CHAPTER V. THE SECOND MANASSAS
The sunbeams seemed fairly to dance over the dusty earth. The dust wasnot only over the earth, but over everything, men, animals, wagons andtents. Dick Mason who had struggled so hard through a storm but a fewnights ago now longed for another like it. Anything to get away fromthis blinding blaze.
But he soon forgot heat and dust. He was conscious of a great quiverand thrill running through the whole army. Something was happening.Something had happened, but nobody knew what. Warner and Pennington feltthe same quiver and thrill, because they looked at him as if in inquiry.Colonel Winchester showed it, too. He said nothing, but gazed uneasilytoward the Northern horizon. Dick found himself looking that way also.Along the Rappahannock there was but little firing now, and he began toforget the river which had loomed so large in the affairs of the armies.Perhaps the importance of the Rappahannock had passed.
It was said that Pope himself with his staff had ridden away towardWashington, but Dick did not know. Far off toward the capital hesaw dust clouds, but he concluded that they must be made by marchingreinforcements.
The long hot hours dragged and then came a messenger. It was Shepard whohad reported to headquarters and who afterwards came over to the shadeof a tree where Colonel Winchester and his little staff were gathered.He was on the verge of exhaustion. He was black under the eyes and theveins of his neck were distended. Dust covered him from head to foot.He threw himself on the ground and drank deeply from a canteen of coolwater that Dick handed to him. All saw that Shepard, the spy, the manwhose life was a continual danger, who had never before shown emotion,was in a state of excitement, and if they waited a little he would speakof his own accord.
Shepard took the canteen from his lips, drew several long deep breathsof relief and said:
"Do you know what I have seen?"
"I don't, but I infer from your manner, Shepard, that it must be ofgreat importance," said Colonel Winchester.
"I've seen Stonewall Jackson at the head of half of Lee's army behindus! Standing between us and Washington!"
"What! Impossible! How could he get there?"
"It's possible, because it's been done--I've seen the rebel army behindus. In these civilian clothes of mine, I've been in their ranks, andI've talked with their men. While they were amusing us here on theRappahannock with their cannon, Jackson with the best of the armycrossed the river higher up, passed through Thoroughfare Gap, marchingtwo or three days before a soul of ours knew it, and then struck ourgreat camp at Bristoe Station."
"Shepard, you must be sunstruck!"
"My mind was never clearer. What I saw at close range General Popehimself saw at long range. He and his staff and a detachment came nearenough to see the looting and burning of all our stores--I don't supposeso many were ever gathered together before. But I was right there. Youought to have seen the sight, Colonel, when those ragged rebels whohad been living on green corn burst into our camp. I've heard about theGoths and Vandals coming down on Rome and it must have been somethinglike it. They ate as I never saw anybody eat before, and then throwingaway their rags they put on our new uniforms which were stored there inthousands. At least half the rebel army must now be wearing the Unionblue. And the way they danced about and sang was enough to make a loyalman's heart sick."
"You told all this to General Pope?"
"I did, sir, but I could not make him believe the half of it. He insiststhat it can only be a raiding detachment, that it is impossible for agreat army to have come to such a place. But, sir, I was among them. Iknow Stonewall Jackson, and I saw him with my own eyes. He was thereat the head of thirty thousand men, and we've already lost stores worthmillions and millions. Jeb Stuart was there, too. I saw him. And I sawMunford, who leads Jackson's cavalry since the death of Turner Ashby.Oh, they'll find out soon enough that it's Jackson. We're trapped, sir!I tell you we're trapped, and our own commander-in-chief won't believeit. Good God, Colonel, the trap has shut down on us and if we get out ofit we've got to be up and doing! This is no time for waiting!"
Colonel Winchester saw from the rapidity and emphasis with which Shepardspoke that his excitement had increased, but knowing the man's greatdevotion to the Union he had no rebuke for his plain speech.
"You have done splendid work, Mr. Shepard," he said, "and thecommander-in-chief will recognize what great risks you have run forthe cause. I've no doubt that the accuracy of your reports will soon beproved."
Colonel Winchester in truth believed every word that Shepard had said,sinister though they were. He said that Jackson was behind them, thathe had done the great destruction at Bristoe Station and he had not theslightest doubt that Jackson was there.
