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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77848 ***
+
+
+
+
+                           DEFENDING HIS FLAG
+
+
+
+
+                       EDWARD STRATEMEYER’S BOOKS
+
+
+                            Old Glory Series
+
+       _Six Volumes. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                         UNDER DEWEY AT MANILA.
+                       A YOUNG VOLUNTEER IN CUBA.
+                       FIGHTING IN CUBAN WATERS.
+                     UNDER OTIS IN THE PHILIPPINES.
+                      THE CAMPAIGN OF THE JUNGLE.
+                       UNDER MacARTHUR IN LUZON.
+
+
+                       Stratemeyer Popular Series
+
+     _Twelve Volumes. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $0.75._
+
+                    THE LAST CRUISE OF THE SPITFIRE.
+                       REUBEN STONE’S DISCOVERY.
+                            TRUE TO HIMSELF.
+                        RICHARD DARE’S VENTURE.
+                        OLIVER BRIGHT’S SEARCH.
+                           JOE, THE SURVEYOR.
+                          TO ALASKA FOR GOLD.
+                         THE YOUNG AUCTIONEER.
+                      BOUND TO BE AN ELECTRICIAN.
+                      SHORTHAND TOM, THE REPORTER.
+                         FIGHTING FOR HIS OWN.
+                          LARRY, THE WANDERER.
+
+
+                       Soldiers of Fortune Series
+
+             _Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                              ON TO PEKIN.
+                        UNDER THE MIKADO’S FLAG.
+                      AT THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR.
+                          WITH TOGO FOR JAPAN.
+
+
+                   American Boys’ Biographical Series
+
+             _Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                AMERICAN BOYS’ LIFE OF WILLIAM McKINLEY.
+               AMERICAN BOYS’ LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+
+                            Colonial Series
+
+             _Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                      WITH WASHINGTON IN THE WEST.
+                          MARCHING ON NIAGARA.
+                        AT THE FALL OF MONTREAL.
+                      THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS.
+                        ON THE TRAIL OF PONTIAC.
+                        TRAIL AND TRADING POST.
+
+
+                          Pan-American Series
+
+             _Cloth, Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                          LOST ON THE ORINOCO.
+                      THE YOUNG VOLCANO EXPLORERS.
+                    YOUNG EXPLORERS OF THE ISTHMUS.
+                     YOUNG EXPLORERS OF THE AMAZON.
+                     TREASURE SEEKERS OF THE ANDES.
+
+
+                           Dave Porter Series
+
+             _Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume $1.25._
+
+                        DAVE PORTER AT OAK HALL.
+                     DAVE PORTER IN THE SOUTH SEAS.
+                    DAVE PORTER’S RETURN TO SCHOOL.
+
+                  TWO YOUNG LUMBERMEN. _Price $1.25._
+                BETWEEN BOER AND BRITON. _Price $1.25._
+
+[Illustration: THEN HE SAW LOUIS CATCH HOLD OF THE BAYONET AND THRUST
+IT ASIDE.--_Page 133._]
+
+
+
+
+                           DEFENDING HIS FLAG
+
+                                   OR
+
+                    A BOY IN BLUE AND A BOY IN GRAY
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           EDWARD STRATEMEYER
+
+Author of “Old Glory Series,” “Colonial Series,” “American Boys’ Life of
+           William McKinley,” “Dave Porter at Oak Hall,” etc.
+
+                     _ILLUSTRATED BY GRISWOLD TYNG_
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                                 BOSTON
+                       LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
+
+
+
+
+                        Published, August, 1907
+
+         COPYRIGHT, 1906 AND 1907, BY EDWARD STRATEMEYER, AS A
+          SERIAL, UNDER THE TITLE OF “IN DEFENCE OF HIS FLAG”
+
+             COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
+
+                         _All rights reserved_
+
+                           DEFENDING HIS FLAG
+
+                             Norwood Press
+                          Berwick & Smith Co.
+                         Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+                                PREFACE
+
+
+“Defending His Flag” relates the adventures of two boys, or rather
+young men, during the first campaign of our great Civil War. At the
+call to arms, one enlists in the infantry of the North while the other
+throws in his fortunes with the cavalry of the South. Personally the
+two are warm friends, yet they become bitter foes on the battlefield.
+One marches to Washington, to defend the Capitol, and the other rides
+to Manassas, where the Confederates were gathering. Both fight at the
+bloody battle of Bull Run, and then take part in that stirring Campaign
+of the Peninsula and before Richmond.
+
+In writing this work I have had but one object in view, and that was
+to give a faithful picture of a part of the Civil War as seen from
+both sides of that never-to-be-forgotten conflict. During the war,
+and for years afterward, grown folk and young people were treated to
+innumerable books on the conflict, all written either from the Northern
+or the Southern point of view, thoroughly biased, and calculated to do
+more harm than good. In some of these bits of ill-advised literature
+the enemy never gained a victory, the other side simply “falling back
+to a better point from which to make another attack.”
+
+I think the time has come when the truth, and the whole truth at
+that, can be told, and when it will do positive good. Since the
+Spanish-American War, when some of the gallant Southern officers and
+men made such records for themselves under Old Glory, the old lines
+have been practically wiped out. The reconstructed South is as firm a
+part of our Nation as was the old South during the first half of the
+last century, and it has a perfect right to honor the memories of those
+who, while wearing the gray and marching under the stars and bars,
+fought so gallantly for what they considered was right and true.
+
+This story ran as a serial under the title, “In Defence of His Flag,”
+in that popular monthly, _The American Boy_. As a serial it created a
+demand for its publication in book form, hence the present volume. The
+story has been somewhat revised but not materially altered. The purely
+historical portions are based on the United States records and the
+records of the Confederacy.
+
+Once again I thank the thousands and thousands of boys, not only in
+this country but also in other lands, who take so much interest in what
+I have written for them. May the present volume please you in every way
+and do you good.
+
+                                                     EDWARD STRATEMEYER.
+
+ _May 15, 1907._
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+       I. SIGNS OF WAR                                1
+
+      II. IN A HOSTILE NEIGHBORHOOD                  16
+
+     III. A DISCOVERY AND A SURPRISE                 29
+
+      IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE UPRISING               42
+
+       V. OFF FOR WASHINGTON                         57
+
+      VI. THE VOLUNTEERS AT THE CAPITOL              69
+
+     VII. ANDY OFF FOR MANASSAS                      85
+
+    VIII. ANDY ON THE BREASTWORKS                    97
+
+      IX. THE ADVANCE TO BULL RUN                   110
+
+       X. A MEETING AND A RETREAT                   125
+
+      XI. LOUIS’S PERILOUS ESCAPE                   141
+
+     XII. ANDY IS TAKEN PRISONER                    153
+
+    XIII. THE STORY OF A STOLEN HORSE               164
+
+     XIV. A CHASE AND A CAPTURE                     176
+
+      XV. OFF FOR THE PENINSULA                     189
+
+     XVI. THE LANDING--ON TO YORKTOWN               202
+
+    XVII. THE CAPTURE OF A SPY                      215
+
+   XVIII. ACROSS THE POTOMAC ONCE MORE              228
+
+     XIX. ANDY GOES TO YORKTOWN                     244
+
+      XX. THE EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN                261
+
+     XXI. AT THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG             277
+
+    XXII. IN CAMP AT WHITE HOUSE                    289
+
+   XXIII. THE LIVING WALL AT FAIR OAKS              303
+
+    XXIV. WHEN RICHMOND WAS BESIEGED                319
+
+     XXV. ANDY AND THE UNION PICKETS                332
+
+    XXVI. AN ADVENTURE IN THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL   345
+
+   XXVII. LOUIS AS A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER            357
+
+  XXVIII. LOUIS AND ANDY MEET AGAIN                 373
+
+    XXIX. LOUIS VISITS GENERAL MCCLELLAN            383
+
+     XXX. ADVENTURES DURING THE SEVEN DAYS’ BATTLES 396
+
+    XXXI. BETWEEN THE LINES                         407
+
+   XXXII. MALVERN HILL--CONCLUSION                  418
+
+
+
+
+                             ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+   THEN HE SAW LOUIS CATCH HOLD OF THE BAYONET AND
+   THRUST IT ASIDE (_Page 133_)                         _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                         FACING PAGE
+
+   “STAND WHERE YOU ARE OR I WILL FIRE AT YOU!” SAID ANDY         94
+
+   LOUIS GAZED AT THE FACE, WONDERING IF HE HAD NOT
+   SEEN THE MAN BEFORE                                            222
+
+   THE MARCH TO THIS PRISON WAS ONE LOUIS NEVER FORGOT            324
+
+   AWAY ANDY TROTTED AT A BRISK PACE                              340
+
+   “KEEP ON AS YOU HAVE STARTED, AND WHO KNOWS BUT THAT YOU
+   WILL ONE DAY BE WEARING A GENERAL’S SHOULDER-STRAPS?”          386
+
+   THEN ON SWEPT THE UNION LINE, YELLING WITH A VOICE
+   THAT IS NEVER HEARD ANYWHERE BUT ON THE BATTLEFIELD            400
+
+   “I’LL DIE WITH HIM BEFORE I’LL DO IT!”                         426
+
+
+
+
+                           DEFENDING HIS FLAG
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                              SIGNS OF WAR
+
+
+“Hello, Louis! Want to ride to the depot with me? I am going to bring
+father home.”
+
+“Certainly, Andy, I’ll go along. Do you expect your father on the
+eleven o’clock train?”
+
+“He wrote he would most likely be back on that, if he could get away
+from Washington. He said everything was in such a state of excitement
+it was impossible to talk business.”
+
+“I suppose that is true,” returned Louis Rockford, as he hopped up
+on the seat of the wagon, beside his chum. “My father wrote me that
+it looked as if war must come after all. What a shame Congress can’t
+settle this matter peaceably.”
+
+“It could, if the Northerners would give us Southerners a chance,”
+burst out Andy Arlington, as he gave the horse a flick with the whip
+and sent the animal down the rocky road on a gallop. “The whole trouble
+is the Northern States want to interfere with our rights, and we won’t
+have it.”
+
+“I thought the trouble was about the slaves.”
+
+“Well, you can put it that way if you want to. The Southern States own
+their slaves and have a right to do with them as they please.”
+
+“I don’t think the negroes ought to be slaves, Andy.”
+
+“I don’t know about that. We have got to have help to run the cotton
+and tobacco plantations, and I reckon most of the colored people are
+better off now than they would be if they were free. Just look at the
+free negroes idling about. They are not worth their salt.”
+
+“That may be true. Still, I don’t believe any human being ought to be a
+slave--it’s barbarous!”
+
+“There’s another thing,” added Andy, with a second flick of the whip.
+“Years ago--and not so many, either--the Northern States had slaves,
+and when they got rid of ’em, what did they do? Sold most of ’em to the
+planters down South. Now those same people want to stop us from using
+those slaves as we please.”
+
+“I don’t believe they want to do that, exactly, Andy. They want to stop
+the extension of slavery.”
+
+“It amounts to the same thing.”
+
+“No, it doesn’t.”
+
+“I say it does. The Northern States want to dictate to us--and we won’t
+have it--father says so, and Mr. Carroll, and Doctor Barnsby, and all
+of them--and they ought to know.”
+
+The words were spoken with great emphasis, and as he spoke the
+Southern lad, with his ruddy-brown face and coal-black hair, glanced
+half-defiantly at his companion. Louis Rockford’s face fell and then a
+half-amused look crossed it.
+
+“How hot-headed you do get, Andy! I trust you’re not going to fight
+over this thing.”
+
+“I’ll fight if I’m called on to fight. I believe in sticking up for my
+rights. Wouldn’t you fight for your rights?”
+
+“Certainly. But the politicians and the other big men on both sides
+ought to do their best to prevent bloodshed.”
+
+Andy Arlington drew a long breath, and urged forward his horse again.
+“This thing has been a-brewing a long time--ever since old John Brown
+seized the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry and tried to get the negroes to
+arm themselves. Jefferson Davis and the others have tried their best to
+straighten matters out and the Northerners won’t listen to them, and I
+say if it comes to fighting, it will be the fault of the North, and not
+of the South.”
+
+“And I think you are greatly mistaken,” was the quiet but firm answer.
+“However,” went on Louis Rockford, as he saw his chum’s face darken,
+“whatever happens, Andy, let us remain friends.”
+
+“Oh, I’m not making this a personal affair, Louis,” was the hasty
+response. “I wouldn’t want to count you my enemy for a good deal.
+But--but--hang it all, I wish you would look at this matter as I, and
+father, and the rest do.”
+
+“And I wish you would look at it as I and my father do,” laughed
+Louis. “We’re as bad as the politicians, aren’t we? But I’ll tell
+you one thing,” went on Louis, gravely. “I’ll never stand for having
+our glorious United States broken up into separate republics. Our
+forefathers fought too hard for our colonies to allow anything like
+that to happen.”
+
+“Well, it is a kind of a shame, in one way, Louis. But the Northern
+States must learn to keep their hands out of our business--must learn
+to leave us alone,” said Andy Arlington, with as much spirit as before;
+and now the mountain-road became so rough that the rattle of the
+farm wagon over the rough stones made further conversation just then
+impossible.
+
+As has been mentioned, Louis Rockford and Andy Arlington were chums.
+Both were nearly seventeen years of age, tall, well-built, and
+muscular. Andy was dark, while Louis was fair, and each had been
+brought up upon a large farm or plantation.
+
+The Rockford homestead lay in a valley near the southern boundary of
+Pennsylvania, at a point where the State of Maryland divided it from
+Virginia by a stretch of less than twenty miles. It was a well-kept,
+although rather rocky, farm of a hundred acres, and to it was attached
+a dairy of no mean proportions.
+
+The Rockford family consisted of five persons--Mr. and Mrs. Rockford,
+Louis, the only son, and Lucy and Martha, two daughters, one older and
+the other younger than their brother.
+
+Mr. Rockford had emigrated to Pennsylvania from New York State some
+fifteen years before and he was, in consequence, a thorough Northern
+man at heart, and had but little sympathy for those of the South who
+intended to make slavery and State rights a basis for war. Louis
+followed his father’s views closely, but both parent and son were of a
+quiet, peaceful nature, and the idea of possible bloodshed filled them
+with dismay.
+
+The Arlingtons belonged to one of the oldest families in upper
+Virginia. Clarence Arlington, the grandfather of Andy, had fought with
+Washington during the Revolution, and Hugo Arlington, Andy’s father,
+had followed General Scott to Mexico and lost a leg at the memorable
+battle of Chapultepec. Father and son were full of the war spirit, and
+it was plain to see that, as the father, being crippled, could not go,
+Andy would take up a musket at the first call to arms.
+
+The plantation of the Arlingtons was extensive, but as the ground was
+not of the best, the tobacco, which was planted from year to year,
+did only fairly well, and four years before the opening of this story
+Mr. Arlington had become interested in dairy matters. His first herd
+of cows had been purchased from Mr. Rockford, and this transfer of
+property had led to the two families becoming warm friends. Later on,
+both men had purchased a drove of cattle from the West, and in the work
+of dividing up this herd Louis and Andy had assisted, and soon the two
+boys were the warmest kind of chums, and when either took a vacation it
+was only to spend the time at the house of the other.
+
+Louis had now been stopping at the Arlington homestead for over a
+week. It was just before Christmas time, and there was but little for
+him to do at home. Early that morning he had gone off alone to see what
+he could bag in the way of game in the woods along the highway. He had
+wanted Andy to go with him, but some of the cows were sick, and Andy
+had to remain behind to give advice concerning the cattle. Louis had
+shot several rabbits, which now rested in his game pouch. He had been
+standing near the highway, reloading his shotgun, when Andy came along
+and invited him to take the ride to the depot at Lee Run, three miles
+away.
+
+That war was threatened, there could be no doubt. For over two years
+the North and the South had wrangled over the slave question and over
+the equally important question of State rights, and a settlement
+was now further off than ever. More than this, the leaders in South
+Carolina had actually called a convention for the purpose of deciding
+whether or not that State should withdraw from the Union. The
+convention was to have met at Columbia, but as that city was largely
+infested with smallpox, the convention was removed to Charleston, to
+deliberate there behind closed doors. And while this was going on the
+Southern statesmen and politicians at Washington, and elsewhere, were
+plotting to throw down the gauntlet of war whenever the favorable
+opportunity arrived.
+
+“Look, Andy, something is up!” cried Louis, as they drove up to the
+main street of Lee Run. “See what an excited crowd there is at the
+railroad station.”
+
+“Hurrah! Hurrah for South Carolina!” was the sudden cry which reached
+their ears. “She’s the State! Hurrah! and may gallant Virginia soon
+follow her!”
+
+“What is it, Mr. Deems?” cried Andy, as he drew rein in front of the
+general store fronting the depot. “What’s the shouting about?”
+
+“Didn’t you hear the news, Arlington? South Carolina has seceded from
+the Union. They are having the greatest jubilication ever heard of
+down there. ’T won’t be long afore we follow ’em, I reckon,” added the
+store-keeper.
+
+“Seceded from the Union!” repeated Louis. “Oh, that’s too bad!”
+
+“Bad? Didn’t ye say ‘bad’?” interrupted a tall mountaineer, who stood
+by, whittling a plug of tobacco with his jack-knife. “I reckon ye don’t
+know much, boy. Why, it’s jess the best all-fired news I heard tell on
+fer ten years.”
+
+“That is where our opinions differ,” answered Louis, coldly. “In fact,
+I don’t see how a State can leave the Union, unless all the other
+States agree to it.”
+
+“Don’t ye? Say, ain’t ye just a bit Northern-like now?” and the
+mountaineer squinted one eye suggestively.
+
+“I am from Pennsylvania, if that is what you mean.”
+
+“Thought so. An’ ye don’t agree with us? Think our ideas about slavery
+an’ sech ain’t o’ no account.”
+
+“I think this present difficulty ought to be settled without breaking
+up our Union and shedding blood.”
+
+“Waal--” the mountaineer paused long enough to transfer a whittling of
+hard tobacco to his mouth,--“all I’ve got to say is, we ain’t gettin’
+on our knees to save this infernal Union, nohow, so thar!”
+
+“You ought to be ashamed to speak of our Union as an infernal one,”
+burst out Louis. “Our Union is the greatest and grandest on this globe,
+and I for one will help uphold it to the last.”
+
+“Oh, don’t talk so much, Louis!” put in Andy, with a swift rush of
+blood to his face. “The crowd around here is excited and may not like
+what you say.”
+
+“But he called our Union an infernal one--”
+
+“Don’t pay any attention to him. I know him. His name is Sam Jacks,
+and he never did an honest stroke of work in his life. Here comes the
+train. Let us go over and meet my father and see what he has to say.”
+
+Leaving the horse tied to a near-by tree, the two lads made their way
+through the crowd to the edge of the depot platform. Soon the train
+rolled in and the first man to hop down, upon his cork leg, was Hugo
+Arlington.
+
+“What’s the latest from Washington, Arlington?” cried half a dozen
+voices, and in a twinkling the veteran was surrounded, so that Andy and
+Louis could scarcely reach him.
+
+“South Carolina has seceded, that’s the main news--” began Mr.
+Arlington.
+
+“Yes, yes, we know that. But what do they say at the Capitol?”
+
+“Most of the people can’t believe it. The crowds around the telegraph
+and newspaper offices are tremendous, and there is a regular mob around
+the Capitol and the White House.”
+
+“What does President Buchanan say?”
+
+“Hasn’t said anything yet. But there is a rumor that General Scott is
+to be sent for,” and Mr. Arlington shook his head gravely, for the hero
+of Mexico was still dear to his heart.
+
+“General Scott! Then they are going to fight it?”
+
+“It looks that way, neighbors.”
+
+A deep murmur arose, and half a dozen began to ask as many different
+questions. In the meantime the train had rolled away. Mr. Arlington
+answered the questions as best he could, shook hands with his son and
+with Louis; and ten minutes later moved over to where the farm wagon
+had been left standing.
+
+“I must get some groceries before we go home,” said Andy, and hurried
+into the store.
+
+“Mr. Arlington, do you really think we’ll have war?” asked Louis, when
+he was left alone with the Southern veteran.
+
+“It looks so, Louis; although I allow I don’t think it will last long
+if it does come. I think the South will split from the North, and that
+will be the end of it.”
+
+“But that will be too bad.”
+
+“That’s as how you look at it. The South will be better off alone than
+under the thumb of Northern dictators. One thing is certain, we’ll do
+as we please with our slaves.”
+
+At this Louis said no more, for he saw that an agreement with his
+chum’s father was out of the question. Finding Andy did not return, Mr.
+Arlington presently leaped from the wagon to learn what had become of
+him. As Louis sat alone he noticed half a dozen men gathered across the
+way and talking earnestly. In the crowd was the mountaineer, Sam Jacks,
+and presently the boy saw this man point toward him.
+
+“We ought to teach thet kind a lesson,” were the words which drifted
+to his ears, and at once Louis became alert, for he felt he was the
+subject of the talk that was taking place.
+
+Five minutes more passed, and Louis wished Andy and his father would
+reappear. Then the crowd stalked over to the farm wagon. The men were
+all mountaineers and of the roughest class to be found in that vicinity.
+
+“Say, you’re a Northern lad, ain’t ye?” drawled one.
+
+“I am from Goreville, Pennsylvania,” answered Louis.
+
+“Got a big head on ye, ’bout wot the Northerners are goin’ to do to
+us,” added a second of the group.
+
+To this Louis made no reply. His silence seemed to anger the entire
+crowd.
+
+“Get down from thet seat!” suddenly roared Jacks, catching Louis by the
+arm and jerking him forward.
+
+“Let go! What do you mean?” cried the youth, trying to draw away.
+
+“We are goin’ to teach you-uns a lesson!” cried another of the
+mountaineers. “Come down!” and he, too, caught hold of Louis.
+
+But now the youth was fairly aroused, and leaping to his feet managed
+to wrest himself free from his second assailant. Then, as quick as a
+flash, he caught up the horsewhip.
+
+“Let go!” he commanded, to Jacks. “Let go, or I’ll let you have this
+across the face!”
+
+“I’ll let go--I will!” roared the mountaineer, and pulled Louis to the
+ground. Yet, as the youth went down, the whip swung around, and the
+lash took Jacks across the nose, leaving an ugly ridge behind.
+
+The next moment Louis found himself surrounded. In vain he tried
+to beat off his captors. With a savage cry, Jacks felled him to the
+ground, and ere he could recover the mountaineers caught him up by the
+arms and legs and bore him off in triumph towards the town pump and
+watering-trough.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                       IN A HOSTILE NEIGHBORHOOD
+
+
+It was the intention of the mountaineers to duck Louis in the icy water
+of the horse trough. Sam Jacks had dilated upon what the Northern youth
+had said, and all hands had agreed that a “coolin’ off” would do the
+Northern mud-sill good. The spirit of rebellion had already reached
+the quiet town of Lee Run, and Louis was to be the first victim of the
+over-zealous inhabitants.
+
+As the little crowd made its way around the depot to where the pump
+and trough were situated it attracted immediate attention, and folks
+came running from all directions, wanting to know what was the matter.
+To all of these Jacks explained the case in his own peculiar way, until
+half of those assembled felt certain that Louis was about the worst
+traitor that neighborhood had ever held.
+
+“Duck him good, Jacks!” was the cry. “Let him cool off thoroughly.”
+
+“Trust me for it!” puffed Jacks, as he felt of the ridge on his nose.
+“I’ll duck him once on our country’s account and twice on my own
+account!”
+
+It must not be imagined that Louis submitted tamely to the proceedings.
+As soon as he was able, he began to struggle with might and main to
+free himself, and so vigorously did he haul and kick that soon one of
+the men holding his feet received a blow in the stomach which made him
+falter and lose his grip. But the others closed in, and in a moment
+more the place where the icy bath was to be administered was reached.
+
+In the meantime, Andy and his father had come from the store. Seeing
+the wagon empty, they looked around for Louis.
+
+“They took him over to the pump, Mr. Arlington,” piped up a child
+standing near.
+
+“Dey is dun gwine ter duck him,” explained a darky, who sat on the edge
+of the store stoop, too lazy to get up and witness proceedings.
+
+“To duck him!” gasped Andy. “What for?”
+
+“Take de Northern starch outer him, I dun racken, sah.”
+
+“The--the brutes!” murmured the Southern youth, and away he sped for
+the square, with his father stumping after him as rapidly as the cork
+leg would allow.
+
+“Here, you let my friend alone!” cried Andy, bursting into the crowd.
+“What’s the meaning of this?”
+
+“You stand back, Andy Arlington!” growled Jacks. “We’re goin’ ter give
+him a duckin’, as he deserves.”
+
+“Not much! He is my friend and guest, and you must let him alone.”
+
+“Yes, yes; let him alone,” put in Mr. Arlington.
+
+“He’s a Northerner an’ is talkin’ ag’in we-uns!” burst out one of the
+mountaineers.
+
+“We don’t know but what he’s a spy,” added Jacks, determined, on
+account of the blow received, to make out the worst possible case
+against Louis.
+
+“A spy! you are crazy!” answered Andy. “He came down from Goreville
+just on a friendly visit. Let go of him, or I’ll knock you down, Sam
+Jacks!”
+
+And Andy squared off in such a determined fashion that Jacks fell back,
+and seeing this his companions did the same; and Louis struggled to his
+feet.
+
+“There is certainly a mistake here,” said Mr. Arlington, with a
+deliberateness which instantly commanded attention. “This boy is a
+friend of our family and I can vouch for him that he means no harm in
+this neighborhood. I am as loyal to Virginia as any of you, but we have
+not yet reached the point where we must be on the lookout for spies.
+Come, Louis, we’ll drive home, and you can depend upon it that you
+shall be safe as long as you remain with me.”
+
+He ranged upon one side of the boy, and, taking the hint, Andy ranged
+up on the other side. There were half a dozen murmurs, but the temper
+of the veteran was well known, and it was likewise known, and this was
+even more important, that he carried an effective side weapon with him
+upon all occasions.
+
+Having reached the wagon unmolested, Louis clambered in and the others
+followed. There was the snap of the whip, and soon Lee Run and the
+discontented ones were left behind. When the town had disappeared from
+view, Louis drew a long breath.
+
+“It looks as if affairs were getting too hot down here for my safety,”
+he said, with a faint smile. “I never dreamed of being attacked in this
+fashion.”
+
+“You will find hot-heads wherever you go, Louis,” answered Mr.
+Arlington. Then, after a moment’s reflection, he continued: “But, all
+told, I don’t know but that it will be as well for you to get home
+before long, not but that I would like you to spend Christmas with us.”
+
+“I promised mother to be home on Christmas. I think I’ll start
+to-morrow morning. It was very kind of you and Andy to come to my aid.
+I don’t want you to get into trouble with your neighbors on my account.”
+
+“Those rough mountaineers are hardly neighbors,” said Mr. Arlington.
+“They are very impulsive and generally aching for a chance to quarrel
+with some one, especially a newcomer. This talk of war has stirred them
+so that some of them have lost their heads completely and they’ll want
+to go shooting at something by to-morrow.”
+
+“Well, they needn’t shoot at me,” answered Louis, but in a light tone,
+for he did not dream of the perils so close at hand.
+
+The drive to the plantation was quickly at an end, and Mr. Arlington
+stumped into the house, to be warmly embraced by his wife and by pretty
+Grace Arlington, Andy’s only sister, a girl of fifteen. In the meantime
+Louis took the rabbits he had shot around to the kitchen and handed
+them over to the colored cook. Then he joined Andy down in the stable
+yard, to see that his horse was being cared for properly.
+
+“I think I’ll leave directly after breakfast,” he said to his chum.
+“Father will most likely hear of what is up, and he’ll be anxious about
+me.”
+
+“I would rather have you stay,” answered Andy, his face flushing.
+“Northern or not, I want folks around here to understand that they
+sha’n’t mistreat my guest.”
+
+“You’re a chum worth having,” laughed Louis, and they returned to the
+house arm in arm, never, alas, thinking of how soon the cruel war was
+to separate them and make them, to a certain degree, enemies!
+
+Grace Arlington had been questioning her father eagerly about the
+course of public events, and when Louis appeared she lost no time in
+pouncing down upon him.
+
+“Oh, Louis, is it true, are we going to fight you Northern people?” she
+burst out.
+
+“Well, I trust you won’t fight me,” he replied, with a smile, for deep
+down in his heart the youth thought Grace Arlington just the best and
+most lovable girl he had ever known.
+
+“I don’t know about that--if you join the Northerners,” she pouted. “If
+you fight against us I’ll think you real mean.”
+
+“You would want a fellow to stick up for what he considered his duty,
+wouldn’t you, Grace?”
+
+“I suppose I would, but--but--how can you think of fighting us when we
+are so entirely in the right?” and she bent a reproachful pair of brown
+eyes on him in such a manner that his heart gave a big jump, and he was
+forced to turn away.
+
+Luckily Andy interrupted the brief tête-à-tête at this point, and in a
+little while the conversation became general. Soon dinner was announced
+and once again Louis found Grace at his side. But now he was on his
+guard, and not to wound her feelings talked about everything else he
+could think of but the threatened war.
+
+The evening which followed, full of songs and music from Grace, who
+could both play on the piano and sing very well, and filled in with war
+anecdotes by Mr. Arlington, was one Louis never forgot. What a happy
+and good-natured family they were, and what a truly jolly girl Grace
+was! Many were the times he remembered every detail of the scene, as
+he lay in the trenches in the rain and darkness, in front of the enemy
+and, for all he knew to the contrary, in front of Andy!
+
+But the best of times must come to an end, and at eleven o’clock the
+gathering broke up, and Louis went off, to sleep his last sleep by
+Andy’s side for many a weary, perilous month to come.
+
+Six o’clock found the two boys stirring. Both walked to the dairy and
+then to the barn, where Louis saw to it that his horse would be ready
+for him immediately after breakfast.
+
+The morning meal, in honor of the departing guest, was more elaborate
+than usual, and during the progress of the breakfast Mr. Arlington
+expressed the hope that Louis would have no trouble in getting home.
+
+“Pomp tells me that the news that South Carolina has seceded has
+travelled everywhere during the night, and in consequence, the country
+folks are growing suspicious of all strangers. You had better go
+straight on through Maryland without stopping.”
+
+“I wonder if Maryland will join us if it comes to war?” said Andy.
+
+“Of course she will join,” answered Mr. Arlington. But in this the
+veteran was mistaken. Although a slave State and with strong Southern
+tendencies, Maryland, when the all-important test came, remained in the
+Union. And, as a matter of fact, even a portion of Mr. Arlington’s home
+State also remained, forming what has since been known as West Virginia.
+
+The breakfast over, Louis felt that he must be on his way. It was
+a raw winter’s day and the distance to be covered was nearer forty
+miles than thirty. There was a winding turnpike leading to the Potomac
+River, and, this crossed, there remained a choice of two roads, one
+almost direct, but very hilly and stony, and the other a serpentine way
+several miles longer but much more easily travelled.
+
+“Well, good-bye and good luck to you!” were Andy’s parting words, and
+the two shook hands, and Louis expressed the wish that when they met
+again all inter-State difficulties would be settled once and forever.
+
+Louis found the parting from Grace harder than ever. There were tears
+in the eyes of the little Virginian, and the boy could scarcely speak
+to her because of the lump which arose in his throat.
+
+But at last it was all over, and he had mounted his horse, which one
+of the slaves had brought up to the door. He was just about to tip his
+hat in a parting adieu when, on glancing towards a side road skirting
+the plantation on the left, his eyes caught sight of half a dozen men
+galloping swiftly towards him. A closer inspection revealed the fact
+that the men were mountaineers and at their head rode Sam Jacks!
+
+“They are after me!” he thought. He was about to turn to his friends,
+when he as quickly changed his mind. There was a good chance to escape
+those approaching, and why should he cause the Arlingtons further
+trouble on his behalf? He tipped his hat, urged forward his horse, and
+in five seconds was galloping towards the main road at high speed.
+
+“He certainly means to get home before nightfall,” cried Andy, as he
+watched Louis disappear in a cloud of dust. “I wish he believed as we
+do and could stay here.”
+
+He had scarcely spoken when Mr. Arlington discovered Sam Jacks and his
+followers. The men rode straight for the house, cutting into a lane
+leading up from the dairy.
+
+“Well, Jacks, what brings you this morning?” demanded the veteran, as
+the mountaineer came to a halt.
+
+“We came to have a talk with that boy,” was the gruff answer. The
+mountaineers had talked matters over and had decided to put on a bold
+front.
+
+“So you came here to insult our guest, did you?”
+
+“We came here to find out what he’s up to in these parts, Colonel,” put
+in a second of the newcomers.
+
+“I told you yesterday he was here only on a friendly visit.”
+
+“Jacks thinks he is a spy.”
+
+“Jacks is too forward entirely in his thinking. Take my word for it,
+men, there are no spies as yet around Lee Run. The time is not yet ripe
+for that sort of thing.”
+
+“Where’s the boy?”
+
+“He has left.”
+
+“Gone away!” came in a chorus.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Gone away for good?” demanded Jacks, sourly.
+
+“Yes; he left for his home in Pennsylvania directly after breakfast,
+fearing his folks would grow anxious about him.”
+
+The face of the leader of the mountaineers fell. He had not forgotten
+the blow Louis had given him across the face and he was longing, with
+the aid of his followers, to “square accounts.”
+
+“Which way did he go?”
+
+“Went on horseback,” put in Andy, before his father could speak. He
+understood very well that Jacks wanted to know what road had been
+taken, but purposely pretended to misunderstand the fellow.
+
+“There is no use in trying to catch him--now.” said Mr. Arlington,
+taking up the cue. “He has gone, and as he is a perfectly innocent
+young fellow I trust he reaches home in safety. Come, Grace, come,
+wife,” and he turned into the house, and Andy followed. From the parlor
+windows they saw Jacks and his men consult together for several minutes
+and then ride slowly away.
+
+“It’s a good thing they didn’t get here half an hour ago,” said Andy,
+with a sigh of relief, in which Grace readily joined. “Even if we had
+prevented them from getting at Louis here they would have waylaid him
+when he did start off. They are fooled now--and serves ’em right.”
+
+But were Jacks and his men fooled? Let us wait and see.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                       A DISCOVERY AND A SURPRISE
+
+
+As Andy Arlington--whose full name, by the way, was, Andrew Jackson
+Arlington--had said, the trouble between the Northern and the Southern
+States had been brewing for a long time, and the gathering trouble had
+brought to the surface many men upon both sides, who were hot-tempered
+and hasty and the last persons in the world to settle a difficulty of
+this sort, although in many cases these men thought they were the very
+persons to settle the difficulty.
+
+In the North these ill-advised persons gathered on the street corners
+and elsewhere, shouting to liberate the slaves and demanding that war
+be declared, that they might go south and in a few short weeks put
+to an end forever the rebel boasting. They were perfectly certain
+that no war could last more than two or three months at the most,
+and were equally certain that they could “lick the rebs out of their
+boots!” When the war with all of its horrors did come these ranting
+fellows were, in nine cases out of ten, scared out of their wits, and
+the bloody battle of Bull Run was a nightmare from which they never
+recovered.
+
+The South also had its share of hot-heads, fellows who were equally
+certain of immediate victory, and who thought that our great government
+at Washington could be turned upside down in an equally short space of
+time. How much of a task they cut out for themselves history has shown.
+
+But there were others in the South who were cooler and more
+far-seeing, and, feeling that war was slowly but surely approaching,
+they began to prepare for it, at first in secret and then more and more
+openly as the time for action drew near. At first Northern business
+connections were severed, and this accomplished, the leaders began to
+form military and cavalry companies in their local districts, fitting
+the men out on the sly and drilling them in unfrequented and out of the
+way places. Some reports of these doings reached the North, but never,
+until the actual opening of the war, was it suspected how thorough
+these preparations had been.
+
+In the district about Lee Run, which, I may as well admit here, is not
+the real name of the country town with which our opening chapters have
+had to do, several military companies and one troop of cavalry had
+thus far been formed, organizations having nothing in common with the
+regular State militia. Of these companies Mr. Arlington was cognizant,
+but because of his cork leg and his generally shattered health, he had
+taken no active part in the work, although joining with the leaders in
+heart and spirit.
+
+He understood Jacks when spy work was spoken of, but he was satisfied
+that Louis during his stay at the plantation had discovered nothing
+of importance. Yet he was now glad the boy was gone, for there was no
+telling what a day would bring forth.
+
+On and on along the winding turnpike galloped Louis’s faithful steed,
+named Jess, after a cherished aunt in New York State. The day was
+cloudy, and on rising the lad had felt that a shower was not far off.
+He was yet three miles from the next town, situated in Maryland, when
+it began to rain. At first the drops came down scatteringly, then
+followed a perfect deluge, and he was glad enough to seek the shelter
+of a deserted tobacco house, standing on the edge of a large clearing.
+
+He had occupied the shelter for less than three minutes, when, on
+looking forth from the wide open doors, he saw something which filled
+him with astonishment not unmixed with dismay. A band of soldiers
+were approaching, an odd-looking set of men, wearing their ordinary
+clothing, but each with a gun and bayonet, and a belt with a cartridge
+box. At the head of the crowd, which numbered probably forty, rode a
+man named Pickering, the postmaster of Lee Run.
+
+“Left wheel!” came the command, and leaving the roadway the company set
+out for the tobacco house. Then followed the order: “Double quick!” and
+on came the men at increased speed.
+
+“They must be some rebel recruits!” was the thought which flashed
+through Louis’s mind. For a moment he allowed his horse to stand still.
+Then he wheeled about, dashed out of the rear doors of the tobacco
+house, and entered a small thicket five hundred feet away.
+
+By the time he had tethered Jess and come down to the edge of the
+thicket once more, the company of strange soldiers had entered the
+tobacco house, and having broken ranks, were stamping around shaking
+off the rain. He wondered if he had been seen, but as no effort was
+made to trace him, he concluded that he had gotten away without being
+noticed.
+
+The rain was now coming down more furiously than ever and Louis was
+quite content to keep off the exposed highway until the storm should
+abate. As he waited his curiosity arose concerning the strange body
+of men, and at length, at the risk of being discovered and subjected
+to harsh criticism, if not to rough handling, he left the thicket and
+approached the tobacco house from the south side. Here there was no
+regular opening, but several boards were loose, and through the cracks
+he could plainly hear and see all that was taking place within.
+
+“Drillin’ to-day didn’t last long,” he heard a soldier close to him
+remark. “But I reckon it doesn’t matter much--we’ve got the movements
+down pretty fine.”
+
+“You’re right, Higwin,” came from a comrade. “Captain Pickering knows
+how to put the fellows through and no mistake.”
+
+“I wonder how long it will be before we’re called on to go to war,”
+said a third soldier. “I’m tired of this drilling in secret. I wish we
+could get at the dirty Yankees--we’ll teach ’em a lesson.”
+
+“It won’t be long now, Gosby--with South Carolina seceded. Virginia and
+North Carolina and the rest will follow in short order, and then the
+North will have to fight, or give up the reins at Washington.”
+
+“I understand our leaders intend to seize all the forts along the
+coast,” added another man. “’Twill be a good job done, to my way of
+thinking.”
+
+“We ought to seize the arsenals, too,” put in the first soldier who had
+spoken. “If we--Hi, what’s up outside?”
+
+He broke off short, and in company with his companions made a rush for
+the open doorway, there to behold two of the company in full pursuit of
+Louis, who was making his way back to the thicket with a speed which
+would have done credit to a professional runner.
+
+The youth had been somewhat surprised by the sudden appearance of the
+men. But he had had time enough to back away and run, and he was still
+thirty yards in advance when the first belt of timber was gained.
+
+“Halt, or I’ll fire!” called out one of the men. His gun was not
+loaded, but he thought the threat would be sufficient to bring the
+youth to a stop. But Louis kept on; and in a moment the thicket hid him
+from view.
+
+Once behind the shelter of the trees, the boy did not diminish his
+speed, but crashing along through the small brush, soon gained his
+horse’s side. The tether was untied, he flung himself on the mare’s
+back, and off they went in a circuitous route for the turnpike. Ere the
+men who had followed cleared the wood again he was out of sight and
+hearing.
+
+What he had seen and heard filled his mind with strange thoughts.
+“They are a newly formed rebel company,” he said to himself. “A
+rebel company sworn in, no doubt, to fight our government the minute
+the leaders in the South give the order. I wonder how many more
+such companies there are down here? No doubt hundreds--and perhaps
+thousands!”
+
+Feeling that he would have an interesting story to tell when he arrived
+home, Louis urged forward his horse as rapidly as the muddy road would
+permit. He soon reached the hamlet of Deems, but the rain had driven
+every one indoors and he passed on unquestioned. Half a mile outside of
+the hamlet Jess began to limp, and he alighted to find out the cause of
+the trouble. A shoe was loose and in such a condition that it must be
+tightened before the journey could be continued. Under such conditions
+there was nothing to do but to turn back to Deems and call in the aid
+of the local blacksmith.
+
+The smithy was soon found, a low, smoke-begrimed place at the lower
+end of the hamlet. The door was swung open and Louis rode in, to
+find himself in the presence of the blacksmith and half a dozen boon
+companions, all of whom had been discussing the war question with all
+the warmth of their Southern natures.
+
+“I would like to have that shoe fastened,” said Louis, as the
+blacksmith strode forward to greet him.
+
+“Yes, sir,” was the reply, and the man set to work without delay.
+Having nothing to do, the youth strode up to one side of the fire at
+the forge and tried to dry his clothing.
+
+While he stood there the others in the smithy eyed him curiously and
+the talk lagged and was turned into other channels. Louis had seen one
+of the men at Lee Run some days before, and this man now whispered
+something to the others and all eyed the youth sharply. It was evident
+that they knew he was a Northerner and would treat him accordingly.
+No effort, however, was made to molest him, but he was made to feel
+that he was no longer a friend but an enemy. Such was the spirit in
+the South just before the war, a spirit which speedily found its
+counterpart in the North.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the shoe was readjusted and Louis handed over
+the twenty cents asked in payment. He was glad to think he had not been
+detained longer, and lost no further time in getting on his way. But
+the halt, brief as it was, was sufficient to bring him into serious
+trouble, as we shall soon learn.
+
+The trouble came from Sam Jacks and his followers. Chagrined at the
+failure to find Louis at Mr. Arlington’s plantation, the mountaineer
+had set off for Deems, to learn if the youth had passed in that
+direction. Jacks was of the class of men who never forget or forgive
+a blow, no matter how much deserved, and he was determined to “square
+accounts” or know the reason why. The men with him were a rough,
+dissolute set, willing to enter into anything which promised excitement
+and sport--men who afterwards became unauthorized guerrillas, to prey
+upon any helpless band of soldiers they ran across, and who cared
+nothing about who won on the battlefield so long as they could add to
+their plunder. Jacks and his followers arrived in Deems less than five
+minutes after Louis had left the hamlet, and at the smithy received
+full particulars concerning the youth.
+
+“Forward, boys,” he cried to the other mountaineers. “We’ll soon be up
+to the Yankee lick-spittle!” And away they went down the hill beyond
+Deems and up the next, where they beheld Louis just crossing the ridge.
+In a few minutes more the youth found himself surrounded.
+
+Although not actually frightened, he was much disturbed, for the
+mountaineers were a wild-looking set and he knew from the look upon
+Jacks’s face that the fellow meant him no good. As the others rode
+directly in front of him he was compelled to draw rein.
+
+“So, I’ve caught you, have I?” sneered Jacks, as he ranged up beside
+Louis. “Didn’t reckon I’d make it, did you?”
+
+“You have no right to detain me, Jacks,” replied Louis, as calmly as he
+could.
+
+“Hain’t we? Wall, all I kin say is, we’re a-takin’ the right; eh, boys?”
+
+“Thet’s so, Sam.”
+
+“And what is your object, gentlemen?”
+
+“Oh, you needn’t git on no high horse,” returned Jacks. “Yer know well
+enough what our object is.”
+
+“You-uns ain’t gwine ter spy on us,” put in another of the horsemen, a
+fellow horribly pitted with smallpox marks. “Jacks, I reckon it’s best
+to search him.”
+
+“Of course we’ll search him,” came from several of the others.
+
+“You have no authority to touch me,” answered Louis, with all the
+dignity he could command.
+
+“You march along with us,” returned Jacks, and caught hold of Jess’s
+bridle. “Hogwell, git on one side of him and Ross, you git on the
+other. The rest go behind. He sha’n’t git away this trip. Forward!”
+
+“Where are you going to take me?” asked Louis, in alarm.
+
+“Shut up! You’ll find out soon enough. Git along!”
+
+There was no help for it, and much against his will, the youth rode off
+in the midst of the mountaineers. The road taken was along the ridge
+of the hill, at right angles to the turnpike. An eighth of a mile was
+covered, and they descended into a thickly wooded hollow and presently
+halted in front of what had once been a sawmill, on the south bank of a
+half-frozen stream.
+
+Here Louis was compelled to dismount, while his horse was led away with
+those of the mountaineers. With Jacks on one side of him and Hogwell
+on the other he was forced to enter the deserted and half-tumbled-down
+mill. The rain, which had let up for a bit, now came down as hard as
+ever.
+
+“Fetch a rope, boys, and we’ll bind him,” were Jacks’s next words, and
+this order was speedily obeyed, and in spite of a desperate struggle
+Louis was made a prisoner.
+
+He was then searched, and four dollars and his silver watch were taken
+from him--“as payment on thet insult at Lee Run”--so Jacks put it. Then
+the mountaineer began to question him closely about what he had seen
+and heard while in and about the town mentioned. But Louis was on his
+guard and revealed nothing, and this so angered the mountaineers they
+abused him roundly.
+
+“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, boys,” said Jacks, suddenly. “We’ll leave
+him bound up here until to-morrow morning. A night of cold and hunger
+will bring him to terms.”
+
+This was agreed to, and, as they did not wish to take along the extra
+horse, Jess was tied up in the mill beside Louis. Then with mocking
+adieus the rascals withdrew, leaving the lad to his fate.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                      THE PROGRESS OF THE UPRISING
+
+
+It would be hard to put Louis’s feelings into words when he found
+himself alone once more. Here he was bound hands and feet to a corner
+post of the old mill, robbed of his valuables, and with the prospect of
+even harsher treatment in the morning.
+
+“They are thorough rascals, if ever there were any,” he thought,
+bitterly. “I believe they would murder me if they thought they could
+get anything more out of me by doing it. I’m in a scrape and no
+mistake. What’s to be done, Jess?”
+
+For reply the faithful mare bent her soft eyes on him and gave an
+unsatisfactory whinny. Evidently she felt something was wrong. On her
+back rested a rusty brown saddle, which one of the mountaineers had
+“swapped” for Louis’s new trappings.
+
+“It’s a shame the way they treated us,” went on the youth. “But never
+mind, only let us get away and some day we’ll get square, won’t we? I
+wonder how strong this confounded rope is?”
+
+Louis found it much stronger than expected--far too strong to be either
+stretched or broken--and a half-hour’s work upon it only sufficed to
+chafe his wrists and ankles to the blood-drawing point. He stopped his
+struggles and drew a long breath.
+
+“They understand tying a fellow up,” he murmured. “Is it possible I
+must remain in this dismal place all night?”
+
+It was not long before Louis was shivering, for he was wet to the skin,
+and the wind that was rising swept through every opening in the old
+mill. Jess, too, began to grow impatient, wanting her blanket and her
+noonday meal. Slowly the hours dragged by until nightfall.
+
+Louis had about given up all hope of getting free when through the wind
+he heard a broad, negro voice singing loudly:
+
+                    “Oh, my Sue, my Sue, I lub you!
+                     Oh, my Sue, my Sue, be mine!
+                     An’ de possum, an’----”
+
+The negro voice came to a sudden stop as Louis cried loudly for help. A
+period of silence followed.
+
+“Wot’s dat?”
+
+“Help me! I am tied up in the mill!”
+
+“Golly, who is yo’?” There was a crashing through the woods and
+presently a tall darky, weighing all of two hundred pounds, blocked up
+the entrance to the mill. “Golly, yere’s a bit ob work!”
+
+“Release me, will you?” asked Louis, eagerly.
+
+“Who tied yo’ up like dat, massa?”
+
+“Some rascals who robbed me of my watch and money. Cut that rope. I am
+almost perished with cold.”
+
+The negro at once complied with Louis’s request, and once free the
+youth drew a long sigh of relief.
+
+“Who war dem fellows, massa?” questioned the negro, eagerly.
+
+“One of them is named Sam Jacks. He is the leader. Two of the others
+were named Hogwell and Ross. Do you know them?”
+
+“I dun heered tell of dem, massa. Dey cum from de mountains over
+yonder--a mighty bad crowd dem.”
+
+“I am much obliged to you for coming to my assistance. I am sorry I
+can’t reward you, but they took all my money, as well as my watch and
+my new saddle.”
+
+“Dat’s all right, massa--glad to do yo’ a good turn, sah. Yere, let
+me help yo’ fasten dat old saddle, sah--seein’ it’s de best yo’ got
+left, sah,” and the ponderous black friend went to work with a will.
+In two minutes more Louis was on Jess’s back, and, bidding his friend
+good-bye, made off up the hill in the direction of the turnpike. The
+negro watched him out of sight and then went on his way, singing as
+before, as though to forget the discomforts of the storm in melody.
+
+Once on the highway again, Louis put spurs to his mare and in less
+than an hour gained a good-sized town in Maryland. Here he put up at
+the hotel for two hours, in the meantime getting dinner and having Jess
+fed. He told the hotel-keeper how he had been robbed, and as the man
+happened to know the youth’s father, he readily trusted Louis for the
+accommodations furnished.
+
+It was growing well towards night when Maryland soil was left behind
+and Louis turned up the well known road leading to Goreville. His
+hard riding had tired him greatly, and he was not sorry when towards
+midnight the home acres were gained, and he was permitted to place
+faithful Jess in the stable, silence the watch-dog, and enter the house.
