The Young Lieutenant Part 25

"So I supposed. He is a jovial, good-hearted fellow; but I'll wager my shoulder-straps he was tight at the time," laughed the general.

"Very tight, sir."

"Well, he is a fighting man, drunk or sober; but I should rather lead than follow him in action. Where have you been all day?"

"Shall I tell my story in full, or only give you the information I obtained?"

"Tell the story, so that I can determine whether the information is good for anything or not."

Somers drank the tin cup of coffee which the general's servant brought to him, and then proceeded to relate the incidents of the day in the rebel camp. His distinguished auditor, who, in the Army of the Potomac, had well earned the t.i.tle of "the bravest of the brave," listened with eager interest to the details of the lieutenant's story, asking occasional questions upon points which were not only calculated to elicit particular information, but to display the skill and intelligence of the scout. The interview was prolonged for several hours; and at its close a staff-officer was despatched to the corps commander; for what purpose, of course, Somers had no intimation.

"Lieutenant Somers, you have earned your promotion; and if you don't have it, it will be because I have not influence enough to procure it. You have done well."

"Thank you, sir."

"Your friend, Senator Guilford, shall hear of you within forty-eight hours."

"I beg your pardon, sir; but, grateful as I am to Senator Guilford for the interest he has expressed in me, I don't care to be patronized by any man in civil life."

"Whew!" laughed the general. "I wish some of our colonels and brigadiers would take a lesson from you. Never mind, Lieutenant Somers; you will deserve all you ever get."

"Thank you, sir."

"Go to your quarters now. Here," he added, dashing off a note at his table, in which he desired that Somers might be excused from duty for the next two days, to enable him to recover from the fatigues of his arduous expedition.

I need not inform my readers how soundly our hero slept in his shelter tent that night, nor how his slumbers were disturbed by a horrid rebel with a bowie-knife, and a horrid feminine monstrosity which seemed to be called Sue by her attendant demons; but he slept as a tired boy only can sleep.

The next morning the brigade was relieved from picket duty, and the regiment returned to its camp. Captain de Banyan had neither seen nor heard from his young friend since his departure on the forenoon of the preceding day. Of course he was overjoyed to see him, as well as intensely curious to know where he had been, what he had done, and whether he had been promoted. Somers told his adventures to the mess, omitting such military information as was "contraband" in the camp.

"Somers, my dear fellow, you are a man after my own heart!" exclaimed the captain, grasping his hand, and wringing it with all the enthusiasm of his fervid nature. "Somers, my boy, did you ever hear of a man having his double?"

"I have read of such things in old legends."

"I believe in it, Somers. You are my double! You are my second self! You are as near like me as one pea is like another! Just before the battle of Magenta----"

At this interesting point in the conversation, the officers of the mess burst into an involuntary roar of laughter, ending up Magenta with a long dash.

"Not exactly like you, Captain de Banyan," added Somers.

"You can't tell half so big a story," said Lieutenant Munroe.

"Gentlemen," interposed the captain with dignity, "you interrupted me at the wrong moment. I was about to prove to you wherein Lieutenant Somers was my double; and with your permission, I will proceed with my argument.

Just before the battle of Magenta, I was sent out on a scout; and I went at the particular request of the Emperor Napoleon, who--permit me to add, in the presence of a company which seems to be inimical to my antecedents, if not to me--had unlimited confidence in my ability to perform this delicate duty with skill and success. Well, gentlemen, I pa.s.sed our pickets; of course I mean the French pickets; for I was, as you are all aware, a colonel in the French infantry at that time."

"We are all aware of it," laughed Munroe--"over the left."

"That is a slang phrase, and repulsive to the ears of a cultivated gentleman. As I was saying, gentlemen, I pa.s.sed our pickets, and soon encountered a Russian general of division."

"Russian?"

"Austrian, I should have said; and I thank you, Somers, for the correction. I suppose he was making the grand rounds with the officer of the day. Be that as it may, he considered it his duty to stop me; and I was under the disagreeable necessity of putting a bullet through his head. He was a count, and the father of a large family; however, I could not help it, though I was sorry to make orphans of his children. I stepped into his uniform without the delay of a moment."

"Where was the sergeant of the guard, the officer of the day, and the sentinels?" demanded Lieutenant Munroe.

"I beg you will not interrupt me, Lieutenant Munroe, with these ill-timed remarks, which are merely intended to throw discredit on my character for truth and veracity. I remarked, that I stepped into the uniform of the defunct major-general. To abbreviate the narrative somewhat, I walked through the Austrian lines for three hours, till I had discovered the position of the infantry, cavalry and artillery. But the most singular part of the affair was, that, when the long roll was beat once during that eventful night, I placed myself at the head of the departed general's division, and maneuvered it for an hour on the field, intending to place it in such a position that the French could capture it.

Unfortunately, no attack was made by the Emperor's forces, and I could not carry out my plan."

"Can you talk the Austrian lingo, captain?" asked Munroe.

"Of course I can," replied De Banyan with dignity.

"Here, Schrugenheimer, let us have a specimen of the lingo!" said the tormentor, appealing to a German officer. "Ask him some questions in your own language."

