JOHN CRAWFORD THE ZOUAVE, AND BOB WEBSTER, DITTO--BUSH-FIGHTING, WITH
VARIOUS RESULTS--THE BURNING HOUSE AND A STRANGE DEATH-SCENE--JOHN
CRAWFORD BECOMES A MAN OF FAMILY.
It has not yet been our fortune to happen upon John Crawford the Zouave,
in the search for whom we have stumbled upon Malvern Hill and its
fearful panorama of bloodshed. As a member of the Advance Guard, he, was
not likely to be absent from the fierce charge made by his corps at the
close of that day; and he was not. It is at the very moment of the
conclusion of that charge, that the quest becomes successful.
John Crawford participated in that general advance, in the front rank of
the Zouaves, in high health and spirits, and yelling quite as loudly and
discordantly as any of his companions. This was not his first adventure
with the bayonet, for he had gone unwounded through the determined
charges of his corps, with the same deadly weapon, at Williamsburgh and
Fair Oaks; and he had grown to have confidence in himself and in any
body of men that used the modern footman's lance with the due ferocity.
Though five years younger than his brother Richard, John Crawford looked
older than he did even in his sickness; for the exposures of a year had
browned his round and ruddy face, if it had not dimmed the brightness
of his blue eye; and the heavy waved brown hair and moustache in which
he retained so prominent a characteristic of his Gaelic ancestry of a
hundred years before, added materially to the appearance of manly
maturity. Were it a _preux chevalier_ sitting under this verbal lens for
his photograph, there might be difficulty in proceeding farther in this
description; for though your knight of old seems to have been splendidly
oblivious as to the needs of clean linen, and able to wear one surcoat
and one suit of armor for any length of time without becoming repugnant
to the nose of his lady when brought-into the opportunity for an
embrace,--yet the heroes of this day have sore need of occasional aid
from the washerwoman, and even the tailor becomes necessary for the
replenishing of worn-out and faded garments. John Crawford the
Zouave--the truth must be told--though he showed very little shirt,
showed that little in an unclean condition; and the baggy red of his
trousers and the hanging blue of his jacket, both looked shabby and
discolored. Not much more could be said in favor of the white and yellow
turban with the dirty white tassel hanging behind, ostensibly worn on
his head but really drooping on the back part of it, quite as much as
were the ladies' bonnets two or three years ago when the suggestion was
made that they "should be carried behind them in a spoon." And yet this
soiled and uncombed man was a soldier--every inch a soldier--and had in
him all the materials for the making of a hero.
We have said that John Crawford was in good health and spirits, after
sharing with the army in all its battles, fatigues and privations. He
was so, not alone because the corps was somewhat better managed and
cared for than many of the others, but because he was a sober man and
one physically well-educated. He did not heat his blood for fever, and
debilitate his system for exposure, by the use of liquor whenever he
could reach it; and having been a member of the Seventh before he joined
the Zouaves, and a habitue of the Gymnasium so much affected by the
members of that regiment, he had acquired some capacity of bearing
fatigue before entering upon that soldier-life which of all demands the
most unrelaxing endurance.
A picture very little different from that just presented, though taller
and lanker in figure, was to be found in Bob Webster, John Crawford's
comrade and file-closer, who went into the charge that evening at his
side. A little less hardy, more of a giant in strength, and with a ruddy
tinge on the end of his long nose, that had been acquired by more years
and more whiskey than confessed to by Crawford--such was the only
difference observable in the two men of the dirty white turbans and the
discolored uniforms, who went into battle together.
The point of the enemy's front at which the Zouaves struck in the
charge, was considerably to the right of the Union centre (the enemy's
left) and very near to the edge of the wood bounding Carter's Field on
the North. The company to which the two comrades belonged had the
extreme right, (the post of honor), and they were consequently, when the
charge had penetrated so far that the rebels began to give way, almost
in the edge of the woods. Some of the men in a South Carolina regiment,
the enemy's extreme left, seemed to fight like fiends, supported by a
battery of the same State that it became necessary to capture. This was
finally swept, and the South Carolinians at last gave way, falling back
into the woods, now beginning to grow dark, but firing from behind trees
as they retired. Too much excited to heed the recall just then sounded,
a dozen or two of the Zouaves, remembering their unexpended ammunition,
tried their hand for the time at bush-fighting, with more or less
success. Some of them were shot down, but others succeeded in killing or
capturing the peculiar fugitives of whom they started in chase. Crawford
and Webster had so far succeeded in keeping together, and neither had
received even a scratch.
