Miss Ravenel's conversion from secession to loyalty

by John William De Forest

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  CAPTAIN COLBURNE COVERS THE RETREAT OF THE SOUTHERN LABOR ORGANIZATION.

  Colburne soon discovered the Ravenels and their retainers bivouacked inan angle of the fortification. The Doctor actually embraced him indelight at his escape; and Mrs. Carter seized both his hands in hers,exclaiming, "Oh, I am so happy!"

  She was full of gayety. She had had a splendid nap; had actually sleptout of doors. Did he see that tent made out of a blanket? She had sleptin that. She could bivouac as well as you, Captain Colburne; she was asgood a soldier as you, Captain Colburne. She liked it, of all things inthe world. She never would sleep in the house again till she wasfif--sixty.

  It was curious to note how she checked herself upon the point ofmentioning fifty as the era of first decrepitude. Her father was overfifty, and therefore fifty could not be old age, notwithstanding herpreconceived opinions on the subject.

  "But oh, how obliged we are to you!" she added, changing suddenly to aserious view. "How kind and noble and brave you are! We owe you somuch!--Isn't it strange that I should be saying such things to you? Inever thought that I should ever say anything of the kind to any man butmy father and my husband. I am indeed grateful to you, and thankful thatyou have escaped."

  As she spoke, her eyes filled with tears. There was a singularchangeableness about her of late; she shifted rapidly and withoutwarning, almost without cause, from one emotion to another; she felt andexpressed all emotions with more than usual fervor. She was sadder attimes and gayer at times than circumstances seemed to justify. Anordinary observer, a man especially, would have been apt to considersome of her conduct odd, if not irrational. The truth is that she hadbeen living a new life for the past two months, and that her being,physical and moral, had not yet been able to settle into a tranquilunity of function and feeling. Many women and a few men will understandme here. Colburne was too merely a young man to comprehend anything; buthe could stand a little way off and worship. He thought, as she facedhim with her cheeks flushed and her eyes the brighter for tears, thatshe was very near in guise and nature to an angel. It may be a paradox;it may be a dangerous fact to make public; but he certainly was lovinganother man's wife with perfect innocence.

  "What is the matter with Mauma Major?" asked the Doctor.

  Colburne briefly related the martyrdom of Scott; and father and daughterhurried to console the weeping black woman.

  Then the young soldier bethought himself that he ought to report hisknowledge of the rebels to the commandant of the garrison. "You'll findthe cuss in there," said a devil-may-care lieutenant, pointing to abrick structure in the centre of the fort. Colburne entered, saw anofficer sleeping on a pile of blankets, and to his astonishmentrecognized him as Major Gazaway. In slumber this remarkable poltroonlooked respectably formidable. He was six feet in height and nearly twohundred pounds in weight, large-limbed, deep-chested, broad-shouldered,dark in complexion, aquiline in feature, masculine and even stern inexpression. He had begun life as a prize fighter, but had failed in thatcareer, not because he lacked strength or skill, but from want of pluckto stand the hammering. Nevertheless he was a tolerable hand at arough-and-tumble fight, and still more efficient in election-daybullying and browbeating. For the last ten years he had kept a billiardsaloon, had held various small public offices, and had been the IsaiahRynders of his little city. On the stump he had a low kind of populareloquence made up of coarse denunciation, slanderous lying, bar-roomslang, smutty stories, and profanity. The Rebellion broke out; the Rebelcannon aimed at Fort Sumter knocked the breath out of the Democraticparty; and Gazaway turned Republican, bringing over two hundred fightingvoters, and changing the political complexion of his district.Consequently he easily got a commission as captain in the three months'campaign, and subsequently as major in the Tenth, much to the disgust ofits commandant. He had expected and demanded a colonelcy; he thoughtthat the Governor, in not granting it, had treated him with ingratitudeand black injustice; he honestly believed this, and was naively sore andangry on the subject. It needed this trait of born impudence to renderhis character altogether contemptible; for had he been a conscious,humble coward, he would have merited a pity not altogether disunitedfrom respect. From the day of receiving his commission Gazaway had notceased to intrigue and bully for promotion in a long series of blottedand ill-spelled letters. How could a mere Major ever hope to go beforethe people successfully as a candidate for Congress? That distinctionwas the aim of Gazaway, as of many another more or less successfulblackguard. It is true that these horrid battles occasionally shook hisambition and his confidence in his own merits. Under fire he was a meekman, much given to lying low, to praying fervently, to thinking that awhole skin was better than laurels. But in a few hours after the dangerwas past, his elastic vanity and selfishness rose to the occasion, andhe was as pompous in air, as dogmatical in speech, as impudently greedyin his demands for advancement as ever. Such was one of Colburne'ssuperior officers; such was the dastard to whom the wounded heroreported for duty. Colburne, by the way, had never asked for promotion,believing, with the faith of chivalrous youth, that merit would be sureof undemanded recognition.

