauses with the <i>dramatis person&aelig;</i>; and
+therefore, when Sheridan, the other day, by one of those slashing
+adventures which hold us breathless, appeared on the Pamunkey and
+crossed the peninsula to City Point, even the armies of the Potomac and
+James were agitated. The <i>personnel</i> of the man, not less than his
+renown, affected people. A very Punch of soldiers, a sort of Rip Van
+Winkle in regimentals, it astonished folks, that with so jolly and
+grotesque a guise, he held within him energies like lightning, the bolts
+of which had splintered the fairest parts of the border. But nobody
+credited General Sheridan with higher genius than activity; we expected
+to hear of him scouring the Carolina boundary, with the usual
+destruction of railways and mills, and therefore said at once that
+Sheridan would cut the great Southside road. But in this last chapter
+Sheridan must take rank as one of the finest military men of our
+century. The battle of "Five Forks" was, perhaps, the most ingeniously
+conceived and skilfully executed that we have ever had on this
+continent. It matches in secretiveness and shrewdness the cleverest
+efforts of Napoleon, and shows also much of that soldier's broadness of
+intellect and capacity for great occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horses' shoes before he was
+off, and after him much of our infantry also moved to the left. We
+passed our ancient breastworks at Hatcher's Run, and extended our lines
+southwestward till they touched Dinwiddie Court House, thirty miles from
+City Point. The Rebels fell back with but little skirmishing, until we
+faced northward and reached out toward their idolized Southside Railway;
+then they grew uneasy, and, as a hint of their opposition, fought us the
+sharp battle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> Quaker Road on Thursday. Still, we reached farther and
+farther, marvelling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee always
+overmatched us at every point of attack; but on Friday we quitted our
+intrenchments on the Boydtown plank-road, and made a bold push for the
+White Oak road. This is one of the series of parallel public ways
+running east and west, south of the Southside, the Vaughan road being
+the first, the Boydtown plank-road the second, and the old Court-House
+road the third. It became evident to the Rebels that we had two direct
+objects in view: the severing of their railway, and the occupation of
+the "Five Forks." The latter is a magnificent strategic point. Five good
+roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered forest, three of
+them radiating to the railway, and their tributaries unlocking all the
+country. Farther south, their defences had been paltry, but they
+fortified this empty solitude as if it had been their capital. Upon its
+principal road, the "White Oak," aforenamed, they had a ditched
+breastwork with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching east and west
+three miles, and this was covered eastward and southeastward by
+rifle-pits, masked works, and felled timber; the bridges approaching it
+were broken; all the roads picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold to
+it averred. This point of "Five Forks" may be as much as eight miles
+from Dinwiddie Court House, four from the Southside road, and eighteen
+from Humphrey's, the nearest of our military railway stations. A crooked
+stream called Gravelly Run, which, with Hatcher's, forms Rowanty Creek,
+and goes off to feed the Chowan in North Carolina, rises near "Five
+Forks," and gives the name of Gravelly Run Church to a little Methodist
+meeting-house, built in the forest a mile distant. That meeting-house is
+a hospital to-night, running blood, and at "Five Forks" a victor's
+battle-flags are flying.</p>
+
+<p>The Fifth Army Corps of General Warren, has had all of the flank
+fighting of the week to do. It lost five or six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> hundred men in its
+victory of Thursday, and on Friday rested along the Boydtown plank-road,
+at the house of one Butler, chiefly, which is about seven miles from
+Five Forks. On Friday morning, General Ayres took the advance with one
+of its three divisions, and marched three-quarters of a mile beyond the
+plank-road, through a woody country, following the road, but crossing
+the ubiquitous Gravelly Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a
+mile and a half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a wood,
+with a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery of field-pieces
+to the right, mounted in a bastioned earthwork, and on the left the
+woods drew near, encircling a little farm-land and negro-buildings.
+General Ayres's skirmish-line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell
+back upon his main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway the
+enemy charged headlong, while their battery opened a cross fire, and
+their skirmishers on our left, creeping down through the woods, picked
+us off in flank. They charged with a whole division, making their
+memorable yell, and soon doubled up Ayres's line of battle, so that it
+was forced in tolerable disorder back upon General Crawford, who
+commanded the next division. Crawford's men do not seem to have
+retrieved the character of their predecessors, but made a feint to go
+in, and, falling by dozens beneath the murderous fire, gave up the
+ground. Griffin's division, past which the fugitives ran, halted awhile
+before taking the doubtful way; the whole corps was now back to the
+Boydtown plank-road, and nothing had been done to anybody's credit
+particularly.</p>
+
+<p>General Griffin rode up to General Chamberlain in this extremity.
+Chamberlain is a young and anxious officer, who resigned the
+professorship of modern languages in Bowdoin College to embrace a
+soldier's career. He had been wounded the day before, but was zealous to
+try death again.</p>
+
+<p>"Chamberlain," said Griffin, "can't you save the honor of the Fifth
+corps?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The young General formed his men at once,&mdash;they had tasted powder
+before,&mdash;the One Hundred and eighty-fifth New York and the One Hundred
+and ninety-eighth Pennsylvania. Down they went into the creek waist
+deep, up the slope and into the clearing, muskets to the left of them,
+muskets in front of them, cannon to the right of them; but their pace
+was swift, like their resolve; many of them were cut down, yet they kept
+ahead, and the Rebels, who seemed astonished at their own previous
+success, drew off and gave up the field. Almost two hours had elapsed
+between the loss and the recovery of the ground. The battle might be
+called Dabney's Farm, or more generally the fight of Gravelly Run. The
+brigades of Generals Bartlett and Gregory rendered material assistance
+in the pleasanter finale of the day. An order was soon after issued to
+hasten the burial of the dead and quit the spot, but Chamberlain
+petitioned for leave to charge the Rebel earthwork in the rear, and the
+enthusiasm of his brigade bore down General Warren's more prudent doubt.
+In brief, Griffin's division charged the fort, drove the Rebels out of
+it, and took position on the White Oak road, far east of Five Forks.
+While Griffin's division must be credited with this result, it may be
+said that their luck was due as much to the time as the manner of their
+appearance; the Rebel divisions of Pickett and Bushrod Johnston were, in
+the main, by the time Griffin came up, on their way westward to attack
+Sheridan's cavalry. Ayres and Crawford had charged as one to four, but
+the forces were quite equalized when Chamberlain pushed on. The corps
+probably lost twelve hundred men. In this action, the Rebels, for the
+first time for many weeks, exhibited all their traditional
+irresistibility and confidence. The merit of the affair, I am inclined
+to think, should be awarded to them; but a terrible retribution remained
+for them in the succeeding day's decrees.</p>
+
+<p>The ill success of the earlier efforts of Sheridan, show conclusively
+the insufficiency of ever so good cavalry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> to resist well organized and
+resolute infantry. Concentrating at Dinwiddie Court House, he proceeded
+to scour so much of the country that he almost baffled conjecture as to
+where his quarters really were. As many thousand cavalry as constitute
+his powerful force seem magnified, thus mounted and ever moving here and
+there, to an incredible number. The Court House, where he remained
+fittingly for a couple of days, is a cross-road's patch, numbering about
+twelve scattered buildings, with a delightful prospect on every side of
+sterile and monotonous pines. This is, I believe, the largest village in
+the district, though Dinwiddie stands fourth in population among
+Virginia counties. At present there is almost as great a population
+underground as the ancient county carried on its census. Indeed, one is
+perplexed at every point to know whence the South draws its prodigious
+armies. Some English officers have been visiting Dinwiddie during the
+week, and one of them said, curtly: "Blast the country! it isn't worth
+such a row, you know. A very good place to be exiled, to be sure, but
+what can you ever make of it!"</p>
+
+<p>This soulless Briton had never read any of the poems about the
+"boundless continent," and had no distinct conception of "size."</p>
+
+<p>From Dinwiddie fields, Sheridan's men went galloping, by the aid of maps
+and cross-examination, into every by-road; but it was soon apparent that
+the Rebel infantry meant to give them a push. This came about on Friday,
+with a foretaste on Thursday.</p>
+
+<p>Little Five Forks, is a cross-road not far from Dinwiddie Court House,
+in the direction of Petersburg. Big Five Forks, which, it must be borne
+in mind, gives name to the great battle of Saturday, is farther out by
+many miles, and does not lie within our lines. But, if the left of the
+army be at Dinwiddie, and the right at Petersburg, Little Five Forks
+will be first on the front line, though when Sheridan fought there, it
+was neutral ground, picketed but not possessed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> Very early in the week,
+when the Rebels became aware of the extension of our lines, they added
+to the regular force which encamped upon our flank line at least a
+division of troops. These were directed to avoid an infantry fight, but
+to seek out the cavalry, and, by getting it at disadvantage, rid the
+region both of the harmfulness of Sheridan, and that prestige of his
+name, so terrifying to the Virginia house-wife. So long as Sheridan
+remained upon the far left, the Southside road was unsafe, and the
+rapidity with which his command could be transferred from point to point
+rendered it a formidable balance of power. The Rebels knew the country
+well, and the peculiar course of the highways gave them every advantage.
+The cavalry of Sheridan's army proper, is divided into two corps,
+commanded by Generals Devin and Custer; the cavalry of the Potomac is
+commanded by General Crook; Mackenzie has control of the cavalry of the
+James. On Friday, these were under separate orders, and the result was
+confusion. The infantry was beaten at Gravelly Run, and the cavalry met
+in flank and front by overwhelming numbers, executed some movements not
+laid down in the manual. The centre of the battle was Little Five Forks,
+though the Rebels struck us closer to Dinwiddie Court House, and drove
+us pell mell up the road into the woods, and out the old Court House
+road to Gravelly Run. We rallied several times, and charged them into
+the woods, but they lay concealed in copses, and could go where sabres
+were useless. The plan of this battle-field will show a series of
+irregular advances to puzzle anybody but a cavalry-man. The full
+division of Bushrod Johnston and General Pickett, were developed against
+us, with spare brigades from other corps. Our cavalry loss during the
+day was eight hundred in killed and wounded; but we pushed the Rebels so
+hard that they gave us the field, falling back toward Big Five Forks,
+and we intrenched immediately. Two thousand men comprise our losses of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>
+Friday in Warren's corps and Sheridan's command, including many valuable
+officers. We shall see how, under a single guidance, splendid results
+were next day obtained with half the sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday night General Grant, dissatisfied, like most observers, with
+the day's business, placed General Sheridan in the supreme command of
+the whole of Warren's corps and all the cavalry. General Warren reported
+to him at nightfall, and the little army was thus composed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>General Sheridan's Forces, Saturday April 1, 1865.</i></p>
+
+<p>Three divisions of infantry, under Generals Griffin, Ayres, and
+Crawford.</p>
+
+<p>Two divisions of cavalry, formerly constituting the Army of the
+Shenandoah, now commanded by General Merritt, under Generals Devin and
+Custer.</p>
+
+<p>One division cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, under General Crook.</p>
+
+<p>Brigade or more cavalry Army of the James, under General Mackenzie.</p>
+
+<p>In this composition the infantry was to the cavalry in the proportion of
+about two to one, and the entire force a considerable army, far up in
+the teens. Sheridan was absolute, and his oddly-shaped body began to bob
+up and down straightway; he visited every part of his line, though it
+stretched from Dinwiddie Court House to the Quaker road, along the
+Boydtown Plank and its adjuncts. At daybreak on Saturday he fired four
+signal-guns, to admonish Warren he was off; and his cavalry, by
+diverging roads, struck their camps. Just south of Culpepper is a
+certain Stony creek, the tributaries to which wind northward and control
+the roads. Over Stony creek went Crook, making the longest detour.
+Custer took a bottom called Chamberlain's bed; and Devin advanced from
+Little Five Forks, the whole driving the Rebels toward the left of their
+works on White Oak road.</p>
+
+<p>We must start with the supposition that our own men far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> outnumbered the
+Rebels. The latter were widely separated from their comrades before
+Petersburg, and the adjustment of our infantry as well as the great
+movable force at Sheridan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they
+could have returned. At any rate they did not do so, whether from choice
+or necessity, and it was a part of our scheme to push them back into
+their entrenchments. This work was delegated to the cavalry entirely,
+but, as I have said before, mounted carbineers, are no match for
+stubborn, bayoneted infantry. So when the horsemen were close up to the
+Rebels, they were dismounted, and acted as infantry to all intents. A
+portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie, still adhered to the saddle,
+that they might be put in rapid motion for flanking and charging
+purposes; but fully five thousand indurated men, who had seen service in
+the Shenandoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of battle on foot, and
+by charge and deploy essayed the difficult work of pressing back the
+entire Rebel column. This they were to do so evenly and ingeniously,
+that the Rebels should go no farther than their works, either to escape
+eastward or to discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were
+already forming. Had they espied the latter they might have become so
+discouraged as to break and take to the woods; and Sheridan's object was
+to capture them as well as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the
+cavalry pushed them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and
+terrifically. I have no space in this hurried despatch to advert either
+to individual losses or to the many thrilling episodes of the fight. It
+was fought at so close quarters that our carbines were never out of
+range; for had this been otherwise, the long rifles of the enemy would
+have given them every advantage. With their horses within call, the
+cavalry-men, in line of battle, stood together like walls of stone,
+swelling onward like those gradually elevating ridges of which Lyell
+speaks. Now and then a detachment of Rebels would charge down upon us,
+swaying the lines and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> threatening to annihilate us; for at no part of
+the action, till its crisis, did the Southern men exhibit either doubt
+or dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant treason the
+world has ever had, and here and there showing some of those wonderful
+feats of individual courage which are the miracles of the time.</p>
+
+<p>A colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a charge. The
+bayonets were fixed; the men came on with a yell; their gray uniforms
+seemed black amidst the smoke; their preserved colors, torn by grape and
+ball, waved yet defiantly; twice they halted, and poured in volleys, but
+came on again like the surge from the fog, depleted, but determined;
+yet, in the hot faces of the carbineers, they read a purpose as
+resolute, but more calm, and, while they pressed along, swept all the
+while by scathing volleys, a group of horsemen took them in flank. It
+was an awful instant; the horses recoiled; the charging column trembled
+like a single thing, but at once the Rebels, with rare organization,
+fell into a hollow square, and with solid sheets of steel defied our
+centaurs. The horsemen rode around them in vain; no charge could break
+the shining squares, until our dismounted carbineers poured in their
+volleys afresh, making gaps in the spent ranks, and then in their
+wavering time the cavalry thundered down. The Rebels could stand no
+more; they reeled and swayed, and fell back broken and beaten. And on
+the ground their colonel lay, sealing his devotion with his life.</p>
+
+<p>Through wood and brake and swamp, across field and trench, we pushed the
+fighting defenders steadily. For a part of the time, Sheridan himself
+was there, short and broad, and active, waving his hat, giving orders,
+seldom out of fire, but never stationary, and close by fell the long
+yellow locks of Custer, sabre extended, fighting like a Viking, though
+he was worn and haggard with much work. At four o'clock the Rebels were
+behind their wooden walls at Five Forks, and still the cavalry pressed
+them hard, in feint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> rather than solemn effort, while a battalion
+dismounted, charged squarely upon the face of their breastworks which
+lay in the main on the north side of the White Oak road. Then, while the
+cavalry worked round toward the rear, the infantry of Warren, though
+commanded by Sheridan, prepared to take part in the battle.</p>
+
+<p>The genius of Sheridan's movement lay in his disposition of the
+infantry. The skill with which he arranged it, and the difficult
+man&oelig;uvres he projected and so well executed, should place him as high
+in infantry tactics as he has heretofore shown himself superior in
+cavalry. The infantry which had marched at 2&frac12; <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> from the house of
+Boisseau, on the Boydtown plank-road, was drawn up in four battle lines,
+a mile or more in length, and in the beginning facing the White Oak road
+obliquely; the left or pivot was the division of General Ayres, Crawford
+had the center and Griffin the right. These advanced from the Boydtown
+plank-road, at ten o'clock, while Sheridan was thundering away with the
+cavalry, mounted and dismounted, and deluding the Rebels with the idea
+that he was the sole attacking party; they lay concealed in the woods
+behind the Gravelly Run meeting-house, but their left was not a
+half-mile distant from the Rebel works, though their right reached so
+far off that a novice would have criticized the position sharply. Little
+by little, Sheridan, extending his lines, drove the whole Rebel force
+into their breastworks; then he dismounted the mass of his cavalry and
+charged the works straight in the front, still thundering on their
+flank. At last, every Rebel was safe behind his intrenchments. Then the
+signal was given, and the concealed infantry, many thousand strong,
+sprang up and advanced by e&ccedil;helon to the right. Imagine a great barndoor
+shutting to, and you have the movement, if you can also imagine the door
+itself, hinge and all, moving forward also. This was the door:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>AYRES&mdash;CRAWFORD&mdash;GRIFFIN. </p></div>
+
+<p>Stick a pin through Ayres and turn Griffin and Crawford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> forward as you
+would a spoke in a wheel, but move your pin up also a very little. In
+this way Ayres will advance, say half a mile, and Griffin, to describe a
+quarter revolution, will move through a radius of four miles. But to
+complicate this movement by e&ccedil;helon, we must imagine the right when half
+way advanced cutting across the centre and reforming, while Crawford
+became the right and Griffin the middle of the line of battle. Warren
+was with Crawford on this march. Gregory commanded the skirmishers.
+Ayres was so close to the Rebel left that he might be said to hinge upon
+it; and at 6 o'clock the whole corps column came crash upon the full
+flank of the astonished Rebels. Now came the pitch of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>We were already on the Rebel right in force, and thinly in their rear.
+Our carbineers were making feint to charge in direct front, and our
+infantry, four deep, hemmed in their entire left. All this they did not
+for an instant note, so thorough was their confusion; but seeing it
+directly, they, so far from giving up, concentrated all their energy and
+fought like fiends. They had a battery in position, which belched
+incessantly, and over the breastworks their musketry made one unbroken
+roll, while against Sheridan's prowlers on their left, by skirmish and
+sortie, they stuck to their sinking fortunes, so as to win unwilling
+applause from mouths of wisest censure.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at the coming up of the infantry that Sheridan's little band
+was pushed the hardest. At one time, indeed, they seemed about to
+undergo extermination; not that they wavered, but that they were so
+vastly overpowered. It will remain to the latest time a matter of marvel
+that so paltry a cavalry force could press back sixteen thousand
+infantry; but when the infantry blew like a great barndoor&mdash;the simile
+best applicable&mdash;upon the enemy's left, the victory that was to come had
+passed the region of strategy and resolved to an affair of personal
+courage. We had met the enemy; were they to be ours?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> To expedite this
+consummation every officer fought as if he were the forlorn hope.
+Mounted on his black pony, the same which he rode at Winchester,
+Sheridan galloped everywhere, his flushed face all the redder, and his
+plethoric, but nervous figure all the more ubiquitous. He galloped once
+straight down the Rebel front, with but a handful of his staff. A dozen
+bullets whistled for him together; one grazed his arm, at which a
+faithful orderly rode; the black pony leaped high, in fright, and
+Sheridan was untouched, but the orderly lay dead in the field, and the
+saddle dashed afar empty. General Warren rode with Crawford most of the
+afternoon, mounted likewise, and making two or three narrow escapes. He
+was dark, dashing, and individual as ever, but for some reason or other
+was relieved of his command after the battle, and Griffin was instated
+in his place. General Sheridan ordered Warren to report to General
+Grant's head-quarters, sending the order by an aid. Warren, on his own
+hook, did not meet on Friday with his general success, and on Saturday
+Sheridan was the master-spirit; but Warren is a General as well as a
+gentleman, and is only overshadowed by a greater genius,&mdash;not
+obliterated. Ayres, accounted the best soldier in the Fifth corps, but
+too quietly modest for his own favor, fought like a lion in this pitch
+of battle, making all the faint-hearted around him ashamed to do ill
+with such an example contiguous. General Bartlett, keen-faced and active
+like a fiery scimitar, was leading his division as if he were an
+immortal! He was closest at hand in the most gallant episodes, and held
+at nightfall a bundle of captured battle-flags. But Griffin, tall and
+slight, was the master-genius of the Fifth corps, to which by right he
+has temporarily succeeded. He led the charge on the flank, and was the
+first to mount the parapet with his horse, riding over the gunners as
+May did at Cerro Gordo, and cutting them down. Bartlett's brigade,
+behind him, finished the business, and the last cannon was fired for the
+day against the conquering Federals. General Crawford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> fulfilled his
+full share of duties throughout the day, amply sustained by such
+splendid brigade commanders as Baxter, Coulter, and Kellogg, while Gwin
+and Boweryman were at hand in the division of General Ayres; not to omit
+the fallen Winthrop, who died to save a friend and win a new laurel.
+What shall I say for Chamberlain, who, beyond all question, is the first
+of our brigade commanders, having been the hero of both Quaker Road and
+Gravelly Run, and in this action of Five Forks making the air ring with
+the applauding huzzas of his soldiers, who love him? His is one of the
+names that will survive the common wreck of shoulder-straps after the
+war.</p>
+
+<p>But I am individualizing; the fight, as we closed upon the Rebels, was
+singularly free from great losses on our side, though desperate as any
+contest ever fought on the continent. One prolonged roar of rifle shook
+the afternoon; we carried no artillery, and the Rebel battery, until its
+capture, raked us like an irrepressible demon, and at every foot of the
+intrenchments a true man fought both in front and behind. The birds of
+the forest fled afar; the smoke ascended to heaven; locked in so mad
+frenzy, none saw the sequel of the closing day. Now Richmond rocked in
+her high towers to watch the impending issue, but soon the day began to
+look gray, and a pale moon came tremulously out to watch the meeting
+squadrons. Imagine along a line of a full mile, thirty thousand men
+struggling for life and prestige; the woods gathering about them&mdash;but
+yesterday the home of hermit hawks and chipmonks&mdash;now ablaze with
+bursting shells, and showing in the dusk the curl of flames in the
+tangled grass, and, rising up the boles of the pine trees, the scaling,
+scorching tongues. Seven hours this terrible spectacle had been enacted,
+but the finale of it had almost come.</p>
+
+<p>It was by all accounts in this hour of victory when the modest and brave
+General Winthrop of the first brigade, Ayres division, was mortally
+wounded. He was riding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> along the breastworks, and in the act as I am
+assured, of saving a friend's life, was shot through to the left lung.
+He fell at once, and his men, who loved him, gathered around and took
+him tenderly to the rear, where he died before the stretcher on which he
+lay could be deposited beside the meeting-house door. On the way from
+the field to the hospital he wandered in mind at times, crying out,
+"Captain Weaver how is that line? Has the attack succeeded?" etc. When
+he had been resuscitated for a pause he said: "Doctor, I am done for."
+His last words were: "Straighten the line!" And he died peacefully. He
+was a cousin of Major Winthrop, the author of "Cecil Dreeme." He was
+twenty-seven years of age. I had talked with him before going into
+action, as he sat at the side of General Ayres, and was permitted by the
+guard of honor to uncover his face and look upon it. He was pale and
+beautiful, marble rather than corpse, and the uniform cut away from his
+bosom showed how white and fresh was the body, so pulseless now.</p>
+
+<p>General Griffin said to me: "This victory is not worth Winthrop's life."</p>
+
+<p>Winthrop went into the service as a simple color-bearer. He died a
+brevet brigadier.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock the Rebels came to the conclusion that they were
+outflanked and whipped. They had been so busily engaged that they were a
+long time finding out how desperate were their circumstances; but now,
+wearied with persistent assaults in front, they fell back to the left,
+only to see four close lines of battle waiting to drive them across the
+field, decimated. At the right the horsemen charged them in their vain
+attempt to fight "out," and in the rear straggling foot and cavalry
+began also to assemble; slant fire, cross fire, and direct fire, by file
+and volley rolled in perpetually, cutting down their bravest officers
+and strewing the fields with bleeding men; groans resounded in the
+intervals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> of exploding powder, and to add to their terror and despair,
+their own artillery, captured from them, threw into their own ranks,
+from its old position, ungrateful grape and canister, enfilading their
+breastworks, whizzing and plunging by air line and ricochet, and at last
+bodies of cavalry fairly mounted their intrenchments, and charged down
+the parapet, slashing and trampling them, and producing inexplicable
+confusion. They had no commanders, at least no orders, and looked in
+vain for some guiding hand to lead them out of a toil into which they
+had fallen so bravely and so blindly. A few more volleys, a new and
+irresistible charge, a shrill and warning command to die or surrender,
+and, with a sullen and tearful impulse, five thousand muskets are flung
+upon the ground, and five thousand hot, exhausted, and impotent men are
+Sheridan's prisoners of war.</p>
+
+<p>Acting with his usual decision, Sheridan placed his captives in care of
+a provost-guard, and sent them at once to the rear. Those which escaped,
+he ordered the fiery Custer to pursue with brand and vengeance; and they
+were pressed far into the desolate forest, spent and hungry, many
+falling by the way of wounds or exhaustion, many pressed down by hoof or
+sabre-stroke, and many picked up in mercy and sent back to rejoin their
+brethren in bonds. We captured in all fully six thousand prisoners.
+General Sheridan estimated them modestly at five thousand, but the
+provost-marshal assured me that he had a line four abreast a full mile
+long. I entirely bear him out, having ridden for forty minutes in a
+direction opposite to that they were taking, and growing weary at last
+of counting or of seeing them. They were fine, hearty fellows, almost
+all Virginians, and seemed to take their capture not unkindly. They wore
+the gray and not very attractive uniform of the Confederacy, but looked
+to be warm and fat, and passing along in the night, under the fir-trees,
+conveyed at most a romantic idea of grief and tribulation. They were put
+in a huge pen, midway between Big and Little Five Forks, for the night,
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> officers sharing the same fare with the soldiers, from whom,
+indeed, they were undistinguishable.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the splendid victory of Five Forks, the least bloody to us,
+but the most successful, proportionate to numbers engaged, that has been
+fought during the war. One man out of every three engaged took a
+prisoner. We captured four cannon, an ambulance train and baggage-teams,
+eight thousand muskets, and twenty-eight battle-flags. General
+Longstreet, it is thought, commanded. Neither he nor Pickett nor Bushrod
+Johnston, division commanders, were taken; they were wise enough to see
+that the day was lost, and imitated Bonaparte after Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>I attribute this victory almost entirely to Sheridan; it was won by
+strategy and persistence, and in great part by men who would not stand
+fire the day before. The happy distribution of duties between cavalry
+and infantry excited a fine rivalry, and the consciousness of Sheridan's
+guidance inspired confidence. Has any battle so successful ever been
+fought in Virginia? or, indeed, in the East? I think not. It has opened
+to us the enemy's flank, so that we can sweep down upon the Appomattox
+and inside of his breastworks, enabling us to shorten our lines of
+intrenchments one half, if no more, and putting out of Lee's service
+fifteen thousand of his choicest troops. And all this, General Sheridan
+tells me, has cost him personally no more than eight hundred men, and
+the service no more than fifteen hundred. Compare this with
+Chancellorsville, Williamsburg, the Wilderness, Bull Run, and what shall
+we say? The enemy must have lost in this fight three thousand in killed
+and wounded.</p>
+
+<p>The scene at Gravelly Run meeting-house at 8 and at 10 o'clock on
+Saturday night, is one of the solemn contrasts of the war, and, I hope,
+the last of them. A little frame church, planted among the pines, and
+painted white, with cool, green window-shutters, holds at its foot a
+gallery for the negroes, and at the head a varnished pulpit. I found
+its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> pews moved to the green plain over the threshold, and on its bare
+floors the screaming wounded. Blood ran in little rills across the
+planks, and, human feet treading in them, had made indelible prints in
+every direction; the pulpit-lamps were doing duty, not to shed holy
+light upon holy pages, but to show the pale and dusty faces of the
+beseeching; and as they moved in and out, the groans and curses of the
+suffering replace the gush of peaceful hymns and the deep responses to
+the preacher's prayers. Federal and Confederate lay together, the
+bitterness of noon assuaged in the common tribulation of the night, and
+all the while came in the dripping stretchers, to place in this golgotha
+new recruits for death and sorrow. I asked the name of the church, but
+no one knew any more than if it had been the site of some obsolete
+heathen worship. At last, a grinning sergeant smacked his thumbs as if
+the first idea of his life had occurred to him, and led me to the
+pulpit. Beneath some torn blankets and rent officers' garments, rested
+the hymn book and Bible, which he produced. Last Sunday these doled out
+the praises of God, and the frightened congregation worshipped at their
+dictation. Now they only served by their fly leaves to give me my
+whereabouts, and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Presented to Gravelly Run Meeting House by the Ladies.</i></p>
+
+<p>Over the portal, the scenes within were reiterated, except that the
+greatness of a starry night replaced the close and terrible arena of the
+church. Beneath the trees, where the Methodist circuit-rider had tied
+his horse, and the urchins, daring class-meeting, had wandered away to
+cast stones at the squirrels, and measure strength at vaulting and
+running, the gashed and fevered lay irregularly, some soul going out at
+each whiff of the breeze in the fir-tops; and the teams and surgeons,
+and straggling soldiers, and galloping orderlies passed all the night
+beneath the old and gibbous moon and the hushed stars, and by the
+trickle of Gravelly Run stealing off, afeared. But the wounded had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> no
+thought that night; the victory absorbed all hearts; we had no losses to
+notice where so much was won.</p>
+
+<p>A mile past the church, going away from head-quarters all the time, lies
+Five Forks, the object and name of the battle. A large open field of
+perhaps thirty acres, interposes between the church and the commencement
+of the Rebel works. Their left is only some rails and logs to mask
+marksmen, but the work proper is a very long stretch of all obstructions
+of a man's height in relief.</p>
+
+<p>The White Oak road runs directly in front of these intrenchments, and
+was, at the time I passed, the general highway for infantry returning
+from the field and cavalry-men concentrating at General Sheridan's
+bivouac. Riding a mile I came upon the Five Forks proper, and just to
+the left, at the foot of some pines, the victor and his assistants were
+congregated. Sheridan sat by some fagots, examining a topographical map
+of the country he had so well traversed; possibly with a view to design
+further aggressive movements in the morning. He is opposite me now as I
+pen these paragraphs by the imperfect blaze of his bivouac fire. He is
+good humored and talkative, like all men conscious of having achieved a
+great work, and has been good enough to sketch for me the plan of the
+day's operations, from which I have compiled much of the statement
+above. Close by lies Custer, trying to sleep, his long yellow hair
+covering his face; and General Griffin, now commanding the Fifth corps,
+goes here and there issuing orders, while aides and orderlies rode in
+and out, bearing further fresh messages of deeds consummated or
+proposed. We shall have a hot night no doubt, for away off to the right,
+continue volleys of musketry and discharges of artillery, intermixed
+with what seem to be thunderbolts of our men-of-war at anchor in the
+Appomatox and James,&mdash;if such can be heard at this great
+distance,&mdash;which tell us that the lines are in motion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>RICHMOND DESOLATE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The scenes of entering the doomed stronghold, when Grant had burst its
+gates, ought to be made vivid as the spectacle of death. With my good
+and talented associate, Mr. Jerome B. Stillson, I hold the Spotswood
+Hotel, and from this caravansary of the late capital as thoroughly
+identified with Rebellion as the inn at Bethlehem with the gospel, we
+date our joint paragraphs upon the condition of the city. A week cannot
+have exhausted the curiosity of the North to learn the exact appearance
+of a city which has stood longer, more frequent, and more persistent
+sieges, than any in Christendom. This town is the Rebellion; it is all
+that we have directly striven for; quitting it, the Confederate leaders
+have quitted their sheet-anchor, their roof-tree, their abiding hope.
+Its history is the epitome of the whole contest, and to us, shivering
+our thunderbolts against it for more than four years, Richmond is still
+a mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Know then, that, whether coming from Washington or Baltimore, the two
+points of embarkation, all bound hitherward must rendezvous at Fortress
+Monroe; thence, in such excellent steamers as the <i>Dictator</i>, start up
+the broad James River. To own a country-house upon the "Jeems" river is
+the Virginia gentleman's ultimate aspiration. There, with a
+tobacco-farm, and wide wheatlands, his feet on his front-porch rails, a
+Havana cigar between his teeth, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> colored person to bring him
+frequent juleps, the Virginia gentleman, confident in the divinity of
+slavery, hopes in his natural, refined idleness, to watch the little
+family graveyard close up to his threshold, till it shall kindly open
+and give him sepulture.</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere men aim to be successful, or enterprising, or eloquent, or
+scholarly, but that nobleness of hospitality, high spirit, dignity, and
+affability which constitute our idea of chivalry is everywhere save here
+an exotic. We say that chivalry is "played out," and that the prestige
+of "first families" is gone with the hurried retreat before Grant's
+salamanders. Not so. Secession as a cause is past the range of
+possibilities. But no people in their subjugation wear a better front
+than these brave old spirits, whose lives are not their own. Fire has
+ravaged their beautiful city, soldiers of the color of their servants,
+guard the crossings and pace the pavement with bayoneted muskets. But
+gentlemen they are still, in every pace, and inch, and syllable,&mdash;such
+men as we were wont to call brothers and countrymen. However, the James
+River, at which we commenced, has not a town upon it between the sea and
+the head of navigation. It is a strong commentary upon this patriarchal
+civilization, judged by our gregarious tastes, that one of the noblest
+streams in the world should show to the traveller only here and there a
+pleasant mansion, flanked by negro cabins, but nowhere a church-spire
+nor a steam-mill. All that we see from Fortress Monroe to City Point are
+ridges of breastworks, rifle-pits, and forts, lying bare, yellow, and
+deserted, to defend its passage, excepting at James Island, where the
+solitary and broken tower of the ancient colony holds guard over some
+bramble and ruin. Here Smith founded the celebrated settlement, which
+wooed to its threshold the gentle Pocahontas, and fell to fragments at
+the behest of the fiery Bacon. The ramparts on the James will remain
+forever; great as they are, they would hardly hold the bones of the
+slain in the capture and defence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> Four hours from Fortress Monroe we
+pass Harrison's Landing, where two grand armies, <i>beaten</i> aside from
+Richmond, sought the shelter of the river, and at City Point quit our
+large craft, to be transferred to a light draught vessel, which is to
+carry the first mail going to Richmond under the national flag since the
+beginning of the war.</p>
+
+<p>City Point is still a populous place, and the millions of mules upon it
+bray hoarsely; but we leave all these behind, as well as the national
+standard, which flaunts over General Grant's late head-quarters, and
+steam past the mouth of the Appomattox to go through the enemy's lines.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforward every foot of the way is freshly interesting. The Rebel ram
+<i>Atlanta</i> in tow of a couple of tugs, goes past us with a torpedo boat
+at the rear. She is raking, slant, and formidable; but "old glory" is
+waving on her. Directly our own leviathan, the <i>Roanoke</i> drifts up, and
+all her storm-throated tars cheer like the belch of her guns. We see to
+the right, the tip of Malvern Hill, ever sorrowful and sacred, and soon
+a great unfinished ram careens by, which never grew to battle-size; the
+true colors shine above her bulwarks like a flower growing in a carcass.
+Then at little intervals there are frequent prizes from the docks of
+Richmond, tugs, transports, barges, some of which show under our
+beautiful banner the Rebel cross, pale and contemptible. These
+malcontents committed as great crime against good taste in substituting
+for our starry emblem this artistic abomination, as against law and
+policy in changing the configuration of the Union. There is another
+flag, however, which we see, half exultantly, half vindictively,&mdash;the
+cross of St. George,&mdash;flying from a British cutter.</p>
+
+<p>By and by we come to our intrenchments upon the upper James and at
+Bermuda Hundred. Now they are very listless and half empty. The boys
+have gone off to tread on Lee's shanks. Only a few vessels stand at the
+landings, and the few remnants have laid down the rifle, and taken up
+the fishing-pole. One should come up this river to get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> a conception of
+our splendid navy. Sharp-pointed gunboats, with bullet-proof crows'
+nests and swivels that are the gentlest murderers ever polished;
+monitors through whose eyeholes a ball a big as a cook-stove squints
+from a columbiad socket; ferry-boats which are speckled with brass
+cannon, and all sorts of craft that can float and man&oelig;uvre, provided
+they look at us through deadly muzzles are there to the number of fifty
+or sixty, as many as make the entire navies of all other American
+nations. After the war we must have a great naval review, and invite all
+the crowned heads to attend it. Soon we reach Dutch Gap, where lies
+Butler's canal, or "Butler's gut," as the sailors call it. The river at
+this point is so crooked that Butler must have laid it out by the aid of
+his wrong eye. The canal is meant to cut on a long elbow; but being
+almost at right angles to the course of the river, only the most
+obliging tide would run through it. As a consequence, it is a sort of a
+sluice merely, of insufficient width, and as a "sight" very
+disappointing to great expectations. Between the points of debouch of
+this canal crosses a drawbridge of pontoons, for the use of our troops,
+and just beyond it Aiken's Landing, where the flag of truce boat
+stopped. A fine brick mansion stands in shore, with a wharf abreast it.
+The banks around it are trodden here with many feet. These are the
+traces of the poor prisoners who reached here, fevered, and starving and
+naked, to catch for the first time the sight of cool waters and friends,
+and the bright flag which they had followed to the edge of the grave.
+How they threw up their hats, and cheered to the feeblest, and wept, and
+danced, and laughed. Long be the place remembered, as holy, neutral
+ground, where death never trod, and multitudes passed from suffering, to
+freedom and home. Beyond this point, the most formidable Rebel works we
+have seen, line the high bluffs and ridges. They are monuments of
+patient labor, and make of themselves hills as great as nature's. But
+the siege pieces, which often bellowed upon them like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> thunderbolts
+along the mountain-tops, are gone now, and only straggling, meddling
+fellows pass them at all. The highest of these works commands both ends
+of the Dutch Gap canal, and while our lads were digging they often hid
+themselves in caves which they dug in the cliff-sides.</p>
+
+<p>We reach the first torpedo at length; a little red flag marks it, by
+which the boat slips tremulously, though another and another are before,
+at the sight of which our nervous folks are agitated. Here is a monitor
+with a drag behind it, which has just fished up one; and the sequel is
+told by a bloody and motionless figure upon the deck. These torpedoes
+are the true dragon teeth of Cadmus, which spring up armed men.</p>
+
+<p>Happily for us, the Rebels have sown but few of them, and the position
+of these was pointed out by one of their captains who deserted to our
+side. In the midst of these lie the obstructions. Great hulks of vessels
+and chained spars, and tree-tops which reach quite across the river,
+except where our pioneers have hewn a little gap to let the steamer
+through. Upon these obstructions a hundred cannon bear from the cliffs
+before us, and as we go further we see the whole river-bed sprinkled
+with strange contrivances to keep back our thunder-bearers. We think it
+absolutely impossible, under any circumstances, that our fleet could
+have got to Richmond so long as the Rebels contested the passage; each
+step forward finds new and greater obstacles. The channel is as narrow
+as Harlem River and as crooked as a walk in the ramble of Central Park.
+Each elbow of the stream is muscular with snag and snare wherever the
+swift stream swoops around abruptly. Jagged abatis, driven piles, and
+artificial lumber, bar the way before us. To the right of us, to the
+left of us, behind us, stand up the bare parapets, crowned with airy
+lookout towers, where, at the coming of a nautilus, the whole horizon
+and foreground would rain crossfires of shell and iron bolts, to sweep
+into annihilation the tiniest or the staunchest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> opposition from the
+earth's surface, and under the earth and above the earth death waited to
+leap up and draw the daring to its bosom. Not one, nor two, nor three
+lines of defences frowned down as we cautiously steamed along, but every
+precipice was bristling with defiance, as if the deep subterranean fires
+underlying our race had burst here fitfully and frequently, heaving up
+the swells of the hills till they lay hard and barren for human
+ingenuity to garnish them with anxious artillery. All along were the
+deep funnel-shaped cases of the torpedoes just disentombed. But at
+nightfall Drury's Bluff flitted by like the battlemented wall of a city,
+and then we saw no more.</p>
+
+<p>The band that greeted us from a distance stops playing as the boat nears
+the wharf.</p>
+
+<p>There is a stillness, in the midst of which Richmond, with her ruins,
+her spectral roof, afar, and her unchanging spires, rests beneath a
+ghastly, fitful glare,&mdash;the night stain which a great conflagration
+leaves behind it for weeks,&mdash;struggling silently with colossal shadows
+along the foreground, two hideous walls alone arise in front, shutting
+these gleams. They are the Libby Prison and Castle Thunder. Right and
+left, and far in the moonlighted perspective beyond, there is a soft
+glitter upon cornices and domes. A haggard glow of candles, faintly
+defines the thoroughfares that have not suffered ruin; while massive,
+and upon a height overlooking all, stands the Capitol, flying its black
+shadow from the sinking moon across a hundred crumbling walls, until its
+edges touch the windows of the Libby.</p>
+
+<p>But over its massive roof, dimly seen through the mists of the river,
+and, as before, "through the mists of the deep," the banner of the
+Union, banished for four years, is shaken out again, broad and
+beautiful, by the breath of an April night. Upon the face of every
+leaning figure on the steamer's deck, in sight of that radiant signal,
+is the same half-melancholy, half-triumphant smile.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of the battle which has passed, of the army,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> which, after
+struggling through years for this majestic procession, has swept by and
+beyond without the view for which its straining eyes have yearned, is
+sad and strange. There comes back dimly suggestive, a story of Iran and
+his host, thundering at the gates of Tupelo, for the possession of a
+wondrous jewel, and awakening once upon a dawn to learn that Tupelo was
+an empty casket,&mdash;to turn back longing, "wondering eyes upon the city,
+and to hunt the fleeing prize afar." Yet unto those legions of the
+republic which have emptied Richmond of a prize which yet they may have
+easily clutched, there go out reverence and blessing even larger than
+might be bestowed upon them resting in camp, upon these overlooking
+hills. That true allegiance, that calm and stern self-sacrifice which
+impels an army forward past the sweet applauses and rewarding calms to
+which great victories might entitle it, are the purest sources of its
+glory and its fame. God bless the army that has permitted us to
+consummate this journey and to gaze upon this spectacle, while it does
+not impress us too proudly, too triumphantly. Both pride and triumph
+have, of course, a place in the tumultuous feeling that surges through
+the hearts of all; yet as in every true man is born an instinct of
+compassion for a fallen foe, we prefer that the shout should go up in
+honor of our victory alone, and not because these have suffered.</p>
+
+<p>The boat touches the shore at Rockett's, the foot of Richmond. A few
+minutes' walk and we tread the pavements of the capital. There are no
+noisy and no beseeching runners; there is no sound of life, but the
+stillness of a catacomb, only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted
+sidewalk, and a funeral troop of echoes bump their elfin heads against
+the dead walls and closed shutters in reply, and this is Richmond. Says
+a melancholy voice: "And this is Richmond."</p>
+
+<p>We are under the shadow of ruins. From the pavements where we walk far
+off into the gradual curtain of the night,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> stretches a vista of
+desolation. The hundreds of fabrics, the millions of wealth, that
+crumbled less than a week ago beneath one fiery kiss, here topple and
+moulder into rest. A white smoke-wreath rising occasionally, enwraps a
+shattered wall as in a shroud. A gleam of flame shoots a grotesque
+picture of broken arches and ragged chimneys into the brain. Huge piles
+of debris begin to encumber the sidewalks, and even the pavements, as we
+go on. The streets in some places are quite choked up from walking. We
+are among the ruins of half a city. The wreck, the loneliness, seem
+interminable. The memory of lights in houses above, beheld while upon
+the steamer, alone keeps despondency from a victory over hope; and
+although the continued existence of the Spottswood Hotel is vouched for
+by authority, my lodge in such a wilderness seems next to impossible.
+Away to the right, above the waste of blackened walls, around the
+phantom-looking flag upon the capitol,&mdash;the only sign betwixt heaven and
+earth, or upon the earth, that Richmond is not wholly deserted,&mdash;beyond
+and out of the ruins, we walk past one of two open doorways where the
+moon serves as candle to a group of talking negroes. The gas works,
+injured by fire, are not working, and "ile" has not been struck in the
+Confederacy. Not a white man appears until we reach the
+Spottswood,&mdash;there before the entrance is a conclave of officers,&mdash;then,
+at last, entering, we stand in that most famous of Southern hotels, the
+interior of which is filled with the very aroma of the Rebellion. A
+thankful yielding up of carpet-bags and valises to the indignant negro
+waiters, and then a brief moonlight stroll toward the capitol.</p>
+
+<p>Within the gates of the Square, that swing on their hinges silent as the
+hour we pass alone, before us stands the magnificent monument crowned
+with Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington. The right hand of the
+rider, lifted against the sky, points a prophetic finger toward the
+southwest. Dark, and motionless, and grand, it is the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> symbol
+belonging solely to the Union, which they have not dared to desecrate;
+which they have strangely chosen to consider neither as an insult nor a
+rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>Gazing beyond at the capitol itself, and back again at the figure which
+overlooks the building, it is not hard to imagine that, while the noisy
+debates of a congress of traitors to the Union that he founded were in
+progress, those bronze lips sometimes smiled in scorn.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Richmond proper, and descending into the low, squalid portion of
+the town known as Rocketts, one sees among the many large warehouses,
+used without exception for the storage of tobacco, a certain one more
+irregular than the rest. An archway leads into it, and upon the outside
+of the second story windows runs a long ledge or footway, whereupon
+sentries used to stride, guarding the miserable people within. This is
+the jail of Castle Thunder, and it was the civil or State prison of the
+capital. Ill as were the accommodations of prisoners of war, the
+treatment of their own unoffending citizens by the Rebel government was
+ten times more infamous. We could not repress indignation, nor by any
+philosophic or charitable effort excuse the atrocious tyranny which here
+lashed, chained, handcuffed, tortured, shot, and hung, hundreds of
+people whom it could not stultify or impress. We may grant that the
+Confederacy had become a government; that, in its perilous incipiency,
+it had apology for severity and rigor with all malcontents; that, in its
+own struggle for death or life, it might, in self-defence, absorb all
+private liberty; but even thus the terrible testimony of this Castle
+Thunder is an everlasting stigma upon the Southern cause. We entered its
+strong portal, and there in the new commandant's room lay the record
+left behind by the Confederates. Its pages made one shudder.</p>
+
+<p>These are some of the entries:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p><div class="blockquot"><p>"George Barton,&mdash;giving food to Federal prisoners of war; forty
+lashes upon the bare back. Approved. Sentence carried into effect
+July 2.</p>
+
+<p>"Peter B. Innis,&mdash;passing forged government notes; chain and ball
+for twelve months; forty lashes a day. Approved.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur Wright,&mdash;attempting to desert to the enemy; sentenced to be
+shot. Approved. Carried into effect, March 26.</p>
+
+<p>"John Morton,&mdash;communicating with the enemy; to be hung. Approved.
+Carried into effect, March 26." </p></div>
+
+<p>In an inner room are some fifty pairs of balls and chains, with anklets
+and handcuffs upon them, which have bent the spirit and body of many a
+resisting heart. Within are two condemned cells, perfectly dark,&mdash;a
+faded flap over the window peep-hole,&mdash;the smell from which would knock
+a strong man down.</p>
+
+<p>For in their centre lies the sink, ever open, and the floors are sappy
+with uncleanliness. To the right of these, a door leads to a walled yard
+not forty feet long, nor fifteen wide, overlooked by the barred windows
+of the main prison rooms, and by sentry boxes upon the wall-top. Here
+the wretched were shot and hung in sight of their trembling comrades.
+The brick wall at the foot of the yard is scarred and crushed by balls
+and bullets which first passed through some human heart and wrote here
+their damning testimony. The gallows had been suspended from a wing in
+the ledge, and in mid-air the impotent captive swung, none daring or
+willing to say a good word for him; and not for any offence against
+God's law, not for wronging his neighbor, or shedding blood, or making
+his kind miserable, but for standing in the way of an upstart
+organization, which his impulse and his judgment alike impelled him to
+oppose. This little yard, bullet-marked, close, and shut from all
+sympathy, is to us the ghastliest spot in the world. Can Mr. Davis visit
+it, and pray as he does so devoutly afterward? When men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> plead the
+justice of the South, and arguments are prompt to favor them, let this
+prison yard rise up and say that no such crimes in liberty's name have
+ever been committed, on this continent, at least. Up stairs, in Castle
+Thunder, there are two or three large rooms, barred and dimly lit, and
+two or three series of condemned cells, pent-up and pitchy, where, by a
+refinement of cruelty, the ceiling has been built low so that no man can
+stand upright. Here fifteen or twenty were crowded together, and, in the
+burning atmosphere, they stripped themselves stark naked, so that when
+in the morning the cell-doors were opened, they came forth as from the
+grave, begging for death. There are women's cells too; for this great
+and valiant government recognized women as belligerents, and locked them
+up close to a sentry's cartridge, so that, in the bitterness of
+solitude, they were unsexed, and railed, and blasphemed, like wanton
+things. On the pavements before the jail, were hidden numberless guards,
+who shot at every rag fluttering from the cages, and all this little
+circle of death and terror was enacted close to the bright river, and
+airy pediment of that high capitol, where bold men hoped by war to wring
+from a reluctant Union, acknowledgment of arrogant independence to rein
+civilization as it pleased, and warp the destinies of our race.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RUINS OF THE REBELLION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Richmond was a plain city, a county seat, and the residence of a
+governor and commonwealth legislature, its enterprise was as gradual as
+its hospitality and private probity were steadfast. It was always a
+fierce political arena, and its two great journals, the <i>Whig</i> and
+<i>Enquirer</i>, were not more violently partisan than its hustings. In the
+latter its debaters were wide-famed. No such "stump" has ever existed in
+America, commencing with Patrick Henry, whose eloquence was as intense
+and telling as his statesmanship was errant and inconsistent, and
+passing through the shrill and bitter apostrophies of John Randolph down
+to the latest era of Henry A. Wise, the most sufferable and interminable
+campaign orator extant, and John Minor Botts, scarcely his inferior.
+With us, out of door rhetoric is dry, studied, and argumentative; here
+an inspiration, based upon feeling rather than reason, and so earnest
+that it knew no personal friendship where its political affinities
+stopped. Whig and Democrat were not men of the same race or family in
+Richmond; they passed each other on the sidewalk with a sneer or a
+scowl, and knew no coalition even in the house of God. Even when the
+Whig party as an organization deceased, the Whigs, as individuals,
+retained their traditional antipathy, and the advent of secession was
+decried by these, not because they loved the Union more, but the
+triumphant Democracy the less. Sep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>aration was a feature of the hated
+faith, and no good could come out of Nazareth. The Union men of Richmond
+who have hungered in Castle Thunder, and been driven, needy and naked,
+from the South, were all old line Whigs, distrusting the North, but
+disliking Democracy. However, the war burst at last, heralded by that
+mysterious lunatic who appeared like a warning giant in the twilight day
+of the Union,&mdash;old John Brown; and as the Gulf States wheeled into line
+and pulled down the old colors, the Old Dominion, Southern and
+slaveholding, was too impulsive not to follow the whirlwind. She did not
+go for policy's sake, nor for principle's sake, but for emotion's sake.
+How wild and jubilant, and confident, were those Richmond mass meetings,
+at which separation was counselled! How awful seems their levity at this
+distance, with the city conquered and in ruins! On the Capitol Hill the
+mad orators inveighed; within the Capitol met the disunion assembly in
+secret and prolonged session; before the American, the Exchange, and the
+Spottswood hotels, visiting commissioners harangued the crowd; the
+people went to ballot on the day of State suicide, with laughing and
+wagging, and at the decree that Virginia and her people had resolved to
+quit the fabric of their fathers, bonfires and illuminations lit up the
+river and the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Done, these were the men to stand fast. Done in dream, the first acts
+were mirages rather than comprehensible events. They marched upon
+Harper's Ferry; they suppressed the Unionists in their midst; they
+erased the sacred mottoes of amity and unity from their monuments, and
+won to the new cause they so blindly embraced every inch of their soil
+except Old Point, where Fortress Monroe still stood defiant, to be in
+the end the source of their downfall. Gayly went the populace of
+Richmond, and splendid parties made the nights lustrous. When they heard
+that their town was mentioned, among many others, as the probable
+Confederate capital, they threw their hearts into the suggestion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> and
+offered lands and edifices as free gifts for the honor of being the
+centre of the South. A few, more interested, beheld in the coming of the
+seat of government higher rents and increased patronage, crowded hotels,
+and railway stock at a premium; but the mass, with the enthusiasm of
+women or children, thought only of their beloved city growing in rank
+and power; the home of legislators, orators, and savans; the seat of all
+rank and the depository of archives. At last the good news came;
+Richmond was the capital of a great nation; that courtesy bound all
+grateful Virginian hearts to the common cause forever; the heyday and
+gratulation were renewed; the new President, and the reverend senators
+appeared on Richmond streets; the citizens were proud and happy.</p>
+
+<p>There was no spectre of the mighty North, slowly rising from lethargy
+like those Medicean figures of Michael Angelo, which leap from stone to
+avengers. There was no mutter of coming storm, no clank of coming sabres
+and bayonets, no creak of great wheels rolling southward, and war in its
+extremest and most deadly phase. Richmond and Virginia laughed at these,
+flushed in the present, and invincible in the past. They only held high
+heads,&mdash;and trade, with vanity, grew strong, till every citizen wondered
+why all this glory had been so long delayed, and despised the ten years
+preceding the rupture, if not, indeed, the whole past of the Union.</p>
+
+<p>The President of the United States proclaimed war; an army marched upon
+the city. Not until the battle of Bull Run, when the dead and mangled
+came by hundreds into the town, did any one discover the consequences of
+Richmond's new distinction; but by this time the Rebel government had
+absorbed Virginia, and was master of the city. Thenceforward Richmond
+was the scene of all terrors, the prey of all fears and passions.
+Campaign after campaign was directed against her; she lived in the
+perpetual thunder of cannon; raiders pressed to her gates; she was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
+great garrison and hospital only, besieged and cut off from her own
+provinces; armies passed through her to the sound of drums, and returned
+to the creak of ambulances. She lost her social prestige, and became a
+barrack-city, filled with sutlers, adventurers, and refugees, till,
+bearing bravely up amid domestic riot and horrible demoralization,&mdash;a
+jail, a navy-yard, a base of operations,&mdash;she grew pinched, and base,
+and haggard, and, at last, deserted. Given over to sack and fire, the
+wretches who used her retreated in the night, and the enemies she had
+provoked marched over her defences, and laid her&mdash;spent, degenerate, and
+disgraced&mdash;under martial law.</p>
+
+<p>The outline of the scenes immediately associated with the evacuation of
+Richmond has been told by telegraph. Now that the stupefied citizens
+have recovered reason and memory so well as to tell us the story, it
+seems the most dramatic and fearful of the war. On Saturday the city was
+calm and trusting; Lee, its idol, held Grant, at Petersburg, fast; the
+daily journals came out as usual, filled with soothing accounts; that
+night came vague rumors of reverses; in the morning vaguer rumors of
+evacuation; by Sunday night the public records were burned in the
+streets, and the only remaining railway carried off the specie of the
+banks; before daylight on Monday, the explosions of bridges and
+half-built ships of war shook the houses; in the imperfect day, women,
+and old men, and children began to sway and surge before the guarded
+depot, which refused to admit them; then the town fell afire; no
+remonstrance could pacify the incendiaries; the spring wind carried the
+flame from the burning boats on the canal to the great Galligo Mills, to
+files of massive warehouses groaning with tobacco, into the heart of the
+town, where stores, and vaults, and banks, and factories lined the wide,
+undulating streets; it filled the gray concave with flame till the stars
+of the dawn shrank to pale invisibility in the advancing glare, and the
+crackle of hot roofs and beams, and the crash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> of walls and timbers,
+drowned the cries of the frightened and bankrupt, who beheld their
+fortunes wither in an hour, and the inheritance of their children fall
+to ashes. By the red, consuming light, poured past the straggling
+Confederate soldiers, dead to the acknowledgment of private rights, and
+sacking shop and home with curses and ribaldry; the suburban citizens
+and the menial negroes adopted their examples; carrying off whatever
+came next their hands, and with arms full of "swag," dropping it in the
+highway, lured by some dearer plunder. Negroes, with baskets of stolen
+champagne and rare jars of tamarinds, sought their dusky quarters to
+swill and carouse; and whites of the middle, and even of the higher
+class, lent themselves to theft, who, before this debased era, would
+have died before so surrendering their honor. All was peril, terror, and
+license; all who had nothing to lose were thieves; all who had anything
+left to lose were cowards. The conflagration swept through the densest,
+proudest blocks, driving off, not only the resident worthy, but the
+resident corrupt. Where were the lewd contractors, who had hoarded
+Confederate scrip by the basest exactions? With the fall of the capital
+their dollars dwindled to dust; four years of crime had resulted in
+beggary; still, with grasping palms, they adhered to their valueless
+paper, bearing it away. But of all the wretched, the Cyprians were the
+foremost. These inhabited the dense and business part of the town, where
+their houses were serried and compact; and, driven forth by the fire,
+they sought the street in their plumes and calicoes, to spend a cold and
+shivering bivouac in the square of the Capitol. From afar, the rich men
+of Sunday watched the flames of Monday sweeping on in terrible
+impetuosity, knowing that every tongue of light which leaped on high
+carried with it the competence they had sinned to acquire. And behind
+all, plunderer, incendiary, and straggler, came the one vague,
+overlapping, dreadful fear of&mdash;the enemy. Would they finish what friends
+had commenced,&mdash;the sack.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> the desolation, the slaughter of the place?
+Richmond had cost them half a million of lives, a mountain of blood and
+wealth, four years of deadly struggle; would they not complete its ruin?</p>
+
+<p>The morning came; the Confederates were gone; cavalry in blue galloped
+up the streets; a brigade of white infantry filed after them; then came
+the detested negroes. Behold! the victors, the subjugators, assist to
+quench the flames,&mdash;and Richmond is captured, but secure!</p>
+
+<p>Many of the churches were open on the Sunday of April 9, 1865, and were
+thinly attended by the more adventurous of the citizens, with a
+sprinkling of soldiers and Northern civilians. Mr. Woodbridge, at the
+Monument Church, built on the site of a famous burnt theatre, prayed for
+"all in authority," and held his tongue upon dangerous topics. The First
+Baptist Negro Church has been occupied all the week by Massachusetts
+chaplains, and Northern negro preachers, who have talked the gospel of
+John Brown to gaping audiences of wool, white-eyeball, and ivory,
+telling them that the day of deliverance has come, and that they have
+only to possess the land which the Lord by the bayonet has given them.
+To-day, Mr. Allen, the regular white preacher, occupied the pulpit, and
+told the negroes that slavery was a divine institution, which would
+continue forever, and that the duty of every good servant was to stay at
+home and mind his master. Half of the enlightened Africans got up midway
+of the discourse and left; the rest were in doubt, and two or three
+black class-leaders, whom the parson had wheeled over, prayed lustily
+that the Lord would keep Old Virginny from new ideas and all Yankee
+salvations; so that in the end the population were quite tangled up, as
+much so as if they had read the book of Revelation. I attended Saint
+Paul's, the fashionable Episcopalian church, where Lee, Davis,
+Memminger, and the rest had been communicants, and heard Doctor
+Minnegerode discourse. He was one of the Prussian refugees of 1848,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
+and, though a hot Jacobin there, became a more bitter secessionist here.
+He is learned, fluent, and thoughtful, but speaks with a slight Teutonic
+accent. Jeff Davis's pew was occupied by nobody, the door thereof being
+shut. Jeff was a very devout man, but not so much so as Lee, who made
+all the responses fervently, and knelt at every requirement. This church
+is capable of "seating" fifteen hundred persons, has galleries running
+entirely around it, and is sustained at the roof within by composite
+pilasters of plaster, and at the pulpit by columns of mongrel
+Corinthian; the <i>tout ensemble</i> is very excellent; a darkey sexton gave
+us a pew, and there were some handsome ladies present, dark Richmond
+beauties, haughty and thinly clothed, with only here and there a
+jockey-feathered hat, or a velvet mantilla, to tell of long siege and
+privation. We saw that those who dressed the shabbiest had yet preserved
+some little article of jewelry&mdash;a finger-ring, a brooch, a bracelet,
+showing how the last thing in woman to die is her vanity. Poor, proud
+souls! Last Sunday many of them were heiresses; now many of them could
+not pay the expenses of their own funerals. There were some Confederate
+officers in the house. They reminded me of the captive Jews holding
+worship in their gutted Temple. Some ruffians broke into this church
+after the occupation, and wrote ribaldry in the Bible and hymn-book. Dr.
+Minnegerode dared not pray for the Confederate States, and his sermon
+was trite, based upon the text of the eleventh chapter of the Acts&mdash;"The
+disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." In the opening
+lesson, however, he aimed poison at the North, selecting the
+forty-fourth and following Psalms, commencing, "We have heard with our
+ears, O God! our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their
+days, in the times of old." Then it spoke of the heathen being driven
+out and the chosen people planted; afflicted by God's disfavor, the
+forefathers held the territory, and the generation extant would yet rout
+its enemies. But now the old stock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> were put to shame, a reproach to
+their neighbors and those that dwelt round about them. "Thou hast broken
+us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,"
+going not forth with our armies, bowing our souls to the dust till our
+bellies cleave unto the earth; we are killed all the day long, and
+counted as sheep for the slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>Let all who would drink the essence of sorrow and anguish, read this
+wonderful Psalm, to learn how after this recapitulation, the parson said
+aloud the thrilling invocation.</p>
+
+<p>"Arise! for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake."</p>
+
+<p>Then came the next Psalm, light and tripping, full of praise for the
+king and his bride, coming to the nuptials with her virgin train:
+"instead of thy fathers, shall be thy children, whom thou mayst make
+princes in all the earth." A poetic parallel might be drawn between all
+this and the early hopes of Richmond; but the third Psalm came in like a
+beautiful peroration.</p>
+
+<p>"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,&mdash;the
+Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah! He
+maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow and
+cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire."</p>
+
+<p>Clear, direct, and in meaning monotone, the captive high-priest read all
+this, so fearfully applicable to the subjugated and ruined town, and
+then the organ threw its tender music into the half-empty concave,
+sobbing like a far voice of multitudes, until the sweet singing of
+Madame Ruhl, the chorister, swept into the moan of pipes, and rose to a
+grand peal, quivering and trilling, like a nightingale wounded, making
+more tears than the sublimest operatic effort and the house reeled and
+trembled, as if Miriam and her chanting virgins were lifting praises to
+God in the midst of the desert.</p>
+
+<p>That part of the New Testament read, by some strange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> fatuity, touches
+also the despair of the city. It told of Christ betrayed by Iscariot,
+deserted by his disciples, saying to his few trusty ones: "I will smite
+the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."
+"Can ye not watch with me one hour?" he says to the timid and sleeping;
+and turning to his conquerors, avers that the Son of Man shall return to
+Jerusalem, "sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds
+of heaven." All this, of course, was the prescribed lesson for the
+Sunday before Easter, which to-day happened to be; but had the pastor
+searched it out to meet the exigencies of the place and time, it could
+not have been more <i>apropos</i>. He read also from Daniel, where the king's
+dream was interpreted; his realm, like a tree worn down to the root, and
+the king himself making his dwelling with the wild asses, but in the end
+"thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known
+that the heavens do rule."</p>
+
+<p>Again the organ rang, and the wonderful voice of the choristers
+alternated with deep religious prayers, whose refrain was, "Have mercy
+upon us."</p>
+
+<p>Only one Sunday gone by, the church was densely packed with Rebel
+officers and people; Mrs. Lee was there, and the president, in his high
+and whitened hairs. Midway of the discourse a telegram came up the
+aisle, borne by a rapid orderly. The president read it, and strode away;
+the preacher read it, and faltered, and turned pale; it said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><p><span class="i0">
+My lines are broken; Richmond must be evacuated by midnight.</span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="i20">Robert E. Lee.</span></span>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Ill news travels without words; the whole house felt that the great
+calamity had come; they broke for the doors, and left the rector, alone
+and frightened, to finish the solemn services.</p>
+
+<p>Now the enemy is here; the music and the prayer are not interrupted. God
+is over all, whether Davis or Lincoln be uppermost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This campaign, so gloriously and promptly finished, has consumed just
+eleven days. It took three to flank the Rebel army, one to capture
+Petersburg, one to occupy Richmond, and six to pursue, overtake, and
+capture the Army of Northern Virginia. No such memorable fighting has
+ever been known on our continent, and it parallels the Italian, the
+Austerlitz, and the Jena campaigns; in breadth of conception, it
+outrivals them all; it took less men to do it than the last two; it
+shows equal sagacity with any of them, but none of their brilliant
+episodes; and, unlike them, we cannot trace its full credit to any
+single personality. It has made the army immortal, but the lustre of it
+is diffused, not concentrating upon any single head. Grant must be
+credited with most of the combinations; yet without the genius and
+activity of Sheridan, the bewildering rapidity of Sherman, and the
+steadfastness of such reliable men as Wright, Parke, and Griffin, these
+combinations would have fallen apart. It is said that Stoneman and
+Sheridan were to have joined their separate cavalry commands at
+Lynchburg, and effect a simultaneous junction with the Army of the
+Potomac. This failed, through a miscalculation of distance or time; but
+had they succeeded, we should have been less than three days in turning
+Lee's right, and so made the campaign even more concise. But Grant's
+talent has been marked and signal. He is the long-expected "coming man."
+None can be lukewarm in surveying the nice adjustment of so many
+separate and converging routes to a grand series of victories. Sherman
+leaves the Rebellion no Gulf city to inhabit, and cuts off Lee's retreat
+while he absorbs Johnston; the navy closes the last seaport; Sheridan
+severs all communication with Richmond, and swells the central forces;
+then the Rebels are lured from their lines and scattered on their right;
+the same night the intrenchments of Petersburg are stormed, Richmond
+falls as this prop is removed, being already hungry-hearted, and the
+flushed army falls upon Lee and finishes the war. Is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> this work for
+gratulation? Glory to the army, perfect at last, and to Grant, to
+Sheridan, to each of its commanders!</p>
+
+<p>Let us not do injustice to Lee. His tactics at the close of his career
+were as brilliant as necessity would permit. He could not feed Richmond,
+even though its impregnable works were behind him to retire to. So he
+gave his government time to evacuate, and, with his thinned and
+famishing ranks, made a bold push to join Johnston, some of whose
+battalions had already reinforced him; overtaken on the way, and
+punished anew, he did as any great and humane commander would
+do,&mdash;stopped the effusion of blood uselessly, and gave up his sword.</p>
+
+<p>Unless Davis has been captured, we would think it improbable that he had
+given up the Rebel cause. He was born to revolutionize, containing
+within himself all the elements of a Rebel leader, and too proud to
+yield, even when, like Macbeth, pursued to his castle-keep. I am assured
+by those who know him best that he has been, throughout, the absolute
+master of the Confederacy, overawing Lee, who, from the first, was a
+reluctant Rebel; and his design was, until abandoned by his army, to
+hold Richmond, even through starvation, making, behind its tremendous
+fortifications, a defence like that of Leyden or Genoa.</p>
+
+<p>There is no more faith in the Rebellion; it will be a long time before
+the United States is greatly beloved, but it will be always obeyed. Our
+soldiers look well, most of them being newly uniformed, and behave like
+gentlemen. Courtesy will conquer all that bayonets have not won. The
+burnt district is still hideously yawning in the heart of the town, a
+monument to the sternness of those bold revolutionists who are being
+hunted to their last quarry. Despotism, under the plea of necessity, has
+met with its end here as it must everywhere. We shall have no more
+experiments for liberty out of the Union, if the new Union will grant
+all that it gave before. Yesterday, when our splendid levies were
+paraded in the street, with foot, cav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>alry, and cannon, in admirable
+order, and kindly-eyed men in command, I looked across their cleanly
+lines, tipped with bayonets, to the Capitol they had won, bearing at
+last the tri-color we all love and honor, as the symbol of our homes and
+the hope of the world, and thought how more grandly, even in her ruin,
+Richmond stood in the light of its crowding stars, rather than the den
+of a desperate cabal, whose banner was known in no city nor sea, but as
+the ensign of corsairs, and hailed only by fustian peers, now rent in
+the grip of our eagle, and without a fane or an abiding-place. Let us go
+on, not conquerors, but Republicans, battering down only to rebuild more
+gloriously,&mdash;not narrowing the path of any man, but opening to high and
+low a broader destiny and a purer patriotism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WAR EXECUTIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>To have looked upon seventeen beings of human organism, ambition, sense
+of pain and of disgrace, brought forward with all the solemnities of a
+living funeral, and launched from absolute cognition to direct death,
+should put one in the category of Calcraft, Ketch, and Isaacs.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, I do not think it would be right to so classify me. I know an
+excellent clergyman, who has seen and assisted in fifty odd executions.
+He says, as I say, that each new one is an augmented terror. But he is
+upon the spot to smooth the felon's troubled spirit, and I am with him
+to teach the felon's boon companions the direness of the penalty.
+Without either the Chaplain or myself, capital punishment would lose
+half its effectiveness.</p>
+
+<p>And this is why I write the present article,&mdash;to relieve myself from the
+pertinacious inquiries with which I have been assailed since my return
+from the melancholy episodes of the executions at Washington. I am
+button-holed at every corner, and put through a cross-examination, to
+which Holt's or Bingham's had no searchingness: "How did Mrs. Suratt
+die?" "Was the rope attached to her left ear?" "What sort of rope was
+it, for example?" "Do her pictures look like her?" "Pray describe how
+Payne twisted, and whether you think Atzeroth's neck was dislocated?"</p>
+
+<p>And, after answering these questions, replete as they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> with horrible
+curiosity, the questioner turns away, saying, "Dear me! I wouldn't see a
+man hung for a thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>I am weary of such hypocrisy, and I shall, in this paper, speak of some
+executions I have witnessed.</p>
+
+<p>I was quite a small boy, at school, when my chum and model, Bill
+Everett, dragged me off to Wayland's Mill, to see old Mrs. Kitty White
+suspended. She was a very infamous old woman, who had been in the habit
+of kidnapping black children, and running them by night from the Eastern
+shore across the bay to Virginia, where they were sold. If they became
+noisy and obstreperous before they left her house, and suspicion fell
+upon her, she clove their skulls with a hatchet, and buried them in her
+garden. When finally discovered, the remains of nearly a score marked
+how wholesale had been her wickedness.</p>
+
+<p>This old woman was very drunk when she came to be hanged, and so was the
+sheriff who assisted her. She called him impolite names, and carried a
+pipe in her mouth, and went off smoking and cursing. I remember that I
+cried very loudly, so that Bill Everett had to choke me, and saw ghosts
+for so many nights succeeding, that Crouch, our maid of all work, had to
+sit at my bedside till I fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The atrocity of a crime makes great difference in one's desire to see
+its after tragedy; and the next hanging I attended was almost
+world-famed. Four men were suspended for shooting down an entire family
+in cold blood. They had embarked on a raid of robbery, and emerging from
+the barren scrub of Delaware Forest, fell upon a snug and secluded
+Maryland farm-house, where the farmer's family were taking their supper.
+They fired through the ruddy windows, and brought the man down at his
+wife's feet; she, in turn, fell upon her threshold, rushing forth into
+the darkness, and the remnant of the family perished except two boys,
+who slipped away and gave the alarm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The jailer's boys of Chestertown went to school with me, and I was
+invited by the least of them to visit the jail,&mdash;a tumble-down old
+structure with goggly windows, and so unsafe that the felons had to be
+ironed to almost their own weight. And into the cell where the four
+fiends were lying, the jailer's big boy, for a big joke, pushed me, and
+locked the door upon me.</p>
+
+<p>I was alone with the same bloody-handed men who had so recently, and for
+a trifle of gold, made the fireside a shamble, and the night a howling
+terror.</p>
+
+<p>They appreciated the joke, and drew me to them, while their chains
+clanked, and pressed to my face their wild and prickly beards. There was
+one of them, named Drummond, who swore he would cut my heart out, and
+they executed a sort of death-tune on the floor with their balls and
+links. I lost all knowledge and perception in my fright, and cannot, at
+this interval, remember anything succeeding, but the execution. They
+were put to death upon a single long scaffold, the counterpart of that
+erected for the Booth conspirators, and the rope attached to the neck of
+the least guilty, broke when the drop fell, and cast him upon the
+ground, lacerated, but conscious, to be picked up and again suspended,
+while he begged for life, like a child.</p>
+
+<p>The sixth miscreant murdered from revenge, which is just a trifle better
+than avarice: his girl preferred another, and the disappointed man,
+Bowen, went to sea. Returning, he found the united lovers in the
+exultation of happiness; a child had just been born to them, and,
+touched by their content, Bowen gave the old rival his hand, and asked
+him out to accept a bumper. They drank again and again,&mdash;the spirits
+burning their blood to fire, and reviving again the bitter story of
+Bowen's love and shame. Within the hour, the husband lay at the jilted
+man's feet! He was condemned to death, and I undertook to describe his
+exit for a weekly newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>Still I see him, broad and muscular, climbing the gallows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> stair with
+his peaked cap, deathly white, and looking up at the sun as if he
+dreaded its eye. There was the muttering of prayers, the spasm of one
+spectator taken sick at the crisis, and the dull thump of the scaffold
+falling in.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher Harden, who fondled his wife on his knee, and fed her the
+while with poison, passed away so recently, that I need not revive the
+scene into which all his bad life should have been prolonged.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Armstrong, expiating a hypocrite's life at Philadelphia, is
+not so well remembered: he killed an old man in the heart of the city,
+riding in a wagon, and dumped him out when he reached the suburbs. His
+life, to the end, was marked by all insolence and infamy, and on the day
+of the execution, he made a pretended confession, inculpating two
+innocent persons. One hour after this, he made the following speech:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My Friends</span>: I have a few words to say to you; I am going to die;
+and let me say, in passing, I die in peace with my Maker; and if,
+at this moment, a pardon was offered me on condition of giving up
+my Maker, I would not take it; and I die in peace with all the
+world, and forgive all my enemies. I desire you to take warning by
+my fate. Sabbath-breaking was the first cause. I bid you farewell,
+gentlemen, (here he mentioned various officers), and I bid you all
+farewell. I die in peace with everybody. </p></div>
+
+<p>The Sheriff, very nervous, gave a signal to the drop-man too soon, and a
+serious accident very nearly occurred. The props were readjusted, all
+but the main support removed, and that unhinged; the Sheriff waved his
+handkerchief, and with the dead thump of the trap-lids against their
+cushions, and the heavy jerking of the noose knot against the victim's
+throat, the young murderer hung dangling in the air, not a limb
+quivering, and only a convulsive movement of the shoulders, to indicate
+the struggle which life maintained when giving up its place in the
+body.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a rush forward. The doctors grasped his wrist. Some spectators
+passed their hands across his knees to feel the tremulous sinews; one or
+two felt a faintness, and a dozen made coarse jokes; and one or more
+speculated as to the issue of his immortal part, or the degree of his
+pain, or the probability of his cognizance. In seven minutes he was
+beyond the reach of execution or executioner, and a hurdle being wheeled
+from the stable, they cut down his body, while a few scrambled for the
+rope, and it was wheeled on a run into the convict's corridor for his
+old father to claim. The neck was not broken, nor the flesh discolored.
+Some said that he died "game;" and all went away, leaving the old man
+and a brother to sit by the remains and weep, that so great calamity had
+darkened their home and blighted their lives. Few lamented him, for he
+had youth, but none of its elements of sympathy; and those who would
+make, even of his dying speech, a text and a lesson, are instancing a
+lie more grievous than the murder which he did.</p>
+
+<p>In England, I saw two men and a woman suffer death on the common
+sidewalk; just as if we were to hang people in New York on the pavement
+before the Tombs.</p>
+
+<p>No man, anxious to see an execution in London, need be disappointed.
+Once or twice a month the wolves are brought to the slaughter, and all
+the people are invited to enjoy the spectacle. A woman, one Catharine
+Wilson, was to be hanged for poisoning. She was middle aged, and had
+been reputable. Her manner of making way with folks was to act as
+sick-nurse, and mingling poison with their medicine, possess herself of
+the trifles upon their persons. She had sent six souls to their account
+in this way; but, discovered in the seventh attempt, all the other cases
+leaked out. She was condemned, of course, and on the Sunday evening
+previous to the execution, as I was returning from Spurgeon's
+Tabernacle, the omnibus upon which I sat passed through the Old Bailey.
+There were the carpenters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> joining the timbers of the scaffold, and
+building black barricades across the street. A murmuring crowd stood
+around in the solemn night, and the funereal walls of old Newgate
+glowered like a horrible vault upon the dimly-lit street. The public
+houses across the way were filled up with guests. All the front parlors
+and front bedrooms had been let at fat prices, and suppers were spread
+in them for the edification of their tenants. Do you remember the
+thrilling chapter of "The Jew's last night alive," in "Oliver Twist?"
+Well, this was the scene! These were the same beams and uprights. There,
+huge, massive, and blackened with smoky years, rose the cold, impervious
+stones; and yonder, casting its sharp pinnacles into the sky, is the
+tower of St. Sepulchre's Church, where the bell hangs muffled for the
+morrow's tolling away of a sinner's life. Old Fagin heard it, though it
+was no new sound to him; for Field Lane, where he kept his "fence," lies
+a very little way off,&mdash;little more than a stone's throw, and when, in
+the morning, I dressed at an early hour and hurried to the place of
+execution, I saw Charley Bates, and the Dodger, and Nancy, and Toby
+Crackit, and the rest, shying men's hats in the air, and looking out for
+the "wipes" and the "tickers." All the streets leading to Newgate were
+like great conduits, where human currents babbled along, emptying
+themselves into the Old Bailey. Mothers by the dozen were out with their
+infants, holding them aloft tenderly, to show them the noose and the
+cross-beam. Fathers came with their sons, and explained very carefully
+to them the method of strangulation. Little girls, on their way to
+workshops, had turned aside to see the playful affair, and traders in
+fancy soap and shoe-blacking, pea-nuts and shrimps, Banbury cakes, and
+Chelsea buns, and Yarmouth bloaters, were making the morning hilarious
+with their odd cries and speeches. Along the chimney-pots of Green
+Arbour Court, where Goldsmith penned the "Vicar of Wakefield," lads and
+maidens were climbing, that they might have commanding places. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
+was one young woman who had some difficulty in climbing over a
+battlement, and the mob hailed her failure with roars of mirth. But she
+persevered, though there was a high wind blowing, and then called loudly
+for her male attendant to follow her. He obeyed dutifully, and they both
+seated themselves upon a chimney-top,&mdash;a picture of love rewarded,&mdash;and
+waited for the show. The moments, as marked upon St. Sepulchre's clock,
+went grudgingly, as if the index-hands were unwilling to shoulder the
+responsibility of what was to come. Meantime, the police had their hands
+full; for some merry urchins were darting between their legs, and it was
+dangerous to keep one's hat on his head, for it hazarded plucking off
+and shying here and there. At the chamber-windows aforesaid, crowded the
+tipsy occupants, men and women, red-eyed with drinking, and leering
+stupidly upon the surging heads below. Some asked if Calcraft did the
+"job," and others volunteered sketches of Calcraft's life. One man
+boasted that he had taken a pot of beer with him, and another added that
+the hangman's children and his own went to school together. "He
+pockets," said the man, "two-pun ten for every one he drops, besides his
+travelling expenses, and he has put away three hundred and twenty folks.
+He is a clever fellow, is Calcraft, and he is going to retire soon."</p>
+
+<p>So the hours passed; the great clock-hands journeyed onward; all eyes
+watched them attentively; suddenly the deep bells struck a terrible
+one&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;four&mdash;five&mdash;six&mdash;seven&mdash;eight, and the bells of the
+neighborhood answered, some hoarsely, others musically, others faintly,
+as if ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Before the tones had died away, three persons appeared upon the
+scaffold,&mdash;a woman, pinioned and wearing a long, sharp, snowy, shrowdy,
+death-cap; a man in loose black robes with a white neckhandkerchief, and
+a burly, surly fellow, in black cloth, bareheaded, and having a curling
+jetty beard around his heavy jaws. It is but a moment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> that, standing
+on tiptoe, you catch this scene. The priest stretches his hand toward
+the people, and says some unintelligible words; those of the mob curse
+each other, and some scream out that they are dying in the press. Then
+the scaffold is clear; the woman stands alone,&mdash;God forgive her!&mdash;and
+when you look again, a bundle of old clothes, tipped with a sugar-loaf,
+is all that is visible, and the gallows-cord is very straight and tight.
+For the last chapter, consult the graveyard within the jail walls!</p>
+
+<p>The guillotining which I witnessed in Paris, in the month of June, 1864,
+may be deemed worthy of an extended description:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Couty de la Pommerais was a young physician of Paris, descended from a
+fine family, and educated beyond the requirements of a French Faculty.
+He was handsome and manly, and gave evidences of ambition at an early
+age. He was popularly called the Comte de la Pommerais, and at the time
+of his apprehension, was expecting a decoration from the Papal
+Government, with the rank he desired. Like all French students, he was
+incontinent, and had several mistresses. The last of these was a widow
+named Pauw, who appears to have loved him sincerely. She had some little
+fortune, which they consumed together; and then la Pommerais married a
+rich young lady, with whom he lived one year. Her mother died suddenly
+at the end of that time, and as la Pommerais was interested in getting
+certain moneys which the elder lady controlled, the manner of her death
+led to suspicions of poisoning. However, the woman was interred, but the
+son-in-law was not so fortunate as he supposed, and he ceased to live
+with his wife, but returned to Madame Pauw, who still adored him. Upon
+this fond, foolish woman he seems to have premeditated a deep and
+intricate crime; and it was for this that he suffered death. She must
+have been dishonest like himself, for she consented to a scheme of
+swindling the insurance companies; but, unlike himself, she lacked the
+wit to be silent, and was heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> to hint mysteriously that she should
+soon be grand and happy. La Pommerais persuaded her to have her life
+insured, which was done for 515,000 francs, or upward of $100,000. When
+the matter had transpired some time, he persuaded her to feign sickness.
+The simple woman asked why she should do so.</p>
+
+<p>"The insurance people," he replied, "will, when they consider that you
+are dangerously ill, prefer to give you 100,000f., rather than pay the
+515,000f. in the certainty of your death. You can give them up your
+policy, accept the compromise, get well again, and be rich."</p>
+
+<p>Yet this counterfeited sickness was meant by the villain to prepare the
+neighbors of Mme. Pauw for the death which he intended to ensue. He was
+to make it known to all, that she was dangerously ill; she was to uphold
+his testimony; and he was to kill her in due time, and take the whole of
+the insurance. At length, the farce was finished. La Pommerais gave to
+Mme. Pauw, a poison difficult to detect, called <i>digitalline</i>, the
+essential principle of our common foxglove; she died unconscious of his
+deception, loving him to the last, and he claimed the 515,000 francs at
+the insurance office. He was suspected, accused, and tried. The old
+suspicions relative to his mother-in-law were revived; the bodies were
+exhumed and examined; upon evidence entirely circumstantial and
+technical, he was convicted, and sentenced to be guillotined. His
+learning and standing made the trial a famous one; his bearing during
+the long proceedings was calm and collected; he was handsome, and had
+much sympathy: but the jury found him guilty, and the Emperor refused to
+extend his clemency to the case. He was put in a strait jacket and
+locked up in La Roquette, the prison for the condemned.</p>
+
+<p>The prison of <i>La Roquette</i> (or the Rocket Prison) is situated in the
+eastern suburbs of Paris, a mile beyond the Bastile. It does not look
+unlike our American jails; a high exterior wall of rough stone, over the
+top of which one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> gets a glimpse of the prison gables, with a huge gate
+in the arched portal, guarded forever by sentinels. Before this gate is
+a small open plot of ground, planted with trees. <i>Rue de la Roquette</i>
+passes between it and a second prison, immediately facing the first,
+called the <i>Prison des Jeunes Detenus</i>, or, as we would say in America,
+the "House of Refuge." Standing between the two jails, and looking away
+from Paris, one will see the great metropolitan cemetery of <i>P&egrave;re la
+Chaise</i>, scarcely a stone's throw distant, and behind him will be the
+great <i>abbatoir</i> or public slaughter-house of Menilmontant, with the
+vast area of roofs and spires of Paris stretching beyond it to the
+horizon. It was to this region of vacant lots and lonesome, glowering
+houses, that thousands of Parisians bent their steps the night before
+the execution. The news had gone abroad that la Pommerais would not be
+pardoned. It was also generally credited that this would be the last
+execution ever held in Paris, since there is a general desire for the
+abolition of capital punishment in France, and a conviction that the
+Legislature, at its next session, will substitute life-imprisonment.
+This, with the rarity of the event, and that terrible allurement of
+blood which distinguishes all populaces, brought out all the excitable
+folk of the town; and at dusk, on the night before the expiation, the
+whole neighborhood of La Roquette was crowded with men and women. All
+classes of Parisians were there,&mdash;the <i>blouses</i>, or workingmen, standing
+first in number; the students from the Latin Quartier being well
+represented, and idlers, and well-dressed nondescripts without
+enumeration,&mdash;distributing themselves among women, dogs, and babies.</p>
+
+<p>Venders of <i>gateaux</i>, muscles, and fruit were out in force. The "Savage
+of Paris," clothed in his war plumes, paint, greaves, armlets, and
+moccasins, was selling razors by gaslight; here and there ballad-mongers
+were singing the latest songs, and boys, with chairs to let, elbowed
+into the intricacies of the crowd, which amused itself all the night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
+long by smoking, drinking, and hallooing. At last, the mass became
+formidable in numbers, covering every inch of ground within sight of the
+prison, and many soldiers and <i>sergeants de ville</i>, mounted and on foot,
+pushed through the dense mass to restore order.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight, a body of cavalry forced back the people from the square of
+La Roquette. A number of workmen, issuing from the prison-gates,
+proceeded to set up the instrument of death by the light of blazing
+torches. The flame lit up the dark jail walls, and shone on the helmets
+and cuirasses of the sabre-men, and flared upon spots of the upturned
+faces, now bringing them into strong, ruddy relief, now plunging them
+into shadow. When the several pieces had been framed together, we had a
+real guillotine in view,&mdash;the same spectre at which thousands of good
+and bad men had shuddered; and the folks around it, peering up so
+eagerly, were descendants of those who stood on the <i>Place de la
+Concorde</i> to witness the head of a king roll into the common basket.