One of the rebels, conspicuous by the fact that he had lost or thrown
off his coat and was consequently in "Irish uniform," had been
especially followed by half a dozen of the Zouaves, as he fell back
farther and farther into the woods, dodging and firing from behind
trees, and proving that he must have come from one of the hill regions
of the Palmetto State, where the hunting of wild beasts yet keeps the
woodman in train for a soldier. Not less than three of the Zouaves had
paid for their tenacity with their lives, by shots sent from that single
long-rifle. Crawford and Webster, fancying that they bore charmed lives,
still kept on the chase, catching glimpses through the dusk, of the
rebel's shirt, as it dodged in and out behind the trees. In this manner
they had penetrated perhaps a quarter of a mile into the woods, the
sounds of the battle growing more and more indistinct behind them, when
a broad light burst up through the trees to the North, shining redly
through boles and branches and indicating a fire in the immediate
neighborhood.
"What is that?" said Webster, his attention momentarily distracted from
the rebel whom he had seen dodging behind a tree but a moment before.
"A fire of some kind," said Crawford, looking in the same direction.
"From its size, it may be a burning house."
"Humph! though it is hot enough without, I shouldn't mind being at one
more fire!" said Webster, who, like most New Yorkers of a certain age,
had once in his time "run wid der masheen."
"But where is that gentleman from the South?" asked Crawford. "He may
give us a pop directly--look out!"
"The no-coated devil!" said Webster. "He was dodging behind that big oak
a moment ago. I think I see the edge of his shirt--yes!"
He _did_ see the tip of the Southerner's shirt, and some one else _felt_
him; for at that instant "crack!" went the long rifle, and John Crawford
gave vent to an "Ough!" that partook of the mingled characters of an
oath and a yell, staggering up against the nearest tree at the same
moment, with a rifle-bullet through his left fore-arm, and feeling that
sentiment of disgust at the stomach which is inseparable from the
forcible entrance of any substance into the human body, in the shape of
a wound.
"Hallo, Jack! Eh, you did it, did you?--d--n you!" sputtered Webster, as
he heard the report and saw the effect. Of course the first part of his
remark was addressed to his comrade, and the last to the rebel, who had
made such a capital shot that he allowed too much of his figure to be
exposed while making his survey. In an instant, Webster's piece was
drawn up, and a second "crack!" rang out through the trees.
"Ten to one I hit him!" cried Webster. "For the first time I got a fair
view of one side of his dirty white shirt. But how badly are you hurt,
Jack? Where are you hit?"
"Hurt a good deal, but not seriously, I think," answered Crawford, a
little faintly. "He hit me here in the left arm, below the elbow. I
think the bullet went through, and maybe the bone is broken."
"Too bad! tut! tut!" said his brother Zouave. "Never mind--I will bind
it up in a moment. Do you think you can lean against that tree and keep
from fainting until I run and see whether my little joker went in the
right direction?"
"Nary faint!" said Crawford, making a strong effort to overcome the pain
he was suffering. "Go ahead, Bob, and hurry!"
Webster did hurry, and Crawford had scarcely more than time to enjoy
half-a-dozen exquisite throbs of agony and observe that the light
through the trees, Northward, was growing brighter and brighter, when he
came running back, very jubilant.
"Dead as the deadest kind of a herring!" he said. "Didn't hit him where
I meant to, but it answered. Bored him right through the skull, and he
lies there, hugging the root of the tree he was so fond of."
"Well, I am glad of that, at all events!" answered Crawford. Men, even
of the best hearts and warmest natures, change terribly in times of war
and among the influences of the camp and the battle-field. The man who
by nature could only have said "Thank God!" at some benefit rendered to
his kind or some dispensation of Providence by which the lives of his
perilled fellow-men have been preserved--easily learns to be thankful
for the explosion of a magazine or the sinking of a ship by which
hundreds of men have been sent suddenly into eternity, those men being
_his enemies_.
"But come--let us see what kind of a nick you have got!" said Webster,
examining the arm with some skill once acquired in a doctor's shop to
which run-over and fainted people were sometimes brought for sudden
assistance. "No, the bones are not broken--all right! Here, let me bind
it up with my handkerchief and put my scarf-belt around your neck for a
sling." He proceeded to make these dispositions, with speed and
dexterity, and in a moment after Crawford felt the sickening pain
subsiding and the slight faintness leaving him.
"Humph! that is better--it scarcely hurts at all now," he said. "Thank
you, Bob--or Doctor Bob, I ought to call you."
