The Shades of the Wilderness: A Story of Lee's Great Stand

by Joseph A. Altsheler

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE COMING OF GRANT

  The little dinner ended. Despite his disapproval of General Early'sswearing, General Lee laughed heartily at further details of thestrange Yankee spy's exploits. But it was well known that in thisparticular General Early was the champion of the East. Harry did notknow that in the person of Colonel Charles Woodville, his cousin, DickMason, had encountered one of equal ability in the Southwest.

  Presently General Lee and his two young aides mounted their horses forthe return. The commander-in-chief seemed gayer than usual. He wasalways very fond of Stuart, whose high spirits pleased him, and beforehis departure he thanked him for his thoughtfulness.

  "Whenever we get any particularly choice shipments from the North Ishall always be pleased to notify you, General, and send you yourshare," said Stuart, sweeping the air in front of him again with hisgreat plumed hat. With his fine, heroic face and his gorgeous uniformhe had never looked more a knight of the Middle Ages.

  General Lee smiled and thanked him again, and then rode soberly back,followed at a short distance by his two young aides. Although the viewof hills and mountains and valleys and river and brooks was nowmagnificent, the sumach burning in red and the leaves vivid in manycolors, Lee, deeply sensitive, like all his rural forbears, to ruralbeauty, nevertheless seemed not to notice it, and soon sank into deepthought.

  It is believed by many that Lee knew then that the Confederacy hadalready received a mortal blow. It was not alone sufficient for theSouth to win victories. She must keep on winning them, and the failureat Gettysburg and the defeat at Vicksburg had put her on the defensiveeverywhere. Fewer blockade runners were getting through. Above all,there was less human material upon which to draw. But he rousedhimself presently and said to Harry:

  "There was something humorous in the exploits of the man who held upGeneral Early's messengers, but the fellow is dangerous, exceedinglydangerous at such a time."

  "I've an idea who he is, sir," said Harry.

  "Indeed! What do you know?"

  Then Harry told nearly all that he knew about Shepard, but notall--that struggle in the river, and his sparing of the spy and thefilching of the map at the Curtis house, for instance--and thecommander-in-chief listened with great attention.

  "A bold man, uncommonly bold, and it appears uncommonly skilled, too.We must send out a general alarm, that is, we must have all our ownscouts and spies watching for him."

  Harry said nothing, but he did not believe that anybody would catchShepard. The man's achievements had been so startling that they hadcreated the spell of invincibility. His old belief that he was worthten thousand men on the Northern battle line returned. No movement ofthe Army of Northern Virginia could escape him, and no lone messengercould ever be safe from him.

  Lee returned to his camp on Clarke's Mountain, and, a great revivalmeeting being in progress, he joined it, sitting with a group ofofficers. Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, Jones, Rosser, Wickham, Munford,Young, Wade Hampton and a dozen others were there. Taylor and Marshalland Peyton of his staff were also in the company.

  The preacher was a man of singular power and earnestness, and after thesermon he led the singing himself, in which often thirty or fortythousand voices joined. It was a moving sight to Harry, all these men,lads, mostly, but veterans of many fields, united in a chorus mightierthan any other that he had ever heard. It would have pleased StonewallJackson to his inmost soul, and once more, as always, a tear rose tohis eye as he thought of his lost hero.

  Harry and Dalton left their horses with an orderly and came back to theedge of the great grove, in which the meeting was being held. They hadexpected to find St. Clair and Happy Tom there, but not seeing them,wandered on and finally drifted apart. Harry stood alone for a whileon the outskirts of the throng. They were all singing again, and themighty volume of sound rolled through the wood. It was not only asingular, it was a majestic scene also to Harry. How like unto littlechildren young soldiers were! and how varied and perplexing were theproblems of human nature! They were singing with the utmost fervor ofHim who had preached continuously of peace, who was willing to turn onecheek when the other was smitten, and because of their religious zealthey would rush the very next day into battle, if need be, withincreased fire and zeal.

  He saw a heavily built, powerful man on the outskirts, but somedistance away, singing in a deep rolling voice, but something vaguelyfamiliar in the figure drew his glance again. He looked long and welland then began to edge quietly toward the singer, who was clothed inthe faded butternut uniform that so many of the Confederate soldierswore.

