CHAPTER XIV.
A YANKEE SCOUTING PARTY.
Marcy Gray served as pilot on Captain Benton's vessel for a period often days, counting from February 8 to the time the fleet set sail forNewbern; but the work the Burnside expedition had to do was not finisheduntil April 26, when Fort Macon, in Georgia, surrendered, after a short,but brisk, bombardment. This fort was commanded by a nephew of theConfederate President, who, in response to a summons to surrender,declared that he would not yield until he had eaten his last biscuit.The Union commander thought that a man who could talk like that wouldsurely do some good fighting, but he was disappointed. A few hours'pounding by gunboats and shore batteries brought the boastful rebel tohis senses, and he was glad to escape further punishment by hauling downhis own flag, and sending a white one up in place of it.
The Union forces were successful everywhere along the coast; not oncedid they meet with disaster. The nearest they came to it was when thatterrible northeast gale struck them off Hatteras, and with that galethey had their longest and hardest battle. Of course, Marcy Gray did notget what he called "straight news" regarding these glorious victories,but his rebel neighbors confessed to defeat in every engagement, andthat was all he wanted to know. But there was another thing that begantroubling him now, and it was something he had not thought of. With thefall of Newbern, and the occupation of the principal towns by theFederal troops, the regular mails from the South were cut off, and, fora time, the village of Nashville had little communication with theoutside world. Even rebel news, distorted, as it was, out of allsemblance to the truth, was better than no news at all, and Marcydeclared that there was but one thing left for him to do, and that wasto ride around and gossip with the neighbors, as Tom Allison and MarkGoodwin did. His short experience aboard the gunboat filled him withmartial ardor, and, if his mother had only been safely out of harm'sway, he would have tried every plan he could think of to find Jack, andthen he would have shipped on his vessel. Being shot at six hours out oftwenty-four he thought was better than living as he was obliged to livenow. If he were an enlisted man he would know pretty nearly what he hadto face; now he had no idea of it, and that was another thing thattroubled him. The news of the victories that were gained so rapidly, oneafter another, did much to keep up his spirits, but had the oppositeeffect upon Allison and Goodwin, who could not find words with which toexpress their disgust. These two, as we have said, spent all theirwaking hours riding about the settlement comparing notes, and goingfirst to one man, and then to another, in the hope of hearing somethingencouraging; but they passed the most of their time with Beardsley, whoseemed to be the best-informed man for miles around. Of course they didnot place a great deal of faith in what the captain told them; but hewas always ready to talk, and that was more than other people seemedwilling to do. Since Ben Hawkins denounced him in the post-office,Beardsley did not ride around as much as he used to do. He thought hehad better stay at home until the effect produced by the rebel soldier'sspeech had had time to wear away.
On the morning of the 11th of March Tom Allison stood on the front porchof his father's house, thrashing his boots with his riding-whip, andwaiting for his horse, which he had ordered brought to the door, when hesaw Mark Goodwin coming up the road at a furious gallop. The twogenerally met at the crossroads, a mile away, and Tom knew in a momentthat something unusual had happened to bring Mark to the house;consequently, he was not much surprised when he saw that the visitor'sface was as white as a sheet.
"What's broke loose now?" exclaimed Tom, when his friend dashed into theyard and drew up in front of the porch. "You look as though you werefrightened half to death."
"Frightened! I am so elated that I can't stay on my horse a momentlonger," replied Mark; and suiting the action to the word he rolled outof his saddle, pulled the reins over his horse's head, so that he couldhold fast to them, and sat down on the lowest step. "Why don't you whoopand holler and dance and--we've licked them off the face of the earth.Have they been here yet?"
"They? Who?" cried Tom. "What do you mean, any way?"
"I mean that you had better hide your hunting outfit and be quick aboutit," answered Mark. "They took mine away from me just now, and I camehere on purpose to warn you. You see it was this way," added Mark, asTom came down the steps and seated himself by his friend's side. "Thestories that have been spread abroad about her being no good, and soheavy that her engines could not move her from the dock where she wasbuilt, were all lies that were got up on purpose to fool the Yanks; butthree days ago, that was on the 8th----"
"Look here, Mark, you've got two stories mixed up," exclaimed Tom.
