PUT UNDER ARREST.
While daylight remained, I had little reason to repent my wayward
resolve. The Pamunkey lay to my left, and the residences between it and
the road were of a better order than others that I had seen. This part
of the country had not been overrun, and the wheat and young corn were
waving in the river-breeze. I saw few negroes, but the porches were
frequently occupied by women and white men, who looked wonderingly
toward me. There were some hoof-marks in the clay, and traces of a broad
tire that I thought belonged to a gun-carriage. The hills of King
William County were but a little way off, and through the wood that
darkened them, sunny glimpses of vari-colored fields and dwellings now
and then appeared. I came to a shabby settlement called New Castle, at
six o'clock, where an evil-looking man walked out from a frame-house,
and inquired the meaning of the firing at Hanover.
I explained hurriedly, as some of his neighbors meantime gathered around
me. They asked if I was not a soldier in the Yankee army, and as I rode
away, followed me suspiciously with their eyes and wagged their heads.
To end the matter I spurred my pony and soon galloped out of sight.
Henceforward I met only stern, surprised glances, and seemed to read
"murder" in the faces of the inhabitants. A wide creek crossed the road
about five miles further on, where I stopped to water my horse. The
shades of night were gathering now; there was no moon; and for the
first time I realized the loneliness of my position. Hitherto, adventure
had laughed down fear; hereafter my mind was to be darkened like the
gloaming, and peopled with ghastly shadows.
I was yet young in the experience of death, and the toppled corpse of
the slain cavalry-man on the scout, somehow haunted me. I heard his
hoof-falls chiming with my own, and imagined, with a cold thrill, that
his steed was still following me; then, his white rigid face and
uplifted arms menaced my way; and, at last, the ruffianly form of his
slayer pursued him along the wood. They glided like shadows over the
foliage, and flashed across the surfaces of pools and rivulets. I heard
their steel ringing in the underbrush, and they flitted around me,
pursuing and retreating, till my brain began to whirl with the motion.
Suddenly my horse stumbled, and I reined him to a halt.
The cold drops were standing on my forehead. I found my knees a-quiver
and my breathing convulsive. With an expletive upon my unmanliness, I
touched the nag with my heel, and whistled encouragingly. Poor pony!
Fifty miles of almost uninterrupted travel had broken his spirit. He
leaped into his accustomed pace: but his legs were unsteady and he
floundered at every bound. There were pools, ruts, and boughs across the
way, with here and there stretches of slippery corduroy; but the thick
blackness concealed these, and I expected momentarily to be thrown from
the saddle. By and by he dropped from a canter into a rock; from a rock
to an amble; then into a walk, and finally to a slow painful limp. I
dismounted and took him perplexedly by the bit. A light shone from the
window of a dwelling across some open fields to the left, and I thought
of repairing thither; but some deep-mouthed dogs began to bay directly,
and then the lamp went out. A tiny stream sang at the roadside, flowing
toward some deeper tributary; lighting a cigar, I made out, by its
fitful illuminings, to wash the limbs of the jaded nag. Then I led him
for an hour, till my own limbs were weary, troubled all the time by
weird imaginings, doubts, and regrets. When I resumed the saddle the
horse had a firmer step and walked pleasantly. I ventured after a time
to incite him to a trot, and was going nicely forward, when a deep
voice, that almost took my breath, called from the gloom--
"Who comes there? Halt, or I fire! Guard, turn out!"
Directly the road was full of men, and a bull's-eye lantern flashed upon
my face. A group of foot-soldiery, with drawn pistols and sabres,
gathered around me, and I heard the neigh of steeds from some
imperceptible vicinity. "Who is it, Sergeant?" said one. "Is there but
one of 'em?" said another. "Cuss him!" said a third; "I was takin' a
bully snooze." "Who are yeou?" said the Sergeant, sternly; "what are
yeou deouin' aout at this hour o' the night? Are yeou a rebbil?"
"No!" I answered, greatly relieved; "I am a newspaper correspondent of
Smith's division, and there's my pass!"
I was taken over to a place in the woods, where some fagots were
smouldering, and, stirring them to a blaze, the Sergeant read the
document and pronounced it right.
"Yeou hain't got no business, nevertheless, to be roamin' araound
outside o' picket; but seein' as it's yeou, I reckon yeou may trot
along!"
