Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-08 17:09:22HEADmain

1 files changed, 6815 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/41036-0.txt b/41036-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7df0ac8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/41036-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6815 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41036 ***
+
+[Illustration: Sergeant Hunter Charging the Confederates]
+
+
+Brave Deeds of Union Soldiers
+
+
+By
+SAMUEL SCOVILLE, JR.
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
+GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
+_Published November, 1915_
+
+_All rights reserved_
+Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Roosevelt_
+
+_Commissioner, Governor, Colonel and President, who believes in peace
+with honor, but never in peace at the price of righteousness and whose
+own life has been full of deeds of physical and moral courage, this
+book of brave deeds is dedicated._
+
+
+
+
+Foreword
+
+
+In these days when even our skies are shadowed by wars and rumors of
+wars, it is fitting to remember what men and women and children of our
+blood have done in the past. In this chronicle have been included not
+alone the great deeds of great men, but also the brave deeds of
+commonplace people. May the tale of their every-day heroism be an
+inspiration to each one of us to do our best endeavor when we find
+ourselves in the crisis-times of life.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+   I. THE BARE BRIGADE                                        11
+
+  II. THE ESCAPE FROM LIBBY PRISON                            19
+
+ III. TWO AGAINST A CITY                                      39
+
+  IV. BOY HEROES                                              51
+
+   V. THE CHARGE OF ZAGONYI                                   79
+
+  VI. THE LOCOMOTIVE CHASE                                    95
+
+ VII. SHERIDAN'S RIDE                                        121
+
+VIII. THE BLOODY ANGLE                                       141
+
+  IX. HEROES OF GETTYSBURG                                   163
+
+   X. THE LONE SCOUT                                         185
+
+  XI. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET                                   213
+
+ XII. FORGOTTEN HEROES                                       229
+
+XIII. THE THREE HUNDRED WHO SAVED AN ARMY                    253
+
+ XIV. THE RESCUE OF THE SCOUTS                               273
+
+  XV. THE BOY-GENERAL                                        311
+
+ XVI. MEDAL-OF-HONOR MEN                                     325
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+Sergeant Hunter Charging the Confederates          _Frontispiece_
+
+Libby Prison                                    _Facing page_ 24
+
+Captain Bailey and Midshipman Read
+Facing the New Orleans Mob                      "      "      46
+
+Sheridan Hurrying to Rally his Men              "      "     136
+
+The Battle of Gettysburg                        "      "     174
+
+Corporal Pike                                   "      "     190
+
+In the Woods Near Chancellorsville              "      "     264
+
+Attacking the Inner Traverses of Fort Fisher    "      "     320
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BARE BRIGADE
+
+
+Kipling wrote one of his best stories on how Mulvaney and his captain
+with an undressed company swam the Irriwaddy River in India and
+captured Lungtungpen. It was a brave deed. The average man can't be
+brave without his clothes.
+
+In the Civil War there was one unchronicled fight where a few naked,
+shoeless men swam a roaring river, marched through a thorny forest and
+captured a superior and entrenched force of the enemy together with
+their guns. This American Lungtungpen happened on the great march of
+General Sherman to the sea. He had fought the deadly and lost battle of
+Kenesaw Mountain, and failing to drive out the crafty Confederate
+General Johnson by direct assault outflanked him and forced him to fall
+back. Then the Union Army celebrated the Fourth of July, 1864, by the
+battle of Ruffs Station and drove Johnson back and across the
+Chattahoochee River. The heavy rains had so swollen this river that all
+the fords were impassable, while the Confederates had destroyed all
+boats for miles up and down the river to prevent them from being used
+by the Union Army and had settled down for a rest from their relentless
+pursuers. General McCook was commanding the part of the Union line
+fronting directly on the river. Orders came from General Sherman to
+cross at Cochran's Ford and Colonel Brownlow of the First Tennessee
+Regiment was ordered to carry out this command. He was the son of
+Fighting Parson Brownlow and had the reputation of not knowing what
+fear was. The attempt was made at three o'clock in the morning. It was
+raining in torrents and the men at the word of command dashed into the
+river. The water kept getting deeper and deeper and the bottom proved
+to be covered with great boulders over which the horses stumbled and
+round which the cross torrents foamed and rushed. When the men had
+finally reached the middle of the river and were swimming for dear
+life, suddenly a company of Confederates on the other side opened up on
+them at close range. As the bullets zipped and pattered through the
+water, the floundering, swimming men turned around and made the best of
+their way back, feeling that this was an impossible crossing to make.
+Once safely back they deployed on the bank and kept up a scattering
+fire all that morning against the enemy.
+
+As the day wore on, Colonel Dorr, who commanded the brigade, made his
+appearance and inquired angrily why the First Tennessee was not on the
+other side and in possession of the opposite bank. Colonel Brownlow
+explained that he had made the attempt, that there was no ford and that
+to attempt to make a swimming charge through the rough water and in the
+face of an entrenched enemy would be to sacrifice his whole regiment
+uselessly. Colonel Dorr would listen to no explanations.
+
+"If you and your men are afraid to do what you're told, say so and I'll
+report to General Sherman and see if he can't find some one else," he
+shouted and rode off, leaving Colonel Brownlow and his command in a
+fighting frame of mind. The former called nine of his best men to the
+rear and it was some time before he was calm enough to speak.
+
+"Boys," he said at last, "we've _got_ to cross that river. It's plain
+it can't be forded. We've no pontoons and I am not going to have my men
+slaughtered while they swim, but you fellows come with me and we'll
+drive those Rebs out of there before dark."
+
+He then gave directions for the rest of his men to keep up a tremendous
+fire to divert the attention of the enemy. In the meanwhile he and his
+little squad marched through the brush to a point about a mile up the
+river behind a bend. There they stripped to the skin and made a little
+raft of two logs. On this they placed their carbines, cartridge boxes
+and belts and swam out into the rough water, pushing the little raft in
+front of them. It was hard going. The water was high, and every once in
+a while the fierce current would dash and bruise some of the men
+against the boulders which were scattered everywhere along the bed of
+the river. The best swimmers, however, helped the weaker ones and they
+all worked together to keep the precious raft right side up and their
+ammunition and rifles dry. After a tremendous struggle they finally
+reached the opposite bank without having seen any Confederates. There
+they lined up, strapped on their cartridge belts, shouldered their
+carbines and started to march through the brush. Every step they took
+over the sharp stones and twigs and thorns was agony and the men
+relieved themselves by using extremely strong language.
+
+"No swearing, men!" said Colonel Brownlow, sternly.
+
+At that moment he stepped on a long thorn and instantly disobeyed his
+own order. He halted the column, extracted the thorn and amended his
+order.
+
+"No swearing, men,--unless it's absolutely necessary," he commanded.
+
+They limped along through the brush until they reached a road that led
+to the ford some four hundred yards in the rear of the enemy whom they
+could see firing away for dear life at the Union soldiers on the other
+side. The Confederate forces consisted of about fifty men. Colonel
+Brownlow and his nine crept through the brush as silently as possible
+until they were within a few yards of the unconscious enemy. Then they
+straightened up, cocked their carbines, poured in a volley and with a
+tremendous yell charged down upon them. The Confederates upon receiving
+this unexpected attack from the rear sprang to their feet, but when
+they saw the ten white ghostly figures charge down upon them, yelling
+like madmen, it was too much for their nerves and they scattered on
+every side. Twelve of them were captured. The last one was a
+freckle-faced rebel who tried to hide behind a tree. When seen,
+however, he came forward and threw down his gun.
+
+"Well, Yanks, I surrender," he said, "but it ain't fair. You ought to
+be ashamed to go charging around the country this way. If you'd been
+captured, we'd have hung you for spies because you ain't got any
+uniforms on."
+
+Colonel Brownlow hustled his prisoners up the river to the raft and
+made them swim across in front of them and then reported to General
+McCook that he had driven the enemy out of the rifle-pits, captured
+twelve men, one officer and two boats. Shortly afterward the
+Confederates withdrew from their position for, as some of the prisoners
+explained, they felt that if the Yanks could fight like that undressed,
+there was no telling what they'd do if they came over with their
+clothes on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE ESCAPE FROM LIBBY PRISON
+
+
+It takes a brave man to face danger alone. It takes a braver man to
+face danger in the dark. This is the story of a man who was brave
+enough to do both. It is the story of one who by his dogged courage
+broke out of a foul grave when it seemed as if all hopes for life were
+gone and who rescued himself and one hundred and eight other Union
+soldiers from the prison where they lay fretting away their lives.
+
+Libby Prison, the Castle Despair of captured Union officers, stood upon
+a hilltop in Richmond, the capital and center of the Confederacy. It
+was divided into three sections by solid walls, also ringed around by a
+circle of guards and there seemed to be no hopes for any of the
+hundreds of prisoners to break out and escape.
+
+In September, 1863, Colonel Thomas Rose, of the 77th Pennsylvania
+Volunteers, was taken prisoner at the terrible battle of Chickamauga.
+From the minute he was captured he thought of nothing else but of
+escape, although he had a broken foot which would have been enough to
+keep most men quiet. On the way to Richmond, he managed to crawl
+through the guards and escape into the pine-forests through which they
+were passing. There he wandered for twenty-four hours without food or
+water and suffering terribly from his wound. At the end of that time he
+was recaptured by a troop of Confederate cavalry and this time was
+carefully guarded and brought to Libby Prison. This prison was a
+three-story brick building which had formerly been occupied by Libby &
+Company as a ship-chandlery establishment. There were several hundred
+Union officers imprisoned there when Colonel Rose arrived. First he was
+taken into the office of the commandant. Back of his desk was a United
+States flag fastened "Union down," an insult for every loyal Union man
+that had to pass through this office.
+
+"We'll teach you to take better care of the old flag," remarked Colonel
+Rose as he stood before the commandant's desk for examination.
+
+The commandant scowled at this prisoner, but Rose looked him in the eye
+without flinching.
+
+"You won't have a chance to do much teaching for some years," said the
+commandant at last, grimly, "and you'll learn a lot of things that you
+don't know now."
+
+As Colonel Rose went up the ladder which led to the upper rooms and his
+head showed above the floor, a great cry went up from the rest of the
+prisoners of "Fresh fish! fresh fish! fresh fish!" This was the way
+that each newcomer was received and sometimes he was hazed a little
+like any other freshman.
+
+Although not as bad as some of the prisons, Libby Prison was no health
+resort. At times there were nearly a thousand prisoners crowded in
+there with hardly standing room. At night they all lined up in rows and
+laid down at the word of command, so closely packed that the floor was
+literally covered with them. Each one had to go to bed and get up at
+the same time. These crowded conditions made for disease and dirt, and
+the place was alive with vermin.
+
+"Skirmish for gray-backs," was the morning call in Libby Prison before
+the men got up. Each prisoner then would sit up in his place, strip off
+his outer garments and cleanse himself as much as possible from the
+crawling gray-backs, as they had nicknamed the vermin which attacked
+all alike. The food was as bad as the quarters. Soon after Rose arrived
+one man found a whole rat baked in a loaf of corn-cake which had been
+furnished as a part of his rations. The rat had probably jumped into
+the dough-trough while the corn-cake was being made and had been
+knocked in the head by the cook and worked into the cake. Another
+officer made himself one night a bowl of soup by boiling a lot of beans
+together with a fresh ham-bone. He set it aside to wait until morning
+so as to enjoy his treat by daylight. Afterward he was glad he did, for
+he found his soup full of boiled maggots. At times the men were
+compelled to eat mule-meat and sometimes were not even given that but
+had to sell their clothing to keep from starving. In each room was a
+single water faucet without basin or tub. This was all that perhaps a
+couple of hundred men had to use both for washing and drinking
+purposes. The death-rate from disease in these crowded quarters was, of
+course, terribly high.
+
+[Illustration: Libby Prison]
+
+From the day Rose entered the prison he made up his mind that he would
+not die there like a sick dog if there was any way of escape and there
+was not a moment of his waking hours in which he was not planning some
+way to get out. Although the prisoners were not supposed to have
+communication with each other or from outside, there was a complete
+system under which each one had news from all over the prison as well
+as from the outside world. This was done by a series of raps
+constituting the prison telegraph. As the guards usually visited the
+prison only at intervals in the daytime, the prisoners managed to pass
+back and forth down through the chimney throughout the whole prison in
+spite of locked doors and supposedly solid walls. Messages and money
+were frequently sent in from outside. A favorite trick was to wind
+greenbacks around a spool and then have the thread wound by machinery
+over this money. Gold pieces were sealed up in cans of condensed milk.
+Maps, compasses and other helps for escaping prisoners were sent in a
+box. In order to prevent suspicion of the fact that the box had a
+double bottom, two double bottoms were placed on the box side by side
+with a space between them. When the contents were turned out, the
+prison inspectors could see the light shining through the bottom of the
+box and were thus convinced that there could be no double bottom there.
+Letters were sent in containing apparently harmless home-news. Between
+the lines, information as to routes and guards was written in lemon
+juice. This was invisible until exposed to heat, when the writing would
+show.
+
+Colonel Rose was placed in the topmost room of the eastern wing. This
+was named Upper Gettysburg. From there he saw workmen entering a sewer
+in the middle of a street which led to the canal lying at the foot of
+the hill on which the prison stood. He at once decided to tunnel into
+this sewer and crawl through that into the canal which was beyond the
+line of the guards. With this plan in view, he began to explore the
+prison. One dark afternoon he managed to make his way down through the
+rooms to one of the dungeons underneath, which was known as Rat Hell.
+This had been used as a dead-house and was fairly swarming with rats.
+As he was fumbling around there he suddenly heard a noise and in a
+minute another man came in. Each thought the other was a guard, but
+finally it turned out that the intruder was a fellow-prisoner, a
+Kentucky major named Hamilton. This Major and Rose at once became fast
+friends and immediately planned a tunnel from a corner of Rat Hell
+after securing a broken shovel and two kitchen knives. They had no more
+than begun this, however, before alterations were made in the prison
+which cut them off from this dungeon. By this time the other prisoners
+had noticed the midnight visits of Rose and Hamilton as well as their
+constant conferences together and it was buzzed around everywhere that
+there was a plot on hand to break out of Libby. For fear of spies or
+traitors, Rose decided to organize a company of the most reliable men
+and plan a dash out through one of the walls and the overpowering of
+the guards. Seventy-two men were sworn in and everything was arranged
+for the dash for freedom one cloudy night. The little band had all
+gathered in Rat Hell and sentries had been placed at the floor opening
+into the kitchen above. Suddenly footsteps were heard and the signal
+was given that the guards were making a tour of inspection of the
+prison. In perfect silence and with the utmost swiftness, each man went
+up the rope-ladder to the floor above and stole into his bed. Rose was
+the last man up. He managed to reach the kitchen and hide his
+rope-ladder about ten seconds before the officer of the guard thrust
+his lantern into the door of the lowest sleeping chamber. Rose had no
+time to lie down, but with great presence of mind sat at a table and
+stuck an old pipe into his mouth and nodded his head as if he had gone
+to sleep while sitting up and smoking. The guard stared at him for a
+moment and passed on.
+
+The next day the leaders decided that some news of the attempt must
+have reached the authorities outside to account for this sudden and
+unusual visit. It was decided to raise the numbers and make an
+immediate attempt. The band was increased from seventy-two to four
+hundred and twenty. With the increase in numbers, however, there seemed
+to be a decrease of courage. Many of the officers feared that it was a
+hopeless plan for a crowd of unarmed men to break through a ring of
+armed guards and that such an attempt would merely arouse the town and
+they would be hemmed in, driven back and shot down in crowds inside the
+prison walls. Finally a vote was taken and it was decided to abandon
+this plan.
+
+Once more Rose and Hamilton found themselves the only two left who were
+absolutely resolved on an escape. After talking the matter over, they
+decided to begin another tunnel. This time they had only an old
+jack-knife and a chisel to work with and they could only work between
+ten at night and four in the morning. They started back of the kitchen
+fireplace and there removed twelve bricks and dug a tunnel down to Rat
+Hell so that they could reach this base without disturbing any other
+prisoners and without being exposed to detection by the guard. One
+would work and the other would watch. At dawn each day the bricks were
+replaced and the cracks filled in with soot. They had no idea of
+direction and this tunnel was nearly the death of Rose. The digging was
+done by him while Major Hamilton would fan air to him with his hat, but
+so foul was the air below ground that bits of candle which they had
+stolen from the hospital would go out at a distance of only four feet
+from the cellar wall. In spite of this terrible atmosphere, Rose dug
+his tunnel clear down to the canal, but unfortunately went under the
+canal and the water rushed in and he had a narrow escape from being
+drowned. By this time both men were so nearly exhausted that they
+decided to take in helpers again. Thirteen men were chosen to work with
+them and were all sworn to secrecy. The flooded passage was plugged and
+a fresh one started in the direction of a small sewer which ran from a
+corner of the prison down to the main sewer beyond. Night after night
+in the mud and stench and reek underground they dug their tunnel. At
+last they reached the small sewer only to find that it was lined with
+wood. The only cutting tools they had were a few small pen-knives. With
+these they slowly whittled a hole through the wooden lining and the
+fourteen men were all in high hopes of an escape. The night came when
+only a few hours of work would be necessary to make a hole large enough
+to enter the small sewer. It was then hoped they could all crawl from
+this into the larger one and down into the canal safe past the guards.
+Once again they were all grouped shivering at the entrance to the
+tunnel, waiting for the man who was working inside to pass the word
+back that the opening was made. Suddenly the news came back that the
+entrance into the large sewer was barred by planks of solid, seasoned
+oak six inches thick. The chisel and the penknives were worn down to
+the handles. For thirty-nine nights these men had worked at the highest
+possible pitch under indescribable conditions. There was not an inch of
+steel left to cut with or an ounce of reserved strength to go on
+farther. Despairingly, the party broke up, put away the kits which they
+had prepared for the march and once again Rose and Hamilton were left
+alone by their discouraged comrades.
+
+After a day's rest, these two decided to start another tunnel in the
+north corner of the cellar away from the canal. This tunnel would come
+out close to the sentry beat of the guards, but Rose had noticed that
+this beat was nearly twenty yards long and it was decided that in the
+dark there would be a fair chance of slipping through unseen. Once
+again Rose and Hamilton started on this new task alone. They had
+finally obtained another chisel and this was the only tool which they
+had. Once more Rose did the digging. Hamilton would fan with all his
+strength and Rose would work until he felt his senses going, then he
+would crawl back into the cellar and rest and get his breath. The earth
+was dragged out in an old wooden cuspidor which they had smuggled down
+from their room and Hamilton would hide this under a pile of straw in
+the cellar. The tunnel became longer and longer, but Rose was nearly at
+the end of his strength. It was absolutely impossible to breathe the
+fetid air in the farther end of the tunnel, nor could Hamilton alone
+fan any fresh air to him. Once again, and with great difficulty, a new
+party of ten was organized. These worked in shifts--one man dug and two
+or three fanned the air through the tunnel with their hats, another man
+dragged the earth into the cellar and a fifth kept watch. The first
+five would work until exhausted and then their places would be taken by
+the second shift. They finally decided to work also by day and now the
+digging went on without interruption every minute of the twenty-four
+hours. Finally, the little band of exhausted workers had gone nearly
+fifty feet underground. They were on the point of breaking down from
+absolute exhaustion. The night-shift would come out into Rat Hell and
+be too tired and dazed to find their way out and would have to be
+looked after in the dark and led back to the rooms above like little
+children.
+
+Rose, in spite of all that he had been through, was the strongest of
+the lot and could work after every other man had fallen out. It was
+still necessary for the tunnel to be carried five feet further to clear
+the wall. Once again a sickening series of accidents and surprises
+occurred. The day-shift always ran the risk of being missed at
+roll-call, which was held every morning and afternoon. Usually this was
+got around by repeating--one man running from the end of the line
+behind the backs of his comrades and answering the name of the missing
+man. On one occasion, however, there were two missing and a search was
+at once begun which might have resulted in finding the entrance to the
+tunnel. There was just time to pull these two up out of the dark and
+brush off the telltale dirt from their hands and clothes and tell them
+to lie down and play sick. Neither one of them needed to do much
+pretending and they both showed such signs of breakdown that the prison
+inspector came near sending them to the hospital, which would also have
+delayed operations. The next day, while one man was inside the tunnel,
+a party of guards entered Rat Hell and remained there so long that it
+was evident they must have suspected that something was going on.
+Colonel Rose called his band together for a conference. He believed
+that two days of solid work would finish the tunnel. The rest of the
+men, however, pleaded for time. They were half sick, wholly exhausted
+and discouraged. Rose decided that he would risk no further delay and
+that the last two days' work should be entrusted to no one except
+himself. The next day was Sunday and the cellar was usually not
+inspected on that day. He posted his fanners and sentries and at early
+dawn crawled into the tunnel and worked all day long and far into the
+night lying full length in a stifling hole hardly two feet in diameter.
+When he dragged himself out that night, he could not stand but had to
+be carried across the cellar and up the rope ladder and fanned and
+sponged with cold water and fed what soup they could obtain until he
+was able to talk. He then told the band that he believed that twelve
+hours more of work would carry the tunnel beyond the danger line. He
+slept for a few hours and then, in spite of the protests of the others,
+crawled down into the reeking hole again, followed by the strongest of
+the band who were to act as fanners.
+
+For seventeen days they had been working and the tunnel was now
+fifty-three feet long. In order to save time, Rose had made the last
+few feet so narrow that it was impossible for him to even turn over or
+shift his position. All day long he worked. Night came and he still
+toiled on, although his strokes were so feeble that he only advanced by
+inches each hour. Finally it was nearly midnight of the last day and
+Rose had reached the limit of his strength. The fanners were so
+exhausted that they could no longer push the air to the end of the
+tunnel. Rose felt himself dying of suffocation. He was too weak to
+crawl backward, nor had he strength to take another stroke. The air
+became fouler and thicker and he felt his senses leaving him and he
+gasped again and again in a struggle for one breath of pure air. In
+what he felt was his death agony, he finally forced himself over on his
+back and struck the earth above him with his fists as he unconsciously
+clutched at his throat in the throes of suffocation. Thrusting out his
+arms in one last convulsive struggle, he suddenly felt both fists go
+through the earth and a draught of pure, life-giving air came in. For a
+moment Rose had the terrible feeling that it was too late and that he
+was too sick to rally. Once again, however, his indomitable courage
+drove back death. For some minutes he lay slowly breathing the air of
+out-of-doors. It was like the elixir of life to him after long months
+of breathing the foul atmosphere of the prison and tunnel. Little by
+little his strength came back and he slowly enlarged the hole and
+finally thrust his head and shoulders cautiously out into the yard. The
+first thing that caught his eye was a star and he felt as if he had
+broken out of the grave and come back again to hope and life. He found
+that he was still on the prison side of the wall, but directly in front
+of him was a gate which was fastened only by a swinging bar. Rose spent
+some moments practicing raising this bar until he felt sure he could do
+it quietly and swiftly. Just outside was the sentry beat. Rose waited
+until the sentry's back was turned, opened the gate and peered out,
+convincing himself that there was plenty of time to pass out of the
+gate and into the darkness beyond before the sentry turned to come
+back. He then lowered himself again into the stifling tunnel, drew a
+plank which he found in the yard over the opening, after first
+carefully concealing the fresh earth, and crept back again into Rat
+Hell.
+
+It was three o'clock in the morning when Rose gathered together his
+little band and told them that at last Libby Prison was open. Rose and
+Hamilton, the leaders, were anxious to start at once. They had seen so
+many accidents and so many strokes of misfortune that they urged an
+instant escape. The others, however, begged them to wait and to leave
+early the next evening so that they could gain a whole night's start
+before their absence was found at the morning roll-call. With many
+misgivings, Rose at last consented to do this. The next day was the
+most nerve-racking day of his life. Every noise or whisper of the guard
+seemed to him to be a sign that the tunnel had been discovered. The
+time finally dragged along and nothing happened and once again the
+party met in Rat Hell at seven o'clock in the evening of February 9th
+and Rose and the faithful Hamilton led the way through the tunnel to
+freedom. Every move was carefully planned. The plank was raised
+noiselessly and Rose had taken the precaution to leave the gate
+half-open so that the sentry on duty that night would see nothing
+unusual. He found it just as he had left it. All that was necessary now
+to do was for each man to wait until the sentry had passed a few yards
+beyond the gate and then to start noiselessly through and out to
+freedom. All thirteen escaped easily. The last man left a message that
+the prison was open to any one who dared try the tunnel. By nine
+o'clock that night the message flashed through each ward that the
+colonel and a party had escaped. There was a rush for the hole at the
+fireplace and one hundred and nine other prisoners slipped through and
+got safely past the guard. After days and weeks of hiding, starving and
+freezing, the original party and many of the others got safely through
+to the Union lines.
+
+Castle Despair had again been broken by Mr. Great Heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO AGAINST A CITY
+
+
+It takes brave men to fight battles. It takes braver men to face death
+without fighting.
+
+In the spring of 1862 New Orleans, the Queen City of the South, was
+blockaded by the Union fleet. No one could come in or go out. The grass
+grew in her empty streets. The wharves were deserted and cobwebs lay on
+the shut and barred warehouses. The river itself, which had been
+thronged with the masts and funnels of a thousand crowded craft, flowed
+yellow and empty as the Amazon.
+
+As business stopped and wages grew scarce and scarcer, the fierce,
+dangerous part of the population which comes to the surface in times of
+siege began to gain more and more control of the city. For years there
+had been a secret society of criminals in New Orleans which had often
+controlled her city government. It was known as the "Thugs." Heretofore
+they had always worked in secret and underground. Now criminals who
+formerly would only come out at night and secretly, were seen on the
+streets in open day. As the Union lines closed around the city by sea
+and land, the crowds of men and women without money and without work
+became as fierce and bitter and dangerous as rats in a trap. For a
+while they told each other that the city could never be taken. Nothing
+afloat, they said again and again, can pass by the great chain and the
+sunken ships that block the river. If they could they would sink under
+the withering fire of Fort Jackson, a great star-shaped fort of stone
+and mortar, or Fort St. Phillip with its fifty-two guns which could be
+brought to bear on any vessel going up or down the river. Beyond the
+forts was a fleet of rams and gunboats and in a shipyard over at
+Jefferson, one of the suburbs of New Orleans, was building the great
+iron-clad _Mississippi_, which alone they felt would be equal to
+the whole blockading fleet. So thought and said the swarming unemployed
+thousands of New Orleans. Finally came a dreadful day when the tops of
+the naked masts of the hated Yankee fleet showed against the evening
+sky across one of the bends of the river. Then came the roar of distant
+guns for a day and a night as the Union vessels attacked the forts and
+concealed batteries. Still the people believed in their defenses
+although the firing came nearer and nearer. Not until they saw the city
+troops carry the cotton out of the cotton-presses down to the wharves
+to be burned in miles of twisting flame to save it from the Union Army
+did they realize how close was the day of the surrender of the city.
+Then all the empty ships which had been moored out in the river were
+fired and the warehouses of provisions still left were broken open.
+Mobs of desperate men and women surged back and forth fighting for the
+sugar and rice and molasses with which the wharves were covered.
+Suddenly around Slaughter House Point, silent, grim and terrible, came
+the black fleet which had safely run the gauntlet of forts, gunboats,
+batteries and torpedoes. For the first time since the war had begun,
+the Stars and Stripes floated again in sight of New Orleans. As the
+fleet came nearer and nearer, the crowds which blackened the wharves
+and levees of New Orleans shouted for the _Mississippi_.
+
+"Where is the _Mississippi_? Ram the Yanks! Mississippi! Mississippi!
+Mississippi!" thousands of voices roared across the water and through
+the forsaken streets of the doomed city. And then, as if called by the
+shout of her city, around a bend suddenly floated the great iron-clad
+_Mississippi_ which was to save New Orleans,--a helpless, drifting
+mass of flames. There was a moment of utter silence and then a scream
+of rage and despair went up that drowned the crackling of the flames.
+
+"Betrayed! Betrayed! We have been betrayed!" was the cry which went up
+everywhere. No stranger's life was worth a moment's purchase. One man
+whose only crime was that he was unknown to the mob was seized at one
+of the wharves and in an instant was swinging, twisting and choking,
+from the end of a rope at a lamp-post. Through the crowds flitted the
+Thugs and began a reign of terror against all whom they hated or
+feared. Men were hung and shot and stabbed to death that day at a word.
+The mob was as dangerous, desperate and as unreasoning as a mad dog.
+Through this roaring, frothing, cursing crowd it was necessary for
+Admiral Farragut to send messengers to the mayor at the City Hall to
+demand the surrender of the city. It seemed to the men in the ships
+like going into a den of trapped wild beasts, yet instantly Captain
+Theodorus Bailey, the second in command, demanded from the admiral the
+right to undertake this dangerous mission. With a little guard of
+twenty men he was landed on the levee in front of a howling mob which
+crowded the river-front as far as the eye could reach. They offered an
+impenetrable line through which no man could pass. Captain Bailey drew
+his marines up in line and tried to reason with the mob, but could not
+even be heard. He then ordered his men to level their muskets and take
+aim. In an instant the mob had pushed forward to the front crowds of
+women and children and dared the Yanks to shoot. Captain Bailey
+realized that nothing could be done by force without a useless
+slaughter of men and women and children. In order to save this he
+decided to try what could be done by two unarmed men. If this plan
+failed, it would be time enough to try what could be done by grape and
+canister. Taking a flag of truce and choosing as his companion a young
+midshipman named Read, whom he knew to be a man of singular coolness,
+Captain Bailey started up the street to the City Hall. It was a
+desperate chance. The mob had already tasted blood and it was almost
+certain that some one would shoot or stab these two representatives of
+the hated Yanks as soon as they were out of sight of the ships. The
+slightest sign of fear or hesitation would mean the death of both of
+them. Captain Bailey and Midshipman Read, however, were men who would
+take just such a chance. Slowly, unconcernedly, they walked along the
+streets through a roar of shouts, and curses, and cheers for Jeff
+Davis. As they reached the middle of the city, the crowd became more
+and more threatening. They were pushed and jostled while men, many of
+them members of the dreaded Thugs, thrust cocked revolvers into their
+faces and waved bowie-knives close to their throats. Others rushed up
+with coils of rope which had already done dreadful service. Captain
+Bailey never even glanced at the men around him, but looking straight
+ahead walked on as unconcernedly as if he were treading his own
+quarter-deck. Young Read acted as if he were bored with the whole
+proceeding. He examined carefully the brandished revolvers and knives
+and smiled pleasantly into the distorted, scowling, gnashing faces
+which were thrust up against his. Occasionally he would half pause to
+examine some building which seemed to impress him as particularly
+interesting and would then saunter unconcernedly along after his
+captain.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Bailey and Midshipman Read Facing the New
+Orleans Mob]
+
+Right on through the gauntlet of death passed the two men with never a
+quiver of the eye or a motion of the face to show that they even knew
+the mob was there. Little by little, men who had retained something of
+their self-control began to persuade the more lawless part of the
+rabble to fall back. It was whispered around that Farragut, that old
+man of iron and fire, had said that he would level the city as flat as
+the river if a hand were even laid on his envoys. Finally through the
+surging streets appeared the City Hall and the end of that desperate
+march was in sight. At the very steps of the City Hall the mob took a
+last stand. Half-a-dozen howling young ruffians, with cocked revolvers
+in either hand, stood on the lower step and dared the Union messengers
+to go an inch farther. Midshipman Read stepped smilingly ahead of his
+captain and gently pushed with either hand two of the cursing young
+desperadoes far enough to one side to allow for a passageway between
+them. Both of them actually placed the muzzles of their cocked
+revolvers against his neck as a last threat, but even the touch of cold
+steel did not drive away Read's amused smile. The mob gave up.
+Evidently these men had resources about which they knew nothing.
+
+"They were so sure that we wouldn't kill them that we couldn't," said
+one of the Thugs afterward in explaining why the hated messengers had
+been allowed to march up the steps.
+
+They sauntered into the mayor's room where they met a group of
+white-faced, trembling men who were the mayor and his council. Captain
+Bailey delivered the admiral's summons for the surrender of the city to
+the mayor. The mob, which at first had stayed back, at this point
+surged up to the windows and shouted curses and threats into the very
+mayor's room, threatening him and the council if they dared to
+surrender the city. Captain Bailey and his companion gave the trembling
+city officials a few minutes in which to make up their minds. Suddenly
+there was heard a roar outside louder than any which had come before.
+The mob had torn down the Union flag which had been hoisted over the
+custom house and rushing to the mayor's office, tore it to pieces
+outside the open windows and threw the fragments in at the seated
+envoys. This insult to their flag aroused Captain Bailey and young Read
+as no threats against them personally had been able to do. Turning to
+the mayor and the shrinking council, Bailey said, "As there is a God in
+heaven, the man who tore down that Union flag shall hang for it." Later
+on this promise was carried out by the inflexible General Butler when
+he took over the city from Admiral Farragut and hanged Mumford, the man
+who tore down the flag in the city square, before the very mob which
+had so violently applauded his action. This incident was the last straw
+for the mayor and his associates. They neither dared to refuse to
+surrender the city lest it should be bombarded by Farragut nor did they
+dare to surrender it for fear of the mob which had gathered around them
+with significant coils of rope over their arms. In a half-whisper they
+hurriedly notified Captain Bailey that they could not surrender the
+city, but that they would make no resistance if the Union forces
+occupied it. Looking at them contemptuously, Captain Bailey turned
+away, picked up the fragments of the torn flag and faced the mob
+outside threateningly. The man who had torn the flag slunk back and his
+example was contagious. One by one men commenced to sneak away and in a
+minute the City Hall was deserted and Captain Bailey and Midshipman
+Read were able to leave the building and drive back to the vessels in a
+carriage obtained for them by the mayor's secretary.
+
+So ended what one of the mob, who afterward became a valued citizen of
+his state, described as the bravest deed he had ever seen--two unarmed
+men facing and defeating a mob of murderers and madmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BOY HEROES
+
+
+One doesn't have to be big, or old, or strong to be brave. But one does
+have to believe in something so much and so hard that nothing else
+counts, even death. An idea that is so big that everything else seems
+small is called an ideal. It is easy for a boy with an ideal to be
+brave. Cassabianca, the boy who stayed on the burning ship because he
+had been ordered to wait there by his dead father, had made obedience
+his ideal. The boy of Holland who found a leak in the dyke which could
+only be stopped by his hand, and who stayed through the long night and
+saved his village but lost his right hand had learned this great ideal
+of self-sacrifice. The shepherd boy who saved his sheep from a lion and
+a bear and who afterward was the only one who dared enter the fatal
+valley and meet the fierce giant-warrior had as his ideal faith. He
+believed so strongly that he was doing God's will that he shared God's
+strength.
+
+In the great war between slavery and freedom which swept like fire over
+the country, boys learned the ideals for which their fathers fought.
+They learned to believe so entirely in freedom that there was no room
+left for fear. Many of them went to the war as drummer boys, the only
+way in which boys could enlist. One of these was Johnny McLaughlin of
+the Tenth Indiana. Johnny lived at a place called Lafayette and was not
+quite eleven years old. From the minute that the war broke out he
+thought of nothing but what he could do for his country and for
+freedom. Other boys played at drilling and marching, but this was not
+enough for him. He made inquiries and found that if he could learn to
+drum, there was a chance that he might be allowed to enlist. He said
+nothing at first to his father and mother about his plans, but saved
+all his spending-money and worked every holiday in order to get enough
+to buy a drum. Times were hard, however. There was little money for
+men, much less for boys, and after Johnny had worked for over two
+months, he had saved exactly two dollars. In the village was a drummer
+who had been sent home to recover from his wounds and to him Johnny
+went one day to ask how much more he would have to save before he could
+buy a drum. The man told him that a good drum would cost him at least
+ten dollars. Johnny sighed and turned away very much discouraged.
+
+"Why don't you play something else?" said the man. "You can get more
+fun out of ten dollars than buying a drum with it."
+
+"I don't want it to play with," said Johnny. "I want to learn to drum
+so that I can enlist."
+
+At first the man laughed at the boy--he seemed so little, but when he
+found that Johnny had made up his mind to do his share for his country
+in the great fight, Donaldson, as he was named, became serious.
+
+"I tell you what I'll do," he said at last. "If you are really in
+earnest about learning to drum, I'll give you lessons myself, for,"
+said he modestly, "I was the best drummer in my regiment. If you can
+learn and they will take you, I'll give you the old drum. I'll send it
+to the front even if I can't go myself."
+
+This was enough for Johnny. Morning, noon and night he was with his
+friend Donaldson and it was a wonder that the drum-head was not worn
+out long before he learned. Learn he did, however, and in a few months
+there was not a roll or a call which he could not play. One morning as
+the school-bell was ringing, Johnny presented himself to his parents
+with the big drum around his neck looking nearly as large as he was.
+
+"I'm going to enlist," he said simply.
+
+At first his father and mother, like Donaldson, were inclined to laugh
+at him, he was such a little boy, but Johnny was in earnest and a boy
+who is in earnest always gets what he wants. A few days later found him
+a drummer for the Tenth Indiana and as he led the regiment, beating the
+long roll, Johnny was the proudest boy that had ever come out of
+Indiana. He had his first taste of fire at Fort Donelson and afterward
+at the bloody battle of Shiloh. Johnny drummed until the terrible
+drumming of the muskets drowned out even his loud notes. Then he laid
+down his sticks, carefully hid his drum, took a musket and cartridge
+box from off one of the dead soldiers and ran on with his regiment and
+fought in the front with the bravest of them all. He had a quick eye
+and it was not long before he could shoot as accurately as any man
+there.
+
+It was just after Shiloh that Johnny had a narrow escape from being
+captured. Wanting to try everything, he obtained permission to do
+picket duty at night although this work was not required of drummer
+boys. As he had shown himself such a cool and ready fighter, his
+colonel felt that he was entirely able to do this duty and one dark
+night put him on picket. His post was some distance away from the camp.
+Just at dawn he was suddenly rushed by a party of rebel cavalry. As
+they burst out of the bushes Johnny fired his carbine at the first one,
+dropping him, and ran across an open field about fifty yards wide. At
+the other side was an old, rotten, log fence and beyond that a mass of
+briers and underbrush where he was sure the horses could not follow.
+Fortunately for him the rains had made the field a mass of mud. There
+his lightness gave him the advantage, for the horses slumped through at
+every step. The rebels fired constantly at him as they rode with their
+pistols. One ball went through his hat, another clear through his
+cartridge box and lodged in his coat, fortunately without exploding any
+of the cartridges. Beyond the middle of the field the ground was drier
+and the horsemen commenced to gain on him, but he reached the fence
+well ahead and with one jump landed on the top. The rotten rails gave
+way underneath him and he plunged headlong over into the brush, right
+on the back of a big sleeping wild pig who had rooted out a lair at
+this place. The pig jumped up grunting and crashed through the
+underbrush and Johnny heard his pursuers smashing through the broken
+fence not a rod away. He curled up into the round hole which the pig
+had left, drew down the bushes over his head and lay perfectly quiet.
+The horsemen, hearing the rustling of leaves and the smashing of
+branches as the pig dashed off down a pathway, followed after at full
+gallop and were out of sight in a minute. As soon as the sound of their
+galloping had died away, Johnny crawled cautiously out of his hole and
+made the best of his way back to camp. The next day some of the rebel
+cavalry were taken prisoners and Johnny recognized one of them as the
+leader of the squad which had so nearly caught him. The prisoner
+recognized the boy at the same time and they both grinned cheerfully at
+each other.
+
+"Did you catch that pig yesterday?" finally said Johnny.
+
+"We did that," retorted the prisoner, "but it wasn't the one we were
+after."
+
+Johnny had always been able to ride the most spirited horses on the
+farm and after Shiloh he asked to be transferred from the infantry to
+Colonel Jacob's Kentucky Cavalry. There he attracted the attention of
+the colonel so that the latter gave him one of the best horses in the
+regiment and a place in the Fighting First, as the best-mounted company
+was called, which the colonel always led personally in every charge. In
+this company Johnny was taught how to handle a sabre. The regular sabre
+was too heavy for him, but Colonel Jacob had one light, short one
+specially made which Johnny learned to handle like a flash. A German
+sergeant, who had been a great fencer on the Continent, taught him all
+that he knew and before long Johnny was an expert in tricks of fence
+which stood him in good stead later on. One in special he so perfected
+that it was never parried. Instead of striking down with the sabre as
+is generally done, Johnny learned a whirling, flashing upper-cut which
+came so rapidly that generally an opponent could not even see much less
+parry it. He was also armed with the regulation revolver and a light
+carbine instead of the heavy revolving rifle used by the rest of the
+troop. At Perryville he fought his first battle with his new regiment.
