The Rock of Chickamauga by Joseph A. Altsheler (best love novels of all time txt) 📖
- Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
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He fell asleep to the homely music of the frogs among the reeds, and
slept without stir until nearly dawn.
Just as the first strip of gray showed in the east Colonel Winchester
walked toward the spot where Dick and his comrades lay. The colonel had
not slept that night. His fine face was worn and thin, but the blue eyes
were alight with strength and energy. He had just left a conference of
high officers, and he came upon a mission. He reached the three lads,
and looked down at them with a sort of pity. He knew that it was his
duty to awake them at once and send them upon a perilous errand, but
they were so young, and they had already been through so much that he
hesitated.
He put his hand upon Dick's shoulder and shook him. But it took more
than one shake to awaken the lad, and it was fully a minute before he
opened his eyes and sat up. Dick conscious but partly and rubbing his
sleepy eyes, asked:
"What is it? Are we to go into battle again? Yes, sir! Yes, sir! I'm
ready!"
"Not that, Dick, but I've orders for you."
Dick now awoke completely and saw that it was Colonel Winchester. He
sprang to his feet and saluted.
"We'll wake up Warner and Pennington next," said the colonel, "because
they go also on the kind of duty to which you're assigned."
"I'm glad of that," said Dick warmly.
Warner and Pennington were aroused with difficulty, but, as soon as
they realized that Colonel Winchester was before them and that they were
selected for a grave duty, they became at once keen and alert.
"Lads," said the colonel briefly, "you've all felt that we're now led by
a great commander. But energy and daring on the part of a leader demand
energy and daring on the part of his men. General Grant is about to
undertake a great enterprise, one that demands the concentration of his
troops. I want you, Warner, to go to General Sherman with this dispatch,
and here is one for you, Pennington, to take to General Banks."
He paused a moment and Dick asked:
"Am I to be left out?"
Colonel Winchester smiled.
He liked this eagerness on the part of his boys, and yet there was
sadness in his smile, too. Young lieutenants who rode forth on errands
often failed to come back.
"You're included, Dick," he said, "and I think that yours is the most
perilous mission of them all. Pennington, you and Warner can be making
ready and I'll tell Dick what he's to do."
The Vermonter and the Nebraskan hurried away and Colonel Winchester,
taking Dick by the arm, walked with him beyond the circle of firelight.
"Dick," he said gently, "they asked me to choose the one in my command
whom I thought most fit for this duty to be done, and I've selected you,
although I'm sending you into a great peril."
Dick flushed with pride at the trust. Youth blinded him at present to
its perils.
"Thank you, sir," he said simply.
"You will recall Major Hertford, who was with us in Kentucky before the
Shiloh days?"
"I could not forget him, sir. One of our most gallant officers."
"You speak truly. He is one of our bravest, and also one of our ablest.
I speak of him as Major Hertford, but he has lately been promoted to the
rank of colonel, and he is operating toward the East with a large body
of cavalry, partly in conjunction with Grierson, who saved us at the
ford."
"And you want me to reach him, sir!"
"You've divined it. He is near Jackson, the capital of this state, and,
incidentally, you're to discover as much as you can about Jackson and
the Confederate dispositions in that direction. We wish Hertford to join
General Grant's advance, which will presently move toward Jackson, and
we rely upon you to find him."
"I'll do it, if he's to be found at all," said Dick fervently.
"I knew it, but, Dick, you're to go in your uniform. I'll not have you
executed as a spy in case you're taken. Nor are you to carry any written
message to Colonel Hertford. He knows you well, and he'll accept your
word at once as truth. Now, this is a ride that will call for woodcraft
as well as soldiership."
"I start at once, do I not, sir?"
"You do. Warner and Pennington are ready now, and your own horse is
waiting for you. Here is a small map which I have reason to believe is
accurate, at least fairly so, although few of our men know much of this
country. But use it, lad, as best you can."
It was a sheet of thick fibrous paper about six inches square and, after
a hasty glance at it, Dick folded it up carefully and put it in his
pocket. Warner and Pennington appeared then, mounted and armed and ready
to tell him good-bye. He and Colonel Winchester watched them a moment
or two as they rode away, and then an orderly appeared with Dick's
own horse, a fine bay, saddled, bridled, saddlebags filled with food,
pistols in holsters, and a breech-loading rifle strapped to the saddle.
"I've made your equipment the best I could," said Colonel Winchester,
"and after you start, lad, you must use your own judgment."
He wrung the hand of the boy, for whom his affection was genuine and
deep, and Dick sprang into the saddle.
"Good-bye, colonel," he said, "I thank you for this trust, and I won't
fail."
It was not a boast. It was courage speaking from the heart of youth and,
as Dick rode out of the camp on his good horse, he considered himself
equal to any task. He felt an enormous pride because he was chosen for
such an important and perilous mission, and he summoned every faculty to
meet its hardships and dangers.
He had the password, and the sentinels wished him good luck. So did the
men who were gathering firewood. One, a small, weazened fellow, gave him
an envious look.
"Wish I was going riding with you," he said. "It's fine in the woods
now."
