MR. ROSENBAUM RECITES A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
"HIST, boys, don't talk friendly to me out loud," said the prudent
Rosenbaum. "What's happened? I know you have got the house. I have been
expecting for a long time that there would be a raid made upon it. What
the devil is that saying you have: 'It's a long worm that don't have a
turn.' No; that isn't it. 'It's an ill lane that blows nobody no good.'
No; that's not it, neither. Well, anyway, Mrs. Sophronia unt her crowd
got entirely too bold. They played too open, unt I knew they'd soon get
ketched. Who did you get in the house?"
Si started to call over the names, and to recite the circumstances, but
as he reached that of Brad Tingle, Rosenbaum clutched him by the arm and
said earnestly:
"Hold on. Tell me the rest after a while. I'm afraid of that man. He's
come pretty near getting on to me several times already. He's listening
now, unt he'll be sure to suspect something if he don't hear you
treating me as you did the others. Begin swearing at me as you did at
the rest."
Si instantly took the hint.
"I'll stand no more foolishness," he called out{249} angrily. "If you
don't surrender at once I'll blow your rebel head off."
"I have to give up," Rosenbaum replied in an accent of pain, "for I
believe I broke my leg when I fell. I find I can't stand up."
"Give up your arms, then, and we'll help you up to the fire, and see how
badly you're hurt," said Si.
Rosenbaum gave groans of anguish as Si and Shorty picked him up and
carried him over to the fire.
"Now we're out of ear-shot o' the house," said Si, as they deposited him
on the opposite side, and somewhat behind a thicket of raspberries, "and
we can talk. Where did you come from this time, Levi?"
"Straight from General Bragg's Headquarters at Tullahoma, and I have
got information that will make General Rosecrans's heart jump for joy.
I have got the news he has been waiting for all these weeks to move
his army. I have got the number of Bragg's men, just where they are
stationed, and how many is at each place. I'm crazy to get to General
Rosecrans with the news. I have been cavorting around the country all
day trying some way to get in, unt at my wits' ent, for some of the men
with me had their suspicions of me, unt wouldn't have hesitated to shoot
me, if they didn't like the way I was acting. To tell the truth, it's
been getting pretty hot for me over there in the rebel lines. Too many
men have seen me in Yankee camps. This man. Brad Tingle, has seen me
twice at General Rosecrans's Headquarters, unt has told a lot of stories
that made much trouble. I think that this is the last{250} visit I'll
pay General Bragg. I'm fond of visiting, but it rather discourages me
to be so that I can't look at a limb running out from a tree without
thinking that it may be where they will hang me."
"Excuse me from any such visitin'," said Si sympathetically. "I'd much
rather stay at home. I've had 12 or 15 hours inside the enemy's lines,
playin' off deserter, and I've had enough to last me my three years.
I'll take any day o' the battle o' Stone River in preference. I ain't
built for the spy business in any shape or form. I'm plain, out-and-out
Wabash prairie style--everything above ground and in sight."
"Well, I'm different from you," said Shorty. "I own up that I'm awfully
fond o' a game o' hocuspocus with the rebels, and tryin' to see which
kin thimble-rig the other. It's mighty excitin' gamblin' when your own
head's the stake, an' beats poker an' faro all holler. But I want the
women ruled out o' the game. Never saw a game yit that a woman wouldn't
spile if she got her finger in."
"Mrs. Bolster came mighty near marrying him, and he's pale yet from the
scare," Si explained.
"Yes," said Shorty frankly. "You'll see I'm still while all around the
gills. Never wuz so rattled in my life. That woman's a witch. You could
only kill her by shooting her with a silver bullet. She put a spell
on me, sure's you're a foot high. Lord, wouldn't I like to be able to
manage her. I'd set her up with a faro-bank or a sweat-board, and she'd
win all the money in the army in a month."
"Yes, she's a terror," accorded Rosenbaum. "She{251} made up her mind
to marry me when I first come down here. I was awfully scared, for I was
sure she saw through me sharper than the men did, and would marry me or
expose me. But I got some points on her about poisoning a neighboring
woman that she hated unt was jealous of, unt then I played an immediate
order from General Bragg to me to report to his Headquarters. But it
took all the brains I had to keep her off me."
"She's safe now from marryin' anybody for awhile," said Shorty, and he
related the story of her nuptials, which amused Rosenbaum greatly.
"But you have signed Jeff Hackberry's death warrant," he said. "If he
tries to live with her she'll feed him wild parsnip, unt he'll get a
house of red clay, that you put the roof on with a shovel. It'll be no
great loss. Jeff ain't worth in a year the bread he'll eat in a day."
