CHAPTER XV
BATTLE'S EVE
Harry found little change in the Southern army, except that more troopshad come up from Richmond. It still rested upon Bull Run. The countryhere was old, having been cropped for many generations, the soil mostlyclay and cut in deep ruts. There were many ravines and water courses,and hillocks were numerous. Colonel Talbot had told Harry a monthbefore that it was not a bad place for a battle ground, and heremembered it now as he came back to it. He had not taken the timeto return to the charcoal burner's hut for his uniform, and, when heapproached his own lines he still wore the Sunday best of Perkins.
The sentinel who hailed him first doubted his claim that he was a memberof the Invincibles, but he insisted so urgently, and called all itsofficers by name so readily that he was passed on. He dismounted,gave his horse to an orderly, and walked toward a clump of trees wherehe saw Colonel Talbot writing at a small table in the open. The colonel,engrossed in his work, did not look up, as the boy's footsteps madelittle sound on the turf. When Harry stood before him he saluted andsaid:
"I have returned to make my report, Colonel Talbot."
The colonel looked up, uttered a cry of pleasure and seized Harry byboth hands.
"Thank God, you've come back, my boy!" he said. "I hesitated to sendyour father's son on such an errand, but I thought that you wouldsucceed. You have seen the enemy's forces?"
"I've been in Washington, itself," said Harry, some pride showing in hisvoice.
"Then we'll go at once to General Beauregard. He is in his tent now,conferring with some of his chief officers."
A great marquee stood in the shade of a grove, only two or three hundredyards away. Its sides were open, as the heat was great, and Harry sawthe commander-in-chief within, talking earnestly with men in the uniformof generals. Longstreet, Early, Hill and others were there. Harry wassomewhat abashed, but he had the moral support of Colonel Talbot, and,after the first few moments of embarrassment, he told his story in adirect and incisive manner. The officers listened with attention.
"It confirms the other reports," said Beauregard.
"It goes further," said Longstreet. "Our young friend here is obviouslya lad of intelligence and discernment and what he saw in Washingtonshows that the North is resolved to crush us. The battle that we aregoing to fight will not be the last battle by any means."
"Each side is too sanguine," said Hill.
"You have done well, Lieutenant Kenton," said Beauregard, "and now youcan rejoin your regiment. You are to receive a promotion of one grade."
Harry was glad to leave the marquee and hurry toward the camp of theInvincibles. The first of his friends whom he saw was Happy Tom Langdon,bathing his face in a little stream that flowed into Young's Branch.He walked up and smote him joyously on the back. Langdon sprang to hisfeet in anger and exclaimed:
"Hey, you fellow, what do you mean by that?"
He saw before him a tall, gawky youth in ill-fitting clothes, his face amask of dust. But this same dusty youth grinned and replied:
"I hit you once, and if you don't speak to me more politely I'll hit youtwice."
Langdon stared. Then recognition came.
"Harry Kenton, by all that's wonderful!" he exclaimed. "And so you'vecome back! I was afraid you never would! What have you been doing,Harry?"
"I've been pretty busy. I drove in the right wing of the Yankee army,put to flight a couple of brigades in their center, then I went on toWashington and had a talk with Lincoln. I told him the North would haveme to reckon with if he kept on with this war, but he said he believedhe'd go ahead anyhow. I even mentioned your name to him, but the menacedid no good."
Langdon called to St. Clair and soon Harry was surrounded by friends whogave him the warmest of greetings and who insisted upon the tale of hisadventures, a part of which he was free to tell. Then a new uniform wasbrought to him, and, after a long and refreshing bath in a deep pool ofthe stream, he put it on. He felt now as if he had been entirely madeover, and, as he strolled back to camp, a tall, thin man, black of hairand pallid of face, hailed him.
Harry took two glances before he recognized Arthur Travers in theSouthern uniform. Then he grasped his hand eagerly and asked him whenhe had come.