Shepard flushing a little with gratification at Colonel Winchester'spraise quickly recovered his customary self possession. Once more he wasthe iron-willed, self-contained man who daily dared everything for thecause he served.
"Thank you, Colonel," he said, "I've got to go out and get a little foodnow. All I say will be proved soon enough."
The three boys, like Colonel Winchester, did not doubt the truth ofShepard's news, and they looked northeast for the dust clouds whichshould mark the approach of Jackson.
"We've been outmaneuvered," said Warner to Dick, "but it's no reason whywe should be outfought."
"No, George, it isn't. We've eighty thousand men as brave as any in theworld, and, from what we hear they haven't as many. We ought to smashtheir old trap all to pieces."
"If our generals will only give us a chance."
Shepard's prediction that his news would soon prove true was verifiedalmost at once. General Pope himself returned to his army and dispatchafter dispatch arrived stating that Jackson and his whole force had beenat Bristoe Station while the Union stores were burning.
"Now is our chance," said Dick to his comrades, "why doesn't the generalmove on Jackson at once, and destroy him before Lee can come to hishelp?"
"I'm praying for it," said Warner.
"From what I hear it's going to be done," said Pennington.
Their hopes came true. Pope at once took the bold course, and marched onJackson, but the elusive Stonewall was gone. They tramped about inthe heat and dust in search of him. One portion of the army includingColonel Winchester's regiment turned off in the afternoon toward a placeof a few houses called Warrenton. It lay over toward the Gap throughwhich Jackson had gone and while the division ten thousand strong didnot expect to find anything there it was nevertheless ordered to look.
Dick rode by the side of his colonel ready for any command, but themystery, and uncertainty had begun to weigh upon him again. It seemedwhen they had the first news that Jackson was behind them, that they hada splendid opportunity to turn upon him and annihilate him before Leecould come. But he was gone. They had looked upon the smoldering ruinsof their great supply camp, but they had found there no trace of aConfederate soldier. Was Harry Kenton right, when he told them theycould not beat Jackson? He asked himself angrily why the man would notstay and fight. He believed, too, that he must be off there somewhere tothe right, and he listened eagerly but vainly for the distant throb ofguns in the east.
A cloud of dust hovered over the ten thousand as they marched on in theblazing sunshine. The country was well peopled, but all the inhabitantshad disappeared save a few, and from not one of these could they obtaina scrap of information.
Dick noticed through the dusty veil a heavy wood on their left extendingfor a long distance. Then as in a flash, he saw that the whole forestwas filled with troops, and he saw also two batteries galloping from ittoward the crest of a ridge. It occurred to him instantly that here wasthe army of Jackson, and others who saw had the same instinctive belief.
There was a flash and roar from the batteries. Shot and shell cutthrough the clouds of dust and among the ranks of the men in blue. Nowcame from the forest a vast shout, the defiant rebel yell and nobody inthe column doubted that Jackson was there. He had swung away toward theGap, where Lee could come to him more readily, and
he would fight thewhole Union army until Lee came up.
As the roar of the first discharge from the batteries was dying swarmsof skirmishers sprang up from ambush and poured a storm of bullets uponthe Union front and flanks. A cry as of anguish arose from the columnand it reeled back, but the men, many of them hardy young farmers fromthe West, men of staunch stuff, were eager to get at the enemy and theterrible surprise could not daunt them. Uttering a tremendous shout theycharged directly upon the Southern force.
It was a case largely of vanguards, the main forces not yet having comeup, but the two detachments charged into each other with a courage andfierceness that was astounding. In a minute the woods and fields werefilled with fire and smoke, and hissing shells and bullets. Men fell byhundreds, but neither side yielded. The South could not drive away theNorth and the North could not hurl back the South.
The field of battle became a terrible and deadly vortex. The fire of theopposing lines blazed in the faces of each other. Often they wereonly three or four score yards apart. Ewell, Jackson's ablest and mosttrusted lieutenant, fell wounded almost to death, and lay long upon thefield. Other Southern generals fell also, and despite their superiornumbers they could not drive back the North.
Dick never had much recollection of the combat, save a reek of fireand smoke in which men fought. He saw Colonel Winchester's horsepitch forward on his head and springing from his own he pulled thehalf-stunned colonel to his feet. Both leaped aside just in time toavoid Dick's own falling horse, which had been slain by a shell. Thenthe colonel ran up and down the lines of his men, waving his sword andencouraging them to stand fast.
