CHAPTER XXIX
THE NINE-MILE ROAD
In the golden afternoon light of the twenty-third of June, the city ofRichmond, forty thousand souls, lay, fevered enough, on her seven hills.Over her floated the stars and bars. In her streets rolled the drum.Here it beat quick and bright, marking the passage of some regiment fromthe defences east or south to the defences north. There it beat deepand slow, a muffled drum, a Dead March--some officer killed in askirmish, or dying in a hospital, borne now to Hollywood. Elsewhere,quick and bright again, it meant Home Guards going to drill. From theoutskirts of the town might be heard the cavalry bugles blowing,--fromthe Brook turnpike and the Deep Run turnpike, from Meadow Bridge roadand Mechanicsville road, from Nine-Mile and Darbytown and Williamsburgstage roads and Osborne's old turnpike, and across the river from theroad to Fort Darling. From the hilltops, from the portico or the roof ofthe Capitol, might be seen the camp-fires of Lee's fifty thousandmen--the Confederate Army of the Potomac, the Army of the Rappahannock,the Army of Norfolk, the Army of the Peninsula--four armies waiting forthe arrival of the Army of the Valley to coalesce and become the Army ofNorthern Virginia. The curls of smoke went up, straight, white, andfeathery. With a glass might be seen at various points the crimson flag,with the blue St. Andrew's cross and the stars, eleven stars, a star foreach great State of the Confederacy. By the size you knew the arm--fourfeet square for infantry, three feet square for artillery, two and ahalf by two and a half for cavalry.
The light lay warm on the Richmond houses--on mellow red brick, on palegrey stucco. It touched old ironwork balconies and ivy-topped walls, andit gilded the many sycamore trees, and lay in pools on the heavy leavesof the magnolias. Below the pillared Capitol, in the green up and downof the Capitol Square, in Main Street, in Grace Street by St. Paul's,before the Exchange, the Ballard House, the Spotswood, on Shockoe Hillby the President's House, through all the leafy streets there was vividmovement. In this time and place Life was so near to Death; the ocean ofpain and ruin so evidently beat against its shores, that from verycontrast and threatened doom Life took a higher light, a deepersplendour. All its notes resounded, nor did it easily relinquish themajor key.
In the town were many hospitals. These were being cleaned, aired, andput in order against the impending battles. The wounded in them now,chiefly men from the field of Seven Pines, looked on and hoped for thebest. Taking them by and large, the wounded were a cheerful set. Manycould sit by the windows, in the perfumed air, and watch the women ofthe South, in their soft, full gowns, going about their country'sbusiness. Many of the gowns were black.
About the hotels, the President's House, the governor's mansion, and theCapitol, the movement was of the official world. Here were handsome menin broadcloth, grown somewhat thin, somewhat rusty, but carefullypreserved and brushed. Some were of the old school and still affectedstocks and ruffled shirts. As a rule they were slender and tall, and asa rule wore their hair a little long. Many were good Latinists, mostwere good speakers. One and all they served their states as best theyknew how, overworked and anxious, facing privation here in Richmond withthe knowledge that things were going badly at home, sitting long hoursin Congress, in the Hall of Delegates, in courts or offices, strugglingthere with Herculean difficulties, rising to go out and listen totelegrams or to read bulletins. Sons, brothers, kinsmen, and friendswere in the field.
This golden afternoon, certain of the latter had ridden in from thelines upon this or that business connected with their commands. Theywere not many, for all the world knew there would be a deadly fightingpresently, deadly and prolonged. Men and officers must stay withindrum-beat. Those who were for an hour in Richmond, in their worn greyuniforms, with the gold lace grown tarnished (impossible ofreplacement!), with their swords not tarnished, their netted silksashes, their clear bright eyes and keen thin faces, found friendsenough as they went to and fro--more eager questioners and eagerlisteners than they could well attend to. One, a general officer, a manof twenty-nine, in a hat with a long black plume, with the most charmingblue eyes, and a long bronze, silky, rippling beard which he constantlystroked, could hardly move for the throng about him. Finally, in theCapitol Square, he backed his horse against the railing about the greatequestrian Washington. The horse, a noble animal, arched his neck. Therewas around it a wreath of bright flowers. The rider spoke in anenchanting voice. "Now if I tell you in three words how it was and whatwe did, will you let me go? I've got to ride this afternoon to YellowTavern."
