Brother Against Brother; or, The Tompkins Mystery. Read online

  CHAPTER X.

  THE BEGINNING OF SOLDIER LIFE.

  A curious scene presented itself at the Junction. But before we attemptto describe the former, we will give the reader some idea of the latter.The Junction was the terminus of one railroad and the junction of twoothers. One of the railroads led to Washington, one to Pittsburg, andone to Baltimore. It was not a large town; a village of perhaps twelveor fifteen hundred inhabitants, blackened by the smoke of engines. Thesurrounding country was broken and rough, with hills rising upon hills,deep ravines, rocky gorges, and winding streams, lined with a luxuriantgrowth of pine and maple, while far away in the distance the gray peaksof mountains could be seen.

  The Junction was about twenty miles north-east of Snagtown, there beingno railroad to the latter place, though there was a hard beatenturnpike, with a daily mail-coach running between the two. Some of thehouses about the Junction were of brick, but the majority of wood. Therewere neat little cottages, looking like fairy abodes, amid the greenvines and blooming flowers of Spring-time, and there were cottagesneither neat nor fairy-like in aspect; the log hovel, showing signs ofdecay and neglect. But the village, taken as a whole, was a very prettyplace.

  It was about the 1st of May. The President had called for eighty-twothousand more men, finding seventy-five thousand wholly inadequate toput down the rebellion. Virginia was at this period in a constant stateof alarm. Sumter had fallen, Harper's Ferry and Norfolk Navy-yard werein the hands of the rebels, while a mob, in the city of Baltimore, hadattacked Massachusetts and Pennsylvania troops on their way to thedefense of Washington.

  The Federal Government, on the other hand, was straining every nerve. Ithad collected about Washington, as speedily as possible, under GeneralScott, the veteran hero of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and the Mexican War,the volunteers who flocked to their country's defense in answer to thePresident's call. Volunteer companies were raising all over the country.In the extreme Northern States, in the defense of the FederalGovernment; in the extreme Southern States, in defense of theConfederate Government, and in some of the Middle and Western States,companies were raised for both sides. In fact, there were men in some ofthe more Northern slave States, who mustered with the rebels and wereactually in the Confederate service before they knew it.

  In Virginia, as we have shown, both sides were represented. TheJunction, on account of its railroad facilities, was an important pointto guard, and about three hundred volunteers, under Colonel Holdfast,were here stationed. Of these raw recruits, there was but one companythat was a complete organization, uniformed and armed at the expense ofthe Government. It was a company of mounted infantry, under command ofCaptain Wardle, armed with musket, uniformed in the Government blue, andfurnished with horses in order to scout the country.

  The Government found it impossible to turn out arms and clothing fastenough to supply the volunteers at once, and it was late in the Summerof 1861 before they were all equipped. Many armed themselves, as was thecase with two hundred of those at the Junction. Their arms consisted ofrifles, shot-guns, and such other weapons as they were able to furnishthemselves with.

  The Junction, as we have said, presented a curious scene. Five tall,white army tents had been erected for Captain Wardle's men, and therewere a score or more enclosures, ambitious to be known as tents, madefrom Virginia wagon-covers, sail-cloth, oil-cloth, sheeting, andbed-ticking. They were of various sizes and shapes; some so small thatfour men would fill them; others large enough to hold twenty-five. Someof them were square, some round, like Indian wigwams, and others morelike a circus canvas than anything we can compare them to.

  The tents were a motley assemblage, and so, and to a greater extent,were the men therein sheltered. There was first the company of CaptainWardle, properly uniformed and armed, and intensely military inappearance and behavior. They were always drilling when not scouting thecountry; the raw recruits standing by, overwhelmed with admiration attheir easy proficiency in the manual of arms, or the intricate andmysterious movements of the company drill.

  It was early morning, and the smoke was ascending from half a hundredcamp-fires. The scene was a constantly varying panorama of straw hats,linen coats, broadcloth coats, colored, flannel and white shirts. Anorderly sergeant was trying to initiate a squad of raw recruits intosome of the mysteries of drilling.