The Southern lines spread out and endeavored to overlap the Union men,but they were held back by a deep railroad cut and masses of felledtimber. The combat redoubled in fury. Cannon and rifles together madea continuous roar. Both sides seemed to have gone mad with the rage ofbattle.
The Southern generals astonished at such a resistance by a smallerforce, ordered up more men and cannon. The Union troops were slowlypushed back by the weight of numbers, but then the night, the comingof which neither had noticed, swept down suddenly upon them, leavingfifteen hundred men, nearly a third of those engaged, fallen upon thesmall area within which the two vanguards had fought.
But the Union men did not retreat far. Practically, they were holdingtheir ground, when the darkness put an end to the battle, and they werefull of elation at having fought a draw with superior numbers of theformidable Jackson. Dick, although exultant, was so much exhausted thathe threw himself upon the ground and panted for breath. When he was ableto rise he looked for Warner and Pennington and found them uninjured.So was Sergeant Whitley, but the sergeant, contrary to his custom, wasgloomy.
"What's the matter, sergeant?" exclaimed Dick in surprise. "Didn't wegive 'em a great fight?"
"Splendid, Mr. Mason, I don't believe that troops ever fought betterthan ours did. But we're not many here. Where's all the rest of ourarmy? Scattered, while I'm certain that Jackson with twenty-five orthirty thousand men is in front of us, with more coming. We'll fallback. We'll have to do it before morning."
The sergeant on this occasion had the power of divination. An hourafter midnight the whole force which had fought with so much heroismwas withdrawn. It was a strange night to the whole Union army, full ofsinister omens.
Pope, in his quest for Jackson, had heard about sunset the booming ofguns in the west, but he could not believe that the Southern generalwas there. Many of his dispatches had been captured by the hard-ridingcavalry of Stuart. His own division commanders had lost touch with him.It was not possible for him to know what to do until morning, and noone could tell him. Meanwhile Longstreet was advancing in the darknessthrough the Gap to reinforce Jackson.
Dick had found another horse belonging to a slain owner, and, in thedarkness, his heart full of bitterness, he rode back beside ColonelWinchester toward Manassas. Could they never win a big victory in theeast? The men were brave and tenacious. They had proved it over and overagain, but they were always mismanaged. It seemed to him that they werenever sent to the right place at the right time.
Nevertheless, many of the Northern generals, able and patriotic,achieved great deeds before the dawn of that momentous morning.Messengers were riding in the darkness in a zealous attempt to gatherthe forces together. There was yet abundant hope that they could crushJackson before Lee came, and in the darkness brigade after brigademarched toward Warrenton.
Dick, after tasting all the bitterness of retreat, felt his hopes riseagain. They had not really been beaten. They had fought a superior forceof Jackson's own men to a standstill. He could never forget that. Hecherished it and rolled it under his tongue. It was an omen of what wasto come. If they could only get leaders of the first rank they wouldsoon end the war.
He found himself laughing aloud in the anticipation of what Pope's Armyof Virginia would do in the coming day to the rebels. It might evenhappen that McClellan with the Army of the Potomac would also come uponthe field. And then! Lee and Jackson thought they had Pope in a trap!Pope and McClellan would have them between the hammer and the anvil, andthey would be pounded to pieces!
"Here, stop that foolishness, Dick! Quit, I say, quit it at once!"
It was Warner who was speaking, and he gripped Dick's arm hard, while hepeered anxiously into his face.
"What's the matter with you?" he continued. "What do you find to laughat? Besides, I don't like the way you laugh."
Dick shook himself, and then rubbed his hand across his brow.
"Thanks, George," he said. "I'm glad you called me back to myself. I wasthinking what would happen to the enemy if McClellan and the Army of thePotomac came up also, and I was laughing over it."
"Well, the next time, don't you laugh at a thing until it happens. Youmay have to take your laugh back."
Dick shook himself again, and the nervous excitement passed.
"You always give good advice, George," he said. "Do you know where weare?"
"I couldn't name the place, but we're not so far from Warrenton that wecan't get back there in a short time and tackle Jackson again. Dick, seeall those moving lights to right and left of us. They're the brigadescoming up in the night. Isn't it a weird and tremendous scene? You and Iand Pennington will see this night over and over again, many and many atime."
