Drum Taps in Dixie Part 5

Among the bathing party were William McNeil and "Hod" Clair of our company, who had made the retreat from Bull Run, one mounted on a mule with nothing but a halter and the other on the confiscated horse of some officer who had been killed in the battle.

While we were splas.h.i.+ng the water and having as much sport as any party of youngsters ever did in an old fas.h.i.+oned "swimmin' hole" in their school boy days, somebody shouted "The rebs are coming," and sure enough there was a squadron of Confederate cavalry coming at a gallop down a cross road about a mile away. You may be sure that there was some right-smart hustling.

Some grabbed a blouse, cap or s.h.i.+rt while others buckled on their equipments in undress uniform.

My partner and I saved our clothing, but deferred dressing until we were safely in our wagon with Charley Rogers urging his four horses to their utmost speed.

Hod Clair made a most comical figure on the horse, dressed in nothing but his cap, blouse and cuticle, and the officer's sword dangling against his naked left leg.

IN AFTER YEARS.

A quarter of a century had elapsed after the disbandment of our regiment before I saw the comrade who rode with me from Bull Run. I sat writing at my desk one afternoon when I heard some one asking up in the front part of the store if "Del" was in.

The familiarity with which the questioner handled my name excited my curiosity and looking up I beheld two rather seedy looking individuals with hats in hand elbowing their way down through the store.

The one in advance was apparently a stranger. His companion, however, was a resident of the city, a veteran of my regiment, who bore the scars of battle on his body.

He returned home from the war to learn that while he was away fighting the battles of his country one of the stay-at-homes had been making love to his wife. She went west with her paramour, and the veteran laid down under the load and let the battle of life go against him. He was no common b.u.m, however, if he did try at times to drown his misery in strong drink. He kept pretty clear of evil and low-down a.s.sociations, even if he had dropped below the level of respectable people. The veteran was a man of intelligence and spent much time with good reading, and it was my pleasure for many years to keep him pretty well supplied. Strange to relate, a publication that was his especial favorite was the old "Christian Union,"

now known as the "Outlook." Of course he held me up now and then for the loan of a dime or quarter. If I hesitated about going into my pocket, he had a way of looking up and reminding me that it was "Just for old acquaintance sake." Perhaps it would have been better to have refused him, but I had not the heart to say no to one who had blackened his coffee pail over the same campfire with me, had carried part of my traps on many weary marches and had touched elbows with my father on the fighting line. I cannot forget such things and would not if I could.

As the two approached me they halted, saluted, and the old "vet" gave me two or three sly winks, as much as to say, I'll bet you a "V" you can't tell who I have here.

I was puzzled, but instinctively felt it was one of the old Co. H. The man had evidently seen better days. He carried his hat in his hand like a well-mannered man, and there were other unmistakable traces of birth and good breeding.

We looked hard at each other. A twinkle came into a pair of black eyes that had once been the handsomest I ever saw in a man's head. A smile hovered around his mouth, and then out of the misty past came my companion of that memorable ride of long ago. I reached out my hand and said, "It's George," and I believe he was more pleased than as if I had handed him a hundred-dollar greenback, which is saying a good deal, for it was plainly evident that his finances were low.

It was the old story. A young man, the son of an officer of our regiment who had been the leading merchant of--well, a smart town not a hundred miles from Watertown, well educated, with prospects in life that were the best, and now the follower of a circus. Always going somewhere and never getting anywhere was the way he put it. Still, my comrade.

I think he held my hand five minutes, and memories of other days were kindled anew. He had forgotten nothing. It was safely stored away in memory and the meeting had tapped it.

Graphically he portrayed the incidents of our Bull Run ride to the amus.e.m.e.nt of clerks and customers. All at once he recalled that he was in the presence of ladies, and bowing and smiling he gallantly tiptoed his way to the front part of the store and apologized for forcing an old soldier's story upon them.

No one could have done it with more ease and grace, for, as I have stated, George's early a.s.sociations had been of the best. His family was in the swell set of the town in which they lived, and his father was a gentleman of the old school and noted for his polished manners.

"You see, ladies," said he, "I haven't been in your beautiful city since war times until this morning. Struck town with Barnum & Bailey's greatest aggregation on earth."

"Perhaps traveling with a circus does not meet your approval. I like it, though. Something like soldiering. Always under marching orders. Plenty of fresh air and one never sleeps so good as he does on the ground with only a strip of canvas between him and the heavens.

"When the band is playing and them Wild West fellows are galloping around the ring with the scabbards of their sabres clanging against the stirrup-irons, I just close my eyes and imagine I am with the old second corps again and Gen. Hanc.o.c.k is riding down the lines.