"Two? I've got half a dozen, and I don't know which to tell first. Andthe beauty of it is, they are all good ones."
"You said somebody had taken your hunting rig away from you," Tomreminded him. "Do you call that a good story?"
"I didn't think about that when I spoke," replied Mark, jumping up andlooking around for a place to hitch his horse. Then he calmed himself byan effort, and went on to say: "This morning I received all the proof Iwant that we are for a time a subjugated people--that the presence of ahostile garrison means something. I had somehow got it into my head thatthe Yankees would stay inside the forts they have taken from us by theiroverwhelming numbers, and that they would not have the cheek to comeamong our people where they know well enough they are not wanted, butnow I know that they don't mean to do anything of the sort. They aregoing to bother us by sending scouting parties through our settlement asoften as they feel like it."
The spiteful emphasis Mark threw into his words, and the look of disgusthis face wore while he talked, brought a hearty laugh from somewhere.The boys looked up and saw Mr. Allison standing at the top of thesteps.
"Of course, Mark, they will do that very thing," said he. "They willmake it their business to annoy us in every way they can. Do Iunderstand you to say that they came to your house this morning?"
"Yes, sir, they did," said Mark angrily. "There were about fifty of themin the party. They asked for father, and when he sent back word, as anyother Southern gentleman would have done, that he would hold nointercourse with the invaders of his State----"
"Was your father crazy enough to send them any such message as that?"exclaimed Mr. Allison, who was very much astonished.
"Of course he sent them that message," replied Mark, becoming surprisedin his turn. "Wouldn't you, if you had been in his place?"
"Indeed, I would not," said Mr. Allison, decidedly.
"My father is a brave man," added Mark, in a tone which implied thatthat was more than he could say of the gentleman to whom he wasspeaking. "He looks down on a Yankee."
"So do I; but that is no reason why I should make a fool of myself whenthey come to my house fifty strong and send word that they want to seeme. It's a wonder they didn't hang your father, or take him away withthem."
"We thought that was just what they meant to do," said Mark, with ashudder, "for four or five of them came rushing into the house, and Itell you they talked and acted savage."
"Well, what did they want?" asked Tom.
"They wanted to know if we had any weapons in the house," answered Mark."And when we told them no, they----"
"That was another foolish thing for you to do," Mr. Allison interposed."Your people must have taken leave of their senses since I last sawthem. When you said there were no weapons in the house, they proceededto search for them."
"That is just what they did," replied Mark, with tears of rage in hiseyes. "And we had to stand there and see them pull the house topieces----"
"And steal everything they could lay their hands on," chimed in Tom.
"Of course. That's a foregone conclusion; although I did hear my mothersay that she passed her bedroom door while the search was going on, andthere was her jewelry lying on the bureau, and a soldier with a carbinekeeping guard over it."
"That was done for effect," declared Tom. "When she comes to look intothe matter, she will find that she hasn't so much as a
breastpin left.Did they take your father's pocketbook?"
"I haven't the least doubt of it, although I did not see them do it,"said Mark, who wished he could add effect to his story by saying that hehad seen his father robbed of his money. "They were the veryworst-looking lot I ever saw--all Irish and Dutch; not a gentleman amongthem."
"But what did they steal besides your weapons?" inquired Mr. Allison.
"I didn't see that they took a thing," Mark was obliged to confess,"but, of course, I did not look into their pockets. When father heardthem coming, he shoved his revolver between the mattresses on his bed;but he might as well have left it in plain sight, for the first thingthose Yankees did when they went into his room was to pull that bed topieces. Then they went upstairs into my room and walked off with my finerifle and shot-gun. One of them grinned when he went out, and said thatfor a place that had no weapons in it, he thought our house had pannedout pretty well. I tell you that made me mad."
"And do you think they are coming this way?" asked Mr. Allison.