"She may be smothered in that hole," Shorty bethought himself. "I guess
we'd better let her out for awhile."
"Yes," said Rosenbaum. "She can't do no harm now. Nobody else will come
this way to-night. The men that were with me will scatter the news that
the house is in Yankee hands. They think there's a big force here, unt
so we won't be disturbed till morning."
"Then I'll go in and let her out," said Shorty.
The other inmates of the cabin were asleep when he entered, but they
waked up, and begged him not to let the woman out until morning.
"Keep her in there till daylight," said 'Squire Corson, "and then
restore me to my home and functions,{252} and I'll call out a posse
comitatus, and have her publicly ducked, according to the laws of the
land, as a common scold. I've never heard such vile language as she
applied to me when I gave her the advice it was my duty to give to live
in peace and quietness with her husband. That there woman's a Niagary of
cuss words and abuse."
"If yo' let her out, take me outside with yo'," begged Jeff Hackberry.
"She'll kill me, sho', if I've to stay in here till mornin' with her.
She begun by flingin' a bag o' red pepper in my face, and set us all to
sneezin' until I thought the 'Squire'd sneeze his durned head off. Then
she jobbed me with a bayonet, and acted as no woman orter act toward her
lawful husband, no matter how long they'd bin married, let alone their
weddin' night."
"Sorry, but it's agin all my principles to separate man and wife," said
Shorty, as he moved to the puncheon trap-door and undid the hasp. "You
took her for better or worse, and it's too early in the game to complain
that you found her a blamed sight worse than you took her for. You're
one now, you know, and must stay that way until death do you part."
Shorty lifted up the trap-door, and Si helped the woman out with some
difficulty. They expected a torrent of abuse, but she seemed limp and
silent, and sank down on the floor. The boys picked her up and laid her
on the bed beside Jeff Hackberry. "She's fainted; she's dead. She's bin
sufferkated in that hole," said Jeff.
"No, yo' punkin-headed fool," she gasped. "I hain't dead, nor I hain't
fainted, nor I hain't{253} sufferkated. Yo'll find out when I git my
wind back a little, I'm so full o' mad an' spite that I'm done tuckered
clean out. I'm clean beat, so clean beat that I hain't no words to fit
the 'casion. I've got t' lay still an' think an' gether up some."
"She's comin' to, Shorty," said Si. "It'll be pleasanter outside."
"You say you have been having unusually exciting times," said Si to
Rosenbaum, as the boys again seated themselves by the fire.
"Veil, I should say so," replied Rosenbaum with emphasis. "Do you know
that General Bragg is the very worst man that ever lived?"
"All rebels are bad," said Shorty oracularly. "But I suppose that some
are much worse than others. I know that the private soldiers are awful,
and I suppose the higher you go the wuss they are. The Corporals are
cussider than the privates, the Sergeants can give the Corporals points
in devilishness, and so it goes on up until the General commanding an
army must be one of the devil's favorite imps, while Jeff Davis is Old
Horney's junior partner."
"No; it isn't that," said Rosenbaum. "I've known a good many rebel
Generals, unt some of them ain't really bad fellers, outside of their
rebelness. But old Bragg is a born devil. He has no more heart than a
rattlesnake. He actually loves cruelty. He'd rather kill men than not.
I've seen plenty of officers who were entirely too willing to shoot
men for little or nothing. General Bragg is the only man I ever saw who
would shoot men for nothing at all--just 'for example,' as he says,
unt to make the others{254} afraid unt ready to obey him. He coolly
calculates to shoot so many every month. If they've done anything to
deserve it, all right. If they hain't, he shoots them all the same, just
to 'preserve discipline.'"
Si and Shorty uttered exclamations of surprise at this cold-blooded
cruelty.
"I know it's hard to believe," said Rosenbaum, "but it's true all the
same, as anybody around his Headquarters will tell you. Jeff Davis knows
it unt approves it. He is the same kind of a man as General Bragg--no
more heart than a tiger, I have seen a good deal of the inside of the
rebel army, unt General Bragg is the coldest-blooded, cruelest man in
it or in the whole world. It's true that the men he orders shot are
generally of no account, like our man Jeff Hackberry--but it's the
principle of the thing that shocks me. He just takes a dislike to the
way a man looks or acts, or the way he parts his hair, looks at him with
his steely-gray eyes, unt says coldly: 'Put him in the bull-pen.' In
the bullpen the poor devil goes, unt the next time General Bragg gets
an idea that the discipline of the army is running down, unt he must
stiffen it up with a few executions, he orders all the men that happen
to be in the bull-pen taken out unt shot."
