THE TERROR PAST
Although Emmeline Willing's grandparents were well on in years,
they were young in spirit. They liked to make excursions in their
old-fashioned buggy pulled by their faithful Dandy. They had not
intentionally deserted their home on the eve of battle. Grandmother
Willing would have been as little likely to fly from excitement as
Emmeline.
A few days before the battle Grandfather and Grandmother Willing had
gone on a visit to their daughter Sally, who lived on an isolated farm
to the west. Grandmother Willing had taken Tiger, the cat, with her
in a basket, and Rover had trotted beneath the buggy. Before they had
started they had driven their two cows, Molly and Betsy, over to the
Hollingers', who had promised to care for them. When the enemy had
approached, the Hollingers had fled, driving their own cattle and Molly
and Betsy before them.
Early on the morning of July 1 the two elder Willings bade their
daughter farewell, and with no thought of what awaited them, started
to return home. When Emmeline and Mrs. Schmidt were startled by the
first crack of musketry, Grandfather and Grandmother Willing were even
more amazed and frightened as they approached from the other direction.
Suddenly soldiers appeared--it seemed to Mrs. Willing--from the ground
itself, and sprang to Dandy's bridle. The soldiers turned the horse and
the buggy sharply round, and Dandy dashed for the shelter of the stable
he had recently left. "A battle, after all!" cried Grandfather Willing,
his ruddy face paling. "A battle in Gettysburg!"
Grandmother Willing said nothing for a long time. She grasped Tiger's
basket tightly with one hand and with the other clutched the side of
the carriage. Tears ran down her cheeks and she drew long, gasping
breaths.
"A battle in Gettysburg!" she repeated at last. "Mary is there, and
Emmeline is there, and that poor young woman of Henry's is there! Like
as not poor Henry is dead. What shall we do?"
"There is only one thing we can do, mother; that is go back to
Sally's. The town will be protected."
"I want to go home!" sobbed Grandmother Willing, much as Emmeline had
sobbed. "They might get out as far as our house, and they might do
damage."
"The fighting is three miles from our house, mother."
When they reached their daughter's farm, Sally came running to meet
them.
"Oh, I have been so worried about you! Get down, mother. Come in. Oh,
this dreadful noise! Look, father!"
Old Mr. Willing's eyes followed her pointing finger. On the main road,
a few rods from the farmhouse, thousands of soldiers were marching
rapidly toward Gettysburg. Their line extended back for at least a
mile. From the porch and windows of the farmhouse terrified faces
watched them.
Grandmother Willing wept again.
"Perhaps our dear Henry is among them!"
"Henry, mother! Why, these are the rebels!"
"Oh, dear, Oh, dear!" wailed Grandmother Willing. "What shall we do?"
"We will do two things, mother," answered Grandfather Willing solemnly.
"We will wait and we will pray."
A hill shut out from the farmhouse a view of the first day's
battlefield. When Grandfather Willing and his son-in-law proposed to
make their way to higher ground, such a loud outcry rose from the
women and children that they abandoned the plan. Gathering the family
about him, Grandfather Willing prayed that the engagement might be
short and victorious for the arms of righteousness. When toward evening
the noise of battle ceased, grandfather hoped that his prayers had been
answered.
On Wednesday morning Grandmother Willing rose early from her bed.
Toward the southwest she could see the Round Tops; before her the plain
was clear and beautiful. Her heart rejoiced.
"Look, father, now we can go home!"
Grandfather Willing came to the window and looked out. He saw the
clear, beautiful plain, but he saw also another and a startling sight.
From the west approached fresh troops. The main road, where it left
the woodland, was crowded. Rapidly the throng drew near; officers
shouted, drivers urged their horses, wagons rattled.
"Is there going to be _more_?" asked Grandmother Willing.
All morning the family in the farmhouse watched the road and the
distant plain. The troops vanished from sight as they approached
Gettysburg. When by noon there had been no further sound of shooting,
Grandmother Willing suggested that they start.
