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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/44492-0.txt b/44492-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f378d9a --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4184 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44492 *** + + WHIP AND SPUR + + BY + + COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. + + + NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + MCMIV + + + COPYRIGHT, 1897 + BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + VIX 7 + + RUBY 34 + + WETTSTEIN 67 + + CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX 93 + + HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT 138 + + TWO SCOUTS 162 + + IN THE GLOAMING 186 + + FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND 201 + + + + +WHIP AND SPUR. + +VIX. + + +When the work on the Central Park had fairly commenced, in the spring +of 1858, I found--or I fancied--that proper attention to my scattered +duties made it necessary that I should have a saddle-horse. + +How easily, by the way, the arguments that convince us of these +pleasant necessities find their way to the understanding! + +Yet, how to subsist a horse after buying one, and how to buy? The +memory of a well-bred and keen-eyed gray, dating back to the earliest +days of my boyhood, and forming the chief feature of my recollection +of play-time for years; an idle propensity, not a whit dulled yet, to +linger over Leech's long-necked hunters, and Herring's field scenes; +an almost superstitious faith in the different analyses of the bones +of the racer and of the cart-horse; a firm belief in Frank Forester's +teachings of the value of "blood,"--all these conspired to narrow +my range of selection, and, unfortunately, to confine it to a very +expensive class of horses. + +Unfortunately, again, the commissioners of the Park had extremely +inconvenient ideas of economy, and evidently did not consider, in +fixing their schedule of salaries, how much more satisfactory our +positions would have been with more generous emolument. + +How a man with only a Park salary, and with a family to support, could +set up a saddle-horse,--and not ride to the dogs,--was a question that +exercised not a little of my engineering talent for weeks; and many an +odd corner of plans and estimates was figured over with calculations of +the cost of forage and shoeing. + +Stable-room was plenty and free in the condemned buildings of the +former occupants, and a little "over-time" of one of the men would +suffice for the grooming. + +I finally concluded that, by giving up cigars, and devoting my energies +to the pipe in their stead, I could save enough to pay for my horse's +keep; and so, the ways and means having been, in this somewhat vague +manner, provided, the next step was to buy a horse. To tell of the days +passed at auction sales in the hope (never there realized) of finding +goodness and cheapness combined,--of the stationery wasted in answering +advertisements based on every conceivable form of false pretence; to +describe the numberless broken-kneed, broken-winded, and broken-down +brutes that came under inspection,--would be tedious and disheartening. + +Good horses there were, of course, though very few good saddle-horses +(America is not productive in this direction),--and the possible +animals were held at impossible prices. + +Those who rode over the new Park lands usually rode anything +but good saddle-horses. Fast trotters, stout ponies, tolerable +carriage-horses, capital cart-horses, there were in plenty. But +the clean-cut, thin-crested, bright-eyed, fine-eared, steel-limbed +saddle-horse, the saddle-horse _par excellence_,--may I say the only +saddle-horse?--rarely came under observation; and when, by exception, +such a one did appear, he was usually so ridden that his light was +sadly dimmed. It was hard to recognize an elastic step under such an +unelastic seat. + +Finally, in the days of my despair, a kind saddler,--kept to his daily +awl by a too keen eye for sport, and still, I believe, a victim to +his propensity for laying his money on the horse that ought to win +but don't,--hearing of my ambition (to him the most laudable of all +ambitions), came to put me on the long-sought path. + +He knew a mare, or he had known one, that would exactly suit me. She +was in a bad way now, and a good deal run down, but he always thought +she "had it in her," and that some gentleman ought to keep her for the +saddle,--"which, in my mind, sir, she be the finest bit of 'orse-flesh +that was hever imported, sir." That was enough. "Imported" decided my +case, and I listened eagerly to the enthusiastic story,--a story to +which this man's life was bound with threads of hard-earned silver, and +not less by a real honest love for a fine animal. He had never been +much given to saving, but he was a good workman, and the little he had +saved had been blown away in the dust that clouded his favorite at the +tail of the race. + +Still, he attached himself to her person, and followed her in her +disgrace. "She weren't quite quick enough for the turf, sir, but she be +a good 'un for a gentleman's 'ack." + +He had watched her for years, and scraped acquaintance with her +different owners as fast as she had changed them, and finally, when she +was far gone with pneumonia, he had accepted her as a gift, and, by +careful nursing, had cured her. Then, for a time, he rode her himself, +and his eye brightened as he told of her leaps and her stride. Of +course he rode her to the races, and--one luckless day--when he had +lost everything, and his passion had got the better of his prudence, he +staked the mare herself on a perfectly sure thing in two-mile-heats. +Like most of the sure things of life, this venture went to the bad, +and the mare was lost,--lost to a Bull's Head dealer in single driving +horses. "I see her in his stable ahfter that, sir; and, forbieten +she were twelve year old, sir, and 'ad 'ad a 'ard life of it, she +were the youngest and likeliest of the lot,--you'd swore she were a +three-year-old, sir." + +If that dealer had had a soul above trotting-wagons, my story would +never have been written; but all was fish that came to his net, and +this thoroughbred racer, this beautiful creature who had never worn +harness in her life, must be shown to a purchaser who was seeking +something to drive. She was always quick to decide, and her actions +followed close on the heels of her thought. She did not complicate +matters by waiting for the gentleman to get into the wagon, but then +and there--on the instant--kicked it to kindlings. This ended the +story. She had been shown at a high figure, and was subsequently sold +for a song,--he could tell me no more. She had passed to the lower +sphere of equine life and usefulness,--he _had_ heard of a fish-wagon, +but he knew nothing about it. What he did know was, that the dealer was +a dreadful jockey, and that it would never do to ask him. Now, here was +something to live for,--a sort of princess in disgrace, whom it would +be an honor to rescue, and my horse-hunting acquired a new interest. + +By easy stages, I cultivated the friendship of the youth who, in +those days, did the morning's sweeping-out at the Bull's Head Hotel. +He had grown up in the alluring shades of the horse-market, and his +daily communion from childhood had been with that "noble animal." To +him horses were the individuals of the world,--men their necessary +attendants, and of only attendant importance. Of course he knew of this +black she-devil; and he thought that "a hoss that could trot like she +could on the halter" must be crazy not to go in harness. + +However, he thought she had got her deserts now, for he had seen her, +only a few weeks before, "a draggin' clams for a feller in the Tenth +Avener." Here was a clew at last,--clams and the Tenth Avenue. For +several days the scent grew cold. The people of the Licensed Vender +part of this street seemed to have little interest in their neighbors' +horses; but I found one man, an Irish grocer, who had been bred a +stable-boy to the Marquis of Waterford, and who did know of a "poor old +screw of a black mare" that had a good head, and might be the one I was +looking for; but, if she was, he thought I might as well give it up, +for she was all broken down, and would never be good for anything again. + +Taking the address, I went to a stable-yard, in what was then the very +edge of the town, and here I found a knowing young man, who devoted his +time to peddling clams and potatoes between New York and Sing Sing. +Clams up, and potatoes down,--twice every week,--distance thirty miles; +road hilly; and that was the wagon he did it with,--a heavy wagon with +a heavy arched top, and room for a heavy load, and only shafts for a +single horse. In reply to my question, he said he changed horses pretty +often, because the work broke them down; but he had a mare now that +had been at it for three months, and he thought she would last some +time longer. "She's pretty thin, but you ought to see her trot with +that wagon." With an air of idle curiosity, I asked to see her,--I had +gone shabbily dressed, not to excite suspicion; for men of the class I +had to treat with are usually sharp horse-traders,--and this fellow, +clam-pedler though he was, showed an enthusiastic alacrity in taking +me to her stall. She had won even his dull heart, and he spoke of her +gently, as he made the most of her good points, and glossed over her +wretched condition. + +Poor Vixen (that had been her name in her better days, and it was to +be her name again), she had found it hard kicking against the pricks! +Clam-carts are stronger than trotting-wagons, and even her efforts had +been vain. She had succumbed to dire necessity, and earned her ignoble +oats with dogged fidelity. She had a little warm corner in her driver's +affections,--as she always had in the affections of all who came to +know her well,--but her lot was a very hard one. Worn to a skeleton, +with sore galls wherever the harness had pressed her, her pasterns +bruised by clumsy shoes, her silky coat burned brown by the sun, and +her neck curved upward, it would have needed more than my knowledge of +anatomy to see anything good in her but for her wonderful head. This +was the perfection of a horse's head,--small, bony, and of perfect +shape, with keen, deer-like eyes, and thin, active ears; it told the +whole story of her virtues, and showed no trace of her sufferings. Her +royal blood shone out from her face, and kept it beautiful. + +My mind was made up, and Vixen must be mine at any cost. Still, it +was important to me to buy as cheaply as I could,--and desirable, +above all, not to be jockeyed in a horse-trade; so it required some +diplomacy (an account of which would not be edifying here) to bring the +transaction to its successful close. The pendulum which swung between +offer and demand finally rested at seventy-five dollars. + +She was brought to me at the Park on a bright moonlight evening in +June, and we were called out to see her. I think she knew that her +harness days were over, and she danced off to her new quarters as gay +as a colt in training. That night my wakefulness would have done credit +to a boy of sixteen; and I was up with the dawn, and bound for a ride; +but when I examined poor Vix again in her stable, it seemed almost +cruel to think of using her at all for a month. She was so thin, so +worn, so bruised, that I determined to give her a long rest and good +care,--only I must try her once, just to get a leg over her for five +minutes, and then she should come back and be cared for until really +well. It was a weak thing to do, and I confess it with all needful +humiliation, but I mounted her at once; and, although I had been a +rider all my days, this was the first time I had ever really ridden. +For the first time in my life I felt as though I had four whalebone +legs of my own, worked by steel muscles in accordance with my will, but +without even a conscious effort of will. + +That that anatomy of a horse should so easily, so playfully, handle +my heavy weight was a mystery, and is a mystery still. She carried me +in the same high, long-reaching, elastic trot that we sometimes see a +young horse strike when first turned into a field. A low fence was near +by, and I turned her toward it. She cleared it with a bound that sent +all my blood thrilling through my veins, and trotted on again as though +nothing had occurred. The five minutes' turn was taken with so much +ease, with such evident delight, that I made it a virtue to indulge her +with a longer course and a longer stride. We went to the far corners of +the Park, and tried all our paces; all were marvellous for the power so +easily exerted and the evident power in reserve. + +Yes, Frank Forester was right, blood horses are made of finer stuff +than others. My intention of giving the poor old mare a month's rest +was never carried out, because each return to her old recreation--it +was never work--made it more evident that the simple change in her +life was all she needed; and, although in constant use from the first, +she soon put on the flesh and form of a sound horse. Her minor bruises +were obliterated, and her more grievous ones grew into permanent +scars,--blemishes, but only skin deep; for every fibre of every muscle, +and every tendon and bone in her whole body, was as strong and supple +as spring steel. + +The Park afforded good leaping in those days. Some of the fences +were still standing around the abandoned gardens, and new ditches +and old brooks were plenty. Vixen gave me lessons in fencing which a +few years later, in time of graver need, stood me in good stead. She +weighed less than four times the weight that she carried; yet she +cleared a four-foot fence with apparent ease, and once, in a moment +of excitement, she carried me over a brook, with a clear leap of +twenty-six feet, measured from the taking-off to the landing. + +Her feats of endurance were equal to her feats of strength. I once +rode her from Yorkville to Rye (twenty-one miles) in an hour and +forty-five minutes, including a rest of twenty minutes at Pelham +Bridge, and I frequently rode twenty-five miles out in the morning and +back in the afternoon. When put to her work, her steady road gallop +(mostly on the grassy sides) was fifteen miles an hour. + +Of course these were extreme cases; but she never showed fatigue +from them, and she did good service nearly every day, winter and +summer, from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, keeping always in good +condition, though thin as a racer, and looking like a colt at the end +of the time. Horsemen never guessed her age at more than half of what +it actually was. + +Beyond the average of even the most intelligent horses, she showed +some almost human traits. Above all was she fond of children, and would +quiet down from her wildest moods to allow a child to be carried on the +pommel. When engaged in this serious duty, it was difficult to excite +her, or to urge her out of a slow and measured pace, although usually +ready for any extravagance. Not the least marked of her peculiarities +was her inordinate vanity. On a country road, or among the workmen of +the Park, she was as staid and business-like as a parson's cob; but +let a carriage or a party of visitors come in sight, and she would +give herself the prancing airs of a circus horse, seeming to watch +as eagerly for some sign of approval, and to be made as happy by it, +as though she only lived to be admired. Many a time have I heard the +exclamation, "What a beautiful horse!" and Vix seemed to hear it too, +and to appreciate it quite as keenly as I did. A trip down the Fifth +Avenue in the afternoon was an immense excitement to her, and she was +more fatigued by it than by a twenty-mile gallop. However slowly she +travelled, it was always with the high springing action of a fast trot, +or with that long-stepping, sidelong action that the French call _á +deux pistes_; few people allowed her to pass without admiring notice. + +Her most satisfactory trait was her fondness for her master; she +was as good company as a dog,--better, perhaps, because she seemed +more really a part of one's self; and she was quick to respond to my +changing moods. I have sometimes, when unable to sleep, got up in the +night and saddled for a ride, usually ending in a long walk home, with +the bridle over my arm, and the old mare's kind face close beside my +own, in something akin to human sympathy; she had a way of sighing, +when things were especially sad, that made her very comforting to have +about. So we went on for three years, always together, and always very +much to each other. We had our little unhappy episodes, when she was +pettish and I was harsh,--sometimes her feminine freaks were the cause, +sometimes my masculine blundering,--but we always made it up, and were +soon good friends again, and, on the whole, we were both better for +the friendship. I am sure that I was, and some of my more grateful +recollections are connected with this dumb companion. + +The spring of 1861 opened a new life for both of us,--a sad and a short +one for poor Vix. + +I never knew just how much influence she had in getting my commission, +but, judging by the manner of the other field officers of the regiment, +she was evidently regarded as the better half of the new acquisition. +The pomp and circumstance of glorious war suited her temper exactly, +and it was ludicrous to see her satisfaction in first wearing her +gorgeous red-bordered shabrack; for a time she carried her head on one +side to see it. She conceived a new affection for me from the moment +when she saw me bedecked with the dazzling bloom that preceded the +serious fruitage of the early New York volunteer organizations. + +At last the thrilling day came. Broadway was alive from end to end +with flags and white cambric and sad faces. Another thousand were +going to the war. With Swiss bugle-march and chanted Marseillaise, we +made our solemn way through the grave and anxious throng. To us it was +naturally a day of sore trial; but with brilliant, happy Vixen it was +far different; she was leaving no friends behind, was going to meet no +unknown peril. She was showing her royal, stylish beauty to an admiring +crowd, and she acted as though she took to her own especial behoof +every cheer that rang from Union Square to Cortlandt Street. It was the +glorious day of her life, and, as we dismounted at the Jersey ferry, +she was trembling still with the delightful excitement. + +At Washington we were encamped east of the Capitol, and for a month +were busy in getting settled in the new harness. Mr. Lincoln used to +drive out sometimes to our evening drill, and he always had a pleasant +word--as he always had for every one, and as every one had for her--for +my charming thoroughbred, who had made herself perfectly at home with +the troops, and enjoyed every display of the marvellous raiment of the +regiment. + +On the 4th of July we crossed the Potomac and went below Alexandria, +where we lay in idle preparation for the coming disaster. On the 16th +we marched, in Blenker's brigade of Miles's division, and we passed the +night in a hay-field, with a confusion of horses' feed and riders' bed, +that brought Vix and me very closely together. On the 18th we reached +the valley this side of Centreville, while the skirmish of Blackburn's +Ford was going on,--a skirmish now, but a battle then. For three nights +and two days we lay in the bushes, waiting for rations and orders. +On Sunday morning McDowell's army moved out;--we all know the rest. +Miles's thirteen thousand fresh troops lay within sight and sound of +the lost battle-field,--he drunk and unable, even if not unwilling, to +take them to the rescue,--and all we did was, late in the evening, to +turn back a few troopers of the Black Horse Cavalry, the moral effect +of whose unseen terrors was driving our herds, panting, back to the +Potomac. Late in the night we turned our backs on our idle field, and +brought up the rear of the sad retreat. Our regiment was the last to +move out, and Vix and I were with the rear-guard. Wet, cold, tired, +hungry, unpursued, we crept slowly through the scattered _débris_ of +the broken-up camp equipage, and dismally crossed the Long Bridge in a +pitiless rain, as Monday's evening was closing in. O, the dreadful days +that followed, when a dozen resolute men might have taken Washington, +and have driven the army across the Chesapeake, when everything was +filled with gloom and rain and grave uncertainty! + +Again the old mare came to my aid. My regiment was not a pleasant one +to be with, for its excellent material did not redeem its very bad +commander, and I longed for service with the cavalry. Frémont was going +to St. Louis, and his chief of staff was looking for cavalry officers. +He had long known Vixen, and was kind enough to tell me that he wanted +_her_ for the new organization, and (as I was her necessary appendage), +he procured my transfer, and we set out for the West. It was not +especially flattering to me to be taken on these grounds; but it was +flattering to Vixen, and that was quite as pleasant. + +Arrived at St. Louis, we set about the organization of the +enthusiastic thousands who rushed to serve under Frémont. Whatever +there was of ostentatious display, Vixen and I took part in, but this +was not much. Once we turned out in great state to receive Prince +Plon-Plon, but that was in the night, and he didn't come after all. +Once again there was a review of all the troops, and that _was_ +magnificent. This was all. There was no coach and four, nor anything +else but downright hard work from early morning till late bedtime, from +Sunday morning till Saturday night. For six weeks, while my regiment of +German horsemen was fitting up and drilling at the Abbey Race-track, +I rode a cart-horse, and kept the mare in training for the hard work +ahead. + +At last we were off, going up the Missouri, sticking in its mud, +poling over its shoals, and being bored generally. At Jefferson +City Vixen made her last appearance in ladies' society, as by the +twilight fires of the General's camp she went through her graceful +paces before Mrs. Frémont and her daughter. I pass over the eventful +pursuit of Price's army, because the subject of my story played only +a passive part in it. At Springfield I tried her nerve by jumping her +over the dead horses on brave Zagonyi's bloody field; and, although +distastefully, she did my bidding without flinching, when she found it +must be done. The camp-life at Springfield was full of excitement and +earnestness; Price, with his army, was near at hand (or we believed +that he was, which was essentially the same). Our work in the cavalry +was very active, and Vix had hard service on insufficient food,--she +seemed to be sustained by sheer nervous strength. + +At last the order to advance was given, and we were to move out at +daybreak; then came a countermanding order; and then, late in the +evening, Frémont's farewell. He had been relieved. There was genuine +and universal grief. Good or bad, competent or incompetent,--this is +not the place to argue that,--he was the life and the soul of his +army, and it was cruelly wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full +of disappointment, we again turned back from our aim;--then would have +been Price's opportunity. + +It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, and the wonderful opal +atmosphere of the Ozark Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a +second spring. As had always been my habit in dreamy or unhappy moods, +I rode my poor tired mare for companionship's sake,--I ought not to +have done it,--I would give much not to have done it, for I never rode +her again. The march was long, and the noonday sun was oppressive. She +who had never faltered before grew nervous and shaky now, and once, +after fording the Pomme-de-Terre in deep water, she behaved wildly; but +when I talked to her, called her a good girl, and combed her silken +mane with my fingers, she came back to her old way, and went on nicely. +Still she perspired unnaturally, and I felt uneasy about her when I +dismounted and gave her rein to Rudolf, my orderly. + +Late in the night, when the moon was in mid-heaven, he came to my +tent, and told me that something was the matter with Vixen. My adjutant +and I hastened out, and there we beheld her in the agony of a brain +fever. She was the most painfully magnificent animal I ever saw. +Crouched on the ground, with her forelegs stretched out and wide apart, +she was swaying to and fro, with hard and stertorous breath,--every +vein swollen and throbbing in the moonlight. De Grandèle, our quiet +veterinary surgeon, had been called while it was yet time to apply the +lancet. As the hot stream spurted from her neck she grew easier; her +eye recovered its gentleness, and she laid her head against my breast +with the old sigh, and seemed to know and to return all my love for +her. I sat with her until the first gray of dawn, when she had grown +quite calm, and then I left her with De Grandèle and Rudolf while +I went to my duties. We must march at five o'clock, and poor Vixen +could not be moved. The thought of leaving her was very bitter, but +I feared it must be done, and I asked De Grandèle how he could best +end her sufferings,--or was there still some hope? He shook his head +mournfully, like a kind-hearted doctor as he was, and said that he +feared not; but still, as I was so fond of her, if I would leave him +six men, he would do his best to bring her on, and, if he could not, he +would not leave her alive. I have had few harder duties than to march +that morning. Four days after, De Grandèle sent a message to me at our +station near Rolla, that he was coming on nicely, and hoped to be in +at nightfall. "Vixen seems to be better and stronger." At nightfall +they came, the poor old creature stepping slowly and timidly over the +rough road, all the old fire and force gone out of her, and with only a +feeble whinny as she saw me walking to meet her. We built for her the +best quarters we could under the mountain-side, and spread her a soft +bed of leaves. There was now hope that she would recover sufficiently +to be sent to St. Louis to be nursed. + +That night, an infernal brute of a troop horse that had already killed +Ludlow's charger, led by some fiendish spirit, broke into Vixen's +enclosure, and with one kick laid open her hock joint. + +In vain they told me that she was incurable. I could not let her die +now, when she was just restored to me; and I forced from De Grandèle +the confession that she _might_ be slung up and so bound that the wound +would heal, although the joint must be stiff. She could never carry me +again, but she could be my pet; and I would send her home, and make her +happy for many a long year yet. We moved camp two miles, to the edge +of the town, and she followed, painfully and slowly, the injured limb +dragging behind her; I could not give her up. She was picketed near my +tent, and for some days grew no worse. + +Finally, one lovely Sunday morning, I found her sitting on her haunches +like a dog, patient and gentle, and wondering at her pain. She remained +in this position all day, refusing food. I stroked her velvet crest, +and coaxed her with sugar. She rubbed her nose against my arm, and was +evidently thankful for my caresses, but she showed no disposition to +rise. The adjutant led me into my tent as he would have led me from the +bedside of a dying friend. I turned to look back at poor Vixen, and she +gave me a little neigh of farewell. + +They told me then, and they told it very tenderly, that there was no +possibility that she could get well in camp, and that they wanted me +to give her over to them. The adjutant sat by me, and talked of the +old days when I had had her at home, and when he had known her well. +We brought back all of her pleasant ways, and agreed that her trouble +ought to be ended. + +As we talked, a single shot was fired, and all was over. The setting +sun was shining through the bare November branches, and lay warm in +my open tent-front. The band, which had been brought out for the only +funeral ceremony, breathed softly Kreutzer's touching "Die Kapelle," +and the sun went down on one of the very sad days of my life. + +The next morning I carved deeply in the bark of a great oak-tree, at +the side of the Pacific Railroad, beneath which they had buried my +lovely mare, a simple VIX; and some day I shall go to scrape the moss +from the inscription. + + + + +RUBY. + + +I was a colonel commanding a regiment of German cavalrymen in South +Missouri, and must have a horse; it was desirable to be conspicuously +well mounted, and so it must be a showy horse; being a heavy weight and +a rough rider, it must be a good horse. With less rank, I might have +been compelled to take a very ordinary mount and be content: my vanity +would not have availed me, and my rough riding must have ceased. + +But I was chief ruler of the little world that lay encamped on the +beautiful banks of the Roubie d'Eaux; and probably life was easier to +all under me when I was satisfied and happy. I am not conscious of +having been mean and crabbed, or of favoring those who favored me to +the disadvantage of those who did not. I cannot recall an instance of +taking a bribe, even in the form of a pleasant smile. It was probably +easier, in the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and therefore +the laziest private ever ordered on extra duty could not lay his hand +on his heart and say he thinks it was done because he was not diligent +in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private mess. I had very early +in life been impressed with the consciousness that the way of the +transgressor is not easy; and as I wanted my way to be easy, I fell +into the way of not transgressing. + +This may not have been a very worthy motive to actuate the conduct of +a military commander; but perhaps it was as good as the average in our +Department of the Southwest, where, if the truth must be told, virtue +did not have it all its own way,--we were different from troops farther +east; and although it made me sometimes wince to have my conduct +ascribed to a noble uprightness of purpose, and showed that it would +really have been more honest not to have been quite so good, yet one +should perhaps be satisfied with having carried out one's intention of +treating every man in the command, officer or soldier, as nearly as he +should be treated as the interests of the public service, the good of +the individual himself, and one's own personal convenience would allow. + +Therefore, I say, I am not conscious of having favored those who +favored me, to the disadvantage of those who did not; neither do I +think that (at this stage of our acquaintance) the Grafs and Barons +and simple Mister Vons, of whom the command was so largely composed, +entertained the hope of personal benefit when they laid their +kindnesses at my accustomed feet, and tried to smooth my way of life. + +The headquarters' mess was generally well supplied,--and no questions +asked. My relations with most of the command were kindly, and it +apparently came to be understood--for German cavalrymen are not without +intelligence--that the happiness of the individual members of the +regiment depended rather on the happiness of its colonel than on any +direct bids for his favor. Be this as it may, I am not conscious of +having received such direct appeals, and I am entirely conscious of the +fullest measure of happiness that my circumstances would allow; not an +ecstasy of delight,--far from that,--but a comfortable sense of such +well-fed, well-paid, well-encamped, and pleasantly occupied virtue as +had left nothing undone that my subordinates could be made to do, and +did nothing that my conditions rendered difficult. My own good-humor +was equalled by that of the regiment at large, and the beetling sides +of the Ozark valleys nowhere sheltered a happier campful of jolly good +fellows than the Vierte Missouri Cavalry. + +We lay on the marvellous Roubie d'Eaux, at its source; no such +babbling brook as trickles from the hillside springs of New England, +but a roaring torrent, breaking at once from a fathomless vent in the +mountain. The processes of formation with these South Missouri rivers +are all hidden from sight, but, far away in the topmost caves of the +Ozark hills, the little streamlets trickle, and unite for a larger and +ever larger flow, gorging at last the huge caverns of the limestone +rock and bursting upon the world a full-grown river. Within our camp +this wonderful spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large +grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustaining community,--in +this, that we foraged our own corn and ground our own meal. With +similar industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, and fowl. + +The trees were bare with the November frosts, but the Indian summer had +come, and, day after day, it bathed every twig and spray with its amber +breath, warming all nature to a second life, and floating the remoter +hills far away into a hazy dreamland. + +But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was not content: I was +practically a dismounted cavalryman. Indeed, it would even have been +a pity to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as fell to my +lot, for good weight-carriers were rare in that section. I had paid a +very high price for a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, happily, +sold for a large advance), only to find him a year too young for his +work, and the regiment had been scoured in vain for an available mount. +I would have gone any reasonable length, even in injustice, to secure +such an animal as was needed. It was not easy to make up one's mind to +order a soldier to give up a horse he was fond of, and some soldier had +an especial fondness for all but the worthless brutes. My reluctance to +do this was perhaps not lessened by the fact that it was forbidden for +officers to ride United States horses. It finally became evident that +the chances were very small of ever finding a suitable animal, and I +even went out, on one shooting excursion, mounted on a mule. + +Up to this time the regiment had been all that could be asked, but +now it seemed to contain a thousand ill-tempered, sore-headed men. +The whole camp was awry. Some of the officers intimated that this was +all the fault of the adjutant; that the orders from headquarters had +lately been unusually harsh. This officer, when remonstrated with, +insisted that he had only transmitted the exact orders given him, and I +knew that my own action had always been reasonable,--on principle so. +Sometimes one almost wished himself back in civil life, away from such +constant annoyances. + +We had in the regiment one Captain Graf von Gluckmansklegge, who was +in many respects the most accomplished and skilful officer of us all. +His life had been passed in the profession, and he had only left his +position of major in a Bavarian Uhlan regiment to draw his sabre in +defence of "die Freiheit," in America, as senior captain of the Fourth +Missouri Cavalry. He was an officer of Asboth's selection, and had +many of that veteran's qualities. Tall, thin, of elegant figure, as +perfect a horseman as good natural advantages and good training could +make, and near-sighted, as a German cavalry officer must be, he was +as natty a fellow as ever wore an eye-glass and a blond mustache. He +was, at the same time, a man of keen worldly shrewdness and of quick +judgment,--qualities which, in his case, may have been sharpened by +long practice at those games of chance with which it has not been +unusual for European officers to preface their coming to draw their +sabres in defence of "die Freiheit" in America. + +With Gluckmansklegge I had always been on friendly terms. Among the +many lessons of his life he had learned none more thoroughly than +the best way to treat his commanding officer; and there was in his +manner an air of friendly deference and of cordial submission to rank, +accompanied by a degree of personal dignity, that elevated the colonel +rather than lowered the captain,--a manner that probably makes its way +with a newly fledged officer more surely than any other form of appeal +to his vanity. One sometimes saw a brand-new second-lieutenant made +happier than a king by this same touch of skill from an old soldier +in his company, whom he knew to be far his superior in all matters of +service. To be quite frank, if I have an element of snobbishness in my +own organization, it has been more nurtured into life by the military +deference of better soldiers than myself under my command than by all +other influences combined; thus modified do the best of us become in +the presence of unmerited praise. + +One evening Gluckmansklegge came to my tent door: "Escoose, Col-o-nel, +may I come?" And then, flinging out his eye-glass with a toss of the +head, he went on, with his imperfect English, to tell me he had just +learned from his lieutenant that I could find no horse to suit me; +that he had a good one strong enough for my weight, and, he thought, +even good enough for my needs. He had bought him in St. Louis from the +quartermaster, and would I oblige him by trying him? He was quite at my +service, at the government price, for he, being lighter, could easily +replace him. Did I remember his horse,--his "Fuchs"? "He is good, nice, +strong horse, an he yoomp!--yei!!" + +I did remember his horse, and I had seen him "yoomp." It had long +been a subject of regret to think that such an animal should be in +the regiment, yet not on my own picket-line. It was well known that +great prices had been offered for him, only to make Gluckmansklegge +fling his eye-glass loose, and grin in derision. "Fuchs is--how you +call?--'heelty,' an gesund; wenn you like, your Ike will go to my +company to bring him." I did like, and I had no scruples against +buying him for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Ike, a handsome +contraband, went early the next morning with a halter for the Fuchs, +and I was up bright and betimes to try him. + +I had only seen the horse before under the saddle, perfectly equipped, +perfectly bitted, and perfectly ridden, an almost ideal charger. There +was a great firebrand scar on the flat of each shoulder, where he had +been fired for a cough,--so said Gluckmansklegge;--others intimated +that this effaced a U. S. brand; but, except this, not a sign of a +blemish. In form, action, style, color (chestnut), and training he +was unexceptionably good, and might well excite the envy of all good +horsemen who saw him _under the saddle_. Knowing him so well, I went +rather eagerly to the picket-line to refresh myself with the added +sensation that the actual ownership of such a horse must give. + +There stood the new purchase,--a picture of the most abject misery; +his hind legs drawn under him; the immense muscles of his hips lying +flabby, like a cart-horse's; his head hanging to the level of his +knees, and his under-lip drooping; his eyes half shut, and his long +ears falling out sidewise like a sleepy mule's. I had bought him for a +safe price, and he would probably do to carry Ike and the saddle-bags; +but I felt as far as ever from a mount for myself, and went back to my +tent wiser and no happier than before. + +Presently Ike appeared with the coffee, and asked how I liked the new +horse. + +"Not at all." + +"Don't ye? well now, I reckon he's a consid'able of a hoss." + +I sent him to look at him again, and he came back with a very +thoughtful air,--evidently he had been impressed. At last he said, +"Well now, Colonel, I don't reckon you bought that hoss to look at him +on the picket-line, did ye?" + +"No, Ike, or he should be sold out very cheap; but he is not the +_kind_ of horse I supposed he was; he ought to work in a mule-team." + +"Well now, Colonel, mebbe he is; but you can't never tell nothin' about +a hoss till you get him between ye; and I reckon he's a consid'able of +a hoss, I reckon he is." + +Ike was wise, in his way, and his way was a very horsy one,--so my +hopes revived a little; and when Gluckmansklegge came up on a capital +little beast he had been handling (secretly to replace the Fuchs), +I had the new venture saddled and brought round. He came blundering +along, head and ears and tail down, and stood like a leathern horse +for me to mount, Gluckmansklegge dropping his eye-glass and grinning. +It was as well to find out first as last whether he had anything in +him or not, and I gathered up the curb-rein, which brought his head +into superb position and settled him well back upon his haunches; but, +as the movement had been made with dignity, I gave him both heels, +firmly,--when we went sailing!--how high I don't know, probably not +fifteen feet, but it seemed that, and covering a good stretch to the +front. It was the most enormous lift I had ever had, and (after an +appreciable time in the air), when he landed square on all four feet, +it was to strike a spanking, even trot, the bit playing loose in his +mouth, his head swaying easily with his step, and his tail flying. I +had never been more amazed in my life than by the wonderful grace and +agility of this splendid brute. As he trotted along with his high, +strong, and perfectly cadenced step, he showed in the swing of his head +all the satisfaction of an athlete turning, conscious, lightly away +from the footlights, after his especial _tour de force_. + +As Gluckmansklegge rode up, he said, "Well, Col-o-nel, how you like? +Nice pretty strong horse, what?" + +And then, his English failing him, he fell, through an attempt at +French, into German, in which his tongue was far more ready than my +ear. Still it was easy to gather enough to understand some of the +processes by which the animal's natural qualifications for his work had +been developed into such unusual accomplishments; and then he glided +into the complimentary assertion that no one but the colonel of his +regiment could ever have hoped to buy him at any price,--and of course +he did not consider it a sale. His original outlay, which he could +not afford to lose, had been reimbursed; but the true value of the +horse, his education, he was only too glad to give me. And then, the +pleasure of seeing his colonel suitably mounted, and the satisfaction +of seeing the horse properly ridden, really threw the obligation on +his side. Then, with his inimitable _naïveté_, he not only expressed, +but demonstrated, in every look and gesture, more delight in watching +our movements than he had felt in his own riding. "Praise a horseman +for his horsemanship, and he will ride to the Devil." Gluckmansklegge +(I did not suspect him of a desire for promotion) pointed to a strong +rail-fence near by, and suggested that the combination of man and +horse for that sort of thing was unusual. Whether it was a banter or +a compliment, it would have been impossible for any man who properly +esteemed himself and his riding to stop to consider. Turned toward the +fence, the Fuchs, checking his speed, seemed to creep toward it, as a +cat would, making it very uncertain what he proposed; but as he came +nearer to it, that willingness to leap that an accustomed rider will +always recognize communicated itself to me, and, with perfect judgment, +but with a force and spirit I had never hoped to meet in a horse of +this world, he carried me over the enormous height, and landed like a +deer, among the stumps and brush on the other side, and trotted gayly +away, athlete-like again, happier and prouder than ever horse was +before. + +Sitting that evening at my tent door, opposite the spring, bragging, +as the custom is, over the new purchase, it occurred to me that that +stream of water and that bit of horse-flesh had some qualities alike; +so I christened the latter "Roubie d'Eaux," which was soon translated +and shortened to "Ruby,"--a name henceforth familiar throughout the +regiment. + +To become my property was the only thing needed to make him perfect, +for Ike was born in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised all +the arts of the craft, up to the time when, being both jockey and "the +stakes" in a race he rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of +fortune, and became a body-servant. He was once confidential:-- + +"Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it was: I hadn't nothin' +ag'in my master,--he was a right nice man; but then, you see, he +drinked, and I didn't know what might become of me some time. Then, +you see, I knowed this man was stiddy, an' he'd jess done bought a +yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an' so,--don't ye see why?--well, +the hoss could have won the _race_ fast enough, but then, you see, my +master,--well, he was a drinkin' kind of a man, an' I thought I might +as well fix it. I knowed I was up for stakes, an' that's how I come to +Missouri; I ain't no Missouri man _born_, but that's how it was." + +He had become a good body-servant without forgetting his stable +training, and his horses bore testimony to his skill and fidelity. +After going through the routine of a well-regulated stable, he gave +each horse a half-hour's stroking with the flat of his hands, brisk and +invigorating; and the result was a more blooming condition and more +vigorous health than is often seen in horses on a campaign. The best +substitute that could be secured for a stable was a very heavy canvas +blanket, covering the horse from his ears to his tail and down to his +knees, water-proof and wind-proof. It was a standing entertainment with +the less dignified members of the mess to invite attention to Ruby +as he stood moping under this hideous housing. Certainly I never saw +him thus without thinking that his time had at last come, and that he +surely would never again be able to carry me creditably. Yet, as Ike's +devotion continued, he grew better and better, commanding daily more of +the respect and admiration of all who knew him, and attaching himself +to me more and more as we learned each other's ways. + +One never loves but one horse entirely, and so Ruby never quite filled +Vixen's place; but as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be +desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that had made me restless +and discontented, was now satisfied, and my duties became easy, and +my pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri warfare) entirely +agreeable. + +It was no slight addition to these sources of contentment to feel that +the command had at last awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and +was fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned Ruby for a fortnight +before the old cheerfulness and alacrity returned to the regiment, and +by the time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d'Eaux and went over to +Lebanon for the shooting season, the entire organization was in a most +satisfactory condition. + +Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war that we shall not +soon forget. To the best of my knowledge and belief, after Price had +retreated from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed Rebels +to be found north of the White River were local bands of jay-hawkers, +whose rebellion was mainly directed against the laws of property, +and the actuating motive of whose military movements was "nags." The +stealing of horses, with the consequent application of Lynch law, was +all that the native male population had to keep them out of mischief, +for weeks and weeks together. There was just enough of this sort of +armed lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of duty; not enough +seriously to interrupt our more regular avocations. + +Lebanon is on the high table-land of the Ozarks, in the heart of a +country flowing with prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully +productive of the more humdrum necessaries of life. Thanks to the +fleeing of Rebel families, we found comfortable quarters without too +severely oppressing those who had remained. What with moving the +court-house away from the public square, leaving the space free for a +parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for the town pump, we +kept our men from rusting; and when, after a time, we had established +a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious military prison, Lebanon +was as complete and well-ordered a station as could be found in +South Missouri. I had the questionable honor and the unquestionable +comfort of holding its command from the end of January to the end of +April,--three dreamy months, that seem now to have been passed in a +shooting-lodge, under favorable auspices. + +As a legacy of the "Hundred Days," when the "Fourth Missouri" was the +"Frémont Hussars," we had an able-bodied and extremely well-selected +regimental band, that soothed our over-tasked senses when we came in +from our work in the fields, gathering where our enemies had sown, and +(under the suspended game-laws of the State) shooting grouse and quail +in the early spring. + +Naturally, most of my official duties were such as could be performed +by an extremely well-regulated adjutant; and I usually passed his busy +half-hour (in private) with Ruby. There had been an impetuosity about +the horse at the outset which it was desirable to quell, and I rode him +regularly in a nicely fenced kitchen-garden, where, after he learned +that fences are not always intended for leaping-bars, he fell slowly +into the routine of the training-school, and easily acquired a perfect +self-command and _aplomb_ that enabled him, under all circumstances, to +await his rider's instructions. + +I wish that less account had been made, in the writings of those +whose horse-stories have preceded mine, of the specified feats of +their animals. The _rôle_ of a horse's performances is necessarily +limited, and it is probably impossible for a well-constituted mind to +recite the simple story of his deeds without seeming to draw largely +on the imagination. Consequently, an unexaggerated account of what +Ruby actually did (and I cannot bring my mind to an embellishment of +the truth) would hardly interest a public whose fancy has been thus +pampered and spoiled. But for this, these pages could be filled with +instances of his strength and agility that would almost tax belief. +Suffice it to say that while, like most good high leapers, he would +cover but a moderate breadth of water, he would get over anything +reasonable in the shape of a fence that could be found about the town. + +I was a heavy weight,--riding nearly two hundred pounds,--and +necessarily rode with judgment. If there was a low place in a fence, +we never chose a high one; but, at the same time, if there were no +low places, we took the best we could find. Ruby seemed to know that +the two of us were solid enough to break through any ordinary pile of +rails, and what we could not jump over we jumped _at_. More than once +did he carry away the top rail of a snake fence with his knees, and +land fair and square on the other side; but it was a very high leap +that made this necessary. + +He would jump on to the porch of the quartermaster's office (approached +from the ground by four steps), and then jump over the hand-rail and +land on the ground below again, almost wagging his tail with delight at +the feat. + +His ear was quicker than mine for the peeping of quail and for the +drumming of grouse, and, in the absence of a good dog, there is no +doubt that my pot (for which alone I have been said to hunt) was better +filled by reason of his intelligence in the field, and because he would +allow one to shoot from the saddle. The birds never mistook me for a +sportsman until I was quite in among them, blazing away. + +In coming home from the prairie, we generally rode round by the way of +a certain sunken garden that stood a couple of feet below the level +of the road. A five-foot picket-fence that stood at the roadside had +fallen over toward the garden, so that its top was hardly four feet +higher than the road. This made the most satisfactory leap we ever +took,--the long, sailing descent, and the safe landing on sandy loam, +satisfied so completely one's prudent love of danger. + +I think I missed this leap more than anything at Lebanon when, finally, +we set out for Arkansas. + +We made our first considerable halt early in May, at Batesville, +on the White River,--a lovely, rose-grown village, carrying, in the +neatly kept home of its New England secessionists, evidence that +they remembered their native land, where, in their day, before the +age of railroads, the "village" flourished in all its freshness and +simplicity. It had now acquired the picturesque dilapidation, in the +manner of fences and gates and defective window-panes, that marked +the Southern domicile during the war. Ruby had strained himself quite +seriously during the march, and had been left to come on slowly with +the quartermaster's train. This left me quite free for the social life, +such as it was, to which we--the only available men that had been seen +there since Price gathered his forces at Springfield--were welcomed +with a reserved cordiality. Our facilities for forming a correct +opinion of society were not especially good, but I fancied I should +have passed my time to as good advantage in the saddle. + +We soon left for an active expedition in the direction of Little Rock, +of which it is only necessary to say, here, that it lasted about a +month, and brought the writer acquainted with some very unsatisfactory +horses,--a fact which heightened his pleasure, on striking the White +River bottom again, at finding that Ruby had been brought over the +ferry to meet him. Tired as I was, I took a glorious brisk trot through +the Canebrake Road, with a couple of leaps over fallen trees, that +revived the old emotions and made a man of me again. + +While we lay at Batesville we were unusually active in the matter of +drill and reorganization; and this, with our engagements in the town, +kept us too busy for much recreation; but Ludlow and I managed to work +in a daily swim in the White River, with old saddles on our horses, +and scant clothing on our persons. Talk of aquatic sports! there is +no royal bath without a plucky horse to assist; and a swim across +the swift current at Batesville, with a horse like Ruby snorting and +straining at every stroke, belittled even the leaping at Lebanon. + +From Batesville we commenced our memorable march to join the fleet +that had just passed Memphis, following down the left bank of the river +to Augusta, and then striking across the cotton country to Helena,--a +march on which we enjoyed the rarest picturesqueness of plantation +life, and suffered enough from heat and hunger and thirst, and +stifling, golden dust to more than pay for it. + +Helena was a pestiferous swamp, worth more than an active campaign to +our enemies, filling our hospitals, and furrowing the levee bank with +graves. It was too hot for much drilling, and we kept our better horses +in order by daybreak races. With the local fever feeling its way into +my veins, I was too listless to care much for any diversion; but Ike +came to me one evening to say that he "reckoned" Ruby was as good a +horse as anybody had in the "camps," and he might as well take a hand +in the games. I told him I had no objection to his being run, if he +could find a suitable boy, but that both he and I were too heavy for +race-riding. + +"I don't weigh only about a hundred and a half," said the ambitious man. + +"Well, suppose you don't, that is ten pounds too much." + +"I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter 'n he is if he knows how +to ride; anyhow, if Rube can't skin anything around here, I don't know +nothin' about horses." + +"Ike, did you ever run that horse?" + +"Well, Colonel, now you ask me, I did jest give Dwight's darkey a +little brush once." + +Conquering my indignation and my scruples, I went over, just for the +honor of the establishment, and made up a race for the next day. + +I have seen crack race-horses in my time, but I never saw more +artistic riding nor more capital running than that summer morning on +the River Road at Helena, just as the sun began to gild the muddy +Mississippi. The satisfaction of this conquest, and the activity with +which new engagements were offered by ambitious lieutenants, who little +knew the stuff my man and horse were made of, kept off my fever for +some weeks; but I steadily declined all opportunity of racing with +horses outside of our command, for I had been reared in a school of +Puritan severity, and had never quite overcome my convictions against +the public turf. A corporal of an "Injeanny rege_ment_" took occasion +to crow lustily--so I heard--because "one of them French coveys" was +afraid to run him a quarter for five dollars. It appeared that a +cleanly European was always supposed by this gentry to be French; and +in the army at large I was better known by the company I kept than by +my New England characteristics. + +Naturally, Ike thought that, while Ruby was engaged in this more +legitimate occupation, he ought not to be ridden for mere pleasure; +and it was only when a visitor was to be entertained, or when I went +out on plea of duty, that I could steal an opportunity to leap him; +but he took one fence that fairly did him credit. It was a snake fence +measuring four feet and two inches, with a deep ditch on each side cut +close to the projecting angles of the rails. Ruby carried me over the +first ditch into the angle between the rails, then over the fence into +the narrow space on the other side, and then over the second ditch into +the field. It was the most perfect combination of skill, strength, and +judgment that was possible to horse-flesh; and I think Gluckmansklegge, +who was with me and had suggested the venture, despaired of ever +getting his promotion by any fair means, when we rejoined him by the +return leap and rode safely to camp. + +Unhappily, even entire satisfaction with one's horse is powerless to +ward off such malaria as that of the camp at Helena, and in due time I +fell ill with the fever. The horse was turned over to the care of the +quartermaster, and Ike and I came wearily home on sick-leave. + +Late in the autumn we returned to St. Louis, where one of the German +officers told me that the regiment had joined Davidson's army at "Pilot +K-nopp"; and after the Hun, our new adjutant, arrived from the East, we +set out for headquarters, and took command of the cavalry brigade of +Davidson's army. + +From November until January we were tossed about from post to post, +wearing out our horses, wearying our men, and accomplishing absolutely +nothing of value beyond the destruction of an enormous amount of +the rough forage, which would otherwise have been used to feed +"nags,"--stolen or to be stolen,--and would have thus tended to foster +the prevailing vice of the region. + +At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at Thomasville,--a good +twelve miles away from Davidson,--and were at rest; it was only those +near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, and he was now encamped +with the infantry. + +Pleasant as we found it with our little duty and much sport, I can +never look back to Thomasville without sorrow. To say that I had +acquired a tenderness for Ruby would not be strictly just; but I felt +for him all the respect and admiration and fondness that is possible +short of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only one; but Ruby was +my hero, and I depended on him for my duty and my pleasure more than I +knew. With his full measure of intelligence he had learned exactly his +_rôle_, and he was always eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the +world what a remarkably fine horse I had,--being himself conscious, not +only of his unusual virtues, but, no less, of the praise they elicited. + +One sunny Southern day, toward the end of January, Davidson had ridden +over, with his following, to dine with us; and as we were sitting +before our mess-tent, mellow with after-dinner talk of our guns and +our dogs and our horses, the General was good enough to remember that +he had seen me riding a chestnut that he thought much too finely bred +for field work: had I been able to keep him? Then Ruby was discussed, +and all his successes were recalled, first by one friend and then by +another, until Davidson needed ocular proof of our truthfulness. + +Ike had taken the hint, and brought Ruby round in due time,--glistening +like gold in the slanting rays of the setting sun, but blundering along +with his head down and ears drooping in his old, dismal way. + +"O no, I don't mean that horse," said Davidson; "I mean a very +high-strung horse I have seen you ride on the march." + +"Very well, General, that is the animal; he keeps his strings loose +when he is not at his work." + +"No, I have seen you riding a far better horse than that; I am too old +a cavalryman to be caught by such chaff." + +To the great glee of the Hun, whose faith in Ruby was unbounded, +Davidson's whole staff turned the laugh on me for trying to deceive the +General just because he had been dining. + +I mounted, and started off with one of Ruby's enormous lifts, that +brought the whole company to their feet. It was the supreme moment with +him. Full of consciousness, as though he knew the opportunity would +never come again, and quivering in anticipation of his triumph, he was +yet true to his training, and held himself subject to my least impulse. + +We had lain in our camp for more than a week, and there was not a +vestige left of the recently substantial fences,--only the suggestive +and conspicuous gateways that stood to mark the march of our armies +from the Chesapeake to the Indian Nation. But Ruby built fences in his +imagination higher than any he had ever faced, and cleared them without +a scratch, landing close as though the Helena ditch were still to be +taken. + +It would take long to tell all he did and how perfectly he did it; he +went back at last to his canvas blanket, loaded with adulation, and as +happy as it is given a horse to be. + +In his leaping he had started a shoe, and Ike took him in the morning +to the smith (who had taken possession of an actual forge), to have it +reset. A moment later, the Hun cried, "My God, Colonel, look at Ruby!" + +Hobbling along with one hind foot drawn up with pain, he was making +his last mournful march, and we laid him that day to rest,--as true a +friend and as faithful a fellow as ever wore a chestnut coat. + +He had reared in the shop, parted his halter, and fallen under a +bench, breaking his thigh far up above the stifle. + + + + +WETTSTEIN. + + +It is a pleasant thing to be a colonel of cavalry in active +field-service. There are circumstances of authority and responsibility +that fan the latent spark of barbarism which, however dull, glows in +all our breasts, and which generations of republican civilization +have been powerless to quench. We may not have confessed it even +to ourselves; but on looking back to the years of the war, we +must recognize many things that patted our vanity greatly on the +back,--things so different from all the dull routine of equality +and fraternity of home, that those four years seem to belong to a +dreamland, over which the haze of the life before them and of the +life after them draws a misty veil. Equality and Fraternity! a pretty +sentiment, yes, and full of sensible and kindly regard for all mankind, +and full of hope for the men who are to come after us; but Superiority +and Fraternity! who shall tell all the secret emotions this implies? To +be the head of the brotherhood, with the unremitted clank of a guard's +empty scabbard trailing before one's tent-door day and night; with the +standard of the regiment proclaiming the house of chief authority; +with the respectful salute of all passers, and the natural obedience +of all members of the command; with the shade of deference that even +comrades show to superior rank; and with that just sufficient check +upon coarseness during the jovial bouts of the headquarters' mess, +making them not less genial, but void of all offence,--living in this +atmosphere, one almost feels the breath of feudal days coming modified +through the long tempestuous ages to touch his cheek, whispering to him +that the savage instinct of the sires has not been, and never will be, +quite civilized out of the sons. And then the thousand men, and the +yearly million that they cost, while they fill the cup of the colonel's +responsibility (sometimes to overflowing), and give him many heavy +trials,--they are his own men; their usefulness is almost of his own +creation, and their renown is his highest glory. + +I may not depict the feelings of others; but I find in the recollection +of my own service--as succeeding years dull its details and cast the +nimbus of distance about it--the source of emotions which differ widely +from those to which our modern life has schooled us. + +One of the colonel's constant attendants is the chief bugler, or, +as he is called in hussar Dutch, the "Stabstrompaytr"; mine was the +prince of Trompaytrs, and his name was Wettstein. He was a Swiss, whose +native language was a mixture of guttural French and mincing German. +English was an impossible field to him. He had learned to say "yes" and +"matches"; but not one other of our words could he ever lay his tongue +to, except the universal "damn." But for his bugle and his little gray +mare, I should never have had occasion to know his worth. Music filled +every pore of his Alpine soul, and his wonderful Swiss "Retreat" must +ring to this day in the memory of every man of the regiment whose +thoughts turn again to the romantic campaign of South Missouri. What +with other buglers was a matter of routine training was with him an +inspiration. All knew well enough the meaning of the commands that +the company trumpets stammered or blared forth; but when they rang +from Wettstein's horn, they carried with them a _vim_ and energy that +secured their prompt execution; and his note in the wild Ozark Hills +would mark the headquarters of the "Vierte Missouri" for miles around. +From a hill-top, half a mile in advance of the marching command, I +have turned the regiment into its camping-ground and dismounted it in +perfect order by the melodious telegraphy of Wettstein's brazen lips +alone. + +That other chief attribute of his, Klitschka, his little beast, +stayed longer with me than his bugle did, and is hardly less identified +with the varied reminiscences of my army life. I bought her, as a +prize, with the original mount of the regiment, in Frémont's time, +and was mildly informed by that officer that I must be careful how +I accepted many such animals from the contractor, though a few for +the smaller men might answer. Asboth, Frémont's chief of staff, with +a scornful rolling up of his cataract of a mustache, and a shrug of +his broad, thin shoulders, said, "Whyfor you buy such horses? What +your bugler ride, it is not a horse, it is a cat." His remark was not +intended as a question, and it ended the conversation. Months after +that, he eagerly begged for the nine-lived Klitschka for one of his +orderlies; being refused him, she remained good to the end. She was an +animal that defied every rule by which casual observers test the merit +of a horse; but analytically considered she was nearly perfect. Better +legs, a better body, and a better head, it is rare to see, than she +had. But she lacked the arched neck and the proud step that she needed +all the more because of her small size. By no means showy in figure +or in action, it took a second look to see her perfect fitness for +her work. Her color was iron-gray, and no iron could be tougher than +she was; while her full, prominent eye and ample brain-room, and her +quick paper-thin ear, told of courage and intelligence that made her +invaluable throughout four years of hard and often dangerous service. +Like many other ill-favored little people, she was very lovable, and +Wettstein loved her like a woman. He would never hesitate to relax +those strict rules of conduct by which German cavalrymen are supposed +to govern themselves, if it was a question of stealing forage for +Klitschka; and he was (amiable fellow!) never so happy as when, from a +scanty supply in the country, he had taken enough oat-sheaves to bed +her in and almost cover her up, while other horses of the command must +go hungry; and was never so shaken in his regard for me as when I made +him give up all but double rations for her. + +Double rations she often earned, for Wettstein was a heavy youth, +with a constitutional passion for baggage out of all proportion to +his means of transportation. Mounted for the march, he was an odd +sight. Little Klitschka's back, with his immense rolls of blankets and +clothing before and behind, looked like a dromedary's. Planted between +the humps, straight as a gun-barrel, the brightest of bugles suspended +across his back by its tasselled yellow braid, slashed like a harlequin +over the breast, his arms chevroned with gorgeous gold,--Wettstein, +with his cap-front turned up so as to let the sun fall full on his +frank blue eyes and his resolute blond mustache, was the very picture +of a cavalry bugler in active campaign. + +Smoking, gabbling, singing, rollicking, from morning until night, +and still on until morning again if need be, he never lost spirit nor +temper. He seemed to absorb sunshine enough during the day to keep +every one bright around him all night. When at last his bugle had been +stilled forever, we long missed the cheer of his indomitable gayety; +wearying service became more irksome than while his bubbling mirth had +tempered its dulness; and even little Klitschka, although she remained +an example of steady pluck, had never so potent an influence as while +he had put his own unfailing mettle into her heels. After she was +bequeathed to me, she was always most useful, but never so gay and +frisky as while she carried her own devoted groom. No day was too long +for her and no road too heavy; her brisk trot knew no failing, but she +refused ever again to form the personal attachment that had sealed her +and Wettstein to each other. + +The two of them together, like the fabled Centaur, made the complete +creature. He with the hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine +race, and she with her veins full of the mustang blood of the Rocky +Mountains, were fitted to each other as almost never were horse and +rider before. Their performances were astonishing. In addition to a +constant attendance on his commander (who, riding without baggage, +and of no heavier person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged out +three good horses between one morning and the next), the Trompaytr +yet volunteered for all sorts of extra service,--carried messages +over miles of bad road to the general's camp, gave riding-lessons and +music-lessons to the company buglers, and then--fear of the guard-house +and fear of capture always unheeded--he never missed an opportunity for +the most hazardous and most laborious foraging. + +He was a thorough soldier,--always "for duty," always cleanly, always +handsome and cheery, and heedlessly brave. If detected in a fault +(and he was, as I have hinted, an incorrigible forager), he took +his punishment like a man, and stole milk for himself or fodder for +Klitschka at the next convenient (or inconvenient) opportunity, with an +imperturbability that no punishment could reach. + +Once, when supplies were short, he sent me, from the guard-house where +he had been confined for getting them, a dozen bundles of corn-blades +for my horses; not as a bribe, but because he would not allow the +incidents of discipline to disturb our friendly relations; and in the +matter of fodder in scarce times he held me as a helpless pensioner, +dependent on his bounty. When in arrest by my order, his "Pon chour, +Herr Oberist," was as cordial and happy as when he strolled free past +my tent. Altogether, I never saw his like before or since. The good +fortune to get such a bugle, such a soldier, and such a mount combined, +comes but once in the lifetime of the luckiest officer. It was only +his uncouth tongue that kept him from being pilfered from me by every +general who had the power to "detail" him to his own headquarters. + +So universal, by the way, was this petty vice of commanding officers, +that one was never safe until he adopted the plan, in selecting a +staff officer, of securing his promise to resign from the service, +point-blank, if ordered to other duty, and more than one offended +general has been made indignant by this policy. With Wettstein, I felt +perfectly easy, for the average capacity of brigadier-generals stopped +far short of the analysis of his dual jargon. Several tried him for +a day, but they found that his comprehension was no better than his +speech, and that his manifest ability was a sealed book to them. He +always came home by nightfall with a chuckle, and "Le général versteht +mich nicht. Je blase 'marrrsch' für 'halt.'" + +So it was that, for a couple of years, this trusty fellow trotted at +my heels through rain and shine, by day and by night, with his face +full of glee, and his well-filled canteen at the service of our little +staff. Mud and mire, ditches and fences, were all one to him and +Klitschka; and in Vix's day they followed her lead over many a spot +that the others had to take by flank movement. + +Our work in Missouri was but little more than the work of subsistence. +We were a part of an army too large for any Rebel force in that region +to attack, and too unwieldy to pursue guerillas with much effect. But +now and then we made a little scout that varied our otherwise dull +lives; and at such times Wettstein always attached himself to the most +dangerous patrolling party, and Klitschka was usually the first to +bring back news of the trifling encounters. + +At last, in February, 1863, when we had lain for a month in delicious +idleness in the heart of a rich country, literally flowing with +poultry and corn-fodder, I, being then in command of a division of +cavalry, received an order from Davidson to select six hundred of the +best-mounted of my men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruiting, +ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White River in Arkansas. His +main body, three thousand five hundred strong, lay in the "Oil-Trough +Bottom," on the other side of the river. A brigade of Western infantry +was to march as far as Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if +necessary; though we afterward found that at the only moment when +we might have had grave occasion to depend on them, they were, with +an inconsistency that was not the least attribute of our commanding +officer, withdrawn without notice to us. + +We were to go in light marching order, carrying only the necessary +clothing, and rations of salt and coffee. Wettstein's ideas of +lightness differing from mine, I had to use some authority to rid poor +Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, and such trash; and after all, +the rascal had, under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, +smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weighing some fifteen pounds, +into one of his rolls. Eager men, too, whose horses were out of trim, +had to be discarded, and the whole detail to be thoroughly overhauled. +But the jovial anticipation of seeing Batesville once more--a New +England village planted on a charming hillside in Arkansas, where we +had sojourned with Curtis the summer before, and where we all had the +pleasant acquaintance that even an enemy makes in a town from which +the native men have long been gone, and only the women remain--made +the work of preparation go smoothly, and long before dawn Wettstein's +bugle summoned the details from the several camps. There was a ringing +joyousness in his call, that spoke of the cosey, roaring fire of a +certain Batesville kitchen to which his bright face and his well-filled +haversack had long ago made him welcome, and prospective feasting gave +an added trill to his blast. + +The little detachments trotted gayly into line, officers were assigned +for special duty, temporary divisions were told off, and a working +organization was soon completed. Before the sun was up, such a Ra, +t't'ta, t't'ta, _t't'ta_! as South Missouri had never heard before, +broke the line by twos from the right, and we were off for a promising +trip. Marmaduke we knew of old, and personal cowardice would have +deterred no one from joining our party, for he could be reached from +our stronger army only by a complete surprise; and in a country where +every woman and child (white, I mean) was his friend and our enemy, a +surprise, over ninety miles of bad roads, seemed out of the question. +Indeed, before we had made a half of the distance, one of his flying +scouts told a negro woman by the roadside, as he checked his run to +water his horse, "There's a hell's-mint o' Yanks a comin' over the +mountain, and I must git to Marmyjuke"; and to Marmaduke he "got," half +a day ahead of us, only to be laughed at for a coward who had been +frightened by a foraging-party. + +The second night brought us to Evening Shade, a little village where +one Captain Smith was raising a company. They had all gone, hours ahead +of us, but had left their supplies and their fires behind them, and +these, with the aid of a grist-mill (for which an Illinois regiment +furnished a miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At daybreak we set out +for our last day's march, still supposing that Marmaduke's men would +put the river between themselves and us before night, but confident +of comfortable quarters at Batesville. A few miles out, we began to +pick up Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rattling through the +woods, from a house to which he had been allowed to go for milk, with +the story of a sick officer lodged there. Following his lead with a +surgeon and a small escort, I found the captain of the Evening Shade +company lying in a raging fever, with which he had found it impossible +to ride, and nearly dead with terror lest we should hang him at once. +His really beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven his recruiting +labors, was in tears over his impending fate. While we were talking +with him concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with a royal pair +of Mexican spurs to save his life, evidently thinking from his display +of finery that he was a major-general at the very least. The kind +fellow buckled the spurs on my heels, and they evidently gave me new +consequence in his eyes as we rode on our way. + +Presently we struck a party of about twenty-five, under a Captain +Mosby, who had been making a circuit after conscripts and had had no +news of us. After a running fight, during which there occurred some +casualties on the other side, we captured the survivors of the party +and sent them to the rear. + +From midday on, we heard rumors of a sally in strong force from +Batesville, and were compelled to move cautiously,--straggling parties +of Rebel scouts serving to give credibility to the story. At sunset +we were within six miles of the town; and, halting in the deep snow +of a large farm-yard, I sent a picked party of thirty, under Rosa, to +secure the ferry, if possible,--Wettstein and Klitschka accompanying to +bring back word of the result. After two anxious hours, he came into +camp with a note from Rosa: "Marmaduke is over the river and has the +ferry-boat with him; three of his men killed. Wettstein did bravely." +The poor fellow had a bad cut on his arm and was in pain, but not a +moment would he give himself until brave little Klitschka, smothered in +bright straw, was filling herself from the smuggled bag of corn. Then +he came to the surgeon and had his wounded arm duly dressed. Although +evidently suffering and weak from loss of blood, he gave us a cheering +account of Rosa's fight, and dwelt fondly on the supper he had bespoken +for us at good Mrs. ----'s house, where we had quartered in the summer. +At nine o'clock, after Klitschka had fed and the patrols had come in, +we set out on our march. It was still snowing hard, and even the dead +men that marked Rosa's recent ride were fast being shrouded in purest +white. One of them Wettstein pointed out as the man with whom he had +crossed sabres, and he asked permission to stay with the party detailed +to bury him, for he had been a "braff homme." With his tender sympathy +for friend or foe, he was a truer mourner than a dead soldier often +gets from the ranks of his enemy. Even this sad ride came to an end, as +all things must, and at the edge of the town soldierly Rosa stood, to +report that the pickets were posted and our quarters ready. Giving him +a fresh detail to relieve his pickets, and asking his company at our +midnight supper, we pushed on to our chosen house. Here we found all +in order, save that the young lady of the family had so hastily put on +the jacket bearing the U. S. buttons of her last summer's conquests, +that she failed quite to conceal the C. S. buttons on a prettier one +under it. She and her mother scolded us for driving the Rebel beaux +from town, when there was to have been a grand farewell ball only the +next night; but they seemed in no wise impressed with regret for the +friends who had been killed and wounded in the chase. It turned out +that Marmaduke had grown tired of reports that we were marching on him +in force, and would not believe it now until his own men rode into +town at nightfall with the marks of Rosa's sabres on their heads. The +place had been filled with the officers of his command, and he with +them, come for their parting flirtations before the ball. They were to +march to Little Rock, and their men were nearly all collected in the +"Bottom," over the river. On this sudden proof of the attack, they made +a stampede for the flat-boat of the rope-ferry, and nearly sunk it by +over-crowding, the hindmost men cutting the rope and swimming their +horses across the wintry torrent. + +We had full possession of the town, and were little disturbed by +the dropping shots from the Rebel side. We visited on our unfaithful +friends such punishment as enforced hospitality could compass, and, +on the whole, we hadn't a bad "time." The morning after our arrival +we levied such contributions of supplies as were necessary for our +return march, and, in order that the return might not look like a +retreat, we loaded two wagons with hogsheads of sugar (which would be +welcome in Davidson's commissariat), and made every arrangement for the +establishment of the camping of the whole army in the country back of +the town; for our force was so small that, with our tired horses, it +would have been imprudent to turn our backs to Marmaduke's little army, +if he supposed us to be alone. + +Keeping the town well picketed and making much show of laying out an +encampment, we started the teams and the main body of the command at +nightfall, holding back a hundred men for a cover until a later hour. + +During the evening the Rebels on the south side of the river became +suspiciously quiet, and there was, apparently, some new movement on +foot. The only possible chance for an attack was by Magnus's ferry, +ten miles below, where the boat was so small and the river so wide +that not more than twenty horses could be crossed in an hour, and our +sharpshooters were sufficient to prevent the removal of the Batesville +boat to that point. Still it was important to know what was going on, +and especially important to prevent even a scouting-party of the enemy +from harassing the rear of our tired column by the shorter road from +Magnus's to Evening Shade; and I started at nine o'clock (when the moon +rose), with twenty men, to go round that way, directing the remainder +of the rear-guard to follow the main body at midnight. + +The ride to Magnus's was without other adventure than bad roads and +almost impassable bayous always entail, and in a few hours we reached +the plantation, where I had a former ally in an old negro who had done +us good service during Curtis's campaign. He said that the Rebels had +left the Bottom, and were going to Little Rock, but, as a precaution +he took a canoe and crossed over to the house of another negro on the +south bank, and returned with a confirmation of his opinion. As it +was very important to know whether the only enemy of Davidson's army +had really withdrawn from his front, and, as this might be definitely +learned through the assistance of an old scout who lived in the edge of +the Bottom, it seemed best to cross the river to give him instructions +for his work. + +I took Ruby, my best horse. He was a sure reliance under all +circumstances, and he and I knew each other perfectly. We were at home +in every foot-path in the country, having had many a summer's swim in +this very river; and now, accompanied only by Wettstein and Klitschka, +I went on to the ferry-boat. It was what is known as a "swing" ferry. A +stout rope is stretched between trees on the opposite shores, and the +boat is attached to a couple of pulleys arranged to traverse the length +of this rope. The attaching cords--one at each end of the up-stream +side of the boat--are long enough to allow it to swing some rods down +the stream; by shortening one of the ropes and lengthening the other, +the boat is placed at an angle with the swift current, which propels it +toward one shore or the other, the pulleys keeping pace in their course +on the main rope. + +The main rope was rough from long use, and often the pulleys would +halt in their course, until the pull of the advancing boat dragged them +free. Then the rickety craft, shivering from end to end, would make a +rapid shoot, until another defective place in the rope brought her to +again. At each vibration, the horses nearly lost their feet, and the +surging stream almost sent its muddy water over the gunwale. It was a +long and anxious trip,--the rotten guy-rope hardly serving to hold us +to our course. At last we reached the shore and rode on to Craikill's +house in the Bottom. He had been "conscripted," and forced to go with +the army, so his wife told us, and she had seen him march with the rest +on the Fairview Road for Little Rock. The last bird had flown, and we +could safely march back at our leisure. + +Wettstein filled his pipe, emptied his haversack for the benefit of +Craikill's hungry children, and, cheery as ever, followed me to the +ferry. On the way over he had been as still as a mouse, for he was too +old a soldier to give an enemy any sign of our approach. But, as we +set out on the return trip, in the cold moonlight, he sang the "Ranz +des Vaches," fondled his little mare, and, unmindful of his wounded +arm, gave way to the flow of spirits that the past few days' duty had +checked. I never knew him more gay and delightful; and, as we stood +leaning on our saddles and chatting together, I congratulated myself +upon the possession of such a perpetual sunbeam. + +We were barely half-way across, when, suddenly, coming out of the +darkness, riding half hidden in the boiling, whirling tide, a huge +floating tree struck the boat with a thud that parted the rotten +guy-rope, and carried us floating down the stream. For a moment there +seemed no danger, but a branch of the tree had caught the corner of the +boat, and the pulleys had become entangled in the rope. When this had +been drawn to its full length, and the tree felt the strain, the boat +dipped to the current, filled, and sank under our feet. I called to +Wettstein to take Klitschka by the tail, but it was too late; he had +grasped the saddle with the desperation of a drowning man, and made +her fairly helpless. The boat soon passed from under us, and, relieved +of our weight, came to the surface at our side; but, bringing the rope +against poor Wettstein's wounded arm, it tore loose his hold, and soon +went down again in the eddy, and Klitschka was free. + +"Adieu, Herr Oberist; tenez Klitschka pour vous! Adieu!" And that +happy, honest face sank almost within reach of me. The weight of his +arms prevented his rising again, and only an angry eddy, glistening in +the moonlight, marked his turbid grave. + +Ruby, snorting, and struggling hard with the current, pulled me safely +to the shore, and little Klitschka followed as well as her loaded +saddle would permit. For the moment, with my own life and the lives of +two tried companions to care for, I thought of nothing else; but as I +sat drying at Magnus's roaring hearth the direst desolation overwhelmed +me. Very far from home,--far even from the home-like surroundings of +my own camp,--I had clung to this devoted fellow as a part of myself. +He was a proven friend; with him I never lacked the sympathy that, in +the army at least, is born of constant companionship, and he filled a +place in my life that dearer friends at home might not find. He was the +one comrade whose heart, I was sure, was filled only with unquestioning +love for me. Henceforth I must look for support to companions who saw +me as I was, who knew my faults and my weaknesses, and whose kind +regard was tempered with criticism. The one love that was blind, that +took me for better or for worse, had been, in an instant, torn from my +life, and I was more sad than I can tell. + +But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened party, we mounted, to join the +main command; and, as we rode on through the rest of that desolate +night, no word passed to tell the gloom that each man felt. + +The petty distinctions of earthly rank were swallowed up in a feeling +of true brotherhood, and Wettstein--promoted now--rode at our head as a +worthy leader, showing the way to a faithful performance of all duty, +and a kindly and cheerful bearing of all life's burdens; and, through +the long and trying campaigns that followed, more than one of us was +the better soldier for the lesson his soldierly life had taught. + + + + +CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. + + +Union City was not a city at all; it was hardly a village, and +"Disunion" would have been its fairer designation. It lay in the woods +at the crossing of two railroads, one pointing toward Mobile and one +toward Memphis, but neither leading anywhere. There was a tradition +that trains had once been run upon each, but many bridges had had to be +rebuilt to make the short line to Columbus passable, and the rest was +ruin; for Forrest had been there with his cavalry. + +The land was just so much raised above the broad swamp of Northwestern +Tennessee that whiskey with men to drink it, and a Methodist Church +South with people to attend it, were possible. With these meagre +facilities for life, and the vague inducement of a railroad-crossing. +Union City had struggled into an amphibious subsistence; but it had +never thriven, and its corner-lots had but feebly responded to the +hopes of its projectors. + +For many a mile around, the forests and swamps were well-nigh +impenetrable, and the occasional clearings were but desolate oases +in the waste of marsh and fallen timber. The roads were wood-trails +leading nowhere in particular, and all marked a region of the most +scanty and unfulfilled promise. + +General Asboth, seeing (by the map) that it commanded two lines of +railroad, sent us to occupy this strategic point, and we gradually +accumulated to the number of twenty-five hundred cavalry and four +thousand infantry, drawing our regular supplies from Columbus; +and occupying our time with a happy round of drills, inspections, +horse-races, cock-fights, and poker. It was not an elevating existence, +but it was charmingly idle, and we passed the serene and lovely autumn +of 1863 in a military dreamland, where nothing ever came to disturb +our quiet, or to mar our repose with the realities of war. We built +ourselves houses, we shot game for our tables, we made egg-nog for our +evenings, and we were happy. The charm of camp-life--with just enough +of occupation and responsibility, and with enough improvement in the +troops for a reward--made even this wilderness enjoyable. I had the +advantage of seniority and command, and the physical comforts that +naturally gravitate toward a commanding officer did not fail me. + +My house, built with the mouse-colored logs of a Rebel block-house, +covered with the roof of the post-office, and floored and ceiled with +the smoke-mellowed lining of the Methodist church, was broad and low +and snug. Its windows, also taken from the sanctuary in question, were +set on their sides, and gave to each of the two rooms wide, low-browed +outlooks into the woods and over the drill-ground, that would have made +worse quarters agreeable. The bricks of an abandoned domestic fireside +built a spacious fireplace across an angle of each of the rooms, and +the clay of the locality plastered all our chinks "to keep the wind +away." I have seen more pretentious houses and more costly, but never +one in which three chosen spirits--I had, in a happy moment, selected +Voisin and the Hun for my staff--got more that is worth the getting +out of the simple and virtuous life of a cavalry headquarters. We were +at peace with all the world (Forrest was in Mississippi), our pay +was regular, our rations were ample,--and Asboth had been ordered to +Pensacola. + +Old A. J., his successor,--every inch a soldier, and a good fellow +to the very core,--used sometimes to roll up his camp mattress and +run down from Columbus for an inspection. Those are marked days in +our memories. He was a lynx in the field, and wry buttoning roused +him to articulate wrath; but he unbuckled his sabre at the door, and +brought only geniality within,--a mellow geniality that warmed to the +influences of our modest hospitality, and lasted far into the night; +and then, when the simple and inoffensive game was over, and its scores +were settled, the dear old boy--usually with a smile of conquest +wandering through his gray beard--would unroll his bundle before the +fire and sleep like a baby until reveille. Happy, happy days,--and +still happier nights! + +Naturally, in such a life as we led at Union City, our horses formed +a very important element in our occupation and in our amusements. Soon +after our arrival at Columbus,--an event which had taken place a few +months before,--a spanking mare that I had bought to replace Ruby had +gone hopelessly lame, and it became again important to all who were +concerned in my peace of mind, that a satisfactory substitute should be +found for her. I had still in my stable a little thoroughbred (Guy), +who, though excellent in all respects, was a trifle under my weight, +and not at all up to the rough riding that was a necessary part of our +army life. He could go anywhere, could jump any practicable barrier, +was fleet and sound, and in all respects admirable, but he was made for +a lighter weight than mine, and, except for show and parade riding, +must mainly be used to carry Ike and the saddle-bags, or to mount a +friend when a friend favored me. + +In a second search, in which most of the officers of the regiment +took a lively interest, there was found, in Frank Moore's Battalion +of the Second Illinois Cavalry, a tall, gaunt, lean, haggard, +thoroughbred-looking beast, which had been captured from Merryweather's +men in Western Tennessee. He was not a handsome horse, nor was he to +the ordinary eye in any respect promising; but a trial showed that he +had that peculiar whalebone character, and wiry, nervous action, which +come only with blood, and without which no horse is really fit for the +saddle. The chances were very much against him. He did not possess the +first element of beauty, save in a clean-cut head, a prominent eye, +a quick ear, a thin neck, sloping shoulders, high withers, and the +brilliant activity that no abuse had been able to conquer. He was held +in abeyance until a careful examination of the two thousand horses at +the post showed that, even as he stood, he had no equal there for my +purposes. Since he had come into the army he had been in the possession +of a private soldier, who had done much scouting duty, and he had been +initiated (successfully) into the scrub-racing which Illinois soldiers +much affected. The serious amount of one hundred and forty dollars was +hazarded in the venture, and he was transferred to our stable. That +increment of value which always follows the purchase of a new horse +came rapidly in his case, and it needed only a few gallops on the +breezy bluffs beyond Fort Halleck, to install him as prime favorite +among the headquarters' mess. + +He was deemed worthy of the noble name of Max, and under Ike's careful +grooming he returned daily toward the blooming condition that only +Second Illinois abuse had been able to subdue. In an early race with +the Hun we were ingloriously beaten; but the Hun rode a marvellous +little blood mare, blooming with hundreds of bushels of oats, and with +two years of careful handling. Max, though beaten, was not discouraged, +and seemed to say that with time and good treatment he would be ready +for a more successful trial. + +During his period of tutelage, and while he was kept from all excessive +exertion, he was inducted into the mysteries of the art, to him quite +new, of jumping timber. Columbus had been occupied by Rebel and Union +soldiers since the outbreak of the war, and its fences, far and wide, +had all disappeared; but nowhere in the world was there a greater +variety nor a more ample stock of fallen trees, whose huge boles made +capital leaping-bars; and over these, almost daily, for some months, +beginning with the smaller ones and going gradually to the largest +we could find, Max learned to carry a heavy weight with a power and +precision that even Ruby could not have excelled. + +During all this time, ample feed, good shelter, regular exercise, and +a couple of hours of Ike's hand-rubbing daily, worked an uninterrupted +improvement in limb and wind and sinews and coat, until, by the time we +were ordered to Union City, Max had become the pride of the camp. He +was over sixteen hands high, of a solid dark bay color, glistening like +polished mahogany, and active and spirited as a horse in training for +the Derby. + +At Union City the headquarters' horses were stabled under a capital +shed, close at hand, and all that master's eye and servant's labor +could accomplish for their care and improvement was lavished upon them; +so that, during our long months' stay, we were among the best-mounted +men in the Western army. Our pleasure-riding and our work lay through +swampy wood-roads, over obstructions of every sort, and across the +occasional grass farms, with their neglected rail-fences. The weather +was almost uninterruptedly fine, our few visiting neighbors were miles +away from us, the shooting was good, and the enjoyment we got from +our vagabond life in camp was well supplemented by the royal rides we +almost daily took. + +Naturally, in a camp full of idle men given largely to sport, the +elevating entertainment of horse-racing played a prominent part. Both +Max and Guy were conspicuous by their successes until, long before the +close of our leisurely career, but only after they had hung my walls +with spurs and whips and other trophies of their successful competition +with all comers, both were ruled out by the impossible odds they were +obliged to give. The actual military service required was only enough +to convince me that Max was a beast of endless bottom and endurance, +and that, accidents apart, he would need no help in any work he might +be called on to perform. For the rest of the war, with much duty of +untold severity, I habitually rode no other horse for light work or for +hard, for long rides or for short ones, on the march or on parade; and +with all my sentiment for his charming predecessors, I had to confess +that his equal as a campaigner had never come under my leg. He would +walk like a cart-horse at the head of a marching column, would step +like a lord in passing in review, would prance down the main street of +a town as though vain of all applause, would leap any fence or ditch or +fallen timber to which he might be put, would fly as though shot from +a gun in passing along the line; and when, whether early or late, he +was taken to his stable, would eat like a hungry colt and sleep like a +tired plough-horse. In all weathers and under all circumstances he was +steady, honest, intelligent, and ready for every duty. I had ridden +before, at home and in the army, horses ideally good; I have ridden +since, over the hunting country of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, +horses that were counted of the best, but never, before or since, have +I mounted such a magnificent piece of perfectly trained and perfectly +capable horse-flesh. + +On one occasion, at Union City, word was brought in that a flag of +truce from Faulkner had arrived at our picket line, and I rode out +for a parley over a trifling matter of an exchange of prisoners. +The officer in charge of the flag, with the company escorting him, +had originally come from our neighborhood and had belonged to +Merryweather's "band." As Max trotted up to their bivouac, he was +greeted with cries of recognition, and a lieutenant of the company was +kind enough to warn me that I had shown them a stronger inducement +than they had hitherto had to make an attack on our position; for, +since Frank Moore had captured the horse I rode, they had determined +to regain him at any risk. Happily, this laudable wish was never +fulfilled, and Max remained, in spite of the devices they may have laid +for his recapture. + +During the five months of our stay at this post, we made some hard +scouts in a hard country, and we held a good part of West Tennessee +under strict surveillance, but the most memorable feature of all our +scouting was generally the welcome dismounting under the wide eaves of +our own house; not, I hope, that we had grown effeminate, but a week's +tramp through the woods of West Tennessee offers little that memory +can cherish, and prepares one for a sensation on the near approach of +comfort. + +But five months of such life is enough, and I was not sorry when the +order came that I must go for a soldier again. + +Sherman was about to advance eastward from Vicksburg, destroy the +lines of railroad by which Forrest received supplies from the fertile +prairie region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Rebellion in +the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to take all my infantry down the +river, and the cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line of the +Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and join a considerable cavalry force +gathering there under Sooy Smith and Grierson; thence we were to move +southeasterly through Mississippi, to engage Forrest's forces and to +meet Sherman's army at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at +Meridian. + +We lay in camp more than a week, ready to move, but awaiting orders. +The country (a very wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. +Our order to march and the thaw came together, on the 22d of January. +We were to cross the Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp's Ferry, +twenty-three miles southwest of our camp. The command consisted of the +Fourth Missouri (with a battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, +Nineteenth Pennsylvania, and Frank Moore's Battalion of the Second +Illinois; in all about twenty-five hundred well-mounted men present for +duty. The roads were deep with mud and slush, and every creek was "out +of its banks" with the thaw. We reached the ferry only at nightfall of +the 23d, over roads that had hourly grown deeper and more difficult. +Two regiments had crossed, through floating ice (eight horses at a +trip), by a rope-ferry, and at nine o'clock in the evening, under a +full moon and a summer temperature, I crossed with staff and escort. +The river was already so swollen that we landed in two feet of water, +and still it was rising. + +Our camp was fixed five miles away on the upland. The first mile was +only wet and nasty, and the trail not hard to follow. Then we came to +the "back slough," thirty feet wide, four feet deep, and still covered +with four inches of ice. Those who had gone before had broken a track +through this, and swept the fragments of ice forward until near the +shore they were packed in for a width of ten feet or more, and to the +full depth of the water. I can make no stronger statement than that we +all got through safely, only wet to the skin. How it was done I do not +pretend to know. Some went in one way and some in another. All I can +assert is that my stalwart old Max, when he found himself standing, +belly deep, in broken ice, settled quietly on his haunches and took my +two hundred pounds with one spring on to dry land four feet higher than +his starting-point, and twelve feet away,--but then, Max always was +a marvel. Guy, who carried Ike, scrambled over the top of the broken +ice as only he or a cat could do. The others fared variously. All were +drenched, and some were hurt, but all got to the shore at last. Then +came the hour-long tug to get my ambulance through with its store of +tent-hold goods and we started for our remaining four miles. The trail, +even of cavalry, is not easily followed by moonlight when covered +with half a foot of water, and we lost our way; reaching camp, after +fourteen miles of hard travel, at four o'clock in the morning. + +The river was still rising rapidly, and word was brought that Kargé, +with more than half the brigade, would have to make a détour of fifty +miles and cross the Three Forks of the Obion far to the eastward, +joining us some days later, near Jackson. So we idled on, marching a +few miles each day, camping early, cooking the fat of the land for our +evening meal, cultivating the questionable friendship of the Rebel +population by forced contributions of subsistence, and leading, on the +whole, a peaceful, unlaborious, and charming picnic life. Finally, +taking Kargé again under our wing, we pushed on, resolutely and +rapidly, over flooded swamps, across deep, rapid rivers, and through +hostile towns, to our rendezvous; whence, under the command of two +generals, and as part of an army of eight thousand well-mounted cavalry +and light artillery, and all in light marching order, we started for +our more serious work. + +The chief in command was a young and handsome, but slightly nervous +individual, who eschewed the vanities of uniform, and had about himself +and his horse no evidence of his military character that could not be +unbuckled and dropped with his sword-belt in case of impending capture. +He was vacillating in his orders, and a little anxious in his demeanor, +but he had shown himself cool and clear-headed under fire, and seemed +resolutely bent on the destruction of the last vestige of Forrest's +troublesome army. It would be tedious to tell all the adventures of +our forward expedition; how we marched in three columns over different +roads, each for himself, and with only a vague notion where and how +we should meet, and how we should support each other. As it afterward +proved, the details of the order of march had been given to the +commanders of the other brigades, while I had been forgotten; so that +the whole advance was vexed with cross-purposes and with the evidences +of a hidden misunderstanding. The _contretemps_ that thus came about +were annoying, and, in one instance, came near being serious: as we +were going into camp at Prairie Station, my advance reported having +come in sight of the camp-fires of the enemy; a skirmish-line was sent +forward, and only on the eve of engaging did they discover that we were +approaching Hepburn's Brigade, of our column, which had reached the +same point by another road. + +The first days of our march in Mississippi were through Tippah County, +as rough, hopeless, God-forsaken a country as was ever seen outside +of Southern Missouri. Its hills were steep, its mud was deep, its +houses and farms were poor, its facilities for the subsistence of a +protecting army like ours were of the most meagre description, and +its streams delayed us long with their torrents of bottomless muddy +water, fast swelling from the thaw that had unlocked the snow of all +the deep-buried hills and morasses of their upper waters. We built +ferry-boats and swamped them, built bridges and broke them, and slowly +and painfully, horse by horse, transferred the command across the nasty +riverbeds. Tippah Creek detained us and kept us hard at work all day +and all night, and we reached the Tallahatchee at New Albany barely in +time to ford our last man across before it rose to an impassable depth. +And then for two days we pressed forward, in company with the whole +column, through the rough, rocky, and wooded country, reaching Okolona +only at nightfall. + +Here we struck the marvellous prairie region of Northeastern +Mississippi, literally a land flowing with milk and honey. An +interminable, fertile, rolling prairie lay before us in every +direction. The stern rule of the Confederacy had compelled the planters +to offset every small field of cotton with a wide area of corn, until +the region had become known as the granary of the Southern army. +Not only must every land-owner devote his broadest fields to the +cultivation of the much-needed cereal, but one tenth of all his crop +must be stacked for public use in cribs at the side of the railroad. + +It was an important incident of our mission to destroy everything +which directly or indirectly could afford subsistence to the Rebel +forces; and during the two days following our arrival at Okolona, while +we marched as far south as West Point, the sky was red with the flames +of burning corn and cotton. On a single plantation, our flanking party +burned thirty-seven hundred bushels of tithe corn, which was cribbed +near the railroad; no sooner was its light seen at the plantation +houses than hundreds of negroes, who swarmed from their quarters to +join our column, fired the rail-built cribs in which the remaining +nine-tenths of the crop was stored. Driven wild with the infection, +they set the torch to mansion house, stables, cotton-gin, and quarters, +until the whole village-like settlement was blazing in an unchecked +conflagration. To see such wealth, and the accumulated products of such +vast labor, swept from the face of the earth, gave to the aspect of war +a saddening reality, which was in strong contrast to the peaceful and +harmless life our brigade had thus far led. In all this prairie region +there is no waste land, and the evidences of wealth and fertility +lay before us in all directions. As we marched, the negroes came _en +masse_ from every plantation to join our column, leaving only fire and +absolute destruction behind them. It was estimated that during these +two days' march two thousand slaves and one thousand mules were added +to our train. + +The incidents of all this desolation were often sickening and +heart-rending; delicate women and children, whom the morning had found +in peace and plenty, and glowing with pride in the valor of Southern +arms and the certainty of an early independence for their beloved +half-country, found themselves, before nightfall, homeless, penniless, +and alone, in the midst of a desolate land. + +Captain Frank Moore, the Cossack of our brigade, went at night to +an outlying plantation, of which the showy mansion-house stood on a +gentle acclivity in the edge of a fine grove. Here lived alone with an +only daughter, a beautiful girl, a man who had been conspicuous in his +aid to the Rebellion, and whose arrest had been ordered. The squadron +drew up in front of the house and summoned its owner to come forth. He +came, armed, sullen, stolid, and determined, but obviously unnerved by +the force confronting him. Behind him followed his daughter, dressed +in white, and with her long light hair falling over her shoulders. The +sight of the hated "Yanks" crazed her with rage, and before her father +could reply to the question with which he had been accosted, she called +to him wildly, "Don't speak to the villains! Shoot! shoot them down, +shoot them down!" wringing her hands, and screaming with rage. The +excitement was too much for his judgment, and he fired wildly on the +troops. He was riddled through and through with bullets; and as Moore +turned away, he left that fine house blazing in the black night, and +lighting up the figure of the crazy girl as she wandered, desolate and +beautiful, to and fro before her burning home, unheeded by the negroes +who ran with their hastily made bundles to join the band of their +deliverers. Moore's description of this scene in the simple language +that it was his unpretending way to use, gave the most vivid picture we +had seen of the unmitigated horror and badness of war. + +As an instrument of destruction in the enemy's country, our raid had +thus far been more successful than we could have anticipated; but we +had come for even more serious business than this, and there were +already indications that its main purpose would be a failure. Our +commander had evidently no stomach for a close approach to the enemy, +and his injunctions at Colliersville that we were to try always to +"Fight at close quarters!" "Go at them as soon as possible with the +sabre!" and other valorous ejaculations, were in singular contrast to +the impressions he evinced as the prospect of an actual engagement drew +near. + +Forrest was in our front with about our own number of cavalry, but +without artillery, of which we had twenty good pieces. The open country +offered good fighting ground, and gave to our better drilled and more +completely organized forces a decided advantage, even without our +great odds in artillery. There lay before us a fair opportunity for +dispersing the most successful body of cavalry in the Rebel service; +and, could we effect a junction with Sherman, we should enable him +to divide the Confederacy from Vicksburg to Atlanta. One of the most +brilliant and damaging campaigns of the war seemed ready to open. Its +key lay in our successful engagement, on a fair field, with an inferior +force. Yet all of us who were in a position to know the spirit with +which we were commanded were conscious of a gradual oozing out at the +finger-ends of the determination to make a successful fight; and it +was a sad night for us all when, at West Point, with our skirmish-line +steadily engaging the Rebel outposts, an order came that we were to +fall back before daybreak toward Okolona. + +The brigade commanders and their staffs had had severe duty in the +scattered work of destruction, and even Max, tough though he was, had +been almost overworked with constant galloping to and fro, and with the +frequent countermarching our varying orders had required. Still he was +better than his comrades, and many a man was anxious for his mount, +should our retreat be pressed. + +Early in the morning we were on our way toward the rear,--about +eight thousand cavalry, ten sections of artillery, two thousand +pack-mules, and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves mounted on +their masters' mules, often two or three on each, and clustering +under our shadow as their only means of escape to the happy land of +freedom. In an organized advance, all of this vast hanging on could be +kept at the rear and in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of +self-preservation always attacks first the non-combatant element, and +during all the days that followed, we found our way constantly blocked +with these throngs of panic-stricken people. + +No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw his time had come, and +he pressed us sorely all day and until nightfall, and tried hard to +gain our flanks. A hundred times we might have turned and given him +successful battle, but, at every suggestion of this, we received from +our general, who was well in advance of the retiring column, the order +to push forward and give our rear a free road for retreat. Midnight +found us again in the vicinity of Okolona, and the next daybreak showed +the enemy's long column filing out of the woods and stretching well on +toward our right flank. + +Even the plains of Texas could offer no field better suited for a +cavalry engagement, and it was with satisfaction that we received, at +five o'clock in the morning, an order to prepare at once for a fight; +but our men were barely mounted and in line when an order came to turn +our backs upon this open field, and to retreat with all expedition +toward Memphis. + +When we left Okolona we left hope behind, for our road struck at once +into a wooded, hilly country, full of by-ways and cross-roads known to +the enemy and unknown to us, and we well knew that this movement would +double Forrest's power and divide our own. Then, for a long day, tired +and hungry from the hard work and constant movement we had just gone +through, and with our horses half-fed and overworked, we pushed on, our +rear often attacked and sometimes broken, our mule-train and negroes +thrown into frequent confusion, one of our brigades demoralized and put +to flight, and the enemy still pressing our rear and reaching for our +flanks. At last, towards night, it became evident that a stand must be +made or all would be entirely lost, and at Ivy Farm, near Pontotoc, we +found a broad, open hill-top, with large fields, high fences, and stout +log-houses, which offered an opportunity. By this time the command +was too widely separated, and some of it too much disorganized, for +the concentration of even a whole brigade, but a part of Hepburn's +and a part of my own were disentangled from the corral of fugitives +and brought into line. Both of our generals were upon the field, and +to our surprise both seemed brave and resolute; and this not with the +resolution of despair, for the actual immediate necessity of fighting +often steadies nerves which are easily shaken by the anticipation +of danger. Brave they were, but not always of the same mind, and +conflicting orders continued to add to our embarrassment and insecurity. + +It is not worth while to detail all the incidents of the opening of +the short engagement; it was ended by the only legitimate cavalry +charge made by the "Vierte Missouri" during the whole of its four +years' history. + +We had withdrawn from the line where we had been fighting on foot, had +mounted, formed, and drawn sabre; the road about one hundred yards in +front of us was swarming with Rebels, who crept along the fence-lines +and in the edge of the bordering woods, and kept up a steady rain of +fire well over our heads, where we heard that _pfwit_--_pfwit_--_pfwit_ +of flying bullets which, happily, has no relative in the whole chorus +of sounds, and which is heard above all the din of battle, and is felt +through every remotest nerve. + +At the command "Forward," excitement ran down the line, and there was +a disposition for an immediate rush. But "Steady--right dress--trot!" +in a measured tone, taken up in turn by the company officers, brought +back all the effect of our three years' discipline of the drill-ground. +Later, "Steady--gallop--right dress!" accelerated the speed without +disturbing the alignment, and then, at last, "Charge!" and with a +universal yelling and brandishing of sabres we went forward like the +wind. I then felt how mad a venture we had undertaken, for before us +was the enemy, it is true, but the enemy behind a high and stout, +staked and ridered rail-fence. As we drew very near this, still under +heavy fire, which now at the short range was telling, the command +became conscious that the six-foot fence would withstand our shock, +and it wavered. I turned to my bugler to sound the recall, when I saw +him out of the corner of my eye, his white horse rearing literally +to his full height and falling backward with a crash that must have +killed the poor boy at once. The recall was not needed: the regiment +had turned and was running. The officers, being the best mounted +and generally the lightest weights, soon reached the front, and +"Steady--right dress--trot! Steady--right dress--trot!" was repeated +along the line, until the drill-ground precision was regained, and then +"By fours--right about--wheel!" and we stood facing the enemy again, +ready for another advance. Max had been struck by a grazing bullet and +had been plunging heavily, but the wound was not serious and he was +soon quieted. We now saw that our charge, futile though it seemed, +had done its work. The advance of the enemy was checked; the sight of +troops that could retire and re-form for a new attack seemed to have a +stunning effect upon them. Practically the engagement was ended. + +Subsequently, one of Forrest's staff officers told the Hun that the +size of the division which had charged was variously estimated at from +five to ten thousand, but that he had been accustomed to such things +and knew that we were not more than two thousand. In fact, we were less +than six hundred. Forrest's report of the battle of Pontotoc states +that the engagement was ended "by a cavalry charge of the enemy, which +was repulsed." + +There was still some sharp scrimmaging, and we had to make two or +three more squadron and company charges to drive away small attacks +upon our retreating guns; but the battle, as a battle, was over, and +Forrest's whole advance had been stopped and ended by six hundred +Fourth Missouri Dutchmen, galloping, yelling, and swinging their +sabres at several thousand men well secured behind a rail-fence. I had +before, in drill-ground charges, seen old soldiers and experienced +officers jump down and run away from a fence on which they were sitting +to watch the advance of charging cavalry which they knew must wheel +before coming within five rods of them; but I had never supposed that +hot-blooded soldiers, in the full excitement of a successful attack, +could be unnerved and turned by the roar and thundering oncoming of a +regiment that could by no possibility reach them. Our first setting out +had driven back a thin skirmish-line which had to cross the fence under +high speed; this, doubtless, aided in the _débâcle_; the charge had +stunned them, but it was the rally that stopped the pursuit. + +The rest of our march was without interesting incident all the way to +Memphis, but it was almost incessant, day and night; without incident, +that is, that it is worth while to tell here, but our days and nights +upon the road were filled with annoyance and disgust, and with a store +of unhappy and ludicrous memories that will last the lifetime of all +who knew them. + +One day, at New Albany, Max and I were feeding and sleeping in +the door of an old mill while the command was slowly crossing the +antiquated bridge over the Tallahatchie, when I was awakened by +Grierson's riding up in great alarm, calling upon me "for God's sake" +to use the ford as well as the bridge, for Hepburn was being cut to +pieces in the rear, and I must give him the full road for his retreat. +I had always been a respectful subordinate, but none of us were then +in the best temper; I did not believe a word of it, and I frankly +told him so. Even old Max pricked up his ears and snorted as if in +derision. Almost as we were talking, there came an aid from Hepburn +saying that he had found a good supply of forage and would be glad to +go into camp for the night. But there was no camp to be thought of for +that tired crew; the bogey of incessant pursuit loomed up portentously +close upon our rear-guard, and sent its shadow deep into the bowels +of our commander, who was miles away in the advance, and who would +allow us only the fewest possible hours in the very dead of night for +hasty cooking and scant repose. We were a worn and weary lot as we +finally went into camp at the rear of the town; worn and weary, sadly +demoralized, and almost dismounted. I had lost fifteen hundred good +horses, and my men, who had been eager and ready for a successful +campaign, were broken in spirit and sadly weakened in discipline. + +All who had been compelled to bear the brunt of the hard work now +needed for themselves and their horses absolute rest for days; but +being called into the city the morning after our arrival, my eyes were +greeted with the spectacle of General Sooy Smith, no longer ill, and +with no trace of shame or annoyance on his face. He had shed his modest +and prudent attire, and shone out with all the brass radiance of a +full-fledged major-general. From this time until the Fourth Missouri +cavalry was mustered out of service, our headquarters were in the +immediate neighborhood of Memphis, and our life was much more active +than it had been at Union City. + +Not very much is to be said for Max during this time, except in +connection with the Sturgis expedition, beyond the fact that we lay +long in the immediate vicinity of the race-course, which we repaired +and used faithfully, and, so far as he was concerned, with eminent +success. The more frequent necessity for duty, the great labor of +remounting, reorganizing, and redrilling the command, united with +the greater publicity of our position to lay some restraint on our +mode of life, and to make our conduct more circumspect. Still we +were not miserable, and the neighborhood of a large town has, to a +well-regulated headquarters' mess, its compensations as well as its +drawbacks. + +Sturgis's expedition to Guntown and back--especially back--has passed +into history, and its unwritten memories will always remain with those +who took part in it. + +Guntown is far away in Northeastern Mississippi. It is not laid down on +the map of the country, but it lies just across the Tishamingo Creek, +and it consists mainly of two plantation houses and a school-house. +Our stay there was not long, and we were too much occupied to study +the locality minutely, but it is my impression that the most important +incident in its history was connected with our visit. + +We were a force of about nine thousand infantry, cavalry, and +artillery,--some black and some white, some good and some bad,--sent +out by Sherman as a tub to the Forrest whale; a diversion to keep this +commander from joining Hood in Northern Georgia; though I doubt if +even General Sherman in his moments of wildest enthusiasm anticipated +just the issue that followed. Our march out was not rapid, and it was +well ordered. We were allowed to take our train, and old John Ellard's +four stupendous mules drew our headquarters' wagon, well laden with +the comforts we had accumulated during a long service, including a +brand-new, well-furnished, and abundantly stored camp-chest that had +just arrived from St. Louis. So far as the comforts of a home for five +youngsters can be stored in one mule-wagon, we were well supplied for +a campaign of any length; and judging from the mess-tables to which we +were invited, others of the command were no less well provided. In due +time we reached the town of Ripley, a rather pretty New-England-looking +village, but, like all Southern towns at that time, entirely devoid of +men and overflowing with women of the most venomous and spiteful sort, +who did all in their power to add to the interest of the Sunday evening +we passed in their company. + +We had some light skirmishing on our arrival, but whoever it was that +attacked us withdrew and left us in undisturbed possession of the +comfortable rooms and fireplaces of the town. Our next day's march +brought us to a large open plantation on a commanding hill, whence our +evening scouting-parties soon found the enemy posted in some force and +apparently disposed for an engagement. + +It seemed always Forrest's plan to select his own fighting-ground, and +the plan of our commanders to gratify him. Sturgis committed the usual +folly of trying to hold every inch he had gained, and of forming his +line of battle on the head of the column and under fire. + +We breakfasted at three in the morning, and marched at half past +four. My command had the advance. The enemy allowed himself to be +easily driven until half past eight, when he made some show of +resistance. At this time the last of our regiments could hardly have +left the camping-ground, and probably a judicious retreat would have +drawn Forrest's whole force back to the open country we had left. +But "retreat" was not yet written on our banners (of that day), and +orders came from our general to support the advance-guard, form line +of battle, and hold our position. So far as the cavalry brigade was +concerned this was easily done, and we got into good line near the +edge of a wood without difficulty. Here, for four mortal hours, or +until half past twelve, we carried on a tolerably equal warfare, both +sides blazing away at each other with little effect across the six +hundred yards of cleared valley that lay between two skirts of wood. +So far as the endurance of our troops was concerned, this engagement +could have been kept up until nightfall, though our ranks were slowly +thinning. Several desperate charges were made on our position, and were +repulsed with considerable loss to both sides. Pending the arrival +of the infantry it would have been folly for us to attempt a further +advance, but had we been properly supported, or, better, had we at once +fallen back upon our support, we might have given, as the _post bellum_ +reports of Forrest's officers show, a better ending to the day's work. +It was only at half past twelve, when our ammunition was reduced to +five rounds per man, and when our battery had fired its last shot, that +the infantry began to arrive, and then they came a regiment at a time, +or only so fast as the Forrest mill could grind them up in detail. + +They had taken our place, and we had withdrawn to their rear, where +we were joined by one after another of the defeated or exhausted +infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy pressed upon us, +gaining rod after rod of our position, until finally our last arriving +troops, a splendid colored regiment, reached the field of battle at +double-quick, breathless and beaten by their own speed, barely in time +to check the assault until we could cross the creek and move toward +the rear. The retreat was but fairly begun when we came upon our train +of two hundred wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked in +beyond the possibility of removal. With sad eyes we saw John Ellard +cut his traces and leave all that was dear to us--tents, camp-chest, +poker-table, and all that we cherished--to inevitable capture. The +train was _our_ tub to the whale; and while Forrest's men were sacking +our treasures, and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, which +they had captured, we had time to form for the retreat, more or less +orderly according as we had come early or late off the field. The +demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howling over our heads of +our own shells, together with the sharp rattle of musketry in our rear, +hastened and saddened the ignominious flight of the head of our column, +though, for some reason, the enemy's advance upon us was slow. + +All that long night we marched on, without food and without rest. At +early dawn we reached Ripley, where we paused for breath. Max had been +ridden almost uninterruptedly for twenty-four hours, and for four hours +had done the constant hard work that the supervision of a long line in +active engagement had made necessary; and he was glad to be unsaddled +and turned for fifteen minutes into a scantily grown paddock, where he +rolled and nibbled and refreshed himself as much as ordinary horses do +with a whole night's rest. The ambulances with our groaning wounded +men came pouring into the village, and to our surprise, those women, +who had so recently given only evidence of a horrified hatred, pressed +round to offer every aid that lay in their power, and to comfort our +suffering men as only kind-hearted women can. + +With the increasing daylight the pursuit was reopened with vigor, and +on we went, and ever on, marching all that day, our rear-guard being +constantly engaged, and hundreds of our men being captured, thousands +more scattering into the woods. My lieutenant-colonel, Von Helmrich, +who had been for twenty-eight years a cavalry officer in Germany, and +who, after thirteen months in Libby Prison, had overtaken us as we were +leaving Memphis, was recaptured and carried back to Richmond,--to die +of a good dinner on his second release, ten months later. At nightfall, +the pursuit growing weak, we halted to collect together our stragglers, +but not to rest, and after a short half-hour pushed on again; and all +that interminable night, and until half past ten the next morning, +when we reached Colliersville and the railroad, reinforcements, and +supplies, we marched, marched, marched, without rest, without sleep, +and without food. The cavalrymen were mainly dismounted and driving +their tired jades before them, only Max and a few others carrying their +riders to the very end, and coming in with a whinny of content to the +familiar stables and back-yards of the little town. + +Most other officers whose service had been as constant as mine had had +extra horses to ride for relief; but I had never yet found march too +long for Max's wiry sinews, and trusted to him alone. He had now been +ridden almost absolutely without intermission, and much of the time +at a gallop or a rapid trot, for fifty-four hours. I had had for my +own support the excitement and then the anxious despair of responsible +service, and Ike had filled his haversack with hard-bread from John +Ellard's abandoned wagon; an occasional nibble at this, and unlimited +pipes of tobacco, had fortified me in my endurance of the work; but Max +had had in the whole time not the half of what he would have made light +of for a single meal. I have known and have written about brilliant +feats of other horses, but as I look over the whole range of all the +best animals I have seen, I bow with respect to the wonderful courage, +endurance, and fidelity of this superbly useful brute. + +There is an elasticity in youth and health, trained and hardened by +years of active field-service, which asserts itself under the most +depressing circumstances. Even this shameful and horrible defeat and +flight had their ludicrous incidents, which we were permitted to +appreciate. Thus, for instance, during a lull in the engagement at +Guntown, I had seated myself in a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of +a broad tree-trunk; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, had taken shelter +between the legs of the chair, leaving, however, his rear unprotected. +Random bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, and it was due +to one of these that I was unseated, with an accompaniment of squeal, +by the rapid and articulate flight of my companion. + +During our last night's march, my brigade having the advance, and I +being at its rear, Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing ahead +of the stragglers of the other brigades, who were to be recognized, +he reminded me, by their wearing hats (mine wore caps). The order +was peremptory, and was to be enforced even at the cost of cutting +the offenders down. Grierson's adjutant was at my side; we were all +sleeping more or less of the time, but constantly some hatted straggler +was detected pushing toward the front, and ordered back,--the adjutant +being especially sharp-eyed in detecting the mutilated sugar-loaves +through the gloom. Finally, close to my right and pushing slowly to +the front, in a long-strided walk, came a gray horse with a hatted +rider,--an india-rubber poncho covering his uniform. I ordered +him back; the adjutant, eager for the enforcement of the order, +remonstrated at the man's disobedience; I ordered again, but without +result; the adjutant ejaculated, "Damn him, cut him down!" I drew my +sabre and laid its flat in one long, stinging welt across that black +poncho: "----! who are you hitting?" Then we both remembered that +Grierson too wore a hat; and I tender him here my public acknowledgment +of a good-nature so great that an evening reunion in Memphis over a +dozen of wine won his generous silence. + +One might go on with interminable gossip over incidents of camp and +field for which at this late day only scant interest is felt; but +nothing that I could say more would probably aid my purpose, which has +been simply by a trifling sketch to recall the jollity, the comfort, +the suffering, and the misery of campaign life, and to show how in the +field more than anywhere else one learns to cherish and to depend upon +a faithful and honest and willing comrade like my royal old Max. + + + + +HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT. + +(CIRCUMSTANTIALLY TRUE.) + + +The war was not quite over, but my regiment was old enough to have +grown too small for a colonel, and I sat, the dismalest of all men, +a "mustered-out" officer, sated with such good things as a suddenly +arrested income had allowed me, over an after-dinner table in a little +room at the Athenæum Club. My coffee was gone to its dregs; the closing +day was shutting down gloomily in such a weary rain as only a New York +back-yard ever knows; and I was wondering what was to become of a man +whom four years of cavalry service had estranged from every good and +useful thing in life. The only career that then seemed worth running +was run out for me; and, worst of all, my pay had been finally stopped. + +The world was before me for a choice, but I had no choice. The only +thing I could do was to command mounted troops, and commanders of +mounted troops were not in demand. Ages ago I had known how to do other +things, but the knowledge had gone from me, and was not to be recalled +so long as I had enough money left with which to be unhappy in idle +foreboding. I had not laid down my life in the war, but during its +wonderful four years I had laid down, so completely, the ways of life +of a sober and industrious citizen, and had soaked my whole nature so +full of the subtile ether of idleness and vagabondism, that it seemed +as easy and as natural to become the Aladdin I might have dreamed +myself to be as the delver I had really been. With a heavy heart, then, +and a full stomach, I sat in a half-disconsolate, half-reminiscent, +not wholly unhappy mood, relapsing with post-prandial ease into that +befogged intellectual condition in which even the drizzle against the +window-panes can confuse itself with the patter on a tent roof; and +the charm of the old wanderings came over me again, filling my table +with the old comrades, even elevating my cigar to a brier-wood, and +recalling such fellowship as only tent-life ever knows. + +Such dreaming is always interrupted, else it would never end; mine was +disturbed by a small card on a small salver, held meekly across the +table by the meekest of waiters. + +The card bore the name "Adolf zu Dohna-Schlodien," and a count's +coronet,--a count's coronet and "zu" (a touch above "von")! I +remembered to have seen a letter from my adjutant to the Prussian +Consul in Philadelphia, asking him to obtain information about a +handsome young musical "Graf zu" something, who was creating a +sensation in St. Louis society, and the "zu" seemed to indicate this as +the party in question; he had spoken of him as having defective front +teeth, which seemed to be pointing to the "color and distinguishing +marks," known in Herd Book pedigrees, and human passports,--a means of +identification I resolved to make use of; for my experience with the +German nobility in America had been rather wide than remunerative. + +The "Herr zu" had waited in the hall, and was standing under the full +light of the lamp. He was very tall, very slight, and very young, +apparently not more than twenty, modestly dressed, and quiet in his +manner. He was not strikingly handsome, though very well looking. His +hands were the most perfect I ever saw, and the ungloved one showed +careful attention. There was no defect noticeable in his front teeth. +He bowed slightly and handed me a letter. It was from Voisin, my former +adjutant, but it was not exactly a letter of introduction. At least, +it was less cordial than Voisin's letters of introduction were wont to +be. Yet it was kind. Without commending the Count as a bosom friend, he +still said he was much interested in him, had reason to believe in him, +was sorry for him, had given him material aid, and was very desirous +that he should pull through some pecuniary troubles, which he could do +only by enlisting in the Regular Army, and receiving his bounty. From +this he would give me money to release his baggage, which was valuable, +from some inconveniences that were then attending it in St. Louis. +Would I get him enlisted? He said he would enlist, and would prefer to +be known under the name Adolph Danforth. The gentleman himself took +early occasion to express this preference. + +I debated a little what to do. He was not introduced as a friend, only +as a person in need of help; yet Voisin believed in him, and he had +asked a service that he would not have asked for an unworthy man. I +engaged him in conversation and got him to smile. It was a very frank +smile, but it displayed a singular defect far up on the front teeth. +This decided me. He was the same Graf zu whose position had been asked +of the Prussian Consul, and I knew he had learned that the Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, an officer in the Gardecorps Kürassier, was of the +highest nobility and of a family of great wealth. There was evidently +no technical reason why the poor fellow should not be received +cordially and well treated. So we went back to the smoking-room, and +with fresh coffee and cigars opened an acquaintance which resulted not +altogether uneventfully. + +He was not obtrusive. His story was not forced upon me; but as I +already had its thread, I was able to draw it from him in a natural +way, and he told it very frankly, though halting a little at its more +important turnings, as if wondering how its development would strike +me. There was just enough of hesitancy over a harrowing tale to throw +on myself the responsibility of learning it. + +He had been brought up by the tenderest of mothers at the castle of +Schlodien (I think in Silesia), had early joined the Cuirassiers of the +Body Guard, had fought a fatal duel in which he had been the aggressor, +and had been condemned to the Fortress of Spandau. Only his mother's +great influence (exercised without the knowledge of his stern and much +older father, who was then on his distant estates) had secured for him +an opportunity to escape. He had come directly to America, and had +remained near Boston until he received intimation (again the result +of his mother's influence with Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister at +Washington) that his return under the Extradition Treaty was being +urged at the solicitation of the family of his fallen antagonist. He +had then taken refuge in a remote town in South Missouri, where he +amused himself with shooting. His mother had written to him but once, +and had not been able to send him money. He had at last returned to +St. Louis, where he had contracted some small debts which Voisin and +another kind friend had assumed. To reimburse them and to gain more +perfect seclusion, he had resolved to enlist in the Regular Army. It +was a sad conclusion of his career, but as an honorable man (and a +pursued one) he had no choice but to accept it. + +It was the old story,--_noblesse oblige_. There was but one way out +of a sad affair, and--like a very Graf zu--this stripling, who had been +born and bred to a better fate, faced the penalty of his misfortune +without flinching. I tried infinite suggestions, but nothing else +offered the immediate money which alone could relieve him of debt and +restore him his wardrobe and the portraits of his mother and sister, +which with a few well-worn letters, were all he had to cheer him in his +exile. We sat till far into the night and until my kindest sympathies +were fully aroused by the utter and almost childlike simplicity and +frankness with which the poor boy told of his sorrows. I had been +taught by a very ample experience to look with much caution on German +counts and barons,--an experience that, if it was worth what it had +cost, I could not prize too highly; but here was an entirely new type, +a combination of the gentlest breeding with an unsophistication that +argued more of a mother's care than of garrison influences, and an +utter absence of the devil-may-care manner that army life in Germany +had hitherto seemed to give. With the improvidence of one who had +never known the lack of money, he had lodged himself at the Everett +House; and as I left him at its door, I resolved to lose no time in +getting him enlisted and stopping an expense that would only add to +his troubles. The next day I saw the official who had charge of the +making up of the city's quota, and easily arranged for the examination +of my candidate. Dohna begged me to secure his admission to a command +whose officers would be able to appreciate his difficult position, and +a weary time I had of it. At last it was all arranged; he had passed, +with much shock to his sensibilities, the surgeon's examination, and +had been enrolled in a company of Regular Infantry, whose captain +(then serving on the general staff of the department) had acquired a +sympathy for him not less than my own. His bounty (over seven hundred +dollars) he put into my hands, and he went with me to Adams's Express +office, where we sent more than half the sum to St. Louis,--the full +amount of his indebtedness. One specified trunk was to be sent to the +Everett House, and the rest of his luggage--which Voisin had described +as valuable--to me. I received by an early mail the receipt of the St. +Louis express-office for it, and found it most convenient to let it lie +for the present, addressed to me personally, at the office in New York. +It would be useless to Dohna in the army, and I was to take care of it +for him. + +The captain of the company in which he was enlisted secured him a +furlough for ten days, and, to show his gratitude, he invited us both +to dine with him at the Everett. We sat down at seven, and we sat long. +The best that either cellar or kitchen afforded was spread before us in +wasteful profusion, and our host, temperate in his sipping, but eating +with the appetite of youth, seemed only to regret the limit of our +capacity. As we walked across the square, filled and with the kindest +emotions, we planned means for so occupying the remaining days of the +furlough as to allow but little opportunity for money-spending. His +company was at Fort Trumbull, and after he joined he would be safe. + +The next day being Saturday, I took him to my father's house in the +country, where his unfortunate story was already known, and where as +much real interest was felt in him as the good people of Connecticut +ever accord to a duellist. He had a friend living farther out on the +New Haven road, and he took an early train to see her (this was a new +feature), returning to me in the evening. I met him at the depot. He +wore the superb uniform overcoat of the Gardecorps Kürassier, long, +flowing, and rich, with a broad, scarlet-lined fur collar. It was +caught across the throat with a scarlet snood, and hung loosely from +the shoulders. It made his six feet two really becoming. At home he +was easy but very quiet, saying little but saying it very well, and +he won as much confidence as the stain on his moral character would +allow. Like most of his class, he knew and cared absolutely nothing +for what interests the New England mind, and he would early have +palled on our taste but for his music. His performance was skilful; he +played difficult music, and he played it very well, but without vanity +or apparent consciousness. When not occupied in this way, and when +not addressed, he neither spoke nor read, apparently he did not even +think, but relapsed into a sad and somewhat vacant reticence. But for +our knowledge of his misfortunes, he would have been uninteresting. +On Sunday he gave me a new confidence. His friend up the road was +an Everett House acquaintance, made when he first came from Boston. +She was an angel! She knew his sad story, and she had given him her +Puritan heart. In the trying days to come I was to be the link that +should bind them in their correspondence. She must not know of his +degraded position, and all letters were to pass under cover to me. Even +_noblesse_ did not hide the tears that this prospect of long separation +wrung from him, and he poured out his grief with most touching +unrestraint. This was the one sorrow of his life that even his trained +equanimity could not conquer. It made me still more respect his simple, +honest nature and his unfeigned grief. I was doubly sorry that this +last trial of separated love should be added to his cup of bitterness. +In our long Sunday talk he told me of his home, and showed me the +singularly beautiful photographs of his mother and sister, and--quite +incidentally--one of himself in the full uniform of his regiment, +bearing on its back the imprint of a Berlin photographer. He evinced a +natural curiosity about the mode of our garrison life, and I prepared +him as gently as I could for a decided change from his former customs. +It was, of course, depressing to him, but he bore the prospect like +a man, and gave it no importance as compared with his more essential +downfall. He had seen enough of our troops to be especially uneasy at +the prospect of an ill-fitting uniform. In the matter of linen he was +well provided, but he was really unhappy over the thought of adapting +his long and easy figure to a clothing-contractor's idea of proportion. +So it was arranged that he should go to my tailor and be suitably clad, +according to regulation of course, but also according to measure. He +proposed, too, to leave his overcoat for some repairs and to be cared +for while he should have no use for it. I gave the tailor assurances of +prompt payment. + +One fine morning Dohna came to my room in his new rig and bade me a +brave good-by. He was off for Fort Trumbull. I felt an almost parental +sorrow over his going, and had much misgiving as to his ability to +face his ill-bred soldier comrades. There came soon after a letter +to say that he was well treated personally, only the rations were so +horrible; pork and salt beef and beans and molasses. He could not eat +such things, and he was growing faint for want of food. I had seen such +dainty appetites cured too often to have any fear on this score, and +only replied in general terms of encouragement, and asked for frequent +letters. These came. There were no incidents of his life that were not +described almost with wonder, for a noble officer of the Gardecorps of +the king of Prussia knows really nothing of the ways of life of the +men he is supposed to command. Often there were thick letters for the +_fiancée_, and answers to these (also thick) had often to be forwarded. +I felt the enthusiastic glow natural to one who carries alone the +tender secrets of younger lovers, and was not altogether unhappy under +the subjective romance of my mediation. + +Sometimes there were touching tales of trouble. Once he had been +detailed to the "police" squad, and had to clean spittoons and do other +menial work. This was a touch of reality that fairly opened his eyes to +his abasement, and he wrote much more sadly than ever before, making +me sad, too, to think how powerless I was to help him in any way. A +few days later he sent a wail of real agony. While he had been out on +drill, some scoundrel had broken into his satchel and had stolen all +his papers,--his letters from his mother, her photograph, and those +of his sister and his sweetheart, and all the bundle of affectionate +epistles over which he had pored again and again in his desolation. The +loss was absolutely heart-breaking and irreparable, and he had passed +hours sitting on the rocks at the shore, pouring bitter tears into the +Thames. This was a blow to me too. I knew that Dohna was of a simple +mind, and utterly without resources within himself; but he was also of +a simple heart, and one could only grieve over this last blow as over +the sorrows of a helpless little child. However, I wrote all I could +to encourage him, and was gratified, though a little surprised, to see +how soon he became cheerful again, and how earnestly he seemed to have +set about the work of becoming a really good soldier. After a time the +captain of his company--still in New York and maintaining a lively +interest in the poor fellow's case--procured an order for him to go to +Annapolis to be examined for promotion. He was already a sergeant, and +a pretty good one. He stopped in New York a few days on his way through +for some refitting,--again at my tailor's. On his way back he stopped +again to tell of his failure. I was delicate about questioning him too +closely, but I learned enough to suppose that different ideas as to +practical education are entertained by a board of army examiners and by +a fond young mother in the remote castle of Schlodien; but I encouraged +him to believe that a little more study would enable him to pass the +second examination that had been promised him, and he rejoined his +company. + +In the general mustering-out Voisin had been set free and had joined +me in New York, and had, naturally, participated in all my interest in +the quondam Count. He gradually, as an adjutant should, assumed the +correspondence, which was voluminous, and by the time we were informed +that Dohna was detailed for recruiting duty in the city, neither he +nor I was glad to know it. Something more than a feeling of regretful +sympathy is necessary to the enjoyment of frequent companionship, +and we both felt that the fact of having credit with a tailor was a +dangerous element in the possible future combinations. However, Dohna's +arrival at our room followed close upon the announcement of the order. +He was still simple in his way and of modest deportment, but he seemed +to have accepted his new life almost too entirely, and he had come to +look not very much out of place among his comrades. Their quarters +were in a basement in Chambers Street, back of the City Hall, where we +occasionally dropped in to see him. After a while he was always out +when we called, and once when I stopped to give him a foreign letter, +sent to my care, I was told that he had not been there for a week, but +one of the men volunteered to find him. He came that night to the club +for his letter, in civilian's dress, and appeared much as he did when +I first saw him, except that he had two beautiful false teeth, in the +place of the defective ones. I gave him his letter, a long one from +Berlin, from his father. He showed Voisin the postscript, in which it +was stated that a box containing a breech-loading shot-gun, a dozen +shirts, and a draft for five hundred thalers would be forwarded by the +Hamburg line to my care. On the strength of this he hoped it would not +inconvenience us to advance him a couple of hundred dollars. It was +thus far inconvenient that we were obliged to decline, which gave him +no offence, and he invited us to dine with him the following day at the +Everett House. + +At this point, in view of the extreme youth and inexperience of our +friend, we took occasion to read him a short homily on the value of +economy, and to urge him immediately to leave the Everett, return to +his barracks in Chambers Street, and as he valued his future peace +of mind to avoid running in debt; mildly hinting that, if found in +the public streets without his uniform, he would be very likely to +get himself into trouble. He begged that we would not expose him, and +promised to return that very night. Then for some time we lost sight +of him; his captain said that, so far as he knew, he was attentive +to his duty with the recruiting squad, and he certainly kept out of +our way. The box from Germany did not arrive. No more letters came, +and we had no occasion to seek him out. It was evident that he was no +longer unhappy, and so our interest in him, though still warm, remained +inactive. + + * * * * * + +One night I was awakened, quite late, by Voisin, sitting on the side +of my bed, big-eyed and excited, and with a wonderful story to tell. +He had been, at the request of the counsel of the Prussian Consul, +to the detectives' rooms at police headquarters. Here he had been +questioned as to his knowledge of one Adolph Danforth, _alias_ Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, _alias_ Fritz Stabenow, and had subsequently had an +interview with that interesting youth in the lock-up. + +The glory had all departed. He had been there forty-eight hours, was +unwashed, uncombed, stolid, comfortable, and quite at home. There was +no remnant left of the simple and modest demeanor of the well-bred +aristocrat. It was hard to see a trace of likeness to the Kürassier +officer with whose photograph we were familiar. The obligations of +_noblesse_ seemed to be entirely removed, and there was nothing left +but plain, ignoble Fritz Stabenow. An examination of his pockets +developed a singular folly. He had kept every scrap of paper on which +a word had ever been written to him. Tailors' bills, love-letters, +duns, photographs of half a dozen different girls, all were huddled +together. He had a package of the Count Dohna cards and the plate +from which they had been printed,--made in Boston; a letter of credit +from a banking-house in Berlin to its New York correspondent had the +copperplate card of the firm on the paper, but the paper was ruled as +a German banker's paper never is, and the plate from which the card +had been printed (also made in Boston) was in the envelope with it. A +letter from plain father Stabenow enclosed photographs of still plainer +mother and sister Stabenow, which were a sad contrast to the glory of +the Countess Dohna's picture. The father's letter was full of kindly +reproof and affectionate regret. "Ach! Fritz, ich hätte das von Dir +nicht gedacht,"--"I never thought that of you"; but it was forgiving +too, and promised the remittance, clothing, and gun I have spoken of +before. The papers, for the loss of which such tears had been shed +at Fort Trumbull, were all there in their well-worn companionship +with a soiled paper-collar, and that badge of dawning civilization, a +tooth-brush. + +Here were also two photographs, one of the statue of Frederick the +Great in Berlin on the card of a St. Louis photographer, and another of +himself in Prussian uniform, on the card of a Berlin photographer. The +pictures had been "lifted" and changed to the different cards. A more +careful neglect of track-covering was never known. The evidence of all +his deceptions had been studiously preserved. + +Voisin had given him a dollar to buy some necessary articles, and had +left him to his fate. + +The disillusion was complete, and I saw that I had been swindled +by a false count even more completely than I ever had been by real +barons,--which is much to say. + +Voisin had gathered from the Consul's lawyer that this Stabenow, a +valet of the veritable Count Dohna, had been one of a party who had +robbed him and committed other serious crimes, and he had fled to +this country, with his master's uniform, a valuable wardrobe, and +costly jewels. He had here undertaken to personify the Count, and +had had on the whole not an unhappy time, especially since he came +to New York in recruiting service. He had finally been arrested on +the complaint of a lady, one of the many whom he had attempted to +blackmail, by threatening exposure through letters they had written +him in the kindest spirit. Fortunately this one had had the good sense +to refer the matter to her husband, who brought the interesting career +to a close. He had obtained several thousand dollars in this way +from different persons, and had contracted considerable debts in all +directions. The Everett House was an especial sufferer. + +I felt that my claim was secured by the luggage at the express-office, +and I called for it the next day. The gentlemanly clerk of the +establishment blandly showed me my name, neatly written in a strange +Teutonic hand, to a receipt for the property. Just then I had +information that a box addressed to my care was lying at the Hoboken +office of the German steamers. Indiscreetly mentioning this fact to the +Prussian Consul's lawyer, I was informed that it would be necessary to +take the box in evidence, and I prudently refrained from making further +efforts for its recovery. + +It was with a chastened spirit that I paid a considerable bill at my +tailor's and ordered the overcoat sent to my address; and it was with +only mitigated satisfaction that I heard of the sending in irons to his +company in California of deserter Stabenow. + +If the Herr Lieutenant Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien of the Gardecorps +Kürassier is still living, I beg to inform him that his overcoat--the +only memento of a grave _Schwindelei_--is now a comfortable wrap to a +Rhode Island farmer, who hopes that its rightful owner is as snugly +clad in his winter rides about Versailles. + + + + +TWO SCOUTS. + + +In the desultory and sporadic warfare carried on in the Southwest, +the scout--or "skeout," according to the dialect of the region--was a +very important element of our organization, and it is amusing now to +recall the variety of odd-fish of every description who applied for the +remunerative employment that this branch of the service afforded. + +The interest of our life at Union City was not a little enhanced by two +specimens of this genus with whom we had much to do,--Pat Dixon and +"The Blind Preacher." + +One day the guard brought in a suspicious character from the +picket-line. He was about twenty-five years old, long, lank, and +dusky,--a sort of half-Indian, half-Irish looking fellow, with +uncombed hair and an over-prominent quid of tobacco. He rode the +usual "nag" of the country,--an animal with more blood than bone and +more vice than beauty. He dismounted, passed his bridle over his arm, +and "squatted,"--the usual posture of the country. "The Hun," the +professional bully of all our culprits, took this creature in hand, and +presently came in with a suggestion that I had better see him alone. +He followed me cautiously to one side, leading his horse with him, and +squatted again when we had halted at a safe distance from curious ears. + +"I'm Pat Dixon. I live down Troy way on the North Fork. Ye see, when +this yer muss fust broke out I didn't go to take no sides in it. But +Merryweather's men they come along a little 'fore sun-up, last month +was a year, an' they taken the only nag we had left. I'd had him hid +out all summer, but some derned skunk done found him out. I heern the +cusses a trampin' roun' an' I was goin' to take a crack at 'em for +'good mornin',' but, you see, I knowed if I did they'd just burn the +old woman out, an' she don't git along but porely, anyhow, so I didn't. +They _con_scripted the old man the year afore, an' he hain't been heern +on sence. So I come to the conclushin that I wa'n't agoin' to stan' no +such treatmint as that--by King! an' I jest took to the bresh, an' I +reckon I've pestered them 'uns right smart. I ain't agoin' afoot long +as theys hosses in West Tannisy,--you bet! I was agoin' to jine you +Yanks, but thinks sez I: 'Old Pat, you kin do a heap better in the +bresh nor what you kin in no army,' and so I stuck to it. O, now, I'm +squar'! Frank Moore can tell you all 'bout me; I ain't no gum-game, I +ain't. If you want a skeout, I'm on hand, an' I don't want no pass, I +kin git 'roun' in this kentry. + +"Which? _hoss?