his pipe and taking a cigar from the paper which the colonel held
towards him. "Thank ye. A pipe's my reg'lar smoke, but once 'n a while
I kind o' like t' change off onto a cigar. Yis, I was in Burdett's
Light Batt'ry, an' was mustered out a sargint."
"What brought you down here?" asked the colonel, handing a match to
the old soldier. "Down on your luck a bit, eh?"
"No-o, not exackly," returned the veteran, as he smartly drew the
match across his thigh after the manner of one who had acquired the
habit in active service. Glancing quickly around, and seeing that
we were alone--for the nearest group was gathered beside an old
siege gun, some fifty yards away--he lowered his voice a trifle and
said, "Fact is, I ain't _obliged_ t' board down here, an', strickly
speakin', I s'pose I hadn't oughter be here at all. Ye see, when
I'm home I live up Swanzey way--that's up in New Hampshire, an' not
sech an orful way from th' Massachusetts line. I'm able t' git along
tol'ably comf'table up there, with one odd job an' another, but this
fall I kind o' took it inter my head that I'd like t' spend th' winter
south, an' I managed it, too. So here I be. Nex' spring, though, when
things gits all thawed out up north, I guess I'll move along up agin
t' see th' folks, for this is a terrible shif'less sort o' country,
down here, an' I wouldn't want t' stay here for a stiddy thing."
"I see how it is," laughed the colonel, understanding that this
confession was made because the old sergeant hated to have it
thought that he had been driven by want to accept the government's
hospitality. "You're playing it foxy on Uncle Sam for a little
vacation."
"I s'pose 'taint quite right, lookin' at it in some ways," said the
old gunner apologetically. "But I spent four years south _workin'_
for our Uncle Samuel, an' it _doos_ seem's if I might rest here one
winter at his expense, 'specially sence I'm a sort o' namesake o' his.
Besides, 'taint like it might be 'f I was drawin' a penshin, neither,
for I never tried t' git one, though there's plenty o' men takin'
dollars out o' th' treas'ry that aint got no better claim than I have."
"You're decorated, I see," said I, nodding towards the medal upon his
breast. "Isn't that the 'Medal of Honor' that is awarded only by vote
of Congress?"
"Yis, that's _jest_ what it is," replied the sergeant, unpinning it
and handing it over for my inspection. "Guess 'taint worth much; it's
nothin' but copper. Seems's if the gov'ment don't calc'late t' spend
much on them sort o' fixin's. I got it 'bout three years ago."
"'To Sergeant Samuel Farwell,'" I read aloud, "'October 29th, 1864.'
Do you mean to say, sergeant, that you waited twenty-four years to
obtain recognition of your bravery?"
"Wal, there warn't no one t' blame 'cept me," remarked my New
Englander, taking the medal from the colonel, to whom I had passed it,
and fastening it again in its place upon the breast of his blouse.
"Ye have t' apply for them things yourself, an' git all sorts o'
document'ry evidence t' back ye up. It makes consid'able bother, fust
an' last, an' I'll be darned 'f I'd go through all th' fuss agin for a
peck on 'em."
"Tell us about it," said the colonel, who seemed amused at the light
in which Farwell regarded his decoration. "What did you get it for?"
"What did I git it for?" repeated the old gunner, with a twinkle in
his gray eye and a twitching of the muscles at the corner of his mouth
which warned us that he meditated some outbreak of Yankee wit. "What
_for_? Oh, 'cause--what with Odd Fellers, an' hose companies, an' Sons
o' Vet'rans--there wasn't many people in town that didn't have a medal
o' some description, an' I got this one so 's t' be able t' shine with
th' rest on 'em."
"Pshaw! I don't mean _that_," said the colonel, with a laugh in which
I joined, "What did you _do_ to get it?"
"Why, I thought I'd told ye," said the old fellow, with the twinkle
still visible in his eye. "I _applied_ for it, an' put in my documents
t' prove I warn't lyin'--an' ol' Cap'n Burdett helped me consid'able
by speakin' t' our member o' Congress 'bout it."
"No, no, _no_!" said the colonel, laughing again, "that's not what I
want, either. That medal of yours is awarded only for distinguished
bravery; now, what was the service that made you eligible to receive
it?"
"What did th' gov'nment give it t' me for? ye mean," said the
sergeant, allowing himself a smile at the fun he had had with us.
"Wal, 'taint goin' t' sound like much, but I'd jus' 's lives tell ye.
Hello!" he interjected, "this cigar seems t' be unravellin'."
"Throw it away, then," said the colonel. "Here's another."