"We can surely go now, father!"
Just then a boy came from a farm a mile across the fields with
news that made Grandmother Willing change her mind. There had been
yesterday, he said, a terrible battle; Gettysburg was now in the
possession of the Confederates. Troops were gathering from all
directions; there was going to be worse fighting before the day was
over.
It was not until late afternoon that the firing on the second day
began. Then it was that Emmeline, in her grandmother's kitchen, had
first screamed and whirled round and that Private Christy had told her
to be still. To the watchers at the farmhouse on the hillside the time
passed more slowly than it did to Emmeline. From the upper windows they
could see the clouds of smoke, and could tell exactly where the cannon
stood; it was clear to the Willings that the battle raged near their
house.
On Friday, the third day of battle, Grandmother Willing made no
request to be taken home. She woke to the sound of cannon, dull
and distant; she listened with blanched face until noon. At one
o'clock, when it began once more in its final and most terrible fury,
Grandmother Willing covered her ears, so that she might hear less and
pray more. From hundreds of terrified hearts in Gettysburg and round
Gettysburg rose petitions for relief from the torture of the sound.
When silence finally came, the family on the hillside did not dare to
rejoice, but waited fearfully for another roar.
But no roar came. Twilight faded to dusk, dusk to night, and silence
persisted. From the direction of Gettysburg came no sound. If troops
moved on the Cashtown Road, the Willing family did not know. They slept
heavily and woke later than was their custom. When they rose, the
bright sun of other mornings was not shining. The day was cloudy, the
air heavy. In the direction of Gettysburg all was dim and hazy.
"And now," said Grandmother Willing, "we can go home."
Grandfather was as patient as Private Christy. He shook his head with
a gentle "No, mother." Between them and home lay thousands of troops;
until they departed silence signified nothing.
All the morning the clouds thickened and the air grew heavier. At noon
horsemen, riding toward the west, appeared on the main road. At the
first crossroad they turned toward the south. They rode slowly, with
bent heads, on tired horses. Presently wagons followed. Then to the
ears of the little family on the hillside there rose from that unending
line of rough ambulances a strange sound. The women and children
could not understand it, but their cheeks grew still whiter and tears
gathered in their eyes.
"What is it?" they cried. "What can it be?"
"The wounded are being taken away," explained Grandfather Willing
solemnly. "Hark how the drivers hurry the horses! They are afraid! They
are retreating! Thank God! Thank God!"
The storm drove the Willings indoors, but the sound followed them.
Through the long afternoon, through the long night, the Willings heard
those wailing cries and those anguished commands to hasten.
When Sunday morning dawned, those cries were startling other
farmhouses and villages miles away. They never faded entirely from the
recollection of those who heard them.
Soon the boy from the next farmhouse crossed the fields again. The
battle was over, the Northern arms were victorious, Gettysburg was safe.
"Now," said Grandmother Willing, "I want to go home."
Grandfather Willing pondered. He had been studying a route that he
thought they could safely follow. He knew all the byroads and all the
farmers' lanes across the fields.
"You stay here, mother. I wish you would stay here."
Grandmother Willing gave her husband one look, and then lifted her
cat, Tiger, into his basket.
* * * * *
In the mysterious dusky light of the Willing farmhouse, Emmeline and
her brother Henry had stood for a long moment in one another's arms.
They dared not accept with too much enthusiasm this sudden joy. The
rain was beating on the roof and the windows. The delirious mutterings
of the other inhabitants of the house had died away.
"O Emmeline!" said Henry again. "Little Emmeline, is it you?"
"Yes," said Emmeline, with a long sigh, "it is."
"How are they at home?"
"Mother is well, but Sister Bertha is sick."
"When did you come out here?"
"On Tuesday."
"Where,"--Henry looked about, startled,--"where are grandfather and
grandmother?"
"I imagine they went to Aunt Sally's."
"And you have been here _alone_!"
"No." Emmeline laughed feebly. "No, not alone."