+In the charge he stuck close to Colonel Jacob and received a ball
+through his left leg above the knee. Fortunately it did not break any
+bone and Johnny tore a strip off his shirt, bandaged the hole and went
+on with the fight. While he was doing this, the greater part of the
+regiment passed on and when Johnny started to join his colonel, he
+could not find him. He rode like the wind over the field and soon
+behind a little patch of woods saw Colonel Jacobs with only six or
+seven men, the rest having been scattered in the fight. Johnny spurred
+his horse over to him and the colonel was delighted to be joined by his
+little body-guard. As they were riding along to rejoin the rest of the
+regiment, from out a clump of bushes a squad of fifty men led by a
+Confederate major dashed out calling on them to surrender. Colonel
+Jacob hesitated, for some of his men were wounded and the odds seemed
+too great for a fight. Before he had time to answer, Johnny slipped in
+front of him, drew out his revolver and fired directly into the
+Confederate officer's face, killing him instantly and then drawing his
+sabre dashed into the ranks of the enemy. The first man he met was a
+big fellow whose bare, brawny arm and blood-stained sabre proved him a
+master with his weapon. Johnny never gave him a chance to strike. At
+the whirl of his light sabre his opponent instinctively raised his
+weapon in the ordinary parry of a down-blow and the point of Johnny's
+sabre caught him under the chin and toppled him off his horse. The
+Union men gave a cheer, followed their little leader, breaking clear
+through the demoralized Confederates and joined their command at the
+other side of the field.
+
+A few weeks later they had a skirmish with the troop of John Morgan,
+the most dreaded cavalry leader and fighter in all the South. Johnny,
+as usual, was in the front of the charge and had just cut at one man
+when another aimed a tremendous blow at his head in passing. There was
+just time for Johnny to raise the pommel of his sabre to save his head,
+but the deflected blow caught him on the leg and he fell from the horse
+with blood spurting out of his other leg this time. He lay perfectly
+quiet, but another rebel had seen him fall and spurring forward, caught
+him by the collar, saying:
+
+"We'll keep this little Yankee in a cage to show the children."
+
+Johnny did not approve of this cage-idea and although there was no room
+to use the sabre, managed to work his left hand back into his belt,
+draw his revolver and shoot his captor dead. In another minute his
+company came riding back and he was whirled up behind his colonel and
+rode back of him to safety. This last wound proved to be a serious one
+and he was sent back to Indiana on a furlough to give it time to heal.
+On the way back he was stopped by a provost guard and asked for his
+pass.
+
+"My colonel forgot to give me any passes," said Johnny, "but here are
+two that the rebels gave me," showing his bandaged legs, and the guard
+agreed with him that this was pass enough for any one. As his wound
+refused to heal, against his wishes he was discharged and once more
+returned home. He then tried to enlist again, but each time he was
+turned down because of the unhealed wound. Finally, Johnny traveled
+clear to Washington and had a personal talk with President Lincoln and
+explained to him that his wound would never heal except in active
+service. His arguments had such force with the President that a special
+order was made for his enlistment and he fought through the whole war
+and afterward joined the regular army.
+
+
+The littlest hero of the war was Eddie Lee. Shortly before the battle
+of Wilson's Creek, one of the Iowa regiments was ordered to join
+General Lyon in his march to the creek. The drummer of one of the
+companies was taken sick and had to go to the hospital. The day before
+the regiment was to march a negro came to the camp and told the captain
+that he knew of a drummer who would like to enlist. The captain told
+him to bring the boy in the next morning and if he could drum well he
+would give him a chance. The next day during the beating of the
+reveille, a woman in deep mourning came in leading by the hand a little
+chap about as big as a penny and apparently not more than five or six
+years old. She inquired for the captain and when the latter came out,
+told him that she had brought him a drummer boy.
+
+"Drummer boy," said the captain; "why, madam, we don't take them as
+small as this. That boy hasn't been out of the cradle many months."
+
+"He has been out long enough," spoke up the boy, "to play any tune you
+want."
+
+His mother then told the captain that she was from East Tennessee where
+her husband had been killed by the rebels and all her property
+destroyed and she must find a place for the boy.
+
+"Well, well," said the captain, impatiently, "Sergeant, bring the drum
+and order our fifer to come forward."
+
+In a few moments the drum was produced and the fifer, a tall,
+good-natured fellow over six feet in height, made his appearance.
+
+"Here's your new side-partner, Bill," said the captain.
+
+Bill stooped down, and down and down until his hands rested on his
+ankles and peered into the boy's face carefully.
+
+"Why, captain," said he, "he ain't much taller than the drum."
+
+"Little man, can you really drum?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the boy. "I used to drum for Captain Hill in
+Tennessee. I am nearly ten years old and I want the place."
+
+The fifer straightened himself up slowly, placed his fife at his mouth
+and commenced to play "The Flowers of the Forest," one of the most
+difficult pieces to follow on the drum. The little chap accompanied him
+without a mistake and when he had finished began a perfect fusillade of
+rolls and calls and rallies which came so fast that they sounded like a
+volley of musketry. When the noise had finally died out, the captain
+turned to his mother and said:
+
+"Madam, I'll take that boy. He isn't much bigger than a minute but he
+certainly can drum."
+
+The woman kissed the boy and nearly broke down.
+
+"You'll surely bring him back to me, captain," she said.
+
+"Sure," said the captain; "we'll all be discharged in about six weeks."
+
+An hour later Eddie was marching at the head of the Iowa First playing
+"The Girl I Left Behind Me" as it had never been played before. He and
+Bill, the fifer, became great chums and Eddie was the favorite of the
+whole regiment. Whenever anything especially nice was brought back by
+the foraging parties, Eddie always had his share and the captain said
+that he was in far more danger from watermelons than he was from
+bullets. On heavy marches the fifer would carry him on his back, drum
+and all, and this was always Eddie's position in fording the numerous
+streams.
+
+At the Battle of Wilson's Creek the Iowa regiment and a part of an
+Illinois regiment were ordered to clear out a flanking party concealed
+in a ravine upon the left of the Union forces. The ravine was a deep,
+long one with high trees and heavy underbrush and dark even at
+noontime. The Union regiments marched down and there was a dreadful
+hand-to-hand fight in the brush in the semi-twilight. Men became
+separated from each other and as in the great battle between David and
+Absalom, the wood devoured more people that day than the sword
+devoured. The fight was going against the Union men when suddenly a
+Union battery wheeled into line on a near-by hill and poured a rain of
+grape and canister into the Confederates which drove them out in short
+order. Later on the word was passed through the Union Army that General
+Lyon had been killed and soon after came the order to fall back upon
+Springfield. The Iowa regiment and two companies of a Missouri regiment
+were ordered to camp on the battle-field and act as a rear guard to
+cover a retreat. When the men came together that night there was no
+drummer boy. In the hurry and rush of hand-to-hand fighting, Eddie had
+become separated from Bill and although the latter raged back and forth
+through the brush like an angry bull, never a trace of his little
+comrade could he find. That night the sentries stood guard over the
+abandoned field and along the edge of the dark ravine now filled with
+the dead of both sides. It was a wild, desolate country and as the men
+passed back and forth over the stricken field, they could hear the
+long, mournful, wailing howl of the wolves which were brought by the
+smell of blood from the wilderness to the battle-field from miles
+around. That night poor Bill was unable to sleep and moaned and tossed
+on his blanket and said for the thousandth time:
+
+"If only I had kept closer to the little chap."
+
+Suddenly he sprang to his feet and roused the sleeping men all around
+him.
+
+"Don't you hear a drum?" said he.
+
+They all listened sadly, but could hear nothing.
+
+"Lie down, Bill," said one of them. "Eddie's gone. We all did the best
+we could."
+
+"He's down there in the dark," cried poor Bill, "drumming for help, and
+I must go to him."
+
+The others tried to hold him back for it was impossible to see a foot
+through the tangled ravine at night and moreover the orders were strict
+against any one leaving camp. Bill went to the sentry who guarded the
+captain's tent and finally persuaded the man to wake up the captain.
+The latter lay exhausted with fatigue and sorrow, but came out and
+listened as did all the rest for the drum, but nothing could be heard.
+
+"You imagined it, my poor fellow," he said. "There's nothing you could
+do to-night anyway. Wait until morning."
+
+Bill paced restlessly up and down all through that dark night and just
+as the dawn-light came in the sky, he heard again faint and far away a
+drum beating the morning call from out of the silence of the deep
+ravine. Again he went to the captain.
+
+"Of course you can go," said the latter, kindly, "but you must be back
+as soon as possible for we march at daybreak. Look out for yourself as
+the place is full of bushwhackers and rebel scouts."
+
+Bill started down the hill through the thick underbrush and wandered
+around for a time trying to locate the drum-beats which were thrown
+back by the trees so that it was difficult to determine from what point
+they came. As he crept along through the underbrush, they sounded
+louder and louder and finally in the darkest, deepest part of the
+ravine, he came out from behind a great pin-oak and saw his little
+comrade sitting on the ground leaning against the trunk of a fallen
+tree and beating his drum which was hung on a bush in front of him.
+
+"Eddie, Eddie, dear old Eddie," shouted Bill, bursting through the
+thicket. At the sound the little chap dropped his drumsticks and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Bill, I am so glad to see you. I knew you would come. Do get me a
+drink."
+
+Bill started to take his canteen down to a little near-by brook when
+Eddie called him back.
+
+"You'll come back, Bill, won't you," he said, "for I can't walk."
+
+Bill looked down and saw that both of his feet had been shot away by a
+cannon-ball and that the little fellow was sitting in a pool of his own
+blood. Choking back his sobs, the big fifer crawled down to the brook
+and soon came back with his canteen full of cold water which Eddie
+emptied again and again.
+
+"You don't think I am going to die, do you, Bill?" said the little boy
+at last. "I do so want to finish out my time and go back to mother.
+This man said I would not and that the surgeon would be able to cure
+me."
+
+For the first time Bill noticed that just at Eddie's feet lay a dead
+Confederate. He had been shot through the stomach and had fallen near
+where Eddie lay. Realizing that he could not live and seeing the
+condition of the boy, he had crawled up to him and taking off his
+buckskin suspenders had bandaged with them the little fellow's legs so
+that he would not bleed to death and on tying the last knot had fallen
+back dead himself. Eddie had just finished telling Bill all about it in
+a whisper, for his strength was going fast, when there was a trampling
+of horses through the ravine and in a minute a Confederate scouting
+party broke through the brush, calling upon Bill to surrender.
+
+"I'll do anything you want," said Bill, "if you will only take my
+little pal here safe back to camp and get him into the hands of a
+surgeon."
+
+The Confederate captain stooped down and spoke gently to the boy and in
+a minute took him up and mounted him in front of him on his own horse
+and they rode carefully back to the Confederate camp, but when they
+reached the tents of the nearest Confederate company they found that
+little Eddie had served out his time and had given his life for his
+country.
+
+
+On June 30, 1862, was fought the stubborn battle of Glendale, one of
+the Seven Days' Battles between McClellan, the general of the Union
+forces, and Lee, the Confederate commander. This battle was part of
+McClellan's campaign against Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy
+which he had within his grasp when he was out-generaled by Lee, who
+that month for the first time had been placed in supreme command of the
+Confederate Army. With him were his two great generals, Stonewall
+Jackson and Longstreet. McClellan was within sight of the promised
+land. The spires of Richmond showed against the sky. Instead of
+fighting he hesitated and procrastinated away every chance of victory.
+Lee was even then planning that wonderful strategy which was to halt a
+victorious army, turn it away from the beleaguered capital of the
+Confederacy and send it stumbling back North in a series of defeats. It
+was necessary for him to have a conference with Stonewall Jackson, his
+great fighting right-hand in military matters. Jackson rode almost
+alone fifty miles and attended a conference with Lee, Longstreet and
+Generals D. H. and A. P. Hill. To each of them General Lee assigned the
+part that he was to play. In the meantime, knowing that McClellan
+always read and pondered the Richmond papers, he arranged that
+simultaneously every paper should publish as news the pretended facts
+that strong reinforcements had been sent to the Shenandoah Valley.
+McClellan fell into the trap and instead of pressing forward to attack
+Richmond, which was now only guarded by a small force, he, as usual,
+waited for reinforcements and allowed his antagonists to march around
+him and start flanking battles which threatened to cut off his line of
+communications. The battle of Gaines Mill was fought in which battle
+General Fitz John Porter with thirty-one thousand men stubbornly faced
+Lee and Jackson's forces of fifty-five thousand and with sullen
+obstinacy only retreated when it was absolutely impossible longer to
+hold his ground. This defeat, which occurred simply because McClellan
+could not bring himself to send Porter the necessary reinforcements,
+made General McClellan resolve to withdraw, although even then, with a
+superior army, he could have fought his way to Richmond. From June 25th
+to July 1, 1862, occurred the Seven Days' Battles fought by the
+retreating Union Army. By one of the few mistakes which General Lee
+made in that campaign, the Union Army was allowed a respite of
+twenty-four hours to organize its retreat and were well on their way
+before pursuit was given. On June 29th there was a battle between the
+rear guard of the Union force and the Confederate's under General
+Magruder in which the Confederates were defeated. The next day came the
+battle of Glendale. Generals Longstreet and A. P. Hill commanded the
+Confederate Army while the rear guard of the retreating Union forces
+was made up of General McCall's division and that of General
+Heintzelman and a part of the corps under General Sumner which had done
+such gallant fighting the day before. It was a stern and stubborn
+battle. If the Confederates could cut through the rear guard, they
+would have the retreating army at their mercy. On the other hand, if
+they could be held back, the main army would have time to occupy a
+favorable position and entrench and could be saved. For a time it
+seemed as if the Confederate attack could not be checked. Every
+available man was called into action. Back at the rear were posted the
+hospital corps where the sick and wounded lay. With them were stationed
+the band and the drum-corps made up of drummer boys who were supposed
+to keep out of actual fighting as much as possible. Among them was a
+little Jewish boy named Benjamin Levy, who was only sixteen years old
+and small for his age. Benjamin stayed back with the hospital while the
+roar of the battle grew louder and louder. Finally there was a
+tremendous chorus of yells and groans and shouts mingled with the
+rattle of rifle-shots and the heavy thudding sounds which sabres and
+bayonets make as they slash and pierce living flesh. Little groups of
+wounded men came straggling back or were carried back to the hospital
+and each one told a fresh story of the fierce fight which was going on
+at the near-by front. Benjamin could stand it no longer. The last
+wounded man that came in hobbled along with a broken leg, using his
+rifle for a crutch. The boy helped him to a near-by cot and made him as
+comfortable as he could.
+
+"Now you lie quiet," he said, "until the doctor comes and I'll just
+borrow this rifle of yours and do a little fighting in your place," and
+Benjamin picked up the gun and slipped on the other's cartridge belt.
+
+"Hi there, you come back with my gun," yelled the wounded man after
+him. "That front's no place for kids like you."
+
+Benjamin, however, was well on his way before the man had finished
+speaking and slipping past an indignant doctor who was trying to stop
+him, he ran forward, keeping as much as possible in the shelter of the
+trees among which the bullets and grape-shot were whining and humming.
+He passed many wounded limping to the rear and rows of prostrate men,
+some still, some writhing in the agony of their wounds. These were the
+men who had fallen on their way back to the hospital. A minute later
+Benjamin found himself in the thick of the fight. There had been a
+Confederate charge which the Union soldiers had just barely been able
+to drive back. The men were still panting and shouting and firing
+volleys at the gray forces who were reluctantly withdrawing to rally
+for another attack. The boy lay down with the rest and loaded and fired
+his borrowed rifle as rapidly as he could. No one seemed to notice him
+except the color-bearer who happened to be the man next to him. He had
+stopped firing to wipe his face and saw the little fellow close by his
+arm.
+
+"Why don't you get back to the rear where you belong?" he said,
+pretending to talk very fiercely. "This is no place for little boys.
+When those gray-backs come back, you'll scamper quick enough, so you
+had better be on your way now."
+
+"No I won't," said Benjamin positively. "I guess boys have got as much
+right to fight in this war as men have. Anyway, you won't see me do
+much running."
+
+Benjamin was mistaken in that last statement, for a minute later the
+colonel of this particular regiment decided that instead of waiting for
+a Confederate attack, he would do a little charging on his own account.
+The signal came. The men sprang over the earthworks and Benjamin found
+himself running neck and neck with the color-bearer at the head of them
+all. It was a glorious charge. The ground ahead was smooth, the fierce
+flag of the regiment streamed just in front and all around were men
+panting and cheering as they ran. It was almost like a race on the old
+school-green at home. They came nearer and nearer to the masses of
+gray-clothed men who were hurriedly arranging themselves in regular
+ranks out of the hurry and confusion of their retreat. When they were
+only a short hundred yards distant, suddenly a wavering line of fire
+and smoke ran all up and down the straggling line in front of them. Men
+plunged headlong here and there and Benjamin noticed that he and the
+color-bearer seemed to have drawn away from the rest and were racing
+almost alone. Suddenly his friend with the colors stopped in full
+stride, swung the flag over his head once with a shout and dropped
+backward with a bullet through his heart. As he fell the colors slowly
+dropped down through the air and were about to settle on the
+blood-stained grass when the boy, hardly knowing what he did, shifted
+his rifle to his left hand, caught the staff of the flag and once more
+the colors of the regiment were leading the men on. Right up to the
+gray line he carried them, followed by the whole regiment. Firing,
+cutting and stabbing with their bayonets they broke straight through
+the Confederates and after a hand-to-hand fight, drove them out of
+their position. They carried the boy, still clinging to the colors, on
+their shoulders to their colonel and to the end of his life Benjamin
+remembered the moment when the colonel shook hands with him before the
+cheering regiment as the climax of the greatest day of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CHARGE OF ZAGONYI
+
+
+In battle the charge is the climax. In other kinds of fighting men have
+a certain amount of shelter and respite and at long range it makes
+little difference whether the fighter is strong or weak. In a charge,
+however, the fighting is hand to hand. As in the days of old, men fight
+at close grips with their enemy and each one must depend upon his own
+strength and skill and bravery.
+
+There have been three charges in modern battles which have been
+celebrated over and over again. The first of these was the last
+desperate charge of the Old Guard at Waterloo. A thin red line of
+English held a hill which Napoleon, the greatest of modern generals,
+saw was the keystone of the battle. If that could be taken, the whole
+arch of the English and Belgium forces would crumble away into defeat.
+Again and again the French stormed at this hill and each time were
+driven back by the coolly-waiting deadly ranks of the English. Toward
+nightfall Napoleon made one last desperate effort. The Old Guard was to
+him what the great Tenth Legion had been to Julius Cæsar, the best and
+bravest veterans of his army who boasted that they had never yet been
+defeated. Calling them up with every last one of his reserves, he
+ordered a final desperate charge to break the battle center. To the
+grim drumming of what guns the little general had left, they rushed
+again up that blood-stained slope in desperate dark masses of unbeaten
+men. With a storm of cheers, the columns surged up in a vast blue
+battle-wave which seemed as if it must dash off by its weight the
+little group of silent, grim defenders. The Englishmen waited and
+waited and waited until the rushing ranks were almost on them. Then
+they poured in a volley at such close range that every bullet did the
+work of two and with a deep English cheer sprang on the broken ranks
+with their favorite weapon, the bayonet. That great battle-wave broke
+in a foam of shattered, dying and defeated men and the sunset of that
+day was the sunset of Napoleon's glory.
+
+Fifty years later in the great war which England with her allies was
+waging to keep the vast, fierce hordes of Russia from ruling Europe,
+happened another glorious, useless charge. Owing to a misunderstanding
+of orders, a little squad of six hundred cavalrymen charged down a
+mile-long valley flanked on all sides by Russian artillery against a
+battery of guns whose fire faced them all the way. Every schoolboy who
+has ever spoken a piece on Friday afternoon knows what comes next. How
+the gallant Six Hundred, stormed at with shot and shell, made the
+charge to the wonder and admiration of three watching armies and how
+they forced their way into the jaws of death and into the mouth of hell
+and sabred the gunners and then rode back--all that was left of them.
+
+In our own Civil War occurred the most famous charge of modern days,
+Pickett's charge at the battle of Gettysburg. For three days raged the
+first battle which the Confederates had been able to fight on Northern
+soil. If their great General Lee, with his seventy thousand veterans,
+won this battle, Washington, Philadelphia and even New York were at his
+mercy. On the afternoon of the third day he made one last desperate
+effort to break the center of the Union forces. Pickett's division of
+the Virginia infantry was the center of the attacking forces and the
+column numbered altogether over fifteen thousand men. For two hours Lee
+cannonaded the Union center with one hundred and fifteen guns. He was
+answered by the Union artillery although they could only muster eighty
+guns. Finally the Union fire was stopped in order that the guns might
+cool for Hunt, the Union chief of artillery, realized that the
+cannonade was started to mask some last great attack. Suddenly three
+lines, each over a mile long, of Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama,
+Georgia and Tennessee regiments started to cover the mile and a half
+which separated them from the Union center. The Union crest was held by
+the Pennsylvania regiments who were posted back of the stone wall on
+the very summit. As the gray lines rushed over the distance with a
+score of fierce battle flags flaming and fluttering over their ranks,
+the eighty guns which had cooled so that they could now be used with
+good effect opened up on them first with solid shot and then with the
+tremendous explosive shells. As they charged, the Virginia regiments
+moved away to the left leaving a gap between them and the men from
+Alabama on the right. The Union leaders took advantage of this gap and
+forced in there the Vermont brigade and a half brigade of New York men.
+By suddenly changing front these men were enabled to attack the
+charging thousands on their flank. The Union guns did terrible
+execution, opening up great gaps through the running, leaping, shouting
+men. As the charge came nearer and nearer the batteries changed to the
+more terrible grape and canister which cut the men down like grass
+before a reaper. Still they came on until they were face to face with
+the waiting Union soldiers who poured in a volley at short range. For a
+moment the battle flags of the foremost Confederate regiments stood on
+the crest. The effort had been too much. Over half of the men had been
+killed or wounded and many others had turned to meet the flank attack
+of the Vermont and New York regiments so that when the Pennsylvania
+troops met them at last with the bayonet, the gray line wavered, broke,
+and the North was saved.
+
+All three of these great charges were brave, glorious failures. This is
+the story of a charge, an almost forgotten charge, just as brave, just
+as glorious, which succeeded, a charge in which one hundred and sixty
+men and boys broke and routed a force of over two thousand entrenched
+infantry and cavalry.
+
+At the breaking out of the war, one of the most popular of the Union
+commanders was John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder. He had opened up the
+far West and had made known to the people the true greatness of the
+country beyond the Mississippi. At the birth of the Republican or
+Free-Soil Party, he was the first candidate. The country rang with a
+campaign song sung to the tune of the Marseillaise, the chorus of which
+was:
+
+    "March on, march on, ye braves,
+      And let your war cry be,
+    Free soil, free press, free votes, free men,
+        Fremont and victory."
+
+He was one of the first generals appointed. Among those whom the
+fascination of his romantic and adventurous life had attracted to his
+side was a Hungarian refugee named Zagonyi. In his boyhood he had
+fought in the desperate but unsuccessful war which Hungary made to free
+herself from the Austrian yoke. He served in the Hungarian cavalry; and
+in a desperate charge upon the Austrians, in which half the force were
+killed, Zagonyi was wounded and captured and for two years was a
+prisoner. He was finally released on condition that he leave his
+country forever. As an experienced soldier, he was welcomed by General
+Fremont and was authorized to raise a company to be known as Fremont's
+Body-Guard. In a few days two full companies, composed mostly of very
+young men, had been enrolled. A little later another company composed
+entirely of Kentucky boys was included in the guards. They were all
+magnificently mounted on picked horses and very handsomely uniformed.
+Because of their outfit and name they soon excited the envy of the
+other parts of the army who used to call them the "kid-glove brigade."
+Although well-trained and enthusiastic, they had no active service
+until October, 1861, when Zagonyi, who had been appointed their major,
+was ordered to take one hundred and sixty of his men and explore the
+country around Springfield, Missouri, through which the main army was
+intending to advance. There were rumors that a Confederate force was
+approaching to take possession of the city of Springfield and the
+body-guard marched seventeen hours without stopping in order to occupy
+this town before the enemy should arrive. As they came within two miles
+of Springfield, however, they were met by a farmer who informed them
+that the Confederates had beaten them in the race to Springfield and
+were already in camp on a hill about half a mile west of the town.
+Their rear was protected by a grove of trees and there was a deep brook
+at the foot of the hill. The only way to approach them was through a
+blind lane which ran into fences and ploughed fields. This was covered
+by sharpshooters and infantry while four hundred Confederate horsemen
+were posted on the flank of the main body of infantry which guarded the
+top of the hill. Altogether the force numbered over two thousand men.
+It seemed an absolutely hopeless undertaking for a little body of tired
+boys to attack twenty times their own number. Zagonyi, however, had
+been used to fighting against odds in his battles with the Austrians.
+He hurriedly called his men together and announced to them that he did
+not intend to go back without a fight after riding so far.
+
+"If any of you men," he said, "are too tired or too weak, or too
+afraid, go back now before it is too late. There is one thing about
+it," he added grimly, "if there are any of us left when we are through
+we won't hear much more about kid gloves."
+
+Not a man stirred to go back. Zagonyi gathered them into open order and
+drawing his sabre gave the word to start up the fatal lane. At first
+there was no sight or sound of any enemy, but as the horses broke into
+a run, there was a volley from the woods and a number of men swayed in
+their saddles and sank to the ground. Down the steep, stony lane they
+rushed in a solid column in spite of volley after volley which poured
+into their ranks. Some leaped, others crashed through fences and across
+the ploughed fields and jumped the brook and finally gained the shelter
+of the foot of the hill. There was a constant whistle of bullets and
+scream of minie balls over their heads. They stopped for a minute to
+re-form, for nearly half the squad was down. Zagonyi detached thirty of
+his best horsemen and instructed them to charge up the hill at the
+Confederate cavalry which, four hundred strong, were posted along the
+edge of the wood, and to hold them engaged so that the rest of the
+force could make a front attack on the infantry. The rest of the troop
+watched the little band gallop up the hillside and they were fully
+half-way up before it dawned upon the Confederates that these thirty
+men were really intending to attack a force over ten times their
+number. As they swept up the last slope, the Confederate cavalry poured
+a volley from their revolvers instead of getting the jump on them by a
+down-hill charge.
+
+Lieutenant Mathenyi, another Hungarian and an accomplished swordsman,
+led the attack and cut his way through the first line of the
+Confederate horsemen, closely followed by the score of men who had
+managed to get up the hill. With their sabres flashing over their
+heads, they disappeared in the gray cloud of Confederates which awaited
+them. At that moment Zagonyi gave the word for the main charge and his
+column opened out and rushed up the hill from all sides like a
+whirlwind. Even as they breasted the slope they saw the solid mass of
+Confederate cavalry open out and scatter in every direction while a
+blue wedge of men cut clear through and turned back to sabre the
+scattering Confederates. With a tremendous cheer, Zagonyi and the rest
+of the band rushed on to the massed infantry.
+
+They had time for only one volley when the young horsemen were among
+them, cutting, thrusting, hacking and shooting with their revolvers. In
+a minute the main body followed the example of the cavalry and broke
+and scattered everywhere. Some of them, however, were real fighters;
+they retreated into the woods and kept up a murderous fire from behind
+trees. One young Union soldier dashed in after them to drive them out,
+but was caught under the shoulders by a grape-vine and swept off his
+horse and hung struggling in the air until rescued by his comrades.
+Down into the village swarmed the fugitives with the guards close at
+their heels. At a great barn just outside of the village a number of
+them rallied and drove back the Kentucky squad which had been pursuing
+them. This time Zagonyi himself dashed up, and shouting, "Come on, old
+Kentuck, I'm with you," rushed at the group which stood in the doorway.
+As he came on, a man sprang out from behind the door and leveled his
+rifle at Zagonyi's head. The latter spurred his horse until he reared,
+and swinging him around on his hind legs, cut his opponent clear
+through the neck and shoulders with such tremendous force that the
+blood spurted clear up to the top of the door.
+
+Another hero of the fight was Sergeant Hunter, the drill-master of the
+squad. It had always been an open question with the men as to whether
+he or Major Zagonyi was the better swordsman. In this fight Hunter
+killed five men with his sabre, one after the other, showing off fatal
+tricks of fence against bayonet and sabre as coolly as if giving a
+lesson, while several men fell before his revolver. His last encounter
+was with a Southern lieutenant who had been flying by, but suddenly
+turned and fought desperately. The sergeant had lost three horses and
+was now mounted on his fourth, a riderless, unmanageable horse which he
+had caught, and was somewhat at a disadvantage. In spite of this he
+proceeded to give those of his squad who were near him a lecture on the
+fine points of the sabre.
+
+"Always parry in secant," said he, suiting his action to the word,
+"because," he went on, slashing his opponent across the thigh, "a
+regular fencer like this Confed is liable to leave himself open. It is
+easy then to ride on two paces and catch him with a back-hand sweep,"
+and at the words he dealt his opponent a last fatal blow across the
+side of the head which toppled him out of his saddle.
+
+A young Southern officer magnificently mounted refused to follow the
+fugitives, but charged alone at the line of the guards. He passed clear
+through without being touched, killing one man as he went. Instantly he
+wheeled, charged back and again broke through, leaving another Union
+cavalryman dead. A third time he cut his way clear up to Zagonyi's side
+and suddenly dropping his sabre, placed a revolver against the major's
+breast and fired. Zagonyi, however, was like lightning in his
+movements. The instant he felt the pressure of the revolver he swerved
+so that the bullet passed through his tunic, and shortening his sabre
+he ran his opponent through the throat killing him before he had time
+to shoot again.
+
+Holding his dripping sabre in his hand, the major shouted an order to
+his men to come together in the middle of the town. One of the first to
+come back was his bugler, whom Zagonyi had ordered to sound a signal in
+the fiercest part of the fight. The bugler had apparently paid no
+attention to him, but darted off with Lieutenant Mathenyi's squad and
+was seen pursuing the flying horsemen vigorously. When his men were
+gathered together, Major Zagonyi ordered him to step out and said:
+
+"In the middle of the battle you disobeyed my order to sound the
+recall. It might have meant the loss of our whole company. You are not
+worthy to be a member of this guard and I dismiss you."
+
+The bugler was a little Frenchman and he nearly exploded with
+indignation.
+
+"No," he said, "me, you shall not dismiss," and he showed his bugle to
+his major with the mouthpiece carried away by a stray bullet. "The
+mouth was shoot off," he said. "I could not bugle wiz my bugle and so I
+bugle wiz my pistol and sabre."
+
+The major recalled the order of dismissal.
+
+So ended one of the most desperate charges of the Civil War. One
+hundred and forty-eight men had defeated twenty-two hundred, with the
+loss of fifty-three killed and more than thirty wounded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LOCOMOTIVE CHASE
+
+
+Courage does not depend upon success. Sometimes it takes a braver man
+to lose than to win. A man may meet defeat and even death in doing his
+duty, but if he has not flinched or given up, he has not failed. A
+brave deed is never wasted whether men live or die.
+
+In the spring of 1862, James J. Andrews and a little band of nineteen
+other men staked their lives and liberty for the freedom of Tennessee
+and although they lost, the story of their courage helped other men to
+be brave.
+
+At the beginning of the Civil War, the eastern part of Tennessee was
+held by the Confederates although the mountaineers were for the most
+part Union men. The city of Chattanooga was the key to that part of the
+state and was held by the Confederates. A railroad line into that city
+ran through Georgia and was occupied by the Southern army. If that
+could be destroyed, Chattanooga could be cut off from reënforcements
+and captured by the small body of Union troops which could be risked
+for that purpose. This road was guarded by detachments of Confederate
+troops and extended for two hundred miles through Confederate territory
+and it seemed as if it could not be destroyed by any force less than an
+army. There was no army that could be spared.
+
+One April evening a stranger came to the tent of General O. M. Mitchel,
+commander of the Union forces in middle Tennessee, and asked to see the
+general. The sentry refused to admit him unless he stated his name and
+errand.
+
+"Tell the general," said the man quietly, "that James J. Andrews wants
+to speak to him on a matter of great importance."
+
+The sentry stared at him for there were few in the army who had not
+heard of Andrews, the scout, but fewer still who had ever seen him. No
+man had passed through the enemy's lines so many times, knew the
+country better or had been sent more often on dangerous errands. In a
+minute he was ushered in to where General Mitchel sat writing in the
+inner tent. With his deep-set gray eyes and waving hair brushed back
+from his broad, smooth forehead, he looked more like a poet than a
+fighter. The general noticed, however, that his eyes never flickered
+and that although he spoke in a very low voice, there was something
+about him that at once commanded attention. Andrews wasted no time.
+
+"General Mitchel," he said, "if you will let me have twenty-four men, I
+will capture a train, burn the bridges on the Georgia railroad and cut
+off Chattanooga."
+
+"It can't be done," returned General Mitchel.
+
+"Well, general," answered Andrews slowly, "don't you think it's worth
+trying? You know I generally make good on what I set out to do. In this
+matter if we lose, we lose only twenty-five men. If we win, we take
+Chattanooga and all Tennessee without a battle."
+
+There was a long pause while the general studied the scout.
+
+"You shall have the men," he said finally.
+
+Andrews saluted and left the tent. That night twenty-four men from
+three regiments were told that they were to have the first chance to
+volunteer for secret and dangerous service. Not a man chosen refused to
+serve. The next evening they were told to meet at a great boulder at
+sunset about a mile below the camp and wait until joined by their
+captain. Each man was furnished with the camp countersign as well as a
+special watchword by which they could know each other. One by one the
+men gathered at dusk, recognized each other by the watchword and sat
+down in the brush back of the boulder to wait. Just at dark there was a
+rustling in the underbrush at the other side of the road and the scout
+stepped out, joined them and gave the countersign. Without a word, he
+moved to the thick bushes at one corner of the boulder and pushing them
+aside showed a tiny hidden path which wound through the brush. Into
+this he stepped and beckoned them to follow. The path twisted back and
+forth among the great stones and trees and through patches of
+underbrush and the men in single file followed Andrews. Finally nearly
+a mile from the road, he led them down into a dense thicket in a little
+ravine. There the brush had been cut out so as to make a kind of room
+in the thicket about ten feet square. When they were all inside, the
+scout motioned them to sit down and then circled around through the
+underbrush and doubled back on his track so as to make sure that they
+had not been followed by any spy. Then he returned and lighted a small
+lantern which hung to one of the saplings and for the first time his
+men had a good look at their captain. As usual, Andrews wasted no time.
+
+"Boys," he said simply, "I have chosen you to come with me and capture
+a train from an army and then run it two hundred miles through the
+enemy's country. We will have to pass every train we meet and while we
+are doing this we must tear up a lot of track and burn down two
+bridges. There is every chance of being wrecked or shot and if we are
+captured, we will be hung for spies. It is a desperate chance and I
+picked you fellows out as the best men in the whole army to take such a
+chance. If any of you think it is too dangerous, now is the time to
+stand up and draw out."
+
+There was a long pause. Each man tried to see what his companions were
+thinking of in the dim light.
+
+"Well, captain," at last drawled a long, lank chap with a comical face,
+who had the reputation of being the worst daredevil in his regiment, "I
+would like to stand up for you've got me kind of scared, but my foot's
+asleep and I guess I'll have to go with you."
+
+"That's the way I feel," said the man next to him, as every one
+laughed, and the same answer went all around the circle.
+
+In a whisper the scout then outlined his plan. The men were to change
+their uniforms and put on the butternut-colored clothes of the South
+and to carry no arms except a revolver and bowie-knife. Then they were
+to cross the country on foot until they got to Chattanooga and were
+then to go back on their tracks by train and meet at a little town
+called Marietta in the middle of Georgia. No one would, of course,
+suspect men coming out of a Confederate city to be Union soldiers. If
+questioned they were to say that they were Kentuckians on their way to
+join the Southern army. At Marietta they were to take rooms at the
+Marietta Hotel and meet at the scout's room on the following Saturday
+morning at two o'clock.
+
+Disguised as a quinine seller, Andrews reached Marietta ahead of the
+others. At the time appointed, he sat fully dressed in the silent hotel
+waiting for the arrival of his little company and wondering how many
+would appear. Just as the town clock struck the hour from the
+old-fashioned court house, there came a light tapping at the door and
+one by one nineteen of the twenty-four glided in and reported for duty.
+All had gone through various adventures and several had only escaped
+capture by quick thinking and cool action. One of the missing ones had
+been delayed by a wreck and did not reach Marietta in time, two others
+were forced to enlist in the Southern army, and two more reached
+Marietta but by some mistake did not join the others. The twenty who
+were left, however, were the kind of men whose courage flares highest
+when things seem most desperate and they were not at all discouraged by
+the loss of a fifth of their force, and they all agreed with Brown, the
+man whose foot had been asleep, when he drawled out in his comical way,
+"The fewer fellows the more fun for those who are left."
+
+After reporting, they went back to their rooms and got what sleep they
+could. At daylight they were all at the ticket office in time for the
+north-bound mail train. In order to prevent any suspicion, each man
+bought a ticket for a different station along the line in the direction
+of Chattanooga. Eight miles out of Marietta was a little station called
+Big Shanty where the train was scheduled to stop twenty minutes for
+breakfast. It was a lonely place at the foot of Kenesaw Mountain and
+there were only the station, a freight-house, a restaurant and one or
+two dwelling houses. Andrews had planned to capture the train there,
+believing that there would be few, if any, bystanders at so small a
+place early in the morning. As the train came around the curve of the
+mountain, however, the scout and his men, who were scattered through
+the train, were horrified to see scores of tents showing white through
+the morning mist. A detachment of Confederate soldiers was in camp
+there and it was now necessary for the little squad of Union soldiers
+to capture the train not only from its crew and passengers, but under
+the very eyes of a regiment. There was no flinching. The minute the
+train stopped there was the usual wild scramble by the passengers for
+breakfast in which the engineer, fireman and conductor joined. In a
+minute the engine was left entirely unguarded. In those days engines
+were named like steamboats, and this one had been christened "General."
+Andrews and his men loitered behind. In his squad were two engineers
+and a fireman. These at once hurried forward and began to uncouple the
+engine with its tender and three baggage-cars. The rest of the party
+grouped around, playing the part of bystanders, but with their hands on
+their revolvers, for within a dozen feet of the engine stood a sentry
+with his loaded musket in his hand watching the whole thing, while
+other sentries and a large group of soldiers were only a few yards
+farther off. The men worked desperately at the coupling and finally
+succeeded in freeing the cars. Then the engineers and fireman sprang
+into the cab of the engine while Andrews stood with his hand on the
+rail and foot on the step, and the rest of the band tumbled into the
+baggage-cars. This was the most critical moment of all, for although
+the watching soldiers might think it natural to change the crew, yet
+their suspicions would certainly be aroused at the sight of fifteen men
+climbing into baggage-cars. The nearest sentry cocked his musket and
+stepped forward to investigate. At this moment Brown climbed into the
+engine along with one of the engineers, coolly smoking a cigar. Poking
+his head out of the window he called back as if to one of the crew,
+"Tell those fellows not to eat up all the breakfast. We'll be back just
+as soon as we can take those other cars on at the siding." All this
+time Andrews was standing with his foot on the step watching the men
+enter the baggage-cars. The track was on a high bank and it was
+necessary for the first man to be raised up on the shoulders of two
+others in order to open the door. Once inside, the other men were
+tossed up to him and he pulled them in like bags of meal. Finally there
+were only two left and these jumped, caught the outstretched hands of
+two inside and were hauled up into the car. Not until then did Andrews
+step aboard under the very nose of the suspicious sentry. The engineer
+was so anxious to start that he pulled the throttle wide open and for a
+few seconds the wheels spun round and round without catching on the
+rails. He finally slowed up enough to allow the wheels to bite and the
+engine started off with a jerk which took all the soldiers in the
+baggage-cars off their feet. Just at this moment the fat engineer
+waddled out of the eating-house shouting at the top of his voice,
+"Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" He was followed by the fireman who bellowed
+to the sentry, "Shoot 'em, shoot 'em! They're Yanks!" It was too late.
+The General was taking the first curve on two wheels, leaving the quiet
+little station swarming and buzzing like a hornet's nest struck by a
+stone. The train had been captured without losing a man.
+
+Now came the even more difficult part of the undertaking, to run the
+engine for two hundred miles through an enemy's country and to force it
+past all the other trains between Big Shanty and Chattanooga. The first
+thing to do was to prevent any message of the capture being sent on
+ahead. There was no telegraph station at Big Shanty, but there was no
+telling how soon word would be sent back to the nearest telegraph
+operator. Accordingly, four miles out the engine was stopped and a man
+named Scott, who had been a great coon-hunter before entering the army,
+shinned up a telegraph pole and sawed through the wires. While he was
+doing this, the rest of the party took up one of the rails and loaded
+it into a baggage-car. Others piled in a lot of dry railroad ties to be
+used in burning the bridges. The General was an old-style engine the
+like of which is never seen nowadays. It had one of the round, funny
+smoke-stacks which we still see on old postage stamps and it burned
+cord-wood instead of coal, but it was a good goer for those times and
+was soon whirling through the enemy's country at what seemed to the
+raiders a tremendous rate of speed. Before long they were compelled to
+stop at one of the stations to take in wood and water. Andrews
+explained to the station-agent that they were agents of General
+Beauregard running a powder-train down to the Confederate headquarters
+at Corinth. At one station named Etowah, they found an old locomotive
+belonging to a local iron company standing there with steam up. It
+carried the name of Jonah and so far as the raiders were concerned, it
+certainly lived up to its name. Brown, who was acting as engineer,
+wanted to stop and put Jonah out of business, but Andrews decided to
+push on. It was a fatal mistake. At Kingston, thirty miles from their
+starting place, they learned that the local freight coming from
+Chattanooga was about due, so Andrews put his engine over on the siding
+and waited. After a long delay, the freight arrived, but it carried on
+its caboose a red flag showing that another train was behind. Andrews
+stepped up to the conductor and indignantly inquired how any train
+dared delay General Beauregard's special powder-cars.
