Miss Ravenel's conversion from secession to loyalty

by John William De Forest

  CHAPTER VII.

  CAPTAIN COLBURNE RAISES A COMPANY, AND COLONEL CARTER A REGIMENT.

  The settlement of his mother's estate and of his own pecuniary affairsoccupied Colburne's time until the early part of October. By then he hadinvested his property as well as might be, rented the much-loved oldhomestead, taken a room in the New Boston House, and was fully preparedto bid good-bye to native soil, and, if need be, to life. Miss Ravenelwas a strong though silent temptation to remain and to exist, but heresisted her with the heroism which he subsequently exhibited incombating male rebels.

  One morning, as he left the hotel rather later than usual to go to hisoffice, his eyes fell upon a high-colored face and gigantic brownmustache, which he could not have failed to recognize, no matter wherenor when encountered. There was the wounded captive of Bull Run, as bigchested and rich complexioned, as audacious in eye and haughty in air,as if no hurt nor hardship nor calamity had ever befallen him. Hechecked Colburne's eager advance with a cold stare, and passed himwithout speaking. But the young fellow hardly had time to color at thisrebuff, when, just as he was opening the outer door, a baritone voicearrested him with a ringing, "Look here!"

  "Beg pardon," continued the Lieutenant-Colonel, coming up hastily."Didn't recognize you. It's quite a time since our pic-nic, you know."

  Here he showed a broad grin, and presently burst out laughing, as muchamused at the past as if it did not contain Bull Run.

  "What a jolly old pic-nic that was!" he went on. "I have shouted ahundred times to think of myself passing the wine and segars to thoseprim old virgins. Just as though I had bowsed into the House Beautiful,among Bunyan's damsels, and offered to treat the crowd!"

  Again the Lieutenant-Colonel laughed noisily, his insolent black eyestwinkling with merriment. Colburne looked at him and listened to himwith amazement. Here was a man who had lately been in what was to himthe terrible mystery of battle; who had fallen down wounded and beencarried away captive while fighting heroically for the noblest ofcauses; who had witnessed the greatest and most humiliating overthrowwhich ever befel the armies of the republic; who yet did not allude toany of these things, nor apparently think of them, but could chat andlaugh about a pic-nic. Was it treasonable indifference, or levity, orthe sublimity of modesty? Colburne thought that if _he_ had been at BullRun, he never could have talked of any thing else.

  "Well, how are you?" demanded Carter. "You are looking a little pale andthin, it seems to me."

  "Oh, I am well enough," answered Colburne, passing over that subjectwith modest contempt, as not worthy of mention. "But how are _you_? Haveyou recovered from your wound?"

  "Wound? Oh! yes; mere bagatelle; healed up some time ago. I shouldn'thave been caught if I hadn't been stunned by my horse falling. The woundwas nothing."

  "But you must have suffered in your confinement," said Colburne,determined to appreciate and pity.

  "Suffered! My dear fellow, I suffered with eating and drinking andmaking merry. I had the deuce's own time in Richmond. I met loads of myold comrades, and they nearly killed me with kindness. They are a niceset of old boys, if they are on the wrong side of the fence. You didn'tsuppose they would maltreat a brother West Pointer, did you?"

  And the Lieutenant-Colonel laughed heartily at the civilian blunder.

  "I didn't know, really," answered the puzzled Colburne. "I must say Ithought so. But I am as poor a judge of soldiers as a sheep is ofcatamounts."

  "Why, look here. When I left they gave me a supper, and not only made medrunk, but got drunk themselves in my honor. Opened their purses, too,and forced their money on me."

  All this, it will be noted, was long previous to the time when LibbyPrison and Andersonville were deliberately converted into pest-housesand starvation pens.

  "I am afraid they wanted to bring you over," observed Colburne. Helooked not only suspicious, but even a little anxious, for in those daysevery patriot feared for the faith of his neighbor.

