Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

  THE NIGHT BATTLE. 333

  ward Fakenham, son of the Earl of Longford, hero of Salamanca, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, and his favourite officer. With him came more re-en forcements and the man who was to be his second in com mand. Their camp was now full of generals and baronets and their Droops outnumbered ours three to one. We looked longingly for our Kentuckians, but the muddy Mississippi did not bring them.

  CHAPTER XXX.

  AT BAY.

  WE waited for our enemy to strike, and now he was about to do it, for on the second night after Christmas Day he got his great guns in position and opened fire on our exasperating little schooners which had been stinging him like wasps.

  The Louisiana, lying much farther up stream, was not attacked for the present, but her comrade, the Carolina, being closer inshore where the current was swifter, could not make head against the stream and was forced to lie there under the fire of all the battery.

  It was about dawn of day when twelve heavy guns opened fire upon the little schooner, and the long thun dering roll of the first discharge drew us all to our in- trenchments. There we lined the earthwork and watched the encounter, while the general himself, from the second story of the house among the trees, levelled on the com batants an old telescope borrowed from a Frenchman. The English were firing balls heated white hot at the Carolina with the intention of blowing her up, and the schooner had only a single long twelve with which she could reply, but it was loaded and fired so fast that the men in the English battery knew they had something to fight. Mer cer, Courtenay, and I were together lying against the little wall o-f soft earth, with our eyes peeping over.

  " It can't last long," said Courtenay. " One gun against a dozen, and heavier ones at that, can't win."

  But that one gun was served with speed and courage, 334

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  and for a half hour the thousands on either side stood there and watched and listened. We could do nothing to help our little ship, and perforce we waited while she made her fight against overwhelming odds a gallant fight, but still a losing one. The smoke rose high over her and drifted off in broad clouds under the sun, while we cheered with tremendous spirit when the schooner now and then drove the British gunners to shelter under the levee; but presently a bright flame shot up from her timbers, and all the efforts of her men could not check it. Higher the flames rose; we could see plainly that they were eating their way to the heart of the ship, and that her crew could not fight the overwhelming battery and the rising fire at the same time.

  " Five minutes now/' said Courtenay, "and then good bye to the Carolina; she's a brave little ship and she's done her work well."

  He was a tru e prophet accepted by his time, for the British guns were pouring hot shot in such quantities upon the Carolina that all her timbers burst into flames, and the crew, abandoning her, escaped to the shore. The fire of the British battery and the shouts of the two ar mies ceased, and for a moment or two silence seemed to hold the plain which had just been resounding with can non shots and the cheers of thousands. All expected the same thing, and all watched the burning schooner as the flames wrapped her around until she glowed like the in side of a spouting volcano; then she seemed to fall apart, a streak of deeper red appeared in the heart of the fire, and the Carolina, lifted bodily from the water, flew into a million hissing and smoking fragments hurled high in the air, as the ground beneath us trembled under the crash of the exploding magazine. Burning pieces fell on the Louisiana a mile away, and the plain was littered with them. The English raised a tremendous cheer as the fabric of the schooner which had scorched them for four days sank in the Mississippi, and we felt downcast and

  336 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  gloomy over the loss of our faithful little ally; in Few Orleans, too, they heard it, guessed what it was, and the same sadness was felt there.

  But it was only for a minute or two that the English gunners stopped; then they turned their fire on the Louis iana farther away, but her crew, with oars and sweeps, were able to take her up the stream beyond the range of the great guns, and when we saw her creeping foot by foot out of danger until the balls could not reach her, then we too cheered and felt that the triumph was not all on one side. Moreover, the crew of the Carolina, trained artillerymen, came to help us with the land guns. The Baratarians had arrived, too, under Dominique You and Belouche, and brown-faced and red-shirted, looking like the pirates they were, they were placed at the twenty- four-pounders. Our lines were ready now, the cannon, a long row of wide muzzles, looked over the earthworks, the Louisiana had dropped down the river again that she might fire from our flank, and we awaited the advance of the enemy. We knew that the waiting would not be long, for they were massed heavily in front of us, and our scouts and spies said that all their batteries were in posi tion.

  That night the guards were doubled, and even in the dark no movement on the plain escaped their attention. All through the dusk men tramped to and fro, and some still worked at the intrenchments. There was no doubt now where the decision would come. It would be some where on that narrow space between those two rows of breastworks over which the cannon faced and threatened each other. Our army was gathered behind one and the British army behind the other, while their ships, far away at the entrance to Lake Borgne, could not reach us and had not dared to try the Mississippi.

  Morning came, the fine winter morning of the Gulf coast; the fog and the grayness in the air had gone. The sky was a dome of blue velvet; the sunshine clothed

  AT BAY. 337

  the earth, and the muddy river turned to gold. In the trees that scattered the plain the ricebird and the mock ing bird, careless or ignorant of armies, were singing. I went beyond our breastworks, taking with me the spy glass which I had used on our scout, and lying behind a hillock I levelled it on the British works. A great bustle \as going on there, and I saw many men moving about. One of them stepped upon the breastwork presently and studied our lines through a glass. He was a large man of erect, soldierly figure, and I quickly recognised Major Northcote. He risked his life from our sharpshooters in the plain every moment he spent there, but none fired and he took his time, as if he were in his own house; in deed, I think that fear had no part in the man's composi tion. After a survey of two or three minutes he stepped back and disappeared.