+Imagine two tall, straight timbers, a foot apart, rising fifteen feet
+from the ground. They are grooved, and spring from a wide platform,
+approached by a flight of steps. At the base, rests a spring-plank or
+<i>bascule</i>, to which leather thongs are attached to buckle down the
+victim, and a basket or <i>pannier</i> filled with sawdust to receive the
+severed head. Between these, at their summit, hangs the shining knife in
+its appointed grooves, and a cord, which may be disconnected by a jerk,
+holds it to its position. Two men will be required to work the
+instrument promptly,&mdash;the one to bind the condemned, the other to drop
+the axe. The <i>bascule</i> is so arranged that the whole weight and length
+of the trunk will rest upon it, leaving the head and neck free, and when
+prone it will reach to the grooves, leaving space for the knife to pass
+below it. The knife itself is short and wide, with a bright concave
+edge, and a rim of heavy steel ridges it at the top; it moves easily in
+the greased grooves, and may weigh forty pounds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> It has a terrible
+fascination, hanging so high and so lightly in the blaze of the torches,
+which play and glitter upon it, and cast stains of red light along its
+keen blade, as if by their brilliance all its past blood-marks had
+become visible again. A child may send it shimmering and crashing to the
+scaffold, but only God can fasten together the warm and throbbing parts
+which it shall soon dissever. And now that the terrible creature has
+been recreated, the workmen slink away, as if afraid of it, and a body
+of soldiers stand guard upon it, as if they fear that it might grow
+thirsty and insatiate as in the days of its youth. The multitude press
+up again, reinforced every hour, and at last the pale day climbs over
+the jail-walls, and waiting people see each other by its glimmer. The
+bells of Notre Dame peal out; a hundred towers fall into the march of
+the music; the early journals are shrieked by French newsboys, and folks
+begin to count the minutes on their watches. There are men on the ground
+who saw the first guillotine at work. They describe the click of the
+cleaver, the steady march of victims upon the scaffold-stairs, the
+rattle of the death-cart turning out of the <i>Rue Saint Honore</i>, the
+painted executioners, with their dripping hands, wiping away the jets of
+blood from the hard, rough faces; nay! the step of the young queen,
+white-haired with care, but very beautiful, who bent her body as she had
+never bent her knee, and paid the penalty of her pride with the neck
+which a king had fondled.</p>
+
+<p>At four minutes to six o'clock on Thursday morning, the wicket in the
+prison-gate swung open; the condemned appeared, with his hands tied
+behind his back, and his knees bound together. He walked with
+difficulty, so fettered; but other than the artificial restraints, there
+was no hesitation nor terror in his movements. His hair, which had been
+long, dark, and wavy, was severed close to his scalp; his beard had
+likewise been clipped, and the fine moustache and goatee, which had set
+off his most interesting face, no longer appeared to enhance his
+romantic, expressive physi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>ognomy. Yet his black eyes and cleanly cut
+mouth, nostrils, and eyebrows, demonstrated that Couty de la Pommerais
+was not a beauty dependent upon small accessories. There was a dignity
+even in his painful gait; the coarse prison-shirt, scissored low in the
+neck, exhibited the straight columnar throat and swelling chest; for the
+rest, he wore only a pair of black pantaloons and his own shapely boots.
+As he emerged from the wicket, the chill morning air, laden with the dew
+of the truck gardens near at hand, blew across the open spaces of the
+suburbs, and smote him with a cold chill. He was plainly seen to
+tremble; but in an instant, as if by the mere force of his will, he
+stood motionless, and cast a first and only glance at the guillotine
+straight before him. It was the glance of a man who meets an enemy's
+eye, not shrinkingly, but half-defiant, as if even the bitter
+retribution could not abash his strong courage. The dramatic manner
+which is characteristic of the most real and earnest incidents of French
+life had its fascination for la Pommerais, even at his death-hour. Not
+Mr. Booth nor Mr. Forrest could have expressed the rallying, startling,
+almost thrilling recognition of an instrument of death, better than this
+actual criminal, whose last winkful of daylight was blackened by the
+guillotine. It reminded one of Damon, in the pitch of the tragedy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I stand upon the scaffold&mdash;I am standing on my throne."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>His dark eye was scintillant; his nostril grew full; his shoulders fell
+back as if to exhibit his broad, compact figure in manlier outline; he
+seemed to feel that forty thousand men and women, and young children
+were looking upon him to see how he dared to die, and that for a
+generation his bearing should go into fireside descriptions. Then he
+moved on between the files of soldiers at his shuffling pace, and before
+him went the <i>aumonier</i> or chaplain, swaying the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> crucifix, behind him
+the executioner of Versailles&mdash;a rough and bearded man&mdash;to assist in the
+final horror.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this intense moment a most wonderful spectacle. As the
+prisoner had first appeared, a single great shout had shaken the
+multitude. It was the French word "<i>Voila!</i>" which means "Behold!"
+"See!" Then every spectator stood on tiptoe; the silence of death
+succeeded; all the close street was undulant with human motion; a few
+house roofs near by were dizzy with folks who gazed down from the tiles;
+all the way up the heights of P&egrave;re la Chaise, among the pale chapels and
+monuments of the dead, the thousands of stirred beings swung and shook
+like so many drowned corpses floating on the sea. Every eye and mind
+turned to the little structure raised among the trees, on the space
+before <i>La Roquette</i>, and there they saw a dark, shaven, disrobed young
+man, going quietly toward his grave.</p>
+
+<p>He mounted the steps deliberately, looking toward his feet; the priest
+held up the crucifix, and he felt it was there, but did not see it; his
+lips one moment touched the image of Christ, but he did not look up nor
+speak; then, as he gained the last step, the <i>bascule</i> or swingboard
+sprang up before him; the executioner gave him a single push, and he
+fell prone upon the plank, with his face downward; it gave way before
+him, bearing him into the space between the upright beams, and he lay
+horizontally beneath the knife, presenting the back of his neck to it.
+Thus resting, he could look into the <i>pannier</i> or basket, into whose
+sawdust lining his head was to drop in a moment. And in that awful
+space, while all the people gazed with their fingers tingling, the
+legitimate Parisian executioner gave a jerk at the cord which held the
+fatal knife. With a quick, keen sound, the steel became detached; it
+fell hurtling through the grooves; it struck something with a dead, dumb
+thump; a jet of bright blood spurted into the light, and dyed the face
+of an attendant horribly red; and Couty de la Pommerais's head lay in
+the sawdust of the pannier, while every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> vein in the lopped trunk
+trickled upon the scaffold-floor! They threw a cloth upon the carcass
+and carried away the pannier; the guillotine disappeared beneath the
+surrounding heads; loud exclamations and acclaims burst from the
+multitude; the venders of trash and edibles resumed their cheerful
+cries, and a hearse dashed through the mass, carrying the warm body of
+the guillotined to the cemetery of Mt. Parnasse. In thirty minutes,
+newsboys were hawking the scene of the execution upon all the quays and
+bridges. In every caf&eacute; of Paris some witness was telling the incidents
+of the show to breathless listeners, and the crowds which stopped to see
+the funeral procession of the great Marshal Pelissier divided their
+attention between the warrior and the poisoner,&mdash;the latter obtaining
+the preponderance of fame.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder sometimes, if the ultimate penalty, however enforced, greatly
+assists example, or dignifies justice. But this would involve a very
+long controversy, over which many sage heads have sadly ached.</p>
+
+<p>In the open daylight, when my face is shining, and my life secure, I
+take the humanitarian side, and denounce the barbarities of the gibbet.</p>
+
+<p>But when I come down the dark stairs of the daily paper office, after
+midnight, and see three or four stealthy fellows hiding in the shadows,
+and go up the black city unarmed with my pocket full of greenbacks, I
+think the gallows quite essential as a warning, and indorse it, even
+after seventeen executions.</p>
+
+<p>So end my desultory chapters of desultory life. It has been, in the
+arranging of them, difficult to reject material,&mdash;not to select it. I am
+amazed to find what a world of dead leaves lies around my feet, as if I
+were a tree that blossomed and shed its covering every day. There are
+baskets-full of copy still remaining, from which the temptation is great
+to gather. It is sad to have written so much at twenty-five, and yet to
+have only drifting convictions. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> may have succeeded in depicting the
+lives of certain young gentlemen who reported the war. All of us, who
+were young, loved the business, and were glad to quit it. For myself, I
+am weary of travel; rather than publish again from these fragments of my
+fugitive life, let me weave their material into a more poetic story,
+softened by some years of stay at home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by 
+George Alfred Townsend
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23340-h.htm or 23340-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/3/4/23340/
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/23340-h/images/finger.gif b/23340-h/images/finger.gif
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..81ff70d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-h/images/finger.gif
diff --git a/23340-h/images/fingerl.gif b/23340-h/images/fingerl.gif
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..272c4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-h/images/fingerl.gif
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f001.png b/23340-page-images/f001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c97ccc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f001.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f002.png b/23340-page-images/f002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..152687a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f002.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f003.png b/23340-page-images/f003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe327ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f003.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f004.png b/23340-page-images/f004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c42d784
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f004.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f005.png b/23340-page-images/f005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbccbaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f005.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/f006.png b/23340-page-images/f006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c27760
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/f006.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p009.png b/23340-page-images/p009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e98f71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p009.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p010.png b/23340-page-images/p010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c6bac2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p010.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p011.png b/23340-page-images/p011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bee0516
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p011.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p012.png b/23340-page-images/p012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ee1025
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p012.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p013.png b/23340-page-images/p013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a6c5a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p013.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p014.png b/23340-page-images/p014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1638b63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p014.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p015.png b/23340-page-images/p015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2953d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p015.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p016.png b/23340-page-images/p016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73c7df7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p016.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p017.png b/23340-page-images/p017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcf964e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p017.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p018.png b/23340-page-images/p018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba81930
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p018.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p019.png b/23340-page-images/p019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8d734b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p019.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p020.png b/23340-page-images/p020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa15b90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p020.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p021.png b/23340-page-images/p021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34dc7b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p021.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p022.png b/23340-page-images/p022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..691bb2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p022.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p023.png b/23340-page-images/p023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b232ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p023.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p024.png b/23340-page-images/p024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e908607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p024.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p025.png b/23340-page-images/p025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0cf1e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p025.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p026.png b/23340-page-images/p026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4349738
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p026.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p027.png b/23340-page-images/p027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2bccdad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p027.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p028.png b/23340-page-images/p028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..753f9a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p028.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p029.png b/23340-page-images/p029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53e6835
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p029.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p030.png b/23340-page-images/p030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27bf68f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p030.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p031.png b/23340-page-images/p031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dd3966
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p031.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p032.png b/23340-page-images/p032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb8fa6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p032.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p033.png b/23340-page-images/p033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..404959d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p033.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p034.png b/23340-page-images/p034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bc5d53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p034.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p035.png b/23340-page-images/p035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a135316
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p035.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p036.png b/23340-page-images/p036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d0fdc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p036.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p037.png b/23340-page-images/p037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..130ee07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p037.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p038.png b/23340-page-images/p038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35c6a8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p038.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p039.png b/23340-page-images/p039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90266b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p039.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p040.png b/23340-page-images/p040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c3ab85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p040.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p041.png b/23340-page-images/p041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0a6703
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p041.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p042.png b/23340-page-images/p042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29716ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p042.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p043.png b/23340-page-images/p043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc5fb7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p043.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p044.png b/23340-page-images/p044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23209f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p044.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p045.png b/23340-page-images/p045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7608a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p045.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p046.png b/23340-page-images/p046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa940ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p046.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p047.png b/23340-page-images/p047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99d169b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p047.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p048.png b/23340-page-images/p048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0a7f48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p048.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p049.png b/23340-page-images/p049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d55a93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p049.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p050.png b/23340-page-images/p050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..716ad4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p050.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p051.png b/23340-page-images/p051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89c4fe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p051.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p052.png b/23340-page-images/p052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23e89e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p052.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p053.png b/23340-page-images/p053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f50e2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p053.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p054.png b/23340-page-images/p054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3cf074a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p054.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p055.png b/23340-page-images/p055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e1f27a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p055.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p056.png b/23340-page-images/p056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f8fa62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p056.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p057.png b/23340-page-images/p057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8b4526
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p057.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p058.png b/23340-page-images/p058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..820b2aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p058.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p059.png b/23340-page-images/p059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ead3906
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p059.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p060.png b/23340-page-images/p060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9019ed0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p060.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p061.png b/23340-page-images/p061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a25081
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p061.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p062.png b/23340-page-images/p062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24a9841
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p062.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p063.png b/23340-page-images/p063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b89c4ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p063.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p064.png b/23340-page-images/p064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..004adb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p064.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p065.png b/23340-page-images/p065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab6a3bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p065.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p066.png b/23340-page-images/p066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8211ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p066.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p067.png b/23340-page-images/p067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9a0558
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p067.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p068.png b/23340-page-images/p068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2fc381
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p068.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p069.png b/23340-page-images/p069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4836c79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p069.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p070.png b/23340-page-images/p070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d25a52e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p070.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p071.png b/23340-page-images/p071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9526bb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p071.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p072.png b/23340-page-images/p072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27fe9e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p072.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p073.png b/23340-page-images/p073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3b0aae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p073.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p074.png b/23340-page-images/p074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..872abed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p074.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p075.png b/23340-page-images/p075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6469de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p075.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p076.png b/23340-page-images/p076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07b5538
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p076.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p077.png b/23340-page-images/p077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87befa6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p077.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p078.png b/23340-page-images/p078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0464db7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p078.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p079.png b/23340-page-images/p079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c8fb91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p079.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p080.png b/23340-page-images/p080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5dc01b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p080.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p081.png b/23340-page-images/p081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6edeb27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p081.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p082.png b/23340-page-images/p082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b0a87b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p082.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p083.png b/23340-page-images/p083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a867992
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p083.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p084.png b/23340-page-images/p084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1cf9270
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p084.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p085.png b/23340-page-images/p085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7d8c6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p085.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p086.png b/23340-page-images/p086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60d8c83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p086.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p087.png b/23340-page-images/p087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d687df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p087.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p088.png b/23340-page-images/p088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b225cd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p088.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p089.png b/23340-page-images/p089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67d7ed6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p089.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p090.png b/23340-page-images/p090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0d78d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p090.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p091.png b/23340-page-images/p091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e88c22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p091.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p092.png b/23340-page-images/p092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3cf165
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p092.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p093.png b/23340-page-images/p093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdd3df6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p093.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p094.png b/23340-page-images/p094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3094fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p094.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p095.png b/23340-page-images/p095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ec31ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p095.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p096.png b/23340-page-images/p096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6d6eb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p096.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p097.png b/23340-page-images/p097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3d1c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p097.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p098.png b/23340-page-images/p098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e7963e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p098.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p099.png b/23340-page-images/p099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..210d3a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p099.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p100.png b/23340-page-images/p100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9952c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p100.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p101.png b/23340-page-images/p101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..541a8fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p101.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p102.png b/23340-page-images/p102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee9b4f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p102.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p103.png b/23340-page-images/p103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c13f49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p103.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p104.png b/23340-page-images/p104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72e1fd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p104.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p105.png b/23340-page-images/p105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9a0a387
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p105.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p106.png b/23340-page-images/p106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e433c2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p106.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p107.png b/23340-page-images/p107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29114b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p107.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p108.png b/23340-page-images/p108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ca4461
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p108.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p109.png b/23340-page-images/p109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a349b6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p109.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p110.png b/23340-page-images/p110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..589a5b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p110.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p111.png b/23340-page-images/p111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1befdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p111.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p112.png b/23340-page-images/p112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36e8447
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p112.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p113.png b/23340-page-images/p113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d5655d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p113.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p114.png b/23340-page-images/p114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3604fdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p114.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p115.png b/23340-page-images/p115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bf049d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p115.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p116.png b/23340-page-images/p116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4b33fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p116.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p117.png b/23340-page-images/p117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55b02b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p117.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p118.png b/23340-page-images/p118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..761e7dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p118.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p119.png b/23340-page-images/p119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab48399
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p119.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p120.png b/23340-page-images/p120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ce023c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p120.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p121.png b/23340-page-images/p121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d183c04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p121.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p122.png b/23340-page-images/p122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..978aa19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p122.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p123.png b/23340-page-images/p123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f81b77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p123.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p124.png b/23340-page-images/p124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98cc895
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p124.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p125.png b/23340-page-images/p125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb51c86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p125.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p126.png b/23340-page-images/p126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b72408
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p126.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p127.png b/23340-page-images/p127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cde3424
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p127.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p128.png b/23340-page-images/p128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a226eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p128.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p129.png b/23340-page-images/p129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42c61d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p129.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p130.png b/23340-page-images/p130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5111328
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p130.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p131.png b/23340-page-images/p131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b0d772
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p131.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p132.png b/23340-page-images/p132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cef63e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p132.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p133.png b/23340-page-images/p133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31cd956
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p133.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p134.png b/23340-page-images/p134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..656e74d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p134.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p135.png b/23340-page-images/p135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb4d508
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p135.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p136.png b/23340-page-images/p136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8efa585
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p136.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p137.png b/23340-page-images/p137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b27347
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p137.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p138.png b/23340-page-images/p138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a5e6a6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p138.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p139.png b/23340-page-images/p139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..218d8c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p139.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p140.png b/23340-page-images/p140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94b7963
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p140.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p141.png b/23340-page-images/p141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0cea920
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p141.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p142.png b/23340-page-images/p142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86471f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p142.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p143.png b/23340-page-images/p143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c1fc4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p143.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p144.png b/23340-page-images/p144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fd20c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p144.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p145.png b/23340-page-images/p145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58c7b30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p145.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p146.png b/23340-page-images/p146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad6dd64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p146.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p147.png b/23340-page-images/p147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b6cbd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p147.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p148.png b/23340-page-images/p148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca7ec74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p148.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p149.png b/23340-page-images/p149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a64498
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p149.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p150.png b/23340-page-images/p150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e868fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p150.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p151.png b/23340-page-images/p151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a598d38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p151.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p152.png b/23340-page-images/p152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd2e1b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p152.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p153.png b/23340-page-images/p153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3546a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p153.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p154.png b/23340-page-images/p154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb9f7df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p154.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p155.png b/23340-page-images/p155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18d6002
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p155.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p156.png b/23340-page-images/p156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4b3d97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p156.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p157.png b/23340-page-images/p157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ff80ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p157.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p158.png b/23340-page-images/p158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59da708
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p158.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p159.png b/23340-page-images/p159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..620850a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p159.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p160.png b/23340-page-images/p160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63556d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p160.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p161.png b/23340-page-images/p161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dfdf5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p161.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p162.png b/23340-page-images/p162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b7af987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p162.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p163.png b/23340-page-images/p163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c27503
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p163.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p164.png b/23340-page-images/p164.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b314c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p164.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p165.png b/23340-page-images/p165.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20e0f7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p165.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p166.png b/23340-page-images/p166.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a42e60e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p166.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p167.png b/23340-page-images/p167.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08903a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p167.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p168.png b/23340-page-images/p168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44d083e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p168.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p169.png b/23340-page-images/p169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3a48ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p169.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p170.png b/23340-page-images/p170.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b12211
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p170.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p171.png b/23340-page-images/p171.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75c0c14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p171.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p172.png b/23340-page-images/p172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28abfb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p172.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p173.png b/23340-page-images/p173.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b19c5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p173.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p174.png b/23340-page-images/p174.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1cc411a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p174.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p175.png b/23340-page-images/p175.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05d74d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p175.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p176.png b/23340-page-images/p176.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3c726b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p176.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p177.png b/23340-page-images/p177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a79400
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p177.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p178.png b/23340-page-images/p178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b69b6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p178.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p179.png b/23340-page-images/p179.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9eea833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p179.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p180.png b/23340-page-images/p180.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f28f3a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p180.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p181.png b/23340-page-images/p181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d679d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p181.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p182.png b/23340-page-images/p182.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d17153
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p182.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p183.png b/23340-page-images/p183.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f8b954
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p183.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p184.png b/23340-page-images/p184.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..440a686
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p184.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p185.png b/23340-page-images/p185.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1163a2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p185.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p186.png b/23340-page-images/p186.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a6a792
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p186.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p187.png b/23340-page-images/p187.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf7feb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p187.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p188.png b/23340-page-images/p188.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e81ed73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p188.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p189.png b/23340-page-images/p189.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c90fcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p189.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p190.png b/23340-page-images/p190.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79c77a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p190.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p191.png b/23340-page-images/p191.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..822a5c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p191.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p192.png b/23340-page-images/p192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f82e5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p192.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p193.png b/23340-page-images/p193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0f03cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p193.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p194.png b/23340-page-images/p194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f47659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p194.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p195.png b/23340-page-images/p195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a52389a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p195.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p196.png b/23340-page-images/p196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bad6969
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p196.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p197.png b/23340-page-images/p197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20ed268
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p197.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p198.png b/23340-page-images/p198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6994fed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p198.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p199.png b/23340-page-images/p199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6546b5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p199.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p200.png b/23340-page-images/p200.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86689c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p200.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p201.png b/23340-page-images/p201.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9488a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p201.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p202.png b/23340-page-images/p202.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38b800a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p202.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p203.png b/23340-page-images/p203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abcade0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p203.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p204.png b/23340-page-images/p204.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7f4cbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p204.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p205.png b/23340-page-images/p205.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f959dee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p205.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p206.png b/23340-page-images/p206.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..016b386
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p206.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p207.png b/23340-page-images/p207.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5bc3388
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p207.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p208.png b/23340-page-images/p208.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0616b06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p208.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p209.png b/23340-page-images/p209.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7fd92a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p209.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p210.png b/23340-page-images/p210.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9c7661
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p210.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p211.png b/23340-page-images/p211.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c47cc7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p211.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p212.png b/23340-page-images/p212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..591712e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p212.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p213.png b/23340-page-images/p213.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc0f3ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p213.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p214.png b/23340-page-images/p214.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c68c5f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p214.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p215.png b/23340-page-images/p215.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66b02a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p215.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p216.png b/23340-page-images/p216.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..092bcfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p216.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p217.png b/23340-page-images/p217.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a82a6cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p217.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p218.png b/23340-page-images/p218.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a201013
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p218.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p219.png b/23340-page-images/p219.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73209d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p219.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p220.png b/23340-page-images/p220.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..853b342
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p220.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p221.png b/23340-page-images/p221.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72ddbbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p221.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p222.png b/23340-page-images/p222.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..964fefa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p222.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p223.png b/23340-page-images/p223.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..effa9e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p223.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p224.png b/23340-page-images/p224.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9e620b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p224.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p225.png b/23340-page-images/p225.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02fd4eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p225.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p226.png b/23340-page-images/p226.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..545adb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p226.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p227.png b/23340-page-images/p227.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9322c94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p227.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p228.png b/23340-page-images/p228.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d859c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p228.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p229.png b/23340-page-images/p229.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba9e4a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p229.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p230.png b/23340-page-images/p230.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf66bf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p230.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p231.png b/23340-page-images/p231.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8db3d61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p231.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p232.png b/23340-page-images/p232.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f64e07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p232.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p233.png b/23340-page-images/p233.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef65d02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p233.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p234.png b/23340-page-images/p234.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e786e44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p234.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p235.png b/23340-page-images/p235.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecb1ded
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p235.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p236.png b/23340-page-images/p236.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed1a1ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p236.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p237.png b/23340-page-images/p237.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a471c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p237.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p238.png b/23340-page-images/p238.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae871bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p238.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p239.png b/23340-page-images/p239.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1905b1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p239.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p240.png b/23340-page-images/p240.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4aaecff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p240.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p241.png b/23340-page-images/p241.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abe2831
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p241.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p242.png b/23340-page-images/p242.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b5914cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p242.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p243.png b/23340-page-images/p243.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4c90c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p243.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p244.png b/23340-page-images/p244.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a18507
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p244.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p245.png b/23340-page-images/p245.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6eea17f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p245.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p246.png b/23340-page-images/p246.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8e0dc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p246.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p247.png b/23340-page-images/p247.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f080348
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p247.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p248.png b/23340-page-images/p248.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67ecea1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p248.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p249.png b/23340-page-images/p249.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa84566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p249.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p250.png b/23340-page-images/p250.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..021a9ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p250.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p251.png b/23340-page-images/p251.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9132625
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p251.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p252.png b/23340-page-images/p252.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0aa8e32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p252.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p253.png b/23340-page-images/p253.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7a59a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p253.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p254.png b/23340-page-images/p254.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..faa5797
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p254.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p255.png b/23340-page-images/p255.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2ace0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p255.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p256.png b/23340-page-images/p256.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..882dd10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p256.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p257.png b/23340-page-images/p257.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1970da1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p257.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p258.png b/23340-page-images/p258.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ff70c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p258.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p259.png b/23340-page-images/p259.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6165a01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p259.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p260.png b/23340-page-images/p260.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60ec8cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p260.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p261.png b/23340-page-images/p261.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a64862b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p261.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p262.png b/23340-page-images/p262.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..486ac15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p262.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p263.png b/23340-page-images/p263.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ae2707
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p263.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p264.png b/23340-page-images/p264.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef2c4b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p264.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p265.png b/23340-page-images/p265.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db9c8b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p265.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p266.png b/23340-page-images/p266.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0970e68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p266.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p267.png b/23340-page-images/p267.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..225f646
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p267.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p268.png b/23340-page-images/p268.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fc473f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p268.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p269.png b/23340-page-images/p269.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f38a549
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p269.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p270.png b/23340-page-images/p270.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..561d6e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p270.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p271.png b/23340-page-images/p271.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2db3929
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p271.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p272.png b/23340-page-images/p272.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29395e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p272.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p273.png b/23340-page-images/p273.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5d3e52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p273.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p274.png b/23340-page-images/p274.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53ce8fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p274.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p275.png b/23340-page-images/p275.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f40d869
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p275.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p276.png b/23340-page-images/p276.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20d3ec9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p276.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p277.png b/23340-page-images/p277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..996eb21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p277.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p278.png b/23340-page-images/p278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6820270
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p278.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p279.png b/23340-page-images/p279.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b96580d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p279.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p280.png b/23340-page-images/p280.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e29660
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p280.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p281.png b/23340-page-images/p281.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a2d7c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p281.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p282.png b/23340-page-images/p282.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c78687
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p282.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p283.png b/23340-page-images/p283.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb11443
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p283.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p284.png b/23340-page-images/p284.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db16c87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p284.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p285.png b/23340-page-images/p285.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e15dad1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p285.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p286.png b/23340-page-images/p286.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57a7af8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p286.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p287.png b/23340-page-images/p287.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9281e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p287.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p288.png b/23340-page-images/p288.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24c8763
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p288.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p289.png b/23340-page-images/p289.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e41660b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p289.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p290.png b/23340-page-images/p290.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6bd53d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p290.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p291.png b/23340-page-images/p291.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c36251
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p291.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p292.png b/23340-page-images/p292.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7a6e51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p292.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p293.png b/23340-page-images/p293.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c360fb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p293.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p294.png b/23340-page-images/p294.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91b166a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p294.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p295.png b/23340-page-images/p295.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f614f9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p295.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p296.png b/23340-page-images/p296.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d441c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p296.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p297.png b/23340-page-images/p297.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aded2a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p297.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p298.png b/23340-page-images/p298.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fa176b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p298.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p299.png b/23340-page-images/p299.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..276b614
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p299.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p300.png b/23340-page-images/p300.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35ca353
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p300.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p301.png b/23340-page-images/p301.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f649ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p301.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p302.png b/23340-page-images/p302.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a69d53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p302.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p303.png b/23340-page-images/p303.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e07d63b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p303.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p304.png b/23340-page-images/p304.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc3858f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p304.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p305.png b/23340-page-images/p305.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2390bba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p305.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p306.png b/23340-page-images/p306.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..715dcbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p306.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p307.png b/23340-page-images/p307.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f49cbe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p307.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p308.png b/23340-page-images/p308.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b7c10b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p308.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p309.png b/23340-page-images/p309.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5ac67b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p309.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p310.png b/23340-page-images/p310.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..909b128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p310.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p311.png b/23340-page-images/p311.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31641de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p311.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p312.png b/23340-page-images/p312.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec0302b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p312.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p313.png b/23340-page-images/p313.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dadc423
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p313.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p314.png b/23340-page-images/p314.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8d2060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p314.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p315.png b/23340-page-images/p315.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39cd8f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p315.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p316.png b/23340-page-images/p316.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9391f5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p316.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p317.png b/23340-page-images/p317.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..562ecdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p317.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p318.png b/23340-page-images/p318.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba9c650
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p318.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p319.png b/23340-page-images/p319.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6e61e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p319.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p320.png b/23340-page-images/p320.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8176eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p320.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p321.png b/23340-page-images/p321.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adeb2fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p321.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p322.png b/23340-page-images/p322.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb65b7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p322.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p323.png b/23340-page-images/p323.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59516a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p323.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p324.png b/23340-page-images/p324.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36f69fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p324.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p325.png b/23340-page-images/p325.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d461c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p325.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p326.png b/23340-page-images/p326.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdf3838
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p326.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p327.png b/23340-page-images/p327.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93e8d72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p327.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p328.png b/23340-page-images/p328.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4878aac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p328.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p329.png b/23340-page-images/p329.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f39c6a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p329.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p330.png b/23340-page-images/p330.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf2a199
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p330.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p331.png b/23340-page-images/p331.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb49b92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p331.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p332.png b/23340-page-images/p332.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5638e0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p332.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p333.png b/23340-page-images/p333.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aaa0b92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p333.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p334.png b/23340-page-images/p334.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b90b1b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p334.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p335.png b/23340-page-images/p335.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3261d0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p335.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p336.png b/23340-page-images/p336.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..547e2a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p336.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p337.png b/23340-page-images/p337.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9fccb10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p337.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p338.png b/23340-page-images/p338.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ae1be6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p338.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p339.png b/23340-page-images/p339.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6acfcc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p339.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p340.png b/23340-page-images/p340.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7140c6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p340.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p341.png b/23340-page-images/p341.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4472795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p341.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p342.png b/23340-page-images/p342.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fa30f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p342.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p343.png b/23340-page-images/p343.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41b17ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p343.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p344.png b/23340-page-images/p344.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0118b2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p344.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p345.png b/23340-page-images/p345.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8bdcf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p345.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p346.png b/23340-page-images/p346.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac01e0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p346.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p347.png b/23340-page-images/p347.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ec17e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p347.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p348.png b/23340-page-images/p348.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3caf747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p348.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p349.png b/23340-page-images/p349.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53e1fb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p349.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p350.png b/23340-page-images/p350.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a90fc15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p350.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p351.png b/23340-page-images/p351.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fde625
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p351.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p352.png b/23340-page-images/p352.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d30b2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p352.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p353.png b/23340-page-images/p353.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d139945
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p353.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p354.png b/23340-page-images/p354.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb08b52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p354.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p355.png b/23340-page-images/p355.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dde0631
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p355.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p356.png b/23340-page-images/p356.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5a9457
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p356.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p357.png b/23340-page-images/p357.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8c3298
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p357.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p358.png b/23340-page-images/p358.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2bf878
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p358.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p359.png b/23340-page-images/p359.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4207dc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p359.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p360.png b/23340-page-images/p360.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c25b4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p360.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p361.png b/23340-page-images/p361.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de4760c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p361.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p362.png b/23340-page-images/p362.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c952cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p362.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p363.png b/23340-page-images/p363.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..073ebb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p363.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p364.png b/23340-page-images/p364.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b16384
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p364.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p365.png b/23340-page-images/p365.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aec220e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p365.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p366.png b/23340-page-images/p366.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bed759c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p366.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p367.png b/23340-page-images/p367.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4a4dc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p367.png
diff --git a/23340-page-images/p368.png b/23340-page-images/p368.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f709edf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340-page-images/p368.png
diff --git a/23340.txt b/23340.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10e11c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11926 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by George Alfred Townsend
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,
+       and His Romaunt Abroad During the War
+
+Author: George Alfred Townsend
+
+Release Date: November 5, 2007 [EBook #23340]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CAMPAIGNS
+
+OF
+
+A NON-COMBATANT,
+
+AND HIS
+
+ROMAUNT ABROAD DURING THE WAR.
+
+BY
+GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+BLELOCK & COMPANY,
+19 BEEKMAN STREET,
+1866.
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
+
+GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND,
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+Southern District of New York.
+
+SCRYMGEOUR, WHITCOMB & CO.,
+
+Stereotypers,
+
+15 WATER STREET, BOSTON.
+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's note: Inconsistency in hyphenation in this etext is as in|
+|the original book.                                                     |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+TO
+
+"Miles O'Reilly,"
+
+Who saw the war as vividly as he sang it; and whose aims for the peace
+that has ensued, are even nobler than the noble influence he exerted
+during the struggle, these chapters of travel are inscribed by his
+friend and colleague.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In the early part of 1863, while I was resident in London,--the first of
+the War Correspondents to go abroad,--I wrote, at the request of Mr.
+George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill Magazine, a series of chapters
+upon the Rebellion, thus introduced:--
+
+     "Few wars have been so well chronicled, as that now desolating
+     America. Its official narratives have been copious; the great
+     newspapers of the land have been represented in all its campaigns;
+     private enterprise has classified and illustrated its several
+     events, and delegates of foreign countries have been allowed to
+     mingle freely with its soldiery, and to observe and describe its
+     battles. The pen and the camera have accompanied its bayonets, and
+     there has not probably been any skirmish, however insignificant,
+     but a score of zealous scribes have remarked and recorded it.
+
+     "I have employed some leisure hours afforded me in Europe, to
+     detail those parts of the struggle which I witnessed in a civil
+     capacity. The Sketches which follow are entirely personal, and
+     dwell less upon routine incidents, plans, and statistics, than upon
+     those lighter phases of war which fall beneath the dignity of
+     severe history and are seldom related. I have endeavored to
+     reproduce not only the adventures, but the impressions of a
+     novitiate, and I have described not merely the army and its
+     operations, but the country invaded, and the people who inhabit it.
+
+     "The most that I have hoped to do, is so to simplify a campaign
+     that the reader may realize it as if he had beheld it, travelling
+     at will, as I did, and with no greater interest than to see how
+     fields were fought and won."
+
+To those chapters, I have added in this collection, some estimates of
+American life in Europe, and some European estimates of American life;
+with my ultimate experiences in the War after my return to my own
+country. I cannot hope that they will be received with the same favor,
+either here or abroad, as that which greeted their original publication.
+But no man ought to let the first four years of his majority slip away
+unrecorded. I would rather publish a tolerable book now than a possibly
+good one hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT,
+
+AND HIS
+
+Romaunt abroad during the War.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+MY IMPRESSMENT.
+
+
+"Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. Townsend," said
+Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other day,--"Ben. Franklin wrote for the
+paper, and set type upon it. The press was imported from England in
+1730, or thereabouts."
+
+He produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and then laid it away in
+its drawer very sacredly.
+
+"I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said,--"there would
+be no necessity in such a case of getting off six columns for to-night's
+mail."
+
+"Well!" said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, "I have a theory that a man
+grows up to machinery. As your day so shall your strength be. I believe
+you have telegraphed up to a House instrument, haven't you?"
+
+"Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, "your memory is too good.
+This is Newport, and I have come down to see the surf. Pray, do not
+remind me of hot hours in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse
+dispatch, and work far into the midnight!"
+
+So I left Mr. Pratt, of the Newport _Mercury_, with an ostentation of
+affront, and bade James Brady, the boatman, hoist sail and carry me over
+to Dumpling Rocks.
+
+On the grassy parapet of the crumbling tower which once served the
+purposes of a fort, the transparent water hungering at its base, the
+rocks covered with fringe spotting the channel, the ocean on my right
+hand lost in its own vastness, and Newport out of mind save when the
+town bells rang, or the dip of oars beat in the still swell of
+Narragansett,--I lay down, chafing and out of temper, to curse the
+only pleasurable labor I had ever undertaken.
+
+To me all places were workshops: the seaside, the springs, the summer
+mountains, the cataracts, the theatres, the panoramas of islet-fondled
+rivers speeding by strange cities. I was condemned to look upon them all
+with mercenary eyes, to turn their gladness into torpid prose, and speak
+their praises in turgid columns. Never nepenthe, never _abandonne_,
+always wide-awake, and watching for saliences, I had gone abroad like a
+falcon, and roamed at home like a hungry jackal. Six fingers on my hand,
+one long and pointed, and ever dropping gall; the ineradicable stain
+upon my thumb; the widest of my circuits, with all my adventure, a
+paltry sheet of foolscap; and the world in which I dwelt, no place for
+thought, or dreaminess, or love-making,--only the fierce, fast, flippant
+existence of news!
+
+And with this inward execration, I lay on Dumpling Rocks, looking to
+sea, and recalled the first fond hours of my newspaper life.
+
+To be a subject of old Hoe, the most voracious of men, I gave up the
+choice of three sage professions, and the sweet alternative of idling
+husbandry.
+
+The day I graduated saw me an _attache_ of the Philadelphia _Chameleon_.
+I was to receive three dollars a week and be the heir to lordly
+prospects. In the long course of persevering years I might sit in the
+cushions of the night-editor, or speak of the striplings around me as
+"_my_ reporters."
+
+"There is nothing which you cannot attain," said Mr. Axiom, my
+employer,--"think of the influence you exercise!--more than a clergyman;
+Horace Greeley was an editor; so was George D. Prentice; the first has
+just been defeated for Congress; the last lectured last night and got
+fifty dollars for it."
+
+Hereat I was greatly encouraged, and proposed to write a leader for next
+day's paper upon the evils of the Fire Department.
+
+"Dear me," said Mr. Axiom, "you would ruin our circulation at a wink;
+what would become of our ball column? in case of a fire in the building
+we couldn't get a hose to play on it. Oh! no, Alfred, writing leaders is
+hard and dangerous; I want you first to learn the use of a beautiful
+pair of scissors."
+
+I looked blank and chopfallen.
+
+"No man can write a good hand or a good style," he said, "without
+experience with scissors. They give your palm flexibility and that is
+soon imparted to the mind. But perfection is attained by an alternate
+use of the scissors and the pen; if a little paste be prescribed at the
+same time, cohesion and steadfastness is imparted to the man."
+
+His reasoning was incontrovertible; but I damned his conclusions.
+
+So, I spent one month in slashing several hundred exchanges a day, and
+paragraphing all the items. These reappeared in a column called "THE
+LATEST INFORMATION," and when I found them copied into another journal,
+a flush of satisfaction rose to my face.
+
+The editor of the _Chameleon_ was an old journalist, whose face was a
+sealed book of Confucius, and who talked to me, patronizingly, now and
+then, like the Delphic Oracle. His name was Watch, and he wore a
+prodigious pearl in his shirt-bosom. He crept up to the editorial room
+at nine o'clock every night, and dashed off an hour's worth of
+glittering generalities, at the end of which time two or three
+gentlemen, blooming at the nose, and with cheeks resembling a map drawn
+in red ink, sounded the pipe below stairs, and Mr. Watch said--
+
+"Mr. Townsend, I look to you to be on hand to-night; I am called away by
+the Water-Gas Company."
+
+Then, with enthusiasm up to blood-heat, aroused by this mark of
+confidence, I used to set to, and scissor and write till three o'clock,
+while Mr. Watch talked water-gas over brandy and water, and drew his
+thirty dollars punctually on Saturdays.
+
+So it happened that my news paragraphs, sometimes pointedly turned into
+a reflection, crept into the editorial columns, when water-gas was
+lively. Venturing more and more, the clipper finally indited a leader;
+and Mr. Watch, whose nose water-gas was reddening, applauded me, and
+told me in his sublime way, that, as a special favor, I might write all
+the leaders the next night. Mr. Watch was seen no more in the sanctum
+for a week, and my three dollars carried on the concern.
+
+When he returned, he generously gave me a dollar, and said that he had
+spoken of me to the Water-Gas Company as a capital secretary. Then he
+wrote me a pass for the Arch Street Theatre, and told me, benevolently,
+to go off and rest that night.
+
+For a month or more the responsibility of the _Chameleon_ devolved
+almost entirely upon me. Child that I was, knowing no world but my own
+vanity, and pleased with those who fed its sensitive love of approbation
+rather than with the just and reticent, I harbored no distrust till one
+day when Axiom visited the office, and I was drawing my three dollars
+from the treasurer, I heard Mr. Watch exclaim, within the publisher's
+room--
+
+"Did you read my article on the Homestead Bill?"
+
+"Yes," answered Axiom; "it was quite clever; your leaders are more alive
+and epigrammatic than they were."
+
+I could stand it no more. I bolted into the office, and cried--
+
+"The article on the Homestead Bill is mine, so is every other article in
+to-day's paper. Mr. Watch does not tell the truth; he is ungenerous!"
+
+"What's this, Watch?" said Axiom.
+
+"Alfred," exclaimed Mr. Watch, majestically, "adopts my suggestions very
+readily, and is quite industrious. I recommend that we raise his salary
+to five dollars a week. That is a large sum for a lad."
+
+That night the manuscript was overhauled in the composing room. Watch's
+dereliction was manifest; but not a word was said commendatory of my
+labor; it was feared I might take "airs," or covet a further increase of
+wages. I only missed Watch's hugh pearl, and heard that he had been
+discharged, and was myself taken from the drudgery of the scissors, and
+made a reporter.
+
+All this was very recent, yet to me so far remote, that as I recall it
+all, I wonder if I am not old, and feel nervously of my hairs. For in
+the five intervening years I have ridden at Hoe speed down the groove of
+my steel-pen.
+
+The pen is my traction engine; it has gone through worlds of fancy and
+reflection, dragging me behind it; and long experience has given it so
+great facility, that I have only to fire up, whistle, and fix my
+couplings, and away goes my locomotive with no end of cars in train.
+
+Few journalists, beginning at the bottom, do not weary of the ladder ere
+they climb high. Few of such, or of others more enthusiastic, recall the
+early associations of "the office" with pleasure. Yet there is no world
+more grotesque, none, at least in America, more capable of fictitious
+illustration. Around a newspaper all the dramatis personae of the world
+congregate; within it there are staid idiosyncratic folk who admit of
+all kindly caricature.
+
+I summon from that humming and hurly-burly past, the ancient
+proof-reader. He wears a green shade over his eyes and the gas burner is
+drawn very low to darken the bald and wrinkled contour of his forehead.
+He is severe in judgment and spells rigidly by the Johnsonian standard.
+He punctuates by an obdurate and conscientious method, and will have no
+italics upon any pretext. He will lend you money, will eat with you,
+drink with you, and encourage you; but he will not punctuate with you,
+spell with you, nor accept any of your suggestions as to typography or
+paragraphing whatsoever. He wears slippers and smokes a primitive clay
+pipe; he has everything in its place, and you cannot offend him more
+than by looking over any proof except when he is holding it. A chip of
+himself is the copyholder at his side,--a meagre, freckled, matter of
+fact youth, who reads your tenderest sentences in a rapid monotone, and
+is never known to venture any opinion or suggestion whatever. This boy,
+I am bound to say, will follow the copy if it be all consonants, and
+will accompany it if it flies out of the window.
+
+The office clerk was my bane and admiration. He was presumed by the
+verdant patrons of the paper to be its owner and principal editor, its
+type-setter, pressman, and carrier. His hair was elaborately curled, and
+his ears were perfect racks of long and dandyfied pens; a broad,
+shovel-shaped gold pen lay forever opposite his high stool; he had an
+arrogant and patronizing address, and was the perpetual cabbager of
+editorial perquisites. Books, ball-tickets, season-tickets, pictures,
+disappeared in his indiscriminate fist, and he promised notices which he
+could not write to no end of applicants. He was to be seen at the
+theatre every night, and he was the dashing escort of the proprietor's
+wife, who preferred his jaunty coat and highly-polished boots to the
+less elaborate wardrobe of us writers. That this noble and fashionable
+creature could descend to writing wrappers, and to waiting his turn with
+a bank-book in the long train of a sordid teller, passed all speculation
+and astonishment. He made a sorry fag of the office boy, and advised us
+every day to beware of cutting the files, as if that were the one vice
+of authors. To him we stole, with humiliated faces, and begged a
+trifling advance of salary. He sternly requested us not to encroach
+behind the counter--his own indisputable domain--but sometimes asked us
+to watch the office while he drank with a theatrical agent at the
+nearest bar. He was an inveterate gossip, and endowed with a damnable
+love of slipshod argument; the only oral censor upon our compositions,
+he hailed us with all the complaints made at his solicitation by
+irascible subscribers, and stood in awe of the cashier only, who
+frequently, to our delight and surprise, combed him over, and drove him
+to us for sympathy.
+
+The foreman was still our power behind the throne; he left out our copy
+on mechanical grounds, and put it in for our modesty and sophistry. In
+his broad, hot room, all flaring with gas, he stood at a flat stone like
+a surgeon, and took forms to pieces and dissected huge columns of
+pregnant metal, and paid off the hands with fabulous amounts of
+uncurrent bank bills. His wife and he went thrice a year on excursions
+to the sea-side, and he was forever borrowing a dollar from somebody to
+treat the lender and himself.
+
+The ship-news man could be seen towards the small-hours, writing his
+highly imaginative department, which showed how the Sally Ann, Master
+Todd, arrived leaky in Bombay harbor; and there were stacks of newsboys
+asleep on the boilers, fighting in their dreams for the possession of a
+fragment of a many-cornered blanket.
+
+These, like myself, went into the halcyon land of Nod to the music of a
+crashing press, and swarmed about it at the dawn like so many gad flies
+about an ox, to carry into the awakening city the rhetoric and the
+rubbish I had written.
+
+And still they go, and still the great press toils along, and still am I
+its slave and keeper, who sit here by the proud, free sea, and feel like
+Sinbad, that to a terrible old man I have sold my youth, my convictions,
+my love, my life!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WAR CORRESPONDENT'S FIRST DAY.
+
+
+Looking back over the four years of the war, and noting how indurated I
+have at last become, both in body and in emotion, I recall with a sigh
+that first morning of my correspondentship when I set out so
+light-hearted and yet so anxious. It was in 1861. I was accompanied to
+the War department by an _attache_ of the United States Senate. The new
+Secretary, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, referred me to a Mr. Sanford, "Military
+Supervisor of Army Intelligence," and after a brief delay I was
+requested to sign a parole and duplicate, specifying my loyalty to the
+Federal Government, and my promise to publish nothing detrimental to its
+interests. I was then given a circular, which stated explicitly the kind
+of news termed contraband, and also a printed pass, filled in with my
+name, age, residence, and newspaper connection. The latter enjoined upon
+all guards to pass me in and out of camps; and authorized persons in
+Government employ to furnish me with information.
+
+Our Washington Superintendent sent me a beast, and in compliment to what
+the animal might have been, called the same a horse. I wish to protest,
+in this record, against any such misnomer. The creature possessed no
+single equine element. Experience has satisfied me that horses stand on
+four legs; the horse in question stood upon three. Horses may either
+pace, trot, run, rack, or gallop; but mine made all the five movements
+at once. I think I may call his gait an eccentric stumble. That he had
+endurance I admit; for he survived perpetual beating; and his beauty
+might have been apparent to an anatomist, but would be scouted by the
+world at large. I asked, ruefully, if I was expected to go into battle
+so mounted; but was peremptorily forbidden, as a valuable property might
+be endangered thereby. I was assigned to the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps
+in the anticipated advance, and my friend, the _attache_, accompanied me
+to its rendezvous at Hunter's Mills. We started at two o'clock, and
+occupied an hour in passing the city limits. I calculated that,
+advancing at the same ratio, we should arrive in camp at noon next day.
+We presented ludicrous figures to the grim sabremen that sat erect at
+street corners, and ladies at the windows of the dwellings smothered
+with suppressed laughter as we floundered along. My friend had the
+better horse; but I was the better rider; and if at any time I grew
+wrathful at my sorry plight, I had but to look at his and be happy
+again. He appeared to be riding on the neck of his beast, and when he
+attempted to deceive me with a smile, his face became horribly
+contorted. Directly his breeches worked above his boots, and his bare
+calves were objects of hopeless solicitude. Caricatures, rather than
+men, we toiled bruisedly through Georgetown, and falling in the wake of
+supply teams on the Leesburg turnpike, rode between the Potomac on one
+side and the dry bed of the canal on the other, till we came at last to
+Chain Bridge.
+
+There was a grand view from the point of Little Falls above, where a
+line of foamy cataracts ridged the river, and the rocks towered gloomily
+on either hand: and of the city below, with its buildings of pure
+marble, and the yellow earthworks that crested Arlington Heights. The
+clouds over the Potomac were gorgeous in hue, but forests of melancholy
+pine clothed the sides of the hills, and the roar of the river made such
+beautiful monotone that I almost thought it could be translated to
+words. Our passes were now demanded by a fat, bareheaded officer, and
+while he panted through their contents, two privates crossed their
+bayonets before us.
+
+"News?" he said, in the shortest remark of which he was capable. When
+assured that we had nothing to reveal, he seemed immeasurably relieved,
+and added--"Great labor, reading!" At this his face grew so dreadfully
+purple that I begged him to sit down, and tax himself with no further
+exertion. He wiped his forehead, in reply, gasping like a triton, and
+muttering the expressive direction, "right!" disappeared into a
+guard-box. The two privates winked as they removed their muskets, and we
+both laughed immoderately when out of hearing. Our backs were now turned
+to the Maryland shore, and jutting grimly from the hill before us, the
+black guns of Fort Ethan Allen pointed down the bridge. A double line of
+sharp abattis protected it from assault, and sentries walked lazily up
+and down the parapet. The colors hung against the mast in the dead calm,
+and the smoke curled straight upward from some log-huts within the fort.
+The wildness of the surrounding landscape was most remarkable. Within
+sight of the Capital of the Republic, the fox yet kept the covert, and
+the farms were few and far apart. It seemed to me that little had been
+done to clear the country of its primeval timber, and the war had
+accomplished more to give evidence of man and industry, than two
+centuries of occupation. A military road had been cut through the solid
+rocks here; and the original turnpike, which had been little more than a
+cart track, was now graded and macadamized. I passed multitudes of
+teams, struggling up the slopes, and the carcasses of mules littered
+every rod of the way. The profanity of the teamsters was painfully
+apparent. I came unobserved upon one who was berating his beasts with a
+refinement of cruelty. He cursed each of them separately, swinging his
+long-lashed whip the while, and then damned the six in mass. He would
+have made a dutiful overseer. The soldiers had shown quite as little
+consideration for the residences along the way. I came to one dwelling
+where some pertinacious Vandal had even pried out the window-frames, and
+imperilled his neck to tear out the roof-beams; a dead vulture was
+pinned over the door by pieces of broken bayonets.
+
+"Langley's,"--a few plank-houses, clustering around a tavern and a
+church,--is one of those settlements whose sounding names beguile the
+reader into an idea of their importance. A lonesome haunt in time of
+peace, it had lately been the winter quarters of fifteen thousand
+soldiers, and a multitude of log huts had grown up around it. I tied my
+horse to the window-shutter of a dwelling, and picked my way over a
+slimy sidewalk to the ricketty tavern-porch. Four or five privates lay
+here fast asleep, and the bar-room was occupied by a bevy of young
+officers, who were emptying the contents of sundry pocket-flasks. Behind
+the bar sat a person with strongly-marked Hebrew features, and a
+watchmaker was plying his avocation in a corner. Two great dogs crouched
+under a bench, and some highly-colored portraits were nailed to the
+wall. The floor was bare, and some clothing and miscellaneous articles
+hung from beams in the ceiling.
+
+"Is this your house?" I said to the Hebrew.
+
+"I keepsh it now."
+
+"By right or by conquest?"
+
+"By ze right of conquest," he said, laughing; and at once proposed to
+sell me a bootjack and an India-rubber overcoat. I compromised upon a
+haversack, which he filled with sandwiches and sardines, and which I am
+bound to say fell apart in the course of the afternoon. The watchmaker
+was an enterprising young fellow, who had resigned his place in a large
+Broadway establishment, to speculate in cheap jewelry and do itinerant
+repairing. He says that he followed the "Army Paymasters, and sold
+numbers of watches, at good premiums, when the troops had money."
+Soldiers, he informed me, were reckless spendthrifts; and the prey of
+sutlers and sharpers. When there was nothing at hand to purchase, they
+gambled away their wages, and most of them left the service penniless
+and in debt. He thought it perfectly legitimate to secure some silver
+while "going," but complained that the value of his stock rendered him
+liable to theft and murder. "There are men in every regiment," said he,
+"who would blow out my brains in any lonely place to plunder me of these
+watches."
+
+At this point, a young officer, in a fit of bacchanal laughter,
+staggered rather roughly against me.
+
+"Begurpardon," he said, with an unsteady bow, "never ran against person
+in life before."
+
+I smiled assuringly, but he appeared to think the offence unpardonable.
+
+"Do asshu a, on honor of gentlemand officer, not in custom of behaving
+offensively. Azo! leave it to my friends. Entirely due to injuries
+received at battle Drainesville."
+
+As the other gentlemen laughed loudly here, I took it for granted that
+my apologist had some personal hallucination relative to that
+engagement.
+
+"What giggling for, Bob?" he said; "honor concerned in this matter,
+Will! Do asshu a, fell under Colonel's horse, and Company A walked over
+small of my back." The other officers were only less inebriated and most
+of them spoke boastfully of their personal prowess at Drainesville. This
+was the only engagement in which the Pennsylvania Reserves had yet
+participated, and few officers that I met did not ascribe the victory
+entirely to their own individual gallantry. I inquired of these
+gentlemen the route to the new encampments of the Reserves. They lay
+five miles south of the turnpike, close to the Loudon and Hampshire
+railroad, and along both sides of an unfrequented lane. They formed in
+this position the right wing of the Army of the Potomac, and had been
+ordered to hold themselves in hourly readiness for an advance. By this
+time, my friend S. came up, and leaving him to restore his mortified
+body, I crossed the road to the churchyard and peered through the open
+door into the edifice. The seats of painted pine had been covered with
+planks, and a sick man lay above every pew. At the ringing of my spurs
+in the threshold, some of the sufferers looked up through the red eyes
+of fever, and the faces of others were spectrally white. A few groaned
+as they turned with difficulty, and some shrank in pain from the glare
+of the light. Medicines were kept in the altar-place, and a doctor's
+clerk was writing requisitions in the pulpit. The sickening smell of the
+hospital forbade me to enter, and walking across the trampled yard, I
+crept through a rent in the paling, and examined the huts in which the
+Reserves had passed the winter. They were built of logs, plastered with
+mud, and the roofs of some were thatched with straw. Each cabin was
+pierced for two or more windows; the beds were simply shelves or berths;
+a rough fireplace of stones and clay communicated with the wooden
+chimney; and the floors were in most cases damp and bare. Streets,
+fancifully designated, divided the settlement irregularly; but the
+tenements were now all deserted save one, where I found a whole family
+of "contrabands" or fugitive slaves. These wretched beings, seven in
+number, had escaped from a plantation in Albemarle county, and
+travelling stealthily by night, over two hundred miles of precipitous
+country, reached the Federal lines on the thirteenth day. The husband
+said that his name was "Jeems," and that his wife was called "Kitty;"
+that his youngest boy had passed the mature age of eight months, and
+that the "big girl, Rosy," was "twelve years Christmas comin'." While
+the troops remained at Langley's, the man was employed at seventy-five
+cents a week to attend to an officer's horse. Kitty and Rose cooked and
+washed for soldiers, and the boys ran errands to Washington and
+return,--twenty-five miles! The eldest boy, Jefferson, had been given
+the use of a crippled team-horse, and traded in newspapers, but having
+confused ideas of the relative value of coins, his profits were only
+moderate. The nag died before the troops removed, and a sutler, under
+pretence of securing their passage to the North, disappeared with the
+little they had saved. They were quite destitute now, but looked to the
+future with no foreboding, and huddled together in the straw, made a
+picture of domestic felicity that impressed me greatly with the
+docility, contentment, and unfailing good humor of their dusky tribe.
+The eyes of the children were large and lustrous, and they revealed the
+clear pearls beneath their lips as they clung bashfully to their
+mother's lap. The old lady was smoking a clay pipe; the man running over
+some castaway jackets and boots. I remarked particularly the broad
+shoulders and athletic arms of the woman, whose many childbirths had
+left no traces upon her comeliness. She asked me, wistfully: "Masser,
+how fur to de nawf?"
+
+"A long way," said I, "perhaps two hundred miles."
+
+"Lawd!" she said, buoyantly--"is dat all? Why, Jeems, couldn't we foot
+it, honey?"
+
+"You a most guv out before, ole 'oman," he replied; "got a good ruff
+over de head now. Guess de white massar won't let um starve."
+
+I tossed some coppers to the children and gave each a sandwich.
+
+"You get up dar, John Thomas!" called the man vigorously; "you tank de
+gentleman, Jefferson, boy! I wonda wha your manners is. Tank you,
+massar! know'd you was a gentleman, sar! Massar, is your family from ole
+Virginny?"
+
+It was five o'clock when I rejoined S., and the greater part of our
+journey had yet to be made. I went at his creeping pace until courtesy
+yielded to impatience, when spurring my Pegasus vigorously, he fell into
+a bouncing amble and left the _attache_ far behind. My pass was again
+demanded above Langley's by a man who ate apples as he examined it, and
+who was disposed to hold a long parley. I entered a region of scrub
+timber further on, and met with nothing human for four miles, at the end
+of which distance I reached Difficult Creek, flowing through a rocky
+ravine, and crossed by a military bridge of logs. Through the thick
+woods to the right, I heard the roar of the Potomac, and a finger-board
+indicated that I was opposite Great Falls. Three or four dead horses lay
+at the roadside beyond the stream, and I recalled the place as the scene
+of a recent cavalry encounter. A cartridge-box and a torn felt hat lay
+close to the carcasses: I knew that some soul had gone hence to its
+account.
+
+The road now kept to the left obliquely, and much of my ride was made
+musical by the stream. Darkness closed solemnly about me, with seven
+miles of the journey yet to accomplish, and as, at eight o'clock, I
+turned from the turnpike into a lonesome by-road, full of ruts, pools,
+and quicksands, a feeling of delicious uneasiness for the first time
+possessed me. Some owls hooted in the depth of the woods, and wild pigs,
+darting across the road, went crashing into the bushes. The
+phosphorescent bark of a blasted tree glimmered on a neighboring knoll,
+and as I halted at a rivulet to water my beast, I saw a solitary star
+floating down the ripples. Directly I came upon a clearing where the
+moonlight shone through the rents of a crumbling dwelling, and from the
+far distance broke the faint howl of farm dogs. A sense of insecurity
+that I would not for worlds have resigned, now tingled, now chilled my
+blood. At last, climbing a stony hill, the skies lay beneath me
+reddening with the flame of camps and flaring and falling alternately,
+like the beautiful Northern lights. I heard the ring of hoofs as I
+looked entranced, and in a twinkling, a body of horsemen dashed past me
+and disappeared. A little beyond, the road grew so thick that I could
+see nothing of my way; but trusting doubtfully to my horse, a deep
+challenge came directly from the thicket, and I saw the flash of a
+sabre, as I stammered a reply. Led to a cabin close at hand, my pass
+was examined by candle-light, and I learned that the nearest camp of the
+Reserves was only a mile farther on, and the regiment of which I was in
+quest about two miles distant. After another half hour, I reached Ord's
+brigade, whose tents were pitched in a fine grove of oaks; the men
+talking, singing, and shouting, around open air fires; and a battery of
+brass Napoleons unlimbered in front, pointing significantly to the West
+and South. For a mile and a half I rode by the light of continuous
+camps, reaching at last the quarters of the ----th, commanded by a
+former newspaper associate of mine, with whom I had gone itemizing,
+scores of times. His regiment had arrived only the same afternoon, and
+their tents were not yet pitched. Their muskets were stacked along the
+roadside, and the men lay here and there wrapped in their blankets, and
+dozing around the fagots. The Colonel was asleep in a wagon, but roused
+up at the summons of his Adjutant, and greeting me warmly, directed the
+cook to prepare a supper of coffee and fried pork. Too hungry to feel
+the chafing of my sores and bruises, I fell to the oleaginous repast
+with my teeth and fingers, and eating ravenously, asked at last to be
+shown to my apartments. These consisted of a covered wagon, already
+occupied by four teamsters, and a blanket which had evidently been in
+close proximity to the hide of a horse. A man named "Coggle," being
+nudged by the Colonel, and requested to take other quarters, asked
+dolorously if it was time to turn out, and roared "woa," as if he had
+some consciousness of being kicked. When I asked for a pillow, the
+Colonel laughed, and I had an intuition that the man "Coggle" was
+looking at me in the darkness with intense disgust. The Colonel said
+that he had once put a man on double duty for placing his head on a
+snowball, and warned me satirically that such luxuries were preposterous
+in the field. He recommended me not to catch cold if I could help it,
+but said that people in camp commonly caught several colds at once, and
+added grimly that if I wished to be shaved in the morning, there was a
+man close by, who had ground a sabre down to the nice edge of a razor,
+and who could be made to accommodate me. There were cracks in the bottom
+of the wagon, through which the cold came like knives, and I was
+allotted a space four feet in length, by three feet in width.
+
+Being six feet in height, my relation to these Procrustean quarters was
+most embarassing; but I doubled up, chatteringly, and lay my head on my
+arm. In a short time I experienced a sensation akin to that of being
+guillotined, and sitting bolt upright, found the teamsters in the
+soundest of Lethean conditions. As the man next to me snored very
+loudly, I adopted the brilliant idea of making a pillow of his thigh;
+which answered my best expectations. I was aroused after a while, by
+what I thought to be the violent hands of this person, but which, to my
+great chagrin, proved to be S., intent upon dividing my place with me.
+Resistance was useless. I submitted to martyrdom with due resignation,
+but half resolved to go home in the morning, and shun, for the future,
+the horrible romance of camps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A GENERAL UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.
+
+
+When I awoke at Colonel Taggert's tent the morning afterward, I had
+verified the common experience of camps by "catching several colds at
+once," and felt a general sensation of being cut off at the knees. Poor
+S., who joined me at the fire, states that he believed himself to be
+tied in knots, and that he should return afoot to Washington. Our horses
+looked no worse, for that would have been manifestly impossible. We were
+made the butts of much jesting at breakfast; and S. said, in a spirit of
+atrocity, that camp wit was quite as bad as camp "wittles." I bade him
+adieu at five o'clock A. M., when he had secured passage to the city in
+a sutler's wagon. Remounting my own fiery courser, I bade the Colonel a
+temporary farewell, and proceeded in the direction of Meade's and
+Reynold's brigades. The drum and fife were now beating _reveille_, and
+volunteers in various stages of undress were limping to roll-call. Some
+wore one shoe, and others appeared shivering in their linen. They stood
+ludicrously in rank, and a succession of short, dry coughs ran up and
+down the line, as if to indicate those who should escape the bullet for
+the lingering agonies of the hospital. The ground was damp, and fog was
+rising from the hollows and fens. Some signal corps officers were
+practising with flags in a ploughed field, and negro stewards were
+stirring about the cook fires. A few supply wagons that I passed the
+previous day were just creaking into camp, having travelled most of the
+night. I saw that the country was rude, but the farms were close, and
+the dwellings in many cases inhabited. The vicinity had previously been
+unoccupied by either army, and rapine had as yet appropriated only the
+fields for camps and the fences for fuel. I was directed to the
+headquarters of Major-General M'Call,--a cluster of wall tents in the
+far corner of a grain-field, concealed from public view by a projecting
+point of woods. A Sibley tent stood close at hand, where a soldier in
+blue overcoat was reading signals through a telescope. I mistook the
+tent for the General's, and riding up to the soldier was requested to
+stand out of the way. I moved to his rear, but he said curtly that I was
+obstructing the light. I then dismounted, and led my horse to a clump of
+trees a rod distant.
+
+"Don't hitch there," said the soldier; "you block up the view."
+
+A little ruffled at this manifest discourtesy, I asked the man to denote
+some point within a radius of a mile where I would _not_ interfere with
+his operations. He said in reply, that it was not his business to denote
+hitching-stalls for anybody. I thought, in that case, that I should stay
+where I was, and he politely informed me that I might stay and
+be--jammed. I found afterward that this individual was troubled with a
+kind of insanity peculiar to all headquarters, arising out of an
+exaggerated idea of his own importance. I had the pleasure, a few
+minutes afterward, of hearing him ordered to feed my horse. A thickset,
+gray-haired man sat near by, undergoing the process of shaving by a very
+nervous negro. The thickset man was also exercising the privileges of
+his rank; but the more he berated his attendant's awkwardness, the more
+nervous the other became. I addressed myself mutually to master and man,
+in an inquiry as to the precise quarters of the General in command. The
+latter pointed to a wall tent contiguous, and was cursed by the thickset
+man for not minding his business. The thickset man remarked
+substantially, that he didn't know anything about it, and was at that
+moment cut by the negro, to my infinite delight. Before the wall tent in
+question stood a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman in shirt-sleeves and
+slippers, warming his back and hands at a fire. He was watching, through
+an aperture in the tent, the movements of a private who was cleaning his
+boots. I noticed that he wore a seal ring, and that he opened and shut
+his eyes very rapidly. He was, otherwise, a very respectable and
+dignified gentleman.
+
+"Is this General M'Call?" said I, a little discomposed. The gentleman
+looked abstractedly into my eyes, opening and shutting his own several
+times, as if doubtful of his personality, and at last decided that he
+_was_ General M'Call.
+
+"What is it?" he said gravely, but without the slightest curiosity.
+
+"I have a letter for you, sir, I believe."
+
+He put the letter behind his back, and went on warming his hands. Having
+winked several times again, apparently forgetting all about the matter,
+I ventured to add that the letter was merely introductory. He looked at
+it, mechanically.
+
+"Who opened it?" he said.
+
+"Letters of introduction are not commonly sealed, General."
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, indifferently.
+
+I told him that the contents of the letter would explain my errand; but
+he had, meantime, relapsed into abstractedness, and winked, and warmed
+his hands, for at least, five minutes. At the end of that time, he read
+the letter very deliberately, and said that he was glad to see me in
+camp. He intimated, that if I was not already located, I could be
+provided with bed and meals at headquarters. He stated, in relation to
+my correspondence, that all letters sent from the Reserve Corps, must,
+without any reservations, be submitted to him in person. I was obliged
+to promise compliance, but had gloomy forebodings that the General
+would occupy a fortnight in the examination of each letter. He invited
+me to breakfast, proposed to make me acquainted with his staff, and was,
+in all respects, a very grave, prudent, and affable soldier. I may say,
+incidentally, that I adopted the device of penning a couple of gossipy
+epistles, the length and folly of which, so irritated General M'Call,
+that he released me from the penalty of submitting my compositions for
+the future.
+
+I took up my permanent abode with quartermaster Kingwalt, a very prince
+of old soldiers, who had devoted much of a sturdy life to promoting the
+militia interests of the populous county of Chester. When the war-fever
+swept down his beautiful valley, and the drum called the young men from
+villages and farms, this ancient yeoman and miller--for he was
+both--took a musket at the sprightly age of sixty-five, and joined a
+Volunteer company. Neither ridicule nor entreaty could bend his purpose;
+but the Secretary of War, hearing of the case, conferred a brigade
+quartermastership upon him. He threw off the infirmities of age, stepped
+as proudly as any youngster, and became, emphatically, the best
+quartermaster in the Division. He never delayed an advance with tardy
+teams, nor kept the General tentless, nor penned irregular requisitions,
+nor wasted the property of Government. The ague seized him,
+occasionally, and shook his grey hairs fearfully; but he always
+recovered to ride his black stallion on long forages, and his great
+strength and bulk were the envy of all the young officers.
+
+He grasped my hand so heartily that I positively howled, and commanded a
+tall sergeant, rejoicing in the name of Clover, to take away my horse
+and split him up for kindling wood.
+
+"We must give him the blue roan, that Fogg rides," said the
+quartermaster, to the great dejection of Fogg, a short stout youth, who
+was posting accounts. I was glad to see, however, that Fogg was not
+disposed to be angry, and when informed that a certain iron-gray nag was
+at his disposal, he was in a perfect glow of good humor. The other
+_attaches_ were a German, whose name, as I caught it, seemed to be
+Skyhiski; and a pleasant lad called Owen, whose disposition was so mild,
+that I wondered how he had adopted the bloody profession of arms. A
+black boy belonged to the establishment, remarkable, chiefly, for
+getting close to the heels of the black stallion, and being frequently
+kicked; he was employed to feed and brush the said stallion, and the
+antipathy between them was intense.
+
+The above curious military combination, slept under a great tarpaulin
+canopy, originally used for covering commissary stores from the rain.
+Our meals were taken in the open air, and prepared by Skyhiski; but
+there was a second tent, provided with desk and secretary, where Mr.
+Fogg performed his clerk duties, daily. When I had relieved my Pegasus
+of his saddle, and penned some paragraphs for a future letter, I
+strolled down the road with the old gentleman, who insisted upon showing
+me Hunter's mill, a storm-beaten structure, that looked like a great
+barn. The mill-race had been drained by some soldiers for the purpose of
+securing the fish contained in it, and the mill-wheel was quite dry and
+motionless. Difficult Creek ran impetuously across the road below, as if
+anxious to be put to some use again; and the miller's house adjoining,
+was now used as a hospital, for Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, and some
+inferior officers. It was a favorite design of the Quartermaster's to
+scrape the mill-stone, repair the race, and put the great breast-wheel
+to work. One could see that the soldier had not entirely obliterated the
+miller, and as he related, with a glowing face, the plans that he had
+proposed to recuperate the tottering structure, and make it serviceable
+to the army, I felt a regret that such peaceful ambitions should have
+ever been overruled by the call to arms.
+
+While we stood at the mill window, watching the long stretches of white
+tents and speculating upon the results of war, we saw several men
+running across the road toward a hill-top cottage, where General Meade
+made his quarters. A small group was collected at the cottage,
+reconnoitring something through their telescopes. As I hastened in that
+direction, I heard confused voices, thus: "No, it isn't!" "It is!" "Can
+you make out his shoulder-bar?" "What is the color of his coat?" "Gray!"
+"No, it's butternut!" "Has he a musket!" "Yes, he is levelling it!" At
+this the group scattered in every direction. "Pshaw!" said one, "we are
+out of range; besides, it is a telescope that he has. By----, it is a
+Rebel, reconnoitring our camp!" There was a manifest sensation here, and
+one man wondered how he had passed the picket. Another suggested that he
+might be accompanied by a troop, and a third convulsed the circle by
+declaring that there were six other Rebels visible in a woods to the
+left. Mr. Fogg had meantime come up and proffered me a field-glass,
+through which I certainly made out a person in gray, standing in the
+middle of the road just at the ridge of a hill. When I dropped my glass
+I saw him distinctly with the naked eye. He was probably a mile distant,
+and his gray vesture was little relieved by the blue haze of the forest.
+
+"He is going," exclaimed a private, excitedly; "where's the man that was
+to try a lead on him?" Several started impulsively for their pieces, and
+some officers called for their horses. "There go his knees!" "His body
+is behind the hill!" "Now his head----"
+
+"Crack! crack! crack!" spluttered musketry from the edge of the mill,
+and like as many rockets darted a score of horsemen through the creek
+and up the steep. Directly a faint hurrah pealed from the camp nearest
+the mill. It passed to the next camp and the next; for all were now
+earnestly watching; and finally a medley of cheers shook the air and the
+ear. Thousands of brave men were shouting the requiem of one paltry
+life. The rash fool had bought with his temerity a bullet in the brain.
+When I saw him--dusty and still bleeding--he was beset by a full
+regiment of idlers, to whom death had neither awe nor respect. They
+talked of the delicate shot, as connoisseurs in the art of murder,--and
+two men dug him a grave on the green before the mill, wherein he was
+tossed like a dog or a vulture, to be lulled, let us hope, by the music
+of the grinding, when grain shall ripen once more.
+
+I had an opportunity, after dinner, to inspect the camp of the
+"Bucktails," a regiment of Pennsylvania backwoodsmen, whose efficiency
+as skirmishers has been adverted to by all chroniclers of the civil war.
+They wore the common blue blouse and breeches, but were distinguished by
+squirrel tails fastened to their caps. They were reputed to be the best
+marksmen in the service, and were generally allowed, in action, to take
+their own positions and fire at will. Crawling through thick woods, or
+trailing serpent-like through the tangled grass, these mountaineers were
+for a time the terror of the Confederates; but when their mode of
+fighting had been understood, their adversaries improved upon it to such
+a degree that at the date of this writing there is scarcely a Corporal's
+guard of the original Bucktail regiment remaining. Slaughtered on the
+field, perishing in prison, disabled or paroled, they have lost both
+their prestige and their strength. I remarked among these worthies a
+partiality for fisticuffs, and a dislike for the manual of arms. They
+drilled badly, and were reported to be adepts at thieving and unlicensed
+foraging.
+
+The second night in camp was pleasantly passed. Some sociable
+officers--favorites with Captain Kingwalt--congregated under the
+tarpaulin, after supper-hour, and when a long-necked bottle had been
+emptied and replenished, there were many quaint stories related and
+curious individualities revealed. I dropped asleep while the hilarity
+was at its height, and Fogg covered me with a thick blanket as I lay.
+The enemy might have come upon us in the darkness; but if death were
+half so sound as my slumber afield, I should have bid it welcome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A FORAGING ADVENTURE.
+
+
+There was a newsboy named "Charley," who slept at Captain Kingwalt's
+every second night, and who returned my beast to his owner in
+Washington. The aphorism that a Yankee can do anything, was exemplified
+by this lad; for he worked my snail into a gallop. He was born in
+Chelsea, Massachusetts, and appeared to have taken to speculation at the
+age when most children are learning A B C. He was now in his fourteenth
+year, owned two horses, and employed another boy to sell papers for him
+likewise. His profits upon daily sales of four hundred journals were
+about thirty-two dollars. He had five hundred dollars in bank, and was
+debating with Captain Kingwalt the propriety of founding an army express
+and general agency. Such a self-reliant, swaggering, far-sighted, and
+impertinent boy I never knew. He was a favorite with the Captain's
+black-boy, and upon thorough terms of equality with the Commanding
+General. His papers cost him in Washington a cent and a half each, and
+he sold them in camp for ten cents each. I have not the slightest doubt
+that I shall hear of him again as the proprietor of an overland mail, or
+the patron and capitalist of Greenland emigration.
+
+I passed the second and third days quietly in camp, writing a couple of
+letters, studying somewhat of fortification, and making flying visits to
+various officers. There was but one other Reporter with this division of
+the army. He represented a New York journal, and I could not but
+contrast his fine steed and equipments with the scanty accommodations
+that my provincial establishment had provided for me. His saddle was a
+cushioned McClellan, with spangled breast-strap and plump saddle-bags,
+and his bridle was adorned with a bright curb bit and twilled reins. He
+wore a field-glass belted about his body, and was plentifully provided
+with money to purchase items of news, if they were at any time difficult
+to obtain. I resolved inwardly to seize the first opportunity of
+changing establishments, so that I might be placed upon as good a
+footing. My relations with camp, otherwise, were of the happiest
+character; for the troops were State-people of mine, and, as reporters
+had not yet abused the privileges accorded them, my profession was held
+in some repute. I made the round of various "messes," and soon adopted
+the current dissipations of the field,--late hours, long stories,
+incessant smoking, and raw spirits. There were some restless minds about
+me, whose funds of anecdote and jest were apparently inexhaustible. I do
+not know that so many eccentric, adventurous, and fluent people are to
+be found among any other nationality of soldiers, not excepting the
+Irish.
+
+The blue roan of which friend Fogg had been deprived, exhibited
+occasional evidences of a desire to break my neck. I was obliged to
+dispense with the spur in riding him, but he nevertheless dashed off at
+times, and put me into an agony of fear. On those occasions I managed to
+retain my seat, and gained thereby the reputation of being a very fine
+equestrian. As there were few civilians in camp, and as I wore a gray
+suit, and appeared to be in request at head-quarters, a rumor was
+developed and gained currency that I was attached to the Division in the
+capacity of a scout. When my horse became unmanageable, therefore, his
+speed was generally accelerated by the cheers of soldiers, and I became
+an object of curiosity in every quarter, to my infinite mortification
+and dread.
+
+The Captain was to set off on the fourth day, to purchase or seize some
+hay and grain that were stacked at neighboring farms. We prepared to go
+at eight o'clock, but were detained somewhat by reason of Skyhiski being
+inebriated the night before, and thereby delaying the breakfast, and
+afterward the fact that the black stallion had laid open the black-boy's
+leg. However, at a quarter past nine, the Captain, Sergeant Clover,
+Fogg, Owen, and myself, with six four-horse wagons, filed down the
+railroad track until we came to a bridge that some laborers were
+repairing, where we turned to the left through some soggy fields, and
+forded Difficult Creek. As there was no road to follow, we kept straight
+through a wood of young maples and chestnut-trees. Occasionally a trunk
+or projecting branch stopped the wagons, when the teamsters opened the
+way with their axes. After two hours of slow advance, we came to the end
+of the wood, and climbed a succession of hilly fields. From the summit
+of the last of these, a splendid sweep of farm country was revealed,
+dotted with quaint Virginia dwellings, stackyards, and negro-cabins, and
+divided by miles of tortuous worm-fence. The eyes of the Quartermaster
+brightened at the prospect, though I am afraid that he thought only of
+the abundant forage; but my own grew hazy as I spoke of the peaceful
+people and the neglected fields. The plough had furrowed none of these
+acres, and some crows, that screamed gutturally from a neighboring
+ash-tree, seemed lean and pinched for lack of their plunder of corn.
+
+Many of the dwellings were guarded by soldiers; but of the resident
+citizens only the women and the old men remained. I did not need to ask
+where the young men were exiled. The residue that prayed with their
+faces toward Richmond, told me the story with their eyes. There was,
+nevertheless, no melodramatic exhibition of feeling among the bereaved.
+I did not see any defiant postures, nor hear any melting apostrophies.
+Marius was not mouthing by the ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel
+weeping for her Hebrew children. But there were on every hand
+manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except among a few
+males who feared unutterable things, and were disposed to cringe and
+prevaricate. The women were not generally handsome; their face was
+indolent, their dress slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They
+lopped off the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally
+commencing with a verb, as thus: "Told soldiers not to carr' off the
+rye; declared they would; said they bound do jest what they pleased. Let
+'em go!"
+
+The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached by a long lane,
+and on knocking at the porch with his ponderous fist, a woman came
+timidly to the kitchen window.
+
+"Who's thar?" she said, after a moment.
+
+"Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly; "we don't intend
+to murder or rob you, ma'am!"
+
+There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, but three young
+women, followed by a very deaf old man, who appeared to think that the
+Captain's visit bore some reference to the hencoop.
+
+"I wish to buy for the use of the United States Government," said the
+Captain, "some stacks of hay and corn fodder, that lie in one of your
+fields."
+
+"The last hen was toted off this morning before breakfast," said the old
+man; "they took the turkeys yesterday, and I was obliged to kill the
+ducks or I shouldn't have had anything to eat."
+
+Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through his nose, and the
+man Clover appeared to be suddenly interested in something that lay in a
+mulberry-tree opposite.
+
+"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your produce, and you
+cannot do better than to let me take the stacks: leaving you, of course,
+enough for your own horses and cattle."
+
+Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he hadn't heard of
+any recent battle; for his part, he had never been a politician; but
+thought that both parties were a little wrong; and wished that peace
+would return: for he was a very old man, and was sorry that folks
+couldn't let quiet folks' property alone. How far his garrulity might
+have betrayed him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking
+his hand and leading him submissively into the house.
+
+The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the stacks at his
+own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a soldier, and as he seemed,
+a gentleman, to deal justly by them. There could be no crop harvested
+for a twelvemonth, and beggary looked them in the face. I have never
+beheld anything more chivalrously gallant, than the sturdy old
+quartermaster's attitude. He blended in tone and face the politeness of
+a diplomat and the gentleness of a father. They asked him to return to
+the house, with his _officers_, when he had loaded the wagons; for
+dinner was being prepared, and they hoped that Virginians could be
+hospitable, even to their enemies. As to the hay and fodder, none need
+be left; for the Confederates had seized their horses some months
+before, and driven off their cows when they retired from the
+neighborhood.
+
+I so admired the queer gables and great brick ovens of the house, that I
+resolved to tie my horse, and rest under the crooked porch. The eldest
+young lady had taken me to be a prisoner, and was greatly astonished
+that the Quartermaster permitted me to go at large. She asked me to have
+a chair in the parlor, but when I made my appearance there, the two
+younger sisters fled precipitately. The old man was shaking his head
+sadly by the fireplace. Some logs burned on the andirons with a red
+flame. The furniture consisted of a mahogany sideboard, table, and
+chairs,--ponderous in pattern; and a series of family portraits, in a
+sprawling style of art, smirked and postured on the wall. The floor was
+bare, but shone by reason of repeated scrubbing, and the black
+mantel-piece was a fine specimen of colonial carving in the staunchest
+of walnut-wood.
+
+Directly the two younger girls--though the youngest must have been
+twenty years of age--came back with averted eyes and the silliest of
+giggles. They sat a little distance apart, and occasionally nodded or
+signalled like school children.
+
+"Wish you _would_ stop, Bell!" said one of these misses,--whose flaxen
+hair was plastered across her eyebrows, and who was very tall and
+slender.
+
+"See if I don't tell on you," said the other,--a dark miss with roguish
+eyes and fat, plump figure, and curls that shook ever so merrily about
+her shoulders.
+
+"Declar' I never said so, if he asks me; declar' I will."
+
+"Tell on you,--you see! Won't he be jealous? How he will car' on!"
+
+I made out that these young ladies were intent upon publishing their
+obligations to certain sweethearts of theirs, who, as it afterward
+seemed, were in the army at Manassas Junction. I said to the
+curly-haired miss, that she was endangering the life of her enamored;
+for it would become an object with all the anxious troops in the
+vicinity to shorten his days. The old man roused up here, and remarked
+that his health certainly was declining; but he hoped to survive a while
+longer for the sake of his children; that he was no politician, and
+always said that the negroes were very ungrateful people. He caught his
+daughter's eye finally, and cowered stupidly, nodding at the fire.
+
+I remarked to the eldest young woman,--called Prissy (Priscilla) by her
+sister,--that the country hereabout was pleasantly wooded. She said, in
+substance, that every part of Virginia was beautiful, and that she did
+not wish to survive the disgrace of the old commonwealth.
+
+"Become right down hateful since Yankees invaded it!" exclaimed Miss
+Bell. "_Some_ Yankee's handsome sister," said Miss Bessie, the
+proprietor of the curls, "think some Yankees puffick gentlemen!"
+
+"Oh, you traitor!" said the other,--"wish _Henry_ heard you say that!"
+
+Miss Bell intimated that she should take the first opportunity of
+telling him the same, and I eulogized her good judgment. Priscilla now
+begged to be excused for a moment, as, since the flight of the negro
+property, the care of the table had devolved mainly upon her. A single
+aged servant, too feeble or too faithful to decamp, still attended to
+the menial functions, and two mulatto children remained to relieve them
+of light labor. She was a dignified, matronly young lady, and, as one of
+the sisters informed me, plighted to a Major in the Confederate service.
+The others chattered flippantly for an hour, and said that the old place
+was dreadfully lonesome of late. Miss Bell was _sure_ she should die if
+another winter, similar to the last, occurred. She loved company, and
+had always found it _so_ lively in Loudon before; whereas she had
+positively been but twice to a neighbor's for a twelvemonth, and had
+quite forgotten the road to the mill. She said, finally, that, rather
+than undergo another such isolation, she would become a _Vivandiere_ in
+the Yankee army. The slender sister was altogether wedded to the idea of
+her lover's. "_Wouldn't_ she tell Henry? and _shouldn't_ she write to
+Jeems? and oh, Bessie, you would not _dare_ to repeat that before
+_him_." In short, I was at first amused, and afterwards annoyed, by this
+young lady, whereas the roguish-eyed miss improved greatly upon
+acquaintance.
+
+After a while, Captain Kingwalt came in, trailing his spurs over the
+floor, and leaving sunshine in his wake. There was something galvanic in
+his gentleness, and infectious in his merriment. He told them at dinner
+of his own daughters on the Brandywine, and invented stories of Fogg's
+courtships, till that young gentleman first blushed, and afterward
+dropped his plate. Our meal was a frugal one, consisting mainly of the
+ducks referred to, some vegetables, corn-bread, and coffee made of
+wasted rye. There were neither sugar, spices, nor tea, on the premises,
+and the salt before us was the last in the dwelling. The Captain
+promised to send them both coffee and salt, and Fogg volunteered to
+bring the same to the house, whereat the Captain teased him till he left
+the table.
+
+At this time, a little boy, who was ostensibly a waiter, cried: "Miss
+Prissy, soldiers is climbin' in de hog-pen."
+
+"I knew we should lose the last living thing on the property," said this
+young lady, much distressed.
+
+The Captain went to the door, and found three strolling Bucktails
+looking covetously at the swine. They were a little discomposed at his
+appearance, and edged off suspiciously.
+
+"Halt!" said the old man in his great voice, "where are you men going?"
+
+"Just makin' reconnoissance," said one of the freebooters; "s'pose a
+feller has a right to walk around, hain't he?"
+
+"Not unless he has a pass," said the Quartermaster; "have you written
+permission to leave camp?"
+
+"Left'nant s'posed we might. Don't know as it's your business. Never see
+_you_ in the regiment."
+
+"It is my business, as an officer of the United States, to see that no
+soldier strays from camp unauthorizedly, or depredates upon private
+property. I will take your names, and report you, first for straggling,
+secondly for insolence!"
+
+"Put to it, Bill!" said the speaker of the foragers; "run, Bob! go it
+hearties!" And they took to their heels, cleared a pair of fences, and
+were lost behind some outbuildings. The Captain could be harsh as well
+as generous, and was about mounting his horse impulsively, to overtake
+and punish the fugitives, when Priscilla begged him to refrain, as an
+enforcement of discipline on his part might bring insult upon her
+helpless household. I availed myself of a pause in the Captain's wrath,
+to ask Miss Priscilla if she would allow me to lodge in the dwelling.
+Five nights' experience in camp had somewhat reduced my enthusiasm, and
+I already wearied of the damp beds, the hard fare, and the coarse
+conversation of the bivouac. The young lady assented willingly, as she
+stated that the presence of a young man would both amuse and protect the
+family. For several nights she had not slept, and had imagined footsteps
+on the porch and the drawing of window-bolts. There was a bed, formerly
+occupied by her brother, that I might take, but must depend upon rather
+laggard attendance. I had the satisfaction, therefore, of seeing the
+Captain and retinue mount their horses, and wave me a temporary good by.
+Poor Fogg looked back so often and so seriously that I expected to see
+him fall from the saddle. The young ladies were much impressed with the
+Captain's manliness, and Miss Bell wondered _how_ such a _puffick_
+gentleman could _reconcile_ himself to the Yankee cause. She had felt a
+desire to speak to him upon that point as she was _sure_ he was of fine
+stock, and entirely averse to the invasion of such territory as that of
+_dear_ old Virginia. There was something in his manner that _so_
+reminded her of some one who should be _nameless_ for the present; but
+the "nameless" was, _of course_, young, _handsome_, and _so_ brave. I
+ruthlessly dissipated her theory of the Captain's origin, by stating
+that he was of humble German descent, so far as I knew, and had probably
+never beheld Virginia till preceded by the bayonets of his neighbors.
+
+After tea Miss Bessie produced a pitcher of rare cider, that came from a
+certain mysterious quarter of the cellar. A chessboard was forthcoming
+at a later hour, when we amused ourselves with a couple of games,
+facetiously dubbing our chessman Federals and Confederates. Miss Bell,
+meanwhile, betook herself to a diary, wherein she minutely related the
+incidents and sentiments of successive days. The quantity of words
+underscored in the same autobiography would have speedily exhausted the
+case of italics, if the printer had obtained it. I was so beguiled by
+these patriarchal people, that I several times asked myself if the
+circumstances were real. Was I in a hostile country, surrounded by
+thousands of armed men? Were the incidents of this evening portions of
+an historic era, and the ground about me to be commemorated by
+bloodshed? Was this, in fact, revolution, and were these simple country
+girls and their lovers revolutionists? The logs burned cheerily upon the
+hearth, and the ancestral portraits glowered contemplatively from the
+walls. Miss Prissy looked dreamily into the fire, and the old man snored
+wheezily in a corner. A gray cat purred in Miss Bell's lap, and Miss
+Bessie was writing some nonsense in my note-book.
+
+A sharp knock fell upon the door, and something that sounded like the
+butt of a musket shook the porch without. The girls turned pale, and I
+think that Miss Bessie seized my arm and clung to it. I think also, that
+Miss Bell attempted to take the other arm, to which I demurred.
+
+"Those brutal soldiers again!" said Priscilla, faintly.
+
+"I think one of the andirons has fallen down, darter!" said the old man,
+rousing up.