  "I suppose they did," replied Carter carelessly, as if he saw nothingextraordinary in the idea. "Of course they did. They need all the helpthat they can get. In fact the rebel Secretary of War paid me thecompliment of making me an offer of a regiment, with an assurance thatpromotion might be relied on. It was done so delicately that I couldn'tbe offended. In fact it was quite natural, and he probably thought itwould be bad taste to omit it. I am a Virginian, you know; and then Iwas once engaged in some southern schemes and diplomacies--before thiswar broke out, you understand--oh, no connection with this war. However,I declined his offer. There's a patriot for you."

  "I honor you, sir," said Colburne with a fervor which made theLieutenant-Colonel grin. "You ought to be rewarded."

  "Quite so," answered the other in his careless, half-joking style."Well, I am rewarded. I received a letter yesterday afternoon from yourGovernor offering me a regiment. I had just finished an elegant dinnerwith some good fellows, and was going in for a roaring evening. Butbusiness before pleasure. I took a cold plunge bath and the next trainfor New Boston, getting here at midnight. I am off at ten to see hisExcellency."

  "I am sincerely delighted," exclaimed the young man. "I am delighted tohear that the Governor has had such good sense."

  After a moment's hesitation he added anxiously, "Do you remember yourinvitation to me?"

  "Certainly. What do you say to it now? Will you go with me?"

  "I will," said Colburne emphatically. "I will try. I only fear that Ican neither raise nor command a company."

  "Never fear," answered Carter in a tone which pooh-poohed at doubt. "Youare just the man. Come round to the bar with me, and let's drink successto our regiment. Oh, I recollect; you don't imbibe. Smoke a segar, then,while we talk it over. I tell you that you are just the man. _Noblesseoblige._ Any gentleman can make a good enough company officer in threemonths' practice. As to raising your men, I'll give you my bestcountenance, whatever that may amount to. And if you actually don'tsucceed in getting your quota, after all, why, we'll take somebodyelse's men. Examinations of officers and consolidations of companiesbring all these things right, you know."

  "I should be sorry to profit by any other man's influence and energy tohis harm," answered the fastidious Colburne.

  "Pshaw! it's all for the good of the service and of the country. Becausea low fellow who keeps a saloon can treat and wheedle sixty or eightystout fellows into the ranks, do you suppose that he ought to becommissioned an officer and a gentleman? I don't. It can't be in myregiment. Leave those things to me, and go to work without fear. Writeto the Adjutant-General of the State to-day for a recruiting commission,and as soon as you get it, open an office. I guarantee that you shallbe one of the Captains of the Tenth Barataria."

  "Who are the other field officers?" asked Colburne.

  "Not appointed yet. I am alone in my glory. I am the regiment. But theLieutenant-Colonel and Major shall be of the right stamp. I mean to havea word to say as to the choice. I tell you that we'll have the bulliestregiment that ever sprang from the soil of New England."

  "Well, I'll try. But I really fear that I shall just get my companyrecruited in time for the next war."

  "Never fear," laughed Carter, as though war were a huge practical joke."We are in for a four or five years' job of fighting."

  "You don't mean it!" said the young man in amazement. "Why, we citizensare all so full of confidence. McClellan, every body says, is organizinga splendid army. Did Bull Run give you such an opinion of the superiorfighting qualities of the southerners?"

  "Not at all. Both sides fought timidly, as a rule, just as greenhornsnaturally would do. The best description of the battle that I have heardwas given in a single sentence by my old captain, Lamar, now in commandof a Georgia regiment. Said he, 'There never was a more frightened setthan our fellows--except your fellows.--Why, we outfought them in themorning; we had them fairly whipped until Johnston came up on our right.The retreat was a mathematical necessity; it was like saying, Two andtwo make four. When our line was turned, of cour
se it had to retreat."

  "Retreat!" groaned Colburne in bitterness over the recollection of thatcalamitous afternoon. "But you didn't see it. They ran shamefully, andnever stopped short of Washington. One man reached New Boston inside oftwenty-four hours. It was a panic unparalleled in history."

