THE IKON 
 BKIGADE 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 GENERAL 
 CHARLES 
 KENG X V 
 
 I 
 
 

NORMAN HOLT 
 
 BY GENERAL CHARLES KING 
 
 WHAT THE CRITICS SAY 
 
 " A pretty love story, like a silver thread, winds through the 
 story and brightens and lightens the dark scenes of battle. 
 Norman Holt is like a sea breeze it has the sweep and dash, 
 and is clean and wholesome." Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 " Written in the author s most spirited manner, and his descrip 
 tion of the battle of Mission Ridge is singularly vivid and 
 forceful." Philadelphia Press. 
 
 "It is a strong story, worthy of dramatization; but one fears 
 lest it fall into incompetent hands, and so loose the strong high 
 lights, the deep background, the soft mezzotints which the author 
 has so deftly interwoven." Indianapolis Journal. 
 
 " It is a swift and thrilling story of action." San Francisco 
 Call. 
 
 " One meets in these pages real human beings. There is not 
 in the whole book a dull chapter." Omaha Bee. 
 
 "The story is among the best General King has produced." 
 New York Times. 
 
 "The book is rich in romance, thrilling in situation, and so 
 intense in its recital that the reader is literally hypnotized with 
 interest from the very first lines. It is General King s strongest 
 work." New York Press. 
 
 "None of his past novels, which won him his reputation as 
 one of the notably vivid fiction writers of the country, is more 
 dramatic in plot and stirring in action than Norman Holt. " 
 San Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 Beautifully Bound in Cloth, Illustrated, $1.25 
 
 G. W. DILLINGHAM CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 A Story of the Army of 
 the Potomac 
 
 BY 
 
 General CHARLES KING 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 NORMAN HOLT," " THE COLONEL S DAUGHTER," 
 "FORT FRAYNE," ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. F. 
 
 G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY 
 G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY 
 
 The Iron Brigade. Issued September, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. DAMON AND PYTHIAS 
 
 II. A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 23 
 
 III. THE FIRST UNIFORM . ,... 38 
 IV. WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS .... .50 
 
 V. A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 60 
 
 VI. A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 72 
 
 VII. A WOMAN S DARING 83 
 
 VIII. A BADGER IN THE TOILS . . . . . .96 
 
 IX. ESCAPE POSSIBLE . .108 
 
 X. LIBBY OR LIBERTY 122 
 
 XI. QUEEN ROSALIE 136 
 
 XII. IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE 150 
 
 912901 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIII. RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN ... . . . .164 
 
 XIV. THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE . . .174 
 XV. LINCOLN S DILEMMA . .... . 187 
 
 XVI. " STONEWALL " IN AMBUSH . . . . .202 
 
 XVII. How THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME . .: . 220 
 XVIII. THE HEART OF LINCOLN. . . . . . 232 
 
 XIX. KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS .... 242 
 
 XX. A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE ..... 256 
 
 XXI. BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN . " . . . 269 
 
 XXII. "CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" . . 282 
 
 XXIII. GETTYSBURG . . . . . . . 295 
 
 XXIV. THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 306 
 
 XXV. LADUE S LAST RETREAT 320 
 
 XXVI. WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 335 
 
 XXVII. LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 344 
 
 XXVIII. SURRENDER 355 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "IT is I ABRAHAM LINCOLN" . . . (Frontispiece) 240 
 
 IN FRONT OF HIM STOOD THE OLD VIRGINIA HOMESTEAD . 67 
 
 THE RIFLE-BUTTS LEAP TO THE SHOULDERS . . . . 222 
 
 BENTON THRUST His LEFT ARM UNDER THE FALLEN HEAD 333 
 
THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DAMON AND PYTHIAS 
 
 They were paddling idly down the stream two 
 young men and a girl. She lay luxuriously back upon 
 the cushions in the stern sheets, the tiller ropes hang 
 ing loosely from her slender white hands, her soft blue 
 eyes fixed tenderly upon the fine face of the oarsman 
 nearest her a youth whose lithe, agile form swayed 
 slowly to and fro in harmony with the swing of the long, 
 light sculls. The wooded shores, the rural beauty of 
 the scene, passed unnoticed. Something of absorbing 
 interest kept " all eyes in the boat." Stroke and bow 
 were in animated if not actually heated discussion, 
 and the dark brown eyes that earlier in the afternoon 
 seemed ever seeking those of liquid blue before him, 
 were now turned, sometimes to port, sometimes to 
 starboard, sometimes over the squared shoulders, 
 flashing on the man in front a young athlete with 
 eyes as blue and hair and skin well-nigh as fair as those 
 of the girl at the helm. He of the stroke sculls, on the 
 contrary, was tawny, almost, as a son of the tropics. 
 
10 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 His head was crowned by a wealth of dark brown curls, 
 tumbling low /and iu-xiitint about his neck and brow 
 and temples, . The .l&sjies of his deep, dark eyes were 
 long, tftfck and : be auUfufly V^ir-ved. The shape of his 
 face, in its perfect oval, had all the delicate beauty of 
 a woman s. The mouth, lips, teeth and chin were al 
 most perfect, and among the four score young fellows 
 prominent in society of the Western metropolis, there 
 was not one to deny to Paul Ladue the palm for physi 
 cal, or at least facial, charm. Ever since his coming 
 among them four years before there was hardly a girl 
 in all their circle in the bustling city that had not de 
 clared him " simply lovely." 
 
 Refined, delicate, even effeminate was his face one 
 to delight a painter. What it lacked was strength and 
 will. A physiognomist would have turned from it speed 
 ily to study the strong, virile features, the square jaw, 
 the firm set lips of the stalwart fellow at his back. It 
 required no unusual power of divination to tell that he 
 and the silent girl were brother and sister, and that 
 between them sat, despite the heat of argument, a be 
 loved and cherished friend. 
 
 " You ll never do it, even if you muster in every man 
 north of the Ohio, Fred," said he of the dark, flashing 
 eyes. " Our people will fight to the last man and then 
 the women and children will take it up." 
 
 Fred Benton shook his head in dissent a sad smile 
 on his face. For a moment he ceased rowing and bent 
 earnestly forward: 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 11 
 
 " You at least can have no sympathy with the South, 
 after the wrong done your father, Paul, and I m blessed 
 if I can understand your taking up the cudgels for Ala 
 bama as you do." 
 
 The color deepened in Ladue s face. For a moment 
 he made no reply, but the light shallop seemed to bound 
 forward, spurning the foam from her sharp, white bow, 
 under the impetus of the supple strength he suddenly 
 threw into the sculls. Benton had scored a hit " a 
 palpable hit." The eyes of the fair, slender girl suddenly 
 brimmed with tears. There was something of reproach 
 in the glance she threw at her stalwart brother. Well 
 as the story was known, people rarely spoke of it to the 
 Ladues. Four years old though it was, it still cut deep, 
 and no one of their little household could refer to it 
 without manifest emotion. 
 
 It was some time in 57 that the editor of a leading 
 journal received a letter commending to him one Fran 
 cis Ladue, who purposed settling in the city and going 
 into business there. Presently Ladue came and with him 
 his little family a fragile, sad-faced wife, a slender, big- 
 eyed boy of sixteen, and two young children. Presently, 
 too, marked copies of Southern papers were received, 
 and little by little their story was told to an indignant 
 and sympathetic community. Natives of the South and 
 residents for years of a beautiful old Southern metropo 
 lis, they had been banished from the home of their love, 
 driven from State to State, forbidden ever to return, 
 and compelled finally to seek refuge among strangers in 
 
12 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 the cold and distant North, and the head and front of 
 their offending had been that Ladue, senior, owner of 
 the finest bookstore on the Gulf coast, stood charged 
 with having sold to an old customer one copy of " Uncle 
 Tom s Cabin," and when the store was searched by 
 wrathful, slave-holding fellow citizens, three more copies 
 were found on a far back shelf, " secreted," said the 
 committee, " under a stack of bound volumes." No 
 law had been violated. The book was poison a blow 
 at their " peculiar institution," and that was enough. 
 The business it had taken Ladue nearly a quarter of a 
 century to build up was ruined in a day. 
 
 Nor could the sympathy and cordial welcome of his 
 new fellow citizens begin to compensate for the loss. 
 Ladue was shy and reserved, his wife a semi-invalid and 
 Paul a sensitive plant. The lad was sent to the best 
 school where, so soon as his story was known, the other 
 youngsters gradually ceased from troubling, and sought 
 in crude, clumsy, boyish fashion to give him comfort. It 
 was long before he seemed to thaw out at all, but Fred 
 Benton, a near neighbor when they passed into the high 
 school, was the youth he finally tied to, and then this 
 strangely assorted pair joined forces, apparently, for 
 good and all. Damon and Pythias they called them; 
 for, after the first six months of shyness on Ladue s 
 part, they became inseparable. One was rarely seen 
 without the other, yet were they utterly unlike. High 
 school finished, Ladue was needed as assistant in his 
 father s growing business. Benton had begun th* ^tudy 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 13 
 
 of law in the office of the famous old firm of which his 
 father was the head. But before either had cast his 
 first vote the long-heralded conflict between the North 
 and South the slaveholders rebellion, so-called had 
 burst upon the startled land. Sumter had fallen. The 
 President had called, first for seventy-five thousand men 
 to defend the Capital, then for five hundred thousand 
 volunteers to prosecute the war. 
 
 For a moment there came no answer to Benton s 
 tentative. Heightened color, compressed lips and a 
 quick glance at the flushing face of the girl before him 
 told, however, that Ladue was deeply moved. They 
 were nearing the little boathouse now, and Benton in 
 turn, bending to his sculls, sent their light craft shooting 
 through the mirrorlike waters. Already he repented 
 him of his words, yet there was something he longed to 
 know. For upwards of three years there had been no 
 secret between him and his chosen friend. Then came 
 the election of Abraham Lincoln, then the secession of 
 State after State, then the inauguration of our great 
 Westerner as President, then Sumter and the call to 
 arms. And now Paul Ladue, who had hitherto held no 
 communication with his native State, was writing fre 
 quent letters thither and feverishly, furtively, perhaps, 
 awaiting reply. What did it portend? 
 
 A wave of patriotic fervor had swept over the West. 
 On every hand men were quitting the desk, the plough 
 or the tools of their trade, and flocking to the recruiting 
 offices. Benton s name had been sent to the Governor 
 
14 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 for a commission in one of the new regiments. Mass 
 meetings were being held almost every night, and ener 
 getic citizens were passing subscription papers from 
 desk to desk that a fund might be raised for the benefit 
 of the families of the rapidly enlisting husbands and 
 fathers. One of these papers was brought to Ladue, 
 senior. He colored, coughed, looked embarrassed, took 
 out his check-book, thought a moment, returned it, and 
 then going to his cash drawer found some twenty dol 
 lars in currency and gave it to the collector. " No," 
 said he, when asked to write his name, " I prefer follow 
 ing the precepts of the Scriptures let not my left hand 
 know what my right hand is doing/ The committee 
 looked queer when they heard the story. " He is will 
 ing to give, but dreads its being known," said the 
 mayor. " His heart is still with the South." 
 
 Yet Ladue gave again and gave gladly. " How could 
 I do otherwise? " said he. " You and these kind people 
 bade me welcome when life was at its blackest. I am 
 a Southerner. I cannot fight against mine own people 
 no matter what they did to me. I cannot support them, 
 however, in their revolt against the Government which 
 shields and protects me. I will not refuse to contribute 
 toward the support of the wives and children of those 
 who so kindly welcomed my wife and children. I and 
 mine are grateful." 
 
 "But what is Paul going to do?" was the question 
 that startled him, one fair May morning. " He would 
 not enlist with the boys here and he s writing letter 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 15 
 
 after letter to somebody there. It isn t possible he 
 would fight for the people who broke his father s heart." 
 
 It had never occurred to Ladue. It was high time he 
 interposed. Paul was barely twenty, and, therefore, still 
 subject to his father s will. It was a soft, warm even 
 ing at the very verge of June as the trio came silently 
 back from their up-river row Paul and Elinor side by 
 side, Fred, scull-laden, some distance in rear. They 
 looked up at the aging Southerner, seated on his narrow 
 porch, and smiled and nodded as they passed, but Fred 
 propped his sculls against the tree box, and after a lin 
 gering gaze at the two wandering slowly and sorrow 
 fully along the almost deserted street, let himself in at 
 the gate for a few minutes of earnest talk. It was in 
 deed time somebody in authority sought to dissuade 
 the young man if it should prove that he were seek 
 ing service with the Alabama troops and, since Paul 
 could not be induced to talk, Fred determined to appeal 
 to the father. 
 
 Meantime the two young people had gone on toward 
 the Benton homestead. The soft twilight still lingered 
 over roof and spire. The bells in the cathedral tower 
 had just rung out the stroke of eight. Away down town, 
 somewhere, a military band was playing stirring march 
 music, and there came the sound of distant cheering, 
 for another mass meeting was being held in Market 
 Square and a gifted orator from Chicago was being pre 
 sented to the throng. Up here near the bluffs overlook 
 ing the great inland sea, all was still. The street lamps 
 
1 6 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 were only just being lighted. Some houses seemed to 
 show no lights at all, as though all the inmates had gone 
 to listen to the speaker of the evening. Elinor Benton 
 looked warily within as they reached the gate in front of 
 the quaint colonial house that had been her honje since 
 babyhood. Voices, in low-toned chat, floated out to her 
 from the broad veranda, and with hardly a shadow of 
 hesitation the girl turned and followed when her partner 
 said, " Let us go back to the bluff a little while." Be 
 fore she fully realized it she found herself leaning on 
 his arm and yet, no further word had been spoken. He 
 had simply possessed himself of her pretty, slender white 
 hand, passed it within his elbow and then clasped, or 
 rather clamped, it there. For a few minutes neither 
 seemed to care to speak. When they reached the edge 
 of the bluff Ladue flung open the shawl he was carry 
 ing, spread a double thickness on the sod and begged 
 her to sit. Silently she obeyed. Then he turned to 
 her and his voice trembled as he asked, 
 
 "You heard Fred s question?" 
 
 An almost inaudible " Yes," was the sole response. 
 
 " What do you think I ought to do?" he wistfully, 
 slowly asked. For a moment she could not reply. 
 When the words came for she was only seventeen, and 
 the position most trying her clear young voice had a 
 pathetic, tremulous undertone. 
 
 " How can / judge? Almost any one would say your 
 duty was here yet I know your heart is there." 
 And as she spoke the heart in her own pure youngbosom 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 17 
 
 was throbbing hard. For another little while there was 
 silence, broken only by the sound of distant cheering 
 from the center of the town by the rhythmical, sooth 
 ing plash of the wavelets on the pebbly beach beneath 
 them. Far in the eastern firmament the spangled sky 
 was bathed in silvery light, growing every moment more 
 brilliant, and now, at the edge of the placid waters a 
 glistening point appeared, spreading swiftly into a tiny 
 segment of liquid fire that rose with slow, majestic grace 
 at the dim horizon, gaining in bulk and brilliancy with 
 every second and sending toward them along the flaw 
 less sheen of the waters a long, radiant, tapering stream 
 of dazzling light, as, only just beyond her full, the sweet 
 May moon began her star circled flight to the zenith. 
 Then Elinor, uplifting her face, looked upon the clear- 
 cut features of the slender youth at her side and saw 
 that the dark eyes were filled with sadness and trouble 
 unspeakable, saw that the soft lips, just shaded by the 
 silken fringe of the boy mustache, were twitching and 
 trembling with uncontrollable emotion, and her young 
 heart brimmed over, as in sympathy and tenderness that 
 for the moment overmastered her, she impulsively bent 
 forward, and with slender, tapering fingers touched his 
 shoulder as though to turn him toward her, while with 
 almost a sob in her voice she murmured 
 
 " What is it, Paul? Tell me! " 
 
 And then the lad, throwing himself on his face, seized 
 in both his the trembling little hand that had braved the 
 shyness of maidenhood, the conventions of society, and 
 2 
 
18 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 bathed it in burning kisses and in scalding tears. " My 
 heart is not there ! " he sobbed. " You know well where 
 it is, but my duty ." Affrighted now, she sought to 
 draw away her hand, but he clung to it. " No, Nell, 
 no! " he cried. " It s the first time I ever dared! It s 
 the last time I ever may! I m going, Nell; I ve got to 
 go, but remember, my heart isn t there. It s here it s 
 here with you! " 
 
 And then on a sudden he sprang to his feet, dashed 
 away the tears and stood with head uplifted, like that of 
 a challenging stag, a picture of youthful grace and 
 beauty in the silvery light of the gleaming disk now 
 spurning the limpid waters, for voices, close at hand, 
 broke the silence of the summerlike evening. Some 
 one was climbing the pathway up the height. An in 
 stant of listening and Elinor, too, sprang to her feet, 
 and the sweet face that but a moment before was all 
 mantled with the blush of girlish joy and love, went 
 suddenly white as the dainty gown she wore, and her 
 eyes, as they turned on the youth by her side, filled 
 with alarm. 
 
 " If you know he s going to join the rebel army and 
 can prove it, why, that s enough," panted the first 
 speaker. "The trouble is to prove it. Otherwise 
 there s no law to hold him." 
 
 " Prove it! By heaven, Curtis, you make me swear! " 
 was the vehement answer. " If our postmaster would 
 only do his duty we could prove far more that he s in 
 the rebel service at this minute that he s here a spy 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 19 
 
 in our midst sending notes of all our preparations and 
 forces and numbers, and, just as Andre was hung on 
 the Hudson eighty years ago, so should that young 
 scoundrel hang here now. The laws of war the world 
 over will tell you so." 
 
 And then scrambling to the crest, full in the light of 
 the unclouded moon, the two climbers straightened up 
 and stood face to face with the man of whom they were 
 speaking, Elinor Benson clinging, trembling, yet in 
 speechless indignation at his side. 
 
 For a moment there was awkward silence. Paul 
 Ladue, with gleaming eyes stood squarely confronting 
 the foremost, a portly man of perhaps thirty years, who 
 was still breathing hard as the result of his climb. His 
 companion, tall and spare and a few years older, slowly 
 ranged himself alongside his friend and looked to him 
 to speak. The stout man stared for a few seconds at 
 the silent twain, partly to recover breath, partly to 
 recover wits. Finally he lamely said, " Oho! " 
 
 Then finding the steadfast gaze of Ladue s burning 
 brown eyes rather hard to bear, he turned to his com 
 panion. " Rather a coincidence, isn t it? " said he. 
 This remark, too, fell flat, for no response followed. It 
 became necessary to say something more to relieve the 
 situation, and obviously the gentleman knew not what 
 to say. If there lived in this Western community a 
 man Paul Ladue held in especial disfavor, it was George 
 McKinnon, junior partner in the firm of Benton, Gray 
 & McKinnon, attorneys and counselors at law, and it 
 
20 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 was George McKinnon who stood there in the flesh and 
 who, but a moment before, had denounced him as de 
 serving the fate of the spy. Ample reason had he to 
 hate McKinnon for, ever since Elinor s return the pre 
 vious autumn from a visit to relatives in the East, that 
 energetic practitioner had been a constant caller at the 
 Benton homestead, and despite the fact that Elinor had 
 not yet finished her school days, was persistent in atten 
 tions that showed to all society he had become infatu 
 ated with her radiant beauty that the man of thirty 
 eagerly sought the girl of seventeen as his wife. On 
 /he other hand, McKinnon had noted with jealousy un 
 speakable, that the frank, joyous, boy and girl friend 
 ship that had existed throughout the lad s school days 
 had given place to the half shy, half hesitant, yet 
 strangely sweet relationship of early love, pure yet pas 
 sionate. McKinnon was a keen student, a rising man 
 at the bar, a brilliant " jury " lawyer and just the one 
 needed to strengthen the somewhat slow and ponderous 
 combination of the old firm. Benton, a lawyer of the old 
 school, held his young partner in high esteem if not, in 
 deed, in a certain awe, due to the daring and successful 
 methods that had distinguished him ever since his call 
 to the bar. On the other hand, he was not too well 
 pleased with his son s choice of an intimate. Paul 
 Ladue was a dreamer, an idler, a poet perhaps a youth 
 to write sonnets and sing sentimental ballads (he did 
 play the guitar delightfully and was no mean performer 
 on the banjo) he was what the stern, hard-headed old 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 21 
 
 delver in facts and figures called " a lapdog sort of fel 
 low " just the last kind of intimate for a young man 
 starting in the law. It was his gentle, tender-hearted 
 wife who yearned over the sad-faced young exile and 
 made him welcome to their fireside. It was the squire s 
 love for her, the wife of his youth, that prompted him 
 to follow her lead and be kind and hospitable to Paul 
 Ladue, but he could hardly brook it either in Paul or 
 his aging, breaking father that they who had suffered 
 so much and so unjustly at the hands of the South, 
 should now seem to cling so tenaciously to all the ideals 
 and traditions of their earlier days and persist in calling 
 Alabama " home." Time and again he forcefully re 
 buked them both. Ladue, senior, would listen in sub 
 missive silence until challenged to reply, and then would 
 merely say, " I dare say you re right, sir, but they were 
 my people nearly three score years. My eldest son lies 
 buried there under the magnolias, and, sometimes I 
 think my heart is, too." Ladue, junior, would sit with 
 flushing cheek and downcast eyes and say nothing at 
 all. It was Fred who would take up the case for him 
 in vehement debate. It was Elinor who would look 
 volumes and who declared it good to see how faithful 
 a boy could be to all the old home ties and associations. 
 It was Mrs. Benton who had been his best and most 
 powerful advocate for two long years, and then, it is 
 hard to say which of the two lads more bitterly mourned 
 her, for, the year before our story opens, the gentle lady 
 had been borne to her last resting place. And now the 
 
22 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 war had come. The flag had been lowered in defeat 
 at Sumter. The men of Massachusetts had been mobbed 
 in the streets of Baltimore. The first levies in the far 
 West had clashed with the enemy in Missouri, and hos 
 tile armies were arrayed upon the sacred soil of Vir 
 ginia. Now when the young men of the Badger State 
 were flocking to the recruiting offices, and companies 
 and regiments were being filled to overflowing, when 
 Damon, brimming with patriotic zeal and energy, was 
 seeking a commission in the Union volunteers, Pythias, 
 Paul Ladue, was known to be writing frequently, doubt 
 less urgently, to his native State the State that had 
 banished and impoverished him, yet could not banish 
 from his soul the old time loyalty and love. It had 
 amazed and offended many of these, his Northern 
 friends who had welcomed and cheered him in the hour 
 of his adversity. It had scandalized one man who had 
 never shown him sympathy at all the man now stand 
 ing uneasily before him, unable to face the stern glitter 
 in his speaking eyes. It was finally Paul who spoke: 
 
 " You say the postmaster should do his duty, Mr. 
 McKinnon," said he, contempt and hot hatred in his 
 trembling voice. " By opening my letters, do you 
 mean? Somebody has been doing that already, and I 
 believe you know who ! " 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 
 
 June the first came in with the radiant sunshine blaz 
 ing on a wealth of bunting. From staff and spire, roof 
 and tower, window and balcony the stars and stripes 
 were flung to the breeze, and by thousands the citizens 
 had thronged the broad thoroughfares to give a parting 
 cheer to the second Badger regiment marching away to 
 the war. The dusk and the dew came settling down as 
 the tail lights of the last section of the troop train drew 
 slowly away along the sweeping curve to the south, and 
 then the dense throngs that had shouted themselves 
 hoarse as the big battalion rolled away, were easily 
 marshalled into an impromptu mass meeting. The 
 Governor and the Mayor were to speak, and brief ad 
 dresses, so said the handbills, might be expected from 
 such brilliant orators as the Honorable George McKin- 
 non and others equally well known. The cathedral bells 
 had chimed the hour of nine of the long June evening, 
 as a roar of cheers about the temporary stage on Market 
 Square greeted the executive of the State when he made 
 his bow to the assembled multitude a roar distinctly 
 heard far up along the bluffs and on the narrow portico 
 of the modest home, where, leaning back in an easy 
 
24: THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 chair, Paul Ladue, looking pale and weak, sat with his 
 slim hand clasped in that of his faithful friend, Fred 
 Benton. 
 
