" And we can do it again," said he who had been No. 2, but now was No. 1.
The men, though saying nothing, began to feel their victory. They were making a great fight and they knew it. Their beloved cannon was excelling itself. They patted the barrel and the wheels, and ran their hands along the shining bronze, saying, " Good old boy ! " and " Well done ! " The prolonge ropes were taken down, the limber chest and caisson were sent back to the rear, and the great one gun battery agaio
went into action.
HI
In Hostile Red
"Aim at that mass of infantry across the hill there," said the corporal, and the shot was placed in the appointed spot.
' The fires of many British guns was turned upon this cannon which had become most annoying, sting- ing like a wasp. The defeat of the cavalry furnished mortification too, and the necessity to silence the gun and annihilate its detachment grew more imper- ative. A sleet of lead and iron beat about it. A hot shot struck the limber chest, and a volcano of fire and smoke, accompanied by a terrific explosion, gushed up. Pieces of iron and steel and oaken wood whizzed through the air, and for a few moments both men and horses were blinded by the dazzling burst of flame.
The limber chest was no longer there ; but a deep hole appeared in the earth where it had been, and the space about it was strewed with old iron. It had been blown up by the hot shot, and the corporal, who was taking charges from the chest, and three horses were blown up with it. The other horses, torn loose from their gear and chest, had run away, bleeding. The new driver of the caisson cracked his whip over the heads of his horses, and whirled the limber into the place of the limber destroyed. The chief of caisson proceeded to supply ammunition to the gun, which did not slacken its industry.
The main battle rolled a little further away, and the horses and the gun formed a projection of the American line extending into the British. But the nature of the ground on either side, and the occu- pation furnished by our army to the bulk of the 330
The Defence of the Gun
British troops, protected their flanks. The dauger lay directly in front of them.
The gun was getting hot, and they were forced to let it cool a little.
The corporal watched the enemy, while his gun rested. He never turned his eyes towards his com- rades, knowing they would do their duty.
"They advance slowly," he said to the new No. 1.
" They do not like the kisses of old Hammer and Tongs here," replied No. 1, patting the gun.
"Is that sponge burnt out?" asked the corporal
No. 1 did not reply.
" Why don't you answer ? " asked the corporal, a little impatiently.
" He 's quit talking," said Acting No. 2.
The corporal did not ask, as he knew there could be only one reason for No. 1's inability. A bullet had passed through the man's heart, and he had died gracefully and without noise. All the men moved up another step, but both the gun and the caisson were shorthanded. They were too few now to have repulsed a second cavalry charge ; but, luckily for them, the second charge was not forthcoming. In- fantry and guns alone were before them.
" Begin firing ! " said the corporal.
The silent Jerseyman who was chief of caisson passed the charges, and in a moment the deep note of the gun blended with the surge and roar of the battle. Shot followed shot. The machine was re- duced, but no change was apparent in the quantity or quality of its work.
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In Hostile Red
"The old gun can still talk good English," said the corporal, with intense satisfaction.
A fragment of grape cut him in half. The chief of caisson was promoted to the command of the gun, and took his new office without friction or delay. Six men with such a willing and experienced cannon could yet hold eloquent converse with their enemy. Still there were disadvantages. The force at the limber was so small that the charges were handled with difficulty, and the firing speed was reduced. The hostile line of battle was pressing alarmingly near, and, moreover, it had begun at last to converge on the flanks of the gun. Although we with our rifles were protecting them as much as we could, one of the reserve men looked behind him and spoke of retreat.
"This gun is tired of retreating," said the new captain. " It stays right here, and we stay with it."
Fierce and defiant, the rapid note of the twelve- pounder boomed out.
A minute later the new wheel that had been sup- plied to it from the caisson was smashed like its predecessor by a round shot ; to fill its place, they took off the hinder part of the caisson, leaving it a cripple, and put it on the gun, which became again as good as new.
The fire of the twelve-pounder was undiminished.
" We still hold ' em back ; we Ve won our day's pay and perhaps a little more," remarked the new captain, rather in a tone of soliloquy than address.