I offered to exchange my information for a biscuit and a drop of coffee,
for I was wellnigh worn out; while one of the privates produced a
canteen more wholesome than cleanly, another gave me a lump of fat pork
and a piece of corn bread. They gathered sleepily about me, while I told
of the scout, and the Sergeant said that my individual ride was "game
enough, but nothin' but darn nonsense." Then they fed my horse with a
trifle of oats, and after awhile I climbed, stiff and bruised, to the
saddle again, and bade them good night.
I knew now that I was at "Putney's," a ford on the Pamunkey, and an hour
later I came in sight of the ship-lights at White House, and heard the
steaming of tugs and draught-boats, going and coming by night. I hitched
my horse to a tree, pilfered some hay and fodder from two or three nags
tied adjacent, and picked my way across a gangway, several barge-decks,
and a floating landing, to the mail steamer that lay outside. Her deck
and cabin were filled with people, stretched lengthwise and crosswise,
tangled, grouped, and snoring, but all apparently fast asleep. I coolly
took a blanket from a man that looked as though he did not need it, and
wrapped myself cosily under a bench in a corner. The cabin light flared
dimly, half irradiating the forms below, and the boat heaved a little on
the river-swells. The night was cold, the floor hard, and I almost dead
with fatigue. But what of that! I felt the newspapers in my breast
pocket, and knew that the mail could not leave me in the morning.
Blessed be the news-gatherer's sleep! I think he earned it.
It was very pleasant, at dawn, to receive the congratulations of our
agent, with whom I breakfasted, and to whom I consigned a hastily
written letter and all the Richmond papers of the preceding day. He was
a shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man, of large experience and good
standing in our establishment. He was sent through the South at the
beginning of the Rebellion, and introduced into all public bodies and
social circles, that he might fathom the designs of Secession, and
comprehend its spirit. Afterward he accompanied the Hatteras and Port
Royal expeditions, and witnessed those celebrated bombardments. Such a
thorough individual abnegation I never knew. He was a part of the
establishment, body and soul. He agreed with its politics, adhered to
all its policies, defended it, upheld it, revered it. The Federal
Government was, to his eye, merely an adjunct of the paper. Battles and
sieges were simply occurrences for its columns. Good men, brave men, bad
men, died to give it obituaries. The whole world was to him a Reporter's
district, and all human mutations plain matters of news. I hardly think
that any city, other than New York, contains such characters. The
journals there are full of fever, and the profession of journalism is a
disease.
He cashed me a draft for a hundred dollars, and I filled my saddle-bags
with smoking-tobacco, spirits, a meerschaum pipe, packages of sardines,
a box of cigars, and some cheap publications. Then we adjourned to the
quay, where the steamer was taking in mails, freight and passengers. The
papers were in his side-pocket, and he was about to commit them to a
steward for transmission to Fortress Monroe, when my name was called
from the strand by a young mounted officer, connected with one of the
staffs of my division. I thought that he wished to exchange salutations
or make some inquiries, and tripped to his side.
"General McClellan wants those newspapers that you obtained at Hanover
yesterday!"
A thunderbolt would not have more transfixed me. I could not speak for a
moment. Finally, I stammered that they were out of my possession.
"Then, sir, I arrest you, by order of General McClellan. Get your
horse!"
"Stop!" said I, agitatedly, "--it may not be too late. I can recover
them yet. Here is our agent,--I gave them to him."
I turned, at the word, to the landing where he stood a moment before. To
my dismay, he had disappeared.
"This is some frivolous pretext to escape," said the Lieutenant; "you
correspondents are slippery fellows, but I shall take care that you do
not play any pranks with me. The General is irritated already, and if
you prevaricate relative to those papers he may make a signal example of
you."
I begged to be allowed to look for----; but he answered cunningly, that
I had better mount and ride on. An acquaintance of mine here interfered,
and testified to the existency of the agent and his probable connection
with the journals. Pale, flurried, excited, I started to discover him,
the Lieutenant following me closely meantime. We entered every booth and
tent, went from craft to craft, sought among the thick clusters of
people, and even at the Commissary's and Quartermaster's pounds, that
lay some distance up the railroad.
"I am sorry for you, old fellow," said the Lieutenant, "but your
accomplice has probably escaped. It's very sneaking of him, as it makes
it harder for you; but I have no authority to deal with him, though I
shall take care to report his conduct at head-quarters."