"Oh, no! wouldn't do that, would ye?" said the old soldier. "'Twould
seem kind o' wasteful, wouldn't it? I kin tinker this one so's
it'll be all right. Jes' watch me"--and with this he applied his
tongue to the loosened and uncoiling wrapper, and then smoothed the
well-moistened leaf securely into place, remarking, "There! she smokes
as good 's new--an' there's five cents saved."
"Just about," said I, grinning, for an occasional whiff of the smoke
had come my way. "How did you know?"
"Oh, I kin tell a _good_ cigar, every time," remarked the veteran,
liberating a prodigious puff of smoke and sniffing at it with the air
of an expert judge of tobacco. "Smokin' a pipe so much haint hurt my
taste for cigars a mite."
"Glad you like them," said the colonel, turning upon me an ominous
frown which checked any inclination I might have had to go more deeply
into the subject. "Now, about that medal?"
"Oh, yis, 'bout th' medal," said Farwell, with just one look at his
cigar to see how his repairs held out. "Wal, ye mus'n't think I'm
boastin'--'cause I aint. What I done warn't no more than I've seen
done time an' time agin--an' you, too, 'f you was four years with th'
--th Massachusetts--an' I never'd have thought twice 'bout it 'f Cap'n
Burdett hadn't kep' urgin' me on t' apply for th' medal. Pooh! 'taint
nothin' but a trinket, anyway, an' it's no earthly use t' me nor
anyone."
"Don't apologize. Go ahead with the story," I put in, recognizing the
chance of an interesting half hour. "You didn't volunteer to tell us,
you know. We asked you."
"Yes, go ahead," said the colonel, lighting a cigar, which, by the
way, he took from his leather case, and not from the paper of weeds he
had brought from the hotel. "I should say that things had come to a
funny pass when one of the old 19th's boys is bashful about yarning to
another."
"Lord! ye don't need t' think that," said the veteran. "_I_ ain't
bashful 'bout tellin' ye. All I was 'fraid of was that p'raps ye'd
think I set myself up for bein' extra courageous--which I don't. Wal,
here's all th' story there is to 't:
"We was down here in Virginia, at a place we called Three Mile
Creek--'twouldn't be many hundred miles from here, 'f a crow was t'
fly it. Like enough _you_ was there?"
"Yes, I ought to remember it," said the colonel, "we lost some men
there. Go on, sergeant."
"Lost some men, hey?" said Farwell, clasping his hands behind his
head, and comfortably stretching his legs out upon the gravelled path.
"Wal, I guess ye'll be interested in what I'm goin' t' tell ye, 'f
_that's_ so. I da'say," he continued, "ye kin remember that there
was some shots fired, an' that our skirmishers come back so sudden
that they forgot t' bring along a few that warn't able t' walk. In
fac', they _run_ back, an' we in th' batt'ry thought it an almighty
poor showin' on th' part o' th' infantry. But p'raps we wasn't in no
position t' jedge."
"It was that sudden volley from the woods that sent the boys back in
disorder," said the colonel shortly. "The skirmish line was made up
of seven companies of the --th; _my_ company was one of the three in
reserve."
"Why didn't they wait t' see what hit 'em?" asked the sergeant in a
tone which showed traces of contempt. "D' ye think 'twas th' right
thing t' skedaddle away 'thout bringin' in th' wounded?"
"No, I don't," said the colonel, flushing a little, "and it wasn't
like the 'Old Regiment' to do it. But the boys were pretty well worn
out and broken down by the marching and fighting we'd had, and the
attack was so sudden and unexpected that it rattled them for a time.
You must admit, sergeant, that we had as good a reputation as any
regiment in the 19th Corps."
"Wal, _that's_ so," said the old fellow, brushing an ash stain from
his blouse, "an' I s'pose we noticed th' break more 'cause we warn't
used t' lookin' for sich displays on your part. Now, _we_ was posted
up on a little knoll, ye remember, well over towards th' right; an'
when th' Rebs showed up in th' open--for t' foller up you infantry
fellers--we jes' dropped a round 'r two o' shell down that way, sort
o' hintin' to 'em t' go back where they'd come from."
"So that was _your_ battery, was it?" asked Colonel Elliott. "From the
way the guns were served I always thought it was a regular battery."
"Sho! we'd been in service 'most three year then," said the veteran
gunner, quickly resenting this reflection upon the efficiency of his
beloved battery, "an' we'd had good practice an' lots of it, too.
Would we be takin' p'ints from th' reg'lars or anybody else? _I guess
not!_ No, not by a gol durn sight!"
"You used to put up some pretty stiff work in your line," the colonel
hastened to say, after this outburst. "Why, my boys have yelled
themselves hoarse many a time when you fellows have gone thundering by
to take up position and unlimber."