"Without any trial, any court-martial, any evidence against them?"
gasped Si.
"Absolutely without anything but General Bragg's orders. It is like you
read of in the books about those Eastern countries where the Sultan or
other High-muk-a-muk says, 'Cut that man's head off,' unt the man's
head is cut off, unt no questions asked.{255} unt no funeral ceremonies
except washing up the blood."
"Lucky for you, Levi," said Shorty, "that he didn't have any of the
common prejudices against Jews, and slap you in the bull-pen."
"O, but he did," said Rosenbaum. "He hated a Jew worse than any man I
ever met. Unt it brought me so near death that I actually watched them
digging my grave.
"While I had my ups unt downs, unt some very narrow escapes," continued
Rosenbaum, "when I first went inside Bragg's lines, I got along very
well generally. I played the peddler unt smuggler for the Southern
Confederacy in great shape, unt run them through a lot of gun-caps,
quinine, medicines, unt so so on, unt brought in a great deal of
information which they found to be true. Some of dis General Rosecrans
gave me himself, for he is smart enough to know that if he wants his
Secret Service men to succeed he must give them straight goods to carry
to the enemy.
"I brought in exact statements of what divisions, brigades unt regiments
were at this place unt that place, how many men was in them, who their
commanders were, unt so on. General Rosecrans would have these given me.
It helped him in his plans to know just what information was reaching
the enemy, for he knew just how old Bragg would act when he had certain
knowledge. If he knew that Sheridan with 6,000 men was at this place,
with Tom Wood 10 miles away with 6,000 more, he would do a certain
thing, unt Rosecrans would provide for it. The news that I brought in
the rebels could test by{256 } the reports they got from others, unt
they always found mine correct.
"My work pleased the rebel Generals so well that they made me a Captain
in their army, transferred me from Brigade Headquarters to Division, unt
then to Corps Headquarters. I was given command of squads of scouts. I
can draw very well, unt I made good maps of the country unt the roads,
with the positions of Yankee unt rebel forces. This was something that
the other rebel spies could not do, unt it helped me lots. I was careful
to make copies of all these maps, unt they got to General Rosecrans's
Headquarters.
"The other rebel spies got very jealous of me because I was promoted
over them, unt they laid all sorts of plans to trip me up. They came
awful near catching me several times, but I was too smart for them, unt
could outwit them whenever I got a pointer as to what they were up to.
Once they watched me go to a hollow sycamore tree, which I used as a
postoffice for Jim Jones to get the things I wanted to send to General
Rosecrans. They found there maps I had made at Shelbyville, with the
positions of the rebel un Yankee forces unt the fortifications all
shown.
"That was an awful close call, unt I could feel the rope tightening
around my neck. But I kept my nerve, unt told a straight story. I said
that that tree was my regular office where I kept lots of things that I
was afraid to carry around with me when I was in danger of falling into
the Yankee hands, as I was every day when I was scouting. Luckily for me
I had some other private things unt a lot of{257} Confederate money hid
there, too, which I showed them. They didn't more than half believe my
story, but they led me off, probably because they needed me so bad.
"I saw that the thing was only skimmed over, unt was ready to break
out again any minute worse than ever, unt I kept my eyes peeled all the
time. That's one reason why you have not seen me for so long. I didn't
dare send General Rosecrans anything or go near outside the rebel lines.
I had to play very good, but I kept gathering up information for the day
when I should make a final break unt leave the rebels for good.
"A week ago I was ordered to go up to General Bragg's Headquarters to
help them with their maps unt reports. They had nobody there that could
do the work, unt Jeff Davis, who always wants to know everything about
the armies, was bunching them up savagely for full information. He
wanted accurate statements about the Yankee strength unt positions,
unt about the rebel strength unt positions, to see if he couldn't do
something to pull the Yankees off of Pemberton at Vicksburg. Bragg's
Adjutant-General sent word through all the army for to find good rapid
penmen unt map-makers, unt I was sent up.
"The Adjutant-General set me to work under a fly near Headquarters, unt
he was tickled almost to death with the way I did my work. Old Bragg
himself used to walk up unt down near, growling unt cussing unt swearing
at everything unt everybody. Once or twice the Adjutant-General called
his attention to my work. Old Bragg just looked it over, grunted, unt
bored me through unt through with{258 } those sharp, cold, gray eyes of
his. But I thought I was safe so long as I was at Headquarters, unt I
gave a great stiff to other Secret Service men who had been trying to
down me.
