Brother Against Brother Part 1

Brother Against Brother.

by Oliver Optic.

PREFACE

"Brother Against Brother" is the first of "The Blue and the Gray Army Series," which will include six volumes, though the number is contingent upon the longevity of one, still hale and hearty, who has pa.s.sed by a couple of years the Scriptural limit of "threescore years and ten"

allotted to human life. In completing the first six books of "The Blue and the Gray Series," the author realized that the scenes and events of all these stories related to life in the navy, which gallantly performed its full share in maintaining the integrity of the Union. The six books of "The Army and Navy Series," begun in the heat of the struggle thirty years ago, were equally divided between the two arms of the service; and it has been suggested that the equilibrium should be continued in the later volumes.

In the preface of "A Victorious Union," the consummation of the terrible strife which the navy had reached in that volume, the author announced his intention to make a beginning of the books which are to form the army division of the series. Soon after he had returned from his sixteenth voyage across the Atlantic, he found himself in excellent condition to resume the pleasurable occupation in which he has been engaged for forty years in this particular field. It seems to him very much like embarking in a new enterprise, though his work consists of an attempt to enliven and diversify the scenes and incidents of an old story which has pa.s.sed into history, and is forever embalmed as the record of a heroic people, faithfully and bravely represented on hundreds of gory battle-fields, and on the decks of the national navy.

The story opens in one of the Border States, where two Northern families had settled only a few years before the exciting questions which immediately preceded organized hostilities were under discussion.

Considerable portions of the State in which they were located were in a condition of violent agitation, and outrages involving wounds and death were perpetrated. The head of one of these two families was a man of stern integrity, earnestly loyal to the Union and the government which was forced into a deadly strife for its very existence. That of the other, influenced quite as much by property considerations as by fixed principles, becomes a Secessionist, fully as earnest as, and far more demonstrative than, his brother on the other side.

In each of these families are two sons, just coming to the military age, who are not quite so prominent in the present volume as they will be in those which follow it. "Riverlawn," the plantation which came into the possession of the loyal one by the will of his eldest brother, became the scene of very exciting events, in which his two sons took an active part. The writer has industriously examined the authorities covering this section of the country, including State reports, and believes he has not exaggerated the truths of history. As in preceding volumes relating to the war, he does not intend to give a connected narrative of the events that transpired in the locality he has chosen, though some of them are introduced and ill.u.s.trated in the story.

The State itself, as evidenced by the votes of its Legislature and by the enlistments in the Union army, was loyal, if not from the beginning, from the time when it obtained its bearings. As in other Southern States, the secession element was more noisy and demonstrative than the loyal portion of the community, and thus obtained at first an apparent advantage. The present volume is largely taken up with the conflict for supremacy between these hostile elements. The loyal father and his two sons are active in these scenes; and the taking possession of a quant.i.ty of military supplies by them precipitates actual warfare, and the question as to whether or not a company of cavalry could be recruited at Riverlawn had to be settled by what amounted to a real battle.

To the mult.i.tude of his young friends now in their teens, and to the greater mult.i.tude now grown gray, who have encouraged his efforts during the last forty years, the author renewedly acknowledges his manifold obligations for their kindness, and wishes them all health, happiness, and all the prosperity they can bear.

WILLIAM T. ADAMS.

DORCHESTER, July 4, 1894.

BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER

CHAPTER I

TROUBLESOME TIMES IN KENTUCKY

"Neutrality! There is no such thing as neutrality in the present situation, my son!" protested Noah Lyon to the stout boy of sixteen who stood in front of him on the bridge over Bar Creek, in the State of Kentucky. "He that is not for the Union is against it. No man can serve two masters, Dexter."

"That is just what I was saying to Sandy," replied the boy, whom everybody but his father and mother called "Deck."

"Your Cousin Alexander takes after his father, who is my own brother; but I must say I am ashamed of him, for he is a rank Secessionist,"

continued Noah Lyon, fixing his gaze on the planks of the bridge, and looking as grieved as though one of his own blood had turned against him. "He was born and brought up in New Hampshire, where about all the people believe in the Union as they do in their own mothers, and a traitor would be ridden on a rail out of almost any town within its borders."

"Well, it isn't so down here in the State of Kentucky, father," answered Deck.

