Read The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War Page 4
CHAPTER IV.
The brigade was halted in the fringe of a grove. The men crouchedamong the trees and pointed their restless guns out at the fields. Theytried to look beyond the smoke.
Out of this haze they could see running men. Some shouted informationand gestured as they hurried.
The men of the new regiment watched and listened eagerly, while theirtongues ran on in gossip of the battle. They mouthed rumors that hadflown like birds out of the unknown.
"They say Perry has been driven in with big loss."
"Yes, Carrott went t' th' hospital. He said he was sick. That smartlieutenant is commanding 'G' Company. Th' boys say they won't be underCarrott no more if they all have t' desert. They allus knew he was a--"
"Hannises' batt'ry is took."
"It ain't either. I saw Hannises' batt'ry off on th' left not more'nfifteen minutes ago."
"Well--"
"Th' general, he ses he is goin' t' take th' hull cammand of th' 304thwhen we go inteh action, an' then he ses we'll do sech fightin' asnever another one reg'ment done."
"They say we're catchin' it over on th' left. They say th' enemy driv'our line inteh a devil of a swamp an' took Hannises' batt'ry."
"No sech thing. Hannises' batt'ry was 'long here 'bout a minute ago."
"That young Hasbrouck, he makes a good off'cer. He ain't afraid 'anothin'."
"I met one of th' 148th Maine boys an' he ses his brigade fit th' hullrebel army fer four hours over on th' turnpike road an' killed aboutfive thousand of 'em. He ses one more sech fight as that an' th' war'll be over."
"Bill wasn't scared either. No, sir! It wasn't that. Bill ain'ta-gittin' scared easy. He was jest mad, that's what he was. When thatfeller trod on his hand, he up an' sed that he was willin' t' give hishand t' his country, but he be dumbed if he was goin' t' have everydumb bushwhacker in th' kentry walkin' 'round on it. Se he went t' th'hospital disregardless of th' fight. Three fingers was crunched. Th'dern doctor wanted t' amputate 'm, an' Bill, he raised a heluva row, Ihear. He's a funny feller."
The din in front swelled to a tremendous chorus. The youth and hisfellows were frozen to silence. They could see a flag that tossed inthe smoke angrily. Near it were the blurred and agitated forms oftroops. There came a turbulent stream of men across the fields. Abattery changing position at a frantic gallop scattered the stragglersright and left.
A shell screaming like a storm banshee went over the huddled heads ofthe reserves. It landed in the grove, and exploding redly flung thebrown earth. There was a little shower of pine needles.
Bullets began to whistle among the branches and nip at the trees. Twigsand leaves came sailing down. It was as if a thousand axes, wee andinvisible, were being wielded. Many of the men were constantly dodgingand ducking their heads.
The lieutenant of the youth's company was shot in the hand. He beganto swear so wondrously that a nervous laugh went along the regimentalline. The officer's profanity sounded conventional. It relieved thetightened senses of the new men. It was as if he had hit his fingerswith a tack hammer at home.
He held the wounded member carefully away from his side so that theblood would not drip upon his trousers.
The captain of the company, tucking his sword under his arm, produced ahandkerchief and began to bind with it the lieutenant's wound. And theydisputed as to how the binding should be done.
The battle flag in the distance jerked about madly. It seemed to bestruggling to free itself from an agony. The billowing smoke wasfilled with horizontal flashes.
Men running swiftly emerged from it. They grew in numbers until it wasseen that the whole command was fleeing. The flag suddenly sank downas if dying. Its motion as it fell was a gesture of despair.
Wild yells came from behind the walls of smoke. A sketch in gray andred dissolved into a moblike body of men who galloped like wild horses.
The veteran regiments on the right and left of the 304th immediatelybegan to jeer. With the passionate song of the bullets and the bansheeshrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and bits of facetiousadvice concerning places of safety.
But the new regiment was breathless with horror. "Gawd! Saunders'sgot crushed!" whispered the man at the youth's elbow. They shrank backand crouched as if compelled to await a flood.
The youth shot a swift glance along the blue ranks of the regiment. Theprofiles were motionless, carven; and afterward he remembered that thecolor sergeant was standing with his legs apart, as if he expected tobe pushed to the ground.
The following throng went whirling around the flank. Here and therewere officers carried along on the stream like exasperated chips. Theywere striking about them with their swords and with their left fists,punching every head they could reach. They cursed like highwaymen.
A mounted officer displayed the furious anger of a spoiled child. Heraged with his head, his arms, and his legs.
Another, the commander of the brigade, was galloping about bawling. Hishat was gone and his clothes were awry. He resembled a man who hascome from bed to go to a fire. The hoofs of his horse often threatenedthe heads of the running men, but they scampered with singular fortune.In this rush they were apparently all deaf and blind. They heeded notthe largest and longest of the oaths that were thrown at them from alldirections.
Frequently over this tumult could be heard the grim jokes of thecritical veterans; but the retreating men apparently were not evenconscious of the presence of an audience.
The battle reflection that shone for an instant in the faces on the madcurrent made the youth feel that forceful hands from heaven would nothave been able to have held him in place if he could have gotintelligent control of his legs.
There was an appalling imprint upon these faces. The struggle in thesmoke had pictured an exaggeration of itself on the bleached cheeks andin the eyes wild with one desire.
The sight of this stampede exerted a floodlike force that seemed ableto drag sticks and stones and men from the ground. They of thereserves had to hold on. They grew pale and firm, and red and quaking.
The youth achieved one little thought in the midst of this chaos. Thecomposite monster which had caused the other troops to flee had notthen appeared. He resolved to get a view of it, and then, he thoughthe might very likely run better than the best of them.