by John McElroy
CHAPTER XIII. THE FIRST DAY OF THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN.
AS usual, it seemed to the boys of the 200th Ind. that they had onlylain down when the bugle blew the reveille on the morning of May 3,1864.
The vigilant Orderly-Sergeant was at once on his feet, rousing the other"non-coms" to get the men up.
Si and Shorty rose promptly, and, experienced campaigners as they were,were in a moment ready to march anywhere or do anything as long as theirrations and their cartridges held out.
The supply of rations and cartridges were the only limitations Sherman'sveterans knew. Their courage, their willingness, their ability to go anydistance, fight and whip anything that breathed had no limitations. Theyhad the supremest confidence in themselves and their leaders, and nomore doubt of their final success than they had that the sun would risein the morning.
Vigorous, self-reliant manhood never reached a higher plane than in therank and file of Sherman's army in the Spring of 1864.
Si and Shorty had only partially undressed when they lay down. Theirshoes, hats and blouses were with their haversacks under their heads.Instinctively, as their eyes opened, they reached for them and put themon.
That was a little trick only learned by hard service.
The partners started in to rouse their boys. As soon as these werefairly awake they became greatly excited. They had gone to sleepbubbling over with the momentousness of the coming day, and now that dayhad opened.
There was a frantic scrambling for clothing, which it was impossible forthem to find in the pitchy darkness. There were exclamations of boyishill-temper at their failure. They thought the enemy were right uponthem, and every instant was vital. Monty Scruggs and Alf Russell couldnot wait to dress, but rushed for their guns the first thing, andbuckled on their cartridge-boxes.
"Gid Mackall, you've got on my shoes," screamed Harry Josyln. "I can'tfind 'em nowhere, and I laid 'em right beside me. Take 'em off thisminute."
"Hain't got your shoes on; can't find but one o' my own," snorted Gid inreply. "You helter-skelter little fly-up-the-crick, you never know whereyour own things are, and you lose everybody else's."
"There's my shoe," exclaimed Harry, as he stumbled over one.
"No; that's mine. Let it alone--give it to me," yelled Gid, and in aninstant the two were locked together in one of their usual fights.
Si snatched them apart, cuffed them, and lighted a bit of candle, whichhe kept for emergencies, to help them and the rest find their things.He improved the occasion to lecture them as to the way they should do inthe future.
After awakening him, Shorty had calmed down the excited little Pete,found his shoes and other clothes for him, and seen that he put them onproperly.
"Have everything all right at startin', Pete," said he, "and you'll beall right for the day. You'll have plenty o' time. The rebels'll waitfor us."
"Aint them them, right out there?" asked Pete nervously, pointing to thebanks of blackness out in front.
"No; them's the same old cedar thickets they wuz when you went to bed.They hain't changed a mite durin' the night, except that they've gotsome dew on 'em. You must git over seein' bouggers wherever it's dark.We'll build a fire and cook some breakfast, and git a good ready forstartin'. You must eat all you kin, for you'll need all you kin holdbefore the day's over."
Si was employed the same way in quieting down the rest, seeing thatevery one was properly clothed and had all his equipments, and thenhe gathered them around a little fire to boil their coffee and broil apiece of fresh beef for their breakfast. He had the hardest work gettingthem to pay attention to this, and eat all they could. They were sowrought up over the idea that the battle would begin at any minutethat the sound of a distant bugle or any noise near would bring them upstanding, to the utter disregard of their meal.
"Take it cool, boys, and eat all you kin," he admonished them. "It'sgenerally a long time between meals sich times as these, and the moreyou eat now the longer you kin go without."
But the boys could not calm themselves.
"There, ain't that rebel cavalry galloping and yelling?" one exclaimed;and they all sprang to their feet and stared into the darkness.
"No," said Shorty, with as much scorn as he could express with hismouthful of the last issue of soft bread that he was to get. "Set down.That's only the Double Canister Battery goin' to water. Their Dutchbugler can't speak good English, his bugle only come to this country atthe beginning o' the war, and he's got a bad cold in his head besides.Nobody kin understand his calls but the battery boys, and they won'thave no other. They swear they've the best bugler in the army."'
