CHAPTER X
THE NORTHERN MARCH
It was days before Harry felt as if life could move on in the usual way.He had loved Jackson next to his father. In fact, in the absence of hisown father the great general had stood in that place to him. He hadreceived from him so many marks of approval, and, riding as a trustedmember of Jackson's staff, his head had been in such a rosy cloud ofglory and victory, that now it seemed for a while as if the world hadcome to an end.
He was disappointed, too, that they had reaped so little fromChancellorsville. He believed at times that his general had died invain. He had but to ride a little distance and see the enemy across theRappahannock, where he had been so many months, with the same bristlingguns and the same superior forces.
He had been eager, like all the other young officers, to move directlyafter the battle and attack the foe on his own ground, but when hetalked with the two colonels he realized that their numbers were toosmall. They must wait for Longstreet's great division, which had beendetached from the battle to guard against a possible flank attack uponRichmond. Oh, if Longstreet and his twenty thousand veterans had beenat Chancellorsville! And if Jackson had not fallen just at the momentwhen he was about to complete the destruction of Hooker's right wing!He believed that then they would have annihilated the Army of thePotomac, that only a few fugitives from it would have escaped acrossthe Potomac. The time came to him in after years when he often askedhimself would such a result have been a good result for the Americanpeople.
But now he was only a boy, as old, it is true, as many boys who ledcompanies, or even regiments, and the days were sufficient for histhoughts. He was not thinking of the distant years and what they mightbring. Both he and Dalton felt joy when General Lee sent for them andtold them that, having been valued members of General Jackson's staff,they were now to become members of his own. All he asked of them wasto serve him as well as they had served General Jackson.
Harry was moved so deeply that he could scarcely thank him. He feltspringing up in his breast the same affection and hero-worship for Leethat he had felt for Jackson. And as the close association with Leecontinued, this feeling grew both in his heart and in that of Dalton.
The soul of youth cannot be kept down, and Harry's spirits returned ashe rode back and forth on Lee's errands. Moreover, spring was in fulltide and his blood rose with it. The Wilderness, in which the dead menlay, and all the surrounding country were turning a deep green, and thewaters of the Rappahannock often flashed in gold or silver as the sunblazed or grew dim. Pleasant relations between the sentries on thetwo sides of the river were renewed. Tobacco, newspapers, and otherharmless articles were passed back and forth, when the officersconveniently turned their backs. Nor was it always that the youngerofficers turned away.
Harry was in a boat near the right bank when he saw another boat aboutthirty yards from the left shore. It contained a half dozen men,and he recognized one of the figures at once. Putting his hands,trumpet-shaped, to his mouth, he shouted:
"Mr. Shepard! Oh, I say, Mr. Shepard!"
The man looked up, and, evidently recognizing Harry, he had the boatrowed a little nearer. Harry had his own moved forward a little,and he stopped at a point where they could talk conveniently.
"You may not believe me," said Shepard, "but I felt pleasure when Iheard your voice and recognized your face. I am glad to know that youdid not fall in the great battle."
"I do believe you, and I am not merely exchanging compliments when I saythat I rejoice that you, too, came out of it alive."
"Nevertheless, luck was against us then," said Shepard, and Harry,even at the distance, saw a shadow cross his face. "I saw the greatflank movement of Jackson and I understood its nature. I was on my wayto General Hooker with all speed to warn him, and I would have got therein time had it not been for a chance bullet that stunned me. Thatbullet cost us thousands of men."
"And the bullets that struck General Jackson will cost us a whole armycorps."
"We hear that they were fired by your own men."
"So they were. A North Carolina company in the darkness took us for theenemy."
"I don't rejoice over the fall of a great and valiant foe, but whetherJackson lived or died the result would be the same. I told you longago that the forces of the Union could never be beaten in the long run,and I repeated it to you another time. Now I repeat it once more.We have lost two great battles here, but you make no progress. Wemenace you as much as ever."
"But your newspapers say you're growing very tired. There's no nationso big that it can't be exhausted."
"But you'll be exhausted first. So long, I see some of our generalscoming out on the bluffs with their glasses. I suppose we mustn'tappear too friendly."
"Good-bye, Mr. Shepard. We've lost Jackson, but we've many a good manyet. I think our next great battle will be farther north."