"It's so, George," said Dick, "I feel the truth of what you say allthrough me. Listen to the rumble of the cannon wheels! I hear 'em onboth sides of us, and behind us, and I've no doubt, too, that it's goingon before us, where the Southerners are massing their batteries. How thelights move! It's the field of Manassas again, and we're going to winthis time!"
All of Dick's senses were excited once more, and everything he saw wasvivid and highly colored. Warner, cool of blood as he habitually was,had no words of rebuke for him now, because he, too, was affected in thesame way. The fields and plains of Manassas were alive not alone withmarching armies, but the ghosts of those who had fallen there the yearbefore rose and walked again.
Despite the darkness everything swelled into life again for Dick. Offthere was the little river of Manassas, Young's Branch, the railwaystation, and the Henry House, around which the battle had raged sofiercely. They would have won the victory then if it had not been forStonewall Jackson. If he had not been there the war would have beenended on that sanguinary summer day.
But Jackson was in front of them now, and they had him fast. Lee andJackson had thought to trap Pope, but Jackson himself was in thetrap, and they would destroy him utterly. His admiration for the greatSouthern general had changed for the time into consuming rage. They mustoverwhelm him, annihilate him, sweep him from the face of the earth.
They mounted again and moved back, but did not go far.
"Get down, Dick," said Colonel Winchester. "Here's food for us, and hotcoffee. I don't remember myself how long we've been in the saddle andhow long we've been without food, but we mustn't go into battle untilwe've eaten."
Dick was the last of the
officers to dismount. He, too, did not rememberhow long they had been in the saddle. He could not say at that moment,whether it had been one night or two. He ate and drank mechanically, buthungrily--the Union army nearly always had plenty of stores--and then hefelt better and stronger.
A faint bluish tint was appearing under the gray horizon in the east.Dick felt the touch of a light wind on his forehead. The dawn wascoming.
Yes, the dawn was coming, but it was coming heavy with sinister omensand the frown of battle. Before the bluish tint in the east had turnedto silver Dick heard the faint and far thudding of great guns, andcloser a heavy regular beat which he knew was the gallop of cavalry.Surely the North could not fail now. Fierce anger against those whowould break up the Union surged up in him again.
The gray came at last, driving the bluish tint away, and the sun rosehot and bright over the field of Manassas which already had beenstained with the blood of one fierce battle. But now the armies were fargreater. Nearly a hundred and fifty thousand men were gathering for thecombat, and Dick was still hoping that McClellan would come with seventyor eighty thousand more. But within the Confederate lines, where theymust always win and never lose, because losing meant to lose all therewas a stern determination to shatter Pope and his superior numbersbefore McClellan could come. Never had the genius and resolution of thetwo great Southern leaders burned more brightly.
As the brazen sun swung slowly up Dick felt that the intense nervousexcitement he had felt the night before was seizing him again. Theofficers of the regiment remained on foot. Colonel Winchester had senttheir horses away to some cavalrymen who had lost their own. He and hisstaff and other officers, dismounted, could lead the men better intobattle.
And that it was battle, great and bloody, the youngest of them all couldsee. Never had an August day been brighter and hotter. Every objectseemed to swell into new size in the vivid and burning sunlight. Plainbefore them lay Jackson's army. Two of his regiments were between themand a turnpike that Dick remembered well. Off to the left ran the darkmasses in gray, until they ended against a thick wood. In the center wasa huge battery, and Dick from his position could see the mouths of thecannon waiting for them.
But he also saw the great line of the Northern Army. It was both deeperand longer than that of the South, and he knew that the men were full ofresolve and courage.
"How many have we got here?" Dick heard himself asking Warner.
"Forty or fifty thousand, I suppose," he heard Warner replying, "andbefore night there will be eighty thousand. Our line is two miles longnow. We ought to wrap around Jackson and crush him to death. Listen tothe bugles! What a mellow note! And how they draw men on to death! Andlisten to the throbbing of the big cannon, too!"
Warner's face was flushed. He had become excited, as the two armiesstood there, and looked at each other a moment or two like prizefighters in the ring before closing in battle. Then they heard the orderto charge and far up and down the line their own cannon opened with acrash so great that Dick and his comrades could not hear one anothertalking.