  The fervor of the singer did not decrease, but Harry noticed that hetoo was moving, moving slowly toward the eastern end of the grove, thesame direction that Harry was pursuing. Now he was sure. He wouldhave called out, but his voice would not have been heard above the vastvolume of sound. He might have pointed out the singer to others, but,although he felt sure, he did not wish to be laughed at in case ofmistake. But strongest of all was the feeling that it had become a duelbetween Shepard and himself.

  He walked slowly on, keeping the man in view, but Shepard, although henever ceased singing, moved away at about the same pace. Harryinferred at once that Shepard had seen him and was taking precautions.The temptation to cry out at the top of his voice that the mostdangerous of all spies was among them was almost irresistible, but itwould only create an uproar in which Shepard could escape easily,leaving to him a load of ridicule.

  He continued his singular pursuit. Shepard was about a hundred yardsaway, and they had made half the circuit of this huge congregation.Then the spy passed into a narrow belt of pines, and when Harry movedforward to see him emerge on the other side he failed to reappear. Hehastened to the pines, which led some distance down a little gully, andhe was sure that Shepard had gone that way. He followed fast, but hecould discover no sign. He had vanished utterly, like thin smoke sweptaway by a breeze.

  He returned deeply stirred by the appearance and disappearance--easy,alike--of Shepard. His sense of the man's uncanny powers and of hisdanger to the Confederacy was increased. He seemed to come and goabsolutely as he pleased. It was true that in the American Civil Warthe opportunities for spies were great. All men spoke the samelanguage, and all looked very much alike. It was not such a hard taskto enter the opposing lines, but Shepard had shown a daring and successbeyond all comparison. He seemed to have both the seven league bootsand the invisible cloak of very young childhood. He came as hepleased, and when pursuit came he vanished in thin air.

  Harry bit his lips in chagrin. He felt that Shepard had scored on himagain. It was true that he had been victorious in that fight in theriver, when victory meant so much, but since then Shepard hadtriumphed, and it was bitter. He hardened his determination, andresolved that he would always be on the watch for him. He even felt acertain glow, because he was one of two in such a conflict of skill andcourage.

  The meeting having been finished, he went down one of the streets oftents to the camp of the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot andLieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were not playing chess. Insteadthey were sitting on a pine log with Happy Tom and St. Clair and otherofficers, listening to young Julien de Langeais, who sat on anotherlog, playing a violin with surpassing skill. Lieutenant-Colonel St.Hilaire, knowing his prowess as a violinist, had asked him to come andplay for the Invincibles. Now he was playing for them and for severalthousand more who were gathered in the pine woods.

  Young de Langeais sat on a low stump, and the great crowd made a solidmass around him. But he did not see them, nor the pine woods nor theheavy cannon sitting on the ridges. He looked instead into a region offancy, where the colors were brilliant or gay or tender as he imaginedthem. Harry, with no technical knowledge of music but with a greatlove of it, recognized at once the touch of a master, and what wasmore, the soul of one.

  To him the violin was not great, unless the player was great, but whenthe player was great
it was the greatest musical instrument of all. Hewatched de Langeais' wrapt face, and for him too the thousands ofsoldiers, the pines and the cannon on the ridges melted away. He didnot know what the young musician was playing, probably some old Frenchair or a great lyric outburst of the fiery Verdi, whose music hadalready spread through America.

  "A great artist," whispered Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire in his ear."He studied at the schools in New Orleans and then for two years inParis. But he came back to fight. Nothing could keep Julien from thearmy, but he brought his violin with him. We Latins, or at least wewho are called Latins, steep our souls in music. It's not merelyintellectual with us. It's passion, fire, abandonment, triumph and allthe great primitive emotions of the human race."

  Harry's feelings differed somewhat from those of Lieutenant-Colonel St.Hilaire--in character but not in power--and as young de Langeais playedon he began to think what a loss a stray bullet could make. Why shoulda great artist be allowed to come on the battle line? There werehundreds of thousands of common men. One could replace another, butnobody could replace the genius, a genius in which the whole worldshared. It was not possible for either drill or training to do it, andyet a little bullet might take away his life as easily as it would thatof a plowboy. They were all alike to the bullets and the shells.

  De Langeais finished, and a great shout of applause arose. Thecheering became so insistent that he was compelled to play again.

  "His family is well-to-do," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire justbefore he began playing once more, "and they'll see that he goes backto Paris for study as soon as the war is over. If they didn't I would."