  "Nonsense! Beg your pardon. Did you never read of Austerlitz and Jenaand Waterloo? Our men did pretty well for militia. I didn't see thepanic, to be sure;--I was picked up before that happened. But I havetalked with some of our officers who did see it, and they told me thatthe papers exaggerated it absurdly. Newspaper correspondents ought notto be allowed in the army. They exaggerate every thing. If we had gaineda victory, they would have made it out something greater than Waterloo.You must consider how easily inexperience is deceived. Just get thestory of an upset from an old stage-driver, and then from a ladypassenger; the first will tell it as quite an ordinary affair, and thesecond will make it out a tragedy. Now when some old grannies ofcongressmen and some young ladies of newspaper reporters, none of whomhad ever seen either a victory or a defeat before, got entangled amonghalf a dozen disordered regiments they naturally concluded that nothinglike it had happened in history. I tell you that it wasn't unparalleled,and that it ought not to have been considered surprising. Whichever ofthose two green armies got repulsed was pretty sure to be routed. Thatwas a very pretty manoeuvre, though, that coming up of Johnston on ourright. Patterson ought to be court-martialed for his stupidity."

  "Stupidity! He is a traitor," exclaimed Colburne.

  "Oh! oh!" expostulated the Colonel with a cough. "If we are to try allour dull old gentlemen as traitors, we shall have our hands full. That'ssomething like hanging homely old women for witches.--By the way, howare the Allstons? I mean the--the Ravenels. Well, are they? Young ladyas blooming and blushing as ever? Glad to hear it. Can't stop to call onthem; my train goes in ten minutes.--I am delighted that you are goingto fall in with me. Good bye for to-day."

  Away he went, leaving Colburne in wonder over his contrasts ofslanginess and gentility, his mingled audacity and _insouciance_ ofcharacter, and all the picturesque ins and outs of his moralarchitecture, so different from the severe plainness of the spiritualtemples common in New Boston. The young man would have preferred thathis future Colonel should not drink and swear; but he would notpuritanically decide that a man who drank and swore could not be a goodofficer. He did not know army men well enough to dare judge them withpositiveness; and he certainly would not try them by the moral standardsaccording to which he tried civilians. The facts that Carter was aprofessional soldier, and that he had shed his blood in the cause of thecountry, were sufficient to make Colburne regard with charity all hisfrank vices.

  I must not allow the reader to suppose that I present Carter as a typeof all regular officers. There were men in the old army who never tastedliquors, who never blasphemed, who did not waste their substance inriotous living, who could be accused of no evil practices, who weremodels of Christian gentlemen. The American service, as well as theEnglish, had its Havelocks, its Headly Vicars, its Colonel Newcomes.Nevertheless I do venture to say that it had also a great many men whosemoral habits were cut more or less on the Carter pattern, who sworeafter the fashion of the British army in Flanders, whose heads couldcarry drink like Dugald Dalgetty's, and who had even other vicesconcerning which my discreet pen is silent.

  Within a week after the conversation above reported Colburne opened arecruiting office, advertised the "Putnam Rangers" largely, and adornedhis doorway with a transparency representing Old Put in a brand-newuniform riding sword in hand down the stone steps of Horse-neck. Hiscompany, as yet in embryo, was one of the ten accepted out of thenineteen offered for Carter's regiment. It was supposed that the name ofa West Point colonel would render the organization a favorite one withthe enlisting classes; and accordingly all the chiefs of incompletecompanies throughout the State of Barataria wanted to seize the chancefor easy recruiting. But Colburne soon found that the dullness of ayoung lawyer's office was none too prosy an exordium for the dullness ofa recruiting office at this particular period. Passed was thatspringtide of popular enthusiasm when companies were raised in a day,when undersized heroes wept at being rejected by the mustering officer,when well-to-do youths paid a hundred dollars to buy out a chance to beshot at. Bull Run had disenchanted some romantic natures concerning thepleasures of war, and the vast enlistments of the summer had drawnheavily on the nation's fighting material. Moreover, Colburne had toencounter obstacles of a personal nature, such as did not trouble someof his competitors. A student, a member of a small and shy socialcircle, neither business man nor one of the bone and sinew, not havingbelonged to a fire company or militia company, nor even kept a bar orbilliard-saloon, he had no retainers nor partisans nor shopmates to callupon, no rummy customers whom he could engage in the war-dance oncondition of unlimited whiskey. He had absolutely no personal means ofinfluencing the classes of the community which furnish that importantelement of all military organizations, private soldiers. For a time heremained almost as solitary in his office as Old Put in the perilousglory of his breakneck descent. In short the raising of his companyproved a slow, vexatious and expensive business, notwithstanding thecountenance and aid of the Colonel.