 They had been in earnest talk. Events had crowded 
 thick in the life of young Ladue since that untoward 
 meeting on the bluffs. The long suspected and slum 
 bering enmity of McKinnon had burst at last into furi 
 ous flame, and the younger man found himself suddenly 
 involved in a whirl of trouble. First and most serious, 
 the elder Benton, after a conference with his junior 
 partner, had been moved to say to Elinor that he for 
 bade her receiving or being seen with Paul Ladue. He 
 would not ask her, he said, if there had been love mak 
 ing between them, he knew it, and as she was but a 
 school girl and Ladue a feather-brained boy, he de 
 manded that it end then and there. To Ladue he wrote 
 a cold, cutting letter, accusing him of having taken ad 
 vantage of his intimacy in the household to seek the 
 love and destroy the peace of mind of his daughter, 
 when, if all signs and only some of the stories were true, 
 he deserved neither home nor harbor in their midst, and 
 ended by forbidding him the house. Then one or 
 two stinging articles had found their way into an even 
 ing paper, plainly pointing to Ladue as a rebel sym 
 pathizer and one holding treasonable correspondence 
 with the enemy. Then certain creditors had made a 
 combined onslaught on his failing, heart-sore father. 
 Ladue had gradually built up a very fair business and 
 had won the kindly regard of the community. All on a 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 35 
 
 sudden his store was shunned, save by collectors, and 
 one night, after a meeting at which McKinnon was the 
 principal speaker, the front windows were smashed in 
 by half a dozen drunken patriots and Paul, seated at a 
 desk over the books of the firm, was struck in the temple 
 and felled by a stone. A cry of shame had gone up 
 from the lips of a few lookers-on, who drove the roughs 
 away and carried the stricken lad to his home. The in 
 cident brought about a temporary revulsion of feeling 
 among right-thinking people and Fred Benton had 
 found and soundly thrashed one of the gang of assail 
 ants. But little substantial comfort could come to 
 the Ladues, for the old man had lost his nerve. He 
 seemed broken and bewildered. It cut him to the 
 heart to find that at this critical time in his career, the 
 firm to present and press the claim of his creditors 
 was that of Benton, Gray & McKinnon. He had the 
 shattered windows boarded up and refused at first to 
 reopen his store. The men who had been his best 
 friends and advisers, as luck would have it, had already 
 gone to the front as officers of volunteers. He was 
 crushed and sorely hurt and stung, and the well meant 
 words of sympathy spoken by a few neighbors failed to 
 reassure him. 
 
 It was then that Fred Benton had his first difference 
 with his father. 
 
 ; The whole outrage, sir," said he, " is the direct re- 
 suU of your partner s efforts. I hold George McKinnon 
 responsible for every misfortune that has befallen the 
 
26 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Ladues in this town, and the only reason I don t thrash 
 him as I did that blackguard Irishman is that he is your 
 partner." 
 
 It had startled and then angered the elder man, so 
 loyal and devoted had his son ever been in the past. 
 Well he knew that, though some letters had passed in 
 April between Paul Ladue and persons in Alabama, it 
 was impossible to prove that he was planningto join the 
 Southern army, much less that he was furnishing infor 
 mation, or " aid and comfort to the enemy." Since the 
 first of May the worst that could be said of him was that 
 he had sent three letters to a certain address in St. 
 Louis, and that three missives had come to him bearing 
 the St. Louis postmark. Everybody knew that St. Louis 
 was infested with Southern sympathizers who had means 
 of communication with friends beyond the line, and it 
 was these letters McKinnon referred to when he dared 
 to suggest that it was the postmaster s duty to open 
 them and learn their contents. Not yet had the North 
 reached the point of violating the sanctity of personal 
 mail. 
 
 " So far from its being McKinnon s fault," the elder 
 Benton answered, as soon as he could control his voice, 
 " I hold your friend Paul solely responsible. McKinnon 
 is an intensely loyal man, and he and I both are indig 
 nant that any man should be living here in our midst 
 and holding treasonable correspondence with the enemy. 
 You will do well, sir, if you hope for a commission, to 
 hold aloof from so dangerous an association." 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 27 
 
 But Fred would not hold aloof. For three days he 
 was constantly at the Ladues, comforting Paul as best 
 he could, and on this evening of the third day, after rue 
 fully, enviously bidding adieu to many a friend who had 
 marched away with the Second, he had cut loose from 
 the crowd and returned to his labor of love. Entering 
 the shaded gateway he had been surprised to see a vision 
 in white seated close to Paul s reclining chair, and con 
 founded and troubled to find that it was Elinor. Bravely 
 she had risen and faced him: 
 
 " It seems that it is not enough that Paul should be 
 forbidden our house," said she, with strangely calm and 
 controlled manner, " but this afternoon father bade me 
 pack my trunk and be ready to go to Aunt Margaret 
 to-morrow. I have obeyed him, and to-night I shall 
 tell him that I came here to bid Paul good-by." Then, 
 waiting no reply she turned swiftly to the invalid. " And 
 now I must go, for father will be home to tea. Thank 
 you again for your promise, Paul. Be sure I shall make 
 it known, and then you will see how quickly everybody 
 will turn again to you, and I ll write to you through 
 Fred, and and God bless you, Paul! " Then both the 
 white hands went out to him one second and with bowed 
 head she hurried away. 
 
 " What was the promise, Paul?" asked Benton, after 
 a moment of silence. 
 
 The lad looked up, his dark face thinned and sad and 
 pale, yet there was a soft, tender glow in the deep brown 
 eyes. " I told Elinor and I tell you, Fred, that if I had 
 
28 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 any idea that duty demanded my going back to the land 
 of my birth it is ended. If people will only let me 
 stay in peace my place is here." 
 
 " Good God, Paul! " was the almost exultant answer. 
 "What a load you ve lifted from my mind! What a 
 facer this will be to McKinnon! " 
 
 And so perhaps it might have been had it become 
 known to him and to the public that evening before he 
 had finished his impassioned speech and had exhibited 
 a certain letter, but even as they sat there, hand in hand, 
 stalwart Fred Benton and fragile looking Paul Ladue, 
 the sound of cheering grew fierce and frequent. Some 
 body with a gift of oratory and the power to move men s 
 souls was evidently swaying that meeting at will. Elinor, 
 who had gone home to give her father his tea, was 
 hardly surprised to find him still away, and the evening 
 wore on without him. In the dark shadows of the 
 broad veranda she sat, looking at the dim light up the 
 street where dwelt the Ladues, and listening to the 
 cheering that told unerringly the stirring effect of the 
 speaker s words. Ten o clock had come and gone, and 
 still she sat there and still no one appeared who could 
 say what was going on at the Square. It must have 
 been half after ten when a final and prolonged burst of 
 cheering seemed to announce the close of the orator s 
 speech and presumably the breaking up of the meeting, 
 and then far down the street there came the sound of 
 swift running footsteps, and presently, panting and ex 
 cited, a young man, a near neighbor, darted into view 
 

 A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 39 
 
 under the glare of the nearest gas lamp and rushed on 
 toward the lake. Hurrying down to the front gate, 
 Elinor heard rather than saw him speeding eastward 
 until nearly opposite the Ladues, then he went bound 
 ing across the broad, unpaved and, in places, grass- 
 grown street, and faintly she could hear the challenge of 
 manly young voices. What did this portend? 
 
 Away to the west, down in the valley of the river, a 
 confused murmur rose upon the night a murmur rap 
 idly augmenting in depth and volume as it seemed to 
 be drawing nearer and nearer. Then to her amaze 
 came Fred to the front gate, half lifting, half leading 
 a slim-built, reluctant youth whose voice she knew on 
 the instant, whose form she knew at a glance. " You 
 must, Paul," she heard Fred saying, low and stern. " I 
 can t lick a thousand fellow citizens. The only thing is 
 to get you in some safe harbor until this blows over. 
 Yes, I know father forbade you the house, but he never 
 dreamed of this, and were he home he would act exactly 
 as I am acting." 
 
 So saying he had half lifted, half run the helpless 
 young Southerner into the forbidden grounds. Then, 
 opening the cellar door, he plunged his unwilling pris 
 oner into the dark depths, took him a candle from the 
 kitchen and bounded back to the front gate just in time 
 to see a throng of men, covering the street from curb 
 to curb, sweeping silently up the wide thoroughfare, 
 passing him by with hardly a gleam of recognition, and 
 
30 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 finally halting nearly two blocks away in front of the 
 little homestead of the Ladues. 
 
 Just then the Squire appeared, springing from a hack 
 that had driven swiftly on the trail of the crowd, and 
 started at sight of his son, standing there like sentry 
 at the gate. The elder s face was pale and beads of 
 sweat were starting from his brow. " Is Elinor home? " 
 was his first question. 
 
 " I am here, father," came the answer, clear, yet low, 
 and with slow, deliberate step the girl came forward 
 down the gravel walk. 
 
 " I I wish you to go to your room, child. There 
 there may be trouble here presently. The people are 
 over excited." 
 
 " Trouble for whom, father? " was the calm question 
 as, apparently ignoring his injunction, Elinor came 
 straight onward until she stood by her brother s side. 
 The strong arm on which she laid her little white hand 
 was trembling, partly the result of recent exertion, 
 partly from intense excitement. 
 
 " You may as well know," was the half hesitant reply. 
 " Just as I foresaw, young Ladue yonder has got to 
 face the music. They have evidence to prove that he is 
 in the rebel service." 
 
 " It s a lie! " swore Fred Denton, between his clinched 
 teeth. 
 
 " It s the miserable truth," said his father. " Listen! " 
 Somebody was again haranguing the crowd, now com 
 pletely filling the street from block to block only four 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 31 
 
 hundred yards away, while men and boys, jabbering 
 excitedly, were still hurrying by the Bentons to join the 
 throng. Presently the voice rose higher and clearer, 
 and they recognized it at once. " Your committee have 
 searched the house, fellow citizens, and have failed to 
 find this misguided young man. Moreover, I have the 
 assurance of his aged and unhappy father that his erring 
 son is not here that, warned by his own conscience or 
 some still deluded friend, he fled full half an hour ago. 
 It is not conceivable that he would remain here over 
 night. Already he is probably beyond the suburbs. 
 Banishment from our midst was what you demanded, 
 and the sentence is self-executed. Let me urge you, 
 therefore, in the interests of law and order, to quietly 
 disperse. Let me " 
 
 But here the speaker s voice was drowned in shouts 
 of wrath and impatience, and before he could again 
 make himself heard a mighty bass was uplifted over the 
 clamor and in tones that could be heard four blocks 
 away these words were bellowed on the startled ear of 
 night : 
 
 " They tarred and feathered and rode our teachers on 
 a rail for no cause whatever. I move, by God! that 
 before we let Paul Ladue wear a rebel coat we give 
 him one of tar and feathers. / know where to find him." 
 
 It was the riff raff of the city, let it be remembered, 
 that made up the bulk of the crowd, the idler, the loafer, 
 the saloon hanger-on, the same class precisely that six 
 
32 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 weeks before had mobbed the men of Massachusetts in 
 the streets of Baltimore a gang ever ready for rapine 
 and outrage, the counterpart of the human wolves that 
 seventy years earlier had drenched the streets of Paris 
 with the blood of the gentlest, noblest born of the fair 
 land of France. Of the thousand shouting and swaying 
 there in the dim light of the city lamps probably not fifty 
 men were tax-payers or respectable citizens, and, all too 
 late, George McKinnon began to realize that he was now 
 powerless to quench the train his vehement oratory had 
 fired. A new leader had sprung to the front, a giant 
 blacksmith, a man whose sledge hammer had beaten in 
 the jail doors barely four years previous, and rescued 
 from the hands of the Federal authorities a luckless fugi 
 tive slave who had been caught when almost in sight 
 of freedom and Canadian soil and meekly surrendered 
 to the agent of his owners in deference to the hateful 
 laws of the day. Madly they cheered him, breaking a 
 way westward through their midst until the open street 
 lay before him. Then, facing his excited followers a 
 moment, he shouted, "You who are with me, come on! " 
 turned and went striding down the street. 
 
 " My God," cried Mr. Benton. " They are coming 
 here!" 
 
 Running toward them along the sidewalk, distancing 
 the crowd, pale now and trembling, came McKinnon. 
 " Quick! " he cried. " Let me take Miss Elinor round 
 to Judge Meredith s. She s safe there. Come come, 
 Elinor," he pleaded, with outstretched hand. But the 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 33 
 
 blue eyes looked him over with utter indifference. She 
 would not even vouchsafe reply. 
 
 " What in heaven s name have you done, McKin- 
 non? " cried the father. " Surely you ought to have 
 known it was playing with fire to arouse these ruffians. 
 But they shall not touch me or mine! They shall not 
 enter this gate ! Go in doors, child," he continued, turn 
 ing suddenly to her. But now it was McKinnon who 
 detained. 
 
 "Stop! You must see," said he. "Here is what 
 came for him this very night. Now do you believe? " 
 
 Benton took the heavy envelope extended to him. It 
 bore the St. Louis postmark. It had been sliced open 
 with a knife. It was addressed to " Paul Ladue, Esq., 
 
 Bookseller and Stationer, East Water Street, , 
 
 and it contained another envelope still sealed and un 
 broken, addressed in round, clerkly hand to First Lieu 
 tenant Paul Ladue, Eleventh Alabama Infantry, and 
 bore at the upper left hand corner the letters so often 
 used in the old days of the old army, O. P. S. (on public 
 service), instead of the later shibboleth of the War De 
 partment, " Official Business." 
 
 " It is fatal," said the veteran lawyer, with a gasp of 
 dismay. 
 
 " It is a forgery! " said Fred, his son, whereat McKin 
 non started as though stung. And now the mob, headed 
 by Hugh Gale, came swarming to their gate, and their 
 spokesman, in his resounding basso, addressed himself 
 to the master. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Squire Benton, it is my belief that the man we want 
 is hidden here on your premises. Your son has long 
 been his most intimate friend. Mr. Ladue invited our 
 committee to enter and search. Will you do the same? 
 Or are you going to shelter rebel spies and traitors?" 
 
 " You are not going to enter and search," answered 
 Benton, sturdily. " This city has been my home since 
 it was a mere village. For twenty years I have worked 
 with it and for it and no man, woman or child in this 
 community can point to a wrong done to one of your 
 number by me or mine. This is my home, and by the 
 Eternal, you shall not violate it! " 
 
 " Hear me, fellow citizens," cried McKinnon, clam 
 bering on the gate and grasping the boughs of the 
 mountain ash trees that stood close on either hand. 
 " Hear me one minute! " 
 
 "Shut up!" yelled the crowd. "Go ahead, Gale. 
 We re with you," and suiting action to word a score of 
 the populace began climbing the old-fashioned white 
 picket fence and striving to burst a way through the 
 thick hedge of rose bushes and sturdy young trees that 
 stretched from flank to flank along the front of the lot. 
 Others, running round to the west, swarmed to the flat- 
 topped fence bounding the yard on that side, and two 
 of their number, truculent and daring, leaped down upon 
 the flower-beds and came lunging out across the grass 
 plot. In an instant Fred Benton, breaking from Elinor s 
 restraining hands, sprang to confront them, and without 
 a word, sent his clinched fist square at the leader s jaw 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 35 
 
 and tumbled him, crashing and cursing, among the pan- 
 sies. His fellows recoiled to the fence, and a howl of 
 mingled wrath and admiration went up from the mob. 
 Then somebody picked up a huge clod from a pile of 
 soft, fresh-cut sod that stood by the tree box at the 
 edge of the gutter, and with practiced hand hurled it at 
 McKinnon. It took that portly counselor twixt midriff 
 and gorge, just as a bulky vegetable, hurtling through 
 gaslit space, landed full on his distended cheek. The 
 combined impact proved too much for his equilibrium 
 and, to the shrill delight of the masses, down he went, 
 ripping out a branch of mountain ash and a gasp of 
 mingled protest and profanity. For an instant the on 
 ward impulse of the crowd was stayed, and Gale again 
 began to rumble in dramatic speech when of a sudden 
 there arose from the throats of the mob a yell of tri 
 umph and rejoicing, for there, at the head of the steps, 
 bareheaded in the soft moonlight, between the white 
 columns of the portico, stood Paul Ladue, facing them 
 with flashing eyes and without a tremor. Another in 
 stant and before Fred could interpose, light and agile, 
 he bounded down the steps, across the lawn and vaulted 
 to the flat-topped fence at the corner, lighting like a cat 
 on his feet, and confronted them with uplifted hand as 
 though demanding to be heard. 
 
 For a moment the yells and shouts continued, and 
 there was a rush of the crowd to the side street. Then 
 curiosity prevailed, and between cries of "Silence!" 
 "Dry up!" "Listen, fellers, let s hear what he has to 
 
36 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 say," and some vigorous hissing, comparative quiet was 
 restored, and in ringing, silvery tones, quivering, per 
 haps with excitement, but never a sign of fear, Ladue 
 addressed them. 
 
 " Who accuses me and of what am I accused? " he 
 cried. 
 
 "You re a damned spy" "Rebel" "Traitor" 
 " Here, give us that letter, Squire," were the yells from 
 the crowd. And then big Gale, the blacksmith, tore a 
 way round to the side and waved under the pale, quiver 
 ing face McKinnon s contribution to the evening s dis 
 turbance the letter he would now have been glad to 
 withdraw. " What have you to say to this, Mr. Lieu 
 tenant Paul Ladue, Eleventh Alabama? " 
 
 " I say it s a forgery and a lie ! " was the ringing an 
 swer. 
 
 " Any man would, fixed as you are," boomed the 
 blacksmith. " Do you deny corresponding with your 
 rebel crowd in Alabama, too?" 
 
 " No, and you can see their letters any time you 
 wish." 
 
 "Damn their letters!" shouted Gale. Then facing 
 the crowd. " Fellow citizens, what shall we do with 
 him?" 
 
 Up went a chorus of curses and yells, in the midst of 
 which Fred Benton sprang to the fence beside his friend, 
 and his father vainly shouted, begging to be heard. 
 " You be quiet, Squire," answered the nearmost. " We 
 don t want you you re all right." Fred was felled by 
 
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS 37 
 
 a stone that struck him full in the forehead. Paul 
 Ladue s legs were jerked from under him and he was 
 dragged, struggling and striking at every face within 
 reach, and borne away, the vortex of a whirlpool of rag 
 ing humanity whose hoarse shoutings gradually died 
 to distant roar as they surged onward down the slope 
 to Market Square, Benton and McKinnon vainly fol 
 lowing, imploring and protesting. Then one level 
 headed lad ran like a deer to the quarters of a cadet 
 company across the river, and while Elinor knelt there 
 by her stricken brother, chafing his hand and bathing 
 his discolored brow, the court-house bell in rapid clang, 
 pealed out the alarm of fire. 
 