"Only two days ago," replied Travers. "I'm in another regiment fartheralong Bull Run. I merely came over here to tell you that your fatherwas well when I last heard from him. He is with the Western forces thatare to be under Albert Sidney Johnston."
Harry did not care greatly for Travers, but it was pleasant to seeanybody from the old home, and they talked some time. But Harry didnot see him again soon, as the bonds of discipline were now tightened.Regiments were kept in ranks and the men were not permitted to wanderfrom their places. Northern bands were continually in their front,and it was reported daily that the great army at Washington was aboutto move.
Yet the days passed, and no important event occurred. July advanced.The heat became more intense. The fields were bare, the vegetationtrodden out by armies, and, when the wind rose, clouds of dust beat uponthem. It was lucky for them that the country was cut by so many streams.
The Invincibles were moved about several times, but they stopped atlast at a little plateau where a branch railroad joined the main stem,giving to the place the name Manassas Junction. Bull Run was near,flowing between high banks, but with crossings at two fords and twobridges. Beauregard had thrown up earthworks at the station, and strongbatteries were hidden in the foliage at the fords. The Southern army,weary of waiting, was eager for battle. The Northern people, also wearyof waiting, demanded that their own troops advance.
As Harry sat with his friends one hot night the word was passed that theNorthern army was coming at last. The Southern scouts had reported thatMcDowell's whole force was already on the march and was drawing near.It would attempt the passage of Bull Run. A murmur ran through the campof the Invincibles, but there was little talk. They had already tastedof battle at the fort in the valley, and it was not a thing to be takenlightly.
Harry resolved that he would sleep if he could, but there was no restfor the Invincibles just then. An order came from Beauregard, and,with Colonel Talbot at their head, they took up their arms, marching toone of the fords of Bull Run, where they lay down among trees near abattery. They were forbidden to talk, but they whispered, nevertheless.The ford before them was Blackburn's, and the heavy attack of theNorthern army would be made there in the morning.
Harry and the Invincibles were at the very edge of the river. They hadbeen under heavy fire before, but, nevertheless, everything they now sawor heard played upon their nerves. The murmur of the little river wasmultiplied thrice. Every time a bayonet or a saber rattled it smotewith sharpness upon the ear. The neigh of a horse became a fierce,lingering note, and out of the darkness that covered the rolling countryin front of them came many sounds, but few of which were real.
For a long time there was movement on their own side of the stream.Troops were continually coming up in the night and taking position.It required no acute mind to perceive that the Southern commanderexpected the main attack to be made here, and was massing his troops inforce to receive it. Except at the ford itself the banks of the riverwere high, but those on the Northern side were higher. A skirt offorest lined the Southern bank, and Harry saw Longstreet and his menmarch into it, and lie there on their arms. Nearer to him among thetrees were the powerful batteries of artillery. Beauregard himself hadcome and he now had with him seven brigades eager for the attack.
The night was hot and windless, save at distant intervals, when a slightbreeze blew from the North. Then it brought dust with it, and Harrybelieved that it came from the dry soil, trod to powder by the marchingfeet of a great army, and the wheels of many cannon.
Comparative silence came after a while on his own side of the river.There was no sharp sound, only a low and almost continuous murmur madeby the whispering, and restless movements which so many thousands of me
ncould not avoid. But the sound was so steady that they heard above itthe croak of frogs at the edge of the stream, and then another soundwhich Harry at first did not understand.
"What is it?" he whispered to St. Clair, who lay a little higher than he.
"It's a lot of our men crossing the ford. Raise up and you can see themwalking in the water. I take it that the general is going to put aforce in the bushes and trees on the other bank to sting the Northernarmy good and hard before it pushes home the main attack."
Standing up Harry saw men wading Bull Run in a long file, every onecarrying a rifle on his shoulder. In the hot dim night they lookedlike lines of Indians advancing through the water to choose an ambush.They were crossing for half an hour, and then they melted away. Hecould not see one of the figures again, nor did any sound come from them,but he knew that the riflemen lay there in the bushes, and that many aman would fall before they waded Bull Run again.
