THE SIEGE BEGINS
"Then we are safe, safe," cried Jeanne, forgetful of the presence of the
soldiers. "Oh, Mr. Huntsworth, the Federals will soon have the city!"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, my little lady," remarked Colonel Peyton
dryly. "Vicksburg is impregnable, and I fear that it will be a waste of
ammunition on the part of the Federals."
"I did not mean to be impolite, Colonel," said the girl contritely. "It
wasn't very nice of me to make such a remark. I should be sorry for you
if our men did take the city."
"You are a good little girl," said Colonel Peyton warmly. "I like a
generous hearted foe."
"You must be careful not to express your feelings too openly," advised
Mr. Huntsworth in a low tone. "These people are rebels but they are going
to be our hosts and the Colonel has certainly interested himself in your
behalf."
"He has," said Jeanne gratefully, "and I will be careful not to offend
them."
Bob, rather pale and agitated on account of the shells, met them at the
door.
"Dad, what will we do if they shell the city?" she cried before greeting
Jeanne.
"I reckon we can't do anything," drawled the Colonel. "I thought you were
a soldier, Bob? Soldiers don't mind a few shells."
"I suppose not," and Bob strove to regain her composure. "So you got
Jeanne and her brother? Come in and tell me what else that woman has
done. Here is Aunt Sally! Aunty, this is Jeanne and her brother, Dick
Vance. They're Yankees but they are real nice anyway."
"I am glad to see you, my dear," said the lady, kissing Jeanne. "Any
friend of Bob's is welcome be she Yankee or Confederate. And this is your
brother? How pale he is! We must get him right to bed."
She bustled about Dick in a motherly fashion, her sympathies fully
enlisted on his behalf by his illness. Dick was in truth much exhausted by
his journey and sank into slumber as soon as his head touched the pillow.
Jeanne sat by him and told Bob and her aunt how Madame had tried to
make him sign the paper.
"Rest and quiet are what he needs," observed Mr. Huntsworth. "He will
come out of this all right, I think, now that he is removed from your
aunt's ministrations. What a creature she is! She reminds me of the middle
ages. Vindictive, passionate and cruel beyond measure as were the women
of those times!"
The slow shelling of Vicksburg went on. The people gradually became
indifferent and resumed their daily avocations. General Pemberton issued
an order for all non-combatants to leave the city, but Bob and her aunt
refused to pay any heed to it.
"Where could we go?" asked Bob when her father tried to combat her
decision to stay. "You say the country is overrun with soldiers, and
where is there a place safer than Vicksburg? The Yankees can never take
it!"
"No; they cannot," returned the Colonel. "I don't know but that you
are right, Bob. I will have a cave dug in the hill back of the house
to-morrow, and you can retire to it when the shelling becomes too bad."
And so it was arranged. Men began work the next day and soon dug a cave
in the hillside back of them. Cave residence had become quite the thing
since the shelling of the city had begun, and the hillsides were so
honey-combed with excavations that the streets looked like avenues in a
cemetery.
Bob and Jeanne settled themselves into a happy and quiet existence. They
sewed in the morning and sometimes took excursions to Sky Parlor Hill
to view the Federal fleet that lay on the river, and to look through a
glass at the Federal encampment near the head of the abandoned canal.
Rumors were rife in the city of the advance of the Federal troops. One
night heavy cannonading was heard for an hour or two, ceasing and then
commencing again early in the morning. All day the noise continued. That
night the sky in the South was crimsoned by the light of a large fire.
The lurid glare fell in red and amber light upon the houses, lighting up
the white magnolias, paling the pink crape myrtles, and bringing out in
bright distinctness the railing of the terraces where drooped in fragrant
wreaths the clustering passion vine. The next day the news came that
the little village of Warrenton had been burned by shells thrown from
the boats. Then followed the tidings that a battle was going on between
the Federal troops and General Pemberton's forces at Black River. And so
the days passed full of rumors and excitement.
The seventeenth of May dawned, and Vicksburg was thrilled to the centre by
the news of a battle and the tidings that the Confederates were beaten.
Soon the streets were filled with bands of tired, worn-looking soldiers.
Wan, hollow-eyed, ragged, footsore and bloody the men limped along
unarmed but followed by siege guns, ambulances, gun carriages and wagons
in aimless confusion. At twilight the bands began to play "Dixie,"
"The Bonnie Blue Flag," and other martial airs on the court-house hill
to rally the scattered army.