"I believe they will visit every house in the settlement before theyquit," replied Mark; whereupon Tom got up and acted as though he wantedto do something. "They must have robbed other houses before they came toours, for I noticed that several of them carried sporting rifles andfowling-pieces in addition to the carbines that were slung at theirbacks. It is my opinion that you had better wake up, if you want to savethe guns that cost you so much money."
Mr. Allison evidently thought so, too, for he turned about and went intothe house, whither he was followed by Tom and Mark as soon as the latterhad hitched his horse. The boys went at once to Tom's room and openedthe closet, in which was stowed away one of the finest and mostexpensive hunting outfits in that part of the State.
"Sooner than let this fall into the hands of the enemy I would break itin pieces over the chopping-block," said Tom, looking admiringly at thehandsome muzzle-loading rifle he had carried on more than one excursionthrough the Dismal Swamp.
"Oh, I wouldn't do that," replied Mark. "Take it into the garden, andshove it under some of the bushes. Go ahead and I will follow with theshot-gun; but be sure and take the flask, horn, game-bags, andeverything else belonging to them, for if they find part of the rig theywill want to know where the rest is."
Mark's suggestions were carried out, and just in the nick of time too;for as the boys were returning from the garden, in which they hadhastily concealed the guns and their accoutrements, they heard thepounding of a multitude of hoofs on the road and hastened through thehall to the front porch in time to see a small squad of cavalry rideinto the yard, while another and larger body of troopers halted outsidethe gate. It was plain that Mr. Allison did not intend to follow theexample of his foolhardy neighbor, and so run the risk of bringing uponhimself the vengeance of the men he could not successfully resist, forhe stood out in plain view of them, and even returned the militarysalute of the big whiskered man who rode at the head of the squad.
"They are the same who robbed our house," said Mark, in an excitedwhisper. "Will they know me, do you think? And if so, will they doanything to me for warning you?"
Tom Allison did not reply, for his attention was wholly occupied by theYankee soldiers, the first he had ever seen. They were not ragged anddirty like most of the paroled Confederates who passed through thesettlement a few days before. On the contrary, they were well and warmlydressed, and, like the horses they rode, looked as though they had beenaccustomed to good living.
"Good-morning," said the captain pleasantly. "It is my duty to ask ifyou have anything in the shape of weapons in your house."
To the surprise of both the boys Mr. Allison replied:
"Yes, sir; I have."
"That's honest, at any rate," said the captain. "Will you please bringthem out?"
"Do you intend to take them from me?" said Mr. Allison.
"I think you understand the situation as well as I could explain it toyou," answered the soldier, nodding toward Mark Goodwin, whom herecognized as soon as he looked at him; and as if to show that he wasnot in the humor to put up with any nonsense, he dismounted, his examplebeing quickly followed by his men.
"Of course I will bring them out," Mr. Allison hastened to say. "Butthey are heirlooms and I don't like to part with them. Besides, they areno longer of use as weapons."
He went into the house as he said this, and the captain, who seemed tobe a lively, talkative fellow, and good-natured as well, even if he wasa Yankee, turned to Mark and said:
"You beat me here, did you not?"
"I hope there was nothing wrong in my coming," said Mark, beginning tofeel uneasy.
"Nothing whatever. You have a right to go where you please and do whatyou like, so long as you do not set the graybacks on us."
"Graybacks?" said Mark inquiringly.
"Yes. Johnnies--rebel cavalry."
"Oh! Well, there are none around here that I know of, but you can findplenty of them a few miles back in the country," said Mark, who was alittle surprised to hear himself talking so freely with this boy in bluewho had carried things with so high a hand in his father's house a shorttime before; and then, emboldened by the sound of his own voice, andprompted by an idea that just then came into his mind, he added: "I cantell you where you will find one rebel and also a rebel flag, if youwould like to have it for a trophy."
These words almost knocked Tom Allison over, but at the same time theyloosened his tongue.