+
+“Louis! And in all this rain!” exclaimed his father, as he descended
+from his bedroom to greet his son. “I’ve been looking for you for the
+past two days, but I didn’t think you would start out in such weather
+as this.”
+
+The son’s story was soon related, and then it had to be repeated for
+the benefit of Mrs. Rockford, Lucy, and Martha. All listened with close
+attention to what was told.
+
+“I have suspected as much,” declared Mr. Rockford. “The South is bound
+to bring on a war. They won’t argue the point or listen to reason. The
+seceding of South Carolina has started a flame which will take hard
+work to quench.”
+
+“Never mind the war just now, father. What am I to do about my watch
+and money?”
+
+“Better let them go, Louis. You can prove nothing against Jacks and his
+companions, for if brought into court they would deny everything, and
+as matters stand down there, their word would be taken in preference to
+yours.”
+
+“I don’t believe any fair-minded men, even if they are so-called
+rebels, will uphold such actions. Mr. Arlington is a rebel, and so is
+Andy, but they are honest and square for all that. They are merely
+sticking up for what they believe is right.”
+
+“Gracious, Lou, you are not going to turn rebel, are you?” exclaimed
+Lucy, half in horror.
+
+“I’ll wager pretty Grace Arlington has been trying to convert him to
+slavery,” asserted Martha, who was the tease of the family.
+
+“No, I’m not going to turn rebel,” answered the boy, blushing at the
+mention of Grace. “But I want you to understand that there are a great
+many gentlemen and men of honor down South, and some mighty nice
+people, too, for all of their notions about slavery and State rights.”
+
+“Of course there are, my son,” said Mr. Rockford. “And, as you say,
+they think they are in the right, and they are willing to fight for
+what they think. But, for all that, they are wrong, and sooner or later
+they must acknowledge it.”
+
+“Mr. Arlington told me, one day, that there used to be nearly as many
+slaves in the North as there were in the South, and when we gave up
+slavery here we sold our slaves to the South.”
+
+“There is something of truth in that, Louis--we certainly had slaves,
+and some were sent South--how many I do not know.”
+
+“And he said that now we want to free those same slaves or their
+children--after taking Southern money for them,” went on the boy,
+earnestly.
+
+“What I object to, Louis, is the extension of slavery. I think it ought
+to be allowed to die out. I am sure the matter could be arranged if
+the real statesmen could get together, without the interference of the
+hot-heads on both sides. It would be much better to arrange things
+peaceably than to plunge the whole nation into civil war.”
+
+Soon after this the conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Rockford, who
+had prepared a hasty but hot midnight meal for her son. Louis partook
+of this with avidity, and on retiring rolled himself in a flannel
+blanket, to sweat out any cold he might have caught when out in the
+wintry rain.
+
+For several days after Louis returned home matters moved along quietly
+at the dairy farm. Then came Christmas, and among the boy’s gifts was a
+new silver watch and chain from his mother and father, and knit mittens
+and a neck muffler from Lucy and Martha. Of course Louis made gifts in
+return, things bought with some money left at home when he had started
+on his visit to Andy; and the holiday passed with a pleasantness long
+to be remembered.
+
+A few days later came news from Charleston which set everybody to
+talking. It was to the effect that Major Anderson, in command of Fort
+Moultrie, had abandoned that stronghold, spiked his guns and burned
+their carriages, and moved to Fort Sumter. The fort where this United
+States officer had been stopping was a low-walled place, hard to
+defend, and on the coast; the place to which he had withdrawn was on an
+island in the harbor, and was as strong as a fort could well be.
+
+The South Carolinians had for a long while thought they could swoop
+down upon Major Anderson and his force and secure an easy surrender.
+Now, when they saw the plucky commander entrenched behind the frowning
+walls of Fort Sumter they grew furious, and at once made preparations
+to occupy not only the works which the Union men had abandoned but
+also a number of other places, including ancient Fort Johnson, which
+had been abandoned since the Revolution. “We’ll drive the Yankees out
+in fine style,” they told each other. And then came a wait of several
+months, as winter set in throughout the North, and other matters
+claimed attention in the South.
+
+South Carolina had seceded from the Union on the twentieth of
+December, 1860. On the ninth of January following, Mississippi joined
+her Southern sister, and then Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
+Texas did likewise by the first of February. There followed a lull, and
+then came the shot which, as some writers have said, was heard around
+the world, a shot which threw our great and glorious nation into a war
+that lasted four years and cost thousands upon thousands of lives, and
+millions upon millions of dollars.
+
+Fort Sumter was fired upon by the Confederates. Major Anderson had
+been called upon to evacuate and had refused. On Friday morning, April
+12, 1861, at exactly half-past four o’clock, a shell was thrown from
+Fort Johnson and burst directly over Sumter. It was a signal-gun, and
+directly afterwards came a shot from an ironclad battery on Morris
+Island; and then began a fierce bombardment which lasted all day and
+all night, and the greater part of the next day. Fort Sumter was fairly
+riddled with cannon-balls and torn up by shells, and was set on fire a
+score of times. Such a fierce onslaught could not long be endured, and
+feeling the uselessness of fighting further, and being nearly out of
+provisions, a flag of truce was displayed, and arrangements were made
+to evacuate the next day.
+
+When word came to Washington that Fort Sumter had fallen, the
+excitement was intense. Everybody looked to President Lincoln, who had
+succeeded Buchanan in March, for he was the head of the nation, and
+must decide in a crisis like this. This was on Sunday. On Monday came a
+proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand men to go to the war.
+
+The proclamation aroused the nation as never before. It was published
+in the newspapers and scattered broadcast, and inside of three days
+companies were forming in all of the Northern States and getting ready
+to march to Washington. Old uniforms were brushed up, old guns cleaned
+and oiled, old drums re-headed, and nearly every man and boy began to
+study Hardee’s Tactics, a soldier’s manual. What the effects of this
+proclamation were in the South we will see later on, when we follow the
+daring career of Andy Arlington.
+
+It was Mr. Rockford who brought home the news to Louis and the others
+that the President wanted seventy-five thousand men, and wanted them
+immediately. He had been down to Goreville and came back stating that
+the citizens were going half-crazy.
+
+“Paulding has already issued an address, calling on the men of this
+neighborhood to join a company he is forming,” said Mr. Rockford.
+“Harley, the miller, is going, and so is that young Bingham, the clerk
+in the grocery store, and Umbleton and Dilks. You never heard such
+spouting and shouting in your life.”
+
+“Will you join, father?” asked Louis, quickly, and his usually grave
+face lit up with sudden earnestness.
+
+“I don’t know. Paulding urged me, but I said I wouldn’t commit myself
+until I had talked matters over at home.”
+
+“Oh, John!” cried Mrs. Rockford, and then stopped short. She did not
+want her husband to leave her, and yet she wanted to see him do his
+duty as a citizen.
+
+“If you don’t go, father, I’ll go--if they’ll take me,” went on the
+son, but in rather a low tone.
+
+“You, Louis!” burst from mother and both sisters.
+
+“Yes. Why not, mother? I am as tall and strong as some of the men. I
+really think one or the other of us ought to go.”
+
+“If either of us go it will be I,” said Mr. Rockford, decidedly. “But
+we will talk it over in the morning,” he went on, as he saw his wife
+was on the verge of tears.
+
+Fate decided for Mr. Rockford before he had a chance to decide for
+himself, although secretly he was much in favor of going, if matters
+around the dairy could be arranged. That evening, when passing among
+the cows, one particularly vicious animal turned upon him and jammed
+him into a corner of the barn, breaking his collar bone and otherwise
+injuring him.
+
+The accident frightened the others of the family very much, and a hired
+man was sent post-haste for the village doctor. It was after midnight
+before Mr. Rockford was pronounced out of danger, and then the doctor
+announced that he would not be able to leave his bed for many weeks and
+perhaps months to come.
+
+Ordinarily such an accident would have brought in many neighbors to
+sympathize and offer aid, but now the war was the one subject on
+everybody’s mind, and the family was passed by, excepting by a few of
+the most intimate friends.
+
+It was two days later, when Louis was down in the village at the
+general store, that he was addressed about going to Washington with
+Captain Paulding’s company. Robert Paulding had been nothing but a
+plain lawyer a few days previous, yet now everybody called him captain,
+and many of the men touched their hats unconsciously whenever he passed.
+
+It was Harry Bingham, the grocer’s clerk, who addressed Louis, as he
+measured out some cotton goods Mrs. Rockford needed for bandages. “Now
+your father can’t go, Louis, you ought to take his place,” he said.
+“Your family ought to be represented, you know; and there are lots of
+young fellows going besides me--Dick Coombs, Jerry Rowe, Mart Wilkins,
+and a lot more.”
+
+“I’ve been thinking of it, Harry,” answered Louis. “I’ll go if mother
+can spare me.”
+
+“Well, you want to make up your mind pretty soon. Captain Paulding is
+going to start us off for Washington by the middle of next week if he
+can.”
+
+Just then another young fellow came into the grocery. It was Jerry
+Rowe, the son of a local horse doctor. He was an overbearing fellow,
+and Louis did not like him.
+
+“Hello, Rockford!” he cried. “They tell me you haven’t joined the
+company yet. What’s the matter, are you afraid?”
+
+“No, I am not afraid,” replied Louis, his face flushing. “I--”
+
+“It looks as if you were afraid; doesn’t it, Harry? All the fellows
+who are not afraid are going,” went on Jerry Rowe, and then he moved on
+to another part of the store, before Louis could say another word. But
+those cruel, thoughtless words of Rowe decided Louis. Come what might,
+he must obtain permission to enlist inside of the next twenty-four
+hours.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                           OFF FOR WASHINGTON
+
+
+“Now, then, who is the next volunteer? Come, gentlemen and fellow
+citizens, you have read our worthy President’s proclamation; you know
+how urgent is the call; you know that the rebels are collecting a great
+force to capture our noble Capitol at Washington; you know how those
+same rebels have taunted us, saying the North could not be kicked into
+a war; and you know also what the cities and towns and villages around
+us are doing--enrolling their patriots as fast as the names can be put
+down. Shall it be said that Goreville stood back when called upon to do
+her duty? Never! Come, who is the next volunteer?”
+
+Captain Paulding stood upon the stoop of the grocery store, addressing
+the crowd which had collected at the roll of the drum in the hands of
+young Benny Bruce, who had also enlisted, although less than fifteen
+years old. The captain had been “spouting” earnestly for half an
+hour, but no new volunteers had appeared. The muster roll numbered
+thirty-four names, and Captain Paulding wanted forty before starting on
+the long march for Washington.
+
+Behind the captain sat a clerk with the list in hand and a table with
+pens and ink beside him, for the captain knew that many volunteers had
+to be “caught on the fly,” or their enthusiasm would wane and they
+would not sign the enlistment paper. Beside the clerk sat Josiah Bruce,
+the father of Benny, a veteran who had lost a hand in the Mexican war,
+and who was much crippled by rheumatism.
+
+“Come, boys; come and sign!” cried Josiah Bruce, waving his stump of an
+arm over his head. “I went to Mexico, and my son there is goin’ to beat
+the drum fer ye. Sign, I say, an’ be patriots! Hurrah for the Stars and
+Stripes! Oh, if I wasn’t doubled up with this ’ere rheumatism, I’d show
+ye! Benny, beat the drum ag’in. Perhaps some o’ the men standin’ around
+hain’t heard it yet!”
+
+And Benny beat the drum so vigorously that a larger crowd than ever
+began to collect. Again Captain Paulding addressed those before him.
+
+“Shall it be said that the majority of the men of Goreville were
+cowards; that they would not march forth to uphold the hand of their
+President? No, never! Come now and sign; place your names on the golden
+roll of honor ere it is too late. Ha! Here is another, our worthy
+citizen, Moses Blackwell. Moses is a blacksmith, as we all know, and
+creation help the rebel that gets in front of him in a hand-to-hand
+fight. Soldiers, three cheers for our new member, Moses Blackwell.”
+
+And as Moses, a tall, thin, but, nevertheless, powerful fellow, put
+down the rough scrawl which went for his signature, the cheers were
+given with a will. As the blacksmith stepped back, two others came to
+the front, one a man who had just hopped from a farm wagon, and who
+came forward with his pants tucked in his boots and his whip in his
+hand.
+
+“Bart Callings and Nathan Hornsby!” announced Captain Paulding. “Keep
+the ball a-rolling, boys. Now is the time, remember, ere it is too
+late. Soldiers, three cheers for Callings and Hornsby! That makes
+thirty-seven. We want at least three more. Come, now! Come! Everybody
+join in, please.”
+
+                      “‘My country, ’tis of thee,
+                        Sweet land of liberty;
+                        Of thee I sing!’”
+
+Loud and clear arose the song on the bracing April air, and ere the
+refrain had died away two more names had been added to the list. The
+echo of the final word yet rang over the distant hills when Louis
+Rockford slipped shyly from his horse and mounted the store porch from
+the side.
+
+“I want to sign, please,” he almost whispered to the clerk.
+
+“Hello, Rockford! Then you are really going, after all!” cried the
+clerk. “I’m glad to hear it. Rowe put you down as too cowardly, but I
+knew better and said so. Captain, Louis Rockford will sign.”
+
+“Another! The fortieth!” shouted Captain Paulding. He shook Louis by
+the hand. “Going in place of your poor father, I suppose. Soldiers,
+three cheers for our fortieth man, Louis Rockford.”
+
+And once more the cheers rang out, this time with an extra will, for
+Louis had many friends among the younger members of the company. But
+during the cheering Louis’s quick eye detected that Jerry Rowe’s lips
+did not move. Almost instinctively he felt that, though he had many
+friends in the company, he had also one enemy.
+
+Louis had had an easier time than he anticipated getting his parents
+to consent to his enlistment. The reason for this was that, now Mr.
+Rockford could not go, he felt the family should be in some way
+represented and had whispered as much to his wife during the moments
+when not in pain. And Mrs. Rockford had agreed, but with tears in her
+eyes, for her only son was sorely needed about the dairy, and the
+thought that he must go forth to meet great danger filled her with
+alarm. A deeply religious woman, she spent a night in prayer, then
+called Louis to her side, and kissing him fondly, told him to do his
+duty to his country.
+
+The days which followed the enlistment flew on wings, so much was
+there to do. Louis was called on each day to drill for three hours,
+from four o’clock to seven in the afternoon and evening--this time
+being chosen that the men might do a fair day’s work at home before
+commencing. At first he was put in the “awkward squad,” drilled by old
+Josiah Bruce, and rapidly taught how to stand at “attention,” how to
+“right face,” “left face,” “about face,” “mark time,” and “march.” This
+learned, he was given a gun and put through the manual of arms until he
+could handle the weapon as well as any of them.
+
+Louis’s earnestness was warmly approved by the old Mexican veteran.
+“You’re a born soldier, Louis,” he said one day when the drilling was
+over. “Keep on as you have begun and my word on it, you’ll come out of
+the war with shoulder-straps.”
+
+“Now I’ve started, I mean to do my best,” was the quiet answer, and
+those words told the whole story, as the chapters which follow will
+testify.
+
+At last came the day when the company was to start for Washington, that
+being then the objective point of all the Union troops. It was felt
+that if the South struck any blow at all it would be at our Capitol.
+
+Louis had taken an affectionate farewell of his father and his mother
+at home, and now Lucy and Martha took him down to Goreville Square in
+a dairy wagon, not only to see him off, but to witness the celebration
+given in honor of the departure of the Goreville Volunteers. Big
+bonfires were blazing, a flag flew from the front of every house and
+place of business, and the small boys were shooting off all the powder
+and crackers they could lay hands on, while in the midst of all little
+Benny Bruce was rolling his drum as never before, calling the men
+together for their first march of a hundred and fifty miles or more.
+
+“Fall in, men!” cried Captain Paulding. There was a hasty handshaking
+and a kissing all around, and the men hurried to the center of the
+square. “Company, attention! Shoulder arms! Forward march!”
+
+Rap! Rap! Rap-rap-rap! went Benny Bruce’s big drum, and off the
+company started in two rather irregular lines. Old Bruce gave a rousing
+cheer and this was taken up on all sides, while the ladies waved their
+handkerchiefs and some of the boys set off the cannon they had borrowed
+from somewhere. The Goreville Volunteers were off at last.
+
+Each man was provided with a gun of some kind, finding the weapon
+for himself, and each had likewise furnished himself with a belt and
+ammunition-box, a haversack, and a blanket. None of the privates had
+uniforms outside of caps, which the general store-keeper at Goreville
+had donated. The officers wore uniforms of their own selecting,
+while Benny Bruce had been tricked out with uniform and drum by his
+enthusiastic father. The flag the company carried had been presented
+by the ladies of the district, who had held a large “donation” party
+for the purpose of raising the necessary funds. Each man’s haversack
+was stocked to overflowing with rations, and behind the company drove a
+wagon packed with other necessities of camp life.
+
+The course of the company lay directly southeast through the State of
+Maryland. At that time it was known that Maryland was “on the fence” so
+far as joining the North or the South was concerned, and hardly had the
+boundary-line of the State been crossed than Captain Paulding halted
+the company and made a brief address.
+
+“Men, we have now entered the State of Maryland,” he began. “We trust
+this State will remain true to the Union, but we are not sure that she
+will do so. I know personally that there are many people living here
+who are rebels at heart, and some of these people may try to make us
+trouble. If--”
+
+“Let ’em try it on, that’s all,” came in a growl from the rear line.
+
+“Silence in the ranks. I feel as you do about this matter, but at the
+same time if we can reach Washington without open trouble, we had best
+do so. Of course, we will maintain our rights, but to seek a quarrel
+will only delay us.”
+
+Having spoken thus, Captain Paulding paused for a moment and then
+commanded Privates Rockford and Bingham to step forward. Wondering what
+was up, Louis did as ordered, and Harry Bingham followed.
+
+“You will go on ahead,” said the captain. “Take the road to Frederick
+and keep on until about four o’clock this afternoon, when you can look
+around for a good halting-place. If you see anything alarming report to
+me as quickly as you can.”
+
+Louis and Bingham replied that they would. Then they saluted the
+captain in true military style and hurried off side by side.
+
+“I’m glad he detailed us for this work,” said Louis, a few minutes
+later. “It’s much pleasanter to have a friend along.”
+
+“Rather have me than Jerry Rowe, eh?” replied Harry Bingham. “Well, I
+don’t blame you. Rowe is very overbearing. But I reckon he’ll have the
+starch taken out of him before the war is over.”
+
+Knowing what was expected of them, they hurried off at a rapid pace,
+and soon the company was lost to sight behind a turn in the road. It
+was a clear and by no means cold day and both felt in capital spirits,
+and Louis would have started to whistle, but suddenly thought better
+of it. Their course lay along a low hill, and this passed, they came
+within sight of several farmhouses. As they passed the first of these,
+two farmers came out to meet them.
+
+“Hullo, sodgers; whar ye goin’?” questioned one.
+
+“Down the road,” answered Louis, pleasantly.
+
+“Goin’ to Washington, I allow,” put in the second farmer.
+
+“Perhaps we are,” said Harry, with spirit. “Any objections?”
+
+“Objections? Not at all, young man. Only--”
+
+“Only what?”
+
+“Reckon ye’ll wish ye hadn’t gone afore long--when Jeff Davis takes
+hold o’ things at the Capitol.”
+
+Both farmers laughed meaningly; in the midst of which Louis and his
+friend proceeded on their way.
+
+“Captain Paulding was right; Maryland is full of rebels,” said Louis,
+when they were out of hearing. “We must be on our guard and not let the
+company run into trouble.”
+
+On and on they went, over one hill after another; past open fields and
+through heavy woods. At the noon hour they halted beside a brook and
+partook of a portion of the rations contained in their haversacks.
+
+“I’ll tell you one thing,” remarked Harry, as he munched a sandwich.
+“We are not going to live as well as we did at home--not by a good
+deal.”
+
+“Fortunes of war,” laughed Louis. “Think of what the old Revolutionary
+heroes had to put up with.”
+
+“Yes, and the heroes of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Do you
+know what made me enlist? It was old Bruce’s stories of how General
+Scott took Mexico.”
+
+“I am glad President Lincoln has called General Scott to take charge in
+Washington. I want to see the old fellow. Who knows but that--Hist! Who
+is that coming?”
+
+Louis broke off short as three horsemen appeared at the ridge of the
+hill just beyond the brook. The three horsemen wore the uniforms
+and trappings of cavalrymen. In a moment more they were leading
+their animals down to the brook for a drink. Feeling they might be a
+detachment of the enemy, the two Union boys started to withdraw from
+sight. But the movement came too late.
+
+“Halt, there!” came the command, and in a moment more the three
+cavalrymen were upon them.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                     THE VOLUNTEERS AT THE CAPITOL
+
+
+The men who had come so unexpectedly upon Louis and Harry Bingham
+were noble-looking fellows, all well-built and past middle age. Their
+trappings were of the finest, and by his shoulder-straps Louis saw that
+one of the number was a captain.
+
+“Well, young men, where are you bound?” demanded the captain of the
+trio.
+
+“Bound for Frederick,” answered Harry, having taken his cue from
+Louis’s former speech.
+
+“Frederick, eh? Do you intend to remain in that city?”
+
+“That depends.”
+
+“Don’t you think you are bound for Washington?” put in a second of the
+cavalrymen.
+
+“What if we were?” asked Louis, cautiously.
+
+“Well, if I were in your place I wouldn’t be ashamed to own it.”
+
+“Neither we are,” burst out Harry, without stopping to think twice.
+
+“Are you alone?” was the next question put.
+
+“Can’t you see that we are?” was Louis’s counter query.
+
+“But by your caps you belong to some company, I take it,” went on the
+cavalry captain. “Where is the rest of that company?”
+
+“On the road somewhere.”
+
+“Humph!” There was a moment of silence. “Come, boys, it is useless
+to waste time here,” and having watered his horse the captain of the
+strangers rode off, followed by his two companions.
+
+“Now, what does that mean?” demanded Harry Bingham, as soon as they
+were left alone.
+
+“That is what I would like to know,” said Louis, much disturbed. “I
+wonder if those fellows belong to a cavalry troop close at hand?”
+
+“More than likely.”
+
+“Then they may hunt up our boys and cause trouble.”
+
+“Shall we go back?”
+
+“I think one of us might. The other can go ahead, as Captain Paulding
+directed.”
+
+This was agreed to, and by tossing up a cent it was decided that Harry
+Bingham should return to the Goreville Volunteers, while Louis went on
+as originally intended, but with increased vigilance.
+
+In five minutes more they had separated, and Louis was stalking
+sturdily along towards Frederick. The road now led beside a number
+of plantation fields where numerous colored hands were hard at work
+getting the ground into shape for the coming summer. Many of the slaves
+eyed Louis curiously, but none asked him questions. Several, noting his
+cap, haversack, and gun, grinned broadly, but that was all.
+
+Towards four o’clock the young soldier, remembering his captain’s
+words, began to cast about for a good spot for the night’s camp. He
+soon came to a patch of woods, in the midst of which was a clearing
+backed up by rocks, and this he concluded would be as good a place as
+any, having both wood and water handy. Marking the spot on the roadway,
+so it could not be missed, he started back to join his company.
+
+He had proceeded less than a quarter of a mile on the back track when
+a loud shouting reached his ears and made him quicken his pace. The
+shouting came from familiar voices, and loudest of all was the voice of
+Jerry Rowe.
+
+“Help! Help! Save me! Shoot the critter, somebody!” came the cry from
+Rowe, and then there burst into view half a dozen of the Goreville
+Volunteers, with Jerry Rowe bringing up the rear. Behind the flying
+squad, in deadly pursuit, was--a bull.
+
+“Save me! Save me! Shoot him, somebody!” shrieked Jerry Rowe again.
+“Don’t let the savage critter horn me!”
+
+“Shoot him yourself!” cried several of his companions. “You are the
+nearest,” added one.
+
+But Jerry Rowe was too scared to fire his weapon, and when, at last,
+he did manage to pull the trigger, the ball passed about six feet over
+the beast’s head. Having fired, Jerry threw away his gun and ran harder
+than ever.
+
+There was no doubt but that the bull was a bad one, for his eyes were
+bloodshot and the foam was flying from his jaws as he lumbered on with
+wonderful rapidity. Yet with it all Louis could not help but laugh at
+the scene. Here were soldiers enlisted to fight the enemy flying from a
+barnyard beast! What would these volunteers do in the face of an armed
+battery?
+
+Bang! Coming to a halt by the roadside, he waited until the bull was
+almost even with him, then aimed at a bloodshot eye and fired. The aim
+was true, and with a roar of pain the beast staggered, pitched forward
+upon his knees, and then rolled over in a cloud of dust with a thud
+that shook the earth.
+
+“Hurrah! Louis Rockford has killed him!” came from one of the young
+fellows in front. “That was a dandy shot, Louis.”
+
+“I hit him, too,” panted Jerry Rowe. “See, my shot struck him directly
+in the eye.”
+
+“It was I who hit him in the eye!” answered Louis, indignantly. “You
+didn’t come within a mile of him.”
+
+“Go on with you; I know I hit him,” blustered Jerry. “Do you think you
+are the only marksman in the company?”
+
+“Louis hit him in the eye,” put in another of the crowd. “I fired, too,
+but the bullet passed under him, I think.”
+
+“How on earth did you start him up?” questioned Louis, coolly, as he
+proceeded to load up again.
+
+“We didn’t start him up. He broke out of a field that we were passing
+and came for us red hot before we realized what was up.”
+
+By this time the bull had breathed his last, and the little crowd
+gathered around and waited for the others of the company to come up.
+When they did, Captain Paulding’s face was as red as a beet.
+
+“To run from a cow!” he burst out. “Boys, I am ashamed of you. What
+would the rebels say to this if they heard of it?”
+
+“But he came upon us so unexpectedly, captain,” pleaded one.
+
+“Soldiers should never be taken unawares. Didn’t I warn you we might be
+passing through a hostile country, and all must be on guard?”
+
+“But we weren’t looking for a bull rebel, cap’n,” returned Jack
+Melburn, the joker of the company.
+
+The captain made no reply to this. Learning that Louis had shot the
+beast, he praised the youth for his alertness and good aim, and then
+re-formed his company and marched on.
+
+Nothing more had been seen of the strange cavalrymen, but as soon as
+the volunteers went into camp a strict guard was set, that there might
+be no surprise during the night. Several old tents had been brought
+along, and these and the blankets were all the protection at hand, but
+even these were better than some of the accommodations experienced by
+the volunteers later.
+
+Morning was just about to dawn, and Louis was still fast asleep,
+with his head upon a pine branch pillow, when a sudden shot from the
+direction of the roadway set the camp in immediate commotion. Two
+farmers had tried to pass the guard and the soldier had fired as a
+signal for assistance.
+
+When Captain Paulding went out to meet the intruders, with his company
+drawn up behind him, the farmers looked rather disconcerted. Yet one of
+them plucked up courage enough to state that he was the owner of the
+bull that had been slain, and he wanted to know what the “sodgers was
+a-gwine ter do about the deestruction o’ his val’able property.”
+
+“The bull attacked my men while they were on the public highway,”
+returned the captain. “They had to kill him in self-defense. We propose
+to do nothing.”
+
+“Thet bull was wuth a heap o’ money,” growled the farmer.
+
+“I am sorry for you, but I can do nothing,” went on Captain Paulding.
+
+“I reckon you air some of them cussed Yankees.”
+
+“We are Union men, sir,” and the captain looked so stern that the
+farmer’s jaw dropped. Seeing he could do nothing by intimidation, he
+finally offered to sell the meat at a reasonable price. This offer
+was accepted, and for the remainder of the trip to the Capitol the
+Goreville Volunteers lived on roast beef and beefsteaks galore.
+
+“It was an easy way out of the trouble,” said the captain when in
+camp the next noon. “Had we not bought the meat the farmer might have
+spread the report that we were confiscating his goods and the whole
+neighborhood would have been aroused.”
+
+Frederick had been passed by a circuitous route, and now the company
+took the most direct road to Rockville and Washington. Everybody
+still felt fresh and none complained of the long marches. Once they
+encountered a slight shower, but otherwise the weather remained perfect.
+
+It was towards the close of the fourth day out that word reached the
+company, through several Union sympathizers, that trouble had occurred
+at Baltimore between the citizens and some Massachusetts troops that
+were passing through the city from one railroad station to another.
+A mob had collected, sticks and stones had been used, and a sharp
+skirmish had ensued, ending in the death of a number on both sides.
+This trouble at Baltimore was kept up until some time later, when
+General Butler took possession of the city and placed it under military
+rule. By this it will be seen how near Maryland was at one time to
+joining her Southern sisters in the great rebellion.
+
+The news from Baltimore made Captain Paulding more vigilant than ever,
+and four advance guards or skirmishers were sent out whenever the
+volunteers moved. At a little place called Bowker’s the company was
+attacked by two men and half a dozen big boys, who threw stones and
+clods of dirt, but these Southern sympathizers fled at the first order
+from Captain Paulding to halt and take aim.
+
+When the order came to point his gun, Louis’s heart leaped into his
+throat. Was he really to fire upon a fellow human being? he asked
+himself. It is not to be wondered at that his aim was high. Very few
+men in their first encounter on the battlefield shoot to kill. One must
+be nerved up by the course of events to do this deliberately.
+
+Bowker’s passed, the little band struck out through a fertile country
+for Rockville. Up to this time nothing had been heard of the cavalrymen
+Louis and Harry Bingham had met. But now, about four o’clock in the
+afternoon, Jerry Rowe, one of the advance guards sent out, came running
+back, his face as white as a sheet.
+
+“The Southern cavalry!” he gasped. “They are on the road, a hundred or
+more strong, and are coming this way! Run for your lives!”
+
+“Rowe!” ejaculated Captain Paulding so fiercely that Jerry nearly sank
+in new terror.
+
+“But, captain, they are a hundred strong, and all armed--and--”
+
+“Enough. They are riding this way?”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+“Very well; that is sufficient. Take your place in the ranks. Company,
+halt!”
+
+“But, captain--”
+
+“Silence, or I’ll place you under arrest. You are positively the worst
+coward I ever met.”
+
+Without a word more Jerry sneaked to his place, glad that it was in the
+second and not the first division of the command. He trembled from head
+to foot.
+
+Another of the guards now came back. It was Moses Blackwell, the
+blacksmith. He had remained long enough to ascertain that the cavalry
+numbered less than sixty men, but all well armed and mounted. That they
+were Confederates he was certain, for, although they wore the United
+States uniform, every U. S. had been stripped from their clothing, as
+well as from their horses’ trappings.
+
+“I left Dunham and Wells behind,” said Blackwell. “They are going to
+watch and see if any more of the enemy are on the way.”
+
+“How far off are the cavalry?”
+
+“No more’n half a mile, sir.”
+
+“Very good. Return to the ranks. Company, attention! Forward march!
+Left wheel! Forward march! Left wheel! Forward march!” came the various
+commands, and in half a minute the volunteers were moving in the
+direction from whence they had come.
+
+Louis wondered if they were really going to retreat, but he did not
+have to wonder long. In five minutes they reached a spot where the road
+widened and where at one side was a patch of rocky woodland, fringed
+by a strip of heavy but low brush. Here Captain Paulding halted his
+command and drew them up in a single line just in front of the brush.
+
+“Men, we will wait here until the enemy appears,” he said, quietly but
+firmly. “If they show a disposition to pass us without trouble, well
+and good. If they want to fight, leap behind the brush and wait for the
+command to fire. If we can’t hold the brush, we will take to the woods,
+where, if they want to follow us, they’ll have to do it on foot.”
+
+Having thus shown his military sagacity, Captain Paulding set the
+command at rest and went among “his boys” to encourage them to keep
+calm. The drummer boy was sent to the rear and every gun and pistol was
+examined to see that it was properly loaded.
+
+A cloud of dust soon indicated the approach of the cavalry, and in a
+minute more they rode into sight. As they came closer Louis noted that
+the captain he had spoken to at the brook was at their head.
+
+The volunteers were not discovered until the two commands were less
+than three hundred feet apart, for the cavalry had not expected
+trouble in that vicinity and had no guard in advance. The instant the
+volunteers were sighted the captain called a halt. There was a few
+seconds of consultation, then the cavalry leader rode forward holding
+up a white handkerchief. With his own handkerchief over his shoulder,
+Captain Paulding went forward to meet him. The two saluted in true
+military style.
+
+“What company is that?” demanded the Confederate.
+
+“The Goreville Volunteers, United States Army, from Pennsylvania,
+unattached. What cavalry is that?”
+
+“Nelson’s Potomac Chargers, unattached, of the South,” the last words
+with peculiar emphasis. “Where are you going?”
+
+“To Washington. And you?”
+
+“To Frederick.”
+
+Then came a pause. Both leaders looked each other squarely in the eyes.
+
+“Do you anticipate trouble on the road, captain?” asked the
+Confederate, with a faint smile.
+
+“I’m not looking for trouble, captain; but I am ready to meet it if it
+comes.”
+
+“Are you holding this road?”
+
+“Oh, no.”
+
+“Then I reckon I’ll bid you good day and go on.”
+
+“Good day, captain.”
+
+Again the two saluted, and each went back to his command. In a minute
+more the cavalrymen rode by, their sabers clanking loudly. They were
+certainly a fine body of men. A few scowled at the volunteers, a few
+smiled, and the majority, including the officers, looked straight
+ahead, as though the company along the roadside had never existed. Five
+minutes more, and the dust again swallowed them from view.
+
+Before they had disappeared the volunteers were again in motion, and
+the wagon came forth from its place of concealment in the woods. Now
+the danger was past, Jerry Rowe began to murmur and wanted to know “why
+they hadn’t been permitted to blow the heads off of every pesky rebel.”
+But Moses, the blacksmith, soon silenced him.
+
+“Jerry, you make me weary,” he said. “If we ever git to shootin’,
+you’ll be the fust to run. Shut up!” and Jerry did so.
+
+The encounter with the cavalry was the last incident of importance in
+the march to the Capitol. One Sunday was spent on the road, and the
+following Tuesday night saw them in Washington. They found some other
+commands from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York already there,
+in camp on the large parade ground near the White House and in the
+Capitol buildings. Some of the men who had come in were unarmed, but
+these were speedily furnished weapons by the United States authorities,
+and the veteran General Scott took command of the troops.
+
+Throughout the South the cry was “On to Washington!” and it was feared
+that the Capitol might be attacked at any time. But General Scott was
+alive to the situation, and, as more and more troops came in, the city
+was well fortified against an attack and that danger was, for the time
+being, averted.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                         ANDY OFF FOR MANASSAS
+
+
+“Hurrah! hurrah, father, the Yankees are whipped! Fort Sumter is taken!
+Didn’t I tell you they couldn’t stand up against our fellows? My, but
+don’t I just wish I had been in Charleston to see the bombardment!”
+
+And Andy Arlington rushed into the sitting-room pell-mell, throwing his
+cap into the air, and giving his sister Grace a hug in his delight.
+
+“Fort Sumter taken!” repeated his father. “Is it really true, my son?
+Then the war has opened at last.”
+
+The old Mexican veteran took the newspaper his son had brought in
+from the post-office. Yes, it was true, as the great black scare lines
+proved; the fort had been taken, Major Anderson had departed for the
+North on the _Baltic_, and all of Charleston was mad with joy.
+
+“I wonder what Louis will say to that when he reads it,” said Andy, as
+he turned again to Grace. “I told him right along we’d whip if it came
+to fighting.”
+
+“Well, one battle doesn’t constitute a whole war, Andy,” replied Grace,
+instinctively standing up for the enemy who was yet her dearest friend.
+“And Louis knows that as well as we do.”
+
+“It’s not such a tremendous victory, either,” observed Mrs. Arlington.
+“The fort was surrounded by the other forts and floating batteries, and
+the garrison must have been about starved out, being cut off from shore
+for three months. I wonder what the North will do next?”
+
+“They won’t do much,” said the husband. “I believe the saying is true,
+they can’t be kicked into a fight. Even at Fort Sumter they stood only
+on the defensive.”
+
+Grace listened and her face grew red. She could not get Louis out of
+her mind. “Maybe it will take a long while to arouse the North, but
+when they are aroused--” She did not finish.
+
+“Oh, pshaw! We’ll lick ’em out of their boots; see if we don’t!”
+ejaculated Andy. “Why, you ought to hear the talk down at the
+post-office and over to the tavern. Half the district is fairly wild
+over the news, and Frederick Mason is going to organize a company of
+volunteers if they’ll have ’em, and Captain Montgomery is going to try
+to fit out some cavalry. I’d like to join Captain Montgomery--he’s such
+a good fellow,” and Andy’s eyes beamed at the prospect. Mrs. Arlington
+said nothing, but as she thought of her only son riding to battle her
+eyes filled with tears and she had to turn away.
+
+The proclamation calling for Union troops was speedily followed by
+a similar call for men in the South. The call was an urgent one,
+and aroused the warm Southern blood to its highest pitch. Military
+companies and troops of cavalry were formed everywhere, and young and
+old went forth to fight against those who threatened their plantations,
+their industries and their firesides. The enthusiasm of the South was
+equal to that of the North in every particular.
+
+It was understood that Mr. Arlington could not take part in this
+conflict. When, even with his cork leg, he might have joined the
+cavalry, his general condition was such that his wife would not for one
+moment entertain the idea of his leaving home.
+
+“You have fought enough, father,” she would say. “Let the younger men
+carry this war through.”
+
+“But I feel as if I ought to go,” he would plead, but she would shake
+her head, and then he would remain silent.
+
+As the days went by and news came of how the South was gaining a little
+here and there, attacking this fort and that arsenal and capturing
+them, Andy grew more and more impatient. Captain Montgomery had begun
+to form his cavalry troop and the youth watched them wistfully as they
+went through their drill on Lee Run Square.
+
+“Father, I’m going to join; that’s all there is to it,” he said at
+last. “If I don’t go they’ll call me a coward, and I want to go awfully
+bad. I’ve got a horse and money enough to buy trappings and a sword,
+and there’s no reason why I should stay home.”
+
+At this the eyes of the veteran glistened. “I know the feeling, Andy,”
+he said. “I’ve been thinking it over a good deal, too. Since I cannot
+go I don’t know but that you might--if you can get your mother to
+consent.”
+
+At first Mrs. Arlington could not think of it. But then came a short
+letter from the Rockfords, telling of the accident which had happened
+to Mr. Rockford and that Louis had joined a volunteer company. The
+letter was written by Lucy, who said Louis was too busy to do more
+than ask to be remembered to Andy and Grace, and Lucy added that she
+supposed Andy would soon be on his way to fight against her brother.
+The letter was very friendly and closed by hoping that the present
+difficulty would soon be settled. This was the last letter which passed
+between the families for a long while to come.
+
+“You see how it is,” said Andy, as he handed the letter to his mother
+after perusing it. “Even the Rockfords think I will go. How can you
+make me stand back in the face of that? Why don’t you let me show that
+I am at least as brave as Louis?”
+
+This was Andy’s clinching argument. Mrs. Arlington’s Southern pride
+would not permit her to keep her son at home when the son of her
+Northern friend was already off to the seat of war. She consented that
+night, and Andy enrolled under Captain Montgomery the next day.
+
+The cavalry was called Montgomery’s Grays, and each trooper was
+required to clothe himself in gray suit of a certain design, with a
+plumed hat to match. At first it was thought to seat every man on a
+gray horse, but this was found impossible in the short space of time
+allowed for equipment, and the cavalrymen rode such animals as they
+possessed.
+
+The seat of government for the States which had seceded was soon to
+be at Richmond, but the Confederate forces were gathering at Manassas
+Junction, a place about thirty-five miles west of Washington, and
+an important point from the fact that two of the principal Southern
+railroads met there. It was this gathering at Manassas that made
+Northern people think an attack on Washington was close at hand.
+
+Soon came the day for Andy to leave home. Lee Run was gaily
+decorated--as much so as Goreville had been when Louis left. There were
+flags and bunting in abundance, but the glorious stars and stripes were
+missing. Instead the State flag was unfurled, for the stars and bars
+and other emblems of the Confederacy had not yet come into use.
+
+The cavalry made an imposing appearance as they moved off four abreast,
+the horses prancing gaily to the trumpet notes of the bugler. Shout
+after shout went up, which continued until the Montgomery Grays were
+lost to sight in a cloud of dust half a mile from the town center.
+
+“I’m glad we’re off,” remarked one of the young men to Andy as they
+cantered along. “I’ve been itching to get at the Yankees ever since the
+trouble began.”
+
+The young man’s name was Leroy Wellington. His father’s plantation
+adjoined that of the Arlingtons, and both youths were on the best of
+terms. Leroy had traveled much, and a rough, outdoor life just suited
+him.
+
+“So am I glad we are off,” answered Andy, as he patted Firefly, his
+horse, affectionately upon the neck. “I wonder how soon we’ll fight our
+first battle?”
+
+“That will depend altogether upon our leaders. I understand Harper’s
+Ferry has been taken. That will give us a lot of guns and ammunition
+from the arsenal.”
+
+“Yes, and a victory at Norfolk Navy Yard will be still more important.”
+
+“By the way, how about that Pennsylvania friend of yours?” went on
+Leroy Wellington. “What does he think of things now?”
+
+“Oh, he has already joined the volunteers called for by Lincoln.”
+
+“Humph! Then we may meet on the field of battle?”
+
+“I trust I don’t have to fight Louis face to face,” answered Andy, very
+seriously. “War is one thing, and shooting or cutting down your friend
+is another.”
+
+“I suppose that is so, Andy; but if my friend chooses to become my
+enemy that is his lookout, not mine,” concluded Leroy Wellington.
+
+On went the cavalry until about six o’clock in the evening. They
+had now arrived at a small village called Parker’s Mills, and it was
+decided to put up there for the night. Accommodations were found for
+the horses in the various stables in the neighborhood, and as patriots
+the cavalrymen were entertained at the various homes in the vicinity.
+
+Parker’s Mills was full of slaves, and it had been whispered about that
+there was fear of an uprising among the colored folks. For this reason
+every slave was watched closely, and if any were found to be at all
+rebellious, they were chained up and subjected to severe lashings.
+
+It was about eleven o’clock that Andy was aroused from a light sleep
+into which he had fallen by the sounds of a violent struggle in the
+sitting-room below the bed-chamber he was occupying. Slipping into a
+portion of his clothing, he hurried below, to find the master of the
+house, a Mr. Rockleigh, struggling valiantly in the grasp of two burly
+negroes who were his slaves. The negroes had contemplated flight, but
+before going had sneaked into the house in an attempt to steal some
+money which had been left in an old-fashioned secretary in the room.
+
+“Let go, Pomp,” gasped Mr. Rockleigh. “Let go, or sure as I live I’ll
+flay you alive for this.”
+
+“Dun yo’ let go, Pomp,” put in one of the burly negroes. “We is in dis
+to de end, remember!”
+
+“I ain’t a-lettin’ go, Cuffy,” replied Pomp. “Now, Massa Rockleigh, yo’
+quit yo’ noise, or I’ll knock yo’ ober de head wid dis yere club. We
+knows well enough yo’ wife is away an’ de young ladies, too, an’ we is
+bound to hab our own way.”
+
+“You--you scoundrels!” cried the master, but even as he spoke the club
+descended and the man of the house fell back partly unconscious from a
+blow upon the head.
+
+It was at this moment that Andy leaped into the sitting-room. On coming
+down he had caught up his sword, and taking in the situation at a
+glance, he advanced upon the two slaves.
+
+“Stop where you are!” he commanded; “stop, unless you want your heads
+cut open!”
+
+His words nearly dumbfounded the negroes, who had supposed Mr.
+Rockleigh in the house alone, save for an old woman who was more than
+half deaf, and who had not up to this time heard the commotion. Both
+stared hard and fell back a few steps.
+
+“Who--who is yo’?” finally demanded Pomp, with an ugly scowl.
+
+“Never mind who I am,” replied Andy. “Drop your clubs at once.”
+
+“But see yere, sah--”
+
+“I won’t argue with you. Drop your clubs.”
+
+Instead of doing this, however, both negroes made for the doorway
+leading into the kitchen. By this time Mr. Rockleigh had partly
+recovered and was trying to stagger to his feet.
+
+“Don’t let them get away,” he cried. “They are my slaves and have
+robbed me of several hundred dollars in gold.”
+
+“Stand where you are or I will fire at you!” said Andy. And now he
+exhibited a pistol he had also brought along.
+
+[Illustration: “STAND WHERE YOU ARE OR I WILL FIRE AT YOU!” SAID
+ANDY.--_Page 95._]
+
+“Don’t--don’t shoot me!” yelled Cuffy, in abject terror. “Please, massa
+sodger, don’t shoot!” and he dropped upon his knees. He could stand
+almost anything but a display of firearms.
+
+“Cuffy, yo’ is a fool!” howled Pomp. “Come on, if yo’ is gwine wid me.
+Remember, if we is cotched now we’ll be more dan half-killed wid de
+lash. Take dat.”
+
+As the last words were uttered Pomp launched forth the heavy club he
+carried. His aim was for Andy’s head and had the young cavalryman not
+dodged in a hurry, he might have suffered from a cracked skull. As it
+was, the club grazed his ear and then went crashing through a closed
+window, carrying away part of the frame and several lights of glass.
+
+“Fire at him!” ordered Mr. Rockleigh, and the words were yet on his
+lips when Andy pulled the trigger of his pistol. Pomp was hit in the
+shoulder, but not seriously injured, and the next moment both slaves
+fled forth from the kitchen of the house into the darkness of the night.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                        ANDY ON THE BREASTWORKS
+
+
+At home Andy had never experienced any difficulty with his father’s
+slaves, for the colored people were well cared for and were too happy
+to create any disturbances. To be sure, minor difficulties arose from
+time to time, but these had been readily adjusted, and there was not
+a man or woman on the Arlington plantation who would not have been
+willing to lay down his or her life for any member of the family.
+These slaves were true to the Arlingtons all through the war, and when
+liberated by President Lincoln’s proclamation, made no effort to take
+advantage of their liberty. As attachés of that plantation and dairy,
+they felt they were being better taken care of than they would be if
+they tried to do for themselves.
+
+To come in contact, then, with such rascals as Pomp and Cuffy was to
+the youth much of a surprise, and having seen the slaves dash away, he
+stood still, not knowing what to do, until Mr. Rockleigh caught him by
+the arm.
+
+“Come, we must stop them. They have my gold and they will try to reach
+the North if they can,” burst from the plantation owner.
+
+Out he sped, and Andy came upon his heels. The report of the pistol and
+the smashing of the glass had aroused a number of inhabitants living
+on the other side of the main road upon which the house stood, and now
+windows were thrown up and anxious faces appeared, and voices demanded
+to know what was the trouble. Matters were quickly explained, and soon
+a dozen men were in the saddle and on foot in pursuit of the runaway
+thieves.
+
+One man living a distance up the road had seen Pomp and Cuffy taking
+a side path leading due northward, and it was in this direction the
+pursuing party headed, spreading out over several open fields, that the
+negroes might not double on their trail and escape in that manner. Mr.
+Rockleigh wanted to follow them with bloodhounds, but not a dog of that
+breed was handy.
+
+“Just let me catch them,” he cried, in a fearful rage. “I’ll skin
+them both alive. I’ll cut out their black hearts with my whip.” He was
+naturally a passionate man, and this was one reason why his slaves had
+revolted.
+
+The pursuit was kept up until six o’clock in the morning. It was then
+discovered that the two runaways had separated. One party, including
+Andy, continued after Pomp, while the second followed up the trail of
+Cuffy. By ten o’clock Andy dropped out of the search to ride post-haste
+back to his command. Sometime later he learned that Pomp had not been
+captured.
+
+Cuffy was taken while in hiding in a brook in a patch of woods. He was
+dragged out of the water by his heels and at once searched. A hundred
+dollars in gold was found in his shirt bosom. The remainder of the
+money he insisted was in Pomp’s possession. He was marched back to the
+Rockleigh plantation, where he was chained up in one of the barns and
+flogged until he dropped like one dead, from exhaustion and loss of
+blood.
+
+This was the only incident of note which occurred on the trip from Lee
+Run to Manassas Junction. Arriving at the Junction the Montgomery Grays
+selected a camping spot in the vicinity of a number of other Virginia
+troops, and immediately went into quarters in true military style.
+
+Their camp was in an orchard of trees which had borne their best
+fruit years before, and which were consequently good for little else
+than firewood. The Montgomery Grays occupied one “street” about a
+hundred and fifty feet long. At the upper end of the “street” were the
+officers’ tents, at the center the horses’ quarters, and at the lower
+end the cook’s quarters. The cook was a fat darky known as Mungo, a
+jolly fellow who sang from morning to night, and who could play a
+banjo to perfection. Mungo had brought his banjo with him, a home-made
+instrument, the head of which was almost as black as his own, and this
+banjo he declared must go along whenever they moved, no matter what
+else had to be left behind.
+
+“I would jess mope away an’ die ef I didn’t hab dat dere instrument,
+cap’n,” he explained to Captain Montgomery. “It’s been my pet fo’ ten
+yahs an’ mo’. Ef I’se killed in dis yere wah, bury de banjo wid me.”
+
+“All right, Mungo, I’ll remember that,” answered the captain. “But
+don’t forget, if you get the chance, to smash that banjo over some
+Yankee’s head. Do that, and I’ll buy you the best instrument to be
+found in Richmond.”
+
+“De Yankee ain’t born whose head am good enuf to hab dis yere banjo
+smashed ober it,” murmured Mungo; and there the subject was dropped.
+
+The main body of the Confederate army was stationed in and about
+Manassas Junction and along a little stream known as Bull Run; but
+there were also bodies of troops at Centerville and Fairfax Court
+House, situated between Manassas and Washington, and also detachments
+at Alexandria on the Potomac and at Arlington Heights, just across the
+river from the Capitol.
+
+Andy had been in camp less than a week when he received his first
+real taste of war life, if not of war itself. In order to strengthen
+the position of the army at Bull Run, it was decided to throw up
+breastworks, and this was done under the orders of General Beauregard,
+who now had under him a force of nearly twenty thousand men.