  It did not seem to occur to Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire that youngde Langeais could be killed, and Harry began to share his confidence.De Langeais now played the simple songs of the old South, and there wasmany a tear in the eyes of war-hardened youth. The sun was setting ina sea of fire, and the pine forests turned red in its blaze. In thedistance the waters of the Rapidan were crimson, too, and a light windout of the west sighed among the pines, forming a subdued chorus to theviolin.

  De Langeais began to play a famous old song of home, and Harry's mindtraveled back on its lingering note to his father's beautiful house andgrounds, close by Pendleton, and all the fine country about it, inwhich he and Dick Mason and the boys of their age had roamed. Heremembered all the brooks and ponds and the groves that produced thebest hickory nuts. When should he see them again and would his fatherbe there, and Dick, and all the other boys of their age! Not all!Certainly not all, because some were gone already. And yet thisplaintive note of the homes they had left behind, while it brought atear to many an eye, made no decrease in martial determination. Itmerely hardened their resolution to win the victory all the sooner, andbring the homecoming march nearer.

  De Langeais ended on a wailing note that died like a faint sigh in thepine forest. Then he came back to earth, sprang up, and put his violinin its case. Applause spread out and swelled in a low, thunderousnote, but de Langeais, who was as modest as he was talented, quicklyhid himself among his friends.

  The sun sank behind the blue mountains, and twilight came readily overthe pine and cedar forests. Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St.Hilaire, who had a large tent together, invited the youths to stayawhile with them as their guests and talk. All the soldiers dispersedto their own portions of the great camp, and there would be an hour ofquiet and rest, until the camp cooks served supper.

  It had been a lively day for Harry, his emotions had been much stirred,and now he was glad to sit in the peace of the evening on a stone nearthe entrance of the tent, and listen to his friends. War drew comradestogether in closer bonds than those of peace. He was quite sure thatSt. Clair, Dalton and Happy Tom were his friends for life, as he wastheirs, and the two colonels seemed to have the same quality of youth.Simple men, of high faith and honor, they were often childlike in theways of the world, their horizons sometimes not so wide as those of thelads who now sat with them.

  "As I told Harry," said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire to Julien, "youshall have that talent of yours cultivated further after the war. Twoyears more of study and you will be among the greatest. You must know,lads, that for us who are of French descent, Paris is the world'scapital in the arts."

  "And for many of English blood, too," said Colonel Talbot.

  Then they talked of more immediate things, of the war, the armies andthe prospect of the campaigns. Harry, after an hour or so, returned toheadquarters and he found soldiers making a bed for thecommander-in-chief under the largest of the pines. Lee in hiscampaigns always preferred to sleep in the open air, when he could, andit required severe weather to drive him to a tent. Meanwhile he sat bya small fire--the October nights were growing cold--and talked withPeyton and other members of his staff.

  Harry and Dalton decided to imitate his example and sleep between theblankets under the pines. Harry found a soft place, spread hisblankets and in a few minutes slept soundly. In fact, the whole Armyof Northern Virginia was a great family that retired early, slept welland rose early.

  The next morning there was frost on the grass, but the lads were sohardy that they took no harm. The autumn deepened. The leaves blazedfor a while in their most vivid colors and then began to fall under thestrong west winds. Brown and wrinkled, they often whirled past inclouds. The air had a bite in it, and the soldiers built more andlarger fires.

  The Army of Northern Virginia never before had been quiescent so long.The Army of the Potomac was not such a tremendous distance away, but itseemed that neither side was willing to attack, and as the autumnadvanced and began to merge into winter the minds of all turned towardthe Southwest.

  For the valiant soldiers encamped on the Virginia hills the news wasnot good. Grant, grim and inflexible, was deserving the great namethat was gradually coming to him. He had gathered together all thebroken parts of the army defeated at Chickamauga and was turning Uniondefeat into Union victory.

  Winter closed in with the knowledge that Grant had defeated the Southdisastrously on Lookout Mountain and all around Chattanooga.Chickamauga had gone for nothing, the whole flank of the Confederacywas turned and the Army of Northern Virginia remained the one greatbarrier against the invading legions of the North. Yet the confidenceof the men in that army remained undimmed. They felt that on their ownground, and under such a man as Lee, they were invincible.