 An hour later, limp and exhausted, in the care of a 
 physician, and escorted to the pier by Benton and cer 
 tain city officials, the victim of mob fury was borne to 
 a stateroom on the " Northern Light " and so on to 
 Chicago. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FIRST UNIFORM 
 
 And then for many a week there came no word from 
 Paul Ladue. At the little frame cottage near the lake 
 a sad-eyed, submissive, broken man sat long hours each 
 day in a worn old rocking-chair, apathetic, uncomplain 
 ing, yet looking wistfully into the faces of the few who 
 came to see him as though imploring news of his now 
 doubly banished boy. The children Nina, a fond little 
 daughter of fourteen, and Alphonse, a merry-eyed lad 
 of ten, sought vainly to rouse him. There was not 
 business enough at the shop to call him thither. People 
 had no time for books in the war days. They read only 
 the papers, and, many of them, only the news and rumors 
 from the front. Through the efforts of Squire Benton 
 a reliable, if not over bright, young man was found to 
 take charge of what was left of the stock in trade, and 
 to supply the casual wants of school children in search 
 of sponges and slate pencils, or elders in need of station 
 ery with which to write to the boys now in camp by 
 thousands along the line of the Potomac and the Ohio. 
 Weak eyes and legs had led to his rejection when surg 
 ing patriotism prompted him to throw up the charge 
 of a ward school and present himself as food for pow- 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 39 
 
 der, and in sore disappointment he meekly took the 
 tendered place. At least it would give him abundant 
 time to read and study. 
 
 In still other ways did the Squire seek to aid the 
 needy household and, all unrebuked now, Elinor went 
 day after day to see Ladue and the fragile woman, his 
 wife, who never left her room. Womanfully did she 
 strive to cheer the aging and to guide the young, and 
 rarely did she go empty handed. All through the long, 
 hot summer of 61 she was ever slipping over to the 
 cottage and ever coming back with pathetic sadness in 
 her sweet blue eyes. There was still no further news 
 from Paul Paul who after rude mauling and man 
 handling, had escaped the threatened tar and feathering 
 only because the gas works and the tar were far away, 
 the fire department and two companies of young State 
 troops close at hand. The firemen manned their brakes, 
 and the powerful streams of cold water cast a damper 
 on the enthusiasm of the mob. The soldiers fixed their 
 bayonets, enabling the mayor and certain leading men 
 to bore a way to the midst of the throng, to rescue the 
 exhausted lad, and later to bear him out of harm s way, 
 but that ill-born effort to crush and outrage the high 
 spirited fellow had turned the scale. In one brief let 
 ter from St. Louis, Paul had announced his intention of 
 making his way to Mobile. After that who could say? 
 
 And Fred, too, Elinor s stanch ally and supporter, 
 was gone. Denied a commission in the earlier regi 
 ments of his native State, for the reason that the men 
 
40 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 demanded the right to elect their officers from among 
 these enlisting with them, a course which his father had 
 forbidden, he had found life well nigh unbearable after 
 the almost tragic events of that night in June, and so 
 boldly wrote a long, urgent, appealing letter to a gen 
 eral officer an old soldier of the Old Army who, since 
 before the days of the Mexican War and until recalled 
 to active service in the spring of 61, had made the 
 Badger State his home, and that vehement, vigorous 
 letter the General took and laid before the President 
 himself. 
 
 This was before the first serious eye-opener the bat 
 tle of Bull Run, and the tall, ungainly son of the West 
 was still able to see the whimsical side of things, un- 
 tinged by the infinite sadness and suffering of the days 
 to come. 
 
 " Wants to be a soldier and to sink the law, does he? " 
 said the President, stretching his long, lean legs under 
 neath the table and running his huge hand through the 
 crop of bristling hair that crowned his forehead like a 
 hedgerow, " and the Squire won t let him enlist, I met 
 Benton once at Rice s caravanserai there in Chicago 
 and the boys won t have anybody that doesn t start even 
 with them? Well, General, I see only one way out of 
 this fix that is to make him a second lieutenant of 
 regulars, unless," he continued, with a twitch about the 
 corners of his broad mouth, " unless I appoint him a 
 brigadier-general. According to some of the papers I 
 may have done worse. Which shall it be? " 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 41 
 
 " The second lieutenancy will appeal to him, I think, 
 sir," said the General, " and then I can appoint him 
 aide-de-camp and teach him practical soldiering so that 
 he won t be utterly a novice when he goes to his regi 
 ment. I know the lad and am under many an obliga 
 tion to his father." 
 
 " So be it," said the President. And so it happened 
 that two days later there came to Fred a wire from 
 Washington bidding him join his General there forth 
 with, and within another forty-eight hours he was gone, 
 eager, ambitious and full of intense zeal and resolution, 
 determined to make a name for himself. For a few 
 days in mid July he was home again as aide to the Gen 
 eral, who had been ordered thither to help the State 
 authorities in the organization of still more regiments. 
 Very tall and stiff and " swagger " he looked in his 
 Eastern-made uniform, a vivid contrast to many an old 
 school friend whose first blue frock coat seemed more 
 like an off-color edition of some clerical garment than 
 the garb of a soldier. Fearfully and wonderfully were 
 they made those uniforms of our Western volunteers, 
 and much did they of the great army about Washington 
 marvel and make merry at the sight of the officers of the 
 few regiments from Badger and Hoosierdom chosen to 
 represent their States on the " sacred soil " of Eastern 
 Virginia. Yet were they little more ungainly than those 
 worn by the new-made militaires from Maine and New 
 Hampshire. Fred Benton, however, had been taken in 
 hand by a soldier nephew of his General a young New 
 
2 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Yorker, long time of the Seventh and now, like Fred, 
 of the regular infantry, and a famous old army tailor had 
 taken his measure, his orders and his promptly tendered 
 cash with all alacrity, to the end that when he appeared 
 with his chief on the familiar streets at home, all that 
 bustling young metropolis marvelled at the change that 
 had come over him. A fine stalwart specimen of Saxon 
 manhood when he went toward the end of June, he had 
 returned to them in mid July erect, soldierly and stun 
 ningly clad, the admiration of every girl in town almost 
 the adoration of his sister. 
 
 And about the first thing Fred Benton had done on 
 his return was to snub, if not actually insult, his father s 
 junior partner, between whom and that father relations 
 were already severely strained. 
 
 Never yet had George McKinnon been able to satis 
 factorily explain how that letter addressed to Paul 
 Ladue had come into his possession. Important as it 
 doubtless was held to be, as evidence of Ladue s active 
 sympathy with the Rebellion, there were not a few re 
 sponsible citizens who declared the postmaster gravely 
 culpable for surrendering it to any but the lawful owner. 
 Whereat the postmaster on hearing of the cry against 
 him came out with a card in the " Watchman," insisting 
 that the letter had been placed by the distributing clerk 
 in the Ladue box, which was at least six feet from the 
 general delivery window, and that neither he nor any 
 one of the employes had subsequently touched it except, 
 possibly, when handing out the little packet of mail 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 43 
 
 called for by Paul Ladue in person. Whether Mr. 
 McKinnon got that letter by fair means or foul it was 
 after it had passed from the postoffice into the hands 
 of the addressee, for since Ladue senior s illness only 
 to Paul had their mail been delivered up to the very day 
 of his sudden and enforced departure. This complicated 
 the problem, and there was now no Paul to explain how 
 he came to lose or part with it. 
 
 Moreover the postmaster, being exceeding wroth at 
 McKinnon, told several prominent citizens that no less 
 than thrice had McKinnon called on him at the office 
 and endeavored to persuade him that it was his bounden 
 duty to open any letter that came from St. Louis or 
 the South for Paul Ladue and to ascertain the contents. 
 On the first occasion McKinnon clearly showed that he 
 had been keeping watch on Ladue s mail by saying 
 " There s a big letter in his box from St. Louis now/ 
 and the postmaster admitted having gone with McKin 
 non to the box, having taken the letter out and "hefted" 
 it, as he said, and studied the handwriting and super 
 scription and having allowed McKinnon to do the same, 
 but it was not opened by either of them. He would 
 never allow that. Questioned further, the postmaster 
 admitted that one day toward the end of May young 
 Ladue had come to him " mad clear through," and de 
 clared that some one had been tampering with his mail 
 and showed him one of those big, bulky missives in the 
 long official envelope that had been sliced open with a 
 sharp knife must have been in that condition when 
 
44 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 handed to him, said Paul, although he did not discover 
 it until he reached the store. Every clerk in the office 
 protested his innocence and the postmaster had not the 
 ghost of an idea who was the culprit. 
 
 Naturally matters looked squally for McKinnon. He 
 had been popular, but the better class of people felt that 
 Paul Ladue had been harshly, even outrageously, dealt 
 with, and that McKinnon s insidious, if not fiery 
 speeches were the direct cause. Moreover, there were 
 many in the community who scouted the story told re 
 garding the letter. He found it, he declared, lying on 
 his desk on the morning of the great meeting, with a 
 card bearing only the words, " See within." The en 
 velope was slit smoothly open, and, never stopping to 
 note the address thereon, he was amazed to find within 
 another envelope, sealed, and the superscription was of 
 such startling importance that he deemed it his duty 
 to exhibit it to friends, in fact to everybody, that they 
 might know a traitor a spy was in their midst. He 
 might have erred, but as a loyal American he conceived 
 that nothing less could he do. 
 
 But a revulsion of feeling had set in. Before leaving 
 for Washington there had been ample time for Fred 
 Benton to spread abroad Ladue s declaration that noth 
 ing would persuade him to cast his lot with the South, 
 provided he could be permitted to remain here in peace. 
 He felt that his duty was with his aging father. Elinor, 
 too, with flushing cheeks and flashing eyes, had told the 
 tale from house to house. The physician employed by 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 45 
 
 Benton and others to go with Paul to Chicago came 
 back full of sympathy for his patient and wrath at the 
 populace. Such was the state of feeling that Gale, the 
 would-be heroic leader of public sentiment, awoke to 
 the fact that it might be wise for him to cross the Lake 
 and visit kith and kin among the Wolverines, for city 
 officials had come and asked ugly questions, and there 
 was talk of arrest and indictment for inciting riot. He 
 swore that no violence had been offered Ladue, that he 
 had simply " led him along by the scruff of the neck," 
 and that Ladue s exhaustion was due to his own frantic 
 struggles. But the leading journals, morning and even 
 ing, denounced the whole affair McKinnon, who had 
 been the Democratic candidate for city attorney at the 
 spring election, coming in for an especial scoring from 
 the Republican press, and finding no defenders among 
 the papers of his own political persuasion. 
 
 McKinnon called at the Bentons and asked to see 
 Miss Elinor, and Miss Elinor asked to be excused. 
 Then he wrote to her a long letter, full of argument, 
 explanation and regret, and she answered in a short 
 note, saying that she trusted he fully realized the wrong 
 he had done, hoped that his regret was sincere and that 
 he would find means to make amends, and that was all 
 she would say. Benton, senior, quite approved her 
 conduct at the time, for there had been words between 
 the partners unpleasant words. Impartial listeners 
 were compelled to say, however, that the words were 
 Benton s own, for McKinnon hardly opened his lips ex- 
 
46 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 cept in restrained and respectful protest. It must be 
 owned that no sooner was poor Paul well out of the 
 way than McKinnon s words and deeds became almost 
 saint-like so meek, so forgiving and tolerant did he 
 become. He had even gone to the Ladues and talked 
 to the unhappy old father and dilated on his efforts to 
 turn the heart of the crowd and protect Paul from in 
 dignity or violence. He declared that it was due to him 
 that the troops were called out and that the firemen 
 came and drenched the frantic crowd. He chose the 
 hour when he knew Elinor was visiting the stricken 
 mother, and he hung about until long after dinner time, 
 expecting her to come down and be waylaid. Keen was 
 his chagrin when pert little Nina danced in and an 
 nounced that if he were waiting for Elinor Benton he 
 was wasting his time. She had slipped out the back 
 way nearly an hour before. 
 
 Then McKinnon ordered supplies of various kinds sent 
 to the Ladues some choice claret and dainties in the 
 way of fruit, but Mrs. Ladue could not be induced to 
 touch either. Ladue himself was a total abstainer. The 
 wine lay neglected in the cellar. The children gorged 
 themselves with the fruit, and no good was done by 
 the gifts. 
 
 Then came the General with aide-de-camp Fred, and 
 the former responded to McKinnon s greeting with cold 
 and distant civility. The latter asked him what he had 
 done with Ladue s letter and refused his proffered hand. 
 It was lucky the General had to take his young staff 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 47 
 
 officer to the State capital, whence they were recalled 
 to Washington just in time to meet the demoralized 
 wreck of McDowell s raw, untaught regiments, drifting 
 in from the disaster of First Bull Run. 
 
 And then the nation woke up in earnest to a realiza 
 tion of the fact that the South had men as brave as the 
 best in the land and leaders more skillful than those 
 we had yet sent afield. Then it became apparent that 
 not until it was thoroughly organized, drilled and dis 
 ciplined could a Northern army hope to subdue the 
 array of the South. With them there seemed to be but 
 one heart, one thought, one purpose. They were a 
 people united in their determination to effect a divorce 
 from the old Government and to set up for themselves 
 a republic with that peculiar institution, human slavery, 
 guaranteed for all time. With us there was wide divi 
 sion of sentiment, and many a worthy citizen could not 
 be made to see that the success of the South meant the 
 wreck and ruin of what promised to be the grandest 
 republic, the most enlightened and powerful nation on 
 the face of the globe. What made the task of that 
 God-given, heaven-inspired President phenomenal in 
 magnitude and difficulty was the fact that, strong and 
 skillful as was the army that menaced the Capital from 
 the front, there was another enemy, equally strong in 
 point of numbers, and skillful in argument, debate and 
 intrigue, that sorely hampered his herculean task, at 
 tacking him from the rear. The war was not a fortnight 
 old before the hiss of the Copperhead was heard 
 
48 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 throughout the land. Only one man before him in the 
 history of our national life had had to encounter such 
 widespread, insidious, treacherous opposition at the 
 hands of the very people he was so grandly serving, and 
 only that man, George Washington, was great enough, 
 strong enough, to rise superior to every personal slight, 
 Congressional cabal or political calumny and subor 
 dinate everything, as later did our immortal Lincoln, to 
 the glorious end in view the establishment and main 
 tenance of that government of the people, by the people 
 and for the people that should not perish from the face 
 of the earth. 
 
 But the rugged features had already begun to take on 
 a shade of anxiety. The lines were digging farther in 
 about the sombre eyes and the broad humorous mouth 
 by the time the tall, gaunt President, in the abnormally 
 tall top hat the fashion of the day took to driving out 
 to Kalorama in the August evenings, Mr. Secretary 
 Seward dwarfing at his side to take the air and look 
 at the one Western brigade of all the commands then 
 being moulded by General McClellan into what was to 
 become the grand Army of the Potomac. While at 
 first Massachusetts, New York and even Pennsylvania 
 had been represented in the huge command assigned to 
 Fred Benton s General, with one exception all Eastern 
 regiments were transferred to other divisions as more 
 Badgers arrived, and finally, when the first frosts of 
 October had turned the Virginia shores to fire and, 
 strongly entrenched, the Union army covered the long 
 
THE FIRST UNIFORM 49 
 
 front from Alexandria to beyond the Chain Bridge, it 
 was as a brigade of four strong, stalwart regiments, 
 three from Wisconsin and one from Indiana, not an 
 Eastern or Middle State represented in their array, that 
 this compact command was designated, of all others, to 
 encamp upon the beautiful Arlington estate, and the 
 General and his staff were directed to occupy as head 
 quarters the fine old mansion, long the seat of a famous 
 family. The Badger brigadier moved in and took pos 
 session of the homestead of his old-time friend and as 
 sociate in the Corps of Engineers, when as junior offi 
 cers they were building Fort Monroe, and four thousand 
 men of the West pitched their white tents on the lands 
 of Virginia s knightly soldier Robert E. Lee. 
 4 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS 
 
 Dark and dreary the winter of the first year of the 
 war closed in on the camps about the Capital. Between 
 the Long Bridge and the heights of Arlington lay a sea 
 of mud. Dull red, the Virginia roads were gullied de,ep 
 by the wheels of cannon, ambulance and army wagon 
 that sank now to the very hubs in sticky mire, and time 
 and again stalled the needed supplies almost within sight 
 of their destination. In vain the darky drivers doubled 
 their teams and plied lash and blasphemy. Hour after 
 hour the order would ring through the swarming streets 
 of the nearest camp: "Turn out, boys more wagons 
 stuck in the mud! " and by whole companies, regulars 
 or volunteers, the men would wade knee-deep to the 
 scene, and with fence rails as levers and drag ropes over 
 the brawny shoulders, prying, pushing, hauling and 
 shouting they would " yank " the heavy rolling stock, 
 one by one, from the slough of their despond and tide 
 them over to the next camp beyond, and so, from slough 
 to slough, pass them on their final destination. 
 
 But while the roads and flats were quagmires, up 
 along the wooded heights the ground was fairly dry and 
 well drained, and there the four regiments, three of 
 
WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS 51 
 
 which had drilled through August on the broad, level 
 plateau of Kalorama, and much of the early fall about 
 Chain Bridge, were now kept from morn till night bus 
 ily at their soldier task. The General held that the less 
 time soldiers had to kill the happier and heartier they 
 were, and determined was he that the splendid material 
 confided to his charge should be moulded into equally 
 splendid, soldierly shape that the one exclusively 
 Western brigade of the now well-organized army should 
 be second to none in point of instruction, discipline and 
 efficiency. To this end, drills by squad, company and 
 battalion, all three, were of daily occurrence, followed 
 by dress parade at sundown, and all this supplemented 
 by long, searching inspections every Sunday morning. 
 Presently, too, he was able, by a mile march through 
 the woods, to reach an open plain out toward Ball s 
 Cross Roads, and there have brigade evolutions twice 
 a week. Then the full uniform of the regulars had been 
 drawn for the entire command, the Indiana boys shed 
 ding the semi-Zouave garb of gray in favor of the army 
 blue, as had certain of their Wisconsin comrades at 
 Chain Bridge as early as September. One Badger regi 
 ment, the Second, whose men lorded it somewhat over 
 their fellows because they had been all through Bull 
 Run and, despite fairly heavy losses, retired in good 
 order had even obtained the quaint, stiff, Kossuth hat, 
 looped up on one side and garnished with cord and 
 brasses and feathers the headgear of the regulars at 
 the time and were dubbed the " Black Hats " by envi- 
 
52 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ous comrades of other commands. Their original field 
 officers had disappeared somewhere about the time of 
 that initial battle, and in their place had come a stocky 
 little black-bearded West Pointer as colonel, with a 
 most soldierly ex-captain of State militia as his second, 
 and then the whole brigade had to be fitted out with 
 white gloves, and some nearby regulars were detailed to 
 show them how best to polish their belts and boxes, and 
 great was the competition among the four regiments to 
 win the honor of headquarters guard and orderlies. 
 
 Then, as freezing weather set in with December and 
 it became possible for carriages to come bumping and 
 swaying over the icy boulders and ridges into which the 
 almost liquid mud had been transformed, many generals 
 of rank, and statesmen by the score, and even the Presi 
 dent himself, began paying visits to Arlington and bring 
 ing curious and distinguished foreigners with them, and 
 salutes and reviews innumerable became the vogue in 
 front of the colonnaded porch of that stately old man 
 sion. Not very far away Phil. Kearny s fine brigade of 
 Jersey Blues was in camp, and the rivalry between these 
 and the men of the West was keen and continuous. But 
 Arlington lay nearer the city, and so it happened that 
 the " hoith " of the visitors, as their one " exclusively 
 Irish " company put it, were ever to be found at the 
 Badger camps, and Fred Benton was learning how much 
 time it took and money to provide entertainment for 
 the men of mark swarming in Washington and the lines 
 across the Potomac that first winter of the war. 
 
WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS 53 
 
 But there was one visitor who cost them nothing, who 
 brought them cheer and delight, and who could not come 
 too often. He came, however, only twice or thrice. He 
 never left his carriage, but sat there lounging comfort 
 ably on the back seat, usually with Secretary Seward 
 by his side, just as he used to come to nearer Kalorama, 
 and, after he had chatted with the General a while, he 
 would drive through the regimental camps to receive 
 the tumultuous greeting of " the boys," to wave his hat 
 and smile at them, and sometimes, when they crowded 
 about him, to stop and shake hands with the nearmost, 
 and once or twice to tell some whimsical story that 
 would set his hearers shouting with glee. The President 
 seemed to find himself thoroughly at home among those 
 lads from the far West. 
 
