CHAPTER XXXIX. A JOKE ON THE SPIES--WONDERFUL SHELLS--THE ARMY REACHESCLARENDON.
|A flag of truce came during the evening, but was not admitted. Thebearers were informed that the dead were being buried by our own men,and the wounded receiving every attention. The next morning anotherflag of truce came, and as there was no good reason for it, the generalnaturally suspected that it was a pretext to learn something about ourforces and position.
He admitted the bearers of the flag, and kept them inside his lines allday, so that anything they might learn by the use of their eyes wouldnot be of any advantage to their side. The suspicion that the burial ofthe dead and the care of the wounded was not the real cause of the visitwas strengthened by the inquisitiveness of some of the men, and the factthat one of them was discovered making notes of certain conversationswhen he thought he was not observed.
Harry was the discoverer of this note-taking, and reported thecircumstance to General Vandever.
“If that’s what they’re after,” remarked the general, “we ‘ll give’emall they want.”
So he had the visitors transferred from the tent where they were atthe time, and placed in a room in one of the outbuildings not far away.There was another room in the same building, and the partition betweenthe two was full of cracks, so that conversation could be heard withease from one room to the other.
The general instructed Harry as to what he was to do, and then he wentwith his adjutant and two or three other officers to the room adjoiningthe one where the truce-bearers were held.
“Here we can talk without being disturbed,” said the general. “Myorderly knows where I am, and if I’m wanted he ‘ll call me.”
Everything was perfectly still in the adjoining room, and it was evidentthat the men there were using their ears to the best advantage.
“Now,” said the general, “to begin with, I suppose you don’t understandwhy we’re marching south and along the White river.”
There was a pause, and then he continued:
“We’re not strong enough to go to Little Rock now,” he said; “but thethirty-five thousand men with ninety-two pieces of artillery that willjoin us in the next week will put us on the offensive, and then LittleRock must look out.”
“How are we going there?” queried one of the officers. “General Curtistold me this morning that we should go across the country to withinabout thirty miles of Little Rock, or perhaps twenty miles, and there heshould divide the force. Two-thirds of it will cross on pontoons, whichare being brought along by the new army, and there will be enough ofthem to lay three bridges over the river at once. While they oppose usat one place we ‘ll get over at another, and in three hours the entireforce for that side will be safely landed. Then they ‘ll go to therear of Little Rock and lay siege to it, while the other third of ourstrength will fire away at it from the other side of the river. Therewill be four batteries of heavy siege-guns playing on the town all atonce, and they are bringing two thousand shells loaded with Greek fireto burn up every house in the place if necessary. Twenty-four hours willbe allowed for sending out women, children and other non-combatants, andthen the battle will begin.”
“But won’t they be likely to interrupt us on the way with General Rust’sarmy and other troops they can get together?”
“They may try, but it ‘ll be bad for’em,” was the reply. “The governmenthas sent us some of the new shells invented by a Yankee somewhere inMassachusetts, that have done wonderful work in Virginia.”
“What are those? I haven’t heard of them.”
“Well, we’ve been keeping it pretty quiet,” was the reply, “as we don’twant the rebels on this side of the Mississippi to find it out if we canhelp it. These new shells are loaded with a composition that spreads outwhen it explodes, and kills everybody within twenty yards. It’s a secretcomposition, and the government pays fifty dollars for each shell theinventor delivers, and he guarantees that if two of these shells arefired where there is a regiment, it will kill every man in it. They arenot wounded at all, but just fall down as though struck by lightning.Here’s an account of what they ‘ll do.”
The general took a document from his pocket, and pretended to read awonderful story of how the entire garrison of a rebel fort on the Jamesriver was killed by one of these new-fangled shells, which had beendropped into it from a mortar fully a mile away. He told his friendsthey must keep the matter secret, as it was known only to General Curtisand a few of his higher officers, and they were particularly desirousthat the information should n’t leak out. “There ‘ll be three hundred ofthose shells,” said he, “and half of them will be enough to kill all therebels in Arkansas.”
Then he went on with other wild yarns with the utmost seriousness, andat length was interrupted by Harry, who delivered some despatchesjust received by General Curtis from General Halleck and brought bya courier, who came through from Helena in disguise. They announced agreat victory for the union army in Virginia, the imminent capture ofRichmond, the surrender of a large part of Lee’s army, together withother bits of information that would have been highly important if true.
