CHAPTER X. THE VICTORIOUS ARMY
SI AND SHORTY FINALLY SUCCEED IN GETTING OUT OF THE WET.
THE BOYS were so glad to see Si back again alive that they robbedthemselves of any choice morsel of food they might have saved forto-morrow's delectation.
"Here, Si," said one, "is a nice knuckle-bone o' ham, that I pulled backthere at the General's when his cook returned to the tent for something.You ought t've heard the nigger cussing as I walked away, but hecouldn't recognize the back o' my head, nor see under my overcoat.Me and my chum 've had supper off it, and we wuz saving the rest forbreakfast, but I'll brile it for you."
"Some of them Kentucky fellers," said another, "found a sheep in thebriars and killed it. I traded 'em my silk handkerchief for a hunk o'the meat. I'm going to cook a slice for you, Si."
"Si, I'll bile some coffee for you," said a third.
"I'll toast some crackers for you," added a fourth.
Shorty roused. He felt so much gladder than any of them, that he wasjealous of their attentions.
"See here, you fellers," said he, "this is my partner, an' I'm able totake care of him. I'll bile all the coffee an' toast all the crackers hekin eat; though I'm much obliged to you, Jim, for your ham, and to you,Billy, for your mutton, though I'm afraid it'll taste too much of thewool for a wounded man."
"Don't mind about that," said Si; "I'm hungry enough to eat the wool onthe sheep's back, even. Hand over your mutton, Billy, and thankee forit. My appetite's not delicate, I can tell you. Woolly mutton won't fazeit more'n bark would a buzz-saw." Si didn't over-state the case. He ateeverything{119} that was cooked and offered him, until he declared thathe was so full he "could touch it with his finger."
SHORTY THINKS SI DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A GHOST. 118]
"I'm sure you're not a ghost, from the way you eat," said Shorty, whowas beginning to recover his propensity for sarcasm. "If ghosts etlike you there'd have to be a steam bakery an' a pork packery run inconnection with every graveyard."
"And I'd never take no ghost to board," said Billy.
"Come, Si," said Jimmy Barlow, filling his briarwood pipe withkinnikinnick, lighting it from the fire, taking a few puffs to start it,and handing it to Si, "tell us just what happened to you. We're dyin' tohear."
"Well," said Si, settling down with the pipe into a comfortableposition, "I don't know what happened. Last thing I knowed I wuz runnin'ahead on Shorty's left, loadin' my gun, an' tryin' to keep up with theColonel's hoss. Next thing I knowed I wuz wakin' up at the foot of ablack-oak. Everything was quiet around me, except the yellin' of two orthree wounded men a little ways off. At first I thought a cannonball'd knocked my whole head off. Then it occurred to me that if my head wasknocked off I couldn't hear nor see."
"Nor think, even," injected Shorty.
"No, nor think, even. For what'd you think with?"
"I know some fellers that seem to think with their feet, and that blamedawkwardly," mused Shorty.
"I kept on wakin' up," continued Si. "At first I thought I had no headat all, an' then it seemed to me I was all head, it hurt so awfully. Icouldn't move hand nor foot. Then I thought mebbe only half my head wasshot away, an' the rest was aching for all.{120}
"I tried shuttin' one eye an' then the other, an' found I'd at least botheyes left. I moved my head a little, an' found that the back part wasstill there, for a bump on the roots of the oak hurt it.
"By-and-by the numbness began to go out of my head an' arm, but I wasafraid to put my hand up to my head, for I was afraid to find out howmuch was gone. Nearly the whole of the left side must be gone, an' allmy schoolin' scattered over the ground. I lay there thinkin' it all overhow awful I'd look when you fellers came to find me and bury me, an' howyou wouldn't dare tell the folks at home about it.
"Finally, I got plum desperate. I didn't seem to be dyin', but to begettin' better every minute. I determined to find out just however muchof my head was really gone. I put up my hand, timid-like, an' felt myforehead. It was all there. I passed my hand back over my hair an' thewhole back of my head was there. I felt around carefully, an' there wasthe whole side of my head, only a little wet where I'd got a spent ball.Then I got mad an' I jumped up. Think of my makin' all that fuss over alittle peck that might have been made by a brick-bat. I started out tohunt you fellers, an' here I am."
"Yes, but you wouldn't 've bin here," philosophized Shorty, examiningthe wound, "if the feller that fired that shot'd given his gun a littlehunch. If that bullet'd went a half-inch deeper, you'd be up among thestars a bow-legged Wabash angel."
"Well, we've licked the stuffin' out of 'em at last, haven't we?" askedSi.
"Well, I should say we had," replied Shorty with an impressive whistle."I thought the artillery would{121} tear the foundations out of thewhole State of Tennessee, the way it let into them. There won't ba morecrashin' an' bangin' when the world breaks up. I'd a-bin willin'to serve 100 years just to see that sight. Lord, what a chance thecannoneers had. First time I ever wanted to be in the artillery. The waythey slung whole blacksmith shops over into them woods, an' smashed downtrees, and wiped out whole brigades at a clip, filled my soul with joy."