  Again I noticed that curious sinking of sound, the sudden silence which so often precedes a tumult, and then a single cannon of theirs near the levee boomed. The report and the rising smoke seemed to serve as a signal, for a whole battery crashed at once, and in a moment the British line along all its front was blazing fire and hurl ing lead at us, while the Congreve rockets, of which they seemed so fond, were filling the air with changing flames. Field batteries, too, were advancing upon us, firing as they came, but we soon saw that they were wasting lead, for it fell short and we were not hurt. I had seen enough of war now to know that this must be a mask for some other movement, and presently we beheld their army coming in heavy columns, though half sheltered by some houses. They made a brave sight in red, gray, green, and tartan, ;md they bore themselves as bravely as they looked, for I do not attack the courage of the English soldiers, which has been shown upon so many fields and in so many countries. Their bands were playing, but could scarcely be heard in the thunder of the cannonade.

  On they came, and presently the guns along our line

  338 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  opened upon them. We have always excelled in marks manship, whether with cannon or rifles, and the balls began to break into these resplendent squares, to hurl them back upon each other, and to smash them up. They were nearer now and the riflemen could reach them, their bullets sang like a tempest of hail swept on by the wind and the British squares reeled back. The houses caught fire, and torrents of flame and smoke gushed from them. The balls from the Louisiana crossed the plain and swept the advancing columns with a flanking fire. The British lines were crumbling away, some of the can non in their batteries we
re knocked to pieces, and before their charge was really begun the bugles sounded the retiring notes and they drew off the field to the protec tion of their own lines and intrenchments. It was "but a demonstration, a skirmish, to feel of us, and I do not think they liked the feeling. Then we toiled again at our breastwork, exulting over our little victories, and waiting to see what the enemy would do next.

  The last three days of the year passed and the new year of 1815 began, and meantime the enemy had been as busy as we, strengthening his works and dragging from his ships his heaviest guns that he might batter us down. I went back to New Orleans to obtain a supply of powder brought in from the country and found the little city a strange mixture of fear and gayety fear lest we should be beaten in the end, gayety over the successes we had won so far. The natural lightness and good humour of the people too came to their aid, and added to it was the enthusiasm aroused by the undoubted zeal and courage of the Creoles already so nobly displayed. But I could hear nothing of the Kentuckians. Would they ever come? The old Mississippi forever flowed past, but it did not bring them, and without them we could scarcely hope to win.

  Then I was back again in our lines, where I worked with the spade, skirmished, ate, and slept. I was be-

  AT BAY. 339

  ginning to feel like an old soldier now, and the incessant picket firing had grown so much a thing of the common that I ceased to pay attention to it unless the bullets were coming my way. On the afternoon of the last day of the year the British planted a battery near a swamp and proceeded to make a great noise, which they kept up until sunset.

  The night was the darkest that we had seen yet, and eyes being of little use we had recourse to our ears, though we heard nothing over the British way but a dull ham mering, which continued all night long, and the meaning of which we could not guess.

  The day came, but it brought with it a fog so thick and heavy that we could not see twenty feet before us. It seemed to roll up from the river in huge waves like the breakers of the sea, and it was so thick that I felt as if I could grasp it by handsful. A pale glimmer of the sun shone through it, and, as in the darkness of the night, the hammering in front of us went on and we could not know what it meant.

  " It's some mischief sure to be," said Courtenay as we drank coffee together.

  That he was right I had no doubt, but eight o'clock came and the fog still enveloped both armies and the space between; then nine o'clock and it still clothed us, dense, impenetrable, while through it came the steady hammering and beating, and even the hum of men's voices.

  " One can't do anything in this fog," I said to Cour tenay; "we might as well quit work and take a day of play."

  Our commanders seemed to think so too, for the Louisiana remained at her anchorage and the general planned a review of the troops between his headquarters and the lines when the fog should lift sufficiently.

  Ten o'clock came, and many of us had put down our arms and were at case. The fog bank began to rise, lift-

  340 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  ing itself up by inches, as if it were a task of slowness, but suddenly changing its mind it rolled away from the plain like the folding back of a huge blanket. Then we beheld the cause of the ceaseless hammering; a new battery of thirty of their heaviest guns, brought from the ships, and planted where they would command our lines. Moreover, their regiments, dressed as if for a holiday parade, were deployed for battle, and the mounted officers were galloping about with orders. The bands began to play, and their gaudy battle flags broke out. It was like the raising of a curtain at a theatre, the sudden replacing of the fog by a brillia nt, luminous light in which everything could now be seen, and the whole army drawn up for battle. But we had only a minute to look, for some one gave a signal and their thirty heavy cannon crashed at once; again the air was filled with the red glare and scream of the rockets, the leaden tempest was poured upon us, and in an incredibly brief space clouds of smoke obscured the plain. Now we saw why that hammering had gone on so persistently night and day in the dense fog, and I will confess that we were taken by surprise as the great guns of the enemy drove their deadly storm upon us. Within our lines stood a large square house, occupied by the general as his head quarters, and the British seemed to know it, as the fire of their guns was hurled for a while directly against it. Well aimed they were too, for cannon ball after cannon ball smashed into it. The roof was knocked to pieces, the portico came tumbling down, the walls were beaten in, and the officers who were there rushed out for their lives one, the chief of staff, a fellow-Kentuckian, cov ered with rubbish.