  After several calls of "Major!" the slumberer came to hisconsciousness; he used it by rolling over on his side, and endeavoringto resume his dozings. He had not been able to sleep till late the nightbefore on account of his terrors, and now he was reposing like ananimal, anxious chiefly to be let alone.

  "Major--excuse me--I have something of importance to report," insistedthe Captain.

  "Well; what is it?" snarled Gazaway. Then, catching sight of Colburne,"Oh! that you, Cap? Where _you_ from?"

  "From a plantation five miles below, on the bayou. I was followed inclosely by the rebel cavalry. Their pickets are less than half a milefrom the fort."

  "My God!" exclaimed Gazaway, sitting up and throwing off hismusquito-net. "What do you think? They ain't going to attack the fort,be they?" Then calling his homespun pomposity to his aid, he added, witha show of bravado, "I can't see it. They know better. We can knock spotsout of 'em."

  "Of course we can," coincided the Captain. "I don't believe they haveany siege artillery; and if we can't beat off an assault we ought to becat-o'-nine-tailed."

  "Cap, I vow I wish I had your health," said the Major, gazingshamelessly at Colburne's thin and pale face. "You can stand anything. Iused to think I could, but this cussed climate fetches _me_. I swear Ihain't been myself since I come to Louisianny."

  It is true that the Major had not been in field service what he oncehonestly thought he was. He had supposed himself to be a brave man; hewas never disenchanted of this belief except while on the battle-field;and after he had run away he always said and tried to believe that itwas because he was sick.

  "I was took sick with my old trouble," he continued; "same as I had atNew Orleans, you know--the very day that we attacked Port Hudson."

  By the way, he had not had it at New Orleans; he had had it at GeorgiaLanding and Camp Beasland; but Colburne did not correct him.

  "By George! what a day that was!" he exclaimed, referring to the assaultof the 27th of May. "I'll bet more'n a hundred shots come within fivefeet of me. If I could a kep' up with the regiment, I'd a done it. But Icouldn't. I had to go straight to the hospital. I tell you I sufferedthere. I couldn't get no kind of attention, there was so many woundedthere. After a few days I set out for the regiment, and found it in aholler where the rebel bullets was skipping about like parched peas in askillet. But I was too sick to stand it. I had to put back to thehospital. Finally the Doctor he sent me to New Orleans. Well, I was justgettin' a little flesh on my bones when General Emory ordered every manthat could walk to be put to duty. Nothing would do but I must takecommand of this fort. I got here yesterday morning, and the boat wentback in the afternoon, and here we be in a hell of a muss. I broughttwenty such invalids along--men no more fit for duty than I be. I swearit's a shame."

  Colburne did not utter the disgust and contempt which he felt; he turned
away in silence, intending to look up dressings for his arm, which hadbecome dry and feverish. The Major called him back.

  "I say, Cap, if the enemy are in force, what are we to do?"

  "Why, we shall fight, of course."

  "But we ha'n't got men enough to stand an assault."

  "How many?"

  "One little comp'ny Louisianny men, two comp'nies nine months' men, anda few invalids."

  "That's enough. Have you any spare arms?"

  "I d'no. I reckon so," said the Major, in a peevish tone. "I reckonyou'd better hunt up the Quartermaster, if there is one. I s'pose he has'em."