_ Well, 't ain't much of a nag, but theys more on 'em +roun', an' if this 'un tuckers out I'll git somethin' to ride. I ain't +goin' afoot.--no, mam!" + +This was very much the sort of talk "Mr." Forrest's emissaries used in +seeking our services for his purposes; so, partly to secure ourselves +on this point, and partly to give Dixon a good character should he +go out from our camp in his professional capacity, he was sent for a +few days to the guard-house, until Frank Moore should return from an +expedition. I believe Frank knew most of the vagabonds of Obion County, +and he at once certified that this was no other than Pat Dixon; that +his story was true; and that, while his controlling motives were not +perhaps such as one would most admire, his unconquerable hatred of +Merryweather's men and all their confederates might be relied on with +implicit confidence; so Pat was engaged as an employé of our Secret +Service Department, and sent outside the lines with a conspicuous +assurance, as he left his fellow-prisoners, that if found again within +our reach he would be hanged forthwith for a spy. I was riding on the +road he took, and he gave me a leering wink as he departed,--with +instructions to watch the movements of all guerilla bands in our front, +and to bring speedily any information he might obtain. + +During the remaining months of our stay he was almost ubiquitous. +Every scouting-party that we sent out in any direction, though entirely +without notice to him, was pretty sure to meet him with important +information, just when information was most needed. + +This part of his work was done perfectly, but he seemed to regard his +relation with us as a warrant for unending private iniquities. After +his own code of morals he was a strictly virtuous man, but his code was +of an extremely loose and pliable character. It is probably safe to say +that he never murdered a Union man, and that, unless sorely tempted by +the difference in value of the animals, he never forcibly exchanged +horses with a Union widow; neither, I believe, did he commit any +offence against a known Rebel when there was a probability of his being +found out and caught; but the complaints that came to us of the manner +in which he vented his private wrongs and carried on the feuds of his +ancestors gave us frequent annoyance. Sometimes it seemed necessary to +recall his commission and declare him an outlaw, but just then there +would transpire some particularly brilliant achievement that showed him +invaluable for our purposes. + +More than once, when our patrols reported the immediate presence of +the enemy, Pat would turn up with the assurance that it was only +so-and-so's "band," who had come into the neighborhood on a visiting or +a marauding expedition, but with no intention of putting themselves in +our way; and invariably we found his report to be correct. Indeed, so +frequently did this happen that we became almost too confident in his +assistance, and when an excitable picket shot at a donkey or a cow in +the night-time, although the patrol of the guard went through the usual +routine of investigation, we felt that there could be no serious attack +or Dixon would have notified us. + +How he obtained his information we could not guess, and his own +account of the matter was never satisfactory; but I believe that no +considerable force of the enemy ever crossed the Memphis and Charleston +Railroad (the whole State's width to the south of us) without our +being speedily notified; and through this means we were several times +enabled to telegraph to Columbus early information of contemplated +raids,--information that was not always heeded, as the surprise of +Paducah (on the Ohio River) several days after our warning sufficiently +proved. + +One ambition of this worthy man had to remain unsatisfied. How little +this was due to the fact that we at the headquarters were all perfectly +mounted, modesty makes it improper to state here; but in our frequent +meetings as we rode outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of +some particularly fine horse belonging to some particularly bad man +and especially virulent Rebel, which it would really be a virtue to +"confisticate." The worthy fellow was not satisfied with his own +conspicuous appropriations; he would fain have mounted our regiments on +the weedy screws which the Rebel impressments had left for the horsing +of the crippled region of Western Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have +had some lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity in his +thefts, and longed for the reassurance of similar conduct on the part +of true men like ourselves. + +It was, of course, not long after the commencement of this active +campaign against the rights of ownership, that we began to receive +assurances on every hand that unless we could do something to repress +Pat Dixon's vagabondage an outraged people would take the law into +their own hands, and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With a +laudable desire to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, I told him one day of +the state of feeling against him, urging him to be more circumspect and +to conduct himself like a decent man, else he would be hanged the first +time he was caught; intimating, too, that it would be improper for us +to continue to employ him to such needless injury to an inoffensive +people. His reply was characteristic. + +"Inoffensive, _which_? Mebbe you know these people an' mebbe you +don't. I do! and a dern'der lot of unhung cutthroats an' hoss-thieves +you can't find nowheres. As for hangin', you needn't give yourself no +worryment 'bout that. They're safe enough to hang me if they ketch me, +an' I guess I sha'n't hang no higher if I go right on my own gait. If +you don't want to employ me you needn't; theys enough corn an' bacon in +th' Obion bottom to keep me awhile yet, and money ain't no 'count down +here; but, by King! if I kin git a chance to tell you anything that +them 'uns don't want you to know, you bet your skin I'll do it, an' you +kin trust me every time, for I ain't goin' to lie,--not to your side, +not if I know it. Why, you talk to me about inikities. I don't want to +do no man any hurt; but my old dad _he_ was _con_scripted, an' me an' +my brother Jake had to take to the bresh to save ourselves, an' then +Jake he was shot in cold blood right afore my eyes, an' I made up my +mind then an' there that I wouldn't give no quarter to the whole State +of West Tannisy till this war was over an' ther' was some stronger hand +than mine to do jestis an' to furnish revenge. That's all I've got to +say about it. You needn't give yourself no oneasiness 'bout my doin's, +I'll answer for the hull on 'em; an' p'r'aps the last thing you'll hear +of Pat Dixon will be that he's hangin' to a tree somewheres down Troy +way. I know I'm booked for that if I'm ketched, and till I am ketched +I'm goin' my own gait." + +We had become too much accustomed to this state of feeling among the +scanty Union population of the Southwest to be so shocked by it as we +ought to have been, and it was not without sympathy with Dixon's wrongs +that I let him go, with an earnest caution that he should mend his +ways, if only for his own sake. + +It remains only to say that he _did_ go his own gait, and that he went +it with a desperation and an _élan_ that I have never known equalled; +and that, months later, after our snug quarters at Union City had been +turned over to a feeble band of home-guards, word came that they had +been burned to the ground, and that Pat Dixon, betrayed at last into +the hands of the enemy, had been hanged in the woods near Troy. We +could find no fault with the retribution that had overtaken him; for, +viewed with the eyes of his executioners, he had richly merited it: but +we had learned to like him for his frank and generous qualities, and to +make full allowance for the degree to which his rough, barbaric nature +had been outraged and inflamed by the wrongs inflicted on his family. + + * * * * * + +A returning patrol one afternoon led to the parade-ground a sorry +horse drawing an open wagon in which were a man and a woman. The woman +had a cold-blooded, stolid look, and her eyes were filled with the +overflowing hatred we so often inspired among her sex at the South. Her +husband was dressed in black, and wore a rather scrupulously brushed +but over-old silk hat. In his hand was a ponderous and bulging cotton +umbrella. + +They had been taken "under suspicious circumstances" at a house a few +miles outside the lines,--the suspicion attaching only to the fact that +they were not members of the family and seemed to have no particular +business in that region. When asked for an explanation, the woman said +she had nothing to say but that her husband was a blind clergyman +intending to fulfil an engagement to preach, and that she had driven +him, as was her habit. He said nothing. It was a rule of our system to +follow Hoyle's instructions, and "when in doubt to take the trick": +this pair were remanded to the guard-house. + +As they turned away, the reverend gentleman said, in a feeble voice, +that if he could see me alone later in the evening, when he had +recovered from the shock of his capture, I might be willing to talk +with him. In the evening the Hun repaired to the dismantled warehouse +where the prisoners were lodged, to hold conversation with the +new-comers. When he came to the clergyman he found him so low spoken +that their talk fell almost to a whisper, but it was whispered that +he was to be taken alone, and subsequent disclosures led to his being +brought to headquarters. He there informed me that he was a minister +of the Methodist church, Canadian by birth and education, but married +to a lady of that region, and had been for some years engaged there in +his capacity as a circuit preacher. He was quite blind, and found it +impossible to make his rounds without being driven. + +His sympathies were with the North, and he was burning to make himself +useful in the only way left him by his infirmity. His wife was of +a suspecting disposition, and their peaceful consorting required +that she should always accompany him; but, unfortunately, she was a +violent secessionist, and he had been compelled, in the interest of +the peaceful consorting above named, to acknowledge sympathy with her +views, and to join her in her revilings of the Union army. + +All this made his position difficult, yet he believed that, if the +opportunity were given him, he could hide his intention even from her, +and could gather for us much useful information. + +He was a welcome visitor at the houses of the faithful, far and near, +and warmed their hearts with frequent and feeling exhortation, as he +gathered his little meetings at his nightly stopping-places. He was now +about starting for the southern circuit, and had appointments to preach +and to pray at every town between us and Bolivar. + +Evidently, if this man were honest in his intentions, he could be of +great service, but I suggested the difficulty that having once started +for an appointed round he could not return to bring us any information +he might receive. To this he replied that his wife believed him to be +in Forrest's service, and that he could at any time come as a spy into +our lines. + +It seemed a very questionable case, but, after consultation with Voisin +and the Hun, it was determined to give him a trial, to prevent his wife +from seeing more than was necessary of our position, and to believe so +much as we liked of the information he might give us. The conditions of +the engagement were agreed upon, and after a severe public admonition, +and threats especially appalling to his wife, he was sent outside the +lines, with hints of the serious consequences that would follow his +second capture. + +We were never quite sure that his wife was wrong in crediting him +with complicity with Forrest; but the worst that could be said of him +(and this was very likely true) was that he was pre-eminently a man +of peace, and if he gave information to both sides, it was always +information in compliance with the injunctions of his sacred calling. +The Rebel forces several times crossed into Tennessee, and came toward +us in numbers that indicated foul intentions, but, from the time +our pious friend first visited us, they invariably withdrew without +an engagement. Frequently small expeditions of our own forces went +scouting to the southward, and were checked and turned back by the +reports of this benevolent man. + +He may have kept us from the successful fulfilment of some bloody +intentions, but we had occasion to know from other sources that he +sometimes kept small detachments of our troops from falling in with +overpowering numbers of the enemy. Be the theory what it may, from +November until February there was no conflict of arms in all the +counties we traversed, and neither side advanced to within deadly range +of the other. + +The processes of this emissary were hidden and curious. He was +employed in a much more regulated manner than Dixon, and we generally +knew his whereabouts. Every interview had with him, either within our +own camp or when we were abroad, had to be so skilfully managed that no +suspicion, even in the eyes of his catlike wife, should attach to him. +He never came into our lines except as an unwilling prisoner, and was +never sent without them without dire admonition as to the consequences +of his return. + +On one occasion Pat Dixon reported that a detachment of Forrest's +command, about three hundred strong, had crossed the railroad and was +moving north in the direction of our camp. At this time the preacher +was near us, and I had an interview with him. He doubted the report, +but would investigate. I told him we would start the next day, with +five hundred men, in the direction of Trenton,--where he was to hold a +prayer-meeting at the house of one of Forrest's captains. The meeting +was held, and after it was over, the subject of the advance was talked +over very freely by the officers present, he sitting in a rapt state of +unconsciousness--his thoughts on higher things--at the chimney-corner. +Pleading an early appointment at McKenzie's Station for the following +day, he left as soon as the moon was up, and drove to the house of a +friend in the village. His wife supposed that he was coming with a +false report to lead us into a trap laid for us. + +We arrived at McKenzie's at one o'clock in the morning, after a +detestably cold, hard ride, and took up our quarters in a half-finished +and half-furnished house, where we struggled the whole night through in +the endeavor to get heat out of a fire of wet dead-wood. Early in the +morning the Hun started out, in his fiercest mood, with a small escort, +seeking for information and hunting up suspicious characters. At +breakfast-time he came upon a large family comfortably seated at table, +with our preacher and his wife as guests. + +He was asked to "sit by." "Thank you; I have come for more serious +business. Who is at the head of this house? I should like to see you +alone, sir." The trembling, invalided paterfamilias was taken into an +adjoining room, and put through the usual course of questions as to his +age, place of birth, occupation, condition as to literacy, the number +of negroes owned, the amount of land, what relatives in the Rebel army, +to what extent a sympathizer with the Rebellion, when he had last +seen any Rebel soldiers or scouts or guerillas or suspicious persons +of any description, and so on, through the tortuous and aggravating +list that only a lawyer could invent. Questions and answers were taken +down in writing. The sterner questions were spoken in a voice audible +to the terror-stricken family in the adjoining room. The man, of +course, communicated nothing, and probably knew nothing, of the least +consequence. He was sent to a third room and kept under guard. His case +disposed of, his wife was examined in like manner, and then the other +members of the family. Finally, the coast being clear, our emissary +was sent for. He came into the room chuckling with delight over +this skilful exercise of the art of deceit, in which he was himself +such an adept, and laying his hand on the Hun's arm, said, "My dear +fellow, I respect you. This has been the most brilliant dodge I ever +knew,--capital,--capital!" And he then went on to recount all that he +had heard the evening before. A large detachment of Forrest's command +was advancing under Faulkner's leadership, and they doubtless had by +this time a full report of our position, for he had met acquaintance on +the road who had reported it to him. If we were able to engage a body +of three thousand men without artillery, we might find them that night +in Trenton,--he was confident that that was about their number. + +The family were now notified that they had been guilty of a great +offence in harboring a known spy of the enemy; but they insisted +that they knew him only as a devout and active minister, and had no +suspicion, nor could they believe, that he had the least knowledge of +or interest in either army. With due warning as to the consequences +of a repetition of their crime, they were allowed to return to their +breakfast, and their guest was brought under guard to headquarters. + +Being satisfied, after a close examination of the report, that it +would be imprudent to remain so far from our camp, which could be best +reached from Trenton by another road, we left a party of observation, +and returned to Union City, directing our scout to go to the vicinity +of Trenton and bring to our detachment any information he might obtain. +Twelve hours after our arrival home, the detachment returned with the +news that Faulkner, with a large force, had moved toward Mayfield, +Kentucky, and the event proved that every item of the intelligence we +had received had been substantially correct. + +In this manner we were enabled to learn pretty definitely the +character of any movement of the enemy anywhere in Western Tennessee, +and so far as we had opportunity to investigate the reports they +generally proved to be essentially true. These two scouts were worth +more as a source of information, than would have been two regiments of +cavalry in active service. Sometimes our Methodist friend acted under +definite orders, but more often only according to his own judgment of +what was necessary. + +A few days before Christmas we received word that Forrest in person +was in Jackson, with a large force, and we moved against him with +nearly the whole body of our troops, under the command of old A. J. +himself. We reached Jackson at night, after three days' hard marching, +only to find that Forrest's army had left that morning, destroying +the bridges over the swollen rivers and making organized pursuit +impossible. We took up quarters for some days in the town, where we +enjoyed the peculiarly lovely climate of the "sunny South" with the +thermometer seven degrees below zero, six inches of snow on the ground, +and a howling wind blowing. Our own mess was very snugly entertained +at the house of a magnate, where we had an opportunity to study the +fitness of even the best Southern architecture for an Arctic winter +climate. + +On New Year's day, as we were sitting at a sumptuous dinner, and +mitigating so far as we could the annoyance to our hosts of being +invaded by a rollicking party of Northern officers, Voisin, who had +been called out, returned to the table to tell me that a man and a +woman would like to see me in my room. I was not prompt to respond, and +asked who they were. He replied, "O, who can tell? I suppose somebody +with a complaint that our men have 'taken some hams of meat' ["meat" +being the Tennessee vulgate for hog flesh only], or something of that +sort; the man seemed to have something the matter with his eyes." And +he gave me a large and expressive wink. + +Ensconced, with such comfort as large and rattling windows permitted, +before our blazing fire, sat our serene Methodist friend and his sullen +wife. Taking me aside, he told me that he had passed the previous +evening at a private house between Jackson and Bolivar in religious +exercises, which were attended by Forrest and officers of his command. +After the devotions there was much cheerful and unrestrained talk as +to the plans and prospects of the future campaign, disclosing the +fact that as there seemed no chance of doing efficient service in +Tennessee, the whole body would move at once to Central Mississippi +and operate in connection with the army in Georgia. This report, which +we had no reason to disbelieve, decided A. J. to abandon a difficult +and unpromising pursuit, and to return to Union City and Columbus. We +found, on our return, a communication from the headquarters at Memphis +to the effect that Forrest had crossed the railroad and gone far south +into Mississippi. + +We had no further service of importance or interest in this region. +"Jackson's Purchase" was thenceforward quite free from any considerable +body of the enemy; and when our clergyman found, a few weeks later, +that we were all ordered to the south, he came for a settlement of his +accounts, saying that he had been able to deceive his wife only up to +the time of our interview at Jackson, and as his life was no longer +safe in the country, he must depart for the more secure region of his +former home in Canada,--where let us hope that he has been allowed to +answer the behests of his sacred vocation with a mind single to his +pious duties, and that domestic suspicion no longer clouds his happy +hearthstone. + +Happily, neither A. J. nor Forrest himself had further occasion for his +peaceful intervention, the fortunate absence of which may have had to +do with the notable encounter between these two generals at Tupelo. + + + + +IN THE GLOAMING. + + +The sun had gone, and above the dreamy blue of the far-lying woods, +the early evening had hung the sky with mellow, summery, twilight +loveliness. + +The casements of the old house at Whittington glowed ruddy and warm +through their marvellous clustering ivy, and it was the idlest luxury +to hang over the crumbling road-wall, peopling its suggestive chambers +with the spirits of their long-gone tenants. It is a farm-house now, +and there is no available record to tell the stranger the story of +its more glorious days. No rigid history hampers the fancy, and the +strolling lover of the by-ways and roadsides of our dear Mother England +may let his imagination run with flowing rein, sweeping away the +hayricks and marigold beds, and calling back the peacocks and bagwigs +of the halcyon days. + +Perhaps for the last time in my life I was taking the breath of an +English twilight,--sweetest to those whose childhood and youth have fed +on the rhyme and tale the green old land has sent to her world-wide +brood, and who come, in riper life, to find the fancies of early years +warm and living on every side, in hedge and field, in cowslip and +primrose, in nightingale and lark. The thick-coming impressions such +musing brings are vague and dreamy, so that there seemed a shade of +unreality in the quiet voice that bade me "Good evening," and added, +"Yes, it is an engaging old house, and it has a story that you may be +glad to hear." + +It was not from perversity that I turned the subject, but no tale of +real life could have added interest to the fancies with which the old +manse had clad itself in the slowly waning day. Wayside impressions +lose their charm if too much considered, and, as my new companion was +walking toward Lichfield, I was glad to turn away and join him,--ending +a long day's tramp with the slow and quiet gait that his age compelled. +There was the least shade of the uncanny in his bearing, and his speech +was timorous and gentle. His threadbare and seedy look betokened a +native unthrift, but there was an undercurrent of refinement in his +mien and in his manner, and a trusting outlook from his large blue eyes +that made him the fittest of companions for a summer evening's walk in +a country filled with the mingled flavor of history and romance. + +He was a man of the intensest local training. To him "the County of +the City of Lichfield" was of more consequence than all Staffordshire +besides, and far more than all England and all that vague entity called +the World. Even the County of the City of Lichfield was large for his +concentrated attachment: he knew it as one must know a small town in +which he has passed the whole of a long life; but his heart lay within +the cathedral close, and the cathedral close lay deep within his +heart,--deep and warm, with its history and its traditions, its romance +and its reality, so interlaced that he had long since ceased to ask +what was real and what unreal. All was unreal in the sense of being of +more than worldly consequence in his estimation, and all real as a part +of the training of his whole life. + +To him Lichfield Cathedral was no mere pile of sculptured stone, built +round with the facts of recorded history; it was the fairy handiwork +of times and scenes long past, its walls raised by the hand of pious +enthusiasm, shattered and cemented by the strife and blood of the civil +war, hallowed by the returning glory of the Restoration, blessed by the +favor of royal presence, and now made admirable in his daily sight by +the dignity and grace of those holy men its dean and chapter. + +As it was the cathedral I had come to see, and as I had come for no +architect's measurements, for no student's lore, only to bathe in the +charmed atmosphere of its storied past, I had fallen upon a guide +after my own heart, and it was as pleasant as it was easy to lend full +credence to all he so honestly believed and told. + +In early life he had had gentler training, but he had long been a Poor +Brother of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Lichfield, and had, +for many years, held, by seniority, the right of presenting a rose, on +St. John's nativity day, to the heirs of William Juvenis (goldsmith), +who, by grants made in consideration of this ceremony, had secured +perennial prayers for the souls of his ancestors and a fragrant memory +for his own. + +Hedged about by the traditionary customs and quaint observances of an +ancient charitable foundation, deadened in a way, if you please, by the +aristocratic pauperism of his condition, my gentle companion had grown +to his present dreamy estate. + +As we reached Stow Pool, near the old parish church of St. Chad, he +pointed out the spring of pure water where, twelve hundred years ago, +this future Bishop of Lichfield--who during his hermit life supported +himself on the milk of a doe--was wont to pray naked in the water, +standing upon the stone still seen at the bottom of the well, and where +St. Ovin heard the angels sing as his good soul passed away. + +Then, with the trusting look of a little child, the Poor Brother went +on to tell of the virtues and good deeds of this holy life;--how +even the King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for the crimes he +had committed, visited the saint in person, yielded to his eloquent +persuasion, became a convert to the true faith, and banished all +idolatry from his realm; how he became the head of the church of +Lichfield and laid its strong foundations of piety and faith; and how +his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb swallowed the ill-humors +of diseased minds resorting to its serene presence, that the dust +from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, and that the shrine +built in his honor after his canonization was so sought by numberless +devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon to increase and flourish. + +To our left, as he ceased, the evening's lingering glow gilded the +silent pool, where lay the unrippled reflection of the three spires of +the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than the fairy silhouette that +stood clean-cut against the sky, and dividing with the reality the rapt +admiration of the Poor Brother of St. John's. + +We stood by the water's edge, and he turned toward the phantom spires +reversed within it, his talk wandering back to the days of the church's +troubles,--when the cathedral close was a fortress, with strong walls +and well-filled moat; when the beautiful west gate, which only our +own age was vile enough to destroy, kept stout ward against the outer +world, and protected the favored community who formed within the walls +a county independent of Lichfield and of Staffordshire. Within the +sacred pale no law had force save that of the Ecclesiastical Court, and +then, as now, none could there be taken for debt or crime save on the +warrant of the dean and chapter. + +He knew by heart the long list of bishops, and would gladly have held +me to hear of the good deeds of Langton and Hackett. He was fairly +launched in his favorite enthusiasm, and told warmly the more striking +features of the church's history, but he told them rapidly lest I +should reach the storied pile with less than a full appreciation of its +traditional interest. + +From his nervous lips I learned how King Richard II. kept Christmas +revels here with a splendor that lavished two hundred tuns of wine, +and roasted two thousand oxen, whose bones are still found in Oxenbury +field hard by; how Elizabeth passed three whole days in the close; and +how the solidity of its fortification, the consummate grace and finish +of its architecture, the richness of its sculpture, and the surpassing +beauty and magnificence of the nine windows of its lady chapel marked +it as the crowning glory of the Western Church, until the dark days +of the Revolution lowered. Then its sore trials were recounted, and +I learned of the fanatical attack of Lord Brooke, "with his horde of +impious Roundheads," made by strange fatality on St. Chad's day; of the +shooting of Lord Brooke by "Dumb Dyott," who was perched in the steeple +with a fowling-piece that now hangs over the fireplace of Colonel +Dyott's house; of the surrender of the close by Lord Chesterfield; of +the sack and bout that followed; of the recapture by Prince Rupert. + +He told of the foul desecration by the Roundheads, who used every +species of havoc, plunder, and profanation,--pulling down the sacred +effigies which were the glory of the western front, hacking to pieces +the curious carvings of the choir, mashing the noses of the monumental +statues, destroying the valuable evidences and records of the church +and the city, shattering the glass of the costly windows,--save only +that of the marvellous nine of the lady chapel, which a pious care was +said to have removed to a place of safety. They kept courts of guard in +the cross aisles, broke up the pavements, and every day hunted a cat +with hounds throughout the church, delighting in the echoes from the +vaulted roof; they wrapped a calf in linen, and "in derision and scorn +of the sacrament of baptism," sprinkled it at the font and gave it a +name. + +How the King, after the defeat of Naseby, came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, +and passed the night in the close,--how Cromwell's defaming crew +completed the work of demolition and desecration, and smashed the old +bell called "Jesus," with its legend "I am the bell of Jesus, and +Edward is our King; Sir Thomas Heywood first causéd me to ring,"--how, +finally, the chapter-house alone had a roof under which service might +be said,--how the good Hackett on the first day of his bishopric set +his own servants and his own coach-horses at work removing the rubbish, +and never tired until in eight years' time the magnificence of the +cathedral was restored, except for the forever irreparable loss of the +decorations, and especially of the lady chapel windows, which all the +cost of the restoration would not have sufficed to renew,--how the +church was reconsecrated with great pomp and solemnity,--all this he +told me in detail, and he would gladly have told more, for this Poor +Brother had made these few rich historic acres nearly his whole world, +and had peopled it with all who throughout the long ages had marred it +or had made it. To have given "two good trees" for the rebuilding of +the church was a title to his lasting and grateful recognition. + +But the light was fast waning, and the cathedral must be seen now or +perhaps never. It was already past the hour for closing, but one of +the vergers had formerly been a Poor Brother of St. John's, and my +companion went to him to secure our admission. + +I stood before the west front of the cathedral, which was then bathed +in the lingering light of the after-day, its great central window +gleaming as though the altar lamps were still burning behind it, and +the western spires almost losing themselves in the sky. The quaint +effigies that fill the niches across the whole façade lost their +grotesqueness in the dusk, and seemed really the sacred sculptures they +were meant to be. Fair though this rich front must be at high midday, +it needs for its full beauty the half-light of a Northern evening. As +seen on that rarest of all evenings, it was a fit introduction to the +subdued glory which greeted us in the dim religious light to which we +entered as the great central door closed behind us. + +We stood, uncovered and reverent, beneath the vaulted nave, looking +down the long curved aisle, bordered by the majesty of the clustered +columns, through the light illuminated screen of the choir, full upon +the sculptured and gem-set alabaster reredos, above and beyond which +stood the famed group of windows of the lady chapel, mellowed by the +light of the streaming full moon. + +Rich in the blended mosaic of the floor, in the dimmed canopy overhead, +in the lightly arched gallery of the triforium, in the mellow +cross-lights of the side windows, in the sombre carvings of the choir, +and above all in the marvellous glass of the chapel, it was the very +perfection of a worshipful church. + +It was too nearly dark to examine the details of the decoration, and we +wandered down the aisles, remarking here and there the bruised statues +of the tombs, and halting before the sleeping children of Chantrey to +marvel how much somnolent repose can be cut in chiselled stone. + +"But come," said the gentle Brother, "we have only light enough left +for the storied glass which alone of all the richness of the old church +outlived its desecration, and, as by a miracle, was preserved to tell +these later generations of the higher art our forefathers' sons forgot." + +As he spoke, we stood within the charmed light of the nine windows of +the apse,--windows which have perhaps no remaining equals in the world, +and before which one can only bow in admiration and regret for an art +that seems forever lost. Holding me fast by the arm, he went on:-- + +"In the restoration of the church, the spandrels of the old windows +were rebuilt, and the frames were set with plain glass, to the sad +defacement of the edifice; and so they stood for nigh two hundred +years, no art being equal to their worthy replacement, and no ancient +store to the supplying of so large a demand. + +"But listen, now, how the hand of Heaven sheltered its own, and how +true servants of the Church are ever guided to reclaim its lost +splendor. + +"A few years ago, a canon of the cathedral, travelling in Flanders, +wishing to contribute to the renewed work of restoration, visited the +dismantled convent of Herkenrode in the ancient bishopric of Liege. +Here he sought among the rubbish of the lumber-room for wood-carvings +which might be used in the rebuilding of the prebendal stalls. His +search discovered many boxes of colored glass, the origin of which no +one knew, and whose existence even had been forgotten. Thinking to +embellish some of the curious triangular windows above the triforium, +he purchased the whole store for two hundred pounds of our money, and +presented it to the dean and chapter as a tribute of affectionate +devotion to the cathedral. There was more than he had supposed, and the +large figures of some of the fragments indicated a coherent design. + +"This chapel was fenced off from the aisles, and here the canon's wife +and daughter, devoting themselves to the solution of the puzzle, slowly +pieced out the varying connections. They worked patiently for weeks, +with a steadily increasing excitement of success, until [and here his +grasp grew tremulous and close], lying collated on this pavement where +we stand, only a bit wanting here and there, marking the exact sizes +of the varied openings, the grand old Lichfield windows, perfect as +you see them now in this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich +forevermore the dear old church to whose glory they had shone in the +bygone centuries, and whose sore trials their absence had so long +recalled. + +"Kind stranger," said he, "this is a true tale. Sceptics have +questioned it, but it is true! true! And I thank Heaven that it has +been permitted to me, who have grown old in the love of this sacred +pile, to live to see, in this crowning act of its restoration, the +higher help the hand of man has had in performing its holy work." + +His upturned blue eyes were moistened with tears, and his voice +trembled with emotion. I led him gently away and to the doorstep of +the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted in silence, and +forever. + +Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train for Liverpool and home, +bringing with me an ideal Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have +been rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day. + + + + +FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND. + + +On entering the Regent Hotel at Leamington the first object that +attracts attention, after the stuffy old porter who hobbles about +to see some one else handle the luggage, is a small frame, over the +smoking coal-fire, which contains the following notice, decorated with +an old cut of a fox's mask:-- + + MERRY & CO.'S HUNTING APPOINTMENTS, AND GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENT COVERTS. + + December 30, 1872. + + WARWICKSHIRE,--at 10.45. + + _Days._ _Meet at_ _Miles._ _To go through_ + M. Goldicote House. 11. Wellerbourne and Loxley. + Tu. Radway Grange. 12. Tachbrook and Kineton. + W. Snitterfield. 7. Warwick and Stratford Road. + Th. Red Hill. 13. Warwick and Snitterfield. + F. Pebworth. 16. Warwick and Stratford. + + NORTH WARWICKSHIRE,--at 11. + + M. Solihull. 14. Warwick and Hatton. + Tu. Cubbington Gate. 2. Lillington. + Th. Stoneleigh Abbey. 4. On Kenilworth Road. + F. Tile Hill. 9. By Kenilworth Castle. + + PYTCHLEY,--at 10.45. + + M. Naseby. 26. Princethorpe and Rugby. + Tu. Hazlebeach. 31. Dunchurch and Crick. + W. Dingley. 33. Rugby and Swinford. + F. Cransley. 36. Maidwell. + S. Swinford. 19. Princethorpe and Rugby. + + ATHERSTONE,--at 11. + + M. Coombe. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + W. Harrow Inn Gate. 20. Coventry and Nuneaton. + F. Brinklow Station. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + S. Corley. 14. Stoneleigh and Coventry. + + BICESTER,--at 10.45. + + M. Fenny Compton. 12. Radford and Ladbrook. + Tu. Trafford Bridge. 19. Southam and Wormleighton. + Th. Hellidon. 14. Southam and Priory Marston. + S. Steeple Claydon. 40. Gaydon and Banbury. + +Twenty-two meets in the week, all within easy reach, by road or +rail. Let us dine and decide. At table we will leave the _menu_ to +the waiter; but let him bring for consideration during the meal the +list of _meets_. "Brinklow Station, twelve miles"; that seems the most +feasible thing in the catalogue for the morrow, and who has not heard +that the Atherstone is a capital pack? But then the Pytchley is even +better known, and the train reaches Rugby in time for the meet. Let +the choice be decided with the help of coffee and cigars and possible +advice, during the soothing digestive half-hour in the smoking-room. +Dinner over, wander away through the tortuous, dim passage that leads +to the sombre hall where alone in English inns the twin crimes of +billiards and smoking are permitted, and, while writhing under the +furtive glances of the staid and middle-aged East-Indian who evidently +knows you for an American, and who is your only companion, decide, +with your nation's ability to reach conclusions without premises, +whether it shall be Pytchley or Atherstone. Don't ask your neighbor: +he is an Englishman, and have we not been told that Englishmen are +gruff, reticent men, who wear thick shells, and whose warm hearts can +be reached only with the knife of a regular introduction? However, you +must make up your mind what to do, and you need help which neither +the waiter nor the porter can give; the "gentlemanly clerk" does not +exist in England (thank Heaven!) and you have not yet learned what an +invaluable mine of information "Boots" is,--faithful, useful, helpful, +and serviceable to the last degree. I salute him with gratitude for +all he has done to make life in English hotels almost easier and more +home-like than in one's own house. It is safe to advise all travellers +to make him an early ally, to depend on him, to use him, almost to +abuse him, and, finally, on leaving, to "remember" him. Not yet having +come to know the Boots, I determined to throw myself on the tender +mercies of my stern, silent companion, and I very simply stated my +case. My stern, silent companion was an exception to the rule, and he +told me all I wanted to know (and more than I knew I needed to know) +with a cordiality and frankness not always to be found among the genial +smokers of our own hotels. His voice was in favor of the Atherstone as +being the most acceptable thing for the next day. + +Ford, the veterinary surgeon of Leamington, had, on several +occasions, done good service for friends who had gone before me over +the hedges of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for advice about a +mount. Here I found that I had made a mistake in not engaging horses in +advance. To get a "hunter" for the next day would be impossible, but +he would do what he could for a few days hence. All he could promise +for the morning would be to lend me a horse of his own, a thoroughbred +mare, not up to my weight, but tough and wiry, and good for any amount +of road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange for our going by the +first train to Coventry, only a couple of miles from Brinklow (it +turned out to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh on the +ground. At seven o'clock in the morning he came to my room to say +that everything was arranged, and that I should find the mare at the +station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk as a stay-stomach,--my +usual habit,--I put myself, for the first time since the war ended, +into breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On a turn-out stood +a "horse-box," one of the institutions of England,--a three-stabled +freight-car for the transportation of horses. Paying five shillings for +a horse-ticket to Coventry (only twice the cost of my own seat), I saw +the mare snugly packed into one of the narrow stalls and made fast for +the journey. Passing through a beautiful farming country, we came in +due time to the quaint old town of Coventry, where several horse-boxes, +coming from Birmingham and other stations, were discharging their +freight of well-bred hunters. As we rode from this station another +hard-shelled Englishman in brown top-boots and spotless white leather +breeches accosted me pleasantly, reminding me that we had come from +London together the day before, and asking, as he had recognized me for +an American, if he could be of service to me. + +"Pray how did you know that I am from America?" + +"Only by your asking if you should change 'cars' at Rugby. An +Englishman would have said 'carriages.'" + +"Very well; I am glad my ear-mark was no greater. Can you direct me to +a hotel where I can get a bite before I go on?" + +"Certainly: you will find the Angel very comfortable; take the next +street to the right, and you will soon reach it. Good morning; it is +nine miles to the meet, and I will move on slowly. Command me if I can +help you when you come up." + +I did find the Angel comfortable, (as what English inn is not?) and +soon fortified myself with cold pheasant and sherry,--a compact +and little-burdensome repast to ride upon,--served in a cosey old +coffee-room by the neatest and most obliging of handmaidens. + +On the road I fell in with straggling groups of horsemen, in red coats +and black coats, leather breeches and cords, white tops and black; +all neat and jaunty, and all wearing the canonical stove-pipe hat. My +little mare was brisk, and I had no hard riding to save her for, so I +passed a dozen or more of the party, getting from each one some form or +other of pleasant recognition, and finally from a handsome young fellow +on a very spicy mount, "Excuse me, are you going to Brinklow? You must +turn to the right." + +Confound these Englishmen, thought I, where is their traditional +coldness and reserve? And I reined up for a chat. + +My companion came from the vicinity of Birmingham. Like so many of +his class, he devotes three days a week to systematic hunting, and +he was as enthusiastic as an American boy could have been in telling +me all I wanted to know about the sport. To get hold of a grown man +who had never seen a foxhound seemed an event for him, and my first +instructions were very agreeably taken. Our road ran past the beautiful +deer-stocked park of Coombe Abbey, where the green grass of a moist +December and the thick clustering growth of all-embracing ivy carried +the fresh hues of our summer over the wide lawn and to the very tops +of the trees about the grand old house. The few villages on our way +were neither interesting nor pleasant, but the thatched farm-houses and +cottages, and the wonderful ivy, and the charming fields and hedges +were all that could have been asked. + +And then the roadsides! and the stiles and the foot-paths, and the +look of age and the richness of the well-kept farms; and again and +everywhere the ivy clinging fast to each naked thing, and clothing it +with luxuriant beauty! + +There is in all our hearts an inherited chord that thrills in the +presence of this dear old home of our race. Not this spot and not these +scenes, but the air, the tone, the spirit of it all,--these are as +familiar to our instincts as water to the hen-brooded duckling. + +Brinklow Station has the modern hideousness and newness of railroad +stations everywhere in country neighborhoods, and it was pleasant to +leave it behind and follow the gay crowd down a sloping and winding +road into the real country again, and into a handsome and well-kept +park, beyond which there stood a fine old house of some pretension, and +well set about with terraced lawn and shrubbery,--a charming English +country-seat. + +Here my eyes were greeted with the glory of my first "meet," and a +glory it was indeed! Pictures and descriptions had suggested it, but +they had only suggested it. This was the reality, and it far exceeded +my anticipation. The grounds were fairly alive with a brilliant +company of men and women,--happy and hearty, and just gathered for the +day's sport. Red coats, white breeches, and top-boots were plenty, +and the neat holiday air of the whole company was refreshing and +delightful. Scattered about singly and in groups, mounted, on foot, +and in carriages, were a couple of hundred people of all ages and of +all conditions. Chatting from the saddle and over carriage-doors, +lounging up and down the Drive, or looking over the hounds, the +company were leisurely awaiting the opening of the ball. They had +come from a circuit of twenty miles around, and they appeared to be +mainly people who habitually congregate at the cover-side throughout +the hunting-season, and to be generally more or less acquainted with +each other. The element of coquetry was not absent; but coquetry is +apparently not a natural product of the English soil, and that sort +of intercourse was not conspicuous. The same number of handsome young +men and women would be more demonstrative at a similar gathering +in America. A similar gathering, however, would not be possible in +America. We have no occasion on which people of all sorts come so +freely and so naturally together, interested in a traditional and +national sport, which is alike open to rich and poor, and meeting, +not for the single occasion only, but several times a week, winter +after winter, often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, farmers, +manufacturers, professional men, snobs, cads, errand-boys,--everybody, +in short, who cared to come seemed to have the right to come, and, so +far as the hunt was concerned, seemed to be on an equal footing. Of +course the poorer element was comparatively small, and mainly from the +immediate neighborhood. The _habitués_ of a hunt are seldom below the +grade of well-to-do farmers. Servants from the house were distributing +refreshments, riders were mounting their hunters, grooms were adjusting +saddle-girths, too fiery animals were being quieted, and there was +generally an air of preparation about the whole assemblage. + +A little at one side, kept well together by the huntsman and a couple +of whippers-in, were the hounds (the Atherstone pack), about forty of +them, or, technically, "twenty couples," strong-limbed, large-eared, +party-colored, wholesome-looking fellows. They attracted much attention +and elicited frequent commendation, for they were said to be the very +finest pack in England,--as was also each of the three other packs that +I saw. To the unskilled eye, and simply viewed as dogs, they were not +remarkable; but it was a case in which the judgment of an unskilled +person could have no value. + +The horses appealed to me much more strongly. Certainly I had never +before seen together the same number of the same average excellence; +and some of them were fit to drive one wild with envy. There was, on +the whole, less of the "blood" look than would be expected by a man who +had got his ideas of the hunting-field from Leech's drawings, but there +was a good deal of it, nevertheless, and in its perfection too; and +where it was wanting there was plenty of bone to make up for it. + +At eleven the hounds were led out to the cover, and the whole field +followed slowly and irregularly and at some distance. There were about +one hundred and fifty mounted for the hunt. Perhaps one third of these +wore scarlet coats, white breeches, and top-boots; another third had +black coats and some of them black boots; and the remainder of the +field was made up of half a dozen ladies, a few stout old gentlemen of +seventy or so on stout old cobs of discreet age, little boys on smart +ponies, farmers and tradesmen and their clerks mounted on whatever they +could get, and men of every intermediate grade, and with all sorts of +horses. A certain amount of riff-raff, not mounted at all, but good +on their pins and ready for a run, were hanging about for a chance to +pick up a whip or a hat, or to catch a horse, or brush a muddy coat, or +turn an honest shilling in any way that might offer in the chances of +the day. Some of these fellows, rigged out with the cast-off clothing +of their betters, sported red coats, black velvet caps, and leather +leggings. One added to all this gorgeousness the refinement of bare +feet. + +The hounds were taken into the cover, a brambly, tangled wood near by, +which had probably been planted and made a little wilderness to serve +as a cover for foxes. + +They soon found a fox, drove him to the open, and followed him out of +the wood with a whimpering sort of cry which was disappointing after +the notion that the "full cry" of the books had given, and which is +heard in the very different fox-hunting of our Southern woods. The run +lay up a steepish hill, several fields wide and across an open country. +One bold rider (not a light one), mounted on a staving black horse, +went to the right of the cover, and made a splendid leap up hill, +over a stiff-looking hedge, and landed at the tail of the pack. The +"master" and his assistants had got away with the hounds. The rest of +the field went to the left, waiting their turns, through a farm-gate. +Once through, some twenty of them dashed up the hill, cleared a clever +hedge, and kept the pack in sight. The rest took an easier place, +where a farm laborer had pulled away the stakes by which a gap had +been filled. Here there was much very light jumping, and much more of +waiting until predecessors had made it lighter. In the mean time other +gaps were found, and it was not many minutes before all were through; +but during these minutes the fox, the hounds, and the harder riding men +were putting a wide space between themselves and us, who were at the +tail of the field. Yet there were some in the party who did not look +like laggards, and whose horses were good enough for any work such a +country could give them. + +Even when across the gap, these men went with the rest of us, by +gates and lanes, toward a point to which it was thought by the knowing +ones that the fox would double,--and the knowing ones were right. +Gradually, as their judgment indicated, they left the roads and took to +the fields. This course was taken by three well-mounted young ladies. +I followed the gate-openers for about half an hour, when, coming out +on a high-road, I concluded that, with seventeen miles to ride home, +it was only just to my little mare to give the thing up and head for +Leamington. The hounds were far away on my right and quite out of sight. + +Having come to look on and learn, I had probably seen and heard all +that day had in store for me,--surely enough for one's first day at +fox-hunting. When I had ridden for a few minutes I saw, far across +the fields, that the hounds had turned to the left and were making +for my road. Pressing forward, I came up in time to see them cross to +the front, and go scurrying away over the grass, nosing out the scent +as they ran. There had been a check, and "the field" was well up. The +road was lower than the fields, and was bordered by a ditch at each +side. From this the ground rose a little, and on each bank stood a +three-and-a-half-foot thorn hedge. Neither leap was difficult, but the +one out of the road was not easy. Here I sat and saw fully a hundred +horsemen, dressed in the gay colors of the hunting-field and mounted +as men rarely are mounted out of England, all, horses as well as men, +eager and excited in the chase, flying over hedge and ditch into the +carriage-way and over ditch and hedge into the higher field, beyond +and away, headlong after the hounds, every man for himself, and every +man for the front, and on they went over another hedge, and out of +sight. In the thick of the flight were two ladies, riding as well and +as boldly as the men, and two men were brushing their hats in the road, +their empty saddles keeping well up with the run. More than satisfied +with this climax of my first day's experience, I trotted out for home. +The result of the run I never heard, and I leave its description where +I lost sight of it. A mile farther on I did see a fagged-looking fox +making his rapid way across my road again, and sneaking off under the +hedge toward a thicket, and I halted to listen to what sounded like the +horn of a huntsman at check over the hill to the left; but possibly the +conclusion I drew was not a correct one. + +I wish that words could give an idea of the life and action of the +headlong flight I had just seen; but the inadequacy of all I had read +to convey it to me makes it seem useless to try. Photography and +description may, in a measure, supply the place of travel; but he who +would realize the most thrilling intensity of eager horsemanship must +stand in a hedge-bound English lane, and see with his own eyes, and +for the first time in his life, a hundred gayly dressed and splendidly +mounted fox-hunters flashing at full speed across his path; and it is +worth the while to see. + +Rain never fell on a more lovely country than that part of Warwickshire +through which my wet way lay. For ten miles of the seventeen it rained, +gently as it rains with us in April; nor is our grass more green in +April than this was in Christmas week. The all-prevailing ivy was +filled with berries, and the laurustinus was already in bloom. + +No born Englishman could have cared less for the soaking rain; and, +wet to the skin, tired to the bone, and stiff to the marrow, I have +rarely been more exuberant than when I gradually regained the use of my +legs in the half-mile walk to the hotel, resolving that not even the +glories of American citizenship should ever keep me away from England +in winter were I only able to afford the luxury of regular hunting. But +the exuberance was moral rather than physical. I had not been so tired +for years,--stiff as an old horse, after over thirty miles of really +hard riding (the last seventeen miles in two hours). The cure was a +hot bath and a dish of hot soup, followed by a log-like sleep of two +hours on a sofa before a blazing hot fire, a sharp half-hour's walk, +a very plain dinner, and a couple of hours' chat with my interested +East-Indiaman in the smoking-room: the cure was complete; and all that +was left of the day's sport was its brilliant recollection. + + * * * * * + +My second day was near Stratford-on-Avon,--on _Ay_-von, the misguided +English call it. The meet was to be at Goldicote House, one of the +"fixtures" of the Warwickshire Hunt. There were about a hundred +persons, including a few ladies, and one little bareheaded "blue-coat" +school-boy (from Charles Lamb's school), who, with his folded umbrella, +long skirt, low shoes, and yellow hose, was in for as much sport as +his Christmas holiday could give him. As a farther penalty for want of +forethought, I was reduced to riding a friend's coach-horse. However, +the reduction was not great, for whether by early instruction or by +inheritance, he was more than half a hunter, and gave me a capital +look at the whole day's chase; while his owner, on a most charming +black blood mare, being out of condition for hard riding, kindly +applied himself to urging me to severer work than one likes to do +with a borrowed horse. He introduced me to a venerable old gentleman +in a time-and-weather-stained red coat, velvet cap, and well-used +nether gear, mounted on a knowing-looking old gray, and attended by +his granddaughter. He could not have been less than eighty years old, +and his days of hard riding were over; but constant hunting exercise +every winter for over sixty years had protected him wonderfully well +against the ravages of time, and it is rare to see an American of +sixty so hale and hearty, and so cheerful and jolly. I was told that +if I would take him for my leader, I would see more of the run than I +could in any other way with such a mount as I had. He seemed to know +the habits of the foxes of South Warwickshire as thoroughly as he did +every foot-path and gate of the country, and he led us by cross-cuts to +the various points to which Reynard circled, so that we often had the +whole field in sight. It was not an especially interesting day, and the +fox got away at last, among a tangle of railway lines that blocked our +passage. My old mentor, who had given me much valuable instruction in +the details of hunting, was vastly disgusted at the result, and broke +out with, "Ah! it's all up with old England, I doubt; these confounded +railways have killed sport. There's no hunting to be had any longer, +for their infernal cutting up the country in this way. I've hunted with +these hounds under fifteen different masters, but I've about done, and +I sha'n't lose much,--it's all up. However, I suppose we could never +pay the interest on the national debt without the railways; but it's +all up with hunting." At that, he called away the young lady, bade me +a melancholy "good-by," and rode half sadly home. I galloped back to +Stratford with my handsome old host,--a little more knowing in the ways +of the field, but without yet having had a fair taste of the sport. + + * * * * * + +Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal little village of +Wansford, near the borders of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, +perhaps, the only remaining old posting-inn in England that is kept up +in the unchanged style of the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are +gone, but the posting-stables are filled with hunters; the travelling +public have fled to the swifter lines, and Wansford is forever deserted +of them; but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and Tom Percival, +who boasts that he has had the Princess Victoria for a guest, and has +slept five dukes in one night, has little occasion to complain of +neglect. The good wine that needs no bush still makes his cellar known, +and no one should criticise English cooking until he has dined once at +the Haycock. Nowhere is the inn-maid of whom we have read so much to be +found in such simple, tidy, and courtesying perfection; and nowhere, in +short, can one find so completely the solid comfort of hostelry life. +Half old farm-house and half wayside-inn; with a marvellous larder, +through whose glass-closed side the guest sees visions of joints and +jams and pastry in lavish profusion; backed by a stable-yard where boys +are always exercising good horses; and flanked by a yardful of quaint +clipped yews,--the old house at Wansford (in spite of its dull-looking +road front) is worth a visit from those who would get out of the sight +and sound of steam, and see the old, old country life of England. +The visitor is not numbered and billeted and pigeon-holed, as in the +modern hotel; but the old fiction of host and guest is well kept up. +Your coming should be announced in advance; and you are received as +in some sort a member of the family, whose ways are made to conform +more or less to the wishes of yourself and your convives, mainly young +swells from London, who are few, and who are there, as you are, not for +business, but for rest, good living, and regular sport. Three packs +of hounds are within reach; and on the days when none of the meets is +near, there is always the "larking"--the training of young horses--to +supply a good substitute, so far as the riding goes. One who cares for +hunting pure and simple, rather than for the gayer life of Leamington +and Cheltenham, cannot do better than to make the season, or a part of +it, at the Haycock, with regularly engaged horses for as many days in +the week as he may choose to ride. It costs,--but it pays. One is none +the less welcome among the guests for being an American. + +I there had a day with the George Fitz William hounds. Not being, as +yet, quite at home in the field, I took a wise old horse, "Cock Robin," +who was well up to my weight, and who, as Percival told me, would +teach me more than I could teach him. He was sent on early with the +other hunters, and I took a "hack" to ride to cover. We were a party +of four, and we went through the fields and the lawns and the rain, +to where the meet was fixed for eleven o'clock, at Barnwell Castle, a +fine old Norman ruin,--square and low, with four large corner towers +draped in magnificent ivy. It was a dreary morning, and not more than +sixty were out; but among these, as always, there were ladies, and +there was more than the usual proportion of fine horses. One cover +was drawn blank, and we moved to another, where a fox was found, and +whence the run was sharp and too straight for a prudent novice to see +very much of it; and it was some minutes before Cock Robin and his +rider came up with the hounds, who had come to a check in a large wood. +Throughout the day there was a good deal of waiting about different +covers, between which the fox ran back and forth. Finally he broke away +for a long, quick burst over the fields, which lay to the left of a +farm-road down which we were riding, and which was flanked by a high +and solid-looking hedge. Near the head of the party was a well-mounted +blonde of seventeen, who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country +and to keep prudently near to her mother and her groom. The sight of +the splendid run, fast leaving us behind, was too much for her, and she +turned straight for the hedge, clearing it with a grander leap than I +had seen taken that day, and flying on over hedges and ditches in the +direct wake of the hounds. A young German who followed her said, as +we rode back to the Haycock, "It is vort to come from America or from +Owstria to see zat lofely Lady ---- go over ze cowntry"; and it was. + +Luck often favors the timid; Cock Robin and I were quite alone--he +disgusted, and I half ashamed with my prudence--when the fox, who had +found straight running of no avail, came swerving to the right over +the crest of a distant hill, closely followed by the hounds, and, in +splendid style, by the first flight of the field. Soon he crossed a +brook which was fenced in with rails, and the horsemen all had to make +a long détour, so that I, who had been last, now became first. I had +the fox and the hounds all to myself; my horse was fresh, and the way +was easy. My monopoly lasted only a moment, but it was not a moment of +tranquillity. Finding an open gate and bridge, I followed the pack into +a large low field, surrounded on three sides by the wide brook. The fox +was turned by this and ran to the right along the bank; at the corner +of the field he turned again to the right, still keeping by the edge of +the stream; this gave the hounds an immense advantage, and cutting off +the angle, they came so closely upon him that with still another turn +of the brook ahead of him, he had but one chance for his life, and that +was a desperate one for a tired fox to consider. He did not consider, +but went slap at the brook, and cleared it with a leap of nearly twenty +feet. The foremost hounds whimpered for a moment on the bank before +they took to the water, and when they were across Reynard was well out +of sight, and they had to nose out his trail afresh. He brought them +again to a check, and finally, after half an hour's skirmishing, he ran +down a railway cutting in the wake of a train, and got away. + +Incidentally, here was an opportunity for an English gentleman to show +more good temper and breeding than it is one's daily lot to see. He was +one of a bridgeful of horsemen watching the hounds as they vainly tried +to unravel the fox's scent from the bituminous trail of the locomotive, +when, full of eager curiosity, one of the ladies, middle-aged and not +"native and to the manner born," but not an American, rode directly +on to his horse's heels. To the confusion of my lady, the horse, like +a sensible horse as he was, resented the attack with both his feet. +His rider got him at once out of the way, and then returned, bowing +his venerable head in regretful apology, and trusting that no serious +harm had been done. "How can you ride such a kicking brute!" was the +gracious acknowledgment of his forbearance. + +In this storied little island one is never for long out of the presence +of places on the traditions of which our life-long fancies have been +fed. Our road home lay past the indistinct mass of rubbish, clustered +round with ivy and with the saddest associations, which was once +Fotheringay Castle; and as we turned into the village my companions +pointed out the still serviceable but long-unused "stocks" where the +minor malefactors of the olden time expiated their offences. + +We reached the Haycock at three, a moist but far from unpleasant body +of tired and dirty men, having ridden, since nine in the morning, over +fifty-five miles, mostly in the rain, and often in a shower of mud +splashed by galloping hoofs. By six o'clock we were in good trim for +dinner, and after dinner for a long, cosey talk over the events of the +day, and horses and fox-hunting in general. My own interest in the +sport is confined mainly to its equestrian side, and I am not able to +give much information as to its details. Any stranger must be impressed +with the firm hold it has on the affections of the people, and with the +little public sympathy that is shown for the rare attempts that are +made to restrict its rights. + +It would seem natural that the farmers should be its bitter +opponents. It can hardly be a cheerful sight, in March, for a thrifty +man to see a crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his twenty acres of +well-wintered wheat, filling the air with a spray of soil and uprooted +plants. But let a non-riding reformer get up after the annual dinner +of the local Agricultural Association and suggest that the rights of +tenant-farmers have long enough lain at the mercy of their landlord and +his fox-hunting friends, with the rabble of idle sports and ruthless +ne'er-do-weels who follow at their heels, and that it is time for them +to assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition of a costly +pastime, which leads to no good practical result, and the burdens of +which fall so heavily on the producing classes,--and then see how his +brother farmers will second his efforts. The very man whose wheat was +apparently ruined will tell him that in March one would have said the +whole crop was destroyed, but that the stirring up seemed to do it +good, for he had never before seen such an even stand on that field. +Another will argue that while hunting does give him some extra work in +the repair of hedges and gates, and while he sometimes has his fields +torn up more than he likes, yet the hounds are the best neighbors he +has; they bring a good market for hay and oats, and, for his part, he +likes to get a day with them himself now and then. Another raises a +young horse when he can, and if he turns out a clever fencer, he gets a +much larger price for him than he could if there were no hunting in the +country. Another has now and then lost poultry by the depredations of +foxes, but he never knew the master to refuse a fair claim for damages; +for his part, he would scorn to ask compensation; he likes to see the +noble sport, which is the glory of England, flourishing, in spite of +modern improvements. At this point, and at this stage of the convivial +cheer, they bring in the charge at Balaklava, and other evidences that +the noble sport, which is the glory of old England, breeds a race of +men whose invincible daring always has won and always shall win her +honor in the field;--and Long live the Queen, and Here's a health to +the Handley Cross Hunt, and Confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit +that is filling the country with wire fences and that would do away +with the noble sport which is the glory of old England! Hear! hear!! +And so it ends, and half the company, in velvet caps, scarlet coats, +leathers and top-boots, will be early on the ground at the first meet +of the next autumn, glad to see their old cover-side friends once more, +and hoping for a jolly winter of such healthful amusements and pleasant +intercourse as shall put into their heads and their hearts and into +their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold compensation for the +trifling loss they may sustain in the way of broken gates and trampled +fields. + +I saw too little to be able to form a fair opinion as to the harm +done; but when once the run commences no more account is made of wheat, +which is carefully avoided when going at a slow pace, than if it were +so much sawdust; fences are torn down, and there is no time to replace +them; if gates are locked, they are taken off the hinges or broken; if +sheep join the crowd in an enclosure and follow them into the road, no +one stops to see that they are returned: we are after the hounds, and +sheep must take care of themselves. I saw one farmer, in an excited +manner, open the gates of his kitchen-garden and turn the hounds and +twenty horsemen through it as the shortest way to where he had seen the +fox go; his womenfolk eagerly calling "Tally-ho!" to others who were +going wrong. I have never seen a railroad train stopped because of the +conductor's interest in a passing hunt, but I fancy that is the only +thing in England that does not stop when the all-absorbing interest is +once awakened. + +Whatever may be the effect on material interests, the benefit of this +eager, vigorous, outdoor life on the health and morals of the people +is most unmistakable. Such a race of handsome, hale, straight-limbed, +honest, and simple-hearted men can nowhere else be found as in the wide +class that passes as much of every winter as is possible in regular +fox-hunting; and to make an application of their example, we could well +afford to give over many of our fertile fields to ruthless destruction, +and many of our fertile hours to the most senseless sport, if it would +only replace our dyspeptic stomachs, sallow cheeks, stooping shoulders, +and restless eagerness with the hale and hearty and easy-going life +and energy of our English cousins. Hardly enough women hunt in England +to constitute an example; but those who do are such models of health +and freshness as to make one wish that more women had the benefit of +such amusement both there and here. It is very common to see men of +over sixty following the hounds in the very _élite_ of the field; they +seem still in the vigor of youth. At seventy many are yet regular at +their work; and it is hardly remarkable when one finally hangs up his +red coat only at the age of eighty. Considering all this, it almost +becomes a question whether, patriotism to the contrary notwithstanding, +it would not be a good thing for a prosperous American, instead of +settling down at the age of forty-five to a special partnership and a +painful digestion, to take a smaller income where it would bring more +comfort, and by a judicious application of the pig-skin to rehabilitate +his enfeebled alimentation. + +Fox-hunting is a costly luxury if one goes well mounted and well +appointed. It can hardly be made cheap, even when one lives in his +own house and rides his own horses. With hotel bills and horse-hire, +it costs still more. As an occasional indulgence it is always a good +investment. My own score at the Haycock was as follows,--by way of +illustration, and because actual figures are worth more than estimates. +(I was there from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, went out +with a shooting-party on Friday, dined out on Friday night, and hunted +on Saturday.) + + THE HAYCOCK INN. + + £ _s._ _d._ + Jan. 2. Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Bed and fire, 3 6 + " 3. Breakfast, 2 6 + Apartments,[A] bed and fire, 5 0 + Attendance,[B] 1 6 + Jan. 4. Breakfast, 2 6 + Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Apartments, bed and fire, 5 6 + Attendance, 1 6 + " 5. Breakfast, 2 6 + + STABLE. + + Conveying luggage from station, 2 6 + Dog-cart to Sharks Lodge, 10 6 + " " " Oundle, 12 6 + " " " Peterborough, 8 0 + + THOMAS PERCIVAL. + + Jan. 4. Hire of hunter to Barnwell, 4 4 0 + " hack " " 10 6 + +[A] The run of the house. + +[B] We are apt to consider this a petty swindle, but it has the +advantage that you get what you pay for. + +Eight pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; which being interpreted +means $47.30 in the lawful currency of the United States. The hunter +and hack for one day cost $23.52. + +An American friend living with his family in Leamington (much more +cheaply than he could live at home), kept two hunters and a hack, and +hunted them twice a week for the whole season (nearly six months) at a +cost, including the loss on his horses, which he sold in the spring, of +less than $1,500. I think this is below the average expense. + +The cost of keeping up a pack of hounds is very heavy. The hounds +themselves, a well-paid huntsman, two or three whippers-in, two +horses a day for each of these attendants (hunting four days a week, +this would probably require four horses for each man), and no end of +incidental expenses, bring the cost to fully $20,000 per annum. This is +sometimes paid wholly or in part by subscription and sometimes entirely +by the Master of the Hounds. One item of my friend's expenses at +Leamington was a subscription of ten guineas each to the Warwickshire, +North Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Pytchley hunts. Something of this +sort would be necessary if one hunted for any considerable time with +any subscription pack, but an occasional visitor is not expected to +contribute. + +A stranger participating in the sport need only be guided by common +modesty and common-sense. However good a horseman he may be, he cannot +make a sensation among the old stagers of the hunting-field. Probably +he will get no commendation of any sort. If he does, it will be for +keeping out of the way of others,--taking always the easiest and safest +road that will bring him well up with the hounds, not flinching when a +desperate leap must be taken, and following (at a respectful distance) +a good leader, rather than trying to take the lead himself. However +promising the prospect may be, he had better not do anything on his own +hook; if he makes a conspicuous mistake, he will probably be corrected +for it in plainer English than it is pleasant to hear. + + * * * * * + +One of the memorable days of my life was the day before New-Year's. +Ford had secured me a capital hunter, a well-clipped gelding, over +sixteen hands high, glossy, lean, and wiry as a racer. "You've got +a rare mount to-day, sir," said the groom as he held him for me to +get up; and a rare dismount I came near having in the little measure +of capacity with which Master Dick and I commenced our acquaintance, +before we left the Regent. He was one of those horses whose spirits +are just a little too much for their skins, and all the way out he +kept up a restless questioning of his prospect of having his own way. +Still he was in all this, as in his manner of doing his work when he +got into the open country, such a perfect counterpart of old Max, who +had carried me for two years in the Southwest, that I was at home at +once. If I had had a hunter made to order, I could not have been more +perfectly suited. + +The meet (North Warwickshire) was at Cubbington Gate, only two miles +from Leamington, and a very gay meet it was. The road was filled with +carriages, and there was a goodly rabble on foot. About three hundred, +in every variety of dress, were mounted for the hunt, a dozen or so +of ladies among them. Three of these kept well up all day, and one of +them rode very straight. The hounds were taken to a wood about a mile +to the eastward of Cubbington, where they soon found a fox, which led +us a very straight course to Princethorpe, about three miles to the +northeast. + +I had done little fencing for seven or eight years, and the sort +of propulsion one gets in being carried over a hedge is sufficiently +different from the ordinary impulses of civil life to suggest at first +the element of surprise. Consequently, though our initial leap was a +modest one, I landed with only one foot in the stirrup and with one +hand in the mane; but I now saw that Dick was but another name for Max, +and this one moderate failure was enough to recall the old tricks of +the craft. As the opportunity would perhaps never come again, this one +was not to be neglected, and I resolved to have one fair inside view +of real fox-hunting. Dick was clearly as good a horse as was out that +day; the leaping was less than that to which we were used among the +worm-fences, fallen timber, and gullies of Arkansas and Tennessee; and +there was but a plain Anglo-Saxon name for the only motive that could +deter me from making the most of the occasion. Mr. Lant, the Master of +the Hounds, was not better mounted for his lighter weight than was I +for my fourteen stone; and his position as well as his look indicated +that he would probably go by the nearest practicable route to where the +fox might lead, so we kept at a safe distance behind him and well in +his wake. The hesitation and uncertainty which had at first confused my +bridle-hand being removed, my horse, recognizing the changed position +of affairs, settled down to his work like a well-trained and sensible +but eager beast as he was. From the covert to Princethorpe we took +seven fences and some small ditches, and we got there with the first +half-dozen of the field, both of us in higher spirits than horse and +rider ever get except by dint of hard going and successful fencing. + +Here there was a short check, but the fox was soon routed out again and +made for Waveley Wood, a couple of miles to the northwest. + +Waveley Wood is what is called in England a "biggish bit of timber," +and the check here was long enough to allow the whole field to come up. +As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, "Tally-ho!" was called from +the other side of the cover, and we splashed through a muddy cart-road +and out into the open just as the hounds were well away. Now was a ride +for dear life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy ground would +allow. In front of us was a "bullfinch" (a neglected hedge, out of +which strong thorny shoots of several years' growth have run up ten or +twelve feet above it). I had often heard of bullfinches, and no hunting +experience could be complete without taking one. It was some distance +around by the gate, the pace was strong, and the spiny fringe had just +closed behind Mr. Lant's red coat as he dropped into the field beyond. +"Follow my leader" is a game that must be boldly played; so, settling +my hat well down, holding my bridle-hand low, and covering my closed +eyes with my right elbow, with the whip-hand over the left shoulder, I +put my heart in my pocket and went at it, and through it with a crash! +An ugly scratch on the fleshy part of the right hand was the only +damage done, and I was one of the very few near the pack. Dick and I +were now up to anything; we made very light of a thick tall hedge that +came next in order, and we cleared it like a bird; but we landed in a +pool of standing water, covering deeply ploughed ground, the horse's +forefeet sinking so deeply that he could not get them out in time, and +our headway rolled us both over in the mud, I flat on my back. Dick +got up just in time for his pastern to strike me in the face as I was +rising, giving me a cut lip, a mouthful of blood, and a black and blue +nose-bridge. My appearance has, on occasions, been more respectable +and my temper more serene than as I ran, soiled and bleeding, over the +ploughed ground, calling to some workmen to "catch my horse." + +I was soon up and away again. There seemed some confusion in the run, +and the master being out of sight, I followed one of the whips as he +struck into a blind path in a wood. It was a tangled mass of briers, +but he went in at full pace, and evidently there was no time to be +lost. At the other side of the copse there was a set of low bars, and +beyond this a small, slimy ditch. My leader cleared the bars, but +his horse's hind feet slipped on the bank of the ditch, and he fell +backwards with an ugly kind of sprawl that I had no time to examine, +for Dick took the leap easily and soon brought me into a field where, +on a little hillock, and quite alone, stood the huntsman, dismounted, +holding the dead fox high in his left hand, while with his long-leashed +hunting-crop he kept the hungry and howling pack at bay. The master +soon came up, as did about a dozen others, including a bright little +boy on a light little pony. The fox's head (mask), tail (brush), and +feet (pads) were now cut off and distributed as trophies under the +master's direction. The carcass was then thrown to the pack, that +fought and snarled over it until, in a twinkling, the last morsel had +disappeared. This was the "death,"--by no means the most engaging part +of the amusement. From the find to the killing was only twenty-five +minutes, into which had been crowded more excitement and more physical +happiness than I had known for many a long day. + +The second cover drawn was not far away. With this fox we had two +hours' work, mainly through woods at a walk and with the hounds +frequently at fault, but with some good leaping. Finally he was run to +earth and abandoned. + +We then went to a cover near Bubbenhall, but found no fox, and then, +with the same luck, to another east of Baggington. It was now nearly +four o'clock, growing dusk, and beginning to rain. The hounds started +for their kennels, and Dick and I took a soft bridle-path skirting the +charming road that leads, under such ivy-clad tree-trunks and between +such hedges as no other land can show, through Stoneleigh Village and +past Stoneleigh Abbey to Leamington, and a well-earned rest. + + * * * * * + +My memorandum for that day closes: "Horse, £2 12_s._ 6_d._; Fees, +2_s._; and well worth the money." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Whip and Spur, by George E. Waring + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44492 *** diff --git a/44492-h/44492-h.htm b/44492-h/44492-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b82a3f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/44492-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6211 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Whip and Spur, by Col. George E. 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GEORGE E. WARING, JR.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/titlepageimg.jpg" alt="Decorative image" title="Decorative image" /> +</div> + +<p class="centerbold"><br /> +<small>NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +MCMIV<br /> +<br /><br /> +<small>COPYRIGHT, 1897<br /> +BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.</small></small> +<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<h2 class="no-break">CONTENTS.</h2> +<table summary="Table of contents"> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#VIX"><span class="smcap">Vix</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">7</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#RUBY"><span class="smcap">Ruby</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">34</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#WETTSTEIN"><span class="smcap">Wettstein</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#MAX"><span class="smcap">Campaigning with Max</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">93</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#OVERCOAT"><span class="smcap">How I got my Overcoat</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">138</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#SCOUTS"><span class="smcap">Two Scouts</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">162</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#GLOAMING"><span class="smcap">In the Gloaming</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">186</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#FOXHUNTING"><span class="smcap">Fox-Hunting in England</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">201</td> +</tr> +</table></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch1.jpg" width="500px" height="133px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="VIX" id="VIX"></a>VIX.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/w.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_1">When the work on the Central Park had +fairly commenced, in the spring of 1858, +I found—or I fancied—that proper +attention to my scattered duties made it necessary +that I should have a saddle-horse.</p> + +<p>How easily, by the way, the arguments that +convince us of these pleasant necessities find +their way to the understanding!</p> + +<p>Yet, how to subsist a horse after buying one, +and how to buy? The memory of a well-bred +and keen-eyed gray, dating back to the earliest +days of my boyhood, and forming the chief feature +of my recollection of play-time for years; +an idle propensity, not a whit dulled yet, to +linger over Leech’s long-necked hunters, and +Herring’s field scenes; an almost superstitious +faith in the different analyses of the bones of +the racer and of the cart-horse; a firm belief +in Frank Forester’s teachings of the value of +“blood,”—all these conspired to narrow my +range of selection, and, unfortunately, to confine +it to a very expensive class of horses.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, again, the commissioners of the +Park had extremely inconvenient ideas of economy, +and evidently did not consider, in fixing +their schedule of salaries, how much more satisfactory +our positions would have been with more +generous emolument.</p> + +<p>How a man with only a Park salary, and with +a family to support, could set up a saddle-horse,—and +not ride to the dogs,—was a question that +exercised not a little of my engineering talent +for weeks; and many an odd corner of plans and +estimates was figured over with calculations of +the cost of forage and shoeing.</p> + +<p>Stable-room was plenty and free in the condemned +buildings of the former occupants, and +a little “over-time” of one of the men would +suffice for the grooming.</p> + +<p>I finally concluded that, by giving up cigars, +and devoting my energies to the pipe in their +stead, I could save enough to pay for my horse’s +keep; and so, the ways and means having been, +in this somewhat vague manner, provided, the +next step was to buy a horse. To tell of the +days passed at auction sales in the hope (never +there realized) of finding goodness and cheapness +combined,—of the stationery wasted in answering +advertisements based on every conceivable +form of false pretence; to describe the numberless +broken-kneed, broken-winded, and broken-down +brutes that came under inspection,—would +be tedious and disheartening.</p> + +<p>Good horses there were, of course, though very +few good saddle-horses (America is not productive +in this direction),—and the possible animals were +held at impossible prices.</p> + +<p>Those who rode over the new Park lands usually +rode anything but good saddle-horses. Fast +trotters, stout ponies, tolerable carriage-horses, +capital cart-horses, there were in plenty. But +the clean-cut, thin-crested, bright-eyed, fine-eared, +steel-limbed saddle-horse, the saddle-horse <em>par excellence</em>,—may +I say the only saddle-horse?—rarely +came under observation; and when, by exception, +such a one did appear, he was usually so +ridden that his light was sadly dimmed. It was +hard to recognize an elastic step under such an +unelastic seat.</p> + +<p>Finally, in the days of my despair, a kind saddler,—kept +to his daily awl by a too keen eye +for sport, and still, I believe, a victim to his propensity +for laying his money on the horse that +ought to win but don’t,—hearing of my ambition +(to him the most laudable of all ambitions), +came to put me on the long-sought path.</p> + +<p>He knew a mare, or he had known one, that +would exactly suit me. She was in a bad way +now, and a good deal run down, but he always +thought she “had it in her,” and that some gentleman +ought to keep her for the saddle,—“which, +in my mind, sir, she be the finest bit of +’orse-flesh that was hever imported, sir.” That +was enough. “Imported” decided my case, and +I listened eagerly to the enthusiastic story,—a +story to which this man’s life was bound with +threads of hard-earned silver, and not less by a +real honest love for a fine animal. He had never +been much given to saving, but he was a good +workman, and the little he had saved had been +blown away in the dust that clouded his favorite +at the tail of the race.</p> + +<p>Still, he attached himself to her person, and +followed her in her disgrace. “She weren’t quite +quick enough for the turf, sir, but she be a good +’un for a gentleman’s ’ack.”</p> + +<p>He had watched her for years, and scraped +acquaintance with her different owners as fast as +she had changed them, and finally, when she was +far gone with pneumonia, he had accepted her as +a gift, and, by careful nursing, had cured her. +Then, for a time, he rode her himself, and his eye +brightened as he told of her leaps and her stride. +Of course he rode her to the races, and—one +luckless day—when he had lost everything, and +his passion had got the better of his prudence, +he staked the mare herself on a perfectly sure +thing in two-mile-heats. Like most of the sure +things of life, this venture went to the bad, and +the mare was lost,—lost to a Bull’s Head dealer +in single driving horses. “I see her in his stable +ahfter that, sir; and, forbieten she were twelve +year old, sir, and ’ad ’ad a ’ard life of it, she were +the youngest and likeliest of the lot,—you’d +swore she were a three-year-old, sir.”</p> + +<p>If that dealer had had a soul above trotting-wagons, +my story would never have been written; +but all was fish that came to his net, and this +thoroughbred racer, this beautiful creature who +had never worn harness in her life, must be +shown to a purchaser who was seeking something +to drive. She was always quick to decide, and +her actions followed close on the heels of her +thought. She did not complicate matters by +waiting for the gentleman to get into the wagon, +but then and there—on the instant—kicked it +to kindlings. This ended the story. She had +been shown at a high figure, and was subsequently +sold for a song,—he could tell me no +more. She had passed to the lower sphere of +equine life and usefulness,—he <em>had</em> heard of a +fish-wagon, but he knew nothing about it. What +he did know was, that the dealer was a dreadful +jockey, and that it would never do to ask him. +Now, here was something to live for,—a sort of +princess in disgrace, whom it would be an honor +to rescue, and my horse-hunting acquired a new +interest.</p> + +<p>By easy stages, I cultivated the friendship of +the youth who, in those days, did the morning’s +sweeping-out at the Bull’s Head Hotel. He had +grown up in the alluring shades of the horse-market, +and his daily communion from childhood +had been with that “noble animal.” To him +horses were the individuals of the world,—men +their necessary attendants, and of only attendant +importance. Of course he knew of this black she-devil; +and he thought that “a hoss that could +trot like she could on the halter” must be crazy +not to go in harness.</p> + +<p>However, he thought she had got her deserts +now, for he had seen her, only a few weeks before, +“a draggin’ clams for a feller in the Tenth Avener.” +Here was a clew at last,—clams and the +Tenth Avenue. For several days the scent grew +cold. The people of the Licensed Vender part of +this street seemed to have little interest in their +neighbors’ horses; but I found one man, an Irish +grocer, who had been bred a stable-boy to the +Marquis of Waterford, and who did know of a +“poor old screw of a black mare” that had a good +head, and might be the one I was looking for; +but, if she was, he thought I might as well give it +up, for she was all broken down, and would never +be good for anything again.</p> + +<p>Taking the address, I went to a stable-yard, in +what was then the very edge of the town, and +here I found a knowing young man, who devoted +his time to peddling clams and potatoes between +New York and Sing Sing. Clams up, and potatoes +down,—twice every week,—distance thirty +miles; road hilly; and that was the wagon he +did it with,—a heavy wagon with a heavy arched +top, and room for a heavy load, and only shafts +for a single horse. In reply to my question, he +said he changed horses pretty often, because the +work broke them down; but he had a mare now +that had been at it for three months, and he +thought she would last some time longer. “She’s +pretty thin, but you ought to see her trot with +that wagon.” With an air of idle curiosity, I +asked to see her,—I had gone shabbily dressed, +not to excite suspicion; for men of the class I +had to treat with are usually sharp horse-traders,—and +this fellow, clam-pedler though he was, +showed an enthusiastic alacrity in taking me to +her stall. She had won even his dull heart, and +he spoke of her gently, as he made the most of +her good points, and glossed over her wretched +condition.</p> + +<p>Poor Vixen (that had been her name in her +better days, and it was to be her name again), +she had found it hard kicking against the pricks! +Clam-carts are stronger than trotting-wagons, and +even her efforts had been vain. She had succumbed +to dire necessity, and earned her ignoble +oats with dogged fidelity. She had a little warm +corner in her driver’s affections,—as she always +had in the affections of all who came to know her +well,—but her lot was a very hard one. Worn +to a skeleton, with sore galls wherever the harness +had pressed her, her pasterns bruised by +clumsy shoes, her silky coat burned brown by +the sun, and her neck curved upward, it would +have needed more than my knowledge of anatomy +to see anything good in her but for her +wonderful head. This was the perfection of a +horse’s head,—small, bony, and of perfect shape, +with keen, deer-like eyes, and thin, active ears; +it told the whole story of her virtues, and +showed no trace of her sufferings. Her royal +blood shone out from her face, and kept it +beautiful.</p> + +<p>My mind was made up, and Vixen must be +mine at any cost. Still, it was important to +me to buy as cheaply as I could,—and desirable, +above all, not to be jockeyed in a horse-trade; +so it required some diplomacy (an account +of which would not be edifying here) to bring +the transaction to its successful close. The +pendulum which swung between offer and demand +finally rested at seventy-five dollars.</p> + +<p>She was brought to me at the Park on a +bright moonlight evening in June, and we were +called out to see her. I think she knew that +her harness days were over, and she danced off +to her new quarters as gay as a colt in training. +That night my wakefulness would have +done credit to a boy of sixteen; and I was up +with the dawn, and bound for a ride; but when +I examined poor Vix again in her stable, it +seemed almost cruel to think of using her at +all for a month. She was so thin, so worn, so +bruised, that I determined to give her a long +rest and good care,—only I must try her once, +just to get a leg over her for five minutes, and +then she should come back and be cared for +until really well. It was a weak thing to do, +and I confess it with all needful humiliation, +but I mounted her at once; and, although I +had been a rider all my days, this was the first +time I had ever really ridden. For the first +time in my life I felt as though I had four +whalebone legs of my own, worked by steel +muscles in accordance with my will, but without +even a conscious effort of will.</p> + +<p>That that anatomy of a horse should so easily, +so playfully, handle my heavy weight was a +mystery, and is a mystery still. She carried +me in the same high, long-reaching, elastic trot +that we sometimes see a young horse strike when +first turned into a field. A low fence was near +by, and I turned her toward it. She cleared it +with a bound that sent all my blood thrilling +through my veins, and trotted on again as though +nothing had occurred. The five minutes’ turn +was taken with so much ease, with such evident +delight, that I made it a virtue to indulge her +with a longer course and a longer stride. We +went to the far corners of the Park, and tried all +our paces; all were marvellous for the power so +easily exerted and the evident power in reserve.</p> + +<p>Yes, Frank Forester was right, blood horses are +made of finer stuff than others. My intention of +giving the poor old mare a month’s rest was never +carried out, because each return to her old recreation—it +was never work—made it more evident +that the simple change in her life was all she +needed; and, although in constant use from the +first, she soon put on the flesh and form of a +sound horse. Her minor bruises were obliterated, +and her more grievous ones grew into permanent +scars,—blemishes, but only skin deep; for every +fibre of every muscle, and every tendon and bone +in her whole body, was as strong and supple as +spring steel.</p> + +<p>The Park afforded good leaping in those days. +Some of the fences were still standing around the +abandoned gardens, and new ditches and old +brooks were plenty. Vixen gave me lessons in +fencing which a few years later, in time of graver +need, stood me in good stead. She weighed less +than four times the weight that she carried; yet +she cleared a four-foot fence with apparent ease, +and once, in a moment of excitement, she carried +me over a brook, with a clear leap of twenty-six +feet, measured from the taking-off to the landing.</p> + +<p>Her feats of endurance were equal to her feats +of strength. I once rode her from Yorkville to +Rye (twenty-one miles) in an hour and forty-five +minutes, including a rest of twenty minutes at +Pelham Bridge, and I frequently rode twenty-five +miles out in the morning and back in the afternoon. +When put to her work, her steady road +gallop (mostly on the grassy sides) was fifteen +miles an hour.</p> + +<p>Of course these were extreme cases; but she +never showed fatigue from them, and she did +good service nearly every day, winter and summer, +from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, keeping +always in good condition, though thin as a +racer, and looking like a colt at the end of the +time. Horsemen never guessed her age at more +than half of what it actually was.</p> + +<p>Beyond the average of even the most intelligent +horses, she showed some almost human traits. +Above all was she fond of children, and would +quiet down from her wildest moods to allow a +child to be carried on the pommel. When engaged +in this serious duty, it was difficult to +excite her, or to urge her out of a slow and +measured pace, although usually ready for any +extravagance. Not the least marked of her peculiarities +was her inordinate vanity. On a country +road, or among the workmen of the Park, she was +as staid and business-like as a parson’s cob; but +let a carriage or a party of visitors come in sight, +and she would give herself the prancing airs of a +circus horse, seeming to watch as eagerly for some +sign of approval, and to be made as happy by it, +as though she only lived to be admired. Many +a time have I heard the exclamation, “What a +beautiful horse!” and Vix seemed to hear it too, +and to appreciate it quite as keenly as I did. A +trip down the Fifth Avenue in the afternoon was +an immense excitement to her, and she was more +fatigued by it than by a twenty-mile gallop. +However slowly she travelled, it was always with +the high springing action of a fast trot, or with +that long-stepping, sidelong action that the +French call <em>á deux pistes</em>; few people allowed +her to pass without admiring notice.</p> + +<p>Her most satisfactory trait was her fondness +for her master; she was as good company as a +dog,—better, perhaps, because she seemed more +really a part of one’s self; and she was quick +to respond to my changing moods. I have sometimes, +when unable to sleep, got up in the night +and saddled for a ride, usually ending in a long +walk home, with the bridle over my arm, and the +old mare’s kind face close beside my own, in something +akin to human sympathy; she had a way +of sighing, when things were especially sad, that +made her very comforting to have about. So we +went on for three years, always together, and +always very much to each other. We had our +little unhappy episodes, when she was pettish and +I was harsh,—sometimes her feminine freaks +were the cause, sometimes my masculine blundering,—but +we always made it up, and were soon +good friends again, and, on the whole, we were +both better for the friendship. I am sure that I +was, and some of my more grateful recollections +are connected with this dumb companion.</p> + +<p>The spring of 1861 opened a new life for +both of us,—a sad and a short one for poor +Vix.</p> + +<p>I never knew just how much influence she +had in getting my commission, but, judging by +the manner of the other field officers of the regiment, +she was evidently regarded as the better +half of the new acquisition. The pomp and circumstance +of glorious war suited her temper +exactly, and it was ludicrous to see her satisfaction +in first wearing her gorgeous red-bordered +shabrack; for a time she carried her head on +one side to see it. She conceived a new affection +for me from the moment when she saw me +bedecked with the dazzling bloom that preceded +the serious fruitage of the early New York volunteer +organizations.</p> + +<p>At last the thrilling day came. Broadway +was alive from end to end with flags and white +cambric and sad faces. Another thousand were +going to the war. With Swiss bugle-march and +chanted Marseillaise, we made our solemn way +through the grave and anxious throng. To us +it was naturally a day of sore trial; but with +brilliant, happy Vixen it was far different; she +was leaving no friends behind, was going to meet +no unknown peril. She was showing her royal, +stylish beauty to an admiring crowd, and she +acted as though she took to her own especial +behoof every cheer that rang from Union Square +to Cortlandt Street. It was the glorious day of +her life, and, as we dismounted at the Jersey +ferry, she was trembling still with the delightful +excitement.</p> + +<p>At Washington we were encamped east of the +Capitol, and for a month were busy in getting +settled in the new harness. Mr. Lincoln used +to drive out sometimes to our evening drill, and +he always had a pleasant word—as he always +had for every one, and as every one had for +her—for my charming thoroughbred, who had +made herself perfectly at home with the troops, +and enjoyed every display of the marvellous +raiment of the regiment.</p> + +<p>On the 4th of July we crossed the Potomac +and went below Alexandria, where we lay in +idle preparation for the coming disaster. On +the 16th we marched, in Blenker’s brigade of +Miles’s division, and we passed the night in a +hay-field, with a confusion of horses’ feed and +riders’ bed, that brought Vix and me very closely +together. On the 18th we reached the valley +this side of Centreville, while the skirmish of +Blackburn’s Ford was going on,—a skirmish +now, but a battle then. For three nights and +two days we lay in the bushes, waiting for rations +and orders. On Sunday morning McDowell’s +army moved out;—we all know the rest. +Miles’s thirteen thousand fresh troops lay within +sight and sound of the lost battle-field,—he +drunk and unable, even if not unwilling, to take +them to the rescue,—and all we did was, late +in the evening, to turn back a few troopers of +the Black Horse Cavalry, the moral effect of +whose unseen terrors was driving our herds, +panting, back to the Potomac. Late in the +night we turned our backs on our idle field, +and brought up the rear of the sad retreat. +Our regiment was the last to move out, and +Vix and I were with the rear-guard. Wet, cold, +tired, hungry, unpursued, we crept slowly through +the scattered <em>débris</em> of the broken-up camp equipage, +and dismally crossed the Long Bridge in a +pitiless rain, as Monday’s evening was closing +in. O, the dreadful days that followed, when a +dozen resolute men might have taken Washington, +and have driven the army across the Chesapeake, +when everything was filled with gloom +and rain and grave uncertainty!</p> + +<p>Again the old mare came to my aid. My regiment +was not a pleasant one to be with, for its +excellent material did not redeem its very bad +commander, and I longed for service with the +cavalry. Frémont was going to St. Louis, and +his chief of staff was looking for cavalry officers. +He had long known Vixen, and was kind enough +to tell me that he wanted <em>her</em> for the new organization, +and (as I was her necessary appendage), +he procured my transfer, and we set out for the +West. It was not especially flattering to me +to be taken on these grounds; but it was flattering +to Vixen, and that was quite as pleasant.</p> + +<p>Arrived at St. Louis, we set about the organization +of the enthusiastic thousands who rushed +to serve under Frémont. Whatever there was +of ostentatious display, Vixen and I took part +in, but this was not much. Once we turned +out in great state to receive Prince Plon-Plon, +but that was in the night, and he didn’t come +after all. Once again there was a review of all +the troops, and that <em>was</em> magnificent. This was +all. There was no coach and four, nor anything +else but downright hard work from early morning +till late bedtime, from Sunday morning till Saturday +night. For six weeks, while my regiment of +German horsemen was fitting up and drilling at +the Abbey Race-track, I rode a cart-horse, and kept +the mare in training for the hard work ahead.</p> + +<p>At last we were off, going up the Missouri, +sticking in its mud, poling over its shoals, and +being bored generally. At Jefferson City Vixen +made her last appearance in ladies’ society, as by +the twilight fires of the General’s camp she went +through her graceful paces before Mrs. Frémont +and her daughter. I pass over the eventful pursuit +of Price’s army, because the subject of my +story played only a passive part in it. At Springfield +I tried her nerve by jumping her over the +dead horses on brave Zagonyi’s bloody field; and, +although distastefully, she did my bidding without +flinching, when she found it must be done. +The camp-life at Springfield was full of excitement +and earnestness; Price, with his army, was +near at hand (or we believed that he was, which +was essentially the same). Our work in the cavalry +was very active, and Vix had hard service +on insufficient food,—she seemed to be sustained +by sheer nervous strength.</p> + +<p>At last the order to advance was given, and we +were to move out at daybreak; then came a +countermanding order; and then, late in the +evening, Frémont’s farewell. He had been relieved. +There was genuine and universal grief. +Good or bad, competent or incompetent,—this +is not the place to argue that,—he was the life +and the soul of his army, and it was cruelly +wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full of +disappointment, we again turned back from our +aim;—then would have been Price’s opportunity.</p> + +<p>It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, +and the wonderful opal atmosphere of the Ozark +Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a +second spring. As had always been my habit in +dreamy or unhappy moods, I rode my poor tired +mare for companionship’s sake,—I ought not to +have done it,—I would give much not to have +done it, for I never rode her again. The march +was long, and the noonday sun was oppressive. +She who had never faltered before grew nervous +and shaky now, and once, after fording the +Pomme-de-Terre in deep water, she behaved +wildly; but when I talked to her, called her +a good girl, and combed her silken mane with +my fingers, she came back to her old way, and +went on nicely. Still she perspired unnaturally, +and I felt uneasy about her when I dismounted +and gave her rein to Rudolf, my orderly.</p> + +<p>Late in the night, when the moon was in +mid-heaven, he came to my tent, and told me +that something was the matter with Vixen. My +adjutant and I hastened out, and there we beheld +her in the agony of a brain fever. She +was the most painfully magnificent animal I +ever saw. Crouched on the ground, with her +forelegs stretched out and wide apart, she was +swaying to and fro, with hard and stertorous +breath,—every vein swollen and throbbing in +the moonlight. De Grandèle, our quiet veterinary +surgeon, had been called while it was yet +time to apply the lancet. As the hot stream +spurted from her neck she grew easier; her +eye recovered its gentleness, and she laid her +head against my breast with the old sigh, and +seemed to know and to return all my love for +her. I sat with her until the first gray of +dawn, when she had grown quite calm, and +then I left her with De Grandèle and Rudolf +while I went to my duties. We must march +at five o’clock, and poor Vixen could not be +moved. The thought of leaving her was very +bitter, but I feared it must be done, and I +asked De Grandèle how he could best end her +sufferings,—or was there still some hope? He +shook his head mournfully, like a kind-hearted +doctor as he was, and said that he feared not; +but still, as I was so fond of her, if I would +leave him six men, he would do his best to +bring her on, and, if he could not, he would +not leave her alive. I have had few harder +duties than to march that morning. Four days +after, De Grandèle sent a message to me at our +station near Rolla, that he was coming on nicely, +and hoped to be in at nightfall. “Vixen +seems to be better and stronger.” At nightfall +they came, the poor old creature stepping slowly +and timidly over the rough road, all the old +fire and force gone out of her, and with only a +feeble whinny as she saw me walking to meet +her. We built for her the best quarters we +could under the mountain-side, and spread her +a soft bed of leaves. There was now hope that +she would recover sufficiently to be sent to St. +Louis to be nursed.</p> + +<p>That night, an infernal brute of a troop horse +that had already killed Ludlow’s charger, led by +some fiendish spirit, broke into Vixen’s enclosure, +and with one kick laid open her hock joint.</p> + +<p>In vain they told me that she was incurable. +I could not let her die now, when she was just +restored to me; and I forced from De Grandèle +the confession that she <em>might</em> be slung up and +so bound that the wound would heal, although +the joint must be stiff. She could never carry +me again, but she could be my pet; and I +would send her home, and make her happy for +many a long year yet. We moved camp two +miles, to the edge of the town, and she followed, +painfully and slowly, the injured limb dragging +behind her; I could not give her up. She was +picketed near my tent, and for some days grew +no worse.</p> + +<p>Finally, one lovely Sunday morning, I found +her sitting on her haunches like a dog, patient +and gentle, and wondering at her pain. She remained +in this position all day, refusing food. I +stroked her velvet crest, and coaxed her with +sugar. She rubbed her nose against my arm, +and was evidently thankful for my caresses, but +she showed no disposition to rise. The adjutant +led me into my tent as he would have led me +from the bedside of a dying friend. I turned to +look back at poor Vixen, and she gave me a +little neigh of farewell.</p> + +<p>They told me then, and they told it very tenderly, +that there was no possibility that she +could get well in camp, and that they wanted +me to give her over to them. The adjutant +sat by me, and talked of the old days when I +had had her at home, and when he had known +her well. We brought back all of her pleasant +ways, and agreed that her trouble ought to be +ended.</p> + +<p>As we talked, a single shot was fired, and all +was over. The setting sun was shining through +the bare November branches, and lay warm in +my open tent-front. The band, which had been +brought out for the only funeral ceremony, +breathed softly Kreutzer’s touching “Die Kapelle,” +and the sun went down on one of the +very sad days of my life.</p> + +<p>The next morning I carved deeply in the +bark of a great oak-tree, at the side of the +Pacific Railroad, beneath which they had buried +my lovely mare, a simple VIX; and some day +I shall go to scrape the moss from the inscription.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch2.jpg" width="500px" height="140px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="RUBY" id="RUBY"></a>RUBY.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">I was a colonel commanding a regiment +of German cavalrymen in South Missouri, +and must have a horse; it was +desirable to be conspicuously well mounted, and +so it must be a showy horse; being a heavy +weight and a rough rider, it must be a good +horse. With less rank, I might have been compelled +to take a very ordinary mount and be +content: my vanity would not have availed me, +and my rough riding must have ceased.</p> + +<p>But I was chief ruler of the little world that +lay encamped on the beautiful banks of the Roubie +d’Eaux; and probably life was easier to all +under me when I was satisfied and happy. I am +not conscious of having been mean and crabbed, +or of favoring those who favored me to the disadvantage +of those who did not. I cannot recall +an instance of taking a bribe, even in the form +of a pleasant smile. It was probably easier, in +the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and +therefore the laziest private ever ordered on extra +duty could not lay his hand on his heart and say +he thinks it was done because he was not diligent +in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private +mess. I had very early in life been impressed +with the consciousness that the way of the transgressor +is not easy; and as I wanted my way to +be easy, I fell into the way of not transgressing.</p> + +<p>This may not have been a very worthy motive +to actuate the conduct of a military commander; +but perhaps it was as good as the average in +our Department of the Southwest, where, if the +truth must be told, virtue did not have it all its +own way,—we were different from troops farther +east; and although it made me sometimes wince +to have my conduct ascribed to a noble uprightness +of purpose, and showed that it would really +have been more honest not to have been quite +so good, yet one should perhaps be satisfied with +having carried out one’s intention of treating every +man in the command, officer or soldier, as nearly +as he should be treated as the interests of the public +service, the good of the individual himself, and +one’s own personal convenience would allow.</p> + +<p>Therefore, I say, I am not conscious of having +favored those who favored me, to the disadvantage +of those who did not; neither do I think +that (at this stage of our acquaintance) the Grafs +and Barons and simple Mister Vons, of whom the +command was so largely composed, entertained +the hope of personal benefit when they laid their +kindnesses at my accustomed feet, and tried to +smooth my way of life.</p> + +<p>The headquarters' mess was generally well supplied,—and +no questions asked. My relations +with most of the command were kindly, and it +apparently came to be understood—for German +cavalrymen are not without intelligence—that +the happiness of the individual members of the +regiment depended rather on the happiness of +its colonel than on any direct bids for his favor. +Be this as it may, I am not conscious of having +received such direct appeals, and I am entirely +conscious of the fullest measure of happiness +that my circumstances would allow; not an ecstasy +of delight,—far from that,—but a comfortable +sense of such well-fed, well-paid, well-encamped, +and pleasantly occupied virtue as had +left nothing undone that my subordinates could +be made to do, and did nothing that my conditions +rendered difficult. My own good-humor +was equalled by that of the regiment at large, +and the beetling sides of the Ozark valleys nowhere +sheltered a happier campful of jolly good +fellows than the Vierte Missouri Cavalry.</p> + +<p>We lay on the marvellous Roubie d’Eaux, at its +source; no such babbling brook as trickles from +the hillside springs of New England, but a roaring +torrent, breaking at once from a fathomless +vent in the mountain. The processes of formation +with these South Missouri rivers are all hidden +from sight, but, far away in the topmost +caves of the Ozark hills, the little streamlets +trickle, and unite for a larger and ever larger +flow, gorging at last the huge caverns of the limestone +rock and bursting upon the world a full-grown +river. Within our camp this wonderful +spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large +grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustaining +community,—in this, that we foraged our +own corn and ground our own meal. With similar +industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, +and fowl.</p> + +<p>The trees were bare with the November frosts, +but the Indian summer had come, and, day after +day, it bathed every twig and spray with its amber +breath, warming all nature to a second life, +and floating the remoter hills far away into a hazy +dreamland.</p> + +<p>But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was +not content: I was practically a dismounted cavalryman. +Indeed, it would even have been a pity +to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as +fell to my lot, for good weight-carriers were rare +in that section. I had paid a very high price for +a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, happily, +sold for a large advance), only to find him a +year too young for his work, and the regiment +had been scoured in vain for an available mount. +I would have gone any reasonable length, even in +injustice, to secure such an animal as was needed. +It was not easy to make up one’s mind to order +a soldier to give up a horse he was fond of, and +some soldier had an especial fondness for all but +the worthless brutes. My reluctance to do this +was perhaps not lessened by the fact that it was +forbidden for officers to ride United States horses. +It finally became evident that the chances were +very small of ever finding a suitable animal, and +I even went out, on one shooting excursion, +mounted on a mule.</p> + +<p>Up to this time the regiment had been all that +could be asked, but now it seemed to contain +a thousand ill-tempered, sore-headed men. The +whole camp was awry. Some of the officers intimated +that this was all the fault of the adjutant; +that the orders from headquarters had lately been +unusually harsh. This officer, when remonstrated +with, insisted that he had only transmitted the +exact orders given him, and I knew that my own +action had always been reasonable,—on principle +so. Sometimes one almost wished himself back +in civil life, away from such constant annoyances.</p> + +<p>We had in the regiment one Captain Graf von +Gluckmansklegge, who was in many respects the +most accomplished and skilful officer of us all. +His life had been passed in the profession, and he +had only left his position of major in a Bavarian +Uhlan regiment to draw his sabre in defence of +“die Freiheit,” in America, as senior captain of +the Fourth Missouri Cavalry. He was an officer +of Asboth’s selection, and had many of that veteran’s +qualities. Tall, thin, of elegant figure, as +perfect a horseman as good natural advantages +and good training could make, and near-sighted, +as a German cavalry officer must be, he was as +natty a fellow as ever wore an eye-glass and a +blond mustache. He was, at the same time, a +man of keen worldly shrewdness and of quick +judgment,—qualities which, in his case, may +have been sharpened by long practice at those +games of chance with which it has not been unusual +for European officers to preface their coming +to draw their sabres in defence of “die Freiheit” +in America.</p> + +<p>With Gluckmansklegge I had always been on +friendly terms. Among the many lessons of his +life he had learned none more thoroughly than +the best way to treat his commanding officer; +and there was in his manner an air of friendly +deference and of cordial submission to rank, +accompanied by a degree of personal dignity, +that elevated the colonel rather than lowered +the captain,—a manner that probably makes +its way with a newly fledged officer more surely +than any other form of appeal to his vanity. +One sometimes saw a brand-new second-lieutenant +made happier than a king by this same +touch of skill from an old soldier in his company, +whom he knew to be far his superior in +all matters of service. To be quite frank, if I +have an element of snobbishness in my own organization, +it has been more nurtured into life +by the military deference of better soldiers than +myself under my command than by all other +influences combined; thus modified do the best +of us become in the presence of unmerited +praise.</p> + +<p>One evening Gluckmansklegge came to my tent +door: “Escoose, Col-o-nel, may I come?” And +then, flinging out his eye-glass with a toss of +the head, he went on, with his imperfect English, +to tell me he had just learned from his +lieutenant that I could find no horse to suit +me; that he had a good one strong enough for +my weight, and, he thought, even good enough +for my needs. He had bought him in St. Louis +from the quartermaster, and would I oblige +him by trying him? He was quite at my service, +at the government price, for he, being +lighter, could easily replace him. Did I remember +his horse,—his “Fuchs”? “He is good, +nice, strong horse, an he yoomp!—yei!!”</p> + +<p>I did remember his horse, and I had seen +him “yoomp.” It had long been a subject of +regret to think that such an animal should be +in the regiment, yet not on my own picket-line. +It was well known that great prices had been +offered for him, only to make Gluckmansklegge +fling his eye-glass loose, and grin in derision. +“Fuchs is—how you call?—‘heelty,’ an gesund; +wenn you like, your Ike will go to my +company to bring him.” I did like, and I had +no scruples against buying him for one hundred +and twenty-five dollars. Ike, a handsome contraband, +went early the next morning with a +halter for the Fuchs, and I was up bright and +betimes to try him.</p> + +<p>I had only seen the horse before under the +saddle, perfectly equipped, perfectly bitted, and +perfectly ridden, an almost ideal charger. There +was a great firebrand scar on the flat of +each shoulder, where he had been fired for a +cough,—so said Gluckmansklegge;—others intimated +that this effaced a U. S. brand; but, +except this, not a sign of a blemish. In form, +action, style, color (chestnut), and training he +was unexceptionably good, and might well excite +the envy of all good horsemen who saw him +<em>under the saddle</em>. Knowing him so well, I went +rather eagerly to the picket-line to refresh myself +with the added sensation that the actual +ownership of such a horse must give.</p> + +<p>There stood the new purchase,—a picture of +the most abject misery; his hind legs drawn +under him; the immense muscles of his hips +lying flabby, like a cart-horse’s; his head hanging +to the level of his knees, and his under-lip +drooping; his eyes half shut, and his long ears +falling out sidewise like a sleepy mule’s. I had +bought him for a safe price, and he would probably +do to carry Ike and the saddle-bags; but +I felt as far as ever from a mount for myself, +and went back to my tent wiser and no happier +than before.</p> + +<p>Presently Ike appeared with the coffee, and +asked how I liked the new horse.</p> + +<p>“Not at all.” </p> + +<p>“Don’t ye? well now, I reckon he’s a consid’able +of a hoss.” </p> + +<p>I sent him to look at him again, and he came +back with a very thoughtful air,—evidently he +had been impressed. At last he said, “Well now, +Colonel, I don’t reckon you bought that hoss to +look at him on the picket-line, did ye?” </p> + +<p>“No, Ike, or he should be sold out very +cheap; but he is not the <em>kind</em> of horse I supposed +he was; he ought to work in a mule-team.” </p> + +<p>“Well now, Colonel, mebbe he is; but you +can’t never tell nothin’ about a hoss till you +get him between ye; and I reckon he’s a consid’able +of a hoss, I reckon he is.” </p> + +<p>Ike was wise, in his way, and his way was a +very horsy one,—so my hopes revived a little; +and when Gluckmansklegge came up on a capital +little beast he had been handling (secretly +to replace the Fuchs), I had the new venture +saddled and brought round. He came blundering +along, head and ears and tail down, and +stood like a leathern horse for me to mount, +Gluckmansklegge dropping his eye-glass and grinning. +It was as well to find out first as last +whether he had anything in him or not, and I +gathered up the curb-rein, which brought his +head into superb position and settled him well +back upon his haunches; but, as the movement +had been made with dignity, I gave him both +heels, firmly,—when we went sailing!—how +high I don’t know, probably not fifteen feet, but +it seemed that, and covering a good stretch to +the front. It was the most enormous lift I had +ever had, and (after an appreciable time in the +air), when he landed square on all four feet, it +was to strike a spanking, even trot, the bit playing +loose in his mouth, his head swaying easily +with his step, and his tail flying. I had never +been more amazed in my life than by the wonderful +grace and agility of this splendid brute. +As he trotted along with his high, strong, and +perfectly cadenced step, he showed in the swing +of his head all the satisfaction of an athlete turning, +conscious, lightly away from the footlights, +after his especial <em>tour de force</em>.</p> + +<p>As Gluckmansklegge rode up, he said, “Well, +Col-o-nel, how you like? Nice pretty strong +horse, what?” </p> + +<p>And then, his English failing him, he fell, +through an attempt at French, into German, in +which his tongue was far more ready than my +ear. Still it was easy to gather enough to understand +some of the processes by which the +animal’s natural qualifications for his work had +been developed into such unusual accomplishments; +and then he glided into the complimentary +assertion that no one but the colonel of his +regiment could ever have hoped to buy him at +any price,—and of course he did not consider it +a sale. His original outlay, which he could not +afford to lose, had been reimbursed; but the +true value of the horse, his education, he was +only too glad to give me. And then, the pleasure +of seeing his colonel suitably mounted, and +the satisfaction of seeing the horse properly ridden, +really threw the obligation on his side. +Then, with his inimitable <em>naïveté</em>, he not only +expressed, but demonstrated, in every look and +gesture, more delight in watching our movements +than he had felt in his own riding. +“Praise a horseman for his horsemanship, and +he will ride to the Devil.” Gluckmansklegge (I +did not suspect him of a desire for promotion) +pointed to a strong rail-fence near by, and suggested +that the combination of man and horse +for that sort of thing was unusual. Whether it +was a banter or a compliment, it would have +been impossible for any man who properly esteemed +himself and his riding to stop to consider. +Turned toward the fence, the Fuchs, +checking his speed, seemed to creep toward it, +as a cat would, making it very uncertain what +he proposed; but as he came nearer to it, that +willingness to leap that an accustomed rider will +always recognize communicated itself to me, and, +with perfect judgment, but with a force and +spirit I had never hoped to meet in a horse of +this world, he carried me over the enormous +height, and landed like a deer, among the stumps +and brush on the other side, and trotted gayly +away, athlete-like again, happier and prouder +than ever horse was before.</p> + +<p>Sitting that evening at my tent door, opposite +the spring, bragging, as the custom is, over the +new purchase, it occurred to me that that stream of +water and that bit of horse-flesh had some qualities +alike; so I christened the latter “Roubie +d’Eaux,” which was soon translated and shortened +to “Ruby,”—a name henceforth familiar +throughout the regiment.</p> + +<p>To become my property was the only thing +needed to make him perfect, for Ike was born +in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised +all the arts of the craft, up to the time when, being +both jockey and “the stakes” in a race he +rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of fortune, +and became a body-servant. He was once +confidential:—</p> + +<p>“Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it +was: I hadn’t nothin’ ag’in my master,—he +was a right nice man; but then, you see, he +drinked, and I didn’t know what might become +of me some time. Then, you see, I knowed this +man was stiddy, an’ he’d jess done bought a +yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an’ so,—don’t +ye see why?—well, the hoss could have +won the <em>race</em> fast enough, but then, you see, my +master,—well, he was a drinkin’ kind of a man, +an’ I thought I might as well fix it. I knowed +I was up for stakes, an’ that’s how I come to +Missouri; I ain’t no Missouri man <em>born</em>, but that’s +how it was.” </p> + +<p>He had become a good body-servant without +forgetting his stable training, and his horses bore +testimony to his skill and fidelity. After going +through the routine of a well-regulated stable, +he gave each horse a half-hour’s stroking with +the flat of his hands, brisk and invigorating; and +the result was a more blooming condition and +more vigorous health than is often seen in horses +on a campaign. The best substitute that could +be secured for a stable was a very heavy canvas +blanket, covering the horse from his ears to his +tail and down to his knees, water-proof and wind-proof. +It was a standing entertainment with the +less dignified members of the mess to invite attention +to Ruby as he stood moping under this +hideous housing. Certainly I never saw him thus +without thinking that his time had at last come, +and that he surely would never again be able to +carry me creditably. Yet, as Ike’s devotion continued, +he grew better and better, commanding +daily more of the respect and admiration of all +who knew him, and attaching himself to me more +and more as we learned each other’s ways.</p> + +<p>One never loves but one horse entirely, and +so Ruby never quite filled Vixen’s place; but +as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be +desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that +had made me restless and discontented, was now +satisfied, and my duties became easy, and my +pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri +warfare) entirely agreeable.</p> + +<p>It was no slight addition to these sources of +contentment to feel that the command had at last +awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and was +fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned +Ruby for a fortnight before the old cheerfulness +and alacrity returned to the regiment, and by the +time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d’Eaux +and went over to Lebanon for the shooting season, +the entire organization was in a most satisfactory +condition.</p> + +<p>Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war +that we shall not soon forget. To the best of my +knowledge and belief, after Price had retreated +from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed +Rebels to be found north of the White River were +local bands of jay-hawkers, whose rebellion was +mainly directed against the laws of property, and +the actuating motive of whose military movements +was “nags.” The stealing of horses, with the +consequent application of Lynch law, was all that +the native male population had to keep them +out of mischief, for weeks and weeks together. +There was just enough of this sort of armed +lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of +duty; not enough seriously to interrupt our more +regular avocations.</p> + +<p>Lebanon is on the high table-land of the +Ozarks, in the heart of a country flowing with +prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully +productive of the more humdrum necessaries +of life. Thanks to the fleeing of Rebel families, +we found comfortable quarters without too +severely oppressing those who had remained. +What with moving the court-house away from +the public square, leaving the space free for a +parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for +the town pump, we kept our men from rusting; +and when, after a time, we had established +a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious +military prison, Lebanon was as complete and +well-ordered a station as could be found in South +Missouri. I had the questionable honor and the +unquestionable comfort of holding its command +from the end of January to the end of April,—three +dreamy months, that seem now to have +been passed in a shooting-lodge, under favorable +auspices.</p> + +<p>As a legacy of the “Hundred Days,” when +the “Fourth Missouri” was the “Frémont Hussars,” +we had an able-bodied and extremely well-selected +regimental band, that soothed our over-tasked +senses when we came in from our work +in the fields, gathering where our enemies had +sown, and (under the suspended game-laws of +the State) shooting grouse and quail in the early +spring.</p> + +<p>Naturally, most of my official duties were such +as could be performed by an extremely well-regulated +adjutant; and I usually passed his busy +half-hour (in private) with Ruby. There had +been an impetuosity about the horse at the outset +which it was desirable to quell, and I rode +him regularly in a nicely fenced kitchen-garden, +where, after he learned that fences are not always +intended for leaping-bars, he fell slowly into the +routine of the training-school, and easily acquired +a perfect self-command and <em>aplomb</em> that enabled +him, under all circumstances, to await his rider’s +instructions.</p> + +<p>I wish that less account had been made, in the +writings of those whose horse-stories have preceded +mine, of the specified feats of their animals. +The <em>rôle</em> of a horse’s performances is +necessarily limited, and it is probably impossible +for a well-constituted mind to recite the simple +story of his deeds without seeming to draw +largely on the imagination. Consequently, an +unexaggerated account of what Ruby actually +did (and I cannot bring my mind to an embellishment +of the truth) would hardly interest a +public whose fancy has been thus pampered and +spoiled. But for this, these pages could be filled +with instances of his strength and agility that +would almost tax belief. Suffice it to say that +while, like most good high leapers, he would cover +but a moderate breadth of water, he would get +over anything reasonable in the shape of a fence +that could be found about the town.</p> + +<p>I was a heavy weight,—riding nearly two hundred +pounds,—and necessarily rode with judgment. +If there was a low place in a fence, we +never chose a high one; but, at the same time, +if there were no low places, we took the best we +could find. Ruby seemed to know that the two +of us were solid enough to break through any +ordinary pile of rails, and what we could not jump +over we jumped <em>at</em>. More than once did he carry +away the top rail of a snake fence with his knees, +and land fair and square on the other side; but +it was a very high leap that made this necessary.</p> + +<p>He would jump on to the porch of the quartermaster’s +office (approached from the ground by +four steps), and then jump over the hand-rail and +land on the ground below again, almost wagging +his tail with delight at the feat.</p> + +<p>His ear was quicker than mine for the peeping +of quail and for the drumming of grouse, and, +in the absence of a good dog, there is no doubt +that my pot (for which alone I have been said to +hunt) was better filled by reason of his intelligence +in the field, and because he would allow +one to shoot from the saddle. The birds never +mistook me for a sportsman until I was quite +in among them, blazing away.</p> + +<p>In coming home from the prairie, we generally +rode round by the way of a certain sunken garden +that stood a couple of feet below the level of the +road. A five-foot picket-fence that stood at the +roadside had fallen over toward the garden, so +that its top was hardly four feet higher than the +road. This made the most satisfactory leap we +ever took,—the long, sailing descent, and the +safe landing on sandy loam, satisfied so completely +one’s prudent love of danger.</p> + +<p>I think I missed this leap more than anything +at Lebanon when, finally, we set out for Arkansas.</p> + +<p>We made our first considerable halt early in +May, at Batesville, on the White River,—a lovely, +rose-grown village, carrying, in the neatly kept +home of its New England secessionists, evidence +that they remembered their native land, where, in +their day, before the age of railroads, the “village” +flourished in all its freshness and simplicity. +It had now acquired the picturesque dilapidation, +in the manner of fences and gates and defective +window-panes, that marked the Southern domicile +during the war. Ruby had strained himself quite +seriously during the march, and had been left to +come on slowly with the quartermaster’s train. +This left me quite free for the social life, such +as it was, to which we—the only available men +that had been seen there since Price gathered his +forces at Springfield—were welcomed with a +reserved cordiality. Our facilities for forming +a correct opinion of society were not especially +good, but I fancied I should have passed my time +to as good advantage in the saddle.</p> + +<p>We soon left for an active expedition in the direction +of Little Rock, of which it is only necessary +to say, here, that it lasted about a month, +and brought the writer acquainted with some very +unsatisfactory horses,—a fact which heightened +his pleasure, on striking the White River bottom +again, at finding that Ruby had been brought +over the ferry to meet him. Tired as I was, I +took a glorious brisk trot through the Canebrake +Road, with a couple of leaps over fallen trees, +that revived the old emotions and made a man +of me again.</p> + +<p>While we lay at Batesville we were unusually +active in the matter of drill and reorganization; +and this, with our engagements in +the town, kept us too busy for much recreation; +but Ludlow and I managed to work in a +daily swim in the White River, with old saddles +on our horses, and scant clothing on our persons. +Talk of aquatic sports! there is no royal +bath without a plucky horse to assist; and a +swim across the swift current at Batesville, with +a horse like Ruby snorting and straining at every +stroke, belittled even the leaping at Lebanon.</p> + +<p>From Batesville we commenced our memorable +march to join the fleet that had just passed +Memphis, following down the left bank of the +river to Augusta, and then striking across the +cotton country to Helena,—a march on which we +enjoyed the rarest picturesqueness of plantation +life, and suffered enough from heat and hunger +and thirst, and stifling, golden dust to more +than pay for it.</p> + +<p>Helena was a pestiferous swamp, worth more +than an active campaign to our enemies, filling +our hospitals, and furrowing the levee bank with +graves. It was too hot for much drilling, and +we kept our better horses in order by daybreak +races. With the local fever feeling its way into +my veins, I was too listless to care much for +any diversion; but Ike came to me one evening +to say that he “reckoned” Ruby was as good +a horse as anybody had in the “camps,” and +he might as well take a hand in the games. I +told him I had no objection to his being run, +if he could find a suitable boy, but that both +he and I were too heavy for race-riding.</p> + +<p>“I don’t weigh only about a hundred and a +half,” said the ambitious man.</p> + +<p>“Well, suppose you don’t, that is ten pounds +too much.” </p> + +<p>“I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter +’n he is if he knows how to ride; anyhow, if +Rube can’t skin anything around here, I don’t +know nothin’ about horses.” </p> + +<p>“Ike, did you ever run that horse?” </p> + +<p>“Well, Colonel, now you ask me, I did jest +give Dwight’s darkey a little brush once.” </p> + +<p>Conquering my indignation and my scruples, +I went over, just for the honor of the establishment, +and made up a race for the next day.</p> + +<p>I have seen crack race-horses in my time, but +I never saw more artistic riding nor more capital +running than that summer morning on the +River Road at Helena, just as the sun began to +gild the muddy Mississippi. The satisfaction of +this conquest, and the activity with which new +engagements were offered by ambitious lieutenants, +who little knew the stuff my man and +horse were made of, kept off my fever for some +weeks; but I steadily declined all opportunity +of racing with horses outside of our command, +for I had been reared in a school of Puritan +severity, and had never quite overcome my convictions +against the public turf. A corporal of +an “Injeanny rege<em>ment</em>” took occasion to crow +lustily—so I heard—because “one of them +French coveys” was afraid to run him a quarter +for five dollars. It appeared that a cleanly +European was always supposed by this gentry +to be French; and in the army at large I was +better known by the company I kept than by +my New England characteristics.</p> + +<p>Naturally, Ike thought that, while Ruby was +engaged in this more legitimate occupation, he +ought not to be ridden for mere pleasure; and it +was only when a visitor was to be entertained, +or when I went out on plea of duty, that I +could steal an opportunity to leap him; but he +took one fence that fairly did him credit. It +was a snake fence measuring four feet and two +inches, with a deep ditch on each side cut close +to the projecting angles of the rails. Ruby carried +me over the first ditch into the angle between +the rails, then over the fence into the +narrow space on the other side, and then over +the second ditch into the field. It was the most +perfect combination of skill, strength, and judgment +that was possible to horse-flesh; and I think +Gluckmansklegge, who was with me and had suggested +the venture, despaired of ever getting his +promotion by any fair means, when we rejoined +him by the return leap and rode safely to camp.</p> + +<p>Unhappily, even entire satisfaction with one’s +horse is powerless to ward off such malaria as +that of the camp at Helena, and in due time +I fell ill with the fever. The horse was turned +over to the care of the quartermaster, and Ike +and I came wearily home on sick-leave.</p> + +<p>Late in the autumn we returned to St. Louis, +where one of the German officers told me that +the regiment had joined Davidson’s army at “Pilot +K-nopp”; and after the Hun, our new adjutant, +arrived from the East, we set out for +headquarters, and took command of the cavalry +brigade of Davidson’s army.</p> + +<p>From November until January we were tossed +about from post to post, wearing out our horses, +wearying our men, and accomplishing absolutely +nothing of value beyond the destruction of an +enormous amount of the rough forage, which +would otherwise have been used to feed “nags,”—stolen +or to be stolen,—and would have thus +tended to foster the prevailing vice of the region.</p> + +<p>At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at +Thomasville,—a good twelve miles away from +Davidson,—and were at rest; it was only those +near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, +and he was now encamped with the infantry.</p> + +<p>Pleasant as we found it with our little duty +and much sport, I can never look back to Thomasville +without sorrow. To say that I had acquired +a tenderness for Ruby would not be +strictly just; but I felt for him all the respect +and admiration and fondness that is possible short +of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only +one; but Ruby was my hero, and I depended on +him for my duty and my pleasure more than I +knew. With his full measure of intelligence he +had learned exactly his <em>rôle</em>, and he was always +eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the world +what a remarkably fine horse I had,—being himself +conscious, not only of his unusual virtues, +but, no less, of the praise they elicited.</p> + +<p>One sunny Southern day, toward the end of +January, Davidson had ridden over, with his following, +to dine with us; and as we were sitting +before our mess-tent, mellow with after-dinner +talk of our guns and our dogs and our horses, +the General was good enough to remember that +he had seen me riding a chestnut that he thought +much too finely bred for field work: had I been +able to keep him? Then Ruby was discussed, +and all his successes were recalled, first by one +friend and then by another, until Davidson needed +ocular proof of our truthfulness.</p> + +<p>Ike had taken the hint, and brought Ruby +round in due time,—glistening like gold in the +slanting rays of the setting sun, but blundering +along with his head down and ears drooping in +his old, dismal way.</p> + +<p>“O no, I don’t mean that horse,” said Davidson; +“I mean a very high-strung horse I have +seen you ride on the march.” </p> + +<p>“Very well, General, that is the animal; he +keeps his strings loose when he is not at his +work.” </p> + +<p>“No, I have seen you riding a far better horse +than that; I am too old a cavalryman to be +caught by such chaff.” </p> + +<p>To the great glee of the Hun, whose faith in +Ruby was unbounded, Davidson’s whole staff +turned the laugh on me for trying to deceive +the General just because he had been dining.</p> + +<p>I mounted, and started off with one of Ruby’s +enormous lifts, that brought the whole company +to their feet. It was the supreme moment with +him. Full of consciousness, as though he knew +the opportunity would never come again, and +quivering in anticipation of his triumph, he was +yet true to his training, and held himself subject +to my least impulse.</p> + +<p>We had lain in our camp for more than a week, +and there was not a vestige left of the recently +substantial fences,—only the suggestive and conspicuous +gateways that stood to mark the march +of our armies from the Chesapeake to the Indian +Nation. But Ruby built fences in his imagination +higher than any he had ever faced, and +cleared them without a scratch, landing close as +though the Helena ditch were still to be taken.</p> + +<p>It would take long to tell all he did and how +perfectly he did it; he went back at last to his +canvas blanket, loaded with adulation, and as +happy as it is given a horse to be.</p> + +<p>In his leaping he had started a shoe, and Ike +took him in the morning to the smith (who had +taken possession of an actual forge), to have it +reset. A moment later, the Hun cried, “My +God, Colonel, look at Ruby!” </p> + +<p>Hobbling along with one hind foot drawn up +with pain, he was making his last mournful +march, and we laid him that day to rest,—as true +a friend and as faithful a fellow as ever wore a +chestnut coat.</p> + +<p>He had reared in the shop, parted his halter, +and fallen under a bench, breaking his thigh far +up above the stifle.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch3.jpg" width="500px" height="106px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="WETTSTEIN" id="WETTSTEIN"></a>WETTSTEIN.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_3">It is a pleasant thing to be a colonel of +cavalry in active field-service. There +are circumstances of authority and responsibility +that fan the latent spark of barbarism +which, however dull, glows in all our breasts, and +which generations of republican civilization have +been powerless to quench. We may not have confessed +it even to ourselves; but on looking back +to the years of the war, we must recognize many +things that patted our vanity greatly on the back,—things +so different from all the dull routine of +equality and fraternity of home, that those four +years seem to belong to a dreamland, over which +the haze of the life before them and of the life +after them draws a misty veil. Equality and Fraternity! +a pretty sentiment, yes, and full of sensible +and kindly regard for all mankind, and full +of hope for the men who are to come after us; +but Superiority and Fraternity! who shall tell all +the secret emotions this implies? To be the head +of the brotherhood, with the unremitted clank +of a guard’s empty scabbard trailing before one’s +tent-door day and night; with the standard of the +regiment proclaiming the house of chief authority; +with the respectful salute of all passers, and +the natural obedience of all members of the command; +with the shade of deference that even +comrades show to superior rank; and with that +just sufficient check upon coarseness during the +jovial bouts of the headquarters’ mess, making +them not less genial, but void of all offence,—living +in this atmosphere, one almost feels the +breath of feudal days coming modified through +the long tempestuous ages to touch his cheek, +whispering to him that the savage instinct of the +sires has not been, and never will be, quite civilized +out of the sons. And then the thousand +men, and the yearly million that they cost, while +they fill the cup of the colonel’s responsibility +(sometimes to overflowing), and give him many +heavy trials,—they are his own men; their usefulness +is almost of his own creation, and their +renown is his highest glory.</p> + +<p>I may not depict the feelings of others; but +I find in the recollection of my own service—as +succeeding years dull its details and cast the +nimbus of distance about it—the source of emotions +which differ widely from those to which our +modern life has schooled us.</p> + +<p>One of the colonel’s constant attendants is the +chief bugler, or, as he is called in hussar Dutch, +the “Stabstrompaytr”; mine was the prince of +Trompaytrs, and his name was Wettstein. He +was a Swiss, whose native language was a mixture +of guttural French and mincing German. English +was an impossible field to him. He had +learned to say “yes” and “matches”; but not +one other of our words could he ever lay his +tongue to, except the universal “damn.” But +for his bugle and his little gray mare, I should +never have had occasion to know his worth. Music +filled every pore of his Alpine soul, and his +wonderful Swiss “Retreat” must ring to this day +in the memory of every man of the regiment +whose thoughts turn again to the romantic campaign +of South Missouri. What with other buglers +was a matter of routine training was with +him an inspiration. All knew well enough the +meaning of the commands that the company +trumpets stammered or blared forth; but when +they rang from Wettstein’s horn, they carried +with them a <em>vim</em> and energy that secured their +prompt execution; and his note in the wild Ozark +Hills would mark the headquarters of the “Vierte +Missouri” for miles around. From a hill-top, half +a mile in advance of the marching command, I +have turned the regiment into its camping-ground +and dismounted it in perfect order by the melodious +telegraphy of Wettstein’s brazen lips alone.