"Mr. Huntsworth," said Jeanne as they were for a few moments out of
ear-shot of the lamenting Bob. "I heard a man say that the Yankees would
be here before long. Do you think it can be true?"
"I don't know, child. Let us hope so," was the answer.
But the day passed and no Yankees made their appearance and the citizens
settled once more into a semblance of quiet. But from that time the
regular siege of Vicksburg began. Utterly cut off from the world and
surrounded by a circle of fire, the fiery shower of shells went on day
and night. Regular occupations were discontinued, and people did nothing
but eat what they could get, sleep when they could and dodge the shells.
For some time Aunt Sally, Bob, Dick, Jeanne and Mr. Huntsworth, and the
servants had been living in the commodious cave prepared for them. The
girls no longer sewed or walked about. They were content if they could
keep out of range of the shells. Once every day some one of them ran the
gauntlet of shells to buy the meat and milk. Mule meat was the staple
article of diet, but this Bob and Jeanne utterly refused to touch and
confined themselves to rice and milk.
"It is not at all bad," declared Mr. Huntsworth as he sat at the door of
the cave one evening a piece of the meat in his hand. "Come here, girls,
and let me show you the difference in the shells. There goes a Parrott.
That's a mortar shell that curls so beautifully down yon hillside.
This"--as he dodged back into the cave to escape one--"is a rifle shell."
"I don't see what difference it makes," said Bob retreating to the back
of the cave, "what kind of a shell it is if it kills you. Do you, Jeanne?"
"I think not," answered Jeanne tremblingly. "What a fearful thing war is!
Oh!"
A shell fell just without the mouth of the cavern like a flame of fire,
making the earth tremble, and with a low, singing sound the fragments sped
on in their work of death.
"We seem to be within range this evening," said Mr. Huntsworth as he came
to where the trembling girls crouched.
Shell after shell followed each other in quick succession, and our little
party stood without speaking, awaiting the sudden death that seemed almost
certain. Jeanne's heart stood still as she heard the reports from the
guns and the rushing fearful sound as the shells came toward them. As
the shells neared the cave the noise became more deafening; the air was
full of the rushing sound; pains darted through her temples; her ears
were full of the confusing noise; and, as one would explode, the report
flashed through her head like an electric shock, leaving her in a state
of terror, painful to be imagined.
The rest of the occupants of the cavern were not much better off. After
this paroxysm of fear passed they strove for composure only to be again
overcome as the fusillade was repeated.
Morning found them more dead than alive, with blanched faces and trembling
lips, but as the time passed and they were still preserved, although the
shells came as fast as ever, they took courage and at last regained a
measure of calmness.
There was not much mental rest for the people of Vicksburg, and added
to Jeanne's apprehensions for their safety was the anxiety over Dick. The
lad had grown as strong as was possible considering the scarcity of
nourishing food and, as the shelling grew worse, a sort of restlessness
seized upon him and he would stand without the entrance of the cave
careless of the shells falling about him, watching their progress intently.
"I am afraid that he will be killed," said Jeanne tearfully to Bob. "Why
does he do it, Bob?"
"Mr. Huntsworth says that it is because he is a soldier," said Bob.
"I wish I could take him home. I must as soon as possible," said Jeanne.
Bob looked at her wonderingly. It was a surprise to her how Jeanne still
kept the hope of getting home, and ignored the fact that she and Dick were
prisoners. Opening her lips she was about to reply when the unmistakable
whirring of a shell told her that the battery which they feared the
most had turned their guns upon their hill. Running to the entrance she
called Dick and the servants in. They had just obeyed her summons when a
Parrott shell came whirring in at the entrance and fell in the centre
of the cave before them all, lying there smoking.
Terrified they fastened their eyes upon it. Their fate seemed certain.
For one moment they remained thus, and then Dick rushed forward, seized
the shell and threw it into the street, regaining the cave just as the
shell exploded.
"Dick," cried Jeanne running to him, "oh, how brave you are! But what if
you had been killed!"
"It's time I was throwing them," said Dick emphatically. "I ought to have
been at the other end of them long ago."
"Oh, but what if you had been killed," sobbed Jeanne. "What would mother
say?"
"That I had but done my duty," answered the lad.
"He is right," said Mr. Huntsworth. "Besides had he not been so brave not
only he but all the rest of us would have been killed also. Let us give
thanks for our wonderful escape."