+
+"Tremble for my life," said Miss Bell; "_sure_ shall die if it's _a
+man_."
+
+I opened the door after a little pause, when a couple of rough privates
+in uniform confronted me.
+
+"We're two guards that General Meade sent to protect the house and
+property," said the tallest of these men; "might a feller come in and
+warm his feet!"
+
+I understood at once that the Quartermaster had obtained these persons;
+and the other man coming forward, said--
+
+"I fetched some coffee over, and a bag o' salt, with Corporal Fogg's
+compliments."
+
+They deposited their muskets in a corner, and balanced their boots on
+the fender. Nothing was said for a time.
+
+"Did you lose yer poultry?" said the tall man, at length.
+
+"All," said Miss Priscilla.
+
+"Fellers loves poultry!" said the man, smacking his lips.
+
+"Did you lose yer sheep?" said the same man, after a little silence.
+
+"The Bucktails cut their throats the first day that they encamped at the
+mill," said Miss Priscilla.
+
+"Them Bucktails great fellers," said the tall man; "them Bucktails awful
+on sheep: they loves 'em so!"
+
+He relapsed again for a few minutes, when he continued: "You don't like
+fellers to bag yer poultry and sheep, do you?"
+
+Miss Priscilla replied that it was both dishonest and cruel. Miss Bell
+intimated that none but Yankees would do it.
+
+"P'raps not," said the tall soldier, drily; "did you ever grub on fat
+pork, Miss? No? Did you ever gnaw yer hard tack after a spell o'
+sickness, and a ten-hour march? No? P'raps you might like a streak o'
+mutton arterwards! P'raps you might take a notion for a couple o'
+chickens or so! No? How's that, Ike? What do you think, pardner? (to me)
+I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't think the Bucktails is over
+and above dishonest to home, mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I _would_
+bag a chicken any day! I say that above board. Hey, Ike?"
+
+When the tall man and his inferior satellite had warmed their boots till
+they smoked, they rose, recovered their muskets, and bowed themselves
+into the yard. Soon afterward I bade the young ladies good night, and
+repaired to my room. The tall man and his associate were pacing up and
+down the grass-plot, and they looked very cold and comfortless, I
+thought. I should have liked to obtain for them a draught of cider, but
+prudently abstained; for every man in the army would thereby become
+cognizant of its existence. So I placed my head once more upon a soft
+pillow, and pitied the chilled soldiers who slept upon the turf. I
+thought of Miss Bessie with her roguish eyes, and wondered what themes
+were now engrossing her. I asked myself if this was the romance of war,
+and if it would bear relating to one's children when he grew as old and
+as deaf as the wheezy gentleman down-stairs. In fine, I was a little
+sentimental, somewhat reflective, and very drowsy. So, after a while,
+processions of freebooting soldiers, foraging Quartermasters, deaf
+gentlemen, Fogg's regiment, and multitudes of ghosts from Manassas,
+drifted by in my dreams. And, in the end, Miss Bessie's long curls
+brushed into my eyes, and I found the morning, ruddy as her cheeks,
+blushing at the window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHAT A MARCH IS IN FACT.
+
+
+I found at breakfast, that Miss Bessie had been placed beside me, and I
+so far forgot myself as to forget all other persons at the table. Miss
+Priscilla asked to be helped to the corn-bread, and I deposited a
+quantity of the same upon Miss Bessie's plate. Miss Bell asked if I did
+not love _dear_ old Virginia, and I replied to Miss Bessie that it had
+lately become very attractive, and that, in fact, I was decidedly
+rebellious in my sympathy with the distressed Virginians. I _did_
+except, however, the man darkly mooted as "Henry," and hoped that he
+would be disfigured--not killed--at the earliest engagement. The deaf
+old gentleman bristled up here and asked _who_ had been killed at the
+recent engagement. There was a man named Jeems Lee,--a distant
+connection of the Lightfoots,--not the Hampshire Lightfoots, but the
+Fauquier Lightfoots,--who had distinctly appeared to the old gentleman
+for several nights, robed in black, and carrying a coffin under his arm.
+Since I had mentioned his name, he recalled the circumstance, and hoped
+that Jeems Lightfoot had not disgraced his ancestry. Nevertheless, the
+deaf gentleman was not to be understood as expressing any opinion upon
+the merits of the war. For _his_ part he thought both sides a little
+wrong, and the crops were really in a dreadful state. The negroes were
+very ungrateful people and property should be held sacred by all
+belligerents.
+
+At this point he caught Miss Priscilla's eye, and was transfixed with
+conscious guilt.
+
+I had, meantime, been infringing upon Miss Bessie's feet,--very pretty
+feet they were!--which expressive but not very refined method of
+correspondence caused her to blush to the eyes. Miss Bell, noticing the
+same, was determined to tell '_Henry_' at once, and I hoped in my heart
+that she would set out for Manassas to further that purpose.
+
+The door opened here, and the rubicund visage of Mr. Fogg appeared like
+the head of the Medusa. He said that 'Captain' had ordered the blue roan
+to be saddled and brought over to me, but I knew that this was a cunning
+device on his part, to revisit the dwelling. Miss Bell, somehow caught
+the idea that Fogg was enamored of her, and the poor fellow was
+subjected to a volley of tender innuendos and languishing glances, that
+by turn mortified and enraged him.
+
+I bade the good people adieu at eight o'clock, promising to return for
+dinner at five; and Miss Bessie accompanied me to the lane, where I took
+leave of her with a secret whisper and a warm grasp of the hand. One of
+her rings had somehow adhered to my finger, which Fogg remarked with a
+bilious expression of countenance. I had no sooner got astride of the
+blue roan than he darted off like the wind, and subjected me to great
+terror, alternating to chagrin, when I turned back and beheld all the
+young ladies waving their handkerchiefs. They evidently thought me an
+unrivalled equestrian.
+
+I rode to a picket post two miles from the mill, passing over the spot
+where the Confederate soldier had fallen. The picket consisted of two
+companies or one hundred and sixty men. Half of them were sitting around
+a fire concealed in the woods, and the rest were scattered along the
+edges of a piece of close timber. I climbed a lookout-tree by means of
+cross-strips nailed to the trunk, and beheld from the summit a long
+succession of hazy hills, valleys, and forests, with the Blue Ridge
+Mountains bounding the distance, like some mighty monster, enclosing the
+world in its coils. This was the country of the enemy, and a Lieutenant
+obligingly pointed out to me the curling smoke of their pickets, a few
+miles away. The cleft of Manassas was plainly visible, and I traced the
+line of the Gap Railway to its junction with the Orange and Alexandria
+road, below Bull Run. For aught that I knew, some concealed observer
+might now be watching me from the pine-tops on the nearest knoll. Some
+rifleman might be running his practised eye down the deadly groove, to
+topple me from my perch, and send me crashing through the boughs. The
+uncertainty, the hazard, the novelty of my position had at this time an
+indescribable charm: but subsequent exposures dissipated the romance and
+taught me the folly of such adventures.
+
+The afternoon went dryly by: for a drizzling rain fell at noon; but at
+four o'clock I saddled the blue roan and went to ride with Fogg. We
+retraced the road to Colonel T----s, and crossing a boggy brook, turned
+up the hills and passed toward the Potomac. Fogg had been a
+schoolmaster, and many of his narrations indicated keen perception and
+clever comprehension. He so amused me on this particular occasion that I
+quite forgot my engagement for dinner, and unwittingly strolled beyond
+the farthest brigade.
+
+Suddenly, we heard a bugle-call from the picket-post before us, and, at
+the same moment, the drums beat from the camp behind. Our horses pricked
+up their ears and Fogg stared inquiringly. As we turned back we heard
+approaching hoofs and the blue roan exhibited intentions of running
+away. I pulled his rein in vain. He would neither be soothed nor
+commanded. A whole company of cavalry closed up with him at length, and
+the sabres clattered in their scabbards as they galloped toward camp at
+the top of their speed. With a spring that almost shook me from the
+saddle and drove the stirrups flying from my feet, the blue roan dashed
+the dust into the eyes of Fogg, and led the race.
+
+Not the wild yager on his gait to perdition, rode so fearfully. Trees,
+bogs, huts, bushes, went by like lightning. The hot breath of the nag
+rose to my nostrils and at every leap I seemed vaulting among the
+spheres.
+
+I speak thus flippantly now, of what was then the agony of death. I
+grasped the pommel of my saddle, mechanically winding the lines about my
+wrist, and clung with the tenacity of sin clutching the world. Some
+soldiers looked wonderingly from the wayside, but did not heed my shriek
+of "stop him, for God's sake!" A ditch crossed the lane,--deep and
+wide,--and I felt that my moment had come: with a spring that seemed to
+break thew and sinew, the blue roan cleared it, pitching upon his knees,
+but recovered directly and darted onward again. I knew that I should
+fall headlong now, to be trampled by the fierce horsemen behind, but
+retained my grasp though my heart was choking me. The camps were in
+confusion as I swept past them. A sharp clearness of sense and thought
+enabled me to note distinctly the minutest occurrences. I marked long
+lines of men cloaked, and carrying knapsacks, drummer-boys beating music
+that I had whistled in many a ramble,--field-officers shouting orders
+from their saddles, and cannon limbered up as if ready to move,--tents
+taken down and teams waiting to be loaded; all the evidences of an
+advance, that I alas should never witness, lying bruised and mangled by
+the roadside. A cheer saluted me as I passed some of Meade's regiments.
+"It is the scout that fetched the orders for an advance!" said several,
+and one man remarked that "that feller was the most reckless rider he
+had ever beheld." The crisis came at length: a wagon had stopped the
+way; my horse in turning it, stepped upon a stake, and slipping rolled
+heavily upon his side, tossing me like an acrobat, over his head, but
+without further injury than a terrible nervous shock and a rent in my
+pantaloons.
+
+I employed a small boy to lead the blue roan to Captain Kingwalt's
+quarters, and as I limped wearily after, some regiments came toward me
+through the fields. General McCall responded to my salute; he rode in
+the advance. The Quartermaster's party was loading the tents and
+utensils. The rain fell smartly as dusk deepened into night, and the
+brush tents now deserted by the soldiers, were set on fire. Being
+composed of dry combustible material, they burned rapidly and with an
+intense flame. The fields in every direction were revealed, swarming
+with men, horses, batteries, and wagons. Some of the regiments began the
+march in silence; others sang familiar ballads as they moved in column.
+A few, riotously disposed, shrieked, whistled, and cheered. The
+standards were folded; the drums did not mark time; the orders were few
+and short. The cannoneers sat moodily upon the caissons, and the
+cavalry-men walked their horses sedately. Although fifteen thousand men
+comprised the whole corps, each of its three brigades would have seemed
+as numerous to a novice. The teams of each brigade closed up the rear,
+and a quartermaster's guard was detailed from each regiment to march
+beside its own wagons. When the troops were fairly under way, and the
+brush burning along from continuous miles of road, the effect was grand
+beyond all that I had witnessed. The country people gathered in fright
+at the cottage doors, and the farm-dogs bayed dismally at the unwonted
+scene. I refused to ride the blue roan again, but transferred my saddle
+to a team horse that appeared to be given to a sort of equine
+somnambulism, and once or twice attempted to lie down by the roadside.
+At nine o'clock I set out with Fogg, who slipped a flask of spirits into
+my haversack. Following the tardy movement of the teams, we turned our
+faces toward Washington. I was soon wet to the skin, and my saddle
+cushion was soaking with water. The streams crossing the road were
+swollen with rain, and the great team wheels clogged on the slimy banks.
+We were sometimes delayed a half hour by a single wagon, the storm
+beating pitilessly in our faces the while. During the stoppages, the
+Quartermaster's guards burned all the fence rails in the vicinity, and
+some of the more indurated sat round the fagots and gamed with cards.
+
+Cold, taciturn, miserable, I thought of the quiet farm, house, the ruddy
+hearth-place, and the smoking supper. I wondered if the roguish eyes
+were not a little sad, and the trim feet a little restless, the chessmen
+somewhat stupid, and the good old house a trifle lonesome. Alas! the
+intimacy so pleasantly commenced, was never to be renewed. With the
+thousand and one airy palaces that youth builds and time annihilates, my
+first romance of war towered to the stars in a day, and crumbled to
+earth in a night.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning we halted at Metropolitan Mills, on the
+Alexandria and Leesburg turnpike. A bridge had been destroyed below, and
+the creek was so swollen that neither artillery nor cavalry could ford
+it. The meadows were submerged and the rain still descended in torrents.
+The chilled troops made bonfires of some new panel fence, and stormed
+all the henroosts in the vicinity. Some pigs, that betrayed their
+whereabouts by inoportune whines and grunts, were speedily confiscated,
+slaughtered, and spitted. We erected our tarpaulin in a ploughed field,
+and Fogg laid some sharp rails upon the ground to make us a dry bed.
+Skyhiski fried a quantity of fresh beef, and boiled some coffee; but
+while we ate heartily, theorizing as to the destination of the corps,
+the poor Captain was terribly shaken by his ague.
+
+I woke in the morning with inflamed throat, rheumatic limbs, and every
+indication of chills and fever. Fogg whispered to me at breakfast that
+two men of Reynold's brigade had died during the night, from fatigue and
+exposure. He advised me to push forward to Washington and await the
+arrival of the division, as, unused to the hardships of a march, I
+might, after another day's experience, become dangerously ill. I set
+out at five o'clock, resolving to ford the creek, resume the turnpike,
+and reach Long Bridge at noon. Passing over some dozen fields in which
+my horse at every step sank to the fetlocks, I travelled along the brink
+of the stream till I finally reached a place that seemed to be shallow.
+Bracing myself firmly in the saddle, I urged my unwilling horse into the
+waters, and emerged half drowned on the other side. It happened,
+however, that I had crossed only a branch of the creek and gained an
+island. The main channel was yet to be attempted, and I saw that it was
+deep, broad, and violent. I followed the margin despairingly for a
+half-mile, when I came to a log footbridge, where I dismounted and swam
+my horse through the turbulent waters. I had now so far diverged from
+the turnpike that I was at a loss to recover it, but straying forlornly
+through the woods, struck a wagon track at last, and pursued it
+hopefully, until, to my confusion, it resolved itself to two tracks,
+that went in contrary directions. My horse preferred taking to the left,
+but after riding a full hour, I came to some felled trees, beyond which
+the traces did not go. Returning, weak and bewildered, I adopted the
+discarded route, which led me to a worm-fence at the edge of the woods.
+A house lay some distance off, but a wheat-field intervened, and I might
+bring the vengeance of the proprietor upon me by invading his domain.
+There was no choice, however; so I removed the rails, and rode directly
+across the wheat to some negro quarters, a little removed from the
+mansion. They were deserted, all save one, where a black boy was singing
+some negro hymns in an uproarious manner. The words, as I made them out,
+were these:--
+
+    "Stephen came a runnin',
+      His Marster fur to see;
+    But Gabriel says he is not yar';
+      He gone to Calvary!
+          O,--O,--Stephen, Stephen,
+                Fur to see;
+          Stephen, Stephen, get along up Calvary!"
+
+I learned from this person two mortifying facts,--that I was farther
+from Washington than at the beginning of my journey, and that the morrow
+was Sunday. War, alas! knows no Sabbaths, and the negro said,
+apologetically--
+
+"I was a seyin' some ole hymns, young Mars'r. Sence dis yer war we don't
+have no more meetin's, and a body mos' forgits his pra'rs. Dere hain't
+been no church in all Fairfax, sah, fur nigh six months."
+
+Washington was nineteen miles distant, and another creek was to be
+forded before gaining the turnpike. The negro sauntered down the lane,
+and opened the gate for me. "You jes keep from de creek, take de mill
+road, and enqua' as ye get furder up," said he; "it's mighty easy, sah,
+an' you can't miss de way."
+
+I missed the way at once, however, by confounding the mill road with the
+mill lane, and a shaggy dog that lay in a wagon shed pursued me about a
+mile. The road was full of mire; no dwellings adjoined it, and nothing
+human was to be seen in any direction. I came to a crumbling negro cabin
+after two plodding hours, and, seeing a figure flit by the window,
+called aloud for information. Nobody replied, and when, dismounting, I
+looked into the den, it was, to my confusion, vacant.
+
+The soil, hereabout, was of a sterile red clay, spotted with scrub
+cedars. Country more bleak and desolate I have never known, and when, at
+noon, the rain ceased, a keen wind blew dismally across the barriers. I
+reached a turnpike at length, and, turning, as I thought, toward
+Alexandria, goaded my horse into a canter. An hour's ride brought me to
+a wretched hamlet, whose designation I inquired of a cadaverous old
+woman--
+
+"Drainesville," said she.
+
+"Then I am not upon the Alexandria turnpike?"
+
+"No. You're sot for Leesburg. This is the Georgetown and Chain Bridge
+road."
+
+With a heavy heart, I retraced my steps, crossed Chain Bridge at five
+o'clock, and halted at Kirkwood's at seven. After dinner, falling in
+with the manager of the Washington Sunday morning _Chronicle_, I penned,
+at his request, a few lines relative to the movements of the Reserves;
+and, learning in the morning that they had arrived at Alexandria, set
+out on horseback for that city.
+
+Many hamlets and towns have been destroyed during the war. But, of all
+that in some form survive, Alexandria has most suffered. It has been in
+the uninterrupted possession of the Federals for twenty-two months, and
+has become essentially a military city. Its streets, its docks, its
+warehouses, its dwellings, and its suburbs, have been absorbed to the
+thousand uses of war.
+
+I was challenged thrice on the Long Bridge, and five times on the road,
+before reaching the city. I rode under the shadows of five earthworks,
+and saw lines of white tents sweeping to the horizon. Gayly caparisoned
+officers passed me, to spend their Sabbath in Washington, and trains
+laden with troops, ambulances, and batteries, sped along the line of
+railway, toward the rendezvous at Alexandria. A wagoner, looking
+forlornly at his splintered wheels; a slovenly guard, watching some
+bales of hay; a sombre negro, dozing upon his mule; a slatternly Irish
+woman gossiping with a sergeant at her cottage door; a sutler in his
+"dear-born," running his keen eye down the limbs of my beast; a spruce
+civilian riding for curiosity; a gray-haired gentleman, in a threadbare
+suit, going to camp on foot, to say good by to his boy,--these were some
+of the personages that I remarked, and each was a study, a sermon, and a
+story. The Potomac, below me, was dotted with steamers and shipping. The
+bluffs above were trodden bare, and a line of dismal marsh bordered some
+stagnant pools that blistered at their bases. At points along the
+river-shore, troops were embarking on board steamers; transports were
+taking in tons of baggage and subsistence. There was a schooner, laden
+to the water-line with locomotive engines and burden carriages; there,
+a brig, shipping artillery horses by a steam derrick, that lifted them
+bodily from the shore and deposited them in the hold of the vessel.
+Steamers, from whose spacious saloons the tourist and the bride have
+watched the picturesque margin of the Hudson, were now black with
+clusters of rollicking volunteers, who climbed into the yards, and
+pitched headlong from the wheel-houses. The "grand movement," for which
+the people had waited so long, and which McClellan had promised so
+often, was at length to be made. The Army of the Potomac was to be
+transferred to Fortress Monroe, at the foot of the Chesapeake, and to
+advance by the peninsula of the James and the York, upon the city of
+Richmond.
+
+I rode through Washington Street, the seat of some ancient residences,
+and found it lined with freshly arrived troops. The grave-slabs in a
+fine old churchyard were strewn with weary cavalry-men, and they lay in
+some side yards, soundly sleeping. Some artillery-men chatted at
+doorsteps, with idle house-girls; some courtesans flaunted in furs and
+ostrich feathers, through a group of coarse engineers; some sergeants of
+artillery, in red trimmings, and caps gilded with cannon, were reining
+their horses to leer at some ladies, who were taking the air in their
+gardens; and at a wide place in the street, a Provost-Major was
+manoeuvring some companies, to the sound of the drum and fife. There
+was much drunkenness, among both soldiers and civilians; and the people
+of Alexandria were, in many cases, crushed and demoralized by reason of
+their troubles. One man of this sort led me to a sawmill, now run by
+Government, and pointed to the implements.
+
+"I bought 'em and earned 'em," he said. "My labor and enterprise set 'em
+there; and while my mill and machinery are ruined to fill the pockets o'
+Federal sharpers, I go drunk, ragged, and poor about the streets o' my
+native town. My daughter starves in Richmond; God knows I can't get to
+her. I wish to h----l I was dead."
+
+Further inquiry developed the facts that my acquaintance had been a
+thriving builder, who had dotted all Northeastern Virginia with
+evidences of his handicraft. At the commencement of the war, he took
+certain contracts from the Confederate government, for the construction
+of barracks at Richmond and Manassas Junction; returning inopportunely
+to Alexandria, he was arrested, and kept some time in Capitol-Hill
+prison; he had not taken the oath of allegiance, consequently, he could
+obtain no recompense for the loss of his mill property. Domestic
+misfortunes, happening at the same time, so embittered his days that he
+resorted to dissipation. Alexandria is filled with like ruined people;
+they walk as strangers through their ancient streets, and their property
+is no longer theirs to possess, but has passed into the hands of the
+dominant nationalists. My informant pointed out the residences of many
+leading citizens: some were now hospitals, others armories and arsenals;
+others offices for inspectors, superintendents, and civil officials. The
+few people that remained upon their properties, obtained partial
+immunity, by courting the acquaintance of Federal officers, and, in many
+cases, extending the hospitalities of their homes to the invaders. I do
+not know that any Federal functionary was accused of tyranny, or
+wantonness, but these things ensued, as the natural results of civil
+war; and one's sympathies were everywhere enlisted for the poor, the
+exiled, and the bereaved.
+
+My dinner at the City Hotel was scant and badly prepared. I gave a negro
+lad who waited upon me a few cents, but a burly negro carver, who seemed
+to be his father, boxed the boy's ears and put the coppers into his
+pocket. The proprietor of the place had voluntarily taken the oath of
+allegiance, and had made more money since the date of Federal occupation
+than during his whole life previously. He said to me, curtly, that if by
+any chance the Confederates should reoccupy Alexandria, he could very
+well afford to relinquish his property. He employed a smart barkeeper,
+who led guests by a retired way to the drinking-rooms. Here, with the
+gas burning at a taper point, cobblers, cocktails, and juleps were mixed
+stealthily and swallowed in the darkness. The bar was like a mint to the
+proprietor; he only feared discovery and prohibition. It would not
+accord with the chaste pages of this narrative to tell how some of the
+noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious
+purposes; nor how, by night, the parlors of cosey homes flamed with riot
+and orgie. I stayed but a little time, having written an indiscreet
+paragraph in the Washington Chronicle, for which I was pursued by the
+War Department, and the management of my paper, lacking heart, I went
+home in a pet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DOWN THE CHESAPEAKE.
+
+
+Disappointed in the unlucky termination of my adventures afield, I now
+looked ambitiously toward New York. As London stands to the provinces,
+so stands the empire city to America. Its journals circulate by hundreds
+of thousands; its means are only rivalled by its enterprise; it is the
+end of every young American's aspiration, and the New Bohemia for the
+restless, the brilliant, and the industrious. It seemed a great way off
+when I first beheld it, but I did not therefore despair. Small matters
+of news that I gathered in my modest city, obtained space in the columns
+of the great metropolitan journal, the----. After a time I was delegated
+to travel in search of special incidents, and finally, when the noted
+Tennessee Unionist, "Parson" Brownlow, journeyed eastward, I joined his
+_suite_, and accompanied him to New York. The dream of many months now
+came to be realized. A correspondent on the ----'s staff had been
+derelict, and I was appointed to his division. His horse, saddle,
+field-glasses, blankets, and pistols were to be transferred, and I was
+to proceed without delay to Fortress Monroe, to keep with the advancing
+columns of McClellan.
+
+At six in the morning I embarked; at eleven I was whirled through my own
+city, without a glimpse of my friends; at three o'clock I dismounted at
+Baltimore, and at five was gliding down the Patapsco, under the shadows
+of Fort Federal Hill, and the white walls of Fort McHenry. The latter
+defence is renowned for its gallant resistance to a British fleet in
+1813, and the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was
+written to commemorate that bombardment. Fort Carroll, a massive
+structure of hewn stone, with arched bomb-proof and three tiers of
+mounted ordnance, its smooth walls washed by the waves, and its
+unfinished floors still ringing with the trowel and the adze,--lies some
+miles below, at a narrow passage in the stream. Below, the shores
+diverge, and at dusk we were fairly in the Chesapeake, under steam and
+sail, speeding due southward.
+
+The _Adelaide_ was one of a series of boats making daily trips between
+Baltimore and Old Point. Fourteen hours were required to accomplish the
+passage, and we were not to arrive till seven o'clock next morning. I
+was so fortunate as to obtain a state-room, but many passengers were
+obliged to sleep upon sofas or the cabin floor. These boats monopolized
+the civil traffic between the North and the army, although they were
+reputed to be owned and managed by Secessionists. None were allowed to
+embark unless provided with Federal passes; but there were,
+nevertheless, three or four hundred people on board. About one fourth of
+these were officers and soldiers; one half sutlers, traders,
+contractors, newsmen, and idle civilians, anxious to witness a battle,
+or stroll over the fields of Big Bethel, Lee's Mills, Yorktown,
+Gloucester, Williamsburg, or West Point; the rest were females on
+missions of mercy, on visits to sons, brothers, and husbands, and on the
+way to their homes at Norfolk, Suffolk, or Hampton. Some of these were
+citizens of Richmond, who believed that the Federals would occupy the
+city in a few days, and enable them to resume their professions and
+homes. The lower decks were occupied by negroes. The boat was heavily
+freighted, and among the parcels that littered the hold and steerage, I
+noticed scores of box coffins for the removal of corpses from the field
+to the North. There were quantities of spirits, consigned mainly to
+Quartermasters, but evidently the property of certain Shylocks, who
+watched the barrels greedily. An embalmer was also on board, with his
+ghostly implements. He was a sallow man, shabbily attired, and appeared
+to look at all the passengers as so many subjects for the development of
+his art. He was called "Doctor" by his admirers, and conversed in the
+blandest manner of the triumphs of his system.
+
+"There are certain pretenders," he said, "who are at this moment
+imposing upon the Government. I regret that it is necessary to repeat
+it, but the fact exists that the Government is the prey of harpies. And
+in the art of which I am an humble disciple,--that of injecting,
+commonly called embalming,--the frauds are most deplorable. There was
+Major Montague,--a splendid subject, I assure you,--a subject that any
+_Professor_ would have beautifully preserved,--a subject that one
+esteems it a favor to obtain,--a subject that I in particular would have
+been proud to receive! But what were the circumstances? I do assure you
+that a person named Wigwart,--who I have since ascertained to be a
+veterinary butcher; in plain language, a doctor of horses and
+asses,--imposed upon the relatives of the deceased, obtained the body,
+and absolutely ruined it!--absolutely _mangled_ it! I may say,
+shamefully disfigured it! He was a man, sir, six feet two,--about your
+height, I think! (to a bystander.) About your weight, also! Indeed quite
+like you! And allow me to say that, if you should fall into my hands, I
+would leave your friends no cause for offence! (Here the bystander
+trembled perceptibly, and I thought that the doctor was about to take
+his life.) Well! _I_ should have operated thus:--"
+
+Then followed a description of the process, narrated with horrible
+circumstantiality. A fluid holding in solution pounded glass and certain
+chemicals, was, by the doctor's "system," injected into the
+bloodvessels, and the subject at the same time bled at the neck. The
+body thus became hard and stony, and would retain its form for years. He
+had, by his account, experimented for a lifetime, and said that little
+"Willie," the son of President Lincoln, had been so preserved that his
+fond parents must have enjoyed his decease.
+
+It seemed to me that the late lamented practitioners, Messrs. Burke and
+Hare, were likely to fade into insignificance, beside this new light of
+science.
+
+I went upon deck for some moments, and marked the beating of the waves;
+the glitter of sea-lights pulsing on the ripples; the sweep of belated
+gulls through the creaking rigging; the dark hull of a passing vessel
+with a grinning topmast lantern; the vigilant pilot, whose eyes glared
+like a fiend's upon the waste of blackness; the foam that the panting
+screw threw against the cabin windows; the flap of fishes caught in the
+threads of moonlight; the depths over which one bent, peering half
+wistfully, half abstractedly, almost crazily, till he longed to drop
+into their coolness, and let the volumes of billow roll musically above
+him.
+
+A woman approached me, as I stood against the great anchor, thus
+absorbed. She had a pale, thin face, and was scantily clothed, and spoke
+with a distrustful, timorous voice:--
+
+"You don't know the name of the surgeon-general, do you sir!"
+
+"At Washington, ma'am?"
+
+"No, sir; at Old Point."
+
+I offered to inquire of the Captain: but she stopped me, agitatedly.
+"It's of no consequence," she said,--"that is, it is of great
+consequence to me; but perhaps it would be best to wait." I answered, as
+obligingly as I could, that any service on my part would be cheerfully
+rendered.
+
+"The fact is, sir," she said, after a pause, "I am going to
+Williamsburg, to--find--the--the body--of my--boy."
+
+Here her speech was broken, and she put a thin, white hand tremulously
+to her eyes. I thought that any person in the Federal service would
+willingly assist her, and said so.
+
+"He was not a Federal soldier, sir. He was a Confederate!"
+
+This considerably altered the chances of success, and I was obliged to
+undeceive her somewhat. "I am sure it was not my fault," she continued,
+"that he joined the Rebellion. You don't think they'll refuse to let me
+take his bones to Baltimore, do you, sir? He was my oldest boy, and his
+brother, my second son, was killed at Ball's Bluff: _He_ was in the
+Federal service. I hardly think they will refuse me the poor favor of
+laying them in the same grave."
+
+I spoke of the difficulty of recognition, of the remoteness of the
+field, and of the expense attending the recovery of any remains,
+particularly those of the enemy, that, left hastily behind in retreat,
+were commonly buried in trenches without headboard or record. She said,
+sadly, that she had very little money, and that she could barely afford
+the journey to the Fortress and return. But she esteemed her means well
+invested if her object could be attained.
+
+"They were both brave boys, sir; but I could never get them to agree
+politically. William was a Northerner by education, and took up with the
+New England views, and James was in business at Richmond when the war
+commenced. So he joined the Southern army. It's a sad thing to know that
+one's children died enemies, isn't it? And what troubles me more than
+all, sir, is that James was at Ball's Bluff where his brother fell. It
+makes me shudder to think, sometimes, that his might have been the ball
+that killed him."
+
+The tremor of the poor creature here was painful to behold. I spoke
+soothingly and encouragingly, but with a presentiment that she must be
+disappointed. While I was speaking the supper-bell rang, and I proposed
+to get her a seat at the table.
+
+"No, thank you," she replied, "I shall take no meals on the vessel; I
+must travel economically, and have prepared some lunch that will serve
+me. Good by, sir!"
+
+Poor mothers looking for dead sons! God help them! I have met them often
+since; but the figure of that pale, frail creature flitting about the
+open deck,--alone, hungry, very poor,--troubles me still, as I write. I
+found, afterward, that she had denied herself a state-room, and intended
+to sleep in a saloon chair. I persuaded her to accept my berth, but a
+German, who occupied the same apartment, was unwilling to relinquish his
+bed, and I had the power only to give her my pillow.
+
+Supper was spread in the forecabin, and at the signal to assemble the
+men rushed to the tables like as many beasts of prey. A captain opposite
+me bolted a whole mackerel in a twinkling, and spread the half-pound of
+butter that was to serve the entire vicinity upon a single slice of
+bread. A sutler beside me reached his fork across my neck, and plucked a
+young chicken bodily, which he ate, to the great disgust of some others
+who were eyeing it. The waiter advanced with some steak, but before he
+reached the table, a couple of Zouaves dragged it from the tray, and
+laughed brutally at their success. The motion of the vessel caused a
+general unsteadiness, and it was absolutely dangerous to move one's
+coffee to his lips. The inveterate hate with which corporations are
+regarded in America was here evidenced by a general desire to empty the
+ship's larder.
+
+"Eat all you can," said a soldier, ferociously,--"fare's amazin' high.
+Must make it out in grub."
+
+"I always gorges," said another, "on a railroad or a steamboat. Cause
+why? You must eat out your passage, you know!"
+
+Among the passengers were a young officer and his bride. They had been
+married only a few days, and she had obtained permission to accompany
+him to Old Point. Very pretty, she seemed, in her travelling hat and
+flowing robes; and he wore a handsome new uniform with prodigious
+shoulder-bars. There was a piano in the saloon, where another young lady
+of the party performed during the evening, and the bride and groom
+accompanied her with a song. It was the popular Federal parody of "Gay
+and Happy:"
+
+    "Then let the South fling aloft what it will,--
+    We are for the Union still!
+        For the Union! For the Union!
+    We are for the Union still!"
+
+The bride and groom sang alternate stanzas, and the concourse of
+soldiers, civilians, and females swelled the chorus. The reserve being
+thus broken, the young officer sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," and the
+refrain must have called up the mermaids. Dancing ensued, and a soldier
+volunteered a hornpipe. A young man with an astonishing compass of lungs
+repeated something from Shakespeare, and the night passed by gleefully
+and reputably. One could hardly realize, in the cheerful eyes and active
+figures of the dance, the sad uncertainties of the time. Youth trips
+lightest, somehow, on the brink of the grave.
+
+The hilarities of the evening so influenced the German quartered with
+me, that he sang snatches of foreign ballads during most of the night,
+and obliged me, at last, to call the steward and insist upon his good
+behavior.
+
+In the gray of the morning I ventured on deck, and, following the
+silvery line of beach, made out the shipping at anchor in Hampton Roads.
+The _Minnesota_ flag-ship lay across the horizon, and after a time I
+remarked the low walls and black derricks of the Rip Raps. The white
+tents at Hampton were then revealed, and finally I distinguished
+Fortress Monroe, the key of the Chesapeake, bristling with guns, and
+floating the Federal flag. As we rounded to off the quay, I studied with
+intense interest the scene of so many historic events. Sewall's Point
+lay to the south, a stretch of woody beach, around whose western tip
+the dreaded _Merrimac_ had so often moved slowly to the encounter. The
+spars of the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_ still floated along the
+strand, but, like them, the invulnerable monster had become the prey of
+the waves. The guns of the Rip Raps and the terrible broadsides of the
+Federal gunboats, had swept the Confederates from Sewall's Point,--their
+flag and battery were gone,--and farther seaward, at Willoughby Spit,
+some figures upon the beach marked the route of the victorious Federals
+to the city of Norfolk.
+
+The mouth of the James and the York were visible from the deck, and long
+lines of shipping stretched from each to the Fortress. The quay itself
+was like the pool in the Thames, a mass of spars, smoke-stacks, ensigns
+and swelling hills. The low deck and quaint cupola of the famous
+_Monitor_ appeared close into shore, and near at hand rose the thick
+body of the _Galena_. Long boats and flat boats went hither and thither
+across the blue waves: the grim ports of the men of war were open and
+the guns frowned darkly from their coverts; the seamen were gathering
+for muster on the flagship, and drums beat from the barracks on shore;
+the Lincoln gun, a fearful piece of ordnance, rose like the Sphynx from
+the Fortress sands, and the sodded parapet, the winding stone walls, the
+tops of the brick quarters within the Fort, were some of the features of
+a strangely animated scene, that has yet to be perpetuated upon canvas,
+and made historic.
+
+At eight o'clock the passengers were allowed to land, and a provost
+guard marched them to the Hygeia House,--of old a watering-place
+hotel,--where, by groups, they were ushered into a small room, and the
+oath of allegiance administered to them. The young officer who
+officiated, repeated the words of the oath, with a broad grin upon his
+face, and the passengers were required to assent by word and by gesture.
+Among those who took the oath in this way, was a very old sailor, who
+had been in the Federal service for the better part of his life, and
+whose five sons were now in the army. He called "Amen" very loudly and
+fervently, and there was some perceptible disposition on the part of
+other ardent patriots, to celebrate the occasion with three cheers. The
+quartermaster, stationed at the Fortress gave me a pass to go by steamer
+up the York to White House, and as there were three hours to elapse
+before departure, I strolled about the place with our agent. In times of
+peace, Old Point was simply a stone fortification, and one of the
+strongest of its kind in the world. Many years and many millions of
+dollars were required to build it, but it was, in general, feebly
+garrisoned, and was, altogether, a stupid, tedious locality, except in
+the bathing months, when the beauty and fashion of Virginia resorted to
+its hotel. A few cottages had grown up around it, tenanted only in "the
+season;" and a little way off, on the mainland, stood the pretty village
+of Hampton.
+
+By a strange oversight, the South failed to seize Fortress Monroe at the
+beginning of the Rebellion; the Federals soon made it the basis for
+their armies and a leading naval station. The battle of Big Bethel was
+one of the first occurrences in the vicinity. Then the dwellings of
+Hampton were burned and its people exiled. In rapid succession followed
+the naval battles in the Roads, the siege and surrender of Yorktown, the
+flight of the Confederates up the Peninsula to Richmond, and finally the
+battles of Williamsburg, and West Point, and the capture of Norfolk.
+These things had already transpired; it was now the month of May; and
+the victorious army, following up its vantages, had pursued the
+fugitives by land and water to "White House," at the head of navigation
+on the Pamunkey river. Thither it was my lot to go, and witness the
+turning-point of their fortunes, and their subsequent calamity and
+repulse.
+
+I found Old Point a weary place of resort, even in the busy era of civil
+war. The bar at the Hygeia House was beset with thirsty and idle
+people, who swore instinctively, and drank raw spirits passionately. The
+quantity of shell, ball, ordnance, camp equipage, and war munitions of
+every description piled around the fort, was marvellously great. It
+seemed to me that Xerxes, the first Napoleon, or the greediest of
+conquerors, ancient or modern, would have beheld with amazement the
+gigantic preparations at command of the Federal Government. Energy and
+enterprise displayed their implements of death on every hand. One was
+startled at the prodigal outlay of means, and the reckless summoning of
+men. I looked at the starred and striped ensign that flaunted above the
+Fort, and thought of Madame Roland's appeal to the statue by the
+guillotine.
+
+The settlers were numbered by regiments here. Their places of business
+were mainly structures or "shanties" of rough plank, and most of them
+were the owners of sloops, or schooners, for the transportation of
+freight from New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, to their depots at
+Old Point. Some possessed a dozen wagons, that plied regularly between
+these stores and camps. The traffic was not confined to men; for women
+and children kept pace with the army, trading in every possible article
+of necessity or luxury. For these--disciples of the dime and the
+dollar--war had no terrors. They took their muck-rakes, like the man in
+Bunyan, and gathered the almighty coppers, from the pestilential camp
+and the reeking battle-field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+ON TO RICHMOND.
+
+
+Yorktown lies twenty-one miles northwestward from Old Point, and thither
+I turned my face at noon, resolving to delay my journey to "White
+House," till next day morning. Crossing an estuary of the bay upon a
+narrow causeway, I passed Hampton,--half burned, half desolate,--and at
+three o'clock came to "Big Bethel," the scene of the battle of June 11,
+1861. A small earthwork marks the site of Magruder's field-pieces, and
+hard by the slain were buried. The spot was noteworthy to me, since
+Lieutenant Greble, a fellow alumnus, had perished here, and likewise,
+Theodore Winthrop, the gifted author of "Cecil Dreeme" and "John Brent."
+The latter did not live to know his exaltation. That morning never came
+whereon he "woke, and found himself famous."
+
+The road ran parallel with the deserted defences of the Confederates for
+some distance. The country was flat and full of swamps, but marked at
+intervals by relics of camps. The farm-houses were untenanted, the
+fences laid flat or destroyed, the fields strewn with discarded
+clothing, arms, and utensils. By and by, we entered the outer line of
+Federal parallels, and wound among lunettes, cremailleres, redoubts, and
+rifle-pits. Marks of shell and ball were frequent, in furrows and holes,
+where the clay had been upheaved. Every foot of ground, for fifteen
+miles henceforward, had been touched by the shovel and the pick. My
+companion suggested that as much digging, concentred upon one point,
+would have taken the Federals to China. The sappers and miners had made
+their stealthy trenches, rod by rod, each morning appearing closer to
+their adversaries, and finally, completed their work, at less than a
+hundred yards from the Confederate defences. Three minutes would have
+sufficed from the final position, to hurl columns upon the opposing
+outworks, and sweep them with the bayonet. Ten days only had elapsed
+since the evacuation (May 4), and the siege guns still remained in some
+of the batteries. McClellan worshipped great ordnance, and some of his
+columbiads, that were mounted in the water battery, yawned cavernously
+through their embrasures, and might have furnished sleeping
+accommodations to the gunners. A few mortars stood in position by the
+river side, and there were Parrott, Griffin, and Dahlgren pieces in the
+shore batteries.
+
+However numerous and powerful were the Federal fortifications, they bore
+no comparison, in either respect, to those relinquished by the
+revolutionists. Miniature mountain ranges they seemed, deeply ditched,
+and revetted with sods, fascines, hurdles, gabions or sand bags. Along
+the York riverside there were water batteries of surpassing beauty, that
+seemed, at a little distance, successions of gentle terraces. Their
+pieces were likewise of enormous calibre, and their number almost
+incredible. The advanced line of fortifications, sketched from the mouth
+of Warwick creek, on the South, to a point fifteen miles distant on the
+York: one hundred and forty guns were planted along this chain of
+defences; but there were two other concentric lines, mounting, each, one
+hundred and twenty, and two hundred and forty guns. The remote series
+consisted of six forts of massive size and height, fronted by swamps and
+flooded meadows, with frequent creeks and ravines interposing; sharp
+_fraise_ and _abattis_ planted against scarp and slope, pointed cruelly
+eastward. There were two water batteries, of six and four thirty-two
+columbiads respectively, and the town itself, which stands upon a red
+clay bluff, was encircled by a series of immense rifled and smooth-bore
+pieces, including a powerful pivot-gun, that one of McClellan's shells
+struck during the first day's bombardment, and split it into fragments.
+At Gloucester Point, across the York river, the great guns of the
+_Merrimac_ were planted, it is said, and a fleet of fire-rafts and
+torpedo-ships were moored in the stream. By all accounts, there could
+have been no less than five hundred guns behind the Confederate
+entrenchments, the greater portion, of course, field-pieces, and, as the
+defending army was composed of one hundred thousand men, we must add
+that number of small arms to the list of ordnance. If we compute the
+Federals at so high a figure,--and they could scarcely have had less
+than a hundred thousand men afield,--we must increase the enormous
+amount of their field, siege, and small ordnance, by the naval guns of
+the fleet, that stood anchored in the bay. It is probable that a
+thousand cannon and two hundred thousand muskets were assembled in and
+around Yorktown during this memorable siege. The mind shudders to see
+the terrible deductions of these statistics. The monster, who wished
+that the world had but one neck, that he might sever it, would have
+gloated at such realization! How many days or hours would have here
+sufficed to annihilate all the races of men? Happily, the world was
+spared the spectacle of these deadly mouths at once aflame. Beautiful
+but awful must have been the scene, and the earth must have staggered
+with the shock. One might almost have imagined that man, in his
+ambition, had shut his God in heaven, and besieged him there.
+
+While the fortifications defending it amazed me, the village of Yorktown
+disappointed me. I marvelled that so paltry a settlement should have
+been twice made historic. Here, in the year 1783, Lord Cornwallis
+surrendered his starving command to the American colonists and their
+French allies. But the entrenchments of that earlier day had been
+almost obliterated by these recent labors. The field, where the Earl
+delivered up his sword, was trodden bare, and dotted with ditches and
+ramparts; while a small monument, that marked the event, had been hacked
+to fragments by the Southerners, and carried away piecemeal. Yet,
+strange to say, relics of the first bombardment had just been
+discovered, and, among them, a gold-hilted sword.
+
+I visited, in the evening, the late quarters of General Hill, a small
+white house with green shutters, and also the famous "Nelson House," a
+roomy mansion where, of old, Cornwallis slept, and where, a few days
+past, Jefferson Davis and General Lee had held with Magruder, and his
+associates, a council of war. It had been also used for hospital
+purposes, but some negroes were now the only occupants.
+
+The Confederates left behind them seventy spiked and shattered cannon,
+some powder, and a few splintered wagons; but in all material respects,
+their evacuation was thorough and creditable. Some deserters took the
+first tidings of the retreat to the astonished Federals, and they raised
+the national flag within the fortifications, in the gray of the morning
+of the 4th of May. Many negroes also escaped the vigilance of their
+taskmasters, and remained to welcome the victors. The fine works of
+Yorktown are monuments to negro labor, for _they_ were the hewers and
+the diggers. Every slave-owner in Eastern Virginia was obliged to send
+one half of his male servants between the ages of sixteen and fifty to
+the Confederate camps, and they were organized into gangs and set to
+work. In some cases they were put to military service and made excellent
+sharpshooters. The last gun discharged from the town was said to have
+been fired by a negro.
+
+I slept on board a barge at the wharf that evening, and my dreams ran
+upon a thousand themes. To every American this was hallowed ground. It
+had been celebrated by the pencil of Trumbull, the pen of Franklin, and
+the eloquence of Jefferson. Scarce eighty years had elapsed since those
+great minds established a fraternal government; but the site of their
+crowning glory was now the scene of their children's shame. Discord had
+stolen upon their councils and blood had profaned their shrine.
+
+I visited next day a bomb-proof postern, or subterranean passage,
+connecting the citadel with the outworks, and loitered about the
+fortifications till noon, when I took passage on the mail steamer, which
+left the Fortress at eleven o'clock, and reached White House at dusk the
+same evening. The whole river as I ascended was filled with merchant and
+naval craft. They made a continuous line from Old Point to the mouth of
+York River, and the masts and spars environing Yorktown and Gloucester,
+reminded one of a scene on the Mersey or the Clyde. At West Point, there
+was an array of shipping scarcely less formidable, and the windings of
+the interminably crooked Pamunkey were marked for leagues by sails,
+smoke-stacks, and masts. The landings and wharves were besieged by
+flat-boats and sloops, and Zouaves were hoisting forage and commissary
+stores up the red bluffs at every turn of our vessel.
+
+The Pamunkey was a beautiful stream, densely wooded, and occasional
+vistas opened up along its borders of wheat-fields and meadows, with
+Virginia farm-houses and negro quarters on the hilltops. Some of the
+houses on the river banks appeared to be tenanted by white people, but
+the majority had a haunted, desolate appearance, the only signs of life
+being strolling soldiers, who thrust their legs through the second story
+windows, or contemplated the river from the chimney-tops, and groups of
+negroes who sunned themselves on the piazza, or rushed to the margin to
+gaze and grin at the passing steamers. There were occasional residences
+not unworthy of old manorial and baronial times, and these were attended
+at a little distance by negro quarters of logs, arranged in rows, and
+provided with mud chimneys built against their gables. Few of the
+Northern navigable rivers were so picturesque and varied.
+
+We passed two Confederate gunboats, that had been half completed, and
+burned on the stocks. Their charred elbows and ribs, stared out, like
+the remains of some extinct monsters; a little delay might have found
+each of them armed and manned, and carrying havoc upon the rivers and
+the seas. West Point was simply a tongue, or spit of land, dividing the
+Mattapony from the Pamunkey river at their junction; a few houses were
+built upon the shallow, and some wharves, half demolished, marked the
+terminus of the York and Richmond railroad. A paltry water-battery was
+the sole defence. Below Cumberland (a collection of huts and a wharf), a
+number of schooners had been sunk across the river, and, with the aid of
+an island in the middle, these constituted a rather rigid blockade. The
+steamboat passed through, steering carefully, but some sailing vessels
+that followed required to be towed between the narrow apertures. The
+tops only of the sunken masts could be discerned above the surface, and
+much time and labor must have been required to place the boats in line
+and sink them. Vessels were counted by scores above and below this
+blockade, and at Cumberland the masts were like a forest; clusters of
+pontoons were here anchored in the river, and a short distance below we
+found three of the light-draught Federal gunboats moored in the stream.
+It was growing dark as we rounded to at "White House;" the camp fires of
+the grand army lit up the sky, and edged the tree-boughs on the margin
+with ribands of silver. Some drums beat in the distance; sentries paced
+the strand; the hum of men, and the lowing of commissary cattle, were
+borne towards us confusedly; soldiers were bathing in the river;
+team-horses were drinking at the brink; a throng of motley people were
+crowding about the landing to receive the papers and mails. I had at
+last arrived at the seat of war, and my ambition to chronicle battles
+and bloodshed was about to be gratified.
+
+At first, I was troubled to make my way; the tents had just been
+pitched; none knew the location of divisions other than their own, and
+it was now so dark that I did not care to venture far. After a vain
+attempt to find some flat-boats where there were lodgings and meals to
+be had, I struck out for general head-quarters, and, undergoing repeated
+snubbings from pert members of staff, fell in at length, with a very
+tall, spare, and angular young officer, who spoke broken English, and
+who heard my inquiries, courteously; he stepped into General Marcy's
+tent, but the Chief of Staff did not know the direction of Smith's
+division; he then repaired to Gen. Van Vleet, the chief Quartermaster,
+but with ill success. A party of officers were smoking under a "fly,"
+and some of these called to him, thus--
+
+"Captain! Duke! De Chartres! What do you wish?"
+
+It was, then, the Orleans Prince who had befriended me, and I had the
+good fortune to hear that the division, of which I was in search, lay a
+half mile up the river. I never spoke to the Bourbon afterward, but saw
+him often; and that he was as chivalrous as he was kind, all testimony
+proved.
+
+A private escorted me to a Captain Mott's tent, and this officer
+introduced me to General Hancock. I was at once invited to mess with the
+General's staff, and in the course of an hour felt perfectly at home.
+Hancock was one of the handsomest officers in the army; he had served in
+the Mexican war, and was subsequently a Captain in the Quartermaster's
+department. But the Rebellion placed stars in many shoulder-bars, and
+few were more worthily designated than this young Pennsylvanian. His
+first laurels were gained at Williamsburg; but the story of a celebrated
+charge that won him the day's applause, and McClellan's encomium of the
+"Superb Hancock," was altogether fictitious. The musket, not the
+bayonet, gave him the victory. I may doubt, in this place, that any
+extensive bayonet charge has been known during the war. Some have gone
+so far as to deny that the bayonet has ever been used at all.
+
+Hancock's regiments were the 5th Wisconsin, 49th Pennsylvanian, 43d New
+York, and 6th Maine. They represented widely different characteristics,
+and I esteemed myself fortunate to obtain a position where I could so
+eligibly study men, habits, and warfare. During the evening I fell in
+with the Colonel of each of these regiments, and from the conversation
+that ensued, I gleaned a fair idea of them all.
+
+The Wisconsin regiment was from a new and ambitious State of the
+Northwest. The men were rough-mannered, great-hearted farmers,
+wood-choppers, and tradesmen. They had all the impulsiveness of the
+Yankee, with less selfishness, and quite as much bravery. The Colonel
+was named Cobb, and he had held some leading offices in Wisconsin. A
+part of his life had been adventurously spent, and he had participated
+in the Mexican war. He was an ardent Republican in politics, and had
+been Speaker of a branch of the State Legislature. He was an attorney in
+a small county town when the war commenced, and his name had been
+broached for the Governorship. In person he was small, lithe, and
+capable of enduring great fatigue. His hair was a little gray, and he
+had no beard. He did not respect appearances, and his sword, as I saw,
+was antique and quite different in shape from the regulation weapon. He
+had penetrating gray eyes, and his manners were generally reserved. One
+had not to regard him twice to see that he was both cautious and
+resolute. He was too ambitious to be frank, and too passionate not to be
+brave. In the formula of learning he was not always correct; but few
+were of quicker perception or more practical and philosophic. He might
+not, in an emergency, be nicely scrupulous as to means, but he never
+wavered in respect to objects. His will was the written law to his
+regiment, and I believed his executive abilities superior to those of
+any officer in the brigade, not excepting the General's.
+
+The New York regiment was commanded by a young officer named Vinton. He
+was not more than thirty-five years of age, and was a graduate of the
+United States Military Academy. Passionately devoted to engineering, he
+withdrew from the army, and passed five years in Paris, at the study of
+his art. Returning homeward by way of the West Indies, he visited
+Honduras, and projected a filibustering expedition to its shores from
+the States. While perfecting the design, the Rebellion commenced, and
+his old patron, General Scott, secured him the colonelcy of a volunteer
+regiment. He still cherished his scheme of "Colonization," and half of
+his men were promised to accompany him. Personally, Colonel Vinton was
+straight, dark, and handsome. He was courteous, affable, and brave,--but
+wedded to his peculiar views, and, as I thought, a thorough "Young
+American."
+
+The Maine regiment was fathered by Colonel Burnham, a staunch old yeoman
+and soldier, who has since been made a General. His probity and
+good-nature were adjuncts of his valor, and his men were of the better
+class of New Englanders. The fourth regiment fell into the hands of a
+lawyer from Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He had been also in the Mexican
+war, and was remarkable mainly for strictness with regard to the
+sanitary regulations of his camps. He had wells dug at every stoppage,
+and his tents were generally fenced and canopied with cedar arbors.
+General Hancock's staff was composed of a number of young men, most of
+whom had been called from civil life. His brigade constituted one of
+three commanded by General Smith. Four batteries were annexed to the
+division so formed; the entire number of muskets was perhaps eight
+thousand. The Chief of Artillery was a Captain Ayres, whose battery
+saved the three months' army at Bull Run. It so happened that he came
+into the General's during the evening, and recited the particulars of a
+gunboat excursion, thirty miles up the Pamunkey, wherein he had landed
+his men, and burned a quantity of grain, some warehouses, and shipping.
+I pencilled the facts at once, made up my letter, and mailed it early in
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+RUSTICS IN REBELLION.
+
+
+At White House, I met some of the mixed Indians and negroes from
+Indiantown Island, which lies among the osiers in the stream. One of
+these ferried me over, and the people received me obsequiously, touching
+their straw hats, and saying, "Sar, at your service!" They were all
+anxious to hear something of the war, and asked, solicitously, if they
+were to be protected. Some of them had been to Richmond the previous
+day, and gave me some unimportant items happening in the city. I found
+that they had Richmond papers of that date, and purchased them for a few
+cents. They knew little or nothing of their own history, and had
+preserved no traditions of their tribe. There was, however, I
+understood, a very old woman extant, named "Mag," of great repute at
+medicines, pow-wows, and divination. I expressed a desire to speak with
+her, and was conducted to a log-house, more ricketty and ruined than any
+of the others. About fifty half-breeds followed me in respectful
+curiosity, and they formed a semicircle around the cabin. The old woman
+sat in the threshold, barefooted, and smoking a stump of clay pipe.
+
+"Yaw's one o' dem Nawden soldiers, Aunt Mag!" said my conductor. "He
+wants to talk wid ye."
+
+"Sot down, honey," said the old woman, producing a wooden stool; "is you
+a Yankee, honey? Does you want you fauchun told by de ole 'oman?"
+
+I perceived that the daughter of the Delawares smelt strongly of
+fire-water, and the fumes of her calumet were most unwholesome. She was
+greatly disappointed that I did not require her prophetic services, and
+said, appealingly--
+
+"Why, sar, all de gen'elmen an' ladies from Richmond has dere fauchuns
+told. I tells 'em true. All my fauchuns comes out true. Ain't dat so,
+chillen?"
+
+A low murmur of assent ran round the group, and I was obviously losing
+caste in the settlement.
+
+"Here is a dime," said I, "that I will give you, to tell me the result
+of the war. Shall the North be victorious in the next battle? Will
+Richmond surrender within a week? Shall I take my cigar at the Spotswood
+on Sunday fortnight?"
+
+"I'se been a lookin' into dat," she said, cunningly; "I'se had dreams on
+dat ar'. Le'um see how de armies stand!"
+
+She brought from the house a cup of painted earthenware containing
+sediments of coffee. I saw her crafty white eyes look up to mine as she
+muttered some jargon, and pretended to read the arrangement of the
+grains.
+
+"Honey," she said, "gi' me de money, and let de ole 'oman dream on it
+once mo'! It ain't quite clar' yit, young massar. Tank you, honey! Tank
+you! Let de old 'oman dream! Let de ole 'oman dream!"
+
+She disappeared into the house, chuckling and chattering, and the sons
+of the forest, loitering awhile, dispersed in various directions. As I
+followed my conductor to the riverside, and he parted the close bushes
+and boughs to give us exit, the glare of the camp-fires broke all at
+once upon us. The ship-lights quivered on the water; the figures of men
+moved to and fro before the fagots; the stars peeped timorously from the
+vault; the woods and steep banks were blackly shadowed in the river.
+Here was I, among the aborigines; and as my dusky acquaintance sent his
+canoe skimming across the ripples, I thought how inexplicable were the
+decrees of Time and the justice of God. Two races united in these
+people, and both of them we had wronged. From the one we had taken
+lands; from the other liberties. Two centuries had now elapsed. But the
+little remnant of the African and the American were to look from their
+Island Home upon the clash of our armies and the murder of our braves.
+
+By the 19th of May the skirts of the grand army had been gathered up,
+and on the 20th the march to Richmond was resumed. The troops moved
+along two main roads, of which the right led to New Mechanicsville and
+Meadow Bridges, and the left to the railroad and Bottom Bridges. My
+division formed the right centre, and although the Chickahominy fords
+were but eighteen miles distant, we did not reach them for three days.
+On the first night we encamped at Tunstalls, a railroad-station on Black
+Creek; on the second at New Cold Harbor, a little country tavern, kept
+by a cripple; and on the night of the third day at Hogan's farm, on the
+north hills of the Chickahominy. The railroad was opened to Despatch
+Station at the same time, but the right and centre were still compelled
+to "team" their supplies from White House. In the new position, the army
+extended ten miles along the Chickahominy hills; and while the engineers
+were driving pile, tressel, pontoon, and corduroy bridges, the cavalry
+was scouring the country, on both flanks, far and wide.
+
+The advance was full of incident, and I learned to keep as far in front
+as possible, that I might communicate with scouts, contrabands, and
+citizens. Many odd personages were revealed to me at the farm-houses on
+the way, and I studied, with curious interest, the native Virginian
+character. They appeared to be compounds of the cavalier and the boor.
+There was no old gentleman who owned a thousand barren acres, spotted
+with scrub timber; who lived in a weather-beaten barn, with a
+multiplicity of porch and a quantity of chimney; whose means bore no
+proportion to his pride, and neither to his indolence,--that did not
+talk of his ancestry, proffer his hospitality, and defy me to an
+argument. I was a civilian,--they had no hostility to me,--but the
+blue-coats of the soldiers seared their eyeballs. In some cases their
+daughters remained upon the property; but the sons and the negroes
+always fled,--though in contrary directions. The old men used to peep
+through the windows at the passing columns; and as their gates were
+wrenched from the hinges, their rails used to pry wagons out of the mud,
+their pump-handles shaken till the buckets splintered in the shaft, and
+their barns invaded by greasy agrarians, they walked to and fro,
+half-weakly, half-wrathfully, but with a pluck, fortitude, and devotion
+that wrung my respect. Some aged negro women commonly remained, but
+these were rather incumbrances than aids, and they used the family meal
+to cook bread for the troops. An old, toothless, grinning African stood
+at every lane and gate, selling buttermilk and corn-cakes. Poor mortal,
+sinful old women! They had worked for nothing through their three-score
+and ten, but avarice glared from their shrivelled pupils, and their last
+but greatest delight lay in the coppers and the dimes. One would have
+thought that they had outlived the greed of gold; but wages deferred
+make the dying miserly.
+
+The lords of the manors were troubled to know the number of our troops.
+For several days the columns passed with their interminable teams,
+batteries, and adjuncts, and the old gentlemen were loth to compute us
+at less than several millions.
+
+"Why, look yonder," said one, pointing to a brigade; "I declar' to
+gracious, there ain't no less than ten thousand in _them_!"
+
+"Tousands an' tousands!" said a wondering negro at his elbow. "I wonda
+if dey'll take Richmond dis yer day?"
+
+Many of them hung white flags at their gate-posts, implying neutrality;
+but nobody displayed the Federal colors. If there were any covert
+sympathizers with the purposes of the army, they remembered the
+vengeance of the neighbors and made no demonstrations. There was a
+prodigious number of stragglers from the Federal lines, as these were
+the bane of the country people. They sauntered along by twos and threes,
+rambling into all the fields and green-apple orchards, intruding their
+noses into old cabins, prying into smoke-houses, and cellars, looking at
+the stock in the stables, and peeping on tiptoe into the windows of
+dwellings. These stragglers were true exponents of Yankee
+character,--always wanting to know,--averse to discipline, eccentric in
+their orbits, entertaining profound contempt for everything that was not
+up to the measure of "to hum."
+
+"Look here, Bill, I say!" said one, with a great grin on his face; "did
+you ever, neow! I swan! they call that a plough down in these parts."
+
+"Devilishest people I ever see!" said Bill, "stick their meetin'-houses
+square in the woods! Build their chimneys first and move the houses up
+to 'em! All the houses breakin' out in perspiration of porch! All their
+machinery with Noah in the ark! Pump the soil dry! Go to sleep a milkin'
+a keow! Depend entirely on Providence and the nigger!"
+
+There was a mill on the New Bridge road, ten miles from White House,
+with a tidy farm-house, stacks, and cabins adjoining. The road crossed
+the mill-race by a log bridge, and a spreading pond or dam lay to the
+left,--the water black as ink, the shore sandy, and the stream
+disappearing in a grove of straight pines. A youngish woman, with
+several small children, occupied the dwelling, and there remained,
+besides, her fat sister-in-law and four or five faithful negroes. I
+begged the favor of a meal and bed in the place one night, and shall not
+forget the hospitable table with its steaming biscuit; the chubby baby,
+perched upon his high stool; the talkative elderly woman, who took
+snuff at the fireplace; the contented black-girl, who played the Hebe;
+and above all, the trim, plump, pretty hostess, with her brown eyes and
+hair, her dignity and her fondness, sitting at the head of the board.
+When she poured the bright coffee into the capacious bowl, she revealed
+the neatest of hands and arms, and her dialect was softer and more
+musical than that of most Southerners. In short, I fell almost in love
+with her; though she might have been a younger playmate of my mother's,
+and though she was the wife of a Quartermaster in a Virginia regiment.
+For, somehow, a woman seems very handsome when one is afield; and the
+contact of rough soldiers, gives him a partiality for females. It must
+have required some courage to remain upon the farm; but she hoped
+thereby to save the property from spoliation. I played a game of whist
+with the sister-in-law, arguing all the while; and at nine o'clock the
+servant produced some hard cider, shellbarks, and apples. We drank a
+cheery toast: "an early peace and old fellowship!"--to which the wife
+added a sentiment of "always welcome," and the baby laughed at her knee.
+How brightly glowed the fire! I wanted to linger for a week, a month, a
+year,--as I do now, thinking it all over,--and when I strolled to the
+porch,--hearing the pigeons cooing at the barn; the water streaming down
+the dam; the melancholy monotony of the pine boughs;--there only lacked
+the humming mill-wheel, and the strong grip of the miller's hand, to
+fill the void corner of one's happy heart.
+
+But this was a time of war, when dreams are rudely broken, and mine
+could not last. The next day some great wheels beat down the bridge, and
+the teams clogged the road for miles; the waiting teamsters saw the
+miller's sheep, and the geese, chickens, and pigs, rashly exposed
+themselves in the barnyard; these were killed and eaten, the mill
+stripped of flour and meal, and the garden despoiled of its vegetables.
+A quartermaster's horse foundered, and he demanded the miller's, giving
+therefor a receipt, but specifying upon the same the owner's relation to
+the Rebellion; and, to crown all, a group of stragglers, butchered the
+cows, and heaped the beef in their wagons to feed their regimental
+friends. When I presented myself, late in the afternoon, the yard and
+porches were filled with soldiers; the wife sat within, her head thrown
+upon the window, her bright hair unbound, and her eyes red with weeping.
+The baby had cried itself to sleep, the sister-in-law took snuff
+fiercely, at the fire; the black girl cowered in a corner.
+
+"There is not bread in the house for my children," she said; "but I did
+not think they could make me shed a tear."
+
+If there were Spartan women, as the story-books say, I wonder if their
+blood died with them! I hardly think so.
+
+If I learned anything from my quiet study of this and subsequent
+campaigns, it was the heartlessness of war. War brutalizes! The most
+pitiful become pitiless afield, and those who are not callous, must do
+cruel duties. If the quartermaster had not seized the horses, he would
+have been accountable for his conduct; had he failed to state the
+miller's disloyalty in the receipt, he would have been punished. The men
+were thieves and brutes, to take the meal and meat; but they were
+perhaps hungry and weary, and sick of camp food; on the whole, I became
+a devotee of the George Fox faith, and hated warfare, though I knew
+nothing to substitute for it, in _crises_.
+
+Besides, the optimist might have seen much to admire. Individual merits
+were developed around me; I saw shop-keepers and mechanics in the ranks,
+and they looked to be better men. Here were triumphs of engineering;
+there perfections of applied ingenuity. I saw how the weakest natures
+girt themselves for great resolves, and how fortitude outstripped
+itself. It is a noble thing to put by the fear of death. It was a grand
+spectacle, this civil soldiery of both sections, supporting their
+principles, ambitions, or whatever instigated them, with their bodies;
+and their bones, lie where they will, must be severed, when the
+plough-share some day heaves them to the ploughman.
+
+One morning a friend asked me to go upon a scout.
+
+"Where are your companies?" said I.
+
+"There are four behind, and we shall be joined by six at Old Cold
+Harbor."
+
+I saw, in the rear, filing through a belt of woods, the tall figures of
+the horsemen, approaching at a canter.
+
+"Do you command?" said I again.
+
+"No! the Major has charge of the scout, and his orders are secret."
+
+I wheeled beside him, as the cavalry closed up, waved my hand to
+Plumley, and the girls, and went forward to the rendezvous, about six
+miles distant. The remaining companies of the regiment were here drawn
+up, watering their nags. The Major was a thick, sunburnt man, with
+grizzled beard, and as he saw us rounding a corner of hilly road, his
+voice rang out--
+
+"Attention! Prepare to mount!"
+
+Every rider sprang to his nag; every nag walked instinctively to his
+place; every horseman made fast his girths, strapped his blankets
+tightly, and lay his hands upon bridle-rein and pommel.
+
+"Attention! Mount!"
+
+The riders sprang to their seats; the bugles blew a lively strain; the
+horses pricked up their ears; and the long array moved briskly forward,
+with the Captain, the Major, and myself at the head. We were joined in a
+moment by two pieces of flying artillery, and five fresh companies of
+cavalry. In a moment more we were underway again, galloping due
+northward, and, as I surmised, toward Hanover Court House. If any branch
+of the military service is feverish, adventurous, and exciting, it is
+that of the cavalry. One's heart beats as fast as the hoof-falls; there
+is no music like the winding of the bugle, and no monotone so full of
+meaning as the clink of sabres rising and falling with the dashing pace.
+Horse and rider become one,--a new race of Centaurs,--and the charge,
+the stroke, the crack of carbines, are so quick, vehement, and dramatic,
+that we seem to be watching the joust of tournaments or following fierce
+Saladins and Crusaders again. We had ridden two hours at a fair canter,
+when we came to a small stream that crossed the road obliquely, and
+gurgled away through a sandy valley into the deepnesses of the woods. A
+cart-track, half obliterated, here diverged, running parallel with the
+creek, and the Major held up his sword as a signal to halt; at the same
+moment the bugle blew a quick, shrill note.
+
+"There are hoof-marks here!" grunted the Major,--"five of 'em.
+The Dutchman has gone into the thicket. Hulloo!" he added,
+precipitately--"there go the carbines!"
+
+I heard, clearly, two explosions in rapid succession; then a general
+discharge, as of several persons firing at once, and at last, five
+continuous reports, fainter, but more regular, and like the several
+emptyings of a revolver. I had scarcely time to note these things, and
+the effect produced upon the troop, when strange noises came from the
+woods to the right: the floundering of steeds, the cries and curses of
+men, and the ringing of steel striking steel. Directly the boughs
+crackled, the leaves quivered, and a horse and rider plunged into the
+road, not five rods from my feet. The man was bareheaded, and his face
+and clothing were torn with briars and branches. He was at first riding
+fairly upon our troops, when he beheld the uniform and standards, and
+with a sharp oath flung up his sword and hands.
+
+"I surrender!" he said; "I give in! Don't shoot!"
+
+The scores of carbines that were levelled upon him at once dropped to
+their rests at the saddles; but some unseen avenger had not heeded the
+shriek; a ball whistled from the woods, and the man fell from his
+cushion like a stone. In another instant, the German sergeant bounded
+through the gap, holding his sabre aloft in his right hand; but the left
+hung stiff and shattered at his side, and his face was deathly white. He
+glared an instant at the dead man by the roadside, leered grimly, and
+called aloud--
+
+"Come on, Major! Dis vay! Dere are a squad of dem ahead!"
+
+The bugle at once sounded a charge, the Major rose in the stirrups, and
+thundered "Forward!" I reined aside, intuitively, and the column dashed
+hotly past me. With a glance at the heap of mortality littering the way,
+I spurred my nag sharply, and followed hard behind. The riderless horse
+seemed to catch the fever of the moment, and closed up with me, leaving
+his master the solitary tenant of the dell. For perhaps three miles we
+galloped like the wind, and my brave little traveller overtook the
+hindmost of the troop, and retained the position. Thrice there were
+discharges ahead; I caught glimpses of the Major, the Captain, and the
+wolfish sergeant, far in the advance; and once saw, through the cloud of
+dust that beset them, the pursued and their individual pursuers, turning
+the top of a hill. But for the most part, I saw nothing; I _felt_ all
+the intense, consuming, burning ardor of the time and the event. I
+thought that my hand clutched a sabre, and despised myself that it was
+not there. I stood in the stirrups, and held some invisible enemy by the
+throat. In a word, the bloodiness of the chase was upon me. I realized
+the fierce infatuation of matching life with life, and standing arbiter
+upon my fellow's body and soul. It seemed but a moment, when we halted,
+red and panting, in the paltry Court House village of Hanover; the
+field-pieces hurled a few shells at the escaping Confederates, and the
+men were ordered to dismount.
+
+It seemed that a Confederate picket had been occupying the village, and
+the creek memorized by the skirmish was an outpost merely. Two of the
+man Otto's party had been slain in the woods, where also lay as many
+Southerners.
+
+Hanover Court House is renowned as the birthplace of Patrick Henry, the
+colonial orator, called by Byron the "forest Demosthenes." In a little
+tavern, opposite the old Court House building, he began his humble
+career as a measurer of gills to convivials, and in the Court House,--a
+small stone edifice, plainly but quaintly constructed,--he gave the
+first exhibitions of his matchless eloquence. Not far away, on a
+by-road, the more modern but not less famous orator, Henry Clay, was
+born. The region adjacent to his father's was called the "Slashes of
+Hanover," and thence came his appellation of the "Mill Boy of the
+Slashes." I had often longed to visit these shrines; but never dreamed
+that the booming of cannon would announce me. The soldiers broke into
+both the tavern and court-house, and splintered some chairs in the
+former to obtain relics of Henry. I secured Richmond newspapers of the
+same morning, and also some items of intelligence. With these I decided
+to repair at once to White House, and formed the rash determination of
+taking the direct or Pamunkey road, which I had never travelled, and
+which might be beset by Confederates. The distance to White House, by
+this course, was only twenty miles; whereas it was nearly as far to
+head-quarters; and I believed that my horse had still the persistence to
+carry me. It was past four o'clock; but I thought to ride six miles an
+hour while daylight lasted, and, by good luck, get to the depot at nine.
+The Major said that it was foolhardiness; the Captain bantered me to go.
+I turned my back upon both, and bade them good by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PUT UNDER ARREST.
+
+
+While daylight remained, I had little reason to repent my wayward
+resolve. The Pamunkey lay to my left, and the residences between it and
+the road were of a better order than others that I had seen. This part
+of the country had not been overrun, and the wheat and young corn were
+waving in the river-breeze. I saw few negroes, but the porches were
+frequently occupied by women and white men, who looked wonderingly
+toward me. There were some hoof-marks in the clay, and traces of a broad
+tire that I thought belonged to a gun-carriage. The hills of King
+William County were but a little way off, and through the wood that
+darkened them, sunny glimpses of vari-colored fields and dwellings now
+and then appeared. I came to a shabby settlement called New Castle, at
+six o'clock, where an evil-looking man walked out from a frame-house,
+and inquired the meaning of the firing at Hanover.
+
+I explained hurriedly, as some of his neighbors meantime gathered around
+me. They asked if I was not a soldier in the Yankee army, and as I rode
+away, followed me suspiciously with their eyes and wagged their heads.
+To end the matter I spurred my pony and soon galloped out of sight.
+Henceforward I met only stern, surprised glances, and seemed to read
+"murder" in the faces of the inhabitants. A wide creek crossed the road
+about five miles further on, where I stopped to water my horse. The
+shades of night were gathering now; there was no moon; and for the
+first time I realized the loneliness of my position. Hitherto, adventure
+had laughed down fear; hereafter my mind was to be darkened like the
+gloaming, and peopled with ghastly shadows.
+
+I was yet young in the experience of death, and the toppled corpse of
+the slain cavalry-man on the scout, somehow haunted me. I heard his
+hoof-falls chiming with my own, and imagined, with a cold thrill, that
+his steed was still following me; then, his white rigid face and
+uplifted arms menaced my way; and, at last, the ruffianly form of his
+slayer pursued him along the wood. They glided like shadows over the
+foliage, and flashed across the surfaces of pools and rivulets. I heard
+their steel ringing in the underbrush, and they flitted around me,
+pursuing and retreating, till my brain began to whirl with the motion.
+Suddenly my horse stumbled, and I reined him to a halt.
+
+The cold drops were standing on my forehead. I found my knees a-quiver
+and my breathing convulsive. With an expletive upon my unmanliness, I
+touched the nag with my heel, and whistled encouragingly. Poor pony!
+Fifty miles of almost uninterrupted travel had broken his spirit. He
+leaped into his accustomed pace: but his legs were unsteady and he
+floundered at every bound. There were pools, ruts, and boughs across the
+way, with here and there stretches of slippery corduroy; but the thick
+blackness concealed these, and I expected momentarily to be thrown from
+the saddle. By and by he dropped from a canter into a rock; from a rock
+to an amble; then into a walk, and finally to a slow painful limp. I
+dismounted and took him perplexedly by the bit. A light shone from the
+window of a dwelling across some open fields to the left, and I thought
+of repairing thither; but some deep-mouthed dogs began to bay directly,
+and then the lamp went out. A tiny stream sang at the roadside, flowing
+toward some deeper tributary; lighting a cigar, I made out, by its
+fitful illuminings, to wash the limbs of the jaded nag. Then I led him
+for an hour, till my own limbs were weary, troubled all the time by
+weird imaginings, doubts, and regrets. When I resumed the saddle the
+horse had a firmer step and walked pleasantly. I ventured after a time
+to incite him to a trot, and was going nicely forward, when a deep
+voice, that almost took my breath, called from the gloom--
+
+"Who comes there? Halt, or I fire! Guard, turn out!"
+
+Directly the road was full of men, and a bull's-eye lantern flashed upon
+my face. A group of foot-soldiery, with drawn pistols and sabres,
+gathered around me, and I heard the neigh of steeds from some
+imperceptible vicinity. "Who is it, Sergeant?" said one. "Is there but
+one of 'em?" said another. "Cuss him!" said a third; "I was takin' a
+bully snooze." "Who are yeou?" said the Sergeant, sternly; "what are
+yeou deouin' aout at this hour o' the night? Are yeou a rebbil?"
+
+"No!" I answered, greatly relieved; "I am a newspaper correspondent of
+Smith's division, and there's my pass!"
+
+I was taken over to a place in the woods, where some fagots were
+smouldering, and, stirring them to a blaze, the Sergeant read the
+document and pronounced it right.
+
+"Yeou hain't got no business, nevertheless, to be roamin' araound
+outside o' picket; but seein' as it's yeou, I reckon yeou may trot
+along!"
+
+I offered to exchange my information for a biscuit and a drop of coffee,
+for I was wellnigh worn out; while one of the privates produced a
+canteen more wholesome than cleanly, another gave me a lump of fat pork
+and a piece of corn bread. They gathered sleepily about me, while I told
+of the scout, and the Sergeant said that my individual ride was "game
+enough, but nothin' but darn nonsense." Then they fed my horse with a
+trifle of oats, and after awhile I climbed, stiff and bruised, to the
+saddle again, and bade them good night.
+
+I knew now that I was at "Putney's," a ford on the Pamunkey, and an hour
+later I came in sight of the ship-lights at White House, and heard the
+steaming of tugs and draught-boats, going and coming by night. I hitched
+my horse to a tree, pilfered some hay and fodder from two or three nags
+tied adjacent, and picked my way across a gangway, several barge-decks,
+and a floating landing, to the mail steamer that lay outside. Her deck
+and cabin were filled with people, stretched lengthwise and crosswise,
+tangled, grouped, and snoring, but all apparently fast asleep. I coolly
+took a blanket from a man that looked as though he did not need it, and
+wrapped myself cosily under a bench in a corner. The cabin light flared
+dimly, half irradiating the forms below, and the boat heaved a little on
+the river-swells. The night was cold, the floor hard, and I almost dead
+with fatigue. But what of that! I felt the newspapers in my breast
+pocket, and knew that the mail could not leave me in the morning.
+Blessed be the news-gatherer's sleep! I think he earned it.
+
+It was very pleasant, at dawn, to receive the congratulations of our
+agent, with whom I breakfasted, and to whom I consigned a hastily
+written letter and all the Richmond papers of the preceding day. He was
+a shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man, of large experience and good
+standing in our establishment. He was sent through the South at the
+beginning of the Rebellion, and introduced into all public bodies and
+social circles, that he might fathom the designs of Secession, and
+comprehend its spirit. Afterward he accompanied the Hatteras and Port
+Royal expeditions, and witnessed those celebrated bombardments. Such a
+thorough individual abnegation I never knew. He was a part of the
+establishment, body and soul. He agreed with its politics, adhered to
+all its policies, defended it, upheld it, revered it. The Federal
+Government was, to his eye, merely an adjunct of the paper. Battles and
+sieges were simply occurrences for its columns. Good men, brave men, bad
+men, died to give it obituaries. The whole world was to him a Reporter's
+district, and all human mutations plain matters of news. I hardly think
+that any city, other than New York, contains such characters. The
+journals there are full of fever, and the profession of journalism is a
+disease.
+
+He cashed me a draft for a hundred dollars, and I filled my saddle-bags
+with smoking-tobacco, spirits, a meerschaum pipe, packages of sardines,
+a box of cigars, and some cheap publications. Then we adjourned to the
+quay, where the steamer was taking in mails, freight and passengers. The
+papers were in his side-pocket, and he was about to commit them to a
+steward for transmission to Fortress Monroe, when my name was called
+from the strand by a young mounted officer, connected with one of the
+staffs of my division. I thought that he wished to exchange salutations
+or make some inquiries, and tripped to his side.
+
+"General McClellan wants those newspapers that you obtained at Hanover
+yesterday!"
+
+A thunderbolt would not have more transfixed me. I could not speak for a
+moment. Finally, I stammered that they were out of my possession.
+
+"Then, sir, I arrest you, by order of General McClellan. Get your
+horse!"
+
+"Stop!" said I, agitatedly, "--it may not be too late. I can recover
+them yet. Here is our agent,--I gave them to him."
+
+I turned, at the word, to the landing where he stood a moment before. To
+my dismay, he had disappeared.
+
+"This is some frivolous pretext to escape," said the Lieutenant; "you
+correspondents are slippery fellows, but I shall take care that you do
+not play any pranks with me. The General is irritated already, and if
+you prevaricate relative to those papers he may make a signal example of
+you."
+
+I begged to be allowed to look for----; but he answered cunningly, that
+I had better mount and ride on. An acquaintance of mine here interfered,
+and testified to the existency of the agent and his probable connection
+with the journals. Pale, flurried, excited, I started to discover him,
+the Lieutenant following me closely meantime. We entered every booth and
+tent, went from craft to craft, sought among the thick clusters of
+people, and even at the Commissary's and Quartermaster's pounds, that
+lay some distance up the railroad.
+
+"I am sorry for you, old fellow," said the Lieutenant, "but your
+accomplice has probably escaped. It's very sneaking of him, as it makes
+it harder for you; but I have no authority to deal with him, though I
+shall take care to report his conduct at head-quarters."
+
+I found that the Lieutenant was greatly gratified with the duty
+entrusted to him. He had been at the cavalry quarters on the return of
+the scouting party, and had overheard the Major muttering something as
+to McClellan's displeasure at receiving no Richmond journals. The Major
+had added that one of the correspondents took them to White House, and,
+mentioning me by name, this young and aspiring satellite had blurted out
+that he knew me, and could doubtless overtake me at the mail-boat in the
+morning. The Commanding General authorised him to arrest me _with the
+papers_, and report at head-quarters. This was then a journey to
+recommend him to authority, and it involved no personal danger. I was
+not so intimidated that I failed to see how the Lieutenant would lose
+his gayest feather by failing to recover the journals, and I dexterously
+insinuated that it would be well to recommence the search. This time we
+were successful. The shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man was coolly
+contemplating the river from an outside barge, concealed from the shore
+by piled boxes of ammunition. He was reading a phonetic pamphlet, and
+appeared to take his apprehension as a pleasant morning call. I caught
+one meaning glance, however, that satisfied me how clearly he understood
+the case.
+
+"Ha! Townsend," said he, smilingly, "back already? I thought we had lost
+you. One of your military friends? Good-day, Lieutenant."
+
+"I am under arrest, my boy," said I, "and you will much aggravate
+General McClellan, if you do not consign those Richmond journals to his
+deputy here."
+
+"Under arrest? You surprise me! I am sorry, Lieutenant that you have had
+so fatiguing a ride, but the fact is, those papers have gone down the
+river. If the General is not in a great hurry, he will see their columns
+reproduced by us in a few days."
+
+"How did they go?" said the Lieutenant, with an oath, "if by the
+mail-boat I will have General Van Vliet despatch a tug to overhaul her."
+
+"I am very sorry again," said the bland civilian, smoothing his hands:
+"but they went by the _South America_ at a much earlier hour."
+
+I looked appealingly to him; the satellite stared down the river
+perplexedly, but suddenly his eye fell upon something that absorbed it;
+and he turned like a madman to----
+
+"By! ---- sir, you are lying to me. There is the _South America_ moored
+to a barge, and her steam is not up!"
+
+"Those words are utterly uncalled for," said the agent,--"but you cannot
+irritate me, my dear sir! I know that youth is hot,--particularly
+military youth yet inexperienced; and therefore I pardon you. I made a
+mistake. It was not the _South America_, it was--it was--upon my word I
+cannot recall the name!"
+
+"You do not mean to!" thundered the young Ajax, to whose vanity, ----'s
+speech had been gall; "my powers are discretionary: I arrest you in the
+name of General McClellan."
+
+"Indeed! Be sure you understand your orders! It isn't probable that such
+a fiery blade is allowed much discretionary margin. The General himself
+would not assume such airs. Why don't you shoot me? It might contribute
+to your promotion, and that is, no doubt, your object. I know General
+McClellan very well. He is a personal friend of mine."
+
+His manner was so self-possessed, his tone so cutting, that the young
+man of fustian--whose name was Kenty--fingered his sword hilt, and
+foamed at the lips.
+
+"March on," said he,--"I will report this insolence word for word."
+
+He motioned us to the quay; we preceded him. The sanguine gentleman
+keeping up a running fire of malevolent sarcasm.
+
+"Stop!" said he quietly, as we reached his tent,--"I have not sent them
+at all. They are here. And you have made all this exhibition of yourself
+for nothing. I am the better soldier, you see. You are a drummer-boy,
+not an officer. Take off your shoulder-bars, and go to school again."
+
+He disappeared a minute, returned with two journals, and looking at me,
+meaningly, turned to their titles.
+
+"Let me see!" he said, smoothly,--"_Richmond Examiner_, May 28,
+_Richmond Enquirer_, May 22. There! You have them! Go in peace! Give my
+respects to General McClellan! Townsend, old fellow, you have done your
+full duty. Don't let this young person frighten you. Good by."
+
+He gave me his hand, with a sinister glance, and left something in my
+palm when his own was withdrawn. I examined it hastily when I girt up my
+saddle. It said: "_Your budget got off safe, old fellow._" He had given
+Kenty some old journals that were of no value to anybody. When we were
+mounted and about to start, the Lieutenant looked witheringly upon his
+persecutor--
+
+"Allow me to say, sir," he exclaimed, "that you are the most unblushing
+liar I ever knew."
+
+"Thank you, kindly," said----, taking off his hat, "you do me honor!"
+
+Our route was silent and weary enough. The young man at my side,
+unconscious of his wily antagonist's deception, boasted for some time
+that he had attained his purposes. As I could not undeceive him, I held
+my tongue; but feared that when this trick should be made manifest, the
+vengeance would fall on me alone. I heartily wished the unlucky papers
+at the bottom of the sea. To gratify an adventurous whim, and obtain a
+day's popularity at New York, I had exposed my life, crippled my nag,
+and was now to be disgraced and punished. What might or might not befall
+me, I gloomily debated. The least penalty would be expulsion from the
+army; but imprisonment till the close of the war, was a favorite
+amusement with the War Office. How my newspaper connection would be
+embarrassed was a more grievous inquiry. It stung me to think that I had
+blundered twice on the very threshold of my career. Was I not acquiring
+a reputation for rashness that would hinder all future promotion and
+cast me from the courts of the press. Here the iron entered into my
+soul; for be it known, I loved Bohemia! This roving commission, these
+vagabond habits, this life in the open air among the armies, the white
+tents, the cannon, and the drums, they were my elysium, my heart! But to
+be driven away, as one who had broken his trust, forfeited favor and
+confidence, and that too on the eve of grand events, was something that
+would embitter my existence.
+
+We passed the familiar objects that I had so often buoyantly
+beheld,--deserted encampments, cross-roads, rills, farm-houses, fields,
+and at last came to Daker's. I called out to them, and explained my
+woful circumstances with rueful conciseness.
+
+It was growing dark when we came to general headquarters, two miles
+beyond Gaines's Mill. The tents were scattered over the surface of a
+hill, and most of them were illumined by candles.
+
+The Lieutenant gave our horses to an orderly, and led the way through
+two outer circles of wall-tents, between which and the inner circle,
+guards were pacing, to deny all vulgar ingress.
+
+A staff officer took in our names, and directly returned with the reply
+of "Pass in!" We were now in the sacred enclosure, secured by flaming
+swords. Four tents stood in a row, allotted respectively to the Chief of
+Staff, the Adjutant-General, the telegraph operators, and the select
+staff officers. Just behind them, embowered by a covering of cedar
+boughs, stood the tent of General McClellan. Close by, from an open plot
+or area of ground, towered a pine trunk, floating the national flag.
+Lights burned in three of the tents: low voices, as of subdued
+conversation, were heard from the first.