Then they charged. The whole army lifted itself up and rushed at theenemy, animated by patriotism, the fire of battle and the desire forrevenge. Among the officers were Milroy and Schenck and others who hadbeen beaten by Jackson in the valley. There, too, was the brigadeof Germans whom Jackson had beaten at Cross Keyes. Many of them wereveterans of the sternest discipline known in Europe and they longedfiercely for revenge. And there were more Germans, too, underSchurz--hired Germans, fighting nearly a hundred years before to preventthe Union--and free Germans now fighting to save it.
Driven forward thus by all the motives that sway men in battle, theUnion army rushed upon Jackson. Confident from many victories andtrusting absolutely in their leader the Southern defense received themighty charge without flinching. The wood now swarmed with riflemenand they filled the air with their bullets, so many of them that theirpassage was like the continual rush of a hurricane. Along the whole linecame the same metallic scream, and the great battery in the center was avolcano, pouring forth a fiery hurricane of shot and shell.
Dick felt their front lines being shorn. Although he was untouched itwas an actual physical sensation. He could see but little save thatfearful blaze in their faces, and the cries of the wounded and dyingwere drowned by the awful roar of so many cannon and rifles.
The cloud of dust and smoke had become immense and overwhelming in aninstant, but it was pierced always in front by the blaze of fire, andby its flaming light Dick saw the long lines of the Southern men, theirfaces gray and fixed, as he knew those of his own comrades were.
But the charge, brave, even reckless, failed. The brigades broke in vainon Jackson's iron front. Riddled by the fire of the great battery and ofthe riflemen they could not go on and live. The Germans had longed forrevenge, but they did not get it. The South Carolinians fell upon themat the edge of the wood and hurled them back. They rallied, and chargedagain, but again they were handled terribly, and were forced back by thecharging masses of the Southerners.
Dick had been at Shiloh. He had seen the men of the west in a greatbattle, and now he saw the men of the east in a battle yet greater.There it had been largely in the forest, here it was mostly in the open,yet he saw but little more. One of the extraordinary features of thisbattle was dust. Trampled up from the dry fields by fighting men inscores of thousands it rose in vast floating clouds that permeatedeverything. It was even more persistent than the smoke. It cloggedDick's throat. It stung and burnt him like powder. Often it filled hiseyes so completely that for a moment or two he could not see the blazeof the cannon and rifle fire, almost in his face.
But as they fell back he felt again that sensation of actual physicalpain, although he was still untouched. Added to it was an intense mentalanguish. They were failing! They had been driven back! They had notcrushed Jackson! He forgot all about Colonel Winchester, and hiscomrades Warner and Pennington. He forgot all about his own danger inthis terrible reversal of his hopes, and he began to shout angrily atthe men to stand. He did not know by and by that no sound came from hismouth, that words could not come from a throat so choked with dust andburned gunpowder.
But the charge was made again. The thudding great guns now told all theNorthern divisions where Jackson was. The eighty thousand men of Popewere crowding forward to attack him, and the batteries were gallopingover the plateau to add to the volume of shot and shell that was pouredupon the Southern ranks.
Dick was quite unconscious of the passage of time. Hope had sprung anewin his breast. He heard a report that ten thousand fresh troops underKearney had arrived and were attacking the Southerners in the wood.He knew by the immense volume of fire coming from that point that thereport was true, and he heard that McDowell, too, would soon be at handwith nearly thirty thousand men.
Then he saw Colonel Winchester, his face a mass of grime and hisclothing flecked with blood. But he did not seem to have suffered anywound and he was calmly rallying his men.
"It's hot!" Dick shouted, why he knew not.
"Yes, my boy, and it will soon be hotter! Look at the new brigadescoming into battle! See them on both right and left! We'll crush Jacksonyet!"
It was now mid-morning, and neither Colonel Winchester nor any other ofthe Northern officers facing the Southern force knew that Lee and theother Southern army was at hand. The front ranks of Longstreet werealready in battle, and the most difficult and dangerous of all tasks wasaccomplished. Two armies coming from points widely divergent, but actingin concert had joined upon the field of battle at the very moment whenthe junction meant the most. Lee had come, but McClellan and the Army ofthe Potomac were far away.
