MAJOR LYON WINS A BATTLE AND LOSES HIS HORSE
Major Dexter Lyon realized that he had been played false by the
so-styled guide, and that his two battalions were in a dangerous
situation. The eight companies of horsemen were in the centre of a small
plain. In a semicircle in front was a low and treacherous quicksand,
impossible of passage; in a semicircle to the rear was a rocky
elevation, divided in half by the defile through which the cavalry had
just passed. On the rocky elevation, on both sides of the defile,
Confederate cavalry had been discovered, ready to pour in a hot fire on
them the moment they attempted to turn back on their trail.
"Major, it looks as if our goose was cooked," remarked Tom Belthorpe,
after the reports from the front and the rear had been considered. "They
couldn't have laid a neater trap for us."
"And I allowed myself to walk into it blindfolded," answered Deck,
somewhat bitterly.
"The rebels kept mighty shady when we came through the defile," put in
Captain Abbey, who was also at hand. "I wonder why they didn't open on
us then and there?"
"That is an easy question to answer, Captain," said Deck. "If they had
opened up, our command could have retreated; now they have every one of
us just about where they want us."
"But you won't surrender without a fight, will you?" demanded Kate
Belthorpe's brother, anxiously.
"I have never yet done any surrendering, Tom. I want to know just how
bad--What is it, Captain?"
"A flag of truce," answered Captain Life Knox, as he dashed up. "A
private is carrying it, and there is a Confederate captain of cavalry
with him."
"Indeed! They evidently want to rush things. Come with me, and we'll see
what they want."
Side by side Deck and Life rode off, the way being to the lower edge of
the rocky elevation. Here the Confederates had come to a halt in the
midst of some underbrush.
"I am Captain Adairs, Mississippi Volunteer Cavalry," said the
Confederate officer, with a salute, which the others promptly returned.
"Who is in command of those Union troops?"
"I am in command," answered Deck.
"Major Dexter Lyon," put in Life, introducing him.
"Well, Major Lyon, I reckon you know we have you in a pretty tight box,"
went on the Confederate captain, with a smile.
"Is that so?" returned Deck, as though the thought was brand-new to him.
"We have. Ahead is nothing but swamp and quicksand, and back here my
command hold the defile and the entire elevation."
"You must have your company pretty well spread out," remarked Deck.
"I have more than one company with me--fully enough men to hold the
spot. So you see you are entirely cut off."
"Cut off from where?"
"The outside world, so to speak," was the Confederate's impatient
answer.
"If we are, that's rather bad for us, Captain," and now Deck began to
smile.
"It is. The question is, are you willing to surrender?" demanded Captain
Adairs.
"To whom?"
"Why, to me, of course."
"Great Caesar, Captain, what for?"
"What for? Because you can't help yourself, that's what for!" and now
the veneering of gentlemanliness vanished. "I call on you to surrender.
If you won't, I'll open fire on you in less than five minutes."
"Make it ten minutes, Captain," and Deck kept on smiling.
"Ten minutes?" And the smile and the request perplexed the Confederate
not a little, as it also perplexed Life Knox. The latter could not
imagine what the major was driving at, for while he was a good soldier,
and a first-class shot, diplomacy, military or otherwise, was beyond
him.
"Exactly, ten minutes--or possibly quarter of an hour."
"I shall not wait longer than five minutes."
"Then I'll try to make five minutes do, although it will hardly be time
enough."
"Time enough for what?"
"Time enough for me to arrange my plans for giving you battle," answered
Deck, as calmly as ever.
"See here, do you take me for a--a fool?" cried the Confederate captain.
"What are you driving at? I won't waste any more words with you."
"Won't you?" Deck had his field-glasses in his hand, and now he pointed
them to the northward of the rocky elevation. "They are coming, Life!"
he cried. "We are all right! Come on back!" And he waved his hand to his
companion. "Good day, Captain, and I don't think I'll surrender--now!"
"Fooled!" burst from the Confederate's lips. "They are being reenforced!
Why did I waste words here!" And without another look at Deck, he turned
and galloped off with his orderly; and soon the two pairs were several
hundred yards apart.
"It was well done--you scared him nicely!" burst out Life. "But what's
the next move on the checkerboard, Deck?"
"The next move is to gain yonder grove of trees as quickly as we can.
Carry the word to Major Belthorpe, and tell him to send Captain Ripley's
sharpshooters and your own in advance. The first and second companies
can come over here."
Away went Life Knox with the swiftness of the wind, realizing that
success depended upon speed, for it would take but a few minutes for the
Confederates to learn the truth concerning the ruse Deck had employed
against them.
As soon as the tall Kentuckian had gone, Deck advanced toward the trees
mentioned, rapidly but cautiously, for he had no desire to be picked off
by some concealed Confederate marksman. His course lay over a series of
rough rocks, but Ceph sprang from one to another with the lightness of a
mountain goat. Soon the shelter of the first row of trees was gained.
Deck was not particularly a woodsman, but as a boy he had climbed many a
maple-tree in New Hampshire, and later on, many a walnut in Kentucky. He
had not forgotten the art, and standing up on Ceph's back he leaped into
the branches of the tree above him, and climbed to the top in what Artie
would have called "jig time."
The tree was tall, and standing on an elevation, afforded a good view of
the surrounding territory for a mile or more on every side. Taking up
his glasses again he inspected the situation with care.
