[Illustration: 9046]
AMP life {038}was pleasant, aside from the perpetual drilling, marching
and countermarching. Friends had access to the boys at stated times,
little gifts and pledges were exchanged, and the time passed swiftly.
One day there was great excitement. Coffee was swallowed hastily,
knapsacks were packed in a hurry, arms were brightened up, ammunition
was dealt out, and the word ran through the camp--“We are ordered to
report at Washington.”
“Now I shall know something of what is going on. Poor mother, she will
grieve over her absent boy, and fancy me in a thousand dangers. But I
will write to her often, that will cheer her up.”
And he did. Many a line he scribbled on his knee with a bit of pencil or
a blackened stick, telling her of his safety and health. These short but
welcome missives were read over and over, and fondly kissed, the dear
little messengers of love and hope.
The war cloud was growing darker. The government arsenal at Harper's
Ferry had been burned by Lieutenant Jones, who knew it would lessen
its value to the Southern forces, who were marching upon the town. The
latter, however, saved considerable of the government property, and next
seized the bridge at Point of Rocks, thus circumventing General Butler,
who was near Baltimore. They also took possession of several trains,
which they side-tracked into Strasburg, a measure which helped the
Confederate train service in Virginia very perceptibly.
The ride of the boys in blue to Washington lay through the mountains
of West Virginia, where nature revels in grand surprises. Many a little
cabin perched far up the hillside was the home {039}of those who had
shed tears when old John Brown was led forth to die. Poor and scanty
though their daily fare was, they were loyal and true, and the spirit of
defiance to the old flag found no echoes in their breasts.
[Illustration: 0047]
To Ralph the scenery appealed with deep solemnity. He was born in the
West, where the green seas of the prairies seemed to know {040}no limit.
To him hills and valleys, with their somber shadows, were objects of
awe. He noted the beautiful homes of wealth and taste as he was whirled
swiftly by on the train. He saw the black faces of slaves working in
garden or field, and heard their voices as they talked.
[Illustration: 0048]
“Fore de Lawd!” he heard a grizzled old darkey say, as they drew into a
small station for water, “pears like dey look jess like de white folks
do down here!”
“You 'spected dey had horns, didn't you? Well, I knowed better. I'se
been Norf wid Massa too many times to take in dat _idee_.”
Washington, the capital of the nation, was reached. As they {041}steamed
into the depot, and began to unload, Ralph, for the first time since
leaving home, felt lonely. He saw throngs of people, but all was strange
and new to him, and his heart sank. The city was full of soldiers
waiting for orders, so full that it was a puzzle where to quarter them.
[Illustration: 9049]
The Government buildings were full to overflowing, they
“bunked” every-where, and wild pranks these boys played, their love
of fun leading them into many a mad frolic. The city was too small for
their mischievous natures, and it was no uncommon thing to make a trip
into the surrounding territory, bent on extorting all the sport they
might out of what most of them regarded as a sort of a gala time. “But
we are ready whenever we are called upon,” was their unanimous cry.
The shooting of Colonel Ellsworth at Alexandria, because he tore down
a secession flag, so short a time previous, and his prompt avenging, as
you remember, had roused them to a sense of the hostility which was felt
by those who sought to divide the North and South. Then the attack of
the mob of Baltimore upon the Sixth Massachusetts, {042}while being
transported from one depot to another, was another proof that their
brothers of the South had trampled friendly feelings beneath their feet,
and that the fires of sectional jealousy were burning fiercely.
[Illustration: 0050]
Their journey lay through a hostile State, and sober faces succeeded the
jokes and laughter of the past few weeks. The South was plainly up in
arms, and that “rebellion,” which the whole North at first thought but
the task of a few weeks to crush, began to assume the appearance and
proportions of a long and cruel conflict.
General Butler was in command of the military department of Virginia.
[Illustration: 8051]
“Wonder {043}if that means fight?” soliloquized Ralph. “The lads say
he is a smart lawyer, but I don't know as that proves him to be a good
fighter.”
Ralph wrote often to that dear mother who was praying for her boy. “We
move to the front to-morrow,” so his letter ran. “I know how fond you
are of your boy. I am going to do my duty, I believe. But is it not an
awful thought that it is no foreign foe we shall meet, but our own
people?--that is the sting in it to me.”