They had not spoken as enemies, but as friends who held different viewsupon an important point, and now they rowed back peacefully, each to hisown shore.
With the return of Longstreet, the Southern army was raised to greaternumbers than at Chancellorsville. With Stuart's matchless cavalry itnumbered nearly eighty thousand men, most of them veterans, and a cryfor invasion came from the South. What was the use of victories likeFredericksburg and Chancellorsville, if they merely left matters wherethey were? The fighting hitherto had been done on Southern soil.The South alone had felt the presence of war. It was now time for theNorth to have a taste of it.
Harry and his comrades heard this cry, and it seemed to them to be fullof truth. They ought to strike straight at the heart of the enemy.When their victorious brigades threatened Philadelphia and New York,the two great commercial centers of the North, then the Northern peoplewould not take defeat so easily. It would be a different matteraltogether when a foe appeared at their own doors.
Rumors that the invasion would be undertaken soon spread thick and fast.Harry saw his general, Lee now in place of Jackson, in daily conferencewith his most trusted lieutenants. Longstreet and A. P. Hill were thereoften, and one day Harry saw riding toward headquarters a man who hadonly one leg and who was strapped to his saddle. But a strong Romannose and a sharp, penetrating eye showed that he was a man of force anddecision. Once, when he lifted his hat to return a salute, he showed ahead almost wholly bald.
Harry looked at him for a moment or two unknowing, and then crying"General Ewell!" ran forward to greet him.
Harry was right. It was what was left of him who had been Jackson'schief lieutenant in the Valley campaigns and who had fallen woundedso terribly at the Second Manassas. After nine months of suffering,here he was again, as resolute and indomitable as ever, able to rideonly when he was strapped in his saddle, but riding as much as any othergeneral, nevertheless.
And Ewell, who might well have retired, was one of those who had most tolose by war. He had a great estate in the heart of a rich country nearVirginia's ancient capital, Williamsburg. There he had lived in a largehouse, surrounded by a vast park, all his own. Even as the man, maimedin body but as dauntless of mind as ever, rode back to Lee, his estatewas in the hands of Union troops. He had all to lose, but did nothesitate.
Harry saluted him and spoke to him gladly. Ewell turned his piercingeyes upon him, hesitated a moment, and then said:
"It's Kenton, young Harry Kenton of Jackson's staff. I remember youin the Valley now. We've lost the great Jackson, but we'll beat theYankees yet."
Then he let loose a volley of oaths, much after the fashion of thecountry gentleman of that time, both in America and England. But Harryonly smiled.
"I'm to have command of Jackson's old corps, the second," said Ewell,"and if you're not placed I'll be glad to have you on my staff."
"I thank you very much, General," said Harry with great sincerity,"but General Lee has taken me over, because I was with Jackson."
"Then you'll have all the fighting you want," said the indomitableEwell. "Genera
l Lee never hesitates to strike. But don't be the foolthat I was and get your leg shot off. If anything has to go, let it bean arm. Look at me. I could ride with any man in all Virginia, a stateof horsemen, and now a couple of men have to come and fasten me in thesaddle with straps. But never mind."
He rode cheerily on, and Harry, turning back, met St. Clair and Langdon.Both showed a pleased excitement.
"What is it?" asked Harry.
"Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire are at it again,and there have been results!"
"What has happened?"
"Colonel Talbot has lost a bishop and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire haslost a knight. Each claims that he has gained a technical advantage inposition, and they've stopped playing to argue about it. From the waythey act you'd think they were Yankee generals. See 'em over thereunder the boughs of that tree, sitting on camp stools, with the chessmenon another camp stool between them."
Harry looked over a little ridge and saw the two colonels, who weretalking with great earnestness, each obviously full of a desire toconvince the other.
"My dear Hector," said Colonel Talbot, "each of us has taken a piece.It is not so much a question of the relative value of these pieces as itis of the position into which you force your opponent."
"Exactly so, Leonidas. I agree with you on that point, and for thatreason I aver that I have made a tactical gain."
"Hector, you are ordinarily a man of great intelligence, but in thiscase you seem to have lost some part of your mental powers."
"One of us has suffered such a loss, and while I am too polite to namehim, I am sure that I am not the man."