+
+"Well, you see," said the freight's conductor, "the Yanks have captured
+Huntsville thirty miles from Chattanooga and special trains are being
+run to get everything out."
+
+Andrews realized that General Mitchel had started against Chattanooga
+and that if he could burn even one bridge, the capture of the city was
+certain. Another long wait and the special freight came in, but it
+carried another fatal red flag. It turned out that it was so large that
+it was being run in two sections. There was nothing to do but wait. By
+this time crowds of passengers and train-hands had gathered around the
+so-called powder-train, all curious to look it over. The four men in
+the engine sat there smoking, seemingly unconcerned. As a matter of
+fact, however, they were ready any moment to fight for their lives. If
+any of the crowd opened the baggage-cars and saw the other men hidden
+there, no amount of explanation could persuade them that there was not
+something wrong. If the waiting was hard on the men in the engine, it
+was still worse for the men crouched back in the cars, not knowing what
+was wrong and expecting to hear the alarm given any moment. For an hour
+and five minutes the Union train was kept at Kingston. At last a
+whistle was heard and the long-expected freight passed by and the
+General was again on its way. A mile out from Kingston the coon-hunter
+was sent up another telegraph pole and the wires again cut. The rest of
+the party were leisurely trying to loosen another rail with the poor
+tools which they had, when from far in the rear a sound was heard which
+brought the man at the wires down with a run. It was the whistle of an
+engine coming their direction and meant that in some mysterious way the
+enemy was on their track.
+
+"Pull, you men!" shouted Andrews. "They've got word somehow and they're
+after us."
+
+Again the whistle sounded, this time much nearer, and with a last
+frantic pull the rail broke and eight men tumbled head over heels down
+an embankment. They were up in a minute and scrambled into the
+baggage-car and the old General was off once more at top speed. At
+Adairsville, the next station, a freight and passenger train were
+waiting and there Andrews heard that another express was due from
+Chattanooga which had not yet arrived. There was no time to wait now
+that the pursuit had begun and the old General was pushed at full speed
+in order to reach the next siding before meeting the express. The nine
+miles between stations were covered in as many minutes, Brown and the
+fireman heaping on the cord-wood and soaking it with kerosene-oil until
+the fire-plate was red hot. They reached the station just in time, for
+the express was about to pull out when the whistle of Andrews' train
+was heard, and it backed down so as to allow the "powder-train" to take
+the side track. It stopped, however, in such a manner as to completely
+close up the other end of the switch. The engineer and conductor of the
+express were plainly suspicious and refused to move their train until
+Andrews had answered their questions. With the pursuing engine on his
+track, any more delay would be fatal. Cocking his revolver, Andrews
+poked it into the stomach of the engineer.
+
+"My instructions from General Beauregard," he said, "are to rush this
+train through and to shoot any one that tries to delay it and I am
+going to begin on you."
+
+The engineer lost all further desire to ask questions, climbed into his
+cab and pulled out. The way was now clear to Chattanooga. Beyond the
+next station Andrews stopped once more to cut the wires and to try to
+take up a section of the track, when right behind suddenly sounded the
+whistle of an engine like the scream of some relentless bird of prey
+that could not be turned from its pursuit. Far down the track rushed a
+locomotive crowded with soldiers armed with rifles. Two minutes more
+would have saved the day for Andrews. The rail bent, but did not break,
+although the men tugged at it frantically until the bullets began
+pattering around them. There was only just time to jump aboard and the
+General was off again with the Confederate engine thundering close
+behind.
+
+The story of this pursuer is the story of two men who refused to give
+up and who won out by accepting the one chance in a thousand which
+ordinary men would let go by. When the stolen train whirled off at Big
+Shanty there were two men who didn't waste any time in shouting or
+swearing. They were Fuller, the conductor of the stolen train, and
+Murphy, the foreman of the Atlanta railway machine shops. There was no
+telegraph station nor any locomotive at hand in which to follow the
+runaways. Apparently it was hopeless, yet out of all the crowd of
+civilians and soldiers who rushed around and asked questions and
+shouted answers, Fuller and Murphy were the only two who took the long
+chance and ran after the flying train. The rest of the crew could not
+help laughing to see two men chase a locomotive on foot. But Murphy and
+the other let them laugh and ran on. Before they had gone a half mile
+they found a hand-car on a siding. This they lifted over to the main
+track, manned the pump-bars and were soon flying along at the rate of
+some fifteen miles an hour. As they came near Etowah the hand-car
+suddenly flew off the track and went rolling down the embankment. It
+had met the first of the broken rails. The two men were much bruised
+and shaken up, but no bones were broken and they managed to hoist the
+hand-car back on to the rails again and were soon on their way, this
+time keeping a lookout for any traps ahead. At Etowah they found old
+"Jonah" puffing on the siding, the engine that Brown had advised
+blowing up. It was at once pressed into service, loaded with soldiers
+and in a minute was flying toward Kingston, where Andrews had his
+life-shortening wait of over an hour. Fuller knew of the tangle of
+trains at that point and told his escort to get their muskets ready and
+be prepared for a fight, but Andrews had been away just four minutes
+when the pursuers reached the station, and Fuller there found himself
+stopped by three heavy trains. It was hopeless to wait for them to
+move, and besides old Jonah was not much on speed. Fuller and his men
+jumped out, ran through to the farthest train, uncoupled the engine and
+one car, in spite of the protests of its crew, filled it with forty
+armed men and once more started after the flying General.
+
+It was their whistle which so startled Andrews and his men when they
+were breaking the second rail. Fuller and Murphy saw what they had done
+and managed to reverse the engine in time to prevent a wreck. Again at
+this point ordinary men would have given up the chase for it was
+impossible to go farther in that engine or to get it over the broken
+rail, but these Confederates were not ordinary men. Leaving their
+escort they started down the track again on foot alone, doggedly and
+relentlessly after their stolen General. Before they had gone far they
+met the mixed train that had told Andrews of the express. They signaled
+so frantically that it stopped and when the crew learned that the
+so-called "powder-train" was on its way to destroy the great bridges
+which formed the backbone of their railway, they consented to turn
+back. So uncoupling the locomotive and the tender and filling them with
+armed soldiers and civilians from among the passengers, Fuller and
+Murphy made their sixth start. On foot, by hand-car, in two
+locomotives, on foot again and now once more in a locomotive, they
+began what was to be the last lap of this race on which a city and a
+state depended.
+
+Beyond Adairsville the Confederates could see far ahead in the distance
+Andrews and his men making desperate efforts to raise the rail. With
+long screams from her whistle, the Confederate engine fairly leaped
+over the tracks. The rail bent slowly, but the spikes still held. Two
+minutes, or even a minute more would break the track and the road and
+bridges would be defenseless before the Union raiders. But it was not
+to be. Andrews and his men tugged at the stubborn rail until the
+pursuing engine was so close that the bullets were dropping all around
+them and then sprang into the engine and thundered off again. If only a
+little time could be gained the Union men could burn the Oostinaula
+Bridge. So while the engine was running at a speed of nearly a mile a
+minute, the men in the last car crowded into the next and the last car
+was dropped off in the hope that it would block the road for the
+pursuer. But the engine behind pushed it ahead until the next station
+was reached where it could be switched off the main track. This slowed
+the chaser's speed, however, so that the General was able to take on
+wood and water and also to cut the wires beyond the station so that the
+news of their coming would not be telegraphed ahead and give the
+station-master a chance to either side-track them or block the track.
+The pursuing engine began to gain again and the little band of Union
+soldiers moved into the first car and the end of the second car was
+smashed and it was cut loose. Railroad ties were also dropped across
+the track and time enough was gained once more for the General to take
+on wood and water at two more stations and to cut the wires beyond
+each. Twice they stopped and tried in vain to raise a rail, but the
+pursuers came within rifle range each time before they could finish.
+The rain prevented the burning of the bridges and now slowly and surely
+the pursuing engine began to gain. The raiders tried every way to block
+the track. At one point they spied a spare rail near a sharp curve.
+Stopping the engine they fitted it into the track in such a way that it
+seemed certain to derail the Confederate engine. The latter came
+thundering on at full speed, struck the hidden rail, and leaped at
+least six inches from the rail, but came down safely and went whirling
+along as if nothing had happened. Not once in a hundred times could an
+engine have kept the track after such a collision. This was the time.
+Now they were too close to the General to allow of any more stoppages
+even for wood and water. Andrews decided to risk everything on one last
+stroke. A mile or so ahead was a wooden-covered bridge. At his orders
+out of the last car his men swarmed into the engine filling every inch
+of space, even the tender and the cow-catcher being covered with men.
+All of the fuel left was piled into the one remaining car, smeared with
+oil and set afire. Both the doors were opened and the draught as it was
+whirled along soon fanned the fire into furious flames. They dashed
+into the dark of the covered bridge with the car spurting flame from
+both sides. Right in the middle of the bridge it was uncoupled and left
+burning fast and furiously. It did not seem possible that any engine
+could pass through such a barrier. There was just enough pressure left
+in the boiler to reach the next wood-yard and the Union scouts looked
+back anxiously at the bridge. In a minute they heard around a far-away
+curve the whistle which sounded to them like the screech of a demon.
+The Confederates had dashed into the bridge and pushed the flaming car
+ahead of them to the next switch. The Union scouts had played their
+last card. There would be no chance of taking in wood before they were
+overtaken. One thing only was left. They stopped the engine, sprang
+out, reversed the locomotive and sent it dashing back to collide with
+their pursuer and then separated to try to make their way back some
+three hundred miles through the enemy's country to the Union lines. The
+Confederates, when they saw the engine coming, reversed their own and
+kept just ahead of this last attack of the old General until its fires
+died down and it came to a stop.
+
+Mitchel, the Union general, but thirty miles west of Chattanooga,
+waited in vain for the engine which never came. Chattanooga was saved
+and the most daring railroad raid in history had failed.
+
+The story of the fate of the brave men who volunteered for the forlorn
+hope is a sad one. Several were captured that same day and all but two
+within a week. These two were overtaken and brought back when they were
+just on the point of reaching the Union outposts and had supposed
+themselves safe. Even the two who reached Marietta but did not take the
+train with the others were identified and added to the band of
+prisoners. Being in civilian clothes within an enemy's lines, they were
+all held as spies and the heroic Andrews and seven others were tried
+and executed. Of the others, eight, headed by Brown, overpowered the
+guards in broad daylight and made their escape from Atlanta, Georgia,
+and finally reached the North. The other six started with them, but
+were recaptured and held as prisoners until exchanged in the early part
+of 1863.
+
+So ends the story of an expedition that failed in its immediate object,
+but that succeeded in the example which these brave men set their
+fellows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SHERIDAN'S RIDE
+
+
+There are as many different kinds of courage as there are different
+kinds of men. Some men are brave because they were born so. They are no
+more to be praised for their bravery than a bulldog deserves credit
+because it is a natural born fighter or a hare deserves blame because
+it specializes in running away. Some men belong to the bulldog class.
+They are brave because it is natural for them to be brave. Others
+belong to the hare-family and they show far more real courage in
+overcoming their natural instincts than does the other for whom it is
+natural to do brave deeds. Much also depends on the circumstances. We
+all know from our own experience of athletes who can play a good
+winning game, and who perform well against inferior competitors. The
+rarer type, however, is the boy or man who can play a good up-hill game
+and who with all the odds against him, is able to fight it out and
+never to let up or give up until the last point is scored or the last
+yard is run and who often is able to win against better, but less
+dogged, less courageous competitors. It is so in battles. It is easy
+for any commander to be courageous and to take unusual chances when he
+is winning. The thrill of approaching victory is a stimulant which
+makes even a coward act like a brave man. Even General Gates, the weak,
+vacillating, clerkly, self-seeking, cowardly general of the
+Revolutionary War, whose selfishness and timidity were in such contrast
+to Washington's self-sacrifice and courage, was energetic and decisive
+at the battle of Saratoga after Benedict Arnold, who was there only as
+a volunteer, had made his brave, successful charge on the British
+column in spite of Gates' orders. After attacking and dispersing the
+reserved line of the British army, Arnold called his men together again
+and attacked the Canadians who covered the British left wing. Just as
+he had cut through their ranks, a wounded German soldier lying on the
+ground took deliberate aim at Arnold and killed his horse and shattered
+his leg with the same bullet. As he went down, one of his men tried to
+bayonet the wounded soldier who had fired, but even while disentangling
+himself from his dead horse and suffering under the pain of his broken
+leg, Arnold called out, "For God's sake, don't hurt him, he's a fine
+fellow," and saved the life of the man who had done his best to take
+his. That was the hour when Benedict Arnold should have died, at the
+moment of a magnificent victory while saving the life of a man who had
+injured him. Gates went on with the battle, closed in on the British
+and in spite of their stubborn defense, attacked them fiercely for
+almost the only time in his career as a general and completely routed
+them. There is no doubt that on that occasion after Arnold's charge
+Gates displayed a considerable amount of bravery, yet such bravery
+cannot really be termed courage of the high order which was so often
+displayed by Washington, by William of Orange and later by his
+grandson, William of England, by Fabius the conqueror of Hannibal and
+by many other generals who were greatest in defeat.
+
+Napoleon once said that the highest kind of courage was the
+two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage. He meant that at that gray hour,
+when the tide of life is at its ebb before the dawn, a man who is brave
+is brave indeed. The best test of this kind of courage is in defeat.
+Fabius showed that in the long, wasting campaign which he fought
+against Hannibal, one of the greatest generals of his or any other age.
+Following, retreating, harassing, Fabius always refused a pitched
+battle until his enemies at Rome forced the appointment of Minucius as
+joint dictator with him. In spite of the protests of Fabius, the army
+was divided and the younger and rasher Minucius offered battle with his
+army. He was like a child before the crafty Hannibal who concealed a
+great force of men in ravines around an apparently bare hill and then
+inveigled Minucius into attacking a small force which he sent up to the
+top of this hill as a bait to draw him on. Once there the ambuscade of
+Hannibal attacked the Roman army on all sides and almost in a moment it
+was in disorder and a retreat was commenced which was about to become a
+rout when Fabius hurried up and by his exhortations and steadfast
+courage rallied the men, re-formed them, drove through Hannibal's
+lighter-armed troops and finally occupied the hill in safety. The
+grateful Minucius refused to act as commander any further, but at once
+insisted upon thereafter serving under Fabius.
+
+At the Battle of Boyne, that great battle between William of England
+and his uncle, James II, which was to decide whether England should be
+a free or a slave nation, William showed the same kind of courage. In
+spite of chronic asthma, approaching age and a frail body, King William
+was a great general. He never appeared to such advantage as at the head
+of his troops. Usually of reserved and saturnine disposition, danger
+changed him into another man. On this day, while breakfasting before
+the battle, two field-pieces were trained on him and a six-pound ball
+tore his coat and grazed his shoulder drawing blood, and dashing him
+from his horse. He was up in an instant, however, and on that day in
+spite of his feeble health and wounded shoulder, was nineteen hours in
+the saddle. The crisis came when the English soldiers charged across
+the ford of the Boyne River. General Schomberg, William's right-hand
+and personal friend, was killed while rallying his troops. Bishop
+Walker, the hero of the siege of Londonderry, had been struck by a
+chance shot and the English, who had hardly obtained a firm foothold on
+the opposite bank, commenced to waver. At this moment King William
+forced his horse to swim across, carrying his sword in his left hand,
+for his right arm was stiff with his wound, and dashed up to rally the
+troops. As he rode up, the disorganized regiment recognized their king.
+
+"What will you do for me?" he cried, and almost in an instant he had
+rallied the men and persuaded them to stand firm against the attacks of
+the ferocious Irish horsemen.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I have heard much of you. Let me see something
+of you," and charging at their head, this middle-aged, wounded invalid
+by sheer courage shattered the Irish and French troops and saved his
+kingdom.
+
+Our own Washington was never greater than in defeat and not once but
+many times rallied a defeated and disheartened army and saved the day.
+At the Battle of Monmouth, the traitorous Charles Lee had turned what
+should have been a great victory into a disorderly retreat. After
+outflanking Cornwallis, instead of pressing his advantage, he ordered
+his men to retreat into a near-by ravine. Lafayette's suspicions were
+aroused and he sent in hot haste to Washington who arrived on the field
+of battle just as the whole army in tremendous disorder was pouring out
+of the marsh and back over the neighboring ravine before the British
+advance. At that moment Washington rode up pale with anger and for once
+lost control of a temper which cowed all men when once aroused.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" he shouted to Lee and when he
+received no answer, repeated the question with a tremendous oath. Then
+immediately realizing the situation, he sent Lee back to the rear and
+wheeled about to stop the retreat and form a new front. Riding down the
+whole line of retreating soldiers, the very sight of him steadied and
+rallied them and in less than half an hour the line was reformed and
+Washington drove back the British across the marsh and the ravine until
+night put an end to the battle. Before morning the whole British force
+had retreated, leaving their wounded behind and the Battle of Monmouth
+had been changed by the courage and fortitude of one man from defeat
+into a victory for the American forces.
+
+The most striking instance in the Civil War of what the courage of one
+brave, enduring, unfaltering man can do was at the Battle of Cedar
+Creek. In the year 1864, General Sheridan, the great cavalry leader,
+took command of the Army of the Shenandoah. Sheridan was an ideal
+cavalry leader. Brave, dashing, brilliant, he had commanded more
+horsemen than had any general since the days of the Tartar hordes of
+Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. There was no watchful waiting with
+Sheridan. This he had shown at the great mountain battle of
+Chattanooga. At that battle, Missionary Ridge was the keystone of the
+Confederate position. It was occupied by Confederate batteries and
+swarming with Confederate troops. A storming party was sent from the
+main body of the Union forces to drive out the Confederates who held
+the woods on the flanks of the Ridge. The orders were to attack the
+Confederates and hold the captured positions until the main body could
+come up. Grant was watching the battle through his field-glasses and
+saw the attacking party gain possession of the slopes of the Ridge.
+Suddenly, to his surprise and horror, the whole regiment charged
+directly up the Ridge. It was a mad thing to do for the top was held by
+a tremendous force of Confederates and guarded by massed batteries.
+General Grant called General Granger up to him and said angrily:
+
+"Did you order those men up, Granger?"
+
+"No," said the general, "they started up without orders. When those
+fellows get started, all hell can't stop 'em."
+
+General Grant then sent word to General Sheridan to either stop the men
+or take the Ridge.
+
+"I guess it will be easier to take the Ridge than it will be to stop
+them," said Sheridan.
+
+Before starting, he borrowed a flask and waved it toward the group of
+Confederate officers who were standing on top of the Ridge in front of
+the headquarters of Bragg, the Confederate general.
+
+"Here's at you," he shouted, drinking to them. They could plainly see
+his action through their field-glasses and immediately two field-guns,
+which were known as Lady Breckenridge and Lady Buckner, were trained at
+Sheridan and his group of officers and fired. One shell struck so near
+Sheridan as to splash dirt all over him.
+
+"I'll take those guns just for that," was all he said and, followed by
+his officers, he dashed up the Ridge after the climbing,
+attacking-party. The way was so steep that the men had to climb up on
+their hands and knees while the solid shot and shell tore great furrows
+in their ranks. Sheridan was off his horse as soon as the slope became
+steep, and, although he had started after the charge, was soon at the
+front of the men. They recognized him with a tremendous cheer.
+
+"I'm not much used to this charging on foot, boys," he said, "but I'll
+do the best I can," and he set a pace which soon brought his men so far
+up that the guns above could not be depressed enough to hit them.
+Behind him came the whole storming party clambering up on their hands
+and knees with their regimental flags flying everywhere, sometimes
+dropping as the bearers were shot, but never reaching the ground
+because they would be caught up again and again by others. At last they
+were so near that the Confederate artillerymen, in order to save time,
+lighted the fuses of their shells and bowled them down by hand against
+the storming party. Just before they reached the summit, Sheridan
+formed them into a battle-line and then with a tremendous cheer, they
+dashed forward and attacked the Ridge at six different points. The
+Confederates had watched their approach with amazement and amusement.
+When they found, however, that nothing seemed to stop them, they were
+seized with a panic and as the six desperate storming parties dashed
+upon them from different angles, after a few minutes' fast fighting,
+they broke and retreated in a hopeless rout down the other side of the
+Ridge. Sheridan stopped long enough to claim Lady Breckenridge and Lady
+Buckner as his personal spoils of war and forming his men again, led
+them on to a splendid victory.
+
+As soon as he took command of the Army of the Shenandoah, aggressive
+fighting at once began. Twice he defeated Jubal Early, once at
+Winchester and again at Fisher's Hill, while one of his generals routed
+the Rebels so completely in a brilliant engagement at Woodstock that
+the battle was always known as the Woodstock Races, the Confederate
+soldiers being well in front in this competition. Finally, General
+Sheridan had massed his whole army at Cedar Creek. From there he rode
+back to Washington to have a conference with General Halleck and the
+Secretary of War. When that was finished with his escort he rode back
+to Winchester, some twelve miles from Cedar Creek, two days later.
+There he received word that all was well at his headquarters and he
+turned in and went to bed intending to join the army the next day. Six
+o'clock the next morning an aide aroused him with the news that
+artillery firing could be heard in the direction of Cedar Creek.
+Sheridan was out of bed in a moment and though it was reported that it
+sounded more like a skirmish than a battle, he at once ordered
+breakfast and started for Cedar Creek. As he came to the edge of
+Winchester he could hear the unceasing roar of the artillery and was
+convinced at once that a battle was in progress and from the increase
+of the sound judged that the Union Army must be falling back. The
+delighted faces of the Confederate citizens of Winchester, who showed
+themselves at the windows, also convinced him that they had secret
+information from the battlefield and were in raptures over some good
+news. With twenty men he started to cover the twelve miles to Cedar
+Creek as fast as their horses could gallop. Sheridan was riding that
+day a magnificent black, thoroughbred horse, Rienzi, which had been
+presented to him by some of his admirers. Like Lee's gray horse
+"Traveler" and the horse Wellington rode at Waterloo, "Copenhagen,"
+Rienzi was to become famous. Before Sheridan had gone far and just
+after crossing Mill Creek outside of Winchester, he commenced to meet
+hundreds of men, some wounded, all demoralized, who with their baggage
+were all rushing to the rear in hopeless confusion. Just north of
+Newtown he met an army chaplain digging his heels into the sides of his
+jaded horse and making for the rear with all possible speed. Sheridan
+stopped him and inquired how things were going at the front.
+
+"Everything is lost," replied the chaplain, "but it will be all right
+when you get there."
+
+The parson, however, in spite of this expression of confidence, kept on
+going. Sheridan sent back word to Colonel Edwards, who commanded a
+brigade at Winchester, to stretch his troops across the valley and stop
+all fugitives. To most men this would have been the only plan of action
+possible, to stop the fugitives and rally at Winchester. Sheridan,
+however, was not accustomed to defensive fighting and instantly made up
+his mind that he would rally his men at the front and if possible, turn
+this defeat into a victory. The roads were too crowded to be used and
+so he jumped the fence into the fields and rode straight across country
+toward the drumming guns at Cedar Creek, which showed where the main
+battle was raging. From the fugitives, as he rode, Sheridan obtained a
+clear idea of what had happened. His great rival, Early, had taken
+advantage of his absence to obtain revenge for his previous defeats.
+Just after dawn he had made an attack in two different directions on
+the Union forces and had started a panic which had seized all the
+soldiers except one division under Getty and the cavalry under Lowell.
+The army which Sheridan met was a defeated army in full rout. As he
+dashed along, the men everywhere recognized him, stopped running, threw
+up their hats with a cheer and shouldering their muskets, turned around
+and followed him as fast as they could. He directed his escort to ride
+in all directions and announce that General Sheridan was coming. From
+all through the fields and roads could be heard the sound of faint
+cheering and everywhere men were seen turning, rallying and marching
+forward instead of back. Even the wounded who had fallen by the
+roadside waved their hands and hats to him as he passed. As he rode,
+Sheridan took off his hat so as to be more easily recognized and
+thundered along sometimes in the road and sometimes across country. As
+he met the retreating troops, he said:
+
+"Boys, if I had been with you this morning this wouldn't have happened.
+The thing to do now is to face about and win this battle after all.
+Come on after me as fast as you can."
+
+[Illustration: Sheridan Hurrying to Rally His Men]
+
+So he galloped the whole twelve miles with the men everywhere rallying
+behind him and following him at full speed. At last he came to the
+forefront of the battle where Getty's division and the cavalry were
+holding their own and resisting the rapid approach of the whole
+Confederate Army. Sheridan called upon his horse for a last effort and
+jumped the rail fence at the crest of the hill. By this time the black
+horse was white with foam, but he carried his master bravely up and
+down in front of the line and the whole brigade of men rose to their
+feet with a tremendous cheer and poured in a fierce fire upon the
+approaching Confederate troops. Sheridan rode along the whole front of
+the line and aroused a wild enthusiasm which showed itself in the way
+that the first Rebel charge was driven back. Telling Getty's and
+Lowell's men to hold on, he rode back to meet the approaching troops.
+By half-past three in the afternoon, Sheridan had brought back all the
+routed troops, reformed his whole battle line and waving his hat, led a
+charge riding his same gallant black horse. As they attacked the
+Confederate front, Generals Merritt and Custer made a fresh attack and
+the whole Confederate Army fell back routed and broken and was driven
+up the valley in the same way that earlier in the day they had driven
+the Union soldiers. Once again the presence of one brave man had turned
+a defeat into a victory.
+
+Sheridan took no credit to himself in his report to Lincoln, simply
+telegraphing, "By the gallantry of our brave officers and men, disaster
+has been converted into a splendid victory."
+
+"My personal admiration and gratitude for your splendid work of October
+19th," Lincoln telegraphed back and the whole country rang with praises
+of Phil Sheridan and his wonderful ride. The day after the news of the
+battle reached the North, Thomas Buchanan Read wrote a poem entitled
+"Sheridan's Ride," with a stirring chorus.
+
+The last verse sang the praise both of the rider and the horse:
+
+    "What was done? what to do? A glance told him both,
+    Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath,
+    He dashed down the line, mid a storm of huzzas,
+    And the wave of retreat checked its course there because,
+    The sight of the master compelled it to pause.
+    With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
+    By the flash of his eye, and the red nostrils' play,
+    He seemed to the whole great army to say,
+    'I have brought you Sheridan all the way
+    From Winchester, down to save the day.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE BLOODY ANGLE
+
+
+It takes courage to charge, to rush over a space swept by shot and
+shell and attack a body of men grimly waiting to beat back the onset
+with murderous volleys and cold steel. Sometimes, though, it takes more
+courage to stand than to charge, to endure than to attack. The six
+hundred gallant horsemen of that Light Brigade who charged an army at
+Balaclava were brave men. The six hundred Knights of St. John who at
+the siege of Malta by Solyman the Magnificent defended the tiny
+fortress of St. Elmo against thirty thousand Turks until every man lay
+dead back of the broken ramparts and the power and might of the Turkish
+Empire had been wasted and shattered against their indomitable defense
+were braver. The burghers of Leyden who lived through the siege of
+their city on shoe-leather, rats and bark, who baked their last loaves
+and threw them down to the besiegers in magnificent defiance, who
+shouted down to the Spaniards that they would eat their left arms and
+fight with their right, and who slept on the ramparts night and day
+until they drove back the greatest army in all Europe were braver.
+
+"It's dogged that does it," said the grim Duke of Wellington when his
+thin red line of English fighters endured through that long summer day
+against attack after attack until at twilight the Old Guard were
+repulsed for the last time and the great battle of Waterloo won.
+
+Many men are brave in flashes. They are good for a dash. Few are those
+who can go the distance.
+
+This is the story of a Union general who could endure and whose courage
+flared highest when defeat and death seemed certain. It is the story of
+a little band of men who were brave enough to stand against an army and
+whose endurance won a seven-day battle and opened the way for the
+capture of the Confederate capital.
+
+It was the fourth year of the War of the Rebellion, and the end was not
+yet in sight. The Confederate cause had fewer men, but better officers.
+Robert E. Lee was undoubtedly the most able general in the world at
+that time. Stonewall Jackson had been his right arm, while Longstreet,
+Johnston, Early and a host of other fighting leaders helped him to
+defeat one Union army after another. The trouble with the Union leaders
+was that they didn't know how to attack. There had been McClellan, a
+wonderful organizer, but who preferred to dig entrenchments rather than
+fight and who never believed that he had enough men to risk a battle.
+
+Then came Meade who won the great battle of Gettysburg and beat back
+the only invasion of the North, but who failed to follow up his
+advantage and had settled down to the old policy that the North knew so
+well of watchful waiting. At last came the Man. He had been fighting in
+the West and he had won,--not important battles, but more important,
+the confidence of the people and of Abraham Lincoln, the people's
+president. For this new man had a new system of generalship. His
+tactics were simple enough. He believed that armies were made to use,
+not to save. He believed in finding the enemy and hammering and
+hammering and hammering away until something broke--and that something
+was usually the enemy. His name was Ulysses S. Grant.
+
+"He fights," was all that President Lincoln said about him when a party
+of politicians came to ask that he be removed. That was enough. What
+the North wanted was a fighter. Other generals would fight when they
+had to and were satisfied to stop if they defeated the enemy or broke
+even, but Grant was like old Charles Martel, Charles the Hammerer, who
+won his name when he saved all Europe from the Saracens on the plains
+of Tours by a seven-day battle. The great host of horsemen which had
+swept victorious through Asia, Africa and half the circle of the
+Mediterranean whirled down on the solid mass of grim Northmen. For six
+long days Charles Martel hammered away at that flashing horde of wild
+warriors. On the seventh his hammer strokes shattered the might of the
+Moslems and they broke and fled, never to cross the Pyrenees again. Now
+like Charles, the Hammerer of the Union Army was facing his great test,
+the terrible Seven Days in the Wilderness. Between him and the
+Confederate capital lay Lee's veteran army entrenched in that wild
+stretch of Virginia territory which was well named the Wilderness.
+Every foot of the puzzling woods, ravines, thickets and trails were
+known to the Confederates and well they ought to know it since they had
+already won a great battle on nearly the same field. In this tangled
+waste an army that knew the ground had a tremendous advantage. Lee
+chose his battle-field, but did not believe that Grant would join
+battle. He was to learn to know his great opponent better. Grant would
+always fight.
+
+On May 4, 1864, the head of Grant's army met Lee's forces on one of the
+few roads of the Wilderness, known as the Orange Plank Road. The battle
+was joined. At first the Union forces drove the Confederates back into
+the thick woods. There they were reinforced and the knowledge of the
+field began to tell. Everywhere Confederate soldiers were sent by short
+cuts to attack the entangled Union forces and before long the Union
+line was shattered and driven back only to form again and fight once
+more for six long days. And what a battle that was! As in the fierce
+forest-fight between David and Absalom the wood devoured more people
+that day than the sword devoured. The men fought at close quarters and
+in the tangled thickets of stunted Virginia pine and scrub-oak they
+could scarcely see ten yards ahead. Every thicket was alive with men
+and flashed with musketry while the roar and rattle of guns on all
+sides frightened the deer and rabbits and wildcats that before that day
+had been the only dwellers in those masses of underbrush. The men
+fought blindly and desperately in both armies. Artillery could not be
+used to much advantage in the brush. It was largely a battle of musket
+and bayonet and wild hand-to-hand fights in the tangle of trees. The
+second day the Confederate lines were rolled back to the spot where Lee
+himself stood. Just as they were breaking, down the plank road at a
+steady trot came a double column of splendid troops paying no attention
+to the rabble and rout around them. Straight to the front they moved.
+It was the brigade of Longstreet, Lee's great "left hand." At once the
+Union advance was stopped and the Confederates began to reform their
+lines. At this moment from the pines streamed another Federal brigade
+with apparently resistless force down upon the still confused line.
+Then it was that a little force of Texans did a brave deed. They saw
+that if the Union advance was not checked, their men would not have
+time to form. Although only eight hundred strong, they never hesitated,
+but with a wild Rebel yell and without any supports or reinforcements,
+charged directly into the flank of the marching Union column of many
+times their number. There was a crash, and a tumult of shouts and yells
+which settled down into a steady roar of musketry. In less than ten
+minutes half of the devoted band lay dead or wounded. But they had
+broken the force of the Federal advance and had given the Confederate
+line time to rally.
+
+Back and forth, day after day the human tide ebbed and flowed until the
+lonely Wilderness was crowded with men, echoing with the roar and
+rattle of guns and stained red with brave blood. At times in the
+confusion scattered troops fired upon their own men, and Longstreet was
+wounded by such an accident.
+
+At one place the Federal forces had erected log breastworks. These
+caught fire during the battle and both forces fought each other over a
+line of fire through which neither could pass. From every thicket
+different flags waved. The forces were so mixed that men going back for
+water would find themselves in the hands of the enemy. In places the
+woods caught fire and men fought through the rolling smoke until driven
+back by the flames that spared neither the Blue nor the Gray. Both
+sides would then crawl out to rescue the wounded lying in the path of
+the fire. In some places where the men had fought through the brush,
+bushes, saplings and even large trees were cut off by bullets four or
+five feet from the ground as clean and regularly as if by machinery.
+For the first few days the Confederates had the advantage. They knew
+the paths and the Union men were driven back and forth among the woods
+in a way that would have made any ordinary general retreat. But Grant
+was not an ordinary general. The more he was beaten the harder he
+fought. The more men he lost the more he called into action from the
+reserves.
+
+"It's no use fighting that fellow," said one old Confederate veteran;
+"the fool never knows when he's beaten. And it's no use shooting at
+those Yanks," he went on; "half-a-dozen more come to take the place of
+every one we hit."
+
+At last the Union soldiers got the lay of the land. They couldn't be
+surprised or ambushed any more. Then they began to throw up breastworks
+and to cut down trees to hold every foot that they had taken. The
+Confederates did the same and the two long, irregular lines of
+earthworks and log fortifications faced each other all the way through
+the Wilderness. Yet still the lines of gray lay between Richmond and
+the men in blue. For six days the men had fought locked together in
+hand-to-hand fights over miles and miles of wilderness, marsh and
+thicket. The Union losses had been terrific. All along the line the
+Confederates had won and again and again had dashed back the attempts
+of the Union forces to pass through or around their lines. The Union
+Army had lost eleven officers and twenty thousand men and had fought
+for six days without accomplishing anything. Yet on that day Grant sent
+to Washington a dispatch in which he wrote: "I propose to fight it out
+on this line if it takes all summer."
+
+Through all this tumult of defeats and losses he sat under a tree
+whittling and directing every movement as coolly as if safe at home.
+Finally the great Hammerer chose a spot at which to batter and smash
+with those tremendous strokes of his. The Confederates had built a long
+irregular line of earthworks and timber breastworks running for miles
+through the tangled woods. At one point near the center of the lines a
+half-moon of defenses jutted out high above the rest of the works. At
+the chord of this half-circle was an angle of breastworks back of which
+the Confederates could retreat if driven out of the semicircle. Grant
+saw that this half-moon was the key of the Confederate position. If it
+could be captured and held, their whole battle line could be broken and
+crumpled back and the Union Army pass on to Richmond. If taken at all,
+it must be by some sudden irresistible attack. He chose General
+Hancock, a daring, dashing fighter, to make the attempt for the morning
+of May 12th. It rained hard on the night of May 11th and came off
+bitter cold. The men gathered for the attack about ten o'clock and
+huddled together in little groups wet and half-frozen. All that long
+night they waited. Just at dawn the word was passed around. Crouching
+in the darkness, a division pressed forward and rushed like tigers at
+the half-circle and began to climb the breastworks from two sides. The
+sleepy sentries saw the rush too late. The first man over was a young
+sergeant named Brown. With a tremendous jump he caught a projecting
+bough, swung himself over like a cat and landed right in the midst of a
+crowd of startled soldiers. Finding himself entirely alone with a score
+of guns pointed at him, he lost his nerve for a minute.
+
+"I surrender, don't shoot," he bellowed like a bull. At that moment
+from all sides other soldiers dropped over the rampart.
+
+"I take it all back," shouted Brown, now brave again, and to make up
+for the break in his courage he rushed into the very midst of the
+defenders and, single-handed, captured the colors. The Confederates
+were taken entirely by surprise. In the dim light they fought
+desperately, but they were attacked from two sides with bullets,
+bayonets and smashing blows from the butt-ends of muskets used like
+clubs. Almost in a moment the entrenchments were in the hands of the
+Union soldiers and over three thousand prisoners, two generals and
+twenty cannon were captured. Those who were left took refuge back of
+the angle-breastworks which guarded the approach to the half-moon.
+There they fought back the charging troops until Lee, who had heard of
+the disaster, could pour in reinforcements. He knew full well that this
+center must be retaken at any cost. Every man and gun that could be
+spared was hurried to the spot. Lee started then to take command in
+person. Only when the soldiers refused to fight unless he took a safe
+place did he consent to stay back.
+
+With all his available forces Grant lapped the half-circle on every
+side and began to hammer away at this break in the Confederate line.
+The Confederate reinforcements came up first and Hancock's men were
+driven back from the angle until they met the reinforcements pouring in
+from the troops outside. For a moment they could not face the
+concentrated fire that came from the rear breastworks. Flat on their
+faces officers and men lay in a little marsh while the canister swished
+against the tall marsh-grass and the minie balls moaned horribly as
+they picked out exposed men here and there. Soon another regiment came
+up and with a yell the men sprang to their feet and dashed at the
+breastworks which loomed up through the little patch of woods through
+which they had retreated. In a minute they had rushed through the trees
+with men dropping on every side under the murderous fire. Before them
+was the grim angle of works to be known forever as the Bloody Angle.
+
+As they came nearer they found themselves in front of a deep ditch.
+Scrambling through this they became entangled in an abattis, a kind of
+latticework of limbs and branches. As they plunged into this many a man
+was caught in the footlocks formed by the interwoven branches and held
+until he was shot down by the fire back of the breastworks. These were
+made of heavy timber banked with earth to a height of about four feet.
+Above this was what was called a "head-log" raised just high enough to
+allow a musket to be inserted between it and the lower work. Inside
+were shelves covered with piles of buck and ball and minie cartridges.
+Through the ditch and the snares, up and over the breastworks charged a
+Pennsylvania regiment, losing nearly one hundred men as they went.
+
+Once again there was the same confused hand-to-hand fighting as had
+taken place at the outer fortifications. This time the result was
+different. The crafty Lee had hurried a dense mass of troops through
+the mist. These men crawled forward in the smoke, reserving their fire
+until they got to the very inside edge of the Angle. Then with the
+terrible long-drawn Rebel yell, they sprang to their feet and dashed
+into the breastworks with a volley that killed every Union soldier who
+had crossed over. Down too went the men in front, still tangled in the
+abattis. Every artillery horse was shot and Colonel Upton of the 95th
+Pennsylvania Volunteers was the only mounted officer in sight.
+
+"Stick to it, boys," he shouted, riding back and forth and waving his
+hat. "We've got to hold this point!"
+
+In a dense mass the Confederates poured into the breastworks and for a
+moment it seemed as if they would sweep the Union forces back and
+retake the half-moon salient. At this moment the Pennsylvanians were
+reinforced by the 5th Maine and the 121st New York, but the
+Confederates had the advantage of the breastworks and the Union men
+began to waver. Then a little two-gun battery of the Second Corps did a
+very brave thing. They were located at the foot of a hill back of a
+pine-grove. As the news came that the Union men were giving way, they
+limbered the guns, the drivers and cannoneers mounted the horses and up
+the hill at full gallop they charged through the Union infantry and
+right up to the breastworks, the only case of a charge by a battery in
+history. Then in a second they unlimbered their guns and poured in a
+fire of the tin cans filled with bullets called canister which was
+deadly on the close-packed ranks of the Confederates hurrying up to the
+Angle. The Union gunners were exposed to the full fire of the men back
+of the breastworks, but they never flinched. The left gun fired nine
+rounds and the right fourteen double charges. These cannonades simply
+mowed the men down in groups. Captain Fish of General Upton's staff
+left his men and rushed to help this little battery. Back and forth he
+rode before the guns and the caissons carrying stands of canister under
+his rubber coat.
+
+"Give it to 'em, boys," he shouted. "I'll bring you canister if you'll
+only use it."