</p> + +<p>That other chief attribute of his, Klitschka, +his little beast, stayed longer with me than his +bugle did, and is hardly less identified with the +varied reminiscences of my army life. I bought +her, as a prize, with the original mount of the +regiment, in Frémont’s time, and was mildly +informed by that officer that I must be careful +how I accepted many such animals from the contractor, +though a few for the smaller men might +answer. Asboth, Frémont’s chief of staff, with +a scornful rolling up of his cataract of a mustache, +and a shrug of his broad, thin shoulders, +said, “Whyfor you buy such horses? What your +bugler ride, it is not a horse, it is a cat.” His +remark was not intended as a question, and it +ended the conversation. Months after that, he +eagerly begged for the nine-lived Klitschka for +one of his orderlies; being refused him, she remained +good to the end. She was an animal that +defied every rule by which casual observers test +the merit of a horse; but analytically considered +she was nearly perfect. Better legs, a better +body, and a better head, it is rare to see, than +she had. But she lacked the arched neck and +the proud step that she needed all the more +because of her small size. By no means showy +in figure or in action, it took a second look to +see her perfect fitness for her work. Her color +was iron-gray, and no iron could be tougher than +she was; while her full, prominent eye and ample +brain-room, and her quick paper-thin ear, told of +courage and intelligence that made her invaluable +throughout four years of hard and often dangerous +service. Like many other ill-favored little +people, she was very lovable, and Wettstein loved +her like a woman. He would never hesitate to +relax those strict rules of conduct by which German +cavalrymen are supposed to govern themselves, +if it was a question of stealing forage for +Klitschka; and he was (amiable fellow!) never +so happy as when, from a scanty supply in the +country, he had taken enough oat-sheaves to bed +her in and almost cover her up, while other +horses of the command must go hungry; and +was never so shaken in his regard for me as +when I made him give up all but double rations +for her.</p> + +<p>Double rations she often earned, for Wettstein +was a heavy youth, with a constitutional passion +for baggage out of all proportion to his means +of transportation. Mounted for the march, he +was an odd sight. Little Klitschka’s back, with +his immense rolls of blankets and clothing before +and behind, looked like a dromedary’s. Planted +between the humps, straight as a gun-barrel, the +brightest of bugles suspended across his back by +its tasselled yellow braid, slashed like a harlequin +over the breast, his arms chevroned with gorgeous +gold,—Wettstein, with his cap-front turned up +so as to let the sun fall full on his frank blue eyes +and his resolute blond mustache, was the very +picture of a cavalry bugler in active campaign.</p> + +<p>Smoking, gabbling, singing, rollicking, from +morning until night, and still on until morning +again if need be, he never lost spirit nor temper. +He seemed to absorb sunshine enough during the +day to keep every one bright around him all night. +When at last his bugle had been stilled forever, +we long missed the cheer of his indomitable gayety; +wearying service became more irksome than +while his bubbling mirth had tempered its dulness; +and even little Klitschka, although she +remained an example of steady pluck, had never +so potent an influence as while he had put his +own unfailing mettle into her heels. After she +was bequeathed to me, she was always most +useful, but never so gay and frisky as while she +carried her own devoted groom. No day was too +long for her and no road too heavy; her brisk +trot knew no failing, but she refused ever again +to form the personal attachment that had sealed +her and Wettstein to each other.</p> + +<p>The two of them together, like the fabled Centaur, +made the complete creature. He with the +hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine +race, and she with her veins full of the mustang +blood of the Rocky Mountains, were fitted to each +other as almost never were horse and rider before. +Their performances were astonishing. In addition +to a constant attendance on his commander +(who, riding without baggage, and of no heavier +person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged +out three good horses between one morning +and the next), the Trompaytr yet volunteered +for all sorts of extra service,—carried messages +over miles of bad road to the general’s camp, +gave riding-lessons and music-lessons to the company +buglers, and then—fear of the guard-house +and fear of capture always unheeded—he never +missed an opportunity for the most hazardous and +most laborious foraging.</p> + +<p>He was a thorough soldier,—always “for duty,” +always cleanly, always handsome and cheery, and +heedlessly brave. If detected in a fault (and he +was, as I have hinted, an incorrigible forager), he +took his punishment like a man, and stole milk +for himself or fodder for Klitschka at the next +convenient (or inconvenient) opportunity, with an +imperturbability that no punishment could reach.</p> + +<p>Once, when supplies were short, he sent me, +from the guard-house where he had been confined +for getting them, a dozen bundles of corn-blades +for my horses; not as a bribe, but because he +would not allow the incidents of discipline to disturb +our friendly relations; and in the matter of +fodder in scarce times he held me as a helpless +pensioner, dependent on his bounty. When in +arrest by my order, his “Pon chour, Herr Oberist,” +was as cordial and happy as when he strolled +free past my tent. Altogether, I never saw his +like before or since. The good fortune to get +such a bugle, such a soldier, and such a mount +combined, comes but once in the lifetime of the +luckiest officer. It was only his uncouth tongue +that kept him from being pilfered from me by +every general who had the power to “detail” +him to his own headquarters.</p> + +<p>So universal, by the way, was this petty vice +of commanding officers, that one was never safe +until he adopted the plan, in selecting a staff +officer, of securing his promise to resign from the +service, point-blank, if ordered to other duty, and +more than one offended general has been made +indignant by this policy. With Wettstein, I felt +perfectly easy, for the average capacity of brigadier-generals +stopped far short of the analysis of +his dual jargon. Several tried him for a day, +but they found that his comprehension was no +better than his speech, and that his manifest +ability was a sealed book to them. He always +came home by nightfall with a chuckle, and “Le +général versteht mich nicht. Je blase ‘marrrsch’ +für ‘halt.’” </p> + +<p>So it was that, for a couple of years, this +trusty fellow trotted at my heels through rain +and shine, by day and by night, with his face full +of glee, and his well-filled canteen at the service +of our little staff. Mud and mire, ditches and +fences, were all one to him and Klitschka; and +in Vix’s day they followed her lead over many a +spot that the others had to take by flank movement.</p> + +<p>Our work in Missouri was but little more than +the work of subsistence. We were a part of an +army too large for any Rebel force in that region +to attack, and too unwieldy to pursue guerillas +with much effect. But now and then we +made a little scout that varied our otherwise +dull lives; and at such times Wettstein always +attached himself to the most dangerous patrolling +party, and Klitschka was usually the first +to bring back news of the trifling encounters.</p> + +<p>At last, in February, 1863, when we had lain +for a month in delicious idleness in the heart of +a rich country, literally flowing with poultry and +corn-fodder, I, being then in command of a division +of cavalry, received an order from Davidson +to select six hundred of the best-mounted of my +men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruiting, +ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White +River in Arkansas. His main body, three thousand +five hundred strong, lay in the “Oil-Trough +Bottom,” on the other side of the river. A brigade +of Western infantry was to march as far as +Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if necessary; +though we afterward found that at the +only moment when we might have had grave +occasion to depend on them, they were, with an +inconsistency that was not the least attribute of +our commanding officer, withdrawn without notice +to us.</p> + +<p>We were to go in light marching order, carrying +only the necessary clothing, and rations +of salt and coffee. Wettstein’s ideas of lightness +differing from mine, I had to use some authority +to rid poor Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, +and such trash; and after all, the rascal had, +under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, +smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weighing +some fifteen pounds, into one of his rolls. +Eager men, too, whose horses were out of trim, +had to be discarded, and the whole detail to be +thoroughly overhauled. But the jovial anticipation +of seeing Batesville once more—a New +England village planted on a charming hillside +in Arkansas, where we had sojourned with Curtis +the summer before, and where we all had the +pleasant acquaintance that even an enemy makes +in a town from which the native men have long +been gone, and only the women remain—made +the work of preparation go smoothly, and long +before dawn Wettstein’s bugle summoned the details +from the several camps. There was a ringing +joyousness in his call, that spoke of the cosey, +roaring fire of a certain Batesville kitchen to +which his bright face and his well-filled haversack +had long ago made him welcome, and prospective +feasting gave an added trill to his blast.</p> + +<p>The little detachments trotted gayly into line, +officers were assigned for special duty, temporary +divisions were told off, and a working organization +was soon completed. Before the sun was +up, such a Ra, t’t’ta, t’t’ta, <em>t’t’ta</em>! as South +Missouri had never heard before, broke the line +by twos from the right, and we were off for a +promising trip. Marmaduke we knew of old, and +personal cowardice would have deterred no one +from joining our party, for he could be reached +from our stronger army only by a complete surprise; +and in a country where every woman and +child (white, I mean) was his friend and our enemy, +a surprise, over ninety miles of bad roads, +seemed out of the question. Indeed, before we +had made a half of the distance, one of his flying +scouts told a negro woman by the roadside, as +he checked his run to water his horse, “There’s +a hell’s-mint o’ Yanks a comin’ over the mountain, +and I must git to Marmyjuke”; and to +Marmaduke he “got,” half a day ahead of us, +only to be laughed at for a coward who had been +frightened by a foraging-party.</p> + +<p>The second night brought us to Evening Shade, +a little village where one Captain Smith was raising +a company. They had all gone, hours ahead +of us, but had left their supplies and their fires +behind them, and these, with the aid of a grist-mill +(for which an Illinois regiment furnished a +miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At daybreak +we set out for our last day’s march, still +supposing that Marmaduke’s men would put the +river between themselves and us before night, +but confident of comfortable quarters at Batesville. +A few miles out, we began to pick up +Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rattling +through the woods, from a house to which +he had been allowed to go for milk, with the +story of a sick officer lodged there. Following +his lead with a surgeon and a small escort, I +found the captain of the Evening Shade company +lying in a raging fever, with which he had found +it impossible to ride, and nearly dead with terror +lest we should hang him at once. His really +beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven +his recruiting labors, was in tears over his impending +fate. While we were talking with him +concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with +a royal pair of Mexican spurs to save his life, +evidently thinking from his display of finery that +he was a major-general at the very least. The +kind fellow buckled the spurs on my heels, and +they evidently gave me new consequence in his +eyes as we rode on our way.</p> + +<p>Presently we struck a party of about twenty-five, +under a Captain Mosby, who had been making +a circuit after conscripts and had had no +news of us. After a running fight, during which +there occurred some casualties on the other side, +we captured the survivors of the party and sent +them to the rear.</p> + +<p>From midday on, we heard rumors of a sally +in strong force from Batesville, and were compelled +to move cautiously,—straggling parties of +Rebel scouts serving to give credibility to the +story. At sunset we were within six miles of +the town; and, halting in the deep snow of a +large farm-yard, I sent a picked party of thirty, +under Rosa, to secure the ferry, if possible,—Wettstein +and Klitschka accompanying to bring +back word of the result. After two anxious +hours, he came into camp with a note from +Rosa: “Marmaduke is over the river and has +the ferry-boat with him; three of his men killed. +Wettstein did bravely.” The poor fellow had a +bad cut on his arm and was in pain, but not a +moment would he give himself until brave little +Klitschka, smothered in bright straw, was filling +herself from the smuggled bag of corn. Then +he came to the surgeon and had his wounded +arm duly dressed. Although evidently suffering +and weak from loss of blood, he gave us a cheering +account of Rosa’s fight, and dwelt fondly on +the supper he had bespoken for us at good Mrs. +——’s house, where we had quartered in the +summer. At nine o’clock, after Klitschka had +fed and the patrols had come in, we set out on +our march. It was still snowing hard, and even +the dead men that marked Rosa’s recent ride +were fast being shrouded in purest white. One +of them Wettstein pointed out as the man with +whom he had crossed sabres, and he asked permission +to stay with the party detailed to bury +him, for he had been a “braff homme.” With +his tender sympathy for friend or foe, he was +a truer mourner than a dead soldier often gets +from the ranks of his enemy. Even this sad +ride came to an end, as all things must, and at +the edge of the town soldierly Rosa stood, to +report that the pickets were posted and our +quarters ready. Giving him a fresh detail to relieve +his pickets, and asking his company at our +midnight supper, we pushed on to our chosen +house. Here we found all in order, save that +the young lady of the family had so hastily put +on the jacket bearing the U. S. buttons of her +last summer’s conquests, that she failed quite to +conceal the C. S. buttons on a prettier one under +it. She and her mother scolded us for driving +the Rebel beaux from town, when there was +to have been a grand farewell ball only the next +night; but they seemed in no wise impressed +with regret for the friends who had been killed +and wounded in the chase. It turned out that +Marmaduke had grown tired of reports that we +were marching on him in force, and would not +believe it now until his own men rode into town +at nightfall with the marks of Rosa’s sabres on +their heads. The place had been filled with +the officers of his command, and he with them, +come for their parting flirtations before the ball. +They were to march to Little Rock, and their +men were nearly all collected in the “Bottom,” +over the river. On this sudden proof of the +attack, they made a stampede for the flat-boat +of the rope-ferry, and nearly sunk it by over-crowding, +the hindmost men cutting the rope +and swimming their horses across the wintry torrent.</p> + +<p>We had full possession of the town, and were +little disturbed by the dropping shots from the +Rebel side. We visited on our unfaithful friends +such punishment as enforced hospitality could +compass, and, on the whole, we hadn’t a bad +“time.” The morning after our arrival we levied +such contributions of supplies as were necessary +for our return march, and, in order that +the return might not look like a retreat, we +loaded two wagons with hogsheads of sugar +(which would be welcome in Davidson’s commissariat), +and made every arrangement for the establishment +of the camping of the whole army in +the country back of the town; for our force was +so small that, with our tired horses, it would +have been imprudent to turn our backs to Marmaduke’s +little army, if he supposed us to be +alone.</p> + +<p>Keeping the town well picketed and making +much show of laying out an encampment, we +started the teams and the main body of the +command at nightfall, holding back a hundred +men for a cover until a later hour.</p> + +<p>During the evening the Rebels on the south +side of the river became suspiciously quiet, and +there was, apparently, some new movement on +foot. The only possible chance for an attack was +by Magnus’s ferry, ten miles below, where the +boat was so small and the river so wide that +not more than twenty horses could be crossed in +an hour, and our sharpshooters were sufficient +to prevent the removal of the Batesville boat +to that point. Still it was important to know +what was going on, and especially important to +prevent even a scouting-party of the enemy from +harassing the rear of our tired column by the +shorter road from Magnus’s to Evening Shade; +and I started at nine o’clock (when the moon +rose), with twenty men, to go round that way, +directing the remainder of the rear-guard to follow +the main body at midnight.</p> + +<p>The ride to Magnus’s was without other adventure +than bad roads and almost impassable +bayous always entail, and in a few hours we +reached the plantation, where I had a former +ally in an old negro who had done us good service +during Curtis’s campaign. He said that the +Rebels had left the Bottom, and were going to +Little Rock, but, as a precaution he took a +canoe and crossed over to the house of another +negro on the south bank, and returned with a +confirmation of his opinion. As it was very important +to know whether the only enemy of +Davidson’s army had really withdrawn from his +front, and, as this might be definitely learned +through the assistance of an old scout who lived +in the edge of the Bottom, it seemed best to +cross the river to give him instructions for his +work.</p> + +<p>I took Ruby, my best horse. He was a sure +reliance under all circumstances, and he and I +knew each other perfectly. We were at home in +every foot-path in the country, having had many +a summer’s swim in this very river; and now, +accompanied only by Wettstein and Klitschka, +I went on to the ferry-boat. It was what is +known as a “swing” ferry. A stout rope is +stretched between trees on the opposite shores, +and the boat is attached to a couple of pulleys +arranged to traverse the length of this rope. +The attaching cords—one at each end of the +up-stream side of the boat—are long enough to +allow it to swing some rods down the stream; +by shortening one of the ropes and lengthening +the other, the boat is placed at an angle with +the swift current, which propels it toward one +shore or the other, the pulleys keeping pace in +their course on the main rope.</p> + +<p>The main rope was rough from long use, and +often the pulleys would halt in their course, +until the pull of the advancing boat dragged them +free. Then the rickety craft, shivering from end +to end, would make a rapid shoot, until another +defective place in the rope brought her to again. +At each vibration, the horses nearly lost their +feet, and the surging stream almost sent its +muddy water over the gunwale. It was a long +and anxious trip,—the rotten guy-rope hardly +serving to hold us to our course. At last we +reached the shore and rode on to Craikill’s house +in the Bottom. He had been “conscripted,” and +forced to go with the army, so his wife told +us, and she had seen him march with the rest +on the Fairview Road for Little Rock. The last +bird had flown, and we could safely march back +at our leisure.</p> + +<p>Wettstein filled his pipe, emptied his haversack +for the benefit of Craikill’s hungry children, +and, cheery as ever, followed me to the ferry. +On the way over he had been as still as a mouse, +for he was too old a soldier to give an enemy any +sign of our approach. But, as we set out on the +return trip, in the cold moonlight, he sang the +“Ranz des Vaches,” fondled his little mare, and, +unmindful of his wounded arm, gave way to the +flow of spirits that the past few days’ duty had +checked. I never knew him more gay and delightful; +and, as we stood leaning on our saddles +and chatting together, I congratulated myself +upon the possession of such a perpetual sunbeam.</p> + +<p>We were barely half-way across, when, suddenly, +coming out of the darkness, riding half +hidden in the boiling, whirling tide, a huge floating +tree struck the boat with a thud that parted +the rotten guy-rope, and carried us floating down +the stream. For a moment there seemed no danger, +but a branch of the tree had caught the +corner of the boat, and the pulleys had become +entangled in the rope. When this had been +drawn to its full length, and the tree felt the +strain, the boat dipped to the current, filled, and +sank under our feet. I called to Wettstein to +take Klitschka by the tail, but it was too late; +he had grasped the saddle with the desperation +of a drowning man, and made her fairly helpless. +The boat soon passed from under us, and, +relieved of our weight, came to the surface at +our side; but, bringing the rope against poor +Wettstein’s wounded arm, it tore loose his hold, +and soon went down again in the eddy, and +Klitschka was free.</p> + +<p>“Adieu, Herr Oberist; tenez Klitschka pour +vous! Adieu!” And that happy, honest face +sank almost within reach of me. The weight of +his arms prevented his rising again, and only an +angry eddy, glistening in the moonlight, marked +his turbid grave.</p> + +<p>Ruby, snorting, and struggling hard with the +current, pulled me safely to the shore, and little +Klitschka followed as well as her loaded saddle +would permit. For the moment, with my own +life and the lives of two tried companions to +care for, I thought of nothing else; but as I sat +drying at Magnus’s roaring hearth the direst desolation +overwhelmed me. Very far from home,—far +even from the home-like surroundings of my +own camp,—I had clung to this devoted fellow +as a part of myself. He was a proven friend; +with him I never lacked the sympathy that, in +the army at least, is born of constant companionship, +and he filled a place in my life that +dearer friends at home might not find. He +was the one comrade whose heart, I was sure, +was filled only with unquestioning love for me. +Henceforth I must look for support to companions +who saw me as I was, who knew my faults +and my weaknesses, and whose kind regard was +tempered with criticism. The one love that was +blind, that took me for better or for worse, had +been, in an instant, torn from my life, and I +was more sad than I can tell.</p> + +<p>But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened +party, we mounted, to join the main command; +and, as we rode on through the rest of that desolate +night, no word passed to tell the gloom that +each man felt.</p> + +<p>The petty distinctions of earthly rank were +swallowed up in a feeling of true brotherhood, +and Wettstein—promoted now—rode at our +head as a worthy leader, showing the way to a +faithful performance of all duty, and a kindly +and cheerful bearing of all life’s burdens; and, +through the long and trying campaigns that followed, +more than one of us was the better soldier +for the lesson his soldierly life had taught.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch4.jpg" width="500px" height="106px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="MAX" id="MAX"></a>CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/u.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_1">Union City was not a city at all; it +was hardly a village, and “Disunion” +would have been its fairer designation. +It lay in the woods at the crossing of two railroads, +one pointing toward Mobile and one toward +Memphis, but neither leading anywhere. There +was a tradition that trains had once been run +upon each, but many bridges had had to be rebuilt +to make the short line to Columbus passable, +and the rest was ruin; for Forrest had been +there with his cavalry.</p> + +<p>The land was just so much raised above the +broad swamp of Northwestern Tennessee that +whiskey with men to drink it, and a Methodist +Church South with people to attend it, were possible. +With these meagre facilities for life, and +the vague inducement of a railroad-crossing. +Union City had struggled into an amphibious +subsistence; but it had never thriven, and its +corner-lots had but feebly responded to the hopes +of its projectors.</p> + +<p>For many a mile around, the forests and +swamps were well-nigh impenetrable, and the occasional +clearings were but desolate oases in the +waste of marsh and fallen timber. The roads +were wood-trails leading nowhere in particular, +and all marked a region of the most scanty and +unfulfilled promise.</p> + +<p>General Asboth, seeing (by the map) that it +commanded two lines of railroad, sent us to occupy +this strategic point, and we gradually accumulated +to the number of twenty-five hundred +cavalry and four thousand infantry, drawing our +regular supplies from Columbus; and occupying +our time with a happy round of drills, inspections, +horse-races, cock-fights, and poker. It was +not an elevating existence, but it was charmingly +idle, and we passed the serene and lovely +autumn of 1863 in a military dreamland, where +nothing ever came to disturb our quiet, or to +mar our repose with the realities of war. We +built ourselves houses, we shot game for our +tables, we made egg-nog for our evenings, and +we were happy. The charm of camp-life—with +just enough of occupation and responsibility, and +with enough improvement in the troops for a reward—made +even this wilderness enjoyable. I +had the advantage of seniority and command, and +the physical comforts that naturally gravitate toward +a commanding officer did not fail me.</p> + +<p>My house, built with the mouse-colored logs +of a Rebel block-house, covered with the roof of +the post-office, and floored and ceiled with the +smoke-mellowed lining of the Methodist church, +was broad and low and snug. Its windows, also +taken from the sanctuary in question, were set +on their sides, and gave to each of the two rooms +wide, low-browed outlooks into the woods and +over the drill-ground, that would have made +worse quarters agreeable. The bricks of an abandoned +domestic fireside built a spacious fireplace +across an angle of each of the rooms, and the clay +of the locality plastered all our chinks “to keep +the wind away.” I have seen more pretentious +houses and more costly, but never one in which +three chosen spirits—I had, in a happy moment, +selected Voisin and the Hun for my staff—got +more that is worth the getting out of the simple +and virtuous life of a cavalry headquarters. +We were at peace with all the world (Forrest +was in Mississippi), our pay was regular, our +rations were ample,—and Asboth had been +ordered to Pensacola.</p> + +<p>Old A. J., his successor,—every inch a soldier, +and a good fellow to the very core,—used +sometimes to roll up his camp mattress and run +down from Columbus for an inspection. Those +are marked days in our memories. He was a +lynx in the field, and wry buttoning roused him +to articulate wrath; but he unbuckled his sabre +at the door, and brought only geniality within,—a +mellow geniality that warmed to the influences +of our modest hospitality, and lasted far into +the night; and then, when the simple and inoffensive +game was over, and its scores were settled, +the dear old boy—usually with a smile of +conquest wandering through his gray beard—would +unroll his bundle before the fire and sleep +like a baby until reveille. Happy, happy days,—and +still happier nights!</p> + +<p>Naturally, in such a life as we led at Union +City, our horses formed a very important element +in our occupation and in our amusements. +Soon after our arrival at Columbus,—an event +which had taken place a few months before,—a +spanking mare that I had bought to replace +Ruby had gone hopelessly lame, and it became +again important to all who were concerned in +my peace of mind, that a satisfactory substitute +should be found for her. I had still in my stable +a little thoroughbred (Guy), who, though excellent +in all respects, was a trifle under my weight, +and not at all up to the rough riding that was +a necessary part of our army life. He could go +anywhere, could jump any practicable barrier, +was fleet and sound, and in all respects admirable, +but he was made for a lighter weight than +mine, and, except for show and parade riding, +must mainly be used to carry Ike and the saddle-bags, +or to mount a friend when a friend +favored me.</p> + +<p>In a second search, in which most of the officers +of the regiment took a lively interest, there +was found, in Frank Moore’s Battalion of the +Second Illinois Cavalry, a tall, gaunt, lean, haggard, +thoroughbred-looking beast, which had been +captured from Merryweather’s men in Western +Tennessee. He was not a handsome horse, nor +was he to the ordinary eye in any respect +promising; but a trial showed that he had that +peculiar whalebone character, and wiry, nervous +action, which come only with blood, and without +which no horse is really fit for the saddle. The +chances were very much against him. He did +not possess the first element of beauty, save in +a clean-cut head, a prominent eye, a quick ear, +a thin neck, sloping shoulders, high withers, and +the brilliant activity that no abuse had been +able to conquer. He was held in abeyance until +a careful examination of the two thousand +horses at the post showed that, even as he +stood, he had no equal there for my purposes. +Since he had come into the army he had been +in the possession of a private soldier, who had +done much scouting duty, and he had been initiated +(successfully) into the scrub-racing which +Illinois soldiers much affected. The serious +amount of one hundred and forty dollars was +hazarded in the venture, and he was transferred +to our stable. That increment of value which +always follows the purchase of a new horse +came rapidly in his case, and it needed only a +few gallops on the breezy bluffs beyond Fort +Halleck, to install him as prime favorite among +the headquarters’ mess.</p> + +<p>He was deemed worthy of the noble name of +Max, and under Ike’s careful grooming he returned +daily toward the blooming condition that +only Second Illinois abuse had been able to subdue. +In an early race with the Hun we were +ingloriously beaten; but the Hun rode a marvellous +little blood mare, blooming with hundreds +of bushels of oats, and with two years of +careful handling. Max, though beaten, was not +discouraged, and seemed to say that with time +and good treatment he would be ready for a +more successful trial.</p> + +<p>During his period of tutelage, and while he +was kept from all excessive exertion, he was inducted +into the mysteries of the art, to him +quite new, of jumping timber. Columbus had +been occupied by Rebel and Union soldiers since +the outbreak of the war, and its fences, far and +wide, had all disappeared; but nowhere in the +world was there a greater variety nor a more +ample stock of fallen trees, whose huge boles +made capital leaping-bars; and over these, almost +daily, for some months, beginning with the +smaller ones and going gradually to the largest +we could find, Max learned to carry a heavy +weight with a power and precision that even +Ruby could not have excelled.</p> + +<p>During all this time, ample feed, good shelter, +regular exercise, and a couple of hours of Ike’s +hand-rubbing daily, worked an uninterrupted improvement +in limb and wind and sinews and coat, +until, by the time we were ordered to Union +City, Max had become the pride of the camp. +He was over sixteen hands high, of a solid dark +bay color, glistening like polished mahogany, and +active and spirited as a horse in training for the +Derby.</p> + +<p>At Union City the headquarters’ horses were +stabled under a capital shed, close at hand, and +all that master’s eye and servant’s labor could +accomplish for their care and improvement was +lavished upon them; so that, during our long +months’ stay, we were among the best-mounted +men in the Western army. Our pleasure-riding +and our work lay through swampy wood-roads, +over obstructions of every sort, and across the +occasional grass farms, with their neglected rail-fences. +The weather was almost uninterruptedly +fine, our few visiting neighbors were miles away +from us, the shooting was good, and the enjoyment +we got from our vagabond life in camp was +well supplemented by the royal rides we almost +daily took.</p> + +<p>Naturally, in a camp full of idle men given +largely to sport, the elevating entertainment of +horse-racing played a prominent part. Both Max +and Guy were conspicuous by their successes until, +long before the close of our leisurely career, but +only after they had hung my walls with spurs +and whips and other trophies of their successful +competition with all comers, both were ruled out +by the impossible odds they were obliged to give. +The actual military service required was only +enough to convince me that Max was a beast of +endless bottom and endurance, and that, accidents +apart, he would need no help in any work he +might be called on to perform. For the rest of +the war, with much duty of untold severity, I +habitually rode no other horse for light work or +for hard, for long rides or for short ones, on the +march or on parade; and with all my sentiment +for his charming predecessors, I had to confess +that his equal as a campaigner had never come +under my leg. He would walk like a cart-horse +at the head of a marching column, would step +like a lord in passing in review, would prance +down the main street of a town as though vain +of all applause, would leap any fence or ditch +or fallen timber to which he might be put, would +fly as though shot from a gun in passing along +the line; and when, whether early or late, he +was taken to his stable, would eat like a hungry +colt and sleep like a tired plough-horse. In all +weathers and under all circumstances he was +steady, honest, intelligent, and ready for every +duty. I had ridden before, at home and in the +army, horses ideally good; I have ridden since, +over the hunting country of Warwickshire and +Northamptonshire, horses that were counted of +the best, but never, before or since, have I +mounted such a magnificent piece of perfectly +trained and perfectly capable horse-flesh.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, at Union City, word was +brought in that a flag of truce from Faulkner +had arrived at our picket line, and I rode out +for a parley over a trifling matter of an exchange +of prisoners. The officer in charge of +the flag, with the company escorting him, had +originally come from our neighborhood and had +belonged to Merryweather’s “band.” As Max +trotted up to their bivouac, he was greeted with +cries of recognition, and a lieutenant of the company +was kind enough to warn me that I had +shown them a stronger inducement than they +had hitherto had to make an attack on our position; +for, since Frank Moore had captured the +horse I rode, they had determined to regain him +at any risk. Happily, this laudable wish was +never fulfilled, and Max remained, in spite of +the devices they may have laid for his recapture.</p> + +<p>During the five months of our stay at this +post, we made some hard scouts in a hard country, +and we held a good part of West Tennessee +under strict surveillance, but the most +memorable feature of all our scouting was generally +the welcome dismounting under the wide +eaves of our own house; not, I hope, that we had +grown effeminate, but a week’s tramp through +the woods of West Tennessee offers little that +memory can cherish, and prepares one for a sensation +on the near approach of comfort.</p> + +<p>But five months of such life is enough, and I +was not sorry when the order came that I must +go for a soldier again.</p> + +<p>Sherman was about to advance eastward from +Vicksburg, destroy the lines of railroad by which +Forrest received supplies from the fertile prairie +region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Rebellion +in the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to +take all my infantry down the river, and the +cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line +of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and +join a considerable cavalry force gathering there +under Sooy Smith and Grierson; thence we were +to move southeasterly through Mississippi, to engage +Forrest’s forces and to meet Sherman’s army +at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at +Meridian.</p> + +<p>We lay in camp more than a week, ready to +move, but awaiting orders. The country (a very +wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. +Our order to march and the thaw came together, +on the 22d of January. We were to cross the +Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp’s Ferry, twenty-three +miles southwest of our camp. The command +consisted of the Fourth Missouri (with a +battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, +Nineteenth Pennsylvania, and Frank Moore’s Battalion +of the Second Illinois; in all about twenty-five +hundred well-mounted men present for duty. +The roads were deep with mud and slush, and +every creek was “out of its banks” with the +thaw. We reached the ferry only at nightfall of +the 23d, over roads that had hourly grown deeper +and more difficult. Two regiments had crossed, +through floating ice (eight horses at a trip), by +a rope-ferry, and at nine o’clock in the evening, +under a full moon and a summer temperature, +I crossed with staff and escort. The river was +already so swollen that we landed in two feet of +water, and still it was rising.</p> + +<p>Our camp was fixed five miles away on the +upland. The first mile was only wet and nasty, +and the trail not hard to follow. Then we came +to the “back slough,” thirty feet wide, four feet +deep, and still covered with four inches of ice. +Those who had gone before had broken a track +through this, and swept the fragments of ice forward +until near the shore they were packed in +for a width of ten feet or more, and to the full +depth of the water. I can make no stronger +statement than that we all got through safely, +only wet to the skin. How it was done I do +not pretend to know. Some went in one way +and some in another. All I can assert is that +my stalwart old Max, when he found himself +standing, belly deep, in broken ice, settled quietly +on his haunches and took my two hundred +pounds with one spring on to dry land four feet +higher than his starting-point, and twelve feet +away,—but then, Max always was a marvel. +Guy, who carried Ike, scrambled over the top of +the broken ice as only he or a cat could do. The +others fared variously. All were drenched, and +some were hurt, but all got to the shore at last. +Then came the hour-long tug to get my ambulance +through with its store of tent-hold goods +and we started for our remaining four miles. +The trail, even of cavalry, is not easily followed +by moonlight when covered with half a foot of +water, and we lost our way; reaching camp, after +fourteen miles of hard travel, at four o’clock in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The river was still rising rapidly, and word +was brought that Kargé, with more than half +the brigade, would have to make a détour of +fifty miles and cross the Three Forks of the +Obion far to the eastward, joining us some days +later, near Jackson. So we idled on, marching +a few miles each day, camping early, cooking the +fat of the land for our evening meal, cultivating +the questionable friendship of the Rebel population +by forced contributions of subsistence, and +leading, on the whole, a peaceful, unlaborious, +and charming picnic life. Finally, taking Kargé +again under our wing, we pushed on, resolutely +and rapidly, over flooded swamps, across deep, +rapid rivers, and through hostile towns, to our +rendezvous; whence, under the command of two +generals, and as part of an army of eight thousand +well-mounted cavalry and light artillery, +and all in light marching order, we started for +our more serious work.</p> + +<p>The chief in command was a young and handsome, +but slightly nervous individual, who eschewed +the vanities of uniform, and had about +himself and his horse no evidence of his military +character that could not be unbuckled and +dropped with his sword-belt in case of impending +capture. He was vacillating in his orders, +and a little anxious in his demeanor, but he had +shown himself cool and clear-headed under fire, +and seemed resolutely bent on the destruction of +the last vestige of Forrest’s troublesome army. +It would be tedious to tell all the adventures of +our forward expedition; how we marched in three +columns over different roads, each for himself, +and with only a vague notion where and how +we should meet, and how we should support +each other. As it afterward proved, the details +of the order of march had been given to the commanders +of the other brigades, while I had been +forgotten; so that the whole advance was vexed +with cross-purposes and with the evidences of a +hidden misunderstanding. The <em>contretemps</em> that +thus came about were annoying, and, in one +instance, came near being serious: as we were +going into camp at Prairie Station, my advance +reported having come in sight of the camp-fires +of the enemy; a skirmish-line was sent forward, +and only on the eve of engaging did they discover +that we were approaching Hepburn’s Brigade, +of our column, which had reached the same +point by another road.</p> + +<p>The first days of our march in Mississippi +were through Tippah County, as rough, hopeless, +God-forsaken a country as was ever seen +outside of Southern Missouri. Its hills were +steep, its mud was deep, its houses and farms +were poor, its facilities for the subsistence of a +protecting army like ours were of the most meagre +description, and its streams delayed us long +with their torrents of bottomless muddy water, +fast swelling from the thaw that had unlocked +the snow of all the deep-buried hills and morasses +of their upper waters. We built ferry-boats +and swamped them, built bridges and broke +them, and slowly and painfully, horse by horse, +transferred the command across the nasty riverbeds. +Tippah Creek detained us and kept us +hard at work all day and all night, and we +reached the Tallahatchee at New Albany barely +in time to ford our last man across before it rose +to an impassable depth. And then for two days +we pressed forward, in company with the whole +column, through the rough, rocky, and wooded +country, reaching Okolona only at nightfall.</p> + +<p>Here we struck the marvellous prairie region +of Northeastern Mississippi, literally a land flowing +with milk and honey. An interminable, fertile, +rolling prairie lay before us in every direction. +The stern rule of the Confederacy had +compelled the planters to offset every small field +of cotton with a wide area of corn, until the +region had become known as the granary of the +Southern army. Not only must every land-owner +devote his broadest fields to the cultivation +of the much-needed cereal, but one tenth of +all his crop must be stacked for public use in +cribs at the side of the railroad.</p> + +<p>It was an important incident of our mission +to destroy everything which directly or indirectly +could afford subsistence to the Rebel forces; and +during the two days following our arrival at +Okolona, while we marched as far south as West +Point, the sky was red with the flames of burning +corn and cotton. On a single plantation, +our flanking party burned thirty-seven hundred +bushels of tithe corn, which was cribbed near +the railroad; no sooner was its light seen at the +plantation houses than hundreds of negroes, who +swarmed from their quarters to join our column, +fired the rail-built cribs in which the remaining +nine-tenths of the crop was stored. Driven wild +with the infection, they set the torch to mansion +house, stables, cotton-gin, and quarters, until +the whole village-like settlement was blazing +in an unchecked conflagration. To see such +wealth, and the accumulated products of such +vast labor, swept from the face of the earth, +gave to the aspect of war a saddening reality, +which was in strong contrast to the peaceful +and harmless life our brigade had thus far led. +In all this prairie region there is no waste land, +and the evidences of wealth and fertility lay +before us in all directions. As we marched, the +negroes came <em>en masse</em> from every plantation to +join our column, leaving only fire and absolute +destruction behind them. It was estimated that +during these two days’ march two thousand +slaves and one thousand mules were added to +our train.</p> + +<p>The incidents of all this desolation were often +sickening and heart-rending; delicate women and +children, whom the morning had found in peace +and plenty, and glowing with pride in the valor +of Southern arms and the certainty of an early +independence for their beloved half-country, found +themselves, before nightfall, homeless, penniless, +and alone, in the midst of a desolate land.</p> + +<p>Captain Frank Moore, the Cossack of our +brigade, went at night to an outlying plantation, +of which the showy mansion-house stood on a +gentle acclivity in the edge of a fine grove. +Here lived alone with an only daughter, a beautiful +girl, a man who had been conspicuous in +his aid to the Rebellion, and whose arrest had +been ordered. The squadron drew up in front +of the house and summoned its owner to come +forth. He came, armed, sullen, stolid, and determined, +but obviously unnerved by the force +confronting him. Behind him followed his +daughter, dressed in white, and with her long +light hair falling over her shoulders. The sight +of the hated “Yanks” crazed her with rage, +and before her father could reply to the question +with which he had been accosted, she +called to him wildly, “Don’t speak to the villains! +Shoot! shoot them down, shoot them +down!” wringing her hands, and screaming with +rage. The excitement was too much for his +judgment, and he fired wildly on the troops. +He was riddled through and through with bullets; +and as Moore turned away, he left that +fine house blazing in the black night, and lighting +up the figure of the crazy girl as she wandered, +desolate and beautiful, to and fro before +her burning home, unheeded by the negroes +who ran with their hastily made bundles to join +the band of their deliverers. Moore’s description +of this scene in the simple language that +it was his unpretending way to use, gave the +most vivid picture we had seen of the unmitigated +horror and badness of war.</p> + +<p>As an instrument of destruction in the enemy’s +country, our raid had thus far been more +successful than we could have anticipated; but +we had come for even more serious business +than this, and there were already indications +that its main purpose would be a failure. Our +commander had evidently no stomach for a close +approach to the enemy, and his injunctions at +Colliersville that we were to try always to “Fight +at close quarters!” “Go at them as soon as +possible with the sabre!” and other valorous +ejaculations, were in singular contrast to the +impressions he evinced as the prospect of an +actual engagement drew near.</p> + +<p>Forrest was in our front with about our own +number of cavalry, but without artillery, of +which we had twenty good pieces. The open +country offered good fighting ground, and gave +to our better drilled and more completely organized +forces a decided advantage, even without +our great odds in artillery. There lay before +us a fair opportunity for dispersing the most +successful body of cavalry in the Rebel service; +and, could we effect a junction with Sherman, +we should enable him to divide the Confederacy +from Vicksburg to Atlanta. One of the most +brilliant and damaging campaigns of the war +seemed ready to open. Its key lay in our successful +engagement, on a fair field, with an inferior +force. Yet all of us who were in a position +to know the spirit with which we were commanded +were conscious of a gradual oozing out +at the finger-ends of the determination to make +a successful fight; and it was a sad night for us +all when, at West Point, with our skirmish-line +steadily engaging the Rebel outposts, an order +came that we were to fall back before daybreak +toward Okolona.</p> + +<p>The brigade commanders and their staffs had +had severe duty in the scattered work of destruction, +and even Max, tough though he was, had +been almost overworked with constant galloping +to and fro, and with the frequent countermarching +our varying orders had required. Still he was +better than his comrades, and many a man was +anxious for his mount, should our retreat be +pressed.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning we were on our way +toward the rear,—about eight thousand cavalry, +ten sections of artillery, two thousand pack-mules, +and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves +mounted on their masters’ mules, often two or +three on each, and clustering under our shadow +as their only means of escape to the happy land +of freedom. In an organized advance, all of this +vast hanging on could be kept at the rear and +in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of +self-preservation always attacks first the non-combatant +element, and during all the days that followed, +we found our way constantly blocked with +these throngs of panic-stricken people.</p> + +<p>No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw +his time had come, and he pressed us sorely all +day and until nightfall, and tried hard to gain +our flanks. A hundred times we might have +turned and given him successful battle, but, at +every suggestion of this, we received from our +general, who was well in advance of the retiring +column, the order to push forward and give our +rear a free road for retreat. Midnight found us +again in the vicinity of Okolona, and the next +daybreak showed the enemy’s long column filing +out of the woods and stretching well on toward +our right flank.</p> + +<p>Even the plains of Texas could offer no field +better suited for a cavalry engagement, and it +was with satisfaction that we received, at five +o’clock in the morning, an order to prepare at +once for a fight; but our men were barely +mounted and in line when an order came to +turn our backs upon this open field, and to retreat +with all expedition toward Memphis.</p> + +<p>When we left Okolona we left hope behind, for +our road struck at once into a wooded, hilly country, +full of by-ways and cross-roads known to the +enemy and unknown to us, and we well knew that +this movement would double Forrest’s power and +divide our own. Then, for a long day, tired and +hungry from the hard work and constant movement +we had just gone through, and with our +horses half-fed and overworked, we pushed on, +our rear often attacked and sometimes broken, +our mule-train and negroes thrown into frequent +confusion, one of our brigades demoralized and +put to flight, and the enemy still pressing our +rear and reaching for our flanks. At last, towards +night, it became evident that a stand +must be made or all would be entirely lost, and +at Ivy Farm, near Pontotoc, we found a broad, +open hill-top, with large fields, high fences, and +stout log-houses, which offered an opportunity. +By this time the command was too widely separated, +and some of it too much disorganized, +for the concentration of even a whole brigade, +but a part of Hepburn’s and a part of my own +were disentangled from the corral of fugitives +and brought into line. Both of our generals +were upon the field, and to our surprise both +seemed brave and resolute; and this not with +the resolution of despair, for the actual immediate +necessity of fighting often steadies nerves +which are easily shaken by the anticipation of +danger. Brave they were, but not always of the +same mind, and conflicting orders continued to +add to our embarrassment and insecurity.</p> + +<p>It is not worth while to detail all the incidents +of the opening of the short engagement; it was +ended by the only legitimate cavalry charge made +by the “Vierte Missouri” during the whole of its +four years’ history.</p> + +<p>We had withdrawn from the line where we had +been fighting on foot, had mounted, formed, and +drawn sabre; the road about one hundred yards +in front of us was swarming with Rebels, who +crept along the fence-lines and in the edge of +the bordering woods, and kept up a steady rain +of fire well over our heads, where we heard that +<em>pfwit</em>—<em>pfwit</em>—<em>pfwit</em> of flying bullets which, +happily, has no relative in the whole chorus of +sounds, and which is heard above all the din of +battle, and is felt through every remotest nerve.</p> + +<p>At the command “Forward,” excitement ran +down the line, and there was a disposition for an +immediate rush. But “Steady—right dress—trot!” +in a measured tone, taken up in turn by +the company officers, brought back all the effect +of our three years’ discipline of the drill-ground. +Later, “Steady—gallop—right dress!” accelerated +the speed without disturbing the alignment, +and then, at last, “Charge!” and with a +universal yelling and brandishing of sabres we +went forward like the wind. I then felt how +mad a venture we had undertaken, for before +us was the enemy, it is true, but the enemy behind +a high and stout, staked and ridered rail-fence. +As we drew very near this, still under +heavy fire, which now at the short range was +telling, the command became conscious that the +six-foot fence would withstand our shock, and it +wavered. I turned to my bugler to sound the +recall, when I saw him out of the corner of my +eye, his white horse rearing literally to his full +height and falling backward with a crash that +must have killed the poor boy at once. The +recall was not needed: the regiment had turned +and was running. The officers, being the best +mounted and generally the lightest weights, soon +reached the front, and “Steady—right dress—trot! +Steady—right dress—trot!” was repeated +along the line, until the drill-ground +precision was regained, and then “By fours—right +about—wheel!” and we stood facing the +enemy again, ready for another advance. Max +had been struck by a grazing bullet and had +been plunging heavily, but the wound was not +serious and he was soon quieted. We now saw +that our charge, futile though it seemed, had +done its work. The advance of the enemy was +checked; the sight of troops that could retire +and re-form for a new attack seemed to have a +stunning effect upon them. Practically the engagement +was ended.</p> + +<p>Subsequently, one of Forrest’s staff officers told +the Hun that the size of the division which had +charged was variously estimated at from five to +ten thousand, but that he had been accustomed +to such things and knew that we were not more +than two thousand. In fact, we were less than +six hundred. Forrest’s report of the battle of +Pontotoc states that the engagement was ended +“by a cavalry charge of the enemy, which was +repulsed.” </p> + +<p>There was still some sharp scrimmaging, and +we had to make two or three more squadron +and company charges to drive away small attacks +upon our retreating guns; but the battle, +as a battle, was over, and Forrest’s whole advance +had been stopped and ended by six hundred +Fourth Missouri Dutchmen, galloping, yelling, +and swinging their sabres at several thousand +men well secured behind a rail-fence. I had +before, in drill-ground charges, seen old soldiers +and experienced officers jump down and run away +from a fence on which they were sitting to watch +the advance of charging cavalry which they knew +must wheel before coming within five rods of +them; but I had never supposed that hot-blooded +soldiers, in the full excitement of a successful +attack, could be unnerved and turned by +the roar and thundering oncoming of a regiment +that could by no possibility reach them. Our +first setting out had driven back a thin skirmish-line +which had to cross the fence under +high speed; this, doubtless, aided in the <em>débâcle</em>; +the charge had stunned them, but it was the rally +that stopped the pursuit.</p> + +<p>The rest of our march was without interesting +incident all the way to Memphis, but it was +almost incessant, day and night; without incident, +that is, that it is worth while to tell here, +but our days and nights upon the road were filled +with annoyance and disgust, and with a store of +unhappy and ludicrous memories that will last +the lifetime of all who knew them.</p> + +<p>One day, at New Albany, Max and I were feeding +and sleeping in the door of an old mill while +the command was slowly crossing the antiquated +bridge over the Tallahatchie, when I was awakened +by Grierson’s riding up in great alarm, calling +upon me “for God’s sake” to use the ford +as well as the bridge, for Hepburn was being cut +to pieces in the rear, and I must give him the +full road for his retreat. I had always been a +respectful subordinate, but none of us were then +in the best temper; I did not believe a word of +it, and I frankly told him so. Even old Max +pricked up his ears and snorted as if in derision. +Almost as we were talking, there came an aid +from Hepburn saying that he had found a good +supply of forage and would be glad to go into +camp for the night. But there was no camp to +be thought of for that tired crew; the bogey of +incessant pursuit loomed up portentously close +upon our rear-guard, and sent its shadow deep +into the bowels of our commander, who was miles +away in the advance, and who would allow us +only the fewest possible hours in the very dead +of night for hasty cooking and scant repose. We +were a worn and weary lot as we finally went into +camp at the rear of the town; worn and weary, +sadly demoralized, and almost dismounted. I +had lost fifteen hundred good horses, and my +men, who had been eager and ready for a successful +campaign, were broken in spirit and sadly +weakened in discipline.</p> + +<p>All who had been compelled to bear the brunt +of the hard work now needed for themselves and +their horses absolute rest for days; but being +called into the city the morning after our arrival, +my eyes were greeted with the spectacle of General +Sooy Smith, no longer ill, and with no trace +of shame or annoyance on his face. He had shed +his modest and prudent attire, and shone out with +all the brass radiance of a full-fledged major-general. +From this time until the Fourth Missouri +cavalry was mustered out of service, our headquarters +were in the immediate neighborhood of +Memphis, and our life was much more active than +it had been at Union City.</p> + +<p>Not very much is to be said for Max during +this time, except in connection with the Sturgis +expedition, beyond the fact that we lay long in +the immediate vicinity of the race-course, which +we repaired and used faithfully, and, so far as he +was concerned, with eminent success. The more +frequent necessity for duty, the great labor of +remounting, reorganizing, and redrilling the command, +united with the greater publicity of our position +to lay some restraint on our mode of life, +and to make our conduct more circumspect. Still +we were not miserable, and the neighborhood of +a large town has, to a well-regulated headquarters’ +mess, its compensations as well as its drawbacks.</p> + +<p>Sturgis’s expedition to Guntown and back—especially +back—has passed into history, and +its unwritten memories will always remain with +those who took part in it.</p> + +<p>Guntown is far away in Northeastern Mississippi. +It is not laid down on the map of the +country, but it lies just across the Tishamingo +Creek, and it consists mainly of two plantation +houses and a school-house. Our stay there was +not long, and we were too much occupied to +study the locality minutely, but it is my impression +that the most important incident in its +history was connected with our visit.</p> + +<p>We were a force of about nine thousand infantry, +cavalry, and artillery,—some black and +some white, some good and some bad,—sent out +by Sherman as a tub to the Forrest whale; a +diversion to keep this commander from joining +Hood in Northern Georgia; though I doubt if +even General Sherman in his moments of wildest +enthusiasm anticipated just the issue that followed. +Our march out was not rapid, and it +was well ordered. We were allowed to take our +train, and old John Ellard’s four stupendous +mules drew our headquarters’ wagon, well laden +with the comforts we had accumulated during +a long service, including a brand-new, well-furnished, +and abundantly stored camp-chest that +had just arrived from St. Louis. So far as the +comforts of a home for five youngsters can be +stored in one mule-wagon, we were well supplied +for a campaign of any length; and judging from +the mess-tables to which we were invited, others +of the command were no less well provided. In +due time we reached the town of Ripley, a rather +pretty New-England-looking village, but, like all +Southern towns at that time, entirely devoid of +men and overflowing with women of the most +venomous and spiteful sort, who did all in their +power to add to the interest of the Sunday evening +we passed in their company.</p> + +<p>We had some light skirmishing on our arrival, +but whoever it was that attacked us withdrew +and left us in undisturbed possession of the comfortable +rooms and fireplaces of the town. Our +next day’s march brought us to a large open +plantation on a commanding hill, whence our +evening scouting-parties soon found the enemy +posted in some force and apparently disposed +for an engagement.</p> + +<p>It seemed always Forrest’s plan to select his +own fighting-ground, and the plan of our commanders +to gratify him. Sturgis committed the +usual folly of trying to hold every inch he had +gained, and of forming his line of battle on the +head of the column and under fire.</p> + +<p>We breakfasted at three in the morning, and +marched at half past four. My command had +the advance. The enemy allowed himself to be +easily driven until half past eight, when he made +some show of resistance. At this time the last +of our regiments could hardly have left the +camping-ground, and probably a judicious retreat +would have drawn Forrest’s whole force +back to the open country we had left. But +“retreat” was not yet written on our banners +(of that day), and orders came from our general +to support the advance-guard, form line of battle, +and hold our position. So far as the cavalry +brigade was concerned this was easily done, and +we got into good line near the edge of a wood +without difficulty. Here, for four mortal hours, +or until half past twelve, we carried on a tolerably +equal warfare, both sides blazing away +at each other with little effect across the six +hundred yards of cleared valley that lay between +two skirts of wood. So far as the endurance +of our troops was concerned, this engagement +could have been kept up until nightfall, though +our ranks were slowly thinning. Several desperate +charges were made on our position, and were +repulsed with considerable loss to both sides. +Pending the arrival of the infantry it would +have been folly for us to attempt a further +advance, but had we been properly supported, +or, better, had we at once fallen back upon our +support, we might have given, as the <em>post bellum</em> +reports of Forrest’s officers show, a better ending +to the day’s work. It was only at half past +twelve, when our ammunition was reduced to five +rounds per man, and when our battery had fired +its last shot, that the infantry began to arrive, +and then they came a regiment at a time, or only +so fast as the Forrest mill could grind them up +in detail.</p> + +<p>They had taken our place, and we had withdrawn +to their rear, where we were joined by +one after another of the defeated or exhausted +infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy +pressed upon us, gaining rod after rod of our +position, until finally our last arriving troops, a +splendid colored regiment, reached the field of +battle at double-quick, breathless and beaten by +their own speed, barely in time to check the +assault until we could cross the creek and move +toward the rear. The retreat was but fairly begun +when we came upon our train of two hundred +wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked +in beyond the possibility of removal. With sad +eyes we saw John Ellard cut his traces and leave +all that was dear to us—tents, camp-chest, poker-table, +and all that we cherished—to inevitable +capture. The train was <em>our</em> tub to the whale; +and while Forrest’s men were sacking our treasures, +and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, +which they had captured, we had time to form +for the retreat, more or less orderly according +as we had come early or late off the field. The +demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howling +over our heads of our own shells, together +with the sharp rattle of musketry in our rear, +hastened and saddened the ignominious flight of +the head of our column, though, for some reason, +the enemy’s advance upon us was slow.</p> + +<p>All that long night we marched on, without +food and without rest. At early dawn we reached +Ripley, where we paused for breath. Max had +been ridden almost uninterruptedly for twenty-four +hours, and for four hours had done the constant +hard work that the supervision of a long +line in active engagement had made necessary; +and he was glad to be unsaddled and turned for +fifteen minutes into a scantily grown paddock, +where he rolled and nibbled and refreshed himself +as much as ordinary horses do with a whole +night’s rest. The ambulances with our groaning +wounded men came pouring into the village, and +to our surprise, those women, who had so recently +given only evidence of a horrified hatred, pressed +round to offer every aid that lay in their power, +and to comfort our suffering men as only kind-hearted +women can.</p> + +<p>With the increasing daylight the pursuit was +reopened with vigor, and on we went, and ever +on, marching all that day, our rear-guard being +constantly engaged, and hundreds of our men +being captured, thousands more scattering into +the woods. My lieutenant-colonel, Von Helmrich, +who had been for twenty-eight years a +cavalry officer in Germany, and who, after thirteen +months in Libby Prison, had overtaken us +as we were leaving Memphis, was recaptured +and carried back to Richmond,—to die of a +good dinner on his second release, ten months +later. At nightfall, the pursuit growing weak, +we halted to collect together our stragglers, +but not to rest, and after a short half-hour +pushed on again; and all that interminable +night, and until half past ten the next morning, +when we reached Colliersville and the railroad, +reinforcements, and supplies, we marched, +marched, marched, without rest, without sleep, +and without food. The cavalrymen were mainly +dismounted and driving their tired jades before +them, only Max and a few others carrying their +riders to the very end, and coming in with a +whinny of content to the familiar stables and +back-yards of the little town.</p> + +<p>Most other officers whose service had been as +constant as mine had had extra horses to ride +for relief; but I had never yet found march too +long for Max’s wiry sinews, and trusted to him +alone. He had now been ridden almost absolutely +without intermission, and much of the +time at a gallop or a rapid trot, for fifty-four +hours. I had had for my own support the +excitement and then the anxious despair of responsible +service, and Ike had filled his haversack +with hard-bread from John Ellard’s abandoned +wagon; an occasional nibble at this, and +unlimited pipes of tobacco, had fortified me in +my endurance of the work; but Max had had +in the whole time not the half of what he would +have made light of for a single meal. I have +known and have written about brilliant feats +of other horses, but as I look over the whole +range of all the best animals I have seen, I +bow with respect to the wonderful courage, endurance, +and fidelity of this superbly useful +brute.</p> + +<p>There is an elasticity in youth and health, +trained and hardened by years of active field-service, +which asserts itself under the most depressing +circumstances. Even this shameful and +horrible defeat and flight had their ludicrous +incidents, which we were permitted to appreciate. +Thus, for instance, during a lull in the +engagement at Guntown, I had seated myself in +a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of a broad +tree-trunk; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, +had taken shelter between the legs of the chair, +leaving, however, his rear unprotected. Random +bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, +and it was due to one of these that I was unseated, +with an accompaniment of squeal, by the +rapid and articulate flight of my companion.</p> + +<p>During our last night’s march, my brigade +having the advance, and I being at its rear, +Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing +ahead of the stragglers of the other brigades, +who were to be recognized, he reminded me, by +their wearing hats (mine wore caps). The order +was peremptory, and was to be enforced even at +the cost of cutting the offenders down. Grierson’s +adjutant was at my side; we were all +sleeping more or less of the time, but constantly +some hatted straggler was detected pushing +toward the front, and ordered back,—the adjutant +being especially sharp-eyed in detecting +the mutilated sugar-loaves through the gloom. +Finally, close to my right and pushing slowly +to the front, in a long-strided walk, came a gray +horse with a hatted rider,—an india-rubber poncho +covering his uniform. I ordered him back; +the adjutant, eager for the enforcement of the +order, remonstrated at the man’s disobedience; +I ordered again, but without result; the adjutant +ejaculated, “Damn him, cut him down!” +I drew my sabre and laid its flat in one long, +stinging welt across that black poncho: “——! +who are you hitting?” Then we both remembered +that Grierson too wore a hat; and I tender +him here my public acknowledgment of a +good-nature so great that an evening reunion in +Memphis over a dozen of wine won his generous +silence.</p> + +<p>One might go on with interminable gossip +over incidents of camp and field for which at +this late day only scant interest is felt; but +nothing that I could say more would probably +aid my purpose, which has been simply by a +trifling sketch to recall the jollity, the comfort, +the suffering, and the misery of campaign life, +and to show how in the field more than anywhere +else one learns to cherish and to depend +upon a faithful and honest and willing comrade +like my royal old Max.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch4end.jpg" width="233px" height="66px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch5.jpg" width="500px" height="115px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="OVERCOAT" id="OVERCOAT"></a>HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT.</h2> + +<p class="centerbold"><big>(CIRCUMSTANTIALLY TRUE.)</big></p> + +<div> +<img src="images/t.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">The war was not quite over, but my +regiment was old enough to have grown +too small for a colonel, and I sat, the +dismalest of all men, a “mustered-out” officer, +sated with such good things as a suddenly arrested +income had allowed me, over an after-dinner +table in a little room at the Athenæum +Club. My coffee was gone to its dregs; the +closing day was shutting down gloomily in such +a weary rain as only a New York back-yard +ever knows; and I was wondering what was to +become of a man whom four years of cavalry +service had estranged from every good and useful +thing in life. The only career that then +seemed worth running was run out for me; and, +worst of all, my pay had been finally stopped.</p> + +<p>The world was before me for a choice, but I +had no choice. The only thing I could do was +to command mounted troops, and commanders +of mounted troops were not in demand. Ages +ago I had known how to do other things, but +the knowledge had gone from me, and was not +to be recalled so long as I had enough money +left with which to be unhappy in idle foreboding. +I had not laid down my life in the war, +but during its wonderful four years I had laid +down, so completely, the ways of life of a sober +and industrious citizen, and had soaked my whole +nature so full of the subtile ether of idleness +and vagabondism, that it seemed as easy and as +natural to become the Aladdin I might have +dreamed myself to be as the delver I had really +been. With a heavy heart, then, and a full +stomach, I sat in a half-disconsolate, half-reminiscent, +not wholly unhappy mood, relapsing with +post-prandial ease into that befogged intellectual +condition in which even the drizzle against +the window-panes can confuse itself with the +patter on a tent roof; and the charm of the +old wanderings came over me again, filling my +table with the old comrades, even elevating my +cigar to a brier-wood, and recalling such fellowship +as only tent-life ever knows.</p> + +<p>Such dreaming is always interrupted, else it +would never end; mine was disturbed by a small +card on a small salver, held meekly across the +table by the meekest of waiters.</p> + +<p>The card bore the name “Adolf zu Dohna-Schlodien,” +and a count’s coronet,—a count’s +coronet and “zu” (a touch above “von”)! I +remembered to have seen a letter from my adjutant +to the Prussian Consul in Philadelphia, +asking him to obtain information about a handsome +young musical “Graf zu” something, who +was creating a sensation in St. Louis society, +and the “zu” seemed to indicate this as the +party in question; he had spoken of him as +having defective front teeth, which seemed to be +pointing to the “color and distinguishing marks,” +known in Herd Book pedigrees, and human passports,—a +means of identification I resolved to +make use of; for my experience with the German +nobility in America had been rather wide +than remunerative.</p> + +<p>The “Herr zu” had waited in the hall, and +was standing under the full light of the lamp. +He was very tall, very slight, and very young, +apparently not more than twenty, modestly +dressed, and quiet in his manner. He was not +strikingly handsome, though very well looking. +His hands were the most perfect I ever saw, +and the ungloved one showed careful attention. +There was no defect noticeable in his front +teeth. He bowed slightly and handed me a letter. +It was from Voisin, my former adjutant, +but it was not exactly a letter of introduction. +At least, it was less cordial than Voisin’s letters +of introduction were wont to be. Yet it was +kind. Without commending the Count as a +bosom friend, he still said he was much interested +in him, had reason to believe in him, was +sorry for him, had given him material aid, and +was very desirous that he should pull through +some pecuniary troubles, which he could do only +by enlisting in the Regular Army, and receiving +his bounty. From this he would give me money +to release his baggage, which was valuable, from +some inconveniences that were then attending it +in St. Louis. Would I get him enlisted? He +said he would enlist, and would prefer to be +known under the name Adolph Danforth. The +gentleman himself took early occasion to express +this preference.</p> + +<p>I debated a little what to do. He was not +introduced as a friend, only as a person in need +of help; yet Voisin believed in him, and he had +asked a service that he would not have asked for +an unworthy man. I engaged him in conversation +and got him to smile. It was a very frank +smile, but it displayed a singular defect far up +on the front teeth. This decided me. He was +the same Graf zu whose position had been asked +of the Prussian Consul, and I knew he had learned +that the Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien, an officer in +the Gardecorps Kürassier, was of the highest +nobility and of a family of great wealth. There +was evidently no technical reason why the poor +fellow should not be received cordially and well +treated. So we went back to the smoking-room, +and with fresh coffee and cigars opened an acquaintance +which resulted not altogether uneventfully.</p> + +<p>He was not obtrusive. His story was not forced +upon me; but as I already had its thread, I was +able to draw it from him in a natural way, and +he told it very frankly, though halting a little at +its more important turnings, as if wondering how +its development would strike me. There was just +enough of hesitancy over a harrowing tale to throw +on myself the responsibility of learning it.</p> + +<p>He had been brought up by the tenderest of +mothers at the castle of Schlodien (I think in +Silesia), had early joined the Cuirassiers of the +Body Guard, had fought a fatal duel in which he +had been the aggressor, and had been condemned +to the Fortress of Spandau. Only his mother’s +great influence (exercised without the knowledge +of his stern and much older father, who was then +on his distant estates) had secured for him an +opportunity to escape. He had come directly to +America, and had remained near Boston until he +received intimation (again the result of his mother’s +influence with Baron Gerolt, the Prussian +Minister at Washington) that his return under +the Extradition Treaty was being urged at the +solicitation of the family of his fallen antagonist. +He had then taken refuge in a remote town in +South Missouri, where he amused himself with +shooting. His mother had written to him but +once, and had not been able to send him money. +He had at last returned to St. Louis, where he +had contracted some small debts which Voisin +and another kind friend had assumed. To reimburse +them and to gain more perfect seclusion, +he had resolved to enlist in the Regular Army. +It was a sad conclusion of his career, but as an +honorable man (and a pursued one) he had no +choice but to accept it.</p> + +<p>It was the old story,—<em>noblesse oblige</em>. There +was but one way out of a sad affair, and—like a +very Graf zu—this stripling, who had been born +and bred to a better fate, faced the penalty of +his misfortune without flinching. I tried infinite +suggestions, but nothing else offered the immediate +money which alone could relieve him of +debt and restore him his wardrobe and the portraits +of his mother and sister, which with a few +well-worn letters, were all he had to cheer him in +his exile. We sat till far into the night and until +my kindest sympathies were fully aroused by the +utter and almost childlike simplicity and frankness +with which the poor boy told of his sorrows. +I had been taught by a very ample experience to +look with much caution on German counts and +barons,—an experience that, if it was worth +what it had cost, I could not prize too highly; +but here was an entirely new type, a combination +of the gentlest breeding with an unsophistication +that argued more of a mother’s care than of garrison +influences, and an utter absence of the devil-may-care +manner that army life in Germany had +hitherto seemed to give. With the improvidence +of one who had never known the lack of money, +he had lodged himself at the Everett House; and +as I left him at its door, I resolved to lose no +time in getting him enlisted and stopping an +expense that would only add to his troubles. +The next day I saw the official who had charge +of the making up of the city’s quota, and easily +arranged for the examination of my candidate. +Dohna begged me to secure his admission to a +command whose officers would be able to appreciate +his difficult position, and a weary time I had +of it. At last it was all arranged; he had passed, +with much shock to his sensibilities, the surgeon’s +examination, and had been enrolled in a company +of Regular Infantry, whose captain (then serving +on the general staff of the department) had acquired +a sympathy for him not less than my own. +His bounty (over seven hundred dollars) he put +into my hands, and he went with me to Adams’s +Express office, where we sent more than half the +sum to St. Louis,—the full amount of his indebtedness. +One specified trunk was to be sent to +the Everett House, and the rest of his luggage—which +Voisin had described as valuable—to me. +I received by an early mail the receipt of the St. +Louis express-office for it, and found it most convenient +to let it lie for the present, addressed to +me personally, at the office in New York. It +would be useless to Dohna in the army, and I +was to take care of it for him.</p> + +<p>The captain of the company in which he was +enlisted secured him a furlough for ten days, +and, to show his gratitude, he invited us both +to dine with him at the Everett. We sat down +at seven, and we sat long. The best that either +cellar or kitchen afforded was spread before us +in wasteful profusion, and our host, temperate +in his sipping, but eating with the appetite of +youth, seemed only to regret the limit of our +capacity. As we walked across the square, filled +and with the kindest emotions, we planned +means for so occupying the remaining days of +the furlough as to allow but little opportunity +for money-spending. His company was at Fort +Trumbull, and after he joined he would be safe.</p> + +<p>The next day being Saturday, I took him to +my father’s house in the country, where his unfortunate +story was already known, and where +as much real interest was felt in him as the +good people of Connecticut ever accord to a duellist. +He had a friend living farther out on +the New Haven road, and he took an early +train to see her (this was a new feature), returning +to me in the evening. I met him at +the depot. He wore the superb uniform overcoat +of the Gardecorps Kürassier, long, flowing, +and rich, with a broad, scarlet-lined fur collar. +It was caught across the throat with a scarlet +snood, and hung loosely from the shoulders. It +made his six feet two really becoming. At +home he was easy but very quiet, saying little +but saying it very well, and he won as much +confidence as the stain on his moral character +would allow. Like most of his class, he knew +and cared absolutely nothing for what interests +the New England mind, and he would early +have palled on our taste but for his music. +His performance was skilful; he played difficult +music, and he played it very well, but without +vanity or apparent consciousness. When not +occupied in this way, and when not addressed, +he neither spoke nor read, apparently he did +not even think, but relapsed into a sad and +somewhat vacant reticence. But for our knowledge +of his misfortunes, he would have been uninteresting. +On Sunday he gave me a new confidence. +His friend up the road was an Everett +House acquaintance, made when he first came +from Boston. She was an angel! She knew his +sad story, and she had given him her Puritan +heart. In the trying days to come I was to be +the link that should bind them in their correspondence. +She must not know of his degraded +position, and all letters were to pass under cover +to me. Even <em>noblesse</em> did not hide the tears +that this prospect of long separation wrung from +him, and he poured out his grief with most +touching unrestraint. This was the one sorrow +of his life that even his trained equanimity +could not conquer. It made me still more respect +his simple, honest nature and his unfeigned +grief. I was doubly sorry that this last +trial of separated love should be added to his +cup of bitterness. In our long Sunday talk he +told me of his home, and showed me the singularly +beautiful photographs of his mother and +sister, and—quite incidentally—one of himself +in the full uniform of his regiment, bearing on +its back the imprint of a Berlin photographer. +He evinced a natural curiosity about the mode +of our garrison life, and I prepared him as +gently as I could for a decided change from his +former customs. It was, of course, depressing +to him, but he bore the prospect like a man, +and gave it no importance as compared with his +more essential downfall. He had seen enough +of our troops to be especially uneasy at the +prospect of an ill-fitting uniform. In the matter +of linen he was well provided, but he was +really unhappy over the thought of adapting his +long and easy figure to a clothing-contractor’s +idea of proportion. So it was arranged that he +should go to my tailor and be suitably clad, +according to regulation of course, but also according +to measure. He proposed, too, to leave +his overcoat for some repairs and to be cared +for while he should have no use for it. I gave +the tailor assurances of prompt payment.</p> + +<p>One fine morning Dohna came to my room in +his new rig and bade me a brave good-by. He +was off for Fort Trumbull. I felt an almost +parental sorrow over his going, and had much +misgiving as to his ability to face his ill-bred +soldier comrades. There came soon after a letter +to say that he was well treated personally, +only the rations were so horrible; pork and salt +beef and beans and molasses. He could not eat +such things, and he was growing faint for want +of food. I had seen such dainty appetites cured +too often to have any fear on this score, and +only replied in general terms of encouragement, +and asked for frequent letters. These came. +There were no incidents of his life that were +not described almost with wonder, for a noble +officer of the Gardecorps of the king of Prussia +knows really nothing of the ways of life of the +men he is supposed to command. Often there +were thick letters for the <em>fiancée</em>, and answers +to these (also thick) had often to be forwarded. +I felt the enthusiastic glow natural to one who +carries alone the tender secrets of younger +lovers, and was not altogether unhappy under +the subjective romance of my mediation.</p> + +<p>Sometimes there were touching tales of +trouble. Once he had been detailed to the +“police” squad, and had to clean spittoons and +do other menial work. This was a touch of +reality that fairly opened his eyes to his abasement, +and he wrote much more sadly than ever +before, making me sad, too, to think how powerless +I was to help him in any way. A few +days later he sent a wail of real agony. While +he had been out on drill, some scoundrel had +broken into his satchel and had stolen all his +papers,—his letters from his mother, her photograph, +and those of his sister and his sweetheart, +and all the bundle of affectionate epistles +over which he had pored again and again in his +desolation. The loss was absolutely heart-breaking +and irreparable, and he had passed hours +sitting on the rocks at the shore, pouring bitter +tears into the Thames. This was a blow to me +too. I knew that Dohna was of a simple mind, +and utterly without resources within himself; +but he was also of a simple heart, and one +could only grieve over this last blow as over +the sorrows of a helpless little child. However, +I wrote all I could to encourage him, and was +gratified, though a little surprised, to see how +soon he became cheerful again, and how earnestly +he seemed to have set about the work +of becoming a really good soldier. After a time +the captain of his company—still in New York +and maintaining a lively interest in the poor fellow’s +case—procured an order for him to go to +Annapolis to be examined for promotion. He +was already a sergeant, and a pretty good one. +He stopped in New York a few days on his way +through for some refitting,—again at my tailor’s. +On his way back he stopped again to tell of his +failure. I was delicate about questioning him +too closely, but I learned enough to suppose that +different ideas as to practical education are entertained +by a board of army examiners and by +a fond young mother in the remote castle of +Schlodien; but I encouraged him to believe that +a little more study would enable him to pass +the second examination that had been promised +him, and he rejoined his company.</p> + +<p>In the general mustering-out Voisin had been +set free and had joined me in New York, and had, +naturally, participated in all my interest in the +quondam Count. He gradually, as an adjutant +should, assumed the correspondence, which was +voluminous, and by the time we were informed +that Dohna was detailed for recruiting duty in +the city, neither he nor I was glad to know it. +Something more than a feeling of regretful sympathy +is necessary to the enjoyment of frequent +companionship, and we both felt that the fact of +having credit with a tailor was a dangerous element +in the possible future combinations. However, +Dohna’s arrival at our room followed close +upon the announcement of the order. He was +still simple in his way and of modest deportment, +but he seemed to have accepted his new life +almost too entirely, and he had come to look not +very much out of place among his comrades. +Their quarters were in a basement in Chambers +Street, back of the City Hall, where we occasionally +dropped in to see him. After a while he +was always out when we called, and once when I +stopped to give him a foreign letter, sent to my +care, I was told that he had not been there for +a week, but one of the men volunteered to find +him. He came that night to the club for his +letter, in civilian’s dress, and appeared much as +he did when I first saw him, except that he had +two beautiful false teeth, in the place of the defective +ones. I gave him his letter, a long one +from Berlin, from his father. He showed Voisin +the postscript, in which it was stated that a +box containing a breech-loading shot-gun, a dozen +shirts, and a draft for five hundred thalers would +be forwarded by the Hamburg line to my care. +On the strength of this he hoped it would not +inconvenience us to advance him a couple of hundred +dollars. It was thus far inconvenient that +we were obliged to decline, which gave him no +offence, and he invited us to dine with him the +following day at the Everett House.</p> + +<p>At this point, in view of the extreme youth +and inexperience of our friend, we took occasion +to read him a short homily on the value of +economy, and to urge him immediately to leave +the Everett, return to his barracks in Chambers +Street, and as he valued his future peace of mind +to avoid running in debt; mildly hinting that, +if found in the public streets without his uniform, +he would be very likely to get himself into +trouble. He begged that we would not expose +him, and promised to return that very night. +Then for some time we lost sight of him; his +captain said that, so far as he knew, he was attentive +to his duty with the recruiting squad, +and he certainly kept out of our way. The box +from Germany did not arrive. No more letters +came, and we had no occasion to seek him out. +It was evident that he was no longer unhappy, +and so our interest in him, though still warm, +remained inactive.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One night I was awakened, quite late, by Voisin, +sitting on the side of my bed, big-eyed and +excited, and with a wonderful story to tell. He +had been, at the request of the counsel of the +Prussian Consul, to the detectives’ rooms at police +headquarters. Here he had been questioned as +to his knowledge of one Adolph Danforth, <em>alias</em> +Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien, <em>alias</em> Fritz Stabenow, +and had subsequently had an interview with that +interesting youth in the lock-up.</p> + +<p>The glory had all departed. He had been there +forty-eight hours, was unwashed, uncombed, stolid, +comfortable, and quite at home. There was +no remnant left of the simple and modest demeanor +of the well-bred aristocrat. It was hard +to see a trace of likeness to the Kürassier officer +with whose photograph we were familiar. The +obligations of <em>noblesse</em> seemed to be entirely removed, +and there was nothing left but plain, +ignoble Fritz Stabenow. An examination of his +pockets developed a singular folly. He had kept +every scrap of paper on which a word had ever +been written to him. Tailors’ bills, love-letters, +duns, photographs of half a dozen different girls, +all were huddled together. He had a package of +the Count Dohna cards and the plate from which +they had been printed,—made in Boston; a letter +of credit from a banking-house in Berlin to +its New York correspondent had the copperplate +card of the firm on the paper, but the paper was +ruled as a German banker’s paper never is, and +the plate from which the card had been printed +(also made in Boston) was in the envelope with +it. A letter from plain father Stabenow enclosed +photographs of still plainer mother and sister +Stabenow, which were a sad contrast to the glory +of the Countess Dohna’s picture. The father’s +letter was full of kindly reproof and affectionate +regret. “Ach! Fritz, ich hätte das von Dir nicht +gedacht,”—“I never thought that of you”; but +it was forgiving too, and promised the remittance, +clothing, and gun I have spoken of before. The +papers, for the loss of which such tears had been +shed at Fort Trumbull, were all there in their +well-worn companionship with a soiled paper-collar, +and that badge of dawning civilization, a +tooth-brush.</p> + +<p>Here were also two photographs, one of the +statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin on the +card of a St. Louis photographer, and another +of himself in Prussian uniform, on the card of +a Berlin photographer. The pictures had been +“lifted” and changed to the different cards. A +more careful neglect of track-covering was never +known. The evidence of all his deceptions had +been studiously preserved.</p> + +<p>Voisin had given him a dollar to buy some +necessary articles, and had left him to his fate.</p> + +<p>The disillusion was complete, and I saw that +I had been swindled by a false count even more +completely than I ever had been by real barons,—which +is much to say.</p> + +<p>Voisin had gathered from the Consul’s lawyer +that this Stabenow, a valet of the veritable Count +Dohna, had been one of a party who had robbed +him and committed other serious crimes, and he +had fled to this country, with his master’s uniform, +a valuable wardrobe, and costly jewels. He had +here undertaken to personify the Count, and had +had on the whole not an unhappy time, especially +since he came to New York in recruiting service. +He had finally been arrested on the complaint of +a lady, one of the many whom he had attempted +to blackmail, by threatening exposure through letters +they had written him in the kindest spirit. +Fortunately this one had had the good sense to +refer the matter to her husband, who brought +the interesting career to a close. He had obtained +several thousand dollars in this way from +different persons, and had contracted considerable +debts in all directions. The Everett House was +an especial sufferer.</p> + +<p>I felt that my claim was secured by the luggage +at the express-office, and I called for it the +next day. The gentlemanly clerk of the establishment +blandly showed me my name, neatly written +in a strange Teutonic hand, to a receipt for the +property. Just then I had information that a +box addressed to my care was lying at the Hoboken +office of the German steamers. Indiscreetly +mentioning this fact to the Prussian Consul’s lawyer, +I was informed that it would be necessary +to take the box in evidence, and I prudently +refrained from making further efforts for its recovery.</p> + +<p>It was with a chastened spirit that I paid a +considerable bill at my tailor’s and ordered the +overcoat sent to my address; and it was with +only mitigated satisfaction that I heard of the +sending in irons to his company in California of +deserter Stabenow.</p> + +<p>If the Herr Lieutenant Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien +of the Gardecorps Kürassier is still living, +I beg to inform him that his overcoat—the only +memento of a grave <em>Schwindelei</em>—is now a comfortable +wrap to a Rhode Island farmer, who +hopes that its rightful owner is as snugly clad +in his winter rides about Versailles.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch5end.jpg" width="233px" height="85px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch6.jpg" width="500px" height="110px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="SCOUTS" id="SCOUTS"></a>TWO SCOUTS.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_3">In the desultory and sporadic warfare carried +on in the Southwest, the scout—or +“skeout,” according to the dialect +of the region—was a very important element +of our organization, and it is amusing now to +recall the variety of odd-fish of every description +who applied for the remunerative employment +that this branch of the service afforded.</p> + +<p>The interest of our life at Union City was not +a little enhanced by two specimens of this genus +with whom we had much to do,—Pat Dixon +and “The Blind Preacher.” </p> + +<p>One day the guard brought in a suspicious +character from the picket-line. He was about +twenty-five years old, long, lank, and dusky,—a +sort of half-Indian, half-Irish looking fellow, +with uncombed hair and an over-prominent quid +of tobacco. He rode the usual “nag” of the +country,—an animal with more blood than bone +and more vice than beauty. He dismounted, +passed his bridle over his arm, and “squatted,”—the +usual posture of the country. “The +Hun,” the professional bully of all our culprits, +took this creature in hand, and presently came +in with a suggestion that I had better see him +alone. He followed me cautiously to one side, +leading his horse with him, and squatted again +when we had halted at a safe distance from +curious ears.</p> + +<p>“I’m Pat Dixon. I live down Troy way on +the North Fork. Ye see, when this yer muss +fust broke out I didn’t go to take no sides in +it. But Merryweather’s men they come along a +little ’fore sun-up, last month was a year, an’ +they taken the only nag we had left. I’d had +him hid out all summer, but some derned skunk +done found him out. I heern the cusses a trampin’ +roun’ an’ I was goin’ to take a crack at ’em +for ‘good mornin’,’ but, you see, I knowed if I +did they’d just burn the old woman out, an’ she +don’t git along but porely, anyhow, so I didn’t. +They <em>con</em>scripted the old man the year afore, an’ +he hain’t been heern on sence. So I come to the +conclushin that I wa’n’t agoin’ to stan’ no such +treatmint as that—by King! an’ I jest took to +the bresh, an’ I reckon I’ve pestered them ’uns +right smart. I ain’t agoin’ afoot long as theys +hosses in West Tannisy,—you bet! I was agoin’ +to jine you Yanks, but thinks sez I: ’Old Pat, +you kin do a heap better in the bresh nor what +you kin in no army,’ and so I stuck to it. O, +now, I’m squar’! Frank Moore can tell you all +’bout me; I ain’t no gum-game, I ain’t. If you +want a skeout, I’m on hand, an’ I don’t want +no pass, I kin git ’roun’ in this kentry.</p> + +<p>“Which? <em>hoss?</em> Well, ’t ain’t much of a nag, +but theys more on ’em roun’, an’ if this ’un tuckers +out I’ll git somethin’ to ride. I ain’t goin’ +afoot.—no, mam!” </p> + +<p>This was very much the sort of talk “Mr.” Forrest’s +emissaries used in seeking our services for +his purposes; so, partly to secure ourselves on +this point, and partly to give Dixon a good character +should he go out from our camp in his +professional capacity, he was sent for a few days +to the guard-house, until Frank Moore should +return from an expedition. I believe Frank +knew most of the vagabonds of Obion County, +and he at once certified that this was no other +than Pat Dixon; that his story was true; and +that, while his controlling motives were not perhaps +such as one would most admire, his unconquerable +hatred of Merryweather’s men and all +their confederates might be relied on with implicit +confidence; so Pat was engaged as an employé +of our Secret Service Department, and sent +outside the lines with a conspicuous assurance, as +he left his fellow-prisoners, that if found again +within our reach he would be hanged forthwith +for a spy. I was riding on the road he took, and +he gave me a leering wink as he departed,—with +instructions to watch the movements of all guerilla +bands in our front, and to bring speedily any +information he might obtain.</p> + +<p>During the remaining months of our stay he +was almost ubiquitous. Every scouting-party +that we sent out in any direction, though entirely +without notice to him, was pretty sure to +meet him with important information, just when +information was most needed.</p> + +<p>This part of his work was done perfectly, but +he seemed to regard his relation with us as a +warrant for unending private iniquities. After +his own code of morals he was a strictly virtuous +man, but his code was of an extremely loose and +pliable character. It is probably safe to say that +he never murdered a Union man, and that, unless +sorely tempted by the difference in value of the +animals, he never forcibly exchanged horses with +a Union widow; neither, I believe, did he commit +any offence against a known Rebel when +there was a probability of his being found out +and caught; but the complaints that came to +us of the manner in which he vented his private +wrongs and carried on the feuds of his +ancestors gave us frequent annoyance. Sometimes +it seemed necessary to recall his commission +and declare him an outlaw, but just +then there would transpire some particularly brilliant +achievement that showed him invaluable for +our purposes.</p> + +<p>More than once, when our patrols reported the +immediate presence of the enemy, Pat would turn +up with the assurance that it was only so-and-so’s +“band,” who had come into the neighborhood on +a visiting or a marauding expedition, but with +no intention of putting themselves in our way; +and invariably we found his report to be correct. +Indeed, so frequently did this happen that we +became almost too confident in his assistance, +and when an excitable picket shot at a donkey +or a cow in the night-time, although the patrol +of the guard went through the usual routine of +investigation, we felt that there could be no serious +attack or Dixon would have notified us.</p> + +<p>How he obtained his information we could not +guess, and his own account of the matter was +never satisfactory; but I believe that no considerable +force of the enemy ever crossed the Memphis +and Charleston Railroad (the whole State’s +width to the south of us) without our being +speedily notified; and through this means we +were several times enabled to telegraph to Columbus +early information of contemplated raids,—information +that was not always heeded, as the +surprise of Paducah (on the Ohio River) several +days after our warning sufficiently proved.</p> + +<p>One ambition of this worthy man had to remain +unsatisfied. How little this was due to the fact +that we at the headquarters were all perfectly +mounted, modesty makes it improper to state +here; but in our frequent meetings as we rode +outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of some +particularly fine horse belonging to some particularly +bad man and especially virulent Rebel, +which it would really be a virtue to “confisticate.” +The worthy fellow was not satisfied with +his own conspicuous appropriations; he would +fain have mounted our regiments on the weedy +screws which the Rebel impressments had left +for the horsing of the crippled region of Western +Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have had some +lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity +in his thefts, and longed for the reassurance of +similar conduct on the part of true men like ourselves.</p> + +<p>It was, of course, not long after the commencement +of this active campaign against the rights +of ownership, that we began to receive assurances +on every hand that unless we could do something +to repress Pat Dixon’s vagabondage an outraged +people would take the law into their own hands, +and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With +a laudable desire to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, +I told him one day of the state of feeling +against him, urging him to be more circumspect +and to conduct himself like a decent man, else +he would be hanged the first time he was caught; +intimating, too, that it would be improper for +us to continue to employ him to such needless +injury to an inoffensive people. His reply was +characteristic.</p> + +<p>“Inoffensive, <em>which</em>? Mebbe you know these +people an’ mebbe you don’t. I do! and a dern’der +lot of unhung cutthroats an’ hoss-thieves you +can’t find nowheres. As for hangin’, you needn’t +give yourself no worryment ’bout that. They’re +safe enough to hang me if they ketch me, an’ +I guess I sha’n’t hang no higher if I go right on +my own gait. If you don’t want to employ me +you needn’t; theys enough corn an’ bacon in th’ +Obion bottom to keep me awhile yet, and money +ain’t no ’count down here; but, by King! if I kin +git a chance to tell you anything that them ’uns +don’t want you to know, you bet your skin I’ll +do it, an’ you kin trust me every time, for I ain’t +goin’ to lie,—not to your side, not if I know it. +Why, you talk to me about inikities. I don’t want +to do no man any hurt; but my old dad <em>he</em> was +<em>con</em>scripted, an’ me an’ my brother Jake had to +take to the bresh to save ourselves, an’ then Jake +he was shot in cold blood right afore my eyes, +an’ I made up my mind then an’ there that I +wouldn’t give no quarter to the whole State of +West Tannisy till this war was over an’ ther’ was +some stronger hand than mine to do jestis an’ to +furnish revenge. That’s all I’ve got to say about +it. You needn’t give yourself no oneasiness ’bout +my doin’s, I’ll answer for the hull on ’em; an’ +p’r’aps the last thing you’ll hear of Pat Dixon +will be that he’s hangin’ to a tree somewheres +down Troy way. I know I’m booked for that +if I’m ketched, and till I am ketched I’m goin’ +my own gait.” </p> + +<p>We had become too much accustomed to this +state of feeling among the scanty Union population +of the Southwest to be so shocked by it +as we ought to have been, and it was not without +sympathy with Dixon’s wrongs that I let +him go, with an earnest caution that he should +mend his ways, if only for his own sake.</p> + +<p>It remains only to say that he <em>did</em> go his own +gait, and that he went it with a desperation and +an <em>élan</em> that I have never known equalled; and +that, months later, after our snug quarters at +Union City had been turned over to a feeble band +of home-guards, word came that they had been +burned to the ground, and that Pat Dixon, betrayed +at last into the hands of the enemy, had +been hanged in the woods near Troy. We could +find no fault with the retribution that had overtaken +him; for, viewed with the eyes of his executioners, +he had richly merited it: but we had +learned to like him for his frank and generous +qualities, and to make full allowance for the degree +to which his rough, barbaric nature had +been outraged and inflamed by the wrongs inflicted +on his family.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>A returning patrol one afternoon led to the +parade-ground a sorry horse drawing an open +wagon in which were a man and a woman. The +woman had a cold-blooded, stolid look, and her +eyes were filled with the overflowing hatred we +so often inspired among her sex at the South. +Her husband was dressed in black, and wore a +rather scrupulously brushed but over-old silk hat. +In his hand was a ponderous and bulging cotton +umbrella.</p> + +<p>They had been taken “under suspicious circumstances” +at a house a few miles outside the +lines,—the suspicion attaching only to the fact +that they were not members of the family and +seemed to have no particular business in that +region. When asked for an explanation, the woman +said she had nothing to say but that her +husband was a blind clergyman intending to fulfil +an engagement to preach, and that she had driven +him, as was her habit. He said nothing. It was +a rule of our system to follow Hoyle’s instructions, +and “when in doubt to take the trick”: +this pair were remanded to the guard-house.</p> + +<p>As they turned away, the reverend gentleman +said, in a feeble voice, that if he could see me +alone later in the evening, when he had recovered +from the shock of his capture, I might be +willing to talk with him. In the evening the +Hun repaired to the dismantled warehouse where +the prisoners were lodged, to hold conversation +with the new-comers. When he came to the +clergyman he found him so low spoken that +their talk fell almost to a whisper, but it was +whispered that he was to be taken alone, and +subsequent disclosures led to his being brought +to headquarters. He there informed me that he +was a minister of the Methodist church, Canadian +by birth and education, but married to a +lady of that region, and had been for some years +engaged there in his capacity as a circuit preacher. +He was quite blind, and found it impossible +to make his rounds without being driven.</p> + +<p>His sympathies were with the North, and he +was burning to make himself useful in the only +way left him by his infirmity. His wife was of +a suspecting disposition, and their peaceful consorting +required that she should always accompany +him; but, unfortunately, she was a violent +secessionist, and he had been compelled, in the +interest of the peaceful consorting above named, +to acknowledge sympathy with her views, and to +join her in her revilings of the Union army.</p> + +<p>All this made his position difficult, yet he +believed that, if the opportunity were given him, +he could hide his intention even from her, and +could gather for us much useful information.</p> + +<p>He was a welcome visitor at the houses of the +faithful, far and near, and warmed their hearts +with frequent and feeling exhortation, as he +gathered his little meetings at his nightly stopping-places. +He was now about starting for the +southern circuit, and had appointments to preach +and to pray at every town between us and Bolivar.</p> + +<p>Evidently, if this man were honest in his intentions, +he could be of great service, but I +suggested the difficulty that having once started +for an appointed round he could not return to +bring us any information he might receive. To +this he replied that his wife believed him to +be in Forrest’s service, and that he could at any +time come as a spy into our lines.</p> + +<p>It seemed a very questionable case, but, after +consultation with Voisin and the Hun, it was +determined to give him a trial, to prevent his +wife from seeing more than was necessary of our +position, and to believe so much as we liked of +the information he might give us. The conditions +of the engagement were agreed upon, and +after a severe public admonition, and threats especially +appalling to his wife, he was sent outside +the lines, with hints of the serious consequences +that would follow his second capture.</p> + +<p>We were never quite sure that his wife was +wrong in crediting him with complicity with +Forrest; but the worst that could be said of +him (and this was very likely true) was that he +was pre-eminently a man of peace, and if he +gave information to both sides, it was always +information in compliance with the injunctions +of his sacred calling. The Rebel forces several +times crossed into Tennessee, and came toward +us in numbers that indicated foul intentions, +but, from the time our pious friend first visited +us, they invariably withdrew without an engagement. +Frequently small expeditions of our own +forces went scouting to the southward, and were +checked and turned back by the reports of this +benevolent man.</p> + +<p>He may have kept us from the successful fulfilment +of some bloody intentions, but we had +occasion to know from other sources that he +sometimes kept small detachments of our troops +from falling in with overpowering numbers of +the enemy. Be the theory what it may, from +November until February there was no conflict +of arms in all the counties we traversed, and +neither side advanced to within deadly range of +the other.</p> + +<p>The processes of this emissary were hidden +and curious. He was employed in a much more +regulated manner than Dixon, and we generally +knew his whereabouts. Every interview had with +him, either within our own camp or when we +were abroad, had to be so skilfully managed that +no suspicion, even in the eyes of his catlike wife, +should attach to him. He never came into our +lines except as an unwilling prisoner, and was +never sent without them without dire admonition +as to the consequences of his return.</p> + +<p>On one occasion Pat Dixon reported that a +detachment of Forrest’s command, about three +hundred strong, had crossed the railroad and +was moving north in the direction of our camp. +At this time the preacher was near us, and I +had an interview with him. He doubted the +report, but would investigate. I told him we +would start the next day, with five hundred +men, in the direction of Trenton,—where he +was to hold a prayer-meeting at the house of +one of Forrest’s captains. The meeting was held, +and after it was over, the subject of the advance +was talked over very freely by the officers present, +he sitting in a rapt state of unconsciousness—his +thoughts on higher things—at the +chimney-corner. Pleading an early appointment +at McKenzie’s Station for the following day, he +left as soon as the moon was up, and drove to +the house of a friend in the village. His wife +supposed that he was coming with a false report +to lead us into a trap laid for us.</p> + +<p>We arrived at McKenzie’s at one o’clock in +the morning, after a detestably cold, hard ride, +and took up our quarters in a half-finished and +half-furnished house, where we struggled the +whole night through in the endeavor to get +heat out of a fire of wet dead-wood. Early in +the morning the Hun started out, in his fiercest +mood, with a small escort, seeking for information +and hunting up suspicious characters. At +breakfast-time he came upon a large family comfortably +seated at table, with our preacher and +his wife as guests.</p> + +<p>He was asked to “sit by.” “Thank you; I +have come for more serious business. Who is +at the head of this house? I should like to +see you alone, sir.” The trembling, invalided +paterfamilias was taken into an adjoining room, +and put through the usual course of questions +as to his age, place of birth, occupation, condition +as to literacy, the number of negroes owned, +the amount of land, what relatives in the Rebel +army, to what extent a sympathizer with the +Rebellion, when he had last seen any Rebel soldiers +or scouts or guerillas or suspicious persons +of any description, and so on, through the +tortuous and aggravating list that only a lawyer +could invent. Questions and answers were taken +down in writing. The sterner questions were +spoken in a voice audible to the terror-stricken +family in the adjoining room. The man, of +course, communicated nothing, and probably knew +nothing, of the least consequence. He was sent +to a third room and kept under guard. His +case disposed of, his wife was examined in like +manner, and then the other members of the +family. Finally, the coast being clear, our emissary +was sent for. He came into the room chuckling +with delight over this skilful exercise of +the art of deceit, in which he was himself such +an adept, and laying his hand on the Hun’s +arm, said, “My dear fellow, I respect you. This +has been the most brilliant dodge I ever knew,—capital,—capital!” +And he then went on to +recount all that he had heard the evening before. +A large detachment of Forrest’s command +was advancing under Faulkner’s leadership, and +they doubtless had by this time a full report +of our position, for he had met acquaintance on +the road who had reported it to him. If we +were able to engage a body of three thousand +men without artillery, we might find them that +night in Trenton,—he was confident that that +was about their number.</p> + +<p>The family were now notified that they had +been guilty of a great offence in harboring a +known spy of the enemy; but they insisted +that they knew him only as a devout and active +minister, and had no suspicion, nor could they +believe, that he had the least knowledge of or +interest in either army. With due warning as +to the consequences of a repetition of their crime, +they were allowed to return to their breakfast, +and their guest was brought under guard to +headquarters.</p> + +<p>Being satisfied, after a close examination of +the report, that it would be imprudent to remain +so far from our camp, which could be +best reached from Trenton by another road, we +left a party of observation, and returned to Union +City, directing our scout to go to the vicinity +of Trenton and bring to our detachment any +information he might obtain. Twelve hours after +our arrival home, the detachment returned +with the news that Faulkner, with a large force, +had moved toward Mayfield, Kentucky, and the +event proved that every item of the intelligence +we had received had been substantially correct.</p> + +<p>In this manner we were enabled to learn pretty +definitely the character of any movement of the +enemy anywhere in Western Tennessee, and so +far as we had opportunity to investigate the +reports they generally proved to be essentially +true. These two scouts were worth more as a +source of information, than would have been two +regiments of cavalry in active service. Sometimes +our Methodist friend acted under definite +orders, but more often only according to his +own judgment of what was necessary.</p> + +<p>A few days before Christmas we received word +that Forrest in person was in Jackson, with a +large force, and we moved against him with +nearly the whole body of our troops, under the +command of old A. J. himself. We reached +Jackson at night, after three days’ hard marching, +only to find that Forrest’s army had left +that morning, destroying the bridges over the +swollen rivers and making organized pursuit impossible. +We took up quarters for some days +in the town, where we enjoyed the peculiarly +lovely climate of the “sunny South” with the +thermometer seven degrees below zero, six inches +of snow on the ground, and a howling wind +blowing. Our own mess was very snugly entertained +at the house of a magnate, where we +had an opportunity to study the fitness of even +the best Southern architecture for an Arctic winter +climate.</p> + +<p>On New Year’s day, as we were sitting at a +sumptuous dinner, and mitigating so far as we +could the annoyance to our hosts of being invaded +by a rollicking party of Northern officers, +Voisin, who had been called out, returned to +the table to tell me that a man and a woman +would like to see me in my room. I was not +prompt to respond, and asked who they were. +He replied, “O, who can tell? I suppose somebody +with a complaint that our men have ’taken +some hams of meat’ [“meat” being the Tennessee +vulgate for hog flesh only], or something of that +sort; the man seemed to have something the +matter with his eyes.” And he gave me a large +and expressive wink.</p> + +<p>Ensconced, with such comfort as large and +rattling windows permitted, before our blazing +fire, sat our serene Methodist friend and his +sullen wife. Taking me aside, he told me that +he had passed the previous evening at a private +house between Jackson and Bolivar in religious +exercises, which were attended by Forrest and +officers of his command. After the devotions +there was much cheerful and unrestrained talk +as to the plans and prospects of the future campaign, +disclosing the fact that as there seemed +no chance of doing efficient service in Tennessee, +the whole body would move at once to Central +Mississippi and operate in connection with the +army in Georgia. This report, which we had +no reason to disbelieve, decided A. J. to abandon +a difficult and unpromising pursuit, and to +return to Union City and Columbus. We found, +on our return, a communication from the headquarters +at Memphis to the effect that Forrest +had crossed the railroad and gone far south +into Mississippi.</p> + +<p>We had no further service of importance or +interest in this region. “Jackson’s Purchase” +was thenceforward quite free from any considerable +body of the enemy; and when our clergyman +found, a few weeks later, that we were all +ordered to the south, he came for a settlement +of his accounts, saying that he had been able to +deceive his wife only up to the time of our interview +at Jackson, and as his life was no longer +safe in the country, he must depart for the +more secure region of his former home in Canada,—where +let us hope that he has been allowed +to answer the behests of his sacred vocation +with a mind single to his pious duties, and +that domestic suspicion no longer clouds his +happy hearthstone.</p> + +<p>Happily, neither A. J. nor Forrest himself +had further occasion for his peaceful intervention, +the fortunate absence of which may have +had to do with the notable encounter between +these two generals at Tupelo.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch6end.jpg" width="207px" height="85px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="Decorative chapter footer" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch7.jpg" width="500px" height="118px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="GLOAMING" id="GLOAMING"></a>IN THE GLOAMING.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/t.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">The sun had gone, and above the dreamy +blue of the far-lying woods, the early +evening had hung the sky with mellow, +summery, twilight loveliness.</p> + +<p>The casements of the old house at Whittington +glowed ruddy and warm through their marvellous +clustering ivy, and it was the idlest +luxury to hang over the crumbling road-wall, +peopling its suggestive chambers with the spirits +of their long-gone tenants. It is a farm-house +now, and there is no available record to tell the +stranger the story of its more glorious days. No +rigid history hampers the fancy, and the strolling +lover of the by-ways and roadsides of our dear +Mother England may let his imagination run with +flowing rein, sweeping away the hayricks and +marigold beds, and calling back the peacocks and +bagwigs of the halcyon days.</p> + +<p>Perhaps for the last time in my life I was taking +the breath of an English twilight,—sweetest +to those whose childhood and youth have fed +on the rhyme and tale the green old land has +sent to her world-wide brood, and who come, in +riper life, to find the fancies of early years warm +and living on every side, in hedge and field, in +cowslip and primrose, in nightingale and lark. +The thick-coming impressions such musing brings +are vague and dreamy, so that there seemed a +shade of unreality in the quiet voice that bade +me “Good evening,” and added, “Yes, it is an +engaging old house, and it has a story that you +may be glad to hear.” </p> + +<p>It was not from perversity that I turned the +subject, but no tale of real life could have added +interest to the fancies with which the old manse +had clad itself in the slowly waning day. Wayside +impressions lose their charm if too much +considered, and, as my new companion was walking +toward Lichfield, I was glad to turn away +and join him,—ending a long day’s tramp with +the slow and quiet gait that his age compelled. +There was the least shade of the uncanny in his +bearing, and his speech was timorous and gentle. +His threadbare and seedy look betokened a native +unthrift, but there was an undercurrent of +refinement in his mien and in his manner, and +a trusting outlook from his large blue eyes that +made him the fittest of companions for a summer +evening’s walk in a country filled with the mingled +flavor of history and romance.</p> + +<p>He was a man of the intensest local training. +To him “the County of the City of Lichfield” +was of more consequence than all Staffordshire +besides, and far more than all England and all +that vague entity called the World. Even the +County of the City of Lichfield was large for +his concentrated attachment: he knew it as +one must know a small town in which he has +passed the whole of a long life; but his heart +lay within the cathedral close, and the cathedral +close lay deep within his heart,—deep and +warm, with its history and its traditions, its romance +and its reality, so interlaced that he had long +since ceased to ask what was real and what unreal. +All was unreal in the sense of being of more than +worldly consequence in his estimation, and all real +as a part of the training of his whole life.</p> + +<p>To him Lichfield Cathedral was no mere pile of +sculptured stone, built round with the facts of recorded +history; it was the fairy handiwork of times +and scenes long past, its walls raised by the hand +of pious enthusiasm, shattered and cemented by +the strife and blood of the civil war, hallowed by +the returning glory of the Restoration, blessed +by the favor of royal presence, and now made +admirable in his daily sight by the dignity and +grace of those holy men its dean and chapter.</p> + +<p>As it was the cathedral I had come to see, +and as I had come for no architect’s measurements, +for no student’s lore, only to bathe in +the charmed atmosphere of its storied past, I +had fallen upon a guide after my own heart, and +it was as pleasant as it was easy to lend full +credence to all he so honestly believed and told.</p> + +<p>In early life he had had gentler training, but +he had long been a Poor Brother of the Hospital +of St. John the Baptist in Lichfield, and +had, for many years, held, by seniority, the right +of presenting a rose, on St. John’s nativity day, +to the heirs of William Juvenis (goldsmith), who, +by grants made in consideration of this ceremony, +had secured perennial prayers for the souls of his +ancestors and a fragrant memory for his own.</p> + +<p>Hedged about by the traditionary customs +and quaint observances of an ancient charitable +foundation, deadened in a way, if you please, +by the aristocratic pauperism of his condition, +my gentle companion had grown to his present +dreamy estate.</p> + +<p>As we reached Stow Pool, near the old parish +church of St. Chad, he pointed out the spring +of pure water where, twelve hundred years ago, +this future Bishop of Lichfield—who during +his hermit life supported himself on the milk +of a doe—was wont to pray naked in the water, +standing upon the stone still seen at the bottom +of the well, and where St. Ovin heard the angels +sing as his good soul passed away.</p> + +<p>Then, with the trusting look of a little child, +the Poor Brother went on to tell of the virtues +and good deeds of this holy life;—how even the +King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for +the crimes he had committed, visited the saint +in person, yielded to his eloquent persuasion, became +a convert to the true faith, and banished +all idolatry from his realm; how he became the +head of the church of Lichfield and laid its +strong foundations of piety and faith; and how +his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb +swallowed the ill-humors of diseased minds resorting +to its serene presence, that the dust +from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, +and that the shrine built in his honor after +his canonization was so sought by numberless +devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon +to increase and flourish.</p> + +<p>To our left, as he ceased, the evening’s lingering +glow gilded the silent pool, where lay +the unrippled reflection of the three spires of +the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than +the fairy silhouette that stood clean-cut against +the sky, and dividing with the reality the rapt +admiration of the Poor Brother of St. John’s.</p> + +<p>We stood by the water’s edge, and he turned +toward the phantom spires reversed within it, +his talk wandering back to the days of the +church’s troubles,—when the cathedral close +was a fortress, with strong walls and well-filled +moat; when the beautiful west gate, which only +our own age was vile enough to destroy, kept +stout ward against the outer world, and protected +the favored community who formed within +the walls a county independent of Lichfield and +of Staffordshire. Within the sacred pale no law +had force save that of the Ecclesiastical Court, +and then, as now, none could there be taken for +debt or crime save on the warrant of the dean +and chapter.</p> + +<p>He knew by heart the long list of bishops, +and would gladly have held me to hear of the +good deeds of Langton and Hackett. He was +fairly launched in his favorite enthusiasm, and +told warmly the more striking features of the +church’s history, but he told them rapidly lest +I should reach the storied pile with less than a +full appreciation of its traditional interest.</p> + +<p>From his nervous lips I learned how King +Richard II. kept Christmas revels here with a +splendor that lavished two hundred tuns of +wine, and roasted two thousand oxen, whose +bones are still found in Oxenbury field hard +by; how Elizabeth passed three whole days in +the close; and how the solidity of its fortification, +the consummate grace and finish of its +architecture, the richness of its sculpture, and +the surpassing beauty and magnificence of the +nine windows of its lady chapel marked it as +the crowning glory of the Western Church, +until the dark days of the Revolution lowered. +Then its sore trials were recounted, and I learned +of the fanatical attack of Lord Brooke, “with +his horde of impious Roundheads,” made by +strange fatality on St. Chad’s day; of the shooting +of Lord Brooke by “Dumb Dyott,” who +was perched in the steeple with a fowling-piece +that now hangs over the fireplace of Colonel +Dyott’s house; of the surrender of the close +by Lord Chesterfield; of the sack and bout that +followed; of the recapture by Prince Rupert.</p> + +<p>He told of the foul desecration by the Roundheads, +who used every species of havoc, plunder, +and profanation,—pulling down the sacred +effigies which were the glory of the western front, +hacking to pieces the curious carvings of the +choir, mashing the noses of the monumental +statues, destroying the valuable evidences and +records of the church and the city, shattering +the glass of the costly windows,—save only +that of the marvellous nine of the lady chapel, +which a pious care was said to have removed +to a place of safety. They kept courts of guard +in the cross aisles, broke up the pavements, and +every day hunted a cat with hounds throughout +the church, delighting in the echoes from +the vaulted roof; they wrapped a calf in linen, +and “in derision and scorn of the sacrament of +baptism,” sprinkled it at the font and gave it a +name.</p> + +<p>How the King, after the defeat of Naseby, +came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and passed the +night in the close,—how Cromwell’s defaming +crew completed the work of demolition and desecration, +and smashed the old bell called “Jesus,” +with its legend “I am the bell of Jesus, and +Edward is our King; Sir Thomas Heywood first +causéd me to ring,”—how, finally, the chapter-house +alone had a roof under which service +might be said,—how the good Hackett on the +first day of his bishopric set his own servants and +his own coach-horses at work removing the rubbish, +and never tired until in eight years’ time +the magnificence of the cathedral was restored, +except for the forever irreparable loss of the +decorations, and especially of the lady chapel +windows, which all the cost of the restoration +would not have sufficed to renew,—how the +church was reconsecrated with great pomp and +solemnity,—all this he told me in detail, and +he would gladly have told more, for this Poor +Brother had made these few rich historic acres +nearly his whole world, and had peopled it with +all who throughout the long ages had marred it +or had made it. To have given “two good trees” +for the rebuilding of the church was a title to +his lasting and grateful recognition.</p> + +<p>But the light was fast waning, and the cathedral +must be seen now or perhaps never. It was +already past the hour for closing, but one of the +vergers had formerly been a Poor Brother of St. +John’s, and my companion went to him to secure +our admission.</p> + +<p>I stood before the west front of the cathedral, +which was then bathed in the lingering light of +the after-day, its great central window gleaming as +though the altar lamps were still burning behind +it, and the western spires almost losing themselves +in the sky. The quaint effigies that fill the +niches across the whole façade lost their grotesqueness +in the dusk, and seemed really the sacred +sculptures they were meant to be. Fair though +this rich front must be at high midday, it needs +for its full beauty the half-light of a Northern +evening. As seen on that rarest of all evenings, it +was a fit introduction to the subdued glory which +greeted us in the dim religious light to which we +entered as the great central door closed behind us.</p> + +<p>We stood, uncovered and reverent, beneath the +vaulted nave, looking down the long curved aisle, +bordered by the majesty of the clustered columns, +through the light illuminated screen of the choir, +full upon the sculptured and gem-set alabaster +reredos, above and beyond which stood the famed +group of windows of the lady chapel, mellowed +by the light of the streaming full moon.</p> + +<p>Rich in the blended mosaic of the floor, in the +dimmed canopy overhead, in the lightly arched +gallery of the triforium, in the mellow cross-lights +of the side windows, in the sombre carvings of +the choir, and above all in the marvellous glass +of the chapel, it was the very perfection of a worshipful +church.</p> + +<p>It was too nearly dark to examine the details +of the decoration, and we wandered down the +aisles, remarking here and there the bruised statues +of the tombs, and halting before the sleeping +children of Chantrey to marvel how much somnolent +repose can be cut in chiselled stone.</p> + +<p>“But come,” said the gentle Brother, “we have +only light enough left for the storied glass which +alone of all the richness of the old church outlived +its desecration, and, as by a miracle, was +preserved to tell these later generations of the +higher art our forefathers’ sons forgot.” </p> + +<p>As he spoke, we stood within the charmed light +of the nine windows of the apse,—windows which +have perhaps no remaining equals in the world, +and before which one can only bow in admiration +and regret for an art that seems forever lost. +Holding me fast by the arm, he went on:—</p> + +<p>“In the restoration of the church, the spandrels +of the old windows were rebuilt, and the frames +were set with plain glass, to the sad defacement +of the edifice; and so they stood for nigh two +hundred years, no art being equal to their worthy +replacement, and no ancient store to the supplying +of so large a demand.</p> + +<p>“But listen, now, how the hand of Heaven sheltered +its own, and how true servants of the Church +are ever guided to reclaim its lost splendor.</p> + +<p>“A few years ago, a canon of the cathedral, +travelling in Flanders, wishing to contribute to +the renewed work of restoration, visited the dismantled +convent of Herkenrode in the ancient +bishopric of Liege. Here he sought among the +rubbish of the lumber-room for wood-carvings +which might be used in the rebuilding of the +prebendal stalls. His search discovered many +boxes of colored glass, the origin of which no +one knew, and whose existence even had been +forgotten. Thinking to embellish some of the +curious triangular windows above the triforium, +he purchased the whole store for two hundred +pounds of our money, and presented it to the dean +and chapter as a tribute of affectionate devotion +to the cathedral. There was more than he had +supposed, and the large figures of some of the +fragments indicated a coherent design.</p> + +<p>“This chapel was fenced off from the aisles, +and here the canon’s wife and daughter, devoting +themselves to the solution of the puzzle, +slowly pieced out the varying connections. They +worked patiently for weeks, with a steadily increasing +excitement of success, until [and here +his grasp grew tremulous and close], lying collated +on this pavement where we stand, only a +bit wanting here and there, marking the exact +sizes of the varied openings, the grand old Lichfield +windows, perfect as you see them now in +this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich +forevermore the dear old church to whose glory +they had shone in the bygone centuries, and whose +sore trials their absence had so long recalled.</p> + +<p>“Kind stranger,” said he, “this is a true tale. +Sceptics have questioned it, but it is true! true! +And I thank Heaven that it has been permitted +to me, who have grown old in the love of this +sacred pile, to live to see, in this crowning act +of its restoration, the higher help the hand of +man has had in performing its holy work.” </p> + +<p>His upturned blue eyes were moistened with +tears, and his voice trembled with emotion. I +led him gently away and to the doorstep of the +Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted +in silence, and forever.</p> + +<p>Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train +for Liverpool and home, bringing with me an ideal +Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have been +rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch8.jpg" width="500px" height="116px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="FOXHUNTING" id="FOXHUNTING"></a>FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/o.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_4">On entering the Regent Hotel at Leamington +the first object that attracts +attention, after the stuffy old porter +who hobbles about to see some one else handle +the luggage, is a small frame, over the smoking +coal-fire, which contains the following notice, decorated +with an old cut of a fox’s mask:—</p> + +<p class="centerbold">MERRY & CO.’S HUNTING APPOINTMENTS, AND GUIDE +TO THE DIFFERENT COVERTS.</p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<table summary="List of the days, meeting points, mileage and routes of fox-hunts."> +<tr><td colspan="4" class="tdr">December 30, 1872.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Warwickshire</span>,—at 10.45.</th></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Days.</i></td><td><i>Meet at</i></td><td class="tdr"><i>Miles.</i></td><td><i>To go through</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Goldicote House.</td><td class="tdr">11.</td><td>Wellerbourne and Loxley.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Radway Grange.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Tachbrook and Kineton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Snitterfield.</td><td class="tdr">7.</td><td>Warwick and Stratford Road.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Red Hill.</td><td class="tdr">13.</td><td>Warwick and Snitterfield.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Pebworth.</td><td class="tdr">16.</td><td>Warwick and Stratford.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">North Warwickshire</span>,—at 11.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Solihull.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Warwick and Hatton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Cubbington Gate.</td><td class="tdr">2.</td><td>Lillington.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Stoneleigh Abbey.</td><td class="tdr">4.</td><td>On Kenilworth Road.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Tile Hill.</td><td class="tdr">9.</td><td>By Kenilworth Castle.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Pytchley</span>,—at 10.45.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Naseby.</td><td class="tdr">26.</td><td>Princethorpe and Rugby.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Hazlebeach.</td><td class="tdr">31.</td><td>Dunchurch and Crick.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Dingley.</td><td class="tdr">33.</td><td>Rugby and Swinford.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Cransley.</td><td class="tdr">36.</td><td>Maidwell.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Swinford.</td><td class="tdr">19.</td><td>Princethorpe and Rugby.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Atherstone</span>,—at 11.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Coombe.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Bubbenhall and Wolston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Harrow Inn Gate.</td><td class="tdr">20.</td><td>Coventry and Nuneaton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Brinklow Station.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Bubbenhall and Wolston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Corley.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Stoneleigh and Coventry.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Bicester</span>,—at 10:45.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Fenny Compton.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Radford and Ladbrook.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Trafford Bridge.</td><td class="tdr">19.</td><td>Southam and Wormleighton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Hellidon.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Southam and Priory Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Steeple Claydon.</td><td class="tdr">40.</td><td>Gaydon and Banbury.</td></tr> +</table></div></div> + +<p>Twenty-two meets in the week, all within easy +reach, by road or rail. Let us dine and decide. +At table we will leave the <em>menu</em> to the waiter; +but let him bring for consideration during the +meal the list of <em>meets</em>. “Brinklow Station, twelve +miles”; that seems the most feasible thing in the +catalogue for the morrow, and who has not heard +that the Atherstone is a capital pack? But then +the Pytchley is even better known, and the train +reaches Rugby in time for the meet. Let the +choice be decided with the help of coffee and +cigars and possible advice, during the soothing +digestive half-hour in the smoking-room. Dinner +over, wander away through the tortuous, +dim passage that leads to the sombre hall where +alone in English inns the twin crimes of billiards +and smoking are permitted, and, while writhing +under the furtive glances of the staid and middle-aged +East-Indian who evidently knows you for +an American, and who is your only companion, +decide, with your nation’s ability to reach conclusions +without premises, whether it shall be Pytchley +or Atherstone. Don’t ask your neighbor: he +is an Englishman, and have we not been told that +Englishmen are gruff, reticent men, who wear +thick shells, and whose warm hearts can be +reached only with the knife of a regular introduction? +However, you must make up your +mind what to do, and you need help which +neither the waiter nor the porter can give; the +“gentlemanly clerk” does not exist in England +(thank Heaven!) and you have not yet learned +what an invaluable mine of information “Boots” +is,—faithful, useful, helpful, and serviceable to +the last degree. I salute him with gratitude for +all he has done to make life in English hotels +almost easier and more home-like than in one’s +own house. It is safe to advise all travellers to +make him an early ally, to depend on him, to +use him, almost to abuse him, and, finally, on +leaving, to “remember” him. Not yet having +come to know the Boots, I determined to throw +myself on the tender mercies of my stern, silent +companion, and I very simply stated my case. +My stern, silent companion was an exception to +the rule, and he told me all I wanted to know +(and more than I knew I needed to know) with +a cordiality and frankness not always to be found +among the genial smokers of our own hotels. His +voice was in favor of the Atherstone as being the +most acceptable thing for the next day.</p> + +<p>Ford, the veterinary surgeon of Leamington, +had, on several occasions, done good service for +friends who had gone before me over the hedges +of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for +advice about a mount. Here I found that I had +made a mistake in not engaging horses in advance. +To get a “hunter” for the next day would be impossible, +but he would do what he could for a few +days hence. All he could promise for the morning +would be to lend me a horse of his own, a +thoroughbred mare, not up to my weight, but +tough and wiry, and good for any amount of +road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange +for our going by the first train to Coventry, only +a couple of miles from Brinklow (it turned out +to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh +on the ground. At seven o’clock in the morning +he came to my room to say that everything was +arranged, and that I should find the mare at the +station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk +as a stay-stomach,—my usual habit,—I put myself, +for the first time since the war ended, into +breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On +a turn-out stood a “horse-box,” one of the institutions +of England,—a three-stabled freight-car +for the transportation of horses. Paying five shillings +for a horse-ticket to Coventry (only twice +the cost of my own seat), I saw the mare snugly +packed into one of the narrow stalls and made +fast for the journey. Passing through a beautiful +farming country, we came in due time to the +quaint old town of Coventry, where several horse-boxes, +coming from Birmingham and other stations, +were discharging their freight of well-bred +hunters. As we rode from this station another +hard-shelled Englishman in brown top-boots and +spotless white leather breeches accosted me pleasantly, +reminding me that we had come from London +together the day before, and asking, as he +had recognized me for an American, if he could +be of service to me.</p> + +<p>“Pray how did you know that I am from +America?” </p> + +<p>“Only by your asking if you should change +‘cars’ at Rugby. An Englishman would have +said ‘carriages.’” </p> + +<p>“Very well; I am glad my ear-mark was no +greater. Can you direct me to a hotel where +I can get a bite before I go on?” </p> + +<p>“Certainly: you will find the Angel very comfortable; +take the next street to the right, and +you will soon reach it. Good morning; it is nine +miles to the meet, and I will move on slowly. +Command me if I can help you when you come +up.” </p> + +<p>I did find the Angel comfortable, (as what English +inn is not?) and soon fortified myself with +cold pheasant and sherry,—a compact and little-burdensome +repast to ride upon,—served in a +cosey old coffee-room by the neatest and most +obliging of handmaidens.</p> + +<p>On the road I fell in with straggling groups of +horsemen, in red coats and black coats, leather +breeches and cords, white tops and black; all +neat and jaunty, and all wearing the canonical +stove-pipe hat. My little mare was brisk, and I +had no hard riding to save her for, so I passed +a dozen or more of the party, getting from each +one some form or other of pleasant recognition, +and finally from a handsome young fellow on a +very spicy mount, “Excuse me, are you going +to Brinklow? You must turn to the right.” </p> + +<p>Confound these Englishmen, thought I, where +is their traditional coldness and reserve? And I +reined up for a chat.</p> + +<p>My companion came from the vicinity of Birmingham. +Like so many of his class, he devotes +three days a week to systematic hunting, and +he was as enthusiastic as an American boy could +have been in telling me all I wanted to know +about the sport. To get hold of a grown man +who had never seen a foxhound seemed an event +for him, and my first instructions were very agreeably +taken. Our road ran past the beautiful deer-stocked +park of Coombe Abbey, where the green +grass of a moist December and the thick clustering +growth of all-embracing ivy carried the fresh +hues of our summer over the wide lawn and to +the very tops of the trees about the grand old +house. The few villages on our way were neither +interesting nor pleasant, but the thatched farm-houses +and cottages, and the wonderful ivy, and +the charming fields and hedges were all that +could have been asked.</p> + +<p>And then the roadsides! and the stiles and the +foot-paths, and the look of age and the richness +of the well-kept farms; and again and everywhere +the ivy clinging fast to each naked thing, +and clothing it with luxuriant beauty!</p> + +<p>There is in all our hearts an inherited chord +that thrills in the presence of this dear old home +of our race. Not this spot and not these scenes, +but the air, the tone, the spirit of it all,—these +are as familiar to our instincts as water to the +hen-brooded duckling.</p> + +<p>Brinklow Station has the modern hideousness +and newness of railroad stations everywhere in +country neighborhoods, and it was pleasant to +leave it behind and follow the gay crowd down +a sloping and winding road into the real country +again, and into a handsome and well-kept +park, beyond which there stood a fine old house +of some pretension, and well set about with terraced +lawn and shrubbery,—a charming English +country-seat.</p> + +<p>Here my eyes were greeted with the glory of +my first “meet,” and a glory it was indeed! +Pictures and descriptions had suggested it, but +they had only suggested it. This was the reality, +and it far exceeded my anticipation. The +grounds were fairly alive with a brilliant company +of men and women,—happy and hearty, +and just gathered for the day’s sport. Red coats, +white breeches, and top-boots were plenty, and +the neat holiday air of the whole company was +refreshing and delightful. Scattered about singly +and in groups, mounted, on foot, and in carriages, +were a couple of hundred people of all +ages and of all conditions. Chatting from the +saddle and over carriage-doors, lounging up and +down the Drive, or looking over the hounds, the +company were leisurely awaiting the opening of +the ball. They had come from a circuit of twenty +miles around, and they appeared to be mainly +people who habitually congregate at the cover-side +throughout the hunting-season, and to be +generally more or less acquainted with each other. +The element of coquetry was not absent; but +coquetry is apparently not a natural product of +the English soil, and that sort of intercourse was +not conspicuous. The same number of handsome +young men and women would be more demonstrative +at a similar gathering in America. A +similar gathering, however, would not be possible +in America. We have no occasion on which +people of all sorts come so freely and so naturally +together, interested in a traditional and +national sport, which is alike open to rich and +poor, and meeting, not for the single occasion +only, but several times a week, winter after winter, +often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, +farmers, manufacturers, professional men, snobs, +cads, errand-boys,—everybody, in short, who +cared to come seemed to have the right to come, +and, so far as the hunt was concerned, seemed +to be on an equal footing. Of course the poorer +element was comparatively small, and mainly +from the immediate neighborhood. The <em>habitués</em> +of a hunt are seldom below the grade of well-to-do +farmers. Servants from the house were +distributing refreshments, riders were mounting +their hunters, grooms were adjusting saddle-girths, +too fiery animals were being quieted, and +there was generally an air of preparation about +the whole assemblage.</p> + +<p>A little at one side, kept well together by the +huntsman and a couple of whippers-in, were the +hounds (the Atherstone pack), about forty of +them, or, technically, “twenty couples,” strong-limbed, +large-eared, party-colored, wholesome-looking +fellows. They attracted much attention +and elicited frequent commendation, for they +were said to be the very finest pack in England,—as +was also each of the three other packs that +I saw. To the unskilled eye, and simply viewed +as dogs, they were not remarkable; but it was a +case in which the judgment of an unskilled person +could have no value.</p> + +<p>The horses appealed to me much more strongly. +Certainly I had never before seen together +the same number of the same average excellence; +and some of them were fit to drive one wild with +envy. There was, on the whole, less of the +“blood” look than would be expected by a man +who had got his ideas of the hunting-field from +Leech’s drawings, but there was a good deal of +it, nevertheless, and in its perfection too; and +where it was wanting there was plenty of bone +to make up for it.</p> + +<p>At eleven the hounds were led out to the +cover, and the whole field followed slowly and +irregularly and at some distance. There were +about one hundred and fifty mounted for the +hunt. Perhaps one third of these wore scarlet +coats, white breeches, and top-boots; another +third had black coats and some of them black +boots; and the remainder of the field was made +up of half a dozen ladies, a few stout old gentlemen +of seventy or so on stout old cobs of +discreet age, little boys on smart ponies, farmers +and tradesmen and their clerks mounted on whatever +they could get, and men of every intermediate +grade, and with all sorts of horses. A certain +amount of riff-raff, not mounted at all, but +good on their pins and ready for a run, were +hanging about for a chance to pick up a whip +or a hat, or to catch a horse, or brush a muddy +coat, or turn an honest shilling in any way that +might offer in the chances of the day. Some +of these fellows, rigged out with the cast-off +clothing of their betters, sported red coats, black +velvet caps, and leather leggings. One added to +all this gorgeousness the refinement of bare feet.</p> + +<p>The hounds were taken into the cover, a +brambly, tangled wood near by, which had probably +been planted and made a little wilderness +to serve as a cover for foxes.</p> + +<p>They soon found a fox, drove him to the open, +and followed him out of the wood with a whimpering +sort of cry which was disappointing after +the notion that the “full cry” of the books had +given, and which is heard in the very different +fox-hunting of our Southern woods. The run lay +up a steepish hill, several fields wide and across +an open country. One bold rider (not a light +one), mounted on a staving black horse, went to +the right of the cover, and made a splendid leap +up hill, over a stiff-looking hedge, and landed at +the tail of the pack. The “master” and his +assistants had got away with the hounds. The +rest of the field went to the left, waiting their +turns, through a farm-gate. Once through, some +twenty of them dashed up the hill, cleared a +clever hedge, and kept the pack in sight. The +rest took an easier place, where a farm laborer had +pulled away the stakes by which a gap had been +filled. Here there was much very light jumping, +and much more of waiting until predecessors had +made it lighter. In the mean time other gaps +were found, and it was not many minutes before +all were through; but during these minutes the +fox, the hounds, and the harder riding men were +putting a wide space between themselves and us, +who were at the tail of the field. Yet there +were some in the party who did not look like +laggards, and whose horses were good enough +for any work such a country could give them.</p> + +<p>Even when across the gap, these men went +with the rest of us, by gates and lanes, toward +a point to which it was thought by the knowing +ones that the fox would double,—and the +knowing ones were right. Gradually, as their +judgment indicated, they left the roads and took +to the fields. This course was taken by three +well-mounted young ladies. I followed the gate-openers +for about half an hour, when, coming +out on a high-road, I concluded that, with seventeen +miles to ride home, it was only just to my +little mare to give the thing up and head for +Leamington. The hounds were far away on my +right and quite out of sight.</p> + +<p>Having come to look on and learn, I had probably +seen and heard all that day had in store +for me,—surely enough for one’s first day at +fox-hunting. When I had ridden for a few minutes +I saw, far across the fields, that the hounds +had turned to the left and were making for my +road. Pressing forward, I came up in time to +see them cross to the front, and go scurrying +away over the grass, nosing out the scent as they +ran. There had been a check, and “the field” +was well up. The road was lower than the fields, +and was bordered by a ditch at each side. From +this the ground rose a little, and on each bank +stood a three-and-a-half-foot thorn hedge. Neither +leap was difficult, but the one out of the +road was not easy. Here I sat and saw fully a +hundred horsemen, dressed in the gay colors of +the hunting-field and mounted as men rarely are +mounted out of England, all, horses as well as +men, eager and excited in the chase, flying over +hedge and ditch into the carriage-way and over +ditch and hedge into the higher field, beyond and +away, headlong after the hounds, every man for +himself, and every man for the front, and on +they went over another hedge, and out of sight. +In the thick of the flight were two ladies, riding +as well and as boldly as the men, and two +men were brushing their hats in the road, their +empty saddles keeping well up with the run. +More than satisfied with this climax of my first +day’s experience, I trotted out for home. The result +of the run I never heard, and I leave its +description where I lost sight of it. A mile farther +on I did see a fagged-looking fox making +his rapid way across my road again, and sneaking +off under the hedge toward a thicket, and I +halted to listen to what sounded like the horn +of a huntsman at check over the hill to the +left; but possibly the conclusion I drew was not +a correct one.