"Do you think the attack is really coming this time?" whispered Langdon.
"I feel sure of it," replied Harry. "All the scouts have said so andyou may laugh at me, Tom, but I tell you that when the wind blows ourway I feel the dust raised by thirty thousand men marching toward us."
"I'm not laughing at you, Harry. Sometimes that instinct of yours tellswhen things are coming long before you can see or hear 'em. But whileI'm no such wonder myself I can hear those bullfrogs croaking down thereat the edge of the water. Think of their cheek, calmly singing theirnight songs between two armies of twenty or thirty thousand men each,who are going to fight tomorrow."
"But it's not their fight," said St. Clair, "and maybe they are croakingfor a lot of us."
"Shut up, you bird of ill omen, you raven, you," said Happy Tom."Everything is going to happen for the best, we are going to win thevictory, and we three are going to come out of the battle all right."
St. Clair did not answer him. His was a serious nature and he foresaw agreat struggle which would waver long in doubt. Harry had lain down onhis blanket and was seeking sleep again.
"Stop talking," he said to the other two. "We've got to go to sleep ifit's only for the sake of our nerves. We must be fresh and steady whenwe go into the battle in the morning."
"I suppose you are right," said Happy Tom, "but I find this overtakingslumber a long chase. Maybe you can form a habit of sleeping wellbefore big battles, but I haven't had the chance to do so yet."
Harry did fall asleep after a while, but he awoke before dawn to findthat there was already bustle and movement in the army about him.Fires were lighted further back, and an early but plentiful breakfastwas cooked. All were up and ready when the sun rose over the Virginiafields.
"Another hot day," said Happy Tom. "See, the sun is as red as fire!And look how it burns on the water there."
"Yes, hot it will be," Harry said to himself. They had eaten theirbreakfast and lay once more among the trees. Harry searched with hiseyes the bushes and thickets on the other side for their riflemen,but most of them were still invisible in the day. Then the Southernbrigades were ordered to lie down, but after they lay there some timeHarry felt that the film of dust on the edge of the wind was growingstronger, and presently they saw a great cloud of it rising above hillsand trees and moving toward them.
"They're coming," said St. Clair. "In less than a half hour they'll beat the ford."
"But I doubt if they know what is waiting for them," said Harry.
The cloud of dust rapidly came nearer, and now they heard the beat ofhorses' feet and the clank of artillery. Harry began to breathe hard,and he and the other young officers walked up and down the lines oftheir company. All the Invincibles clearly saw that great plume of dust,and heard the ominous sounds that came with it. It was very near now,but suddenly the fringe of forest on the far side of the river burstinto flame. The hidden riflemen had opened fire and were burning thefront of the advancing army.
But the Northern men came steadily on, rousing the riflemen out of thebushes, and then they appeared among the trees on the north side of BullRun--a New York brigade led by Tyler. The moment their faces showedthere was a tremendous discharge from the Southern batteries masked inthe wood. The crash was appalling, and Harry shut his eyes for a moment,in horror, as he saw the entire front rank of the Northern force godown. Then the Southern sharpshooters in hundreds, who lined thewater's edge, opened with the rifle, and a storm of lead crashed intothe ranks of the hapless New Yorkers.
"Up, Invincibles!" cried Colonel Talbot, and they began to fire, andload, and fire again into the attacking force which had walked into whatwas almost an ambush.
"They'll never reach the ford!" shouted Happy Tom.
"Never!" Harry shouted back.
The Southern generals, already trained in battles, pushed theiradvantages. A great force of Southern sharpshooters crossed the riverand took the Northern brigade in flank. The New Yorkers, unable tostand the tremendous artillery and rifle fire in their front, and thenew rifle fire on their side also, broke and retreated. But anotherbrigade came up to their relief and they advanced again, sending aheavy return fire from their rifles, while the artillery on their flankreplied to that of the South.
