CHAPTER XXXVIII
CEDAR RUN
The Seven Days brought a sterner temper into this war. The two sidesgrew to know each other better; each saw how determined was the other,and either foe, to match the other, raised the bronze in himself toiron. The great army, still under McClellan, at Harrison's Landing,became the Army of the Potomac. The great army guarding Richmond underLee, became the Army of Northern Virginia. President Lincoln calledupon the Governors of the Northern States for three hundred thousandmen, and offered bounties. President Davis called upon the Governors ofthe Southern States for conscripts, and obtained no great number, forthe mass of the men had volunteered. The world at large looked on, nowand henceforth, with an absorbed regard. The struggle promised to beHomeric, memorable. The South was a fortress beleaguered; seven hundredthousand square miles of territory lost and inland as the steppes ofTartary, for all her ports were blocked by Northern men-of-war. Littlenews from the fortress escaped; the world had a sense of gigantic greyfigures moving here and there behind a great battle veil, of a pushagainst the fortress, a push from all sides, with approved batteringrams, scaling ladders, hooks, grapples, mines, of blue figures, allknown and described in heroic terms by the Northern public prints, apush repelled by the voiceless, printless, dimly-discerned grey figures.Not that the grey, too, were not described to the nations in the printsabove. They were. The wonder was that the creatures could fight--even,it appeared, fight to effect. Around and over the wide-flung fortressthe battle smoke rolled and eddied. Drums were distantly heard, nowrallying, now muffled. A red flag with a blue cross rose and fell androse again; grey names emerged, floated, wraith-like, over the sea, notto be stopped by blue men-of-war, names and picturesque nicknames, lovedof soldiers. It grew to be allowed that there must be courage in thefortress, and a gift of leadership. All was seen confusedly, but with amounting, mounting interest. The world gaped at the far-borne clang andsmoke and roar. Military men in clubs demonstrated to a nicety just howlong the fortress might hold out, and just how it must be taken at last.Schoolboys fought over again in the schoolyards the battles with theheathenish names. The Emperor of the French and the King of Prussia andthe Queen of Spain and the Queen of England and the Czar and the Sultanand the Pope at Rome asked each morning for the war news, and so didgaunt cotton-spinners staring in mill towns at tall smokeless chimneys.
Early in June Halleck was appointed commander-in-chief of all the armiesof the United States. What to do with McClellan, at present summering onthe James twenty-five miles below Richmond, came upon the board.McClellan claimed, quite rightly, that here and now, with his army onboth sides of the James, he held the key position, and that withsufficient reinforcements he could force the evacuation of Richmond.Only give him reinforcements with which to face Lee's "not less than twohundred thousand!" Recall the Army of the Potomac, and it might be sometime before it again saw Richmond! Halleck deliberated. General Pope hadcome out of the west to take concentrated command of the old forces ofBanks, Sigel, Fremont, and McDowell. He had an attitude, had Pope, atthe head of his forty thousand men behind the Rappahannock! The armieswere too widely separated, McClellan's location notoriously unhealthy.Impossible to furnish reinforcements to the tune asked for, Washingtonmight, at any moment, be in peril. It was understood that StonewallJackson had left Richmond on the thirteenth, marching towardGordonsville.
The James River might be somewhat unhealthy for strangers that summer,and Stonewall Jackson had marched toward Gordonsville. The desire at themoment most at the heart of General Robert Edward Lee was that GeneralMcClellan should be recalled. Therefore he guarded Richmond withsomething less than sixty thousand men, and he made rumours to spread ofgunboats building, and he sent Major-General T. J. Jackson northwardwith twelve thousand men.
In this July month there was an effect of suspense. The fortress wastaking muster, telling its strength, soldering its flag to the staff andthe staff to the keep. The besiegers were gathering; the world waswatching, expectant of the grimmer struggle. There came a roar and clangfrom the outer walls, from the Mississippi above Vicksburg, from theGeorgian coast, from Murfreesboro in Tennessee, from Arkansas, fromMorgan's raids in Kentucky. There was fire and sound enough, but thebattles that were to tell were looked for on Virginia soil. Hot andstill were the July days, hot and still was the air, and charged with acertain sentiment. Thunderbolts were forging; all concerned knew that,and very subtly life and death and the blue sky and the green leavescame freshlier across the senses. Jackson, arriving at Gordonsville thenineteenth of July, found Pope before him with forty-seven thousand men.He asked for reinforcements and Lee, detaching yet another twelvethousand from the army at Richmond, sent him A. P. Hill and the LightDivision. Hill arrived on the second of August, splendid fighter, in hishunting shirt, with his red beard! That evening in Jackson's quarters,some one showed him a captured copy of Pope's Orders, numbers 12 and 75.He read, crumpled the papers and tossed them aside, then turned toJackson sitting sucking a lemon. "Well, general, here's a new candidatefor your attention!"