 But if the rugged features beamed with kindliness and 
 sympathy early in the December days and had ever a 
 smile in return for the greeting of the shouting boys in 
 blue, senior officers who best knew him became aware 
 of a growing anxiety and impatience on his part ere the 
 joyous Christmastide came in, and the crowded camps 
 were jubilant with feasting and good cheer. The be 
 loved little commanding general had been taken ill of 
 a fever and confined to his bed. The President to whom 
 he owed his appointment had as yet no information as 
 to that general s plans, and, strange as it may seem, the 
 two or three men in his, McClellan s, confidence were 
 strangers at the White House and the departments. 
 When, in his anxiety and sympathy, the President called 
 
54 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 in person at the invalid s house, he was neither asked 
 to the bedside nor given information as to when the 
 general would be able to resume duty. As a conse 
 quence the President had to turn to other sources, and 
 Fred s division commander, McDowell, was the first he 
 sought. He was forever asking questions as to the con 
 dition of the roads, the possibility of moving guns and 
 trains, and showing not a little eagerness when told that 
 through January, at least, they ought to be hard and 
 firm, but rough. Then they who read the leading papers 
 of the great North could not but note the clamor for an 
 immediate advance upon the enemy, a sweeping, over 
 whelming victory over " the insolent foe " that should 
 wipe out the memory of Bull Run and restore confidence 
 and hope throughout the loyal States. It was pointed 
 out that under the vigilant eye of that famous organizer, 
 the army had for five long months been drilling, drilling, 
 drilling until in point of precision in the evolutions of the 
 battalion or brigade, regulars and volunteers could 
 hardly be distinguished one from the other that the 
 men were presumably hardened and strengthened that 
 they were amply nourished, armed, uniformed and 
 equipped, and that now, barring the possibility of soft 
 weather, there was no earthly reason why the army 
 should not advance and deal to the triumphant Con 
 federates, boastfully awaiting them behind their for 
 midable field works, a decisive and stunning blow at the 
 very scene of our recent humiliation on the plains of 
 Manassas and along the wooded banks of Bull Run. 
 
WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS 55 
 
 Day after day throughout the autumn had " Little 
 Mac," followed by a brilliant retinue, ridden from camp 
 to camp, inspecting, reviewing, commanding, criticising, 
 and, long ago as mid September, after the spirited skir 
 mish near Lewinsville, he had thrilled the listening thou 
 sands, Fred and his Badger comrades among them, by 
 the ringing words in which he had assured them the 
 war should be short, sharp and decisive, and for hours 
 the bands had pealed exultant music, " the boys " 
 cheered themselves hoarse in glorification over his stir 
 ring declaration: "We have had our last defeat we 
 have made our last retreat," and the mingled appeal and 
 pledge that followed: "You stand by me and I ll stand 
 by you." Stand by him? Stand by Little Mac? Such 
 was the faith and love and devotion that burned for him 
 throughout that magnificent command that as the late 
 autumn rolled by and the promise of speedy action flut 
 tered from camp to camp there was hardly an officer 
 or man from division commanders down to drummer 
 boys that would not willingly have died for him! Never 
 in the days of his most splendid achievement, sur 
 rounded by the marshals of his empire and supported 
 by the Imperial Guard, did Napoleon himself receive 
 from the hearts of his soldiers a love more spontaneous, 
 from their lips a greeting more thrilling, than did George 
 McClellan as he rode the lines of the new-born Army of 
 the Potomac, practically his own creation, for it was but 
 raw material when confided to his hands. 
 
 And yet, save for more drills, more grand reviews 
 
56 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 and ceremonies, and in spite of the clamor of the nation, 
 the press and the Government, it moved not, and the 
 fine weather of December was gone and January came, 
 and with it the fogs and soft skies and seas of mud 
 again, and stories went from fire to fire to the effect 
 that the President and the people had become irritated 
 at the long delay, and that Little Mac was being urged 
 and importuned and even blamed. " Let Little Mac 
 alone," said the boys. " He knows what he s about"; 
 for even in their impatience nothing could shake their 
 loyalty. 
 
 At last, as is well remembered, the President, in the 
 exercise of his prerogative, took the law into his hands 
 and issued his first order directing the advance of an 
 army in the field. And at last, its corps organization 
 completed now though with generals not of McClel- 
 lan s choice to the glorious music of the innumerable 
 bands, in splendid weather and in splendid spirits, the 
 long blue columns filed out from the shelter of the cir 
 cling fortifications and took the road to Centreville. 
 
 Promotion had by this time carried Fred s division 
 commander to the head of a corps and his brigade com 
 mander to the head of the fine division, in which until 
 now the wild Westerners had been numbered as the 
 First Brigade. Now they became the Third, and were 
 both astonished and disgusted to find that their numeri 
 cal designation depended not, as they were inclined to 
 say, on their soldierly superiority, but upon the relative 
 rank of the brigade commander. It galled them, to tell 
 
WHAT WAS FOUND AT MAN ASS AS 57 
 
 the truth, to find that the promotion to division rank of 
 the West Point soldier who had organized, drilled and 
 taught them from the start, involved a corresponding 
 setback for themselves. Some Badgers took the matter 
 so much to heart as to declare that the General should 
 have declined promotion let somebody else step up to 
 the command of the division rather than see his old 
 comrades moved from the right to the left of the line, 
 from front to rear of the column. In vain were they 
 assured that it really made no earthly difference, that 
 the brigade would take turns at the head of the column 
 on the march, and, as for the line of battle, they would 
 get Just as much fighting on the left as on the right. It 
 is strange to see what little things will start a big sensa 
 tion among young soldiers. Badger and Hoosier the 
 brigade had a mild case of sulks when it found that its 
 comrade commands, made up of New Yorkers and 
 Pennsylvanians, each headed by a West Point general, 
 were now its seniors in soldier rank, because the best 
 they could boast for brigade headquarters was one of 
 their own colonels. Senators and representatives, egged 
 on by letters from " the boys," flocked to the White 
 House and the War Department to " see about this " 
 and have it rectified, and came away reconciled from 
 the one and ruffled from the other. The new war secre 
 tary was as like Cameron as cactus is like the cowslip. 
 Even then, at the outset of his career, he was all spines 
 and bristles. The patient President, however was 
 ever man more patient? listened without interruption 
 
58 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 to the somewhat vehement words of the Badger states 
 men who had assured the boys, " Black Hats " and all, 
 that they would see them righted. With downcast eyes, 
 his shaggy head on one side, his long, bony, muscular 
 hands extended, finger-tips touching over the right knee, 
 his wide mouth twitching sometimes into a semblance 
 of whimsical smile, Mr. Lincoln waited until his callers 
 had finished, then passed a hand through his bristling 
 hair, then clasped both hands behind his big black- 
 brown head and threw it upon their support and gazed 
 aloft as though for inspiration, then straightened up, and 
 with the sunshine breaking through the sombre lines 
 about his deep-set eyes, began: 
 
 " As I understand it," said he, " the boys want to go 
 back to head the procession as they did when McDowell 
 commanded the division. Now, to do that I ve either 
 got to pull their own general down a peg set him back 
 from the head of the three brigades to that of one or 
 else find some brigadier who ranks such fellows as 
 Augur and Patrick, take him away from the brigade he 
 has been licking into shape, and set him over our friends 
 and neighbors from Wisconsin and Indiana that, too, 
 gentlemen," and here he reached out and picked up a 
 bundle of papers from his desk, " when at least a dozen 
 smart young West Point captains and all the four 
 colonels are being pushed by their friends as the right 
 man to succeed to the command of that particular bri 
 gade. You see they appreciate the stuff our Western 
 lads are made of. Now I can t reduce your Western 
 
WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS 59 
 
 general, and the boys wouldn t thank me for sending 
 them a total stranger. You just say to them for me 
 that I ll send them a brigadier presently who ll see to it 
 that they get everything in creation they are entitled to, 
 righting, feasting or fun, and I ll warrant they ll be satis 
 fied." 
 
 " You wouldn t care to give us his name, Mr. Presi 
 dent," suggested the ambassadors. 
 
 " I shouldn t care, if I knew for certain but Stanton 
 might. You see we ve got a new housekeeper in the 
 War Department now, and we mustn t do anything 
 without consulting that authority." And with that he 
 rose and cordially clasped the hands of his Western visi 
 tors, and the gentlemen had to go, convinced, if not 
 satisfied. 
 
 As for the brigade, it strode away most vigorously on 
 the march to Manassas, was one of the first to reach the 
 storied stream that wound along at the foot of the 
 heights, was one of the most disgusted to find the " im 
 pregnable system of powerful works " held only by 
 Quaker guns and abandoned impedimenta, but to Fred 
 Benton and his general there came a lively sensation in 
 the report from the lips of the bearded colonel of the 
 " Black Hats." His men had stumbled on a lot of letters 
 and luggage unaccountably left behind even in the calm 
 deliberation of the Confederate withdrawal the prop 
 erty of certain officers of the nth Alabama. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 
 
 Most skillfully and leisurely had " Joe " Johnston, the 
 Confederate commander, withdrawn his army to the line 
 of the upper Rappahannock. Placidly had he waited, 
 even after being furnished with copies of the President s 
 war order calling for an advance on February 22d, until 
 it should be apparent that McClellan was beginning to 
 break camp, and when the first of the Union troops, 
 some cavalry under Averell, came twinkling into view 
 along the heights of Centreville, the last of Johnston s 
 fifty thousand all he had to face McClellan s field 
 force of probably double that number was reluctantly 
 riding away from Manassas. More for exercise and the 
 name of the thing than with the idea of a fight, " Little 
 Mac " had sent his big corps forward to the scene of 
 McDowell s defeat of the previous July, and for a whole 
 day Fred Benton and his Badger comrades wandered 
 about the Junction, the Henry house, the Warrenton 
 pike and the old Stone Bridge, gathering relics and in 
 formation, and it was while so occupied that a squad of 
 busy searchers had stumbled on two or three boxes in 
 an abandoned hut boxes that when burst open were 
 found to contain letters, papers and clothing belonging 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 61 
 
 to a prominent captain of the nth Alabama, and, as luck 
 would have it, to First Lieutenant Paul Ladue. 
 
 " Now, what have you got to say? " demanded officers 
 of the Montgomery Guard, a home company, as one of 
 them shook under Benton s paling face an open letter 
 addressed to Ladue. "Will you own up that he was 
 a reb all the time?" 
 
 " No," said Benton, sadly. " He would have re 
 mained there taking care of his old father if it hadn t 
 been for that mob, and more than one of your men was 
 in it, Captain O Kane, as you very well know." 
 
 " I m prayin my boys can meet him, that s all," said 
 the Hibernian leader. 
 
 " Some of them will be past praying for when they 
 do," returned Benton hotly, for his heart was sore, and 
 a new anxiety had come to him. What if some of the 
 letters should prove to be Elinor s his sister s? 
 
 For Benton knew that at last a letter had reached her 
 from Paul Ladue, forwarded under cover from St. 
 Louis. She had frankly written and told him of its com 
 ing told him, moreover, that she had taken it to their 
 father and asked him to read it, and, so far from show 
 ing anger or disapprobation, the Squire had stood irres 
 olute a moment and then taken her in his arms and 
 kissed her and returned her the letter, unread. " But 
 you must know what he says," wrote Elinor to her 
 brother, " for he speaks so beautifully of you and the 
 regard in which he holds you and the regret he feels that 
 writing either to you or to me is impossible, because it 
 
62 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 might injure us you with your superiors and comrades, 
 me with the neighbors here. Yet every fortnight, now 
 that poor Mrs. Ladue is too feeble to leave her bed and 
 Mr. Ladue too apathetic to write, I write for them both 
 sending the letter under cover to a firm in St. Louis, 
 and every month there has come something through the 
 same channel for his father or mother. My letter came 
 in hers." 
 
 It was a manful letter. The poor lad seemed to real 
 ize that they were almost hopelessly parted now and 
 that he had no right whatsoever to stand between her 
 and the possibility of a happier fortune. A portion of 
 his letter read as follows: 
 
 " Mother s few lines, written so slowly and painfully, have told me 
 what an angel of goodness you have been to her, to my father and the 
 children. God only knows how grateful I am to you you whom I dare 
 not hope ever to see again. The die was cast when they drove me 
 away, dear Elinor, and now my fate is bound irrevocably with that of 
 my oldest friends, my father s people and my State. I do not seek to 
 further explain or defend my action. It is done. 
 
 " But if the idea still prevail that within a few months the North can 
 crush with overwhelming force these soldiers of the South, tell your 
 people it is impossible. Every family is represented in the field. Our 
 best and bravest are all in arms, and it will take years to kill us off. 
 Meantime, what may not we be doing ? Why, Elinor, one of our most 
 distinguished officers in the regiment tells me he is own cousin to Fred s 
 general that he owed his appointment as a cadet long years ago to the 
 influence the general brought to bear. You see we are all in it, every 
 family, every name. We have no dissenters as you have. We are a 
 united, enthusiastic people who mean to be utterly free. 
 
 "And so and this is the hardest thing I ever thought to have to 
 write it has to be good-by. Try to think kindly, forgivingly of me if 
 you can. I cannot, and I have no right to, tell you what this costs me. 
 May God in heaven bless and guard you always." 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 63 
 
 Early in December had that letter reached her, and 
 the copy been sent to Fred. No wonder she wished 
 her father to see it, thought he. It showed Paul Ladue 
 in so different a light. Already, however, had the Squire 
 begun to realize that there was far more principle in 
 that fragile-looking dreamer than among his defamers, 
 and hot words had passed between the senior and junior 
 partner again, leading late in the fall to open rupture 
 and a withdrawal of McKinnon from the firm. 
 
 Nor did it surprise either Benton or Gray to find 
 within the month that McKinnon had allied himself with 
 their keenest rivals that those astute practitioners, in 
 deed, had sought the allegiance of the younger man, 
 this, too, in spite of the cloud that had hung over his 
 good name ever since the postmaster s published state 
 ment. Eight months had passed and the matter of that 
 purloined letter was as deep a mystery as ever, and now 
 here at Manassas, and, of all others, to the men of the 
 Badger Brigade had come confirmation of the state 
 ment insisted on by McKenna and denounced as a lie 
 and forgery by Paul Ladue that the fiery young South 
 erner was actually an officer of the nth Alabama. The 
 absent are ever in the wrong, and with sad heart poor 
 Fred listened to the chorus of denunciation that fol 
 lowed the discovery. He knew that within forty-eight 
 hours a dozen letters would be flying homeward with the 
 exciting news, so what was the use of attempting to sup 
 press it? 
 
 By his general s advice he wrote to his father forth- 
 
64 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 with, telling him of the finding of letters and luggage 
 belonging to Paul, the letters all tending to show that he 
 was now an officer of the nth Alabama but that he, 
 Fred, still believed Paul s statement to the effect that he 
 had accepted neither commission nor appointment up to 
 the time he was banished from his Northern home. 
 The General added some words of his own, and then as 
 a courier was to start for Washington from McDowell s 
 headquarters that evening, Fred was given leave to ride 
 thither, and thereby assure their letters going ahead of 
 the others. 
 
 It was an unusually bright and beautiful afternoon, 
 as, followed by his orderly, the young officer took the 
 Sudley Springs road and trotted away northward in 
 search of the corps commander. Already some of the 
 comrade divisions, strung out along the Warrenton 
 Turnpike, had been faced about and started back for 
 Fairfax Courthouse, and it was apparent that beyond 
 Manassas, in search of Johnston, McClellan did not care 
 to go. Averell s cavalry, pushing out southwestward, 
 had spent a day of two in scouting without seeing any 
 thing worthy of mention, and then had drifted back to 
 Manassas for forage and supplies. 
 
 Here and there through the wooded, winding lanes 
 that crossed his path, Fred caught sight of little squads 
 of explorers from his own division, but these became 
 less numerous as he came in view of the now famous 
 Henry house and the cleared fields up the slope to the 
 right. It lacked still two hours to sunset. He was 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 65 
 
 now barely a mile from the Warrenton pike and, with 
 abundant time to spare, he decided to ride to the crest 
 and have a look at the battle ground of the previous 
 year. War with us had not then become the hell de 
 scribed by Sherman two years later. We still handled 
 both the enemy and the musket with gloves. Each in 
 his turn, McDowell and McClellan had declared that the 
 houses of home-keeping Virginians should be held in 
 violate, that property of every kind should be protected. 
 Even when, of its own motion, it sought the shelter of 
 the Union camps, the law demanded its restoration to 
 the master coming with whip and hounds in search of 
 his chattel. Safeguards were still posted at the gates 
 and doorways and over the pens, roosts, smoke-houses 
 and cellars of the complacent households whose sires, 
 sons, and brothers were doubtless with the gray-clad 
 army across the Rappahannock. Benton could see the 
 glint of the sentry s bayonet among the tall shrubbery 
 in front of the Henry house, and a corporal, with a 
 squad of blue-coated guardians, lounged at the gateway 
 ahead of him. But other forces, less heedful of per 
 sonal rights, perhaps, had been there before, and the 
 fence was but a ruin through one of whose numerous 
 gaps he sent his powerful bay and then jogged on up 
 the hillside. Accustomed to the saddle from early boy 
 hood, Fred was a horseman whose easy mastery over 
 the most intractable " mounts " submitted to him for 
 subjugation had won the admiration of such experts as 
 Bayard and Custer, young officers of the regular cavalry 
 5 
 
66 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 frequently visiting division headquarters during the 
 winter. A keen observer, he had studied the carriage 
 and manners of the professional soldiers with whom his 
 staff duties so frequently brought him in contact. Mc- 
 Clellan, McDowell and Fitz John Porter were his mod 
 els of soldierly bearing, dignity and deportment, Phil 
 Kearny his ideal of the fyreux chevalier, while among 
 the few cavalry commands and the famous light bat 
 teries of the regulars rode younger soldiers whom he 
 never tired of watching, Gibbon with the guns of his old 
 brigade, Griffin with the West Point battery. Weed, 
 Ayres, Ames (still crippled and scarred from First Bull 
 Run), Kirby and Hazlett and a dozen jaunty boy gun 
 ners, while Bayard, " Joe " Taylor, Audenried, Sanders 
 and McQuesten, and the dashing troopers of their set 
 were ever the objects of our young Badger s scrutiny. 
 He had profited by his observation and study, and no 
 aide-de-camp in McDowell s big corps, as the spring 
 came on, better adorned his position than did the tall, 
 sinewy Westerner, not yet twenty-two. 
 
 Small wonder was it, therefore, that the few sentries 
 scattered about the house and gardens gazed admiringly 
 at the slender, soldierly figure in the trim-fitting, well- 
 cut uniform. Every detail of his equipment horse fur 
 niture, boots, spurs, belt, sash, sword and gauntlets, 
 holsters and field-glasses was all of the best that ex 
 perts could choose or money buy, for the Squire had 
 not stinted his only son. A stirring picture they made 
 as they halted on the heights, horse and rider silhouetted 
 
In front of him stood the old 
 Virginia homestead. Page 67. 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 67 
 
 against the sky, and a grand picture of Virginia land 
 scape a beautiful picture when the summer clothed 
 the forest in verdure was that outspread before him 
 as he gazed away northwestward. Spanning the hori 
 zon to his left, eight miles or so away, the long, low 
 range of the Bull Run mountains the easternmost 
 parallel of the Blue Ridge stretched from near War- 
 renton until lost in the hazy distance toward the Poto 
 mac opposite Point of Rocks. North and westward the 
 ground fell away before him, criss-crossed with farm 
 fences and country roads, dotted with little hamlets and 
 darkened here and there by copse and grove and forest 
 while, beyond the road by which he came a barren 
 crest, bursting out above abrupt, sloping sides, fringed 
 with scrub oak and cedar, partially hid the view of tan 
 gled woodland that seemed to spread for several miles 
 to and beyond the twisting line of the railway toward 
 that low notch in the Bull Run range the height 
 known as Bald Hill, and a vital point in the summer 
 months soon to come the notch, destined to be the 
 gateway through which the Southern hosts were so 
 soon to swarm upon our rear, already known as Thor 
 oughfare Gap. In front of him, a hundred yards away, 
 stood the old Virginia homestead about whose walls the 
 battle raged that hot July Sunday of the year gone by 
 beneath whose shattered roof the poor mother died, 
 stricken by whirring fragments of shell. Riding thither 
 and skirting the enclosure, he passed on, unchecked by 
 silent, saluting guardsmen, and as he rode something 
 
68 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 prompted him to glance toward the house again, and 
 there at a jagged shell hole, just under the eaves, peer 
 ing at him between the shattered clapboards, his keen 
 eyes caught an instant glimpse of a haggard face a 
 face that, at his glance, was instantly withdrawn. 
 
 Three minutes later, out on the northward edge of 
 the plateau, he unslung his field-glass to study the coun 
 try outspread before him and stretching away in alter 
 nate field and forest, to the dim, white walls of Vienna. 
 Just beneath him, at the foot of the slope and across the 
 shining ribbon of a little stream and the broader, dull 
 red gash of the Warrenton pike, stood the stone house 
 the historic stone house of the by-gone year; just to 
 his right, at the edge of the plateau, the relics of the 
 Robinson homestead, and there in the low ground of the 
 middle distance, the wooded banks of the winding Bull 
 Run. Still thinking of the face at that jagged hole, 
 some sudden impulse prompted him to quickly turn in 
 saddle, to bring the powerful lenses to bear on a little 
 window under the peak of the roof of the Henry house, 
 and there was the face again, furtive, frightened, he 
 could swear, and again, instantly it popped out of sight. 
 
