The Drummer Boy Part 28

"The battery scarcely fires at all now," says Frank, looking at his watch. "It's twenty minutes since it has fired a shot."

"There goes one! And see! the gunboats are fighting each other now like mad--again!" cries Gray. "They're all so wrapped in smoke you can hardly see one of 'em."--Bang, bang, bang!--"Isn't it grand?"

"A sh.e.l.l burst right over Burnside's tug!" exclaims Frank. "It burst, and sprinkled the water all around it!"

XXIII.

THE TROOPS DISEMBARK.--THE ISLAND.

At four o'clock the last of the transports had entered the inlet, and rejoined the fleet. Soon after commenced preparations for the landing of the troops. The boats were lowered and manned, and the soldiers, descending from decks and spars, began to crowd into them. Knapsacks were left behind; the men taking with them only their arms, overcoats, canteens, haversacks, and cartridge-boxes, with three days' rations of pork, beef, and hard bread, and forty rounds of ball cartridges. Down both sides of the vessels they pa.s.sed, in rapid regular files, pouring into the boats. Their guns were taken as they stepped upon the stairs, and pa.s.sed down to them as soon as they were embarked. Some took places at the oars; the rest filed in fore and aft. It must have been an amazing spectacle to the enemy to witness these stirring and formidable preparations for finis.h.i.+ng the work the gunboats had begun. The troops were jubilant, and eager for battle.

As fast as the boats were filled, they pushed from the stairs to make room for others, and lay upon their oars watching for the signals. These were telegraphed from the flag-s.h.i.+p of each brigade. At the instant, the boats swarmed the water in miniature fleets, with oars flas.h.i.+ng, flags flying, and arms gleaming in the sun. Rowing to the flag-s.h.i.+p, or steamer detailed for the purpose, they attached themselves under her stern in two lines as they arrived, each boat taking the painter of the one behind it Then, at a signal whistle, the steamers started for the sh.o.r.e, each towing its double string of boats.

In the mean time the fight between the fleet and the battery was continued,--rather languidly, however, on the part of the battery; and a couple of light draught gunboats, running in close to the sh.o.r.e, continued sh.e.l.ling the woods about Ashby's Harbor, to cover the landing of the troops.

When the steamers towing in the boats had arrived as near as the depth of water would permit, the signal whistles were sounded, the painters were cast off, the lines of boats broke simultaneously, the rowers took to their oars and pulled with all speed for the sh.o.r.e. As soon as the prows struck, the men jumped out, das.h.i.+ng through mud and water to the land.

Many did not wait for the boats to get in, but, in their eagerness to follow their comrades, leaped overboard where the water was up to their waists. Some got stuck in the mire, and were helped out by those who came after them. Six thousand men were thus thrown upon the island at the first disembarkation; while the remainder of the troops on the transports watched the brilliant scene, and cheered l.u.s.tily when they saw the flag of the Union waving on the sh.o.r.e.

Frank's regiment was not yet disembarked. The boys were still in the rigging, following with eager eyes the movements of the boats. An exciting incident added interest to the scene. Before the boats landed, a body of rebels in ambush, waiting to receive them, were betrayed by the gleam of their muskets. A sh.e.l.l dropped discreetly into their hiding-place, by one of the gunboats, sent them scampering, and the troops landed without opposition.

"It's our turn now, boys!" cried Tucket. And they slipped from the rigging, impatient to leap into the boats, and be put ash.o.r.e. "I tell ye, won't it feel good to straighten out a fellow's legs once, on dry land!"

The men were generally of Seth's opinion; their long confinement on s.h.i.+pboard having become exceedingly monotonous and tiresome.

Frank was with his company. They loaded the boats to the gunwales. The water was still smooth, save where it was broken into waves and whirling eddies by the sweep of oars. The men shouted joyously, and waved their caps. Frank stood in the bow, and swung his cap with the rest. But looking back across the s.h.i.+ning wakes at the forsaken schooner, a feeling of sadness came over him--a feeling of regretful memory, as of one leaving home.

There she lay, motionless; hull and spars painted dark against the sunset sky; her rigging, to the finest cordage, traced in exquisitely distinct lines upon that s.h.i.+ning background--a picture of exceeding loveliness and peace.

As the boats swept down towards the sh.o.r.e, and the schooner seemed to recede into the flaming west, the network of cordage became black cobwebs on the sky, then melted away and vanished altogether. At the same time, the water, which the boats had troubled, grew smooth again, reflecting the sunset glow, with the sombre hull and ebon spars painted upon it, until Frank saw the spectre of a double s.h.i.+p suspended in a double heaven.

And as the last view of the schooner was all beautiful, so his last thoughts of her were all tender. He remembered no more against her the hards.h.i.+ps of the voyage, the seasickness, the two gills of water a day.