"Well, call me anything you like, except a coward or a humbug!" answered
Webster. "And now, old fellow, think you are strong enough to get back
to the Hill?"
"Yes, but I am not going there!" said John Crawford. "Don't you see how
bright that fire through the trees is getting? In this hot weather
nobody builds a camp-fire of that size, and I think there must be a
house burning. If you say so, we will take a tour in that direction."
"Anywhere with _you_," said Webster. "But," he added, careful for his
wounded companion though not for himself, "suppose it should be a
burning house, with rebels around, and you with your lame arm."
"Oh, Bob, we'll take the chances," said the wounded Zouave. "My
impression is that they have had enough of Little Mac for one day, and
got out of this, and that you killed about the last one of them. At all
events, we'll take the chances--come on!"
Bob Webster had been in the habit of following his file-leader, and he
did so in this instance. The two struck across the woods in the
direction of the fire, their path through the trees and under-growth
being made an easy one by the light it cast. A few hundred yards brought
them to the edge of the wood, at a narrow place where a spur of the
Malvern Hill made a sudden curve Southward and broke into the timber. As
they approached the edge of the clear space, they saw that a house was
indeed on fire, the flames now licking through the roof and enveloping
the chimneys, while all the lower portion seemed burned to a shell. The
house, which stood at the foot of the hill, appeared to have been of
fair size, and surrounded on three sides with carefully cultivated
grounds, now marred and desolated alike by the foot of the invader and
the defender.
Climbing a broken fence that lay between the wood and the cultivated
ground, the two soldiers drew nearer to the burning house, which
strangely enough showed no person moving around the flames, and no
indication that it was not burning in utter loneliness. Such things as
traps and decoys had been heard of by the comrades, however, as they had
been heard of by every soldier subjected to the tricks of the
Confederates; and they were not too certain that enemies might not lie
concealed in the neighborhood, waiting to pick off any Union soldier
discerned in the light of the fire. On this account, Webster, who had
re-loaded his rifle, carried it ready for instant use, while Crawford
carried his in the unwounded hand, at half-cock, and ready to make some
kind of an attempt, in the event of danger, to use it as a pistol. These
precautions seemed to be all superfluous, for as they came still nearer
to the burning house, now almost ready to fall into a heap of blazing
and smouldering ruins, no voice was heard and no sign of life was
visible.
"Nobody there," said Webster.
"Nobody _living_, at least, in or about that shanty!" was the reply of
Crawford. "The people are either burned, saved, or there have been none
there."
"One of the three--yes--I should say so!" replied Webster to this
self-evident proposition.
"And as there seems nothing to be done, in the way of putting out the
fire, saving anybody or killing anybody, suppose we go back to the
Hill?" said Crawford.
"Not yet," answered Webster. "We have not yet been on the other side of
the house. Perhaps there may be outbuildings on that side, that have not
yet taken fire; and if there is no one living in the house, there may be
cattle or hogs roasting in the enclosures."
"Very well said, Bob," said Crawford. "Let us see the other side of the
house." And the two soldiers advanced as near as was comfortable to the
blazing building, for that purpose. It had not yet fallen, though every
board had dropped away, and every timber was a thin line of fire, fast
charring to coals. The house had evidently been that of a person of
some condition, though of perhaps no remarkable wealth. It had been of
two stories, with a piazza in front and a neat little yard showing a few
flower-shrubs, a bordering of fruit-trees at the sides of the enclosure,
and two medium-sized Lombardy poplar trees at the gate. No negro-quarter
was visible, or any evidence that the "peculiar institution" had formed
any part of the domestic policy of the occupants.
Just as the companions approached the gate and stood observing these
particulars, the demon of fire obtained his last triumph over the
material of the building. The snapping and crackling of the flames
increased for a moment, and the forked tongues seemed licking closer and
closer around the doomed pile; then there was a sudden change--the
arched rafters sunk away--the slight shock disturbed what had yet
remained of the frame-work--and the instant after, with a loud rumbling
crash, the whole building went down into a heap of ruins, one high burst
of flame shooting up skyward as a signal that the destruction had been
accomplished, and showers of sparks following it, like a burst of
fireworks at some grand celebration. With the fall, the broad light of
the fire over the surrounding fields and on the neighboring woods died
away, and there only remained a great heap of burning timbers,
smouldering coals and embers, giving scarcely more light than an
ordinary watch-fire.