"Yes, indeed," I put in at this point, "even we _young_ men have heard
of Burdett's Battery, and the work it did"--which wasn't altogether
true, but served to mollify the disturbed sergeant just as well as if
it had been.
"Go on, sergeant," said the colonel, "tell us when _you_ came in. It
isn't possible that you were the--"
"'Twas terrible hot that noon," began the old fellow, as if he had
paid no attention to what we had been saying. "Th' air was close an'
muggy, an' th' smoke jest hung 'round 's if 'twas too tired t' drift
away. Why, we sent up rings o' smoke from th' guns that was jes' as
perfect 's _that_ one," pointing towards one I just had blown from my
lips, "an' they lasted a heap sight longer 'n that did, too."
"Yes," assented the colonel, "it certainly was hotter than--"
"Tophet an' th' brazen hinges thereof," said the veteran. "Yes, 'twas
_awful_ hot, an' a'ter th' flurry was over--that time we served th'
guns so fast--_I_ was jest a-sweatin', I kin tell ye. Thirsty, too?
Wal, I ruther _guess_! Prob'bly that was what put it inter my head
t' take a couple o' canteens an' slip down inter th' medder where
your skirmishers had left their dead an' wounded. Ye see, a'ter I'd
sponged my gun, an' sent home another shell in case it should be
needed, I took a drink, an' while I had th' ol' canteen up t' my lips
th' thought come t' me that p'raps some o' th' poor devils layin' out
there in th' sun might be gettin' dryer 'n all torment."
The colonel had risen from the bench and slowly was pacing to and fro
upon the path, but he kept his eyes fixed upon the old sergeant, and,
when he paused, broke out with, "So _you_ were the one who went to
give water to our boys. Why, man, the risk was awful!"
"'Twarn't neither," said the old fellow, bluntly. "I got back all
right, didn't I?" and then, as his eye fell upon a long, low steamer,
which was ploughing its way along towards Newport News, he dismissed
the whole matter with, "B'gosh! _ain't_ that a pretty sight? See th'
smoke trailin' out behind, an' watch th' sparkle o' th' water. Oh,
this is a great place in some ways. Here 'tis 'most November, an' I'm
settin' out here 'thout no overcoat, an' warm 's a pot o' beans."
"You were fired upon, weren't you?" asked the colonel, whose face wore
a look I never had seen there. Farwell glanced at the scene before him
for a moment longer, and then turned his eyes upon his questioner.
"Oh, yis, th' Johnnies practised on me a little, an' I got scratched
'crost th' wrist. There's th' mark," he said, drawing up his sleeve,
and displaying a scar which ran diagonally across the flesh. "_I_ got
out of it well enough, but I was all-fired sorry 'bout that lieutenant
I brought in with me. He was livin' when I picked him up, but when I
turned him over t' th' boys that run out t' meet me, he was deader 'n
a door-nail--shot plum' through th' head while I was a-luggin' him in,
_an' I never knowed it_! Must ha' b'en that I was excited--or else my
wrist hurt me so I didn't notice. Poor little cuss! I've always felt
that he might ha' be'n alive yet 'f I'd let him be. But ye can't tell;
no, ye can't tell, an' I _meant_ well, anyhow."
"It must be something more than chance that has brought us together,"
said the colonel. "Why, sergeant, that lieutenant was one of my
closest chums--poor little Hale, of Company H. And _you_ brought him
in!"
"Wal, I didn't mean t' get him killed," began Farwell, grasping the
hand the colonel offered, "an' I'm sorry--"
"You need be sorry for nothing," broke in Colonel Elliott, "for the
surgeon looked him over as he lay there in our lines, and found that
he had been mortally wounded at first, so the shot that came last was
only a merciful one."
"Now, _that's_ a piece o' good news," exclaimed the old man. "I've
always worried myself, more or less, wonderin' 'f I hadn't oughter ha'
let him lay where I found him. So _'twarnt_ my fault? Gosh! I'm glad
o' _that_! Wal, that's what they give me th' medal for, an', 's I said
in th' fust place, it don't signify much, one way or t'other."
I got up and shook hands with the old fellow, and then--because I
had a sort of impression that the colonel would like to be left for
a minute alone with him--I walked over to the sea-wall, and stood
looking out over the blue waters where the _Cumberland_ had gone down,
with the old flag defiantly waving, and her men still standing by the
smoking guns. But I wasn't thinking of the heroism that has made this
place forever famous. No; I was wondering if _I_ could do what the old
gunner had done, and then make so little account of it afterwards. I
had been standing there for perhaps ten minutes, watching the gulls as
they lazily swept by, when I felt a hand upon my shoulder, and heard
the colonel say, "It's time we were getting back to the hotel. We've
had experiences enough for one morning, eh, Jack? Well, _now_ what do
you think of the stuff we had in the old corps?"