Jackson looked up. "Yes, sir. By God's blessing he shall have it." Hesucked on, studying a map of the country between Slaughter Mountain andManassas which Hotchkiss had made him. In a letter to his wife fromRichmond he had spoken of "fever and debility" attending him during hisstay in that section of the country. If it were so he had apparentlyleft them in the rear when he came up here. He sat now tranquil as astone wall, in sight of the mountains, sucking his lemon and studyinghis maps.
This was the second. On the sixth of August Pope began to cross theRappahannock. On the afternoon of the seventh the grey army was inmotion. All the eighth it was in column, the heat intense, the duststifling, an entanglement of trains and a misunderstanding of orders onthe part of Hill and Ewell resulting in a confused and retarded march.Night fell, hot and breathless. Twenty-three thousand grey soldiers,moving toward Orange Court House, made the dark road vocal withstatements as to the reeking heat, the dust, the condition of theirshoes and the impertinence of the cavalry. The latter was moreirritating than were the flapping soles, the dust in the throat, and thesweat pouring into the eyes. The infantry swore, swerving again andagain to one side of the narrow road to let small bodies of horsemen goby. It was dark, the road going through an interminable hot, close wood.Officers and men were liberal in their vituperation. "Thank the Lord, itain't my arm!"--"Here you fellows--damn you! look where you are going!Trampling innocent bystanders that way!--Why in hell didn't you stayback where you belong?"--"Of course if you've positively got to get tothe front and can't find any other road it's our place to give you thisone!--Just wait a moment and we'll ask the colonel if we can't _liedown_. It'll be easier to ride over us that way.--Oh, go to hell!"
The parties passed, the ranks of the infantry straightened out again onthe dark road, the column wound on through the hot, midnight wood. Morehoof-beats--another party of cavalry to be let by! They passed theinfantry in the darkness, pushing the broken line into the ditch andscrub. In the pitchy blackness an impatient command lost at thisjuncture its temper. The men swore, an officer called out to thehorsemen a savage "Halt!" The party pressed on. The officer furious,caught a bridle rein. "Halt, damn you! Stop them, men! Now you cavalryhave got to learn a thing or two! One is, that the infantry is theimportant thing in war! It's the aristocracy, damn you! The other isthat we were on this road first anyhow! Now you just turn out into thewoods yourself, and the next time I tell you to halt, damn you, halt!"
"This, sir," said a voice, "is General Jackson and his staff."
The officer stammered forth apologies. "It is all right, sir," said thevoice in the darkness. "The cavalry must be more careful, but colonel,true aristocrats do not curse and swear."
An hour later the column halted in open country. A pleasant farmhousewith a cool, grassy yard surrounded by an ornamental fence, white palinggleaming in the waved lights, flung wide its doors to Stonewall Jackson.The troops bivouacked around, in field and meadow. A rain came up, achilly dow
npour. An aide appeared before the brigade encampedimmediately about the farmhouse. "The general says, sir, that the menmay take the rail fence over there, but the regimental officers are tosee that under no circumstances is the fence about Mrs. Wilson's yard tobe touched."
The night passed. Officers had had a hard day; they slept perhapssomewhat soundly, wrapped in their oilcloths, in the chilly rain, by thesmallest of sputtering camp-fires. The rain stopped at three o'clock;the August dawn came up gloriously with a cool freshness. Reveillesounded. Stonewall Jackson came from the farmhouse, looked about him andthen walked across the grassy yard. A little later five colonels of fiveregiments found themselves ordered to report to the general commandingthe brigade.
"Gentlemen, as you came by did you notice the condition of theornamental fence about the yard?"
"Not especially, sir."
"I did, sir. One panel is gone. I suppose the men were tempted. It was aconfounded cold rain."
The brigadier pursed his lips. "Well, colonel, you heard the order. Allof you heard the order. I regret to say, so did I. Dog-gone tirednessand profound slumber are no excuse. You ought--we ought--to have heardthem at the palings. General Jackson has ordered you all under arrest."
"Five of us, sir?"
"Five of you. Damn it, sir, six of us!"
The five colonels looked at one another and looked at their brigadier."What would you advise, sir?"
The brigadier was very red. "I have sent one of my staff to Mrs. Wilson,gentlemen, to enquire the cost of the entire ornamental fence! I'dadvise that we pay, and--if we've got any--pay in gold."
