Two Little Confederates

by Thomas Nelson Page

  CHAPTER III.

  In course of time they saw a great deal of "the army,"--which meantthe Confederates. The idea that the Yankees could ever get to Oaklandnever entered any one's head. It was understood that the army laybetween Oakland and them, and surely they could never get by theinnumerable soldiers who were always passing up one road or the other,and who, day after day and night after night, were coming to be fed,and were rapidly eating up everything that had been left on the place.By the end of the first year they had been coming so long that theymade scarcely any difference; but the first time a regiment camped inthe neighborhood it created great excitement.

  It became known one night that a cavalry regiment, in which wereseveral of their cousins, was encamped at Honeyman's Bridge, and theboys' mother determined to send a supply of provisions for the campnext morning; so several sheep were killed, the smoke-house wasopened, and all night long the great fires in the kitchen andwash-house glowed; and even then there was not room, so that a bigfire was kindled in the back yard, beside which saddles of muttonwere roasted in the tin kitchens. Everybody was "rushing."

  The boys were told that they might go to see the soldiers, and as theyhad to get off long before daylight, they went to bed early, and leftall "the other boys"--that is, Peter and Cole and other coloredchildren--squatting about the fires and trying to help the cooks topile on wood.

  It was hard to leave the exciting scene.

  They were very sleepy the next morning; indeed, they seemed scarcelyto have fallen asleep when Lucy Ann shook them; but they jumped upwithout the usual application of cold water in their faces, which LucyAnn so delighted to make; and in a little while they were out in theyard, where Balla was standing holding three horses,--their mother'sriding-horse; another with a side-saddle for their Cousin Belle, whosebrother was in the regiment; and one for himself,--and Peter and Colewere holding the carriage-horses for the boys, and several other menwere holding mules.

  Great hampers covered with white napkins were on the porch, and thesavory smell decided the boys not to eat their breakfast, but to waitand take their share with the soldiers.

  The roads were so bad that the carriage could not go; and as the boys'mother wished to get the provisions to the soldiers before they brokecamp, they had to set out at once. In a few minutes they were all inthe saddle, the boys and their mother and Cousin Belle in front, andBalla and the other servants following close behind, each holdingbefore him a hamper, which looked queer and shadowy as they rode on inthe darkness.

  The sky, which was filled with stars when they set out, grew white asthey splashed along mile after mile through the mud. Then the roadbecame clearer; they could see into the woods, and the sky changed toa rich pink, like the color of peach-blossoms. Their horses werecovered with mud up to the saddle-skirts. They turned into a lane onlyhalf a mile from the bridge, and, suddenly, a bugle rang out down inthe wooded bottom below them, and the boys hardly could be kept fromputting their horses to a run, so fearful were they that the soldierswere leaving, and that they should not see them. Their mother,however, told them that this was probably the reveille, or"rising-bell," of the soldiers. She rode on at a good sharp canter,and the boys were diverting themselves over a discussion as to whowould act the part of Lucy Ann in waking the regiment of soldiers,when they turned a curve, and at the end of the road, a few hundredyards ahead, stood several horsemen.

  "There they are," exclaimed both boys.

  "No, that is a picket," said their mother; "gallop on, Frank, andtell them we are bringing breakfast for the regiment."

  Frank dashed ahead, and soon they saw a soldier ride forward to meethim, and, after a few words, return with him to his comrades. Then,while they were still a hundred yards distant, they saw Frank, who hadreceived some directions, start off again toward the bridge, at a hardgallop. The picket had told him to go straight on down the hill, andhe would find the camp just the other side of the bridge. Heaccordingly rode on, feeling very important at being allowed to goalone to the camp on such a mission.

  As he reached a turn in the road, just above the river, the wholeregiment lay swarming below him among the large trees on the bank ofthe little stream. The horses were picketed to bushes and stakes, inlong rows, the saddles lying on the ground, not far off; and hundredsof men were moving about, some in full uniform and others without coator vest. A half-dozen wagons with sheets on them stood on one sideamong the trees, near which several fires were smoking, with menaround them.

  As Frank clattered up to the bridge, a soldier with a gun on his arm,who had been standing by the railing, walked out to the middle of thebridge.

  "Halt! Where are you going in such a hurry, my young man?" he said.

  "I wish to see the colonel," said Frank, repeating as nearly as hecould the words the picket had told him.

  "What do you want with him?"

  Frank was tempted not to tell him; but he was so impatient to deliverhis message before the others should arrive, that he told him what hehad come for.

  "There he is," said the sentinel, pointing to a place among the treeswhere stood at least five hundred men.