  "A friend of mine has brought fifteen able-bodied negroes into the fort.I want guns for them."

  "Niggers!" sneered the Major. "What good be they?"

  Losing all patience, Colburne disrespectfully turned his back withoutanswering, and left the room.

  "I say, Cap, if we let them niggers fight we'll be all massacred," werethe last words that he heard from Gazaway.

  Having got his arm bound anew with wet dressings, he sought out theQuartermaster, and proceeded to accouter the Ravenel negroes, meanwhilechewing a breakfast of hard crackers. Then, meeting the Lieutenant whohad directed him to Gazaway's quarters, and who proved to be thecommandant of the Louisiana company, they made a tour of the rampartstogether, doing their volunteer best to take in the military features ofthe flat surrounding landscape, and to decide upon the line of approachwhich the rebels would probably select in case of an assault. There wasno cover except two or three wooden houses of such slight texture thatthey would afford no protection against shell or grape. The levee on theopposite side of the bayou might shelter sharpshooters, but not acolumn. They trained a twenty-four-pounder iron gun in that direction,and pointed the rest of the artillery so as to sweep the plain betweenthe fort and a wood half a mile distant. The ditch was deep and wide,and well filled with water, but there was no abattis or otherobstruction outside of it. The weakest front was toward the Mississippi,on which side the rampart was a mere bank not five feet in height,scarcely dominating the slope of twenty-five or thirty yards whichstretched between it and the water.

  "I wish the river was higher--smack up to the fortifications," said theLouisiana lieutenant. "They can wade around them fences," he added,pointing to the palisades which connected the work with the river.

  This officer was not a Louisianian by birth, any more than the men whomhe commanded. They were a medley of all nations, principally Irish andGermans, and he had begun his martial career as a volunteer in anIndiana regiment. He was chock full of fight and confidence; this wasthe only fort he had ever garrisoned, and he considered it almostimpregnable; his single doubt was lest the assailants "might wade inaround them fences." Colburne, remembering how Banks had been repulsedtwice from inferior works at Port Hudson, also thought the chances goodfor a defence. Indeed, he looked forward to the combat with somethinglike a vindictive satisfaction. Heretofore he had always attacked; andhe wanted to fight the rebels once from behind a rampart; he wanted toteach them what it was to storm fortifications. If he had been bettereducated in his profession he would have found the fort alarmingly smalland open, destitute as it was of bomb-proofs, casemates and traverses.The river showed no promise of succor; not a gunboat or transportappeared on its broad, slow, yellow current; not a friendly smoke couldbe seen across the flat distances. The little garrison, it seemed, mustrely upon its own strength and courage. But, after taking a deliberateview of all the circumstances, Colburne felt justified in reporting toMajor Gazaway that the fort could beat off as many Texans as could standbetween it and the woods, which was the same as to say a matter of oneor two hundred thousand. Leaving his superior officer in a state ofspasmodic and short-lived courage, he spread his rubber blanket in ashady corner, rolled up his coat for a pillow, laid himself down, andslept till nearly noon. When he awoke, the Doctor was holding anumbrella over him.

  "I am ever so much obliged to you," said Colburne, sitting up.

  "Not at all. I was afraid you might get the fever. Our Louisiana sun,you know, doesn't dispense beneficence alone. I saw that it had foundyou out, and I rushed to the rescue."

  "Is Mrs. Carter sheltered?" asked the Captain.

  "She is very comfortably off, considering the circumstances."

  He was twiddling and twirling his umbrella, as though he had somethingon his mind.

  "I want you to do me a favor," he said, after a moment. "I should reallylike a gun, if it is not too much trouble."

  The idea of the Doctor, with his fifty-five years, his peaceful habits,and his spectacles, rushing to battle made Colburne smile. Anotherimaginary picture, the image of Lillie weeping over her father's body,restored his seriousness.

  "What would Mrs. Carter say to it?" he asked.

  "I should be obliged if you would not mention it to her," answered theDoctor. "I think the matter can be managed without her knowledge."