"Gentlemen, if my word is not sufficient, I shall not condescend to demonstrate what I have said. You will notice the similarity between the adventures of Lieutenant Somers and my own."

The officers of the mess all laughed heartily at the conclusion of the comparison; for the story, like a fairy tale, was pleasant to hear, but hard to believe. But weightier matters than these were at hand for these gallant men; and before night the gay laugh had ceased, and they had nerved themselves for the stern duties of the hour. Cannon had been thundering to the right of them for three days; and in the afternoon they had seen the smoke of burning bridges, which a.s.sured them that their communications with White House had been cut off. At night, orders were given to have the men ready to move, and to prepare for a hurried march.

Extra stores were destroyed, clothing thrown away, and tents were cut in pieces, or otherwise rendered useless to the next occupants of the ground. Everything to be transported was reduced to the smallest possible compa.s.s.

These orders were ominous of disaster; but on the following morning a general order was read, to the effect that all was right. The troubled expression on the countenances of officers and men indicated their incredulity; for the destruction in which they had been engaged belied the words of the order. The brigade was then moved back three miles from the camp. A portion of the regiment was posted near a house, in which was a bedridden old woman, attended by her daughter. The rebels were advancing by the Williamsburg road, and soon had a battery of artillery in position to sh.e.l.l the vicinity of the house.

It was an intensely hot day. Captain de Banyan sat asleep on the fence near the house. He was very much exhausted by the labors of the two preceding nights on picket, and at the destruction of the stores; and while Somers was watching the progress of the battle on the right, where a sharp fight was in progress, a sh.e.l.l screamed between them, and struck the house about a foot from the ground.

"That reminds me of the night before Magenta," said the veteran, opening his eyes, without even a start. "A hundred-pounder sh.e.l.l knocked my hat off, and then pa.s.sed through the two open windows at each gable of a house, without even breaking a pane of gla.s.s."

"A narrow escape for you and for the house," replied Somers with a languid smile.

CHAPTER XVII

GLENDALE AND MALVERN HILLS

Captain de Banyan was as cool and indifferent to danger as though he had been shot-proof. Cannon-b.a.l.l.s and sh.e.l.l flew through the air; but the veteran paid no attention to them--except that once in a while they reminded him of Magenta, or some other of the numerous battle-fields where he had displayed his valor. There was little fighting for our regiment at this point, though there was a sharp action on the right of the position.

The rebels attacked our forces with tremendous vigor at Savage's Station.

It was believed by their generals that the Union army was utterly demoralized; that it was retreating in disorder towards the James River; and that a vigorous onslaught would result in its capture. The first intimation of the blunder was received at Savage's Station, where the Confederates were decisively repulsed; yet the hope was not abandoned of ending the war by the destruction of the Army of the Potomac. The hosts of the rebellion were poured down the roads, where they could intercept the loyal forces; and the full extent of their blunder was realized only at Malvern Hills.

At noon our regiment marched through White Oak Swamp, and late in the evening bivouacked in a field near the road. During all this time the road was filled with troops, and with trains of army wagons on their way to the new "base." Very early the next morning, the march was resumed. It was an exceedingly hot day, and the troops suffered severely from the heat. Somers was nearly exhausted when the regiment halted at noon near a church, which the surgeons had already occupied as a hospital. But nothing could disturb the equanimity of Captain de Banyan. If an opportunity offered, he rested, and went to sleep amid the screaming sh.e.l.ls as readily as though he had been in his chamber in the "Fifth Avenue." It was not quite so hot as it was at Magenta, nor the march quite so severe as before Solferino, nor the shot quite so thick as at Chapultepec. He never grumbled himself, and never permitted any one else to do so. If Somers ventured to suggest that events were rather hard upon him, he wondered what he would have done if he had been at Magenta, Solferino, Balaclava, or Chapultepec.

Somers was disposed to make the best of the circ.u.mstances; and though hungry, tired and nearly melted, he sustained himself with unfaltering courage amid the trials of that eventful march. All day long, the tide of army wagons and cattle flowed down the road; and the brigade remained near the church at Glendale, waiting for them to pa.s.s. At dark the order was given to move forward, while the roar of cannon and musketry reverberated on the evening air, a.s.suring the weary veterans that the baptism of blood was at hand for them, as it had been before for their comrades in arms.

The regiment followed a narrow road through the woods, which was thronged with the _debris_ of the conflict, hurled back by the fierce a.s.saults of the rebels. The cowardly skulkers and the noncombatants of the engaged regiments were here with their tale of disaster and ruin; and, judging from the mournful stories they told, the once proud Army of the Potomac had been utterly routed and discomfited. Cowards with one bar, cowards with two bars, cowards with no bar, and cowards with the eagle on their shoulders, repeated the wail of disaster; and the timid would have shrunk from the fiery ordeal before them, if the intrepid officers and the ma.s.s of the rank and file had not been above the influence of the poltroons'

trembling tones and quaking limbs.

"Forward, my brave boys! I've been waiting all my lifetime for such a scene as this!" shouted Captain de Banyan, as he flourished his sword after the most approved style.

"Don't mind the cowards!" said Somers, as the stragglers poured out their howls of terror.