Henry started again. Over his sister's shoulder he saw a man lying on
the floor in the parlor.
"There are wounded men in this house!"
"Oh, yes!" said Emmeline.
"You have been taking care of these men!"
"I gave them water and biscuit, and I talked to them."
Henry went a step nearer the parlor door.
"That man is--is dead, Emmeline! And you've been here alone!"
"I wasn't alone," protested Emmeline. Between her and yesterday, even
between her and this morning, there was falling a haze, gray and
concealing as the low-lying clouds outside. She began to weep. "There
was some one here to take care of me. I have been safe all the time.
And he is gone away forever!"
Henry looked into the parlor and the sitting-room, and then went
upstairs. Emmeline heard him exclaim. When he came down again, he went
to the kitchen door and looked out. The trampled fields were already
sodden. At the foot of the garden was a trench, begun for a well and
abandoned. It was not deep, but it was deep enough. There, shrouded in
Grandmother Willing's comforters, were laid those who in this house
had given their lives for their convictions. One of the Watson boys,
coming to see how his neighbors had fared, saved Emmeline a share in
the last sad ceremony of battle.
Presently night fell upon the little farmhouse. Henry and Emmeline
slept side by side on Grandmother Willing's kitchen floor. Often Henry
rose and went about the house to minister to the wounded in Grandmother
Willing's beds. When he returned, he laid a protecting arm across his
little sister and so fell asleep once more. The mystery of his release
was now clear to him. The humanity of the act, the helplessness of his
enemy, combined to create in his heart a bitter hatred of war, a hatred
felt by all who had anything to do with that sad battlefield.
The broadening light of Sunday morning wakened brother and sister.
Across the wide valley between the two battle lines, great wagons were
traveling swiftly. For friend and foe alike doctors and nurses of the
victorious army had begun their work of mercy. To the door of the
Willing farmhouse came at noon an ambulance. Some houses the attendants
had found deserted except for their suffering guests. In others were
women who had performed incredible and uncounted deeds of mercy. Each
house had its epic of heroism and danger and sorrow. A charm seemed
to have been laid upon these heroic ministers; it was as if an angel
standing before them had protected them in their ways. Of them all,
only one had perished.
In the Willing house there was little for doctors or nurses to do. The
house was orderly once more; the surviving soldiers asked feebly about
the result of the battle, and when they heard, turned their faces away
even from Emmeline.
The homeward journey of Grandmother and Grandfather Willing ended in
the middle of Sunday afternoon. It had been much more round-about than
Grandfather Willing had planned, more awful than he had dreamed. As
they drew near the scene of battle and beheld on every side its sad
destruction, their hearts failed them utterly. Where was Mary? How was
poor Bertha? Where was Emmeline, Emmeline who was forever getting into
mischief of some kind? Above all, where was Henry?
Grandmother Willing was thinking of him as they drew near the
farmhouse. Then looking up, she saw him standing on the porch, and
behind him, in the doorway, Emmeline. Grandmother Willing made no
motion to alight from the wagon. She sat still with Tiger on her lap.
"How did _you_ get here?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"We have been here all the time," said Emmeline. There came into the
eyes of Emmeline a sudden sparkle. What a tale she had to tell Eliza
Batterson!
Grandmother Willing allowed herself to be helped out of the carriage.
She came rapidly through the gate and across the dooryard, which was
now trampled into a muddy slough. From the doorway she could see into
her parlor with its stained carpet. She looked from it to the stains
of the same color on her granddaughter's dress. In spite of all that
Grandmother Willing had seen, she did not yet realize the full meaning
of a battle.
"Has blood been shed here?" she asked in an awed tone.
With an arm round her, Henry said, "Yes, grandmother."
Grandmother Willing's gaze still rested upon Emmeline.
"Did you see this?" she demanded, as if Emmeline were to blame for
having got herself once more into mischief. "Were you in the battle,
Emmeline?"
"Yes."
"Did you have wounded rebels here?"