[Illustration: 8051]
The night before the battle the boys slept as calmly as if they were at
home. At dawn they were called to march, and after an attack upon their
rations, they began the advance into Virginia. Raw and undisciplined,
they did not accept the gravity of the situation. They marched along,
light-hearted and gay, enjoying the change from quiet camp life with all
the zest of school boys. Many of them fell out of the ranks and picked
the luscious berries growing thickly by the wayside, while others
wastefully tossed out the water in their {044}canteens and filled them
with fresh every time they came to one of the springs which abounded in
that beautiful and fertile region.
“This isn't hard work,” Ralph thought. “We are having more fun than
ever.”
A halt had been called for a few moments' rest. A few rods from the road
a dark stream ran slowly by, whose depths no one knew. A swim in its
cool waters was proposed at any hazard, and, quickly disrobing, some of
the younger ones plunged in, and were having a merry time, when the roll
of the drum was heard and the marching was resumed. Here was a fix! The
army began to move, and a dozen soldiers were still in the stream, who
snatched up the first garments they saw and hastened to dress. In their
confusion they had almost to a man seized the wrong clothes, and the fit
of some of them was ludicrous. But changes were quickly made, and after
much good-natured “chaffing” they fell into line, and were as sedate and
soldierlike as any “vet” among them.
The cry, “On to Richmond!” sounded throughout the land.
Officers and soldiers had been massed near Washington long enough,
and the people, as well as the boys in blue, were impatient tor some
results, now that an army had been called into being. The soldiers pined
for action; the people were anxious to know what would be the outcome.
“Who commands the Southerners?” Ralph asked old “Bill” Elliott, a
soldier who had taken quite a fancy to the boy, and was ready to answer
his questions at all times.
“Beauregard, the same chap who opened fire on Fort Sumter.”
“And what does he propose doing now?”
“Well, as I am not in his confidence, I can't just tell you, but I 'low
we're not going to be in the dark long, neither are we likely to be the
gainers by any move he makes if he can help it. He's got some thirty
thousand men with him, and we'll have a lively time soon, you bet.”
“The {045}men want a brush, I think, from what they say. They're
becoming tired of waiting.”
[Illustration: 0053]
“And so does the country; but they don't know how much easier it is
to talk war than to be in it. What does the man who stays at home know
about the dangers and trials of a soldier's life? How is he capable of
judging whether it is time to fight or where it is best to strike,
or how many odds a general of an army has against him? We'll have war
enough before long--they needn't fear.” {046}
[Illustration: 0054]
“Well, {047}I suppose we'll some of us be in it soon, and who knows how
many of us will come out?”
[Illustration: 0055]
“Why, boy, you're not showing the white feather, I hope!' and Bill
peered anxiously into the lad's troubled face.
“No, {048}sir, I am not, but I can't help thinking of my poor mother,
and, besides, you know I am going to fight her people. My mother is a
Virginian.”
“Is that so? I know, then, she must feel bad have you in our army. I
can't blame her, nuther.
“But she's loyal to our flag, Bill,” the boy hastened to add. “It would
break her heart, though, if anything should happen to me.”
“Cheer up! You'll get through all right. I can feel it in my bones.”
Ralph laughed. “Why, of course I shall. It seems to me this war won't be
a very long one.”
“Perhaps not--you can't tell. But McClellan taught the Johnnies a lesson
at the 'races' the other day.”
“The 'races?'” Ralph's eyes opened wide.
“Yes, the 'Philippi races,'” Bill went on. “The Confeds ran so fast from
our boys at that battle that they dubbed their retreat the 'Philippi
races,' in honor of the speed they showed. He has been made a general,
and given the Ohio troops to command. He crossed the Ohio with four
regiments and banged after the enemy. He found it hard work, for they
say Colonel Porterfield burned all the bridges. He wasn't long in
putting them in order, though, and getting over some big reinforcements.
He routed them at Philippi and at Rich Mountain. Government ought to
remember him, I tell you.”
And it did, for “Little Mac,” as he was called, was made
commander-in-chief of the Army of the Potomac. {049}
{050}