"Set down! Set down, I tell you," Si repeated sternly, "and swaller allthe grub you kin hold. That's your first business, and it's just as muchyour business as it is to shoot when you're ordered to. You've got tolay in enough now to run you all day. And all that you've got to listenfor is our own bugle soundin' 'Fall in!' Don't mind no other noise."
They tried to obey, but an instant later all leaped to their feet, as avolley of mule screechers mixed with human oaths and imprecations cameup from a neighboring ravine.
"There! There's the rebels, sure enough," they ejaculated, droppingtheir coffee and meat and rushing for their guns.
"Come back and set down, and finish your breakfast," shouted Si. "Thatain't no rebels. That's only the usual family row over the breakfasttable between the mules and the teamsters."
"Mules is kickin' because the teamsters don't wash their hands and puton white aprons when they come to wait on 'em," suggested Shorty.
The boys looked at him in amazement, that he should jest at such amomentous time.
"There's the 'assembly' now," said Si, as the first streak of dawnon the mountain-top was greeted by the bugler at the 200th Ind.'sHeadquarters, filling the chill air with stirring notes.
"Put on your things. Don't be in a hurry. Put on everything just right,so's it won't fret or chafe you during the march. You'll save time bytakin' time now."
He inspected the boys carefully as it grew lighter, showed them how toadjust their blanket-rolls and canteens and heavy haversacks so as tocarry to the best advantage, examined their guns, and saw that each hadhis full allowance of cartridges.
"Here comes meat for the rebel cavalry," shouted one of the oldermembers of the company, as Si brought his squad up to take its place onthe left of Co. Q.
"I wouldn't say much about rebel cavalry, if I was you, Wolf Greenleaf,"Si admonished the joker. "Who was it down in Kentucky that was afraidto shoot at a rebel cavalryman, for fear it would make him mad, and hemight do something?"
The laugh, that followed this old-time "grind" on one of the teasers ofnew recruits silenced him, and encouraged the boys.
As the light broadened, and revealed the familiar hillsand woods, unpeopled by masses of enemies, the shivery"2 o'clock-in-the-morning-feeling" vanished from the boys' hearts, and wassucceeded by eagerness to see the redoubtable rebels, of whom so muchhad been said.
The companies formed up into the regiment on the parade ground, theColonel mounted his horse, took his position on the right flank, andgave the momentous order:
"Attention, battalion--Right face--Forward--file left--March!"
The first wave rolled forward in the mighty avalanche of men, which wasnot to be stayed until, four months later, Sherman telegraphed North theglad message:
"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
As they wound around and over the hills in front, they saw the"reserves," the "grand guard," and finally the pickets with theirreserves drawn in, packed up ready for marching, and waiting for theirregiments to come up, when they would fall-in.
"There's a h--l's mint of deviling, tormenting rebel cavalry out therebeyond the hills," they called out to the regiment. "Drop onto 'em, andmash 'em. We'll be out there to help, if you need it."
"The 200th Injianny don't need no help to mash all the rebel cavalrythis side o' the brimstone lakes," Si answered proudly. "Much obliged toyou, all the same."
"Capt. McGillicuddy," commanded the Colonel, as they advanced beyondwhere the picket-line had been, "deploy your company on both sides ofthe road, and take the advance. Keep a couple hundred yards ahead of theregiment."
"Hooray," said Si, "we're in the lead again, and we'll keep it till theend o' the chapter. Co. Q, to the front and center."
They advanced noiselessly over the crest of a ridge, and the squad,which gained a little on the rest, saw a rebel videt sitting on hishorse in the road some 200 or 300 yards away. The guns of the nervousboys were up instantly, but Si restrained them with a motion of hishand.
"What's the matter with him?" he asked Shorty, indicating the rebel.
"Him and his hors's wore out and asleep," answered Shorty, after aminute's study. "Look at his head and his hoss's."
"Kin we sneak up on him and git him?" asked Si.
"Scarcely," answered Shorty. "Look over there."