Dick heard the trumpets calling again, and once more they charged,hurling heavy masses now upon the wood, which was held by the Southerngeneral, A. P. Hill. Rifle fire gave way to bayonet charges by eitherside, and after swaying back and forth the Union men held the wood fora while, but at last they were driven out to stay, and as they retreatedcannon and rifles
decimated their ranks.
The regiment had suffered so terribly that after its retreat it wascompelled to lie down a while and rest. Dick gasped for breath, but hewas not as much excited as he had been earlier in the day. Perhaps onecan become hardened to anything. Although he and his immediate comradeswere resting he could see no diminution of the battle.
As far to left and right as the eye reached, cannon and rifles blazedand thundered. In front of their own exhausted regiment hundreds ofsharpshooters, creeping forward, were now pouring a deadly fire amongthe Southern troops who held the wood. They were men of the west andnorthwest, accustomed all their lives to the use of firearms, and if aConfederate officer in the forest showed himself for a moment it was atthe risk of his life. Captains and lieutenants fell fast beneath the aimof the sharpshooters.
The burning sun was at the zenith, pouring fiery rays upon the vastconflict which raged along a front of two miles. Pope himself was nowupon the field and his troops were pouring from every point to his aid.So deadly was the fire of the sharpshooters that they regained the wood,driving out the Southerners who had exhausted their cartridges. Hill'sdivision of the Confederates was almost cut to pieces by the cannonand rifles, and the Southern leaders from their posts on the hills sawbrigades and regiments continually coming to the help of the North.
Dick saw or rather felt the fortunes of the North rising again, and ashis regiment stood up for action once more he began to shout with theothers in triumph. The roar of the battle grew so steady that the voicesof men became audible and articulate beneath it.
"They shut their trap down upon us, but we're breaking that trap all topieces," he heard Pennington say.
"Looks as if we might win a victory," said the cooler Warner.
Then he heard no more, as they were once again upon the enemy whoreceived them almost hand to hand, and the battle swelled anew. It wasnow long past noon, and in that prodigious canopy of dust and fire andsmoke it seemed for a while that the Union army in truth had shatteredthe trap. The men in gray were borne back by the courage and weight oftheir opponents. Hooker, Kearney, Reynolds and all the gallant generalsof the North continually urged on their troops. Confidence in victory atlast passed through all the army, and incited it to greater efforts.
But Jackson was undaunted. Never was he cooler. Never did his geniusshine more brilliantly. Never did any man in all the fury and turmoilof battle, amid a thousand conflicting reports and appalling confusion,have a keener perception, a greater power to sum up what was actuallypassing, and a better knowledge of what to do.
Lee was a mile away, standing on a wooded hill, the bearded Longstreetby his side, watching the battle in his immediate front, whereaccumulating masses under Pope's own eye were gathering. On the otherflank where Jackson stood and the conflict was heaviest he trusted allto his great lieutenant and not in vain.
Jackson had formed his plan. There came for a few moments a lull in thebattle which had now lasted nine hours, and then gathering a powerfulreserve he sent them charging through the wood with the bayonet. Dicksaw the massive line of glittering steel coming on at the doublequick and he felt his regiment giving back. The men could not help it.Physically exhausted and with ammunition running low they slowly yieldedthe wood. Many of the youths wept with rage, but although they had lostthousands in five desperate charges they were compelled to see all fivefail.
Dick, aghast, gazed at Warner through the smoke.
"It's true!" gasped Warner, "we didn't break the trap, Dick. But maybethey'll succeed off there to the left! Our own commander is there, andthey say that Lee himself has come to the help of Jackson!"
They had been driven back at all points and their own battle was dying,but off to the left it thundered a while longer, and then as nightsuddenly rushed over the field it, too, sank, leaving the hostile forceson that wing also still face to face, but with the North pushed back.
The coming of night was as sudden to Dick as if it had been the abruptdropping of a great dark blanket. In the fury of conflict he had notnoticed the gathering shadows in the west. The dimness around him, ifhe had taken time to think about it, he would have ascribed to the vastcolumns of dust that eddied and surged about.
Again it was the dust that he felt and remembered. The surging back andforth of seven score thousand men, the tread of horses and the wheelsof hundreds of cannon raised it in such quantities that it covered theforest and the armies with a vast whitish curtain. Even in the darknessit showed dim and ghastly like a funeral veil.
