CHAPTER XXVIII. GENERAL CARR’S DIVISION DRIVEN BACK--JACK BECOMES APRISONER.
|WHEN I had delivered my orders, and just as I was returning to GeneralVandever,” continues Harry, “the rebels made a charge upon our batteryand the infantry that supported it. This was about noon, or perhaps alittle later; I can’t say exactly, as I was too much excited to make anote of the time.
“It was n’t a bayonet charge that they made, because they had nobayonets to charge with. They charged with double-barreled shotguns,loaded with ball and buckshot, and to judge by the result, the shotgunin this way is a formidable weapon. They reserved their fire until theywere pretty close to our lines; then they delivered it at short rangeand without taking any particular aim, relying on the scattering of theballs and buckshot to give a deadly effect to the assault. They were metwith well-delivered volleys from our rifles and driven back, and theyleft the ground strewed with their dead and wounded.
“Again they charged, after resting a little while, and again they metwith the same reception; but they managed to force us back a little.Then there was another lull, but only a short one, and suddenly the shotand shell rained along the whole length of our line. General Dodge wasforced back, and so was General Vandever. Many of our officers felland were carried to the hospitals in the rear, and many of ourbrave soldiers were stretched on the ground. There was a melancholysatisfaction in knowing that the enemy was losing heavily, but with hisadvantage in numbers he could keep up the fight, if only his ammunitionheld out, long after our whole force would be used up. General Carr sentseveral times for reinforcements, but there were none to be sent to him.General Curtis told him to ‘persevere,’ and so he did, and, fightingwhenever the enemy advanced, he continued all through the afternoon.
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“‘I must have three regiments and two batteries, before sunset anddarkness,’ said the general, ‘or I cannot hold on.’”
Just before one of the charges which the rebels made near ElkhornTavern, General Vandever sent Jack with an order to Colonel Herron. Oncame the rebels, and down went Jack’s horse with a bullet through hisneck; another bullet grazed Jack’s side, but only scratched the skin,after tearing a great hole in his coat. At the same time ColonelHerron’s horse fell dead, a cannon-shot having gone clear through him,and in the fall the colonel was severely hurt; a musket-ball struck hisleg, and between the fall and the wound he was unable to stand. Jackrushed to his side to raise him, and as he did so the rebels closedaround them.
“Surrender!” said a tall fellow in a butternut coat and trousers, as heflourished a shotgun and pointed it at Colonel Herron.
“There’s nothing else to be done,” replied the colonel. “But you’ll haveto help me to go along with you; I don’t believe I can walk.”
“I ‘ll show you how to walk,” exclaimed the fellow. What he proposed todo will be forever unknown, as just then an officer came up and receivedthe colonel’s surrender. He ordered two men to assist him to the rear,and then went on to look after the fighting that was raging in front.
Jack’s presence had not been specially observed, as both soldier andofficer had been attracted to the advantage of securing the capturedcolonel. Jack was meditating on the possibility of slipping through thelines somehow and getting to his friends, when he thought of the woundedcolonel and the possibility of assisting him.
“It ‘ll be a hard time for Colonel Herron, wounded and a prisoner,” saidJack to himself, “and it ‘ll be mighty risky for me to try to run backthrough the lines. I might be shot by my own friends, and that I shouldn’t like.”
Whether he meant by this that he had no objections to being shot by theenemy we will not undertake to say, but certain it is that he was notunlike others in being specially averse to being shot by mistake. One ofthe bitterest reflections that has ever been made by the southern peopleon the death of Stonewall Jackson is, that he was killed by his own men,who mistook him and his escort for a scouting party of the enemy.
Jack had hastily made up his mind to stay by the colonel, when he wasrudely taken in charge by one of the rebel soldiers and ordered to marchalong with him. He asked to be allowed to remain with Colonel Herron. Atfirst the request was refused, but on the latter giving his parole notto attempt to escape, and vouching that Jack would do the same, he waspermitted to accompany the officer to whom he was so much attached.
They were sent to the rear, but for some minutes were not out of danger,as the cannon-shot from their own lines were crashing through the treesor plowing up the ground in their vicinity. A limb cut from a tree byone of these shots fell close to Jack, and some of the twigs brushedhim in their descent; had the limb fallen upon him the result mighthave been serious. Not six feet from where he was standing at one time afalling branch killed a Confederate soldier and severely wounded twoor three others. A company of cavalry was completely broken up byan exploding shell, the horses taking alarm and becoming utterlyuncontrollable. In spite of the efforts of their riders to restrainthem they ran away, and the men were violently thrown to the ground orbrushed off among the trees.
