Part 3 (2/2)
Can anybody hear anything of Stilton?”
”Let him go,” roared Old Grumps. ”The infantry don't want any help.”
”Your regiment has suffered, Colonel,” answered Waldron, glancing at the scattered files of the Fourteenth. ”Halt it and reorganize it, and let it fall in with the right of the First when Peck comes up. I shall replace you with the Fifth. Send your Adjutant back to Colburn and tell him to hurry along. Those fellows are making a new front over there,”
he added, pointing to the centre of the hill. ”I want the Fifth, Seventh and Tenth in _echelon_ as quickly as possible. And I want that cavalry.
Lieutenant,” turning to one of his staff, ”ride off to the left and find Colonel Stilton. Tell him that I need a charge in ten minutes.”
Presently cannon opened from that part of the ridge still held by the Confederates, the sh.e.l.l tearing through or over the dissolving groups of their right wing, and cracking viciously above the heads of the victorious Unionists. The explosions followed each other with stunning rapidity, and the shrill whirring of the splinters was ominous. Men began to fall again in the ranks or to drop out of them wounded. Of all this Waldron took no further note than to ride hastily to the brow of the ridge and look for his own artillery.
”See how he attinds to iverything himself,” said Major Gahogan, who had cantered up to the side of Fitz Hugh. ”It's just a matther of plain business, an' he looks after it loike a business man. Did ye see us, though, Captin, whin we come in on their right flank? By George, we murthered urn. There's more'n a hundred lyin' in hapes back there. As for old Stilton, I just caught sight of um behind that wood to our left, an' he's makin' for the enemy's right rair. He'll have lots o' prisoners in half an hour.”
When Waldron returned to the group he was told of his cavalry's whereabouts, and responded to the information with a smile of satisfaction.
”Bradley is hurrying up,” he said, ”and Taylor is pus.h.i.+ng their left smartly. They will make one more tussle to recover their line of retreat; but we shall smash them from end to end and take every gun.”
He galloped now to his infantry, and gave the word ”Forward!” The three regiments which composed the _echelon_ were the Fifth on the right, the Seventh fifty yards to the rear and left of the Fifth, the Tenth to the rear and left of the Seventh. It was behind the Fifth, that is, the foremost battalion, that the brigade commander posted himself.
”Do _you_ mean to stay here, Colonel?” asked Fitz Hugh, in surprise and anxiety.
”It is a certain victory now,” answered Wal-dron, with a singular glance upward. ”My life is no longer important. I prefer to do my duty to the utmost in the sight of all men.”
”I shall follow you and do mine, sir,” said the Captain, much moved, he could scarcely say by what emotions, they were so many and conflicting.
”I want you otherwheres. Ride to Colonel Taylor at once, and hurry him up the hill. Tell him the enemy have greatly weakened their left. Tell him to push up everything, infantry, and cavalry, and artillery, and to do it in haste.”
”Colonel, this is saving my life against my will,” remonstrated Fitz Hugh.
”Go!” ordered Waldron, imperiously. ”Time is precious.”
Fitz Hugh dashed down the slope to the right at a gallop. The brigade commander turned tranquilly, and followed the march of his _echelon_.
The second and decisive crisis of the little battle was approaching, and to understand it we must glance at the ground on which it was to be fought. Two hostile lines were marching toward each other along the broad, gently rounded crest of the hill and at right angles to its general course. Between these lines, but much the nearest to the Union troops, a s.p.a.cious road came up out of the forest in front, crossed the ridge, swept down the smooth decline in rear, and led to a single wooden bridge over a narrow but deep rivulet. On either hand the road was hedged in by a close board fence, four feet or so in height. It was for the possession of this highway that the approaching lines were about to shed their blood. If the Confederates failed to win it all their artillery would be lost, and their army captured or dispersed.
The two parties came on without firing. The soldiers on both sides were veterans, cool, obedient to orders, intelligent through long service, and able to reserve all their resources for a short-range and final struggle. Moreover, the fences as yet partially hid them from each other, and would have rendered all aim for the present vague and uncertain.
”Forward, Fifth!” shouted Waldron. ”Steady. Reserve your fire.” Then, as the regiment came up to the fence, he added, ”Halt; right dress. Steady, men.”
Meantime he watched the advancing array with an eager gaze. It was a n.o.ble sight, full of moral sublimity, and worthy of all admiration. The long, lean, sunburned, weather-beaten soldiers, in ragged gray stepped forward, superbly, their ranks loose, but swift and firm, the men leaning forward in their haste, their tattered slouch hats pushed backward, their whole aspect business-like and virile. Their line was three battalions strong, far outflanking the Fifth, and at least equal to the entire _echelon_. When within thirty or forty yards of the further fence they increased their pace to nearly a double-quick, many of them stooping low in hunter fas.h.i.+on, and a few firing. Then Waldron rose in his stirrups and yelled, ”Battalion! ready--aim--aim low. Fire!”
There was a stunning roar of three hundred and fifty rifles, and a deadly screech of bullets. But the smoke rolled out, the haste to reload was intense, and none could mark what execution was done. Whatever the Confederates may have suffered, they bore up under the volley, and they came on. In another minute each of those fences, not more than twenty-five yards apart, was lined by the shattered fragment of a regiment, each firing as fast as possible into the face of the other.
The Fifth bled fearfully: it had five of its ten company commanders shot dead in three minutes; and its loss in other officers and in men fell scarcely short of this terrible ratio. On its left the Seventh and the Tenth were up, pouring in musketry, and receiving it in a fas.h.i.+on hardly less sanguinary. No one present had ever seen, or ever afterward saw, such another close and deadly contest.
But the strangest thing in this whole wonderful fight was the conduct of the brigade commander. Up and down the rear of the lacerated Fifth Waldron rode thrice, spurring his plunging and wounded horse close to the yelling and fighting file-closers, and shouting in a piercing voice encouragement to his men. Stranger still, considering the character which he had borne in the army, and considering the evil deed for which he was to account on the morrow, were the words which he was distinctly and repeatedly heard to utter. ”Stand steady, men--G.o.d is with us!” was the extraordinary battle-cry of this backslidden clergyman, this sinner above many.
And it was a prophecy of victory. Bradley ran up his Napoleons on the right in the nick of time, and, although only one of them could be brought to bear, it was enough; the grape raked the Confederate left, broke it, and the battle was over. In five minutes more their whole array was scattered, and the entire position open to galloping cavalry, seizing guns, standards, and prisoners.
It was in the very moment of triumph, just as the stubborn Southern line reeled back from the fence in isolated cl.u.s.ters, that the miraculous immunity of Waldron terminated, and he received his death wound. A quarter of an hour later Fitz Hugh found a sorrowful group of officers gazing from a little distance upon their dying commander.
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