A squad of rebels were riding swiftly up the road toward the videt.
"Shan't I shoot him?" asked the nervous little Pete, lifting his gun tohis face.
"No, no; give him a show for his life," answered Shorty, laying his handon Pete's gun.
"It'd be murder to shoot him now. Gi' me your gun, Pete. Run down theroad there apiece, and hit him or his horse with a stone and wake himup."
The boys, to whom a rebel was a savage wolf, to be killed any way thathe could be caught, looked wonderingly at Si, who responded by a nod ofapproval.
"Won't he chop me with his sword?" asked Pete, still full of the terrorsof that weapon.
"We'll look out for that. Go ahead, quick, Pete," said Si.
Poor little Pete, looking as if he was being sent to lead a forlornhope, rushed frantically forward, picking up a stone as he ran, andhurled it with a true aim squarely against the rebel's breast, who wokewith a start, clutched his carbine, and stared around, while little Petedashed into the brush to avoid his dreaded saber.
"Look out for yourself, reb. We're a-coming," shouted Si.
The rebel whirled his horse about, fired his carbine into the air,and sped back to his friends, while the squad rushed forward and tookposition behind trees. The rebels came plunging on.
"Fire!" shouted Si.
The guns of the squad crashed almost together. The bullets seemed tostrike near, but without taking effect on any one of the rebels, whoseemed to catch sight of the rest of Co. Q coming over the crest. Theywhirled their horses around, and started back on a sharp trot, while theboys were reloading.
"Go ahead. Sergeant," shouted Capt. McGillicuddy, from the rear. "Followthem up. We're right behind you. Push them back on their reserves."
"All right, Cap. Back they go," shouted Si, leading forward his squadin a heavy-footed run down the road. They soon came to an opening ofsomewhat level ground, made by the clearing around a cabin.
The rebel squad halted beyond the cornfields, turned about, and openedfire.
"Holy smoke, look there," gasped Monty Scruggs, as a company of rebelcavalry came tearing over the hill in front, to the assistance of theircomrades.
"Them ain't many for cavalry," said Shorty, as he and Si deployed theboys behind fence-corners, and instructed them to shoot carefully andlow.
"Sargint, see there, and there," shouted Alf Russell, as other companiesof rebels came galloping through over the crest, while the firstarrivals began throwing down the fences, preparatory to a charge.
"Yes, there's about a rijimint," Si answered coolly. "We'll need themost o' Co. Q to 'tend to them. Here they come."
"Sergeant, what's all this disturbance you're kicking up in camp?" saidCapt. McGillicuddy playfully, as he deployed Co. Q. "Can't you takea quiet walk out into the country, without stirring up the wholeneighborhood?"
"They seem to've bin at home and expectin' us, Capt," grinned Si, as hepointed to the augmenting swarm of horsemen.
"There does seem to be a tolerably full house," answered the Captainwith a shrug. "Well, the more the merrier. Boys, shoot down thosefellows who're tearing down the fences. That'll stop any rush on us, andwe'll develop their force."
"It's developing itself purty fast, seems to me. There comes anotherrijimint," remarked Si.
The firing grew pretty noisy.
Si was delighted to see how naturally his boys took to their work. Afterthe first flurry of excitement at confronting the yelling, gallopinghorde, they crouched down behind their fence-corners, and loaded andfired as deliberately as the older men.
"What sort of a breach of the peace is this you are committing, Capt.McGillicuddy?" asked Col. McBiddle, coming up at the head of the 200thInd. "And do you want some accomplices?"
"I believe if you'll give me another company I can make a rush acrossthere and scatter those fellows," answered the Captain.
"All right. Take Co. A. Push them as far as you can, for the orders areto develop their strength at once. I'll follow close behind and help youdevelop, if you need me."
An instant later the two companies rushed across the field, making abewildering transformation in the rebels' minds from charging tobeing charged. The rebels were caught before they could complete theirformation. There was a brief tumult of rushes and shots and yells, andthey were pushed back through the woods, with some losses In killed andwounded and stampeded horses.