When it was thought that the eavesdroppers had been properly “loaded,” as the general expressed it, the party retired, and the flag-of-trucebearers were left to ponder on what they had heard. In the afternoon thearmy moved forward to take up a new camp, and when the column wasunder way--in fact after the greater part of it had marched off--thetruce-party was released and allowed to go back to its own camp.
The seed was sown on good ground. There was great alarm through therebel ranks at the new terrors in store for them, and in spite of allthe vigilance of the commanders, there were numerous desertions daily.The more intelligent among the officers had a suspicion that theeavesdroppers had been hoaxed, but they were powerless to stop thespreading of the reports, which grew in horror as they passed from mouthto mouth. The wonderful shells which could sweep off so many men “asthough they had been struck by lightning” disturbed the dreams of many asoldier of Arkansas or Texas, and were not often out of his thoughts inhis waking hours.
Very soon after this event the rebels abandoned Des Arc, andconcentrated in the capital or around it. Earthworks were thrown up todefend the city against the threatened attack, and so much attention waspaid to Little Rock that all other parts of the state were practicallydeserted.
And those wonderful shells are yet resting in the brain of the man whoinvented them. Perhaps they will be developed in some future war.
It is well to remark at this point that the trick which was played onthe flag-of-truce bearers is by no means a new one, though it was newenough on that occasion. It was played several times by both sidesduring the war; but its most successful performance was by StonewallJackson in one of his campaigns in the Shenandoah valley.
Several captured union officers were under guard in a house inWinchester, and expected to be sent to Richmond and locked up inLibby prison. General Jackson had a council of war with his divisioncommanders in a room adjoining the one where the officers were confined,he gave his orders with great exactness, told where each division wasto march, and sent the commanders away one after another to get hisforce in readiness. They were to advance on the union position and givebattle, and everything was prepared with the utmost care.
Then he asked his adjutant-general when he had sent the prisoners toRichmond.
“They have n’t been sent off yet, General,” was the reply. “But we ‘llstart them soon after daylight. General Stuart said his cavalry mustrest till then.”
“If they have n’t gone now,” said the general, “you’d better parole themand send them down the valley. Let them start immediately, so that they‘ll be well out of the way before we begin our advance.”
With this the general went out and was soon followed by the adjutant.In fifteen minutes an officer came to take their paroles, and they wereescorted to the union lines by a flag-of-truce party. As they passedthrough the town they saw that preparations were going on f
or amovement, and when they got within their own camp they of course toldwhat they had heard.
Of course their information was valuable, and preparations were at oncemade to resist the advance. Hour after hour passed away waiting forStonewall Jackson, but he did n’t come. All those hours he was marchingthe other way as fast as possible, and executing one of those movementsfor which he was famous. He suddenly appeared at a point where he wasleast expected, and then it was realized that his talk in hearing of theprisoners was all a ruse.
For the rest of the way to Clarendon General Curtis met with noopposition other than that caused by trees felled across the road. Ithad been reported that a gunboat and two transports with supplies hadreached Clarendon and were waiting for him, and he was very desirousof finding them. The rumor passed along the lines that transports andsupplies were at hand, and so the soldiers pushed vigorously on to thatpoint.
They reached Clarendon on the afternoon of the ninth of July, and werebitterly disappointed. The gun-boat and transports had been there andwaited a while, but as they could get no tidings of the whereabouts ofGeneral Curtis, and the rebels were said to be mustering in force fortheir capture, it was considered prudent to retire. The transports hadbeen gone about twenty hours when the advance of the column arrived,and with them the supplies that had been so anxiously desired. Truly thearmy seemed to have been deserted in the wilderness.
From all that could be learned there was no enemy between Clarendon andthe Mississippi, the nearest point of which was about sixty miles away.There might be a few straggling bands of bushwackers, but nothing thatcould make any serious opposition. But sixty miles is a long distance ina strange country, and when provisions are running short.
The inhabitants of Clarendon were much like those of Batesville andJacksonport, thoroughly secession in their sympathies, and wonderingwhen the war would end, so that they might get their cotton to market.They had very little to sell in the way of provisions, as they had beenpretty well cleaned out by their own government; but the usual foraging,in which Harry and Jack took a prominent part, served to bring manythings edible to light.
Most of the able-bodied men were away at the war, leaving behind onlythe aged and the boys who were too young for service. Among those whoremained was a lawyer, a dignified and red-nosed citizen of some sixtyor more years, who demanded audience with General Curtis, in order toprove to him that he had no constitutional right to invade the State ofArkansas!
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