A FORAGING ADVENTURE.
There was a newsboy named "Charley," who slept at Captain Kingwalt's
every second night, and who returned my beast to his owner in
Washington. The aphorism that a Yankee can do anything, was exemplified
by this lad; for he worked my snail into a gallop. He was born in
Chelsea, Massachusetts, and appeared to have taken to speculation at the
age when most children are learning A B C. He was now in his fourteenth
year, owned two horses, and employed another boy to sell papers for him
likewise. His profits upon daily sales of four hundred journals were
about thirty-two dollars. He had five hundred dollars in bank, and was
debating with Captain Kingwalt the propriety of founding an army express
and general agency. Such a self-reliant, swaggering, far-sighted, and
impertinent boy I never knew. He was a favorite with the Captain's
black-boy, and upon thorough terms of equality with the Commanding
General. His papers cost him in Washington a cent and a half each, and
he sold them in camp for ten cents each. I have not the slightest doubt
that I shall hear of him again as the proprietor of an overland mail, or
the patron and capitalist of Greenland emigration.
I passed the second and third days quietly in camp, writing a couple of
letters, studying somewhat of fortification, and making flying visits to
various officers. There was but one other Reporter with this division of
the army. He represented a New York journal, and I could not but
contrast his fine steed and equipments with the scanty accommodations
that my provincial establishment had provided for me. His saddle was a
cushioned McClellan, with spangled breast-strap and plump saddle-bags,
and his bridle was adorned with a bright curb bit and twilled reins. He
wore a field-glass belted about his body, and was plentifully provided
with money to purchase items of news, if they were at any time difficult
to obtain. I resolved inwardly to seize the first opportunity of
changing establishments, so that I might be placed upon as good a
footing. My relations with camp, otherwise, were of the happiest
character; for the troops were State-people of mine, and, as reporters
had not yet abused the privileges accorded them, my profession was held
in some repute. I made the round of various "messes," and soon adopted
the current dissipations of the field,--late hours, long stories,
incessant smoking, and raw spirits. There were some restless minds about
me, whose funds of anecdote and jest were apparently inexhaustible. I do
not know that so many eccentric, adventurous, and fluent people are to
be found among any other nationality of soldiers, not excepting the
Irish.
The blue roan of which friend Fogg had been deprived, exhibited
occasional evidences of a desire to break my neck. I was obliged to
dispense with the spur in riding him, but he nevertheless dashed off at
times, and put me into an agony of fear. On those occasions I managed to
retain my seat, and gained thereby the reputation of being a very fine
equestrian. As there were few civilians in camp, and as I wore a gray
suit, and appeared to be in request at head-quarters, a rumor was
developed and gained currency that I was attached to the Division in the
capacity of a scout. When my horse became unmanageable, therefore, his
speed was generally accelerated by the cheers of soldiers, and I became
an object of curiosity in every quarter, to my infinite mortification
and dread.
The Captain was to set off on the fourth day, to purchase or seize some
hay and grain that were stacked at neighboring farms. We prepared to go
at eight o'clock, but were detained somewhat by reason of Skyhiski being
inebriated the night before, and thereby delaying the breakfast, and
afterward the fact that the black stallion had laid open the black-boy's
leg. However, at a quarter past nine, the Captain, Sergeant Clover,
Fogg, Owen, and myself, with six four-horse wagons, filed down the
railroad track until we came to a bridge that some laborers were
repairing, where we turned to the left through some soggy fields, and
forded Difficult Creek. As there was no road to follow, we kept straight
through a wood of young maples and chestnut-trees. Occasionally a trunk
or projecting branch stopped the wagons, when the teamsters opened the
way with their axes. After two hours of slow advance, we came to the end
of the wood, and climbed a succession of hilly fields. From the summit
of the last of these, a splendid sweep of farm country was revealed,
dotted with quaint Virginia dwellings, stackyards, and negro-cabins, and
divided by miles of tortuous worm-fence. The eyes of the Quartermaster
brightened at the prospect, though I am afraid that he thought only of
the abundant forage; but my own grew hazy as I spoke of the peaceful
people and the neglected fields. The plough had furrowed none of these
acres, and some crows, that screamed gutturally from a neighboring
ash-tree, seemed lean and pinched for lack of their plunder of corn.
Many of the dwellings were guarded by soldiers; but of the resident
citizens only the women and the old men remained. I did not need to ask
where the young men were exiled. The residue that prayed with their
faces toward Richmond, told me the story with their eyes. There was,
nevertheless, no melodramatic exhibition of feeling among the bereaved.
