by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XVI
AN IMAGINARY AND A REAL BATTLE
"Company--halt!" yelled Sergeant Knox; and he continued to give orders,as though he were in the act of bringing a column into position.
The enemy halted, as if in obedience to the command of the sergeant onthe shore. His commands were plainly heard in the still air of themorning by the troopers in the water; for all of them had turned theirgaze in the direction of the woods. But the observer was concealedamong the branches of a large tree, and the enemy could see nothing.
The guard of the wagon-train still continued to work at the wheels. Sofar as they could move the vehicles at all, it was in the direction ofthe Jamestown Road, still three miles from them. As Life regarded thesituation, it was a hopeless case for them, being only twenty rods fromthe enemy. It is no wonder that they were discouraged, though theofficers compelled their men to continue their labor.
The only salvation for the train and the guard was in the arrival ofthe re-enforcement from the Riverlawn Cavalry and its auxiliary force.He was confident that this assistance would come very soon, and hehoped it would come before the enemy left the stream. Life measuredwith his eye the direction and distances of the edge of the forest, thetrain, and the cavalry.
His position was in about the centre of a straight portion of the lineof the woods, ending at a point nearest to the stream. He had beeninformed that Lieutenant Lyon would command the detachment that was tomove towards the pike. This force could do little or nothing with theirhorses in the meadow, any more than the Confederate company. Thesergeant had arranged in his mind just how the affair should bemanaged, and believed that Deck would hear his advice, as he often hadbefore, whether he followed it or not.
The enemy remained at a halt in the stream, the officers and most ofthe troopers watching the woods in the direction from which thecommands came; for Life had repeated them at intervals for some time.Like a prudent commander, the captain seemed to be unwilling tocontinue his fight with the mud until the unseen enemy, if there wasone, had been seen, and his strength measured.
The sergeant looked at his great silver watch, and found that fiftyminutes had elapsed since the departure of Milton. He had calculatedclosely that the re-enforcement would be on the ground in about half anhour; but probably his impatience had hurried his reckoning, and hemade no allowance for the overhanging branches of the trees, whichwould to some extent impede the progress of the troopers.
But he had heard the sound of the horses' feet as he returned his watchto his pocket. He descended from the tree in hot haste, and rushed upthe road with all the speed that his long legs would carry him. He soondiscovered his lieutenant riding at the head of his platoon. Deck, assoon as he saw the sergeant, gave the order to walk the horses; for hedesired to ascertain the nature of the situation before he reached thescene of the coming action.
"HE SOON DISCOVERED HIS LIEUTENANT RIDING AT THE HEAD OFHIS PLATOON." _Page 210._]
"None o' my business, Leftenant; but I reckon you'd better halt, andtake a look at things ahead," said the sergeant in a very low tone tothe commander of the force, which consisted of nearly, or quite, eightymen, or more than three-fourths of the strength of the Confederatecompany, allowing it to be full, as it appeared to be.
Deck promptly accepted the suggestion, and gave the command; for he hadonly the meagre information conveyed to him by Milton, and he knewnothing whatever of any changes in the situation since he left hiscompanion; and in the space of an hour it was possible that thecondition of things on the meadow was entirely altered.
In the same low tone the sergeant suggested that he had betterdismount, and go with him to the boundary line of the forest, where hecould see for himself the position of the wagon-train and that of theenemy. This was just what the lieutenant wanted to know, and he at oncecomplied with the suggestion of his faithful friend. They went to thepoint indicated, keeping behind the trees; for Deck did not wish theConfederates to draw any inference from his appearance so near thescene of action.
It required but a glance for the young officer to take in the field ofaction, while Life was explaining all that he had seen, and especiallythe taking to the water, like so many ducks, of the enemy. The escortof the train were still laboriously using their shoulders at the wheelsof the wagons; while the mules, six attached to each vehicle, werestruggling in the mud, and were most unmercifully beaten by their negrodrivers. A snail or a turtle would have beaten in a race with thetrain.
"They can never get out of that mire," said Deck.
"Never while they travel the way they are going now," replied Life."They are headed for the Jamestown Road, for I cal'late they don't knownothin' about this road we come by."
"That's a lieutenant in command of the escort," said the commander ofthe re-enforcement. "I don't think he shows good judgment, for he oughtto get out of that mire on hard ground the shortest way he can do so;but I suppose he concluded that he could not get his wagons through thewoods without cutting away the trees to make a road."
"This road ain't down on the maps."
"But I see all there is to be seen, Life; and I don't make out why theenemy halts in the water, if they mean to capture that train, and theyhave force enough to beat the escort twice over."
"I reckon I brought 'em to a halt," said the sergeant, as he describedthe ruse of his orders to an imaginary force. "I cal'late that cap'ndidn't mean to fall into no trap."
"It was well thought of, Life; now I am ready to return to my command,"added Deck, as he started for his detachment.
The sergeant wanted to ask the lieutenant what he intended to do, or,in other words, to obtain his plan of battle; for the young officer wasabout as reticent as his father in matters of this kind. But he hadformed his plan, and was thinking it over. The first thing he did wasto send Milton, on foot, over to the wagon-train, advising thelieutenant in command of the escort to rest his men, and not exhausthis force with a useless struggle in the mud; for a force was at handwhich would assist him in getting the wagons to hard ground.