+
+Bull Run is a sluggish stream of water, flowing between steep banks
+and through a well-timbered country. Its winding course contained many
+fords and several bridges. The Confederate army occupied about eight
+miles of the southern bank of this stream, and at once began the work
+of defending seven of the fords and one of the bridges by throwing up
+breastworks of dirt and brushwood.
+
+With the others in his company, Andy was given first a pick and then
+a shovel and set to work like any common day laborer. The youth was
+not used to this, and when night came his back ached as it never had
+before. The work took the best part of a week, and then Andy found his
+hands blistered.
+
+“Call this fighting?” he grumbled. “It wouldn’t be so bad if a fellow
+was out in California digging gold, but to work like a nigger on the
+streets of a town--” He did not finish but heaved a big sigh. That
+night it rained “pitchforks;” the tent Andy occupied with Leroy was
+blown down, and he felt utterly discouraged.
+
+“Never mind, Andy,” said Leroy, trying to cheer him. “We’ll be
+fighting before long, and then you can show your mettle to better
+advantage. I heard some of the officers saying that the soldiers over
+in Washington would be out this way before the month was up. If they
+come we ought to give it to ’em red hot.”
+
+“They can’t come any too quick for me,” growled Andy.
+
+Even with the work on the defenses the drilling went on daily without
+interruption. First they would drill in company, then with other
+detached cavalry troops, and finally would come the grand drill of the
+division. The drilling was not always done in an open field, but among
+the trees and on rough ground, and often fences had to be jumped and
+streams forded. It was not play but hard work; yet Andy liked it a good
+deal better than handling a pick and a shovel, something he thought
+altogether beneath him.
+
+“It’s life to be on horseback, dashing here and there,” he observed
+to Leroy Wellington. “If only the Yankees would appear and give us a
+little more of this sort to do. I wonder if they are going to wait for
+us to attack them?”
+
+The breastworks along Bull Run completed, advance guards were sent out
+along the Potomac just above Washington. Then the Confederates sent
+their engineers along Arlington Heights to survey the territory and
+report on the advisability of planting a battery there. Some of the
+Southern leaders were certain that such a battery could successfully
+shell Washington and compel President Lincoln and the members of
+Congress to flee for their lives. The only trouble was, could they hold
+such a position? Might not the Union forces come down upon them from
+the upper Potomac and cut them off from their base of supplies and from
+Richmond?
+
+The question was answered before the Southern generals had time to
+act upon their idea. One day a Union officer, while in a boat near the
+foot of Arlington Heights, discovered a number of men walking about
+among the rocks and brush. The officer happened to have a powerful
+spy-glass with him, and using this, discovered that one of the men was
+Robert E. Lee, who was then the military adviser of President Davis of
+the Confederacy, and who afterwards became the general-in-chief of the
+Southern army. Lee was laying out fortifications, and the Union officer
+lost no time in reporting to General Scott to that effect.
+
+General Scott saw at once that this work must be stopped instantly, or
+Washington would be at the enemy’s mercy. Orders were accordingly given
+for certain detachments of the Union troops to cross the river without
+delay, and take possession of the opposite shore.
+
+The advance from Washington was made at two o’clock at night. Two
+bridges crossed the Potomac at this point, and a column of the army
+passed over by each, while a third division embarked on vessels for
+Alexandria, a short distance below Arlington Heights. As soon as the
+Confederates heard of the approach of the Union men they retreated, and
+the shore of the Potomac opposite Washington was occupied without great
+difficulty.
+
+Louis was just about to retire for the night when the sudden roll of
+the drum made him leap to his feet. In a few seconds Harry Bingham came
+rushing into the tent.
+
+“We are off, Louis!” he ejaculated. “The war has begun.”
+
+“Off! Where to?” burst from Louis’s lips.
+
+“I don’t know. Across the river to somewhere I believe. Come on!” and
+off Harry ran, with Louis at his heels. The parade ground was filled
+with men, on foot and on horseback, scurrying in all directions.
+
+From their captain the youths soon learned that the Union army, or
+a portion of it, was to take possession of the other shore of the
+river. The various commands had been divided into three parts and the
+Goreville Volunteers were to be attached to the Ellsworth Zouaves and
+some other companies, bound by boat for Alexandria. In less than two
+hours all was ready for embarkation.
+
+The trip down the stream to one of the main docks in Alexandria did
+not take long. Company after company came ashore unmolested, although
+mutterings could be heard on every side. Having landed all of his
+troops, Colonel Ellsworth marched up the main street, called upon
+the city authorities to surrender the town, and then started for the
+telegraph office, with the intention of cutting off all communications
+with the South--certainly a very clever movement.
+
+The Goreville Volunteers soon found themselves not far from the
+telegraph office for which Colonel Ellsworth was bound. They had become
+detached from the main body of the soldiers and now, without warning,
+were surrounded by a mob of two hundred people, armed with pistols,
+clubs, and stones.
+
+“Down with the Yankees! Down with the Northern mud-sills!” was the cry,
+and in a moment the air became thick with flying stones and lumps of
+dirt. Captain Paulding at once halted his men in two lines, and gave
+the rear line the order to “about face.” Next came the order to take
+aim, but by this time the mob saw that the soldiers “meant business,”
+and it melted away as quickly as it had gathered.
+
+“A bloodless victory,” said Harry, who stood next to Louis.
+
+Louis smiled and then he nodded his head in the direction where Jerry
+Rowe stood. Poor Jerry was shaking so that he could scarcely hold his
+gun.
+
+“He’ll collapse when he gets into a regular battle,” said Harry, and
+then the command came for silence in the ranks and nothing further was
+said.
+
+A little later the command marched past the Marshall House, one of the
+leading hotels of Alexandria. From the top waved a Confederate flag--a
+flag which President Lincoln and others had often seen from a window in
+the White House.
+
+“That flag ought to come down,” whispered Louis. He had scarcely spoken
+when down the street came Colonel Ellsworth, accompanied by only two or
+three of his command. Ellsworth had noted the flag and now he ran into
+the hotel to tear it down with his own hands.
+
+“Whose flag is that?” he demanded of the first man he met.
+
+“I don’t know,” was the surly reply.
+
+“I want it lowered at once.”
+
+“Do you? All right, go take it down yourself.”
+
+“I will,” answered the Union officer, and ran up one pair of stairs
+after another to the roof of the hotel. Here the halliards of the
+flag-staff were cut and the flag brought down on a run. With the colors
+wound over his arm, Ellsworth began to descend to the street. He had
+just reached the second floor of the building when the proprietor of
+the hotel, a man named Jackson, appeared in the hallway armed with a
+double-barrel shotgun.
+
+“Will haul it down, will you?” he muttered and pointing his weapon at
+Ellsworth’s breast, fired. The gallant leader of the Ellsworth Zouaves
+was killed instantly, and sank down without a moan.
+
+“Ellsworth is shot! Help!” came the cry from the Union officer’s
+companions, and then one fired at Jackson with fatal effect. As the
+hotel man went down in a pool of blood the others leaped upon his body
+and thrust it through with their sabers.
+
+“Spare him!” came in a woman’s voice, and the secessionist’s wife came
+rushing forth from a bedroom. Thinking her husband might still breathe,
+she threw herself on his corpse, while the Union men, knowing he was
+dead, picked up their lifeless leader and carried him away.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                        THE ADVANCE TO BULL RUN
+
+
+The excitement around the hotel was for a time intense, and not only
+the Zouaves, but also the Goreville Volunteers had all they could do to
+restore order and thus prevent further bloodshed. Many of the Union men
+were in favor of burning the Marshall House to the ground, but other
+counsel prevailed and the building was spared.
+
+It may be added here that later on Colonel Ellsworth’s body was sent on
+to New York, where the funeral services were among the largest and most
+imposing ever witnessed in that city. The funeral of Jackson was also
+well attended, and each man was looked upon as a martyr by those whose
+side he happened to represent.
+
+The death of Ellsworth was a shock to Louis. It was the first soldier
+he had heard of being slain, and he shuddered when, later on, he gazed
+at the cold, set face of the dashing Zouave, whose striking uniform of
+red, blue, and yellow had made him more dashing than ever. It was the
+lad’s first taste of grim war--and there was much still in store.
+
+The Zouaves having taken complete possession of Alexandria, the
+Goreville Volunteers were sent back to their old quarters at
+Washington, to remain there for a possible call from the upper Potomac.
+It was during this wait that Louis one day came almost face to face
+with President Lincoln, who was inspecting the remnant of the army,
+in company with General Scott. The sad, earnest face of the President
+impressed him greatly, and he could not help but think of what a
+tremendous responsibility now rested on the shoulders of the nation’s
+chief executive.
+
+“He’s got more of a load than I would like to carry,” said he to Harry
+Bingham. “With so many thousands of eyes upon him, he can’t afford to
+make a mismove.”
+
+“You are right, Louis. I would rather be a private in the ranks.”
+
+“If I was President I would soon end this war,” blustered Jerry Rowe,
+who had heard the remarks.
+
+“Would you, indeed, Jerry?” answered Louis, curiously. “How could you
+do it?”
+
+“Never mind--I’d do it, and that’s enough for you to know,” and Jerry
+stalked off, fearful of being pinned down to some plan of campaign.
+
+“Jerry is a cooler,” murmured Harry. “He is a coward at heart, yet how
+he does love to brag!”
+
+“Benny Bruce was complaining to me about him,” said Louis. “He says
+Jerry is picking at him whenever the chance offers. Jerry always did
+love to tease the little fellows.”
+
+“He ought to have his head punched for it,” concluded Harry.
+
+Having taken possession of Arlington Heights, the Union troops at
+once began to build fortifications there and soon the danger that
+had threatened Washington was past. Close at hand were the beautiful
+grounds of Mount Vernon, where Washington had lived, but these were not
+touched during the entire war, both North and South considering the
+ground as sacred.
+
+The Goreville Volunteers were not left in Washington long. More troops
+from New York, New Jersey and Down East had arrived, and on one bright
+day in May the brigade moved across the river and went into camp in an
+orchard near Arlington Heights. Not far away was Arlington House, the
+homestead of the Lee family. The Lees had deserted the beautiful abode,
+and it was now the headquarters of General Sanford, commander of the
+Army in Virginia.
+
+“It seems a shame to destroy all these beautiful places,” remarked
+Louis one day, when he and Harry Bingham were off duty and were
+strolling around in the confines of the camp. “Just look at this
+orchard. It looks as if a cyclone had struck it.”
+
+“This is bad enough,” replied Harry. “But supposing the rebs had come
+up and shelled Washington, wouldn’t it have been worse to have the
+Capitol and the White House and other buildings laid in ruins?”
+
+“Oh, I’m not comparing the two, Harry. But think how long it took to
+get this orchard growing like this. If we stay here another month every
+tree will be ruined--if not cut up for firewood.”
+
+“We won’t stay here much longer. The authorities in Washington are
+growing too impatient to do something,” concluded Harry Bingham.
+
+Late in May, Brigadier-General Irwin McDowell, of the regular army,
+took command, General Sanford being transferred. The coming of this
+hero of the Mexican War was an event, and the inspection and drill
+which followed was not soon forgotten by the boys in blue. From
+henceforth strict military discipline prevailed, and every soldier had
+to “toe the mark” in earnest.
+
+Yet week after week went by and the army did not move. It was known the
+Confederates were growing stronger and stronger in their position at
+Manassas Junction and along Bull Run, and many of the soldiers wondered
+why something was not done.
+
+“Boys, don’t you know it takes a lot of time to get everything in
+readiness for such an immense army as this?” said Captain Paulding
+one day, by way of explanation. “Think of the thousands of horses
+required for the wagons and batteries, the immense stock of rations,
+and hundreds of other things. Why, you must remember that the moving of
+such a body of men as we have here is like an exodus. But we’ll march
+before long, never fear.”
+
+Fourth of July was spent in camp in a lusty manner, the soldiers
+celebrating as much as their means allowed. In the evening bonfires
+blazed forth on every hand, making the vast camping-field as bright as
+day. There were orations, sham battles, and some of the boys in blue
+got up a minstrel show and an amateur circus, at both of which the fun
+was uproarious. It was like the comedy which precedes the tragic in a
+melodrama.
+
+At last, on the sixteenth of July, came the orders to break camp.
+The army had been divided into five grand divisions, each division
+moving forward by a different route. Soon every highway leading towards
+Fairfax Court House, Centerville, and Manassas Junction was filled with
+tramping soldiers, dashing cavalry, fifers and drummers and bands of
+music, with hundreds upon hundreds of heavy batteries plowing their
+way along through the dirt, and followed by thousands of provision
+and sutlers’ wagons, and ambulances; and last of all the carriages of
+politicians and others who were curious to see what was going to take
+place now the North was about to strike her first regular blow at the
+Confederacy.
+
+“My gracious, I had no idea that there were so many of us!” murmured
+Louis to Harry, as they stood in the ranks, waiting for their turn to
+move, and watching regiment after regiment of their comrades march by,
+with colors flying and every face full of hope and determination. “We
+ought to conquer by sheer force of numbers, if nothing else.”
+
+“They’ll have just as many men,” declared Moses Blackwell. “It’s a
+bloody struggle we have afore us, mark the words.”
+
+Louis had expected a fatiguing advance of fifteen or twenty miles, and
+he was rather surprised when, early in the afternoon, their company
+entered Fairfax Court House and they were ordered into camp for the
+night. The advance along the road had been made with caution, and
+although it was known the Confederates had outposts located along the
+routes these advance guards had fallen back as the boys in blue marched
+forward.
+
+Fairfax Court House was but a small town, and the majority of the
+inhabitants were thoroughly scared at the arrival of so many troops.
+
+Many of the men were away, in the service of the enemy, and the women
+viewed the appearance of each new soldier with much misgivings.
+
+“Spare me and you can take all I have!” wailed one old lady to Louis,
+as he appeared at her kitchen door for a pail of water. “Oh, do not
+kill me!”
+
+“Madam, I’m not going to touch you,” answered the youth, more than
+half-amused. “I came in to see if you would be kind enough to give me a
+bucket of water.”
+
+At this the old lady stared, thinking she had not heard aright.
+
+“You--you only want some water?” she faltered, trying vainly to recover.
+
+“That is all, madam--unless you have some cookies you are keeping for
+our boys. We never refuse those, you know,” and Louis smiled.
+
+“I declare, I reckon you ain’t so fierce as I took you to be.”
+
+“I’m only a soldier boy, trying to do my duty. Can I have the water?”
+
+“Certainly! certainly! Take all you want. I haven’t any cookies, as you
+call ’em. But I’ve got some eggs, just laid--you can have them if you
+want ’em.”
+
+“Thank you, madam, I’ll take them with pleasure. But remember, I don’t
+demand them. We have strict orders to demand nothing.”
+
+“Oh, it’s all right. You can have ’em, even if you are a Northerner.
+I see you’re nothing but a boy, and I have a boy in the army--on our
+side--and I reckon he’d like a fresh-laid egg now an’ then,” and she
+ran off to bring back eight large, white eggs tied up in a bit of
+cotton cloth. That evening Louis, Harry and several of the others of
+their “crowd” enjoyed the freshest omelet they had had since leaving
+home.
+
+But some of the soldiers, be it said to their discredit, were not
+as considerate as Louis had been. Thinking themselves in the enemy’s
+country, they plundered a number of houses, threatened the inmates,
+and in two cases buildings were set on fire and destroyed. During the
+evening a number of the thoughtless ones arrayed themselves in some
+stolen female wearing apparel, and thus masqueraded, paraded about
+until stopped by the officers.
+
+From Fairfax Court House the army moved slowly the next day towards
+Centerville. They were now but a few miles from Bull Run, and although
+the Goreville Volunteers were not yet called into action, yet the
+distant sounds of firearms told that no longer was everything “quiet
+along the line.” On the day following a fierce fight took place between
+a portion of General Tyler’s division and the enemy entrenched at a
+spot called Blackburn’s Ford, and in this encounter nineteen of the
+boys in blue were killed and twice as many wounded. This was really
+the opening of the great battle of Bull Run. The Union soldiers found
+they could make no advance, and accordingly it was decided to wait
+several days until the entire army could be brought into position for
+a simultaneous attack. Additional supplies were also needed, and these
+did not arrive when expected. At last came the orders to go forward.
+
+“Now for bloody war, my boy!” cried Moses Blackwell to Louis. “Ye’ll
+git enough of it now, see if ye don’t.”
+
+It was early Sunday morning. The soldiers were to have moved at two
+o’clock, but it was nearly sunrise before the Goreville Volunteers were
+in motion; and the day promised to be a scorcher.
+
+Little Benny Bruce beat his drum loudly, his eyes glistening brightly,
+for the spirit of war seemed to be a part of his very nature. Seeing
+Benny so brave, Louis could not help but look at Jerry Rowe. The
+boaster was pale and his fishy eyes were full of uncertainty. The next
+twenty-four hours were well calculated to sift the cowards from those
+who were truly brave.
+
+To go into all of the details of the great battle of Bull Run would
+be both impossible and apart from my purpose in writing this story
+of personal adventures on both sides of the great conflict. Suffice
+it, then, to say that the attack on the Confederate forces was begun
+between six and seven in the morning at a place known as the Stone
+Bridge, and from that hour the battle kept on steadily until the middle
+of the afternoon. By this time both sides had sustained heavy losses
+and were worn out, but the arrival of a large body of fresh Confederate
+troops under General Johnston put new life into those who marched under
+the Stars and Bars, and they attacked the Union men with such increased
+vigor that nothing could stand before them. By sundown the Union men
+were in full retreat for Washington, and thinking the fresh Confederate
+force much larger than it really was the retreat degenerated into what
+was practically a panic.
+
+But Louis thought of none of these things as he marched forward mile
+after mile in the blazing sun. The dust on the road was several inches
+deep, and a heavy battery traveling just in front of the Goreville
+Volunteers kicked up such a dust that the lad was all but blinded. He
+was glad enough when the orders came to turn to the left and enter a
+by-road leading through a heavy woods.
+
+“Halt!” The command came full and clear along the line of soldiers
+stretched out among the trees and brush. A clearing was just ahead
+and on the opposite side of this could be seen a number of hastily
+constructed breastworks, and the glitter of two brass cannons. The
+order to halt had hardly come when the cannons boomed forth, and a mass
+of grapeshot came tearing through the thickets, clipping off branches
+of trees and tops of brush and sending half a dozen dead and dying to
+earth.
+
+“Oh, I’m killed!” yelled Jerry Rowe, falling back. But it was only a
+cut-away branch which had struck him. Somebody laughed, and then every
+gun was clutched closer, as the order came to charge. Louis was in
+battle at last!
+
+There is no denying the fact that his heart was in his throat. To move
+forward under fire for the first time in one’s life is no light thing.
+He looked at Harry on one side of him and saw the pale, set face. Then
+he got a dig in the ribs from Moses Blackwell, who was on the other
+side.
+
+“Can’t die but once, Louis. Hurrah fer the Stars and Stripes! Down with
+the rebels!”
+
+The cry was taken up on all sides. An answering call came back: “Here
+they come! Down with the Yankees!” And then came a blaze from a long
+line of rifles, and two of the Goreville Volunteers went down to their
+deaths before being permitted to strike even one blow in the cause for
+which they had enlisted.
+
+“Take aim! Fire!” came the command from Captain Paulding, and steadying
+himself, Louis aimed his gun straight at one of the enemy and pulled
+the trigger. The death of two men he knew well had nerved him for the
+deed, and he saw the Confederate throw up his hands and fall back, shot
+through the shoulder.
+
+“Forward again, boys! Forward! We must gain those breastworks!” came
+the cries. Away they went, out of the woods, to confront that deadly
+fire again. Three went down, wounded, and the men were ordered to
+“close up.” The smoke now became thick and in the midst of this the
+brass cannons spoke again, but the shots were too high and did no
+damage.
+
+Louis now found himself at the edge of the breastworks, with Harry and
+Moses Blackwell still beside him. Close at hand was Nathan Hornsby,
+and with a quick leap the Pennsylvania farmer was on the mound of dirt
+and brush, and Louis scrambled after him. Others followed in rapid
+succession and the breastworks were taken.
+
+But not for long. With a wild yell the Confederates rallied and bore
+down upon their enemy. The brass cannons had been hauled away and
+the open field became the ground for a fierce hand-to-hand conflict.
+Louis tried to keep close to his friends, but in the mêlée this was
+impossible, and in a minute more he found himself alone and in the very
+midst of the enemy!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                        A MEETING AND A RETREAT
+
+
+The forces under General Beauregard at the battle of Bull Run consisted
+of some twenty regiments of infantry and a number of cavalry companies
+and sections of light artillery. It was a regiment of South Carolina
+men that had defended the earthworks attacked by the Goreville
+Volunteers and others, and they fought bravely for many hours after
+the scene recorded in the last chapter. The battery was one from
+North Carolina and retreated from its first position only to take a
+second half-way up the side of a hill, at the top of which stood a
+single house. It was around the vicinity of this house that the main
+onslaughts of the day occurred.
+
+In the meantime, however, what of the cavalry to which Andy was
+attached? The Montgomery Grays were located along the Warrenton
+turnpike, and it was their honor to capture one of the first cannons
+taken from the Union army. The capture took place at a bend in the
+road, and was followed by a fierce attack by the boys in blue, which
+nearly demoralized the Montgomery Grays.
+
+“Forward! Forward!” cried Captain Montgomery again and again, but when
+Andy and the others attempted to move on they found they were literally
+urging their steeds upon a bed of bayonets. They fired their pistols
+and slashed with their sabers, and the din and shock were terrific.
+
+“Down you come, grayback!” Andy heard yelled in his ear, and a bayonet
+was thrust up against his side. He pulled back, escaping the steel
+point by only a few inches and cut his assailant heavily on the arm.
+The next moment other cavalrymen pushed on behind, and then there
+was nothing to do but to go on, cutting a path right and left as the
+Montgomery Grays advanced.
+
+Yet when the Confederate cavalry had thus hewn a path for itself along
+the turnpike for a distance of several hundred feet, it found the
+advantage of position a doubtful one. From the woods poured a regiment
+of New York militia, and the fire was so hot from these well-trained
+soldiers that the cavalry was forced to move rapidly towards another
+defense of the Confederates, dragging the captured cannon with them.
+As they were ploughing on, in the dust and dirt, a volley of Minie
+balls whistled around them and one clipped Andy on the leg, leaving a
+stinging pain behind it.
+
+“Are you struck, Andy?” cried Leroy Wellington, who rode near to his
+friend.
+
+“Yes, in the leg; but I reckon it’s not much,” was Andy’s reply, as he
+brushed the perspiration and dirt from his face with his coat sleeve.
+“Phew! but this is more than warm work!”
+
+“Never mind; we have one of their cannons!” returned Leroy. It filled
+his heart with martial joy to think that he had been one of the first
+to lay hands on the piece after cutting down the gunner.
+
+“Don’t crow until we are out of the woods, Leroy. Here come more of the
+Yankee boys.”
+
+“Pennsylvania men!” cried somebody in advance. “Load, boys, and be
+quick about it!”
+
+“Pennsylvania men!” repeated Andy. “What if it should be Louis’s
+company? I couldn’t fire on him!” he thought. Then he began to load
+with all possible speed.
+
+The Pennyslvania company, however, belonged to the regular militia.
+They were an excellently drilled body of men, and came forward in a
+solid mass that nothing could stay. They had heard about the capture of
+the cannon and were determined, if possible, to regain the piece. They
+fired at close range, then began to use their bayonets, and soon the
+cannon was reached, and here cutting, thrusting, and clubbing became
+the order of the day.
+
+Never had Andy thought to be in such a stubborn conflict. He cut,
+thrust, and charged on all sides of him. Once the butt of a musket hit
+him in the back and unseated him. There was a yell of triumph as he
+went down. Before the yell came to an end he was up again and charged
+straight for his adversary, a tall militiaman, who dodged out of the
+way in double-quick order. Andy wanted to fire at him, but before he
+could bring his pistol into play the tide of battle had swept man and
+boy fifty feet apart.
+
+And so the fray went on, until, Confederate reinforcements coming on,
+the Union soldiers were forced to retreat, and the Montgomery Grays
+returned in triumph to their own division, dragging the cannon after
+them. As they moved on General Longstreet swept by them on his charger.
+
+“Good, boys; good!” he cried, waving his sword. “Keep it up and the day
+is ours!”
+
+“Carry the news to Jefferson Davis!” yelled Leroy, after him, and the
+Confederate general turned in his saddle and smiled. An instant later
+the smoke of battle swallowed him up.
+
+But now even the horses were beginning to show signs of fatigue, and
+the greater part of the company were compelled to fall back several
+hundred feet farther, where there was a small stream flowing into Bull
+Run. Here men and beasts procured much-needed drink and stopped to get
+their “second wind.”
+
+Hardly was Andy again in the saddle when the bugle called him and his
+fellow-cavalrymen to a new position along the side of the hill before
+mentioned. To gain this new position the Montgomery Grays had to cross
+an open space probably three hundred feet in diameter--a clearing well
+covered by the batteries of the Union army.
+
+“Forward, and lose no time!” cried Captain Montgomery, and led the
+way, followed almost immediately by a score of his men, with Andy and
+Leroy in the number. The captain had scarcely covered a quarter of the
+distance when, suddenly, his horse, a powerful gray stallion, was seen
+to rear up viciously and take the bit between his teeth.
+
+“Whoa!” roared the Confederate commander, but instead of obeying the
+stallion reared again, then dropped like a flash and shot off on a mad
+gallop, directly for the Union lines!
+
+“The captain’s horse is running away!” cried Leroy. “Whoa! Whoa!”
+
+“He’ll be carried into the enemy’s lines!” yelled another of the men.
+“Turn him to yer right, cap’n! To the right!”
+
+“Whoa, Harry!” cried the captain, tugging in vain at the reins. Harry
+would not whoa, but with blazing eyes kept straight on, until the ranks
+of the enemy could be plainly seen.
+
+But now came rapid hoof-strokes from behind. From the start Andy had
+realized his captain’s danger and wondered how it could be averted. He
+knew that trying to stop Harry by pulling on the reins or calling to
+him was out of the question. The horse had lost his head and would not
+obey until exhausted.
+
+“Forward, Firefly!” he called to his own animal, and, trained to obey
+on the moment, brave Firefly flew out of the line and in full pursuit
+of the runaway.
+
+“Come back! It’s certain death!” yelled Leroy, in horror; but if Andy
+heard he paid no attention. On and on he went, until the very side of
+the runaway was gained. The advance line of the enemy was now less than
+a hundred feet away. Several rifles rang out and the bullets whistled
+on every side.
+
+As Andy ranged up alongside he crowded Harry on the left. The stallion
+did not like this and turned to bite Firefly. But Andy was ready for
+him and struck the runaway on the nose. At once Harry sheered off
+as desired, and away went both horses at right angles to the course
+previously pursued. Again the rifles from the Union side rang out and
+Captain Montgomery was slightly wounded in the arm, and Andy had his
+plumed hat ventilated much against his desires.
+
+“I owe you one for that, Arlington,” said the captain, when both were
+safe for the time being. “I’ll not forget you.”
+
+“I think you had better get a more manageable horse after this,
+captain,” returned the youth, with a smile. “He’s too willing to go
+over to the enemy.”
+
+“I’ll give him another trial. If he runs away again I’ll shoot him,”
+replied Captain Montgomery, and having once more gotten his stallion
+under control, he galloped off to obtain further orders from the
+general in charge.
+
+“We are ordered to the breastworks below here,” said the officer, a
+few minutes later. “A South Carolina regiment has been holding the
+defense, but matters are getting too hot for them. Forward, boys, and
+show them what our Grays can do. Hurrah for the Stars and Bars!” and
+away went the troop of cavalry, flinging up the sod of the cut up field
+behind them. In two minutes more they were again in the thick of the
+fray.
+
+“The cavalry is coming!” Andy heard one of the Union soldiers
+ejaculate. “Never mind, Blackwell. Show ’em what sort of stuff the
+Goreville Volunteers are made of,” added another. “Now we have this
+ground, let us hold it. Hurrah for McDowell and General Scott!”
+
+“The Goreville Volunteers,” thought Andy, and the hot blood rushed to
+his face. It was Louis’s company! Supposing he should--
+
+“Andy!” It was a yell from his left. He turned swiftly. Sure enough,
+there was Louis, battling bravely in the midst of half a dozen of the
+South Carolina men, one of whom was about to stick his bayonet into the
+Union boy’s breast. “Don’t kill him! Don’t, please!” were the words
+which rose to his lips, but in the din of battle no one heard him. Then
+he saw Louis catch hold of the bayonet and thrust it aside. In another
+moment the two chums found themselves face to face.
+
+“Louis! To think we should meet like this!” came from Andy’s white
+lips. “You must go back! You will be killed, or captured!”
+
+“I am fighting as I was told to fight, Andy,” was the determined reply.
+“Good-bye, and take care of yourself!” and away sped Louis, knocking
+headlong a Confederate soldier who sought to detain him. Andy had now
+all he could do to look out for his own welfare; and thus the former
+chums parted, not to meet again until the Army of the Potomac marched
+against Richmond, the Confederate capital.
+
+We will follow for the time being the fortunes of Andy. With Louis’s
+disappearance the Southern youth discovered that a fresh body of Union
+soldiers had come up to reinforce the Goreville Volunteers, who were
+now all but exhausted to a man. He was pleased to note this, as the
+idea of fighting even against the company to which his chum belonged
+was distasteful to him.
+
+The Grays were ordered to charge the men who were holding the defense,
+and away they dashed, with two other cavalry companies beside them.
+This charge was bravely met, and once again Andy found himself in a
+hand-to-hand fight. This did not last more than five minutes, when
+the Union soldiers were seen to part, to let through a battery of two
+cannons, both twelve-pounders. As quickly as possible the battery
+was placed in position, the rear guard of the Union men meanwhile
+protecting the pieces. Then away went the Northern troops to the right
+and left, and the order was given for the Grays to retreat. The order
+came none too soon, for when the cannons blazed forth the aims of the
+gunners were found so correct that eight horsemen and six animals were
+laid low. The Union battery remained where it was for over an hour,
+when the general retreat of the Union troops began.
+
+The line of battle had originally been nearly eight miles long, but
+now it was so broken and disorganized that the fighting became general
+upon all sides, although the heaviest attacks were still made in the
+vicinity of the hill before mentioned. The exhaustion in the hot sun
+was terrible, and many of the soldiers had not had time to eat a
+mouthful since early morning. Some of the poor fellows, unable to carry
+the load, had thrown away their knapsacks, and they now ran around
+begging for a mouthful of something with which to brace themselves up.
+It was their first awakening to the stern reality of grim war.
+
+“If ever I git back to old New York ag’in,” wailed a Bowery boy, who
+had enlisted for three months with the idea that going down South to
+whip the “rebs” would be “nothin’ but sport, boys, nothin’ but sport.”
+He wanted to see no more of the war,--and he had his counterpart
+everywhere, on both sides. One dandy from Richmond who had enlisted
+also for “sport” was heard to exclaim that henceforth “the big guns can
+fight for themselves. I’ll be jiggered if I’ll do it for them,” meaning
+that, as far as he was concerned, the politicians and others who had
+precipitated the conflict could end it among themselves.
+
+But there were others, and they numbered thousands upon both sides,
+who fought bravely to the very last, realizing that the eyes of the
+whole world were upon them in this initial conflict. They were fighting
+to uphold a principle, not fighting against a Northern or a Southern
+brother. To these the horrors of carnage were as appalling as they
+could well be, but they had steeled their hearts for the inevitable,
+and they went on, to live or die in the defense of what they thought
+right. These, and these only, are the true heroes of the great war, and
+there is no dividing line, and there never could be, to separate them.
+
+The booming of cannons and the shrieking of shells still went on as
+the Goreville Volunteers gathered together in a little clump of trees
+and snatched a hasty biscuit and a drink of water. Each man and boy
+was begrimed with sweat, dirt, and powder, and each was more than
+half-exhausted from his exertions.
+
+“Oh, but ain’t this simply dreadful!” moaned Jerry Rowe, for at least
+the fiftieth time. “Captain Paulding never told me of it when he got me
+to enlist.”
+
+“The captain wanted to make a man of you, Jerry,” replied Nathan
+Hornsby. “What are you kicking about? See, I’m clipped with a bullet
+wound in my left fore-arm, but I’m not complaining.”
+
+“The cap’n will make a man of Jerry if his knees hold out,” put in
+another of the men. “But, Jerry, don’t shake so bad or your knees will
+cut through your trousers,” and a short laugh went up, even in that
+perilous position--a laugh which was cut short by the passage of a
+cannon ball through the trees. Everybody ducked, and Jerry fell flat,
+although the ball was ten feet up in the air.
+
+General McDowell, now seeing the tide of battle turning against his
+troops, sought by every means in his power to recuperate his forces.
+But when several attacks had been led forward without avail, it was
+determined to fall back, in the hope of taking a fresh stand in the
+vicinity of Centerville. In the meantime, however, the troops of
+General Johnson, which had escaped from the Union General Patterson
+at Charlestown, in West Virginia, miles away, had come in on railroad
+trains to Manassas Junction, and these fresh Confederate soldiers,
+appearing suddenly on the field, started a panic among the Northern
+companies, a panic which it was impossible, in the mixed-up condition
+of affairs, to stay.
+
+“General Johnson has come on with twenty thousand fresh troops! We
+must fly for it!” was the cry which was taken up from company to
+company. Johnson had come up with no such magnificent number of men,
+but he had come up with enough to make a good showing, and, utterly
+worn out from marching and fighting in the hot sun, the Union troops
+commenced the retreat in the direction of Washington.
+
+The blow to all was a bitter one, but now was no time to think
+about it. “We can weep afterwards,” said one of the older men of
+the Goreville Volunteers. “Now it is use your legs or go to a rebel
+prison,” and off he stalked, with Captain Paulding, Louis, Harry
+Bingham, Moses Blackwell, and a dozen others beside him. The captain
+tried to preserve order, but this was impossible, for men on foot and
+men on horseback were rushing hither and thither, trying to find their
+commands or, at least, a friend or two.
+
+Less than half a mile had been covered, when a firing upon the road
+caused the volunteers to halt. Then came a rush, and a band of the
+Confederate cavalry swept by. As they did so the volunteers stepped
+into the shelter of the woods beside the turnpike. They were about to
+emerge when Louis felt himself jerked violently to the ground. He had
+been pulled down by a fellow concealed in the long grass. As he tumbled
+headlong he caught sight of the man’s face. It was Sam Jacks!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                        LOUIS’S PERILOUS ESCAPE
+
+
+To be pulled down in such an unceremonious fashion was a surprise
+in itself, but to find himself face to face with his enemy, the
+mountaineer, astonished Louis beyond measure. For the instant he could
+do nothing but stare at his assailant.
+
+Then came the realization of his position--that Jacks was not only his
+personal enemy, but that the man likewise belonged to the Confederate
+forces, and as Captain Paulding and the others moved off on the
+double-quick he endeavored to pull himself away to go with them.
+
+“No, yer don’t!” hissed rather than exclaimed the mountaineer. “I’ve
+got yer an’ I’m goin’ ter hold yer!”
+
+His face, generally far from clean, was now covered with thick dirt,
+and over one cheek flowed a small stream of blood, for he had been
+wounded, not by a shot from the enemy, but from a tumble in the woods
+in which he had been hiding. As he spoke so vindictively he hauled
+Louis closely to him.
+
+“Let me go!” panted the young Union soldier, and struggled to free
+himself. “Captain Paulding! Harry! Hel--”
+
+The words died upon his lips as Sam Jacks clapped a dirty hand over his
+mouth. Then commenced a fierce struggle, and both rolled over and over
+in the tall grass, until, coming to the edge of a gully, both dropped a
+distance of six or eight feet, to bring up on a pile of damp leaves and
+dead tree branches.
+
+Louis came down on top, and with such force that the mountaineer’s wind
+was for the moment knocked completely out of him. He uttered a grunt
+and a gasp, and ere he could recover Louis was on his feet and making
+for a spot where the side of the gully sloped upward.
+
+“Stop him, Hogwell!” roared Jacks, and as he spoke another form loomed
+up before the young soldier. The man was the same who had assisted at
+making him a prisoner at the old mill, before the opening of the war.
+Hogwell had been in hiding with Sam Jacks for several hours, their
+intention being to see what they could steal after the battle should
+come to an end. Unfortunately, throughout the war both sides were
+afflicted with such terrible criminals, who had no respect for either
+dead or dying, their sole object being plunder.
+
+“Who is it?” queried Hogwell, as he blocked Louis’s passage.
+
+“Can’t yer see--it’s the rat we had the trouble with up near Deems,”
+growled Jacks. “Stop him. I allers calkerlated ter git squar with him.”
+
+Hogwell grabbed Louis by the collar. Had the young soldier had his gun
+with him he would have either fired or used the bayonet. But the weapon
+had been lost at the first moment of Sam Jacks’s attack and now he had
+only his hands.
+
+“Let go!” he commanded, and hauling back, he hit Hogwell squarely
+in the lower jaw. It was a heavy blow, delivered with all of Louis’s
+youthful strength and determination, and Hogwell went back as though
+struck with a club. Ere he could recover the young Union soldier was
+past him and speeding up the gully side with the speed of lightning.
+
+“Stop, or I’ll fire!” he heard Hogwell yell, a moment later. But he
+kept on. Then came the report of the mountaineer’s long pistol and a
+bullet whizzed close to his head. Soon the shelter of the trees took
+him out of range.
+
+The tussle in the gully had somewhat upset Louis’s mind, and when
+he started in search of the turnpike again he turned in exactly the
+opposite direction to that which he should have taken. On and on he
+went, through the brush and over trunks of decaying trees. More than
+once he stumbled, but picked himself up hastily and continued on
+his way, until suddenly he found himself ascending a hill where the
+thickness of the trees made further progress almost impossible.
+
+“I’ve made a mistake,” he thought, much dismayed. “There is no road in
+this direction.”
+
+Forced to halt, he listened intently. From several points around him
+came the distant sounds of musketry and occasionally the booming of a
+cannon. But to locate any of the sounds in particular was impossible.
+Indeed, the firing of the day had half deafened him.
+
+“I’m in a pickle, with all the others gone,” he thought, dismally.
+“Even if I do find the road I’ll not know where to look for our
+company. However, I won’t be any worse off than lots more of our poor
+fellows. If only I can get among friends somebody in command will set
+me right. Perhaps this defeat will only be temporary.”
+
+It was deliciously cool in the depths of the woods and this refreshed
+him. Having regained his breath, he retraced his steps as well as he
+was able. Ten minutes later he recrossed the gully, but at a point some
+distance above where the encounter with Jacks had occurred. He had gone
+on but a few feet farther when he almost stumbled over the body of a
+dead Union soldier. A little startled, he was about to go on, when a
+sudden thought seized him and he retraced his steps.
+
+The poor fellow had belonged to a volunteer command. He was past
+middle age and cold, showing that he had been dead several hours.
+Beside him lay his gun and cap, and his cartridge box was still
+strapped around his waist.
+
+“He’ll never want his gun again, poor fellow,” thought Louis, and
+kneeling down he unfastened the flap of the cartridge box and took out
+the supplies. This done, he picked up the gun and hurried on as before.
+Having a weapon made him feel much more like himself.
+
+A short while later the road was gained. Here a scene of indescribable
+confusion met his gaze. Union troops of all kinds were rushing along,
+many of the men capless and gunless, having thrown all away in their
+anxiety to escape. On the ground lay the guns, with here and there a
+knapsack, and over all tramped men and horses. Cannon after cannon
+followed, the drivers of the horses beating their animals mercilessly
+in their endeavor to escape capture by the pursuing enemy; and mixed-up
+with these were the provision turnouts and occasionally the carriage
+of some politician or member of Congress, whose curiosity had brought
+him hither from Washington to see how this fight with the Confederates
+would end. It was a most humiliating spectacle; yet such was needed at
+that time to awaken the North to the true condition of affairs.
+
+Presently a Pennsylvania company swept by, not over twenty-five strong.
+Louis ran to join them.
+
+“Where from?” he asked of one of the soldiers, a young fellow scarcely
+older than himself.
+
+“Harrisburg,” was the puffing reply. “Lost your company?”
+
+“Yes--the Goreville Volunteers. Have you seen anything of them?”
+
+“No; haven’t seen anything but a lot of rebs at our heels. Better come
+along if you want to save your skin. They’ve got a large reinforcement
+after us.”
+
+On went the Harrisburg soldier, and Louis concluded he could do nothing
+better than keep at his side. Several miles were covered, and the few
+houses which composed Centerville were passed, when the road became
+blocked up in front. Presently half a dozen generals and their aides
+came dashing from one side and another.
+
+“Face about, boys! We can whip them yet! Face about and form the line!
+Face about!”
+
+The cry, well meant, was utterly useless. The soldiers were exhausted,
+having been on their feet since two o’clock that morning, and it was
+now after sundown. All but a few scattered regiments were thrown in
+hopeless confusion. Colonels could not find their companies, captains
+and lieutenants looked in vain for their men. Nine out of ten had still
+to learn what war and military organization really meant.
+
+“This is Andy’s day and no mistake,” Louis half-murmured to himself. He
+could imagine Andy, in his lusty, Southern way, throwing up his plumed
+cavalry hat and shouting for the Confederacy. Well, there was one
+consolation--the war was not yet over.
+
+Finding the men could not be organized for a stand at Centerville
+Ridge, General McDowell allowed them to continue toward Washington
+and at the same time sent Blenker’s brigade to cover the retreat. The
+troops which reached Fairfax Court House immediately took cars for
+Washington, and they carried with them as much of the arms and stores
+as was possible.
+
+But it was only a small portion that got away thus easily. The vast
+majority of the Union soldiers, worn-out, heart-sick, and hungry
+enough to eat almost anything, had to tramp the remaining distance to
+the Capitol. They took various roads, and most of them did not come
+in until the next day, when it began to rain in torrents, causing the
+dusty roads to turn into rivers of mud. With the rain came a heavy
+fog from the bay, as if to add to the already accumulated misery, and
+in this fog and downpour those who had gone forth so full of hope,
+dragged back, to find a shelter wherever they could lay their heads,
+devour what was given them, and drop asleep before swallowing the last
+mouthful. Such is an actual picture of those days of awful gloom,
+when the fate of the nation hung in the balance. Had the Confederates
+followed up the victory gained at Bull Run, or rather, had their troops
+been in a condition to do so, it is more than likely Washington would
+have fallen. But the majority of the Southern soldiers were no better
+off than their Northern antagonists, and so, with the heavy rain coming
+on, nothing further was done.
+
+It was not until twenty-four hours later that Louis found himself
+again in Washington. He had tramped in a roundabout way from
+Centerville, became lost, along with several thousands of other
+soldiers, and in all that time had had nothing to eat but three or four
+hardtacks he had picked up on the road beside a half-smashed haversack.
+He and the young soldier from Harrisburg, named Clarence Woolley, had
+kept together, and now they approached the grounds around the Capitol
+side by side, both limping painfully, for their feet were more than
+sore.
+
+The generous ladies of Washington had arisen to the emergency. Tented
+booths had been erected, and hot coffee and sandwiches could be had for
+the asking. Louis was standing up against a tent pole, with a cup in
+one hand and a corned-beef sandwich in the other, when he was tapped on
+the shoulder, and turning saw Harry Bingham.
+
+“Harry!” he exclaimed, joyfully. “Well, I’m glad to see somebody of our
+company. Where are the rest?”
+
+“Captain Paulding and a dozen others are over in a corner of the White
+House grounds. I don’t know where the rest are. I was much worried
+about you. Are you O. K.?”
+
+“Yes, excepting that I am dead for sleep. Here’s a fellow who lost his
+command, too,” and Louis introduced Woolley. The meal finished, the
+three walked over to the spot Harry Bingham had mentioned. Pennsylvania
+troops were gathering there, and soon Woolley found several men he knew
+and went off with them.
+
+The meeting between the Goreville volunteers was rather a silent one.
+Captain Paulding and the other officers did what they could to cheer
+the men up, but all were too tired to listen; and quarters having been
+secured in a warehouse on a back street, the little band marched there
+and “turned in,” to sleep the sleep of the over-weary for many hours
+to come. Of the company, three had been killed outright, four were
+slightly wounded and two were still missing. The missing ones turned up
+the next day.
+
+Such, in brief, were the experiences of the young soldiers at the
+memorable battle of Bull Run, called by Confederate historians the
+battles of Bull Run and Manassas. To Louis it was decidedly depressing,
+to Andy it was full of hope for the future. Many of those in the South
+imagined that the end of the conflict was now close at hand and that it
+would not be long before the North would call a truce and recognize the
+new Confederacy. But these people were sadly mistaken; the North had
+not yet been fairly aroused, and the Civil War, instead of being nearly
+ended, had but begun.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                         ANDY IS TAKEN PRISONER
+
+
+“We’re done for, and we might as well go straight home.”
+
+It was Jerry Rowe who spoke. The youth sat on the top of a nail keg in
+the warehouse. He had been sleeping for a matter of ten hours, and his
+dreams, resulting from the shocks of the battle and an unusually large
+supper of pork and beans, had been far from lulling to his senses. He
+had groaned so dismally that Benny Bruce, already awake and as chipper
+as ever, had playfully poked him in the ribs with a drumstick and thus
+aroused him.
+
+“Yes, sir, we’re done for. The Union is licked for good, and I’m for
+going home.”
+
+“Jerry Rowe, you’re a croaker and a rebel!” burst from Benny’s lips.
+“Done for? Not much! Why, we’ve only been through the first round of
+this fight.”
+
+“I don’t care--I don’t want any more such fighting. Why, I--I got near
+shot a hundred times!”
+
+“And what did you come for, if not to be shot at?” went on Benny,
+witheringly, only Jerry did not wither. “Of all the cowards I ever saw,
+I think you’re the worst.”
+
+“Hi! don’t you call me no coward!” snorted Jerry, and leaping from the
+nail keg he made after Benny. Catching the drummer by the collar, he
+was on the point of bumping Benny’s head against the warehouse wall,
+when Louis sprang up from his corner and interfered.
+
+“Let Benny alone, Jerry,” cried the young soldier. “Let him alone, I
+say, or you’ll have me to deal with,” and he advanced with clenched
+fists and flashing eyes.
+
+“He called me a coward,” muttered Jerry, but the look in Louis’s eyes
+caused him to drop his hold and Benny retreated.
+
+“I heard what you said about being done for, and only a coward would
+talk in that fashion. We are not done for, and I’ll wager that the next
+time we meet the Confederates we’ll not show ’em our heels in such a
+lively fashion.”
+
+“Right you are, Louis,” came from Moses Blackwell, who had just arisen
+and was stretching himself. “We went in without knowing what war was,
+that’s all. We’ll know better next time.”
+
+“It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the captain to send Jerry home,” added
+another of the company. “He’s of no earthly use to anybody.”
+
+At this Jerry grew very red. He wanted to “talk back,” but feeling
+himself too well known, muttered something under his breath, and a
+moment later strode out of hearing.
+
+The immediate days which followed the return to Washington were gloomy
+enough, in spite of all that was done to put a bright face on the
+matter. A good many felt as Jerry did, that they were “done for” and
+might as well go home, and they walked dismally around in the rain,
+trying to communicate this feeling to others. Some thought Washington
+might be captured by the enemy before the week was out.
+
+But those in authority did not remain idle long. As soon as possible
+after the disaster at Bull Run, Congress met and passed resolutions
+authorizing the President to call upon volunteers to enlist to the
+number of five hundred thousand, if so many were necessary. The
+call for additional troops was telegraphed to all of the Northern
+States. Four days after Bull Run, ten full regiments of infantry from
+Pennsylvania arrived at Washington to guard the capital from possible
+invasion. As at the time of the attack upon Fort Sumter, volunteer
+companies sprang up everywhere, faster than ever before, while many of
+the old commands were greatly reinforced. Nor was this all. General
+George B. McClellan, who had been highly successful in putting down
+the spirit of rebellion in West Virginia, was sent for to take command
+of the army in and about Washington, and he came on immediately and
+settled down to restore order and bring up the command to the high
+order of military excellence for which he was famous.
+
+The Goreville Volunteers now found themselves supplied again with
+tents and camping in true military style near the banks of the Potomac.
+As soon as everything was in running order, Captain Paulding made a
+four days’ trip to Goreville, returning with twenty-two new volunteers
+and several packing cases filled with articles sent to the soldiers
+from home. Louis received an extra supply of clothing from his father
+and a small box of dainties from his mother and sisters. There was
+also a small pocket Bible, to replace one which had been lost on the
+field of Bull Run, and on the fly-leaf of this his mother had written a
+loving dedication, admonishing him to peruse the good Book daily and to
+live according to its precepts.
+
+Month after month went by after this and the army in and about the
+capital lay inactive. There were small fights here and there along
+the river and some miles in the interior of Virginia, but they did
+not amount to much. In the meantime operations in the West went on
+spiritedly. In Tennessee, Grant had taken Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,
+and this cheering news caused much enthusiasm throughout the Union.
+
+Louis had hoped to go home on furlough throughout Christmas week, but
+the permit could not be obtained, and he made the most of the holidays
+in camp, in company with Harry and the rest of his friends. Again the
+ladies of Washington showed their goodness of heart by sending out
+Christmas pies and other goodies, and never were gifts more appreciated
+by the waiting boys in blue.
+
+In the meantime, Andy was far from idle. From Manassas the Montgomery
+Grays moved to Centerville and went into temporary camp. Every one was
+in the best of spirits throughout the Confederate army, and Andy and
+the others thought the orders to advance upon Washington might come
+at any moment. Recruits were coming in rapidly, and soon over fifty
+thousand men lay scattered within two days’ march of our capital.
+
+“We ought to do something,” said Andy to Leroy Wellington, on a crisp,
+cool day in October. “It’s a shame to keep us idle when all the fellows
+are so anxious to fight.”