  Accordingly Colburne fitted out this unexpected recruit with arifle-musket, and showed him how to load it, and how to put on hisaccoutrements. This done, he reverted to the subject which mostinterested his mind just at present.

  "Mrs. Carter must be better sheltered than she is," he said. "In case ofan assault, she would be in the way where she is, and, moreover, shemight get hit by a chance bullet. I will tell the Major that hisColonel's wife is here, and that he must turn out for her."

  "Do you think it best?" questioned the Doctor. "Really, I hate todisturb the commandant of the fort."

  But Colburne did think it best, and Gazaway was not hard to convince. Hehated to lose his shelter, poor as it was, but he had a salutary dreadof his absent Colonel, and remembering how dubious had been his ownrecord in field service, he thought it wise to secure the favor of Mrs.Carter. Accordingly Lillie, accompanied by Black Julia, moved into thebrick building, notwithstanding her late declarations that she likednothing so well as sleeping in the open air.

  "Premature old age," laughed Colburne. "Sixty already."

  "It is the African Dahomey, and not the American, which produces theAmazons," observed the Doctor.

  "If you don't stop I shall be severe," threatened Lillie. "I have a doornow to turn people out of."

  "Just as though that was a punishment," said Colburne. "I thoughtout-of-doors was the place to live."

  As is usual with people in circumstances of romance which are notinstantly and overpoweringly alarming, there was an exhilaration intheir spirits which tended towards gayety. While Mrs. Carter andColburne were thus jesting, the Doctor shyly introduced his martialequipments into the house, and concealed them under a blanket in onecorner. Presently the two men adjourned to the ramparts, to learn thecause of a commotion which was visible among the garrison. Far up thebayou road thin yellow clouds of dust could be seen rising above thetrees, no doubt indicating a movement of troops in considerable force.From that quarter no advance of friends, but only of Texan cavalry andLouisianian infantry, could be expected. Nearly all the soldiers hadleft their shelters of boards and rubber blankets, and were watching thethreatening phenomenon with a grave fixedness of expression which showedthat they fully appreciated its deadly significance. Sand-columns of thedesert, water-spouts of the ocean, are a less impressive spectacle thanthe approaching dust of a hostile army. The old and tried soldier knowsall that it means; he knows how tremendous will be the screech of theshells and the ghastliness of the wounds; he faces it with an inwardshrinking, although with a calm determination to do his duty; his timefor elation will not come until his blood is heated by fighting, and hejoins in the yell of the charge. The recruit, deeply moved by thenovelty of the sight, and the unknown grandeur of horror or of glorywhich it presages, is either vaguely terrified or full of excitement.Calm as is the exterior of most men in view of approaching battle, notone of them looks upon it with entire indifference. But let the eyes onthe fortifications strain as they might, no lines of troops could bedistinguished, and there was little, if any, increase in the number ofthe rebel pickets
who sat sentinel in their saddles under the shade ofscattered trees and houses. Presently the murmur "A flag of truce!" ranalong the line of spectators. Down the road which skirted the northernbank of the bayou rode slowly, amidst a little cloud of dust, a party offour horsemen, one of whom carried a white flag.

  "What does that mean," asked Gazaway. "Do you think peace isproclaimed?"

  "It means that they want this fort," said Colburne. "They are going tocommit the impertinence of asking us to surrender."

  The Major's aquiline visage was very pale, and his outstretched handshook visibly; he was evidently seized by the complaint which had sotroubled him at Port Hudson.

  "Cap, what shall I do?" he inquired in a confidential whisper, twistingone of his tremulous fingers into Colburne's buttonhole, and drawing himaside.

  "Tell them to go to ----, and then send them there," said the Captain,angrily, perceiving that Gazaway's feelings inclined toward acapitulation. "Send out an officer and escort to meet the fellows andbring in their message. They mustn't be allowed to come inside."

  "No, no; of course not. We couldn't git very good terms if they shouldsee how few we be," returned the Major, unable to see the matter in anyother light than that of his own terrors. "Well, Cap, you go and meetthe feller. No, you stay here; I want to talk to you. Here, where's thatLouisianny Lieutenant? Oh, Lieutenant, you go out to that feller withjest as many men 's he's got; stop him 's soon 's you git to him, andsend in his business. Send it in by one of your men, you know; and takea white flag, or han'kerch'f, or suthin'."

