In course of time they saw a great deal of "the army,"--which meant
the Confederates. The idea that the Yankees could ever get to Oakland
never entered any one's head. It was understood that the army lay
between Oakland and them, and surely they could never get by the
innumerable soldiers who were always passing up one road or the other,
and who, day after day and night after night, were coming to be fed,
and were rapidly eating up everything that had been left on the place.
By the end of the first year they had been coming so long that they
made scarcely any difference; but the first time a regiment camped in
the neighborhood it created great excitement.
It became known one night that a cavalry regiment, in which were
several of their cousins, was encamped at Honeyman's Bridge, and the
boys' mother determined to send a supply of provisions for the camp
next morning; so several sheep were killed, the smoke-house was
opened, and all night long the great fires in the kitchen and
wash-house glowed; and even then there was not room, so that a big
fire was kindled in the back yard, beside which saddles of mutton
were roasted in the tin kitchens. Everybody was "rushing."
The boys were told that they might go to see the soldiers, and as they
had to get off long before daylight, they went to bed early, and left
all "the other boys"--that is, Peter and Cole and other colored
children--squatting about the fires and trying to help the cooks to
pile on wood.
It was hard to leave the exciting scene.
They were very sleepy the next morning; indeed, they seemed scarcely
to have fallen asleep when Lucy Ann shook them; but they jumped up
without the usual application of cold water in their faces, which Lucy
Ann so delighted to make; and in a little while they were out in the
yard, where Balla was standing holding three horses,--their mother's
riding-horse; another with a side-saddle for their Cousin Belle, whose
brother was in the regiment; and one for himself,--and Peter and Cole
were holding the carriage-horses for the boys, and several other men
were holding mules.
Great hampers covered with white napkins were on the porch, and the
savory smell decided the boys not to eat their breakfast, but to wait
and take their share with the soldiers.
The roads were so bad that the carriage could not go; and as the boys'
mother wished to get the provisions to the soldiers before they broke
camp, they had to set out at once. In a few minutes they were all in
the saddle, the boys and their mother and Cousin Belle in front, and
Balla and the other servants following close behind, each holding
before him a hamper, which looked queer and shadowy as they rode on in
the darkness.
The sky, which was filled with stars when they set out, grew white as
they splashed along mile after mile through the mud. Then the road
became clearer; they could see into the woods, and the sky changed to
a rich pink, like the color of peach-blossoms. Their horses were
covered with mud up to the saddle-skirts. They turned into a lane only
half a mile from the bridge, and, suddenly, a bugle rang out down in
the wooded bottom below them, and the boys hardly could be kept from
putting their horses to a run, so fearful were they that the soldiers
were leaving, and that they should not see them. Their mother,
however, told them that this was probably the reveille, or
"rising-bell," of the soldiers. She rode on at a good sharp canter,
and the boys were diverting themselves over a discussion as to who
would act the part of Lucy Ann in waking the regiment of soldiers,
when they turned a curve, and at the end of the road, a few hundred
yards ahead, stood several horsemen.
"There they are," exclaimed both boys.
"No, that is a picket," said their mother; "gallop on, Frank, and
tell them we are bringing breakfast for the regiment."
Frank dashed ahead, and soon they saw a soldier ride forward to meet
him, and, after a few words, return with him to his comrades. Then,
while they were still a hundred yards distant, they saw Frank, who had
received some directions, start off again toward the bridge, at a hard
gallop. The picket had told him to go straight on down the hill, and
he would find the camp just the other side of the bridge. He
accordingly rode on, feeling very important at being allowed to go
alone to the camp on such a mission.
As he reached a turn in the road, just above the river, the whole
regiment lay swarming below him among the large trees on the bank of
the little stream. The horses were picketed to bushes and stakes, in
long rows, the saddles lying on the ground, not far off; and hundreds
of men were moving about, some in full uniform and others without coat
or vest. A half-dozen wagons with sheets on them stood on one side
among the trees, near which several fires were smoking, with men
around them.
As Frank clattered up to the bridge, a soldier with a gun on his arm,
who had been standing by the railing, walked out to the middle of the
bridge.
"Halt! Where are you going in such a hurry, my young man?" he said.
"I wish to see the colonel," said Frank, repeating as nearly as he
could the words the picket had told him.
"What do you want with him?"
Frank was tempted not to tell him; but he was so impatient to deliver
his message before the others should arrive, that he told him what he
had come for.
"There he is," said the sentinel, pointing to a place among the trees
where stood at least five hundred men.
Frank looked, expecting to recognize the colonel by his noble bearing,
or splendid uniform, or some striking marks.