"That's so, but I never should have thought to speak of it," heexclaimed. "Go back the way you came until you strike the big road, thenturn to the left and stop at the first house you come to."
"And remember that you will pass ruins on your left hand before you getwhere you want to go," added Mark, who did not mean that the Yankeeofficer should miss his way for want of explicit directions.
"Who lives there?" inquired the latter, looking sharply at the two boysas if he meant to read their thoughts, and find out what object they hadin view in volunteering so much information. "He must be a rebel, ofcourse, if he has a rebel flag in his possession."
"His name is Marcy Gray, and he is rebel or Union, just as it happens,"said Tom. "He has been pilot on a privateer and blockade runner."
"Aha!" said the captain.
"Yes," continued Tom. "But the minute you Yankees came here and capturedthe Island he quit business and came home."
"Which was the most sensible thing he could have done," said theofficer. "Are there any weapons in the house, do you know?"
Before either of the boys could reply Mr. Allison came out upon theporch, bringing with him the "heirlooms" of which he had spoken--an oldofficers sword and a flint-lock musket that, so he said, had passed thewinter with Washington at Valley Forge.
"If that is the case I'll not touch them," said the captain. "These areall you have, I suppose?"
"There are no other weapons in the house," replied Mr. Allison.
The officer smiled, gave Mark Goodwin a comical look, and then mountedhis horse and rode out of the yard without saying another word. Mr.Allison and the boys watched him until he joined his command and with itdisappeared down the road, and then Mark said:
"What do you reckon he meant by grinning at me in that fashion?"
"He meant that those 'heirlooms' of father's did not fool him worth acent," answered Tom. "The next officer who comes here will say: 'Perhapsthere are no weapons in the house, but are there any _around_ it?' Andthen he will turn his men loose in the yard and root up everything.Those guns of mine must go in some safer place as soon as night comes.Now give us one of your good stories, Mark."
"That's so," exclaimed the latter. "The sight of those Yankees made meforget all about it. You know that big iron-clad of ours that's beenbuilding up at Portsmouth, don't you?"
"Aw! I don't want to hear any more about her," cried Tom. "She is a rankfailure."
"Judging by the stories that have been circulated about her she was afailure; but judged by the work she did three days ago she is a g
lorioussuccess," replied Mark, pausing for a moment to enjoy the surprise whichhis statement occasioned among his auditors for now that the Yankees hadtaken themselves off, without turning the house upside down or insultinganybody, the whole family came out on the porch, and a servant broughtchairs enough to seat them all. "She captured and burned the _Congress_,sunk the _Cumberland_, and if there had been a few hours more ofdaylight, she would have served the rest of the Yankee fleet in the sameway."
"Why, Mark, when did this happen?" inquired Mrs. Allison.
"And where?" chimed in Tom.
"And how did you hear of it, seeing that the Yankees have rendered ourpost-office at Nashville useless to us?" said his father.
"It happened on the afternoon of the 8th of March, and the scene of theconflict was Hampton Roads, off the mouth of the James," answered Mark."My father told me of it last night, and he first got the news fromCaptain Beardsley, who----"
"Ah! I was afraid there wasn't a word of truth in it," exclaimed Mr.Allison.
"But it is true, every word of it," said Mark earnestly. "Beardsleyalways has been half crazy over that vessel, for he says he has seen andtalked with sailor-men who have been all over her; and he has more thanonce declared that, when she was ready for sea, she would make ascattering among the Yankee fleet at Fortress Monroe. He told fatherthat he had heard a letter read that was in some way smuggled throughfrom Norfolk yesterday, and that that letter was written by a man whotook part in the fight. All the same father would not believe it untilhe had seen and read the letter himself. He thinks it is true, and so doI."
"I certainly hope it is," said Mrs. Allison. "But those Yankees who camehere a while ago acted more like victors than like beaten men."