+
+“I am with you, Andy; I’d be willing to risk almost anything for some
+sort of an encounter.”
+
+The wishes of the pair were gratified a few days later. General
+McClellan, in order to learn how close the Confederates were, and what
+their actual numbers might be, ordered several thousands of the Union
+troops to Drainesville. This done, others were ordered to Ball’s Bluff,
+a rocky plateau overlooking the Potomac. Word of this was received by
+the Confederate leaders, and a counter demonstration ensued, with the
+result that the Union forces were caught on the Bluff to the number of
+nearly two thousand, one-half of whom were either killed or wounded.
+
+The Montgomery Grays participated in this fight, and during this Andy
+had an experience which he was not likely to forget for many long days
+to come. The cavalry were moving slowly through the woods when the
+command came to turn to the right and take a narrow path leading close
+up to the river bank.
+
+“Be careful, men,” cautioned Captain Montgomery. “This would be a hard
+road on foot, and on horseback it is ten times worse. Look out that you
+don’t have a tumble into the river.”
+
+The command was still an eighth of a mile from the bluff, and the
+horsemen were moving along silently, when suddenly from the opposite
+shore there rang out half a dozen rifle shots in quick succession. Two
+of the cavalrymen were wounded and the horse immediately in front of
+Andy’s animal fell headlong, shot through the knee.
+
+The fall of this horse caused Firefly to balk and rear. Andy caught him
+tightly by the reins, but this was useless, and a second later boy and
+animal were plunging through the brush to the river below!
+
+“Andy Arlington has fallen overboard!” sang out Leroy, in
+consternation. There followed a great splash and two more rifle shots,
+and boy and horse disappeared from view.
+
+But not for long. In a moment Firefly reappeared, snorting and blowing
+the water from his mouth and nostrils, and Andy came up shaking his
+head like a water spaniel. Both struck out for the shore, but the
+current was too strong for each, and they were swept onward and out of
+sight of those above.
+
+“They are lost!” groaned Leroy, and the others thought he must be
+right, for going forward meant to move into the very teeth of the enemy.
+
+Crack! Another rifle rang out, followed by the puff of smoke from a
+screen of green leaves. A Union sharpshooter had taken close aim and
+the bullet clipped one of Andy’s wet locks. But now he had gained
+Firefly’s side and he crouched down beside the faithful steed for
+protection.
+
+Here and there in the stream were spots where the bottom could be
+touched. But the current would not let them stand still, even had they
+been so inclined, and Andy certainly was not. They were hurled forward
+until under the very edge of the bluff.
+
+At that time the fighting upon Ball’s Bluff was at its highest pitch.
+Colonel Baker of the Union forces was making a desperate endeavor to
+retreat to the flatboats which had brought him across the river and
+the Confederate forces, posted in the woods surrounding the bluff,
+were pouring in their deadly fire with fearful effect. The cracking
+of firearms was incessant and reached Andy’s ears plainly, yet he
+hardly paid attention, for his one thought was to save himself and his
+faithful Firefly from drowning.
+
+Opposite to Ball’s Bluff is a place called Conrad’s Ferry, and in the
+middle of the river between these two points lies a long, low, rocky
+bit of soil called Harrison’s Island. Some of the Federal troops were
+stationed on this island and it was to this Andy found himself drifting.
+
+He had just waded out of the water and Firefly had done the same when
+he heard the sounds of voices just ahead of him. Then he saw the gleam
+of several rifle barrels.
+
+“Halt! Throw up your hands!” came the command, and taken completely by
+surprise, and being in no condition, with water-soaked firearms, to
+defend himself, Andy complied.
+
+“I guess you’re our prisoner, Grayback,” muttered a tall Union soldier
+as he strode forward. “What do you think about it?”
+
+“It certainly looks that way,” replied Andy, trying to smile, although
+deeply chagrined over the turn affairs had taken.
+
+“Do you take it quietly, Reb?”
+
+“I reckon I’ll have to, Yank.”
+
+“There’s where you show your sense. How did you get in the river?”
+
+“My horse tumbled over the bank.”
+
+“And like lots of you Southerners you couldn’t think of separating from
+your hoss-flesh, eh? All right, if you’re shot we’ll see to it that the
+hoss is buried with you. March!”
+
+“Where to?”
+
+“Straight ahead.”
+
+“What place is this?”
+
+“We ain’t in school now, Grayback. March!”
+
+And as there was no help for it, Andy marched forward, with a soldier
+at each side of him and one in the rear, while a fourth led the
+dripping Firefly.
+
+The march did not last over two minutes, when Andy found himself in the
+middle of a growth of trees. Here was stationed a detachment of Union
+soldiers, to cover any retreat from the bluff, should such a thing
+become necessary. Most of the soldiers were on the alert, watching the
+battle above them and guarding the flatboats, and they paid but scant
+attention to the arrival.
+
+“It’s going tough with somebody,” Andy heard an under officer say, and
+then he was taken to one side and bound fast to a tree, while Firefly
+was tethered but a few feet away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                      THE STORY OF A STOLEN HORSE
+
+
+For a quarter of an hour Andy listened to the shooting in the distance
+and worked upon his bonds at the same time. No one had remained to
+watch him, and if there was any way by which he could liberate himself
+he meant to do it. He had no desire to languish in a Northern prison.
+He knew well enough how Union soldiers were treated down South and he
+imagined that Confederates up North fared no better.
+
+“I must get away--that’s all there is to it; eh, Firefly?” he muttered
+between his set teeth, and Firefly shook his wet mane vigorously as if
+to agree with his master.
+
+The soldier who had bound Andy had done his work in a hurry and in a
+bungling manner, and soon the young soldier found himself free. But
+he was still “in the woods,” physically and mentally, and to get out
+was likely to prove a dangerous if not impossible bit of work. He was
+nearly in the center of the island and surrounded by a guard that was
+more than ever on the alert.
+
+But there was one thing in his favor: the soldiers who had made him
+their prisoner were looking away from the island instead of towards the
+interior. Consequently, no matter how he turned, he was sure to come
+upon the guards from the rear.
+
+His mind was soon made up as to what course to pursue. He would move
+to the lower end of the island with Firefly and trust to good luck to
+reach the water, where the swift current might carry him and his animal
+out of the reach of the enemy’s firearms.
+
+Had it been quiet he would never have proposed to take Firefly
+along, much as he would have regretted leaving the beast behind. But
+the rattle of the musketry drowned out all ordinary sounds, so the
+hoof-strokes through the brush and over the rocks counted for nothing.
+
+In a few minutes he found himself within sight of the rushing and
+rolling river. Down near the water’s edge was a fringe of bushes, and
+here he saw two soldiers at one point and a single soldier at another.
+He had picked up a stout club as he moved along, and with this ready
+for use, he made a short detour and came close to the shore of the
+island and less than a dozen feet from where the single guard was
+standing, his body bent forward and his eyes taking in the doings on
+the bluff beyond.
+
+At that moment Firefly, with his nostrils still trickling from his
+bath, let out a warlike snort, as though ready to do battle. Instantly
+the guard straightened up, to see what had caused the disturbance. But
+before he could turn Andy was upon him. There was a quick shove, the
+start of an exclamation, and then a heavy splash, as the Union soldier
+fell headlong into the stream. As he went down he let fall his gun and
+this the young Confederate saved and appropriated.
+
+Having disposed of the guard thus readily, Andy did not lose a
+fraction of time. Long before the Union soldier had regained the
+surface of the river, the young Confederate was in the saddle and
+urging Firefly again into the stream. The brave horse shied at first
+and Andy’s heart leaped into his throat. “Go, Firefly, go!” he cried,
+and Firefly went with a leap and a splurge which carried him twenty
+feet from the shore.
+
+As they descended into the water Andy remembered the other guards he
+had seen and instinctively withdrew behind Firefly that they might not
+discover him. He heard two shouts.
+
+“What’s up, Markham?”
+
+“Hang me if the horse hasn’t run away!” came in reply.
+
+“But I heard two splashes.”
+
+“So did I, come to think of it. Hello, Graves!”
+
+To this there was no answer, for Graves was floundering in the water,
+too bewildered to save himself. He came up with a great splutter.
+
+“Save me!” he gasped, as soon as he could speak. “Save me! I can’t
+swim!”
+
+“Can’t you wade ashore?” queried one of his companions.
+
+“No, it’s too deep. Save me, Markham! Don’t let me drown!”
+
+“I will,” was the ready answer, and without hesitation the Union
+soldier plunged into the cold water and started after his companion.
+
+In the meantime the third soldier had made an important discovery.
+Andy was trying to swim beside Firefly and keep the gun above water
+at the same time, and now he exposed his hand and a portion of the
+stock of the firearm. Instantly the soldier took aim and fired, and
+the bullet struck the gun squarely, knocking the weapon from the young
+Confederate’s grasp and nearly paralyzing his hand and arm for the time
+being.
+
+There was now nothing left to do but to get out of range with all
+possible speed. Andy felt that the guard would reload and would then
+either fire at himself or the horse. If Firefly was killed he would
+have to swim along alone, thus exposing himself to an open attack.
+
+“On, Firefly, on!” he cried, and the noble beast seemed to understand.
+Fortunately, he was used to the water and could swim fully as well as
+his master. On they went, the swollen stream sending them first towards
+one shore and then the other.
+
+By this time the battle upon Ball’s Bluff was drawing to a close. The
+gallant but imprudent Colonel Baker had been shot and killed, and this,
+added to the galling fire poured in by the Confederates stationed in
+the woods upon three sides of the clearing, threw the Union men into
+confusion. With fearful loss they came tearing down the uneven path
+leading to the water and shoved off in their flatboats for Harrison
+Island. The enemy followed them up, and many a poor soul was sent to
+eternity before the island or the opposite shore could be gained.
+
+The turn of the tide of battle took the attention of all of the guards
+left on Harrison Island, and from that moment Andy was forgotten by
+those left behind. But the Confederates on the bluff saw him and
+thinking him a Union man fired at him several times--shots that did no
+damage, but which made him feel very uncomfortable.
+
+In a few minutes more the feet of the horse struck upon a sandy and
+rocky bar and instinctively Firefly followed the high bottom shoreward.
+It led to the northern bank of the Potomac to a spot thickly covered
+with hickory trees.
+
+Feeling himself safe for the time being, Andy dropped upon a rock
+utterly exhausted. He was chilled to the bone and more than wet, for
+his cavalry boots were filled with muddy water. Taking off the boots,
+he emptied them, and then wrung out his coat and cape, and dashed the
+water from his hat.
+
+“Well, Firefly, what next?” he asked, half-aloud, when a crashing
+in the brush behind him caused him to start. He turned quickly,
+to find himself face to face with a short, broad-faced, and not
+unpleasant-looking negro. The darky wore a suit of cast-off army
+clothing of gray, from which every C. S. A. had been carefully stripped.
+
+“Wh--what--how de do, massa,” he stammered, as he came to a sudden halt.
+
+“Are you alone?” queried Andy, quickly.
+
+“Yes, massa.”
+
+“What are you doing here, running away?”
+
+“Oh, no, massa,” was the quick reply; but by the way the negro’s eyes
+dropped before Andy’s sharp gaze the youth knew he was lying.
+
+“Are there any soldiers near here?” was the young Confederate’s next
+question.
+
+“No, massa; leas’wise, I ain’t seed none.”
+
+“Any house close by?”
+
+At this question the negro hesitated.
+
+“Da is a cabin over yander, massa. But da ain’t nobody dar ’cusin’ an
+ole woman most unable ter do anyt’ing.”
+
+“Show me the way and I’ll make it right with you. What is your name?”
+
+“Tom, sah, Tom Crosby.”
+
+“And where do you belong?”
+
+“About ten miles north o’ yere, massa.”
+
+“Well, Tom, take me to the cabin at once. And mind, we are not to be
+surprised by any Union soldiers, do you understand?”
+
+“Yes, massa; ain’t no sodgers in dese parts, massa.”
+
+The negro moved back, along a well-defined trail, and Andy followed on
+foot, leading Firefly by the bridle. The young Confederate knew only
+too well that he was upon the enemy’s soil and upon dangerous ground,
+but for this there was no help. Crossing the river was impossible just
+now, and he was chilled to the marrow and felt he must have a chance
+to warm himself and dry his clothing if he wished to avoid a dangerous
+spell of sickness.
+
+A distance of two hundred yards was covered, and they emerged upon
+a small clearing, in the center of which stood a log cabin built
+of wood with the bark left on, and having at one end a broad stone
+chimney. Smoke was curling from the latter, a most welcome sight to the
+shivering youth.
+
+Without waiting, the negro led the way inside of the cabin, where a
+woman who looked to be at least seventy years of age was huddled before
+the open fireplace, smoking a black-looking clay pipe, filled with
+“tar-heel” tobacco. She looked in amazement at the intruders.
+
+“Thought you wasn’t comin’ back?” she cried, to the negro.
+
+“Dis gem’man made me come,” was the answer.
+
+“What do you want?”
+
+“My horse and I fell into the river, madam,” answered Andy. “I wish to
+warm myself and dry my clothing, that is all. And if you can furnish me
+with a bowl of hot coffee or something like that, I’ll pay you for it.”
+
+“Humph!” The old woman took several long puffs at her pipe. “Ain’t got
+no coffee in the house.”
+
+“You have tea, then?”
+
+“I reckon I have, but--”
+
+“I’ll take a bowl of tea. Anything so long as it’s warm. Tom?”
+
+“Yes, massa.”
+
+“Will you rub down my horse and see if you can stir up something for
+him to eat?”
+
+“Yes, massa.”
+
+“I see there is a shed over to the left. Put him in there.”
+
+“Yes, massa.”
+
+The negro hurried out, and watching him, Andy saw him do as directed.
+The old woman had meanwhile bestirred herself and set her kettle to
+boiling. She saw that he was a Confederate soldier, but this caused her
+no anxiety, for she was too old, and lived too near the border line, to
+take a stand in the great controversy.
+
+It was now growing dark, and the distant firing had almost ceased.
+Deeming it improbable that any of the Union force would come to that
+immediate neighborhood, Andy proceeded to make himself as comfortable
+as possible before the fire, which soon blazed up red hot from the
+extra chunks of hickory thrown upon it. In an hour he was fairly dry,
+and by that time he was served with tea, corn dodgers and some baked
+sweet potatoes. The old woman also offered him a drink of whisky,
+probably of the “moonshine” variety, but this he declined.
+
+“Tom is a Virginia nigger, isn’t he?” asked Andy, during the process of
+the meal.
+
+“I reckon he is--” began the old woman, and suddenly stopped. Andy
+waited for her to go on, but she would say no more. The young
+Confederate, however, felt that his surmise was correct. Tom was a
+runaway slave, bound North.
+
+Andy had taken a position near a window overlooking the shed in which
+Firefly had been placed, that he might make sure his horse was not
+tampered with, for he did not intend to trust the negro too far. He
+saw Tom working away vigorously, with the shed door open. Presently he
+turned away for a moment, and when he looked again the shed door was
+closed. He thought nothing of this just then, but soon a dim suspicion
+that all was not as it should be crossed his mind.
+
+He had just been counting out some money for the old woman. Throwing
+the scrip upon the table, he caught up his hat and darted out of the
+house. In a minute more he was at the shed door and kicked it open. A
+groan of dismay escaped him. There was another door on the opposite
+side of the shed. This door stood wide open, and Firefly and the negro
+were gone!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                         A CHASE AND A CAPTURE
+
+
+“That negro has outwitted me!”
+
+Such were the bitter words which arose to Andy’s lips as he burst into
+the shed. He did not remain in the rickety building long. A single
+bound took him to the opposite doorway, and looking along the woody
+trail beyond, he discerned the shadowy forms of horse and rider not a
+hundred yards distant.
+
+Andy was a fair runner, and feeling that he must regain his steed at
+any cost, he ran forth at the top of his speed along the trail, which
+sloped gradually upward into the State of Maryland. He forgot all about
+being in the enemy’s territory. He was going to have Firefly back, or
+know the reason why.
+
+At first he had thought to yell to the negro to halt, but prudently
+remained silent, feeling the thief would only endeavor to increase
+his speed on discovering that he was being followed. On he went over
+sticks and stones, until, his foot catching in the exposed root of a
+pine-tree, he fell headlong, with a crash.
+
+The noise reached the negro’s ears and he swung around in the saddle.
+Catching sight of Andy, he began to urge Firefly on by words and blows,
+new to the horse, and which the gentle beast hardly comprehended. In
+the meantime, Andy scrambled up as quickly as possible.
+
+“Stop!” he called. “Stop, you thief!”
+
+“Yo’ go on back!” returned the negro. “Doan yo’ know de Yankees is jest
+above dis yere trail?”
+
+“I don’t care--you’re not going to steal my mount in this fashion,”
+returned Andy, determinedly. “You’re a runaway nigger, and if you don’t
+stop I’ll put a bullet through you.”
+
+And as he spoke the young Confederate drew his pistol, which he had
+taken from the holster on turning Firefly over to be fed and rubbed
+down.
+
+“If yo’ shoot de Yankees will be down on yo’ afo’ yo’ kin turn
+yo’self,” answered the negro, but his tones showed that he was much
+disturbed. Again he urged Firefly forward, and bent low, to escape the
+expected shot.
+
+The pistol was indeed ready for use, freshly loaded, and Andy would
+certainly have fired had the chance of hitting his mark been a good
+one. But the light was uncertain, the rough road made Firefly bob up
+and down continually, and he was afraid he might wound the very animal
+he had come to save.
+
+At last a bright idea struck him. Stopping short, he took a deep breath.
+
+“Whoa, Firefly! Whoa, old boy!” he called, with all the strength at his
+command.
+
+The faithful horse heard and pricked up his ears. Then, when Andy
+called again, he suddenly came to a dead stop.
+
+“Git on, yo’ lazy hoss, git on!” screamed the negro, but in spite of
+a beating, Firefly refused to budge, for Andy kept calling to him to
+whoa, and ran up closer and closer. At last, seeing he was beaten in
+his attempt to steal the animal, the negro slipped from the saddle and
+darted off among the trees.
+
+“I’ll git dem Union sodgers after yo’ in no time!” he sang out as he
+disappeared. “I dun racken yo’ won’t nebber see Virginy no mo’!” and
+then off he crashed; and that was the last Andy saw of him.
+
+Once again in the saddle, Andy did not deem it advisable to remain
+in the vicinity long. The Union soldiers, if not close at hand, were
+certainly not far off, and it was barely possible the negro might keep
+his word and send them down upon him. He turned Firefly on the back
+trail and urged the faithful beast on as rapidly as the nature of the
+uncertain ground permitted.
+
+Reaching the cabin again, he found the old woman at the doorway, still
+smoking her pipe.
+
+“Got back your hoss, eh?” she said. “That nigger is a sly one.”
+
+“I want to cross the river,” returned the young cavalryman. “If you can
+furnish me with a flatboat I’ll pay you well for its use.”
+
+“I ain’t got no flatboat. But I’ll tell you where to git one--up to
+Lemming’s. There’s a flatboat there--up in the creek.”
+
+Further conversation revealed the fact that Lemming’s was nearly an
+eighth of a mile down the Potomac. Lemming was a plantation owner, and
+used the flatboat to ferry hay and other commodities from one shore to
+the other--or at least he had used it before the war put an end to such
+traffic. The old woman was certain that Lemming was off to the war and
+nobody was at home but his wife and her two daughters.
+
+Rewarding the elderly female handsomely for her information, Andy
+continued on his way, feeling that the darkness of the night would
+greatly aid him in escaping from the enemy’s country. A well-defined
+trail led along the Potomac, and in a short while he found himself at
+the bank of the creek or inlet where the flatboat was supposed to lie.
+
+For some time he could learn nothing of the craft, and he was thinking
+seriously of venturing to the distant farmhouse for information, when
+he caught sight of the flatboat, drawn up among a number of tall
+bushes. To get the craft afloat was no mean task, but finally it was
+accomplished, and he moored her where Firefly might readily step on
+board. The horse was at first unwilling to do this, and it took loud
+and repeated urging to make the animal budge.
+
+To guide the boat across the stream there was a broad oar to be used
+as a rudder. Andy had just taken up this oar and was preparing to shove
+off from the bank of the inlet when the sharp click of a rifle trigger
+caught his ear.
+
+“Halt there!” came the command, and a short, stout Union soldier
+stepped into full view from behind a tree. He had a very red face, red
+hair, and a red beard, and his tone of voice was unmistakably that of
+an Irishman.
+
+“Sthand where yez are,” he went on, as Andy looked at him
+crestfallenly. “Have yez the countersign?”
+
+“Potomac,” said Andy, on a venture.
+
+“Wrong, me laddybuck, it’s not Potomac, nor President, nor potatoes,
+nor nuthin’ loike it. Yez are my prisoner. Oi was after watchin’ yez
+fer tin minutes an’ wondherin’ what yez was up to. Sthep ashure now an’
+kape quoit till Oi call the guard.”
+
+“But I’m not an enemy, I’m a friend,” began Andy.
+
+“Yez is a Johnny Reb an’ nuthin’ else; Oi kin see it stickin’ out all
+over yez--not to spake of the uniform yez is afther wearin’. Sthep out,
+Oi say!” and the rifle was pointed at Andy’s head.
+
+There was nothing to do but to obey. As Andy stepped ashore Firefly
+started to follow, but the young Confederate shoved him back. This
+caused the flat-bottom boat to wobble, and in a second more she was
+adrift and heading for the river.
+
+“Sthop that boat!” roared the Irish picket, but when Andy started to
+obey the Union soldier caught him by the shoulder.
+
+“No, yez don’t!” he cried. “You sthay roight here. Corporal of the
+guard, it’s Tim Moriarity wants yez! Picket numbher sivin!”
+
+The last words were delivered with all the strength of the Irishman’s
+lungs. He was a new recruit, having been mustered in but a week
+previous, and he felt he had made a most important capture. He
+continued to hold Andy, meanwhile letting his musket fall to the ground.
+
+As soon as the weapon went down, the young Confederate planted his
+foot upon it. This accomplished, he pulled out his pistol and aimed it
+at the picket’s head.
+
+“Let go--unless you want me to fire,” he said, in a low but earnest
+tone.
+
+“Saints preserve us!” howled Tim Moriarity. “Don’t yez shoot me!
+don’t!” and releasing Andy he leaped behind the nearest tree for
+protection.
+
+The alarm had now sounded, and from across the plantation clearing the
+young Confederate saw half a dozen Union soldiers approaching on a run.
+They were all armed and one called to the picket to know what was up.
+
+“It’s a Johnny Reb!” yelled the Irishman. “He was afther thryin’ to
+murdher me, so he was!”
+
+“There he is; I see him!” cried the under officer, who accompanied the
+squad. “Halt, or we fire!” he commanded.
+
+By this time Andy was in the water of the inlet, wading as rapidly as
+possible after the fast receding flatboat. He had just clutched the
+rudder-lock when several reports rang out and he felt himself struck in
+the shoulder: A pain like that of a thousand needles shot through his
+body, his grasp relaxed, and then he knew no more.
+
+It was not until several hours later that he came to himself. At first
+he knew nothing, but that he was lying on a soft and warm couch in a
+dimly-lit room, and that there was a faint murmur of voices around him.
+Then he saw the faces of a kindly-looking woman and an elderly man, as
+both bent over him.
+
+“Will he live, surgeon?” asked the woman.
+
+“I think so. But the poor fellow has had a narrow escape,” was the
+reply of the medical man.
+
+“A narrow escape, indeed, to be shot and then half drowned. And he is
+so young, too; why nothing but a boy, one might say.”
+
+“Certainly young for a cavalryman, Mrs. Lemming. But then, you see,
+these Southerners are all crazy to fight, boys as well as men. Can I
+leave him here for the present, or shall I send down a stretcher and
+have him removed?”
+
+“No, no; leave him here for the present. It might prove fatal to move
+him. I will do my best for the poor boy.”
+
+“I don’t doubt but that you will, madam. To be sure, he is an enemy,
+but in such cases no one with a heart can make any distinction.”
+
+“True, sir, and one must remember also, that, at the end, we are
+all God’s creatures,” concluded the woman, solemnly. “On the Day of
+Judgment He will judge us by His rule of conduct, and not by our own.”
+
+Andy scarcely heard the last words. But in a dim manner he realized
+that he was among friends, even though they were of the enemy, and then
+consciousness again forsook him.
+
+It was morning when he opened his eyes once more, and the sunshine was
+streaming across the plantation fields and into the window of the room
+he occupied. Feeling a trifle stronger he essayed to sit up. Instantly
+there was a stir and a girl of fifteen came to him.
+
+“You must remain quiet,” she said sweetly, then turned and called out:
+“Mamma, he is awake.”
+
+Mrs. Lemming came instantly into the room. “You must remain quiet, Mr.
+Arlington,” she said. “It is the doctor’s order. You are badly wounded
+in the shoulder. We will take good care of you.”
+
+“Thank you, madam.” Andy was surprised how weak his voice was. He
+tried to say more, but the words would not come, and he felt compelled
+to close his eyes again. Later in the day he managed to swallow a
+little nourishment, and from that time on he grew stronger, although
+his progress was so slow that it was scarcely perceptible.
+
+“I suppose you wonder how we know your name,” said the daughter, who
+was assisting her mother in caring for Andy. “I saw it written on a
+number of letters which were in your pocket. My name is Viola Lemming.
+Mamma and I and my younger sister Flossie are living here, for papa is
+off to the war.”
+
+“Your father is a Union man, I suppose?” said Andy.
+
+“Yes. We are all Unionists around here. But you mustn’t mind that. We
+will take good care of you.”
+
+“You are more than kind. Will you tell me what happened after I was
+shot?”
+
+“There is not much to tell. You fell back into the water and two of the
+soldiers fished you out and brought you here, for the nearest hospital
+service is five miles away.”
+
+“And did they catch my horse?”
+
+“No. They tried to stop the flatboat, but it got away in the darkness,
+and what became of it and the horse none of the men know.”
+
+“I hope he got back into Virginia,” said Andy, with a little sigh; and
+then Mrs. Lemming came in and said it would be best for him to remain
+quiet.
+
+Day after day went by and Andy remained on the couch. The Lemmings were
+as kind and patient with him as though they were his best friends,
+and he could not help but reach the conclusion that there were other
+good people on the side of the North besides the Rockfords. Viola,
+especially, did all she possibly could for his comfort, and one day he
+told her about his home and his sister Grace.
+
+“I would like to meet her,” said Viola Lemming. “Who knows but that we
+will when this cruel war is over.”
+
+“That when will prove a long one, I am afraid,” answered the young
+Confederate. “We are bound to fight to the last, and I presume folks up
+North think the same way.”
+
+Once or twice, when Andy was well enough to be moved, it was suggested
+by the surgeon who visited him that he be taken to the regular army
+quarters. The youth shuddered at this, knowing he would not receive
+half the care he was now getting.
+
+“If you will have me, I will stay here, Mrs. Lemming,” he said. “I know
+I am a good deal of a burden, but some day I and my family will try to
+make it up to you.”
+
+“I shall be glad to have you remain,” said the lady of the house. “But
+you must give me one promise--that you will not try to escape so long
+as the Union authorities leave you in our care?”
+
+“I’ll promise that,” answered the young Confederate, seriously. “You
+have my word of honor as a Virginian.”
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                         OFF FOR THE PENINSULA
+
+
+As previously mentioned, General McClellan, on taking charge of
+the Army of the Potomac and, later on, charge of the whole Federal
+forces, found affairs in Washington in a truly deplorable condition.
+The infantry numbered less than fifty thousand, the cavalry about a
+thousand, and the artillery less than seven hundred, with only thirty
+field pieces, many of them hardly fit for use. Added to these facts was
+the still more important one that officers and men were alike slack
+in military discipline, coming and going very much as suited their
+convenience.
+
+This was all changed as rapidly as such a huge work could be
+performed. Officers were made to pass a regular examination to
+determine their fitness for their positions, men were drilled every
+day and had regular hours for doing things assigned to them, and each
+new command as it came in was made to feel that it must live up to the
+spirit as well as the letter of the military law. Whatever else may
+be said of General McClellan’s fitness for the absolute leadership in
+a great campaign, the fact must forever remain that he was one of the
+best army organizers this country, or any other, has ever produced.
+Firm almost to the point of harshness, he was still a friend to all,
+and his men understood this so well that they would have followed him
+anywhere. To thousands he was “Little Mac,” and for a long while the
+very idol of the army.
+
+By February, 1862, General McClellan’s forces were ready for an
+advance upon the Confederates. Over fifty thousand soldiers were
+stationed in and around Washington, below the city at Alexandria,
+above upon the Potomac, and at several places to watch the valley of
+the Shenandoah. Outside of these the great army numbered 158,000 men,
+of which not quite five thousand were regulars and all of the rest
+volunteers. By this it will be seen that in less than ten months the
+Northern States had converted into trained soldiers over two hundred
+thousand men who had previously been clerks, farmers, mechanics and
+followers of kindred occupations. During the same time the seceded
+States had turned out about half that number of soldiers from somewhat
+similar sources. This work was a wonder in itself and is well worth a
+moment’s contemplation.
+
+It had taken much valuable time to organize the Army of the Potomac,
+and now more time was lost in perfecting the details of the coming
+campaign. It was General McClellan’s desire to strike “all along the
+line” at the same time, thus giving the Confederates no opportunity
+to rally from one point to another. The enemy was to be attacked not
+only in Virginia, but also in North and South Carolina, in Kentucky and
+Tennessee. Had this plan been executed without delay, it is possible
+the war would have been of short duration. But delay after delay
+occurred at Washington, and meanwhile battle after battle took place
+elsewhere. At last, after numerous changes in the plan of campaign, it
+was decided between the administration and the general-in-chief that
+the army should be transported by boats to Fortress Monroe, at the
+extreme point of the peninsula formed by the York and James Rivers,
+and then march up past Yorktown, and lay siege to Richmond, if the
+Confederate Capital could not be taken in any other way. It was argued
+that, as the route from the water to Richmond was less than ninety-five
+miles in length, and as the troops would be perfectly fresh after their
+sea voyage, they ought to be able to make a steady movement forward, in
+which case Richmond might be taken with but little trouble.
+
+The anticipated movement of the army was, of course, kept a secret from
+the public and the privates until the last moment. It was not until the
+middle of March that word came into camp that the Goreville Volunteers,
+now regularly attached to a regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, were
+to move two days later.
+
+“Where are we going to move to?” questioned Louis, of Harry Bingham,
+who had brought the word from Captain Paulding’s headquarters.
+
+“We are to cross the Potomac, that’s all I know,” answered Harry.
+
+“Perhaps we are to follow the rebels from Centerville,” said Louis, for
+he heard how the Confederate forces had left that vicinity.
+
+“Maybe. We’re going somewhere, that’s certain.”
+
+It was a cool but clear day when the volunteers broke camp and struck
+out on a march which lasted the best part of ten hours. They went into
+camp in a sweet potato field, and by sunrise the day following were
+again on the tramp.
+
+“I guess we are marching around for fun,” laughed Harry Bingham. But he
+soon found out his mistake. That afternoon they reached Alexandria and
+here were waiting a whole host of vessels to receive them. The regiment
+to which the Goreville boys belonged was taken on a boat named the
+_Boston Queen_.
+
+“Sure and they are going to send us south on a voyage of discovery,”
+said one of the men. “I wonder if they’ll land us at Charleston?”
+
+“Charleston!” shrieked Jerry Rowe. “If they do that, we’ll all be
+killed. Why, that is where they bombarded Fort Sumter.”
+
+“Never mind, Jerry, if you are killed, remember you died for your
+country when you didn’t want to,” said Moses Blackwell, and a laugh
+went up, while Jerry groaned dismally.
+
+The harbor was “a sight for to see,” as one of the men said. Transports
+were there without number, big and small, some filled to overflowing
+with soldiers, others waiting for their loads of human freight. Here
+and there a band of music was playing and the Stars and Stripes were
+everywhere to be seen. The sight was an inspiring one, and Louis and
+Harry enjoyed it thoroughly.
+
+“Creation, what a lot of us!” cried Harry Bingham. “Hang me if I don’t
+believe half the men in the country have taken up arms.”
+
+“We are bound for Fortress Monroe,” came the word a bit later. “The
+rebels are congregating around Richmond, and we are to wipe ’em out!”
+
+“Hurrah!” went up the cry. “On to Richmond, boys, and no turning back
+this time. Hurrah for Little Mac!”
+
+“Besser ve valk to Richmond,” said Hans Roddmann, one of the new
+members of the Goreville company. “Ven I come me ofer from Chermany
+I bes sick more as dree-quarters der dime. I ton’t vonts me no more
+sickness like dot.”
+
+“Oh, this is only a little coast trip,” said Harry Bingham,
+lightly--too lightly altogether, as he remembered later on. “We sha’n’t
+hardly be out of sight of land.”
+
+“Vell, I ton’t know.” Hans Roddmann shook his head meditatively. “Put
+I vould besser been sick anyhow as let von of dem repel gunpoats come
+along und plow us up, hey?”
+
+“You’re right there, Hans,” laughed Louis. “We’ll have to keep a sharp
+watch out for the enemy. Although we are nearly a thousand strong,
+our rifles would prove a poor defense against a number of ten or
+twenty-pounders.”
+
+“Maybe de got some twenty ouder dirty pounders on board dis ship,”
+concluded Hans. The man had been the village cobbler at Goreville and
+it had taken a good bit of talking upon Captain Paulding’s part to get
+him to volunteer, and even then it had taken still more talking to get
+Mrs. Roddmann to consent to the enlistment. The woman was alone in the
+world, excepting for her husband, and it was only when Mr. Rockford
+had consented to take her in the house and give her work that she had
+granted her husband permission to leave at his country’s call.
+
+At last the time came to cast off the lines and start on the voyage
+down the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. A final hurrah went up as
+the _Boston Queen_ swung clear of the dock.
+
+“Good-bye, boys; meet me on the peninsula.”
+
+“What’s the matter with meeting you at Richmond?” came back the reply.
+
+“Just the thing. I’ll make a date of it.”
+
+“All right; April first suit?”
+
+“You klown, dot vos Abril fool’s tay!” shouted Hans Roddmann, and then
+those on the boat and those left on the dock passed out of hearing of
+each other. Soon the voyage southward had begun.
+
+The day, which had promised fair, now turned cloudy, and soon the
+_Boston Queen_ was enveloped in one of the dense fogs for which this
+section of our sea coast is famous. Louis had thought to remain on
+deck, but now he was glad enough to seek the shelter of the cabin,
+already crowded to suffocation.
+
+“Not much of a chance to bunk, boys,” said Captain Paulding, as
+he passed among his men. “We’ll have to make the best of it. One
+consolation, the trip won’t last forever.”
+
+“How long will it last, captain?” queried Blackwell.
+
+“Well, the trip is less than a hundred and fifty miles. We might make
+it in four days, if we had clear sailing. But we have two enemies to
+contend with--fog and rebel gunboats;” and the captain passed on.
+
+By night the space on board of the transport had been divided among
+the different companies as evenly as possible, while the staterooms
+were reserved for the commanders from second lieutenants up. The
+Goreville Volunteers found themselves located in the front cabin, where
+there were six long benches and, as Blackwell declared, “as soft a
+floor of Georgia pine as could be found anywhere.” Louis slept on that
+floor that same night, with his knapsack for a pillow, and found it
+anything but soft. Yet even that couch was in infinitely better than
+some of those which he was glad enough to make his own later on.
+
+“Ve vos all chickens in der chicken-coop, hey?” was the way Hans
+Roddmann expressed himself in the morning. “Blease somepotty fall
+oferpoard bis I stretch mineselluf!” And the room he required for the
+stretching process really made it look as if somebody would have to
+clear the deck.
+
+“This is worse than the camp in Washington,” began Jerry Rowe, but just
+then a shoe, thrown from the other end of the cabin, took him in the
+back of the neck and caused him to subside with a howl. The owner of
+the shoe came limping along with the other on a moment later, and when
+Jerry tried to argue with him, there was a regular pitched battle, in
+which a number of others joined, in the best of humor, although Jerry,
+who was at the bottom of the heap during a “pile on,” did not see it
+exactly that way.
+
+“Never mind, Jerry, have a cup of fresh chocolate,” exclaimed Harry,
+a minute later, as the cook passed around with his wash-boiler, “all
+steaming hot,” and again Jerry was disappointed for, as usual, it was
+black coffee, and particularly bitter at that. Louis was getting used
+to “hardtack” and coffee, but Jerry grumbled every time it was placed
+before him.
+
+“I’m sick, tired, and disgusted with pork and beans and strong coffee
+and pilot bread,” he would growl. “Why in the name of creation don’t
+the government give us something else?”
+
+“Never mind, Jerry; there’s a sutler along and you can buy what you
+please from him,” said one of the soldiers.
+
+“Barker is a thief!” burst out the discontented one. “Why, he wanted
+to charge me a quarter for a measly four-cent pie and forty cents for
+a tiny pot of jam. If I patronized him, he’d draw every cent of my pay
+when the quartermaster turned up.”
+
+The following morning found the _Boston Queen_ well down towards
+Chesapeake Bay. The fog was as thick as ever, but a wind had sprung up
+and this caused the ship to roll lazily from side to side as she moved
+southward. About noon Louis saw Harry drop upon a bench and catch his
+face in his hands.
+
+“What’s the matter, Harry, home-sick?” he asked, lightly.
+
+“No, I’m not _home_-sick,” was the short reply, and then Harry added,
+with a peculiar twitching of his mouth, “but I’m getting awfully sick
+otherwise.”
+
+“He vos sea-sick, py chiminatty!” roared out Hans Roddmann. “Now you
+vos see how _you_ likes him, hey?”
+
+“Oh, it’s awful!” was all Harry could answer, and then he made a
+rush for the outer deck, closely followed by Jerry Rowe, who had
+been similarly attacked. An hour later Hans Roddmann had joined the
+pair, and during the remainder of the voyage the trio had plenty of
+company, for overloaded with men and baggage, the _Boston Queen_ rolled
+dreadfully as she worked her way slowly along.
+
+Twenty-four hours before they came in sight of Fortress Monroe the fog
+lifted, and soon after that came a good deal of a scare. Two strange
+vessels were seen approaching from the eastward and were instantly put
+down as rebel cruisers or gunboats. At once the guns on board of the
+transport were gotten into readiness for firing and the soldiers were
+called to arms. In the meantime, the _Boston Queen_ did all possible to
+increase her speed, in the hope of getting within the protection of the
+guns of the fortress before she could be run down or sunk.
+
+The excitement lasted for two hours, and more than once the heart of
+many a soldier was in his throat. Many of the men could not swim and
+they knew that a single round shot, properly delivered, could put the
+_Boston Queen_ at the bottom of the Atlantic.
+
+Then came a hurrah from the mast-head, as those on the watch made out
+that the approaching vessels were friends and not enemies. The boats
+proved to be two transports which had in some way strayed from the
+fleet in the fog. They were flying signals to that effect, and soon
+after they joined in the rear of the vessels behind the _Boston Queen_,
+and again the passage to Fortress Monroe was resumed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                      THE LANDING--ON TO YORKTOWN
+
+
+“Well, here we are at last, Harry. Now for Richmond and the capturing
+of the Confederate Capital.”
+
+It was Louis who spoke. The Goreville Volunteers, after landing at the
+government wharf at Fortress Monroe, had crossed the bridge leading to
+Hampton, marched through that semi-deserted and forlorn-looking town,
+and came to a halt on the highway leading to Yorktown.
+
+“We are on land, that’s a fact,” returned Harry Bingham. “But where is
+another question. What a desolate country!” he added, as his eyes swept
+a wide range of half-ploughed and neglected corn and tobacco fields.
+“Is this what we have come to conquer?”
+
+“I was told we were only about eighteen miles from Yorktown,” said
+Moses Blackwell. “I am very curious to see that place, for, if you
+will remember, it was there that Lord Cornwallis of the British forces
+surrendered to Washington eighty years ago.”
+
+“That’s so!” cried Louis, much interested. “My grandfather was in that
+war. And come to think of it, they say the breastworks Washington’s
+troops threw up at that siege are still to be seen. I hope we catch
+sight of them,” he added, after a pause, but never dreamt how useful
+some of those same old breastworks were to become to the Union troops
+during those stirring battles which made the Peninsular Campaign so
+famous in history.
+
+Regiments of infantry, bands of cavalry, and divisions of artillery
+were everywhere as far as eye could reach, covering not only the
+roadway, but the fields beyond. The volunteers had fancied they had
+moved on far enough for that first day, but presently the orders came
+to move on and another half-mile was covered, when the larger portion
+of their corps and another went into regular camp.
+
+All of the boys in blue were in heavy marching order, that is,
+carrying with them everything that belonged to each soldier, his gun,
+cartridge box, canteen, haversack, knapsack, great coat, blanket
+and private property, and a march of five or six miles under such
+conditions is exceedingly fatiguing. To be sure, the route step was
+given, and everybody marched very much as he pleased in consequence,
+but even so, when the order to halt came everybody was glad enough to
+throw down his load and rest himself upon it.
+
+“Ven I march like dis I vos feel me like von pack-mule,” remarked Hans
+Roddmann. “Dot load gits heavier und heavier bis it veighs apout a ton.”
+
+“I’m getting used to the load,” answered Louis. “But it’s no fun, Hans,
+that’s a fact. But you must remember, we didn’t enlist for the fun of
+the thing.”
+
+“Oh, no; put too much ist too much,” and Hans went off shaking his
+head. He was extra tired, and suffering from a bunion, and the fact
+that it was his duty to play cook for the next week did not tend to put
+him into good humor.
+
+“To the field on the right, boys,” came the order from Captain
+Paulding, and the Goreville Volunteers hopped over a worm-fence located
+along the roadway. Two days later the fence had disappeared--chopped
+up for firewood. Firewood was not plentiful in the vicinity, and
+everything--fences, sheds and trees had to go for fuel. Only the log
+cabins and houses of the inhabitants were spared.
+
+In going into camp, Louis soon learned that a regular rule was
+adopted. The four regiments forming a division were first placed in a
+large square, one regiment to each corner, or quarter, with the tent
+of the brigadier-general commanding in front of the whole. The grand
+square thus divided, each regiment was divided into divisions of two
+companies each, one company placed in a line behind the second company,
+the two about ten or fifteen yards apart, with each company divided
+from that next to it by about the same distance. When thus stationed,
+the soldiers were ordered to stack arms and unsling knapsacks, and then
+began the work of building up the tents in long rows behind the stacked
+guns, the officers’ quarters being placed on a line with the others,
+but either on the outside of all or in the “cross streets” between
+companies.
+
+Before starting out on the campaign each soldier had been supplied
+with a bit of strong canvas about five feet square, having on the edges
+rows of strong buttons and button-holes. Usually four of these pieces
+of canvas were buttoned together, making a sheet ten feet square. This
+square was now thrown over a ridgepole, sometimes a straight branch
+of a tree, sometimes a fence-rail and then again nothing but a musket
+with bayonet attached, the ridgepole held up at each end by a short
+post driven into the ground. Thus “hoisted,” the canvas was stretched
+out as far as possible upon either side and pinned to the ground with
+sharpened sticks, after which a fifth patch of cloth was buttoned fast
+over the back end, when the “dog tent,” as all the soldiers called
+them, was ready for occupancy. Under such a covering would sleep,
+closely huddled together, the five men who had contributed their
+patches of cloth. Sometimes a sixth man would join the crowd or mess,
+when the weather was cold, and then the “dog” would have a “front door.”
+
+“Gosh, this ain’t no palace, is it?” queried Nathan Hornsby, who was
+one of the members of the mess to which Louis belonged. “It’s all right
+enough in good weather, but creation help us if it storms.”
+
+“I wonder how long we’ll stay here?” queried Louis.
+
+“We’ll have to stay until all of the troops come down from Alexandria,
+I suppose,” said Harry, who also belonged to the mess, and who now sat
+on his knapsack in the shelter. “I heard somebody say that the last of
+the transports wouldn’t be in for a week yet.”
+
+“If we stay here long the rebs will steal a march on us,” put in Moses
+Blackwell, who was vainly trying to light some green tobacco picked
+up at a ruined storehouse on the route hither. “Of course, it’s only
+natural they should fight like wildcats to keep us out of Richmond.”
+
+“I think myself some of the troops ought to be sent ahead, at least as
+far as Yorktown,” said Louis. “That place ought to make a splendid base
+for supplies, being right along the York River, where our ships of war
+could cover it all the time.”
+
+“I reckon we’re going to have lots o’ fightin’ afore we see the
+streets o’ Richmond,” ventured Bart Callings, who stood by. “We’ve got
+Yorktown to pass, an’ it’s full of rebels, an’ Williamsburg, an’ the
+Chickahominy River, where they’ll make a stand as sure as eggs is eggs,
+and then comes a lot of swamp woods, an’ I don’t know what all--an’
+they’ll have every hole an’ corner o’ it fortified, mark my words!”
+
+“Oh, we’ll get fighting enough,” answered another. “The rebs are just
+as brave as we are, every bit, and we might as well understand it so,
+first as last.”
+
+“I go in for a dash,” was the comment of a little wiry man named Fleck.
+“Start the army on a run for Richmond and let it stop at nothing, and
+the day will be ours in less than a week.”
+
+How long the discussion might have lasted, there is no telling, but
+just then came the cry: “Company B fall in for supper!” and every man
+sprang for his cup and dinner plate, for Company B in that regiment
+meant the Goreville Volunteers.
+
+The cooking was done under a large tent at the end of the division
+grounds. Here, over a long fire built up of fence rails, tree branches
+or any other fuel which came handy, hung a row of smoky kettles, one
+containing coffee, another soup, another fresh or salt meat, and so on,
+the diet varying but little from meal to meal and day-to-day. The men
+marched up in a row, from kettle to kettle, each getting his cup and
+plate filled and also his supply of pilot crackers, or “hard tack.”
+This ended, the soldiers would return to their quarters, each crowd of
+five occupying a tent usually forming a mess of their own.
+
+For over a week the Goreville Volunteers lay in the camp on the road
+not far from Big Bethel. During that time the weather remained fairly
+fine and, consequently, all were in the best of spirits, and even Jerry
+Rowe brightened up, although still grumbling because the fare was so
+plain and the war was not pushed so “it could be got done with and they
+could go home.”
+
+At last, early in April, came the order to move, “in heavy marching
+order,” and once more the boys in that division found themselves on
+the way to Yorktown. In the meanwhile, another corps of the Army of
+the Potomac was pushing forward from Newport News Point, intending to
+clear the road up past a settlement called Lee’s Mills, for it must
+be remembered that in advancing upon Richmond it was the intention of
+General McClellan to make a general advance from the York to the James
+up the peninsula. A glance at a map of this territory will aid my
+readers greatly in following the movements which ensued.
+
+“Forward, march!” came the command, about the middle of the forenoon,
+a band ahead struck up the then popular Washington March, and off the
+columns moved, the men four abreast, every uniform carefully brushed
+up, each button polished, the bright red blankets carefully rolled,
+and each musket and bayonet glistening brightly in the morning light.
+It was a sight to inspire the most listless and Louis felt almost like
+singing, as he moved away on the long, swinging route step.
+
+Twelve miles were covered that day, and early in the morning the march
+was again resumed. But now the sun failed to shine and soon there
+started a light rain which by noon settled into a steady downpour.
+Louis threw his cape over his head, and shielded himself as much as
+possible, but the elements could not be fought off, and an hour later
+he was wet almost to the skin.
+
+“An umbrella wouldn’t be a bad thing to have,” Harry Bingham started
+in to say, when the report of a number of firearms cut him short. The
+rattle of the musketry sounded from ahead, and a moment later came the
+command to halt.
+
+The army was still some two miles and a half from Yorktown when the
+advanced guard had come upon some formidable earthworks stretched
+across the road and well into the woods beyond. As a matter of fact,
+the Confederate defences were afterwards found to stretch directly
+across the peninsula, from in front of Yorktown, as described, to
+Southall’s Landing. A sharp skirmish ensued between the advanced guard
+of the Union army and the Confederate outposts, and then the former
+fell back.
+
+“Something is up,” said Louis, when the orders finally came to go into
+camp. “And it’s not a battle, either.”
+
+He was right. Instead of making another demonstration, all became
+quiet, saving from the direction of Lee’s Mills, where the corps on
+the road from Newport News Point had also received a check. A regular
+camp was laid out, and the boys in blue proceeded to make themselves as
+comfortable as the state of the weather permitted.
+
+Early in the morning Benny Bruce, as bright and eager as ever, sounded
+the reveille, and the soldiers came tumbling out of their tents to
+listen to a few words from Captain Paulding.
+
+“This regiment is to march to the front, to do picket duty for
+twenty-four hours, from sunset to sunset. I wish all the men to
+remember that we are now in the very heart of the enemy’s country, and
+that each man must do his full duty. There must be no shirking from
+work, no nodding on post. Remember, a picket found asleep on his post
+is liable to be shot for his offense. Company will get ready to march
+in fifteen minutes.”
+
+“Hurrah, we’re going to the front at last!” cried Louis. “I’m glad of
+it,” and he started to pack up with all possible haste. Soon they were
+on the march, Benny beating his drum louder than ever, until stopped
+by a general order to keep quiet, as they were now within easy hearing
+distance of the Confederates.
+
+At the time the sun set, although there was no telling when that was by
+looking at the sky, for it still rained, Louis found himself on picket
+duty for almost the first time in his life. He had often stood guard,
+but picket duty was different, for now it was positively known that
+the enemy was just ahead. He had been stationed close to the edge of a
+woods and was given a beat of twenty feet, ending on the right at a big
+oak and on the left at a sideroad running into the Yorktown highway.
+Next to him, at the other side of the oak, Harry was stationed, while
+Callings covered the road. The reserves, or companies sent forward to
+aid the pickets, if needed, lay in a hollow some distance back, and
+with these were several cavalrymen detailed for any messenger service
+which might be deemed necessary.