But that she had borne them faithfully through storms, that whether they slept or waked she had not failed them,--this he remembered. And his sister's death, and all his sufferings and errors, and the peace of soul which had come to him at last, were a.s.sociated now and henceforth, with his memory of the s.h.i.+p swimming there in the illumined horizon. Only for a brief interval, like a wind that comes we know not whence, and goes again we know not whither, touching us with invisible perfumed wings, these thoughts swept over the boy, and pa.s.sed as quickly. And he turned from gazing after the schooner to face the scenes before him. Nearer and nearer drew the boats to the island. Its woods and sh.o.r.es lay cool and tranquil in the evening light, and the troops there, half-hidden by the tall gra.s.s and the trees, were tinted with a gleam of romance.

It was now fast growing dark. Clouds were gathering in the sky. From their edges the last hues of the sunset faded, the moon was hid, and a portentous gloom fell upon the waves. The cannon were still thundering at intervals. The sh.e.l.ls flew screaming through the air, and fell bursting on the fort or in the woods. It was now so dark that the flash of the guns had become lurid and sharp, and the meteoric course of the projectiles could be traced by their fiery wake.

Amid this scene the boats entered the cove, and as the prows struck, or before, the excited soldiers leaped out, regardless of mud and water.

"Shouldn't wonder if somebody got a wet foot," said Tucket, in the midst of the plunging and plas.h.i.+ng--himself in up to his hips. "'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!' Here, Manly, take a grip of my coat tail.

I'm longer legged than you."

"I'm all right," said Frank. "I've no gun to carry, and I can get along."

And he floundered on as fast as the deep, clinging ooze would permit.

"This is what they call the sacred soil!" observed Harris. "Just the thing, I should say, to breed rattle-snakes and rebels."

"I swan to man!" chimed in Tucket's voice from a distance,--for his long legs had given him an advantage in the general race,--"there ain't no sh.o.r.e after ye get to't. It's nothin' but salt ma'sh, all trod to pudd'n'

by the fellers that have been in ahead of us. I thought we was to be _landed_; 'stead of that, we're swamped!"

The men pushed on, through marsh and swamp, sometimes in mire and water knee-deep, and now in tall, rank gra.s.s up to their eyes; the darkness adding to their dismal prospect.

"By Grimes!" mutters Jack Winch, "I don't think an island of this kind is worth taking. It's jest fit for secesh and n.i.g.g.e.rs, and n.o.body else."

"We must have the island, because it's a key to the coast," says Frank.

"I wouldn't talk war, if I couldn't carry a gun," retorts Jack, made cross by the cold and wet.

"Perhaps before we get through you'll be glad to lend me yours," is Frank's pleasant response, as he hastens forward through gra.s.s which waves about his ears or lies trodden and tangled under foot.

"The gunboats have stopped firing," observes At.w.a.ter.

In fact, both gunboats and battery were now silent, the former having drawn off for the night.

XXIV.

THE BIVOUAC.

"There's a good time coming, and near, boys! there's a good time coming, and near!" sings out Tucket, holding his head high as he strides along, for he has caught a sight of fires beyond, and the company are now emerging upon a tract of sandy barrens, thinly covered with pines.

A road runs through the island. The advance of the column has already taken possession of it. Skirmishers have been thrown forward into the woods, and pickets are posted on the flanks.

The troops prepare to bivouac for the night. Fires are kindled, and soon the generous flames blaze up, illumining picturesque groups of men, and casting a wild glare far into the depths of the great, black, silent woods. The trees seem to stand out like startled giants, gazing at the unusual scene; and all above and around the frightened shadows lurk, in ghostly boughs, behind dark trunks, among the deep gra.s.ses, and in hollows of the black mora.s.s. And the darkness of the night overhangs the army like a vast tent, sombrely flickering.

A dry fence of cypress and pine rails is, without hesitation, appropriated to feed the fires of the bivouac; and the chilled, soaked soldiers gather around them to get warm and dry.

"My brave fellows," says Captain Edney, pa.s.sing among them, "do the best you can for yourselves for the night. Try to keep warm, and get what rest and sleep you can. You will need all your strength to-morrow."

"To-morrow," observes Winch, with a swaggering, braggart air, "we're going to give the rebels the almightiest thras.h.i.+ng they've had yet! To wade in their blood as deep as I've waded to-night in this mud and water, that's what'll just suit me!"

"The less blood the better, boys," says Captain Edney. "But we must be prepared to shed our own to the last drop, if need be, for we're bound to sweep this island of every traitor to his country, before we leave it.

Make up your minds to that, boys!"

There is that in his tone which promises something besides child's play on the morrow. He is calm, serious, spirited, resolute; and the hearts of his men are fired by his words.

The troops are full of jest and merriment as they kick off their shoes, and empty the water out of them, squeeze their dripping trousers, and, lying on the ground, toast their steaming legs by the fires.

"I say, le's have a gallus old time to-night, to pay for our ducking,"

suggests Jack Winch. "I don't want to sleep."

"You ought to be off in the swamps, on picket duty, then," says Harris.

"Let them sleep that have a chance. For my part, I'm going to take the captain's advice. There's no knowing what sounds will wake us up, or how early."