"Yes. There are some upstairs now!" cried Emmeline.
"In my house!" exclaimed Grandmother Willing. "In my beds!" Grandmother
Willing's youthfulness was apparent in the speed with which she started
up the stairs. "I'll 'rebel' them!"
Those below waited. They could trust her to do nothing violent.
"Oh, you poor, poor souls!" cried Grandmother Willing abovestairs.
An ambulance driver who was making a journey to Gettysburg now offered
to take Henry and Emmeline home. Henry must join his company as soon as
possible, and the best way to find them was to go to Gettysburg, where
he could doubtless get information about their position. He was
heavily oppressed by anxiety and alarm, and could hardly wait until the
driver received his orders to start.
[Illustration:
_Page 154_
"YES," ANSWERED MRS. WILLING. "BERTHA IS ASLEEP UPSTAIRS"]
Along the wooded ridge the ambulance traveled; Henry sat in the seat
with the driver, Emmeline in the body of the wagon. There was no road;
they made their way round shattered cannon, wrecked caissons, and far
sadder remnants of the great battle. They passed close by the seminary
building, where the Union soldiers had first camped. It was five
o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the most peaceful hour of the week; but
Gettysburg's streets were thronged with soldiers, mounted and on foot.
Citizens were on their doorsteps. This Sunday was a day not of rest,
but of rejoicing.
Suddenly Emmeline saw twinkling in the breeze before her a bit of
color, and her pale cheeks flushed. From windows and doorposts floated
once more Gettysburg's flag--the stars of white on a field of blue, the
stripes of red and white.
Unobserved, Henry and Emmeline passed down the street. In the back of
the wagon, Emmeline could not be seen, and as for Henry--no one looked
twice at a Union soldier with a bandaged head. No one noticed them, in
fact, until Mr. Bannon, who was sitting on his porch with his pipe,
saw them; he lifted his arms with a shout and hurried forward in his
lame way to greet them. He shouted some wild sentence at them, but they
could not wait to be greeted by lame Mr. Bannon. Hand in hand they
went along the house and to the kitchen porch. There, at the open door,
they paused.
"Well, mother," said Henry.
Mrs. Willing did not move. She was sitting by the opposite window
shelling peas that had been planted, it seemed to her, a generation
ago. She sat with a half-opened pod between her fingers and looked at
her children. Mrs. Schmidt's brother, driving into town an hour ago
from his farm beyond the battlefield, had reported the safety of his
sister and her brood, but had brought no news of Emmeline. Mrs. Willing
could not at first quite believe that here, in flesh and blood, were
the two children who lay so heavily upon her heart.
"Is Bertha safe, mother?" asked Henry. Still Henry and Emmeline did
not move, and Mrs. Willing did not rise to meet them.
"Yes," answered Mrs. Willing. "Bertha is asleep upstairs."
"Is--" began Henry, and then he repeated that single meaningless word.
"Is--"
Now Emmeline had begun to move. She pursued, however, a strange course.
She took a step toward her mother, then a step toward the corner of the
room, then a step toward her mother, then another away from her mother.
Mrs. Willing rose; the peas and their pods rolled in all directions.
"Mother!" cried Emmeline. "Mother! Mother!"
The first exclamation shocked Mrs. Willing. It was hoarse, and in its
sharp tones was all the misery through which Emmeline had lived. The
second "Mother!" expressed pure astonishment and nothing else. But in
the third was all Emmeline's youth restored.
Henry had seen the object toward which his sister's erratic steps were
turned and had finished his sentence, "Is it mine, mother?" He now
took his mother into his arms and put his head on her shoulder as if
he himself were not a very long way from the cradle in which his son
reposed.
But for Emmeline, tears were past. She knelt upon the floor, enchanted,
enslaved, a happy servitor of the sister who, sleeping in her quiet
bed, knew nothing of the new joy that awaited her.
"O mother!" cried Emmeline. "It _is_ a baby!"
THE END
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_.
Inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been
standardized.