+
+A little flutter of my heart, a drawing aside of canvas, two steps, an
+uncovering, and a bow,--I stood at my tribunal! A couple of candles were
+placed upon a table, whereat sat a fine specimen of man, with kindly
+features, dark, grayish, flowing hair, and slight marks of years upon
+his full, purplish face. He looked to be a well-to-do citizen, whose
+success had taught him sedentary convivialities. A fuming cigar lay
+before him; some empty champagne bottles sat upon a pine desk; tumblers
+and a decanter rested upon a camp-stool; a bucket, filled with water and
+a great block of ice, was visible under the table. Five other gentlemen,
+each with a star in his shoulder-bar, were dispersed upon chairs and
+along a camp bedside. The tall, angular, dignified gentleman with
+compressed lips and a "character" nose, was General Barry, Chief of
+Artillery. The lithe, severe, gristly, sanguine person, whose eyes
+flashed even in repose, was General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry. The
+large, sleepy-eyed, lymphatic, elderly man, clad in dark, civil gray,
+whose ears turned up habitually as from deafness, was Prince de
+Joinville, brother to Louis Philippe, King of France. The little man
+with red hair and beard, who moved quickly and who spoke sharply, was
+Seth Williams, Adjutant-General. The stout person with florid face,
+large, blue eyes, and white, straight hair, was General Van Vliet,
+Quartermaster-General. And the man at the table, was General Marcy,
+father-in-law to McClellan, and Executive officer of the army.
+
+Maps, papers, books, and luggage lay around the room; all the gentlemen
+were smoking and wine sparkled in most of the glasses. Some swords were
+lying upon the floor, a pair of spurs glistened by the bed, and three of
+the officers had their feet in the air.
+
+"What is it you wish, Lieutenant?" said General Marcy, gravely.
+
+The boor in uniform at my side, related his errand and order, gave the
+particulars of my arrest, declaimed against our agent, and submitted the
+journals. He told his story stammeringly, and I heard one of the
+officers in the background mutter contemptuously when he had finished.
+
+"Were you aware of the order prohibiting correspondents from keeping
+with the advance?" said the General, looking up.
+
+"I had not been notified from head-quarters. I have been with the army
+only a week."
+
+"You knew that you had no business upon scouts, forages, or
+reconnoissances; why did you go?"
+
+"I went by invitation."
+
+"Who invited you?"
+
+"I would prefer not to state, since it would do him an injury."
+
+Here the voices in the background muttered, as I thought, applaudingly.
+Gaining confidence as I proceeded, I spoke more boldly--
+
+"I am sure I regret that I have disobeyed any order of General
+McClellan's; but there can nothing occur in the rear of an army.
+Obedience, in this case, would be indolence and incompetence; for only
+the reliable would stay behind and the reckless go ahead. If I am
+accredited here as a correspondent, I must keep up with the events. And
+the rivalries of our tribe, General, are so many, that the best of us
+sometimes forget what is right for what is expedient. I hope that
+General McClellan will pass by this offence."
+
+He heard my rambling defence quietly, excused the Lieutenant, and
+whistled for an orderly.
+
+"I don't think that you meant to offend General McClellan," he said,
+"but he wishes you to be detained. Give me your pass. Orderly, take this
+gentleman to General Porter, and tell him to treat him kindly. Good
+night."
+
+When we got outside of the tent, I slipped a silver half-dollar into the
+orderly's hand, and asked him if he understood the General's final
+remark. He said, in reply, that I was directed to be treated with
+courtesy, kindness, and care, and asked me, in conclusion, if there were
+any adjectives that might intensify the recommendation. When we came to
+General Porter, the Provost-Marshal, however, he pooh-poohed the
+qualifications, and said that _his_ business was merely to put me under
+surveillance. This unamiable man ordered me to be taken to Major
+Willard, the deputy Provost, whose tent we found after a long search.
+The Major was absent, but some young officers of his mess were taking
+supper at his table, and with these I at once engaged in conversation.
+
+I knew that if I was to be spared an immersion in the common guardhouse,
+with drunkards, deserters, and prisoners of war, I must win the favor of
+these men. I gave them the story of my arrest, spoke lightly of the
+offence and jestingly of the punishment, and, in fact, so improved my
+cause that, when the Major appeared, and the Sergeant consigned me to
+his custody, one of the young officers took him aside, and, I am sure,
+said some good words in my favor.
+
+The Major was a bronzed, indurated gentleman, scrupulously attired, and
+courteously stern. He looked at me twice or thrice, to my confusion; for
+I was dusty, wan, and running over with perspiration. His first remark
+had, naturally, reference to the lavatory, and, so far as my face and
+hair were concerned, I was soon rejuvenated. I found on my return to the
+tent, a clean plate and a cup of steaming coffee placed for me, and I
+ate with a full heart though pleading covertly the while. When I had
+done, and the tent became deserted by all save him and me, he said,
+simply--
+
+"What am I to do with you, Mr. Townsend?"
+
+"Treat me as a gentleman, I hope, Major."
+
+"We have but one place of confinement," said he, "the guardhouse; but I
+am loth to send you there. Light your pipe, and I will think the matter
+over."
+
+He took a turn in front, consulted with some of his associates, and
+directly returning, said that I was to be quartered in his office-tent,
+adjoining. A horror being thus lifted from my mind, I heard with sincere
+interest many revelations of his military career. He had been a common
+soldier in the Mexican war, and had fought his way, step by step, to
+repeated commissions. He had garrisoned Fort Yuma, and other posts on
+the far plains, and at the beginning of the war was tendered a volunteer
+brigade, which he modestly declined. His tastes were refined, and a warm
+fancy, approaching poetry, enhanced his personal reminiscences. His face
+softened, his eyes grew milder, his large, commanding mouth relaxed,--he
+was young again, living his adventures over. We talked thus till almost
+midnight, when two regulars appeared in front,--stiff, ramrodish
+figures, that came to a jerking "present," tapped their caps with two
+fingers, and said, explosively; "Sergeant of Guard, Number Five!"
+
+The Major rose, gave me his hand, and said that I would find a candle in
+my tent, with waterproof and blankets on the ground. I was to give
+myself no concern about the nag, and might, if I chose, sit for an hour
+to write, but must, on no account, attempt to leave the canvas, for the
+guard would instantly shoot me down. The guard in question had a
+_doppel-ganger_,--counterpart of himself in inflexibility,--and both
+were appendages of their muskets. He was not probably a sentient being,
+certainly not a conversational one. He knew the length of a stride, and
+the manual of bayonet exercise, but was, during his natural life, a
+blind idolater of a deity, called "Orders." The said "Orders," for the
+present evening, were walking, not talking, and he was dumb to all
+conciliatory words. He took a position at one end of my tent, and his
+double at the other end. They carried their muskets at "support arms,"
+and paced up and down, measuredly, like two cloaked and solemn ghosts. I
+wrapped myself in the damp blankets, and slept through the bangs of four
+or five court-martials and several executions. At three o'clock, they
+changed ramrods,--the old doppel-gangers going away, and two new ones
+fulfilling their functions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AFTER THE VICTORY.
+
+
+The two ramrods were still pacing to and fro, when I aroused in the gray
+of the morning; but they looked very misty and moist, as if they were
+impalpables that were shortly to evaporate. The Major poked his head
+between the flaps at eight o'clock, and said that breakfast was ready;
+but the ramrod nearest me kept vigilantly alongside, and I thought he
+had been invited also. The other ramrod guarded the empty tent, and I
+think that he believed me a doppel-ganger likewise.
+
+I wondered what was to be done with me, as the hours slipped rapidly by.
+The guards were relieved again at ten o'clock, and Quartermaster's men
+commenced to take down the tents. Camps were to be moved, and I inquired
+solicitously if I was to be moved also. The Major replied that prisoners
+were commonly made to walk along the road, escorted by horsemen, and I
+imagined, with dread, the companionship of negroes, estrays, ragged
+Confederates, and such folk, while the whole army should witness my
+degradation. Finally, all the tents were lifted and packed in wagons, as
+well as the furniture. I adhered to a stool, at which the teamster
+looked wistfully, and the implacable sentinels walked to and fro. A
+rumor became current among the private soldiers, that I was the nephew
+of the southern General Lee, whose wife had been meantime captured at
+Hanover Court House. Curious groups sauntered around me, and talked
+behind their hands. One man was overheard to say that I had fought
+desperately, and covered myself with glory, and another thought that I
+favored my uncle somewhat, and might succeed to his military virtues.
+
+"I guess I'll take that cheer, if you ain't got no objection," said the
+teamster, and he slung it into the wagon. What to do now troubled me
+materially; but one of the soldiers brought a piece of rail, and I
+"squatted" lugubriously on the turf.
+
+"If you ever get to Richmond," said I, "you shall be considerately
+treated." (Profound sensation.)
+
+"Thankee!" replied the man, touching his cap; "but I'm werry well
+pleased _out_ o' Richmond, Captain."
+
+Here the Major was seen approaching, a humorous smile playing about his
+eyes.
+
+"You are discharged," said he; "General Marcy will return your pass, and
+perhaps your papers."
+
+I wrung his hand with indescribable relief, and he sent the "ramrod" on
+guard, to saddle my horse. In a few minutes, I was mounted again, much
+to the surprise of the observers of young Lee, and directly I stood
+before the kindly Chief of Staff. At my request, he wrote a note to the
+division commander, specifying my good behavior, and restoring to me all
+privileges and immunities. He said nothing whatever as to the mistake in
+the papers, and told me that, on special occasions, I might keep with
+advances, by procuring an extraordinary pass at head-quarters. In short,
+my arrest conduced greatly to my efficiency. I invariably carried my
+Richmond despatches to General Marcy, thereafter, and, if there was
+information of a legitimate description, he gave me the benefit of it.
+
+My own brigade lay at Dr. Gaines's house, during this time, and we did
+not lack for excitement. Just behind the house lay several batteries of
+rifled guns, and these threw shells at hourly intervals, at certain
+Confederate batteries across the river. The distance was two miles or
+less; but the firing was generally wretched. Crowds of soldiers gathered
+around, to watch the practice, and they threw up their hats applaudingly
+at successful hits. Occasionally a great round shot would bound up the
+hill, and a boy, one day, seeing one of these spent balls rolling along
+the ground, put out his foot to stop it, but shattered his leg so
+dreadfully that it had to be amputated. Dr. Gaines was a rich,
+aristocratic, and indolent old Virginian, whose stables, summerhouses,
+orchards, and negro-quarters were the finest in their district. The
+shooting so annoyed him that he used to resort to the cellar; several
+shots passed through his roof, and one of the chimneys was knocked off.
+His family carriages were five in number, and as his stables were turned
+into hospitals, these were all hauled into his lawn, where their
+obsolete trimmings and queer shape constantly amused the soldiers. About
+this time I became acquainted with some officers of the 5th Maine
+regiment, and by permission, accompanied them to Mechanicsville. I was
+here, on the afternoon of Thursday, May 27, when the battle of Hanover
+Court House was fought. We heard the rapid growl of guns, and continuous
+volleys of musketry, though the place was fourteen miles distant. At
+evening, a report was current that the Federals had gained a great
+victory, and captured seven hundred prisoners. The truth of this was
+established next morning; for detachments of prisoners were from time to
+time brought in, and the ambulances came to camp, laden with the
+wounded. I took this opportunity of observing the Confederate soldiers,
+as they lay at the Provost quarters, in a roped pen, perhaps one hundred
+rods square.
+
+It was evening, as I hitched my horse to a stake near-by, and pressed up
+to the receptacle for the unfortunates. Sentries enclosed the pen,
+walking to-and-fro with loaded muskets; a throng of officers and
+soldiers had assembled to gratify their curiosity; and new detachments
+of captives came in hourly, encircled by sabremen, the Southerners
+being disarmed and on foot. The scene within the area was ludicrously
+moving. It reminded me of the witch-scene in Macbeth, or pictures of
+brigands or Bohemian gypsies at rendezvous, not less than five hundred
+men, in motley, ragged costumes, with long hair, and lean, wild, haggard
+faces, were gathered in groups or in pairs, around some fagot fires. In
+the growing darkness their expressions were imperfectly visible; but I
+could see that most of them were weary, and hungry, and all were
+depressed and ashamed. Some were wrapped in blankets of rag-carpet, and
+others wore shoes of rough, untanned hide. Others were without either
+shoes or jackets, and their heads were bound with red handkerchiefs.
+Some appeared in red shirts; some in stiff beaver hats; some were
+attired in shreds and patches of cloth; and a few wore the soiled
+garments of citizen gentlemen; but the mass adhered to homespun suits of
+gray, or "butternut," and the coarse blue kersey common to slaves. In
+places I caught glimpses of red Zouave breeches and leggings; blue
+Federal caps, Federal buttons, or Federal blouses; these were the spoils
+of anterior battles, and had been stripped from the slain. Most of the
+captives were of the appearances denominated "scraggy" or "knotty." They
+were brown, brawny, and wiry, and their countenances were intense,
+fierce, and animal. They came from North Carolina, the poorest and least
+enterprising Southern State, and ignorance, with its attendant virtues,
+were the common facial manifestations. Some lay on the bare ground, fast
+asleep; others chatted nervously as if doubtful of their future
+treatment; a few were boisterous, and anxious to beg tobacco or coffee
+from idle Federals; the rest--and they comprehended the greater
+number--were silent, sullen, and vindictive. They met curiosity with
+scorn, and spite with imprecations. A child--not more than four years of
+age, I think--sat sleeping in a corner upon an older comrade's lap. A
+gray-bearded pard was staunching a gash in his cheek with the tail of
+his coat. A fine-looking young fellow sat with his face in his hands,
+as if his heart were far off, and he wished to shut out this bitter
+scene. In a corner, lying morosely apart, were a Major, three Captains,
+and three Lieutenants,--young athletic fellows, dressed in rich gray
+cassimere, trimmed with black, and wearing soft black hats adorned with
+black ostrich-feathers. Their spurs were strapped upon elegantly fitting
+boots, and they looked as far above the needy, seedy privates, as lords
+above their vassals.
+
+After a time, couples and squads of the prisoners were marched off to
+cut and carry some firewood, and water, for the use of their pen, and
+then each Confederate received coffee, pork, and crackers; they were
+obliged to prepare their own meals, but some were so hungry that they
+gnawed the raw pork, like beasts of prey. Those who were not provided
+with blankets, shivered through the night, though the rain was falling,
+and the succession of choking coughs that ran through the ranks, told
+how ill they could afford the exposure. Major Willard had charge of
+these men, and he sent a young officer to get me admittance to the pen,
+that I might speak with them.
+
+"Good evening, Major," I said, to the ranking Confederate officer, and
+extended my hand. He shook it, embarrassedly, and ran me over with his
+eye, as if to learn my avocation. "Can I obtain any facts from you," I
+continued, "as to the battle of Hanover?"
+
+"Fuh what puhpose?" he said, in his strong southern dialect.
+
+"For publication, sir."
+
+He sat up at once, and said that he should be happy to tell me anything
+that would not be a violation of military honor. I asked him, therefore,
+the Confederate Commandant at Hanover, the number of brigades,
+regiments, and batteries engaged, the disposition of forces, the
+character of the battle, and the losses, so far as he knew, upon his own
+side. Much of this he revealed, but unguardedly let out other matters,
+that direct inquiry could not have discovered. I took notes of the
+legitimate passages, trusting to memory for the rest; and think that I
+possessed his whole stock of information, in the course of an hour's
+manoeuvring. It seemed that General Branch, formerly a member of the
+Federal congress, had been sent with some thousands of Carolina troops
+across the upper Chickahominy, to see if it would not be possible to
+turn the Federal right, and cut off one of its brigades; but a stronger
+Federal reconnoissance had gone northward the day before, and
+discovering Branch's camp-fires, sent, during the night, for
+reinforcements. In the end, the "North State" volunteers were routed,
+their cannon silenced or broken, and seven hundred of their number
+captured. The Federals lost a large number of men killed, and the
+wounded upon both sides, were numerous.
+
+The Confederate Major was of the class referred to in polite American
+parlance, as a "blatherskite." He boasted after the manner of his
+fellow-citizens from the county of "Bunkum," but nevertheless feared and
+trembled, to the manifest disgust of one of the young Captains.
+
+"Majuh!" said this young man, "what you doin' thah! That fellow's makin'
+notes of all your slack; keep your tongue! aftah awhile you'll tell the
+nombah of the foces! Don't you s'pose he'll prent it all?"
+
+The Major had, in fact, been telling me how many regiments the "old
+Nawth State, suh," had furnished to the "suhvice," and I had the names
+of some thirty colonels, in order. The young Captain gave me a sketch of
+General Branch, and was anxious that I should publish something in
+extenuation of North Carolina valor.
+
+"We have lost mo' men," said he, "than any otha' Commonwealth; but these
+Vuhginians, whose soil, by----! suh, we defend suh! Yes, suh! whose soil
+we defend; these Vuhginians, stigmatize us as cowads! _We_, suh! yes
+suh, _we_, that nevah wanted to leave the Union,--_we cowads_! Look at
+ou' blood, suh, ou' blood! That's it, by----! look at that! shed on
+every field of the ole Dominion,--killed, muhdud, captued, crippled! We
+_cowads_! I want you prent that!"
+
+I was able to give each of the officers a drop of whiskey from my flask,
+and I never saw men drink so thirstily. Their hands and lips trembled as
+they took it, and their eyes shone like lunacy, as the hot drops sank to
+the cold vitals, and pricked the frozen blood. Mingling with the
+privates, I stirred up some native specimens of patriotism, that
+appeared to be in great doubt as to the causes and ends of the war. They
+were very much in the political condition of a short, thick, sententious
+man, in blue drilling breeches, who said--
+
+"Damn the country! What's to be done with _us_?"
+
+One person said that he enlisted for the honor of his family, that "fit
+in the American Revolution;" and another came out to "hev a squint et
+the fightin'." Several were northern and foreign lads, that were working
+on Carolina railroads, and could not leave the section, and some labored
+under the impression that they were to have a "slice" of land and a
+"nigger," in the event of Southern independence. A few comprehended the
+spirit of the contest, and took up arms from principle; a few, also,
+declared their enmity to "Yankee institutions," and had seized the
+occasion to "polish them off," and "give them a ropein' in;" but many
+said it was "dull in our deestreeks, an' the niggers was runnin' away,
+so I thought I'ud jine the foces." The great mass said, that they never
+contemplated "this box," or "this fix," or "these suckemstances," and
+all wanted the war to close, that they might return to their families.
+Indeed, my romantic ideas of rebellion were ruthlessly profaned and
+dissipated. I knew that there was much selfishness, peculation, and
+"Hessianism" in the Federal lines, but I had imagined a lofty
+patriotism, a dignified purpose, and an inflexible love of personal
+liberty among the Confederates. Yet here were men who knew little of
+the principles for which they staked their lives;--who enlisted from the
+commonest motives of convenience, whim, pelf, adventure, and foray; and
+who repented, after their first misfortune, with the salt rheum in their
+eyes. I think that all "great uprisings" resolve to this complexion.
+With due reverence for my own ancestry, I think that they sometimes
+stooped from greatness to littleness. I must confess that certain
+admissions in my revolutionary textbook are much clearer, now that I
+have followed a campaign. And if, as I had proposed, I could have
+witnessed the further fortunes of the illustrious Garibaldi, I think
+that some of his compatriots would have been found equally inconsistent.
+Let no man believe that the noblest cause is fought out alone by the
+unerring motives of duty and devotion. The masses are never so constant.
+They cannot appreciate an abstraction, however divine. Any of the
+gentlemen in question would have preferred their biscuit and fat pork
+before the political enfranchisement of the whole world!
+
+I rode across the fields to the Hogan, Curtis, and Gaines mansions; for
+some of the wounded had meantime been deposited in each of them. All the
+cow-houses, wagon-sheds, hay-barracks, hen-coops, negro cabins, and
+barns were turned into hospitals. The floors were littered with
+"corn-shucks" and fodder; and the maimed, gashed, and dying lay
+confusedly together. A few, slightly wounded, stood at windows, relating
+incidents of the battle; but at the doors sentries stood with crossed
+muskets, to keep out idlers and gossips. The mention of my vocation was
+an "open sesame," and I went unrestrained, into all the largest
+hospitals. In the first of these an amputation was being performed, and
+at the door lay a little heap of human fingers, feet, legs, and arms. I
+shall not soon forget the bare-armed surgeons, with bloody instruments,
+that leaned over the rigid and insensible figure, while the comrades of
+the subject looked horrifiedly at the scene. The grating of the
+murderous saw drove me into the open air, but in the second hospital
+which I visited, a wounded man had just expired, and I encountered his
+body at the threshold. Within, the sickening smell of mortality was
+almost insupportable, but by degrees I became accustomed to it. The
+lanterns hanging around the room streamed fitfully upon the red eyes,
+and half-naked figures. All were looking up, and saying, in pleading
+monotone: "Is that you, doctor?" Men with their arms in slings went
+restlessly up and down, smarting with fever. Those who were wounded in
+the lower extremities, body, or head, lay upon their backs, tossing even
+in sleep. They listened peevishly to the wind whistling through the
+chinks of the barn. They followed one with their rolling eyes. They
+turned away from the lantern, for it seemed to sear them. Soldiers sat
+by the severely wounded, laving their sores with water. In many wounds
+the balls still remained, and the discolored flesh was swollen
+unnaturally. There were some who had been shot in the bowels, and now
+and then they were frightfully convulsed, breaking into shrieks and
+shouts. Some of them iterated a single word, as, "doctor," or "help," or
+"God," or "oh!" commencing with a loud spasmodic cry, and continuing the
+same word till it died away in cadence. The act of calling seemed to
+lull the pain. Many were unconscious and lethargic, moving their fingers
+and lips mechanically, but never more to open their eyes upon the light;
+they were already going through the valley and the shadow. I think,
+still, with a shudder, of the faces of those who were told mercifully
+that they could not live. The unutterable agony; the plea for somebody
+on whom to call; the longing eyes that poured out prayers; the looking
+on mortal as if its resources were infinite; the fearful looking to the
+immortal as if it were so far off, so implacable, that the dying appeal
+would be in vain; the open lips, through which one could almost look at
+the quaking heart below; the ghastliness of brow and tangled hair; the
+closing pangs; the awful _quietus_. I thought of Parrhasius, in the
+poem, as I looked at these things:--
+
+                         "Gods!
+    Could I but paint a dying groan----."
+
+And how the keen eye of West would have turned from the reeking cockpit
+of the _Victory_, or the tomb of the Dead Man Restored, to this old
+barn, peopled with horrors. I rambled in and out, learning to look at
+death, studying the manifestations of pain,--quivering and sickening at
+times, but plying my avocation, and jotting the names for my column of
+mortalities.
+
+At eleven o'clock there was music along the high-road, and a general
+rushing from camps. The victorious regiments were returning from
+Hanover, under escort, and all the bands were pealing national airs. As
+they turned down the fields towards their old encampments, the several
+brigades stood under arms to welcome them, and the cheers were many and
+vigorous. But the solemn ambulances still followed after, and the red
+flag of the hospitals flaunted bloodily in the blue midnight.
+
+Both the prisoners and the wounded were removed between midnight and
+morning to White House, and as I had despatches to forward by the
+mail-boat, I rode down in an ambulance, that contained six wounded men
+besides. The wounded were to be consigned to hospital boats, and
+forwarded to hospitals in northern cities, and the prisoners were to be
+placed in a transport, under guard, and conveyed to Fort Delaware, near
+Philadelphia.
+
+Ambulances, it may be said, incidentally, are either two-wheeled or
+four-wheeled. Two-wheeled ambulances are commonly called "hop, step, and
+jumps." They are so constructed that the forepart is either very high or
+very low, and may be both at intervals. The wounded occupants may be
+compelled to ride for hours in these carriages, with their heels
+elevated above their heads, and may finally be shaken out, or have their
+bones broken by the terrible jolting. The four-wheeled ambulances are
+built in shelves, or compartments, but the wounded are in danger of
+being smothered in them. It was in one of these latter that I rode,
+sitting with the driver. We had four horses, but were thrice "swamped"
+on the road, and had to take out the wounded men once, till we could
+start the wheels. Two of these men were wounded in the face, one of them
+having his nose completely severed, and the other having a fragment of
+his jaw knocked out. A third had received a ball among the thews and
+muscles behind his knee, and his whole body appeared to be paralyzed.
+Two were wounded in the shoulders, and the sixth was shot in the breast,
+and was believed to be injured inwardly, as he spat blood, and suffered
+almost the pain of death. The ride with these men, over twenty miles of
+hilly, woody country, was like one of Dante's excursions into the
+Shades. In the awful stillness of the dark pines, their screams
+frightened the hooting owls, and the whirring insects in the leaves and
+tree-tops quieted their songs. They heard the gurgle of the rills, and
+called aloud for water to quench their insatiate thirst. One of them
+sang a shrill, fierce, fiendish ballad, in an interval of relief, but
+plunged, at a sudden relapse, in prayers and curses. We heard them
+groaning to themselves, as we sat in front, and one man, it seemed, was
+quite out of his mind. These were the outward manifestations; but what
+chords trembled and smarted within, we could only guess. What regrets
+for good resolves unfulfilled, and remorse for years misspent, made
+hideous these sore and panting hearts? The moonlight pierced through the
+thick foliage of the wood, and streamed into our faces, like invitations
+to a better life. But the crippled and bleeding could not see or feel
+it,--buried in the shelves of the ambulance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BALLOON BATTLES.
+
+
+Some days ago, as I was sitting in Central Park, under a tree no bigger
+than Jonah's gourd, broiling nicely brown, and seasoning the process by
+reading what the lesser weeklies said about me, I saw at the Park gate a
+great phantasm, like a distended sausage, swaying to and fro as if
+striving to burst, and directly the horrible thing blew upwards,
+spilling all the stuffing from the case.
+
+I saw in a moment that the apparition was a balloon, and that the
+aeronaut was only emptying ballast.
+
+Straight toward me the floating vessel came, so close to the ground that
+I could hear the silk crackle and the ropes creak, till, directly, a man
+leaned over the side and shouted--
+
+"Is that you, Townsend?"
+
+"Hallo, Lowe!"
+
+"I want you to get on your feet and be spry about it: we have a literary
+party here, and wish you to write it up. I'll let one bag of ballast go,
+as we touch the grass, and you must leap in simultaneously. Thump!"
+
+Here the car collided with the ground, and in another instant, I found
+quantities of dirt spilled down my back, and two or three people lying
+beneath me. The world slid away, and the clouds opened to receive me.
+Lowe was opening a bottle of Heidsick, and three or four gentlemen with
+_heads sick_ were unclosing the petals of their lips to get the
+afternoon dew.
+
+These were the various critics and fugitive writers of the weekly and
+daily press. They looked as if they wanted to put each other over the
+side of the car, but smothered their invective at my advent, as if I
+were so much pearl-ash.
+
+It was just seven o'clock, and the Park lay like a veined and mottled
+blood-stone in the red sunset. The city wilted to the littleness of a
+rare mosaic pin, its glittering point parting the blue scarf of the bay,
+and the white bosom of the ocean swelling afar, all draped with purple
+clouds like golden hair, in which the entangled gems were the sails of
+the white ships.
+
+I said this aloud, and all the party drew their lead pencils. They
+forgot the occasion in my eloquence, and wanted to report me.
+
+Just here, I drew a field-glass from the aeronaut, and reconnoitred the
+streets of the city. To my dismay there was nobody visible on Broadway
+but gentlemen. I called everybody's attention to the fact, and it was
+accounted for on the supposition that the late bank forgeries and
+defalcations, growing out of the extravagance of womankind, had prompted
+all the husbands to make of their homes nunneries.
+
+We observed, however, close by every gentleman, something that resembled
+a black dog with his tail curled over his back.
+
+"Stuff!" said one, "they're hay wagons."
+
+"No!" cried Lowe, "they're nothing of the sort; they are waterfalls, and
+the ladies are, of course, invisible under them."
+
+We accepted the explanation, and thought the trip very melancholy. No
+landscape is complete without a woman. Very soon we struck the great
+polar current, and passed Harlem river; the foliage of the trees, by
+some strange anomaly, began to ascend towards us, but Lowe caught two
+or three of the supposed leaves, and they proved to be greenbacks.
+
+There was at once a tremendous sensation in the car; we knew that we
+were on the track of Ketchum and his carpet-bag of bank-notes.
+
+"Is there any reward out?" cried Lowe.
+
+"Not yet!"
+
+"Then we won't pursue him."
+
+As we slowly drifted to the left, the Hudson shone through the trees,
+and before dusk we swept across Lake Mahopec. I heard a voice singing to
+the dip of oars, and had to be held down by five men to restrain an
+involuntary impulse to quit my company.
+
+"Townsend," said Lowe, "have you the copy of that matter you printed
+about me in England? This is the time to call you to account for it. We
+are two or three miles above _terra firma_, and I might like to drop you
+for a parachute."
+
+I felt Lowe's muscle, and knew myself secure. Then I unrolled the pages,
+which I fortunately carried with me, and told him the following news
+about himself:--
+
+The aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac was Mr. S. T. C. Lowe; he had
+made seven thousand ascensions, and his army companion was invariably
+either an artist, a correspondent, or a telegrapher.
+
+A minute insulated wire reached from the car to headquarters, and
+McClellan was thus informed of all that could be seen within the
+Confederate works. Sometimes they remained aloft for hours, making
+observations with powerful glasses, and once or twice the enemy tested
+their distance with shell.
+
+On the 13th of April, the Confederates sent up a balloon, the first they
+had employed, at which Lowe was infinitely amused. He said that it had
+neither shape nor buoyancy, and predicted that it would burst or fall
+apart after a week. It certainly occurred that, after a few fitful
+appearances, the stranger was seen no more, till, on the 28th of June,
+it floated, like a thing of omen, over the spires of Richmond. At that
+time the Federals were in full retreat, and all the acres were covered
+with their dead.
+
+On the 11th of April, at five o'clock, an event at once amusing and
+thrilling occurred at our quarters. The commander-in-chief had appointed
+his personal and confidential friend, General Fitz John Porter, to
+conduct the siege of Yorktown. Porter was a polite, soldierly gentleman,
+and a native of New Hampshire, who had been in the regular army since
+early manhood. He fought gallantly in the Mexican war, being thrice
+promoted and once seriously wounded, and he was now forty years of
+age,--handsome, enthusiastic, ambitious, and popular. He made frequent
+ascensions with Lowe, and learned to go aloft alone. One day he ascended
+thrice, and finally seemed as cosily at home in the firmament as upon
+the solid earth. It is needless to say that he grew careless, and on
+this particular morning leaped into the car and demanded the cables to
+be let out with all speed. I saw with some surprise that the flurried
+assistants were sending up the great straining canvas with a single rope
+attached. The enormous bag was only partially inflated, and the loose
+folds opened and shut with a crack like that of a musket. Noisily,
+fitfully, the yellow mass rose into the sky, the basket rocking like a
+leather in the zephyr; and just as I turned aside to speak to a comrade,
+a sound came from overhead, like the explosion of a shell, and something
+striking me across the face laid me flat upon the ground.
+
+Half blind and stunned, I staggered to my feet, but the air seemed full
+of cries and curses. Opening my eyes ruefully, I saw all faces turned
+upwards, and when I looked above,--the balloon was adrift.
+
+The treacherous cable, rotted with vitriol, had snapped in twain; one
+fragment had been the cause of my downfall, and the other trailed, like
+a great entrail, from the receding car, where Fitz John Porter was
+bounding upward upon a Pegasus that he could neither check nor direct.
+
+The whole army was agitated by the unwonted occurrence. From battery No.
+1, on the brink of the York, to the mouth of Warwick river, every
+soldier and officer was absorbed. Far within the Confederate lines the
+confusion extended. We heard the enemy's alarm-guns, and directly the
+signal flags were waving up and down our front.
+
+The General appeared directly over the edge of the car. He was tossing
+his hands frightenedly, and shouting something that we could not
+comprehend.
+
+"O--pen--the--valve!" called Lowe, in his shrill tones;
+"climb--to--the--netting--and--reach--the--valve--rope."
+
+"The valve!--the valve!" repeated a multitude of tongues, and all gazed
+with thrilling interest at the retreating hulk that still kept straight
+upward, swerving neither to the east nor the west.
+
+It was a weird spectacle,--that frail, fading oval, gliding against the
+sky, floating in the serene azure, the little vessel swinging silently
+beneath, and a hundred thousand martial men watching the loss of their
+brother in arms, but powerless to relieve or recover him. Had Fitz John
+Porter been drifting down the rapids of Niagara, he could not have been
+so far from human assistance. But we saw him directly, no bigger than a
+child's toy, clambering up the netting and reaching for the cord.
+
+"He can't do it," muttered a man beside me; "the wind blows the
+valve-rope to and fro, and only a spry, cool-headed fellow can catch
+it."
+
+We saw the General descend, and appearing again over the edge of the
+basket, he seemed to be motioning to the breathless hordes below, the
+story of his failure. Then he dropped out of sight, and when we next saw
+him, he was reconnoitring the Confederate works through a long black
+spy-glass. A great laugh went up and down the lines as this cool
+procedure was observed, and then a cheer of applause ran from group to
+group. For a moment it was doubtful that the balloon would float in
+either direction; it seemed to falter, like an irresolute being, and
+moved reluctantly southeastward, towards Fortress Monroe. A huzza, half
+uttered, quivered on every lip. All eyes glistened, and some were dim
+with tears of joy. But the wayward canvas now turned due westward, and
+was blown rapidly toward the Confederate works. Its course was fitfully
+direct, and the wind seemed to veer often, as if contrary currents,
+conscious of the opportunity, were struggling for the possession of the
+daring navigator. The south wind held mastery for awhile, and the
+balloon passed the Federal front amid a howl of despair from the
+soldiery. It kept right on, over sharpshooters, rifle-pits, and
+outworks, and finally passed, as if to deliver up its freight, directly
+over the heights of Yorktown. The cool courage, either of heroism or
+despair, had seized upon Fitz John Porter. He turned his black glass
+upon the ramparts and masked cannon below, upon the remote camps, upon
+the beleaguered town, upon the guns of Gloucester Point, and upon
+distant Norfolk. Had he been reconnoitring from a secure perch at the
+tip of the moon, he could not have been more vigilant, and the
+Confederates probably thought this some Yankee device to peer into their
+sanctuary in despite of ball or shell. None of their great guns could be
+brought to bear upon the balloon; but there were some discharges of
+musketry that appeared to have no effect, and finally even these
+demonstrations ceased. Both armies in solemn silence were gazing aloft,
+while the imperturbable mariner continued to spy out the land.
+
+The sun was now rising behind us, and roseate rays struggled up to the
+zenith, like the arcs made by showery bombs. They threw a hazy
+atmosphere upon the balloon, and the light shone through the network
+like the sun through the ribs of the skeleton ship in the _Ancient
+Mariner_. Then, as all looked agape, the air-craft "plunged, and tacked,
+and veered," and drifted rapidly toward the Federal lines again.
+
+The allelujah that now went up shook the spheres, and when he had
+regained our camp limits, the General was seen clambering up again to
+clutch the valve-rope. This time he was successful, and the balloon fell
+like a stone, so that all hearts once more leaped up, and the cheers
+were hushed. Cavalry rode pell-mell from several directions, to reach
+the place of descent, and the General's personal staff galloped past me
+like the wind, to be the first at his debarkation. I followed the throng
+of soldiery with due haste, and came up to the horsemen in a few
+minutes. The balloon had struck a canvas tent with great violence,
+felling it as by a bolt, and the General, unharmed, had disentangled
+himself from innumerable folds of oiled canvas, and was now the cynosure
+of an immense group of people. While the officers shook his hands, the
+rabble bawled their satisfaction in hurrahs, and a band of music
+marching up directly, the throng on foot and horse gave him a vociferous
+escort to his quarters.
+
+Five miles east of Richmond, in the middle of May, we found the balloon
+already partially inflated, resting behind a ploughed hill that formed
+one of a ridge or chain of hills, bordering the Chickahominy. The stream
+was only a half-mile distant, but the balloon was sheltered from
+observation by reason of its position in the hollow.
+
+Heretofore the ascensions had been made from remote places, for there
+was good reason to believe that batteries lined the opposite hills; but
+now, for the first time, Lowe intended to make an ascent whereby he
+could look into Richmond, count the forts encircling it, and note the
+number and position of the camps that intervened. The balloon was named
+the "Constitution," and looked like a semi-distended boa-constrictor, as
+it flapped with a jerking sound, and shook its oiled and painted folds.
+It was anchored to the ground by stout ropes affixed to stakes, and also
+by sand-bags which hooked to its netting. The basket lay alongside; the
+generators were contained in blue wooden wagons, marked "U. S.;" and
+the gas was fed to the balloon through rubber and metallic pipes. A tent
+or two, a quantity of vitriol in green and wicker carboys, some horses
+and transportation teams, and several men that assisted the inflation,
+were the only objects to be remarked. As some time was to transpire
+before the arrangements were completed, I resorted to one of the tents
+and took a comfortable nap. The "Professor" aroused me at three o'clock,
+when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and emitting a hollow
+sound, as of escaping gas. The basket was made fast directly, the
+telescopes tossed into place; the Professor climbed to the side, holding
+by the network; and I coiled up in a rope at the bottom.
+
+"Stand by your cables," he said, and the bags of ballast were at once
+cut away. Twelve men took each a rope in hand, and played out slowly,
+letting us glide gently upward. The earth seemed to be falling away, and
+we poised motionless in the blue ether. The tree-tops sank downward, the
+hills dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the Chickahominy
+was visible beyond us, winding like a ribbon of silver through the ridgy
+landscape.
+
+Far and wide stretched the Federal camps. We saw faces turned upwards
+gazing at our ascent, and heard clearly, as in a vacuum, the voices of
+soldiers. At every second the prospect widened, the belt of horizon
+enlarged, remote farmhouses came in view; the earth was like a perfectly
+flat surface, painted with blue woods, and streaked with pictures of
+roads, fields, fences, and streams. As we climbed higher, the river
+seemed directly beneath us, the farms on the opposite bank were plainly
+discernible, and Richmond lay only a little way off, enthroned on its
+many hills, with the James stretching white and sinuous from its feet to
+the horizon. We could see the streets, the suburbs, the bridges, the
+outlaying roads, nay, the moving masses of people. The Capitol sat white
+and colossal on Shockoe Hill, the dingy buildings of the Tredegar works
+blackened the river-side above, the hovels of rockets clustered at the
+hither limits, and one by one we made out familiar hotels, public
+edifices, and vicinities. The fortifications were revealed in part only,
+for they took the hue of the soil, and blended with it; but many camps
+were plainly discernible, and by means of the glasses we separated tent
+from tent, and hut from hut. The Confederates were seen running to the
+cover of the woods, that we might not discover their numbers, but we
+knew the location of their camp-fires by the smoke that curled toward
+us.
+
+A panorama so beautiful would have been rare at any time, but this was
+thrice interesting from its past and coming associations. Across those
+plains the hordes at our feet were either to advance victoriously, or be
+driven eastward with dusty banners and dripping hands. Those white
+farm-houses were to be receptacles for the groaning and the mangled;
+thousands were to be received beneath the turf of those pasture fields;
+and no rod of ground on any side, should not, sooner or later, smoke
+with the blood of the slain.
+
+"Guess I got 'em now, jest where I want 'em," said Lowe, with a
+gratified laugh; "jest keep still as you mind to, and squint your eye
+through my glass, while I make a sketch of the roads and the country.
+Hold hard there, and anchor fast!" he screamed to the people below. Then
+he fell imperturbably to work, sweeping the country with his hawk-eye,
+and escaping nothing that could contribute to the completeness of his
+jotting.
+
+We had been but a few minutes thus poised, when close below, from the
+edge of a timber stretch, puffed a volume of white smoke. A second
+afterward, the air quivered with the peal of a cannon. A third, and we
+heard the splitting shriek of a shell, that passed a little to our left,
+but in exact range, and burst beyond us in the ploughed field, heaving
+up the clay as it exploded.
+
+"Ha!" said Lowe, "they have got us foul! Haul in the cables--quick!" he
+shouted, in a fierce tone.
+
+At the same instant, the puff, the report, and the shriek were repeated;
+but this time the shell burst to our right in mid-air, and scattered
+fragments around and below us.
+
+"Another shot will do our business," said Lowe, between his teeth; "it
+isn't a mile, and they have got the range."
+
+Again the puff and the whizzing shock. I closed my eyes, and held my
+breath hard. The explosion was so close, that the pieces of shell seemed
+driven across my face, and my ears quivered with the sound. I looked at
+Lowe, to see if he was struck. He had sprung to his feet, and clutched
+the cordage frantically.
+
+"Are you pulling in there, you men?" he bellowed, with a loud
+imprecation.
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter!" broke a third shell, and my heart
+was wedged in my throat.
+
+I saw at a glimpse the whole bright landscape again. I hoard the voices
+of soldiers below, and saw them running across fields, fences, and
+ditches, to reach our anchorage. I saw some drummer-boys digging in the
+field beneath for one of the buried shells. I saw the waving of signal
+flags, the commotion through the camps,--officers galloping their
+horses, teamsters whipping their mules, regiments turning out, drums
+beaten, and batteries limbered up. I remarked, last of all, the site of
+the battery that alarmed us, and, by a strange sharpness of sight and
+sense, believed that I saw the gunners swabbing, ramming, and aiming the
+pieces.
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"
+
+"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!"
+
+"My God!" said Lowe, hissing the words slowly and terribly, "_they have
+opened upon us from another battery_!"
+
+The scene seemed to dissolve. A cold dew broke from my forehead. I grew
+blind and deaf. I had fainted.
+
+"Pitch some water in his face," said somebody. "He ain't used to it.
+Hallo! there he comes to."
+
+I staggered to my feet. There must have been a thousand men about us.
+They were looking curiously at the aeronaut and me. The balloon lay
+fuming and struggling on the clods.
+
+"Three cheers for the Union bal-loon!" called a little fellow at my
+side.
+
+"Hip, hip--hoorooar! hoorooar! hoorooar!"
+
+"Tiger-r-r--yah! whoop!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+SEVEN PINES AND FAIROAKS.
+
+
+Returning from White House on Saturday, May 29, I heard the cannon of
+"Seven Pines." The roar of artillery came faintly upon the ear in the
+dells and woods, but in the open stretches of country, or from cleared
+hill-tops, I could hear also the volleys of musketry. It was the battle
+sound that assured me of bloody work; for the musket, as I had learned
+by experience, was the only certain signification of battle. It is
+seldom brought into requisition but at close quarters, when results are
+intended; whereas, cannon may peal for a fortnight, and involve no other
+destruction than that of shell and powder. I do not think that any throb
+of my heart was unattended by some volley or discharge. Dull, hoarse,
+uninterrupted, the whole afternoon was shaken by the sound. It was with
+a shudder that I thought how every peal announced flesh and bone riven
+asunder. The country people, on the way, stood in their side yards,
+anxiously listening. Riders or teamsters coming from the field, were
+beset with inquiries; but in the main they knew nothing. As I stopped at
+Daker's for dinner, the concussion of the battle rattled our plates, and
+the girls entirely lost their appetites, so that Glumley, who listened
+and speculated, observed that the baby face was losing all the lines of
+art, and was quite flat and faded in color. Resuming our way, we
+encountered a sallow, shabby person, driving a covered wagon, who
+recognized me at once. It was the "Doctor" who had lightened the
+journey down the Chesapeake, by a discourse upon embalming. He pointed
+toward the field with a long bony finger, and called aloud, with a smirk
+upon his face--
+
+"I have the apparatus here, you see. They will need me out yonder, you
+know. There's opportunity there for the development of the 'system.'"
+
+I did not reach my own camp at Gaines's Farm, till late in the day. The
+firing had almost entirely ceased, but occasional discharges still broke
+the repose of evening, and at night signal rockets hissed and showered
+in every direction. Next day the contest recommenced; but although not
+farther in a direct line, than seven miles, from our encampment, I could
+not cross the Chickahominy, and was compelled to lie in my tent all day.
+
+These two battles were offered by the Confederates, in the hope of
+capturing that portion of the Federal army that lay upon the Richmond
+side of the river. Some days previously, McClellan had ordered Keyes's
+corps, consisting of perhaps twelve thousand men, to cross Bottom
+Bridge, eight miles down the Chickahominy, and occupy an advanced
+position on the York River railroad, six miles east of Richmond. Keyes's
+two divisions, commanded by Generals Couch and Casey, were thus encamped
+in a belt of woods remote from the body of the army, and little more
+than a mile from the enemy's line. Heintzelman's corps was lying at the
+Bridge, several miles in their rear, and the three finest corps in the
+army were separated from them by a broad, rapid river, which could be
+crossed at two places only. The troops of Keyes were mainly
+inexperienced, undisciplined volunteers from the Middle States. When
+their adversaries advanced, therefore, in force, on the twenty-ninth
+instant, they made a fitful, irregular resistance, and at evening
+retired in panic and disorder. The victorious enemy followed them so
+closely, that many of the Federals were slain in their tents. During
+that night, the Chickahominy, swollen by rains, overflowed its banks,
+and swept away the bridges. The beaten and disorganized relic of the
+fight of "Seven Pines," was thus completely isolated, and apparently to
+be annihilated at daybreak. But during the night, twenty thousand fresh
+men of Sumner's corps, forded the river, carrying their artillery, piece
+by piece across, and at dawn they assumed the offensive, seconded by the
+encouraged columns of Keyes. The fight was one of desperation; at night
+the Federals reoccupied their old ground at Fairoaks, and the
+Confederates retired, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. They
+lost, among their prisoners, General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, who
+was severely wounded, and with whom I talked as he lay in bed at
+Gaines's Mansion. He appeared to be a chivalrous, gossipy old gentleman,
+and said that he was the last South Carolinian to stand by the Union.
+
+On the succeeding day, Monday, June 2, I rode to "Grape-Vine Bridge,"
+and attempted to force my horse through the swamp and stream; but the
+drowned mules that momentarily floated down the current, admonished me
+of the folly of the hazard. The bridge itself was a swimming mass of
+poles and logs, that yielded with every pressure; yet I saw many wounded
+men, who waded through the water, or stepped lightly from log to log,
+and so gained the shore, wet from head to foot. Long lines of supply
+teams and ambulances were wedged in the depth of the thick wood,
+bordering the river; but so narrow were the corduroy approaches to the
+bridge, and so fathomless the swamp on either hand, that they could
+neither go forward, nor return. The straggling troops brought the
+unwelcome intelligence, that their comrades on the other side were
+starving, as they had crossed with a single ration of food, and had long
+ago eaten their last morsels. While I was standing close by the bridge,
+General McClellan, and staff, rode through the swamp, and attempted to
+make the passage. The "young Napoleon," urged his horse upon the
+floating timber, and at once sank over neck and saddle. His staff
+dashed after him, floundering in the same way; and when they had
+splashed and shouted, till I believed them all drowned, they turned and
+came to shore, dripping and discomfited. There was another Napoleon,
+who, I am informed, slid down the Alps into Italy; the present
+descendant did not slide so far, and he shook himself, after the manner
+of a dog. I remarked with some surprise, that he was growing obese;
+whereas, the active labors of the campaign had reduced the dimensions of
+most of the Generals.
+
+I secured my horse, and placed a drummer-boy beside him, to prevent
+abduction or mistake; then stripping from top to toe, and holding my
+garments above my head, I essayed the difficult passage; as a
+commencement, I dropped my watch, but the guard-hook caught in a log and
+held it fast. Afterward, I slipped from the smooth butt of a tree, and
+thoroughly soused myself and clothing; a lumber-man from Maine, beheld
+my ill luck, and kindly took my burden to the other side. An estuary of
+the Chickahominy again intervened, but a rough scow floated upon it,
+which the Captain of Engineers sent for me, with a soldier to man the
+oars. I neglected to "trim boat," I am sorry to add, although admonished
+to that effect repeatedly by the mariner; and we swamped in four feet of
+water. I resembled a being of one of the antediluvian eras, when I came
+to land, finally, and might have been taken for a slimy Iguanodon. I
+sacrificed some of my under clothing to the process of cleansing and
+drying, and so started with soaking boots, and a deficiency of dress, in
+the direction of Savage's. Passing the "bottom," or swamp-land, I
+ascended a hill, and following a lane, stopped after a half hour at a
+frame-mansion, unpainted, with some barns and negro-quarters contiguous,
+and a fine grove of young oaks, shading the porch. An elderly gentleman
+sat in the porch, sipping a julep, with his feet upon the railing, and
+conversing with a stout, ruddy officer, of decidedly Milesian
+physiognomy. When I approached, the latter hurriedly placed a chair
+between himself and me, and said, with a stare--
+
+"Bloodanowns! And where have ye been? Among the hogs, I think?" I
+assured him that I did not intend to come to close quarters, and that it
+would be no object on my part to contaminate him. The old gentleman
+called for "William," a tall, consumptive servant, whose walk reminded
+me of a stubborn convict's, in the treadmill, and ordered him to scrape
+me, which was done, accordingly, with a case-knife. The young officer
+proposed to dip me in the well and wring me well out, but I demurred,
+mainly on the ground that some time would be so consumed, and that my
+horse was waiting on the other side. He at once said that he would send
+for it, and called "Pat," a civilian servant, in military blue, who was
+nursing a negro baby with an eye, it seemed, to obtain favor with the
+mother. The willingness of the man surprised me, but he said that it was
+a short cut of four miles to the railroad bridge, which had been
+repaired and floored, and that he could readily recover the animal and
+return at three o'clock. My benefactor, the officer, then mixed a julep,
+which brought a comfortable glow to my face, and said, without parley--
+
+"You're a reporter, on the----"
+
+He said further, that he had been Coroner's Surgeon in New York for many
+years, and had learned to know the representatives of newspapers, one
+from the other, by generic manner and appearance. Three correspondents
+rode by at the time, neither of whom he knew personally, but designated
+them promptly, with their precise connections. In short, we became
+familiar directly, and he told me that his name was O'Gamlon,
+Quartermaster of Meagher's Irish brigade, Sumner's corps. He was
+established with the elderly gentleman,--whose name was Michie,--and had
+two horses in the stable, at hand. He proposed to send me to the field,
+with a note of introduction to the General, and another to Colonel
+Baker, of the New York 88th (Irish), who could show me the lines and
+relics of battle, and give me the lists of killed, wounded, and missing.
+I repaired to his room, and arrayed myself in a fatigue officer's suit,
+with clean underclothing, after which, descending, I climbed into his
+saddle, and dashed off, with a mettlesome, dapper pony. The railroad
+track was about a mile from the house, and the whole country, hereabout,
+was sappy, dank, and almost barren. Scrub pines covered much of the
+soil, and the cleared fields were dotted with charred stumps. The houses
+were small and rude; the wild pigs ran like deer through the bushes and
+across my path; vultures sailed by hundreds between me and the sky; the
+lane was slippery and wound about slimy pools; the tree-tops, in many
+places, were splintered by ball and shell. I crossed the railroad, cut
+by a high bridge, and saw below the depot, at Savage's, now the
+head-quarters of General Heintzelman. Above, in full view, were the
+commands at Peach Orchard and Fairoaks, and to the south, a few furlongs
+distant, the Williamsburg and Richmond turnpike ran, parallel with the
+railway, toward the field of Seven Pines. The latter site, was simply
+the junction of the turnpike with a roundabout way to Richmond, called
+the "Nine Mile Road," and Fairoaks was the junction of the diverging
+road with the railroad. Toward the latter I proceeded, and soon came to
+the Irish brigade, located on both sides of the way, at Peach Orchard.
+
+They occupied the site of the most desperate fighting.
+
+A small farm hollowed in the swampy thicket and wood, was here divided
+by the track, and a little farm-house, with a barn, granary, and a
+couple of cabins, lay on the left side. In a hut to the right General
+Thomas Francis Meagher made his head-quarters, and a little beyond, in
+the edges of the swamp timber, lay his four regiments, under arms.
+
+A guard admonished me, in curt, lithe speech, that my horse must come no
+further; for the brigade held the advance post, and I was even now
+within easy musket range of the imperceptible enemy. An Irish boy
+volunteered to hold the rein, while I paid my respects to the Commander.
+I encountered him on the threshold of the hut, and he welcomed me in the
+richest and most musical of brogues. Large, corpulent, and powerful of
+body; plump and ruddy--or as some would say, bloated--of face; with
+resolute mouth and heavy animal jaws; expressive nose, and piercing
+blue-eyes; brown hair, mustache, and eyebrows; a fair forehead, and
+short sinewy neck, a man of apparently thirty years of age, stood in the
+doorway, smoking a cigar, and trotting his sword fretfully in the
+scabbard. He wore the regulation blue cap, but trimmed plentifully with
+gold lace, and his sleeves were slashed in the same manner. A star
+glistened in his oblong shoulder-bar; a delicate gold cord seamed his
+breeches from his Hessian boots to his red tasselled sword-sash; a
+seal-ring shone from the hand with which he grasped his gauntlets, and
+his spurs were set upon small aristocratic feet.
+
+A tolerable physiognomist would have resolved his temperament to an
+intense sanguine. He was fitfully impulsive, as all his movements
+attested, and liable to fluctuations of peevishness, melancholy, and
+enthusiasm. This was "Meagher of the Sword," the stripling who made
+issue with the renowned O'Connell, and divided his applauses; the
+"revolutionist," who had outlived exile to become the darling of the
+"Young Ireland" populace in his adopted country; the partisan, whose
+fierce, impassioned oratory had wheeled his factious element of the
+Democracy into the war cause; and the soldier, whose gallant bearing at
+Bull Run had won him a brigadiership. He was, to my mind, a realization
+of the Knight of Gwynne, or any of the rash, impolitic, poetic
+personages in Lever and Griffin. Ambitious without a name; an adventurer
+without a definite cause; an orator without policy; a General without
+caution or experience, he had led the Irish brigade through the hottest
+battles, and associated them with the most brilliant episodes of the
+war.
+
+Every adjunct of the place was strictly Hibernian. The emerald green
+standard entwined with the red, white, and blue; the gilt eagles on the
+flag-poles held the Shamrock sprig in their beaks; the soldiers lounging
+on guard, had "69" or "88" the numbers of their regiments, stamped on a
+green hat-band; the brogue of every county from Down to Wexford fell
+upon the ear; one might have supposed that the "year '98" had been
+revived, and that these brawny Celts were again afield against their
+Saxon countrymen. The class of lads upon the staff of Meagher, was an
+odd contrast to the mass of staff officers in the "Grand Army."
+Fox-hunters they all seemed to me, and there was one, who wore a long,
+twisted, pomatumed moustache, who talked of steeple chases, all the
+while, and wanted to have "a healthy dash" of some kind. A class of
+Irish exquisites, they appeared to be,--good for a fight, a card-party,
+or a hurdle jumping,--but entirely too Quixotic for the sober
+requirements of Yankee warfare. When anything absurd, forlorn, or
+desperate was to be attempted, the Irish brigade was called upon. But,
+ordinarily, they were regarded, as a party of mad fellows, more
+ornamental than useful, and entirely too clannish and factious to be
+entrusted with power. Meagher himself seemed to be less erratic than his
+subordinates; for he had married a New York lady, and had learned, by
+observation, the superiority of the pelfish, plodding native before his
+own fitful, impracticable race. His address was infatuating: but there
+was a certain airiness, indicative of vanity, that revealed his great
+characteristic. He loved applause, and to obtain it had frittered away
+his fine abilities, upon petty, splendid, momentary triumphs. He was
+generous to folly, and, I have no doubt, maintained his whole staff.
+
+When I requested to be shown the field, and its relics, Meagher said, in
+his musical brogue, that I need only look around.
+
+"From the edge of that wood," he said, "the Irish brigade charged across
+this field, and fell upon their faces in the railway cutting below. A
+regiment of Alabamians lay in the timber beyond, with other Southerners
+in their rear, and on both flanks. They thought that we were charging
+bayonets, and reserved their fire till we should approach within
+butchering distance. On the contrary, I ordered the boys to lie down,
+and load and fire at will. In the end, sir, we cut them to pieces, and
+five hundred of them were left along the swamp fence, that you see.
+There isn't fifty killed and wounded in the whole Irish brigade."
+
+A young staff officer took me over the field. We visited first the
+cottage and barns across the road, and found the house occupied by some
+thirty wounded Federals. They lay in their blankets upon the
+floors,--pale, helpless, hollow-eyed, making low moans at every breath.
+Two or three were feverishly sleeping, and, as the flies revelled upon
+their gashes, they stirred uneasily and moved their hands to and fro. By
+the flatness of the covering at the extremities, I could see that
+several had only stumps of legs. They had lost the sweet enjoyment of
+walking afield, and were but fragments of men, to limp forever through a
+painful life. Such wrecks of power I never beheld. Broad, brawny,
+buoyant, a few hours ago, the loss of blood, and the nervous shock,
+attendant upon amputation, has wellnigh drained them to the last drop.
+Their faces were as white as the tidy ceiling; they were whining like
+babies; and only their rolling eyes distinguished them from mutilated
+corpses. Some seemed quite broken in spirit, and one, who could speak,
+observing my pitiful glances toward his severed thigh, drew up his mouth
+and chin, and wept as if with the loss of comeliness all his ambitions
+were frustrated. A few attendants were brushing off the insects with
+boughs of cedar, laving the sores, or administering cooling draughts.
+The second story of the dwelling was likewise occupied by wounded, but
+in a corner clustered the terrified farmer and his family, vainly
+attempting to turn their eyes from the horrible spectacle. The farmer's
+wife had a baby at her breast, and its little blue eyes were straying
+over the room, half wonderingly, half delightedly. I thought, with a
+shudder, of babyhood thus surrounded, and how, in the long future, its
+first recollections of existence should be of booming guns and dying
+soldiers! The cow-shed contained seven corpses, scarcely yet cold, lying
+upon their backs, in a row, and fast losing all resemblance to man. The
+farthest removed, seemed to be a diminutive boy, and I thought if he had
+a mother, that she might sometime like to speak with me. When I took
+their names, I thought what terrible agencies I was fulfilling. Beyond
+my record, falsely spelled, perhaps, they would have no history. And
+people call such deaths glorious!
+
+Upon a pile of lumber and some heaps of fence-rails, close by, sat some
+dozens of wounded men, mainly Federals, with bandaged arms and faces,
+and torn clothing. There was one, shot in the foot, who howled at every
+effort to remove his boot; the blood leaked from a rent in the side, and
+at last, the leather was cut, piecemeal from the flesh. These ate
+voraciously, though in pain and fear; for a little soup and meat was
+being doled out to them.
+
+The most horrible of all these scenes--which I have described perhaps
+too circumstantially--was presented in the stable or barn, on the
+premises, where a bare dingy floor--the planks of which tilted and
+shook, as one made his way over them--was strewn with suffering people.
+Just at the entrance sat a boy, totally blind, both eyes having been
+torn out by a minnie-ball, and the entire bridge of the nose shot away.
+He crouched against the gable, in darkness and agony, tremulously
+fingering his knees. Near at hand, sat another, who had been shot
+through the middle of the forehead, but singular to relate, he still
+lived, though lunatic, and evidently beyond hope. Death had drawn blue
+and yellow circles beneath his eyes, and he muttered incomprehensibly,
+wagging his head. Two men, perfectly naked, lay in the middle of the
+place, wounded in bowels and loins; and at a niche in the
+weather-boarding, where some pale light peeped in, four mutilated
+wretches were gaming with cards. I was now led a little way down the
+railroad, to see the Confederates. The rain began to fall at this time,
+and the poor fellows shut their eyes to avoid the pelting of the drops.
+There was no shelter for them within a mile, and the mud absolutely
+reached half way up their bodies. Nearly one third had suffered
+amputation above the knee. There were about thirty at this spot, and I
+was told that they were being taken to Meadow Station on hand cars. As
+soon as the locomotive could pass the Chickahominy, they would be
+removed to White House, and comfortably quartered in the Sanitary and
+hospital boats. Some of them were fine, athletic, and youthful, and I
+was directed to one who had been married only three days before.
+
+"Doctor," said one, feebly, "I feel very cold: do you think that this is
+death? It seems to be creeping to my heart. I have no feeling, in my
+feet, and my thighs are numb."
+
+A Federal soldier came along with a bucket of soup, and proceeded to
+fill the canteens and plates. He appeared to be a relative of Mark
+Tapley, and possessed much of that estimable person's jollity--
+
+"Come, pardner," he said, "drink yer sup! now, old boy, this'ill warm
+ye; sock it down and ye'll see yer sweetheart soon. You dead,
+Ally-bammy? Go way, now. You'll live a hundred years, you will. That's
+wot you'll do. Won't he, lad? What? Not any? Get out! You'll be slap on
+your legs next week and hev another shot at me the week a'ter that. You
+know you will! Oh! you Rebil! You, with the butternut trousers! Say!
+Wake up and take some o' this. Hello! lad, pardner. Wake up!"
+
+He stirred him gently with his foot; he bent down to touch his face. A
+grimness came over his merriment. The man was stiff and dumb.
+
+Colonel Baker, commanding the 88th New York, was a tall, martial
+Irishman, who opened his heart and bottle at the same welcome, and took
+me into the woods, where some of the slain still remained. He had slept
+not longer than an hour, continuously, for seventy hours, and during the
+past night had been called up by eight alarums. His men lay in the dark
+thickets, without fires or blankets, as they had crossed the
+Chickahominy in light marching order.
+
+"Many a lad," said he, "will escape the bullet for a lingering
+consumption."
+
+We had proceeded but a very little way, when we came to a trodden place
+beneath the pines, where a scalp lay in the leaves, and the imprint of a
+body was plainly visible. The bayonet scabbard lay at one side, the
+canteen at the other. We saw no corpses, however, as fatigue parties had
+been burying the slain, and the whole wood was dotted with heaps of
+clay, where the dead slept below in the oozy trenches. Quantities of
+cartridges were scattered here and there, dropped by the retreating
+Confederates. Some of the cartridge-pouches that I examined were
+completely filled, showing that their possessors had not fired a single
+round; others had but one cartridge missing. There were fragments of
+clothing, hair, blankets, murderous bowie and dirk knives, spurs,
+flasks, caps, and plumes, dropped all the way through the thicket, and
+the trees on every hand were riddled with balls. I came upon a squirrel,
+unwittingly shot during the fight. Not those alone who make the war must
+feel the war! At one of the mounds the burying party had just completed
+their work, and the men were throwing the last clods upon the remains.
+They had dug pits of not more than two feet depth, and dragged the
+bodies heedlessly to the edges, whence they were toppled down and
+scantily covered. Much of the interring had been done by night, and the
+flare of lanterns upon the discolored faces and dead eyes must have
+been hideously effective. The grave-diggers, however, were practical
+personages, and had probably little care for dramatic effects. They
+leaned upon their spades, when the rites were finished, and a large, dry
+person, who appeared to be privileged upon all occasions, said,
+grinningly--
+
+"Colonel, your honor, them boys 'ill niver stand forninst the Irish
+brigade again. If they'd ha' known it was us, sur, begorra! they 'ud ha'
+brought coffins wid 'em."
+
+"No, niver!" "They got their ticket for soup!" "We kivered them, fait',
+will inough!" shouted the other grave-diggers.
+
+"Do ye belave, Colonel," said the dry person, again, "that thim
+ribals'll lave us a chance to catch them. Be me sowl! I'm jist wishin to
+war-rum me hands wid rifle practice."
+
+The others echoed loudly, that they were anxious to be ordered up, and
+some said that "Little Mac'll give 'em his big whack now." The presence
+of death seemed to have added no fear of death to these people. Having
+tasted blood, they now thirsted for it, and I asked myself,
+forebodingly, if a return to civil life would find them less ferocious.
+
+I dined with Colonel Owen of the 69th Pennsylvania (Irish) volunteers.
+He had been a Philadelphia lawyer, and was, by all odds, the most
+consistent and intelligent soldier in the brigade. He had been also a
+schoolmaster for many years, but appeared to be in his element at the
+head of a regiment, and was generally admitted to be an efficient
+officer. He shared the prevailing antipathy to West Point graduates; for
+at this time the arrogance of the regular officers, and the pride of the
+volunteers, had embittered each against the other. His theory of
+military education was, the establishment of State institutions, and the
+reorganization of citizenship upon a strict militia basis. After dinner,
+I rode to "Seven Pines," and examined some of the rifle pits used during
+the engagement. A portion of this ground only had been retaken, and I
+was warned to keep under cover; for sharpshooters lay close by, in the
+underbrush. A visit to the graves of some Federal soldiers completed the
+inspection. Some of the regiments had interred their dead in trenches;
+but the New Englanders were all buried separately, and smooth slabs were
+driven at the heads of the mounds, whereon were inscribed the names and
+ages of the deceased. Some of the graves were freshly sodded, and
+enclosed by rails and logs. They evidenced the orderly, religious habits
+of the sons of the Puritans; for, with all his hardness of manner and
+selfishness of purpose, I am inclined to think that the Yankee is the
+best manifestation of Northern character. He loves his home, at least,
+and he reveres his deceased comrades.
+
+When I returned to Michie's, at six o'clock, the man "Pat," with a
+glowing face, came out to the gate.
+
+"That's a splendid baste of yours, sur," he said,--"and sich a boi to
+gallop."
+
+"My horse doesn't generally gallop," I returned, doubtfully.
+
+When I passed to the barn in the rear, I found to my astonishment, a
+sorrel stallion, magnificently accoutred. He thrust his foot at me
+savagely, as I stood behind him, and neighed till he frightened the
+spiders.
+
+"Pat," said I, wrathfully, "you have stolen some Colonel's nag, and I
+shall be hanged for the theft."
+
+"Fait, sur," said Pat, "my ligs was gone intirely, wid long walkin', and
+I sazed the furst iligant baste I come to."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STUART'S RAID.
+
+
+The old Chickahominy bridges were soon repaired, and the whole of
+Franklin's corps crossed to the south side. McClellan moved his
+head-quarters to Dr. Trent's farm, a half-mile from Michie's, and the
+latter gentleman's fields and lawn were made white with tents. Among
+others, the Chief of Cavalry, Stoneman, pitched his canopy under the
+young oaks, and the whole reserve artillery was parked in the woods,
+close to the house. The engineer brigade encamped in the adjacent
+peach-orchard and corn-field, and the wheat was trampled by battery and
+team-horses. Smith's division now occupied the hills on the south side
+of the Chickahominy, and the Federal line stretched southeastward,
+through Fairoaks, to White Oak Swamp, seven miles away. Porter's corps
+still lay between Mechanicsville and New Bridge, on the north bank of
+the river, and my old acquaintances, the Pennsylvania Reserves, had
+joined the army, and now formed its extreme right wing. This odd
+arrangement of forces was a subject of frequent comment: for the right
+was thus four miles, and the left fourteen miles, from Richmond. The
+four corps at once commenced to entrench, and from Smith's redoubt on
+the river bluffs, to Casey's entrenched hill at White Oak, a continuous
+line of moderately strong earthworks extended. But Porter and the
+Reserves were not entrenched at all, and only a few horsemen were
+picketed across the long reach of country from Meadow Bridge to Hanover
+Court House. Both flanks, in fact, were open, and the left was a day's
+march from the right. We were, meantime, drawing our supplies from White
+House, twenty miles in the rear; there were no railroad guards along the
+entire line, and about five companies protected the grand depot. Two
+gunboats lay in the river, however, and as the teams still went to and
+fro, a second depot was established at a place called Putney's or
+"Garlic," five miles above White House. I went often, and at all hours
+of the day and night, over this exposed and lonely route. My horse had
+been, meantime, returned to the Provost Quarters, and the rightful owner
+had obtained his stallion in exchange. I rode the said stallion but
+once, when he proceeded to walk sideways, and several times rivalled the
+renowned Pegasus in his aerial flights. The man named "Pat" essayed to
+show his paces one day, but the stallion took him straight into
+Stoneman's wall-tent, and that officer shook the Irishman blind. My
+little bob-tailed brownie was thrice endeared to me by our separation;
+but I warned the man "Pat" to keep clear of him thereafter. The man
+"Pat" was a very eccentric person, who slept on the porch at Michie's,
+and used to wake up the house in the small hours, with the story that
+somebody was taking the chickens and the horses. He was the most
+impulsive person that I ever knew, and when I entrusted despatches to
+him once, he put them on the hospital boat by mistake, and they got to
+New York at the close of the campaign.
+
+Michie's soon became a correspondents' rendezvous, and we have had at
+one time, at dinner, twelve representatives of five journals. The Hon.
+Henry J. Raymond, Ex-Lieutenant Governor of New York, and proprietor of
+the _Times_ newspaper, was one of our family for several weeks. He had
+been a New Hampshire lad, and, strolling to New York, took to journalism
+at the age of nineteen years. His industry and probity obtained him both
+means and credit, and, also, what few young journalists obtain, social
+position. He was the founder of Harper's Magazine, one of the most
+successful serials in America, and many English authors are indebted to
+him for a trans-Atlantic recognition of their works. He edited an
+American edition of _Jane Eyre_ before it had attracted attention in
+England, and conducted the _Courier and Enquirer_ with great success for
+many years. The _Times_ is now the most reputable of the great New York
+dailies, and Mr. Raymond has made it influential both at home and
+abroad. He has retained, amidst his social and political successes, a
+predilection for "Bohemia," and became an indefatigable correspondent. I
+rode out with him sometimes, and heard, with interest, his accounts of
+the Italian war, whither he also went in furtherance of journalism.
+Among our quill cavalry-men was a fat gentleman from Philadelphia, who
+had great fear of death, and who used to "tear" to White House, if the
+man "Pat" shot a duck in the garden. He was a hearty, humorous person,
+however, and an adept at searching for news.
+
+O'Ganlon rode with me several times to White House, and we have crossed
+the railroad bridge together, a hundred feet in the air, when the planks
+were slippery, the sides sloping, and the way so narrow that two horses
+could not pass abreast. He was a true Irishman, and leaped barricades
+and ditches without regard to his neck. He had, also, a partiality for
+by-roads that led through swamps and close timber. He discovered one day
+a cow-path between Daker's and an old Mill at Grapevine Bridge. The long
+arms of oaks and beech trees reached across it, and young Absalom might
+have been ensnared by the locks at every rod therein. Through this
+devious and dangerous way, O'Ganlon used to dash, whooping, guiding his
+horse with marvellous dexterity, and bantering me to follow. I so far
+forgot myself generally, as to behave quite as irrationally, and once
+returned to Michie's with a bump above my right eye, that rivalled my
+head in size. At other times I rode alone, and my favorite route was an
+unfrequented lane called the "Quaker Road," that extended from Despatch
+Station, on the line of rail, to Daker's, on the New Bridge Road. Much
+of this way was shut in by thick woods and dreary pine barrens; but the
+road was hard and light, and a few quiet farms lay by the roadside.
+There was a mill, also, three miles from Daker's, where a turbulent
+creek crossed the route, and at an oak-wood, near by, I used to frighten
+the squirrels, so that they started up by pairs and families; I have
+chased them in this way a full mile, and they seemed to know me after a
+time. We used to be on the best of terms, and they would, at length,
+stand their ground saucily, and chatter, the one with the other,
+flourishing their bushy appendages, like so many straggling "Bucktails."
+When I turned from the beaten road, where the ruts were like a ditch and
+parapet, and dead horses blackened the fields; where teams went creaking
+day and night, and squads of sabremen drove pale, barefooted prisoners
+to and fro like swine or cattle, the silence and solitude of this
+by-lane were beautiful as sleep. Many of the old people living in this
+direction had not seen even a soldier or a sutler, save some mounted
+scouts that vanished in clouds of dust; but they had listened with awe
+to the music of cannon, though they did not know either the place or the
+result of the fighting. If fate has ordained me to survive the
+Rebellion, I shall some day revisit these localities; they are stamped
+legibly upon my mind, and I know almost every old couple in New Kent or
+Hanover counties. I have lunched at all the little springs on the road,
+and eaten corn-bread and bacon at most of the cabins. I have swam the
+Pamunkey at dozens of places, and when my finances were low, and my nag
+hungry, have organized myself into a company of foragers, and broken
+into the good people's granaries. I do not know any position that
+admitted of as much adventure and variety. There was always enough
+danger to make my journeys precariously pleasant, and, when wearied of
+the saddle, my friends at Daker's and Michie's had a savory julep and a
+comfortable bed always prepared. I had more liberty than General
+McClellan, and a great deal more comfort.
+
+Mrs. Michie was a warm-hearted, impulsive Virginia lady, with almost New
+England industry, and from very scanty materials she contrived to spread
+a bountiful table. Her coffee was bubbling with rich cream, and her
+"yellow pone" was overrunning with butter. A cleanly black girl shook a
+fly-brush over our shoulders as we ate, and the curious custom was
+maintained of sending a julep to our bedrooms before we rose in the
+mornings. Our hostess was too hospitable to be a bitter partisan, and
+during five weeks of tenure at her residence, we never held an hour's
+controversy. She had troubles, but she endured them patiently. She saw,
+one by one, articles of property sacrificed or stolen; she heard the
+servants speaking impudently; and her daughters and son were in a remote
+part of the State. The young man was a Confederate Surgeon at Lynchburg,
+and the young ladies had taken refuge in Rockbridge County. The latter
+were, from all accounts, pretty and intelligent, and one day, as I
+examined some parcels of books in the parlors, I found a volume of
+amateur poems that some laboring bard had dedicated to the youngest of
+them. Mr. Michie was a fine old Virginia gentleman, who remembered
+Thomas Jefferson well, as he had been reared in that great statesman's
+village, Charlottesville. He told me many anecdotes of Patrick Henry,
+John Randolph, and other distinguished patriots.
+
+I wrote in one of the absent daughter's albums the following lines:--
+
+    Alas! for the pleasant peace we knew,
+      In the happy summers of long ago,
+    When the rivers were bright, and the skies were blue,
+      By the homes of Henrico:
+    We dreamed of wars that were far away,
+      And read, as in fable, of blood that ran,
+    Where the James and Chickahominy stray,
+      Through the groves of Powhattan.
+
+    'Tis a dream come true; for the afternoons
+      Blow bugles of war, by our fields of grain,
+    And the sabres clink, as the dark dragoons
+      Come galloping up the lane;
+    The pigeons have flown from the eves and tiles,
+      The oat-blades have grown to blades of steel,
+    And the Huns swarm down the leafy aisles
+      Of the grand old Commonweal.
+
+    They have torn the Indian fisher's nets,
+      Where flows Pamunkey toward the sea,
+    And blood runs red in the rivulets,
+      That babbled and brawled in glee;
+    The corpses are strewn in Fairoak glades,
+      The hoarse guns thunder from Drury's Ridge,
+    The fishes that played in the cove, deep shades,
+      Are frightened from Bottom Bridge.
+
+    I would that the year were blotted away,
+      And the strawberry grew in the hedge again;
+    That the scythe might swing in the tangled hay,
+      And the squirrel romp in the glen;
+    The walnut sprinkle the clover slopes,
+      Where graze the sheep and the spotted steer;
+    And the winter restore the golden hopes,
+      That were trampled in a year.
+
+On Friday, June 13, I made one of my customary trips to White House, in
+the company of O'Ganlon. The latter individual, in the course of a
+"healthy dash" that he made down the railroad ties,--whereby two shoes
+shied from his mare's hoofs,--reined into a quicksand that threatened to
+swallow his steed. He afterward left his sword at Summit Station, and I,
+obligingly, rode back three miles to recover it. We dined at Daker's,
+where Glumley sat beside the baby-face, pursuant to his art-duties, and
+the plump, red-cheeked miss sat beside me. O'Ganlon was entertained by
+the talkative daughter, who drove him quite mad; so that, when we
+resumed our horses, he insisted upon a second "healthy dash," and
+disappeared through a strip of woods. I followed, rationally, and had
+come to a blacksmith's shop, at the corner of a diverging road, when I
+was made aware of some startling occurrence in my rear. A mounted
+officer dashed past me, shouting some unintelligible tidings, and he was
+followed in quick succession by a dozen cavalry-men, who rode as if the
+foul fiend was at their heels. Then came a teamster, bare-backed, whose
+rent harness trailed in the road, and directly some wagons that were
+halted before the blacksmith's, wheeled smartly, and rattled off towards
+White House.
+
+"What is the matter, my man?" I said to one of these lunatics,
+hurriedly.
+
+"The Rebels are behind!" he screamed, with white lips, and vanished.
+
+I thought that it might be as well to take some other road, and so
+struck off, at a dapper pace, in the direction of the new landing at
+Putney's or "Garlic." At the same instant I heard the crack of carbines
+behind, and they had a magical influence upon my speed. I rode along a
+stretch of chestnut and oak wood, attached to the famous Webb estate,
+and when I came to a rill that passed by a little bridge, under the way,
+turned up its sandy bed and buried myself in the under-brush. A few
+breathless moments only had intervened, when the roadway seemed shaken
+by a hundred hoofs. The imperceptible horsemen yelled like a war-party
+of Camanches, and when they had passed, the carbines rang ahead, as if
+some bloody work was being done at every rod.
+
+I remained a full hour under cover; but as no fresh approaches added to
+my mystery and fear, I sallied forth, and kept the route to Putney's,
+with ears erect and expectant pulses. I had gone but a quarter of a
+mile, when I discerned, through the gathering gloom, a black, misshapen
+object, standing in the middle of the road. As it seemed motionless, I
+ventured closer, when the thing resolved to a sutler's wagon, charred
+and broken, and still smoking from the incendiaries' torch. Further on,
+more of these burned wagons littered the way, and in one place two slain
+horses marked the roadside. When I emerged upon the Hanover road, sounds
+of shrieks and shot issued from the landing at "Garlic," and, in a
+moment, flames rose from the woody shores and reddened the evening. I
+knew by the gliding blaze that vessels had been fired and set adrift,
+and from my place could see the devouring element climbing rope and
+shroud. In a twinkling, a second light appeared behind the woods to my
+right, and the intelligence dawned upon me that the cars and houses at
+Tunstall's Station had been burned. By the fitful illumination, I rode
+tremulously to the old head-quarters at Black Creek, and as I
+conjectured, the depot and train were luridly consuming. The vicinity
+was marked by wrecked sutler's stores, the embers of wagons, and toppled
+steeds. Below Black Creek the ruin did not extend: but when I came to
+White House the greatest confusion existed. Sutlers were taking down
+their booths, transports were slipping their cables, steamers moving
+down the stream. Stuart had made the circuit of the Grand Army to show
+Lee where the infantry could follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FEVER DREAMS IN WAR.
+
+
+A subtle enemy had of late joined the Confederate cause against the
+invaders. He was known as Pestilence, and his footsteps were so soft
+that neither scout nor picket could bar his entrance. His paths were
+subterranean,--through the tepid swamp water, the shallow graves of the
+dead; and aerial,--through the stench of rotting animals, the nightly
+miasms of bog and fen. His victims were not pierced, or crushed, or
+mangled, but their deaths were not less terrible, because more
+lingering. They seemed to wither and shrivel away; their eyes became at
+first very bright, and afterward lustreless; their skins grew hard and
+sallow; their lips faded to a dry whiteness; all the fluids of the body
+were consumed; and they crumbled to corruption before life had fairly
+gone from them.
+
+This visitation has been, by common consent, dubbed "the Chickahominy
+fever," and some have called it the typhus fever. The troops called it
+the "camp fever," and it was frequently aggravated by affections of the
+bowels and throat. The number of persons that died with it was fabulous.
+Some have gone so far as to say that the army could have better afforded
+the slaughter of twenty thousand men, than the delay on the
+Chickahominy. The embalmers were now enjoying their millennium, and a
+steam coffin manufactory was erected at White House, where twenty men
+worked day and night, turning out hundreds of pine boxes. I had,
+occasion, in one of my visits to the depot, to repair to the tent of one
+of the embalmers. He was a sedate, grave person, and when I saw him,
+standing over the nude, hard corpse, he reminded me of the implacable
+vulture, looking into the eyes of Prometheus. His battery and tube were
+pulsing, like one's heart and lungs, and the subject was being drained
+at the neck. I compared the discolored body with the figure of _Ianthe_,
+as revealed in Queen Mab, but failed to see the beautifulness of death.
+
+"If you could only make him breathe, Professor," said an officer
+standing by.
+
+The dry skin of the embalmer broke into chalky dimples, and he grinned
+very much as a corpse might do:--
+
+"Ah!" he said, "_then_ there would be money made."
+
+To hear these embalmers converse with each other was like listening to
+the witch sayings in Macbeth. It appeared that the arch-fiend of
+embalming was a Frenchman named Sonca, or something of that kind, and
+all these worthies professed to have purchased his "system." They told
+grisly anecdotes of "operations," and experimented with chemicals, and
+congratulated each other upon the fever. They would, I think, have piled
+the whole earth with catacombs of stony corpses, and we should have no
+more green graves, but keep our dead with us as household ornaments.
+
+The negroes did not suffer with the fever, although their quarters were
+close and filthy. Their Elysium had come; there was no more work. They
+slept and danced and grinned, and these three actions made up the sum of
+their existence. Such people to increase and multiply I never beheld.
+There were scores of new babies every day; they appeared to be born by
+twins and triplets; they learned to walk in twenty-four hours; and their
+mothers were strong and hearty in less time. Such soulless, lost,
+degraded men and women did nowhere else exist. The divinity they never
+had; the human they had forgotten; they did no great wrongs,--thieving,
+quarrelling, deceiving,--but they failed to do any rights, and their
+worship was animal, and almost profane. They sang incongruous mixtures
+of hymns and field songs:--
+
+    "Oh! bruddern, watch an' pray, _watch_ an' pray!
+    De harvest am a ripenin' our Lord an' Marser say!
+      Oh! ho! yo! dat ole coon, de serpent, ho! oh!
+                        Watch an' pray!"
+
+I have heard them sing such medleys with tears in their eyes, apparently
+fervid and rapt. A very gray old man would lead off, keeping time to the
+words with his head and hands; the mass joining in at intervals, and
+raising a screaming alleluja. Directly they would all rise, link hands,
+and proceed to dance the accompaniment. The motion would be slow at
+first, and the method of singing maintained; after a time they would
+move more rapidly, shouting the lines together; and suddenly becoming
+convulsed with strange excitement, they would toss up their arms, leap,
+fall, groan, and, seemingly, lose consciousness. Their prayers were
+earnest and vehement, but often degenerated to mere howls and noises.
+Some of both sexes had grand voices, that rang like bugles, and the very
+impropriety of their music made it fascinating. It used to seem to me
+that any of the great composers might have borrowed advantageously some
+of those original negro airs. In many cases, their owners came within
+the lines, registered their allegiance, and recovered the negroes. These
+were often veritable Shylocks, that claimed their pounds of flesh, with
+unblushing reference to the law. The poor Africs went back cowed and
+tearful, and it is probable that they were afterward sent to the far
+South, that terrible _terra incognita_ to a border slave.
+
+Among the houses to which I resorted was that of a Mr. Hill, one mile
+from White House. He had a thousand acres of land and a valuable fishery
+on the Pamunkey. The latter was worth, in good seasons, two thousand
+dollars a year. He had fished and farmed with negroes; but these had
+leagued to run away, and he sent them across the river to a second farm
+that he owned in King William County. It was at Hill's house that the
+widow Custis was visiting when young Washington reined at the gate, on
+his road to Williamsburg. With reverent feelings I used to regard the
+old place, and Hill frequently stole away from his formidable military
+household, to talk with me on the front porch. Perhaps in the same
+moonlights, with the river shimmering at their feet, and the grapevine
+shadowing the creaky corners,--their voices softened, their chairs drawn
+very close, their hands touching with a thrill,--the young soldier and
+his affianced had made their courtship. I sometimes sat breathless,
+thinking that their figures had come back, and that I heard them
+whispering.
+
+Hill was a Virginian,--large, hospitable, severe, proud,--and once I
+ventured to speak upon the policy of slavery, with a view to develop his
+own relation to the "institution." He said, with the swaggering manner
+of his class, that slavery was a "domestic" institution, and that
+therefore no political law could reach it. I insinuated, quietly, that
+no political law should therefore sustain it, and took exception to the
+idea that what was domestic was therefore without the province of
+legislation. When I exampled polygamy, Hill became passionate, and asked
+if I was an abolitionist. I opined that I was not, and he so far
+relented as to say that slavery was sanctioned by divine and human laws;
+that it was ultimately to be embraced by all white nationalities, and
+that the Caucasian was certain, in the end, to subjugate and possess
+every other race. He pointed, with some shrewdness, to the condition of
+the Chinese in California and Australia, and epitomized the gradual
+enslaving of the Mongol and Malay in various quarters of the world.
+
+"As to our treatment of niggers," he said, curtly, "I never prevaricate,
+as some masters do, in that respect. I whip my niggers when they want
+it! If they are saucy, or careless, or lazy, I have 'em flogged. About
+twice a year every nigger has to be punished. If they ain't roped over
+twice a year, they take on airs and want to be gentlemen. A nigger is
+bound by no sentiment of duty or affection. You must keep him in trim by
+fear."
+
+Among the victims of the swamp fever, were Major Larrabee, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, of the Fifth Wisconsin regiment; I had been
+indebted to them for many a meal and draught of spirits. I had talked
+with each of them, when the camps were darkened and the soldiery asleep.
+Larrabee was a soldier by nature,--adventurous, energetic, intrepid,
+aggressive. He had been a country Judge in Wisconsin, and afterwards a
+member of Congress. When the war commenced, he enlisted as a common
+soldier, but public sentiment forced the State Government to make him a
+Major. Emory was a mild, reflective, unimpassioned gentleman,--too
+modest to be eminent, too scrupulous to be ambitious. The men were
+opposites, but both capital companions, and they were seized with the
+fever about the same time. The Major was removed to White House, and I
+visited him one day in the hospital quarters. Surgeon General Watson,
+hospital commandant, took me through the quarters; there was quite a
+town of sick men; they lay in wall-tents--about twenty in a tent,--and
+there were daily deaths; those that caught the fever, were afterwards
+unfit for duty, as they took relapses on resuming the field. The tents
+were pitched in a damp cornfield; for the Federals so reverenced their
+national shrines, that they forbade White House and lawn to be used for
+hospital purposes. Under the best circumstances, a field hospital is a
+comfortless place; but here the sun shone like a furnace upon the tents,
+and the rains drowned out the inmates. If a man can possibly avoid it,
+let him never go to the hospital: for he will be called a "skulker," or
+a "shyster," that desires to escape the impending battle. Twenty hot,
+feverish, tossing men, confined in a small tent, like an oven, and
+exposed to contumely and bad food, should get a wholesome horror of war
+and glory.
+
+So far as I could observe and learn, the authorities at White House
+carried high heads, and covetous hands. In brief, they lived like
+princes, and behaved like knaves. There was one--whose conduct has never
+been investigated--who furnished one of the deserted mansions near by,
+and brought a lady from the North to keep it in order. He drove a span
+that rivalled anything in Broadway, and his wines were luscious. His
+establishment reminded me of that of Napoleon III. in the late Italian
+war, and yet, this man was receiving merely a Colonel's pay. My
+impression is that everybody at White House robbed the Government, and
+in the end, to cover their delinquencies, these scoundrels set fire to
+an immense quantity of stores, and squared their accounts thus: "Burned
+on the Pamunkey, June 28, commissary, quartermaster's, and hospital
+stores, one million dollars."
+
+The time was now drawing to a close that I should pass amid the familiar
+scenes of this region. The good people at Daker's were still kindly; but
+having climbed into the great bed one night, I found my legs aching, my
+brain violently throbbing, my chest full of pain and my eyes weak. When
+I woke in the morning my lips were fevered, I could eat nothing, and
+when I reached my saddle, it seemed that I should faint. In a word, the
+Chickahominy fever had seized upon me. My ride to New Bridge was marked
+by great agony, and during much of the time I was quite blind. I turned
+off, at Gaines's Mill, to rest at Captain Kingwalt's; but the old
+gentleman was in the grip of the ague, and I forebore to trouble him
+with a statement of my grievances. Skyhiski made me a cup of tea, which
+I could not drink, and Fogg made me lie on his "poncho." It was like old
+times come back, to hear them all speak cheerfully, and the man Clover
+said that if there "warn't" a battle soon, he knew what he'd do, he
+did! he'd go home, straight as a buck!