 But his heart had given leap as sudden as the sight, 
 and now was hammering within his breast. Replacing 
 the glass in its leathern case, he whirled his horse to the 
 leftabout and rode straight for the rear entrance to the 
 garden. Another moment and, dismounting, he rapped 
 loudly at the door. A tall, slim man of middle age ap- 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 69 
 
 peared and, with grave courtesy but without welcome 
 in his tones, asked the purpose of his coming. 
 
 " I am Lieutenant Benton, sir aide-de-camp to the 
 general commanding the division guarding your prem 
 ises, and I have a question to ask as to the occupant 
 of your garret." 
 
 Instantly there came from just within the doorway 
 to an inner room a half stifled cry a gasp a rustle of 
 skirts. The tall man turned thither a quick glance of 
 warning and rebuke, then, visibly paler, again faced his 
 caller. 
 
 " You see the condition of my house, sir. It is a 
 mere wreck as the result of the cannonading it sustained 
 from both sides in the battle of last July. We have 
 been trying to make it habitable, and have given succor 
 here to sick neighbors or friends who had no roofs left 
 to cover them only to the sick, sir." 
 
 Benton paused, irresolute. The tall Virginian spoke 
 with so much dignity and sadness. The house, as he 
 said, seemed barely habitable. The garret, especially, 
 was little better than a ruin. The face at that peep 
 hole on the eastern side and at the little window away 
 up under the gable eaves at the north might well have 
 been that of some of the household, yet, even at the dis 
 tance and at the first glance there was a something 
 about it that caused his heart that leap of sudden joy 
 and that kept it bounding still. And then if it should 
 be true if what he hoped and feared were really so, 
 what would be his duty to his general to his country? 
 
70 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Against all enemies or opposers whomsoever " the 
 words of his oath of office came ringing to his ears 
 blazing before his ey^es in letters of fire and without 
 further ado he briefly said, " I am sorry to intrude, sir, 
 but what I saw at that window makes it necessary that 
 I should see the garret. Will you lead the way? " 
 
 For a moment the Virginian hesitated, then, lifting 
 his hat stepped backward to admit his unwelcome visi 
 tor. " We are in your hands, sir," was his half reproach 
 ful answer. " Enter if you will." 
 
 But then came sudden barrier to his further progress. 
 Quickly there stepped into view and stood confronting 
 him at the doorway to the inner room the tall and slen 
 der form of a young girl. Eighteen she might have 
 been, not more, though anxiety and grief had paled her 
 pretty face. But her great, glorious dark eyes were all 
 ablaze as she folded her slender arms and looking the 
 young officer squarely in the face, said, " This is my 
 room, sir, and not subject to search." 
 
 Slowly Fred Benton s gauntleted hand went up to the 
 visor and the natty forage cap was uplifted. The kindly, 
 yet kindling eyes of blue gazed one moment into the 
 unflinching, unmelting eyes of deep, deep brown, then 
 turning deliberately the aide-de-camp inquired: 
 
 " Is there another way to reach the stair? " 
 
 " Only by going round the house to the other door, 
 sir," was the Virginian s reply; whereat Mr. Benton, 
 with bow as ceremonious as though he, too, hailed from 
 the shores of the James, the York or Rappahannock 
 
A STARTLING RESEMBLANCE 71 
 
 instead of the bustling, pragmatical Northwest, looked 
 once more long at the lovely oval face, now surely 
 blushing before him, then turned and left the room. 
 
 Three minutes later he had searched both garret and 
 the upper story and not a sign of occupant was there. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 
 
 When Lieutenant Benton rode away from the Henry 
 house that sunshiny evening the long shadows were 
 slanting across the levels, and the dazzling shield of the 
 day god was well down at the west. Shadows, too, had 
 fallen on the blithe spirits that had been his in the ear 
 lier hours. Surely he could not have been mistaken 
 about that face, thinned and haggard as though from 
 recent illness, and livid with the consciousness of im 
 minent peril; and, if he had not been mistaken, just as 
 surely he had been tricked tricked in all probability by 
 that defiant and yet most attractive Virginia girl. Vir 
 ginian he believed her to be, partly because her accent 
 so resembled that of the very palpable Virginian, the 
 owner, and partly because that courteous and well-man 
 nered native, in answer to somewhat imperious ques 
 tion, said " The young lady, suh, is a daughter of old 
 Doctor Chilton, of Charlottesville." 
 
 To the very natural question that followed, "What 
 was Miss Chilton doing there? " the Virginian had an 
 swer equally prompt and dignified. Her brother, a lieu 
 tenant in Stuart s cavalry, had been accidentally shot by 
 the pickets the dark night of March 4th, had been left 
 
A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 73 
 
 with an attendant at the Thornton place across Bull 
 Run, too badly wounded to be moved when Johnston 
 fell back from Manassas, had bribed his friends to send 
 him away in a cart when he heard of the Union advance, 
 and cart and contents had been run down by other 
 troopers Averell s before they reached Manassas. 
 The wounded boy, delirious with fever, was even now 
 lying in the room his sister guarded. Dr. Alexander, 
 of General McDowell s staff, had twice been to see him. 
 Dr. Chilton had come, bringing his devoted daughter, 
 and then gone on to Fairfax in hopes of obtaining from 
 General McClellan permission to take his son on parole, 
 by slow stages, to Charlottesville, and Miss Chilton 
 meanwhile remained there under what was left of a 
 roof, and what he, Mr. Henry, could offer by way of 
 care and protection. Indeed, there could be little doubt 
 of the presence of a sorely sick man, for fevered moans, 
 mingling with the gentle, soothing, appealing words of 
 the fair nurse could be heard in the adjoining room. 
 Moreover, brief conference with the guard without did 
 much to confirm Benton in his faith in the truth of the 
 statement. They assured him that if anybody else was 
 harbored or hidden there he could not escape, for they 
 were ordered to prevent the occupants from leaving, as 
 well as to protect the premises from harm. 
 
 At five o clock, therefore, the young aide-de-camp 
 went his way, not fully satisfied by any means, but con 
 tent to seek explanation at corps headquarters and to in 
 vestigate further on his return. In point of fact he was 
 
74 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 doubtful as to his duties and prerogatives in the mat 
 ter and needed his general s advice. He meant to tell 
 him just what he feared or suspected that Paul Ladue 
 himself, in some unaccountable manner, had become 
 separated from his regiment, possibly through illness 
 or wounds, and was concealed within the shattered walls 
 of the old Virginia farmhouse. But, just at the time 
 when he most needed the instructions of his own divi 
 sion chief, he was destined to be cut off from him 
 and for many a day. 
 
 It was after sundown, and long after, when at last, 
 riding some miles at swift trot, he overtook the corps 
 commander with his staff on the road beyond Centre- 
 ville. " Ah," said that soldierly leader, " the General is 
 prompt. What time did he start? " 
 
 " Start, sir? " said Benton, his heart beating quick 
 and hard again. " I don t know. I was instructed to 
 deliver this letter and to ask to have these others sent 
 on to Washington by your courier to-night, but I 
 thought to find you west of Centreville, not on the 
 march, sir." 
 
 " Then my orders had not arrived when you left? 
 Why, what hour did you leave, sir?" and McDowell s 
 face reddened as it would when he was annoyed. 
 
 " About four o clock, General, but " 
 
 " Four o clock, sir! Then where on earth have you 
 been all this time?" 
 
 " I came by way of the Henry house to look at the 
 old battle-field, General. We had no idea of your mov- 
 
A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 75 
 
 ing, and there was plenty of time before dark," an 
 swered poor Fred, noting with much concern the omin 
 ous silence of the listening staff and orderlies. 
 
 " You must have stayed an unconscionable time 
 there," grumbled the general, who had not yet ceased 
 to feel touchy at any mention of Bull Run the First. 
 (" Longer than he did last July," laughed O Kane, of 
 the Montgomery s, when told of it.) " Ah, I remember. 
 That pretty daughter of old Chilton s is there. You 
 saw her, I suppose?" 
 
 " I suppose I did, General," was the rueful answer, 
 " though she in no wise sought to detain me. Quite 
 the contrary." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Benton, your division is doubtless follow 
 ing us by this time, and should be across the Run. My 
 compliments to the general and say I will have his 
 letters forwarded. Now, don t get lost in the woods 
 on your way back." 
 
 And thus summarily was the brief interview ended, 
 and the corps commander with his staff rode on. 
 
 Now here was a plight for an aide-de-camp! His 
 tent and all his belongings were with those of division 
 headquarters and would doubtless be taken care of by 
 the staff quartermaster, but where was he to find his 
 general and how? Well he knew the division in 
 marching to follow or overtake the others of the corps 
 and Kearny s Jersey brigade was just striding by him 
 at the moment would probably take the shortest road 
 from the camps about Manassas, would follow the wind- 
 
76 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ing wood roads and cross Bull Run at Blackburn s or 
 Mitchell s Ford, taking the hypothenuse of the triangle 
 instead of the long way around the two adjacent sides 
 formed by the Sudley Springs and Warrenton roads. 
 Yet he had fully intended to be back at the Henry 
 house before this hour that found him still in saddle 
 and crowded off the highway he and his orderly both 
 beginning to get hungry and their horses showing signs 
 of hard riding. It ended in his picking a way past the 
 flank of the marching column, every now and then nar 
 rowly shaving some straggler along the dilapidated 
 stone wall that skirted the pike, and after half an 
 hour s groping, finding himself once more at Centre- 
 ville as the rear of Franklin s fine division was clear 
 ing it. 
 
 On the westward rise of the roadway, just beyond the 
 old stone church in Centreville, the wagons of this the 
 First Division in double column blocked the way, as 
 only one by one could they cross the ramshackle 
 wooden bridge over the dry wash or shallow water 
 course at the east end of the hamlet, and here he was 
 able to coax a few quarts of oats from a complaisant 
 teamster, and while Burns, his orderly, set to work to 
 rub down the horses in the fenceless yard of the first 
 big house to the right of the road, Benton banged at 
 the door in quest of supper. Those were still the early 
 the " velvet " days of the war when almost anything 
 but a square fight could be had for money, and the aide 
 was in no wise surprised to find half a dozen field and 
 
A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 77 
 
 staff officers eating heartily in the kitchen, and rather 
 loudly and coarsely, yet not really ill-naturedly, chaffing 
 an elderly, gray-haired man who, seated by himself at 
 a little table, answered their crude sallies with impertur 
 bable dignity and patience. One of the number knew 
 Benton and jovially hailed him by name: 
 
 " What ho, thou limb of the West! Fred Benton, by 
 all that s lucky! Well met, my bold Badger, for we re 
 well nigh dead broke. Our Boniface here wants a dol 
 lar apiece for our supper and five dollars for the demi 
 john of peach brandy he d been saving for Joe John 
 ston. We can manage the tax for the victuals, Fred. 
 It s the peach that staggers us." And there was un 
 conscious truth in the statement, for the entire party 
 showed symptoms of undue exhilaration. 
 
 " I ll stake you, provided you ve left enough supper 
 for me and my orderly," laughed Benton. " Otherwise 
 I ll see you hanged first. How is it, friend? What 
 can you give me? " and he turned to the man of the 
 house, and he in turn to the tall, unkempt creature in 
 faded calico, hair and complexion, just entering from 
 the " leanto " at the eastward side. A shrug of the 
 scraggy shoulders was the significant reply, supple 
 mented by the brief word " NuthinV 
 
 Somewhere out on the pike a cavalry trumpet 
 sounded " Mount," and the sextette started. " By Jove! 
 There goes the escort, so we must move," cried a burly 
 major. " Come, Benton, fork over and we ll have a 
 stirrup cup." With that he lugged the demijohn from 
 
78 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 underneath the table, slung it by a deft turn of the 
 wrist, camp fashion, across his right forearm, and pro 
 ceeded to pour a liberal shot into the glasses and cups 
 held forth to him. Then the devil of over stimulation 
 sent him lunging across the narrow floor to the table 
 where sat the lonely Virginian. " Come, old chap," he 
 cried, " you re all right. We ve been a little free, per 
 haps. Soldiers will be soldiers, you know. You re a 
 gentleman. Join us in a drink, sir, and a toast. Hey, 
 fellows, let s have a toast." 
 
 "Forward!" rang the trumpets on the soft night 
 wind, and the rumble of wheels gave way to. the clack 
 and clatter of countless hoofs. 
 
 "Come on, major!" shouted Captain Cranston, he 
 who had accosted Benton, and by this time had readily 
 effected the needed loan with unneeded increment. 
 "Come on! Don t bother the gentleman. We must 
 be off." 
 
 But the major was bent on another drink and having 
 the gray-haired stranger share it despite the latter s 
 plea to be excused. 
 
 " One toast just one! " shouted he of the demijohn. 
 " Here s to Little Mac, by Jupiter, the best general the 
 best gentleman in the whole army! Ain t he, old 
 chap?" 
 
 And to the surprise of all, even in the midst of the 
 boisterous talk and confusion as the party searched for 
 discarded sabres and gauntlets, the elderly stranger 
 arose, held forth his glass and courteously said: " Give 
 
A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 79 
 
 me a thimbleful, sir. I ll join you in that with infinite 
 pleasure." 
 
 " Bully for you, old boy! " cried the major, who had 
 gulped a stiff three fingers whereas the Virginian had 
 merely sipped at his glass. " Now, scuse me just two 
 drops more. One more toast. Here s confusion to the 
 Confederacy an everything c nected with it an , 
 an " 
 
 " Oh, come out of this, Mullen! " growled a comrade, 
 grasping him by the arm. " Come out or I ll " 
 
 " Not till I ve had a st rrup cup with this gen leman 
 not till he drinks my toasht I ve drunk his. Ready, 
 sir? Here s confush n to the Confederacy an every 
 body What! You won t drink that? You a damned 
 reb l, too?" and before his friends could interpose the 
 half crazed fellow had lunged threateningly forward at 
 the pallid stranger, who, having set down his glass un 
 touched, stood facing them, one hand uplifted in silent 
 protest. It was Benton who sprang between them and 
 with apparently laughing ease, whirled the major about, 
 and with his powerful hands on the burly shoulders 
 sent him struggling and swearing to the doorway where 
 the others closed about and bore him away, one of their 
 number, a young staff captain, running back to say a 
 word of apology. Then Fred and the stranger found 
 themselves for the moment alone. 
 
 " You have done me a kindness, suh," said the latter. 
 " Did I catch the name a-right? Lieutenant Fred Ben- 
 ton, of of Wisconsin? " 
 
80 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Benton, yes," was the wary answer, for though the 
 word Badger had been spoken, Wisconsin had not. 
 Somebody had talked to this man of him before and 
 now light flashed suddenly upon the situation. 
 
 " Are you pardon me Doctor Chilton, of Char- 
 lottesville? " asked Benton. 
 
 " The same, suh, at your suhvice. I have been to 
 General McClellan for permission to take my son, 
 wounded and paroled, back home, suh. He treated me 
 like the courteous gentleman he is, so I drank his 
 health. Now, pardon me, you have not eaten," and 
 with that Dr. Chilton arose, and followed the whisper 
 ing Darby and Joan into the lean-to, and when he re 
 turned it was with an air of mild triumph. 
 
 u You shall be suhved, suh, in a very few moments, 
 also your orderly " (he called it " ohdly "). " You ride 
 on to Fairfax? " 
 
 " No," said Benton, " I look to meet my division 
 somewhere about here. They come by way of the lower 
 fords, as I am told." 
 
 "Then they are retiring from the Junction, too?" 
 asked the veteran, an eager light in his eye. 
 
 " I cannot say," answered Benton, coldly now, for the 
 sudden question put him on his guard. 
 
 " Pardon me, suh, if I seem over pleased. I have no 
 reason to rejoice. I am too old to serve, even if my 
 people had not opposed the ordinance of secession, and 
 no enemy could be so courteous and considerate as 
 General McClellan and the officers of your own divi- 
 
A STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES 81 
 
 sion. My son, suk, and any other Virginia boy would 
 do the same, I reckon went with his State, went with 
 Jeb Stuart, suh, who is his second cousin, and it is hard 
 to say which is the more distressed over his being shot 
 my son, because it was a Southern not a Northern 
 bullet that did the business, or the unhappy fellow who 
 gave the order to fire." 
 
 "Who was that?" inquired Benton, thinking more 
 and more of the face he had seen at the window. 
 
 " Mr. Ladue, suh Lieutenant Paul Ladue, of the 
 nth Alabama. He was on picket duty that night." 
 
 But Benton, with eager eyes, was rising from his 
 chair, unmindful even of the smoking supper the host 
 was dishing from the stove. Voices and the trampling 
 of horses feet were heard without. One voice that he 
 knew well rang out clearly over all other sounds. 
 
 " You look to it, Captain, and find Benton. The rest 
 of us will ride ahead after General McDowell." 
 
 In no time at all Fred was hurrying round to the 
 front, but already the general and the few staff officers 
 and orderlies with him had disappeared in the eastward 
 darkness, riding at spanking trot, leaving to represent 
 them only a captain and one trooper a captain who 
 gave a shout of joy and relief when he heard Benton s 
 glad hail and caught a glimpse of his face. 
 
 "The Lord be praised!" he cried. "I feared you 
 
 had gone back the way you came. If so you might 
 
 run slap into the rebel lines, for they must have heard 
 
 of the fall-back orders Stuart s cavalry are already up 
 
 6 
 
8% THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 from Warrenton and his advance has been skirmishing 
 against our rear-guard toward Bristoe ever since five 
 o clock. I was sent to warn our guards and sentries 
 at the Henry and Robinson houses, and found them all 
 in a state of excitement that pretty Miss Chilton dis 
 appeared during the hour between seven and eight, just 
 after it grew dark." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Ten o clock of the still, starlit night and, entering the 
 sleepy old hamlet of Centreville by the road from 
 Mitchell s Ford and passing through without halt or 
 pause, a long dense column in dusty blue went trudging 
 away to Fairfax by the broad, stone-ribbed pike. In 
 compact order the leading brigade of the Third Division 
 had just cleared the village and the general command 
 ing the second in column had turned out to the left to 
 observe the march when Captain Carver of the division 
 staff, striding up from the westward, stood at salute and 
 bade the brigadier good evening. 
 
 " The very man I wish to see ! " said the general. 
 " Some of my people ran foul of an old F. F. V. about 
 a mile down the road. He had McClellan s own pass 
 to the Henry house and beyond, and safe conduct for 
 a wounded son to Charlottesville. He claimed that he 
 had lost his way. Now is it likely a Virginian could 
 lose the broad pike and get into a wood road a night 
 like this? I sent an orderly to show him through the 
 fields to Cub Run bridge there s a wood road just wide 
 enough for his old ambulance but I ve been thinking 
 
84 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 over it ever since. Why should he be trying to go to 
 the lower fords? " 
 
 " I know all about him, General," was Carver s 
 prompt reply. " I found him back here in the village. 
 He d just got Benton a bite to eat when I came along 
 with the news that his pretty daughter had disappeared 
 from the Henry house Meredith s men were on guard 
 there and sent a courier to us at the gallop. The news 
 upset him completely." 
 
 " Did you say Benton was here in Centreville? 
 Then where s the General?" 
 
 " Way ahead, sir. General McDowell sent word for 
 him to come forward and join him and leave Meredith to 
 look after the rear-guard, etc. It may change the plan 
 when he hears that Stuart is following us up. Yes, sir, 
 Benton was there, but my horse is lame and I got him 
 to ride back to stone bridge. One regiment at least 
 will have to come that way, and I ll wait for him here. 
 He will bring word when Meredith s rear-guard is safe 
 across Bull Run." 
 
 "How long before Benton did Dr. Chilton start?" 
 asked the general, after a moment of reflection. 
 
 " Half an hour or more, sir. It may be that he knew 
 his daughter had friends at Lewis s, or perhaps at the 
 Junction, but it stampeded him to think of her being 
 out alone with stragglers in those interminable wood 
 paths." 
 
 The general shuddered. " I m glad Benton has gone 
 back," said he. " I know those Chiltons they are blue 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 85 
 
 bloods all of them. God help the man that lays hand 
 on that girl if I catch him! Let me hear what Benton 
 reports, will you, Carver? " and with that they parted. 
 
 Long into that eventful night, impatient, anxious and 
 finally in deep distress did Carver wait, but no Benton 
 came. At midnight the head of Meredith s column 
 came swinging through from Mitchell s Ford, but no 
 word reached him from the westward road that by 
 the stone bridge to Groveton, Gainesville and beyond 
 that along which he had sent Fred Benton, who for his 
 part had been most eager to go. At two in the morn 
 ing the first tidings reached him: Major May with four 
 stout companies of Hoosiers Meredith s own halted 
 at the edge of the village and were bidden to lie down 
 and rest until the remainder of the regiment appeared. 
 Carver plied the officers with questions. Certainly they 
 had met Benton, but it was beyond the bridge. He 
 had an old Virginia doctor in tow, with a rickety ambu 
 lance, and was going to the Henry house to gather up 
 a wounded Reb officer. Yes, the sentries there were 
 to be withdrawn as soon as the rear-guard fell back 
 from the railway. Averell s men had been skirmishing 
 with Stuart s fellows until dark, and Meredith was in a 
 fit about some girl that had been spirited away from 
 the Henry house. What they feared was that she had 
 been abducted, and Benton and his doctor friend 
 couldn t rest till they found out. What time was this? 
 Oh, somewhere about ten o clock! And with this 
 meagre news had Carver to be content until nearly 
 
36 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 dawn when the last of the Indianas came tramping up 
 the pike from the lowlands to the west, and they had 
 a story to tell of adventurous, gray-jacketed, black- 
 plumed troopers who, just as the last guards were leav 
 ing the plateau in the direction of the Lewis house, or 
 Portici, came galloping across Young s Branch from 
 the northwest, right under Henry house hill, and 
 scrimmaging with some fellows down on the pike at the 
 crossing of the Sudley lane. The whole gang was off 
 and away toward Groveton long before a battalion 
 could be gathered up and marched back to the scene. 
 
