The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's Crisis Part 34

"Well, sergeant?" he said.

"I've been clean over the ridge to the rebel camp. I reached the next creek and lay on the heights just beyond it. I've seen with my own eyes and I've heard with my own ears. They've only two divisions there, though they're expectin' Polk to come up in the mornin' an' Bragg, too.

Colonel, I'm a good reckoner, as I've seen lots of war, and they ain't got more 'n fifteen thousand men there on the creek, while if we get all our divisions together we can hit 'em with nigh on to sixty thousand.

For G.o.d's sake, Colonel, can't we do it?"

"We ought to, and if I can do anything, we will. Sergeant, you've done a great service at a great risk, and all of us owe you thanks. I shall see General McCook at once."

The sergeant, forgetting that he was wet to the skin, stretched himself in the dry gra.s.s near d.i.c.k and his comrades, and soon fell fast asleep, while his clothes dried upon him. But Colonel Winchester went to General McCook's tent and insisted upon awakening him. The general received him eagerly and listened with close attention.

"This man Whitley is trustworthy?" he said.

"Absolutely. He has had years of experience on the plains, fighting Sioux, Cheyennes and other Indians, and he has been with me through most of the war so far. There is probably no more skillful scout, and none with a clearer head and better judgment in either army."

"Then, Colonel, we owe him thanks, and you thanks for letting him go.

We'll certainly bring on a battle to-morrow, and we ought to have all our army present. I shall send a messenger at once to General Buell with your news. Messengers shall also go to Crittenden, Rousseau, and the other generals. But you recognize, of course, that General Buell is the commander-in-chief, and that it is for him to make the final arrangements."

"I do, sir," said the colonel, as he saluted and retired. He went back to the point where his own little regiment lay. He knew every man and boy in it, and he had known them all in the beginning, when they were many times more. But few of the splendid regiment with which he had started south a year and a half before remained. He looked at d.i.c.k and Warner and Pennington and the sergeant and wondered if they would be present to answer to the roll the next night, or if he himself would be there?

The colonel cherished no illusions. He was not sanguine that the whole Union army would come up, and even if it came, and if victory should be won it would be dark and b.l.o.o.d.y. He knew how the Southerners fought, and here more so than anywhere else, it would be brother against brother.

This state was divided more than any other, and, however the battle went, kindred would meet kindred. Colonel Kenton, d.i.c.k's uncle, a man whom he liked and admired, was undoubtedly across those ridges, and they might meet face to face in the coming battle.

It was far into the morning now and the colonel did not sleep again. He saw the messengers leaving the tent of General McCook, and he knew that the commander of the division was active. Just what success he would have would remain for the morrow to say. The colonel saw the dawn come.

The dry fields and forests reddened with the rising sun, and then the army rose up from its sleep. The cooks had already prepared coffee and food.

"Show me the enemy," said Pennington fiercely, "and as soon as I finish this cup of coffee, I'll go over and give him the thras.h.i.+ng he needs."

"He's just across those ridges, sir, and on the banks of the far creek,"

said Sergeant Whitley.

"How do you know?"

"I made a call on him last night."

"You did? And what did he say?"

"I didn't send in my card. I just took a look at his front door and came away. He's at home, waiting and willing to give us a fight."

"Well, it's a fine day for a battle anyway. Look what a splendid sun is rising! And you can see the soft haze of fall over the hills and woods."

"It's not as fine a fall as usual in Kentucky," said d.i.c.k, in an apologetic tone to Warner and Pennington. "It's been so dry that the leaves are falling too early, and the reds, the yellows and the browns are not so bright."

"Never mind, d.i.c.kie, boy," said Warner consolingly. "We'll see it in a better year, because Pennington and I are both coming back to spend six months with you when this war is over. I've already accepted the invitation. So get ready for us, d.i.c.k."

"It's an understood thing now," said d.i.c.k sincerely. "There go the trumpets, and they mean for us to get in line."

A large portion of the division was already on the way, having started at five o'clock, and the little Winchester regiment was soon marching, too. The day was again hot. October, even, did not seem able to break that singular heat, and the dust was soon billowing about them in columns, stinging and burning them. The sergeant the night before had taken a short cut through the hills, but the brigades, needing wide s.p.a.ces, marched along the roads and through the fields. A portion of their own army was hidden from them by ridges and forest, and d.i.c.k did not know whether Buell with the other half of the army had come up.

After a long and exhausting march they stopped, and the Winchester regiment and the Ohio lads concluded that they had been wrong after all. No battle would be fought that day. They were willing now, too, to postpone it, as they were almost exhausted by heat and thirst, and that stinging, burning dust was maddening. A portion of their line rested on the first creek, and they drank eagerly of the muddy water. d.i.c.k saw before him fields in which the corn stood thick and heavy. The fields were divided by hedges which cut off the view somewhat and which the sergeant said would furnish great ambush for sharpshooters.

The men were now allowed to lie down, but most of them were still panting with the heat. The three boys on horseback rode with Colonel Winchester to the crest of a low hill, just beyond the first creek. From that point they clearly saw the enemy gathered in battle array along the second stream. d.i.c.k, with his gla.s.ses, saw the batteries, and could even mark the sun-browned faces of the men.

"Has General Buell come?" he asked Colonel Winchester.

