CHAPTER V. ON THE MARCH--CAPTURING A REBEL FLAG.
|It was a new life for Jack and Harry, and they greatly enjoyed it.Both declared that they slept more comfortably on the ground than theyhad formerly slept in bed, and as for the distance accomplished in aday’s march it was nothing to them. They cheerfully gave up their placesin the wagons to some of the footsore soldiers, and trudged along behindthe vehicles as merry as larks.
There was very little danger to be apprehended on the march, althoughthey were technically in the enemy’s country. In the part of Missourinorth of the river of the same name, there were a few straggling bandsof state troops under the command of General John B. Clark, but nothinglike a disciplined force that could offer resistance to a well-equippedregiment like the First Iowa. Whenever the regiment approached a townor village, most of the secessionists fled in dismay, after spreadingterrible stories of the atrocities that the invaders would be sureto commit as soon as they arrived. Those that remained were no doubtgreatly surprised at the good order that prevailed and the perfectrespect shown to private property. Everything required for the use ofthe soldiers was fully paid for, and instead of bewailing the visit ofthe invaders, many of the citizens, even those whose sympathies werenot with the Union, hoped they would come again. Later in the war thingschanged a good deal in this respect, as we shall see further on in ourstory.
One town through which the regiment passed, and where it halted forone day and a part of another to wait orders for further movements, wasreputed to be one of the worst nests of secession in that part of thestate.
There was a hotel in the town, and its owner had recently, so Jacklearned from a boy of about his age with whom he established friendlyrelations, given it the name of the Davis House, in honor of thePresident of the Southern Confederacy. Jack informed the soldiers ofthis discovery, and an examination of the front of the building showedthat the former name of the hotel had been painted out to make a placefor the new one.
Immediately a pot of white paint and one of black were procured, a roughstaging was erected, the word “Davis” was painted out, and “Union” tookits place. The proprietor protested, but his protest was of no use. Hewas told that the Union House would be much more popular than the DavisHouse could be by any possibility, and when they came around againthey expected to find the new name retained. The proprietor said hisneighbors would burn the building over his head if he allowed it toremain as it was, and as soon as the regiment had gone he set aboutchanging the obnoxious appellation. But he showed some worldly wisdomin giving it a new name altogether instead of restoring what might havebrought him into trouble with future visitors of the kind he had justhad. He avoided both “Davis” and “Union,” and called the establishmentthe “Missouri Hotel,” a name at which neither side could take offense.
The boy who told Jack about the hotel also informed him where a rebelflag was concealed. It had been made by several young women whosesympathies were with the southern cause, and was intended forpresentation to the captain of a company which would soon leave thecounty to fight on the southern side.
Jack hastened to Captain Herron, one of the officers of the regiment,and told what he had heard. The captain sent a detail of soldiers,under the guidance of Jack, who led the way to the house of one of theprincipal inhabitants of the place.
The sergeant in command of the squad of soldiers rapped at the door,which was opened by a servant. He asked for the lady of the house, andvery soon a comely matron of forty or more stood before him.
“We beg your pardon for disturbing you,” said the sergeant; “but we wanta rebel flag that we are told has been made here recently.”
“You shan’t come into my house,” was the angry reply; “and we’ve no flagfor you Yankees.”
She was about to close the door in the sergeant’s face, but the latterstopped her from so doing by stepping forward and holding it open. Thenhe ordered his men to follow him, which they did, accompanied by Jack.
“Be kind enough to show us through the house,” said the sergeant; “wedon’t want to trouble you, but we must have that flag.”
“If you are after a flag you won’t find any,” she answered; “and as forshowing a lot of Yankees through the house, I won’t.”
The sergeant ordered one man to stay at the front door and another atthe rear, “and permit nobody to leave the house.” Then he called theservant, a negro woman, who had opened the door, and ordered her to showthe way through the rooms. Accustomed to obedience, the woman did asshe was told, her mistress being so overcome with rage that she did notendeavor to exercise her authority over the servant.
Jack had told the sergeant that the flag was hidden between thesheets of a bed in the first sleeping-room at the head of the stairs;consequently that was the room which the sergeant intimated he wouldlike to see first.
The room was found and so was the bed, but no flag. The bed showed signsof very recent disturbance, as though something had been withdrawn fromit. Evidently the flag had been taken away during the parley at thedoor. The room was searched in every part, but no sign of the flag wasfound; then other rooms were examined, but with the same result.
The soldiers went through the entire house, the sergeant giving themstrict orders to search everywhere, but at the same time to injurenothing. Just as they were about to give up the enterprise as a bad job,a brilliant thought occurred to Jack.
He mounted the stairs again and went straight to the bed which had firstbeen the object of their examination. Pulling down the bed-clothes,which had been left in a disordered condition after the investigationof the soldiers, he found the desired flag and bore it in triumph to thesergeant.
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Then the sergeant withdrew his men, after again apologizing to themistress of the house, who was so angry that she could not, or wouldnot, speak. On the way back to camp the sergeant asked Jack how it washe knew the flag was where he found it.
“I sort o’ guessed it,” replied Jack. “I noticed that the woman and hertwo daughters did n’t stay with us while we were rummaging the house,but kept going in and out of the rooms, leaving the servant to show usaround.
“I thought they were up to something, especially as one of the daughtersdid n’t show up at all while we were talking at the door before we wentin.
“Now, I figured out that while we were talking with the old gal theyoung one we did n’t see was taking the flag out of the bed and hidingit somewhere else. When they saw us at the door they knew what we’d comefor, and probably guessed we ‘d been told where the flag was.
“Well, after we’d looked through that bed and all the room withoutfinding anything, we went on to the next room. They knew we ‘d hunt highand low for the flag, and go through every part of the house. Now, ifyou’d a-been in their place what would you have done, when you knew youcould n’t get out of the house without being seen?”
“I see it now,” said the sergeant, “though I did n’t before. I’d havewatched my chance by going round through the halls, and put the flag inone of the places that had been searched, and there would n’t have beenany better place than the bed where we first went for it.”
“That’s just what I thought,” said Jack in reply; “and when I saw theold gal give a wink to the young one and the young one winked backagain, it just occurred to me to go to the bed and have another look.”
“You’d make a good detective,” said the sergeant approvingly, and thenthe conversation turned to the flag they had captured and the probableuse that would be made of it.
“That’s for the captain to say,” replied the sergeant in reply to Jack’squery.
The sergeant turned the flag over to the captain and the latter dulyadmired it and praised Jack for his acuteness. The secession emblemwas a fine one, being made of the best bunting procurable in St. Louis,whence the material was specially ordered. It was the regular secessionflag, the “Stars and Bars,” and was intended to be displayed on thebattlefield, where the rebels confidently hoped to put the
defenders ofthe Union to flight at the first fire. Along the center of the flagthe following couplet had been deftly embroidered by the fingers of theyoung ladies by whom the banner was made, and the lines were saidto have been the composition of the maiden who so signally failed inconcealing the precious standard from the search of the invaders:
“Federals from thee shall flee, Gallant sons of Liberty!”
Jack suggested that they should have added the following quotation fromRobert Burns, as a suitable intimation of thee possibilities in thecase:
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft a-glev”