"Suppose you have all heard about the general? Handsomest man and greatest fighter that ever straddled a horse.

"The general and the second corps never missed a fight. Yes, we were with them through it all.

"Gettysburg? Sure! Rube, here, got a couple of bullet holes when we were beating back Pickett's men that afternoon. The general went down that day, too, and I can shut my eyes and see it all and hear the cheers of the Irish brigade boys when they realized that the battle was won.

"Beg pardon, ladies, but I am in something of a reminiscent mood today, being as I met an old comrade. We have been holding a little reunion. Yes, took a little something in honor of the event.

"'Del'--er Mr. Miller--was with us from start to finish. Wasn't much of him but his drum and grit. Legs so short the boys had to carry him across all the creeks. He stuck though and tapped 'lights out' down side of Lee's 'last ditch' at Appomattox."

That evening the two veterans of the old second corps partook of the best that the Woodruff house could give and smoked several of Nill & Jess'

Pinks at the expense of one who was glad to do it, "Just for old acquaintance sake."

WAR IS h.e.l.l.

To fully appreciate Gen. Sherman's definition of war, one needs to be at a field hospital on the outskirts of some great battlefield where the ghastly surroundings of death and suffering are more terrible than on the battlefield itself.

The day after our retreat from Bull Run our regiment was ordered to proceed by train to Fairfax station, where all the wounded were sent for transportation to Was.h.i.+ngton. We rode on the top of freight cars, every man with a loaded musket ready to shoot any of Mosby's men who might try to wreck the train. The cars were filled with cots, stretchers, blankets and other supplies for the wounded.

The night was a dark and rainy one, and as we jumped off the cars at the station, which was located in some dense woods, we saw the horrors of war spread out on every side. Acres of ground were covered with bleeding, mangled soldiers, who but a short time before had stood amid the storm of shot and sh.e.l.l, now just as bravely enduring suffering.

The surgeons and their a.s.sistants at the amputating tables with coats off and s.h.i.+rt sleeves rolled up, their hands red with blood, worked swiftly to save life, for it is the "first aid" to the wounded that counts.

The spectacular effect was heightened by piles of blazing pitch pine knots, torches and lanterns suspended from the limbs of trees, which imparted a strange wierdness to the scene.

All night long the interminable trains of ambulances and wagons from the battlefield came bringing their loads of sufferers with the smoke of battle upon them. Many were so exhausted that it was necessary to give them stimulants before they could be lifted from the wagons.

The United States Sanitary and Christian commissions were represented by a large number of workers. Women of culture and refinement, from some of the best families in the land, were cutting off the blood-drenched clothing, bathing and bandaging shattered limbs, giving nourishment to the fainting, speaking comforting words and listening to the messages of the dying; and all this going on within the sound of rattling musketry and booming cannon, for it was the night of the fight at Chantilly, when Gen. Jackson attempted to flank Pope's army and reached a point not far from Fairfax court house.

Our regiment stood in line in a wheat field, just outside of the woods, a good part of the night with the rain falling in torrents and heaven's artillery vieing with that of the forces engaged.

A drummer boy of our company who had lost his drum at Mana.s.sas, was carrying a musket that night and stood in the ranks with his father who was a sergeant in the same command. I need hardly say that the events of that night are graven as with an iron pen on his memory.

The authorities at Was.h.i.+ngton were fearful of risking any more fighting so near the capital and Gen. Pope was ordered to withdraw his army within the defenses of Was.h.i.+ngton and the wounded were hurried away from Fairfax station in every kind of conveyance, even hacks and carriages being sent out from Was.h.i.+ngton.

Our regiment remained until the last wounded man had been sent forward and then set fire to the immense quant.i.ties of supplies stored there, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.

Our casualties in the second Bull Run affair were comparatively small, we being engaged only in the first encounter at Mana.s.sas Junction, which was merely preliminary to the great battle.

Gen. Stuart's cavalry did, however, manage to take as prisoners about two hundred of the regiment.

CHAPTER V.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON IN THE SIXTIES.

Was.h.i.+ngton in the sixties was not the beautiful city that it is today. The nation's capital was one vast camp of armed men and the city was circled with a cordon of forts and earthworks. Early in the war the Confederate flag could be seen from the dome of the capitol, flying on Munson's hill, while the exchange of shots by the pickets was heard at the White House more than once.

"'All quiet along the Potomac,' they say, Except now and then a stray picket Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro, By a rifleman hid in the thicket."

Pennsylvania avenue, that grand thoroughfare with its wide, long stretch of asphalt, was then supposed to be paved with cobblestones, but they had nearly been crushed out of sight by the heavy government wagons, cannon and artillery caissons, which had cut such deep ruts that the street was almost impa.s.sable in muddy weather.