We may remark here that owing to the wooded nature of the ground wherethe battle of Pea Ridge was fought, the cavalry on both sides were ofcomparatively little use. Among the brushwood and trees that spread overthat region it was impossible to preserve the formation of the linessufficiently to make a charge with any effect, except in a very fewinstances. Then, too, where the artillery was firing, the crashingof the shot and shell among the trees and the falling of the limbsfrightened the horses, as we have just seen, and rendered themworse than useless. The cavalry was unable to accomplish anything ofconsequence, through no fault of the men, but owing to the nature ofthe country, and in several instances the runaway horses demoralized theinfantry by dashing through the lines at inopportune moments.
The history of warfare in all ages abounds in accounts of panic createdby runaway animals on the battlefield. Frightened elephants and horsescaused the loss of battles by the Greeks, Romans and other warriors ofantiquity, long before the invention of gunpowder. Since its discoveryand use the instances of its panic-producing qualities are numerous. Somuch is this the case that the elephant among the Eastern nations hasbeen almost entirely discarded on the battlefield, and is now only usedin war for the more prosaic purposes of a beast of burden. With theincreased range of artillery and small-arms in the past forty years thehorse is gradually diminishing in importance as a fighting animal,and cavalry is chiefly useful nowadays for scouting purposes and forpursuing a demoralized enemy in retreat.
We will leave the two captives in the hands of their captors and returnto Harry, whom we left with General Vandever.
The Ninth Iowa was getting out of ammunition, and the general sentHarry to order up a fresh supply. Away he rode to the rear, where theammunition-wagons were stationed, and very quickly hunted up the onethat he wanted and sent it forward. He not only sent but accompanied it,partly in order to show the road and partly to make sure that the driverdid not turn aside on the way and seek a place of greater safety thanwhere the shot and shell were falling. The driver was a brave fellow,however, and energetically lashed his team to keep up with the gallopingyouth in front of him.
By the time they reached the fighting line the regiment had again fallenback, leaving Elkhorn Tavern in the hands of the enemy. Not only didHarry bring the ammunition, which was speedily distributed, but hebrought a message from General Curtis to General Carr that he was aboutto be reinforced.
“General Asboth has just returned from pursuing the rebels on the left,” said Harry, “and is coming with two regiments and a battery to supportyou.”
The word ran along the line like wildfire, and the men cheered heartily.Again the rebels came on in great force, and again they were met by awithering fire, and also by a bayonet charge by the infantry of bothbrigades of Carr’s division.
But the rebels were as brave as the men they were facing, and before thereinforcements could reach the sorely-pressed division there
was anothercharge, which forced the union line back across a series of open fieldsto the edge of a wood, which gave it the same sort of shelter the rebelshad enjoyed during the greater part of the day. The union forces had theadvantage now, as the enemy was obliged to make its charges across thefields, which could be raked with the artillery and small-arms withdestructive effect.
“We’ve got’em now,” said General Vandever, turning to one of hisofficers; “and here we’ll stick till night comes to stop the fighting.Sunset will come in an hour, and we can easily hold the position tillthen.”
His prediction was verified. The only attack made by the rebels on thelast position was easily repulsed, and then the sun dipped below thehorizon and the battle was over for the day.
The hostile forces lay within a thousand feet or so of each other allthrough the night, neither party daring to light a fire anywhere alongits front, for fear of revealing its whereabouts. The air was still,and conversation was carried on in whispers, for fear of scouts creepingclose up to the lines and overhearing what was said. The weary men laydown where they were, and sought the sleep they so much needed after thelong day’s fighting. As for the generals and other officers few of themclosed an eye during the long night, as they were occupied with plansand preparations for the morrow.
In all the camp there was no one more active than our young friendHarry. He sadly missed the companionship of Jack, but having learnedfrom a prisoner taken in the last charge and repulse of the rebels thathis friend was uninjured and with Colonel Herron, he rejoiced, on thewhole, at the situation. “He ‘ll be useful to the colonel, and perhapsit’s all for the best that he’s a prisoner just now,” was his soliloquyas he turned to General Vandever and asked if he had any orders.
“Yes,” answered the general. “Go to camp and order up some coffee, breadand meat for the men, and send along their blankets and overcoats. We’llstay right here through the night, and be ready for what comes in themorning.”
Away went Harry with the order. When he reached the camp he found theorder had been anticipated, as the camp-guard and wagon-drivers had agood supper ready, as good as the army rations afforded, and in lessthan fifteen minutes it was loaded into wagons, where the overcoats andblankets already were piled, and dispatched to the front.
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