+
+Again and again he rode until, just as he turned to cheer the gunners
+once more, he fell mortally wounded. The guns were fired until all of
+the horses were killed, the guns, carriages and buckets cut to pieces
+by the bullets and only two of the twenty-three men of the battery were
+left on their feet. Leaving their two brass pieces which had done such
+terrible execution still on the breastworks cut and hacked by the
+bullets from both sides, the lone two marched back through the cheering
+infantry.
+
+"That's the way to do it," shouted Colonel Upton. "Hold 'em, men! Hold
+'em!" And his men held.
+
+The soft mud came up half-way to their knees. Under the continued
+tramping back and forth, the dead and wounded were almost buried at
+their feet. The shattered ranks backed off a few yards, then closed up
+and started to hold their place out in the open against the constantly
+increasing masses of the enemy back of the breastworks of the Angle.
+The space was so narrow that only a certain number of men on each side
+could get into action at once. A New Jersey and Vermont brigade hurried
+in to help while on the other side General Lee sent all the men that
+could find a place to fight back of the breastworks. Into the mêlée
+came an orderly who shouted in Colonel Upton's ear so as to be heard
+over the rattle of musketry and the roar of yells and cheers:
+
+"General Grant says, 'Hold on!'"
+
+"Tell General Grant we are holding on," shouted back Colonel Upton.
+
+The men in the mud now directed all their fire at the top of the
+breastworks and picked off every head and hand that showed above. The
+Confederates then fired through the loopholes, or placed their rifles
+on the top log and holding by the trigger and the small of the stock
+lifted the breach high enough to fire at the attacking forces. The
+losses on both sides were frightful. A gun and a mortar battery took
+position half a mile back of the Union forces and began to gracefully
+curve shells and bombs just over the heads of their comrades so as to
+drop within the ramparts. Sometimes the enemy's fire would slacken.
+Then some reckless Union soldier would seize a fence-rail or a piece of
+the abattis and creep close to the breastworks and thrust it over as if
+he was stirring up a hornet's nest, dropping on the ground to avoid the
+volley that was sure to follow. One daring lieutenant leaped upon the
+breastworks and took a rifle that was handed up to him and fired it
+into the masses of the Confederate soldiers behind. Another one was
+handed up and he fired that and was about aiming with a third when he
+was riddled with a volley and pitched headlong among the enemy.
+
+A little later a party of discouraged Confederates raised a piece of a
+white shelter tent above the works as a flag of truce and offered to
+surrender. The Union soldiers called on them to jump over. They sprang
+on the breastworks and hesitated a moment at the sight of so many
+leveled guns. That moment was fatal to them for their comrades in the
+rear poured a volley into them, killing nearly every one.
+
+All day long the battle raged. Different breastworks in the same
+fortifications flaunted different flags. Gradually, however, all along
+the line the firing and the fighting concentrated at the Angle. The
+head logs there were so cut and torn that they looked like brooms. So
+heavy was the fire that several large oak trees twenty-two inches in
+diameter back of the works were gnawed down by the bullets and fell,
+injuring some of the South Carolina troops. Toward dusk the Union
+troops were nearly exhausted. Each man had fired between three and four
+hundred rounds. Their lips were black and bleeding from biting
+cartridge. Their shoulders and hands were coated and black with grime
+and powder-dust. As soon as it became dark they dropped in the
+knee-deep mud from utter exhaustion. But they held. Grimly, sternly
+they held. All the long night through they fired away at the
+breastworks. The trenches on the right of the Angle ran red with Union
+blood and had to be cleared many a time of the piles of dead bodies
+which choked them. At last, a little after midnight, sullenly and
+slowly the Confederate forces drew back and the half-moon and the
+Bloody Angle were left in possession of the Union forces. The seven
+days' hammering and the twenty hours of holding had won the fierce and
+bloody Battle of the Wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HEROES OF GETTYSBURG
+
+
+Heroes are not made of different stuff from ordinary men. God made us
+all heroes at heart. Satan lied when he said "all that a man hath will
+he give for his life." The call comes and commonplace men and workaday
+women give their lives as a very little thing for a cause, for an
+ideal, or for others. When the great moment comes, the love and courage
+and unselfishness that lie deep in the souls of all of us can flash
+forth into beacon-lights of brave deeds which will stand throughout the
+years pointing the path of high endeavor for those who come after.
+
+Women the world over will never forget how Mrs. Strauss came back from
+the life-boat and went down on the _Titanic_ with her husband rather
+than have him die alone.
+
+Boys have been braver and tenderer their lives long because of the
+unknown hero at Niagara. With his mother he was trapped on a floe when
+the ice-jam broke. Slowly and sternly it moved toward the roaring edge
+of the cataract. From the Suspension Bridge a rope was let down to
+them. Twice he tried to fix it around his mother, but she was too old
+and weak to hold on. The floe was passing beyond the bridge and there
+was just time for him to knot the rope around himself. Young, active
+and strong, he would be safe in a moment, but his mother would go to
+death deserted and alone. He tossed the rope away, put his arm around
+his old mother and they went over the Falls together.
+
+Every American sailor has been braver and gentler from the memory of
+Captain Craven who commanded the monitor _Tecumseh_ when Fighting
+Farragut destroyed the forts and captured the Rebel fleet at Mobile
+Bay. The _Tennessee_ was about to grapple with the _Tennessee_, the
+great Rebel ram, when she struck a torpedo, turned over and went down
+bow foremost. Captain Craven was in the pilot-house with the pilot. As
+the vessel sank they both rushed for the narrow door. Craven reached it
+first, but stood aside saying, "After you, pilot." The latter leaped
+through as the water rushed in and was saved. Craven went down with his
+ship.
+
+The great moments which are given to men in which to decide whether
+they are to be heroes or cowards may come at any time, but they always
+flash through every battle. Danger, suffering and death are the stern
+tests by which men's real selves are discovered. A man can't do much
+pretending when he is under fire, and he can't make believe he is brave
+or unselfish, or chivalric when he is sick, or wounded, or dying. We
+can be proud that the man who went before us made good and that we can
+remember all the great battles of the greatest of our wars by the brave
+deeds of brave men.
+
+The battle of Gettysburg was the most important of the Civil War. Lee
+with seventy thousand men was pouring into the North. If he defeated
+Meade and the Union Army, Washington, the capital, would fall. Even
+Philadelphia and New York would be threatened. In three days of
+terrible fighting, thirty thousand men were killed. In one of the
+charges one regiment, the 1st Minnesota, lost eighty-two per cent. of
+its men--more than twice as many as the famous Light Brigade lost at
+Balaclava. Pickett's charge of fifteen thousand men over nearly a mile
+and a half against the hill which marked the center of the Union lines
+was one of the greatest charges in history. When the Confederates were
+driven back, two-thirds of the charging party had been killed or
+wounded. It was the crisis of the war. If that charge went home
+Gettysburg was lost, the Union Army would become a rabble and the whole
+strength of the Confederate forces would pass on into the North. On the
+Union batteries depended the whole fate of the army. If they could keep
+up a fire to the last moment, the charge must fail. Otherwise the
+picked thousands of the Confederate Army would break the center of the
+Union forces and the battle would be lost. Lee gathered together one
+hundred and fifteen guns and directed a storm of shot and shell against
+the Union batteries as his regiments charged up the hill. On the very
+crest was a battery commanded by young Cushing, a brother of Lieutenant
+W. B. Cushing, who drove a tiny torpedo launch over a boom of logs
+under the fire of forts, troops and iron-clads and destroyed the great
+Confederate iron-clad _Albemarle_. This Cushing was of the same
+fighting breed. During the battle he was shot through both thighs but
+would not leave his post though suffering agonies from the wounds. When
+the charge began he fought his battery as fast as the guns could be
+loaded and fired and his grape-shot and canister mowed down the
+charging Confederates by the hundred. In spite of tremendous losses the
+Rebels rushed up the hill firing as they came and so fierce was their
+fire and that of the Confederate batteries that of the Union officers
+in command of the batteries just in front of the charge, all but two
+were struck. But the men kept up the fire to the very last. As what was
+left of the Confederates topped the hill, a shell struck the wounded
+Cushing tearing him almost in two. He held together his mangled body
+with one hand and with the other fired his last gun and fell dead just
+as the Confederates reached the stone wall on the crest. They were so
+shattered by his fire that they were unable to hold the hill and were
+driven back and the battle won for the Union.
+
+Old John Burns was another one of the many heroes of Gettysburg. John
+was over seventy years old when the battle was fought and lived in a
+little house in the town of Gettysburg with his wife who was nearly as
+old as he. Burns had fought in the war of 1812 and began to get more
+and more uneasy every day as the battle was joined at different points
+near where he was living. The night before the last day of the battle
+the old man went out to get his cow and found that a foraging band of
+Confederates had driven her off. This was the last straw. The next day
+regiment after regiment of the Confederate forces marched past his
+house and the old man took down his flintlock musket which had done
+good service against the British in 1812 and began to melt lead and run
+bullets through his little old bullet mould. Mrs. Burns had been
+watching him uneasily for some time.
+
+"John, what in the world are you doing there?" she finally asked.
+
+"Oh," he said, "I thought I would fix up the old gun and get some
+bullets ready in case any of the boys might want to use it. There's
+goin' to be some fightin' and it's just as well to get ready. There
+ain't a piece in the army that will shoot straighter than Betsy here,"
+and the old man patted the long stock of the musket affectionately.
+
+"Well," said his wife, "you see that you keep out of it. You know if
+the Rebs catch you fightin' in citizens' clothes, they'll hang you
+sure."
+
+"Don't you worry about me," said John. "I helped to lick the British
+and I ain't afraid of a lot of Rebels."
+
+Finally the long procession of Confederate forces passed and for an
+hour or so the road was empty and silent. At last in the distance
+sounded the roll and rattle of drums and through a great cloud of dust
+flamed the stars and stripes and in a moment the road was filled with
+solid masses of blue-clad troops hurrying to their positions on what
+was to be one of the great battle-fields of the world. As regiment
+after regiment filed past, old John could stand it no longer. He
+grabbed his musket and started out the door.
+
+"John! John! Where are you going?" screamed his wife, running after
+him. "Ain't you old enough to know better?"
+
+"I'm just goin' out to get a little fresh air," said John, pulling away
+from her and hurrying down the street. "I'll be back before night
+sure."
+
+It was the afternoon of the last day when the men of a Wisconsin
+regiment near the front saw a little old man approaching, dressed in a
+blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons and carrying a long flintlock
+rifle with a big powder-horn strapped about him.
+
+"Hi, there!" he piped, when he saw the men. "I want to jine in.
+Where'll I go?"
+
+The men laughed at the sight.
+
+"Anywhere," shouted back one of them; "there's good fightin' all along
+the line."
+
+"Well," said John, "I guess I'll stop here," and in spite of their
+attempts to keep him back, he crept up until he was at the very front
+of the skirmish line. There was a lull in the fighting just then and
+there was a good deal of joking up and down the line between the men
+and John.
+
+"Say, grandpa," called out one, "did you fight in the Revolution?"
+
+"Have you ever hit anything with that old gun of yours?" said another.
+
+But John was able to hold his own.
+
+"Sure I fought in the Revolution," he piped loudly, "and as for hittin'
+anything, say, boys, do you know that at the Battle of Bunker Hill I
+had sixty-two bullets in my pocket. I had been loadin' and firin' fifty
+times and I had shot forty-nine British officers when suddenly I heard
+some one yellin' to me from behind our lines and he says to me, 'Hi,
+there, old dead-shot, don't you know that this is a battle and not a
+massacre?' I turns around and right behind me was General George
+Washington, so I saluted and I says, 'What is it, General?' and he
+says, 'You stop firin' right away.' 'Well,' I said, 'General, I have
+only got twelve more bullets; can't I shoot those?' 'No,' he says to
+me, 'you go home. You've done enough,' and he says, 'don't call me
+General, call me George.'"
+
+This truthful anecdote was repeated along the whole line and instantly
+made John's reputation as a raconteur. He was allowed to establish
+himself at the front of the line and in a minute, as the firing
+commenced, he was fighting with the best of them. They tried to
+persuade him to take a musket from one of the many dead men who were
+lying around, but like David, John would not use any weapon which he
+had not proved. He stuck to old Betsy and although he did not make
+quite so good a record as at the Battle of Bunker Hill, according to
+his comrades he accounted for no less than three Confederates, one of
+whom was an officer. Before the day was over he received three wounds.
+Toward evening there was an overwhelming rush of the Confederates which
+drove back the Union soldiers and the Wisconsin regiment fell back
+leaving poor old John lying there among the other wounded. He was in a
+dilemma. Although his cuts were only flesh-wounds, yet he would bleed
+to death unless they were properly dressed. On the other hand if he was
+found by the Rebels in civilian clothes with his rifle, he would
+undoubtedly be shot according to military law. The old man could not,
+however, bear the thought of parting with old Betsy, so he crawled
+groaningly toward a hollow tree where he managed to hide the old
+flint-lock and the powder-horn and soon afterward attracted the
+attention of the Confederate patrol which was going about the field
+attending to the wounded. At first they were suspicious of him.
+
+"What are you doing, old man, wounded on a battle-field in citizens'
+clothes?" one of the officers asked.
+
+"Well," said John, "I was out lookin' for a cow which some of you
+fellows carried off and first thing I knew I was hit in three places.
+So long as you got my cow, the least you can do is to carry me home."
+
+[Illustration: The Battle of Gettysburg]
+
+This seemed fair to the officer and a stretcher was brought and the old
+man was carried back to the house. His next fear was that his wife
+would unconsciously betray him to the patrol that were bringing him
+into the house. Sure enough as they reached the door, old Mrs. Burns
+came rushing out.
+
+"John," she screamed, "I told you not to go out."
+
+"Shut up, Molly," bellowed John at the top of his voice. "I didn't find
+the old cow, but I did the best I could and I want you to tell these
+gentlemen that I am as peaceable an old chap that ever lived, for they
+found me out there wounded with a lot of soldiers and think I may have
+been doin' some fightin'."
+
+Mrs. Burns was no fool.
+
+"Gentlemen," she cried out, "I can't thank you enough for bringing back
+this poor silly husband of mine. I told him that if he went hunting
+to-day for cows or anything else, he would most likely find nothing but
+trouble, and I guess he has. He's old enough to know better, but you
+leave him here and I'll nurse him and try to get some sense into his
+head."
+
+So the patrol left Burns at his own house, not without some suspicions,
+for the next day an officer came around and put him through a severe
+cross-examination which John for the most part escaped by pretending to
+be too weak to answer any particularly searching question. Mrs. Burns
+nursed the old man back to health again and never let a day go by
+without a number of impressive remarks about his foolhardiness. The old
+man hadn't much to say, but the first day after he got well he
+disappeared and came back an hour or so later with old Betsy and the
+powder-horn which he found safe and sound in the tree where he left
+them. These he hung again over the mantelpiece in readiness for the
+next war, "for," said John, "a man's never too old to fight for his
+country."
+
+Another hero in that battle was Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson. Only
+nineteen years old he commanded a battery in an exposed position on the
+Union right. His two guns did so much damage that Gordon, the
+Confederate general, could not advance his troops in the face of their
+deadly fire. Wilkeson could be seen on the far-away hilltop riding back
+and forth encouraging and directing his gunners.
+
+General Gordon sent for the captains of two of his largest batteries.
+
+"Train every gun you've got," he said, "on that man and horse. He's
+doing more damage than a whole Yankee regiment."
+
+Quietly the guns of the two far-apart positions were swung around until
+they all pointed directly at that horseman against the sky. A white
+handkerchief was waved from the farthest battery and with a crash every
+gun went off. When the smoke cleared away, man and horse were down, the
+guns dismounted and the gunners killed. The Confederate forces swept on
+their way unchecked across the field that had been swept and winnowed
+by Wilkeson's deadly guns. As they went over the crest, they found him
+under his dead horse and surrounded by his dead gunners still alive but
+desperately wounded. He was carried in to the Allen House along with
+their own wounded and given what attention was possible, which was
+little enough. It was plain to be seen that he was dying. Suffering
+from that choking, desperate thirst which attacks every wounded man who
+has lost much blood he faintly asked for water. There was no water to
+be had, but finally one of the Confederate officers in charge managed
+to get a full canteen off a passing soldier. Wilkeson stretched out his
+hands for what meant more to him than anything else in the world. Just
+then a wounded Confederate soldier next to him cried out, "For God's
+sake give me some."
+
+Wilkeson stopped with the canteen half to his mouth and then by sheer
+force of will passed it over to the other. In his agonizing thirst the
+wounded Confederate drank every drop before he could stop himself.
+Horror-stricken he turned to apologize. The young lieutenant smiled at
+him, turned slightly--and was gone. It took more courage to give up
+that flask of cold water than to fight his battery against the whole
+Confederate Army.
+
+The hero-folk on that great day were not all men and boys. Among the
+many, many monuments that crowd the field of Gettysburg there is one of
+a young girl carved from pure translucent Italian marble. It is the
+statue of Jennie Wade, the water-carrier for many a wounded and dying
+soldier during two of those days of doom. Although she knew it not,
+Jennie was following in the footsteps of another woman, that unknown
+wife of a British soldier at the Battle of Saratoga in the far-away
+Revolutionary days. When Burgoyne's army was surrounded at Saratoga,
+some of the women and wounded men were sent for safety to a large house
+in the neighborhood where they took refuge in the cellar. There they
+crouched for six long days and nights while the cannon-balls crashed
+through the house overhead. The cellar became crowded with wounded and
+dying men who were suffering agonies from thirst. It was only a few
+steps to the river, but the house was surrounded by Morgan's
+sharp-shooters and every man who ventured out with a bucket was shot
+dead. At last the wife of one of the soldiers offered to go and in
+spite of the protests of the men ventured out. The American riflemen
+would not fire upon a woman and again and again she went down to the
+river and brought back water to the wounded in safety.
+
+Jennie Wade was a girl of twenty who lived in a red-brick house right
+in the path of the battle. They could not move to a safer place, for
+her married sister was there with a day-old baby, so the imprisoned
+family was in the thick of the battle. Recently when the old roof was
+taken off to be repaired, over two quarts of bullets were taken from
+it. During the first day, Jennie's mother moved her daughter and her
+baby so that her head rested against the foot of the bed. She had no
+more been moved than a bullet crashed through the window and struck the
+pillow where her head had lain an instant before. While her mother
+watched her daughter and the baby, Jennie carried water to the soldiers
+on the firing-line. At the end of the first day fifteen soldiers lay
+dead in the little front yard and all through that weary day and late
+into the night Jennie was going back and forth filling the canteens of
+the wounded and dying soldiers as they lay scattered on that stricken
+field. Throughout the second day she kept on with this work and many
+and many a wounded soldier choking with thirst lived to bless her
+memory. On this day a long procession of blue-clad men knocked at the
+door of the house asking for bread until the whole supply was gone.
+After dark on the second day, Jennie mixed up a pan of dough and set it
+out to rise. She got up at daybreak and as she was lighting a fire, a
+hungry soldier-boy knocked at the door and asked for something to eat.
+Jennie started to mix up some biscuit and as she stood with her sleeves
+rolled up and her hands in the dough, a minie ball cut through the door
+and she fell over dead without a word. Her statue stands as she must
+have appeared during those first two days of battle. In one hand she
+carries a pitcher and over her left arm are two army-canteens hung by
+their straps. Not the least of the heroic ones of that battle was
+Jennie Wade who died while thus engaged in homely, helpful services for
+her country.
+
+These are the stories of but a few who fought at Gettysburg that men
+might be free and that their country might stand for righteousness. The
+spirit of that battle has been best expressed in a great poem by Will
+H. Thompson with which we end these stories of some of the brave deeds
+of the greatest battle of the Civil War.
+
+    HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG
+
+    A cloud possessed the hollow field,
+    The gathering battle's smoky shield;
+      Athwart the gloom the lightning flashed,
+      And through the cloud some horsemen dashed,
+    And from the heights the thunder pealed.
+
+    Then, at the brief command of Lee,
+    Moved out that matchless infantry,
+      With Pickett leading grandly down
+      To rush against the roaring crown
+    Of those dread heights of destiny.
+
+    Far heard above the angry guns,
+    A cry across the tumult runs,
+      The voice that rang through Shiloh's woods
+      And Chickamauga's solitudes,
+    The fierce South cheering on her sons.
+
+    Ah, how the withering tempest blew
+    Against the front of Pettigrew!
+      A khamsin wind that scorched and singed,
+      Like that infernal flame that fringed
+    The British squares at Waterloo!
+
+    "Once more in Glory's van with me!"
+    Virginia cries to Tennessee,
+      "We two together, come what may,
+      Shall stand upon those works to-day."
+    (The reddest day in history.)
+
+    But who shall break the guards that wait
+    Before the awful face of Fate?
+      The tattered standards of the South
+      Were shriveled at the cannon's mouth,
+    And all her hopes were desolate.
+
+    In vain the Tennesseean set
+    His breast against the bayonet;
+      In vain Virginia charged and raged,
+      A tigress in her wrath uncaged,
+    Till all the hill was red and wet!
+
+    Above the bayonets mixed and crossed,
+    Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost
+      Receding through the battle-cloud,
+      And heard across the tempest loud
+    The death-cry of a nation lost!
+
+    The brave went down! Without disgrace
+    They leaped to Ruin's red embrace;
+      They only heard Fame's thunder wake,
+      And saw the dazzling sun-burst break
+    In smiles on Glory's bloody face!
+
+    They fell, who lifted up a hand
+    And bade the sun in heaven to stand!
+      They smote and fell, who set the bars
+      Against the progress of the stars,
+    And stayed the march of Motherland.
+
+    They stood, who saw the future come
+    On through the fight's delirium!
+      They smote and stood, who held the hope
+      Of nations on that slippery slope
+    Amid the cheers of Christendom!
+
+    God lives! He forged the iron will
+    That clutched and held that trembling hill.
+      God lives and reigns! He built and lent
+      Those heights for Freedom's battlement,
+    Where floats her flag in triumph still!
+
+    Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
+    Love rules; her gentler purpose runs.
+      A mighty mother turns in tears
+      The pages of her battle years,
+    Lamenting all her fallen sons!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE LONE SCOUT
+
+
+Single-handed exploits, where a man must depend upon his own strength
+and daring and coolness, rank high among brave deeds. Occasionally a
+man has confidence enough in himself to penetrate alone into the
+enemy's country and to protect his life and do his endeavor by his own
+craft and courage. Of such was Hereward, the Last of the English, who,
+like Robin Hood, many centuries later, led his little band of free men
+through fen and forest and refused to yield even to the vast resources
+of William the Conqueror. Once disguised as a swineherd he entered the
+very court of the king and sat with the other strangers and wanderers
+at the foot of the table in the great banquet-hall and saw in the
+distance the man who was first to conquer and then to make
+unconquerable all England. To this day we love to read of his
+adventures on that scouting trip. How the servants who sat at meat with
+him played rough jokes on him until, forgetful of his enormous
+strength, he dealt one of them a buffet which laid him lifeless across
+the table with a broken neck. How he was taken up to the head of the
+table and stood before William on an instant trial for his life. His
+loose jerkin had been torn during the struggle and showed his vast
+chest and arms covered with scars of old wounds which no swineherd
+would ever have received. The old chronicle goes on to tell how they
+imprisoned him for the night and when his jailer came to fetter his
+legs with heavy irons, he stunned him with a kick, unlocked the doors
+and gates, broke open the stable door, selected the best horse in the
+king's stable and, armed with an old scythe blade which he had picked
+up in the barn, cut his way through the guard and rode all night by the
+stars back to his band.
+
+In 1862 Corporal Pike of the Fourth Ohio Regiment led an expedition for
+a hundred miles through the enemy's country, which was worthy of
+Hereward himself. The expedition consisted of Corporal James Pike, who
+held all positions from general to private and who also had charge of
+the commissary department and was head of the board of strategy. The
+corporal was a descendant of Captain Zebulon Pike the great Indian
+fighter and inherited his ancestor's coolness and daring. Old Zebulon
+used to say that he never really knew what happiness was until he was
+in danger of his life and that when he started into a fight, it was as
+if all the music in the world was playing in his ears and that a battle
+to him was like a good dinner, a game of ball and a picnic all rolled
+into one. The corporal was very much this way. He had taken such
+particular pleasure in foolhardy exploits that his officers decided to
+try him on scout duty. There he did so well that General Mitchel's
+attention was attracted to him.
+
+In April, 1862, it was of great importance for the general's plans to
+obtain information in regard to the strength of the Confederates in
+Alabama, and to have a certain railroad bridge destroyed so as to cut
+off the line of communications with the forces farther south. Out of
+the whole regiment the general picked Corporal Pike. The corporal's
+plan of procedure was characteristic of the man. He wore his regular
+full blue uniform and throughout the first part of his trip made no
+attempt at disguise or concealment. This was not as reckless as it
+sounds. The country was filled with Confederate spies and messengers
+who almost invariably adopted the Union uniform and it had this
+advantage--if captured, he could claim that he was in his regular
+uniform and was entitled to be treated as a soldier captured on the
+field of battle and not hung as a spy. The corporal, however, did not
+attach any very great weight to the protection of this uniform, as he
+figured out that if he were caught burning bridges and obtaining
+reports of Confederate forces, they would hang him whatever the color
+of his uniform. He had no adventures until he drew near Fayetteville in
+Tennessee. He spent the night in the woods and bright and early the
+next morning rode into the village and up to the hotel and ordered
+breakfast for himself and a similar attention for his horse. The sight
+of a Union soldier assembled all the unoccupied part of the population
+and in a few minutes there were three hundred men on the sidewalk in
+front of the hotel. As the corporal came back from looking after his
+horse, for he would never eat until he had seen that old Bill was
+properly cared for, a man stepped up and inquired his name.
+
+[Illustration: Corporal Pike]
+
+"My name, sir," said the corporal, "is James Pike of the Fourth Ohio
+Cavalry, which is located at Shelbyville. What can I do for you?"
+
+There was a few moments' silence and then a great laugh went up as the
+crowd decided that this was some Confederate scout, probably one of
+Morgan's rangers in disguise.
+
+"What are you doing down here?" asked another.
+
+"I am down here," said Pike coolly, "to demand the surrender of this
+town just as soon as I can get my breakfast and find the mayor."
+
+The crowd laughed loudly again and the corporal went in to breakfast,
+where he sat at a table with a number of Confederate officers with whom
+he talked so mysteriously that they were fully convinced that he must
+be one of Morgan's right-hand men. After breakfast he ordered his horse
+and started out, first saying good-bye to the crowd who were still
+waiting for him.
+
+"If you're from the North," said one, "why don't you show us a Yankee
+trick before you go?" for the Southerners were thoroughly convinced
+that all Yankees were sly foxes full of sudden schemes and stratagems.
+
+"Well, I will before long," said Pike, as he waved good-bye and
+galloped off.
+
+Five miles out of the village he came to a fork in the road where one
+road led to Decatur, which was where the main Confederate forces were
+located, and the other to Huntsville. Just as he was turning into the
+Decatur road, he saw a wagon-train coming in from Huntsville and
+decided that here was a chance for his promised Yankee trick. He rode
+up to the first wagon.
+
+"Drive that wagon up close to the fence and halt," he said.
+
+"How long since you've been wagon-master?" said the driver, cracking
+his whip.
+
+"Ever since you left your musket lying in the bottom of the wagon,"
+said Pike, leveling his revolver at the man's head. He drove his wagon
+up and halted it without a word and stood with his arms over his head
+as ordered by Pike.
+
+One by one the other wagons came up and the drivers assumed the same
+attitude. Last of all there was a rattle of hoofs and the wagon-master,
+who had been lingering in the rear, galloped up.
+
+"What the devil are you fellows stopping for?" he shouted, but as he
+came around the last wagon, he almost ran his head into Pike's revolver
+and immediately assumed the same graceful attitude as the others. Pike
+rode up to each wagon, collected all the muskets, not forgetting to
+remove a couple of revolvers from the belt of the wagon-master and then
+inquired from the latter what the wagons had in them.
+
+"Provender," said the wagon-master, surlily.
+
+"What else?" said the corporal, squinting along the barrel of his
+revolver.
+
+"Bacon," yelled the wagon-master much alarmed; "four thousand pounds in
+each wagon."
+
+"Well," said the corporal, "I've always been told that raw bacon is an
+unhealthy thing to eat and so you just unhitch your mules and set fire
+to these wagons and be mighty blamed quick about it too, because I have
+a number of engagements down the road." The men grumbled, but there was
+no help for them and in a few minutes every wagon was burning and
+crackling and giving out dense black smoke. Waiting until it was
+impossible to put them out, the corporal lined the men up across the
+road.
+
+"Now you fellows get on your marks and when I count three you start
+back to Fayetteville and if you are in reach by the time I have counted
+one hundred, there's going to be some nice round holes in the backs of
+your uniforms. When you get back to the village tell them that this is
+the Yankee trick that I promised them."
+
+Before Pike had counted twenty-five there was not a man in sight. He at
+once turned back and raced down the road toward Decatur. He had gone
+about ten miles when he came to a small country church and as it was
+Sunday, it was open and nearly filled. Fearing that there might be a
+number of armed Confederate soldiers in the church who would start out
+in pursuit as soon as the word came back from Fayetteville, the
+corporal decided to investigate. Not wishing to dismount he rode Bill
+up the steps and through the open door and down the main aisle, just as
+the minister was announcing a hymn.
+
+"Excuse this interruption," said Pike, as the minister's voice quavered
+off into silence, "but I notice a number of soldierly-looking men here
+and I will take it as a great favor if they will hold their hands as
+high above their heads as possible and come down here and have a talk
+with me."
+
+As this simple request was accompanied by a revolver aimed at the
+audience, one by one six soldiers who had been attending the service
+came sheepishly down the aisle. They looked so funny straining their
+arms over their heads that some of the girls in the audience unkindly
+burst out laughing. Pike removed a revolver from each one and dumped
+his captured arms into one of his saddle-bags.
+
+"Now, parson," he said, "I want to hear a good, fervent prayer from you
+for the President of the United States." The minister hesitated. "Quick
+and loud," said Pike, "because I'm going in a minute."
+
+There was no help for it and the minister prayed for President Lincoln
+by name, while Pike reverently removed his cap. Then backing his horse
+out of the door, he started on toward Decatur. Not a half mile from the
+church he met two Confederate soldiers who were leisurely riding to the
+church. There was no reason at all why the corporal should meddle with
+these men. They were two to one and he had no way of disposing of them
+even if he made them captives. However, the sight of the Confederate
+parson praying for Abe Lincoln had tickled Pike and he made up his mind
+to have some fun with these soldiers. As he came abreast of them he
+whipped out his revolver, ordered them to halt and to give their names,
+regiments and companies. They did so with great alacrity.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said, "you are my prisoners and I am very sorry
+for I am so far outside of my lines that I am afraid there is only one
+way to safely dispose of you."
+
+"Great heavens, man," said one, "you don't mean to shoot us down."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Pike, "but you can see for yourself that that's the
+only thing to do. You are Rebel soldiers and to leave you alive would
+mean that you will keep on doing harm to the Union forces."
+
+"Don't shoot, captain," both of them chorused; "we'll take the oath of
+allegiance."
+
+Pike seemed to hesitate.
+
+"Well," he said finally, "I hate to kill men on Sunday. I suppose I
+ought not to do this, but if you'll solemnly swear allegiance to the
+United States of America and that you'll never hereafter serve against
+the Union or be late to church again, I'll let you go."
+
+With much solemnity, the Confederates took the oath in the form
+dictated, delivered up their revolvers and rode away.
+
+The next man that Pike encountered was an old gentleman on his way to
+Fayetteville, who admitted that he was a judge and the next day was
+intending to serve in a number of political cases involving the
+property of certain Union sympathizers. Pike made him also take the
+oath of allegiance, and promise not to enter judgment contrary to the
+interests of the Union. He then left the road and rode along a shallow
+creek through the woods. About sunset he suddenly came upon an old man
+under the trees. He questioned him and found that he was a Union
+sympathizer and was told by him that there were twelve Tennessee
+cavalrymen and fifteen mounted citizens on the lookout for him.
+
+"That is," said the old man, "if you're the chap that has been going
+around capturing wagon-trains and churches and soldiers and judges."
+
+"That's me," said Pike.
+
+The old man took him home and fed him and with him he left his horse
+and started out on foot, feeling that the hue and cry would now be out
+all over the country against a mounted man in Union uniform. Leaving
+his friend, he followed the path through the woods toward Decatur until
+it was dark and then wrapped himself up in a blanket and slept all
+night in the pouring rain. In the morning he made his way toward the
+railway and followed it until about ten o'clock when he stopped at a
+house and bought a breakfast. He had not been there long before he was
+joined by several Confederate cavalrymen.
+
+"What's your business," said one, "and what are you doing in that
+uniform?"
+
+"Well," said Pike, "I was told to wear it and not to tell any one my
+business until it was done and if you fellows don't like it, you had
+better take it up with the general."
+
+Once again the Confederates concluded that he was on some secret
+mission. They insisted, however, on taking him to camp with them and
+there he stayed two days and nights, incidentally obtaining all the
+information possible as to the forces and the guard about the bridge.
+Just before dawn on the second morning, he managed to give them the
+slip and started across country, wading and swimming and toiling
+through one swamp after another until he finally reached the river
+bank, traveling only by night and sleeping by day. Along this bank he
+went for miles until finally he found concealed in a little creek a
+small rowboat which was tied to a tree and in which were two oars. He
+spent the better part of the day in loading this up with pine knots and
+bits of dry driftwood which he planned to use in firing the bridge.
+Just at evening he pushed off into the middle of the river and started
+again down for the bridge. He had found by his inquiries that the
+Confederate camp was located on a bank some distance from the bridge,
+as no one expected any attack there so far within the Confederate
+lines. All night long he tugged at the oars and aided by the current
+reached the bridge about three o'clock in the morning. The bridge was
+an old-fashioned one erected on three piers. Pike made a careful survey
+of the whole length of the bridge from the river and found it
+absolutely unguarded although he could hear the sentry call on the hill
+a quarter of a mile away where the troops were encamped by the town.
+Concealing his skiff under an overhanging tree, he toiled up to the
+bridge with armful after armful of fire-wood. At each end and in the
+middle he made a little heap of fat-wood and pine knots with a strip of
+birch-bark, which burns like oiled paper, underneath each. Starting
+from the far end, he lit the first two piles and by the time he had
+crossed and was working on the last, he could hear the flames roaring
+behind him as they caught the dry weather-beaten planking of the
+bridge. And now he made a mistake which was to prove well-nigh fatal to
+him. As soon as the fire had obtained a headway, he should have
+instantly stolen back up the river in his skiff. In his anxiety to make
+a thorough job of it he stayed too long, forgetting that in the bright
+light of the fire every motion he made would be plainly visible from
+the hilltop. Suddenly he heard the alarm given from the camp and almost
+instantly it was followed by the wail of a minie ball as the sentry
+above fired down upon him. By this time the river was as bright as day
+for a quarter of a mile on both sides of the bridge. Near the
+Confederate camp were a number of boats and Pike was already nearly
+exhausted by his long row and his work in firing the bridge. He heard
+the shouts of men as they dashed down for their boats. If he attempted
+to escape by water he was certain to be overtaken. Another bullet close
+to his head decided him and he dashed down from the bridge into the
+road, and plunged into the thick woods on the farther side. All the
+rest of that night and through the first part of the next day he
+traveled, following one path after another and keeping his general
+direction by a pocket compass. By noon he was so tired that if it had
+been to save his life he could not have gone any farther. The little
+stock of provisions which he had carried with him had been exhausted
+the night before and he threw himself on a bed of dry pine-needles
+under a long-leafed pine which stood on the top of a little knoll and
+lay there for nearly an hour until part of his strength came back. The
+first thing to do was to find something to eat. Pike did not dare shoot
+anything with his revolver, even if there had been anything to shoot,
+for fear of attracting the attention of Confederate pursuers or
+bushwhackers. It was now that the corporal's wood-craft proved to be as
+valuable as his scout-craft. If he were to go further, he must have
+food and he commenced to wander back and forth through the woods, his
+quick eye taking in everything on the ground or among the trees. On the
+other side of the knoll where he had been lying, he noticed a rotten
+log where the dry, punky wood had been scattered as if a hen had been
+scratching there. Pike commenced to look carefully all along the ground
+and finally just on the edge of the slope where the thick underbrush
+began, he nearly stepped on a large brown speckled bird so much the
+color of the leaves that if he had not been looking for it, he never
+would have discovered the nest. The bird slipped into the underbrush
+like a shadow, leaving behind fifteen brown, mottled partridge eggs.
+The corporal sat down over the nest and gulped down, one after the
+other, those eggs, warm from the breast of the brooding bird. As he
+said afterward, never had he tasted anything half so good. This was a
+step in the right direction, but even fifteen partridge eggs are not
+enough for a man who hadn't eaten for nearly thirty hours. Once again
+he began to prowl restlessly through the woods and this time his
+attention was attracted by something growing on the side of a dead
+maple stub. It was dark red and looked like a great tongue sticking out
+from the bark. To his great joy, Pike recognized it at once as the
+beefsteak mushroom. It was a magnificent specimen which must have
+weighed nearly two pounds and as he pulled it off from the tree, red
+drops oozed out and it looked and smelled like a big, fresh beefsteak.
+The corporal went down the hollow into the thickest part of the swamp
+and there picked an armful of perfectly dry cedar and scrub-oak twigs
+which burn with a clear, smokeless flame. Out of these he built a
+little Indian cooking fire by arranging the twigs into the form of a
+little tepee so that a jet of clear flame came up with hardly a sign of
+any smoke. It was the work of only a moment to whittle and set up a
+forked stick and to fasten a slab of that meaty-looking fungus on a
+spit fixed in the fork. Fortunately he had left in his haversack a
+little salt and pepper with which he seasoned the broiling, hissing
+steak. In about ten minutes it was done to a turn. Cutting a long strip
+of bark from off one of the red river-birches which grew near, Pike
+squatted down on the ground and in fifteen minutes more there was
+nothing left of that savory, two-pound, broiled vegetable steak. With
+fifteen eggs and two pounds of beefsteak mushroom under his belt, the
+corporal felt like another man. He coiled himself up on the dry
+pine-needles in a little hollow which he found under the low-hanging
+boughs of a long-leaf pine and resolved to take a sleep to make up for
+what he had lost during the last two nights. It was early afternoon and
+everything was still and hot and the drowsy scent of the pine mingled
+with puffs of spicy fragrance from the great white blossoms of the
+magnolia with which the woods were starred. As he fell asleep the last
+thing the corporal heard was the drowsy call of flocks of golden-winged
+warblers on their way north. How long he slept he could not tell. He
+only knew that he awoke with a sudden consciousness of danger, that
+strange sixth sense which most Indians and a few white hunters
+sometimes develop. Perhaps he inherited it from old Zebulon Pike who,
+like Daniel Boone and Kit Carson, had the power of hearing and sensing
+the approach of an enemy even in their soundest sleep. The corporal was
+alert the second he opened his eyes, but made not a movement or a
+rustle. The sun was well down in the sky and there was nothing in
+sight, but the birds had stopped singing. Finally way down through the
+little tunnel which a near-by flowing stream had made through the
+hillocks came a sound which brought him to his feet in an instant. It
+was a ringing note that chimed like a distant bell. Three times it
+sounded and there was silence, then again three times, but a little
+nearer and louder, then again silence. A third time it came and this
+time it seemed around the bend of the bayou not half a mile away. Pike
+knew in a minute what it was. It was the bay of the dreaded
+bloodhounds, those man-hunters who had learned to trail their prey
+through forest and fen, no matter how much he doubled nor how fast he
+ran. There was but one thing to do if there was time. Springing up, the
+corporal ran down to the little stream and leaped in. It was hardly up
+to his knees, but he splashed along for a hundred yards, now and then
+plunging in up to his waist. It ran a hundred yards or so through the
+swamp and then emptied into a larger bayou. Along this Pike swam for
+his life as silently as a muskrat, for now he could hear the baying of
+the dogs close at hand and suddenly there was a chorus of deep raging
+barks followed by shouts and he knew that his pursuers had found his
+lair under the pine trees. Soon the stream ran into another one and
+then another until Pike had swam and waded and plunged through half a
+score of brooks which made a regular network through the middle of the
+swamp. By this time the sound of the dogs had died far away in the
+distance and he had every reason to believe that he had thrown them off
+the track. Down the last stream there was a deep, sluggish creek nearly
+fifty feet wide. He swam until he could go no farther. It opened out
+into a series of swampy meadows and to his joy he saw in the very midst
+of the swamp through which it ran a pile of newly-split rails. Swimming
+over to this he found that they had been piled on a little island about
+five feet above the level of the swamp and surrounded on all sides by
+masses of underbrush and deep sluggish water. By this time it was
+nearly sunset and he resolved to crawl up here and find a dry place and
+spend the night on this island, which could not be approached except by
+boat. As he climbed up to the top of the mass of rails, he heard a low,
+thick hiss close to his face and outstretched hand. He had never heard
+the sound before, but no man born needs to be taught the voice of the
+serpent. He started back just in time. Coiled on one of the rails was a
+great cotton-mouth moccasin whose bloated swollen body must have been
+nearly five feet in length and as big around as his arm. The great
+creature slowly opened its mouth, showing the pure white lining which
+has given it the name and hissed again menacingly. The corporal was in
+a predicament. Behind him was the cold, dark river in which he no
+longer had the strength to swim. In the approaching darkness, he might
+not be able to find any other island of refuge on which to pass the
+night. There was nothing for him but to fight the grim snake for the
+possession of the rails. He dropped back and twisted off the thick
+branch of a near-by willow-tree and began again to climb up toward the
+snake cautiously, but as rapidly as possible, for the light was
+beginning to die out in the sky and Pike preferred not to do his
+fighting in the dark in this case if possible. As he reached the top of
+the pile, the king of the island was ready for him and struck viciously
+at him as he approached. The movable poison fangs protruded like
+poisoned spear-heads from the wide-open mouth and from them could be
+seen oozing the yellow drops of the fatal venom which makes the
+cotton-mouth more dreaded even than the rattler or the copperhead. The
+fatal head flashed out not six inches from Corporal Pike's face, but it
+had miscalculated the distance and before it could again coil, he had
+struck with all his might at the monstrous body just where it joined
+the heart-shaped head. Fortunately for him, his aim was good and the
+crippled snake writhed and hissed and struck in vain in a horrible mass
+at Pike's feet. Two more blows made it harmless and inserting the stick
+under the heavy body, the corporal heaved it far over into the water
+and it floated away. Pike then made a careful examination of the rails
+and the island on which he stood so as to make sure that the moccasin
+had not left any of his family behind. He found no others, however, and
+before it was dark the corporal moved the rails and piled them around
+him in a kind of barricade which shut him off from view from the water
+and shore and which he sincerely hoped would discourage the visits of
+any more moccasins. Inside of this he laid three rails lengthwise and
+wrung out his sodden coat and coiled up for the night on his hard bed.
