CHAPTER XXIX. THE NIGHT IN CAMP--BEGINNING OF THE LAST DAY’S BATTLE.
|You’ve done well,” said the general. “Now go and lie down somewhere andget all the sleep you can, as you ‘ll have enough to do to-morrow.”
Harry touched his cap in acknowledgment of the command and then joggedback to camp, which was not more than a mile to the rear. Learning thatit was possible to get to the bank of the creek without danger, he rodedown there and watered his horse. The animal drank long and eagerly, ashe had not had a drop of water through the long and active day. Then hereturned to the camp, and fastening the animal to a wagon-wheel, havingfirst filled his nose-bag with grain, he lay down beneath the wagon andtried to sleep.
But he slept very little, probably not thirty minutes altogether.Everything was in commotion around the camp. Ambulances were comingand going to bring in the wounded men; the doctors were busy with theirsuffering patients; men were sitting or standing in little groups,deeply engaged in speculating on the probable events of the morrow;mounted men were moving about with orders or messages or seeking missingofficers or soldiers, and probably not one person in twenty thought ofsleep. In the whole position occupied by the army during that night itis probable that the most quiet spot was where the division of GeneralCarr had bivouacked in front of the enemy, for there, at any rate, theyslept undisturbed.
At the beginning of the battle in the morning all the teams had beenharnessed, to be ready to move the wagons whenever wanted. The muleshad not been fed for forty-eight hours, nor had they received a dropof water for half that time. The voice of a mule at its best is notmelodious, and when to the ordinary sound of his bray is added aplaintive wail of suffering it falls distressingly on the ear. Lower andlower grew the note till it fell to a moan that was well calculatedto banish sleep from any one not entirely worn out with exertion. Sothought Harry, and after several vain endeavors he rose to his feet andjoined one of the groups of soldiers and drivers who were discussing thesituation.
During the evening the lines of the army were drawn in on the left andpreparations were made to bring the forces of Sigel and Davis, who hadsuffered but slightly during the day, to the relief of the worn outdivision of General Carr. The concentration was completed by midnight:General Davis’s division was placed on the left, General Carr’s in thecenter, and the two divisions of General Sigel held the right of ourline. Thus arranged, the brunt of the fighting would be concentrated onSigel’s command in case the rebels remained in the positions where theywere at nightfall. In case they had changed during the night, it wouldenable General Carr to be quickly re-enforced if the odds against himshould be as heavy as they were on the day before.
Harry rode out to the front again a little before daylight, and as hepassed along the road he heard the sound of vocal music rolling up fromthe German regiments that composed the greater part of General Sigel’scommand. He was unacquainted with German, and so the words of the songwere unknown to him, but the music under the circumstances soundedstrangely. “And yet,” he remarked to himself, “it seems to me that I’veread of something of the kind somewhere else.
“Now I remember,” said he, suddenly, as he straightened in his saddle;“it was in the Crimean war, the night before the storming of theMalakofï and Redan and the capture of Sebastopol. I recall it all now;the whole British army in the trenches sang the words of a Scottish air,with which all were familiar, and the story has been told in verse byBayard Taylor. Here are some of his lines:
“‘They sang of love, and not of fame, Forgot was Britain’s glory. Each heart recalled a different name But all sang Annie Laurie.
“‘Voice after voice caught up the song, Until its tender passion Rose like an anthem rich and strong, Their battle eve’s confession.
“‘Dear girl, the name he dared not speak Yet as the song grew louder, Something upon the soldier’s cheek Washed off the stain of powder.
“‘And Irish Nora’s eyes are dim For a singer dumb and gory; And English Mary mourns for him Who sang of Annie Laurie.
“‘Sleep, soldiers, in your honored rest, Your truth and valor bearing; The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring.’
“Perhaps that’s a love song the Germans are singing,” thought Harry,as he paused in repeating the lines of the verses given above, “and theyare acting over again the scene of the attack on Sebastopol. I hope thebattle will turn out as well for us as did that one for the allied armyof the English and French.”
Daybreak came and then sunrise. Harry had hoped for a clear morning,but his hopes were doomed to disappointment. During the previous day thesmoke had frequently hung thickly over the field, at times rendering thecombatants invisible to each other and greatly hindering the movementson both sides. All through that cool and almost frosty night the smokehung low over the ground, and as the sun rose on the morning of theeighth of March it pierced through a cloud that seemed more like fogthan any thing else, and was first visible as a dull ball of copper,on which the youth could easily fix his eyes without blinking. The sunshowed itself only a short time and then the sky became overcast, andfor a while it looked as though the day might be rainy.