Dick laughed through sheer exuberance of spirits.
"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't," he said. "Perhaps the forest is filled
with rebel sharpshooters."
"If you ride toward Jackson you're likely to strike Confederate bands."
"I didn't say where I'm going, but you may be certain I'll keep a watch
for those bands wherever I may be."
The little man was uncommonly strong nevertheless, as he carried on his
shoulder a heavy log which he threw down by one of the fires, but Dick,
absorbed in his journey, forgot the desire of the soldier to be riding
through the forest too.
He soon left the camp behind. He looked back at it only once, and beheld
the luminous glow of the campfires. Then the forest shut it out and he
rode on through a region almost abandoned by its people owing to the
converging armies. He did not yet look at his map, because he knew that
he would soon come into the main road to Jackson. It would be sufficient
to determine his course then.
Dick was not familiar with the farther South, which was a very different
region from his own Kentucky. His home was a region of firm land, hills
and clear streams, but here the ground lay low, the soil was soft and
the waters dark and sluggish. But his instincts as a woodsman were
fortified by much youthful training, and he felt that he could find the
way.
It gave him now great joy to leave the army and ride away through the
deep woods. He was tired of battle and the sight of wounds and death.
The noises of the camp were painful to his ear, and in the forest he
found peace.
He was absolutely alone in his world, and glad of it. The woods were in
all the depth and richness of a Southern spring. Vast masses of green
foliage billowed away to right and left. Great festoons of moss hung
from the oaks, and trailing vines wrapped many of the trees almost to
their tops. Wild flowers, pink, yellow and blue, unknown by name to
Dick, bloomed in the open spaces.
The air of early morning was crisp with the breath of life. He had come
upon a low ridge of hard ground, away from the vast current and low,
sodden shores of the Mississippi. Here was a clean atmosphere, and the
forest, the forest everywhere. A mockingbird, perched on a bough almost
over his head, began to pour forth his liquid song, and from another far
away came the same song like an echo. Dick looked up but he could not
see the bird among the branches. Nevertheless he waved his hand toward
the place from which the melody came and gave a little trill in reply.
Then he said aloud:
"It's a happy omen that you give me. I march away to the sound of
innocent music."
Then he increased his speed a little and rode without stopping until he
came to the main road to Jackson. There he examined his map upon which
were marked many rivers, creeks, lagoons and bayous, with extensive
shaded areas meaning forests. In the southeastern corner of the map was
Jackson, close to which he meant to go.
He rode on at a fair pace, keeping an extremely careful watch ahead and
on either side of the road. He meant to turn aside soon into the woods,
but for the present he thought himself safe in the road--it was not
likely that Southern raiders would come so near to the Union camp.
His feeling of peace deepened. He was so far away now that no warlike
sound could reach him. Instead the song of the mockingbird pursued
him. Dick, full of youth and life, began to whistle the tune with the
songster, and his horse perhaps soothed too by the rhythm broke into the
gentle pace which is so easy for the rider.
It was early dawn, and the west was not yet wholly light. The east was
full of gold, but the silver lingered on the opposite horizon, and
the hot sun of Mississippi did not yet shed its rays over the earth.
Instead, a cool breeze blew on Dick's face, and the quick blood was
still leaping in his veins. The road dipped down and he came to a brook,
which was clear despite its proximity to the mighty yellow trench of the
Mississippi.
He let his horse drink freely, and, while he drank, he surveyed the
country as well as he could. On his left he saw through a fringe of
woods a field of young corn and showing dimly beyond it a small house.
Unbroken forest stretched away on his right, but in field as well as
forest there was no sign of a human being.
He studied his map again, noting the great number of water courses,
which in the spring season were likely to be at the flood, and, for
the first time, he realized the extreme difficulty of his mission.
Mississippi was in the very heart of the Confederacy. He could not
expect any sympathetic farmers to help him or show him the way. More
likely as he advanced toward Jackson he would find the country swarming
with the friends of the Confederacy, and to pass through them would
demand the last resource of skill and courage. Perhaps it would have
been wiser had he put on citizens clothes and taken his chances as a
spy! He did not know that Colonel Winchester would have ordered the
disguise had the one who rode on this most perilous mission been any
other than he.
The realization brought with it extreme caution. Growing up in a country
which was still mainly in forest, not differing much from its primitive
condition, save for the absence of Indians and big game, he had learned
to be at home in the woods, and now he turned from the path, riding
among the trees.
He kept a course some distance from the road, where he was sheltered
by the deep foliage and could yet see what was passing along the main
artery of travel. The ground at times was spongy, making traveling hard,
and twice his horse swam deep creeks. He would have turned into the road
at these points but the bridges were broken down and he had no other
choice.
The morning waned, and the coolness departed. The sun hung overhead,
blazing hot, and the air in the forest grew dense and heavy. He would
have been glad to turn back into the road, in the hope of finding a
breeze in the open space, but caution still kept him in the forest.
He soon saw two men in brown jeans riding mules, farmers perhaps, but
carrying rifles on their shoulders, and,
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