"Yes, yes! Tell us, General Stuart."
"My dear people, it was the simplest thing in the world! A man in theFirst has made a song about it, and Sweeney has set it to the banjo--ifyou'll come out to the camp after the battle you shall hear it! GeneralLee wanted to know certain things about the country behind McClellan.Now the only way to know a thing is to go and look at it. He ordered areconnoissance in force. I took twelve hundred cavalrymen and two gunsof the horse artillery and made the reconnoissance. Is there anythingelse that you want to know?"
"Be good, general, and tell us what you did."
"I am always good--just born so! I rode round McClellan's army--Don'tcheer like that! The town'll think it's Jackson, come from the Valley!"
"Tell us, general, how you did it!"
"Gentlemen, I haven't time. If you like, I'll repeat the man in theFirst's verses, and then I'm going. You'll excuse the metre? A poor,rough, unlearned cavalryman did it.
"Fitz Lee, Roony Lee, Breathed and Stuart, Martin to help, and Heros von Borcke, First Virginia, Fourth, Ninth, two guns and a Legion-- From Hungary Run to Laurel Hill Fork,
"By Ashland, Winston, Hanover, Cash Corner, Enon Church, Salem Church, Totopotomoy, Old Church,
"You observe that we are trotting.
"By Hamstead, Garlick, Tunstall Station, Talleyville, Forge Mill, Chickahominy, Sycamore, White Birch.
"Here we change gait.
"By Hopewell and Christian, Wilcox and Westover, Turkey Bridge, Malvern Hill, Deep Bottom and Balls Four days, forty leagues, we rode round McClellan As Jeremiah paced round Jericho's walls.--"
"It wasn't Jeremiah, general! It was Joshua."
"Is that so? I'll tell Sweeney. Anyhow, the walls fell.
"Halt! Advance! Firing! Engagement at Hanover. Skirmish at Taliaferro's. Skirmish at Hawes. Tragic was Totopotomoy, for there we lost Latane Hampden-like, noble, dead for his Cause.
"At Old Church broke up meeting. Faith! 'twas a pity But indigo azure was pulpit and pew! Fitz Lee did the job. Sent his love to Fitz Porter. Good Lord! Of Mac's Army the noble review!
"There isn't anything our horses can't do.
"Tunstall Station was all bubbly white with wagons. We fired those trains, those stores, those sheltering sheds! And then we burned three transports on Pamunkey And shook the troops at White House from their beds!
"Loud roars across our path the swollen Chickahominy 'Plunge in, Confeds! you were not born to drown.' We danced past White Oak swamp, we danced past Fighting Joseph Hooker! We rode round McClellan from his sole to his crown!
"There are strange, strange folk who like the Infantry! Men have been found to love Artillery. McClellan's quoted thus 'In every family There should exist a gunboat'--ah, but we, Whom all arms else do heap with calumny, Saying, 'Daily those damned centaurs put us up a tree!' We insist upon the virtues of the Cavalry!
"Now, friends, I'm going! It was a beautiful raid! I always liked LittleMac. He's a gentleman, and he's got a fine army. Except for poor Latanewe did not lose a man. But I left a general behind me."
"A general? General who--"
Stuart gave his golden laugh. "General Consternation."
The sun slipped lower. Two horsemen came in by the Deep Run road andpassed rapidly eastward through the town. The aft
ernoon was warm, butthe foremost wore a great horseman's cloak. It made all outlinesindefinite and hid any insignia of rank. There was a hat or cap, too,pulled low. It was dusty; he rode fast and in a cloud, and there came norecognition. Out of the town, on the Nine-Mile road, he showed theofficer of the guard who stopped him a pass signed "R. E. Lee" andentered the Confederate lines. "General Lee's headquarters?" They werepointed out, an old house shaded by oaks. He rode hither, gave his horseto the courier with him, and spoke to the aide who appeared. "TellGeneral Lee, some one from the Valley."