  Miss Ravenel was much spited in secret when she saw his advertisement;but she was too proud to expose her interest in the matter byopposition. What object had she in keeping him at home and out ofdanger? Moreover, after the fashion of most southern women, she believedin fighting, and respected a man the more for drawing the sword, nomatter for which party. After a while, when his activity andcheerfulness of spirit had returned to him, she began to talk with herold freedom of expression, and indulged in playful prophecies about theBull Runs he would fight, the masterly retreats he would accomplish,and the captivities he would undergo.

  "When you are a prisoner in Richmond," she said, "I'll write to myLouisiana friends in the southern army and tell them what a spitefulabolitionist you are. I'll get them to put a colored friend and brotherinto the same cell with you. You won't like it. You'll promise to goback to your law office, if they'll send that fellow to his plantation."

  The Doctor was all sympathy and interest, and brimmed over withprophecies of Colburne's success. He judged the people of Barataria bythe people of Louisiana; the latter preferred gentlemen for officers,and so of course would the former. Notwithstanding his hatred of slaveryhe was still somewhat under the influence of its aristocratical glamour.He had not yet fully comprehended that the war was a struggle of theplain people against an oligarchy, and that the plain people had, notvery understandingly but still very resolutely, determined to lead thefighting as well as to do it. He had not yet full faith that thenorthern working-man would beat the southern gentleman, without muchguidance from the northern scholar.

  "Don't be discouraged," he said to Colburne. "I feel the utmostconfidence in your prospects. As soon as it is generally understood whoyou are and what your character is, you will have recruits to give away.It is impossible that these bar-tenders and tinkers should raise goodmen as easily as a gentleman and a graduate of the university. They mayget a run of ruff-scuff, but it won't last. I predict that your companywill be completed sooner and composed of better material than any otherin the regiment. I would no more give your chance for that of one ofthese tinkers than I would exchange a meteorite for its weight in oldnails."

  The Doctor abounded in promising but unfruitful schemes for helpingforward the Putnam Rangers. He proposed that Colburne should send acircular to all the clergymen and Sabbath-school superintendents of thecounty, calling upon each parish to furnish the subscriber with only onegood recruit.

  "If they do that," said he, "as they unquestionably will when the caseis properly presented to them, why the company is filled at once."

  He advised the young man to make an oratorical tour, deliveringpatriotic speeches in the village lyceums, and circulating an enlistmentpaper at the close of each performance. He told him that it would
not bea bad move to apply to his professional brethren far and near for aid inrousing the popular enthusiasm. He himself wrote favorable notices ofthe captain and his company, and got them printed in the city journals.One day he came home in a hurry, and with great glee produced theevening edition of the New Boston Patriot.

  "Our young friend has hit it at last," he said to Lillie. "He has calledthe muses to his aid. Here is a superb patriotic hymn of hiscomposition. It is the best thing of the kind that the literature of thewar has produced." (The Doctor was somewhat given to hyperbole inspeaking well of his friends.) "It can't fail to excite popularattention. I venture to predict that those verses alone will bring himin fifty men."

  "Let me see," said Lillie, making an impatient snatch at the paper; butthe Doctor drew it away, desirous of enjoying the luxury of his ownelocution. To read a good thing aloud and to poke the fire are simplebut real pleasures, which some people cannot easily deny themselves--andwhich belong of right, I think, to the head of a family. The Doctorsettled himself in an easy chair, adjusted his collar, put up hiseyeglass, dropped it, put on his spectacles in spite of Lillie'sremonstrances, and read as follows--

  A NATIONAL HYMN.

