The Young Lieutenant Part 26

There was little need of these stirring exhortations; for the men were as eager for the fight as the officers, and laughed with genuine glee at the pitiful aspect of the runaways. They advanced in line of battle to the support of the hard-pressed troops in front of them, and poured a withering fire into the enemy. With that fiendish yell which the Southern soldiers invariably use in the hour of battle, they rushed forward with a fury which was madness, and into which no fear of death entered.

"They are coming!" shouted Somers, as the legions of rebellion surged down upon the line, yelling like so many demons, as though they expected the veterans to be vanquished by mere noise. "Stand steady, my men!"

"That reminds me of the Russian advance at Magenta," said Captain de Banyan, who happened to pa.s.s near the spot where Somers stood.

"The Austrians, you mean," replied Somers, trying to keep as cool and unmoved as his companion.

"Excuse me; I meant the Austrians," replied the captain. "The fact is----Forward, my brave fellows!" roared he as the order came down the line.

The enemy had been temporarily checked, and the brigade advanced to pursue the advantage gained. They poured another terrible volley into the rebels; when a regiment of the latter, infuriated by whiskey and the fierce goadings of their officers, rushed down with irresistible force upon a portion of the Union line, and succeeded in making a partial break in our regiment. The only remaining line officer in one of the companies where the rupture occurred was wounded at this critical moment, and borne under the feet of the excited combatants.

"Lieutenant Somers, take command of that company!" shouted the colonel, as he dashed towards the imperiled portion of the line.

Somers made haste to obey the order when the line was giving way before the impetuous charge. He felt that the safety of the whole army depended upon himself at that momentous instant, and that on the salvation of the army rested the destiny of his country. What was the life of a single man, of a hundred thousand even, compared with the fearful issue of that moment? It was the feeling of the young soldier, and he was ready to lay down his life for the flag which symbolized the true glory of the nation.

"Rally round me!" he cried, as he discharged his revolver into the breast of a brave captain who was urging his company forward with the most unflinching resolution. "Down with them!" he shouted, as he waved his sword above his head.

"Hurrah!" roared a brave sergeant near him, and the cry was taken up by the gallant fellows who had been pressed back by sheer force of numbers.

"Forward!" shouted Somers, as he dashed down a bayonet, which would have transfixed him on the spot if he had not been on the alert.

The men rallied, and stood boldly up to the work before them. They were inspired by the example of the young lieutenant; and the rebel regiment slowly and doggedly retired, leaving many of their number dead or wounded on the field, and a small number as prisoners in the hands of Somers's new command.

After alternate repulses and successes, the rebels were signally defeated and driven back. It was a sharp and decisive struggle; but again had the army been saved from destruction, and the long line of army wagons still pursued its way in safety towards the waters of the James.

Again had the rebel general's brilliant calculation failed. His troops, maddened by the fires of the whiskey demon, had done all that men or fiends could do; but the trained valor of the Army of the Potomac had again saved the country. Onward it marched towards the goal of safety under the sheltering wings of the gunboat fleet in the river.

All night long the men marched, with frequent intervals of rest, as the movements of the army trains required them. There was no sleep, even after that hard-fought battle; no real rest from the exciting and wearing events of the day. There was little or no food to be had; and the fainting soldiers, though still ready to fight and march in their weakness, longed for the repose of a few hours in camp. But not yet was the boon to be granted. On the following morning, our regiment arrived at Malvern Hills, where they were again formed in line of battle, in readiness to receive the menacing hosts of the rebels.

"We are all right now, Somers," said Captain de Banyan while they were waiting for the onset.

"Not quite yet, captain. Don't you see those signal-flags on the houses yonder?"

"They mean something, of course. I did not intend to say there will be no fighting; only, that we have a good position, and all the rebels in the Confederacy can't start us now."

"Those flags indicate that the rebels are moving."

"Let them come; the sooner the better, and the sooner it will be over.

Hurrah!" exclaimed the captain, as the inspiring strains of the band in the rear saluted his ears.

Cheer after cheer pa.s.sed along the extended lines as the notes of the "Star-spangled Banner" thrilled the hearts of the weary, fainting soldiers. The bands had not been heard during the operations in front of Richmond; and their music, as Sergeant Hapgood expressed it, "sounded like home."

"That does me good, Somers," continued the captain. "There's nothing like music for the nerves. It wakes men up, and makes them forget all their troubles. Forward, the light brigade!" he added, flourishing his sword in the air. "I suppose you know that poem, Somers?"

"Of course; I know it by heart; read it in school the last day I ever went."

