A Lieutenant at Eighteen Page 14

  CHAPTER XI

  THE APPROACH OF ANOTHER CAVALRY FORCE

  The soldiers on both sides were already engaged in removing the dead tothe side of the road next to the woods, and the wounded to therespective hospitals, which had been established in the fields of thefarmer. The riflemen had heard the recall, and followed the defeatedcavalrymen, bearing their wounded, and handed them over to the surgeon,who had called in three medical students to his aid. Lieutenant Ripleyhad handled his sharpshooters so skilfully that not a single man hadbeen killed, and only three had been wounded.

  He had kept his force behind the trees, and fought the enemy at longrange, in which the carbines and other firearms were not effective; andthis policy explained the absence of all fatalities in Ripley's force.The three wounded men were not severely injured, and only one wasdisabled.

  Deck sent Sergeant Knox to Captain Gordon with the information of theapproaching cavalry force which was now the great matter of interest.He sent Life and Milton as scouts, to ascertain "their politics," asthe sergeant put it. His eyes were very sharp, and always looking abouthim, like the skilful seaman when he comes on deck. He reported that hehad seen the force descending a hill more than a mile distant,disappearing in a few minutes in the valley below. Life and Miltonstarted off at a gallop, and had soon passed out of sight.

  "What does that report mean, Captain Gordon?" inquired ColonelHalliburn, as soon as the two scouts had dashed down the column.

  "I am sure I don't know; but if I should infer anything from theappearance of a force at this time, it would be that it was anothercompany of Confederate cavalry," replied the captain. "Can anyintelligence of our movements have reached the enemy to the eastward ofus, Colonel?"

  "It is more than possible that some one going across by the privateroad passing my brother's mansion may have carried the news of what hasbeen going on at Breedings, and on the road from Millersville toHarrison, but not to Jamestown, for the great wood lies in the route,and no one travels that way."

  "It is probable, then, that the force approaching is Confederate, onits way either to forage or to retrieve the disasters to that side inthe affairs of yesterday; and all we have to do is to prepare to fightanother engagement. I believe the dead and wounded have all beenremoved by this time. I see that the sharpshooters have assisted my menin this work."

  "I sent an order to them to that effect," added Colonel Halliburn.

  "I thank you for doing so; and all the more that we are threatened byanother force of the enemy," continued the captain. "Your men,especially the riflemen, have rendered very important service in thisaction, and I shall report it to Major Lyon when the squadron isreunited. The rest of your men have been very useful to us, not only inguarding the wagons, but in the fight with the second platoon. I thinkyou had better send an orderly to Lieutenant Ripley with an order thathe remain where he is by the woods; for if we engage another company ofthe enemy, the riflemen will be needed to act as sharpshooters, and torender the same service as before, though they will probably not bedriven back again beyond rifle-shot distance from the road."

  "As the enemy approach they will see the hospitals on their left, andthat will apprise them that a battle has been fought here."

  "We have not time to remove these hospitals, and put everything as itwas at the beginning of the engagement; but I shall fight thisencounter so far as possible on the same plan as before, for it workedadmirably; and we owe the result as much to our fortunate position asto anything else, for it enabled me to place your riflemen where theydid the most effective work of the morning."

  Captain Gordon had already despatched messengers to his twolieutenants, instructing them to move their platoons back to the sideof the hill to the positions they had occupied before the action; andthis order was now in process of being executed. Dr. Barlow, though hehad been a fighting man at the beginning of the engagement, was nowattending to the wounded, assisted by some men he had selected from hisown company.

  "I think you had better take possession of the house of this Seceshfarmer for the wounded. He would have spoiled the morning's work if hehad escaped, for he would have warned the enemy of their danger from asuperior force."

  The captain approved the idea, and instructed the colonel to effect theremoval with his own force. The riflemen were also directed to removethe dead into the forest until there was time to dispose of them. Theground was still strewn with the dead, as they had fallen under thedestructive fire of the sharpshooters. With the exception of theConfederate hospital, which was near the foot of the hill,--for theirown surgeon had chosen the location by the side of a flowing brook, inthe shadow of some mighty walnuts,--the hill presented the sameappearance as when the enemy came in sight of it, and had been lured onto their defeat by the deceptive silence of the locality; for not asound or a moving thing betrayed the peril that surrounded them.

  Life Knox and Milton had run their horses to the utmost extent of theirability for over half a mile. When the tramp of the horses was heard,they halted and concealed themselves at the side of the road, at a bendof it; but they had hardly done so before the sound of the horses' feetceased to be heard, and it looked as though the force had halted. Lifedismounted, and climbed a tree not less than a hundred feet in height,which enabled him to see into the low ground on the other side of aslight elevation.

  The cavalry were extended along a brook, watering their horses on bothsides of it. The trees overtopped the stream so that it was quite darkon its banks, and the distance was so great that Life could not makeout whether the men wore the blue or the gray, especially as he hadmade up his mind that the force was an enemy, and the trees half hidthem from his view. He descended from his perch, and waited on theground till he heard the clatter of a couple of horses near hishiding-place. He obtained a view of these men, and they wore blueuniforms.