"Ah, well, we'll not accuse each other while the issue still hangs indoubt. Progress with the game will show that I am right."
When Harry passed that way an hour later they were still bent over theboard, the best of friends again, but no more losses had been sufferedby either.
May was almost spent and spring was at the full. The Southern armywas now at its highest point in both numbers and effectiveness. OnlyJackson was gone, but he was a host and more, and when Lee said thathe had lost his right arm, he spoke the truth, as he was soon to find.Yet the Southern power was at the zenith and no shadow hung over theveteran and devoted troops who were eager to follow Lee in that invasionof the North of which all now felt sure.
Doubts were dispelled with the close of May. Harry was one of the youngofficers who carried the commander-in-chief's orders to the subordinategenerals, and while he knew details, he wondered what the main planwould be. Young as he was he knew that no passage could be forcedacross the Rappahannock in the face of the Army of the Potomac, whichwas now as numerous as ever, and which could sweep the river and itsshores with its magnificent artillery. But he had full confidence inLee. The spell that Jackson had thrown over him was transferred to Lee,who swayed his feelings and judgment with equal power.
The figure of Lee in the height and fullness of victory was imposing.An English general who saw him, and who also saw all the famous men ofhis time, wrote long afterward that he was the only great man he hadever seen who looked all his greatness. Tall, strongly built, withthick gray hair, a short gray beard, clipped closely, ruddy complexionand blue eyes, he was as careful in dress as Jackson had been careless.He spoke with a uniform politeness, not superficial, but from the heart,and his glance was nearly always grave and benevolent.
General Lee in these warm days of late spring occupied a large tent.Even when the army was not on the march he invariably preferred tents tohouses, and now Harry saw nearly all the famous Southern generals in theeast passing through that door. There was Longstreet, blue of eye likeLee, full bearded, thick and powerful, and proud of his horsemanship,in which he excelled.
Ewell, too, stumped in on his crutches, vigorous, enthusiastic, butnever using profane language where Lee was. And there was A. P. Hill,of soldierly slenderness and of fine, pleasing manner; McLaws, who haddone so well at Antietam; Pickett, not yet dreaming of the one marvelousachievement that was to be his; Old Jubal Early, as he was familiarlycalled, bald, bearded, rheumatic, profane, but brave and able; Hood,tall, yellow-haired; Pender, the North Carolinian, not yet thirty,religious like Jackson, and doomed like him to fall soon in battle;Tieth, Edward Johnson, Anderson, Trimble, Stuart, as gay and dandyish asever; Ramseur, Jones, Daniel, young Fitzhugh Lee; Pendleton, Armistead,and a host of others whose names remained memorable to him. They wereall tanned and sun-burned men. Few had reached early middle age,and the shadows of death were already gathering for many of them.
But the high spirits of the Southern army merely became higher as theybegan to make rapid but secret preparation for departure. The soldiersdid not know where they were going, except that it was into the North,and they began to discuss the nature of the country they would findthere. Harry took the message to the Invincibles to pack and march.Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire reluctantly droppedtheir unfinished game, put up the chessmen, and in an hour theInvincibles--few, but trim and strong--were marching to a positionfarther up the river.
The corps of Longstreet was to lead the way, and it would march thenext morning. Harry now knew that the army would advance by way of theShenandoah valley. The Northern troops had been raiding in the greatvalley and again had retaken Winchester, the pleasant little city sobeloved of Jackson. Harry shared the anger at this news that Jacksonwould have felt had he been alive to hear it.
Harry was well aware, however, that the army could not slip away fromits opponent. Hooker, still in command, was watching on the heightsacross the river, and there were the captive balloons hovering again inthe sky. But the spirit of the troops was such that they did not carewhether their march was known or not.
Harry and Dalton were awake early on the morning of the third of June,and they saw the corps of Longstreet file silently by, the buglethat called them away being the first note of the great and decisiveGettysburg campaign. They were better clothed and in better trim thanthey had been in a long time. They walked with an easy, springy gait,and the big guns rumbled at the heels of the horses, fat from long restand the spring grass. They were to march north and west to Culpeper,fifty miles away, and there await the rest of the army.
Harry and Dalton felt great exhilaration. Movement was good not onlyfor the body, but for the spirit as well. It made the blood flow morefreely and the brain grow more active. Moreover, the beauty of theearly summer that had come incited one to greater hope.