  When Gazaway was in a perturbed state of mind, his conversation had anunusual twang of the provincialisms of tone and grammar amidst which hehad been educated, or rather had grown up without an education.

  At sight of the Union flag of truce, the rebel one, now only a quarterof a mile from the fort, halted under the shadow of an evergreen oak bythe roadside. After a parley of a few minutes, the Louisiana Lieutenantreturned, beaded with perspiration, and delivered to Gazaway a sealedenvelope. The latter opened it with fingers which worked as awkwardly asa worn-out pair of tongs, read the enclosed note with evidentdifficulty, cast a troubled eye up and down the river, as if looking invain for help, beckoned Colburne to follow him, and led the way to adeserted angle of the fort.

  "I say, Cap," he whispered, "we've got to surrender."

  Colburne looked him sternly in the face, but could not catch hiscowardly eye.

  "Take care, Major," he said.

  Gazaway started as if he had been threatened with personal violence.

  "You are a ruined man if you surrender this fort," pursued Colburne.

  The Major writhed his Herculean form, and looked all the anguish whichso mean a nature was capable of feeling; for it suddenly occurred to himthat if he capitulated he might never be promoted, and never go toCongress.

  "What in God's name shall I do?" he implored. "They've got six thous'n'men."

  "Call the officers together, and put it to vote."

  "Well, you fetch 'em, Cap. I swear I'm too sick to stan' up."

  Down he sat in the dust, resting his elbows on his knees, and his headbetween his hands. Colburne sought out the officers, seven in number,besides himself, and all, as it chanced, Lieutenants.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "we are dishonored cowards if we surrender thisfort without fighting."

  "Dam'd if we don't have the biggest kind of a scrimmage first,"returned the Louisianian.

  The afflicted Gazaway rose to receive them, opened the communication ofthe rebel general, dropped it, picked it up, and handed it to Colburne,saying, "Cap, you read it."

  It was a polite summons to surrender, stating the investing force at sixthousand men, declaring that the success of an assault was certain,offering to send the garrison on parole to New Orleans, and closing withthe hope that the commandant of the fort would avoid a useless effusionof blood.

  "Now them's what I call han'some terms," broke in Gazaway eagerly. "Wecan't git no better if we fight a week. And we can't fight a day. Wehain't got the men to whip six thous'n' Texans. I go for takin' termswhile we can git 'em."

  "Gentlemen, I go for fighting," said Colburne.

  "That's me," responded the Louisiana lieutenant; and there was anapproving murmur from the other officers.

  "This fort," continued our Captain, "is an absolute necessity to theprosecution of the siege of Port Hudson. If it is lost, the navigationof the river is interrupted, and our army is cut off from its supplies.If we surrender, we make the whole campaign a failure. We must not doit. We never shall be able to face our comrades after it; we never shallbe able to look loyal man or rebel in the eye. We _can_ defendourselves. General Banks has been repulsed twice from inferior works. Itis an easy chance to do a great deed--to deserve the thanks of the armyand the whole country. Just consider, too, that if we don't hold thefort, we may be called on some day to storm it. Which is the easiest?Gentlemen, I say, No surrender!"

  Every officer but Gazaway answered, "That's my vote." The LouisianaLieutenant fingered his revolver threatening, and swore by all that washoly or infernal that he would shoot the first man who talked ofcapitulating. Gazaway's mouth had opened to gurgle a remonstrance, butat this threat he remained silent and gasping like a stranded fish.

  "Well, Cap, you write an answer to the cuss, and the Major'll sign it,"said the Louisianian to Colburne, with a grin of humorous malignity. Ourfriend ran to the office of the Quartermaster, and returned in a minutewith the following epistle:

  "Sir: It is my duty to defend Fort Winthrop to the last extremity, and Ishall do it."

