THE FOLLOWING DAY
To the horror of the young soldier he saw that the chaplain was
lifeless. The expression upon the face of the dead man was as peaceful
as that of one who has fallen asleep in his own home.
The strange declaration which the chaplain had made, that he expected to
fall in the fight into which he was about to enter, came back to Noel
now and strongly impressed him. It was strange, he thought, that such a
premonition should have taken hold upon a man who was so sane and
thoughtful.
There was little time, however, for consideration of matters of
sentiment. The struggle was not yet ended, and it was plain that the
Confederates desperately were holding their ground.
Meanwhile the success which had been won stimulated the Union soldiers,
and with shouts and shots they again pressed forward.
Not far before him Noel saw a line of men in gray who were loading and
firing steadily, and soon afterward he saw the line begin to waver.
Directly in front of his own regiment the men gave way, and several
companies from the right pressed forward at one side and in this manner
became separated from the regiment itself.
Looking hastily behind him, Noel saw that he and his companions were
thirty or forty paces in advance of the main line and now were within
twenty or thirty steps of the Confederate soldiers who were on their
left. It was plain, too, that the Southern soldiers were not as yet
aware of the approaching force.
In a brief time, however, they were dropping as grain falls before a
sickle. As Noel watched them a great wave of pity rushed over him. He
saw that they were falling by scores.
Suddenly, at the extreme end of the line, he saw a tall man in gray
hastily loading his gun. There was no regular command to fire now, and
instantly, hardly daring to hope that he was in time, Noel raised his
gun to his shoulder and fired. He saw the soldier pitch forward and fall
into a crevice between the rocks.
Unable to stop, step by step Noel Curtis with his companions pushed up
the steep side of the mountain. It was a marvelous sight to see the
determination of the boys in blue and the steady resistance which their
opponents offered in such a place.
There was a halt made soon, and then Noel ran swiftly to the place where
he had seen the man, at whom he had fired, fall.
When the young soldier arrived at the crevice, he saw the wounded
soldier sitting erect, and somehow a feeling of gratitude swept over
Noel's heart that the man was not dead.
"Are you wounded?" he inquired hastily, as he stopped a moment.
Without speaking the man mournfully nodded his head in reply. Noel saw
that there was a wound in the neck of the soldier and also one in his
arm.
"Same bullet," said the Confederate briefly. "I was just ramming a
bullet home and had my arm reaching out this way." As he spoke, he rose
to his feet and Noel was delighted to find that he was able to walk.
"You understand," said Noel, "that you are a prisoner?"
"I reckon I do," said the Confederate.
"I'll find some one to take charge of you and take you to the rear,
where you will be out of danger and where the surgeon can attend to
you."
"That's good of you. I reckon you don't know who I am."
The man's face was discolored by smoke and powder, but as he spoke Noel
instantly recognized him as the husband of Sairy Ann's sister.
There was no time, however, for further conversation, and as soon as he
saw that the prisoner had been placed in charge of one of the boys, Noel
threw himself upon the ground and crawled back among the rocks to a
position where he was about fifteen paces in advance of his company. His
intention now was to act as a sharpshooter, although he had received no
orders to that effect.
Cocking his gun he rose abruptly from his position behind the rock, and
there, directly in front of him and not ten paces away, he beheld a grim
rebel just bringing his gun to aim. His dark eyes seemed to flash fire
as they scowled fiercely from beneath the broad brim of a large, ugly
hat. He was aiming directly at the young soldier, too, and there was
slight chance of escape.
It was impossible for Noel to take careful aim under such circumstances.
More quickly than ever before he brought his gun to his shoulder and
blazed away, as it seemed to him almost at random, and then dropped
instantly behind the protecting rock. He hardly dared to breathe during
the excitement. Every part of a second seemed like a long time. There
was a fear that the fire of the rebel would reach him before he could
gain the protection of the rock, and, just as Noel dropped, the bullet
tipped the edge of the stone above his head.
Step by step the enemy now were retiring. Without venturing from the
position of safety which he had found, Noel waited until his line
advanced.
