DECK FINDS HIMSELF IN A TIGHT PLACE
The enemy were utterly demoralized, crazed with terror, devoid of
reason and common-sense. The Mississippi, Alabama, and most of the
Tennessee regiments of the Southern army were disciplined and steady
troops in which such a panic would have been impossible; but there were
others even worse than those described by General Schoepf, and the
latter were always in the advance during a retreat. It was such as
these that formed the rabble seeking to obtain shelter behind the
breastworks.
In the mob reason was dethroned, and even common-sense had taken wings;
for the fleeing mass were in more danger from each other than from the
fire of the artillery, and whole sections of them were borne down by
those pressing forward from the rear, and were crushed by the feet of
men and horses.
Deck attempted to resist the flow of the tide towards the works; but he
might as well have tried to counteract the great bore of the Amazon.
His sabre was in his hand; but he had not the heart to use it upon the
terrified mass, who had thrown away their muskets and knapsacks on the
field, because they impeded their flight. A battery of artillery in
retreating had mired one of its guns in one of the soft places in the
field, and had abandoned it, as stated by General Crittenden.
With his great strength, assisted by a few others, Sergeant Knox had
striven to open a way for the escape of the platoon to their former
position; but they struggled in vain against the crazy and senseless
mob. A company or platoon of Confederate cavalry had forced its way
into the crowd nearly to the ground occupied by Deck's force, though
they had used their sabres to accomplish it. Life had pushed his horse
forward in the direction he wished to go; but the mob seized the
animal's bridle to save themselves, and, by stress of numbers, had
crowded him back.
One of the openings in the breastworks was near the spot; and the
rabble in front of the cavalrymen pushed forward, and entered the
intrenchments, thus making way for those behind them. But that was not
the direction Deck and his command wished to go, and they resisted the
mob as long as they could.
"I think we shall have to use our cheese-knives," suggested Life, as
they were crowded forward in the passage to the fort.
"No, Life! That would be a terrible slaughter of unarmed men, and I
will not do it," replied Deck. "I would rather be taken prisoner than
murder these helpless and terrified people."
"Threaten them with the pistols if they don't get out of the way," the
sergeant proposed. "They are jamming us into the fort."
"You might as well threaten them with the pistols if they don't fly
away up into the air, for they can't move," returned the lieutenant.
"This is not a battle; only a struggle for life on the part of the
retreating enemy."
Life said no more. The space between the platoon and the hill from
which the infantry had retreated, and which Deck had attempted to
flank, was full of men retreating from the grape of the artillery which
had now opened upon them, full of struggling forms intent upon reaching
the shelter of the breastworks. There was no passage there.
"Leftenant, the rest of the squadron is formed near the hill, and they
are draggin' in squads of prisoners," said Life Knox.
"Are they using their sabres?" asked Deck.
"No; they have sheathed them, and all they do is to shove 'em in like
city policemen."
"Neither the staff-officer nor my father would shoot or cut down
unarmed and unresisting men; but perhaps they expect to capture the
whole army at a later hour. I can't do what they will not do," added
the lieutenant. "But"--
He did not say what he intended, for the cavalry company, which had
forced its way into the midst of the crowd, began to drive their horses
forward, the rabble behind them pressing on in that direction. The
pressure was too great for the Riverlawns to withstand, and they were
pushed forward in spite of their best efforts to hold their ground.
"We might as well go with the tide, Life," said Deck hopelessly, as he
gave way to the pressure.
"No man can help hisself here," replied the sergeant.
"We may as well make way for this rabble," added the lieutenant. "They
will shove each other away from the entrance, and when the coast is
clear we will take our chance of getting out of the fort."
Life Knox yielded the point; for, if they were not to cut their way
through the crowd, this was absolutely the only thing they could do.
They were pressed forward into the intrenchment. Deck observed as he
gave way to the pressure behind him that the soldiers from the field,
or near it,--for not a few had not been in the battle,--hastened from
the entrance to the works, towards the middle of it; in fact, they were
ordered to do so by the guard in charge of the camp, which extended for
over a mile across the tongue of land formed by the Cumberland and the
creek that flowed into it near Robertsport.
Lieutenant Lyon did not follow the example of the fugitives, and there
was still nothing but a rabble near the entrance; and the guard, with
its officers, were a considerable distance from him, and could give his
command no orders. Instead of doing as others did, he led his force to
the verge of the great river, down to which the high banks, amounting
almost to cliffs, descended at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
The lieutenant could do nothing, but he kept up a tremendous thinking
all the time. By this time he was conscious that he had been forced
into a tight place. He reined in his steed when he had advanced perhaps
the third of a mile across the camp, defended by the breastworks, and
gave the order for his men to halt; but it was not spoken with his
customary vim, for he was somewhat depressed by the situation.
He was in a Confederate camp, and all his powers of mind were directed
towards the means of getting out of it; for it would have broken his
heart to hand over his fifty men as prisoners to a Southern officer. He
looked at the entrance; but that was as crowded as at any time before,
and it was impossible for him to march out that way. Then he looked
down the steep and lofty banks of the Cumberland. His horses and those
of his troopers could swim like fishes; for it had been a part of the
drill at Riverlawn to exercise the animals in the water, and they had
often crossed Bar Creek with their riders on their backs, and they had
even swam them over the Green River, though never in the rapids.