+
+Up and down his short walk tramped the young Union soldier, his gun
+loaded and his eyes and ears on the alert for anything which might
+appear in the least suspicious in the uneven field beyond the woods. He
+felt that he was now placed upon his mettle, and resolved that nothing
+should happen which might be put down to the enemy’s credit.
+
+Two hours went by, long hours to the youth, for the short beat soon
+became a wearisome one, and the pickets had been cautioned not to speak
+to one another unless it became necessary. Stopping now and then, he
+could hear Harry tramping up and down, and occasionally came a murmur
+from the roadway, as Callings forgot himself and started to hum some
+well known tune.
+
+And then, Louis stopped short again and clutched his musket tighter.
+What was that out in the field, moving slowly along beside a large,
+rough rock? With his heart standing fairly still, he dashed the rain
+from his eyebrows and took a step forward. Beyond a doubt it was the
+form of a man.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                          THE CAPTURE OF A SPY
+
+
+For the instant, after making his important discovery, Louis knew not
+what to do. That the fellow who was advancing so cautiously was an
+enemy there could be no doubt. That being so, why was the Confederate
+taking so much pains in the rain and darkness to enter the Union lines?
+
+There could be but one answer to this question. He must be a spy, bent
+upon some secret and important mission.
+
+As the truth forced itself home to the young Union soldier’s mind, he
+took a step in the direction of the roadway, feeling that the eyes of
+the man by the rock were upon him and that if he knew he was discovered
+it might prove a case of “who shot first” as to who remained alive to
+tell the story afterward. He must not show his hand until in a position
+to use his gun with quickness and accuracy.
+
+Turning from the roadway, he walked slowly back toward the big oak. As
+he did this he noted that the man had shifted his position and was now
+some six feet closer to the woods, where a low fringe of brush stuck
+up, and where the rain had formed a pool of shallow water extending a
+distance of several yards.
+
+Unionist and Confederate were now less than fifty feet apart, and the
+rain was coming down furiously upon both. Two steps more and Louis was
+close to the shelter of the tree. He listened intently. The man by
+the bushes made no sound; Harry’s footsteps were some distance away.
+Something had attracted his attention at the other end of his beat and
+he remained there.
+
+It must be acknowledged that Louis’s heart now beat like a
+trip-hammer. He felt it his duty to challenge the man, and, if his
+answer was not satisfactory, and he tried to escape, to shoot him on
+the spot. On the other hand, he knew that a single word from his lips
+might be the signal for a shot from the unknown, who would then make a
+rush for the woods on the opposite side of the little clearing. He was
+not certain, but he imagined he saw the gleam of a pistol in the right
+hand of the fellow as he turned from the rock.
+
+Stepping behind the tree for an instant, Louis examined his gun, to see
+that all was in perfect order for firing. He shuddered as he tried the
+trigger. In a moment more he might be taking a human life.
+
+Again he stepped forth, but partly behind a bush in front of the oak.
+He opened his lips to shout out the word halt when he made a most
+startling discovery.
+
+The man had disappeared.
+
+In vain he strained his eyes, in this direction, that direction, and
+beyond. It was useless. The fellow was not at the rock, nor on the
+ground near the pool, nor was he at the fringe of brush to which he had
+turned. He was as completely gone as though the earth had opened and
+swallowed him up.
+
+Louis was dumbstruck. What in the world had become of the man? He
+clutched his gun in nervous perplexity. Had the man made a silent but
+rapid rush and passed the line? No, such a thing was impossible. He
+must still be in front.
+
+The young soldier heard Harry returning now and resolved on a new
+course of action. Waiting for his friend to reach the oak, he caught
+him by the arm and clapped his hand over his mouth.
+
+“Harry, listen, but don’t make any noise,” he whispered into the
+other’s ear. “There is a man out there, near the pool. I saw him
+crawling along a moment ago, but he has now disappeared. Tell the guard
+next to you, and I’ll tell Callings, and we’ll round him up.”
+
+Harry understood and nodded. Then struck by a sudden idea, he exclaimed
+aloud: “I ain’t got any tobacco. Ask Callings for his plug.”
+
+“And you ask Risby,” answered Louis, catching the cue, and speaking
+just as loudly, and then they separated, but each kept an eye on the
+vicinity of the oak, that the man who had disappeared might not try to
+break through the picket guard at that point.
+
+“A reb, eh?” whispered Callings, when Louis had called him up. “All
+right, I’ll help you. Wait till I’ve called the next man to overlook
+the road. Send the word back, too, Louis; it’s ag’in orders to try to
+do too much without letting the officer of the guard know.”
+
+In a moment Louis had glided back and given the necessary order. Then
+he, Harry, Callings, and Risby moved forward in a semi-circle. They had
+scarcely advanced five yards, when Callings found himself sinking into
+a half choked-up rifle-pit.
+
+“Hi! hi! here’s the rascal!” he yelled. “Down with that pistol, you
+rebel, or I’ll finish you in short order.”
+
+“Hang the luck!” came in a growl from the bottom of the hole. “Git off
+of my back, you confounded Yank!”
+
+“I will, when you surrender, Grayback! Throw up that pistol.”
+
+By this time not only Louis and Harry, but also some others were at
+the edge of the hole, which was several feet in diameter and over-grown
+with grass and weeds. Down at the bottom the water was over a foot
+deep, and in this a man was crouching, wet to the skin and covered with
+mud. Callings had landed directly upon the fellow’s back with his heavy
+boots, and it was small wonder that the victim yelled with pain.
+
+“This yere is the wust luck I ever struck,” muttered the captured one,
+as with very bad grace he surrendered his pistol, of the old-fashion
+“hoss” variety and nearly two feet long. “Let me git outer the hole
+before I sink clear outer sight.”
+
+Callings sprang up and a few feet back. Then he and Louis covered the
+man with their guns, but this was not necessary, for the chap was
+thoroughly cowed. It was soon found that the clay at the bottom of the
+hole held him fast, and Harry and Risby had to haul him forth by main
+strength.
+
+By this time the cry, “Corporal of the guard! Number seven! A
+prisoner!” had gone down the line, and the corporal was hurrying
+forward to picket number seven, which was Louis. He was followed by
+a detachment of others, who marched the prisoner to the guard tent,
+Louis, relieved from duty by another soldier, following on behind.
+
+When surveyed by the lantern hanging to the rear post of the guard
+tent, the captured one presented anything but a prepossessing
+appearance. He was a tall, lank individual, with sallow complexion,
+high cheek bones, and tangled beard and hair. His tattered clothing
+hung upon him as garments hang upon a scarecrow. In his left cheek was
+a large quid of tobacco, which he chewed upon with great vigor, as if
+to thereby keep up his fading courage. Long and earnestly Louis gazed
+at the face, wondering if he had not seen the man before.
+
+[Illustration: LOUIS GAZED AT THE FACE, WONDERING IF HE HAD NOT SEEN
+THE MAN BEFORE.--_Page 221._]
+
+“Your name?” was the first question put to the stranger.
+
+“My name?” answered the prisoner, slowly. “Er--Tom Johnson.”
+
+“Brother to General Johnson, I suppose?” sneered the corporal,
+satisfied the man was not telling the truth.
+
+“No, sir; I ain’t no relation to that measly rebel.”
+
+“Well, Johnson, where do you belong?”
+
+“Belong to the Second Maryland Volunteers, Company B.”
+
+“Captain’s name, please?”
+
+“Captain--er Thompson.”
+
+“First cousin to Johnson, I suppose?”
+
+“No, sir; no relation.”
+
+“That’s too bad. When did you leave your regiment?”
+
+“Right after leaving Fortress Monroe. I wanted to call on an uncle of
+mine living up around yere, an’ the cap’n let me go.”
+
+“Why did you try to crawl through the lines?”
+
+“Didn’t have no countersign.”
+
+“What was the countersign the day you left?”
+
+“It was--” the prisoner pretended to think. “Hang the luck! I’ve forgot
+wot it wuz, corporal, upon my honah.”
+
+“When you were off did you see anything of the rebels?”
+
+“Not much, I didn’t. I give ’em the biggest go-by I could.”
+
+“Supposing we search you? Have you any objections?”
+
+“’Tain’t gentlemanly, corporal.”
+
+“Oh, yes, it is; under certain circumstances.”
+
+“But I’ve gin yer my name an’ regiment,” pleaded the prisoner, who
+seemed to be alarmed over the possibility of a search. “Yer might ez
+well let me find my quarters.”
+
+“You’ve put your foot into it, my man. The regiment you mentioned is
+not with us, but is stationed somewhere up in Maryland, in the vicinity
+of Baltimore.”
+
+At this announcement the lower jaw of the prisoner dropped visibly, and
+he forgot to go on with the chewing process.
+
+“Well--er--we cum down--our company, I mean,” he stammered. “It was a
+mistake, but our company is yere--I’ll take my oath to that.”
+
+“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt--after I’ve searched you.
+Stivers, take off his coat and vest and make him remove his boots.
+Number Seven, what is it?”
+
+“Can I speak to the prisoner, sir?” asked Louis, who felt he was on
+the verge of a discovery. “I think I know him and can make him reveal
+himself,” he added, in a whisper.
+
+“Go ahead,” answered the corporal, briefly. The other officers had been
+called away to general headquarters and he was, consequently, in sole
+charge.
+
+“I want to ask you how you left Sam Jacks, and Hogwell, and the rest,”
+said Louis, aloud, and as he spoke he eyed the prisoner narrowly.
+
+“By thunder!” was the ejaculation, and the man fell back a step.
+Then, by the light of the smoking lantern he surveyed Louis closer.
+“Ef it hain’t the chap we wuz arfter at Lee Run!” he continued, before
+considering his words.
+
+“Exactly!” burst from the young soldier’s lips. “I thought I knew you.
+Corporal, he is a rebel, and worse.”
+
+“What do you mean by worse?”
+
+“He is a thief. He and a gang of others once robbed me of my watch and
+money. It was up near Deems, and I was trying to get through Maryland
+to my home in Pennsylvania. Before that I met some of the same crowd at
+Lee Run, and they tried to injure me there.”
+
+“It ain’t so!” roared the prisoner. “I don’t know Sam Jacks, nor
+Hogwell, nor Ross, nor none of ’em.”
+
+“You remember the names right enough,” returned Louis, coldly. “And you
+will note that you add Ross’s name, which I didn’t mention.” He turned
+to the corporal. “Ross was another of the crowd.”
+
+“We’ll search him,” was the short answer. The work commenced at once.
+Slipped into one of the man’s boots was a slip of paper, which, on
+being unfolded, was found to be a Confederate pass, signed by General
+Longstreet. There was also another paper, which the corporal perused
+with even deeper interest.
+
+“A spy!” he murmured. He turned to Louis. “Your name?”
+
+“Louis Rockford, sir.”
+
+The corporal made a note of it. Then Louis was sent back to his
+regiment, and the spy was taken to general headquarters. Here it was
+at last ascertained that his name was Caleb Fox. It was surmised that
+he had been sent over to learn whether the Unionists contemplated an
+attack, or if they thought of settling down to a siege. He would speak
+but little, and was placed under heavy guard until some of the higher
+officers could question him further.
+
+“That’s a feather in your cap, Louis!” cried Harry, as they were eating
+breakfast the next morning. “You’ll hear from headquarters about it
+sooner or later, see if you don’t.”
+
+“It’s odd that we should capture one of Sam Jacks’s crowd,” mused
+Louis. “Doesn’t it seem to prove that a good part of the rebels who
+were up around Manassas have moved down here?”
+
+“If they ain’t down here now they will be pretty soon,” put in Moses
+Blackwell. “You can bet they won’t give up their main stronghold
+without the toughest kind of a struggle.”
+
+“One thing is certain,” continued Harry. “This man won’t bother you any
+more.”
+
+“Do you think they’ll shoot him?” said Louis, with a shudder.
+
+“Of course they’ll shoot him. It’s the fate of any spy that is
+captured.”
+
+“I shouldn’t like to have his blood on my head, Harry.”
+
+“He brought his fate on himself, Louis--you had nothing to do with
+that. He knew just what to expect when he left the rebel breastworks
+in the rain and darkness and tried to worm his way over here. And more
+than that, the fact that he had his big pistol ready for use, shows he
+was prepared to sell his liberty dearly, if given half a chance. If you
+had advanced upon him openly and alone he would have shot you down and
+run for it, as sure as fate.”
+
+That afternoon Louis was called up before the general of the corps,
+who questioned him closely. Then the prisoner was brought in, and Louis
+for the first time learned his name. As Louis went out, he passed close
+to Caleb Fox, who scowled at him viciously and whispered into his ear:
+
+“You skunk! I’ll git squar--ef I live.”
+
+To this Louis made no answer. But the words haunted his mind for a
+long time. The day was destined to come when he would remember them
+even more vividly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                      ACROSS THE POTOMAC ONCE MORE
+
+
+To go back to Andy at the time he was slowly recovering from a bullet
+wound in his shoulder, inflicted by a Union soldier at the time of his
+capture during the battle of Ball’s Bluff.
+
+The pain had now left him entirely, and although he was still weak
+from what he had experienced, yet he was able to sit up, and that was
+a great comfort. Every warm day a chair was placed for him upon the
+piazza of the Lemming homestead and here he would read, or watch the
+river, or play checkers and dominoes with Viola Lemming.
+
+So the golden Virginia summer passed. In the meantime Andy heard
+how the great army of the North was assembling at Washington, and of
+what that patriotic body was expected to do. But from home, from his
+parents, his company, or the rebel cause, he heard nothing.
+
+The late autumn found him walking about the plantation. Viola Lemming
+often accompanied him. She noticed how strong he was getting.
+
+“I presume you will want to leave us soon,” she said, with half a smile.
+
+“I was thinking I would go away next week,” he answered. “I have
+ventured on your hospitality too long already.”
+
+“You are welcome to stay as long as you please,” she returned, quickly.
+“You--you seem like one of the family.”
+
+His thin face flushed with pleasure at this. “You are very, very
+kind--you and your mother and your little sister,” he said, taking her
+hand. “As long as I live I shall never forget you, and I do trust that
+some day I shall be able to repay you, at least in part.” And then he
+turned away as he saw how red in the face Viola became. The two young
+folks had grown to think a great deal of each other.
+
+That night he told Mrs. Lemming of his intention. “I will not outstay
+my welcome, warm as it has been,” he said. “To-morrow you can notify
+the army authorities, if you will. As soon as they come for me, you
+will no longer be responsible for my keeping.”
+
+“But they will put you in prison!” said Viola, shuddering. “I didn’t
+think of that when you spoke. I thought--” she did not finish.
+
+“Did you think I would break my word of honor?” he questioned,
+seriously.
+
+“No--but--but--Oh, to go to prison! It is horrible!” She tried to speak
+on, but the words stuck in her throat and she rushed from the room. Her
+mother was scarcely less affected.
+
+“It is terrible, this change you think of making,” said Mrs. Lemming.
+“Better stay here, while you can. Perhaps the war will soon be over,
+and then you can cross the river to your folks.”
+
+But he was obdurate. He did not intend to go to a Union prison if it
+could be avoided, but at the same time he would not break his word to
+them and get them into trouble with the army authorities.
+
+That afternoon a slave carried a note from Mrs. Lemming to the nearest
+Union camp. In this she stated that the prisoner left at her house
+was now almost well and had desired to be turned over to the proper
+authorities. She added that he was not much more than a boy, and she
+trusted that the commandant would treat him with as little harshness as
+possible, and that if he could have him exchanged for a Union prisoner
+in the near future, she would consider it a special favor, for the
+prisoner had acted so gentlemanly during his illness that he had quite
+won her heart.
+
+On receiving this note the captain in charge smiled grimly. “All
+woman’s bosh,” he muttered. “We’ll soon have the young rebel behind the
+bars and give him a taste of how Union men are treated in their own
+foul prisons.”
+
+It was not yet sundown when he detailed a guard of three soldiers to
+bring Andy to the camp. The soldiers started off on foot, and having to
+tramp a distance of three miles over rather rough roads, reached Mrs.
+Lemming’s place an hour later.
+
+“So this is the young rebel, eh,” said the sergeant in charge. “All
+right, we have a description of him on file. Come on.”
+
+“In a moment,” answered Andy, and shook hands with Mrs. Lemming,
+Viola, and the younger girl. “Good-by, and remember, I shall never
+forget your kindness. You’ll have a little more ease, I fancy, now you
+are no longer responsible for my safe-keeping,” he added, with peculiar
+emphasis, which, however, no one but Viola noticed.
+
+“I shall regret having you go,” answered Mrs. Lemming. Viola said
+nothing more just then, but turned and re-entered the house. In a
+second more Andy was off, with the sergeant ahead and a soldier upon
+each side of him.
+
+“I guess you’ll remember the sweet time you had there when you’re in
+a regular prison,” remarked one of the soldiers, in an effort to twit
+the lad. “You won’t have no sech soft bits of calico to look after you,
+I’ll warrant you that!”
+
+The end of the plantation grounds had hardly been reached when Viola
+came rushing along the path, calling to Andy to stop. He halted, turned
+and took several steps toward her.
+
+“Here is a silk neckerchief for you,” she said, handing over the gift,
+and then she added in a whisper, while her face was crimson: “You are
+no longer responsible to us--the neckerchief contains a pistol--_escape
+if you can_!” Before the astonished young Confederate could reply, she
+was speeding back to the house.
+
+Although nearly dumbfounded, Andy did not lose his wits. He turned his
+back to the soldiers, slipped the little silver-mounted weapon, which
+had belonged to Mrs. Lemming, into his bosom, and waved the silk cloth
+in the air. “Thank you, and good-bye for the last time!” he cried, and
+gave himself up once more, and the march forward proceeded. One of
+the soldiers would have taken the neckerchief away from him, but the
+sergeant, though rough, was too fair-minded to allow anything of such a
+nature to take place.
+
+On they went along a road bounded on one side by an open tobacco-field
+and on the other by a spare growth of wood, with here and there a patch
+of brush. Andy noted with satisfaction that it was growing dark rapidly
+and that the timber was between himself and the river.
+
+He understood thoroughly what a risk he would run in trying to
+escape--that his captors would first try to catch him, and failing in
+this, would do their best to shoot him down. But, on the other hand,
+what was he to expect? A journey to a Northern prison, where perhaps he
+would be made to pass months, and it might be years, in some loathsome
+cell, crowded in with others, poorly fed, and made to suffer all sorts
+of indignities. He imagined things worse than they were, but the effect
+upon his actions was the same as though it were all true.
+
+A mile had been covered, when they reached a bend in the road, which
+now turned away from the Potomac. Here stood a deserted farmhouse, set
+in a wilderness of pear-trees.
+
+“Great smoke, look!” yelled Andy, shoving the soldiers away from him
+and pointing towards the house. “Look out, they are going to shoot us!
+Look out!” And with a quick dash he gained the side of the highway and
+leaped the worm-fence. As was natural, all three of the Union soldiers
+ducked their heads and strove in vain to ascertain what Andy meant. By
+the time they had recovered and comprehended the trick that had been
+played, the young Confederate was out of sight behind the trees.
+
+“Fools! After him!” shrieked the sergeant, and clambered over the
+fence as rapidly as his somewhat dumpy form would permit. At the same
+time one of the soldiers, seeing a quiver among the trees, fired, but
+the bullet did not touch Andy. In a moment more all three of the Union
+soldiers were in full pursuit.
+
+In the meantime, the young Confederate was making his way through the
+tangled undergrowth and over jagged rocks and exposed tree-roots with
+all the speed at his command. There was no mistaking the location of
+the river, for the whole neighborhood sloped in that direction, so all
+he had to do was to keep on going downhill until the water was gained.
+
+It was perilous moving, too, for the undergrowth was thick with briar
+bushes, which scratched his face and his hands, and caught his clothing
+so tightly that often it was impossible to move until the offending
+branch had been torn completely from its bush.
+
+“I’m bound to get away somehow,” he muttered, as he flung aside a briar
+which left a scratch from nose to ear. “There is one consolation, they
+are all larger than me, especially that sergeant, and traveling down
+here will be just that much more difficult for them. If only they don’t
+send word along the river front to watch out for me.”
+
+The last thought gave him a chill. But he did not waste time upon
+it. He heard his pursuers crashing along, a hundred feet behind him.
+They seemed to be getting closer, or else it was only his imagination.
+Coming to a clear spot, he crossed it like a deer chased by dogs and
+hunters.
+
+Bang! bang! He was seen, and the sergeant and one of the privates had
+fired. He felt one bullet clip his shoulder, directly over the spot
+where he had been wounded before. It was agony to think of this. What
+if he had to suffer the awful pain of being shot again? He was almost
+tempted to give up.
+
+But before he could reach such a conclusion he was safe among the trees
+again. He was now descending into a hollow, thick with undergrowth, and
+here it was as dark as though the time was midnight instead of eight
+o’clock of a summer evening.
+
+At the bottom of the hollow he paused, and at a spring that was handy,
+procured a drink. On the opposite side of the hollow was another
+clearing. Should he attempt to cross it at once, or wait until a
+more favorable opportunity presented itself? While he pondered the
+situation, the voices of the three soldiers broke upon his ear.
+
+“See anything of him, sergeant?”
+
+“No, Fosdick, do you?”
+
+“Nary a hair.”
+
+“How about it, Cramer?”
+
+“He came down into the hollow, I’m sure of it,” replied the third
+soldier. “But I guess he’s up the other side now.”
+
+“We’ll go around and see.”
+
+The trio moved off, one to one side, the remaining two to the other.
+Andy, fairly holding his breath, crouched low behind a bush overhanging
+the spring. What if they should surround him and call upon him to give
+himself up.
+
+“I’ll sell my life as dearly as I can,” he thought, and drew forth
+the silver-mounted pistol Viola Lemming had given him. It was a
+six-barrelled affair, in those days something quite up to date, and
+every barrel was loaded. With great caution he raised the hammer.
+
+An anxious ten minutes passed. The men had gone beyond sight and
+hearing, and he was beginning to think they would not return, when he
+again heard the voice of the sergeant.
+
+“Fosdick! Cramer! Where are you?” was the cry. “Confound the luck,
+where can that young fellow be? I’ll take a look into the hollow on my
+own account.” And the sergeant began to descend.
+
+He was almost upon the young Confederate when Andy thought it time to
+act. Leaping to his feet with marvelous swiftness, he thrust his pistol
+into the sergeant’s face.
+
+“Throw down your gun, quick!” he commanded, in a whisper. “Down--or I
+fire!”
+
+The words and the flash of the silver-mounted pistol took the Union
+soldier by surprise and he started back with lowered gun. Then Andy
+sprang upon him, and with a shove and a twist of the foot sent the
+dumpy figure headfirst into the spring.
+
+“Wough!” came in a splutter from the sergeant, but the youth did not
+hear him. With nimble steps he made his way up the hollow’s side, and
+once more began the race for the river bank.
+
+Andy now felt that he must be alert for the enemy in front as well
+as behind, for the two soldiers not having come back, must have gone
+forward. He strained his eyes to their utmost and clutched his pistol
+tighter. A half-articulated prayer for deliverance arose to his lips.
+Oh, if only he could get safely into Virginia again!
+
+Presently a welcome sound broke upon his ears. It was the murmur of the
+swollen river, as it rushed over the rocks in the shallows and made
+a bend southward. Soon he parted the final line of brush and saw the
+dancing water before him. Catching the hammer of the pistol in his hat,
+so as to hold the weapon dry, he jammed the headgear down tightly and
+waded into the stream.
+
+He advanced with extreme caution, knowing how treacherous the Potomac
+is at certain times of the year, and aware that the whole northern side
+was picketed by Union soldiers, while the southern shore was guarded by
+men of his own stamp. To be shot by one or the other of the military
+guards would be equally unpleasant and, perhaps, equally fatal.
+
+“If I only had some way of letting our men know that I am all right,”
+he thought, as he paused when about one-fourth of the stream had been
+passed. He knew they could not see his uniform in the gloom, and,
+having lost his cavalry hat, he was now wearing one which had formerly
+belonged to Mr. Lemming, and which Mrs. Lemming had kindly given him.
+
+A few steps farther and he suddenly went down almost to his armpits.
+The current now took him off his feet and sent a shiver over him. He
+felt very cold, and realized that he was not yet half as strong as he
+had imagined. But turning back was out of the question, and he struck
+out boldly for the opposite bank, a distance of over a hundred and
+fifty feet.
+
+The middle of the stream had been gained and he was congratulating
+himself on the fine progress made, when suddenly a challenge rang out
+from a point some distance below him.
+
+“Hullo, there, in the river! Who are you?”
+
+“A friend!” cried Andy, but instead of halting, he swam on faster than
+ever.
+
+“If you are a friend, turn in here and give the countersign.”
+
+“I can’t turn in--I’m bound for the other shore,” answered Andy, but
+the last words were so low the picket did not hear them--nor did the
+young Confederate intend that he should.
+
+“Can’t turn in?” queried the guard. “Yes, you can. Come now, or I’ll
+fire.”
+
+“Don’t fire!” yelled back Andy, and then having swam a few more
+strokes he clutched his pistol and dove out of sight.
+
+He was none too soon, for feeling he was being duped, the Union picket
+brought his gun into range and pulled the trigger. From under the
+surface of the stream Andy heard a muffled report, but the bullet
+passed wide of its mark.
+
+The young Confederate remained under as long as possible, at the same
+time reaching out with desperate efforts for the southern shore. He
+felt himself carried downward by the current and this in itself tended
+to bring him closer to the picket than ever. At last, unable to hold
+his breath a second longer, he came up and gave a gasp.
+
+The firing of the gun had aroused the picket line for several hundreds
+of feet up and down the river and on both sides. A rush was made on the
+Union side, and the picket was asked to explain matters, which he did
+as well as he could.
+
+“We’ll have him yet,” cried the officer in command. “Bring out the
+flatboat, Carriwell, quick!”
+
+His order was obeyed, and the officer and two men entered. But all
+this had taken time and now Andy was once more where he could touch
+bottom. He looked back and saw the boat put out.
+
+“Save me, brother Confederates!” he cried. “Save me! Shoot the Yankees!”
+
+“We will!” came an answer from almost in front of him, and then two
+guns spoke up spitefully. A groan came from the flatboat, which was
+immediately turned back. The pursuit was over. Several shots were
+fired, but in the gloom they went wild, and then the shooting came to
+an end.
+
+Not until it was all over did Andy fully realize what a tremendous
+strain he had been under. He waded out of the water and up the muddy
+bank, to find himself confronted by half a dozen anxious men in gray.
+
+“What does this mean? Who are you?” demanded one of the number.
+
+“I am a Confederate, like yourselves. I have been a prisoner and I just
+escaped,” answered Andy. “My name is Andy Arlington, and I belong to
+the Montgomery Grays, cavalry, of Lee Run. If some of you will help--”
+
+He could get no further. Everything danced before his eyes, trees,
+soldiers, and guns, and he fell back into a pair of outstretched arms,
+utterly exhausted.
+
+“A brave youngster, I’ll wager a fortune,” was the comment of the
+Confederate who held him. “Come, men, let us take him to camp and do
+the best we can for him.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                         ANDY GOES TO YORKTOWN
+
+
+When Andy came to his senses, he found himself lying on a cot in a
+farmhouse, quarter of a mile from where he had crossed the Potomac.
+The farmhouse was being used as a rebel headquarters, and half a dozen
+Confederate officers were present, making out various reports and
+attending to other duties of a military nature.
+
+As soon as he felt strong enough, he told his story in detail, to which
+those present listened with lively interest. An officer knew of the
+advance to Ball’s Bluff of the Montgomery Grays and what the youth had
+to say was readily believed.
+
+“I suppose you would like to go home as soon as possible,” said one
+of the officers. “We are going to send some army wagons southward
+to-morrow, and one of them can go down by the Lee Run road and you can
+ride with the teamster, if you wish.”
+
+Andy gladly accepted the offer, and six o’clock in the morning
+found him homeward bound at the rate of four miles an hour, for the
+canvas-covered vehicle was loaded to the ash bows and the recent rains
+had rendered the roads almost impassable. Ordinarily the time would
+have dragged heavily, but the teamster was a jolly fellow, full of
+jokes and war stories, and he made Andy forget his troubles in spite of
+himself. They had their army rations with them and only stopped long
+enough to feed the horses. The teamster intimated several times that
+they might stop at a roadhouse, “to become better acquainted,” but as
+neither he nor Andy had money to spend this was not done.
+
+Andy’s heart beat quickly as they approached the familiar surroundings
+of Lee Run. What a long while it seemed since he had gone away! He
+wondered how his father and the rest of the family were.
+
+“Andy, my son! God be praised!” came from the stoop of the country
+store, and the next minute the young soldier was in his mother’s arms,
+while Grace was bobbing around, this side and that, looking for a
+chance to get at him.
+
+“You have been shot and a prisoner!” gasped Grace. “Oh, Andy!”
+
+“We thought you had been killed,” said the mother, with her eyes full
+of tears. “Captain Montgomery sent us word of how you had gone over the
+bluff while on horseback, and when Firefly came back alone--”
+
+“Firefly!” burst out Andy, his face beaming more brightly than ever.
+“Is he really back?”
+
+“Why, yes, he came back the next day. A man caught him who knew him and
+turned him over to Captain Montgomery. He is at home in the stable now.”
+
+“I’m awfully glad, mother. I was afraid I would never see the dear old
+fellow again. And how is father?”
+
+“As well as he can be expected. The war has upset him completely, and
+he cannot settle down to work as he used to do. But how pale and thin
+you are!”
+
+“He’s only a ghost of himself,” added Grace. “But never mind, Andy,”
+she went on, warmly, “we’ll fatten you up again, and make you strong,
+and I’m proud to know what a hero I have for a brother!” and then he
+gave her such a hug and a kiss as only Andy could give--he was so
+whole-souled in everything he did.
+
+Mrs. Arlington and Grace had been down to the store to do some trading
+and to hear the latest news from the seat of war. Around Washington,
+as we know, all was quiet, but in the west, especially in Missouri,
+matters were getting livelier every day. The news from this district
+did not arrive until three or four days old, there being no telegraph
+lines in use south of Cairo, but when it did come, how eagerly every
+line was perused, and what a running fire of comment ensued!
+
+Soon the three were on their way to the dairy farm. As the old horse
+jogged along over the stony road, Andy related the particulars of his
+experience at Ball’s Bluff.
+
+“I don’t mind telling you that I was scared,” he said to mother and
+sister, frankly, “but I wouldn’t have let the enemy know that for the
+world!”
+
+“You’re your father over again,” said Mrs. Arlington, with a smile.
+“He was captured by the Mexicans at the time he was wounded, and they
+took off his leg very roughly, but he never winced--so some other
+soldiers told me.”
+
+“Oh, I hope Andy never loses a leg,” cried Grace.
+
+“If I do I’ll try to be as heroic as father was,” said the youth,
+gravely.
+
+Mr. Arlington was as well pleased as the others had been to see his son
+once more. “I was afraid you had been shot and your body had drifted
+down into Chesapeake Bay,” he said, as he took both of Andy’s hands.
+“Tell me all about it,” and again the tale was told, the others as
+eager to hear as though not a word had been said before.
+
+Christmas came and went and by that time Andy felt as well and strong
+as ever. Sometimes, when the weather was particularly raw, the place
+where the bullet wound had left a scar hurt him, “itched,” he said--a
+feeling plenty of veterans know only too well. But he never complained,
+being fearful it might hinder him from going to the front again.
+
+In the meantime he had written to Captain Montgomery. The Grays were
+in winter quarters several miles back of the bank of the Potomac, and
+an equal distance south of Alexandria. To join them at this time would
+have been useless, and Andy received word that he might stay home and
+“get braced up” until the army moved again in the spring.
+
+Now that he felt able to do so, the youth worked around the dairy
+as before, superintending the women and men and giving his father a
+much-needed holiday. But Andy’s heart was not in the task--it was with
+the Grays. He was impatient to rejoin them.
+
+“A letter fo’ you, Massa Andrew,” said one of the slaves, one day in
+the spring.
+
+Andy took the communication quickly. It was from the army, as the stamp
+in the corner of the envelope showed. He tore it open hastily, then
+rushed off to find his folks.
+
+“I’ve got an order to join our cavalry at once! The Federals are
+getting ready for a move from Washington!” he cried, and then followed
+two hours of hustling, as he arranged his clothing, packed his
+saddlebags and had Firefly groomed his very best. The horse seemed to
+understand the order, too, for his brown eyes brightened and he snorted
+in approval.
+
+“Take care of yourself, my boy,” said the fond mother. “Write as often
+as you can,” added the father. “Don’t let the Yankees catch you again,”
+chimed in Grace, and then all kissed him affectionately and followed
+him out on the verandah. Soon he was in the saddle, and with a last
+wave of the hand he galloped off and was lost to view among the trees.
+
+The day was bright and warm. Andy was in the finest of spirits, so
+was Firefly, and mile after mile was paced off in the charger’s best
+style. At noon Andy stopped at a little tavern at a cross-roads for
+dinner, and here two other cavalrymen joined him, neither belonging to
+the Grays, but both bound southward. For the rest of the day the trio
+remained together, and this made the journey even more pleasant than
+before.
+
+“The Yankees are going to give us a shake-up at Richmond, to my way
+of thinking,” said one of the cavalrymen. “I received a letter from a
+friend who lives down there last week, and he says the authorities are
+certain that Yankee spies are around sizing up the defenses.”
+
+“Well, I reckon we have spies in Washington, too,” said Andy, and in
+this he was right. Long afterwards it was found that a spy occupying
+a confidential government position had given to the Confederates the
+first intimation that the Army of the Potomac was about leaving for
+an attack upon Richmond by way of the peninsula. It was such spy work
+which gave the Confederates time to throw up their defenses at Yorktown
+and elsewhere and thus hold General McClellan’s forces in check until
+further re-enforcements for the Confederate Capital could arrive.
+
+“They won’t gain a thing by another attack out here,” put in the second
+cavalryman. “Why, companies of soldiers and bands of cavalry are
+springing up like mushrooms. We’re bound to wipe ’em out by mere force
+of numbers.”
+
+“That may be true--just now,” returned Andy, seriously. “But what
+worries me is, sooner or later, they’ll be able to put more men in the
+field than ourselves. Why, the northern States have four times as many
+citizens as we have.”
+
+“Yes, but they won’t fight like our boys will, Arlington. We are
+fighting not only for State rights but for our homes. A man can stay at
+home and fight for it better than he can go off and fight.”
+
+“Another thing to remember,” added the other horseman. “They are
+blockading our ports so that we can’t send our cotton to the foreign
+countries that want it. It won’t be long before these foreign countries
+begin to kick, and if we put up our cotton they’ll furnish us with
+both money and men to show the Yankees their places. Cotton is king in
+America, and don’t you forget it.”
+
+And so the talk went on. The remark about cotton was one heard
+everywhere, having even been mentioned in Congress before the Southern
+representatives and senators took leave of the Capitol. Cotton and
+tobacco did play a prominent part in the war, but they were not as
+powerful as some of the Confederate leaders imagined.
+
+On the third day of his journey, Andy reached Camp Lee, as the spot
+where the Grays had gone into quarters was designated, out of honor to
+the illustrious line of Lees that have ever been prominent in Virginia
+chronicles from Revolutionary days on. The first person to rush up and
+shake him by the hand was Leroy Wellington, and Captain Montgomery and
+a dozen others followed.
+
+“By jinks! but I thought you were done for when I saw you fall into the
+Potomac and float down to Harrison Island!” exclaimed Leroy. “You are
+a sight for sore eyes!” and he fairly hugged his friend. Andy had to
+tell his story twice, once to the officers and again to the mess he had
+joined.
+
+The winter quarters of the Grays had been close to the shelter of a
+belt of timber land. Here the cavalrymen had built up houses of logs
+and mud, covered over in many cases with bits of canvas and whatever of
+boards came handy. The floors were strewn with pine brush, some brush,
+covered with rubber cloths, serving also for beds. Some of the houses
+had little ovens built of sun-dried bricks, and two had sheet-iron wood
+stoves. All told, the boys in gray had passed a fairly comfortable
+winter.
+
+“The worst part was when we went out with the pickets,” said Leroy.
+“That week was a corker, and I was detailed up at the top of yonder
+hill, to carry the news back in case there was an alarm. It rained and
+snowed nearly all the time, and one night I was nearly blown away, and
+an old tree came down within ten yards of me and the horse. That was a
+close call, I can tell you, and I didn’t get over it for hours. You can
+thank your stars and bars you were at home in a warm bed.”
+
+The orders to move came that night, at nine o’clock. “Roll call at five
+o’clock, boys; half an hour for breakfast, and the column moves at six
+sharp. Heavy marching orders. We are not coming back, but the general’s
+order is not to carry any more than necessary.”
+
+“Heavy marching order, but don’t carry more than what is necessary,”
+mused Andy. “That looks as if we were going to get along as fast as
+possible. Where are we going, Bosdell?”
+
+“Don’t know, but I heard something said about crossing the
+Rappahannock. My opinion is the Yankees are going to leave Washington
+by boat and land at Urbanna, and then try to march overland to
+Richmond.”
+
+“We can get to Urbanna in one day, if we ride hard,” said Leroy. “But
+can enough of our troops get there?”
+
+“We might stop them at the York River,” said Andy, “that is, if we
+could hurry and steal a march around their right flank.”
+
+History has shown how near Bosdell’s guess was to being right. One of
+the first plans of the campaign was to land at Urbanna, situated some
+fifty miles above Fortress Monroe, but delays and military operations
+in the interior of Virginia made a change necessary, and the Union
+forces went down to the end of the peninsula, as previously described.
+
+By five o’clock in the morning the camp was astir. The cavalrymen
+were having their horses and trappings looked after, the artillerymen
+were testing wheels, carriages, and harnesses, everybody was packing
+knapsacks and saddlebags and rolling up blankets. The day was foggy and
+cold, more than half the soldiers were out of humor, and grumblings
+were frequent. It was, “Where’s that strap?” “Who took my cake of
+soap?” “Did you see anything of my gun?” “Have I got to leave this
+folding chair behind, or can I tote it along?” “Have we got to move
+before the mail comes in?” Then came the call to fall in for breakfast;
+hot coffee, really fresh bread, and some fresh meat and beans were
+served out, and everyone felt better. It was the best meal Andy saw
+for many a weary day. The news had spread throughout the district that
+the “sodgers” were to move, and crowds came down to see them off,
+many bringing with them some dainties, in the shape of chicken, jam,
+hoecakes, and the like.
+
+Promptly at six o’clock the bugles sounded, and the head of the column
+moved off. First came the advance guard, then the pioneers--men with
+heavy axes to clear the way--then a detachment of cavalry, and then the
+regular troops. After the troops and artillery came a small detachment
+of cavalry, detailed to “whip up” the stragglers, who, if they would
+not obey orders to “march on, and get where you belong,” were pitched
+into one of the guard wagons which followed for such purposes. Last
+of all came the wagon train, covered by another band of cavalry and
+by a small battery. On each side of this long column moved a line of
+skirmishers, keeping from two to five hundred feet from the road, to
+prevent any possible surprise from the right or the left, although,
+just then, no surprise was anticipated.
+
+By a quarter to seven the Montgomery Grays fell into their proper
+place, and then ensued a long march lasting until nightfall, with half
+an hour’s rest at one o’clock for dinner. Three days’ rations had
+been served out to be eaten directly from the knapsack, with possibly
+a chance to kindle a brush fire and heat some coffee. The food was
+hardtack, coffee, pork and beans, nothing else. Regular army fare had
+again begun.
+
+On the following day, in the middle of the afternoon, it began to
+rain. At first many thought it would be but a shower, but by the time
+a camp was selected, it was pouring down in torrents. The Grays found
+themselves booked for an eighth section of an open field, a portion of
+which had already been ploughed for spring planting.
+
+“Here’s a picnic!” grumbled Leroy, as he dismounted, to find himself in
+water several inches deep. “How under the sun are we to pitch tents out
+here?”
+
+“We are not going to do it under the sun, Leroy; we’re going to do it
+under the dripping clouds. Come on, pitch in. Ask Groman for a spade
+and we’ll soon have a trench dug in which the water can run off.”
+
+Leroy went off, and Andy took charge of his horse. By the time he had
+seen that animal and Firefly cared for, Leroy was back and digging a
+trench about six inches deep. He cut it in the form of a square just a
+trifle larger than what the tent would cover. The others of the mess
+had gone foraging for tent poles. These were easily procured, and
+fifteen minutes later the canvas was up. It shed the rain into the
+trenches, and soon the water inside also found its way down into the
+hollow, and then the ground became fairly dry. But a night there, even
+with a rubber cloth and blankets, was far from home-like, and many a
+poor chap caught his death of cold. Andy was glad when morning came and
+the sun shone brightly through the flying clouds.
+
+Four days later found the Montgomery Grays detached from the main
+body of the troops and on their way to Yorktown. Everything was bustle
+and excitement, and the youth felt that something was up. Soon the
+news came that the Union troops had landed at Fortress Monroe and were
+on their way up the peninsula. By the time Yorktown was reached the
+Confederates there had already thrown up a long line of breastworks
+which practically extended across the whole peninsula.
+
+On the second day in camp on the outskirts of Yorktown, Captain
+Montgomery came to Andy with a folded paper.
+
+“Arlington, here is an order I wish carried to General Magruder or
+his representative in the field. The orderlies are all away on other
+business. You will find Magruder’s command somewhere near Lee’s Mill.
+Make the most of your time,” and off Captain Montgomery dashed again.
+
+Without losing a moment Andy placed the folded paper in his pocket and
+urged Firefly down the muddy road leading along the rear line of the
+Confederate forces. His progress was soon barred by a breakdown on the
+highway and he was compelled to make a détour through a woods. Thinking
+sooner to gain the point he was seeking, he kept on along the woods
+until he reached a small clearing, not far from the Warwick River and
+at a point known as Garrow’s Chimneys, because of three tall, burnt-out
+chimneys standing there. Just below him were located a long line of
+rifle pits belonging to the Confederate troops.
+
+As he approached the spot, half a dozen rifle shots sounded out from
+the river, and then came the sudden booming of a cannon.
+
+“The Yankees are fording the river!” was the cry. “They are just below
+Dam No. 1. They are going to break through the line if they can! We’re
+going to have hot work now!”
+
+The remainder of the talk was cut short by a volley from the Warwick.
+The Union troops were coming true enough. Unable to restrain his
+curiosity, Andy rode forward to where a slight hill overlooked the
+stream. Hardly had he shown himself, when spat! a minie ball hit the
+tree beside him and clipped off a bit of bark. The young Confederate
+lost no time in returning to cover.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                       THE EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN
+
+
+Having found the enemy strongly entrenched at, or rather before,
+Yorktown, General McClellan determined to lay siege to the place, and
+in the meantime endeavor to obtain more troops, so that when the proper
+time arrived he could make a grand assault all along the line, drive
+the enemy from its position and perhaps scatter it and thus open an
+easy way to Richmond. It was at one time thought that the great battle
+of the peninsula campaign would be fought here, but affairs proved
+otherwise.
+
+But the Union soldiers did not lie quietly on their arms. Skirmishes
+took place almost daily, first at one spot and then at another, and
+presently General William F. Smith was ordered by McClellan to “feel”
+the enemy at Garrow’s Chimneys, which was directly opposite to the
+Confederate reserve force under General Smith. A Vermont regiment made
+the attack, and soon silenced the Confederate battery, and the officers
+in command made an extensive examination of the ground, which, however,
+later on proved valueless, for the information was not used. It was
+this skirmish which Andy witnessed. In the excitement he almost forgot
+about the order he was carrying, and when it was delivered and he
+returned to camp he was roundly censured for his neglect.
+
+“Never delay while on military duty, my lad,” said Captain Montgomery.
+“A delay may prove fatal to the best laid plan.” Andy never forgot
+those words.
+
+The young Confederate wondered during the days which followed if
+Louis was within the lines of the enemy. He would have been somewhat
+surprised had he known that his former chum was less than a mile away;
+yet such was the fact, and it was not to be long ere the two should
+meet again, and under very trying circumstances to each.
+
+Louis’s time at the picket line had expired, the regiment to which the
+Goreville Volunteers belonged had given place to another, and now the
+boys were back in their regular quarters, on the edge of a dense woods.
+Louis had tried to learn what had become of Caleb Fox, the spy, but not
+a word could be gotten out of those in command. The answer to this was
+very simple, although the boy could not guess it. Caleb Fox had escaped.
+
+The Confederate spy had taken a desperate chance, considered in one
+way, although not so desperate when considered in another. He had taken
+his life in his hands by stabbing one guard in the breast with an
+eating knife and hitting another with a rock, and he had been fired at
+four times before he could gain the shelter of a woods. But all this
+was done with the knowledge that if he did not get away he would sooner
+or later be hanged for a spy.
+
+“Might ez well die now ez later,” was the way he had argued, and had
+sped as never before. Once in the woods he drew a deep sigh of relief.
+They were thick and dark and would afford him ample shelter until an
+extra black night would make it fairly easy to regain the Confederate
+lines. He made up his mind that no picket should spot him again.
+
+“An’ ez fer that boy ez collared me before, let him look out fer
+himself, thet’s all!” he fairly hissed, between his snaggy, yellow
+teeth. He was not likely to forget Louis.
+
+The weather now was worse than had been expected. Nearly every other
+day it rained, and the camp was something fearful to contemplate, cut
+up as it was by the feet of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of
+horses. Louis and his mess had carpeted their tent with brush thickly
+matted together and filled in with chips, but still it was damp and
+unwholesome. The hospital tent soon overflowed with typhus and typhoid
+fever cases. The siege was doing more harm by sickness than it was by
+bullet and shell.
+
+“Your turn to gather firewood,” announced Moses Blackwell one
+afternoon, after inspection drill. “Get a good supply, Louis, and we’ll
+try to dry the air in the tent somehow.”
+
+“I’ll get all I can bundle and carry,” answered the young soldier, and
+started off, axe and strap in hand. All the small brush had been cut
+down long before, and not wishing to tackle a big tree he had to walk a
+good way into the timber before he reached something of the size he had
+in mind to cut down.
+
+He was just about to start work near the edge of a ravine when the
+sounds of two voices broke upon his ear. He listened intently.
+
+“What’s the news, Yank?”
+
+“Ain’t much, Reb. What’s the news your way?”
+
+“General Johnson has just come down with a hundred thousand men to wipe
+you out.”
+
+“A hundred thousand, eh? Any of the little boys left to hum to mind the
+baby?”
+
+“It’s a fact. What’s Little Mac doing, going to sleep?”
+
+“No, he’s thinking where he’s going to bury you rebs when the next
+fight is over.”
+
+Then came a brief silence. Louis had listened to the talk with a
+smile. He knew the pickets on both sides sometimes became friendly
+and arranged not to shoot at each other. Sometimes they even made an
+exchange of some kind. Soon the talk was resumed.
+
+“Grayback, got any terbacker?”
+
+“A half plug.”
+
+“What will you take for it?”
+
+“What will yer give?”
+
+“A canteen of fresh coffee.”
+
+“I’ll take yer up, ’though I know the coffee’s more’n half chicory.”
+
+“Better coffee nor you’ll ever git over there, Grayback.”
+
+A rustle through the brush and grass followed, and peering forth from
+the trees Louis saw the Union and the Confederate soldiers meet in the
+hollow and exchange goods. Then each hurried back to his post. A second
+later the Confederate sang out:
+
+“Corporal’s coming, Yank; look out fer yourself,” meaning that the
+truce was, for the time being, at an end, and that shooting on sight
+was now the order of the day. After that both pickets remained securely
+hidden.
+
+Louis was particularly fortunate in getting some dry brushwood, and
+that night the boys of the mess sat around the camp fire in a more
+comfortable frame of mind than usual.
+
+“Mail! Letters!” was the cry, at a late hour. The sacks had come in by
+way of Fortress Monroe, and soon Louis had two letters from home, both
+of which he perused eagerly. He learned that his father was better and
+around as usual. Agents of the government had called, trying to buy
+beef, but, so far, none of the cows had been sold.
+
+“I have had one thing to worry me considerably,” wrote Mr. Rockford.
+“If you will remember, when I purchased this place, a party named Faily
+had an interest in it. There has appeared a man named Samuel Hammer who
+now claims that the Faily interest was really his--that Faily sold out
+to him. This Hammer threatens to make trouble for me unless I buy him
+off. I am now doing my best to locate Theodore Faily, to get him to
+explain, or make a settlement which will clear me, but so far I can get
+no trace of him. One man told me Faily had moved south, but could not
+say where to. Hammer wants me to pay him three thousand dollars. If I
+have to do that in these times it will almost ruin me.”
+
+Louis was very sober after reading this communication. He could well
+understand how worried the folks at home must be. He drew a long sigh
+as he put the letter away.
+
+“Poor father!” he murmured. “I hope he finds Theodore Faily and gets
+the matter straightened out without further trouble. Three thousand
+dollars would be a terribly big sum to pay out in these war times.
+I suppose they are all about worried to death over this.” That very
+night before retiring, he wrote a long letter in return, telling of the
+various things that had happened to him.
+
+The next day was Sunday, cloudy but without rain. The day was kept,
+as nearly as possible, as a day of rest. At ten in the morning came
+inspection drill, when the regimental commanders inspected the arms and
+accoutrements. The drill over, the chaplain held divine service, which
+all the Goreville Volunteers attended as regularly as they could. Then
+came a late dinner, after which the men did as they pleased. Some would
+talk and walk around, some sat and read, and others would mend their
+clothing. Some would try to play cards, but this was frowned down.
+There was also a good deal less of drinking on the Lord’s day than on
+any other.
+
+This Sunday turned off cold towards night, and Louis was glad enough
+when tattoo sounded that he was not out on picket duty, but could go to
+sleep in his tent, close to the blazing fire.
+
+“A dent don’t vos so goot as a house,” was the way in which Hans
+Roddmann expressed himself, “but it vos besser as noddings den dimes
+ofer!”
+
+“I think they might put up some sheds, at least,” grumbled Jerry Rowe,
+“seeing as how we seem to be booked to stay here all summer.”