The aide shot a quick glance, then opened a door to the left. "GeneralLee will be at leisure presently. Will you wait here, sir?"
He from the Valley entered. It was a large, simply furnished room, withsteel engravings on the walls,--the 1619 House of Burgesses, Spotswoodon the Crest of the Blue Ridge with his Golden Horseshoe Knights,Patrick Henry in Old St. John's, Jefferson writing the Declaration ofIndependence, Washington receiving the Sword of Cornwallis. The windowswere open to the afternoon breeze and the birds were singing in arosebush outside. There were three men in the room. One having a largeframe and a somewhat heavy face kept the chair beside the table with akind of granite and stubborn air. He rested like a boulder on a mountainslope; marked with old scars, only waiting to be set in motion again togrind matters small. The second man, younger, slender, with a short redbeard, leaned against the window, smelled the roses, and listened to thebirds. The third, a man of forty, with a gentle manner and very honestand kindly eyes, studied the engravings. All three wore the stars ofmajor-generals.
The man from the Valley, entering, dropped his cloak and showed the sameinsignia. D. H. Hill, leaving the engravings, came forward and took himby both hands. The two had married sisters; moreover each was possessedof fiery religious convictions; and Hill, though without the genius ofthe other, was a cool, intelligent, and determined fighter. The two hadnot met since Jackson's fame had come upon him.
It clothed him now like a mantle. The man sitting by the table gotponderously to his feet; the one by the window left the contemplation ofthe rosebush. "You know one another by name only, I believe, gentlemen?"said D. H. Hill. "General Jackson--General Longstreet, General AmbrosePowell Hill."
The four sat down, Jackson resting his sabre across his knees. He hadupon him the dust of three counties; he was all one neutral hue like afaded leaf, save that his eyes showed through, grey-blue, intenseenough, though quiet. He was worn to spareness.
Longstreet spoke in his heavy voice. "Well, general, Fate is making ofyour Valley the Flanders of this war."
"God made it a highway, sir. We must take it as we find it."
"Well," said A. P. Hill, smiling, "since we have a Marlborough for thatFlanders--"
Jackson shifted the sabre a little. "Marlborough is not my _beau ideal_.He had circumstances too much with him."
An inner door opened. "The artillery near Cold Harbour--" said a voice,cadenced and manly. In a moment Lee entered. The four rose. He wentstraight to Stonewall Jackson, laid one hand on his shoulder, the otheron his breast. The two had met, perhaps, in Mexico; not since. Now theylooked each other in the eyes. Both were tall men, though Lee was thetallest; both in grey, both thin from the fatigue of the field. Here theresemblance ended. Lee was a model of manly beauty. His form, like hischaracter, was justly proportioned; he had a great head, grandly based,a face of noble sweetness, a step light and dauntless. There breathedabout him something knightly, something kingly, an antique glamour,sunny shreds of the Golden Age. "You are welcome, General Jackson," hesaid; "very welcome! You left Frederickshall--?"
"Last night, sir."
"The army is there?"
"It is there, sir."
"You have become a name to conjure with, general! I think that yourValley will never forget you." He took a chair beside the table. "Sitdown, gentlemen. I have called this council, and now the sun is sinkingand General Jackson has far to ride, and we must hasten. Here are themaps."
The major-generals drew about the table. Lee pinned down a map with thesmall objects upon the board, then leaned back in his chair. "This isour first council with General Jackson. We wait but for the Army of theValley to precipitate certainly one great battle, perhaps many battles.I think that the fighting about Richmond will be heavier than all thathas gone before." An aide entered noiselessly with a paper in his hand."From the President, sir," he said. Lee rose and took the note to thewindow. The four at table spoke together in low tones.
"It is the most difficult ground in the world," said A. P. Hill. "You'llhave another guess-time of it than in your Valley, general! No broadpike through the marshes of the Chickahominy!"
"Are there good maps?"
