My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field Part 21

When they found he was gone, they started in pursuit, but were not able to overtake him. He made his way to the woods, and finally reached the Union army.

When General Lewis Wallace's division entered the town of Purdy, Hurst accompanied it. He asked General Wallace for a guard, to make an important arrest. His request was granted. He went to the jail, found the jailer, and demanded his keys. The jailer gave them up. Hurst unlocked the cage, and there he found a half-starved slave, who had been put in for no crime, but to keep him from running away to the Union army.

He released the slave and told him to go where he pleased. The colored man could hardly stand, he was so cramped and exhausted by his long confinement and want of food.

"Step in there!" said Hurst to the jailer. The jailer shrunk back.

"Step in there, you scoundrel!" said Hurst, more determinedly.

"You don't mean to put me in there, Hurst!" said the jailer, almost whining.

"Step in, I say, or I'll let daylight through you!" He seized a gun from one of the soldiers and p.r.i.c.ked the jailer a little with the bayonet, to let him know that he was in earnest. The other soldiers fenced him round with a glittering line of sharp steel points. They chuckled, and thought it capital fun.

The jailer stepped in, whining and begging, and saying that he never meant to harm Hurst. Having got him inside, Hurst locked the door, put the key in his pocket, dismissed the soldiers, and went away. He was gone two days, and when he returned, _had lost the key_!

The cage was built of oak logs, and bolted so firmly with iron that it took half a day, with axes, to get the jailer out. He never troubled Hurst again, who joined the Union army as a scout, and did excellent service, for he was well acquainted with the country.

While operations were going on at Island No. 10, I went up the river one day, and visited the hospitals at Mound City and Paducah. In one of the wards a surgeon was dressing the arm of a brave young Irishman, who was very jolly. His arm had been torn by a piece of sh.e.l.l, but he did not mind it much. The surgeon was performing an operation which was painful.

"Does it hurt, Patrick?" he asked.

"Ah! Doctor, ye nadent ask such a question as that; but if ye'll just give me a good drink of whiskey, ye may squeeze it all day long."

He made up such a comical face that the sick and wounded all around him laughed. It did them good, and Patrick knew it, and so, in the kindness of his heart, he kept on making up faces, and never uttered a word of complaint.

"He is a first-rate patient," said the surgeon as we pa.s.sed along. "He keeps up good spirits all the time, and that helps all the rest."

In another part of the hospital was one of Birges's sharpshooters, who did such excellent service, you remember, at Fort Donelson. He was a brave and n.o.ble boy. There were several kind ladies taking care of the sick. Their presence was like suns.h.i.+ne. Wherever they walked the eyes of the sufferers followed them. One of these ladies thus speaks of little Frankie Bragg:--

"Many will remember him; the boy of fifteen, who fought valiantly at Donelson,--one of the bravest of Birges's sharpshooters, and whose answer to my questioning in regard to joining the army was so well worthy of record.

"'_I joined, because I was so young and strong, and because life would be worth nothing to me unless I offered it for my country!_'"[26]

[Footnote 26: Hospital Incidents, New York Post, October 22, 1863.]

How n.o.ble! There are many strong men who have done nothing for their country, and there are some who enjoy all the blessings of a good government, who are willing to see it destroyed rather than lift a finger to save it. Their names shall go out in oblivion, but little Frankie Bragg shall live forever! His body lies in the hospital ground at Paducah, but the pure patriotism which animated him, and the words he uttered, will never die!

The good lady who took care of him writes:--

"I saw him die. I can never forget the pleading gaze of his violet eyes, the brow from which ringlets of light-brown hair were swept by strange fingers bathed in the death-dew, the desire for some one to care for him, some one to love him in his last hours. I came to his side, and he clasped my hand in his own, fast growing cold and stiff.

"'O, I am going to die, and there is no one to love me,' he said. 'I did not think I was going to die till now; but it can't last long. If my sisters were only here; but I have no friends near me now, and it is so hard!'

"'Frankie,' I said, 'I know it is hard to be away from your relatives, but you are not friendless; I am your friend. Mrs.

S---- and the kind Doctor are your friends, and we will all take care of you. More than this, G.o.d is your friend, and he is nearer to you now than either of us can get. Trust him, my boy. He will help you.'