The great adventure had now begun, but it was not unknown to Hooker andhis watchful generals on the other shore. The ground was dry and theyhad seen a column of dust rise and move toward the northwest. Theirexperienced eyes told them that such a cloud must be made by marchingtroops, and the men in the balloons with their glasses were able tocatch the gleam of steel from the bayonets of Longstreet's men as theytook the long road to Gettysburg.
Hooker had good men with him. He, too, as he stood on the left bank ofthe Rappahannock, was surrounded by able and famous generals, and otherswere to come. There was Meade, a little older than the others, but notold, tall, thin, stooped a bit, wearing glasses, and looking like ascholar, with his pale face and ragged beard, a cold, quiet man, ableand thorough, but without genius. Then came Reynolds, modest and quiet,who many in the army claimed would have shown the genius that Meadelacked had it not been for his early death, for he too, like Pender,would soon be riding to a soldier's grave. And then were Doubleday andNewton and Hancock, a great soldier, a man of magnificent presence,whose air and manner always inspired enthusiasm, soon to be known asHancock the Superb; Sedgwick, a soldier of great insight and tenacity;Howard, a religious man, who was to come out of the war with only onearm; Hunt and Gibbon, and Webb and Sykes, and Slocum and Pleasanton,who commanded the cavalry, and many others.
These men foresaw the march of Lee into the North, and the people behindthem realized that they were no longer carrying the battle to the enemy.He was bringing it to them. Apprehension sp
read through the North,but it was prepared for the supreme effort. The Army of the Potomac,despite Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, had no fear of its opponent,and the veterans in blue merely asked for another chance.
On the following morning and the morning after, Ewell's corps followedLongstreet in two divisions toward the general rendezvous at CulpeperCourt House, but Lee himself, although most of his troops were now gone,did not yet move. Hill's corps had been held to cover any movementof the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, and Lee and his staffremained there for three days after Longstreet's departure.
The Invincibles had gone, but Harry and Dalton were just behind Lee,who sat on his white horse, Traveler, gazing through his glasses towarda division of the Army of the Potomac which on the day before hadcrossed the Rappahannock, under a heavy fire from Hill's men.
But Harry knew that it was no part of Lee's plan to drive these men backacross the river. A. P. Hill on the heights would hold them and wouldbe a screen between Hooker's army and his own. So the young staffofficer merely watched his commander who looked long through his glasses.
It was now nearly noon, and the June sky was brilliant with the sunmoving slowly toward the zenith. Lee at length lowered his glasses and,turning to his staff, said:
"Now, gentlemen, we ride."
Harry by some chance looked at his watch, and he always remembered thatit was exactly noon when he started on the journey that was to lead himto Gettysburg. He and Dalton from a high crest looked back toward thevast panorama of hills, valleys, rivers and forest that had held forthem so many thrilling and terrible memories.
There lay the blackened ruins of Fredericksburg. There were the heightsagainst which the brave Northern brigades had beat in vain and with suchawful losses. And beyond, far down under the horizon, was the tragicWilderness in which they had won Chancellorsville and in which Jacksonhad fallen. Harry choked and turned away from the fresh wound that therecollection gave him.
Lee and his staff rode hard all that afternoon and most of the nightthrough territory guarded well against Northern skirmishers or raidingbands, and the next day they were with the army at Culpeper Court House.Meanwhile Hooker was undecided whether to follow Lee or move onRichmond. But the shrewd Lincoln telegraphed him that Lee was his "trueobjective." At that moment the man in the White House at Washington wasthe most valuable general the North had, knowing that Lee in the fieldwith his great fighting force must be beaten back, and that otherwiseRichmond would be worth nothing.
It was Harry's fortune in the most impressionable period of life to bein close contact for a long time with two very great men, both of whomhad a vast influence upon him, creating for him new standards of energyand conduct. In after years when he thought of Lee and Jackson, whichwas nearly every day, no weighing of the causes involved in the quarrelbetween the sections was made in his mind. They were his heroes,and personally they could do no wrong.