Si had led his squad straight across the field, against a group engagedin pulling down the fence. They were caught without their arms, and twowere run down and captured. Palpitating with success, the boys rushedover to where the regiment was gathering itself together at the edge ofthe woods on the brow of the ridge.
"Why don't they go ahead? What're they stoppin' for? The wholerijimint's up," Si asked, with a premonition of something wrong.
"Well, I should say there was something to stop for," answered Shorty,as they arrived where they could see, and found the whole country infront swarming with rebel cavalry as far as their eyes could reach.
"Great Scott," muttered Si, with troubled face, for the sight wasappalling. "Is the whole Confederacy out there on hossback?"
"O, my, do we have to fight all them?" whimpered little Pete, scared asmuch by the look on Shorty's face as at the array.
"Shut up, Pete," said Shorty petulantly, as a shell from a rebel batteryshrieked through the woods with a frightful noise. "Git behind thisstump here, and lay your gun across it. I'll stand beside you. Don'tshoot till you've a bead on a man. Keep quiet and listen to orders."
A rebel brigade was rapidly preparing to charge. It stretched out farbeyond the flanks of the regiment.
"Steady, men! Keep cool!" rang out the clear, calm voice of the Colonel."Don't fire till they come to that little run in the field, and thenblow out the center of that gang."
The brigade swept forward with a terrific yell. Si walked behind hissquad, and saw that every muzzle was depressed to the proper level.
The brigade came on grandly, until they reached the rivulet, and then ascorching blast broke out from the muzzles of the 200th Ind., which madethem reel and halt.
Yells of "Close up, Alabamians!" "This way, Tennesseeans!" "Form on yourcolors, Georgians!" came from the rebels as the boys reloaded. Then allsounds were drowned in the rattling musketry, as the rebels began a hotfire from their saddles, in answer to the Union musketry.
"Captain, they are moving out a brigade on either flank to take us inthe rear," said Col. McBiddle calmly to Capt. McGillicuddy. "We'llhave to fall back to the brigade. Pass the word along to retire slowly,firing as we go. The brigade must be near. You had better move yourcompany over toward the right, to meet any attack that may come fromthat direction. I'll send Co. A toward the other flank."
It was a perilous movement to make in front of such overwhelming force.But the smoke curtained the manuver and the rebels only discovered itby the diminution of the fire in their front. Then they and the flankingbrigades came on with ringing yells, and it seemed that the regimentwas to be swept off the face of the earth. The 200th Ind. was not to bescared by yells, however, an
d sent such a galling fire from front andflanks, that the rebel advance lost its rushing impetus. The regimentwas reaching the edge of the woods. The clear fields would give therebel cavalry its chance.
The whole command advanced, the moment the rebels began to break underthe fire, across the fields and through the woods to the crest wherethe 200th Ind. had first tried to stop the swarming rebel horsemen. Fromthere they could see the broad plain rapidly vacated by their enemies,hurrying away from the pursuing shells.
The Colonel's clear, penetrating tones rang above the tumult:
"Attention, 200th Ind.! Every man for himself across the fields. Rallyon the fence beyond."
Shorty, whose face had been scratched by a bullet, took little Peteby the hand. "Now, run for it, my boy, as you never run before in yourlife. Hold on to your gun."
There was a wild rush, through a torrent of bullets, across the clearedspace, and as he jumped the fence, Si was rejoiced to see his squad allfollowing him, with Shorty dragging little Pete in the rear.
They had scarcely struck the ground beyond, when it shook with the crashof artillery on the knoll above, and six charges of double canister torewickedly into the surging mass of rebel cavalry.
"The Double Canister Battery got up jest in the nick o' time," gaspedShorty, as he shoved little Pete down behind a big log. "It generallydoes, though."
"I'm glad the brigade wasn't a mile off," puffed Si, listening withsatisfaction to the long line of rifles singing tenor to the heavy bassof the cannon.
"Capt. McGillicuddy," said the Colonel, "I ordered you to develop theenemy's strength. Has it occurred to you that you somewhat overdid thething?"