  Clamour and confusion arose within our lines, and there was a great tumult of men running running, aye, running! but running to the guns, from which they had been drawn by the fog and our belief that there would be no fight that day. Order, not disorder, showing the

  AT BAY. 341

  master hand and iron will over us, prevailed, and for ten minutes we endured the tempest of English lead, while our gunners found their places and waited for the word of the general.

  I lay behind the mud-bank and watched the English fire, the sheets of flame, the puffs of thick, black smoke, the whistling of the rockets, the chuff! chuff! as a twen ty-four-pound chunk of lead buried itself in our mud- bank. The smoke quickly gathered in a vast cloud that overhung English and Americans alike and the air grew dim.

  I saw the general walking coolly along our lines, now ready and calm, and I saw his lips move for the word of fire, though I could not hear. A twelve-pounder was fired from our front, and then all our batteries followed with the familiar rolling crash. The thunder doubled and the sight increased in magnificence and terror. Bat tery was now replying to battery, and a continuous blaze on one side faced a continuous blaze on the other. Our cotton bales were knocked into the air as if they had been pieces of pine wood, and our cannon balls crashed through their hogsheads as if they were so much thin plank, sending the sugar flying yards above the heads of the men. People will tell you that we used cotton bales in the great battle itself, but it is not so, they were proved useless in this preliminary cannonade.

  " Give me a share of that mud," said Courtenay, pressing himself down beside Mercer and me, where he could see. As we were not gunners and not needed, we could watch the artillery duel, which was growing hotter and noisier. Our lines and those of the enemy were close together, and the sheets of flame seemed to meet midway and blend. The smoke bank above us thickened and darkened, but the streams of fire like lightning cut through it. "We could hear the shouting, dull and muf fled, but we could not tell its meaning. What was pass ing in the enemy's lines, whether our balls were aimed

  342 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  true, we did not know, but on our side the lead was be ginning to strike. One of our best guns was knocked off its wheels, some of the gunners were killed, and the cotton bales, now on fire, sent up their smoke to mingle with the impenetrable pall which overhung us; two powder car riages blew up with a roar that stunned us for a minute, and flying fragments fell about us; but despite wounds and explosions our gunners worked on, loading and firing so fast that men stood ready with buckets of water to cool the heated cannon. I tried to speak to my comrades, but the words were soundless amid the thunder of the greatest cannonade yet heard in America.

  The combat assumed a strange phase; not only were the hostile lines hidden from each other, but also ihe space between, save when the gush of flame from the guns drove the smoke apart for a moment. As we could not see what was passing in the British lines, they could not see what was passing in ours, and there was nothing for us to do but pound away with all the might of our guns at the place where we knew the enemy ought to ba. This we did, and the roll of the cannonade was steady and unbroken until about the noon hour, when we began to notice a decrease of the enemy's fire. Then it slack ened so fast that the general gave our gunners the order to cease firing entirely, an action which the enemy imi tated quickly, and the stunning tumult which had lasted so long was succeeded only by the
voices of men. "We waited, and when the clouds rose a spontaneous cheer burst from our army. We had beaten them through and through at the guns.

  Their new batteries of heavy cannon had been ham mered to pieces and were now masses of debris, mixed mud, and broken iron, while their gunners lay hidden in the ditch behind them, and on all sides the columns that had been thrown forward expecting to charge us when our fire was silenced by theirs were fleeing to the shelter of their main lines, hastened in their flight by an occasional

  AT BAY. 343

  shot from our twelve and twenty-four pounders. We re peated our cheer, and there was joy in the ragged ranks of our backwoodsmen and Creoles, for another formidable attempt of the enemy had been beaten and our hopes were rising steadily.

  " Their war cry on this campaign is Beauty and Booty," said Courtenay that night as we ate supper to gether; "but they'll have to be patient before they get either. I wonder what that confident kinsman of yours, Phil, is saying to these rude delays."

  I could easily guess Major Northcote's state of mind and how he must be raging at the caution of the British commander. Once again the next day, when scouting, I thought I saw him on one of their breastworks examining us through his telescope, but I was not sure.

  The cannon now took a rest, and it was wheelbarrows and spades, spades and wheelbarrows again as we strength ened our lines and prepared for the fight that was yet to come, for all these we knew were the preliminaries Christmas and New Year fireworks.