"No," said Longstreet; "damned bad."
Jackson stiffened. D. H. Hill came in hastily. "It's rather difficult todraw them accurately with a hundred and ten thousand Yankees lyingaround loose. They should have been made last year."
Lee returned. "Yes, the next ten days will write a page in blood." Hesighed. "I do not like war, gentlemen. Now, to begin again! We areagreed that to defend Richmond is imperative. When Richmond falls theConfederacy falls. It is our capital and seat of government. Here onlyhave we railroad communications with the far South. Here are ourarsenals and military manufactories, our depots of supply, our treasury,our hospitals, our refugee women and children. The place is our heart,and arm and brain must guard it. Leave Richmond and we must withdrawfrom Virginia. Abandon Virginia, and we can on our part no longerthreaten the northern capital. Then General Jackson cannot create apanic every other day, nor will Stanton then withdraw on every freshalarm a division from McClellan."
He leaned his head on his hand, while with the firm fingers of the otherhe measured the edge of the table. "No! It is the game of the twocapitals, and the board is the stretch of country between. To the endthey will attempt to reach Richmond. To the end we must prevent thatmate. Let us see their possible roads. Last year McDowell tried it byManassas, and he failed. It is a strategic point,--Manassas. There maywell be fighting there again. The road by Fredericksburg ... they havenot tried that yet, and yet it has a value. Now the road that McClellanhas taken,--by sea to Fortress Monroe, and so here before us by theYork, seeing that the Merrimac kept him from the James. It is the bestway yet, though with a modification it would be better! There is a keyposition which I trust he'll not discover--"
"He won't," said D. H. Hill succinctly. "The fairies at his cradledidn't give him intuition, and they made him extremely cautious. He's agood fellow, though!"
Lee nodded. "I have very genuine respect for General McClellan. He is agentleman, a gallant soldier, and a good general." He pushed the mapbefore him away, and took another. "Of late Richmond's strongest defencehas been General Jackson in the Valley. Well! McDowell and Fremont andBanks may be left awhile to guard that capital which is so very certainit is in danger. I propose now to bring General Jackson suddenly uponMcClellan's right--"
Jackson, who had been holding himself with the rigidity of a warrior ona tomb, slightly shifted the sabre and drew his chair an inch nearer thecommander-in-chief. "His right is on the north bank of theChickahominy--"
"Yes. General Stuart brought me much information that I desired. FitzJohn Porter commands there--the 5th Army Corps--twenty-five thousandmen. I propose, general, that you bring your troops as rapidly aspossible from Frederickshall to Ashland, that from Ashland you march bythe Ashcake road and Merry Oaks Church to the Totopotomoy Creek road andthat, moving by this to Beaver Dam Creek, you proceed to turn anddislodge Porter and his twenty-five thousand, crumpling them back uponMcClellan's centre--here." He pointed with a quill which he took fromthe ink-well.
"Good! good! And the frontal attack?"
"General A. P. Hill and his division will make that. The batteries onthe Chickahominy will cover his passage of the bridge. GeneralLongstreet will support him. General Magruder with General Huger and thereserve artillery will be left before Richmond. They will so demonstrateas to distract Gene
ral McClellan's attention from the city and from hisright and General Porter. General Stuart will take position on your lineof march from Ashland, and General D. H. Hill will support you."
"Good! good! This is the afternoon of the twenty-third."
"Yes. Frederickshall is forty miles from this point--" He touched themap again. "Now, general, when can you be here?"
"Thursday morning, the twenty-sixth, sir."
"That is very soon."
"Time is everything in war, sir."
"That is perfectly true. But the time is short and the manoeuvredelicate. You and your troops are at the close of a campaign as arduousas it is amazing. The fatigue and the strain must be great. You andGeneral Hill are far apart and the country between is rough andunmapped. Yet victory depends on the simultaneous blow."