</p> + +<p>I wish that words could give an idea of the +life and action of the headlong flight I had just +seen; but the inadequacy of all I had read to +convey it to me makes it seem useless to try. +Photography and description may, in a measure, +supply the place of travel; but he who would +realize the most thrilling intensity of eager horsemanship +must stand in a hedge-bound English +lane, and see with his own eyes, and for the +first time in his life, a hundred gayly dressed +and splendidly mounted fox-hunters flashing at +full speed across his path; and it is worth the +while to see.</p> + +<p>Rain never fell on a more lovely country than +that part of Warwickshire through which my wet +way lay. For ten miles of the seventeen it +rained, gently as it rains with us in April; nor +is our grass more green in April than this was +in Christmas week. The all-prevailing ivy was +filled with berries, and the laurustinus was already +in bloom.</p> + +<p>No born Englishman could have cared less for +the soaking rain; and, wet to the skin, tired to +the bone, and stiff to the marrow, I have rarely +been more exuberant than when I gradually regained +the use of my legs in the half-mile walk +to the hotel, resolving that not even the glories +of American citizenship should ever keep me +away from England in winter were I only able +to afford the luxury of regular hunting. But +the exuberance was moral rather than physical. +I had not been so tired for years,—stiff as an +old horse, after over thirty miles of really hard +riding (the last seventeen miles in two hours). +The cure was a hot bath and a dish of hot soup, +followed by a log-like sleep of two hours on a sofa +before a blazing hot fire, a sharp half-hour’s walk, +a very plain dinner, and a couple of hours’ chat +with my interested East-Indiaman in the smoking-room: +the cure was complete; and all that +was left of the day’s sport was its brilliant recollection.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My second day was near Stratford-on-Avon,—on +<em>Ay</em>-von, the misguided English call it. The +meet was to be at Goldicote House, one of the +“fixtures” of the Warwickshire Hunt. There +were about a hundred persons, including a few +ladies, and one little bareheaded “blue-coat” +school-boy (from Charles Lamb’s school), who, +with his folded umbrella, long skirt, low shoes, +and yellow hose, was in for as much sport as his +Christmas holiday could give him. As a farther +penalty for want of forethought, I was reduced +to riding a friend’s coach-horse. However, the +reduction was not great, for whether by early +instruction or by inheritance, he was more than +half a hunter, and gave me a capital look at the +whole day’s chase; while his owner, on a most +charming black blood mare, being out of condition +for hard riding, kindly applied himself +to urging me to severer work than one likes to +do with a borrowed horse. He introduced me to +a venerable old gentleman in a time-and-weather-stained +red coat, velvet cap, and well-used nether +gear, mounted on a knowing-looking old gray, +and attended by his granddaughter. He could +not have been less than eighty years old, and +his days of hard riding were over; but constant +hunting exercise every winter for over sixty years +had protected him wonderfully well against the +ravages of time, and it is rare to see an American +of sixty so hale and hearty, and so cheerful +and jolly. I was told that if I would take him +for my leader, I would see more of the run than +I could in any other way with such a mount as +I had. He seemed to know the habits of the +foxes of South Warwickshire as thoroughly as he +did every foot-path and gate of the country, and +he led us by cross-cuts to the various points to +which Reynard circled, so that we often had the +whole field in sight. It was not an especially +interesting day, and the fox got away at last, +among a tangle of railway lines that blocked our +passage. My old mentor, who had given me +much valuable instruction in the details of hunting, +was vastly disgusted at the result, and broke +out with, “Ah! it’s all up with old England, I +doubt; these confounded railways have killed +sport. There’s no hunting to be had any longer, +for their infernal cutting up the country in +this way. I’ve hunted with these hounds under +fifteen different masters, but I’ve about done, +and I sha’n’t lose much,—it’s all up. However, +I suppose we could never pay the interest +on the national debt without the railways; but +it’s all up with hunting.” At that, he called +away the young lady, bade me a melancholy +“good-by,” and rode half sadly home. I galloped +back to Stratford with my handsome old +host,—a little more knowing in the ways of the +field, but without yet having had a fair taste of +the sport.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal +little village of Wansford, near the borders of +Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, perhaps, +the only remaining old posting-inn in England +that is kept up in the unchanged style of +the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are gone, +but the posting-stables are filled with hunters; +the travelling public have fled to the swifter +lines, and Wansford is forever deserted of them; +but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and +Tom Percival, who boasts that he has had the +Princess Victoria for a guest, and has slept five +dukes in one night, has little occasion to complain +of neglect. The good wine that needs no +bush still makes his cellar known, and no one +should criticise English cooking until he has +dined once at the Haycock. Nowhere is the +inn-maid of whom we have read so much to be +found in such simple, tidy, and courtesying perfection; +and nowhere, in short, can one find so +completely the solid comfort of hostelry life. +Half old farm-house and half wayside-inn; with +a marvellous larder, through whose glass-closed +side the guest sees visions of joints and jams +and pastry in lavish profusion; backed by a +stable-yard where boys are always exercising +good horses; and flanked by a yardful of quaint +clipped yews,—the old house at Wansford (in +spite of its dull-looking road front) is worth a +visit from those who would get out of the sight +and sound of steam, and see the old, old country +life of England. The visitor is not numbered +and billeted and pigeon-holed, as in the +modern hotel; but the old fiction of host and +guest is well kept up. Your coming should be +announced in advance; and you are received as +in some sort a member of the family, whose +ways are made to conform more or less to the +wishes of yourself and your convives, mainly +young swells from London, who are few, and who +are there, as you are, not for business, but for +rest, good living, and regular sport. Three packs +of hounds are within reach; and on the days +when none of the meets is near, there is always +the “larking”—the training of young horses—to +supply a good substitute, so far as the +riding goes. One who cares for hunting pure +and simple, rather than for the gayer life of +Leamington and Cheltenham, cannot do better +than to make the season, or a part of it, at the +Haycock, with regularly engaged horses for as +many days in the week as he may choose to +ride. It costs,—but it pays. One is none the +less welcome among the guests for being an +American.</p> + +<p>I there had a day with the George Fitz William +hounds. Not being, as yet, quite at home in the +field, I took a wise old horse, “Cock Robin,” who +was well up to my weight, and who, as Percival +told me, would teach me more than I could teach +him. He was sent on early with the other hunters, +and I took a “hack” to ride to cover. We +were a party of four, and we went through the +fields and the lawns and the rain, to where the +meet was fixed for eleven o’clock, at Barnwell +Castle, a fine old Norman ruin,—square and low, +with four large corner towers draped in magnificent +ivy. It was a dreary morning, and not more +than sixty were out; but among these, as always, +there were ladies, and there was more than the +usual proportion of fine horses. One cover was +drawn blank, and we moved to another, where +a fox was found, and whence the run was sharp +and too straight for a prudent novice to see very +much of it; and it was some minutes before Cock +Robin and his rider came up with the hounds, +who had come to a check in a large wood. +Throughout the day there was a good deal of +waiting about different covers, between which +the fox ran back and forth. Finally he broke +away for a long, quick burst over the fields, +which lay to the left of a farm-road down which +we were riding, and which was flanked by a high +and solid-looking hedge. Near the head of the +party was a well-mounted blonde of seventeen, +who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country +and to keep prudently near to her mother and +her groom. The sight of the splendid run, fast +leaving us behind, was too much for her, and she +turned straight for the hedge, clearing it with a +grander leap than I had seen taken that day, +and flying on over hedges and ditches in the +direct wake of the hounds. A young German +who followed her said, as we rode back to the +Haycock, “It is vort to come from America or +from Owstria to see zat lofely Lady —— go over +ze cowntry”; and it was.</p> + +<p>Luck often favors the timid; Cock Robin and +I were quite alone—he disgusted, and I half +ashamed with my prudence—when the fox, who +had found straight running of no avail, came +swerving to the right over the crest of a distant +hill, closely followed by the hounds, and, in splendid +style, by the first flight of the field. Soon +he crossed a brook which was fenced in with +rails, and the horsemen all had to make a long +détour, so that I, who had been last, now became +first. I had the fox and the hounds all to myself; +my horse was fresh, and the way was easy. +My monopoly lasted only a moment, but it was +not a moment of tranquillity. Finding an open +gate and bridge, I followed the pack into a large +low field, surrounded on three sides by the wide +brook. The fox was turned by this and ran to +the right along the bank; at the corner of the +field he turned again to the right, still keeping +by the edge of the stream; this gave the hounds +an immense advantage, and cutting off the angle, +they came so closely upon him that with still +another turn of the brook ahead of him, he had +but one chance for his life, and that was a desperate +one for a tired fox to consider. He did not +consider, but went slap at the brook, and cleared +it with a leap of nearly twenty feet. The foremost +hounds whimpered for a moment on the +bank before they took to the water, and when +they were across Reynard was well out of sight, +and they had to nose out his trail afresh. He +brought them again to a check, and finally, after +half an hour’s skirmishing, he ran down a railway +cutting in the wake of a train, and got away.</p> + +<p>Incidentally, here was an opportunity for an +English gentleman to show more good temper +and breeding than it is one’s daily lot to see. +He was one of a bridgeful of horsemen watching +the hounds as they vainly tried to unravel the +fox’s scent from the bituminous trail of the locomotive, +when, full of eager curiosity, one of the +ladies, middle-aged and not “native and to the +manner born,” but not an American, rode directly +on to his horse’s heels. To the confusion of my +lady, the horse, like a sensible horse as he was, +resented the attack with both his feet. His rider +got him at once out of the way, and then returned, +bowing his venerable head in regretful +apology, and trusting that no serious harm had +been done. “How can you ride such a kicking +brute!” was the gracious acknowledgment of his +forbearance.</p> + +<p>In this storied little island one is never for long +out of the presence of places on the traditions +of which our life-long fancies have been fed. Our +road home lay past the indistinct mass of rubbish, +clustered round with ivy and with the saddest +associations, which was once Fotheringay Castle; +and as we turned into the village my companions +pointed out the still serviceable but long-unused +“stocks” where the minor malefactors of the +olden time expiated their offences.</p> + +<p>We reached the Haycock at three, a moist but +far from unpleasant body of tired and dirty men, +having ridden, since nine in the morning, over +fifty-five miles, mostly in the rain, and often in +a shower of mud splashed by galloping hoofs. +By six o’clock we were in good trim for dinner, +and after dinner for a long, cosey talk over the +events of the day, and horses and fox-hunting in +general. My own interest in the sport is confined +mainly to its equestrian side, and I am not able +to give much information as to its details. Any +stranger must be impressed with the firm hold +it has on the affections of the people, and with +the little public sympathy that is shown for the +rare attempts that are made to restrict its rights.</p> + +<p>It would seem natural that the farmers should +be its bitter opponents. It can hardly be a cheerful +sight, in March, for a thrifty man to see a +crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his +twenty acres of well-wintered wheat, filling the +air with a spray of soil and uprooted plants. +But let a non-riding reformer get up after the +annual dinner of the local Agricultural Association +and suggest that the rights of tenant-farmers +have long enough lain at the mercy of their landlord +and his fox-hunting friends, with the rabble +of idle sports and ruthless ne’er-do-weels who follow +at their heels, and that it is time for them to +assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition +of a costly pastime, which leads to no good +practical result, and the burdens of which fall so +heavily on the producing classes,—and then see +how his brother farmers will second his efforts. +The very man whose wheat was apparently ruined +will tell him that in March one would have said +the whole crop was destroyed, but that the stirring +up seemed to do it good, for he had never +before seen such an even stand on that field. +Another will argue that while hunting does give +him some extra work in the repair of hedges and +gates, and while he sometimes has his fields torn +up more than he likes, yet the hounds are the +best neighbors he has; they bring a good market +for hay and oats, and, for his part, he likes to get +a day with them himself now and then. Another +raises a young horse when he can, and if he turns +out a clever fencer, he gets a much larger price +for him than he could if there were no hunting +in the country. Another has now and then lost +poultry by the depredations of foxes, but he never +knew the master to refuse a fair claim for damages; +for his part, he would scorn to ask compensation; +he likes to see the noble sport, which is +the glory of England, flourishing, in spite of +modern improvements. At this point, and at +this stage of the convivial cheer, they bring in +the charge at Balaklava, and other evidences that +the noble sport, which is the glory of old England, +breeds a race of men whose invincible daring +always has won and always shall win her honor +in the field;—and Long live the Queen, and +Here’s a health to the Handley Cross Hunt, and +Confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit that +is filling the country with wire fences and that +would do away with the noble sport which is +the glory of old England! Hear! hear!! And +so it ends, and half the company, in velvet caps, +scarlet coats, leathers and top-boots, will be early +on the ground at the first meet of the next +autumn, glad to see their old cover-side friends +once more, and hoping for a jolly winter of such +healthful amusements and pleasant intercourse as +shall put into their heads and their hearts and +into their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold +compensation for the trifling loss they may sustain +in the way of broken gates and trampled fields.</p> + +<p>I saw too little to be able to form a fair opinion +as to the harm done; but when once the run +commences no more account is made of wheat, +which is carefully avoided when going at a slow +pace, than if it were so much sawdust; fences +are torn down, and there is no time to replace +them; if gates are locked, they are taken off the +hinges or broken; if sheep join the crowd in an +enclosure and follow them into the road, no one +stops to see that they are returned: we are after +the hounds, and sheep must take care of themselves. +I saw one farmer, in an excited manner, +open the gates of his kitchen-garden and turn +the hounds and twenty horsemen through it as +the shortest way to where he had seen the fox +go; his womenfolk eagerly calling “Tally-ho!” to +others who were going wrong. I have never +seen a railroad train stopped because of the conductor’s +interest in a passing hunt, but I fancy +that is the only thing in England that does not +stop when the all-absorbing interest is once awakened.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the effect on material interests, +the benefit of this eager, vigorous, outdoor +life on the health and morals of the people is most +unmistakable. Such a race of handsome, hale, +straight-limbed, honest, and simple-hearted men +can nowhere else be found as in the wide class that +passes as much of every winter as is possible in +regular fox-hunting; and to make an application +of their example, we could well afford to give over +many of our fertile fields to ruthless destruction, +and many of our fertile hours to the most senseless +sport, if it would only replace our dyspeptic +stomachs, sallow cheeks, stooping shoulders, and +restless eagerness with the hale and hearty and +easy-going life and energy of our English cousins. +Hardly enough women hunt in England to constitute +an example; but those who do are such +models of health and freshness as to make one +wish that more women had the benefit of such +amusement both there and here. It is very common +to see men of over sixty following the hounds +in the very <em>élite</em> of the field; they seem still in the +vigor of youth. At seventy many are yet regular +at their work; and it is hardly remarkable when +one finally hangs up his red coat only at the age +of eighty. Considering all this, it almost becomes +a question whether, patriotism to the contrary +notwithstanding, it would not be a good thing for +a prosperous American, instead of settling down at +the age of forty-five to a special partnership and a +painful digestion, to take a smaller income where +it would bring more comfort, and by a judicious +application of the pig-skin to rehabilitate his enfeebled +alimentation.</p> + +<p>Fox-hunting is a costly luxury if one goes well +mounted and well appointed. It can hardly be +made cheap, even when one lives in his own +house and rides his own horses. With hotel bills +and horse-hire, it costs still more. As an occasional +indulgence it is always a good investment. +My own score at the Haycock was as follows,—by +way of illustration, and because actual figures are +worth more than estimates. (I was there from +Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, went +out with a shooting-party on Friday, dined out on +Friday night, and hunted on Saturday.)</p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<table summary="Account of Waring’s expenditures" class="narrow"> +<tr> +<th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">The Haycock Inn.</span></th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>£</i></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>s.</i></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>d.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>2.</td> +<td>Dinner and wine,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Bed and fire,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">3</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc">”</td> +<td>3.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Apartments,<a id="fn1ret" href="#fn1">*</a> bed and fire,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">5</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Attendance,<a id="fn2ret" href="#fn2">†</a></td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>4.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dinner and wine,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Apartments, bed and fire,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">5</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Attendance,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc">”</td> +<td>5.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr><th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">Stable.</span></th></tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Conveying luggage from station,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Sharks Lodge,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Oundle,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">12</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Peterborough,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">8</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr><th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">Thomas Percival.</span></th></tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>4.</td> +<td>Hire of hunter to Barnwell,</td> +<td class="tdr">4</td> +<td class="tdr">4</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Hire of hack to Barnwell,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +</table></div></div> +<p><a id="fn1" href="#fn1ret">*</a> The run of the house.</p> +<p><a id="fn2" href="#fn2ret">†</a> We are apt to consider this a petty swindle, but it has the advantage that you get what you pay for.</p> + + +<p>Eight pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; +which being interpreted means $47.30 in the +lawful currency of the United States. The hunter +and hack for one day cost $23.52.</p> + +<p>An American friend living with his family in +Leamington (much more cheaply than he could +live at home), kept two hunters and a hack, and +hunted them twice a week for the whole season +(nearly six months) at a cost, including the loss on +his horses, which he sold in the spring, of less +than $1,500. I think this is below the average +expense.</p> + +<p>The cost of keeping up a pack of hounds is +very heavy. The hounds themselves, a well-paid +huntsman, two or three whippers-in, two horses +a day for each of these attendants (hunting four +days a week, this would probably require four +horses for each man), and no end of incidental +expenses, bring the cost to fully $20,000 per +annum. This is sometimes paid wholly or in part +by subscription and sometimes entirely by the +Master of the Hounds. One item of my friend’s +expenses at Leamington was a subscription of +ten guineas each to the Warwickshire, North +Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Pytchley hunts. +Something of this sort would be necessary if +one hunted for any considerable time with any +subscription pack, but an occasional visitor is +not expected to contribute.</p> + +<p>A stranger participating in the sport need only +be guided by common modesty and common-sense. +However good a horseman he may be, +he cannot make a sensation among the old stagers +of the hunting-field. Probably he will get no +commendation of any sort. If he does, it will be +for keeping out of the way of others,—taking +always the easiest and safest road that will bring +him well up with the hounds, not flinching when +a desperate leap must be taken, and following (at +a respectful distance) a good leader, rather than +trying to take the lead himself. However promising +the prospect may be, he had better not do +anything on his own hook; if he makes a conspicuous +mistake, he will probably be corrected for it +in plainer English than it is pleasant to hear.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One of the memorable days of my life was the +day before New-Year’s. Ford had secured me a +capital hunter, a well-clipped gelding, over sixteen +hands high, glossy, lean, and wiry as a racer. +“You’ve got a rare mount to-day, sir,” said the +groom as he held him for me to get up; and a +rare dismount I came near having in the little +measure of capacity with which Master Dick and +I commenced our acquaintance, before we left the +Regent. He was one of those horses whose spirits +are just a little too much for their skins, and all +the way out he kept up a restless questioning of +his prospect of having his own way. Still he was +in all this, as in his manner of doing his work +when he got into the open country, such a perfect +counterpart of old Max, who had carried me for +two years in the Southwest, that I was at home +at once. If I had had a hunter made to order, I +could not have been more perfectly suited.</p> + +<p>The meet (North Warwickshire) was at Cubbington +Gate, only two miles from Leamington, +and a very gay meet it was. The road was filled +with carriages, and there was a goodly rabble on +foot. About three hundred, in every variety of +dress, were mounted for the hunt, a dozen or so of +ladies among them. Three of these kept well up +all day, and one of them rode very straight. The +hounds were taken to a wood about a mile to the +eastward of Cubbington, where they soon found a +fox, which led us a very straight course to Princethorpe, +about three miles to the northeast.</p> + +<p>I had done little fencing for seven or eight +years, and the sort of propulsion one gets in being +carried over a hedge is sufficiently different from +the ordinary impulses of civil life to suggest at +first the element of surprise. Consequently, +though our initial leap was a modest one, I landed +with only one foot in the stirrup and with one +hand in the mane; but I now saw that Dick was +but another name for Max, and this one moderate +failure was enough to recall the old tricks of the +craft. As the opportunity would perhaps never +come again, this one was not to be neglected, +and I resolved to have one fair inside view of real +fox-hunting. Dick was clearly as good a horse as +was out that day; the leaping was less than that +to which we were used among the worm-fences, +fallen timber, and gullies of Arkansas and Tennessee; +and there was but a plain Anglo-Saxon +name for the only motive that could deter me +from making the most of the occasion. Mr. Lant, +the Master of the Hounds, was not better mounted +for his lighter weight than was I for my fourteen +stone; and his position as well as his look indicated +that he would probably go by the nearest +practicable route to where the fox might lead, so +we kept at a safe distance behind him and well in +his wake. The hesitation and uncertainty which +had at first confused my bridle-hand being removed, +my horse, recognizing the changed position +of affairs, settled down to his work like a well-trained +and sensible but eager beast as he was. +From the covert to Princethorpe we took seven +fences and some small ditches, and we got there +with the first half-dozen of the field, both of us +in higher spirits than horse and rider ever get +except by dint of hard going and successful fencing.</p> + +<p>Here there was a short check, but the fox was +soon routed out again and made for Waveley +Wood, a couple of miles to the northwest.</p> + +<p>Waveley Wood is what is called in England a +“biggish bit of timber,” and the check here was +long enough to allow the whole field to come +up. As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, +“Tally-ho!” was called from the other side of +the cover, and we splashed through a muddy +cart-road and out into the open just as the +hounds were well away. Now was a ride for dear +life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy +ground would allow. In front of us was a “bullfinch” +(a neglected hedge, out of which strong +thorny shoots of several years’ growth have run +up ten or twelve feet above it). I had often +heard of bullfinches, and no hunting experience +could be complete without taking one. It was +some distance around by the gate, the pace was +strong, and the spiny fringe had just closed behind +Mr. Lant’s red coat as he dropped into the +field beyond. “Follow my leader” is a game +that must be boldly played; so, settling my hat +well down, holding my bridle-hand low, and covering +my closed eyes with my right elbow, with +the whip-hand over the left shoulder, I put my +heart in my pocket and went at it, and through +it with a crash! An ugly scratch on the fleshy +part of the right hand was the only damage done, +and I was one of the very few near the pack. +Dick and I were now up to anything; we made +very light of a thick tall hedge that came next +in order, and we cleared it like a bird; but we +landed in a pool of standing water, covering +deeply ploughed ground, the horse’s forefeet +sinking so deeply that he could not get them +out in time, and our headway rolled us both +over in the mud, I flat on my back. Dick got +up just in time for his pastern to strike me in +the face as I was rising, giving me a cut lip, a +mouthful of blood, and a black and blue nose-bridge. +My appearance has, on occasions, been +more respectable and my temper more serene +than as I ran, soiled and bleeding, over the +ploughed ground, calling to some workmen to +“catch my horse.” </p> + +<p>I was soon up and away again. There seemed +some confusion in the run, and the master being +out of sight, I followed one of the whips as he +struck into a blind path in a wood. It was a +tangled mass of briers, but he went in at full +pace, and evidently there was no time to be lost. +At the other side of the copse there was a set +of low bars, and beyond this a small, slimy ditch. +My leader cleared the bars, but his horse’s hind +feet slipped on the bank of the ditch, and he fell +backwards with an ugly kind of sprawl that I had +no time to examine, for Dick took the leap easily +and soon brought me into a field where, on a little +hillock, and quite alone, stood the huntsman, dismounted, +holding the dead fox high in his left +hand, while with his long-leashed hunting-crop +he kept the hungry and howling pack at bay. +The master soon came up, as did about a dozen +others, including a bright little boy on a light +little pony. The fox’s head (mask), tail (brush), +and feet (pads) were now cut off and distributed +as trophies under the master’s direction. The +carcass was then thrown to the pack, that fought +and snarled over it until, in a twinkling, the last +morsel had disappeared. This was the “death,”—by +no means the most engaging part of the +amusement. From the find to the killing was +only twenty-five minutes, into which had been +crowded more excitement and more physical +happiness than I had known for many a long +day.</p> + +<p>The second cover drawn was not far away. +With this fox we had two hours’ work, mainly +through woods at a walk and with the hounds +frequently at fault, but with some good leaping. +Finally he was run to earth and abandoned.</p> + +<p>We then went to a cover near Bubbenhall, but +found no fox, and then, with the same luck, to +another east of Baggington. It was now nearly +four o’clock, growing dusk, and beginning to rain. +The hounds started for their kennels, and Dick +and I took a soft bridle-path skirting the charming +road that leads, under such ivy-clad tree-trunks +and between such hedges as no other land +can show, through Stoneleigh Village and past +Stoneleigh Abbey to Leamington, and a well-earned +rest.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My memorandum for that day closes: “Horse, +£2 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; Fees, 2<i>s.</i>; and well worth the +money.” </p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p class="centerbold">THE END.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44492 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch1.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bad36d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch1.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch2.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ce6101 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch2.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch3.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a2b58d --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch3.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch4.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..483f27c --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch4.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch4end.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch4end.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..09fe476 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch4end.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch5.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch5.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..291def6 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch5.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch5end.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch5end.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d54b8c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch5end.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch6.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch6.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e20f8b --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch6.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch6end.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch6end.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce67a81 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch6end.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch7.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch7.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e74e37e --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch7.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/ch8.jpg b/44492-h/images/ch8.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d36b97f --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/ch8.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/cover.jpg b/44492-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76f9df6 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/i.jpg b/44492-h/images/i.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2befb67 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/i.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/o.jpg b/44492-h/images/o.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff8feef --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/o.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/t.jpg b/44492-h/images/t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1382de --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/t.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/titlepageimg.jpg b/44492-h/images/titlepageimg.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..38f71b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/titlepageimg.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/u.jpg b/44492-h/images/u.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7226a2c --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/u.jpg diff --git a/44492-h/images/w.jpg b/44492-h/images/w.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a3c5c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/44492-h/images/w.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24a98eb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #44492 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44492) diff --git a/old/44492-8.txt b/old/44492-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9598a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44492-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4569 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Whip and Spur, by George E. Waring + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Whip and Spur + +Author: George E. Waring + +Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44492] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHIP AND SPUR *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + WHIP AND SPUR + + BY + + COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. + + + NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + MCMIV + + + COPYRIGHT, 1897 + BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + VIX 7 + + RUBY 34 + + WETTSTEIN 67 + + CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX 93 + + HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT 138 + + TWO SCOUTS 162 + + IN THE GLOAMING 186 + + FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND 201 + + + + +WHIP AND SPUR. + +VIX. + + +When the work on the Central Park had fairly commenced, in the spring +of 1858, I found--or I fancied--that proper attention to my scattered +duties made it necessary that I should have a saddle-horse. + +How easily, by the way, the arguments that convince us of these +pleasant necessities find their way to the understanding! + +Yet, how to subsist a horse after buying one, and how to buy? The +memory of a well-bred and keen-eyed gray, dating back to the earliest +days of my boyhood, and forming the chief feature of my recollection +of play-time for years; an idle propensity, not a whit dulled yet, to +linger over Leech's long-necked hunters, and Herring's field scenes; +an almost superstitious faith in the different analyses of the bones +of the racer and of the cart-horse; a firm belief in Frank Forester's +teachings of the value of "blood,"--all these conspired to narrow +my range of selection, and, unfortunately, to confine it to a very +expensive class of horses. + +Unfortunately, again, the commissioners of the Park had extremely +inconvenient ideas of economy, and evidently did not consider, in +fixing their schedule of salaries, how much more satisfactory our +positions would have been with more generous emolument. + +How a man with only a Park salary, and with a family to support, could +set up a saddle-horse,--and not ride to the dogs,--was a question that +exercised not a little of my engineering talent for weeks; and many an +odd corner of plans and estimates was figured over with calculations of +the cost of forage and shoeing. + +Stable-room was plenty and free in the condemned buildings of the +former occupants, and a little "over-time" of one of the men would +suffice for the grooming. + +I finally concluded that, by giving up cigars, and devoting my energies +to the pipe in their stead, I could save enough to pay for my horse's +keep; and so, the ways and means having been, in this somewhat vague +manner, provided, the next step was to buy a horse. To tell of the days +passed at auction sales in the hope (never there realized) of finding +goodness and cheapness combined,--of the stationery wasted in answering +advertisements based on every conceivable form of false pretence; to +describe the numberless broken-kneed, broken-winded, and broken-down +brutes that came under inspection,--would be tedious and disheartening. + +Good horses there were, of course, though very few good saddle-horses +(America is not productive in this direction),--and the possible +animals were held at impossible prices. + +Those who rode over the new Park lands usually rode anything +but good saddle-horses. Fast trotters, stout ponies, tolerable +carriage-horses, capital cart-horses, there were in plenty. But +the clean-cut, thin-crested, bright-eyed, fine-eared, steel-limbed +saddle-horse, the saddle-horse _par excellence_,--may I say the only +saddle-horse?--rarely came under observation; and when, by exception, +such a one did appear, he was usually so ridden that his light was +sadly dimmed. It was hard to recognize an elastic step under such an +unelastic seat. + +Finally, in the days of my despair, a kind saddler,--kept to his daily +awl by a too keen eye for sport, and still, I believe, a victim to +his propensity for laying his money on the horse that ought to win +but don't,--hearing of my ambition (to him the most laudable of all +ambitions), came to put me on the long-sought path. + +He knew a mare, or he had known one, that would exactly suit me. She +was in a bad way now, and a good deal run down, but he always thought +she "had it in her," and that some gentleman ought to keep her for the +saddle,--"which, in my mind, sir, she be the finest bit of 'orse-flesh +that was hever imported, sir." That was enough. "Imported" decided my +case, and I listened eagerly to the enthusiastic story,--a story to +which this man's life was bound with threads of hard-earned silver, and +not less by a real honest love for a fine animal. He had never been +much given to saving, but he was a good workman, and the little he had +saved had been blown away in the dust that clouded his favorite at the +tail of the race. + +Still, he attached himself to her person, and followed her in her +disgrace. "She weren't quite quick enough for the turf, sir, but she be +a good 'un for a gentleman's 'ack." + +He had watched her for years, and scraped acquaintance with her +different owners as fast as she had changed them, and finally, when she +was far gone with pneumonia, he had accepted her as a gift, and, by +careful nursing, had cured her. Then, for a time, he rode her himself, +and his eye brightened as he told of her leaps and her stride. Of +course he rode her to the races, and--one luckless day--when he had +lost everything, and his passion had got the better of his prudence, he +staked the mare herself on a perfectly sure thing in two-mile-heats. +Like most of the sure things of life, this venture went to the bad, +and the mare was lost,--lost to a Bull's Head dealer in single driving +horses. "I see her in his stable ahfter that, sir; and, forbieten +she were twelve year old, sir, and 'ad 'ad a 'ard life of it, she +were the youngest and likeliest of the lot,--you'd swore she were a +three-year-old, sir." + +If that dealer had had a soul above trotting-wagons, my story would +never have been written; but all was fish that came to his net, and +this thoroughbred racer, this beautiful creature who had never worn +harness in her life, must be shown to a purchaser who was seeking +something to drive. She was always quick to decide, and her actions +followed close on the heels of her thought. She did not complicate +matters by waiting for the gentleman to get into the wagon, but then +and there--on the instant--kicked it to kindlings. This ended the +story. She had been shown at a high figure, and was subsequently sold +for a song,--he could tell me no more. She had passed to the lower +sphere of equine life and usefulness,--he _had_ heard of a fish-wagon, +but he knew nothing about it. What he did know was, that the dealer was +a dreadful jockey, and that it would never do to ask him. Now, here was +something to live for,--a sort of princess in disgrace, whom it would +be an honor to rescue, and my horse-hunting acquired a new interest. + +By easy stages, I cultivated the friendship of the youth who, in +those days, did the morning's sweeping-out at the Bull's Head Hotel. +He had grown up in the alluring shades of the horse-market, and his +daily communion from childhood had been with that "noble animal." To +him horses were the individuals of the world,--men their necessary +attendants, and of only attendant importance. Of course he knew of this +black she-devil; and he thought that "a hoss that could trot like she +could on the halter" must be crazy not to go in harness. + +However, he thought she had got her deserts now, for he had seen her, +only a few weeks before, "a draggin' clams for a feller in the Tenth +Avener." Here was a clew at last,--clams and the Tenth Avenue. For +several days the scent grew cold. The people of the Licensed Vender +part of this street seemed to have little interest in their neighbors' +horses; but I found one man, an Irish grocer, who had been bred a +stable-boy to the Marquis of Waterford, and who did know of a "poor old +screw of a black mare" that had a good head, and might be the one I was +looking for; but, if she was, he thought I might as well give it up, +for she was all broken down, and would never be good for anything again. + +Taking the address, I went to a stable-yard, in what was then the very +edge of the town, and here I found a knowing young man, who devoted his +time to peddling clams and potatoes between New York and Sing Sing. +Clams up, and potatoes down,--twice every week,--distance thirty miles; +road hilly; and that was the wagon he did it with,--a heavy wagon with +a heavy arched top, and room for a heavy load, and only shafts for a +single horse. In reply to my question, he said he changed horses pretty +often, because the work broke them down; but he had a mare now that +had been at it for three months, and he thought she would last some +time longer. "She's pretty thin, but you ought to see her trot with +that wagon." With an air of idle curiosity, I asked to see her,--I had +gone shabbily dressed, not to excite suspicion; for men of the class I +had to treat with are usually sharp horse-traders,--and this fellow, +clam-pedler though he was, showed an enthusiastic alacrity in taking +me to her stall. She had won even his dull heart, and he spoke of her +gently, as he made the most of her good points, and glossed over her +wretched condition. + +Poor Vixen (that had been her name in her better days, and it was to +be her name again), she had found it hard kicking against the pricks! +Clam-carts are stronger than trotting-wagons, and even her efforts had +been vain. She had succumbed to dire necessity, and earned her ignoble +oats with dogged fidelity. She had a little warm corner in her driver's +affections,--as she always had in the affections of all who came to +know her well,--but her lot was a very hard one. Worn to a skeleton, +with sore galls wherever the harness had pressed her, her pasterns +bruised by clumsy shoes, her silky coat burned brown by the sun, and +her neck curved upward, it would have needed more than my knowledge of +anatomy to see anything good in her but for her wonderful head. This +was the perfection of a horse's head,--small, bony, and of perfect +shape, with keen, deer-like eyes, and thin, active ears; it told the +whole story of her virtues, and showed no trace of her sufferings. Her +royal blood shone out from her face, and kept it beautiful. + +My mind was made up, and Vixen must be mine at any cost. Still, it +was important to me to buy as cheaply as I could,--and desirable, +above all, not to be jockeyed in a horse-trade; so it required some +diplomacy (an account of which would not be edifying here) to bring the +transaction to its successful close. The pendulum which swung between +offer and demand finally rested at seventy-five dollars. + +She was brought to me at the Park on a bright moonlight evening in +June, and we were called out to see her. I think she knew that her +harness days were over, and she danced off to her new quarters as gay +as a colt in training. That night my wakefulness would have done credit +to a boy of sixteen; and I was up with the dawn, and bound for a ride; +but when I examined poor Vix again in her stable, it seemed almost +cruel to think of using her at all for a month. She was so thin, so +worn, so bruised, that I determined to give her a long rest and good +care,--only I must try her once, just to get a leg over her for five +minutes, and then she should come back and be cared for until really +well. It was a weak thing to do, and I confess it with all needful +humiliation, but I mounted her at once; and, although I had been a +rider all my days, this was the first time I had ever really ridden. +For the first time in my life I felt as though I had four whalebone +legs of my own, worked by steel muscles in accordance with my will, but +without even a conscious effort of will. + +That that anatomy of a horse should so easily, so playfully, handle +my heavy weight was a mystery, and is a mystery still. She carried me +in the same high, long-reaching, elastic trot that we sometimes see a +young horse strike when first turned into a field. A low fence was near +by, and I turned her toward it. She cleared it with a bound that sent +all my blood thrilling through my veins, and trotted on again as though +nothing had occurred. The five minutes' turn was taken with so much +ease, with such evident delight, that I made it a virtue to indulge her +with a longer course and a longer stride. We went to the far corners of +the Park, and tried all our paces; all were marvellous for the power so +easily exerted and the evident power in reserve. + +Yes, Frank Forester was right, blood horses are made of finer stuff +than others. My intention of giving the poor old mare a month's rest +was never carried out, because each return to her old recreation--it +was never work--made it more evident that the simple change in her +life was all she needed; and, although in constant use from the first, +she soon put on the flesh and form of a sound horse. Her minor bruises +were obliterated, and her more grievous ones grew into permanent +scars,--blemishes, but only skin deep; for every fibre of every muscle, +and every tendon and bone in her whole body, was as strong and supple +as spring steel. + +The Park afforded good leaping in those days. Some of the fences +were still standing around the abandoned gardens, and new ditches +and old brooks were plenty. Vixen gave me lessons in fencing which a +few years later, in time of graver need, stood me in good stead. She +weighed less than four times the weight that she carried; yet she +cleared a four-foot fence with apparent ease, and once, in a moment +of excitement, she carried me over a brook, with a clear leap of +twenty-six feet, measured from the taking-off to the landing. + +Her feats of endurance were equal to her feats of strength. I once +rode her from Yorkville to Rye (twenty-one miles) in an hour and +forty-five minutes, including a rest of twenty minutes at Pelham +Bridge, and I frequently rode twenty-five miles out in the morning and +back in the afternoon. When put to her work, her steady road gallop +(mostly on the grassy sides) was fifteen miles an hour. + +Of course these were extreme cases; but she never showed fatigue +from them, and she did good service nearly every day, winter and +summer, from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, keeping always in good +condition, though thin as a racer, and looking like a colt at the end +of the time. Horsemen never guessed her age at more than half of what +it actually was. + +Beyond the average of even the most intelligent horses, she showed +some almost human traits. Above all was she fond of children, and would +quiet down from her wildest moods to allow a child to be carried on the +pommel. When engaged in this serious duty, it was difficult to excite +her, or to urge her out of a slow and measured pace, although usually +ready for any extravagance. Not the least marked of her peculiarities +was her inordinate vanity. On a country road, or among the workmen of +the Park, she was as staid and business-like as a parson's cob; but +let a carriage or a party of visitors come in sight, and she would +give herself the prancing airs of a circus horse, seeming to watch +as eagerly for some sign of approval, and to be made as happy by it, +as though she only lived to be admired. Many a time have I heard the +exclamation, "What a beautiful horse!" and Vix seemed to hear it too, +and to appreciate it quite as keenly as I did. A trip down the Fifth +Avenue in the afternoon was an immense excitement to her, and she was +more fatigued by it than by a twenty-mile gallop. However slowly she +travelled, it was always with the high springing action of a fast trot, +or with that long-stepping, sidelong action that the French call _á +deux pistes_; few people allowed her to pass without admiring notice. + +Her most satisfactory trait was her fondness for her master; she +was as good company as a dog,--better, perhaps, because she seemed +more really a part of one's self; and she was quick to respond to my +changing moods. I have sometimes, when unable to sleep, got up in the +night and saddled for a ride, usually ending in a long walk home, with +the bridle over my arm, and the old mare's kind face close beside my +own, in something akin to human sympathy; she had a way of sighing, +when things were especially sad, that made her very comforting to have +about. So we went on for three years, always together, and always very +much to each other. We had our little unhappy episodes, when she was +pettish and I was harsh,--sometimes her feminine freaks were the cause, +sometimes my masculine blundering,--but we always made it up, and were +soon good friends again, and, on the whole, we were both better for +the friendship. I am sure that I was, and some of my more grateful +recollections are connected with this dumb companion. + +The spring of 1861 opened a new life for both of us,--a sad and a short +one for poor Vix. + +I never knew just how much influence she had in getting my commission, +but, judging by the manner of the other field officers of the regiment, +she was evidently regarded as the better half of the new acquisition. +The pomp and circumstance of glorious war suited her temper exactly, +and it was ludicrous to see her satisfaction in first wearing her +gorgeous red-bordered shabrack; for a time she carried her head on one +side to see it. She conceived a new affection for me from the moment +when she saw me bedecked with the dazzling bloom that preceded the +serious fruitage of the early New York volunteer organizations. + +At last the thrilling day came. Broadway was alive from end to end +with flags and white cambric and sad faces. Another thousand were +going to the war. With Swiss bugle-march and chanted Marseillaise, we +made our solemn way through the grave and anxious throng. To us it was +naturally a day of sore trial; but with brilliant, happy Vixen it was +far different; she was leaving no friends behind, was going to meet no +unknown peril. She was showing her royal, stylish beauty to an admiring +crowd, and she acted as though she took to her own especial behoof +every cheer that rang from Union Square to Cortlandt Street. It was the +glorious day of her life, and, as we dismounted at the Jersey ferry, +she was trembling still with the delightful excitement. + +At Washington we were encamped east of the Capitol, and for a month +were busy in getting settled in the new harness. Mr. Lincoln used to +drive out sometimes to our evening drill, and he always had a pleasant +word--as he always had for every one, and as every one had for her--for +my charming thoroughbred, who had made herself perfectly at home with +the troops, and enjoyed every display of the marvellous raiment of the +regiment. + +On the 4th of July we crossed the Potomac and went below Alexandria, +where we lay in idle preparation for the coming disaster. On the 16th +we marched, in Blenker's brigade of Miles's division, and we passed the +night in a hay-field, with a confusion of horses' feed and riders' bed, +that brought Vix and me very closely together. On the 18th we reached +the valley this side of Centreville, while the skirmish of Blackburn's +Ford was going on,--a skirmish now, but a battle then. For three nights +and two days we lay in the bushes, waiting for rations and orders. +On Sunday morning McDowell's army moved out;--we all know the rest. +Miles's thirteen thousand fresh troops lay within sight and sound of +the lost battle-field,--he drunk and unable, even if not unwilling, to +take them to the rescue,--and all we did was, late in the evening, to +turn back a few troopers of the Black Horse Cavalry, the moral effect +of whose unseen terrors was driving our herds, panting, back to the +Potomac. Late in the night we turned our backs on our idle field, and +brought up the rear of the sad retreat. Our regiment was the last to +move out, and Vix and I were with the rear-guard. Wet, cold, tired, +hungry, unpursued, we crept slowly through the scattered _débris_ of +the broken-up camp equipage, and dismally crossed the Long Bridge in a +pitiless rain, as Monday's evening was closing in. O, the dreadful days +that followed, when a dozen resolute men might have taken Washington, +and have driven the army across the Chesapeake, when everything was +filled with gloom and rain and grave uncertainty! + +Again the old mare came to my aid. My regiment was not a pleasant one +to be with, for its excellent material did not redeem its very bad +commander, and I longed for service with the cavalry. Frémont was going +to St. Louis, and his chief of staff was looking for cavalry officers. +He had long known Vixen, and was kind enough to tell me that he wanted +_her_ for the new organization, and (as I was her necessary appendage), +he procured my transfer, and we set out for the West. It was not +especially flattering to me to be taken on these grounds; but it was +flattering to Vixen, and that was quite as pleasant. + +Arrived at St. Louis, we set about the organization of the +enthusiastic thousands who rushed to serve under Frémont. Whatever +there was of ostentatious display, Vixen and I took part in, but this +was not much. Once we turned out in great state to receive Prince +Plon-Plon, but that was in the night, and he didn't come after all. +Once again there was a review of all the troops, and that _was_ +magnificent. This was all. There was no coach and four, nor anything +else but downright hard work from early morning till late bedtime, from +Sunday morning till Saturday night. For six weeks, while my regiment of +German horsemen was fitting up and drilling at the Abbey Race-track, +I rode a cart-horse, and kept the mare in training for the hard work +ahead. + +At last we were off, going up the Missouri, sticking in its mud, +poling over its shoals, and being bored generally. At Jefferson +City Vixen made her last appearance in ladies' society, as by the +twilight fires of the General's camp she went through her graceful +paces before Mrs. Frémont and her daughter. I pass over the eventful +pursuit of Price's army, because the subject of my story played only +a passive part in it. At Springfield I tried her nerve by jumping her +over the dead horses on brave Zagonyi's bloody field; and, although +distastefully, she did my bidding without flinching, when she found it +must be done. The camp-life at Springfield was full of excitement and +earnestness; Price, with his army, was near at hand (or we believed +that he was, which was essentially the same). Our work in the cavalry +was very active, and Vix had hard service on insufficient food,--she +seemed to be sustained by sheer nervous strength. + +At last the order to advance was given, and we were to move out at +daybreak; then came a countermanding order; and then, late in the +evening, Frémont's farewell. He had been relieved. There was genuine +and universal grief. Good or bad, competent or incompetent,--this is +not the place to argue that,--he was the life and the soul of his +army, and it was cruelly wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full +of disappointment, we again turned back from our aim;--then would have +been Price's opportunity. + +It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, and the wonderful opal +atmosphere of the Ozark Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a +second spring. As had always been my habit in dreamy or unhappy moods, +I rode my poor tired mare for companionship's sake,--I ought not to +have done it,--I would give much not to have done it, for I never rode +her again. The march was long, and the noonday sun was oppressive. She +who had never faltered before grew nervous and shaky now, and once, +after fording the Pomme-de-Terre in deep water, she behaved wildly; but +when I talked to her, called her a good girl, and combed her silken +mane with my fingers, she came back to her old way, and went on nicely. +Still she perspired unnaturally, and I felt uneasy about her when I +dismounted and gave her rein to Rudolf, my orderly. + +Late in the night, when the moon was in mid-heaven, he came to my +tent, and told me that something was the matter with Vixen. My adjutant +and I hastened out, and there we beheld her in the agony of a brain +fever. She was the most painfully magnificent animal I ever saw. +Crouched on the ground, with her forelegs stretched out and wide apart, +she was swaying to and fro, with hard and stertorous breath,--every +vein swollen and throbbing in the moonlight. De Grandèle, our quiet +veterinary surgeon, had been called while it was yet time to apply the +lancet. As the hot stream spurted from her neck she grew easier; her +eye recovered its gentleness, and she laid her head against my breast +with the old sigh, and seemed to know and to return all my love for +her. I sat with her until the first gray of dawn, when she had grown +quite calm, and then I left her with De Grandèle and Rudolf while +I went to my duties. We must march at five o'clock, and poor Vixen +could not be moved. The thought of leaving her was very bitter, but +I feared it must be done, and I asked De Grandèle how he could best +end her sufferings,--or was there still some hope? He shook his head +mournfully, like a kind-hearted doctor as he was, and said that he +feared not; but still, as I was so fond of her, if I would leave him +six men, he would do his best to bring her on, and, if he could not, he +would not leave her alive. I have had few harder duties than to march +that morning. Four days after, De Grandèle sent a message to me at our +station near Rolla, that he was coming on nicely, and hoped to be in +at nightfall. "Vixen seems to be better and stronger." At nightfall +they came, the poor old creature stepping slowly and timidly over the +rough road, all the old fire and force gone out of her, and with only a +feeble whinny as she saw me walking to meet her. We built for her the +best quarters we could under the mountain-side, and spread her a soft +bed of leaves. There was now hope that she would recover sufficiently +to be sent to St. Louis to be nursed. + +That night, an infernal brute of a troop horse that had already killed +Ludlow's charger, led by some fiendish spirit, broke into Vixen's +enclosure, and with one kick laid open her hock joint. + +In vain they told me that she was incurable. I could not let her die +now, when she was just restored to me; and I forced from De Grandèle +the confession that she _might_ be slung up and so bound that the wound +would heal, although the joint must be stiff. She could never carry me +again, but she could be my pet; and I would send her home, and make her +happy for many a long year yet. We moved camp two miles, to the edge +of the town, and she followed, painfully and slowly, the injured limb +dragging behind her; I could not give her up. She was picketed near my +tent, and for some days grew no worse. + +Finally, one lovely Sunday morning, I found her sitting on her haunches +like a dog, patient and gentle, and wondering at her pain. She remained +in this position all day, refusing food. I stroked her velvet crest, +and coaxed her with sugar. She rubbed her nose against my arm, and was +evidently thankful for my caresses, but she showed no disposition to +rise. The adjutant led me into my tent as he would have led me from the +bedside of a dying friend. I turned to look back at poor Vixen, and she +gave me a little neigh of farewell. + +They told me then, and they told it very tenderly, that there was no +possibility that she could get well in camp, and that they wanted me +to give her over to them. The adjutant sat by me, and talked of the +old days when I had had her at home, and when he had known her well. +We brought back all of her pleasant ways, and agreed that her trouble +ought to be ended. + +As we talked, a single shot was fired, and all was over. The setting +sun was shining through the bare November branches, and lay warm in +my open tent-front. The band, which had been brought out for the only +funeral ceremony, breathed softly Kreutzer's touching "Die Kapelle," +and the sun went down on one of the very sad days of my life. + +The next morning I carved deeply in the bark of a great oak-tree, at +the side of the Pacific Railroad, beneath which they had buried my +lovely mare, a simple VIX; and some day I shall go to scrape the moss +from the inscription. + + + + +RUBY. + + +I was a colonel commanding a regiment of German cavalrymen in South +Missouri, and must have a horse; it was desirable to be conspicuously +well mounted, and so it must be a showy horse; being a heavy weight and +a rough rider, it must be a good horse. With less rank, I might have +been compelled to take a very ordinary mount and be content: my vanity +would not have availed me, and my rough riding must have ceased. + +But I was chief ruler of the little world that lay encamped on the +beautiful banks of the Roubie d'Eaux; and probably life was easier to +all under me when I was satisfied and happy. I am not conscious of +having been mean and crabbed, or of favoring those who favored me to +the disadvantage of those who did not. I cannot recall an instance of +taking a bribe, even in the form of a pleasant smile. It was probably +easier, in the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and therefore +the laziest private ever ordered on extra duty could not lay his hand +on his heart and say he thinks it was done because he was not diligent +in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private mess. I had very early +in life been impressed with the consciousness that the way of the +transgressor is not easy; and as I wanted my way to be easy, I fell +into the way of not transgressing. + +This may not have been a very worthy motive to actuate the conduct of +a military commander; but perhaps it was as good as the average in our +Department of the Southwest, where, if the truth must be told, virtue +did not have it all its own way,--we were different from troops farther +east; and although it made me sometimes wince to have my conduct +ascribed to a noble uprightness of purpose, and showed that it would +really have been more honest not to have been quite so good, yet one +should perhaps be satisfied with having carried out one's intention of +treating every man in the command, officer or soldier, as nearly as he +should be treated as the interests of the public service, the good of +the individual himself, and one's own personal convenience would allow. + +Therefore, I say, I am not conscious of having favored those who +favored me, to the disadvantage of those who did not; neither do I +think that (at this stage of our acquaintance) the Grafs and Barons +and simple Mister Vons, of whom the command was so largely composed, +entertained the hope of personal benefit when they laid their +kindnesses at my accustomed feet, and tried to smooth my way of life. + +The headquarters' mess was generally well supplied,--and no questions +asked. My relations with most of the command were kindly, and it +apparently came to be understood--for German cavalrymen are not without +intelligence--that the happiness of the individual members of the +regiment depended rather on the happiness of its colonel than on any +direct bids for his favor. Be this as it may, I am not conscious of +having received such direct appeals, and I am entirely conscious of the +fullest measure of happiness that my circumstances would allow; not an +ecstasy of delight,--far from that,--but a comfortable sense of such +well-fed, well-paid, well-encamped, and pleasantly occupied virtue as +had left nothing undone that my subordinates could be made to do, and +did nothing that my conditions rendered difficult. My own good-humor +was equalled by that of the regiment at large, and the beetling sides +of the Ozark valleys nowhere sheltered a happier campful of jolly good +fellows than the Vierte Missouri Cavalry. + +We lay on the marvellous Roubie d'Eaux, at its source; no such +babbling brook as trickles from the hillside springs of New England, +but a roaring torrent, breaking at once from a fathomless vent in the +mountain. The processes of formation with these South Missouri rivers +are all hidden from sight, but, far away in the topmost caves of the +Ozark hills, the little streamlets trickle, and unite for a larger and +ever larger flow, gorging at last the huge caverns of the limestone +rock and bursting upon the world a full-grown river. Within our camp +this wonderful spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large +grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustaining community,--in +this, that we foraged our own corn and ground our own meal. With +similar industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, and fowl. + +The trees were bare with the November frosts, but the Indian summer had +come, and, day after day, it bathed every twig and spray with its amber +breath, warming all nature to a second life, and floating the remoter +hills far away into a hazy dreamland. + +But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was not content: I was +practically a dismounted cavalryman. Indeed, it would even have been +a pity to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as fell to my +lot, for good weight-carriers were rare in that section. I had paid a +very high price for a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, happily, +sold for a large advance), only to find him a year too young for his +work, and the regiment had been scoured in vain for an available mount. +I would have gone any reasonable length, even in injustice, to secure +such an animal as was needed. It was not easy to make up one's mind to +order a soldier to give up a horse he was fond of, and some soldier had +an especial fondness for all but the worthless brutes. My reluctance to +do this was perhaps not lessened by the fact that it was forbidden for +officers to ride United States horses. It finally became evident that +the chances were very small of ever finding a suitable animal, and I +even went out, on one shooting excursion, mounted on a mule. + +Up to this time the regiment had been all that could be asked, but +now it seemed to contain a thousand ill-tempered, sore-headed men. +The whole camp was awry. Some of the officers intimated that this was +all the fault of the adjutant; that the orders from headquarters had +lately been unusually harsh. This officer, when remonstrated with, +insisted that he had only transmitted the exact orders given him, and I +knew that my own action had always been reasonable,--on principle so. +Sometimes one almost wished himself back in civil life, away from such +constant annoyances. + +We had in the regiment one Captain Graf von Gluckmansklegge, who was +in many respects the most accomplished and skilful officer of us all. +His life had been passed in the profession, and he had only left his +position of major in a Bavarian Uhlan regiment to draw his sabre in +defence of "die Freiheit," in America, as senior captain of the Fourth +Missouri Cavalry. He was an officer of Asboth's selection, and had +many of that veteran's qualities. Tall, thin, of elegant figure, as +perfect a horseman as good natural advantages and good training could +make, and near-sighted, as a German cavalry officer must be, he was +as natty a fellow as ever wore an eye-glass and a blond mustache. He +was, at the same time, a man of keen worldly shrewdness and of quick +judgment,--qualities which, in his case, may have been sharpened by +long practice at those games of chance with which it has not been +unusual for European officers to preface their coming to draw their +sabres in defence of "die Freiheit" in America. + +With Gluckmansklegge I had always been on friendly terms. Among the +many lessons of his life he had learned none more thoroughly than +the best way to treat his commanding officer; and there was in his +manner an air of friendly deference and of cordial submission to rank, +accompanied by a degree of personal dignity, that elevated the colonel +rather than lowered the captain,--a manner that probably makes its way +with a newly fledged officer more surely than any other form of appeal +to his vanity. One sometimes saw a brand-new second-lieutenant made +happier than a king by this same touch of skill from an old soldier +in his company, whom he knew to be far his superior in all matters of +service. To be quite frank, if I have an element of snobbishness in my +own organization, it has been more nurtured into life by the military +deference of better soldiers than myself under my command than by all +other influences combined; thus modified do the best of us become in +the presence of unmerited praise. + +One evening Gluckmansklegge came to my tent door: "Escoose, Col-o-nel, +may I come?" And then, flinging out his eye-glass with a toss of the +head, he went on, with his imperfect English, to tell me he had just +learned from his lieutenant that I could find no horse to suit me; +that he had a good one strong enough for my weight, and, he thought, +even good enough for my needs. He had bought him in St. Louis from the +quartermaster, and would I oblige him by trying him? He was quite at my +service, at the government price, for he, being lighter, could easily +replace him. Did I remember his horse,--his "Fuchs"? "He is good, nice, +strong horse, an he yoomp!--yei!!" + +I did remember his horse, and I had seen him "yoomp." It had long +been a subject of regret to think that such an animal should be in +the regiment, yet not on my own picket-line. It was well known that +great prices had been offered for him, only to make Gluckmansklegge +fling his eye-glass loose, and grin in derision. "Fuchs is--how you +call?--'heelty,' an gesund; wenn you like, your Ike will go to my +company to bring him." I did like, and I had no scruples against +buying him for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Ike, a handsome +contraband, went early the next morning with a halter for the Fuchs, +and I was up bright and betimes to try him. + +I had only seen the horse before under the saddle, perfectly equipped, +perfectly bitted, and perfectly ridden, an almost ideal charger. There +was a great firebrand scar on the flat of each shoulder, where he had +been fired for a cough,--so said Gluckmansklegge;--others intimated +that this effaced a U. S. brand; but, except this, not a sign of a +blemish. In form, action, style, color (chestnut), and training he +was unexceptionably good, and might well excite the envy of all good +horsemen who saw him _under the saddle_. Knowing him so well, I went +rather eagerly to the picket-line to refresh myself with the added +sensation that the actual ownership of such a horse must give. + +There stood the new purchase,--a picture of the most abject misery; +his hind legs drawn under him; the immense muscles of his hips lying +flabby, like a cart-horse's; his head hanging to the level of his +knees, and his under-lip drooping; his eyes half shut, and his long +ears falling out sidewise like a sleepy mule's. I had bought him for a +safe price, and he would probably do to carry Ike and the saddle-bags; +but I felt as far as ever from a mount for myself, and went back to my +tent wiser and no happier than before. + +Presently Ike appeared with the coffee, and asked how I liked the new +horse. + +"Not at all." + +"Don't ye? well now, I reckon he's a consid'able of a hoss." + +I sent him to look at him again, and he came back with a very +thoughtful air,--evidently he had been impressed. At last he said, +"Well now, Colonel, I don't reckon you bought that hoss to look at him +on the picket-line, did ye?" + +"No, Ike, or he should be sold out very cheap; but he is not the +_kind_ of horse I supposed he was; he ought to work in a mule-team." + +"Well now, Colonel, mebbe he is; but you can't never tell nothin' about +a hoss till you get him between ye; and I reckon he's a consid'able of +a hoss, I reckon he is." + +Ike was wise, in his way, and his way was a very horsy one,--so my +hopes revived a little; and when Gluckmansklegge came up on a capital +little beast he had been handling (secretly to replace the Fuchs), +I had the new venture saddled and brought round. He came blundering +along, head and ears and tail down, and stood like a leathern horse +for me to mount, Gluckmansklegge dropping his eye-glass and grinning. +It was as well to find out first as last whether he had anything in +him or not, and I gathered up the curb-rein, which brought his head +into superb position and settled him well back upon his haunches; but, +as the movement had been made with dignity, I gave him both heels, +firmly,--when we went sailing!--how high I don't know, probably not +fifteen feet, but it seemed that, and covering a good stretch to the +front. It was the most enormous lift I had ever had, and (after an +appreciable time in the air), when he landed square on all four feet, +it was to strike a spanking, even trot, the bit playing loose in his +mouth, his head swaying easily with his step, and his tail flying. I +had never been more amazed in my life than by the wonderful grace and +agility of this splendid brute. As he trotted along with his high, +strong, and perfectly cadenced step, he showed in the swing of his head +all the satisfaction of an athlete turning, conscious, lightly away +from the footlights, after his especial _tour de force_. + +As Gluckmansklegge rode up, he said, "Well, Col-o-nel, how you like? +Nice pretty strong horse, what?" + +And then, his English failing him, he fell, through an attempt at +French, into German, in which his tongue was far more ready than my +ear. Still it was easy to gather enough to understand some of the +processes by which the animal's natural qualifications for his work had +been developed into such unusual accomplishments; and then he glided +into the complimentary assertion that no one but the colonel of his +regiment could ever have hoped to buy him at any price,--and of course +he did not consider it a sale. His original outlay, which he could +not afford to lose, had been reimbursed; but the true value of the +horse, his education, he was only too glad to give me. And then, the +pleasure of seeing his colonel suitably mounted, and the satisfaction +of seeing the horse properly ridden, really threw the obligation on +his side. Then, with his inimitable _naïveté_, he not only expressed, +but demonstrated, in every look and gesture, more delight in watching +our movements than he had felt in his own riding. "Praise a horseman +for his horsemanship, and he will ride to the Devil." Gluckmansklegge +(I did not suspect him of a desire for promotion) pointed to a strong +rail-fence near by, and suggested that the combination of man and +horse for that sort of thing was unusual. Whether it was a banter or +a compliment, it would have been impossible for any man who properly +esteemed himself and his riding to stop to consider. Turned toward the +fence, the Fuchs, checking his speed, seemed to creep toward it, as a +cat would, making it very uncertain what he proposed; but as he came +nearer to it, that willingness to leap that an accustomed rider will +always recognize communicated itself to me, and, with perfect judgment, +but with a force and spirit I had never hoped to meet in a horse of +this world, he carried me over the enormous height, and landed like a +deer, among the stumps and brush on the other side, and trotted gayly +away, athlete-like again, happier and prouder than ever horse was +before. + +Sitting that evening at my tent door, opposite the spring, bragging, +as the custom is, over the new purchase, it occurred to me that that +stream of water and that bit of horse-flesh had some qualities alike; +so I christened the latter "Roubie d'Eaux," which was soon translated +and shortened to "Ruby,"--a name henceforth familiar throughout the +regiment. + +To become my property was the only thing needed to make him perfect, +for Ike was born in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised all +the arts of the craft, up to the time when, being both jockey and "the +stakes" in a race he rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of +fortune, and became a body-servant. He was once confidential:-- + +"Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it was: I hadn't nothin' +ag'in my master,--he was a right nice man; but then, you see, he +drinked, and I didn't know what might become of me some time. Then, +you see, I knowed this man was stiddy, an' he'd jess done bought a +yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an' so,--don't ye see why?--well, +the hoss could have won the _race_ fast enough, but then, you see, my +master,--well, he was a drinkin' kind of a man, an' I thought I might +as well fix it. I knowed I was up for stakes, an' that's how I come to +Missouri; I ain't no Missouri man _born_, but that's how it was." + +He had become a good body-servant without forgetting his stable +training, and his horses bore testimony to his skill and fidelity. +After going through the routine of a well-regulated stable, he gave +each horse a half-hour's stroking with the flat of his hands, brisk and +invigorating; and the result was a more blooming condition and more +vigorous health than is often seen in horses on a campaign. The best +substitute that could be secured for a stable was a very heavy canvas +blanket, covering the horse from his ears to his tail and down to his +knees, water-proof and wind-proof. It was a standing entertainment with +the less dignified members of the mess to invite attention to Ruby +as he stood moping under this hideous housing. Certainly I never saw +him thus without thinking that his time had at last come, and that he +surely would never again be able to carry me creditably. Yet, as Ike's +devotion continued, he grew better and better, commanding daily more of +the respect and admiration of all who knew him, and attaching himself +to me more and more as we learned each other's ways. + +One never loves but one horse entirely, and so Ruby never quite filled +Vixen's place; but as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be +desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that had made me restless +and discontented, was now satisfied, and my duties became easy, and +my pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri warfare) entirely +agreeable. + +It was no slight addition to these sources of contentment to feel that +the command had at last awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and +was fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned Ruby for a fortnight +before the old cheerfulness and alacrity returned to the regiment, and +by the time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d'Eaux and went over to +Lebanon for the shooting season, the entire organization was in a most +satisfactory condition. + +Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war that we shall not +soon forget. To the best of my knowledge and belief, after Price had +retreated from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed Rebels +to be found north of the White River were local bands of jay-hawkers, +whose rebellion was mainly directed against the laws of property, +and the actuating motive of whose military movements was "nags." The +stealing of horses, with the consequent application of Lynch law, was +all that the native male population had to keep them out of mischief, +for weeks and weeks together. There was just enough of this sort of +armed lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of duty; not enough +seriously to interrupt our more regular avocations. + +Lebanon is on the high table-land of the Ozarks, in the heart of a +country flowing with prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully +productive of the more humdrum necessaries of life. Thanks to the +fleeing of Rebel families, we found comfortable quarters without too +severely oppressing those who had remained. What with moving the +court-house away from the public square, leaving the space free for a +parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for the town pump, we +kept our men from rusting; and when, after a time, we had established +a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious military prison, Lebanon +was as complete and well-ordered a station as could be found in +South Missouri. I had the questionable honor and the unquestionable +comfort of holding its command from the end of January to the end of +April,--three dreamy months, that seem now to have been passed in a +shooting-lodge, under favorable auspices. + +As a legacy of the "Hundred Days," when the "Fourth Missouri" was the +"Frémont Hussars," we had an able-bodied and extremely well-selected +regimental band, that soothed our over-tasked senses when we came in +from our work in the fields, gathering where our enemies had sown, and +(under the suspended game-laws of the State) shooting grouse and quail +in the early spring. + +Naturally, most of my official duties were such as could be performed +by an extremely well-regulated adjutant; and I usually passed his busy +half-hour (in private) with Ruby. There had been an impetuosity about +the horse at the outset which it was desirable to quell, and I rode him +regularly in a nicely fenced kitchen-garden, where, after he learned +that fences are not always intended for leaping-bars, he fell slowly +into the routine of the training-school, and easily acquired a perfect +self-command and _aplomb_ that enabled him, under all circumstances, to +await his rider's instructions. + +I wish that less account had been made, in the writings of those +whose horse-stories have preceded mine, of the specified feats of +their animals. The _rôle_ of a horse's performances is necessarily +limited, and it is probably impossible for a well-constituted mind to +recite the simple story of his deeds without seeming to draw largely +on the imagination. Consequently, an unexaggerated account of what +Ruby actually did (and I cannot bring my mind to an embellishment of +the truth) would hardly interest a public whose fancy has been thus +pampered and spoiled. But for this, these pages could be filled with +instances of his strength and agility that would almost tax belief. +Suffice it to say that while, like most good high leapers, he would +cover but a moderate breadth of water, he would get over anything +reasonable in the shape of a fence that could be found about the town. + +I was a heavy weight,--riding nearly two hundred pounds,--and +necessarily rode with judgment. If there was a low place in a fence, +we never chose a high one; but, at the same time, if there were no +low places, we took the best we could find. Ruby seemed to know that +the two of us were solid enough to break through any ordinary pile of +rails, and what we could not jump over we jumped _at_. More than once +did he carry away the top rail of a snake fence with his knees, and +land fair and square on the other side; but it was a very high leap +that made this necessary. + +He would jump on to the porch of the quartermaster's office (approached +from the ground by four steps), and then jump over the hand-rail and +land on the ground below again, almost wagging his tail with delight at +the feat. + +His ear was quicker than mine for the peeping of quail and for the +drumming of grouse, and, in the absence of a good dog, there is no +doubt that my pot (for which alone I have been said to hunt) was better +filled by reason of his intelligence in the field, and because he would +allow one to shoot from the saddle. The birds never mistook me for a +sportsman until I was quite in among them, blazing away. + +In coming home from the prairie, we generally rode round by the way of +a certain sunken garden that stood a couple of feet below the level +of the road. A five-foot picket-fence that stood at the roadside had +fallen over toward the garden, so that its top was hardly four feet +higher than the road. This made the most satisfactory leap we ever +took,--the long, sailing descent, and the safe landing on sandy loam, +satisfied so completely one's prudent love of danger. + +I think I missed this leap more than anything at Lebanon when, finally, +we set out for Arkansas. + +We made our first considerable halt early in May, at Batesville, +on the White River,--a lovely, rose-grown village, carrying, in the +neatly kept home of its New England secessionists, evidence that +they remembered their native land, where, in their day, before the +age of railroads, the "village" flourished in all its freshness and +simplicity. It had now acquired the picturesque dilapidation, in the +manner of fences and gates and defective window-panes, that marked +the Southern domicile during the war. Ruby had strained himself quite +seriously during the march, and had been left to come on slowly with +the quartermaster's train. This left me quite free for the social life, +such as it was, to which we--the only available men that had been seen +there since Price gathered his forces at Springfield--were welcomed +with a reserved cordiality. Our facilities for forming a correct +opinion of society were not especially good, but I fancied I should +have passed my time to as good advantage in the saddle. + +We soon left for an active expedition in the direction of Little Rock, +of which it is only necessary to say, here, that it lasted about a +month, and brought the writer acquainted with some very unsatisfactory +horses,--a fact which heightened his pleasure, on striking the White +River bottom again, at finding that Ruby had been brought over the +ferry to meet him. Tired as I was, I took a glorious brisk trot through +the Canebrake Road, with a couple of leaps over fallen trees, that +revived the old emotions and made a man of me again. + +While we lay at Batesville we were unusually active in the matter of +drill and reorganization; and this, with our engagements in the town, +kept us too busy for much recreation; but Ludlow and I managed to work +in a daily swim in the White River, with old saddles on our horses, +and scant clothing on our persons. Talk of aquatic sports! there is +no royal bath without a plucky horse to assist; and a swim across +the swift current at Batesville, with a horse like Ruby snorting and +straining at every stroke, belittled even the leaping at Lebanon. + +From Batesville we commenced our memorable march to join the fleet +that had just passed Memphis, following down the left bank of the river +to Augusta, and then striking across the cotton country to Helena,--a +march on which we enjoyed the rarest picturesqueness of plantation +life, and suffered enough from heat and hunger and thirst, and +stifling, golden dust to more than pay for it. + +Helena was a pestiferous swamp, worth more than an active campaign to +our enemies, filling our hospitals, and furrowing the levee bank with +graves. It was too hot for much drilling, and we kept our better horses +in order by daybreak races. With the local fever feeling its way into +my veins, I was too listless to care much for any diversion; but Ike +came to me one evening to say that he "reckoned" Ruby was as good a +horse as anybody had in the "camps," and he might as well take a hand +in the games. I told him I had no objection to his being run, if he +could find a suitable boy, but that both he and I were too heavy for +race-riding. + +"I don't weigh only about a hundred and a half," said the ambitious man. + +"Well, suppose you don't, that is ten pounds too much." + +"I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter 'n he is if he knows how +to ride; anyhow, if Rube can't skin anything around here, I don't know +nothin' about horses." + +"Ike, did you ever run that horse?" + +"Well, Colonel, now you ask me, I did jest give Dwight's darkey a +little brush once." + +Conquering my indignation and my scruples, I went over, just for the +honor of the establishment, and made up a race for the next day. + +I have seen crack race-horses in my time, but I never saw more +artistic riding nor more capital running than that summer morning on +the River Road at Helena, just as the sun began to gild the muddy +Mississippi. The satisfaction of this conquest, and the activity with +which new engagements were offered by ambitious lieutenants, who little +knew the stuff my man and horse were made of, kept off my fever for +some weeks; but I steadily declined all opportunity of racing with +horses outside of our command, for I had been reared in a school of +Puritan severity, and had never quite overcome my convictions against +the public turf. A corporal of an "Injeanny rege_ment_" took occasion +to crow lustily--so I heard--because "one of them French coveys" was +afraid to run him a quarter for five dollars. It appeared that a +cleanly European was always supposed by this gentry to be French; and +in the army at large I was better known by the company I kept than by +my New England characteristics. + +Naturally, Ike thought that, while Ruby was engaged in this more +legitimate occupation, he ought not to be ridden for mere pleasure; +and it was only when a visitor was to be entertained, or when I went +out on plea of duty, that I could steal an opportunity to leap him; +but he took one fence that fairly did him credit. It was a snake fence +measuring four feet and two inches, with a deep ditch on each side cut +close to the projecting angles of the rails. Ruby carried me over the +first ditch into the angle between the rails, then over the fence into +the narrow space on the other side, and then over the second ditch into +the field. It was the most perfect combination of skill, strength, and +judgment that was possible to horse-flesh; and I think Gluckmansklegge, +who was with me and had suggested the venture, despaired of ever +getting his promotion by any fair means, when we rejoined him by the +return leap and rode safely to camp. + +Unhappily, even entire satisfaction with one's horse is powerless to +ward off such malaria as that of the camp at Helena, and in due time I +fell ill with the fever. The horse was turned over to the care of the +quartermaster, and Ike and I came wearily home on sick-leave. + +Late in the autumn we returned to St. Louis, where one of the German +officers told me that the regiment had joined Davidson's army at "Pilot +K-nopp"; and after the Hun, our new adjutant, arrived from the East, we +set out for headquarters, and took command of the cavalry brigade of +Davidson's army. + +From November until January we were tossed about from post to post, +wearing out our horses, wearying our men, and accomplishing absolutely +nothing of value beyond the destruction of an enormous amount of +the rough forage, which would otherwise have been used to feed +"nags,"--stolen or to be stolen,--and would have thus tended to foster +the prevailing vice of the region. + +At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at Thomasville,--a good +twelve miles away from Davidson,--and were at rest; it was only those +near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, and he was now encamped +with the infantry. + +Pleasant as we found it with our little duty and much sport, I can +never look back to Thomasville without sorrow. To say that I had +acquired a tenderness for Ruby would not be strictly just; but I felt +for him all the respect and admiration and fondness that is possible +short of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only one; but Ruby was +my hero, and I depended on him for my duty and my pleasure more than I +knew. With his full measure of intelligence he had learned exactly his +_rôle_, and he was always eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the +world what a remarkably fine horse I had,--being himself conscious, not +only of his unusual virtues, but, no less, of the praise they elicited. + +One sunny Southern day, toward the end of January, Davidson had ridden +over, with his following, to dine with us; and as we were sitting +before our mess-tent, mellow with after-dinner talk of our guns and +our dogs and our horses, the General was good enough to remember that +he had seen me riding a chestnut that he thought much too finely bred +for field work: had I been able to keep him? Then Ruby was discussed, +and all his successes were recalled, first by one friend and then by +another, until Davidson needed ocular proof of our truthfulness. + +Ike had taken the hint, and brought Ruby round in due time,--glistening +like gold in the slanting rays of the setting sun, but blundering along +with his head down and ears drooping in his old, dismal way. + +"O no, I don't mean that horse," said Davidson; "I mean a very +high-strung horse I have seen you ride on the march." + +"Very well, General, that is the animal; he keeps his strings loose +when he is not at his work." + +"No, I have seen you riding a far better horse than that; I am too old +a cavalryman to be caught by such chaff." + +To the great glee of the Hun, whose faith in Ruby was unbounded, +Davidson's whole staff turned the laugh on me for trying to deceive the +General just because he had been dining. + +I mounted, and started off with one of Ruby's enormous lifts, that +brought the whole company to their feet. It was the supreme moment with +him. Full of consciousness, as though he knew the opportunity would +never come again, and quivering in anticipation of his triumph, he was +yet true to his training, and held himself subject to my least impulse. + +We had lain in our camp for more than a week, and there was not a +vestige left of the recently substantial fences,--only the suggestive +and conspicuous gateways that stood to mark the march of our armies +from the Chesapeake to the Indian Nation. But Ruby built fences in his +imagination higher than any he had ever faced, and cleared them without +a scratch, landing close as though the Helena ditch were still to be +taken. + +It would take long to tell all he did and how perfectly he did it; he +went back at last to his canvas blanket, loaded with adulation, and as +happy as it is given a horse to be. + +In his leaping he had started a shoe, and Ike took him in the morning +to the smith (who had taken possession of an actual forge), to have it +reset. A moment later, the Hun cried, "My God, Colonel, look at Ruby!" + +Hobbling along with one hind foot drawn up with pain, he was making +his last mournful march, and we laid him that day to rest,--as true a +friend and as faithful a fellow as ever wore a chestnut coat. + +He had reared in the shop, parted his halter, and fallen under a +bench, breaking his thigh far up above the stifle. + + + + +WETTSTEIN. + + +It is a pleasant thing to be a colonel of cavalry in active +field-service. There are circumstances of authority and responsibility +that fan the latent spark of barbarism which, however dull, glows in +all our breasts, and which generations of republican civilization +have been powerless to quench. We may not have confessed it even +to ourselves; but on looking back to the years of the war, we +must recognize many things that patted our vanity greatly on the +back,--things so different from all the dull routine of equality +and fraternity of home, that those four years seem to belong to a +dreamland, over which the haze of the life before them and of the +life after them draws a misty veil. Equality and Fraternity! a pretty +sentiment, yes, and full of sensible and kindly regard for all mankind, +and full of hope for the men who are to come after us; but Superiority +and Fraternity! who shall tell all the secret emotions this implies? To +be the head of the brotherhood, with the unremitted clank of a guard's +empty scabbard trailing before one's tent-door day and night; with the +standard of the regiment proclaiming the house of chief authority; +with the respectful salute of all passers, and the natural obedience +of all members of the command; with the shade of deference that even +comrades show to superior rank; and with that just sufficient check +upon coarseness during the jovial bouts of the headquarters' mess, +making them not less genial, but void of all offence,--living in this +atmosphere, one almost feels the breath of feudal days coming modified +through the long tempestuous ages to touch his cheek, whispering to him +that the savage instinct of the sires has not been, and never will be, +quite civilized out of the sons. And then the thousand men, and the +yearly million that they cost, while they fill the cup of the colonel's +responsibility (sometimes to overflowing), and give him many heavy +trials,--they are his own men; their usefulness is almost of his own +creation, and their renown is his highest glory. + +I may not depict the feelings of others; but I find in the recollection +of my own service--as succeeding years dull its details and cast the +nimbus of distance about it--the source of emotions which differ widely +from those to which our modern life has schooled us. + +One of the colonel's constant attendants is the chief bugler, or, +as he is called in hussar Dutch, the "Stabstrompaytr"; mine was the +prince of Trompaytrs, and his name was Wettstein. He was a Swiss, whose +native language was a mixture of guttural French and mincing German. +English was an impossible field to him. He had learned to say "yes" and +"matches"; but not one other of our words could he ever lay his tongue +to, except the universal "damn." But for his bugle and his little gray +mare, I should never have had occasion to know his worth. Music filled +every pore of his Alpine soul, and his wonderful Swiss "Retreat" must +ring to this day in the memory of every man of the regiment whose +thoughts turn again to the romantic campaign of South Missouri. What +with other buglers was a matter of routine training was with him an +inspiration. All knew well enough the meaning of the commands that +the company trumpets stammered or blared forth; but when they rang +from Wettstein's horn, they carried with them a _vim_ and energy that +secured their prompt execution; and his note in the wild Ozark Hills +would mark the headquarters of the "Vierte Missouri" for miles around. +From a hill-top, half a mile in advance of the marching command, I +have turned the regiment into its camping-ground and dismounted it in +perfect order by the melodious telegraphy of Wettstein's brazen lips +alone. + +That other chief attribute of his, Klitschka, his little beast, +stayed longer with me than his bugle did, and is hardly less identified +with the varied reminiscences of my army life. I bought her, as a +prize, with the original mount of the regiment, in Frémont's time, +and was mildly informed by that officer that I must be careful how +I accepted many such animals from the contractor, though a few for +the smaller men might answer. Asboth, Frémont's chief of staff, with +a scornful rolling up of his cataract of a mustache, and a shrug of +his broad, thin shoulders, said, "Whyfor you buy such horses? What +your bugler ride, it is not a horse, it is a cat." His remark was not +intended as a question, and it ended the conversation. Months after +that, he eagerly begged for the nine-lived Klitschka for one of his +orderlies; being refused him, she remained good to the end. She was an +animal that defied every rule by which casual observers test the merit +of a horse; but analytically considered she was nearly perfect. Better +legs, a better body, and a better head, it is rare to see, than she +had. But she lacked the arched neck and the proud step that she needed +all the more because of her small size. By no means showy in figure +or in action, it took a second look to see her perfect fitness for +her work. Her color was iron-gray, and no iron could be tougher than +she was; while her full, prominent eye and ample brain-room, and her +quick paper-thin ear, told of courage and intelligence that made her +invaluable throughout four years of hard and often dangerous service. +Like many other ill-favored little people, she was very lovable, and +Wettstein loved her like a woman. He would never hesitate to relax +those strict rules of conduct by which German cavalrymen are supposed +to govern themselves, if it was a question of stealing forage for +Klitschka; and he was (amiable fellow!) never so happy as when, from a +scanty supply in the country, he had taken enough oat-sheaves to bed +her in and almost cover her up, while other horses of the command must +go hungry; and was never so shaken in his regard for me as when I made +him give up all but double rations for her. + +Double rations she often earned, for Wettstein was a heavy youth, +with a constitutional passion for baggage out of all proportion to +his means of transportation. Mounted for the march, he was an odd +sight. Little Klitschka's back, with his immense rolls of blankets and +clothing before and behind, looked like a dromedary's. Planted between +the humps, straight as a gun-barrel, the brightest of bugles suspended +across his back by its tasselled yellow braid, slashed like a harlequin +over the breast, his arms chevroned with gorgeous gold,--Wettstein, +with his cap-front turned up so as to let the sun fall full on his +frank blue eyes and his resolute blond mustache, was the very picture +of a cavalry bugler in active campaign. + +Smoking, gabbling, singing, rollicking, from morning until night, +and still on until morning again if need be, he never lost spirit nor +temper. He seemed to absorb sunshine enough during the day to keep +every one bright around him all night. When at last his bugle had been +stilled forever, we long missed the cheer of his indomitable gayety; +wearying service became more irksome than while his bubbling mirth had +tempered its dulness; and even little Klitschka, although she remained +an example of steady pluck, had never so potent an influence as while +he had put his own unfailing mettle into her heels. After she was +bequeathed to me, she was always most useful, but never so gay and +frisky as while she carried her own devoted groom. No day was too long +for her and no road too heavy; her brisk trot knew no failing, but she +refused ever again to form the personal attachment that had sealed her +and Wettstein to each other. + +The two of them together, like the fabled Centaur, made the complete +creature. He with the hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine +race, and she with her veins full of the mustang blood of the Rocky +Mountains, were fitted to each other as almost never were horse and +rider before. Their performances were astonishing. In addition to a +constant attendance on his commander (who, riding without baggage, +and of no heavier person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged out +three good horses between one morning and the next), the Trompaytr +yet volunteered for all sorts of extra service,--carried messages +over miles of bad road to the general's camp, gave riding-lessons and +music-lessons to the company buglers, and then--fear of the guard-house +and fear of capture always unheeded--he never missed an opportunity for +the most hazardous and most laborious foraging. + +He was a thorough soldier,--always "for duty," always cleanly, always +handsome and cheery, and heedlessly brave. If detected in a fault +(and he was, as I have hinted, an incorrigible forager), he took +his punishment like a man, and stole milk for himself or fodder for +Klitschka at the next convenient (or inconvenient) opportunity, with an +imperturbability that no punishment could reach. + +Once, when supplies were short, he sent me, from the guard-house where +he had been confined for getting them, a dozen bundles of corn-blades +for my horses; not as a bribe, but because he would not allow the +incidents of discipline to disturb our friendly relations; and in the +matter of fodder in scarce times he held me as a helpless pensioner, +dependent on his bounty. When in arrest by my order, his "Pon chour, +Herr Oberist," was as cordial and happy as when he strolled free past +my tent. Altogether, I never saw his like before or since. The good +fortune to get such a bugle, such a soldier, and such a mount combined, +comes but once in the lifetime of the luckiest officer. It was only +his uncouth tongue that kept him from being pilfered from me by every +general who had the power to "detail" him to his own headquarters. + +So universal, by the way, was this petty vice of commanding officers, +that one was never safe until he adopted the plan, in selecting a +staff officer, of securing his promise to resign from the service, +point-blank, if ordered to other duty, and more than one offended +general has been made indignant by this policy. With Wettstein, I felt +perfectly easy, for the average capacity of brigadier-generals stopped +far short of the analysis of his dual jargon. Several tried him for +a day, but they found that his comprehension was no better than his +speech, and that his manifest ability was a sealed book to them. He +always came home by nightfall with a chuckle, and "Le général versteht +mich nicht. Je blase 'marrrsch' für 'halt.'" + +So it was that, for a couple of years, this trusty fellow trotted at +my heels through rain and shine, by day and by night, with his face +full of glee, and his well-filled canteen at the service of our little +staff. Mud and mire, ditches and fences, were all one to him and +Klitschka; and in Vix's day they followed her lead over many a spot +that the others had to take by flank movement. + +Our work in Missouri was but little more than the work of subsistence. +We were a part of an army too large for any Rebel force in that region +to attack, and too unwieldy to pursue guerillas with much effect. But +now and then we made a little scout that varied our otherwise dull +lives; and at such times Wettstein always attached himself to the most +dangerous patrolling party, and Klitschka was usually the first to +bring back news of the trifling encounters. + +At last, in February, 1863, when we had lain for a month in delicious +idleness in the heart of a rich country, literally flowing with +poultry and corn-fodder, I, being then in command of a division of +cavalry, received an order from Davidson to select six hundred of the +best-mounted of my men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruiting, +ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White River in Arkansas. His +main body, three thousand five hundred strong, lay in the "Oil-Trough +Bottom," on the other side of the river. A brigade of Western infantry +was to march as far as Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if +necessary; though we afterward found that at the only moment when +we might have had grave occasion to depend on them, they were, with +an inconsistency that was not the least attribute of our commanding +officer, withdrawn without notice to us. + +We were to go in light marching order, carrying only the necessary +clothing, and rations of salt and coffee. Wettstein's ideas of +lightness differing from mine, I had to use some authority to rid poor +Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, and such trash; and after all, +the rascal had, under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, +smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weighing some fifteen pounds, +into one of his rolls. Eager men, too, whose horses were out of trim, +had to be discarded, and the whole detail to be thoroughly overhauled. +But the jovial anticipation of seeing Batesville once more--a New +England village planted on a charming hillside in Arkansas, where we +had sojourned with Curtis the summer before, and where we all had the +pleasant acquaintance that even an enemy makes in a town from which +the native men have long been gone, and only the women remain--made +the work of preparation go smoothly, and long before dawn Wettstein's +bugle summoned the details from the several camps. There was a ringing +joyousness in his call, that spoke of the cosey, roaring fire of a +certain Batesville kitchen to which his bright face and his well-filled +haversack had long ago made him welcome, and prospective feasting gave +an added trill to his blast. + +The little detachments trotted gayly into line, officers were assigned +for special duty, temporary divisions were told off, and a working +organization was soon completed. Before the sun was up, such a Ra, +t't'ta, t't'ta, _t't'ta_! as South Missouri had never heard before, +broke the line by twos from the right, and we were off for a promising +trip. Marmaduke we knew of old, and personal cowardice would have +deterred no one from joining our party, for he could be reached from +our stronger army only by a complete surprise; and in a country where +every woman and child (white, I mean) was his friend and our enemy, a +surprise, over ninety miles of bad roads, seemed out of the question. +Indeed, before we had made a half of the distance, one of his flying +scouts told a negro woman by the roadside, as he checked his run to +water his horse, "There's a hell's-mint o' Yanks a comin' over the +mountain, and I must git to Marmyjuke"; and to Marmaduke he "got," half +a day ahead of us, only to be laughed at for a coward who had been +frightened by a foraging-party. + +The second night brought us to Evening Shade, a little village where +one Captain Smith was raising a company. They had all gone, hours ahead +of us, but had left their supplies and their fires behind them, and +these, with the aid of a grist-mill (for which an Illinois regiment +furnished a miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At daybreak we set out +for our last day's march, still supposing that Marmaduke's men would +put the river between themselves and us before night, but confident +of comfortable quarters at Batesville. A few miles out, we began to +pick up Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rattling through the +woods, from a house to which he had been allowed to go for milk, with +the story of a sick officer lodged there. Following his lead with a +surgeon and a small escort, I found the captain of the Evening Shade +company lying in a raging fever, with which he had found it impossible +to ride, and nearly dead with terror lest we should hang him at once. +His really beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven his recruiting +labors, was in tears over his impending fate. While we were talking +with him concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with a royal pair +of Mexican spurs to save his life, evidently thinking from his display +of finery that he was a major-general at the very least. The kind +fellow buckled the spurs on my heels, and they evidently gave me new +consequence in his eyes as we rode on our way. + +Presently we struck a party of about twenty-five, under a Captain +Mosby, who had been making a circuit after conscripts and had had no +news of us. After a running fight, during which there occurred some +casualties on the other side, we captured the survivors of the party +and sent them to the rear. + +From midday on, we heard rumors of a sally in strong force from +Batesville, and were compelled to move cautiously,--straggling parties +of Rebel scouts serving to give credibility to the story. At sunset +we were within six miles of the town; and, halting in the deep snow +of a large farm-yard, I sent a picked party of thirty, under Rosa, to +secure the ferry, if possible,--Wettstein and Klitschka accompanying to +bring back word of the result. After two anxious hours, he came into +camp with a note from Rosa: "Marmaduke is over the river and has the +ferry-boat with him; three of his men killed. Wettstein did bravely." +The poor fellow had a bad cut on his arm and was in pain, but not a +moment would he give himself until brave little Klitschka, smothered in +bright straw, was filling herself from the smuggled bag of corn. Then +he came to the surgeon and had his wounded arm duly dressed. Although +evidently suffering and weak from loss of blood, he gave us a cheering +account of Rosa's fight, and dwelt fondly on the supper he had bespoken +for us at good Mrs. ----'s house, where we had quartered in the summer. +At nine o'clock, after Klitschka had fed and the patrols had come in, +we set out on our march. It was still snowing hard, and even the dead +men that marked Rosa's recent ride were fast being shrouded in purest +white. One of them Wettstein pointed out as the man with whom he had +crossed sabres, and he asked permission to stay with the party detailed +to bury him, for he had been a "braff homme." With his tender sympathy +for friend or foe, he was a truer mourner than a dead soldier often +gets from the ranks of his enemy. Even this sad ride came to an end, as +all things must, and at the edge of the town soldierly Rosa stood, to +report that the pickets were posted and our quarters ready. Giving him +a fresh detail to relieve his pickets, and asking his company at our +midnight supper, we pushed on to our chosen house. Here we found all +in order, save that the young lady of the family had so hastily put on +the jacket bearing the U. S. buttons of her last summer's conquests, +that she failed quite to conceal the C. S. buttons on a prettier one +under it. She and her mother scolded us for driving the Rebel beaux +from town, when there was to have been a grand farewell ball only the +next night; but they seemed in no wise impressed with regret for the +friends who had been killed and wounded in the chase. It turned out +that Marmaduke had grown tired of reports that we were marching on him +in force, and would not believe it now until his own men rode into +town at nightfall with the marks of Rosa's sabres on their heads. The +place had been filled with the officers of his command, and he with +them, come for their parting flirtations before the ball. They were to +march to Little Rock, and their men were nearly all collected in the +"Bottom," over the river. On this sudden proof of the attack, they made +a stampede for the flat-boat of the rope-ferry, and nearly sunk it by +over-crowding, the hindmost men cutting the rope and swimming their +horses across the wintry torrent. + +We had full possession of the town, and were little disturbed by +the dropping shots from the Rebel side. We visited on our unfaithful +friends such punishment as enforced hospitality could compass, and, +on the whole, we hadn't a bad "time." The morning after our arrival +we levied such contributions of supplies as were necessary for our +return march, and, in order that the return might not look like a +retreat, we loaded two wagons with hogsheads of sugar (which would be +welcome in Davidson's commissariat), and made every arrangement for the +establishment of the camping of the whole army in the country back of +the town; for our force was so small that, with our tired horses, it +would have been imprudent to turn our backs to Marmaduke's little army, +if he supposed us to be alone. + +Keeping the town well picketed and making much show of laying out an +encampment, we started the teams and the main body of the command at +nightfall, holding back a hundred men for a cover until a later hour. + +During the evening the Rebels on the south side of the river became +suspiciously quiet, and there was, apparently, some new movement on +foot. The only possible chance for an attack was by Magnus's ferry, +ten miles below, where the boat was so small and the river so wide +that not more than twenty horses could be crossed in an hour, and our +sharpshooters were sufficient to prevent the removal of the Batesville +boat to that point. Still it was important to know what was going on, +and especially important to prevent even a scouting-party of the enemy +from harassing the rear of our tired column by the shorter road from +Magnus's to Evening Shade; and I started at nine o'clock (when the moon +rose), with twenty men, to go round that way, directing the remainder +of the rear-guard to follow the main body at midnight. + +The ride to Magnus's was without other adventure than bad roads and +almost impassable bayous always entail, and in a few hours we reached +the plantation, where I had a former ally in an old negro who had done +us good service during Curtis's campaign. He said that the Rebels had +left the Bottom, and were going to Little Rock, but, as a precaution +he took a canoe and crossed over to the house of another negro on the +south bank, and returned with a confirmation of his opinion. As it +was very important to know whether the only enemy of Davidson's army +had really withdrawn from his front, and, as this might be definitely +learned through the assistance of an old scout who lived in the edge of +the Bottom, it seemed best to cross the river to give him instructions +for his work. + +I took Ruby, my best horse. He was a sure reliance under all +circumstances, and he and I knew each other perfectly. We were at home +in every foot-path in the country, having had many a summer's swim in +this very river; and now, accompanied only by Wettstein and Klitschka, +I went on to the ferry-boat. It was what is known as a "swing" ferry. A +stout rope is stretched between trees on the opposite shores, and the +boat is attached to a couple of pulleys arranged to traverse the length +of this rope. The attaching cords--one at each end of the up-stream +side of the boat--are long enough to allow it to swing some rods down +the stream; by shortening one of the ropes and lengthening the other, +the boat is placed at an angle with the swift current, which propels it +toward one shore or the other, the pulleys keeping pace in their course +on the main rope. + +The main rope was rough from long use, and often the pulleys would +halt in their course, until the pull of the advancing boat dragged them +free. Then the rickety craft, shivering from end to end, would make a +rapid shoot, until another defective place in the rope brought her to +again. At each vibration, the horses nearly lost their feet, and the +surging stream almost sent its muddy water over the gunwale. It was a +long and anxious trip,--the rotten guy-rope hardly serving to hold us +to our course. At last we reached the shore and rode on to Craikill's +house in the Bottom. He had been "conscripted," and forced to go with +the army, so his wife told us, and she had seen him march with the rest +on the Fairview Road for Little Rock. The last bird had flown, and we +could safely march back at our leisure. + +Wettstein filled his pipe, emptied his haversack for the benefit of +Craikill's hungry children, and, cheery as ever, followed me to the +ferry. On the way over he had been as still as a mouse, for he was too +old a soldier to give an enemy any sign of our approach. But, as we +set out on the return trip, in the cold moonlight, he sang the "Ranz +des Vaches," fondled his little mare, and, unmindful of his wounded +arm, gave way to the flow of spirits that the past few days' duty had +checked. I never knew him more gay and delightful; and, as we stood +leaning on our saddles and chatting together, I congratulated myself +upon the possession of such a perpetual sunbeam. + +We were barely half-way across, when, suddenly, coming out of the +darkness, riding half hidden in the boiling, whirling tide, a huge +floating tree struck the boat with a thud that parted the rotten +guy-rope, and carried us floating down the stream. For a moment there +seemed no danger, but a branch of the tree had caught the corner of the +boat, and the pulleys had become entangled in the rope. When this had +been drawn to its full length, and the tree felt the strain, the boat +dipped to the current, filled, and sank under our feet. I called to +Wettstein to take Klitschka by the tail, but it was too late; he had +grasped the saddle with the desperation of a drowning man, and made +her fairly helpless. The boat soon passed from under us, and, relieved +of our weight, came to the surface at our side; but, bringing the rope +against poor Wettstein's wounded arm, it tore loose his hold, and soon +went down again in the eddy, and Klitschka was free. + +"Adieu, Herr Oberist; tenez Klitschka pour vous! Adieu!" And that +happy, honest face sank almost within reach of me. The weight of his +arms prevented his rising again, and only an angry eddy, glistening in +the moonlight, marked his turbid grave. + +Ruby, snorting, and struggling hard with the current, pulled me safely +to the shore, and little Klitschka followed as well as her loaded +saddle would permit. For the moment, with my own life and the lives of +two tried companions to care for, I thought of nothing else; but as I +sat drying at Magnus's roaring hearth the direst desolation overwhelmed +me. Very far from home,--far even from the home-like surroundings of +my own camp,--I had clung to this devoted fellow as a part of myself. +He was a proven friend; with him I never lacked the sympathy that, in +the army at least, is born of constant companionship, and he filled a +place in my life that dearer friends at home might not find. He was the +one comrade whose heart, I was sure, was filled only with unquestioning +love for me. Henceforth I must look for support to companions who saw +me as I was, who knew my faults and my weaknesses, and whose kind +regard was tempered with criticism. The one love that was blind, that +took me for better or for worse, had been, in an instant, torn from my +life, and I was more sad than I can tell. + +But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened party, we mounted, to join the +main command; and, as we rode on through the rest of that desolate +night, no word passed to tell the gloom that each man felt. + +The petty distinctions of earthly rank were swallowed up in a feeling +of true brotherhood, and Wettstein--promoted now--rode at our head as a +worthy leader, showing the way to a faithful performance of all duty, +and a kindly and cheerful bearing of all life's burdens; and, through +the long and trying campaigns that followed, more than one of us was +the better soldier for the lesson his soldierly life had taught. + + + + +CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. + + +Union City was not a city at all; it was hardly a village, and +"Disunion" would have been its fairer designation. It lay in the woods +at the crossing of two railroads, one pointing toward Mobile and one +toward Memphis, but neither leading anywhere. There was a tradition +that trains had once been run upon each, but many bridges had had to be +rebuilt to make the short line to Columbus passable, and the rest was +ruin; for Forrest had been there with his cavalry. + +The land was just so much raised above the broad swamp of Northwestern +Tennessee that whiskey with men to drink it, and a Methodist Church +South with people to attend it, were possible. With these meagre +facilities for life, and the vague inducement of a railroad-crossing. +Union City had struggled into an amphibious subsistence; but it had +never thriven, and its corner-lots had but feebly responded to the +hopes of its projectors. + +For many a mile around, the forests and swamps were well-nigh +impenetrable, and the occasional clearings were but desolate oases +in the waste of marsh and fallen timber. The roads were wood-trails +leading nowhere in particular, and all marked a region of the most +scanty and unfulfilled promise. + +General Asboth, seeing (by the map) that it commanded two lines of +railroad, sent us to occupy this strategic point, and we gradually +accumulated to the number of twenty-five hundred cavalry and four +thousand infantry, drawing our regular supplies from Columbus; +and occupying our time with a happy round of drills, inspections, +horse-races, cock-fights, and poker. It was not an elevating existence, +but it was charmingly idle, and we passed the serene and lovely autumn +of 1863 in a military dreamland, where nothing ever came to disturb +our quiet, or to mar our repose with the realities of war. We built +ourselves houses, we shot game for our tables, we made egg-nog for our +evenings, and we were happy. The charm of camp-life--with just enough +of occupation and responsibility, and with enough improvement in the +troops for a reward--made even this wilderness enjoyable. I had the +advantage of seniority and command, and the physical comforts that +naturally gravitate toward a commanding officer did not fail me. + +My house, built with the mouse-colored logs of a Rebel block-house, +covered with the roof of the post-office, and floored and ceiled with +the smoke-mellowed lining of the Methodist church, was broad and low +and snug. Its windows, also taken from the sanctuary in question, were +set on their sides, and gave to each of the two rooms wide, low-browed +outlooks into the woods and over the drill-ground, that would have made +worse quarters agreeable. The bricks of an abandoned domestic fireside +built a spacious fireplace across an angle of each of the rooms, and +the clay of the locality plastered all our chinks "to keep the wind +away." I have seen more pretentious houses and more costly, but never +one in which three chosen spirits--I had, in a happy moment, selected +Voisin and the Hun for my staff--got more that is worth the getting +out of the simple and virtuous life of a cavalry headquarters. We were +at peace with all the world (Forrest was in Mississippi), our pay +was regular, our rations were ample,--and Asboth had been ordered to +Pensacola. + +Old A. J., his successor,--every inch a soldier, and a good fellow +to the very core,--used sometimes to roll up his camp mattress and +run down from Columbus for an inspection. Those are marked days in +our memories. He was a lynx in the field, and wry buttoning roused +him to articulate wrath; but he unbuckled his sabre at the door, and +brought only geniality within,--a mellow geniality that warmed to the +influences of our modest hospitality, and lasted far into the night; +and then, when the simple and inoffensive game was over, and its scores +were settled, the dear old boy--usually with a smile of conquest +wandering through his gray beard--would unroll his bundle before the +fire and sleep like a baby until reveille. Happy, happy days,--and +still happier nights! + +Naturally, in such a life as we led at Union City, our horses formed +a very important element in our occupation and in our amusements. Soon +after our arrival at Columbus,--an event which had taken place a few +months before,--a spanking mare that I had bought to replace Ruby had +gone hopelessly lame, and it became again important to all who were +concerned in my peace of mind, that a satisfactory substitute should be +found for her. I had still in my stable a little thoroughbred (Guy), +who, though excellent in all respects, was a trifle under my weight, +and not at all up to the rough riding that was a necessary part of our +army life. He could go anywhere, could jump any practicable barrier, +was fleet and sound, and in all respects admirable, but he was made for +a lighter weight than mine, and, except for show and parade riding, +must mainly be used to carry Ike and the saddle-bags, or to mount a +friend when a friend favored me. + +In a second search, in which most of the officers of the regiment +took a lively interest, there was found, in Frank Moore's Battalion +of the Second Illinois Cavalry, a tall, gaunt, lean, haggard, +thoroughbred-looking beast, which had been captured from Merryweather's +men in Western Tennessee. He was not a handsome horse, nor was he to +the ordinary eye in any respect promising; but a trial showed that he +had that peculiar whalebone character, and wiry, nervous action, which +come only with blood, and without which no horse is really fit for the +saddle. The chances were very much against him. He did not possess the +first element of beauty, save in a clean-cut head, a prominent eye, +a quick ear, a thin neck, sloping shoulders, high withers, and the +brilliant activity that no abuse had been able to conquer. He was held +in abeyance until a careful examination of the two thousand horses at +the post showed that, even as he stood, he had no equal there for my +purposes. Since he had come into the army he had been in the possession +of a private soldier, who had done much scouting duty, and he had been +initiated (successfully) into the scrub-racing which Illinois soldiers +much affected. The serious amount of one hundred and forty dollars was +hazarded in the venture, and he was transferred to our stable. That +increment of value which always follows the purchase of a new horse +came rapidly in his case, and it needed only a few gallops on the +breezy bluffs beyond Fort Halleck, to install him as prime favorite +among the headquarters' mess. + +He was deemed worthy of the noble name of Max, and under Ike's careful +grooming he returned daily toward the blooming condition that only +Second Illinois abuse had been able to subdue. In an early race with +the Hun we were ingloriously beaten; but the Hun rode a marvellous +little blood mare, blooming with hundreds of bushels of oats, and with +two years of careful handling. Max, though beaten, was not discouraged, +and seemed to say that with time and good treatment he would be ready +for a more successful trial. + +During his period of tutelage, and while he was kept from all excessive +exertion, he was inducted into the mysteries of the art, to him quite +new, of jumping timber. Columbus had been occupied by Rebel and Union +soldiers since the outbreak of the war, and its fences, far and wide, +had all disappeared; but nowhere in the world was there a greater +variety nor a more ample stock of fallen trees, whose huge boles made +capital leaping-bars; and over these, almost daily, for some months, +beginning with the smaller ones and going gradually to the largest +we could find, Max learned to carry a heavy weight with a power and +precision that even Ruby could not have excelled. + +During all this time, ample feed, good shelter, regular exercise, and +a couple of hours of Ike's hand-rubbing daily, worked an uninterrupted +improvement in limb and wind and sinews and coat, until, by the time we +were ordered to Union City, Max had become the pride of the camp. He +was over sixteen hands high, of a solid dark bay color, glistening like +polished mahogany, and active and spirited as a horse in training for +the Derby. + +At Union City the headquarters' horses were stabled under a capital +shed, close at hand, and all that master's eye and servant's labor +could accomplish for their care and improvement was lavished upon them; +so that, during our long months' stay, we were among the best-mounted +men in the Western army. Our pleasure-riding and our work lay through +swampy wood-roads, over obstructions of every sort, and across the +occasional grass farms, with their neglected rail-fences. The weather +was almost uninterruptedly fine, our few visiting neighbors were miles +away from us, the shooting was good, and the enjoyment we got from +our vagabond life in camp was well supplemented by the royal rides we +almost daily took. + +Naturally, in a camp full of idle men given largely to sport, the +elevating entertainment of horse-racing played a prominent part. Both +Max and Guy were conspicuous by their successes until, long before the +close of our leisurely career, but only after they had hung my walls +with spurs and whips and other trophies of their successful competition +with all comers, both were ruled out by the impossible odds they were +obliged to give. The actual military service required was only enough +to convince me that Max was a beast of endless bottom and endurance, +and that, accidents apart, he would need no help in any work he might +be called on to perform. For the rest of the war, with much duty of +untold severity, I habitually rode no other horse for light work or for +hard, for long rides or for short ones, on the march or on parade; and +with all my sentiment for his charming predecessors, I had to confess +that his equal as a campaigner had never come under my leg. He would +walk like a cart-horse at the head of a marching column, would step +like a lord in passing in review, would prance down the main street of +a town as though vain of all applause, would leap any fence or ditch or +fallen timber to which he might be put, would fly as though shot from +a gun in passing along the line; and when, whether early or late, he +was taken to his stable, would eat like a hungry colt and sleep like a +tired plough-horse. In all weathers and under all circumstances he was +steady, honest, intelligent, and ready for every duty. I had ridden +before, at home and in the army, horses ideally good; I have ridden +since, over the hunting country of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, +horses that were counted of the best, but never, before or since, have +I mounted such a magnificent piece of perfectly trained and perfectly +capable horse-flesh. + +On one occasion, at Union City, word was brought in that a flag of +truce from Faulkner had arrived at our picket line, and I rode out +for a parley over a trifling matter of an exchange of prisoners. +The officer in charge of the flag, with the company escorting him, +had originally come from our neighborhood and had belonged to +Merryweather's "band." As Max trotted up to their bivouac, he was +greeted with cries of recognition, and a lieutenant of the company was +kind enough to warn me that I had shown them a stronger inducement +than they had hitherto had to make an attack on our position; for, +since Frank Moore had captured the horse I rode, they had determined +to regain him at any risk. Happily, this laudable wish was never +fulfilled, and Max remained, in spite of the devices they may have laid +for his recapture. + +During the five months of our stay at this post, we made some hard +scouts in a hard country, and we held a good part of West Tennessee +under strict surveillance, but the most memorable feature of all our +scouting was generally the welcome dismounting under the wide eaves of +our own house; not, I hope, that we had grown effeminate, but a week's +tramp through the woods of West Tennessee offers little that memory +can cherish, and prepares one for a sensation on the near approach of +comfort. + +But five months of such life is enough, and I was not sorry when the +order came that I must go for a soldier again. + +Sherman was about to advance eastward from Vicksburg, destroy the +lines of railroad by which Forrest received supplies from the fertile +prairie region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Rebellion in +the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to take all my infantry down the +river, and the cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line of the +Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and join a considerable cavalry force +gathering there under Sooy Smith and Grierson; thence we were to move +southeasterly through Mississippi, to engage Forrest's forces and to +meet Sherman's army at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at +Meridian. + +We lay in camp more than a week, ready to move, but awaiting orders. +The country (a very wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. +Our order to march and the thaw came together, on the 22d of January. +We were to cross the Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp's Ferry, +twenty-three miles southwest of our camp. The command consisted of the +Fourth Missouri (with a battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, +Nineteenth Pennsylvania, and Frank Moore's Battalion of the Second +Illinois; in all about twenty-five hundred well-mounted men present for +duty. The roads were deep with mud and slush, and every creek was "out +of its banks" with the thaw. We reached the ferry only at nightfall of +the 23d, over roads that had hourly grown deeper and more difficult. +Two regiments had crossed, through floating ice (eight horses at a +trip), by a rope-ferry, and at nine o'clock in the evening, under a +full moon and a summer temperature, I crossed with staff and escort. +The river was already so swollen that we landed in two feet of water, +and still it was rising. + +Our camp was fixed five miles away on the upland. The first mile was +only wet and nasty, and the trail not hard to follow. Then we came to +the "back slough," thirty feet wide, four feet deep, and still covered +with four inches of ice. Those who had gone before had broken a track +through this, and swept the fragments of ice forward until near the +shore they were packed in for a width of ten feet or more, and to the +full depth of the water. I can make no stronger statement than that we +all got through safely, only wet to the skin. How it was done I do not +pretend to know. Some went in one way and some in another. All I can +assert is that my stalwart old Max, when he found himself standing, +belly deep, in broken ice, settled quietly on his haunches and took my +two hundred pounds with one spring on to dry land four feet higher than +his starting-point, and twelve feet away,--but then, Max always was +a marvel. Guy, who carried Ike, scrambled over the top of the broken +ice as only he or a cat could do. The others fared variously. All were +drenched, and some were hurt, but all got to the shore at last. Then +came the hour-long tug to get my ambulance through with its store of +tent-hold goods and we started for our remaining four miles. The trail, +even of cavalry, is not easily followed by moonlight when covered +with half a foot of water, and we lost our way; reaching camp, after +fourteen miles of hard travel, at four o'clock in the morning. + +The river was still rising rapidly, and word was brought that Kargé, +with more than half the brigade, would have to make a détour of fifty +miles and cross the Three Forks of the Obion far to the eastward, +joining us some days later, near Jackson. So we idled on, marching a +few miles each day, camping early, cooking the fat of the land for our +evening meal, cultivating the questionable friendship of the Rebel +population by forced contributions of subsistence, and leading, on the +whole, a peaceful, unlaborious, and charming picnic life. Finally, +taking Kargé again under our wing, we pushed on, resolutely and +rapidly, over flooded swamps, across deep, rapid rivers, and through +hostile towns, to our rendezvous; whence, under the command of two +generals, and as part of an army of eight thousand well-mounted cavalry +and light artillery, and all in light marching order, we started for +our more serious work. + +The chief in command was a young and handsome, but slightly nervous +individual, who eschewed the vanities of uniform, and had about himself +and his horse no evidence of his military character that could not be +unbuckled and dropped with his sword-belt in case of impending capture. +He was vacillating in his orders, and a little anxious in his demeanor, +but he had shown himself cool and clear-headed under fire, and seemed +resolutely bent on the destruction of the last vestige of Forrest's +troublesome army. It would be tedious to tell all the adventures of +our forward expedition; how we marched in three columns over different +roads, each for himself, and with only a vague notion where and how +we should meet, and how we should support each other. As it afterward +proved, the details of the order of march had been given to the +commanders of the other brigades, while I had been forgotten; so that +the whole advance was vexed with cross-purposes and with the evidences +of a hidden misunderstanding. The _contretemps_ that thus came about +were annoying, and, in one instance, came near being serious: as we +were going into camp at Prairie Station, my advance reported having +come in sight of the camp-fires of the enemy; a skirmish-line was sent +forward, and only on the eve of engaging did they discover that we were +approaching Hepburn's Brigade, of our column, which had reached the +same point by another road. + +The first days of our march in Mississippi were through Tippah County, +as rough, hopeless, God-forsaken a country as was ever seen outside +of Southern Missouri. Its hills were steep, its mud was deep, its +houses and farms were poor, its facilities for the subsistence of a +protecting army like ours were of the most meagre description, and +its streams delayed us long with their torrents of bottomless muddy +water, fast swelling from the thaw that had unlocked the snow of all +the deep-buried hills and morasses of their upper waters. We built +ferry-boats and swamped them, built bridges and broke them, and slowly +and painfully, horse by horse, transferred the command across the nasty +riverbeds. Tippah Creek detained us and kept us hard at work all day +and all night, and we reached the Tallahatchee at New Albany barely in +time to ford our last man across before it rose to an impassable depth. +And then for two days we pressed forward, in company with the whole +column, through the rough, rocky, and wooded country, reaching Okolona +only at nightfall. + +Here we struck the marvellous prairie region of Northeastern +Mississippi, literally a land flowing with milk and honey. An +interminable, fertile, rolling prairie lay before us in every +direction. The stern rule of the Confederacy had compelled the planters +to offset every small field of cotton with a wide area of corn, until +the region had become known as the granary of the Southern army. +Not only must every land-owner devote his broadest fields to the +cultivation of the much-needed cereal, but one tenth of all his crop +must be stacked for public use in cribs at the side of the railroad. + +It was an important incident of our mission to destroy everything +which directly or indirectly could afford subsistence to the Rebel +forces; and during the two days following our arrival at Okolona, while +we marched as far south as West Point, the sky was red with the flames +of burning corn and cotton. On a single plantation, our flanking party +burned thirty-seven hundred bushels of tithe corn, which was cribbed +near the railroad; no sooner was its light seen at the plantation +houses than hundreds of negroes, who swarmed from their quarters to +join our column, fired the rail-built cribs in which the remaining +nine-tenths of the crop was stored. Driven wild with the infection, +they set the torch to mansion house, stables, cotton-gin, and quarters, +until the whole village-like settlement was blazing in an unchecked +conflagration. To see such wealth, and the accumulated products of such +vast labor, swept from the face of the earth, gave to the aspect of war +a saddening reality, which was in strong contrast to the peaceful and +harmless life our brigade had thus far led. In all this prairie region +there is no waste land, and the evidences of wealth and fertility +lay before us in all directions. As we marched, the negroes came _en +masse_ from every plantation to join our column, leaving only fire and +absolute destruction behind them. It was estimated that during these +two days' march two thousand slaves and one thousand mules were added +to our train. + +The incidents of all this desolation were often sickening and +heart-rending; delicate women and children, whom the morning had found +in peace and plenty, and glowing with pride in the valor of Southern +arms and the certainty of an early independence for their beloved +half-country, found themselves, before nightfall, homeless, penniless, +and alone, in the midst of a desolate land. + +Captain Frank Moore, the Cossack of our brigade, went at night to +an outlying plantation, of which the showy mansion-house stood on a +gentle acclivity in the edge of a fine grove. Here lived alone with an +only daughter, a beautiful girl, a man who had been conspicuous in his +aid to the Rebellion, and whose arrest had been ordered. The squadron +drew up in front of the house and summoned its owner to come forth. He +came, armed, sullen, stolid, and determined, but obviously unnerved by +the force confronting him. Behind him followed his daughter, dressed +in white, and with her long light hair falling over her shoulders. The +sight of the hated "Yanks" crazed her with rage, and before her father +could reply to the question with which he had been accosted, she called +to him wildly, "Don't speak to the villains! Shoot! shoot them down, +shoot them down!" wringing her hands, and screaming with rage. The +excitement was too much for his judgment, and he fired wildly on the +troops. He was riddled through and through with bullets; and as Moore +turned away, he left that fine house blazing in the black night, and +lighting up the figure of the crazy girl as she wandered, desolate and +beautiful, to and fro before her burning home, unheeded by the negroes +who ran with their hastily made bundles to join the band of their +deliverers. Moore's description of this scene in the simple language +that it was his unpretending way to use, gave the most vivid picture we +had seen of the unmitigated horror and badness of war. + +As an instrument of destruction in the enemy's country, our raid had +thus far been more successful than we could have anticipated; but we +had come for even more serious business than this, and there were +already indications that its main purpose would be a failure. Our +commander had evidently no stomach for a close approach to the enemy, +and his injunctions at Colliersville that we were to try always to +"Fight at close quarters!" "Go at them as soon as possible with the +sabre!" and other valorous ejaculations, were in singular contrast to +the impressions he evinced as the prospect of an actual engagement drew +near. + +Forrest was in our front with about our own number of cavalry, but +without artillery, of which we had twenty good pieces. The open country +offered good fighting ground, and gave to our better drilled and more +completely organized forces a decided advantage, even without our +great odds in artillery. There lay before us a fair opportunity for +dispersing the most successful body of cavalry in the Rebel service; +and, could we effect a junction with Sherman, we should enable him +to divide the Confederacy from Vicksburg to Atlanta. One of the most +brilliant and damaging campaigns of the war seemed ready to open. Its +key lay in our successful engagement, on a fair field, with an inferior +force. Yet all of us who were in a position to know the spirit with +which we were commanded were conscious of a gradual oozing out at the +finger-ends of the determination to make a successful fight; and it +was a sad night for us all when, at West Point, with our skirmish-line +steadily engaging the Rebel outposts, an order came that we were to +fall back before daybreak toward Okolona. + +The brigade commanders and their staffs had had severe duty in the +scattered work of destruction, and even Max, tough though he was, had +been almost overworked with constant galloping to and fro, and with the +frequent countermarching our varying orders had required. Still he was +better than his comrades, and many a man was anxious for his mount, +should our retreat be pressed. + +Early in the morning we were on our way toward the rear,--about +eight thousand cavalry, ten sections of artillery, two thousand +pack-mules, and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves mounted on +their masters' mules, often two or three on each, and clustering +under our shadow as their only means of escape to the happy land of +freedom. In an organized advance, all of this vast hanging on could be +kept at the rear and in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of +self-preservation always attacks first the non-combatant element, and +during all the days that followed, we found our way constantly blocked +with these throngs of panic-stricken people. + +No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw his time had come, and +he pressed us sorely all day and until nightfall, and tried hard to +gain our flanks. A hundred times we might have turned and given him +successful battle, but, at every suggestion of this, we received from +our general, who was well in advance of the retiring column, the order +to push forward and give our rear a free road for retreat. Midnight +found us again in the vicinity of Okolona, and the next daybreak showed +the enemy's long column filing out of the woods and stretching well on +toward our right flank. + +Even the plains of Texas could offer no field better suited for a +cavalry engagement, and it was with satisfaction that we received, at +five o'clock in the morning, an order to prepare at once for a fight; +but our men were barely mounted and in line when an order came to turn +our backs upon this open field, and to retreat with all expedition +toward Memphis. + +When we left Okolona we left hope behind, for our road struck at once +into a wooded, hilly country, full of by-ways and cross-roads known to +the enemy and unknown to us, and we well knew that this movement would +double Forrest's power and divide our own. Then, for a long day, tired +and hungry from the hard work and constant movement we had just gone +through, and with our horses half-fed and overworked, we pushed on, our +rear often attacked and sometimes broken, our mule-train and negroes +thrown into frequent confusion, one of our brigades demoralized and put +to flight, and the enemy still pressing our rear and reaching for our +flanks. At last, towards night, it became evident that a stand must be +made or all would be entirely lost, and at Ivy Farm, near Pontotoc, we +found a broad, open hill-top, with large fields, high fences, and stout +log-houses, which offered an opportunity. By this time the command +was too widely separated, and some of it too much disorganized, for +the concentration of even a whole brigade, but a part of Hepburn's +and a part of my own were disentangled from the corral of fugitives +and brought into line. Both of our generals were upon the field, and +to our surprise both seemed brave and resolute; and this not with the +resolution of despair, for the actual immediate necessity of fighting +often steadies nerves which are easily shaken by the anticipation +of danger. Brave they were, but not always of the same mind, and +conflicting orders continued to add to our embarrassment and insecurity. + +It is not worth while to detail all the incidents of the opening of +the short engagement; it was ended by the only legitimate cavalry +charge made by the "Vierte Missouri" during the whole of its four +years' history. + +We had withdrawn from the line where we had been fighting on foot, had +mounted, formed, and drawn sabre; the road about one hundred yards in +front of us was swarming with Rebels, who crept along the fence-lines +and in the edge of the bordering woods, and kept up a steady rain of +fire well over our heads, where we heard that _pfwit_--_pfwit_--_pfwit_ +of flying bullets which, happily, has no relative in the whole chorus +of sounds, and which is heard above all the din of battle, and is felt +through every remotest nerve. + +At the command "Forward," excitement ran down the line, and there was +a disposition for an immediate rush. But "Steady--right dress--trot!" +in a measured tone, taken up in turn by the company officers, brought +back all the effect of our three years' discipline of the drill-ground. +Later, "Steady--gallop--right dress!" accelerated the speed without +disturbing the alignment, and then, at last, "Charge!" and with a +universal yelling and brandishing of sabres we went forward like the +wind. I then felt how mad a venture we had undertaken, for before us +was the enemy, it is true, but the enemy behind a high and stout, +staked and ridered rail-fence. As we drew very near this, still under +heavy fire, which now at the short range was telling, the command +became conscious that the six-foot fence would withstand our shock, +and it wavered. I turned to my bugler to sound the recall, when I saw +him out of the corner of my eye, his white horse rearing literally +to his full height and falling backward with a crash that must have +killed the poor boy at once. The recall was not needed: the regiment +had turned and was running. The officers, being the best mounted +and generally the lightest weights, soon reached the front, and +"Steady--right dress--trot! Steady--right dress--trot!" was repeated +along the line, until the drill-ground precision was regained, and then +"By fours--right about--wheel!" and we stood facing the enemy again, +ready for another advance. Max had been struck by a grazing bullet and +had been plunging heavily, but the wound was not serious and he was +soon quieted. We now saw that our charge, futile though it seemed, +had done its work. The advance of the enemy was checked; the sight of +troops that could retire and re-form for a new attack seemed to have a +stunning effect upon them. Practically the engagement was ended. + +Subsequently, one of Forrest's staff officers told the Hun that the +size of the division which had charged was variously estimated at from +five to ten thousand, but that he had been accustomed to such things +and knew that we were not more than two thousand. In fact, we were less +than six hundred. Forrest's report of the battle of Pontotoc states +that the engagement was ended "by a cavalry charge of the enemy, which +was repulsed." + +There was still some sharp scrimmaging, and we had to make two or +three more squadron and company charges to drive away small attacks +upon our retreating guns; but the battle, as a battle, was over, and +Forrest's whole advance had been stopped and ended by six hundred +Fourth Missouri Dutchmen, galloping, yelling, and swinging their +sabres at several thousand men well secured behind a rail-fence. I had +before, in drill-ground charges, seen old soldiers and experienced +officers jump down and run away from a fence on which they were sitting +to watch the advance of charging cavalry which they knew must wheel +before coming within five rods of them; but I had never supposed that +hot-blooded soldiers, in the full excitement of a successful attack, +could be unnerved and turned by the roar and thundering oncoming of a +regiment that could by no possibility reach them. Our first setting out +had driven back a thin skirmish-line which had to cross the fence under +high speed; this, doubtless, aided in the _débâcle_; the charge had +stunned them, but it was the rally that stopped the pursuit. + +The rest