The enemy still were falling back and the boys in blue still pressed
steadily forward. More prisoners were secured and were regularly being
conducted to the rear. The bodies of those who had fallen and the
wounded were lying among the rocks.
For the first time Noel became aware that night was almost at an end. A
feeling of indescribable weariness swept over him. Even the bodies of
the fallen men, some of which were within ten feet of the place where he
was standing, seemed to be vague and unreal.
The hospitals had been established about halfway down the hill. To them
the wounded wherever they were found were still being carried.
Gradually the sound of the guns off to the left had been dying away.
Ricketts's men were holding the fence, while the regiment in the midst
of which Noel Curtis and Dennis had been struggling was resting on its
arms. No mounted orderlies could be found, as they had all been
withdrawn to other parts of the army. Such horses as were left were
secured by being tied to the trees.
After the necessary dispositions for the night had been made, the men,
wrapped in their cloaks or having donned their heavier coats, in utter
weariness threw themselves upon the ground.
Noel was far from feeling easy in his mind. With his comrades he was
fearful that the enemy might make a night attack and was afraid of what
might follow in the darkness and confusion.
The issue of the battle on the left was still uncertain and with this
feeling of uneasiness still prevalent throughout the regiment the men
sought to rest.
In spite of the excitement through which they had passed and in spite of
the near-by presence of the dead, not many minutes elapsed before
everything was forgotten and every man was asleep.
Awake early the following morning, Noel was surprised to find that his
nearest sleeping comrade was Dennis. He had seen but little of the young
Irishman thus far in the engagement and, indeed, he had seldom thought
of his friend.
Discovering that Dennis was awake, Noel in a low voice said to him,
"Dennis, how is it that any of us are left alive?"
"Indade, 'tis a wonder," answered Dennis.
"Not so great, after all," remarked another soldier who was lying near
the boys and had heard Noel's question. "The waste of ammunition in a
battle is something marvelous. Our colonel told us that it takes almost
a man's weight in lead to kill one soldier."
"It doesn't seem so," said Noel thoughtfully, "when you hear the volleys
shrieking above your head or flying close to your ears, and when men,
all excited and anxious, are trying to fire just as fast as they are
able. It doesn't seem possible that so many can come alive out of a
fight."
"You must not forget," said the soldier, "that most of the men make no
pretense at taking aim."
"And I guess," suggested Dennis, "that most of them don't. They act
like they were aiming at nothin' and trying to hit it."
"It is strange," said Noel, "how still the wounded men were. I didn't
hear many who were groaning or making any cry. The most of them were
either limping off, or being carried to the rear, or they were lying
down where they fell, all quiet and still."
"The worst shock I got," suggested Dennis, "was when I stumbled over the
bodies of some of the dead boys. That shook my nerves and made me
tremble like a leaf."
By this time the army was stirring once more and preparations for the
approaching day were being made. The great matter for rejoicing with
Noel and Dennis was the fact that there had been no attack by the enemy
during the preceding night.
Hasty arrangements were made for the burial of the dead. The young
soldier was marvelously impressed by the peaceful expression of most of
the upturned faces which he saw.
The first question among the living, however, was, "Where is the enemy?"
In front of the fence which General Ricketts's troops were still holding
there was no sign of the Confederates. Indeed, a strange, almost
unnatural, silence rested over the entire region. The little stretch
between the men and the cornfield seemed to be entirely free from the
presence of soldiers. There was a slight mist resting on the
mountain-side and through this could be dimly seen the fallen dead of
the enemy.
With others Noel had been designated to care for the bodies of his
comrades who had been killed in the fight. As he was moving about among
the rocks and stumps, suddenly, a slight, boyish form without any weapon
and clad in the customary gray uniform of the Confederate soldiers, was
seen by Noel kneeling over the body of a fallen man. To his
inexpressible horror Noel saw that the man was using his knife and
trying to remove a ring from the finger of the dead soldier.
Startled by the approach of Noel, the man suddenly looked up, and,
instantly rising, said quickly, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot me! I vas your
prisoner."
The feeling of rage and disgust which had seized upon Noel's heart
quickly gave way when to his surprise he saw that the approaching man
was none other than the little sutler, Levi Kadoff.