Out of that fatal forest came a dreadful moaning. Dick did not knowwhether it was the wind among the leaves or the dying. Once more theghosts of the year before walked the fatal field, but the ghosts of thisyear would be a far greater company. They had not broken the trap andDick knew that the battle was far from over.
It would be renewed in the morning with greater fierceness than ever,but he was grateful for the present darkness and rest. He and hiscomrades had thrown themselves upon the ground, and they felt as if theycould never move again. Their bones did not ache. They merely felt deadwithin them.
Dick was roused after a long time. The camp cooks were bringing foodand coffee. He saw a figure lying at his feet as still as death, and heshoved it with his foot.
"Get up, Frank," he said. "You're not dead."
"No, I'm not, but I'm as good as dead. You just let me finish dying inpeace."
Dick shoved him again and Pennington sat up. When he saw the food andcoffee he suddenly remembered to be hungry. Warner was already eatingand drinking. Off to the left they still heard cannon and rifles,although the sound was sinking. Occasionally flashes from the mouths ofthe great guns illumined the darkness.
Dick did not know what time it was. He had no idea how long he hadbeen lying upon the ground panting, the air surcharged with menace andsuspense. The vast clouds of dust, impregnated with burned gunpowderstill floated about, and it scorched his mouth and throat as he breathedit.
The boys, after eating and drinking lay down again. They still heard thefiring of pickets, but it was no more than the buzzing of bees to them,and after a while they fell into the sleep of nervous and physicalexhaustion. But while many of the soldiers slept all of the generalswere awake.
It was a singular fact but in the night that divided the great battleof the Second Manassas into two days both sides were full of confidence.Jackson's men, who had borne the brunt of the first day, rested upontheir arms and awaited the dawn with implicit confidence in theirleader. On the other flank Lee and Longstreet were massing their men fora fresh attack.
The losses within the Union lines were replaced by reinforcements. Poperode among them, sanguine, full of hope, telegraphing to Washington thatthe enemy had lost two to his one, and that Lee was retreating towardthe mountains.
Dick slept uneasily through the night, and rose to another hot Augustsun. Then the two armies looked at each other and it seemed that eachwas waiting for the other to begin, as the morning hours dragged on andonly the skirmishers were busy. During this comparative peace, the heavyclouds of dust were not floating about, and Dick whose body had come tolife again walked back and forth with his colonel, gazing through theirglasses at the enemy. He scarcely noticed it, but Colonel Winchester'smanner toward him had become paternal. The boy merely ascribed it to thefriendly feeling an officer would feel for a faithful aide, but he knewthat he had in his colonel one to whom he could speak both as a friendand a protector. Walking together they talked freely of the enemy whostood before them in such an imposing array.
"Colonel," said Dick, "do you think General Pope is correct in statingthat one wing of the Southern army is already retreating throughThoroughfare Gap?"
"I don't, Dick. I don't think it is even remotely probable. I'm quitesure, too, that we have the whole Confederate army in front of us. We'llhave to beat both Lee and Jackson, if we can."
"Where do you think the main attack will be?"
"On Jackson, who is still in front of us. But we have waited a longtime.
It must be full noon now."
"It is past noon, sir, but I hear the trumpets, calling up our men."
"They are calling to us, too."
The regiment shifted a little to the right, where a great column wasforming for a direct attack upon the Confederate lines. Twenty thousandmen stood in a vast line and forty thousand were behind them to march insupport.
Dick had thought that he would be insensible to emotions, but his heartbegan to throb again. The spectacle thrilled and awed him--the greatarmy marching to the attack and the resolute army awaiting it. Soon heheard behind him the firing of the artillery which sent shot and shellover their heads at the enemy. A dozen cannon came into action, thentwenty, fifty, a hundred and more, and the earth trembled with themighty concussion.
Dick felt the surge of triumph. They had yet met no answering fire.Perhaps General Pope and not Colonel Winchester had been right afterall, and the Confederates were crushed. Awaiting them was only a rearguard which would flee at the first flash of the bayonets in the wood.
The great line marched steadily onward, and the cannon thundered androared over the heads of the men raking the wood with steel. Stillno reply. Surely the sixty thousand Union men would now march overeverything. They were driving in the swarms of skirmishers. Dick couldsee them retreating everywhere, in the wood over the hills and along anembankment.