of our march was without interesting incident all the way to +Memphis, but it was almost incessant, day and night; without incident, +that is, that it is worth while to tell here, but our days and nights +upon the road were filled with annoyance and disgust, and with a store +of unhappy and ludicrous memories that will last the lifetime of all +who knew them. + +One day, at New Albany, Max and I were feeding and sleeping in +the door of an old mill while the command was slowly crossing the +antiquated bridge over the Tallahatchie, when I was awakened by +Grierson's riding up in great alarm, calling upon me "for God's sake" +to use the ford as well as the bridge, for Hepburn was being cut to +pieces in the rear, and I must give him the full road for his retreat. +I had always been a respectful subordinate, but none of us were then +in the best temper; I did not believe a word of it, and I frankly +told him so. Even old Max pricked up his ears and snorted as if in +derision. Almost as we were talking, there came an aid from Hepburn +saying that he had found a good supply of forage and would be glad to +go into camp for the night. But there was no camp to be thought of for +that tired crew; the bogey of incessant pursuit loomed up portentously +close upon our rear-guard, and sent its shadow deep into the bowels +of our commander, who was miles away in the advance, and who would +allow us only the fewest possible hours in the very dead of night for +hasty cooking and scant repose. We were a worn and weary lot as we +finally went into camp at the rear of the town; worn and weary, sadly +demoralized, and almost dismounted. I had lost fifteen hundred good +horses, and my men, who had been eager and ready for a successful +campaign, were broken in spirit and sadly weakened in discipline. + +All who had been compelled to bear the brunt of the hard work now +needed for themselves and their horses absolute rest for days; but +being called into the city the morning after our arrival, my eyes were +greeted with the spectacle of General Sooy Smith, no longer ill, and +with no trace of shame or annoyance on his face. He had shed his modest +and prudent attire, and shone out with all the brass radiance of a +full-fledged major-general. From this time until the Fourth Missouri +cavalry was mustered out of service, our headquarters were in the +immediate neighborhood of Memphis, and our life was much more active +than it had been at Union City. + +Not very much is to be said for Max during this time, except in +connection with the Sturgis expedition, beyond the fact that we lay +long in the immediate vicinity of the race-course, which we repaired +and used faithfully, and, so far as he was concerned, with eminent +success. The more frequent necessity for duty, the great labor of +remounting, reorganizing, and redrilling the command, united with +the greater publicity of our position to lay some restraint on our +mode of life, and to make our conduct more circumspect. Still we +were not miserable, and the neighborhood of a large town has, to a +well-regulated headquarters' mess, its compensations as well as its +drawbacks. + +Sturgis's expedition to Guntown and back--especially back--has passed +into history, and its unwritten memories will always remain with those +who took part in it. + +Guntown is far away in Northeastern Mississippi. It is not laid down on +the map of the country, but it lies just across the Tishamingo Creek, +and it consists mainly of two plantation houses and a school-house. +Our stay there was not long, and we were too much occupied to study +the locality minutely, but it is my impression that the most important +incident in its history was connected with our visit. + +We were a force of about nine thousand infantry, cavalry, and +artillery,--some black and some white, some good and some bad,--sent +out by Sherman as a tub to the Forrest whale; a diversion to keep this +commander from joining Hood in Northern Georgia; though I doubt if +even General Sherman in his moments of wildest enthusiasm anticipated +just the issue that followed. Our march out was not rapid, and it was +well ordered. We were allowed to take our train, and old John Ellard's +four stupendous mules drew our headquarters' wagon, well laden with +the comforts we had accumulated during a long service, including a +brand-new, well-furnished, and abundantly stored camp-chest that had +just arrived from St. Louis. So far as the comforts of a home for five +youngsters can be stored in one mule-wagon, we were well supplied for +a campaign of any length; and judging from the mess-tables to which we +were invited, others of the command were no less well provided. In due +time we reached the town of Ripley, a rather pretty New-England-looking +village, but, like all Southern towns at that time, entirely devoid of +men and overflowing with women of the most venomous and spiteful sort, +who did all in their power to add to the interest of the Sunday evening +we passed in their company. + +We had some light skirmishing on our arrival, but whoever it was that +attacked us withdrew and left us in undisturbed possession of the +comfortable rooms and fireplaces of the town. Our next day's march +brought us to a large open plantation on a commanding hill, whence our +evening scouting-parties soon found the enemy posted in some force and +apparently disposed for an engagement. + +It seemed always Forrest's plan to select his own fighting-ground, and +the plan of our commanders to gratify him. Sturgis committed the usual +folly of trying to hold every inch he had gained, and of forming his +line of battle on the head of the column and under fire. + +We breakfasted at three in the morning, and marched at half past +four. My command had the advance. The enemy allowed himself to be +easily driven until half past eight, when he made some show of +resistance. At this time the last of our regiments could hardly have +left the camping-ground, and probably a judicious retreat would have +drawn Forrest's whole force back to the open country we had left. +But "retreat" was not yet written on our banners (of that day), and +orders came from our general to support the advance-guard, form line +of battle, and hold our position. So far as the cavalry brigade was +concerned this was easily done, and we got into good line near the +edge of a wood without difficulty. Here, for four mortal hours, or +until half past twelve, we carried on a tolerably equal warfare, both +sides blazing away at each other with little effect across the six +hundred yards of cleared valley that lay between two skirts of wood. +So far as the endurance of our troops was concerned, this engagement +could have been kept up until nightfall, though our ranks were slowly +thinning. Several desperate charges were made on our position, and were +repulsed with considerable loss to both sides. Pending the arrival +of the infantry it would have been folly for us to attempt a further +advance, but had we been properly supported, or, better, had we at once +fallen back upon our support, we might have given, as the _post bellum_ +reports of Forrest's officers show, a better ending to the day's work. +It was only at half past twelve, when our ammunition was reduced to +five rounds per man, and when our battery had fired its last shot, that +the infantry began to arrive, and then they came a regiment at a time, +or only so fast as the Forrest mill could grind them up in detail. + +They had taken our place, and we had withdrawn to their rear, where +we were joined by one after another of the defeated or exhausted +infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy pressed upon us, +gaining rod after rod of our position, until finally our last arriving +troops, a splendid colored regiment, reached the field of battle at +double-quick, breathless and beaten by their own speed, barely in time +to check the assault until we could cross the creek and move toward +the rear. The retreat was but fairly begun when we came upon our train +of two hundred wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked in +beyond the possibility of removal. With sad eyes we saw John Ellard +cut his traces and leave all that was dear to us--tents, camp-chest, +poker-table, and all that we cherished--to inevitable capture. The +train was _our_ tub to the whale; and while Forrest's men were sacking +our treasures, and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, which +they had captured, we had time to form for the retreat, more or less +orderly according as we had come early or late off the field. The +demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howling over our heads of +our own shells, together with the sharp rattle of musketry in our rear, +hastened and saddened the ignominious flight of the head of our column, +though, for some reason, the enemy's advance upon us was slow. + +All that long night we marched on, without food and without rest. At +early dawn we reached Ripley, where we paused for breath. Max had been +ridden almost uninterruptedly for twenty-four hours, and for four hours +had done the constant hard work that the supervision of a long line in +active engagement had made necessary; and he was glad to be unsaddled +and turned for fifteen minutes into a scantily grown paddock, where he +rolled and nibbled and refreshed himself as much as ordinary horses do +with a whole night's rest. The ambulances with our groaning wounded +men came pouring into the village, and to our surprise, those women, +who had so recently given only evidence of a horrified hatred, pressed +round to offer every aid that lay in their power, and to comfort our +suffering men as only kind-hearted women can. + +With the increasing daylight the pursuit was reopened with vigor, and +on we went, and ever on, marching all that day, our rear-guard being +constantly engaged, and hundreds of our men being captured, thousands +more scattering into the woods. My lieutenant-colonel, Von Helmrich, +who had been for twenty-eight years a cavalry officer in Germany, and +who, after thirteen months in Libby Prison, had overtaken us as we were +leaving Memphis, was recaptured and carried back to Richmond,--to die +of a good dinner on his second release, ten months later. At nightfall, +the pursuit growing weak, we halted to collect together our stragglers, +but not to rest, and after a short half-hour pushed on again; and all +that interminable night, and until half past ten the next morning, +when we reached Colliersville and the railroad, reinforcements, and +supplies, we marched, marched, marched, without rest, without sleep, +and without food. The cavalrymen were mainly dismounted and driving +their tired jades before them, only Max and a few others carrying their +riders to the very end, and coming in with a whinny of content to the +familiar stables and back-yards of the little town. + +Most other officers whose service had been as constant as mine had had +extra horses to ride for relief; but I had never yet found march too +long for Max's wiry sinews, and trusted to him alone. He had now been +ridden almost absolutely without intermission, and much of the time +at a gallop or a rapid trot, for fifty-four hours. I had had for my +own support the excitement and then the anxious despair of responsible +service, and Ike had filled his haversack with hard-bread from John +Ellard's abandoned wagon; an occasional nibble at this, and unlimited +pipes of tobacco, had fortified me in my endurance of the work; but Max +had had in the whole time not the half of what he would have made light +of for a single meal. I have known and have written about brilliant +feats of other horses, but as I look over the whole range of all the +best animals I have seen, I bow with respect to the wonderful courage, +endurance, and fidelity of this superbly useful brute. + +There is an elasticity in youth and health, trained and hardened by +years of active field-service, which asserts itself under the most +depressing circumstances. Even this shameful and horrible defeat and +flight had their ludicrous incidents, which we were permitted to +appreciate. Thus, for instance, during a lull in the engagement at +Guntown, I had seated myself in a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of +a broad tree-trunk; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, had taken shelter +between the legs of the chair, leaving, however, his rear unprotected. +Random bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, and it was due +to one of these that I was unseated, with an accompaniment of squeal, +by the rapid and articulate flight of my companion. + +During our last night's march, my brigade having the advance, and I +being at its rear, Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing ahead +of the stragglers of the other brigades, who were to be recognized, +he reminded me, by their wearing hats (mine wore caps). The order +was peremptory, and was to be enforced even at the cost of cutting +the offenders down. Grierson's adjutant was at my side; we were all +sleeping more or less of the time, but constantly some hatted straggler +was detected pushing toward the front, and ordered back,--the adjutant +being especially sharp-eyed in detecting the mutilated sugar-loaves +through the gloom. Finally, close to my right and pushing slowly to +the front, in a long-strided walk, came a gray horse with a hatted +rider,--an india-rubber poncho covering his uniform. I ordered +him back; the adjutant, eager for the enforcement of the order, +remonstrated at the man's disobedience; I ordered again, but without +result; the adjutant ejaculated, "Damn him, cut him down!" I drew my +sabre and laid its flat in one long, stinging welt across that black +poncho: "----! who are you hitting?" Then we both remembered that +Grierson too wore a hat; and I tender him here my public acknowledgment +of a good-nature so great that an evening reunion in Memphis over a +dozen of wine won his generous silence. + +One might go on with interminable gossip over incidents of camp and +field for which at this late day only scant interest is felt; but +nothing that I could say more would probably aid my purpose, which has +been simply by a trifling sketch to recall the jollity, the comfort, +the suffering, and the misery of campaign life, and to show how in the +field more than anywhere else one learns to cherish and to depend upon +a faithful and honest and willing comrade like my royal old Max. + + + + +HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT. + +(CIRCUMSTANTIALLY TRUE.) + + +The war was not quite over, but my regiment was old enough to have +grown too small for a colonel, and I sat, the dismalest of all men, +a "mustered-out" officer, sated with such good things as a suddenly +arrested income had allowed me, over an after-dinner table in a little +room at the Athenæum Club. My coffee was gone to its dregs; the closing +day was shutting down gloomily in such a weary rain as only a New York +back-yard ever knows; and I was wondering what was to become of a man +whom four years of cavalry service had estranged from every good and +useful thing in life. The only career that then seemed worth running +was run out for me; and, worst of all, my pay had been finally stopped. + +The world was before me for a choice, but I had no choice. The only +thing I could do was to command mounted troops, and commanders of +mounted troops were not in demand. Ages ago I had known how to do other +things, but the knowledge had gone from me, and was not to be recalled +so long as I had enough money left with which to be unhappy in idle +foreboding. I had not laid down my life in the war, but during its +wonderful four years I had laid down, so completely, the ways of life +of a sober and industrious citizen, and had soaked my whole nature so +full of the subtile ether of idleness and vagabondism, that it seemed +as easy and as natural to become the Aladdin I might have dreamed +myself to be as the delver I had really been. With a heavy heart, then, +and a full stomach, I sat in a half-disconsolate, half-reminiscent, +not wholly unhappy mood, relapsing with post-prandial ease into that +befogged intellectual condition in which even the drizzle against the +window-panes can confuse itself with the patter on a tent roof; and +the charm of the old wanderings came over me again, filling my table +with the old comrades, even elevating my cigar to a brier-wood, and +recalling such fellowship as only tent-life ever knows. + +Such dreaming is always interrupted, else it would never end; mine was +disturbed by a small card on a small salver, held meekly across the +table by the meekest of waiters. + +The card bore the name "Adolf zu Dohna-Schlodien," and a count's +coronet,--a count's coronet and "zu" (a touch above "von")! I +remembered to have seen a letter from my adjutant to the Prussian +Consul in Philadelphia, asking him to obtain information about a +handsome young musical "Graf zu" something, who was creating a +sensation in St. Louis society, and the "zu" seemed to indicate this as +the party in question; he had spoken of him as having defective front +teeth, which seemed to be pointing to the "color and distinguishing +marks," known in Herd Book pedigrees, and human passports,--a means of +identification I resolved to make use of; for my experience with the +German nobility in America had been rather wide than remunerative. + +The "Herr zu" had waited in the hall, and was standing under the full +light of the lamp. He was very tall, very slight, and very young, +apparently not more than twenty, modestly dressed, and quiet in his +manner. He was not strikingly handsome, though very well looking. His +hands were the most perfect I ever saw, and the ungloved one showed +careful attention. There was no defect noticeable in his front teeth. +He bowed slightly and handed me a letter. It was from Voisin, my former +adjutant, but it was not exactly a letter of introduction. At least, +it was less cordial than Voisin's letters of introduction were wont to +be. Yet it was kind. Without commending the Count as a bosom friend, he +still said he was much interested in him, had reason to believe in him, +was sorry for him, had given him material aid, and was very desirous +that he should pull through some pecuniary troubles, which he could do +only by enlisting in the Regular Army, and receiving his bounty. From +this he would give me money to release his baggage, which was valuable, +from some inconveniences that were then attending it in St. Louis. +Would I get him enlisted? He said he would enlist, and would prefer to +be known under the name Adolph Danforth. The gentleman himself took +early occasion to express this preference. + +I debated a little what to do. He was not introduced as a friend, only +as a person in need of help; yet Voisin believed in him, and he had +asked a service that he would not have asked for an unworthy man. I +engaged him in conversation and got him to smile. It was a very frank +smile, but it displayed a singular defect far up on the front teeth. +This decided me. He was the same Graf zu whose position had been asked +of the Prussian Consul, and I knew he had learned that the Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, an officer in the Gardecorps Kürassier, was of the +highest nobility and of a family of great wealth. There was evidently +no technical reason why the poor fellow should not be received +cordially and well treated. So we went back to the smoking-room, and +with fresh coffee and cigars opened an acquaintance which resulted not +altogether uneventfully. + +He was not obtrusive. His story was not forced upon me; but as I +already had its thread, I was able to draw it from him in a natural +way, and he told it very frankly, though halting a little at its more +important turnings, as if wondering how its development would strike +me. There was just enough of hesitancy over a harrowing tale to throw +on myself the responsibility of learning it. + +He had been brought up by the tenderest of mothers at the castle of +Schlodien (I think in Silesia), had early joined the Cuirassiers of the +Body Guard, had fought a fatal duel in which he had been the aggressor, +and had been condemned to the Fortress of Spandau. Only his mother's +great influence (exercised without the knowledge of his stern and much +older father, who was then on his distant estates) had secured for him +an opportunity to escape. He had come directly to America, and had +remained near Boston until he received intimation (again the result +of his mother's influence with Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister at +Washington) that his return under the Extradition Treaty was being +urged at the solicitation of the family of his fallen antagonist. He +had then taken refuge in a remote town in South Missouri, where he +amused himself with shooting. His mother had written to him but once, +and had not been able to send him money. He had at last returned to +St. Louis, where he had contracted some small debts which Voisin and +another kind friend had assumed. To reimburse them and to gain more +perfect seclusion, he had resolved to enlist in the Regular Army. It +was a sad conclusion of his career, but as an honorable man (and a +pursued one) he had no choice but to accept it. + +It was the old story,--_noblesse oblige_. There was but one way out +of a sad affair, and--like a very Graf zu--this stripling, who had been +born and bred to a better fate, faced the penalty of his misfortune +without flinching. I tried infinite suggestions, but nothing else +offered the immediate money which alone could relieve him of debt and +restore him his wardrobe and the portraits of his mother and sister, +which with a few well-worn letters, were all he had to cheer him in his +exile. We sat till far into the night and until my kindest sympathies +were fully aroused by the utter and almost childlike simplicity and +frankness with which the poor boy told of his sorrows. I had been +taught by a very ample experience to look with much caution on German +counts and barons,--an experience that, if it was worth what it had +cost, I could not prize too highly; but here was an entirely new type, +a combination of the gentlest breeding with an unsophistication that +argued more of a mother's care than of garrison influences, and an +utter absence of the devil-may-care manner that army life in Germany +had hitherto seemed to give. With the improvidence of one who had +never known the lack of money, he had lodged himself at the Everett +House; and as I left him at its door, I resolved to lose no time in +getting him enlisted and stopping an expense that would only add to +his troubles. The next day I saw the official who had charge of the +making up of the city's quota, and easily arranged for the examination +of my candidate. Dohna begged me to secure his admission to a command +whose officers would be able to appreciate his difficult position, and +a weary time I had of it. At last it was all arranged; he had passed, +with much shock to his sensibilities, the surgeon's examination, and +had been enrolled in a company of Regular Infantry, whose captain +(then serving on the general staff of the department) had acquired a +sympathy for him not less than my own. His bounty (over seven hundred +dollars) he put into my hands, and he went with me to Adams's Express +office, where we sent more than half the sum to St. Louis,--the full +amount of his indebtedness. One specified trunk was to be sent to the +Everett House, and the rest of his luggage--which Voisin had described +as valuable--to me. I received by an early mail the receipt of the St. +Louis express-office for it, and found it most convenient to let it lie +for the present, addressed to me personally, at the office in New York. +It would be useless to Dohna in the army, and I was to take care of it +for him. + +The captain of the company in which he was enlisted secured him a +furlough for ten days, and, to show his gratitude, he invited us both +to dine with him at the Everett. We sat down at seven, and we sat long. +The best that either cellar or kitchen afforded was spread before us in +wasteful profusion, and our host, temperate in his sipping, but eating +with the appetite of youth, seemed only to regret the limit of our +capacity. As we walked across the square, filled and with the kindest +emotions, we planned means for so occupying the remaining days of the +furlough as to allow but little opportunity for money-spending. His +company was at Fort Trumbull, and after he joined he would be safe. + +The next day being Saturday, I took him to my father's house in the +country, where his unfortunate story was already known, and where as +much real interest was felt in him as the good people of Connecticut +ever accord to a duellist. He had a friend living farther out on the +New Haven road, and he took an early train to see her (this was a new +feature), returning to me in the evening. I met him at the depot. He +wore the superb uniform overcoat of the Gardecorps Kürassier, long, +flowing, and rich, with a broad, scarlet-lined fur collar. It was +caught across the throat with a scarlet snood, and hung loosely from +the shoulders. It made his six feet two really becoming. At home he +was easy but very quiet, saying little but saying it very well, and +he won as much confidence as the stain on his moral character would +allow. Like most of his class, he knew and cared absolutely nothing +for what interests the New England mind, and he would early have +palled on our taste but for his music. His performance was skilful; he +played difficult music, and he played it very well, but without vanity +or apparent consciousness. When not occupied in this way, and when +not addressed, he neither spoke nor read, apparently he did not even +think, but relapsed into a sad and somewhat vacant reticence. But for +our knowledge of his misfortunes, he would have been uninteresting. +On Sunday he gave me a new confidence. His friend up the road was +an Everett House acquaintance, made when he first came from Boston. +She was an angel! She knew his sad story, and she had given him her +Puritan heart. In the trying days to come I was to be the link that +should bind them in their correspondence. She must not know of his +degraded position, and all letters were to pass under cover to me. Even +_noblesse_ did not hide the tears that this prospect of long separation +wrung from him, and he poured out his grief with most touching +unrestraint. This was the one sorrow of his life that even his trained +equanimity could not conquer. It made me still more respect his simple, +honest nature and his unfeigned grief. I was doubly sorry that this +last trial of separated love should be added to his cup of bitterness. +In our long Sunday talk he told me of his home, and showed me the +singularly beautiful photographs of his mother and sister, and--quite +incidentally--one of himself in the full uniform of his regiment, +bearing on its back the imprint of a Berlin photographer. He evinced a +natural curiosity about the mode of our garrison life, and I prepared +him as gently as I could for a decided change from his former customs. +It was, of course, depressing to him, but he bore the prospect like +a man, and gave it no importance as compared with his more essential +downfall. He had seen enough of our troops to be especially uneasy at +the prospect of an ill-fitting uniform. In the matter of linen he was +well provided, but he was really unhappy over the thought of adapting +his long and easy figure to a clothing-contractor's idea of proportion. +So it was arranged that he should go to my tailor and be suitably clad, +according to regulation of course, but also according to measure. He +proposed, too, to leave his overcoat for some repairs and to be cared +for while he should have no use for it. I gave the tailor assurances of +prompt payment. + +One fine morning Dohna came to my room in his new rig and bade me a +brave good-by. He was off for Fort Trumbull. I felt an almost parental +sorrow over his going, and had much misgiving as to his ability to +face his ill-bred soldier comrades. There came soon after a letter +to say that he was well treated personally, only the rations were so +horrible; pork and salt beef and beans and molasses. He could not eat +such things, and he was growing faint for want of food. I had seen such +dainty appetites cured too often to have any fear on this score, and +only replied in general terms of encouragement, and asked for frequent +letters. These came. There were no incidents of his life that were not +described almost with wonder, for a noble officer of the Gardecorps of +the king of Prussia knows really nothing of the ways of life of the +men he is supposed to command. Often there were thick letters for the +_fiancée_, and answers to these (also thick) had often to be forwarded. +I felt the enthusiastic glow natural to one who carries alone the +tender secrets of younger lovers, and was not altogether unhappy under +the subjective romance of my mediation. + +Sometimes there were touching tales of trouble. Once he had been +detailed to the "police" squad, and had to clean spittoons and do other +menial work. This was a touch of reality that fairly opened his eyes to +his abasement, and he wrote much more sadly than ever before, making +me sad, too, to think how powerless I was to help him in any way. A +few days later he sent a wail of real agony. While he had been out on +drill, some scoundrel had broken into his satchel and had stolen all +his papers,--his letters from his mother, her photograph, and those +of his sister and his sweetheart, and all the bundle of affectionate +epistles over which he had pored again and again in his desolation. The +loss was absolutely heart-breaking and irreparable, and he had passed +hours sitting on the rocks at the shore, pouring bitter tears into the +Thames. This was a blow to me too. I knew that Dohna was of a simple +mind, and utterly without resources within himself; but he was also of +a simple heart, and one could only grieve over this last blow as over +the sorrows of a helpless little child. However, I wrote all I could +to encourage him, and was gratified, though a little surprised, to see +how soon he became cheerful again, and how earnestly he seemed to have +set about the work of becoming a really good soldier. After a time the +captain of his company--still in New York and maintaining a lively +interest in the poor fellow's case--procured an order for him to go to +Annapolis to be examined for promotion. He was already a sergeant, and +a pretty good one. He stopped in New York a few days on his way through +for some refitting,--again at my tailor's. On his way back he stopped +again to tell of his failure. I was delicate about questioning him too +closely, but I learned enough to suppose that different ideas as to +practical education are entertained by a board of army examiners and by +a fond young mother in the remote castle of Schlodien; but I encouraged +him to believe that a little more study would enable him to pass the +second examination that had been promised him, and he rejoined his +company. + +In the general mustering-out Voisin had been set free and had joined +me in New York, and had, naturally, participated in all my interest in +the quondam Count. He gradually, as an adjutant should, assumed the +correspondence, which was voluminous, and by the time we were informed +that Dohna was detailed for recruiting duty in the city, neither he +nor I was glad to know it. Something more than a feeling of regretful +sympathy is necessary to the enjoyment of frequent companionship, +and we both felt that the fact of having credit with a tailor was a +dangerous element in the possible future combinations. However, Dohna's +arrival at our room followed close upon the announcement of the order. +He was still simple in his way and of modest deportment, but he seemed +to have accepted his new life almost too entirely, and he had come to +look not very much out of place among his comrades. Their quarters +were in a basement in Chambers Street, back of the City Hall, where we +occasionally dropped in to see him. After a while he was always out +when we called, and once when I stopped to give him a foreign letter, +sent to my care, I was told that he had not been there for a week, but +one of the men volunteered to find him. He came that night to the club +for his letter, in civilian's dress, and appeared much as he did when +I first saw him, except that he had two beautiful false teeth, in the +place of the defective ones. I gave him his letter, a long one from +Berlin, from his father. He showed Voisin the postscript, in which it +was stated that a box containing a breech-loading shot-gun, a dozen +shirts, and a draft for five hundred thalers would be forwarded by the +Hamburg line to my care. On the strength of this he hoped it would not +inconvenience us to advance him a couple of hundred dollars. It was +thus far inconvenient that we were obliged to decline, which gave him +no offence, and he invited us to dine with him the following day at the +Everett House. + +At this point, in view of the extreme youth and inexperience of our +friend, we took occasion to read him a short homily on the value of +economy, and to urge him immediately to leave the Everett, return to +his barracks in Chambers Street, and as he valued his future peace +of mind to avoid running in debt; mildly hinting that, if found in +the public streets without his uniform, he would be very likely to +get himself into trouble. He begged that we would not expose him, and +promised to return that very night. Then for some time we lost sight +of him; his captain said that, so far as he knew, he was attentive +to his duty with the recruiting squad, and he certainly kept out of +our way. The box from Germany did not arrive. No more letters came, +and we had no occasion to seek him out. It was evident that he was no +longer unhappy, and so our interest in him, though still warm, remained +inactive. + + * * * * * + +One night I was awakened, quite late, by Voisin, sitting on the side +of my bed, big-eyed and excited, and with a wonderful story to tell. +He had been, at the request of the counsel of the Prussian Consul, +to the detectives' rooms at police headquarters. Here he had been +questioned as to his knowledge of one Adolph Danforth, _alias_ Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, _alias_ Fritz Stabenow, and had subsequently had an +interview with that interesting youth in the lock-up. + +The glory had all departed. He had been there forty-eight hours, was +unwashed, uncombed, stolid, comfortable, and quite at home. There was +no remnant left of the simple and modest demeanor of the well-bred +aristocrat. It was hard to see a trace of likeness to the Kürassier +officer with whose photograph we were familiar. The obligations of +_noblesse_ seemed to be entirely removed, and there was nothing left +but plain, ignoble Fritz Stabenow. An examination of his pockets +developed a singular folly. He had kept every scrap of paper on which +a word had ever been written to him. Tailors' bills, love-letters, +duns, photographs of half a dozen different girls, all were huddled +together. He had a package of the Count Dohna cards and the plate +from which they had been printed,--made in Boston; a letter of credit +from a banking-house in Berlin to its New York correspondent had the +copperplate card of the firm on the paper, but the paper was ruled as +a German banker's paper never is, and the plate from which the card +had been printed (also made in Boston) was in the envelope with it. A +letter from plain father Stabenow enclosed photographs of still plainer +mother and sister Stabenow, which were a sad contrast to the glory of +the Countess Dohna's picture. The father's letter was full of kindly +reproof and affectionate regret. "Ach! Fritz, ich hätte das von Dir +nicht gedacht,"--"I never thought that of you"; but it was forgiving +too, and promised the remittance, clothing, and gun I have spoken of +before. The papers, for the loss of which such tears had been shed +at Fort Trumbull, were all there in their well-worn companionship +with a soiled paper-collar, and that badge of dawning civilization, a +tooth-brush. + +Here were also two photographs, one of the statue of Frederick the +Great in Berlin on the card of a St. Louis photographer, and another of +himself in Prussian uniform, on the card of a Berlin photographer. The +pictures had been "lifted" and changed to the different cards. A more +careful neglect of track-covering was never known. The evidence of all +his deceptions had been studiously preserved. + +Voisin had given him a dollar to buy some necessary articles, and had +left him to his fate. + +The disillusion was complete, and I saw that I had been swindled +by a false count even more completely than I ever had been by real +barons,--which is much to say. + +Voisin had gathered from the Consul's lawyer that this Stabenow, a +valet of the veritable Count Dohna, had been one of a party who had +robbed him and committed other serious crimes, and he had fled to +this country, with his master's uniform, a valuable wardrobe, and +costly jewels. He had here undertaken to personify the Count, and +had had on the whole not an unhappy time, especially since he came +to New York in recruiting service. He had finally been arrested on +the complaint of a lady, one of the many whom he had attempted to +blackmail, by threatening exposure through letters they had written +him in the kindest spirit. Fortunately this one had had the good sense +to refer the matter to her husband, who brought the interesting career +to a close. He had obtained several thousand dollars in this way +from different persons, and had contracted considerable debts in all +directions. The Everett House was an especial sufferer. + +I felt that my claim was secured by the luggage at the express-office, +and I called for it the next day. The gentlemanly clerk of the +establishment blandly showed me my name, neatly written in a strange +Teutonic hand, to a receipt for the property. Just then I had +information that a box addressed to my care was lying at the Hoboken +office of the German steamers. Indiscreetly mentioning this fact to the +Prussian Consul's lawyer, I was informed that it would be necessary to +take the box in evidence, and I prudently refrained from making further +efforts for its recovery. + +It was with a chastened spirit that I paid a considerable bill at my +tailor's and ordered the overcoat sent to my address; and it was with +only mitigated satisfaction that I heard of the sending in irons to his +company in California of deserter Stabenow. + +If the Herr Lieutenant Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien of the Gardecorps +Kürassier is still living, I beg to inform him that his overcoat--the +only memento of a grave _Schwindelei_--is now a comfortable wrap to a +Rhode Island farmer, who hopes that its rightful owner is as snugly +clad in his winter rides about Versailles. + + + + +TWO SCOUTS. + + +In the desultory and sporadic warfare carried on in the Southwest, +the scout--or "skeout," according to the dialect of the region--was a +very important element of our organization, and it is amusing now to +recall the variety of odd-fish of every description who applied for the +remunerative employment that this branch of the service afforded. + +The interest of our life at Union City was not a little enhanced by two +specimens of this genus with whom we had much to do,--Pat Dixon and +"The Blind Preacher." + +One day the guard brought in a suspicious character from the +picket-line. He was about twenty-five years old, long, lank, and +dusky,--a sort of half-Indian, half-Irish looking fellow, with +uncombed hair and an over-prominent quid of tobacco. He rode the +usual "nag" of the country,--an animal with more blood than bone and +more vice than beauty. He dismounted, passed his bridle over his arm, +and "squatted,"--the usual posture of the country. "The Hun," the +professional bully of all our culprits, took this creature in hand, and +presently came in with a suggestion that I had better see him alone. +He followed me cautiously to one side, leading his horse with him, and +squatted again when we had halted at a safe distance from curious ears. + +"I'm Pat Dixon. I live down Troy way on the North Fork. Ye see, when +this yer muss fust broke out I didn't go to take no sides in it. But +Merryweather's men they come along a little 'fore sun-up, last month +was a year, an' they taken the only nag we had left. I'd had him hid +out all summer, but some derned skunk done found him out. I heern the +cusses a trampin' roun' an' I was goin' to take a crack at 'em for +'good mornin',' but, you see, I knowed if I did they'd just burn the +old woman out, an' she don't git along but porely, anyhow, so I didn't. +They _con_scripted the old man the year afore, an' he hain't been heern +on sence. So I come to the conclushin that I wa'n't agoin' to stan' no +such treatmint as that--by King! an' I jest took to the bresh, an' I +reckon I've pestered them 'uns right smart. I ain't agoin' afoot long +as theys hosses in West Tannisy,--you bet! I was agoin' to jine you +Yanks, but thinks sez I: 'Old Pat, you kin do a heap better in the +bresh nor what you kin in no army,' and so I stuck to it. O, now, I'm +squar'! Frank Moore can tell you all 'bout me; I ain't no gum-game, I +ain't. If you want a skeout, I'm on hand, an' I don't want no pass, I +kin git 'roun' in this kentry. + +"Which? _hoss?_ Well, 't ain't much of a nag, but theys more on 'em +roun', an' if this 'un tuckers out I'll git somethin' to ride. I ain't +goin' afoot.--no, mam!" + +This was very much the sort of talk "Mr." Forrest's emissaries used in +seeking our services for his purposes; so, partly to secure ourselves +on this point, and partly to give Dixon a good character should he +go out from our camp in his professional capacity, he was sent for a +few days to the guard-house, until Frank Moore should return from an +expedition. I believe Frank knew most of the vagabonds of Obion County, +and he at once certified that this was no other than Pat Dixon; that +his story was true; and that, while his controlling motives were not +perhaps such as one would most admire, his unconquerable hatred of +Merryweather's men and all their confederates might be relied on with +implicit confidence; so Pat was engaged as an employé of our Secret +Service Department, and sent outside the lines with a conspicuous +assurance, as he left his fellow-prisoners, that if found again within +our reach he would be hanged forthwith for a spy. I was riding on the +road he took, and he gave me a leering wink as he departed,--with +instructions to watch the movements of all guerilla bands in our front, +and to bring speedily any information he might obtain. + +During the remaining months of our stay he was almost ubiquitous. +Every scouting-party that we sent out in any direction, though entirely +without notice to him, was pretty sure to meet him with important +information, just when information was most needed. + +This part of his work was done perfectly, but he seemed to regard his +relation with us as a warrant for unending private iniquities. After +his own code of morals he was a strictly virtuous man, but his code was +of an extremely loose and pliable character. It is probably safe to say +that he never murdered a Union man, and that, unless sorely tempted by +the difference in value of the animals, he never forcibly exchanged +horses with a Union widow; neither, I believe, did he commit any +offence against a known Rebel when there was a probability of his being +found out and caught; but the complaints that came to us of the manner +in which he vented his private wrongs and carried on the feuds of his +ancestors gave us frequent annoyance. Sometimes it seemed necessary to +recall his commission and declare him an outlaw, but just then there +would transpire some particularly brilliant achievement that showed him +invaluable for our purposes. + +More than once, when our patrols reported the immediate presence of +the enemy, Pat would turn up with the assurance that it was only +so-and-so's "band," who had come into the neighborhood on a visiting or +a marauding expedition, but with no intention of putting themselves in +our way; and invariably we found his report to be correct. Indeed, so +frequently did this happen that we became almost too confident in his +assistance, and when an excitable picket shot at a donkey or a cow in +the night-time, although the patrol of the guard went through the usual +routine of investigation, we felt that there could be no serious attack +or Dixon would have notified us. + +How he obtained his information we could not guess, and his own +account of the matter was never satisfactory; but I believe that no +considerable force of the enemy ever crossed the Memphis and Charleston +Railroad (the whole State's width to the south of us) without our +being speedily notified; and through this means we were several times +enabled to telegraph to Columbus early information of contemplated +raids,--information that was not always heeded, as the surprise of +Paducah (on the Ohio River) several days after our warning sufficiently +proved. + +One ambition of this worthy man had to remain unsatisfied. How little +this was due to the fact that we at the headquarters were all perfectly +mounted, modesty makes it improper to state here; but in our frequent +meetings as we rode outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of +some particularly fine horse belonging to some particularly bad man +and especially virulent Rebel, which it would really be a virtue to +"confisticate." The worthy fellow was not satisfied with his own +conspicuous appropriations; he would fain have mounted our regiments on +the weedy screws which the Rebel impressments had left for the horsing +of the crippled region of Western Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have +had some lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity in his +thefts, and longed for the reassurance of similar conduct on the part +of true men like ourselves. + +It was, of course, not long after the commencement of this active +campaign against the rights of ownership, that we began to receive +assurances on every hand that unless we could do something to repress +Pat Dixon's vagabondage an outraged people would take the law into +their own hands, and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With a +laudable desire to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, I told him one day of +the state of feeling against him, urging him to be more circumspect and +to conduct himself like a decent man, else he would be hanged the first +time he was caught; intimating, too, that it would be improper for us +to continue to employ him to such needless injury to an inoffensive +people. His reply was characteristic. + +"Inoffensive, _which_? Mebbe you know these people an' mebbe you +don't. I do! and a dern'der lot of unhung cutthroats an' hoss-thieves +you can't find nowheres. As for hangin', you needn't give yourself no +worryment 'bout that. They're safe enough to hang me if they ketch me, +an' I guess I sha'n't hang no higher if I go right on my own gait. If +you don't want to employ me you needn't; theys enough corn an' bacon in +th' Obion bottom to keep me awhile yet, and money ain't no 'count down +here; but, by King! if I kin git a chance to tell you anything that +them 'uns don't want you to know, you bet your skin I'll do it, an' you +kin trust me every time, for I ain't goin' to lie,--not to your side, +not if I know it. Why, you talk to me about inikities. I don't want to +do no man any hurt; but my old dad _he_ was _con_scripted, an' me an' +my brother Jake had to take to the bresh to save ourselves, an' then +Jake he was shot in cold blood right afore my eyes, an' I made up my +mind then an' there that I wouldn't give no quarter to the whole State +of West Tannisy till this war was over an' ther' was some stronger hand +than mine to do jestis an' to furnish revenge. That's all I've got to +say about it. You needn't give yourself no oneasiness 'bout my doin's, +I'll answer for the hull on 'em; an' p'r'aps the last thing you'll hear +of Pat Dixon will be that he's hangin' to a tree somewheres down Troy +way. I know I'm booked for that if I'm ketched, and till I am ketched +I'm goin' my own gait." + +We had become too much accustomed to this state of feeling among the +scanty Union population of the Southwest to be so shocked by it as we +ought to have been, and it was not without sympathy with Dixon's wrongs +that I let him go, with an earnest caution that he should mend his +ways, if only for his own sake. + +It remains only to say that he _did_ go his own gait, and that he went +it with a desperation and an _élan_ that I have never known equalled; +and that, months later, after our snug quarters at Union City had been +turned over to a feeble band of home-guards, word came that they had +been burned to the ground, and that Pat Dixon, betrayed at last into +the hands of the enemy, had been hanged in the woods near Troy. We +could find no fault with the retribution that had overtaken him; for, +viewed with the eyes of his executioners, he had richly merited it: but +we had learned to like him for his frank and generous qualities, and to +make full allowance for the degree to which his rough, barbaric nature +had been outraged and inflamed by the wrongs inflicted on his family. + + * * * * * + +A returning patrol one afternoon led to the parade-ground a sorry +horse drawing an open wagon in which were a man and a woman. The woman +had a cold-blooded, stolid look, and her eyes were filled with the +overflowing hatred we so often inspired among her sex at the South. Her +husband was dressed in black, and wore a rather scrupulously brushed +but over-old silk hat. In his hand was a ponderous and bulging cotton +umbrella. + +They had been taken "under suspicious circumstances" at a house a few +miles outside the lines,--the suspicion attaching only to the fact that +they were not members of the family and seemed to have no particular +business in that region. When asked for an explanation, the woman said +she had nothing to say but that her husband was a blind clergyman +intending to fulfil an engagement to preach, and that she had driven +him, as was her habit. He said nothing. It was a rule of our system to +follow Hoyle's instructions, and "when in doubt to take the trick": +this pair were remanded to the guard-house. + +As they turned away, the reverend gentleman said, in a feeble voice, +that if he could see me alone later in the evening, when he had +recovered from the shock of his capture, I might be willing to talk +with him. In the evening the Hun repaired to the dismantled warehouse +where the prisoners were lodged, to hold conversation with the +new-comers. When he came to the clergyman he found him so low spoken +that their talk fell almost to a whisper, but it was whispered that +he was to be taken alone, and subsequent disclosures led to his being +brought to headquarters. He there informed me that he was a minister +of the Methodist church, Canadian by birth and education, but married +to a lady of that region, and had been for some years engaged there in +his capacity as a circuit preacher. He was quite blind, and found it +impossible to make his rounds without being driven. + +His sympathies were with the North, and he was burning to make himself +useful in the only way left him by his infirmity. His wife was of +a suspecting disposition, and their peaceful consorting required +that she should always accompany him; but, unfortunately, she was a +violent secessionist, and he had been compelled, in the interest of +the peaceful consorting above named, to acknowledge sympathy with her +views, and to join her in her revilings of the Union army. + +All this made his position difficult, yet he believed that, if the +opportunity were given him, he could hide his intention even from her, +and could gather for us much useful information. + +He was a welcome visitor at the houses of the faithful, far and near, +and warmed their hearts with frequent and feeling exhortation, as he +gathered his little meetings at his nightly stopping-places. He was now +about starting for the southern circuit, and had appointments to preach +and to pray at every town between us and Bolivar. + +Evidently, if this man were honest in his intentions, he could be of +great service, but I suggested the difficulty that having once started +for an appointed round he could not return to bring us any information +he might receive. To this he replied that his wife believed him to be +in Forrest's service, and that he could at any time come as a spy into +our lines. + +It seemed a very questionable case, but, after consultation with Voisin +and the Hun, it was determined to give him a trial, to prevent his wife +from seeing more than was necessary of our position, and to believe so +much as we liked of the information he might give us. The conditions of +the engagement were agreed upon, and after a severe public admonition, +and threats especially appalling to his wife, he was sent outside the +lines, with hints of the serious consequences that would follow his +second capture. + +We were never quite sure that his wife was wrong in crediting him +with complicity with Forrest; but the worst that could be said of him +(and this was very likely true) was that he was pre-eminently a man +of peace, and if he gave information to both sides, it was always +information in compliance with the injunctions of his sacred calling. +The Rebel forces several times crossed into Tennessee, and came toward +us in numbers that indicated foul intentions, but, from the time +our pious friend first visited us, they invariably withdrew without +an engagement. Frequently small expeditions of our own forces went +scouting to the southward, and were checked and turned back by the +reports of this benevolent man. + +He may have kept us from the successful fulfilment of some bloody +intentions, but we had occasion to know from other sources that he +sometimes kept small detachments of our troops from falling in with +overpowering numbers of the enemy. Be the theory what it may, from +November until February there was no conflict of arms in all the +counties we traversed, and neither side advanced to within deadly range +of the other. + +The processes of this emissary were hidden and curious. He was +employed in a much more regulated manner than Dixon, and we generally +knew his whereabouts. Every interview had with him, either within our +own camp or when we were abroad, had to be so skilfully managed that no +suspicion, even in the eyes of his catlike wife, should attach to him. +He never came into our lines except as an unwilling prisoner, and was +never sent without them without dire admonition as to the consequences +of his return. + +On one occasion Pat Dixon reported that a detachment of Forrest's +command, about three hundred strong, had crossed the railroad and was +moving north in the direction of our camp. At this time the preacher +was near us, and I had an interview with him. He doubted the report, +but would investigate. I told him we would start the next day, with +five hundred men, in the direction of Trenton,--where he was to hold a +prayer-meeting at the house of one of Forrest's captains. The meeting +was held, and after it was over, the subject of the advance was talked +over very freely by the officers present, he sitting in a rapt state of +unconsciousness--his thoughts on higher things--at the chimney-corner. +Pleading an early appointment at McKenzie's Station for the following +day, he left as soon as the moon was up, and drove to the house of a +friend in the village. His wife supposed that he was coming with a +false report to lead us into a trap laid for us. + +We arrived at McKenzie's at one o'clock in the morning, after a +detestably cold, hard ride, and took up our quarters in a half-finished +and half-furnished house, where we struggled the whole night through in +the endeavor to get heat out of a fire of wet dead-wood. Early in the +morning the Hun started out, in his fiercest mood, with a small escort, +seeking for information and hunting up suspicious characters. At +breakfast-time he came upon a large family comfortably seated at table, +with our preacher and his wife as guests. + +He was asked to "sit by." "Thank you; I have come for more serious +business. Who is at the head of this house? I should like to see you +alone, sir." The trembling, invalided paterfamilias was taken into an +adjoining room, and put through the usual course of questions as to his +age, place of birth, occupation, condition as to literacy, the number +of negroes owned, the amount of land, what relatives in the Rebel army, +to what extent a sympathizer with the Rebellion, when he had last +seen any Rebel soldiers or scouts or guerillas or suspicious persons +of any description, and so on, through the tortuous and aggravating +list that only a lawyer could invent. Questions and answers were taken +down in writing. The sterner questions were spoken in a voice audible +to the terror-stricken family in the adjoining room. The man, of +course, communicated nothing, and probably knew nothing, of the least +consequence. He was sent to a third room and kept under guard. His case +disposed of, his wife was examined in like manner, and then the other +members of the family. Finally, the coast being clear, our emissary +was sent for. He came into the room chuckling with delight over +this skilful exercise of the art of deceit, in which he was himself +such an adept, and laying his hand on the Hun's arm, said, "My dear +fellow, I respect you. This has been the most brilliant dodge I ever +knew,--capital,--capital!" And he then went on to recount all that he +had heard the evening before. A large detachment of Forrest's command +was advancing under Faulkner's leadership, and they doubtless had by +this time a full report of our position, for he had met acquaintance on +the road who had reported it to him. If we were able to engage a body +of three thousand men without artillery, we might find them that night +in Trenton,--he was confident that that was about their number. + +The family were now notified that they had been guilty of a great +offence in harboring a known spy of the enemy; but they insisted +that they knew him only as a devout and active minister, and had no +suspicion, nor could they believe, that he had the least knowledge of +or interest in either army. With due warning as to the consequences +of a repetition of their crime, they were allowed to return to their +breakfast, and their guest was brought under guard to headquarters. + +Being satisfied, after a close examination of the report, that it +would be imprudent to remain so far from our camp, which could be best +reached from Trenton by another road, we left a party of observation, +and returned to Union City, directing our scout to go to the vicinity +of Trenton and bring to our detachment any information he might obtain. +Twelve hours after our arrival home, the detachment returned with the +news that Faulkner, with a large force, had moved toward Mayfield, +Kentucky, and the event proved that every item of the intelligence we +had received had been substantially correct. + +In this manner we were enabled to learn pretty definitely the +character of any movement of the enemy anywhere in Western Tennessee, +and so far as we had opportunity to investigate the reports they +generally proved to be essentially true. These two scouts were worth +more as a source of information, than would have been two regiments of +cavalry in active service. Sometimes our Methodist friend acted under +definite orders, but more often only according to his own judgment of +what was necessary. + +A few days before Christmas we received word that Forrest in person +was in Jackson, with a large force, and we moved against him with +nearly the whole body of our troops, under the command of old A. J. +himself. We reached Jackson at night, after three days' hard marching, +only to find that Forrest's army had left that morning, destroying +the bridges over the swollen rivers and making organized pursuit +impossible. We took up quarters for some days in the town, where we +enjoyed the peculiarly lovely climate of the "sunny South" with the +thermometer seven degrees below zero, six inches of snow on the ground, +and a howling wind blowing. Our own mess was very snugly entertained +at the house of a magnate, where we had an opportunity to study the +fitness of even the best Southern architecture for an Arctic winter +climate. + +On New Year's day, as we were sitting at a sumptuous dinner, and +mitigating so far as we could the annoyance to our hosts of being +invaded by a rollicking party of Northern officers, Voisin, who had +been called out, returned to the table to tell me that a man and a +woman would like to see me in my room. I was not prompt to respond, and +asked who they were. He replied, "O, who can tell? I suppose somebody +with a complaint that our men have 'taken some hams of meat' ["meat" +being the Tennessee vulgate for hog flesh only], or something of that +sort; the man seemed to have something the matter with his eyes." And +he gave me a large and expressive wink. + +Ensconced, with such comfort as large and rattling windows permitted, +before our blazing fire, sat our serene Methodist friend and his sullen +wife. Taking me aside, he told me that he had passed the previous +evening at a private house between Jackson and Bolivar in religious +exercises, which were attended by Forrest and officers of his command. +After the devotions there was much cheerful and unrestrained talk as +to the plans and prospects of the future campaign, disclosing the +fact that as there seemed no chance of doing efficient service in +Tennessee, the whole body would move at once to Central Mississippi +and operate in connection with the army in Georgia. This report, which +we had no reason to disbelieve, decided A. J. to abandon a difficult +and unpromising pursuit, and to return to Union City and Columbus. We +found, on our return, a communication from the headquarters at Memphis +to the effect that Forrest had crossed the railroad and gone far south +into Mississippi. + +We had no further service of importance or interest in this region. +"Jackson's Purchase" was thenceforward quite free from any considerable +body of the enemy; and when our clergyman found, a few weeks later, +that we were all ordered to the south, he came for a settlement of his +accounts, saying that he had been able to deceive his wife only up to +the time of our interview at Jackson, and as his life was no longer +safe in the country, he must depart for the more secure region of his +former home in Canada,--where let us hope that he has been allowed to +answer the behests of his sacred vocation with a mind single to his +pious duties, and that domestic suspicion no longer clouds his happy +hearthstone. + +Happily, neither A. J. nor Forrest himself had further occasion for his +peaceful intervention, the fortunate absence of which may have had to +do with the notable encounter between these two generals at Tupelo. + + + + +IN THE GLOAMING. + + +The sun had gone, and above the dreamy blue of the far-lying woods, +the early evening had hung the sky with mellow, summery, twilight +loveliness. + +The casements of the old house at Whittington glowed ruddy and warm +through their marvellous clustering ivy, and it was the idlest luxury +to hang over the crumbling road-wall, peopling its suggestive chambers +with the spirits of their long-gone tenants. It is a farm-house now, +and there is no available record to tell the stranger the story of +its more glorious days. No rigid history hampers the fancy, and the +strolling lover of the by-ways and roadsides of our dear Mother England +may let his imagination run with flowing rein, sweeping away the +hayricks and marigold beds, and calling back the peacocks and bagwigs +of the halcyon days. + +Perhaps for the last time in my life I was taking the breath of an +English twilight,--sweetest to those whose childhood and youth have fed +on the rhyme and tale the green old land has sent to her world-wide +brood, and who come, in riper life, to find the fancies of early years +warm and living on every side, in hedge and field, in cowslip and +primrose, in nightingale and lark. The thick-coming impressions such +musing brings are vague and dreamy, so that there seemed a shade of +unreality in the quiet voice that bade me "Good evening," and added, +"Yes, it is an engaging old house, and it has a story that you may be +glad to hear." + +It was not from perversity that I turned the subject, but no tale of +real life could have added interest to the fancies with which the old +manse had clad itself in the slowly waning day. Wayside impressions +lose their charm if too much considered, and, as my new companion was +walking toward Lichfield, I was glad to turn away and join him,--ending +a long day's tramp with the slow and quiet gait that his age compelled. +There was the least shade of the uncanny in his bearing, and his speech +was timorous and gentle. His threadbare and seedy look betokened a +native unthrift, but there was an undercurrent of refinement in his +mien and in his manner, and a trusting outlook from his large blue eyes +that made him the fittest of companions for a summer evening's walk in +a country filled with the mingled flavor of history and romance. + +He was a man of the intensest local training. To him "the County of +the City of Lichfield" was of more consequence than all Staffordshire +besides, and far more than all England and all that vague entity called +the World. Even the County of the City of Lichfield was large for his +concentrated attachment: he knew it as one must know a small town in +which he has passed the whole of a long life; but his heart lay within +the cathedral close, and the cathedral close lay deep within his +heart,--deep and warm, with its history and its traditions, its romance +and its reality, so interlaced that he had long since ceased to ask +what was real and what unreal. All was unreal in the sense of being of +more than worldly consequence in his estimation, and all real as a part +of the training of his whole life. + +To him Lichfield Cathedral was no mere pile of sculptured stone, built +round with the facts of recorded history; it was the fairy handiwork +of times and scenes long past, its walls raised by the hand of pious +enthusiasm, shattered and cemented by the strife and blood of the civil +war, hallowed by the returning glory of the Restoration, blessed by the +favor of royal presence, and now made admirable in his daily sight by +the dignity and grace of those holy men its dean and chapter. + +As it was the cathedral I had come to see, and as I had come for no +architect's measurements, for no student's lore, only to bathe in the +charmed atmosphere of its storied past, I had fallen upon a guide +after my own heart, and it was as pleasant as it was easy to lend full +credence to all he so honestly believed and told. + +In early life he had had gentler training, but he had long been a Poor +Brother of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Lichfield, and had, +for many years, held, by seniority, the right of presenting a rose, on +St. John's nativity day, to the heirs of William Juvenis (goldsmith), +who, by grants made in consideration of this ceremony, had secured +perennial prayers for the souls of his ancestors and a fragrant memory +for his own. + +Hedged about by the traditionary customs and quaint observances of an +ancient charitable foundation, deadened in a way, if you please, by the +aristocratic pauperism of his condition, my gentle companion had grown +to his present dreamy estate. + +As we reached Stow Pool, near the old parish church of St. Chad, he +pointed out the spring of pure water where, twelve hundred years ago, +this future Bishop of Lichfield--who during his hermit life supported +himself on the milk of a doe--was wont to pray naked in the water, +standing upon the stone still seen at the bottom of the well, and where +St. Ovin heard the angels sing as his good soul passed away. + +Then, with the trusting look of a little child, the Poor Brother went +on to tell of the virtues and good deeds of this holy life;--how +even the King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for the crimes he +had committed, visited the saint in person, yielded to his eloquent +persuasion, became a convert to the true faith, and banished all +idolatry from his realm; how he became the head of the church of +Lichfield and laid its strong foundations of piety and faith; and how +his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb swallowed the ill-humors +of diseased minds resorting to its serene presence, that the dust +from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, and that the shrine +built in his honor after his canonization was so sought by numberless +devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon to increase and flourish. + +To our left, as he ceased, the evening's lingering glow gilded the +silent pool, where lay the unrippled reflection of the three spires of +the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than the fairy silhouette that +stood clean-cut against the sky, and dividing with the reality the rapt +admiration of the Poor Brother of St. John's. + +We stood by the water's edge, and he turned toward the phantom spires +reversed within it, his talk wandering back to the days of the church's +troubles,--when the cathedral close was a fortress, with strong walls +and well-filled moat; when the beautiful west gate, which only our +own age was vile enough to destroy, kept stout ward against the outer +world, and protected the favored community who formed within the walls +a county independent of Lichfield and of Staffordshire. Within the +sacred pale no law had force save that of the Ecclesiastical Court, and +then, as now, none could there be taken for debt or crime save on the +warrant of the dean and chapter. + +He knew by heart the long list of bishops, and would gladly have held +me to hear of the good deeds of Langton and Hackett. He was fairly +launched in his favorite enthusiasm, and told warmly the more striking +features of the church's history, but he told them rapidly lest I +should reach the storied pile with less than a full appreciation of its +traditional interest. + +From his nervous lips I learned how King Richard II. kept Christmas +revels here with a splendor that lavished two hundred tuns of wine, +and roasted two thousand oxen, whose bones are still found in Oxenbury +field hard by; how Elizabeth passed three whole days in the close; and +how the solidity of its fortification, the consummate grace and finish +of its architecture, the richness of its sculpture, and the surpassing +beauty and magnificence of the nine windows of its lady chapel marked +it as the crowning glory of the Western Church, until the dark days +of the Revolution lowered. Then its sore trials were recounted, and +I learned of the fanatical attack of Lord Brooke, "with his horde of +impious Roundheads," made by strange fatality on St. Chad's day; of the +shooting of Lord Brooke by "Dumb Dyott," who was perched in the steeple +with a fowling-piece that now hangs over the fireplace of Colonel +Dyott's house; of the surrender of the close by Lord Chesterfield; of +the sack and bout that followed; of the recapture by Prince Rupert. + +He told of the foul desecration by the Roundheads, who used every +species of havoc, plunder, and profanation,--pulling down the sacred +effigies which were the glory of the western front, hacking to pieces +the curious carvings of the choir, mashing the noses of the monumental +statues, destroying the valuable evidences and records of the church +and the city, shattering the glass of the costly windows,--save only +that of the marvellous nine of the lady chapel, which a pious care was +said to have removed to a place of safety. They kept courts of guard in +the cross aisles, broke up the pavements, and every day hunted a cat +with hounds throughout the church, delighting in the echoes from the +vaulted roof; they wrapped a calf in linen, and "in derision and scorn +of the sacrament of baptism," sprinkled it at the font and gave it a +name. + +How the King, after the defeat of Naseby, came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, +and passed the night in the close,--how Cromwell's defaming crew +completed the work of demolition and desecration, and smashed the old +bell called "Jesus," with its legend "I am the bell of Jesus, and +Edward is our King; Sir Thomas Heywood first causéd me to ring,"--how, +finally, the chapter-house alone had a roof under which service might +be said,--how the good Hackett on the first day of his bishopric set +his own servants and his own coach-horses at work removing the rubbish, +and never tired until in eight years' time the magnificence of the +cathedral was restored, except for the forever irreparable loss of the +decorations, and especially of the lady chapel windows, which all the +cost of the restoration would not have sufficed to renew,--how the +church was reconsecrated with great pomp and solemnity,--all this he +told me in detail, and he would gladly have told more, for this Poor +Brother had made these few rich historic acres nearly his whole world, +and had peopled it with all who throughout the long ages had marred it +or had made it. To have given "two good trees" for the rebuilding of +the church was a title to his lasting and grateful recognition. + +But the light was fast waning, and the cathedral must be seen now or +perhaps never. It was already past the hour for closing, but one of +the vergers had formerly been a Poor Brother of St. John's, and my +companion went to him to secure our admission. + +I stood before the west front of the cathedral, which was then bathed +in the lingering light of the after-day, its great central window +gleaming as though the altar lamps were still burning behind it, and +the western spires almost losing themselves in the sky. The quaint +effigies that fill the niches across the whole façade lost their +grotesqueness in the dusk, and seemed really the sacred sculptures they +were meant to be. Fair though this rich front must be at high midday, +it needs for its full beauty the half-light of a Northern evening. As +seen on that rarest of all evenings, it was a fit introduction to the +subdued glory which greeted us in the dim religious light to which we +entered as the great central door closed behind us. + +We stood, uncovered and reverent, beneath the vaulted nave, looking +down the long curved aisle, bordered by the majesty of the clustered +columns, through the light illuminated screen of the choir, full upon +the sculptured and gem-set alabaster reredos, above and beyond which +stood the famed group of windows of the lady chapel, mellowed by the +light of the streaming full moon. + +Rich in the blended mosaic of the floor, in the dimmed canopy overhead, +in the lightly arched gallery of the triforium, in the mellow +cross-lights of the side windows, in the sombre carvings of the choir, +and above all in the marvellous glass of the chapel, it was the very +perfection of a worshipful church. + +It was too nearly dark to examine the details of the decoration, and we +wandered down the aisles, remarking here and there the bruised statues +of the tombs, and halting before the sleeping children of Chantrey to +marvel how much somnolent repose can be cut in chiselled stone. + +"But come," said the gentle Brother, "we have only light enough left +for the storied glass which alone of all the richness of the old church +outlived its desecration, and, as by a miracle, was preserved to tell +these later generations of the higher art our forefathers' sons forgot." + +As he spoke, we stood within the charmed light of the nine windows of +the apse,--windows which have perhaps no remaining equals in the world, +and before which one can only bow in admiration and regret for an art +that seems forever lost. Holding me fast by the arm, he went on:-- + +"In the restoration of the church, the spandrels of the old windows +were rebuilt, and the frames were set with plain glass, to the sad +defacement of the edifice; and so they stood for nigh two hundred +years, no art being equal to their worthy replacement, and no ancient +store to the supplying of so large a demand. + +"But listen, now, how the hand of Heaven sheltered its own, and how +true servants of the Church are ever guided to reclaim its lost +splendor. + +"A few years ago, a canon of the cathedral, travelling in Flanders, +wishing to contribute to the renewed work of restoration, visited the +dismantled convent of Herkenrode in the ancient bishopric of Liege. +Here he sought among the rubbish of the lumber-room for wood-carvings +which might be used in the rebuilding of the prebendal stalls. His +search discovered many boxes of colored glass, the origin of which no +one knew, and whose existence even had been forgotten. Thinking to +embellish some of the curious triangular windows above the triforium, +he purchased the whole store for two hundred pounds of our money, and +presented it to the dean and chapter as a tribute of affectionate +devotion to the cathedral. There was more than he had supposed, and the +large figures of some of the fragments indicated a coherent design. + +"This chapel was fenced off from the aisles, and here the canon's wife +and daughter, devoting themselves to the solution of the puzzle, slowly +pieced out the varying connections. They worked patiently for weeks, +with a steadily increasing excitement of success, until [and here his +grasp grew tremulous and close], lying collated on this pavement where +we stand, only a bit wanting here and there, marking the exact sizes +of the varied openings, the grand old Lichfield windows, perfect as +you see them now in this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich +forevermore the dear old church to whose glory they had shone in the +bygone centuries, and whose sore trials their absence had so long +recalled. + +"Kind stranger," said he, "this is a true tale. Sceptics have +questioned it, but it is true! true! And I thank Heaven that it has +been permitted to me, who have grown old in the love of this sacred +pile, to live to see, in this crowning act of its restoration, the +higher help the hand of man has had in performing its holy work." + +His upturned blue eyes were moistened with tears, and his voice +trembled with emotion. I led him gently away and to the doorstep of +the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted in silence, and +forever. + +Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train for Liverpool and home, +bringing with me an ideal Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have +been rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day. + + + + +FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND. + + +On entering the Regent Hotel at Leamington the first object that +attracts attention, after the stuffy old porter who hobbles about +to see some one else handle the luggage, is a small frame, over the +smoking coal-fire, which contains the following notice, decorated with +an old cut of a fox's mask:-- + + MERRY & CO.'S HUNTING APPOINTMENTS, AND GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENT COVERTS. + + December 30, 1872. + + WARWICKSHIRE,--at 10.45. + + _Days._ _Meet at_ _Miles._ _To go through_ + M. Goldicote House. 11. Wellerbourne and Loxley. + Tu. Radway Grange. 12. Tachbrook and Kineton. + W. Snitterfield. 7. Warwick and Stratford Road. + Th. Red Hill. 13. Warwick and Snitterfield. + F. Pebworth. 16. Warwick and Stratford. + + NORTH WARWICKSHIRE,--at 11. + + M. Solihull. 14. Warwick and Hatton. + Tu. Cubbington Gate. 2. Lillington. + Th. Stoneleigh Abbey. 4. On Kenilworth Road. + F. Tile Hill. 9. By Kenilworth Castle. + + PYTCHLEY,--at 10.45. + + M. Naseby. 26. Princethorpe and Rugby. + Tu. Hazlebeach. 31. Dunchurch and Crick. + W. Dingley. 33. Rugby and Swinford. + F. Cransley. 36. Maidwell. + S. Swinford. 19. Princethorpe and Rugby. + + ATHERSTONE,--at 11. + + M. Coombe. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + W. Harrow Inn Gate. 20. Coventry and Nuneaton. + F. Brinklow Station. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + S. Corley. 14. Stoneleigh and Coventry. + + BICESTER,--at 10.45. + + M. Fenny Compton. 12. Radford and Ladbrook. + Tu. Trafford Bridge. 19. Southam and Wormleighton. + Th. Hellidon. 14. Southam and Priory Marston. + S. Steeple Claydon. 40. Gaydon and Banbury. + +Twenty-two meets in the week, all within easy reach, by road or +rail. Let us dine and decide. At table we will leave the _menu_ to +the waiter; but let him bring for consideration during the meal the +list of _meets_. "Brinklow Station, twelve miles"; that seems the most +feasible thing in the catalogue for the morrow, and who has not heard +that the Atherstone is a capital pack? But then the Pytchley is even +better known, and the train reaches Rugby in time for the meet. Let +the choice be decided with the help of coffee and cigars and possible +advice, during the soothing digestive half-hour in the smoking-room. +Dinner over, wander away through the tortuous, dim passage that leads +to the sombre hall where alone in English inns the twin crimes of +billiards and smoking are permitted, and, while writhing under the +furtive glances of the staid and middle-aged East-Indian who evidently +knows you for an American, and who is your only companion, decide, +with your nation's ability to reach conclusions without premises, +whether it shall be Pytchley or Atherstone. Don't ask your neighbor: +he is an Englishman, and have we not been told that Englishmen are +gruff, reticent men, who wear thick shells, and whose warm hearts can +be reached only with the knife of a regular introduction? However, you +must make up your mind what to do, and you need help which neither +the waiter nor the porter can give; the "gentlemanly clerk" does not +exist in England (thank Heaven!) and you have not yet learned what an +invaluable mine of information "Boots" is,--faithful, useful, helpful, +and serviceable to the last degree. I salute him with gratitude for +all he has done to make life in English hotels almost easier and more +home-like than in one's own house. It is safe to advise all travellers +to make him an early ally, to depend on him, to use him, almost to +abuse him, and, finally, on leaving, to "remember" him. Not yet having +come to know the Boots, I determined to throw myself on the tender +mercies of my stern, silent companion, and I very simply stated my +case. My stern, silent companion was an exception to the rule, and he +told me all I wanted to know (and more than I knew I needed to know) +with a cordiality and frankness not always to be found among the genial +smokers of our own hotels. His voice was in favor of the Atherstone as +being the most acceptable thing for the next day. + +Ford, the veterinary surgeon of Leamington, had, on several +occasions, done good service for friends who had gone before me over +the hedges of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for advice about a +mount. Here I found that I had made a mistake in not engaging horses in +advance. To get a "hunter" for the next day would be impossible, but +he would do what he could for a few days hence. All he could promise +for the morning would be to lend me a horse of his own, a thoroughbred +mare, not up to my weight, but tough and wiry, and good for any amount +of road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange for our going by the +first train to Coventry, only a couple of miles from Brinklow (it +turned out to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh on the +ground. At seven o'clock in the morning he came to my room to say +that everything was arranged, and that I should find the mare at the +station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk as a stay-stomach,--my +usual habit,--I put myself, for the first time since the war ended, +into breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On a turn-out stood +a "horse-box," one of the institutions of England,--a three-stabled +freight-car for the transportation of horses. Paying five shillings for +a horse-ticket to Coventry (only twice the cost of my own seat), I saw +the mare snugly packed into one of the narrow stalls and made fast for +the journey. Passing through a beautiful farming country, we came in +due time to the quaint old town of Coventry, where several horse-boxes, +coming from Birmingham and other stations, were discharging their +freight of well-bred hunters. As we rode from this station another +hard-shelled Englishman in brown top-boots and spotless white leather +breeches accosted me pleasantly, reminding me that we had come from +London together the day before, and asking, as he had recognized me for +an American, if he could be of service to me. + +"Pray how did you know that I am from America?" + +"Only by your asking if you should change 'cars' at Rugby. An +Englishman would have said 'carriages.'" + +"Very well; I am glad my ear-mark was no greater. Can you direct me to +a hotel where I can get a bite before I go on?" + +"Certainly: you will find the Angel very comfortable; take the next +street to the right, and you will soon reach it. Good morning; it is +nine miles to the meet, and I will move on slowly. Command me if I can +help you when you come up." + +I did find the Angel comfortable, (as what English inn is not?) and +soon fortified myself with cold pheasant and sherry,--a compact +and little-burdensome repast to ride upon,--served in a cosey old +coffee-room by the neatest and most obliging of handmaidens. + +On the road I fell in with straggling groups of horsemen, in red coats +and black coats, leather breeches and cords, white tops and black; +all neat and jaunty, and all wearing the canonical stove-pipe hat. My +little mare was brisk, and I had no hard riding to save her for, so I +passed a dozen or more of the party, getting from each one some form or +other of pleasant recognition, and finally from a handsome young fellow +on a very spicy mount, "Excuse me, are you going to Brinklow? You must +turn to the right." + +Confound these Englishmen, thought I, where is their traditional +coldness and reserve? And I reined up for a chat. + +My companion came from the vicinity of Birmingham. Like so many of +his class, he devotes three days a week to systematic hunting, and +he was as enthusiastic as an American boy could have been in telling +me all I wanted to know about the sport. To get hold of a grown man +who had never seen a foxhound seemed an event for him, and my first +instructions were very agreeably taken. Our road ran past the beautiful +deer-stocked park of Coombe Abbey, where the green grass of a moist +December and the thick clustering growth of all-embracing ivy carried +the fresh hues of our summer over the wide lawn and to the very tops +of the trees about the grand old house. The few villages on our way +were neither interesting nor pleasant, but the thatched farm-houses and +cottages, and the wonderful ivy, and the charming fields and hedges +were all that could have been asked. + +And then the roadsides! and the stiles and the foot-paths, and the +look of age and the richness of the well-kept farms; and again and +everywhere the ivy clinging fast to each naked thing, and clothing it +with luxuriant beauty! + +There is in all our hearts an inherited chord that thrills in the +presence of this dear old home of our race. Not this spot and not these +scenes, but the air, the tone, the spirit of it all,--these are as +familiar to our instincts as water to the hen-brooded duckling. + +Brinklow Station has the modern hideousness and newness of railroad +stations everywhere in country neighborhoods, and it was pleasant to +leave it behind and follow the gay crowd down a sloping and winding +road into the real country again, and into a handsome and well-kept +park, beyond which there stood a fine old house of some pretension, and +well set about with terraced lawn and shrubbery,--a charming English +country-seat. + +Here my eyes were greeted with the glory of my first "meet," and a +glory it was indeed! Pictures and descriptions had suggested it, but +they had only suggested it. This was the reality, and it far exceeded +my anticipation. The grounds were fairly alive with a brilliant +company of men and women,--happy and hearty, and just gathered for the +day's sport. Red coats, white breeches, and top-boots were plenty, +and the neat holiday air of the whole company was refreshing and +delightful. Scattered about singly and in groups, mounted, on foot, +and in carriages, were a couple of hundred people of all ages and of +all conditions. Chatting from the saddle and over carriage-doors, +lounging up and down the Drive, or looking over the hounds, the +company were leisurely awaiting the opening of the ball. They had +come from a circuit of twenty miles around, and they appeared to be +mainly people who habitually congregate at the cover-side throughout +the hunting-season, and to be generally more or less acquainted with +each other. The element of coquetry was not absent; but coquetry is +apparently not a natural product of the English soil, and that sort +of intercourse was not conspicuous. The same number of handsome young +men and women would be more demonstrative at a similar gathering +in America. A similar gathering, however, would not be possible in +America. We have no occasion on which people of all sorts come so +freely and so naturally together, interested in a traditional and +national sport, which is alike open to rich and poor, and meeting, +not for the single occasion only, but several times a week, winter +after winter, often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, farmers, +manufacturers, professional men, snobs, cads, errand-boys,--everybody, +in short, who cared to come seemed to have the right to come, and, so +far as the hunt was concerned, seemed to be on an equal footing. Of +course the poorer element was comparatively small, and mainly from the +immediate neighborhood. The _habitués_ of a hunt are seldom below the +grade of well-to-do farmers. Servants from the house were distributing +refreshments, riders were mounting their hunters, grooms were adjusting +saddle-girths, too fiery animals were being quieted, and there was +generally an air of preparation about the whole assemblage. + +A little at one side, kept well together by the huntsman and a couple +of whippers-in, were the hounds (the Atherstone pack), about forty of +them, or, technically, "twenty couples," strong-limbed, large-eared, +party-colored, wholesome-looking fellows. They attracted much attention +and elicited frequent commendation, for they were said to be the very +finest pack in England,--as was also each of the three other packs that +I saw. To the unskilled eye, and simply viewed as dogs, they were not +remarkable; but it was a case in which the judgment of an unskilled +person could have no value. + +The horses appealed to me much more strongly. Certainly I had never +before seen together the same number of the same average excellence; +and some of them were fit to drive one wild with envy. There was, on +the whole, less of the "blood" look than would be expected by a man who +had got his ideas of the hunting-field from Leech's drawings, but there +was a good deal of it, nevertheless, and in its perfection too; and +where it was wanting there was plenty of bone to make up for it. + +At eleven the hounds were led out to the cover, and the whole field +followed slowly and irregularly and at some distance. There were about +one hundred and fifty mounted for the hunt. Perhaps one third of these +wore scarlet coats, white breeches, and top-boots; another third had +black coats and some of them black boots; and the remainder of the +field was made up of half a dozen ladies, a few stout old gentlemen of +seventy or so on stout old cobs of discreet age, little boys on smart +ponies, farmers and tradesmen and their clerks mounted on whatever they +could get, and men of every intermediate grade, and with all sorts of +horses. A certain amount of riff-raff, not mounted at all, but good +on their pins and ready for a run, were hanging about for a chance to +pick up a whip or a hat, or to catch a horse, or brush a muddy coat, or +turn an honest shilling in any way that might offer in the chances of +the day. Some of these fellows, rigged out with the cast-off clothing +of their betters, sported red coats, black velvet caps, and leather +leggings. One added to all this gorgeousness the refinement of bare +feet. + +The hounds were taken into the cover, a brambly, tangled wood near by, +which had probably been planted and made a little wilderness to serve +as a cover for foxes. + +They soon found a fox, drove him to the open, and followed him out of +the wood with a whimpering sort of cry which was disappointing after +the notion that the "full cry" of the books had given, and which is +heard in the very different fox-hunting of our Southern woods. The run +lay up a steepish hill, several fields wide and across an open country. +One bold rider (not a light one), mounted on a staving black horse, +went to the right of the cover, and made a splendid leap up hill, +over a stiff-looking hedge, and landed at the tail of the pack. The +"master" and his assistants had got away with the hounds. The rest of +the field went to the left, waiting their turns, through a farm-gate. +Once through, some twenty of them dashed up the hill, cleared a clever +hedge, and kept the pack in sight. The rest took an easier place, +where a farm laborer had pulled away the stakes by which a gap had +been filled. Here there was much very light jumping, and much more of +waiting until predecessors had made it lighter. In the mean time other +gaps were found, and it was not many minutes before all were through; +but during these minutes the fox, the hounds, and the harder riding men +were putting a wide space between themselves and us, who were at the +tail of the field. Yet there were some in the party who did not look +like laggards, and whose horses were good enough for any work such a +country could give them. + +Even when across the gap, these men went with the rest of us, by +gates and lanes, toward a point to which it was thought by the knowing +ones that the fox would double,--and the knowing ones were right. +Gradually, as their judgment indicated, they left the roads and took to +the fields. This course was taken by three well-mounted young ladies. +I followed the gate-openers for about half an hour, when, coming out +on a high-road, I concluded that, with seventeen miles to ride home, +it was only just to my little mare to give the thing up and head for +Leamington. The hounds were far away on my right and quite out of sight. + +Having come to look on and learn, I had probably seen and heard all +that day had in store for me,--surely enough for one's first day at +fox-hunting. When I had ridden for a few minutes I saw, far across +the fields, that the hounds had turned to the left and were making +for my road. Pressing forward, I came up in time to see them cross to +the front, and go scurrying away over the grass, nosing out the scent +as they ran. There had been a check, and "the field" was well up. The +road was lower than the fields, and was bordered by a ditch at each +side. From this the ground rose a little, and on each bank stood a +three-and-a-half-foot thorn hedge. Neither leap was difficult, but the +one out of the road was not easy. Here I sat and saw fully a hundred +horsemen, dressed in the gay colors of the hunting-field and mounted +as men rarely are mounted out of England, all, horses as well as men, +eager and excited in the chase, flying over hedge and ditch into the +carriage-way and over ditch and hedge into the higher field, beyond +and away, headlong after the hounds, every man for himself, and every +man for the front, and on they went over another hedge, and out of +sight. In the thick of the flight were two ladies, riding as well and +as boldly as the men, and two men were brushing their hats in the road, +their empty saddles keeping well up with the run. More than satisfied +with this climax of my first day's experience, I trotted out for home. +The result of the run I never heard, and I leave its description where +I lost sight of it. A mile farther on I did see a fagged-looking fox +making his rapid way across my road again, and sneaking off under the +hedge toward a thicket, and I halted to listen to what sounded like the +horn of a huntsman at check over the hill to the left; but possibly the +conclusion I drew was not a correct one. + +I wish that words could give an idea of the life and action of the +headlong flight I had just seen; but the inadequacy of all I had read +to convey it to me makes it seem useless to try. Photography and +description may, in a measure, supply the place of travel; but he who +would realize the most thrilling intensity of eager horsemanship must +stand in a hedge-bound English lane, and see with his own eyes, and +for the first time in his life, a hundred gayly dressed and splendidly +mounted fox-hunters flashing at full speed across his path; and it is +worth the while to see. + +Rain never fell on a more lovely country than that part of Warwickshire +through which my wet way lay. For ten miles of the seventeen it rained, +gently as it rains with us in April; nor is our grass more green in +April than this was in Christmas week. The all-prevailing ivy was +filled with berries, and the laurustinus was already in bloom. + +No born Englishman could have cared less for the soaking rain; and, +wet to the skin, tired to the bone, and stiff to the marrow, I have +rarely been more exuberant than when I gradually regained the use of my +legs in the half-mile walk to the hotel, resolving that not even the +glories of American citizenship should ever keep me away from England +in winter were I only able to afford the luxury of regular hunting. But +the exuberance was moral rather than physical. I had not been so tired +for years,--stiff as an old horse, after over thirty miles of really +hard riding (the last seventeen miles in two hours). The cure was a +hot bath and a dish of hot soup, followed by a log-like sleep of two +hours on a sofa before a blazing hot fire, a sharp half-hour's walk, +a very plain dinner, and a couple of hours' chat with my interested +East-Indiaman in the smoking-room: the cure was complete; and all that +was left of the day's sport was its brilliant recollection. + + * * * * * + +My second day was near Stratford-on-Avon,--on _Ay_-von, the misguided +English call it. The meet was to be at Goldicote House, one of the +"fixtures" of the Warwickshire Hunt. There were about a hundred +persons, including a few ladies, and one little bareheaded "blue-coat" +school-boy (from Charles Lamb's school), who, with his folded umbrella, +long skirt, low shoes, and yellow hose, was in for as much sport as +his Christmas holiday could give him. As a farther penalty for want of +forethought, I was reduced to riding a friend's coach-horse. However, +the reduction was not great, for whether by early instruction or by +inheritance, he was more than half a hunter, and gave me a capital +look at the whole day's chase; while his owner, on a most charming +black blood mare, being out of condition for hard riding, kindly +applied himself to urging me to severer work than one likes to do +with a borrowed horse. He introduced me to a venerable old gentleman +in a time-and-weather-stained red coat, velvet cap, and well-used +nether gear, mounted on a knowing-looking old gray, and attended by +his granddaughter. He could not have been less than eighty years old, +and his days of hard riding were over; but constant hunting exercise +every winter for over sixty years had protected him wonderfully well +against the ravages of time, and it is rare to see an American of +sixty so hale and hearty, and so cheerful and jolly. I was told that +if I would take him for my leader, I would see more of the run than I +could in any other way with such a mount as I had. He seemed to know +the habits of the foxes of South Warwickshire as thoroughly as he did +every foot-path and gate of the country, and he led us by cross-cuts to +the various points to which Reynard circled, so that we often had the +whole field in sight. It was not an especially interesting day, and the +fox got away at last, among a tangle of railway lines that blocked our +passage. My old mentor, who had given me much valuable instruction in +the details of hunting, was vastly disgusted at the result, and broke +out with, "Ah! it's all up with old England, I doubt; these confounded +railways have killed sport. There's no hunting to be had any longer, +for their infernal cutting up the country in this way. I've hunted with +these hounds under fifteen different masters, but I've about done, and +I sha'n't lose much,--it's all up. However, I suppose we could never +pay the interest on the national debt without the railways; but it's +all up with hunting." At that, he called away the young lady, bade me +a melancholy "good-by," and rode half sadly home. I galloped back to +Stratford with my handsome old host,--a little more knowing in the ways +of the field, but without yet having had a fair taste of the sport. + + * * * * * + +Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal little village of +Wansford, near the borders of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, +perhaps, the only remaining old posting-inn in England that is kept up +in the unchanged style of the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are +gone, but the posting-stables are filled with hunters; the travelling +public have fled to the swifter lines, and Wansford is forever deserted +of them; but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and Tom Percival, +who boasts that he has had the Princess Victoria for a guest, and has +slept five dukes in one night, has little occasion to complain of +neglect. The good wine that needs no bush still makes his cellar known, +and no one should criticise English cooking until he has dined once at +the Haycock. Nowhere is the inn-maid of whom we have read so much to be +found in such simple, tidy, and courtesying perfection; and nowhere, in +short, can one find so completely the solid comfort of hostelry life. +Half old farm-house and half wayside-inn; with a marvellous larder, +through whose glass-closed side the guest sees visions of joints and +jams and pastry in lavish profusion; backed by a stable-yard where boys +are always exercising good horses; and flanked by a yardful of quaint +clipped yews,--the old house at Wansford (in spite of its dull-looking +road front) is worth a visit from those who would get out of the sight +and sound of steam, and see the old, old country life of England. +The visitor is not numbered and billeted and pigeon-holed, as in the +modern hotel; but the old fiction of host and guest is well kept up. +Your coming should be announced in advance; and you are received as +in some sort a member of the family, whose ways are made to conform +more or less to the wishes of yourself and your convives, mainly young +swells from London, who are few, and who are there, as you are, not for +business, but for rest, good living, and regular sport. Three packs +of hounds are within reach; and on the days when none of the meets is +near, there is always the "larking"--the training of young horses--to +supply a good substitute, so far as the riding goes. One who cares for +hunting pure and simple, rather than for the gayer life of Leamington +and Cheltenham, cannot do better than to make the season, or a part of +it, at the Haycock, with regularly engaged horses for as many days in +the week as he may choose to ride. It costs,--but it pays. One is none +the less welcome among the guests for being an American. + +I there had a day with the George Fitz William hounds. Not being, as +yet, quite at home in the field, I took a wise old horse, "Cock Robin," +who was well up to my weight, and who, as Percival told me, would +teach me more than I could teach him. He was sent on early with the +other hunters, and I took a "hack" to ride to cover. We were a party +of four, and we went through the fields and the lawns and the rain, +to where the meet was fixed for eleven o'clock, at Barnwell Castle, a +fine old Norman ruin,--square and low, with four large corner towers +draped in magnificent ivy. It was a dreary morning, and not more than +sixty were out; but among these, as always, there were ladies, and +there was more than the usual proportion of fine horses. One cover +was drawn blank, and we moved to another, where a fox was found, and +whence the run was sharp and too straight for a prudent novice to see +very much of it; and it was some minutes before Cock Robin and his +rider came up with the hounds, who had come to a check in a large wood. +Throughout the day there was a good deal of waiting about different +covers, between which the fox ran back and forth. Finally he broke away +for a long, quick burst over the fields, which lay to the left of a +farm-road down which we were riding, and which was flanked by a high +and solid-looking hedge. Near the head of the party was a well-mounted +blonde of seventeen, who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country +and to keep prudently near to her mother and her groom. The sight of +the splendid run, fast leaving us behind, was too much for her, and she +turned straight for the hedge, clearing it with a grander leap than I +had seen taken that day, and flying on over hedges and ditches in the +direct wake of the hounds. A young German who followed her said, as +we rode back to the Haycock, "It is vort to come from America or from +Owstria to see zat lofely Lady ---- go over ze cowntry"; and it was. + +Luck often favors the timid; Cock Robin and I were quite alone--he +disgusted, and I half ashamed with my prudence--when the fox, who had +found straight running of no avail, came swerving to the right over +the crest of a distant hill, closely followed by the hounds, and, in +splendid style, by the first flight of the field. Soon he crossed a +brook which was fenced in with rails, and the horsemen all had to make +a long détour, so that I, who had been last, now became first. I had +the fox and the hounds all to myself; my horse was fresh, and the way +was easy. My monopoly lasted only a moment, but it was not a moment of +tranquillity. Finding an open gate and bridge, I followed the pack into +a large low field, surrounded on three sides by the wide brook. The fox +was turned by this and ran to the right along the bank; at the corner +of the field he turned again to the right, still keeping by the edge of +the stream; this gave the hounds an immense advantage, and cutting off +the angle, they came so closely upon him that with still another turn +of the brook ahead of him, he had but one chance for his life, and that +was a desperate one for a tired fox to consider. He did not consider, +but went slap at the brook, and cleared it with a leap of nearly twenty +feet. The foremost hounds whimpered for a moment on the bank before +they took to the water, and when they were across Reynard was well out +of sight, and they had to nose out his trail afresh. He brought them +again to a check, and finally, after half an hour's skirmishing, he ran +down a railway cutting in the wake of a train, and got away. + +Incidentally, here was an opportunity for an English gentleman to show +more good temper and breeding than it is one's daily lot to see. He was +one of a bridgeful of horsemen watching the hounds as they vainly tried +to unravel the fox's scent from the bituminous trail of the locomotive, +when, full of eager curiosity, one of the ladies, middle-aged and not +"native and to the manner born," but not an American, rode directly +on to his horse's heels. To the confusion of my lady, the horse, like +a sensible horse as he was, resented the attack with both his feet. +His rider got him at once out of the way, and then returned, bowing +his venerable head in regretful apology, and trusting that no serious +harm had been done. "How can you ride such a kicking brute!" was the +gracious acknowledgment of his forbearance. + +In this storied little island one is never for long out of the presence +of places on the traditions of which our life-long fancies have been +fed. Our road home lay past the indistinct mass of rubbish, clustered +round with ivy and with the saddest associations, which was once +Fotheringay Castle; and as we turned into the village my companions +pointed out the still serviceable but long-unused "stocks" where the +minor malefactors of the olden time expiated their offences. + +We reached the Haycock at three, a moist but far from unpleasant body +of tired and dirty men, having ridden, since nine in the morning, over +fifty-five miles, mostly in the rain, and often in a shower of mud +splashed by galloping hoofs. By six o'clock we were in good trim for +dinner, and after dinner for a long, cosey talk over the events of the +day, and horses and fox-hunting in general. My own interest in the +sport is confined mainly to its equestrian side, and I am not able to +give much information as to its details. Any stranger must be impressed +with the firm hold it has on the affections of the people, and with the +little public sympathy that is shown for the rare attempts that are +made to restrict its rights. + +It would seem natural that the farmers should be its bitter +opponents. It can hardly be a cheerful sight, in March, for a thrifty +man to see a crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his twenty acres of +well-wintered wheat, filling the air with a spray of soil and uprooted +plants. But let a non-riding reformer get up after the annual dinner +of the local Agricultural Association and suggest that the rights of +tenant-farmers have long enough lain at the mercy of their landlord and +his fox-hunting friends, with the rabble of idle sports and ruthless +ne'er-do-weels who follow at their heels, and that it is time for them +to assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition of a costly +pastime, which leads to no good practical result, and the burdens of +which fall so heavily on the producing classes,--and then see how his +brother farmers will second his efforts. The very man whose wheat was +apparently ruined will tell him that in March one would have said the +whole crop was destroyed, but that the stirring up seemed to do it +good, for he had never before seen such an even stand on that field. +Another will argue that while hunting does give him some extra work in +the repair of hedges and gates, and while he sometimes has his fields +torn up more than he likes, yet the hounds are the best neighbors he +has; they bring a good market for hay and oats, and, for his part, he +likes to get a day with them himself now and then. Another raises a +young horse when he can, and if he turns out a clever fencer, he gets a +much larger price for him than he could if there were no hunting in the +country. Another has now and then lost poultry by the depredations of +foxes, but he never knew the master to refuse a fair claim for damages; +for his part, he would scorn to ask compensation; he likes to see the +noble sport, which is the glory of England, flourishing, in spite of +modern improvements. At this point, and at this stage of the convivial +cheer, they bring in the charge at Balaklava, and other evidences that +the noble sport, which is the glory of old England, breeds a race of +men whose invincible daring always has won and always shall win her +honor in the field;--and Long live the Queen, and Here's a health to +the Handley Cross Hunt, and Confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit +that is filling the country with wire fences and that would do away +with the noble sport which is the glory of old England! Hear! hear!! +And so it ends, and half the company, in velvet caps, scarlet coats, +leathers and top-boots, will be early on the ground at the first meet +of the next autumn, glad to see their old cover-side friends once more, +and hoping for a jolly winter of such healthful amusements and pleasant +intercourse as shall put into their heads and their hearts and into +their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold compensation for the +trifling loss they may sustain in the way of broken gates and trampled +fields. + +I saw too little to be able to form a fair opinion as to the harm +done; but when once the run commences no more account is made of wheat, +which is carefully avoided when going at a slow pace, than if it were +so much sawdust; fences are torn down, and there is no time to replace +them; if gates are locked, they are taken off the hinges or broken; if +sheep join the crowd in an enclosure and follow them into the road, no +one stops to see that they are returned: we are after the hounds, and +sheep must take care of themselves. I saw one farmer, in an excited +manner, open the gates of his kitchen-garden and turn the hounds and +twenty horsemen through it as the shortest way to where he had seen the +fox go; his womenfolk eagerly calling "Tally-ho!" to others who were +going wrong. I have never seen a railroad train stopped because of the +conductor's interest in a passing hunt, but I fancy that is the only +thing in England that does not stop when the all-absorbing interest is +once awakened. + +Whatever may be the effect on material interests, the benefit of this +eager, vigorous, outdoor life on the health and morals of the people +is most unmistakable. Such a race of handsome, hale, straight-limbed, +honest, and simple-hearted men can nowhere else be found as in the wide +class that passes as much of every winter as is possible in regular +fox-hunting; and to make an application of their example, we could well +afford to give over many of our fertile fields to ruthless destruction, +and many of our fertile hours to the most senseless sport, if it would +only replace our dyspeptic stomachs, sallow cheeks, stooping shoulders, +and restless eagerness with the hale and hearty and easy-going life +and energy of our English cousins. Hardly enough women hunt in England +to constitute an example; but those who do are such models of health +and freshness as to make one wish that more women had the benefit of +such amusement both there and here. It is very common to see men of +over sixty following the hounds in the very _élite_ of the field; they +seem still in the vigor of youth. At seventy many are yet regular at +their work; and it is hardly remarkable when one finally hangs up his +red coat only at the age of eighty. Considering all this, it almost +becomes a question whether, patriotism to the contrary notwithstanding, +it would not be a good thing for a prosperous American, instead of +settling down at the age of forty-five to a special partnership and a +painful digestion, to take a smaller income where it would bring more +comfort, and by a judicious application of the pig-skin to rehabilitate +his enfeebled alimentation. + +Fox-hunting is a costly luxury if one goes well mounted and well +appointed. It can hardly be made cheap, even when one lives in his +own house and rides his own horses. With hotel bills and horse-hire, +it costs still more. As an occasional indulgence it is always a good +investment. My own score at the Haycock was as follows,--by way of +illustration, and because actual figures are worth more than estimates. +(I was there from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, went out +with a shooting-party on Friday, dined out on Friday night, and hunted +on Saturday.) + + THE HAYCOCK INN. + + £ _s._ _d._ + Jan. 2. Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Bed and fire, 3 6 + " 3. Breakfast, 2 6 + Apartments,[A] bed and fire, 5 0 + Attendance,[B] 1 6 + Jan. 4. Breakfast, 2 6 + Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Apartments, bed and fire, 5 6 + Attendance, 1 6 + " 5. Breakfast, 2 6 + + STABLE. + + Conveying luggage from station, 2 6 + Dog-cart to Sharks Lodge, 10 6 + " " " Oundle, 12 6 + " " " Peterborough, 8 0 + + THOMAS PERCIVAL. + + Jan. 4. Hire of hunter to Barnwell, 4 4 0 + " hack " " 10 6 + +[A] The run of the house. + +[B] We are apt to consider this a petty swindle, but it has the +advantage that you get what you pay for. + +Eight pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; which being interpreted +means $47.30 in the lawful currency of the United States. The hunter +and hack for one day cost $23.52. + +An American friend living with his family in Leamington (much more +cheaply than he could live at home), kept two hunters and a hack, and +hunted them twice a week for the whole season (nearly six months) at a +cost, including the loss on his horses, which he sold in the spring, of +less than $1,500. I think this is below the average expense. + +The cost of keeping up a pack of hounds is very heavy. The hounds +themselves, a well-paid huntsman, two or three whippers-in, two +horses a day for each of these attendants (hunting four days a week, +this would probably require four horses for each man), and no end of +incidental expenses, bring the cost to fully $20,000 per annum. This is +sometimes paid wholly or in part by subscription and sometimes entirely +by the Master of the Hounds. One item of my friend's expenses at +Leamington was a subscription of ten guineas each to the Warwickshire, +North Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Pytchley hunts. Something of this +sort would be necessary if one hunted for any considerable time with +any subscription pack, but an occasional visitor is not expected to +contribute. + +A stranger participating in the sport need only be guided by common +modesty and common-sense. However good a horseman he may be, he cannot +make a sensation among the old stagers of the hunting-field. Probably +he will get no commendation of any sort. If he does, it will be for +keeping out of the way of others,--taking always the easiest and safest +road that will bring him well up with the hounds, not flinching when a +desperate leap must be taken, and following (at a respectful distance) +a good leader, rather than trying to take the lead himself. However +promising the prospect may be, he had better not do anything on his own +hook; if he makes a conspicuous mistake, he will probably be corrected +for it in plainer English than it is pleasant to hear. + + * * * * * + +One of the memorable days of my life was the day before New-Year's. +Ford had secured me a capital hunter, a well-clipped gelding, over +sixteen hands high, glossy, lean, and wiry as a racer. "You've got +a rare mount to-day, sir," said the groom as he held him for me to +get up; and a rare dismount I came near having in the little measure +of capacity with which Master Dick and I commenced our acquaintance, +before we left the Regent. He was one of those horses whose spirits +are just a little too much for their skins, and all the way out he +kept up a restless questioning of his prospect of having his own way. +Still he was in all this, as in his manner of doing his work when he +got into the open country, such a perfect counterpart of old Max, who +had carried me for two years in the Southwest, that I was at home at +once. If I had had a hunter made to order, I could not have been more +perfectly suited. + +The meet (North Warwickshire) was at Cubbington Gate, only two miles +from Leamington, and a very gay meet it was. The road was filled with +carriages, and there was a goodly rabble on foot. About three hundred, +in every variety of dress, were mounted for the hunt, a dozen or so +of ladies among them. Three of these kept well up all day, and one of +them rode very straight. The hounds were taken to a wood about a mile +to the eastward of Cubbington, where they soon found a fox, which led +us a very straight course to Princethorpe, about three miles to the +northeast. + +I had done little fencing for seven or eight years, and the sort +of propulsion one gets in being carried over a hedge is sufficiently +different from the ordinary impulses of civil life to suggest at first +the element of surprise. Consequently, though our initial leap was a +modest one, I landed with only one foot in the stirrup and with one +hand in the mane; but I now saw that Dick was but another name for Max, +and this one moderate failure was enough to recall the old tricks of +the craft. As the opportunity would perhaps never come again, this one +was not to be neglected, and I resolved to have one fair inside view +of real fox-hunting. Dick was clearly as good a horse as was out that +day; the leaping was less than that to which we were used among the +worm-fences, fallen timber, and gullies of Arkansas and Tennessee; and +there was but a plain Anglo-Saxon name for the only motive that could +deter me from making the most of the occasion. Mr. Lant, the Master of +the Hounds, was not better mounted for his lighter weight than was I +for my fourteen stone; and his position as well as his look indicated +that he would probably go by the nearest practicable route to where the +fox might lead, so we kept at a safe distance behind him and well in +his wake. The hesitation and uncertainty which had at first confused my +bridle-hand being removed, my horse, recognizing the changed position +of affairs, settled down to his work like a well-trained and sensible +but eager beast as he was. From the covert to Princethorpe we took +seven fences and some small ditches, and we got there with the first +half-dozen of the field, both of us in higher spirits than horse and +rider ever get except by dint of hard going and successful fencing. + +Here there was a short check, but the fox was soon routed out again and +made for Waveley Wood, a couple of miles to the northwest. + +Waveley Wood is what is called in England a "biggish bit of timber," +and the check here was long enough to allow the whole field to come up. +As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, "Tally-ho!" was called from +the other side of the cover, and we splashed through a muddy cart-road +and out into the open just as the hounds were well away. Now was a ride +for dear life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy ground would +allow. In front of us was a "bullfinch" (a neglected hedge, out of +which strong thorny shoots of several years' growth have run up ten or +twelve feet above it). I had often heard of bullfinches, and no hunting +experience could be complete without taking one. It was some distance +around by the gate, the pace was strong, and the spiny fringe had just +closed behind Mr. Lant's red coat as he dropped into the field beyond. +"Follow my leader" is a game that must be boldly played; so, settling +my hat well down, holding my bridle-hand low, and covering my closed +eyes with my right elbow, with the whip-hand over the left shoulder, I +put my heart in my pocket and went at it, and through it with a crash! +An ugly scratch on the fleshy part of the right hand was the only +damage done, and I was one of the very few near the pack. Dick and I +were now up to anything; we made very light of a thick tall hedge that +came next in order, and we cleared it like a bird; but we landed in a +pool of standing water, covering deeply ploughed ground, the horse's +forefeet sinking so deeply that he could not get them out in time, and +our headway rolled us both over in the mud, I flat on my back. Dick +got up just in time for his pastern to strike me in the face as I was +rising, giving me a cut lip, a mouthful of blood, and a black and blue +nose-bridge. My appearance has, on occasions, been more respectable +and my temper more serene than as I ran, soiled and bleeding, over the +ploughed ground, calling to some workmen to "catch my horse." + +I was soon up and away again. There seemed some confusion in the run, +and the master being out of sight, I followed one of the whips as he +struck into a blind path in a wood. It was a tangled mass of briers, +but he went in at full pace, and evidently there was no time to be +lost. At the other side of the copse there was a set of low bars, and +beyond this a small, slimy ditch. My leader cleared the bars, but +his horse's hind feet slipped on the bank of the ditch, and he fell +backwards with an ugly kind of sprawl that I had no time to examine, +for Dick took the leap easily and soon brought me into a field where, +on a little hillock, and quite alone, stood the huntsman, dismounted, +holding the dead fox high in his left hand, while with his long-leashed +hunting-crop he kept the hungry and howling pack at bay. The master +soon came up, as did about a dozen others, including a bright little +boy on a light little pony. The fox's head (mask), tail (brush), and +feet (pads) were now cut off and distributed as trophies under the +master's direction. The carcass was then thrown to the pack, that +fought and snarled over it until, in a twinkling, the last morsel had +disappeared. This was the "death,"--by no means the most engaging part +of the amusement. From the find to the killing was only twenty-five +minutes, into which had been crowded more excitement and more physical +happiness than I had known for many a long day. + +The second cover drawn was not far away. With this fox we had two +hours' work, mainly through woods at a walk and with the hounds +frequently at fault, but with some good leaping. Finally he was run to +earth and abandoned. + +We then went to a cover near Bubbenhall, but found no fox, and then, +with the same luck, to another east of Baggington. It was now nearly +four o'clock, growing dusk, and beginning to rain. The hounds started +for their kennels, and Dick and I took a soft bridle-path skirting the +charming road that leads, under such ivy-clad tree-trunks and between +such hedges as no other land can show, through Stoneleigh Village and +past Stoneleigh Abbey to Leamington, and a well-earned rest. + + * * * * * + +My memorandum for that day closes: "Horse, £2 12_s._ 6_d._; Fees, +2_s._; and well worth the money." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Whip and Spur, by George E. 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Waring + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Whip and Spur + +Author: George E. Waring + +Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44492] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHIP AND SPUR *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="425" height="688" alt="Whip and Spur cover image" title="Whip and Spur" /> +</div> + +<p class="title">WHIP AND SPUR</p> + +<p class="centerbold"><small>BY</small></p> + +<p class="author">COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/titlepageimg.jpg" alt="Decorative image" title="Decorative image" /> +</div> + +<p class="centerbold"><br /> +<small>NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +MCMIV<br /> +<br /><br /> +<small>COPYRIGHT, 1897<br /> +BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.</small></small> +<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<h2 class="no-break">CONTENTS.</h2> +<table summary="Table of contents"> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#VIX"><span class="smcap">Vix</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">7</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#RUBY"><span class="smcap">Ruby</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">34</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#WETTSTEIN"><span class="smcap">Wettstein</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#MAX"><span class="smcap">Campaigning with Max</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">93</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#OVERCOAT"><span class="smcap">How I got my Overcoat</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">138</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#SCOUTS"><span class="smcap">Two Scouts</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">162</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#GLOAMING"><span class="smcap">In the Gloaming</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">186</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#FOXHUNTING"><span class="smcap">Fox-Hunting in England</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">201</td> +</tr> +</table></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch1.jpg" width="500px" height="133px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="VIX" id="VIX"></a>VIX.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/w.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_1">When the work on the Central Park had +fairly commenced, in the spring of 1858, +I found—or I fancied—that proper +attention to my scattered duties made it necessary +that I should have a saddle-horse.</p> + +<p>How easily, by the way, the arguments that +convince us of these pleasant necessities find +their way to the understanding!</p> + +<p>Yet, how to subsist a horse after buying one, +and how to buy? The memory of a well-bred +and keen-eyed gray, dating back to the earliest +days of my boyhood, and forming the chief feature +of my recollection of play-time for years; +an idle propensity, not a whit dulled yet, to +linger over Leech’s long-necked hunters, and +Herring’s field scenes; an almost superstitious +faith in the different analyses of the bones of +the racer and of the cart-horse; a firm belief +in Frank Forester’s teachings of the value of +“blood,”—all these conspired to narrow my +range of selection, and, unfortunately, to confine +it to a very expensive class of horses.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, again, the commissioners of the +Park had extremely inconvenient ideas of economy, +and evidently did not consider, in fixing +their schedule of salaries, how much more satisfactory +our positions would have been with more +generous emolument.</p> + +<p>How a man with only a Park salary, and with +a family to support, could set up a saddle-horse,—and +not ride to the dogs,—was a question that +exercised not a little of my engineering talent +for weeks; and many an odd corner of plans and +estimates was figured over with calculations of +the cost of forage and shoeing.</p> + +<p>Stable-room was plenty and free in the condemned +buildings of the former occupants, and +a little “over-time” of one of the men would +suffice for the grooming.</p> + +<p>I finally concluded that, by giving up cigars, +and devoting my energies to the pipe in their +stead, I could save enough to pay for my horse’s +keep; and so, the ways and means having been, +in this somewhat vague manner, provided, the +next step was to buy a horse. To tell of the +days passed at auction sales in the hope (never +there realized) of finding goodness and cheapness +combined,—of the stationery wasted in answering +advertisements based on every conceivable +form of false pretence; to describe the numberless +broken-kneed, broken-winded, and broken-down +brutes that came under inspection,—would +be tedious and disheartening.</p> + +<p>Good horses there were, of course, though very +few good saddle-horses (America is not productive +in this direction),—and the possible animals were +held at impossible prices.</p> + +<p>Those who rode over the new Park lands usually +rode anything but good saddle-horses. Fast +trotters, stout ponies, tolerable carriage-horses, +capital cart-horses, there were in plenty. But +the clean-cut, thin-crested, bright-eyed, fine-eared, +steel-limbed saddle-horse, the saddle-horse <em>par excellence</em>,—may +I say the only saddle-horse?—rarely +came under observation; and when, by exception, +such a one did appear, he was usually so +ridden that his light was sadly dimmed. It was +hard to recognize an elastic step under such an +unelastic seat.</p> + +<p>Finally, in the days of my despair, a kind saddler,—kept +to his daily awl by a too keen eye +for sport, and still, I believe, a victim to his propensity +for laying his money on the horse that +ought to win but don’t,—hearing of my ambition +(to him the most laudable of all ambitions), +came to put me on the long-sought path.</p> + +<p>He knew a mare, or he had known one, that +would exactly suit me. She was in a bad way +now, and a good deal run down, but he always +thought she “had it in her,” and that some gentleman +ought to keep her for the saddle,—“which, +in my mind, sir, she be the finest bit of +’orse-flesh that was hever imported, sir.” That +was enough. “Imported” decided my case, and +I listened eagerly to the enthusiastic story,—a +story to which this man’s life was bound with +threads of hard-earned silver, and not less by a +real honest love for a fine animal. He had never +been much given to saving, but he was a good +workman, and the little he had saved had been +blown away in the dust that clouded his favorite +at the tail of the race.</p> + +<p>Still, he attached himself to her person, and +followed her in her disgrace. “She weren’t quite +quick enough for the turf, sir, but she be a good +’un for a gentleman’s ’ack.”</p> + +<p>He had watched her for years, and scraped +acquaintance with her different owners as fast as +she had changed them, and finally, when she was +far gone with pneumonia, he had accepted her as +a gift, and, by careful nursing, had cured her. +Then, for a time, he rode her himself, and his eye +brightened as he told of her leaps and her stride. +Of course he rode her to the races, and—one +luckless day—when he had lost everything, and +his passion had got the better of his prudence, +he staked the mare herself on a perfectly sure +thing in two-mile-heats. Like most of the sure +things of life, this venture went to the bad, and +the mare was lost,—lost to a Bull’s Head dealer +in single driving horses. “I see her in his stable +ahfter that, sir; and, forbieten she were twelve +year old, sir, and ’ad ’ad a ’ard life of it, she were +the youngest and likeliest of the lot,—you’d +swore she were a three-year-old, sir.”</p> + +<p>If that dealer had had a soul above trotting-wagons, +my story would never have been written; +but all was fish that came to his net, and this +thoroughbred racer, this beautiful creature who +had never worn harness in her life, must be +shown to a purchaser who was seeking something +to drive. She was always quick to decide, and +her actions followed close on the heels of her +thought. She did not complicate matters by +waiting for the gentleman to get into the wagon, +but then and there—on the instant—kicked it +to kindlings. This ended the story. She had +been shown at a high figure, and was subsequently +sold for a song,—he could tell me no +more. She had passed to the lower sphere of +equine life and usefulness,—he <em>had</em> heard of a +fish-wagon, but he knew nothing about it. What +he did know was, that the dealer was a dreadful +jockey, and that it would never do to ask him. +Now, here was something to live for,—a sort of +princess in disgrace, whom it would be an honor +to rescue, and my horse-hunting acquired a new +interest.</p> + +<p>By easy stages, I cultivated the friendship of +the youth who, in those days, did the morning’s +sweeping-out at the Bull’s Head Hotel. He had +grown up in the alluring shades of the horse-market, +and his daily communion from childhood +had been with that “noble animal.” To him +horses were the individuals of the world,—men +their necessary attendants, and of only attendant +importance. Of course he knew of this black she-devil; +and he thought that “a hoss that could +trot like she could on the halter” must be crazy +not to go in harness.</p> + +<p>However, he thought she had got her deserts +now, for he had seen her, only a few weeks before, +“a draggin’ clams for a feller in the Tenth Avener.” +Here was a clew at last,—clams and the +Tenth Avenue. For several days the scent grew +cold. The people of the Licensed Vender part of +this street seemed to have little interest in their +neighbors’ horses; but I found one man, an Irish +grocer, who had been bred a stable-boy to the +Marquis of Waterford, and who did know of a +“poor old screw of a black mare” that had a good +head, and might be the one I was looking for; +but, if she was, he thought I might as well give it +up, for she was all broken down, and would never +be good for anything again.</p> + +<p>Taking the address, I went to a stable-yard, in +what was then the very edge of the town, and +here I found a knowing young man, who devoted +his time to peddling clams and potatoes between +New York and Sing Sing. Clams up, and potatoes +down,—twice every week,—distance thirty +miles; road hilly; and that was the wagon he +did it with,—a heavy wagon with a heavy arched +top, and room for a heavy load, and only shafts +for a single horse. In reply to my question, he +said he changed horses pretty often, because the +work broke them down; but he had a mare now +that had been at it for three months, and he +thought she would last some time longer. “She’s +pretty thin, but you ought to see her trot with +that wagon.” With an air of idle curiosity, I +asked to see her,—I had gone shabbily dressed, +not to excite suspicion; for men of the class I +had to treat with are usually sharp horse-traders,—and +this fellow, clam-pedler though he was, +showed an enthusiastic alacrity in taking me to +her stall. She had won even his dull heart, and +he spoke of her gently, as he made the most of +her good points, and glossed over her wretched +condition.</p> + +<p>Poor Vixen (that had been her name in her +better days, and it was to be her name again), +she had found it hard kicking against the pricks! +Clam-carts are stronger than trotting-wagons, and +even her efforts had been vain. She had succumbed +to dire necessity, and earned her ignoble +oats with dogged fidelity. She had a little warm +corner in her driver’s affections,—as she always +had in the affections of all who came to know her +well,—but her lot was a very hard one. Worn +to a skeleton, with sore galls wherever the harness +had pressed her, her pasterns bruised by +clumsy shoes, her silky coat burned brown by +the sun, and her neck curved upward, it would +have needed more than my knowledge of anatomy +to see anything good in her but for her +wonderful head. This was the perfection of a +horse’s head,—small, bony, and of perfect shape, +with keen, deer-like eyes, and thin, active ears; +it told the whole story of her virtues, and +showed no trace of her sufferings. Her royal +blood shone out from her face, and kept it +beautiful.</p> + +<p>My mind was made up, and Vixen must be +mine at any cost. Still, it was important to +me to buy as cheaply as I could,—and desirable, +above all, not to be jockeyed in a horse-trade; +so it required some diplomacy (an account +of which would not be edifying here) to bring +the transaction to its successful close. The +pendulum which swung between offer and demand +finally rested at seventy-five dollars.</p> + +<p>She was brought to me at the Park on a +bright moonlight evening in June, and we were +called out to see her. I think she knew that +her harness days were over, and she danced off +to her new quarters as gay as a colt in training. +That night my wakefulness would have +done credit to a boy of sixteen; and I was up +with the dawn, and bound for a ride; but when +I examined poor Vix again in her stable, it +seemed almost cruel to think of using her at +all for a month. She was so thin, so worn, so +bruised, that I determined to give her a long +rest and good care,—only I must try her once, +just to get a leg over her for five minutes, and +then she should come back and be cared for +until really well. It was a weak thing to do, +and I confess it with all needful humiliation, +but I mounted her at once; and, although I +had been a rider all my days, this was the first +time I had ever really ridden. For the first +time in my life I felt as though I had four +whalebone legs of my own, worked by steel +muscles in accordance with my will, but without +even a conscious effort of will.</p> + +<p>That that anatomy of a horse should so easily, +so playfully, handle my heavy weight was a +mystery, and is a mystery still. She carried +me in the same high, long-reaching, elastic trot +that we sometimes see a young horse strike when +first turned into a field. A low fence was near +by, and I turned her toward it. She cleared it +with a bound that sent all my blood thrilling +through my veins, and trotted on again as though +nothing had occurred. The five minutes’ turn +was taken with so much ease, with such evident +delight, that I made it a virtue to indulge her +with a longer course and a longer stride. We +went to the far corners of the Park, and tried all +our paces; all were marvellous for the power so +easily exerted and the evident power in reserve.</p> + +<p>Yes, Frank Forester was right, blood horses are +made of finer stuff than others. My intention of +giving the poor old mare a month’s rest was never +carried out, because each return to her old recreation—it +was never work—made it more evident +that the simple change in her life was all she +needed; and, although in constant use from the +first, she soon put on the flesh and form of a +sound horse. Her minor bruises were obliterated, +and her more grievous ones grew into permanent +scars,—blemishes, but only skin deep; for every +fibre of every muscle, and every tendon and bone +in her whole body, was as strong and supple as +spring steel.</p> + +<p>The Park afforded good leaping in those days. +Some of the fences were still standing around the +abandoned gardens, and new ditches and old +brooks were plenty. Vixen gave me lessons in +fencing which a few years later, in time of graver +need, stood me in good stead. She weighed less +than four times the weight that she carried; yet +she cleared a four-foot fence with apparent ease, +and once, in a moment of excitement, she carried +me over a brook, with a clear leap of twenty-six +feet, measured from the taking-off to the landing.</p> + +<p>Her feats of endurance were equal to her feats +of strength. I once rode her from Yorkville to +Rye (twenty-one miles) in an hour and forty-five +minutes, including a rest of twenty minutes at +Pelham Bridge, and I frequently rode twenty-five +miles out in the morning and back in the afternoon. +When put to her work, her steady road +gallop (mostly on the grassy sides) was fifteen +miles an hour.</p> + +<p>Of course these were extreme cases; but she +never showed fatigue from them, and she did +good service nearly every day, winter and summer, +from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, keeping +always in good condition, though thin as a +racer, and looking like a colt at the end of the +time. Horsemen never guessed her age at more +than half of what it actually was.</p> + +<p>Beyond the average of even the most intelligent +horses, she showed some almost human traits. +Above all was she fond of children, and would +quiet down from her wildest moods to allow a +child to be carried on the pommel. When engaged +in this serious duty, it was difficult to +excite her, or to urge her out of a slow and +measured pace, although usually ready for any +extravagance. Not the least marked of her peculiarities +was her inordinate vanity. On a country +road, or among the workmen of the Park, she was +as staid and business-like as a parson’s cob; but +let a carriage or a party of visitors come in sight, +and she would give herself the prancing airs of a +circus horse, seeming to watch as eagerly for some +sign of approval, and to be made as happy by it, +as though she only lived to be admired. Many +a time have I heard the exclamation, “What a +beautiful horse!” and Vix seemed to hear it too, +and to appreciate it quite as keenly as I did. A +trip down the Fifth Avenue in the afternoon was +an immense excitement to her, and she was more +fatigued by it than by a twenty-mile gallop. +However slowly she travelled, it was always with +the high springing action of a fast trot, or with +that long-stepping, sidelong action that the +French call <em>á deux pistes</em>; few people allowed +her to pass without admiring notice.</p> + +<p>Her most satisfactory trait was her fondness +for her master; she was as good company as a +dog,—better, perhaps, because she seemed more +really a part of one’s self; and she was quick +to respond to my changing moods. I have sometimes, +when unable to sleep, got up in the night +and saddled for a ride, usually ending in a long +walk home, with the bridle over my arm, and the +old mare’s kind face close beside my own, in something +akin to human sympathy; she had a way +of sighing, when things were especially sad, that +made her very comforting to have about. So we +went on for three years, always together, and +always very much to each other. We had our +little unhappy episodes, when she was pettish and +I was harsh,—sometimes her feminine freaks +were the cause, sometimes my masculine blundering,—but +we always made it up, and were soon +good friends again, and, on the whole, we were +both better for the friendship. I am sure that I +was, and some of my more grateful recollections +are connected with this dumb companion.</p> + +<p>The spring of 1861 opened a new life for +both of us,—a sad and a short one for poor +Vix.</p> + +<p>I never knew just how much influence she +had in getting my commission, but, judging by +the manner of the other field officers of the regiment, +she was evidently regarded as the better +half of the new acquisition. The pomp and circumstance +of glorious war suited her temper +exactly, and it was ludicrous to see her satisfaction +in first wearing her gorgeous red-bordered +shabrack; for a time she carried her head on +one side to see it. She conceived a new affection +for me from the moment when she saw me +bedecked with the dazzling bloom that preceded +the serious fruitage of the early New York volunteer +organizations.</p> + +<p>At last the thrilling day came. Broadway +was alive from end to end with flags and white +cambric and sad faces. Another thousand were +going to the war. With Swiss bugle-march and +chanted Marseillaise, we made our solemn way +through the grave and anxious throng. To us +it was naturally a day of sore trial; but with +brilliant, happy Vixen it was far different; she +was leaving no friends behind, was going to meet +no unknown peril. She was showing her royal, +stylish beauty to an admiring crowd, and she +acted as though she took to her own especial +behoof every cheer that rang from Union Square +to Cortlandt Street. It was the glorious day of +her life, and, as we dismounted at the Jersey +ferry, she was trembling still with the delightful +excitement.</p> + +<p>At Washington we were encamped east of the +Capitol, and for a month were busy in getting +settled in the new harness. Mr. Lincoln used +to drive out sometimes to our evening drill, and +he always had a pleasant word—as he always +had for every one, and as every one had for +her—for my charming thoroughbred, who had +made herself perfectly at home with the troops, +and enjoyed every display of the marvellous +raiment of the regiment.</p> + +<p>On the 4th of July we crossed the Potomac +and went below Alexandria, where we lay in +idle preparation for the coming disaster. On +the 16th we marched, in Blenker’s brigade of +Miles’s division, and we passed the night in a +hay-field, with a confusion of horses’ feed and +riders’ bed, that brought Vix and me very closely +together. On the 18th we reached the valley +this side of Centreville, while the skirmish of +Blackburn’s Ford was going on,—a skirmish +now, but a battle then. For three nights and +two days we lay in the bushes, waiting for rations +and orders. On Sunday morning McDowell’s +army moved out;—we all know the rest. +Miles’s thirteen thousand fresh troops lay within +sight and sound of the lost battle-field,—he +drunk and unable, even if not unwilling, to take +them to the rescue,—and all we did was, late +in the evening, to turn back a few troopers of +the Black Horse Cavalry, the moral effect of +whose unseen terrors was driving our herds, +panting, back to the Potomac. Late in the +night we turned our backs on our idle field, +and brought up the rear of the sad retreat. +Our regiment was the last to move out, and +Vix and I were with the rear-guard. Wet, cold, +tired, hungry, unpursued, we crept slowly through +the scattered <em>débris</em> of the broken-up camp equipage, +and dismally crossed the Long Bridge in a +pitiless rain, as Monday’s evening was closing +in. O, the dreadful days that followed, when a +dozen resolute men might have taken Washington, +and have driven the army across the Chesapeake, +when everything was filled with gloom +and rain and grave uncertainty!</p> + +<p>Again the old mare came to my aid. My regiment +was not a pleasant one to be with, for its +excellent material did not redeem its very bad +commander, and I longed for service with the +cavalry. Frémont was going to St. Louis, and +his chief of staff was looking for cavalry officers. +He had long known Vixen, and was kind enough +to tell me that he wanted <em>her</em> for the new organization, +and (as I was her necessary appendage), +he procured my transfer, and we set out for the +West. It was not especially flattering to me +to be taken on these grounds; but it was flattering +to Vixen, and that was quite as pleasant.</p> + +<p>Arrived at St. Louis, we set about the organization +of the enthusiastic thousands who rushed +to serve under Frémont. Whatever there was +of ostentatious display, Vixen and I took part +in, but this was not much. Once we turned +out in great state to receive Prince Plon-Plon, +but that was in the night, and he didn’t come +after all. Once again there was a review of all +the troops, and that <em>was</em> magnificent. This was +all. There was no coach and four, nor anything +else but downright hard work from early morning +till late bedtime, from Sunday morning till Saturday +night. For six weeks, while my regiment of +German horsemen was fitting up and drilling at +the Abbey Race-track, I rode a cart-horse, and kept +the mare in training for the hard work ahead.</p> + +<p>At last we were off, going up the Missouri, +sticking in its mud, poling over its shoals, and +being bored generally. At Jefferson City Vixen +made her last appearance in ladies’ society, as by +the twilight fires of the General’s camp she went +through her graceful paces before Mrs. Frémont +and her daughter. I pass over the eventful pursuit +of Price’s army, because the subject of my +story played only a passive part in it. At Springfield +I tried her nerve by jumping her over the +dead horses on brave Zagonyi’s bloody field; and, +although distastefully, she did my bidding without +flinching, when she found it must be done. +The camp-life at Springfield was full of excitement +and earnestness; Price, with his army, was +near at hand (or we believed that he was, which +was essentially the same). Our work in the cavalry +was very active, and Vix had hard service +on insufficient food,—she seemed to be sustained +by sheer nervous strength.</p> + +<p>At last the order to advance was given, and we +were to move out at daybreak; then came a +countermanding order; and then, late in the +evening, Frémont’s farewell. He had been relieved. +There was genuine and universal grief. +Good or bad, competent or incompetent,—this +is not the place to argue that,—he was the life +and the soul of his army, and it was cruelly +wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full of +disappointment, we again turned back from our +aim;—then would have been Price’s opportunity.</p> + +<p>It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, +and the wonderful opal atmosphere of the Ozark +Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a +second spring. As had always been my habit in +dreamy or unhappy moods, I rode my poor tired +mare for companionship’s sake,—I ought not to +have done it,—I would give much not to have +done it, for I never rode her again. The march +was long, and the noonday sun was oppressive. +She who had never faltered before grew nervous +and shaky now, and once, after fording the +Pomme-de-Terre in deep water, she behaved +wildly; but when I talked to her, called her +a good girl, and combed her silken mane with +my fingers, she came back to her old way, and +went on nicely. Still she perspired unnaturally, +and I felt uneasy about her when I dismounted +and gave her rein to Rudolf, my orderly.</p> + +<p>Late in the night, when the moon was in +mid-heaven, he came to my tent, and told me +that something was the matter with Vixen. My +adjutant and I hastened out, and there we beheld +her in the agony of a brain fever. She +was the most painfully magnificent animal I +ever saw. Crouched on the ground, with her +forelegs stretched out and wide apart, she was +swaying to and fro, with hard and stertorous +breath,—every vein swollen and throbbing in +the moonlight. De Grandèle, our quiet veterinary +surgeon, had been called while it was yet +time to apply the lancet. As the hot stream +spurted from her neck she grew easier; her +eye recovered its gentleness, and she laid her +head against my breast with the old sigh, and +seemed to know and to return all my love for +her. I sat with her until the first gray of +dawn, when she had grown quite calm, and +then I left her with De Grandèle and Rudolf +while I went to my duties. We must march +at five o’clock, and poor Vixen could not be +moved. The thought of leaving her was very +bitter, but I feared it must be done, and I +asked De Grandèle how he could best end her +sufferings,—or was there still some hope? He +shook his head mournfully, like a kind-hearted +doctor as he was, and said that he feared not; +but still, as I was so fond of her, if I would +leave him six men, he would do his best to +bring her on, and, if he could not, he would +not leave her alive. I have had few harder +duties than to march that morning. Four days +after, De Grandèle sent a message to me at our +station near Rolla, that he was coming on nicely, +and hoped to be in at nightfall. “Vixen +seems to be better and stronger.” At nightfall +they came, the poor old creature stepping slowly +and timidly over the rough road, all the old +fire and force gone out of her, and with only a +feeble whinny as she saw me walking to meet +her. We built for her the best quarters we +could under the mountain-side, and spread her +a soft bed of leaves. There was now hope that +she would recover sufficiently to be sent to St. +Louis to be nursed.</p> + +<p>That night, an infernal brute of a troop horse +that had already killed Ludlow’s charger, led by +some fiendish spirit, broke into Vixen’s enclosure, +and with one kick laid open her hock joint.</p> + +<p>In vain they told me that she was incurable. +I could not let her die now, when she was just +restored to me; and I forced from De Grandèle +the confession that she <em>might</em> be slung up and +so bound that the wound would heal, although +the joint must be stiff. She could never carry +me again, but she could be my pet; and I +would send her home, and make her happy for +many a long year yet. We moved camp two +miles, to the edge of the town, and she followed, +painfully and slowly, the injured limb dragging +behind her; I could not give her up. She was +picketed near my tent, and for some days grew +no worse.</p> + +<p>Finally, one lovely Sunday morning, I found +her sitting on her haunches like a dog, patient +and gentle, and wondering at her pain. She remained +in this position all day, refusing food. I +stroked her velvet crest, and coaxed her with +sugar. She rubbed her nose against my arm, +and was evidently thankful for my caresses, but +she showed no disposition to rise. The adjutant +led me into my tent as he would have led me +from the bedside of a dying friend. I turned to +look back at poor Vixen, and she gave me a +little neigh of farewell.</p> + +<p>They told me then, and they told it very tenderly, +that there was no possibility that she +could get well in camp, and that they wanted +me to give her over to them. The adjutant +sat by me, and talked of the old days when I +had had her at home, and when he had known +her well. We brought back all of her pleasant +ways, and agreed that her trouble ought to be +ended.</p> + +<p>As we talked, a single shot was fired, and all +was over. The setting sun was shining through +the bare November branches, and lay warm in +my open tent-front. The band, which had been +brought out for the only funeral ceremony, +breathed softly Kreutzer’s touching “Die Kapelle,” +and the sun went down on one of the +very sad days of my life.</p> + +<p>The next morning I carved deeply in the +bark of a great oak-tree, at the side of the +Pacific Railroad, beneath which they had buried +my lovely mare, a simple VIX; and some day +I shall go to scrape the moss from the inscription.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch2.jpg" width="500px" height="140px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="RUBY" id="RUBY"></a>RUBY.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">I was a colonel commanding a regiment +of German cavalrymen in South Missouri, +and must have a horse; it was +desirable to be conspicuously well mounted, and +so it must be a showy horse; being a heavy +weight and a rough rider, it must be a good +horse. With less rank, I might have been compelled +to take a very ordinary mount and be +content: my vanity would not have availed me, +and my rough riding must have ceased.</p> + +<p>But I was chief ruler of the little world that +lay encamped on the beautiful banks of the Roubie +d’Eaux; and probably life was easier to all +under me when I was satisfied and happy. I am +not conscious of having been mean and crabbed, +or of favoring those who favored me to the disadvantage +of those who did not. I cannot recall +an instance of taking a bribe, even in the form +of a pleasant smile. It was probably easier, in +the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and +therefore the laziest private ever ordered on extra +duty could not lay his hand on his heart and say +he thinks it was done because he was not diligent +in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private +mess. I had very early in life been impressed +with the consciousness that the way of the transgressor +is not easy; and as I wanted my way to +be easy, I fell into the way of not transgressing.