But the peculiar interest of that scene did not die out with the fall of
the building: on the contrary, it was at that moment that it began to
assume proportions more easily recognized. For mingled with the crash of
the fall there seemed to be the sharp, shrill, terrible scream of a
human voice in agony; and the very instant after that scream was
repeated, so distinctly that it drove the blood from the cheeks of both
the soldiers at the gate.
"My God! did you hear that?" said Crawford.
"Didn't I!" answered Webster. "I wish I _hadn't_! Jack, do you know,
there must have been somebody in the house after all, burning to death;
and that scream, when the building fell, was the wind-up of a life!"
"It must have been so, and we have been standing here, doing nothing,
when aid might have been given!" said Crawford, in self-reproach, and
forgetting how little a man with one arm can do in the way of carrying
out people from a burning building. "Yet no--stop! No, Bob, that scream
was not the last of the person's life, for didn't you notice, we heard
it _twice_, and the last time after the house had fallen in? After that
house fell, no one inside of it ever screamed, and so--"
"And so," said Webster, interrupting, "there is somebody, _not_ in the
house, who screamed? That is what you mean, and by Jupiter, Jack, you
are right!"
"Now we _must_ look the other side of the house," said Crawford. "Some
poor creature, badly burned, may have crawled out from the flames and be
lying there in agony."
So there might have been, truly! And what a strange riddle is human
nature, even on that other side--mercy! We but a little while ago
considered the ease with which a man born with the warmest aspirations
for human good, might become eager for the destruction of life, when
that life belonged to a foeman: let the opposite spectacle be
considered, of a man who had just been plunging into the thick of a
hand-to-hand fight, estimating human heads as of no more value than
cocoa-nuts, and human lives as something to be taken without a shudder
or a pang of compunction,--a few minutes afterwards speaking of a "poor
creature" whose life might be threatened by fire, and speaking of that
"poor creature" with all the tenderness of a mother or a lover! And is
this inconsistent? No--it is consistent to the last degree. The brave
man is the pitiful man; and while he may consider a hecatomb necessary
for a cause, he regards one life sacrificed unnecessarily, as _murder_.
"Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm, is all unfit to live!" says one
of the old poet-philosophers. And are worms therefore never to be
trodden upon? Not so, by any means! The adverbial adjective "needlessly"
explains the broad distinction. Not one worm, even the creeping,
crawling and disgusting caterpillar, for cruelty or even for neglect:
millions of worms, whether caterpillar or human worm of the dust, for a
sacred cause and a great duty!
"Yes, come on around the house. The heat is not so great now, and we
_must_ see if there is anything living here," was the reply of Webster
to the last suggestion of Crawford; and they at once followed the yard
as closely round as the burning ruins would permit. They heard no
repetition of the sound; nor could they see any sign of human life.
Behind the house, hillward, stood a small barn and stables, while a
wood-shed and some other small outbuildings stood on the eastern side of
the enclosure. These had been nearly connected with the house by board
fences, and in two places those fences had taken fire and threatened to
carry the flames to the other buildings. But the evening had been calm,
and the fire had not run many yards along the fences before it became
extinguished for want of compelling wind and quick fuel.
A proposition from Webster that they should search the outbuildings for
the source of the cry, was negatived by Crawford, who thought it very
likely, after all his previous confidence, that some of the Confederate
troops, who had certainly held the woods at one time during the day,
might be located in the barn--not dangerous, perhaps, if undisturbed,
but very likely to be troublesome if two soldiers, one with one arm and
both on a very blind errand, should go stumbling about in the dark too
miscellaneously.
"Well," said Webster, "no doubt you are right, Jack, as you almost
always are. In that case we have nothing to do but to get back to camp
and look a little more closely after that shivered arm of yours, for
there is certainly no one near the edge of the fire."
"Hark!" said Crawford, as they started to retrace their stops around the
house, and move away. They were within a few steps of what appeared to
be a wood-shed, standing on the east side of the enclosure, and some
forty or fifty feet from the house. "Hark!"
"Well, what is it? I heard nothing!" said Webster, who had been
listening exclusively for another shriek.
"Well, _I_ heard something, and it was a groan!" said Crawford.
"Oh Lord!" exclaimed the not-very-reverent Webster. "What next, I
wonder? Awhile ago we had shrieks: now we have groans! I wonder if this
place is haunted--just a little?"
"Hark! there it was again!" said Crawford. "It _was_ a groan, and not
very far from us, either!"
"In that case," said Webster, "as it is incumbent upon two members of
the Advance Guard not to come all this distance for nothing, we shall be
under the necessity of hunting out the groan. Ah!" and the speaker
paused a moment. "By Jupiter it _is_ a groan. I heard it myself that
time. It is here, under this shed!"