Captain Adairs had told the truth about having more companies than one.
There were three commands all told, each numbering probably seventy to
eighty men. One was on this side of the defile, and two were on the
opposite side. The men were scattered at convenient points for holding
the defile against almost any force.
While Deck was surveying the situation, the Confederate captain reached
his men, and orders were at once issued which took away half of the men
at the rocky pass, and sent them in the direction of the main road
beyond. This left but half a company in the neighborhood Deck was
reconnoitring.
"If we can't whip half a company, no matter what advantage they have
behind the rocks, we are not fit for the Union army," thought the major,
and began to descend the tree.
He had just stepped on the limb below him, when he heard a crashing
through the brush between the rocks. Wondering if it was friend or foe,
he paused, and tried to look down. But the thick leaves and heavy
branches cut off the view below completely.
"Git up thar, git up!" he heard, in a rough, heavy voice, as somebody
leaped upon Ceph's back. Then came a clatter of horse's hoofs, and he
heard his faithful steed move off--a prisoner of the enemy!
To Deck, Ceph was among his dearest possessions, and regardless of his
danger, he scrambled down the tree with all possible speed, at the same
time calling upon the unknown horse-thief to stop. But neither man nor
beast halted, and by the time the major was down both were well out of
sight.
Bitter as he felt over his loss, now was no time for Deck to grieve, and
he scrambled over the rough ground until he came in sight of the first
and second company, advancing as directed. At the same moment a
scattering volley of shots from the other grove of trees told that the
sharpshooters under Ripley and Life Knox had got to work.
"Lieutenant Fronklyn!" cried the major. "Go to Major Belthorpe at once,
and tell him to bring all of the companies he has excepting Captain
Ripley's men around here without delay. Captain Ripley is to work into
the woods, but steer for the defile."
"Orders understood," replied Lieutenant Fronklyn, and galloped off.
Lieutenant Fronklyn was known to be a good rider, and he was soon out of
sight. Without waiting for the balance of his command, minus the
sharpshooters under Ripley, to come up, Deck urged the first and second
companies forward.
The sudden attack, added to the report that another force of the enemy
was on the highway, threw the Confederates in confusion, and although
they stood their ground, it could be seen that they felt more like
breaking away. Several volleys were exchanged, and half a dozen men on
both sides were hit, but nobody seriously.
In the meantime Captain Ripley and Captain Knox had worked into the
woods rapidly, and it was found impossible by Major Belthorpe to bring
Life back, although an orderly was sent to deliver Deck's order to the
Kentuckian. The balance of the companies followed the first half of the
first battalion without delay.
Realizing that the Union cavalry was massing on the north side of the
defile, the Confederate commander endeavored to bring up the balance of
the two companies from the opposite side. But the descent from the rocks
on one side and the ascent on the other took time, and just now every
moment was precious.
Deck did not "let the grass grow under his feet." The first battalion
went ahead on the double-quick, and soon a fierce hand-to-hand encounter
was under way among the rocks. A dozen cavalrymen were wounded, and the
Confederates fell back to a point midway between the defile and the
highway.
Those Confederates who had gone down into the cut were now trying to
gain the heights where the fighting was going on. But Deck was ready for
them, and sent Major Belthorpe to the edge of the defile with two
companies of the second battalion and Artie Lyon's company of the first.
They fired directly down upon the heads of the Confederates, and in less
than five minutes had the enemy retreating in the wildest confusion.
Deck had swung his three companies around, so that they had their backs
to the defile. He could hear the sharpshooters pushing the enemy through
the woods toward him. Presently the Confederates appeared, and the whole
company which had occupied this ground originally was surrounded. Ten
men were killed and an equal number wounded, and then the officer in
command, a lieutenant, held up his sword, hilt first, to which was tied
a white handkerchief; and the battle in that vicinity came to an end.
As soon as the company, or what was left of it, surrendered, Deck sent a
battalion and a half after those who were fleeing. But the Confederates
were filled with terror, thinking the reenforcements had surely come,
with sharpshooters in advance, and they continued to retreat at the full
speed of their horses. They were pursued for half a mile, and then the
chase was given up.
An examination proved that the Riverlawns had lost eight men in killed
and wounded, and the Confederates had lost nearly twice that number.
Fifteen of the enemy had been captured, including an officer who said he
had once practised as a surgeon. To his care were consigned all the
wounded Confederates, who were, later on, carried to a farmhouse a
quarter of a mile away. The wounded of the Riverlawns were turned over
to Doctor Farnwright, the regular surgeon of the regiment, and the dead
were buried with proper ceremonies at the spot where they had fallen.
"You did the trick, Major!" cried Tom Belthorpe, after it was all over.
"It was one of the neatest moves I ever saw!"
"It saved our goose from being cooked," laughed Deck. He felt that he
could afford to be light-hearted now.
"That's so,--I was too hasty in what I said," answered Kate Belthorpe's
brother. "But what horse is that you are riding?"
"One taken from the enemy, Tom."
"And where is Ceph?"
"Gone."
"Dead?"
"No, somebody stole him while I was up in a tree looking over the
situation."
"That's too bad. I know you set a store by that horse."
"I wouldn't lose him for a thousand dollars,--no, not for five times
that amount," replied the young major, earnestly.
And Deck meant what he said. To him the loss of faithful Ceph meant more
than any of his comrades in arms could understand. He wondered if he
should ever set eyes on the noble animal again.