+He woke up surrounded by the gleaming mist of the early morning and
+shaking with the cold after sleeping all night in his soaked clothing.
+As he was too cold to sleep and it was light enough now to see, he
+decided to start off for dry land again. For over two hours he swam and
+waded along big and little bayous until, just as the sun was getting
+up, he came out through the morass and found himself at the rear of a
+lonely plantation. Just in front of him an old negro was at work hoeing
+in a field. The corporal crept up near him through the bushes and
+looked all around cautiously to see whether there were any white men in
+sight. Seeing none, he decided to take a chance on the negro being
+friendly.
+
+"Hi, there, uncle!" he called cautiously from behind a little bush.
+
+The old man jumped a foot in the air.
+
+"That settles it," he observed emphatically to himself, "I'se gwine
+home. This old nigger ain't gwine to work in any swamp whar he hears
+hants callin' him 'uncle.'"
+
+At this point the corporal came out of his hiding place and finally
+managed to convince the old man that he was nothing worse than very
+hungry flesh and blood. The old darkey turned out to be a friend indeed
+and going to his cabin in less than fifteen minutes he was back with a
+big pan full of bacon and corn bread which the corporal emptied in
+record-breaking time. Moreover, he brought his son with him who
+promised to guide Pike by safe paths to the road which led to
+Huntsville where General Mitchel had located his headquarters. Hour
+after hour the two wound in and out of swamps which would have been
+impassable to any one who did not know the hidden trails which crossed
+them. Twice they heard Confederate soldiers, evidently still hunting
+for the Union soldier who had been making them so much trouble. Toward
+noon they came to a broad bayou which went in and out through the
+swamp. At one point where it approached the bend it became very narrow
+and Pike's guide showed him a fallen tree half hidden in the brush.
+
+"Cross that, boss," he said, "and at the other end you'll find a little
+hard path. Follow that and you'll come out clear down on the Huntsville
+road, only a few miles from the Union soldiers."
+
+Pike said good-bye to his faithful guide and gave him one of the
+numerous Confederate revolvers which he had captured on his trip as the
+only payment he could make for his kindness.
+
+The corporal found the path all right and was soon wearily trudging
+along the Huntsville road. He had not gone far before he was overtaken
+by another negro dressed in a style which would have made the lilies of
+the field take to the woods. With his panama hat, red tie and checked
+suit, he made a brave show. What impressed the corporal, however, more
+than his clothes was the fact that he was driving a magnificent horse
+attached to a brand-new buggy.
+
+"Stop a minute," said Pike, stepping out into the road.
+
+"No," said the negro, pompously, "I'se in a great hurry."
+
+The corporal whipped out a revolver and cocked it.
+
+"Come to think of it, Massa," said the darkey in quite a different
+tone, "I'se got plenty of time after all."
+
+"Whose horse is this?" said the corporal, climbing into the buggy.
+
+"This is Mistah Pomeroy's property," said the negro with much dignity.
+
+"Well," said the corporal, "you turn right around and drive me to
+General Mitchel's camp just as fast as the law will let you."
+
+"But, boss," objected the other, "Massa will whip me if I do."
+
+"And I'll shoot you if you don't," returned the corporal.
+
+This last argument was a convincing one and half an hour later General
+Mitchel and his forces were enormously impressed by seeing Corporal
+Pike, who had been reported shot, drive up back of a magnificent horse
+in a new buggy and beside a wonderfully-dressed coachman. The general
+was even more impressed when the corporal reported that the bridge was
+gone and gave him an accurate statement as to the Confederate forces.
+
+Corporal Pike found Mr. Pomeroy's horse a very good substitute for his
+faithful Bill and, to his surprise, the coachman went with the horse,
+since he was afraid to go back, and became a cook in General Mitchel's
+mess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
+
+
+In the old days of the Indian wars a favorite amusement of a raiding
+party was to make their captives run the gauntlet. On their return home
+two long lines of not only the warriors, but even of the women and
+children would be formed armed with clubs, arrows, tomahawks and whips.
+The unfortunate captive was stationed at one end of this aisle of
+enemies and given the choice of being burned at the stake or of running
+for his life between the lines from one end to the other. Sometimes a
+swift runner and dodger escaped enough of the blows to stagger blinded
+with blood from a score of wounds, but still alive, across the line
+which marked the end of this grim race against death. It was always a
+desperate chance. Only the certainty of death if it were not taken ever
+caused any man to enter such a terrible competition. There is no record
+of even the most hardened Indian fighter ever running the gauntlet for
+any life save his own.
+
+In the summer of 1863, three men ran the gauntlet of shot and shell and
+rifle-fire for forty miles to save an army, with death dogging them all
+the way. Brigadier-General Thomas, who afterward earned the title of
+the Rock of Chickamauga by his brave stand in that disastrous battle,
+was entrenched on one of the spurs of the hills around Chattanooga.
+General Bragg with a much superior army of Confederates had hunted the
+Union soldiers mile after mile. At times they had stopped and fought,
+at times they had escaped by desperate marches. Now exhausted and
+ringed about by the whole Confederate Army, they must soon have help or
+be starved into surrender. Yet only forty miles to the eastward was a
+body of thirty thousand men commanded by General Stockton. This general
+was one of those valuable men who obey orders without any reasoning
+about the why and the wherefore of the same. He had been commanded to
+hold a certain pass in the mountains until further orders and that pass
+he would hold, as General Thomas well knew, until relieved or directed
+to do otherwise. If only the duty had been assigned to some other
+officer, it might be that not hearing anything from the main body, he
+would send out a reconnoitering party. Not so with General Stockton.
+That general would stay put and only a direct order or an overpowering
+force of the enemy would move him.
+
+It was in vain that General Thomas tried to get a messenger through
+with secret despatches in cipher. General Bragg knew that he had the
+Union Army cornered and he had stationed a triple row of pickets who
+caught or shot every man that General Thomas sent.
+
+Supplies and ammunition were both running low and General Thomas was
+considering massing a force of men on some point in the line in an
+attempt to break through far enough for a messenger to escape. This
+meant a great loss of life and probably would not be successful as the
+messenger would almost certainly be captured by an outer ring of scouts
+which Bragg would throw out as soon as he realized what was going on.
+There was only one other chance. The Confederates were so sure of their
+own strength, and that they would eventually capture the whole army,
+that they had not destroyed the railroad line which ran between the two
+Federal camps, hoping to use the same for shipping soldiers, prisoners
+and captured supplies later on. Both sides of the track, however, were
+lined with guards and covered by a number of Confederate batteries.
+General Thomas decided to make the attempt and called for volunteers
+who were willing to run this forty-mile gauntlet between the
+Confederate lines and batteries. Two old railroad men offered their
+services as engineer and fireman and they were accompanied by an
+adjutant who was to be the bearer of the despatches. There seemed to be
+only one chance in a thousand for this engine to get safely through and
+the men themselves, if they were not shot in their flight or wrecked
+with the engine, stood a good chance of being captured and hung as
+spies. In fact it seemed such a hopeless chance that at the last moment
+General Thomas was on the point of countermanding the order when one of
+the men themselves gave the best argument in favor of the plan.
+
+"It's worth trying, General," said he, "for even if we fail, you only
+lose three men. The other way you would have to throw away at least a
+thousand before you could find out whether it was possible to cut
+through the lines or not."
+
+It was decided to make the trial and a dark, moonless night when the
+sky was covered with heavy clouds was selected as the best time for
+starting. The men shook hands with their comrades and each left with
+his best friend a letter to be sent to his family if he were not heard
+from within a given time. There were but few engines in the Union ranks
+and none of them were very good as the Confederates had captured the
+most powerful. However, the ex-engineer and fireman picked out the one
+which seemed to be in best repair, put in an extra supply of oil to
+allow for the racking strain on the machinery and filled up the tender
+with all the fuel that it could carry. At half-past ten they started
+after firing up with the utmost care and in half a mile they were
+running at full speed when suddenly there was the sharp crack of a
+rifle and a minie bullet whined past the panting, jumping, rushing
+engine. Another one crashed through the window of the caboose, but
+fortunately struck no one. By this time the little engine was going at
+her utmost speed. At times all four of the wheels seemed to leave the
+track at once, she jumped so under the tremendous head of steam which
+the fireman, working as he had never done before, had raised. The
+engine swayed so from side to side as it ran that it was all that the
+adjutant could do to keep his feet. Finally they reached the first
+battery. Fortunately it had miscalculated the tremendous speed of the
+engine. A series of guns stationed close to the track hurled a shower
+of grape and solid shot at the escaping engine. It cut the framework of
+the caboose almost to pieces, but fortunately not a shot struck any
+vital part of the machinery or injured any of the three men. As they
+whirled on, the last gun of all sent a solid shot after them which
+struck the bell full and fair and with a last tremendous clang it was
+dashed into the bushes by the side of the road. All along the track
+there was a fusillade of musket-fire and bullets whizzed around them
+constantly, but none struck any of the crew. The next danger-point was
+at a junction with this road and another which ran off at right angles.
+This junction was protected by no less than two batteries and
+furthermore on the junction-track was an engine standing with smoke
+coming out of her smoke-stack showing that she was fired up ready for
+pursuit. It seemed absolutely impossible to escape these two batteries.
+Already they could see lanterns hurrying to and fro on both sides of
+the track where the guns were trained so close that they simply could
+not fail to dash the engine into a hissing, bloody, glowing scrap-heap
+of crumpled steel and iron. The men set their teeth and prepared for
+the crash which every one of them felt meant death. It never came. By
+some oversight, no alarm had been given and before the guns could be
+manned and sighted, the engine was whirling along right between both
+batteries, a cloud of sparks and a column of fire rushing two feet
+above her smokestack. The Confederates succeeded in only turning one
+gun and training it on the little engine fast disappearing in the
+darkness. The gunner, however, who fired that gun came nearer putting
+an end to the expedition than all the others. He dropped a shell in the
+air directly over them. It shattered the roof of the caboose, wounded
+the fireman and blew out both windows, but almost by a miracle left the
+machinery still uninjured. The adjutant laid the fireman on the
+jumping, bounding floor of the cab and under his faint instructions
+fired the engine in his place. As he was heaping coal into the open
+fire-box with all his might, there came a deep groan from the wounded
+fireman.
+
+"Try and bear the pain, old man," shouted the engineer over the roar of
+the engine. "We'll be safe in a few minutes if nothing happens."
+
+"Something's goin' to happen," gasped the fireman. "Listen!"
+
+Far back over the track came a pounding and a pushing. The engineer
+shook his head.
+
+"They're after us," he said to the adjutant, "and what's more they're
+bound to get us unless we can throw them off the track."
+
+"Can't we win through with this start?" said the captain.
+
+"No, sir," said the engineer, "they've got an engine that can do ten
+miles an hour better than this one and beside that, they've got a car
+to steady her. I don't dare give this old girl one ounce more of steam
+or she'd jump the tracks."
+
+Before long far back around the curve came the head-light of the
+pursuing engine like the fierce eye of some insatiable monster on the
+track of its prey. Steadily she gained. Once when they approached the
+long trestlework which ran for nearly a mile, the sound of the pursuit
+slackened off as the lighter engine took the trestle at a speed which
+the heavier one did not dare to use. Bullet after bullet whizzed past
+the escaping engine as the soldiers in the cab of her pursuer fired
+again and again. Both engines, however, were swaying too much to allow
+for any certain aim. Finally one lucky shot smashed the clock in the
+front engine close by the engineer's head, spraying glass and splinters
+all over him. Now the front engine had only ten miles to go before she
+would be near enough to General Stockton's lines to be in safety. The
+rear engine, however, was less than a quarter of a mile away and
+gaining at every yard.
+
+"How about dropping some of the fire-bars on the tracks?" suggested the
+captain. "We've got enough coal on to carry her the next ten miles. We
+shan't need the fire-bars after we get through and we certainly won't
+need them if they capture us."
+
+It seemed a good idea and the wounded fireman dragged himself to the
+throttle and took the engineer's place for a moment while he and the
+captain climbed out upon the truck and carefully dropped one after the
+other of the long, heavy steel rods across the track. Then they
+listened, hoping to hear the crash of a derailed engine. It never came.
+Instead there was a loud clanging noise followed by a crackling of the
+underbrush and repeated again as the pursuing engine struck each bar
+with its cow-catcher and dashed it off the rails. The captain suddenly
+commenced to unbutton and tear off his long, heavy army overcoat.
+
+"How about putting this in the middle of the track on the chance that
+it may entangle the wheels?" he suggested.
+
+In a minute the engineer clambered out on the truck.
+
+"If only it gets wedged in the piston-bar, it may take half an hour to
+get it out," he panted as he climbed back into the cab.
+
+Suddenly from behind they heard a heavy jolting noise and then the
+sound of escaping steam.
+
+"We got her," shouted the engineer and the captain to the wounded
+fireman whose face looked ghastly white against the red light of the
+open fire-box. The engineer and the captain shook hands and decided to
+do a little war-dance without much success on the swaying floor of the
+cab, but they were suddenly stopped by a whisper from the fireman.
+
+"They've got it out," he said. Sure enough once more there came the
+thunder of approaching wheels and the start which they had gained was
+soon cut down again. The heavy engine came more and more rapidly on
+them as the fire died down, although the captain tried to stir up the
+flagging flames with his sword in place of the lost fire-iron. Only a
+mile ahead they could see the lights which showed where the Union lines
+lay. Before them was a heavy up-grade and it was certain that the
+Confederate engine would catch them there just on the edge of safety.
+In a minute or so the men crowded into the cab of the engine behind to
+be close enough to pick off the fugitives at their leisure. The three
+men stared blankly ahead. Suddenly the dull, despairing look on the
+engineer's face was replaced by a broad grin. Entirely forgetting
+military etiquette, he slapped his superior officer on the back and
+said:
+
+"Captain, come out to the tender with me and I'll show you a stunt that
+will save our lives if you will do just what I tell you."
+
+The captain obeyed meekly while the wounded fireman stared at his
+friend under the impression that he was losing his mind under the
+strain. The engineer took one of the large oil-cans with a long nozzle
+and then wrapping his two brawny arms tightly around the captain's
+waist, lowered him as far as he could from the tender and directed him
+to pour the oil directly on each rail without wasting a drop or
+allowing a foot to go unoiled. It was hard in the dark to see the rail
+or to keep one's balance on the bounding engine, but the captain was a
+light weight and the engineer let him down as far back from the tender
+as he dared and held him there until one rail was thoroughly oiled. He
+repeated the operation on the other side and the two once more came
+back to the fireman who was clinging limply to the throttle.
+
+"Now," said the engineer, "keep your eye open and you'll see some fun."
+
+The front engine puffed more and more slowly up the grade and the
+pursuing engine seemed to gain on them at every yard. Already the men
+in the cab were commencing to aim their rifles for the last fatal
+volley. At this moment the front wheels of the pursuing engine reached
+the oiled track and in a minute her speed slackened, the wheels whirled
+round and round at a tremendous speed and there was a sudden rush and
+hiss of escaping steam. The engine in front suddenly drew away from her
+anchored pursuer. The engineer took a last long look at them through
+his field-glasses.
+
+"It seems to me, captain," said he, "as if they are cussin'
+considerable. Her old wheels are spinnin' like a squirrel-cage."
+
+The engine dashed on more and more slowly, but there was no need for
+haste. In a few minutes a shot was fired in front of them and a sentry
+shouted for them to halt. They were within the picket lines of the
+Union Army. The engine was stopped and the three men staggered out
+holding tightly the precious dispatches which they carried in
+triplicate and in a few minutes more they were in the presence of
+General Stockton. A force was at once sent out and the Confederates and
+their locomotive were captured and within an hour thirty thousand men
+were on their way to relieve the beset Union forces.
+
+The gauntlet had been run and General Thomas' army was saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FORGOTTEN HEROES
+
+
+"There was a little city and few men within it and there came a great
+king against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it.
+Now there was found in it a poor wise man and he by his wisdom
+delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man." Thus
+wrote the great Solomon, hearing of a deed, the tale of which had come
+down through the centuries. The doer of the deed had been long
+forgotten.
+
+History is full of memories of brave deeds. The names of the men who
+did them have passed away. The deeds live on forever. Like a fleck of
+radium each deed is indestructible. It may be covered with the dust and
+débris of uncounted years, but from it pulsates and streams forever a
+current of example and impulse which never can be hidden, never be
+forgotten, but which may flash out ages later, fighting with a
+mysterious, hidden inner strength against the powers of fear and of
+wrong.
+
+The annals of the Civil War are full of records of forgotten doers of
+great deeds, humble, commonplace men and women who suddenly flashed out
+in some great effort of duty and perhaps were never heard of again.
+Pray God that all of us when the time comes may burst if only for a
+moment into the fruition of accomplishment for which we were born and
+not wither away like the unprofitable fig-tree which only grew, but
+never bore fruit.
+
+In 1862, the battle-hospitals were crowded with wounded and dying men.
+The best surgeons of that day had not learned what every doctor knows
+now about the aseptic treatment of wounds and conducting of operations.
+Accordingly too often even slight wounds gangrened and a terrible
+percentage of injured men died helplessly and hopelessly. In the fall
+of that year the hospitals at Jefferson were in a fearful condition.
+Thousands and thousands of wounded and dying men were brought there for
+whom there were no beds. One poor fellow lay on the bare, wet boards,
+sick of a wasting fever. He was worn almost to a skeleton and on his
+poor, thin body were festering bed-sores which had come because there
+was no one who could give him proper attention. From his side he had
+seen five men one after the other brought in sick or wounded and
+carried away dead. One day an old black washerwoman named Hannah
+stopped in the ward to hunt up a doctor for whom she was to do some
+work. She saw this patient lying on his side on a dirty blanket spread
+out on the boards unwashed and filthy beyond all description with
+gaping sores showing on his wasted back. There he lay staring
+hopelessly at the body of a man who had recently died next to him and
+which the few overworked attendants had not had time to carry out to
+the dead-house. Old Hannah could not stand the sight. When she finally
+found the doctor she begged him to give her leave to take the man up
+and put him in her own bed.
+
+"It's no use, Hannah," said the doctor kindly, "the poor chap is dying.
+He will be gone to-morrow. I wish we could do something for him, but we
+can't and you can't."
+
+Hannah could not sleep that night thinking of the sick man. Bright and
+early the next morning she came down and found him still alive. That
+settled it in her mind. Without asking any one's permission, she went
+out, looked up her two strapping sons and made them leave their work
+and bring her bed down to the hospital. It was covered with coarse but
+clean linen sheets and she directed them while they lifted the sufferer
+on to the bed and carried him down to her shanty. There she cut away
+the filthy shirt which he wore and washed him like a baby with hot
+water. Then she settled down to nurse him back to life. Every half
+hour, night and day, she fed him spoonfuls of hot, nourishing soup.
+That and warm water and clean linen were the only medicines she used.
+For a week she did nothing else but nurse her soldier. Several times he
+sank and once she thought him dead, but he always rallied and
+single-handed old Hannah fought back death and slowly nursed him back
+to health. Finally when he was well, he was given a furlough to go back
+to his home in Indiana. He tried to persuade Hannah to go back with
+him.
+
+"No, honey," she said, "I'se got my washing to do and besides I'm goin'
+to try to adopt some more soldiers."
+
+She went with him to the steamboat, fixed him in a deck chair, as he
+was still too feeble to walk, and kissed him good-bye and when she left
+the man broke down and cried. Old Hannah went back to her shanty and
+did the same thing again and again until she had nursed back to life no
+less than six Union soldiers. As she was not in active service, the
+government never recognized her work and even her last name was never
+known, but six men and their families and their friends have handed
+down the story of what a poor, old, black washerwoman could and did do
+for her country and for the sick and helpless.
+
+The exploit of Lieutenant Blodgett and his orderly, Peter Basnett, was
+a brave deed of another kind. He had been sent by General Schofield
+during the engagement at Newtonia with orders to the colonel of the
+Fourth Missouri Cavalry. As the two rode around a point of woods, they
+suddenly found themselves facing forty Confederate soldiers drawn up in
+an irregular line not fifty yards away. There was no chance of escape,
+as they would be riddled with bullets at such a short range. Moreover
+neither the lieutenant nor his orderly thought well of surrendering.
+Without an instant's hesitation they at once drew their revolvers and
+charging down upon the Confederates, shouted in loud, though rather
+shaky voices, "Surrender! Drop your arms! Surrender at once!" The line
+wavered, feeling that two men would not have the audacity to charge
+them unless they were followed by an overwhelming force. As they came
+right up to the lines, eight of the men in front threw down their
+muskets. The rest hesitated a minute and then turned and broke for the
+woods and the lieutenant and his orderly rode on and delivered eight
+prisoners along with their orders.
+
+In the battle of Rappahannock Station, Colonel Edwards of the Fifth
+Maine showed the same nerve under similar circumstances. While his
+regiment were busy taking a whole brigade of captured Confederates to
+the rear, the colonel with a dozen of his men rode out into the
+darkness after more prisoners. Following the line of fortifications
+down toward the river, he suddenly came out in front of a long line of
+Confederate troops lying entrenched in rifle-pits. Like Lieutenant
+Blodgett, he decided to make a brave bluff rather than be shot down or
+spend weary years in a Confederate prison. Riding directly up to the
+nearest rifle-pit where a score of guns were leveled at him, he
+inquired for the officer who was in command of the Confederate forces.
+
+"I command here," said the Confederate colonel, rising from the middle
+pit, "and who are you, sir?"
+
+"My name is Colonel Edwards of the Fifth Maine, U.S.A.," replied the
+other, "and I call upon you to surrender your command at once."
+
+The Confederate colonel hesitated.
+
+"Let me confer with my officers first," he said.
+
+"No, sir," said Colonel Edwards, "I can't give you a minute. Your
+forces on the right have been captured, your retreat is cut off and
+unless you surrender at once, I shall be compelled to order my
+regiment," pointing impressively to the whole horizon, "to attack you
+without further delay. I don't wish to cause any more loss of life than
+possible."
+
+The Confederate colonel was convinced by his impressive actions and
+that there would be no use to resist.
+
+"I hope you will let me keep my sword, however," he said.
+
+"Certainly," said Colonel Edwards, generously, "you can keep your
+sword, but your men must lay down their arms and pass to the rear
+immediately."
+
+The whole brigade including a squad of the famous Louisiana Tigers were
+disarmed and marched to the rear as prisoners of war by Colonel Edwards
+and his twelve men. One of these men said afterward, "Colonel, I nearly
+lost that battle for you by laughing when you spoke about their
+'surrendering to avoid loss of life.'"
+
+The most terrible missile in modern warfare is the explosive shell.
+Records show that the greatest loss of life occurs from artillery fire
+and not from rifle bullets. In the Civil War these shells were
+especially feared. The solid shot and the grape and the canister were
+bad enough, but when a great, smoking shell dropped into the midst of a
+regiment, the bravest men fled for shelter. The fuses were cut so that
+the shell would explode immediately on striking or a very few seconds
+afterward. The explosion would drive jagged fragments of iron and
+sometimes heated bullets through scores of men within a radius of fully
+one hundred yards. No wounds were more feared or more fatal than the
+ghastly rips and tears made by the jagged, red-hot fragments of shells.
+The men became used to the hiss and the whistle of the solid shot and
+the whirling bullets, but when the scream of the hollow shell was heard
+through the air overhead, like the yell of some great, fatal, flying
+monster, every man within hearing tried to get under shelter.
+
+In 1864, the 101st Ohio Infantry were fighting at Buzzards Roost,
+Georgia. Company H was drawn up along the banks of the stream there and
+one of the Confederate batteries had just got its range. Suddenly there
+came across the woods the long, fierce, wailing scream of one of the
+great shells and before the echo had died out it appeared over the tree
+tops and fell right in the midst of a hundred men, hissing and spitting
+fire. All the men but one scattered in every direction. Private Jacob
+F. Yaeger was on the edge of the group and could have secured his own
+safety by dodging behind a large tree which stood conveniently near.
+Just as he was about to do this he saw that some of the men had not had
+time enough to get away and were just scrambling up only a few feet
+from the spluttering shell. He acted on one of those quick, brave
+impulses which make heroes of men. Like a flash, he sprinted across the
+field, tearing off his coat as he ran, wrapped it round the hissing,
+hot shell and started for the creek, clasping it tight against his
+breast. By this time the fuse had burned so far in that there was no
+opportunity to cut it below the spark. His only chance was to get it
+into the water before the spark reached the powder below. He reached
+the bank of the creek in about two jumps, but, as he said afterward, he
+seemed to hang in the air a half hour between each jump. Even as he
+reached the bank, he hurled the shell, coat and all, into the deep,
+sluggish water and involuntarily ducked for the explosion which he was
+sure was going to come. It didn't. The water stopped the spark just in
+time and Private Yaeger had saved the lives of many of his comrades.
+
+Of all the prizes which are most valued in war the captured
+battle-flags of an enemy rank first. The flag is the symbol of an
+army's life. While it waves the army is living and undefeated. When the
+flag falls, or when it is captured, all is over. In battle the men
+rally around their colors and the flag stands for life or death. It
+must never be given up and the one who carries the flag has not only
+the most honorable but the most dangerous post in his company. Against
+the flag every charge is directed. The man who carries the flag knows
+that he is marked above all others for attack. The man who saves a flag
+from capture saves his company or his regiment not only from defeat,
+but from disgrace.
+
+In the battle of Gettysburg, Corporal Nathaniel M. Allen of the First
+Massachusetts Infantry was the color-bearer of his company. On the 2d
+of July his regiment had been beaten back under the tremendous attacks
+of the Confederate forces. Their retreat became almost a rout as the
+men ran to escape the murderous fire which was being poured in upon
+them by concealed batteries of the enemy as well as from the muskets of
+the advancing infantry. Corporal Allen stayed back in the rear and
+retreated slowly and reluctantly so as to give his company a chance to
+return and rally. Beyond and still farther back than he, marching
+grimly and doggedly from the enemy, was the color-bearer of his
+regiment carrying the regimental flag. Suddenly Allen saw him falter,
+stop, fling up his arms and fall headlong on the field tangled up in
+the flag which he was carrying. There came a tremendous yell from the
+advancing Confederate forces as they saw the flag go down. Allen
+stopped and for a moment hesitated. It was only his duty to carry and
+wave his own colors, but at that moment he saw a squad of gray-backs
+start out from the advancing Confederate forces and make a rush to
+capture the flag which lay flat and motionless in a widening pool of
+the color-bearer's blood. This was too much for Allen. With a yell of
+defiance he rushed back, heedless of the bullets which hissed all
+around him, and rolling over the dead body of the man who had given his
+life for his colors he pulled the regimental flag from under his body,
+and started back for the distant Union forces. By this time the
+Confederates were close upon him, but his brave deed had not gone
+unnoticed. Seeing him coming across the stricken field with a flag in
+either hand, the rear-guard of his regiment turned back with a cheer
+and poured in a volley into the approaching Confederates which stopped
+them just long enough to let Allen escape and to carry back both the
+colors.
+
+"What's the matter with you fellows anyway," said Allen, as he reached
+the safety of the rear rank; "do you think I'm going to do all the
+fighting?"
+
+A storm of cheers and laughter greeted this remark and the rear-guard
+stopped. Slowly the others, hearing the cheers, and stranger still, the
+laughing, came back to the colors and in a few minutes the line was
+again formed and this time the regiment held and drove back the attack
+of the Confederates. One man by doing more than his duty had changed a
+defeat into a victory.
+
+Sometimes in a battle a man becomes an involuntary hero. In some of
+Sienkiwictz's war-novels, he has a character named Zagloba who was
+constantly doing brave deeds in spite of himself. In one battle he
+became caught in a charge and while struggling desperately to get out,
+he tripped and fell on top of the standard-bearer of the other army who
+had just been killed. Zagloba found himself caught and entangled in the
+banner and finally, as the battle swept on, he emerged from the place
+in safety carrying the standard of the enemy and from that day forward
+was held as one of the heroes of the army.
+
+At the battle of Chancellorsville Major Clifford Thompson at Hazel
+Grove became an involuntary hero and did a much braver deed than he had
+intended, although, unlike Zagloba, he had shown no lack of courage
+throughout the battle. General Pleasonton was forming a line of battle
+along the edge of the woods and was riding from gun to gun inspecting
+the line when suddenly not two hundred yards distant a body of men
+appeared marching toward them. He was about to give the order to fire
+when a sergeant called out to him:
+
+"Wait, General, I can see our colors in the line."
+
+The General hesitated a moment and then turning said, "Major Thompson,
+ride out and see who those people are and come back and tell me."
+
+As the major said afterward, he had absolutely no curiosity personally
+to find out anything about them and was perfectly willing to let them
+introduce themselves, but an order is an order, and he accordingly rode
+directly toward the approaching men. He could plainly see that they had
+Union colors, but could see no trace of any Union uniforms. When he was
+only about forty yards distant, the whole line called out to him:
+
+"Come on in, we're friends; don't be afraid."
+
+The major, however, had heard of too many men being made prisoners by
+pretended friends and accordingly rode along the front of the whole
+line in order to determine definitely the character of the approaching
+forces, fearing that the colors which he saw and which they kept waving
+toward him might have been Union colors captured from the Union forces
+the day before. Seeing that he did not come closer, one of the front
+rank suddenly fired directly at him and then with a tremendous Rebel
+yell the whole body charged down upon the Union forces. Thompson turned
+his horse to dash back to his own lines, but realized that, caught
+between two fires, he would evidently be shot either by his own troops
+or by the Rebels behind him. Dashing his spurs into his horse, he rode
+like the wind between the two lines, hoping to get past them both
+before the final volley came. Fortunately for him both sides reserved
+their fire until they came to close quarters although he received a
+fusillade of scattered shots all along the line. Just as he rounded the
+ends, the lines came together with a crash and simultaneous volleys of
+musketry. There were a few moments of hand-to-hand fighting, but the
+Union forces were too strong and the Confederate ranks broke and
+retreated in scattering groups to the shelter of the woods beyond. The
+major reached the rear of his own lines just in time to help drive back
+the last rush of the Confederates. A few moments later he saw General
+Pleasonton sitting on his horse nearly in the same place where he had
+been when he had first sent him on his errand. Riding up to him, Major
+Thompson saluted.
+
+"General," he said, "those men were Confederates."
+
+"I strongly suspected it," said the General, "but, Major, I never
+expected to see you again, for when that charge came I figured out that
+if the Rebs didn't shoot you, we would. You did a very brave thing
+reconnoitering the enemies' front like that."
+
+"Well," said the major, "I am glad, General, that it impressed you that
+way. It was such a rapid reconnoiter that I was afraid that you might
+think it was a retreat."
+
+
+When Henry C. Foster, who afterward became famous as one of the heroes
+of Vicksburg, joined the Union Army, he was the rawest recruit in his
+regiment. His messmates still tell the story of how, before the
+regiment marched, he was visited by his mother who brought him an
+umbrella and a bottle of pennyroyal for use in wet weather and was
+horrified to find that soldiers are not allowed to carry umbrellas.
+Henry was impatient of the constant and never-ending drilling to which
+he was subjected. One day after a trying hour of setting-up exercises,
+he suddenly grounded his gun and said engagingly to the captain:
+
+"Say, Captain, let's stop this foolishness and go over to the grocery
+store and have a little game of cards."
+
+The captain stared at Foster for nearly a minute before he could get
+his breath, then he turned to a grinning sergeant and said:
+
+"Sergeant, you take charge of this young cabbage-head after the regular
+drilling is over and drill him like blazes for about three extra
+hours," which the sergeant accordingly did.
+
+In spite of his greenness and his peculiarities, however, Henry had
+good stuff in him and the making of a brave soldier. He was known as a
+dead-shot and a good soldier, although still retaining some of his
+peculiarities. Among others he insisted upon wearing a coonskin cap and
+was known throughout his company as "Old Coonskin." He soon showed such
+qualities of courage and self-reliance that in spite of his early
+record he was gradually promoted until by the time his regiment reached
+Vicksburg, which the Union Army was then besieging, he was a second
+lieutenant. The siege of Vicksburg was a long and tedious affair. The
+investing forces did not have sufficient artillery to make such a
+breach in the defenses of the Confederates that a successful attack
+could be made. The besiegers out in the wet and mud wearied of the slow
+process under which the encircling lines were brought closer and closer
+and longed for more active operations. Lieutenant Foster especially,
+just as formerly he had protested against the interminable drilling,
+now chafed against the enforced inaction of the troops. Finally he made
+up his mind that he at least would get some interest out of the siege.
+As one of the best shots in his regiment, he had no difficulty in being
+detailed for sharp-shooting duty. One dark night, loaded with
+ammunition and with a haversack of provisions and several canteens of
+water, he crawled out into the space between the Union lines and the
+defender's ramparts. The next morning, to his comrades' intense
+surprise, they found that Old Coonskin had dug for himself a deep
+burrow like a woodchuck close to the enemy's defenses and had thrown up
+a little mound with a peep-hole. There he lay for three days picking
+off the Confederates and scoring each successful shot with a notch on
+the butt of the long rifle which he had obtained especial permission to
+use. At first the Confederates could not locate the direction from
+which the fatal shots kept coming. When they did discover Foster in his
+burrow, volley after volley was directed at his refuge, but he kept too
+close to be hit and at regular intervals men who showed themselves on
+the ramparts were kept dropping before his unerring fire. At the end of
+the third day, the Confederates had learned their lesson and there were
+no more shots to be had and once more Old Coonskin began to be bored.
+It finally occurred to him that if he could in any way gain possession
+of a height which would allow him to shoot over the ramparts, he could
+make the Confederate position very uncomfortable. There was no tree or
+hill, however, near by which would lend itself to any such idea.
+Accordingly the third night Foster crawled back again to his regiment
+and spent a day in resting and reconnoitering and receiving the
+congratulations of the whole regiment for his marksmanship and daring.
+The next night was dark and stormy. At daylight the sentries inside the
+city were amazed to see a rude structure standing close beside the
+fatal burrow. It was in the form of a log-cabin hastily built out of
+railroad ties and reinforced with heavy railroad iron and containing
+peep-holes so that its occupant could shoot with entire safety. At
+first it did not seem to be any more dangerous than the burrow had been
+so long as the besieged kept off the breastwork. By the second day,
+however, it had grown visibly higher and the third night found it built
+up by slow degrees so that it began to look really like a low tower.
+Finally it reached such a height that from an upper inside shelf,
+protected by heavy logs and planks, Old Coonskin could lie at his ease
+and overlook all of the operations inside the city. Then began a reign
+of terror for the besieged. They had no artillery and it was necessary
+to concentrate an incessant fire on the tower, otherwise the
+sharp-shooter within could pick off his men without difficulty. It was
+absolutely impossible for the besieged to keep under cover and still
+properly man the defenses against an attack. One by one the officers
+went down before Old Coonskin's deadly fire and it seemed to be only a
+question of time and ammunition before the whole garrison succumbed to
+his marksmanship. In the meantime, the besieging lines drew closer and
+closer and the never-ceasing artillery fire and incessant attacks
+gradually wore down the courage and the resources of the besieged. One
+day within an hour eleven men went down before the deadly aim of Old
+Coonskin, most of them officers. Suddenly the firing ceased from the
+ramparts and slowly and reluctantly a white flag was hoisted, followed
+shortly by an envoy to the Union lines with a flag of truce. A
+tremendous cheer went up through the weary Union lines. Vicksburg had
+fallen, and to this day you never will be able to convince Old
+Coonskin's company that he was not the man who, along with Grant,
+brought about its surrender.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE THREE HUNDRED WHO SAVED AN ARMY
+
+
+Twenty-three hundred and fifty years ago, three hundred men beat back
+an army of three millions of the Great King, as the King of Persia was
+rightly called. The kingdom of Xerxes, who then ruled over Persia,
+stretched from India to the Ægean Sea and from the Caspian to the Red
+Sea. He reigned over Chaldean, Jew, Phoenician, Egyptian, Arab,
+Ethiopian and half a hundred other nations. From these he assembled an
+army, the greatest that has ever gone to war. This mass of men from all
+over the Eastern world he hurled at the tiny free states in Greece. It
+was as if the Czar of all the Russias with his vast armies from Europe
+and Asia should suddenly attack the state of Connecticut.
+
+Greece's best defense was the ring of rugged mountains which surrounded
+its seacoast. The Persian army had gathered at Sardis. From there to
+gain entrance into Greece they must follow a narrow path close to the
+seashore with a precipice on one side and impassable morasses and
+quicksands on the other. Beyond this the way widened out into a little
+plain and narrowed again at the other end. It was an ideal place to be
+held by a small army of brave men. A Council of all the states of
+Greece was held at the Isthmus of Corinth. There all the states except
+one resolved to fight to the death for their freedom. Thessaly alone,
+which lay first in the path of the Great King, sent earth and water to
+his envoys who had come to all the states in Greece to demand
+submission. The Council sent to guard this pass, which was named
+Thermopylæ, a little army of four thousand men. It was commanded by
+Leonidas, one of the two kings of Sparta, who led a little band of
+three hundred Spartans who had sworn never to retreat. Before they left
+Sparta, each man celebrated his own funeral rites. This little army
+built a wall across the pass and camped there waiting for the enemy.
+Before long they were seen coming, covering the whole country with army
+after army until the plain below the pass was filled as far as the eye
+could see with hordes of marching, shouting warriors. High on the
+mountainside a throne had been built for Xerxes where he could see and
+watch his armies sweep through the little force which stood in their
+way. His great nobles waited for the chance to display before him their
+leadership and the splendid equipment and discipline of the armies
+which they led. The first attack was made by an army of the Persians
+and Medes themselves, supported by archers and slingers and flanked
+with cohorts of magnificently appareled horsemen mounted on Arab
+steeds. With a wild crash of barbaric music they rushed to the charge
+expecting by mere weight of numbers to break through the thin line of
+men who manned the little wall across the path, but the slave regiments
+of the Persians were made up of men who were trained under the lash.
+They were officered by great nobles who had led self-indulgent lives of
+luxury and pleasure. Against them was a band of free men, every one an
+athlete and able to use weapons which the lighter and weaker Persians
+could not withstand. The onslaught broke on the spears and long swords
+of the Spartan warriors and in a minute there was a huddle of beaten,
+screaming men and plunging horses and demoralized officers. Into the
+broken and defeated ranks plunged the Greeks and drove them far down
+the plain, returning in safety to their ramparts with the loss of
+hardly a man. Again and again this happened and regiment after regiment
+from the inexhaustible forces of the Persians were hurled against the
+wall only to be dashed backward and driven defeated down the plain by
+the impenetrable line of heavy-armed Greeks. Three times did Xerxes the
+Great King leap from his throne in rage and despair as he saw his best
+troops slaughtered and defeated by this tiny band of fighters. For two
+days this went on until the plain in front of the wall was covered with
+dead and dying Persians and mercenaries while the Greeks had hardly any
+losses.