"We must go over there in the mornin' an' take a look at the place,"said Si drowsily. "It will be good to remember alongside o' the way theyslapped it to us the first day."
Si and Shorty woke up the next morning to find the chill rain pouringdown as if the country had been suffering from a year's drouth, and therain was going to make up for it in one forenoon.
"Lord have mercy," said the disgusted Shorty, as he fell into line forroll-call. "Another seepin', soppin', sloshin', spatterin' day. Only had14 of 'em this week so far. Should think the geese 'd carry umbrellas,an' the cows wear overshoes in this, land of eternal drizzle. If I everget home they'll have to run me through a brick-kiln to dry me out."
In spite of the down-pour the army was forming up rapidly to resume theadvance upon Murfreesboro', and over the ground on the left, that hadproved so disastrous to the rebels the day before.
While the 200th Ind. was getting ready to fall in, the sick-callsounded, and the Orderly-Sergeant remarked to Si:
"Fall into this squad, Corporal Klegg."
"What for?" asked Si, looking askance at the squad.{122}
"To go to the Surgeon's tent," answered the Orderly-Sergeant. "This isthe sick squad."
"That's what I thought," answered Si; "an' that's the reason I ain'tgoin' to join it."
"But your head's bigger'n a bushel, Si," remonstrated the Sergeant."Better let the doctor see it."
"I don't want none of his bluemass or quinine," persisted Si. "That'sall he ever gives for anything. The swellin' 'll come out o' my head intime, same as it does out o' other people's."
"Corporal, I'll excuse you from duty to-day," said the Captain kindly."I really think you ought to go to the Surgeon."
"If you don't mind, Captain," said Si, saluting, "I'll stay with theboys. I want to see this thing to the end. My head won't hurt me half sobad as if I was back gruntin' 'round in the hospital."
"Probably you are right," said the Captain. "Come along, then."
Willing and brave as the men were, the movements were tiresomely slowand laggard. The week of marching and lying unsheltered in the rain,of terrific fighting, and of awful anxiety had brought about mental andphysical exhaustion. The men were utterly worn out in body and mind.This is usually the case in every great battle. Both sides struggle withall their mental and physical powers, until both are worn out. The onethat can make just a little more effort than the other wins the victory.This was emphatically so in the battle of Stone River. The rebels hadexhausted themselves, even, more in their assaults than the Union menhad in repelling them.
When, therefore, the long line of blue labored{123} slowly through themud and the drenching rain up the gentle slopes on the farther sideof Stone River, the rebels sullenly gave ground before them. At last apoint was reached which commanded a view of Murfreesboro' and the rebelposition. The rebels
were seen to be in retreat, and the exhausted Armyof the Cumberland was mighty glad to have them go.
As soon as it was certain that the enemy was really abandoning thebitterly-contested field, an inexpressible weariness overwhelmedeverybody. The 200th Ind. could scarcely drag one foot after another asit moved back to find a suitable camping-ground.
Si and Shorty crawled into a cedar thicket, broke down some brush for abed, laid a pole in two crotches, leaned some brush against it to make apar tial shelter, built a fire, and sat down.
"I declare, I never knew what being tuckered out was before," said Si."And it's come to me all of a sudden. This morning I felt as if I coulddo great things, but the minute I found that them rebels was reallygoing, my legs begun to sink under me."
"Same way with me," accorded Shorty. "Don't believe I've got strengthenough left to pull a settin' hen offen her nest. But we can't bedrowned out this way. We must fix up some better shelter."
"The Colonel says there's a wagon-load o' rations on the way here," saidSi, sinking wearily down on the ground by the fire, and putting out hishands over the feeble blaze. "Let's wait till we git something to eat.Mebbe we'll feel more like work after we've eaten something."
"Si Klegg," said Shorty sternly, but settling down himself on the otherside of the fire, "I never knowed{124} you to flop down before. You'vealways bin, if any thing, forwarder than me. I was in hopes now thatyou'd take me by the back o' the neck and try to shake some o' thislaziness out o' me."
"Wait till the rations come," repeated Si listlessly. "Mebbe we'll felllivelier then. The shelter we've fixed up'll keep out the coarsest o'the rain, anyway. Most o' the boys ain't got none."
When the rations arrived, Si and Shorty had energy enough to draw,cook and devour an immense supper. Then they felt more tired than ever.Shorty had managed to tear off a big piece of the wagon cover while hewas showing much zeal in getting the rations distributed quickly. Hegot the company's share in this, and helped carry it to the company, butnever for a minute relaxed his hold on the coveted canvas. Then he tookit back to his fire. Si and he spent what energy they had left in makinga tolerable tent of it, by stretching it over their shelter. They tiedit down carefully, to keep anybody else from stealing it off them, andShorty took the additional precaution of fastening a strip of it aroundhis neck. Then they crawled in, and before night come on they weresleeping apparently as soundly as the Seven of Ephesus.
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