+
+"Becoz," said the man Clover, flourishing his hands, "I volunteered to
+fight. To _fight_, sir! not to dig and drive team. Here we air, sir,
+stuck in the mud, burnin' with fever, livin' on hardtack. And thair's
+Richmond! Just thair! You can chuck a stone at it, if you mind to. A'ter
+awhile them rebbils'll pop out, and fix us. Why ain't we led up,
+sa-a-y?"
+
+The man Clover represented common sentiment among the troops at this
+time; but I told him that in all probability he would soon be gratified
+with a battle. My prediction was so far correct, that when I met the man
+Clover on the James River, a week afterward, he said, with a rueful
+countenance--
+
+"Sa-a-a-y! It never rains but it pours, does it?"
+
+As I rode from the camp of the Pennsylvania Reserves, at noon, on the
+21st of June, I seemed to feel a gloomy premonition of the calamities
+that were shortly to fall upon the "Army of the Potomac." I passed in
+front of Hogan house; through the wood above the mill; along Gaines's
+Lane, between his mansion and his barn; across a creek, tributary to the
+Chickahominy; and up the ploughed hills by a military road, toward
+Grapevine Bridge. Lieutenant-Colonel Heath, of the Fifth Maine Regiment,
+was riding with me, and we stopped at the tip of an elevated field to
+look back upon the scene. I was very sick and weary, and I lay my head
+upon the mane of my nag, while Heath threw a leg across his saddle
+pommel, and straightened his slight figure; we both gazed earnestly.
+
+The river lay in the hollow or ravine to the left, and a few farm-houses
+sat among the trees on the hill-tops beyond. A battery was planted at
+each house, and we could see the lines of red-clay parapets marking the
+sites. From the roof of one of the houses floated a speck of
+canvas,--the revolutionary flag. A horseman or two moved shadow-like
+across a slope of yellow grain. Before and back the woods belted the
+landscape, and some pickets of both sides paced the river brink: they
+did not fire upon each other.
+
+Our side of the Chickahominy was not less peaceful. A couple of
+batteries lay below us, in the meadows; but the horses were dozing in
+the harness, and the gunners, standing bolt upright at the breech,
+seemed parts of their pieces; the teamsters lay grouped in the long
+grass. Immediately in front, Gaines's Mansion and outhouses spotted a
+hillside, and we could note beyond a few white tents shining through the
+trees. The roof of the old mill crouched between a medley of wavy fields
+and woods, to our right, and just at our feet a tiny rill divided
+Gaines's Mill from our own. Behind us, over the wilderness of swamp and
+bog-timber, rose Smith's redoubt, with the Federal flag flaunting from
+the rampart.
+
+"Townsend," said Heath, as he swept the whole country with his keen eye,
+"do you know that we are standing upon historic ground?"
+
+He had been a poet and an orator, and he seemed to feel the solemnity of
+the place.
+
+"It may become historic to-morrow," I replied.
+
+"It is so to-day," he said, earnestly; "not from battle as yet; _that_
+may or may not happen; but in the pause before the storm there is
+something grand; and this is the pause."
+
+He took his soft beaver in his hand, and his short red hair stood
+pugnaciously back from his fine forehead.
+
+"The men that have been here already," he added, "consecrated the place;
+young McClellan, and bluff, bull-headed Franklin; the one-armed devil,
+Kearney, and handsome Joe Hooker; gray, gristly Heintzelman;
+white-bearded, insane Sumner; Stuart, Lee, Johnston, the Hills----"
+
+"Why not," said I, laughingly, "Eric the red,--the redoubtable Heath!"
+
+"Why not?" he said, with a flourish; "Fate may have something in store
+for me, as well as for these."
+
+I have thought, since, how terribly our light conversation found
+verification in fact. If I had said to Heath, that, at the very moment,
+Jefferson Davis and his Commander-in-chief were sitting in the dwelling
+opposite, reconnoitring and consulting; that, even now, their telescopes
+were directed upon us; that the effect of their counsel was to be
+manifest in less than a week; that one of the bloodiest battles of
+modern times was to be fought beside and around us; that six days of the
+most terrible fighting known in history were to ensue; that my friend
+and comrade was standing upon the same clods which would be reddened, at
+his next coming, with his heart's blood; and that the trenches were to
+yawn beneath his hoofs, to swallow himself and his steed,--if I had
+foretold these things as they were to occur, I wonder if the "pause
+before the storm" would have been less awful, and our ride campward less
+sedate. Poor Heath! Gallant New Englander! he called at my bedside, the
+sixth day following, as I lay full of pain, fear, and fever, and after
+he bade me good by, I heard his horse's hoofs ringing down the lane. Ten
+minutes afterward he was shot through the head.
+
+When I reached Michie's, at three o'clock, I had to be helped from the
+saddle, and the fever was raging in my whole body before nightfall. My
+hands were flushed, my face hot, but my feet were quite cold, and I was
+seized with chills that seemed to shake my teeth from my head. Mrs.
+Michie made me a bowl of scorching tea, and one of the black-girls
+bathed my limbs in boiling water. The fever dreams came to me that
+night, in snatches of burning sleep, and toward morning I lay restlessly
+awake, moving from side to side, famishing for drink, but rejecting it,
+when they brought it to my lips. The next day, my kind hostess gave me
+some nourishing soup, but after a vain effort to partake of it, I was
+compelled to put it aside. O'Ganlon procured some pickled fruit and
+vegetables from a sutler, which I ate voraciously, quaffing the vinegar
+like wine. Some of my regimental friends heard of my illness, and they
+sent me quiet luxuries, which gladdened me, though I did not eat. During
+the day I had some moments of ease, when I tried to read. There was a
+copy of Wordsworth's poems in the house, and I used to repeat stanzas
+from "Peter Bell," till they rang, in eddies of rhyme, through my weak
+brain, and continued to scan and jangle far into the nights. Some of
+these fever-dreams were like delusions in delirium: peopled with
+monsters, that grinned and growled. Little black globules used to leer
+from corners, and after a time they began to revolve toward me,
+increasing as they came, and at length rolling like mountains of surge.
+I frequently woke with a scream, and found my body in profuse
+perspiration. There were fiery snakes, also, that, at first, moved
+slowly around me, and I followed them with red and terrified eyes. After
+awhile they flashed in circles of lightning, and hissed showers of
+sparks, until I became quite crazed with fear. The most horrible
+apparitions used to come to my bedside, and if I dropped to sleep with
+any thought half formed or half developed, the odd half of that thought
+became impregnated, somehow, and straightway loomed up a goblin, or a
+giant, or a grotesque something, that proceeded to torture me, like a
+sort of Frankenstein, for having made it. Amid all these ghastly things,
+there came beautiful glimpses of form, scene, and sensation, that
+straightway changed to horrors. I remember, for example, that I was
+gliding down a stream, where the boughs overhead were as shady as the
+waters, and there were holy eyes that seemed to cool my fever; but
+suddenly the stream became choked with corpses, that entangled their
+dead limbs with mine, until I strangled and called aloud,--waking up
+O'Ganlon and some reporters who proposed to give me morphine, that I
+might not alarm the house.
+
+How the poor soldiers fared, in the hot hospitals, I shudder to think;
+but a more merciful decree spared my life, and kind treatment met me at
+every hand. Otherwise, I believe, I should not be alive to-day to write
+this story; for the fever had seized me in its severest form, and I had
+almost tutored myself to look upon my end, far from my home and on the
+very eve of my manhood.
+
+O'Ganlon, at last, resolved to send me to White House, and started
+thither one day, to obtain a berth for me upon a Sanitary steamer. The
+next day an ambulance came to the door. I tried to sit up in bed, and
+succeeded; I feebly robed myself and staggered to the stairs. I crawled,
+rather than walked, to the hall below; but when I took a chair, and felt
+the cool breeze from the oaks fanning my hair, I seemed to know that I
+should get well.
+
+"Boom! Boom! Boom!" pealed some cannon at the moment, and all the
+windows shook with the concussion.
+
+Directly we heard volleys of musketry, and then the camps were astir.
+Horses went hither and thither; signal flags flashed to-and-fro; a
+battery of the Reserve Artillery dashed down the lane.
+
+I felt my strength coming back with the excitement; I even smiled feebly
+as the guns thundered past.
+
+"Take away your ambulance, old fellow," I said, "I shan't go home till I
+see a battle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TWO DAYS OF BATTLE.
+
+
+The Confederates had been waiting two months for McClellan's advance.
+Emboldened by his delay they had gathered the whole of their available
+strength from remote Tennessee, from the Mississippi, and from the
+coast, until, confident and powerful, they crossed Meadow Bridge on the
+26th of June, 1862, and drove in our right wing at Mechanicsville. The
+reserves of Gen. McCall were stationed here; they made a wavering
+resistance,--wherein four companies of Bucktails were captured
+bodily,--and fell back at nightfall upon Porter's Corps, at Gaines's
+Mill. Fitz John Porter commanded the brigades of Gens. Sykes and
+Morrell,--the former made up solely of regulars. He appeared to have
+been ignorant of the strength of the attacking party, and he telegraphed
+to McClellan, early on Thursday evening, that he required no
+reinforcements, and that he could hold his ground. The next morning he
+was attacked in front and flank; Stewart's cavalry fell on his right,
+and turned it at Old Church. He formed at noon in new line of battle,
+from Gaines's House, along the Mill Road to New Coal Harbor; but
+stubbornly persisted in the belief that he could not be beaten. By three
+o'clock he had been driven back two miles, and all his energies were
+unavailing to recover a foot of ground. He hurled lancers and cavalry
+upon the masses of Jackson and the Hills, but the butternut infantry
+formed impenetrable squares, hemmed in with rods of steel, and as the
+horsemen galloped around them, searching for previous points, they were
+swept from their saddles with volleys of musketry. He directed the
+terrible fire of his artillery upon them, but though the gray footmen
+fell in heaps, they steadily advanced, closing up the gaps, and their
+lines were like long stretches of blaze and ball. Their fire never
+slackened nor abated. They loaded and moved forward, column on column,
+like so many immortals that could not be vanquished. The scene from the
+balloon, as Lowe informed me, was awful beyond all comparison,--of
+puffing shells and shrieking shrapnel, with volleys that shattered the
+hills and filled the air with deathly whispers. Infantry, artillery, and
+horse turned the Federal right from time to time, and to preserve their
+order of battle the whole line fell back toward Grapevine Bridge. At
+five o'clock Slocum's Division of volunteers crossed the creek from the
+south side, and made a desperate dash upon the solid columns of the
+Confederates. At the same time Toombs's Georgia Brigade charged Smith's
+redoubt from the south side, and there was a probability of the whole of
+both armies engaging before dark.
+
+My fever of body had so much relinquished to my fever of mind, that at
+three o'clock I called for my horse, and determined to cross the bridge,
+that I might witness the battle.
+
+It was with difficulty that I could make my way along the narrow
+corduroy, for hundreds of wounded were limping from the field to the
+safe side, and ammunition wagons were passing the other way, driven by
+reckless drivers who should have been blown up momentarily. Before I had
+reached the north side of the creek, an immense throng of panic-stricken
+people came surging down the slippery bridge. A few carried muskets, but
+I saw several wantonly throw their pieces into the flood, and as the
+mass were unarmed, I inferred that they had made similar dispositions.
+Fear, anguish, cowardice, despair, disgust, were the predominant
+expressions of the upturned faces. The gaunt trees, towering from the
+current, cast a solemn shadow upon the moving throng, and as the evening
+dimness was falling around them, it almost seemed that they were
+engulfed in some cataract. I reined my horse close to the side of a
+team, that I might not be borne backward by the crowd; but some of the
+lawless fugitives seized him by the bridle, and others attempted to pull
+me from the saddle.
+
+"Gi' up that hoss!" said one, "what business you got wi' a hoss?"
+
+"That's my critter, and I am in for a ride; so you get off!" said
+another.
+
+I spurred my pony vigorously with the left foot, and with the right
+struck the man at the bridle under the chin. The thick column parted
+left and right, and though a howl of hate pursued me, I kept straight to
+the bank, cleared the swamp, and took the military route parallel with
+the creek, toward the nearest eminence. At every step of the way I met
+wounded persons. A horseman rode past me, leaning over his pommel, with
+blood streaming from his mouth and hanging in gouts from his saturated
+beard. The day had been intensely hot and black boys were besetting the
+wounded with buckets of cool lemonade. It was a common occurrence for
+the couples that carried the wounded on stretchers to stop on the way,
+purchase a glass of the beverage, and drink it. Sometimes the blankets
+on the stretchers were closely folded, and then I knew that the man
+within was dead. A little fellow, who used his sword for a cane, stopped
+me on the road, and said--
+
+"See yer! This is the ball that jes' fell out o' my boot."
+
+He handed me a lump of lead as big as my thumb, and pointed to a rent in
+his pantaloons, whence the drops rolled down his boots.
+
+"I wouldn't part with that for suthin' handsome," he said; "it'll be
+nice to hev to hum."
+
+As I cantered away he shouted after me--
+
+"Be sure you spell my name right! it's Smith, with an 'E'--S-M-I-T-H-E."
+
+In one place I met five drunken men escorting a wounded sergeant; the
+latter had been shot in the jaw, and when he attempted to speak, the
+blood choked his articulation.
+
+"You let go him, pardner," said one of the staggering brutes, "he's not
+your sergeant. Go 'way!"
+
+"Now, sergeant," said the other, idiotically, "I'll see you all right,
+sergeant. Come, Bill, fetch him over to the corn-crib and we'll give him
+a drink."
+
+Here the first speaker struck the second, and the sergeant, in wrath,
+knocked them both down. All this time the enemy's cannon were booming
+close at hand.
+
+I came to an officer of rank, whose shoulder-emblem I could not
+distinguish, riding upon a limping field-horse. Four men held him to his
+seat, and a fifth led the animal. The officer was evidently wounded,
+though he did not seem to be bleeding, and the dust of battle had
+settled upon his blanched, stiffening face, like grave-mould upon a
+corpse. He was swaying in the saddle, and his hair--for he was
+bare-headed--shook across his white eyeballs. He reminded me of the
+famous Cid, whose body was sent forth to scare the Saracens.
+
+A mile or more from Grapevine Bridge, on a hill-top, lay a frame
+farm-house, with cherry trees encircling it, and along the declivity of
+the hill were some cabins, corn-sheds, and corn-bins. The house was now
+a Surgeon's headquarters, and the wounded lay in the yard and lane,
+under the shade, waiting their turns to be hacked and maimed. I caught a
+glimpse through the door, of the butchers and their victims; some
+curious people were peeping through the windows at the operation. As the
+processions of freshly wounded went by, the poor fellows, lying on their
+backs, looked mutely at me, and their great eyes smote my heart.
+
+Something has been written in the course of the war upon straggling
+from the ranks, during battle. But I have seen nothing that conveys an
+adequate idea of the number of cowards and idlers that so stroll off. In
+this instance, I met squads, companies, almost regiments of them. Some
+came boldly along the road; others skulked in woods, and made long
+detours to escape detection; a few were composedly playing cards, or
+heating their coffee, or discussing the order and consequences of the
+fight. The rolling drums, the constant clatter of file and
+volley-firing,--nothing could remind them of the requirements of the
+time and their own infamy. Their appreciation of duty and honor seemed
+to have been forgotten; neither hate, ambition, nor patriotism could
+force them back; but when the columns of mounted provosts charged upon
+them, they sullenly resumed their muskets and returned to the field. At
+the foot of the hill to which I have referred the ammunition wagons lay
+in long lines, with the horses' heads turned from the fight. A little
+beyond stood the ambulances; and between both sets of vehicles,
+fatigue-parties were going and returning to and from the field. At the
+top of the next hill sat many of the Federal batteries, and I was
+admonished by the shriek of shells that passed over my head and burst
+far behind me, that I was again to look upon carnage and share the
+perils of the soldier.
+
+The question at once occurred to me: Can I stand fire? Having for some
+months penned daily paragraphs relative to death, courage, and victory,
+I was surprised to find that those words were now unusually significant.
+"Death" was a syllable to me before; it was a whole dictionary now.
+"Courage" was natural to every man a week ago; it was rarer than genius
+to-day. "Victory" was the first word in the lexicon of youth yesterday
+noon; "discretion" and "safety" were at present of infinitely more
+consequence. I resolved, notwithstanding these qualms, to venture to the
+hill-top: but at every step flitting projectiles took my breath. The
+music of the battle-field, I have often thought, should be introduced
+in opera. Not the drum, the bugle, or the fife, though these are
+thrilling, after their fashion; but the music of modern ordnance and
+projectile, the beautiful whistle of the minie-ball, the howl of shell
+that makes unearthly havoc with the air, the whiz-z-z of solid shot, the
+chirp of bullets, the scream of grape and canister, the yell of immense
+conical cylinders, that fall like redhot stoves and spout burning coals.
+
+All these passed over, beside, beneath, before, behind me. I seemed to
+be an invulnerable something at whom some cunning juggler was tossing
+steel, with an intent to impinge upon, not to strike him. I rode like
+one with his life in his hand, and, so far as I remember, seemed to
+think of nothing. No fear, _per se_; no regret; no adventure; only
+expectancy. It was the expectancy of a shot, a choking, a loud cry, a
+stiffening, a dead, dull tumble, a quiver, and--blindness. But with this
+was mingled a sort of enjoyment, like that of the daring gamester, who
+has played his soul and is waiting for the decision of the cards. I felt
+all his suspense, _more_ than his hope; and withal, there was excitement
+in the play. Now a whistling ball seemed to pass just under my ear, and
+before I commenced to congratulate myself upon the escape, a shell, with
+a showery and revolving fuse, appeared to take the top off my head. Then
+my heart expanded and contracted, and somehow I found myself conning
+rhymes. At each clipping ball,--for I could hear them coming,--a sort of
+coldness and paleness rose to the very roots of my hair, and was then
+replaced by a hot flush. I caught myself laughing, syllabically, and
+shrugging my shoulders, fitfully. Once, the rhyme that came to my
+lips--for I am sure there was no mind in the iteration--was the simple
+nursery prayer--
+
+    "Now I lay me down to sleep,"
+
+I continued to say "down to sleep," "down to sleep," "down to sleep,"
+till I discovered myself, when I ceased. Then a shell, apparently just
+in range, dashed toward me, and the words spasmodically leaped up:
+"Now's your time. This is your billet." With the same insane pertinacity
+I continued to repeat "Now's your time, now's your time," and "billet,
+billet, billet," till at last I came up to the nearest battery, where I
+could look over the crest of the hill; and as if I had looked into the
+crater of a volcano, or down the fabled abyss into hell, the whole grand
+horror of a battle burst upon my sight. For a moment I could neither
+feel nor think. I scarcely beheld, or beholding did not understand or
+perceive. Only the roar of guns, the blaze that flashed along a zigzag
+line and was straightway smothered in smoke, the creek lying glassily
+beneath me, the gathering twilight, and the brownish blue of woods! I
+only knew that some thousands of fiends, were playing with fire and
+tossing brands at heaven,--that some pleasant slopes, dells, and
+highlands were lit as if the conflagration of universes had commenced.
+There is a passage of Holy Writ that comes to my mind as I write, which
+explains the sensation of the time better than I can do:--
+
+"_He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit,
+as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened
+by reason of the smoke of the pit._
+
+"_And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth._"--Revelation,
+ix. 2, 3.
+
+In a few moments, when I was able to compose myself, the veil of cloud
+blew away or dissolved, and I could see fragments of the long columns of
+infantry. Then from the far end of the lines puffed smoke, and from man
+to man the puff ran down each line, enveloping the columns again, so
+that they were alternately visible and invisible. At points between the
+masses of infantry lay field-pieces, throbbing with rapid deliveries,
+and emitting volumes of white steam. Now and then the firing slackened
+for a short time, when I could remark the Federal line, fringed with
+bayonets, stretching from the low meadow on the left, up the slope, over
+the ridge, up and down the crest, until its right disappeared in the
+gloaming of wood and distance. Standards flapped here and there above
+the column, and I knew, from the fact that the line became momentarily
+more distinct, that the Federals were falling stubbornly back. At times
+a battery would dash a hundred yards forward, unlimber, and fire a score
+of times, and directly would return two hundred yards and blaze again. I
+saw a regiment of lancers gather at the foot of a protecting swell of
+field; the bugle rang thrice, the red pennons went upward like so many
+song birds, the mass turned the crest and disappeared, then the whole
+artillery belched and bellowed. In twenty minutes a broken, straggling,
+feeble group of horsemen returned; the red pennons still fluttered, but
+I knew that they were redder for the blood that dyed them. Finally, the
+Federal infantry fell back to the foot of the hill on which I stood; all
+the batteries were clustering around me, and suddenly a column of men
+shot up from the long sweep of the abandoned hill, with batteries on the
+left and right. Their muskets were turned towards us, a crash and a
+whiff of smoke swept from flank to flank, and the air around me rained
+buck, slug, bullet, and ball!
+
+The incidents that now occurred in rapid succession were so thrilling
+and absorbing that my solicitude was lost in their grandeur. I sat like
+one dumb, with my soul in my eyes and my ears stunned, watching the
+terrible column of Confederates. Each party was now straining every
+energy,--the one for victory, the other against annihilation. The
+darkness was closing in, and neither cared to prolong the contest after
+night. The Confederates, therefore, aimed to finish their success with
+the rout or capture of the Federals, and the Federals aimed to maintain
+their ground till nightfall. The musketry was close, accurate, and
+uninterrupted. Every second was marked by a discharge,--the one firing,
+the other replying promptly. No attempt was now made to remove the
+wounded; the coolness of the fight had gone by, and we witnessed only
+its fury. The stragglers seemed to appreciate the desperate emergency,
+and came voluntarily back to relieve their comrades. The cavalry was
+massed, and collected for another grand charge. Like a black shadow
+gliding up the darkening hillside, they precipitated themselves upon the
+columns: the musketry ceased for the time, and shrieks, steel strokes,
+the crack of carbines and revolvers succeeded. Shattered, humiliated,
+sullen, the horse wheeled and returned. Then the guns thundered again,
+and by the blaze of the pieces, the clods and turf were revealed,
+fitfully strewn with men and horses.
+
+The vicinity of my position now exhibited traces of the battle. A
+caisson burst close by, and I heard the howl of dying wretches, as the
+fires flashed like meteors. A solid shot struck a field-carriage not
+thirty yards from my feet, and one of the flying splinters spitted a
+gunner as if he had been pierced by an arrow. An artillery-man was
+standing with folded arms so near that I could have reached to touch
+him; a whistle and a thumping shock and he fell beneath my nag's head. I
+wonder, as I calmly recall these episodes now, how I escaped the death
+that played about me, chilled me, thrilled me,--but spared me! "They are
+fixing bayonets for a charge. My God! See them come down the hill."
+
+In the gathering darkness, through the thick smoke, I saw or seemed to
+see the interminable column roll steadily downward. I fancied that I
+beheld great gaps cut in their ranks though closing solidly up, like the
+imperishable Gorgon. I may have heard some of this next day, and so
+confounded the testimonies of eye and ear. But I knew that there was a
+charge, and that the drivers were ordered to stand by their saddles, to
+run off the guns at any moment. The descent and bottom below me, were
+now all ablaze, and directly above the din of cannon, rifle, and
+pistol, I heard a great cheer, as of some salvation achieved.
+
+"The Rebels are repulsed! We have saved the guns!"
+
+A cheer greeted this announcement from the battery-men around me. They
+reloaded, rammed, swabbed, and fired, with naked arms, and drops of
+sweat furrowed the powder-stains upon their faces. The horses stood
+motionless, quivering not half so much as the pieces. The gristly
+officers held to their match-strings, smothering the excitement of the
+time. All at once there was a running hither and thither, a pause in the
+thunder, a quick consultation--
+
+"'Sdeath! They have flanked us again."
+
+In an instant I seemed overwhelmed with men. For a moment I thought the
+enemy had surrounded us.
+
+"It's all up," said one; "I shall cross the river."
+
+I wheeled my horse, fell in with the stream of fugitives, and was borne
+swiftly through field and lane and trampled fence to the swampy margin
+of the Chickahominy. At every step the shell fell in and among the
+fugitives, adding to their panic. I saw officers who had forgotten their
+regiments or had been deserted by them, wending with the mass. The
+wounded fell and were trodden upon. Personal exhibitions of valor and
+determination there were; but the main body had lost heart, and were
+weary and hungry.
+
+As we approached the bridge, there was confusion and altercation ahead.
+The people were borne back upon me. Curses and threats ensued.
+
+"It is the Provost-guard," said a fugitive, "driving back the boys."
+
+"Go back!" called a voice ahead. "I'll blow you to h--ll, if you don't
+go back! Not a man shall cross the bridge without orders!"
+
+The stragglers were variously affected by this intelligence. Some cursed
+and threatened; some of the wounded blubbered as they leaned languidly
+upon the shoulders of their comrades. Others stoically threw themselves
+on the ground and tried to sleep. One man called aloud that the "boys"
+were stronger than the Provosts, and that, therefore, the "boys" ought
+to "go in and win."
+
+"Where's the man that wants to mutiny?" said the voice ahead; "let me
+see him!"
+
+The man slipped away; for the Provost officer spoke as though he meant
+all he said.
+
+"Nobody wants to mutiny!" called others.
+
+"Three cheers for the Union."
+
+The wounded and well threw up their hats together, and made a sickly
+hurrah. The grim officer relented, and he shouted stentoriously that he
+would take the responsibility of passing the wounded. These gathered
+themselves up and pushed through the throng; but many skulkers plead
+injuries, and so escaped. When I attempted to follow, on horseback,
+hands were laid upon me and I was refused exit. In that hour of terror
+and sadness, there were yet jests and loud laughter. However keenly I
+felt these things, I had learned that modesty amounted to little in the
+army; so I pushed my nag steadily forward and scattered the camp
+vernacular, in the shape of imprecations, left and right.
+
+"Colonel," I called to the officer in command, as the line of bayonets
+edged me in, "may I pass out? I am a civilian!"
+
+"No!" said the Colonel, wrathfully. "This is no place for a civilian."
+
+"That's why I want to get away."
+
+"Pass out!"
+
+I followed the winding of the woods to Woodbury's Bridge,--the next
+above Grapevine Bridge. The approaches were clogged with wagons and
+field-pieces, and I understood that some panic-stricken people had
+pulled up some of the timbers to prevent a fancied pursuit. Along the
+sides of the bridge many of the wounded were washing their wounds in the
+water, and the cries of the teamsters echoed weirdly through the trees
+that grew in the river. At nine o'clock, we got under way,--horsemen,
+batteries, ambulances, ammunition teams, infantry, and finally some
+great siege 32s. that had been hauled from Gaines's House. One of these
+pieces broke down the timbers again, and my impression is that it was
+cast into the current. When we emerged from the swamp timber, the hills
+before us were found brilliantly illuminated with burning camps. I made
+toward head-quarters, in one of Trent's fields; but all the tents save
+one had been taken down, and lines of white-covered wagons stretched
+southward until they were lost in the shadows. The tent of General
+McClellan alone remained, and beneath an arbor of pine boughs, close at
+hand, he sat, with his Corps Commanders and Aides, holding a council of
+war. A ruddy fire lit up the historical group, and I thought at the
+time, as I have said a hundred times since, that the consultation might
+be selected for a grand national painting. The crisis, the hour, the
+adjuncts, the renowned participants, peculiarly fit it for pictorial
+commemoration.
+
+The young commander sat in a chair, in full uniform, uncovered.
+Heintzelman was kneeling upon a fagot, earnestly speaking. De Joinville
+sat apart, by the fire, examining a map. Fitz John Porter was standing
+back of McClellan, leaning upon his chair. Keyes, Franklin, and Sumner,
+were listening attentively. Some sentries paced to and fro, to keep out
+vulgar curiosity. Suddenly, there was a nodding of heads, as of some
+policy decided; they threw themselves upon their steeds, and galloped
+off toward Michie's.
+
+As I reined at Michie's porch, at ten o'clock, the bridges behind me
+were blown up, with a flare that seemed a blazing of the Northern
+Lights. The family were sitting upon the porch, and Mrs. Michie was
+greatly alarmed with the idea that a battle would be fought round her
+house next day.
+
+O'Ganlon, of Meagher's staff, had taken the fever, and sent anxiously
+for me, to compare our symptoms.
+
+I bade the good people adieu before I went to bed, and gave the man
+"Pat" a dollar to stand by my horse while I slept, and to awake me at
+any disturbance, that I might be ready to scamper. The man "Pat," I am
+bound to say, woke me up thrice by the exclamation of--
+
+"Sure, yer honor, there's--well--to pay in the yard! I think ye and the
+Doctor had better ride off."
+
+On each of those occasions, I found that the man Pat had been lonesome,
+and wanted somebody to speak to.
+
+What a sleep was mine that night! I forgot my fever. But another and a
+hotter fever burned my temples,--the fearful excitement of the time!
+Whither were we to go, cut off from the York, beaten before
+Richmond,--perhaps even now surrounded,--and to be butchered to-morrow,
+till the clouds should rain blood? Were we to retreat one hundred miles
+down the hostile Peninsula,--a battle at every rod, a grave at every
+footstep? Then I remembered the wounded heaped at Gaines's Mill, and how
+they were groaning without remedy, ebbing at every pulse, counting the
+flashing drops, calling for water, for mercy, for death. So I found
+heart; for I was not buried yet. And somehow I felt that fate was to
+take me, as the great poet took Dante, through other and greater
+horrors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+M'CLELLAN'S RETREAT.
+
+
+The scene presented in Michie's lawn and oak grove, on Saturday morning,
+was terribly picturesque, and characteristic of the calamity of war. The
+well was beset by crowds of wounded men, perishing of thirst, who made
+frantic efforts to reach the bucket, but were borne back by the stronger
+desperadoes. The kitchen was swarming with hungry soldiers who begged
+corn-bread and half-cooked dough from the negroes. The shady side-yard
+was dotted with pale, bruised, and bleeding people, who slept out their
+weariness upon the damp grass, forgetful, for the moment, of their
+sores. Ambulances poured through the lane, in solemn procession, and now
+and then, couples of privates bore by some wounded officer, upon a
+canvas "stretcher." The lane proving too narrow, at length, for the
+passing vehicles, the gate-posts and fence were torn up, and finally,
+the soldiers made a footway of the hall of the dwelling.
+
+The retreat had been in progress all night, as I had heard the wagons
+through my open windows. By daylight the whole army was acquainted with
+the facts, that we were to resign our depot at White House, relinquish
+the North bank of the river, and retire precipitately to the shores of
+the James. A rumor--indignantly denied, but as often repeated--prevailed
+among the teamsters, surgeons, and drivers, that the wounded were to be
+left in the enemy's hands. It shortly transpired that we were already
+cut off from the Pamunkey. A train had departed for White House at dawn,
+and had delivered its cargo of mortality safely; but a second train,
+attempting the passage, at seven o'clock had been fired into, and
+compelled to return. A tremendous explosion, and a shaft of white smoke
+that flashed to the zenith, informed us, soon afterward, that the
+railroad bridge had been blown up.
+
+About the same time, the roar of artillery recommenced in front, and
+regiments that had not slept for twenty hours, were hurried past us, to
+take position at the entrenchments. A universal fear now found
+expression, and helpless people asked of each other, with pale lips--
+
+"How far have we to walk to reach the James?"
+
+It was doubtful, at this time, that any one knew the route to that
+river. A few members of the signal corps had adventured thither to open
+communication with the gunboats, and a small cavalry party of Casey's
+division had made a foray to New Market and Charles City Court House.
+But it was rumored that Wise's brigade of Confederates was now posted at
+Malvern Hills, closing up the avenue of escape, and that the whole right
+wing of the Confederate army was pushing toward Charles City. Malvern
+Hills, the nearest point that could be gained, was about twenty miles
+distant, and Harrison's Landing--presumed to be our final
+destination--was thirty miles away. To retreat over this distance,
+encumbered with baggage, the wounded and the sick, was discarded as
+involving pursuit, and certain calamity. Cavalry might fall upon us at
+every turning, since the greater portion of our own horse had been
+scouting between White House and Hanover, when the bridges were
+destroyed, and was therefore separated from the main army. At eight
+o'clock--weak with fever and scarcely able to keep in the saddle--I
+joined Mr. Anderson of the _Herald_, and rode toward the front, that I
+might discover the whereabouts of the new engagement. Winding through a
+cart-track in Michie's Woods, we came upon fully one third of the whole
+army, or the remnant of all that portion engaged at Gaines's Mill;--the
+Reserves, Porter's Corps, Slocum's division, and Meagher's
+brigade,--perhaps thirty-thousand men. They covered the whole of Tent's
+farm, and were drawn up in line, heavily equipped, with their colors in
+position, field officers dismounted, and detachments from each regiment
+preparing hot coffee at certain fires. A very few wagons--and these
+containing only ammunition--stood harnessed beside each regiment. In
+many cases the men lay or knelt upon the ground. Such hot, hungry, weary
+wretches, I never beheld. During the whole night long they had been
+crossing the Chickahominy, and the little sleep vouchsafed them had been
+taken in snatches upon the bare clay. Travelling from place to place, I
+saw the surviving heroes of the defeat: Meagher looking very yellow and
+prosaic; Slocum,--small, indomitable, active; Newton,--a little gray, a
+trifle proud, very mercurial, and curiously enough, a Virginian;
+Meade,--lithe, spectacled, sanguine; and finally General McCall, as
+grave, kindly odd and absent, as I had found him four months before. The
+latter worthy was one of the first of the Federal Generals to visit
+Richmond. He was taken prisoner the second day afterward, and the half
+of his command was slain or disabled.
+
+I went to and fro, obtaining the names of killed, wounded and missing,
+with incidents of the battle as well as its general plan. These I
+scrawled upon bits of newspaper, upon envelopes, upon the lining of my
+hat, and finally upon my shirt wristbands. I was literally filled with
+notes before noon, and if I had been shot at that time, endeavors to
+obtain my name would have been extremely difficult. I should have had
+more titles than some of the Chinese princes; some parts of me would
+have been found fatally wounded, and others italicized for gallant
+behavior. Indeed, I should have been shot in every part, taken prisoner
+at every place, killed outright in every skirmish, and marvellously
+saved through every peril. My tombstone would have been some hundreds of
+muster-rolls and my obituary a fortune to a newspaper. I recollect, with
+some amusement, the credit that each regiment took upon itself for
+distinguished behavior. There were few Colonels that did not claim all
+the honors. I fell in with a New Jersey brigade, that had been decimated
+of nearly half its _quota_, and a spruce young Major attempted to convey
+an idea of the battle to me. He said, in brief, that the New Jersey
+brigade, composed mainly of himself and his regiment, and some few
+organizations of little consequence,--although numbering ten thousand
+odd soldiers,--had received the whole shock of a quantity of "Rebels."
+The said "Rebels" appeared to make up one fourth part of the population
+of the globe. There was no end to them. They seemed to be several miles
+deep, longer and more crooked than the Pamunkey, and stood with their
+rear against Richmond, so that they couldn't fall back, even if they
+wanted to. In vain did the New Jersey brigade and his regiment attack
+them with ball and bayonet. How the "Rebels" ever withstood the
+celebrated charge of his regiment was altogether inexplicable.
+
+In the language of the Major,--"the New Jersey brigade,--and my
+regiment,--fit, and fit, and fit, and give 'em 'get out!' But sir, may I
+be----, well there (expression inadequate), we couldn't budge 'em. No,
+sir! (very violently,) not budge 'em, sir! _I_ told the boys to walk at
+'em with cold steel. Says I: 'Boys, steel'ill fetch 'em, or nothin'
+under heaven!' Well, sir, at 'em we went,--me and the boys. There ain't
+been no sich charge in the whole war! Not in the whole war, sir!
+(intensely fervid;) leave it to any impartial observer if there has
+been! We went up the hill, square in the face of all their artillery,
+musketry, cavalry, sharpshooters, riflemen,--everything, sir!
+Everything! (energetically.) One o' my men overheard the Rebel General
+say, as we came up: says he,--'that's the gamest thing I ever see.'
+Well! we butchered 'em frightful. We must a killed a thousand or two of
+'em, don't you think so, Adjutant? But, sir,--it was all in vain. No go,
+sir! no, sir, no go! (impressively.) And the New Jersey brigade and my
+regiment fell back, inch by inch, with our feet to the foe
+(rhetorically.) Is that so, boys?"
+
+The "boys," who had meantime gathered around, exclaimed loudly, that it
+was "true as preachin," and the Major added, in an undertone that his
+name was spelled * * *.
+
+"But where were Porter's columns?" said I, "and the Pennsylvania
+Reserves?"
+
+"I didn't see 'em," said the Major: "I don't think they was there. If
+they had a been, why wa'n't they on hand to save my regiment, and the
+New Jersey brigade?"
+
+It would be wrong to infer from these vauntings, that the Federals did
+not fight bravely and endure defeat unshrinkingly. On the contrary, I
+have never read of higher exemplifications of personal and moral
+courage, than I witnessed during this memorable retreat. And the young
+Major's boasting did not a whit reduce my estimate of his efficiency.
+For in America, swaggering does not necessarily indicate cowardice. I
+knew a Captain of artillery in Smith's division, who was wordier than
+Gratiano, and who exaggerated like Falstaff. But he was a lion in
+action, and at Lee's Mills and Williamsburg his battery was handled with
+consummate skill.
+
+From Trent's farm the roadway led by a strip of corduroy, through
+sloppy, swampy woods, to an open place, beyond a brook, where Smith's
+division lay. The firing had almost entirely ceased, and we heard loud
+cheers running up and down the lines, as we again ventured within cannon
+range. On this spot, for the second time, the Federals had won a decided
+success. And in so far as a cosmopolitan could feel elated, I was proud,
+for a moment, of the valor of my division. The victors had given me
+meals and a bed, and they had fed my pony when both of us were hungry.
+But the sight of the prisoners and the collected dead, saddened me
+somewhat.
+
+These two engagements have received the name of the First and Second
+battles of Golding's Farm. They resulted from an effort of Toombs's
+Georgia brigade to carry the redoubt and breastworks of General Smith.
+Toombs was a civilian, and formerly a senator from Georgia. He had no
+military ability, and his troops were driven back with great slaughter,
+both on Friday and Saturday. Among the prisoners taken was Colonel Lamar
+of (I think) the 7th Georgia regiment. He passed me, in a litter,
+wounded, as I rode toward the redoubt.
+
+Lamar was a beautiful man, shaped like a woman, and his hair was long,
+glossy, and wavy with ringlets. He was a tiger, in his love of blood,
+and in character self-willed and vehement. He was of that remarkable
+class of Southern men, of which the noted "Filibuster" Walker was the
+great exponent. I think I may call him an apostle of slavery. He
+believed it to be the destiny of our pale race to subdue all the dusky
+tribes of the earth, and to evangelize, with the sword, the whole
+Western continent, to the uses of master and man. Such people were
+called disciples of "manifest destiny." He threw his whole heart into
+the war; but when I saw him, bloodless, panting, quivering, I thought
+how little the wrath of man availed against the justice of God. From
+Smith's on the right, I kept along a military road, in the woods, to
+Sedgwick's and Richardson's divisions, at Fairoaks. Richardson was
+subsequently slain, at the second battle of Bull Run. He was called
+"Fighting Dick," and on this particular morning was talking composedly
+to his wife, as she was about to climb to the saddle. His tent had been
+taken down, and soldiers were placing his furniture in a wagon. A
+greater contrast I never remarked, than the ungainly, awkward, and
+rough General, with his slight, trim, pretty companion. She had come to
+visit him and had remained until commanded to retire. I fancied, though
+I was separated some distance, that the little woman wept, as she kissed
+him good by, and he followed her, with frequent gestures of good-hap,
+till she disappeared behind the woods. I do not know that such prosaic
+old soldiers are influenced by the blandishments of love; but "Fighting
+Dick" never wooed death so recklessly as in the succeeding engagements
+of New Market and Malvern Hills.
+
+From Seven Pines to the right of Richardson's head-quarters, ran a line
+of alternate breastwork, redoubt, and stockade. The best of these
+redoubts was held by Captain Petit, with a New York Volunteer battery. I
+had often talked with Petit, for he embodied, as well as any man in the
+army, the martial qualifications of a volunteer. He despised order.
+Nobody cared less for dress and dirt. I have seen him, sitting in a hole
+that he hollowed with his hands, tossing pebbles and dust over his head,
+like another Job. He had profound contempt for any man and any system
+that was not "American." I remember asking him, one day, the meaning of
+the gold lace upon the staff hats of the Irish brigade.
+
+"Means run like shell!" said Petit, covering me with dirt.
+
+"Don't the Irish make the best soldiers?" I ventured.
+
+"No!" said Petit, raining pebbles, "I had rather have one American than
+ten Irishmen."
+
+The fighting of Petit was contrary to all rule; but I think that he was
+a splendid artillery-man. He generally mounted the rampart, shook his
+fist at the enemy, flung up his hat, jumped down, sighted the guns
+himself, threw shells with wonderful accuracy, screamed at the gunners,
+mounted the rampart again, halloed, and, in short, managed to do more
+execution, make more noise, attract more attention and throw more dirt
+than anybody in the army. His redoubt was small, but beautifully
+constructed, and the parapet was heaped with double rows of sandbags. It
+mounted rifled field-pieces, and, at most times, the gunners were lying
+under the pieces, asleep. Not any of the entrenched posts among the
+frontier Indians were more enveloped in wilderness than this. The trees
+had been felled in front to give the cannon play, but behind and on each
+side belts of dense, dwarf timber covered the boggy soil. To the left of
+Petit, on the old field of Seven Pines, lay the divisions of Hooker and
+Kearney, and thither I journeyed, after leaving the redoubtable
+volunteer. Hooker was a New Englander, reputed to be the handsomest man
+in the army. He fought bravely in the Mexican war, and afterwards
+retired to San Francisco, where he passed a Bohemian existence at the
+Union Club House. He disliked McClellan, was beloved by his men, and was
+generally known as "Old Joe." He has been one of the most successful
+Federal leaders, and seems to hold a charmed life. In all probability he
+will become Commander-in-chief of one of the grand armies.
+
+Kearney has passed away since the date of which I speak. He was known as
+the "one-armed Devil," and was, by odds, the best educated of all the
+Federal military chiefs. But, singularly enough, he departed from all
+tactics, when hotly afield. His personal energy and courage have given
+him renown, and he loved to lead forlorn hopes, or head
+storming-parties, or ride upon desperate adventures. He was rich from
+childhood, and spent much of his life in Europe. For a part of this time
+he served as a cavalry-man with the French, in Algiers. In private life
+he was equally reckless, but his tastes were scholarly, and he was
+generous to a fault. Both Kearney and Hooker were kind to the reporters,
+and I owe the dead man many a favor. General Daniel Sickles commanded a
+brigade in this corps. To the left, and in the rear of Heintzelman's
+corps, lay the divisions of Casey and Couch, that had relapsed into
+silence since their disgrace at Seven Pines. General Casey was a
+thin-haired old gentleman, too gracious to be a soldier, although I
+believe that he is still in the service. His division comprised the
+extreme left of the Grand Army, and bordered upon a deep, impenetrable
+bog called "White Oak Swamp." It was the purpose of McClellan to place
+this swamp between him and the enemy, and defend its passage till his
+baggage and siege artillery had obtained the shelter of the gunboats, on
+the shores of the James. I rode along this whole line, to renew my
+impressions of the position, and found that sharp skirmishing was going
+on at every point. When I returned to Savage's, where McClellan's
+headquarters had temporarily been pitched, I found the last of the
+wagons creaking across the track, and filing slowly southward. The
+wounded lay in the out-houses, in the trains of cars, beside the hedge,
+and in shade of the trees about the dwelling. A little back, beside a
+wood, lay Lowe's balloon traps, and the infantry "guard," and cavalry
+"escort" of the Commander-in-chief were encamped close to the new
+provost quarters, in a field beyond the orchard. An ambulance passed me,
+as I rode into the lane; it was filled with sufferers, and two men with
+bloody feet, crouched in the trail. From the roof of Savage's house
+floated the red hospital flag. Savage himself was a quiet Virginia
+farmer, and a magistrate. His name is now coupled with a grand battle.
+
+I felt very hungry, at four o'clock, but my weak stomach revolted at
+coarse soldier fare, and I determined to ride back to Michie's. I was
+counselled to beware; but having learned little discretion afield, I
+cantered off, through a trampled tillage of wheat, and an interminable
+woods. In a half hour I rode into the familiar yard; but the place was
+so ruined that I hardly recognized it. Not a panel of fence remained:
+the lawn was a great pool of slime; the windlass had been wrenched from
+the well; a few gashed and expiring soldiers lay motionless beneath the
+oaks, the fields were littered with the remains of camps, and the old
+dwelling stood like a haunted thing upon a blighted plain. The idlers,
+the teamsters, and the tents were gone,--all was silence,--and in the
+little front porch sat Mrs. Michie, weeping; the old gentleman stared at
+the desolation with a working face, and two small yellow lads lay
+dolorously upon the steps. They all seemed to brighten up as I appeared
+at the gate, and when I staggered from my horse, both of them took my
+hands. I think that tears came into all our eyes at once, and the little
+Ethiops fairly bellowed.
+
+"My friends," I said, falteringly, "I see how you have suffered, and
+sympathize with you, from my heart."
+
+"Our beautiful property is ruined," said Mrs. Michie, welling up.
+
+"Yer's five years of labor,--my children's heritage,--the home of our
+old age,--look at it!"
+
+The old gentleman stood up gravely, and cast his eyes mournfully around.
+
+"I have nobody to accuse," he said; "my grief is too deep for any hate.
+This is war!"
+
+"What will the girls say when they come back?" was the mother's next
+sob; "they loved the place: do you think they will know it?"
+
+I did not know how to reply. They retained my hands, and for a moment
+none of us spoke.
+
+"Don't think, Mr. Townsend," said the chivalrous old gentleman again,
+"that we like you less because some of your country people have stripped
+us. Mother, where is the gruel you made for him?"
+
+The good lady, expecting my return, had prepared some nourishing chicken
+soup, and directly she produced it. I think she took heart when I ate so
+plentifully, and we all spoke hopefully again. Their kindness so touched
+me, that as the evening came quietly about us, lengthening the shadows,
+and I knew that I must depart, I took both their hands again, doubtful
+what to say.
+
+"My friends,--may I say, almost my parents? for you have been as
+kind,--good by! In a day, perhaps, you will be with your children again.
+Richmond will be open to you. You may freely go and come. Be comforted
+by these assurances. And when the war is over,--God speed the time!--we
+may see each other under happier auspices."
+
+"Good by!" said Mr. Michie; "if I have a house at that time, you shall
+be welcome."
+
+"Good by," said Mrs. Michie; "tell your mother that a strange lady in
+Virginia took good care of you when you were sick."
+
+I waved a final adieu, vaulted down the lane, and the wood gathered its
+solemn darkness about me. When I emerged upon Savage's fields, a
+succession of terrible explosions shook the night, and then the flames
+flared up, at points along the railroad. They were blowing up the
+locomotives and burning the cars. At the same hour, though I could not
+see it, White House was wrapped in fire, and the last sutler, teamster,
+and cavalry-man had disappeared from the shores of the Pamunkey.
+
+I tossed through another night of fever, in the captain's tent of the
+Sturgis Rifles,--McClellan's body guard. And somehow, again, I dreamed
+fitfully of the unburied corpses on the field of Gaines's Mill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A BATTLE SUNDAY.
+
+
+In the dim of the morning of our Lord's Sabbath, the twenty-ninth of
+June, 1862, I sat in my saddle at Savage's. The gloom was very
+cheerless. A feeling of hopeless vagabondism oppressed me. I remembered
+the Disinherited Knight, the Wandering Jew, Robinson Crusoe, and other
+poor errants in the wide world, and wondered if any of them ever looked
+so ruefully as I, when the last wagon of the Grand Army disappeared
+through the shadow.
+
+The tent had been taken down at midnight. I had been dozing in the
+saddle, with parched lips and throbbing temples, waiting for my comrade.
+Head-quarters had been intending to move, without doing it, for four
+hours, and he informed me that it was well to stay with the Commanding
+General, as the Commanding General kept out of danger, and also kept in
+provisions. I was sick and petulant, and finally quarrelled with my
+friend. He told me, quietly, that I would regret my harshness when I
+should be well again. I set off for White Oak, but repented at "Burnt
+Chimneys," and turned back. In the misty dawn I saw the maimed still
+lying on the ground, wrapped in relics of blankets, and in one of the
+outhouses a grim embalmer stood amid a family of nude corpses. He dealt
+with the bodies of high officers only; for, said he--
+
+"I used to be glad to prepare private soldiers. They were wuth a five
+dollar bill apiece. But, Lord bless you, a Colonel pays a hundred, and
+a Brigadier-General two hundred. There's lots of them now, and I have
+cut the acquaintance of everything below a Major. I might," he added,
+"as a great favor, do a Captain, but he must pay a Major's price. I
+insist upon that! Such windfalls don't come every day. There won't be
+another such killing for a century."
+
+A few horsemen of the escort loitered around head-quarters. All the
+tents but one had been removed, and the staff crouched sleepily upon the
+refuse straw. The rain began to drizzle at this time, and I unbuckled a
+blanket to wrap about my shoulders. Several people were lying upon dry
+places, here and there, and espying some planks a little remote, I tied
+my horse to a peach-tree, and stretched myself languidly upon my back.
+The bridal couch or the throne were never so soft as those knotty
+planks, and the drops that fell upon my forehead seemed to cool my
+fever.
+
+I had passed into a sort of cognizant sleep when a harsh, loud, cruel
+voice awakened me, and I seemed to see a great Polyphemus, stretching
+his hands into the clouds, and gaping like an earthquake.
+
+"Boy," I heard him say, to a slight figure, near at hand, "boy, what are
+you standing there for? What in ---- do you want?"
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"Take it, and go, ---- ---- you! Take it, and go!"
+
+I peeped timorously from my place, and recognized the Provost-General of
+the Grand Army. He had been sleeping upon a camp chest, and did not
+appear to be refreshed thereby.
+
+"I feel sulky as ----!" he said to an officer adjoining; "I feel ----
+bad-humored! Orderly!"
+
+"General!"
+
+"Whose horses are these?"
+
+"I don't know, General!"
+
+"Cut every ---- ---- one of 'em loose. Wake up these ---- ---- loafers
+with the point of your sabre! Every ---- ---- one of 'em! That's what I
+call ---- ----boldness!"
+
+He strutted off like the great Bomba or the Czar, and I thought I never
+beheld a more exceptional person in any high position.
+
+With a last look at Savage's white house, the abandoned wretches in the
+lawn, the blood-red hospital flag, the torn track and smouldering cars,
+I turned my face southward, crossed some bare plains, that had once been
+fields, and at eight o'clock passed down the Williamsburg road, toward
+Bottom Bridge. The original roadway was now a bottomless stretch of
+sand, full of stranded wheels, dead horses, shreds of blankets,
+discarded haversacks, and mounds of spilled crackers. Other routes for
+wagons had been opened across fields, over bluffs, around pits and bogs,
+and through thickets and woods. The whole country was crossed with
+deeply-rutted roads, as if some immense city had been lifted away, and
+only its interminably sinuous streets remained. Near Burnt Chimneys, a
+creek crossing the road made a ravine, and here I overtook the hindmost
+of the wagons. They had been stalled in the gorge, and a provost guard
+was hurrying the laggard teamsters. The creek was muddy beyond
+comparison, and at the next hill-top I passed "Burnt Chimneys," a few
+dumb witnesses that pointed to heaven. A mile or two further, I came to
+some of the retreating regiments, and also to five of the siege
+thirty-twos with which Richmond was to have been bombarded. The main
+army still lay back at their entrenchments to cover the retreat, and at
+ten o'clock I heard the roar of field guns; the pursuit had commenced,
+and the Confederates were pouring over the ramparts at Fairoaks. I did
+not go back; battles were of no consequence to me. I wanted some
+breakfast. If I could only obtain a cup of warm coffee and a fragment of
+meat, I thought that I might recover strength. But nothing could be
+obtained anywhere, for money or charity. The soldiers that I passed
+looked worn and hungry, for their predecessors had swept the country
+like herds of locusts; but one cheerful fellow, whom I addressed,
+produced a lump of fat pork that I tried to eat, but made a signal
+failure. All my baggage had been left at Michie's, where it remains to
+this moment. None cared to be hospitable to correspondents at this
+despondent hour, and a horrible idea of starvation took possession of my
+mind. A mile from White Oak Swamp, some distance back of the road, lay
+the Engineer Brigade. They were now on the eve of breaking camp, and
+when I reached Colonel McCloud Murphy's, his chests were packed, and all
+his provisions had gone ahead. He gave me, however, a couple of hard
+crackers and a draught of whiskey and quinine, whereby I rallied for a
+moment. At General Woodbury's I observed a middle-aged lady, making her
+toilet by a looking-glass hung against the tent-pole. She seemed as
+careful of her personal appearance, in this trying time, as if she had
+been at some luxurious court. There were several women on the retreat,
+and though the guns thundered steadily behind, they were never flurried,
+but could have received company, or accepted offers of marriage, with
+the utmost complacency. If there was any one that rouged, I am sure that
+no personal danger would have disturbed her while she heightened her
+roses; and she would have tied up her back hair in defiance of shell or
+grape.
+
+At Casey's ancient head-quarters, on the bluff facing White Oak Swamp, I
+found five correspondents. We fraternized immediately, and they all
+pooh-poohed the battle, as such an old story that it would be absurd to
+ride back to the field. We knew, however, that it was occurring at Peach
+Orchard, on a part of the old ground at Fairoaks. These gentlemen were
+in rather despondent moods, and there was one who opined that we were
+all to be made prisoners of war. In his own expressive way of putting
+it, we were to be "gobbled up." This person was stout and inclined to
+panting and perspiration. He wore glasses upon a most pugnacious nose,
+and his large, round head was covered with short, bristly, jetty hair.
+
+"I promised my wife," said this person, who may be called Cindrey, "to
+stay at home after the Burnside business. The Burnside job was very
+nearly enough for me. In fact I should have quite starved on the
+Burnside job, if I hadn't took the fever. And the fever kept me so busy
+that I forgot how hungry I was. So I lived over that."
+
+At this point he took off his glasses and wiped his face; the water was
+running down his cheeks like a miniature cataract, and his great neck
+seemed to emit jets of perspiration.
+
+"Well," he continued, "the Burnside job wasn't enough for me; I must
+come out again. I must follow the young Napoleon. And the young Napoleon
+has made a pretty mess of it. I never expect to get home any more; I
+know I shall be gobbled up!"
+
+A youngish, oldish, oddish fellow, whom they called "Pop," here told Mr.
+Cindrey to keep his pulse up and take a drink. A tall, large person, in
+semi-quaker garb, who did not look unlike George Fox, run to seed, said,
+with a flourish, that these battles were nothing to Shiloh. He was
+attached to the provincial press, and had been with the army of the West
+until recently. Without any exception, he was the "fussiest," most
+impertinent, most disagreeable man that I ever knew. He always made a
+hero of himself in his reports, and if I remember rightly, their
+headings ran after this fashion:--
+
+"_Tremendous Battle at_ ROANOKE! _The Correspondent of_ THE BLUNDERBUSS
+_hoists the_ NATIONAL FLAG above the REBEL RAMPARTS!!!" or
+again--"_Grand Victory at_ SHILOH! _Mr. Twaddle, our Special
+Correspondent_, TAKEN PRISONER!!! _He_ ESCAPES!!! _He is_ FIRED UPON!!!
+_He wriggles through_ FOUR SWAMPS and SEVEN HOSTILE CAMPS! _He is_ AGAIN
+CAPTURED! _He_ STRANGLES _the sentry_! _He drinks the Rebel Commander,
+Philpot_, BLIND! _Philpot gives him_ THE PASSWORD!! --> _Philpot
+compliments the Blunderbuss._ <-- OUR _Correspondent gains the
+Gunboats_! _He is_ TAKEN ABOARD! _His welcome!_ _Description of_ HIS
+BOOTS! _Remarks, etc._, ETC., ETC!!!"
+
+This man was anxious to regulate not only his own newspaper, but he
+aspired to control the entire press. And his self adulation was
+incessant. He rung all the changes upon Shiloh. Every remark suggested
+some incident of Shiloh. He was a thorough Shilohite, and I regretted in
+my heart that the "Rebels" had not shut him away at Shiloh, that he
+might have enjoyed it to the end of his days.
+
+The man "Pop" produced some apple whiskey, and we repaired to a spring,
+at the foot of the hill, where the man "Pop" mixed a cold punch, and we
+drank in rotation. I don't think that Cindrey enjoyed his draught, for
+it filtered through his neck as if he had sprung a leak there; but the
+man Twaddle might have taken a tun, and, as the man "Pop" said, the
+effect would have been that of "pouring whiskey through a knot-hole." It
+was arranged among our own reporters, that I, being sick, should be the
+first of the staff to go to New York. The man "Pop" said jocosely, that
+I might be allowed to die in the bosom of my family. The others gave me
+their notes and lists, but none could give me what I most needed,--a
+morsel of food. At eleven o'clock our little party crossed White Oak
+Creek. There was a corduroy bridge upon which the teams travelled, and a
+log bridge of perilous unsteadiness for foot passengers. But the
+soldiers were fording the stream in great numbers, and I plunged my
+horse into the current so that he spattered a group of fellows, and one
+of them lunged at me with a bayonet. Beyond the creek and swamp, on the
+hillsides, baggage wagons and batteries were parked in immense numbers.
+The troops were taking positions along the edge of the bottom, to oppose
+incursions of the enemy, when they attempted pursuit, and I was told
+that the line extended several miles westward, to New Market Cross
+Roads, where, it was thought, the Confederates would march out from
+Richmond to offer battle. The roadway, beyond the swamp, was densely
+massed with horse, foot, cannon, and teams. The latter still kept toward
+the James, but the nags suffered greatly from lack of corn. Only
+indispensable material had been hauled from the Chickahominy, and the
+soldiers who fought the ensuing protracted battles were exhausted from
+hunger. Everything had an uncomfortable, transient, expectant
+appearance, and the feeble people that limped toward the _ultima thule_
+looked fagged and wretched.
+
+There were some with balls in the groin, thigh, leg, or ankle, that made
+the whole journey, dropping blood at every step. They were afraid to lie
+down, as the wounded limbs might then grow rigid and stop their
+progress. While I pitied these maimed persons, I held the sick in
+greater sympathy. The troubles of the one were local; the others were
+pained in every bone. Bullets are fearful tenants, but fevers are worse.
+And some of the flushed, staggering folk, that reeled along the
+roadside, were literally out of their minds. They muttered and talked
+incoherently, and shouted ribald songs till my blood curdled to see
+them. At the first house on the right of the road, a half-mile past the
+Creek, I noticed many idle soldiers climbing the white palings, to watch
+something that lay in the yard. A gray-haired man was expiring, under
+the coolness of a spreading tree, and he was even now in the closing
+pangs. A comrade at his side bathed his brow with cool water, but I saw
+that he would shortly be with Lazarus or Dives. His hands were stretched
+stiffly by his sides, his feet were rigidly extended, and death was
+hardening into his bleached face. The white eyeballs glared sightlessly
+upward: he was looking into the other world.
+
+The heat at this time was so intolerable that our party, in _lieu_ of
+any other place of resort, resolved to go to the woods. The sun set in
+heaven like a fiery furnace, and we sweat at every pore. I was afraid,
+momentarily, of sunstroke, and my horse was bathed in foam. Some
+companies of cavalry were sheltered in the edges of the woods, and,
+having secured our nags, we penetrated the depths, and spread out our
+blankets that we might lie down. But no breath of air stirred the
+foliage. The "hot and copper sky" found counterpart in the burning
+earth, and innumerable flies and insects fastened their fangs in our
+flesh. Cindrey was upon the rack, and it seemed to me that he possessed
+a sort of capillary perspiration, for the drops stood at tips of each
+separate bristle. He appeared to be passing from the solid to the fluid
+state, and I said, ungenerously, that the existing temperature was his
+liquifying point.
+
+"Then," said the man "Pop," with a youngish, oldish smile, "we may as
+well liquor up."
+
+"I don't drink!" said Twaddle, with a flourish. "During all the perilous
+hours of Shiloh, I abstained. But I am willing to admit, in respect to
+heat, that Shiloh is nowhere at present. And, therefore, I drink with a
+protest."
+
+"No man can drink from my bottle, with a protest," said "Pop." "It isn't
+regular, and implies coercion. Now I don't coerce anybody, particularly
+you."
+
+"Oh!" said Twaddle, drinking like a fish, or, as "Pop" remarked, enough
+to float a gunboat; "oh! we often chaffed each other at Shiloh."
+
+"If you persist in reminding me of Shiloh," blurted Cindrey, "you'll be
+the ruin of me,--you and the heat and the flies. You'll have me
+dissolving into a dew."
+
+Here he wiped his forehead, and killed a large blue fly, that was
+probing his ear. We all resolved to go to sleep, and Twaddle said that
+_he_ slept like a top, in the heat of action, at Shiloh. "Pop" asked
+him, youngishly, to be kind enough to capture no redoubts while we
+slumbered, and not to raise the national flag over any ramparts for
+fifteen minutes. Then he grinned oldishly, and commenced to snore, with
+his flask in his bosom. I am certain that nobody ever felt a tithe of
+the pain, hunger, heat, and weariness, which agonized me, when I awoke
+from a half-hour's sweltering nap. My clothing was soaking with water; I
+was almost blind; somebody seemed to be sawing a section out of my head;
+my throat was hot and crackling; my stomach knew all the pangs of
+emptiness; I had scarcely strength to motion away the pertinacious
+insects. A soldier gave me a trifle of boiling water from his canteen;
+but I gasped for air; we were living in a vacuum. Sahara could not have
+been so fierce and burning. Two of us started off to find a spring. We
+made our way from shade to shade, expiring at every step, and finally,
+at the base of the hill, on the brink of the swamp, discovered a rill of
+tepid water, that evaporated before it had trickled a hundred yards. If
+a sleek and venomous water-snake--for there were thousands of them
+hereabout--had coiled in the channel, I would still have sucked the
+draught, bending down as I did. Then I bethought me of my pony. He had
+neither been fed nor watered for twenty hours, and I hastened to obtain
+him from his place along the woodside. To my terror, he was gone.
+Forgetful of my weakness, I passed rapidly, hither and thither,
+inquiring of cavalry-men, and entertaining suspicions of every person in
+the vicinity. Finally, I espied him in charge of a rough, thievish
+sabreman, who affected not to see me. I went up to the animal, and
+pulled the reins from his shoulder, to discover the brand mark,--"U. S."
+As I surmised, he had not been branded, and I turned indignantly upon
+the fellow:--
+
+"My friend, how came you by this horse?"
+
+"Quartermaster!" said the man, guiltily.
+
+"No sir! He belongs to me. Take off that cavalry-saddle, and find mine,
+immediately."
+
+"Not if the court knows itself," said the man--"and it thinks it do!"
+
+"Then," said I, white with rage, "I shall report you at once, for
+theft."
+
+"You may, if you want to," replied the man, carelessly.
+
+I struck off at once for the new Provost Quarters, at a farm-house,
+close by. The possible failure to regain my animal, filled me with
+rueful thoughts. How was I, so dismounted, to reach the distant river? I
+should die, or starve, on the way. I thought I should faint, when I came
+to the end of the first field, and leaned, tremblingly, against a tree.
+I caught myself sobbing, directly, like a girl, and my mind ran upon the
+coolness of my home with my own breezy bedroom, soft paintings, and
+pleasant books. These themes tortured me with a consciousness of my
+folly. I had forsaken them for the wickednesses of this unhappy
+campaign. And my body was to blacken by the road-side,--the sable birds
+of prey were to be my mourners.
+
+But, looking through my tears, a moving something passed between me and
+the sky. A brownish bay pony, trailing a fence-rail by his halter, and
+browsing upon patches of oats. I whistled thrice and the faithful animal
+trotted to my feet, and extended his great nose to be rubbed. I believe
+that this horse was the only living thing in the army that sympathized
+with me. He knew that I was sick, and I thought once, that, like the
+great dogs of Saint Bernard, he was about to get upon his knees, that I
+might the more readily climb upon his back. He did, however, stand
+quietly, while I mounted, and I gave him a drink at the foot of the
+hill. Returning, I saw the soldier, wrongfully accused, eyeing me from
+his haunt beneath the trees. I at once rode over to him, and apologized
+for my mistake.
+
+"Never mind," said the man, complacently. "You was all right. I might a
+done the same thing. Fact is," he added, "I did hook this hoss, but I
+knew you wan't the party."
+
+During the rest of the day I travelled disconsolately, up and down the
+road, winding in and out of the lines of teams.
+
+I was assured that it would be impossible to get to the James till next
+day, as no portion of that army had yet advanced so far. The moody
+minutes of that afternoon made the longest part of my life, while the
+cannon at Peach Orchard and Savage's, roared and growled incessantly.
+Toward the close of the day I fell in with Captain Hill, of the New York
+Saratoga regiment, who gave me the outline of the fight.
+
+The Confederates had discovered that we were falling back, by means of a
+balloon, of home manufacture,--the first they had been able to employ
+during the entire war. They appeared at our entrenchments on Sunday
+morning, and finding them deserted, commenced an irregular pursuit,
+whereby, they received terrible volleys of musketry from ambuscaded
+regiments, and retired, in disorder, to the ramparts. This was the
+battle of "Peach Orchard," and was disastrous to the Southerners. In the
+afternoon, they again essayed to advance, but more cautiously. The
+Federals, meantime, lay in order of battle upon Savage's, Dudley's, and
+Crouch's farms, their right resting on the Chickahominy, their centre on
+the railroad, and their left beyond the Williamsburg turnpike. For a
+time, an artillery contest ensued, and the hospitals at Savage's, where
+the wounded lay, were thrice fired upon. The Confederates finally
+penetrated the dense woods that belted this country, and the battle, at
+nightfall, became fervid and sanguinary. The Federals held their ground
+obstinately, and fell back, covered by artillery, at midnight. The woods
+were set on fire, in the darkness, and conflagration painted fiery
+terrors on the sky. The dead, littered all the fields and woods. The
+retreating army had marked its route with corpses. This was the battle
+of "Savage's," and neither party has called it a victory.
+
+During the rest of the night the weary fugitives were crossing White Oak
+Creek and Swamp. Toward daybreak, the last battery had accomplished the
+passage; the bridge was destroyed; and preparations were made to
+dispute the pursuit in the morning.
+
+I noted these particulars and added to my lists of dead and captured. At
+dusk I was about to sleep, supperless, upon the bare ground, when my
+patron, Colonel Murphy, again came in sight, and invited me to occupy a
+shelter-tent, on the brow of the hill at White Oak. To my great joy, he
+was able to offer me some stewed beef, bread and butter, and hot coffee.
+I ate voraciously, seizing the food in my naked fingers, and rending it
+like a beast.
+
+The regiment of Colonel Murphy was composed of laborers, and artificers
+of every possible description. There were blacksmiths, moulders, masons,
+carpenters, boat-builders, joiners, miners, machinists, riggers, and
+rope-makers. They could have bridged the Mississippi, rebuilt the
+Tredegar works, finished the Tower of Babel, drained the Chesapeake,
+constructed the Great Eastern, paved Broadway, replaced the Grand Trunk
+railroad, or tunnelled the Straits of Dover. I have often thought that
+the real greatness of the Northern army lay in its ingenuity and
+industry, not in its military qualifications.
+
+Our conversation turned upon these matters, as we sat before the
+Colonel's tent in the evening, and a Chaplain represented the feelings
+of the North in this manner: "We must whip them. We have got more money,
+more men, more ships, more ingenuity. They are bound to knuckle at last.
+If we have to lose man for man with them, their host will die out before
+ours. And we wont give up the Union,--not a piece of it big enough for a
+bird or a bee to cover,--though we reduce these thirty millions one
+half, and leave only the women and children to inherit the land." The
+heart of the army was now cast down, though a large portion of the
+soldiers did not know why we were falling back. I heard moody,
+despondent, accusing mutterings, around the camp-fires, and my own mind
+was full of grief and bitterness. It seemed that our old flag had
+descended to a degenerate people. It was not now, as formerly, a proud
+recollection that I was an American. If I survived the retreat, it would
+become my mission to herald the evil tidings through the length and
+breadth of the land. If I fainted in their pursuit, a loathsome prison,
+or a grave in the trenches, were to be my awards. When I lay down in a
+shelter-tent, rolling from side to side, I remembered that this was the
+Sabbath day. A battle Sabbath! How this din and slaughter contrasted
+with my dear old Lord's days in the prayerful parsonage! The chimes in
+the white spire, where the pigeons cooed in the hush of the singing,
+were changed to cannon peals; and the boys that dozed in the "Amen
+corner," were asleep forever in the trampled grain-fields. The good
+parson, whose clauses were not less truthful, because spoken through his
+nose, now blew the loud trumpet for the babes he had baptized, to join
+the Captains of fifties and thousands; and while the feeble old women in
+the side pews made tremulous responses to the prayer for "thy soldiers
+fighting in thy cause," the banners of the Republic were craped, dusty,
+and bloody, and the scattered regiments were resting upon their arms for
+the shock of the coming dawn.
+
+Thus I thought, tossing and talking through the long watches, and toward
+morning, when sleep brought fever-dreams, a monstrous something leered
+at me from the blackness, saying, in a sort of music--
+
+"Gobbled up! Gobbled up!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BY THE RIVERSIDE.
+
+
+A crash and a stunning shock, as of a falling sphere, aroused me at nine
+o'clock. A shell had burst in front of our tent, and the enemy's
+artillery was thundering from Casey's old hill, beyond the swamp. As I
+hastily drew on my boots,--for I had not otherwise undressed,--I had
+opportunity to remark one of those unaccountable panics which develop
+among civilian soldiers. The camps were plunged into disorder. As the
+shells dropped here and there, among the tents and teams, the wildest
+and most fearful deeds were enacted. Here a caisson blew up, tearing the
+horses to pieces, and whirling a cannoneer among the clouds. There an
+ammunition wagon exploded, and the air seemed to be filled with
+fragments of wood, iron, and flesh. A boy stood at one of the fires,
+combing out his matted hair; suddenly his head flew off, spattering the
+brains, and the shell--which we could not see--exploded in a piece of
+woods, mutilating the trees. The effect upon the people around me was
+instantaneous and appalling. Some, that were partially dressed, took to
+their heels, hugging a medley of clothing. The teamsters climbed into
+the saddles, and shouted to their nags, whipping them the while. If the
+heavy wheels hesitated to revolve, they left horses and vehicles to
+their fate, taking themselves to the woods; or, as in some cases, cut
+traces and harness, and galloped away like madmen. In a twinkling our
+camps were almost deserted, and the fields, woods, and roads were alive
+with fugitives, rushing, swearing, falling, and trampling, while the
+fierce bolts fell momentarily among them, making havoc at every rod.
+
+To join this flying, dying mass was my first impulse; but after-thought
+reminded me that it would be better to remain. I must not leave my
+horse, for I could not walk the whole long way to the James, and the
+fever had so reduced me that I hardly cared to keep the little life
+remaining. I almost marvelled at my coolness; since, in the fulness of
+strength and health, I should have been one of the first of the
+fugitives; whereas, I now looked interestedly upon the exciting
+spectacle, and wished that it could be daguerreotyped.
+
+Before our artillery could be brought to play, the enemy, emboldened at
+his success, pushed a column of infantry down the hill, to cross the
+creek, and engage us on our camping-ground. For a time I believed that
+he would be successful, and in that event, confusion and ruin would have
+overtaken the Unionists. The gray and butternut lines appeared over the
+brow of the hill,--they wound at double quick through the narrow
+defile,--they poured a volley into our camps when half-way down, and
+under cover of the smoke they dashed forward impetuously, with a loud
+huzza. The artillery beyond them kept up a steady fire, raining shell,
+grape, and canister over their heads, and ploughing the ground on our
+side, into zigzag furrows,--rending the trees, shattering the
+ambulances, tearing the tents to tatters, slaying the horses, butchering
+the men. Directly Captain Mott's battery was brought to bear; but before
+he could open fire, a solid shot struck one of his twelve-pounders,
+breaking the trunnion and splintering the wheels. In like manner one of
+his caissons blew up, and I do not think that he was able to make any
+practise whatever. A division of infantry was now marched forward, to
+engage the Confederates at the creek side; but two of the
+regiments--and I think that one was the 20th New York--turned bodily,
+and could not be rallied. The moment was full of significance, and I
+beheld these failures with breathless suspense. In five minutes the
+pursuers would gain the creek, and in ten, drive our dismayed
+battalions, like chaff before the wind. I hurried to my horse, that I
+might be ready to escape. The shell and ball still made music around me.
+I buckled up my saddle with tremulous fingers, and put my foot upon the
+stirrup. But a cheer recalled me and a great clapping of hands, as at
+some clever performance in the amphitheatre. I looked again. A battery
+from our position across the road, had opened upon the Confederate
+infantry, as they reached the very brink of the swamp. For a moment the
+bayonets tossed wildly, the dense column staggered like a drunken man,
+the flags rose and fell, and then the line fell back disorderly. At that
+instant a body of Federal infantry, that I had not seen, appeared, as by
+invocation; their steel fell flashingly, a column of smoke enveloped
+them, the hills and skies seemed to split asunder with the shock,--and
+when I looked again, the road was strewn with the dying and dead; the
+pass had been defended.
+
+As the batteries still continued to play, and as the prospect of
+uninterrupted battle during the day was not a whit abated, I decided to
+resume my saddle, and, if possible, make my way to the James. The
+geography of the country, as I had deciphered it, satisfied me that I
+must pass "New Market," before I could rely upon my personal safety. New
+Market was a paltry cross-road's hamlet, some miles ahead, but as near
+to Richmond as White Oak Creek. The probabilities were, that the
+Confederates would endeavor to intercept us at this point, and so attack
+us in flank and rear. As I did not witness either of these battles,
+though I heard the discharge of every musket, it may be as well to
+state, in brief, that June 30 was marked by the bloodiest of all the
+Richmond struggles, excepting, possibly, Gaines's Mill. While the
+Southern artillery engaged Franklin's corps, at White Oak Crossing, and
+their left made several unavailing attempts to ford the creek with
+infantry,--their entire right and centre, marched out the Charles City
+Road, and gave impetuous battle at New Market. The accounts and the
+results indicate that the Federals won the day at New Market, sheerly by
+good fighting. They were parching with thirst, weak with hunger, and it
+might have been supposed that reverses had broken their spirit. On the
+contrary they did not fall back a rod, during the whole day, and at
+evening Heintzelman's corps crowned their success by a grand charge,
+whereat the Confederates broke and were pursued three miles toward
+Richmond. The gunboats Galena and Aroostook, lying in the James at
+Turkey Bend, opened fire at three o'clock, and killed promiscuously,
+Federals and Confederates. But the Southern soldiers were superstitious
+as to gunboats, and they could not be made to approach within range of
+the Galena's monstrous projectiles.
+
+I shall always recall my journey from White Oak to Harrison's Bar, as
+marked by constantly increasing beauties of scenery, and terrors of
+event. At every hoof-fall I was leaving the low, boggy, sparsely settled
+Chickahominy region, for the high farm-lands of the James. The
+dwellings, as I progressed, became handsome; the negro quarters were
+less like huts and cattle-sheds; the ripe wheatfields stretched almost
+to the horizon; the lawns and lanes were lined with ancient shade-trees;
+there were picturesque gates and lodges; the fences were straight and
+whitewashed, there were orchards, heavy with crimson apples, where the
+pumpkins lay beneath, like globes of gold, in the rows of amber corn.
+Into this patriarchal and luxuriant country, the retreating army wound
+like a great devouring serpent. It was to me, the coming back of the
+beaten _jetters_ through _Midgards_, or the repulse of the fallen angels
+from heaven, trampling down the river-sides of Eden. They rode their
+team-horses into the wavy wheat, and in some places, where the reapers
+had been at work, they dragged the sheaves from the stacks, and rested
+upon them. Hearing of the coming of the army, the proprietors had vainly
+endeavored to gather their crops, but the negroes would not work, and
+they had not modern implements, whereby to mow the grain rapidly. The
+profanation of those glorious stretches of corn and rye were to me some
+of the most melancholy episodes of the war. No mind can realize how the
+grain-fields used to ripple, when the fresh breezes blew up and down the
+furrows, and the hot suns of that almost tropical climate, had yielded
+each separate head till the whole landscape was like a bright cloud, or
+a golden sea. The tall, shapely stalks seemed to reach out imploringly,
+like sunny-haired virgins, waiting to be gathered into the arms of the
+farmer. They were the Sabine women, on the eve of the bridal, when the
+insatiate Romans tore them away and trampled them. The Indian corn was
+yet green, but so tall that the tasselled tops showed how cunningly the
+young ears were ripening. There were melons in the corn-rows, that a
+week would have developed, but the soldiers dashed them open and sucked
+the sweet water. They threw clubs at the hanging apples till the ground
+was littered with them, and the hogs came afield to gorge; they slew the
+hogs and divided the fresh pork among themselves. As I saw, in one
+place, dozens of huge German cavalry-men, asleep upon bundles of wheat,
+I recalled their Frankish forefathers, swarming down the Apennines, upon
+Italy.
+
+The air was so sultry during a part of the day, that one was constantly
+athirst. But there was a belt of country, four miles or more in width,
+where there seemed to be neither rills nor wells. Happily, the roads
+were, in great part, enveloped in stately timber, and the shade was very
+grateful to men and horses. The wounded still kept with us, and many
+that were fevered. They did not complain with words; but their red eyes
+and painful pace told all the story. If we came to rivulets, they used
+to lie upon their bellies, along the margins, with their heads in the
+flowing water. The nags were so stiff and hot, that, when they were
+reined into creeks, they refused to go forward, and my brown animal once
+dropped upon his knees, and quietly surveyed me, as I pitched upon my
+hands, floundering in the pool. I remember a stone dairy, such as are
+found upon Pennsylvania grazing farms, where I stopped to drink. It lay
+up a lane, some distance from the road, and two enormous tulip poplar
+trees sheltered and half-concealed it. A tiny creek ran through the
+dairy, over cool granite slabs, and dozens of earthen milk-bowls lay in
+the water, with the mould of the cream brimming at the surface. A pewter
+drinking-mug hung to a peg at the side, and there were wooden spoons for
+skimming, straining pails, and great ladles of gourd and cocoanut. A
+cooler, tidier, trimmer dairy, I had not seen, and I stretched out my
+body upon the dry slabs, to drink from one of the milk-bowls. The cream
+was sweet, rich, and nourishing, and I was so absorbed directly, that I
+did not heed the footfalls of a tall, broad, vigorous man, who said in a
+quiet way, but with a deep, sonorous voice, and a decided Northern
+twang--
+
+"Friend, you might take the mug. Some of your comrades will want to
+drink from that bowl."
+
+I begged his pardon hastily, and said that I supposed he was the
+proprietor.
+
+"I reckon that I must give over my ownership, while the army hangs
+around here," said the man; "but I must endure what I can't cure."
+
+Here he smiled grimly, and reached down the pewter cup. Then he bent
+over a fresh bowl, and dexterously dipped the cup full of milk, without
+seeming to break the cream.
+
+"Drink that," he said; "and if there's any better milk in these parts, I
+want to know the man."
+
+He looked at me critically, while I emptied the vessel, and seemed to
+enjoy my heartiness.
+
+"If you had been smart enough to come this way, victorious," added the
+man, straightforwardly, "instead of being out-generalled, whipped, and
+driven, I should enjoy the loss of my property a great deal more!"
+
+There was an irresistible heartiness in his tone and manner. He had,
+evidently, resolved to bear the misfortunes of war bravely.
+
+"You are a Northern man?" I said, inquiringly.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"There are no such dairies in Virginia; a Virginian never dipped a mug
+of milk after your fashion; you haven't the Virginia inflection, and
+very weak Virginia principles."
+
+The man laughed dryly, and filled himself a cup, which he drank
+sedately.
+
+"I reckon you are correct," he said; "pretty much correct, any way. I'm
+a New Yorker, from the Mohawk Valley, and I have been showing these
+folks how they can't farm. If there's anybody that farms better than I
+do, I want to know the man!"
+
+He looked at the flowing water, the clean slabs and walls, the shining
+tins, and smacked his lips satisfactorily. I asked him if he farmed with
+negroes, and if the prejudices of the country affected either his social
+or industrial interests. He answered that he was obliged to employ
+negroes, as he had thrice tried the experiment of working with whites,
+but with ill success.
+
+"_I_ would have kept 'em," he added, in his great voice, closing a
+prodigious fist, "but the men would not stay. I couldn't make the
+neighbors respect them. There was nobody for 'em to associate with. They
+were looked upon as niggers, and they got to feel it after a while. So I
+have had only niggers latterly; but I get more work from them than any
+other man in these parts. If there's anybody that gets more work out of
+niggers than I do, I want to know the man!"
+
+There was a sort of hard, hearty defiance about him, typical of his
+severe, angular race, and I studied his large limbs and grim, full face
+with curious admiration. He told me that he hired his negro hands from
+the surrounding slave-owners, and that he gave them premiums upon excess
+of work, approximating to wages. In this way they were encouraged to
+habits of economy, perseverance, and sprightliness.
+
+"I don't own a nigger," he said, "not one! But I don't think a nigger's
+much too good to be a slave. I won't be bothered with owning 'em. And I
+won't be conquered into 'the institution.' I said, when I commenced,
+that I should not buy niggers, and I won't buy niggers, because I said
+so! As to social disadvantages, every Northern man has 'em here. They
+called me an abolitionist; and a fellow at the hotel in Richmond did so
+to my face. I knocked him into a heap, and nobody has meddled with me
+since." "Of course," he said, after a moment, "it won't do to inflame
+these people. These people are like my bulls, and you mustn't shake a
+red stick at 'em. Besides, I'm not a fanatic. I never was. My wife's one
+of these people, and I let her think as she likes. But, if there's
+anybody in these parts that wants to interfere with me, I should like to
+know the man!"
+
+The contemptuous tone in which he mentioned "these people" amused me
+infinitely, and I believed that his resolute, indomitable manner would
+have made him popular in any society. He was shrewd, withal, and walked
+beside me to his gate. When the regiments halted to rest, by the
+wayside, he invited the field officers to the dairy, and so obtained
+guards to rid him of depredators. He would have escaped very handsomely,
+but the hand of war was not always so merciful, and a part of the battle
+of Malvern Hills was fought upon his property. I have no doubt that he
+submitted unflinchingly, and sat more stolidly amid the wreck than old
+Marius in battered Carthage.
+
+Until two o'clock in the afternoon I rode leisurely southward, under a
+scorching sky, but still bearing up, though aflame with fever. The guns
+thundered continuously behind, and the narrow roads were filled, all the
+way, with hurrying teams, cavalry, cannon, and foot soldiers. I stopped,
+a while, by a white frame church,--primly, squarely built,--and read the
+inscriptions upon the tombs uninterestedly. Some of the soldiers had
+pried open the doors, and a wounded Zouave was delivering a mock sermon
+from the pulpit. Some of his comrades broke up the meeting by singing--
+
+    "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"
+
+and then a Major ordered them out, and put a guard upon the building.
+The guard played cards upon the door sills.
+
+I was frequently obliged, by the crowded state of the roads, to turn
+aside into woods, fens, and fields, and so make precarious progress.
+Sometimes I strayed, unwittingly, a good way from the army, and
+recovered the route with difficulty. On one of these occasions, I was
+surprised by a person in civil dress, who seemed to shoot up out of the
+ground. He was the queerest, grimmest, fearfulest man that I have ever
+known, and, at first, I thought that the arch fiend had appeared before
+me. The wood was very deep here, and there were no wayfarers but we two.
+It was quite still; but now and then we heard the rumble of wagons, and
+the crack of teamster's whips. The man in question wore dead black
+beard, and his eyebrows were of the same intense, lustreless hue. So
+were his eyes and his hair; but the latter formed a circle or cowl
+around his head. He had a pale skin, his fingers, were long and bony,
+and he rode dexterously in and out, among the tree boles, with his hat
+in his hand. His horse was as black as himself, and, together, they made
+a half-brigandish, half-satanic appearance.
+
+I reined in sharply, when I saw this person, and he looked at me like
+the evil-eye, through his great owlish orbs.
+
+"Good day," he said, in profound basso, as low I think as "double G,"
+and when he opened his mouth, I saw that his teeth were very white.
+
+I saluted him gravely, and, not without a shudder, rode beside him. He
+proved to be a sort of Missionary, from the Evangelical religious
+denominations of the North, to inquire into the spiritual condition of
+the soldiers. Camps were full of such people, but I had not found any
+man who appeared to be less qualified for his vocation; to have such a
+figure at one's deathbed, would be like a foretaste of the great fiend.
+He had a fashion of working his scalp half way down to his eyes, as he
+spoke, and when he smiled,--though he never laughed aloud,--his
+eyelashes did not contract, as with most people, but rather expanded,
+till his eyeballs projected from his head. On such occasions, his white
+teeth were revealed like a row of fangs, and his leprous skin grew yet
+paler.
+
+"The army has not even the form of godliness," said this man. In the
+course of his remarks, he had discovered that I was a correspondent, and
+at once turned the conversation into a politico-religious channel.
+
+"The form of godliness is gone," said the man again in "double G." "This
+is a calamitous fact! I would it were not so! I grieve to state it! But
+inquiry into the fact, has satisfied me that the form of godliness does
+not exist. Ah!"
+
+When the man said "Ah!" I thought that my horse would run away, and
+really, the tone was like the deep conjuration in Hamlet:
+"_swear-r-r-r_!"
+
+"For example," said the man, who told me that his name was Dimpdin,--"I
+made some remarks to the 1st New Jersey, on Sabbath week. The field
+officers directed the men to attend; I opened divine service with a
+feeling hymn; a very feeling hymn! A long measure hymn. By Montgomery!
+I commenced earnestly in prayer. In appropriate prayer! I spoke
+advisedly for a short hour. What were the results? The deplorable
+results? There were men, sir, in that assembly, who went to sleep. To
+sleep!"
+
+He must have gone a great way below "double G," this time, and I did not
+see how he could get back. He drew his scalp quite down to the bridge of
+his nose, and, seeing that my horse pricked up his ears, timorously
+smiled like the idol of Baal.
+
+"There were men, sir, who did worse. Not simply failing to be hearers of
+the word! But doers of evil! Men who played cards during the service.
+Played cards! Gambled! Gambled! And some,--abandoned wretches!--who
+mocked me! Lifted up their voices and mocked! Mockers, gamblers,
+slumberers!"
+
+I never heard anything so awful as the man Dimpdin's voice, at the
+iteration of these three words. They seemed to come from the bowels of
+the earth, and rang through the wood like the growl of a lion. He told
+me that he was engaged upon a Memorial to the Evangelical Union, which
+should state the number of unconverted men in the ranks, and the number
+of castaways. He accredited the loss of the campaign to the prevailing
+wickedness, but was unwilling to admit that the Southern troops were
+more religious. His theory of reform, if I remember it, embraced the
+raising of Chaplains to the rank of Major, with proportionate pay and
+perquisites, the establishment of a military religious bureau, and a
+Chaplain-General with Aides. Each soldier, officer, teamster, and
+drummer-boy was to have a Testament in his knapsack, and services should
+be held on the eve of every battle, and at roll-call in the mornings.
+There was to be an inspection of Testaments as of muskets. For swearing,
+a certain sum should be subtracted from the soldier's pay, and conferred
+upon the Chaplains.