Deck explained to the sergeant that he had been somewhat delayed,before he left the main road, by Captain Gordon, who had given himprecise directions as to his course after he had finished the affair onthe meadow, whether he was defeated or successful in his mission; forthe rest of the squadron, with the remainder of the riflemen, were toproceed immediately to the south, where the aide-de-camp had work forthem in that direction.
"Lieutenant Butters!" called Deck, as he rode to the head of theriflemen's portion of the column.
The late jail-keeper rode to a little opening in the woods, where Deckhad halted, and received his orders. He then formed his command inline, probably animated by the drill in which he had been engaged fortwo days. He then numbered them from one up to thirty. Thesharpshooters then dismounted, and secured their horses in the woods.They were again formed in line. The platoon of cavalrymen were at rest,and Life was ordered to dismount them, while Deck marched with Buttersand his command in single file into the woods on the left of the road.
On this side of the by-path the dividing-line between the meadow andthe woods extended due north about a quarter of a mile to a pointbeyond which the stream and the low ground reached nearly to the mainroad.
"I want to see the enemy," said Butters. "I can't station my men till Ican see what they are to fire at."
"Then we must go nearer to the meadow," replied Deck, as the lieutenantof the riflemen halted his command, and he led the way, both of themkeeping behind the trees.
A change in the situation greeted the vision of Lieutenant Lyon as hereached a position where he could see the stream and the enemy.
"The Confederates have dismounted!" exclaimed Deck, as he pointed tothe enemy for the benefit of his companion.
"So much the better!" added Butters.
"Of course they intend to attack the escort of the train on foot," saidDeck. "All the men of the company are not yet out of the water; butthey are marching by fours, with their carbines un
slung, and they willfire as soon as they get near enough. I must leave you now, LieutenantButters, to bring my men forward," and the lieutenant hastened back tothe road.
Butters ran to the left of his line, and marched his force, with thethirtieth man at his side, or next behind him, nearly to the point ofthe forest, where he stationed the one with the highest number, andthen one in reverse order, about six feet apart, till the first numberwas stationed within a rod of the by-road. He had measured the distancevery well, for the centre of his line was a few rods from opposite tothe enemy.
Deck was at the end of the road when Butters reached it. He was orderedto fire as soon as he was ready. He had told the men when they wereplaced to fire as soon as the one on his right had done so. With thisrule, no two or more of the riflemen would aim at the same trooper, asthey could not fail to do in a volley. The first four of the enemy,with two officers on their left, were moving toward the miredwagon-train.
Milton had by this time reached the escort, and delivered thecommander's message. The force had ceased their labors, and placedthemselves behind the wagons, though they had their muskets ready foruse. The enemy marched without difficulty, for the sod where it had notbeen broken was tough enough to bear them up; but in places thewandering cattle had cut it up very badly.
Butters in a low tone gave his orders to the first man in the line tofire, and every one would do the same, down to the thirtieth man,without any further command; but he had his rifle in his hand, and hefired himself before he gave the order to the soldier on his left. Thecrack of rifles began, and followed each other in rapid succession.With the fourth discharge five men had fallen, including the foremostof the two officers on the flank, whom Butters had brought downhimself.
Apparently not one of the sharpshooters missed his aim. They adoptedthe method used in the battle on the hill, and kept behind the trees,so that the enemy could see only the puff of smoke as each weapon wasdischarged, and the men were out of sight, or nearly so. Not less thantwenty men had dropped, either killed or wounded. The sharpshooterswere Kentucky riflemen, whose fame had been celebrated in story andsong, and their weapon had been their plaything from their earliestyears.
Suddenly a hoarse command was heard; but its meaning could not be madeout till the men in column dropped upon the ground, and extendedthemselves at full length, with their feet directed towards the woods.At the same time another order was given nearer to the stream, and thetroopers in the water began to remount their horses. The men in themeadow began to crawl back as hurriedly as possible to the brook. Thetroopers hurried their horses as much as they could in the water, andtheir progress was tolerably rapid.
The stream continued to extend at about an equal distance from theforest. The men on the ground continued to drag themselves like snakeson the sod of the meadow till they reached the water, and mounted theirhorses; but not a few of them were shot in their progress, though theirposition on the ground was not favorable to the aim of the riflemen.Deck saw that the enemy would soon be out of the reach of the rifles ifthey continued to follow the creek, and he ordered Butters to move hismen to the left.
Butters sent the command down the line from man to man till it reachedthe thirtieth man, who led the file to the point. The riflemencontinued to fire as fast as they could load their weapons, but stillin the order designated at first. Butters at his first shot after thechange of position had brought down the lieutenant in command near thehead of the column; and he believed the captain of the company had beenthe first to fall by the ball from his rifle on the meadow.
The men dropped rapidly under the fire of the concealed riflemen, andan officer who had taken the place of the one near the head of thecolumn in the water was evidently appalled by the havoc in the command.He shouted an order to his men, which could not be understood in thewoods; but it was inferred when the men suddenly dismounted, and beganto lead their animals, placing them between themselves and the forest.