  _Tune_: AMERICA.

  Be thou our country's Chief In this our year of grief, Allfather great; Go forth with awful tread, Crush treason's serpent head, Bring back our sons misled, And save our State.

  Uphold our stripes and stars Through war's destroying jars With thy right hand; Oh God of battles, lead Where our swift navies speed, Where our brave armies bleed For fatherland.

  Break every yoke and chain, Let truth and justice reign From sea to sea; Make all our statutes right In thy most holy sight; Light us, O Lord of light, To follow Thee.

  God bless our fatherland, God make it strong and grand On sea and shore; Ages its glory swell, Peace in its borders dwell, God stand its sentinel For ever more.

  "Let me see it," persisted Lillie, making a second and more successfulreach for the paper. She read the verses to herself with a slight flushof excitement, and then quietly remarked that they were pretty. It hasbeen suspected that she kept that paper; at all events, when her fathersought it next morning to cut out the verses and paste them in hiscommon-place book, he could not find it; and while Lillie pretended totake an interest in his search, she made no distinct answer to hisinquiries. I am told by persons wise in the ways of young ladies thatthey sometimes lay aside trifles of this sort, and are afterwardsashamed, from some inexplicable cause, of having the fact become patenteven to their nearest relatives. It must not be understood, by the way,that Miss Ravenel had lost her slight admiration for that full-blownspecimen of the male sex, Colonel Carter. He was too much in the styleof a Louisiana planter not to be attractive to her homesick eyes. Shewelcomed his rare visits with her invariable but nevertheless flatteringblush, and talked to him with a vivacity which sent flashes of pain intothe soul of Colburne. The young man admitted the fact of these spasms,but tried to keep up a deception as to their cause. In his charitytowards himself he attributed them to an unselfish anxiety for thehappiness of that sweet girl, who, he feared, would find Carter anunsuitable husband, however grandiose as a social ornament andaccomplished as an officer.

  In spite of these sentimental possibilities of disagreement between theColonel and the Captain, their friendship daily grew stronger. Theformer was not in the least influenced by lovelorn jealousy, and setmuch store by Colburne as being the only officer in his regiment who wasprecisely to his taste. He had desired, but had not been able to obtain,the young gentlemen of New Boston, the sons of the college professors,and of the city clergymen. The set was limited in number and not martialnor enthusiastic in character. It had held aristocratically aloof fromthe militia, from the fire companies, from personal interference inlocal politics, from every social enterprise which could bring it intocontact with the laboring masses. It needed two years of tremendous warto break through the shy reserve of this secluded and almost monasticlittle circle, and let loose its sons upon the battlefield. The Colonelwas disgusted with his raft of tinkers and tailors, as he called hisofficers, although they were mostly good drill-masters and creditablyzealous in learning the graver duties of their new profession. Theregular army, he said, had not been troubled with any such kind offellows. The brahminism of West Point and of the old service revoltedfrom such vulgar associations. It required the fiery breath of manyfierce battles, in which the gallantry of volunteers shone conspicuous,to blow this feeling into oblivion.

  One day the Colonel related in confidence to the Doctor a circumstancewhich had given him peculiar disgust. The Governor having permitted himto nominate his own Lieutenant-Colonel, he had selected an ex-officer ofa three months' regiment who had shown tactical knowledge, andgallantry. The field position of Major he had finally resolved to demandfor Colburne. Hence an interview, and an unpleasant one, with the chiefmagistrate of Barataria.

  "Governor," said Carter, "I want that majority for a particular friendof mine, the best officer in the regiment and the best man for the placethat I know in the State."

  The Governor was in his little office reclining in a high-backed oakenchair, and toasting his feet at a fire. He was a tall, thin, stoopinggentleman, slow in gait because feeble in health, with a benign dignityof manner and an unvarying amiability of countenance. His eyes were apale blue, his hair a light chestnut slightly silvered by fifty years,his complexion had once been freckled and was still fair, his smile wasfrequent and conciliatory. Like President Lincoln he sprang from theplain people, who were to conquer in this war, and like him he wascapable of intellectual and moral growth in proportion to enlargement ofhis sphere of action. A modest, gentle-tempered, obliging man, patrioticin every impulse, devout in the severe piety of New England,distinguished for personal honor and private virtues, he was in themain a credit to the State which had selected him for its loftiestdignity.