The long legs of Webster at once made a movement in that direction,
followed by the shorter and more symmetrical ones of Crawford. They
reached the door of the wood-house, opening towards the burned mansion.
The door was unclosed, and they could look within. Just as they reached
the door both heard another groan--quite sufficient to satisfy them that
they were not in error as to the place from which the sound had
proceeded. A faint red light from the fallen embers of the burning house
shone within the rough shed from the narrow door--scarce enough, at
first, to make objects distinctly visible; but as they gazed the eyes
grew accustomed to the dim light and they could distinctly trace what
the building contained. They stepped slowly within, no motion from the
occupants giving indication that their presence was known; and this is
what they saw--dimly, but clearly enough for the purposes of
recognition.
On a straw pallet lay an old man, thin-faced and hollow-eyed, his scanty
white hair streaming backward on the end of the pallet, which had been
turned up to form a pillow. Over him and reaching from his feet to his
breast, was drawn a sheet, and on that sheet lay one of his thin,
wrinkled and nerveless hands. His eyes were shut, and he might have
appeared to be asleep, but that ever and anon there broke from him one
of those low but distinct groans indicative of severe inward pain, which
had startled the two Zouaves. But the old man was not the most singular
or the most painful feature of this spectacle. Beside him on the ground,
kneeling, and rocking backward and forward with that peculiar motion so
indicative of intense and hopeless grief when used by some of the
European peasantry, was a young girl--apparently very young, very small
and very girlish, though there was something about her which even in
that dim light gave the impression that she was not a little girl, but a
woman.
So much the two soldiers saw, while neither of the occupants of the shed
seemed to be aware of their presence; but Webster, an intensely
practical man and more fertile in resources than overflowing with
delicacy, was not quite satisfied with the view obtained, and instantly
determined to improve it.
"Wait here--I am going for a light," he said, and stepping hastily from
the door he ran to the burning embers of the house, caught the end of a
piece of pine scantling of which the other was in full blaze, and in a
moment more entered the door of the shed, his novel torch throwing an
odd, ghastly light upon all the objects within the little building. Then
and not till then did the intruders become aware that they stood face to
face with one who was dying, in the old man on the pallet,--and with a
woman of a rare and almost startling order of beauty, in the young girl
who knelt beside him. Her form, as they could see, even in her kneeling
position, was almost childish in the shortness of its stature and the
petite mould of her limbs; and yet there was nothing thin or attenuated
about her, and the epithet "fragile" could not have been applied to her
with half the justice of that very opposite word, "willowy." Her face
was infantile in the smallness of the features, in their perfect round,
and in the expression of helpless placidity which seemed to lie upon it.
But those features were yet classical in outline, and the mouth,
especially, was very sweet and budding. The open eyes were blue as
heaven; and the hair, of which there was a great wealth, loosed from all
restraint and sweeping back on her shoulders, was of that delicate and
almost impalpable blonde so seldom met (even among the English, who
arrogate to themselves the purest blonde hair in the world) and so
universally admired--nay, almost worshipped.
It is not to be supposed that so long a time was necessary for the two
Zouaves to catch the particulars here set down, as would be indicated by
the length of the description itself; and certainly no such length of
time was allowed them without interruption. It was now evident that
neither the dying man nor the young girl had before been aware of the
entrance of the strangers; but as Webster entered with his torch of
pine, the sudden light startled both. The old man's eyes did not
unclose, but the young girl's looked around with a startled glance; she
rose to her feet, clasped her hands imploringly, while so sad and
beseeching an expression rested upon her face, that she might have been
the discarded Peri pleading for her lost place in heaven,--and said:
"Go away, please! Grandfather is dying. Don't disturb him--please
don't!"
"My poor girl, we do not mean to disturb him, or you," said Crawford,
advancing a little way towards the side of the pallet, and throwing into
his voice all its native sympathy and kindness. "We are friends."
"Marion, who is that?" asked the old man, feebly. He had before shown
that his eyes were affected by the light, and made a motion to rise,
which brought the young girl at once to her knees again beside him, with
her hand and arm affectionately round his head.
"I do not know, grandpa! They are soldiers--two soldiers."
"Tell them to go away--_ask_ them to go away, and let me die in peace!"
said the old man, his voice still feeble, and his utterance difficult as
before.
"I have asked them, grandpa, and they will not go," said the young girl,
her tones, strangely enough, even in characterizing what she must have
felt to be an outrage, expressing no feeling of anger, but soft and low
as flute notes of the lower register.