The combat now became fierce. The Invincibles in the very thick of itadvanced to the water's edge, and fired as fast as they could load andreload. Huge volumes of smoke gathered over both sides of Bull Run,and men fell fast. There was also a rain of twigs and boughs asthe bullets and shells cut them through, and the dense, heated air,shot through with smoke, burned the throats of blue and gray.
But the South had the advantage of position and numbers. Moreover,those riflemen on the flanks of the Northern troops burned themterribly and they were weary, too, with long marching in dust and heat.As the artillery and rifle fire converged upon them and became heavierand heavier they were forced to give way. They yielded ground slowly,until they were beyond range of the cannon, and then, brushing off thefierce swarm of sharpshooters on their flank, they retreated all theway back to the village, whence they had come.
The firing on the Southern side of Bull Run ceased suddenly, and thesmoke began to drift away. The Invincibles, save those who had fallento stay, stood up and shouted. They had won the greatest victory in theworld, and they flung taunts in the direction of the retreating foe.
"Stop that!" shouted Colonel Talbot, striding up and down the line."This is only a beginning. Wait until we have a real battle."
"This has happened for the best," said Happy Tom, "but I'd like to knowwhat the colonel calls a real battle. The fire was so loud I couldn'thear myself speak, and I know at least a million men were engaged.Arthur, how can you be cool enough to bathe your face in that water?"
"It's to make it cool," replied St. Clair, who had stooped over Bull Run,and was laving his face. "I feel that dust and burned gunpowder arethick all over me."
He stood up, his face now clean, and began to arrange his uniform.Then he carefully dusted his coat and trousers.
"Hope you are all ready for another battle, Arthur," said Tom.
"Not yet," replied St. Clair laughing. "That will do me for quite awhile."
St. Clair had his wish. The enemy seemed to have enough for the time.The hot, breathless day passed without any further advance. Now andthen they heard the Northern bugles, and the scouts reported that thefoe was still gathering heavily not far away, but the Invincibles,from their camp, saw nothing.
"I suppose the colonel was right," said Happy Tom, "and this must havebeen a sort of prologue. But if the prologue was so hot what's the playgoing to be?"
"Something hotter," said Harry.
"A vague but true answer," said Langdon.
Yet the delay was long. They lay all that day and all that night alongthe banks of Bull Run, and a hundred conflicting reports ran up and downtheir ranks. The Northern army would retreat, it would attack within afew hours; the Southern army would retreat, it would hold its presentposition; both sides would receive reinforcements, neither
would receiveany fresh troops. Every statement was immediately denied.
"I refuse to believe anything until it happens," said Harry, when nightcame. "I'm getting hardened to this sort of thing, and as soon as mytime off duty comes I'm going to sleep."
Sleep he did in the shot-torn woods, and it was the heavy sleep ofexhaustion. Nerves did not trouble him, as he slept without dreams androse to another windless, burning day. The hours dragged on again,but in the night there was a tremendous shouting. Johnston, with eightthousand men, had slipped away from Patterson in the mountains, and theinfantry had come by train directly to the plateau of Manassas, wherethey were now leaving the cars and taking their place in the line ofbattle. The artillery and cavalry were coming on behind over thedirt road. The Southern generals were already showing the energy anddecision for which they were so remarkable in the first years of thewar. Johnston was the senior, but since Beauregard had made thebattlefield, he left him in command.
The Invincibles were moved off to the left along Bull Run, and wereposted in front of a stone bridge, where other troops gathered, untiltwelve or thirteen thousand men were there. But Harry and his comradeswere nearest to the bridge, and it seemed to him that the situation wasalmost exactly as it had been three nights before. Again they facedBull Run and again they expected an attack in the morning. There wasno change save the difference between a ford and a bridge. But theInvincibles, hardened by the three days of skirmishing and waiting,took things more easily now.
They lay in the woods near the steep banks, and the batteries commandedthe entrance to the bridge. The night was once more hot and windlessand they were so quiet that they could hear the murmur of the waters.Far across Bull Run they saw dim lights moving, and they knew that theywere those of the Northern army.