Mark Goodwin, who of course got his ideas from his father, declared thatthey would not act that way much longer; for as soon as the Federalfleet at Fortress Monroe had been disposed of, Commodore Buchanan, thegallant commander of the _Virginia_, would have his choice of twocourses of action: he could not carry coal enough to run up and lay thecity of New York under contribution, but he could reduce Fortress Monroeand bombard Washington, or he could come South, scatter Goldsborough'sfleet, and recapture Pamlico and Albemarle sounds.
"Glory!" shouted Tom, jumping up and throwing his hat into the air; andeven his father began to show signs of excitement. "Tell him not to mindus, but to go up and lay Washington in ashes. Our papers said long agothat it must be purified by fire before Southern legislators wouldconsent to go there again. Well, which course did Buchanan decide tofollow?"
"I don't know," replied Mark. "I wish I did; but that letter was writtenon the evening of the 8th, after the _Virginia_ drew out of the fightand came back to Norfolk."
"Were any of our brave fellows injured?" asked Mrs. Allison.
"Oh, yes. Buchanan himself was wounded, and treacherously too. When the_Congress_ struck her flag and our boats went alongside to takepossession of her, she opened fire on us again. That made Buchanan mad,and he riddled her with his big guns till he killed her captain and morethan a hundred of her crew."
"She was deservedly punished," said Mrs. Allison, and all on the porchagreed with her, though there was not a word of truth in the story. Thevolley of musketry that was poured into the Confederate small boats camefrom the Union troops on shore, who did not know that the Congress hadsurrendered.
"Go on and tell us some more good news," said Tom, when his friendsettled back in his chair.
"That's about all I heard, because the letter did not go much intoparticulars; but there'll be others smuggled through in a day or two,and some papers, most likely, and then I shall expect to hear that ourfellows are in Washington. At any rate the people around here are actingon the supposition that we have got the upper hand of the Yanks, and Iwant to be able to say that I had a hand in whipping them, so I havejoined the Home Guards. So has my father."
"The Home Guards?" echoed Tom.
"I was not aware that there was an organization of that kind in thesettlement," said Mr. Allison.
"I didn't either until father told me last night," answered Mark. "And Iam a little too fast in saying that I have joined. I am going to hand inmy name this very day, and Tom, you must go with me."
"I'll do it," said Tom, getting upon his feet and squaring off at animaginary antagonist. "What are we going to do? Who are we going towhip, and what is the object of the thing, any way?"
"Well, I--we're going to fight," replied Mark.
"I suppose one object of the organization is to keep the spirit ofpatriotism alive among our people," observed Mr. Allison.
"That's the idea; and to make the traitors among us shut their mouthsand quit carrying their heads so high," cried Mark. "They have hadcompanies of this kind in Kentucky and Tennessee for a long time; and inMissouri the State Guards, as they are called, have done the most of thefighting. Ben Hawkins says that if we had had strong companies ofwell-disciplined Home Guards around here, Roanoke Island would not havebeen captured."
"Who cares what Ben Hawkins says?" exclaimed Tom. "He's a traitor; andwhen he declared that he wouldn't fight for the South any more, I toldhim to his face that he was a coward."
"Oh, my son," said the doting mother, "I am afraid your high spirit willbring you into trouble some time."
Mark Goodwin knew that his friend's "high spirit" had nothing to do withthe scathing rebukes he had received in the post-office. His unrulytongue and his want of common sense were to blame for it.
"Is Mr. Goodwin a member of the Home Guards?" inquired Mr. Allison."Then I think I will ride over and have a talk with him. From his houseI will go to town and see if I can learn more of that glorious victoryin Hampton Roads."
The gentleman went into the house accompanied by his wife, and Tom andMark descended the steps out of ear-shot of the rest of the family."Where shall we go?" was the first question they asked each other.
"I wish we could go to half a dozen different places at once," said Tom,at length. "If we go to Beardsley's we may be sorry we didn't go totown; and if we call on Colonel Shelby, to see if he can tell usanything about that light, we may be sorry we didn't go somewhere else.What do you say?"
"I say, let's ride over to Beardsley's in the first place, and to MarcyGray's in the next."
