Part 32 (1/2)

”Good!” He folded the slip of paper between his large fingers and transferred it to his pocket. ”I will read General Ewell's letter. Later I may wish to ask you some questions. That is all, major.”

Cleave rode back to the 65th. Presently, the sun now brilliantly up, the Army of the Valley, in no sunny mood, crossed the bridge over the Shenandoah. There was a short halt. A company of Ashby's galloped from the rear and drew off into a strip of level beside the bridge. A section of artillery followed suit. The army understood that for some reason or other and for some length of time or other the bridge was to be guarded, but it understood nothing more. Presently the troops pa.s.sed Conrad's Store, where the old negro, reinforced now by the dozen white inhabitants, gaped at the tramping column. The white men asked stuttering questions, and as the situation dawned upon them they indulged in irritating comment. ”Say, boys, where in the Lord's name air you going? We want you on this side of the Blue Ridge--you ain't got any call to go on the other!--if you've got any Tuckahoes, let them go, but you Cohees stay in your native land--Valley men ain't got no _right_ to go! _What'd the women say to you along the road?_ Clearing out like a pa.s.sel of yaller dogs afore there's trouble and leavin' them an' the children to entertain the Yankees!”

Harris, coming up with the orderlies, found the old negro at his mare's bridle. ”Well, marster, I sholy did think I wuz tellin' de truf, sah, 'bout Gin'ral Jackson holdin' de foht at Harrisonburg! En now he done 'vacuate hit, en Gin'ral Banks he prance right in! Hit look powerful cu'rous, hit sho do. But dar! I done seed de stars all fallin' way back in '33, en dat wuz powerful cu'rous too, fer de worl' didn't come ter an eend--Mebbe, sah, he jes'er drawin' dat gent'man on?”

Sullen and sorry, the army marched on, and at noon came to Elk Run Valley on the edge of Swift Run Gap. When the men stacked arms and broke ranks, it was upon the supposition that, dinner over, they would resume the march. They did not so; they stayed ten days in Elk Run Valley.

All around were the mountains, heavily timbered, bold and pathless.

Beyond Conrad's Store, covering Jackson's front, rushed the Shenandoah, the bridge guarded by Ashby's men. There were pickets enough between the river and the camp; north, south, and east rose the mountains, and on the other side of Swift Run Gap, near Stanardsville, lay Ewell and his eight thousand. The encampment occupied low and flat ground, through which ran a swollen creek. The spring had been on the whole inclement, and now, with suddenness, winter came back for a final word. One day there was a whirl of snow, another was cold and harsh, on the third there set in a chilly rain. It rained and rained, and all the mountain streams came down in torrents and still further swelled the turbid creek. One night, about halfway through their stay, the creek came out of its banks and flooded the surrounding land. All tents, huts, and shelters of boughs for a hundred feet each side acquired a liquid flooring. There arose an outcry on the midnight air. Wet and cursing, half naked and all a-s.h.i.+ver, men disentangled themselves from their soaked blankets, s.n.a.t.c.hed up clothing and accoutrements, and splashed through a foot of icy water to slightly dryer quarters on the rising ground.

Snow, rain, freeze, thaw, impatience, listlessness, rabid conjecture, apathetic acquiescence, quarrels, makeups, discomfort, ennui, a deal of swearing (carefully suppressed around headquarters), drill whenever practicable, two Sunday services and one prayer meeting!--the last week of April 1862 in Elk Run Valley was one to be forgotten without a pang.

There was an old barn which the artillery had seized upon, that leaked like a sieve, and there was a deserted tannery that still filled the air with an evil odour, and there was change of pickets, and there were rain-sodden couriers to be observed coming and going (never anything to be gotten out of them), and there were the mountains hung with grey clouds. The wood was always wet and would not burn. Coffee was so low that it was served only every other day, besides being half chicory, and the commissary had been cheated into getting a lot of poor tobacco. The guardhouse accommodated more men than usual. A squad of Ashby's brought in five deserters, all found on the backward road to the Valley. One said that he was sick and that his mother had always nursed him; another that he was only going to see that the Yankees hadn't touched the farm, and meant to come right back; another that the war was over, anyhow; another that he had had a bad dream and couldn't rest until he saw that his wife was alive; the fifth that he was tired of living; and the sixth said nothing at all. Jackson had the six put in irons, and it was thought that after the court martial they would be shot.

On the twenty-ninth Ashby, from the other side of the Shenandoah, made a demonstration in force against the enemy at Harrisonburg, and the next day, encountering the Federal cavalry, drove them back to the town. That same afternoon the Army of the Valley, quitting without regret Elk Run Valley, found itself travelling an apparently bottomless road that wound along the base of the mountains.

”For the Lord's sake, where are we going now?”

”This is the worst road to Port Republic.”

”Why are we going to Port Republic?”

”Boys, I don't know. Anyway, we ain't going through the Gap. We're still in the Valley.”

”By gosh, I've heard the captain give some mighty good guesses! I'm going to ask him.--Captain, what d' ye reckon we camped ten days in that mud hole for?”

Hairston Breckinridge gave the question consideration. ”Well, Tom, maybe there were reasons, after all. General Ewell, for instance--he could have joined us there any minute. They say he's going to take our place at Elk Run to-night!”

”That so? Wish him joy of the mud hole!”

”And we could have been quickly reinforced from Richmond. General Banks would know all that, and 't would make him even less eager than he seems to be to leave the beaten way and come east himself. n.o.body wants _him_, you know, on the other side of the Blue Ridge.”

”That's so--”

”And for all he knew, if he moved north and west to join Fremont we might pile out and strike Milroy, and if he went south and west to meet Milroy he might hear of something happening to Fremont.”

”That's so--”

”And if he moved south on Staunton he might find himself caught like a scalybark in a nut cracker--Edward Johnson on one side and the Army of the Valley on the other.”

”That's so--”

”The other day I asked Major Cleave if General Jackson never amused himself in any way--never played any game, chess for instance. He said, 'Not at all--which was lucky for the other chess player.'”

”Well, he ought to know, for he's a mighty good chess player himself.

And you think--”

”I think General Banks has had to stay where he is.”

”And where are we going now--besides Port Republic?”

”I haven't any idea. But I'm willing to bet that we're going somewhere.”

The dirt roads, after the incessant rains, were mud, mud, mud!