Part 34 (1/2)
Harry thanked him, saluted, and rode over the hill, where he found the two colonels, St. Clair and Langdon riding at the head of their men. The youths greeted him with a happy shout and the colonels welcomed him in a manner less noisy but as sincere.
”The sight of you, Harry, is good for any kind of eyes,” said Colonel Talbot. ”But what has brought you here?”
”An order from General Lee to General Ewell.”
”Then it must be of some significance.”
”It is, sir, and since it will be no secret in a few minutes, I can tell you that this whole corps is going to Winchester to take Milroy. I wish I could go with you, Colonel, but I can't.”
”You were at Brandy Station, and we weren't,” said St. Clair quietly. ”It's our turn now.”
”Right you are, Arthur,” said Langdon. ”I mean to take this man Milroy with my own hands. I remember that he gave us trouble in Jackson's time. He's been licked once. What right has he to come back into the Valley?”
”He's there,” said Harry, ”and they say that he's riding it hard with ironshod hoofs.”
”He won't be doing it by the time we see you again,” said St. Clair confidently as they rode away.
Harry did not see them again for several days, but when Ewell's division rejoined the main army, all that St. Clair predicted had come to pa.s.s. St. Clair himself, with his left arm in a sling, where it was to remain for a week, gave him a brief and graphic account of it.
”All the soldiers in the army that he had once led knew how Old Jack loved that town,” he said, ”and they were on fire to drive the Yankees away from it once more. We marched fast. We were the foot cavalry, just as we used to be; and, do you know, that Cajun band was along with our brigade, as lively as ever. The Yankees had heard of our coming, but late. They had already built forts around Winchester, but they didn't dream until the last moment that a big force from Lee's army was at hand. Their biggest fort was on Applepie Ridge, some little distance from Winchester. We came up late in the afternoon and had to rest a while, as it was awful hot. Then we opened, with General Ewell himself in direct command there. Old Jube Early had gone around to attack their other works, and we were waiting to hear the roaring of his guns.
”We gave it to 'em hot and heavy. General Ewell was on foot-that is, one foot and a crutch-and you ought to have seen him hopping about among the falling cannon b.a.l.l.s, watching and ordering everything. Sunset was at hand, with Milroy fighting us back and not dreaming that Early was coming on his flank. Then we heard Early's thunder. In a few minutes his men stormed the fort on the hill next to him and turned its guns upon Milroy himself.
”It was now too dark to go much further with the fighting, and we waited until the next morning to finish the business. But Milroy was a slippery fellow. He slid out in the night somehow with his men, and was five miles away before we knew he had gone. But we followed hard, overtook him, captured four thousand men and twenty-three cannon and scattered the rest in every direction. Wasn't that a thorough job?”
”Stonewall Jackson would never have let them escape through his cordon and get a start of five miles.”
”That's so, Harry, Old Jack would never have allowed it. But then, Harry, we've got to remember that there's been only one Stonewall Jackson, and there's no more to come.”
”You're telling the whole truth, St. Clair, and if General Ewell did let 'em get away, he caught 'em again. It was a brilliant deed, and it's cleared the Valley of the enemy.”
”Our scouts have reported that some of the fugitives have reached Pennsylvania, spreading the alarm there. I suppose they'll be gathering troops in our front now. What's the news from Hooker, Harry?”
”He's moving northwest to head us off, but I don't think he has any clear idea where we're going.”
”Where are we going, Harry?”
”It's more than I can tell. Maybe we're aiming for Philadelphia.”
”Then there'll be a big stir among the Quakers,” said Happy Tom.
”It doesn't matter, young gentlemen, where we're going,” said Colonel Talbot, who heard the last words. ”It's our business to be led, and we know that we're in the hands of a great leader. And we know, too, that whatever dangers he leads us into, he'll share them to the full. Am I not right, Hector?”
”You speak the full truth, Leonidas.”
”Aye, aye, sir,” said Harry. ”It's sufficient for us to follow where General Lee leads.”
”But we need a great victory,” said Colonel Talbot. ”We've had news from the southwest. The enemy has penetrated too far there. That fellow Grant is a perfect bulldog. They say he actually means to take our fortress of Vicksburg. He always hangs on, and that's bad for us. If we win this war, we've got to win it with some great stroke here in the east.”
”You speak with your usual penetration and clearness, Leonidas,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire, and then the two rode on, side by side, firm, quiet figures.