</p> + +<p>This may not have been a very worthy motive +to actuate the conduct of a military commander; +but perhaps it was as good as the average in +our Department of the Southwest, where, if the +truth must be told, virtue did not have it all its +own way,—we were different from troops farther +east; and although it made me sometimes wince +to have my conduct ascribed to a noble uprightness +of purpose, and showed that it would really +have been more honest not to have been quite +so good, yet one should perhaps be satisfied with +having carried out one’s intention of treating every +man in the command, officer or soldier, as nearly +as he should be treated as the interests of the public +service, the good of the individual himself, and +one’s own personal convenience would allow.</p> + +<p>Therefore, I say, I am not conscious of having +favored those who favored me, to the disadvantage +of those who did not; neither do I think +that (at this stage of our acquaintance) the Grafs +and Barons and simple Mister Vons, of whom the +command was so largely composed, entertained +the hope of personal benefit when they laid their +kindnesses at my accustomed feet, and tried to +smooth my way of life.</p> + +<p>The headquarters' mess was generally well supplied,—and +no questions asked. My relations +with most of the command were kindly, and it +apparently came to be understood—for German +cavalrymen are not without intelligence—that +the happiness of the individual members of the +regiment depended rather on the happiness of +its colonel than on any direct bids for his favor. +Be this as it may, I am not conscious of having +received such direct appeals, and I am entirely +conscious of the fullest measure of happiness +that my circumstances would allow; not an ecstasy +of delight,—far from that,—but a comfortable +sense of such well-fed, well-paid, well-encamped, +and pleasantly occupied virtue as had +left nothing undone that my subordinates could +be made to do, and did nothing that my conditions +rendered difficult. My own good-humor +was equalled by that of the regiment at large, +and the beetling sides of the Ozark valleys nowhere +sheltered a happier campful of jolly good +fellows than the Vierte Missouri Cavalry.</p> + +<p>We lay on the marvellous Roubie d’Eaux, at its +source; no such babbling brook as trickles from +the hillside springs of New England, but a roaring +torrent, breaking at once from a fathomless +vent in the mountain. The processes of formation +with these South Missouri rivers are all hidden +from sight, but, far away in the topmost +caves of the Ozark hills, the little streamlets +trickle, and unite for a larger and ever larger +flow, gorging at last the huge caverns of the limestone +rock and bursting upon the world a full-grown +river. Within our camp this wonderful +spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large +grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustaining +community,—in this, that we foraged our +own corn and ground our own meal. With similar +industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, +and fowl.</p> + +<p>The trees were bare with the November frosts, +but the Indian summer had come, and, day after +day, it bathed every twig and spray with its amber +breath, warming all nature to a second life, +and floating the remoter hills far away into a hazy +dreamland.</p> + +<p>But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was +not content: I was practically a dismounted cavalryman. +Indeed, it would even have been a pity +to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as +fell to my lot, for good weight-carriers were rare +in that section. I had paid a very high price for +a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, happily, +sold for a large advance), only to find him a +year too young for his work, and the regiment +had been scoured in vain for an available mount. +I would have gone any reasonable length, even in +injustice, to secure such an animal as was needed. +It was not easy to make up one’s mind to order +a soldier to give up a horse he was fond of, and +some soldier had an especial fondness for all but +the worthless brutes. My reluctance to do this +was perhaps not lessened by the fact that it was +forbidden for officers to ride United States horses. +It finally became evident that the chances were +very small of ever finding a suitable animal, and +I even went out, on one shooting excursion, +mounted on a mule.</p> + +<p>Up to this time the regiment had been all that +could be asked, but now it seemed to contain +a thousand ill-tempered, sore-headed men. The +whole camp was awry. Some of the officers intimated +that this was all the fault of the adjutant; +that the orders from headquarters had lately been +unusually harsh. This officer, when remonstrated +with, insisted that he had only transmitted the +exact orders given him, and I knew that my own +action had always been reasonable,—on principle +so. Sometimes one almost wished himself back +in civil life, away from such constant annoyances.</p> + +<p>We had in the regiment one Captain Graf von +Gluckmansklegge, who was in many respects the +most accomplished and skilful officer of us all. +His life had been passed in the profession, and he +had only left his position of major in a Bavarian +Uhlan regiment to draw his sabre in defence of +“die Freiheit,” in America, as senior captain of +the Fourth Missouri Cavalry. He was an officer +of Asboth’s selection, and had many of that veteran’s +qualities. Tall, thin, of elegant figure, as +perfect a horseman as good natural advantages +and good training could make, and near-sighted, +as a German cavalry officer must be, he was as +natty a fellow as ever wore an eye-glass and a +blond mustache. He was, at the same time, a +man of keen worldly shrewdness and of quick +judgment,—qualities which, in his case, may +have been sharpened by long practice at those +games of chance with which it has not been unusual +for European officers to preface their coming +to draw their sabres in defence of “die Freiheit” +in America.</p> + +<p>With Gluckmansklegge I had always been on +friendly terms. Among the many lessons of his +life he had learned none more thoroughly than +the best way to treat his commanding officer; +and there was in his manner an air of friendly +deference and of cordial submission to rank, +accompanied by a degree of personal dignity, +that elevated the colonel rather than lowered +the captain,—a manner that probably makes +its way with a newly fledged officer more surely +than any other form of appeal to his vanity. +One sometimes saw a brand-new second-lieutenant +made happier than a king by this same +touch of skill from an old soldier in his company, +whom he knew to be far his superior in +all matters of service. To be quite frank, if I +have an element of snobbishness in my own organization, +it has been more nurtured into life +by the military deference of better soldiers than +myself under my command than by all other +influences combined; thus modified do the best +of us become in the presence of unmerited +praise.</p> + +<p>One evening Gluckmansklegge came to my tent +door: “Escoose, Col-o-nel, may I come?” And +then, flinging out his eye-glass with a toss of +the head, he went on, with his imperfect English, +to tell me he had just learned from his +lieutenant that I could find no horse to suit +me; that he had a good one strong enough for +my weight, and, he thought, even good enough +for my needs. He had bought him in St. Louis +from the quartermaster, and would I oblige +him by trying him? He was quite at my service, +at the government price, for he, being +lighter, could easily replace him. Did I remember +his horse,—his “Fuchs”? “He is good, +nice, strong horse, an he yoomp!—yei!!”</p> + +<p>I did remember his horse, and I had seen +him “yoomp.” It had long been a subject of +regret to think that such an animal should be +in the regiment, yet not on my own picket-line. +It was well known that great prices had been +offered for him, only to make Gluckmansklegge +fling his eye-glass loose, and grin in derision. +“Fuchs is—how you call?—‘heelty,’ an gesund; +wenn you like, your Ike will go to my +company to bring him.” I did like, and I had +no scruples against buying him for one hundred +and twenty-five dollars. Ike, a handsome contraband, +went early the next morning with a +halter for the Fuchs, and I was up bright and +betimes to try him.</p> + +<p>I had only seen the horse before under the +saddle, perfectly equipped, perfectly bitted, and +perfectly ridden, an almost ideal charger. There +was a great firebrand scar on the flat of +each shoulder, where he had been fired for a +cough,—so said Gluckmansklegge;—others intimated +that this effaced a U. S. brand; but, +except this, not a sign of a blemish. In form, +action, style, color (chestnut), and training he +was unexceptionably good, and might well excite +the envy of all good horsemen who saw him +<em>under the saddle</em>. Knowing him so well, I went +rather eagerly to the picket-line to refresh myself +with the added sensation that the actual +ownership of such a horse must give.</p> + +<p>There stood the new purchase,—a picture of +the most abject misery; his hind legs drawn +under him; the immense muscles of his hips +lying flabby, like a cart-horse’s; his head hanging +to the level of his knees, and his under-lip +drooping; his eyes half shut, and his long ears +falling out sidewise like a sleepy mule’s. I had +bought him for a safe price, and he would probably +do to carry Ike and the saddle-bags; but +I felt as far as ever from a mount for myself, +and went back to my tent wiser and no happier +than before.</p> + +<p>Presently Ike appeared with the coffee, and +asked how I liked the new horse.</p> + +<p>“Not at all.” </p> + +<p>“Don’t ye? well now, I reckon he’s a consid’able +of a hoss.” </p> + +<p>I sent him to look at him again, and he came +back with a very thoughtful air,—evidently he +had been impressed. At last he said, “Well now, +Colonel, I don’t reckon you bought that hoss to +look at him on the picket-line, did ye?” </p> + +<p>“No, Ike, or he should be sold out very +cheap; but he is not the <em>kind</em> of horse I supposed +he was; he ought to work in a mule-team.” </p> + +<p>“Well now, Colonel, mebbe he is; but you +can’t never tell nothin’ about a hoss till you +get him between ye; and I reckon he’s a consid’able +of a hoss, I reckon he is.” </p> + +<p>Ike was wise, in his way, and his way was a +very horsy one,—so my hopes revived a little; +and when Gluckmansklegge came up on a capital +little beast he had been handling (secretly +to replace the Fuchs), I had the new venture +saddled and brought round. He came blundering +along, head and ears and tail down, and +stood like a leathern horse for me to mount, +Gluckmansklegge dropping his eye-glass and grinning. +It was as well to find out first as last +whether he had anything in him or not, and I +gathered up the curb-rein, which brought his +head into superb position and settled him well +back upon his haunches; but, as the movement +had been made with dignity, I gave him both +heels, firmly,—when we went sailing!—how +high I don’t know, probably not fifteen feet, but +it seemed that, and covering a good stretch to +the front. It was the most enormous lift I had +ever had, and (after an appreciable time in the +air), when he landed square on all four feet, it +was to strike a spanking, even trot, the bit playing +loose in his mouth, his head swaying easily +with his step, and his tail flying. I had never +been more amazed in my life than by the wonderful +grace and agility of this splendid brute. +As he trotted along with his high, strong, and +perfectly cadenced step, he showed in the swing +of his head all the satisfaction of an athlete turning, +conscious, lightly away from the footlights, +after his especial <em>tour de force</em>.</p> + +<p>As Gluckmansklegge rode up, he said, “Well, +Col-o-nel, how you like? Nice pretty strong +horse, what?” </p> + +<p>And then, his English failing him, he fell, +through an attempt at French, into German, in +which his tongue was far more ready than my +ear. Still it was easy to gather enough to understand +some of the processes by which the +animal’s natural qualifications for his work had +been developed into such unusual accomplishments; +and then he glided into the complimentary +assertion that no one but the colonel of his +regiment could ever have hoped to buy him at +any price,—and of course he did not consider it +a sale. His original outlay, which he could not +afford to lose, had been reimbursed; but the +true value of the horse, his education, he was +only too glad to give me. And then, the pleasure +of seeing his colonel suitably mounted, and +the satisfaction of seeing the horse properly ridden, +really threw the obligation on his side. +Then, with his inimitable <em>naïveté</em>, he not only +expressed, but demonstrated, in every look and +gesture, more delight in watching our movements +than he had felt in his own riding. +“Praise a horseman for his horsemanship, and +he will ride to the Devil.” Gluckmansklegge (I +did not suspect him of a desire for promotion) +pointed to a strong rail-fence near by, and suggested +that the combination of man and horse +for that sort of thing was unusual. Whether it +was a banter or a compliment, it would have +been impossible for any man who properly esteemed +himself and his riding to stop to consider. +Turned toward the fence, the Fuchs, +checking his speed, seemed to creep toward it, +as a cat would, making it very uncertain what +he proposed; but as he came nearer to it, that +willingness to leap that an accustomed rider will +always recognize communicated itself to me, and, +with perfect judgment, but with a force and +spirit I had never hoped to meet in a horse of +this world, he carried me over the enormous +height, and landed like a deer, among the stumps +and brush on the other side, and trotted gayly +away, athlete-like again, happier and prouder +than ever horse was before.</p> + +<p>Sitting that evening at my tent door, opposite +the spring, bragging, as the custom is, over the +new purchase, it occurred to me that that stream of +water and that bit of horse-flesh had some qualities +alike; so I christened the latter “Roubie +d’Eaux,” which was soon translated and shortened +to “Ruby,”—a name henceforth familiar +throughout the regiment.</p> + +<p>To become my property was the only thing +needed to make him perfect, for Ike was born +in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised +all the arts of the craft, up to the time when, being +both jockey and “the stakes” in a race he +rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of fortune, +and became a body-servant. He was once +confidential:—</p> + +<p>“Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it +was: I hadn’t nothin’ ag’in my master,—he +was a right nice man; but then, you see, he +drinked, and I didn’t know what might become +of me some time. Then, you see, I knowed this +man was stiddy, an’ he’d jess done bought a +yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an’ so,—don’t +ye see why?—well, the hoss could have +won the <em>race</em> fast enough, but then, you see, my +master,—well, he was a drinkin’ kind of a man, +an’ I thought I might as well fix it. I knowed +I was up for stakes, an’ that’s how I come to +Missouri; I ain’t no Missouri man <em>born</em>, but that’s +how it was.” </p> + +<p>He had become a good body-servant without +forgetting his stable training, and his horses bore +testimony to his skill and fidelity. After going +through the routine of a well-regulated stable, +he gave each horse a half-hour’s stroking with +the flat of his hands, brisk and invigorating; and +the result was a more blooming condition and +more vigorous health than is often seen in horses +on a campaign. The best substitute that could +be secured for a stable was a very heavy canvas +blanket, covering the horse from his ears to his +tail and down to his knees, water-proof and wind-proof. +It was a standing entertainment with the +less dignified members of the mess to invite attention +to Ruby as he stood moping under this +hideous housing. Certainly I never saw him thus +without thinking that his time had at last come, +and that he surely would never again be able to +carry me creditably. Yet, as Ike’s devotion continued, +he grew better and better, commanding +daily more of the respect and admiration of all +who knew him, and attaching himself to me more +and more as we learned each other’s ways.</p> + +<p>One never loves but one horse entirely, and +so Ruby never quite filled Vixen’s place; but +as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be +desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that +had made me restless and discontented, was now +satisfied, and my duties became easy, and my +pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri +warfare) entirely agreeable.</p> + +<p>It was no slight addition to these sources of +contentment to feel that the command had at last +awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and was +fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned +Ruby for a fortnight before the old cheerfulness +and alacrity returned to the regiment, and by the +time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d’Eaux +and went over to Lebanon for the shooting season, +the entire organization was in a most satisfactory +condition.</p> + +<p>Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war +that we shall not soon forget. To the best of my +knowledge and belief, after Price had retreated +from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed +Rebels to be found north of the White River were +local bands of jay-hawkers, whose rebellion was +mainly directed against the laws of property, and +the actuating motive of whose military movements +was “nags.” The stealing of horses, with the +consequent application of Lynch law, was all that +the native male population had to keep them +out of mischief, for weeks and weeks together. +There was just enough of this sort of armed +lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of +duty; not enough seriously to interrupt our more +regular avocations.</p> + +<p>Lebanon is on the high table-land of the +Ozarks, in the heart of a country flowing with +prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully +productive of the more humdrum necessaries +of life. Thanks to the fleeing of Rebel families, +we found comfortable quarters without too +severely oppressing those who had remained. +What with moving the court-house away from +the public square, leaving the space free for a +parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for +the town pump, we kept our men from rusting; +and when, after a time, we had established +a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious +military prison, Lebanon was as complete and +well-ordered a station as could be found in South +Missouri. I had the questionable honor and the +unquestionable comfort of holding its command +from the end of January to the end of April,—three +dreamy months, that seem now to have +been passed in a shooting-lodge, under favorable +auspices.</p> + +<p>As a legacy of the “Hundred Days,” when +the “Fourth Missouri” was the “Frémont Hussars,” +we had an able-bodied and extremely well-selected +regimental band, that soothed our over-tasked +senses when we came in from our work +in the fields, gathering where our enemies had +sown, and (under the suspended game-laws of +the State) shooting grouse and quail in the early +spring.</p> + +<p>Naturally, most of my official duties were such +as could be performed by an extremely well-regulated +adjutant; and I usually passed his busy +half-hour (in private) with Ruby. There had +been an impetuosity about the horse at the outset +which it was desirable to quell, and I rode +him regularly in a nicely fenced kitchen-garden, +where, after he learned that fences are not always +intended for leaping-bars, he fell slowly into the +routine of the training-school, and easily acquired +a perfect self-command and <em>aplomb</em> that enabled +him, under all circumstances, to await his rider’s +instructions.</p> + +<p>I wish that less account had been made, in the +writings of those whose horse-stories have preceded +mine, of the specified feats of their animals. +The <em>rôle</em> of a horse’s performances is +necessarily limited, and it is probably impossible +for a well-constituted mind to recite the simple +story of his deeds without seeming to draw +largely on the imagination. Consequently, an +unexaggerated account of what Ruby actually +did (and I cannot bring my mind to an embellishment +of the truth) would hardly interest a +public whose fancy has been thus pampered and +spoiled. But for this, these pages could be filled +with instances of his strength and agility that +would almost tax belief. Suffice it to say that +while, like most good high leapers, he would cover +but a moderate breadth of water, he would get +over anything reasonable in the shape of a fence +that could be found about the town.</p> + +<p>I was a heavy weight,—riding nearly two hundred +pounds,—and necessarily rode with judgment. +If there was a low place in a fence, we +never chose a high one; but, at the same time, +if there were no low places, we took the best we +could find. Ruby seemed to know that the two +of us were solid enough to break through any +ordinary pile of rails, and what we could not jump +over we jumped <em>at</em>. More than once did he carry +away the top rail of a snake fence with his knees, +and land fair and square on the other side; but +it was a very high leap that made this necessary.</p> + +<p>He would jump on to the porch of the quartermaster’s +office (approached from the ground by +four steps), and then jump over the hand-rail and +land on the ground below again, almost wagging +his tail with delight at the feat.</p> + +<p>His ear was quicker than mine for the peeping +of quail and for the drumming of grouse, and, +in the absence of a good dog, there is no doubt +that my pot (for which alone I have been said to +hunt) was better filled by reason of his intelligence +in the field, and because he would allow +one to shoot from the saddle. The birds never +mistook me for a sportsman until I was quite +in among them, blazing away.</p> + +<p>In coming home from the prairie, we generally +rode round by the way of a certain sunken garden +that stood a couple of feet below the level of the +road. A five-foot picket-fence that stood at the +roadside had fallen over toward the garden, so +that its top was hardly four feet higher than the +road. This made the most satisfactory leap we +ever took,—the long, sailing descent, and the +safe landing on sandy loam, satisfied so completely +one’s prudent love of danger.</p> + +<p>I think I missed this leap more than anything +at Lebanon when, finally, we set out for Arkansas.</p> + +<p>We made our first considerable halt early in +May, at Batesville, on the White River,—a lovely, +rose-grown village, carrying, in the neatly kept +home of its New England secessionists, evidence +that they remembered their native land, where, in +their day, before the age of railroads, the “village” +flourished in all its freshness and simplicity. +It had now acquired the picturesque dilapidation, +in the manner of fences and gates and defective +window-panes, that marked the Southern domicile +during the war. Ruby had strained himself quite +seriously during the march, and had been left to +come on slowly with the quartermaster’s train. +This left me quite free for the social life, such +as it was, to which we—the only available men +that had been seen there since Price gathered his +forces at Springfield—were welcomed with a +reserved cordiality. Our facilities for forming +a correct opinion of society were not especially +good, but I fancied I should have passed my time +to as good advantage in the saddle.</p> + +<p>We soon left for an active expedition in the direction +of Little Rock, of which it is only necessary +to say, here, that it lasted about a month, +and brought the writer acquainted with some very +unsatisfactory horses,—a fact which heightened +his pleasure, on striking the White River bottom +again, at finding that Ruby had been brought +over the ferry to meet him. Tired as I was, I +took a glorious brisk trot through the Canebrake +Road, with a couple of leaps over fallen trees, +that revived the old emotions and made a man +of me again.</p> + +<p>While we lay at Batesville we were unusually +active in the matter of drill and reorganization; +and this, with our engagements in +the town, kept us too busy for much recreation; +but Ludlow and I managed to work in a +daily swim in the White River, with old saddles +on our horses, and scant clothing on our persons. +Talk of aquatic sports! there is no royal +bath without a plucky horse to assist; and a +swim across the swift current at Batesville, with +a horse like Ruby snorting and straining at every +stroke, belittled even the leaping at Lebanon.</p> + +<p>From Batesville we commenced our memorable +march to join the fleet that had just passed +Memphis, following down the left bank of the +river to Augusta, and then striking across the +cotton country to Helena,—a march on which we +enjoyed the rarest picturesqueness of plantation +life, and suffered enough from heat and hunger +and thirst, and stifling, golden dust to more +than pay for it.</p> + +<p>Helena was a pestiferous swamp, worth more +than an active campaign to our enemies, filling +our hospitals, and furrowing the levee bank with +graves. It was too hot for much drilling, and +we kept our better horses in order by daybreak +races. With the local fever feeling its way into +my veins, I was too listless to care much for +any diversion; but Ike came to me one evening +to say that he “reckoned” Ruby was as good +a horse as anybody had in the “camps,” and +he might as well take a hand in the games. I +told him I had no objection to his being run, +if he could find a suitable boy, but that both +he and I were too heavy for race-riding.</p> + +<p>“I don’t weigh only about a hundred and a +half,” said the ambitious man.</p> + +<p>“Well, suppose you don’t, that is ten pounds +too much.” </p> + +<p>“I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter +’n he is if he knows how to ride; anyhow, if +Rube can’t skin anything around here, I don’t +know nothin’ about horses.” </p> + +<p>“Ike, did you ever run that horse?” </p> + +<p>“Well, Colonel, now you ask me, I did jest +give Dwight’s darkey a little brush once.” </p> + +<p>Conquering my indignation and my scruples, +I went over, just for the honor of the establishment, +and made up a race for the next day.</p> + +<p>I have seen crack race-horses in my time, but +I never saw more artistic riding nor more capital +running than that summer morning on the +River Road at Helena, just as the sun began to +gild the muddy Mississippi. The satisfaction of +this conquest, and the activity with which new +engagements were offered by ambitious lieutenants, +who little knew the stuff my man and +horse were made of, kept off my fever for some +weeks; but I steadily declined all opportunity +of racing with horses outside of our command, +for I had been reared in a school of Puritan +severity, and had never quite overcome my convictions +against the public turf. A corporal of +an “Injeanny rege<em>ment</em>” took occasion to crow +lustily—so I heard—because “one of them +French coveys” was afraid to run him a quarter +for five dollars. It appeared that a cleanly +European was always supposed by this gentry +to be French; and in the army at large I was +better known by the company I kept than by +my New England characteristics.</p> + +<p>Naturally, Ike thought that, while Ruby was +engaged in this more legitimate occupation, he +ought not to be ridden for mere pleasure; and it +was only when a visitor was to be entertained, +or when I went out on plea of duty, that I +could steal an opportunity to leap him; but he +took one fence that fairly did him credit. It +was a snake fence measuring four feet and two +inches, with a deep ditch on each side cut close +to the projecting angles of the rails. Ruby carried +me over the first ditch into the angle between +the rails, then over the fence into the +narrow space on the other side, and then over +the second ditch into the field. It was the most +perfect combination of skill, strength, and judgment +that was possible to horse-flesh; and I think +Gluckmansklegge, who was with me and had suggested +the venture, despaired of ever getting his +promotion by any fair means, when we rejoined +him by the return leap and rode safely to camp.</p> + +<p>Unhappily, even entire satisfaction with one’s +horse is powerless to ward off such malaria as +that of the camp at Helena, and in due time +I fell ill with the fever. The horse was turned +over to the care of the quartermaster, and Ike +and I came wearily home on sick-leave.</p> + +<p>Late in the autumn we returned to St. Louis, +where one of the German officers told me that +the regiment had joined Davidson’s army at “Pilot +K-nopp”; and after the Hun, our new adjutant, +arrived from the East, we set out for +headquarters, and took command of the cavalry +brigade of Davidson’s army.</p> + +<p>From November until January we were tossed +about from post to post, wearing out our horses, +wearying our men, and accomplishing absolutely +nothing of value beyond the destruction of an +enormous amount of the rough forage, which +would otherwise have been used to feed “nags,”—stolen +or to be stolen,—and would have thus +tended to foster the prevailing vice of the region.</p> + +<p>At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at +Thomasville,—a good twelve miles away from +Davidson,—and were at rest; it was only those +near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, +and he was now encamped with the infantry.</p> + +<p>Pleasant as we found it with our little duty +and much sport, I can never look back to Thomasville +without sorrow. To say that I had acquired +a tenderness for Ruby would not be +strictly just; but I felt for him all the respect +and admiration and fondness that is possible short +of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only +one; but Ruby was my hero, and I depended on +him for my duty and my pleasure more than I +knew. With his full measure of intelligence he +had learned exactly his <em>rôle</em>, and he was always +eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the world +what a remarkably fine horse I had,—being himself +conscious, not only of his unusual virtues, +but, no less, of the praise they elicited.</p> + +<p>One sunny Southern day, toward the end of +January, Davidson had ridden over, with his following, +to dine with us; and as we were sitting +before our mess-tent, mellow with after-dinner +talk of our guns and our dogs and our horses, +the General was good enough to remember that +he had seen me riding a chestnut that he thought +much too finely bred for field work: had I been +able to keep him? Then Ruby was discussed, +and all his successes were recalled, first by one +friend and then by another, until Davidson needed +ocular proof of our truthfulness.</p> + +<p>Ike had taken the hint, and brought Ruby +round in due time,—glistening like gold in the +slanting rays of the setting sun, but blundering +along with his head down and ears drooping in +his old, dismal way.</p> + +<p>“O no, I don’t mean that horse,” said Davidson; +“I mean a very high-strung horse I have +seen you ride on the march.” </p> + +<p>“Very well, General, that is the animal; he +keeps his strings loose when he is not at his +work.” </p> + +<p>“No, I have seen you riding a far better horse +than that; I am too old a cavalryman to be +caught by such chaff.” </p> + +<p>To the great glee of the Hun, whose faith in +Ruby was unbounded, Davidson’s whole staff +turned the laugh on me for trying to deceive +the General just because he had been dining.</p> + +<p>I mounted, and started off with one of Ruby’s +enormous lifts, that brought the whole company +to their feet. It was the supreme moment with +him. Full of consciousness, as though he knew +the opportunity would never come again, and +quivering in anticipation of his triumph, he was +yet true to his training, and held himself subject +to my least impulse.</p> + +<p>We had lain in our camp for more than a week, +and there was not a vestige left of the recently +substantial fences,—only the suggestive and conspicuous +gateways that stood to mark the march +of our armies from the Chesapeake to the Indian +Nation. But Ruby built fences in his imagination +higher than any he had ever faced, and +cleared them without a scratch, landing close as +though the Helena ditch were still to be taken.</p> + +<p>It would take long to tell all he did and how +perfectly he did it; he went back at last to his +canvas blanket, loaded with adulation, and as +happy as it is given a horse to be.</p> + +<p>In his leaping he had started a shoe, and Ike +took him in the morning to the smith (who had +taken possession of an actual forge), to have it +reset. A moment later, the Hun cried, “My +God, Colonel, look at Ruby!” </p> + +<p>Hobbling along with one hind foot drawn up +with pain, he was making his last mournful +march, and we laid him that day to rest,—as true +a friend and as faithful a fellow as ever wore a +chestnut coat.</p> + +<p>He had reared in the shop, parted his halter, +and fallen under a bench, breaking his thigh far +up above the stifle.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch3.jpg" width="500px" height="106px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="WETTSTEIN" id="WETTSTEIN"></a>WETTSTEIN.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_3">It is a pleasant thing to be a colonel of +cavalry in active field-service. There +are circumstances of authority and responsibility +that fan the latent spark of barbarism +which, however dull, glows in all our breasts, and +which generations of republican civilization have +been powerless to quench. We may not have confessed +it even to ourselves; but on looking back +to the years of the war, we must recognize many +things that patted our vanity greatly on the back,—things +so different from all the dull routine of +equality and fraternity of home, that those four +years seem to belong to a dreamland, over which +the haze of the life before them and of the life +after them draws a misty veil. Equality and Fraternity! +a pretty sentiment, yes, and full of sensible +and kindly regard for all mankind, and full +of hope for the men who are to come after us; +but Superiority and Fraternity! who shall tell all +the secret emotions this implies? To be the head +of the brotherhood, with the unremitted clank +of a guard’s empty scabbard trailing before one’s +tent-door day and night; with the standard of the +regiment proclaiming the house of chief authority; +with the respectful salute of all passers, and +the natural obedience of all members of the command; +with the shade of deference that even +comrades show to superior rank; and with that +just sufficient check upon coarseness during the +jovial bouts of the headquarters’ mess, making +them not less genial, but void of all offence,—living +in this atmosphere, one almost feels the +breath of feudal days coming modified through +the long tempestuous ages to touch his cheek, +whispering to him that the savage instinct of the +sires has not been, and never will be, quite civilized +out of the sons. And then the thousand +men, and the yearly million that they cost, while +they fill the cup of the colonel’s responsibility +(sometimes to overflowing), and give him many +heavy trials,—they are his own men; their usefulness +is almost of his own creation, and their +renown is his highest glory.</p> + +<p>I may not depict the feelings of others; but +I find in the recollection of my own service—as +succeeding years dull its details and cast the +nimbus of distance about it—the source of emotions +which differ widely from those to which our +modern life has schooled us.</p> + +<p>One of the colonel’s constant attendants is the +chief bugler, or, as he is called in hussar Dutch, +the “Stabstrompaytr”; mine was the prince of +Trompaytrs, and his name was Wettstein. He +was a Swiss, whose native language was a mixture +of guttural French and mincing German. English +was an impossible field to him. He had +learned to say “yes” and “matches”; but not +one other of our words could he ever lay his +tongue to, except the universal “damn.” But +for his bugle and his little gray mare, I should +never have had occasion to know his worth. Music +filled every pore of his Alpine soul, and his +wonderful Swiss “Retreat” must ring to this day +in the memory of every man of the regiment +whose thoughts turn again to the romantic campaign +of South Missouri. What with other buglers +was a matter of routine training was with +him an inspiration. All knew well enough the +meaning of the commands that the company +trumpets stammered or blared forth; but when +they rang from Wettstein’s horn, they carried +with them a <em>vim</em> and energy that secured their +prompt execution; and his note in the wild Ozark +Hills would mark the headquarters of the “Vierte +Missouri” for miles around. From a hill-top, half +a mile in advance of the marching command, I +have turned the regiment into its camping-ground +and dismounted it in perfect order by the melodious +telegraphy of Wettstein’s brazen lips alone.</p> + +<p>That other chief attribute of his, Klitschka, +his little beast, stayed longer with me than his +bugle did, and is hardly less identified with the +varied reminiscences of my army life. I bought +her, as a prize, with the original mount of the +regiment, in Frémont’s time, and was mildly +informed by that officer that I must be careful +how I accepted many such animals from the contractor, +though a few for the smaller men might +answer. Asboth, Frémont’s chief of staff, with +a scornful rolling up of his cataract of a mustache, +and a shrug of his broad, thin shoulders, +said, “Whyfor you buy such horses? What your +bugler ride, it is not a horse, it is a cat.” His +remark was not intended as a question, and it +ended the conversation. Months after that, he +eagerly begged for the nine-lived Klitschka for +one of his orderlies; being refused him, she remained +good to the end. She was an animal that +defied every rule by which casual observers test +the merit of a horse; but analytically considered +she was nearly perfect. Better legs, a better +body, and a better head, it is rare to see, than +she had. But she lacked the arched neck and +the proud step that she needed all the more +because of her small size. By no means showy +in figure or in action, it took a second look to +see her perfect fitness for her work. Her color +was iron-gray, and no iron could be tougher than +she was; while her full, prominent eye and ample +brain-room, and her quick paper-thin ear, told of +courage and intelligence that made her invaluable +throughout four years of hard and often dangerous +service. Like many other ill-favored little +people, she was very lovable, and Wettstein loved +her like a woman. He would never hesitate to +relax those strict rules of conduct by which German +cavalrymen are supposed to govern themselves, +if it was a question of stealing forage for +Klitschka; and he was (amiable fellow!) never +so happy as when, from a scanty supply in the +country, he had taken enough oat-sheaves to bed +her in and almost cover her up, while other +horses of the command must go hungry; and +was never so shaken in his regard for me as +when I made him give up all but double rations +for her.</p> + +<p>Double rations she often earned, for Wettstein +was a heavy youth, with a constitutional passion +for baggage out of all proportion to his means +of transportation. Mounted for the march, he +was an odd sight. Little Klitschka’s back, with +his immense rolls of blankets and clothing before +and behind, looked like a dromedary’s. Planted +between the humps, straight as a gun-barrel, the +brightest of bugles suspended across his back by +its tasselled yellow braid, slashed like a harlequin +over the breast, his arms chevroned with gorgeous +gold,—Wettstein, with his cap-front turned up +so as to let the sun fall full on his frank blue eyes +and his resolute blond mustache, was the very +picture of a cavalry bugler in active campaign.</p> + +<p>Smoking, gabbling, singing, rollicking, from +morning until night, and still on until morning +again if need be, he never lost spirit nor temper. +He seemed to absorb sunshine enough during the +day to keep every one bright around him all night. +When at last his bugle had been stilled forever, +we long missed the cheer of his indomitable gayety; +wearying service became more irksome than +while his bubbling mirth had tempered its dulness; +and even little Klitschka, although she +remained an example of steady pluck, had never +so potent an influence as while he had put his +own unfailing mettle into her heels. After she +was bequeathed to me, she was always most +useful, but never so gay and frisky as while she +carried her own devoted groom. No day was too +long for her and no road too heavy; her brisk +trot knew no failing, but she refused ever again +to form the personal attachment that had sealed +her and Wettstein to each other.</p> + +<p>The two of them together, like the fabled Centaur, +made the complete creature. He with the +hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine +race, and she with her veins full of the mustang +blood of the Rocky Mountains, were fitted to each +other as almost never were horse and rider before. +Their performances were astonishing. In addition +to a constant attendance on his commander +(who, riding without baggage, and of no heavier +person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged +out three good horses between one morning +and the next), the Trompaytr yet volunteered +for all sorts of extra service,—carried messages +over miles of bad road to the general’s camp, +gave riding-lessons and music-lessons to the company +buglers, and then—fear of the guard-house +and fear of capture always unheeded—he never +missed an opportunity for the most hazardous and +most laborious foraging.</p> + +<p>He was a thorough soldier,—always “for duty,” +always cleanly, always handsome and cheery, and +heedlessly brave. If detected in a fault (and he +was, as I have hinted, an incorrigible forager), he +took his punishment like a man, and stole milk +for himself or fodder for Klitschka at the next +convenient (or inconvenient) opportunity, with an +imperturbability that no punishment could reach.</p> + +<p>Once, when supplies were short, he sent me, +from the guard-house where he had been confined +for getting them, a dozen bundles of corn-blades +for my horses; not as a bribe, but because he +would not allow the incidents of discipline to disturb +our friendly relations; and in the matter of +fodder in scarce times he held me as a helpless +pensioner, dependent on his bounty. When in +arrest by my order, his “Pon chour, Herr Oberist,” +was as cordial and happy as when he strolled +free past my tent. Altogether, I never saw his +like before or since. The good fortune to get +such a bugle, such a soldier, and such a mount +combined, comes but once in the lifetime of the +luckiest officer. It was only his uncouth tongue +that kept him from being pilfered from me by +every general who had the power to “detail” +him to his own headquarters.</p> + +<p>So universal, by the way, was this petty vice +of commanding officers, that one was never safe +until he adopted the plan, in selecting a staff +officer, of securing his promise to resign from the +service, point-blank, if ordered to other duty, and +more than one offended general has been made +indignant by this policy. With Wettstein, I felt +perfectly easy, for the average capacity of brigadier-generals +stopped far short of the analysis of +his dual jargon. Several tried him for a day, +but they found that his comprehension was no +better than his speech, and that his manifest +ability was a sealed book to them. He always +came home by nightfall with a chuckle, and “Le +général versteht mich nicht. Je blase ‘marrrsch’ +für ‘halt.’” </p> + +<p>So it was that, for a couple of years, this +trusty fellow trotted at my heels through rain +and shine, by day and by night, with his face full +of glee, and his well-filled canteen at the service +of our little staff. Mud and mire, ditches and +fences, were all one to him and Klitschka; and +in Vix’s day they followed her lead over many a +spot that the others had to take by flank movement.</p> + +<p>Our work in Missouri was but little more than +the work of subsistence. We were a part of an +army too large for any Rebel force in that region +to attack, and too unwieldy to pursue guerillas +with much effect. But now and then we +made a little scout that varied our otherwise +dull lives; and at such times Wettstein always +attached himself to the most dangerous patrolling +party, and Klitschka was usually the first +to bring back news of the trifling encounters.</p> + +<p>At last, in February, 1863, when we had lain +for a month in delicious idleness in the heart of +a rich country, literally flowing with poultry and +corn-fodder, I, being then in command of a division +of cavalry, received an order from Davidson +to select six hundred of the best-mounted of my +men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruiting, +ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White +River in Arkansas. His main body, three thousand +five hundred strong, lay in the “Oil-Trough +Bottom,” on the other side of the river. A brigade +of Western infantry was to march as far as +Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if necessary; +though we afterward found that at the +only moment when we might have had grave +occasion to depend on them, they were, with an +inconsistency that was not the least attribute of +our commanding officer, withdrawn without notice +to us.</p> + +<p>We were to go in light marching order, carrying +only the necessary clothing, and rations +of salt and coffee. Wettstein’s ideas of lightness +differing from mine, I had to use some authority +to rid poor Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, +and such trash; and after all, the rascal had, +under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, +smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weighing +some fifteen pounds, into one of his rolls. +Eager men, too, whose horses were out of trim, +had to be discarded, and the whole detail to be +thoroughly overhauled. But the jovial anticipation +of seeing Batesville once more—a New +England village planted on a charming hillside +in Arkansas, where we had sojourned with Curtis +the summer before, and where we all had the +pleasant acquaintance that even an enemy makes +in a town from which the native men have long +been gone, and only the women remain—made +the work of preparation go smoothly, and long +before dawn Wettstein’s bugle summoned the details +from the several camps. There was a ringing +joyousness in his call, that spoke of the cosey, +roaring fire of a certain Batesville kitchen to +which his bright face and his well-filled haversack +had long ago made him welcome, and prospective +feasting gave an added trill to his blast.</p> + +<p>The little detachments trotted gayly into line, +officers were assigned for special duty, temporary +divisions were told off, and a working organization +was soon completed. Before the sun was +up, such a Ra, t’t’ta, t’t’ta, <em>t’t’ta</em>! as South +Missouri had never heard before, broke the line +by twos from the right, and we were off for a +promising trip. Marmaduke we knew of old, and +personal cowardice would have deterred no one +from joining our party, for he could be reached +from our stronger army only by a complete surprise; +and in a country where every woman and +child (white, I mean) was his friend and our enemy, +a surprise, over ninety miles of bad roads, +seemed out of the question. Indeed, before we +had made a half of the distance, one of his flying +scouts told a negro woman by the roadside, as +he checked his run to water his horse, “There’s +a hell’s-mint o’ Yanks a comin’ over the mountain, +and I must git to Marmyjuke”; and to +Marmaduke he “got,” half a day ahead of us, +only to be laughed at for a coward who had been +frightened by a foraging-party.</p> + +<p>The second night brought us to Evening Shade, +a little village where one Captain Smith was raising +a company. They had all gone, hours ahead +of us, but had left their supplies and their fires +behind them, and these, with the aid of a grist-mill +(for which an Illinois regiment furnished a +miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At daybreak +we set out for our last day’s march, still +supposing that Marmaduke’s men would put the +river between themselves and us before night, +but confident of comfortable quarters at Batesville. +A few miles out, we began to pick up +Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rattling +through the woods, from a house to which +he had been allowed to go for milk, with the +story of a sick officer lodged there. Following +his lead with a surgeon and a small escort, I +found the captain of the Evening Shade company +lying in a raging fever, with which he had found +it impossible to ride, and nearly dead with terror +lest we should hang him at once. His really +beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven +his recruiting labors, was in tears over his impending +fate. While we were talking with him +concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with +a royal pair of Mexican spurs to save his life, +evidently thinking from his display of finery that +he was a major-general at the very least. The +kind fellow buckled the spurs on my heels, and +they evidently gave me new consequence in his +eyes as we rode on our way.</p> + +<p>Presently we struck a party of about twenty-five, +under a Captain Mosby, who had been making +a circuit after conscripts and had had no +news of us. After a running fight, during which +there occurred some casualties on the other side, +we captured the survivors of the party and sent +them to the rear.</p> + +<p>From midday on, we heard rumors of a sally +in strong force from Batesville, and were compelled +to move cautiously,—straggling parties of +Rebel scouts serving to give credibility to the +story. At sunset we were within six miles of +the town; and, halting in the deep snow of a +large farm-yard, I sent a picked party of thirty, +under Rosa, to secure the ferry, if possible,—Wettstein +and Klitschka accompanying to bring +back word of the result. After two anxious +hours, he came into camp with a note from +Rosa: “Marmaduke is over the river and has +the ferry-boat with him; three of his men killed. +Wettstein did bravely.” The poor fellow had a +bad cut on his arm and was in pain, but not a +moment would he give himself until brave little +Klitschka, smothered in bright straw, was filling +herself from the smuggled bag of corn. Then +he came to the surgeon and had his wounded +arm duly dressed. Although evidently suffering +and weak from loss of blood, he gave us a cheering +account of Rosa’s fight, and dwelt fondly on +the supper he had bespoken for us at good Mrs. +——’s house, where we had quartered in the +summer. At nine o’clock, after Klitschka had +fed and the patrols had come in, we set out on +our march. It was still snowing hard, and even +the dead men that marked Rosa’s recent ride +were fast being shrouded in purest white. One +of them Wettstein pointed out as the man with +whom he had crossed sabres, and he asked permission +to stay with the party detailed to bury +him, for he had been a “braff homme.” With +his tender sympathy for friend or foe, he was +a truer mourner than a dead soldier often gets +from the ranks of his enemy. Even this sad +ride came to an end, as all things must, and at +the edge of the town soldierly Rosa stood, to +report that the pickets were posted and our +quarters ready. Giving him a fresh detail to relieve +his pickets, and asking his company at our +midnight supper, we pushed on to our chosen +house. Here we found all in order, save that +the young lady of the family had so hastily put +on the jacket bearing the U. S. buttons of her +last summer’s conquests, that she failed quite to +conceal the C. S. buttons on a prettier one under +it. She and her mother scolded us for driving +the Rebel beaux from town, when there was +to have been a grand farewell ball only the next +night; but they seemed in no wise impressed +with regret for the friends who had been killed +and wounded in the chase. It turned out that +Marmaduke had grown tired of reports that we +were marching on him in force, and would not +believe it now until his own men rode into town +at nightfall with the marks of Rosa’s sabres on +their heads. The place had been filled with +the officers of his command, and he with them, +come for their parting flirtations before the ball. +They were to march to Little Rock, and their +men were nearly all collected in the “Bottom,” +over the river. On this sudden proof of the +attack, they made a stampede for the flat-boat +of the rope-ferry, and nearly sunk it by over-crowding, +the hindmost men cutting the rope +and swimming their horses across the wintry torrent.</p> + +<p>We had full possession of the town, and were +little disturbed by the dropping shots from the +Rebel side. We visited on our unfaithful friends +such punishment as enforced hospitality could +compass, and, on the whole, we hadn’t a bad +“time.” The morning after our arrival we levied +such contributions of supplies as were necessary +for our return march, and, in order that +the return might not look like a retreat, we +loaded two wagons with hogsheads of sugar +(which would be welcome in Davidson’s commissariat), +and made every arrangement for the establishment +of the camping of the whole army in +the country back of the town; for our force was +so small that, with our tired horses, it would +have been imprudent to turn our backs to Marmaduke’s +little army, if he supposed us to be +alone.</p> + +<p>Keeping the town well picketed and making +much show of laying out an encampment, we +started the teams and the main body of the +command at nightfall, holding back a hundred +men for a cover until a later hour.</p> + +<p>During the evening the Rebels on the south +side of the river became suspiciously quiet, and +there was, apparently, some new movement on +foot. The only possible chance for an attack was +by Magnus’s ferry, ten miles below, where the +boat was so small and the river so wide that +not more than twenty horses could be crossed in +an hour, and our sharpshooters were sufficient +to prevent the removal of the Batesville boat +to that point. Still it was important to know +what was going on, and especially important to +prevent even a scouting-party of the enemy from +harassing the rear of our tired column by the +shorter road from Magnus’s to Evening Shade; +and I started at nine o’clock (when the moon +rose), with twenty men, to go round that way, +directing the remainder of the rear-guard to follow +the main body at midnight.</p> + +<p>The ride to Magnus’s was without other adventure +than bad roads and almost impassable +bayous always entail, and in a few hours we +reached the plantation, where I had a former +ally in an old negro who had done us good service +during Curtis’s campaign. He said that the +Rebels had left the Bottom, and were going to +Little Rock, but, as a precaution he took a +canoe and crossed over to the house of another +negro on the south bank, and returned with a +confirmation of his opinion. As it was very important +to know whether the only enemy of +Davidson’s army had really withdrawn from his +front, and, as this might be definitely learned +through the assistance of an old scout who lived +in the edge of the Bottom, it seemed best to +cross the river to give him instructions for his +work.</p> + +<p>I took Ruby, my best horse. He was a sure +reliance under all circumstances, and he and I +knew each other perfectly. We were at home in +every foot-path in the country, having had many +a summer’s swim in this very river; and now, +accompanied only by Wettstein and Klitschka, +I went on to the ferry-boat. It was what is +known as a “swing” ferry. A stout rope is +stretched between trees on the opposite shores, +and the boat is attached to a couple of pulleys +arranged to traverse the length of this rope. +The attaching cords—one at each end of the +up-stream side of the boat—are long enough to +allow it to swing some rods down the stream; +by shortening one of the ropes and lengthening +the other, the boat is placed at an angle with +the swift current, which propels it toward one +shore or the other, the pulleys keeping pace in +their course on the main rope.</p> + +<p>The main rope was rough from long use, and +often the pulleys would halt in their course, +until the pull of the advancing boat dragged them +free. Then the rickety craft, shivering from end +to end, would make a rapid shoot, until another +defective place in the rope brought her to again. +At each vibration, the horses nearly lost their +feet, and the surging stream almost sent its +muddy water over the gunwale. It was a long +and anxious trip,—the rotten guy-rope hardly +serving to hold us to our course. At last we +reached the shore and rode on to Craikill’s house +in the Bottom. He had been “conscripted,” and +forced to go with the army, so his wife told +us, and she had seen him march with the rest +on the Fairview Road for Little Rock. The last +bird had flown, and we could safely march back +at our leisure.</p> + +<p>Wettstein filled his pipe, emptied his haversack +for the benefit of Craikill’s hungry children, +and, cheery as ever, followed me to the ferry. +On the way over he had been as still as a mouse, +for he was too old a soldier to give an enemy any +sign of our approach. But, as we set out on the +return trip, in the cold moonlight, he sang the +“Ranz des Vaches,” fondled his little mare, and, +unmindful of his wounded arm, gave way to the +flow of spirits that the past few days’ duty had +checked. I never knew him more gay and delightful; +and, as we stood leaning on our saddles +and chatting together, I congratulated myself +upon the possession of such a perpetual sunbeam.</p> + +<p>We were barely half-way across, when, suddenly, +coming out of the darkness, riding half +hidden in the boiling, whirling tide, a huge floating +tree struck the boat with a thud that parted +the rotten guy-rope, and carried us floating down +the stream. For a moment there seemed no danger, +but a branch of the tree had caught the +corner of the boat, and the pulleys had become +entangled in the rope. When this had been +drawn to its full length, and the tree felt the +strain, the boat dipped to the current, filled, and +sank under our feet. I called to Wettstein to +take Klitschka by the tail, but it was too late; +he had grasped the saddle with the desperation +of a drowning man, and made her fairly helpless. +The boat soon passed from under us, and, +relieved of our weight, came to the surface at +our side; but, bringing the rope against poor +Wettstein’s wounded arm, it tore loose his hold, +and soon went down again in the eddy, and +Klitschka was free.</p> + +<p>“Adieu, Herr Oberist; tenez Klitschka pour +vous! Adieu!” And that happy, honest face +sank almost within reach of me. The weight of +his arms prevented his rising again, and only an +angry eddy, glistening in the moonlight, marked +his turbid grave.</p> + +<p>Ruby, snorting, and struggling hard with the +current, pulled me safely to the shore, and little +Klitschka followed as well as her loaded saddle +would permit. For the moment, with my own +life and the lives of two tried companions to +care for, I thought of nothing else; but as I sat +drying at Magnus’s roaring hearth the direst desolation +overwhelmed me. Very far from home,—far +even from the home-like surroundings of my +own camp,—I had clung to this devoted fellow +as a part of myself. He was a proven friend; +with him I never lacked the sympathy that, in +the army at least, is born of constant companionship, +and he filled a place in my life that +dearer friends at home might not find. He +was the one comrade whose heart, I was sure, +was filled only with unquestioning love for me. +Henceforth I must look for support to companions +who saw me as I was, who knew my faults +and my weaknesses, and whose kind regard was +tempered with criticism. The one love that was +blind, that took me for better or for worse, had +been, in an instant, torn from my life, and I +was more sad than I can tell.</p> + +<p>But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened +party, we mounted, to join the main command; +and, as we rode on through the rest of that desolate +night, no word passed to tell the gloom that +each man felt.</p> + +<p>The petty distinctions of earthly rank were +swallowed up in a feeling of true brotherhood, +and Wettstein—promoted now—rode at our +head as a worthy leader, showing the way to a +faithful performance of all duty, and a kindly +and cheerful bearing of all life’s burdens; and, +through the long and trying campaigns that followed, +more than one of us was the better soldier +for the lesson his soldierly life had taught.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch4.jpg" width="500px" height="106px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="MAX" id="MAX"></a>CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/u.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_1">Union City was not a city at all; it +was hardly a village, and “Disunion” +would have been its fairer designation. +It lay in the woods at the crossing of two railroads, +one pointing toward Mobile and one toward +Memphis, but neither leading anywhere. There +was a tradition that trains had once been run +upon each, but many bridges had had to be rebuilt +to make the short line to Columbus passable, +and the rest was ruin; for Forrest had been +there with his cavalry.</p> + +<p>The land was just so much raised above the +broad swamp of Northwestern Tennessee that +whiskey with men to drink it, and a Methodist +Church South with people to attend it, were possible. +With these meagre facilities for life, and +the vague inducement of a railroad-crossing. +Union City had struggled into an amphibious +subsistence; but it had never thriven, and its +corner-lots had but feebly responded to the hopes +of its projectors.</p> + +<p>For many a mile around, the forests and +swamps were well-nigh impenetrable, and the occasional +clearings were but desolate oases in the +waste of marsh and fallen timber. The roads +were wood-trails leading nowhere in particular, +and all marked a region of the most scanty and +unfulfilled promise.</p> + +<p>General Asboth, seeing (by the map) that it +commanded two lines of railroad, sent us to occupy +this strategic point, and we gradually accumulated +to the number of twenty-five hundred +cavalry and four thousand infantry, drawing our +regular supplies from Columbus; and occupying +our time with a happy round of drills, inspections, +horse-races, cock-fights, and poker. It was +not an elevating existence, but it was charmingly +idle, and we passed the serene and lovely +autumn of 1863 in a military dreamland, where +nothing ever came to disturb our quiet, or to +mar our repose with the realities of war. We +built ourselves houses, we shot game for our +tables, we made egg-nog for our evenings, and +we were happy. The charm of camp-life—with +just enough of occupation and responsibility, and +with enough improvement in the troops for a reward—made +even this wilderness enjoyable. I +had the advantage of seniority and command, and +the physical comforts that naturally gravitate toward +a commanding officer did not fail me.</p> + +<p>My house, built with the mouse-colored logs +of a Rebel block-house, covered with the roof of +the post-office, and floored and ceiled with the +smoke-mellowed lining of the Methodist church, +was broad and low and snug. Its windows, also +taken from the sanctuary in question, were set +on their sides, and gave to each of the two rooms +wide, low-browed outlooks into the woods and +over the drill-ground, that would have made +worse quarters agreeable. The bricks of an abandoned +domestic fireside built a spacious fireplace +across an angle of each of the rooms, and the clay +of the locality plastered all our chinks “to keep +the wind away.” I have seen more pretentious +houses and more costly, but never one in which +three chosen spirits—I had, in a happy moment, +selected Voisin and the Hun for my staff—got +more that is worth the getting out of the simple +and virtuous life of a cavalry headquarters. +We were at peace with all the world (Forrest +was in Mississippi), our pay was regular, our +rations were ample,—and Asboth had been +ordered to Pensacola.</p> + +<p>Old A. J., his successor,—every inch a soldier, +and a good fellow to the very core,—used +sometimes to roll up his camp mattress and run +down from Columbus for an inspection. Those +are marked days in our memories. He was a +lynx in the field, and wry buttoning roused him +to articulate wrath; but he unbuckled his sabre +at the door, and brought only geniality within,—a +mellow geniality that warmed to the influences +of our modest hospitality, and lasted far into +the night; and then, when the simple and inoffensive +game was over, and its scores were settled, +the dear old boy—usually with a smile of +conquest wandering through his gray beard—would +unroll his bundle before the fire and sleep +like a baby until reveille. Happy, happy days,—and +still happier nights!</p> + +<p>Naturally, in such a life as we led at Union +City, our horses formed a very important element +in our occupation and in our amusements. +Soon after our arrival at Columbus,—an event +which had taken place a few months before,—a +spanking mare that I had bought to replace +Ruby had gone hopelessly lame, and it became +again important to all who were concerned in +my peace of mind, that a satisfactory substitute +should be found for her. I had still in my stable +a little thoroughbred (Guy), who, though excellent +in all respects, was a trifle under my weight, +and not at all up to the rough riding that was +a necessary part of our army life. He could go +anywhere, could jump any practicable barrier, +was fleet and sound, and in all respects admirable, +but he was made for a lighter weight than +mine, and, except for show and parade riding, +must mainly be used to carry Ike and the saddle-bags, +or to mount a friend when a friend +favored me.</p> + +<p>In a second search, in which most of the officers +of the regiment took a lively interest, there +was found, in Frank Moore’s Battalion of the +Second Illinois Cavalry, a tall, gaunt, lean, haggard, +thoroughbred-looking beast, which had been +captured from Merryweather’s men in Western +Tennessee. He was not a handsome horse, nor +was he to the ordinary eye in any respect +promising; but a trial showed that he had that +peculiar whalebone character, and wiry, nervous +action, which come only with blood, and without +which no horse is really fit for the saddle. The +chances were very much against him. He did +not possess the first element of beauty, save in +a clean-cut head, a prominent eye, a quick ear, +a thin neck, sloping shoulders, high withers, and +the brilliant activity that no abuse had been +able to conquer. He was held in abeyance until +a careful examination of the two thousand +horses at the post showed that, even as he +stood, he had no equal there for my purposes. +Since he had come into the army he had been +in the possession of a private soldier, who had +done much scouting duty, and he had been initiated +(successfully) into the scrub-racing which +Illinois soldiers much affected. The serious +amount of one hundred and forty dollars was +hazarded in the venture, and he was transferred +to our stable. That increment of value which +always follows the purchase of a new horse +came rapidly in his case, and it needed only a +few gallops on the breezy bluffs beyond Fort +Halleck, to install him as prime favorite among +the headquarters’ mess.</p> + +<p>He was deemed worthy of the noble name of +Max, and under Ike’s careful grooming he returned +daily toward the blooming condition that +only Second Illinois abuse had been able to subdue. +In an early race with the Hun we were +ingloriously beaten; but the Hun rode a marvellous +little blood mare, blooming with hundreds +of bushels of oats, and with two years of +careful handling. Max, though beaten, was not +discouraged, and seemed to say that with time +and good treatment he would be ready for a +more successful trial.</p> + +<p>During his period of tutelage, and while he +was kept from all excessive exertion, he was inducted +into the mysteries of the art, to him +quite new, of jumping timber. Columbus had +been occupied by Rebel and Union soldiers since +the outbreak of the war, and its fences, far and +wide, had all disappeared; but nowhere in the +world was there a greater variety nor a more +ample stock of fallen trees, whose huge boles +made capital leaping-bars; and over these, almost +daily, for some months, beginning with the +smaller ones and going gradually to the largest +we could find, Max learned to carry a heavy +weight with a power and precision that even +Ruby could not have excelled.</p> + +<p>During all this time, ample feed, good shelter, +regular exercise, and a couple of hours of Ike’s +hand-rubbing daily, worked an uninterrupted improvement +in limb and wind and sinews and coat, +until, by the time we were ordered to Union +City, Max had become the pride of the camp. +He was over sixteen hands high, of a solid dark +bay color, glistening like polished mahogany, and +active and spirited as a horse in training for the +Derby.</p> + +<p>At Union City the headquarters’ horses were +stabled under a capital shed, close at hand, and +all that master’s eye and servant’s labor could +accomplish for their care and improvement was +lavished upon them; so that, during our long +months’ stay, we were among the best-mounted +men in the Western army. Our pleasure-riding +and our work lay through swampy wood-roads, +over obstructions of every sort, and across the +occasional grass farms, with their neglected rail-fences. +The weather was almost uninterruptedly +fine, our few visiting neighbors were miles away +from us, the shooting was good, and the enjoyment +we got from our vagabond life in camp was +well supplemented by the royal rides we almost +daily took.</p> + +<p>Naturally, in a camp full of idle men given +largely to sport, the elevating entertainment of +horse-racing played a prominent part. Both Max +and Guy were conspicuous by their successes until, +long before the close of our leisurely career, but +only after they had hung my walls with spurs +and whips and other trophies of their successful +competition with all comers, both were ruled out +by the impossible odds they were obliged to give. +The actual military service required was only +enough to convince me that Max was a beast of +endless bottom and endurance, and that, accidents +apart, he would need no help in any work he +might be called on to perform. For the rest of +the war, with much duty of untold severity, I +habitually rode no other horse for light work or +for hard, for long rides or for short ones, on the +march or on parade; and with all my sentiment +for his charming predecessors, I had to confess +that his equal as a campaigner had never come +under my leg. He would walk like a cart-horse +at the head of a marching column, would step +like a lord in passing in review, would prance +down the main street of a town as though vain +of all applause, would leap any fence or ditch +or fallen timber to which he might be put, would +fly as though shot from a gun in passing along +the line; and when, whether early or late, he +was taken to his stable, would eat like a hungry +colt and sleep like a tired plough-horse. In all +weathers and under all circumstances he was +steady, honest, intelligent, and ready for every +duty. I had ridden before, at home and in the +army, horses ideally good; I have ridden since, +over the hunting country of Warwickshire and +Northamptonshire, horses that were counted of +the best, but never, before or since, have I +mounted such a magnificent piece of perfectly +trained and perfectly capable horse-flesh.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, at Union City, word was +brought in that a flag of truce from Faulkner +had arrived at our picket line, and I rode out +for a parley over a trifling matter of an exchange +of prisoners. The officer in charge of +the flag, with the company escorting him, had +originally come from our neighborhood and had +belonged to Merryweather’s “band.” As Max +trotted up to their bivouac, he was greeted with +cries of recognition, and a lieutenant of the company +was kind enough to warn me that I had +shown them a stronger inducement than they +had hitherto had to make an attack on our position; +for, since Frank Moore had captured the +horse I rode, they had determined to regain him +at any risk. Happily, this laudable wish was +never fulfilled, and Max remained, in spite of +the devices they may have laid for his recapture.</p> + +<p>During the five months of our stay at this +post, we made some hard scouts in a hard country, +and we held a good part of West Tennessee +under strict surveillance, but the most +memorable feature of all our scouting was generally +the welcome dismounting under the wide +eaves of our own house; not, I hope, that we had +grown effeminate, but a week’s tramp through +the woods of West Tennessee offers little that +memory can cherish, and prepares one for a sensation +on the near approach of comfort.</p> + +<p>But five months of such life is enough, and I +was not sorry when the order came that I must +go for a soldier again.</p> + +<p>Sherman was about to advance eastward from +Vicksburg, destroy the lines of railroad by which +Forrest received supplies from the fertile prairie +region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Rebellion +in the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to +take all my infantry down the river, and the +cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line +of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and +join a considerable cavalry force gathering there +under Sooy Smith and Grierson; thence we were +to move southeasterly through Mississippi, to engage +Forrest’s forces and to meet Sherman’s army +at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at +Meridian.</p> + +<p>We lay in camp more than a week, ready to +move, but awaiting orders. The country (a very +wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. +Our order to march and the thaw came together, +on the 22d of January. We were to cross the +Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp’s Ferry, twenty-three +miles southwest of our camp. The command +consisted of the Fourth Missouri (with a +battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, +Nineteenth Pennsylvania, and Frank Moore’s Battalion +of the Second Illinois; in all about twenty-five +hundred well-mounted men present for duty. +The roads were deep with mud and slush, and +every creek was “out of its banks” with the +thaw. We reached the ferry only at nightfall of +the 23d, over roads that had hourly grown deeper +and more difficult. Two regiments had crossed, +through floating ice (eight horses at a trip), by +a rope-ferry, and at nine o’clock in the evening, +under a full moon and a summer temperature, +I crossed with staff and escort. The river was +already so swollen that we landed in two feet of +water, and still it was rising.</p> + +<p>Our camp was fixed five miles away on the +upland. The first mile was only wet and nasty, +and the trail not hard to follow. Then we came +to the “back slough,” thirty feet wide, four feet +deep, and still covered with four inches of ice. +Those who had gone before had broken a track +through this, and swept the fragments of ice forward +until near the shore they were packed in +for a width of ten feet or more, and to the full +depth of the water. I can make no stronger +statement than that we all got through safely, +only wet to the skin. How it was done I do +not pretend to know. Some went in one way +and some in another. All I can assert is that +my stalwart old Max, when he found himself +standing, belly deep, in broken ice, settled quietly +on his haunches and took my two hundred +pounds with one spring on to dry land four feet +higher than his starting-point, and twelve feet +away,—but then, Max always was a marvel. +Guy, who carried Ike, scrambled over the top of +the broken ice as only he or a cat could do. The +others fared variously. All were drenched, and +some were hurt, but all got to the shore at last. +Then came the hour-long tug to get my ambulance +through with its store of tent-hold goods +and we started for our remaining four miles. +The trail, even of cavalry, is not easily followed +by moonlight when covered with half a foot of +water, and we lost our way; reaching camp, after +fourteen miles of hard travel, at four o’clock in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The river was still rising rapidly, and word +was brought that Kargé, with more than half +the brigade, would have to make a détour of +fifty miles and cross the Three Forks of the +Obion far to the eastward, joining us some days +later, near Jackson. So we idled on, marching +a few miles each day, camping early, cooking the +fat of the land for our evening meal, cultivating +the questionable friendship of the Rebel population +by forced contributions of subsistence, and +leading, on the whole, a peaceful, unlaborious, +and charming picnic life. Finally, taking Kargé +again under our wing, we pushed on, resolutely +and rapidly, over flooded swamps, across deep, +rapid rivers, and through hostile towns, to our +rendezvous; whence, under the command of two +generals, and as part of an army of eight thousand +well-mounted cavalry and light artillery, +and all in light marching order, we started for +our more serious work.</p> + +<p>The chief in command was a young and handsome, +but slightly nervous individual, who eschewed +the vanities of uniform, and had about +himself and his horse no evidence of his military +character that could not be unbuckled and +dropped with his sword-belt in case of impending +capture. He was vacillating in his orders, +and a little anxious in his demeanor, but he had +shown himself cool and clear-headed under fire, +and seemed resolutely bent on the destruction of +the last vestige of Forrest’s troublesome army. +It would be tedious to tell all the adventures of +our forward expedition; how we marched in three +columns over different roads, each for himself, +and with only a vague notion where and how +we should meet, and how we should support +each other. As it afterward proved, the details +of the order of march had been given to the commanders +of the other brigades, while I had been +forgotten; so that the whole advance was vexed +with cross-purposes and with the evidences of a +hidden misunderstanding. The <em>contretemps</em> that +thus came about were annoying, and, in one +instance, came near being serious: as we were +going into camp at Prairie Station, my advance +reported having come in sight of the camp-fires +of the enemy; a skirmish-line was sent forward, +and only on the eve of engaging did they discover +that we were approaching Hepburn’s Brigade, +of our column, which had reached the same +point by another road.</p> + +<p>The first days of our march in Mississippi +were through Tippah County, as rough, hopeless, +God-forsaken a country as was ever seen +outside of Southern Missouri. Its hills were +steep, its mud was deep, its houses and farms +were poor, its facilities for the subsistence of a +protecting army like ours were of the most meagre +description, and its streams delayed us long +with their torrents of bottomless muddy water, +fast swelling from the thaw that had unlocked +the snow of all the deep-buried hills and morasses +of their upper waters. We built ferry-boats +and swamped them, built bridges and broke +them, and slowly and painfully, horse by horse, +transferred the command across the nasty riverbeds. +Tippah Creek detained us and kept us +hard at work all day and all night, and we +reached the Tallahatchee at New Albany barely +in time to ford our last man across before it rose +to an impassable depth. And then for two days +we pressed forward, in company with the whole +column, through the rough, rocky, and wooded +country, reaching Okolona only at nightfall.</p> + +<p>Here we struck the marvellous prairie region +of Northeastern Mississippi, literally a land flowing +with milk and honey. An interminable, fertile, +rolling prairie lay before us in every direction. +The stern rule of the Confederacy had +compelled the planters to offset every small field +of cotton with a wide area of corn, until the +region had become known as the granary of the +Southern army. Not only must every land-owner +devote his broadest fields to the cultivation +of the much-needed cereal, but one tenth of +all his crop must be stacked for public use in +cribs at the side of the railroad.</p> + +<p>It was an important incident of our mission +to destroy everything which directly or indirectly +could afford subsistence to the Rebel forces; and +during the two days following our arrival at +Okolona, while we marched as far south as West +Point, the sky was red with the flames of burning +corn and cotton. On a single plantation, +our flanking party burned thirty-seven hundred +bushels of tithe corn, which was cribbed near +the railroad; no sooner was its light seen at the +plantation houses than hundreds of negroes, who +swarmed from their quarters to join our column, +fired the rail-built cribs in which the remaining +nine-tenths of the crop was stored. Driven wild +with the infection, they set the torch to mansion +house, stables, cotton-gin, and quarters, until +the whole village-like settlement was blazing +in an unchecked conflagration. To see such +wealth, and the accumulated products of such +vast labor, swept from the face of the earth, +gave to the aspect of war a saddening reality, +which was in strong contrast to the peaceful +and harmless life our brigade had thus far led. +In all this prairie region there is no waste land, +and the evidences of wealth and fertility lay +before us in all directions. As we marched, the +negroes came <em>en masse</em> from every plantation to +join our column, leaving only fire and absolute +destruction behind them. It was estimated that +during these two days’ march two thousand +slaves and one thousand mules were added to +our train.</p> + +<p>The incidents of all this desolation were often +sickening and heart-rending; delicate women and +children, whom the morning had found in peace +and plenty, and glowing with pride in the valor +of Southern arms and the certainty of an early +independence for their beloved half-country, found +themselves, before nightfall, homeless, penniless, +and alone, in the midst of a desolate land.</p> + +<p>Captain Frank Moore, the Cossack of our +brigade, went at night to an outlying plantation, +of which the showy mansion-house stood on a +gentle acclivity in the edge of a fine grove. +Here lived alone with an only daughter, a beautiful +girl, a man who had been conspicuous in +his aid to the Rebellion, and whose arrest had +been ordered. The squadron drew up in front +of the house and summoned its owner to come +forth. He came, armed, sullen, stolid, and determined, +but obviously unnerved by the force +confronting him. Behind him followed his +daughter, dressed in white, and with her long +light hair falling over her shoulders. The sight +of the hated “Yanks” crazed her with rage, +and before her father could reply to the question +with which he had been accosted, she +called to him wildly, “Don’t speak to the villains! +Shoot! shoot them down, shoot them +down!” wringing her hands, and screaming with +rage. The excitement was too much for his +judgment, and he fired wildly on the troops. +He was riddled through and through with bullets; +and as Moore turned away, he left that +fine house blazing in the black night, and lighting +up the figure of the crazy girl as she wandered, +desolate and beautiful, to and fro before +her burning home, unheeded by the negroes +who ran with their hastily made bundles to join +the band of their deliverers. Moore’s description +of this scene in the simple language that +it was his unpretending way to use, gave the +most vivid picture we had seen of the unmitigated +horror and badness of war.</p> + +<p>As an instrument of destruction in the enemy’s +country, our raid had thus far been more +successful than we could have anticipated; but +we had come for even more serious business +than this, and there were already indications +that its main purpose would be a failure. Our +commander had evidently no stomach for a close +approach to the enemy, and his injunctions at +Colliersville that we were to try always to “Fight +at close quarters!” “Go at them as soon as +possible with the sabre!” and other valorous +ejaculations, were in singular contrast to the +impressions he evinced as the prospect of an +actual engagement drew near.</p> + +<p>Forrest was in our front with about our own +number of cavalry, but without artillery, of +which we had twenty good pieces. The open +country offered good fighting ground, and gave +to our better drilled and more completely organized +forces a decided advantage, even without +our great odds in artillery. There lay before +us a fair opportunity for dispersing the most +successful body of cavalry in the Rebel service; +and, could we effect a junction with Sherman, +we should enable him to divide the Confederacy +from Vicksburg to Atlanta. One of the most +brilliant and damaging campaigns of the war +seemed ready to open. Its key lay in our successful +engagement, on a fair field, with an inferior +force. Yet all of us who were in a position +to know the spirit with which we were commanded +were conscious of a gradual oozing out +at the finger-ends of the determination to make +a successful fight; and it was a sad night for us +all when, at West Point, with our skirmish-line +steadily engaging the Rebel outposts, an order +came that we were to fall back before daybreak +toward Okolona.</p> + +<p>The brigade commanders and their staffs had +had severe duty in the scattered work of destruction, +and even Max, tough though he was, had +been almost overworked with constant galloping +to and fro, and with the frequent countermarching +our varying orders had required. Still he was +better than his comrades, and many a man was +anxious for his mount, should our retreat be +pressed.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning we were on our way +toward the rear,—about eight thousand cavalry, +ten sections of artillery, two thousand pack-mules, +and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves +mounted on their masters’ mules, often two or +three on each, and clustering under our shadow +as their only means of escape to the happy land +of freedom. In an organized advance, all of this +vast hanging on could be kept at the rear and +in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of +self-preservation always attacks first the non-combatant +element, and during all the days that followed, +we found our way constantly blocked with +these throngs of panic-stricken people.</p> + +<p>No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw +his time had come, and he pressed us sorely all +day and until nightfall, and tried hard to gain +our flanks. A hundred times we might have +turned and given him successful battle, but, at +every suggestion of this, we received from our +general, who was well in advance of the retiring +column, the order to push forward and give our +rear a free road for retreat. Midnight found us +again in the vicinity of Okolona, and the next +daybreak showed the enemy’s long column filing +out of the woods and stretching well on toward +our right flank.</p> + +<p>Even the plains of Texas could offer no field +better suited for a cavalry engagement, and it +was with satisfaction that we received, at five +o’clock in the morning, an order to prepare at +once for a fight; but our men were barely +mounted and in line when an order came to +turn our backs upon this open field, and to retreat +with all expedition toward Memphis.</p> + +<p>When we left Okolona we left hope behind, for +our road struck at once into a wooded, hilly country, +full of by-ways and cross-roads known to the +enemy and unknown to us, and we well knew that +this movement would double Forrest’s power and +divide our own. Then, for a long day, tired and +hungry from the hard work and constant movement +we had just gone through, and with our +horses half-fed and overworked, we pushed on, +our rear often attacked and sometimes broken, +our mule-train and negroes thrown into frequent +confusion, one of our brigades demoralized and +put to flight, and the enemy still pressing our +rear and reaching for our flanks. At last, towards +night, it became evident that a stand +must be made or all would be entirely lost, and +at Ivy Farm, near Pontotoc, we found a broad, +open hill-top, with large fields, high fences, and +stout log-houses, which offered an opportunity. +By this time the command was too widely separated, +and some of it too much disorganized, +for the concentration of even a whole brigade, +but a part of Hepburn’s and a part of my own +were disentangled from the corral of fugitives +and brought into line. Both of our generals +were upon the field, and to our surprise both +seemed brave and resolute; and this not with +the resolution of despair, for the actual immediate +necessity of fighting often steadies nerves +which are easily shaken by the anticipation of +danger. Brave they were, but not always of the +same mind, and conflicting orders continued to +add to our embarrassment and insecurity.</p> + +<p>It is not worth while to detail all the incidents +of the opening of the short engagement; it was +ended by the only legitimate cavalry charge made +by the “Vierte Missouri” during the whole of its +four years’ history.</p> + +<p>We had withdrawn from the line where we had +been fighting on foot, had mounted, formed, and +drawn sabre; the road about one hundred yards +in front of us was swarming with Rebels, who +crept along the fence-lines and in the edge of +the bordering woods, and kept up a steady rain +of fire well over our heads, where we heard that +<em>pfwit</em>—<em>pfwit</em>—<em>pfwit</em> of flying bullets which, +happily, has no relative in the whole chorus of +sounds, and which is heard above all the din of +battle, and is felt through every remotest nerve.</p> + +<p>At the command “Forward,” excitement ran +down the line, and there was a disposition for an +immediate rush. But “Steady—right dress—trot!” +in a measured tone, taken up in turn by +the company officers, brought back all the effect +of our three years’ discipline of the drill-ground. +Later, “Steady—gallop—right dress!” accelerated +the speed without disturbing the alignment, +and then, at last, “Charge!” and with a +universal yelling and brandishing of sabres we +went forward like the wind. I then felt how +mad a venture we had undertaken, for before +us was the enemy, it is true, but the enemy behind +a high and stout, staked and ridered rail-fence. +As we drew very near this, still under +heavy fire, which now at the short range was +telling, the command became conscious that the +six-foot fence would withstand our shock, and it +wavered. I turned to my bugler to sound the +recall, when I saw him out of the corner of my +eye, his white horse rearing literally to his full +height and falling backward with a crash that +must have killed the poor boy at once. The +recall was not needed: the regiment had turned +and was running. The officers, being the best +mounted and generally the lightest weights, soon +reached the front, and “Steady—right dress—trot! +Steady—right dress—trot!” was repeated +along the line, until the drill-ground +precision was regained, and then “By fours—right +about—wheel!” and we stood facing the +enemy again, ready for another advance. Max +had been struck by a grazing bullet and had +been plunging heavily, but the wound was not +serious and he was soon quieted. We now saw +that our charge, futile though it seemed, had +done its work. The advance of the enemy was +checked; the sight of troops that could retire +and re-form for a new attack seemed to have a +stunning effect upon them. Practically the engagement +was ended.</p> + +<p>Subsequently, one of Forrest’s staff officers told +the Hun that the size of the division which had +charged was variously estimated at from five to +ten thousand, but that he had been accustomed +to such things and knew that we were not more +than two thousand. In fact, we were less than +six hundred. Forrest’s report of the battle of +Pontotoc states that the engagement was ended +“by a cavalry charge of the enemy, which was +repulsed.” </p> + +<p>There was still some sharp scrimmaging, and +we had to make two or three more squadron +and company charges to drive away small attacks +upon our retreating guns; but the battle, +as a battle, was over, and Forrest’s whole advance +had been stopped and ended by six hundred +Fourth Missouri Dutchmen, galloping, yelling, +and swinging their sabres at several thousand +men well secured behind a rail-fence. I had +before, in drill-ground charges, seen old soldiers +and experienced officers jump down and run away +from a fence on which they were sitting to watch +the advance of charging cavalry which they knew +must wheel before coming within five rods of +them; but I had never supposed that hot-blooded +soldiers, in the full excitement of a successful +attack, could be unnerved and turned by +the roar and thundering oncoming of a regiment +that could by no possibility reach them. Our +first setting out had driven back a thin skirmish-line +which had to cross the fence under +high speed; this, doubtless, aided in the <em>débâcle</em>; +the charge had stunned them, but it was the rally +that stopped the pursuit.</p> + +<p>The rest of our march was without interesting +incident all the way to Memphis, but it was +almost incessant, day and night; without incident, +that is, that it is worth while to tell here, +but our days and nights upon the road were filled +with annoyance and disgust, and with a store of +unhappy and ludicrous memories that will last +the lifetime of all who knew them.</p> + +<p>One day, at New Albany, Max and I were feeding +and sleeping in the door of an old mill while +the command was slowly crossing the antiquated +bridge over the Tallahatchie, when I was awakened +by Grierson’s riding up in great alarm, calling +upon me “for God’s sake” to use the ford +as well as the bridge, for Hepburn was being cut +to pieces in the rear, and I must give him the +full road for his retreat. I had always been a +respectful subordinate, but none of us were then +in the best temper; I did not believe a word of +it, and I frankly told him so. Even old Max +pricked up his ears and snorted as if in derision. +Almost as we were talking, there came an aid +from Hepburn saying that he had found a good +supply of forage and would be glad to go into +camp for the night. But there was no camp to +be thought of for that tired crew; the bogey of +incessant pursuit loomed up portentously close +upon our rear-guard, and sent its shadow deep +into the bowels of our commander, who was miles +away in the advance, and who would allow us +only the fewest possible hours in the very dead +of night for hasty cooking and scant repose. We +were a worn and weary lot as we finally went into +camp at the rear of the town; worn and weary, +sadly demoralized, and almost dismounted. I +had lost fifteen hundred good horses, and my +men, who had been eager and ready for a successful +campaign, were broken in spirit and sadly +weakened in discipline.</p> + +<p>All who had been compelled to bear the brunt +of the hard work now needed for themselves and +their horses absolute rest for days; but being +called into the city the morning after our arrival, +my eyes were greeted with the spectacle of General +Sooy Smith, no longer ill, and with no trace +of shame or annoyance on his face. He had shed +his modest and prudent attire, and shone out with +all the brass radiance of a full-fledged major-general. +From this time until the Fourth Missouri +cavalry was mustered out of service, our headquarters +were in the immediate neighborhood of +Memphis, and our life was much more active than +it had been at Union City.</p> + +<p>Not very much is to be said for Max during +this time, except in connection with the Sturgis +expedition, beyond the fact that we lay long in +the immediate vicinity of the race-course, which +we repaired and used faithfully, and, so far as he +was concerned, with eminent success. The more +frequent necessity for duty, the great labor of +remounting, reorganizing, and redrilling the command, +united with the greater publicity of our position +to lay some restraint on our mode of life, +and to make our conduct more circumspect. Still +we were not miserable, and the neighborhood of +a large town has, to a well-regulated headquarters’ +mess, its compensations as well as its drawbacks.</p> + +<p>Sturgis’s expedition to Guntown and back—especially +back—has passed into history, and +its unwritten memories will always remain with +those who took part in it.</p> + +<p>Guntown is far away in Northeastern Mississippi. +It is not laid down on the map of the +country, but it lies just across the Tishamingo +Creek, and it consists mainly of two plantation +houses and a school-house. Our stay there was +not long, and we were too much occupied to +study the locality minutely, but it is my impression +that the most important incident in its +history was connected with our visit.</p> + +<p>We were a force of about nine thousand infantry, +cavalry, and artillery,—some black and +some white, some good and some bad,—sent out +by Sherman as a tub to the Forrest whale; a +diversion to keep this commander from joining +Hood in Northern Georgia; though I doubt if +even General Sherman in his moments of wildest +enthusiasm anticipated just the issue that followed. +Our march out was not rapid, and it +was well ordered. We were allowed to take our +train, and old John Ellard’s four stupendous +mules drew our headquarters’ wagon, well laden +with the comforts we had accumulated during +a long service, including a brand-new, well-furnished, +and abundantly stored camp-chest that +had just arrived from St. Louis. So far as the +comforts of a home for five youngsters can be +stored in one mule-wagon, we were well supplied +for a campaign of any length; and judging from +the mess-tables to which we were invited, others +of the command were no less well provided. In +due time we reached the town of Ripley, a rather +pretty New-England-looking village, but, like all +Southern towns at that time, entirely devoid of +men and overflowing with women of the most +venomous and spiteful sort, who did all in their +power to add to the interest of the Sunday evening +we passed in their company.</p> + +<p>We had some light skirmishing on our arrival, +but whoever it was that attacked us withdrew +and left us in undisturbed possession of the comfortable +rooms and fireplaces of the town. Our +next day’s march brought us to a large open +plantation on a commanding hill, whence our +evening scouting-parties soon found the enemy +posted in some force and apparently disposed +for an engagement.</p> + +<p>It seemed always Forrest’s plan to select his +own fighting-ground, and the plan of our commanders +to gratify him. Sturgis committed the +usual folly of trying to hold every inch he had +gained, and of forming his line of battle on the +head of the column and under fire.</p> + +<p>We breakfasted at three in the morning, and +marched at half past four. My command had +the advance. The enemy allowed himself to be +easily driven until half past eight, when he made +some show of resistance. At this time the last +of our regiments could hardly have left the +camping-ground, and probably a judicious retreat +would have drawn Forrest’s whole force +back to the open country we had left. But +“retreat” was not yet written on our banners +(of that day), and orders came from our general +to support the advance-guard, form line of battle, +and hold our position. So far as the cavalry +brigade was concerned this was easily done, and +we got into good line near the edge of a wood +without difficulty. Here, for four mortal hours, +or until half past twelve, we carried on a tolerably +equal warfare, both sides blazing away +at each other with little effect across the six +hundred yards of cleared valley that lay between +two skirts of wood. So far as the endurance +of our troops was concerned, this engagement +could have been kept up until nightfall, though +our ranks were slowly thinning. Several desperate +charges were made on our position, and were +repulsed with considerable loss to both sides. +Pending the arrival of the infantry it would +have been folly for us to attempt a further +advance, but had we been properly supported, +or, better, had we at once fallen back upon our +support, we might have given, as the <em>post bellum</em> +reports of Forrest’s officers show, a better ending +to the day’s work. It was only at half past +twelve, when our ammunition was reduced to five +rounds per man, and when our battery had fired +its last shot, that the infantry began to arrive, +and then they came a regiment at a time, or only +so fast as the Forrest mill could grind them up +in detail.</p> + +<p>They had taken our place, and we had withdrawn +to their rear, where we were joined by +one after another of the defeated or exhausted +infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy +pressed upon us, gaining rod after rod of our +position, until finally our last arriving troops, a +splendid colored regiment, reached the field of +battle at double-quick, breathless and beaten by +their own speed, barely in time to check the +assault until we could cross the creek and move +toward the rear. The retreat was but fairly begun +when we came upon our train of two hundred +wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked +in beyond the possibility of removal. With sad +eyes we saw John Ellard cut his traces and leave +all that was dear to us—tents, camp-chest, poker-table, +and all that we cherished—to inevitable +capture. The train was <em>our</em> tub to the whale; +and while Forrest’s men were sacking our treasures, +and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, +which they had captured, we had time to form +for the retreat, more or less orderly according +as we had come early or late off the field. The +demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howling +over our heads of our own shells, together +with the sharp rattle of musketry in our rear, +hastened and saddened the ignominious flight of +the head of our column, though, for some reason, +the enemy’s advance upon us was slow.</p> + +<p>All that long night we marched on, without +food and without rest. At early dawn we reached +Ripley, where we paused for breath. Max had +been ridden almost uninterruptedly for twenty-four +hours, and for four hours had done the constant +hard work that the supervision of a long +line in active engagement had made necessary; +and he was glad to be unsaddled and turned for +fifteen minutes into a scantily grown paddock, +where he rolled and nibbled and refreshed himself +as much as ordinary horses do with a whole +night’s rest. The ambulances with our groaning +wounded men came pouring into the village, and +to our surprise, those women, who had so recently +given only evidence of a horrified hatred, pressed +round to offer every aid that lay in their power, +and to comfort our suffering men as only kind-hearted +women can.</p> + +<p>With the increasing daylight the pursuit was +reopened with vigor, and on we went, and ever +on, marching all that day, our rear-guard being +constantly engaged, and hundreds of our men +being captured, thousands more scattering into +the woods. My lieutenant-colonel, Von Helmrich, +who had been for twenty-eight years a +cavalry officer in Germany, and who, after thirteen +months in Libby Prison, had overtaken us +as we were leaving Memphis, was recaptured +and carried back to Richmond,—to die of a +good dinner on his second release, ten months +later. At nightfall, the pursuit growing weak, +we halted to collect together our stragglers, +but not to rest, and after a short half-hour +pushed on again; and all that interminable +night, and until half past ten the next morning, +when we reached Colliersville and the railroad, +reinforcements, and supplies, we marched, +marched, marched, without rest, without sleep, +and without food. The cavalrymen were mainly +dismounted and driving their tired jades before +them, only Max and a few others carrying their +riders to the very end, and coming in with a +whinny of content to the familiar stables and +back-yards of the little town.</p> + +<p>Most other officers whose service had been as +constant as mine had had extra horses to ride +for relief; but I had never yet found march too +long for Max’s wiry sinews, and trusted to him +alone. He had now been ridden almost absolutely +without intermission, and much of the +time at a gallop or a rapid trot, for fifty-four +hours. I had had for my own support the +excitement and then the anxious despair of responsible +service, and Ike had filled his haversack +with hard-bread from John Ellard’s abandoned +wagon; an occasional nibble at this, and +unlimited pipes of tobacco, had fortified me in +my endurance of the work; but Max had had +in the whole time not the half of what he would +have made light of for a single meal. I have +known and have written about brilliant feats +of other horses, but as I look over the whole +range of all the best animals I have seen, I +bow with respect to the wonderful courage, endurance, +and fidelity of this superbly useful +brute.</p> + +<p>There is an elasticity in youth and health, +trained and hardened by years of active field-service, +which asserts itself under the most depressing +circumstances. Even this shameful and +horrible defeat and flight had their ludicrous +incidents, which we were permitted to appreciate. +Thus, for instance, during a lull in the +engagement at Guntown, I had seated myself in +a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of a broad +tree-trunk; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, +had taken shelter between the legs of the chair, +leaving, however, his rear unprotected. Random +bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, +and it was due to one of these that I was unseated, +with an accompaniment of squeal, by the +rapid and articulate flight of my companion.</p> + +<p>During our last night’s march, my brigade +having the advance, and I being at its rear, +Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing +ahead of the stragglers of the other brigades, +who were to be recognized, he reminded me, by +their wearing hats (mine wore caps). The order +was peremptory, and was to be enforced even at +the cost of cutting the offenders down. Grierson’s +adjutant was at my side; we were all +sleeping more or less of the time, but constantly +some hatted straggler was detected pushing +toward the front, and ordered back,—the adjutant +being especially sharp-eyed in detecting +the mutilated sugar-loaves through the gloom. +Finally, close to my right and pushing slowly +to the front, in a long-strided walk, came a gray +horse with a hatted rider,—an india-rubber poncho +covering his uniform. I ordered him back; +the adjutant, eager for the enforcement of the +order, remonstrated at the man’s disobedience; +I ordered again, but without result; the adjutant +ejaculated, “Damn him, cut him down!” +I drew my sabre and laid its flat in one long, +stinging welt across that black poncho: “——! +who are you hitting?” Then we both remembered +that Grierson too wore a hat; and I tender +him here my public acknowledgment of a +good-nature so great that an evening reunion in +Memphis over a dozen of wine won his generous +silence.</p> + +<p>One might go on with interminable gossip +over incidents of camp and field for which at +this late day only scant interest is felt; but +nothing that I could say more would probably +aid my purpose, which has been simply by a +trifling sketch to recall the jollity, the comfort, +the suffering, and the misery of campaign life, +and to show how in the field more than anywhere +else one learns to cherish and to depend +upon a faithful and honest and willing comrade +like my royal old Max.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch4end.jpg" width="233px" height="66px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch5.jpg" width="500px" height="115px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="OVERCOAT" id="OVERCOAT"></a>HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT.</h2> + +<p class="centerbold"><big>(CIRCUMSTANTIALLY TRUE.)</big></p> + +<div> +<img src="images/t.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">The war was not quite over, but my +regiment was old enough to have grown +too small for a colonel, and I sat, the +dismalest of all men, a “mustered-out” officer, +sated with such good things as a suddenly arrested +income had allowed me, over an after-dinner +table in a little room at the Athenæum +Club. My coffee was gone to its dregs; the +closing day was shutting down gloomily in such +a weary rain as only a New York back-yard +ever knows; and I was wondering what was to +become of a man whom four years of cavalry +service had estranged from every good and useful +thing in life. The only career that then +seemed worth running was run out for me; and, +worst of all, my pay had been finally stopped.</p> + +<p>The world was before me for a choice, but I +had no choice. The only thing I could do was +to command mounted troops, and commanders +of mounted troops were not in demand. Ages +ago I had known how to do other things, but +the knowledge had gone from me, and was not +to be recalled so long as I had enough money +left with which to be unhappy in idle foreboding. +I had not laid down my life in the war, +but during its wonderful four years I had laid +down, so completely, the ways of life of a sober +and industrious citizen, and had soaked my whole +nature so full of the subtile ether of idleness +and vagabondism, that it seemed as easy and as +natural to become the Aladdin I might have +dreamed myself to be as the delver I had really +been. With a heavy heart, then, and a full +stomach, I sat in a half-disconsolate, half-reminiscent, +not wholly unhappy mood, relapsing with +post-prandial ease into that befogged intellectual +condition in which even the drizzle against +the window-panes can confuse itself with the +patter on a tent roof; and the charm of the +old wanderings came over me again, filling my +table with the old comrades, even elevating my +cigar to a brier-wood, and recalling such fellowship +as only tent-life ever knows.</p> + +<p>Such dreaming is always interrupted, else it +would never end; mine was disturbed by a small +card on a small salver, held meekly across the +table by the meekest of waiters.</p> + +<p>The card bore the name “Adolf zu Dohna-Schlodien,” +and a count’s coronet,—a count’s +coronet and “zu” (a touch above “von”)! I +remembered to have seen a letter from my adjutant +to the Prussian Consul in Philadelphia, +asking him to obtain information about a handsome +young musical “Graf zu” something, who +was creating a sensation in St. Louis society, +and the “zu” seemed to indicate this as the +party in question; he had spoken of him as +having defective front teeth, which seemed to be +pointing to the “color and distinguishing marks,” +known in Herd Book pedigrees, and human passports,—a +means of identification I resolved to +make use of; for my experience with the German +nobility in America had been rather wide +than remunerative.</p> + +<p>The “Herr zu” had waited in the hall, and +was standing under the full light of the lamp. +He was very tall, very slight, and very young, +apparently not more than twenty, modestly +dressed, and quiet in his manner. He was not +strikingly handsome, though very well looking. +His hands were the most perfect I ever saw, +and the ungloved one showed careful attention. +There was no defect noticeable in his front +teeth. He bowed slightly and handed me a letter. +It was from Voisin, my former adjutant, +but it was not exactly a letter of introduction. +At least, it was less cordial than Voisin’s letters +of introduction were wont to be. Yet it was +kind. Without commending the Count as a +bosom friend, he still said he was much interested +in him, had reason to believe in him, was +sorry for him, had given him material aid, and +was very desirous that he should pull through +some pecuniary troubles, which he could do only +by enlisting in the Regular Army, and receiving +his bounty. From this he would give me money +to release his baggage, which was valuable, from +some inconveniences that were then attending it +in St. Louis. Would I get him enlisted? He +said he would enlist, and would prefer to be +known under the name Adolph Danforth. The +gentleman himself took early occasion to express +this preference.</p> + +<p>I debated a little what to do. He was not +introduced as a friend, only as a person in need +of help; yet Voisin believed in him, and he had +asked a service that he would not have asked for +an unworthy man. I engaged him in conversation +and got him to smile. It was a very frank +smile, but it displayed a singular defect far up +on the front teeth. This decided me. He was +the same Graf zu whose position had been asked +of the Prussian Consul, and I knew he had learned +that the Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien, an officer in +the Gardecorps Kürassier, was of the highest +nobility and of a family of great wealth. There +was evidently no technical reason why the poor +fellow should not be received cordially and well +treated. So we went back to the smoking-room, +and with fresh coffee and cigars opened an acquaintance +which resulted not altogether uneventfully.</p> + +<p>He was not obtrusive. His story was not forced +upon me; but as I already had its thread, I was +able to draw it from him in a natural way, and +he told it very frankly, though halting a little at +its more important turnings, as if wondering how +its development would strike me. There was just +enough of hesitancy over a harrowing tale to throw +on myself the responsibility of learning it.</p> + +<p>He had been brought up by the tenderest of +mothers at the castle of Schlodien (I think in +Silesia), had early joined the Cuirassiers of the +Body Guard, had fought a fatal duel in which he +had been the aggressor, and had been condemned +to the Fortress of Spandau. Only his mother’s +great influence (exercised without the knowledge +of his stern and much older father, who was then +on his distant estates) had secured for him an +opportunity to escape. He had come directly to +America, and had remained near Boston until he +received intimation (again the result of his mother’s +influence with Baron Gerolt, the Prussian +Minister at Washington) that his return under +the Extradition Treaty was being urged at the +solicitation of the family of his fallen antagonist. +He had then taken refuge in a remote town in +South Missouri, where he amused himself with +shooting. His mother had written to him but +once, and had not been able to send him money. +He had at last returned to St. Louis, where he +had contracted some small debts which Voisin +and another kind friend had assumed. To reimburse +them and to gain more perfect seclusion, +he had resolved to enlist in the Regular Army. +It was a sad conclusion of his career, but as an +honorable man (and a pursued one) he had no +choice but to accept it.</p> + +<p>It was the old story,—<em>noblesse oblige</em>. There +was but one way out of a sad affair, and—like a +very Graf zu—this stripling, who had been born +and bred to a better fate, faced the penalty of +his misfortune without flinching. I tried infinite +suggestions, but nothing else offered the immediate +money which alone could relieve him of +debt and restore him his wardrobe and the portraits +of his mother and sister, which with a few +well-worn letters, were all he had to cheer him in +his exile. We sat till far into the night and until +my kindest sympathies were fully aroused by the +utter and almost childlike simplicity and frankness +with which the poor boy told of his sorrows. +I had been taught by a very ample experience to +look with much caution on German counts and +barons,—an experience that, if it was worth +what it had cost, I could not prize too highly; +but here was an entirely new type, a combination +of the gentlest breeding with an unsophistication +that argued more of a mother’s care than of garrison +influences, and an utter absence of the devil-may-care +manner that army life in Germany had +hitherto seemed to give. With the improvidence +of one who had never known the lack of money, +he had lodged himself at the Everett House; and +as I left him at its door, I resolved to lose no +time in getting him enlisted and stopping an +expense that would only add to his troubles. +The next day I saw the official who had charge +of the making up of the city’s quota, and easily +arranged for the examination of my candidate. +Dohna begged me to secure his admission to a +command whose officers would be able to appreciate +his difficult position, and a weary time I had +of it. At last it was all arranged; he had passed, +with much shock to his sensibilities, the surgeon’s +examination, and had been enrolled in a company +of Regular Infantry, whose captain (then serving +on the general staff of the department) had acquired +a sympathy for him not less than my own. +His bounty (over seven hundred dollars) he put +into my hands, and he went with me to Adams’s +Express office, where we sent more than half the +sum to St. Louis,—the full amount of his indebtedness. +One specified trunk was to be sent to +the Everett House, and the rest of his luggage—which +Voisin had described as valuable—to me. +I received by an early mail the receipt of the St. +Louis express-office for it, and found it most convenient +to let it lie for the present, addressed to +me personally, at the office in New York. It +would be useless to Dohna in the army, and I +was to take care of it for him.</p> + +<p>The captain of the company in which he was +enlisted secured him a furlough for ten days, +and, to show his gratitude, he invited us both +to dine with him at the Everett. We sat down +at seven, and we sat long. The best that either +cellar or kitchen afforded was spread before us +in wasteful profusion, and our host, temperate +in his sipping, but eating with the appetite of +youth, seemed only to regret the limit of our +capacity. As we walked across the square, filled +and with the kindest emotions, we planned +means for so occupying the remaining days of +the furlough as to allow but little opportunity +for money-spending. His company was at Fort +Trumbull, and after he joined he would be safe.</p> + +<p>The next day being Saturday, I took him to +my father’s house in the country, where his unfortunate +story was already known, and where +as much real interest was felt in him as the +good people of Connecticut ever accord to a duellist. +He had a friend living farther out on +the New Haven road, and he took an early +train to see her (this was a new feature), returning +to me in the evening. I met him at +the depot. He wore the superb uniform overcoat +of the Gardecorps Kürassier, long, flowing, +and rich, with a broad, scarlet-lined fur collar. +It was caught across the throat with a scarlet +snood, and hung loosely from the shoulders. It +made his six feet two really becoming. At +home he was easy but very quiet, saying little +but saying it very well, and he won as much +confidence as the stain on his moral character +would allow. Like most of his class, he knew +and cared absolutely nothing for what interests +the New England mind, and he would early +have palled on our taste but for his music. +His performance was skilful; he played difficult +music, and he played it very well, but without +vanity or apparent consciousness. When not +occupied in this way, and when not addressed, +he neither spoke nor read, apparently he did +not even think, but relapsed into a sad and +somewhat vacant reticence. But for our knowledge +of his misfortunes, he would have been uninteresting. +On Sunday he gave me a new confidence. +His friend up the road was an Everett +House acquaintance, made when he first came +from Boston. She was an angel! She knew his +sad story, and she had given him her Puritan +heart. In the trying days to come I was to be +the link that should bind them in their correspondence. +She must not know of his degraded +position, and all letters were to pass under cover +to me. Even <em>noblesse</em> did not hide the tears +that this prospect of long separation wrung from +him, and he poured out his grief with most +touching unrestraint. This was the one sorrow +of his life that even his trained equanimity +could not conquer. It made me still more respect +his simple, honest nature and his unfeigned +grief. I was doubly sorry that this last +trial of separated love should be added to his +cup of bitterness. In our long Sunday talk he +told me of his home, and showed me the singularly +beautiful photographs of his mother and +sister, and—quite incidentally—one of himself +in the full uniform of his regiment, bearing on +its back the imprint of a Berlin photographer. +He evinced a natural curiosity about the mode +of our garrison life, and I prepared him as +gently as I could for a decided change from his +former customs. It was, of course, depressing +to him, but he bore the prospect like a man, +and gave it no importance as compared with his +more essential downfall. He had seen enough +of our troops to be especially uneasy at the +prospect of an ill-fitting uniform. In the matter +of linen he was well provided, but he was +really unhappy over the thought of adapting his +long and easy figure to a clothing-contractor’s +idea of proportion. So it was arranged that he +should go to my tailor and be suitably clad, +according to regulation of course, but also according +to measure. He proposed, too, to leave +his overcoat for some repairs and to be cared +for while he should have no use for it. I gave +the tailor assurances of prompt payment.</p> + +<p>One fine morning Dohna came to my room in +his new rig and bade me a brave good-by. He +was off for Fort Trumbull. I felt an almost +parental sorrow over his going, and had much +misgiving as to his ability to face his ill-bred +soldier comrades. There came soon after a letter +to say that he was well treated personally, +only the rations were so horrible; pork and salt +beef and beans and molasses. He could not eat +such things, and he was growing faint for want +of food. I had seen such dainty appetites cured +too often to have any fear on this score, and +only replied in general terms of encouragement, +and asked for frequent letters. These came. +There were no incidents of his life that were +not described almost with wonder, for a noble +officer of the Gardecorps of the king of Prussia +knows really nothing of the ways of life of the +men he is supposed to command. Often there +were thick letters for the <em>fiancée</em>, and answers +to these (also thick) had often to be forwarded. +I felt the enthusiastic glow natural to one who +carries alone the tender secrets of younger +lovers, and was not altogether unhappy under +the subjective romance of my mediation.</p> + +<p>Sometimes there were touching tales of +trouble. Once he had been detailed to the +“police” squad, and had to clean spittoons and +do other menial work. This was a touch of +reality that fairly opened his eyes to his abasement, +and he wrote much more sadly than ever +before, making me sad, too, to think how powerless +I was to help him in any way. A few +days later he sent a wail of real agony. While +he had been out on drill, some scoundrel had +broken into his satchel and had stolen all his +papers,—his letters from his mother, her photograph, +and those of his sister and his sweetheart, +and all the bundle of affectionate epistles +over which he had pored again and again in his +desolation. The loss was absolutely heart-breaking +and irreparable, and he had passed hours +sitting on the rocks at the shore, pouring bitter +tears into the Thames. This was a blow to me +too. I knew that Dohna was of a simple mind, +and utterly without resources within himself; +but he was also of a simple heart, and one +could only grieve over this last blow as over +the sorrows of a helpless little child. However, +I wrote all I could to encourage him, and was +gratified, though a little surprised, to see how +soon he became cheerful again, and how earnestly +he seemed to have set about the work +of becoming a really good soldier. After a time +the captain of his company—still in New York +and maintaining a lively interest in the poor fellow’s +case—procured an order for him to go to +Annapolis to be examined for promotion. He +was already a sergeant, and a pretty good one. +He stopped in New York a few days on his way +through for some refitting,—again at my tailor’s. +On his way back he stopped again to tell of his +failure. I was delicate about questioning him +too closely, but I learned enough to suppose that +different ideas as to practical education are entertained +by a board of army examiners and by +a fond young mother in the remote castle of +Schlodien; but I encouraged him to believe that +a little more study would enable him to pass +the second examination that had been promised +him, and he rejoined his company.</p> + +<p>In the general mustering-out Voisin had been +set free and had joined me in New York, and had, +naturally, participated in all my interest in the +quondam Count. He gradually, as an adjutant +should, assumed the correspondence, which was +voluminous, and by the time we were informed +that Dohna was detailed for recruiting duty in +the city, neither he nor I was glad to know it. +Something more than a feeling of regretful sympathy +is necessary to the enjoyment of frequent +companionship, and we both felt that the fact of +having credit with a tailor was a dangerous element +in the possible future combinations. However, +Dohna’s arrival at our room followed close +upon the announcement of the order. He was +still simple in his way and of modest deportment, +but he seemed to have accepted his new life +almost too entirely, and he had come to look not +very much out of place among his comrades. +Their quarters were in a basement in Chambers +Street, back of the City Hall, where we occasionally +dropped in to see him. After a while he +was always out when we called, and once when I +stopped to give him a foreign letter, sent to my +care, I was told that he had not been there for +a week, but one of the men volunteered to find +him. He came that night to the club for his +letter, in civilian’s dress, and appeared much as +he did when I first saw him, except that he had +two beautiful false teeth, in the place of the defective +ones. I gave him his letter, a long one +from Berlin, from his father. He showed Voisin +the postscript, in which it was stated that a +box containing a breech-loading shot-gun, a dozen +shirts, and a draft for five hundred thalers would +be forwarded by the Hamburg line to my care. +On the strength of this he hoped it would not +inconvenience us to advance him a couple of hundred +dollars. It was thus far inconvenient that +we were obliged to decline, which gave him no +offence, and he invited us to dine with him the +following day at the Everett House.</p> + +<p>At this point, in view of the extreme youth +and inexperience of our friend, we took occasion +to read him a short homily on the value of +economy, and to urge him immediately to leave +the Everett, return to his barracks in Chambers +Street, and as he valued his future peace of mind +to avoid running in debt; mildly hinting that, +if found in the public streets without his uniform, +he would be very likely to get himself into +trouble. He begged that we would not expose +him, and promised to return that very night. +Then for some time we lost sight of him; his +captain said that, so far as he knew, he was attentive +to his duty with the recruiting squad, +and he certainly kept out of our way. The box +from Germany did not arrive. No more letters +came, and we had no occasion to seek him out. +It was evident that he was no longer unhappy, +and so our interest in him, though still warm, +remained inactive.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One night I was awakened, quite late, by Voisin, +sitting on the side of my bed, big-eyed and +excited, and with a wonderful story to tell. He +had been, at the request of the counsel of the +Prussian Consul, to the detectives’ rooms at police +headquarters. Here he had been questioned as +to his knowledge of one Adolph Danforth, <em>alias</em> +Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien, <em>alias</em> Fritz Stabenow, +and had subsequently had an interview with that +interesting youth in the lock-up.</p> + +<p>The glory had all departed. He had been there +forty-eight hours, was unwashed, uncombed, stolid, +comfortable, and quite at home. There was +no remnant left of the simple and modest demeanor +of the well-bred aristocrat. It was hard +to see a trace of likeness to the Kürassier officer +with whose photograph we were familiar. The +obligations of <em>noblesse</em> seemed to be entirely removed, +and there was nothing left but plain, +ignoble Fritz Stabenow. An examination of his +pockets developed a singular folly. He had kept +every scrap of paper on which a word had ever +been written to him. Tailors’ bills, love-letters, +duns, photographs of half a dozen different girls, +all were huddled together. He had a package of +the Count Dohna cards and the plate from which +they had been printed,—made in Boston; a letter +of credit from a banking-house in Berlin to +its New York correspondent had the copperplate +card of the firm on the paper, but the paper was +ruled as a German banker’s paper never is, and +the plate from which the card had been printed +(also made in Boston) was in the envelope with +it. A letter from plain father Stabenow enclosed +photographs of still plainer mother and sister +Stabenow, which were a sad contrast to the glory +of the Countess Dohna’s picture. The father’s +letter was full of kindly reproof and affectionate +regret. “Ach! Fritz, ich hätte das von Dir nicht +gedacht,”—“I never thought that of you”; but +it was forgiving too, and promised the remittance, +clothing, and gun I have spoken of before. The +papers, for the loss of which such tears had been +shed at Fort Trumbull, were all there in their +well-worn companionship with a soiled paper-collar, +and that badge of dawning civilization, a +tooth-brush.</p> + +<p>Here were also two photographs, one of the +statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin on the +card of a St. Louis photographer, and another +of himself in Prussian uniform, on the card of +a Berlin photographer. The pictures had been +“lifted” and changed to the different cards. A +more careful neglect of track-covering was never +known. The evidence of all his deceptions had +been studiously preserved.</p> + +<p>Voisin had given him a dollar to buy some +necessary articles, and had left him to his fate.</p> + +<p>The disillusion was complete, and I saw that +I had been swindled by a false count even more +completely than I ever had been by real barons,—which +is much to say.</p> + +<p>Voisin had gathered from the Consul’s lawyer +that this Stabenow, a valet of the veritable Count +Dohna, had been one of a party who had robbed +him and committed other serious crimes, and he +had fled to this country, with his master’s uniform, +a valuable wardrobe, and costly jewels. He had +here undertaken to personify the Count, and had +had on the whole not an unhappy time, especially +since he came to New York in recruiting service. +He had finally been arrested on the complaint of +a lady, one of the many whom he had attempted +to blackmail, by threatening exposure through letters +they had written him in the kindest spirit. +Fortunately this one had had the good sense to +refer the matter to her husband, who brought +the interesting career to a close. He had obtained +several thousand dollars in this way from +different persons, and had contracted considerable +debts in all directions. The Everett House was +an especial sufferer.</p> + +<p>I felt that my claim was secured by the luggage +at the express-office, and I called for it the +next day. The gentlemanly clerk of the establishment +blandly showed me my name, neatly written +in a strange Teutonic hand, to a receipt for the +property. Just then I had information that a +box addressed to my care was lying at the Hoboken +office of the German steamers. Indiscreetly +mentioning this fact to the Prussian Consul’s lawyer, +I was informed that it would be necessary +to take the box in evidence, and I prudently +refrained from making further efforts for its recovery.</p> + +<p>It was with a chastened spirit that I paid a +considerable bill at my tailor’s and ordered the +overcoat sent to my address; and it was with +only mitigated satisfaction that I heard of the +sending in irons to his company in California of +deserter Stabenow.</p> + +<p>If the Herr Lieutenant Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien +of the Gardecorps Kürassier is still living, +I beg to inform him that his overcoat—the only +memento of a grave <em>Schwindelei</em>—is now a comfortable +wrap to a Rhode Island farmer, who +hopes that its rightful owner is as snugly clad +in his winter rides about Versailles.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch5end.jpg" width="233px" height="85px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch6.jpg" width="500px" height="110px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="SCOUTS" id="SCOUTS"></a>TWO SCOUTS.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/i.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_3">In the desultory and sporadic warfare carried +on in the Southwest, the scout—or +“skeout,” according to the dialect +of the region—was a very important element +of our organization, and it is amusing now to +recall the variety of odd-fish of every description +who applied for the remunerative employment +that this branch of the service afforded.</p> + +<p>The interest of our life at Union City was not +a little enhanced by two specimens of this genus +with whom we had much to do,—Pat Dixon +and “The Blind Preacher.” </p> + +<p>One day the guard brought in a suspicious +character from the picket-line. He was about +twenty-five years old, long, lank, and dusky,—a +sort of half-Indian, half-Irish looking fellow, +with uncombed hair and an over-prominent quid +of tobacco. He rode the usual “nag” of the +country,—an animal with more blood than bone +and more vice than beauty. He dismounted, +passed his bridle over his arm, and “squatted,”—the +usual posture of the country. “The +Hun,” the professional bully of all our culprits, +took this creature in hand, and presently came +in with a suggestion that I had better see him +alone. He followed me cautiously to one side, +leading his horse with him, and squatted again +when we had halted at a safe distance from +curious ears.</p> + +<p>“I’m Pat Dixon. I live down Troy way on +the North Fork. Ye see, when this yer muss +fust broke out I didn’t go to take no sides in +it. But Merryweather’s men they come along a +little ’fore sun-up, last month was a year, an’ +they taken the only nag we had left. I’d had +him hid out all summer, but some derned skunk +done found him out. I heern the cusses a trampin’ +roun’ an’ I was goin’ to take a crack at ’em +for ‘good mornin’,’ but, you see, I knowed if I +did they’d just burn the old woman out, an’ she +don’t git along but porely, anyhow, so I didn’t. +They <em>con</em>scripted the old man the year afore, an’ +he hain’t been heern on sence. So I come to the +conclushin that I wa’n’t agoin’ to stan’ no such +treatmint as that—by King! an’ I jest took to +the bresh, an’ I reckon I’ve pestered them ’uns +right smart. I ain’t agoin’ afoot long as theys +hosses in West Tannisy,—you bet! I was agoin’ +to jine you Yanks, but thinks sez I: ’Old Pat, +you kin do a heap better in the bresh nor what +you kin in no army,’ and so I stuck to it. O, +now, I’m squar’! Frank Moore can tell you all +’bout me; I ain’t no gum-game, I ain’t. If you +want a skeout, I’m on hand, an’ I don’t want +no pass, I kin git ’roun’ in this kentry.</p> + +<p>“Which? <em>hoss?</em> Well, ’t ain’t much of a nag, +but theys more on ’em roun’, an’ if this ’un tuckers +out I’ll git somethin’ to ride. I ain’t goin’ +afoot.—no, mam!” </p> + +<p>This was very much the sort of talk “Mr.” Forrest’s +emissaries used in seeking our services for +his purposes; so, partly to secure ourselves on +this point, and partly to give Dixon a good character +should he go out from our camp in his +professional capacity, he was sent for a few days +to the guard-house, until Frank Moore should +return from an expedition. I believe Frank +knew most of the vagabonds of Obion County, +and he at once certified that this was no other +than Pat Dixon; that his story was true; and +that, while his controlling motives were not perhaps +such as one would most admire, his unconquerable +hatred of Merryweather’s men and all +their confederates might be relied on with implicit +confidence; so Pat was engaged as an employé +of our Secret Service Department, and sent +outside the lines with a conspicuous assurance, as +he left his fellow-prisoners, that if found again +within our reach he would be hanged forthwith +for a spy. I was riding on the road he took, and +he gave me a leering wink as he departed,—with +instructions to watch the movements of all guerilla +bands in our front, and to bring speedily any +information he might obtain.</p> + +<p>During the remaining months of our stay he +was almost ubiquitous. Every scouting-party +that we sent out in any direction, though entirely +without notice to him, was pretty sure to +meet him with important information, just when +information was most needed.</p> + +<p>This part of his work was done perfectly, but +he seemed to regard his relation with us as a +warrant for unending private iniquities. After +his own code of morals he was a strictly virtuous +man, but his code was of an extremely loose and +pliable character. It is probably safe to say that +he never murdered a Union man, and that, unless +sorely tempted by the difference in value of the +animals, he never forcibly exchanged horses with +a Union widow; neither, I believe, did he commit +any offence against a known Rebel when +there was a probability of his being found out +and caught; but the complaints that came to +us of the manner in which he vented his private +wrongs and carried on the feuds of his +ancestors gave us frequent annoyance. Sometimes +it seemed necessary to recall his commission +and declare him an outlaw, but just +then there would transpire some particularly brilliant +achievement that showed him invaluable for +our purposes.</p> + +<p>More than once, when our patrols reported the +immediate presence of the enemy, Pat would turn +up with the assurance that it was only so-and-so’s +“band,” who had come into the neighborhood on +a visiting or a marauding expedition, but with +no intention of putting themselves in our way; +and invariably we found his report to be correct. +Indeed, so frequently did this happen that we +became almost too confident in his assistance, +and when an excitable picket shot at a donkey +or a cow in the night-time, although the patrol +of the guard went through the usual routine of +investigation, we felt that there could be no serious +attack or Dixon would have notified us.</p> + +<p>How he obtained his information we could not +guess, and his own account of the matter was +never satisfactory; but I believe that no considerable +force of the enemy ever crossed the Memphis +and Charleston Railroad (the whole State’s +width to the south of us) without our being +speedily notified; and through this means we +were several times enabled to telegraph to Columbus +early information of contemplated raids,—information +that was not always heeded, as the +surprise of Paducah (on the Ohio River) several +days after our warning sufficiently proved.</p> + +<p>One ambition of this worthy man had to remain +unsatisfied. How little this was due to the fact +that we at the headquarters were all perfectly +mounted, modesty makes it improper to state +here; but in our frequent meetings as we rode +outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of some +particularly fine horse belonging to some particularly +bad man and especially virulent Rebel, +which it would really be a virtue to “confisticate.” +The worthy fellow was not satisfied with +his own conspicuous appropriations; he would +fain have mounted our regiments on the weedy +screws which the Rebel impressments had left +for the horsing of the crippled region of Western +Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have had some +lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity +in his thefts, and longed for the reassurance of +similar conduct on the part of true men like ourselves.</p> + +<p>It was, of course, not long after the commencement +of this active campaign against the rights +of ownership, that we began to receive assurances +on every hand that unless we could do something +to repress Pat Dixon’s vagabondage an outraged +people would take the law into their own hands, +and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With +a laudable desire to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, +I told him one day of the state of feeling +against him, urging him to be more circumspect +and to conduct himself like a decent man, else +he would be hanged the first time he was caught; +intimating, too, that it would be improper for +us to continue to employ him to such needless +injury to an inoffensive people. His reply was +characteristic.</p> + +<p>“Inoffensive, <em>which</em>? Mebbe you know these +people an’ mebbe you don’t. I do! and a dern’der +lot of unhung cutthroats an’ hoss-thieves you +can’t find nowheres. As for hangin’, you needn’t +give yourself no worryment ’bout that. They’re +safe enough to hang me if they ketch me, an’ +I guess I sha’n’t hang no higher if I go right on +my own gait. If you don’t want to employ me +you needn’t; theys enough corn an’ bacon in th’ +Obion bottom to keep me awhile yet, and money +ain’t no ’count down here; but, by King! if I kin +git a chance to tell you anything that them ’uns +don’t want you to know, you bet your skin I’ll +do it, an’ you kin trust me every time, for I ain’t +goin’ to lie,—not to your side, not if I know it. +Why, you talk to me about inikities. I don’t want +to do no man any hurt; but my old dad <em>he</em> was +<em>con</em>scripted, an’ me an’ my brother Jake had to +take to the bresh to save ourselves, an’ then Jake +he was shot in cold blood right afore my eyes, +an’ I made up my mind then an’ there that I +wouldn’t give no quarter to the whole State of +West Tannisy till this war was over an’ ther’ was +some stronger hand than mine to do jestis an’ to +furnish revenge. That’s all I’ve got to say about +it. You needn’t give yourself no oneasiness ’bout +my doin’s, I’ll answer for the hull on ’em; an’ +p’r’aps the last thing you’ll hear of Pat Dixon +will be that he’s hangin’ to a tree somewheres +down Troy way. I know I’m booked for that +if I’m ketched, and till I am ketched I’m goin’ +my own gait.” </p> + +<p>We had become too much accustomed to this +state of feeling among the scanty Union population +of the Southwest to be so shocked by it +as we ought to have been, and it was not without +sympathy with Dixon’s wrongs that I let +him go, with an earnest caution that he should +mend his ways, if only for his own sake.</p> + +<p>It remains only to say that he <em>did</em> go his own +gait, and that he went it with a desperation and +an <em>élan</em> that I have never known equalled; and +that, months later, after our snug quarters at +Union City had been turned over to a feeble band +of home-guards, word came that they had been +burned to the ground, and that Pat Dixon, betrayed +at last into the hands of the enemy, had +been hanged in the woods near Troy. We could +find no fault with the retribution that had overtaken +him; for, viewed with the eyes of his executioners, +he had richly merited it: but we had +learned to like him for his frank and generous +qualities, and to make full allowance for the degree +to which his rough, barbaric nature had +been outraged and inflamed by the wrongs inflicted +on his family.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>A returning patrol one afternoon led to the +parade-ground a sorry horse drawing an open +wagon in which were a man and a woman. The +woman had a cold-blooded, stolid look, and her +eyes were filled with the overflowing hatred we +so often inspired among her sex at the South. +Her husband was dressed in black, and wore a +rather scrupulously brushed but over-old silk hat. +In his hand was a ponderous and bulging cotton +umbrella.</p> + +<p>They had been taken “under suspicious circumstances” +at a house a few miles outside the +lines,—the suspicion attaching only to the fact +that they were not members of the family and +seemed to have no particular business in that +region. When asked for an explanation, the woman +said she had nothing to say but that her +husband was a blind clergyman intending to fulfil +an engagement to preach, and that she had driven +him, as was her habit. He said nothing. It was +a rule of our system to follow Hoyle’s instructions, +and “when in doubt to take the trick”: +this pair were remanded to the guard-house.</p> + +<p>As they turned away, the reverend gentleman +said, in a feeble voice, that if he could see me +alone later in the evening, when he had recovered +from the shock of his capture, I might be +willing to talk with him. In the evening the +Hun repaired to the dismantled warehouse where +the prisoners were lodged, to hold conversation +with the new-comers. When he came to the +clergyman he found him so low spoken that +their talk fell almost to a whisper, but it was +whispered that he was to be taken alone, and +subsequent disclosures led to his being brought +to headquarters. He there informed me that he +was a minister of the Methodist church, Canadian +by birth and education, but married to a +lady of that region, and had been for some years +engaged there in his capacity as a circuit preacher. +He was quite blind, and found it impossible +to make his rounds without being driven.</p> + +<p>His sympathies were with the North, and he +was burning to make himself useful in the only +way left him by his infirmity. His wife was of +a suspecting disposition, and their peaceful consorting +required that she should always accompany +him; but, unfortunately, she was a violent +secessionist, and he had been compelled, in the +interest of the peaceful consorting above named, +to acknowledge sympathy with her views, and to +join her in her revilings of the Union army.</p> + +<p>All this made his position difficult, yet he +believed that, if the opportunity were given him, +he could hide his intention even from her, and +could gather for us much useful information.</p> + +<p>He was a welcome visitor at the houses of the +faithful, far and near, and warmed their hearts +with frequent and feeling exhortation, as he +gathered his little meetings at his nightly stopping-places. +He was now about starting for the +southern circuit, and had appointments to preach +and to pray at every town between us and Bolivar.</p> + +<p>Evidently, if this man were honest in his intentions, +he could be of great service, but I +suggested the difficulty that having once started +for an appointed round he could not return to +bring us any information he might receive. To +this he replied that his wife believed him to +be in Forrest’s service, and that he could at any +time come as a spy into our lines.</p> + +<p>It seemed a very questionable case, but, after +consultation with Voisin and the Hun, it was +determined to give him a trial, to prevent his +wife from seeing more than was necessary of our +position, and to believe so much as we liked of +the information he might give us. The conditions +of the engagement were agreed upon, and +after a severe public admonition, and threats especially +appalling to his wife, he was sent outside +the lines, with hints of the serious consequences +that would follow his second capture.</p> + +<p>We were never quite sure that his wife was +wrong in crediting him with complicity with +Forrest; but the worst that could be said of +him (and this was very likely true) was that he +was pre-eminently a man of peace, and if he +gave information to both sides, it was always +information in compliance with the injunctions +of his sacred calling. The Rebel forces several +times crossed into Tennessee, and came toward +us in numbers that indicated foul intentions, +but, from the time our pious friend first visited +us, they invariably withdrew without an engagement. +Frequently small expeditions of our own +forces went scouting to the southward, and were +checked and turned back by the reports of this +benevolent man.</p> + +<p>He may have kept us from the successful fulfilment +of some bloody intentions, but we had +occasion to know from other sources that he +sometimes kept small detachments of our troops +from falling in with overpowering numbers of +the enemy. Be the theory what it may, from +November until February there was no conflict +of arms in all the counties we traversed, and +neither side advanced to within deadly range of +the other.</p> + +<p>The processes of this emissary were hidden +and curious. He was employed in a much more +regulated manner than Dixon, and we generally +knew his whereabouts. Every interview had with +him, either within our own camp or when we +were abroad, had to be so skilfully managed that +no suspicion, even in the eyes of his catlike wife, +should attach to him. He never came into our +lines except as an unwilling prisoner, and was +never sent without them without dire admonition +as to the consequences of his return.</p> + +<p>On one occasion Pat Dixon reported that a +detachment of Forrest’s command, about three +hundred strong, had crossed the railroad and +was moving north in the direction of our camp. +At this time the preacher was near us, and I +had an interview with him. He doubted the +report, but would investigate. I told him we +would start the next day, with five hundred +men, in the direction of Trenton,—where he +was to hold a prayer-meeting at the house of +one of Forrest’s captains. The meeting was held, +and after it was over, the subject of the advance +was talked over very freely by the officers present, +he sitting in a rapt state of unconsciousness—his +thoughts on higher things—at the +chimney-corner. Pleading an early appointment +at McKenzie’s Station for the following day, he +left as soon as the moon was up, and drove to +the house of a friend in the village. His wife +supposed that he was coming with a false report +to lead us into a trap laid for us.</p> + +<p>We arrived at McKenzie’s at one o’clock in +the morning, after a detestably cold, hard ride, +and took up our quarters in a half-finished and +half-furnished house, where we struggled the +whole night through in the endeavor to get +heat out of a fire of wet dead-wood. Early in +the morning the Hun started out, in his fiercest +mood, with a small escort, seeking for information +and hunting up suspicious characters. At +breakfast-time he came upon a large family comfortably +seated at table, with our preacher and +his wife as guests.</p> + +<p>He was asked to “sit by.” “Thank you; I +have come for more serious business. Who is +at the head of this house? I should like to +see you alone, sir.” The trembling, invalided +paterfamilias was taken into an adjoining room, +and put through the usual course of questions +as to his age, place of birth, occupation, condition +as to literacy, the number of negroes owned, +the amount of land, what relatives in the Rebel +army, to what extent a sympathizer with the +Rebellion, when he had last seen any Rebel soldiers +or scouts or guerillas or suspicious persons +of any description, and so on, through the +tortuous and aggravating list that only a lawyer +could invent. Questions and answers were taken +down in writing. The sterner questions were +spoken in a voice audible to the terror-stricken +family in the adjoining room. The man, of +course, communicated nothing, and probably knew +nothing, of the least consequence. He was sent +to a third room and kept under guard. His +case disposed of, his wife was examined in like +manner, and then the other members of the +family. Finally, the coast being clear, our emissary +was sent for. He came into the room chuckling +with delight over this skilful exercise of +the art of deceit, in which he was himself such +an adept, and laying his hand on the Hun’s +arm, said, “My dear fellow, I respect you. This +has been the most brilliant dodge I ever knew,—capital,—capital!” +And he then went on to +recount all that he had heard the evening before. +A large detachment of Forrest’s command +was advancing under Faulkner’s leadership, and +they doubtless had by this time a full report +of our position, for he had met acquaintance on +the road who had reported it to him. If we +were able to engage a body of three thousand +men without artillery, we might find them that +night in Trenton,—he was confident that that +was about their number.</p> + +<p>The family were now notified that they had +been guilty of a great offence in harboring a +known spy of the enemy; but they insisted +that they knew him only as a devout and active +minister, and had no suspicion, nor could they +believe, that he had the least knowledge of or +interest in either army. With due warning as +to the consequences of a repetition of their crime, +they were allowed to return to their breakfast, +and their guest was brought under guard to +headquarters.</p> + +<p>Being satisfied, after a close examination of +the report, that it would be imprudent to remain +so far from our camp, which could be +best reached from Trenton by another road, we +left a party of observation, and returned to Union +City, directing our scout to go to the vicinity +of Trenton and bring to our detachment any +information he might obtain. Twelve hours after +our arrival home, the detachment returned +with the news that Faulkner, with a large force, +had moved toward Mayfield, Kentucky, and the +event proved that every item of the intelligence +we had received had been substantially correct.</p> + +<p>In this manner we were enabled to learn pretty +definitely the character of any movement of the +enemy anywhere in Western Tennessee, and so +far as we had opportunity to investigate the +reports they generally proved to be essentially +true. These two scouts were worth more as a +source of information, than would have been two +regiments of cavalry in active service. Sometimes +our Methodist friend acted under definite +orders, but more often only according to his +own judgment of what was necessary.</p> + +<p>A few days before Christmas we received word +that Forrest in person was in Jackson, with a +large force, and we moved against him with +nearly the whole body of our troops, under the +command of old A. J. himself. We reached +Jackson at night, after three days’ hard marching, +only to find that Forrest’s army had left +that morning, destroying the bridges over the +swollen rivers and making organized pursuit impossible. +We took up quarters for some days +in the town, where we enjoyed the peculiarly +lovely climate of the “sunny South” with the +thermometer seven degrees below zero, six inches +of snow on the ground, and a howling wind +blowing. Our own mess was very snugly entertained +at the house of a magnate, where we +had an opportunity to study the fitness of even +the best Southern architecture for an Arctic winter +climate.</p> + +<p>On New Year’s day, as we were sitting at a +sumptuous dinner, and mitigating so far as we +could the annoyance to our hosts of being invaded +by a rollicking party of Northern officers, +Voisin, who had been called out, returned to +the table to tell me that a man and a woman +would like to see me in my room. I was not +prompt to respond, and asked who they were. +He replied, “O, who can tell? I suppose somebody +with a complaint that our men have ’taken +some hams of meat’ [“meat” being the Tennessee +vulgate for hog flesh only], or something of that +sort; the man seemed to have something the +matter with his eyes.” And he gave me a large +and expressive wink.</p> + +<p>Ensconced, with such comfort as large and +rattling windows permitted, before our blazing +fire, sat our serene Methodist friend and his +sullen wife. Taking me aside, he told me that +he had passed the previous evening at a private +house between Jackson and Bolivar in religious +exercises, which were attended by Forrest and +officers of his command. After the devotions +there was much cheerful and unrestrained talk +as to the plans and prospects of the future campaign, +disclosing the fact that as there seemed +no chance of doing efficient service in Tennessee, +the whole body would move at once to Central +Mississippi and operate in connection with the +army in Georgia. This report, which we had +no reason to disbelieve, decided A. J. to abandon +a difficult and unpromising pursuit, and to +return to Union City and Columbus. We found, +on our return, a communication from the headquarters +at Memphis to the effect that Forrest +had crossed the railroad and gone far south +into Mississippi.</p> + +<p>We had no further service of importance or +interest in this region. “Jackson’s Purchase” +was thenceforward quite free from any considerable +body of the enemy; and when our clergyman +found, a few weeks later, that we were all +ordered to the south, he came for a settlement +of his accounts, saying that he had been able to +deceive his wife only up to the time of our interview +at Jackson, and as his life was no longer +safe in the country, he must depart for the +more secure region of his former home in Canada,—where +let us hope that he has been allowed +to answer the behests of his sacred vocation +with a mind single to his pious duties, and +that domestic suspicion no longer clouds his +happy hearthstone.