  "Remember the position of a soldier," said the orderly. "Heels closetogether, head up, the eyes striking the ground twenty paces away. Now,shoulder arms! Great Moses! Tom Koontz, can't you learn how to handle agun? Keep the barrel vertical. Do you call that vertical?"

  "What d'ye mean by sayin' vartical?" asked Koontz.

  The orderly explained for the hundredth time, that vertical meantstraight up and down. He had them then count off by twos, beginning atthe right, then he instructed them that at the order of "right face,"number one was to take a half step obliquely to the right, and numbertwo a step and a half to the left, bringing them in double file at rightface. But when he gave the order, half of the men had forgotten theirnumber. Confusion and dismay resulted, and the long suffering orderlysat down and swore until he was exhausted.

  Camp-life was new to all, and its novelty kept all in a perpetualexcitement. There was but little discipline. Officers ordered men andmen ordered each other. Every one had suggestions to make, and those whoknew the least offered the most of them.

  "I tell you," said Sergeant Swords to Corporal Grimm, "that tent is notstrong. The center pole is too weak, and the guy ropes are rotten. It'llgo down."

  "I always knowed them boys didn't know how to fix a tent," saidCorporal Grimm, plying his jaws vigorously on a huge piece of pig-tailtobacco.

  "Yes, sir; they've got a good deal to learn yet," said Sergeant Swords,with a sigh.

  "I do hate to see any one, who don't know anything about soldier life,pretend to know so much," said Corporal Grimm, who had had ten days'experience before he enlisted in his present company.

  "So do I," said Sergeant Swords, who had seen at least six days'service. "They'll find yet they had better take some one else's advicewhat's had experience. Why, when I was with Captain Strong's men, and wemarched forty miles to Goose Creek Bridge to keep the rebels fromburnin' it, we fixed a tent up like that, and the first night after weencamped, there came up a rain-storm, and blowed the thing a quarter ofa mile into a brush heap."

  "Did I ever tell you what a hard time we had when I was under GeneralPreston;" asked Corporal Grimm, by way of introduction to a story whichshould redound to his own greatness.

  "No, I believe not," answered Sergeant Swords, with more courtesy thantruthfulness, for he had heard the story at least a dozen times.

  "Well, sir, them was tryin' times," said Corporal Grimm, shaking hishead and masticating his quid with the air of a man who has suffered."Why, sir, we marched eighty-five miles on foot, and all the rations wegot was dried bacon, hams, and crackers. Oh, I just thought I would giveanything for something substantial to eat, or a drink of coffee! Theboys all run out of tobacco, too, an' we had an awful time." The thoughtof these hardships brought to his face an expression of extreme agony.

  "Why didn't you press something to eat? You passed through a countrywhere there was plenty, didn't you?" asked Sergeant Swords.

  "Yes, but what could fifteen hundred men do at pressin'? Why, theycouldn't a got enough to feed one brigade, let alone our whole army,"answered Corporal Grimm, who, as much service as he had seen, did notexactly know how many men it took to constitute a brigade.

  "We soldiers have hard times," said Sergeant Swords, brushing some ofthe mud off his blue jean coat. "Wonder how soon we'll draw our clothingand arms?"

  "Don't know, but hope soon. I'm tired of these farmer brown breeches. Iwant a blue coat with stripes on the sleeves."

  At this moment there came a blast from the bugle.

  "Roll call," said Sergeant Swords.

  A general gathering of each company about the Captain's tent followed.

  Abner Tompkins was First Lieutenant o
f the company of which SergeantSwords and Corporal Grimm were members. He had been with the company nowfor over a week.

  The morning drill was over, and the volunteers were lounging about thetents, on the grass; Abner was leaning with his arm across thesaddle-bow of his faithful horse, that he was about to turn out tograze. The mind of the young lieutenant was full of fancies andmemories. His sudden departure from home, his interview with Irene, theparting with his brother, all were fresh in his thoughts, and his eyesnaturally wandered back toward the road that led to his home. A familiarsight met his view. Coming down the hill, attended by a member of hisown company, who had been on picket guard, was his father's carriagedriven by the family coachman.