"We do not wish to intrude. We will go away," said Crawford.
"Ah!" said the old man, a perceptible shadow passing over his face,
"that was the voice of a _gentleman_! Ask him who he is, Marion. But he
must be a rebel," and the old man went on, his voice falling still lower
as if he was speaking to himself. "He must be a rebel, for McClellan
has been beaten and driven back. They have been fighting all day, and I
know the end--I know the end."
"We are _not_ rebels," said Crawford, who had caught the last words,
whether intended or not even for the granddaughter's ear. "I hope you
will not fear us. I am John Crawford, private in Duryea's Zouaves, of
McClellan's army; and this is Robert Webster, private in the same
regiment."
"Union men? Men faithful to the country and the old flag?" asked the old
man, a gleam of delight passing over his wasted features. "Here, quick,
quick, Marion, raise me up."
The young girl tried to obey, but her scant strength was insufficient
even to raise the thin form of the old man. Robert Webster stepped
forward to assist her, and as the old man was raised knelt down behind
and supported the head and upper body in a half-sitting position. Though
the eyes had remained closed before, they opened now, to confront
Crawford--poor old, dim, lack-lustre eyes, that yet seemed to have one
burning spark in the centre.
"You say that you are a Union soldier. Will you swear it?" he asked, in
the same low, solemn tones.
"I do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God," said John
Crawford, lifting his hand to heaven, remembering some portions of the
oath so commonly administered in our courts of justice, and adding on
some words not commonly used in the same connection, "that I am a true
and loyal soldier in the service of the United States, and the enemy of
all rebels and traitors! Amen!"
"Thank God!" said the old man, solemnly. "If I cannot die with the old
flag over me, I can at least have the company of those who uphold it!
Give me your hand. What!" as the young soldier came closer. "You are
wounded. You have been in the battle to-day. You are defeated and a
fugitive?"
"No!" said the Zouave, with a world of triumph in his tone, and giving
his uninjured hand at the same time. "I am wounded, but McClellan and
Fitz-John Porter have to-day flogged the rebels out of their boots at
Malvern Hill, and the Union army is safe!'
"Thank God! oh, thank God!" said the old man, reverently. "Marion, lay
me back, I am faint." He did not seem to be aware that Webster was
assisting to hold him up, or that any one was in the place except
Crawford and his granddaughter. His request was obeyed, and he was laid
down again on the pallet; but the excitement of the last few minutes had
perceptibly weakened him, and he was evidently failing fast. "Marion, it
hurts me to talk--a little. Tell the gentleman, for he is a gentleman, I
know--who we are and how we came to be here."
"This is my grandfather," the young girl said, still on her knees by the
pallet, and evidencing in her calm and childlike tone no surprise at the
request, and no agitation in relating what must have pained her so
terribly under the circumstances. "His name is Chester Hobart. We belong
to a good family, and they say that we are related to the English Earls
of Buckinghamshire. My father was Charles Hampden Hobart. He was an
officer in the navy, and was drowned when I was quite a little girl."
Crawford did not notice, then, but remembered afterwards, that in this
strange relation she said nothing of another parent who seemed likewise
to be dead--her _mother_. "My grandfather and myself lived in the house,
here. We had black servants, but they have all gone away. We did not
have any negro quarter--the servants lived in one part of the house. My
grandfather has been very ill--so ill that I thought he would die. He is
very fond of the Union--_I_ do not know anything about politics. He was
better a little; but the house took fire awhile ago, and I could
scarcely help him out. I got out the straw mattress and a sheet, and I
could get out nothing more. I am afraid my poor grandfather is very ill,
now; perhaps he is dying. I thought he was dying a little while ago, and
I screamed--I could not help it. That is all, grandfather, is it not?
oh, grandfather! grandfather!" and the poor girl, for the first time
broken down, fell forward on the straw pallet, buried her face near the
old man's head, and sobbed like an overtasked child.
"Poor girl!" said John Crawford. He did not mean to speak aloud, but he
did so, and the dying man heard him.
"Young man," he said, "you took an oath just now. Will you take another,
to make an old man die happier?"
"I will!" answered the young man, bending close to him. He was too much
exhausted, now, to raise his head any more.
"You say that the Union troops have won the fight to-day?"
"I do say so. We have repulsed the rebel attacks every time; and the
last repulse was a rout. They are defeated."
"You believe that you can reach the Union camp in safety?"
"I have no doubt of it," answered the Zouave.