+
+Baffled and dispirited Xerxes was actually on the point of leading back
+his great army when a traitor, for a great sum of gold, betrayed a
+secret path up the mountainside. It was none other than the bottom of a
+mountain torrent through the shallow water of which men could wade and
+find a way which would lead them safely around to the rear of the
+Grecian army. On the early morning of the third day word was brought to
+Leonidas that the enemy had gained the heights above and that by noon
+they would leave the plain and entirely encircle the little Grecian
+army. A hasty council of war was called. All of the allied forces
+except the Spartans agreed that the position could not be held further
+and advised an honorable retreat. The Spartan band alone refused to go,
+although Leonidas tried to save two of his kinsmen by giving them
+letters and messages to Sparta. One of them answered that he had come
+to fight and not to carry letters and the other that his deeds would
+tell all that Sparta needed to know. Another one named Dienices, when
+told that the enemy's archers were so numerous that their arrows
+darkened the sun, replied, "So much the better, for we shall fight in
+the shade."
+
+The little band took a farewell of their comrades and watched them
+march away and then without waiting to be attacked, this tiny body of
+three hundred men marched out from behind their ramparts and attacked a
+force nearly ten thousand times their own number. Right through the
+slave-ranks they broke and fought their way to a little hillock where
+back to back they defended themselves against the whole vast army of
+the Persians. Again and again waves of men dashed up from all sides
+against this little hill, but only to fall back leaving their dead
+behind. At last the spears of the Spartans broke and they fought until
+their swords were dulled and dashed out of their hands. Then they
+fought on with their daggers, with their hands and their teeth until
+not one living man was left, but only a mound of slain, bristled over
+with arrows and surrounded by ring after ring of dead Persians, Medes,
+Arabs, Ethiopians and the other mercenaries which had been dashed
+against them. So died Leonidas and his band of heroes. Nearly ten
+thousand of the Persian army lay dead around them during the three days
+of hand-to-hand fighting. By their death they had gained time for the
+armies of the Grecian states to organize and, best of all, they had
+taught Persian and Greek alike that brave men cannot be beaten down by
+mere numbers.
+
+Leonidas and his band are drifting dust. The stone lion and the pillar
+with the names of those that died that marked the battle-mound have
+crumbled and passed away long centuries ago. Even the blood-stained
+Pass itself has gone and the sea has drawn back many miles and there is
+no longer the morass, the path or the precipice.
+
+After the passage of more than twoscore centuries in a new world of
+which Leonidas never dreamed, in another great war between freedom and
+slavery, this same great deed was wrought again by another three
+hundred men who laid down their lives to hold back an enemy and dying
+saved an army and perhaps a nation. Their story might almost be the
+old, old hero story of the lost Spartan band.
+
+The great Civil War was in its third year. Disaster after disaster had
+overtaken the Union armies. English writers were already chronicling
+The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. It was a time of
+darkness and peril. The great leaders who were afterward to win great
+victories had not yet arrived. Under McClellan nothing had been
+accomplished. At the first trial Burnside failed at the terrible battle
+of Fredericksburg where nearly thirteen thousand Union soldiers--the
+flower of the army--died for naught. There was another shift and
+"Fighting Joe Hooker" took command of the Army of the Potomac. Through
+continuous defeats, the great army had become disheartened and the men
+were sullen and discouraged. It was a time of shameful desertions. The
+express trains to the army were filled with packages of citizens'
+clothes which parents and wives and brothers and sisters were sending
+to their kindred to help them desert from the army. Hooker changed all
+this. He was brave, energetic and full of life and before long the
+soldiers were again ready and anxious to fight. Unfortunately, their
+general, in spite of his many good qualities, did not have those which
+would make him the leader of a successful army. He was vain, boastful
+and easily overcome and confused by any unexpected check or defeat.
+Encamped on the Rappahannock River he had one hundred and thirty
+thousand men against the sixty thousand of the Confederate forces on
+the other side. These sixty thousand, however, included Robert E. Lee,
+the great son of a great father, as their general. "Light-Horse Harry
+Lee," his father, had been one of the great cavalry commanders of the
+Revolution and one of Washington's most trusted generals. With Robert
+E. Lee was Stonewall Jackson, the great flanker who has never been
+equaled in daring, rapid, decisive, brilliant flanking, turning
+movements which so often are what decide great battles. Hooker decided
+to fight. By the night of April 30, 1863, no less than four army corps
+crossed the river in safety and were assembled at the little village of
+Chancellorsville under his command. His confidence was shown in the
+boastful order which he issued just before the battle.
+
+"The operations of the last three days," he declared, "have determined
+that our enemy must either ingloriously fly or come out from behind his
+defenses and give us battle on our own ground where certain destruction
+awaits him."
+
+Well might it have been said to him as to another boaster in the days
+of old, "Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast as him that taketh
+it off."
+
+The morning of the battle came and Hooker said to his generals that he
+had the Confederates where God Almighty Himself could not save them. At
+first Lee retreated before his advance, but when he had reached a
+favorable position, suddenly turned and drove back the Union forces
+with such energy that Hooker lost heart and ordered his men to fall
+back to a better position. This was done against the protests of all of
+his division commanders who felt as did Meade, afterward the hero of
+Gettysburg, who exclaimed to General Hooker, "If we can't hold the top
+of a hill, we certainly can't hold the bottom of it."
+
+[Illustration: In the Woods Near Chancellorsville]
+
+Hooker took a position in the Wilderness, a tangled forest mixed with
+impenetrable thickets of dwarf oak and underbrush. Here he hoped that
+Lee would make a direct attack, but this pause gave the great
+Confederate general the one chance which he wanted. All that night
+Jackson with thirty thousand men marched half-way round the Union Army.
+Again and again word was sent to Hooker that the Confederate forces
+were marching toward his flank, but he could see in the movement
+nothing but a retreat and sent word that they were withdrawing so as to
+save their baggage trains. At three o'clock the next afternoon Jackson
+was at last in position. In front of Hooker's army lay the main forces
+of Lee. Half-way to the rear of his forces were Jackson's magnificent
+veterans. The first warning of the fatal attack which nearly caused the
+loss of the great Union Army of the Potomac came from the wild rush of
+deer and rabbits which had been driven from their lairs by the quick
+march of the Confederate soldiers through the forest. Following the
+charge of the frightened animals came the tremendous attack of
+Jackson's infantry, the toughest, hardiest, bravest, best-trained
+troops in the Confederate Army. The Union soldiers fought well, but
+they were new troops taken by surprise and as soon as the roar of the
+volleys of the attacking Confederates sounded from the rear, Lee
+advanced, with every man in his army and smashed into Hooker's front.
+The surprise and the shock of possible defeat instead of expected
+victory was too much for a man of Hooker's temperament. At the time
+when he most needed a clear mind and unflinching nerve, he fell into a
+state of almost complete nervous collapse. The battle was practically
+fought without a leader, every corps commander did the best he could,
+but in a short time the converging attacks of the two great Confederate
+leaders cut the army in two and defeat was certain. At this time came
+the greatest loss which the Confederate Army had received up to that
+day. Stonewall Jackson's men had charged through the forest and cut
+deeply into the flank of the Union Army. After their charge the
+Confederate front was in confusion owing to the thick and tangled woods
+in which they fought. Jackson had ridden forward beyond his troops in
+order to reform them. The fleeing Union soldiers rallied for a minute
+and fired a volley at the little party which Jackson was leading. He
+turned back to rejoin his own troops and in the darkness and confusion
+he and his men were mistaken for Union cavalry and received a volley
+from their own forces which dashed Jackson out of his saddle with a
+wound in his left arm which afterward turned out to be mortal. At that
+time General Lee sent his celebrated message to Jackson, "You are
+luckier than I for your left arm only is wounded, but when you were
+disabled, I lost my right arm."
+
+In a short time the whole Union Army was nothing but a disorganized
+mass of men, horses, ambulance-wagons, artillery and commissary trains,
+all striving desperately to cross the Rappahannock before the pursuing
+Confederates could turn the retreat into a massacre. Unless the
+Confederate pursuit could be held back long enough to let the men cross
+the river and reform on the opposite bank, the whole army was lost.
+History is full of the terrible disasters which overtake an army which
+is caught by the enemy while in the confusion of crossing a river.
+General Pleasonton of Pennsylvania was in command of the rear of the
+Federal retreat. He was striving desperately to mount his guns so as to
+sweep the only road which led to the river and hold back the
+Confederate forces long enough to let his men cross. Already the van of
+the Union Army had reached the ford when far down the road appeared the
+whole corps of Stonewall Jackson, maddened by the loss of their great
+leader. Every man that Pleasonton had was working desperately to get
+the guns into position, but it was evident that they would be captured
+and their pursuers would sweep into the huddle which was crossing the
+river unless something could be done to hold them back. As the general
+looked silently down the road, he saw near to him Major Keenan of the
+Pennsylvania cavalry. Keenan had been a porter in a Philadelphia store,
+but his rare faculty for handling men and horses had made him one of
+the most efficient cavalry officers of any Pennsylvania regiment. The
+three companies which were with him were all the cavalry that
+Pleasonton had. They were bringing up the rear of the retreat like a
+pack of wolves who, though driven back from their prey, move off
+sullenly only waiting for the signal from their leader to turn again
+and fight. General Pleasonton had rallied his gunners and they would
+stand if only they had a chance. There was no hope of bringing any
+order into the mass of broken, terrified infantry rushing on toward the
+river.
+
+"Major Keenan," shouted General Pleasonton, "how many men have you
+got?"
+
+"Three hundred, General," replied Keenan, quietly.
+
+"Major," said the general, low and earnestly, riding up to him, "we
+must have ten minutes to save the Army of the Potomac. Charge the
+Confederate advance and hold them!"
+
+Keenan never hesitated. When the Six Hundred charged at Balaclava, some
+of them came back from the bite of the Russian sabres and the roar of
+the Muscovite guns. When Pickett made that desperate, fatal charge at
+Gettysburg, there was still a chance to retreat, but Major Keenan knew
+that when three hundred cavalry met the fixed bayonets of thirty
+thousand infantry on a narrow road, not one would ever return. It was
+not a splendid charge which might mean laurels of victory, but a
+hopeless going to death, the buying of ten minutes of time with the
+lives of three hundred men, yet neither Keenan nor his men questioned
+the price nor flinched at the order.
+
+The sunlight of the last day he was to see on earth caught the gleam of
+his uplifted sabre as he gave the quick, sharp command to charge. He
+flung his cap into the bushes, bent his head and rode bareheaded in
+front of his flying column and then like an avalanche, like a hurricane
+of horse, he and his three hundred men thundered down the narrow road.
+Just around the curve, with a crash that broke the necks of a score of
+the leading horses, this charging column hurled themselves against the
+astonished, packed ranks of infantry rushing on with fixed bayonets.
+For five, for ten, for fifteen minutes horses rose and fell to the
+clashing of dripping sabres and the bark of revolvers thrust into the
+faces of the oncoming foemen. For fifteen long minutes there was a
+swirl and a flurry which held back the head of the charging forces and
+then shattered by volley after volley of musketry and pierced by
+thousands of charging bayonets, horse and men alike went down. Not one
+ever came back. Keenan and his Three Hundred had bought the ten minutes
+and had thrown in five more for good measure and the price was paid.
+The head of the Confederate column reformed, passed over and by the
+struggling horses and the silent, mangled men and then again swept on
+around the bend and down the road toward the fords crowded with a
+hundred thousand helpless, escaping soldiers. General Pleasonton,
+however, had made good use of those precious moments. As the
+Confederate column came around the curve, they were met by a hell of
+grape and canister from the batteries which at last had been mounted in
+position. Right into their front roared the guns and the road was a
+shamble of writhing, struggling, dying men. No army ever marched that
+could stand up against the grim storm of death that swept down that
+road and in a moment the Confederate forces broke and rushed back for
+shelter. The Army of the Potomac was saved. Bought at a great price, it
+was yet to be hammered and forged and welded under a great leader into
+the sword which was to save the Union.
+
+    "Year after year, the pine cones fall,
+      And the whippoorwill lisps her spectral call.
+    They have ceased, but their glory will never cease,
+      Nor their light be quenched in the light of peace.
+    The rush of the charge is sounding still,
+      That saved the Army at Chancellorsville."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE RESCUE OF THE SCOUTS
+
+
+The man who will risk his life for his friends, the leader who never
+deserts his band, the soldier who will not escape alone, these are the
+men whom history has always hailed as heroes. Some of the greatest
+stories of devotion and courage have been those which chronicle the
+rescue of men from almost certain death. Courage and devotion have
+often opened the dark doors of dungeons, stricken the fetters from
+despairing prisoners and saved men doomed to death from the stake, the
+block and the gallows.
+
+When the Civil War broke out, the lot of the few Union men left in the
+South was a hard one. The fierce passions of those days ran so high
+that not only was a Unionist himself liable to death and the
+confiscation of his property, but even his family were not safe. In
+1863 there was a Georgian who assumed the name of William Morford in
+order to protect those of his family who lived in Georgia from the
+bitter hatred which his services for the Union had aroused. He was one
+of many devoted scouts who worked secretly and single-handed for their
+country, claiming no reward if they won and losing their lives on the
+gallows if they lost. Morford throughout 1863 was attached to the
+command of General Rosecrans and performed many a feat during that
+stormy year. It was Morford who burned an important bridge under the
+very eyes of a Confederate regiment sent to guard it and who, when the
+light from the flames made escape impossible, coolly mingled with the
+guards and actually received their congratulations for his bravery in
+attempting to put out the fire which he himself had lighted. It was
+Morford who single-handed captured a Confederate colonel while he was
+sleeping in a house surrounded by his regiment and with his staff in
+the next room. Morford obtained access to him under pretense of bearing
+an important oral dispatch from General Beauregard himself. They were
+left alone with an armed sentry just outside the half-opened door.
+Stepping to one side so that he could not be seen by the guard, Morford
+suddenly placed a cocked revolver close against the substantial stomach
+of the colonel.
+
+"I have been sent, Colonel," he muttered sternly, "to either capture or
+kill you. I would rather capture you, for if I kill you I shall have to
+fight my way out, but it is for you to say which it shall be."
+
+The colonel was a brave officer, but a cocked revolver against one's
+stomach is discouraging even for a hero. He decided instantly that he
+much preferred being a prisoner to being a corpse and said as much to
+Morford.
+
+"Well," said the latter, still in a tone so low that the sentry could
+not make out the words, "I'm glad you feel that way. Get your hat and
+tell the guard that you're going to take me out for a talk with some of
+the other officers. I'll be right behind you with this revolver in my
+sleeve and if anything goes wrong, two bullets will go through the
+small of your back."
+
+With this stimulant, the colonel arranged matters entirely to the
+scout's satisfaction. He led the way out of the house and through the
+lines, giving the countersign himself, in a somewhat shaky voice, and
+in a short time the two found themselves within the Union lines.
+
+"I hope I didn't startle you too much, Colonel," said Morford, as he
+turned his prisoner over to the guard. "You weren't in any danger, for
+my revolver wasn't loaded. I didn't find it out until just as I got to
+your lines and I figured out that I probably wouldn't have to shoot
+anyway."
+
+As this is a book for good boys and girls, it would not be proper to
+set down the colonel's language as he looked at the empty chambers of
+Morford's revolver.
+
+Another time the scout was sent by General Rosecrans to find out
+whether certain steamboats were on the Hiawassee and if so, where they
+were located. On this trip he climbed Cumberland Mountain and on
+looking down over the famous Cumberland Gap, he discovered a force of
+Confederates who were busily engaged in fortifying the Gap so as to
+prevent any federal troops from passing through it. The force consisted
+of twenty soldiers and forty or fifty negroes who were doing the work.
+Morford made up his mind that it was his business as a Union scout to
+stop all such work. Standing out in full sight of the troop, he fired
+his revolver at the officer in command. The shot killed the leader's
+horse, and horse and man pitched over into the little troop throwing it
+into confusion. Morford at once fired a second time and then turning,
+waved his hand to an imaginary aide and shouted so that the
+Confederates could hear:
+
+"Run back and tell the regiment to hurry up."
+
+He then turned to the opposite ridge and shouted across the Gap to
+another imaginary force:
+
+"Lead your men down that path and close in on 'em. Hurry up. My men
+will come from this side and we'll beat you down."
+
+By this time the Confederate officer was on his feet again and started
+to rally his men. Morford made a rush toward them, firing his revolver
+as he came, waving his arms in both directions, shouting to his
+imaginary forces and bellowing at the top of his tremendous
+voice--"Come on, boys, we've got them now. Surround 'em. Don't let a
+man escape!"
+
+The negro workmen felt that this was no place for neutrals and they
+dropped their shovels and made a rush for the mouth of the Gap. The
+Confederate soldiers stood for a minute, but as they saw Morford
+rushing toward them, they broke and followed the workmen. The scout
+chased them until he saw that they were well on their way and then
+started back along the ridge chuckling to himself over the way in which
+they had scattered. He laughed too soon. The Confederates had not gone
+far before they found out the trick which had been played upon them.
+They turned back and in a short time fifty men were riding along the
+ridge at full speed to capture the Yankee who had fooled them so.
+Unfortunately for Morford, he had kept to the path along the ridge
+which was better going, but which offered very little chance of escape,
+since on one side was a sheer precipice while on the other was a long,
+bare slope which offered no place for concealment. From the top of a
+little knoll he caught sight of the Confederates before they saw him.
+At that time they were only a half mile behind. The scout tried to
+escape by running far out on a rocky spur which jutted out over the Gap
+and which was filled with trees, hoping that he might dodge in among
+these, double on his pursuers and so get away. The same officer,
+however, whom he had unhorsed caught sight of him as he ran from one
+tree to another and with a tremendous shout, the whole band galloped
+after him at full speed. Morford had hoped that as the way led up a
+steep hill covered with rocks, his pursuers would have to dismount, but
+they were riding horses which had been bred in the mountains and which
+were trained to go up and down hill-paths like goats. They gained on
+him fast. Spreading out they cut off every chance of his escaping back
+to the slope or skirting their ranks. There was nothing left for him to
+do except to go on and on to the very edge of the precipice. The scout
+knew that if he were caught he would be hung on the nearest tree and
+that knowledge was a considerable incentive to keep ahead of his
+pursuers as long as possible. He ran as he had never run before and as
+he could follow paths too narrow for the horses, for a while he managed
+to hold his lead. He could see, however, that some of the band had
+ridden around the slope and held the whole base of the spur so that it
+would be only a question of time before he would be hunted out and
+caught. He was running now along the very edge of the precipice which
+dropped six hundred feet to the rocks below. The gorge narrowed until
+finally at one point it was not more than twenty feet wide. This was
+too wide, however, for the scout to clear, even if he were not wearing
+heavy boots and carrying a rifle. Several feet below where he stood, on
+the opposite shelf a hickory tree had grown out so that some of the
+branches extended within ten feet of his side of the gorge. Below that
+tree was a fissure through the rock down which a desperate man might
+possibly clamber. It was a slight chance, but the only one which he
+had. At this point he was hidden from the Confederates by a wall of
+rock. Without allowing himself to stop, for fear that he would lose his
+nerve, Morford took a run and launched himself through the air ten feet
+out and ten feet down against the spreading boughs of the hickory tree.
+He broke through them with a rush but wound his arms desperately around
+the bending limbs and though they bent and cracked, the tough wood held
+and he found himself firmly hugging the shaggy bark of the trunk with
+all his might. He slid down, ripping his clothes and skin, until
+finally his feet touched the beginning of a possible path down to the
+gorge. He could hear the shouts of his pursuers only a few rods away.
+If they had gone to the edge, nothing could have saved him, as they
+would have shot him down before he could have escaped, but they beat
+carefully through the trees and rocks for fear lest he should crawl
+back through their line. Without stopping to weigh his chances, Morford
+let himself drop from one shelf of rock to another, clinging to every
+little crevice and every twig and plant which he could find. Several
+times he thought he was gone as his feet swung off into the space
+below, but always he managed to get a hand-grip on some rock which
+held, and almost before he realized the terrible chance he had taken,
+he had passed down the side of the cliff and was safe around a bend in
+the rock which hid him from view. From there the path was easier and in
+a short time he found himself in the gorge far below. There he crawled
+carefully along behind rocks and took advantage of every bit of cover
+and in a few minutes was far on his way, leaving the Confederates to
+hunt for hours every square yard of ground on the rocky promontory
+whence he had come.
+
+This was but one of many similar adventures which made the name of
+Morford feared and hated through the Confederate states. The most
+desperate as well as the most generous of his many exploits was his
+rescue of three fellow-scouts who were held in jail at Harrison,
+Tennessee, and were to be shot on May 1st. Morford was then in
+Chattanooga and there heard of the capture of these scouts. Chattanooga
+at that time was a Confederate town, although it had a number of Union
+residents. There did not seem to be any chance of rescuing the
+condemned men, yet from the minute that Morford heard that these scouts
+were facing death, as he had so often faced it, he made up his mind
+that he would rescue them if he had to do it alone.
+
+Morford's mother's name was Kinmont and her earliest ancestor had been
+Kinmont Willie, celebrated in the border-wars between England and
+Scotland in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Many and many a
+time had she sung to him as a child an old Scotch ballad handed down
+for centuries through the family, which told of the rescue of this
+far-away ancestor by his leader on the night before the day fixed for
+his execution. In 1596 Salkeld was the deputy of Lord Scroope, the
+English warden of the West Marches, while the Laird of Buccleuch, the
+keeper of Liddesdale, guarded the Scotch border. In that year these two
+held meetings on the border-line of the kingdoms according to the
+custom of the time for the purpose of arranging differences and
+settling disputes. On these occasions a truce was always proclaimed
+from the day of the meeting until the next day at sunrise. Kinmont
+Willie was a follower of the Laird of Buccleuch and was hated by the
+Englishmen for many a deed of arms in the numerous border-raids of
+those times. After the conference he was returning home attended by
+only three or four friends when he was taken prisoner by a couple of
+hundred Englishmen and in spite of the truce lodged in the grim Castle
+of Carlisle. The Laird of Buccleuch tried first to free him by applying
+to the English warden and even to the Scotch embassador, but got no
+satisfaction from either and when at last he heard that his retainer
+was to be hung three days later, he took the matter into his own hands,
+gathered together two hundred of his men, surprised the Castle of
+Carlisle and rescued Kinmont Willie by force of arms. The story of this
+rescue is told in one of the best as well as one of the least-known of
+the Scotch ballads, "Kinmont Willie," the verses of which run as
+follows:
+
+    O have ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde?
+      O have ye na heard o' the keen Lord Scroope?
+    How they hae ta'en bauld Kinmont Willie,
+      On Haribee to hang him up?
+
+    They band his legs beneath the steed,
+      They tied his hands behind his back;
+    They guarded him, fivesome on each side,
+      And they brought him over the Liddel-rack.
+
+    Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper,
+      In Branksome Ha' where that he lay,
+    That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie,
+      Between the hours of night and day.
+
+    He has ta'en the table wi' his hand,
+      He garr'd the red wine spring on hie--
+    "Now Christ's curse on my head," he said,
+      "But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be!
+
+    "O were there war between the lands,
+      As well I wot that there is none,
+    I would slight Carlisle castell high,
+      Though it were builded of marble stone.
+
+    "I would set that castell in a low,
+      And sloken it with English blood!
+    There's never a man in Cumberland,
+      Should ken where Carlisle castell stood.
+
+    "But since nae war's between the lands,
+      And there is peace, and peace should be;
+    I'll neither harm English lad or lass,
+      And yet the Kinmont freed shall be!"
+
+    He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld,
+      Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch;
+    With spur on heel, and splent on spauld,
+      And gleuves of green, and feathers blue.
+
+    And as we cross'd the Bateable Land,
+      When to the English side we held,
+    The first o'men that we met wi',
+      Whae sould it be but fause Sakelde?
+
+    "Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen?"
+      Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!"
+    "We go to hunt an English stag,
+      Has trespass'd on the Scots countrie."
+
+    "Where be ye gaun, ye marshal men?"
+      Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell me true!"
+    "We go to catch a rank reiver,
+      Has broken faith wi' the bauld Buccleuch."
+
+    "Where are ye gaun, ye mason lads,
+      Wi' a' your ladders lang and hie?"
+    "We gang to berry a corbie's nest,
+      That wons not far frae Woodhouselee."
+
+    "Where be ye gaun, ye broken men?"
+      Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!"
+    Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band,
+      And the nevir a word of lear had he.
+
+    "Why trespass ye on the English side?
+      Row-footed outlaws, stand!" quo' he;
+    The nevir a word had Dickie to say,
+      Sae he thrust the lance through his fause bodie.
+
+    And when we left the Staneshaw-bank,
+      The wind began full loud to blaw;
+    But 'twas wind and weet, and fire and sleet,
+      When we came beneath the castle wa'.
+
+    We crept on knees, and held our breath,
+      Till we placed the ladders against the wa';
+    And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell
+      To mount the first before us a'.
+
+    He has ta'en the watchman by the throat,
+      He flung him down upon the lead--
+    Had there not been peace between our lands,
+      Upon the other side thou hadst gaed!
+
+    "Now sound out, trumpets!" quo' Buccleuch;
+      "Let's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie!"
+    Then loud the warden's trumpet blew--
+      "O wha dare meddle wi' me?"
+
+    Then speedilie to work we gaed,
+      And raised the slogan ane and a',
+    And cut a hole through a sheet of lead,
+      And so we wan to the castle ha'.
+
+    They thought King James and a' his men
+      Had won the house wi' bow and spear;
+    It was but twenty Scots and ten,
+      That put a thousand in sic' a stear!
+
+    Wi' coulters, and wi' forehammers,
+      We garr'd the bars bang merrilie,
+    Until we came to the inner prison,
+      Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie.
+
+    And when we cam to the lower prison,
+      Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie--
+    "O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie,
+      Upon the morn that thou's to die?"
+
+    "O I sleep saft, and I wake aft,
+      It's lang since sleeping was fley'd frae me;
+    Gie my service back to my wife and bairns,
+      And a' gude fellows that spier for me."
+
+    Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
+      The starkest man in Teviotdale--
+    "Abide, abide now, Red Rowan,
+      Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell."
+
+    "Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope!
+      My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!" he cried--
+    "I'll pay you for my lodging maill,
+      When first we meet on the Border side."
+
+    Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
+      We bore him down the ladder lang;
+    At every stride Red Rowan made,
+      I wot the Kinmont's airns play'd clang.
+
+    "O mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
+      "I have ridden horse baith wild and wood;
+    But a rougher beast than Red Rowan
+      I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode."
+
+    "And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
+      "I've prick'd a horse out oure the furs;
+    But since the day I back'd a steed,
+      I never wore sic cumbrous spurs."
+
+    We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
+      When a' the Carlisle bells were rung,
+    And a thousand men on horse and foot
+      Cam wi' the keen Lord Scroope along.
+
+    Buccleuch has turn'd to Eden Water,
+      Even where it flow'd frae bank to brim,
+    And he has plunged in wi' a' his band,
+      And safely swam them through the strem.
+
+    He turn'd him on the other side,
+      And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he--
+    "If ye like na my visit in merry England,
+      In fair Scotland come visit me!"
+
+    "All sore astonish'd stood Lord Scroope,
+      He stood as still as rock of stane;
+    He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
+      When through the water they had gone.
+
+    "He is either himsell a devil fra hell,
+      Or else his mother a witch maun be;
+    I wadna have ridden that wan water,
+      For a' the gowd in Christentie."
+
+The memory of that brave rescue nearly three hundred years before, as
+the scout afterward told his friends, was what inspired him to save his
+fellow-scouts as Buccleuch had saved the first William Kinmont. By
+saving the lives of these three men he would pay with interest for the
+life of his ancestor. Shakespeare writes somewhere that the good which
+men do is oft buried with their bones, but that their evil deeds live
+on forever. No more mistaken lines have ever been written. Evil brings
+about its own death. No good deed is ever forgotten or ever buried.
+Hundreds of years later it may flash out through the dust of centuries
+and light the path of high endeavor.
+
+Morford scoured Chattanooga and finally found nine men who were ready
+to go with him and try to rescue the condemned scouts. Leaving
+Chattanooga they traveled by night and hid by day in caves and thickets
+among the mountains. Occasionally they would meet or get word from men
+whom they knew to be Union sympathizers. Finally they hid on the top of
+Bear Mountain which towered above the river and which separated them
+from Harrison where was located the jail. Although they had traveled
+fast and far they were only just in time. The second noon after the
+night when they reached the mountain had been fixed for the execution.
+On Bear Mountain they hid in a cave which Morford himself had
+discovered when hunting there many years before. It could only be
+reached by a narrow path which ran along a shelf of rock which jutted
+out over a precipice three hundred feet deep. The path turned sharply
+and led under an enormous overhanging ledge and ended in a deep cave
+with a little mountain spring bubbling up on a mossy slope only ten
+feet wide which led up to the cave's entrance. Inside was a dry, high
+cavern large enough to hold fifty men. It could not be reached from
+above by reason of the over-hanging ledge. At that point the path
+stopped and where the slope ended was a sheer drop to the rocks below
+which extended around the farther side of the slope so that the only
+entrance was around the path's bend along which only one man could pass
+at a time. Morford reached the foot of Bear Mountain just at sunset and
+led his little band up the steep side by a winding deer-path, the
+entrance to which was concealed in a tangled thicket of green briar and
+could only be reached by crawling underneath the sharp thorns like
+snakes. The path to the cave was no place for a man with weak nerves.
+It was bad enough as it skirted the precipice, but where it took a
+sharp bend around the jutting point of rock, it narrowed to nothing
+more than a foothold not three inches wide. He who would pass into the
+cave must turn with his back to the precipice and edge his way with
+arms outstretched along the smooth face of the rock for nearly ten
+feet. The point at the turn was the worst. There it was necessary to
+take one foot off the ledge and grope for a tiny foothold below the
+path while one shuffled around the curve. It was not absolutely
+necessary for Morford and his men to spend the night in this cave.
+There were other places where they could have stayed in safety, as no
+one suspected their presence. Morford, however, had made up his mind to
+choose his men with the utmost care. It was necessary in order to save
+the lives of the three condemned scouts to pass through the camp of the
+soldiers and the ring of guards encircling the jail, break open the
+jail, rescue the prisoners and break out again. It was a desperate
+chance and Morford's only hope of success was to have men who would
+show absolute coolness and daring throughout the whole adventure. The
+nine men whom he had selected all bore a high reputation for courage,
+but Morford decided like Gideon of old to cut out every factor of
+weakness and leave only the picked men. When Gideon was chosen of God
+to rescue the children of Israel from the unnumbered host of Midianites
+and Amalekites and the other Bedouin hordes of the desert which were
+encamped in the great valley that lay at the hill of Moreh, he started
+with a force of thirty-two thousand. When this army looked down upon
+the innumerable hosts of the fierce desert warriors, it began to weaken
+and Gideon sent back twenty-two thousand soldiers who had showed signs
+of fear. The night before the day fixed for battle, Gideon decided to
+select from this ten thousand a picked band of men who would be not
+only brave, but watchful and ready for any emergency. As his army
+swarmed down to the water-hole Gideon watched the men as they drank.
+They had kept watch and ward on that bare sun-smitten mountain top all
+through the long, hot day. As they came to the water some of the
+thirsty men dashed forward out of the ranks and fell on their faces and
+lapped the water like dogs without a thought that there might be an
+ambush at the ford and without a care that they were lying absolutely
+defenseless before any enemy who might attack them. Others kneeled on
+their hands and knees and drank. Of the ten thousand only three hundred
+had bravery and self-control enough to maintain the discipline of a
+vigilant army. Without laying down their weapons they drank as a deer
+drinks, watching on every side for fear of a surprise. With one hand
+they scooped up the water, in the other they held fast their weapon. It
+was slower, but it was safer. These three hundred men Gideon chose for
+that band which for three thousand years has been the symbol of bravery
+and watchfulness. With this little force just before dawn he burst down
+upon the sleeping Midianites which were as the sand by the sea for
+multitude. The three hundred were divided into three companies. Each
+man carried a sword, a trumpet, and an earthenware pitcher with a
+lighted lamp inside. From three separate directions they rushed down
+upon the sleeping foe and sounded the trumpets and brake the pitchers
+and held the flashing lamps on high and then shouting as their
+watchword, "The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon," they burst into the
+great camp of the invaders. Roused from sleep, hearing the trumpet
+notes and the crash of the breaking pitchers and seeing the flash of
+lights from all sides and mighty voices shouting the fierce slogan, the
+Midianites scattered like sheep and all that great host ran and cried
+and fled and every man's sword was against his fellow in the darkness,
+and when day dawned the ground was covered with dead men, the camp was
+abandoned and nothing was left of that mighty army but a fringe of
+fugitives scattered in every direction.
+
+It may be that some such test was in Morford's mind as the little band
+of nine scaled the heights of Bear Mountain. At any rate as they
+approached the precipice-path he halted them.
+
+"Boys," he said, "I got word this afternoon that these scouts have only
+thirty-six hours to live unless we save them. The guards have been
+doubled. It's going to be a desperate chance to get to them and none of
+us may ever come back. Now if any of you fellows want to quit, the time
+to do it is now rather than later. I'm going to lead the way along the
+path which we used to say was the best nerve-tonic in this county. If
+any of you fellows get discouraged and don't want to make the last turn
+past old Double-Trouble, why back out, go over the top of the mountain
+and down the other side. You know your way home and you've got
+provisions enough to last for the trip. Only travel fast, for those of
+us who are left are going to come right over the top of this mountain
+on the run with those scouts--if we save 'em."
+
+With this characteristic oration, Morford started along the path, first
+tightening his heavy revolver belt so that it might not swing out and
+over-balance him at the critical moment. He was instantly followed by
+six others, quiet, self-contained men who like him had taken up
+scouting as the best way of showing their devotion to the Union. The
+other three hesitated a moment, looked at each other shamefacedly and
+then slowly followed along the dangerous route. As Morford reached
+Double-Trouble, he stopped and in a low voice told the next man how to
+put one foot out into space and search for the little foothold which
+jutted out below the main path and then how to swing around that
+desperate curve. Slowly and with infinite caution each one of the six
+followed their leader and found himself safe on the slope of the cave.
+The seventh man listened carefully to the instructions of the man
+before him as to how he should round the curve and gave a gasp of
+horror when he found that he must balance himself on one foot on a
+three-inch ledge while the other was in mid-air.
+
+"Tell General Morford," he finally said, "that I ain't no tight-rope
+walker. I draw the line at holdin' on like a fly, head downward over
+this old precipice. Anyway I don't think there's any chance to do
+anything and I'm goin' home."
+
+He seemed to have voiced the exact sentiments of the other two who had
+sidled up and with out-stretched necks were examining in the faint
+light the curve around Double-Trouble. The last man spent no time in
+any argument.
+
+"Good-bye, General," he called in a low voice. "Go as far as you
+like--but go without me."
+
+That was the last Morford and the other six ever saw of those men. They
+reached home in safety after some days of wandering, but decided to
+choose another territory where the scouting would not be quite so
+strenuous. Morford and his men made themselves comfortable that night.
+They drank deep from the spring and then had a much-needed scrub. After
+a hearty meal they turned in and slept like dead men through the next
+day on the crisp springy moss, first rolling a big boulder against the
+side of Double-Trouble so that no one could pass.
+
+Late the next afternoon they awoke and found that the path was not so
+bad the second time as it had been the first. Down the mountainside by
+the same concealed route they marched in single file and just at dark
+crossed the river and entered the little village of Harrison. There
+they were met by an old man with whom Morford had previously
+communicated. He had obtained by strategy the countersign which would
+take them through the soldiers, the guards and to the very entrance of
+the jail itself. Curiously enough, some Confederate officer had fixed
+as the countersign that very one with which Gideon had conquered so
+many years ago. "The Sword of Gideon" was the open sesame which would
+take them past the guards and unlock the gates which ringed about the
+doomed men. Morford accepted it as a good omen. The night before he had
+told his companions the old story of Gideon's test and it came to them
+all as a direct message that God was fighting on their side as he had
+fought of old against even greater odds. Morford planned to use
+Gideon's tactics. He decided to surprise and confuse his enemy and
+escape in the confusion. He tied the hands of two of his band behind
+their backs and with the other four marched directly to the Confederate
+camp, gave the countersign, and stated that he had prisoners to deliver
+to the jail. The sleepy sentry passed him through without any comment
+and they marched until they came to the high board fence with a double
+row of spikes on top which surrounded the prison-yard. This fence at
+one point touched the edge of a marsh filled with rank grass, briars
+and tussocks. To this point Morford had gone earlier in the evening and
+had bored two auger-holes in one of the boards and then with a small
+saw dipped in oil had carefully sawed out one of the old timbers,
+leaving a space just large enough to admit of a man passing through.
+There was only one entrance to the prison grounds which was through the
+main gate besides which night and day sat two guards. Morford rang at
+this gate and when it was opened, presented himself with his pretended
+prisoners. One of the guards accompanied them to the main jail toward
+which Morford marched with his prisoners and two men, leaving the other
+two behind with the remaining guard. Morford had no more than passed
+around the corner when these two suddenly seized the unsuspecting guard
+at the gate, pressed a revolver against his temple and in an instant
+gagged him, tied him up hand and foot with rope which they had brought
+and started to the jail to assist the others. Usually the jail was only
+guarded by the jailer and one deputy or assistant who lived there with
+him. To-night, however, there was a death-watch of three extra men
+heavily armed stationed around in the corridor in front of the cells of
+the condemned men. The jailer opened the door and the sentry who had
+accompanied Morford from the gate explained that these were two
+prisoners coming under guard from Chattanooga, and Morford and his men
+were admitted. Every detail had been planned out ahead and the
+prisoners tottered into the corridor in an apparently exhausted
+condition and approached the guards who were waiting in front of the
+cells, or rather cages, in which were the condemned men. Suddenly just
+as the supposed prisoners came close, the ropes dropped off their hands
+and each of said hands grasped a particularly dangerous looking
+revolver which was aimed directly at the heads of the astonished
+guards.
+
+"Sit still," said one of the prisoners, "and keep on sitting still
+because I have very nervous fingers and if they twitch, these revolvers
+are likely to go off."
+
+The guards followed this advice and in an instant were disarmed and
+roped up like the guard at the gate. So far everything had gone like
+clockwork according to program. The jailer, however, had yet to be
+reckoned with. As he did not seem to be armed, Morford had stepped
+forward to assist in disarming the guards when with a tremendous spring
+the jailer reached the door, pulled it open and with the same motion
+kicked a chair at Morford who had sprung after him. Morford tripped
+over the chair and before he could get the door open, the jailer had
+cleared the staircase with one jump and was out of the jail, running
+toward the entrance. Morford and two others ran after him, but he had
+too much of a start and reached the gate fifty yards ahead. This jailer
+was cool enough to stop at the gate long enough to pull a knife from
+his belt. With this he slashed the ropes of the bound guard, pulled him
+to his feet and they both disappeared together through the open gate in
+spite of a couple of revolver shots which Morford sent after them. The
+latter, however, was prepared for any emergencies. He told off two of
+his men to shut and bar the gates and to guard against any attack. Two
+others were to run around and around the fence on the inside shouting
+and firing as rapidly and as often as their breath and ammunition would
+allow. With one companion he returned to the jail and demanded the keys
+from the tethered guard.
+
+"The jailer's got them, Captain," said one of the guards; "he always
+carries them with him and there isn't a duplicate key in the place."
+
+There was no time to be lost. Already could be heard outside the
+Confederate camp the shouts of the officers to the men to fall in. Only
+the tremendous turmoil which apparently was going on inside saved the
+day for Morford. It would have been an easy thing to force the rickety
+old fence at any point or to dash in at the gate if the Confederates
+had known how small a force of rescuers there were. They, however,
+believed that the jail must have been surprised by some large Union
+force and they spent precious time in throwing out skirmishers,
+mustering the men and preparing to defend against a flank attack. In
+the meantime Morford had rushed into the jailer's room and found lying
+there a heavy axe. With this he tried to break into the cells of the
+condemned men who were shaking the bars and cheering on their plucky
+rescuers. The door of the cell was locked and also barred with heavy
+chains. Morford was a man of tremendous strength and swinging the axe,
+in a short time he managed to snap the chains apart and smash in the
+outer lock and with the aid of an iron bar pried open the door only to
+find that there was an inside door with a tremendous lock of wrought
+steel against which his axe had absolutely no effect. Time was going.
+Already they could hear the shouted commands of the Confederate
+officers just outside the fence and Morford expected any moment to see
+the door fly in and receive a charge from a couple of hundred armed
+men. As he wiped the sweat off his forehead, out of the corner of his
+eye he saw one of the guards grinning derisively at him. This was
+enough for Morford. Dropping the axe, he cocked his revolver and with
+one jump was beside the guard. Placing the cold muzzle of his weapon
+against the guard's temple, he ordered him to tell him instantly where
+the keys were. There's no case on record where any man stopped laughing
+quicker than did that guard.
+
+"I ain't got 'em, Captain," he gasped, "really I ain't."
+
+"I'm going to count ten," said Morford, inflexibly, "and if I don't
+hear where those keys are by the time I say ten, I'm going to pull the
+trigger of this forty-four. Then I'm going to count ten more and do the
+same with the next man and the next. If I can't save these prisoners,
+I'm going to leave three guards to go along with them."
+
+Morford got as far as three when the guard, whose voice trembled so
+that he could scarcely make himself heard, shouted at the top of his
+voice:
+
+"There's a key in the pants-pocket of each one of us."