 Not until weeks after could Fred Benton s own 
 story be told, but it was a strange and thrilling one. 
 With infinite sympathy he and the orderlies had aided 
 Dr. Chilton to harness his horses to the old-fashioned, 
 side-seated, half bus, half ambulance he had brought 
 with him from Warrenton borrowed, probably, from 
 the hotel, or possibly some field hospital, as the best 
 available vehicle in which to convey his wounded boy. 
 The doctor was tremulous with dread and distress on 
 account of his beloved daughter, and utterly unable to 
 account for her strange disappearance. 
 
 She had been left there under the care of Mr. Henry 
 to nurse and soothe her fevered brother until the 
 father s return. Dr. Alexander had been there early 
 that morning before Chilton started in quest of General 
 McClellan, in fact the two came away at the same time, 
 and Alexander had left abundant medicine and the 
 prophecy that by evening the patient would sleep, and 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 87 
 
 that was what was very much needed. Chilton could 
 think of no reason whatever for her wandering beyond 
 sight of the sentries, and surely they would not dare 
 
 He drove away, with all speed toward stone bridge, 
 pass and papers in his outer pocket, so as to be able to 
 promptly show his credentials to any sentries or patrols, 
 and Benton was trying, half an hour later, to satisfactor 
 ily account for what he had heard and thought he had 
 seen that day, when Carver came for him to say his 
 horse was dead lame. He had been directed to remain 
 behind and to see the last detachments across the Run, 
 then to rejoin the chief as soon as he had found Benton. 
 This, therefore, was Benton s chance and he begged. 
 
 " Let me go back," said he, " and you take your or 
 derly s horse, if you can t get another, and report to 
 the general in the morning." 
 
 And so about ten o clock Fred had reached the stone 
 bridge, found it held by a small guard, and with that 
 guard was a young officer who had been at the Robin 
 son and Henry houses two hours before and had heard 
 all about the circumstances connected with Miss Chil- 
 ton s disappearance had indeed been there for some 
 time and had seen her. She had come to the rear door 
 with Mr. Henry about half past five o clock, and very 
 sweetly and smilingly had told the guards her brother 
 was sleeping at last and that she needed a little fresh 
 air. Lieutenant Ferguson was in command of the 
 guard, " And you know what an eye for a pretty girl 
 Ferguson has," and he begged her to consider the pre- 
 
88 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 mises hers, and probably wanted to walk with her, but 
 for twenty minutes she tripped about the old, dismantled 
 garden, going all around it as though interested in what 
 was left of the hollyhocks and sunflowers, and, about 
 six, Lewis came and called her and said supper was 
 ready, and she seemed reluctant to go in, but finally 
 yielded, telling Ferguson that if there were no objec 
 tions she would finish her walk later. It might be dark 
 and chilly, but she knew the garden now and would 
 throw a shawl over her head. Ferguson said, " By all 
 means," and sure enough, right after dark, out she came 
 again, slim and fragile-looking, but well wrapped up, 
 and Henry begged her not to stay out long. We saw 
 her flitting about in the dim light of the camp-fire and 
 lanterns a moment or two, then she seemed to take to 
 the outer edge of the enclosure, and then, by Jove, she 
 disappeared totally. They hunted everywhere, and 
 while they were hunting Captain Carver rode up with 
 orders for Ferguson and was told what had happened. 
 He was compelled to leave at once, but the search con 
 tinued. " It is a perfect mystery," said the lieutenant, 
 removing his cap and wiping his brow. 
 
 Then while they were talking, the sentries challenged 
 at the bridge, and, to the amaze of Benton, who should 
 appear but old Dr. Chilton with his country omnibus 
 and the strange explanation that he had lost the road 
 got way south toward the lower fords and had been 
 turned back by no less a personage than General Augur, 
 whom he had met at Washington several years before 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 89 
 
 when the general was a captain of regulars. Benton s 
 guarantee to the guard was sufficient, and they let the 
 doctor go on his westward way and Benton went with 
 him, that he might give the anxious father these further 
 particulars as they trotted along the dim, shadowy vista 
 of the famous old thoroughfare. At Young s Branch 
 crossing not a mile beyond stone bridge they had met 
 May s battalion, and after five minutes talk with the 
 officers, again pushed on, while the Hoosiers tramped 
 for Centreville. Benton had determined now to revisit 
 the Henry house and make still further investigation. 
 
 But he never reached it. Pushing westward along 
 the pike they noted that all was darkness about the old 
 Robinson place on the rise to the south, and then were 
 surprised to see lights flitting about the stone house, 
 close to the road on the right hand side. Then voices 
 in excited tones were heard within. Two or three were 
 harsh and threatening, one was uplifted in mingled plea 
 and protest, and then, from the direction of the Sudley 
 road, only a few yards away, came shadowy forms, just 
 visible under the starlight. "Halt!" was the instant 
 order from Benton s lips, low, yet commanding, and his 
 revolver seemed to leap from the holster. " Who are 
 you?" 
 
 " Patrol Nineteenth Indiana," was the prompt an 
 swer. " Is that you, Lieutenant Benton? Three of our 
 fellows strayed away, and the captain ordered me down 
 here to look em up. They ve called in the guard at the 
 Henry house where you were this afternoon." 
 
90 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Your men are here in this house, and you re just 
 in time, I fancy," for now there were sounds of scuffle 
 and violence. Benton was off his horse in a second and, 
 followed by the sergeant and two or three men, hurled 
 himself at the door, which gave way before his impetu 
 ous rush, and in another moment he had sprung 
 through one dismantled room into another at the rear 
 of the house, and there came upon a sight that explained 
 the whole situation a demijohn the mate to the one 
 he had seen at Centreville stood on a rude sideboard, 
 with only one civilian to defend it against three sturdy 
 lads in full marching order who had evidently just had 
 enough " peach " to be mad for more. One of them 
 had grappled with the owner, the other two were watch 
 ing a chance for a leap at the prize when Benton and 
 the sergeant burst in upon them. 
 
 Shame-stricken, caught in the act, the three maraud 
 ers faced the rescuing party and sheepishly, foolishly, 
 furtively glanced about them, from the tall staff officer 
 to the grinning comrades at his back. 
 
 " Are these your missing men, sergeant?" demanded 
 Benton. 
 
 " They are, sir." 
 
 "What do they owe you, sir?" demanded the aide, 
 turning to the elderly man at the sideboard who 
 was nursing a bruised throat, yet looking infinitely 
 thankful. 
 
 " They don t owe me cept for a few drinks of peach 
 I d a given them that gladly if they d said they were 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 91 
 
 dry and hadn t any money, but when it came to takin 
 the demijohn I lowed it was robbery." 
 
 " How dare you men break in here? " demanded Ben- 
 ton, sternly. " You know the orders against plunder 
 ing. Take their names, sergeant, and turn them over 
 to the guard when you overtake the regiment. Major 
 May s battalion is only a mile or so ahead of you." 
 
 " May I say a word, sir? " asked one of the trio, step 
 ping forward, with a shifty salute, for all three seemed 
 sobered by their plight. 
 
 " Say on." 
 
 " We didn t break in, sir. The door was open, the 
 light in the window. We were down here before eight 
 o clock with the sergeant, trying to find news of the 
 young lady, and this fellow can tell about her and won t 
 tell. It was that we came to see about. He set up the 
 peach to keep us from peaching, " and the scamp had 
 the impudence to grin over his own conceit. 
 
 " Take those men outside," ordered Benton, implac 
 ably, " and ask Dr. Chilton to step in here a moment. 
 I m afraid you re hurt," he continued, for the man 
 had turned pale and was leaning against the sideboard 
 for support. At sound of the name " Chilton " he 
 started and glared. Obediently the sergeant marched 
 his prisoners to the outer air, and, presently, in came 
 the doctor. One quick glance passed between him and 
 the pallid Virginian. 
 
 "You here now, Jennings!" cried the newcomer; 
 " and hurt? How did it happen? When did you get 
 
92 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 here? Have you seen do you know anything of Rosa 
 lie?" and by this time his practised finger was at the 
 other s pulse the other who for all reply glanced sig 
 nificantly, warningly toward Benton, and seemed striv 
 ing to bid his friend be silent. But the doctor was all 
 impatience. 
 
 "Speak man! This gentleman is a friend a friend 
 in need. You have seen her. Is she safe? Is she 
 harmed?" 
 
 " Safe," was the sententious answer, with still another 
 significant look, disregarded as before by Chilton. 
 
 " But what does it mean? Why should she leave 
 Henry s? She was to take care of her brother till I 
 returned. Had anybody dared affront her there? 
 Where is she, Jennings? Answer me, man! " 
 
 But despite the almost agonized appeal, despite the 
 assurance that Benton, though in the garb of the enemy 
 was yet a friend, the Virginian could not reply. " Wait, 
 doctor wait till you see Judge Armistead. He ll tell 
 you the hull story. He s coming over from Hopewell 
 this evening " 
 
 "Judge Armistead here? And she went with him, 
 do you mean and left my boy? Why, Jennings, I can t 
 believe it." 
 
 And then the Hoosier sergeant again came to the 
 door. 
 
 " Sharp firing, Lieutenant, south of us! Shall I fol 
 low Major May or turn after the guard toward the 
 Lewis place? " 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 93 
 
 Leaving the two Virginians Benton stepped outside. 
 The moon was just peeping above the trees toward the 
 distant heights of Centreville and near by objects were 
 become more readily visible in the faint and mystic 
 light. Somewhere to the south toward the Junction 
 Stuart s venturesome troopers had come in view of 
 slowly retiring parties of the Western brigade and a 
 fairly brisk fusilade was the result. For a moment the 
 officer listened to the spiteful crackle of carbine and 
 rifle, then answered the question. " Better follow the 
 major and lively, too. I ll catch you before you ve 
 gone quarter of a mile." 
 
 He felt that it was now unsafe to return to the Henry 
 house. The guard was gone. The chances were that 
 within a few minutes Stuart s troopers would be coming 
 up the Sudley road from the south. He would say a 
 word of farewell to Dr. Chilton, then follow his men. 
 Leaving the horses with the orderly in front, he once 
 more turned, and as he entered the rear room, stopping 
 a most excited conversation, he was amazed to see 
 the back door which had been shut and barred three 
 minutes before, swiftly closing behind a slender figure 
 in the trim frock coat of gray the uniform of the Con 
 federate service. He caught the merest fraction of a 
 glimpse of a pallid, oval face, framed in a mass of dark, 
 waving hair under a cavalier hat of felt a glimpse of 
 the gleam of buttons and gold lace. He saw the same 
 form flash by the northward window, and instead of 
 pursuing, whirled about, sprang through the front 
 
94 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 door again and round to the westward side of the 
 house just missing collision with a panting corporal 
 who cried, " Reb officer ran down this way from the 
 Henry house. Me and Hinks followed." All in an 
 instant then his suspicions were confirmed. All in a 
 second s time, it seemed, he had hurled himself on a dim, 
 lithe, yet fragile form and, clasping it in his arms, 
 strained it, despite furious struggles, to his breast. 
 " Paul Paul! " he cried. " Don t you know me? Fred? 
 Surrender, you blessed boy Reb, surrender. Heavens, 
 man, don t scratch!" for two furious little hands were 
 tearing at his cheeks. " Speak, you sinner. Haven t 
 I known since five o clock twas you I saw at the win 
 dow?" 
 
 But so far from speaking, only panting incoheren- 
 cies escaped the lips of his captive. Straining, squirm 
 ing, heaving, struggling, the slender, sinewy form 
 writhed and palpitated in his clasp, a heart was throb 
 bing like mad against his, and while he still clung with 
 one arm to his prize, he seized and captured with the 
 other hand a long, slim-fingered, sharp-nailed little 
 member that was bent, apparently, on tearing out his 
 eyes, and then, swaying and staggering, Benton bore his 
 prize into the moonlit space beyond just as the doctor 
 and the Virginian, lantern-bearing, came stumbling out 
 into the night. The yellow gleam fell full on a beauti 
 ful, dark, flushing face, framed in masses of dusky hair 
 tumbling about the sloping shoulders and down the 
 slender back for the natty slouch hat had been lost 
 
A WOMAN S DARING 95 
 
 somewhere in the scuffle fell upon glowing, indignant, 
 magnificent eyes, upon flashing white teeth, upon lovely, 
 ruddy, parted lips, and in amaze, yet still clinging to 
 his lovely captive, Benton stammered: 
 
 " Not Paul, but, whoever you are my prisoner! " 
 " Not Paul nor your prisoner! " was the sudden, ex 
 ultant answer, in a voice that ever since early evening 
 had been ringing in his ears. " Not your prisoner. 
 You re ours! Do you hear?" And out of the silence 
 of the night there burst the thunder of galloping hoofs, 
 close upon them, sweeping like a tornado over the open 
 fields to the northwest, and then there came, whirling 
 into view and surging all about them a swarm of shout 
 ing, jubilant cavaliers Stuart s Virginians in all their 
 early glory. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A BADGER IN THE TOILS 
 
 The rest of that night was long a blank in Benton s 
 mind. He had vague recollection of a furious struggle, 
 of trampling horses, of shining, whirling sabre blades, 
 of a leap to saddle and frantic effort to cut his way 
 through circling foes, of riders shouts, a woman s 
 scream, a crushing blow that nearly split his skull, and 
 then oblivion until morning; and the face bending 
 fondly, anxiously over him, as he opened his eyes, was 
 that of Paul Ladue, and the first words that faltered 
 from his lips were: "Paul, poor old boy! How sick 
 you must have been ! " for, white and haggard and dis 
 tressed, the winsome features of the year gone by the 
 dream face of his chosen friend, seemed aged and worn 
 almost beyond recognition. 
 
 Then there were hours of trundling over rough, half 
 frozen roads, with a racking pain in his fevered head 
 and incessant thirst. Bearded faces came and peered 
 at him from time to time, not in enmity or hate, but al 
 most in soldier sympathy, and one young fellow in a 
 gray jacket and cap three sizes too big for him, perched 
 on the back step of the ambulance in which he rode and 
 gave him frequently cool water from his canteen. The 
 
A BADGER IN THE TOILS 97 
 
 letters U. S. in black were on the white canvas cover, 
 and the letters C. S. in gilt on the clumsy gray forage 
 cap, and Fred dreamily sought to reconcile the discrep 
 ancy until his boy attendant divined his thoughts and 
 with an embarrassed laugh explained that this was " one 
 of the wheeled things left behind at stone bridge last 
 July." From time to time, too, Dr. Chilton came and 
 ministered to and comforted him. " It s the fotune of 
 wah, my deah suh," said he. " Yes dy my boy, my 
 daughter and young Ladue yahnduh were all in your 
 hands. Now it s just the other way. Be patient, suh. 
 Once across the Rappahannock we ll take to the cyahs. 
 This side the river the railway is all ripped up." 
 
 Four patients had Chilton to care for now, it seems, 
 and by General Johnston s orders, fast as they could 
 possibly be transported, he was conveying them under 
 cavalry escort beyond the river. In very serious plight 
 was his own gallant boy, the lieutenant of the First 
 Virginia Cavalry, to rescue whom his comrades had 
 made that wide detour and sudden and surprising swoop 
 from the northward side of the pike. Consciousness 
 had returned to him after the long sleep of the previous 
 evening, and now the tossing of the light, springy am 
 bulance over the rough, rutted pike gave him torment 
 unspeakable. Reclining in the second ambulance 
 throughout the morning hours was Miss Chilton, suffer 
 ing both from shock and partial collapse, for she had 
 been knocked down by a rushing, riderless horse in the 
 midst of the melee in front of the stone house and se- 
 7 
 
98 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 verely bruised and shaken. Yet was that young woman 
 brimming over with indignation at her father because 
 he would not let her rise and nurse her brother, and at 
 every halt for rest or repairs, food or water, her voice 
 could be heard in emphatic protest and appeal. Third 
 on the list of invalids, but insisting on remaining in 
 saddle, was Lieutenant Paul Ladue the unhappiest 
 man in the party, worn down with grief and anxiety. 
 Fourth and last was Fred Benton, with a bandaged 
 skull and a broken arm captured in the moment of 
 supposed victory. 
 
 In the gray of the dawn that followed the fight 
 Stuart s troopers had been able to bring forward three 
 ambulances, to give the doctor and his party a soldier 
 breakfast and start them westward along the pike. At 
 Gainesville they had been joined by Judge Armistead, 
 an honored and beloved neighbor, who since the out 
 break of the unhappy war had retired to his old country 
 home near Hopewell Gap, and with the judge, or rather 
 in one of the houses of the little hamlet at the forks 
 of the great highway, was Lieutenant Paul Ladue, self- 
 incarcerated until he could exchange the garb in which 
 he had made his escape from the Henry house the pre 
 vious evening, for the stunning regimentals still in pos 
 session of Rosalie Chilton. 
 
 Already the story of that romantic and stirring epi 
 sode was going from bearded lip to lip among the riders 
 of Stuart s Horse, and before the second sunset follow 
 ing Fred Benton s capture he had heard almost every 
 
A BADGER TN THE TOILS 99 
 
 word of it, so what was so widely known may just as 
 well be told here. The dark night of the fourth of 
 March had been a sorry one for Paul Ladue. Ever 
 since the previous week he and his comrades had been 
 looking for the second coming of the Yankee columns 
 from the forts in front of Washington. Day after day, 
 armed with field-glasses, in belfry, tree or steeple, John 
 ston s lookouts watched for the first sight of screening 
 cavalry. Night after night, eastward along the pike 
 toward Fairfax and northward along the wood-roads, 
 Stuart s patrols scoured the approaches, eager for a 
 chance to show their mettle and gather in the venture 
 some advance-guard of the Union force. They were 
 all " green " at such work, North and South both. Al 
 ready had the Northern volunteers, marching by night, 
 on converging roads, twice opened fire and killed or 
 wounded several in each party before discovering their 
 blunder. It was all nervous business for new and in 
 experienced officers and, as luck would have it, Paul 
 Ladue, only just up from a debilitating fever, found 
 himself commanding an infantry outpost north of Bull 
 Run, heard afar out at the front the neigh of horses 
 and presently the dull tramping of hoofs. He was at 
 the moment accompanied only by a little picket guard 
 of a corporal and three men. The skies were overcast, 
 the gloom intense, and the wind at intervals was sway 
 ing the bows and rustling the dead leaves in the thickets 
 by the roadside. No cavalry had been in their front at 
 sunset. None had passed out that way, and when at 
 
100 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 brisk trot, all ignorant of their proximity to the pickets, 
 the troopers came surging down the lane, never hear 
 ing, probably, and certainly never heeding the order to 
 halt, Ladue shouted fire and, sorely wounded, young 
 Chilton fell from his horse. 
 
 Five seconds more and the error was discovered. 
 Chilton and his platoon had taken the wrong road 
 somewhere south of Chantilly and, instead of rejoining 
 their squadron, had stumbled on the pickets. There 
 was more or less soldier recrimination, but, quickly as 
 possible, the wounded officer was borne in a blanket to 
 a neighboring farmhouse, and a trooper galloped to 
 Gainesville for a surgeon. Ladue spent a sleepless and 
 miserable night, was exonerated by his division com 
 mander and Stuart when the matter was investigated 
 next day, but was so utterly broken up over the affair 
 that permission was given him to go back again and 
 remain with Chilton until he could be moved. It had 
 developed that during Paul s illness he had been for 
 three weeks at Charlottesville, constantly attended by 
 Dr. Chilton and frequently visited, nursed, read to and 
 otherwise entertained by Dr. Chilton s most winsome 
 daughter as enthusiastic a little Southron and rebel as 
 her father had been conservative and Union loving. 
 Ladue left them full of gratitude, full of promise to find 
 the gallant young trooper of whom they talked inces 
 santly, full of project to make much of him in every way, 
 and the very first duty his evil star had assigned to him 
 was that in the course of which he had shot his bene- 
 
A BADGER IN THE TOILS 101 
 
 factor s only son sweet Rosalie v Chilton s beloved 
 brother. . ;, : \ \\ - *: /v ;/ . 
 
 No wonder Ladue, with his high-strung, hypersensi 
 tive organization, was nearly mad with misery, yet he 
 had managed for two days to be very helpful and a great 
 comfort to the stricken lad and was hopefully awaiting 
 the coming of an ambulance on the third day when his 
 patient suddenly took a turn for the worse. The divi 
 sion surgeon said it would be a serious matter to take 
 him that long ride back to Warrenton and suggested 
 Ladue s going over to the home of Judge Armistead at 
 Hopewell and arranging to have the lad moved thither. 
 This was on the eighth of March, and up to noon they 
 had no sign of soldiers coming from the east or north, 
 although for three days Johnston had been sending 
 sick, wounded and supplies to the Rappahannock and 
 was now following with his whole command. At Hope- 
 well, said the surgeon, Lieutenant Chilton would be in 
 comfort, far out of the line of Yankee invasion, and 
 the judge and his fair daughter Lucy would do every 
 thing possible to promote his recovery. Ladue could 
 be with him, too, and if Yankee cavalry should come 
 scouting up there in the Bull Run range, why, Ladue 
 could hide and Chilton give his parole until regularly 
 exchanged. 
 