"And so follow up that squad of thieving Yankees and see what damagethey did? If they overhauled Gray's house I can pretend to sympathizewith them, you know, for that was the way they served us."
"Overhaul nothing!" exclaimed Tom in disgust. "Mark my words: I don'tbelieve they went near the Grays; but if they did, they treated themwith more civility than they showed my father. Come along, and see if Ihaven't told you the truth."
Tom's horse was ready and waiting, and a rapid ride of twenty minutesbrought him and Mark to a field in which Beardsley was working with someof his negroes. When he saw them approaching he shied a chip he held inhis hand at the head of the nearest darky, who caught sight of it intime to dodge, and came up to the fence to wait for them. His actionsproved that he was full of good news, for he placed his hands on hisknees, bent himself half double, looked down at the ground, and shookhis head as if he were laughing heartily. When he reached the fence hepounded the top rail with his fist, and shouted as soon as the boys camewithin speaking distance:
"Have them varmints been up to your house?"
"Do you mean the Yanks?" answered Mark, as he and Tom reined theirhorses across the ditch to the place where the man was standing. "Ishould say so; and you ought to have seen the way they conductedthemselves, just because my father stood on his dignity as any otherSouthern gentleman would."
"Well, he was a fule for standing on his dignity or anything else," saidthe captain bluntly. "You didn't ketch your Uncle Lon trying to ride nosuch high horse as that there, I bet you, kase fifty agin one is toomany. I was right here in this field when they come along," continuedBeardsley, resting his right foot upon one of the lower rails and bothhis elbows on the top one, for he never could stand alone if there wereany
thing he could conveniently lean upon, "and when they asked me did Ihave any we'pons of any sort up to the house, I told 'em I had for afact, and if they didn't mind, I'd go up and bring 'em out. So I climthe fence and went along."
Here the captain went off into another paroxysm of laughter, shaking hishead and pounding the top rail with his clenched hand.
"Well, what did you give them when you reached the house?" asked Markimpatiently.
"Nothing in the wide world but an old shotgun that belonged to one ofthe boys that used to come out from Nashville squirrel shooting once ina while, and that I wouldn't fire off if you'd give me a five-dollargold piece," chuckled Beardsley. "The rest of my shooting-irons is hidwhere they won't find 'em. You see I suspicioned that they would dosomething of this kind as soon's they got a foothold here, and so Itoted my guns out in the garden and shoved 'em under some bresh there isthere."
"You had better hunt up a better hiding-place for them the first thingyou do," said Tom earnestly. "There's where I put mine when Mark warnedme, but I am not going to leave them there. The Yankee who came to ourhouse was as much of a gentleman as one of his kind could be, but thenext one who comes along may be a different sort. Did they go to MarcyGray's?"
"Bet your life," said the captain, with another chuckle. "Do you reckonI'd let them miss that place? I sent them there, and they was gone longenough to give the house a good overhauling; but what I can't quite seethrough----"
"We sent them there too," exclaimed Tom. "Did you see them when theyreturned? What did they have?"
"I'll bet they made Marcy hand over that fine hunting rig in which hetakes so much pride," added Mark. "I'd give a dollar if I could havelooked into his face about the time he gave up that boss shot-gun ofhis, that I have heard him brag about until it made me sick."
"Why didn't they take Marcy himself as well as the guns?" continued Tom."He couldn't deny that he has given aid and comfort to the Confederatesby running the blockade and capturing vessels for them."
"And if he did deny it, how did he explain the presence of thatConfederate flag in his house?" demanded Mark.
"Hold on till I tell you how it was," said Beardsley, as soon as theboys gave him a chance to speak. "Them Yankees went up to Grays', like Itold you, and I was here when they come back; but they didn't have thefirst thing."
"Whoop! Then they didn't search the house," yelled Mark. "Marcy and Jackhave more shot-guns and sporting rifles than any two other boys in thecountry."
"Leastwise they didn't find nothing that was contraband of war," saidthe captain. "Them is the very words they spoke to me."
Tom and Mark looked at each other in speechless amazement.