I found that the Lieutenant was greatly gratified with the duty
entrusted to him. He had been at the cavalry quarters on the return of
the scouting party, and had overheard the Major muttering something as
to McClellan's displeasure at receiving no Richmond journals. The Major
had added that one of the correspondents took them to White House, and,
mentioning me by name, this young and aspiring satellite had blurted out
that he knew me, and could doubtless overtake me at the mail-boat in the
morning. The Commanding General authorised him to arrest me _with the
papers_, and report at head-quarters. This was then a journey to
recommend him to authority, and it involved no personal danger. I was
not so intimidated that I failed to see how the Lieutenant would lose
his gayest feather by failing to recover the journals, and I dexterously
insinuated that it would be well to recommence the search. This time we
were successful. The shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man was coolly
contemplating the river from an outside barge, concealed from the shore
by piled boxes of ammunition. He was reading a phonetic pamphlet, and
appeared to take his apprehension as a pleasant morning call. I caught
one meaning glance, however, that satisfied me how clearly he understood
the case.
"Ha! Townsend," said he, smilingly, "back already? I thought we had lost
you. One of your military friends? Good-day, Lieutenant."
"I am under arrest, my boy," said I, "and you will much aggravate
General McClellan, if you do not consign those Richmond journals to his
deputy here."
"Under arrest? You surprise me! I am sorry, Lieutenant that you have had
so fatiguing a ride, but the fact is, those papers have gone down the
river. If the General is not in a great hurry, he will see their columns
reproduced by us in a few days."
"How did they go?" said the Lieutenant, with an oath, "if by the
mail-boat I will have General Van Vliet despatch a tug to overhaul her."
"I am very sorry again," said the bland civilian, smoothing his hands:
"but they went by the _South America_ at a much earlier hour."
I looked appealingly to him; the satellite stared down the river
perplexedly, but suddenly his eye fell upon something that absorbed it;
and he turned like a madman to----
"By! ---- sir, you are lying to me. There is the _South America_ moored
to a barge, and her steam is not up!"
"Those words are utterly uncalled for," said the agent,--"but you cannot
irritate me, my dear sir! I know that youth is hot,--particularly
military youth yet inexperienced; and therefore I pardon you. I made a
mistake. It was not the _South America_, it was--it was--upon my word I
cannot recall the name!"
"You do not mean to!" thundered the young Ajax, to whose vanity, ----'s
speech had been gall; "my powers are discretionary: I arrest you in the
name of General McClellan."
"Indeed! Be sure you understand your orders! It isn't probable that such
a fiery blade is allowed much discretionary margin. The General himself
would not assume such airs. Why don't you shoot me? It might contribute
to your promotion, and that is, no doubt, your object. I know General
McClellan very well. He is a personal friend of mine."
His manner was so self-possessed, his tone so cutting, that the young
man of fustian--whose name was Kenty--fingered his sword hilt, and
foamed at the lips.
"March on," said he,--"I will report this insolence word for word."
He motioned us to the quay; we preceded him. The sanguine gentleman
keeping up a running fire of malevolent sarcasm.
"Stop!" said he quietly, as we reached his tent,--"I have not sent them
at all. They are here. And you have made all this exhibition of yourself
for nothing. I am the better soldier, you see. You are a drummer-boy,
not an officer. Take off your shoulder-bars, and go to school again."
He disappeared a minute, returned with two journals, and looking at me,
meaningly, turned to their titles.
"Let me see!" he said, smoothly,--"_Richmond Examiner_, May 28,
_Richmond Enquirer_, May 22. There! You have them! Go in peace! Give my
respects to General McClellan! Townsend, old fellow, you have done your
full duty. Don't let this young person frighten you. Good by."
He gave me his hand, with a sinister glance, and left something in my
palm when his own was withdrawn. I examined it hastily when I girt up my
saddle. It said: "_Your budget got off safe, old fellow._" He had given
Kenty some old journals that were of no value to anybody. When we were
mounted and about to start, the Lieutenant looked witheringly upon his
persecutor--
"Allow me to say, sir," he exclaimed, "that you are the most unblushing
liar I ever knew."
"Thank you, kindly," said----, taking off his hat, "you do me honor!"