+
+"In fact," said Dimpdin, tragically,--scalping himself meanwhile,--"the
+church must be recognized in every department, and if my Memorial be
+acted upon favorably, we shall have such victories, in three months, as
+will sweep Rebellion into the grave. Yes! Into the grave! The grave!"
+
+I was obliged to say, here, that my horse could not stand these
+sepulchral noises, and that my nerves, being shattered by the fever,
+were inadequate to bear the shock. So the man Dimpdin smiled, like a
+window-mummy, and contented himself with looking like Apollyon. We
+reached a rill directly, and he produced a wicker flask, with a
+Britannia drinking-case.
+
+"Young men love stimulating drinks," said Dimpdin,--"strong drinks!
+alcoholic drinks! Here is a portion of Monongahela! old Monongahela! We
+will refresh ourselves!"
+
+He found a lemon, accidentally, in his saddle-bag, and contrived an
+informal punch, with wonderful dexterity. I took a draught modestly, and
+he emptied the rest, with an "Ah!" that shook the woods.
+
+I wondered if the man Dimpdin would suggest the apportionment of flasks
+to soldiers, in his Evangelical report!
+
+He left me, when we regained the road, to ride with a lithe, bronchial
+person, in white neckcloth and coat cut close at the collar. They looked
+like the fox and the fiend, in the fable, and I seemed to hear the man
+Dimpdin's voice for three succeeding weeks.
+
+At three o'clock, I climbed a gentle hill,--and I was now very weary and
+weak,--and from the summit, looked upon the river James, flowing far off
+to the right, through woods, and bluffs, and grainfields, and reedy
+islands. At last, I had gained the haven. The bright waters below me
+seemed to cool my red, fiery eyes, and a sort of blessed blindness fell
+for a time upon me, so that, when I looked again my lashes were wet. The
+prospect was truly beautiful. Far to the west, standing out from the
+chalky bluffs, were scattered the white camps of Wise's Confederate
+brigade. Beyond, on the remote bank of the river, lay farm-lands, and
+stately mansions, and some one showed me, rising faintly in the
+distance, "Drury's Bluff," the site of Fort Darling, where the gunboats
+were repulsed in the middle of May. Below, in the river, lay the
+_Galena_, and a little way astern, the _Aroostook_. Signal-men, with
+flags, were elevated upon the masts of each, and the gunners stood upon
+the decks, as waiting some emergency. The vessels had steam up, and
+seemed to be ready for action at any moment. This was Grand Turkey Bend,
+and the rising ground on which I stood, was known as "Malvern Hills." A
+farm-house lay to my left, and repairing thither, I cast myself from the
+nag, and lay down in the shady yard, thankful that I had reached the
+haven, and only solicitous now to escape the further privations of
+McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT.
+
+
+An earnest desire now took possession of me, to be the first of the
+correspondents to reach New York. The scenes just transpired had been
+unparalleled in the war, and if, through me, the ---- should be the
+first to make them public, it would greatly redound to my credit.
+Perhaps no profession imparts an enthusiasm in any measure kindred to
+that of the American Newsgatherer. I was careless of the lost lives and
+imperilled interests, the suffering, the defeat: no emotions either of
+the patriot or the man influenced me. I only thought of the _eclat_ of
+giving the story to the world, and nurtured an insane desire to make to
+Fortress Monroe, by some other than the common expedient. That this was
+a paltry ambition I know; but I write what happened, and to the
+completion of my sketch of a correspondent, this is necessary to be
+said. I found Glumley at the old mansion referred to, and stealthily
+suggested to him the seizing of an open boat, whereby we might row down
+to the Fortress. He rejected it as impracticable, but was willing to
+hazard a horseback ride down the Peninsula. I knew that this would not
+do, and after a short time I continued my journey down the riverside,
+hopeful of finding some transport or Despatch boat. I was now in Charles
+City County, and the river below me was dotted with woodland islands. I
+soon got upon the main road to Harrison's Point or Bar, and followed the
+stream of ambulances and supply teams for more than an hour. At last we
+reached a diverging lane, through which we passed to a landing, close to
+a fine dwelling, whose style of architecture I may denominate, the
+"Gothic run mad." An old cider-press was falling into rottenness on the
+lawn; four soldiers were guarding the well, that the mob might not
+exhaust its precious contents, and between some negro-huts and the brink
+of the bluff, stood a cluster of broad-armed trees, beneath whose shade
+the ambulance-drivers were depositing the wounded.
+
+I have made these chapters sufficiently hideous, without venturing to
+transcribe these new horrors. Suffice it to say that the men whom I now
+beheld had been freshly brought from the fight of New Market, and were
+suffering the first agonies of their wounds. One hour before, they had
+felt all the lustiness of life and adventure. Now, they were whining
+like babes, and some had expired in the ambulances. The act of lifting
+them to the ground so irritated their wounds that they howled dismally,
+and yet were so exhausted that after lying upon the ground awhile, they
+quietly passed into sleep. Such are the hardening results of war, that
+some soldiers, who were unhurt, actually refused to give a trifle of
+river water from their canteens to their expiring comrades. At one time
+a brutal wrangle occurred at the well, and the guard was compelled to
+seek reinforcement, or the thirsty people would have massacred them.
+
+I was now momentarily adding to my notes of the battles, and the wounded
+men very readily gave me their names; for they were anxious that the
+account of their misfortunes should reach their families, and I think
+also, that some martial vanity lingered, even among those who were
+shortly to crumble away. A longboat came in from the Galena, after a
+time, and General McClellan, who had ridden down to the pier, was taken
+aboard. He looked to be very hot and anxious, and while he remained
+aboard the vessel, his staff dispersed themselves around the banks and
+talked over the issues of the contest. As the General receded from the
+strand, every sweep of the long oars was responded to from the hoarse
+cannon of the battle-field, and when he climbed upon deck, the steamer
+moved slowly up the narrow channel, and the signal-man in the foretop
+flourished his crossed flag sturdily. Directly, the _Galena_ opened fire
+from her immense pieces of ordnance, and the roar was so great that the
+explosions of field-guns were fairly drowned. She fired altogether by
+the direction of the signals, as nothing could be seen of the
+battle-field from her decks. I ascertained afterward that she played
+havoc with our own columns as well as the enemy's, but she brought hope
+to the one, and terror to the other. The very name of gunboat affrighted
+the Confederates, and they were assured, in this case, that the
+retreating invaders, had at length reached a haven. The _Galena_ kept up
+a steady fire till nightfall, and the Federals, taking courage, drove
+their adversaries toward Richmond, at eve. Meanwhile the Commanding
+General's escort and body-guard had encamped around us, and during the
+night the teams and much of the field cannon fell back. I obtained
+shelter and meals from Quartermaster Le Duke of Iowa, whose canvas was
+pitched a mile or more below, and as I tossed through the watches I
+heard the splashing of water in the river beneath, where the tired
+soldiers were washing away the powder of the battle.
+
+In the morning I retraced to head-quarters, and vainly endeavored to
+learn something as to the means of going down the river. Commanders are
+always anxious to grant correspondents passes after a victory; but they
+wish to defer the unwelcome publication of a defeat. I was advised by
+Quartermaster-General Van Vliet, however, to proceed to Harrison's Bar,
+and, as I passed thither, the last day's encounters--those of "Malvern
+Hills"--occurred. The scenes along the way were reiterations of terrors
+already described,--creaking ambulances, staggering foot soldiers,
+profane wagoners, skulking officers and privates, officious Provost
+guards, defiles, pools and steeps packed with teams and cannon, wayside
+houses beset with begging, gossiping, or malicious soldiers, and wavy
+fields of wheat and rye thrown open to man and beast. I was amused at
+one point, to see some soldiers attack a beehive that they might seize
+the honey. But the insects fastened themselves upon some of the
+marauders, and after indescribable cursing and struggling, the bright
+nectar and comb were relinquished by the toilers, and the ravishers
+gorged upon sweetness.
+
+Harrison's Bar is simply a long wharf, extending into the river, close
+by the famous mansion, where William Henry Harrison, a President of the
+United States, was born, and where, for two centuries, the scions of a
+fine old Virginia family have made their homestead. The house had now
+become a hospital, and the wounded were being conveyed to the pier,
+whence they were delivered over to some Sanitary steamers, for passage
+to Northern cities. I tied my horse to the spokes of a wagon-wheel, and
+asked a soldier to watch him, while I repaired to the quay. A half
+drunken officer was guarding the wharf with a squad of men, and he
+denied me admittance, at first, but when I had said something in
+adulation of his regiment--a trick common to correspondents--he passed
+me readily. The ocean steamer _Daniel Webster_ was about being cast
+adrift when I stepped on board, and Colonel Ingalls, Quartermaster in
+charge, who freely gave me permission to take passage in her, advised me
+not to risk returning to shore. So, reluctantly, I resigned my pony,
+endeared to me by a hundred adventures, and directly I was floating down
+the James, with the white teams and the tattered groups of men, receding
+from me, and each moment the guns of Malvern Hills growing fainter.
+Away! praised be a merciful God! away from the accursed din, and terror,
+and agony, of my second campaign,--away forever from the Chickahominy.
+
+For awhile I sat meditatively in the bow of the boat, full of strange
+perplexities and thankfulness. I had escaped the bullet, and fever, and
+captivity, and a great success in my profession was about to be accorded
+to me, but there was much work yet to be done. The rough material I had
+for a grand account of the closing of the campaign; but these
+fragmentary figures and notes must be wrought into narrative, and to
+avail myself of their full significance, I must lose no moment of
+application. I found that I was one of four correspondents on board, and
+we resolved to district the boat, each correspondent taking one fourth
+of the names of the sick and wounded. The spacious saloons, the clean
+deck, the stairways, the gangways, the hold, the halls,--all were filled
+with victims. They lay in rows upon straw beds, they limped feverishly
+here and there; some were crazed from sunstroke, or gashes; and one man
+that I remember counted the rivets in the boilers over the whole hundred
+miles of the journey, while another,--a teamster,--whipped and cursed
+his horses as if he had mistaken the motion of the boat for that of his
+vehicle.
+
+The _Daniel Webster_ was one of a series of transports supplied for the
+uses of the wounded by a national committee of private citizens. Her
+wood work was shining and glossy, her steel shone like mirrors, and she
+was cool as Paradise. Out of the smoke, and turmoil, and suffocation of
+battle these wretched men had emerged, to enjoy the blessedness,
+unappreciated before, of shelter, and free air and cleanliness. There
+was ice in abundance on board, and savory lemonade lay glassily around
+in great buckets. Women flitted from group to group with jellies,
+_bonbons_, cigars, and oranges, and the grateful eyes of the prostrate
+people might have melted one to tears. These women were enthusiasts of
+all ages and degrees, who proffered themselves, at the beginning of the
+war, as stewardesses and nurses. From the fact that some of them were of
+masculine natures, or, in the vocabulary of the times, "strong-minded,"
+they were the recipients of many coarse jests, and imputations were
+made upon both their modesty and their virtue. But I would that any
+satirist had watched with me the good offices of these Florence
+Nightingales of the West, as they tripped upon merciful errands, like
+good angels, and left paths of sunshine behind them. The soldiers had
+seen none of their countrywomen for months, and they followed these
+ambassadors with looks half-idolatrous, half-downcast, as if consciously
+unworthy of so tender regard.
+
+"If I could jest die, now," said one of the poor fellows to me, "with
+one prayer for my country, and one for that dear young lady!"
+
+There was one of these daughters of the good Samaritan whose face was so
+full of coolness, and her robes so airy, flowing, and graceful, that it
+would have been no miracle had she transmuted herself to something
+divine. She was very handsome, and her features bore the imprint of that
+high enthusiasm which may have animated the maid of Arc. One of the more
+forward of the correspondents said to her, as she bore soothing
+delicacies to the invalids, that he missed the satisfaction of being
+wounded, at which she presented an orange and a cigar to each of us in
+turn. Among the females on board, I remarked one, very large, angular,
+and sanguine, who sat at a small table, dispensing luxuries with the
+manners of a despot and the charity of a child. She had a large vessel
+of boiling coffee, from which she drew spicy quantities at intervals;
+and when the troops thronged around eagerly, she rebuked the more
+forward, and called up some emaciated, bashful fellows, giving them
+the preference. Every soldier who accepted coffee was obliged to
+take a religious tract, and she gave them away with a grim satisfaction
+that was infinitely amusing and interesting. I ventured to ask
+this imperative person for a bottle of ink, and after some
+difficulty,--arising out of a mistaken notion on her part that I was
+dangerously wounded,--she vaulted over a chair, and disappeared into a
+state-room. When she returned, her arms were filled with a perfect
+wilderness of stationery, and having supplied each of us in turn, she
+addressed herself to me in the following sententious manner:--
+
+"See here! You reporter! (There's ink!) I want to be put in the
+newspapers! Look at me! Now! Right straight! (Pens?) Here I am; thirteen
+months at work; been everywhere; done good; country; church; never
+noticed. Never!--Now! I want to be put in newspapers."
+
+At this point the Imperatress was called off by some soldiers, who
+presumed to draw coffee without her consent. She slapped one of them
+soundly, and at once overpowered him with kindnesses, and tracts; then
+she returned and gave me a photograph, representing herself with a
+basket of fruit, and a quantity of good books. I took note of her name,
+but unfortunately lost the memorandum, and unless she has been honored
+by some more careful scribe, I fear that her labors are still
+unrecognized.
+
+During much of the trip, I wrote material parts of my report, copied
+portions of my lists, and managed before dusk, to get fairly underway
+with my narrative. From the deck of the steamer I beheld at five
+o'clock, what I had long wished to see,--the famous island of Jamestown,
+celebrated in the early annals of the New World, as the home of John
+Smith, and of Nathaniel Bacon, and as the resort of the Indian Princess,
+Pocahontas. A single fragment of a tower, the remnant of the Colonial
+church, was the only ruin that I could see.
+
+At seven o'clock we dropped anchor in Hampton Roads, and a boat let down
+from the davits. Some of my wily compeers endeavored to fill all the
+stern seats, that I might not be pulled to shore; but I swung down by a
+rope, and made havoc with their shins, so that they gained nothing; the
+surf beat so vehemently against the pier at Old Point, that we were
+compelled to beach the boat, and I ran rapidly through the ordnance
+yard to the "Hygeia House," where our agent boarded; he had gone into
+the Fortress to pass the night, and when I attempted to follow him
+thither, a knot of anxious idlers, who knew that I had just returned
+from the battle-fields, attempted to detain me by sheer force. I dashed
+rapidly up the plank walk, reached the portal, and had just vaulted into
+the area, when the great gates swung to, and the tattoo beat; at the
+same instant the sergeant of guard challenged me:--
+
+"Who comes there? Stand fast! Guard prime!"
+
+A dozen bright musket-barrels were levelled upon me, and I heard the
+click of the cocks as the fingers were laid upon the triggers. When I
+had explained, I was shown the Commandant's room, and hastening in that
+direction, encountered Major Larrabee, my old patron of the fifth
+Wisconsin regiment. He took me to the barracks, where a German officer,
+commanding a battery, lodged, and the latter accommodated me with a camp
+bedstead. Here I related the incidents of the engagements, and before I
+concluded, the room was crowded with people. I think that I gave a
+sombre narration, and the hearts of those who heard me were cast down.
+Still, they lingered; for the bloody story possessed a hideous
+fascination, and I was cross-examined so pertinaciously that my host
+finally arose, protesting that I needed rest, and turned the party out
+of the place. The old fever-dreams returned to me that night, and my
+brain spun round for hours before I could close my eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ON FURLOUGH AWHILE.
+
+
+Counter winds and tides had so delayed the _Adelaide_, on which I
+departed for New York with my despatches, that it became a doubtful
+question as to whether we could make connection with the early train for
+New York. The captain shook his head distrustfully when he had looked at
+his watch, and told me that he frequently failed to land his passengers
+in time. The bitterness of the doubt so troubled me, that I paced the
+decks, looking at the approaching city, and thinking that all my labor
+was to be disappointed in the end. I could not telegraph my narrative
+and lists, for Government controlled the wires; and moreover, the
+Associated Press regulations forbade any newspaper to telegraph
+exclusive news from any point but Washington. I half resolved to hire a
+special locomotive, but it was doubtful that the railway authorities
+could procure one, at 60 short notice. Unless I overtook the eight
+o'clock A. M. train, I could not get to New York before two o'clock next
+morning,--too late for the press. Besides, how did I know that some
+correspondent had not reached Washington, by way of one of the Potomac
+vessels, and so forestalled me? Here was an opportunity to be the first
+of all our correspondents to publish the incidents and results of six
+days' stupendous warfare,--but escaping at the very moment of
+realization. The seconds were hours as we swept past Fort Carroll,
+rounded Fort McHenry, and swung toward our moorings, under Fort Federal
+Hill.
+
+"If we make a prompt landing," said the Captain, "you may barely get the
+train."
+
+I stood with my bundles of notes upon the high deck, and signalled a
+cab-driver. He caught the precious manuscript, and bolted for his cab.
+In another second he was 'dashing like a runaway up the pier, over the
+bridge, through Pratt Street, and--out of sight. Slowly the great hulk
+turned awkwardly about; one turn of her paddles brought us close enough
+to fling a rope, a second drew her very near the shore; the distance was
+fearful, but I braced myself for the leap.
+
+"Stand clear!" I called to the score of hackmen.
+
+A little run, a spring,--and I fell upon my feet, rolled over upon my
+face, gathered myself to the arms of all the Jehus, and was carried off
+bodily by a man with a great knob on his forehead as big as the end of
+his whip-handle.
+
+"G'lang! Who-o-o-oh! Swis-s-s!"
+
+I think that I promised that man everything under the sun to catch the
+train. I recollect that the knob on his forehead grew black and bulging
+as he lashed his horse. I found myself standing up in the cab, screaming
+like the driver. We were both insane, and the horse must have been of
+the breed of _Pegasus_, for I could feel the vehicle gyrating in the
+air. Now we turned a lamp-post, and the glass splintered somewhere; a
+dog howled as we drove over his appendage; a woman with a baby gave a
+short scream and disappeared into the earth; a policeman gave chase, but
+we laughed him to scorn.
+
+Huzza! Here we are! The train stands puffing at the long platform. "Your
+bundle, yer honor! Wasn't I the boy to make the keers?" "Didn't I
+projuce yer honor in good time, sur?" I only know that I flung a
+greenback to the two,--that I vainly besought the ticket agent to give
+me no change, but consign it to the first engineer who failed to make
+time,--that I wrote on the back of my hat for four hours,--that I
+devoured a chicken and as many eggs as she had laid in a lifetime, at
+Havre de Grace,--that I leaped upon the platform at Broad and Prime
+streets, Philadelphia, at noon,--that I plunged into a cab, and said,
+significantly--
+
+"New York Ferry!"
+
+It chafed me to pass through the promenade street of my home-city,
+without a moment to spare for my family or friends. The cab-horse
+slipped in Chestnut Street, and I went over the rest of the route on
+foot, at a dog-trot pace, passing in various quarters for a sportsman, a
+professional runner, and a lunatic. I was greatly aggravated between
+Amboy and Camden, by persons making inquiries for brothers, sons, and
+acquaintances. At last, when I attained the steamer, the Captain kindly
+shut me up in his office, and I went on with my narrative till my eyes
+were burning and my hands failed in their function. Kill von Kull and
+its picturesque shores went by; we emerged into the beautiful bay, and
+winding among its buoys, harbor lights, and shipping, came to, at
+length, at the foot of Christopher Street. I repaired to the office at
+once, and wrote far into the night, refraining, finally, from sheer
+blindness and exhaustion, and dropped asleep in the carriage as I was
+taken toward the Metropolitan Hotel.
+
+The next day was Friday, July 4, the anniversary of American
+Independence, and my version of the six-days' battles caused universal
+gloom and grief. I had furnished five pages or forty columns of closely
+printed matter, and thousands of tremulous fingers were tracing out the
+names of their dead dear ones, while I sipped my wine and rehearsed for
+the hundredth time, the incidents of the retreat to a multitude of men.
+Cards and letters came to me by the gross, from bereaved countrymen, and
+I was obliged, finally, to add a postscript to my account, and a protest
+that I knew no more, and could answer no interrogatories. A bath, fresh
+clothing, and rich food so far improved my appearance in a few days,
+that I presented no other traces of sickness and travel than a sunburnt
+face, and a rheumatic walk.
+
+With restoration came a revival of old desires, appetites, and
+attachments. It required one additional campaign to sober me in these
+respects, and I was not a little relieved, to receive an order on the
+fourth day, to proceed to Washington, and attach myself to the "Army of
+Virginia" at the head of which Major-General John Pope had just been
+placed. After two quieter days' enjoyment, in the Quaker City, I
+reported myself at the Capital, but was debarred from taking the field
+at once, owing to the tardiness of the new Commander. For two weeks or
+more, I loitered around Washington, and although the time passed
+monotonously, I saw many persons and events which have much to do with
+the history of the Rebellion. The story of "Washington During the War"
+has yet to be written in all its vividness of enterprise, devotion, and
+infamy. It has been, in periods of peace, a dull, dolorous town, of
+mammoth hotels, paltry dwellings, empty lots, prodigiously wide avenues,
+a fossil population, and a series of gigantic public buildings, which
+seemed dropped by accident into a fifth-rate backwoods settlement.
+During the sessions Washington was overrun with "Smartness": Smart
+pages, smart messengers, smart cabmen, smart publicans, smart
+politicians, smart women, smart scoundrels! Greatness became commonplace
+here, and Mr. Douglas might drink at Willard's Bar, with none so poor to
+do him reverence, or General Winfield Scott strut like a colossus along
+"the Avenue," and the sleepy negroes upon their backs would give him the
+attention of only one eye. It was interesting, to notice how rapidly
+provincial eminence lost caste here. Slipkins, who was "Honorable" at
+home, and of whom his county newspaper said that "this distinguished
+fellow citizen of ours will be heard from, among the greatest of the
+free,"--Slipkins moved to and fro unnoticed, and voted with his party,
+and drank much brandy and water, and left no other record at the Capital
+than some unpaid bills, and perhaps an unacknowledged heir. A gaping
+rustic and his new bride, or a strolling foreigner, marvelling and
+making notes at every turn, might be observed in the Patent Office
+examining General Washington's breeches, but these were at once called
+"greenies," and people put out their tongues and winked at them. The
+Secretaries' ladies gave parties now and then, attended by the folks who
+sold them horses, or carpets, or wines; the President gave a "levee,"
+whereat a wonderfully Democratic horde gathered to pinch his hands and
+ogle his lady; the Marine band (in _red_ coats), played twice a week in
+the Capital grounds, and Senators, Cyprians, Ethiops, and children
+rallied to enjoy; a theatre or two played time-honored dramas with
+Thespian companies; a couple of scholars lectured in the sombre
+Smithsonian Institution; an intrigue and a duel filled some most doleful
+hiatus; and a clerk absconded with half a million, or an Indian agent
+robbed the red men and fell back to the protection of his "party." A
+very dismal, a very dirty, and a very Democratic settlement was the
+American Capital, till the war came.
+
+Even the war lost half its interest in Washington. A regiment marching
+down Broadway was something to see, but the same regiment in
+Pennsylvania Avenue looked mean and matter-of-fact. A General in the
+field, or riding uncovered through Boston or Baltimore, or even lounging
+at the bar of the Continental or the Astor House or the Tremont, was
+invested with an atmosphere half heroic, half poetic; but Generals
+in Washington may be counted by pairs, and I used to sit at dinner
+with eight or a dozen of them in my eye. There was the new
+Commander-in-Chief, Halleck, a short, countryfied person, whose blue
+coat was either threadbare or dusty, or lacked some buttons, and who
+picked his teeth walking up and down the halls at Willard's, and argued
+through a white, bilious eye and a huge mouth. There was General
+Mitchel, also, who has since passed away,--a little, knotty gentleman,
+with stiff, gray, Jacksonian hair. And General Sturgis passed in and out
+perpetually, with impressive, individual Banks, or some less prominent
+person, all of them wearing the gold star upon their shoulders, and
+absolute masters of some thousands of souls. The town, in fact, was
+overrun with troops. Slovenly guards were planted on horseback at
+crossings, and now and then they dashed, as out of a profound sleep, to
+chase some galloping cavalier. Gin and Jews swarmed along the Avenue,
+and I have seen gangs of soldiers of rival regiments, but oftener of
+rival nationalities, pummelling each other in the highways, until they
+were marched off by the Provosts. The number of houses of ill-fame was
+very great, and I have been told that Generals and Lieutenants of the
+same organization often encountered and recognized each other in them.
+Contractors and "jobbers" used to besiege the offices of the Secretaries
+of War and Navy, and the venerable Welles (who reminded me of Abraham in
+the lithographs), and the barnacled Stanton, seldom appeared in public.
+Simple-minded, straightforward A. Lincoln, and his ambitious, clever
+lady, were often seen of afternoons in their barouche; the little
+old-fashioned Vice-President walked unconcernedly up and down; and when
+some of the Richmond captives came home to the Capital, immense meetings
+were held, where patriotism bawled itself hoarse. A dining hour at
+Willard's was often wondrously adapted for a historic picture, when
+accoutred officers, and their beautiful wives,--or otherwise,--sat at
+the _table d'-hote_, and sumptuous dishes flitted here and there, while
+corks popped like so many Chinese crackers, and champagne bubbled up
+like blood. At night, the Provost Guard enacted the farce of coming by
+deputations to each public bar, which was at once closed, but reopened
+five minutes afterward. Congress water was in great demand for weak
+heads of mornings, and many a young lad, girt up for war, wasted his
+strength in dissipation here, so that he was worthless afield, and
+perhaps died in the hospital. The curse of civil war was apparent
+everywhere. One had but to turn his eye from the bare Heights of
+Arlington, where the soldiers of the Republic lay demoralized, to the
+fattening vultures who smoked and swore at the National, to see the true
+cause of the North's shortcomings,--its inherent and almost universal
+corruption. Human nature was here so depraved, that man lost faith in
+his kind. Death lurked behind ambuscades and fortifications over the
+river, but Sin, its mother, coquetted _here_, and as an American, I
+often went to bed, loathing the Capital, as but little better than
+Sodom, though its danger had called forth thousands of great hearts to
+throb out, in its defence. For every stone in the Capitol building, a
+man has laid down his life. For every ripple on the Potomac, some
+equivalent of blood has been shed.
+
+I lodged for some time in Tenth Street, and took my meals at Willard's.
+The legitimate expenses of living in this manner were fourteen dollars a
+week; but one could board at Kirkwood's or Brown's for seven or eight
+dollars, very handsomely. A favorite place of excursion, near the city,
+was "Crystal Spring," where some afternoon orgies were enacted, which
+should have made the sun go into eclipse. I repaired once to Mount
+Vernon, and looked dolorously at the tomb of the _Pater Patris_, and
+once to Annapolis, on the Chesapeake, which the war has elevated into a
+fine naval station.
+
+At length Pope's forces were being massed along the line of the
+Rappahannock, below the Occoquan river, and upon the "Piedmont"
+highlands. "Piedmont" is the name applied to the fine table-lands of
+Northern Virginia, and the ensuing campaign has received the designation
+of the "Piedmont Campaign." Pope's army proper was composed of three
+corps, commanded respectively by Generals Irvin McDowell, Franz Siegel,
+and Nathaniel P. Banks. But a portion of General McClellan's peninsular
+army had meantime returned to the Potomac, and the corps of General
+Burnside was stationed at Fredericksburg, thirty miles or more below
+Pope's head-quarters at Warrenton.
+
+I presented myself to General Pope on the 12th of July, at noon. His
+Washington quarters consisted of a quiet brick house, convenient to the
+War office, and the only tokens of its importance were some guards at
+the threshold, and a number of officers' horses, saddled in the shade of
+some trees at the curb. The lower floor of the dwelling was appropriated
+to quartermasters' and inspectors' clerks, before whom a number of
+people were constantly presenting themselves, with applications for
+passes;--sutlers, in great quantities, idlers, relic-hunters, and
+adventurers in still greater ratio, and, last of all, citizens of
+Virginia, solicitous to return to their farms and families. The mass of
+these were rebuffed, as Pope had inaugurated his campaign with a show of
+severity, even threatening to drive all the non-combatants out of his
+lines, unless they took the Federal oath of allegiance. He gave me a
+pass willingly, and chatted pleasantly for a time. In person he was
+dark, martial, and handsome,--inclined to obesity, richly garbed in
+civil cloth, and possessing a fiery black eye, with luxuriant beard and
+hair. He smoked incessantly, and talked imprudently. Had he commenced
+his career more modestly, his final discomfiture would not have been so
+galling; but his vanity was apparent to the most shallow observer, and
+although he was brave, clever, and educated, he inspired distrust by his
+much promising and general love of gossip and story-telling. He had all
+of Mr. Lincoln's garrulity (which I suspect to be the cause of their
+affinity), and none of that good old man's unassuming common sense.
+
+The next morning, at seven o'clock, I embarked for Alexandria, and
+passed the better half of the forenoon in negotiating for a pony. At
+eleven o'clock, I took my seat in a bare, filthy car, and was soon
+whirled due southward, over the line of the Orange and Alexandria
+railroad. The country between Alexandria and Warrenton Junction, or,
+indeed, between Washington and Richmond, was not unlike those masterly
+descriptions of Gibbon, detailing the regions overrun by Hyder Ali. The
+towns stood like ruins in a vast desert, and one might write musing
+epitaphs at every wind-beaten dwelling, whence the wretched denizens had
+fled in cold and poverty to a doubtful hospitality in the far South.
+Fences there were none, nor any living animals save the braying hybrids
+which limped across the naked plains to eke out existence upon some
+secluded patches of grass. These had been discharged from the army, and
+they added rather than detracted from the lonesomeness of the wild.
+Their great mournful eyes and shaggy heads glared from copses, and in
+places where they had lain down beside the track to expire. If we
+sometimes pity these dumb beasts as they drag loaded wains, or heavy
+omnibuses, or sub-soil ploughs, we may also bestow a tender sentiment
+upon the army mules. Flogged by teamsters, cursed by quartermasters,
+ridiculed by roaring regiments of soldiers, strained and spavined by
+fearful draughts, stalled in bogs and fainting upon hillsides,--their
+bones will evidence the sites of armies, when the skeletons of men have
+crumbled and become reabsorbed. I have seen them die like martyrs, when
+the inquisitor, with his bloody lash, stood over them in the closing
+pangs, and their last tremulous howl has almost moved to tears. Some of
+the dwellings seemed to be occupied, but the tidiness of old times was
+gone. The women seemed sunburnt and hardened by toil. They looked from
+their thresholds upon the flying train, with their hair unbraided and
+their garters ungyved,--not a negro left to till the fields, nor a son
+or brother who had not travelled to the wars. They must be now hewers of
+wood, and drawers of water, and the fingers whereon diamonds used to
+sparkle, must clench the axe and the hoe.
+
+At last we came to Bull Run, the dark and bloody ground where the first
+grand armies fought and fled, and again to be consecrated by a baptism
+of fire. The railway crossed the gorge upon a tall trestle bridge, and
+for some distance the track followed the windings of the stream. A
+black, deep, turgid current, flowing between gaunt hills, lined with
+cedar and beech, crossed here and there by a ford, and vanishing, above
+and below, in the windings of wood and rock; while directly beyond, lie
+the wide plains of Manassas Junction, stretching in the far horizon, to
+the undulating boundary of the Blue Ridge. As the Junction remains
+to-day, the reader must imagine this splendid prospect, unbroken by
+fences, dwellings, or fields, as if intended primevally to be a place
+for the shock of columns, with redoubts to the left and right, and
+fragments of stockades, dry rifle pits, unfinished or fallen
+breastworks, and, close in the foreground, a medley of log huts for the
+winter quartering of troops. The woods to the north mark the course of
+Bull Run; a line of telegraph poles going westward points to Manassas
+Gap; while the Junction proper is simply a point where two single track
+railways unite, and a few frame "shanties" or sheds stand contiguous.
+These are, for example, the "New York Head-quarters," kept by a person
+with a hooked nose, who trades in cakes, lemonade, and (probably)
+whiskey, of the brand called "rotgut;" or the "Union Stores," where a
+person in semi-military dress deals in India-rubber overcoats,
+underclothing, and boots. As the train halts, lads and negroes propose
+to sell sandwiches to passengers, and soldiers ride up to take mail-bags
+and bundles for imperceptible camps. In the distance some teams are
+seen, and a solitary horseman, visiting vestiges of the battle; sidings
+beside the track are packed with freight cars, and a small mountain of
+pork barrels towers near by; there are blackened remains of locomotives
+a little way off, but these have perhaps hauled regiments of
+Confederates to the Junction; and over all--men, idlers, ruins, railway,
+huts, entrenchments--floats the star-spangled banner from the roof of a
+plank depot.
+
+The people in the train were rollicking and well-disposed, and black
+bottles circulated freely. I was invited to drink by many persons, but
+the beverage proffered was intolerably bad, and several convivials
+became stupidly drunk. A woman in search of her husband was one of the
+passengers, and those contiguous to her were as gentlemanly as they knew
+how to be. "A pretty woman, in war-time," said a Captain, aside, to me,
+"is not to be sneezed at." At "Catlett's," a station near Warrenton
+Junction, we narrowly escaped a collision with a train behind, and the
+occupants of our train, women included, leaped down an embankment with
+marvellous agility. Here we switched off to the right, and at four
+o'clock dismounted at the pleasant village of Warrenton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CAMPAIGNING WITH GENERAL POPE.
+
+
+The court-house village of Fauquier County contained a population of
+twelve or fifteen hundred at the commencement of the war. Its people
+embraced the revolutionary cause at the outstart, and furnished some
+companies of foot to the Confederate service, as well as a mounted
+company known as the "Black Horse Cavalry." The guns of Bull Run were
+heard here on the day of battle, and hundreds of the wounded came into
+town at nightfall. Thenceforward Warrenton became prominently identified
+with the struggle, and the churches and public buildings were transmuted
+to hospitals. After the Confederates retired from Manassas Junction, the
+vicinity of Warrenton was a sort of neutral ground. At one time the
+Southern cavalry would ride through the main street, and next day a body
+of mounted Federals would pounce upon the town, the inhabitants,
+meanwhile, being apprehensive of a sabre combat in the heart of the
+place. Some people were ruined by the war; some made fortunes. The Mayor
+of the village was named Bragg, and he was a trader in horses, as well
+as a wagon-builder. There were two taverns, denominated respectively,
+the "Warrenton Inn," and the "Warren Green Hotel." I obtained a room at
+the former. A young man named Dashiell kept it. He was a
+fair-complexioned, clever, high-strung Virginian, and managed to obtain
+a great deal of paper money from both republics. It is an encomium in
+America, to say that a man "Can keep a hotel," but what shall be said of
+the man who can keep a hotel in war-time? I observed young Dashiell's
+movements from day to day, and I am satisfied that his popularity arose
+from his fairness and frankness. He charged nine dollars a week for
+room, and "board," of three meals, but could, with difficulty, obtain
+meat and vegetables for the table. His mother and his brother-in-law
+lived in the house. The latter was a son of Mayor Bragg, and had been
+twice in the Confederate service. He was engaged both at Bull Run and at
+Fairfax Court House, and made no secret of his activity at either place.
+But he was treated considerately, though he vaunted intolerably. The
+"Inn" was a frame dwelling, with a first floor of stone, surrounded by a
+double portico. The first room (entering from the street) was the
+office, consisting of a bare floor, some creaking benches, some chairs
+with whittled and broken arms, a high desk, where accounts were kept, a
+row of bells, numbered, communicating with the rooms. Hand-bills were
+pinned to the walls, announcing that William Higgins was paying good
+prices for "likely" field hands, that Timothy Ingersoll's stock of dry
+goods was the finest in Piedmont, that James Mason's mulatto woman,
+named Rachel, had decamped on the night of Whitsuntide, and that one
+hundred dollars would be paid by the subscriber for her return. Most of
+these bills were out of date, but some recent ones were exhibited to me
+calling for volunteers, labelled, "Ho! for winter-quarters in
+Washington;" "Sons of the South arise!"--"Liberty, glory, and no
+Yankeedom!" A bellcord hung against the "office" door, communicating
+with the stables, where a deaf hostler might _not_ be rung up. In the
+back yard, suspended from a beam, and upright, hung a large bell, which
+called the boarders to meals. It commonly rung thrice, and I was told on
+inquiry, by the cook--
+
+"De fust bell, sah, is to prepah to prepah for de table; dat bell, when
+de fust cook don't miss it, is rung one hour befo' mealtime. De second
+bell, sah, is to _prepah_ for de table; de last bell, to _come_ to de
+table."
+
+I should have been better pleased with the ceremony, if the food had
+been more cleanly, more wholesome, and more abundant. We used to clear
+the plates in a twinkling, and if a person asked twice for beef, or
+butter, he was stared at by the negroes, as if he had eaten an entire
+cow. I soon brought the head-waiter to terms by promising him a dollar a
+week for extra attendance, and could even get ice after a time, which
+was a luxury. There was a bar upon the premises, which opened
+stealthily, when there were liquors to be sold. Cider (called
+champaigne) could be purchased for three dollars a bottle, and whiskey
+came to hand occasionally. There were cigars in abundance, and I used to
+sit on the upper porch of evenings, puffing long after midnight, and
+watching the sentinels below.
+
+There was some female society in Warrenton, but the blue-coats engrossed
+it all. The young women were ardent partisans, but also very pretty; and
+treason, somehow, heightened their beauty. Disloyalty is always
+pardonable in a woman, and these ladies appreciated the fact. They
+refused to walk under Federal flags, and stopped their ears when the
+bands played national music; but every evening they walked through the
+main street, arm in arm with dashing Lieutenants and Captains. Many
+flirtations ensued, and a great deal of gossip was elicited. In the end,
+some of the misses fell out among themselves, and hated each other more
+than the common enemy. I overheard a young lady talking in a low tone
+one evening, to a Captain in the Ninth New York regiment.
+
+"If you knew my brother," she said, "I am sure you would not fire upon
+_him_."
+
+As there were plain, square, prim porches to all the dwellings, the
+ladies commonly took positions therein of evenings, and a grand
+promenade commenced of all the young Federals in the town. The streets
+were pleasantly shaded, and a leafy coolness pervaded the days, though
+sometimes, of afternoons, the still heat was almost stifling. A jaunt
+after supper often took me far into the country, and the starlights were
+softer than one's peaceful thoughts. To be a civilian was a
+distinguished honor now, and I enjoyed the staring of the citizens, who
+pondered as to my purposes and pursuits, as only villagers can do. There
+is a quiet pleasure in being a strange person in a country town, and so
+far from objecting to the inquisitiveness of the folk, I rather like it.
+One may be passing for a young duke, or tourist, or clergyman, or what
+not?
+
+The Ninth New York (militia) regiment guarded Warrenton, and it was
+composed of clever, polite young fellows, who had taken to volunteering
+before there was any promise of war, and who turned out, pluckily, when
+the strife began. Perhaps public sentiment or pride of organization
+influenced them. They were all good-looking and tidy, and their
+dress-parades, held in the main street, were handsome affairs. I have
+never seen better disciplined columns, and the youthful faces of the
+soldiers, with the staid locality of the exhibition,--young women,
+negroes, dogs and babies, and old men looking on,--seemed to contradict
+the bloody mission of the troops. The old men, referred to, were
+villagers of such long standing that had the Court of Saint James, or
+the Vatican, or the battle of Waterloo been moved into their country,
+they would have still been villagers to the last. They met beside the
+Warrenton Inn, under the shade of the trees, at eleven o'clock every
+morning, and borrowed the New York papers of the latest date. One
+individual, slightly bald, would read aloud, and the rest crouched or
+stood about him, making grunts and remarks at intervals. They did not
+wish to believe the Federal reports, but they must needs read, and as
+most of them had sons in the other army, their pulses were constantly
+tremulous with anxiety. I think that Pope's resolve to transport these
+harmless old people beyond his lines was very barbarous, and the
+soldiers denounced it in similar terms. They spoke of Pope, as of some
+terrible despot, and wished to know when he was coming to town, as they
+had appointed a committee, and drafted a petition, asking his
+forbearance and charity. When these villagers found me out to be a
+Newspaper Correspondent, they regarded me with amusing interest, and
+marvelled what I would say of their town. A villager is very sensitive
+as to his place of residence, and these good people read the----daily,
+confounding me with all the paper,--editorial, correspondence, and, I
+verily believe, advertisements. One of them wished me to board at his
+residence, and I was, after a time, invited out to dinner and tea
+frequently.
+
+The negroes remained in Warrenton, in great numbers, and held carnival
+of evenings when the bands played. "Contrabands" were coming daily into
+town, and idleness and vice soon characterized the mass of them. They
+were ignorant, degraded, animal beings, and many of them loved rum; it
+was the last link that bound them to human kind. Servants could be hired
+for four dollars a month and "keep;" but they were "shiftless" and
+unprofitable. The Provost-Marshal of the place was a Captain
+Hendrickson. His quarters were in the Court House building, and he kept
+a zealous eye upon sutlers and citizens. The former trespassed in the
+sales of liquors to soldiers, and the latter were accused of maintaining
+a contraband mail, and of conspiring to commit divers offences. There
+were a number of churches in the village, all of which served as
+hospitals, and in the quiet cemetery west of the town, two hundred slain
+soldiers were interred. A stake of white pine was driven at the head of
+each grave. Here lay some of the men who had helped to change the
+destinies of a continent. No public worship was held in the place. The
+Sundays were busy as other days: trains came and went, teams made dust
+in the streets, cavalry passed through the village, music arose from all
+the outlying camps; parades and inspections were made, and all the
+preparations for killing men were relentlessly forwarded. A pleasant
+entertainment occurred one evening, when a plot of ground adjoining the
+Warrenton Inn, was appropriated for a camp theatre. Candle footlights
+were arranged, and the stage was canopied with national flags. The
+citizens congregated, and the performers deferred to their prejudices by
+singing no Federal songs. Tho negroes climbed the trees to listen, and
+their gratified guffaws made the night quiver. The war lost half its
+bitterness at such times; but I thought with a shudder of Stuart's
+thundering horsemen, charging into the village, and closing the night's
+mimicry with a horrible tragedy.
+
+Some of the dwellings about the place were elegant and spacious, but
+many of these were closed and the owners removed. Two newspapers had
+been published here of old, and while ransacking the office of one of
+them, I discovered that the type had been buried under the floor. The
+planks were speedily torn away, and the cases dragged to light. I
+obtained some curious relics, in the shape of "cuts" of recruiting
+officers, runaway negroes, etc., as well as a column of a leader, in
+type, describing the first battle of Bull Run. For two weeks I had
+little to do, as the campaign had not yet fairly commenced, and I passed
+many hours every day reading. A young lawyer, in the Confederate
+service, had left an ample library behind him, and the books passed into
+the hands of every invader in the town.
+
+Pope finally arrived at Warrenton, and as the troops seemed to be
+rapidly concentrating, I judged it expedient to procure a horse at once,
+and canvassed the country with that object. By paying a quartermaster
+the Government price ($130), I could select a steed from the pound, but
+inspection satisfied me that a good saddle nag could not be obtained in
+this way. After much parleying with Hebrews and chaffing with country
+people, I heard that Mayor Bragg kept some fair animals, and when I
+stated my purpose at his house, he commenced the business after a
+fashion immemorial at the South, by producing some whiskey.
+
+When Mayor Bragg had asked me pertinently, if I knew much about the
+"pints of a hoss," and what "figger in the way of price" would suit me,
+he told an erudite negro named "Jeems" to trot out the black colt. The
+black colt made his appearance by vaulting over a gate, and playfully
+shivering a panel of fence with his "off" hoof. Then he executed a
+flourish with his tail, leaped thrice in the air, and bit savagely at
+the man "Jeems."
+
+When I asked Mayor Bragg if the black colt was sufficiently gentle to
+stand fire, he replied that he was gentle as a lamb and offered to put
+me astride him. I had no sooner taken my seat, however, than the black
+colt backed, neighed, flourished, and stood erect, and finally ran away.
+
+A second animal was produced, less mettlesome, but also black, finely
+strung, daintily hoofed, and as Mayor Bragg said, "just turned four
+year." The price of this charger was one hundred and ninety dollars; but
+in consideration of my youth and pursuit, Mayor Bragg proposed to take
+one hundred and seventy-five; we compromised upon a hundred and fifty
+dollars, Major Bragg throwing in a halter, and by good luck I procured a
+saddle the same evening, so that I rode triumphantly through the streets
+of Warrenton, and fancied that all the citizens were admiring my new
+purchase.
+
+I was struck with the fact, that Mayor Bragg, though an ardent patriot,
+would accept of neither Confederate nor Virginia money; he required
+payment for his animal, in Father Chase's "greenbacks."
+
+Mounted anew, I fell into my former active habits, and made two
+journeys, to Sperryville and Little Washington, in one direction, to
+Madison in another; each place was probably twenty miles distant; the
+latter was merely a cavalry outpost, where Generals Hatch and Bayard
+were stationed, and the former villages were the head-quarters,
+respectively, of General Banks and General Siegel.
+
+Madison was, at this time, a precarious place for a long tarrying. I
+went to sleep in the inn on the night of my arrival, and at that time
+the place was thronged with cavalry and artillery-men. Next morning,
+when I aroused, not a blue-coat could be seen. They had fallen back in
+the darkness, and prudently abstaining from breakfast, I galloped
+northward, as if the whole Confederate army was at my heels. These old
+turnpike roads were now marked by daily chases and rencontres. A few
+Virginians, fleetly mounted, would provoke pursuit from a squad of
+Federals, and the latter would be led into ambuscades. A quaint incident
+happened in this manner, near Madison.
+
+Captain T. was chasing a party of Confederates one afternoon, when his
+company was suddenly fired upon from a wheatfield, parties rising up on
+both sides of the road, and discharging carbines through the fence
+rails. Three or four men, and as many horses were slain; but the
+ambushing body was outnumbered, and several of its members killed. Among
+others, a young lieutenant took deliberate aim at Captain T. at the
+distance of twelve yards; and, seeing that he had missed, threw up his
+carbine to surrender. The Captain had already drawn his revolver, and,
+amazed at the murderous purpose, he shot the assassin in the head,
+killing him instantly. Nobody blamed Captain T., but he was said to be a
+humane person, and the affair preyed so continually upon his mind, that
+he committed suicide one night in camp.
+
+At Sperryville I saw and talked with Franz Siegel, the idol of the
+German Americans. He had been a lieutenant in his native country, but
+subsided, in St. Louis, to the rank of publican, keeping a beer saloon.
+When the war commenced, he was appointed to a colonelcy, in deference to
+the large German republican population of Missouri. His abilities were
+speedily manifested in a series of engagements which redeemed the
+Southern border, and he finally fought the terrible battle of Pea Ridge,
+Arkansas, which broke the spirit of the Confederates west of the
+Mississippi. The man who fought "mit Siegel" in those days, was always
+told in St. Louis: "Py tam! you pays not'ing for your lager." Siegel
+now commanded one of Pope's corps. He was a diminutive person, but
+well-knit, emaciated by his active career, feverish and sanguine of
+face, and, as it appeared to me, consuming with energy and ambition. As
+a General he was prompt to decide and do, and his manner of dealing with
+Confederate property was severer than that of any American. He battered
+the splendid mansion hotel of White Sulphur Springs to the ground, for
+example, when somebody discharged a rifle from its window. He preferred
+to fight by retreating, and if pursued, generally unmasked his guns and
+made massacre with the scattered opponents. Another German commander was
+Blenker, whose corps of Germans might have belonged to the free bands of
+the Black forest. They were the most lawless men in the Federal service,
+and what they did not steal they destroyed. Such volunteers were
+mercenaries, in every sense of the word. I have been told that they
+slaughtered sheep and cattle in pure wantonness, and the rats of
+Ehrenfels did not make a cleaner sweep of provisions. The Germans, as a
+rule, lacked the dash of the Irish troops and the tact of the Americans.
+They thought and fought in masses, had little individuality, and were
+thick-skulled; but they were persevering and had their hearts in the
+cause.
+
+General Banks was a fine representative of the higher order of Yankee.
+Originally a machinist in a small manufacturing town near Boston, he
+educated himself, and was elected successively Legislator, Governor,
+Congressman, and General of volunteers. His personal graces were
+equalled by his energy, and his ability was considerable. He has been
+very successful in the field, and has conducted a retreat unparalleled
+in the war; these things being always reckoned among American successes.
+The country hereabout was mountainous, healthy, and well adapted for
+campaigning. Streams and springs were numerous, and there were fine
+sites for camps. The deserted toll-houses along the way glowered
+mournfully through the rent windows, and I fancied them, sometimes, as I
+rode at night, haunted by the shambling tollman.
+
+    Ancient road that wind'st deserted,
+      Through the level of the vale,--
+    Sweeping toward the crowded market,
+      Like a stream without a sail,
+
+    Standing by thee, I look backward,
+      And, as in the light of dreams,
+    See the years descend and vanish,
+      Like thy tented wains and teams.--T. B. READ.
+
+To provide myself with thorough equipment for Pope's campaign, I
+returned to Washington, and purchased a patent camp-bed, which strapped
+to my saddle, saddle bags of large capacity, India-rubber blankets, and
+a full suit of waterproof cloth,--hat, coat, _genoullieres_, and
+gauntlets. I had my horse newly shod, I drew upon my establishment for
+an ample sum of money, and, to properly inaugurate the campaign, I gave
+an entertainment in the parlor of the inn.
+
+Pipes, cold ham, a keg of beer, and a demijohn of whiskey comprised the
+attractions of the night. The guests were three Captains, two Adjutants,
+two Majors, a Colonel, four Correspondents, several Lieutenants, and a
+signal officer. There was some jesting, and much laughing, considerable
+story-telling, and (toward the small hours) a great deal of singing.
+Much heroism was evolved; all the guests were devoted to death and their
+country; and there was one person who took off his coat to fight an
+imaginary something, but changed his mind, and dropped asleep directly.
+At length, a gallant Captain, to demonstrate his warlike propensities,
+fired a pistol through the front window; and somebody blowing out the
+candles, the whole party retired to rest upon the floor. In this
+delightful way my third campaign commenced, and next evening I set off
+for the advance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ARMY MORALS.
+
+
+Some of General McDowell's aides had invited me to pass a night with
+them at Warrenton Springs. Fully equipped, I joined Captain Ball, of
+Cincinnati, and we rode southward, over a hard, picturesque turnpike,
+under a clear moonlight. The distance was seven miles, and a part of
+this route was enlivened by the fires, halloos, and the music of camps.
+Volunteers are fond of serenading their officers; and this particular
+evening was the occasion of much merry-making, since a majority of the
+brass bands were to be mustered out of the service to-morrow. We could
+hear the roll of drums from imperceptible localities, and the sharp
+winding of bugles broke upon the silence like the trumpet of the
+Archangel. Stalwart shapes of horsemen galloped past us, and their hoofs
+made monotone behind, till the cadence died so gradually away that we
+did not know when the sound ceased and when the silence began. The
+streams had a talk to themselves, as they strolled away into the meadow,
+and an owl or two challenged us, calling up a corporal hawk. This latter
+fellow bantered and blustered, and finally we fell into an ambush of
+wild pigs, which charged across the road and plunged into the woods.
+There were despatch stations at intervals, where horses stood saddled,
+and the couriers waited for hoof-beats, to be ready to ride fleetly
+toward head-quarters. Anon, we saw wizard lights, as of Arctic skies,
+where remote camps built conflagration; and trudging wearily down the
+stony road, poor ragged, flying negroes, with their families and their
+worldly all, came and went--God help them!--and touched their hats so
+obsequiously that my heart was wrung, and I felt a nervous impulse to
+put them upon my steed and take their burdens upon my back. Little sable
+folk, asleep and ahungered, drawn to that barefoot woman's breast; and
+the tired boy, weeping as he held to his father's hand; and the father
+with the sweat of fatigue and doubt upon his forehead,--children of
+Ishmael all; war raging in the land, but God overhead! These are the
+"wandering Jews" of our day, hated North and South, because they are
+poor and blind, and do no harm; but out of their wrongs has arisen the
+abasement of their wrongers. Is there nothing over all?
+
+We entered the beautiful lawn of the Springs' hotel, at ten o'clock, and
+a negro came up to take our horses. By the lamplight and moonlight I saw
+McDowell's tent, a sentry pacing up and down before it, and the thick,
+powerful figure of the General seated at a writing-table within. Irvin
+McDowell was one of the oldest officers in the service, and when the war
+commenced he became a leading commander in the Eastern army. At Bull Run
+he had a responsible place, and the ill success of that battle brought
+him into unpleasant notoriety. Though he retained a leading position he
+was still mistrusted and disliked. None bore ingratitude so stolidly. He
+may have flinched, but he never replied; and though ambitious he tried
+to content himself with subordinate commands. Some called him a traitor,
+others an incompetent, others a plotter. If McClellan failed, McDowell
+was cursed. If Pope blundered, McDowell received half the contumely. But
+he loosened no cord of discipline to make good will. Implacable,
+dutiful, soldierly, rigorous in discipline, sententious, brave,--the
+most unpopular man in America went on his way, and I think that he is
+recovering public favor again. The General of a republic has a thorny
+path to tread, and almost every public man has been at one time
+disgraced during the civil war. McDowell, I think, has been treated
+worse than any other.
+
+Our nags being removed, we repaired to one of the rustic cottages which
+bounded the lawn, and I was introduced to several members of the staff;
+among others, to a Count Saint Alb, an Austrian. He had been an officer
+in his native country; but came to America, anxious for active service,
+and was appointed to Gen. McDowell's Staff with the rank of Captain. I
+understood that he was writing a book upon America. There are many such
+adventurers in the Federal service, but the present one was clever and
+amusing, and he spoke English fluently.
+
+Our tea was plain but abundant, consisting of broiled beef, fresh bread,
+butter, and cheese; and the inveterate whiskey was produced afterward,
+when we assembled on the piazza, so that the hours passed by pleasantly,
+if not profitably, and we retired at two o'clock.
+
+In the morning I bathed in the clear, cold sulphur spring, where
+thousands of invalid people had come for healing waters. A canopy
+covered the spring, and a soldier stood on guard at the top of the
+descending steps, to preserve the property in its original cleanliness.
+This was one of the most famous medical springs on the American
+continent; the water was so densely impregnated that its peculiarly
+offensive smell could be detected at the distance of a mile. The place
+was going to ruin now. All the bathing-rooms were falling apart, the
+pipes had been carried off to be moulded into bullets, and the great
+hotel was desolate. I walked into the ball-room; but the large gilded
+mirrors had been splintered, and lewd writings defaced the wall. Some
+idlers were asleep upon the piazzas, and the furniture was removed or
+broken. Some rustic cottages dotted the lawn, but these were now
+inhabited by officers and their servants. A few days were to finish the
+work of rapine, and a heap of ashes was to mark the scene of
+tournament, coquetry, and betrothal. I witnessed a review of troops in a
+field contiguous, at nine o'clock. The heat was so intense that many men
+fell out of line and were carried off to their camps. McDowell passed
+exactingly from man to man, examined muskets, clothing, and knapsacks,
+and the inspection was proceeding, when I bade my friends good by and
+set out for Culpepper.
+
+I crossed the North Rappahannock, or Hedgemain river, upon a precarious
+bridge of planks. A new bridge for artillery was being constructed close
+by; for the river beneath had a swift, deep current, and could with
+difficulty be forded. Patches of wagons, squads of horse, and now and
+then a regiment of infantry, varied the monotony of the journey. The
+country was high, woody, and sparsely settled. At noon I overtook
+Tower's brigade, and observing the 94th N. Y. Regiment resting in the
+woods, I dismounted and made the acquaintance of its Colonel. He was at
+this juncture greatly enraged with some of his soldiers who had been
+plucking green apples.
+
+"Boy," he said to one, "put down that fruit! Drop it, or I'll blow your
+head off! Directly you'll double up, pucker, and say that you have the
+"di-o-ree," and require an ambulance. Orderly!"
+
+A sergeant came up and touched his cap.
+
+"Take your musket," said the Colonel; "go out to that orchard, and order
+those men away. If they hesitate or object, shoot them!"
+
+A few such colonels would marvellously improve the volunteer
+organization.
+
+The Hazel or North Anne river, a branch of the Hedgemain, interposed a
+few miles further on, and passing through a covered bridge, I turned
+down the north bank, crossed some spongy fields, and at length came to a
+dry place in the edge of a woods, where I tied my nag, spread out my
+bed, and prepared to dine. A box of sardines, a lemon, and some fresh
+sandwiches constituted the repast, and being dusty and parched I
+stripped afterward and swam across the river. Seeing that my horse
+plunged and neighed, with swollen eyeballs, and every evidence of
+terror, I hastened toward him and discovered a black snake, six feet or
+more in length, which seemed about to coil itself around the nag's leg.
+The size and contiguity of the reptile at first appalled me, and my mind
+was not more composed when the serpent, at my approach, manifested an
+inclination to assume the offensive. Its folds were thicker than my arm,
+and it commenced to revolve rapidly, at length running up a sapling,
+suspending itself by the tail, and hissing vehemently. It belonged to
+the family of "racers," and was hideous and powerful beyond any specimen
+that I had seen. I blew it into halves at the second discharge of my
+pistol, and at once resumed my saddle, indisposed to remain longer
+amidst such acquaintances.
+
+At four o'clock I saw Culpepper, a trim little village, lying in the
+hollow of several hills. A couple of steeples added to its
+picturesqueness, and a swift creek, crossed by a small bridge,
+interposed between myself and the main part of the place. It looked like
+Sunday when I rode through the principal street. The shutters were
+closed in the shop windows, the dwellings seemed tenantless, no citizens
+were abroad, no sutlers had invaded the country; only a few cavalry-men
+clustered about an ancient pump to water their nags, and some military
+idlers were sitting upon the long porch of a public house, called the
+Virginia Hotel. I tied my horse to a tree, the bole of which had been
+gnawed bare, and found the landlord to be an old gentleman named Paine,
+who appeared to be somewhat out of his head. Two days before the
+Confederate cavalry had vacated the village, and the army had been
+encamped about the town for many months. A sabre conflict had taken
+place in the streets; and these events, happening in rapid succession,
+combined with the insolence of some Federal outriders, had so agitated
+the host that his memory was quite gone, and he could not perform even
+the slightest function. There is a panacea for all these things, which
+the faculty and philanthropy alike forbid, but which my experience in
+war-matters has invariably found unfailing. I produced my flask, and
+gently insinuated it to the old gentleman's lips. He possessed instinct
+sufficient to uncork and apply it, and the results were directly
+apparent, in a partial recovery of memory. He said that meals were one
+dollar each, board four dollars a day, or by the week twenty-five
+dollars. These terms are unknown in America; but when Mr. Paine added
+that horse provender was one dollar per "feed," I looked aghast, and
+required some stimulant myself to appreciate the enormity of the
+reckoning. I discovered, however, that the people of the village were
+almost starving; that beef had been fifty cents a pound during the whole
+winter, flour twenty-five dollars per barrel, coffee one dollar and a
+quarter a pound, and corn one dollar per bushel. The army had swept the
+country like famine, and the citizens had pinched, pining faces, with
+little to eat to-day and nothing for to-morrow.
+
+I acquiesced in the charge, as no choice remained, and asked to be shown
+to my room. A burly negro, apparently suffering _delirium tremens_,
+seized my baggage with quaking hands, and lifting a pair of red eyes
+upon me, shuffled through a bare hall, up a stairway, and into a
+bedroom. I never saw a more hideous being in my life, and when he had
+flung my luggage upon the floor, he sank into a chair, and glared
+wofully into my face, breathing like one about to expire.
+
+"Young Moss," said he, "cant you give a po' soul a drop o' sperits? Do
+for de good Lord's sake! Do, Moss, fo' de po' nigga's life. Do! do!
+Moss."
+
+I poured him out a little in a tumbler, less from charity than from
+fear; for he knew that I was provided with a bottle, and I seemed to
+read murder in his eyes.
+
+He drank like one athirst and scant of breath, making a dry, chuckling
+noise with his throat. When he had finished, he leaned his powerful neck
+and head upon the bed and groaned terribly.
+
+"Moss," he said again, "ain't you got no tobacco, Moss? I haint had none
+since Christmas. I's mos dead I'm po' sinful nigga'. Do give some
+tobacco to po' creature, do!"
+
+I told him that I did not chew the weed, but gave him a crushed cigar,
+and he thrust it into his mouth, as if it was food and he was perishing.
+This wretched animal performed the duties of a chambermaid upon the
+premises; he made the beds, attended to the toilets, answered the bells,
+etc. He finally became so offensive that I forbade him my room, and he
+revenged himself by paltry thefts. There were two other servants, a
+woman with a baby, and a shrewd, dishonest mulatto man, who was the
+steward and carver. This fellow secreted provender in the kitchen and
+sold it stealthily to hungry soldiers. A public house so mismanaged I
+had nowhere met. Sometimes we could get no breakfast till noon, and
+finally the price of dinner went up to one dollar and a half, with
+nothing to eat. The table was protected from flies by a series of paper
+fans, pendant from the ceiling and connected by a cord, which an ebony
+boy pulled, at the foot of the room to keep them in motion. This boy
+being worked day and night, often fell asleep upon his stool, when the
+yellow man boxed his ears, or knocked him down; and then he would fan
+with such vigor that a perfect gale swept down the table. The landlord
+was a kindly old man, but he could not "keep a hotel," and the
+strong-minded part of the house consisted of his wife and four
+daughters. Gen. Ben Butler would have sent these young women to Ship
+Island, five times of a day. They were very bad-mannered and always sat
+apart at one end of the cloth, talking against the "Yankees." As there
+was no direct provocation to do so, this boldness was gratuitous, and
+detracted rather than added to my estimate of the heroism of Southern
+women. I have known them to burst into the office, crowded with
+blue-coats, and scream--
+
+"Pop, Yankees thieving in garden!" or, "Pop, drive these Yankees out of
+parlor!"
+
+Every afternoon when the pavement was unusually patronized by young
+officers, these women would sally out, promenade in crinoline, silk
+stockings, and saucy hoods, and the crowd would fall respectfully back
+to let them pass. A flag hung from a hospital over the sidewalk, and
+with a pert flourish, the landlord's daughters filed off the pavement,
+around the ensign, and back again. This was amusing, I thought, but not
+very clever, and rather immodest. Had they been handsome, some romance
+might have attached to the act; but being homely and not marriageable, I
+smiled at the occurrence and entered it in my diary as "patriotism run
+mad." The stable arrangements were, if possible, worse. One had to be
+certain, from actual presence, that his horse was fed at all, and during
+the first three days of my tenure, the black hostler lost me a breast
+strap, a halter, a crupper strap, and finally emptied my saddle-bags.
+
+Now and then a woman made her appearance at a front window, stealthily
+peeping into the street, or a neighboring farmer ventured into town upon
+a lean consumptive mule. The very dogs were skinny and savage for want
+of sustenance, and when a long, cadaverous hog emerged from nowhere one
+day, and tottered up the main street, he was chased, killed, and
+quartered so rapidly, that the famous steam process seemed to have been
+applied to him, of being dropped into a hopper, and tumbling out, a
+medley of hams, ribs, lard, and penknives. The stock of provisions at
+the hotel finally gave out, and I was compelled to purchase morsels of
+meat from the steward. Dreadful visions of famishing ensued, but
+ultimately the railway was opened to town, and a sutler started a shop
+in the village. I lived upon sardines and crackers for two days, and a
+Major Fifield, Superintendent of Military Railroads, gave me savory
+breakfasts of ham afterward. Troops were now concentrating in the
+neighborhood of Culpepper, and a bevy of camps encircled the little
+village. Crawford's Brigade, of Banks's Corps, garrisoned the place, and
+a Provost Marshal occupied the quaint Court House. Reconnoissances were
+made southward daily, and I joined one of these, which left the village
+on the second of August, at three o'clock, for Orange Court House,
+seventeen miles on the way to Richmond. Detachments of a Vermont and a
+New York cavalry regiment composed the reconnoitring party, and the
+whole was commanded by Gen. Crawford, a clever and unostentatious
+soldier. We bivouacked that night near Raccoon Ford, on the river
+Rapidan. No fires were built; for we knew that the enemy was all around
+us, and we slept coldly and imperfectly till the gray of Sunday morning.
+At daylight we galloped into the main street of Orange Court House,
+having first sent a squadron around the village, to ride in at the other
+end. At the very moment of our entry, a company or more of Confederate
+horse was also trotting into town. Both parties sounded the charge
+simultaneously, and the carbines exploded in the very heart of the
+village. For a minute or more a sabre fight ensued, alternated by the
+firing of revolvers; but the defenders were overmatched, and several of
+them having been slain, they turned to escape. At that moment, however,
+our other squadron charged upon them, effectually blocking up the
+street, and the whole party surrendered. A major, who exhibited some
+obstinacy, was felled from the saddle by a terrible cut, which clove his
+skull, and a very dexterous young fellow, who attempted to escape by a
+side street, dodged a bevy of pursuers and saved his head by the loss of
+both his ears. The disfigured corpses of those freshly slain were laid
+along the sidewalk in a row; and after some invasion of henroosts and
+private pantries, we remounted, and with fifty or more prisoners
+crossed the Rapidan, and were welcomed into Culpepper with cheers. The
+prisoners were lodged in the loft of the Court House, and their officers
+were paroled, and boarded among the neighbors. They complied with the
+terms of their parole very honorably, and bore testimony to the courtesy
+of their captors. I talked with them often upon the tavern porch, but an
+undue intimacy with any of them might have brought me into disrepute.
+Although the larders of the village were supposed to be empty, savory
+meals were nevertheless sent daily to these cavalry-men, and it was
+evident that the people on all hands sympathized with their soldiery.
+
+The stringent orders of Pope, relative to removing the disaffected
+beyond his lines, were never enforced. I doubt if the veritable
+commander himself meant to do more than intimidate evil doers; but I saw
+frequent evidences of scrupulous humanity on the part of his general
+officers.
+
+One day, when I was negotiating with the Provost for the purchase of
+some port wine, stored upon the premises of a village druggist, a
+sergeant elbowed his way into the presence of the Marshal, and pushed
+forward two very dirty lads, who gave their ages respectively, as ten
+and thirteen years. They were of Hibernian parentage, and belonged to
+the class of newsboys trading with the different brigades. The younger
+lad was wiping his nose and eyes with a relic of a coat sleeve, and the
+elder was studying the points of the case, with a view to an elaborate
+defence. The sergeant produced a thick roll of bills and laid them upon
+the desk.
+
+"Gineral Crawford," said he, "orders these boys to be locked up in the
+jail. They have been passing this stuff upon the country folks, and
+belong to a gang of young varmints who follers the 'lay.' The Gineral is
+going to have 'em brought up at the proper time and punished."
+
+The bills were fair imitations of Confederate currency, and were openly
+sold in the streets of Northern cities at the rate of thousands of
+dollars for a penny. These lads probably purchased horses, swine, or
+fowls with them, or perhaps paid some impoverished widow for board in
+the worthless counterfeit.
+
+The younger lad sobbed and howled when the order for his incarceration
+had been announced, but the elder made a stout remonstrance.
+
+He didn't know the Gineral would arrest him. Everybody else passed the
+bills. He thought they wos good bills; some man gave 'em to him. They
+wan't passed, nohow, upon nobody but _Rebels_! He could prove that! He
+"know'd" a quartermaster that passed 'em. Wouldn't they let him and Sam
+off this wunst?
+
+They were both sent to Coventry, despite their tears, and down to the
+last day of our tenure in Culpepper, I saw these wicked urchins peeping
+through the grates of the old brick jail, where they lay in the steam
+and vapor, among negroes, drunkards, and thieves,--an evidence of
+justice, which it is a pleasure to record, in this free narrative.
+
+I joined a mess in the Ninth New York regiment finally, and contrived to
+exist till the fifth of the month, when Pope moved his head-quarters to
+a hill back of Culpepper, and thereafter I lived daintily for a little
+while. On the 8th of August, however, an event occurred, which disturbed
+the wisest calculations of the correspondent and the Generals, THE
+BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+GOING INTO ACTION.
+
+
+While General Pope's army was concentrating between the Rappahannock and
+Rapidan rivers, the army of General Stonewall Jackson was lying upon the
+south bank of the Rapidan, and that renowned commander's head-quarters
+were at Gordonsville, about thirty miles from Culpepper. It was
+generally presumed that Jackson had fortified Gordonsville, intending to
+lie in wait there, or possibly to oppose the crossing of Pope upon the
+banks of the river. It was not believed that Jackson's force was very
+great, because the main body of the Confederates were held below
+Richmond, where McClellan's army still remained. The Southern capital
+seemed to be menaced both from the North and the South; but in reality,
+the Grand Army was re-embarking at Harrison's Bar, and sailing up the
+Chesapeake in detachments, to effect a junction with Pope on the plains
+of Piedmont. So important a movement could not be concealed from the
+Confederates, and they had resolved to annihilate Pope before
+McClellan's reinforcements could arrive. It was the work of two weeks to
+transport eighty or a hundred thousand men three hundred miles, and
+finding that Burnside's corps had already landed upon the Potomac,
+Stonewall Jackson determined to cross the Rapidan and cripple the
+fragment of Pope's forces stationed at Culpepper.
+
+Stonewall Jackson is one of the many men whose extraordinary military
+genius has been developed by the civil war. But unlike the mass who have
+become famous in a day, and lost their laurels in a week, Jackson's
+glory has steadily increased. He was first brought into notice at
+Winchester, where he fought a fierce battle with Banks, and derived the
+_sobriquet_ which he has retained to the present time. Soon afterward,
+he chased Banks's army down the Shenandoah Valley, and across the
+Potomac. Afterward, he bore a conspicuous part in the engagement below
+Richmond, and was now to become prominent in the most daring episodes of
+the whole war. His excellence was _activity_. He scrupled at no fatigue,
+marched his troops over steep and circuitous roads, was everywhere when
+unexpected, and nowhere when sought, and his boldness was equal to his
+energy. He did not fear to attack overpowering numbers, if the situation
+demanded it. All that General Lee might plan, General Jackson would dare
+to execute; and he has been, above all others, the Soult of the Southern
+war, while Stuart was its Murat, and Lee its Napoleon.
+
+We first had intimation of the advance of Jackson on the afternoon of
+the 7th of August. Two regiments of cavalry, picketed upon the Rapidan,
+rode pell-mell into Culpepper, reporting a large Southern force at the
+fords, and rapidly advancing. Pope at once ordered the whole of one of
+these regiments under arrest, and it was the opinion of the army that
+the approach was a feint, or, at most, a reconnoissance in force.
+Subsequent information satisfied the incredulous, however, that a
+considerable body of troops were marching northward, and their outriding
+scouts had been seen at Cedar Mountain, only six miles from Culpepper.
+The latter is one of the many woody knobs or heights that environ the
+village, but it is nearer than any other, and should have been occupied
+by Pope, simultaneously with his arrival. It is scarcely a mountain in
+elevation, but so high that the clouds often envelope its crest, and it
+commands a view of all the surrounding country. There are cleared
+patches up its sides, and the highest of these constitutes the farm of a
+clergyman, after whom the eminence is sometimes called "Slaughter's
+Mountain." At its base lie a few pleasant farms; and a shallow rivulet
+or creek, called Cedar Run, crosses the road between the mountain and
+Culpepper. Upon the mountain side Jackson had placed his batteries, and
+his infantry lay in dense thickets and belts of woods before the hill
+and on each side of it. The position was a powerful, though not an
+impregnable one; for batteries might readily be pushed up the slope, and
+our infantry had often ascended steeper eminences. But an opposing army
+scattered about the meadow lands below, would find its several
+components exposed to shot and shell, thrown from points three or four
+hundred feet above them.
+
+When it had been discovered that the enemy had anticipated us in seizing
+this strong position, word was at once despatched to Banks and Siegel to
+bring up their columns without delay. The brigade of General Crawford
+was marched through Culpepper at noon on Friday; and that afternoon,
+foot-sore, but enthusiastic, regiments began to arrive in rapid
+succession.
+
+I had been passing the morning of Friday with Colonel Bowman, a modest
+and capable gentleman, when the serenity of our converse was disturbed
+by a sergeant, who rode into camp with orders for a prompt advance in
+light marching order. In a twinkling all the camps in the vicinity were
+deserted, and the roads were so blocked with soldiers on my return, that
+I was obliged to ride through fields.
+
+I trotted rapidly into the village, and witnessed a scene exciting and
+martial beyond anything which I had remarked with the Army of Virginia.
+Regiments were pouring by all the roads and lanes into the main street,
+and the spectacle of thousands of bayonets, extending as far as the eye
+could reach, was enhanced by the music of a score of bands, throbbing
+all at the same moment with wild music. The orders of officers rang out
+fitfully in the din, and when the steel shifted from shoulder to
+shoulder, it was like looking down a long sparkling wave. Above the
+confusion of the time, the various nativities of volunteers roared their
+national ballads. "St. Patrick's Day," intermingled with the weird
+refrain of "Bonnie Dundee," and snatches of German sword-songs were
+drowned by the thrilling chorus of the "Star-Spangled Banner." Then some
+stentor would strike a stave of--
+
+    "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave,"
+
+and the wild, mournful music would be caught up by all,--Germans, Celts,
+Saxons, till the little town rang with the thunder of voices, all
+uttering the name of the grim old Moloch, whom--more than any one save
+Hunter--Virginia hates. Suddenly, as if by rehearsal, all hats would go
+up, all bayonets toss and glisten, and huzzas would deafen the winds,
+while the horses reared upon their haunches and the sabres rose and
+fell. Then, column by column, the masses passed eastward, while the
+prisoners in the Court-House cupola looked down, and the citizens peeped
+in fear through crevices of windows.
+
+Being unattached to the staff of any General at the time, and therefore
+at liberty as a mere spectator, I rode rapidly after the troops, passed
+the foremost regiments, and unwittingly kept to the left, which I did
+not discover in the excitement of the ride, till my horse was foaming
+and my face furrowed with heat drops. I saw that the way had been little
+travelled, and inquiry at a log farm-house, some distance further,
+satisfied me that I had mistaken the way. Two men in coarse brown suits,
+were chopping wood here, and they informed me, with an oath, that the
+last soldiers seen in the neighborhood, had been Confederate pickets. A
+by-road enabled me to recover the proper route, and from the top of a
+hill overlooking Culpepper, I had a view of the hamlet, nestling in its
+hollow; the roads entering it, black with troops, and all the slopes
+covered with wagon-trains, whose white canopies seemed infinite. The
+skies were gorgeously dyed over the snug cottages and modest spires;
+some far woods were folded in a pleasant haze; and the blue mountains
+lifted their huge backs, voluming in the distance, like some boundary
+for humanity, with a happier land beyond. Here I might have stood, a few
+months before, and heard the church bells; and the trees around me might
+have been musical with birds. But now the parsons and the choristers
+were gone; the scaffold was erected, the axe bare, and with a good by
+glance at the world and man, some hundreds of wretches were to drop into
+eternity. We have all read of the guillotine in other lands; it was now
+before me in my own.
+
+As I passed into the highway again, and riding through narrow passages,
+grazing officers' knees, turning vicious battery horses, winding in and
+out of woods, making detours through pasture fields, leaping ditches,
+and so making perilous progress, I passed many friends who hailed me
+cheerfully,--here a brigadier-general who waved his hand, or a colonel
+who saluted, or a staff officer who rode out and exchanged inquiries or
+greetings, or a sergeant who winked and laughed. These were some of the
+men whose bodies I was to stir to-morrow with my foot, when the eyes
+that shone upon me now would be swollen and ghastly.
+
+Some of the privates seeing me in plain clothes, as I had joined the
+army merely as a visitor and with no idea of seeing immediate service
+there, mistook me for a newspaper correspondent, which in one sense I
+was; and I was greeted with such cries as--
+
+"Our Special Artist!"
+
+"Our Own Correspondent!"
+
+"Give our Captain a setting up, you sir!"
+
+"Puff our Colonel!"
+
+"Give me a good obituary!"
+
+"Where's your pass, bub?"
+
+"Halloo! Jenkins. Three cheers for Jenkins!"
+
+I shall not soon forget one fellow, who planted himself in my path (his
+regiment had halted), and leaning upon his musket looked steadily into
+my eyes.
+
+"Ef I had a warrant for the devil," he said, "I'd arrest that feller."
+
+Many of the soldiers were pensive and thoughtful; but the mass were
+marching to their funerals with boyish outcries, apparently anxious to
+forget the responsibilities of the time.
+
+"Let's sing, boys." "Oh! Get out, or I'll belt you over the snout."
+"Halloo! Pardner, is there water over there?" "Three groans for old
+Jeff!" "Hip-hip--hoo-roar! Hi! Hi!"
+
+A continual explosion of small arms, in the shape of epithets, jests,
+imitations of the cries of sheep, cows, mules, and roosters, and
+snatches of songs, enlivened the march. If something interposed, or a
+halt was ordered, the men would throw themselves in the dust, wipe their
+foreheads, drink from their canteens, gossip, grin, and shout
+confusedly, and some sought opportunities to straggle off, so that the
+regiments were materially decimated before they reached the field. The
+leading officers maintained a dignity and a reserve, and reined their
+horses together in places, to confer. At one time, a private soldier
+came out to me, presenting a scrap of paper, and asked me to scrawl him
+a line, which he would dictate. It was as follows:--
+
+"_My dear Mary, we are going into action soon, and I send you my love.
+Kiss baby, and if I am not killed I will write to you after the fight._"
+The man asked me to mail the scrap at the first opportunity; but the
+same post which carried his simple billet, carried also his name among
+the rolls of the dead.
+
+At five o'clock I overtook Crawford's brigade, drawn up in front of a
+fine girdle of timber, in a grass field, and on the edge of Cedar Creek.
+Their ambulances had been unhitched, and ranged in a row against the
+woods and the soldiers were soon formed in line of battle, extending
+across the road, with their faces toward the mountain. In this order
+they moved through the creek, and disappeared behind the ridge of a
+cornfield. The hill towered in front, but with the naked eye I could
+distinguish only a speck of floating something above the roof of
+Slaughter's white house. This was said to be a flag, though I did not
+believe it; and as there were no evidences of any enemy, which I could
+determine, I turned my attention to the immediate necessities of myself
+and my horse. A granary lay at a little distance, and as I was hastening
+thither, a trooper came along with a blanket full of corn. Fortuitously,
+he dropped about a dozen ears, which I secured, and hitched my animal to
+a tree, where he munched until I had fallen asleep. The latter event
+happened in this wise.
+
+I had observed a slight person in the uniform of a surgeon. He was
+dividing a large lump of pork at the time, and three great crackers lay
+before him. I approached and introduced myself, and in a few minutes I
+was a partial proprieter of the meat, and he a recipient of some drink.
+The same person directed me to occupy a shelf of the ambulance, and when
+we lay down together he narrated some of his experiences in Martinsburg,
+when the Confederates occupied the place after Banks's retreat. He had
+charge of a hospital at that time, and witnessed the entrance of the
+Confederate army. The wildness of the people was unbounded, he said, and
+all who had given so much as a drop of cold water to the invaders were
+pointed out and execrated. The properties of a few, said to be
+Unionists, were endangered; and ruffianly soldiers climbed to the
+windows of the hospital, hooting and taunting the sick. Not to be
+outdone in bitterness, the tenants flung up their crutches and cheered
+for the "Union,"--that darling idea, which has marshalled a million of
+men and filled hecatombs with its champions. In a few days the Federals
+took possession of the town anew, and the Southern element was in turn
+oppressed. This is Civil War,--more cruel than the excesses of
+hereditary enemies. A year before these people of the Shenandoah were
+fellow-countrymen of the soldiery they contemned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CEDAR MOUNTAIN.
+
+
+There being nothing to eat in the vicinity of the ambulances, I mounted
+anew at five o'clock and rode back toward Culpepper. No portion of the
+troops of Crawford were visible now, and only some gray smoke moved up
+the side of the mountain. A few stragglers were bathing their faces in
+Cedar Creek, and some miles in the rear lay several of McDowell's
+brigades under arms. Their muskets were stacked along the sides of the
+road, the men lay sleepily upon the ground,--company by company, each in
+its proper place,--the field-officers gossiping together, and the colors
+upright and unfurled. I was stopped, all the way along the lines, and
+interrogated as to what was happening in front.
+
+"Any Reb-bils out yonder?" asked a grim, snappish Colonel.
+
+"Guess they don't mean to fight before breakfast!" blurted a Captain.
+
+"Wish they'd cut away, anyway, if they goin' to!" muttered a chorus of
+privates.
+
+At the village there was nothing to be purchased, although some sutlers'
+stores lay at the depot, guarded by Provost officers. I persuaded a
+negro to give me a mess of almost raw pork, and a woman, with a child at
+the breast, cooked me some biscuit. There were many civilians and idle
+officers in the town, and the streets were lined with cavalry. Mr.
+Paine, the landlord, was losing the remnant of his wits, and the young
+ladies were playing the "Bonnie Blue Flag," and laughing satirically at
+some young officers who listened. The correspondents began to show
+themselves in force, and a young fellow whom I may call Chitty,
+representing a provincial journal, greatly amused me, with the
+expression of fears that there might be no engagement after all. Chitty
+was an attorney, who had forsaken a very moderate practice, for a press
+connection, and he informed me, in confidence, that he was gathering
+materials for a history of the war. By reason of his attention to this
+weighty project, he failed to do any reporting, and as his mind was not
+very well balanced, he was commonly taken to be a simpleton. As there
+was nobody else to talk to, I amused myself with Chitty during the
+forenoon, and he narrated to me some doubtful intrigues which had varied
+his career in Piedmont. But Chitty had mingled in no battles, and now
+that a contest was about to take place, his heart warmed in
+anticipation. He asked me if the hottest fighting would not probably
+occur on the right, and intimated, in that event, his desire to carry
+despatches through the thickest of the fray. Death was welcome to Chitty
+if he could so distinguish himself. Between Chitty and a nap in a wagon,
+I managed to loiter out the morning, and at three o'clock, a cannon
+peal, so close that it shook the houses, brought my horse upon his
+haunches. For awhile I did not leave the village. Cannon upon cannon
+exploded; the young ladies ceased their mirth; the landlord staggered
+with white lips into the air, and after a couple of hours, I heard the
+signal that I knew so well--a volley of musketry. Full of all the old
+impulses, I climbed into the saddle, and spurred my horse towards the
+battle-field.
+
+The ride over six miles of clay road was a capital school for my pony.
+Every hoof-fall brought him closer to the cannon, and the sound had
+become familiar when he reached the scene. At four o'clock, the musketry
+was close and effective beyond anything I had known, and now and then I
+could see, from secure places, the spurts of white cannon-smoke far up
+the side of the mountain. The action was commenced by emulous
+skirmishers, who crawled from the woodsides, and annoyed each other from
+coverts of ridge, stump, and stone heap. A large number of Southern
+riflemen then threw themselves into a corner of wood, considerably
+advanced from their main position. Their fire was so destructive that
+General Banks felt it necessary to order a charge. Two brigades, when
+the signal was given, marched in line of battle, out of a wood, and
+charged across a field of broken ground toward the projecting corner. As
+soon as they appeared, sharpshooters darted up from a stretch of scrub
+cedars on their right, and a battery mowed them down by an oblique fire
+from the left. The guns up the mountain side threw shells with beautiful
+exactness, and the concealed rifle-men in front poured in deadly showers
+of bullet and ball. As the men fell by dozens out of line, the survivors
+closed up the gaps, and pressed forward gallantly. The ground was
+uneven, however, and solid order could not be observed throughout. At
+length, when they had gained a brookside at the very edge of the wood,
+the column staggered, quailed, fell into disorder, and then fell back.
+Some of the more desperate dashed singly into the thicket, bayoneting
+their enemies, and falling in turn in the fierce grapple. Others of the
+Confederates ran from the wood, and engaged hand to hand with
+antagonists, and, in places, a score of combatants met sturdily upon the
+plain, lunging with knife and sabre bayonet, striking with clubbed
+musket, or discharging revolvers. But at last the broken lines regained
+the shelter of the timber, and there was a momentary lull in the
+thunder.
+
+For a time, each party kept in the edges of the timber, firing at will,
+but the Confederates were moving forward in masses by detours, until
+some thousands of them stood in the places of the few who were at first
+isolated. Distinct charges were now made, and a large body of Federals
+attempted to capture the battery before Slaughter's house, while
+separate brigades charged by front and flank upon the impenetrable
+timber. The horrible results of the previous effort were repeated; the
+Confederates preserved their position, and, at nightfall, the Federals
+fell back a mile or more. From fifteen hundred to two thousand of the
+latter were slain or wounded, and, though the heat of the battle had
+lasted not more than two hours, nearly four thousand men upon both sides
+were maimed or dead. The valor of the combatants in either cause was
+unquestionable. But no troops in the world could have driven the
+Confederates out of the impregnable mazes of the wood. It was an error
+to expose columns of troops upon an open plain, in the face of
+imperceptible sharpshooters. The batteries should have shelled the
+thickets, and the infantry should have retained their concealment. The
+most disciplined troops of Europe would not have availed in a country of
+bog, barren, ditch, creek, forest, and mountain. Compared to the bare
+plain of Waterloo, Cedar Mountain was like the antediluvian world, when
+the surface was broken by volcanic fire into chasms and abysses. In this
+battle, the Confederate batteries, along the mountain side, were
+arranged in the form of a crescent, and, when the solid masses charged
+up the hill, they were butchered by enfilading fires. On the Confederate
+part, a thorough knowledge of the country was manifest, and the best
+possible disposition of forces and means; on the side of the Federals,
+there was zeal without discretion, and gallantry without generalship.
+
+During the action, "Stonewall" Jackson occupied a commanding position on
+the side of the mountain, where, glass in hand, he observed every change
+of position, and directed all the operations. General Banks was
+indefatigable and courageous; but he was left to fight the whole battle,
+and not a regiment of the large reserve in his rear, came forward to
+succor or relieve him. As usual, McDowell was cursed by all sides, and
+some of Banks's soldiers threatened to shoot him. But the unpopular
+Commander had no defence to make, and said nothing to clear up the
+doubts relative to him. He exposed himself repeatedly, and so did Pope.
+The latter rode to the front at nightfall,--for what purpose no one
+could say, as he had been in Culpepper during the whole afternoon,--and
+he barely escaped being captured. The loss of Federal officers was very
+heavy. Fourteen commissioned officers were killed and captured out of
+one regiment. Sixteen commissioned officers only remained in four
+regiments. One General was taken prisoner and several were wounded. A
+large number of field-officers were slain.
+
+During the progress of the fight I galloped from point to point along
+the rear, but could nowhere obtain a panoramic view. The common
+sentiment of civilians, that it is always possible to see a battle, is
+true of isolated contests only. Even the troops engaged, know little of
+the occurrences around them, and I have been assured by many soldiers
+that they have fought a whole day without so much as a glimpse of an
+enemy. The smoke and dust conceal objects, and where the greatest
+execution is done, the antagonists have frequently fired at a line of
+smoke, behind which columns may, or may not have been posted.