"Kentucky was the second new State to be admitted to the Union of the original thirteen, and there are plenty of people now within her borders who protest that it will be the last to leave it," replied the father, as he took a crumpled newspaper from his pocket. "Here's a little piece from a Clarke County paper which is just the opinion of a majority of the people of Kentucky. Read it out loud, Dexter," added Mr. Lyon, as he handed the paper to his son, and pointed out the article.

The young man took the paper, and read in a loud voice, as though he wished even the fishes in the creek to hear it, and to desire them to refuse to be food for Secessionists: "Any attempt on the part of the government of this State, or any one else, to put Kentucky out of the Union by force, or using force to compel Union men in any manner to submit to an ordinance of secession, or any pretended resolution or decree arising from such secession, is an act of treason against the State of Kentucky. It is therefore lawful to resist any such ordinance."

"That's the doctrine!" exclaimed Mr. Lyons, clapping his hands with a ringing sound to emphasize his opinion. "Those are my sentiments exactly, and they are political gospel to me; and I should be ashamed of any son of mine who did not stand by the Union, whether he lived in New Hampshire or Kentucky."

"You can count me in for the Union every time, father," said Deck, who had read all the newspapers, those from the North and of the State in which he resided, as well as the history of Kentucky and the current exciting doc.u.ments that were floating about the country, including the long and illogical letter of the State's senator who immediately became a Confederate brigadier.

"I haven't heard your Cousin Artie, who is just your age, and old enough to do something on his own account, say much about the troubles of the times," added Mr. Lyon, bestowing an inquiring look upon his son. "I have seen Sandy Lyon talking to him a good deal lately, and I hope he is not leading him astray."

"No danger of that; for Artie is as stiff as a cart-stake for the Union, and Sandy can't pour any Secession mola.s.ses down his back," replied Deck.

"I am glad to hear it. I heard some one say that Sandy had joined, or was going to join, the Home Guards."

"He asked me to join them, and wanted me to go down to Bowling Green with him in the boat. He had already put his name down as a member of a company; but of course I wouldn't go."

"The Home Guards thrive very well in Bar Creek; and I noticed that all who joined them are Secessionists, or have a leaning that way," added the father. "The avowed purpose of these organizations is to preserve the neutrality of the State; but that is only another name for treason; and when affairs have progressed a little farther, the Home Guards will wheel into the ranks of the Confederate army. President Lincoln made a very guarded and non-committal reply to the Governor's letter on neutrality; but it is as plain as the nose on a toper's face that he don't believe in it."

"I think it is best to be on one side or the other."

"Isn't Sandy trying to rope Artie into the Home Guards, Dexter?" asked Mr. Lyon with an anxious look on his face.

"Of course he is, as he has tried to get me to join."

"Artie is a quiet sort of a boy, and don't say much; but it is plain that he keeps up a tremendous thinking all the time, though I have not been able to make out what it is all about."

"He is considering just what all the rest of us are thinking about; but I am satisfied that he has come out just where all the rest of us at Riverlawn have arrived, father. He and I have talked a great deal about the war; and Artie is all right now, though he may have had some doubts about where he belonged a few months ago."

"But Sandy was over here no longer ago than yesterday, and he was talking for over an hour with Artie on this bridge where we are now,"

said Mr. Lyon.

"They were talking about the Union meeting to be held to-morrow night at the schoolhouse by the Big Bend," added Deck.

"What interest has Sandy in that meeting? He does not train in that company."

"He advised Artie not to go to the meeting, for it was gotten up by traitors to their State."

"That's a Secessionist phrase which he borrowed from some Confederate orator, or at Bowling Green, where he spends too much of his time; and his father had better be teaching him how to lay bricks and mix mortar."

"But Uncle t.i.tus is over there half his time," suggested Deck.

"He had better be attending to his business; for the people over at the village say they will have to get another mason to settle there, for your Uncle t.i.tus don't work half his time, and the people can't get their jobs done. There is a new house over there waiting for him to build the chimney."

"Why don't you talk to him, father?" asked Deck very seriously.

"Talk to him, Dexter!" exclaimed Mr. Lyon. "You might as well set your dog to barking at the rapids in the river. For some reason t.i.tus seems to be rather set against me since we settled in Barcreek. We used to be on the best of terms in New Hampshire, for I always lent him money when he was hard pressed. I don't know what has come over him since we came to Kentucky."

"I do," added Deck, looking earnestly into his father's face.