"Pretty good stuff, if that's a fair sample," I returned, glancing
over at the bench where I had left the old sergeant seated. "Hello!
he's gone."
"Yes, there he is, walking back to quarters. But you'll see him
again," said the colonel, and as we trudged along back towards the
hotel he explained for my approval the details of a scheme which he
had evolved.
Well, the upshot of the whole matter was that when we went north, ten
days later, Sam--for "Sam" is his official title now--went with us.
It took some trouble to get him started, for he had settled himself
at Hampton for a winter of ease and genteel laziness. But the colonel
has a very persuasive way about him, and finally Sam fell a victim to
it. So now he is installed as presiding genius at "The Battery," and
under his watchful eye that comfortable roost of ours becomes more
comfortable day by day; for who can build the cheeriest fire, who can
most brightly polish our pewter mugs, who can while away a dull half
hour with yarns of the by-gone days in camp and field--who, but Sam?
One drill-night, not long after he had come among us, he turned up at
the armory and for nearly an hour stood watching the companies as
they went through with their night's work. I noticed him as he stood
in one corner of the long hall, and thought that he seemed greatly
interested; but I must admit that I was surprised when, a little
later, he walked into the colonel's room and announced that he wished
to enlist. Now, the law allows us one orderly at headquarters, and as
that place then happened to be unfilled we gave it to him.
The colonel himself mustered him in, and I stood by during the
ceremony. Sam stood erect and motionless, and with uplifted hand
swore "to bear true faith and allegiance to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts," and after he had slowly repeated the closing words of
the military oath--"I do also solemnly swear that I will support the
constitution of the United States. _So help me God_"--he let fall his
hand, and said, "It's close onto thirty years, Cunnel, sence I said
them words, an' th' last time I said 'em they meant a good deal t' me.
But they aint lost none o' their meanin'--an' if this reg'ment ever
has t' go out _I'll go with it_, though I'd a darn sight ruther be at
th' trail of a gun than go t' foolin' with a muskit at my time o'
life."
Later in the evening I happened to see Sam's muster rolls lying
upon the colonel's desk, and out of curiosity glanced through them.
"Name: Farwell, Samuel," I read, "Rank: Private (Hdq'rs Orderly).
_Age_: 65 years. Occupation: Gentleman. _Remarks_: Private, Corporal,
Sergeant; Burdett's (N. H.) Light Battery, U.S. Vols., 1861-65; Medal
of Honor for distinguished bravery." With my finger upon the column
in which Sam's occupation was recorded as that of "Gentleman," I
looked inquiringly at the colonel, who answered my unspoken question
with--"That's right _enough_, Jack. In the first place, he's a
soldier, and you ought to know that the profession of the soldier
is the profession of the gentleman. In the second place, he wasn't
doing anything for a living when we found him--and that surely is
gentlemanly. And lastly, he is a gentleman, every inch of him, and
I'll thank you not to question it."
OUR HORSE "ACME"
OUR HORSE "ACME."
The paymaster piled up a neat little heap of documentary odds
and ends, shoved it to one side, and banged down upon it a heavy
paper-weight. Then he slammed together the thick, leathern covers of
the regimental roll-book, and by sheer force of muscle hoisted that
precious and ponderous volume up to its appointed resting-place. And
finally, after he had sent crashing down the lid of his desk, he
thrust his hands into his pockets, drew a long breath, and looked over
towards the adjoining desk, where the colonel sat writing.
For a minute or so, after this racket had subsided, the scratching of
the colonel's pen steadily continued, but finally there came a long,
rasping sound of steel upon paper, denoting the flourish at the end of
a signature, and the colonel reached for the blotter, saying, as he
applied it to the writing before him, "So you've concluded to call it
a day's work, eh? Well, why couldn't you _say_ so, instead of making
row enough to raise the dead and deafen the living? I take it that
your infernal old rolls are straightened out at last."
"Rolls are up to date; everything's up to date, and I'm square with
the game again," replied the paymaster, locking his desk and pocketing
the key. "About ready to stroll along, Colonel? Brown has stuck his
head in through the doorway a couple of times, with an expression on
his face which forces me to think that he considers our room worth
more than our company."