+
+“You’d like carpet on the floor, too, wouldn’t you, Jerry?” laughed
+Callings. “Never mind--we won’t stay here long, mark my word.”
+
+Callings was right, they were not to stay there much longer. General
+McClellan had laid his plans for the siege too well. Every battery was
+in position, the line of defense or attack perfect, and there must come
+a “break” ere long.
+
+It did come, but so silently that the Union troops did not know of it
+until some time later. Knowing the strength of the enemy, and having
+kept him at bay for exactly a month, and thus given themselves time
+to be handsomely re-enforced in the neighborhood of Richmond, the
+Confederate forces abandoned Yorktown and drew back up the peninsula
+through Williamsburg.
+
+It was on Sunday, May 4th, 1862, that General McClellan and his vast
+army entered Yorktown and planted the Stars and Stripes upon every
+breastwork and upon every public building. Bands of music played and
+cheer after cheer rent the air. But not for long. The Confederates must
+be pursued, they must not be allowed to escape so easily. At once all
+of the cavalry and horse artillery were sent in pursuit. It was learned
+that the Confederates had from six to ten hours’ start of their eager
+pursuers.
+
+“They’re whipped! they’re whipped!” yelled Jerry Rowe, as he marched
+into Yorktown with the others of the volunteers. “I knew they wouldn’t
+dare to show fight.”
+
+“Look out, there comes a rebel!” shouted Moses Blackwell, in seeming
+earnestness. He took a hasty step aside, and Jerry ran like mad for the
+nearest cover. A laugh went up, and the bragging youth did not appear
+again until the regiment got orders to start for Williamsburg on the
+double-quick.
+
+As usual it was wet--foggy one hour and raining the next, far from an
+ideal battle day--but this was not ideal, this was real, and so thought
+Louis as they plunged along over the road swimming in mud--a peculiar,
+sticky soil, which at times clung to one’s feet like so much glue.
+The artillery that had gone on ahead was having a fearful time, with
+horses up to their bodies in the road, cannon nearly out of sight, and
+teamsters frantic, yelling, cursing, whipping, and then falling back in
+dumb despair, until extra horses came up to pull all out of the rut. It
+was as if “the bottom had dropped out of everything,” as Harry Bingham
+put it.
+
+“One consolation, though,” said Nathan Hornsby. “The rebs ain’t got no
+better road.”
+
+“They are ploughing it up for us to wade through,” grumbled Blackwell.
+“Hang me if I don’t hope we have an engagement soon.”
+
+His wish was fulfilled. The Confederates had gone on to where the road
+from Yorktown joined another running from Lee’s Mill. Here at the fork
+they had erected a bastioned earth-work, flanked north and south by
+redoubts, running to the swamps on each side of the dry (or rather,
+supposed to be dry) ground. A large force was collected behind this
+shelter, and the cavalry in advance of the Union infantry received
+a severe fire, which reached plainly to the ears of the Goreville
+Volunteers.
+
+“Hurrah! we’re going to have some warm work at last!” cried Harry
+Bingham.
+
+It was General Smith’s division, with the gallant Hancock’s brigade
+in advance, which met the Confederates first, late in the afternoon. A
+charge was at once ordered, but the woods through which the soldiers
+sought to make their way was so thick but little progress could be made.
+
+The Goreville Volunteers rested that night upon their arms, ready at a
+moment’s notice to jump into battle should the call come. But General
+Smith’s division having fallen back a short distance, also took it easy
+in the darkness, and all remained, for the time being, comparatively
+quiet. In the meantime, large reinforcements of the remaining Union
+troops arrived.
+
+The following day the battle of Williamsburg started. The rain came
+down in a steady stream; it was so muddy and slippery men could
+scarcely stand upon their feet, as they moved forward, while only one
+battery in three could move at a time, so many extra horses being
+required for each piece. First shots were exchanged at half-past seven
+o’clock, and half an hour later the Goreville Volunteers moved forward
+in light marching order, each soldier furnished with forty rounds of
+ammunition.
+
+Once more Louis’s heart beat fast. He felt he was going into a bloody
+contest, such as had been experienced at Bull Run. He gripped his gun
+tightly, and advanced with the others on the double-quick. They were
+forcing their way through a thick patch of brush, but now they came
+upon a small clearing. Directly opposite was a Confederate battery,
+backed up by one or two regiments of militia and a troop of cavalry.
+
+“Boys, we must take that battery!” cried the general in charge, as he
+galloped along the line. “Forward now, and keep the line closed up!”
+
+Scarcely had the order been given than the battery in question blazed
+forth, seemingly in their very faces. Every man dropped, and the aims
+of the gunners being unusually high, the grape and canister flew above
+them, clipping the brush off cleaner than it would have been cut by a
+monstrous scythe.
+
+There was a yell--from Jerry Rowe, who felt sure he was hit--and
+then the company moved forward, each gun pointed straight ahead, the
+rain running in streams from the row of glistening bayonets. It was a
+strange, thrilling sight, as that solid mass of boys in blue came on.
+Nearer and nearer they swept, and now the battle cry rang out, growing
+louder and louder, a strong, determined cry, from men who meant to do
+or die.
+
+Again the battery belched forth, and now the aim was true and half a
+score of soldiers went down, some dead, some dying, a few slightly
+wounded. For a second the terrific shock caused a pause. Then Jerry
+Rowe tried to take to his heels.
+
+“Close up, boys, close up! Forward!” came the command, and the ranks of
+the regiment closed up the gaps made by those shot down, and again they
+moved forward on the double-quick. Jerry suddenly found himself running
+straight into the point of an extended sword.
+
+“You coward, go forward!” came the command, and worse scared than ever,
+Jerry turned again, but took good care not to get anywhere near the
+front line.
+
+Fearful of the onslaught, the Confederate battery now ceased its fire
+and allowed the cavalry and infantry to come forward. There was a
+thunder of hoofs in the wet grass and the Goreville Volunteers found
+themselves face to face with a band of cavalry numbering at least sixty
+men. One glance showed Louis that they were not the Montgomery Grays,
+then he felt a saber swish over his head and his cap was taken off and
+half cut in two. Bang! went his gun, and the man who had attacked him
+toppled over, shot in the sword arm.
+
+The dash of the Confederate cavalry was a resolute one and for the
+minute it looked as if the Goreville Volunteers would be annihilated.
+But they stood firm, another regiment close by poured in their earnest
+fire upon the figures in the saddle, and slowly the Confederates
+were driven back, only, however, to make place for the long line of
+gray-coated infantry.
+
+“Forward again!” shouted the Union general in command, and again they
+went on, within fifty feet of the guns they had set out to capture. The
+firing was incessant and the bullets whistled in every direction. Louis
+could scarcely stand and went down once on both knees in the mud, while
+Hornsby pitched over him on his own broad back. But both were up in a
+jiffy, before the Confederates around them could pin them down with
+their bayonets. The smoke of battle, added to the rain and mist, was
+speedily cutting off the view upon all sides, and the battery they had
+started to capture was no longer in view. Although they did not know
+it until some time later, the enemy had taken time by the forelock and
+removed it to a safer position.
+
+The third charge of their regiment was the fiercest of all, and Louis
+was almost taken off his feet by the rush. He was caught between half
+a dozen struggling soldiers, some friends, some enemies, and tried
+in vain to get out of the scrimmage. Then a bayonet flashed before
+his face, the Union soldier just beside him was pierced through the
+shoulder, and the crowd opened and he ran forth to join the advancing
+line.
+
+“Look out! Drop!” somebody shouted. Louis tried to obey. Before he
+could do so, a bellowing roar sounded just ahead, something rushed
+directly past his face, and he felt his breath leave his body. He tried
+to get back his wind, but it seemed impossible, and off he dashed
+wildly, like one choking, until, falling over a mass of brush, he went
+headlong, and for the time being knew no more.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+                     AT THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG
+
+
+All of the Confederates, upon withdrawing from Yorktown, did not go up
+the peninsula towards Richmond. Many of them took to the York River,
+and following this and the Pamunkey River, landed at White House,
+already a place of considerable importance to them, and fortified it
+for an attack.
+
+Nor did all of the Union troops under General McClellan engage in the
+battle at Williamsburg. Many of the soldiers remained on the river,
+in transports, and these, afterwards sailing up the York, fought the
+battle of West Point, Virginia, and assisted in rendering White House
+the Union base of supplies.
+
+Taken as a whole, the battle of Williamsburg was rather a mixed-up
+although stubbornly fought contest. Through a confusion of orders,
+nearly every general fought as he thought best. At the main road,
+Hooker’s division, aided by a few other troops, soon silenced the
+Confederate guns of Fort Magruder, and the impetuous General Kearney,
+coming to his aid when he was almost exhausted, made a glorious dash
+and secured the rifle pits, thus causing a retreat.
+
+While this was going on, it was reported that another spot along
+the line of Confederate defenses seemed to be weak. The place was
+one called Cub Dam Creek, and General Hancock, with his own and
+additional troops, was sent forward to cross the stream and secure the
+strongholds on the other side. With Hancock was a Lieutenant Custer,
+the same who in later years became General Custer, the great Indian
+fighter of the West. There was nothing but a narrow bridge over the
+mill stream, but Custer led his band of soldiers over this, a foothold
+was secured under a most galling fire, and at last Hancock was able
+to report the stronghold taken. Soon after this he advanced again and
+was warmly received by the Confederate Generals Hill and Early. A
+hard fight followed, and Early and many other officers were wounded,
+and many soldiers were killed upon both sides. At first it looked as
+if the Southerners would be victorious, but at last they were forced
+to withdraw to a distance. Here they rested on their arms all night,
+during a cold, pitiless rain, which gave many a Union and Confederate
+soldier his death of sickness--a rain that increased the sufferings of
+the wounded tenfold.
+
+But of all this Louis knew nothing. As he rushed away from the scene
+of carnage his mind was a total blank. He could not get his breath,
+everything was black before his eyes, and he felt as though the end
+of the world had come, so far as he was concerned. He felt himself go
+down in the wet, and there he lay, not unconscious, but unable to move,
+unable to think, with a roaring in his ears, a flash of lights before
+his eyes, and a pain in his lungs which no pen could describe. What had
+happened to him?
+
+The answer is very simple. A cannon ball had rushed close past his
+mouth just at the second of time when his lungs were heaving out air.
+The vacuum thus caused had drawn forth more air than was healthful--in
+other words, had collapsed his breathing apparatus and left him
+almost powerless. If my young reader wants something of the sensation
+experienced by Louis let him blow out all the breath he can from his
+lungs and then stand without air for half a minute, or more--if he can.
+
+Slowly and painfully he came to a realization of his condition. His
+head now ached as it had never ached before, and there was a pain like
+that of a cutting knife in his chest every time he drew his breath.
+With a groan he could not suppress he sat up and tried to look about
+him.
+
+The effort was a failure. On all sides was darkness, while the rain,
+splashing down upon his bared head, formed a good-sized pool at his
+feet. He scooped up some of the water in the hollow of his hand and
+drank it.
+
+“I don’t seem to be shot,” he thought, as he felt himself all over,
+“and yet what a queer sensation that was when the cannon went off! I
+believe it took away my wind, and that’s all.”
+
+It was some time before he felt strong enough to stand up, and even
+then he was decidedly shaky. Slowly and painfully he limped to the
+shelter of a clump of trees.
+
+A groan startled him. It was followed by another, and then another.
+He walked to the other side of the tree and saw three soldiers lying
+there, two Confederates and one Union man. All were badly wounded, and
+were huddling together in their misery.
+
+The sight made Louis more downhearted than ever, especially as he
+could do but little for any of the trio. One of the Confederates asked
+to be propped up against a tree and Louis made him as comfortable as
+possible. The other simply glared wildly at the youth.
+
+“Don’t yer tech me,” he growled, with a strong mountainous accent.
+“You-uns is responsible fer this--may the Old Nick himself burn yer
+all!” and he turned his begrimed and muddy face away, that his enemy
+might not see all he was suffering.
+
+“If you’ll please bind up my head,” sighed the Union victim, a New
+Jersey boy who had been fighting under Kearney for hours. “A fellow
+clubbed me badly with his musket stock.” The head was bound up with two
+handkerchiefs tied together, and the New Jersey soldier said it was a
+great relief.
+
+“If I can find any help I’ll try to get you to the hospital,” said
+Louis, as he moved away. “I’m suffering myself, but I’m not half as
+badly off as you three are.”
+
+He had scarcely spoken when there came a flare of torches, and six
+rough-looking men burst into view from the brush back of the trees. At
+first Louis wondered who they were, but was not kept long in doubt as
+to the identity of two of the number.
+
+“Ha! so we meet again!” came a hoarse chuckle, and in another moment
+Caleb Fox was beside the Union lad. “I was jess wishin’ I could run
+across yer, hang me ef I wasn’t!” And rushing up he caught Louis
+strongly by the collar.
+
+“Who is he?” asked a stranger in the crowd.
+
+“Ef it ain’t thet Rockford fellow,” came from another, and Louis now
+recognized Sam Jacks. “Don’t let him git away, Caleb. We have too many
+scores ter settle.”
+
+“He ain’t gitting away, don’t ye fear,” growled Caleb Fox. “Fer two
+pins I’d run him through with my bayonet!”
+
+“Let me alone!” cried Louis, and endeavored to break away, but he was
+no match for the crowd, that speedily pounced upon him and beat him
+mercilessly until he was glad enough to remain quiet.
+
+From the start Louis had suspected what the mission of the men was.
+The whole crowd were battlefield thieves, and now without ceremony
+they proceeded to rob the Union and the two Confederate soldiers, who
+were helpless, of all they possessed that was in the least valuable.
+Two watches, some silver, and twenty-four dollars in United States and
+Confederate scrip rewarded their heinous work, and then they were ready
+to withdraw, threatening to come back and kill the victims if they made
+any outcry over what had been accomplished.
+
+“An’ now you march along, an’ be quick!” growled Caleb Fox to Louis,
+and Sam Jacks caught the lad by the opposite arm and gave him a violent
+shove. The men were heavily armed and in an ugly temper, and not daring
+to oppose them just then, Louis did as directed.
+
+The sextet of rascals had evidently been out on their marauding
+expedition for some time, for their pockets were overflowing with
+booty--watches, rings, pocket-knives, money, and a miscellaneous
+collection of other articles.
+
+“Old Hooked-nose ought to pony up handsomely fer this lot,” remarked
+one of the men, as they pushed ahead, towards the Confederate lines. He
+referred to a certain unscrupulous Jew in Richmond who was not above
+buying stolen goods, whether taken from Union or Confederate soldiers.
+
+“Wot’s the boy got with him?” asked another of the crowd, and all
+halted, while Louis’s pockets were searched and emptied. As a protest
+would have been followed only by abuse, Louis said nothing to this,
+although, as he afterwards remarked, “he did a powerful lot of
+thinking.”
+
+A quarter of an hour’s walking brought all to a hollow beside a small
+stream. Here, close to a shelving bank, was situated a narrow dugout,
+sheltered in front by an overshot of rough boards. Before the dugout a
+bright fire was burning, and two elderly men were cooking coffee and a
+pot of beans and bacon.
+
+“Wot in thunder did yer want ter bring thet kid here for?” demanded one
+of the campers. “We don’t want no outsiders here, yer know thet well
+enough, don’t ye?”
+
+“He’s a special,” grinned Caleb Fox. “Me an’ Sam Jacks is got an
+account ter settle with him. Ain’t no use fer to alarm yerself--he’ll
+never squeal on nobody.” By which he probably meant that Louis should
+never leave that camp alive.
+
+The young Union soldier could not help but shudder at the words. He was
+not among the regular enemy, he was among a band of thieves, and worse.
+He made up his mind to break for liberty at the first opportunity which
+presented itself, even if he had to run the risk of being shot in so
+doing.
+
+It is likely Sam Jacks guessed what was passing in his mind, for he
+called to Caleb Fox to get a rope and bind the “mud-sill” securely. The
+rope was soon forthcoming and Louis was made a close prisoner, being
+tied up in a manner similar to that he had experienced at the deserted
+mill near Deems.
+
+“I’ll settle with you jess as soon as we’ve had a mouthful ter eat,”
+remarked Fox, and Sam Jacks nodded approvingly. Both walked towards the
+fire, leaving the young soldier alone inside of the dugout.
+
+From the position he occupied Louis could see but little of what was
+going on around the camp fire. The most frequent words which reached
+his ears were ones requesting that the flask be passed this way or
+that, indicating that the party was doing more drinking than eating,
+and that the liquid refreshments did not come entirely from the coffee
+pot.
+
+As his captors ate and drank, the young soldier worked bravely at
+his bonds, but as when similarly situated, he was unable to release
+himself. At last he gave himself up to whatever might come, silently
+praying to God that he might be delivered in safety from his enemies.
+A quarter of an hour had passed, and the eight men still hung under
+the overshot roofing of the dugout when several rifle shots rang out a
+short distance up the ravine. A small detachment of the Union troops
+had come forward to ascertain if the Confederates were retreating. Soon
+half a dozen men in gray came running along close to the water’s edge.
+
+“The Yankees are coming!” two of them shouted. “Better make tracks if
+you want to save your hides!”
+
+Instantly there was a commotion, as the eight men leaped up and
+reached for their guns. They had no relish for a skirmish, only
+fighting when there was no help for it.
+
+“Wot will we do with the prisoner?” asked Sam Jacks.
+
+“Kill him,” was Caleb Fox’s cold reply. “Come on.”
+
+Both started to enter the dugout. As they did so, half a score of Union
+men appeared on the opposite side of the stream. The Confederates were
+plainly visible by the glare of the camp fire, and a volley rang out.
+Two of the strangers to Louis were hit, one fatally, and Caleb Fox
+received an ugly wound in the left arm.
+
+“I’m shot!” he groaned, as the arm dropped limply by his side.
+
+“We can’t wait for the boy!” answered Sam Jacks. “If we do we’ll be
+either killed or captured. Come on!” And away he darted, after those
+who had gone before. Caleb Fox hesitated for an instant. Then with a
+savage kick of his boot he sent the firebrands flying into the dugout.
+
+“Burn, you Yank you, burn!” he yelled, and bounded after Sam Jacks,
+just as a second volley rang out.
+
+The fiendish act of Fox nearly took away Louis’s breath. The burning
+brands flew in all directions around him, one large bit of brush
+landing directly at his feet. He watched this anxiously and saw it
+blaze with renewed vigor, throwing up a cloud of smoke and flame almost
+into his face. At the same time another volley of musketry sounded out
+and he heard the ping of two bullets as they landed on the woodwork of
+the dugout. Certainly he was in a most perilous situation.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+
+                         IN CAMP AT WHITE HOUSE
+
+
+“We’ve stirred up the Johnnies, boys, come on!”
+
+It was one of the boys in blue who uttered the cry. He had forded the
+little stream and now his friends came after him. Rifle shots were
+sounding out up and down the water-course for a distance of several
+hundred feet, and the Union soldiers pushed their way through the
+hollow with care.
+
+A minute after another detachment of Northern soldiers appeared.
+They were from the Goreville Volunteers, and were headed by Nathan
+Hornsby. In some manner the Goreville boys had become detached from
+the remainder of their command and were “bunking” with a New Jersey
+company, also detached.
+
+Hornsby had noted the skirmish and had led forth ten men, including
+Harry Bingham and Callings. He had asked Jerry Rowe to come, but Jerry
+had declined, saying he was suffering from a lame foot. Jerry’s lame
+foot was very much in evidence from that time on, whenever a fight was
+close at hand, although it was noted he could retreat about as fast as
+any sprinter present.
+
+“Here’s a camp,” cried Hornsby, as they came in sight of the place. “If
+they haven’t set fire to their hut,” he added.
+
+“We’ll force them back,” put in Callings. “If--listen!”
+
+He stopped short, and every man listened, his hand on the trigger of
+his weapon.
+
+“It’s a cry for help!” put in Harry. “I believe it comes from the
+dugout!”
+
+“Some poor, wounded fellow has been left behind,” said Hornsby. “Let us
+rescue him. It’s awful to let anybody burn up.”
+
+“I’m with you,” answered Harry. “But look out, it may be only a trick
+of the enemy.”
+
+Cautiously but rapidly they advanced. In the meantime the firing down
+the stream became louder, showing the Confederates were massing at that
+point. Soon Harry Bingham gained the dugout and kicking aside several
+of the firebrands, he entered and Hornsby followed.
+
+“Louis! Is it possible!”
+
+“Harry! Oh, how thankful I am that you have come! Kick those firebrands
+away. I am almost suffocated,” and the last word fairly choked in
+Louis’s throat. His eyes were bulging from their sockets and he could
+not have held out much longer. Harry did as directed, while Hornsby
+drew out his jack-knife and cut the rope. Between them they took the
+released one out into the fresh air, where the rain and coolness soon
+revived him.
+
+“So the Confederates captured you,” said Harry, as he continued to
+support Louis.
+
+“Do you know who it was, Harry? Sam Jacks, Caleb Fox, and their
+followers.”
+
+“Really!”
+
+“Yes, and that’s not all. The whole crowd are nothing but common
+thieves,” and in a few brief words Louis related what had occurred.
+“I’m mighty glad they don’t belong to our side,” he concluded.
+
+“Such rascals don’t belong to either side, Louis,” answered Harry,
+gravely. “Why General Johnson, or Longstreet, or Hill, or any of those
+Confederate leaders would shoot ’em on sight, you know that as well as
+I do.”
+
+There was no time to say more, for some of the Union men were coming
+back, shouting that the rebel force were too much for them. Limping
+painfully, Louis followed his friends back to the camp of the Goreville
+Volunteers, and was not long in getting to bed. A desultory firing was
+kept up all night, but no further raids upon either side were attempted.
+
+On the following morning a discovery awaited the Union leaders. During
+the blackness of the night and the noise of the storm the greater
+part of the Confederate forces had withdrawn from Williamsburg, thus
+continuing their retreat towards Richmond. The way was now once more
+clear to the Union forces. On the 8th of May the onward march was
+resumed, not directly for Richmond, but towards White House, which
+was to be the base of supplies during the final advance upon the
+Confederate capital. The march to the great plain before White House
+occupied, in one way and another, a week, and during that time a branch
+of the army, as before stated, fought and sent the Confederates flying
+from West Point, not many miles distant.
+
+The march, on account of the miserable weather and the wretched
+condition of the roads, was a weary one and was not totally devoid
+of peril. On the way the baggage train sought to take a side road,
+thinking to find a better bottom for horses and wagons. The train was
+barely out of sight of the regular troops when some Confederate cavalry
+and soldiers dashed down upon it, sending all in confusion. Andy took
+part in this raid, and it is but proper that we should tell here of
+what happened to him.
+
+He was resting flat on his back on a bed made of brush when the order
+came, “To horse--we move in five minutes!” Weary still from a long,
+stubborn fight on the road north of Williamsburg, where the Montgomery
+Grays had handsomely repulsed a regiment of Union soldiers in their
+fierce struggle to outflank them, Andy leaped up and made ready to
+leave. Leroy had warned him, although Andy had heard the bugle, in a
+half-dreamy way, being on the verge of dropping to sleep.
+
+“Where are we going, Leroy?”
+
+“After the Yankees’ baggage train, Andy. The general got wind of it
+somehow that we may be able to steal some of their wagons. That will be
+sport--if we can get hold of anything good to eat.”
+
+“I reckon they haven’t anything much better than ourselves,” said Andy,
+as he buckled on his saber and saw to it that his trappings were secure
+and Firefly was in proper fettle.
+
+The Montgomery Grays were soon on the road, splashing through the mud
+at the rate of eight miles an hour. They had to make a detour, past a
+little hut where several women folks were busy dressing chickens.
+
+“They don’t dare to leave them running around any more,” laughed Leroy.
+“I declare, I believe some of the boys would rather capture a chicken
+than a Yankee.”
+
+“I’m one of that sort--sometimes,” Andy laughed in return. “Um! how
+good a nice broiled chicken would taste,” and he smacked his lips.
+
+The Union baggage train had passed New Kent when it was sighted on
+the road by the Montgomery Grays. A battery of the Confederates had
+also come up, and this opened fire immediately, throwing the train into
+great confusion.
+
+“Forward, boys!” shouted Captain Montgomery, and away went the Grays,
+down a slight slope at terrific speed. The teamsters in the wagons
+nearest to them yelled in alarm, and four of them forsook the two
+wagons they were driving and ran for their lives.
+
+“Hurrah! Here are two wagons, Leroy!” shouted Andy; then as Captain
+Montgomery dashed by he continued, “Captain, can I drive one of the
+wagons off before they can recapture it?”
+
+“Yes,” was the short answer, for now some Union regulars were seen
+in the distance. “Take another man with you, and don’t lose your own
+horses.”
+
+“We won’t, sir. Come on, Leroy, here’s a lark!” and hopping from
+Firefly, Andy leaped up on the seat of the nearest turnout and whipped
+up the team. Leroy caught hold of Firefly and rode close alongside,
+looking back occasionally in order to cover the rear.
+
+Up along a side road Andy lashed the animals, over sticks and stumps
+and through mud a foot and more deep. Once he glanced into the wagon
+and saw that it was well filled with some articles carefully covered
+with an oiled canvas. “Something worth having in there, I’ll wager a
+fortune,” he said to himself. “I hope it’s food. Won’t the Grays have a
+feast, if it is!”
+
+The thought was so pleasant it made him smile and he urged forward the
+horses again while he shouted out on the side of the covering:
+
+“Anybody coming, Leroy?”
+
+“Some infantry over to the left,” answered his friend. “I can’t make
+out if they are Yankees or our own fellows.”
+
+“We won’t run any chances. Phew! won’t those Yanks be mad when they
+find we have run off with one of their wagons.”
+
+“I see a box sticking out labeled canned peaches,” went on Leroy. “And
+there is another labeled catsup. We’ve struck it rich and no mistake,
+Andy.”
+
+“We’ll divide with the boys to-night, Leroy--it will help ’em to
+remember this capture so much longer,” concluded Andy, and a vision of
+a heaped-up plate of canned peaches loomed up most appetizingly before
+his mind. The catsup he did not care so much about, although it would
+go very well with pork and beans.
+
+On and on they went until a down grade was gained. By this time the
+firing which had begun in the distance had ceased, and they heard the
+tramp of cavalry behind them. A quarter of an hour later the Montgomery
+Grays came up. Some United States regulars had appeared to protect the
+wagon train and the object of the Confederate raid was very largely
+defeated. But they had one wagon, and of this Andy felt very proud.
+
+“Canned peaches and catsup and lots of other good things, boys!” he
+sang out, as they continued on their way, and he promised to share and
+share alike all around as soon as camp was reached, providing Captain
+Montgomery was willing, and the captain was.
+
+Sundown found them safe within the Confederate lines again. A motley
+collection of infantry, cavalrymen, and artillerists gathered around.
+
+“Now for some of them canned peaches and some catsup!” cried somebody,
+and the oiled canvas was hauled aside and the boxes were lifted
+carefully to the ground. The covers were partly loose and were speedily
+wrenched off.
+
+“Great gumboils!”
+
+“It ain’t canned peaches at all; it’s only axle-grease!”
+
+“Axle-grease and wagon hardware! Well, I swan!”
+
+What a howl went up! Then the crowd turned to poor Andy and Leroy.
+But that pair had nothing to say. They sneaked out of sight with all
+possible speed. It was a long while before either heard the last of
+that “canned peaches and catsup.”
+
+The passing of the cannon ball and the peril endured in the dugout had
+weakened Louis a good deal, and the march through Williamsburg and New
+Kent Court House proved a wearisome one to him.
+
+“I’m glad we are to rest at last,” he remarked to Harry, when they came
+into sight of the camp on the plain previously mentioned. “Another day
+on the road would do me up.”
+
+“I never saw so much mud in my life, Louis; but see, I think we are
+going to have a fairly good camping place, well up the side of yonder
+slope. That will mean a whole lot in this beastly weather.”
+
+By noon guns had been stacked, lines formed, and tents had been
+pitched. It took the army two days to enter and take possession of the
+plain, and this vast body of men occupied a territory about four miles
+square. When all were settled it was a most imposing sight. There were
+miles after miles of “dog” tents, with here and there a high marquee
+for the officers, standing up like church steeples in a big city.
+There were line after line of cannon and ammunition carriages, a vast
+collection of wagons, and thousands upon thousands of horses, while the
+blue uniformed soldiers filled every “street” and crossway. Back on the
+river loomed up the gunboats of the navy and hundreds of transports,
+and everything was alive, bustling and “chock full of business,” as
+Harry declared. It was a scene worthy of the greatest painter in the
+world. If this great and superb army could not conquer, it was only
+because they met, not enemies, but brothers worthy of their steel.
+
+Nearly a week was spent in the Cumberland camp, as it has been called
+by many, and that week, despite the fact that the army was doing no
+fighting, was a busy one, although now all of the soldiers got their
+proper time to rest. The sun came out once more, the ground began to
+dry up, and as Louis said, “life was once more worth living.”
+
+Near to where the Goreville Volunteers were situated flowed a small
+stream, and in this the soldiers went bathing and washed their
+clothing. It was rather a comical sight to see hundreds of men
+squatting down by the water’s edge, or sitting upon flat rocks, rubbing
+and soaping and rinsing away like so many washer-women. Even the
+soldiers had to laugh at themselves, and many were the jokes passed
+about getting a job in a laundry when the war was over. Some few were
+too lazy to do much work of this sort, but the majority would go a
+long way to be clean and comfortable. Of course mending went with the
+washing, and even Louis sat for hours, threading a needle that seldom
+would thread, and sewing on buttons and mending socks.
+
+Mail day was an event, and the soldier who did not get at least
+one letter from home was the object of genuine sympathy. After the
+communications were delivered there were always a certain number left,
+mute reminders of war’s terrors, for those letters were addressed to
+those who had died on the field of battle.
+
+There was other reading, too, for the newspapers from New York, Boston,
+and Philadelphia could be had, if one wanted to pay the price, which
+was from ten cents to “two shillings” apiece, and these and the big
+pictorial weeklies were read by one and another until the pages would
+no longer hold together. There were also many religious books and
+tracts, supplied by the various religious societies of the North,
+reading that brought many a poor sinner to the realization of his
+condition.
+
+Among the letters was one from home for Louis, stating his last had
+been received. Mr. Rockford mentioned the fact that he had had another
+call from Samuel Hammer and the fellow had threatened him with a suit
+at law to gain possession of the farm unless he was paid the three
+thousand dollars he demanded.
+
+“I have put him off as best I could,” wrote Mr. Rockford. “And in the
+meantime I have learned that when Theodore Faily left this neighborhood
+he went to Richmond, Virginia, to live. Were it not for the war I
+should communicate with Faily at once and see if I could not get him
+to settle this Hammer claim. But, as matters now stand, my hands seem
+to be tied. I wish the war was over and we could get this matter
+straightened out. It worries your mother greatly.”
+
+“This is certainly too bad!” murmured Louis. “If Faily went to Richmond
+we won’t be able to get at him, no matter how hard we try--at least for
+the present. I wish I could help father out of this trouble.”
+
+Thus far during the campaign the Goreville Volunteers had lost six
+men. Besides this, nine were in the hospital, four wounded, and five
+down with the swamp fever and other sickness. For the sick ones, the
+boys did all they possibly could, buying them delicacies and the like,
+and sitting by them and reading the news in a low tone, so as not to
+disturb others.
+
+So one day after another went by until the time mentioned had passed.
+Then came the orders to strike tents, and once more the army was set in
+motion, with its face turned towards Richmond, about ten miles distant.
+The great crisis of the peninsula campaign was at hand.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                      THE LIVING WALL AT FAIR OAKS
+
+
+“We’re off for Richmond, now!” cried Harry, enthusiastically, as they
+stood at parade rest, while waiting for their turn to fall in with
+the advancing column. “If everything goes right, I’ll wager we’ll be
+walking the streets of the town inside of another week.”
+
+“I trust you speak the truth, Harry,” answered Louis. “The question is,
+will everything go right? The roads are still about as bad as ever and
+they say the Chickahominy River is terribly swollen and the bridges far
+from safe.”
+
+“If we can’t use the old bridges the rebels built, we’ll build
+new ones,” went on Harry Bingham, in an off-handed way, as though
+bridge-building were of small importance. “The only trouble ahead that
+I can see is, that this confounded rain may increase and wash us all
+off the peninsula. Creation, but I never saw such a wet season in my
+life! Why, ever since we started it has rained two days out of three!”
+
+Harry was right about the rain. Perhaps some of my young readers may
+grow tired of these oft-repeated statements concerning the weather, but
+they are necessary, in order to explain why it was the army moved so
+slowly and why battle after battle was delayed. Old soldiers upon both
+sides have declared over and over again that they never saw or heard
+of a campaign in which rain and mud played such a large and important
+part, and even many war reports, usually supposed to be the briefest
+of communications, speak of this. In many places corduroy roads had to
+be constructed or the cannon would have sunk out of sight and beyond
+rescue, and many a faithful horse went down so deeply that he was
+stepped upon by others and smothered in the mire. When a company of
+soldiers moved every man chose his own path, hopping from one safe
+place to the next. Thus it took more time and endurance to cover one
+mile here than it would otherwise have taken to cover twenty.
+
+Before the troops had been out a day it was rumored that more bridges
+would have to be built across the Chickahominy, with long approaches of
+logs. The next morning the Goreville Volunteers were sent out to do a
+part of this work.
+
+“I didn’t enlist for a wood-chopper!” grumbled Jerry Rowe, as he joined
+the crowd at the river. “I’m not going to do any more of this work than
+I have to.”
+
+“Why not make the best of it, Jerry?” said Louis. “The quicker the work
+is done, the more rapid will be our advance, and I’m sure we all want
+to see the campaign come to a quick as well as a successful ending.”
+
+But Jerry did not see it that way. He had to go out, but the amount of
+work he did was small and he was often reprimanded for his laziness.
+
+The labor had been going on for several hours, and Louis was beginning
+to wonder if it was not about time for dinner, when a shriek from the
+river sounded out. At first it was thought somebody had been shot, but
+this was not so. Jerry Rowe had tumbled overboard, and the swollen
+and swiftly flowing current was carrying him rapidly out of sight and
+hearing of his companions.
+
+“Help! help!” he shrieked. “I can’t swim! Help!”
+
+“It’s Jerry!” burst from Harry Bingham’s lips. “What shall we do?”
+
+“Isn’t there a rope handy?” asked Louis, and then, as he saw Jerry
+sink, he added, “Get one somewhere and follow me.”
+
+With the agility of a cat he left the half-constructed bridge and
+darted along the overflowed bank of the river. Once he went down, but
+quickly picked himself up again and continued on his run, which was
+with the current. “Where are you going?” asked somebody, but he did not
+answer.
+
+A hundred feet farther on a gnarled oak stood, its twisted branches
+spreading in every direction. One branch swept the river, its outer
+end at least twenty-five feet from shore. Up into this tree sprang
+Louis, to crawl along the branch mentioned until the middle of the
+Chickahominy was gained. Then he swung himself downward, under the
+leaves.
+
+The soldiers standing near saw his plan and cheered him. But Louis
+still paid no attention to them. His face was scanning the swollen
+stream at a point where he had seen Jerry’s white face bobbing up and
+down. That face was coming nearer. It was yet twenty feet from the tree
+when it disappeared.
+
+Splash! with the vanishing of the face Louis had let go his hold on the
+oak and now he was swimming lustily forward. “Keep up, Jerry, I’ll save
+you!” were his words, but if Jerry heard when he reappeared he was too
+scared to reply.
+
+“Help! Save me!” Those were the only words the frightened boy uttered,
+until he was ready to sink again. Then Louis clutched him by the arm.
+
+“Jerry!” Before he could say another word Jerry felt his grasp, and
+swinging around clutched him with the strength found only in those who
+are drowning. The clutch was around Louis’s neck, and instantly the
+young Union soldier was in danger of being choked.
+
+“Don’t--hold--on--so--tight,” he managed to gasp, but Jerry would not
+listen and tried to wind his long, slim legs around Louis’s body in his
+endeavor to hold himself above the current.
+
+At that dangerous moment Harry arrived with a long rope, picked up
+close to the spot where he had been standing when the alarm rang out.
+He knotted one end and threw it out to the struggling pair.
+
+Louis made a clutch for it, but missed it through Jerry’s wild
+endeavors. The line was thrown a second time and the youth in midstream
+caught the knot just as it was floating out of his reach.
+
+“Jerry--let--go, do!” he pleaded, but Jerry was deaf to all appeals.
+Seeing this, Louis held his breath as well as he was able, while Harry
+and a dozen others who had followed to the scene of the trouble pulled
+in with might and main.
+
+Louis felt the bottom with a sigh of relief. “You can walk ashore now,”
+he cried, wrenching himself free at last.
+
+“Is--is it safe?” spluttered Jerry.
+
+“Yes; try it for yourself.”
+
+With great caution Jerry did as told. Striking bottom in water which
+was hardly up to his waist, he made a dash for dry land. Having reached
+this, he did not even look back to see if Louis was safe, but struck
+out for camp, five hundred feet away.
+
+“By gosh!” muttered Harry, as Louis gave him a certain glance. “If
+there is a meaner fellow in our camp than Jerry Rowe I have still to
+find him.”
+
+“He didn’t waste breath in thanking you, did he?” put in Hornsby, who
+was in the crowd.
+
+“The chances are that Jerry won’t believe I did anything for him,”
+answered Louis, when he had recovered his breath. “He may even say
+that he could have saved himself if he had been left alone.” And this
+is what Jerry actually did, much to his discredit and to the disgust
+of all who heard him. But the others did not forget Louis, and he was
+spoken of as a brave boy in blue for a long while to come.
+
+The building of the bridge occupied two days more, and then the
+Goreville Volunteers struck camp again and moved forward another mile
+nearer the Confederate capital. Serious fighting was now “in the air”
+and the men were kept under strict discipline. The rival armies, each
+over a hundred thousand strong, were about to engage in the first of
+the great battles of the campaign, a battle called by the Unionists
+Fair Oaks, and by the Confederates Seven Pines, both names belonging to
+certain territories of the battlefield, which was many miles in extent.
+
+To go into the details of this battle, great and important as it was,
+would be beyond the scope of this tale, so we will only take a brief
+review ere we return, to follow the fortunes of Louis on one side and
+Andy upon the other.
+
+The battle was fought mostly upon very low and level ground, abounding
+in swamps and small streams, and covered nearly everywhere with heavy
+woods. The railroad to Richmond ran nearly east and west, and parallel
+to it, half a mile southward, ran the Williamsburg road. There was also
+a cross road called the Nine Mile Road. The woods were thickest near to
+Richmond and here many trees had been laid low, to serve as a shelter
+to the Confederate troops and to obstruct the advance of the Union army.
+
+After hard work upon bridges and roads the leading troops under
+General McClellan had advanced to a position which was within five
+miles of Richmond. The body of men in advance were well supported by
+others and there were strong divisions also scattered to the north and
+south.
+
+In the meantime General Johnston had become afraid that another part of
+the Union army, under General McDowell, a part that had been watching
+Washington, would join General McClellan in the attack upon Richmond.
+He had called upon General Jackson, who had been confronting McDowell
+in the Shenandoah Valley, and was assured that Jackson would keep
+McDowell “very much interested” where he was--and he did. General
+McDowell’s command had been promised to General McClellan and to have
+it held back was a great blow to the Union commander-in-chief. Had
+McDowell’s troops been sent down to the peninsula it is certain that
+Richmond would have been in far more danger of being taken than it was.
+
+So, assured that McDowell would be held in check, and receiving
+reinforcements of his own, the Confederate commander-in-chief resolved
+to force the fighting instead of holding back as before. He knew that
+the right and left wings of the Union forces were divided by the
+Chickahominy River, and he chose for the conflict a time when the
+elements might help him. The battle started upon Saturday, the 31st
+of May. On Friday, the day before, one of the heaviest thunder storms
+yet experienced upon the peninsula broke forth, and the Chickahominy,
+already much swollen, became a raging torrent, which swept away some
+of the bridges and put swimming or further bridge-building just then
+out of the question. In this fearful storm the Confederate troops were
+brought forward, some from Richmond on the railroad cars, to confront
+the enemy at daybreak, General Johnston feeling assured that he could
+defeat one wing of the Union troops before the other could come to the
+relief.
+
+The attack was not wholly expected, yet something was “in the air,” and
+the troops were held in readiness for action. Louis spent six hours in
+a rifle-pit, with Harry next to him. The rain beat upon them pitilessly
+and soon they were in water up to their knees.
+
+“By ginger, but this is worse than fighting,” grumbled Harry, when
+crash! bang! came a thunder clap and a stroke of lightning, and a giant
+oak not a hundred feet away was split in twain and toppled over. The
+oak was over in the direction of the Confederate picket line, and a
+scrambling in the bushes followed, showing that some of the boys in
+gray were hustling to get out of further danger of that sort. Half an
+hour later the water rushed into the rifle pits in such a stream that
+the defenses had to be abandoned.
+
+At eight o’clock the Goreville Volunteers were ready for the march.
+Dirty and wet, they yet presented a determined appearance as they drew
+up in two lines, each man in light marching order, with a day’s rations
+in his haversack and forty rounds of ammunition in his cartridge box.
+Each gun had been cleaned and oiled, and every bayonet was as bright
+as when it left the arsenal--for the terror of a bayonet lies in its
+brightness as well as its pointedness.
+
+“Forward, march!” the word of command did not come until nearly eleven
+o’clock, and even then the volunteers moved only a few hundred feet.
+
+“It’s going to be another fizzle,” growled Jerry Rowe, under his
+breath, when a sharp rattle of musketry ahead caused him to jump and
+turn pale. The savage battle of Fair Oaks, Jerry never forgot and he
+never said “fizzle” again.
+
+The attack proved to be nothing but a skirmish, but not long after noon
+the battle began in earnest and was kept up until sundown, when both
+sides lay down almost exhausted, but knowing that the fray must be
+continued at dawn, despite the fact that it was God’s day of rest.
+
+The real battle had been in progress in front about an hour when
+there came a sudden panic, brought on by the retreat of a portion of
+a division which had been almost cut in two by the mad attack of a
+great body of Confederates. “They are coming upon us a hundred thousand
+strong! We’ll have to fall back!” was the cry, which made Louis’s heart
+leap into his throat. Was the scene at Bull Run to be repeated?
+
+“Halt, men! About face!” came the command. “Don’t be cowards! We can
+whip them yet!” And a fresh division was advanced, and those who were
+retreating took heart. Now the Goreville Volunteers were going to the
+front, the second company in the regiment. Along the muddy road they
+went, leaping over fallen trees and over the dirt embankments which had
+been thrown up.
+
+Bang! crack! bang! The enemy was in sight and the front line of the
+Confederates had opened fire upon them. Down the Union boys dropped
+to their knees, and a part of the deadly fire spent itself over their
+heads. Then a Confederate battery, situated in a woods to the right,
+opened its thunder, with grape and canister.
+
+“Forward!” came down the line again, and on the boys in blue went for
+twenty yards more. “Fire!” was the next cry, and from the long line
+came a spurt of pure white smoke, and scores of Confederates were seen
+to throw up their hands and fall. But their forces did not waver.
+Constantly reinforced, they came on, blazing away as rapidly as the men
+could load, while their battery spoke out more spitefully than ever.
+Slowly the Union troops were forced back, foot by foot over the torn up
+and swampy ground. There was a mist in the air, and now this and the
+thick smoke for a time hid all from view.
+
+“If only we could capture that battery!” This was the thought in the
+mind of many a Union commander and private. A desperate attempt was
+made, a whole regiment advancing upon it in one solid mass. Twice
+the battery belched forth, tearing great holes in the Union ranks,
+but these were closed up and soon the boys in blue stood at the very
+muzzles of the cannons.
+
+But now came a ringing shout from the Confederate rear. A troop of
+cavalry was coming up, and in the fore were the gallant Montgomery
+Grays, with Andy in the saddle, looking as brave and wildly daring
+as any of them. Ever since the defeat at Williamsburg they had been
+spoiling for a fight, and now they rode in and surrounded the battery.
+
+“Charge!” came the cry from Captain Montgomery, and the Grays charged
+as never before, riding fairly on top of the bayonets of the gallant
+Union men. Down went many a poor foot-soldier on his back, while half
+a dozen saddles were emptied of owners who would never ride again. The
+shock was fearful, and it was instantly followed by a hand-to-hand
+conflict upon every side. For ten minutes this continued, and during
+that time Captain Montgomery received a severe bayonet thrust through
+his left arm. He might have been killed had not one of his men seen
+the act and shot dead the Union soldier who did the deed. Then an
+additional force of Confederate cavalry dashed up, and the Union
+regiment was compelled to retreat, leaving two hundred dead and wounded
+upon the field.
+
+“Arlington!”
+
+It was a call from Captain Montgomery, who still sat upon his horse,
+although pale and weak from loss of blood.
+
+“Yes, captain,” and Andy touched his plumed hat.
+
+“Ride down into yonder woods and ask General Parkhurst, if you can find
+him, if we can cross the new road at that point. I imagine the enemy is
+trying to plant a battery up there somewhere.”
+
+“I will, sir. But, captain, hadn’t you better go to the rear and have
+your wound dressed?”
+
+“I’ll go later on. Hurry now, for every moment is precious.”
+
+Saluting, Andy dashed away upon his mission. The woods mentioned were
+low and thick, and the Confederates had cut two roads through them to
+transport supplies from one part of the vast battlefield to another.
+Never dreaming of danger in that territory, Andy dashed along among the
+trees until a turn in the path was gained.
+
+Suddenly a shout went up. “A Johnny Reb, boys, and on horseback!
+Capture him!” Instantly Andy halted. But it was too late. From the
+woods upon either side of the path appeared at least a dozen Union
+skirmishers, and the young Confederate was instantly surrounded, while
+several rifle barrels were pointed directly at his head.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV
+
+                       WHEN RICHMOND WAS BESIEGED
+
+
+In the meantime, Louis was fighting as he had never fought before. The
+Goreville Volunteers were posted, after the first attack, at a point
+an eighth of a mile south of the battery the Montgomery Grays had so
+gallantly defended. They were backed up by a fringe of brush and trees,
+and to their left were planted two Union guns, to cover a hollow some
+distance to the front. Beyond, the hills and thickets were filled with
+boys in gray, who poured in a perfect hailstorm of bullets upon the
+Union forces and sent shell after shell shrieking over their heads.
+The din was something frightful, while the smoke became so thick that
+when held down to the ground by the heavy atmosphere it nearly choked
+everybody.
+
+“I’m sick! I’m sick! I can’t stand this any more!” blurted out Jerry
+Rowe, as a shell went whining and shrieking directly over his head, and
+throwing away his musket, he made a wild rush for the rear. But the
+stragglers’ guard saw him coming, and one of them tripped him up.
+
+“Go forward, you coward!” were the words which rang into Jerry’s
+unwilling ears.
+
+“I’m sick! I’ve got a stomach-ache--I can’t stand up, really I can’t!”
+he whined.
+
+“You’re shamming, young fellow. Go forward, or we’ll bayonet you!” and
+the steel was thrust under Jerry’s very nose. With a howl of terror
+Jerry turned back and went searching for his musket. After that he
+remained where he had been, but only because the peril at the rear
+seemed, to him, to be as great as that to the front.
+
+“Cherry vos got der shakes,” observed Hans Roddmann to Louis. “Vy
+dot feller vonted to enlist vos a riddle to me, py chimminy! Of
+he--Forvards, und may ve chase does repels into der Chames Rifer!” and
+forward they went, at Captain Paulding’s command. The hollow had been
+crossed under a fierce fire, and they were ascending the hill beyond,
+when the Confederates appeared not only in front, but also to the right
+and left.
+
+“Forward, boys, we must cut our way out!” came the cry, as the
+Confederates rushed into the hollow and the Goreville Volunteers
+appeared almost surrounded. The men had fired twice. There was no time
+to load again, and on they went, guns to their breasts and the line of
+polished bayonets sending a brief chill to the hearts of those before
+them. But the Confederates stood firm and fired when that line of
+bayonets was scarcely fifty feet away. As the volley rang out, Louis
+felt a quiver in his arms. His gun had been struck and the barrel
+rendered useless. Callings, who stood beside him, was hit and went down
+on the battlefield with a groan which rang in the youth’s ears for many
+hours after.
+
+In another second the two forces came together. But now the
+Confederates retreated, hoping to cut off the Volunteers from the
+main body of the Union army. In this they were partly successful, for
+the one regiment which had gone forward was not properly reinforced.
+The fighting went on in much disorder, and a portion of the Goreville
+Volunteers found themselves isolated from the rest of the command.
+
+“We’re in for it!” cried Harry Bingham, who remained close to Louis.
+“Look, the rebs are on every side of us!”
+
+“Surrender!” came the cry of a Confederate commander. “Down you go,
+Yank!” Louis heard poured into his ear, and then he was sent to earth.
+By the time he could arise he was a prisoner, and was being hurried to
+the rear of the Confederate lines.
+
+“Hurrah! we’re bagging the Northern mud-sills!” came the victorious
+yell, as Louis and a score of others, all strangers to him but Nathan
+Hornsby, were being pushed along. “We’ll have ’em all by night!”
+
+“Say, Yank, don’t McClellan wish he had stayed at home? He’ll get more
+than his fill before we are done with him!”
+
+To none of these taunts did Louis reply, and, indeed, it was not safe
+to do so, for some hot-head would have gloried in shooting down the
+prisoner where he stood.
+
+As Louis went on he noted with a sinking heart how thickly the
+Confederate troops were massed, tens of thousands of them standing upon
+every hand.
+
+“Hornsby, what do you think of this?” he whispered.
+
+“I think we are done for, unless Sumner arrives to help Couch out,” was
+the low reply. “But that ain’t our affair just now. Louis, it looks
+like we was in a bad fix.”
+
+“I think so myself. Perhaps we’ll see the inside of Libby Prison before
+the end comes.”
