Part 6 (1/2)

ON GENERAL SULLY'S STAFF

At last, early in March, the long uncertainty respecting the next season's campaign against the Sioux, and the rumors which had circulated about it all through the Winter, were terminated by the arrival in St.

Louis of General Alfred Sully, who, so the papers announced, had come to begin the acc.u.mulation of supplies and to make other preparations for his impending campaign. Brigadier General Sully was the commander of the District of Iowa, with headquarters at Davenport, in that State; but he had come to St. Louis directly from Milwaukee. There he had spent several days in consultation with General Sibley and Major General John Pope, who was in command of the Department of the Northwest, embracing the Districts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, the latter under General Sibley.

General Sully very soon made his presence known at the commissary office in St. Louis by the requisitions for supplies which began to pour in from him. A few days later a young army officer, an _aide-de-camp_ on General Sully's staff, was sent down to the office by the General to check over the requisitions already made. Al was a.s.signed to a.s.sist him.

The aide, whose name was Lieutenant Dale, proved an agreeable youth, only a few years older than Al, and after their work was finished they fell into conversation. Al told him briefly of the disasters which had befallen his family in Minnesota, and then of the battle at Fort Ridgely.

”Why, you've seen enough fighting to be a veteran already,” exclaimed Lieutenant Dale, when Al had concluded his narrative. ”I'll tell you what you ought to do; you ought to go up into the Sioux country with us this summer. We're going to have some fun up there. And maybe you could get on the track of your brother.”

”That is just what I want to do,” answered Al, ”but I'm not old enough to enlist.”

”That makes no difference,” answered Dale. ”The General could arrange to take you in some capacity or other if he knows that you have a good reason for wanting to go and that you won't lose your nerve in a pinch.”

”Do you think he would?” asked Al, doubtfully.

”I think it's very probable. Go and ask him. He is very kind-hearted, if he is a strict disciplinarian and a hard fighter.”

”He's a hard fighter, is he?” asked Al, eagerly. ”You see, I don't know much about him.”

Lieutenant Dale looked at him pityingly. ”A hard fighter?” he replied.

”I should say he is! He fought against the Seminoles in Florida and the Rogue River Indians in Oregon and the Sioux in Minnesota and Nebraska and the Cheyennes in Kansas, all before the beginning of the Rebellion.

He won honors at Fair Oaks and Chancellorsville; and then, when the Indian trouble in the Northwest came, they sent him up into Dakota to fight the Sioux again, last Summer. That was the first that I was with him, and we certainly had our share of marching, going up the Missouri Valley, and our share of fighting at White Stone Hill, where we swung away from the Missouri and struck the redskins out on the prairie nearly over to the James River. They had been following up General Sibley, never suspecting that we would come from the other direction and fall on their rear. But we'll punish them worse this year, for we shall have a much larger force; and the General intends to follow them until they are either forced to make peace or are broken up and scattered all over the country. And he can scatter them; what he doesn't know about Indian fighting isn't worth knowing.”

”I'm sure it will be a campaign well worth taking part in,” replied Al.

”I ought to go, and I hope I can.”

”I will speak to the General about you and the reason you have for wanting to accompany us,” Lieutenant Dale said. ”Then you come and see him yourself to-morrow or as soon after as you can.”

Al did not delay the visit. That evening he talked with his mother and uncle about it and, though the former was naturally reluctant to have him go where she felt he would be in danger, she had also come to realize that the arrangement afforded the best chance of recovering her lost son, Tommy. Mr. Colton, after Al had told him of his conversation with young Lieutenant Dale, concluded that it would be as well for Al to interview General Sully alone.

”I do not know the General,” said he, ”and I could influence him but little; while, if you go by yourself, it will indicate more self-reliance on your part. I know, of course, that you have plenty of it, but a stranger naturally would not until he had become acquainted with you, and it is always well to make a good first impression. I think you were fortunate in meeting this Lieutenant Dale. He will probably speak favorably of you to General Sully, and that will help your case.”

Accordingly the next afternoon when his work for the day was finished, Al hurried off to the place where General Sully was making his headquarters while in the city. He found little evidence of pomp or ceremony about these headquarters. An orderly was in the outer room, to whom Al told his name and errand. The soldier replied that the General was alone, writing letters; and then, stepping to the door of an adjoining room, he announced Al by name.

”Bring him in,” Al heard a deep but pleasant voice answer, and the next moment he found himself standing, with a somewhat fluttered pulse, in the presence of General Sully. The latter rose as he entered and extended his hand.

”I have been expecting you, young man,” said he, smiling. ”Lieutenant Dale told me of you last evening, and I had also heard of you before from General Sibley. I was on the watch for your brother all last Summer but I couldn't get hold of him. Have a chair,” he went on, resuming his own seat and motioning Al to another one. ”Now, what can I do for you?”

As clearly and briefly as possible Al related his reasons for thinking that he ought to go into the Indian country to a.s.sist in the search for his brother, finis.h.i.+ng with the request that he might be taken along in some capacity and adding that he would try to make himself useful. As he talked, he was conscious that the General was studying him critically through the pair of deep-set eyes which, though penetrating, were not forbidding. When he had concluded, the General did not reply at once.

Instead, he remarked, after a pause,

”General Sibley told me he understood that your father was one of Doniphan's men. Is that correct?”

Unconsciously Al's shoulders straightened a little.