  Frank looked, expecting to recognize the colonel by his noble bearing,or splendid uniform, or some striking marks.

  "Where?" he asked, in doubt; for while a number of the men were inuniform, he knew these to be privates.

  "There," said the sentry, pointing; "by that stump, near the yellowhorse-blanket."

  Frank looked again. The only man he could fix upon by the descriptionwas a young fellow, washing his face in a tin basin, and he felt thatthis could not be the colonel; but he did not like to appear dull, sohe thanked the man and rode on, thinking he would go to the pointindicated, and ask some one else to show him the officer.

  He felt quite grand as he rode in among the men, who, he thought,would recognize his importance and treat him accordingly; but, as hepassed on, instead of paying him the respect he had expected, theybegan to guy him with all sorts of questions.

  "Hullo, bud, going to jine the cavalry?" asked one. "Which is oldest;you or your horse?" inquired another.

  "How's pa--and ma?" "Does your mother know you're out?" asked others.One soldier walked up, and putting his hand on the bridle, proceededaffably to ask him after his health, and that of every member of hisfamily. At first Frank did not understand that they were making fun ofhim, but it dawned on him when the man asked him solemnly:

  "Are there any Yankees around, that you were running away so fast justnow?"

  "No; if there were I'd never have found _you_ here," said Frank,shortly, in reply; which at once turned the tide in his favor anddiverted the ridicule from himself to his teaser, who was seized bysome of his comrades and carried off with much laughter and slappingon the back.

  "I wish to see Colonel Marshall," said Frank, pushing his way throughthe group that surrounded him, and riding up to the man who was stilloccupied at the basin on the stump.

  "All right, sir, I'm the man," said the individual, cheerily lookingup with his face dripping and rosy from its recent scrubbing.

  "You the colonel!" exclaimed Frank, suspicious that he was again beingridiculed, and thinking it impossible that this slim, rosy-facedyoungster, who was scarcely stouter than Hugh, and who was washing ina tin basin, could be the commander of all these soldierly-lookingmen, many of whom were old enough to be his father.

  "Yes, I'm the lieutenant-colonel. I'm in command," said the gentleman,smiling at him over the towel.

  Something made Frank understand that this was really the officer, andhe gave his message, which was received with many expressions ofthanks.

  "Won't you get down? Here, Campbell, take this horse, will you?" hecalled to a soldier, as Frank sprang from his horse. The orderlystepped forward and took the bridle.

  "Now, come with me," said the colonel, leading the way. "We must getready to receive your mother. There are some ladies coming--andbreakfast," he called to a group who were engaged in the sameoccupation he had just ended, and whom
Frank knew by instinct to beofficers.

  The information seemed to electrify the little knot addressed; forthey began to rush around, and in a few moments they all were in theiruniforms, and surrounding the colonel, who, having brushed his hairwith the aid of a little glass hung on a bush, had hurried into hiscoat and was buckling on his sword and giving orders in a way which atonce satisfied Frank that he was every inch a colonel.

  "Now let us go and receive your mother," said he to the boy. As hestrode through the camp with his coat tightly buttoned, his soft hatset jauntily on the side of his head, his plumes sweeping over itsside, and his sword clattering at his spurred heel, he presented avery different appearance from that which he had made a little before,with his head in a tin basin, and his face covered with lather. Infact, Colonel Marshall was already a noted officer, and before the endof the war he attained still higher rank and reputation.

  The colonel met the rest of the party at the bridge, and introducedhimself and several officers who soon joined him. The negroes weredirected to take the provisions over to the other side of the streaminto the camp, and in a little while the whole regiment were enjoyingthe breakfast. The boys and their mother had at the colonel's requestjoined his mess, in which was one of their cousins, the brother oftheir cousin Belle.

  The gentlemen could eat scarcely anything, they were so busy attendingto the wants of the ladies. The colonel, particularly, waited on theircousin Belle all the time.

  As soon as they had finished the colonel left them, and a bugle blew.In a minute all was bustle. Officers were giving orders; horses weresaddled and brought out; and by what seemed magic to the boys, themen, who just before were scattered about among the trees laughingand eating, were standing by their horses all in proper order. Thecolonel and the officers came and said good-bye.

  Again the bugle blew. Every man was in his saddle. A few words by thecolonel, followed by other words from the captains, and the columnstarted, turning across the bridge, the feet of the horses thunderingon the planks. Then the regiment wound up the hill at a walk, the mensinging snatches of a dozen songs of which "The Bonnie Blue Flag,""Lorena," and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia Shore," were the chiefones.

  It seemed to the boys that to be a soldier was the noblest thing onearth; and that this regiment could do anything.