+
+“Heaven keep us out of that foul hole,” murmured Hornsby, and then the
+order came for silence, and no more was said.
+
+The prisoners had been passed along, from one guard to the next, until
+a strong fortification just upon the northeastern outskirts of Richmond
+was gained. Here they were searched and everything of value was taken
+from them. They were then tied up in pairs, Louis and Hornsby together,
+and made to squat down upon the ground, and here they remained for the
+balance of that day and all night, under sentinels who were cautioned
+to shoot them down at the least sign of an outbreak.
+
+During this time the Union soldiers were driven steadily back until
+the reinforcements mentioned by Hornsby arrived, when General Sumner
+put an end to the Confederate advance, and all rested upon their arms
+until morning. For this portion of the contest the Confederates claimed
+a victory.
+
+Early in the morning the battle was renewed with increased vigor,
+the Union general, Sickles, leading the attack at one point and General
+Meagher at another. The charge was bravely met by the Confederates, but
+at last they could hold their ground no longer, and the simultaneous
+attack of the whole Federal line gained the day. The remainder of the
+day was spent in gathering up and burying the dead, and caring for
+the wounded, and then began the siege of Richmond by the Union army
+entrenching itself upon every side. During this contest the Confederate
+commander-in-chief, General Johnston, was first hit by a bullet and
+then knocked from his horse by a piece of shell. The command in the
+field was thereupon assumed by General Smith, who gave place, two
+days later, to General Robert E. Lee, the greatest of all Southern
+commanders, who remained at the head of the Confederate forces until
+the close of the war.
+
+On Monday, Louis was marched into Richmond in company with a large
+number of other prisoners. It was learned that Libby Prison, which
+had formerly been a large warehouse, was full to overflowing, and
+the prisoners were divided, Louis, Hornsby, and thirty others being
+sent to what before the outbreak of the war had been a pork-packing
+establishment.
+
+The march to this prison was one Louis never forgot. The streets of the
+Confederate capital were lined with a motley collection of people, who
+had come to cheer their own soldiers and sneer at the captives. Some on
+the sidewalks were very vindictive and had to be restrained from doing
+the Union men bodily harm.
+
+[Illustration: THE MARCH TO THIS PRISON WAS ONE LOUIS NEVER FORGOT.
+_Page 325._]
+
+“They killed my son!” shrieked one woman, as she ran directly in front
+of Louis. “I will be avenged!” and she drew a long knife. Louis caught
+her upraised arm, gently but firmly, and held her until a Confederate
+soldier disarmed her and pushed her away. The boy’s heart was in his
+throat; nevertheless, he felt sorry for the dame, for he saw that the
+loss of her boy had almost deprived her of her reason. After that both
+he and Hornsby, sticking close together, kept a sharp lookout for an
+attack.
+
+The temporary prison having been gained, the captured ones were again
+examined, to see that none of them had obtained any weapons on the
+march, and then thrust into the gloomy-looking building, which still
+smelt of pig’s meat and salt brine. Louis and Hornsby were placed,
+with ten others, in an apartment on the second floor, a gloomy place,
+fifteen by eighteen feet in size, and lit by three small windows. The
+windows had once held sashes of glass, but these were broken away, and
+each opening was barred by several pieces of thick joist, spiked fast,
+top and bottom.
+
+“We’re in a pickle, ain’t we?” sniffed Hornsby, as he took a survey of
+the situation. “Gosh! wot an all-fired bad smell!”
+
+“Wonder how long we’ll have to remain here?” put in another of the
+prisoners. “Sergeant, what do you think about it?” and he turned to the
+Confederate officer who was posting two guards at the doorway.
+
+“I reckon you’ll stay here until McClellan surrenders,” was the
+answer, with a grin, and then the prisoner muttered something far from
+fit for our pages.
+
+It was nearly dark and that night the prisoners were left without
+supper after a march of six miles, to make themselves as comfortable
+as they could. There was nothing to lie upon but the hard and greasy
+floor, with one’s cap for a pillow, and no blankets but such as a few
+had brought along. The smell made Louis sick at his stomach and he hung
+at one of the windows for fresh air until one of the guards ordered him
+away.
+
+In the morning a negro appeared with a basket, a kettle, and a number
+of tin cups. The basket contained stale bread cut into chunks, and
+the kettle black coffee. For breakfast every prisoner was given a cup
+of coffee and two chunks of bread. Later on the whole rations for one
+day were served at once, half a pound of bread and a bowl of soup with
+meat, or beans and bacon--all of the plainest and, at times, not overly
+wholesome. On such a diet a “square meal” was entirely out of the
+question.
+
+From one of the windows the prisoners could see a side street of the
+city; the other openings looked down upon a yard littered with casks
+and barrels and surrounded by business structures of wood and stone.
+The street always presented a lively appearance, not on account of the
+business transacted, for that was very little, but because the soldiers
+were moving to and fro constantly and the crowds of curious ones
+followed them.
+
+“If only we could get free,” whispered Louis to Hornsby. He had no
+desire to remain a prisoner, in such a place and on such rations, and
+while he felt sure the Union army needed the services of every man who
+was enrolled.
+
+“Hush!” murmured Hornsby. “I was thinking the same thing, lad; but
+don’t let the guard dream of what’s in your mind, or he’ll shoot you
+down like a dog.”
+
+“Will you go with me if any chance to run for it happens?”
+
+“Yes--if it ain’t too risky.”
+
+No more could be said that day. But late in the afternoon Louis, while
+walking around the lower end of the room, saw something projecting from
+a shelf three feet above his head. He drew Hornsby to one side, and
+when the guard was not looking, got the man to hoist him up.
+
+The object proved to be a chisel, two inches broad, eighteen inches
+long, and very thick and heavy. Louis secreted it in his clothes. One
+other prisoner, a man named Ray, saw the movements, but merely grinned.
+
+After this Louis examined one after another of the fastenings across
+the windows. Most of the bits of joist were too well spiked on for him
+to think of loosening them without considerable noise. But there was
+one which was shaky, and by inserting the chisel under it the lower end
+became detached from the window sill.
+
+“Hi, there, what are you doin’ by that thar window?” called out the
+guard.
+
+“Trying to get some fresh air,” answered Louis, as coolly as he could.
+“This place is worse than a pig pen.”
+
+“It’s better nor you Yanks deserve,” growled the Confederate, and went
+on smoking his briar-root pipe filled with tar-heel tobacco.
+
+“The joist is loose,” whispered Louis to Hornsby a few minutes later.
+“I am going to risk a drop to the ground if I can get half a chance.”
+
+Hornsby shook his head. “They’ll shoot you, lad, if they see you.
+And if you do git away, where are ye going, tell me that? There are
+thousands of troops between us and our boys.”
+
+“Spies manage to come and go on both sides, Hornsby. If a spy can take
+care of himself, I guess I can--at least, I am going to try.”
+
+“And git ketched like thet air Caleb Fox.”
+
+“Well, he got away again,” went on Louis, but Hornsby would not listen.
+He would rather put up with ill-treatment than run too much risk, much
+as he desired his liberty.
+
+Louis lay down in a corner close to the window, but not to sleep. His
+mind was in a tumult. Should he try what was in his heart? He knew
+he could wrench the joist aside and drop from the window into the
+yard below with comparative ease. But after that? Ah, that was the
+all-important question. He might drop right into the hands of a guard
+below, and that would mean close confinement and possibly death. Or the
+guards might see him only to fire upon and kill him.
+
+Hour after hour went by and Louis heard a distant clock strike eleven,
+twelve, and then one. It was pitch dark outside, for another storm was
+brewing. The dim lantern in the hallway, where the guard stood, far
+from lit up the room. The guard, half asleep, leaned heavily against
+a wooden partition, while his companion, a few feet farther down the
+hallway, rested on an empty box.
+
+As slyly and quietly as a cat, Louis moved forward until he rested
+directly under the window he had worked upon. The end of the joist was
+within reach, and softly but firmly he pushed it aside, so slowly that
+it scarcely seemed to move.
+
+“Are ye really going?” It was the voice of Hornsby, in the youth’s ear.
+He had been watching the window in silence for three hours.
+
+“Yes,” was the soft answer. “I’ll try it, no matter what comes.”
+
+“Then I’ll go with you, lad, and God be with us in the undertaking,”
+concluded Hornsby. “Good-bye, if we’re both killed,” and he gave
+Louis’s hand a tight squeeze.
+
+An instant later Louis was up on the window sill. Turning about like a
+flash, he lowered himself to the full length of his arms. A second he
+hung there, then he let himself drop.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+
+                       ANDY AND THE UNION PICKETS
+
+
+We will now go back to Andy, at the time he found himself so
+unexpectedly surrounded by Union skirmishers.
+
+The young Confederate realized without much thought that he was in
+a perilous position. Six rifles were pointed at him, and the owner
+of each weapon seemed both willing to bring him to a speedy military
+death, and capable of doing so.
+
+“Do you surrender?” demanded one of the men, after an instant’s pause.
+
+“I don’t see that there is anything else to do, gentlemen,” replied
+Andy, with a smile, which, however, was rather forced.
+
+“You’re a sensible boy,” put in another. “Say, that’s a fine nag he
+rides, fellows. Let’s present it to Captain Mellick. He had his horse
+killed an hour ago.”
+
+“All right, Wombolt; you take the horse and the prisoner back. We can’t
+stop here.”
+
+“Are you going to rob me of my horse?” demanded Andy, his eyes flashing.
+
+“Oh, you can help ride him back to camp,” was the cool response of
+Wombolt. “I’ll sit with you. But first hand over that saber and your
+pistols.”
+
+There was no help for it, and Andy turned over the bright blade and the
+single weapon in the holster. He had another pistol in the pocket of
+his cavalry coat, but of this he said nothing.
+
+Having relieved him of the weapons mentioned, the Union soldier leaped
+up behind him. He held Andy’s pistol and cocking the weapon, placed it
+close to the youth’s neck.
+
+“Now, no funny work or you are a dead reb,” he said. “Move on straight
+ahead until I tell you to turn to the left.”
+
+“It’s a pretty bad road,” remarked Andy, trying to gain time in which
+to form some plan of escape.
+
+“I’ll have it paved for you as soon as the war is over, reb. Move now,
+or my finger may get nervous on this trigger.”
+
+Seeing there was no help for it, Andy spoke to Firefly, who instantly
+set off on a trot. This did not suit the Union soldier and he began to
+kick Firefly in the sides with the heels of his boots.
+
+“Git alang there, you lazy beast!” he cried. “Git now, or I’ll stave in
+your ribs!”
+
+“Look out, my horse won’t stand that!” came in a warning from Andy, and
+at the same time he gave Firefly a most cruel dig with his spurs. He
+would never have done this under ordinary circumstances, but a sudden
+idea had struck him and he acted on it on the impulse of the moment.
+
+The kicking and spurring did just what the young Confederate expected.
+Unused to such treatment, Firefly jerked viciously to one side, made a
+wild leap forward and started off on a run. As he made the leap Andy
+gave him the reins, held fast to the saddle with one hand and shoved
+the soldier violently with the other. There was a yell of alarm, a
+clutch into empty air, as Andy leaned far forward, and away went the
+Union soldier, tumbling over backward into the muddy road. The pistol
+was discharged, but the shot merely whistled through the trees.
+
+Andy did not stop to look back upon the catastrophe. Tightening the
+reins again, he spoke to Firefly, who understood his young master, and
+horse and rider turned to the right and entered a thin belt of timber
+running off in the direction of the Chickahominy. At first those left
+behind tried to pursue him, but soon their footsteps faded away in the
+distance, and he found himself utterly alone.
+
+To get back to his own lines was now the one consideration. He had a
+fair idea where the Confederate troops could be found, but how many of
+the enemy lay between, there was no telling. He resolved to go forward
+slowly and with great caution, and retreat out of sight at the first
+intimation of danger.
+
+“Perhaps it might be best to wait until darkness sets in,” he mused,
+but continued to go on until the edge of a swamp was reached. Soon
+Firefly sank up to his knees in the mud and ooze. Andy tried to turn
+him out, only to sink the horse still deeper.
+
+“Here’s a go!” he muttered. “Firefly, old boy, we must get out of this
+somehow. Back, boy, back!” Firefly backed, and gradually withdrew to a
+fringe of brush and more solid ground.
+
+“Well done, boy!” sang out a voice, close by. “Where are you bound?”
+and a tall down-east fellow not much older than himself appeared
+directly in front of the young Confederate. The tall Unionist was
+speedily followed by another, and both soldiers, who were raw recruits
+just from their New Hampshire farms, gaped openly at the enemy.
+
+“Gracious, I’m glad to meet somebody,” answered Andy. “Say, you are
+true blue, aren’t you?” he went on, in almost a whisper.
+
+“Air we?” cried the second recruit. “O’ cos we be. Ain’t thet so,
+Josiah?”
+
+“Thet’s so, Hiram.”
+
+“Then I am sure you will befriend me,” went on Andy. “I--”
+
+“You’re a rebel, ain’t you?” asked Hiram, cutting Andy short.
+
+“A rebel? Goodness gracious, no! I am a--don’t tell anybody”--he
+leaned forward with a show of great secrecy--“I am Paul Hammer,
+General McClellan’s secret service spy. The general wants me to get
+some information for him from Richmond at once. I thought I could get
+through the lines here without trouble. Have you seen any rebs about?”
+Andy added suddenly, before the others had time to think twice.
+
+“Ain’t no rebels nigh here, Mister Hammer,” and Josiah touched his
+cap, thinking it a great honor to be taken into the confidence of the
+commander-in-chief’s private spy.
+
+“You’re on the picket line, aren’t you?”
+
+“We be,” came promptly from both recruits.
+
+“Then show me the nearest way to the rebel line. Of course, I don’t
+want them to see me go over on their side, for that would give me away.
+And I don’t want any of our men to see me and mistake me for a reb, for
+that would mean a shot sure.”
+
+“We’ll take care o’ yeou, Mister Hammer,” answered Hiram, and led
+the way along the edge of the swamp, with Josiah beside him and Andy
+bringing up closely in the rear. The young Confederate felt he had
+fooled the pickets nicely, but he was not yet “out of the woods” and
+consequently he did not crow.
+
+“Whar did yeou git thet uniform?” asked Josiah, as they progressed,
+rather slowly, to Andy’s notion.
+
+“Oh, the authorities furnished that,” answered the young Confederate,
+with assumed carelessness. “You see, there is a cavalry troop wearing
+this uniform in the rebel army, so if I once get past their picket line
+I can go where I please. Great scheme, eh?”
+
+“Fine,” answered Josiah.
+
+“I’d like tew do spy work,” commented Hiram.
+
+“Would you?” answered Andy. “All right, I’ll remember that, and if I
+get the chance I’ll speak to General McClellan about it.”
+
+“Will yeou? Much erbliged, I’m sure.”
+
+“Speak fer me, tew,” put in Josiah. “I’m sick o’ regular fightin’, I
+am.”
+
+“I’ll remember you both,” answered Andy, and he kept his word. Indeed,
+it would have been impossible to forget these two rustics, who were
+simple-hearted to the core and had still to get their war as well as
+their eye teeth cut.
+
+The swamp was now left behind and the men, who had strayed from their
+posts during a little excitement farther on, led the way up a small
+hill. Here the woods divided, with an open space between, of grass and
+low brush.
+
+“Thare yeou air, Mister Hammer,” said Josiah. “This is our line, an’
+the rebels hed a line over yonder, but I guess it’s gone neow.”
+
+“Good,” replied Andy. “Good-bye to both of you, and I wish you luck.”
+
+“Don’t forget tew mention us tew General McClellan when yeou git back!”
+called out Josiah.
+
+“All right,” came back, and away Andy trotted at a brisk pace, while
+the two rustics watched him out of sight with keen interest.
+
+[Illustration: AWAY ANDY TROTTED AT A BRISK PACE.--_Page 339._]
+
+“Of all the pumpkin heads!” was what Andy muttered to himself and so
+tickled was he that he was compelled to laugh outright. He had passed
+a distance of several hundred feet into the woods when he heard the
+command to halt, and a South Carolina soldier blocked his way.
+
+“It’s all right,” answered Andy. “I have just escaped from the
+Yankees,” and he gave the countersign. A minute later he was asked a
+few questions by an officer in command, and then allowed to go. He
+inquired for the Montgomery Grays, and was told they had withdrawn to
+another part of the field.
+
+“That’s twice they have caught me,” said Andy to himself, as he
+galloped down the main road towards Richmond. “I hope they don’t catch
+me again. Heigho! I wonder how Louis is getting along?” He never
+dreamed that Louis was now a prisoner in a fortification but a mile
+away.
+
+It was nightfall before Andy found the Grays, encamped on the edge of
+a patch of woods near the Nine Mile Road. Captain Montgomery had gone
+to the hospital tent to have his wound taken care of, and the first
+lieutenant was in charge. To this officer and several others Andy told
+his story, to which all listened with keen interest.
+
+“Gracious! what a couple of hayseeds,” said Leroy Wellington. “Won’t
+they feel cheap when they learn how they have been sold?”
+
+“Most likely they never will find out,” answered Andy.
+
+Fortunately, Andy had no picket duty to do that night, and, huddled
+up close to Leroy, he slept “like a rock,” despite the fact that
+fighting still kept up at a distance and the battle was to be renewed
+early in the morning.
+
+“To horse! To horse!” This was the cry which awoke the young
+Confederate cavalryman at daybreak. Leroy had already crawled from the
+shelter of the tent. Soon the Montgomery Grays were mounted and eating
+their breakfast in the saddle.
+
+To relate all of Andy’s varied experiences that day would fill a volume
+in itself. Between eight o’clock and noon the Grays made three terrific
+charges, capturing one Union battery and holding it for over an hour.
+But the Union forces now attacked along the whole line, as previously
+described, and slowly but surely the Confederates were driven back up
+the road towards Richmond. By two o’clock the firing ceased, and the
+battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, was at an end, and then began the
+harrowing work of caring for the dead and the dying.
+
+Andy took part in this work and never were the true horrors of war
+brought closer to his young heart. The scenes were pitiable beyond
+description and his eyes refused to keep dry, as he moved here and
+there, looking for comrades and giving aid and comfort to the unknown
+sufferers. He had just found one of the Grays’ men, down with a bullet
+through his thigh, and was looking around for a stretcher, when a groan
+almost at his feet made him turn. There, in the brush and mud, rested a
+Union soldier, shot through the shoulder.
+
+“Give me a drink, for the love of heaven!” came the murmur, and having
+his canteen handy, Andy poured forth the desired water and held the cup
+to the sufferer’s lips.
+
+“Thank you, Grayback,” came in a short gasp. “Now, you’ve been so kind,
+won’t you prop me up ag’in that tree? I can’t stand it down here in the
+cold mud.”
+
+“Certainly I’ll prop you up,” answered Andy, and lifted the wounded
+soldier as carefully as he could. As he worked he caught sight of the
+man’s uniform and markings.
+
+“You’re a Pennsylvania man,” he said. “Know anything about the
+Goreville Volunteers?”
+
+“I’m a Goreville Volunteer,” came the surprising reply.
+
+“Indeed? Do you know Louis Rockford? He used to be a friend of
+mine--in fact, he’s a friend still, personally--a close friend.”
+
+“O’ course I know Louis--everybody does. I owned a farm near his place.
+My name is Coomber.”
+
+“And how is Louis?”
+
+“He’s missing--somebody said he was shot,” answered Coomber. “Who are
+you?”
+
+Andy told him.
+
+“I’ve heard him mention you--and heard Mr. Rockford speak about your
+father’s place. Strange we should meet here. Ah, here come some fellows
+with a stretcher, to take me to the hospital tent, I expect,” concluded
+Coomber. No more could be said, and soon the Union soldier was carried
+off, and five minutes later Andy’s comrade followed. The wounded men
+had lain between the picket lines of both armies and a truce had been
+established while the dead and wounded belonging to each side were
+removed.
+
+What he had heard concerning Louis made Andy feel much downcast. To
+fight the enemy was one thing; to have his chum killed or wounded was
+quite another.
+
+“I trust the report is false and he is safe,” he thought. “War isn’t
+such a glorious thing after all, when a fellow comes to look at it.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI
+
+                AN ADVENTURE IN THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL
+
+
+After the battle of Fair Oaks, the Union army moved forward from a
+quarter to three-quarters of a mile and there entrenched itself in
+the position it occupied very nearly during the whole of the siege of
+Richmond. The army was divided into five corps, three upon the Richmond
+side of the Chickahominy River and two upon the other--one of the
+latter afterwards crossing to join the other three. The entrenchments
+were very strong, the nearest being within five miles of the heart of
+the Confederate capital, and the line of the besiegers was about four
+miles long, with guards at either end reaching out still farther.
+
+But if the entrenchments of the Union army were strong, so were
+those of the Southerners, who had gathered nearly a hundred and fifty
+thousand men to prevent their principal city from being taken. For many
+months the Confederates had been afraid of an attack upon Richmond,
+and they had spent all the time to be spared in building fortification
+after fortification, reaching from the city itself to from three to six
+miles in all directions. A Richmond newspaper of that time enumerates
+twenty-eight of these strongholds, each well manned and each with its
+guns placed in the most commanding positions. Small wonder was it,
+therefore, that General McClellan sent out his calls for extra troops,
+troops which he never received, for reasons which have never to this
+day been satisfactorily explained.
+
+The ground which the Union army now occupied was in a fearful
+condition. Mud and swamps were everywhere, bushes lay torn up by the
+roots, and thousands of trees, half cut through about five feet from
+the ground, so that the trunk falling over might block the passage of
+artillery and wagons, made even the regular roads all but impassable.
+As many as could be got at of the dead had been buried, but the swamps
+were still full of bodies, awful to contemplate. Added to all, the
+soldiers were exposed to swamp fevers, and soon out of less than a
+hundred thousand men nearly twenty thousand were on the wounded or sick
+list.
+
+The scene in Richmond was scarcely a more happy one. Emergency
+hospitals were opened by the score, and all day long on Sunday and
+Monday the ambulances rumbled along through the streets. Business of
+all kinds was practically at a standstill, and the citizens gathered in
+groups to discuss the situation. The wounding of Johnston was looked
+upon as a great calamity and everybody wondered if General Lee would
+prove equal to the emergency into which he had been thrown. On Monday
+a rumor started that McClellan’s army had been vastly reinforced, and
+this nearly caused a panic. Many began packing up their household goods
+and valuables, in order to flee southward as soon as the Union army
+should move forward.
+
+But no immediate movement upon either side took place. Worn out by the
+fierce fighting at Fair Oaks, each army was now trying to reconstruct
+itself, while the great generals were looking over the ground and
+making their plans for the future. Thus about three weeks slipped by
+with only a few encounters, which were of no great importance. But
+those three weeks were full of interest to both Louis and Andy, as we
+shall now see.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We left Louis at the time he allowed himself to drop from the
+second-story window of the temporary Confederate prison in Richmond. It
+must be acknowledged that the young Union soldier’s heart was in his
+throat as he let go of the window sill. There was no telling where he
+was going to land and what sort of a reception he would meet. All was
+dark, only a few dim street lights here and there brightening up the
+blackness of the night.
+
+Crash! He had landed upon a number of packing cases, thrown together in
+a rough-and-tumble way. Down he went through several thin boards and
+rolled over on his back. He had just leaped to his feet when Hornsby
+came after him, making a greater racket than before.
+
+“Louis, are you safe?”
+
+“Yes. Come on!” And the young soldier extended his hand. Hornsby took
+it, and side by side they sped forward to where a board fence separated
+the yard from the street. As they reached the fence they heard a
+commotion inside of the pork-packing establishment. Their escape had
+been discovered!
+
+“Up ye go, lad!” whispered Hornsby, and gave Louis a boost. The youth
+gave one glance over the fence and dropped back into the yard in a
+hurry. Clapping his hand over Hornsby’s mouth he drew his companion
+back.
+
+“Two guards out there,” he whispered into the old soldier’s ear. “We
+must find some other way. Let us try the back.”
+
+“But there are nothin’ but buildings there,” cried Hornsby. “I’m going
+to try the street and trust to my legs,” and ere Louis could stop him,
+the old soldier had disappeared in the deep shadows of the cluttered-up
+yard.
+
+Louis stood motionless, his heart almost at a standstill. He was
+left alone. The alarm was growing more general. “Two prisoners have
+escaped!” he heard somebody call out. Which way should he turn?
+
+There were many boxes and barrels in the yard and he might readily
+have secreted himself in one of them. But such a course, he reflected,
+would be foolhardy. Sooner or later every box and barrel was sure to be
+examined. Besides, to remain in the yard, a prisoner without food, was
+out of the question.
+
+Noiselessly but swiftly he moved to the extreme rear of the yard. Here
+was located a two-story building, probably facing the next street. The
+lower windows of this building were shuttered and barred, but an upper
+window was partly raised and the room beyond was totally dark. From the
+window of his late prison Louis had seen that this building was not a
+dwelling, but a store or warehouse of some kind.
+
+Close to the open window ran an iron pipe, connecting with the roof to
+carry off the water when it rained. The pipe was held to the building
+by metal clasps, and catching hold of these Louis raised himself up
+until he was on a level with the opening. Without hesitation he entered
+the window, just as several Confederate guards, with lanterns, entered
+the yard below.
+
+“Sure both of ’em didn’t jump the fence?” Louis heard one of the
+Confederates ask.
+
+“Yes. Griffith saw him. The other must be around here.”
+
+Louis waited to hear no more, satisfied that before the search
+was over the open window would be noted and an examination in that
+direction would ensue. Leading from the window was a passageway between
+a great number of boxes and loose piles of clothing, and down this
+he moved cautiously, for it was so dark he could not see a foot in
+front of him. Presently his hand struck a railing leading to a pair
+of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a door, and from the crack
+above this streamed a dim light, showing that the store below was
+partly lit up, even at that unseasonable hour of the night.
+
+Wondering if he could escape to the next street before the alarm
+was given in that neighborhood, the young Union soldier slipped
+down the stairs and entered the store, which he found filled with a
+miscellaneous collection of articles, including clothing, firearms,
+jewelry, crockery and woodenware, and farming implements. There was a
+counter near by and on this lay some business cards showing the place
+belonged to one Simon Davidstein.
+
+As Louis was advancing towards the front door he heard several men
+come up to it from the other side, and then a key was inserted in the
+lock and the door was thrown back. Louis had barely time to secrete
+himself behind a counter when three men entered.
+
+“It vos lucky you vos found me at der hotel,” said one of the
+newcomers, in a high-pitched German voice. “I ain’t dare all der dime,
+no more.”
+
+“If we hadn’t found you, Davidstein, you’d ’a’ lost a good bargain,”
+came the reply, in a voice which sounded strangely familiar to Louis.
+At the risk of being discovered he peered out from his hiding place and
+saw that the man who had spoken was Caleb Fox! With him was Sam Jacks,
+while the third party was the owner of the establishment.
+
+Louis was both astonished and mystified. What had brought Fox and Jacks
+to that place at this hour of the night? Fox carried a heavy flour-sack
+and the mission of the two thieving guerrillas was soon explained.
+
+“We’ve got a fine collection of watches and jewelry fer ye this trip,
+Davidstein,” said Sam Jacks. “Must be at least five hundred dollars’
+worth in the bag.”
+
+“Fife hundred dollars--in dese dimes!” cried Davidstein. “You must pe
+crazy! Of you dinks I gif fife hundred dollars you ton’t petter open
+der pag at all, ain’t it. Maybe you vos mean baber money?” he added
+suddenly.
+
+“No, we ain’t takin’ nothin’ but gold,” said Caleb Fox. “Just you look
+at the rings and watches, and we’ve got a fine pin or two; ain’t thet
+so, Sam?”
+
+“Best Davidstein ever saw,” joined in the second guerrilla.
+
+“I ton’t vos got no fife hundred in gold to bay out dis night,” said
+Davidstein, stoutly.
+
+“Well, you handle the stuff an’ make an offer,” concluded Caleb Fox.
+“Remember, we have got to divide with the rest o’ the boys.”
+
+The trio moved to the center of the store, and here the single light
+that was burning was turned up. At the same time there was a clatter
+from the rear and a sleepy but somewhat excited young Jew appeared,
+pistol in hand.
+
+“I dink it dime you voke up, Jacob,” cried Davidstein, sarcastically.
+“Der mop could rob der blace und you schleep on like von rock, hey?”
+
+“I heard you come in,” was the abashed answer. “I vos listening py der
+shudders on der pack window. Dere vos droubles py der brison, I dink.”
+
+“Dot ain’t our bees’ness, so long dey ton’t come here,” concluded
+Davidstein. “You can lay down again,” and Jacob retreated to his cot
+behind a pile of packing boxes.
+
+By this time Fox and Jacks had the flour bag open and a miscellaneous
+collection of articles stolen upon the battlefield were spread out on
+the counter. With a well-trained eye Davidstein ran over the lot in
+a careful but apparently careless manner. Some talk followed, and he
+finally offered a hundred dollars in gold for what was there. To this
+Fox and Jacks demurred. They would take three hundred and not a cent
+less. Davidstein told them to pack the articles up again. This brought
+on another talk, and finally a purchasing price of two hundred dollars
+in gold was settled upon, and Davidstein proceeded to get the cash out
+of a secret hiding place in the cellar.
+
+Louis listened to the talk with keen interest. He understood that
+Davidstein was a receiver of stolen goods, and he felt sure that his
+own things must be among those Jacks and Fox had come to sell. “If I
+get the chance I’ll have them back again, see if I don’t,” he thought,
+and continued to keep as quiet as a mouse.
+
+Davidstein had hardly disappeared into the cellar when there came a
+sharp rapping on the front door. At once the Jew came running up again.
+
+“Who is dot?” he questioned, and went forward. An officer and two
+guards from the prison presented themselves.
+
+“I haven’t seen or heard noddings about any escaped brisoner,” answered
+Davidstein, in reply to the officer’s questions. “Jacob, haf you seen
+anypotty?”
+
+“Not a soul,” answered the sleepy clerk. “I heard somedings going on
+ofer by der brison, put dot’s all.”
+
+“Your window upstairs is open,” said the officer. “We think he may have
+climbed up to it. We want to make a search.”
+
+At first Davidstein demurred, but at last he consented to have the
+officer and guards take a look around. He went upstairs with the
+soldiers, and Jacks and Fox followed, while the sleepy clerk stood
+watch below.
+
+Louis scarcely dared to breathe. The clerk moved forward to the front
+door and looked out upon the street. Then he came behind the counter
+and walked slowly towards the spot where the young Union soldier was in
+hiding. Louis felt that a crisis was at hand.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+
+                     LOUIS AS A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
+
+
+Moving along as if in deep thought, the clerk of the store reached the
+very spot where Louis was in hiding, behind a number of loose shelving
+boards standing upright under the counter. His legs were within easy
+reach of the young Union soldier, and had he leaned down less than a
+foot he could have seen the hidden one without trouble.
+
+“Jacob!” It was a call from above, and at once the clerk moved away. A
+moment later Louis heard him ascend the stairs, and an earnest talk on
+the next floor followed.
+
+Louis felt that now was the time to make his escape. Even if the
+others should go away, the clerk would remain in the store until it
+was time to open for business in the morning. Without making any noise
+Louis arose from his cramped position. As he did this he saw close at
+hand a pistol and a box of cartridges, evidently set aside for some
+customer. He slipped both into his pocket as things which might become
+exceedingly useful later on.
+
+Less than ten feet away were the articles Jacks and Fox had brought in.
+Over these Davidstein had hastily thrown some paper, to conceal them
+from the Confederate officer, who, had he seen them, might have asked
+some troublesome questions. Louis could not resist the temptation to
+take a look at the goods. He speedily recognized his watch and several
+other things belonging to himself, and stowed them away. This done he
+placed the paper in its former position and ran lightly for the front
+door.
+
+A look outside told him that the coast in the immediate vicinity of the
+store was clear. But how would it be farther on? That question could
+not be answered. Those upstairs were coming down. He moved outside,
+closed the door noiselessly behind him, and made a dash across the
+street to an alley between a store and a private dwelling.
+
+“Hi, there!” It was the call of a private citizen, who had seen him
+running. Louis did not reply, but kept on his course, and reaching
+the end of the alley leaped over a fence, crossed another street
+and finally found himself in the rear of a mansion surrounded by
+a well-kept garden. A barn was close at hand and he entered this,
+thinking the hay-loft would surely offer a safe hiding place.
+
+An hour was spent in the barn without disturbance, and the young Union
+soldier was wondering what he had best do next, when he heard the
+clatter of hoofs, and a man on horseback entered the garden and rode
+straight for the barn. From the hay-loft Louis saw him dismount and
+take some papers from a secret pocket in his saddle. Then came the
+banging of a house door, the rush of feet, and a middle-aged woman
+rushed up.
+
+“Oh, Robert, are you safe?” Louis heard the lady exclaim, in anxious
+tones.
+
+“Perfectly safe, Lucy; although I’ve had a tight squeeze of it.”
+
+“And did you get to General McClel--”
+
+“Hush, my dear--” The man put up his hand warningly. “No, I didn’t see
+the general, but I saw General Keyes and that was just as well. The
+plans of the fortifications will help along the cause a good deal. Has
+anybody been here since I was away?”
+
+“Captain Andrews. He wanted to know where you were. I told him
+somewhere about town. Robert, I am afraid they are beginning to suspect
+everything is not right.”
+
+“Perhaps. But as long as they can’t prove anything, Lucy, we are safe.
+I hope you have something ready for me to eat, I’m as hungry as a bear.
+Whoa, Clipper, there you are, old boy. Lucy, Clipper is a marvel to
+travel through such swamps and muck holes.”
+
+So the talk ran on, while the man lit a lantern and cared for his
+horse. That he was a Union sympathizer there was no doubt. He had just
+made a visit to General Keyes’s headquarters with the plans of the
+Confederate fortifications in and about Richmond.
+
+Louis felt his heart bound within him. Here were friends who would
+surely assist him. He came to the edge of the loft.
+
+“Below there,” he whispered.
+
+“Ha! who is there?” ejaculated the man, leaping back and snatching up
+his pistol, which lay on a feed box.
+
+“Don’t fire, sir. I heard you talk and I throw myself upon your
+sympathy. I am a Union soldier, just escaped from the prison two
+blocks over from here--a place that used to be a pork-packing
+establishment--and the guards are searching everywhere for me. So far
+they have no clew to my whereabouts, and--”
+
+“Come down here and let me look at you,” was the interruption, and
+Louis ran down the ladder. The man held up his lantern.
+
+“Pennsylvania Volunteers, eh?” he said, briefly. “Humph! How long were
+you up in the loft?”
+
+“An hour. You will assist me, won’t you? I don’t want to go back to
+that awful hole.” Louis looked at the woman.
+
+“Bring him into the house, Robert,” she said, turning to her husband.
+“I am sure he speaks the truth, for when I was at the window waiting
+for you I heard some men go by who were talking about two prisoners
+having just escaped.”
+
+“They were myself and a friend, madam. I don’t know what has become of
+my friend, but I trust he is safe.”
+
+“Come along, young man,” said the man. “And if you heard anything of
+importance the quicker you forget it the better it will be for you,”
+and taking Louis by the arm he led the way through the garden into the
+house.
+
+Once inside of the house Louis was conducted to a large sitting-room,
+well furnished. Here he was invited to take a seat, while his host
+looked to it that every curtain was carefully drawn down and the outer
+doors locked.
+
+“Now I will listen to your story,” said the man, dropping into an easy
+chair.
+
+“Won’t you have your supper first, Robert?” interposed his wife.
+“Perhaps you are hungry, too?” she added, turning to the young soldier.
+
+“I am--but I want to know that I’m safe from the rebels before I begin
+to eat,” was the quick reply.
+
+“You are safe here, my lad--only don’t speak of rebels so loudly, for
+even walls have ears, you know.” The man drew two chairs up to the
+center table. “We’ll eat here, Lucy; it will be safer, in case there is
+an interruption from the outside.”
+
+In a few minutes a smoking hot supper was brought in from the kitchen.
+The lady had cooked it herself, all of her servants having been
+discharged, that they might not pry into the affairs of the household.
+Never had a meal tasted better to Louis, and he said so, after he had
+eaten and related his tale at the same time.
+
+“You were lucky to get away, Rockford,” said Robert Dowling, for such
+was the man’s name. “And you were lucky to strike this place, don’t you
+think so?”
+
+“I do, Mr. Dowling--especially after such a spread.” Louis smiled at
+the lady of the house, who smiled back. “This beats rations on the
+peninsula.”
+
+“I dare say it does. But now the question is, Having escaped from
+prison, what are you going to do?”
+
+“Get back to camp--if I can.”
+
+“Precisely--if you can. It is going to be difficult, Rockford,
+tremendously difficult. Getting through the lines is no light work.”
+
+“I believe you, sir. But I don’t want to remain here, so I’ll make the
+attempt, if you’ll give me a little aid.”
+
+“I’ll give you all the aid I can. You had better not try to start
+now. It will be daylight soon. Wait until four o’clock this afternoon.
+Then you can go down near the picket lines and break through--if you
+can--when it grows dark.”
+
+“The trouble is, this uniform is against me.”
+
+“Not so much as you may think. Some of the boys down here are wearing
+cast-off Union suits of clothing. All you must do is to rip off your
+numbers and letters and dirty the suit a little more and it will pass,
+combined with a Confederate cap of gray which I will furnish to you.”
+
+“And what will be my best route out of Richmond?”
+
+“That must lie with yourself, since what is best is difficult to state.
+During the day I will take you to the top of the house and through my
+field glass you can get some idea of how the land lies.”
+
+After this the talk became general. But Robert Dowling was sleepy and
+soon he excused himself and retired, leaving Louis to be entertained
+by his wife. The young soldier learned that the family had moved to
+Richmond from Boston ten years before, the head of the house being in
+business in both places. The war had ruined Mr. Dowling’s trade, and
+being a Northern sympathizer he was using his leisure in giving the
+Federalists all the aid within his power.
+
+Having taken a wash after eating, Louis was conducted to an upper
+chamber, where he lay down, but not to sleep, for his mind was in
+too much of a tumult for that. He was about to start on a dangerous
+mission. Would he succeed or fail? Then his mind traveled back to the
+parting with Hornsby. Was the old soldier safe, or had he been retaken?
+And then Louis thought of Andy. Where was the daring young cavalryman
+now?
+
+From the window of the bed-chamber he could look down two of the
+streets of Richmond. Occasionally he saw an ambulance pass along, and
+in the middle of the afternoon a regiment of Confederate infantry
+passed with colors flying and drums beating gaily, on their way to
+the front. “Maybe I’ll have to fight my way through those fellows
+to-night,” he thought, as he turned away to avoid even the possibility
+of being seen.
+
+It was three o’clock when Robert Dowling called him, and both went up
+to the roof of the house, but did not step outside. The man had brought
+a pair of powerful field glasses with him, and through these he pointed
+out to Louis the various roads leading to the north and east.
+
+It was a grand sight to Louis. On all sides of him lay the Confederate
+capital, hemmed in with fortifications and swarming with soldiers like
+ants around some gigantic ant-hill. Here was a single company, there
+a regiment, and over yonder an entire division, with tents and wagons
+innumerable. From the fortifications frowned the batteries, and Louis
+could distinctly see the gunners standing ready for immediate service
+and the officers moving around, giving orders and inspecting the
+various headquarters. In one section of the great field a regiment was
+out on drill, its men marching and counter-marching in splendid order,
+with bayonets sparkling in the light of the fading sun.
+
+“Tough job to get in here, eh?” said Robert Dowling, briefly.
+
+Louis drew a long breath. “Indeed it will be. Do you really think
+General McClellan can do it?”
+
+“If General McDowell’s troops come down, yes. If they don’t--” The man
+did not finish. “Come down, if you have seen enough.”
+
+“In a minute.” Louis turned the field glass to the northeast. “Our
+troops have their balloon up,” he cried. “They are taking observations.”
+
+“That balloon makes the Southerners awfully mad,” said Robert Dowling,
+with a laugh. “Time and again they have tried to shoot it full of
+holes. But come, or somebody on another roof may see you and grow
+suspicious.”
+
+They went below again, and now the man brought forth the faded
+Confederate cap he had promised Louis. It made the youth feel queer to
+put it on. “Seems like I was insulting myself,” he explained, at which
+his host smiled broadly.
+
+“You’ll get used to it. Now, remember, if you are asked any
+questions, that you belong to Company A, Second North Carolina Troops,
+Brigadier-General Anderson commanding, under General Hill, and that
+you are looking for your company somewhere down the Williamsburg road,
+and that you lost your regular army clothing during a skirmish in the
+swamps. That will carry you outside of Richmond and when you get near
+the picket lines you must take care of yourself as seems best. My
+advice is, don’t move until it’s dark.”
+
+“Just what I was thinking,” answered Louis, and repeated the name of
+the organization to which he was supposed to belong, that he might get
+it right. Soon after this he was bidding his kind host and hostess
+good-bye, having previously given his word that come what might,
+he would not reveal what he had heard in the barn during the night
+previous.
+
+He left the garden by a back gate, and with a heart that beat rapidly
+hurried along the street to where one of the main thoroughfares led
+out of Richmond to the Williamsburg turnpike. At first he imagined
+everybody was looking at him and suspecting him, but this soon wore
+away and he continued on with greater confidence. He had no gun, but
+in his pocket was the pistol which he had picked up in the store, now
+fully loaded.
+
+Coming to a corner of the thoroughfare, he paused for a minute, to
+avoid some soldiers who were marching past. As he lingered, he chanced
+to glance at a door upon which was a brass plate bearing the name:
+
+                             THEODORE FAILY
+
+“The very man father wants to hear from!” Louis murmured to himself.
+“Shall I venture to call on him, or had I better move on?”
+
+His first inclination was to go on, but then he remembered the letters
+from home, and how afraid his folks were that they might lose the farm.
+He advanced to the door and knocked sharply.
+
+In answer to his summons an aged negro appeared, and when the youth
+asked for Mr. Faily, ushered him into a dimly-lit parlor. A minute
+later Theodore Faily appeared. He did not know Louis and gazed
+inquiringly at the young soldier in his tattered uniform.
+
+“Excuse me, sir, but I am in great haste,” said Louis, speaking
+rapidly. “Will you tell me if you are the Theodore Faily who used to
+live in Pennsylvania and sold a farm to Mr. Rockford?”
+
+“I am the man, yes.”
+
+“I am an--an agent for Mr. Rockford, Mr. Faily. I have reached you
+under difficulties. Let me ask, do you know a man named Samuel Hammer?”
+
+“I do--to my sorrow.”
+
+“Did he have a claim on that farm?”
+
+“Not in the least. He once claimed to have, but his claim was
+worthless.”
+
+“He has been bothering Mr. Rockford a great deal lately,” continued
+the young soldier. “He wants three thousand dollars, or he is going to
+law--”
+
+“The rascal! But it is just like Sam Hammer. Mr. Rockford had better
+pay no attention to him.”
+
+“Can you give me some paper, showing the truth of this matter? I will
+manage to get it to Mr. Rockford by some means. I have risked a great
+deal to reach you.”
+
+Theodore Faily mused for a moment and gazed keenly at Louis.
+
+“This is--er--a rather unusual proceeding,” he observed. “But in these
+times many things are unusual. I think I understand you--since you must
+come from the North.” He closed one eye suggestively. “Yes, I will give
+you a paper, duly signed and witnessed. I hate Sam Hammer and would
+like nothing better than to put a spoke in his wheel.”
+
+The gentleman went out--to be gone over a quarter of an hour. When he
+came back he handed Louis an envelope.
+
+“There, take that. You will find it will stop Hammer, I reckon. And
+when you see Mr. Rockford, give him my best respects.” He leaned
+forward. “My sympathies are still at the North,” he whispered.
+
+“Thank you a thousand times, sir,” said Louis, as he slipped the
+document into an inner pocket. Then, after a few words more, he left
+the house.
+
+The sun was beginning to set when Louis found himself out of the city.
+He had been stopped twice, but his answers in each instance had enabled
+him to proceed without molestation. One man gave him minute directions
+as to where he could find “his company,” and for this Louis thanked him
+profusely, inwardly shivering for fear the fellow might chance to know
+some of the North Carolinians and ask after them.
+
+The young Unionist reckoned that he was about a mile from the picket
+line when he came to a turn in the road he was pursuing. He had just
+passed a small encampment of Confederate troops who were breaking up to
+march to the rear. He now heard the thunder of cavalry on the road and
+stepped into the brush at hand to let them pass by. They soon came into
+view and he recognized the Montgomery Grays.
+
+“Andy’s troop,” he muttered, and strained his eyes to catch sight of
+his friend, but failed to do so, at which he was much disappointed.
+
+The cavalry having passed, he resumed his journey, but with greater
+caution, feeling he must ere long go into hiding until nightfall. A
+short tramp brought him to the top of a rise. From this he made out
+Confederate troops to his right and his left, while the road ahead was
+alive with them.
+
+“That settles it. I can’t go much farther in this direction. I’ll
+strike out through the woods.”
+
+Leaving the road, he pursued a course in the center of the rising
+ground, thus avoiding the swamps upon either side. There was a beaten
+trail here, showing that others had taken the same course.
+
+A few minutes of walking and Louis suddenly stood still. A horse was
+coming towards him, walking slowly. The animal was riderless and was
+bleeding from a bullet wound in the foreleg. As the beast came closer
+Louis recognized it. The horse was Firefly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+                       LOUIS AND ANDY MEET AGAIN
+
+
+“Firefly!” burst from the lips of the young Union soldier. “Whoa, old
+fellow! Where is your master?”
+
+At this question Firefly halted and looked at Louis as though he would
+like very much to talk. The bullet wound made the beast quiver with
+pain, and the youth stroked him affectionately.
+
+“Been in a scrimmage, I’ll wager a pilot cracker,” the boy went on.
+“Was Andy killed? Oh, I sincerely trust not!” And something like a lump
+came up in his throat.
+
+Firefly whinnied and shook his mane vigorously. Then he turned, as if
+to lead Louis down a narrow path branching off from that on the ridge.
+At once the boy understood and followed the animal.
+
+Scarcely three hundred feet had been passed when Louis heard the
+murmur of voices, coming from a little clearing, backed up by a
+treacherous swamp. As he drew closer, he recognized Andy’s voice:
+
+“Let me alone, Jacks, or it will be the worse for you,” the young
+Confederate cavalryman was saying. “You are nothing but a thief, I
+know, but you shall not rob me.”
+
+“We are two to one, Arlington,” came from Sam Jacks. “And I ain’t
+forgot how yer interfered with me an’ my pards up ter Lee Run. I’m
+a-goin’ ter git squar’, I am.”
+
+“It’s a mighty fine gold watch the kid’s got,” put in another, and now
+Louis recognized the vicious face of Caleb Fox through the brush. “It
+ought ter be wuth fifty dollars an’ more.”
+
+“You wounded my horse and made him run away,” went on Andy. “I ought to
+shoot you both for that.”
+
+“Ye can’t frighten us, Arlington,” chuckled Sam Jacks. “Don’t we know
+neither of yer pistols is loaded? An’ if yer try to draw thet saber--”
+Jacks finished by suggestively tapping his own pistol.
+
+An instant later there came a savage howl from Caleb Fox, who had
+come close to Andy with the intention of searching him. The young
+Confederate had whipped out his saber and the point had caught Fox in
+the fleshy part of his left lower limb.
+
+“Back, I say!” cried Andy, as he took a stand near a tree. Wild with
+rage Caleb Fox drew a long horse-pistol from his belt.
+
+“I’ll fix yer!” he fairly hissed, and aimed the weapon at Andy’s head.
+Before, however, he could pull the trigger, if such was really his
+intention, there came a sharp crack from the brush and the pistol fell
+to the ground while Fox began to dance around in pain, a bullet wound
+directly through his wrist.
+
+“Louis!” burst from Andy’s lips, as the young Union soldier rushed
+forward. “Was it you shot him?”
+
+“It was, Andy; and I’ll shoot him again if he attempts another such
+attack. Rascals like these are a disgrace to any army. Up with your
+hands, Sam Jacks!”
+
+For Jacks had made a motion towards his belt. Louis’s pistol was
+now on a level with the mountaineer’s head, his eyes shone with cool
+determination--and the hands went up as requested.
+
+“This ain’t fair an’ squar’,” muttered Sam Jacks. “Put thet gun
+down--it might go off.” And he endeavored to step out of range.
+
+“Stand still, Jacks,” commanded Louis, “or my pistol will go off, and
+Fox can testify to what sort of a bead I can draw.”
+
+“My wrist is broke!” moaned Fox, still dancing about. “You young
+villain! If ever I git a chance--”
+
+“No threats, Fox. The best thing you can do is to wet your
+handkerchief, if you have one, in yonder pool and bind the wound up.
+Stop--that pistol can remain where it is--or Andy, perhaps you had
+better pick it up.”
+
+“I will, seeing that my own is unloaded,” answered Andy. “But what
+brought you here, and in that outfit?”
+
+“I’ll explain later. At present--Hi, Jacks, stop!”
+
+But Sam Jacks was not stopping just then. Watching his chance, he had
+leaped for the shelter of the nearest bushes. Now he went tearing along
+at a breakneck speed. Louis tried to follow him, but soon stopped the
+pursuit, thinking it would be useless to catch the rascal. Presently
+the sounds of his footsteps died away in the distance.
+
+“He’s gone,” he announced, upon returning to the clearing. “You may as
+well let Fox go, too. I reckon he has learned a lesson he won’t forget
+in a hurry.”
+
+“Won’t you let me have my pistol?” demanded the guerrilla.
+
+“No,” was the short reply. “Go, and be thankful you have saved your
+life,” answered Andy. “If ever I catch sight of you near our camp I’ll
+report you and have you both put under arrest as battlefield thieves.”
+
+Muttering under his breath, Caleb Fox slunk off, one hand holding the
+wounded wrist. He pursued the direction Jacks had taken--a path leading
+to the rendezvous of the guerrillas.