  The signature which the Major appended to this heroic document was sotremulous and illegible that the rebel general must have thought thatthe commandant was either very illiterate or else a very old gentlemanafflicted with the palsy.

  Thus did the unhappy Gazaway have greatness thrust upon him. He wouldhave been indignant had he not been so terrified; he thought ofcourt-martialing Colburne some day for insubordination, but said nothingof it at present; he was fully occupied with searching the fort for aplace which promised shelter from shell and bullet. The rest of the dayhe spent chiefly on the river front, looking up and down the stream invain for the friendly smoke of gunboats, and careful all the while tokeep his head below the level of the ramparts. His trepidation was soapparent that the common soldiers discovered it, and amused themselvesby slyly jerking bullets at him, in order to see him jump, fall down andclap his hand to the part hit by the harmless missile. He must havesuspected the trick; but he did not threaten vengeance nor even try todiscover the jokers: every feeble source of manliness in him had beendried up by his terrors. He gave no orders, exacted no obedience, andwould have received none had he demanded it. Late in the afternoon, halfa dozen veritable rebel balls whistling over the fort sent him coweringinto the room occupied by Mrs. Carter, where he appropriated a blanketand stretched himself at full length on the floor, fairly grovellingand flattening in search of safety. It was a case of cowardice whichbordered upon mania or physical disease. He had just manliness enough tofeel a little ashamed of himself, and mutter to Mrs. Carter that he was"too sick to stan' up." Even she, novel as she was to the situation,understood him, after a little study; and the sight of his degradingalarm, instead of striking her with a panic, roused her pride and hercourage. With what an admiring contrast of feeling she looked at thebrave Colburne and thought of her brave husband!

  The last rays of the setting sun showed no sign of an enemy except thewide thin semicircle of rebel pickets, quiet but watchful, whichstretched across the bayou from the river above to the river below. Asnight deepened, the vigilance of the garrison increased, and not onlythe sentinels but every soldier was behind the ramparts, each officerremaining in rear of his own company or platoon, ready to direct it andlead it at the first alarm. Colburne, who was tacitly recognized ascommander-in-chief, made the rounds every hour. About midnight a murmurof joy ran from bastion to bastion as the news spread that two steamerswere close at hand, com
ing up the river. Presently every one could seetheir engine-fires glowing like fireflies in the distant, and hearthrough the breathless night the sighing of the steam, the moaning ofthe machinery, and at last the swash of water against the bows. The low,black hulks, and short, delicate masts, distinctly visible on thegleaming groundwork of the river, and against the faintly lightedhorizon, showed that they were gunboats; and the metallic rattle oftheir cables, as they came to anchor opposite the fort, proved that theyhad arrived to take part in the approaching struggle. Even Gazawaycrawled out of his asylum to look at the cheering reinforcement, andassumed something of his native pomposity as he observed to Colburne,"Cap, they won't dare to pitch into us, with them fellers alongside."

  A bullet or two from the rebel sharpshooters posted on the southernside of the bayou sent him back to his house of refuge. He thought theassault was about to commence, and was entirely absorbed in hearkeningfor its opening clamor. When Mrs. Carter asked him what was going on, hemade her no answer. He was listening with all his pores; his very hairstood on end to listen. Presently he stretched himself upon the floor inan instinctive effort to escape a spattering of musketry which brokethrough the sultry stillness of the night. A black speck had slid aroundthe stern of one of the gunboats, and was making for the bank, salutedby quick spittings of fire from the levee above and below the junctionof the bayou with the river. In reply, similar fiery spittingsscintillated from the dark mass of the fort, and there was a rapid_whit-whit_ of invisible missiles. A cutter was coming ashore; the rebelpickets were firing upon it; the garrison was firing upon the pickets;the pickets upon the garrison. The red flashes and irregular rattlelasted until the cutter had completed its return voyage. There was anunderstanding now between the little navy and the little army; thegunboats knew where to direct their cannonade so as best to support thegarrison; and the soldiers were full of confidence, although they didnot relax their vigilance. Doctor Ravenel and Mrs. Carter supposed intheir civilian inexperience that all danger was over, and by two o'clockin the morning were fast asleep.