By eight o'clock the column was in motion--a fair day and a faircountry, with all the harvest fields and the deep wooded hills and theAugust sky. After the rain the roads were just pleasantly wet; dewdropshung on the corn blades, blackberries were ripening, ox-eye daisiesfringed the banks of red earth. The head of the column, coming to aby-road, found awaiting it there an old, plain country woman in a fadedsunbonnet and faded check apron. She had a basket on her arm, and shestepped into the middle of the road before Little Sorrel. "Air thisGeneral Jackson?"
Stonewall Jackson checked the horse. The staff and a division general ortwo stopped likewise. Behind them came on the infantry advance, long andjingling. "Yes, madam, I am General Jackson. What can I do for you?"
The old woman put down her basket and wiped her hands on her apron."General, my son John air in your company. An' I've brought him somesocks an' two shirts an' a chicken, an' a pot of apple butter. An' efyou'll call John I'll be obleeged to you, sir."
A young man in the group of horsemen laughed, but stopped abruptly asJackson looked round. The latter turned to the old woman with thegentlest blue eyes, and the kindliest slow smile. "I've got a great manycompanies, ma'am. They are all along the road from Gordonsville. I don'tbelieve I know your son."
But the old woman would not have that. "My lan', general! I reckon youall know John! I reckon John wuz the first man to jine the army. He wuzchopping down the big gum by the crick, an' the news come, an' hechopped on twel the gum wuz down, an' he says, says he, 'I'll cut it upfor you, Maw, an' then I'm goin'.' An' he went.--He's about your makean' he has light hair an' eyes an' he wuz wearing butternut--"
"What is his last name, ma'am?"
"His middle name's Henry an' his last name's Simpson."
"In whose brigade is he, and in what regiment?"
But the old woman shook her head. She knew only that he was in GeneralJackson's company. "We never larned to write, John an' me. He wuzpowerful good to me--en I reckon he's been in all the battles 'cause hewuz born that way. Some socks, and two shirts an' something to eat--an'he hez a scar over his eye where a setting hen pecked him when he waslittle--an' won't you please find him for me, sir?" The old voicequavered toward tears.
Stonewall Jackson dismounted, and looked toward the on-coming column.The advance was now but a few hundred yards away; the whole army to thelast wagon train had its orders for expedition. He sent for hisadjutant. "Companies from Orange County, sir? Yes, there are a number indifferent regiments and brigades."
"Well, you will go, colonel, and halt the advance. See if there is anOrange company and a private named John Simpson."
There was not. The woman with the basket was old and tired. She sat downon the earth beneath a sign post and threw her apron over her head.Jackson sent an aide back three miles to the main body. "Captain, findthe Orange companies and a private named John Simpson. Bring him here.Tall, light-haired, light eyes, with a scar over one eye. If he is notin the main column go on to the rear."
The aide spurred his horse. Jackson explained matters. "You'll have towait a while, Mrs. Simpson. If your son's in the army he'll be broughtto you. I'll leave one of my aides with you!" He spoke to Little Sorreland put his hand on the saddle bow. Mrs. Simpson's apron came down."Please, general, don't you go! Please, sir, you stay! They won't knowhim like you will! They'll just come back an' say they can't findhim!--An' I got to see John--I just got to!--Don't go, please, sir! Ef't was your mother--"
Stonewall Jackson and his army waited for half an hour while JohnSimpson was looked for. At the end of that time the cross roads saw himcoming, riding behind the aide. Tall and lank, in butternut still, andred as a beet, he slipped from the horse, and saluted the general, then,almost crying, gathered up the checked apron and the sunbonnet and thebasket and the old woman. "Maw, Maw! jes' look what you have done!Danged ef you haven't stopped the whole army! Everybody cryin' out 'JohnSimpson'!"
On went the column through the bright August forenoon. The day grew hotand the dust whirled up, and the cavalry skirmished at intervals withdetached blue clouds of horsemen. On the horizon appeared at somedistance a conical mountain. "What's that sugar loaf over there?""That's Slaughter's Mountain south of Culpeper. Cedar Run's beyond."
The day wore on. Slaughter Mountain grew larger. The country between waslovely, green and rolling; despite the heat and the dust and the delaythe troops were in spirits. They were going against Major-General JohnPope and they liked the job. The old Army of the Valley, now a part ofthe Army of Northern Virginia, rather admired Shields, had no especialobjection to McDowell, and felt a real gratitude toward Mr. CommissaryBanks, but it was prepared to fight Pope with a vigour born ofdetestation. A man of the old Army, marching with Ewell, began tosing:--
"Pope told a flattering tale Which proved to be bravado, About the streams that spout like ale On the Llano Estacado!