 So Paul had gone, never counting on Chilton s tak 
 ing the bit in his teeth. And when late at night he re 
 turned to Thornton, weak and weary, he was aghast to 
 learn that with only his body servant and a trooper 
 
102 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 nurse, Chiiton had- starred southward that evening by 
 the Stsdley. roa,d, bent on escaping from the now her 
 alded advance of the Union- blae. Despite fatigue and 
 failing strength, Ladue followed, caught them at the 
 Henry house, and was within that historic wreck, con 
 sulting the owner as to the best roads to follow while 
 the farm wagon, with its solitary escort was toiling up 
 the slope from the crossing of the pike, when all on a 
 sudden there came a cloud of blue-jacketed, yellow- 
 trimmed troopers sweeping across the field from the 
 southeast, and Mr. Henry had barely time to hide his 
 visitor under the flooring in the garret when they were 
 dismounting by the dozen and jovially swarming all 
 over the premises. 
 
 Another moment, too, and they had surrounded the 
 wagon with its helpless load. Then Averell himself had 
 ridden up to investigate, and one of his first orders was 
 that the Henry house and grounds were to be protected 
 against all possibility of pillage or vandalism. 
 
 Again must it be remembered that we were still at a 
 sentimental stage of the war the United States hold 
 ing long, as it has in dealing with savage and semi- 
 civilized foe, mob, Modoc or Malay, to the theory that 
 courtesy and forbearance are weapons more potent than 
 shot and steel, for turning the heart of the enemy and 
 leading him to the light. Sad experience long since 
 had taught the soldier the futility of such practice, even 
 when dealing with our brethren of the South. But the 
 statesmen most in evidence and power when such mat- 
 
A BADGER IN THE TOILS 103 
 
 ters are under discussion at the Capitol speak beauti 
 fully, eloquently from the viewpoint of a section geo 
 graphically over the furthest removed from the seat of 
 conflict and impervious, therefore, to the rule " experi- 
 entia docet." We went into that war with the South 
 hailed as vandals, hirelings, mudsills and the like and 
 stood guard over the teeming storehouses and cellars 
 of scores of families whose sons and sires were fighting 
 us at the front and whose mothers, wives and daughters 
 too often reviled or ridiculed their very guardians. It 
 is the way of the enlightened, the merciful and the im 
 practical, but it is the way to prolong and protract a war 
 and make it cost vastly more in blood and treasure 
 at the far distant end than had it been fought, without 
 gloves, from the start. 
 
 The Henry house had been for a time the vortex of 
 furious fight that July Sunday of 61. The aged, bed 
 ridden mother, as has been said, had died under her 
 own roof-tree, riddled by shell and spherical case shot. 
 Everybody sympathized with the unhappy family, and it 
 was but natural that both sides, having done the dam 
 age, should seek to repay it by subsequent care and 
 kindness. Within those guarded walls, therefore, poor 
 young Chilton, racked with pain, was borne and given 
 stimulant ; and when later the infantry of McDowell s 
 Corps relieved the cavalry, and the black-bearded divi 
 sion commander rode over to see the place, the orders 
 to permit no intrusion or plunder were emphasized, and 
 from his own stores the general sent wine and food to 
 
104 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 the wounded captive and much appreciated supplies to 
 the man of the house. 
 
 But while none save officers of rank or their repre 
 sentatives might enter, none of the inmates, even offi 
 cers, might now go out save by express sanction of the 
 senior general along that front. It wouldn t do to have 
 Mr. Henry or Black Dan, his henchman, or Chilton s 
 body servant Fabius (originally Scipio, but changed 
 while young marse was pursuing his classical studies at 
 the university, because of a manifest tendency on the 
 darkey s part to delay even in waiting) skipping away 
 with information as to the numbers, plans, etc., of the 
 Yankees about Manassas, and so it had happened that 
 for two days Paul Ladue lay concealed within the Henry 
 house once when the guard was changed hearing 
 voices he recognized as those of men he well knew in 
 his Western home. Will he ever forget the afternoon 
 that brought the division commander to the spot? Dr. 
 Alexander was gently examining his new and sore- 
 stricken patient ; Henry was smoking his corn-cob pipe 
 at the back steps, describing to a knot of Sixth Wis 
 consin men the battle in which their comrades of the 
 Second had been so conspicuous, when the word was 
 passed from the sentries at the front : " Here comes the 
 general! " and while the guard sprang to their stacked 
 arms, Paul Ladue, crouching sadly in the little garret, 
 crept to the westward side and peered through a crevice 
 at the coming cavalcade. 
 
 All in the uniform of their rank, in frock coats, belts 
 
A BADGER IN THE TOILS 105 
 
 and sashes, gauntlets and forage caps, with regulation 
 horse equipments, for, thus early in the campaign men 
 cared more for style than they did after ceaseless 
 marching to and fro, in sun and dust and mud and rain, 
 had taught them the vanity of all pomp and circum 
 stance in war the general and his little staff made gal 
 lant show as they breasted the slope. There were only 
 five in all, with three orderlies and no escort, but in 
 three of the five Ladue saw the faces of men whom he 
 had looked up to, honored and esteemed, while the face 
 of the fourth was that of the faithful and devoted friend 
 whom he had loved as David loved Jonathan. Only a 
 few moments did they remain, the general, in his cour 
 teous, kindly tone talking with Mr. Henry, then they 
 turned and rode away, and Ladue threw himself upon 
 the floor, face downward, so weak, so broken, so sick 
 at heart that it was a relief to sob like homesick child. 
 
 And so Henry found him, when in his stocking feet, 
 a little later, he climbed the ladder to the loft with won 
 drous news. Dr. Chilton and his daughter were com 
 ing were even then on their way from Warrenton. 
 
 Much of the early morning of the following day he 
 spent with Rosalie by the side of the wounded boy. 
 Now that Dr. Chilton had gone on in search of the 
 commanding general, hopeful of permission to take his 
 crippled soldier home, the vital question arose, What 
 was to become of Paul ? He had no excuse for parole. 
 He had not been grievously wounded. He was there 
 of his own volition, undiscovered, within the hostile 
 
106 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 lines, and, though wearing his new and natty uniform 
 and in no sense a spy, still, the lot of Southern prisoner 
 in Northern hands was a problem yet unsolved. The 
 South might well refuse, even while yet exchanges were 
 possible, to ask for the return of an officer as incon 
 spicuous and unlucky as he. Shy and sensitive as ever, 
 the poor lad believed he had lost caste among his fel 
 lows, and that if captured it would be regarded as an 
 act of self-surrender a well planned move on his part 
 to escape the imminent perils of the war now opening 
 in good earnest. The thought was maddening, and 
 Rosalie Chilton saw it, and the daring, quick-witted girl 
 it was who planned the escape so successfully effected. 
 
 Little luggage had she brought with her on that hur 
 ried journey, but, soon as it was dusk, she doffed the 
 gown and skirt she wore even the crinoline, at that 
 period of our national life regarded as indispensable to 
 the wardrobe of the gentlewoman then donned a soft 
 wrapper, and ten minutes later, Paul Ladue, shorn of 
 his new uniform, was attiring himself aloft in the travel 
 ing dress of a Virginia belle. He well-nigh ruined the 
 whole plan and crinoline by putting his foot through 
 the flimsy cage as he reached the stairway, but from 
 the floor below came ominous " Hush-sh-sh! " in Rosa 
 lie s tragic tones, and she shook him almost savagely 
 while giving some finishing touches to his toilet. " How 
 dare you be so careless with my best hoop-skirt, sir? 
 Don t you know that s almost the very last one in Vir 
 ginia?" Then, duly informed as to the paths in the 
 
A BADGER IN THE TOILS 107 
 
 garden and the exits through the fence, with her shawl 
 over his head and a prayer on her trembling lips she 
 sent him forth, and Jim Ferguson, officer of the guard, 
 bowed to her representative with killing grace and let 
 him go. 
 
 Half an hour later Paul had shed his skirts at the 
 stone house, had had a whispered word with Jennings 
 he of the subsequent demijohn and, in some old 
 clothes of that worthy and with a note to a farmer 
 friend back of Groveton, was away en route to Hope- 
 well. By nine he was in saddle, with a horse borrowed 
 of the farmer friend; by ten he had learned that Judge 
 Armistead was at Gainesville, having reached the 
 Thornton farm too late, and there were they both 
 judge and lieutenant when the little ambulance train 
 came along in the morning. 
 
 Such was the story of Ladue s escape from within 
 the Union lines. But the story that agitated at least 
 three men was that of Rosalie Chilton. Why should 
 she have essayed her perilous masquerade? Why should 
 she have left her brother and, in the dress of a Con 
 federate officer, before the last of the Yankees were 
 clear of the plateau, before Stuart s fellows were sure 
 of the Sudley road why should she have dared that 
 night dash down to the pike? Even in his battered con 
 dition Fred Benton found himself pondering over the 
 problem, for he had heard her father urging her to ex 
 plain had heard her implore that father not to press 
 the question now. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ESCAPE POSSIBLE 
 
 It is by no means a far cry from Manassas to Char- 
 lottesville as one takes the swift flight in the cosey par 
 lor car of to-day, shooting over stream after stream that 
 bears historic name, and smoothly rounding the beauti 
 ful wooded heights that loom up south of the Rapidan, 
 but it was a different thing in 61, bumping, banging, 
 jarring behind some wheezy old wood-burner, in ram 
 shackle coach or open platform car, yet it was almost 
 heavenly, after two days tossing and tumbling over the 
 ruts of the Virginia roadways and the period of enforced 
 rest at Warrenton Junction to be drawn away on com 
 paratively even keel, with light and air and sunshine 
 and the fragrance of budding orchard and bursting leaf 
 sweeping through the open windows of the car and 
 gladdening the senses of the half score of invalids, 
 homeward bound from the front. Two or three, like 
 young Chilton and our captured Badger, had been 
 wounded in cavalry clash or some affair of outpost, but 
 mostly were they fever victims, weak, apathetic and 
 somnolent. Yet even these seemed to wake and stir 
 and brighten as Rosalie Chilton passed among them 
 and bent and spoke, as she did to one and all. 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 109 
 
 It was a soft spring morning that saw the genial doc 
 tor s little party entrained at the Rappahannock. Scores 
 of sympathetic fellows in Confederate gray surrounded 
 the car to which Lieutenant Chilton was borne and into 
 which Fred Benton, his arm in a sling and his head 
 still in bandages, was carefully guided. For reasons 
 not then made known to his Yankee patient, the doctor 
 persisted in treating his case as far more serious than 
 conditions seemed to warrant. Constantly he strove 
 to impress upon Benton the necessity of lying still and 
 speaking as little as possible. Rosalie, too, was forever 
 holding up a tapering ringer in warning and pursing 
 her soft, rosy lips in very significant " hush " when he 
 ventured to ask questions or show a disposition to stir. 
 Otherwise she had but little to say to him, and our 
 wounded Badger boy had enjoyed the doubtful bliss of 
 watching her hour after hour during the long wait at 
 the Junction, hanging about her suffering brother, or 
 with softly flushing cheek, talking in low, eager tone to 
 Paul Ladue, whose melancholy eyes fairly brightened 
 and whose sallow, solemn face beamed with something 
 like awakened hope. Except when she was thus cheering 
 him, the young soldier s depression seemed ever pres 
 ent. He hated to leave Benton s side. He dreaded the 
 reception awaiting him at his regiment, yet was fever 
 ishly, nervously anxious to rejoin, and mad for oppor 
 tunity to prove himself something better than the dolt 
 they probably deemed him. It had been settled that he 
 should leave them at Gordonsville and return to the 
 
HO THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 front, but at the Rappahannock his own colonel had 
 boarded the train and, noticing at once how ill and worn 
 he looked, had talked with him kindly, sympathetically, 
 awhile, had had brief conference with Dr. Chilton and, 
 leaving Rosalie surrounded three deep by young gal 
 lants, late of the university, but now gay, dashing, 
 devil-may-care, mustachioed warriors of the South, had 
 gone off to see their division general, soon to be so 
 famous as a corps commander, whose tent was pitched 
 near by, and in ten minutes they were both there, the 
 one tall, martial, and with his long, flowing beard 
 looking more like a hero of Norseland or warrior of 
 Aiminius than a soldier of the cavalier South destined 
 to live long in song and story and to return to the love 
 of the old flag. The other, a type of chivalric bearing 
 and breeding, within ten weeks fated to 
 
 " find a soldier s resting place, beneath a soldier s blow," 
 
 leading his heroic regiment at Seven Pines. Paul s sal 
 low face flushed at sight of the famous soldier who had 
 to stoop to enter the low-roofed, old-fashioned car, and 
 it was good to see how quickly the chat and laughter 
 hushed in the group of young officers, how they faced 
 their honored general with prompt salute or uncovered 
 heads. Rosalie, herself, with glistening eyes and a brave 
 rush of color in her soft cheek, came forward to greet 
 him, fast as the fashion of the day would permit, for in 
 that narrow aisle the balloon skirt was vastly a hin 
 drance. Even then, before the wrinkles and crows feet 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE m 
 
 had dug deep about the outer corners of Longstreet s 
 eyes, queer little lines would play about them and his 
 bearded lips when humorous fancy struck him, and 
 kindly humor seemed never to be far from that genial 
 face until the bitter day that cost him Pickett s grand 
 and devoted division in Hancock s front at Gettysburg. 
 " I looked to see you in uniform, Miss Chilton," said 
 he, " and I have yet to learn by what authority you 
 have discarded the gray. And this, I believe, is the 
 young gentleman you were personating? " whereat he 
 shook hands very kindly with the shrinking subaltern 
 and thought to himself how very near alike they were 
 in stature. " Colonel Moore tells me you are far too 
 ill to resume duty just yet, Mr. Ladue, so I am going to 
 take the responsibility of bidding you go back to Char- 
 lottesville for a week of Miss Chilton s care. Ah, Doc 
 tor, I m glad to see you." And then two very distin 
 guished Virginians were shaking hands ; but all Fred 
 Benton could see of it was the back of Longstreet s 
 head towering above his fellows, and the backs of sub 
 ordinate officers clustered about him. They went pres 
 ently and spoke with young Chilton lying on his mat 
 tress along the tops of the seats, then came straight to 
 the lonely officer the only one in blue, reclining toward 
 the rear end of the long vehicle, the object of much si 
 lent curiosity but no intrusion whatsoever, and to the 
 prisoner Longstreet spoke as courteously as to the 
 princess holding her little court in mid car, bidding him 
 be of good cheer. 
 
112 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Dr. Chilton has told us, sir, of your protecting 
 him from indignity at Centreville, and of all the kind 
 ness you did him that night, resulting in your cap 
 ture. We cannot afford," and here the blue-gray eyes 
 twinkled and the half-hidden lips twitched whimsically, 
 " to let so good a soldier get right back to business. 
 Neither can we send so chivalric a foe to Libby at 
 least so long as he is wounded as you are. There 
 fore, Dr. Chilton, you will see to his having hospital 
 accommodations, and now, we must have a suitable 
 guard." And here the tall general straightened up, 
 studied earnestly the circle of soldier faces about him 
 until the twinkling eyes rested on the very sweet and 
 rosy features of the one damsel present. Then briefly 
 and in official tone, he finished. " Miss Chilton, I ap 
 point you, until further orders, custodian of Lieutenant 
 and Aide-de-Camp Benton, of the Federal Army." 
 
 Verily, as Benton wrote at the time, these were the 
 halcyon days of the war, before ever it had become the 
 grim and deadly earnest they were to know so bitterly 
 and so very soon. The car was cleared of all save pas 
 sengers, the train was started before he could find words 
 with which to thank the courtly Southern general, and 
 the doctor, bending over him, was saying, " You must 
 not discredit my repoht, suh, by looking so much alive 
 as you do at this moment. I represented your case, 
 suh, as one requiring constant attention, otherwise you 
 might have had to go to Richmond." 
 
 And so for a day or two these pleasantries these 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 113 
 
 courtesies of war prevailed. Then all of Johnston s men 
 remaining north of the Rappahannock came drifting in 
 before a new forward move of the Union force along 
 the railway. Howard s strong division of Sumner s 
 Corps swept out in reconnaissance, even as the bulk of 
 McClellan s army was being directed on Alexandria for 
 the now inevitable swing to the Peninsula between the 
 York and the James full details of the gathering of 
 every kind of bay and river craft reaching Johnston 
 quite as speedily as they did New York. So that skilled 
 soldier withdrew still further to the line of the Rapidan 
 where he could be nearer Richmond in case of need. 
 
 Then when Banks should have come down from the 
 Shenandoah and "covered" Washington, up sprang that 
 restless, watchful, prayerful Virginia leader, Jackson, 
 and so stirred the situation in the valley that Banks and 
 his men had to hurry back through the mountain passes, 
 and further delays and complications arose before April 
 set in and McClellan could sail for Fortress Monroe, 
 and in all the bustle and excitement, the rumors flying 
 hither and yon, the marching to and fro of cavalry and 
 fleet-footed infantry, it happened that for full a fortnight 
 Dr. Chilton and his patients, nurse, guard and all, had 
 settled down to something like peace and physical com 
 fort at cosey, homelike old Charlottesville, and no man 
 sought seriously to hamper or disturb them. From 
 Gainesville Dr. Chilton had penned a letter to be sent 
 through the lines, notifying the commanding general of 
 the Union force along Bull Run of Benton s capture 
 8 
 
114 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 after gallant effort to cut his way through, in the course 
 of which he was quite painfully though not dangerously 
 wounded that he was in good hands and would be 
 well cared for, and this news a great relief was 
 promptly transmitted to Fred s general and by him 
 telegraphed to the far Western home. The Squire was 
 both proud and distressed, but Elinor, his fair daughter, 
 never dreaming that Paul Ladue was one of the little 
 corps of faithful friends and attendants, could find no 
 comfort whatsoever. What would she have thought 
 could her straining eyes have pierced the intervening 
 mountain ranges, the long sweep of rolling hills beyond 
 the Ohio, the wooded flats and boundless prairies, and 
 peeped in from the shores of Michigan upon that vine- 
 covered trellis, among the blossoms and buds now 
 bursting into view on every side and rejoicing in the 
 warm April sunshine of far Virginia? 
 
 On a well-made stretcher lay the central figure of 
 household and local interest, Lieutenant Jack Chilton, 
 slowly but surely mending of his serious wounds and 
 gaining health, strength, and spirits with every day. 
 And who wouldn t under similar influences? for two 
 fair young daughters of the old commonwealth vied 
 with each other in assiduous effort to " entertain " the 
 trooper invalid two bonny, winsome lassies in their 
 teens, both brimming over with hero worship and en 
 thusiastic faith and love for every Virginian to be found 
 afield. Lovely were they both, these cousins of the 
 blood, and most carefully had they been chosen for this 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 115 
 
 special duty by their acknowledged leader, chief of the 
 little clan of kinswomen that dwelt among the wooded 
 hills of Albemarle and Fluvanna. Brilliant, beautiful 
 and daring, who of their brave Order could lay claim to 
 leadership so long as Rosalie cared to hold it? They 
 followed and obeyed her eagerly, loyally, though in 
 years she was but eighteen, and five, at least, of the 
 Sacred Band were her seniors. Ever since the days of 
 short dresses, braids and pinafores, she had been domi 
 nant among them, fearless in act and speech a little 
 tyrant of the fireside, ruling her father almost as with 
 a rod of iron, domineering over the colored retinue of 
 the kitchen, stable and household, and alternately laugh 
 ing, coaxing, storming and wheedling out of every ef 
 fort at restraint, or self-assertion, the gentle-mannered 
 Virginia dame the doctor s only sister who, almost 
 ever since the year of Rosalie s birth, had striven to sup 
 ply the place of the sweet young mother, who drooped 
 and died before her babe had learned to lisp the word 
 she so longed to hear. Tomboy had they called Rosalie 
 at ten, for she could ride any horse within miles of 
 Charlottesville, and preferred walking stilts, flying kites 
 or running races to the customary allurements of girl 
 hood. She had one envy, one champion, one idol her 
 brother, barely two years her senior and apparently but 
 one sorrow that she could not do everything that Jack 
 could, and not for lack of trying. 
 
 Then as they both grew older, and other girls brothers 
 began showing hitherto unsuspected fondness for Jack s 
 
116 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 society, and coming to see him at all hours of the day, 
 and other girls themselves began making eyes at Jack, 
 her indifference to the first and her fury at the second 
 were comical to see. Jack, for his part, took it not 
 amiss that Kate Falconer and Georgia Scott and Belle 
 Brinton should show appreciation of his physical gifts 
 and graces, and could not understand it in Rosalie that 
 she skould become so suddenly discursive about Kate s 
 freckles and red hair, Georgia s dumpy figure, and 
 Belle s multitudinous affectations. She was forever 
 finding excuse to ride over to the Varsity after Jack s 
 matriculation not, as other girls declared, that she 
 might see and be seen by other youths, but simply from 
 longing for Jack and then, when the war came on and 
 Virginia sprang to arms and Jack to saddle and his 
 first commission in Jeb Stuart s famous First Cavalry, 
 she was all afire with fervor and patriotism on the one 
 hand and of mad jealousy of Maud Pelham on the other, 
 for on Maud had Jack cast favoring eyes. 
 