  In the course of these months Harry, as a messenger and often as asecretary, was very close to Lee. He wrote a swift and clear hand, andtook many dispatches. Almost daily messages were sent in one directionor another and Harry read from them the thoughts of his leader, whichhe kept locked in his breast. He knew perhaps better than many anolder officer the precarious condition of the Confederacy. Theseletters, which he took from dictation, and the letters from Richmondthat he read to his chief, told him too plainly that the limits of theConfederacy were shrinking. Its money declined steadily. Happy Tomsaid that he had to "swap it pound for pound now to the sutlers forgroceries." Yet it is the historical truth that the heart of the Armyof Northern Virginia never beat with more fearless pride, as the famousand "bloody" year of '63 was drawing to its close.

  The news arrived that Grant, the Sledge Hammer of the West, had beenput by Lincoln in command of all the armies of the Union, and wouldcome east to lead the Army of the Potomac in person, with Meade stillas its nominal chief, but subject, like all the others, to his command.

  Harry heard the report with a thrill. He knew now that decisive actionwould come soon enough. He had always felt that Meade in front of themwas a wavering foe, and perhaps too cautious. But Grant was of anotherkind. He was a pounder. Defeats did not daunt him. He would attackand then attack again and again, and the diminishing forces of theConfederacy were ill fitted to stand up against the continued blows ofthe hammer. Harry's thrill was partly of apprehension, but whenever helooked at the steadfast face of his chief his confidence returned.

  Winter
passed without much activity and spring began to show its firstbuds. The earth was drying, after melting snows and icy rains, andHarry knew that action would not be delayed much longer. Grant was inthe East now. He had gone in January to St. Louis to visit hisdaughter, who lay there very ill, and then, after military delays, hehad reached Washington.

  Harry afterward heard the circumstances of his arrival, socharacteristic of plain and republican America. He came intoWashington by train as a simple passenger, accompanied only by his son,who was but fourteen years of age. They were not recognized, andarriving at a hotel, valise in hand, with a crowd of passengers, heregistered in his turn: "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill." The clerk,not noticing the name, assigned the modest arrival and his boy to asmall room on the fifth floor. Then they moved away, a porter carryingthe valise. But the clerk happened to look again at the register, andwhen he saw more clearly he rushed after them with a thousandapologies. He did not expect the victor of great battles, thelieutenant-general commanding all the armies of the Union, a battlefront of more than a million men, to come so modestly.

  When Harry heard the story he liked it. It seemed to him to be thesame simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy ofrepublican institutions. But he did not have time to think about itlong. The signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come.The North had never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grantwould march with veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in thesame report. Butler would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmondwith thirty thousand men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousandwould cross the Rapidan, moving by the right flank of Lee until theycould unite and destroy the Confederacy. Such was the plan, said thescouts and spies in gray.

  Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gatheredhis force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--healone perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced bythe greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone morebrightly.

  May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, andthe camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of theyoung soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they layin groups on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cookswere preparing their suppers over the big fires. Several bands wereplaying. Had it not been for the presence of so many weapons the wholemight have been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in thetent of the commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he coulddispatch after dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him.He knew perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief wasgathering his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. Heknew, too, how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a shorttime before he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter tothe President of the Confederacy a part of which ran:

  My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that Icannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see howwe can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in theirarrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for meto keep the army together and might force a retreat into NorthCarolina. There is nothing to be had in this section for men oranimals. We have rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hopea new supply arrived last night, but I have not yet had a report.

  Harry had thought long over this letter and he knew from his ownobservation its absolute truth. The depleted South was no longer ableto feed its troops well. The abundance of the preceding autumn hadquickly passed, and in winter they were mostly on half rations.

  Lee, better than any other man in the whole South, had understood whatlay before them, and his foes both of the battlefield and of the spirithave long since done him justice. Less than a week before this eve ofmighty events he had written to a young woman in Virginia, a relative:

  I dislike to send letters within reach of the enemy, as they mightserve, if captured, to bring distress on others. But you mustsometimes cast your thoughts on the Army of Northern Virginia, andnever forget it in your prayers. It is preparing for a great struggle,but I pray and trust that the great God, mighty to deliver, will spreadover it His Almighty arms and drive its enemies before it.

  Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprisednow when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With allthe hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply gratefulthat he should have served on the staffs and been brought into closepersonal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemedto him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness butgreatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeplyreligious--Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and itwas a piety that contained no trace of cant.

  Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It hadbeen in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had brokenup his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knewhow small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him,and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief.

  He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and thenhe sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink andpaper before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual withgreat neatness and care, though without ostentation. His face had itsusual serious cast, but tinged now with melancholy. Harry knew that heno longer saw the tent and those around him. His mind dwelled for afew moments upon his own family and the ancient home that he had lovedso well.

  The interval was very brief. He was back in the present, and theprincipal generals for whom he had sent were entering the tent. Hill,Longstreet, Ewell, Stuart and others came, but they did not stay long.They talked earnestly with their leader for a little while, and thenevery one departed to lead his brigades.

  The secretaries put away pen, ink and paper. Twilight was advancing inthe east and night suddenly fell outside. The songs ceased, the bandsplayed no more, and there was only the deep rumble of marching men andmoving cannon.

  "We'll ride now, gentlemen," said Lee to his staff.

  Traveller, saddled and bridled, was waiting and the commander-in-chiefsprang into the saddle with all the agility of a young man. The othersmounted, too, Harry and Dalton as usual taking their places modestly inthe rear.

  A regiment, small in numbers but famous throughout the army for valor,was just passing, and its colonel and its lieutenant-colonel, erectmen, riding splendidly, but gray like Lee, drew their swords and gavethe proud and flashing salute of the saber as they went by. Lee andhis staff almost with involuntary impulse returned the salute in likefashion. Then the Invincibles passed on, and were lost from view inthe depths of the forest.

  Harry felt a sudden constriction of the heart. He knew that he mightnever see Colonel Leonidas Talbot nor Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St.Hilaire again, nor St. Clair, nor Happy Tom either.

  But his friends could not remain long in his mind at such a time. Theywere marching, marching swiftly, the presence of the man on the greatwhite horse seeming to urge them on to greater speed. As the starscame out Lee's brow, which had been seamed by thought, cleared. Hisplan which he had formed in the day was moving well. His three corpswere bearing away toward the old battlefield of Chancellorsville.Grant would be drawn into the thickets of the Wilderness as Hooker hadbeen the year before, although a greater than Hooker was now leadingthe Army of the Potomac.

  Harry, who foresaw it all, thrilled and shuddered at the remembrance.It was in there that the great Jackson had fallen in the hour ofsupreme triumph. Not far away were the heights of Fredericksburg,where Burnside had led the bravest of the brave to unavailingslaughter. As Belgium had been for centuries the cockpit of Europe, sothe wild and sterile region in Virginia that men call the Wildernessbecame the cockpit of North America.

  While Lee and his army were turning into the Wilderness Grant and thegreatest force that the Union had yet assembled were
seeking him. Itwas composed of men who had tasted alike of victory and defeat,veterans skilled in all the wiles and stratagems of war, and withhearts to endure anything. In this host was a veteran regiment thathad come East to serve under Grant as it had served under him sovaliantly in the West. Colonel Winchester rode at its head and besidehim rode his favorite aide, young Richard Mason. Not far away wasColonel Hertford, with a numerous troop of splendid cavalry.

  Grant, alert and resolved to win, carried in his pocket a letter whichhe had received from Lincoln, saying:

  Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish toexpress in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done upto this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plansI neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant,and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints orrestraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disasteror the capture of our men in great numbers should be avoided, I knowthese points are less likely to escape your attention than they wouldmine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give,do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a justcause, may God sustain you.

  A noble letter, breathing the loftiest spirit, and showing that moralgrandeur which has been so characteristic of America's greatest men. Hehad put all in Grant's hands and he had given to him an army, the likeof which had never been seen until now on the American continent. Neverbefore had the North poured forth its wealth and energy in suchabundance.

  Four thousand wagons loaded with food and ammunition followed the army,and there was a perfect system by which a wagon emptied of its contentswas sent back to a depot to be refilled, while a loaded wagon took itsplace at the front. Complete telegram equipments, poles, wires,instruments and all were carried with every division. The wires couldbe strung easily and the lieutenant-general could talk to every part ofhis army. There were, also, staffs of signalmen, in case the wiresshould fail at any time. Grant held in his hand all the resources ofthe North, and if he could not win no one could.

  All through the night the hostile armies marched, and before them wentthe spies and scouts.