Part 92 (1/2)
”Sir, I do not know.”
”The officer to whom I gave the order, and who, wrongly enough, transferred it to another messenger, swears that he gave it thus and so.”
”Yes, general. He swears it.”
A silence reigned in the fire-lit ring. The red light showed form and feature clearly. Jackson sitting on the log, his large hands resting on the sabre across his knees, was full within the glow. It beat even more strongly upon Cleave where he stood. ”You believe,” said Jackson, ”that he swore falsely?”
”Yes, general.”
”It is a question between your veracity and his?”
”Yes, general.”
”There was enmity between you?”
”Yes, general.”
”Where is he now?”
”He is somewhere in prison. He was taken at Sharpsburg.”
There fell another silence. The sentry's tread was heard, the crackle of the fire seizing upon pine cone and bough, a low, sighing wind in the wilderness. Jackson spoke briefly. ”After this campaign, if matters so arrange themselves, if the officer returns, if you think you can provide new evidence or re-present the old, I will forward, approved, your appeal for a court of inquiry.”
”I thank you, sir, with all my heart.”
Stonewall Jackson slightly changed his position on the log. Jim tiptoed into the ring and fed again the fire. There was a whinnying of some near-by battery horses, the sound of changing guard, then silence again in the Wilderness. Cleave stood, straight and still, beneath the other's pondering, long, and steady gaze. An aide appeared at an opening in the scrub. ”General Fitzhugh Lee, sir.” Jackson rose. ”You will return to your battery, Deaderick.--Bring General Lee here, captain.”
The night pa.s.sed, the dawn came, red bird and wren and robin began a cheeping in the Wilderness. A light mist was over the face of the earth; within it began a vast shadowy movement of shadowy troops. Silence was so strictly ordered that something approaching it was obtained. There was a certain eeriness in the hush in which the column was formed--the grey column in the grey dawn, in the Wilderness where the birds were cheeping, and the mist hung faint and cold. By the roadside, on a little knoll set round with flowering dogwood, sat General Lee on grey Traveller. A swirl of mist below the two detached them from the wide earth and marching troops, made them like a piece of sculpture seen against the morning sky. Below them moved the column, noiseless as might be, enwound with mist. In the van were Fitzhugh Lee and the First Virginia Cavalry. They saluted; the commander-in-chief lifted his hat; they vanished by the Furnace road into the heart of the Wilderness.
Rodes's Division came next, Alabama troops. Rodes, a tall and handsome man, saluted; Alabama saluted. Regiment by regiment they pa.s.sed into the flowering woods. Now came the Light Division beneath skies with a coral tinge. Ambrose Powell Hill saluted, and all his brigades, Virginia and South Carolina. The guns began to pa.s.s, quiet as was const.i.tutionally possible. The very battery horses looked as though they understood that people who were going to turn the flank of a gigantic army in a strong position proceed upon the business without noise. Up rose the sun while the iron fighting men were yet going by. The level rays gilded all metal, gilded Traveller's bit and bridle clasps, gilded the spur of Lee and his sword hilt and the stars upon his collar. The sun began to drink up the mist and all the birds sang loudly. The sky was cloudless, the low thick woodland divinely cool and sweet. Violet and bloodroot, dogwood and purple Judas tree were all bespangled, bespangled with dew.
While the guns were yet quietly rumbling by Stonewall Jackson appeared upon the rising ground. He saluted. Lee put out his hand and clasped the other's. ”General, I feel every confidence! I am sure that you are going forth to victory.”
”Yes, sir. I think that I am.--I will send a courier back every half hour.”
”Yes, that is wise.--As soon as your wagons are by I will make disposition of the twelve thousand left with me. I propose a certain display of artillery and a line of battle so formed as to deceive--and deceive greatly--as to its strength. If necessary we will skirmish hotly throughout the day. I will create the impression that we are about to a.s.sault. It is imperative that they do not come between us and cut the army in two.”
”I will march as rapidly as may be, sir. The Furnace road, the Brock road, then turn eastward on the Plank road and strike their flank.
Good!” He jerked his hand into the air. ”I will go now, general.”
Lee bent across again. The two clasped hands. ”G.o.d be with you, General Jackson!”
”And with you, General Lee.”
Little Sorrel left the hillock. The staff came up. Stonewall Jackson turned in his saddle, and, the staff following his action, raised his hand in salute to the figure on grey Traveller, above them in the sunlight. Lee lifted his hat, held it so. The others filed by, turned sharply southward, and were lost in the jewelled Wilderness.
The sun cleared the tallest pines; there set in a splendid day. The long, long column, cavalry, Rodes's Division, the Light Division, the artillery, ordnance wagons and ambulances, twenty-five thousand grey soldiers with Stonewall Jackson at their head--the long, long column wound through the Wilderness by narrow, hidden roads. Close came the scrub and pine and all the flowering trees of May. The hors.e.m.e.n put aside vine and bough, the pink honeysuckle brushed the gun wheels; long stretches of the road were gra.s.s-grown. Through the woods to the right, by paths nearer yet to the far-flung Federal front, paced ten guardian squadrons. All went silently, all went swiftly. In the Confederate service there were no automata. These thousands of lithe, bronzed, bright-eyed, tattered men knew that something, something, something was being done! Something important that they must all help Old Jack with. Forbidden to talk, they speculated inwardly. ”South by west. 'T isn't a Thoroughfare Gap march. They're all here in the Wilderness. We're leaving their centre--their right's somewhere over there in the brush. Shouldn't wonder--Allan Gold, what's the Latin for 'to flank'?--Lieutenant, we were just whispering! Yes, sir.--All right, sir. We won't make no more noise than so many wet cartridges!”
On they swung through the fairy forest, grey, steady, rapidly moving, the steel above their shoulders gleaming bright, the worn, shot-riddled colours like flowers amid the tender, all-enfolding green. The head of the column came to a dip in the Wilderness through which flowed a little creek. It was about nine o'clock in the morning. All the men looked to the right, for they could see the plateau of Hazel Grove and the great Federal intrenchments. ”If those fellows look right hard they can see us, too! Can't help it--march fast and get past.--Oh, that's what the officers think, too! _Double quick_!”
The column crossed the tiny vale. Beyond it the narrow road of bends and turns plunged due south. Now, General Birney, stationed on the high level of Hazel Grove, observed, though somewhat faintly, that movement.
He sent a courier to Hooker at Chancellorsville. ”Rebel column seen to pa.s.s across my front. All arms and wagon train. It has turned to the southward.”