Jackson sat rigid again, his hand stiffly placed upon the sabre. "It isnot given to man to say with positiveness what he can do, sir. But itis necessary that this right be turned before McClellan is aware of hisdanger. Each day makes it more difficult to conceal the absence of myarmy from the Valley. Between the danger of forced marching and theobvious danger that lies in delay, I should choose the forced marching.Better lose one man in marching than five in a battle not of ourselecting. A straw may bring failure as a straw may bring victory. I mayfail, but the risk should be taken. Napoleon failed at Eylau, but hisplan was correct."
"Very well," said Lee. "Then the morning of the twenty-sixth be it!Final orders shall await you at Ashland."
Jackson rose. "Good! good! By now my horses will have been changed. Iwill get back. The army was to advance this morning to Beaver DamStation."
He rode hard through the country all night, it being the second he hadspent in the saddle. Beaver Dam Station and the bivouacking Army of theValley saw him on Tuesday morning the twenty-fourth. "Old Jack's backfrom wherever he's been!" went the rumour. Headquarters was establishedin a hut or two near the ruined railroad. Arriving here, he summoned hisstaff and sent for Ewell. While the former gathered he read a report,forwarded from Munford in the rear. "Scout Gold and Jarrow in from theValley. Fremont still fortifying at Strasburg--thinks you may be atFront Royal. Shields at Luray considers that you may have gone toRichmond, but that Ewell remains in the Valley with forty thousand men.Banks at Winchester thinks you may have gone against Shields at Luray,or King at Catlett's, or Doubleday at Fredericksburg, or gone toRichmond--but that Ewell is moving west on Moorefield!"
"Good! good!" said Jackson. Staff arrived, and he proceeded to issuerapid and precise orders. All given, staff hurried off, and the generalspoke to Jim. "Call me when General Ewell comes." He stretched himselfon a bench in the hut. "I am suffering," he said, "from fever and afeeling of debility." He drew his cloak about him and closed his eyes.It was but half an hour, however, that he slept or did not sleep, forEwell was fiery prompt.
The Army of the Valley entered upon a forced march through country bothdifficult and strange. It had been of late in the possession of theenemy, and the enemy had stretched felled trees across forest roads andburned the bridges spanning deep and sluggish creeks. Guides were atfault, cross-roads directions most uncertain. The wood grew intolerablythick, and the dust of the roads was atrocious; the air cut away by thetall green walls on either hand; the sun like a furnace seven timesheated. Provisions had not come up in time at Beaver Dam Station and thetroops marched upon half-rations. Gone were the mountains and themountain air, present was the languorous breath of the low country. Ithad an upas quality, dulling the brain, retarding the step. The men werevery tired, it was hot, and a low fever hung in the air.
They marched until late of a night without a moon, and the bugles wakedthem long ere dawn. A mist hung over all the levels, presaging heat._Column Forward!_ To-day was a repetition of yesterday, only accented.The sun girded himself with greater strength, the dust grew morestifling, the water was bad, gnats and mosquitoes made a painful cloud,the feet in the ragged shoes were more stiff, more swollen, moreabraded. The moisture in the atmosphere weakened like a vapour bath. Theentire army, "foot cavalry" and all, marched with a dreadful slowness._Press Forward--Press Forward--Press Forward--Press Forward!_ It grew tobe like the humming insects on either hand, a mere noise to be expected."Going to Richmond--Going to Richmond--Yes, of course we're going toRichmond--unless, indeed, we're going a roundabout way against McDowellat Fredericksburg! Richmond will keep. It has kept a long time--eversince William Byrd founded it. General Lee is there--and so it is allright--and we can't go any faster. War isn't all it's cracked up to be.Oh, hot, hot, hot! and skeetery! and General Humidity lives down thisway. _Press Forward--Press Forward--Press Forward. If that noise don'tstop I'll up with my musket butt and beat somebody's brains out!_"
Ashland was not reached until the late evening of this day. The men fellupon the earth. Even under the bronze there could be seen dark circlesunder their eyes, and their lips were without colour. Jackson rode alongthe lines and looked. There were circles beneath his own eyes, and hislips shut thin and grey. "Let them rest," he said imperturbably, "untildawn." There rode beside him an officer from Lee. He had now thelatter's General Order, and he was almost a day behind.