"A faint smile pa.s.sed over the pale sufferer's features.

"'O, do you think he will?' he asked.

"Then, as he held my hands closer, he turned his face more fully toward me, and said: 'My mother taught me to pray when I was a very little boy, and I never forgot it. I have always said my prayers every day, and tried not to be bad. Do you think G.o.d heard me always?'

"'Yes, most a.s.suredly. Did he not promise, in his good Book, from which your mother taught you, that he would always hear the prayers of his children? Ask, and ye shall receive. Don't you remember this? One of the worst things we can do is to doubt G.o.d's truth. He has promised, and he will fulfil. Don't you feel so, Frankie?'

"He hesitated a moment, and then answered, slowly: 'Yes, I do believe it. I am not afraid to die, but I want somebody to love me.'

"The old cry for love, the strong yearning for the sympathy of kindred hearts. It would not be put down.

"'Frankie, I love you. Poor boy! you shall not be left alone.

Is not this some comfort to you?'

"'Do you love me? Will you stay with me, and not leave me?'

"'I will not leave you. Be comforted, I will stay as long as you wish.'

"I kissed the pale forehead as if it had been that of my own child. A glad light flashed over his face.

"'O, kiss me again; that was given like my sister. Mrs.

S----, won't you kiss me, too? I don't think it will be so hard to die, if you will both love me.'

"It did not last long. With his face nestled against mine, and his large blue eyes fixed in perfect composure upon me to the last moment, he breathed out his life."

So he died for his country. He sleeps on the banks of the beautiful Ohio. Men labor hard for riches, honor, and fame, but few, when life is over, will leave a n.o.bler record than this young Christian patriot.

CHAPTER XII.

FROM FORT PILLOW TO MEMPHIS.

On the 6th of May, 1861, the Legislature of Tennessee, in secret session, voted that the State should secede from the Union. The next day, Governor Harris appointed three Commissioners to meet Mr. Hilliard, of Alabama, who had been sent by Jefferson Davis to make a league with the State. These Commissioners agreed that all the troops of the State should be under the control of the President of the Confederacy. All of the public property and naval stores and munitions of war were also turned over to the Confederacy. The people had nothing to do about it.

The conspirators did not dare to trust the matter to them, for a great many persons in East Tennessee were ardently attached to the Union. In Western Tennessee, along the Mississippi, nearly all of the people, on the other hand, were in favor of secession.

At Memphis they were very wild and fierce. Union men were mobbed, tarred and feathered, ridden on rails, had their heads shaved, were robbed, knocked down, and warned to leave the place or be hung. One man was headed up in a hogshead, and rolled into the river, because he stood up for the Union! Memphis was a hotbed of secessionists; it was almost as bad as Charleston.

A Memphis newspaper, of the 6th of May, said:--

"Tennessee is disenthralled at last. Freedom has again crowned her with a fresh and fadeless wreath. She will do her entire duty. Great sacrifices are demanded of her, and they will be cheerfully made. Her blood and treasure are offered without stint at the shrine of Southern freedom. She counts not the cost at which independence may be bought. The gallant volunteer State of the South, her brave sons, now rus.h.i.+ng to the standard of the Southern Confederacy, will sustain, by their unflinching valor and deathless devotion, her ancient renown achieved on so many battle-fields.

"In fact, our entire people--men, women, and children--have engaged in this fight, and are animated by the single heroic and indomitable resolve to perish rather than submit to the despicable invader now threatening us with subjugation. They will ratify the ordinance of secession amid the smoke and carnage of battle; they will write out their indors.e.m.e.nt of it with the blood of their foe; they will enforce it at the point of the bayonet and sword.

"Welcome, thrice welcome, glorious Tennessee, to the thriving family of Southern Confederate States!"[27]

[Footnote 27: Memphis Avalanche.]

On the same day the citizens of Memphis tore down the Stars and Stripes from its staff upon the Court-House, formed a procession, and with a band of music bore the flag, like a corpse, to a pit, and buried it in mock solemnity. They went into the public square, where stands the statue of General Jackson, and chiselled from its pedestal his memorable words: "The Federal Union,--it must be preserved." They went to the river-bank, and seized all the steamboats they could lay their hands upon belonging to Northern men.