[Illustration: OLD BRAGG USED TO WALK UP UNT DOWN, GROWLING UNT CUSSING.
259]
"One morning old Bragg was in an awful temper--the worst I had ever
seen. Every word unt order was a cruelty to somebody. Finally, up comes
this Brad Tingle that you have inside. He is a sort of a half-spy--not
brains enough to be a real one, but with a good deal of courage unt
activity to do small work. He had been sent by General Cheatham to carry
some papers unt make a report. Whatever it was, it put old Bragg in a
worse temper than ever. Brad Tingle happened to catch sight of me, unt
he said in a surprised way:
"'Why, there's that Jew I saw sitting in General Rosecrans's tent
talking to him, when I was playing off refugee Tennesseean in the
Yankee camps.'
"'What's that? What's that, my man?' said old Bragg, who happened to
overhear him.
"Brad Tingle told all he knew about me. Old Bragg turned toward me unt
give me such a look. I could feel those cold, cruel eyes boring straight
through me.
"'Certainly he is a Jew, unt one of old Rosecrans's best spies,' he
said. 'Old Rosecrans is a Jew, a Dutch Jew, himself. I knowed him well
in the old army. He's got a regular Jew face. He plays off Catholic, but
that is to hide his Jewishness. He can't do it. That hook nose'd give
him away if nothing else did, unt he has got enough else. He likes to
have Jews about him, because he understands them better than he does
white people, unt{259} particularly he is fond of Jew spies. He can
trust them where nobody else can. They'll be true to him because he is a
Jew. Put that man in the bull-pen, unt shoot him with the rest to-morrow
morning.' "'Heavens,' gasped the Adjutant-General; 'he is{260} by far
the best man I ever had. I can't get along without him.'
"'You must get along without him,' said old Bragg. 'I'm astonished at
you having such a man around. Where in the world did you pick him up?
But it's just like you. How in God's name Jeff Davis expects me to
command an army with such makeshifts of staff officers as he sends me,
I don't know. He keeps the best for old Lee unt sends me what nobody
else'll have, unt then expects me to win battles against a better army
than the Army of the Potomac. I never got a staff officer that had
brains once.'
"A Sergeant of the Provost Guard, who was a natural beast, unt was kept
by old Bragg because he was glad to carry out orders to murder men,
caught hold of me by my shoulder unt run me down to the bull-pen,
leaving the Adjutant-General with forty expressions on his angry face.
"My goodness, my heart sunk worse than ever before when I heard the door
shut behind me. There were 30 or 40 others in the bull-pen. They were
all lying around--dull, stupid, sullen, silent, unt hopeless. They
hardly paid any attention to me. I sat down on a log, unt my heart
seemed to sink clear out of me. For the first time in my life I couldn't
see the slightest ray of hope. Through the cracks in the bull-pen I
could see the fresh graves of the men who had already been shot, unt
while I looked I saw a squad of niggers come out unt begin digging
the graves of those who were to be shot to-morrow. I could see rebel
soldiers unt officers passing by, stop unt look a moment at the graves,
shrug their{261} shoulders, unt go on. It froze my blood to think that
tomorrow they would be looking at my grave that way. After a while a
man came in unt gave each one of us a piece of cornbread unt meat. The
others ate theirs greedily, but I could not touch it. Night came on, unt
still I sat there. Suddenly the door opened, unt the Adjutant-General
came in with a man about my size and dressed something like me. As he
passed he caught hold of my arm in a sort of way that made me understand
to get up unt follow behind him, I did so at once without saying a word.
I walked behind him around the bull-pen until we came back to the door,
when the guard presented arms, unt he walked out, with me still behind
him, leaving the other man inside. After we had gone a little way he
stopped unt whispered to me:
"'The General had to go off in a hurry toward War Trace this afternoon.
He took the Provost-Sergeant unt part of his staff with him, but I had
to be left behind to finish up this work. I can't get anybody else to do
it but you. I'm going to take you over to a cabin, where you'll be out
of sight. I want you to rush that work through as fast as the Lord'll
let you. After you get it done you can go where you damned please, so
long as you don't let the General set eyes on you. I've saved your life,
unt I'm going to trust to your honor to play fair with me. Help me out,
do your work right, unt then never let me see you again.'
"Of course, I played fair. I asked no questions, you bet, about the poor
devil he had put in my place. I worked all that night unt all the next
day getting his papers in the best possible shape, unt in making{262}
copies of them for General Rosecrans, which I stuck behind the chimney
in the cabin. Along in the morning I heard the drums beating as the
men were marched out to witness the execution. It made my heart thump
a little, but I kept on scratching away with my pen for hfe unt death.