As Lee rode on with his staff through the fair Virginia country hetalked little, but more than was Jackson's custom. Harry saw his browwrinkle now and then with thought. He knew that he was planning,planning all the time, and he knew, too, what a tremendous task it wasto bring all the scattered divisions of an army to one central pointin the face of an active enemy. This task was even greater than Harryimagined, as Lee's army would soon be strung along a line of a hundredmiles, and a far-seeing enemy might cut it apart and beat it in detail.Lee knew, but he showed no sign.
Harry felt an additional elation because he rode westward and towardthat valley in which he had followed Jackson through the thick ofgreat achievements. In the North they had nicknamed it "The Valley ofHumiliation," but Jackson was gone, and Milroy, whom he had defeatedonce, was there again, holding and ruling the little city of Winchester.Harry's blood grew hot, because he, too, as Jackson had, lovedWinchester. He did not know what was in Lee's mind, but he hoped that ablow would be struck at Milroy before they began the great invasion ofthe North.
Culpeper was a tiny place, a court house and not much more, but now itseager and joyous citizens welcomed a great army. Although Hill andhis corps were yet back watching Hooker, fifty thousand veterans weregathered at the village. Soon they would be seventy thousand or more,and Culpeper rejoiced yet again. The women and children--the men werebut few, gone to the war--were never too tired to seek glimpses of thefamous generals, whom they regarded as their champions. Stuart, in hisbrilliant uniform, at the head of his great cavalry command, appealedmost to the young, and his gay spirit and frank manners delightedeverybody. They paid little attention to the Northern cavalry andinfantry on the other side of the Rappahannock, knowing that Hooker'smain army was yet far away, and feeling secure in the protection of Leeand his victorious army.
Harry slept heavily that night, wearied by the long ride. He, Daltonand two other young officers had been assigned to a small tent, but,taking their blankets, they slept under the stars. Harry seldom caredfor a roof now on a dry, warm night. He had become so much used tohardships and unlimited spaces that he preferred his blankets and thefree breezes that blew about the world. It was a long time after thewar before he became thoroughly reconciled to bedrooms in warm weather.
He was aroused the next morning by Dalton, who pulled him by his feetout of his blankets.
"Stick your head in a pail of water," said Dalton, "and get yourbreakfast as soon as you can. Everything is waiting on you."
"How dare you, George, drag me by the heels that way? I was marchingdown Broadway in New York at the head of our conquering army, andmillions of Yankees were pointing at me, all saying with one voice:'That's the fellow that beat us.' Now you've spoiled my triumph.And what do you mean by saying that everything is waiting for me?"
"Our army, as you know, is spectacular only in its achievements, butto-day we intend to have a little splendor. The commander-in-chief isgoing to review Jeb Stuart's cavalry. For dramatic effect it's a chancethat Stuart won't miss."
"That's so. Just tell 'em I'm coming and that the parade can begin."
Harry bathed his face and had a good breakfast, but there was no need tohurry. Jeb Stuart, as Dalton had predicted, was making the most of hischance. He was going not only to parade, but to have a mock battle aswell. As the sun rose higher, making the June day brilliant, GeneralLee and his staff, dressed in their best, rode slowly to a littlehillock commanding a splendid view of a wide plain lying east ofCulpeper Court House.
General Lee was in a fine uniform, his face shaded by the brim of thegray hat which pictures have made so familiar. His cavalry cape swungfrom his shoulders, but not low enough to hide the splendid sword athis belt. His face was grave and his whole appearance was majestic.If only Jackson were there, riding by his side! Harry choked again.
Lee sat on his white horse, Traveler, and above him on a lofty pole abrilliant Confederate flag waved in the light wind. Harry and Dalton,as the youngest, took their modest places in the rear of the group ofstaff officers, just behind Lee, and looked expectantly over the plain.They saw at the far edge a long line of horsemen, so long, in fact,that the eye did not travel its full distance. Nearer by, all the gunsof "Stuart's Horse Artillery" were posted upon a hill.
Harry's heart began to beat at the sight--mimic, not real, war, butthrilling nevertheless. A bugle suddenly sounded far away, its notecoming low, but mellow. Other bugles along the line sang the same tune,and then came rolling thunder, as ten thousand matchless horsemen,led by Stuart himself, charged over the plain straight toward the hillon which Lee sat on his horse.