+
+It was not till nightfall, when the Federals gave up the contested
+ground, and fell back to some cleared fields, that I heard anything of
+the manner of action and the resulting losses. As soon as the firing
+ceased, the ambulance corps went ahead and began to gather up the
+wounded. As many of these as could walk passed to the rear on foot, and
+the spectacle at eight o'clock was of a terrible character. The roads
+were packed with ambulances, creaking under fearful weights, and rod by
+rod, the teams were stopped, to accommodate other sufferers who had
+fallen or fainted on the walk. A crippled man would cling to the tail of
+a wagon, while the tongue would be burdened with two, sustaining
+themselves by the backs of the horses. Water was sought for everywhere,
+and all were hungry. I met at sundry times, friends who had passed me,
+hopeful and humorous the day before, now crawling wearily with a
+shattered leg or dumb with a stiff and dripping jaw. To realize the
+horror of the night, imagine a common clay road, in a quiet, rolling
+country, packed with bleeding people,--the fences down, horsemen riding
+through the fields, wagons blocking the way, reinforcements in dark
+columns hurrying up, the shouting of the well to the ill, and the feeble
+replies,--in a word, recall that elder time when the "earth was filled
+with violence," and add to the idea that the time was in the night.
+
+I assumed my old role of writing the names of the wounded, but when, at
+nine o'clock, the 10th Maine regiment--a fragment of the proud column
+which passed me in the morning--returned, I hailed Colonel Beale, and
+reined with him into a clover-field, the files following wearily.
+Tramping through the tall garbage, with few words, and those spoken in
+low tones, we stopped at length in a sort of basin, with the ground
+rising on every side of us. The men were placed in line, and the Company
+Sergeants called the rolls. Some of the replies were thrilling, but all
+were prosaic:--
+
+"Smith!"
+
+"Smith fell at the first fire, Sergeant. Bill, here, saw him go down."
+
+"Sturgis!"
+
+"Sam's in the ambulance, wi' his thigh broke. I don't believe he'll
+live, Sergeant!"
+
+"Thompson!"
+
+"Dead."
+
+"Vinton!"
+
+"Yar! (feebly said) four fingers shot off!"
+
+In this way, the long lists were read over, while the survivors chatted,
+laughed, and disputed, talking of the incidents of the day. Most of the
+men lay down in the clover, and some started off in couples to procure
+water. The field-officers gave me some items relative to the conflict,
+and as they were ordered to remain here, I resolved to pass the night
+with them. Obtaining a great fence-rail, I lashed my horse to it by his
+halter, and, removing his saddle and bridle, left him free to graze in
+the vicinity. Then I unfolded my camp-bed, covered myself with a rubber
+blanket, and continued to listen to the conversation. Of course,
+accusations, bitter mutterings, moodiness, and melancholy, prevailed. I
+heard these for some time, interspersed with sententious eulogies upon
+particular persons, and references to isolated events. The evening was
+one of the pleasantest of the year, in all that nature could contribute;
+a fine starlight, a transparent atmosphere, a coolness, and a fragrance
+of sweet-clover blossoms. I had laid my head upon my arm, and shut my
+eyes, and felt drowsiness come upon me, when something hurtled through
+the air, and another gun boomed on the stillness. A shell, describing an
+arc of fire, fell some distance to our left, and, in a moment, a second
+shell passed directly over our heads.
+
+"----!" said an officer; "have they moved a battery so close? See! it is
+just at the end of this field!"
+
+I looked back! At the top of the basin in which we lay, something
+flashed up, throwing a glare upon the woody background, and a shell,
+followed by a shock, crashed ricochetting, directly in a line with us,
+but leaped, fortunately, above us, and continued its course far beyond.
+
+"They mean 'em for us," said the same voice; "they see these lights
+where the fools have been warming their coffee. Halloo!"
+
+Another glare of fire revealed the grouped men and horses around the
+battery, and for a moment I thought the missile had struck among us.
+There was a splutter, as of shivering metal flying about, and, with a
+sort of intuition, the whole regiment rose and ran. I started to my feet
+and looked for my horse. His ears were erect, his eyeballs distended,
+and his nostrils were tremulous with fright. A fifth shell, so perfectly
+in range that I held my breath, and felt my heart grow cold, came toward
+and passed me, and, with a toss of his head, the nag flung up the rail
+as if it had been a feather. He seemed literally to juggle it, and it
+flitted here and there, so that I dared not approach him. A favorable
+opportunity at length ensued, and I seized the animal by his halter. He
+was now wild with panic, and sprang toward me as if to trample me. In
+vain I endeavored to pull him toward the saddle. Fresh projectiles
+darted beside and above us, and the last of these seemed to pass so
+close that I could have reached and touched it. The panic took
+possession of me. I grasped my camp-bed, rather by instinct than by
+choice, and, holding it desperately under my arm, took to my heels.
+
+It was a long distance to the bottom of the clover-field, and the swift
+iron followed me remorselessly. At one moment, when a shell burst full
+in my face, half blinding me, I felt weak to faintness, but still I ran.
+I had wit enough to avoid the high road, which I knew to be packed with
+fugitives, and down which, I properly surmised, the enemy would send his
+steady messengers. Once I fell into a ditch, and the breath was knocked
+out of my body, but I rolled over upon my feet with marvellous
+sprightliness, till, at last, when I gained a corn-field, my attention
+was diverted to a strange, rattling noise behind me. I turned and
+looked. It was my horse, the rail dangling between his legs, his eyes on
+fire in the night. As we regarded each other, a shell burst between us.
+He dashed away across the inhospitable fields, and I fell into the high
+road among the routed. Expletives like these ensued:--
+
+"Sa-a-ay! Hoss! Pardner! Are you going to ride over this wounded
+feller?"
+
+"Friend, have you a drop of water for a man that's fainted here?"
+
+"Halloo! Buster! Keep that bayonit out o' my eye, if you please!"
+
+"Where's Gen. Banks? I hearn say he's a prisoner."
+
+"I do' know!"
+
+"Was we licked, do you think?"
+
+"No! We warn't nothin' o' the kind. Siegel's outflanked 'em and okkepies
+the field. A man jus' told me so."
+
+"Huzza! Hearties, cheer up! Siegel's took the field, and Stonewall
+Jackson's dead."
+
+"Three cheers for Siegel."
+
+"Hoorooar, hoor--"
+
+"Oh! Get out! That's all blow. Don't try stuff me! We're lathered;
+that's the long and shawt of it."
+
+"Is that so? Boys, I guess we're beat!"
+
+Such was the character of exclamations that ran here and there, and
+after a little volley of them had been let off, a long pause succeeded,
+when only the sighs of the injured and the tramp of men and nags broke
+the silence. Overhead the starlight and the blue sky; on either side the
+rolling, shadowy fields; and wrapping the horizon in a gray, grisly
+girdle, the reposing woods plentiful with dew. Nature was putting forth
+all her still, sweet charms, as if to make men witness the damned
+contrast of their own wrath, violence, and murder. Even thus,
+perhaps,--I reasoned,--in the days of old, did the broken multitudes of
+Xerxes return by the shores of the golden Archipelago; and the
+Hellespont shone as peacefully as these silvernesses of earth and
+firmament. The dulness of history became invested with new intelligence.
+I filled in the details of a thousand routs conned in school-days, when
+only the dry outlines lay before me. They were mysteries before, and
+lacked the warmness of life and truth; but now I _saw_ them! The armor
+and the helmets fell away, with all other trappings of custom, language,
+and ceremony. This pale giant, who walked behind the ambulance, leaning
+upon the footboard, was the limping Achilles, with the arrow of Paris
+festering in his heel. This ancient veteran, with his back to the field,
+was the fugitive AEneas, leaving Troy behind. And these, around me,
+belonged to the columns of Barbazona, scattered at Legnano by the
+revengeful Milanese. Cobweb, and thick dust, and faded parchment had
+somewhat softened those elder events; but in their day they were
+tangible, practical, and prosaic, like this scene. Years will roll over
+this, as over those, and folks will read at firesides, half doubtfully,
+half wonderingly, the story of this bafflement, when no fragment of its
+ruin remains. It was a profound feeling that I should thus be walking
+down the great retreat of time, and that the occurrences around me
+should be remembered forever!
+
+There were a few prisoners in the mass, walking before cavalry-men.
+Nobody interfered with them, and they were not in a position to feel
+elated. Now and then, when we reached an ambulance, the fugitives would
+press around it to inquire if any of their friends were within. Rough
+recognitions would ensue, as thus:--
+
+"Bobby, is that you, back there?--Bobby Baker?"
+
+"Who is it?" (feebly uttered.)
+
+"Me, Bobby--Josh Wiggins. Are you shot bad, Bobby?"
+
+"Shot in the thigh; think the bone's broke. You haven't got a drop of
+water, have you?"
+
+"No, Bobby; wish I had. Have anymore of our boys been hurt that you know
+of?"
+
+"Switzer is dead; Bill Cringle and Jonesy are prisoners; 'Pud' White is
+in the ambulance ahead; 'Fol' Thompson's lost an arm; that's all I
+know."
+
+When we had gone two miles or more, we found a provost column drawn
+across the road, and a mounted officer interrogating all who attempted
+to pass:--
+
+"Stop there! You're not wounded."
+
+"Yes, I am."
+
+"Pass on! Halt boy! Go back. Men, close up there. Stop that boy."
+
+"I am sun-struck, Major."
+
+"You lie! Drive him back. Go back, now!"
+
+Beyond this the way was comparatively clear; but as I knew that other
+guards held the road further on, I passed to the right, and with the
+hope of finding a rill of water, went across some grass fields, keeping
+toward the low places. The fields were very still, and I heard only the
+subdued noises wafted from the road; but suddenly I found myself
+surrounded by men. They were lying in groups in the tall grass, and
+started up suddenly, like the clansmen of Roderick Dhu. At first I
+thought myself a prisoner, and these some cunning Confederates, who had
+lain in wait. But, to my surprise, they were Federal uniforms, and were
+simply skulkers from various regiments, who had been hiding here during
+the hours of battle. Some of these miserable wretches asked me the
+particulars of the fight, and when told of the defeat, muttered that
+they were not to be hood-winked and slaughtered.
+
+"I was sick, anyway," said one fellow, "and felt like droppin' on the
+road."
+
+"I didn't trust my colonel," said another; "he ain't no soldier."
+
+"I'm tired of the war, anyhow," said a third, "and my time's up soon; so
+I shan't have my head blown off."
+
+As I progressed, dozens of these men appeared; the fields were strewn
+with them; a true man would rather have been lying with the dead on the
+field of carnage, than here, among the craven and base. I came to a
+spring at last, and the stragglers surrounded it in levies. One of them
+gave me a cup to dip some of the crystal, and a prayerful feeling came
+over me as the cooling draught fell over my dry palate and parched
+throat. Regaining the road, I encountered reinforcements coming rapidly
+out of Culpepper, and among them was the 9th New York. My friend
+Lieutenant Draper, recognized me, and called out that he should see me
+on the morrow, if he was not killed meantime. Culpepper was filling with
+fugitives when I passed up the main street, and they were sprinkled
+along the sidewalks, gossiping with each other. The wounded were being
+carried into some of the dwellings, and when I reached the Virginia
+Hotel, many of them lay upon the porch. I placed my blanket on a clean
+place, threw myself down exhaustedly, and dropped to sleep directly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+OUT WITH A BURYING PARTY.
+
+
+When I rose, at ten o'clock on the morning of Sunday, August 10, the
+porch was covered with wounded people. Some fierce sunbeams were gliding
+under the roof, shining in the poor fellows' eyes, and they were
+stirring wearily, though asleep. Picking my way among the prostrate
+figures, I resorted to the pump in the rear of the tavern for the
+purpose of bathing my face. A soldier stood there on guard, and he
+refused to give me so much as a draught of water. The wounded needed
+every drop, and there were but a few wells in the town. I strolled
+through the main street, now crowded with unfortunates, and pausing at
+the Court House, found the seat of justice transmuted to a headquarters
+for surgeons, where amputations were being performed. Continuing by a
+street to the left, I came to the depot, and here the ambulances were
+gathered with their scores of inmates. A tavern contiguous to the
+railway was also a hospital, but in the basement I found the
+transportation agents at breakfast, and they gave me a bountiful meal.
+
+It was here arranged between myself and an old friend--a newspaper
+correspondent who had recently married, and whose wife awaited him at
+Willard's in Washington--that he should proceed at once to New York with
+the outline of the fight, and that I should follow him next day (having,
+indeed, to report for duty and fresh orders at Head-quarters of the
+army in Washington,) with particulars and the lists of killed. I
+commenced my part of the labors at once, employing three persons to
+assist me, and we districted Culpepper, so that no one should interfere
+with the grounds of the other. My own part of the work embraced both
+hotel-hospitals, the names and statements of the prisoners of the Court
+House loft, and interviews with some of the generals and colonels who
+lay at various private residences. The business was not a desirable one;
+for hot hospital rooms were now absolutely reeking, and many of the
+victims were asleep. It would be inhuman to awaken these; but in many
+cases those adjacent knew nothing, and with all assiduity the rolls must
+be imperfect. I found one man who had undergone a sort of mental
+paralysis and could not tell me his own name. However, I groped through
+the several chambers where the bleeding littered the bare floors. Some
+of them were eating voraciously, and buckets of ice-water were being
+carried to and fro that all might drink. Some male nurses were fanning
+the sleeping people with boughs of cedar; but the flies filled the
+ceiling, and, attracted by the wounds, they kept up a constant buzzing.
+I imagined that mortification would rapidly ensue in this broiling
+atmosphere. A couple of trains were being prepared below, to transport
+the sufferers to Washington, and from time to time individuals were
+carried into the air and deposited in common freight-cars upon the hard
+floors. Here they were compelled to wait till late in the evening, for
+no trains were allowed to leave the village during the day. At the
+Virginia Hotel, I visited, among others, the room in which I had lodged
+when I first came to Culpepper. Eight persons now occupied it, and three
+of them lay across the bed. I took the first man's name, and as the man
+next to him seemed to be asleep, I asked the first man to nudge him
+gently.
+
+"I don't think he is alive," said the man; "he hasn't moved since
+midnight. I've spoken to him already."
+
+I pulled a blanket from the head of the figure, and the tangled hair,
+yellow skin, and stiffened jaw told all the story. The other man looked
+uneasily into the face of the corpse and then lay down with his back
+toward it.
+
+"I hope they'll take it out," said he, "I don't want to sleep beside it
+another night."
+
+The guard at the Court House allowed me to ascend to the loft, and the
+prisoners--forty or fifty in number--clustered around me. They had
+received, a short time before, their day's allotment of crackers and
+bread, and some of them were sitting in the cupola, with their bare legs
+hanging over the rails. They were anxious to have their names printed,
+and I learned from the less cautious the names of the brigades to which
+they belonged. Before I left the room I had obtained the number of
+regiments in Jackson's command and the names of his brigadier-generals.
+Some prisoners arrived while I was noting these matters. They had been
+sent to pick up arms, canteens, cartridge-boxes, etc., from the
+battle-field, and some of our cavalry had ridden them down and captured
+them. They were a little discomposed, but said, for the most part, that
+they were weary of the war and glad to be in custody. As a rule,
+Northern and Southern troops have the same general manners and
+appearances. These were more ragged than any Federals I had ever known,
+and their appetites were voracious.
+
+I found General Geary, a Pennsylvania brigade Commander, in the dwelling
+of a lady near the end of the town. He had received a bullet in the arm,
+and, I believe, submitted to amputation afterward. He was a tall,
+athletic man, upwards of six feet in height, and a citizen of one of the
+mountainous interior counties of the Quaker State. His life had been
+marked by much adventure, and he had been elevated to many important
+civil positions in various quarters of the Republic. He occupied a
+leading place, in the Mexican war, and was afterward Mayor of San
+Francisco and Governor of Kansas. He acted with the Southern wing of
+the Democratic party, and was discreetly ambitious, promoting the
+agricultural interests of his commonwealth, and otherwise fulfilling
+useful civil functions. He was a fine exemplar of the American
+gentleman, preserving the better individualities of his countrymen, but
+discarding those grosser traits, which have given us an unenviable name
+abroad. Geary could not do a mean thing, and his courage came so
+naturally to him that he did not consider it any cause of pride. The
+bias of party, which in America diseases the best natures, had in some
+degree affected the General. He was prone to go with his party in any
+event, when often, I think, his fine intelligence would have prompted
+him to an independent course. But I wish that all our leading men
+possessed his manliness, for then more dignity and self-respect, and
+less "smartness," might be apparent in our social and political
+organizations.
+
+He was lying on his back, with his shattered arm bandaged, and resting
+on his breast. Twitches of keen pain shot across his face now and then,
+but he received me with a simple courtesy that made his patience thrice
+heroic. He did not speak of himself or his services, though I knew both
+to be eminent; but McDowell had insulted him, as he rode disabled from
+the field, and Geary felt the sting of the word more than the bullet. He
+had ventured to say to McDowell that the Reserves were badly needed in
+front, and the proud "Regular" had answered the officious "Volunteer,"
+to the effect that he knew his own business. Not the least among the
+causes of the North's inefficiency will be found this ill feeling
+between the professional and the civil soldiery. A Regular contemns a
+Volunteer; a Volunteer hates a Regular. I visited General Augur--badly
+wounded--in the drawing-room of the hotel, and paused a moment to watch
+Colonel Donnelly, mortally wounded, lying on a spread in the hall. The
+latter lingered a day in fearful agony; but he was a powerful man in
+physique, and he fought with death through a bloody sweat, never
+moaning nor complaining, till he fell into a blessed torpidity, and so
+yielded up his soul. The shady little town was a sort of Golgotha now.
+Feverish eyes began to burn into one's heart, as he passed along the
+sidewalks. Red hospital flags, hung like regalia from half the houses. A
+table for amputations was set up in the open air, and nakedness glared
+hideously upon the sun. How often have they brought out corpses in plain
+boxes of pine, and shut them away without sign, or ceremony, or tears,
+driving a long stake above the headboard. The ambulances came and went,
+till the line seemed stretching to the crack of doom; while, as in
+contemplation of further murder, the white-covered ammunition-teams
+creaked southward, and mounted Provosts charged upon the skulkers,
+driving them to a pen, whence they were forwarded to their regiments.
+Old Mr. Paine, the landlord, tottered up to me, with a tear in his eye,
+and said--
+
+"My good Lord, sir! Who is responsible for this?"
+
+He did not mean to suggest argument. It was the language of a human
+heart pitying its brotherhood.
+
+At twelve o'clock I started anew for the field, and fell in with Captain
+Chitty on the way. He stated that his courage during the fight surpassed
+his most heroic expectations, and added, in an undertone, that he was
+deliberating as to whether he should allow his name to be mentioned
+officially, since several military men were urging that honor upon him.
+I dissuaded Chitty from this intent, upon the ground that his reputation
+for modesty might be sacrificed. Chitty at once said that he would take
+my advice. We encountered Surgeon Ball, of Ohio, after a time, and he
+informed us that a day's armistice had been agreed upon, to allow for
+the burial of the dead. The work of interment was already commenced in
+front, and the surgeon had been ordered to see to the wounded, some of
+whom still lay on the places where they fell. He allowed us to accompany
+him in the capacity of cadets, but we first diverged a little from the
+road, that he might obtain his portmanteau of instruments. I fell into a
+little difficulty here, by unwittingly asking aloud of the 28th
+Pennsylvania regiment, if that was not the organization which hid itself
+during the fight? The 28th had been ordered, on the morning of Saturday,
+to occupy Telegraph Mountain,--an elevation in the rear of Cedar
+Mountain,--which was used for a Federal signal-post. Nobody having
+notified the 28th to return to camp, they remained on the mountain,
+passively witnessing the carnage, and came away in the night. But
+although my remark was jestingly said, the knot of soldiers who heard it
+were intensely excited. They spoke of taking me "off that hoss," and
+called me a New York "Snob," who "wanted his head punched." This irate
+feeling may be attributed to the rivalry which exists between the
+"Empire" and the "Keystone" States, the latter being very jealous of the
+former, and claiming to have sent more troops to the war than any other
+commonwealth. The 28th volunteers doubtless expected a terrific
+onslaught from the next issue of the Philadelphia papers.
+
+The reserve, which had lain some miles in the rear the previous evening,
+were now massed close to the field, but in the woods, that the enemy
+might not count their numbers from his high position. Stopping at times
+to chat with brother officers, at last I reached the meadow whence I had
+been driven the previous evening. I looked for my nag in vain. One
+soldier told me that he had seen him at daylight limping along the high
+road; but after sundry wild-goose chases, I gave up the idea of
+recovering him.
+
+At last I passed the outlying batteries, with their black muzzles
+scanning the battle-ground, and ascending the clover field, came upon
+the site of the battery which had so discomfited us the previous night.
+A signal vengeance had overtaken it. Some splinters of wheel and an
+overturned caisson, with eight horses lying in a group,--their hoofs
+extended like index boards, their necks elongated along the ground, and
+their bodies swollen--were the results of a single shell trained upon
+the battery by a cool artillerist. Beyond, the road and fields were
+strown with knapsacks, haversacks, jackets, canteens, cartridge-boxes,
+shoes, bayonets, knives, buttons, belts, blankets, girths, and sabres.
+Now and then a mule or a horse lay at the roadside, with the clay
+saturated beneath him; and some of the tree-tops, in the depth of the
+woods, were scarred, split, and barked, as if the lightning had blasted
+them. Now passing a disabled wagon, now marking a dropped horseshoe, now
+turning a capsized ambulance, now regarding a perfect wilderness of old
+clothes, we emerged from the timber at last, and came to the place where
+I had slept on the eve of the battle. A hurricane had apparently swept
+the country here, and the fences had been transported bodily. Sometimes
+the ground looked, for limited areas, as if there had been a rain of
+kindling-wood; and there were furrows in the clay, like those made by
+some great mole which had ploughed into the bowels of the earth. All the
+tree boles were pierced and perforated, and boughs had been severed so
+that they littered the way. Cedar Creek ran merrily across what had been
+the road,--the waters limpid and cool as before,--and when I passed
+beyond, I entered the region of dead men. Some poisonous Upas had
+seemingly grown here, so that adventurers were prostrated by its
+exhalations. A tributary rivulet formed with the creek a triangular
+enclosure of ground, where most of the Federals had fallen. To the left
+of the road stood a cornfield; to the right a stubble-field, dotted with
+stone heaps: deep woods formed the background to these, and
+scrub-timber, irregularly disposed, the foreground. On the right of the
+stubble lay a great stretch of "barren," spotted with dwarf cedars, and
+on the left of the cornfield stood a white farm-house, with orchards and
+outbuildings; beyond, the creek had hollowed a ravine among the hills,
+and the far distance was bounded by the mountains on the Rapidan. In the
+immediate front, towered Cedar Mountain, with woods at its base; and
+the roadway in which I stood, lost itself a little way on in the mazes
+of the thicket. Looking down one of the rows of corn, I saw the first
+corpse--the hands flung stiffly back, the feet set stubbornly, the chin
+pointing upward, the features losing their sharpness, the skin
+blackening, the eyes great and white--
+
+    "A heap of death--a chaos of cold clay."
+
+Turning into the cornfield, we came upon one man with a spade, and
+another man lying at his feet. He was digging a grave, and when we
+paused to note the operation, he touched his cap:--
+
+"Pardner o' mine," he said, indicating the body; "him and I fit side by
+side, and we agreed, if it could be done, to bury each other. There
+ain't no sich man as that lost out o' the army, private or
+officer,--with all respect to you."
+
+It was a eulogy that sounded as if more deserved, because it was homely.
+There are some that I have read, much finer, but not as honest. At
+little distances we saw parties of ten or twenty, opening trenches, the
+tributary brook, only, dividing the Confederate and Federal fatigue
+parties. Close to this brook, in the cornfield, lay a fallen trunk of a
+tree, and four men sat upon it. Two of them wore gray uniforms, two wore
+blue. The latter were Gens. Roberts and Hartsuff of the Federal army.
+They were waiting for Gens. Stuart and Early, of the Confederate army:
+and the four were to define the period of the armistice. The men in gray
+were Major Hintham of Mississippi, and Lieut. Elliott Johnston of
+Maryland. Hintham was a lean, fiery, familiar man, who wore the uniform
+of several field-marshals. An ostrich feather was stuck in his soft hat
+and clasped by a silver star upon a black velvet ground. A golden cord
+formed his hat-band, and two tassels, as huge as those of drawing-room
+curtains, fell upon his back. His collar was plentifully embroidered as
+well as his coat-sleeves, and a black seam ran down his trousers. He
+wore spurs of prodigious size, and looked, in the main, like a tragedian
+about to appear upon the stage. The other man was young, stout, and good
+humored; and he talked sententiously, with a little vanity, but much
+courtesy. The Federals had nothing to say to these, they dealt only with
+equals in rank. It became a matter of professional ambition, now, to
+obtain the greatest amount of information from these Confederates,
+without appearing to depart from any conventionality of the armistice. I
+got along very well till Chitty came up, and his interrogatives were so
+pert and pointed that he very nearly spoiled the entire labor. Young
+Johnston was a Baltimorean, and wished his people to know something of
+him; he gave me a card, stated that he was one of Gen. Garnett's aids,
+and had opened the armistice, early in the day, by riding into the
+Federal lines with a flag of truce. By detachments, new bodies of
+Confederate officers joined us, most of them being young fellows in gray
+suits: and at length Gen. Early rode down the hillside and nodded his
+head to our party.
+
+It was the custom of our newspapers to publish, with its narrative of
+each battle, a plan of the field; and in furtherance of this object,
+having agreed to act for my absent friend, I moved a little way from the
+place of parley, and laying my paper on the pommel of my saddle
+proceeded to sketch the relative positions of road, brook, mountain, and
+woodland. While thus busily engaged, and congratulating myself upon the
+fine opportunities afforded me, a lithe, indurated, severe-looking
+horseman rode down the hill, and reining beside me, said--
+
+"Are you making a sketch of our position?"
+
+"Not for any military purpose."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For a newspaper engraving."
+
+"Umph!"
+
+The man rode past me to the log, and when I had finished my transcript,
+I resumed my place at the group. The new comer was Major General J. E.
+B. Stuart, one of the most famous cavalry leaders in the Confederate
+army. He was inquiring for General Hartsuff, with whom he had been a
+fellow-cadet at West Point; but the Federal General had strolled off,
+and in the interval Stuart entered into familiar converse with the
+party. He described the Confederate uniform to me, and laughed over some
+reminiscences of his raid around McClellan's army.
+
+"That performance gave me a Major-Generalcy, and my saddle cloth there,
+was sent from Baltimore as a reward, by a lady whom I never knew."
+
+Stuart exhibited what is known in America as "airiness," and evidently
+loved to talk of his prowess. Directly Gen. Hartsuff returned, and the
+forager rose, with a grim smile about his mouth--
+
+"Hartsuff, God bless you, how-de-do?"
+
+"Stuart, how are you?"
+
+They took a quiet turn together, speaking of old school-days, perhaps;
+and when they came back to the log, Surgeon Ball produced a bottle of
+whiskey, out of which all the Generals drank, wishing each other an
+early peace.
+
+"Here's hoping you may fall into our hands," said Stuart; "we'll treat
+you well at Richmond!"
+
+"The same to you!" said Hartsuff, and they all laughed.
+
+It was a strange scene,--this lull in the hurricane. Early was a North
+Carolinian, who lost nearly his whole brigade at Williamsburg. He wore a
+single star upon each shoulder, and in other respects resembled a homely
+farmer. He kept upon his horse, and had little to say. Crawford was gray
+and mistrustful, calmly measuring Stuart with his eye, as if he intended
+to challenge him in a few minutes. Hartsuff was fair and burly, with a
+boyish face, and seemed a little ill at ease. Stuart sat upon a log, in
+careless posture, working his jaw till the sandy gray beard brushed his
+chin and became twisted in his teeth. Around, on foot and on horse,
+lounged idle officers of both armies; and the little rill that trickled
+behind us was choked in places with corpses. A pleasanter meeting could
+not have been held, if this were a county training. The Surgeon told
+Gen. Stuart that some of his relatives lived near the Confederate
+Capital, and as the General knew them, he related trifling occurrences
+happening in their neighborhoods, so that the meeting took the form of a
+roadside gossip, and Stuart might have been a plain farmer jaunting home
+from market. The General, who was called "JEB" by his associates, so far
+relented finally as to give me leave to ride within the Confederate
+outer lines, and Lieut. Johnson accompanied me. The corpses lay at
+frequent points, and some of the wounded who had not been gathered up,
+remained at the spots where they had fallen. One of these, whose leg had
+been broken, was incapable of speaking, and could hardly be
+distinguished from the lifeless shapes around him. The number of those
+who had received their death wound on the edge of the brook, while in
+the act of leaping across was very great. I fancied that their faces
+retained the mingled ardor and agony of the endeavor and the pang. There
+seemed to be no system in the manner of interment, and many of the
+Federals had thrown down their shovels, and strolled across the
+boundary, to chaff and loiter with the "Butternuts." No one, whom I saw,
+exhibited any emotion at the strewn spectacles on every side, and the
+stories I had read of the stony-heartedness during the plague, were more
+than rivalled by these charnel realities. Already corruption was
+violating the "temples of the living God." The heat of the day and the
+general demoralizing influences of the climate, were making havoc with
+the shapely men of yesterday, and nature seemed hastening to reabsorb,
+and renew by her marvellous processes, what was now blistering and
+burdening her surface. Enough, however, of this. Satiated with the
+scenes of war, my ambition now was to extend my observations to the
+kingdoms of the Old World.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+The boy's vague dream of foreign adventure had passed away; my purpose
+was of a tamer and more practical cast; it was resolved to this problem:
+"How could I travel abroad and pay my expenses?"
+
+Evidently no money could be made by home correspondence. The new order
+of journals had no charity for fine moral descriptions of church
+steeples, ruined castles, and picture galleries; I knew too little of
+foreign politics to give the Republic its semi-weekly "sensation;" and
+exchange was too high at the depreciated value of currency to yield me
+even a tolerable reward. But might I not reverse the policy of the
+peripatetics, and, instead of turning my European experiences into
+American gold, make my knowledge of America a bill of credit for
+England?
+
+What capital had I for this essay? I was twenty-one years of age; the
+last three years of my minority had been passed among the newspapers; I
+knew indifferently well the distribution of parties, the theory of the
+Government, the personalities of public men, the causes of the great
+civil strife. And I had mounted to my saddle in the beginning of the
+war, and followed the armies of McClellan and Pope over their sanguinary
+battle-fields. The possibility thrilled me like a novel discovery, that
+the Old World might be willing to hear of the New, as I could depict it,
+fresh from the theatre of action. At great expense foreign
+correspondents had been sent to our shores, whose ignorance and
+confidence had led them into egregious blunders; for their travelling
+outlay merely, I would have guaranteed thrice the information, and my
+sanguine conceit half persuaded me that I could present it as
+acceptably. I did not wait to ponder upon this suggestion. The guns of
+the second action of Bull Run growled a farewell to me as I resigned my
+horse and equipments to a successor. With a trifle of money, I took
+passage on a steamer, and landed at Liverpool on the first of October,
+1862.
+
+Among my acquaintances upon the ship was a semi-literary adventurer from
+New England. I surmised that his funds were not more considerable than
+my own; and indeed, when he comprehended my plans, he confessed as much,
+and proposed to join enterprises with me.
+
+"Did you ever make a public lecture?" he asked.
+
+Now I had certain blushing recollections of having entertained a
+suburban congregation, long before, with didactic critiques upon Byron,
+Keats, and the popular poets. I replied, therefore, misgivingly, in the
+affirmative, and Hipp, the interrogator, exclaimed at once--
+
+"Let us make a lecturing tour in England, and divide the expenses and
+the work; you will describe the war, and I will act as your agent."
+
+With true Yankee persistence Hipp developed his idea, and I consented to
+try the experiment, though with grave scruples. It would require much
+nerve to talk to strange people upon an excitable topic; and a camp
+fever, which among other things I had gained on the Chickahominy, had
+enfeebled me to the last degree.
+
+However, I went to work at once, inditing the pages in a snug parlor of
+a modest Liverpool inn, while Hipp sounded the patrons and landlord as
+to the probable success of our adventure. Opinions differed; public
+lectures in the Old World had been generally gratuitous, except in rare
+cases, but the genial Irish proprietor of the _Post_ advised me to go on
+without hesitation.
+
+We selected for the initial night a Lancashire sea-side town, a summer
+resort for the people of Liverpool, and filled at that time with
+invalids and pleasure-seekers. Hipp, who was a sort of American
+Crichton, managed the business details with consummate tact. I was
+announced as the eye-witness and participator of a hundred actions,
+fresh from the bloodiest fields and still smelling of saltpetre. My
+horse had been shot as I carried a General's orders under the fire of a
+score of batteries, and I was connected with journals whose reputations
+were world-wide. Disease had compelled me to forsake the scenes of my
+heroism, and I had consented to enlighten the Lancashire public, through
+the solicitation of the nobility and gentry. Some of the latter had
+indeed honored the affair with their patronage.
+
+We secured the three village newspapers by writing them descriptive
+letters. The parish rector and the dissenting preachers were waited upon
+and presented with family tickets; while we placarded the town till it
+was scarcely recognizable to the oldest inhabitant.
+
+On the morning of the eventful day I arrived in the place. The best room
+of the best inn had been engaged for me, and waiters in white aprons,
+standing in rows, bowed me over the portal. The servant girls and
+gossips had fugitive peeps at me through the cracks of my door, and I
+felt for the first time all the oppressiveness of greatness. As I walked
+on the quay where the crowds were strolling, looking out upon the misty
+sea, at the donkeys on the beach, and at the fishing-smacks huddled
+under the far-reaching pier, I saw my name in huge letters borne on the
+banner of a bill-poster, and all the people stopping to read as they
+wound in and out among them.
+
+How few thought the thin, sallow young man, in wide breeches and
+square-toed boots, who shambled by them so shamefacedly, to be the
+veritable Mentor who had crossed the ocean for their benefit. Indeed,
+the embarrassing responsibility I had assumed now appeared to me in all
+its vividness.
+
+My confidence sensibly declined; my sensitiveness amounted to
+nervousness; I had half a mind to run away and leave the show entirely
+to Hipp. But when I saw that child of the Mayflower stolidly, shrewdly
+going about his business, working the wires like an old operator, making
+the largest amount of thunder from so small a cloud, I was rebuked of my
+faintheartedness. In truth, not the least of my misgivings was Hipp's
+extraordinary zeal. He gave the townsmen to understand that I was a
+prodigy of oratory, whose battle-sketches would harrow up their souls
+and thrill them like a martial summons. It brought the blush to my face
+to see him talking to knots of old men after the fashion of a town crier
+at a puppet-booth, and I wondered whether I occupied a more reputable
+rank, after all, than a strolling gymnast, giant, or dwarf.
+
+As the twilight came on my position became ludicrously unenviable. The
+lights in the town-hall were lit. I passed pallidly twice or thrice, and
+would have given half my fortune if the whole thing had been over. But
+the minutes went on; the interval diminished; I faced the crisis at last
+and entered the arena.
+
+There sat Hipp, taking money at the head of the stairs, with piles of
+tickets before him; and as he rose, gravely respectful, the janitor and
+some loiterers took off their hats while I passed. I entered the little
+bare dressing-room; my throat was parched as fever, my hands were hot
+and tremulous; I felt my heart sag. How the rumble of expectant feet in
+the audience-room shook me! I called myself a poltroon, and fingered my
+neck-tie, and smoothed my hair before the mirror. Another burst of
+impatient expectation made me start; I opened the door, and stood before
+my destiny.
+
+The place was about one third filled with a representative English
+audience, the males preponderating in number. They watched me intently
+as I mounted the steps of the rostrum and arranged my port-folio upon a
+musical tripod; then I seated myself for a moment, and tried to still
+the beating of my foolish heart.
+
+How strangely acute were my perceptions of everything before me! I
+looked from face to face and analyzed the expressions, counted the lines
+down the corduroy pantaloons, measured the heavily-shod English feet,
+numbered the rows of benches and the tubes of the chandeliers, and
+figured up the losing receipts from this unremunerative audience.
+
+Then I rose, coughed, held the house for the last time in severe review,
+and repeated--
+
+"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--A grand contest agitates America and the world.
+The people of the two sections of the great North American Republic,
+having progressed in harmony for almost a century, and become a
+formidable power among the nations, are now divided and at enmity; they
+have consecrated with blood their fairest fields, and built monuments of
+bones in their most beautiful valleys," etc.
+
+For perhaps five minutes everything went on smoothly. I was pleased with
+the clearness of my voice; then, as I referred to the origin of the war,
+and denounced the traitorous conspiracy to disrupt the republic, faint
+mutterings arose, amounting to interruptions at last. The sympathies of
+my audience were, in the main, with the secession. There were cheers and
+counter cheers; storms of "Hear, hear," and "No, no," until a certain
+youth, in a sort of legal monkey-jacket and with ponderously
+professional gold seals, so distinguished himself by exclamations that I
+singled him out as a mark for my bitterest periods.
+
+But while I was thus the main actor in this curious scene, a strange,
+startling consciousness grew apace upon me; the room was growing dark;
+my voice replied to me like a far, hollow echo; I knew--I knew that I
+was losing my consciousness--that I was about to faint! Words cannot
+describe my humiliation at this discovery. I set my lips hard and
+straightened my limbs; raised my voice to a shrill, defiant pitch, and
+struggled in the dimming horror to select my adversary in the
+monkey-jacket and overwhelm him with bitter apostrophes. In vain! The
+novelty, the excitement, the enervation of that long, consuming fever,
+mastered my overtaxed physique. I knew that, if I did not cease, I
+should fall senseless to the floor. Only in the last bitter instant did
+I confess my disability with the best grace I could assume.
+
+"My friends," I said, gaspingly, "this is my first appearance in your
+country, and I am but just convalescent; my head is a little weak. Will
+you kindly bear with me a moment while the janitor gets me a glass of
+water?"
+
+A hearty burst of applause took the sting from my mortification. A bald
+old gentleman in the front row gravely rose and said, "Let me send for a
+drop of brandy for our young guest." They waited patiently and kindly
+till my faintness passed away, and when I rose, a genuine English cheer
+shook the place.
+
+I often hear it again when, here in my own country, I would speak
+bitterly of Englishmen, and it softens the harshness of my condemnation.
+
+But I now addressed myself feverishly to my task, and my disgrace made
+me vehement and combative. I glared upon the individual in the
+monkey-jacket as if he had been Mr. Jefferson Davis himself, and read
+him a scathing indictment. The man in the monkey-jacket was not to be
+scathed. He retorted more frequently than before; he was guilty of the
+most hardy contempt of court. He was determined not to agree with me,
+and said so.
+
+"Sir," I exclaimed at last, "pray reserve your remarks till the end of
+the lecture, and you shall have the platform."
+
+"I shall be quite willing, I am sure," said the man in the monkey-jacket
+with imperturbable effrontery.
+
+Then, as I continued, the contest grew interesting; explosions of "No,
+no," were interrupted with volleys of "Ay, ay," from my adherents.
+Hipp, who had squared accounts, made all the applause in his power,
+standing in the main threshold, and the little auditory became a ringing
+arena, where we fought without flinching, standing foot to foot and
+drawing fire for fire. The man in the monkey-jacket broke his word:
+silence was not his forte; he hurled denials and counter-charges
+vociferously; he was full of gall and bitterness, and when I closed the
+last page and resumed my chair, he sprang from his place to claim the
+platform.
+
+"Stop," cried Hipp, in his hard nasal tone, striding forward; "you have
+interrupted the lecturer after giving your parole; we recall our
+promise, as you have not stood by yours. Janitor, put out the lights!"
+
+The bald old gentleman quietly rose. "In England," he said, "we give
+everybody fair play; tokens of assent and dissent are commonly made in
+all our public meetings; let us have a hearing for our townsman."
+
+"Certainly," I replied, giving him my hand at the top of the stairs,
+"nothing would afford me more pleasure."
+
+The man in the monkey-jacket then made a sweeping speech, full of loose
+charges against the Americans, and expressive of sympathy with the
+Rebellion; but, at the finishing, he proposed, as the sentiment of the
+meeting, a vote of thanks to me, which was amended by another to include
+himself. Many of the people shook hands with me at the door, and the
+bald old gentleman led me to his wife and daughter, whose benignities
+were almost parental.
+
+"Poor young man!" said the old lady; "a must take care of 'is 'ealth;
+will a come hoom wi' Tummas and me and drink a bit o' tea?"
+
+I strolled about the place for twenty-four hours on good terms with many
+townsmen, while Hipp, full of pluck and business, was posting me against
+all the dead walls of a farther village. Again and again I sketched the
+war-episodes I had followed, gaining fluency and confidence as by
+degrees my itinerant profession lost its novelty, but we as steadily
+lost money. The houses were invariably bad; we had the same fiery
+discussions every evening, but the same meagre receipts, and in every
+market town of northwestern Lancashire we buried a portion of our little
+capital, till once, after talking myself hoarse to a respectable
+audience of empty benches, Hipp and I looked blankly into each other's
+faces and silently put our last gold pieces upon the table. We were
+three thousand miles from home, and the possessors of ten sovereigns
+apiece. I reached out my hand with a pale smile:--
+
+"Old fellow," I said, "let us comfort ourselves by the assurance that we
+have deserved success. The time has come to say good by."
+
+"As you will," said Hipp: "it is all the fault of this pig-headed
+nation. Now I dare say if we had brought a panorama of the war along, it
+would have been a stunning success; but standing upon high literary and
+forensic ground, of course they can't appreciate us. Confound 'em!"
+
+I think that Hipp has since had but two notions,--the exhibition of that
+panorama, or, in the event of its failure, a declaration of war against
+the British people. He followed me to Liverpool, and bade me adieu at
+Birkenhead, I going Londonward with scarcely enough money to pay my
+passage, and he to start next day for Belfast, to lecture upon his own
+hook, or, failing (as he afterward did), to recross the Atlantic in the
+steerage of a ship.
+
+My feelings, as the train bore me steadily through the Welsh border, by
+the clustering smoke-stacks of Birmingham, by the castled tower of
+Warwick, and along the head waters of the Thames and Avon, were not of
+the most enthusiastic description. I had no money and no friends; I had
+sent to America for a remittance, but in the interval of six weeks
+required for a reply, must eat and drink and lodge, and London was wide
+and pitiless, even if I dared stoop to beg assistance.
+
+Let no young man be tempted to put the sea between his home and himself,
+how seductive soever be the experiences of book-makers and poetic
+pedestrians. One hour's contemplation of poverty in foreign lands will
+line the boy's face with the wrinkles of years, and burn into his soul
+that withering dependency which will rankle long after his privations
+are forgotten.
+
+In truth, my circumstances were so awkward that my very desperation kept
+me calm. I had a formal letter to one English publisher, but not any
+friendly line whatever to anybody; and as the possibilities of sickness,
+debt, enemies, came to mind, I felt that I was no longer the hero of a
+romance, but face to face with a hard, practical, terrible reality. It
+was night when I landed at the Paddington Station, and taking an omnibus
+for Charing Cross, watched the long lines of lamps on Oxford Street, and
+the glitter of the Haymarket theatres, and at last the hard plash of the
+fountains in Trafalgar Square, with the stony statues grouped so rigidly
+about the column to Nelson.
+
+I walked down Strand with my carpet-bag in my hands, through Fleet
+Street and under Temple Bar, till, weary at last from sheer exercise, I
+dropped into a little ale-house under a great, grinning lantern, which
+said, in the crisp tone of patronage, the one word, "beds." They put me
+under the tiles, with the chimney-stacks for my neighbors, and I lay
+awake all night meditating expedients for the morrow: so far from regret
+or foreboding, I longed for the daylight to come that I might commence
+my task, confident that I could not fail where so many had succeeded.
+They were, indeed, inspirations which looked in upon me at the dawn. The
+dome of St. Paul's guarding Paternoster Row, with Milton's school in the
+background, and hard by the Player's Court, where, in lieu of
+Shakespeare's company, the American presses of the _Times_ shook the
+kingdom and the continent. I thought of Johnson, as I passed Bolt Alley,
+of Chatterton at Shoe Lane, of Goldsmith as I put my foot upon his grave
+under the eaves of the Temple.
+
+The public has nothing to do with the sacrifices by which my private
+embarrassment received temporary relief. Though half the race of authors
+had been in similar straits, I would not, for all their success, undergo
+again such self-humiliation. It is enough to say that I obtained
+lodgings in Islington, close to the home of Charles Lamb, and near
+Irving's Canterbury tower; and that between writing articles on the
+American war, and strategic efforts to pay my board, two weeks of
+feverish loneliness drifted away.
+
+I made but one friend; a young Englishman of radical proclivities, who
+had passed some years in America among books and newspapers, and was now
+editing the foreign column of the _Illustrated London News_. He was a
+brave, needy fellow, full of heart, but burdened with a wife and
+children, and too honestly impolitic to gain money with his fine
+abilities by writing down his own unpopular sentiments. He helped me
+with advice and otherwise.
+
+"If you mean to work for the journals," he said, "I fear you will be
+disappointed. I have tried six years to get upon some daily London
+paper. The editorial positions are always filled; you know too little of
+the geography and society of the town to be a reporter, and such
+miscellaneous recollections of the war as you possess will not be
+available for a mere newspaper. But the magazines are always ready to
+purchase, if you can get access to them. In that quarter you might do
+well."
+
+I found that the serials to which my friend recommended me shared his
+own advanced sentiments, but were unfortunately without money. So I made
+my way to the counter of the Messrs. Chambers, and left for its junior
+partner an introductory note. The reply was to this effect. I violate no
+confidence, I think, in reproducing it:--
+
+     "SIR,--I shall be glad to see any friend of----, and may be
+     found," etc., etc. "I fear that articles upon the American war,
+     written by an American, will not, however, be acceptable in this
+     journal, as the public here take a widely different view of the
+     contest from that entertained in your own country, and the feeling
+     of horror is deepening fast."
+
+Undeterred by this frank avowal, I waited upon the publisher at the
+appointed time,--a fine, athletic, white-haired Scotchman, whose name is
+known where that of greater authors cannot reach, and who has written
+with his own hand as much as Dumas _pere_. He met me with warm
+cordiality, rare to Englishmen, and when I said--
+
+"Sir, I do not wish the use of your paper to circulate my
+opinions,--only my experiences," he took me at once to his editor, and
+gave me a personal introduction. Fortunately I had brought with me a
+paper which I submitted on the spot; it was entitled, "Literature of the
+American War," collated from such campaign ballads as I could remember,
+eked out with my own, and strung together with explanatory and critical
+paragraphs. The third day following, I received this announcement in
+shockingly bad handwriting:--
+
+"D'r S'r,
+        "Y'r article will suit us.
+                                 "The ed. C. J."
+
+For every word in this communication, I afterward obtained a guinea. The
+money not being due till after the appearance of the article, I
+anticipated it with various sketches, stories, etc., all of which were
+largely fanciful or descriptive, and contained no paragraph which I wish
+to recall. In other directions, I was less successful. Of two daily
+journals to which I offered my services, one declined to answer my
+letter, and the other demanded a quarto of credentials.
+
+So I lived a fugitive existence, a practical illustration of Irving's
+"Poor Devil Author," looking as often into pastry-shop windows, testing
+all manner of cheap Pickwickian veal-pies, breakfasting upon a chop, and
+supping upon a herring in my suburban residence, but keeping up pluck
+and _chique_ so deceptively, that nobody in the place suspected me of
+poverty.
+
+I went for some American inventors, to a rifle ground, and explained to
+the Lords of the Admiralty the merits of a new projectile; wrote letters
+to all the Continental sovereigns for an itinerant and independent
+embassador, and was at last so poor that my only writing papers were a
+druggist's waste bill-heads. An article with no other "backing" than
+this was fortunate enough to stray into the _Cornhill Magazine_. I found
+that its proprietor kept a banking-house in Pall Mall, and doubtful of
+my welcome on Cornhill, ventured one day in my unique American
+costume,--slouched hat, wide garments, and squared-toed boots,--to send
+to him directly my card. He probably thought from its face that a
+relative of Mr. Mason's was about to open an extensive account with him.
+As it was, once admitted to his presence, he could not escape me. The
+manuscript lay in his hands before he fully comprehended my purpose. He
+was a fine specimen of the English publisher,--robust, ruddy,
+good-naturedly acute,--and as he said with a smile that he would waive
+routine and take charge of my copy, I knew that the same hands had
+fastened upon the crude pages of Jane Eyre, and the best labors of
+Hazlitt, Ruskin, Leigh Hunt, and Thackeray.
+
+Two more weary weeks elapsed; I found it pleasant to work, but very
+trying to wait. At the end my courage very nearly failed. I reached the
+era of self-accusation; to make myself forget myself I took long, ardent
+marches into the open country; followed the authors I had worshipped
+through the localities they had made reverend; lost myself in
+dreaminesses,--those precursors of death in the snow,--and wished myself
+back in the ranks of the North, to go down in the frenzy, rather than
+thus drag out a life of civil indigence, robbing at once my brains and
+my stomach.
+
+One morning, as I sat in my little Islington parlor, wishing that the
+chop I had just eaten had gone farther, and taking a melancholy
+inventory of the threadbare carpet and rheumatic chairs, the
+door-knocker fell; there were steps in the hall; my name was mentioned.
+
+A tall young gentleman approached me with a letter: I received him with
+a strange nervousness; was there any crime in my record, I asked
+fitfully, for which I had been traced to this obscure suburb for condign
+arrest and decapitation? Ha! ha! it was my heart, not my lips, that
+laughed. I could have cried out like Enoch Arden in his dying
+apostrophe:--
+
+               "A sail! a sail!
+    I am saved!"
+
+for the note, in the publisher's own handwriting, said this, and more:--
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--I shall be glad to send you fifteen guineas
+     immediately, in return for your article on General Pope's Campaign,
+     if the price will suit you."
+
+But I suppressed my enthusiasm. I spoke patronizingly to the young
+gentleman. Dr. Johnson, at the brewer's vendue, could not have been more
+learnedly sonorous.
+
+"You may say in return, sir, that the sum named will remunerate me."
+
+At the same time the instinct was intense to seize the youth by the
+throat, and tell him that if the remittance was delayed beyond the
+morning, I would have his heart's-blood! I should have liked to thrust
+him into the coal-hole as a hostage for its prompt arrival, or send one
+of his ears to the publishing house with a warning, after the manner of
+the Neapolitan brigands.
+
+That afternoon I walked all the way to Edmonton, over John Gilpin's
+route, and boldly invested two-pence in beer at the time-honored Bell
+Inn. I disdained to ride back upon the omnibus for the sum of
+threepence, but returned on foot the entire eight miles, and thought it
+only a league. Next day my check came duly to hand,--a very formidable
+check, with two pen-marks drawn across its face. I carried it to
+Threadneedle Street by the unfrequented routes, to avoid having my
+pockets picked, and presented it to the cashier, wondering if he knew me
+to be a foreign gentleman who had written for the _Cornhill Magazine_.
+The cashier looked rather contemptuous, I thought, being evidently a
+soulless character with no literary affinities.
+
+"Sir," he said, curtly, "this check is crossed."
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"We can't cash the check; it is crossed."
+
+"What do you mean by crossed?"
+
+"Just present it where you got it, and you will find out."
+
+The cashier regarded me as if I had offered a ticket of leave rather
+than an order for the considerable amount of seventy-five dollars. I
+left that banking-house a broken man, and stopped with a long, long face
+at a broker's to ask for an explanation.
+
+"Yesh, yesh," said the little man, whose German silver spectacles sat
+upon a bulbously Oriental nose; "ze monish ish never paid on a crossed
+shequc. If one hash a bank-account, you know, zat ish different. Ze
+gentleman who gif you dis shequc had no bishness to crosh it if you have
+no banker."
+
+I was too vain to go back to Cornhill and confess that I had neither
+purse nor purser; so I satisfied the broker that the affair was correct,
+and he cashed the bill for five shillings.
+
+That was the end of my necessities; money came from home, from this and
+that serial; my published articles were favorably noticed, and opened
+the market to me. Whatever I penned found sale; and some correspondence
+that I had leisure to fulfil for America brought me steady receipts.
+
+Had I been prudent with my means, and prompt to advantage myself of
+opportunities, I might have obtained access to the best literary
+society, and sold my compositions for correspondingly higher prices.
+Social standing in English literature is of equal consequence with
+genius. The poor Irish governess cannot find a publisher, but Lady
+Morgan takes both critics and readers by storm. A duchess's name on the
+title-page protects the fool in the letter-press; irreverent
+republicanism is not yet so great a respecter of persons. I was often
+invited out to dinner, and went to the expense of a dress-coat and kids,
+without which one passes the genteel British portal at his peril; but
+found that both the expense and the stateliness of "society" were
+onerous. In this department I had no perseverance; but when, one
+evening, I sat with the author of "Vanity Fair," in the concert rooms at
+Covent Garden, as Colonel Newcome and Clive had done before me, and took
+my beer and mutton with those kindly eyes measuring me through their
+spectacles, I felt that such grand companionship lifted me from the
+errantry of my career into the dignity of a renowned art.
+
+I moved my lodgings, after three months, to a pleasant square of the
+West End, where I had for associates, among others, several American
+artists. Strange men were they to be so far from home; but I have since
+found, that the poorer one is the farther he travels, and the majority
+of these were quite destitute. Two of them only had permanent
+employment; a few, now and then, sold a design to a magazine; the mass
+went out sketching to kill time, and trusted to Providence for dinner.
+But they were good fellows for the most part, kindly to one another, and
+meeting in their lodgings, where their tenure was uncertain, to score
+Millais, or praise Rosetti, or overwhelm Frith.
+
+My own life meantime passed smoothly. I had no rivals of my own
+nationality; though one expatriated person, whose name I have not heard,
+was writing a series of prejudiced articles for _Fraser_, which he
+signed "A White Republican." I thought him a very dirty white. One or
+two English travellers at the same time were making amusingly stupid
+notices of America in some of the second-rate monthlies; and Maxwell, a
+bustling Irishman, who owns _Temple Bar_, the _Saint James_, and
+_Sixpenny Magazine_, and some half dozen other serials, was employing a
+man to invent all varieties of rubbish upon a country which he had never
+beheld nor comprehended.
+
+After a few months the passages of the war with which I was cognizant
+lost their interest by reason of later occurrences. I found myself, so
+to speak, wedged out of the market by new literary importations. The
+enforcement of the draft brought to Europe many naturalized countrymen
+of mine, whose dislike of America was not lessened by their
+unceremonious mode of departure from it; and it is to these, the mass of
+whom are familiarly known in the journals of this country, that we owe
+the most insidious, because the best informed, detraction of us.
+_Macmillan's Magazine_ did us sterling service through the papers of
+Edward Dicey, the best literary _feuilletonist_ in England; and
+Professor Newman, J. Stuart Mill, and others, gave us the limited
+influence of the _Westminster Review_. The _Cornhill_ was neutral;
+_Chambers's_ respectfully inimical; _Bentley_ and _Colburn_
+antagonistically flat; Maxwell's tri-visaged publications grinningly
+abusive; _Good Words_ had neither good nor bad words for us; _Once a
+Week_ and _All the Year Round_ gave us a shot now and then. _Blackwood_
+and _Fraser_ disliked our form of Government, and all its
+manifestations. The rest of the reviews, as far as I could see, pitied
+and berated us pompously. It was more than once suggested to me to write
+an experimental paper upon the failure of republicanism; but I knew only
+one American--a New York correspondent--who lent himself to a systematic
+abuse of the Government which permitted him to reside in it. He obtained
+a newsboy's fame, and, I suspect, earned considerable. He is dead: let
+any who love him shorten his biography by three years.
+
+However, I at last concluded a book,--if I may so call what never
+resulted in a volume,--at which, from the first, I had been pegging
+away. I called it "The War Correspondent," and made it the literal
+record of my adventures in the saddle. When some six hundred MS. pages
+were done I sent it to a publisher; he politely sent it back. I
+forwarded it to a rival house; in this respect only both houses were
+agreed. Having some dim recollection of the early trials of authors I
+perseveringly gave that copy the freedom of the city; the verdict upon
+it was marvellously identical, but the manner of declension was always
+soothing. They separately advised me not to be content with one refusal,
+but to try some other house, though I came at last to think, by the
+regularity of its transit to and fro, that one house only had been its
+recipient from the first.
+
+At last, assured of its positive failure, I took what seemed to be the
+most philosophic course,--neither tossing it into the Thames, after the
+fashion of a famous novelist, nor littering my floor with its fragments,
+and dying amidst them like a _chiffonnier_ in his den: I cut the best
+paragraphs out of it, strung them together, and published it by separate
+articles in the serials. My name failed to be added to the British
+Museum Catalogue; but that circumstance is, at the present time, a
+matter of no regret whatever.
+
+When done with the war I took to story-writing, using many
+half-forgotten incidents of American police-reporting, of border
+warfare, of the development of civilization among the pioneers, of
+thraldom in the South, and the gold search on the Pacific. The majority
+of these travelled across the water, and were republished. And when
+America, in the garb of either fact or fiction, lost novelty, I entered
+the wide field of miscellaneous literature among a thousand competitors.
+
+An author's ticket to the British Museum Reading-room put the whole
+world so close around me that I could touch it everywhere. I never
+entered the noble rotunda of that vast collection without an emotion of
+littleness and awe. Lit only from the roof, it reminded me of the Roman
+Pantheon; and truly all the gods whom I had worshipped sat, not in
+statue, but in substance, along its radiating tables, or trod its
+noiseless floors. Half the literature of our language flows from thence.
+One may see at a glance grave naturalists knee-deep in ichthyological
+tomes, or buzzing over entomology; pale zealots copying Arabic
+characters, with the end to rebuild Bethlehem or the ruins of Mecca;
+biographers gloating over some rare original letter; periodical writers
+filching from two centuries ago for their next "new" article. The
+Marquis of Lansdowne is dead; you may see the _Times_ reporter yonder
+running down the events of his career. Poland is in arms again, and the
+clever compiler farther on means to make twenty pounds out of it by
+summing up her past risings and ruins. The bruisers King and Mace fought
+yesterday, and the plodding person close by from _Bell's Life_ is
+gleaning their antecedents. Half the _literati_ of our age do but like
+these bind the present to the past. A great library diminishes the
+number of thinkers; the grand fountains of philosophy and science ran
+before types were so facile or letters became a trade.
+
+The novelty of this life soon wore away, and I found myself the creature
+of no romance, but plodding along a prosy road with very practical
+people.
+
+I carried my MSS. into Paternoster Row like anybody's book-keeper, and
+accused the world of no particular ingratitude that it could not read my
+name with my articles, and that it gave itself no concern to discover
+me. Yet there was a private pleasure in the congeniality of my labor,
+and in the consciousness that I could float upon my quill even in this
+vast London sea. Once or twice my articles went across the Channel and
+returned in foreign dress. I wonder if I shall ever again feel the
+thrill of that first recognition of my offspring coming to my knee with
+their strange French prattle.
+
+I was not uniformly successful, but, if rejected, my MSS. were
+courteously returned, with a note from the editor. As a sample I give
+the following. The original is a lithographed fac-simile of the
+handwriting of Mr. Dickens, printed in blue ink, the date and the title
+of the manuscript being in another handwriting.
+
+     OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND."
+
+     A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+                     NO. 26 WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W. C.
+                                                 _January 27, 1863._
+
+
+ Mr. Charles Dickens begs to thank the writer of the paper entitled
+ "A Battle Sunday" for having done him the favor to offer it as a
+ contribution to these pages. He much regrets, however, that it is
+ not suited to the requirements of "All the Year Round."
+
+ The manuscript will be returned, under cover, if applied for as
+ above.
+
+The prices of miscellaneous articles in London are remunerative.
+Twenty-four shillings a magazine page is the common valuation: but
+specially interesting papers rate higher. Literature as a profession, in
+England, is more certain and more progressive than with us. It is not
+debased with the heavy leaven of journalism. Among the many serial
+publications of London, ability, tact, and industry should always find a
+liberal market. There is less of the vagrancy of letters,--Bohemianism,
+Mohicanism, or what not,--in London than in either New York or Paris.
+
+I think we have the cleverer fugitive writers in America, but those of
+England seemed to me to have more self-respect and conscientiousness.
+The soul of the scribe need never be in pledge if there are many
+masters.
+
+While a good writer in any department can find work across the water, I
+would advise no one to go abroad with this assurance solely. My
+success--if so that can be called which yielded me life, not
+profit--was circumstantial, and cannot be repeated. I should be loth to
+try it again upon purely literary merits.
+
+After nine months of experiment I bade the insular metropolis adieu, and
+returned no more. The Continent was close and beckoning; I heard the
+confusion of her tongues, and saw the shafts of her Gothic Babels
+probing the clouds, and for another year I roamed among her cities, as
+ardent and errant as when I went afield on my pony to win the spurs of a
+War Correspondent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+SPURS IN THE PICTURE GALLERIES.
+
+
+Florence, city of my delight! how do I thrill at the recollection of the
+asylum afforded me by thee in the Via Parione. The room was tiled, and
+cool, and high, and its single window looked out upon a real palace,
+where the family of Corsini, presided over by a porter in cocked hat and
+an exuberance of gold lace, gave me frequent glimpses of gauze dresses
+and glorious eyes, whose owners sometimes came to the casement to watch
+the poor little foreigner, writing so industriously.
+
+Every young traveller has two or three subjects of unrest. Mine were
+girls and art. The copyists in the galleries were more beautiful studies
+to me than the paintings. The next time I go to Europe, I shall take
+enough money along to give all the pretty ones an order; this will be an
+introduction, and I shall know how they live, and how much money they
+make, and what passions have heaved their beautiful bosoms, to make
+their slow, quiet lives forever haunted and longing.
+
+Love, love! There are only two grand, unsatiated passions, which keep us
+forever in freshness and fever,--love and art.
+
+In Italy I breathed the purest atmosphere; all the world was a
+landscape picture; all the skies were spilling blueness and crimson
+upon the mountains; all the faces were Madonnas; all the perspectives
+were storied architecture. Westward the star of Empire takes its way,
+but that of art shines steadily in the East. Thither look our American
+young men, no matter at which of its altars they make their
+devotions,--painting, sculpture, or architecture. And I, who had known
+some fondness for the pencil till lured into the wider, wilder field of
+letters, felt almost an artist's joy when I stood in the presence of
+those solemn masters whose works are inspired and imperishable, like
+religion.
+
+Having passed the first thrill and disappointment,--for pure art speaks
+only to the pure by intuition or initiation, and I was yet a novice,--my
+old newspaper curiosity revived to learn of the successful living rather
+than of the grand dead.
+
+Correspondents, like poets, are born, not made: the venerable
+associations around me--monuments, cloisters, palaces, the homes and
+graves of great men whom I revered, the aisles where every canvas bore a
+spell name--could not wean me from that old, reportorial habit of asking
+questions, peeping into private nooks, and making notes upon
+contemporary things, just as I had done for three years, in cities, on
+routes, on battle-fields. And as the old world seemed to me only a great
+art museum, I longed to look behind the tapestry at the Ghobelin
+weavers, pulling the beautiful threads.
+
+"Where dwell these gay and happy students, who quit our hard, bright
+skies, and land of angularities, to inhale the dews of these sedative
+mosses, and, by attrition with masterpieces, glean something of the
+spirit of the masters?"
+
+Straightway the faery realm opened to me, and two months of Italian
+rambling were spent in association with the folk I esteemed only less
+than my own exemplars.
+
+Art, in all ages, is the flowery way. No pursuit gives so great joy in
+the achieving, none achieved yields higher meed of competence,
+contentment, and repute. Its ambition is more genial and subdued than
+that of literature, its rivalry more courteous and exalting; its daily
+life should be pastoral and domestic, free from those feverish mutations
+and adventures which cross the incipient author, and it is forever
+surrounded by bright and beautiful objects which linger too long upon
+the eye to stir the mind to more than emulation.
+
+Is it harsh to say that artists have been too well rewarded, and
+thinkers and writers too ill? Vasari dines at the ducal table, while
+Galileo's pension is the rack; the mob which carries Cimabue's canvas in
+triumph, drives Dante into exile; Rubens is a king's ambassador, and
+Grotius is sent to jail; to Reynolds's levees, poor, bankrupt Goldsmith
+steals like an unwelcome guest, and Apelles's gold is paid to him in
+measures, while Homer, singing immortal lines, goes blind and begging.
+
+Art students take rank in Italy among the best of travellers, but
+Bohemianism in art is at one's peril. There are many wasted lives among
+the clever fellows who go abroad ostensibly for study. I recall Jimman,
+who was an expert with the pencil, and who colored with excellent
+discrimination. He went to Dusseldorf at first, and became known to
+Leutze, who praised his sketches. He began to associate at once with
+students and tipplers, and dissipated less by drinking than by talking.
+I have a theory that more men are lost to themselves and the age by a
+love of "gabbing" than by drinking. It is not hard to eschew cognac and
+claret, but there is no cure for "buzzing." There is a drunkenness of
+talk which takes possession of one, and Jimman would have had the
+_delirium tremens_ in a week, with nobody to listen to him. To my mind
+the Trappiste takes the severest of monastic vows.
+
+Jimman used to rise in the morning betimes, full of inflexible
+resolution. Having stretched his canvas, and carefully prepared his
+pigments, he went to breakfast, pondering great achievements. Here he
+fell in with a lot of Germans,--the most incurable race of gossipers in
+the world,--and while they discussed, in a learned way, every subject
+under the sun, the meal extended into the afternoon, and Jimman
+concluded that it was then too late to undertake anything. In this way
+his ambition burnt away, his money was squandered, he lost facility of
+manipulation, and came back to Paris at the age of twenty-eight, to
+pursue the same listless, garrulous existence; debts and grisettes,
+buzzing and brandy, the utterance of resolves which expired in the
+utterance, and Jimman finally became, perforce, a common apprentice to a
+moulder, that he might not entirely starve.
+
+I saw him, for the last time, in the Louvre, looking at Zurbaran's
+"Kneeling Monk."
+
+"Ah, Townsend," he said, "I might have done something like that. All my
+zeal is gone."
+
+And he began to chat in the same loose, familiar way. Dumbness and
+deafness would have been endowments rather than deprivations for him.
+
+I had rooms in Florence with Gypsum and Stagg. The former was a young,
+industrious fellow, of German descent, who worked hard, but not wisely.
+He spent half a year in copying a face by Paul Veronese, and the other
+half in sketching an old convent yard. But he did not visit, and an
+artist, to get orders and take rank, must be seen as well as be earnest.
+He need not be hail-fellow, but should keep well in the circle of
+respectable travellers; for these are to be his patrons, if he pleases
+them. Gypsum was over-modest and too conscientious; he had only a trifle
+of money, and was careless of his attire. So he disregarded society, and
+society forgot him. Therefore, at dawn, he betook himself to the old
+convent-yard, and stood at his easel bravely, never so unhappy as when
+one of the church's innumerable holy days arrived, for then he was
+forbidden to work upon the convent premises. With all his
+conscientiousness he received no orders; while Stagg, who was not more
+clever, proportioned to his longer experience, was befriended on every
+hand, because he went to the American chapel regularly and wore a
+dress-coat at the sociables.
+
+Stagg used the old studio of Buchanan Read, just off the Via Seragli.
+
+I stumbled upon him one morning, and saw more than I anticipated.
+
+A young, plump girl, without so much as a fig-leaf upon her, was posing
+before his easel, so motionless that she scarcely winked, one hand
+extended and clasping her loosened tresses, and bending upon one white
+and dimpled knee.
+
+She had the large dark eyes of the professional _modello_, and a bosom
+as ripe as Titian's Venus. Her feet were small, and her hands very white
+and beautiful. But of me she took no more notice than if I had been a
+bird alighting upon the window, or a mouse peeping at her from the edge
+of his knot-hole.
+
+Old Stagg, who was commonly grave as a clergyman, now and then left his
+easel to alter her position, and when he was done, she gathered up her
+clothes, which had lain in a heap on the floor, and took her few silver
+pieces with a "_Mille grazie, Signore!_" and went home to take dinner
+with her little brothers.
+
+A studio in Florence costs only fifteen or twenty francs a
+month,--seldom so much. There are a series of excellent ones in the same
+Via Seragli, in a very large dismantled convent. There is a well in the
+centre of its great courtyard, and innumerable ropes lead from it to the
+various high windows of the building, on which buckets of water are
+forever ascending. All this of which I speak refers to a year ago, when
+Florence was not a capital; doubtless, studios command more at present.
+
+The models at Florence were to me strange personages. There was a
+drawing-school which I sometimes attended, where one old woman kept
+three daughters, aged respectively twenty, seventeen, and thirteen
+years. They lived pretty much as they were born, and while they posed
+upon a high platform, the old woman took her seat near the door and
+looked on with grim satisfaction. She was very careful of their moral
+habits, but the second one she lost by an excess of greed. She resolved
+to make them useful by day, as well as by night, and put them to work at
+the studios of individual artists. But as no one artist wanted three
+models, the girls had to separate, and, out of the mother's vigilance,
+the second one, Orsolo, went to the atelier of a wicked and handsome
+fellow, and met with the usual romance of her class.
+
+The oldest girl, Luigia, married a man-model, and their nuptials must
+have been of a most prosaic character.
+
+Among the many men who thus stood for the artists, was one old fellow,
+tall, and bearded, and massively characterized, who used to remain
+motionless for hours; until he seemed to be dead. He had been a model in
+every stage of life, from childhood to the grave, and represented every
+subject from Garibaldi to Moses.
+
+The walks in and around Florence occupied all my Sabbaths. Stagg and I
+used to stroll up to Fiesole, by the villa where Boccaccio's party of
+story-tellers met, and look up old pictures in the village church; we
+measured the proportions of the chapel on the hill of Saint Miniato, and
+he endeavored in vain to imitate the hue of the light as it fell through
+the veined marble of Serravezza; we spent contemplative afternoons in
+the house of Michael Angelo, and went up to Vallambrosa, at the risk of
+our necks, to look at a Giotto no bigger than a tea-plate. In Florence
+there is enough out-of-door statuary to make one of the finest galleries
+in the world. The majesty of Donatello's "Saint George" arises before me
+when I would conceive of any noble humanity, and the sweep of Orgagna's
+great arches give me an idea of vastness like the sea; in the Pitti
+palace only giants should abide; the Campanile goes up to heaven as
+beautiful as Jacob's ladder, and in the perpetual twilight of the Duomo
+I was not of half the stature I believed when roaming under the loftier
+sky.
+
+I saw a jail in Florence, and it troubled me; who in that beautiful city
+could do a crime? How should old age, or bad passions, or sickness, or
+shame, exist in that limpid atmosphere, in the shadow of such
+architecture, in the presence of those pictures?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A CORRESPONDENT ONCE MORE.
+
+
+Again on the way to Washington! I have made the trip more than sixty
+times. I saw the Gunpowder Bridge in flames when Baltimore was in arms
+and the Capital cut off from the North. I saw from Perryville the State
+flag of Maryland waving at Havre de Grace across the Susquehanna. I saw
+at the Washington Navy Yard the blackened body of Ellsworth, manipulated
+by the surgeons. I moved through the city with McClellan's onward army
+toward the transports which were to carry it to the Peninsula. The awful
+tidings of the seven days' retreat came first through the Capital in my
+haversack, and before Stonewall Jackson fell upon the flank of Pope, I
+crossed the Long Bridge with the story of the disaster of Cedar
+Mountain. In like manner the crowning glory of Five Forks made me its
+earliest emissary, and the murder of the President brought me hot from
+Richmond to participate in the pursuit of Booth and chronicle his
+midnight expiation.
+
+Again am I on the way to the city of centralization, to paint by
+electricity the closing scenes of the conspirators, and, as I pass the
+Pennsylvania line, the recollection of those frequent pilgrimages--pray
+God this be the last!--comes upon me like the sequences of delirium.
+
+As I look abroad upon the thrifty fields and the rich glebe of the
+ploughman, I wonder if the revolutions of peace are not as sweeping and
+sudden as those of war. He who wrote the certain downfall of this
+Nation, did not keep his eye upon the steadily ascending dome of the
+capitol, nor remark, during the thunders of Gettysburg, the as energetic
+stroke of the pile-drivers upon the piers of the great Susquehanna
+bridge. We built while we desolated. No fatalist convert to Mohammed had
+so sure faith in the eternity of his institutions. More masonry has been
+laid along the border during the war than in any five previous years. We
+have finished the Treasury, raised the bronze gates on the Capitol,
+double-railed all the roads between New York and the Potomac, and gone
+on as if architecture were imperishable, while thrice the Rebels swept
+down toward the Relay.
+
+And we have done one strategic thing, which, I think, will compare with
+the passing of Vicksburg or the raid of Sherman; we have turned
+Philadelphia.
+
+This modern Pompeii used to be the stumbling-block on the great highway.
+It was to the direct Washington route what Hell-gate was to the Sound
+Channel. We were forbidden the right of way through it, on the ground
+that by retarding travel Philadelphia would gain trade, and had to cross
+the Delaware on a scow, or lay up in some inn over night. New Jerseymen,
+I hear, pray every morning for their daily stranger; Philadelphia has
+much sinned to entrap its daily customer. But Maillefert--by which name
+I designate the inevitable sledge which spares the grand and pulverizes
+the little--has built a road around the Quaker City. It is a very
+curious road, going by two hypothenuses of about fifteen miles to make a
+base of three or four, so that we lose an hour on the way to the
+Capital, all because of Philadelphia's overnight toil.
+
+The bridge at Perryville will be one of the staunchest upon our
+continent: the forts around Baltimore make the outlying landscapes
+scarcely recognizable to the returning Maryland Rebels. At last,--woe be
+the necessity! we have garrisoned our cities. The Relay House is the
+most picturesque spot between the two foci of the country. Wandering
+through the woods, I see the dirty blouses of the remnant of "the boys"
+and the old abatis on the height looks sunburnt and rusty; away through
+the gorge thunders the Baltimore and Ohio train, over what ruins and
+resurrections, torn up a hundred times, and as obstinately relaid, until
+all its engineers are veteran officers, and can stand fire both of the
+furnace and the musket. Everybody in the country is a veteran; the
+contractor, who ran his schooner of fodder past the Rebel batteries; the
+correspondent, whose lean horse slipped through the crevices of dropping
+shells; the teamster, who whipped his mule out of the mud-hole, while
+his ammunition wagon behind grew hot with the heaviness of battle; the
+old farmer, who took to his cellar while the fight raged in his
+chimneys, but ventured out between the bayonet charges to secure his
+fatted calf.
+
+Annapolis Junction has still the sterile guise of the campaign, where
+the hills are bare around the hospitals, and the railway taverns are
+whittled to skeletons. I have really seen whole houses, little more than
+shells, reduced to meagreness by the pocket-knife. The name of almost
+everybody on the continent is cut somewhere in the South; Virginia has
+more than enough names carved over her fireside altars to inscribe upon
+all her multitudinous graves.
+
+There are close to the city fine bits of landscape, where the fields dip
+gracefully into fertile basins, and rise in swells of tilled fields and
+orchard to some knoll, enthroning a porticoed home. Two years ago all
+these fields were quagmires, where stranded wheels and the carcasses of
+hybrids, looked as if a mud-geyser had opened near by. The grass has
+spread its covering, as the birds spread their leaves over the poor
+babes in the wood, and we walk we know not where, nor over what
+struggles, and shadows, and sorrows.
+
+I pity the army mule, though he never asked me for sympathy. Who ever
+loved a mule? You can love a lion, and make him lick your hand: some
+people love parrots, and owls; and I once knew a person who could catch
+black snakes and carry them lovingly in his bosom; but I never knew a
+beloved mule. Yet this war has been fought and won by hybrids. They have
+pulled us out of ruts and fed us, and starved for us. The mule is the
+great quartermaster. See him and his brethren yonder in
+corral,--miserable veterans of no particular race, slab-sided, and
+capable of holding ink between their ribs. They mounch, and mounch, and
+wear the same stolid eye which you have seen under the driver's lash,
+and in the vaulting moment of victory. No stunning receptions greet
+them, no cheers and banquets when Muley comes marching home; over at
+_Giesboro_ they come in crippled, die by the musket without a murmur,
+and are immediately boiled down and forgotten.
+
+I was once beaten by a rival correspondent upon a prominent battle, by
+riding a mule with my despatches. He walked into a mud-puddle just half
+way between the field and the post-office, and stopped there till
+morning.
+
+Here we are, at Washington. I have been in most of the cities of Europe:
+some of them have dirty suburbs, but the first impression of the Capitol
+City is dreary in the extreme; a number of the lost tribes have
+established booths contiguous to the terminus, wherein the filthiest
+people in the world eat the filthiest dishes; a man's sense of
+cleanliness vanishes when he enters the District of Columbia. I have
+been astonished to remark how greatness loses its stature here. Mr.
+Charles Sumner is a handsome man on Broadway or Beacon Street, but
+eating dinner at Thompson's, his shoulders seem to narrow and his fine
+face to grow commonplace.
+
+Above the squalid wideness of ungraded streets and the waste of shanties
+propped upon poles above abysses of vacant lots, where two drunken
+soldiers are pummelling each other, towers the marvellous dome with its
+airy genius firmly planted above, like the ruins of Palmyra above
+contemporary meanness. Moving up the streets, in dust and mud-puddle,
+you see shabbily ambitious churches, with wooden towers; hotels, the
+curbs whereof are speckled with human blemishes, sustaining like
+hip-shotten caryatides the sandstone-wooden columns. Within there is a
+pandemonium of legs in the air, and an agglomeration of saliva, ending
+with an impertinent clerk and two crescents of lazy waiters, who shy
+whisks, and are ambitious to run superfluous errands, for the warrant to
+rob you. Of people, you see squads; of residents, none. The public
+edifices have not picked their company, neither have the public
+functionaries. There is a quantity of vulgar statuary lying around,
+horses standing on their tails, and impossible Washingtons imbedded in
+arm-chairs; but the noble facade of the treasury always suggests to me
+Couture's great picture of the Decadence, where, under a pure colonnade,
+some tipplers are carousing. If we are to have statues at the Capital,
+let us make them with uplifted hands, and shame upon their grave,
+contemplative faces.
+
+Shall we ever make Washington the representative Capital of the country?
+
+Certainly all efforts to improve the site worthy of the seat of gigantic
+legislation have hitherto failed. The sword and the malaria have
+attacked it. Every year sees the President driven from his Mansion by
+pestilential vapors, and the sanitary condition of the city is
+extraordinarily bad. The carcasses of slain horses at Giesboro send
+their effluvia straight into Washington on the wind, and the "Island,"
+or that part of the city between the river and the canal, is dangerous
+almost all the year.
+
+Moreover, the entire river front of the city seems to be untenable,
+except for negroes; the Washington monument stands on the yielding plain
+in the rear of the Chief Magistrate's, a stunted ruin, finding no
+foundation; and much of the great Capital reserve near by, would be a
+dead weight, if any effort were made to dispose it of, as building lots.
+The small portion of Washington lying upon Capitol Hill, is the most
+salubrious and covetable; but it is a lonesome journey by night around
+the Capitol grounds to the city. The finest residences lie north of the
+President's house, but the number of these grows apace, and the quantity
+of capital invested in private real estate, remains almost stationary.
+
+We recall but two or three citizens of Washington who have spent their
+money on the spot where they have made it. Corcoran was the most
+generous; he erected a museum of art, and Government has made it a
+Commissary depot! But how few of the illustrious Senators, Chief
+Justices, Generals, etc., who draw their sustenance from the Capital,
+care a penny to decorate it? Compare the home of Governor Sprague on 6th
+Street, to his splendid mansion at Providence, or the Club House of the
+Secretary of State, to his place at Auburn. Washington has power, but it
+cannot attract. It is the solitary monarch, at whose feet all kneel, but
+by none beloved. Strangers repair to it, grow rich, and quit it with
+their earnings. Government works nobly to imitate the Palaces of the
+Caesars, and the public edifices leave our municipal structures far
+beneath, but these marble and granite piles seem to mock the littleness
+of individual ambition. Two hotels have been built during the war, both
+of the caravansary class, but the city, for four years, has been
+miserably incompetent to entertain its guests, or to command their
+respect.
+
+Washington, to be a city, lacks three elements--commerce,
+representation, health; the environs are picturesque, and the new forts
+on the hill-tops little injure the landscape.
+
+But the question is not premature, whether Washington city will ever
+answer the purposes of a stable seat of government, and reflect the
+enterprise, patriotism, and taste of the American people.
+
+I have sometimes thought that these huge public buildings,--now
+inadequate to accommodate the machinery of the Government,--would, at
+some future day, be the nucleus of a great _lycee_, and that Washington
+would become the Padua of the Republic, its University and Louvre, while
+legislation and administration, despairing of giving dignity to the
+place, would depart for a more congenial locality.
+
+At any rate, the old Federal theory of a sylvan seat of government has
+failed.
+
+For a sequestered and virtuous retreat of legislation, we have
+corruption augmented by dirt, and business stagnation aggravated by
+disease. There are virtues in the town; but these must be searched for,
+and the vices are obvious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+FIVE FORKS.
+
+
+I commence my account on the battle-field, but must soon make the long
+and lonely ride to Humphrey's Station, where I shall continue it.
+
+I am sitting by Sheridan's camp-fire, on the spot he has just signalized
+by the most individual and complete victory of the war. All his veterans
+are around him, stooping by knots over the bright fagots, to talk
+together, or stretched upon the leaves of the forest, asleep, with the
+stains of powder yet upon their faces. There are dark masses of horses
+blackened into the gray background, and ambulances are creaking to and
+fro. I hear the sobs and howls of the weary, and note, afar off, among
+the pines, moving lights of burying parties, which are tumbling the
+slain into the trenches. A cowed and shivering silence has succeeded the
+late burst of drums, trumpets, and cannon; the dead are at rest; the
+captives are quiet; the good cause has won again, and I shall try to
+tell you how.
+
+Many months ago the Army of the Potomac stopped before Petersburg,
+driven out of its direct course to Richmond. It tried the Dutch Gap and
+the powder-ship, and shelled and shovelled till Sherman had cut five
+States in half, and only timid financiers, sutlers, and congressional
+excursionists paid the least attention to the armies on the James. We
+had fights without much purpose at our breastworks, and at Hatcher's
+Run, but the dashing achievements of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+overtopped all our dull infantry endeavors, and he shared with Sherman
+the entire applause of the country. No one knows but that behind these
+actors stood the invisible prompter, Grant; yet prompters, however
+assiduous, never divide applauses with the _dramatis personae_; and
+therefore, when Sheridan, the other day, by one of those slashing
+adventures which hold us breathless, appeared on the Pamunkey and
+crossed the peninsula to City Point, even the armies of the Potomac and
+James were agitated. The _personnel_ of the man, not less than his
+renown, affected people. A very Punch of soldiers, a sort of Rip Van
+Winkle in regimentals, it astonished folks, that with so jolly and
+grotesque a guise, he held within him energies like lightning, the bolts
+of which had splintered the fairest parts of the border. But nobody
+credited General Sheridan with higher genius than activity; we expected
+to hear of him scouring the Carolina boundary, with the usual
+destruction of railways and mills, and therefore said at once that
+Sheridan would cut the great Southside road. But in this last chapter
+Sheridan must take rank as one of the finest military men of our
+century. The battle of "Five Forks" was, perhaps, the most ingeniously
+conceived and skilfully executed that we have ever had on this
+continent. It matches in secretiveness and shrewdness the cleverest
+efforts of Napoleon, and shows also much of that soldier's broadness of
+intellect and capacity for great occasions.
+
+Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horses' shoes before he was
+off, and after him much of our infantry also moved to the left. We
+passed our ancient breastworks at Hatcher's Run, and extended our lines
+southwestward till they touched Dinwiddie Court House, thirty miles from
+City Point. The Rebels fell back with but little skirmishing, until we
+faced northward and reached out toward their idolized Southside Railway;
+then they grew uneasy, and, as a hint of their opposition, fought us the
+sharp battle of Quaker Road on Thursday. Still, we reached farther and
+farther, marvelling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee always
+overmatched us at every point of attack; but on Friday we quitted our
+intrenchments on the Boydtown plank-road, and made a bold push for the
+White Oak road. This is one of the series of parallel public ways
+running east and west, south of the Southside, the Vaughan road being
+the first, the Boydtown plank-road the second, and the old Court-House
+road the third. It became evident to the Rebels that we had two direct
+objects in view: the severing of their railway, and the occupation of
+the "Five Forks." The latter is a magnificent strategic point. Five good
+roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered forest, three of
+them radiating to the railway, and their tributaries unlocking all the
+country. Farther south, their defences had been paltry, but they
+fortified this empty solitude as if it had been their capital. Upon its
+principal road, the "White Oak," aforenamed, they had a ditched
+breastwork with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching east and west
+three miles, and this was covered eastward and southeastward by
+rifle-pits, masked works, and felled timber; the bridges approaching it
+were broken; all the roads picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold to
+it averred. This point of "Five Forks" may be as much as eight miles
+from Dinwiddie Court House, four from the Southside road, and eighteen
+from Humphrey's, the nearest of our military railway stations. A crooked
+stream called Gravelly Run, which, with Hatcher's, forms Rowanty Creek,
+and goes off to feed the Chowan in North Carolina, rises near "Five
+Forks," and gives the name of Gravelly Run Church to a little Methodist
+meeting-house, built in the forest a mile distant. That meeting-house is
+a hospital to-night, running blood, and at "Five Forks" a victor's
+battle-flags are flying.
+
+The Fifth Army Corps of General Warren, has had all of the flank
+fighting of the week to do. It lost five or six hundred men in its
+victory of Thursday, and on Friday rested along the Boydtown plank-road,
+at the house of one Butler, chiefly, which is about seven miles from
+Five Forks. On Friday morning, General Ayres took the advance with one
+of its three divisions, and marched three-quarters of a mile beyond the
+plank-road, through a woody country, following the road, but crossing
+the ubiquitous Gravelly Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a
+mile and a half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a wood,
+with a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery of field-pieces
+to the right, mounted in a bastioned earthwork, and on the left the
+woods drew near, encircling a little farm-land and negro-buildings.
+General Ayres's skirmish-line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell
+back upon his main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway the
+enemy charged headlong, while their battery opened a cross fire, and
+their skirmishers on our left, creeping down through the woods, picked
+us off in flank. They charged with a whole division, making their
+memorable yell, and soon doubled up Ayres's line of battle, so that it
+was forced in tolerable disorder back upon General Crawford, who
+commanded the next division. Crawford's men do not seem to have
+retrieved the character of their predecessors, but made a feint to go
+in, and, falling by dozens beneath the murderous fire, gave up the
+ground. Griffin's division, past which the fugitives ran, halted awhile
+before taking the doubtful way; the whole corps was now back to the
+Boydtown plank-road, and nothing had been done to anybody's credit
+particularly.
+
+General Griffin rode up to General Chamberlain in this extremity.
+Chamberlain is a young and anxious officer, who resigned the
+professorship of modern languages in Bowdoin College to embrace a
+soldier's career. He had been wounded the day before, but was zealous to
+try death again.
+
+"Chamberlain," said Griffin, "can't you save the honor of the Fifth
+corps?"
+
+The young General formed his men at once,--they had tasted powder
+before,--the One Hundred and eighty-fifth New York and the One Hundred
+and ninety-eighth Pennsylvania. Down they went into the creek waist
+deep, up the slope and into the clearing, muskets to the left of them,
+muskets in front of them, cannon to the right of them; but their pace
+was swift, like their resolve; many of them were cut down, yet they kept
+ahead, and the Rebels, who seemed astonished at their own previous
+success, drew off and gave up the field. Almost two hours had elapsed
+between the loss and the recovery of the ground. The battle might be
+called Dabney's Farm, or more generally the fight of Gravelly Run. The
+brigades of Generals Bartlett and Gregory rendered material assistance
+in the pleasanter finale of the day. An order was soon after issued to
+hasten the burial of the dead and quit the spot, but Chamberlain
+petitioned for leave to charge the Rebel earthwork in the rear, and the
+enthusiasm of his brigade bore down General Warren's more prudent doubt.