Somewhat later, in the house which he occupied, his chief of staff,Ewell and the brigadiers gone, the old man, Jim, appeared before him."Des you lis'en ter me er minute, gineral! Ob my sartain circumspectionI knows you didn't go ter bed las' night--nurr de night befo'--nurr denight befo' dat--'n' I don' see no preperation for yo' gwine ter beddish-yer night! Now, dat ain' right. W'at Miss Anna gwine say w'en sheheah erbout hit? She gwine say you 'stress her too much. She gwine sayyou'll git dar quicker, 'n' fight de battle better, ef you lie downerwhile 'n' let Jim bring you somethin' ter eat--"
"I have eaten. I am going to walk in the garden for awhile."
He went, all in bronze, with a blue gleam in his eye. Jim looked afterhim with a troubled countenance. "Gwine talk wif de Lawd--talk all nightlong! Hit ain' healthy. Pray an' pray 'n' look up ter de sky 'twel hegits paralysis! De gineral better le' me tek his boots off, 'n' go terbed 'n' dream ob Miss Anna!"
At three the bugles blew. Again there was incalculable delay. The sunwas up ere the Army of the Valley left Ashland. It was marching now indouble column, Jackson by the Ashcake road and Merry Oaks Church, Ewellstriking across country, the rendezvous Pole Green Church, a littlenorth and east of Mechanicsville and the Federal right. The distancethat each must travel was something like sixteen miles.
The spell of yesterday persisted and became the spell of to-day. Sixteenmiles would have been nothing in the Valley; in these green and glamourylowlands they became like fifty. Stuart's cavalry began to appear,patrols here, patrols there, vedettes rising stark from the broom sedge,or looming double, horsemen and shadow, above and within some piece ofwater, dark, still, and clear. Time was when the Army of the Valleywould have been curious and excited enough over Jeb Stuart's troopers,but now it regarded them indifferently with eyes glazed with fatigue. Atnine the army crossed the ruined line of the Virginia Central, Hood'sTexans leading. An hour later it turned southward, Stuart on the longcolumn's left flank, screening it from observation, and skirmishinghotly through the hours that ensued. The army crossed Crump's Creek,passed Taliaferro's Mill, crossed other creeks, crept southward throughhot, thick woods. Mid-day came and passed. The head of the column turnedeast, and came shortly to a cross-roads. Here, awaiting it, was Stuarthimself, in his fighting jacket. Jackson drew up Little Sorrel besidehim. "Good-morning, general."
"Good-morning, general--or rather, good-afternoon. I had hoped to seeyou many hours ago."
"My men are not superhuman, sir. There have occurred delays. But God isover us still."
He rode on. Stuart, looking after him, raised his brows. "In my opinionA. P. Hill is waiting for a man in a trance!"
The army turned southward again, marching now toward Totopotomoy Creek,the head of the column approaching it at three o'clock. Smoke before themen, thick, pungent, told a tale to which they were used.
"Bridge onfire!" It was, and on the far side of the creek appeared a party in blueengaged in obstructing the road. Hood's Texans gave a faint cheer anddashed across, disappearing in flame, emerging from it and falling uponthe blue working party. Reilly's battery was brought up; a shell or twofired. The blue left the field, and the grey pioneers somehow fought theflames and rebuilt the bridge. An hour was gone before the advance couldcross on a trembling structure. Over at last, the troops went on,southward still, to Hundley Corner. Here Ewell's division joined them,and here to the vague surprise of an exhausted army came the order tohalt. The Army of the Valley went into bivouac three miles north of thatright which, hours before, it was to have turned. It was near sunset. Asthe troops stacked arms, to the south of them, on the other side ofBeaver Dam Creek, burst out an appalling cannonade. Trimble, a veteranwarrior, was near Jackson. "That has the sound of a general engagement,sir! Shall we advance?"
Jackson looked at him with a curious serenity. "It is the batteries onthe Chickahominy covering General Hill's passage of the stream. He willbivouac over there, and to-morrow will see the battle--Have you evergiven much attention, general, to the subject of growth in grace?"