  "All right!" exclaimed Life. "They wear the blue."

  He waited no longer, but darted into the road, followed by Milton. Thetwo men, who were scouting in advance of the company, brought theircarbines to the shoulder.

  "I reckon you needn't shoot, Keene," said the sergeant quietly.

  "Sergeant Knox!" cried the chief scout. "How came you here? Where isyour company?"

  "They ain't fur from here. Are you piloting the second company of theRiverlawn Cavalry, Keene?"

  "Fox and me are treading down the mud for the company."

  "All right; we uns will fall back and report to Major Lyon," said Life,and he galloped back to the main body of the company.

  The commander of the squadron was riding at the head of the secondcompany, and appeared to be absorbed in his own thoughts. He hadlearned a great deal about the situation in Pulaski, Russell, and AdairCounties, where the Confederate foragers had raided to secure suppliesfor the main army, and where, as in many other parts of the State, theindependent partisan bands had conducted operations on their ownresponsibility. A spur of the Cumberland Mountains extended through theeastern part of the first-named county, and most of the region betweenthis range and Virginia was mountainous. It was not so rich in suppliesfor an army as the territory to the west of it, to which the raidershad confined their depredations.

  Major Lyon, like a good soldier, occasionally cast his eyes around himto take in the condition and topography of the country through which hewas passing; and he discovered the two scouts as they approached thehead of the company. His first supposition was that the first companyhad fallen into trouble, and that the two scouts had been sent forwardto hurry up the other company; for the two, as it had been arranged bythe major, were to come together at Harrison, twenty-five miles fromMillersville.

  Life Knox rode forward in advance of Milton, and the commander of thesquadron promptly recognized the tall, gaunt form of the sergeant; andhis thoughts dwelt upon the occasion that had brought him this visit.Life approached the major to within a rod of him, when he stopped hishorse, and saluted him with his usual deference to his superiors.

  "Good-morning, Life," said t
he commander. "I hope no misfortune hasbrought you in this direction. Are you escaping from an enemy that hasoverwhelmed the first company?"

  "Nothin' of the sort, Major Lyon," replied Life, a broad smile lightingup his face. "We have met an enemy, and they'd run away if we'd let'em."

  This reply removed the burden of anxiety which had fallen upon the mindof the major when he discovered the scouts, and he smiled in his placidmanner with the sergeant.

  "Where is your company, Life?" he asked.

  "I reckon it ain't more'n half a mile from here," replied the scout.

  "I suppose you have news for me," continued the commander.

  "Lots on't; but I can say that Captain Gordon, whether he is to meet afriend or an enemy in the cavalry, is comin' down this road. I don'treckon he's worryin' about it; but he may just be a bit anxious to knowwhether or not he is to fight you. If you don't object, Major Lyon,I'll let Milton ride back and tell the cap'n he won't have to fight nomore just yet."

  "Send him at once, Life;" and in a minute more the other scout wasgalloping his horse in the direction of the hill where the firstcompany were posted. "What have you been doing, sergeant?"

  "The fust company has fit into three scrimmages, and cleaned out a gangof gorillas," replied Life, as though he realized that he had a goodreport to make in answer to the question.

  "You have been busy; and that explains the reason why I did not findyou at Harrison as I expected," replied the major. "Tell me all aboutit; and as Captain Gordon is not in need of a re-enforcement, we willwalk the horses, and listen to your story. Captain Truman, let the menwalk the horses."

  "Company--attention!" shouted the captain, wheeling his horse."Walk--March!"

  "Place yourself on the left of Sergeant Knox, and listen to his story."

  Life saluted the captain, who said he was glad to see him, and took theplace to which he was assigned.

  "We had not gone two miles from Columbia before a messenger came to usand said that a cavalry force was moving down on Breedings," Lifeobserved. "The captain took the second platoon under LieutenantBelthorpe, and rushed over to Breedings. Lieutenant Lyon was ordered tomarch with his platoon and the baggage-wagons towards Millersville,"added Life.

  "Dexter with an independent command!" exclaimed the young man's father;for he seemed to regard him still as a small boy, and said so.

  "He was; but the oldest officer in the squadron couldn't a done it nobetter," replied Life with enthusiasm; and he proceeded to tell aboutthe appearance of Grace Morgan in the field, and gave a hurried accountof the manner in which the guerillas had been trapped and captured.

  Then came the battle with the force which had escaped from Breedings,the march to Millersville, the re-enforcement of the Home Guard, andthe fight at the hill. The major asked a great many questions, for thesergeant had been obliged to hurry his narrative, and Life answeredthem.

  As they approached the hill, the head of the first company weremarching down the descent; for Milton had reported his message toCaptain Gordon, who was a little startled when he saw the privatereturning without the sergeant, fearful that something had happened tohim.

  The news brought by the new recruit was immediately circulated throughthe company and that of Colonel Halliburn. The riflemen were calledfrom the forest, and came to the road mounted, with their weapons slungon their backs. The whole force was formed on the slope of the hill;and when the second company marched up the declivity, with Major Lyonat the head of it, they presented arms, and then indulged in a vigorouscheer.