"That's the Staked Plains, you know. Awful hot out there! Prettyhot here, too. Look at them lovely roasting ears! Can't touch 'em.Old Jack says so. Pope may live on the country, but we mayn't.""That mountain is getting pretty big." "Hello! Just a cavalryscrimmage--Hello! hello! Artillery's more serious!" "Boys, boys!we've struck Headquarters-in-the-saddle!--What's that awfulnoise?--Old Jack's coming--Old Jack's coming to the front!--Mercy!didn't know even we could cheer like that!--Yaaaih! Yaaaaaaihhh!Stonewall Jackson! Stonewall Jackson! Yaaaaaaiiiihhh!"
As the day declined the battle swelled in smoke and thunder. The bluebatteries were well placed, and against them thundered twenty-six greyrifled guns: two Parrotts of Rockbridge with a gun of Carpenter'sappeared at the top of the hill, tore down the long slope and came intobattery in an open field, skirted by a wood. Behind was the StonewallBrigade in column of regiments. The guns were placed _en echelon_, thehorses taken away, the ball opened with canister. Immediately theFederal guns answered, got the range of the grey, and began to do deadlymischief. All around young trees were cut off short. The shells came,thick, black, and screaming. The place proved fatal to officers.Carpenter was struck in the head by a piece of shell--mortally wounded.The chief of artillery, Major Snowden Andrews fell, desperately injured,then Captain Caskie was hurt, then Lieutenant Graham. The gunners workedlike mad. The guns thundered, recoiled, thundered again. The blue shellsarrived in a deadly stream. All was smoke, whistling limbs of trees,glare and roar. General Winder cam
e up on foot. Standing by a greyParrott he tried with his field glass to make out the Federal batteries.Lowering the glass he shouted some direction to the men about the gunbelow him. The noise was hideous, deafening. Seeing that he was notunderstood he raised his arm and hollowed his hand above his mouth. Ashell passed beneath his arm, through his side. He fell stiffly back,mangled and dying.
There was a thick piece of woods, deep and dark, stretching westward.The left of Jackson's division rested here. Ewell's brigades andbatteries were on the mountain slope; the Light Division, A. P. Hill inhis red battle shirt at its head, not yet up; Jubal Early forming a lineof battle in the rolling fields. An aide came to "Old Jube." "GeneralJackson's compliments to General Early, and he says you will advance onthe enemy, and General Winder's troops will support you." Early had athin, high, drawling voice. "My compliments to General Jackson, and tellhim I will do it."
The Stonewall Brigade, drawn up in the rear of the Artillery, stoodwaiting its orders from Winder. There came a rumor. "The general iskilled! General Winder is killed!" The Stonewall chose to beincredulous. "It is not so! We don't believe it."
The 65th, cut to pieces at White Oak Swamp, had renewed itself.Recruits--boys and elderly men--a few melancholy conscripts, a number oftransferals from full commands had closed its ranks. The 65th, smallernow, of diluted quality, but even so, dogged and promising well,--the65th, waiting on the edge of a wheat field, looked across it toTaliaferro's and Campbell's brigades and the dark wood in front. BillyMaydew was sergeant now and Matthew Coffin was first lieutenant ofCompany A. The two had some talk under a big walnut tree.
"Artillery's been shouting for two hours," said Coffin. "They've got ahell lot of cavalry, too, but if there's any infantry I can't see it."
"There air a message gone to Campbell and Taliaferro. I heard Old Jacksend it. 'Look well to your left,' he says, says he. That thar wood'sthe left," said Billy. "It looks lonesomer than lonesome, but thar! whenlonesome things do blaze out they blaze out the worst!"
The colonel of the 65th--Colonel Erskine--came along the front. "It'stoo true, men. We've lost General Winder. Well, we'll avenge him!--Look!there is Jubal Early advancing!"
Early's line of battle was a beautiful sight. It moved through thefields and up a gentle hillside, and pushed before it bright clusters ofFederal cavalry. When the grey lines came to the hilltop the Federalbatteries opened fiercely. Early posted Dement and Brown and loudlyanswered. To the left rolled great wheat fields, the yellow grainstanding in shocks. Here gathered the beautiful blue cavalry, many andgallant. Ewell with Trimble's South Carolinians and Harry Hayes'sLouisianians held the slope of the mountain, and from these heightsbellowed Latimer's guns. Over hill and vale the Light Division was seencoming, ten thousand men in grey led by A. P. Hill.
"It surely air a sight to see," said Billy. "I never even dreamed it,back thar on Thunder Run."
