THE DEPARTURE OF THE REGIMENT.
Forts Donalson and Henry had been taken by our brave soldiers and
seamen, and the nation was in a fever of excitement and joy. But
recruits were wanted to fill up the wasted armies in the various
departments, and the work of enlistment went rapidly on among the young
men of our neighborhood, while mothers, wives, and daughters worked day
and night to fit out the beloved ones who were so soon to leave us for
the seat of war.
Lilian Grey was one of the foremost in this noble work, and four of the
soldiers in company A of the 26th were selected and sent out by her,
with a bounty of three hundred dollars each, to fight for the cause
she loved so well. The shadow on Elinor’s fair brow deepened day by
day, as news came of terrible battles in which soldiers on both sides
fell by thousands; and even Mrs. Fenton’s faith was sorely tried by the
continued absence of her husband, from whom no word had ever reached
her.
Those were sad, sad days, and every heart felt the oppression as the
hour of parting drew near. True, “the battle of the warrior, with
confused noise and garments rolled in blood,” came to us softened by
distance, but many that we loved were there in the thickest of the
fight, and others were going whom we might see no more on earth. But it
was no time for outward expressions of sorrow, so we resolutely forced
back our tears, and smiled on our brave boys and encouraged them with
words of comfort and cheer, when our hearts were dying within us as we
thought of the dangers to which they were to be exposed.
It was expected by all, that on this occasion Robert Lester would be
one of the first to offer himself to his country, and a commission as
lieutenant-colonel was actually made out and sent him by the governor,
with the flattering request that he would not refuse it. But his answer
was the same as before.
“If I could go at all,” he said to his friends, “it would be as a
private soldier; but it avails not to speak of it; my duty lies at
home.”
Lilian shunned him more resolutely than ever, and once said in his
hearing, “If I were a man, and refused to go when my country called for
my services, I should expect to be driven from society, as unworthy the
love of woman or the esteem of my fellow-men.”
“You are too severe, Lilian,” said the gentle Elinor; “there are many
other ways of serving one’s country besides fighting for it, and every
one can judge best for himself what his duty may be.”
There was a look of intense pain in the face of the young man as Lilian
spoke, but he drew himself up to his full height, and the fire in his
eye told all who looked upon him that whatever the cause might be, it
was not lack of courage which kept him at home.
“A thousand blessings on you, Miss Fenton,” he said in a low voice to
Elinor soon afterwards. “Your kind heart hesitates to condemn even
where it dares not approve. You can never know how much good your words
have done me, suffering as I have from misunderstanding on every side.”
“You must pardon dear Lilian,” she answered in the same tone;
“she feels very strongly, and your decision has been a severe
disappointment to her.”
“Miss Grey can never need any one to plead her cause with me,” he said
as he turned to leave the room.
A few days before the departure of the regiment Miss Letty came to
my house, her face beaming with smiles, and to my inquiry what had
happened, she answered,
“So much has happened, I don’t know where to begin to tell you. In the
first place, Mr. Fenton has got home with the rest of his money; but
such a time as he has had to get it. Why, the adventures of Sinbad the
sailor were nothing to the escapes he has had and the troubles he has
been in. I don’t think he is much to speak of, compared with the rest;
but that isn’t what I am thinking about. The best of all is, that it
has come out why Robert Lester couldn’t enlist before, and now he has
joined the company as a private soldier; but, my word for it, he wont
be one long.”
“Are you at liberty to state the reason?” I inquired.
“Oh, certainly. It seems that the rich old uncle who left him his
fortune, made a condition in his will, that if Robert died without
heirs, the property was to go to another cousin, one Dick Satterlee,
who is a flaming rebel. Our Mr. Lester knew that if he was killed, all
that mint of money would go right into the hands of the Confederate
government, to help on the rebellion. So he thought he could do more
for the Union cause with the money, than by carrying a musket and
getting shot himself. Besides, his poor little sister would be left
without any friends, and poor to boot; so he just made up his mind to
stand it out, and let everybody misjudge him if they would.
“Last week he saw in the list of killed in some battle, the name of his
cousin Richard Satterlee; so he went right on to find out all about it.
The body hadn’t been discovered, but everybody said he was dead. When
Mr. Lester came back, he waited long enough to make his will, and then
enlisted; and a happy looking man he was, I can tell you.
“But that isn’t all. He was once engaged to Miss Lilian Grey; but she
was so angry with him because he didn’t go into the army, that every
thing was broken off between them, though she loves him as she does her
life, and he thinks full as much of her. But of course it will all be
made up now, and I’m glad of it, for they are just exactly suited to
each other.”
When I had expressed my surprise and pleasure at the good news brought
by Miss Letty, I inquired what she intended to do about little Willie,
the son of a deceased sister, to whom she had been a second mother from
his infancy.
