CHAPTER XXII. A GENERAL ADVANCE--A SCOUTING PARTY AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
|Careful students of the war did not fail to see that there was asystematic advance along the whole line from Virginia to Missouri duringthe early part of February, 1862. During the winter work on the gun-boatfleet had been vigorously pushed and many steamboats purchased or hiredas transports. As fast as the ironclads were ready to move they weresent to Cairo, Illinois where the transports were assembled and vastamounts of stores had been accumulated. General Grant was in command atCairo, and that aqueous town was a vast encampment. At the same time thearmy at Rolla had been strengthened, as we have already seen, and themovement of each force was practically simultaneous.
Nor was this all. From Washington the army moved into Virginia, and thecheckered campaign of 1862 began. Then a fleet and an army went down theAtlantic coast and captured New-Berne, North Carolina, and farther downthe coast there was an aggressive move against Charleston. Then at themouth of the Mississippi a fleet of war ships appeared, backed by afleet of transports carrying a land force ready to occupy and holdwhatever the fleet secured. In Kentucky the Army of the Ohio occupiedBowling Green, and prepared to move upon Nashville.
The first success along the whole line of attack was when on the sixthof February the fleet under Admiral Foote bombarded Fort Henry andcompelled its surrender. Then followed the attack on Fort Donelson, whenGeneral Grant “moved immediately upon the works” of General Buckner andtook him a prisoner, together with all those of his garrison that couldnot escape. The whole North was in a blaze of excitement as the news waspublished in the papers, which appeared in the form of “Extras,” witha great many lines of heading to a very few lines of news. Such asensation had not happened since the battle of Bull Run, in the previousyear--and, unlike that of Bull Run, the story was one of victory and notof disaster.
The effect of the news in a city like St. Louis, whose population wasdivided in sentiment, was a curious study to the outsider. A man’ssympathies could be known half a block away by the expression of hisface and the air with which he greeted his friends. If he was for theUnion his head was high in the air and his countenance showed him to be“smiling all over;” but if he sympathized with the rebellion, his stepswere sad and slow and his head was downcast, as though he had lost a tencent piece or a diamond ring, and was on the lookout to find it. Therewas no occasion to ask a man how he felt; the subject was too momentousto permit him to conceal his thoughts.
When the newsboys appeared with the extras they were eagerly patronizedby the Union men and as eagerly repelled by the Secessionists. One boyhad the temerity to enter the store of a noted Secessionist and shoutin stentorian tones, “‘Ere’s yer extra; all about the capture of FortDonelson!”
That boy soon had reason to believe that his presence was not desiredthere and his wares were unwelcome. He sold no papers in that store, andmoreover he was ejected from it a moment after entering on the toe of anumber ten boot. His ejectment was no trifling matter as it carried himquite to the edge of the sidewalk. He got up again, as though nothinghad happened, and went on with his business as usual.
It is sad to record that there was a great deal of drinking in St. Louisover the result of Grant’s movement against Donelson. The Union mendrank in joy and congratulation, while the Secessionists did likewiseto drown their sorrow. In Chicago and other Northern cities the drinkingwas more one-sided than in St. Louis, but the average to each inhabitantwas not greater.
It is said that on some of the dead-walls of Chicago the day of thefall of Donelson a placard was posted to the effect that every man foundsober at nine o’clock in the evening would be arrested for disloyalty.History does not record that there were any arrests in Chicago that dayfor disloyalty. Whether there was anybody around at that hour capable ofmaking arrests is also without record.
Having thus taken a general survey of the field, we will return to Jackand Harry, whom we left with the Army of the Southwest.
The army moved, as before stated, and encountered no opposition as itadvanced beyond the Gasconade river and occupied the town of Lebanon,sixty-five miles from Rolla. Harry called Jack’s attention to thedesolation that seemed to prevail along the route, compared with whatthe road was when they first saw it on the retreat from Wilson’s Creek.Many houses had been burned, and many of those that escaped the torchwere without occupants. In every instance where inquiry was made it wasfound that the burned or deserted house had been the property of a Unioncitizen who had been driven away by his rebel neighbors or by scoutingparties from Price’s army.
The few people that remained were almost destitute of food, and it wasnext to impossible to obtain feed for horses. The country had sufferedterribly from the ravages of war, and was destined to suffer stillfurther before the war ended. As long as the war lasted it was infestedby roving bands of guerrillas, although the regular armies of theConfederacy had been forced much farther to the south. At first theSecessionists encouraged the presence of these guerrillas, but after atime they found their exactions so great that they would gladly have ridthemselves of their so-called “friends.”