Our route was silent and weary enough. The young man at my side,
unconscious of his wily antagonist's deception, boasted for some time
that he had attained his purposes. As I could not undeceive him, I held
my tongue; but feared that when this trick should be made manifest, the
vengeance would fall on me alone. I heartily wished the unlucky papers
at the bottom of the sea. To gratify an adventurous whim, and obtain a
day's popularity at New York, I had exposed my life, crippled my nag,
and was now to be disgraced and punished. What might or might not befall
me, I gloomily debated. The least penalty would be expulsion from the
army; but imprisonment till the close of the war, was a favorite
amusement with the War Office. How my newspaper connection would be
embarrassed was a more grievous inquiry. It stung me to think that I had
blundered twice on the very threshold of my career. Was I not acquiring
a reputation for rashness that would hinder all future promotion and
cast me from the courts of the press. Here the iron entered into my
soul; for be it known, I loved Bohemia! This roving commission, these
vagabond habits, this life in the open air among the armies, the white
tents, the cannon, and the drums, they were my elysium, my heart! But to
be driven away, as one who had broken his trust, forfeited favor and
confidence, and that too on the eve of grand events, was something that
would embitter my existence.
We passed the familiar objects that I had so often buoyantly
beheld,--deserted encampments, cross-roads, rills, farm-houses, fields,
and at last came to Daker's. I called out to them, and explained my
woful circumstances with rueful conciseness.
It was growing dark when we came to general headquarters, two miles
beyond Gaines's Mill. The tents were scattered over the surface of a
hill, and most of them were illumined by candles.
The Lieutenant gave our horses to an orderly, and led the way through
two outer circles of wall-tents, between which and the inner circle,
guards were pacing, to deny all vulgar ingress.
A staff officer took in our names, and directly returned with the reply
of "Pass in!" We were now in the sacred enclosure, secured by flaming
swords. Four tents stood in a row, allotted respectively to the Chief of
Staff, the Adjutant-General, the telegraph operators, and the select
staff officers. Just behind them, embowered by a covering of cedar
boughs, stood the tent of General McClellan. Close by, from an open plot
or area of ground, towered a pine trunk, floating the national flag.
Lights burned in three of the tents: low voices, as of subdued
conversation, were heard from the first.
A little flutter of my heart, a drawing aside of canvas, two steps, an
uncovering, and a bow,--I stood at my tribunal! A couple of candles were
placed upon a table, whereat sat a fine specimen of man, with kindly
features, dark, grayish, flowing hair, and slight marks of years upon
his full, purplish face. He looked to be a well-to-do citizen, whose
success had taught him sedentary convivialities. A fuming cigar lay
before him; some empty champagne bottles sat upon a pine desk; tumblers
and a decanter rested upon a camp-stool; a bucket, filled with water and
a great block of ice, was visible under the table. Five other gentlemen,
each with a star in his shoulder-bar, were dispersed upon chairs and
along a camp bedside. The tall, angular, dignified gentleman with
compressed lips and a "character" nose, was General Barry, Chief of
Artillery. The lithe, severe, gristly, sanguine person, whose eyes
flashed even in repose, was General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry. The
large, sleepy-eyed, lymphatic, elderly man, clad in dark, civil gray,
whose ears turned up habitually as from deafness, was Prince de
Joinville, brother to Louis Philippe, King of France. The little man
with red hair and beard, who moved quickly and who spoke sharply, was
Seth Williams, Adjutant-General. The stout person with florid face,
large, blue eyes, and white, straight hair, was General Van Vliet,
Quartermaster-General. And the man at the table, was General Marcy,
father-in-law to McClellan, and Executive officer of the army.
Maps, papers, books, and luggage lay around the room; all the gentlemen
were smoking and wine sparkled in most of the glasses. Some swords were
lying upon the floor, a pair of spurs glistened by the bed, and three of
the officers had their feet in the air.
"What is it you wish, Lieutenant?" said General Marcy, gravely.
The boor in uniform at my side, related his errand and order, gave the
particulars of my arrest, declaimed against our agent, and submitted the
journals. He told his story stammeringly, and I heard one of the
officers in the background mutter contemptuously when he had finished.
"Were you aware of the order prohibiting correspondents from keeping
with the advance?" said the General, looking up.
"I had not been notified from head-quarters. I have been with the army
only a week."
"You knew that you had no business upon scouts, forages, or
reconnoissances; why did you go?"
"I went by invitation."
"Who invited you?"
"I would prefer not to state, since it would do him an injury."
Here the voices in the background muttered, as I thought, applaudingly.