Deck considered a plan for descending the banks to the stream, swimming
the horses a mile or two down the river, and then of escaping across
the country to the position of the rest of the squadron. He was about
to ask Sergeant Knox for his opinion, when the company of Confederate
cavalry which had been next to his force outside the works rode over to
the side of the camp he had chosen, and halted a few rods from his
position.
But this body did not seem to be in a belligerent mood, and did not
appear to take much notice of the platoon. Possibly they were ashamed
of their conduct on the field; for they had been the first of the
enemy's cavalry to arrive at the works, and they must have been among
the first to run away. The men did not look like a fair specimen of the
cavalry of the other side which the troopers had seen.
"We must get out of this place somehow," said Deck to the orderly
sergeant, who had brought up a little behind him.
"I don't believe there is many more outside who want to get into this
place," replied Life; "and I reckon the major will be looking this way
for us, for he couldn't help seeing that we had been crowded in here."
"I don't see that he can do anything for us, unless he fights the whole
force of the enemy outside; and I know they are not all cowards, like
some of these fellers what worked harder to get into this fort than
they would to git inter the kingdom o' heaven," answered Life.
"I don't look for any help from the rest of the squadron. If we don't
get out on our own hook I think we shall have to stay here," replied
Deck. "What do you think of escaping by the river? We can easily swim
the horses down the stream a mile or two; for there is not much current
near the shore, though it is strong in the middle of the river."
The sergeant rode over to the high bank, and looked it over in an
apparently careless manner, so as not to attract attention, as far up
as the great bend just above Mill Springs. He shook his head
significantly as he resumed his former position.
"The swimmin' is all right after you git the hosses inter the water;
but you've got to crack the nut afore you kin eat it, Leftenant."
"Is there any difficulty in cracking the nut?" asked Deck.
"I reckon that's whar all the diffikilty comes in. It has rained like
Niagery for two days, and it has been doin' not quite so bad all this
afternoon. Them banks is as soft as an Injun bannock half baked; and
there ain't no foothold for hosses. I wouldn't resk it for two per cent
a month," returned Life very decidedly.
Probably the sergeant was correct in his view, though Deck thought
still that it was practicable. General Crittenden swam his cavalry over
the river in the night, but some of his men and horses were drowned in
the attempt. He found the descent of the steep banks a great obstacle
to his retreat. But the crowd at the entrance to the intrenchment had
diminished considerably, and the lieutenant began to think he could cut
his way to it with less peril than he could swim his force in the
river, especially as it was beginning to be dark.
Another circumstance came in the way of the execution of the plan.
Perhaps the company of cavalry near him had noted the examination of
the banks of the river by the lieutenant and the sergeant, and may have
had a suspicion of what was passing through their minds. At least, it
soon appeared that the captain of the company had other views in regard
to the disposal of the Riverlawns. He had moved his command nearer to
the platoon, and stretched it across the camp some little distance.
A little later, a mounted Confederate officer rode to this end of the
line. He looked over the Southern company first, and asked to what
regiment it belonged. Deck could not hear the reply in full, but only
that it was a Tennessee regiment. Then he rode a little farther, and
seemed to be somewhat astonished when he saw a force wearing the blue.
"What is that force in the corner, Captain?" he asked of the officer to
whom he had spoken before, while he continued to observe the body in
blue.
"It is a Yankee platoon of fifty men that we captured a mile or more
from the breastwork," replied the Confederate captain; and it could be
seen that his men smiled when he gave this reply.
"To what regiment do these troopers belong?"
"I don't know certainly, but I reckon it was a Kentucky regiment."
"How happened you to capture half a company, and not the whole of it?"
"Well, you see, Major, the Kentucky regiment had better horses than our
Tennessee regiment, and they worried us a heap. We were retreating, for
we had been flanked by a force four times as big as ours, and this
regiment pursued us. Our regiment turned on them, and whipped them
soundly. My company was fighting this platoon, and we surrounded them,
and made them prisoners."
"Was that Kentucky regiment of cavalry full?" asked the major, with a
frown on his brow.
"It was, Major, for I counted the ten companies," returned the captain
without wincing. "This platoon fought like wildcats; but my men stood
up to the work like heroes, as they are; and when we had surrounded
them, they could not help themselves, and we drove them before us to
the camp."
"I have no doubt that you will be promoted to the rank of
brigadier-general for your meritorious service; but my information
differs somewhat from yours, for I have learned that the only Kentucky
cavalry on the field was four companies of the First, four others being
on detached duty on the Millersville Road."
"But you see, Major, my informant may have given me incorrect reports,"
stammered the captain.
"Who was your informant, Captain? You counted the companies of the
Kentucky regiment yourself."
"I may have been"--
"Probably you have been; but you have said enough. I have heard from
your company before to-day," added the major, as he rode over to
Lieutenant Lyon. "Did you surrender to Captain Staggers yonder?"
"I did not!" replied Deck with abundant emphasis.
"Did you hear what passed between him and me?"
"Every word of it."
"Was anything the captain said true?"
"Not a word of it! And you will excuse me, Major, but I intend to cut
my way out of this camp!" shouted the lieutenant, loud enough to be
heard by all his troopers, and they straightened themselves up for the
work.
"Platoon--charge!"
At full gallop the force started for the entrance, now not obstructed.