  He had risen from his chair and saluted the Colonel with marked respect.Although he did not like his moral ways, he valued him highly for hisprofessional ability and courage, and was proud to have him in commandof a Baratarian regiment. To his shy spirit this aristocratic andmartial personage was in fact a rather imposing phenomenon. Carter had afearful eye; by turns audaciously haughty and insolently quizzical; andon this occasion the Governor felt himself more than usually discomposedunder its wide open, steady, confident stare. He seemed even a littletremulous as he took his seat; he dreaded to disagree with therepresentative of West Point brahminism; and yet he knew that he must.

  "Captain Colburne."

  "Oh--Captain Colburne," hesitated the Governor. "I agree with you,Colonel, in all that you say of him. I hope that there will be anopportunity yet of pushing him forward. But just now," he continued witha smile that was apologetical and almost penitent, "I don't see that Ican give him the majority. I have promised it to Captain Gazaway."

  "To Gazaway!" exclaimed Carter. A long breath of angry astonishmentswelled his broad breast, and his cheek would have flushed if anyemotion could have deepened the tint of that dark red bronze.

  "You don't mean, I hope, Governor, that you are resolved to give themajority of my regiment to that boor."

  "I know that he is a plain man," mildly answered the Governor, who hadbegun life himself as a mechanic.

  "Plain man! He is a plain blackguard. He is a toddy-mixer andshoulder-hitter."

  The Governor uttered a little troubled laugh; he was clearlydiscomposed, but he was not angry.

  "I am willing to grant all that you say of him," he answered. "I have nopersonal liking for the man. Individually I should prefer CaptainColburne. But if you knew the pressure that I am under--"

  He hesitated as if reflecting, smiled again with his habitualgentleness, folded and unfolded his hands nervously, and proceeded withhis explanation.

  "You must not expose o
ur little political secrets, Colonel. I am obligedto permit certain schemes and plots which personally I disapprove of.Captain Gazaway lives in a very close district, and influences aconsiderable number of votes. He is popular among his class of people,as you can see by the ease with which he filled his company. He and hisfriends insist upon the majority. If we refuse it we shall probably losethe district and a member of Congress. That is a serious matter at thistime when the administration must be supported by a strong house, or thenation may be shipwrecked. Still, if I were left alone I would take therisk, and appoint good officers and no others to all our regiments,satisfied that success in the field is the best means of holding themasses firm in support of the Government. But in the meantime Burleigh,who is our candidate in Gazaway's district, is defeated, we willsuppose. Burleigh and Gazaway understand each other. If Gazaway gets themajority, he promises to insure the district to Burleigh. You see thepressure I am under. All the leading managers of our party concur inurging upon me this promotion of Gazaway. I regret extremely that I cando nothing now for your favorite, whom I respect very much. I hope to dosomething for him in the future."

  "When an election is not so near at hand," suggested Carter.

  "Here," continued the Governor, without noticing the satire, "I havebeen perfectly frank with you. All I ask in return is that you will havepatience."

  "'Pon my honor, I can't of course find fault with you personally,Governor," replied the Colonel. "I see how the cursed thing works. Youare on a treadmill, and must keep stepping according to the machinery.But by--! sir, I wish this whole matter of appointments was in the handsof the War Department."

  "I almost wish it was," sighed the Governor, still without a show ofwounded pride or impatience.

  It was this conversation which the Colonel repeated to the scandalizedears of Doctor Ravenel, when the latter urged the promotion of Colburne.

  "I hope you will inform our young friend of your efforts in his favor,"said the Doctor. "He will be exceedingly gratified, notwithstanding thedisappointment."

  "No," said the Colonel. "I beg your pardon; but don't tell him. It wouldnot be policy, it would not be soldierly, to inform him of any thinglikely to disgust him with the service."