"I'm ready to call quits," said the colonel, folding his letter and
slipping it into an envelope. "Hello, Brown!" to the armorer, who had
made a third suggestive appearance at the door. "Keeping you up? Too
bad! Well, you may put out these lights, and in a minute more we'll be
out of my room, too. Come along, Pay, it's time decent people were at
home."
"But we're not 'decent people,'" objected the paymaster, as he
followed the colonel to his private room beyond; "we're officers of
the militia, and, in the estimation of many worthy citizens, that
ranks us just one peg _below_ decency. You know Vandercrumb--old
Judge Vandercrumb? Well, t'other day he was at my house and happened
to see my commission hanging in the library. 'What!' says he, in a
politely disgusted sort of way, '_you_ in the militia? Well, I must
say, Langforth, I'm surprised to find you guilty of that!'" and the
paymaster laughed, as he remembered the inflection with which the
words had been spoken. The colonel laughed, too, for Langforth had
imitated to perfection the tones of shocked respectability, and the
anecdote amused him the more because it bore so close a resemblance to
many experiences of his own.
"It always has been so," he said, as he drew on his light overcoat,
"and always will be, I dare say. People see only one side--the 'fuss
and feather' aspect--of volunteering, and the traditions of the old
'milishy' days are slow in dying out. Well, I suppose we can stand it
all, but at times it galls a bit."
"Yes, it _is_ rather rough, to work hard and faithfully, year in and
year out, and then be rewarded by hearing some fellow at one's club
wondering 'how the devil anybody can take any interest in such boy's
play,'" said the paymaster, whose honest love for the service made him
peculiarly sensitive to any covert sneers directed at it. "But, as
you say, we can stand it; and, besides," he went on, "we have our fun
in our quiet way, and I'm weak enough to pity the outsiders, for they
miss more downright sport than I would be willing to forego."
"Yes, we certainly have our fun," said Colonel Elliott, as he walked
with the paymaster down the granite steps of the armory and out
into the deserted street, "but it's been 'all work' to-night, eh,
Langforth? Phew! I've written, since eight o'clock, more letters than
there are in the whole condemned alphabet."
"I've done my share, too," remarked his companion, taking advantage of
the glare of a chance electric light to consult his watch. "Quarter
past eleven; well, it might be worse."
"Say, Langforth," observed the colonel, abruptly halting as they
came to a corner, "if we switch off here and step out a trifle faster
we can flank The Battery, get a pewter and a sandwich, and do it all
before midnight. What do you say--do or don't?"
"Heads, we go; tails, we also go--home," replied Langforth, yawning,
and extracting from his change pocket a nickel. "_Tails_--and be
hanged to it!" he ejaculated, as he held the coin up to the light.
"Well, that settles it; we'll go up to The Battery. It takes more than
a miserable five-cent bit to send me hungry and thirsty to bed."
"Come ahead, then," said the colonel, laughing at the ease with which
his companion set aside the verdict of the coin. "That's not such a
bad system of yours: snapping to see what you'll do, and then doing
what you please. Always work it that way?"
"No, not always," returned the paymaster, lengthening his stride in
order to keep up with the pace set by the colonel, "only sometimes;
and this is one of the times. Suppose we shall find anybody up there?"
"The genial Pollard is sure to be there. He's a fixture. Can't see why
he pays dues at his club, can you? Since we started this institution
he's never spent an evening anywhere else. Well, here we are--all
except the stairs," said the colonel, turning in at the court at whose
far end, away up in the darkness, the lights of The Battery invitingly
twinkled. "Hello!" he exclaimed, a moment later, as he opened the
door at the head of the last flight of stairs, "here's Pollard, sure
enough--and 'Bones,' and a couple more men," and with this he walked
over towards the table around which the earlier comers were seated.
"Colonel Elliott, let me present Lieutenant Hotchkiss and Ensign
Hatch, both of the Naval Battalion," said the surgeon, rising and
designating these officers with a graceful wave of his cigar.
"Gentlemen, this is Langforth, our 'Pay.' Ah, you've met him?" The two
late comers drew up chairs, and made known to Sam their requirements;
and then the colonel, turning towards the surgeon, said, "Bones, what
is it? You look troubled."
"Well, to tell the truth," replied the surgeon, ruefully glancing at
his questioner, "I _was_ going to tell these fellows how I won the
cavalry cup, but now I suppose I shall have to defer it to another
time."
"Oh, go ahead with your yarn--spring it," said the colonel. "'Pay' and
I don't mind, and Pollard the genial never will interrupt. Besides,
with three of us here, you'll not be apt to deviate very widely from
the truth, and truth is desirable in all reports of a military Nature.
Go ahead!" and the colonel, with a wink at Langforth, took the mug
which Sam had brought him.