"Did you, indeed?"

"Nothing very singular about that, is there?"

"Rather a remarkable coincidence, I should say," replied the captain with easy indifference, as he twirled his sword on the ground.

"I don't see it."

"You read the poem at school, and I was in that charge."

"You?"

"Yes, my boy. I was a captain in that brigade. But what called the circ.u.mstance to my mind was the music which struck up just now. I had a bugler in my company who played 'Hail, Columbia' during the whole of the fight."

"'Hail, Columbia?'" demanded Somers.

"Certainly; the fellow had a fancy for that tune; and though it wasn't exactly a national thing to the British army, he always played it when he got a chance. Well, sir, I think that bugler did more than any other man in the charge of the light brigade. He never lost a note, and it fired the men up to the pitch of frenzy."

"He was a brave fellow," replied Somers languidly; for he was too thoroughly worn out to appreciate the stories of his veteran companion.

"He was the most determined man I ever met in my life. He was killed in the charge, poor fellow; but he had filled his bugle so full of wind, that the music did not cease till full five minutes after he was stone-dead."

"Come, come, captain! that's a little too bad," said Somers seriously.

"Too bad? Well, I should not be willing to take oath that the time was just five minutes after the bugler died. I did not take out my watch, and time it; and, of course, I can only give you my judgment as to the precise number of minutes."

"You are worse than Baron Munchausen, who told a story something like that; only his was the more reasonable of the two."

"Somers, my boy! you have got a villainously bad habit of discrediting the statements of a brother-officer and a gentleman," said Captain de Banyan seriously.

"And you have got a bad habit of telling the most abominable stories that ever proceeded from the mouth of any man."

"We'll drop the subject, Somers; for such discussions lead to unpleasant results. Do you see that rebel battery?" added the captain, pointing to a road a mile off, where the enemy had taken position to sh.e.l.l the Union line.

"I see it."

The rebel battery opened fire, which was vigorously answered by the other side. The scene began to increase in interest as the cannonade extended along the whole line; and, through the entire day, there raged the most furious artillery conflict of the war. The rebel ma.s.ses were hurled time after time against the Union line; but it maintained its position like a wall of iron, while thousands of the enemy were recklessly sacrificed in the useless a.s.sault. General M---- had probably drunk more than his usual quant.i.ty of whiskey; and, though he was as brave as a lion, hundreds of his men paid the penalty with their lives of his rashness and indiscretion.

Night came again upon a victorious field, while hundreds of weeping mothers in the neighboring city sighed for the sons who would return no more to their arms; and while mothers wept, fathers groaned and sisters moaned, the grand army of the Confederacy had been beaten, and the proud rulers of an infatuated people were trembling for their own safety in the presence of the ruin with which defeat threatened them.

After the battle commenced the movement of the Army of the Potomac down the river to Harrison's Landing. The rain fell in torrents, and the single road was crowded with troops and wagons. Though the exhausted soldiers slept, even while the guns of the enemy roared in front of them, and during the brief halts which the confusion in the road caused, there was no real repose. The excitement of the battle and the retreat, and the undefinable sense of insecurity which their situation engendered, banished rest. Tired Nature a.s.serted her claims, and the men yielded to them only when endurance had reached its utmost limit.

At Harrison's Landing, the work of intrenching the position was immediately commenced; and it was some days before the army were entirely a.s.sured that defeat and capture were not still possible. The failure of the campaign was not without its effect upon the troops. They felt, that, instead of marching under their victorious banners into the enemy's capital, they had been driven from their position. It was not disaster, but it was failure. Though the soldiers were still in good condition, and as ready as ever to breast the storm of battle, they were in a measure dispirited by the misfortune.

General McClellan and General Lee had each failed to accomplish his purpose. It was the intention of the latter to send Stonewall Jackson into the rear of the Union army, cut it off from its base of supplies, and then attack in front and on the left. The plan was defeated by General McClellan's change of base, which was forced upon him by the cutting-off of his communications with the Pamunkey River. The Union generals, who were first attacked on the right, supposed they were confronted by Jackson, who had come down to flank them in this direction; while Lee intended that he should attack farther down the Peninsula. Each commanding general, to some extent, mistook the purpose of the other.

Whatever errors were made by the grand players in this mighty game, about one thing there can be no mistake--that the courage and fort.i.tude of the rank and file saved the Army of the Potomac, and pushed aside the mighty disaster in which its ruin would have involved the country. All honor to the unnamed heroes who fought those great battles, and endured hardships which shall thrill the souls of Americans for ages to come!

CHAPTER XVIII