  Abner started. Why was he coming to the Junction? The carriage drove upto Abner's tent, and the guard, making what he meant for a militarysalute, said:

  "Lieutenant, here is a man as says he wants to see you."

  "All right, Barney, you can leave him here."

  The guard turned, and hurried back to his post as though the Nation'ssafety depended on his speed.

  The driver opened the carriage door, Mr. Tompkins alighted, and fatherand son met with a cordial hand-grasp. Abner led his father into theofficers' tent which was at present deserted by its usual occupants.

  "Have you seen Oleah since?" asked Abner.

  "I have," was the reply.

  "Where?"

  "At his camp."

  "Why, father, how dare you go there, when your sentiments are known tobe directly opposed to their cause? It was very dangerous."

  "Not very dangerous, since I have a son who is an officer in that army."

  "What office does Oleah hold?"

  "Second Lieutenant."

  "I suppose Seth Williams and Howard Jones are there?"

  "Yes, and Harry Smith."

  "Harry Smith?"

  "Yes."

  "Why, he is no Confederate at heart."

  "So are not a great many who are in their ranks."

  "I have been daily expecting Diggs here," said Abner.

  "Diggs, Henry Diggs?" asked Mr. Tompkins curiously.

  "Yes; he promised me he would come here and join our company," saidAbner.

  "He is on the other side," replied Mr. Tompkins.

  "What?"

  "He is on the other side. He is a corporal in Oleah's company."

  "Why, the contemptible little scamp! He promised me faithful he wouldcome here and enlist."

  "He is a man who cannot resist persuasion, and someone on the other sidegot the last persuade of him."

  "True, Diggs has no mind of his own," said Abner.

  "I have sometimes wished that my sons' minds were not quite so decidedlytheir own," said the planter with a sad smile and a doubtful shake ofthe head.

  "Did you try to persuade Oleah to leave the Southern army?"

  "No; he has conscientiously espoused the cause, and I would not have himdo violence to his conscience. I talked to him mostly about you."

  "About me?"

  "Yes. I told him, as I now tell you, that if he had a principle which hethought right, he was right to maintain it; but while he fought in onearmy to remember always that he had a brother in the other, and, if bychance he should meet that brother in the struggle, to set brotherlylove above party principle."

  "What did he say?"

  "He promised that he would, and now I have come for your promise also."

  "I make it freely, father. It has always been my intention to meet Oleahas a brother whenever we meet."

  "This is now a sundered Nation," said Mr. Tompkins, "and its divisionhas divided many families. It may be that brothers' swords shall drinkbrothers' blood, but, oh Abner, let it not be your fate to be afratricide."

  Mr. Tompkins lingered until late in the day, when he entered hiscarriage, and was driven towards his home.

  That night the Colonel sent for Captain Wardle and told him that he hadbeen informed of a body of rebels collecting on the headwaters of Wolfcreek, not more than three or four miles from Snagtown, and instructedhim to take sixty of his own company and fifty of the new recruits andproceed there the next day, starting early in the morning, to break upthe rebel camp, and capture every person found there.

  There was another motley and undisciplined body of men encamped on Wolfcreek. Wolf creek was a clear rapid stream, whose fountain-head was inthe Twin Mountains. It came dashing down their craggy sides in manysmall rivulets, which, at their base, united to form this beautifulstream that flowed through a dark, dense forest in the valley, passingat one place within a half a mile of Snagtown.

  The camp, however, was three or four miles further up the stream, inwhat the military leaders considered a more advantageous location, onthe main road that led from Snagtown by the Twin Mountains to a villagebeyond.

  The numbers of the Confederates were increasing daily. As soon as thevolunteers went into camp, those in sympathy with the cause came in fromall the country round, until between three or four thousand men hadassembled, ill armed, undisciplined, confident, and full of enthusiasm.But one company had yet elected officers. Colonel Scrabble, an oldMexican soldier, was commander-in-chief of this force. Of the organizedcompany, Oleah Tompkins was second lieutenant and Patrick Henry Diggswas corporal.