"He has not. Not half of our army is here."

The answer was made with emphasis and chagrin. There was a report that Buell did not intend to attack until the following day, when he would have his numbers well in hand.

"Under the circ.u.mstances," said the colonel, "we have to wait. Better get off your horses, boys, and hunt the shade."

They rode back and obeyed. It was now getting well along into the afternoon. Thousands of soldiers lay on the gra.s.s in the shadiest places they could find. Many were asleep. Overhead the sun burned and burned in a sky of absolute blazing white.

A cannon boomed suddenly and then another. The artillery of the two armies watching one another had opened at long range, but the fire was so distant that it did no harm. d.i.c.k and his comrades watched the sh.e.l.ls in their flight, noting the trails of white smoke they left behind, and then the showers of earth that flew up when they burst. It was rather a pleasant occupation to watch them. In a way it broke the monotony of a long summer day.

They did not know that Polk, the bishop-general, was arriving at that moment in the Southern camp with five thousand men. Bragg had come, too, but he left the command to Polk, who outranked Hardee, and the three together listened to the long-range cannonade, while they also examined with powerful gla.s.ses the Union army which was now mostly lying on the ground.

d.i.c.k himself felt a strong temptation to sleep. The march through the heat that morning had been dusty and tiresome, and the warm wind that blew over him made his eyelids very heavy. The cannonade itself was conducive to slumber. The guns were fired at regular intervals, which created a sort of rhythm. The sh.e.l.ls with their trailing white smoke ceased to interest him, and his eyelids grew heavier. It was now about 2:30 o'clock and as his eyes were about to close a sudden shout made him open them wide and then spring to his feet.

"Look out! Look out!" cried Sergeant Whitley, "The Johnnies are coming!"

The Union forces in an instant were in line, rifles ready and eager.

The gray ma.s.ses were already charging across the fields and hills, while their cannon made a sudden and rapid increase in the volume of fire.

Their batteries were coming nearer, too, and the sh.e.l.ls. .h.i.therto harmless were now shrieking and hissing among their ranks, killing and wounding.

d.i.c.k looked around him. The members of the slim Winchester regiment were all veterans; but thousands of the Ohio lads were recruits who had never seen battle before. Now sh.e.l.l and shot were teaching them the terrible realities. He saw many a face grow pale, as his own had often grown pale, in the first minutes of battle, but he did not see any one flinch.

The Northern cannon posted in the intervals and along the edges of the woods opened with a mighty crash, and as the enemy came nearer the riflemen began to send a hail of bullets. But the charge did not break.

It was led by Buckner, taken at Donelson, but now exchanged, and some of the best troops of the South followed him.

"Steady! Steady!" shouted Colonel Winchester. The ranks were so close that he and all of his staff, having no room for their horses, had dismounted, and they stood now in the front rank, encouraging the men to meet the charge. But the rush of the Southern veterans was so sudden and fierce that despite every effort of valor the division gave way, suffering frightful losses.

Two of the Union generals seeking to hold their men were killed. Each side rushed forward reinforcements. A stream of Confederates issued from a wood and flung themselves upon the Union flank. d.i.c.k was dazed with the suddenness and ferocity with which the two armies had closed in mortal combat. He could see but little. He was half blinded by the smoke, the flash of rifles and cannon and the dust. Officers and men were falling all around him. The numbers were not so great as at Antietam, but it seemed to him that within the contracted area of Perryville the fight was even more fierce and deadly than it had been on that famous Maryland field.

But he was conscious of one thing. They were being borne back. Tears of rage ran down his face. Was it always to be this way? Were their numbers never to be of any avail? He heard some one shout for Buell, and he heard some one else shout in reply that he was far away, as he had been at s.h.i.+loh.

It was true. The wind blowing away from him, Buell had not yet heard a sound from the raging battle, which for its numbers and the time it lasted, was probably the fiercest ever fought on the American continent.

The larger Union force, divided by ridges and thick woods from the field, had not heard the fire of a single cannon, and did not know that two armies were engaged in deadly combat so near.

d.i.c.k kept close to Colonel Winchester and Warner and Pennington were by his side. The sergeant was also near. There was no chance to give or send orders, and the officers, s.n.a.t.c.hing up the rifles of the fallen soldiers, fought almost as privates. The Winchester regiment performed prodigies of valor on that day, and the Ohio lads strove desperately for every inch of ground.

It seemed to d.i.c.k once that they would hold fast, when he heard in front a tremendous cry of: "On, my boys!" As the smoke lifted a little he saw that it was Colonel Kenton leading his own trained and veteran regiment.

Colonel Winchester and Colonel Kenton, in fact, had met face to face, but the Southern regiment was the more numerous and the stronger.

Winchester's men were gradually borne back and the colonel gasped to d.i.c.k:

"Didn't I see your uncle leading on his regiment?"

"Yes, it was he. It was his regiment that struck us, but he's hidden now by the smoke."

The Southern rush did not cease. McCook's whole division, between the shallow creeks was driven back, sustaining frightful losses, and it would have been destroyed, but the artillery of Sheridan on the flank suddenly opened upon the Southern victors. The Southerners whirled and charged Sheridan, but his defense was so strong, and so powerful was his artillery that they were compelled to recoil every time with shattered ranks.