+
+In spite of the emergency they were facing Morford's men could not help
+laughing at the expression on their leader's face as he stood and
+stared at the speaker.
+
+"I have a great mind," he said at last, "to shoot you fellows anyway as
+a punishment for being such liars and for making me chop up about two
+cords of iron bars."
+
+"You wouldn't shoot down prisoners, General," faltered one of the
+Confederates.
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said Morford, commencing to grin himself, "but I
+ought to."
+
+As he talked he had been fitting the key into the locks and with the
+last words the door opened and the condemned scouts were once more free
+men. There was not an instant to lose. Already the Confederates were
+battering away at the front gate with a great log and a fusillade of
+revolver-shots showed that the outer guards were doing all they could
+to stand off the attack. It took only a moment to arm the scouts with
+the weapons taken from the guards and in a minute the seven men were
+out in the prison-yard. Morford himself ran to the gate, stooping in
+the darkness to avoid any chance shots that might fly through and
+ordered the two guards, who were lying flat on either side of the gate
+shooting through the bars at the soldiers outside, to join the others
+at the place where the plank had been removed. It took only a minute
+for the men to rush across the dark yard and reach the farther corner
+of the fence. Morford sent them through the opening one by one. Like
+snakes they crept into the tall grass, wormed their way through the
+tussocks into the thick marsh beyond and disappeared in the darkness.
+They were only just in time. As Morford himself crept through the
+opening last the gate crashed in and with a whoop and a yell a file of
+infantry poured into the yard. At the same moment another detachment
+dashed around on the outside in order to make an entrance at the rear
+of the supposed Union forces. Morford had hardly time to dive under the
+briars like a rabbit when a company of soldiers reached the opening
+through which he had just passed.
+
+"Here's the place, Captain," he heard one of them say in a whisper.
+"Here's the place where they broke in."
+
+The Confederate officer hurried his men through the gap, not realizing
+that it was really the place where the rescuers had broken out. As the
+last man disappeared through the fence, Morford crept on into the
+marsh, took the lead of his men and following a little fox-path soon
+had them safe on the other side and once again they started for Bear
+Mountain. They reached the boat in safety and in a few minutes they
+were on the other side of the river. Instead of getting out at the
+landing, however, Morford rowed down and made the men get out and make
+a distinct trail for a hundred yards or so to a highway which led off
+in an opposite direction from the mountain. Then they came back and got
+into the boat again while Morford rowed to where an old tree hung clear
+out over the water. A few feet from this tree was a stone wall. Morford
+instructed his men to swing themselves up through the tree and jump as
+far out as possible on the wall and to follow that for a hundred yards
+and then spring out from the wall some ten or fifteen feet before
+starting for the mountain. When they had all safely reached the wall,
+Morford himself climbed into the tree and set the boat adrift and again
+took charge of his party. Some of the younger scouts, who had never
+been hunted by dogs, were inclined to think that their leader was
+unnecessarily cautious. The next morning, however, as they lay safe and
+sound on the slope of the cave at the top of Bear Mountain and saw
+party after party of soldiers and civilians leading leashed bloodhounds
+back and forth along the river-bank, they decided that their captain
+knew his business. Their pursuers picked up the trail which was lost
+again in the highway and finally decided that the men must have escaped
+along the road, although the dogs were, of course, unable to follow it
+more than a hundred yards. For three days the scouts lay safe on the
+mountainside and rested up for their long trip north. Several times
+parties went up and down Bear Mountain, but fortunately did not find
+the hidden deer-path nor was Morford called upon to stand siege behind
+old Double-Trouble. When the pursuit was finally given up and the
+soldiers all seemed to be safe back in camp, Morford led his little
+troop out and following the same secret paths by which they had come,
+landed them all with the Union forces at Murfreesboro.
+
+So ended one of the many brave deeds of a forgotten hero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE BOY-GENERAL
+
+
+Boys are apt to think that they must wait until they are men before
+they can claim the great rewards which life holds in store for all of
+us. History shows that courage, high endeavor, concentration and the
+sacrifice of self will give the prizes of a high calling to boys as
+well as to men. One is never too young or too old to seek and find and
+seize opportunity. Alexander Hamilton was only a boy when in New York
+at the outbreak of the Revolution, white-hot with indignation and
+patriotic zeal, he climbed up on a railing and in an impassioned speech
+to a great crowd which had collected, put himself at once in the
+forefront along with Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Otis and other
+patriots who were to be the leaders of a new nation. David was only a
+boy of seventeen when he was sent to take provisions to his brethren in
+the army of the Israelites then encamped on the heights around the
+great battle-valley of Elah. There he heard the fierce giant-warrior of
+a lost race challenge the discouraged army. By being brave and ready
+enough to seize the opportunity which thousands of other men had passed
+by, he that day began the career which won for him a kingdom.
+
+George Washington was only a boy when he saved what was left of
+Braddock's ill-fated army in that dark and fatal massacre and was
+hardly of age when the governor of Virginia sent him on that dangerous
+mission to the Indian chiefs and the French commander at Venango. On
+that mission he showed courage that no threats could weaken and an
+intelligence that no treachery could deceive and he came back a man
+marked for great deeds. As a boy he showed the same forgetfulness of
+self which he afterward showed as a man when he refused to take any pay
+for his long services as general of the Continental Army and even
+advanced heavy disbursements from his own encumbered estate.
+
+Napoleon was only a boy when, as a young lieutenant, he first showed
+that military genius, that power of grasping opportunities, of breaking
+away from outworn rules which made him one of the greatest generals of
+all time and which laid Europe at his feet. If only to his bravery and
+genius had been added the high principle and the unselfishness of
+Washington, of Hamilton, of David, he would not have died in exile
+hated and feared by millions of men and women and children whose
+countries he had harried and whose lives he had burdened.
+
+In the Civil War the youngest general in both the Union and the
+Confederate forces was Major-General Galusha Pennypacker, who still
+lives in Philadelphia. He became a captain and major at seventeen, a
+colonel at twenty and a full brigadier-general a few months before he
+became twenty-one. His last and greatest fight was at Fort Fisher and
+the story of that day, of which he was the hero, is typical of the
+bravery and readiness which made him the only boy-general in the world.
+By the end of 1864 the Union forces had captured one by one the great
+naval ports of the Confederacy, the gates through which their armies
+were fed by the blockade-runners of Europe. New Orleans, Mobile and
+Savannah had at last fallen. By December, 1864, Wilmington, South
+Carolina, was the only port left through which the Confederacy could
+receive provisions from outside. In that month an expedition was sent
+against the city by sea and land. The river-forces were commanded by
+Admiral Porter while Generals Ben Butler and Witzel had charge of the
+land-forces. General Butler conceived the fantastic idea of exploding
+an old vessel filled with powder close to the ramparts. In the
+confusion which he thought would result, he hoped to carry the place by
+assault. Fort Fisher was the strongest fortress of the Confederacy.
+Admiral Porter afterward said that it was stronger than the famous
+Russian fortress Malakoff, which next to Gibraltar was supposed to be
+the most impregnable fortification in the world. Fort Fisher consisted
+of a system of bomb-proof traverses surrounded by great ramparts of
+heavy timbers covered with sand and banked with turf, the largest
+earthworks in the whole South and which were proof against the heaviest
+artillery of that day. The powder-boat was an abandoned vessel which
+was loaded to the gunnels with kegs of powder and floated up to within
+four hundred yards of the fort. When it was finally exploded, its
+effect upon the fortress was so slight that the Confederate soldiers
+inside thought it was merely a boiler explosion from one of the
+besieging vessels. General Butler and his assistant, General Witzel,
+however, landed their forces, hoping to find the garrison in a state of
+confusion and discouragement. General Butler found that the explosion
+had simply aroused rather than dismayed the besieged. From all along
+the ramparts as well as from the tops of the inner bastions a
+tremendous converging fire was poured upon the attacking force. Back of
+these fortifications were grouped some of the best sharp-shooters of
+the whole Confederate Army and after a few minutes of disastrous
+fighting, General Butler was glad enough to withdraw his forces back to
+the safety of the ships. He refused to renew the battle and reported to
+General Grant that Fort Fisher could not be taken by assault. General
+Grant was so disgusted by this report that he at once relieved General
+Butler of the command and this battle was the end of the latter's
+military career and he went back to civil life in Massachusetts.
+President Lincoln too was deeply disappointed at the unfortunate ending
+of this first assault on the last stronghold of the Confederacy.
+General Grant sent word to Admiral Porter to hold his position and sent
+General Alfred H. Terry to attack the fort again by land with an
+increased force. General Robert E. Lee learned of the proposed attack
+and sent word to Colonel Lamont, who commanded the fort, that it must
+be held, otherwise his army would be starved into surrender.
+
+On January 13, 1865, Admiral Porter ran his ironclad within close range
+of the fort and concentrating a fire of four hundred heavy guns rained
+great shells on every spot on the parapets and on the interior
+fortifications from which came any gun-fire. The shells burst as
+regularly as the ticking of a watch. The Confederates tried in vain to
+stand to their guns. One by one they were broken and dismounted and the
+garrison driven to take refuge in the interior bomb-proof traverses.
+The attacking forces were divided into three brigades. The attack was
+commenced by one hundred picked sharp-shooters all armed with repeating
+rifles and shovels. They charged to within one hundred and seventy-five
+yards of the fort, quickly dug themselves out of sight in a shallow
+trench in the sand and tried to pick off each man who appeared in the
+ramparts. Next came General Curtis' brigade to within four hundred
+yards of the fort and laid down and with their tin-cups and plates and
+knives and sword-blades and bayonets, dug out of sight like moles.
+Close behind them was Pennypacker's second brigade and after him Bell's
+third brigade. In a few moments, Curtis and his brigade advanced at a
+run to a line close behind the sharp-shooters while Pennypacker's
+brigade moved into the trench just vacated and Bell and his men came
+within two hundred yards of Pennypacker. All this time men were
+dropping everywhere under the deadly fire from the traverses. It was
+not the blind fire with the bullets whistling and humming overhead
+which the men had learned to disregard, but it was a scattering
+irregular series of well-aimed shots of which far too many took effect.
+The loss in officers especially was tremendous and equal to that of any
+battle in the war. More than half of the officers engaged were shot
+that day while one man in every four of the privates went down.
+
+When the men had at last taken their final positions, the fire of the
+vessels was directed to the sea-face of the fort and a strong naval
+detachment charged, with some of Ames' infantry of the land-forces, at
+the sea angle of the fort. The besieged ran forward a couple of light
+guns loaded with double charges of canister and grape and rushed to the
+angle all of their available forces. The canister and the heavy
+musketry fire were too much for the bluejackets and they were compelled
+to slowly draw back out of range while the Confederates shouted taunts
+after them.
+
+"Come aboard, you sailors," they yelled; "the captain's ladder is right
+this way. What you hangin' back for?"
+
+[Illustration: Attacking the Inner Traverses of Fort Fisher]
+
+The last words were drowned in a tremendous Rebel yell as they saw the
+bluejackets break and retreat out of range. The Confederates, however,
+had cheered too soon. In manning the sea-wall they had weakened too
+much the defenses on the landward side and the word was given for all
+three brigades to attack at once. The color-bearers of all the
+regiments ran forward like madmen, headed by the officers and all
+sprinting as if running a two hundred and twenty-yard dash. The
+officers and the color-bearers of all three brigades reached the outer
+lines almost at the same time. With a rush and a yell they were up over
+the outer wall and forming inside for the attack on the inner traverses
+which yet remained. It was desperate work and the hardest fighting of
+the day was done around these inner bomb-proofs, each one of which was
+like a little fort in miniature. The crisis came when the first brigade
+was barely keeping its foothold on the west end of the parapet while
+the enemy which had repulsed the bluejackets were moving over in a
+heavy column to drive out Curtis' panting men. It was at this moment
+that the boy-general Pennypacker showed himself the hero of the day. He
+had already carried the palisades and the sally-port and had taken four
+hundred prisoners and then wheeled and charged to the rescue of Curtis'
+exhausted men. Ahead of them was the fifth traverse which must be
+stormed and crossed before Curtis' men could be relieved. Already the
+men were wavering and it was a moment which called for the finest
+qualities of leadership. Pennypacker himself seized the colors of the
+97th Pennsylvania, his old regiment, and calling on his men to follow,
+charged up the broken side of the fifth traverse. His troops swarmed up
+after him side by side with the men of the 203d Pennsylvania and the
+soldiers of the 117th New York, but Pennypacker was the first man to
+fix the regimental flag on the parapet and shouted to Colonel Moore of
+the other Pennsylvania regiment:
+
+"Colonel, I want you to take notice that the first flag up is the flag
+of my old regiment."
+
+Before Colonel Moore had time to answer, he pitched over with a bullet
+through his heart and Colonel Bell was killed at the head of his
+brigade as he came in. The gigantic Curtis was fighting furiously with
+the blood streaming down from his face. Just at that moment, at the
+head of his men, General Pennypacker fell over, so badly wounded that
+never from that time to this was a day to pass free from pain. His work
+was done, however. His men fought fiercely to avenge his fall, broke up
+the enemies' intended attack, freed the first brigade and all three
+forces joined and swept through the traverses, capturing them one by
+one until the last and strongest fort of the Confederacy had fallen.
+The only remaining gateway to the outer world was closed. After the
+fall of Fort Fisher, it was only a few months to Appomattox. One of the
+bloodiest and most successful assaults of the war had succeeded.
+General Grant ordered a hundred-gun salute in honor of the victory from
+each of his armies. The Secretary of War, Stanton, himself, ran his
+steamer into Wilmington and landed to thank personally in the name of
+President Lincoln the brave fighters who had won a battle which meant
+the close of the war.
+
+General Pennypacker was to survive his wounds. This was the seventh
+time that he had been wounded in eight months. At the close of the war
+he was made colonel in the regular army, being the youngest man who
+ever held that rank, and was placed in command of various departments
+in the South and was the first representative of the North to introduce
+the policy of conciliation. Later on he went abroad and met Emperor
+William of Germany, the Emperor of Austria and Prince Bismarck and von
+Moltke, that war-worn old general, who shook hands with him and said
+that as the oldest general in the world, he was glad to welcome the
+youngest.
+
+So ends the story of a great battle where a boy showed that he could
+fight as bravely and think as quickly and hold on as enduringly as any
+man. What the boys of '64 could do, the boys of 1915 can and will do if
+ever a time comes when they too must fight for their country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+MEDAL-OF-HONOR MEN
+
+
+To-day in the world-war that is being waged in two hemispheres among
+twelve nations, we hear much of the Victoria Cross and the Iron Cross,
+and the decoration of the Legion of Honor, those tiny immortal symbols
+of achievement for which men are so willing to lay down their lives and
+which are cherished and passed on from father to son as a heritage of
+honor undying. Not since gunpowder sent armor, swords, spears, arrows,
+bows, catapults and a host of other outworn equipment to the scrap-heap
+has the method of warfare been changed as it was in the year 1914.
+Battles are now fought in the air and under the water and armies move
+forward underground. Automobiles and power-driven cars, trucks and
+platforms have succeeded the horse. Aeroplanes have taken the place of
+cavalry. Vast howitzers carried piecemeal on trucks, which can run
+across a rougher country than a horse, have made the strongest fortress
+obsolete. Bombs which kill every living thing within a circle one
+hundred and fifty yards in diameter, vast cylinders of gas which turn
+the air for miles into a death-trap, airships which can drop high-power
+explosives while invisible beyond the clouds, aerial and submarine
+torpedoes which can be automatically guided by electric currents from
+vessels miles away, guns that send vast shells a mile above the earth
+to carry death and destruction to a point twenty miles away, concealed
+artillery equipped with parabolic mirrors and automatic range-finders
+which can shoot over distant hills and mountains to a hair's breadth,
+and destroy concealed and protected bodies of men, rifles which shoot
+without noise and without smoke, machine-guns that spray bullets across
+a wide front of charging men as a hose sprays water across the width of
+a lawn, wireless apparatus which send messages thousands of miles
+across land and sea, all these and hundreds of other devices would be
+more of a mystery to Grant and Lee and the other great commanders of
+the Civil War than the breech-loading magazine rifles and artillery and
+iron-clads of their day would have been to Napoleon. The warfare of
+to-day is farther removed from the period of the Civil War of half a
+century ago than the Napoleonic wars were from those of Hannibal over a
+thousand years before.
+
+Methods have changed, but men are the same to-day as they were when
+they first built that great tower on the plain of Shinar. The
+eternities of life are still with us. Brave deeds, acts of
+self-sacrifice, truth, honor, courage, unselfishness still stand as in
+the days of old. Every man or woman or child, small or great, can
+achieve such deeds. At the end of this chronicle of the brave deeds
+wrought by our fathers and grandfathers in a war which was fought for
+an ideal, it is most fitting that the boys and girls of to-day should
+read what was done by commonplace men as a matter of course. From the
+great list prepared by the War Department of the United States of those
+whom their country have honored have been selected a few stories of the
+way different men won their Medal of Honor.
+
+In 1864 General Sherman was in the midst of his great march to Atlanta.
+Grant had begun the campaign against Lee's army which was to end at
+Richmond, while to Sherman was given the task of crushing his rival,
+Joseph E. Johnston. Inch by inch the whole of that march was fought out
+in a series of tremendous battles. One of these was the hard battle of
+New Hope Church in sight of Kenesaw Mountain. The battle was fought as
+a successful attempt on the part of Sherman to turn the flank of
+Johnston's position at Alatoona Pass. During the battle, Follett
+Johnson, a corporal in the 60th Infantry, did not only a brave, but an
+unusual deed. While his company was awaiting the signal to take part in
+the battle which was raging on their left, they were much annoyed by
+the deadly aim of a Confederate sharp-shooter concealed in an oak tree
+a quarter of a mile away. Every few minutes there would be a puff of
+smoke and the whine of a minie bullet, too often followed by the thud
+which told that the bullet had found its billet. When at last the sixth
+man, one of Johnson's best friends, was fatally wounded through the
+head, Johnson made up his mind to do his share in stopping this
+sharp-shooting permanently. Unfortunately he was only an ordinary shot
+himself, but he crawled down the line and had a hasty conference with
+one of the best shots in the regiment.
+
+"You get a good steady rest," said Johnson, "and draw a bead on that
+oak tree. I'll kind of move around and get the chap interested and when
+he gives you a chance, you take it."
+
+The Union sharp-shooter agreed to carry out his part of the bargain.
+Johnson suddenly sprang to his feet and ran in a zigzag course to a
+position farther down the line. A bullet from the watcher in the tree
+shrieked close past his head.
+
+"Lie down, you fool," shouted his captain. "Are you trying to commit
+suicide?"
+
+"Captain, we're fishing for that fellow over in the tree," returned
+Johnson. "I'm the bait."
+
+"Well, you won't be live-bait if you keep it up much longer," said his
+captain as Johnson again took another run while a bullet cut through
+his coat hardly an inch from his side. Johnson did keep it up, however.
+Now he would raise his cap on a stick and try to draw the enemy's fire
+in safety. Again he would suddenly spring up and make divers
+disrespectful gestures toward the sharp-shooter in his tree. Sometimes
+he would lie on his back and kick his legs insultingly up over a little
+breastwork that had been hurriedly thrown up. One bullet from the
+Confederate marksman nearly ruined a pair of good boots for Johnson
+while he was doing this, taking the heel off his left boot as neatly as
+any cobbler could have done. The hidden marksman, however, commenced to
+show the effect of this challenge by this unknown joker. Little by
+little he ventured out from behind the trunk of the tree in order to
+get a better aim. By the captain's orders no one fired at him in the
+hopes that he would give the watching Union sharp-shooter a deadly
+chance. At last his time came. Johnson started his most ambitious
+demonstration. He suddenly stood up in front of the breastworks in an
+attitude of the most irritating unconcern. Yawning, he gave a great
+stretch as if tired of lying down any longer, then he kissed his hand
+toward the sharp-shooter and started to stroll down the front of the
+line, first stopping to light his pipe. The whole company gave a gasp.
+
+"That will be about all for poor old Folly," said one man to his
+neighbor and every minute they expected to see him pitch forward. His
+indifference was too much for the Confederate. Emboldened by the
+absence of any recent shots, he leaned out from behind the sheltering
+trunk in order to draw a deadly bead on the man who had been mocking
+him before two armies. This was the chance for which the Union
+sharp-shooter had been waiting. Before the Confederate marksman had a
+chance to pull his trigger there was the bang of a Springfield rifle a
+few rods from where Johnson was walking and the watching soldiers saw
+the Confederate sharp-shooter topple backward. The rifle which had done
+so much harm slipped slowly from his hand to the ground and in a minute
+there was first a rustle, then a crash through the dense branches of
+the oak as the unconscious body lost its grip on the limb and pitched
+forward to the ground forty feet below. Johnson's captain was the first
+man to shake his hand.
+
+"It takes courage to fish for these fellows sometimes," he said, "but
+it takes braver men than I am to be the bait."
+
+Nearly thirty years later this occurrence was remembered and Corporal
+Johnson awarded the medal of honor which he had earned.
+
+Another man who drew the enemy's fire in order to save his comrades was
+John Kiggins, a sergeant in one of the New York regiments. It was at
+the battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, 1863. The terrible
+battle of Chickamauga had been fought. The Union Army had been reduced
+to a rabble and swept off the field, except over on the left wing where
+General George H. Thomas with twenty-five thousand men dashed back for
+a whole afternoon the assaults of double that number of Confederates
+and earned the title which he was henceforth to bear of the "Rock of
+Chickamauga." The defeated army, followed afterward by General Thomas'
+forces, withdrew to Chattanooga, that Tennessee battle-ground
+surrounded by the heights of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.
+Here the Union forces were invested on all sides by the Confederate
+Army under General Bragg. The supplies of the Union Army gave out. The
+Confederates commanded the Tennessee River and held all of the good
+wagon-roads on the south side of it. The Union Army was nearly starved.
+General Rosecrans had never recovered from the battle of Chickamauga.
+Not only was his nerve shattered, but he seemed to have lost all
+strength of will and concentration of purpose. General Grant, who had
+just been placed in supreme command of all the military operations in
+the West, decided to place Thomas in command of the Army of the
+Cumberland in place of the dispirited Rosecrans. He telegraphed Thomas
+to hold Chattanooga at all hazards.
+
+"We'll hold the town until we starve," Thomas telegraphed back.
+
+When Grant reached Chattanooga on October 23d, wet and dirty, but well,
+he realized as he saw the dead horses and the hollow-cheeked men how
+far the starving process had gone. Although he was on crutches from
+injuries received from a runaway horse, yet his influence was
+immediately felt throughout the whole army. He was a compeller of men
+like Napoleon and, like him, had only to ride down the line and let his
+men see that he was there in order to accomplish the impossible. He at
+once sent a message to Sherman, who was coming slowly along from
+Vicksburg. His messenger paddled down the Tennessee River in a canoe
+under a guerrilla-fire during his whole journey and handed Sherman a
+dispatch from Grant which said, "Drop everything and move your entire
+force toward Stevenson." Sherman marched as only he could. When his
+army reached the Tennessee River he laid a pontoon bridge thirteen
+hundred and fifty feet in length in a half day, rushed his army across,
+captured all the Confederate pickets and was ready to join Grant in the
+great battle of Chattanooga. General Hooker marched in from one side on
+November 24th and fought the great battle of Lookout Mountain above the
+clouds, through driving mists and rains and on the morning of November
+25th the stars and stripes waved from the lofty peak of Lookout
+Mountain. The next day eighteen thousand men without any orders charged
+up the almost perpendicular side of Missionary Ridge and carried it,
+and the three-day battle of Chattanooga was ended in the complete
+defeat of Bragg's army and the rescue of the men whom he thought he had
+cornered beyond all hopes of escape.
+
+It was during this first day's battle in the mist on Lookout Mountain
+that Kiggins distinguished himself. The New York regiment, in which he
+was a sergeant, had crawled and crept up a narrow winding path,
+dragging their cannon after them up places where it did not seem as if
+a goat could keep its footing. They had already come into position on
+one side of the higher slopes when suddenly a battery above them opened
+fire and the men began to fall. Through the mists they could see the
+stars and stripes waving over this upper battery, which had mistaken
+them for Confederate soldiers. They were shielded from the Confederate
+batteries by a wall of rock, but it was necessary to stop this mistaken
+fire or every man of the regiment would be swept off the mountain by
+the well-aimed Union guns. Sergeant Kiggins volunteered to do the
+necessary signaling. He climbed up on the natural wall of rock which
+protected them from the Confederate batteries and sharp-shooters and
+waved the Union flag toward the battery above him with all his might.
+They stopped firing, but evidently considered it simply a stratagem and
+wigwagged to Kiggins an inquiry in the Union code. It was necessary for
+Kiggins to answer this or the fire would undoubtedly be at once
+resumed. Unfortunately he was a poor wigwagger and as he stood on the
+wall, he was exposed to the fire of every Confederate battery or
+rifleman within range. The perspiration ran down his face as he
+clumsily began to spell a message back to the battery above. Over his
+head hummed and whirled solid round shot and around him screamed the
+minie balls from half-a-dozen different directions. Once a shot pierced
+his signaling flag right in the middle of a word. He not only had to
+replace the flag, but he had to spell the word over again which was
+even worse. The whole message did not take many minutes, but it seemed
+hours to poor Kiggins. His life was saved as if by a miracle. Several
+bullets pierced his uniform, his cap was shot off his head and when the
+last word was finished, he dropped off the wall with such
+lightning-like rapidity that his comrades, who had been watching him
+with open mouths, thought that at last some bullet must have reached
+its mark. Kiggins, however, was unharmed, but made a firm resolve to
+perfect himself in wigwagging. We have no record whether he carried out
+this good resolution, but his unwilling courage saved his regiment in
+spite of his bad spelling and won for himself a medal of honor.
+
+It was at the end of that terrible Wilderness campaign of Grant's which
+in a little more than a month had cost him fifty-four thousand nine
+hundred and twenty-nine men, a number nearly equal to the whole army of
+Lee, his antagonist, when the campaign was commenced. Grant's first
+object in this campaign was to destroy or capture Lee's army. His
+second object was to capture Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.
+A special rank of Lieutenant-General had been created for him by
+President Lincoln with the approval of the whole country. His victory
+at the dreadful battle of Shiloh, his successful siege of Vicksburg and
+his winning above the clouds the battle of Chattanooga, had made the
+silent, scrubby, commonplace-looking man, with the gray-blue eyes, who
+never talked but acted instead, the hope of the whole nation. In this
+campaign, Grant's one idea was to clinch with Lee's army and fight it
+as hard and as often as possible. He fought in the wilderness, tangled
+in thickets and swamps. He fought against strong positions on hilltops,
+he fought against entrenchments defended by masked batteries and
+tremendous artillery. He fought against impregnable positions and
+although he lost and lost and lost, he never stopped fighting. Lee had
+beaten McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker, all able generals,
+who had tried against him every plan except that which Grant now tried,
+of wearing him out by victories and defeats alike. Grant's army could
+be replenished. There were not men enough left in the Confederacy to
+replace Lee's army. It was a terrible campaign and only a president of
+Lincoln's breadth of view and only the supreme confidence which the
+American people have in a man who fights, no matter how often he is
+beaten, kept Grant in command. If, after the bloody defeats in the
+Wilderness and at Spottsylvania or at Cold Harbor, he had turned back
+like any of his successors would have done, undoubtedly his past record
+would not have saved him the command. It was like the celebrated battle
+between Tom Cribb, the champion of England, and Molineaux, the giant
+black, in the eighteenth century for the championship of the world.
+Again and again and again Cribb was knocked down by blows so tremendous
+that even his ring generalship could not avoid them. Battered and
+bloody he always staggered to his feet and bored in again for more.
+Molineaux at last said to his seconds, "I can't lick a fellow like
+that; the fool doesn't know when he is beaten." It was so with Grant
+and Lee. Grant never knew when he was beaten. Lee's generalship could
+knock him down, but could not keep him back, and the Confederate leader
+realized himself that sooner or later some chance of war would give
+Grant the opportunity for a victory from which the Confederate Army
+could not recuperate.
+
+Cold Harbor was the last of this series of defeats which helped wear
+out Lee's army and ended in its capture and the occupation of Richmond.
+At the time, however, it was bitter to be borne by the millions of men
+and women and children who were hungering and thirsting for a victory
+of the Union arms. Marching and fighting and fighting and marching
+every day for a month, Grant was almost in sight of the spires of the
+Confederate capital. About six miles outside the city Lee had taken his
+last stand at Cold Harbor. He held a position of tremendous natural
+strength and had fortified and entrenched it so that it was practically
+impregnable. Grant tried in vain to flank it. On June 30th he ordered
+an assault in front. Against him was the flower of the Confederate Army
+commanded by the best general of the world and securely entrenched in a
+position than which no stronger was ever attacked throughout the whole
+war. Grant first gave his command to attack on the afternoon of June
+2d, but then postponed it until the early morning of June 3d. Officers
+and men alike knew that they were to be sacrificed. All through the
+regiments men were pinning slips of paper, on which were written their
+names and addresses, to the backs of their coats, so that their dead
+bodies might be recognized after the battle and news sent to their
+families at the North. The battle was a short one. The second corps of
+General Hancock, one of the bravest and most dashing of all of Grant's
+generals, was shot to pieces in twenty-two minutes and fell back with
+three thousand of its best men gone, including most of its officers.
+All along the line the story was the same. At some places the Union men
+were beaten back without any difficulty and at other spots they
+penetrated the salients, but were driven back. Attack after attack was
+in vain against the generalship of Lee, the bravery of his men and the
+almost impregnable strength of his position.
+
+Eugene M. Tinkham, of the 148th New York Infantry, was in that corps
+directly under the eye of Grant himself which attacked and attacked the
+Confederate position throughout that bloody morning, only to be driven
+back each time with tremendous losses. The 148th Infantry, in which
+Tinkham was a corporal, charged right up to the very mouth of the guns.
+Flesh and blood could not stand, however, against the volleys of grape
+and canister which ripped bloody, struggling lanes right through the
+masses of the charging men. As the corps of which Tinkham's regiment
+was a part was stopped by the wall of dead and wounded men piled up in
+front of them, the Confederates with a fierce Rebel yell charged over
+the breastworks on the confused attackers. For a minute the New York
+regiment held its own, but were finally slowly forced back fighting
+every foot to the shelter of their own rifle-pits. There they made a
+stand and the Confederate sally stopped and the men in gray dashed back
+to their own fortifications. In this charge, Tinkham received a bayonet
+wound through his left shoulder while a jagged piece of canister had
+ripped through his left arm. Not until he found himself back in the
+rifle-pit, however, did he even know that he was wounded. His bayonet
+and the barrel of his rifle were red clear up to the stock and he did
+not at first realize that the blood dripping from his left sleeve was
+his own. It was only as he lay on the dry sand and saw the red stain
+beside him grow larger and larger that he realized that he was hurt.
+One of the few men who had returned with him stripped off his coat, cut
+away the sleeve of his shirt and made a couple of rough bandages and
+extemporized a rude tourniquet from the splinters of one of the wheels
+of a battered field-piece which had flown into the pit. When that was
+over, Tinkham lay back and shut his eyes and felt the weakness which
+comes over a man who has lost much blood. To-day there was not the
+tonic of victory which sometimes keeps even wounded men up. He had seen
+his comrades, men with whom he had eaten and slept and fought for over
+two years, thrown away, as it seemed to him, uselessly. He was yet to
+learn, what the army learned first and the country last, that Grant was
+big enough and far-sighted enough to know that some victories must be
+wrought from failure as well as success. This was one of the
+hammer-strokes which seemed to bound back from the enemy's armor
+without leaving a mark, yet the impact weakened Lee even when it seemed
+that he was most impervious to it. It was absolutely necessary to
+Grant's far-reaching plans that Lee be fought on every possible
+occasion. Whether he won or lost, Grant's only hope lay on keeping Lee
+on the defensive. None of this, of course, could a wounded corporal in
+a battered, beaten and defeated regiment realize. All he knew was that
+his friends were gone, that he was wounded and, worst of all, had been
+forced to again and again retreat. He shut his eyes and there was a
+sound in his ears like the tolling of a great bell. It seemed to swell
+and rise until it drowned even the rattle and roar of the battle which
+was still going on. When Tinkham opened his eyes everything seemed to
+waver and quiver before him. Suddenly there came a short, thin, wailing
+sound which cut like a knife through the midst of the unconsciousness
+which was stealing over him. It was the cries of two wounded men lying
+far out in the field over which he had come. Tinkham raised his hand
+and strained his eyes. He could recognize two of his own file, men who
+a moment before had been by his side and who now lay moaning their
+lives away out on that shell-swept field. Tinkham listened to it as
+long as he could. Then he set his teeth, scrambled to his feet and in
+spite of his comrades who thought that he was delirious, climbed
+stiffly over the edge of the rifle-pit and began to creep out between
+the lines toward the wounded men. At first every motion was an agony.
+He was weakened by the loss of blood and he could bear no weight on his
+left arm, yet there was such a fatal storm of bullets and grape-shot
+whizzing over him that he knew that, if he rose to his feet, there
+would be little chance of his ever reaching his friends alive. Slowly
+and doggedly he sidled along like a disabled crab. Sometimes he would
+have to stop and rest. Many times bullets whizzed close to him and cut
+the turf all around where he lay. As soon as he had rested a few
+seconds, he would fix his eye on some little tuft of grass or stone or
+weed and make up his mind that he would crawl until he reached that
+before he rested again. It was a long journey before he reached his
+goal. On the way he had taken three full canteens of water from silent
+figures which would never need them more. When at last he reached the
+men, they recognized him and the tears ran down their faces as they
+called his name.
+
+"God bless you, Corporal," said one; "it's just like you to come for
+us."
+
+Tinkham had no breath left to talk, but he gave each wounded man a
+refreshing drink from the canteens. Both of them were badly, although
+not fatally, wounded. One had a shattered leg and the other was slowly
+bleeding to death from a jagged wound in his thigh which he had tried
+in vain to staunch. Tinkham bandaged them up to the best of his ability
+and started to drag them both back to safety. With his help and
+encouragement, each of them crawled for himself as best he was able. It
+was a weary journey. During the last part of it, however, he was helped
+by other volunteers who were shamed into action by seeing this wounded
+man do what they had not dared. All three recovered and lived to take
+part in the latter-day victories which were yet to come.
+
+Tinkham was but one of the thousands of brave men who risked their
+lives to save their comrades. There was Michael Madden who at Mason's
+Island, Maryland, was on a reconnaissance with a comrade within the
+enemy's lines. His companion was wounded. A number of the enemy's
+cavalry started out to cut off the two men who were at the same time
+exposed to concentrated fire from the enemy's sharp-shooters. Madden
+picked his comrade up as if he had been a child, hoisted him to his
+back and ran with him to the bank of the Potomac, and plunged off into
+the water. Swimming on his back, he kept his comrade's head up and
+crossed the river in safety with the bullets hissing and spattering all
+around him.
+
+Then there was Julius Langbein, a drummer-boy fifteen years old. In
+1862 at Camden, N.C., the captain of his company was shot down.
+Langbein went to his help, but found that unless he received surgical
+treatment, he could not live an hour. Unstrapping his drum, he ran back
+to the rear and found a surgeon who was brave enough to go out to the
+front with him and under a heavy fire give first-aid to the wounded
+officer. Then the two carried the unconscious captain back to safety.
+
+It is a brave man that can rally himself in a retreat. Usually men go
+with the crowd. Once let the tide of battle begin to ebb and a company
+or a regiment or a brigade commence a retreat, it takes not only
+unusual courage, but also unusual will-power for any single man to
+stand out against his fellows and resist not only his own fears, but
+theirs. Such a man was John S. Kenyon. At Trenton, S.C., on May 15,
+1862, the whole column of his regiment, the 3d New York Cavalry, was
+retreating under a murderous fire from the enemy. Kenyon was in the
+rear rank. The retreat had started at a trot, had increased to a gallop
+and finally the whole column was riding at breakneck speed away from
+the shot and shell which crashed through their ranks. At the very
+height of their speed a man riding next to Kenyon was struck in the
+right shoulder by a grape-shot. The force of the blow pitched him
+headlong from the saddle. He still held to his reins with his left hand
+with a death-grip and was dragged for yards by his plunging, snorting
+horse. Kenyon was just ahead and knew nothing of the occurrence until
+he heard a faint voice behind him calling breathlessly, "Help, John,
+help!" He looked back and saw his comrade nearly fifty yards behind
+lying on the ground. Already his fingers were loosening their grip on
+the rein and the blood was flowing fast from the gash on his shoulder.
+Behind him the Confederate cavalry came thundering along not a quarter
+of a mile away while the massed batteries behind them swept the whole
+field with a hail of lead and steel. John hesitated for a minute and
+for the last time he heard once more the call of help, this time so
+faint that he could hardly hear it above the din of the battle. With a
+quick movement, he swung his horse to one side of the column.
+
+"Don't be a fool, John," shouted one of the men ahead; "it's every man
+for himself now. You can't save him and you'll only lose your own
+life."
+
+It was the old plausible lie that started when Satan said of Job, "Skin
+for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life." It was a lie
+then and it is just as much a lie to-day.
+
+"Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his
+friend," said our Master. Every day when the crisis comes we see men
+who will do that. Kenyon was one of these men. As he said afterward, "I
+should never have been able to get Jim's voice out of my mind if I
+hadn't stopped."
+
+It only took an instant to cover the distance from the column to the
+wounded man. Kenyon reached him just in time to catch the riderless
+horse which had at last freed his bridle from the weak grip of his
+wounded master. Kenyon swung himself to the ground and holding the two
+plunging horses with his right hand, pulled his friend to his feet and
+with a tremendous effort finally hoisted him into his saddle again. By
+this time the pursuing cavalry was within pistol-shot and the revolver
+bullets began to sing around the heads of the two men.
+
+"You hang on to your saddle, Jim," said Kenyon, "and I'll take care of
+your horse."
+
+Bending low in his saddle, he dug his spurs deep into his horse's
+sides, at the same time keeping his grip on the reins of the other
+horse and in a few minutes the two were back again in the rear of the
+retreating column. All through the retreat Kenyon stuck to his comrade
+and finally landed him safely in the field-hospital in front of which
+the Union Army had thrown up entrenchments which stopped all further
+pursuit.
+
+War, like everything else, is always a one-man job. It was the one man
+Hannibal that took a tropical army of sunburned Arabs, Carthaginians,
+Abyssinians, Berbers and soldiers from half a score of other southern
+nations and cut and built and tunneled his way through the ice and snow
+and cold of the Alps. Not only did his indomitable will carry his men
+through an impossible and unknown region, but it was this one man who
+for the first time in the history of the world marched elephants up
+over the Alps. Over two thousand years later it was one man again who
+took a ragged, battered, beaten army and marched over the same route
+and through the avalanches and snow-covered peaks and blinding
+snow-storms of the Great Bernard Pass. When the men turned trembling
+back from the brink of immeasurable precipices and before cliffs which
+seemed as if they could be climbed only by the chamois, Napoleon would
+order the drums and bugles to strike up the signal for a charge and up
+and over his soldiers went. It was this one short, frail, little man
+that fused this army into a great fighting machine, marched it over
+impossible mountains and swept down into Italy to win as great
+victories as did his fierce predecessor twenty centuries before.
+
+The records of the War Department are full of instances where men
+singly did seemingly impossible things. There was Patrick Ginley, a
+private in a New York regiment. At Reams Station, Virginia, the command
+in which he fought deserted important works which they occupied and
+retreated under the tremendous fire of the advancing enemy. Patrick
+remained. It seemed impossible that only one man could do anything
+except throw away his life, but Patrick made up his mind that he would
+accomplish everything that one man could. Accordingly as the enemy
+surged up to occupy the works with cheers and laughter at the sight of
+the retreating bluecoats, they were suddenly staggered by receiving a
+tremendous cannonade of grape-shot which cut down the entire first two
+ranks of the approaching company. It was Private Ginley who,
+single-handed, had loaded and sighted the gun and coolly waited until
+the enemy were within pointblank range. The Confederates were thrown
+into confusion. They suspected a Yankee trick and thought that the
+retreat had been made simply to lure them into close range. In the
+confusion they fell back, although they could have marched in without
+any further opposition, for as soon as Ginley had fired the gun, he
+escaped out of the rear of the earthworks and hastened to another Union
+regiment which was holding its ground near by. Waving his arms over his
+head and shouting like a mad-man, he rushed up to the astonished men
+and grabbed the colors out of the hands of the bewildered
+color-sergeant.
+
+"Come on, boys!" he shouted. "I've got some good guns and a nice bit of
+fortification just waitin' for you. Look at the way I drove them back
+all by myself."
+
+And he waved the colors toward the shattered Confederates who were
+slowly forming into line again preparatory to an assault, and started
+back for the works as fast as his legs could carry him.
+
+"Come on, you fellows," he yelled over his shoulder; "do you want me to
+drive them back twice?"