The horsemen seemed to Harry to rise as if they were coming up the curveof the earth. It was a tremendous and thrilling sight. The hoofs often thousand horses beat in unison. Every man held aloft his sabre,and the sun struck upon their blades and glanced off in a myriadbrilliant beams. Harry glanced at Lee and he saw that the blue eyeswere gleaming. He, too, sober and quiet though he was, felt pride asthe Murat of the South led on his legions.
The cavalrymen, ve
ering a little, charged toward the guns on the hill,and they received them with a discharge of blank cartridges which madethe plain shake. Back and forth the mimic battle rolled, charge andrepulse, and the smoke of the firing drifted over the plain. But thewild horsemen wheeled and turned, always keeping place with such superbskill that the officers and the infantry looking on burst again andagain into thunderous applause.
The display lasted some time. When it was over and the smoke and dustwere settling, General Lee and his staff rode back to their quarters,the young officers filled with pride at the spectacle and more confidentthan ever that their coming invasion of the North would be the finaltriumph.
Northern cavalry, on the other side of the river, had heard the heavyfiring and they could not understand it. Could their forces followingLee on the right bank be engaged in battle with him? They had not heardof any such advance by their own men, yet they plainly heard the soundsof a heavy cannonade, and it was a matter into which they must look.They had disregarded sharp firing too often before and they were growingwary. But with that wariness also came a daring which the Union leadersin the east had not usually shown hitherto. They had a strong cavalryforce in three divisions on the other side of the river, and thecommanders of the divisions, Buford, Gregg and Duffie, with Pleasantonover all, were forming a bold design.
Events were to move fast for Harry, much faster than he was expecting.He was sent that night with a note to Stuart, who went into camp withhis ten thousand cavalry and thirty guns on a bare eminence calledFleetwood Hill. The base of the hill was surrounded by forest, and notfar away was a little place called Brandy Station. Harry was not toreturn until morning, as he had been sent late with the message, andafter delivering it to Stuart he hunted up his friend Sherburne.
He found the captain sitting by a low campfire and he was made welcome.Sherburne, after the parade and sham battle, had cleaned the dust fromhis uniform and he was now as neat and trim as St. Clair himself.
"Sit down, Harry," he said with the greatest geniality. "Here, orderly,take his horse, but leave him his blankets. You'll need the blanketsto-night, Harry, because you bunk with us in the Inn of the GreenwoodTree. We've got a special tree, too. See it there, the oak with thegreat branches."
"I'll never ask anything better in summer time, provided it doesn'train," said Harry.
"Wasn't that a fine parade?" Sherburne ran on. "And this is thegreatest cavalry force that we've had during the war. Why, Stuart cango anywhere and do anything with it. A lot of Virginia scouts underJones are watching the fords, and we've got with us such leaders asFitz Lee, Robertson, Hampton and the commander-in-chief's son,W. H. F. Lee--why should a man be burdened with three initials? We cantake care of any cavalry force that the Yankees may send against us."
"I've noticed in the recent fighting," said Harry, "that the Northerncavalrymen are a lot better than they used to be. Most of us were bornin the saddle, but they had to learn to ride. They'll give us a toughfight now whenever we meet 'em."
"I agree with you," said Sherburne, "but they can't beat us. You canride back in the morning, Harry, and report to the commander-in-chiefthat he alone can move us from this position. Listen to that stampingof hoofs! Among ten thousand horses a lot are likely to be restless;and look there at the hilltop where thirty good guns are ready to turntheir mouths on any foe."
"I see them all," said Harry, "and I think you're right. I'll ride backpeaceably to General Lee in the morning, and tell him that I left tenthousand cavalrymen lying lazily on the grass, and ten thousand horseseating their heads off near Brandy Station."
"But to-night you rest," said one of the young officers. "Do you smoke?"
"I've never learned."
"Well, I don't smoke either unless we get 'em from the Yankees. Here'swhat's left of a box that we picked up near the Chancellor House.It may have belonged to Old Joe Hooker himself, but if so he'll neverget it back again."
He distributed the cigars among the smokers, who puffed them withcontent. Meanwhile the noises of the camp sank, and presently Harry,taking his blankets and saying good night, went to sleep in the Inn ofthe Greenwood Tree.
The Star of Gettysburg: A Story of Southern High Tide Page 11