"There the Yankees come!" cried Coffin. "There! a stream of them--upthat narrow valley!--Now--now--now Early has touched them!--Damn you,Billy! What's the matter?"
"It's the wood," answered Billy. "Thar's something coming out of thelonesome wood."
On the left the 1st and 42d Virginia were the advance regiments. Out ofthe forest, startling, unexpected, burst a long blue battle line. Banks,a brave man if not a wise one, interpreted Pope's orders somewhat tosuit himself, and attacked without waiting for Sigel or McDowell. Inthis instance valor seemed likely to prove the better part ofdiscretion. Of the grey generals, Hill was not up, Early was hotlyengaged, the artillery fire, grey and blue alike, sweeping the defilebefore Ewell kept him on the mountain side. Bayonets fixed, brightcolours tossing, skirmishers advanced, on with verve and determinationcame Banks's attack. As it crossed the yellow stubble field Taliaferroand Campbell, startled by the apparition but steady, poured in awithering fire. But the blue came on, swung its right and partlysurrounded the 1st Virginia. Amid a hell of shots, bayonet work, shouts,and cries 1st Virginia broke; fell back upon the 42d, that in its turnwas overwhelmed. Down came the blue wave on Taliaferro's flank. Thewheat field filled with uproar. Taliaferro broke, Campbell broke.
The Stonewall stirred like leaves in autumn. Ronald, colonel of the 2d,commanding in Winder's place, made with despatch a line of battle. Thesmoke was everywhere, rolling and thick. Out of it came abruptly avoice. "I have always depended upon this brigade. Forward!"
Billy had an impression of wheat stubble beneath his feet, wheat stubblethick strewn with men, silent or lamentably crying out, and about hisears a whistling storm of minies. There was, too, a whirl of grey forms.There was no alignment--regiments were dashed to pieces--everybody wasmixed up. It was like an overturned beehive. Then in the swirling smoke,in the swarm and shouting and grey rout, he saw Little Sorrel, andStonewall Jackson standing in his stirrups. He had drawn his sabre; itflashed above his head like a gleam from the sinking sun. Billy spokealoud. "I've been with him from the first, and this air the first time Iever saw him do that." As he spoke he caught hold of a fleeing greysoldier. "Stand still and fight! Thar ain't nothing in the rear butdamned safety!"
The grey surge hung poised, the tide one moment between ebb and flow.The noise was hellish; sounds of triumph, sounds of panic, of anger,encouragement, appeal, despair, woe and pain, with the callous roar ofmusketry and the loud indifference of the guns. Above it all the man onthe quaint war horse made himself heard. From the blue line of steelabove his head, from the eyes below the forage cap, from the beardedlips, from the whole man there poured a magic control. He shouted andhis voice mastered the storm. "Rally, brave men! Rally and follow me! Iwill lead you. Jackson will lead you. Rally! Rally!"
Billy saw the 21st Virginia, what was left of it, swing suddenly around,give the Confederate yell, and dash itself against the blue. Taliaferrorallied, Campbell rallied, the Stonewall itself under Ronald rallied.The first of the Light Division, Branch's North Carolinians came on witha shout, and Thomas's Georgians and Lane and Archer and Pender. Earlywas up, Ewell sweeping down from the mountain. Jackson came along therestored front. The soldiers greeted him with a shout that tore thewelkin. He touched the forage cap. "Give them the bayonet! Give them thebayonet! _Forward, and drive them!_"
The cavalry with Banks was fine and staunch. At this moment it undertooka charge useless but magnificent. With clarion sound, with tossingcolours, with huzzas and waving sabres, a glorious and fearful sight,the cavalry rushed diagonally across the trampled field, its flankexposed to the North Carolinians. These opened a blasting fire whileTaliaferro's brigade met it full, and the 13th Virginia, couched behinda grey zigzag of fence, gave volley after volley. Little more than halfof those horsemen returned.
Dusk fell and the blue were in full retreat. After them swept thegrey--the Light Division, Jubal Early, Ewell, Jackson's own. In the cornfields, in the wheat fields, in the forest thick, thick! lay the deadand wounded, three thousand men, grey and blue, fallen in that fight ofan hour and a half. The blue crossed Cedar Run, the grey crossed itafter them. The moon, just past the full, rose above the hilltops. Onthe whole the summer night was light enough. Stonewall Jackson broughtup two fresh brigades and with Pegram's battery pressed on by moonlight.That dauntless artillerist, a boy in years, an old wise man in command,found the general on Little Sorrel pounding beside him for some timethrough the moonlit night. Jackson spoke but once. "Delightfulexcitement," he said.