+
+His example was all that was needed. There was a cheer from officers
+and men alike and close behind him thundered the charge of the
+regiment. With a rush they swept up over the earthworks, drove the
+Confederates, who had just entered from the other side, out headlong,
+manned the whole works and in a minute were pouring charges of grape
+and canister from the retaken guns which completed their victory. A
+defeat had been changed into a victory, eleven guns and important works
+had been retaken from the enemy and a regiment of Confederates
+disorganized and driven from the field. One man did it.
+
+The deeds that most appeal to our imagination are single combats--one
+man against a multitude when daring and dash and coolness and skill
+take the place of numbers. History is full of such stories. We love to
+read of that great death-fight of Hereward the Wake, the Last of the
+English, when with sturdy little Winter at his back, he fought his last
+fight ringed around with hateful, treacherous foes. At his feet the
+pile of dead and wounded men grew high and higher until no one dared
+step within the sweep of that fatal sword. At last when Winter had
+fallen, some treacherous coward thrust a spear into Hereward's
+defenseless back. As he lay fallen on his face, apparently dead, one of
+his foemen stepped over to rob him of his sword when Hereward struggled
+to his knees and struck forward with his shield so fiercely, the last
+blow of the last Englishman, that he laid his man dead on the field.
+
+Then there was the death-fight of Grettir the Outlaw which Andrew Lang
+calls one of the four great fights in literature of one man against a
+multitude. No boy should ever grow up without reading the Grettir Saga
+which tells how after being unjustly driven into outlawry Grettir
+finally took refuge on a rocky island which could only be climbed by a
+rope-ladder. There with his brother and a cowardly, lazy servant he
+lived in safety until his enemies hired a witch-wife to do him harm. At
+midnight she cut grim runes into a great log of driftwood and burned
+strange signs thereon and stained it with her blood and then after
+laying upon it many a wicked spell, had it cast into the sea by four
+strong men. Against wind and tide it sailed to Drangy, Grettir's island
+of refuge. There he found it on the beach, but recognized it as
+ill-fated and warned the servant not to use it for fire-wood. In spite
+of this the lazy thrall brought it up the next day and when Grettir,
+not recognizing it, started to split the accursed log, his axe glanced
+and cut a deep gash in his leg. The wound festered and the leg swelled
+and turned blue so that Grettir could not even stand on it. When he was
+at last disabled, the witch-wife raised a storm and under her direction
+a band of his bitterest enemies went out to the island and found that
+his servant had left the rope-ladder down. One by one they climbed the
+sheer cliff and made a ring around the little hut where Grettir and his
+young brother slept. They dashed in the door. Grettir seized his sword
+and shield and fought on one knee so fiercely that they dared not
+approach him. Some of the attackers tried to slip behind his watchful
+sword.
+
+"Bare is the back of the brotherless," panted Grettir and his
+boy-brother stood behind him and fought over him until they were both
+overborne by the sheer weight of heavy shields, and Grettir killed,
+although not until six men lay dead in front of the great chieftain.
+Illugi, the brother, was offered his life if he would promise to take
+no vengeance on the murderers of his brother. He refused to do this
+because they had killed Grettir by witchcraft and treachery and not in
+fair fight. So they slew him, trying in vain to avoid the vengeance
+which came to them all many years later at the hands of another of
+Grettir's kin.
+
+We read also of battles won against what seem to us impossible odds.
+The Samurai stories of old Japan have several instances where
+chieftains defeated whole armies single-handed by their wonderful
+swordsmanship. The Bible contains several such stories. There is the
+story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer who together captured a
+fortress. Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, "Come and
+let us go over unto the garrison. It may be that the Lord will work for
+us." And his armor-bearer said unto him, "Do all that is in thine
+heart, behold I am with thee." Then they agreed to wait for a sign. If
+when they came before the garrison the men should invite them to come
+up, then they would go. If not, they would not make the attempt. The
+account goes on to say that when they both discovered themselves unto
+the garrison of the Philistines, the men of the garrison cried out to
+Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will show
+you a thing." And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, "Come up after
+me for the Lord hath delivered them to us." And Jonathan climbed up
+upon his hands and upon his feet and his armor-bearer after him and
+they fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearer slew after him. In a
+half-acre of ground which a yoke of oxen might plough, these two fought
+and slew and cut their way back and forth until the band that held the
+fort broke and fled and the stronghold was captured by the two.
+
+Then there was Jashobeam the Hachmonite, one of the first three men of
+David's body-guard of heroes who slew with his spear three hundred men
+at one time. There was Eleazar, who with David fought in that bloody
+barley field when these two warriors single-handed dispersed a company
+of Philistines. There was Abishai who slew three hundred men. These
+were the three mighty men who were besieged with David in the cave of
+Adullam in the midst of a parched and burning desert and David longed
+and said, "Oh, that one would give me to drink of the water of the well
+of Bethlehem that is at the gate." The three heard what their captain
+said and alone they broke through the ranks of the Philistines, drew
+water out of the well of Bethlehem and brought it back to David. And
+David did not drink of it, but poured it out to the Lord and said,
+"Lord forbid that I should drink the blood of these men that have put
+their lives in jeopardy for me."
+
+When we read these and other hero-stories, we are apt to think that the
+time for such deeds is past and that the men of to-day can never equal
+the accomplishments of the fighters of olden time. Yet the Civil War
+shows stories just as stirring and accomplishments seemingly as
+impossible. There was George Wilhelm, a captain in the Ohio Infantry.
+At Bakers Creek he was badly wounded in the breast and after he had
+fallen was captured by a Confederate, forced to his feet and though
+faint from loss of blood marched to the Confederate camp. As he saw
+himself farther and farther away from his own army a Berserkir rage
+came over him which made him forget his wound and his weakness. With
+one tremendous spring he caught his captor around the neck, wrested his
+drawn sabre from out of his hand, slashed him over the left shoulder
+and then picking up the loaded revolver which had dropped from the
+disabled hand faced him around and marched him back to the Union lines
+a prisoner although, toward the end of that journey, Wilhelm was so
+weak that he had to lean on the shoulder of his unwilling attendant.
+
+There was William G. Whitney a sergeant in the 11th Michigan Infantry,
+at the battle of Chickamauga who, just as his men were about to face a
+fierce charge from the Confederates, found that their ammunition had
+given out. Outside the Union works was a shell-swept field covered with
+dead and wounded men. Whitney never hesitated. He leaped over the works
+and ran back and forth over that field, cutting off and loading himself
+down with cartridge-boxes, although it did not seem as if a man could
+live a minute in that hissing storm of bullets and shell. Just in time
+he brought back the ammunition which enabled his men to beat back the
+charge and hold their position.
+
+At Rappahannock Station, Virginia, J. Henry White, a private in the
+90th Pennsylvania Infantry, like David's men brought back water to his
+thirsty comrades at the risk of his own life. The enemy had
+concentrated their fire on the only spring from which Union men could
+get water, but White crawled through the grass like a snake, covered
+from head to foot with canteens, filled them every one and crawled back
+under a fire which seemed as if it must be fatal. The Union forces were
+able to hold out and win the fight through his brave deed.
+
+On May 12, 1864, Christopher W. Wilson, a private in the 73d New York
+Infantry at the battle of Spottsylvania in a charge on the Confederate
+works, seized the flag which the wounded color-bearer had dropped, led
+the charge and then for good measure cut down the color-bearer of the
+56th Virginia Regiment, captured the Confederate colors and brought
+back both flags in safety to the Union lines.
+
+Another color-bearer who won his share of battle-glory was Andrew J.
+Tozier, a sergeant in the 20th Maine Infantry at the battle of
+Gettysburg. Tozier believed that it was the duty of a color-bearer
+having done all to stand fast. At the very flood-tide of the fight when
+it was a toss-up which side would be the victor of that crisis-battle
+of the war, Tozier's regiment, which was in the forefront, was borne
+back leaving him standing with the colors in an advanced position.
+Tozier stood there like a rock and coolly picked off with his musket
+every Confederate that attacked him until his ammunition gave out. He
+then pushed forward a few yards until he reached the body of one of the
+soldiers of his regiment who had fallen and stooping down, still
+keeping his colors flying, he managed to loosen some cartridges from
+the dead man's belt. With these he recharged his rifle and fought a
+great fight alone. Again and again he would stoop for a minute to get
+more cartridges, but the flag never went down. From all over the field
+the officers from the scattered regiment rallied their men and hurried
+toward the colors and just as a Confederate troop thundered down on
+Tozier, intending to ride over him and carry away the precious flag,
+from every part of the field little squads of fighting men reached him
+in time to pour in a volley that saved the colors which Tozier for many
+minutes had been protecting single-handed. That was the turning-point
+of this part of the battle. The Maine regiment pressed on and never
+retreated a foot again through all those days of terrible fighting.
+Tozier was one of the many men who saved that day for the Union by
+being brave in the face of tremendous odds.
+
+Freeman C. Thompson of the 116th Ohio Infantry won his medal of honor
+at Petersburg, Virginia. On April 2, 1865, the Union forces were
+storming Fort Gregg. Both sides had poured in murderous volleys at
+short range and then had rushed to close quarters, fighting desperately
+with bayonet and butt. Thompson scrambled up on his hands and knees,
+but had no more reached the parapet when he was knocked off it headlong
+by a tremendous blow on the head from a clubbed musket. When he
+returned to consciousness he found himself lying in the ditch with two
+dead men on top of him. Thompson made up his mind that this was not the
+kind of company which he ought to keep and springing to his feet, he
+started again for the parapet. This time he was more fortunate for he
+gained a footing and managed to bayonet the first man who attacked him,
+but before he could withdraw the bayonet, once again he received a
+tremendous smash full in the face from a clubbed musket and went clear
+over backward with a broken nose. He struck on the heap of bodies from
+which he had just emerged and though not unconscious, lay for a few
+minutes unable to move. Finally he managed to wipe the blood out from
+his eyes and spit out the blood and broken teeth from his battered
+mouth. Some men would have felt that they had had enough, but not so
+with this one. For the third and last time he scrambled up and as he
+reached the edge of the parapet caught sight of the man who was
+responsible for his battered face. Thompson rushed at him and there was
+a battle royal between the two, bayonet to bayonet, but Thompson at
+last by a trick of fence which he had learned, suddenly reversed his
+musket and smashed the heavy butt down on his opponent's right forearm,
+breaking the latter's grip on his own weapon. Before he could recover,
+Thompson's bayonet had passed through his throat and Thompson himself
+had gained a foothold within the works. Shoulder to shoulder he fought
+with the rest of his comrades in spite of the streaming blood and only
+stopped when the garrison surrendered.
+
+It is a brave man in civil life that will give up his vacation and it
+takes a hero to relinquish a furlough, that precious breathing spell
+away from battles and hardships back at home with his dear ones. Martin
+Schubert, a private in the 26th New York Infantry, had gained this
+respite and had paid for it by his wounds. Hearing that his regiment
+was about to go into battle again at Fredericksburg, he gave up his
+furlough, hurried back to the front and fought fiercely through all
+that brave day. Six men of his regiment, one after the other, had been
+shot down that fatal afternoon while carrying the colors. Schubert,
+although he already had one half-healed and one open wound, seized the
+flag when it went down for the last time and carried it to the front
+until the very end of the battle, although he received an extra wound
+for doing it. Thirty-one years later he received a medal of honor for
+that day's work.
+
+It is easier to save a wounded friend or wounded comrade than a wounded
+enemy. He who dares death to save one whom he is fighting against shows
+courage of the highest type. Such a deed occurred during the battle of
+Chancellorsville. Those four fatal May-days were filled as full of
+brave deeds as any days of the Civil War. Though General Hooker, the
+Union general, flinched and lost not only the battle, but forever his
+name of Fighting Joe Hooker, his men gave up only when they were
+outflanked and out-fought and unsupported.
+
+Elisha B. Seaman was a private in one of the regiments which was
+surprised and attacked by the twenty-six thousand infantry of Stonewall
+Jackson, the best fighters in the Confederate Army. The Union men were
+not suspecting any danger. Word had been sent a number of times both to
+Hooker and to General Howard who commanded the eleventh corps under him
+that Jackson was crossing through the woods to make a flank-attack.
+Neither general would believe the message. Both were sure that Jackson
+was in retreat. When the attack came the Union troops were attacked in
+front and from the flank and rear at once. They held their ground for a
+time, but they were new troops and even veterans could not have long
+sustained such an assault. At first they attempted to make an orderly
+retreat, but the Confederates pressed on them so close and fought so
+fiercely that the retreat became a run and the corps of which Seaman's
+regiment was a part was not rallied until they met reinforcements far
+over in the wilderness and gradually came to a halt and threw up
+defenses. There they were too strong to be driven back further by the
+Confederates and managed to hold their ground although attacked again
+and again. After the last attack the Confederate forces withdrew and
+took up a strong position on the Union front, brought up artillery and
+opened up a tremendous rifle-fire mingled with the cannonade from all
+their available batteries, hoping to throw the Union forces into
+disorder so that they would not stand another charge. During the
+fiercest of the fire while every man was keeping close under cover,
+Seaman's attention was caught by the sight of a Confederate officer who
+lay writhing in terrible agony not a hundred yards outside of the Union
+lines. He had been shot through the body in the last charge and had
+been left on the field by the retreating Confederates. The pain was
+unbearable. Seaman could see his face all distorted and although not a
+sound came through the clenched teeth, the poor fellow could not
+control the agonized twitching and jerking of his tortured muscles.
+Seaman tried to turn his face away from the sight, but each time his
+eyes came back to that brave man in torment out in front of him. At
+last he could stand it no longer. He slipped back to the rear and got
+hold of a surgeon.
+
+"Doctor," he said, "there's a fellow out in front pretty badly wounded.
+If I get him to you, do you think you can ease his pain?"
+
+"I certainly can," said the surgeon, "but judging from the noise out
+there in front, you'll lie out there with him if you go beyond the
+breastworks."
+
+"You get your chloroform ready," said Seaman, "and I'll get the man."
+
+A few minutes later Elisha was seen by his astonished comrades crawling
+along the bullet-torn turf on his way to the wounded man.
+
+"Hi there, come back, you lump-head!" yelled his bunkie. "Don't you see
+the fellow is a Reb? You'll get killed."
+
+"I wouldn't let a dog suffer the way that fellow's suffering," yelled
+back Elisha, waddling along on his hands and knees like a woodchuck. He
+finally reached the officer, forced a little whiskey into his mouth and
+prepared to lift him up on his back.
+
+"Cheer up, old man," he said. "I've got a good surgeon back there who
+says he can fix you up. If I can only get you on my back, we'll be safe
+in a minute."
+
+"You'll be safe enough," gasped the other somewhat ungratefully, Seaman
+thought, "but there will be a dozen bullets through me."
+
+There seemed to be something in that statement. Elisha decided that it
+would be a cruel kindness to turn this man into a target for the
+bullets which were coming across the field and make him act as his
+involuntary shield.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, General," Seaman said finally; "I'll get
+you up and then I'll back down to our lines. If any one gets hit, it'll
+be me.
+
+He was as good as his word. Although the wounded officer was a large
+man, Seaman got a fireman's-lift on him, swung him over his shoulders
+and then facing the Confederate lines, slowly backed his way toward
+safety. At first the Confederate fire redoubled as the men in gray
+thought that he was simply effecting the capture of one of their men.
+When, however, they realized that he was protecting one of their own
+officers from their fire with his own body, all along the line the
+fusillade of musketry died down and there came down the wind in its
+place the sound of a storm of cheers which swept from one end of the
+Confederate position to the other. Seaman covered the last fifty yards
+of his dangerous journey without a shot being fired at him except the
+shot and shell from the batteries which were being worked too far back
+for the gunners to know what was going on. The surgeon with whom he had
+spoken had been attracted to the front by the shouts and cheers both
+from the Confederate lines and from Seaman's own comrades and was the
+first to help him over the breastworks.
+
+"You're a great fool," he said. "I thought you were talking about one
+of our men, but so long as you brought this poor Reb in at the risk of
+your life, I'll certainly cure him."
+
+And he did.
+
+Another man whose courage flared up superior to wounds and mutilation
+and who was brave enough to do his duty in spite of the agony he was
+suffering, was Corporal Miles James, who on September 30, 1864, at
+Chapins Farm, Virginia, with the rest of his company was attacking the
+enemy's works. They had charged up to within thirty yards of the
+fortifications when they were met by a murderous storm of grape and
+canister, the enemy having held their fire until the very last moment.
+A grape-shot cut through Corporal James' left arm just above the elbow,
+smashing right through the middle of the bone and cutting the arm half
+off so that it dangled by the severed muscles. The force of the blow
+whirled James around like a top and he fell over to the ground, but was
+on his feet again in an instant and started for the Confederate line
+like the bulldog that he was.
+
+"Go back, Corporal," shouted one of his men. "Your arm's half off and
+you'll bleed to death."
+
+"No I won't," yelled James; "my right arm is my fighting-arm anyway."
+
+"Let me tie you up then," said the man, pulling him to the ground where
+the rest of the regiment lay flat on their faces waiting for the storm
+to pass so that they might charge again. "There's plenty of time."
+
+An examination of the arm showed that it was past saving.
+
+"Corporal," said the other, "you had better let me take this arm right
+off. I can make a quick job with my bowie-knife and bandage it. If I
+don't you'll bleed to death."
+
+"All right," said Miles; "go ahead."
+
+A minute later the amateur surgeon tied the last knot in the bandage
+which he had made out of a couple of bandanna handkerchiefs which had
+been contributed by others of the file.
+
+"Now, Corporal," he said, coaxingly, "let me get you back where you can
+lie down and rest."
+
+"No," said Corporal James, "the only resting I'm going to do will be
+inside those works."
+
+He reached back for the Springfield rifle which he had dropped when
+first struck and fitting it carefully to his right shoulder, fired a
+well-aimed shot at a Confederate gunner who was serving one of the
+cannons on the breastworks. As the man toppled over the corporal smiled
+grimly and in spite of offers of help from all sides, loaded and fired
+his gun twice again. By this time the fire had died down and the
+corporal suddenly sprang to his feet and started for the breastworks.
+
+"Hurry up, fellows," he shouted to his men; "don't let a one-armed man
+do all the work."
+
+With a tremendous cheer the whole force sprang again to their feet and
+swarmed over the ramparts in a rush which there was no stopping. James
+was right with them, two of his men hoisting and pushing him up, for he
+found that although he could shoot, it was more difficult to climb with
+one arm. As the last Confederates who were left surrendered, James sat
+down against one of the captured cannon and smiled wanly at the man who
+had helped him and said:
+
+"Now I'll take a rest and later on I'll go to the rear with you if you
+like."
+
+This he did and a regular surgeon completed an operation which he said
+had, under the circumstances, been most efficiently performed. Corporal
+James always said that the medal of honor which the government gave him
+was worth far more than the arm which he gave the government.
+
+In the days of David there came a great famine. Year after year the
+crops failed and the people starved. At last the priests and
+soothsayers told David that this doom had fallen upon the nation
+because of a broken oath. Many centuries before Joshua, one of the
+great generals of the world, was fighting his way into the Promised
+Land. He was contending with huge black giant tribes like the Anakim,
+and against blue-eyed Amorite mountaineers with their war-chariots of
+iron, whose five kings he was to utterly destroy on that great day when
+he said in the sight of the host of Israel, "Sun, stand thou still upon
+Gibeon and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon," and the sun stood still
+and the moon stayed until the people had revenged themselves upon their
+enemies. He had captured the fortified city of Jericho and had razed it
+to the ground and laid that terrible curse which was afterward
+fulfilled on the man who should again lay the foundation and rebuild
+the city. He had destroyed the city of Ai, little but inhabited by
+fierce fighters who had hurled back even the numberless hordes of
+Israel. The terror and the dread of the invaders had spread through the
+length and breadth of the land. On the slopes of Mount Hermon lived the
+Hivites. They were not great in war, but like the men of Tyre they
+asked to be let alone to carry on the trade and commerce in which they
+were so expert. Not far away from Ai was their chief city of Gibeon and
+the elders of that city planned to obtain from Joshua safety by
+stratagem. They sent embassadors whose skin bottles were old and rent
+and bound up and whose shoes were worn through and clouted and whose
+garments were old and worn and their provision dry and mouldy. These
+came to Joshua pretending to be embassadors from a far country who
+desired to make a league with them. Not knowing that their city was in
+the very path of his march, Joshua and the princes of the congregation
+made peace with them. Later on they found that they had been deceived,
+but the word of the nation had been passed and the sworn peace could
+not be broken. So it happened from that day that the Gibeonites became
+hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and lived in
+peace with the Israelites under their sworn protection. The centuries
+passed and at last Saul, the first king of Israel, began his reign. In
+spite of the oath of his forefathers, he slew the Gibeonites and sought
+to root them out of the land. It was this broken oath that had brought
+upon the nation the years of famine and suffering. Under the advice of
+their priests David sent for the remnants of the Gibeonites and asked
+them what atonement could be made for the cruel and treacherous deed of
+King Saul who had long been dead, but whose sin lived on after him. The
+Gibeonites said that they would have no silver or gold of Saul or of
+his house, but demanded that seven men of the race of Saul be delivered
+unto them. It was done and they hung these seven prisoners as a
+vengeance on the bloody house of Saul. Two of them were the sons of
+Rizpah whom she bore unto Saul, the king. When they were hanged, she
+took sackcloth and spread it on the rocks and guarded those bodies
+night and day and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon
+them by day or the beasts of the field by night. Sleeplessly she
+guarded all that was left of her sons until the news of her
+faithfulness was brought to David, who gave back to her the bodies for
+burial and for the last rites of sepulchre and sanctuary which mean so
+much to all believers.
+
+In the Civil War at Cold Harbor, Virginia, Sergeant LeRoy Williams of
+the 8th New York Artillery, like Rizpah, saved the body of his dead
+colonel and brought it back at the risk of his own life for honored
+burial. During that terrible battle in one of the charges of his
+regiment, his colonel was shot down close to the enemy's lines. When
+the shattered remnants of the regiment rallied again after they had
+been driven back by the entrenched Confederates, it was found that the
+colonel was missing. Williams had a profound admiration and affection
+for his colonel. When he found he was missing, he took an oath before
+the men that were left that he would find him and bring him in dead or
+alive. All the rest of that weary afternoon he crept back and forth
+over the battle-field exposed to the fire of the enemy's
+sharp-shooters. Again and again his life was saved almost by a miracle,
+so close did the well-directed bullets strike. Finally just at twilight
+close to the enemy's lines he found his colonel. He lay as he had
+fallen, facing the entrenchments which he had fought so hard to win,
+with a bullet through his heart. Within a few feet of where he lay the
+Confederate pickets were stationed who watched the field and fired at
+the least suspicious movement. Just as Williams identified the body, he
+saw one of the sentries approaching in the dusk and had just time to
+throw himself down with outstretched arms beside the dead officer when
+the guard was upon him. Something in his attitude aroused the man's
+suspicions and he prodded Williams in the back with his bayonet.
+Fortunately the sharp steel struck him glancingly and only inflicted a
+shallow wound and Williams had the presence of mind and the fortitude
+to lie perfectly quiet without a motion or a sound to indicate that he
+lived. The sentry passed on convinced that only dead men lay before
+him. Williams waited until it became perfectly dark and started to drag
+in the dead body of his officer. Inch by inch he crept away from the
+enemy's lines in the darkness until he was far enough away so that his
+movements could not be seen. All that weary night he dragged and
+carried the rescued body of the dead officer until just at dawn he
+brought it within the Union lines to receive the honors of a military
+funeral.
+
+Space fails to tell of the many brave deeds which gleam through the
+blood of many a hard-fought field and shine against the blackness of
+many a dark defeat. There was David L. Smith, a sergeant in Battery E
+of the 1st New York Light Artillery, who, when a shell struck an
+ammunition chest in his battery, exploding a number of cartridges and
+setting fire to the packing tow, instead of running away from the
+exploding cartridges which threatened every minute to set fire to the
+fuses of some of the great shells, had the coolness and the courage to
+bring a bucket of water and put out the flames as quietly as if he were
+banking a camp-fire for the night.
+
+There was Isaac Redlon, a private in the 27th Maine Infantry, who
+shortly before the battle of Chickamauga was put under arrest for a
+gross breach of discipline. Isaac saw a chance to wipe out the disgrace
+which he had incurred. Instead of staying at the rear with the wounded
+and other men under arrest, he managed to get hold of a rifle and
+fought through the two terrible days of that disastrous battle. So
+bravely did he fight, so cool was he under fire and so quick to carry
+out and to anticipate every order that was given, that when the battle
+was at last over, his captain decided that not only had Redlon wiped
+out the memory of his former misdoing, but that he had earned the medal
+which was afterward awarded to him.
+
+Another man whose bravery wiped out his mistakes was Colonel Louis P.
+DiCesnola of the 4th New York Cavalry. On June 17, 1863, he was under
+arrest when the battle was joined at Aldie, Virginia. It was the
+bitterest day that the colonel had ever known when in the guard-house
+he watched his regiment go into action without him. He felt that he had
+ruined his whole career and that his life through his folly and
+hot-headedness was a complete failure. There was granted to him,
+however, as there is to all of us, the opportunity to make amends.
+While he was still moodily watching the progress of the battle,
+suddenly he saw the men, whom he had so often led, waver. Then
+stragglers began to slip back through the lines and suddenly the whole
+regiment was in full retreat. Colonel DiCesnola did not hesitate a
+moment.
+
+"Open that door," he said to the guard. "I'll show those fellows how to
+fight and I'll come back when it's all over."
+
+Without a word the sentry unlocked the door and the colonel rushed out
+just in time to meet the first rank of the flying men. Almost the first
+man that he met was the officer who had taken his place, riding the
+colonel's own horse. DiCesnola gripped the animal by the bridle.
+
+"Get off that horse," he shouted, "and let some one ride him who knows
+which way to go. He's not used to retreating," and before his
+bewildered successor could answer, he was hurled out of the saddle and
+Colonel DiCesnola was on the back of his own horse.
+
+"About face, charge!" he thundered to his men. Most of them recognized
+his voice and the familiar figure that so often led them and without
+hesitating a moment, wheeled about and followed him toward the front.
+Every few yards his troop was increased by men who were ashamed to ride
+to the rear when they saw him charging to the front unarmed but waving
+his hat and cheering them on. Before the Confederates could realize
+what had happened they were fairly hurled off their feet by the
+tremendous rush of hurtling men and horses. Of all the attacks which
+are hard to withstand, the charge of a body of men who have rallied and
+are trying to wipe out the shame of their retreat is most to be feared.
+It was so here. Although the Confederates fought hard nothing could
+hold back the rush of this cavalry regiment. They were led by their own
+colonel who though unarmed stayed in the forefront of the battle. As
+they finally broke through the Confederate line, a burly cavalryman
+slashed at him with his sabre. Colonel DiCesnola stooped low to avoid
+the cut, but the point of the sabre caught him on the right shoulder
+and ripped deep into his chest while almost at the same moment he
+received a pistol shot in his left arm which broke it. Unable to hold
+the reins, he slipped forward and would have fallen to the ground, but
+was held in his saddle by his first assailant who forced his horse up
+close beside the colonel's and dashed back through the Confederate
+lines carrying DiCesnola and his magnificent horse. There the colonel
+was made prisoner, but was carefully nursed and by the time that he had
+recovered his strength, was exchanged and rejoined his old regiment. He
+reported to his general as still under arrest.
+
+"You are mistaken," said the latter. "I saw the way you rallied your
+men that day and when you were reported missing, we thought you had
+been killed. The charges against you are dismissed and your record is
+just as clean as it ever was and your old regiment is waiting for you."
+
+The story of William W. Noyes, a private in the 2d Vermont Infantry,
+and his charmed life is still told by the veterans who fought at
+Spottsylvania. On that day the madness of battle came over him. When
+that happens, life has no value except to spend it for the cause for
+which one is fighting. Noyes' regiment had charged up to the
+breastworks of the enemy from which was poured into the attacking
+forces tremendous volleys. Noyes had charged with the others, but when
+they stopped to rally at the breastworks preparatory to forcing them,
+Noyes never paused. Right up the parapet he scrambled and stood on top
+of the breastworks with his musket in full range of a thousand men.
+Taking deliberate aim he shot the man just below him who was aiming his
+gun at him not more than two yards away. In full sight of both armies
+he stood there and loaded and fired no less than fifteen shots. Not one
+of them missed its mark. It was in vain that the men all around him who
+were exposed to his fire shot at him. The bullets cut through his
+clothing, carried off his cap and one stripped the sights off his rifle
+and ricochetted off the hammer itself, but not a wound did he receive.
+His example spurred his comrades on and in a few minutes the whole
+regiment struggled over the earthworks and drove out the garrison.
+
+Joseph von Matre, a private in the 116th Ohio Infantry, did the same
+thing at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, during the assault on Fort Gregg.
+He climbed up the parapet and fired down into the fort as fast as his
+comrades could pass up to him loaded guns. No bullet could harm him and
+single-handed he drove the men out of that embrasure after killing
+several and forced a gap which was filled by the men who climbed up
+when he shouted down to them what he had done.
+
+This chronicle of brave deeds would not be complete without the stories
+of the men who were brave enough to disregard all odds either in
+numbers or in circumstances. There was Delano Morey, a private in the
+82d Ohio Infantry, who at McDowell, Virginia, found himself, after the
+charge of the Confederates had been repulsed, with an empty gun and no
+ammunition. Just in front of him were two of the enemy's sharp-shooters
+who had been picking off the Union officers all through the charge.
+Each of them was a dead shot and each of them had a loaded gun.
+Menacing them both with his empty piece, Morey rushed forward and
+called on them to surrender. The superb confidence of the man was too
+much for them and without a word each of them handed him his loaded
+rifle and walked meekly back with him as prisoners to the Union lines.
+
+There was Frank W. Mills, a sergeant in a New York regiment, who while
+scouting at Sandy Cross Roads in North Carolina, with only three or
+four men under him, suddenly came upon a whole troop of the enemy.
+Without orders and seemingly without the possibility of succeeding,
+Mills charged down upon the Confederates at the head of his regiment,
+consisting of four men. Courage took the place of numbers. The
+Confederates scattered like sheep and Mills and his men rounded up no
+less than one hundred and twenty prisoners who stacked their arms and
+marched obediently into the Union lines.
+
+Augustus Merrill, a captain in the 1st Maine Infantry, performed a
+similar feat at Petersburg when with six men he captured sixty-nine
+Confederate prisoners and recaptured and released a number of Union
+soldiers whom they had made prisoners.
+
+The 4th of May, 1863, was a great day for John P. McVean, a corporal in
+the 49th Infantry. On that day at Fredericksburg Heights, Virginia, he
+fought at the forefront of his company and when the order to charge was
+given, outstripped them all, reached the Confederate lines entirely
+alone, shot down the Confederate color-bearer, seized the colors and
+fought back all attempts to retake them until his comrades could come
+to his assistance. Later in the day he showed that he could be just as
+brave away from the inspiration and excitement of battle. Between the
+lines stood a barn which was occupied by a number of Confederate
+sharp-shooters who were greatly annoying the Union forces by picking
+off men at every opportunity. McVean's captain finally ordered his men
+to charge on the barn and drive them out.
+
+"Wait a minute, Captain," said the corporal; "I believe I can make
+those fellows surrender without losing any men. Let me try anyway."
+
+Without waiting for the captain to reply, the corporal laid down his
+gun and alone and unarmed and beckoning as he walked with his hand
+toward the barn, started for the sharp-shooters. Seeing that he was not
+armed they allowed him to come within speaking distance.
+
+"I have come to take you men prisoners," he said positively; "we don't
+want to kill you, but if you don't come now, we are going to charge and
+this is your last chance."
+
+The men inside hesitated a minute, but there was such an air of supreme
+confidence about McVean that first one and then another and then the
+whole band of twelve men marched out and followed him back to the Union
+lines. Once more a brave man had accomplished the impossible.
+
+There were no braver men in all the Union Army than were found in the
+ranks of the different batteries whose guns did so much to bring about
+the final victory of the Union arms. The courage of our cannoneers, men
+who saved the guns in spite of every attack and who often saved them in
+many a defeat, has never been surpassed. The affection of a gunner for
+the piece which he has manned and served in many a hard-fought battle
+is like that which a cavalryman has for his horse. Like the rider, the
+crew of a battery will risk all to save their gun. At Wilson's Creek,
+Missouri, on August 10, 1861, Nicholas Broquet, a private in one of the
+Iowa batteries, showed the spirit that was in him when the gun that he
+was serving was disabled. The battery-horses had been shot down, all
+the crew except himself had been killed by the tremendous fire of the
+enemy and across the field appeared a detachment of the enemy's forces
+sent to capture the gun. Broquet cut the traces of the dead horses,
+rushed out between the lines in the face of a fierce fire and succeeded
+in catching a riderless horse. He rode the animal back to the gun, made
+him fast to it and just as the enemy's detachment was close upon him,
+rode off in safety, trundling the rescued gun behind him.
+
+John F. Chase was a cannoneer of the same stamp. At Chancellorsville he
+was serving as a private in a Maine battery. A shell from one of the
+enemy's guns struck down the officers and killed or disabled every man
+of the battery except Chase and one other. They manned the gun, sighted
+it as best they could and fired three rounds at the approaching enemy.
+Then as the horses had been killed and it was certain that the gun
+would be captured in a few minutes, they fastened themselves to the
+traces and tugged away until they got the gun in motion. Although it
+was a heavy one which ordinarily took two horses to drag it, yet these
+two actually pulled the gun across the rough field safe to the main
+line of the Union forces and saved it from capture.
+
+Three of the most spectacular deeds of the whole war were those of
+Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer, Private Samuel E. Eddy and Adjutant Eugene
+W. Ferris. Custer was a lieutenant in the 6th Michigan Cavalry and was
+present at the spirited engagement at Sailors Creek, Virginia, when the
+Union forces attacked the entrenched Confederates. Custer's company
+charged in the face of a heavy fire on the enemy's works. When they
+reached the entrenchments the order was received to dismount and to
+continue the charge on foot. Custer was riding a thorough-bred and
+preferred to continue the charge on horseback. Spurring his horse up to
+the lowest part of the ramparts, he actually leaped him over and landed
+in the very midst of the astonished defenders. Making a dash for the
+color-bearer, Custer cut him down, seized the colors and wheeled and
+galloped right through the demoralized men to the other end of the
+works, intending to capture the colors displayed there. As he broke
+through the ranks of the defenders for the second time, a volley of
+straggling shots was fired at him. One bullet pierced his thigh and two
+more struck his horse, killing the latter instantly. Custer rolled over
+and over with the struggling animal, managed to pull himself loose and
+still clinging to the captured colors, with the blood streaming down
+his leg, rushed at the last color-bearer, shot him down with his
+revolver and seized his colors and with his back to the rampart, fought
+off all attempts to rescue them. A moment later his companions climbed
+over the earthworks and rescued him just as he was on the point of
+fainting from loss of blood.
+
+Eddy was a private in the 37th Massachusetts Infantry and on April 6,
+1865, was present at the battle of Sailors Creek, Virginia. While his
+regiment was fighting desperately to hold their position, Eddy saw that
+his adjutant lay wounded far out beyond their lines. A little
+detachment of Confederate soldiers approached and to Eddy's horror, he
+saw them deliberately shoot down several of the wounded Union men. One
+of them approached the adjutant to whom Eddy was much attached. He
+could not bear to see him killed without at least attempting to rescue
+him and he at once rushed out beyond the protection of his own line. As
+he approached the adjutant, he saw the leader of the Confederate
+attachment in the act of taking aim at the wounded officer. Eddy was an
+excellent shot and at once knelt down and took rapid but accurate aim
+and killed the Confederate just as he was on the point of firing. He
+ran forward to his adjutant, but there he encountered three
+Confederates and had a hand-to-hand bayonet fight with them. Eddy was a
+man of tremendous strength and reach and managed to kill one of his
+assailants and severely wound another. While he was so engaged,
+however, the third ran him through the body with his bayonet and pinned
+him to the ground. While the enemy was struggling to disengage his
+bayonet for another fatal thrust, Eddy, by a last desperate effort,
+managed to slip a cartridge into his gun and just as his opponent was
+aiming a deadly stab at his throat, shot him through the body. Then
+wounded as he was, he staggered to his feet and half-carried,
+half-dragged the wounded adjutant back to the safety of the Union lines
+where they were both nursed back to health and strength.
+
+Ferris was an adjutant in the 30th Massachusetts Infantry. On April 1,
+1865, at Berryville, Virginia, accompanied only by an orderly, he was
+riding outside the Union lines when he was attacked by five of Mosby's
+guerrillas. It was not the custom of Mosby's men either to ask or give
+quarter or to take prisoners. Ferris who was well mounted could
+probably have escaped, but would have had to leave his orderly behind,
+as the latter's horse was a slow one. Accordingly, although both the
+men were armed only with sabres, Ferris made up his mind to fight to
+the death. Without waiting to be attacked, he spurred his horse at the
+guerrilla-leader and suddenly executing a demi-volte which is only
+effective when performed by a good sabre and a trained horse, he
+whirled like lightning and caught his opponent such a tremendous
+back-handed slash that he cut him almost to the saddle. As the man
+toppled over, Ferris slipped one arm around his waist and managed to
+unbuckle his pistol-belt and seize both of his pistols. He then at once
+engaged with another one of the band and while parrying and thrusting,
+saw out of the tail of his eye a third man aiming a revolver at him
+only a few yards away. Parrying a thrust from his opponent in front,
+Ferris simultaneously fired with the other hand. Although Ferris was
+shooting with his left hand, his bullet killed his opponent while the
+Confederate's fire struck Ferris just above the left knee, inflicting a
+painful but not dangerous flesh-wound. Ferris pressed his opponent in
+front still more vigorously and finally succeeded in wounding him so
+severely that he turned and bolted, leaving Ferris free to go to the
+rescue of his orderly, who had been putting up a good fight against the
+other two of the band. Ferris reached him just in time. He had been
+wounded twice and though fighting bravely, one of his antagonists had
+managed to reach a position in his rear. There was not much time for
+Ferris to do anything with his sabre. Everything must depend upon a
+pistol shot. Stopping his horse, he drew his remaining pistol, took
+careful aim and shot the man behind his orderly through the body just
+as the latter had his sabre uplifted for a last blow at the
+hardly-pressed Union officer. The remaining guerrilla, who had already
+been slightly wounded by the orderly, wheeled his horse and rode off
+leaving the two Union men in possession of the field and the spoils of
+war, consisting of two capital pistols and a magnificent riderless
+horse which they brought back with them.
+
+One of the most devoted deeds of courage in the war is chronicled last.
+On July 21, 1861, the first great battle of the war was fought at Bull
+Run, Virginia, not far from the federal capital. It was a disastrous
+day. Unorganized, commanded by inexperienced officers, that battle soon
+became the shameful rout which for a long time was the basis of the
+belief throughout the South that one Southerner could whip four
+Northerners.
+
+Charles J. Murphy was quartermaster on that day in the 38th New York
+Infantry. It was not his business to fight. He was there to feed and
+look after his men and it was no more his duty to join the battle than
+that of the surgeons, the band, or any of the other non-combatants
+which accompany a regiment. When, however, he saw the masses of beaten,
+discouraged, panic-stricken men straggling back, Murphy made up his
+mind that the rear was no place for him. Seizing a rifle which one of
+the retreating men had thrown away, he rushed forward and did all that
+one man could to stop the retreat, fighting as long and as hard as he
+could. It was beyond his power. His regiment were bewildered, confused
+and broke and fled like sheep, leaving hundreds of wounded men on the
+field. Murphy made up his mind that he would have no part or lot in
+this rout and also that he would not desert his wounded comrades, for
+in those days there were terrible tales rife of how the Confederates
+treated wounded soldiers. The Union fighters had not yet learned that
+their antagonists were the same brave, fair fighters that they were.
+Murphy stayed behind. When the victorious Confederate forces marched
+down the field, they found it held by one man who was giving water to
+the wounded and doing his clumsy best to staunch the flowing blood from
+many a ghastly wound.
+
+"Do you surrender?" shouted the first officer who approached him.
+
+"Not if you are going to hurt these wounded men," said Murphy, bringing
+his bayonet into position.
+
+"We will take just as good care of them as we will of our own," the
+officer assured him, and only on this assurance did Murphy surrender.
+He spent years in Rebel prisons, but no prison could ever take away
+from him the recollection that he alone had refused to retreat on that
+disastrous day and that he had risked his life and given up his liberty
+to save his wounded comrades.
+
+So ends, with these little stories of sudden hero-acts wrought by
+commonplace men in a matter-of-fact manner, this chronicle of a few of
+the many, many brave deeds done by our forefathers in a war that was
+fought for an ideal. Read them, boys and girls, in these war-days that
+we may remember anew the lessons which the lives and deaths of our kin
+hold for us. If the day ever comes when we too must fight for ideals
+which other nations have forgotten or have trampled upon, may we show
+ourselves worthy of the great heritage of honor which our forefathers
+have handed down to us.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Brave Deeds of Union Soldiers, by Samuel Scoville
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41036 ***