</p> + +<p>Happily, neither A. J. nor Forrest himself +had further occasion for his peaceful intervention, +the fortunate absence of which may have +had to do with the notable encounter between +these two generals at Tupelo.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ch6end.jpg" width="207px" height="85px" alt="Decorative chapter footer" title="Decorative chapter footer" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch7.jpg" width="500px" height="118px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="GLOAMING" id="GLOAMING"></a>IN THE GLOAMING.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/t.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_2">The sun had gone, and above the dreamy +blue of the far-lying woods, the early +evening had hung the sky with mellow, +summery, twilight loveliness.</p> + +<p>The casements of the old house at Whittington +glowed ruddy and warm through their marvellous +clustering ivy, and it was the idlest +luxury to hang over the crumbling road-wall, +peopling its suggestive chambers with the spirits +of their long-gone tenants. It is a farm-house +now, and there is no available record to tell the +stranger the story of its more glorious days. No +rigid history hampers the fancy, and the strolling +lover of the by-ways and roadsides of our dear +Mother England may let his imagination run with +flowing rein, sweeping away the hayricks and +marigold beds, and calling back the peacocks and +bagwigs of the halcyon days.</p> + +<p>Perhaps for the last time in my life I was taking +the breath of an English twilight,—sweetest +to those whose childhood and youth have fed +on the rhyme and tale the green old land has +sent to her world-wide brood, and who come, in +riper life, to find the fancies of early years warm +and living on every side, in hedge and field, in +cowslip and primrose, in nightingale and lark. +The thick-coming impressions such musing brings +are vague and dreamy, so that there seemed a +shade of unreality in the quiet voice that bade +me “Good evening,” and added, “Yes, it is an +engaging old house, and it has a story that you +may be glad to hear.” </p> + +<p>It was not from perversity that I turned the +subject, but no tale of real life could have added +interest to the fancies with which the old manse +had clad itself in the slowly waning day. Wayside +impressions lose their charm if too much +considered, and, as my new companion was walking +toward Lichfield, I was glad to turn away +and join him,—ending a long day’s tramp with +the slow and quiet gait that his age compelled. +There was the least shade of the uncanny in his +bearing, and his speech was timorous and gentle. +His threadbare and seedy look betokened a native +unthrift, but there was an undercurrent of +refinement in his mien and in his manner, and +a trusting outlook from his large blue eyes that +made him the fittest of companions for a summer +evening’s walk in a country filled with the mingled +flavor of history and romance.</p> + +<p>He was a man of the intensest local training. +To him “the County of the City of Lichfield” +was of more consequence than all Staffordshire +besides, and far more than all England and all +that vague entity called the World. Even the +County of the City of Lichfield was large for +his concentrated attachment: he knew it as +one must know a small town in which he has +passed the whole of a long life; but his heart +lay within the cathedral close, and the cathedral +close lay deep within his heart,—deep and +warm, with its history and its traditions, its romance +and its reality, so interlaced that he had long +since ceased to ask what was real and what unreal. +All was unreal in the sense of being of more than +worldly consequence in his estimation, and all real +as a part of the training of his whole life.</p> + +<p>To him Lichfield Cathedral was no mere pile of +sculptured stone, built round with the facts of recorded +history; it was the fairy handiwork of times +and scenes long past, its walls raised by the hand +of pious enthusiasm, shattered and cemented by +the strife and blood of the civil war, hallowed by +the returning glory of the Restoration, blessed +by the favor of royal presence, and now made +admirable in his daily sight by the dignity and +grace of those holy men its dean and chapter.</p> + +<p>As it was the cathedral I had come to see, +and as I had come for no architect’s measurements, +for no student’s lore, only to bathe in +the charmed atmosphere of its storied past, I +had fallen upon a guide after my own heart, and +it was as pleasant as it was easy to lend full +credence to all he so honestly believed and told.</p> + +<p>In early life he had had gentler training, but +he had long been a Poor Brother of the Hospital +of St. John the Baptist in Lichfield, and +had, for many years, held, by seniority, the right +of presenting a rose, on St. John’s nativity day, +to the heirs of William Juvenis (goldsmith), who, +by grants made in consideration of this ceremony, +had secured perennial prayers for the souls of his +ancestors and a fragrant memory for his own.</p> + +<p>Hedged about by the traditionary customs +and quaint observances of an ancient charitable +foundation, deadened in a way, if you please, +by the aristocratic pauperism of his condition, +my gentle companion had grown to his present +dreamy estate.</p> + +<p>As we reached Stow Pool, near the old parish +church of St. Chad, he pointed out the spring +of pure water where, twelve hundred years ago, +this future Bishop of Lichfield—who during +his hermit life supported himself on the milk +of a doe—was wont to pray naked in the water, +standing upon the stone still seen at the bottom +of the well, and where St. Ovin heard the angels +sing as his good soul passed away.</p> + +<p>Then, with the trusting look of a little child, +the Poor Brother went on to tell of the virtues +and good deeds of this holy life;—how even the +King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for +the crimes he had committed, visited the saint +in person, yielded to his eloquent persuasion, became +a convert to the true faith, and banished +all idolatry from his realm; how he became the +head of the church of Lichfield and laid its +strong foundations of piety and faith; and how +his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb +swallowed the ill-humors of diseased minds resorting +to its serene presence, that the dust +from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, +and that the shrine built in his honor after +his canonization was so sought by numberless +devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon +to increase and flourish.</p> + +<p>To our left, as he ceased, the evening’s lingering +glow gilded the silent pool, where lay +the unrippled reflection of the three spires of +the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than +the fairy silhouette that stood clean-cut against +the sky, and dividing with the reality the rapt +admiration of the Poor Brother of St. John’s.</p> + +<p>We stood by the water’s edge, and he turned +toward the phantom spires reversed within it, +his talk wandering back to the days of the +church’s troubles,—when the cathedral close +was a fortress, with strong walls and well-filled +moat; when the beautiful west gate, which only +our own age was vile enough to destroy, kept +stout ward against the outer world, and protected +the favored community who formed within +the walls a county independent of Lichfield and +of Staffordshire. Within the sacred pale no law +had force save that of the Ecclesiastical Court, +and then, as now, none could there be taken for +debt or crime save on the warrant of the dean +and chapter.</p> + +<p>He knew by heart the long list of bishops, +and would gladly have held me to hear of the +good deeds of Langton and Hackett. He was +fairly launched in his favorite enthusiasm, and +told warmly the more striking features of the +church’s history, but he told them rapidly lest +I should reach the storied pile with less than a +full appreciation of its traditional interest.</p> + +<p>From his nervous lips I learned how King +Richard II. kept Christmas revels here with a +splendor that lavished two hundred tuns of +wine, and roasted two thousand oxen, whose +bones are still found in Oxenbury field hard +by; how Elizabeth passed three whole days in +the close; and how the solidity of its fortification, +the consummate grace and finish of its +architecture, the richness of its sculpture, and +the surpassing beauty and magnificence of the +nine windows of its lady chapel marked it as +the crowning glory of the Western Church, +until the dark days of the Revolution lowered. +Then its sore trials were recounted, and I learned +of the fanatical attack of Lord Brooke, “with +his horde of impious Roundheads,” made by +strange fatality on St. Chad’s day; of the shooting +of Lord Brooke by “Dumb Dyott,” who +was perched in the steeple with a fowling-piece +that now hangs over the fireplace of Colonel +Dyott’s house; of the surrender of the close +by Lord Chesterfield; of the sack and bout that +followed; of the recapture by Prince Rupert.</p> + +<p>He told of the foul desecration by the Roundheads, +who used every species of havoc, plunder, +and profanation,—pulling down the sacred +effigies which were the glory of the western front, +hacking to pieces the curious carvings of the +choir, mashing the noses of the monumental +statues, destroying the valuable evidences and +records of the church and the city, shattering +the glass of the costly windows,—save only +that of the marvellous nine of the lady chapel, +which a pious care was said to have removed +to a place of safety. They kept courts of guard +in the cross aisles, broke up the pavements, and +every day hunted a cat with hounds throughout +the church, delighting in the echoes from +the vaulted roof; they wrapped a calf in linen, +and “in derision and scorn of the sacrament of +baptism,” sprinkled it at the font and gave it a +name.</p> + +<p>How the King, after the defeat of Naseby, +came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and passed the +night in the close,—how Cromwell’s defaming +crew completed the work of demolition and desecration, +and smashed the old bell called “Jesus,” +with its legend “I am the bell of Jesus, and +Edward is our King; Sir Thomas Heywood first +causéd me to ring,”—how, finally, the chapter-house +alone had a roof under which service +might be said,—how the good Hackett on the +first day of his bishopric set his own servants and +his own coach-horses at work removing the rubbish, +and never tired until in eight years’ time +the magnificence of the cathedral was restored, +except for the forever irreparable loss of the +decorations, and especially of the lady chapel +windows, which all the cost of the restoration +would not have sufficed to renew,—how the +church was reconsecrated with great pomp and +solemnity,—all this he told me in detail, and +he would gladly have told more, for this Poor +Brother had made these few rich historic acres +nearly his whole world, and had peopled it with +all who throughout the long ages had marred it +or had made it. To have given “two good trees” +for the rebuilding of the church was a title to +his lasting and grateful recognition.</p> + +<p>But the light was fast waning, and the cathedral +must be seen now or perhaps never. It was +already past the hour for closing, but one of the +vergers had formerly been a Poor Brother of St. +John’s, and my companion went to him to secure +our admission.</p> + +<p>I stood before the west front of the cathedral, +which was then bathed in the lingering light of +the after-day, its great central window gleaming as +though the altar lamps were still burning behind +it, and the western spires almost losing themselves +in the sky. The quaint effigies that fill the +niches across the whole façade lost their grotesqueness +in the dusk, and seemed really the sacred +sculptures they were meant to be. Fair though +this rich front must be at high midday, it needs +for its full beauty the half-light of a Northern +evening. As seen on that rarest of all evenings, it +was a fit introduction to the subdued glory which +greeted us in the dim religious light to which we +entered as the great central door closed behind us.</p> + +<p>We stood, uncovered and reverent, beneath the +vaulted nave, looking down the long curved aisle, +bordered by the majesty of the clustered columns, +through the light illuminated screen of the choir, +full upon the sculptured and gem-set alabaster +reredos, above and beyond which stood the famed +group of windows of the lady chapel, mellowed +by the light of the streaming full moon.</p> + +<p>Rich in the blended mosaic of the floor, in the +dimmed canopy overhead, in the lightly arched +gallery of the triforium, in the mellow cross-lights +of the side windows, in the sombre carvings of +the choir, and above all in the marvellous glass +of the chapel, it was the very perfection of a worshipful +church.</p> + +<p>It was too nearly dark to examine the details +of the decoration, and we wandered down the +aisles, remarking here and there the bruised statues +of the tombs, and halting before the sleeping +children of Chantrey to marvel how much somnolent +repose can be cut in chiselled stone.</p> + +<p>“But come,” said the gentle Brother, “we have +only light enough left for the storied glass which +alone of all the richness of the old church outlived +its desecration, and, as by a miracle, was +preserved to tell these later generations of the +higher art our forefathers’ sons forgot.” </p> + +<p>As he spoke, we stood within the charmed light +of the nine windows of the apse,—windows which +have perhaps no remaining equals in the world, +and before which one can only bow in admiration +and regret for an art that seems forever lost. +Holding me fast by the arm, he went on:—</p> + +<p>“In the restoration of the church, the spandrels +of the old windows were rebuilt, and the frames +were set with plain glass, to the sad defacement +of the edifice; and so they stood for nigh two +hundred years, no art being equal to their worthy +replacement, and no ancient store to the supplying +of so large a demand.</p> + +<p>“But listen, now, how the hand of Heaven sheltered +its own, and how true servants of the Church +are ever guided to reclaim its lost splendor.</p> + +<p>“A few years ago, a canon of the cathedral, +travelling in Flanders, wishing to contribute to +the renewed work of restoration, visited the dismantled +convent of Herkenrode in the ancient +bishopric of Liege. Here he sought among the +rubbish of the lumber-room for wood-carvings +which might be used in the rebuilding of the +prebendal stalls. His search discovered many +boxes of colored glass, the origin of which no +one knew, and whose existence even had been +forgotten. Thinking to embellish some of the +curious triangular windows above the triforium, +he purchased the whole store for two hundred +pounds of our money, and presented it to the dean +and chapter as a tribute of affectionate devotion +to the cathedral. There was more than he had +supposed, and the large figures of some of the +fragments indicated a coherent design.</p> + +<p>“This chapel was fenced off from the aisles, +and here the canon’s wife and daughter, devoting +themselves to the solution of the puzzle, +slowly pieced out the varying connections. They +worked patiently for weeks, with a steadily increasing +excitement of success, until [and here +his grasp grew tremulous and close], lying collated +on this pavement where we stand, only a +bit wanting here and there, marking the exact +sizes of the varied openings, the grand old Lichfield +windows, perfect as you see them now in +this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich +forevermore the dear old church to whose glory +they had shone in the bygone centuries, and whose +sore trials their absence had so long recalled.</p> + +<p>“Kind stranger,” said he, “this is a true tale. +Sceptics have questioned it, but it is true! true! +And I thank Heaven that it has been permitted +to me, who have grown old in the love of this +sacred pile, to live to see, in this crowning act +of its restoration, the higher help the hand of +man has had in performing its holy work.” </p> + +<p>His upturned blue eyes were moistened with +tears, and his voice trembled with emotion. I +led him gently away and to the doorstep of the +Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted +in silence, and forever.</p> + +<p>Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train +for Liverpool and home, bringing with me an ideal +Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have been +rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter chapter-beginning"> +<img src="images/ch8.jpg" width="500px" height="116px" alt="Decorative chapter heading" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="FOXHUNTING" id="FOXHUNTING"></a>FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND.</h2> + +<div> +<img src="images/o.jpg" alt="" width="80" height="80" class="cap" /> +</div> +<p class="cap_4">On entering the Regent Hotel at Leamington +the first object that attracts +attention, after the stuffy old porter +who hobbles about to see some one else handle +the luggage, is a small frame, over the smoking +coal-fire, which contains the following notice, decorated +with an old cut of a fox’s mask:—</p> + +<p class="centerbold">MERRY & CO.’S HUNTING APPOINTMENTS, AND GUIDE +TO THE DIFFERENT COVERTS.</p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<table summary="List of the days, meeting points, mileage and routes of fox-hunts."> +<tr><td colspan="4" class="tdr">December 30, 1872.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Warwickshire</span>,—at 10.45.</th></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Days.</i></td><td><i>Meet at</i></td><td class="tdr"><i>Miles.</i></td><td><i>To go through</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Goldicote House.</td><td class="tdr">11.</td><td>Wellerbourne and Loxley.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Radway Grange.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Tachbrook and Kineton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Snitterfield.</td><td class="tdr">7.</td><td>Warwick and Stratford Road.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Red Hill.</td><td class="tdr">13.</td><td>Warwick and Snitterfield.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Pebworth.</td><td class="tdr">16.</td><td>Warwick and Stratford.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">North Warwickshire</span>,—at 11.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Solihull.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Warwick and Hatton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Cubbington Gate.</td><td class="tdr">2.</td><td>Lillington.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Stoneleigh Abbey.</td><td class="tdr">4.</td><td>On Kenilworth Road.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Tile Hill.</td><td class="tdr">9.</td><td>By Kenilworth Castle.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Pytchley</span>,—at 10.45.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Naseby.</td><td class="tdr">26.</td><td>Princethorpe and Rugby.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Hazlebeach.</td><td class="tdr">31.</td><td>Dunchurch and Crick.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Dingley.</td><td class="tdr">33.</td><td>Rugby and Swinford.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Cransley.</td><td class="tdr">36.</td><td>Maidwell.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Swinford.</td><td class="tdr">19.</td><td>Princethorpe and Rugby.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Atherstone</span>,—at 11.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Coombe.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Bubbenhall and Wolston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>W.</td><td>Harrow Inn Gate.</td><td class="tdr">20.</td><td>Coventry and Nuneaton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td>Brinklow Station.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Bubbenhall and Wolston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Corley.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Stoneleigh and Coventry.</td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="4" class="th"><span class="smcap">Bicester</span>,—at 10:45.</th></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td>Fenny Compton.</td><td class="tdr">12.</td><td>Radford and Ladbrook.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Tu.</td><td>Trafford Bridge.</td><td class="tdr">19.</td><td>Southam and Wormleighton.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Th.</td><td>Hellidon.</td><td class="tdr">14.</td><td>Southam and Priory Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>Steeple Claydon.</td><td class="tdr">40.</td><td>Gaydon and Banbury.</td></tr> +</table></div></div> + +<p>Twenty-two meets in the week, all within easy +reach, by road or rail. Let us dine and decide. +At table we will leave the <em>menu</em> to the waiter; +but let him bring for consideration during the +meal the list of <em>meets</em>. “Brinklow Station, twelve +miles”; that seems the most feasible thing in the +catalogue for the morrow, and who has not heard +that the Atherstone is a capital pack? But then +the Pytchley is even better known, and the train +reaches Rugby in time for the meet. Let the +choice be decided with the help of coffee and +cigars and possible advice, during the soothing +digestive half-hour in the smoking-room. Dinner +over, wander away through the tortuous, +dim passage that leads to the sombre hall where +alone in English inns the twin crimes of billiards +and smoking are permitted, and, while writhing +under the furtive glances of the staid and middle-aged +East-Indian who evidently knows you for +an American, and who is your only companion, +decide, with your nation’s ability to reach conclusions +without premises, whether it shall be Pytchley +or Atherstone. Don’t ask your neighbor: he +is an Englishman, and have we not been told that +Englishmen are gruff, reticent men, who wear +thick shells, and whose warm hearts can be +reached only with the knife of a regular introduction? +However, you must make up your +mind what to do, and you need help which +neither the waiter nor the porter can give; the +“gentlemanly clerk” does not exist in England +(thank Heaven!) and you have not yet learned +what an invaluable mine of information “Boots” +is,—faithful, useful, helpful, and serviceable to +the last degree. I salute him with gratitude for +all he has done to make life in English hotels +almost easier and more home-like than in one’s +own house. It is safe to advise all travellers to +make him an early ally, to depend on him, to +use him, almost to abuse him, and, finally, on +leaving, to “remember” him. Not yet having +come to know the Boots, I determined to throw +myself on the tender mercies of my stern, silent +companion, and I very simply stated my case. +My stern, silent companion was an exception to +the rule, and he told me all I wanted to know +(and more than I knew I needed to know) with +a cordiality and frankness not always to be found +among the genial smokers of our own hotels. His +voice was in favor of the Atherstone as being the +most acceptable thing for the next day.</p> + +<p>Ford, the veterinary surgeon of Leamington, +had, on several occasions, done good service for +friends who had gone before me over the hedges +of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for +advice about a mount. Here I found that I had +made a mistake in not engaging horses in advance. +To get a “hunter” for the next day would be impossible, +but he would do what he could for a few +days hence. All he could promise for the morning +would be to lend me a horse of his own, a +thoroughbred mare, not up to my weight, but +tough and wiry, and good for any amount of +road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange +for our going by the first train to Coventry, only +a couple of miles from Brinklow (it turned out +to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh +on the ground. At seven o’clock in the morning +he came to my room to say that everything was +arranged, and that I should find the mare at the +station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk +as a stay-stomach,—my usual habit,—I put myself, +for the first time since the war ended, into +breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On +a turn-out stood a “horse-box,” one of the institutions +of England,—a three-stabled freight-car +for the transportation of horses. Paying five shillings +for a horse-ticket to Coventry (only twice +the cost of my own seat), I saw the mare snugly +packed into one of the narrow stalls and made +fast for the journey. Passing through a beautiful +farming country, we came in due time to the +quaint old town of Coventry, where several horse-boxes, +coming from Birmingham and other stations, +were discharging their freight of well-bred +hunters. As we rode from this station another +hard-shelled Englishman in brown top-boots and +spotless white leather breeches accosted me pleasantly, +reminding me that we had come from London +together the day before, and asking, as he +had recognized me for an American, if he could +be of service to me.</p> + +<p>“Pray how did you know that I am from +America?” </p> + +<p>“Only by your asking if you should change +‘cars’ at Rugby. An Englishman would have +said ‘carriages.’” </p> + +<p>“Very well; I am glad my ear-mark was no +greater. Can you direct me to a hotel where +I can get a bite before I go on?” </p> + +<p>“Certainly: you will find the Angel very comfortable; +take the next street to the right, and +you will soon reach it. Good morning; it is nine +miles to the meet, and I will move on slowly. +Command me if I can help you when you come +up.” </p> + +<p>I did find the Angel comfortable, (as what English +inn is not?) and soon fortified myself with +cold pheasant and sherry,—a compact and little-burdensome +repast to ride upon,—served in a +cosey old coffee-room by the neatest and most +obliging of handmaidens.</p> + +<p>On the road I fell in with straggling groups of +horsemen, in red coats and black coats, leather +breeches and cords, white tops and black; all +neat and jaunty, and all wearing the canonical +stove-pipe hat. My little mare was brisk, and I +had no hard riding to save her for, so I passed +a dozen or more of the party, getting from each +one some form or other of pleasant recognition, +and finally from a handsome young fellow on a +very spicy mount, “Excuse me, are you going +to Brinklow? You must turn to the right.” </p> + +<p>Confound these Englishmen, thought I, where +is their traditional coldness and reserve? And I +reined up for a chat.</p> + +<p>My companion came from the vicinity of Birmingham. +Like so many of his class, he devotes +three days a week to systematic hunting, and +he was as enthusiastic as an American boy could +have been in telling me all I wanted to know +about the sport. To get hold of a grown man +who had never seen a foxhound seemed an event +for him, and my first instructions were very agreeably +taken. Our road ran past the beautiful deer-stocked +park of Coombe Abbey, where the green +grass of a moist December and the thick clustering +growth of all-embracing ivy carried the fresh +hues of our summer over the wide lawn and to +the very tops of the trees about the grand old +house. The few villages on our way were neither +interesting nor pleasant, but the thatched farm-houses +and cottages, and the wonderful ivy, and +the charming fields and hedges were all that +could have been asked.</p> + +<p>And then the roadsides! and the stiles and the +foot-paths, and the look of age and the richness +of the well-kept farms; and again and everywhere +the ivy clinging fast to each naked thing, +and clothing it with luxuriant beauty!</p> + +<p>There is in all our hearts an inherited chord +that thrills in the presence of this dear old home +of our race. Not this spot and not these scenes, +but the air, the tone, the spirit of it all,—these +are as familiar to our instincts as water to the +hen-brooded duckling.</p> + +<p>Brinklow Station has the modern hideousness +and newness of railroad stations everywhere in +country neighborhoods, and it was pleasant to +leave it behind and follow the gay crowd down +a sloping and winding road into the real country +again, and into a handsome and well-kept +park, beyond which there stood a fine old house +of some pretension, and well set about with terraced +lawn and shrubbery,—a charming English +country-seat.</p> + +<p>Here my eyes were greeted with the glory of +my first “meet,” and a glory it was indeed! +Pictures and descriptions had suggested it, but +they had only suggested it. This was the reality, +and it far exceeded my anticipation. The +grounds were fairly alive with a brilliant company +of men and women,—happy and hearty, +and just gathered for the day’s sport. Red coats, +white breeches, and top-boots were plenty, and +the neat holiday air of the whole company was +refreshing and delightful. Scattered about singly +and in groups, mounted, on foot, and in carriages, +were a couple of hundred people of all +ages and of all conditions. Chatting from the +saddle and over carriage-doors, lounging up and +down the Drive, or looking over the hounds, the +company were leisurely awaiting the opening of +the ball. They had come from a circuit of twenty +miles around, and they appeared to be mainly +people who habitually congregate at the cover-side +throughout the hunting-season, and to be +generally more or less acquainted with each other. +The element of coquetry was not absent; but +coquetry is apparently not a natural product of +the English soil, and that sort of intercourse was +not conspicuous. The same number of handsome +young men and women would be more demonstrative +at a similar gathering in America. A +similar gathering, however, would not be possible +in America. We have no occasion on which +people of all sorts come so freely and so naturally +together, interested in a traditional and +national sport, which is alike open to rich and +poor, and meeting, not for the single occasion +only, but several times a week, winter after winter, +often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, +farmers, manufacturers, professional men, snobs, +cads, errand-boys,—everybody, in short, who +cared to come seemed to have the right to come, +and, so far as the hunt was concerned, seemed +to be on an equal footing. Of course the poorer +element was comparatively small, and mainly +from the immediate neighborhood. The <em>habitués</em> +of a hunt are seldom below the grade of well-to-do +farmers. Servants from the house were +distributing refreshments, riders were mounting +their hunters, grooms were adjusting saddle-girths, +too fiery animals were being quieted, and +there was generally an air of preparation about +the whole assemblage.</p> + +<p>A little at one side, kept well together by the +huntsman and a couple of whippers-in, were the +hounds (the Atherstone pack), about forty of +them, or, technically, “twenty couples,” strong-limbed, +large-eared, party-colored, wholesome-looking +fellows. They attracted much attention +and elicited frequent commendation, for they +were said to be the very finest pack in England,—as +was also each of the three other packs that +I saw. To the unskilled eye, and simply viewed +as dogs, they were not remarkable; but it was a +case in which the judgment of an unskilled person +could have no value.</p> + +<p>The horses appealed to me much more strongly. +Certainly I had never before seen together +the same number of the same average excellence; +and some of them were fit to drive one wild with +envy. There was, on the whole, less of the +“blood” look than would be expected by a man +who had got his ideas of the hunting-field from +Leech’s drawings, but there was a good deal of +it, nevertheless, and in its perfection too; and +where it was wanting there was plenty of bone +to make up for it.</p> + +<p>At eleven the hounds were led out to the +cover, and the whole field followed slowly and +irregularly and at some distance. There were +about one hundred and fifty mounted for the +hunt. Perhaps one third of these wore scarlet +coats, white breeches, and top-boots; another +third had black coats and some of them black +boots; and the remainder of the field was made +up of half a dozen ladies, a few stout old gentlemen +of seventy or so on stout old cobs of +discreet age, little boys on smart ponies, farmers +and tradesmen and their clerks mounted on whatever +they could get, and men of every intermediate +grade, and with all sorts of horses. A certain +amount of riff-raff, not mounted at all, but +good on their pins and ready for a run, were +hanging about for a chance to pick up a whip +or a hat, or to catch a horse, or brush a muddy +coat, or turn an honest shilling in any way that +might offer in the chances of the day. Some +of these fellows, rigged out with the cast-off +clothing of their betters, sported red coats, black +velvet caps, and leather leggings. One added to +all this gorgeousness the refinement of bare feet.</p> + +<p>The hounds were taken into the cover, a +brambly, tangled wood near by, which had probably +been planted and made a little wilderness +to serve as a cover for foxes.</p> + +<p>They soon found a fox, drove him to the open, +and followed him out of the wood with a whimpering +sort of cry which was disappointing after +the notion that the “full cry” of the books had +given, and which is heard in the very different +fox-hunting of our Southern woods. The run lay +up a steepish hill, several fields wide and across +an open country. One bold rider (not a light +one), mounted on a staving black horse, went to +the right of the cover, and made a splendid leap +up hill, over a stiff-looking hedge, and landed at +the tail of the pack. The “master” and his +assistants had got away with the hounds. The +rest of the field went to the left, waiting their +turns, through a farm-gate. Once through, some +twenty of them dashed up the hill, cleared a +clever hedge, and kept the pack in sight. The +rest took an easier place, where a farm laborer had +pulled away the stakes by which a gap had been +filled. Here there was much very light jumping, +and much more of waiting until predecessors had +made it lighter. In the mean time other gaps +were found, and it was not many minutes before +all were through; but during these minutes the +fox, the hounds, and the harder riding men were +putting a wide space between themselves and us, +who were at the tail of the field. Yet there +were some in the party who did not look like +laggards, and whose horses were good enough +for any work such a country could give them.</p> + +<p>Even when across the gap, these men went +with the rest of us, by gates and lanes, toward +a point to which it was thought by the knowing +ones that the fox would double,—and the +knowing ones were right. Gradually, as their +judgment indicated, they left the roads and took +to the fields. This course was taken by three +well-mounted young ladies. I followed the gate-openers +for about half an hour, when, coming +out on a high-road, I concluded that, with seventeen +miles to ride home, it was only just to my +little mare to give the thing up and head for +Leamington. The hounds were far away on my +right and quite out of sight.</p> + +<p>Having come to look on and learn, I had probably +seen and heard all that day had in store +for me,—surely enough for one’s first day at +fox-hunting. When I had ridden for a few minutes +I saw, far across the fields, that the hounds +had turned to the left and were making for my +road. Pressing forward, I came up in time to +see them cross to the front, and go scurrying +away over the grass, nosing out the scent as they +ran. There had been a check, and “the field” +was well up. The road was lower than the fields, +and was bordered by a ditch at each side. From +this the ground rose a little, and on each bank +stood a three-and-a-half-foot thorn hedge. Neither +leap was difficult, but the one out of the +road was not easy. Here I sat and saw fully a +hundred horsemen, dressed in the gay colors of +the hunting-field and mounted as men rarely are +mounted out of England, all, horses as well as +men, eager and excited in the chase, flying over +hedge and ditch into the carriage-way and over +ditch and hedge into the higher field, beyond and +away, headlong after the hounds, every man for +himself, and every man for the front, and on +they went over another hedge, and out of sight. +In the thick of the flight were two ladies, riding +as well and as boldly as the men, and two +men were brushing their hats in the road, their +empty saddles keeping well up with the run. +More than satisfied with this climax of my first +day’s experience, I trotted out for home. The result +of the run I never heard, and I leave its +description where I lost sight of it. A mile farther +on I did see a fagged-looking fox making +his rapid way across my road again, and sneaking +off under the hedge toward a thicket, and I +halted to listen to what sounded like the horn +of a huntsman at check over the hill to the +left; but possibly the conclusion I drew was not +a correct one.</p> + +<p>I wish that words could give an idea of the +life and action of the headlong flight I had just +seen; but the inadequacy of all I had read to +convey it to me makes it seem useless to try. +Photography and description may, in a measure, +supply the place of travel; but he who would +realize the most thrilling intensity of eager horsemanship +must stand in a hedge-bound English +lane, and see with his own eyes, and for the +first time in his life, a hundred gayly dressed +and splendidly mounted fox-hunters flashing at +full speed across his path; and it is worth the +while to see.</p> + +<p>Rain never fell on a more lovely country than +that part of Warwickshire through which my wet +way lay. For ten miles of the seventeen it +rained, gently as it rains with us in April; nor +is our grass more green in April than this was +in Christmas week. The all-prevailing ivy was +filled with berries, and the laurustinus was already +in bloom.</p> + +<p>No born Englishman could have cared less for +the soaking rain; and, wet to the skin, tired to +the bone, and stiff to the marrow, I have rarely +been more exuberant than when I gradually regained +the use of my legs in the half-mile walk +to the hotel, resolving that not even the glories +of American citizenship should ever keep me +away from England in winter were I only able +to afford the luxury of regular hunting. But +the exuberance was moral rather than physical. +I had not been so tired for years,—stiff as an +old horse, after over thirty miles of really hard +riding (the last seventeen miles in two hours). +The cure was a hot bath and a dish of hot soup, +followed by a log-like sleep of two hours on a sofa +before a blazing hot fire, a sharp half-hour’s walk, +a very plain dinner, and a couple of hours’ chat +with my interested East-Indiaman in the smoking-room: +the cure was complete; and all that +was left of the day’s sport was its brilliant recollection.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My second day was near Stratford-on-Avon,—on +<em>Ay</em>-von, the misguided English call it. The +meet was to be at Goldicote House, one of the +“fixtures” of the Warwickshire Hunt. There +were about a hundred persons, including a few +ladies, and one little bareheaded “blue-coat” +school-boy (from Charles Lamb’s school), who, +with his folded umbrella, long skirt, low shoes, +and yellow hose, was in for as much sport as his +Christmas holiday could give him. As a farther +penalty for want of forethought, I was reduced +to riding a friend’s coach-horse. However, the +reduction was not great, for whether by early +instruction or by inheritance, he was more than +half a hunter, and gave me a capital look at the +whole day’s chase; while his owner, on a most +charming black blood mare, being out of condition +for hard riding, kindly applied himself +to urging me to severer work than one likes to +do with a borrowed horse. He introduced me to +a venerable old gentleman in a time-and-weather-stained +red coat, velvet cap, and well-used nether +gear, mounted on a knowing-looking old gray, +and attended by his granddaughter. He could +not have been less than eighty years old, and +his days of hard riding were over; but constant +hunting exercise every winter for over sixty years +had protected him wonderfully well against the +ravages of time, and it is rare to see an American +of sixty so hale and hearty, and so cheerful +and jolly. I was told that if I would take him +for my leader, I would see more of the run than +I could in any other way with such a mount as +I had. He seemed to know the habits of the +foxes of South Warwickshire as thoroughly as he +did every foot-path and gate of the country, and +he led us by cross-cuts to the various points to +which Reynard circled, so that we often had the +whole field in sight. It was not an especially +interesting day, and the fox got away at last, +among a tangle of railway lines that blocked our +passage. My old mentor, who had given me +much valuable instruction in the details of hunting, +was vastly disgusted at the result, and broke +out with, “Ah! it’s all up with old England, I +doubt; these confounded railways have killed +sport. There’s no hunting to be had any longer, +for their infernal cutting up the country in +this way. I’ve hunted with these hounds under +fifteen different masters, but I’ve about done, +and I sha’n’t lose much,—it’s all up. However, +I suppose we could never pay the interest +on the national debt without the railways; but +it’s all up with hunting.” At that, he called +away the young lady, bade me a melancholy +“good-by,” and rode half sadly home. I galloped +back to Stratford with my handsome old +host,—a little more knowing in the ways of the +field, but without yet having had a fair taste of +the sport.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal +little village of Wansford, near the borders of +Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, perhaps, +the only remaining old posting-inn in England +that is kept up in the unchanged style of +the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are gone, +but the posting-stables are filled with hunters; +the travelling public have fled to the swifter +lines, and Wansford is forever deserted of them; +but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and +Tom Percival, who boasts that he has had the +Princess Victoria for a guest, and has slept five +dukes in one night, has little occasion to complain +of neglect. The good wine that needs no +bush still makes his cellar known, and no one +should criticise English cooking until he has +dined once at the Haycock. Nowhere is the +inn-maid of whom we have read so much to be +found in such simple, tidy, and courtesying perfection; +and nowhere, in short, can one find so +completely the solid comfort of hostelry life. +Half old farm-house and half wayside-inn; with +a marvellous larder, through whose glass-closed +side the guest sees visions of joints and jams +and pastry in lavish profusion; backed by a +stable-yard where boys are always exercising +good horses; and flanked by a yardful of quaint +clipped yews,—the old house at Wansford (in +spite of its dull-looking road front) is worth a +visit from those who would get out of the sight +and sound of steam, and see the old, old country +life of England. The visitor is not numbered +and billeted and pigeon-holed, as in the +modern hotel; but the old fiction of host and +guest is well kept up. Your coming should be +announced in advance; and you are received as +in some sort a member of the family, whose +ways are made to conform more or less to the +wishes of yourself and your convives, mainly +young swells from London, who are few, and who +are there, as you are, not for business, but for +rest, good living, and regular sport. Three packs +of hounds are within reach; and on the days +when none of the meets is near, there is always +the “larking”—the training of young horses—to +supply a good substitute, so far as the +riding goes. One who cares for hunting pure +and simple, rather than for the gayer life of +Leamington and Cheltenham, cannot do better +than to make the season, or a part of it, at the +Haycock, with regularly engaged horses for as +many days in the week as he may choose to +ride. It costs,—but it pays. One is none the +less welcome among the guests for being an +American.</p> + +<p>I there had a day with the George Fitz William +hounds. Not being, as yet, quite at home in the +field, I took a wise old horse, “Cock Robin,” who +was well up to my weight, and who, as Percival +told me, would teach me more than I could teach +him. He was sent on early with the other hunters, +and I took a “hack” to ride to cover. We +were a party of four, and we went through the +fields and the lawns and the rain, to where the +meet was fixed for eleven o’clock, at Barnwell +Castle, a fine old Norman ruin,—square and low, +with four large corner towers draped in magnificent +ivy. It was a dreary morning, and not more +than sixty were out; but among these, as always, +there were ladies, and there was more than the +usual proportion of fine horses. One cover was +drawn blank, and we moved to another, where +a fox was found, and whence the run was sharp +and too straight for a prudent novice to see very +much of it; and it was some minutes before Cock +Robin and his rider came up with the hounds, +who had come to a check in a large wood. +Throughout the day there was a good deal of +waiting about different covers, between which +the fox ran back and forth. Finally he broke +away for a long, quick burst over the fields, +which lay to the left of a farm-road down which +we were riding, and which was flanked by a high +and solid-looking hedge. Near the head of the +party was a well-mounted blonde of seventeen, +who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country +and to keep prudently near to her mother and +her groom. The sight of the splendid run, fast +leaving us behind, was too much for her, and she +turned straight for the hedge, clearing it with a +grander leap than I had seen taken that day, +and flying on over hedges and ditches in the +direct wake of the hounds. A young German +who followed her said, as we rode back to the +Haycock, “It is vort to come from America or +from Owstria to see zat lofely Lady —— go over +ze cowntry”; and it was.</p> + +<p>Luck often favors the timid; Cock Robin and +I were quite alone—he disgusted, and I half +ashamed with my prudence—when the fox, who +had found straight running of no avail, came +swerving to the right over the crest of a distant +hill, closely followed by the hounds, and, in splendid +style, by the first flight of the field. Soon +he crossed a brook which was fenced in with +rails, and the horsemen all had to make a long +détour, so that I, who had been last, now became +first. I had the fox and the hounds all to myself; +my horse was fresh, and the way was easy. +My monopoly lasted only a moment, but it was +not a moment of tranquillity. Finding an open +gate and bridge, I followed the pack into a large +low field, surrounded on three sides by the wide +brook. The fox was turned by this and ran to +the right along the bank; at the corner of the +field he turned again to the right, still keeping +by the edge of the stream; this gave the hounds +an immense advantage, and cutting off the angle, +they came so closely upon him that with still +another turn of the brook ahead of him, he had +but one chance for his life, and that was a desperate +one for a tired fox to consider. He did not +consider, but went slap at the brook, and cleared +it with a leap of nearly twenty feet. The foremost +hounds whimpered for a moment on the +bank before they took to the water, and when +they were across Reynard was well out of sight, +and they had to nose out his trail afresh. He +brought them again to a check, and finally, after +half an hour’s skirmishing, he ran down a railway +cutting in the wake of a train, and got away.</p> + +<p>Incidentally, here was an opportunity for an +English gentleman to show more good temper +and breeding than it is one’s daily lot to see. +He was one of a bridgeful of horsemen watching +the hounds as they vainly tried to unravel the +fox’s scent from the bituminous trail of the locomotive, +when, full of eager curiosity, one of the +ladies, middle-aged and not “native and to the +manner born,” but not an American, rode directly +on to his horse’s heels. To the confusion of my +lady, the horse, like a sensible horse as he was, +resented the attack with both his feet. His rider +got him at once out of the way, and then returned, +bowing his venerable head in regretful +apology, and trusting that no serious harm had +been done. “How can you ride such a kicking +brute!” was the gracious acknowledgment of his +forbearance.</p> + +<p>In this storied little island one is never for long +out of the presence of places on the traditions +of which our life-long fancies have been fed. Our +road home lay past the indistinct mass of rubbish, +clustered round with ivy and with the saddest +associations, which was once Fotheringay Castle; +and as we turned into the village my companions +pointed out the still serviceable but long-unused +“stocks” where the minor malefactors of the +olden time expiated their offences.</p> + +<p>We reached the Haycock at three, a moist but +far from unpleasant body of tired and dirty men, +having ridden, since nine in the morning, over +fifty-five miles, mostly in the rain, and often in +a shower of mud splashed by galloping hoofs. +By six o’clock we were in good trim for dinner, +and after dinner for a long, cosey talk over the +events of the day, and horses and fox-hunting in +general. My own interest in the sport is confined +mainly to its equestrian side, and I am not able +to give much information as to its details. Any +stranger must be impressed with the firm hold +it has on the affections of the people, and with +the little public sympathy that is shown for the +rare attempts that are made to restrict its rights.</p> + +<p>It would seem natural that the farmers should +be its bitter opponents. It can hardly be a cheerful +sight, in March, for a thrifty man to see a +crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his +twenty acres of well-wintered wheat, filling the +air with a spray of soil and uprooted plants. +But let a non-riding reformer get up after the +annual dinner of the local Agricultural Association +and suggest that the rights of tenant-farmers +have long enough lain at the mercy of their landlord +and his fox-hunting friends, with the rabble +of idle sports and ruthless ne’er-do-weels who follow +at their heels, and that it is time for them to +assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition +of a costly pastime, which leads to no good +practical result, and the burdens of which fall so +heavily on the producing classes,—and then see +how his brother farmers will second his efforts. +The very man whose wheat was apparently ruined +will tell him that in March one would have said +the whole crop was destroyed, but that the stirring +up seemed to do it good, for he had never +before seen such an even stand on that field. +Another will argue that while hunting does give +him some extra work in the repair of hedges and +gates, and while he sometimes has his fields torn +up more than he likes, yet the hounds are the +best neighbors he has; they bring a good market +for hay and oats, and, for his part, he likes to get +a day with them himself now and then. Another +raises a young horse when he can, and if he turns +out a clever fencer, he gets a much larger price +for him than he could if there were no hunting +in the country. Another has now and then lost +poultry by the depredations of foxes, but he never +knew the master to refuse a fair claim for damages; +for his part, he would scorn to ask compensation; +he likes to see the noble sport, which is +the glory of England, flourishing, in spite of +modern improvements. At this point, and at +this stage of the convivial cheer, they bring in +the charge at Balaklava, and other evidences that +the noble sport, which is the glory of old England, +breeds a race of men whose invincible daring +always has won and always shall win her honor +in the field;—and Long live the Queen, and +Here’s a health to the Handley Cross Hunt, and +Confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit that +is filling the country with wire fences and that +would do away with the noble sport which is +the glory of old England! Hear! hear!! And +so it ends, and half the company, in velvet caps, +scarlet coats, leathers and top-boots, will be early +on the ground at the first meet of the next +autumn, glad to see their old cover-side friends +once more, and hoping for a jolly winter of such +healthful amusements and pleasant intercourse as +shall put into their heads and their hearts and +into their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold +compensation for the trifling loss they may sustain +in the way of broken gates and trampled fields.</p> + +<p>I saw too little to be able to form a fair opinion +as to the harm done; but when once the run +commences no more account is made of wheat, +which is carefully avoided when going at a slow +pace, than if it were so much sawdust; fences +are torn down, and there is no time to replace +them; if gates are locked, they are taken off the +hinges or broken; if sheep join the crowd in an +enclosure and follow them into the road, no one +stops to see that they are returned: we are after +the hounds, and sheep must take care of themselves. +I saw one farmer, in an excited manner, +open the gates of his kitchen-garden and turn +the hounds and twenty horsemen through it as +the shortest way to where he had seen the fox +go; his womenfolk eagerly calling “Tally-ho!” to +others who were going wrong. I have never +seen a railroad train stopped because of the conductor’s +interest in a passing hunt, but I fancy +that is the only thing in England that does not +stop when the all-absorbing interest is once awakened.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the effect on material interests, +the benefit of this eager, vigorous, outdoor +life on the health and morals of the people is most +unmistakable. Such a race of handsome, hale, +straight-limbed, honest, and simple-hearted men +can nowhere else be found as in the wide class that +passes as much of every winter as is possible in +regular fox-hunting; and to make an application +of their example, we could well afford to give over +many of our fertile fields to ruthless destruction, +and many of our fertile hours to the most senseless +sport, if it would only replace our dyspeptic +stomachs, sallow cheeks, stooping shoulders, and +restless eagerness with the hale and hearty and +easy-going life and energy of our English cousins. +Hardly enough women hunt in England to constitute +an example; but those who do are such +models of health and freshness as to make one +wish that more women had the benefit of such +amusement both there and here. It is very common +to see men of over sixty following the hounds +in the very <em>élite</em> of the field; they seem still in the +vigor of youth. At seventy many are yet regular +at their work; and it is hardly remarkable when +one finally hangs up his red coat only at the age +of eighty. Considering all this, it almost becomes +a question whether, patriotism to the contrary +notwithstanding, it would not be a good thing for +a prosperous American, instead of settling down at +the age of forty-five to a special partnership and a +painful digestion, to take a smaller income where +it would bring more comfort, and by a judicious +application of the pig-skin to rehabilitate his enfeebled +alimentation.</p> + +<p>Fox-hunting is a costly luxury if one goes well +mounted and well appointed. It can hardly be +made cheap, even when one lives in his own +house and rides his own horses. With hotel bills +and horse-hire, it costs still more. As an occasional +indulgence it is always a good investment. +My own score at the Haycock was as follows,—by +way of illustration, and because actual figures are +worth more than estimates. (I was there from +Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, went +out with a shooting-party on Friday, dined out on +Friday night, and hunted on Saturday.)</p> + +<div class="container-center"><div class="container-left"> +<table summary="Account of Waring’s expenditures" class="narrow"> +<tr> +<th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">The Haycock Inn.</span></th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>£</i></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>s.</i></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>d.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>2.</td> +<td>Dinner and wine,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Bed and fire,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">3</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc">”</td> +<td>3.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Apartments,<a id="fn1ret" href="#fn1">*</a> bed and fire,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">5</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Attendance,<a id="fn2ret" href="#fn2">†</a></td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>4.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dinner and wine,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Apartments, bed and fire,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">5</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Attendance,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc">”</td> +<td>5.</td> +<td>Breakfast,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr><th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">Stable.</span></th></tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Conveying luggage from station,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">2</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Sharks Lodge,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Oundle,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">12</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Dog-cart to Peterborough,</td> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">8</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr><th colspan="6" class="th"><span class="smcap">Thomas Percival.</span></th></tr> +<tr> +<td>Jan.</td> +<td>4.</td> +<td>Hire of hunter to Barnwell,</td> +<td class="tdr">4</td> +<td class="tdr">4</td> +<td class="tdr">0</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td>Hire of hack to Barnwell,</td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">10</td> +<td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +</table></div></div> +<p><a id="fn1" href="#fn1ret">*</a> The run of the house.</p> +<p><a id="fn2" href="#fn2ret">†</a> We are apt to consider this a petty swindle, but it has the advantage that you get what you pay for.</p> + + +<p>Eight pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; +which being interpreted means $47.30 in the +lawful currency of the United States. The hunter +and hack for one day cost $23.52.</p> + +<p>An American friend living with his family in +Leamington (much more cheaply than he could +live at home), kept two hunters and a hack, and +hunted them twice a week for the whole season +(nearly six months) at a cost, including the loss on +his horses, which he sold in the spring, of less +than $1,500. I think this is below the average +expense.</p> + +<p>The cost of keeping up a pack of hounds is +very heavy. The hounds themselves, a well-paid +huntsman, two or three whippers-in, two horses +a day for each of these attendants (hunting four +days a week, this would probably require four +horses for each man), and no end of incidental +expenses, bring the cost to fully $20,000 per +annum. This is sometimes paid wholly or in part +by subscription and sometimes entirely by the +Master of the Hounds. One item of my friend’s +expenses at Leamington was a subscription of +ten guineas each to the Warwickshire, North +Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Pytchley hunts. +Something of this sort would be necessary if +one hunted for any considerable time with any +subscription pack, but an occasional visitor is +not expected to contribute.</p> + +<p>A stranger participating in the sport need only +be guided by common modesty and common-sense. +However good a horseman he may be, +he cannot make a sensation among the old stagers +of the hunting-field. Probably he will get no +commendation of any sort. If he does, it will be +for keeping out of the way of others,—taking +always the easiest and safest road that will bring +him well up with the hounds, not flinching when +a desperate leap must be taken, and following (at +a respectful distance) a good leader, rather than +trying to take the lead himself. However promising +the prospect may be, he had better not do +anything on his own hook; if he makes a conspicuous +mistake, he will probably be corrected for it +in plainer English than it is pleasant to hear.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One of the memorable days of my life was the +day before New-Year’s. Ford had secured me a +capital hunter, a well-clipped gelding, over sixteen +hands high, glossy, lean, and wiry as a racer. +“You’ve got a rare mount to-day, sir,” said the +groom as he held him for me to get up; and a +rare dismount I came near having in the little +measure of capacity with which Master Dick and +I commenced our acquaintance, before we left the +Regent. He was one of those horses whose spirits +are just a little too much for their skins, and all +the way out he kept up a restless questioning of +his prospect of having his own way. Still he was +in all this, as in his manner of doing his work +when he got into the open country, such a perfect +counterpart of old Max, who had carried me for +two years in the Southwest, that I was at home +at once. If I had had a hunter made to order, I +could not have been more perfectly suited.</p> + +<p>The meet (North Warwickshire) was at Cubbington +Gate, only two miles from Leamington, +and a very gay meet it was. The road was filled +with carriages, and there was a goodly rabble on +foot. About three hundred, in every variety of +dress, were mounted for the hunt, a dozen or so of +ladies among them. Three of these kept well up +all day, and one of them rode very straight. The +hounds were taken to a wood about a mile to the +eastward of Cubbington, where they soon found a +fox, which led us a very straight course to Princethorpe, +about three miles to the northeast.</p> + +<p>I had done little fencing for seven or eight +years, and the sort of propulsion one gets in being +carried over a hedge is sufficiently different from +the ordinary impulses of civil life to suggest at +first the element of surprise. Consequently, +though our initial leap was a modest one, I landed +with only one foot in the stirrup and with one +hand in the mane; but I now saw that Dick was +but another name for Max, and this one moderate +failure was enough to recall the old tricks of the +craft. As the opportunity would perhaps never +come again, this one was not to be neglected, +and I resolved to have one fair inside view of real +fox-hunting. Dick was clearly as good a horse as +was out that day; the leaping was less than that +to which we were used among the worm-fences, +fallen timber, and gullies of Arkansas and Tennessee; +and there was but a plain Anglo-Saxon +name for the only motive that could deter me +from making the most of the occasion. Mr. Lant, +the Master of the Hounds, was not better mounted +for his lighter weight than was I for my fourteen +stone; and his position as well as his look indicated +that he would probably go by the nearest +practicable route to where the fox might lead, so +we kept at a safe distance behind him and well in +his wake. The hesitation and uncertainty which +had at first confused my bridle-hand being removed, +my horse, recognizing the changed position +of affairs, settled down to his work like a well-trained +and sensible but eager beast as he was. +From the covert to Princethorpe we took seven +fences and some small ditches, and we got there +with the first half-dozen of the field, both of us +in higher spirits than horse and rider ever get +except by dint of hard going and successful fencing.</p> + +<p>Here there was a short check, but the fox was +soon routed out again and made for Waveley +Wood, a couple of miles to the northwest.</p> + +<p>Waveley Wood is what is called in England a +“biggish bit of timber,” and the check here was +long enough to allow the whole field to come +up. As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, +“Tally-ho!” was called from the other side of +the cover, and we splashed through a muddy +cart-road and out into the open just as the +hounds were well away. Now was a ride for dear +life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy +ground would allow. In front of us was a “bullfinch” +(a neglected hedge, out of which strong +thorny shoots of several years’ growth have run +up ten or twelve feet above it). I had often +heard of bullfinches, and no hunting experience +could be complete without taking one. It was +some distance around by the gate, the pace was +strong, and the spiny fringe had just closed behind +Mr. Lant’s red coat as he dropped into the +field beyond. “Follow my leader” is a game +that must be boldly played; so, settling my hat +well down, holding my bridle-hand low, and covering +my closed eyes with my right elbow, with +the whip-hand over the left shoulder, I put my +heart in my pocket and went at it, and through +it with a crash! An ugly scratch on the fleshy +part of the right hand was the only damage done, +and I was one of the very few near the pack. +Dick and I were now up to anything; we made +very light of a thick tall hedge that came next +in order, and we cleared it like a bird; but we +landed in a pool of standing water, covering +deeply ploughed ground, the horse’s forefeet +sinking so deeply that he could not get them +out in time, and our headway rolled us both +over in the mud, I flat on my back. Dick got +up just in time for his pastern to strike me in +the face as I was rising, giving me a cut lip, a +mouthful of blood, and a black and blue nose-bridge. +My appearance has, on occasions, been +more respectable and my temper more serene +than as I ran, soiled and bleeding, over the +ploughed ground, calling to some workmen to +“catch my horse.” </p> + +<p>I was soon up and away again. There seemed +some confusion in the run, and the master being +out of sight, I followed one of the whips as he +struck into a blind path in a wood. It was a +tangled mass of briers, but he went in at full +pace, and evidently there was no time to be lost. +At the other side of the copse there was a set +of low bars, and beyond this a small, slimy ditch. +My leader cleared the bars, but his horse’s hind +feet slipped on the bank of the ditch, and he fell +backwards with an ugly kind of sprawl that I had +no time to examine, for Dick took the leap easily +and soon brought me into a field where, on a little +hillock, and quite alone, stood the huntsman, dismounted, +holding the dead fox high in his left +hand, while with his long-leashed hunting-crop +he kept the hungry and howling pack at bay. +The master soon came up, as did about a dozen +others, including a bright little boy on a light +little pony. The fox’s head (mask), tail (brush), +and feet (pads) were now cut off and distributed +as trophies under the master’s direction. The +carcass was then thrown to the pack, that fought +and snarled over it until, in a twinkling, the last +morsel had disappeared. This was the “death,”—by +no means the most engaging part of the +amusement. From the find to the killing was +only twenty-five minutes, into which had been +crowded more excitement and more physical +happiness than I had known for many a long +day.</p> + +<p>The second cover drawn was not far away. +With this fox we had two hours’ work, mainly +through woods at a walk and with the hounds +frequently at fault, but with some good leaping. +Finally he was run to earth and abandoned.</p> + +<p>We then went to a cover near Bubbenhall, but +found no fox, and then, with the same luck, to +another east of Baggington. It was now nearly +four o’clock, growing dusk, and beginning to rain. +The hounds started for their kennels, and Dick +and I took a soft bridle-path skirting the charming +road that leads, under such ivy-clad tree-trunks +and between such hedges as no other land +can show, through Stoneleigh Village and past +Stoneleigh Abbey to Leamington, and a well-earned +rest.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My memorandum for that day closes: “Horse, +£2 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; Fees, 2<i>s.</i>; and well worth the +money.” </p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p class="centerbold">THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Whip and Spur, by George E. 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Waring + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Whip and Spur + +Author: George E. Waring + +Release Date: December 24, 2013 [EBook #44492] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHIP AND SPUR *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + WHIP AND SPUR + + BY + + COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. + + + NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + MCMIV + + + COPYRIGHT, 1897 + BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + VIX 7 + + RUBY 34 + + WETTSTEIN 67 + + CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX 93 + + HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT 138 + + TWO SCOUTS 162 + + IN THE GLOAMING 186 + + FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND 201 + + + + +WHIP AND SPUR. + +VIX. + + +When the work on the Central Park had fairly commenced, in the spring +of 1858, I found--or I fancied--that proper attention to my scattered +duties made it necessary that I should have a saddle-horse. + +How easily, by the way, the arguments that convince us of these +pleasant necessities find their way to the understanding! + +Yet, how to subsist a horse after buying one, and how to buy? The +memory of a well-bred and keen-eyed gray, dating back to the earliest +days of my boyhood, and forming the chief feature of my recollection +of play-time for years; an idle propensity, not a whit dulled yet, to +linger over Leech's long-necked hunters, and Herring's field scenes; +an almost superstitious faith in the different analyses of the bones +of the racer and of the cart-horse; a firm belief in Frank Forester's +teachings of the value of "blood,"--all these conspired to narrow +my range of selection, and, unfortunately, to confine it to a very +expensive class of horses. + +Unfortunately, again, the commissioners of the Park had extremely +inconvenient ideas of economy, and evidently did not consider, in +fixing their schedule of salaries, how much more satisfactory our +positions would have been with more generous emolument. + +How a man with only a Park salary, and with a family to support, could +set up a saddle-horse,--and not ride to the dogs,--was a question that +exercised not a little of my engineering talent for weeks; and many an +odd corner of plans and estimates was figured over with calculations of +the cost of forage and shoeing. + +Stable-room was plenty and free in the condemned buildings of the +former occupants, and a little "over-time" of one of the men would +suffice for the grooming. + +I finally concluded that, by giving up cigars, and devoting my energies +to the pipe in their stead, I could save enough to pay for my horse's +keep; and so, the ways and means having been, in this somewhat vague +manner, provided, the next step was to buy a horse. To tell of the days +passed at auction sales in the hope (never there realized) of finding +goodness and cheapness combined,--of the stationery wasted in answering +advertisements based on every conceivable form of false pretence; to +describe the numberless broken-kneed, broken-winded, and broken-down +brutes that came under inspection,--would be tedious and disheartening. + +Good horses there were, of course, though very few good saddle-horses +(America is not productive in this direction),--and the possible +animals were held at impossible prices. + +Those who rode over the new Park lands usually rode anything +but good saddle-horses. Fast trotters, stout ponies, tolerable +carriage-horses, capital cart-horses, there were in plenty. But +the clean-cut, thin-crested, bright-eyed, fine-eared, steel-limbed +saddle-horse, the saddle-horse _par excellence_,--may I say the only +saddle-horse?--rarely came under observation; and when, by exception, +such a one did appear, he was usually so ridden that his light was +sadly dimmed. It was hard to recognize an elastic step under such an +unelastic seat. + +Finally, in the days of my despair, a kind saddler,--kept to his daily +awl by a too keen eye for sport, and still, I believe, a victim to +his propensity for laying his money on the horse that ought to win +but don't,--hearing of my ambition (to him the most laudable of all +ambitions), came to put me on the long-sought path. + +He knew a mare, or he had known one, that would exactly suit me. She +was in a bad way now, and a good deal run down, but he always thought +she "had it in her," and that some gentleman ought to keep her for the +saddle,--"which, in my mind, sir, she be the finest bit of 'orse-flesh +that was hever imported, sir." That was enough. "Imported" decided my +case, and I listened eagerly to the enthusiastic story,--a story to +which this man's life was bound with threads of hard-earned silver, and +not less by a real honest love for a fine animal. He had never been +much given to saving, but he was a good workman, and the little he had +saved had been blown away in the dust that clouded his favorite at the +tail of the race. + +Still, he attached himself to her person, and followed her in her +disgrace. "She weren't quite quick enough for the turf, sir, but she be +a good 'un for a gentleman's 'ack." + +He had watched her for years, and scraped acquaintance with her +different owners as fast as she had changed them, and finally, when she +was far gone with pneumonia, he had accepted her as a gift, and, by +careful nursing, had cured her. Then, for a time, he rode her himself, +and his eye brightened as he told of her leaps and her stride. Of +course he rode her to the races, and--one luckless day--when he had +lost everything, and his passion had got the better of his prudence, he +staked the mare herself on a perfectly sure thing in two-mile-heats. +Like most of the sure things of life, this venture went to the bad, +and the mare was lost,--lost to a Bull's Head dealer in single driving +horses. "I see her in his stable ahfter that, sir; and, forbieten +she were twelve year old, sir, and 'ad 'ad a 'ard life of it, she +were the youngest and likeliest of the lot,--you'd swore she were a +three-year-old, sir." + +If that dealer had had a soul above trotting-wagons, my story would +never have been written; but all was fish that came to his net, and +this thoroughbred racer, this beautiful creature who had never worn +harness in her life, must be shown to a purchaser who was seeking +something to drive. She was always quick to decide, and her actions +followed close on the heels of her thought. She did not complicate +matters by waiting for the gentleman to get into the wagon, but then +and there--on the instant--kicked it to kindlings. This ended the +story. She had been shown at a high figure, and was subsequently sold +for a song,--he could tell me no more. She had passed to the lower +sphere of equine life and usefulness,--he _had_ heard of a fish-wagon, +but he knew nothing about it. What he did know was, that the dealer was +a dreadful jockey, and that it would never do to ask him. Now, here was +something to live for,--a sort of princess in disgrace, whom it would +be an honor to rescue, and my horse-hunting acquired a new interest. + +By easy stages, I cultivated the friendship of the youth who, in +those days, did the morning's sweeping-out at the Bull's Head Hotel. +He had grown up in the alluring shades of the horse-market, and his +daily communion from childhood had been with that "noble animal." To +him horses were the individuals of the world,--men their necessary +attendants, and of only attendant importance. Of course he knew of this +black she-devil; and he thought that "a hoss that could trot like she +could on the halter" must be crazy not to go in harness. + +However, he thought she had got her deserts now, for he had seen her, +only a few weeks before, "a draggin' clams for a feller in the Tenth +Avener." Here was a clew at last,--clams and the Tenth Avenue. For +several days the scent grew cold. The people of the Licensed Vender +part of this street seemed to have little interest in their neighbors' +horses; but I found one man, an Irish grocer, who had been bred a +stable-boy to the Marquis of Waterford, and who did know of a "poor old +screw of a black mare" that had a good head, and might be the one I was +looking for; but, if she was, he thought I might as well give it up, +for she was all broken down, and would never be good for anything again. + +Taking the address, I went to a stable-yard, in what was then the very +edge of the town, and here I found a knowing young man, who devoted his +time to peddling clams and potatoes between New York and Sing Sing. +Clams up, and potatoes down,--twice every week,--distance thirty miles; +road hilly; and that was the wagon he did it with,--a heavy wagon with +a heavy arched top, and room for a heavy load, and only shafts for a +single horse. In reply to my question, he said he changed horses pretty +often, because the work broke them down; but he had a mare now that +had been at it for three months, and he thought she would last some +time longer. "She's pretty thin, but you ought to see her trot with +that wagon." With an air of idle curiosity, I asked to see her,--I had +gone shabbily dressed, not to excite suspicion; for men of the class I +had to treat with are usually sharp horse-traders,--and this fellow, +clam-pedler though he was, showed an enthusiastic alacrity in taking +me to her stall. She had won even his dull heart, and he spoke of her +gently, as he made the most of her good points, and glossed over her +wretched condition. + +Poor Vixen (that had been her name in her better days, and it was to +be her name again), she had found it hard kicking against the pricks! +Clam-carts are stronger than trotting-wagons, and even her efforts had +been vain. She had succumbed to dire necessity, and earned her ignoble +oats with dogged fidelity. She had a little warm corner in her driver's +affections,--as she always had in the affections of all who came to +know her well,--but her lot was a very hard one. Worn to a skeleton, +with sore galls wherever the harness had pressed her, her pasterns +bruised by clumsy shoes, her silky coat burned brown by the sun, and +her neck curved upward, it would have needed more than my knowledge of +anatomy to see anything good in her but for her wonderful head. This +was the perfection of a horse's head,--small, bony, and of perfect +shape, with keen, deer-like eyes, and thin, active ears; it told the +whole story of her virtues, and showed no trace of her sufferings. Her +royal blood shone out from her face, and kept it beautiful. + +My mind was made up, and Vixen must be mine at any cost. Still, it +was important to me to buy as cheaply as I could,--and desirable, +above all, not to be jockeyed in a horse-trade; so it required some +diplomacy (an account of which would not be edifying here) to bring the +transaction to its successful close. The pendulum which swung between +offer and demand finally rested at seventy-five dollars. + +She was brought to me at the Park on a bright moonlight evening in +June, and we were called out to see her. I think she knew that her +harness days were over, and she danced off to her new quarters as gay +as a colt in training. That night my wakefulness would have done credit +to a boy of sixteen; and I was up with the dawn, and bound for a ride; +but when I examined poor Vix again in her stable, it seemed almost +cruel to think of using her at all for a month. She was so thin, so +worn, so bruised, that I determined to give her a long rest and good +care,--only I must try her once, just to get a leg over her for five +minutes, and then she should come back and be cared for until really +well. It was a weak thing to do, and I confess it with all needful +humiliation, but I mounted her at once; and, although I had been a +rider all my days, this was the first time I had ever really ridden. +For the first time in my life I felt as though I had four whalebone +legs of my own, worked by steel muscles in accordance with my will, but +without even a conscious effort of will. + +That that anatomy of a horse should so easily, so playfully, handle +my heavy weight was a mystery, and is a mystery still. She carried me +in the same high, long-reaching, elastic trot that we sometimes see a +young horse strike when first turned into a field. A low fence was near +by, and I turned her toward it. She cleared it with a bound that sent +all my blood thrilling through my veins, and trotted on again as though +nothing had occurred. The five minutes' turn was taken with so much +ease, with such evident delight, that I made it a virtue to indulge her +with a longer course and a longer stride. We went to the far corners of +the Park, and tried all our paces; all were marvellous for the power so +easily exerted and the evident power in reserve. + +Yes, Frank Forester was right, blood horses are made of finer stuff +than others. My intention of giving the poor old mare a month's rest +was never carried out, because each return to her old recreation--it +was never work--made it more evident that the simple change in her +life was all she needed; and, although in constant use from the first, +she soon put on the flesh and form of a sound horse. Her minor bruises +were obliterated, and her more grievous ones grew into permanent +scars,--blemishes, but only skin deep; for every fibre of every muscle, +and every tendon and bone in her whole body, was as strong and supple +as spring steel. + +The Park afforded good leaping in those days. Some of the fences +were still standing around the abandoned gardens, and new ditches +and old brooks were plenty. Vixen gave me lessons in fencing which a +few years later, in time of graver need, stood me in good stead. She +weighed less than four times the weight that she carried; yet she +cleared a four-foot fence with apparent ease, and once, in a moment +of excitement, she carried me over a brook, with a clear leap of +twenty-six feet, measured from the taking-off to the landing. + +Her feats of endurance were equal to her feats of strength. I once +rode her from Yorkville to Rye (twenty-one miles) in an hour and +forty-five minutes, including a rest of twenty minutes at Pelham +Bridge, and I frequently rode twenty-five miles out in the morning and +back in the afternoon. When put to her work, her steady road gallop +(mostly on the grassy sides) was fifteen miles an hour. + +Of course these were extreme cases; but she never showed fatigue +from them, and she did good service nearly every day, winter and +summer, from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, keeping always in good +condition, though thin as a racer, and looking like a colt at the end +of the time. Horsemen never guessed her age at more than half of what +it actually was. + +Beyond the average of even the most intelligent horses, she showed +some almost human traits. Above all was she fond of children, and would +quiet down from her wildest moods to allow a child to be carried on the +pommel. When engaged in this serious duty, it was difficult to excite +her, or to urge her out of a slow and measured pace, although usually +ready for any extravagance. Not the least marked of her peculiarities +was her inordinate vanity. On a country road, or among the workmen of +the Park, she was as staid and business-like as a parson's cob; but +let a carriage or a party of visitors come in sight, and she would +give herself the prancing airs of a circus horse, seeming to watch +as eagerly for some sign of approval, and to be made as happy by it, +as though she only lived to be admired. Many a time have I heard the +exclamation, "What a beautiful horse!" and Vix seemed to hear it too, +and to appreciate it quite as keenly as I did. A trip down the Fifth +Avenue in the afternoon was an immense excitement to her, and she was +more fatigued by it than by a twenty-mile gallop. However slowly she +travelled, it was always with the high springing action of a fast trot, +or with that long-stepping, sidelong action that the French call _a +deux pistes_; few people allowed her to pass without admiring notice. + +Her most satisfactory trait was her fondness for her master; she +was as good company as a dog,--better, perhaps, because she seemed +more really a part of one's self; and she was quick to respond to my +changing moods. I have sometimes, when unable to sleep, got up in the +night and saddled for a ride, usually ending in a long walk home, with +the bridle over my arm, and the old mare's kind face close beside my +own, in something akin to human sympathy; she had a way of sighing, +when things were especially sad, that made her very comforting to have +about. So we went on for three years, always together, and always very +much to each other. We had our little unhappy episodes, when she was +pettish and I was harsh,--sometimes her feminine freaks were the cause, +sometimes my masculine blundering,--but we always made it up, and were +soon good friends again, and, on the whole, we were both better for +the friendship. I am sure that I was, and some of my more grateful +recollections are connected with this dumb companion. + +The spring of 1861 opened a new life for both of us,--a sad and a short +one for poor Vix. + +I never knew just how much influence she had in getting my commission, +but, judging by the manner of the other field officers of the regiment, +she was evidently regarded as the better half of the new acquisition. +The pomp and circumstance of glorious war suited her temper exactly, +and it was ludicrous to see her satisfaction in first wearing her +gorgeous red-bordered shabrack; for a time she carried her head on one +side to see it. She conceived a new affection for me from the moment +when she saw me bedecked with the dazzling bloom that preceded the +serious fruitage of the early New York volunteer organizations. + +At last the thrilling day came. Broadway was alive from end to end +with flags and white cambric and sad faces. Another thousand were +going to the war. With Swiss bugle-march and chanted Marseillaise, we +made our solemn way through the grave and anxious throng. To us it was +naturally a day of sore trial; but with brilliant, happy Vixen it was +far different; she was leaving no friends behind, was going to meet no +unknown peril. She was showing her royal, stylish beauty to an admiring +crowd, and she acted as though she took to her own especial behoof +every cheer that rang from Union Square to Cortlandt Street. It was the +glorious day of her life, and, as we dismounted at the Jersey ferry, +she was trembling still with the delightful excitement. + +At Washington we were encamped east of the Capitol, and for a month +were busy in getting settled in the new harness. Mr. Lincoln used to +drive out sometimes to our evening drill, and he always had a pleasant +word--as he always had for every one, and as every one had for her--for +my charming thoroughbred, who had made herself perfectly at home with +the troops, and enjoyed every display of the marvellous raiment of the +regiment. + +On the 4th of July we crossed the Potomac and went below Alexandria, +where we lay in idle preparation for the coming disaster. On the 16th +we marched, in Blenker's brigade of Miles's division, and we passed the +night in a hay-field, with a confusion of horses' feed and riders' bed, +that brought Vix and me very closely together. On the 18th we reached +the valley this side of Centreville, while the skirmish of Blackburn's +Ford was going on,--a skirmish now, but a battle then. For three nights +and two days we lay in the bushes, waiting for rations and orders. +On Sunday morning McDowell's army moved out;--we all know the rest. +Miles's thirteen thousand fresh troops lay within sight and sound of +the lost battle-field,--he drunk and unable, even if not unwilling, to +take them to the rescue,--and all we did was, late in the evening, to +turn back a few troopers of the Black Horse Cavalry, the moral effect +of whose unseen terrors was driving our herds, panting, back to the +Potomac. Late in the night we turned our backs on our idle field, and +brought up the rear of the sad retreat. Our regiment was the last to +move out, and Vix and I were with the rear-guard. Wet, cold, tired, +hungry, unpursued, we crept slowly through the scattered _debris_ of +the broken-up camp equipage, and dismally crossed the Long Bridge in a +pitiless rain, as Monday's evening was closing in. O, the dreadful days +that followed, when a dozen resolute men might have taken Washington, +and have driven the army across the Chesapeake, when everything was +filled with gloom and rain and grave uncertainty! + +Again the old mare came to my aid. My regiment was not a pleasant one +to be with, for its excellent material did not redeem its very bad +commander, and I longed for service with the cavalry. Fremont was going +to St. Louis, and his chief of staff was looking for cavalry officers. +He had long known Vixen, and was kind enough to tell me that he wanted +_her_ for the new organization, and (as I was her necessary appendage), +he procured my transfer, and we set out for the West. It was not +especially flattering to me to be taken on these grounds; but it was +flattering to Vixen, and that was quite as pleasant. + +Arrived at St. Louis, we set about the organization of the +enthusiastic thousands who rushed to serve under Fremont. Whatever +there was of ostentatious display, Vixen and I took part in, but this +was not much. Once we turned out in great state to receive Prince +Plon-Plon, but that was in the night, and he didn't come after all. +Once again there was a review of all the troops, and that _was_ +magnificent. This was all. There was no coach and four, nor anything +else but downright hard work from early morning till late bedtime, from +Sunday morning till Saturday night. For six weeks, while my regiment of +German horsemen was fitting up and drilling at the Abbey Race-track, +I rode a cart-horse, and kept the mare in training for the hard work +ahead. + +At last we were off, going up the Missouri, sticking in its mud, +poling over its shoals, and being bored generally. At Jefferson +City Vixen made her last appearance in ladies' society, as by the +twilight fires of the General's camp she went through her graceful +paces before Mrs. Fremont and her daughter. I pass over the eventful +pursuit of Price's army, because the subject of my story played only +a passive part in it. At Springfield I tried her nerve by jumping her +over the dead horses on brave Zagonyi's bloody field; and, although +distastefully, she did my bidding without flinching, when she found it +must be done. The camp-life at Springfield was full of excitement and +earnestness; Price, with his army, was near at hand (or we believed +that he was, which was essentially the same). Our work in the cavalry +was very active, and Vix had hard service on insufficient food,--she +seemed to be sustained by sheer nervous strength. + +At last the order to advance was given, and we were to move out at +daybreak; then came a countermanding order; and then, late in the +evening, Fremont's farewell. He had been relieved. There was genuine +and universal grief. Good or bad, competent or incompetent,--this is +not the place to argue that,--he was the life and the soul of his +army, and it was cruelly wronged in his removal. Spiritless and full +of disappointment, we again turned back from our aim;--then would have +been Price's opportunity. + +It was the loveliest Indian-summer weather, and the wonderful opal +atmosphere of the Ozark Mountains was redolent with the freshness of a +second spring. As had always been my habit in dreamy or unhappy moods, +I rode my poor tired mare for companionship's sake,--I ought not to +have done it,--I would give much not to have done it, for I never rode +her again. The march was long, and the noonday sun was oppressive. She +who had never faltered before grew nervous and shaky now, and once, +after fording the Pomme-de-Terre in deep water, she behaved wildly; but +when I talked to her, called her a good girl, and combed her silken +mane with my fingers, she came back to her old way, and went on nicely. +Still she perspired unnaturally, and I felt uneasy about her when I +dismounted and gave her rein to Rudolf, my orderly. + +Late in the night, when the moon was in mid-heaven, he came to my +tent, and told me that something was the matter with Vixen. My adjutant +and I hastened out, and there we beheld her in the agony of a brain +fever. She was the most painfully magnificent animal I ever saw. +Crouched on the ground, with her forelegs stretched out and wide apart, +she was swaying to and fro, with hard and stertorous breath,--every +vein swollen and throbbing in the moonlight. De Grandele, our quiet +veterinary surgeon, had been called while it was yet time to apply the +lancet. As the hot stream spurted from her neck she grew easier; her +eye recovered its gentleness, and she laid her head against my breast +with the old sigh, and seemed to know and to return all my love for +her. I sat with her until the first gray of dawn, when she had grown +quite calm, and then I left her with De Grandele and Rudolf while +I went to my duties. We must march at five o'clock, and poor Vixen +could not be moved. The thought of leaving her was very bitter, but +I feared it must be done, and I asked De Grandele how he could best +end her sufferings,--or was there still some hope? He shook his head +mournfully, like a kind-hearted doctor as he was, and said that he +feared not; but still, as I was so fond of her, if I would leave him +six men, he would do his best to bring her on, and, if he could not, he +would not leave her alive. I have had few harder duties than to march +that morning. Four days after, De Grandele sent a message to me at our +station near Rolla, that he was coming on nicely, and hoped to be in +at nightfall. "Vixen seems to be better and stronger." At nightfall +they came, the poor old creature stepping slowly and timidly over the +rough road, all the old fire and force gone out of her, and with only a +feeble whinny as she saw me walking to meet her. We built for her the +best quarters we could under the mountain-side, and spread her a soft +bed of leaves. There was now hope that she would recover sufficiently +to be sent to St. Louis to be nursed. + +That night, an infernal brute of a troop horse that had already killed +Ludlow's charger, led by some fiendish spirit, broke into Vixen's +enclosure, and with one kick laid open her hock joint. + +In vain they told me that she was incurable. I could not let her die +now, when she was just restored to me; and I forced from De Grandele +the confession that she _might_ be slung up and so bound that the wound +would heal, although the joint must be stiff. She could never carry me +again, but she could be my pet; and I would send her home, and make her +happy for many a long year yet. We moved camp two miles, to the edge +of the town, and she followed, painfully and slowly, the injured limb +dragging behind her; I could not give her up. She was picketed near my +tent, and for some days grew no worse. + +Finally, one lovely Sunday morning, I found her sitting on her haunches +like a dog, patient and gentle, and wondering at her pain. She remained +in this position all day, refusing food. I stroked her velvet crest, +and coaxed her with sugar. She rubbed her nose against my arm, and was +evidently thankful for my caresses, but she showed no disposition to +rise. The adjutant led me into my tent as he would have led me from the +bedside of a dying friend. I turned to look back at poor Vixen, and she +gave me a little neigh of farewell. + +They told me then, and they told it very tenderly, that there was no +possibility that she could get well in camp, and that they wanted me +to give her over to them. The adjutant sat by me, and talked of the +old days when I had had her at home, and when he had known her well. +We brought back all of her pleasant ways, and agreed that her trouble +ought to be ended. + +As we talked, a single shot was fired, and all was over. The setting +sun was shining through the bare November branches, and lay warm in +my open tent-front. The band, which had been brought out for the only +funeral ceremony, breathed softly Kreutzer's touching "Die Kapelle," +and the sun went down on one of the very sad days of my life. + +The next morning I carved deeply in the bark of a great oak-tree, at +the side of the Pacific Railroad, beneath which they had buried my +lovely mare, a simple VIX; and some day I shall go to scrape the moss +from the inscription. + + + + +RUBY. + + +I was a colonel commanding a regiment of German cavalrymen in South +Missouri, and must have a horse; it was desirable to be conspicuously +well mounted, and so it must be a showy horse; being a heavy weight and +a rough rider, it must be a good horse. With less rank, I might have +been compelled to take a very ordinary mount and be content: my vanity +would not have availed me, and my rough riding must have ceased. + +But I was chief ruler of the little world that lay encamped on the +beautiful banks of the Roubie d'Eaux; and probably life was easier to +all under me when I was satisfied and happy. I am not conscious of +having been mean and crabbed, or of favoring those who favored me to +the disadvantage of those who did not. I cannot recall an instance of +taking a bribe, even in the form of a pleasant smile. It was probably +easier, in the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and therefore +the laziest private ever ordered on extra duty could not lay his hand +on his heart and say he thinks it was done because he was not diligent +in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private mess. I had very early +in life been impressed with the consciousness that the way of the +transgressor is not easy; and as I wanted my way to be easy, I fell +into the way of not transgressing. + +This may not have been a very worthy motive to actuate the conduct of +a military commander; but perhaps it was as good as the average in our +Department of the Southwest, where, if the truth must be told, virtue +did not have it all its own way,--we were different from troops farther +east; and although it made me sometimes wince to have my conduct +ascribed to a noble uprightness of purpose, and showed that it would +really have been more honest not to have been quite so good, yet one +should perhaps be satisfied with having carried out one's intention of +treating every man in the command, officer or soldier, as nearly as he +should be treated as the interests of the public service, the good of +the individual himself, and one's own personal convenience would allow. + +Therefore, I say, I am not conscious of having favored those who +favored me, to the disadvantage of those who did not; neither do I +think that (at this stage of our acquaintance) the Grafs and Barons +and simple Mister Vons, of whom the command was so largely composed, +entertained the hope of personal benefit when they laid their +kindnesses at my accustomed feet, and tried to smooth my way of life. + +The headquarters' mess was generally well supplied,--and no questions +asked. My relations with most of the command were kindly, and it +apparently came to be understood--for German cavalrymen are not without +intelligence--that the happiness of the individual members of the +regiment depended rather on the happiness of its colonel than on any +direct bids for his favor. Be this as it may, I am not conscious of +having received such direct appeals, and I am entirely conscious of the +fullest measure of happiness that my circumstances would allow; not an +ecstasy of delight,--far from that,--but a comfortable sense of such +well-fed, well-paid, well-encamped, and pleasantly occupied virtue as +had left nothing undone that my subordinates could be made to do, and +did nothing that my conditions rendered difficult. My own good-humor +was equalled by that of the regiment at large, and the beetling sides +of the Ozark valleys nowhere sheltered a happier campful of jolly good +fellows than the Vierte Missouri Cavalry. + +We lay on the marvellous Roubie d'Eaux, at its source; no such +babbling brook as trickles from the hillside springs of New England, +but a roaring torrent, breaking at once from a fathomless vent in the +mountain. The processes of formation with these South Missouri rivers +are all hidden from sight, but, far away in the topmost caves of the +Ozark hills, the little streamlets trickle, and unite for a larger and +ever larger flow, gorging at last the huge caverns of the limestone +rock and bursting upon the world a full-grown river. Within our camp +this wonderful spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large +grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustaining community,--in +this, that we foraged our own corn and ground our own meal. With +similar industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, and fowl. + +The trees were bare with the November frosts, but the Indian summer had +come, and, day after day, it bathed every twig and spray with its amber +breath, warming all nature to a second life, and floating the remoter +hills far away into a hazy dreamland. + +But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was not content: I was +practically a dismounted cavalryman. Indeed, it would even have been +a pity to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as fell to my +lot, for good weight-carriers were rare in that section. I had paid a +very high price for a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, happily, +sold for a large advance), only to find him a year too young for his +work, and the regiment had been scoured in vain for an available mount. +I would have gone any reasonable length, even in injustice, to secure +such an animal as was needed. It was not easy to make up one's mind to +order a soldier to give up a horse he was fond of, and some soldier had +an especial fondness for all but the worthless brutes. My reluctance to +do this was perhaps not lessened by the fact that it was forbidden for +officers to ride United States horses. It finally became evident that +the chances were very small of ever finding a suitable animal, and I +even went out, on one shooting excursion, mounted on a mule. + +Up to this time the regiment had been all that could be asked, but +now it seemed to contain a thousand ill-tempered, sore-headed men. +The whole camp was awry. Some of the officers intimated that this was +all the fault of the adjutant; that the orders from headquarters had +lately been unusually harsh. This officer, when remonstrated with, +insisted that he had only transmitted the exact orders given him, and I +knew that my own action had always been reasonable,--on principle so. +Sometimes one almost wished himself back in civil life, away from such +constant annoyances. + +We had in the regiment one Captain Graf von Gluckmansklegge, who was +in many respects the most accomplished and skilful officer of us all. +His life had been passed in the profession, and he had only left his +position of major in a Bavarian Uhlan regiment to draw his sabre in +defence of "die Freiheit," in America, as senior captain of the Fourth +Missouri Cavalry. He was an officer of Asboth's selection, and had +many of that veteran's qualities. Tall, thin, of elegant figure, as +perfect a horseman as good natural advantages and good training could +make, and near-sighted, as a German cavalry officer must be, he was +as natty a fellow as ever wore an eye-glass and a blond mustache. He +was, at the same time, a man of keen worldly shrewdness and of quick +judgment,--qualities which, in his case, may have been sharpened by +long practice at those games of chance with which it has not been +unusual for European officers to preface their coming to draw their +sabres in defence of "die Freiheit" in America. + +With Gluckmansklegge I had always been on friendly terms. Among the +many lessons of his life he had learned none more thoroughly than +the best way to treat his commanding officer; and there was in his +manner an air of friendly deference and of cordial submission to rank, +accompanied by a degree of personal dignity, that elevated the colonel +rather than lowered the captain,--a manner that probably makes its way +with a newly fledged officer more surely than any other form of appeal +to his vanity. One sometimes saw a brand-new second-lieutenant made +happier than a king by this same touch of skill from an old soldier +in his company, whom he knew to be far his superior in all matters of +service. To be quite frank, if I have an element of snobbishness in my +own organization, it has been more nurtured into life by the military +deference of better soldiers than myself under my command than by all +other influences combined; thus modified do the best of us become in +the presence of unmerited praise. + +One evening Gluckmansklegge came to my tent door: "Escoose, Col-o-nel, +may I come?" And then, flinging out his eye-glass with a toss of the +head, he went on, with his imperfect English, to tell me he had just +learned from his lieutenant that I could find no horse to suit me; +that he had a good one strong enough for my weight, and, he thought, +even good enough for my needs. He had bought him in St. Louis from the +quartermaster, and would I oblige him by trying him? He was quite at my +service, at the government price, for he, being lighter, could easily +replace him. Did I remember his horse,--his "Fuchs"? "He is good, nice, +strong horse, an he yoomp!--yei!!" + +I did remember his horse, and I had seen him "yoomp." It had long +been a subject of regret to think that such an animal should be in +the regiment, yet not on my own picket-line. It was well known that +great prices had been offered for him, only to make Gluckmansklegge +fling his eye-glass loose, and grin in derision. "Fuchs is--how you +call?--'heelty,' an gesund; wenn you like, your Ike will go to my +company to bring him." I did like, and I had no scruples against +buying him for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Ike, a handsome +contraband, went early the next morning with a halter for the Fuchs, +and I was up bright and betimes to try him. + +I had only seen the horse before under the saddle, perfectly equipped, +perfectly bitted, and perfectly ridden, an almost ideal charger. There +was a great firebrand scar on the flat of each shoulder, where he had +been fired for a cough,--so said Gluckmansklegge;--others intimated +that this effaced a U. S. brand; but, except this, not a sign of a +blemish. In form, action, style, color (chestnut), and training he +was unexceptionably good, and might well excite the envy of all good +horsemen who saw him _under the saddle_. Knowing him so well, I went +rather eagerly to the picket-line to refresh myself with the added +sensation that the actual ownership of such a horse must give. + +There stood the new purchase,--a picture of the most abject misery; +his hind legs drawn under him; the immense muscles of his hips lying +flabby, like a cart-horse's; his head hanging to the level of his +knees, and his under-lip drooping; his eyes half shut, and his long +ears falling out sidewise like a sleepy mule's. I had bought him for a +safe price, and he would probably do to carry Ike and the saddle-bags; +but I felt as far as ever from a mount for myself, and went back to my +tent wiser and no happier than before. + +Presently Ike appeared with the coffee, and asked how I liked the new +horse. + +"Not at all." + +"Don't ye? well now, I reckon he's a consid'able of a hoss." + +I sent him to look at him again, and he came back with a very +thoughtful air,--evidently he had been impressed. At last he said, +"Well now, Colonel, I don't reckon you bought that hoss to look at him +on the picket-line, did ye?" + +"No, Ike, or he should be sold out very cheap; but he is not the +_kind_ of horse I supposed he was; he ought to work in a mule-team." + +"Well now, Colonel, mebbe he is; but you can't never tell nothin' about +a hoss till you get him between ye; and I reckon he's a consid'able of +a hoss, I reckon he is." + +Ike was wise, in his way, and his way was a very horsy one,--so my +hopes revived a little; and when Gluckmansklegge came up on a capital +little beast he had been handling (secretly to replace the Fuchs), +I had the new venture saddled and brought round. He came blundering +along, head and ears and tail down, and stood like a leathern horse +for me to mount, Gluckmansklegge dropping his eye-glass and grinning. +It was as well to find out first as last whether he had anything in +him or not, and I gathered up the curb-rein, which brought his head +into superb position and settled him well back upon his haunches; but, +as the movement had been made with dignity, I gave him both heels, +firmly,--when we went sailing!--how high I don't know, probably not +fifteen feet, but it seemed that, and covering a good stretch to the +front. It was the most enormous lift I had ever had, and (after an +appreciable time in the air), when he landed square on all four feet, +it was to strike a spanking, even trot, the bit playing loose in his +mouth, his head swaying easily with his step, and his tail flying. I +had never been more amazed in my life than by the wonderful grace and +agility of this splendid brute. As he trotted along with his high, +strong, and perfectly cadenced step, he showed in the swing of his head +all the satisfaction of an athlete turning, conscious, lightly away +from the footlights, after his especial _tour de force_. + +As Gluckmansklegge rode up, he said, "Well, Col-o-nel, how you like? +Nice pretty strong horse, what?" + +And then, his English failing him, he fell, through an attempt at +French, into German, in which his tongue was far more ready than my +ear. Still it was easy to gather enough to understand some of the +processes by which the animal's natural qualifications for his work had +been developed into such unusual accomplishments; and then he glided +into the complimentary assertion that no one but the colonel of his +regiment could ever have hoped to buy him at any price,--and of course +he did not consider it a sale. His original outlay, which he could +not afford to lose, had been reimbursed; but the true value of the +horse, his education, he was only too glad to give me. And then, the +pleasure of seeing his colonel suitably mounted, and the satisfaction +of seeing the horse properly ridden, really threw the obligation on +his side. Then, with his inimitable _naivete_, he not only expressed, +but demonstrated, in every look and gesture, more delight in watching +our movements than he had felt in his own riding. "Praise a horseman +for his horsemanship, and he will ride to the Devil." Gluckmansklegge +(I did not suspect him of a desire for promotion) pointed to a strong +rail-fence near by, and suggested that the combination of man and +horse for that sort of thing was unusual. Whether it was a banter or +a compliment, it would have been impossible for any man who properly +esteemed himself and his riding to stop to consider. Turned toward the +fence, the Fuchs, checking his speed, seemed to creep toward it, as a +cat would, making it very uncertain what he proposed; but as he came +nearer to it, that willingness to leap that an accustomed rider will +always recognize communicated itself to me, and, with perfect judgment, +but with a force and spirit I had never hoped to meet in a horse of +this world, he carried me over the enormous height, and landed like a +deer, among the stumps and brush on the other side, and trotted gayly +away, athlete-like again, happier and prouder than ever horse was +before. + +Sitting that evening at my tent door, opposite the spring, bragging, +as the custom is, over the new purchase, it occurred to me that that +stream of water and that bit of horse-flesh had some qualities alike; +so I christened the latter "Roubie d'Eaux," which was soon translated +and shortened to "Ruby,"--a name henceforth familiar throughout the +regiment. + +To become my property was the only thing needed to make him perfect, +for Ike was born in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised all +the arts of the craft, up to the time when, being both jockey and "the +stakes" in a race he rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of +fortune, and became a body-servant. He was once confidential:-- + +"Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it was: I hadn't nothin' +ag'in my master,--he was a right nice man; but then, you see, he +drinked, and I didn't know what might become of me some time. Then, +you see, I knowed this man was stiddy, an' he'd jess done bought a +yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an' so,--don't ye see why?--well, +the hoss could have won the _race_ fast enough, but then, you see, my +master,--well, he was a drinkin' kind of a man, an' I thought I might +as well fix it. I knowed I was up for stakes, an' that's how I come to +Missouri; I ain't no Missouri man _born_, but that's how it was." + +He had become a good body-servant without forgetting his stable +training, and his horses bore testimony to his skill and fidelity. +After going through the routine of a well-regulated stable, he gave +each horse a half-hour's stroking with the flat of his hands, brisk and +invigorating; and the result was a more blooming condition and more +vigorous health than is often seen in horses on a campaign. The best +substitute that could be secured for a stable was a very heavy canvas +blanket, covering the horse from his ears to his tail and down to his +knees, water-proof and wind-proof. It was a standing entertainment with +the less dignified members of the mess to invite attention to Ruby +as he stood moping under this hideous housing. Certainly I never saw +him thus without thinking that his time had at last come, and that he +surely would never again be able to carry me creditably. Yet, as Ike's +devotion continued, he grew better and better, commanding daily more of +the respect and admiration of all who knew him, and attaching himself +to me more and more as we learned each other's ways. + +One never loves but one horse entirely, and so Ruby never quite filled +Vixen's place; but as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be +desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that had made me restless +and discontented, was now satisfied, and my duties became easy, and +my pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri warfare) entirely +agreeable. + +It was no slight addition to these sources of contentment to feel that +the command had at last awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and +was fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned Ruby for a fortnight +before the old cheerfulness and alacrity returned to the regiment, and +by the time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d'Eaux and went over to +Lebanon for the shooting season, the entire organization was in a most +satisfactory condition. + +Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war that we shall not +soon forget. To the best of my knowledge and belief, after Price had +retreated from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed Rebels +to be found north of the White River were local bands of jay-hawkers, +whose rebellion was mainly directed against the laws of property, +and the actuating motive of whose military movements was "nags." The +stealing of horses, with the consequent application of Lynch law, was +all that the native male population had to keep them out of mischief, +for weeks and weeks together. There was just enough of this sort of +armed lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of duty; not enough +seriously to interrupt our more regular avocations. + +Lebanon is on the high table-land of the Ozarks, in the heart of a +country flowing with prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully +productive of the more humdrum necessaries of life. Thanks to the +fleeing of Rebel families, we found comfortable quarters without too +severely oppressing those who had remained. What with moving the +court-house away from the public square, leaving the space free for a +parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for the town pump, we +kept our men from rusting; and when, after a time, we had established +a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious military prison, Lebanon +was as complete and well-ordered a station as could be found in +South Missouri. I had the questionable honor and the unquestionable +comfort of holding its command from the end of January to the end of +April,--three dreamy months, that seem now to have been passed in a +shooting-lodge, under favorable auspices. + +As a legacy of the "Hundred Days," when the "Fourth Missouri" was the +"Fremont Hussars," we had an able-bodied and extremely well-selected +regimental band, that soothed our over-tasked senses when we came in +from our work in the fields, gathering where our enemies had sown, and +(under the suspended game-laws of the State) shooting grouse and quail +in the early spring. + +Naturally, most of my official duties were such as could be performed +by an extremely well-regulated adjutant; and I usually passed his busy +half-hour (in private) with Ruby. There had been an impetuosity about +the horse at the outset which it was desirable to quell, and I rode him +regularly in a nicely fenced kitchen-garden, where, after he learned +that fences are not always intended for leaping-bars, he fell slowly +into the routine of the training-school, and easily acquired a perfect +self-command and _aplomb_ that enabled him, under all circumstances, to +await his rider's instructions. + +I wish that less account had been made, in the writings of those +whose horse-stories have preceded mine, of the specified feats of +their animals. The _role_ of a horse's performances is necessarily +limited, and it is probably impossible for a well-constituted mind to +recite the simple story of his deeds without seeming to draw largely +on the imagination. Consequently, an unexaggerated account of what +Ruby actually did (and I cannot bring my mind to an embellishment of +the truth) would hardly interest a public whose fancy has been thus +pampered and spoiled. But for this, these pages could be filled with +instances of his strength and agility that would almost tax belief. +Suffice it to say that while, like most good high leapers, he would +cover but a moderate breadth of water, he would get over anything +reasonable in the shape of a fence that could be found about the town. + +I was a heavy weight,--riding nearly two hundred pounds,--and +necessarily rode with judgment. If there was a low place in a fence, +we never chose a high one; but, at the same time, if there were no +low places, we took the best we could find. Ruby seemed to know that +the two of us were solid enough to break through any ordinary pile of +rails, and what we could not jump over we jumped _at_. More than once +did he carry away the top rail of a snake fence with his knees, and +land fair and square on the other side; but it was a very high leap +that made this necessary. + +He would jump on to the porch of the quartermaster's office (approached +from the ground by four steps), and then jump over the hand-rail and +land on the ground below again, almost wagging his tail with delight at +the feat. + +His ear was quicker than mine for the peeping of quail and for the +drumming of grouse, and, in the absence of a good dog, there is no +doubt that my pot (for which alone I have been said to hunt) was better +filled by reason of his intelligence in the field, and because he would +allow one to shoot from the saddle. The birds never mistook me for a +sportsman until I was quite in among them, blazing away. + +In coming home from the prairie, we generally rode round by the way of +a certain sunken garden that stood a couple of feet below the level +of the road. A five-foot picket-fence that stood at the roadside had +fallen over toward the garden, so that its top was hardly four feet +higher than the road. This made the most satisfactory leap we ever +took,--the long, sailing descent, and the safe landing on sandy loam, +satisfied so completely one's prudent love of danger. + +I think I missed this leap more than anything at Lebanon when, finally, +we set out for Arkansas. + +We made our first considerable halt early in May, at Batesville, +on the White River,--a lovely, rose-grown village, carrying, in the +neatly kept home of its New England secessionists, evidence that +they remembered their native land, where, in their day, before the +age of railroads, the "village" flourished in all its freshness and +simplicity. It had now acquired the picturesque dilapidation, in the +manner of fences and gates and defective window-panes, that marked +the Southern domicile during the war. Ruby had strained himself quite +seriously during the march, and had been left to come on slowly with +the quartermaster's train. This left me quite free for the social life, +such as it was, to which we--the only available men that had been seen +there since Price gathered his forces at Springfield--were welcomed +with a reserved cordiality. Our facilities for forming a correct +opinion of society were not especially good, but I fancied I should +have passed my time to as good advantage in the saddle. + +We soon left for an active expedition in the direction of Little Rock, +of which it is only necessary to say, here, that it lasted about a +month, and brought the writer acquainted with some very unsatisfactory +horses,--a fact which heightened his pleasure, on striking the White +River bottom again, at finding that Ruby had been brought over the +ferry to meet him. Tired as I was, I took a glorious brisk trot through +the Canebrake Road, with a couple of leaps over fallen trees, that +revived the old emotions and made a man of me again. + +While we lay at Batesville we were unusually active in the matter of +drill and reorganization; and this, with our engagements in the town, +kept us too busy for much recreation; but Ludlow and I managed to work +in a daily swim in the White River, with old saddles on our horses, +and scant clothing on our persons. Talk of aquatic sports! there is +no royal bath without a plucky horse to assist; and a swim across +the swift current at Batesville, with a horse like Ruby snorting and +straining at every stroke, belittled even the leaping at Lebanon. + +From Batesville we commenced our memorable march to join the fleet +that had just passed Memphis, following down the left bank of the river +to Augusta, and then striking across the cotton country to Helena,--a +march on which we enjoyed the rarest picturesqueness of plantation +life, and suffered enough from heat and hunger and thirst, and +stifling, golden dust to more than pay for it. + +Helena was a pestiferous swamp, worth more than an active campaign to +our enemies, filling our hospitals, and furrowing the levee bank with +graves. It was too hot for much drilling, and we kept our better horses +in order by daybreak races. With the local fever feeling its way into +my veins, I was too listless to care much for any diversion; but Ike +came to me one evening to say that he "reckoned" Ruby was as good a +horse as anybody had in the "camps," and he might as well take a hand +in the games. I told him I had no objection to his being run, if he +could find a suitable boy, but that both he and I were too heavy for +race-riding. + +"I don't weigh only about a hundred and a half," said the ambitious man. + +"Well, suppose you don't, that is ten pounds too much." + +"I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter 'n he is if he knows how +to ride; anyhow, if Rube can't skin anything around here, I don't know +nothin' about horses." + +"Ike, did you ever run that horse?" + +"Well, Colonel, now you ask me, I did jest give Dwight's darkey a +little brush once." + +Conquering my indignation and my scruples, I went over, just for the +honor of the establishment, and made up a race for the next day. + +I have seen crack race-horses in my time, but I never saw more +artistic riding nor more capital running than that summer morning on +the River Road at Helena, just as the sun began to gild the muddy +Mississippi. The satisfaction of this conquest, and the activity with +which new engagements were offered by ambitious lieutenants, who little +knew the stuff my man and horse were made of, kept off my fever for +some weeks; but I steadily declined all opportunity of racing with +horses outside of our command, for I had been reared in a school of +Puritan severity, and had never quite overcome my convictions against +the public turf. A corporal of an "Injeanny rege_ment_" took occasion +to crow lustily--so I heard--because "one of them French coveys" was +afraid to run him a quarter for five dollars. It appeared that a +cleanly European was always supposed by this gentry to be French; and +in the army at large I was better known by the company I kept than by +my New England characteristics. + +Naturally, Ike thought that, while Ruby was engaged in this more +legitimate occupation, he ought not to be ridden for mere pleasure; +and it was only when a visitor was to be entertained, or when I went +out on plea of duty, that I could steal an opportunity to leap him; +but he took one fence that fairly did him credit. It was a snake fence +measuring four feet and two inches, with a deep ditch on each side cut +close to the projecting angles of the rails. Ruby carried me over the +first ditch into the angle between the rails, then over the fence into +the narrow space on the other side, and then over the second ditch into +the field. It was the most perfect combination of skill, strength, and +judgment that was possible to horse-flesh; and I think Gluckmansklegge, +who was with me and had suggested the venture, despaired of ever +getting his promotion by any fair means, when we rejoined him by the +return leap and rode safely to camp. + +Unhappily, even entire satisfaction with one's horse is powerless to +ward off such malaria as that of the camp at Helena, and in due time I +fell ill with the fever. The horse was turned over to the care of the +quartermaster, and Ike and I came wearily home on sick-leave. + +Late in the autumn we returned to St. Louis, where one of the German +officers told me that the regiment had joined Davidson's army at "Pilot +K-nopp"; and after the Hun, our new adjutant, arrived from the East, we +set out for headquarters, and took command of the cavalry brigade of +Davidson's army. + +From November until January we were tossed about from post to post, +wearing out our horses, wearying our men, and accomplishing absolutely +nothing of value beyond the destruction of an enormous amount of +the rough forage, which would otherwise have been used to feed +"nags,"--stolen or to be stolen,--and would have thus tended to foster +the prevailing vice of the region. + +At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at Thomasville,--a good +twelve miles away from Davidson,--and were at rest; it was only those +near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, and he was now encamped +with the infantry. + +Pleasant as we found it with our little duty and much sport, I can +never look back to Thomasville without sorrow. To say that I had +acquired a tenderness for Ruby would not be strictly just; but I felt +for him all the respect and admiration and fondness that is possible +short of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only one; but Ruby was +my hero, and I depended on him for my duty and my pleasure more than I +knew. With his full measure of intelligence he had learned exactly his +_role_, and he was always eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the +world what a remarkably fine horse I had,--being himself conscious, not +only of his unusual virtues, but, no less, of the praise they elicited. + +One sunny Southern day, toward the end of January, Davidson had ridden +over, with his following, to dine with us; and as we were sitting +before our mess-tent, mellow with after-dinner talk of our guns and +our dogs and our horses, the General was good enough to remember that +he had seen me riding a chestnut that he thought much too finely bred +for field work: had I been able to keep him? Then Ruby was discussed, +and all his successes were recalled, first by one friend and then by +another, until Davidson needed ocular proof of our truthfulness. + +Ike had taken the hint, and brought Ruby round in due time,--glistening +like gold in the slanting rays of the setting sun, but blundering along +with his head down and ears drooping in his old, dismal way. + +"O no, I don't mean that horse," said Davidson; "I mean a very +high-strung horse I have seen you ride on the march." + +"Very well, General, that is the animal; he keeps his strings loose +when he is not at his work." + +"No, I have seen you riding a far better horse than that; I am too old +a cavalryman to be caught by such chaff." + +To the great glee of the Hun, whose faith in Ruby was unbounded, +Davidson's whole staff turned the laugh on me for trying to deceive the +General just because he had been dining. + +I mounted, and started off with one of Ruby's enormous lifts, that +brought the whole company to their feet. It was the supreme moment with +him. Full of consciousness, as though he knew the opportunity would +never come again, and quivering in anticipation of his triumph, he was +yet true to his training, and held himself subject to my least impulse. + +We had lain in our camp for more than a week, and there was not a +vestige left of the recently substantial fences,--only the suggestive +and conspicuous gateways that stood to mark the march of our armies +from the Chesapeake to the Indian Nation. But Ruby built fences in his +imagination higher than any he had ever faced, and cleared them without +a scratch, landing close as though the Helena ditch were still to be +taken. + +It would take long to tell all he did and how perfectly he did it; he +went back at last to his canvas blanket, loaded with adulation, and as +happy as it is given a horse to be. + +In his leaping he had started a shoe, and Ike took him in the morning +to the smith (who had taken possession of an actual forge), to have it +reset. A moment later, the Hun cried, "My God, Colonel, look at Ruby!" + +Hobbling along with one hind foot drawn up with pain, he was making +his last mournful march, and we laid him that day to rest,--as true a +friend and as faithful a fellow as ever wore a chestnut coat. + +He had reared in the shop, parted his halter, and fallen under a +bench, breaking his thigh far up above the stifle. + + + + +WETTSTEIN. + + +It is a pleasant thing to be a colonel of cavalry in active +field-service. There are circumstances of authority and responsibility +that fan the latent spark of barbarism which, however dull, glows in +all our breasts, and which generations of republican civilization +have been powerless to quench. We may not have confessed it even +to ourselves; but on looking back to the years of the war, we +must recognize many things that patted our vanity greatly on the +back,--things so different from all the dull routine of equality +and fraternity of home, that those four years seem to belong to a +dreamland, over which the haze of the life before them and of the +life after them draws a misty veil. Equality and Fraternity! a pretty +sentiment, yes, and full of sensible and kindly regard for all mankind, +and full of hope for the men who are to come after us; but Superiority +and Fraternity! who shall tell all the secret emotions this implies? To +be the head of the brotherhood, with the unremitted clank of a guard's +empty scabbard trailing before one's tent-door day and night; with the +standard of the regiment proclaiming the house of chief authority; +with the respectful salute of all passers, and the natural obedience +of all members of the command; with the shade of deference that even +comrades show to superior rank; and with that just sufficient check +upon coarseness during the jovial bouts of the headquarters' mess, +making them not less genial, but void of all offence,--living in this +atmosphere, one almost feels the breath of feudal days coming modified +through the long tempestuous ages to touch his cheek, whispering to him +that the savage instinct of the sires has not been, and never will be, +quite civilized out of the sons. And then the thousand men, and the +yearly million that they cost, while they fill the cup of the colonel's +responsibility (sometimes to overflowing), and give him many heavy +trials,--they are his own men; their usefulness is almost of his own +creation, and their renown is his highest glory. + +I may not depict the feelings of others; but I find in the recollection +of my own service--as succeeding years dull its details and cast the +nimbus of distance about it--the source of emotions which differ widely +from those to which our modern life has schooled us. + +One of the colonel's constant attendants is the chief bugler, or, +as he is called in hussar Dutch, the "Stabstrompaytr"; mine was the +prince of Trompaytrs, and his name was Wettstein. He was a Swiss, whose +native language was a mixture of guttural French and mincing German. +English was an impossible field to him. He had learned to say "yes" and +"matches"; but not one other of our words could he ever lay his tongue +to, except the universal "damn." But for his bugle and his little gray +mare, I should never have had occasion to know his worth. Music filled +every pore of his Alpine soul, and his wonderful Swiss "Retreat" must +ring to this day in the memory of every man of the regiment whose +thoughts turn again to the romantic campaign of South Missouri. What +with other buglers was a matter of routine training was with him an +inspiration. All knew well enough the meaning of the commands that +the company trumpets stammered or blared forth; but when they rang +from Wettstein's horn, they carried with them a _vim_ and energy that +secured their prompt execution; and his note in the wild Ozark Hills +would mark the headquarters of the "Vierte Missouri" for miles around. +From a hill-top, half a mile in advance of the marching command, I +have turned the regiment into its camping-ground and dismounted it in +perfect order by the melodious telegraphy of Wettstein's brazen lips +alone. + +That other chief attribute of his, Klitschka, his little beast, +stayed longer with me than his bugle did, and is hardly less identified +with the varied reminiscences of my army life. I bought her, as a +prize, with the original mount of the regiment, in Fremont's time, +and was mildly informed by that officer that I must be careful how +I accepted many such animals from the contractor, though a few for +the smaller men might answer. Asboth, Fremont's chief of staff, with +a scornful rolling up of his cataract of a mustache, and a shrug of +his broad, thin shoulders, said, "Whyfor you buy such horses? What +your bugler ride, it is not a horse, it is a cat." His remark was not +intended as a question, and it ended the conversation. Months after +that, he eagerly begged for the nine-lived Klitschka for one of his +orderlies; being refused him, she remained good to the end. She was an +animal that defied every rule by which casual observers test the merit +of a horse; but analytically considered she was nearly perfect. Better +legs, a better body, and a better head, it is rare to see, than she +had. But she lacked the arched neck and the proud step that she needed +all the more because of her small size. By no means showy in figure +or in action, it took a second look to see her perfect fitness for +her work. Her color was iron-gray, and no iron could be tougher than +she was; while her full, prominent eye and ample brain-room, and her +quick paper-thin ear, told of courage and intelligence that made her +invaluable throughout four years of hard and often dangerous service. +Like many other ill-favored little people, she was very lovable, and +Wettstein loved her like a woman. He would never hesitate to relax +those strict rules of conduct by which German cavalrymen are supposed +to govern themselves, if it was a question of stealing forage for +Klitschka; and he was (amiable fellow!) never so happy as when, from a +scanty supply in the country, he had taken enough oat-sheaves to bed +her in and almost cover her up, while other horses of the command must +go hungry; and was never so shaken in his regard for me as when I made +him give up all but double rations for her. + +Double rations she often earned, for Wettstein was a heavy youth, +with a constitutional passion for baggage out of all proportion to +his means of transportation. Mounted for the march, he was an odd +sight. Little Klitschka's back, with his immense rolls of blankets and +clothing before and behind, looked like a dromedary's. Planted between +the humps, straight as a gun-barrel, the brightest of bugles suspended +across his back by its tasselled yellow braid, slashed like a harlequin +over the breast, his arms chevroned with gorgeous gold,--Wettstein, +with his cap-front turned up so as to let the sun fall full on his +frank blue eyes and his resolute blond mustache, was the very picture +of a cavalry bugler in active campaign. + +Smoking, gabbling, singing, rollicking, from morning until night, +and still on until morning again if need be, he never lost spirit nor +temper. He seemed to absorb sunshine enough during the day to keep +every one bright around him all night. When at last his bugle had been +stilled forever, we long missed the cheer of his indomitable gayety; +wearying service became more irksome than while his bubbling mirth had +tempered its dulness; and even little Klitschka, although she remained +an example of steady pluck, had never so potent an influence as while +he had put his own unfailing mettle into her heels. After she was +bequeathed to me, she was always most useful, but never so gay and +frisky as while she carried her own devoted groom. No day was too long +for her and no road too heavy; her brisk trot knew no failing, but she +refused ever again to form the personal attachment that had sealed her +and Wettstein to each other. + +The two of them together, like the fabled Centaur, made the complete +creature. He with the hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine +race, and she with her veins full of the mustang blood of the Rocky +Mountains, were fitted to each other as almost never were horse and +rider before. Their performances were astonishing. In addition to a +constant attendance on his commander (who, riding without baggage, +and of no heavier person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged out +three good horses between one morning and the next), the Trompaytr +yet volunteered for all sorts of extra service,--carried messages +over miles of bad road to the general's camp, gave riding-lessons and +music-lessons to the company buglers, and then--fear of the guard-house +and fear of capture always unheeded--he never missed an opportunity for +the most hazardous and most laborious foraging. + +He was a thorough soldier,--always "for duty," always cleanly, always +handsome and cheery, and heedlessly brave. If detected in a fault +(and he was, as I have hinted, an incorrigible forager), he took +his punishment like a man, and stole milk for himself or fodder for +Klitschka at the next convenient (or inconvenient) opportunity, with an +imperturbability that no punishment could reach. + +Once, when supplies were short, he sent me, from the guard-house where +he had been confined for getting them, a dozen bundles of corn-blades +for my horses; not as a bribe, but because he would not allow the +incidents of discipline to disturb our friendly relations; and in the +matter of fodder in scarce times he held me as a helpless pensioner, +dependent on his bounty. When in arrest by my order, his "Pon chour, +Herr Oberist," was as cordial and happy as when he strolled free past +my tent. Altogether, I never saw his like before or since. The good +fortune to get such a bugle, such a soldier, and such a mount combined, +comes but once in the lifetime of the luckiest officer. It was only +his uncouth tongue that kept him from being pilfered from me by every +general who had the power to "detail" him to his own headquarters. + +So universal, by the way, was this petty vice of commanding officers, +that one was never safe until he adopted the plan, in selecting a +staff officer, of securing his promise to resign from the service, +point-blank, if ordered to other duty, and more than one offended +general has been made indignant by this policy. With Wettstein, I felt +perfectly easy, for the average capacity of brigadier-generals stopped +far short of the analysis of his dual jargon. Several tried him for +a day, but they found that his comprehension was no better than his +speech, and that his manifest ability was a sealed book to them. He +always came home by nightfall with a chuckle, and "Le general versteht +mich nicht. Je blase 'marrrsch' fuer 'halt.'" + +So it was that, for a couple of years, this trusty fellow trotted at +my heels through rain and shine, by day and by night, with his face +full of glee, and his well-filled canteen at the service of our little +staff. Mud and mire, ditches and fences, were all one to him and +Klitschka; and in Vix's day they followed her lead over many a spot +that the others had to take by flank movement. + +Our work in Missouri was but little more than the work of subsistence. +We were a part of an army too large for any Rebel force in that region +to attack, and too unwieldy to pursue guerillas with much effect. But +now and then we made a little scout that varied our otherwise dull +lives; and at such times Wettstein always attached himself to the most +dangerous patrolling party, and Klitschka was usually the first to +bring back news of the trifling encounters. + +At last, in February, 1863, when we had lain for a month in delicious +idleness in the heart of a rich country, literally flowing with +poultry and corn-fodder, I, being then in command of a division of +cavalry, received an order from Davidson to select six hundred of the +best-mounted of my men, and to attack Marmaduke, who was recruiting, +ninety miles away, at Batesville on the White River in Arkansas. His +main body, three thousand five hundred strong, lay in the "Oil-Trough +Bottom," on the other side of the river. A brigade of Western infantry +was to march as far as Salem (thirty miles), and to support us if +necessary; though we afterward found that at the only moment when +we might have had grave occasion to depend on them, they were, with +an inconsistency that was not the least attribute of our commanding +officer, withdrawn without notice to us. + +We were to go in light marching order, carrying only the necessary +clothing, and rations of salt and coffee. Wettstein's ideas of +lightness differing from mine, I had to use some authority to rid poor +Klitschka of saucepans, extra boots, and such trash; and after all, +the rascal had, under the plea of a cold, requiring extra blankets, +smuggled a neatly sewn sausage of corn, weighing some fifteen pounds, +into one of his rolls. Eager men, too, whose horses were out of trim, +had to be discarded, and the whole detail to be thoroughly overhauled. +But the jovial anticipation of seeing Batesville once more--a New +England village planted on a charming hillside in Arkansas, where we +had sojourned with Curtis the summer before, and where we all had the +pleasant acquaintance that even an enemy makes in a town from which +the native men have long been gone, and only the women remain--made +the work of preparation go smoothly, and long before dawn Wettstein's +bugle summoned the details from the several camps. There was a ringing +joyousness in his call, that spoke of the cosey, roaring fire of a +certain Batesville kitchen to which his bright face and his well-filled +haversack had long ago made him welcome, and prospective feasting gave +an added trill to his blast. + +The little detachments trotted gayly into line, officers were assigned +for special duty, temporary divisions were told off, and a working +organization was soon completed. Before the sun was up, such a Ra, +t't'ta, t't'ta, _t't'ta_! as South Missouri had never heard before, +broke the line by twos from the right, and we were off for a promising +trip. Marmaduke we knew of old, and personal cowardice would have +deterred no one from joining our party, for he could be reached from +our stronger army only by a complete surprise; and in a country where +every woman and child (white, I mean) was his friend and our enemy, a +surprise, over ninety miles of bad roads, seemed out of the question. +Indeed, before we had made a half of the distance, one of his flying +scouts told a negro woman by the roadside, as he checked his run to +water his horse, "There's a hell's-mint o' Yanks a comin' over the +mountain, and I must git to Marmyjuke"; and to Marmaduke he "got," half +a day ahead of us, only to be laughed at for a coward who had been +frightened by a foraging-party. + +The second night brought us to Evening Shade, a little village where +one Captain Smith was raising a company. They had all gone, hours ahead +of us, but had left their supplies and their fires behind them, and +these, with the aid of a grist-mill (for which an Illinois regiment +furnished a miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At daybreak we set out +for our last day's march, still supposing that Marmaduke's men would +put the river between themselves and us before night, but confident +of comfortable quarters at Batesville. A few miles out, we began to +pick up Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rattling through the +woods, from a house to which he had been allowed to go for milk, with +the story of a sick officer lodged there. Following his lead with a +surgeon and a small escort, I found the captain of the Evening Shade +company lying in a raging fever, with which he had found it impossible +to ride, and nearly dead with terror lest we should hang him at once. +His really beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven his recruiting +labors, was in tears over his impending fate. While we were talking +with him concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with a royal pair +of Mexican spurs to save his life, evidently thinking from his display +of finery that he was a major-general at the very least. The kind +fellow buckled the spurs on my heels, and they evidently gave me new +consequence in his eyes as we rode on our way. + +Presently we struck a party of about twenty-five, under a Captain +Mosby, who had been making a circuit after conscripts and had had no +news of us. After a running fight, during which there occurred some +casualties on the other side, we captured the survivors of the party +and sent them to the rear. + +From midday on, we heard rumors of a sally in strong force from +Batesville, and were compelled to move cautiously,--straggling parties +of Rebel scouts serving to give credibility to the story. At sunset +we were within six miles of the town; and, halting in the deep snow +of a large farm-yard, I sent a picked party of thirty, under Rosa, to +secure the ferry, if possible,--Wettstein and Klitschka accompanying to +bring back word of the result. After two anxious hours, he came into +camp with a note from Rosa: "Marmaduke is over the river and has the +ferry-boat with him; three of his men killed. Wettstein did bravely." +The poor fellow had a bad cut on his arm and was in pain, but not a +moment would he give himself until brave little Klitschka, smothered in +bright straw, was filling herself from the smuggled bag of corn. Then +he came to the surgeon and had his wounded arm duly dressed. Although +evidently suffering and weak from loss of blood, he gave us a cheering +account of Rosa's fight, and dwelt fondly on the supper he had bespoken +for us at good Mrs. ----'s house, where we had quartered in the summer. +At nine o'clock, after Klitschka had fed and the patrols had come in, +we set out on our march. It was still snowing hard, and even the dead +men that marked Rosa's recent ride were fast being shrouded in purest +white. One of them Wettstein pointed out as the man with whom he had +crossed sabres, and he asked permission to stay with the party detailed +to bury him, for he had been a "braff homme." With his tender sympathy +for friend or foe, he was a truer mourner than a dead soldier often +gets from the ranks of his enemy. Even this sad ride came to an end, as +all things must, and at the edge of the town soldierly Rosa stood, to +report that the pickets were posted and our quarters ready. Giving him +a fresh detail to relieve his pickets, and asking his company at our +midnight supper, we pushed on to our chosen house. Here we found all +in order, save that the young lady of the family had so hastily put on +the jacket bearing the U. S. buttons of her last summer's conquests, +that she failed quite to conceal the C. S. buttons on a prettier one +under it. She and her mother scolded us for driving the Rebel beaux +from town, when there was to have been a grand farewell ball only the +next night; but they seemed in no wise impressed with regret for the +friends who had been killed and wounded in the chase. It turned out +that Marmaduke had grown tired of reports that we were marching on him +in force, and would not believe it now until his own men rode into +town at nightfall with the marks of Rosa's sabres on their heads. The +place had been filled with the officers of his command, and he with +them, come for their parting flirtations before the ball. They were to +march to Little Rock, and their men were nearly all collected in the +"Bottom," over the river. On this sudden proof of the attack, they made +a stampede for the flat-boat of the rope-ferry, and nearly sunk it by +over-crowding, the hindmost men cutting the rope and swimming their +horses across the wintry torrent. + +We had full possession of the town, and were little disturbed by +the dropping shots from the Rebel side. We visited on our unfaithful +friends such punishment as enforced hospitality could compass, and, +on the whole, we hadn't a bad "time." The morning after our arrival +we levied such contributions of supplies as were necessary for our +return march, and, in order that the return might not look like a +retreat, we loaded two wagons with hogsheads of sugar (which would be +welcome in Davidson's commissariat), and made every arrangement for the +establishment of the camping of the whole army in the country back of +the town; for our force was so small that, with our tired horses, it +would have been imprudent to turn our backs to Marmaduke's little army, +if he supposed us to be alone. + +Keeping the town well picketed and making much show of laying out an +encampment, we started the teams and the main body of the command at +nightfall, holding back a hundred men for a cover until a later hour. + +During the evening the Rebels on the south side of the river became +suspiciously quiet, and there was, apparently, some new movement on +foot. The only possible chance for an attack was by Magnus's ferry, +ten miles below, where the boat was so small and the river so wide +that not more than twenty horses could be crossed in an hour, and our +sharpshooters were sufficient to prevent the removal of the Batesville +boat to that point. Still it was important to know what was going on, +and especially important to prevent even a scouting-party of the enemy +from harassing the rear of our tired column by the shorter road from +Magnus's to Evening Shade; and I started at nine o'clock (when the moon +rose), with twenty men, to go round that way, directing the remainder +of the rear-guard to follow the main body at midnight. + +The ride to Magnus's was without other adventure than bad roads and +almost impassable bayous always entail, and in a few hours we reached +the plantation, where I had a former ally in an old negro who had done +us good service during Curtis's campaign. He said that the Rebels had +left the Bottom, and were going to Little Rock, but, as a precaution +he took a canoe and crossed over to the house of another negro on the +south bank, and returned with a confirmation of his opinion. As it +was very important to know whether the only enemy of Davidson's army +had really withdrawn from his front, and, as this might be definitely +learned through the assistance of an old scout who lived in the edge of +the Bottom, it seemed best to cross the river to give him instructions +for his work. + +I took Ruby, my best horse. He was a sure reliance under all +circumstances, and he and I knew each other perfectly. We were at home +in every foot-path in the country, having had many a summer's swim in +this very river; and now, accompanied only by Wettstein and Klitschka, +I went on to the ferry-boat. It was what is known as a "swing" ferry. A +stout rope is stretched between trees on the opposite shores, and the +boat is attached to a couple of pulleys arranged to traverse the length +of this rope. The attaching cords--one at each end of the up-stream +side of the boat--are long enough to allow it to swing some rods down +the stream; by shortening one of the ropes and lengthening the other, +the boat is placed at an angle with the swift current, which propels it +toward one shore or the other, the pulleys keeping pace in their course +on the main rope. + +The main rope was rough from long use, and often the pulleys would +halt in their course, until the pull of the advancing boat dragged them +free. Then the rickety craft, shivering from end to end, would make a +rapid shoot, until another defective place in the rope brought her to +again. At each vibration, the horses nearly lost their feet, and the +surging stream almost sent its muddy water over the gunwale. It was a +long and anxious trip,--the rotten guy-rope hardly serving to hold us +to our course. At last we reached the shore and rode on to Craikill's +house in the Bottom. He had been "conscripted," and forced to go with +the army, so his wife told us, and she had seen him march with the rest +on the Fairview Road for Little Rock. The last bird had flown, and we +could safely march back at our leisure. + +Wettstein filled his pipe, emptied his haversack for the benefit of +Craikill's hungry children, and, cheery as ever, followed me to the +ferry. On the way over he had been as still as a mouse, for he was too +old a soldier to give an enemy any sign of our approach. But, as we +set out on the return trip, in the cold moonlight, he sang the "Ranz +des Vaches," fondled his little mare, and, unmindful of his wounded +arm, gave way to the flow of spirits that the past few days' duty had +checked. I never knew him more gay and delightful; and, as we stood +leaning on our saddles and chatting together, I congratulated myself +upon the possession of such a perpetual sunbeam. + +We were barely half-way across, when, suddenly, coming out of the +darkness, riding half hidden in the boiling, whirling tide, a huge +floating tree struck the boat with a thud that parted the rotten +guy-rope, and carried us floating down the stream. For a moment there +seemed no danger, but a branch of the tree had caught the corner of the +boat, and the pulleys had become entangled in the rope. When this had +been drawn to its full length, and the tree felt the strain, the boat +dipped to the current, filled, and sank under our feet. I called to +Wettstein to take Klitschka by the tail, but it was too late; he had +grasped the saddle with the desperation of a drowning man, and made +her fairly helpless. The boat soon passed from under us, and, relieved +of our weight, came to the surface at our side; but, bringing the rope +against poor Wettstein's wounded arm, it tore loose his hold, and soon +went down again in the eddy, and Klitschka was free. + +"Adieu, Herr Oberist; tenez Klitschka pour vous! Adieu!" And that +happy, honest face sank almost within reach of me. The weight of his +arms prevented his rising again, and only an angry eddy, glistening in +the moonlight, marked his turbid grave. + +Ruby, snorting, and struggling hard with the current, pulled me safely +to the shore, and little Klitschka followed as well as her loaded +saddle would permit. For the moment, with my own life and the lives of +two tried companions to care for, I thought of nothing else; but as I +sat drying at Magnus's roaring hearth the direst desolation overwhelmed +me. Very far from home,--far even from the home-like surroundings of +my own camp,--I had clung to this devoted fellow as a part of myself. +He was a proven friend; with him I never lacked the sympathy that, in +the army at least, is born of constant companionship, and he filled a +place in my life that dearer friends at home might not find. He was the +one comrade whose heart, I was sure, was filled only with unquestioning +love for me. Henceforth I must look for support to companions who saw +me as I was, who knew my faults and my weaknesses, and whose kind +regard was tempered with criticism. The one love that was blind, that +took me for better or for worse, had been, in an instant, torn from my +life, and I was more sad than I can tell. + +But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened party, we mounted, to join the +main command; and, as we rode on through the rest of that desolate +night, no word passed to tell the gloom that each man felt. + +The petty distinctions of earthly rank were swallowed up in a feeling +of true brotherhood, and Wettstein--promoted now--rode at our head as a +worthy leader, showing the way to a faithful performance of all duty, +and a kindly and cheerful bearing of all life's burdens; and, through +the long and trying campaigns that followed, more than one of us was +the better soldier for the lesson his soldierly life had taught. + + + + +CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. + + +Union City was not a city at all; it was hardly a village, and +"Disunion" would have been its fairer designation. It lay in the woods +at the crossing of two railroads, one pointing toward Mobile and one +toward Memphis, but neither leading anywhere. There was a tradition +that trains had once been run upon each, but many bridges had had to be +rebuilt to make the short line to Columbus passable, and the rest was +ruin; for Forrest had been there with his cavalry. + +The land was just so much raised above the broad swamp of Northwestern +Tennessee that whiskey with men to drink it, and a Methodist Church +South with people to attend it, were possible. With these meagre +facilities for life, and the vague inducement of a railroad-crossing. +Union City had struggled into an amphibious subsistence; but it had +never thriven, and its corner-lots had but feebly responded to the +hopes of its projectors. + +For many a mile around, the forests and swamps were well-nigh +impenetrable, and the occasional clearings were but desolate oases +in the waste of marsh and fallen timber. The roads were wood-trails +leading nowhere in particular, and all marked a region of the most +scanty and unfulfilled promise. + +General Asboth, seeing (by the map) that it commanded two lines of +railroad, sent us to occupy this strategic point, and we gradually +accumulated to the number of twenty-five hundred cavalry and four +thousand infantry, drawing our regular supplies from Columbus; +and occupying our time with a happy round of drills, inspections, +horse-races, cock-fights, and poker. It was not an elevating existence, +but it was charmingly idle, and we passed the serene and lovely autumn +of 1863 in a military dreamland, where nothing ever came to disturb +our quiet, or to mar our repose with the realities of war. We built +ourselves houses, we shot game for our tables, we made egg-nog for our +evenings, and we were happy. The charm of camp-life--with just enough +of occupation and responsibility, and with enough improvement in the +troops for a reward--made even this wilderness enjoyable. I had the +advantage of seniority and command, and the physical comforts that +naturally gravitate toward a commanding officer did not fail me. + +My house, built with the mouse-colored logs of a Rebel block-house, +covered with the roof of the post-office, and floored and ceiled with +the smoke-mellowed lining of the Methodist church, was broad and low +and snug. Its windows, also taken from the sanctuary in question, were +set on their sides, and gave to each of the two rooms wide, low-browed +outlooks into the woods and over the drill-ground, that would have made +worse quarters agreeable. The bricks of an abandoned domestic fireside +built a spacious fireplace across an angle of each of the rooms, and +the clay of the locality plastered all our chinks "to keep the wind +away." I have seen more pretentious houses and more costly, but never +one in which three chosen spirits--I had, in a happy moment, selected +Voisin and the Hun for my staff--got more that is worth the getting +out of the simple and virtuous life of a cavalry headquarters. We were +at peace with all the world (Forrest was in Mississippi), our pay +was regular, our rations were ample,--and Asboth had been ordered to +Pensacola. + +Old A. J., his successor,--every inch a soldier, and a good fellow +to the very core,--used sometimes to roll up his camp mattress and +run down from Columbus for an inspection. Those are marked days in +our memories. He was a lynx in the field, and wry buttoning roused +him to articulate wrath; but he unbuckled his sabre at the door, and +brought only geniality within,--a mellow geniality that warmed to the +influences of our modest hospitality, and lasted far into the night; +and then, when the simple and inoffensive game was over, and its scores +were settled, the dear old boy--usually with a smile of conquest +wandering through his gray beard--would unroll his bundle before the +fire and sleep like a baby until reveille. Happy, happy days,--and +still happier nights! + +Naturally, in such a life as we led at Union City, our horses formed +a very important element in our occupation and in our amusements. Soon +after our arrival at Columbus,--an event which had taken place a few +months before,--a spanking mare that I had bought to replace Ruby had +gone hopelessly lame, and it became again important to all who were +concerned in my peace of mind, that a satisfactory substitute should be +found for her. I had still in my stable a little thoroughbred (Guy), +who, though excellent in all respects, was a trifle under my weight, +and not at all up to the rough riding that was a necessary part of our +army life. He could go anywhere, could jump any practicable barrier, +was fleet and sound, and in all respects admirable, but he was made for +a lighter weight than mine, and, except for show and parade riding, +must mainly be used to carry Ike and the saddle-bags, or to mount a +friend when a friend favored me. + +In a second search, in which most of the officers of the regiment +took a lively interest, there was found, in Frank Moore's Battalion +of the Second Illinois Cavalry, a tall, gaunt, lean, haggard, +thoroughbred-looking beast, which had been captured from Merryweather's +men in Western Tennessee. He was not a handsome horse, nor was he to +the ordinary eye in any respect promising; but a trial showed that he +had that peculiar whalebone character, and wiry, nervous action, which +come only with blood, and without which no horse is really fit for the +saddle. The chances were very much against him. He did not possess the +first element of beauty, save in a clean-cut head, a prominent eye, +a quick ear, a thin neck, sloping shoulders, high withers, and the +brilliant activity that no abuse had been able to conquer. He was held +in abeyance until a careful examination of the two thousand horses at +the post showed that, even as he stood, he had no equal there for my +purposes. Since he had come into the army he had been in the possession +of a private soldier, who had done much scouting duty, and he had been +initiated (successfully) into the scrub-racing which Illinois soldiers +much affected. The serious amount of one hundred and forty dollars was +hazarded in the venture, and he was transferred to our stable. That +increment of value which always follows the purchase of a new horse +came rapidly in his case, and it needed only a few gallops on the +breezy bluffs beyond Fort Halleck, to install him as prime favorite +among the headquarters' mess. + +He was deemed worthy of the noble name of Max, and under Ike's careful +grooming he returned daily toward the blooming condition that only +Second Illinois abuse had been able to subdue. In an early race with +the Hun we were ingloriously beaten; but the Hun rode a marvellous +little blood mare, blooming with hundreds of bushels of oats, and with +two years of careful handling. Max, though beaten, was not discouraged, +and seemed to say that with time and good treatment he would be ready +for a more successful trial. + +During his period of tutelage, and while he was kept from all excessive +exertion, he was inducted into the mysteries of the art, to him quite +new, of jumping timber. Columbus had been occupied by Rebel and Union +soldiers since the outbreak of the war, and its fences, far and wide, +had all disappeared; but nowhere in the world was there a greater +variety nor a more ample stock of fallen trees, whose huge boles made +capital leaping-bars; and over these, almost daily, for some months, +beginning with the smaller ones and going gradually to the largest +we could find, Max learned to carry a heavy weight with a power and +precision that even Ruby could not have excelled. + +During all this time, ample feed, good shelter, regular exercise, and +a couple of hours of Ike's hand-rubbing daily, worked an uninterrupted +improvement in limb and wind and sinews and coat, until, by the time we +were ordered to Union City, Max had become the pride of the camp. He +was over sixteen hands high, of a solid dark bay color, glistening like +polished mahogany, and active and spirited as a horse in training for +the Derby. + +At Union City the headquarters' horses were stabled under a capital +shed, close at hand, and all that master's eye and servant's labor +could accomplish for their care and improvement was lavished upon them; +so that, during our long months' stay, we were among the best-mounted +men in the Western army. Our pleasure-riding and our work lay through +swampy wood-roads, over obstructions of every sort, and across the +occasional grass farms, with their neglected rail-fences. The weather +was almost uninterruptedly fine, our few visiting neighbors were miles +away from us, the shooting was good, and the enjoyment we got from +our vagabond life in camp was well supplemented by the royal rides we +almost daily took. + +Naturally, in a camp full of idle men given largely to sport, the +elevating entertainment of horse-racing played a prominent part. Both +Max and Guy were conspicuous by their successes until, long before the +close of our leisurely career, but only after they had hung my walls +with spurs and whips and other trophies of their successful competition +with all comers, both were ruled out by the impossible odds they were +obliged to give. The actual military service required was only enough +to convince me that Max was a beast of endless bottom and endurance, +and that, accidents apart, he would need no help in any work he might +be called on to perform. For the rest of the war, with much duty of +untold severity, I habitually rode no other horse for light work or for +hard, for long rides or for short ones, on the march or on parade; and +with all my sentiment for his charming predecessors, I had to confess +that his equal as a campaigner had never come under my leg. He would +walk like a cart-horse at the head of a marching column, would step +like a lord in passing in review, would prance down the main street of +a town as though vain of all applause, would leap any fence or ditch or +fallen timber to which he might be put, would fly as though shot from +a gun in passing along the line; and when, whether early or late, he +was taken to his stable, would eat like a hungry colt and sleep like a +tired plough-horse. In all weathers and under all circumstances he was +steady, honest, intelligent, and ready for every duty. I had ridden +before, at home and in the army, horses ideally good; I have ridden +since, over the hunting country of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, +horses that were counted of the best, but never, before or since, have +I mounted such a magnificent piece of perfectly trained and perfectly +capable horse-flesh. + +On one occasion, at Union City, word was brought in that a flag of +truce from Faulkner had arrived at our picket line, and I rode out +for a parley over a trifling matter of an exchange of prisoners. +The officer in charge of the flag, with the company escorting him, +had originally come from our neighborhood and had belonged to +Merryweather's "band." As Max trotted up to their bivouac, he was +greeted with cries of recognition, and a lieutenant of the company was +kind enough to warn me that I had shown them a stronger inducement +than they had hitherto had to make an attack on our position; for, +since Frank Moore had captured the horse I rode, they had determined +to regain him at any risk. Happily, this laudable wish was never +fulfilled, and Max remained, in spite of the devices they may have laid +for his recapture. + +During the five months of our stay at this post, we made some hard +scouts in a hard country, and we held a good part of West Tennessee +under strict surveillance, but the most memorable feature of all our +scouting was generally the welcome dismounting under the wide eaves of +our own house; not, I hope, that we had grown effeminate, but a week's +tramp through the woods of West Tennessee offers little that memory +can cherish, and prepares one for a sensation on the near approach of +comfort. + +But five months of such life is enough, and I was not sorry when the +order came that I must go for a soldier again. + +Sherman was about to advance eastward from Vicksburg, destroy the +lines of railroad by which Forrest received supplies from the fertile +prairie region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Rebellion in +the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to take all my infantry down the +river, and the cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line of the +Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and join a considerable cavalry force +gathering there under Sooy Smith and Grierson; thence we were to move +southeasterly through Mississippi, to engage Forrest's forces and to +meet Sherman's army at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at +Meridian. + +We lay in camp more than a week, ready to move, but awaiting orders. +The country (a very wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. +Our order to march and the thaw came together, on the 22d of January. +We were to cross the Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp's Ferry, +twenty-three miles southwest of our camp. The command consisted of the +Fourth Missouri (with a battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, +Nineteenth Pennsylvania, and Frank Moore's Battalion of the Second +Illinois; in all about twenty-five hundred well-mounted men present for +duty. The roads were deep with mud and slush, and every creek was "out +of its banks" with the thaw. We reached the ferry only at nightfall of +the 23d, over roads that had hourly grown deeper and more difficult. +Two regiments had crossed, through floating ice (eight horses at a +trip), by a rope-ferry, and at nine o'clock in the evening, under a +full moon and a summer temperature, I crossed with staff and escort. +The river was already so swollen that we landed in two feet of water, +and still it was rising. + +Our camp was fixed five miles away on the upland. The first mile was +only wet and nasty, and the trail not hard to follow. Then we came to +the "back slough," thirty feet wide, four feet deep, and still covered +with four inches of ice. Those who had gone before had broken a track +through this, and swept the fragments of ice forward until near the +shore they were packed in for a width of ten feet or more, and to the +full depth of the water. I can make no stronger statement than that we +all got through safely, only wet to the skin. How it was done I do not +pretend to know. Some went in one way and some in another. All I can +assert is that my stalwart old Max, when he found himself standing, +belly deep, in broken ice, settled quietly on his haunches and took my +two hundred pounds with one spring on to dry land four feet higher than +his starting-point, and twelve feet away,--but then, Max always was +a marvel. Guy, who carried Ike, scrambled over the top of the broken +ice as only he or a cat could do. The others fared variously. All were +drenched, and some were hurt, but all got to the shore at last. Then +came the hour-long tug to get my ambulance through with its store of +tent-hold goods and we started for our remaining four miles. The trail, +even of cavalry, is not easily followed by moonlight when covered +with half a foot of water, and we lost our way; reaching camp, after +fourteen miles of hard travel, at four o'clock in the morning. + +The river was still rising rapidly, and word was brought that Karge, +with more than half the brigade, would have to make a detour of fifty +miles and cross the Three Forks of the Obion far to the eastward, +joining us some days later, near Jackson. So we idled on, marching a +few miles each day, camping early, cooking the fat of the land for our +evening meal, cultivating the questionable friendship of the Rebel +population by forced contributions of subsistence, and leading, on the +whole, a peaceful, unlaborious, and charming picnic life. Finally, +taking Karge again under our wing, we pushed on, resolutely and +rapidly, over flooded swamps, across deep, rapid rivers, and through +hostile towns, to our rendezvous; whence, under the command of two +generals, and as part of an army of eight thousand well-mounted cavalry +and light artillery, and all in light marching order, we started for +our more serious work. + +The chief in command was a young and handsome, but slightly nervous +individual, who eschewed the vanities of uniform, and had about himself +and his horse no evidence of his military character that could not be +unbuckled and dropped with his sword-belt in case of impending capture. +He was vacillating in his orders, and a little anxious in his demeanor, +but he had shown himself cool and clear-headed under fire, and seemed +resolutely bent on the destruction of the last vestige of Forrest's +troublesome army. It would be tedious to tell all the adventures of +our forward expedition; how we marched in three columns over different +roads, each for himself, and with only a vague notion where and how +we should meet, and how we should support each other. As it afterward +proved, the details of the order of march had been given to the +commanders of the other brigades, while I had been forgotten; so that +the whole advance was vexed with cross-purposes and with the evidences +of a hidden misunderstanding. The _contretemps_ that thus came about +were annoying, and, in one instance, came near being serious: as we +were going into camp at Prairie Station, my advance reported having +come in sight of the camp-fires of the enemy; a skirmish-line was sent +forward, and only on the eve of engaging did they discover that we were +approaching Hepburn's Brigade, of our column, which had reached the +same point by another road. + +The first days of our march in Mississippi were through Tippah County, +as rough, hopeless, God-forsaken a country as was ever seen outside +of Southern Missouri. Its hills were steep, its mud was deep, its +houses and farms were poor, its facilities for the subsistence of a +protecting army like ours were of the most meagre description, and +its streams delayed us long with their torrents of bottomless muddy +water, fast swelling from the thaw that had unlocked the snow of all +the deep-buried hills and morasses of their upper waters. We built +ferry-boats and swamped them, built bridges and broke them, and slowly +and painfully, horse by horse, transferred the command across the nasty +riverbeds. Tippah Creek detained us and kept us hard at work all day +and all night, and we reached the Tallahatchee at New Albany barely in +time to ford our last man across before it rose to an impassable depth. +And then for two days we pressed forward, in company with the whole +column, through the rough, rocky, and wooded country, reaching Okolona +only at nightfall. + +Here we struck the marvellous prairie region of Northeastern +Mississippi, literally a land flowing with milk and honey. An +interminable, fertile, rolling prairie lay before us in every +direction. The stern rule of the Confederacy had compelled the planters +to offset every small field of cotton with a wide area of corn, until +the region had become known as the granary of the Southern army. +Not only must every land-owner devote his broadest fields to the +cultivation of the much-needed cereal, but one tenth of all his crop +must be stacked for public use in cribs at the side of the railroad. + +It was an important incident of our mission to destroy everything +which directly or indirectly could afford subsistence to the Rebel +forces; and during the two days following our arrival at Okolona, while +we marched as far south as West Point, the sky was red with the flames +of burning corn and cotton. On a single plantation, our flanking party +burned thirty-seven hundred bushels of tithe corn, which was cribbed +near the railroad; no sooner was its light seen at the plantation +houses than hundreds of negroes, who swarmed from their quarters to +join our column, fired the rail-built cribs in which the remaining +nine-tenths of the crop was stored. Driven wild with the infection, +they set the torch to mansion house, stables, cotton-gin, and quarters, +until the whole village-like settlement was blazing in an unchecked +conflagration. To see such wealth, and the accumulated products of such +vast labor, swept from the face of the earth, gave to the aspect of war +a saddening reality, which was in strong contrast to the peaceful and +harmless life our brigade had thus far led. In all this prairie region +there is no waste land, and the evidences of wealth and fertility +lay before us in all directions. As we marched, the negroes came _en +masse_ from every plantation to join our column, leaving only fire and +absolute destruction behind them. It was estimated that during these +two days' march two thousand slaves and one thousand mules were added +to our train. + +The incidents of all this desolation were often sickening and +heart-rending; delicate women and children, whom the morning had found +in peace and plenty, and glowing with pride in the valor of Southern +arms and the certainty of an early independence for their beloved +half-country, found themselves, before nightfall, homeless, penniless, +and alone, in the midst of a desolate land. + +Captain Frank Moore, the Cossack of our brigade, went at night to +an outlying plantation, of which the showy mansion-house stood on a +gentle acclivity in the edge of a fine grove. Here lived alone with an +only daughter, a beautiful girl, a man who had been conspicuous in his +aid to the Rebellion, and whose arrest had been ordered. The squadron +drew up in front of the house and summoned its owner to come forth. He +came, armed, sullen, stolid, and determined, but obviously unnerved by +the force confronting him. Behind him followed his daughter, dressed +in white, and with her long light hair falling over her shoulders. The +sight of the hated "Yanks" crazed her with rage, and before her father +could reply to the question with which he had been accosted, she called +to him wildly, "Don't speak to the villains! Shoot! shoot them down, +shoot them down!" wringing her hands, and screaming with rage. The +excitement was too much for his judgment, and he fired wildly on the +troops. He was riddled through and through with bullets; and as Moore +turned away, he left that fine house blazing in the black night, and +lighting up the figure of the crazy girl as she wandered, desolate and +beautiful, to and fro before her burning home, unheeded by the negroes +who ran with their hastily made bundles to join the band of their +deliverers. Moore's description of this scene in the simple language +that it was his unpretending way to use, gave the most vivid picture we +had seen of the unmitigated horror and badness of war. + +As an instrument of destruction in the enemy's country, our raid had +thus far been more successful than we could have anticipated; but we +had come for even more serious business than this, and there were +already indications that its main purpose would be a failure. Our +commander had evidently no stomach for a close approach to the enemy, +and his injunctions at Colliersville that we were to try always to +"Fight at close quarters!" "Go at them as soon as possible with the +sabre!" and other valorous ejaculations, were in singular contrast to +the impressions he evinced as the prospect of an actual engagement drew +near. + +Forrest was in our front with about our own number of cavalry, but +without artillery, of which we had twenty good pieces. The open country +offered good fighting ground, and gave to our better drilled and more +completely organized forces a decided advantage, even without our +great odds in artillery. There lay before us a fair opportunity for +dispersing the most successful body of cavalry in the Rebel service; +and, could we effect a junction with Sherman, we should enable him +to divide the Confederacy from Vicksburg to Atlanta. One of the most +brilliant and damaging campaigns of the war seemed ready to open. Its +key lay in our successful engagement, on a fair field, with an inferior +force. Yet all of us who were in a position to know the spirit with +which we were commanded were conscious of a gradual oozing out at the +finger-ends of the determination to make a successful fight; and it +was a sad night for us all when, at West Point, with our skirmish-line +steadily engaging the Rebel outposts, an order came that we were to +fall back before daybreak toward Okolona. + +The brigade commanders and their staffs had had severe duty in the +scattered work of destruction, and even Max, tough though he was, had +been almost overworked with constant galloping to and fro, and with the +frequent countermarching our varying orders had required. Still he was +better than his comrades, and many a man was anxious for his mount, +should our retreat be pressed. + +Early in the morning we were on our way toward the rear,--about +eight thousand cavalry, ten sections of artillery, two thousand +pack-mules, and an unnumbered cloud of fugitive slaves mounted on +their masters' mules, often two or three on each, and clustering +under our shadow as their only means of escape to the happy land of +freedom. In an organized advance, all of this vast hanging on could be +kept at the rear and in good order; but on a retreat the instinct of +self-preservation always attacks first the non-combatant element, and +during all the days that followed, we found our way constantly blocked +with these throngs of panic-stricken people. + +No sooner had we turned tail than Forrest saw his time had come, and +he pressed us sorely all day and until nightfall, and tried hard to +gain our flanks. A hundred times we might have turned and given him +successful battle, but, at every suggestion of this, we received from +our general, who was well in advance of the retiring column, the order +to push forward and give our rear a free road for retreat. Midnight +found us again in the vicinity of Okolona, and the next daybreak showed +the enemy's long column filing out of the woods and stretching well on +toward our right flank. + +Even the plains of Texas could offer no field better suited for a +cavalry engagement, and it was with satisfaction that we received, at +five o'clock in the morning, an order to prepare at once for a fight; +but our men were barely mounted and in line when an order came to turn +our backs upon this open field, and to retreat with all expedition +toward Memphis. + +When we left Okolona we left hope behind, for our road struck at once +into a wooded, hilly country, full of by-ways and cross-roads known to +the enemy and unknown to us, and we well knew that this movement would +double Forrest's power and divide our own. Then, for a long day, tired +and hungry from the hard work and constant movement we had just gone +through, and with our horses half-fed and overworked, we pushed on, our +rear often attacked and sometimes broken, our mule-train and negroes +thrown into frequent confusion, one of our brigades demoralized and put +to flight, and the enemy still pressing our rear and reaching for our +flanks. At last, towards night, it became evident that a stand must be +made or all would be entirely lost, and at Ivy Farm, near Pontotoc, we +found a broad, open hill-top, with large fields, high fences, and stout +log-houses, which offered an opportunity. By this time the command +was too widely separated, and some of it too much disorganized, for +the concentration of even a whole brigade, but a part of Hepburn's +and a part of my own were disentangled from the corral of fugitives +and brought into line. Both of our generals were upon the field, and +to our surprise both seemed brave and resolute; and this not with the +resolution of despair, for the actual immediate necessity of fighting +often steadies nerves which are easily shaken by the anticipation +of danger. Brave they were, but not always of the same mind, and +conflicting orders continued to add to our embarrassment and insecurity. + +It is not worth while to detail all the incidents of the opening of +the short engagement; it was ended by the only legitimate cavalry +charge made by the "Vierte Missouri" during the whole of its four +years' history. + +We had withdrawn from the line where we had been fighting on foot, had +mounted, formed, and drawn sabre; the road about one hundred yards in +front of us was swarming with Rebels, who crept along the fence-lines +and in the edge of the bordering woods, and kept up a steady rain of +fire well over our heads, where we heard that _pfwit_--_pfwit_--_pfwit_ +of flying bullets which, happily, has no relative in the whole chorus +of sounds, and which is heard above all the din of battle, and is felt +through every remotest nerve. + +At the command "Forward," excitement ran down the line, and there was +a disposition for an immediate rush. But "Steady--right dress--trot!" +in a measured tone, taken up in turn by the company officers, brought +back all the effect of our three years' discipline of the drill-ground. +Later, "Steady--gallop--right dress!" accelerated the speed without +disturbing the alignment, and then, at last, "Charge!" and with a +universal yelling and brandishing of sabres we went forward like the +wind. I then felt how mad a venture we had undertaken, for before us +was the enemy, it is true, but the enemy behind a high and stout, +staked and ridered rail-fence. As we drew very near this, still under +heavy fire, which now at the short range was telling, the command +became conscious that the six-foot fence would withstand our shock, +and it wavered. I turned to my bugler to sound the recall, when I saw +him out of the corner of my eye, his white horse rearing literally +to his full height and falling backward with a crash that must have +killed the poor boy at once. The recall was not needed: the regiment +had turned and was running. The officers, being the best mounted +and generally the lightest weights, soon reached the front, and +"Steady--right dress--trot! Steady--right dress--trot!" was repeated +along the line, until the drill-ground precision was regained, and then +"By fours--right about--wheel!" and we stood facing the enemy again, +ready for another advance. Max had been struck by a grazing bullet and +had been plunging heavily, but the wound was not serious and he was +soon quieted. We now saw that our charge, futile though it seemed, +had done its work. The advance of the enemy was checked; the sight of +troops that could retire and re-form for a new attack seemed to have a +stunning effect upon them. Practically the engagement was ended. + +Subsequently, one of Forrest's staff officers told the Hun that the +size of the division which had charged was variously estimated at from +five to ten thousand, but that he had been accustomed to such things +and knew that we were not more than two thousand. In fact, we were less +than six hundred. Forrest's report of the battle of Pontotoc states +that the engagement was ended "by a cavalry charge of the enemy, which +was repulsed." + +There was still some sharp scrimmaging, and we had to make two or +three more squadron and company charges to drive away small attacks +upon our retreating guns; but the battle, as a battle, was over, and +Forrest's whole advance had been stopped and ended by six hundred +Fourth Missouri Dutchmen, galloping, yelling, and swinging their +sabres at several thousand men well secured behind a rail-fence. I had +before, in drill-ground charges, seen old soldiers and experienced +officers jump down and run away from a fence on which they were sitting +to watch the advance of charging cavalry which they knew must wheel +before coming within five rods of them; but I had never supposed that +hot-blooded soldiers, in the full excitement of a successful attack, +could be unnerved and turned by the roar and thundering oncoming of a +regiment that could by no possibility reach them. Our first setting out +had driven back a thin skirmish-line which had to cross the fence under +high speed; this, doubtless, aided in the _debacle_; the charge had +stunned them, but it was the rally that stopped the pursuit. + +The rest of our march was without interesting incident all the way to +Memphis, but it was almost incessant, day and night; without incident, +that is, that it is worth while to tell here, but our days and nights +upon the road were filled with annoyance and disgust, and with a store +of unhappy and ludicrous memories that will last the lifetime of all +who knew them. + +One day, at New Albany, Max and I were feeding and sleeping in +the door of an old mill while the command was slowly crossing the +antiquated bridge over the Tallahatchie, when I was awakened by +Grierson's riding up in great alarm, calling upon me "for God's sake" +to use the ford as well as the bridge, for Hepburn was being cut to +pieces in the rear, and I must give him the full road for his retreat. +I had always been a respectful subordinate, but none of us were then +in the best temper; I did not believe a word of it, and I frankly +told him so. Even old Max pricked up his ears and snorted as if in +derision. Almost as we were talking, there came an aid from Hepburn +saying that he had found a good supply of forage and would be glad to +go into camp for the night. But there was no camp to be thought of for +that tired crew; the bogey of incessant pursuit loomed up portentously +close upon our rear-guard, and sent its shadow deep into the bowels +of our commander, who was miles away in the advance, and who would +allow us only the fewest possible hours in the very dead of night for +hasty cooking and scant repose. We were a worn and weary lot as we +finally went into camp at the rear of the town; worn and weary, sadly +demoralized, and almost dismounted. I had lost fifteen hundred good +horses, and my men, who had been eager and ready for a successful +campaign, were broken in spirit and sadly weakened in discipline. + +All who had been compelled to bear the brunt of the hard work now +needed for themselves and their horses absolute rest for days; but +being called into the city the morning after our arrival, my eyes were +greeted with the spectacle of General Sooy Smith, no longer ill, and +with no trace of shame or annoyance on his face. He had shed his modest +and prudent attire, and shone out with all the brass radiance of a +full-fledged major-general. From this time until the Fourth Missouri +cavalry was mustered out of service, our headquarters were in the +immediate neighborhood of Memphis, and our life was much more active +than it had been at Union City. + +Not very much is to be said for Max during this time, except in +connection with the Sturgis expedition, beyond the fact that we lay +long in the immediate vicinity of the race-course, which we repaired +and used faithfully, and, so far as he was concerned, with eminent +success. The more frequent necessity for duty, the great labor of +remounting, reorganizing, and redrilling the command, united with +the greater publicity of our position to lay some restraint on our +mode of life, and to make our conduct more circumspect. Still we +were not miserable, and the neighborhood of a large town has, to a +well-regulated headquarters' mess, its compensations as well as its +drawbacks. + +Sturgis's expedition to Guntown and back--especially back--has passed +into history, and its unwritten memories will always remain with those +who took part in it. + +Guntown is far away in Northeastern Mississippi. It is not laid down on +the map of the country, but it lies just across the Tishamingo Creek, +and it consists mainly of two plantation houses and a school-house. +Our stay there was not long, and we were too much occupied to study +the locality minutely, but it is my impression that the most important +incident in its history was connected with our visit. + +We were a force of about nine thousand infantry, cavalry, and +artillery,--some black and some white, some good and some bad,--sent +out by Sherman as a tub to the Forrest whale; a diversion to keep this +commander from joining Hood in Northern Georgia; though I doubt if +even General Sherman in his moments of wildest enthusiasm anticipated +just the issue that followed. Our march out was not rapid, and it was +well ordered. We were allowed to take our train, and old John Ellard's +four stupendous mules drew our headquarters' wagon, well laden with +the comforts we had accumulated during a long service, including a +brand-new, well-furnished, and abundantly stored camp-chest that had +just arrived from St. Louis. So far as the comforts of a home for five +youngsters can be stored in one mule-wagon, we were well supplied for +a campaign of any length; and judging from the mess-tables to which we +were invited, others of the command were no less well provided. In due +time we reached the town of Ripley, a rather pretty New-England-looking +village, but, like all Southern towns at that time, entirely devoid of +men and overflowing with women of the most venomous and spiteful sort, +who did all in their power to add to the interest of the Sunday evening +we passed in their company. + +We had some light skirmishing on our arrival, but whoever it was that +attacked us withdrew and left us in undisturbed possession of the +comfortable rooms and fireplaces of the town. Our next day's march +brought us to a large open plantation on a commanding hill, whence our +evening scouting-parties soon found the enemy posted in some force and +apparently disposed for an engagement. + +It seemed always Forrest's plan to select his own fighting-ground, and +the plan of our commanders to gratify him. Sturgis committed the usual +folly of trying to hold every inch he had gained, and of forming his +line of battle on the head of the column and under fire. + +We breakfasted at three in the morning, and marched at half past +four. My command had the advance. The enemy allowed himself to be +easily driven until half past eight, when he made some show of +resistance. At this time the last of our regiments could hardly have +left the camping-ground, and probably a judicious retreat would have +drawn Forrest's whole force back to the open country we had left. +But "retreat" was not yet written on our banners (of that day), and +orders came from our general to support the advance-guard, form line +of battle, and hold our position. So far as the cavalry brigade was +concerned this was easily done, and we got into good line near the +edge of a wood without difficulty. Here, for four mortal hours, or +until half past twelve, we carried on a tolerably equal warfare, both +sides blazing away at each other with little effect across the six +hundred yards of cleared valley that lay between two skirts of wood. +So far as the endurance of our troops was concerned, this engagement +could have been kept up until nightfall, though our ranks were slowly +thinning. Several desperate charges were made on our position, and were +repulsed with considerable loss to both sides. Pending the arrival +of the infantry it would have been folly for us to attempt a further +advance, but had we been properly supported, or, better, had we at once +fallen back upon our support, we might have given, as the _post bellum_ +reports of Forrest's officers show, a better ending to the day's work. +It was only at half past twelve, when our ammunition was reduced to +five rounds per man, and when our battery had fired its last shot, that +the infantry began to arrive, and then they came a regiment at a time, +or only so fast as the Forrest mill could grind them up in detail. + +They had taken our place, and we had withdrawn to their rear, where +we were joined by one after another of the defeated or exhausted +infantry regiments. Little by little the enemy pressed upon us, +gaining rod after rod of our position, until finally our last arriving +troops, a splendid colored regiment, reached the field of battle at +double-quick, breathless and beaten by their own speed, barely in time +to check the assault until we could cross the creek and move toward +the rear. The retreat was but fairly begun when we came upon our train +of two hundred wagons piled pell-mell in a small field and blocked in +beyond the possibility of removal. With sad eyes we saw John Ellard +cut his traces and leave all that was dear to us--tents, camp-chest, +poker-table, and all that we cherished--to inevitable capture. The +train was _our_ tub to the whale; and while Forrest's men were sacking +our treasures, and refilling the caissons of all our batteries, which +they had captured, we had time to form for the retreat, more or less +orderly according as we had come early or late off the field. The +demoralizing roar of our own guns, and the howling over our heads of +our own shells, together with the sharp rattle of musketry in our rear, +hastened and saddened the ignominious flight of the head of our column, +though, for some reason, the enemy's advance upon us was slow. + +All that long night we marched on, without food and without rest. At +early dawn we reached Ripley, where we paused for breath. Max had been +ridden almost uninterruptedly for twenty-four hours, and for four hours +had done the constant hard work that the supervision of a long line in +active engagement had made necessary; and he was glad to be unsaddled +and turned for fifteen minutes into a scantily grown paddock, where he +rolled and nibbled and refreshed himself as much as ordinary horses do +with a whole night's rest. The ambulances with our groaning wounded +men came pouring into the village, and to our surprise, those women, +who had so recently given only evidence of a horrified hatred, pressed +round to offer every aid that lay in their power, and to comfort our +suffering men as only kind-hearted women can. + +With the increasing daylight the pursuit was reopened with vigor, and +on we went, and ever on, marching all that day, our rear-guard being +constantly engaged, and hundreds of our men being captured, thousands +more scattering into the woods. My lieutenant-colonel, Von Helmrich, +who had been for twenty-eight years a cavalry officer in Germany, and +who, after thirteen months in Libby Prison, had overtaken us as we were +leaving Memphis, was recaptured and carried back to Richmond,--to die +of a good dinner on his second release, ten months later. At nightfall, +the pursuit growing weak, we halted to collect together our stragglers, +but not to rest, and after a short half-hour pushed on again; and all +that interminable night, and until half past ten the next morning, +when we reached Colliersville and the railroad, reinforcements, and +supplies, we marched, marched, marched, without rest, without sleep, +and without food. The cavalrymen were mainly dismounted and driving +their tired jades before them, only Max and a few others carrying their +riders to the very end, and coming in with a whinny of content to the +familiar stables and back-yards of the little town. + +Most other officers whose service had been as constant as mine had had +extra horses to ride for relief; but I had never yet found march too +long for Max's wiry sinews, and trusted to him alone. He had now been +ridden almost absolutely without intermission, and much of the time +at a gallop or a rapid trot, for fifty-four hours. I had had for my +own support the excitement and then the anxious despair of responsible +service, and Ike had filled his haversack with hard-bread from John +Ellard's abandoned wagon; an occasional nibble at this, and unlimited +pipes of tobacco, had fortified me in my endurance of the work; but Max +had had in the whole time not the half of what he would have made light +of for a single meal. I have known and have written about brilliant +feats of other horses, but as I look over the whole range of all the +best animals I have seen, I bow with respect to the wonderful courage, +endurance, and fidelity of this superbly useful brute. + +There is an elasticity in youth and health, trained and hardened by +years of active field-service, which asserts itself under the most +depressing circumstances. Even this shameful and horrible defeat and +flight had their ludicrous incidents, which we were permitted to +appreciate. Thus, for instance, during a lull in the engagement at +Guntown, I had seated myself in a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of +a broad tree-trunk; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, had taken shelter +between the legs of the chair, leaving, however, his rear unprotected. +Random bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, and it was due +to one of these that I was unseated, with an accompaniment of squeal, +by the rapid and articulate flight of my companion. + +During our last night's march, my brigade having the advance, and I +being at its rear, Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing ahead +of the stragglers of the other brigades, who were to be recognized, +he reminded me, by their wearing hats (mine wore caps). The order +was peremptory, and was to be enforced even at the cost of cutting +the offenders down. Grierson's adjutant was at my side; we were all +sleeping more or less of the time, but constantly some hatted straggler +was detected pushing toward the front, and ordered back,--the adjutant +being especially sharp-eyed in detecting the mutilated sugar-loaves +through the gloom. Finally, close to my right and pushing slowly to +the front, in a long-strided walk, came a gray horse with a hatted +rider,--an india-rubber poncho covering his uniform. I ordered +him back; the adjutant, eager for the enforcement of the order, +remonstrated at the man's disobedience; I ordered again, but without +result; the adjutant ejaculated, "Damn him, cut him down!" I drew my +sabre and laid its flat in one long, stinging welt across that black +poncho: "----! who are you hitting?" Then we both remembered that +Grierson too wore a hat; and I tender him here my public acknowledgment +of a good-nature so great that an evening reunion in Memphis over a +dozen of wine won his generous silence. + +One might go on with interminable gossip over incidents of camp and +field for which at this late day only scant interest is felt; but +nothing that I could say more would probably aid my purpose, which has +been simply by a trifling sketch to recall the jollity, the comfort, +the suffering, and the misery of campaign life, and to show how in the +field more than anywhere else one learns to cherish and to depend upon +a faithful and honest and willing comrade like my royal old Max. + + + + +HOW I GOT MY OVERCOAT. + +(CIRCUMSTANTIALLY TRUE.) + + +The war was not quite over, but my regiment was old enough to have +grown too small for a colonel, and I sat, the dismalest of all men, +a "mustered-out" officer, sated with such good things as a suddenly +arrested income had allowed me, over an after-dinner table in a little +room at the Athenaeum Club. My coffee was gone to its dregs; the closing +day was shutting down gloomily in such a weary rain as only a New York +back-yard ever knows; and I was wondering what was to become of a man +whom four years of cavalry service had estranged from every good and +useful thing in life. The only career that then seemed worth running +was run out for me; and, worst of all, my pay had been finally stopped. + +The world was before me for a choice, but I had no choice. The only +thing I could do was to command mounted troops, and commanders of +mounted troops were not in demand. Ages ago I had known how to do other +things, but the knowledge had gone from me, and was not to be recalled +so long as I had enough money left with which to be unhappy in idle +foreboding. I had not laid down my life in the war, but during its +wonderful four years I had laid down, so completely, the ways of life +of a sober and industrious citizen, and had soaked my whole nature so +full of the subtile ether of idleness and vagabondism, that it seemed +as easy and as natural to become the Aladdin I might have dreamed +myself to be as the delver I had really been. With a heavy heart, then, +and a full stomach, I sat in a half-disconsolate, half-reminiscent, +not wholly unhappy mood, relapsing with post-prandial ease into that +befogged intellectual condition in which even the drizzle against the +window-panes can confuse itself with the patter on a tent roof; and +the charm of the old wanderings came over me again, filling my table +with the old comrades, even elevating my cigar to a brier-wood, and +recalling such fellowship as only tent-life ever knows. + +Such dreaming is always interrupted, else it would never end; mine was +disturbed by a small card on a small salver, held meekly across the +table by the meekest of waiters. + +The card bore the name "Adolf zu Dohna-Schlodien," and a count's +coronet,--a count's coronet and "zu" (a touch above "von")! I +remembered to have seen a letter from my adjutant to the Prussian +Consul in Philadelphia, asking him to obtain information about a +handsome young musical "Graf zu" something, who was creating a +sensation in St. Louis society, and the "zu" seemed to indicate this as +the party in question; he had spoken of him as having defective front +teeth, which seemed to be pointing to the "color and distinguishing +marks," known in Herd Book pedigrees, and human passports,--a means of +identification I resolved to make use of; for my experience with the +German nobility in America had been rather wide than remunerative. + +The "Herr zu" had waited in the hall, and was standing under the full +light of the lamp. He was very tall, very slight, and very young, +apparently not more than twenty, modestly dressed, and quiet in his +manner. He was not strikingly handsome, though very well looking. His +hands were the most perfect I ever saw, and the ungloved one showed +careful attention. There was no defect noticeable in his front teeth. +He bowed slightly and handed me a letter. It was from Voisin, my former +adjutant, but it was not exactly a letter of introduction. At least, +it was less cordial than Voisin's letters of introduction were wont to +be. Yet it was kind. Without commending the Count as a bosom friend, he +still said he was much interested in him, had reason to believe in him, +was sorry for him, had given him material aid, and was very desirous +that he should pull through some pecuniary troubles, which he could do +only by enlisting in the Regular Army, and receiving his bounty. From +this he would give me money to release his baggage, which was valuable, +from some inconveniences that were then attending it in St. Louis. +Would I get him enlisted? He said he would enlist, and would prefer to +be known under the name Adolph Danforth. The gentleman himself took +early occasion to express this preference. + +I debated a little what to do. He was not introduced as a friend, only +as a person in need of help; yet Voisin believed in him, and he had +asked a service that he would not have asked for an unworthy man. I +engaged him in conversation and got him to smile. It was a very frank +smile, but it displayed a singular defect far up on the front teeth. +This decided me. He was the same Graf zu whose position had been asked +of the Prussian Consul, and I knew he had learned that the Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, an officer in the Gardecorps Kuerassier, was of the +highest nobility and of a family of great wealth. There was evidently +no technical reason why the poor fellow should not be received +cordially and well treated. So we went back to the smoking-room, and +with fresh coffee and cigars opened an acquaintance which resulted not +altogether uneventfully. + +He was not obtrusive. His story was not forced upon me; but as I +already had its thread, I was able to draw it from him in a natural +way, and he told it very frankly, though halting a little at its more +important turnings, as if wondering how its development would strike +me. There was just enough of hesitancy over a harrowing tale to throw +on myself the responsibility of learning it. + +He had been brought up by the tenderest of mothers at the castle of +Schlodien (I think in Silesia), had early joined the Cuirassiers of the +Body Guard, had fought a fatal duel in which he had been the aggressor, +and had been condemned to the Fortress of Spandau. Only his mother's +great influence (exercised without the knowledge of his stern and much +older father, who was then on his distant estates) had secured for him +an opportunity to escape. He had come directly to America, and had +remained near Boston until he received intimation (again the result +of his mother's influence with Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister at +Washington) that his return under the Extradition Treaty was being +urged at the solicitation of the family of his fallen antagonist. He +had then taken refuge in a remote town in South Missouri, where he +amused himself with shooting. His mother had written to him but once, +and had not been able to send him money. He had at last returned to +St. Louis, where he had contracted some small debts which Voisin and +another kind friend had assumed. To reimburse them and to gain more +perfect seclusion, he had resolved to enlist in the Regular Army. It +was a sad conclusion of his career, but as an honorable man (and a +pursued one) he had no choice but to accept it. + +It was the old story,--_noblesse oblige_. There was but one way out +of a sad affair, and--like a very Graf zu--this stripling, who had been +born and bred to a better fate, faced the penalty of his misfortune +without flinching. I tried infinite suggestions, but nothing else +offered the immediate money which alone could relieve him of debt and +restore him his wardrobe and the portraits of his mother and sister, +which with a few well-worn letters, were all he had to cheer him in his +exile. We sat till far into the night and until my kindest sympathies +were fully aroused by the utter and almost childlike simplicity and +frankness with which the poor boy told of his sorrows. I had been +taught by a very ample experience to look with much caution on German +counts and barons,--an experience that, if it was worth what it had +cost, I could not prize too highly; but here was an entirely new type, +a combination of the gentlest breeding with an unsophistication that +argued more of a mother's care than of garrison influences, and an +utter absence of the devil-may-care manner that army life in Germany +had hitherto seemed to give. With the improvidence of one who had +never known the lack of money, he had lodged himself at the Everett +House; and as I left him at its door, I resolved to lose no time in +getting him enlisted and stopping an expense that would only add to +his troubles. The next day I saw the official who had charge of the +making up of the city's quota, and easily arranged for the examination +of my candidate. Dohna begged me to secure his admission to a command +whose officers would be able to appreciate his difficult position, and +a weary time I had of it. At last it was all arranged; he had passed, +with much shock to his sensibilities, the surgeon's examination, and +had been enrolled in a company of Regular Infantry, whose captain +(then serving on the general staff of the department) had acquired a +sympathy for him not less than my own. His bounty (over seven hundred +dollars) he put into my hands, and he went with me to Adams's Express +office, where we sent more than half the sum to St. Louis,--the full +amount of his indebtedness. One specified trunk was to be sent to the +Everett House, and the rest of his luggage--which Voisin had described +as valuable--to me. I received by an early mail the receipt of the St. +Louis express-office for it, and found it most convenient to let it lie +for the present, addressed to me personally, at the office in New York. +It would be useless to Dohna in the army, and I was to take care of it +for him. + +The captain of the company in which he was enlisted secured him a +furlough for ten days, and, to show his gratitude, he invited us both +to dine with him at the Everett. We sat down at seven, and we sat long. +The best that either cellar or kitchen afforded was spread before us in +wasteful profusion, and our host, temperate in his sipping, but eating +with the appetite of youth, seemed only to regret the limit of our +capacity. As we walked across the square, filled and with the kindest +emotions, we planned means for so occupying the remaining days of the +furlough as to allow but little opportunity for money-spending. His +company was at Fort Trumbull, and after he joined he would be safe. + +The next day being Saturday, I took him to my father's house in the +country, where his unfortunate story was already known, and where as +much real interest was felt in him as the good people of Connecticut +ever accord to a duellist. He had a friend living farther out on the +New Haven road, and he took an early train to see her (this was a new +feature), returning to me in the evening. I met him at the depot. He +wore the superb uniform overcoat of the Gardecorps Kuerassier, long, +flowing, and rich, with a broad, scarlet-lined fur collar. It was +caught across the throat with a scarlet snood, and hung loosely from +the shoulders. It made his six feet two really becoming. At home he +was easy but very quiet, saying little but saying it very well, and +he won as much confidence as the stain on his moral character would +allow. Like most of his class, he knew and cared absolutely nothing +for what interests the New England mind, and he would early have +palled on our taste but for his music. His performance was skilful; he +played difficult music, and he played it very well, but without vanity +or apparent consciousness. When not occupied in this way, and when +not addressed, he neither spoke nor read, apparently he did not even +think, but relapsed into a sad and somewhat vacant reticence. But for +our knowledge of his misfortunes, he would have been uninteresting. +On Sunday he gave me a new confidence. His friend up the road was +an Everett House acquaintance, made when he first came from Boston. +She was an angel! She knew his sad story, and she had given him her +Puritan heart. In the trying days to come I was to be the link that +should bind them in their correspondence. She must not know of his +degraded position, and all letters were to pass under cover to me. Even +_noblesse_ did not hide the tears that this prospect of long separation +wrung from him, and he poured out his grief with most touching +unrestraint. This was the one sorrow of his life that even his trained +equanimity could not conquer. It made me still more respect his simple, +honest nature and his unfeigned grief. I was doubly sorry that this +last trial of separated love should be added to his cup of bitterness. +In our long Sunday talk he told me of his home, and showed me the +singularly beautiful photographs of his mother and sister, and--quite +incidentally--one of himself in the full uniform of his regiment, +bearing on its back the imprint of a Berlin photographer. He evinced a +natural curiosity about the mode of our garrison life, and I prepared +him as gently as I could for a decided change from his former customs. +It was, of course, depressing to him, but he bore the prospect like +a man, and gave it no importance as compared with his more essential +downfall. He had seen enough of our troops to be especially uneasy at +the prospect of an ill-fitting uniform. In the matter of linen he was +well provided, but he was really unhappy over the thought of adapting +his long and easy figure to a clothing-contractor's idea of proportion. +So it was arranged that he should go to my tailor and be suitably clad, +according to regulation of course, but also according to measure. He +proposed, too, to leave his overcoat for some repairs and to be cared +for while he should have no use for it. I gave the tailor assurances of +prompt payment. + +One fine morning Dohna came to my room in his new rig and bade me a +brave good-by. He was off for Fort Trumbull. I felt an almost parental +sorrow over his going, and had much misgiving as to his ability to +face his ill-bred soldier comrades. There came soon after a letter +to say that he was well treated personally, only the rations were so +horrible; pork and salt beef and beans and molasses. He could not eat +such things, and he was growing faint for want of food. I had seen such +dainty appetites cured too often to have any fear on this score, and +only replied in general terms of encouragement, and asked for frequent +letters. These came. There were no incidents of his life that were not +described almost with wonder, for a noble officer of the Gardecorps of +the king of Prussia knows really nothing of the ways of life of the +men he is supposed to command. Often there were thick letters for the +_fiancee_, and answers to these (also thick) had often to be forwarded. +I felt the enthusiastic glow natural to one who carries alone the +tender secrets of younger lovers, and was not altogether unhappy under +the subjective romance of my mediation. + +Sometimes there were touching tales of trouble. Once he had been +detailed to the "police" squad, and had to clean spittoons and do other +menial work. This was a touch of reality that fairly opened his eyes to +his abasement, and he wrote much more sadly than ever before, making +me sad, too, to think how powerless I was to help him in any way. A +few days later he sent a wail of real agony. While he had been out on +drill, some scoundrel had broken into his satchel and had stolen all +his papers,--his letters from his mother, her photograph, and those +of his sister and his sweetheart, and all the bundle of affectionate +epistles over which he had pored again and again in his desolation. The +loss was absolutely heart-breaking and irreparable, and he had passed +hours sitting on the rocks at the shore, pouring bitter tears into the +Thames. This was a blow to me too. I knew that Dohna was of a simple +mind, and utterly without resources within himself; but he was also of +a simple heart, and one could only grieve over this last blow as over +the sorrows of a helpless little child. However, I wrote all I could +to encourage him, and was gratified, though a little surprised, to see +how soon he became cheerful again, and how earnestly he seemed to have +set about the work of becoming a really good soldier. After a time the +captain of his company--still in New York and maintaining a lively +interest in the poor fellow's case--procured an order for him to go to +Annapolis to be examined for promotion. He was already a sergeant, and +a pretty good one. He stopped in New York a few days on his way through +for some refitting,--again at my tailor's. On his way back he stopped +again to tell of his failure. I was delicate about questioning him too +closely, but I learned enough to suppose that different ideas as to +practical education are entertained by a board of army examiners and by +a fond young mother in the remote castle of Schlodien; but I encouraged +him to believe that a little more study would enable him to pass the +second examination that had been promised him, and he rejoined his +company. + +In the general mustering-out Voisin had been set free and had joined +me in New York, and had, naturally, participated in all my interest in +the quondam Count. He gradually, as an adjutant should, assumed the +correspondence, which was voluminous, and by the time we were informed +that Dohna was detailed for recruiting duty in the city, neither he +nor I was glad to know it. Something more than a feeling of regretful +sympathy is necessary to the enjoyment of frequent companionship, +and we both felt that the fact of having credit with a tailor was a +dangerous element in the possible future combinations. However, Dohna's +arrival at our room followed close upon the announcement of the order. +He was still simple in his way and of modest deportment, but he seemed +to have accepted his new life almost too entirely, and he had come to +look not very much out of place among his comrades. Their quarters +were in a basement in Chambers Street, back of the City Hall, where we +occasionally dropped in to see him. After a while he was always out +when we called, and once when I stopped to give him a foreign letter, +sent to my care, I was told that he had not been there for a week, but +one of the men volunteered to find him. He came that night to the club +for his letter, in civilian's dress, and appeared much as he did when +I first saw him, except that he had two beautiful false teeth, in the +place of the defective ones. I gave him his letter, a long one from +Berlin, from his father. He showed Voisin the postscript, in which it +was stated that a box containing a breech-loading shot-gun, a dozen +shirts, and a draft for five hundred thalers would be forwarded by the +Hamburg line to my care. On the strength of this he hoped it would not +inconvenience us to advance him a couple of hundred dollars. It was +thus far inconvenient that we were obliged to decline, which gave him +no offence, and he invited us to dine with him the following day at the +Everett House. + +At this point, in view of the extreme youth and inexperience of our +friend, we took occasion to read him a short homily on the value of +economy, and to urge him immediately to leave the Everett, return to +his barracks in Chambers Street, and as he valued his future peace +of mind to avoid running in debt; mildly hinting that, if found in +the public streets without his uniform, he would be very likely to +get himself into trouble. He begged that we would not expose him, and +promised to return that very night. Then for some time we lost sight +of him; his captain said that, so far as he knew, he was attentive +to his duty with the recruiting squad, and he certainly kept out of +our way. The box from Germany did not arrive. No more letters came, +and we had no occasion to seek him out. It was evident that he was no +longer unhappy, and so our interest in him, though still warm, remained +inactive. + + * * * * * + +One night I was awakened, quite late, by Voisin, sitting on the side +of my bed, big-eyed and excited, and with a wonderful story to tell. +He had been, at the request of the counsel of the Prussian Consul, +to the detectives' rooms at police headquarters. Here he had been +questioned as to his knowledge of one Adolph Danforth, _alias_ Graf zu +Dohna-Schlodien, _alias_ Fritz Stabenow, and had subsequently had an +interview with that interesting youth in the lock-up. + +The glory had all departed. He had been there forty-eight hours, was +unwashed, uncombed, stolid, comfortable, and quite at home. There was +no remnant left of the simple and modest demeanor of the well-bred +aristocrat. It was hard to see a trace of likeness to the Kuerassier +officer with whose photograph we were familiar. The obligations of +_noblesse_ seemed to be entirely removed, and there was nothing left +but plain, ignoble Fritz Stabenow. An examination of his pockets +developed a singular folly. He had kept every scrap of paper on which +a word had ever been written to him. Tailors' bills, love-letters, +duns, photographs of half a dozen different girls, all were huddled +together. He had a package of the Count Dohna cards and the plate +from which they had been printed,--made in Boston; a letter of credit +from a banking-house in Berlin to its New York correspondent had the +copperplate card of the firm on the paper, but the paper was ruled as +a German banker's paper never is, and the plate from which the card +had been printed (also made in Boston) was in the envelope with it. A +letter from plain father Stabenow enclosed photographs of still plainer +mother and sister Stabenow, which were a sad contrast to the glory of +the Countess Dohna's picture. The father's letter was full of kindly +reproof and affectionate regret. "Ach! Fritz, ich haette das von Dir +nicht gedacht,"--"I never thought that of you"; but it was forgiving +too, and promised the remittance, clothing, and gun I have spoken of +before. The papers, for the loss of which such tears had been shed +at Fort Trumbull, were all there in their well-worn companionship +with a soiled paper-collar, and that badge of dawning civilization, a +tooth-brush. + +Here were also two photographs, one of the statue of Frederick the +Great in Berlin on the card of a St. Louis photographer, and another of +himself in Prussian uniform, on the card of a Berlin photographer. The +pictures had been "lifted" and changed to the different cards. A more +careful neglect of track-covering was never known. The evidence of all +his deceptions had been studiously preserved. + +Voisin had given him a dollar to buy some necessary articles, and had +left him to his fate. + +The disillusion was complete, and I saw that I had been swindled +by a false count even more completely than I ever had been by real +barons,--which is much to say. + +Voisin had gathered from the Consul's lawyer that this Stabenow, a +valet of the veritable Count Dohna, had been one of a party who had +robbed him and committed other serious crimes, and he had fled to +this country, with his master's uniform, a valuable wardrobe, and +costly jewels. He had here undertaken to personify the Count, and +had had on the whole not an unhappy time, especially since he came +to New York in recruiting service. He had finally been arrested on +the complaint of a lady, one of the many whom he had attempted to +blackmail, by threatening exposure through letters they had written +him in the kindest spirit. Fortunately this one had had the good sense +to refer the matter to her husband, who brought the interesting career +to a close. He had obtained several thousand dollars in this way +from different persons, and had contracted considerable debts in all +directions. The Everett House was an especial sufferer. + +I felt that my claim was secured by the luggage at the express-office, +and I called for it the next day. The gentlemanly clerk of the +establishment blandly showed me my name, neatly written in a strange +Teutonic hand, to a receipt for the property. Just then I had +information that a box addressed to my care was lying at the Hoboken +office of the German steamers. Indiscreetly mentioning this fact to the +Prussian Consul's lawyer, I was informed that it would be necessary to +take the box in evidence, and I prudently refrained from making further +efforts for its recovery. + +It was with a chastened spirit that I paid a considerable bill at my +tailor's and ordered the overcoat sent to my address; and it was with +only mitigated satisfaction that I heard of the sending in irons to his +company in California of deserter Stabenow. + +If the Herr Lieutenant Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien of the Gardecorps +Kuerassier is still living, I beg to inform him that his overcoat--the +only memento of a grave _Schwindelei_--is now a comfortable wrap to a +Rhode Island farmer, who hopes that its rightful owner is as snugly +clad in his winter rides about Versailles. + + + + +TWO SCOUTS. + + +In the desultory and sporadic warfare carried on in the Southwest, +the scout--or "skeout," according to the dialect of the region--was a +very important element of our organization, and it is amusing now to +recall the variety of odd-fish of every description who applied for the +remunerative employment that this branch of the service afforded. + +The interest of our life at Union City was not a little enhanced by two +specimens of this genus with whom we had much to do,--Pat Dixon and +"The Blind Preacher." + +One day the guard brought in a suspicious character from the +picket-line. He was about twenty-five years old, long, lank, and +dusky,--a sort of half-Indian, half-Irish looking fellow, with +uncombed hair and an over-prominent quid of tobacco. He rode the +usual "nag" of the country,--an animal with more blood than bone and +more vice than beauty. He dismounted, passed his bridle over his arm, +and "squatted,"--the usual posture of the country. "The Hun," the +professional bully of all our culprits, took this creature in hand, and +presently came in with a suggestion that I had better see him alone. +He followed me cautiously to one side, leading his horse with him, and +squatted again when we had halted at a safe distance from curious ears. + +"I'm Pat Dixon. I live down Troy way on the North Fork. Ye see, when +this yer muss fust broke out I didn't go to take no sides in it. But +Merryweather's men they come along a little 'fore sun-up, last month +was a year, an' they taken the only nag we had left. I'd had him hid +out all summer, but some derned skunk done found him out. I heern the +cusses a trampin' roun' an' I was goin' to take a crack at 'em for +'good mornin',' but, you see, I knowed if I did they'd just burn the +old woman out, an' she don't git along but porely, anyhow, so I didn't. +They _con_scripted the old man the year afore, an' he hain't been heern +on sence. So I come to the conclushin that I wa'n't agoin' to stan' no +such treatmint as that--by King! an' I jest took to the bresh, an' I +reckon I've pestered them 'uns right smart. I ain't agoin' afoot long +as theys hosses in West Tannisy,--you bet! I was agoin' to jine you +Yanks, but thinks sez I: 'Old Pat, you kin do a heap better in the +bresh nor what you kin in no army,' and so I stuck to it. O, now, I'm +squar'! Frank Moore can tell you all 'bout me; I ain't no gum-game, I +ain't. If you want a skeout, I'm on hand, an' I don't want no pass, I +kin git 'roun' in this kentry. + +"Which? _hoss?_ Well, 't ain't much of a nag, but theys more on 'em +roun', an' if this 'un tuckers out I'll git somethin' to ride. I ain't +goin' afoot.--no, mam!" + +This was very much the sort of talk "Mr." Forrest's emissaries used in +seeking our services for his purposes; so, partly to secure ourselves +on this point, and partly to give Dixon a good character should he +go out from our camp in his professional capacity, he was sent for a +few days to the guard-house, until Frank Moore should return from an +expedition. I believe Frank knew most of the vagabonds of Obion County, +and he at once certified that this was no other than Pat Dixon; that +his story was true; and that, while his controlling motives were not +perhaps such as one would most admire, his unconquerable hatred of +Merryweather's men and all their confederates might be relied on with +implicit confidence; so Pat was engaged as an employe of our Secret +Service Department, and sent outside the lines with a conspicuous +assurance, as he left his fellow-prisoners, that if found again within +our reach he would be hanged forthwith for a spy. I was riding on the +road he took, and he gave me a leering wink as he departed,--with +instructions to watch the movements of all guerilla bands in our front, +and to bring speedily any information he might obtain. + +During the remaining months of our stay he was almost ubiquitous. +Every scouting-party that we sent out in any direction, though entirely +without notice to him, was pretty sure to meet him with important +information, just when information was most needed. + +This part of his work was done perfectly, but he seemed to regard his +relation with us as a warrant for unending private iniquities. After +his own code of morals he was a strictly virtuous man, but his code was +of an extremely loose and pliable character. It is probably safe to say +that he never murdered a Union man, and that, unless sorely tempted by +the difference in value of the animals, he never forcibly exchanged +horses with a Union widow; neither, I believe, did he commit any +offence against a known Rebel when there was a probability of his being +found out and caught; but the complaints that came to us of the manner +in which he vented his private wrongs and carried on the feuds of his +ancestors gave us frequent annoyance. Sometimes it seemed necessary to +recall his commission and declare him an outlaw, but just then there +would transpire some particularly brilliant achievement that showed him +invaluable for our purposes. + +More than once, when our patrols reported the immediate presence of +the enemy, Pat would turn up with the assurance that it was only +so-and-so's "band," who had come into the neighborhood on a visiting or +a marauding expedition, but with no intention of putting themselves in +our way; and invariably we found his report to be correct. Indeed, so +frequently did this happen that we became almost too confident in his +assistance, and when an excitable picket shot at a donkey or a cow in +the night-time, although the patrol of the guard went through the usual +routine of investigation, we felt that there could be no serious attack +or Dixon would have notified us. + +How he obtained his information we could not guess, and his own +account of the matter was never satisfactory; but I believe that no +considerable force of the enemy ever crossed the Memphis and Charleston +Railroad (the whole State's width to the south of us) without our +being speedily notified; and through this means we were several times +enabled to telegraph to Columbus early information of contemplated +raids,--information that was not always heeded, as the surprise of +Paducah (on the Ohio River) several days after our warning sufficiently +proved. + +One ambition of this worthy man had to remain unsatisfied. How little +this was due to the fact that we at the headquarters were all perfectly +mounted, modesty makes it improper to state here; but in our frequent +meetings as we rode outside the lines, he rarely failed to tell of +some particularly fine horse belonging to some particularly bad man +and especially virulent Rebel, which it would really be a virtue to +"confisticate." The worthy fellow was not satisfied with his own +conspicuous appropriations; he would fain have mounted our regiments on +the weedy screws which the Rebel impressments had left for the horsing +of the crippled region of Western Tennessee. Possibly, too, he may have +had some lurking fear that there was a suspicion of iniquity in his +thefts, and longed for the reassurance of similar conduct on the part +of true men like ourselves. + +It was, of course, not long after the commencement of this active +campaign against the rights of ownership, that we began to receive +assurances on every hand that unless we could do something to repress +Pat Dixon's vagabondage an outraged people would take the law into +their own hands, and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With a +laudable desire to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, I told him one day of +the state of feeling against him, urging him to be more circumspect and +to conduct himself like a decent man, else he would be hanged the first +time he was caught; intimating, too, that it would be improper for us +to continue to employ him to such needless injury to an inoffensive +people. His reply was characteristic. + +"Inoffensive, _which_? Mebbe you know these people an' mebbe you +don't. I do! and a dern'der lot of unhung cutthroats an' hoss-thieves +you can't find nowheres. As for hangin', you needn't give yourself no +worryment 'bout that. They're safe enough to hang me if they ketch me, +an' I guess I sha'n't hang no higher if I go right on my own gait. If +you don't want to employ me you needn't; theys enough corn an' bacon in +th' Obion bottom to keep me awhile yet, and money ain't no 'count down +here; but, by King! if I kin git a chance to tell you anything that +them 'uns don't want you to know, you bet your skin I'll do it, an' you +kin trust me every time, for I ain't goin' to lie,--not to your side, +not if I know it. Why, you talk to me about inikities. I don't want to +do no man any hurt; but my old dad _he_ was _con_scripted, an' me an' +my brother Jake had to take to the bresh to save ourselves, an' then +Jake he was shot in cold blood right afore my eyes, an' I made up my +mind then an' there that I wouldn't give no quarter to the whole State +of West Tannisy till this war was over an' ther' was some stronger hand +than mine to do jestis an' to furnish revenge. That's all I've got to +say about it. You needn't give yourself no oneasiness 'bout my doin's, +I'll answer for the hull on 'em; an' p'r'aps the last thing you'll hear +of Pat Dixon will be that he's hangin' to a tree somewheres down Troy +way. I know I'm booked for that if I'm ketched, and till I am ketched +I'm goin' my own gait." + +We had become too much accustomed to this state of feeling among the +scanty Union population of the Southwest to be so shocked by it as we +ought to have been, and it was not without sympathy with Dixon's wrongs +that I let him go, with an earnest caution that he should mend his +ways, if only for his own sake. + +It remains only to say that he _did_ go his own gait, and that he went +it with a desperation and an _elan_ that I have never known equalled; +and that, months later, after our snug quarters at Union City had been +turned over to a feeble band of home-guards, word came that they had +been burned to the ground, and that Pat Dixon, betrayed at last into +the hands of the enemy, had been hanged in the woods near Troy. We +could find no fault with the retribution that had overtaken him; for, +viewed with the eyes of his executioners, he had richly merited it: but +we had learned to like him for his frank and generous qualities, and to +make full allowance for the degree to which his rough, barbaric nature +had been outraged and inflamed by the wrongs inflicted on his family. + + * * * * * + +A returning patrol one afternoon led to the parade-ground a sorry +horse drawing an open wagon in which were a man and a woman. The woman +had a cold-blooded, stolid look, and her eyes were filled with the +overflowing hatred we so often inspired among her sex at the South. Her +husband was dressed in black, and wore a rather scrupulously brushed +but over-old silk hat. In his hand was a ponderous and bulging cotton +umbrella. + +They had been taken "under suspicious circumstances" at a house a few +miles outside the lines,--the suspicion attaching only to the fact that +they were not members of the family and seemed to have no particular +business in that region. When asked for an explanation, the woman said +she had nothing to say but that her husband was a blind clergyman +intending to fulfil an engagement to preach, and that she had driven +him, as was her habit. He said nothing. It was a rule of our system to +follow Hoyle's instructions, and "when in doubt to take the trick": +this pair were remanded to the guard-house. + +As they turned away, the reverend gentleman said, in a feeble voice, +that if he could see me alone later in the evening, when he had +recovered from the shock of his capture, I might be willing to talk +with him. In the evening the Hun repaired to the dismantled warehouse +where the prisoners were lodged, to hold conversation with the +new-comers. When he came to the clergyman he found him so low spoken +that their talk fell almost to a whisper, but it was whispered that +he was to be taken alone, and subsequent disclosures led to his being +brought to headquarters. He there informed me that he was a minister +of the Methodist church, Canadian by birth and education, but married +to a lady of that region, and had been for some years engaged there in +his capacity as a circuit preacher. He was quite blind, and found it +impossible to make his rounds without being driven. + +His sympathies were with the North, and he was burning to make himself +useful in the only way left him by his infirmity. His wife was of +a suspecting disposition, and their peaceful consorting required +that she should always accompany him; but, unfortunately, she was a +violent secessionist, and he had been compelled, in the interest of +the peaceful consorting above named, to acknowledge sympathy with her +views, and to join her in her revilings of the Union army. + +All this made his position difficult, yet he believed that, if the +opportunity were given him, he could hide his intention even from her, +and could gather for us much useful information. + +He was a welcome visitor at the houses of the faithful, far and near, +and warmed their hearts with frequent and feeling exhortation, as he +gathered his little meetings at his nightly stopping-places. He was now +about starting for the southern circuit, and had appointments to preach +and to pray at every town between us and Bolivar. + +Evidently, if this man were honest in his intentions, he could be of +great service, but I suggested the difficulty that having once started +for an appointed round he could not return to bring us any information +he might receive. To this he replied that his wife believed him to be +in Forrest's service, and that he could at any time come as a spy into +our lines. + +It seemed a very questionable case, but, after consultation with Voisin +and the Hun, it was determined to give him a trial, to prevent his wife +from seeing more than was necessary of our position, and to believe so +much as we liked of the information he might give us. The conditions of +the engagement were agreed upon, and after a severe public admonition, +and threats especially appalling to his wife, he was sent outside the +lines, with hints of the serious consequences that would follow his +second capture. + +We were never quite sure that his wife was wrong in crediting him +with complicity with Forrest; but the worst that could be said of him +(and this was very likely true) was that he was pre-eminently a man +of peace, and if he gave information to both sides, it was always +information in compliance with the injunctions of his sacred calling. +The Rebel forces several times crossed into Tennessee, and came toward +us in numbers that indicated foul intentions, but, from the time +our pious friend first visited us, they invariably withdrew without +an engagement. Frequently small expeditions of our own forces went +scouting to the southward, and were checked and turned back by the +reports of this benevolent man. + +He may have kept us from the successful fulfilment of some bloody +intentions, but we had occasion to know from other sources that he +sometimes kept small detachments of our troops from falling in with +overpowering numbers of the enemy. Be the theory what it may, from +November until February there was no conflict of arms in all the +counties we traversed, and neither side advanced to within deadly range +of the other. + +The processes of this emissary were hidden and curious. He was +employed in a much more regulated manner than Dixon, and we generally +knew his whereabouts. Every interview had with him, either within our +own camp or when we were abroad, had to be so skilfully managed that no +suspicion, even in the eyes of his catlike wife, should attach to him. +He never came into our lines except as an unwilling prisoner, and was +never sent without them without dire admonition as to the consequences +of his return. + +On one occasion Pat Dixon reported that a detachment of Forrest's +command, about three hundred strong, had crossed the railroad and was +moving north in the direction of our camp. At this time the preacher +was near us, and I had an interview with him. He doubted the report, +but would investigate. I told him we would start the next day, with +five hundred men, in the direction of Trenton,--where he was to hold a +prayer-meeting at the house of one of Forrest's captains. The meeting +was held, and after it was over, the subject of the advance was talked +over very freely by the officers present, he sitting in a rapt state of +unconsciousness--his thoughts on higher things--at the chimney-corner. +Pleading an early appointment at McKenzie's Station for the following +day, he left as soon as the moon was up, and drove to the house of a +friend in the village. His wife supposed that he was coming with a +false report to lead us into a trap laid for us. + +We arrived at McKenzie's at one o'clock in the morning, after a +detestably cold, hard ride, and took up our quarters in a half-finished +and half-furnished house, where we struggled the whole night through in +the endeavor to get heat out of a fire of wet dead-wood. Early in the +morning the Hun started out, in his fiercest mood, with a small escort, +seeking for information and hunting up suspicious characters. At +breakfast-time he came upon a large family comfortably seated at table, +with our preacher and his wife as guests. + +He was asked to "sit by." "Thank you; I have come for more serious +business. Who is at the head of this house? I should like to see you +alone, sir." The trembling, invalided paterfamilias was taken into an +adjoining room, and put through the usual course of questions as to his +age, place of birth, occupation, condition as to literacy, the number +of negroes owned, the amount of land, what relatives in the Rebel army, +to what extent a sympathizer with the Rebellion, when he had last +seen any Rebel soldiers or scouts or guerillas or suspicious persons +of any description, and so on, through the tortuous and aggravating +list that only a lawyer could invent. Questions and answers were taken +down in writing. The sterner questions were spoken in a voice audible +to the terror-stricken family in the adjoining room. The man, of +course, communicated nothing, and probably knew nothing, of the least +consequence. He was sent to a third room and kept under guard. His case +disposed of, his wife was examined in like manner, and then the other +members of the family. Finally, the coast being clear, our emissary +was sent for. He came into the room chuckling with delight over +this skilful exercise of the art of deceit, in which he was himself +such an adept, and laying his hand on the Hun's arm, said, "My dear +fellow, I respect you. This has been the most brilliant dodge I ever +knew,--capital,--capital!" And he then went on to recount all that he +had heard the evening before. A large detachment of Forrest's command +was advancing under Faulkner's leadership, and they doubtless had by +this time a full report of our position, for he had met acquaintance on +the road who had reported it to him. If we were able to engage a body +of three thousand men without artillery, we might find them that night +in Trenton,--he was confident that that was about their number. + +The family were now notified that they had been guilty of a great +offence in harboring a known spy of the enemy; but they insisted +that they knew him only as a devout and active minister, and had no +suspicion, nor could they believe, that he had the least knowledge of +or interest in either army. With due warning as to the consequences +of a repetition of their crime, they were allowed to return to their +breakfast, and their guest was brought under guard to headquarters. + +Being satisfied, after a close examination of the report, that it +would be imprudent to remain so far from our camp, which could be best +reached from Trenton by another road, we left a party of observation, +and returned to Union City, directing our scout to go to the vicinity +of Trenton and bring to our detachment any information he might obtain. +Twelve hours after our arrival home, the detachment returned with the +news that Faulkner, with a large force, had moved toward Mayfield, +Kentucky, and the event proved that every item of the intelligence we +had received had been substantially correct. + +In this manner we were enabled to learn pretty definitely the +character of any movement of the enemy anywhere in Western Tennessee, +and so far as we had opportunity to investigate the reports they +generally proved to be essentially true. These two scouts were worth +more as a source of information, than would have been two regiments of +cavalry in active service. Sometimes our Methodist friend acted under +definite orders, but more often only according to his own judgment of +what was necessary. + +A few days before Christmas we received word that Forrest in person +was in Jackson, with a large force, and we moved against him with +nearly the whole body of our troops, under the command of old A. J. +himself. We reached Jackson at night, after three days' hard marching, +only to find that Forrest's army had left that morning, destroying +the bridges over the swollen rivers and making organized pursuit +impossible. We took up quarters for some days in the town, where we +enjoyed the peculiarly lovely climate of the "sunny South" with the +thermometer seven degrees below zero, six inches of snow on the ground, +and a howling wind blowing. Our own mess was very snugly entertained +at the house of a magnate, where we had an opportunity to study the +fitness of even the best Southern architecture for an Arctic winter +climate. + +On New Year's day, as we were sitting at a sumptuous dinner, and +mitigating so far as we could the annoyance to our hosts of being +invaded by a rollicking party of Northern officers, Voisin, who had +been called out, returned to the table to tell me that a man and a +woman would like to see me in my room. I was not prompt to respond, and +asked who they were. He replied, "O, who can tell? I suppose somebody +with a complaint that our men have 'taken some hams of meat' ["meat" +being the Tennessee vulgate for hog flesh only], or something of that +sort; the man seemed to have something the matter with his eyes." And +he gave me a large and expressive wink. + +Ensconced, with such comfort as large and rattling windows permitted, +before our blazing fire, sat our serene Methodist friend and his sullen +wife. Taking me aside, he told me that he had passed the previous +evening at a private house between Jackson and Bolivar in religious +exercises, which were attended by Forrest and officers of his command. +After the devotions there was much cheerful and unrestrained talk as +to the plans and prospects of the future campaign, disclosing the +fact that as there seemed no chance of doing efficient service in +Tennessee, the whole body would move at once to Central Mississippi +and operate in connection with the army in Georgia. This report, which +we had no reason to disbelieve, decided A. J. to abandon a difficult +and unpromising pursuit, and to return to Union City and Columbus. We +found, on our return, a communication from the headquarters at Memphis +to the effect that Forrest had crossed the railroad and gone far south +into Mississippi. + +We had no further service of importance or interest in this region. +"Jackson's Purchase" was thenceforward quite free from any considerable +body of the enemy; and when our clergyman found, a few weeks later, +that we were all ordered to the south, he came for a settlement of his +accounts, saying that he had been able to deceive his wife only up to +the time of our interview at Jackson, and as his life was no longer +safe in the country, he must depart for the more secure region of his +former home in Canada,--where let us hope that he has been allowed to +answer the behests of his sacred vocation with a mind single to his +pious duties, and that domestic suspicion no longer clouds his happy +hearthstone. + +Happily, neither A. J. nor Forrest himself had further occasion for his +peaceful intervention, the fortunate absence of which may have had to +do with the notable encounter between these two generals at Tupelo. + + + + +IN THE GLOAMING. + + +The sun had gone, and above the dreamy blue of the far-lying woods, +the early evening had hung the sky with mellow, summery, twilight +loveliness. + +The casements of the old house at Whittington glowed ruddy and warm +through their marvellous clustering ivy, and it was the idlest luxury +to hang over the crumbling road-wall, peopling its suggestive chambers +with the spirits of their long-gone tenants. It is a farm-house now, +and there is no available record to tell the stranger the story of +its more glorious days. No rigid history hampers the fancy, and the +strolling lover of the by-ways and roadsides of our dear Mother England +may let his imagination run with flowing rein, sweeping away the +hayricks and marigold beds, and calling back the peacocks and bagwigs +of the halcyon days. + +Perhaps for the last time in my life I was taking the breath of an +English twilight,--sweetest to those whose childhood and youth have fed +on the rhyme and tale the green old land has sent to her world-wide +brood, and who come, in riper life, to find the fancies of early years +warm and living on every side, in hedge and field, in cowslip and +primrose, in nightingale and lark. The thick-coming impressions such +musing brings are vague and dreamy, so that there seemed a shade of +unreality in the quiet voice that bade me "Good evening," and added, +"Yes, it is an engaging old house, and it has a story that you may be +glad to hear." + +It was not from perversity that I turned the subject, but no tale of +real life could have added interest to the fancies with which the old +manse had clad itself in the slowly waning day. Wayside impressions +lose their charm if too much considered, and, as my new companion was +walking toward Lichfield, I was glad to turn away and join him,--ending +a long day's tramp with the slow and quiet gait that his age compelled. +There was the least shade of the uncanny in his bearing, and his speech +was timorous and gentle. His threadbare and seedy look betokened a +native unthrift, but there was an undercurrent of refinement in his +mien and in his manner, and a trusting outlook from his large blue eyes +that made him the fittest of companions for a summer evening's walk in +a country filled with the mingled flavor of history and romance. + +He was a man of the intensest local training. To him "the County of +the City of Lichfield" was of more consequence than all Staffordshire +besides, and far more than all England and all that vague entity called +the World. Even the County of the City of Lichfield was large for his +concentrated attachment: he knew it as one must know a small town in +which he has passed the whole of a long life; but his heart lay within +the cathedral close, and the cathedral close lay deep within his +heart,--deep and warm, with its history and its traditions, its romance +and its reality, so interlaced that he had long since ceased to ask +what was real and what unreal. All was unreal in the sense of being of +more than worldly consequence in his estimation, and all real as a part +of the training of his whole life. + +To him Lichfield Cathedral was no mere pile of sculptured stone, built +round with the facts of recorded history; it was the fairy handiwork +of times and scenes long past, its walls raised by the hand of pious +enthusiasm, shattered and cemented by the strife and blood of the civil +war, hallowed by the returning glory of the Restoration, blessed by the +favor of royal presence, and now made admirable in his daily sight by +the dignity and grace of those holy men its dean and chapter. + +As it was the cathedral I had come to see, and as I had come for no +architect's measurements, for no student's lore, only to bathe in the +charmed atmosphere of its storied past, I had fallen upon a guide +after my own heart, and it was as pleasant as it was easy to lend full +credence to all he so honestly believed and told. + +In early life he had had gentler training, but he had long been a Poor +Brother of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Lichfield, and had, +for many years, held, by seniority, the right of presenting a rose, on +St. John's nativity day, to the heirs of William Juvenis (goldsmith), +who, by grants made in consideration of this ceremony, had secured +perennial prayers for the souls of his ancestors and a fragrant memory +for his own. + +Hedged about by the traditionary customs and quaint observances of an +ancient charitable foundation, deadened in a way, if you please, by the +aristocratic pauperism of his condition, my gentle companion had grown +to his present dreamy estate. + +As we reached Stow Pool, near the old parish church of St. Chad, he +pointed out the spring of pure water where, twelve hundred years ago, +this future Bishop of Lichfield--who during his hermit life supported +himself on the milk of a doe--was wont to pray naked in the water, +standing upon the stone still seen at the bottom of the well, and where +St. Ovin heard the angels sing as his good soul passed away. + +Then, with the trusting look of a little child, the Poor Brother went +on to tell of the virtues and good deeds of this holy life;--how +even the King of the Mercians, struck with remorse for the crimes he +had committed, visited the saint in person, yielded to his eloquent +persuasion, became a convert to the true faith, and banished all +idolatry from his realm; how he became the head of the church of +Lichfield and laid its strong foundations of piety and faith; and how +his virtues so outlived him that his very tomb swallowed the ill-humors +of diseased minds resorting to its serene presence, that the dust +from his grave healed all ills of man and beast, and that the shrine +built in his honor after his canonization was so sought by numberless +devotees that Lichfield itself began thereupon to increase and flourish. + +To our left, as he ceased, the evening's lingering glow gilded the +silent pool, where lay the unrippled reflection of the three spires of +the cathedral, hardly more unsubstantial than the fairy silhouette that +stood clean-cut against the sky, and dividing with the reality the rapt +admiration of the Poor Brother of St. John's. + +We stood by the water's edge, and he turned toward the phantom spires +reversed within it, his talk wandering back to the days of the church's +troubles,--when the cathedral close was a fortress, with strong walls +and well-filled moat; when the beautiful west gate, which only our +own age was vile enough to destroy, kept stout ward against the outer +world, and protected the favored community who formed within the walls +a county independent of Lichfield and of Staffordshire. Within the +sacred pale no law had force save that of the Ecclesiastical Court, and +then, as now, none could there be taken for debt or crime save on the +warrant of the dean and chapter. + +He knew by heart the long list of bishops, and would gladly have held +me to hear of the good deeds of Langton and Hackett. He was fairly +launched in his favorite enthusiasm, and told warmly the more striking +features of the church's history, but he told them rapidly lest I +should reach the storied pile with less than a full appreciation of its +traditional interest. + +From his nervous lips I learned how King Richard II. kept Christmas +revels here with a splendor that lavished two hundred tuns of wine, +and roasted two thousand oxen, whose bones are still found in Oxenbury +field hard by; how Elizabeth passed three whole days in the close; and +how the solidity of its fortification, the consummate grace and finish +of its architecture, the richness of its sculpture, and the surpassing +beauty and magnificence of the nine windows of its lady chapel marked +it as the crowning glory of the Western Church, until the dark days +of the Revolution lowered. Then its sore trials were recounted, and +I learned of the fanatical attack of Lord Brooke, "with his horde of +impious Roundheads," made by strange fatality on St. Chad's day; of the +shooting of Lord Brooke by "Dumb Dyott," who was perched in the steeple +with a fowling-piece that now hangs over the fireplace of Colonel +Dyott's house; of the surrender of the close by Lord Chesterfield; of +the sack and bout that followed; of the recapture by Prince Rupert. + +He told of the foul desecration by the Roundheads, who used every +species of havoc, plunder, and profanation,--pulling down the sacred +effigies which were the glory of the western front, hacking to pieces +the curious carvings of the choir, mashing the noses of the monumental +statues, destroying the valuable evidences and records of the church +and the city, shattering the glass of the costly windows,--save only +that of the marvellous nine of the lady chapel, which a pious care was +said to have removed to a place of safety. They kept courts of guard in +the cross aisles, broke up the pavements, and every day hunted a cat +with hounds throughout the church, delighting in the echoes from the +vaulted roof; they wrapped a calf in linen, and "in derision and scorn +of the sacrament of baptism," sprinkled it at the font and gave it a +name. + +How the King, after the defeat of Naseby, came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, +and passed the night in the close,--how Cromwell's defaming crew +completed the work of demolition and desecration, and smashed the old +bell called "Jesus," with its legend "I am the bell of Jesus, and +Edward is our King; Sir Thomas Heywood first caused me to ring,"--how, +finally, the chapter-house alone had a roof under which service might +be said,--how the good Hackett on the first day of his bishopric set +his own servants and his own coach-horses at work removing the rubbish, +and never tired until in eight years' time the magnificence of the +cathedral was restored, except for the forever irreparable loss of the +decorations, and especially of the lady chapel windows, which all the +cost of the restoration would not have sufficed to renew,--how the +church was reconsecrated with great pomp and solemnity,--all this he +told me in detail, and he would gladly have told more, for this Poor +Brother had made these few rich historic acres nearly his whole world, +and had peopled it with all who throughout the long ages had marred it +or had made it. To have given "two good trees" for the rebuilding of +the church was a title to his lasting and grateful recognition. + +But the light was fast waning, and the cathedral must be seen now or +perhaps never. It was already past the hour for closing, but one of +the vergers had formerly been a Poor Brother of St. John's, and my +companion went to him to secure our admission. + +I stood before the west front of the cathedral, which was then bathed +in the lingering light of the after-day, its great central window +gleaming as though the altar lamps were still burning behind it, and +the western spires almost losing themselves in the sky. The quaint +effigies that fill the niches across the whole facade lost their +grotesqueness in the dusk, and seemed really the sacred sculptures they +were meant to be. Fair though this rich front must be at high midday, +it needs for its full beauty the half-light of a Northern evening. As +seen on that rarest of all evenings, it was a fit introduction to the +subdued glory which greeted us in the dim religious light to which we +entered as the great central door closed behind us. + +We stood, uncovered and reverent, beneath the vaulted nave, looking +down the long curved aisle, bordered by the majesty of the clustered +columns, through the light illuminated screen of the choir, full upon +the sculptured and gem-set alabaster reredos, above and beyond which +stood the famed group of windows of the lady chapel, mellowed by the +light of the streaming full moon. + +Rich in the blended mosaic of the floor, in the dimmed canopy overhead, +in the lightly arched gallery of the triforium, in the mellow +cross-lights of the side windows, in the sombre carvings of the choir, +and above all in the marvellous glass of the chapel, it was the very +perfection of a worshipful church. + +It was too nearly dark to examine the details of the decoration, and we +wandered down the aisles, remarking here and there the bruised statues +of the tombs, and halting before the sleeping children of Chantrey to +marvel how much somnolent repose can be cut in chiselled stone. + +"But come," said the gentle Brother, "we have only light enough left +for the storied glass which alone of all the richness of the old church +outlived its desecration, and, as by a miracle, was preserved to tell +these later generations of the higher art our forefathers' sons forgot." + +As he spoke, we stood within the charmed light of the nine windows of +the apse,--windows which have perhaps no remaining equals in the world, +and before which one can only bow in admiration and regret for an art +that seems forever lost. Holding me fast by the arm, he went on:-- + +"In the restoration of the church, the spandrels of the old windows +were rebuilt, and the frames were set with plain glass, to the sad +defacement of the edifice; and so they stood for nigh two hundred +years, no art being equal to their worthy replacement, and no ancient +store to the supplying of so large a demand. + +"But listen, now, how the hand of Heaven sheltered its own, and how +true servants of the Church are ever guided to reclaim its lost +splendor. + +"A few years ago, a canon of the cathedral, travelling in Flanders, +wishing to contribute to the renewed work of restoration, visited the +dismantled convent of Herkenrode in the ancient bishopric of Liege. +Here he sought among the rubbish of the lumber-room for wood-carvings +which might be used in the rebuilding of the prebendal stalls. His +search discovered many boxes of colored glass, the origin of which no +one knew, and whose existence even had been forgotten. Thinking to +embellish some of the curious triangular windows above the triforium, +he purchased the whole store for two hundred pounds of our money, and +presented it to the dean and chapter as a tribute of affectionate +devotion to the cathedral. There was more than he had supposed, and the +large figures of some of the fragments indicated a coherent design. + +"This chapel was fenced off from the aisles, and here the canon's wife +and daughter, devoting themselves to the solution of the puzzle, slowly +pieced out the varying connections. They worked patiently for weeks, +with a steadily increasing excitement of success, until [and here his +grasp grew tremulous and close], lying collated on this pavement where +we stand, only a bit wanting here and there, marking the exact sizes +of the varied openings, the grand old Lichfield windows, perfect as +you see them now in this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich +forevermore the dear old church to whose glory they had shone in the +bygone centuries, and whose sore trials their absence had so long +recalled. + +"Kind stranger," said he, "this is a true tale. Sceptics have +questioned it, but it is true! true! And I thank Heaven that it has +been permitted to me, who have grown old in the love of this sacred +pile, to live to see, in this crowning act of its restoration, the +higher help the hand of man has had in performing its holy work." + +His upturned blue eyes were moistened with tears, and his voice +trembled with emotion. I led him gently away and to the doorstep of +the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted in silence, and +forever. + +Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train for Liverpool and home, +bringing with me an ideal Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have +been rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day. + + + + +FOX-HUNTING IN ENGLAND. + + +On entering the Regent Hotel at Leamington the first object that +attracts attention, after the stuffy old porter who hobbles about +to see some one else handle the luggage, is a small frame, over the +smoking coal-fire, which contains the following notice, decorated with +an old cut of a fox's mask:-- + + MERRY & CO.'S HUNTING APPOINTMENTS, AND GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENT COVERTS. + + December 30, 1872. + + WARWICKSHIRE,--at 10.45. + + _Days._ _Meet at_ _Miles._ _To go through_ + M. Goldicote House. 11. Wellerbourne and Loxley. + Tu. Radway Grange. 12. Tachbrook and Kineton. + W. Snitterfield. 7. Warwick and Stratford Road. + Th. Red Hill. 13. Warwick and Snitterfield. + F. Pebworth. 16. Warwick and Stratford. + + NORTH WARWICKSHIRE,--at 11. + + M. Solihull. 14. Warwick and Hatton. + Tu. Cubbington Gate. 2. Lillington. + Th. Stoneleigh Abbey. 4. On Kenilworth Road. + F. Tile Hill. 9. By Kenilworth Castle. + + PYTCHLEY,--at 10.45. + + M. Naseby. 26. Princethorpe and Rugby. + Tu. Hazlebeach. 31. Dunchurch and Crick. + W. Dingley. 33. Rugby and Swinford. + F. Cransley. 36. Maidwell. + S. Swinford. 19. Princethorpe and Rugby. + + ATHERSTONE,--at 11. + + M. Coombe. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + W. Harrow Inn Gate. 20. Coventry and Nuneaton. + F. Brinklow Station. 12. Bubbenhall and Wolston. + S. Corley. 14. Stoneleigh and Coventry. + + BICESTER,--at 10.45. + + M. Fenny Compton. 12. Radford and Ladbrook. + Tu. Trafford Bridge. 19. Southam and Wormleighton. + Th. Hellidon. 14. Southam and Priory Marston. + S. Steeple Claydon. 40. Gaydon and Banbury. + +Twenty-two meets in the week, all within easy reach, by road or +rail. Let us dine and decide. At table we will leave the _menu_ to +the waiter; but let him bring for consideration during the meal the +list of _meets_. "Brinklow Station, twelve miles"; that seems the most +feasible thing in the catalogue for the morrow, and who has not heard +that the Atherstone is a capital pack? But then the Pytchley is even +better known, and the train reaches Rugby in time for the meet. Let +the choice be decided with the help of coffee and cigars and possible +advice, during the soothing digestive half-hour in the smoking-room. +Dinner over, wander away through the tortuous, dim passage that leads +to the sombre hall where alone in English inns the twin crimes of +billiards and smoking are permitted, and, while writhing under the +furtive glances of the staid and middle-aged East-Indian who evidently +knows you for an American, and who is your only companion, decide, +with your nation's ability to reach conclusions without premises, +whether it shall be Pytchley or Atherstone. Don't ask your neighbor: +he is an Englishman, and have we not been told that Englishmen are +gruff, reticent men, who wear thick shells, and whose warm hearts can +be reached only with the knife of a regular introduction? However, you +must make up your mind what to do, and you need help which neither +the waiter nor the porter can give; the "gentlemanly clerk" does not +exist in England (thank Heaven!) and you have not yet learned what an +invaluable mine of information "Boots" is,--faithful, useful, helpful, +and serviceable to the last degree. I salute him with gratitude for +all he has done to make life in English hotels almost easier and more +home-like than in one's own house. It is safe to advise all travellers +to make him an early ally, to depend on him, to use him, almost to +abuse him, and, finally, on leaving, to "remember" him. Not yet having +come to know the Boots, I determined to throw myself on the tender +mercies of my stern, silent companion, and I very simply stated my +case. My stern, silent companion was an exception to the rule, and he +told me all I wanted to know (and more than I knew I needed to know) +with a cordiality and frankness not always to be found among the genial +smokers of our own hotels. His voice was in favor of the Atherstone as +being the most acceptable thing for the next day. + +Ford, the veterinary surgeon of Leamington, had, on several +occasions, done good service for friends who had gone before me over +the hedges of North Warwickshire, and I went to him for advice about a +mount. Here I found that I had made a mistake in not engaging horses in +advance. To get a "hunter" for the next day would be impossible, but +he would do what he could for a few days hence. All he could promise +for the morning would be to lend me a horse of his own, a thoroughbred +mare, not up to my weight, but tough and wiry, and good for any amount +of road-work. He kindly volunteered to arrange for our going by the +first train to Coventry, only a couple of miles from Brinklow (it +turned out to be nine miles), so that we should arrive fresh on the +ground. At seven o'clock in the morning he came to my room to say +that everything was arranged, and that I should find the mare at the +station in an hour. Swallowing a glass of milk as a stay-stomach,--my +usual habit,--I put myself, for the first time since the war ended, +into breeches and boots, and drove to the station. On a turn-out stood +a "horse-box," one of the institutions of England,--a three-stabled +freight-car for the transportation of horses. Paying five shillings for +a horse-ticket to Coventry (only twice the cost of my own seat), I saw +the mare snugly packed into one of the narrow stalls and made fast for +the journey. Passing through a beautiful farming country, we came in +due time to the quaint old town of Coventry, where several horse-boxes, +coming from Birmingham and other stations, were discharging their +freight of well-bred hunters. As we rode from this station another +hard-shelled Englishman in brown top-boots and spotless white leather +breeches accosted me pleasantly, reminding me that we had come from +London together the day before, and asking, as he had recognized me for +an American, if he could be of service to me. + +"Pray how did you know that I am from America?" + +"Only by your asking if you should change 'cars' at Rugby. An +Englishman would have said 'carriages.'" + +"Very well; I am glad my ear-mark was no greater. Can you direct me to +a hotel where I can get a bite before I go on?" + +"Certainly: you will find the Angel very comfortable; take the next +street to the right, and you will soon reach it. Good morning; it is +nine miles to the meet, and I will move on slowly. Command me if I can +help you when you come up." + +I did find the Angel comfortable, (as what English inn is not?) and +soon fortified myself with cold pheasant and sherry,--a compact +and little-burdensome repast to ride upon,--served in a cosey old +coffee-room by the neatest and most obliging of handmaidens. + +On the road I fell in with straggling groups of horsemen, in red coats +and black coats, leather breeches and cords, white tops and black; +all neat and jaunty, and all wearing the canonical stove-pipe hat. My +little mare was brisk, and I had no hard riding to save her for, so I +passed a dozen or more of the party, getting from each one some form or +other of pleasant recognition, and finally from a handsome young fellow +on a very spicy mount, "Excuse me, are you going to Brinklow? You must +turn to the right." + +Confound these Englishmen, thought I, where is their traditional +coldness and reserve? And I reined up for a chat. + +My companion came from the vicinity of Birmingham. Like so many of +his class, he devotes three days a week to systematic hunting, and +he was as enthusiastic as an American boy could have been in telling +me all I wanted to know about the sport. To get hold of a grown man +who had never seen a foxhound seemed an event for him, and my first +instructions were very agreeably taken. Our road ran past the beautiful +deer-stocked park of Coombe Abbey, where the green grass of a moist +December and the thick clustering growth of all-embracing ivy carried +the fresh hues of our summer over the wide lawn and to the very tops +of the trees about the grand old house. The few villages on our way +were neither interesting nor pleasant, but the thatched farm-houses and +cottages, and the wonderful ivy, and the charming fields and hedges +were all that could have been asked. + +And then the roadsides! and the stiles and the foot-paths, and the +look of age and the richness of the well-kept farms; and again and +everywhere the ivy clinging fast to each naked thing, and clothing it +with luxuriant beauty! + +There is in all our hearts an inherited chord that thrills in the +presence of this dear old home of our race. Not this spot and not these +scenes, but the air, the tone, the spirit of it all,--these are as +familiar to our instincts as water to the hen-brooded duckling. + +Brinklow Station has the modern hideousness and newness of railroad +stations everywhere in country neighborhoods, and it was pleasant to +leave it behind and follow the gay crowd down a sloping and winding +road into the real country again, and into a handsome and well-kept +park, beyond which there stood a fine old house of some pretension, and +well set about with terraced lawn and shrubbery,--a charming English +country-seat. + +Here my eyes were greeted with the glory of my first "meet," and a +glory it was indeed! Pictures and descriptions had suggested it, but +they had only suggested it. This was the reality, and it far exceeded +my anticipation. The grounds were fairly alive with a brilliant +company of men and women,--happy and hearty, and just gathered for the +day's sport. Red coats, white breeches, and top-boots were plenty, +and the neat holiday air of the whole company was refreshing and +delightful. Scattered about singly and in groups, mounted, on foot, +and in carriages, were a couple of hundred people of all ages and of +all conditions. Chatting from the saddle and over carriage-doors, +lounging up and down the Drive, or looking over the hounds, the +company were leisurely awaiting the opening of the ball. They had +come from a circuit of twenty miles around, and they appeared to be +mainly people who habitually congregate at the cover-side throughout +the hunting-season, and to be generally more or less acquainted with +each other. The element of coquetry was not absent; but coquetry is +apparently not a natural product of the English soil, and that sort +of intercourse was not conspicuous. The same number of handsome young +men and women would be more demonstrative at a similar gathering +in America. A similar gathering, however, would not be possible in +America. We have no occasion on which people of all sorts come so +freely and so naturally together, interested in a traditional and +national sport, which is alike open to rich and poor, and meeting, +not for the single occasion only, but several times a week, winter +after winter, often for many years. Noblemen, gentlemen, farmers, +manufacturers, professional men, snobs, cads, errand-boys,--everybody, +in short, who cared to come seemed to have the right to come, and, so +far as the hunt was concerned, seemed to be on an equal footing. Of +course the poorer element was comparatively small, and mainly from the +immediate neighborhood. The _habitues_ of a hunt are seldom below the +grade of well-to-do farmers. Servants from the house were distributing +refreshments, riders were mounting their hunters, grooms were adjusting +saddle-girths, too fiery animals were being quieted, and there was +generally an air of preparation about the whole assemblage. + +A little at one side, kept well together by the huntsman and a couple +of whippers-in, were the hounds (the Atherstone pack), about forty of +them, or, technically, "twenty couples," strong-limbed, large-eared, +party-colored, wholesome-looking fellows. They attracted much attention +and elicited frequent commendation, for they were said to be the very +finest pack in England,--as was also each of the three other packs that +I saw. To the unskilled eye, and simply viewed as dogs, they were not +remarkable; but it was a case in which the judgment of an unskilled +person could have no value. + +The horses appealed to me much more strongly. Certainly I had never +before seen together the same number of the same average excellence; +and some of them were fit to drive one wild with envy. There was, on +the whole, less of the "blood" look than would be expected by a man who +had got his ideas of the hunting-field from Leech's drawings, but there +was a good deal of it, nevertheless, and in its perfection too; and +where it was wanting there was plenty of bone to make up for it. + +At eleven the hounds were led out to the cover, and the whole field +followed slowly and irregularly and at some distance. There were about +one hundred and fifty mounted for the hunt. Perhaps one third of these +wore scarlet coats, white breeches, and top-boots; another third had +black coats and some of them black boots; and the remainder of the +field was made up of half a dozen ladies, a few stout old gentlemen of +seventy or so on stout old cobs of discreet age, little boys on smart +ponies, farmers and tradesmen and their clerks mounted on whatever they +could get, and men of every intermediate grade, and with all sorts of +horses. A certain amount of riff-raff, not mounted at all, but good +on their pins and ready for a run, were hanging about for a chance to +pick up a whip or a hat, or to catch a horse, or brush a muddy coat, or +turn an honest shilling in any way that might offer in the chances of +the day. Some of these fellows, rigged out with the cast-off clothing +of their betters, sported red coats, black velvet caps, and leather +leggings. One added to all this gorgeousness the refinement of bare +feet. + +The hounds were taken into the cover, a brambly, tangled wood near by, +which had probably been planted and made a little wilderness to serve +as a cover for foxes. + +They soon found a fox, drove him to the open, and followed him out of +the wood with a whimpering sort of cry which was disappointing after +the notion that the "full cry" of the books had given, and which is +heard in the very different fox-hunting of our Southern woods. The run +lay up a steepish hill, several fields wide and across an open country. +One bold rider (not a light one), mounted on a staving black horse, +went to the right of the cover, and made a splendid leap up hill, +over a stiff-looking hedge, and landed at the tail of the pack. The +"master" and his assistants had got away with the hounds. The rest of +the field went to the left, waiting their turns, through a farm-gate. +Once through, some twenty of them dashed up the hill, cleared a clever +hedge, and kept the pack in sight. The rest took an easier place, +where a farm laborer had pulled away the stakes by which a gap had +been filled. Here there was much very light jumping, and much more of +waiting until predecessors had made it lighter. In the mean time other +gaps were found, and it was not many minutes before all were through; +but during these minutes the fox, the hounds, and the harder riding men +were putting a wide space between themselves and us, who were at the +tail of the field. Yet there were some in the party who did not look +like laggards, and whose horses were good enough for any work such a +country could give them. + +Even when across the gap, these men went with the rest of us, by +gates and lanes, toward a point to which it was thought by the knowing +ones that the fox would double,--and the knowing ones were right. +Gradually, as their judgment indicated, they left the roads and took to +the fields. This course was taken by three well-mounted young ladies. +I followed the gate-openers for about half an hour, when, coming out +on a high-road, I concluded that, with seventeen miles to ride home, +it was only just to my little mare to give the thing up and head for +Leamington. The hounds were far away on my right and quite out of sight. + +Having come to look on and learn, I had probably seen and heard all +that day had in store for me,--surely enough for one's first day at +fox-hunting. When I had ridden for a few minutes I saw, far across +the fields, that the hounds had turned to the left and were making +for my road. Pressing forward, I came up in time to see them cross to +the front, and go scurrying away over the grass, nosing out the scent +as they ran. There had been a check, and "the field" was well up. The +road was lower than the fields, and was bordered by a ditch at each +side. From this the ground rose a little, and on each bank stood a +three-and-a-half-foot thorn hedge. Neither leap was difficult, but the +one out of the road was not easy. Here I sat and saw fully a hundred +horsemen, dressed in the gay colors of the hunting-field and mounted +as men rarely are mounted out of England, all, horses as well as men, +eager and excited in the chase, flying over hedge and ditch into the +carriage-way and over ditch and hedge into the higher field, beyond +and away, headlong after the hounds, every man for himself, and every +man for the front, and on they went over another hedge, and out of +sight. In the thick of the flight were two ladies, riding as well and +as boldly as the men, and two men were brushing their hats in the road, +their empty saddles keeping well up with the run. More than satisfied +with this climax of my first day's experience, I trotted out for home. +The result of the run I never heard, and I leave its description where +I lost sight of it. A mile farther on I did see a fagged-looking fox +making his rapid way across my road again, and sneaking off under the +hedge toward a thicket, and I halted to listen to what sounded like the +horn of a huntsman at check over the hill to the left; but possibly the +conclusion I drew was not a correct one. + +I wish that words could give an idea of the life and action of the +headlong flight I had just seen; but the inadequacy of all I had read +to convey it to me makes it seem useless to try. Photography and +description may, in a measure, supply the place of travel; but he who +would realize the most thrilling intensity of eager horsemanship must +stand in a hedge-bound English lane, and see with his own eyes, and +for the first time in his life, a hundred gayly dressed and splendidly +mounted fox-hunters flashing at full speed across his path; and it is +worth the while to see. + +Rain never fell on a more lovely country than that part of Warwickshire +through which my wet way lay. For ten miles of the seventeen it rained, +gently as it rains with us in April; nor is our grass more green in +April than this was in Christmas week. The all-prevailing ivy was +filled with berries, and the laurustinus was already in bloom. + +No born Englishman could have cared less for the soaking rain; and, +wet to the skin, tired to the bone, and stiff to the marrow, I have +rarely been more exuberant than when I gradually regained the use of my +legs in the half-mile walk to the hotel, resolving that not even the +glories of American citizenship should ever keep me away from England +in winter were I only able to afford the luxury of regular hunting. But +the exuberance was moral rather than physical. I had not been so tired +for years,--stiff as an old horse, after over thirty miles of really +hard riding (the last seventeen miles in two hours). The cure was a +hot bath and a dish of hot soup, followed by a log-like sleep of two +hours on a sofa before a blazing hot fire, a sharp half-hour's walk, +a very plain dinner, and a couple of hours' chat with my interested +East-Indiaman in the smoking-room: the cure was complete; and all that +was left of the day's sport was its brilliant recollection. + + * * * * * + +My second day was near Stratford-on-Avon,--on _Ay_-von, the misguided +English call it. The meet was to be at Goldicote House, one of the +"fixtures" of the Warwickshire Hunt. There were about a hundred +persons, including a few ladies, and one little bareheaded "blue-coat" +school-boy (from Charles Lamb's school), who, with his folded umbrella, +long skirt, low shoes, and yellow hose, was in for as much sport as +his Christmas holiday could give him. As a farther penalty for want of +forethought, I was reduced to riding a friend's coach-horse. However, +the reduction was not great, for whether by early instruction or by +inheritance, he was more than half a hunter, and gave me a capital +look at the whole day's chase; while his owner, on a most charming +black blood mare, being out of condition for hard riding, kindly +applied himself to urging me to severer work than one likes to do +with a borrowed horse. He introduced me to a venerable old gentleman +in a time-and-weather-stained red coat, velvet cap, and well-used +nether gear, mounted on a knowing-looking old gray, and attended by +his granddaughter. He could not have been less than eighty years old, +and his days of hard riding were over; but constant hunting exercise +every winter for over sixty years had protected him wonderfully well +against the ravages of time, and it is rare to see an American of +sixty so hale and hearty, and so cheerful and jolly. I was told that +if I would take him for my leader, I would see more of the run than I +could in any other way with such a mount as I had. He seemed to know +the habits of the foxes of South Warwickshire as thoroughly as he did +every foot-path and gate of the country, and he led us by cross-cuts to +the various points to which Reynard circled, so that we often had the +whole field in sight. It was not an especially interesting day, and the +fox got away at last, among a tangle of railway lines that blocked our +passage. My old mentor, who had given me much valuable instruction in +the details of hunting, was vastly disgusted at the result, and broke +out with, "Ah! it's all up with old England, I doubt; these confounded +railways have killed sport. There's no hunting to be had any longer, +for their infernal cutting up the country in this way. I've hunted with +these hounds under fifteen different masters, but I've about done, and +I sha'n't lose much,--it's all up. However, I suppose we could never +pay the interest on the national debt without the railways; but it's +all up with hunting." At that, he called away the young lady, bade me +a melancholy "good-by," and rode half sadly home. I galloped back to +Stratford with my handsome old host,--a little more knowing in the ways +of the field, but without yet having had a fair taste of the sport. + + * * * * * + +Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal little village of +Wansford, near the borders of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, +perhaps, the only remaining old posting-inn in England that is kept up +in the unchanged style of the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are +gone, but the posting-stables are filled with hunters; the travelling +public have fled to the swifter lines, and Wansford is forever deserted +of them; but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and Tom Percival, +who boasts that he has had the Princess Victoria for a guest, and has +slept five dukes in one night, has little occasion to complain of +neglect. The good wine that needs no bush still makes his cellar known, +and no one should criticise English cooking until he has dined once at +the Haycock. Nowhere is the inn-maid of whom we have read so much to be +found in such simple, tidy, and courtesying perfection; and nowhere, in +short, can one find so completely the solid comfort of hostelry life. +Half old farm-house and half wayside-inn; with a marvellous larder, +through whose glass-closed side the guest sees visions of joints and +jams and pastry in lavish profusion; backed by a stable-yard where boys +are always exercising good horses; and flanked by a yardful of quaint +clipped yews,--the old house at Wansford (in spite of its dull-looking +road front) is worth a visit from those who would get out of the sight +and sound of steam, and see the old, old country life of England. +The visitor is not numbered and billeted and pigeon-holed, as in the +modern hotel; but the old fiction of host and guest is well kept up. +Your coming should be announced in advance; and you are received as +in some sort a member of the family, whose ways are made to conform +more or less to the wishes of yourself and your convives, mainly young +swells from London, who are few, and who are there, as you are, not for +business, but for rest, good living, and regular sport. Three packs +of hounds are within reach; and on the days when none of the meets is +near, there is always the "larking"--the training of young horses--to +supply a good substitute, so far as the riding goes. One who cares for +hunting pure and simple, rather than for the gayer life of Leamington +and Cheltenham, cannot do better than to make the season, or a part of +it, at the Haycock, with regularly engaged horses for as many days in +the week as he may choose to ride. It costs,--but it pays. One is none +the less welcome among the guests for being an American. + +I there had a day with the George Fitz William hounds. Not being, as +yet, quite at home in the field, I took a wise old horse, "Cock Robin," +who was well up to my weight, and who, as Percival told me, would +teach me more than I could teach him. He was sent on early with the +other hunters, and I took a "hack" to ride to cover. We were a party +of four, and we went through the fields and the lawns and the rain, +to where the meet was fixed for eleven o'clock, at Barnwell Castle, a +fine old Norman ruin,--square and low, with four large corner towers +draped in magnificent ivy. It was a dreary morning, and not more than +sixty were out; but among these, as always, there were ladies, and +there was more than the usual proportion of fine horses. One cover +was drawn blank, and we moved to another, where a fox was found, and +whence the run was sharp and too straight for a prudent novice to see +very much of it; and it was some minutes before Cock Robin and his +rider came up with the hounds, who had come to a check in a large wood. +Throughout the day there was a good deal of waiting about different +covers, between which the fox ran back and forth. Finally he broke away +for a long, quick burst over the fields, which lay to the left of a +farm-road down which we were riding, and which was flanked by a high +and solid-looking hedge. Near the head of the party was a well-mounted +blonde of seventeen, who had hitherto seemed to avoid the open country +and to keep prudently near to her mother and her groom. The sight of +the splendid run, fast leaving us behind, was too much for her, and she +turned straight for the hedge, clearing it with a grander leap than I +had seen taken that day, and flying on over hedges and ditches in the +direct wake of the hounds. A young German who followed her said, as +we rode back to the Haycock, "It is vort to come from America or from +Owstria to see zat lofely Lady ---- go over ze cowntry"; and it was. + +Luck often favors the timid; Cock Robin and I were quite alone--he +disgusted, and I half ashamed with my prudence--when the fox, who had +found straight running of no avail, came swerving to the right over +the crest of a distant hill, closely followed by the hounds, and, in +splendid style, by the first flight of the field. Soon he crossed a +brook which was fenced in with rails, and the horsemen all had to make +a long detour, so that I, who had been last, now became first. I had +the fox and the hounds all to myself; my horse was fresh, and the way +was easy. My monopoly lasted only a moment, but it was not a moment of +tranquillity. Finding an open gate and bridge, I followed the pack into +a large low field, surrounded on three sides by the wide brook. The fox +was turned by this and ran to the right along the bank; at the corner +of the field he turned again to the right, still keeping by the edge of +the stream; this gave the hounds an immense advantage, and cutting off +the angle, they came so closely upon him that with still another turn +of the brook ahead of him, he had but one chance for his life, and that +was a desperate one for a tired fox to consider. He did not consider, +but went slap at the brook, and cleared it with a leap of nearly twenty +feet. The foremost hounds whimpered for a moment on the bank before +they took to the water, and when they were across Reynard was well out +of sight, and they had to nose out his trail afresh. He brought them +again to a check, and finally, after half an hour's skirmishing, he ran +down a railway cutting in the wake of a train, and got away. + +Incidentally, here was an opportunity for an English gentleman to show +more good temper and breeding than it is one's daily lot to see. He was +one of a bridgeful of horsemen watching the hounds as they vainly tried +to unravel the fox's scent from the bituminous trail of the locomotive, +when, full of eager curiosity, one of the ladies, middle-aged and not +"native and to the manner born," but not an American, rode directly +on to his horse's heels. To the confusion of my lady, the horse, like +a sensible horse as he was, resented the attack with both his feet. +His rider got him at once out of the way, and then returned, bowing +his venerable head in regretful apology, and trusting that no serious +harm had been done. "How can you ride such a kicking brute!" was the +gracious acknowledgment of his forbearance. + +In this storied little island one is never for long out of the presence +of places on the traditions of which our life-long fancies have been +fed. Our road home lay past the indistinct mass of rubbish, clustered +round with ivy and with the saddest associations, which was once +Fotheringay Castle; and as we turned into the village my companions +pointed out the still serviceable but long-unused "stocks" where the +minor malefactors of the olden time expiated their offences. + +We reached the Haycock at three, a moist but far from unpleasant body +of tired and dirty men, having ridden, since nine in the morning, over +fifty-five miles, mostly in the rain, and often in a shower of mud +splashed by galloping hoofs. By six o'clock we were in good trim for +dinner, and after dinner for a long, cosey talk over the events of the +day, and horses and fox-hunting in general. My own interest in the +sport is confined mainly to its equestrian side, and I am not able to +give much information as to its details. Any stranger must be impressed +with the firm hold it has on the affections of the people, and with the +little public sympathy that is shown for the rare attempts that are +made to restrict its rights. + +It would seem natural that the farmers should be its bitter +opponents. It can hardly be a cheerful sight, in March, for a thrifty +man to see a crowd of mad horsemen tearing through his twenty acres of +well-wintered wheat, filling the air with a spray of soil and uprooted +plants. But let a non-riding reformer get up after the annual dinner +of the local Agricultural Association and suggest that the rights of +tenant-farmers have long enough lain at the mercy of their landlord and +his fox-hunting friends, with the rabble of idle sports and ruthless +ne'er-do-weels who follow at their heels, and that it is time for them +to assert themselves and try to secure the prohibition of a costly +pastime, which leads to no good practical result, and the burdens of +which fall so heavily on the producing classes,--and then see how his +brother farmers will second his efforts. The very man whose wheat was +apparently ruined will tell him that in March one would have said the +whole crop was destroyed, but that the stirring up seemed to do it +good, for he had never before seen such an even stand on that field. +Another will argue that while hunting does give him some extra work in +the repair of hedges and gates, and while he sometimes has his fields +torn up more than he likes, yet the hounds are the best neighbors he +has; they bring a good market for hay and oats, and, for his part, he +likes to get a day with them himself now and then. Another raises a +young horse when he can, and if he turns out a clever fencer, he gets a +much larger price for him than he could if there were no hunting in the +country. Another has now and then lost poultry by the depredations of +foxes, but he never knew the master to refuse a fair claim for damages; +for his part, he would scorn to ask compensation; he likes to see the +noble sport, which is the glory of England, flourishing, in spite of +modern improvements. At this point, and at this stage of the convivial +cheer, they bring in the charge at Balaklava, and other evidences that +the noble sport, which is the glory of old England, breeds a race of +men whose invincible daring always has won and always shall win her +honor in the field;--and Long live the Queen, and Here's a health to +the Handley Cross Hunt, and Confusion to the mean and niggardly spirit +that is filling the country with wire fences and that would do away +with the noble sport which is the glory of old England! Hear! hear!! +And so it ends, and half the company, in velvet caps, scarlet coats, +leathers and top-boots, will be early on the ground at the first meet +of the next autumn, glad to see their old cover-side friends once more, +and hoping for a jolly winter of such healthful amusements and pleasant +intercourse as shall put into their heads and their hearts and into +their hearty frames and ruddy faces a tenfold compensation for the +trifling loss they may sustain in the way of broken gates and trampled +fields. + +I saw too little to be able to form a fair opinion as to the harm +done; but when once the run commences no more account is made of wheat, +which is carefully avoided when going at a slow pace, than if it were +so much sawdust; fences are torn down, and there is no time to replace +them; if gates are locked, they are taken off the hinges or broken; if +sheep join the crowd in an enclosure and follow them into the road, no +one stops to see that they are returned: we are after the hounds, and +sheep must take care of themselves. I saw one farmer, in an excited +manner, open the gates of his kitchen-garden and turn the hounds and +twenty horsemen through it as the shortest way to where he had seen the +fox go; his womenfolk eagerly calling "Tally-ho!" to others who were +going wrong. I have never seen a railroad train stopped because of the +conductor's interest in a passing hunt, but I fancy that is the only +thing in England that does not stop when the all-absorbing interest is +once awakened. + +Whatever may be the effect on material interests, the benefit of this +eager, vigorous, outdoor life on the health and morals of the people +is most unmistakable. Such a race of handsome, hale, straight-limbed, +honest, and simple-hearted men can nowhere else be found as in the wide +class that passes as much of every winter as is possible in regular +fox-hunting; and to make an application of their example, we could well +afford to give over many of our fertile fields to ruthless destruction, +and many of our fertile hours to the most senseless sport, if it would +only replace our dyspeptic stomachs, sallow cheeks, stooping shoulders, +and restless eagerness with the hale and hearty and easy-going life +and energy of our English cousins. Hardly enough women hunt in England +to constitute an example; but those who do are such models of health +and freshness as to make one wish that more women had the benefit of +such amusement both there and here. It is very common to see men of +over sixty following the hounds in the very _elite_ of the field; they +seem still in the vigor of youth. At seventy many are yet regular at +their work; and it is hardly remarkable when one finally hangs up his +red coat only at the age of eighty. Considering all this, it almost +becomes a question whether, patriotism to the contrary notwithstanding, +it would not be a good thing for a prosperous American, instead of +settling down at the age of forty-five to a special partnership and a +painful digestion, to take a smaller income where it would bring more +comfort, and by a judicious application of the pig-skin to rehabilitate +his enfeebled alimentation. + +Fox-hunting is a costly luxury if one goes well mounted and well +appointed. It can hardly be made cheap, even when one lives in his +own house and rides his own horses. With hotel bills and horse-hire, +it costs still more. As an occasional indulgence it is always a good +investment. My own score at the Haycock was as follows,--by way of +illustration, and because actual figures are worth more than estimates. +(I was there from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, went out +with a shooting-party on Friday, dined out on Friday night, and hunted +on Saturday.) + + THE HAYCOCK INN. + + L _s._ _d._ + Jan. 2. Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Bed and fire, 3 6 + " 3. Breakfast, 2 6 + Apartments,[A] bed and fire, 5 0 + Attendance,[B] 1 6 + Jan. 4. Breakfast, 2 6 + Dinner and wine, 10 6 + Apartments, bed and fire, 5 6 + Attendance, 1 6 + " 5. Breakfast, 2 6 + + STABLE. + + Conveying luggage from station, 2 6 + Dog-cart to Sharks Lodge, 10 6 + " " " Oundle, 12 6 + " " " Peterborough, 8 0 + + THOMAS PERCIVAL. + + Jan. 4. Hire of hunter to Barnwell, 4 4 0 + " hack " " 10 6 + +[A] The run of the house. + +[B] We are apt to consider this a petty swindle, but it has the +advantage that you get what you pay for. + +Eight pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; which being interpreted +means $47.30 in the lawful currency of the United States. The hunter +and hack for one day cost $23.52. + +An American friend living with his family in Leamington (much more +cheaply than he could live at home), kept two hunters and a hack, and +hunted them twice a week for the whole season (nearly six months) at a +cost, including the loss on his horses, which he sold in the spring, of +less than $1,500. I think this is below the average expense. + +The cost of keeping up a pack of hounds is very heavy. The hounds +themselves, a well-paid huntsman, two or three whippers-in, two +horses a day for each of these attendants (hunting four days a week, +this would probably require four horses for each man), and no end of +incidental expenses, bring the cost to fully $20,000 per annum. This is +sometimes paid wholly or in part by subscription and sometimes entirely +by the Master of the Hounds. One item of my friend's expenses at +Leamington was a subscription of ten guineas each to the Warwickshire, +North Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Pytchley hunts. Something of this +sort would be necessary if one hunted for any considerable time with +any subscription pack, but an occasional visitor is not expected to +contribute. + +A stranger participating in the sport need only be guided by common +modesty and common-sense. However good a horseman he may be, he cannot +make a sensation among the old stagers of the hunting-field. Probably +he will get no commendation of any sort. If he does, it will be for +keeping out of the way of others,--taking always the easiest and safest +road that will bring him well up with the hounds, not flinching when a +desperate leap must be taken, and following (at a respectful distance) +a good leader, rather than trying to take the lead himself. However +promising the prospect may be, he had better not do anything on his own +hook; if he makes a conspicuous mistake, he will probably be corrected +for it in plainer English than it is pleasant to hear. + + * * * * * + +One of the memorable days of my life was the day before New-Year's. +Ford had secured me a capital hunter, a well-clipped gelding, over +sixteen hands high, glossy, lean, and wiry as a racer. "You've got +a rare mount to-day, sir," said the groom as he held him for me to +get up; and a rare dismount I came near having in the little measure +of capacity with which Master Dick and I commenced our acquaintance, +before we left the Regent. He was one of those horses whose spirits +are just a little too much for their skins, and all the way out he +kept up a restless questioning of his prospect of having his own way. +Still he was in all this, as in his manner of doing his work when he +got into the open country, such a perfect counterpart of old Max, who +had carried me for two years in the Southwest, that I was at home at +once. If I had had a hunter made to order, I could not have been more +perfectly suited. + +The meet (North Warwickshire) was at Cubbington Gate, only two miles +from Leamington, and a very gay meet it was. The road was filled with +carriages, and there was a goodly rabble on foot. About three hundred, +in every variety of dress, were mounted for the hunt, a dozen or so +of ladies among them. Three of these kept well up all day, and one of +them rode very straight. The hounds were taken to a wood about a mile +to the eastward of Cubbington, where they soon found a fox, which led +us a very straight course to Princethorpe, about three miles to the +northeast. + +I had done little fencing for seven or eight years, and the sort +of propulsion one gets in being carried over a hedge is sufficiently +different from the ordinary impulses of civil life to suggest at first +the element of surprise. Consequently, though our initial leap was a +modest one, I landed with only one foot in the stirrup and with one +hand in the mane; but I now saw that Dick was but another name for Max, +and this one moderate failure was enough to recall the old tricks of +the craft. As the opportunity would perhaps never come again, this one +was not to be neglected, and I resolved to have one fair inside view +of real fox-hunting. Dick was clearly as good a horse as was out that +day; the leaping was less than that to which we were used among the +worm-fences, fallen timber, and gullies of Arkansas and Tennessee; and +there was but a plain Anglo-Saxon name for the only motive that could +deter me from making the most of the occasion. Mr. Lant, the Master of +the Hounds, was not better mounted for his lighter weight than was I +for my fourteen stone; and his position as well as his look indicated +that he would probably go by the nearest practicable route to where the +fox might lead, so we kept at a safe distance behind him and well in +his wake. The hesitation and uncertainty which had at first confused my +bridle-hand being removed, my horse, recognizing the changed position +of affairs, settled down to his work like a well-trained and sensible +but eager beast as he was. From the covert to Princethorpe we took +seven fences and some small ditches, and we got there with the first +half-dozen of the field, both of us in higher spirits than horse and +rider ever get except by dint of hard going and successful fencing. + +Here there was a short check, but the fox was soon routed out again and +made for Waveley Wood, a couple of miles to the northwest. + +Waveley Wood is what is called in England a "biggish bit of timber," +and the check here was long enough to allow the whole field to come up. +As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, "Tally-ho!" was called from +the other side of the cover, and we splashed through a muddy cart-road +and out into the open just as the hounds were well away. Now was a ride +for dear life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy ground would +allow. In front of us was a "bullfinch" (a neglected hedge, out of +which strong thorny shoots of several years' growth have run up ten or +twelve feet above it). I had often heard of bullfinches, and no hunting +experience could be complete without taking one. It was some distance +around by the gate, the pace was strong, and the spiny fringe had just +closed behind Mr. Lant's red coat as he dropped into the field beyond. +"Follow my leader" is a game that must be boldly played; so, settling +my hat well down, holding my bridle-hand low, and covering my closed +eyes with my right elbow, with the whip-hand over the left shoulder, I +put my heart in my pocket and went at it, and through it with a crash! +An ugly scratch on the fleshy part of the right hand was the only +damage done, and I was one of the very few near the pack. Dick and I +were now up to anything; we made very light of a thick tall hedge that +came next in order, and we cleared it like a bird; but we landed in a +pool of standing water, covering deeply ploughed ground, the horse's +forefeet sinking so deeply that he could not get them out in time, and +our headway rolled us both over in the mud, I flat on my back. Dick +got up just in time for his pastern to strike me in the face as I was +rising, giving me a cut lip, a mouthful of blood, and a black and blue +nose-bridge. My appearance has, on occasions, been more respectable +and my temper more serene than as I ran, soiled and bleeding, over the +ploughed ground, calling to some workmen to "catch my horse." + +I was soon up and away again. There seemed some confusion in the run, +and the master being out of sight, I followed one of the whips as he +struck into a blind path in a wood. It was a tangled mass of briers, +but he went in at full pace, and evidently there was no time to be +lost. At the other side of the copse there was a set of low bars, and +beyond this a small, slimy ditch. My leader cleared the bars, but +his horse's hind feet slipped on the bank of the ditch, and he fell +backwards with an ugly kind of sprawl that I had no time to examine, +for Dick took the leap easily and soon brought me into a field where, +on a little hillock, and quite alone, stood the huntsman, dismounted, +holding the dead fox high in his left hand, while with his long-leashed +hunting-crop he kept the hungry and howling pack at bay. The master +soon came up, as did about a dozen others, including a bright little +boy on a light little pony. The fox's head (mask), tail (brush), and +feet (pads) were now cut off and distributed as trophies under the +master's direction. The carcass was then thrown to the pack, that +fought and snarled over it until, in a twinkling, the last morsel had +disappeared. This was the "death,"--by no means the most engaging part +of the amusement. From the find to the killing was only twenty-five +minutes, into which had been crowded more excitement and more physical +happiness than I had known for many a long day. + +The second cover drawn was not far away. With this fox we had two +hours' work, mainly through woods at a walk and with the hounds +frequently at fault, but with some good leaping. Finally he was run to +earth and abandoned. + +We then went to a cover near Bubbenhall, but found no fox, and then, +with the same luck, to another east of Baggington. It was now nearly +four o'clock, growing dusk, and beginning to rain. The hounds started +for their kennels, and Dick and I took a soft bridle-path skirting the +charming road that leads, under such ivy-clad tree-trunks and between +such hedges as no other land can show, through Stoneleigh Village and +past Stoneleigh Abbey to Leamington, and a well-earned rest. + + * * * * * + +My memorandum for that day closes: "Horse, L2 12_s._ 6_d._; Fees, +2_s._; and well worth the money." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Whip and Spur, by George E. 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