"Then swear to me, with the same uplifted hand you used awhile ago, that
you will remove my granddaughter, Marion Hobart, to the North--out of
this den of secession. She has money in a Bank in New York, enough to
make her comfortable--I put it there three years ago, thinking such a
time as this might come. Swear to me that you will find her a home with
some honest family, and that you will neither do harm to her yourself
nor permit it to approach her if you can shelter her from it. Swear it
by the Ever-Living God."
"I swear!" said the young soldier, lifting his hand solemnly.
The old man lay still on his pillow, a strange and awful shadow stealing
over his face. His granddaughter had raised her head, and she saw it,
though the torch had burned low and there was little but the red light
of the fire glimmering into the building. She buried her face once more
in the pallet, threw her arms around the old man's form, and sobbed,
"Grandfather! oh, grandfather!"
"Hark! did I not hear cannon again? Are you _sure_ the Union troops have
won the victory?" came from the closing lips. "You are a soldier and a
gentleman. You said your name was Craw--Crawford. A good old name. Never
mind me--take care of Marion. Marion--Ma--." He was silent, and silent
forever, except as the dumb lips may be hereafter opened!
Marion Hobart saw the lower jaw fall and the open eyes put on that
ghastly appearance which is the seal of the triumph of death: and she
knew, without a word from either of her companions, that he was dead.
The soldiers saw that she comprehended all that had occurred, and
expected that she would shriek again and throw herself wildly on the
body. She did not--she merely clasped her hands and looked on the body
with such a pitiful gaze of fixed sorrow that Crawford could not bear it
and turned away his eyes, while Webster found sudden and unexplained
necessity for blowing his long nose.
Suddenly, and before a word had been spoken by either of the soldiers, a
new thought came to the young girl and a terrible look of fear and
sorrow swept over her face.
"It is night and we cannot bury him!" she said, her voice broken and
agonized. "How can I leave him unburied? Gentlemen--gentlemen--how can I
leave my poor grandfather unburied?"
"He shall not remain unburied!" said Crawford, instantly and earnestly.
"He should not, Miss, if I had to make a ground-hog of myself and dig
his grave with my own hands!" put in Webster, who had scarcely spoken
before during all the sad scene.
"Oh thank you!--thank you both!" she began--then suddenly pausing, she
said: "But how--I do not understand--it is night, and we have nothing--"
"In half an hour we will be at camp, God willing," answered Crawford,
"and Colonel Warren will send a guard of soldiers to watch the body
until morning and then to bury it with all honor. Do you understand,
Miss Hobart?"
"I do," answered the young girl, her sad calmness returning at once.
"You are both very good and kind, and may God bless you. You want to go?
We must go, I suppose; and we can do poor grandfather no good now by
staying. Good-bye, grandfather--poor grandfather! I shall never see you
again, and you do not see _me_, even now! Good-bye! oh, grandfather,
grandfather! I am so lonesome I so lonesome!"
For one moment she threw herself forward on the pallet and embraced the
body of the old man, in uncontrollable sorrow, while both the two
Zouaves found themselves shedding tears very inappropriate for the
evening of a day of battle. Then she rose to her feet, put her fingers
to her eyes as if pressing out the moisture that had gathered unbidden
under the lids, and said:
"Shall we go? I am ready."
Reverently, Crawford drew the sheet over the face of the corpse, hiding
it forever from the eyes of the bereaved granddaughter as it was so soon
to be hidden from the eyes of all the living; and then the
doubly-orphaned girl and her new-found friends took their way from the
scene of death. She was dressed only in light delaine and had neither
shawl nor bonnet; but the night air was not too cool, and Webster
wrapped his Zouave jacket around the slight form, while Crawford
supplied her with his handkerchief as a covering for her head They took
their way at once from the house, now little more than a heap of
darkening coals,--and struck south-eastward over the spur of the hill
and through that portion of the woods least likely to retain any
ambushed rebels, towards the quarters on Malvern. The sounds of battle
had almost entirely ceased, it being now some ten o'clock in the
evening; and only occasionally the boom of a cannon half a mile away to
the south-westward showed that the opposing forces yet remained near
each other. The thick smoke which had shrouded all the country during
the day, had almost all rolled away, the young moon had disappeared in
the west, and the stars looked down as clearly and beautifully as if no
such things as war and death could exist in a world gazed upon by such
pure eyes.
