Part 35 (1/2)
The wildest rumors flew from parched tongue to throbbing ear.
An army of a hundred thousand fresh troops had fallen on their tired, b.l.o.o.d.y ranks. They were led by Jeb Stuart at the head of four thousand Black Horse Cavalry. If a single man escaped alive it would be for one reason, only they could outrun them. It was a crime for officers to try to round them up for a ma.s.sacre. That's all it was--a ma.s.sacre! With each mad thought of the rus.h.i.+ng mob the panic grew. They cut the traces of horses from guns and left them on the field. The frantic mob engulfed the buggies and carriages of the Congressmen and picnickers from Was.h.i.+ngton who had come out to see the Rebellion put down at a single blow. The road became a ma.s.s of neighing, plunging horses, broken and tangled wagons, ambulances and riderless artillery teams. Horses neighed in terror more abject than that which filled the hearts of men. Men once had reason--the poor horse had never claimed it. The blockades on the road formed no barrier to the flying men on foot. They streamed around and overflowed into the woods and fields and pressed on with new terror. G.o.d in Heaven! They pitied the poor fools engulfed in those ma.s.ses of maddened plunging brutes and smas.h.i.+ng wagons. It was only a question of a few minutes when Stuart's sabres would split every skull.
John Vaughan was swept to the rear on the crest of this wave of terror.
Up to the moment it began he had scarcely thought of danger. After the first few minutes of nerve tension under fire his spirit had risen as the combat raged and deepened. It didn't seem real, the falling of men around him. He had no time to realize that they were being torn to pieces by shot and sh.e.l.l and the hail of lead that whistled from those long sheets of flaming smoke-banks before him.
And then the panic had seized him. He had caught its mad unreasoning terror from the men who surged about him. And it was every man for himself. The change was swift, abject, complete from utter unconsciousness of fear to the blindest terror. Some ran mechanically, with their eyes set in front as if stiff with fear, expecting each moment to be struck dead, knowing it was useless to try but going on and on because involuntary muscles were carrying them.
A fat man caught hold of John's coat and held on for half a mile before he could shake him off. He begged piteously for help.
”Don't leave me, partner!” he panted. ”I'm a sinful man. I ain't fit to die. You're young and strong--save me!”
The dead weight was pulling him down and John shook the fellow off with an angry jerk.
”To h.e.l.l with you!”
They suddenly came to a lot of horses hid in the woods, rearing and plunging and neighing madly.
John swerved out of their way and an officer rushed up to him crying:
”Why don't you take a horse?”
He looked at him in a dazed way before he could realize his meaning.
”Take a horse!” he yelled. ”The rebels will get 'em if you don't----”
The men were too intent on running to try to save horses. Horses would have to look out for themselves.
It suddenly occurred to John that a horse might go faster. Funny he hadn't thought of it at once. He turned, seized one, mounted, and galloped on. There was a quick halt. A panting mob came surging back over the way they had just fled. A ford in front had been blocked, and in the scramble the cry was raised that Stuart's cavalry were on them and cutting every soul down in his tracks at the crossing.
John leaped from his horse, turned, and ran straight for the woods. He didn't propose to be captured by Stuart's cavalry, that was sure. He turned to look back and ran into a tree. He climbed it. If he could only get to the top before they saw him. He had been an expert climber when a boy in Missouri and he thanked G.o.d now for this. He never paused for breath until he had reached the very top, where he drew the swaying branches close about his body to hide from the coming foe. The sun was yet hanging over the trees in the woods--a ball of sullen red fire lighting up the hiding place of the last poor devil for the eyes of the avenging hosts who were sweeping on. If it were night it would be all right. But this was no place for a man with an ounce of sense in broad daylight. The sharpshooters would see him in that tall tree sure. They couldn't take him prisoner up there--they would shoot him like a squirrel just to see him tumble and, by the Lord Harry, they would do it, too!
He got down from the tree faster than he climbed up and from the edge of the woods spied a dense swamp. He never stopped until he reached the centre of it, and dropped flat on his stomach.
”Thank G.o.d, at last!” he sighed.
The Northern army fleeing for Was.h.i.+ngton had left on the field twenty-eight guns, four thousand muskets, nine regimental flags, four hundred and eighty-one dead, a thousand and eleven wounded and fourteen hundred captured. The road to the rear was literally sown with pistols, knapsacks, blankets, haversacks, wagons, tools and hospital stores.
And saddest of all the wreck, lay the bright new handcuffs with coils of hang-man's rope scattered everywhere.
The Southern army had lost three hundred and eighty-seven killed, including two brigadier generals, Bee and Barton, and fifteen hundred wounded. They were so completely scattered and demoralized by their marvellous and overwhelming victory that any systematic pursuit of their foe was impossible.
The strange silent figure on the little sorrel horse turned his blue eyes toward Was.h.i.+ngton from the last hilltop as darkness fell, lifted his head suddenly toward the sky, and cried:
”Ten thousand fresh troops and I'd be in Was.h.i.+ngton to-morrow night!”
The troops were not to be had, and Stonewall Jackson ordered his men to bivouac for the night and sent out his details to bury the dead and care for the wounded of both armies.