I did not see any defiant postures, nor hear any melting apostrophies.
Marius was not mouthing by the ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel
weeping for her Hebrew children. But there were on every hand
manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except among a few
males who feared unutterable things, and were disposed to cringe and
prevaricate. The women were not generally handsome; their face was
indolent, their dress slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They
lopped off the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally
commencing with a verb, as thus: "Told soldiers not to carr' off the
rye; declared they would; said they bound do jest what they pleased. Let
'em go!"
The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached by a long lane,
and on knocking at the porch with his ponderous fist, a woman came
timidly to the kitchen window.
"Who's thar?" she said, after a moment.
"Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly; "we don't intend
to murder or rob you, ma'am!"
There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, but three young
women, followed by a very deaf old man, who appeared to think that the
Captain's visit bore some reference to the hencoop.
"I wish to buy for the use of the United States Government," said the
Captain, "some stacks of hay and corn fodder, that lie in one of your
fields."
"The last hen was toted off this morning before breakfast," said the old
man; "they took the turkeys yesterday, and I was obliged to kill the
ducks or I shouldn't have had anything to eat."
Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through his nose, and the
man Clover appeared to be suddenly interested in something that lay in a
mulberry-tree opposite.
"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your produce, and you
cannot do better than to let me take the stacks: leaving you, of course,
enough for your own horses and cattle."
Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he hadn't heard of
any recent battle; for his part, he had never been a politician; but
thought that both parties were a little wrong; and wished that peace
would return: for he was a very old man, and was sorry that folks
couldn't let quiet folks' property alone. How far his garrulity might
have betrayed him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking
his hand and leading him submissively into the house.
The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the stacks at his
own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a soldier, and as he seemed,
a gentleman, to deal justly by them. There could be no crop harvested
for a twelvemonth, and beggary looked them in the face. I have never
beheld anything more chivalrously gallant, than the sturdy old
quartermaster's attitude. He blended in tone and face the politeness of
a diplomat and the gentleness of a father. They asked him to return to
the house, with his _officers_, when he had loaded the wagons; for
dinner was being prepared, and they hoped that Virginians could be
hospitable, even to their enemies. As to the hay and fodder, none need
be left; for the Confederates had seized their horses some months
before, and driven off their cows when they retired from the
neighborhood.
I so admired the queer gables and great brick ovens of the house, that I
resolved to tie my horse, and rest under the crooked porch. The eldest
young lady had taken me to be a prisoner, and was greatly astonished
that the Quartermaster permitted me to go at large. She asked me to have
a chair in the parlor, but when I made my appearance there, the two
younger sisters fled precipitately. The old man was shaking his head
sadly by the fireplace. Some logs burned on the andirons with a red
flame. The furniture consisted of a mahogany sideboard, table, and
chairs,--ponderous in pattern; and a series of family portraits, in a
sprawling style of art, smirked and postured on the wall. The floor was
bare, but shone by reason of repeated scrubbing, and the black
mantel-piece was a fine specimen of colonial carving in the staunchest
of walnut-wood.
Directly the two younger girls--though the youngest must have been
twenty years of age--came back with averted eyes and the silliest of
giggles. They sat a little distance apart, and occasionally nodded or
signalled like school children.
"Wish you _would_ stop, Bell!" said one of these misses,--whose flaxen
hair was plastered across her eyebrows, and who was very tall and
slender.
"See if I don't tell on you," said the other,--a dark miss with roguish
eyes and fat, plump figure, and curls that shook ever so merrily about
her shoulders.
"Declar' I never said so, if he asks me; declar' I will."
"Tell on you,--you see! Won't he be jealous? How he will car' on!"
I made out that these young ladies were intent upon publishing their
obligations to certain sweethearts of theirs, who, as it afterward
seemed, were in the army at Manassas Junction. I said to the
curly-haired miss, that she was endangering the life of her enamored;
for it would become an object with all the anxious troops in the
vicinity to shorten his days. The old man roused up here, and remarked
that his health certainly was declining; but he hoped to survive a while
longer for the sake of his children; that he was no politician, and
always said that the negroes were very ungrateful people. He caught his
daughter's eye finally, and cowered stupidly, nodding at the fire.
I remarked to the eldest young woman,--called Prissy (Priscilla) by her
sister,--that the country hereabout was pleasantly wooded. She said, in
substance, that every part of Virginia was beautiful, and that she did
not wish to survive the disgrace of the old commonwealth.
"Become right down hateful since Yankees invaded it!" exclaimed Miss
Bell. "_Some_ Yankee's handsome sister," said Miss Bessie, the
proprietor of the curls, "think some Yankees puffick gentlemen!"