Scarcely a word was spoken by either, during the short walk to the top
of Malvern Hill. The young girl leaned upon the uninjured arm of John
Crawford, with a touching confidence and trust, an occasional convulsion
of grief shaking her frame and on occasional sob breaking from her;
while Bob Webster acted as scout and guide, carrying both rifles, and
perhaps not the more on that account prepared to repel any sudden
danger. But no such danger came. The rebels had indeed retired, and the
various corps of the Union army had been gathered in to their respective
quarters, preparatory to the march to Harrison's Landing, which was to
be pursued at daylight. Not all of them, however. It was well that the
course of Crawford and his companions did not lie across Carter's Field;
for if it had done so, they must have seen hundreds of lanterns moving
about, and hundreds of dark figures moving and toiling--the
fatigue-parties burying the Union dead and planting the soil of the Old
Dominion with more of that martyr seed which may yet spring up to the
redemption of the land and the glory of the nation. This would have been
a sad and harrowing sight for the young girl, after so lately leaving
her last relative to be made a prey for worms; and fortunately she was
spared it.
Perhaps half an hour after leaving the burned house, the Zouaves and
their charge reached the bivouac of the Advance Guard, half way down the
slope towards Carter's Field. The loss of the corps had been but
trifling, in spite of their furious charge; and though tired and hungry,
those who had not dropped down in their places to sleep, were merry and
jubilant. The Union forces had won one last great victory in defeat, and
they knew it and knew that the army was safe. Crawford had ever been a
favorite with his corps, respected by the men and even petted by the
officers; and he was recognized with shouts of welcome by many, as he
made his way, with his charge on his arm, towards the Colonel's tent.
"Hallo, old fellow! Safe eh, after all!" cried one who recognised him;
while another said: "Thought you had gone to Richmond, without waiting
for the rest of us!" and another, but in a lower tone that perhaps
Marion Hobart did not hear: "I say, Jack, where the deuce did you pick
up a petticoat, and a white one at that?"
Colonel Warren received the young Zouave, and heard his story, paying
all respect to the young girl under his protection. He at once promised,
at Crawford's request, that a file of soldiers should go down to the
burned house and perform the rites of burial before the corps left the
hill; whereupon the face of the young girl more fully repaid him by its
expression of true gratitude, than did even her words of sad
thankfulness. There are men who have called Colonel Warren not only a
martinet but a man devoid of feeling: let his action on this occasion
prove how little those know him who speak of him thus coldly.
"Some of the wagons are leaving for the Landing just now," he said to
Crawford, after the latter had explained the nature of his wound and
briefly told the story of the protection he had promised the young girl,
which he would have no difficulty in finding for her in the company of
his brother and sister. "Some of the wagons are going down now. You are
of no use here, and you had as well take the lady down at once. Make her
as comfortable as you can in one of the wagons. The ride is only a short
one; and perhaps you may be able to find a berth for her on board one of
the boats at the Landing. Stay, Crawford, a despatch-boat will be going
down to Monroe in the morning. You are a faithful fellow and a good
soldier. I will see to it, in the morning, that you have a furlough for
a month. I think we shall do nothing more for a month, and you may need
that time to get a new arm. Take Miss Hobart at once to New York, and
place her with your sister. That is all--now look for a place in one of
the wagons. Good night--I will see about the rest before the boat
leaves."
Crawford's warm "God bless you, Colonel!" was more softly, but not less
earnestly echoed by the "I thank you, sir, very much. You are very good
and kind!" of the young girl; and the two left the tent to follow out
the directions of the officer. Bob Webster, unwounded, was already with
his companions, picking up what he could find left in the way of
rations, and telling over, for the sixth time already, the adventures of
the night.
Not to linger upon what no longer needs particular description, let it
be said in a word that Crawford succeeded in securing transportation for
the young girl and himself to Harrison's Landing; that they reached that
return terminus of the campaign against Richmond, a little after
midnight; that a place was found on board one of the boats at the
Landing, for Miss Hobart, under the kind care of the colored
chambermaid; that Colonel Warren kept his promise and procured the
wounded Zouave, (whose arm had been examined by one of the surgeons, and
found to be badly torn and lacerated, though none of the bones were
broken), his furlough for a month "or until recovered;" that they went
down the next day on the despatch boat to Fortress Monroe, whence
General Wool at once sent them on to Washington; and that on the evening
of the Fourth of July they reached the city of New York, and John
Crawford had the pleasure of placing his sacred charge under the
protection of his brother, whom he found yet so sadly an invalid,--and
of his sister, who received her with a warmer and more considerate
kindness than he had ever before known her to exhibit towards any living
object.