+
+The pair of rascals gone, Louis and Andy shook hands. “I owe you one
+for this,” said Andy, with a warm smile. “If you hadn’t appeared there
+is no telling what those two would have done to me. Perhaps they might
+have killed me and pitched me into the swamp.” And he shuddered at the
+thought.
+
+“It was Firefly brought me here,” answered Louis, and patted the
+animal affectionately. “But why are you out here alone?”
+
+“I am carrying a message to General Longstreet, and I reckon I got on
+the wrong road. But what have you got to say for yourself? I heard you
+were either shot or a prisoner.”
+
+“I was a prisoner, Andy; but I managed to get away, and now I’m trying
+to return to my own camp--if I can find it.”
+
+“Don’t you know you are in our lines?” and Andy looked deeply concerned.
+
+“Oh, yes, I know that only too well. I suppose I’ll have no picnic
+running the picket line.”
+
+“Hang me if I don’t wish I could help you, Louis. I know it’s all
+wrong, according to the rules of war, but--but--well, you know what
+they say, ‘Blood is thicker than water,’ and such a friendship as
+ours--”
+
+“Can’t be shattered by the bullets and shells of war,” finished Louis,
+with a short laugh. “I should trust not, Andy. Come what may, I shall
+always look upon you as a brother, even though I’ll do my level best to
+help the North win in this great struggle.”
+
+“And I shall always hold you as my best and only chum, Louis,” was the
+warm reply, “and of course I’ll fight just as hard as I can for our
+side. How are your folks?”
+
+“Father is quite well again, and mother is, too,” answered Louis, and
+told of the trouble at the farm and how he now hoped to clear it. “In
+the last letter written by Lucy, she and Martha wanted to know if I
+ever heard of you. What of your people?”
+
+“Father is not so well. Mother has a good deal of trouble taking care
+of him. Grace writes to me every week, and last week she wanted to know
+if she could get a letter through to you,” and Andy closed one eye, at
+which Louis blushed furiously.
+
+“You are making that up, Andy--don’t tell me you are not. However,
+remember me to Grace, and tell her I am doing nicely in spite of fights
+and bad weather. If you-- Hark! Some soldiers are coming! They must
+be some of your troops, and if that is so, I must be going. Good-bye,
+Andy, and may we meet again soon!”
+
+“Good-bye, Louis. Oh, if I could only see you safe to your camp! Yes,
+you must hurry, for the soldiers are coming on the double-quick! Hark!
+there are rifle shots! There must be a skirmish of some kind over to
+the left!”
+
+“If there is, it will help me through, Andy. Good-bye!” And with a last
+fervid hand-clasp the two chums parted, not to meet again until the
+memorable battle of Malvern Hill.
+
+As Andy had said, the sounds of firing came from the left. Running
+along the ridge trail, Louis kept on until he reckoned he was about
+midway between the two lines of shots, although still to the right of
+the scene of the contest. He then slowed up and proceeded through the
+bushes with great caution, his pistol cocked and ready for instant use.
+
+Less than a hundred and fifty feet had been covered in this fashion,
+when he reached another clearing which marked, east and west, the
+picket lines of the two armies. The firing was now close at hand, and
+presently, from the cover of the woods, came scampering a company of
+boys in blue closely followed by twice their number of boys in gray.
+The former were reloading their guns as they came on, the Confederates
+opening fire meanwhile and causing several to drop in their tracks.
+
+Throwing away his gray cap, Louis darted into the clearing and joined
+the flying Union men. As he went on he picked up a gun one of the
+wounded soldiers had cast away.
+
+“Union or reb?” came the question, as the company halted behind some
+bushes.
+
+“Union, captain,” was the prompt answer. “I’ve been a rebel prisoner.”
+
+There was no time to say more, for the company was now ordered to
+about face, and the advancing Confederates received a reception which
+caused a hasty retreat; and the skirmish was over. During the siege
+such skirmishes were of almost daily occurrence. The picket lines were
+re-established, the dead and wounded cared for, and that was the end
+of the matter, save for the great “blowing” done afterwards upon both
+sides.
+
+The excitement over, Louis was conducted to the rear, where he had
+to give a strict account of himself to the general in charge of the
+regiment stationed in the woods. This was done in order to ascertain
+beyond all doubt that he was not a Confederate spy. He was informed
+where his own regiment was located, nearly a mile away, and a corporal
+was detailed to conduct him hither and learn if his story was a true
+one.
+
+“Louis! We had given you up for lost!” cried Harry Bingham, when he
+appeared, and the youth was soon surrounded by friends. He lost no time
+in reporting to his commander. When Captain Paulding learned that he
+had really been in Richmond and had had a chance of overlooking the
+fortifications there with a field glass, he sent word to headquarters
+to that effect.
+
+The next day came an important order for Louis. It was from General
+McClellan, to the effect that he should present himself at the
+headquarters of the commander-in-chief without delay.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX
+
+                     LOUIS VISITS GENERAL MCCLELLAN
+
+
+Louis’s heart gave a bound. He was to visit the great
+commander-in-chief of the Army of the Potomac! He had seen General
+McClellan before, of course, for the general was very popular with his
+men and loved to roam about among them, but he had never had the chance
+of speaking with so distinguished an officer.
+
+The day was a quiet one through the great camp as Louis walked from the
+quarters of the Goreville Volunteers, a distance of nearly two miles,
+to where General McClellan had stationed himself and his staff. The
+troops had not yet recovered from the shock experienced at Fair Oaks
+and lay resting here, there, and everywhere, although the picket line
+was ever on the alert.
+
+For this occasion Louis had donned an almost new uniform, every
+particular button of which shone its brightest. He had, moreover, had
+his hair trimmed by a fellow-soldier who was a barber, and altogether
+he presented a prepossessing appearance as he came up, saluted, and
+told the orderly the object of his mission.
+
+General McClellan was just then busy dictating reports to his secretary
+and conversing with several of his officers, and Louis had to wait
+nearly an hour before he was admitted to the presence of the commander.
+When he was told to enter, General McClellan received him with a kindly
+smile.
+
+“Private Rockford, General Heintzelman reports that you were taken
+prisoner by the rebels, carried off to Richmond, and that you had a
+fair chance to look around the city before you escaped and got back
+into camp. Is that true?”
+
+“I did not have much of a chance to look around while I was a prisoner,
+general. But I did look around a bit after I escaped and before I
+started in this direction.”
+
+“Did you take note of any of their fortifications, or the number and
+disposition of their troops?”
+
+“I took note of all I possibly could, sir--feeling that it was
+knowledge worth getting for our side,” answered Louis, with pardonable
+pride.
+
+“Tell me your story. But be brief, for I am busy to-day. Never mind how
+you were captured or who took you to Richmond.”
+
+“I’ll tell you all I know in as few words as I can, sir,” and being
+motioned to a camp chair, Louis sat down and related how he and the
+others had been imprisoned in the pork-packing establishment, how he
+and Hornsby had escaped and separated, and of his doings at the home
+of Robert Dowling. At the mention of the spy’s name General McClellan
+elevated his eyebrows for an instant, but did not otherwise betray his
+surprise.
+
+“Here is something of a plan I have drawn of the rebel fortifications
+as I remember them,” the youth went on, and drew a roll of paper from
+his pocket. “You can see I am no artist, sir. Those crosses represent
+woods and those lines of dots are rebel troops. The little bars on the
+fortifications are batteries.”
+
+“Hum!” General McClellan spread the paper out on his camp table and
+pored over it earnestly. “This line is the outskirts of Richmond?”
+
+“Yes, sir. That box marked L. P. is Libby Prison, and that is the
+Williamsburg road. That fortification is near the Mechanicsville
+bridge, directly in front of these headquarters.”
+
+“And what is that?” and General McClellan pointed upon the map with the
+point of a pen.
+
+“That is a fortification commanding the Chickahominy to the northeast
+of the city. I heard that General Johnston used to stay there, and I
+also heard the rebels have a large magazine there. And, sir, I heard
+General Johnston is severely wounded and that General Lee will take his
+place, and the rebels think Jackson will soon come down to Richmond
+from the valley.”
+
+At this General McClellan smiled again. “You have had your ears
+wide open for one of your age,” he said. “This map will perhaps prove
+of value, although it merely corroborates what our regular spies have
+already furnished us with.” He looked at the paper again and continued
+to ask questions, all of which Louis answered as well as he was able.
+In fifteen minutes the interview was over. “One thing I wish to caution
+you about, Rockford,” were the general’s final words. “Do not mention
+Robert Dowling by name. The word may get back to Richmond and cause the
+man who befriended you much trouble.”
+
+“I will remember, general.”
+
+“For a young man of your age you have done remarkably well. Keep on as
+you have started and who knows but that you will one day be wearing a
+general’s shoulder-straps?” and then the general bowed pleasantly and
+turned away, while Louis saluted in his best manner and walked out. The
+cordial reception had made Louis the general’s friend for life.
+
+[Illustration: “KEEP ON AS YOU HAVE STARTED AND WHO KNOWS BUT THAT YOU
+WILL ONE DAY BE WEARING A GENERAL’S SHOULDER-STRAPS?”--_Page 387._]
+
+It must not be imagined that Louis had forgotten Hornsby. His first
+words on getting into camp had been concerning his fellow-prisoner.
+Nothing had been heard of the old soldier. As a matter of fact, the man
+was recaptured not six hours after dropping from the prison window, and
+it was only by good luck that he was not shot. Two days later he was
+removed to Libby Prison, where he remained until the first exchange of
+prisoners after the termination of the peninsula campaign.
+
+Louis received an ovation when he returned to the ranks of the
+Goreville Volunteers.
+
+“He’s been a-dining with General McClellan,” said Callings. “Louis,
+what did you have, quail on toast or stuffed turkey? Did he treat to
+Havana cigars or Pittsburg stogies?”
+
+“I pet you der cheneral vos calls him a pully poy,” put in Hans
+Roddmann. “Und dot’s vot he vos--der pulliest poy in der camp, hey?”
+And he slapped Louis so heartily upon the back that the young soldier
+had the breath knocked out of him. Jerry Rowe said nothing, but stood
+by, looking as sour as possible.
+
+“The airs Louis Rockford puts on make me sick,” he grumbled to Benny
+Bruce, later on.
+
+“Don’t talk to me, Jerry Rowe,” answered Benny, with flashing eyes.
+“You’re the biggest coward in the camp and I don’t care to recognize
+you.”
+
+“Call me a coward,” cried Jerry, in a rage. He went at Benny with his
+fists, expecting the drummer boy to retreat. But Benny had heard enough
+about Jerry and he determined to make a stand if it cost him his life.
+He dodged Jerry’s first rush and then planted a blow on the big boy’s
+neck which sent Jerry headlong to the grass.
+
+“Hurrah!” called out a soldier, who saw the row. “Benny Bruce is giving
+Jerry Rowe a long-deserved licking!” and the cry soon drew a crowd. Mad
+with rage and mortification, Jerry leaped up and made another rush,
+only to have the first dose repeated. Benny’s eyes burned like two live
+coals.
+
+“You’ve taunted me enough, Jerry Rowe,” he panted. “After this you
+leave me alone, understand?”
+
+“I’ll--I’ll kill you!” howled Jerry, again scrambling up. This time he
+managed to hit Benny on the cheek, but in return came a smashing blow
+on the nose, “a regular sockdolager,” so Harry Bingham said, and Jerry
+staggered back with his face covered with blood. Benny followed him
+up, when lo and behold, Jerry’s cowardly nature asserted itself and he
+actually ran away from the aggressive little drummer boy! What a shout
+went up!
+
+“Hurrah for Benny Bruce!”
+
+“He’ll be a man yet. Shake hands, Benny. Jerry Rowe won’t bother you
+again, I’ll bet you a shilling.”
+
+“Benny vos almost so much of a mans as Louis, py chiminatty!” said Hans
+Roddmann. “Mine poy, I vos broud of you. Der best dings Cherry can do
+is to desert und choin der enemy.”
+
+“They won’t have him,” said Louis. “Benny, I’m glad to see you able to
+stick up for yourself. I don’t believe in fist-fighting, but I guess
+Jerry Rowe deserved all he got.”
+
+“He’s been picking at me since we enlisted,” answered the drummer boy,
+who was still panting from his exertions. “All I ask of him is to leave
+me alone.”
+
+None of the officers had witnessed the encounter, which took place
+behind some bushes to the side of the camp, and the matter was hushed
+up. After that Jerry Rowe took good care to leave Benny Bruce alone.
+
+As soon as he could do so, Louis wrote a long letter to the folks at
+home and with this sent the document received from Theodore Faily.
+
+“There, I hope that makes everything right,” he said to himself, as he
+dropped the communication into the mail bag. He was very happy to think
+he had met Mr. Faily, but his happiness was cut short the next day when
+word was brought in that there had been a fire on the docks and some
+mail matter had been destroyed.
+
+“Oh, was our mail in the bunch destroyed?” he asked, of the under
+officer who brought the news.
+
+“I don’t know, but I am afraid so,” was the answer, which made Louis’s
+heart sink like a lump of lead in his bosom.
+
+On the following morning there was a slight commotion in camp. Some
+guerrillas had been captured, and Louis went to the spot to see them.
+To his surprise Caleb Fox and Sam Jacks were among the prisoners. Both
+were wounded, although not seriously.
+
+“What are they going to do with those prisoners?” asked Louis, of one
+of the guards.
+
+“Shoot ’em, I guess,” was the answer. “They deserve it.” But Fox and
+Jacks were not shot. Instead they were tried and sentenced to prison
+until the end of the war,--with a black mark against each,--which meant
+that they could not be exchanged.
+
+“Well, I am glad they are out of the way,” was Louis’s comment, when he
+heard of this.
+
+For over a week matters were quiet in the great camp so far as the
+Goreville Volunteers were concerned. On all sides the commands were
+strengthened so far as such a course was possible, and again General
+McClellan sent out his call for reinforcements and received less than a
+tenth of what he hoped for, and what he deemed absolutely necessary.
+
+In the meantime the Confederates were not idle. General Lee was
+now in absolute control, and by his work the army of the South was
+equipped and disciplined far better than ever before. Lee also began
+to correspond with General Jackson and was assured that Jackson with
+his command of the Shenandoah would be ready to unite with Lee’s forces
+whenever wanted. Thus was extinguished the last hope the Union army had
+of entering Richmond as a conclusion to the great peninsula campaign.
+
+Although the Goreville Volunteers were idle, the Montgomery Grays
+were decidedly active. About the middle of June a force of fifteen
+hundred Confederate cavalry under General Stuart moved from Richmond
+over to Hanover Court House, where they had a brush with a small body
+of Union soldiers, put them to flight, and destroyed many military
+stores from Hanover Court House to Tunstall’s Station, on the York
+River. From the York they moved to New Kent Court House and then to
+White Oak Swamp, thus taking a position directly in the rear of the
+Union army. Nearly two hundred prisoners were taken, and this cavalry
+raid was certainly the most daring of the whole campaign. Andy was in
+this raid and acquitted himself with great honor by helping to capture
+four Unionists, one supposed to be a spy, although the man never
+acknowledged it.
+
+This raid, along with other happenings, made General McClellan decide
+to change his base of supplies from White House, on the York, to the
+James River on the southern side of the peninsula. With this change of
+base this story has nothing to do, although the happenings upon that
+occasion, how the army goods were transported by boat and by wagon,
+and how what was left behind was burned, would fill a volume. It was a
+tremendous change, but a necessary one, and was made none too soon.
+
+The last week in June found the two armies ready for the final
+conflict--standing at bay, like two monsters, each measuring the
+strength of the other. They were on the verge of seven days of almost
+continual fighting. Everything that the two commanding generals could
+well do had been done. McClellan was vainly calling for the increase
+in troops he could not obtain, Lee was recruiting from every possible
+source, while Jackson, still maneuvering in the valley to deceive
+McDowell, was marching with all possible speed with the main body of
+his soldiers to help guard the Southern capital.
+
+On June twenty-fifth the contest began by the advance of the Union
+forces in the neighborhood of Seven Pines. At the same time General
+Jackson descended from the Shenandoah Valley and prepared for an
+immediate and heavy attack upon the right wing of the Union army. This
+was done after a consultation with General Lee, and through this means
+General McClellan was forced to abandon his attack and henceforth act
+upon the defensive.
+
+The Seven Days’ battles began properly at Mechanicsville on the
+twenty-sixth, and there followed in rapid succession the battles of
+Gaines’s Mill, Allen’s Farm, Savage Station, Glendale, and several
+others of lesser importance, topped by the terrific struggle at Malvern
+Hill, where the fierce advance of the Confederates was at last stayed
+by the Union forces, and General McClellan was allowed to withdraw to
+Harrison Landing without further molestation.
+
+To go into the details of the battles enumerated above would take far
+more space than we have to spare for such purposes. If the advance
+of the Confederate forces was masterly, equally so was the skillful
+retreat of the Union troops. Every mile of the ground was contested,
+as both sides fought their way through woods and swamps, and along
+roads now heavy with mud and then again ankle deep with dust, the
+Confederates with their capital and its supplies behind them, the Union
+army carrying with it thousands of sick and wounded and all that it was
+trying to save.
+
+But all these wonderfully interesting details must be left to
+the historians of the past and the future. We will pass on to the
+adventures Louis and Andy were to experience in those trying times,
+adventures more exciting than any they had yet encountered.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+
+               ADVENTURES DURING THE SEVEN DAYS’ BATTLES
+
+
+“Harry, we are going to move at last!”
+
+“Who said so?”
+
+“Captain Paulding. I just heard him talking to the general. I fancy we
+are in for a bit of hard fighting now.”
+
+“We have waited here too long, Louis, to my way of thinking. The rebels
+must have a tremendous reinforcement by this time.”
+
+It was a clear, warm day. It had not rained now for more than ten
+days, and the high ground around the camp was beginning to show signs
+of dust. On every side activity prevailed. Yet it was not until the
+middle of the afternoon that orders reached the regiment to which the
+Goreville boys belonged to move forward, in heavy marching order.
+
+“This does mean business,” Blackwell exclaimed. “We’re either going to
+march for Richmond or--”
+
+“Or what, Blackwell?”
+
+“Or we’re going to retreat.”
+
+“Retreat!” came from half a dozen throats.
+
+“Exactly, fellows. You see--”
+
+The roll of Benny Bruce’s drum cut the remark short. Soon soldiers
+were hurrying in all directions as the call to arms sounded upon the
+afternoon air. Half an hour later the Goreville Volunteers were on the
+march, moving down a road in the direction of Mechanicsville.
+
+Less than half a mile had been covered, when they heard the deep
+booming of cannon, followed by the sharp rattle of musketry. The shots
+came in quick succession, showing that not a mere skirmish but a
+genuine battle was in progress.
+
+Louis’s heart began to beat fast. He had done no fighting since that
+advance at Fair Oaks. What did the immediate future hold in store? He
+breathed a silent prayer that all might go well with him.
+
+A small hill was ascended and before the Volunteers was spread a
+moving panorama of soldiers, marching, retreating, and firing so fast
+that the clouds of dust almost hid the gallant fighters from view. On
+another hill a Confederate battery was dealing out death with every
+discharge of its four guns.
+
+“That battery must be taken!” This was the cry that ran along the line,
+as the Goreville Volunteers swept into action. “Forward, men, and keep
+close. One gallant charge and the day is ours!”
+
+Away went the men, each bayonet glistening brightly in the clear
+sunshine. On and on over the tramped-down grass, the soldiers so close
+together that nothing could go between them, Harry on one side of
+Louis, Blackwell upon the other--on and on, through the smoke and dust.
+Louis could fairly feel his heart thump against his cross-belts.
+
+Boom! boom! boom! The Confederate battery had opened upon them
+in deadly earnest. The long flashes of fire, the whistling of
+grape and canister, was followed by yells and shrieks of agony
+never-to-be-forgotten. Men dropped by the score and for a moment the
+line staggered and halted.
+
+“Close up! close up! forward!” came the command, and the men crowded
+together again. Now came the order to fire, and the first line did so.
+Then they dropped upon their knees and the second line fired over their
+heads. The rifles were pointed at the Confederate gunners and several
+were seen to tumble back. Then on swept the Union line, yelling with a
+voice that is never heard anywhere but on the battlefield where men are
+fighting for their very lives.
+
+[Illustration: THEN ON SWEPT THE UNION LINE, YELLING WITH A VOICE THAT
+IS NEVER HEARD ANYWHERE BUT ON THE BATTLEFIELD. _Page 399._]
+
+The guns were now in plain sight, and fearful of the attack, a regiment
+of Confederate infantry was hurled to the front to stay the progress
+of the long line of blue. It was bayonet to bayonet, with a clash and
+a crash that could have been heard for half a mile had not the general
+din swallowed it up. But the boys in blue were on the run and could not
+be stayed until the battery was gained and silenced.
+
+The encounter nearly threw Louis off his feet. As the Confederates
+came closer, he suddenly saw before him a tall, thin man, with a
+browned, determined face. The bayonet of the man was thrust with a
+vicious lunge straight for his heart. With a desperate effort, Louis
+knocked the weapon aside. Then his own bayonet lunged forward and the
+tall, thin man went down, pierced through the side. Like a flash he was
+lost to view, as the first and then the second line of attack trampled
+over his body, and Louis found himself confronted by another foe.
+
+“The battery is ours! Hurrah!” This was the cry which rang over the
+field. The Confederate infantry had been forced back, inch by inch,
+until the Union soldiers now held the entire top of the hill. It looked
+as if the day would remain their own.
+
+But this was not yet to be. From the woods beyond there burst a fresh
+regiment of North Carolina troops, and close behind them came some
+Alabama reserves, and once again the men in gray made an onslaught,
+yelling like so many demons. Some artillery also came into place,
+dealing death at every discharge and cutting down those on the very
+apex of the hill as with a huge scythe.
+
+“They’re too many for us!” Who started the cry will never be known.
+But it was enough to put the Union regiment upon the retreat. An effort
+was made to spike the Confederate battery which had just been taken,
+but there was not time enough, and in a twinkling blue and gray were
+fighting in the hollow beneath the hill, “like cats in a water butt,”
+to use Moses Blackwell’s words. Moses had had a shot through his ear
+lobe, from which the blood flowed freely, but the thought of retiring
+to the rear never once entered his head.
+
+“If only a fellow had a drink of water!” panted Louis. The Goreville
+Volunteers had reached the shelter of some brush, and the Confederates
+had failed to follow them up. He looked around and found a pool close
+at hand. He was kneeling to get a drink when a cannon boomed forth,
+the ball ploughed into the pool and he found himself bespattered with
+water and mud! He forgot all about being thirsty, but rolled over and
+retreated on a run.
+
+There was now a call to support another regiment in a different
+section of the field, and once again the Goreville boys set off on the
+double-quick, loading as they ran. They were now in the vicinity of the
+river, and blue and gray were fighting for the possession of a bridge.
+
+“We will go below,” said Captain Paulding, who had received orders to
+that effect from the general of the regiment. “The Confederates have
+found a lodging on this bank behind some fallen trees and we must root
+them out.”
+
+The march was through some swamp lands close to the river. The change
+from the sunshine and heat to the damp shade of the forest trees
+cooled the ardor of the soldiers, but still they went on with grim
+determination. Several hundred feet were passed, when there arose a
+wild yell from the right and from the left. They had fallen into a trap!
+
+“Fire! Charge bayonets! Fall back!” These and half a dozen other orders
+rang out. But no one heard them. The Confederates were hemming them in.
+They must cut their way back to safety. A fierce fighting arose upon
+every side. Louis charged with the others. He had taken less than ten
+steps when a clubbed musket hit him alongside of the head and he was
+knocked almost senseless. He staggered off to a thicket, pitched upon a
+tuft of swamp grass; and knew no more.
+
+When the young Union soldier came to his senses all was pitch dark
+around him. His head ached as if it would split open, and his ears
+still rang from the concussions of the battle. He endeavored to sit up,
+but fell back completely exhausted.
+
+The first sound which claimed his attention was that of the swamp
+frogs. How calmly they croaked, as though such a thing as war was
+unknown. Then came the cry of a distant night-bird, returning, after a
+brief season of alarm, to its nest. He continued to rest and to listen,
+and thus gradually his headache became more endurable.
+
+It was the cold which finally made him arouse himself. He reckoned it
+must be three or four o’clock in the morning. He listened attentively.
+Far, far away he fancied he could hear the tramping of horses and the
+rumbling of wagons. It was the retreat of the Union baggage trains.
+The Army of the Potomac, finding the enemy too numerous, had begun its
+withdrawal to the James River. A part were already at Gaines’s Mill,
+preparing for the battle which was bound to come at the break of day.
+
+“I must get back to our regiment,” he thought, and arose to his feet.
+For the moment he could scarcely stand. He wondered if he had been
+shot. Then he remembered the savage blow from the gun-stock. He put his
+hand up to his head. There was a large and sore lump back of his ear.
+
+Which way should he turn? It was a puzzling question. The enemy might
+be all around him, and he had no desire to be taken prisoner again. He
+thought of the river, close at hand. The Union army must be on or near
+that, perhaps five or ten miles below. He would follow the river, for
+want of a better path.
+
+The task Louis had cut out for himself was no easy one. The swamps
+were treacherous and soon he found himself up to his knees in muck and
+water. He could scarcely move, and coming to a slight elevation threw
+himself down, panting for breath. He was near the main stream and now
+something caught his eye which gave him a new idea.
+
+The something was a flat-bottom boat, resting half in and half out of
+the water, the oars sticking over the bow. Instantly his mind was made
+up. He would take to the boat and row, or rather guide himself, down
+the Chickahominy until an assured place of safety was gained.
+
+A few steps forward, and he had just begun to shove upon the bow of
+the craft, when a slight movement at the bottom caused him to start.
+A man lay there, his forehead tied up with a bandage. The man was a
+Confederate captain.
+
+“Who’s that?” asked the man, in rather a weak voice.
+
+“A soldier,” answered Louis, and added quickly: “Are you alone here,
+captain?”
+
+“Yes, worse luck. Where is my command? I was struck by a glancing
+bullet and knocked out.”
+
+“I don’t know where your command is, captain. Can you get up? This is a
+bad resting-place.”
+
+“Can I get up? Why--Heavens! a Union soldier, and I thought you a
+friend! What does this mean?”
+
+“Keep still, captain,” answered Louis, and then as the wounded officer
+made a movement as if to draw his pistol, the youth leaned over him and
+snatched it from his belt.
+
+“Hi! give me my pistol!” came in a weak but fierce tone. The
+Confederate officer tried to rise, but Louis shoved him back.
+
+“Keep still now. As you discovered, I am a Union soldier, and I have
+no desire to be made a prisoner.”
+
+“What do you intend to do?”
+
+“Take this boat and row down the stream.”
+
+“I don’t want to go down the stream.”
+
+“In this case I am afraid you’ll have to go, captain. Lie still while I
+shove off.”
+
+“But, see here--”
+
+“Silence, if you value your life!” and Louis leveled the pistol at the
+man’s head. The threat had the desired effect. The Confederate captain
+fell back, and Louis shoved the boat into the stream. The youth soon
+found rowing out of the question and merely guided the craft as it
+drifted swiftly along the swollen river.
+
+Half a mile had been covered and Louis was guiding the boat around a
+bend when the sounds of voices in a thicket ahead reached his ears.
+To slow up was impossible and he therefore guided the craft to the
+opposite shore from whence the voices came.
+
+“Halt! In the boat, halt!” rang out the cry. “Who goes there?” and
+Louis saw the glint of a rifle barrel thrust through the leaves not
+twenty feet from him.
+
+“It’s a Yank, sure ez you’re born,” came in another, but lower, voice.
+“Plug him, Bart, afore he gits the chance to git away!”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXXI
+
+                           BETWEEN THE LINES
+
+
+Louis felt he was in one of the most trying situations of his life. The
+Confederate picket had drawn a bead upon him, and unless he answered
+promptly he would undoubtedly be shot and killed.
+
+“Stop! do yer hear?” came the voice again. Louis put down his oar and
+found the river less than a foot and a half deep. The blade was sunk
+into the mud and the headway of the craft checked.
+
+“We are friends,” shouted the young Union soldier. “You have no right
+to detain us.”
+
+“Who are yer?”
+
+Louis leaned down. “Tell them who you are and say I am detailed to
+take you to a farmhouse below here,” he whispered to his prisoner. “If
+you don’t help me out of this scrape I’ll shoot you!” and he shoved the
+pistol forth suggestively.
+
+“Don’t--don’t shoot me!” pleaded the wounded one.
+
+“Then do as I ordered,” returned Louis, as cautiously as before, but
+his tone was cold and told that he meant what he said.
+
+“Air yer goin’ ter answer?” came from the shore.
+
+“It’s--it’s all right, men,” answered the prisoner, raising himself
+with an effort. “I’m Captain Garrison, of the Fourth Infantry. I’ve
+been wounded and my man is taking me down to a farmhouse below here,
+where I have friends.”
+
+“Humph.” There was a pause. “Got the countersign, cap’n?”
+
+“Alabama.”
+
+“Thet’s all right, cap’n; pass on, ef yer want to.”
+
+“Are we in danger from the Yanks?” asked Louis, as he pulled on the oar
+with all possible haste.
+
+“Ain’t no Yanks inside o’ half a mile, to my way o’ reckonin’,”
+answered the Confederate picket, and then the boat drifted onward, and
+Louis breathed a great sigh of relief. The talking had almost exhausted
+the prisoner, and he lay motionless, with his eyes closed, in too much
+pain to even speculate over the outcome of his unfortunate adventure.
+
+Another half-mile was covered without further interruption. It was now
+beginning to grow light in the east and Louis cast an anxious eye from
+shore to shore. Had the river at this point been deserted? It would
+certainly seem so.
+
+Crash! The flat-bottom boat struck a half-submerged log, end on end.
+The shock was strong enough to rip open the bow, and the water poured
+in with great rapidity. The collision threw Louis, who was standing
+up with the oar, overboard, and so unexpected was the happening that
+he could do nothing but struggle to save himself. Down he went until
+his arms struck the soft bottom. Then he arose and struck out for
+the nearest shore. In the meantime, the boat swung around, cleared
+itself of the log that had done all the damage, and went on its way,
+half-submerged, with Captain Garrison clinging fast for his life. Soon
+wreck and prisoner were out of sight. Louis fancied the captain had
+been drowned, but such was not a fact. He survived, to fall, later on,
+into the hands of his friends.
+
+Dripping with mud and water, Louis crawled up the bank of the
+Chickahominy and into a tangle of bushes. Was he any better off than he
+had been? was the question he asked himself.
+
+“I ought to be nearer the Union lines,” he muttered. “If I could only
+climb some hill and then a tall tree I might--Ha! what’s that?”
+
+A peculiar odor, as of cooking meat, had reached his nose. He sniffed
+it and found the odor coming stronger. Then he heard low negro voices.
+
+“Ain’t dat fowl most done, Henry Harrison Dundell?”
+
+“It am, Uncle Ike.”
+
+“Den let us eat um up, afore some o’ dem sodgers cum fo’ to take it
+away from us.”
+
+“De taters am dun, too, Uncle Ike.”
+
+“Dat’s good, boy, dat’s good. Come an’ stow um away now.”
+
+A rattle of tin plates and a couple of knives followed. Crawling
+forward, Louis soon beheld a wretched negro hut, half-tumbled-down, on
+the edge of a clearing. In front of the hut an aged negro and a darkey
+boy were enjoying a feast of chicken meat and baked potatoes.
+
+Making certain that no others were around, Louis advanced, pistol in
+hand. At the sight of the young soldier, both colored ones started
+to run, the uncle with the chicken and the boy with his arms full of
+smoking hot potatoes, which burnt him and caused him to dance a lively
+jig.
+
+“Stop, both of you!”
+
+“Fo’ de lan’ sake, officer, doan you shoot us!” moaned the aged negro.
+
+“I won’t uncle; but come back with that chicken. I want a drumstick,
+and I want a couple of those potatoes; they smell good.”
+
+Much relieved in mind, the two colored ones returned and gladly divided
+their morning meal with Louis. As he ate, the young soldier questioned
+the aged darkey, as to the camp of the Army of the Potomac.
+
+“Da is right ober yander, sah,” was the reply, and the colored man
+pointed with his long, bony hand. “But, bless you, sah, General Lee
+an’ General Jackson am all aroun’ yeah wid thousands an’ thousands ob
+troops ready fo’ to swallow yo’ up, moah de pity!”
+
+“They won’t swallow us up so easily,” smiled Louis. He sat with his
+back to the fire, drying himself. In an hour he was ready to go on, and
+the aged colored man gave him minute directions as to the best trail to
+follow.
+
+Morning had now come, and once again the sun shone hotly. Not a cannon
+boomed in the distance, for the battle of Gaines’s Mill did not really
+open in earnest until some time after noon. With the pistol of the
+Confederate captain stuck in his belt, Louis trudged on and on. At noon
+he stopped, wondering where he was. He had taken a wrong turn and now
+found himself in a thicket. He tried to take a cross cut, and became
+hopelessly lost, and thus the best part of the day slipped by.
+
+He was lost in the swamps of the Chickahominy!
+
+Only the old veterans who went through our great war can realize the
+full meaning of those words. “Lost in the swamps” was the fate of
+many a straggling soldier who never turned up to tell his story of
+starvation. With such a jungle about him that he could not see twenty
+feet ahead, and with mud and water up to his ankles, Louis stopped
+short, and a chill shot through him.
+
+“I’m in for it,” he murmured, dismally. “I took the wrong road, or else
+that negro led me astray purposely. How in the world am I to get out?”
+
+It would not do to remain long in one spot--he was sinking deeper
+and deeper in that ooze, which stuck like so much glue. He staggered
+forward until a low-branched tree was reached, and into this he climbed
+to rest.
+
+From afar now came the sounds of battle, as the Confederate General A.
+P. Hill sent his corps to the attack, with Longstreet following. How
+bravely the small division of Porter’s troops resisted, history has
+told, and it has also told how the Union troops were finally forced
+back and two of their best regiments were taken prisoners.
+
+But Louis thought of none of these things, as slowly and painfully
+he climbed to the top of the tree. The survey from this spot was
+disappointing. He was in a hollow and on every side the distant woods
+cut off a further view. Yet he managed to locate the sounds of battle,
+and that was one point gained.
+
+By the time he descended to the lower branches of the tree it was dark.
+To think of going on was out of the question. He got down for a drink,
+then returned to the tree limbs, to pass an almost sleepless night
+among the birds and frogs.
+
+Daybreak found him hungry and cold. He now felt he must go on or face
+starvation. He had noted the location of the nearest high ground, and
+struck out for this, leaping from one tuft of swamp grass to another,
+as best he could. The bushes scratched his hands and face and tore his
+clothing, but to this he paid no attention. He progressed until nearly
+noon, when he reached firm ground and a well-defined trail, and threw
+himself down to rest.
+
+He was between his own line and that of the enemy, he felt tolerably
+certain of that. But how should he move to join the Union army? The
+trail might lead him directly into the Confederate camp.
+
+“I don’t care--I’ll risk it,” he muttered at last. “I can keep my eyes
+open and I guess I can run as fast as any of them if it comes to the
+pinch.”
+
+Yet his progress along the trail was slow, for fallen trees were
+numerous, and once he encountered a nest of snakes, just emerging after
+an unusually long winter’s nap. His scramble to get away from the
+reptiles was lively enough, for he imagined the snakes poisonous.
+
+Nightfall brought him out upon a highway leading southward. The ground
+was cut up by many wheels, showing that artillery had passed that
+way but a short while before. Presently he came up to three soldiers
+wearing Union uniforms.
+
+“Hello there, comrades!” he shouted, joyfully. “I’m lost. Can’t some of
+you find me?”
+
+“We’re lost, too,” was the reply from the evident leader of the trio.
+The three men belonged to a New Jersey command which had been captured.
+They had had a tough struggle and each was wounded, although not
+seriously. With this trio Louis proceeded upon his way feeling much
+lighter at heart.
+
+That night the four lost ones encamped in the woods close to the road.
+A haversack filled with two days’ rations had been picked up, and
+although the eatables were stale, the quartet fell to with avidity and
+did not allow a mouthful to escape them. The march forward was resumed
+before the sun came up and at nine o’clock the pickets of the Union
+army on guard near the railroad at Savage Station were encountered.
+Nobody had the password, but their story was soon told and they hurried
+to the rear.
+
+The battles so far upon the withdrawal to the James River had not been
+particularly severe upon the Goreville Volunteers. Out of a total of
+seventy men, eight had been killed and twelve wounded. To be sure, many
+had been “scratched,” but in the grimness of war such trifles do not
+count.
+
+Louis did not run across his command until the next day, for now the
+fighting was general along the whole line, the Union troops protecting
+not only their own retreat, but also the passage of the vast stores
+moving from White House across the peninsula to the James River.
+Finding him unemployed, he was asked to act as an orderly, and mounting
+a stray horse, he carried several orders from one part of the field to
+another for those in charge of the baggage train. Thus the day slipped
+by in work that was hard but not particularly dangerous.
+
+“Louis!” cried Harry, when at last the Goreville boys were found. “By
+jinks! I ’most feel like hugging you! I thought you were dead sure!”
+
+“I’m a long way from that,” laughed the youth. “But I’ve had a rough
+experience, nevertheless.”
+
+And he told his friend of all he had gone through. There was no time
+to say much, for the regiment had been ordered to the rear, to protect
+the baggage wagons. Louis and Harry were both afraid they would not
+have much to do, but in this they were greatly mistaken. The train was
+attacked by a large company of Confederate cavalry, and a hot skirmish
+kept up until long after nightfall. And so the days slipped by until
+the great body of the army of the Potomac reached Malvern Hill. Hotly
+pursued by the Confederates, General McClellan here took a stand,
+resulting in the greatest battle of the peninsula campaign, and one
+that Louis and Andy will not forget if they each live to be a hundred
+years old.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+                        MALVERN HILL--CONCLUSION
+
+
+Malvern Hill was a small elevation, not over sixty feet high at its
+topmost point, on the north bank of the James River. The plateau above
+was nearly large enough for the entire army, and the approach from the
+north was rather abrupt, while on the south it was protected by Western
+River and heavy timber and brush.
+
+The Army of the Potomac took its final stand around this hill in a
+huge semi-circle, the right and the left resting upon the river, where
+the gunboats could offer a good support. Back of the Hill was Harrison
+Landing, which was to be the last stopping place for the great army.
+
+It was the intention of the Confederate leaders to force the fighting
+simultaneously all along the line, but when the time for action came
+this was impossible. Owing to the denseness of the forests and the
+lack of topographical knowledge of the country, some of the divisions
+went astray and at the important moment were a mile or more away from
+where they should have been. Nor were some of the Union troops better
+off. Having retreated in haste and dropped their guns, they, seeing the
+gunboats on the river ready to support them, ran forward again to find
+their weapons, and meeting some of the advancing Confederates produced
+a confusion which broke up all of the plans laid for that section of
+the battleground.
+
+From early morning the artillery were engaged, but it was not until
+about one o’clock that the real attack of the Confederates began. From
+that time on until nine in the evening the battle waged with relentless
+fury at one spot or another, until, seeing they could not force the
+Federals from their chosen position, the army of the South withdrew,
+and McClellan was allowed to go his own way. The losses during the
+retreat from before Richmond were over fifteen thousand men upon each
+side.
+
+Early in the morning the Goreville Volunteers found themselves resting
+upon their arms on a small elevation some distance from the main hill.
+Here was planted a strong battery which they had been called upon to
+support. So far this battery had not been into action, but now, at
+eleven o’clock, it began to belch forth at the Confederates who were
+advancing in a hollow of the woods below. Only a few shots were fired,
+the men in gray taking to cover as soon as possible.
+
+“We’re out for hot work to-day,” said Louis, decidedly. “General Lee is
+going to do his level best to break our backbone.”
+
+“Yah, und maybe it vos his own packbone vill got proke,” put in Hans
+Roddmann. “I been fightin’ so much der last week it seems like I can’t
+do noddings else.”
+
+One man had disappeared from the ranks without being either killed or
+wounded. That was Jerry Rowe. Two days before Jerry had flung down
+his gun and started on a run for Harrison Landing, and there he was
+now, skulking among the wagons, waiting for the troops to embark for
+Washington. Fortunately, neither side had many such arrant cowards as
+this lad was.
+
+“Attention!” came the cry. “Look to your guns, boys, and see if they
+are loaded and in good condition. No play to-day. The general expects
+every man to do his duty.”
+
+“We will! We will! Down with the rebs! Let us drive ’em clear back to
+Richmond!”
+
+“Hurrah for Little Mac!”
+
+Two hours went by, and again the battery opened up, as a long line of
+men in gray were seen coming through the hollow at double-quick. The
+shots did good execution, but the line came on through the brush, over
+fallen trees and rocks, until it was advancing straight up the little
+hill.
+
+“Company, attention! Charge bayonets! Forward!”
+
+The battery had blazed away right in the faces of the men in gray,
+who were yelling at the top of their voices. But leaving their dead
+and dying behind they strove to reach the cannons. Now the boys in
+blue swung out to meet them. Crack! crack! went the rifle shots, like
+barrels of hail, as line after line swung into position, fired, and
+wheeled away to make room for the next. The execution was fearful and
+the men in gray faltered at the very mouths of the pieces they desired
+to capture.
+
+But now reinforcements were coming--a large band of cavalry, with
+colors flying and the trumpeter blaring wildly. Down the hollow at
+breakneck speed and up the other side, the horses snorting and prancing
+as they smelt the smoke and the burnt powder--on and on, until the
+foot-soldiers had to leap aside to avoid being trodden upon. The
+Montgomery Grays led the van, and Louis saw Andy in the fore, with
+saber waving over his head. Andy was yelling and Louis almost imagined
+he heard his words, but that was impossible in the unearthly racket
+upon every side. The battle was opened in earnest now and sunset would
+not see it ended.
+
+“Close up!” It was an order to the Union men, and they closed up
+around the battery, ready to defend every gun to the last. Still the
+Confederate cavalry came up, until the leading horse confronted that
+line of glistening bayonets, and then they paused. But only for an
+instant; there was a break, and the cavalry rushed through. The battery
+was lost and the Union men scattered in every direction, most of them
+flying to the woods on the west. The gunners lay dead at the wheels of
+their pieces, faithful to the last.
+
+But the victory was a short-lived one. Word had been sent how the
+battery was being pressed, and a body of New York volunteers were
+hurried through the woods to the support of the Pennsylvania men.
+With a ringing cheer they burst into the clearing and the cavalry
+were shot down, horses and riders, in a fashion that made the leaders
+think a whole division of the enemy pressed them. The order was given
+to retreat and they scattered, just as did the Union men but a short
+quarter of an hour before, and some went into that same woods to the
+west.
+
+Hatless, saberless, and shot through the left arm, Andy dashed into
+that thicket to avoid the rain of bullets pouring into what was left of
+the Montgomery Grays. Poor Firefly limped painfully, shot through the
+flank. It had been a daring charge, but a useless one, for the battery
+was again in the hands of Union gunners. He panted for breath and wiped
+the sweat and dirt from his face.
+
+“Andy!”
+
+“Louis! By all that’s wonderful! Where did you come from?”
+
+“We were driven into this woods by your cavalry--or some cavalry that
+was with yours. How did you get here?”
+
+“Some Union reserves came up and we had to scatter or be cut down to
+a man. Oh, but it’s a fearful day for both sides! I wish this war was
+over, Louis.”
+
+“You don’t wish it any more than I do, Andy. It’s not all glory, is it?”
+
+“Hardly. But, hark! Some troops are coming!”
+
+“And I am not armed!”
+
+“Nor I! Listen--they seem to be passing to our right. We had better
+separate.”
+
+“You are badly wounded, and so is Firefly.”
+
+“So are you wounded. Your cheek is covered with blood.”
+
+“That’s only a scratch, Andy. But one of your horses stepped on my
+ankle and that’s not so nice. Hello, what’s the meaning of that?”
+
+The conversation was broken off and both young soldiers stared through
+the thickets. A strange, heavy smoke was rolling their way. Firefly
+sniffed it and began to circle about uneasily.
+
+“Andy, I think--”
+
+“The woods are on fire!”
+
+“You are right--and, see! the fire is behind us, too!”
+
+They swung around. It was true, either by accident or design the forest
+had been ignited, and now the dry brush was burning like so much
+tinder. From here and there came a distant cry for help.
+
+“It looks as if we were hemmed in, Louis. What shall we do?”
+
+“Do? Get out--just as fast as we can. Come, there seems to be a clear
+space to our left.”
+
+They hurried off. The wind now began to blow, carrying the burning
+embers close to each. Firefly snorted in alarm and could scarcely be
+controlled. As Andy passed under a low-branched tree the animal gave a
+sudden bound and threw his young master backward. The next instant he
+was out of sight.
+
+Louis ran forward. Andy lay where he had fallen, motionless and with
+his eyes closed. His head had struck the root of a bush and he was
+senseless.
+
+“Andy! Andy!” cried Louis, pleadingly, but there was no response.
+
+The young Union soldier looked back. The fire was advancing with
+frightful rapidity. He must run with all his might if he would save
+himself from the devouring element.
+
+But could he leave Andy, his enemy and yet his best friend? No,
+never! “I’ll die with him before I’ll do it!” he muttered between his
+set teeth, and caught up the motionless form and slung it over his
+shoulder. The burden was a heavy one, but he struggled on manfully.
+
+[Illustration: “I’LL DIE WITH HIM BEFORE I’LL DO IT!”--_Page 426._]
+
+But now he could not go much farther. Every nerve had been strained to
+its utmost. He stumbled rather than ran a few steps more. Ah, what was
+this--a tiny stream! He plunged into the water and allowed his clothing
+to become saturated. He also threw some of the water into Andy’s face.
+
+“Louis--what--what happened?” and Andy’s eyes opened widely.
+
+“Firefly threw you and ran off, Andy. I carried you here. We are not
+yet safe.”
+
+“You carried me, Louis? How good of you! And the fire is behind?” By
+a superhuman effort Andy started up. “We must go farther.”
+
+“Yes. If you can walk give me your hand. See, there is a road and
+beyond is a clearing. Come!”
+
+On they went, side by side, Louis supporting Andy, who was still dizzy.
+The clearing reached, they saw another road, and beyond was an open
+field where a regiment of Union men were battling bravely against a
+broken line of gray. Here both came to a halt and gazed into each
+other’s eyes.
+
+“We must part, Andy! Good-bye!”
+
+“Good-bye, Louis, and I’ll never forget you. May God spare your life!”
+
+“And may He spare yours, also!”
+
+They shook hands and turned in opposite directions. It was the last the
+chums saw of each other for many months to come.
+
+The memorable day was drawing to a close when Louis found the
+Goreville Volunteers, or what was left of them, for the charge at
+Malvern Hill had cost the command dear. Brave Callings was dead and so
+were ten others, and six men were missing. But, cut up as it was, the
+company was joined to the remnants of several others and sent to the
+aid of the center of the line.
+
+At nine o’clock the Volunteers lay down on their arms, worn out to
+such a degree that hardly a soldier could keep open his eyes. But the
+Confederates had been repulsed in handsome shape, and, as worn out as
+their enemy, they were perfectly willing to withdraw and leave the
+victory wherever it might rest--which was with the Union forces.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And here properly ends my story of a young soldier in blue and a
+young soldier in gray. A few days later found the Goreville Volunteers
+at Harrison Landing, ready to return by water to Washington or to go
+wherever they were sent. A slight attack was made by the Confederates,
+but it soon ceased, and the troops of General Lee marched back to the
+neighborhood of Richmond. From this point Andy, still suffering from
+his wounds, was allowed to return, for the time being, to his home.
+Firefly had again turned up, and youth and horse soon found themselves
+safe in Lee Run once more. Need I say anything of the warm greeting the
+young Confederate received from his parents and his sister?
+
+“And Louis saved you from the fire, did he?” said Grace, when Andy’s
+story was told. “How noble of him! He is surely a real hero, even if he
+is a Unionist!” and her eyes beamed with pleasure. She was thoroughly
+glad to learn, later on, that Louis was safe.
+
+“Now you are home, you must take it easy for a while,” said Andy’s
+parents. “You have done enough for the cause.” And the youth who had
+worn the gray was quite content to rest for the time being.
+
+“I am coming home on furlough.” That was the message Lucy and Martha
+brought home from the Goreville post-office one day. There was a great
+bustle all over the house, and when the time came how all waited for
+the train to arrive!
+
+“I see him! There is Louis!” cried Lucy, and then all rushed forward,
+to kiss the young soldier and to shake hands over and over again.
+
+“My boy! My boy!” murmured Mrs. Rockford, straining him to her breast.
+“God be thanked for this day!” And the tears of joy streamed down her
+cheeks.
+
+“I want to ask you one thing,” said Louis to his father, after the
+greeting was over. “Did you receive that document I sent--the one made
+out by Mr. Faily?”
+
+“I did. It came yesterday morning. The edge of the envelope was burnt,
+and the address scorched, but the document and letter were intact. An
+hour after they came Mr. Hammer called. I showed him the document and
+he was thunderstruck. He got out as soon as he could, and by the way he
+acted I do not believe he will bother us any more.”
+
+“Good!” cried the young soldier. And his heart was lighter than ever.
+
+“Louis, you have done your duty, and more,” said his father,
+affectionately. “I am proud of such a son.”
+
+“And we are all proud!” cried Martha. “Just as proud as we can be!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The great rebellion is now only a matter of history. Many of those
+who wore the blue and the gray are sleeping side by side on the great
+battlefields. To those who laid down their lives, the Peninsular
+Campaign was the end of all, but to the great majority it was but the
+beginning of a conflict which was to wage fiercely for three years
+longer. Louis and Andy were destined to serve further, the one under
+the stars and stripes, the other under the stars and bars. But, come
+what might, neither was to forget those first battles, when each did so
+nobly Defending His Flag.
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+                          =Transcriber’s Notes=
+
+ Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.
+
+ Illustrations have been moved nearer to the text to which they refer.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77848 ***