The roads were bad and the march was slow, but in spite of the bad roadsand the wintry weather the army pushed forward resolutely. Jack andHarry found themselves covered with mud at the end of every day’s march,and as they were frequently sent with scouting parties away from theroad, their horses as well as themselves were pretty well used up whennight arrived; but they came out as lively as ever the next morning, andthe horses seemed to echo the words of their young masters, that theywere having a good time.
On one of their scouting expeditions they stopped at a house whoseowner boasted that he had built it himself and lived in it for seventeenyears, and though it wasn’t equal to some of the fine houses inSpringfield or Lebanon, it was as good as he wanted. It was built oflogs, like the ordinary frontier dwelling, and consisted of a singleroom, where the family of six persons lived, ate and slept. It had adoor but no window, and in order to have light in the daytime it wasnecessary to keep the door open, no matter how cold the weather mightbe. Near the house was a smaller one of the same sort, and this wasoccupied by three negroes, the slaves of the owner of the place.
Harry found on inquiry that the man had bought these slaves from themoney he had saved by selling the produce of his farm, preferring toinvest in this kind of property rather than build a more comfortablehouse, with glass windows and other luxuries. One of the slaves was cookand housemaid, the second was the family nurse, and the third, a manabout fifty years old, attended to the stable and out-door work ingeneral. The master worked in the field with his colored property, buthe said that when he had “two more niggers” he would have all his timetaken up looking after them. Naturally he was in sympathy with therebellion, and did not believe in the Yankees and Dutch coming along andsetting the slaves free.
The black man watched for a chance to speak to one of the boys, andafter a little maneuvering he managed to do so without being seen by hismaster.
“Ef you Linkum folks wants to find some rebs,” said the darkey to Harry,with a grin, “I knows whar you ‘ll find’em.”
“Where’s that?”
“You jest go down dis yere road about a mile and you ‘ll find some of’emwith a wagon load o’ pork dey’s takin’ to Price’s army.”
“How many rebs are there with the wagon?”
“Dere’s six on’em--t’ree is on horses and t’ree in der wagon. Dey’s beengettin’ dat pork round yar, and hain’t been gone more’n half an hour. Iknows dey’s going ter stop at der creek to fix one of de wheels, and you‘ll find’em dar. Don’t let on wher yer found’em out.”
“Of course not,” was the reply. “We ‘ll keep you all safe. Now clearout, and don’t look at us to see which way we go.”
There were six of them in the scouting party, and they were entirelyable to cope with the escort of the wagon. Harry slipped to the side ofthe sergeant in command and said they’d better be off, and h
e would thentell him why.
The sergeant then said to his men that it was time to be getting back,and gave the order for mounting. At the end of the little lane wherethe house stood they stopped for consultation, Harry telling what hehad learned, and suggesting, that in order to divert suspicion, they hadbest start the other way and then suddenly turn about as though a newidea had occurred to them.
The sergeant acted under Harry’s suggestion. The party went half-a-dozenrods one way and then turned about and cantered slowly down the road inthe direction indicated by the negro.
“Steady, now, boys,” said the sergeant. “Don’t pump your horses, butkeep them fresh for a dash when we want to make it.”
So they went gently along, Harry keeping a little in advance to watchout for the wagon of which they were in search. The road rose and fellover the undulations of the ground, and when they had gone about a mileit was evident that they were coming to a depression, which was probablythe bed of the creek.
Harry hugged the trees at the side of the road, so as to screen himselffrom sight. His horse pricked his ears and evidently scented thepresence of other animals of his race.
A few more steps in advance and the wagon was in sight. It was standingclose to the creek, and the men were busy adjusting one of the wheels,the three horsemen having dismounted and tied their steeds to some treesa dozen yards away.
The sergeant gave the order to advance at a walk, and if possible getbetween the men and their horses before the presence of an enemy wasdiscovered. As soon as they were seen they would go in with a dash.
They were not able to carry out the plan completely, but for allpractical purposes it succeeded. When the first of the rebel party sawthe advancing Federals they had not time to secure their horses. Thesergeant gave the order for an advance, and in the squad dashed, in finestyle.
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The sergeant had told Jack to get hold of the saddle-horses the firstthing, and he did so. The rest of the party surrounded the wagon. Therebels showed fight, but, taken at a disadvantage and with the carbinesof the cavalrymen aimed at them, they surrendered before any bloodhad been spilt, but not without an exchange of shots, of which Harryreceived one through the sleeve of his coat.
The prisoners were secured and marched back in the direction of the roadwhere the army was on its march. The wheel was speedily adjusted, andthen Harry mounted the box of the wagon and soon made the four mulesthat comprised its team understand their duty. The captured horses wereled behind the wagon along with Harry’s horse. Without further adventurethe party reached the camp, and the pork intended for Price’s army foundits way down the throats of General Vandever’s soldiers.