Then the drums stopped beating for a while, unt then they begun again.
Then I heard a volley that made me shiver all over. Then the drums beat
as the men were marched back to their camps. If I had had time to
think I should have fainted. Towards evening I had got everything in
first-class shape. The Adjutant-General came in. He looked over the
papers in a very satisfied way, folded them up, checked off from a list
a memorandum of the papers he had given me to copy unt compile, unt saw
that I had given them all back to him. Then he looked me straight in the
eye unt said:
"'Now, Jew, there's no use of my saying anything to you. You heard that
volley this morning, unt understood it. Never let me or the General
lay eyes on you again. You have done your part all right, unt I mine.
Good-by.'
"He took his papers unt walked out of the cabin. As soon as he was gone
I snatched the copies that I had hidden behind the chimney, stuck them
here unt there in my clothes, unt started for the outer lines.
"I made my way to a house where I knew I'd find some men who had scouted
with me before. I knew they might be suspicious of me, but I could get
them to go along by pretending to have orders from Headquarters for a
scout. I got to the house by morning, found some of them there, gathered
up some more{263} unt have been riding around all day, looking at the
Yankee lines, unt trying to find some way to get inside. I'm nearly dead
for sleep, but I must have these papers in General Rosecrans's hands
before I close my eyes."
"Your horse is all right, isn't he?" asked Shorty.
"Yes, I think so," answered Rosenbaum.
"Well, we have a good horse here. I'll mount him and go with you to
camp, leaving Si and the rest of the boys here. I can get back to them
by daylight."
So it was agreed upon.
Day was just breaking when Shorty came galloping back.
"Turn out, boys!" he shouted. "Pack up, and start back for camp as quick
as you kin. The whole army's on the move."
"What's happened, Shorty?" inquired Si, as they all roused themselves
and gathered around.
"Well," answered Shorty, rather swelling with the importance of that
which he had to communicate, "all I know is that we got into camp a
little after midnight, and went direct to Gen. Rosecrans's Headquarters.
Of course, the old man was up; I don't believe that old hook-nosed
duffer ever sleeps. He was awful glad to see Rosenbaum, and gave us
both great big horns o' whisky, which Rosenbaum certainly needed, if I
didn't, for he was dead tired, and almost flopped down after he handed
his papers to the General. But the General wanted him to stay awake,
and kept plying him with whisky whenever he would begin to sink, and, my
goodness, the questions he did put at that poor Jew.{264}
"I thought we knowed something o' the country out here around us, but,
Jerusalem, all that we know wouldn't make a primer to Rosecrans's Fifth
Reader. How were the bridges on this road? Where did that road lead to?
How deep was the water in this creek? How many rebels were out there?
Where was Bragg's cavalry? Where's his reserve artillery? And so on,
until I thought he'd run a seine through every water-hole in that Jew's
mind and dragged out the last minner in it. I never heard the sharpest
lawyer put a man through such a cross-examination.
"Rosenbaum was equal to everything asked him, but it seemed to me that
Gen. Rosecrans knowed a great deal more about what was inside the rebel
lines than Rosenbaum did. All this time they was goin' over the papers
that Rosenbaum brung, and Old Rosey seemed tickled to death to git 'em.
He told Rosenbaum he'd done the greatest day's work o' his life and made
his fortune.
"In the meantime the whole staff had waked up and gathered in the tents,
and while the General was pumpin' Rosenbaum he was sending orders
to this General and that General, and stirrin' things up from Dan to
Beersheba. Lord, you ought t've seen that army wake up. I wouldn't 've
missed it for a farm. Everything is on the move--right on the jump.
We're goin' for old Bragg for every cent we're worth, and we want to
git back to the regiment as quick as our leg'll carry us. Hustle around,
now."
"But what'er we goin' to do with our prisoners?" asked Si.
"Blast the prisoners!" answered Shorty with profane emphasis. "Let 'em
go to blue blazes, for all{265} that we care. We're after bigger game
than a handful o' measly pennyroyal sang-diggers. We hain't no time to
fool with polecats when we're huntin' bears. Go off and leave 'em here."
"That's all right," said Si, to whom an idea occurred. "Hustle around,
boys, but don't make no noise. We'll march off so quietly that they
won't know that we're gone, and it'll be lots o' fun thinking what
they'll do when they wake up and begin clapper-clawin' one another and
wonderin' what their fate'll be."
END BOOK THREE