Gaining confidence as I proceeded, I spoke more boldly--
"I am sure I regret that I have disobeyed any order of General
McClellan's; but there can nothing occur in the rear of an army.
Obedience, in this case, would be indolence and incompetence; for only
the reliable would stay behind and the reckless go ahead. If I am
accredited here as a correspondent, I must keep up with the events. And
the rivalries of our tribe, General, are so many, that the best of us
sometimes forget what is right for what is expedient. I hope that
General McClellan will pass by this offence."
He heard my rambling defence quietly, excused the Lieutenant, and
whistled for an orderly.
"I don't think that you meant to offend General McClellan," he said,
"but he wishes you to be detained. Give me your pass. Orderly, take this
gentleman to General Porter, and tell him to treat him kindly. Good
night."
When we got outside of the tent, I slipped a silver half-dollar into the
orderly's hand, and asked him if he understood the General's final
remark. He said, in reply, that I was directed to be treated with
courtesy, kindness, and care, and asked me, in conclusion, if there were
any adjectives that might intensify the recommendation. When we came to
General Porter, the Provost-Marshal, however, he pooh-poohed the
qualifications, and said that _his_ business was merely to put me under
surveillance. This unamiable man ordered me to be taken to Major
Willard, the deputy Provost, whose tent we found after a long search.
The Major was absent, but some young officers of his mess were taking
supper at his table, and with these I at once engaged in conversation.
I knew that if I was to be spared an immersion in the common guardhouse,
with drunkards, deserters, and prisoners of war, I must win the favor of
these men. I gave them the story of my arrest, spoke lightly of the
offence and jestingly of the punishment, and, in fact, so improved my
cause that, when the Major appeared, and the Sergeant consigned me to
his custody, one of the young officers took him aside, and, I am sure,
said some good words in my favor.
The Major was a bronzed, indurated gentleman, scrupulously attired, and
courteously stern. He looked at me twice or thrice, to my confusion; for
I was dusty, wan, and running over with perspiration. His first remark
had, naturally, reference to the lavatory, and, so far as my face and
hair were concerned, I was soon rejuvenated. I found on my return to the
tent, a clean plate and a cup of steaming coffee placed for me, and I
ate with a full heart though pleading covertly the while. When I had
done, and the tent became deserted by all save him and me, he said,
simply--
"What am I to do with you, Mr. Townsend?"
"Treat me as a gentleman, I hope, Major."
"We have but one place of confinement," said he, "the guardhouse; but I
am loth to send you there. Light your pipe, and I will think the matter
over."
He took a turn in front, consulted with some of his associates, and
directly returning, said that I was to be quartered in his office-tent,
adjoining. A horror being thus lifted from my mind, I heard with sincere
interest many revelations of his military career. He had been a common
soldier in the Mexican war, and had fought his way, step by step, to
repeated commissions. He had garrisoned Fort Yuma, and other posts on
the far plains, and at the beginning of the war was tendered a volunteer
brigade, which he modestly declined. His tastes were refined, and a warm
fancy, approaching poetry, enhanced his personal reminiscences. His face
softened, his eyes grew milder, his large, commanding mouth relaxed,--he
was young again, living his adventures over. We talked thus till almost
midnight, when two regulars appeared in front,--stiff, ramrodish
figures, that came to a jerking "present," tapped their caps with two
fingers, and said, explosively; "Sergeant of Guard, Number Five!"
The Major rose, gave me his hand, and said that I would find a candle in
my tent, with waterproof and blankets on the ground. I was to give
myself no concern about the nag, and might, if I chose, sit for an hour
to write, but must, on no account, attempt to leave the canvas, for the
guard would instantly shoot me down. The guard in question had a
_doppel-ganger_,--counterpart of himself in inflexibility,--and both
were appendages of their muskets. He was not probably a sentient being,
certainly not a conversational one. He knew the length of a stride, and
the manual of bayonet exercise, but was, during his natural life, a
blind idolater of a deity, called "Orders." The said "Orders," for the
present evening, were walking, not talking, and he was dumb to all
conciliatory words. He took a position at one end of my tent, and his
double at the other end. They carried their muskets at "support arms,"
and paced up and down, measuredly, like two cloaked and solemn ghosts. I
wrapped myself in the damp blankets, and slept through the bangs of four
or five court-martials and several executions. At three o'clock, they
changed ramrods,--the old doppel-gangers going away, and two new ones
fulfilling their functions.