"Oh, you traitor!" said the other,--"wish _Henry_ heard you say that!"
Miss Bell intimated that she should take the first opportunity of
telling him the same, and I eulogized her good judgment. Priscilla now
begged to be excused for a moment, as, since the flight of the negro
property, the care of the table had devolved mainly upon her. A single
aged servant, too feeble or too faithful to decamp, still attended to
the menial functions, and two mulatto children remained to relieve them
of light labor. She was a dignified, matronly young lady, and, as one of
the sisters informed me, plighted to a Major in the Confederate service.
The others chattered flippantly for an hour, and said that the old place
was dreadfully lonesome of late. Miss Bell was _sure_ she should die if
another winter, similar to the last, occurred. She loved company, and
had always found it _so_ lively in Loudon before; whereas she had
positively been but twice to a neighbor's for a twelvemonth, and had
quite forgotten the road to the mill. She said, finally, that, rather
than undergo another such isolation, she would become a _Vivandiere_ in
the Yankee army. The slender sister was altogether wedded to the idea of
her lover's. "_Wouldn't_ she tell Henry? and _shouldn't_ she write to
Jeems? and oh, Bessie, you would not _dare_ to repeat that before
_him_." In short, I was at first amused, and afterwards annoyed, by this
young lady, whereas the roguish-eyed miss improved greatly upon
acquaintance.
After a while, Captain Kingwalt came in, trailing his spurs over the
floor, and leaving sunshine in his wake. There was something galvanic in
his gentleness, and infectious in his merriment. He told them at dinner
of his own daughters on the Brandywine, and invented stories of Fogg's
courtships, till that young gentleman first blushed, and afterward
dropped his plate. Our meal was a frugal one, consisting mainly of the
ducks referred to, some vegetables, corn-bread, and coffee made of
wasted rye. There were neither sugar, spices, nor tea, on the premises,
and the salt before us was the last in the dwelling. The Captain
promised to send them both coffee and salt, and Fogg volunteered to
bring the same to the house, whereat the Captain teased him till he left
the table.
At this time, a little boy, who was ostensibly a waiter, cried: "Miss
Prissy, soldiers is climbin' in de hog-pen."
"I knew we should lose the last living thing on the property," said this
young lady, much distressed.
The Captain went to the door, and found three strolling Bucktails
looking covetously at the swine. They were a little discomposed at his
appearance, and edged off suspiciously.
"Halt!" said the old man in his great voice, "where are you men going?"
"Just makin' reconnoissance," said one of the freebooters; "s'pose a
feller has a right to walk around, hain't he?"
"Not unless he has a pass," said the Quartermaster; "have you written
permission to leave camp?"
"Left'nant s'posed we might. Don't know as it's your business. Never see
_you_ in the regiment."
"It is my business, as an officer of the United States, to see that no
soldier strays from camp unauthorizedly, or depredates upon private
property. I will take your names, and report you, first for straggling,
secondly for insolence!"
"Put to it, Bill!" said the speaker of the foragers; "run, Bob! go it
hearties!" And they took to their heels, cleared a pair of fences, and
were lost behind some outbuildings. The Captain could be harsh as well
as generous, and was about mounting his horse impulsively, to overtake
and punish the fugitives, when Priscilla begged him to refrain, as an
enforcement of discipline on his part might bring insult upon her
helpless household. I availed myself of a pause in the Captain's wrath,
to ask Miss Priscilla if she would allow me to lodge in the dwelling.
Five nights' experience in camp had somewhat reduced my enthusiasm, and
I already wearied of the damp beds, the hard fare, and the coarse
conversation of the bivouac. The young lady assented willingly, as she
stated that the presence of a young man would both amuse and protect the
family. For several nights she had not slept, and had imagined footsteps
on the porch and the drawing of window-bolts. There was a bed, formerly
occupied by her brother, that I might take, but must depend upon rather
laggard attendance. I had the satisfaction, therefore, of seeing the
Captain and retinue mount their horses, and wave me a temporary good by.
Poor Fogg looked back so often and so seriously that I expected to see
him fall from the saddle. The young ladies were much impressed with the
Captain's manliness, and Miss Bell wondered _how_ such a _puffick_
gentleman could _reconcile_ himself to the Yankee cause. She had felt a
desire to speak to him upon that point as she was _sure_ he was of fine
stock, and entirely averse to the invasion of such territory as that of
_dear_ old Virginia. There was something in his manner that _so_
reminded her of some one who should be _nameless_ for the present; but
the "nameless" was, _of course_, young, _handsome_, and _so_ brave. I
ruthlessly dissipated her theory of the Captain's origin, by stating
that he was of humble German descent, so far as I knew, and had probably
never beheld Virginia till preceded by the bayonets of his neighbors.