“Well, there’s no help for it, I suppose,” she answered, while a cloud
flitted over her bright face; “he is bound to go as a drummer-boy with
the regiment, and I can’t persuade him to stay at home willingly,
though he says he wont go without my consent. It’s well his poor mother
isn’t living, for her heart would break to have him go, such a baby as
he is, only twelve years old. But I must say for him, he’s the best boy
I ever saw, and the men all love him so, he’ll be well taken care of,
if he doesn’t get killed. It’s hard for me; but I’ve got nothing else
to give, and though it’s like taking the heart out of my body, I’ll try
to do it cheerfully.”
Miss Letty was sewing at the Tyrrell House when she learned from Mr.
Ryder the facts in relation to Robert Lester, and no time was lost by
her in communicating them to the family. Mrs. Fenton and Elinor heard
with thankfulness that his fame was publicly cleared, though they had
never doubted that it would be so in the end.
But to the ardent and enthusiastic Lilian, by whom he had been so
bitterly condemned, the news was like a reprieve from death. She threw
her arms round Miss Letty’s neck, exclaiming,
“Oh, you are the best and dearest Miss Letty in the whole world. I
didn’t think any thing could have made me so happy.”
“Lilian, dear, you forget,” said her aunt in her gentle tone.
“No, aunt, I forget nothing,” Lilian replied, while her eyes shone
through tears like stars. “I know we are separated by my own rash act,
and I shall honor him only the more if he refuse again to see me; but I
am glad and proud to know that he is worthy of my love, or that of any
other woman.”
The days fled rapidly, and still Mr. Lester did not call on his former
friends the Fentons, and as Lilian went out much less than usual,
they seldom met. He was unwilling to try to exonerate himself from a
suspicion which he felt to be unreasonable and degrading, or to sue
for a return of the love he had never forfeited; and Lilian, though
she would gladly have humbled herself at his feet for having doubted
his honor and loyalty, would not take the first step, lest her motives
should be misconstrued.
Things were in this state when, on the evening before the departure
of the regiment, a note from Elinor Fenton was received by the young
soldier, which brought him quickly to her side. A few words of
explanation passed between them, and then he was ushered into the
library, where Lilian was busy in preparing packages of stationery for
the knapsacks that were scattered about.
That interview was one never to be forgotten by either of the parties.
There were confessions to be made on both sides, and mutual forgiveness
to be exchanged; for while Lester felt that he should have intrusted to
the woman he loved the true reasons for his conduct, Lilian insisted
that, knowing him as she did, she ought never to have doubted his
loyalty under any circumstances. They parted, pledged to each other,
and Lilian accepted as a sacred legacy the charge of Fanny Lester, in
case of a contingency which her heart refused to contemplate.
The dreaded morning came at last, when our brave boys were to exchange
the comforts and endearments of home, for the hardships of the camp
and the horrors of the battle-field. But a solemn ceremony remained to
be performed before they went, and with one accord the steps of all
were turned towards the parsonage. There, in the pleasant front yard,
under the shadow of the tall elms that had sheltered her childhood,
Mabel Ryder gave her hand to one whom she had loved ever since she
could remember any thing. Thomas Wiley, first lieutenant of company A,
was a young merchant, and had been a pupil of Mr. Ryder, who saw with
pleasure the attachment existing between the young man and his darling
child, for he knew him to be one calculated in every way to make her
happy. When he joined the regiment, Mabel gave a tearful but willing
consent, but with his urgent solicitation that she should become his
wife before they went, she would not at first comply, the time was so
short and the proposition so unexpected; but when he brought forward
the plea, that as his wife she could with more propriety come to him
if wounded or sick, she yielded. The privilege of attending him in
sickness or suffering was so precious, that she could not lightly
relinquish it; so it was fixed that the marriage should take place on
the morning of their departure.
It was a beautiful picture, that wedding party under the trees, and
one not soon to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The fair young
bride, dressed in simple white, with smiles and tears contending for
the mastery on her cheek, with her bridesmaids, Elinor and Lilian; the
happy groom in his becoming uniform, supported by Robert Lester and
the second lieutenant of his company; the groups of friends scattered
about, and outside of all the boys of the Twenty-sixth looking on
with the deepest interest, as the pastor and father pronounced with
trembling voice the words that gave his child to the keeping of
another--all this is engraven on my memory, and can never be erased.
The ceremony was over, and as the regiment wheeled into line, the
bridegroom with one long, silent embrace consigned Mabel to the care of
her friends and took his place in the ranks. All the stores were closed
and business suspended, as the Twenty-sixth marched for the last time,
with unbroken columns, through our streets. The regiment was raised in
the immediate vicinity, and many of its members were personally known
to us; but at such a moment all seemed like sons and brothers. We were
proud of their soldierly bearing, of their firm and measured tread,
of the precision with which their evolutions were performed, and the
intelligence that lighted up every face. What eager eyes looked out
from the ranks, to catch the last glimpse of mother, sister, wife,
or sweetheart, as, amid the waving of handkerchiefs, half-uttered
blessings, and stifled sobs, we bade them perhaps a final good-by. They
left us full of hope and energy, with all the courage and strength of
young manhood nerving each arm and animating each heart. How would they
come back?