+In brief, Griffin's division charged the fort, drove the Rebels out of
+it, and took position on the White Oak road, far east of Five Forks.
+While Griffin's division must be credited with this result, it may be
+said that their luck was due as much to the time as the manner of their
+appearance; the Rebel divisions of Pickett and Bushrod Johnston were, in
+the main, by the time Griffin came up, on their way westward to attack
+Sheridan's cavalry. Ayres and Crawford had charged as one to four, but
+the forces were quite equalized when Chamberlain pushed on. The corps
+probably lost twelve hundred men. In this action, the Rebels, for the
+first time for many weeks, exhibited all their traditional
+irresistibility and confidence. The merit of the affair, I am inclined
+to think, should be awarded to them; but a terrible retribution remained
+for them in the succeeding day's decrees.
+
+The ill success of the earlier efforts of Sheridan, show conclusively
+the insufficiency of ever so good cavalry to resist well organized and
+resolute infantry. Concentrating at Dinwiddie Court House, he proceeded
+to scour so much of the country that he almost baffled conjecture as to
+where his quarters really were. As many thousand cavalry as constitute
+his powerful force seem magnified, thus mounted and ever moving here and
+there, to an incredible number. The Court House, where he remained
+fittingly for a couple of days, is a cross-road's patch, numbering about
+twelve scattered buildings, with a delightful prospect on every side of
+sterile and monotonous pines. This is, I believe, the largest village in
+the district, though Dinwiddie stands fourth in population among
+Virginia counties. At present there is almost as great a population
+underground as the ancient county carried on its census. Indeed, one is
+perplexed at every point to know whence the South draws its prodigious
+armies. Some English officers have been visiting Dinwiddie during the
+week, and one of them said, curtly: "Blast the country! it isn't worth
+such a row, you know. A very good place to be exiled, to be sure, but
+what can you ever make of it!"
+
+This soulless Briton had never read any of the poems about the
+"boundless continent," and had no distinct conception of "size."
+
+From Dinwiddie fields, Sheridan's men went galloping, by the aid of maps
+and cross-examination, into every by-road; but it was soon apparent that
+the Rebel infantry meant to give them a push. This came about on Friday,
+with a foretaste on Thursday.
+
+Little Five Forks, is a cross-road not far from Dinwiddie Court House,
+in the direction of Petersburg. Big Five Forks, which, it must be borne
+in mind, gives name to the great battle of Saturday, is farther out by
+many miles, and does not lie within our lines. But, if the left of the
+army be at Dinwiddie, and the right at Petersburg, Little Five Forks
+will be first on the front line, though when Sheridan fought there, it
+was neutral ground, picketed but not possessed. Very early in the week,
+when the Rebels became aware of the extension of our lines, they added
+to the regular force which encamped upon our flank line at least a
+division of troops. These were directed to avoid an infantry fight, but
+to seek out the cavalry, and, by getting it at disadvantage, rid the
+region both of the harmfulness of Sheridan, and that prestige of his
+name, so terrifying to the Virginia house-wife. So long as Sheridan
+remained upon the far left, the Southside road was unsafe, and the
+rapidity with which his command could be transferred from point to point
+rendered it a formidable balance of power. The Rebels knew the country
+well, and the peculiar course of the highways gave them every advantage.
+The cavalry of Sheridan's army proper, is divided into two corps,
+commanded by Generals Devin and Custer; the cavalry of the Potomac is
+commanded by General Crook; Mackenzie has control of the cavalry of the
+James. On Friday, these were under separate orders, and the result was
+confusion. The infantry was beaten at Gravelly Run, and the cavalry met
+in flank and front by overwhelming numbers, executed some movements not
+laid down in the manual. The centre of the battle was Little Five Forks,
+though the Rebels struck us closer to Dinwiddie Court House, and drove
+us pell mell up the road into the woods, and out the old Court House
+road to Gravelly Run. We rallied several times, and charged them into
+the woods, but they lay concealed in copses, and could go where sabres
+were useless. The plan of this battle-field will show a series of
+irregular advances to puzzle anybody but a cavalry-man. The full
+division of Bushrod Johnston and General Pickett, were developed against
+us, with spare brigades from other corps. Our cavalry loss during the
+day was eight hundred in killed and wounded; but we pushed the Rebels so
+hard that they gave us the field, falling back toward Big Five Forks,
+and we intrenched immediately. Two thousand men comprise our losses of
+Friday in Warren's corps and Sheridan's command, including many valuable
+officers. We shall see how, under a single guidance, splendid results
+were next day obtained with half the sacrifice.
+
+On Friday night General Grant, dissatisfied, like most observers, with
+the day's business, placed General Sheridan in the supreme command of
+the whole of Warren's corps and all the cavalry. General Warren reported
+to him at nightfall, and the little army was thus composed:--
+
+_General Sheridan's Forces, Saturday April 1, 1865._
+
+Three divisions of infantry, under Generals Griffin, Ayres, and
+Crawford.
+
+Two divisions of cavalry, formerly constituting the Army of the
+Shenandoah, now commanded by General Merritt, under Generals Devin and
+Custer.
+
+One division cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, under General Crook.
+
+Brigade or more cavalry Army of the James, under General Mackenzie.
+
+In this composition the infantry was to the cavalry in the proportion of
+about two to one, and the entire force a considerable army, far up in
+the teens. Sheridan was absolute, and his oddly-shaped body began to bob
+up and down straightway; he visited every part of his line, though it
+stretched from Dinwiddie Court House to the Quaker road, along the
+Boydtown Plank and its adjuncts. At daybreak on Saturday he fired four
+signal-guns, to admonish Warren he was off; and his cavalry, by
+diverging roads, struck their camps. Just south of Culpepper is a
+certain Stony creek, the tributaries to which wind northward and control
+the roads. Over Stony creek went Crook, making the longest detour.
+Custer took a bottom called Chamberlain's bed; and Devin advanced from
+Little Five Forks, the whole driving the Rebels toward the left of their
+works on White Oak road.
+
+We must start with the supposition that our own men far outnumbered the
+Rebels. The latter were widely separated from their comrades before
+Petersburg, and the adjustment of our infantry as well as the great
+movable force at Sheridan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they
+could have returned. At any rate they did not do so, whether from choice
+or necessity, and it was a part of our scheme to push them back into
+their entrenchments. This work was delegated to the cavalry entirely,
+but, as I have said before, mounted carbineers, are no match for
+stubborn, bayoneted infantry. So when the horsemen were close up to the
+Rebels, they were dismounted, and acted as infantry to all intents. A
+portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie, still adhered to the saddle,
+that they might be put in rapid motion for flanking and charging
+purposes; but fully five thousand indurated men, who had seen service in
+the Shenandoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of battle on foot, and
+by charge and deploy essayed the difficult work of pressing back the
+entire Rebel column. This they were to do so evenly and ingeniously,
+that the Rebels should go no farther than their works, either to escape
+eastward or to discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were
+already forming. Had they espied the latter they might have become so
+discouraged as to break and take to the woods; and Sheridan's object was
+to capture them as well as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the
+cavalry pushed them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and
+terrifically. I have no space in this hurried despatch to advert either
+to individual losses or to the many thrilling episodes of the fight. It
+was fought at so close quarters that our carbines were never out of
+range; for had this been otherwise, the long rifles of the enemy would
+have given them every advantage. With their horses within call, the
+cavalry-men, in line of battle, stood together like walls of stone,
+swelling onward like those gradually elevating ridges of which Lyell
+speaks. Now and then a detachment of Rebels would charge down upon us,
+swaying the lines and threatening to annihilate us; for at no part of
+the action, till its crisis, did the Southern men exhibit either doubt
+or dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant treason the
+world has ever had, and here and there showing some of those wonderful
+feats of individual courage which are the miracles of the time.
+
+A colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a charge. The
+bayonets were fixed; the men came on with a yell; their gray uniforms
+seemed black amidst the smoke; their preserved colors, torn by grape and
+ball, waved yet defiantly; twice they halted, and poured in volleys, but
+came on again like the surge from the fog, depleted, but determined;
+yet, in the hot faces of the carbineers, they read a purpose as
+resolute, but more calm, and, while they pressed along, swept all the
+while by scathing volleys, a group of horsemen took them in flank. It
+was an awful instant; the horses recoiled; the charging column trembled
+like a single thing, but at once the Rebels, with rare organization,
+fell into a hollow square, and with solid sheets of steel defied our
+centaurs. The horsemen rode around them in vain; no charge could break
+the shining squares, until our dismounted carbineers poured in their
+volleys afresh, making gaps in the spent ranks, and then in their
+wavering time the cavalry thundered down. The Rebels could stand no
+more; they reeled and swayed, and fell back broken and beaten. And on
+the ground their colonel lay, sealing his devotion with his life.
+
+Through wood and brake and swamp, across field and trench, we pushed the
+fighting defenders steadily. For a part of the time, Sheridan himself
+was there, short and broad, and active, waving his hat, giving orders,
+seldom out of fire, but never stationary, and close by fell the long
+yellow locks of Custer, sabre extended, fighting like a Viking, though
+he was worn and haggard with much work. At four o'clock the Rebels were
+behind their wooden walls at Five Forks, and still the cavalry pressed
+them hard, in feint rather than solemn effort, while a battalion
+dismounted, charged squarely upon the face of their breastworks which
+lay in the main on the north side of the White Oak road. Then, while the
+cavalry worked round toward the rear, the infantry of Warren, though
+commanded by Sheridan, prepared to take part in the battle.
+
+The genius of Sheridan's movement lay in his disposition of the
+infantry. The skill with which he arranged it, and the difficult
+manoeuvres he projected and so well executed, should place him as high
+in infantry tactics as he has heretofore shown himself superior in
+cavalry. The infantry which had marched at 21/2 P. M. from the house of
+Boisseau, on the Boydtown plank-road, was drawn up in four battle lines,
+a mile or more in length, and in the beginning facing the White Oak road
+obliquely; the left or pivot was the division of General Ayres, Crawford
+had the center and Griffin the right. These advanced from the Boydtown
+plank-road, at ten o'clock, while Sheridan was thundering away with the
+cavalry, mounted and dismounted, and deluding the Rebels with the idea
+that he was the sole attacking party; they lay concealed in the woods
+behind the Gravelly Run meeting-house, but their left was not a
+half-mile distant from the Rebel works, though their right reached so
+far off that a novice would have criticized the position sharply. Little
+by little, Sheridan, extending his lines, drove the whole Rebel force
+into their breastworks; then he dismounted the mass of his cavalry and
+charged the works straight in the front, still thundering on their
+flank. At last, every Rebel was safe behind his intrenchments. Then the
+signal was given, and the concealed infantry, many thousand strong,
+sprang up and advanced by echelon to the right. Imagine a great barndoor
+shutting to, and you have the movement, if you can also imagine the door
+itself, hinge and all, moving forward also. This was the door:--
+
+     AYRES--CRAWFORD--GRIFFIN.
+
+Stick a pin through Ayres and turn Griffin and Crawford forward as you
+would a spoke in a wheel, but move your pin up also a very little. In
+this way Ayres will advance, say half a mile, and Griffin, to describe a
+quarter revolution, will move through a radius of four miles. But to
+complicate this movement by echelon, we must imagine the right when half
+way advanced cutting across the centre and reforming, while Crawford
+became the right and Griffin the middle of the line of battle. Warren
+was with Crawford on this march. Gregory commanded the skirmishers.
+Ayres was so close to the Rebel left that he might be said to hinge upon
+it; and at 6 o'clock the whole corps column came crash upon the full
+flank of the astonished Rebels. Now came the pitch of the battle.
+
+We were already on the Rebel right in force, and thinly in their rear.
+Our carbineers were making feint to charge in direct front, and our
+infantry, four deep, hemmed in their entire left. All this they did not
+for an instant note, so thorough was their confusion; but seeing it
+directly, they, so far from giving up, concentrated all their energy and
+fought like fiends. They had a battery in position, which belched
+incessantly, and over the breastworks their musketry made one unbroken
+roll, while against Sheridan's prowlers on their left, by skirmish and
+sortie, they stuck to their sinking fortunes, so as to win unwilling
+applause from mouths of wisest censure.
+
+It was just at the coming up of the infantry that Sheridan's little band
+was pushed the hardest. At one time, indeed, they seemed about to
+undergo extermination; not that they wavered, but that they were so
+vastly overpowered. It will remain to the latest time a matter of marvel
+that so paltry a cavalry force could press back sixteen thousand
+infantry; but when the infantry blew like a great barndoor--the simile
+best applicable--upon the enemy's left, the victory that was to come had
+passed the region of strategy and resolved to an affair of personal
+courage. We had met the enemy; were they to be ours? To expedite this
+consummation every officer fought as if he were the forlorn hope.
+Mounted on his black pony, the same which he rode at Winchester,
+Sheridan galloped everywhere, his flushed face all the redder, and his
+plethoric, but nervous figure all the more ubiquitous. He galloped once
+straight down the Rebel front, with but a handful of his staff. A dozen
+bullets whistled for him together; one grazed his arm, at which a
+faithful orderly rode; the black pony leaped high, in fright, and
+Sheridan was untouched, but the orderly lay dead in the field, and the
+saddle dashed afar empty. General Warren rode with Crawford most of the
+afternoon, mounted likewise, and making two or three narrow escapes. He
+was dark, dashing, and individual as ever, but for some reason or other
+was relieved of his command after the battle, and Griffin was instated
+in his place. General Sheridan ordered Warren to report to General
+Grant's head-quarters, sending the order by an aid. Warren, on his own
+hook, did not meet on Friday with his general success, and on Saturday
+Sheridan was the master-spirit; but Warren is a General as well as a
+gentleman, and is only overshadowed by a greater genius,--not
+obliterated. Ayres, accounted the best soldier in the Fifth corps, but
+too quietly modest for his own favor, fought like a lion in this pitch
+of battle, making all the faint-hearted around him ashamed to do ill
+with such an example contiguous. General Bartlett, keen-faced and active
+like a fiery scimitar, was leading his division as if he were an
+immortal! He was closest at hand in the most gallant episodes, and held
+at nightfall a bundle of captured battle-flags. But Griffin, tall and
+slight, was the master-genius of the Fifth corps, to which by right he
+has temporarily succeeded. He led the charge on the flank, and was the
+first to mount the parapet with his horse, riding over the gunners as
+May did at Cerro Gordo, and cutting them down. Bartlett's brigade,
+behind him, finished the business, and the last cannon was fired for the
+day against the conquering Federals. General Crawford fulfilled his
+full share of duties throughout the day, amply sustained by such
+splendid brigade commanders as Baxter, Coulter, and Kellogg, while Gwin
+and Boweryman were at hand in the division of General Ayres; not to omit
+the fallen Winthrop, who died to save a friend and win a new laurel.
+What shall I say for Chamberlain, who, beyond all question, is the first
+of our brigade commanders, having been the hero of both Quaker Road and
+Gravelly Run, and in this action of Five Forks making the air ring with
+the applauding huzzas of his soldiers, who love him? His is one of the
+names that will survive the common wreck of shoulder-straps after the
+war.
+
+But I am individualizing; the fight, as we closed upon the Rebels, was
+singularly free from great losses on our side, though desperate as any
+contest ever fought on the continent. One prolonged roar of rifle shook
+the afternoon; we carried no artillery, and the Rebel battery, until its
+capture, raked us like an irrepressible demon, and at every foot of the
+intrenchments a true man fought both in front and behind. The birds of
+the forest fled afar; the smoke ascended to heaven; locked in so mad
+frenzy, none saw the sequel of the closing day. Now Richmond rocked in
+her high towers to watch the impending issue, but soon the day began to
+look gray, and a pale moon came tremulously out to watch the meeting
+squadrons. Imagine along a line of a full mile, thirty thousand men
+struggling for life and prestige; the woods gathering about them--but
+yesterday the home of hermit hawks and chipmonks--now ablaze with
+bursting shells, and showing in the dusk the curl of flames in the
+tangled grass, and, rising up the boles of the pine trees, the scaling,
+scorching tongues. Seven hours this terrible spectacle had been enacted,
+but the finale of it had almost come.
+
+It was by all accounts in this hour of victory when the modest and brave
+General Winthrop of the first brigade, Ayres division, was mortally
+wounded. He was riding along the breastworks, and in the act as I am
+assured, of saving a friend's life, was shot through to the left lung.
+He fell at once, and his men, who loved him, gathered around and took
+him tenderly to the rear, where he died before the stretcher on which he
+lay could be deposited beside the meeting-house door. On the way from
+the field to the hospital he wandered in mind at times, crying out,
+"Captain Weaver how is that line? Has the attack succeeded?" etc. When
+he had been resuscitated for a pause he said: "Doctor, I am done for."
+His last words were: "Straighten the line!" And he died peacefully. He
+was a cousin of Major Winthrop, the author of "Cecil Dreeme." He was
+twenty-seven years of age. I had talked with him before going into
+action, as he sat at the side of General Ayres, and was permitted by the
+guard of honor to uncover his face and look upon it. He was pale and
+beautiful, marble rather than corpse, and the uniform cut away from his
+bosom showed how white and fresh was the body, so pulseless now.
+
+General Griffin said to me: "This victory is not worth Winthrop's life."
+
+Winthrop went into the service as a simple color-bearer. He died a
+brevet brigadier.
+
+At seven o'clock the Rebels came to the conclusion that they were
+outflanked and whipped. They had been so busily engaged that they were a
+long time finding out how desperate were their circumstances; but now,
+wearied with persistent assaults in front, they fell back to the left,
+only to see four close lines of battle waiting to drive them across the
+field, decimated. At the right the horsemen charged them in their vain
+attempt to fight "out," and in the rear straggling foot and cavalry
+began also to assemble; slant fire, cross fire, and direct fire, by file
+and volley rolled in perpetually, cutting down their bravest officers
+and strewing the fields with bleeding men; groans resounded in the
+intervals of exploding powder, and to add to their terror and despair,
+their own artillery, captured from them, threw into their own ranks,
+from its old position, ungrateful grape and canister, enfilading their
+breastworks, whizzing and plunging by air line and ricochet, and at last
+bodies of cavalry fairly mounted their intrenchments, and charged down
+the parapet, slashing and trampling them, and producing inexplicable
+confusion. They had no commanders, at least no orders, and looked in
+vain for some guiding hand to lead them out of a toil into which they
+had fallen so bravely and so blindly. A few more volleys, a new and
+irresistible charge, a shrill and warning command to die or surrender,
+and, with a sullen and tearful impulse, five thousand muskets are flung
+upon the ground, and five thousand hot, exhausted, and impotent men are
+Sheridan's prisoners of war.
+
+Acting with his usual decision, Sheridan placed his captives in care of
+a provost-guard, and sent them at once to the rear. Those which escaped,
+he ordered the fiery Custer to pursue with brand and vengeance; and they
+were pressed far into the desolate forest, spent and hungry, many
+falling by the way of wounds or exhaustion, many pressed down by hoof or
+sabre-stroke, and many picked up in mercy and sent back to rejoin their
+brethren in bonds. We captured in all fully six thousand prisoners.
+General Sheridan estimated them modestly at five thousand, but the
+provost-marshal assured me that he had a line four abreast a full mile
+long. I entirely bear him out, having ridden for forty minutes in a
+direction opposite to that they were taking, and growing weary at last
+of counting or of seeing them. They were fine, hearty fellows, almost
+all Virginians, and seemed to take their capture not unkindly. They wore
+the gray and not very attractive uniform of the Confederacy, but looked
+to be warm and fat, and passing along in the night, under the fir-trees,
+conveyed at most a romantic idea of grief and tribulation. They were put
+in a huge pen, midway between Big and Little Five Forks, for the night,
+the officers sharing the same fare with the soldiers, from whom,
+indeed, they were undistinguishable.
+
+Thus ended the splendid victory of Five Forks, the least bloody to us,
+but the most successful, proportionate to numbers engaged, that has been
+fought during the war. One man out of every three engaged took a
+prisoner. We captured four cannon, an ambulance train and baggage-teams,
+eight thousand muskets, and twenty-eight battle-flags. General
+Longstreet, it is thought, commanded. Neither he nor Pickett nor Bushrod
+Johnston, division commanders, were taken; they were wise enough to see
+that the day was lost, and imitated Bonaparte after Waterloo.
+
+I attribute this victory almost entirely to Sheridan; it was won by
+strategy and persistence, and in great part by men who would not stand
+fire the day before. The happy distribution of duties between cavalry
+and infantry excited a fine rivalry, and the consciousness of Sheridan's
+guidance inspired confidence. Has any battle so successful ever been
+fought in Virginia? or, indeed, in the East? I think not. It has opened
+to us the enemy's flank, so that we can sweep down upon the Appomattox
+and inside of his breastworks, enabling us to shorten our lines of
+intrenchments one half, if no more, and putting out of Lee's service
+fifteen thousand of his choicest troops. And all this, General Sheridan
+tells me, has cost him personally no more than eight hundred men, and
+the service no more than fifteen hundred. Compare this with
+Chancellorsville, Williamsburg, the Wilderness, Bull Run, and what shall
+we say? The enemy must have lost in this fight three thousand in killed
+and wounded.
+
+The scene at Gravelly Run meeting-house at 8 and at 10 o'clock on
+Saturday night, is one of the solemn contrasts of the war, and, I hope,
+the last of them. A little frame church, planted among the pines, and
+painted white, with cool, green window-shutters, holds at its foot a
+gallery for the negroes, and at the head a varnished pulpit. I found
+its pews moved to the green plain over the threshold, and on its bare
+floors the screaming wounded. Blood ran in little rills across the
+planks, and, human feet treading in them, had made indelible prints in
+every direction; the pulpit-lamps were doing duty, not to shed holy
+light upon holy pages, but to show the pale and dusty faces of the
+beseeching; and as they moved in and out, the groans and curses of the
+suffering replace the gush of peaceful hymns and the deep responses to
+the preacher's prayers. Federal and Confederate lay together, the
+bitterness of noon assuaged in the common tribulation of the night, and
+all the while came in the dripping stretchers, to place in this golgotha
+new recruits for death and sorrow. I asked the name of the church, but
+no one knew any more than if it had been the site of some obsolete
+heathen worship. At last, a grinning sergeant smacked his thumbs as if
+the first idea of his life had occurred to him, and led me to the
+pulpit. Beneath some torn blankets and rent officers' garments, rested
+the hymn book and Bible, which he produced. Last Sunday these doled out
+the praises of God, and the frightened congregation worshipped at their
+dictation. Now they only served by their fly leaves to give me my
+whereabouts, and said:--
+
+_Presented to Gravelly Run Meeting House by the Ladies._
+
+Over the portal, the scenes within were reiterated, except that the
+greatness of a starry night replaced the close and terrible arena of the
+church. Beneath the trees, where the Methodist circuit-rider had tied
+his horse, and the urchins, daring class-meeting, had wandered away to
+cast stones at the squirrels, and measure strength at vaulting and
+running, the gashed and fevered lay irregularly, some soul going out at
+each whiff of the breeze in the fir-tops; and the teams and surgeons,
+and straggling soldiers, and galloping orderlies passed all the night
+beneath the old and gibbous moon and the hushed stars, and by the
+trickle of Gravelly Run stealing off, afeared. But the wounded had no
+thought that night; the victory absorbed all hearts; we had no losses to
+notice where so much was won.
+
+A mile past the church, going away from head-quarters all the time, lies
+Five Forks, the object and name of the battle. A large open field of
+perhaps thirty acres, interposes between the church and the commencement
+of the Rebel works. Their left is only some rails and logs to mask
+marksmen, but the work proper is a very long stretch of all obstructions
+of a man's height in relief.
+
+The White Oak road runs directly in front of these intrenchments, and
+was, at the time I passed, the general highway for infantry returning
+from the field and cavalry-men concentrating at General Sheridan's
+bivouac. Riding a mile I came upon the Five Forks proper, and just to
+the left, at the foot of some pines, the victor and his assistants were
+congregated. Sheridan sat by some fagots, examining a topographical map
+of the country he had so well traversed; possibly with a view to design
+further aggressive movements in the morning. He is opposite me now as I
+pen these paragraphs by the imperfect blaze of his bivouac fire. He is
+good humored and talkative, like all men conscious of having achieved a
+great work, and has been good enough to sketch for me the plan of the
+day's operations, from which I have compiled much of the statement
+above. Close by lies Custer, trying to sleep, his long yellow hair
+covering his face; and General Griffin, now commanding the Fifth corps,
+goes here and there issuing orders, while aides and orderlies rode in
+and out, bearing further fresh messages of deeds consummated or
+proposed. We shall have a hot night no doubt, for away off to the right,
+continue volleys of musketry and discharges of artillery, intermixed
+with what seem to be thunderbolts of our men-of-war at anchor in the
+Appomatox and James,--if such can be heard at this great
+distance,--which tell us that the lines are in motion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+RICHMOND DESOLATE.
+
+
+The scenes of entering the doomed stronghold, when Grant had burst its
+gates, ought to be made vivid as the spectacle of death. With my good
+and talented associate, Mr. Jerome B. Stillson, I hold the Spotswood
+Hotel, and from this caravansary of the late capital as thoroughly
+identified with Rebellion as the inn at Bethlehem with the gospel, we
+date our joint paragraphs upon the condition of the city. A week cannot
+have exhausted the curiosity of the North to learn the exact appearance
+of a city which has stood longer, more frequent, and more persistent
+sieges, than any in Christendom. This town is the Rebellion; it is all
+that we have directly striven for; quitting it, the Confederate leaders
+have quitted their sheet-anchor, their roof-tree, their abiding hope.
+Its history is the epitome of the whole contest, and to us, shivering
+our thunderbolts against it for more than four years, Richmond is still
+a mystery.
+
+Know then, that, whether coming from Washington or Baltimore, the two
+points of embarkation, all bound hitherward must rendezvous at Fortress
+Monroe; thence, in such excellent steamers as the _Dictator_, start up
+the broad James River. To own a country-house upon the "Jeems" river is
+the Virginia gentleman's ultimate aspiration. There, with a
+tobacco-farm, and wide wheatlands, his feet on his front-porch rails, a
+Havana cigar between his teeth, and a colored person to bring him
+frequent juleps, the Virginia gentleman, confident in the divinity of
+slavery, hopes in his natural, refined idleness, to watch the little
+family graveyard close up to his threshold, till it shall kindly open
+and give him sepulture.
+
+Elsewhere men aim to be successful, or enterprising, or eloquent, or
+scholarly, but that nobleness of hospitality, high spirit, dignity, and
+affability which constitute our idea of chivalry is everywhere save here
+an exotic. We say that chivalry is "played out," and that the prestige
+of "first families" is gone with the hurried retreat before Grant's
+salamanders. Not so. Secession as a cause is past the range of
+possibilities. But no people in their subjugation wear a better front
+than these brave old spirits, whose lives are not their own. Fire has
+ravaged their beautiful city, soldiers of the color of their servants,
+guard the crossings and pace the pavement with bayoneted muskets. But
+gentlemen they are still, in every pace, and inch, and syllable,--such
+men as we were wont to call brothers and countrymen. However, the James
+River, at which we commenced, has not a town upon it between the sea and
+the head of navigation. It is a strong commentary upon this patriarchal
+civilization, judged by our gregarious tastes, that one of the noblest
+streams in the world should show to the traveller only here and there a
+pleasant mansion, flanked by negro cabins, but nowhere a church-spire
+nor a steam-mill. All that we see from Fortress Monroe to City Point are
+ridges of breastworks, rifle-pits, and forts, lying bare, yellow, and
+deserted, to defend its passage, excepting at James Island, where the
+solitary and broken tower of the ancient colony holds guard over some
+bramble and ruin. Here Smith founded the celebrated settlement, which
+wooed to its threshold the gentle Pocahontas, and fell to fragments at
+the behest of the fiery Bacon. The ramparts on the James will remain
+forever; great as they are, they would hardly hold the bones of the
+slain in the capture and defence. Four hours from Fortress Monroe we
+pass Harrison's Landing, where two grand armies, _beaten_ aside from
+Richmond, sought the shelter of the river, and at City Point quit our
+large craft, to be transferred to a light draught vessel, which is to
+carry the first mail going to Richmond under the national flag since the
+beginning of the war.
+
+City Point is still a populous place, and the millions of mules upon it
+bray hoarsely; but we leave all these behind, as well as the national
+standard, which flaunts over General Grant's late head-quarters, and
+steam past the mouth of the Appomattox to go through the enemy's lines.
+
+Henceforward every foot of the way is freshly interesting. The Rebel ram
+_Atlanta_ in tow of a couple of tugs, goes past us with a torpedo boat
+at the rear. She is raking, slant, and formidable; but "old glory" is
+waving on her. Directly our own leviathan, the _Roanoke_ drifts up, and
+all her storm-throated tars cheer like the belch of her guns. We see to
+the right, the tip of Malvern Hill, ever sorrowful and sacred, and soon
+a great unfinished ram careens by, which never grew to battle-size; the
+true colors shine above her bulwarks like a flower growing in a carcass.
+Then at little intervals there are frequent prizes from the docks of
+Richmond, tugs, transports, barges, some of which show under our
+beautiful banner the Rebel cross, pale and contemptible. These
+malcontents committed as great crime against good taste in substituting
+for our starry emblem this artistic abomination, as against law and
+policy in changing the configuration of the Union. There is another
+flag, however, which we see, half exultantly, half vindictively,--the
+cross of St. George,--flying from a British cutter.
+
+By and by we come to our intrenchments upon the upper James and at
+Bermuda Hundred. Now they are very listless and half empty. The boys
+have gone off to tread on Lee's shanks. Only a few vessels stand at the
+landings, and the few remnants have laid down the rifle, and taken up
+the fishing-pole. One should come up this river to get a conception of
+our splendid navy. Sharp-pointed gunboats, with bullet-proof crows'
+nests and swivels that are the gentlest murderers ever polished;
+monitors through whose eyeholes a ball a big as a cook-stove squints
+from a columbiad socket; ferry-boats which are speckled with brass
+cannon, and all sorts of craft that can float and manoeuvre, provided
+they look at us through deadly muzzles are there to the number of fifty
+or sixty, as many as make the entire navies of all other American
+nations. After the war we must have a great naval review, and invite all
+the crowned heads to attend it. Soon we reach Dutch Gap, where lies
+Butler's canal, or "Butler's gut," as the sailors call it. The river at
+this point is so crooked that Butler must have laid it out by the aid of
+his wrong eye. The canal is meant to cut on a long elbow; but being
+almost at right angles to the course of the river, only the most
+obliging tide would run through it. As a consequence, it is a sort of a
+sluice merely, of insufficient width, and as a "sight" very
+disappointing to great expectations. Between the points of debouch of
+this canal crosses a drawbridge of pontoons, for the use of our troops,
+and just beyond it Aiken's Landing, where the flag of truce boat
+stopped. A fine brick mansion stands in shore, with a wharf abreast it.
+The banks around it are trodden here with many feet. These are the
+traces of the poor prisoners who reached here, fevered, and starving and
+naked, to catch for the first time the sight of cool waters and friends,
+and the bright flag which they had followed to the edge of the grave.
+How they threw up their hats, and cheered to the feeblest, and wept, and
+danced, and laughed. Long be the place remembered, as holy, neutral
+ground, where death never trod, and multitudes passed from suffering, to
+freedom and home. Beyond this point, the most formidable Rebel works we
+have seen, line the high bluffs and ridges. They are monuments of
+patient labor, and make of themselves hills as great as nature's. But
+the siege pieces, which often bellowed upon them like thunderbolts
+along the mountain-tops, are gone now, and only straggling, meddling
+fellows pass them at all. The highest of these works commands both ends
+of the Dutch Gap canal, and while our lads were digging they often hid
+themselves in caves which they dug in the cliff-sides.
+
+We reach the first torpedo at length; a little red flag marks it, by
+which the boat slips tremulously, though another and another are before,
+at the sight of which our nervous folks are agitated. Here is a monitor
+with a drag behind it, which has just fished up one; and the sequel is
+told by a bloody and motionless figure upon the deck. These torpedoes
+are the true dragon teeth of Cadmus, which spring up armed men.
+
+Happily for us, the Rebels have sown but few of them, and the position
+of these was pointed out by one of their captains who deserted to our
+side. In the midst of these lie the obstructions. Great hulks of vessels
+and chained spars, and tree-tops which reach quite across the river,
+except where our pioneers have hewn a little gap to let the steamer
+through. Upon these obstructions a hundred cannon bear from the cliffs
+before us, and as we go further we see the whole river-bed sprinkled
+with strange contrivances to keep back our thunder-bearers. We think it
+absolutely impossible, under any circumstances, that our fleet could
+have got to Richmond so long as the Rebels contested the passage; each
+step forward finds new and greater obstacles. The channel is as narrow
+as Harlem River and as crooked as a walk in the ramble of Central Park.
+Each elbow of the stream is muscular with snag and snare wherever the
+swift stream swoops around abruptly. Jagged abatis, driven piles, and
+artificial lumber, bar the way before us. To the right of us, to the
+left of us, behind us, stand up the bare parapets, crowned with airy
+lookout towers, where, at the coming of a nautilus, the whole horizon
+and foreground would rain crossfires of shell and iron bolts, to sweep
+into annihilation the tiniest or the staunchest opposition from the
+earth's surface, and under the earth and above the earth death waited to
+leap up and draw the daring to its bosom. Not one, nor two, nor three
+lines of defences frowned down as we cautiously steamed along, but every
+precipice was bristling with defiance, as if the deep subterranean fires
+underlying our race had burst here fitfully and frequently, heaving up
+the swells of the hills till they lay hard and barren for human
+ingenuity to garnish them with anxious artillery. All along were the
+deep funnel-shaped cases of the torpedoes just disentombed. But at
+nightfall Drury's Bluff flitted by like the battlemented wall of a city,
+and then we saw no more.
+
+The band that greeted us from a distance stops playing as the boat nears
+the wharf.
+
+There is a stillness, in the midst of which Richmond, with her ruins,
+her spectral roof, afar, and her unchanging spires, rests beneath a
+ghastly, fitful glare,--the night stain which a great conflagration
+leaves behind it for weeks,--struggling silently with colossal shadows
+along the foreground, two hideous walls alone arise in front, shutting
+these gleams. They are the Libby Prison and Castle Thunder. Right and
+left, and far in the moonlighted perspective beyond, there is a soft
+glitter upon cornices and domes. A haggard glow of candles, faintly
+defines the thoroughfares that have not suffered ruin; while massive,
+and upon a height overlooking all, stands the Capitol, flying its black
+shadow from the sinking moon across a hundred crumbling walls, until its
+edges touch the windows of the Libby.
+
+But over its massive roof, dimly seen through the mists of the river,
+and, as before, "through the mists of the deep," the banner of the
+Union, banished for four years, is shaken out again, broad and
+beautiful, by the breath of an April night. Upon the face of every
+leaning figure on the steamer's deck, in sight of that radiant signal,
+is the same half-melancholy, half-triumphant smile.
+
+The thought of the battle which has passed, of the army, which, after
+struggling through years for this majestic procession, has swept by and
+beyond without the view for which its straining eyes have yearned, is
+sad and strange. There comes back dimly suggestive, a story of Iran and
+his host, thundering at the gates of Tupelo, for the possession of a
+wondrous jewel, and awakening once upon a dawn to learn that Tupelo was
+an empty casket,--to turn back longing, "wondering eyes upon the city,
+and to hunt the fleeing prize afar." Yet unto those legions of the
+republic which have emptied Richmond of a prize which yet they may have
+easily clutched, there go out reverence and blessing even larger than
+might be bestowed upon them resting in camp, upon these overlooking
+hills. That true allegiance, that calm and stern self-sacrifice which
+impels an army forward past the sweet applauses and rewarding calms to
+which great victories might entitle it, are the purest sources of its
+glory and its fame. God bless the army that has permitted us to
+consummate this journey and to gaze upon this spectacle, while it does
+not impress us too proudly, too triumphantly. Both pride and triumph
+have, of course, a place in the tumultuous feeling that surges through
+the hearts of all; yet as in every true man is born an instinct of
+compassion for a fallen foe, we prefer that the shout should go up in
+honor of our victory alone, and not because these have suffered.
+
+The boat touches the shore at Rockett's, the foot of Richmond. A few
+minutes' walk and we tread the pavements of the capital. There are no
+noisy and no beseeching runners; there is no sound of life, but the
+stillness of a catacomb, only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted
+sidewalk, and a funeral troop of echoes bump their elfin heads against
+the dead walls and closed shutters in reply, and this is Richmond. Says
+a melancholy voice: "And this is Richmond."
+
+We are under the shadow of ruins. From the pavements where we walk far
+off into the gradual curtain of the night, stretches a vista of
+desolation. The hundreds of fabrics, the millions of wealth, that
+crumbled less than a week ago beneath one fiery kiss, here topple and
+moulder into rest. A white smoke-wreath rising occasionally, enwraps a
+shattered wall as in a shroud. A gleam of flame shoots a grotesque
+picture of broken arches and ragged chimneys into the brain. Huge piles
+of debris begin to encumber the sidewalks, and even the pavements, as we
+go on. The streets in some places are quite choked up from walking. We
+are among the ruins of half a city. The wreck, the loneliness, seem
+interminable. The memory of lights in houses above, beheld while upon
+the steamer, alone keeps despondency from a victory over hope; and
+although the continued existence of the Spottswood Hotel is vouched for
+by authority, my lodge in such a wilderness seems next to impossible.
+Away to the right, above the waste of blackened walls, around the
+phantom-looking flag upon the capitol,--the only sign betwixt heaven and
+earth, or upon the earth, that Richmond is not wholly deserted,--beyond
+and out of the ruins, we walk past one of two open doorways where the
+moon serves as candle to a group of talking negroes. The gas works,
+injured by fire, are not working, and "ile" has not been struck in the
+Confederacy. Not a white man appears until we reach the
+Spottswood,--there before the entrance is a conclave of officers,--then,
+at last, entering, we stand in that most famous of Southern hotels, the
+interior of which is filled with the very aroma of the Rebellion. A
+thankful yielding up of carpet-bags and valises to the indignant negro
+waiters, and then a brief moonlight stroll toward the capitol.
+
+Within the gates of the Square, that swing on their hinges silent as the
+hour we pass alone, before us stands the magnificent monument crowned
+with Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington. The right hand of the
+rider, lifted against the sky, points a prophetic finger toward the
+southwest. Dark, and motionless, and grand, it is the one symbol
+belonging solely to the Union, which they have not dared to desecrate;
+which they have strangely chosen to consider neither as an insult nor a
+rebuke.
+
+Gazing beyond at the capitol itself, and back again at the figure which
+overlooks the building, it is not hard to imagine that, while the noisy
+debates of a congress of traitors to the Union that he founded were in
+progress, those bronze lips sometimes smiled in scorn.
+
+Leaving Richmond proper, and descending into the low, squalid portion of
+the town known as Rocketts, one sees among the many large warehouses,
+used without exception for the storage of tobacco, a certain one more
+irregular than the rest. An archway leads into it, and upon the outside
+of the second story windows runs a long ledge or footway, whereupon
+sentries used to stride, guarding the miserable people within. This is
+the jail of Castle Thunder, and it was the civil or State prison of the
+capital. Ill as were the accommodations of prisoners of war, the
+treatment of their own unoffending citizens by the Rebel government was
+ten times more infamous. We could not repress indignation, nor by any
+philosophic or charitable effort excuse the atrocious tyranny which here
+lashed, chained, handcuffed, tortured, shot, and hung, hundreds of
+people whom it could not stultify or impress. We may grant that the
+Confederacy had become a government; that, in its perilous incipiency,
+it had apology for severity and rigor with all malcontents; that, in its
+own struggle for death or life, it might, in self-defence, absorb all
+private liberty; but even thus the terrible testimony of this Castle
+Thunder is an everlasting stigma upon the Southern cause. We entered its
+strong portal, and there in the new commandant's room lay the record
+left behind by the Confederates. Its pages made one shudder.
+
+These are some of the entries:--
+
+     "George Barton,--giving food to Federal prisoners of war; forty
+     lashes upon the bare back. Approved. Sentence carried into effect
+     July 2.
+
+     "Peter B. Innis,--passing forged government notes; chain and ball
+     for twelve months; forty lashes a day. Approved.
+
+     "Arthur Wright,--attempting to desert to the enemy; sentenced to be
+     shot. Approved. Carried into effect, March 26.
+
+     "John Morton,--communicating with the enemy; to be hung. Approved.
+     Carried into effect, March 26."
+
+In an inner room are some fifty pairs of balls and chains, with anklets
+and handcuffs upon them, which have bent the spirit and body of many a
+resisting heart. Within are two condemned cells, perfectly dark,--a
+faded flap over the window peep-hole,--the smell from which would knock
+a strong man down.
+
+For in their centre lies the sink, ever open, and the floors are sappy
+with uncleanliness. To the right of these, a door leads to a walled yard
+not forty feet long, nor fifteen wide, overlooked by the barred windows
+of the main prison rooms, and by sentry boxes upon the wall-top. Here
+the wretched were shot and hung in sight of their trembling comrades.
+The brick wall at the foot of the yard is scarred and crushed by balls
+and bullets which first passed through some human heart and wrote here
+their damning testimony. The gallows had been suspended from a wing in
+the ledge, and in mid-air the impotent captive swung, none daring or
+willing to say a good word for him; and not for any offence against
+God's law, not for wronging his neighbor, or shedding blood, or making
+his kind miserable, but for standing in the way of an upstart
+organization, which his impulse and his judgment alike impelled him to
+oppose. This little yard, bullet-marked, close, and shut from all
+sympathy, is to us the ghastliest spot in the world. Can Mr. Davis visit
+it, and pray as he does so devoutly afterward? When men plead the
+justice of the South, and arguments are prompt to favor them, let this
+prison yard rise up and say that no such crimes in liberty's name have
+ever been committed, on this continent, at least. Up stairs, in Castle
+Thunder, there are two or three large rooms, barred and dimly lit, and
+two or three series of condemned cells, pent-up and pitchy, where, by a
+refinement of cruelty, the ceiling has been built low so that no man can
+stand upright. Here fifteen or twenty were crowded together, and, in the
+burning atmosphere, they stripped themselves stark naked, so that when
+in the morning the cell-doors were opened, they came forth as from the
+grave, begging for death. There are women's cells too; for this great
+and valiant government recognized women as belligerents, and locked them
+up close to a sentry's cartridge, so that, in the bitterness of
+solitude, they were unsexed, and railed, and blasphemed, like wanton
+things. On the pavements before the jail, were hidden numberless guards,
+who shot at every rag fluttering from the cages, and all this little
+circle of death and terror was enacted close to the bright river, and
+airy pediment of that high capitol, where bold men hoped by war to wring
+from a reluctant Union, acknowledgment of arrogant independence to rein
+civilization as it pleased, and warp the destinies of our race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE RUINS OF THE REBELLION.
+
+
+When Richmond was a plain city, a county seat, and the residence of a
+governor and commonwealth legislature, its enterprise was as gradual as
+its hospitality and private probity were steadfast. It was always a
+fierce political arena, and its two great journals, the _Whig_ and
+_Enquirer_, were not more violently partisan than its hustings. In the
+latter its debaters were wide-famed. No such "stump" has ever existed in
+America, commencing with Patrick Henry, whose eloquence was as intense
+and telling as his statesmanship was errant and inconsistent, and
+passing through the shrill and bitter apostrophies of John Randolph down
+to the latest era of Henry A. Wise, the most sufferable and interminable
+campaign orator extant, and John Minor Botts, scarcely his inferior.
+With us, out of door rhetoric is dry, studied, and argumentative; here
+an inspiration, based upon feeling rather than reason, and so earnest
+that it knew no personal friendship where its political affinities
+stopped. Whig and Democrat were not men of the same race or family in
+Richmond; they passed each other on the sidewalk with a sneer or a
+scowl, and knew no coalition even in the house of God. Even when the
+Whig party as an organization deceased, the Whigs, as individuals,
+retained their traditional antipathy, and the advent of secession was
+decried by these, not because they loved the Union more, but the
+triumphant Democracy the less. Separation was a feature of the hated
+faith, and no good could come out of Nazareth. The Union men of Richmond
+who have hungered in Castle Thunder, and been driven, needy and naked,
+from the South, were all old line Whigs, distrusting the North, but
+disliking Democracy. However, the war burst at last, heralded by that
+mysterious lunatic who appeared like a warning giant in the twilight day
+of the Union,--old John Brown; and as the Gulf States wheeled into line
+and pulled down the old colors, the Old Dominion, Southern and
+slaveholding, was too impulsive not to follow the whirlwind. She did not
+go for policy's sake, nor for principle's sake, but for emotion's sake.
+How wild and jubilant, and confident, were those Richmond mass meetings,
+at which separation was counselled! How awful seems their levity at this
+distance, with the city conquered and in ruins! On the Capitol Hill the
+mad orators inveighed; within the Capitol met the disunion assembly in
+secret and prolonged session; before the American, the Exchange, and the
+Spottswood hotels, visiting commissioners harangued the crowd; the
+people went to ballot on the day of State suicide, with laughing and
+wagging, and at the decree that Virginia and her people had resolved to
+quit the fabric of their fathers, bonfires and illuminations lit up the
+river and the sky.
+
+Done, these were the men to stand fast. Done in dream, the first acts
+were mirages rather than comprehensible events. They marched upon
+Harper's Ferry; they suppressed the Unionists in their midst; they
+erased the sacred mottoes of amity and unity from their monuments, and
+won to the new cause they so blindly embraced every inch of their soil
+except Old Point, where Fortress Monroe still stood defiant, to be in
+the end the source of their downfall. Gayly went the populace of
+Richmond, and splendid parties made the nights lustrous. When they heard
+that their town was mentioned, among many others, as the probable
+Confederate capital, they threw their hearts into the suggestion and
+offered lands and edifices as free gifts for the honor of being the
+centre of the South. A few, more interested, beheld in the coming of the
+seat of government higher rents and increased patronage, crowded hotels,
+and railway stock at a premium; but the mass, with the enthusiasm of
+women or children, thought only of their beloved city growing in rank
+and power; the home of legislators, orators, and savans; the seat of all
+rank and the depository of archives. At last the good news came;
+Richmond was the capital of a great nation; that courtesy bound all
+grateful Virginian hearts to the common cause forever; the heyday and
+gratulation were renewed; the new President, and the reverend senators
+appeared on Richmond streets; the citizens were proud and happy.
+
+There was no spectre of the mighty North, slowly rising from lethargy
+like those Medicean figures of Michael Angelo, which leap from stone to
+avengers. There was no mutter of coming storm, no clank of coming sabres
+and bayonets, no creak of great wheels rolling southward, and war in its
+extremest and most deadly phase. Richmond and Virginia laughed at these,
+flushed in the present, and invincible in the past. They only held high
+heads,--and trade, with vanity, grew strong, till every citizen wondered
+why all this glory had been so long delayed, and despised the ten years
+preceding the rupture, if not, indeed, the whole past of the Union.
+
+The President of the United States proclaimed war; an army marched upon
+the city. Not until the battle of Bull Run, when the dead and mangled
+came by hundreds into the town, did any one discover the consequences of
+Richmond's new distinction; but by this time the Rebel government had
+absorbed Virginia, and was master of the city. Thenceforward Richmond
+was the scene of all terrors, the prey of all fears and passions.
+Campaign after campaign was directed against her; she lived in the
+perpetual thunder of cannon; raiders pressed to her gates; she was a
+great garrison and hospital only, besieged and cut off from her own
+provinces; armies passed through her to the sound of drums, and returned
+to the creak of ambulances. She lost her social prestige, and became a
+barrack-city, filled with sutlers, adventurers, and refugees, till,
+bearing bravely up amid domestic riot and horrible demoralization,--a
+jail, a navy-yard, a base of operations,--she grew pinched, and base,
+and haggard, and, at last, deserted. Given over to sack and fire, the
+wretches who used her retreated in the night, and the enemies she had
+provoked marched over her defences, and laid her--spent, degenerate, and
+disgraced--under martial law.
+
+The outline of the scenes immediately associated with the evacuation of
+Richmond has been told by telegraph. Now that the stupefied citizens
+have recovered reason and memory so well as to tell us the story, it
+seems the most dramatic and fearful of the war. On Saturday the city was
+calm and trusting; Lee, its idol, held Grant, at Petersburg, fast; the
+daily journals came out as usual, filled with soothing accounts; that
+night came vague rumors of reverses; in the morning vaguer rumors of
+evacuation; by Sunday night the public records were burned in the
+streets, and the only remaining railway carried off the specie of the
+banks; before daylight on Monday, the explosions of bridges and
+half-built ships of war shook the houses; in the imperfect day, women,
+and old men, and children began to sway and surge before the guarded
+depot, which refused to admit them; then the town fell afire; no
+remonstrance could pacify the incendiaries; the spring wind carried the
+flame from the burning boats on the canal to the great Galligo Mills, to
+files of massive warehouses groaning with tobacco, into the heart of the
+town, where stores, and vaults, and banks, and factories lined the wide,
+undulating streets; it filled the gray concave with flame till the stars
+of the dawn shrank to pale invisibility in the advancing glare, and the
+crackle of hot roofs and beams, and the crash of walls and timbers,
+drowned the cries of the frightened and bankrupt, who beheld their
+fortunes wither in an hour, and the inheritance of their children fall
+to ashes. By the red, consuming light, poured past the straggling
+Confederate soldiers, dead to the acknowledgment of private rights, and
+sacking shop and home with curses and ribaldry; the suburban citizens
+and the menial negroes adopted their examples; carrying off whatever
+came next their hands, and with arms full of "swag," dropping it in the
+highway, lured by some dearer plunder. Negroes, with baskets of stolen
+champagne and rare jars of tamarinds, sought their dusky quarters to
+swill and carouse; and whites of the middle, and even of the higher
+class, lent themselves to theft, who, before this debased era, would
+have died before so surrendering their honor. All was peril, terror, and
+license; all who had nothing to lose were thieves; all who had anything
+left to lose were cowards. The conflagration swept through the densest,
+proudest blocks, driving off, not only the resident worthy, but the
+resident corrupt. Where were the lewd contractors, who had hoarded
+Confederate scrip by the basest exactions? With the fall of the capital
+their dollars dwindled to dust; four years of crime had resulted in
+beggary; still, with grasping palms, they adhered to their valueless
+paper, bearing it away. But of all the wretched, the Cyprians were the
+foremost. These inhabited the dense and business part of the town, where
+their houses were serried and compact; and, driven forth by the fire,
+they sought the street in their plumes and calicoes, to spend a cold and
+shivering bivouac in the square of the Capitol. From afar, the rich men
+of Sunday watched the flames of Monday sweeping on in terrible
+impetuosity, knowing that every tongue of light which leaped on high
+carried with it the competence they had sinned to acquire. And behind
+all, plunderer, incendiary, and straggler, came the one vague,
+overlapping, dreadful fear of--the enemy. Would they finish what friends
+had commenced,--the sack, the desolation, the slaughter of the place?
+Richmond had cost them half a million of lives, a mountain of blood and
+wealth, four years of deadly struggle; would they not complete its ruin?
+
+The morning came; the Confederates were gone; cavalry in blue galloped
+up the streets; a brigade of white infantry filed after them; then came
+the detested negroes. Behold! the victors, the subjugators, assist to
+quench the flames,--and Richmond is captured, but secure!
+
+Many of the churches were open on the Sunday of April 9, 1865, and were
+thinly attended by the more adventurous of the citizens, with a
+sprinkling of soldiers and Northern civilians. Mr. Woodbridge, at the
+Monument Church, built on the site of a famous burnt theatre, prayed for
+"all in authority," and held his tongue upon dangerous topics. The First
+Baptist Negro Church has been occupied all the week by Massachusetts
+chaplains, and Northern negro preachers, who have talked the gospel of
+John Brown to gaping audiences of wool, white-eyeball, and ivory,
+telling them that the day of deliverance has come, and that they have
+only to possess the land which the Lord by the bayonet has given them.
+To-day, Mr. Allen, the regular white preacher, occupied the pulpit, and
+told the negroes that slavery was a divine institution, which would
+continue forever, and that the duty of every good servant was to stay at
+home and mind his master. Half of the enlightened Africans got up midway
+of the discourse and left; the rest were in doubt, and two or three
+black class-leaders, whom the parson had wheeled over, prayed lustily
+that the Lord would keep Old Virginny from new ideas and all Yankee
+salvations; so that in the end the population were quite tangled up, as
+much so as if they had read the book of Revelation. I attended Saint
+Paul's, the fashionable Episcopalian church, where Lee, Davis,
+Memminger, and the rest had been communicants, and heard Doctor
+Minnegerode discourse. He was one of the Prussian refugees of 1848,
+and, though a hot Jacobin there, became a more bitter secessionist here.
+He is learned, fluent, and thoughtful, but speaks with a slight Teutonic
+accent. Jeff Davis's pew was occupied by nobody, the door thereof being
+shut. Jeff was a very devout man, but not so much so as Lee, who made
+all the responses fervently, and knelt at every requirement. This church
+is capable of "seating" fifteen hundred persons, has galleries running
+entirely around it, and is sustained at the roof within by composite
+pilasters of plaster, and at the pulpit by columns of mongrel
+Corinthian; the _tout ensemble_ is very excellent; a darkey sexton gave
+us a pew, and there were some handsome ladies present, dark Richmond
+beauties, haughty and thinly clothed, with only here and there a
+jockey-feathered hat, or a velvet mantilla, to tell of long siege and
+privation. We saw that those who dressed the shabbiest had yet preserved
+some little article of jewelry--a finger-ring, a brooch, a bracelet,
+showing how the last thing in woman to die is her vanity. Poor, proud
+souls! Last Sunday many of them were heiresses; now many of them could
+not pay the expenses of their own funerals. There were some Confederate
+officers in the house. They reminded me of the captive Jews holding
+worship in their gutted Temple. Some ruffians broke into this church
+after the occupation, and wrote ribaldry in the Bible and hymn-book. Dr.
+Minnegerode dared not pray for the Confederate States, and his sermon
+was trite, based upon the text of the eleventh chapter of the Acts--"The
+disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." In the opening
+lesson, however, he aimed poison at the North, selecting the
+forty-fourth and following Psalms, commencing, "We have heard with our
+ears, O God! our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their
+days, in the times of old." Then it spoke of the heathen being driven
+out and the chosen people planted; afflicted by God's disfavor, the
+forefathers held the territory, and the generation extant would yet rout
+its enemies. But now the old stock were put to shame, a reproach to
+their neighbors and those that dwelt round about them. "Thou hast broken
+us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,"
+going not forth with our armies, bowing our souls to the dust till our
+bellies cleave unto the earth; we are killed all the day long, and
+counted as sheep for the slaughter.
+
+Let all who would drink the essence of sorrow and anguish, read this
+wonderful Psalm, to learn how after this recapitulation, the parson said
+aloud the thrilling invocation.
+
+"Arise! for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake."
+
+Then came the next Psalm, light and tripping, full of praise for the
+king and his bride, coming to the nuptials with her virgin train:
+"instead of thy fathers, shall be thy children, whom thou mayst make
+princes in all the earth." A poetic parallel might be drawn between all
+this and the early hopes of Richmond; but the third Psalm came in like a
+beautiful peroration.
+
+"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,--the
+Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah! He
+maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow and
+cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire."
+
+Clear, direct, and in meaning monotone, the captive high-priest read all
+this, so fearfully applicable to the subjugated and ruined town, and
+then the organ threw its tender music into the half-empty concave,
+sobbing like a far voice of multitudes, until the sweet singing of
+Madame Ruhl, the chorister, swept into the moan of pipes, and rose to a
+grand peal, quivering and trilling, like a nightingale wounded, making
+more tears than the sublimest operatic effort and the house reeled and
+trembled, as if Miriam and her chanting virgins were lifting praises to
+God in the midst of the desert.
+
+That part of the New Testament read, by some strange fatuity, touches
+also the despair of the city. It told of Christ betrayed by Iscariot,
+deserted by his disciples, saying to his few trusty ones: "I will smite
+the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."
+"Can ye not watch with me one hour?" he says to the timid and sleeping;
+and turning to his conquerors, avers that the Son of Man shall return to
+Jerusalem, "sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds
+of heaven." All this, of course, was the prescribed lesson for the
+Sunday before Easter, which to-day happened to be; but had the pastor
+searched it out to meet the exigencies of the place and time, it could
+not have been more _apropos_. He read also from Daniel, where the king's
+dream was interpreted; his realm, like a tree worn down to the root, and
+the king himself making his dwelling with the wild asses, but in the end
+"thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known
+that the heavens do rule."
+
+Again the organ rang, and the wonderful voice of the choristers
+alternated with deep religious prayers, whose refrain was, "Have mercy
+upon us."
+
+Only one Sunday gone by, the church was densely packed with Rebel
+officers and people; Mrs. Lee was there, and the president, in his high
+and whitened hairs. Midway of the discourse a telegram came up the
+aisle, borne by a rapid orderly. The president read it, and strode away;
+the preacher read it, and faltered, and turned pale; it said:
+
+     My lines are broken; Richmond must be evacuated by midnight.
+                                                   ROBERT E. LEE.
+
+Ill news travels without words; the whole house felt that the great
+calamity had come; they broke for the doors, and left the rector, alone
+and frightened, to finish the solemn services.
+
+Now the enemy is here; the music and the prayer are not interrupted. God
+is over all, whether Davis or Lincoln be uppermost.
+
+This campaign, so gloriously and promptly finished, has consumed just
+eleven days. It took three to flank the Rebel army, one to capture
+Petersburg, one to occupy Richmond, and six to pursue, overtake, and
+capture the Army of Northern Virginia. No such memorable fighting has
+ever been known on our continent, and it parallels the Italian, the
+Austerlitz, and the Jena campaigns; in breadth of conception, it
+outrivals them all; it took less men to do it than the last two; it
+shows equal sagacity with any of them, but none of their brilliant
+episodes; and, unlike them, we cannot trace its full credit to any
+single personality. It has made the army immortal, but the lustre of it
+is diffused, not concentrating upon any single head. Grant must be
+credited with most of the combinations; yet without the genius and
+activity of Sheridan, the bewildering rapidity of Sherman, and the
+steadfastness of such reliable men as Wright, Parke, and Griffin, these
+combinations would have fallen apart. It is said that Stoneman and
+Sheridan were to have joined their separate cavalry commands at
+Lynchburg, and effect a simultaneous junction with the Army of the
+Potomac. This failed, through a miscalculation of distance or time; but
+had they succeeded, we should have been less than three days in turning
+Lee's right, and so made the campaign even more concise. But Grant's
+talent has been marked and signal. He is the long-expected "coming man."
+None can be lukewarm in surveying the nice adjustment of so many
+separate and converging routes to a grand series of victories. Sherman
+leaves the Rebellion no Gulf city to inhabit, and cuts off Lee's retreat
+while he absorbs Johnston; the navy closes the last seaport; Sheridan
+severs all communication with Richmond, and swells the central forces;
+then the Rebels are lured from their lines and scattered on their right;
+the same night the intrenchments of Petersburg are stormed, Richmond
+falls as this prop is removed, being already hungry-hearted, and the
+flushed army falls upon Lee and finishes the war. Is not this work for
+gratulation? Glory to the army, perfect at last, and to Grant, to
+Sheridan, to each of its commanders!
+
+Let us not do injustice to Lee. His tactics at the close of his career
+were as brilliant as necessity would permit. He could not feed Richmond,
+even though its impregnable works were behind him to retire to. So he
+gave his government time to evacuate, and, with his thinned and
+famishing ranks, made a bold push to join Johnston, some of whose
+battalions had already reinforced him; overtaken on the way, and
+punished anew, he did as any great and humane commander would
+do,--stopped the effusion of blood uselessly, and gave up his sword.
+
+Unless Davis has been captured, we would think it improbable that he had
+given up the Rebel cause. He was born to revolutionize, containing
+within himself all the elements of a Rebel leader, and too proud to
+yield, even when, like Macbeth, pursued to his castle-keep. I am assured
+by those who know him best that he has been, throughout, the absolute
+master of the Confederacy, overawing Lee, who, from the first, was a
+reluctant Rebel; and his design was, until abandoned by his army, to
+hold Richmond, even through starvation, making, behind its tremendous
+fortifications, a defence like that of Leyden or Genoa.
+
+There is no more faith in the Rebellion; it will be a long time before
+the United States is greatly beloved, but it will be always obeyed. Our
+soldiers look well, most of them being newly uniformed, and behave like
+gentlemen. Courtesy will conquer all that bayonets have not won. The
+burnt district is still hideously yawning in the heart of the town, a
+monument to the sternness of those bold revolutionists who are being
+hunted to their last quarry. Despotism, under the plea of necessity, has
+met with its end here as it must everywhere. We shall have no more
+experiments for liberty out of the Union, if the new Union will grant
+all that it gave before. Yesterday, when our splendid levies were
+paraded in the street, with foot, cavalry, and cannon, in admirable
+order, and kindly-eyed men in command, I looked across their cleanly
+lines, tipped with bayonets, to the Capitol they had won, bearing at
+last the tri-color we all love and honor, as the symbol of our homes and
+the hope of the world, and thought how more grandly, even in her ruin,
+Richmond stood in the light of its crowding stars, rather than the den
+of a desperate cabal, whose banner was known in no city nor sea, but as
+the ensign of corsairs, and hailed only by fustian peers, now rent in
+the grip of our eagle, and without a fane or an abiding-place. Let us go
+on, not conquerors, but Republicans, battering down only to rebuild more
+gloriously,--not narrowing the path of any man, but opening to high and
+low a broader destiny and a purer patriotism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+WAR EXECUTIONS.
+
+
+To have looked upon seventeen beings of human organism, ambition, sense
+of pain and of disgrace, brought forward with all the solemnities of a
+living funeral, and launched from absolute cognition to direct death,
+should put one in the category of Calcraft, Ketch, and Isaacs.
+
+Yet, I do not think it would be right to so classify me. I know an
+excellent clergyman, who has seen and assisted in fifty odd executions.
+He says, as I say, that each new one is an augmented terror. But he is
+upon the spot to smooth the felon's troubled spirit, and I am with him
+to teach the felon's boon companions the direness of the penalty.
+Without either the Chaplain or myself, capital punishment would lose
+half its effectiveness.
+
+And this is why I write the present article,--to relieve myself from the
+pertinacious inquiries with which I have been assailed since my return
+from the melancholy episodes of the executions at Washington. I am
+button-holed at every corner, and put through a cross-examination, to
+which Holt's or Bingham's had no searchingness: "How did Mrs. Suratt
+die?" "Was the rope attached to her left ear?" "What sort of rope was
+it, for example?" "Do her pictures look like her?" "Pray describe how
+Payne twisted, and whether you think Atzeroth's neck was dislocated?"
+
+And, after answering these questions, replete as they are with horrible
+curiosity, the questioner turns away, saying, "Dear me! I wouldn't see a
+man hung for a thousand dollars."
+
+I am weary of such hypocrisy, and I shall, in this paper, speak of some
+executions I have witnessed.
+
+I was quite a small boy, at school, when my chum and model, Bill
+Everett, dragged me off to Wayland's Mill, to see old Mrs. Kitty White
+suspended. She was a very infamous old woman, who had been in the habit
+of kidnapping black children, and running them by night from the Eastern
+shore across the bay to Virginia, where they were sold. If they became
+noisy and obstreperous before they left her house, and suspicion fell
+upon her, she clove their skulls with a hatchet, and buried them in her
+garden. When finally discovered, the remains of nearly a score marked
+how wholesale had been her wickedness.
+
+This old woman was very drunk when she came to be hanged, and so was the
+sheriff who assisted her. She called him impolite names, and carried a
+pipe in her mouth, and went off smoking and cursing. I remember that I
+cried very loudly, so that Bill Everett had to choke me, and saw ghosts
+for so many nights succeeding, that Crouch, our maid of all work, had to
+sit at my bedside till I fell asleep.
+
+The atrocity of a crime makes great difference in one's desire to see
+its after tragedy; and the next hanging I attended was almost
+world-famed. Four men were suspended for shooting down an entire family
+in cold blood. They had embarked on a raid of robbery, and emerging from
+the barren scrub of Delaware Forest, fell upon a snug and secluded
+Maryland farm-house, where the farmer's family were taking their supper.
+They fired through the ruddy windows, and brought the man down at his
+wife's feet; she, in turn, fell upon her threshold, rushing forth into
+the darkness, and the remnant of the family perished except two boys,
+who slipped away and gave the alarm.
+
+The jailer's boys of Chestertown went to school with me, and I was
+invited by the least of them to visit the jail,--a tumble-down old
+structure with goggly windows, and so unsafe that the felons had to be
+ironed to almost their own weight. And into the cell where the four
+fiends were lying, the jailer's big boy, for a big joke, pushed me, and
+locked the door upon me.
+
+I was alone with the same bloody-handed men who had so recently, and for
+a trifle of gold, made the fireside a shamble, and the night a howling
+terror.
+
+They appreciated the joke, and drew me to them, while their chains
+clanked, and pressed to my face their wild and prickly beards. There was
+one of them, named Drummond, who swore he would cut my heart out, and
+they executed a sort of death-tune on the floor with their balls and
+links. I lost all knowledge and perception in my fright, and cannot, at
+this interval, remember anything succeeding, but the execution. They
+were put to death upon a single long scaffold, the counterpart of that
+erected for the Booth conspirators, and the rope attached to the neck of
+the least guilty, broke when the drop fell, and cast him upon the
+ground, lacerated, but conscious, to be picked up and again suspended,
+while he begged for life, like a child.
+
+The sixth miscreant murdered from revenge, which is just a trifle better
+than avarice: his girl preferred another, and the disappointed man,
+Bowen, went to sea. Returning, he found the united lovers in the
+exultation of happiness; a child had just been born to them, and,
+touched by their content, Bowen gave the old rival his hand, and asked
+him out to accept a bumper. They drank again and again,--the spirits
+burning their blood to fire, and reviving again the bitter story of
+Bowen's love and shame. Within the hour, the husband lay at the jilted
+man's feet! He was condemned to death, and I undertook to describe his
+exit for a weekly newspaper.
+
+Still I see him, broad and muscular, climbing the gallows stair with
+his peaked cap, deathly white, and looking up at the sun as if he
+dreaded its eye. There was the muttering of prayers, the spasm of one
+spectator taken sick at the crisis, and the dull thump of the scaffold
+falling in.
+
+The preacher Harden, who fondled his wife on his knee, and fed her the
+while with poison, passed away so recently, that I need not revive the
+scene into which all his bad life should have been prolonged.
+
+The death of Armstrong, expiating a hypocrite's life at Philadelphia, is
+not so well remembered: he killed an old man in the heart of the city,
+riding in a wagon, and dumped him out when he reached the suburbs. His
+life, to the end, was marked by all insolence and infamy, and on the day
+of the execution, he made a pretended confession, inculpating two
+innocent persons. One hour after this, he made the following speech:--
+
+     MY FRIENDS: I have a few words to say to you; I am going to die;
+     and let me say, in passing, I die in peace with my Maker; and if,
+     at this moment, a pardon was offered me on condition of giving up
+     my Maker, I would not take it; and I die in peace with all the
+     world, and forgive all my enemies. I desire you to take warning by
+     my fate. Sabbath-breaking was the first cause. I bid you farewell,
+     gentlemen, (here he mentioned various officers), and I bid you all
+     farewell. I die in peace with everybody.
+
+The Sheriff, very nervous, gave a signal to the drop-man too soon, and a
+serious accident very nearly occurred. The props were readjusted, all
+but the main support removed, and that unhinged; the Sheriff waved his
+handkerchief, and with the dead thump of the trap-lids against their
+cushions, and the heavy jerking of the noose knot against the victim's
+throat, the young murderer hung dangling in the air, not a limb
+quivering, and only a convulsive movement of the shoulders, to indicate
+the struggle which life maintained when giving up its place in the
+body.
+
+There was a rush forward. The doctors grasped his wrist. Some spectators
+passed their hands across his knees to feel the tremulous sinews; one or
+two felt a faintness, and a dozen made coarse jokes; and one or more
+speculated as to the issue of his immortal part, or the degree of his
+pain, or the probability of his cognizance. In seven minutes he was
+beyond the reach of execution or executioner, and a hurdle being wheeled
+from the stable, they cut down his body, while a few scrambled for the
+rope, and it was wheeled on a run into the convict's corridor for his
+old father to claim. The neck was not broken, nor the flesh discolored.
+Some said that he died "game;" and all went away, leaving the old man
+and a brother to sit by the remains and weep, that so great calamity had
+darkened their home and blighted their lives. Few lamented him, for he
+had youth, but none of its elements of sympathy; and those who would
+make, even of his dying speech, a text and a lesson, are instancing a
+lie more grievous than the murder which he did.
+
+In England, I saw two men and a woman suffer death on the common
+sidewalk; just as if we were to hang people in New York on the pavement
+before the Tombs.
+
+No man, anxious to see an execution in London, need be disappointed.
+Once or twice a month the wolves are brought to the slaughter, and all
+the people are invited to enjoy the spectacle. A woman, one Catharine
+Wilson, was to be hanged for poisoning. She was middle aged, and had
+been reputable. Her manner of making way with folks was to act as
+sick-nurse, and mingling poison with their medicine, possess herself of
+the trifles upon their persons. She had sent six souls to their account
+in this way; but, discovered in the seventh attempt, all the other cases
+leaked out. She was condemned, of course, and on the Sunday evening
+previous to the execution, as I was returning from Spurgeon's
+Tabernacle, the omnibus upon which I sat passed through the Old Bailey.
+There were the carpenters joining the timbers of the scaffold, and
+building black barricades across the street. A murmuring crowd stood
+around in the solemn night, and the funereal walls of old Newgate
+glowered like a horrible vault upon the dimly-lit street. The public
+houses across the way were filled up with guests. All the front parlors
+and front bedrooms had been let at fat prices, and suppers were spread
+in them for the edification of their tenants. Do you remember the
+thrilling chapter of "The Jew's last night alive," in "Oliver Twist?"
+Well, this was the scene! These were the same beams and uprights. There,
+huge, massive, and blackened with smoky years, rose the cold, impervious
+stones; and yonder, casting its sharp pinnacles into the sky, is the
+tower of St. Sepulchre's Church, where the bell hangs muffled for the
+morrow's tolling away of a sinner's life. Old Fagin heard it, though it
+was no new sound to him; for Field Lane, where he kept his "fence," lies
+a very little way off,--little more than a stone's throw, and when, in
+the morning, I dressed at an early hour and hurried to the place of
+execution, I saw Charley Bates, and the Dodger, and Nancy, and Toby
+Crackit, and the rest, shying men's hats in the air, and looking out for
+the "wipes" and the "tickers." All the streets leading to Newgate were
+like great conduits, where human currents babbled along, emptying
+themselves into the Old Bailey. Mothers by the dozen were out with their
+infants, holding them aloft tenderly, to show them the noose and the
+cross-beam. Fathers came with their sons, and explained very carefully
+to them the method of strangulation. Little girls, on their way to
+workshops, had turned aside to see the playful affair, and traders in
+fancy soap and shoe-blacking, pea-nuts and shrimps, Banbury cakes, and
+Chelsea buns, and Yarmouth bloaters, were making the morning hilarious
+with their odd cries and speeches. Along the chimney-pots of Green
+Arbour Court, where Goldsmith penned the "Vicar of Wakefield," lads and
+maidens were climbing, that they might have commanding places. There
+was one young woman who had some difficulty in climbing over a
+battlement, and the mob hailed her failure with roars of mirth. But she
+persevered, though there was a high wind blowing, and then called loudly
+for her male attendant to follow her. He obeyed dutifully, and they both
+seated themselves upon a chimney-top,--a picture of love rewarded,--and
+waited for the show. The moments, as marked upon St. Sepulchre's clock,
+went grudgingly, as if the index-hands were unwilling to shoulder the
+responsibility of what was to come. Meantime, the police had their hands
+full; for some merry urchins were darting between their legs, and it was
+dangerous to keep one's hat on his head, for it hazarded plucking off
+and shying here and there. At the chamber-windows aforesaid, crowded the
+tipsy occupants, men and women, red-eyed with drinking, and leering
+stupidly upon the surging heads below. Some asked if Calcraft did the
+"job," and others volunteered sketches of Calcraft's life. One man
+boasted that he had taken a pot of beer with him, and another added that
+the hangman's children and his own went to school together. "He
+pockets," said the man, "two-pun ten for every one he drops, besides his
+travelling expenses, and he has put away three hundred and twenty folks.
+He is a clever fellow, is Calcraft, and he is going to retire soon."
+
+So the hours passed; the great clock-hands journeyed onward; all eyes
+watched them attentively; suddenly the deep bells struck a terrible
+one--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight, and the bells of the
+neighborhood answered, some hoarsely, others musically, others faintly,
+as if ashamed.
+
+Before the tones had died away, three persons appeared upon the
+scaffold,--a woman, pinioned and wearing a long, sharp, snowy, shrowdy,
+death-cap; a man in loose black robes with a white neckhandkerchief, and
+a burly, surly fellow, in black cloth, bareheaded, and having a curling
+jetty beard around his heavy jaws. It is but a moment, that, standing
+on tiptoe, you catch this scene. The priest stretches his hand toward
+the people, and says some unintelligible words; those of the mob curse
+each other, and some scream out that they are dying in the press. Then
+the scaffold is clear; the woman stands alone,--God forgive her!--and
+when you look again, a bundle of old clothes, tipped with a sugar-loaf,
+is all that is visible, and the gallows-cord is very straight and tight.
+For the last chapter, consult the graveyard within the jail walls!
+
+The guillotining which I witnessed in Paris, in the month of June, 1864,
+may be deemed worthy of an extended description:--
+
+Couty de la Pommerais was a young physician of Paris, descended from a
+fine family, and educated beyond the requirements of a French Faculty.
+He was handsome and manly, and gave evidences of ambition at an early
+age. He was popularly called the Comte de la Pommerais, and at the time
+of his apprehension, was expecting a decoration from the Papal
+Government, with the rank he desired. Like all French students, he was
+incontinent, and had several mistresses. The last of these was a widow
+named Pauw, who appears to have loved him sincerely. She had some little
+fortune, which they consumed together; and then la Pommerais married a
+rich young lady, with whom he lived one year. Her mother died suddenly
+at the end of that time, and as la Pommerais was interested in getting
+certain moneys which the elder lady controlled, the manner of her death
+led to suspicions of poisoning. However, the woman was interred, but the
+son-in-law was not so fortunate as he supposed, and he ceased to live
+with his wife, but returned to Madame Pauw, who still adored him. Upon
+this fond, foolish woman he seems to have premeditated a deep and
+intricate crime; and it was for this that he suffered death. She must
+have been dishonest like himself, for she consented to a scheme of
+swindling the insurance companies; but, unlike himself, she lacked the
+wit to be silent, and was heard to hint mysteriously that she should
+soon be grand and happy. La Pommerais persuaded her to have her life
+insured, which was done for 515,000 francs, or upward of $100,000. When
+the matter had transpired some time, he persuaded her to feign sickness.
+The simple woman asked why she should do so.
+
+"The insurance people," he replied, "will, when they consider that you
+are dangerously ill, prefer to give you 100,000f., rather than pay the
+515,000f. in the certainty of your death. You can give them up your
+policy, accept the compromise, get well again, and be rich."
+
+Yet this counterfeited sickness was meant by the villain to prepare the
+neighbors of Mme. Pauw for the death which he intended to ensue. He was
+to make it known to all, that she was dangerously ill; she was to uphold
+his testimony; and he was to kill her in due time, and take the whole of
+the insurance. At length, the farce was finished. La Pommerais gave to
+Mme. Pauw, a poison difficult to detect, called _digitalline_, the
+essential principle of our common foxglove; she died unconscious of his
+deception, loving him to the last, and he claimed the 515,000 francs at
+the insurance office. He was suspected, accused, and tried. The old
+suspicions relative to his mother-in-law were revived; the bodies were
+exhumed and examined; upon evidence entirely circumstantial and
+technical, he was convicted, and sentenced to be guillotined. His
+learning and standing made the trial a famous one; his bearing during
+the long proceedings was calm and collected; he was handsome, and had
+much sympathy: but the jury found him guilty, and the Emperor refused to
+extend his clemency to the case. He was put in a strait jacket and
+locked up in La Roquette, the prison for the condemned.
+
+The prison of _La Roquette_ (or the Rocket Prison) is situated in the
+eastern suburbs of Paris, a mile beyond the Bastile. It does not look
+unlike our American jails; a high exterior wall of rough stone, over the
+top of which one gets a glimpse of the prison gables, with a huge gate
+in the arched portal, guarded forever by sentinels. Before this gate is
+a small open plot of ground, planted with trees. _Rue de la Roquette_
+passes between it and a second prison, immediately facing the first,
+called the _Prison des Jeunes Detenus_, or, as we would say in America,
+the "House of Refuge." Standing between the two jails, and looking away
+from Paris, one will see the great metropolitan cemetery of _Pere la
+Chaise_, scarcely a stone's throw distant, and behind him will be the
+great _abbatoir_ or public slaughter-house of Menilmontant, with the
+vast area of roofs and spires of Paris stretching beyond it to the
+horizon. It was to this region of vacant lots and lonesome, glowering
+houses, that thousands of Parisians bent their steps the night before
+the execution. The news had gone abroad that la Pommerais would not be
+pardoned. It was also generally credited that this would be the last
+execution ever held in Paris, since there is a general desire for the
+abolition of capital punishment in France, and a conviction that the
+Legislature, at its next session, will substitute life-imprisonment.
+This, with the rarity of the event, and that terrible allurement of
+blood which distinguishes all populaces, brought out all the excitable
+folk of the town; and at dusk, on the night before the expiation, the
+whole neighborhood of La Roquette was crowded with men and women. All
+classes of Parisians were there,--the _blouses_, or workingmen, standing
+first in number; the students from the Latin Quartier being well
+represented, and idlers, and well-dressed nondescripts without
+enumeration,--distributing themselves among women, dogs, and babies.
+
+Venders of _gateaux_, muscles, and fruit were out in force. The "Savage
+of Paris," clothed in his war plumes, paint, greaves, armlets, and
+moccasins, was selling razors by gaslight; here and there ballad-mongers
+were singing the latest songs, and boys, with chairs to let, elbowed
+into the intricacies of the crowd, which amused itself all the night
+long by smoking, drinking, and hallooing. At last, the mass became
+formidable in numbers, covering every inch of ground within sight of the
+prison, and many soldiers and _sergeants de ville_, mounted and on foot,
+pushed through the dense mass to restore order.
+
+At midnight, a body of cavalry forced back the people from the square of
+La Roquette. A number of workmen, issuing from the prison-gates,
+proceeded to set up the instrument of death by the light of blazing
+torches. The flame lit up the dark jail walls, and shone on the helmets
+and cuirasses of the sabre-men, and flared upon spots of the upturned
+faces, now bringing them into strong, ruddy relief, now plunging them
+into shadow. When the several pieces had been framed together, we had a
+real guillotine in view,--the same spectre at which thousands of good
+and bad men had shuddered; and the folks around it, peering up so
+eagerly, were descendants of those who stood on the _Place de la
+Concorde_ to witness the head of a king roll into the common basket.
+Imagine two tall, straight timbers, a foot apart, rising fifteen feet
+from the ground. They are grooved, and spring from a wide platform,
+approached by a flight of steps. At the base, rests a spring-plank or
+_bascule_, to which leather thongs are attached to buckle down the
+victim, and a basket or _pannier_ filled with sawdust to receive the
+severed head. Between these, at their summit, hangs the shining knife in
+its appointed grooves, and a cord, which may be disconnected by a jerk,
+holds it to its position. Two men will be required to work the
+instrument promptly,--the one to bind the condemned, the other to drop
+the axe. The _bascule_ is so arranged that the whole weight and length
+of the trunk will rest upon it, leaving the head and neck free, and when
+prone it will reach to the grooves, leaving space for the knife to pass
+below it. The knife itself is short and wide, with a bright concave
+edge, and a rim of heavy steel ridges it at the top; it moves easily in
+the greased grooves, and may weigh forty pounds. It has a terrible
+fascination, hanging so high and so lightly in the blaze of the torches,
+which play and glitter upon it, and cast stains of red light along its
+keen blade, as if by their brilliance all its past blood-marks had
+become visible again. A child may send it shimmering and crashing to the
+scaffold, but only God can fasten together the warm and throbbing parts
+which it shall soon dissever. And now that the terrible creature has
+been recreated, the workmen slink away, as if afraid of it, and a body
+of soldiers stand guard upon it, as if they fear that it might grow
+thirsty and insatiate as in the days of its youth. The multitude press
+up again, reinforced every hour, and at last the pale day climbs over
+the jail-walls, and waiting people see each other by its glimmer. The
+bells of Notre Dame peal out; a hundred towers fall into the march of
+the music; the early journals are shrieked by French newsboys, and folks
+begin to count the minutes on their watches. There are men on the ground
+who saw the first guillotine at work. They describe the click of the
+cleaver, the steady march of victims upon the scaffold-stairs, the
+rattle of the death-cart turning out of the _Rue Saint Honore_, the
+painted executioners, with their dripping hands, wiping away the jets of
+blood from the hard, rough faces; nay! the step of the young queen,
+white-haired with care, but very beautiful, who bent her body as she had
+never bent her knee, and paid the penalty of her pride with the neck
+which a king had fondled.
+
+At four minutes to six o'clock on Thursday morning, the wicket in the
+prison-gate swung open; the condemned appeared, with his hands tied
+behind his back, and his knees bound together. He walked with
+difficulty, so fettered; but other than the artificial restraints, there
+was no hesitation nor terror in his movements. His hair, which had been
+long, dark, and wavy, was severed close to his scalp; his beard had
+likewise been clipped, and the fine moustache and goatee, which had set
+off his most interesting face, no longer appeared to enhance his
+romantic, expressive physiognomy. Yet his black eyes and cleanly cut
+mouth, nostrils, and eyebrows, demonstrated that Couty de la Pommerais
+was not a beauty dependent upon small accessories. There was a dignity
+even in his painful gait; the coarse prison-shirt, scissored low in the
+neck, exhibited the straight columnar throat and swelling chest; for the
+rest, he wore only a pair of black pantaloons and his own shapely boots.
+As he emerged from the wicket, the chill morning air, laden with the dew
+of the truck gardens near at hand, blew across the open spaces of the
+suburbs, and smote him with a cold chill. He was plainly seen to
+tremble; but in an instant, as if by the mere force of his will, he
+stood motionless, and cast a first and only glance at the guillotine
+straight before him. It was the glance of a man who meets an enemy's
+eye, not shrinkingly, but half-defiant, as if even the bitter
+retribution could not abash his strong courage. The dramatic manner
+which is characteristic of the most real and earnest incidents of French
+life had its fascination for la Pommerais, even at his death-hour. Not
+Mr. Booth nor Mr. Forrest could have expressed the rallying, startling,
+almost thrilling recognition of an instrument of death, better than this
+actual criminal, whose last winkful of daylight was blackened by the
+guillotine. It reminded one of Damon, in the pitch of the tragedy:--
+
+    "I stand upon the scaffold--I am standing on my throne."
+
+His dark eye was scintillant; his nostril grew full; his shoulders fell
+back as if to exhibit his broad, compact figure in manlier outline; he
+seemed to feel that forty thousand men and women, and young children
+were looking upon him to see how he dared to die, and that for a
+generation his bearing should go into fireside descriptions. Then he
+moved on between the files of soldiers at his shuffling pace, and before
+him went the _aumonier_ or chaplain, swaying the crucifix, behind him
+the executioner of Versailles--a rough and bearded man--to assist in the
+final horror.
+
+It was at this intense moment a most wonderful spectacle. As the
+prisoner had first appeared, a single great shout had shaken the
+multitude. It was the French word "_Voila!_" which means "Behold!"
+"See!" Then every spectator stood on tiptoe; the silence of death
+succeeded; all the close street was undulant with human motion; a few
+house roofs near by were dizzy with folks who gazed down from the tiles;
+all the way up the heights of Pere la Chaise, among the pale chapels and
+monuments of the dead, the thousands of stirred beings swung and shook
+like so many drowned corpses floating on the sea. Every eye and mind
+turned to the little structure raised among the trees, on the space
+before _La Roquette_, and there they saw a dark, shaven, disrobed young
+man, going quietly toward his grave.
+
+He mounted the steps deliberately, looking toward his feet; the priest
+held up the crucifix, and he felt it was there, but did not see it; his
+lips one moment touched the image of Christ, but he did not look up nor
+speak; then, as he gained the last step, the _bascule_ or swingboard
+sprang up before him; the executioner gave him a single push, and he
+fell prone upon the plank, with his face downward; it gave way before
+him, bearing him into the space between the upright beams, and he lay
+horizontally beneath the knife, presenting the back of his neck to it.
+Thus resting, he could look into the _pannier_ or basket, into whose
+sawdust lining his head was to drop in a moment. And in that awful
+space, while all the people gazed with their fingers tingling, the
+legitimate Parisian executioner gave a jerk at the cord which held the
+fatal knife. With a quick, keen sound, the steel became detached; it
+fell hurtling through the grooves; it struck something with a dead, dumb
+thump; a jet of bright blood spurted into the light, and dyed the face
+of an attendant horribly red; and Couty de la Pommerais's head lay in
+the sawdust of the pannier, while every vein in the lopped trunk
+trickled upon the scaffold-floor! They threw a cloth upon the carcass
+and carried away the pannier; the guillotine disappeared beneath the
+surrounding heads; loud exclamations and acclaims burst from the
+multitude; the venders of trash and edibles resumed their cheerful
+cries, and a hearse dashed through the mass, carrying the warm body of
+the guillotined to the cemetery of Mt. Parnasse. In thirty minutes,
+newsboys were hawking the scene of the execution upon all the quays and
+bridges. In every cafe of Paris some witness was telling the incidents
+of the show to breathless listeners, and the crowds which stopped to see
+the funeral procession of the great Marshal Pelissier divided their
+attention between the warrior and the poisoner,--the latter obtaining
+the preponderance of fame.
+
+I wonder sometimes, if the ultimate penalty, however enforced, greatly
+assists example, or dignifies justice. But this would involve a very
+long controversy, over which many sage heads have sadly ached.
+
+In the open daylight, when my face is shining, and my life secure, I
+take the humanitarian side, and denounce the barbarities of the gibbet.
+
+But when I come down the dark stairs of the daily paper office, after
+midnight, and see three or four stealthy fellows hiding in the shadows,
+and go up the black city unarmed with my pocket full of greenbacks, I
+think the gallows quite essential as a warning, and indorse it, even
+after seventeen executions.
+
+So end my desultory chapters of desultory life. It has been, in the
+arranging of them, difficult to reject material,--not to select it. I am
+amazed to find what a world of dead leaves lies around my feet, as if I
+were a tree that blossomed and shed its covering every day. There are
+baskets-full of copy still remaining, from which the temptation is great
+to gather. It is sad to have written so much at twenty-five, and yet to
+have only drifting convictions. I may have succeeded in depicting the
+lives of certain young gentlemen who reported the war. All of us, who
+were young, loved the business, and were glad to quit it. For myself, I
+am weary of travel; rather than publish again from these fragments of my
+fugitive life, let me weave their material into a more poetic story,
+softened by some years of stay at home.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Campaigns of a Non-Combatant,, by
+George Alfred Townsend
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23340.txt or 23340.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/3/4/23340/
+
+Produced by Rebecca Hoath, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/23340.zip b/23340.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0356ec8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23340.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6628d53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #23340 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23340)