The balance of pay was never collected. A whiff 332
The Defence of the Gun
of grape exterminated him and the man who stood nearest him, and the gun had only four assistants in its work. Two of these four men were wounded, and they might have thought of retreat ; but a shot struck the caisson, blew it up, and killed the drivers, and all the horses except two. It was no longe* possible to carry away the gun, and the three me. who were left would not abandon it to the enemy.
The surviving horses hovered near, turning about in a small circle.
The man who hud been No. 5, a cannoneer, was the senior, and took command. He was wounded, but he lost little blond and concealed the hurt
" Shall we run ? " usked one of his comrades.
" One more shot for good count ! ' lie replied.
They aimed with deliberation, though the balls and bullets rained around them. The cannoneer ehose the densest red of the advancing mans, and sent the shot straight to the mark. Before the smoke from the discharge sank, three British shells burst, almost simultaneously, among the last defend- ers, and when the smoke cleared no one was stand* ing there. The gun, blown from its wheels and torn open at the breech, was useless forever.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE A Battle and Jin Answered Question
THE gun and its defenders were gone, but the heavy British force had been held off our flank long enough to suit our purpose. Our line, during the in- terval, had extended itself in such a manner that now it could not be surrounded, and we resumed our original place in the centre, where the battle was increasing.
The columns of smoke before us rose and broad- ened, the flashes of fire that shot through it, in- creased and twinkled in thousands. The shouting came more distinctly to our ears, and the drifting smoke made the dense tremulous heat more oppres- sive. I knew that Charles Lee commanded our engaged division, and, having in mind the talk at the council fire, I was uneasy. If only Wayne or Greene were there!
The cloud of fire and smoke suddenly began to move towards us, and the shouting grew louder. The battle was shifting its face, and approaching us. It had but one meaning, and that was the retreat of the Americans. A universal groan arose from our ranks.
" It can't be ! It can't be ! " shouted Marcel, and he swore.
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But it was. Across the fields came our meu in lull flight, with Charles Lee himself, thrice-accursed traitor, at their head. All the world knows how he ordered his own men to flee, when they were win- ning the victory, and it need be told to no one what such a movement would mean to an army in the height of a battle. I could have wept for despair at this lost opportunity, at this useless flight which might mean our own destruction. On streamed the fugitives, and suddenly a great man on a great horse galloped forward to meet them . Everybody in our company knew that the rider was Washington, and we uttered a mighty shout. Then we were silent, while Washington rode directly in front of Charles Lee, and stopped his horse across his path.
We could not hear the words that were said, the words that must have burned into the man's soul ; but we saw the
red, wrathful face of Washington, and the white, scared face of Lee. Never was Washington so fiercely angry, and never with better cause. Branding the traitor with hot words, he sent him away under arrest, and then, among the stinging bullets, he reformed the men, who cheered their great commander, turned their faces to the enemy, and began anew the battle that had been all but lost.
" Leftenant," said the bare-waisted man, who had been so thirsty, and who had accompanied us with the skirmishers, " ain't it about time to let us have another drink ? The inside of my throat 's so dry it 's scalin' off."
We had filled our canteens with water before this 816
In Hostile Red
last march ; but I had allowed ray men to drink but sparingly, knowing how much they would need it later. Now I pitied them as well as myself, and I gave the word to turn up the canteens ; but I ordered that the- drink should be a very short one.
Up went the canteens as if they had been so many muskets raised to command. There was a deep grateful gurgle and cluck along the whole line as the water poured into the half-charred throats of the men. But Marcel and I had to draw our swords and threaten violence before they would take the canteens away from their lips.
" Leftenant," said the bare-waisied man, reproach- fully, " I was right in heaven then, and you pulled me out by the legs."
"Then you may be sent back to heaven or the other place soon enough," I said, " for here come the British. Ready, men ! "
" Confound the British ! " growled the big man. " I don't mind them, but I hate to be baked afore my time."
The British opposite the orchard, who, like our- selves, had been waiting, were forming in line for an attack. The trumpets were blowing gayly, and the throbbing of the drums betokened the coming con- flict. Presently across the fields they came, a long line of flashing bayonets and red coats, with the cav- alry on either wing galloping down upon us. Gen- eral Wayne himself passed along our line, and, like Putnam at Bunker Hill, told our men to be steady and hold their fire until the enemy were so close that they could not miss.