We will now listen to Harry’s account of the last day’s fighting.
“I thought they would begin at daylight, and so did everybody else;or at any rate, everybody was ready on our side for the opening of thebattle. But though we could see the rebels in strong force right infront of us, and evidently as ready as we were, there was hardly a shotfired, except by the skirmishers, until after eight o’clock. They leftthe opening of the day’s work to us, and we did n’t go about it till wewere ‘good and ready.’
“General Curtis intended the heaviest of the fighting for GeneralSigel’s two divisions, as they had suffered least on the day before.The rebels had been busy during the night, and planted some of theirbatteries on a hill perhaps a hundred feet high, which sloped away tothe north, but was quite steep on the face toward us. It was very muchsuch a position as we had at Sugar Creek, where the enemy wisely chosenot to attack. Now we had no choice but to attack them, and they wereprepared for a vigorous defense, as they had large masses of supportinginfantry at the base of the hill on both sides, and also several piecesof artillery scattered among the infantry.
“Under cover of the woods at the edge of the corn-field which laybetween us and the enemy, General Sigel planted his batteries and drewup his infantry and cavalry where they could give efficient support. Wewondered why the rebels did not open fire upon him while he was gettingready, but we learned afterward that they felt confident of defeatinghim when the actual fighting should begin, and besides they were shortof artillery ammunition and wanted to make every shot tell. They arguedthat if they opened fire the guns would be withdrawn and they wouldbe compelled to leave the place, where they had so much advantage ofposition, and follow us wherever we drew them.
“I stood where I could see pretty much all that was going on there, andit was certainly a wonderful picture. The white and withered stalks ofthe corn in the field contrasted sharply with the dark-blue coats ofour men when they advanced from the edge of the wood to the open ground,and, luckily for us, the smoke blew away a little before eight o’ clockand gave us a clear view across the field. We could easily make out therebel lines and the positions of the cannon that were ready to open uponus. Our cannoneers stood to their guns and waited the command to openfire; the rebel artillery-men were evidently doing the same thing, andon both sides the infantry were prepared for whatever was demanded ofit.
“General Sigel gave the order, and a dozen cannon fired very quickly,one after the other. Each gunner took sight against a tree on the hillwhere the rebel batteries were stationed, and tried the effect ofhis shot upon it. The first shots were too high, and a turn of theelevating-screw depressed the muzzle of the gun. The second shot wasgenerally too high, though with some it proved just right; but withnearly every gun the third shot
was exactly the proper range. Then theaim was taken at the rebel guns that were just beginning to fire, andfor nearly two hours there was an artillery duel, in which the infantryhad little to do but to look on.
“Through their glasses the officers could see that our fire was havingterrible effect. Several of the rebel cannon were disabled and sentto the rear. Several of our guns were disabled and retired, and theirplaces promptly filled by others; but somehow the enemy did not seem tohave a reserve to draw upon. Their fire slackened, their infantry seemedto be melting away, and through the smoke several of their men ranacross to our lines and surrendered.
“This confirmed what had already been reported through our camp, thatGeneral McCulloch had been killed, and also General McIntosh, one oftheir best officers, and formerly of the regular army. They said theyhad been entirely confident of capturing all of us, but the death ofthese generals had disheartened a good many of the men; and they werevery short of provisions and ammunition.
“We had thirty pieces of artillery playing on the rebels at one time.They could not respond with so many, and as their artillery fireslackened General Sigel suddenly ordered some of the guns to changetheir fire into the ranks of the infantry and cavalry that were waitingon the enemy’s flanks ready to charge us when ordered.
“The shell, grape and canister tore great swaths in the crowded ranksand piled up windrows of dead and wounded. No troops except the moststolid Asiatics could stand such a fire as that. The cavalry andinfantry melted away, and the artillery was without support.
“A battery of three guns on an open space at one side of the hill, andnear the road, became troublesome, and the fire of one of our batterieswas turned upon it. Then, as the return fire slackened, the wind blewaway the smoke and revealed its exact position.
“‘Send a regiment to take that battery,’ said General Sigel to one ofhis staff.
“The honor was given to the Twelfth Missouri, and as soon as the orderwas received away they dashed for their work. Across the field they wentat full charge, losing twelve men killed outright and more than twicethat number wounded, but not once did they halt. When the rebels sawthem coming they rallied several companies of infantry to the support ofthe battery, but too late to save it. The charge was successful and theguns were ours.”