After tea Miss Bessie produced a pitcher of rare cider, that came from a
certain mysterious quarter of the cellar. A chessboard was forthcoming
at a later hour, when we amused ourselves with a couple of games,
facetiously dubbing our chessman Federals and Confederates. Miss Bell,
meanwhile, betook herself to a diary, wherein she minutely related the
incidents and sentiments of successive days. The quantity of words
underscored in the same autobiography would have speedily exhausted the
case of italics, if the printer had obtained it. I was so beguiled by
these patriarchal people, that I several times asked myself if the
circumstances were real. Was I in a hostile country, surrounded by
thousands of armed men? Were the incidents of this evening portions of
an historic era, and the ground about me to be commemorated by
bloodshed? Was this, in fact, revolution, and were these simple country
girls and their lovers revolutionists? The logs burned cheerily upon the
hearth, and the ancestral portraits glowered contemplatively from the
walls. Miss Prissy looked dreamily into the fire, and the old man snored
wheezily in a corner. A gray cat purred in Miss Bell's lap, and Miss
Bessie was writing some nonsense in my note-book.
A sharp knock fell upon the door, and something that sounded like the
butt of a musket shook the porch without. The girls turned pale, and I
think that Miss Bessie seized my arm and clung to it. I think also, that
Miss Bell attempted to take the other arm, to which I demurred.
"Those brutal soldiers again!" said Priscilla, faintly.
"I think one of the andirons has fallen down, darter!" said the old man,
rousing up.
"Tremble for my life," said Miss Bell; "_sure_ shall die if it's _a
man_."
I opened the door after a little pause, when a couple of rough privates
in uniform confronted me.
"We're two guards that General Meade sent to protect the house and
property," said the tallest of these men; "might a feller come in and
warm his feet!"
I understood at once that the Quartermaster had obtained these persons;
and the other man coming forward, said--
"I fetched some coffee over, and a bag o' salt, with Corporal Fogg's
compliments."
They deposited their muskets in a corner, and balanced their boots on
the fender. Nothing was said for a time.
"Did you lose yer poultry?" said the tall man, at length.
"All," said Miss Priscilla.
"Fellers loves poultry!" said the man, smacking his lips.
"Did you lose yer sheep?" said the same man, after a little silence.
"The Bucktails cut their throats the first day that they encamped at the
mill," said Miss Priscilla.
"Them Bucktails great fellers," said the tall man; "them Bucktails awful
on sheep: they loves 'em so!"
He relapsed again for a few minutes, when he continued: "You don't like
fellers to bag yer poultry and sheep, do you?"
Miss Priscilla replied that it was both dishonest and cruel. Miss Bell
intimated that none but Yankees would do it.
"P'raps not," said the tall soldier, drily; "did you ever grub on fat
pork, Miss? No? Did you ever gnaw yer hard tack after a spell o'
sickness, and a ten-hour march? No? P'raps you might like a streak o'
mutton arterwards! P'raps you might take a notion for a couple o'
chickens or so! No? How's that, Ike? What do you think, pardner? (to me)
I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't think the Bucktails is over
and above dishonest to home, mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I _would_
bag a chicken any day! I say that above board. Hey, Ike?"
When the tall man and his inferior satellite had warmed their boots till
they smoked, they rose, recovered their muskets, and bowed themselves
into the yard. Soon afterward I bade the young ladies good night, and
repaired to my room. The tall man and his associate were pacing up and
down the grass-plot, and they looked very cold and comfortless, I
thought. I should have liked to obtain for them a draught of cider, but
prudently abstained; for every man in the army would thereby become
cognizant of its existence. So I placed my head once more upon a soft
pillow, and pitied the chilled soldiers who slept upon the turf. I
thought of Miss Bessie with her roguish eyes, and wondered what themes
were now engrossing her. I asked myself if this was the romance of war,
and if it would bear relating to one's children when he grew as old and
as deaf as the wheezy gentleman down-stairs. In fine, I was a little
sentimental, somewhat reflective, and very drowsy. So, after a while,
processions of freebooting soldiers, foraging Quartermasters, deaf
gentlemen, Fogg's regiment, and multitudes of ghosts from Manassas,
drifted by in my dreams. And, in the end, Miss Bessie's long curls
brushed into my eyes, and I found the morning, ruddy as her cheeks,
blushing at the window.