The Young Sharpshooter at Antietam Part 29

Startled by the suggestion, Noel glanced sharply at his companion and said, "Fighting?"

"That's what it sounds like."

"Silence in the ranks!" ordered the captain sharply, and both young soldiers became silent as the little band marched forward.

The threatening sound was occasionally repeated, and then after a half-hour or more had elapsed it died away and was not heard again.

Ignorant of its cause, Noel's fears were not relieved. The suggestion of Dennis that the sounds came from cannon was undoubtedly correct, and in that event an engagement not far away was even now taking place.

Puzzled as well as alarmed, it was not difficult for the young soldier to decide that the two armies now must be near each other. He had no knowledge of the region through which he was moving, the only place of which he had heard in the vicinity being Frederick City. Just where this was situated, and what the sympathies of its inhabitants were, he did not know.

Noel was aware also that his companion was manifestly in very low spirits. Never before had he seen Dennis so cast down. The sight was depressing, and in spite of his efforts to convince himself that his fears were groundless Noel's confidence was rapidly vanis.h.i.+ng as the men advanced.

How far away the main body was lying was another matter of which he was in ignorance.

Refreshed by the food that Eliza Jane had served him he was in better condition to endure a long march, if such a demand should be made upon him, than he had been at any time since he had escaped the attack at Harper's Ferry. It was the unconcealed depression of Dennis that influenced him now.

When he had first been charged with being a deserter he had looked upon the matter as a joke. He was fearful by this time, however, as has been said, that with his friends all in another division of the army or prisoners of the Confederates, it might be impossible for him to prove his ident.i.ty, at least for a time.

That he was then a regularly enrolled sharpshooter, and in his small way had done faithful service in the Peninsula campaign, was true. But could he convince the captain that his record was clean?

There was no delay in the march. When two hours had elapsed, Noel was surprised to find that they were approaching a camp. This camp, however, was so manifestly only a temporary affair that he easily conjectured that the men practically were under marching orders. Perhaps they had come a considerable distance that very day.

Without waiting for any instructions the young captain directed that Noel and Dennis should be sent to the guard-tent, into which both were somewhat roughly thrust.

To Noel's surprise he found within the tent a half-dozen unfortunate men, and in a brief time, from the confessions which followed, he was aware that every one there was facing a charge of desertion. Indeed, one of the men was describing the treatment which was measured out to those who had deserted from the ranks.

"Most generally," he was saying, "if a man deserts, and is caught again, they make him serve out all the original time of his enlistment without any pay or allowance."

"For instance," suggested another man, "if a soldier has enlisted for four years and deserts at the end of six months, if they should catch him they would bring him back and make him serve three years and six months more without pay, would they?"

"That's it," said the first prisoner. "Sometimes they send the deserters off to Dry Tortugas."

"They might as well banish them from everywhere as to send them there."

"That's right."

"Where is this Dry Tortugas you're talking about?" inquired another.

"It's a group of islands that belong to the United States down near the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. It's about one hundred and twenty miles southwest of Cape Sable."

"And where is Cape Sable?"

"That's the southern part of Florida. Where is your geography, man?

These islands of the Dry Tortugas are very low and swampy, and they are covered with mangrove bushes."

"What are they?"

"Oh, they are something like the banana. Sometimes the deserters there are made to serve a term of years with ball and chain."

"What do you think is going to happen to us?"

"That's not easy to tell. There have been so many men trying to get away that I'm afraid that it will go hard with us."

Noel was listening intently to the conversation, but its effect upon him was not so marked as it was upon Dennis. The fear in the heart of the young Irishman was great, if it could be estimated by the expression which appeared upon his face.

CHAPTER XXIV

A FRUITLESS INTERVIEW

As conversation ceased for a time Noel and Dennis withdrew to a part of the tent where they were by themselves. The face of every man in the tent betrayed his feeling of anxiety. Even Noel, the youngest of the soldiers, was becoming alarmed at the outlook. Far removed from his own regiment, among those who were strangers to him and who knew nothing of his record or even of his presence in the army, the young soldier desperately tried to think of some one to whom he might appeal for aid.

If he had been left free to follow his own wishes he would immediately have sought the colonel and stated his case to that officer. As it was, however, he was not only prevented from seeing the leader, but also was in a position in which his statements would not be accepted without further proof. His anger at the little sutler, who had brought the trouble upon him, became keener, but his very helplessness tended only to increase his anxiety.

The anxiety of the young prisoners would have been much greater if they had known that at this very time Harper's Ferry was about to be taken and the soldiers of the garrison made prisoners. The two great divisions of the Southern army, as we know, had been planning to cross the mountains and reunite at Hagerstown or Boonesborough.

General Jackson, energetic and prompt, successfully carried out the task which had been a.s.signed to him. Indeed, he was as prompt in his actions as was his great commander. On the first day of his advance he marched fourteen miles and that same night decided to cross the Potomac River.

The following day he was only four miles west of Martinsburg, and in the morning when he moved upon the little place, to his surprise he found that the garrison already had abandoned the post.

The general quickly resumed his march and on the following day, after his troops had covered more than sixty miles in the four days, he came within sight of the Federal forces.

There was a slight delay now, but on the 13th of September General McLaws reached the hills known as Maryland Heights and at the same time General Walker, who was meeting with no resistance at all, occupied Loudon Heights above Harper's Ferry.

All that night General Jackson was awake, receiving frequent reports from both of his subordinates, and before the morning came he had made all his plans for a combined attack upon Harper's Ferry by all the divisions under his command.

Right at the angle formed by the junction of the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers lies Harper's Ferry. To the south were heights which were strongly held by the Union troops. It was in the afternoon of September 14, when at the command of General Jackson the Confederate batteries began to pour a heavy artillery fire upon the Union troops on the heights, and when night fell he had worked his army into such a position that it really commanded both flanks of the Bolivar Heights where these Union soldiers were stationed.

The following morning there was a brief interval of quiet and then General Jackson prepared to a.s.sault the heights. But before the attempt was made the Union garrison capitulated.

Not only were more than twelve thousand prisoners secured (for the garrisons which had been stationed at Winchester and at Martinsburg had retired previously to Harper's Ferry), but there also were seventy-three great guns and something like thirteen thousand small arms that became the prizes of the victors.

"Whist!" whispered Dennis, speaking for the first time since the boys had been consigned to the guard-tent. "'Tis a black day for us, I'm thinkin'. 'Tis a foine way, too, to treat the boys that niver thought of desartin'."

"We'll get out of this all right," said Noel, speaking with a confidence he was far from feeling. "They'll have to find out first whether or not we're really deserters before they punish us."

"If I had that little spalpeen, Levi, here, I'd get some satisfaction, anyway! What for do you suppose he told the captain that we were desarters?"

"There's fifty dollars reward offered to any one who will help in the return of a deserter; at least, that's what I have been told," said Noel.

"That explains it, thin," said Dennis confidently. "That explains it all. For fifty dollars that Levi would sell his mother and his whole family."

"Fifty dollars is a good deal of money, Dennis."

"So it is. So it is," acknowledged the young Irish soldier, "but it's a lot more than Levi is worth."