  Mr. Diggs had experienced considerable disappointment when the companyfailed to elect him captain; when a vote was taken for first lieutenant,he made a speech which secured him two votes; for second lieutenant,Oleah Tompkins was chosen. He was about to retire from the field andfrom the army, and had even applied for his discharge, when the captainappointed him corporal.

  He did not like to accept a position so insignificant, but, when hereflected that there were a number of corporals who had risen to begenerals, and that the prospect for his promotion was good, he becamepacified, and very reluctantly assumed the office.

  The spot where the Confederates were encamped had formerly been used forholding camp meetings; it was a grove, surrounded on every side by adense forest and the high road, which led past the place, approached itin so circuitous a manner that it could not be seen fifty rods eitherway.

  The Confederates had chosen so secluded a spot that it was evident theywished their camp concealed. Wolf Creek bounded their camping ground onone side. The tents were fantastic affairs, and could vie even withthose of the Junction in variety of shape and material, and showed quiteas great a lack of skill in arrangement. The men were of almost everyclass, dress, and nation; but the dark, sharp-cut Southern featurepredominated.

  They were firey, quick-tempered men, whose rashness nearly alwaysexcelled their judgment. Most of them were dressed in the garb ofVirginia farmers, without any appearance or pretense to uniform. Theirarms were shot-guns, rifles, and ancient muskets--a few of themexcellent, but the majority inferior. As a class, they were men whoenjoyed fox chases, wolf hunts, and horse races, and the present phaseof their life they appeared to regard as a frolic.

  Camp fires were smoldering, and camp kettles hung suspended over them.As at the Junction, there was a great deal of talk about camp life, andsuggestions by the score were indulged in. The sergeants walked aboutwith much dignity, and our corporal had grown to feel the importance ofhis office; he had the drill manual constantly in his hands, and connedits pages with the uttermost diligence.

  Corporal Diggs was a general in embryo, and his name was yet to ringthrough the trump of fame, until, among all nations it should become ahousehold word; he felt within his soul the uprising of greatness, as helooked through his glasses with the air of one born to command. And tothink that he was an officer already--a corporal, men under him, to whomhis word was law! Truly, the dream of his life was now beginning to berealized, his dearest desire was about to be fulfilled.

  Corporal Diggs had, from his earliest boyhood, thirsted for militaryglory; he had pored over the pictures of famous generals represented asleading the dashing cavalry on their charge, amid blind smoke andflashing swords, or guiding the infantry by a wave of the hand,
and hadlonged for an opportunity to do likewise. True, he was a mere corporal,but it took only a few sweeping strides from corporal to general. Thesoldiers did not seem at present to regard him with awe and admiration,but they had not yet seen him under fire; they did not know how cooly hecould undergo so trying an ordeal. He longed for battle as the war horsethat already sniffs the fray. Once in battle, he would so signalizehimself by his coolness and daring as to be mentioned in the colonel'sreport, and would undoubtedly be at once promoted.

  Corporal Diggs was full of fire and running over with enthusiasm. No manin all the camp seemed as busy as he; his tireless, short legs stumpedabout from place to place continually, his head thrown back, his eyesshining brilliantly through his glasses, a rusty, naked sword in hisright hand. Occasionally the official duty of Corporal Diggs brought himto a standstill and then he would thrust the point of his sword in theground, and lean upon it. As the sword was a long one when standing uponend, it came near reaching the chin of the born warrior who carried it.

  No one could appreciate the greatness of this great man. "Why did youleave before I showed you?" and other such frivolous phrases wereconstantly sounded in his ears. The gallant soldier sometimes becamehighly indignant, but he soothed himself with the reflection that allthis would be changed after they had once witnessed his powers on thebattle-field.

  It was the middle of the afternoon. The recruits had exhausted all theirmeans of amusement, and were lounging about under the shade of thetrees, or cleaning their rusty guns.