"Where?" he asked, in doubt; for while a number of the men were in
uniform, he knew these to be privates.
"There," said the sentry, pointing; "by that stump, near the yellow
horse-blanket."
Frank looked again. The only man he could fix upon by the description
was a young fellow, washing his face in a tin basin, and he felt that
this could not be the colonel; but he did not like to appear dull, so
he thanked the man and rode on, thinking he would go to the point
indicated, and ask some one else to show him the officer.
He felt quite grand as he rode in among the men, who, he thought,
would recognize his importance and treat him accordingly; but, as he
passed on, instead of paying him the respect he had expected, they
began to guy him with all sorts of questions.
"Hullo, bud, going to jine the cavalry?" asked one. "Which is oldest;
you or your horse?" inquired another.
"How's pa--and ma?" "Does your mother know you're out?" asked others.
One soldier walked up, and putting his hand on the bridle, proceeded
affably to ask him after his health, and that of every member of his
family. At first Frank did not understand that they were making fun of
him, but it dawned on him when the man asked him solemnly:
"Are there any Yankees around, that you were running away so fast just
now?"
"No; if there were I'd never have found _you_ here," said Frank,
shortly, in reply; which at once turned the tide in his favor and
diverted the ridicule from himself to his teaser, who was seized by
some of his comrades and carried off with much laughter and slapping
on the back.
"I wish to see Colonel Marshall," said Frank, pushing his way through
the group that surrounded him, and riding up to the man who was still
occupied at the basin on the stump.
"All right, sir, I'm the man," said the individual, cheerily looking
up with his face dripping and rosy from its recent scrubbing.
"You the colonel!" exclaimed Frank, suspicious that he was again being
ridiculed, and thinking it impossible that this slim, rosy-faced
youngster, who was scarcely stouter than Hugh, and who was washing in
a tin basin, could be the commander of all these soldierly-looking
men, many of whom were old enough to be his father.
"Yes, I'm the lieutenant-colonel. I'm in command," said the gentleman,
smiling at him over the towel.
Something made Frank understand that this was really the officer, and
he gave his message, which was received with many expressions of
thanks.
"Won't you get down? Here, Campbell, take this horse, will you?" he
called to a soldier, as Frank sprang from his horse. The orderly
stepped forward and took the bridle.
"Now, come with me," said the colonel, leading the way. "We must get
ready to receive your mother. There are some ladies coming--and
breakfast," he called to a group who were engaged in the same
occupation he had just ended, and whom Frank knew by instinct to be
officers.
The information seemed to electrify the little knot addressed; for
they began to rush around, and in a few moments they all were in their
uniforms, and surrounding the colonel, who, having brushed his hair
with the aid of a little glass hung on a bush, had hurried into his
coat and was buckling on his sword and giving orders in a way which at
once satisfied Frank that he was every inch a colonel.
"Now let us go and receive your mother," said he to the boy. As he
strode through the camp with his coat tightly buttoned, his soft hat
set jauntily on the side of his head, his plumes sweeping over its
side, and his sword clattering at his spurred heel, he presented a
very different appearance from that which he had made a little before,
with his head in a tin basin, and his face covered with lather. In
fact, Colonel Marshall was already a noted officer, and before the end
of the war he attained still higher rank and reputation.
The colonel met the rest of the party at the bridge, and introduced
himself and several officers who soon joined him. The negroes were
directed to take the provisions over to the other side of the stream
into the camp, and in a little while the whole regiment were enjoying
the breakfast. The boys and their mother had at the colonel's request
joined his mess, in which was one of their cousins, the brother of
their cousin Belle.
The gentlemen could eat scarcely anything, they were so busy attending
to the wants of the ladies. The colonel, particularly, waited on their
cousin Belle all the time.
As soon as they had finished the colonel left them, and a bugle blew.
In a minute all was bustle. Officers were giving orders; horses were
saddled and brought out; and by what seemed magic to the boys, the
men, who just before were scattered about among the trees laughing
and eating, were standing by their horses all in proper order. The
colonel and the officers came and said good-bye.
Again the bugle blew. Every man was in his saddle. A few words by the
colonel, followed by other words from the captains, and the column
started, turning across the bridge, the feet of the horses thundering
on the planks. Then the regiment wound up the hill at a walk, the men
singing snatches of a dozen songs of which "The Bonnie Blue Flag,"
"Lorena," and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia Shore," were the chief
ones.
It seemed to the boys that to be a soldier was the noblest thing on
earth; and that this regiment could do anything.