CHAPTER XXX
THE FOLLOWING DAY
To the horror of the young soldier he saw that the chaplain waslifeless. The expression upon the face of the dead man was as peacefulas that of one who has fallen asleep in his own home.
The strange declaration which the chaplain had made, that he expected tofall in the fight into which he was about to enter, came back to Noelnow and strongly impressed him. It was strange, he thought, that such apremonition should have taken hold upon a man who was so sane andthoughtful.
There was little time, however, for consideration of matters ofsentiment. The struggle was not yet ended, and it was plain that theConfederates desperately were holding their ground.
Meanwhile the success which had been won stimulated the Union soldiers,and with shouts and shots they again pressed forward.
Not far before him Noel saw a line of men in gray who were loading andfiring steadily, and soon afterward he saw the line begin to waver.Directly in front of his own regiment the men gave way, and severalcompanies from the right pressed forward at one side and in this mannerbecame separated from the regiment itself.
Looking hastily behind him, Noel saw that he and his companions werethirty or forty paces in advance of the main line and now were withintwenty or thirty steps of the Confederate soldiers who were on theirleft. It was plain, too, that the Southern soldiers were not as yetaware of the approaching force.
In a brief time, however, they were dropping as grain falls before asickle. As Noel watched them a great wave of pity rushed over him. Hesaw that they were falling by scores.
Suddenly, at the extreme end of the line, he saw a tall man in grayhastily loading his gun. There was no regular command to fire now, andinstantly, hardly daring to hope that he was in time, Noel raised hisgun to his shoulder and fired. He saw the soldier pitch forward and fallinto a crevice between the rocks.
Unable to stop, step by step Noel Curtis with his companions pushed upthe steep side of the mountain. It was a marvelous sight to see thedetermination of the boys in blue and the steady resistance which theiropponents offered in such a place.
There was a halt made soon, and then Noel ran swiftly to the place wherehe had seen the man, at whom he had fired, fall.
When the young soldier arrived at the crevice, he saw the woundedsoldier sitting erect, and somehow a feeling of gratitude swept overNoel's heart that the man was not dead.
"Are you wounded?" he inquired hastily, as he stopped a moment.
Without speaking the man mournfully nodded his head in reply. Noel sawthat there was a wound in the neck of the soldier and also one in hisarm.
"Same bullet," said the Confederate briefly. "I was just ramming abullet home and had my arm reaching out this way." As he spoke, he roseto his feet and Noel was delighted to find that he was able to walk.
"You understand," said Noel, "that you are a prisoner?"
"I reckon I do," said the Confederate.
"I'll find some one to take charge of you and take you to the rear,where you will be out of danger and where the surgeon can attend toyou."
"That's good of you. I reckon you don't know who I am."
The man's face was discolored by smoke and powder, but as he spoke Noelinstantly recognized him as the husband of Sairy Ann's sister.
There was no time, however, for further conversation, and as soon as hesaw that the prisoner had been placed in charge of one of the boys, Noelthrew himself upon the ground and crawled back among the rocks to aposition where he was about fifteen paces in advance of his company. Hisintention now was to act as a sharpshooter, although he had received noorders to that effect.
Cocking his gun he rose abruptly from his position behind the rock, andthere, directly in front of him and not ten paces away, he beheld a grimrebel just bringing his gun to aim. His dark eyes seemed to flash fireas they scowled fiercely from beneath the broad brim of a large, uglyhat. He was aiming directly at the young soldier, too, and there wasslight chance of escape.
It was impossible for Noel to take careful aim under such circumstances.More quickly than ever before he brought his gun to his shoulder andblazed away, as it seemed to him almost at random, and then droppedinstantly behind the protecting rock. He hardly dared to breathe duringthe excitement. Every part of a second seemed like a long time. Therewas a fear that the fire of the rebel would reach him before he couldgain the protection of the rock, and, just as Noel dropped, the bullettipped the edge of the stone above his head.
Step by step the enemy now were retiring. Without venturing from theposition of safety which he had found, Noel waited until his lineadvanced.