Warner was on his right and Pennington on his left. Dick glanced at themand he saw the belief in speedy victory expressed on the faces of both.It seemed to him, too, that nothing could now stop the massivecolumns that Pope was sending forward against the thinned ranks of theConfederates.
They were much nearer and he saw gray lines along an embankment and ina wood. Then above the crash and thunder of their covering artillery heheard another sound. It was the Southern bugles calling with a piercingnote to their own men just as the Northern trumpets had called.
Dick saw a great gray multitude suddenly pour forward. It looked to himin the blur and the smoke like an avalanche, and in truth it was a humanavalanche, a far greater force of the South than they expected tomeet there. Directly in front of the Union column stood the StonewallBrigade, and all the chosen veterans of Stonewall Jackson's army.
"It's a fight, face to face," Dick heard Colonel Winchester say.
Then he saw a Union officer, whose name he did not know suddenly gallopout in front of the division, wave his saber over his head and shoutthe charge. A tremendous rolling cry came from the blue ranks and Dickphysically felt the whole division leap forward and rush at the enemy.
Dick saw the officer who had made himself the leader of the chargegallop straight at a breastwork that the Southerners had built, reachand stand, horse and rider, a moment at the top, then both fall ina limp heap. The next instant the officer, not dead but wounded, wasdragged a prisoner behind the embankment by generous foes who hadrefused to shoot at him until compelled to do so.
The Union men, with a roar, followed their champion, and Dick felt avery storm burst upon them. The Southerners had thrown up earthworks atmidnight and thousands of riflemen lying behind them sent in a fire atshort range that caused the first Union line to go down like fallinggrain. Cannon from the wood and elsewhere raked them through andthrough.
It was a vortex of fire and death. The Confederates themselves werelosing heavily, but taught by the stern Jackson and knowing that his eyewas upon them they refused to yield. The Northern charge broke on theirfront, but the men did not retreat far. The shrill trumpet called themback to the charge, and once more the blue masses hurled themselves uponthe barrier of fire and steel, to break again, and to come yet a thirdtime at the trumpet's call. Often the combatants were within ten yardsof one another, but strive as they would the Union columns could notbreak through the Confederate defense.
Elsewhere the men of Hill and Longstreet showed a sternness and valorequal to that of Jackson's. Their ranks held firm everywhere, and now,as the long afternoon drew on, the eye of Lee, watching every risingand falling wave of the battle, saw his chance. He drew his batteriestogether in great masses and as the last charge broke on Jackson's linesthe trumpets sounded the charge for the Southern troops who hitherto hadstood on the defensive.
Dick heard a tremendous shout, the great rebel yell, that he had heardso often before, and that he was destined to hear so often again.Through the clouds of smoke and dust he saw the long lines of Southernbayonets advancing swiftly. His regiment, which had already lost morethan half its numbers, was borne back by an appalling weight.
Then hope deserted the boy for the first time. The Union was not to besaved here on this field. It was instead another lost Manassas, but fargreater than the first. The genius of Lee and Jackson which bore upthe Confederacy was triumphing once again. Dick shut his teeth in grimdespair. He heard the triumphant shouts of the advancing enemy, and hesaw that not only his own regiment, but the whole Northern line, wasbeing driven back, slowly it is true, but they were going.
Now at the critical moment, Lee was hurling forward every man and gun.Although his army was inferior in numbers he was always superior at thepoint of contact, and his exultant veterans pressed harder and harderupon their weakening foes. Only the artillery behind them now protectedDick and his comrades. But the Confederates still came with a rush.
Jackson was leading on his own men who had stood so long on thedefensive. The retreating Union line was broken, guns were lost, andthere was a vast turmoil and confusion. Yet out of it some order finallyemerged, and although the Union army was now driven back at every pointit inflicted heavy losses upon its foe, and under the lead of bravecommanders great masses gathered upon the famous Henry Hill, resolved,although they could not prevent defeat, to save the army fromdestruction.
Night was coming down for the second time upon the field of battle, lostto the North, although the North was ready to fight again.
Lee and Jackson looked upon the heavy Union masses gathered at the HenryHill, and then looking at the coming darkness they stopped the attack.Night heavier than usual came down over the field, covering withits friendly veil those who had lost and those who had won, and thetwenty-five thousand who had fallen.
The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's Crisis Page 7