336
Battle and Answered Question
The British fired *a volley at us as they rushed across the fields, and then, with many an old score to settle, we rose and poured into them, at short range, a fire that swept away their front ranks and ita^gered the column. But they recovered, and charged us with the bayonets, and we met them with clubbed rifles, for few of us had bayonets.
In a moment we were in a fierce turmoil of crack- ing guns, flashing swords, and streaming blood and sweat. The grass was trampled into the earth ; the dust arose and clogged our throats and blinded our eyes. Over us the sun, as if rejoicing in the strife and seeking to add to it, poured his fiercest rays upon us, and men fell dead without a wound upon them. A British sergeant rushed at me with drawn sword when I was engaged with another man, and I thought the road to another world was opening before me ; but when the Englishman raised his sword to strike, the weapon dropped from his limp fingers to the ground, and he fell over, slain by the sun.
Had the cavalry been lucky enough to get h. among us with their sabres, they might have broken our lines and thnist us out of the orchard ; but we had emptied many a saddle before they could come up, and the horses that galloped about without riders did as much harm to the enemy as to us. The Brit- ish showed most obstinate courage, and their leader, a fine man, Colonel Monckton, I afterwards learned his name to be, encouraged them with shouts and the waving of his sword, until a bullet killed him, and he fell between the struggling lines. 22 837
In Hostile Red
"Come on ! " I shouted, under the impulse of the moment, to the men near me. " We will take off his body!"
Then we rushed upon the British column. Some of our men seized the body of their fallen leader, and they made a fierce effort to regain it. But the Brit- ish did not have raw militia to deal with this time, and, however stern they were in the charge, equally stern were we in resisting it. The colonel's body became the prize for which both of us fought ; and we retained our hold upon it.
The clamor increased, and the reek of blood and sweat thickened. The pitiless sun beat upon us, and rejoiced as we slew each other. But, however they strove against us, we held fast to the colonel's body; nay, more, we gained ground. Twice the British charged us with all their strength, and each time we hurled them back. Then they gave up the struggle, as well they might, and with honor too, and fell back, leaving us our apple orchard and their colonel's body. We had no intent but to give suit- able burial to the fallen chief, and a guard was formed to escort his remains to the rear.
As the broken red line gave ground, some of their men turned and fired a few farewell shots at us. I felt a smart blow on my skull, as if some one had suddenly tapped me there with a hammer. As Ii threw up my hands with involuntary motion to see what ailed me, black clouds passed of a sudden before my eyes, and the earth began to reel beneath me. Marcel, who was standing near, turned towards me with a look of alarm upon his face. Then the 338
Battle and Answered Question
earth slid away from me, and I fell. Ere I touched the ground my senses were gone.
When I opened my eyes again, I thought that only a few minutes had passed since I fell ; for above me waved the bonghs of one of the very apple-trees beneath which we had fought. Moreover, there were soldiers about, and the signs of fierce conten- tion with anus were still visible. But when I put one of my hands to my head, which felt heavy and dull, I found that it was swathed in many bandages.
" Lie still," said a friendly voice , and the next moment the face of Marcel was bending over me. " You should thank your stars that your skull is so thick and hard, for that British bullet glanced off it and inflicted but a scalp-wound. As it is, you have nothing but good luck. The commander-in-chief himself has been to see you, and has called you a most gallant youth. Also, you have the best nurse in America, who, moreover, takes a special interest in your case."
" But the army ! The battle ! " I said.
" Disturb not your mighty mind about them," said Marcel. " We failed to destroy the enemy, having to leave that for a later day ; but we won the battle, and the British army is retreating towards New York. I imitate it, and now retreat before your nurse."
He went away, and then Alary Desmond stood beside me. But her face was no longer haughty and cold.
" You here !" I cried. " How did this happen ? "
" When the American army followed the retreating British, we knew there would be a battle/' she said. 339
In Hostile Red
" So I came with other women to nurse the wounded, and one of them I have watched over a whole night."
She smiled most divinely
" Then, Mary," I cried, with an energy that no wound could lessen, " will you not marry an Ameri- can ? "
Her answer ?
It was not in words, but I saw in her eyes the light that shines for only one, and I asked no more.
THE END
Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 09] Page 26