"I think things have changed a lot in the last three days," said Harry."Then the Yankees didn't know much about us. They charged almostblindfolded into our ambush. Now we don't know much about them.We don't know by any means where the attack is coming. It is they whoare keeping us guessing."
"But there are only two fords and two bridges across Bull Run," saidLangdon, "and they have got to choose one out of the lot."
"Which means that we've got to accumulate our forces at some one of fourplaces, one guess out of four."
Harry did not speak at all in a tone of discouragement, but hisintelligent mind saw that the Northern leaders had profited by theirmistakes and that the Southern general did not really know where thegreat impact would come. The Northern scouts and skirmishers swarmed onthe other side of Bull Run, and even in the darkness this cloud of waspswas so dense that Beauregard's own scouts could not get beyond them andtell what the greater mass behind was doing. Harry was summoned atmidnight by Colonel Talbot. Behind a clump of trees some distance backof the bridge, Beauregard, Johnston, Evans, who was in direct command atthe ford, Early, and several other important officers were in anxiousconsultation. Colonel Talbot told Harry that he would be wantedpresently as a messenger, and he stood on one side while the otherstalked. It was then that he first heard Jubal Early swear with arichness, a spontaneity and an unction that raised it almost to thedignity of a rite.
Harry gathered that they could not agree as to the point at which theNorthern attack would be delivered, but the balance of opinion inclinedto the bridge, before which the command of Evans was encamped. Hence hewas sent farther down the stream, with a message for a North Carolinaregiment to move up and join Evans.
The regiment lay about a mile away, but Harry walked almost the wholedistance among sleeping men. They lay on the grass by thousands,and exhausted by the movement and marching of recent days they sleptheavily. In the moonlight they looked as if they were dead. It was soquiet now that some night birds in the trees uttered strange moaningcries. But far across Bull Run lights still moved and Harry had nodoubt that the great battle, delayed so long, was really coming in themorning.
The North Carolina regiment rose sleepily and marched with him to thebridge, where it was incorporated into the force of Evans. Beauregard,Johnston and Early had gone to other points, and Harry knew thatthey were still anxious and of divided opinions. Colonel Talbot andLieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, to whom he had to report, and who movedtheir own regiment down near Evans, did not conceal the fact from him.
"Harry," said the colonel, "we're all sure that we'll have to fight onthe morrow, and it looks as if the battle would come in the greatestweight here at the bridge, but the Invincibles must be prepared foranything. You lads are fit and trim, and I hope that all of you willdo your duty tomorrow. Remember that we have brave foes before us, andI know most of their officers. All who are of our age have been thecomrades of Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire and myself."
"It is true, and it is a melancholy phase of this war," said HectorSt. Hilaire.
They walked away together and Harry rejoined those of his own age nearthe banks of Bull Run. But Langdon and St. Clair were sound asleep ontheir blankets, and so were all the rest of the Invincibles, save thosewho had been posted as sentinels. But Harry did not sleep that night.It was past midnight now, but he was never more awake in his life,and he felt that he must watch until day.
He had no duties to do, and he sat down with his back to a tree andwaited. Far in his front, three or four miles, perhaps, he thought hesaw lights signaling to each other, but he had no idea what they meant,and he watched them merely with an idle curiosity. Once he thought heheard the distant call of a trumpet, but he was not sure. Woods andfields were flooded with the brightness of moon and stars, but ifanything was passing on the other side of Bull Run, it was too wellhidden for him to see it. His senses were soothed and he sank into astate of peace and rest. In reality it was a physical relaxation comingafter so much tension and activity, and the bodily ease became mentalalso.
Resting thus, motionless against the trunk of the tree, time passedeasily for him. The warm air of the night blew now and then against hisface and only soothed him to deeper rest. The last light far acrossBull Run went out and the darker hours came. Nothing stirred now in thewoods until the hot dawn came again, and the brazen sun leaped up in thesky.
The Guns of Bull Run: A Story of the Civil War's Eve Page 16