The enemy still were falling back and the boys in blue still pressedsteadily forward. More prisoners were secured and were regularly beingconducted to the rear. The bodies of those who had fallen and thewounded were lying among the rocks.
For the first time Noel became aware that night was almost at an end. Afeeling of indescribable weariness swept over him. Even the bodies ofthe fallen men, some of which were within ten feet of the place where hewas standing, seemed to be vague and unreal.
The hospitals had been established about halfway down the hill. To themthe wounded wherever they were found were still being carried.Gradually the sound of the guns off to the left had been dying away.Ricketts's men were holding the fence, while the regiment in the midstof which Noel Curtis and Dennis had been struggling was resting on itsarms. No mounted orderlies could be found, as they had all beenwithdrawn to other parts of the army. Such horses as were left weresecured by being tied to the trees.
After the necessary dispositions for the night had been made, the men,wrapped in their cloaks or having donned their heavier coats, in utterweariness threw themselves upon the ground.
Noel was far from feeling easy in his mind. With his comrades he wasfearful that the enemy might make a night attack and was afraid of whatmight follow in the darkness and confusion.
The issue of the battle on the left was still uncertain and with thisfeeling of uneasiness still prevalent throughout the regiment the mensought to rest.
In spite of the excitement through which they had passed and in spite ofthe near-by presence of the dead, not many minutes elapsed beforeeverything was forgotten and every man was asleep.
Awake early the following morning, Noel was surprised to find that hisnearest sleeping comrade was Dennis. He had seen but little of the youngIrishman thus far in the engagement and, indeed, he had seldom thoughtof his friend.
Discovering that Dennis was awake, Noel in a low voice said to him,"Dennis, how is it that any of us are left alive?"
"Indade, 'tis a wonder," answered Dennis.
"Not so great, after all," remarked another soldier who was lying nearthe boys and had heard Noel's question. "The waste of ammunition in abattle is something marvelous. Our colonel told us that it takes almosta man's weight in lead to kill one soldier."
"It doesn't seem so," said Noel thoughtfully, "when you hear the volleysshrieking above your head or flying close to your ears, and when men,all excited and anxious, are trying to fire just as fast as they areable. It doesn't seem possible that so many can come alive out of afight."
"You must not forget," said the soldier, "that most of the men make nopretense at taking aim."
"And I guess," suggested Dennis, "that most of them don't. They actlike they were aiming at nothin' and trying to hit it."
"It is strange," said Noel, "how still the wounded men were. I didn'thear many who were groaning or making any cry. The most of them wereeither limping off, or being carried to the rear, or they were lyingdown where they fell, all quiet and still."
"The worst shock I got," suggested Dennis, "was when I stumbled over thebodies of some of the dead boys. That shook my nerves and made metremble like a leaf."
By this time the army was stirring once more and preparations for theapproaching day were being made. The great matter for rejoicing withNoel and Dennis was the fact that there had been no attack by the enemydurin
g the preceding night.
Hasty arrangements were made for the burial of the dead. The youngsoldier was marvelously impressed by the peaceful expression of most ofthe upturned faces which he saw.
The first question among the living, however, was, "Where is the enemy?"
In front of the fence which General Ricketts's troops were still holdingthere was no sign of the Confederates. Indeed, a strange, almostunnatural, silence rested over the entire region. The little stretchbetween the men and the cornfield seemed to be entirely free from thepresence of soldiers. There was a slight mist resting on themountain-side and through this could be dimly seen the fallen dead ofthe enemy.
With others Noel had been designated to care for the bodies of hiscomrades who had been killed in the fight. As he was moving about amongthe rocks and stumps, suddenly, a slight, boyish form without any weaponand clad in the customary gray uniform of the Confederate soldiers, wasseen by Noel kneeling over the body of a fallen man. To hisinexpressible horror Noel saw that the man was using his knife andtrying to remove a ring from the finger of the dead soldier.
Startled by the approach of Noel, the man suddenly looked up, and,instantly rising, said quickly, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot me! I vas yourprisoner."
The feeling of rage and disgust which had seized upon Noel's heartquickly gave way when to his surprise he saw that the approaching manwas none other than the little sutler, Levi Kadoff.