  "What shall we do to keep awake this evening?" said one fellow, lazily,reclining flat on his back under the broad branches of an old elm.

  "Dunno," said another, who was almost asleep.

  "Let's get up a scout," proposed a third.

  "I'll tell you how we can have some fun," said Seth Williams, his eyestwinkling.

  "How?" asked half a dozen at once.

  "Get Corporal Diggs to make a speech."

  "Good, good!" cried a number springing to their feet. "The very thing."

  It was finally decided to present to Corporal Diggs a written petitionto address the members of his company on the question of the day, andenthuse them with his magnificent and stirring eloquence. The Sergeanthimself circulated the petition, and had half a hundred names to it inless than fifteen minutes.

  Corporal Diggs had just returned from inspecting the guard when thepetition was presented to him.

  "Well, yes--hem, hem!" began the soldier, orator, and general in embryo,"I have been thinking for some time that I ought to make the boys aspeech. They--hem, hem!--should have something of the kind occasionallyto keep--to keep their spirits up."

  "Well, come right along now," said the Sergeant pointing to where nearlya hundred had gathered around a large elm stump. "They're waiting foryou."

  Corporal Diggs felt that his star had risen, and with a face full ofbecoming gravity, which the occasion and his official position demanded,he went toward the place indicated, dragging his long sword after him,much in the same way a small boy does the stick he calls his horse.

  The crowd received him with enthusiastic cheers, and Corporal Diggsmounted the stump.

  "Hem, _hem_, HEM!" he began, clearing his throat by way of commencement."Ladies and gentlemen"--a slight titter in the audience--"I mean fellowcitizens, or, perhaps, fellow soldiers or comrades would be moresuitable terms for addressing those who are to share my toils anddangers." [Cheers.] "'I come not here to talk,' as one of old said, 'foryou know too well the story of our thralldom.' What would the gentlemenhave? Is life so dear or peace so sweet that they must be bought withslavery and chains? There are those who cry 'Peace, peace!' but there isno peace! The next gale that sweeps down from the North will bring toour ears the clash of resounding arms. [Cheers.] But, my comrades,I--hem, hem!--feel it my imperative duty to tell you that the foe isnear at hand, and battle, glorious battle, where 'flame and smoke, andshout and groan, and sabre stroke' fill the air." [Vehement cheering,and Seth Williams trying to kick the bottom out of a camp kettle.]

  "Gentlemen of the jury--hem, hem!--No, fellow comrades, I mean, gird onthe armor of determination, the helmet of courage, the shield of unity,the breast-plate of honesty, and with the sword of the right never fearto hew your way through the ranks of injustice." The orator paused for amoment for the cheering to subside that not a word of that sublimespeech should be lost. All the soldiers in the camp, not on duty, had bythis time gathered about the speaker.

  "Gentlemen of the jury, or fellow soldiers, I should say, hem!" heresumed, "it may be that some day I shall have the honor of leading youto battle. Then, fellow citizens, I hope, nay, I verily believe, thatnot one in this camp will be found skulking or hiding. [Cheering, andcries of, "No, no!"] May that day come that we may all prove to theworld that we have a principle, and that we can defend it. [Cheers andcries of, "Let her come!"] Gentlemen, hem!--comrades, liberty is in thevery air, and the citizens of the South breathe it, and now that thetyrants of the North have seen fit to loose the war dogs, not one of theswords of Columbia's true sons shall be returned untarnished to itssheath. [Long continued cheering.] While this voice has power to speak,and this tongue power of proclaiming the truth, the wrongs of the Southshall be told. [Cheers and cries of "You bet."] And while this eye hasthe power of sight to aim the gun, and this arm strength to wield thesword, they shall be used wholly for the South." [Cheers and cries of"Hurrah for Diggs."] Some scamp propounded the long unanswered question,"Why didn't you wait till I had shown you?" but the orator is unmoved bythis attempt at ridicule. "Gentlemen of the jury, or, rather, fellowcomrades, when I think of all our wrongs, I long for the day to come,when we may meet the foe face to face. Yes, face to face, with bristlingsteel between, and canopies of smoke rolling above and mixing with theclouds of the heavens. Then shall they feel the arm of vengeance. Oh, yeboasters of the North," growing very loud and eloquent, while his righthand, with fingers all apart, cleft the air, "if you would know withwhom you have to deal, come on! [Cheers and cheers of "Come on!"]Cowards, boasters, how I long to meet you where the canon roars--theglad thunders of war. [Cheering, and one young recruit trying to standon his head.] I tell you that we can now say with the poet:

  "'Hark, hark, the trump of war awakes And vengeance from the vigil breaks, The dreadful cry of carnage sounds, It seems that hell's let loose her hounds.'

  "My brave comrades, remember Marion and Washington of old, and be likethem, ready to lay down your life for your country. [Wild cheering.] Iam ready to die in defense of the land that gave me--"

  Bang, bang, bang! went three muskets about two hundred yards up thecreek.

  "Oh, Lordy!" yelled Corporal Diggs, and he performed a leap which a frogmight have envied, alighting from the stump on his hands and knees onthe ground.

  _Bang_, _bang_, CRASH! went half a hundred guns in the same direction,and the air seemed alive with whistling balls.

  "What is that?" cried Seth Williams.

  "To arms! We are attacked!" shouted Colonel Scrabble.

  "Run for your lives," cried the four pickets who now came in sight,setting the example.

  As the pickets had seen the enemy, and the Colonel had not, the menconsidered that the former knew more of their number. As for the gallantCorporal Diggs, after one ineffectual attempt to spring on a tall horse,he ran rapidly away to the woods as fast as his short legs would carryhim, which Seth Williams afterward declared was faster than any horsecould. It was in vain that the officers attempted to rally their men.The blue-coated soldiers of Captain Wardle, after the first fire, camegalloping into view out of the woods, and, dismounting, fell into lineof battle just in the edge of the cleared space where Corporal Diggs,not two minutes before, had been entertaining the entire camp with hiseloquence. They poured another volley into the camp, which awoke theechoes of the forest and seemed to the terrified recruits to shake theTwin Mountains to their very center. They then charged down on theenemy.

  "Oh, Lordy, Lordy, have merc
y on my soul!" gasped Corporal Diggs as,impelled by the roar of fire-arms in his rear, the whistling of bulletsamong the trees, and the thunder of plunging horses on every side, hewent over the ground at a rate of speed which almost took away hisbreath. He ran as he never did before. He crushed through underbrush,tore through thorns, dodged under limbs, and leaped logs, in a mannerthat would have astonished any one who took into consideration theshortness of his legs. He was leading the entire force, as, in hisspeech a few minutes before, he had said he would. He was the first tostart, and as yet was ahead of any footman.

  Many of the horses, about four hundred in number, which had beenpicketed about the camp, had broken loose during the firing and wererunning, plunging, and snorting through the thick woods, much to theterror of poor Diggs, who imagined a Union soldier on every horse, andsupposed that there could not be less than fifty thousand of them.

  On, on, and on he ran, for about three miles, when, coming up to a steepbank of the creek, he found it impossible to check his headlong speed,and tumbled head first into it. Down into the mud and water he went,sticking his head so deep into the latter, that it was with somedifficulty he extricated himself. When he washed the mud out of hiseyes, he espied a drift a few feet away, and going to it managed toconceal himself amid the brush and logs.

  "Oh! Lordy! Lordy! have mercy on me! Oh, I know I shall be killed!"

  "Thump, thump! crash, crash! splash!" It was simply one of thefrightened horses that had broken away from the camp, but it putCorporal Diggs in extreme terror as he supposed it to be a regiment ofUnion cavalry.

  "Oh, I ought never to have engaged in this unholy cause! I thought I wasin error. I'll leave the Southern army sure, if ever I get out of this."

  For hours Corporal Diggs was kept in a state of perpetual terror byfleeing men and horses.