Part 51 (1/2)
The nearest house flung open its doors. ”Bring him right in here--oh, poor soldier! Right here in the best room!--Run, Maria, and turn down the bed. Oh, poor boy! He looks like my Robert down at Richmond! This way--get a little blackberry wine, Betty, and the scissors and my roll of lint--”
Billy laid him on the bed in the best room. ”Thar now! You air all right. The doctor'll come just as soon as I can find him, 'n' then I'll get back to the boys--Wait--I didn't hear, I'll put my ear down. You couldn't lose all that blood and not be awful weak--”
”I'd be ashamed to report now!” whispered Coffin. ”Maybe I was wrong--”
”Sho!” said Billy. ”We're all wrong more or less. Here, darn you, drink your wine, and stop bothering!”
Across the Shenandoah Stonewall Jackson and the 37th Virginia came down from the heights with the impetuosity of a torrent. Behind them poured other grey troops. On the cliff heads Poague and Carpenter came into position and began with grape and canister. The blue Parrott, full before the bridge mouth, menacing the lane within, answered with a shriek of sh.e.l.ls. The 37th and Jackson left the road, plunged down the ragged slope of gra.s.s and vines, and came obliquely toward the dark tunnel. Jackson and Little Sorrel had slipped into their battle aspect.
You would have said that every auburn hair of the general's head and beard was a vital thing. His eyes glowed as though there were lamps behind, and his voice rose like a trumpet of promise and doom.
”Halt!--Aim at the gunners!--Fire! Fix bayonets! Charge!”
The 37th rushed in column through the bridge. The blue cavalry fired one volley. The unwounded among the blue artillerymen strove to plant a sh.e.l.l within the dusky lane. But most of the gunners were down, or the fuse was wrong. The grey torrent leaped out of the tunnel and upon the gun. They took it and turned it against the hors.e.m.e.n. The blue cavalry fled. On the bluff heads above the river three grey batteries came into action. The 37th Virginia began to sweep the streets of Port Republic.
The blue cavalry, leaving the guns, leaving prisoners they had taken and their wounded, turned alike from the upper end of the village and rode, pell-mell, for the South Fork. One and all they splashed through, not now in covering mist, but in hot suns.h.i.+ne, the 37th volleying at their heels and from the bluffs above the Shenandoah, Poague and Carpenter and Wooding strewing their path with grape and canister.
A mile or two in the deep woods they met s.h.i.+elds's infantry advance.
There followed a movement toward the town--futile enough, for as the vanguard approached, the Confederate batteries across the river limbered up, trotted or galloped to other positions on the green bluff heads, and trained the guns on the ground between Port Republic and the head of the Federal column. Winder's brigade came also and took position on the heights commanding Lewiston, and Taliaferro's swung across the bridge and formed upon the townward side of South Fork. s.h.i.+elds halted. All day he halted, listening to the guns at Cross Keys.
Sitting Little Sorrel at the northern end of the bridge, Stonewall Jackson watched Taliaferro's men break step and cross. A staff officer ventured to inquire what the general thought General s.h.i.+elds would do.
”I think, sir, that he will stay where he is.”
”All day, sir?”
”All day.”
”He has ten thousand men. Will he not try to attack?”
”No, sir! No! He cannot do it. I should tear him to pieces.”
A heavy sound came into being. The staff officer swung round on his horse. ”Listen, sir!”
”Yes. Artillery firing to the northwest. Fremont will act without s.h.i.+elds.”
A courier came at a gallop. ”General Ewell's compliments, sir, and the battle of Cross Keys is beginning.”
”Good! good! My compliments to General Ewell, and I expect him to win it.”
CHAPTER XXVII
JUDITH AND STAFFORD
The cortege bearing Ashby to his grave wound up and up to the pa.s.s in the Blue Ridge. At the top it halted. The ambulance rested beside a grey boulder, while the cavalry escort dismounted and let the horses crop the sweet mountain gra.s.s. Below them, to the east, rolled Piedmont Virginia; below them to the west lay the great Valley whence they had come. As they rested they heard the cannon of Cross Keys, and with a gla.s.s made out the battle smoke.
For an hour they gazed and listened, anxious and eager; then the hors.e.m.e.n remounted, the ambulance moved from the boulder, and all went slowly down the long loops of road. Down and down they wound, from the cool, blowing air of the heights into the warm June region of red roads, shady trees and clear streams, tall wheat and ripening cherries, old houses and gardens. They were moving toward the Virginia Central, toward Meechum's Station.
A courier had ridden far in advance. At Meechum's was a little crowd of country people. ”They're coming! That's an ambulance!--Is he in the ambulance? Everybody take off their hats. Is that his horse behind? Yes, it is a horse that he sometimes rode, but the three stallions were killed. How mournful they come! Albert Sidney Johnston is dead, and Old Joe may die, he is so badly hurt--and Bee is dead, and Ashby is dead.”
Three women got out of an old carryall. ”One of you men come help us lift the flowers! We were up at dawn and gathered all there were--”
The train from Staunton came in--box cars and a pa.s.senger coach. The coffin, made at Port Republic, was lifted from the ambulance, out of a bed of fading flowers. It was wrapped in the battle-flag. The crowd bowed its head. An old minister lifted trembling hand. ”G.o.d--this Thy servant! G.o.d--this Thy servant!” The three women brought their lilies, their great sprays of citron aloes. The coffin was placed in the aisle of the pa.s.senger coach, and four officers followed as its guard. The escort was slight. Never were there many men spared for these duties.