 And so, when she brought her brother home to nurse 
 and pet and coddle to her heart s content, while she was 
 all soothing sweetness on the side that showed to him, 
 she fairly bristled on the other that which all well- 
 favored feminine callers, inquirers and friends must 
 needs encounter when they came and asked to see him. 
 She established a regular roster book and told off the 
 list of the Sacred Band, her henchwomen, into four 
 " reliefs " of two girls each one relief only to be on 
 duty each day and no outsiders to be admitted. Need- 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 117 
 
 less to say Maud Pelham was not of the elect, and Jack 
 speedily showed he wished it were otherwise. 
 
 And so this sweet April morning, with a soft, lan 
 guorous air playing about the wooded, sun-kissed 
 heights, she had two such awfully nice young girls to 
 cheer him, while she herself turned dutifully to another 
 wounded officer, a youth in dark blue and gold who had 
 been for over an hour a silent watcher of the merriment 
 about Chilton s cot, while he, Fred Benton, sat lonely 
 and longing to get far away. 
 
 It was not that they were cold, constrained or incon 
 siderate when speaking to him, but, the doctor had to 
 be much away now; Lieutenant Jack was always sur 
 rounded by his fair bodyguard; the one man Benton 
 loved, his boon companion Paul, had gone to rejoin his 
 regiment, and the one woman who could have made 
 Benton s stay a world of strange, sweet, witching de 
 light was beginning day after day to show less inclina 
 tion to approach him at all. A fortnight of watching 
 that beautiful dark face, that slender, willowy form, and 
 listening to that silvery voice alternately pleading, ca 
 joling, caressing, commanding, while to him it was only 
 coldly courteous had done its work. Fred Benton was 
 mending in body, but not in mind, for doubly now was 
 he a prisoner. 
 
 And this fair April morning the news he heard had 
 made him all the more restless and troubled. The Feder 
 als were landing in force and marching on Yorktown, 
 and Longstreet s whole command had been sent away, 
 
118 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 with others, to meet them. He doubted not that his 
 old comrades of McDowell s Corps would be in action 
 ere ever he could reach them, and the thought drove 
 his pulses up to fever heat again, and Rosalie Chilton, 
 without seeming to look, saw it in the flush of his anx 
 ious face, and came to him instanter. 
 
 " You will be having fever again, Mr. Benton," said 
 she, and the cool, white hand that at first had arranged the 
 bandages of his head and arm, or tested his pulses with 
 out a sign of hesitancy, seemed now to falter and shrink 
 as though it had to be forced to an unwilling task. It 
 stung Benton sore, for, man-like, he could read only one 
 interpretation. How different had she been with Ladue 
 when, for three days, he was feverish and headachy. 
 Why, she had bathed his hot forehead time and again 
 within an hour, and smoothed back his rumpled hair, 
 and she could hardly have treated her own brother more 
 affectionately. Once Fred could almost swear to it 
 Paul had seized and kissed her pretty hand, a thing that, 
 were he to attempt, his instinct told him it would be furi 
 ously resented and not entirely because he was a Yan 
 kee. With shame and contrition did Benton admit to 
 himself that he was now not sorry to see Paul go, yet 
 what would he not give to recall him? 
 
 For several days after his capture it had been Ben- 
 ton s belief that Paul was concealed in the room Rosalie 
 declared hers at the Henry house the room sacred to 
 her stricken brother and not until after their coming 
 to Charlottesville was he undeceived. There, one after- 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 119 
 
 noon, the week before he went away, the young Con 
 federate was moved to refer to the matter mainly by 
 seeing that it was a subject of which Benton fought shy. 
 
 " I had been with Miss Chilton and poor Jack some 
 hours that morning," said he, " for the guard never 
 came in the front part of the house, but she had ordered 
 me to go and get some sleep in the afternoon, it having 
 been fully determined that I should make the attempt 
 to escape that night. Lying there in a sort of cat nap 
 toward five o clock, I heard the soldiers speak your 
 name and could not resist the longing to see you. Then 
 when you turned back I knew you had come to search 
 and had plenty of time to flatten out between the joists 
 and pull my section of the floor over me. You stamped 
 on my nose with your spurred boot-heel, Fred, and I 
 never winced." 
 
 So that ghost was laid, at least as far as Rosalie was 
 concerned! But how about the other the far more sig 
 nificant and now mysterious freak of clothing herself in 
 Paul s uniform and slipping through the darkness of 
 night to the stone house? For whose sake for what 
 purpose had she so carefully disguised, yet recklessly 
 exposed, herself? Not even her father had been told as 
 yet. He had so confided to Benton only a day or two 
 after Paul s departure, and now, with her growing shy 
 ness, aversion, or whatever it might be toward him, little 
 likelihood was there, thought Benton, of his learning 
 the secret from her lips, and that, too, when he was 
 beginning to feel that he must know. 
 
120 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Every day of late, for hours, he could pace up and 
 down the pretty, homelike garden, listening to the low 
 chatter in the arbor, the tinkle of guitar, the soft bub 
 bling laughter or the murmur of reading aloud when 
 " Jack s girls " Rosalie s approved were there. What 
 comical little ceremonies had there been in the succes 
 sive presentation of their Yankee captive to these their 
 Virginia neighbors. Of course the story of all his kind 
 ness to the doctor had been told, otherwise his presence 
 would have been insupportable. But some one had said 
 he was very handsome, very silent, very interesting, and 
 that he couldn t keep his big blue eyes off Rosalie, and 
 so there was much curiosity mingling with the stately 
 little curtseys each in turn accorded him. Hour after 
 hour as they watched they could see that his eyes were 
 ever following Rosalie, coming and going, for she had 
 assumed all house-keeping cares of late, and was forever 
 busy about the homestead. Yet, as the evening shad 
 ows grew long and the sun began to sink, she was sure 
 to appear with Pomp and Peter to bear the lieutenant, 
 stretcher and all, to his bedroom, and at the same time 
 Prisoner Benton was bidden co return to his delightful 
 cell, overlooking the garden and giving him views of the 
 neighborhood denied him when below stairs. 
 
 And this April evening as, obediently, he returned to 
 his quarters and sat at the window awaiting the doctor s 
 coming to look at his arm before tea-time, his eyes were 
 attracted by the sight of a certain broad-brimmed drab 
 felt hat that he had noted more than once before that 
 
ESCAPE POSSIBLE 121 
 
 day, passing along the fence at the side of the house 
 where the hedge was so thick and high that, only at the 
 gateway, now nearly boarded up, could it be seen from 
 the arbor at all. Now, from the commanding height 
 of the chamber window, Fred Benton saw distinctly not 
 only the hat, but much of the form and some of the face 
 beneath it, and face and form were those of a young 
 and slender girl. Even while he was wondering why 
 a young lady should be patrolling that side street so 
 close to the garden wall, she lifted up her eyes tilting 
 back the hat and looked full at the captive Yankee; then 
 stopped short, glanced hastily about her; took from the 
 bosom of her gown a little white note; held it high 
 that he should see it; turned and walked back to the 
 gateway. One moment she held her note aloft again, 
 then lowered her hand as though working vigorously 
 at the bricks, and when a second time she uplifted the 
 hand the note was gone. Another moment and so 
 was she. Obviously, however, that girl wished him to 
 mark the spot, then come down and get that note. 
 
 Not until the following morning came there oppor 
 tunity. Then, while Jack in his latticed, vine-covered 
 arbor was listening to the chatter of the new relief of his 
 fair bodyguard, Benton stepped quickly to the gateway, 
 and, after brief search, hauled aside a loose brick or two 
 and found a tiny billet folded three-cornered, that when 
 opened said: 
 
 " Be alert. Orders coming send you to Libby. Watch every morn 
 ing and evening for further warning. Escape possible. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LIBBY OR LIBERTY 
 
 Then came three days of rain, as rain it will sheets 
 and torrents in the sweet springtide in old Virginia. 
 And while McClellan s men were wallowing in the mud 
 of the lower Peninsula, held by the elements, not by the 
 enemy for Magruder s little force at Yorktown could 
 not have stopped two divisions when led by a later day 
 general of the Army of the Potomac here about Char- 
 lottesville the wooded heights were draped in filmy mist, 
 the mountain streams ran bank full, and Jack Chilton s 
 bodyguard came on duty with blooming, rain-kissed 
 cheeks, emerging from waterproof hoods and mantles 
 that, like the antique coaches, coachmen and horses that 
 brought them, were beginning to show many a pathetic 
 sign of wear and tear. The arbor and the garden were 
 perforce deserted, and Jack held court in the roomy 
 old hall, while the doctor made his rounds heedless of 
 weather or accounts alike unsettled. Scattered over a 
 range of country within twenty-five miles radius of his 
 office were the homesteads of some hundreds of fami 
 lies, not one of whom could later recall that " endurin* 
 ob de wah " he ever presented a bill or neglected a case. 
 And, while he was ministering abroad, it fell to Rosa- 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 123 
 
 lie s lot to look after everything and everybody at home 
 invalided aunt, wounded brother, unbalanced domes 
 tics, already beginning 1 to prate of life and luxury 
 without work and freedom without knowledge, and last, 
 yet not least, that now fast-mending prisoner in the 
 second floor back room, where he was becoming rude 
 enough to prefer to stay, sit by the window and rock 
 and read the old masters beloved of the South Scott, 
 Sims and Cooper and the speeches of the famous Vir 
 ginian whose beautiful Monticello gleamed white among 
 the grand old forest trees so close at hand, and whose 
 broadly democratic theories, instilled in the immature 
 minds of the student body, had well-nigh wrecked at its 
 very launching the dearest project of his declining years. 
 Rosalie, secretly disturbed about her captive, as the 
 girls called him, professed to think Mr. Benton ought 
 to be glad to come down-stairs and watch Brother Jack 
 being worshipped " It ought to make any man better 
 to see how Virginia girls honor a Virginia soldier 
 stricken while battling for his native State." Bull Run 
 victims were few and far between now either were they 
 dead or again on duty and Virginia girls by the hundred 
 were longing to lavish smiles and sweetness and sooth 
 ing potions, all in one, on Virginia lads shot or sabred 
 in their defence. Time was soon, and far too soon, to 
 come when every house and every room should be filled 
 with the sore stricken, and there could be nowhere near 
 enough girls to go around ; but just now, in April, Char- 
 lottesville had but three wounded Southrons and one 
 
124 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Yank," and to the foremost of these Southrons all 
 but a corps d? elite of Miss Chilton s choosing were denied 
 admission. As to the Yank, no one of their number 
 dare let another know how gladly would her charity 
 have been extended even to him. Of course, however, 
 that was merely through curiosity. 
 
 No. Fred Benton was chafing, restless and unhappy, 
 and, even now that Paul was gone, again suffering the 
 pangs of jealousy. A tall Confederate officer, a very 
 distinguished looking major of the staff, had called 
 thrice in two days, and had had long conversation with 
 the little lady of the house one, in fact, behind closed 
 doors after Jack had been " toted " to his room. Fred 
 heard the colored house of commons discussing the pros 
 and cons as to that indication, and in like manner ascer 
 tained that the officer was Major Lounsberry long a 
 resident of Albemarle and now of the staff the Inspec 
 tor s Department of the Confederate Army, and Fred 
 could have sworn his pretty jailor was in tears when 
 she came hurrying up from one interview, for he went 
 out in hopes of a word with her, but she saw or sus 
 pected and darted to her room without heeding his 
 hail. Morning and evening both had he watched for 
 the return of the lady of the broad-brimmed felt, but the 
 rain or something had been too much for her, and she 
 failed to reappear. Major Lounsberry s deep voice, 
 however, was heard in the broad lower hall three hours 
 after his long afternoon interview with Miss Chilton, 
 and the doctor came briskly forth from his study to 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 125 
 
 greet and welcome the distinguished representative of 
 the war office the son of an old familiar friend. There 
 was good news from Yorktown, it seems, and small 
 Pomp brought it in with a little pitcher of cool butter 
 milk and some " cohn pone " for Marse Benton " De 
 Yankees done got licked agin down by Yohktown." 
 " Marse Lounsberry " had so told the doctor, and Fred 
 went down to Jack s room, his arm still slung, to wish 
 him good-night and learn what he knew, and Rosalie 
 departed and left them to each other, and it happened 
 that as the doctor was ushering his martial visitor from 
 his study to the door full fifteen minutes later, and long 
 before Benton s usual hour for retiring, the door to 
 Jack s room opened and the Yankee lieutenant came 
 forth, looking very tall, erect and by no means broken 
 down. 
 
 The doctor gave a start an unmistakable glance of 
 warning. A crouching bundle of femininity near the 
 head of the stairs, out of Lounsberry s sight but plainly 
 in Benton s view, frantically signalled with both impetu 
 ous hands with wild eyes and wide-opening mouth 
 gasping dismay the imperious order to go back at 
 once, but obtusely Benton stood his ground and faced, 
 half defiantly, this new visitor, who in turn stopped short 
 and calmly, even somewhat insolently, surveyed him. 
 The major was the first to speak. 
 
 " Lieutenant Benton, I presume," said he, " and look 
 ing vastly better than I had been led to hope/ How 
 near he there came to saying " believe "! 
 
126 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Looking quite well, my dear major," hastily inter 
 posed the doctor, " yet, I assure you, but the ghost of the 
 fine young fellow who rescued me that night at Centre- 
 ville. It will be months before he can handle a sabre 
 again." 
 
 " How about a pen? " asked Lounsberry, significantly, 
 his eyes burning into Benton s gaze as though striving 
 to read his innermost thoughts. 
 
 " Mr. Benton has certainly managed to write three 
 home letters left-handed," answered Dr. Chilton, 
 speaking for his captive guest, yet glancing nervously 
 toward him. " They were duly forwarded to Richmond 
 to be censored. Was it there you saw them, Major 
 Lounsberry? " 
 
 " I had reference to possibilities, Doctor, though I am 
 not unacquainted with the lieutenant s left hand-writ 
 ing. It would be injudicious, for instance, not to say 
 ungrateful to those who have shielded him, were he to 
 answer the letter he found at the old side gate of the 
 garden, Monday evening! " 
 
 The hot blood leaped to Benton s face. Lounsberry 
 had spoken with the cool deliberation of one absolutely 
 sure of his ground. The doctor turned and stood gaz 
 ing at his guest as though expecting him promptly to 
 deny the imputation. From the stairway came the sound 
 of faint rustle as though Rosalie shrank still further 
 away, and Benton felt, rather than saw for under the 
 major s stern, relentless, searching gaze he dare not 
 look in the lead of his heart that her eyes were fixed 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 127 
 
 upon him in mingled scrutiny and indignation. The 
 silence was painful and Benton broke it. 
 
 " There was nothing new in the note, Doctor," said 
 he, purposely ignoring the staff officer. " It was to tell 
 me what I already suspected and, since this gentle 
 man s arrival, have felt sure of that I was to be 
 sent to Richmond. Do not let it worry you. I 
 have been preparing for it, and now I am quite ready 
 to go." 
 
 For the life of him as the sentence closed he could not 
 avoid shooting one swift glance at the stairway to note 
 the effect of his words. The major saw, turned and 
 finding that from where he stood the landing and 
 stairway were hidden from view, stepped quickly for 
 ward. Benton instantly did the same, and almost breast 
 to breast they met there in the middle of the room the 
 blue and the gray the fire flashing in the eyes of each. 
 There was the sound of whisking drapery, a soft swish 
 along stair and balcony rail, and in an instant Rosalie 
 had darted to the landing and out of sight. A half smile, 
 contemptuous and cutting, played about the Confeder 
 ate s lips. He gave no sign whatever that he had 
 heard. He addressed himself to Benton : 
 
 " I presume you have burned that note, sir, and there 
 fore have nothing with which to back your statement, 
 but I take you at your word. You are ready to go, you 
 say; be ready to start then at six in the morning." 
 
 "My dear Major!" broke in Dr. Chilton. "Surely 
 you " 
 
128 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Those are my orders, doctor. I have no volition/ 
 answered Lounsberry, coldly. " And now if I may say 
 adieu to Jack I ll leave you to such preparation as may 
 be necessary. The guard will call for Mr. Benton at 
 six. I go myself to Gordonsville to-night." 
 
 With that Major Lounsberry turned haughtily there 
 is no other word for it away, as though the possibility 
 of further talk with a Federal prisoner was something 
 intolerable to an officer of his rank and station. The 
 doctor, stunned and silent, looked helplessly from one 
 to the other, and again it was Benton who spoke a re 
 assuring word. Cordially he held forth his one free 
 hand. 
 
 " It s all right, Doctor," said he. " You and Miss 
 Chilton have pulled me round famously. I can stand 
 Libby diet now just as well as anybody, and I m betting 
 on speedy exchange. Then our fellows will be do 
 ing something now," he added, with significant smile. 
 " Who knows but they may gather in game as big as 
 that!" with a laughing nod toward the resplendent 
 major. " Or, is he, like so many of our staff, only for 
 duty at the rear?" And Benton meant that Louns 
 berry should hear, and hear he did and flushed red 
 under the taunt. 
 
 " Do not judge our methods by the little you know 
 of yours, Mr. Benton," he retorted, albeit with admir 
 able self-control. Then, as though again determined to 
 ignore the Northerner, " May I be permitted a word 
 with Lieutenant Chilton, Doctor? " a question which 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 129 
 
 seemed to recall the doctor to himself and left Benton 
 to his own devices. Without another glance at the un 
 welcome visitor, the latter turned and ascended the 
 stairs to the second story, and there, in the dim light of 
 a night lamp, by the eastward window, stood the girl 
 he longed to see and speak with, and she who had 
 avoided, now came half timidly forward as though to 
 meet him. 
 
 The broad hallway of the lower story, extending from 
 the colonnaded portico in front to the wide veranda in 
 rear, was virtually repeated aloft by as broad a " land 
 ing " from which opened four bedrooms in the main 
 building and passageways leading to the wings. India 
 matting covered the floor. Couches, divans and easy 
 reclining chairs were scattered about. Several portraits 
 in oil of famous connections of the family Cabell,Custis 
 or Stuart and many a good engraving hung about the 
 walls. Two windows, heavily curtained, opened to the 
 east; two others, draped in dimity, looked out over the 
 fine old-fashioned garden, over a few Virginia home 
 steads peeping from the midst of oaks and maples, with 
 the roofs and cupola of the university in the distance, 
 and beyond them the tumbling outline of the Ragged 
 Mountains, rising against the backbone barrier to the 
 great valley, the beautiful Blue Ridge. It was away 
 from the neighborhood of her aunt s door and her own, 
 and close to the westward windows that Rosalie Chilton 
 silently led her captive soldier, and then turned, her 
 face pale and sorrow stricken, her great dark eyes fill- 
 
130 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ing with unshed tears. For days she had been distant, 
 repellent almost, in manner that relented not one whit 
 even when she saw it stung and grieved him. To 
 night she seemed suddenly to have determined on mak 
 ing amends. Without, the skies had been covered with 
 heavily charged masses of clouds that poured their tor 
 rents on the thirsting earth, but now a vigorous young 
 moon was peeping through the thinning veil and throw 
 ing a vague, ghostly light upon garden, village street 
 and vine-clad arbor and tracing marvellous pattern of 
 fretwork on the India malting. Within, just in like 
 manner, Rosalie s almost perfect face had been dark 
 ened by clouds Fred could neither banish nor fathom, 
 but now a new, soft, tender light seemed shimmering 
 through. What could it mean? he asked, with beating 
 heart, for there was a moment in which neither spoke. 
 
 " I have a confession to make, Mr. Benton," said she, 
 at length. " Do you think it s easy for a girl to say 
 she s glad to find that she was wrong? " 
 
 " Something has seemed to me very wrong of late," 
 answered Benton, " so much so I was glad to get away 
 on any terms, even to Libby. For what have I been 
 punished? " 
 
 " I shall tell you frankly," she answered, standing 
 with downcast eyes before him, her white hands loosely 
 clasping. " Do you know, I thought I heard that 
 you were plotting with people outside to escape, and, 
 father being responsible for you, it seemed ungrateful 
 indeed dishonorable " 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 131 
 
 " But what on earth have I said or done to warrant 
 the belief? I have talked with no one, communicated 
 with no one, except that, after I had noted your cold 
 and distant manner, there came this little unsigned note, 
 saying that I was to be sent to Richmond. I have never 
 answered it. I haven t an idea who sent it." 
 
 " But the note " and now she looked up eagerly, 
 
 " you have it still? " 
 
 " Burned it to ashes the hour it came ! " he an 
 swered. 
 
 " But you saw who brought it or who left it? " 
 
 " I saw ," he impulsively began, then stopped short. 
 What right had he, a Union soldier, to give information 
 against some possible Union lover in their midst, one 
 who was seeking to be of service to him at that? 
 
 " Oh, you needn t say!" cried Miss Chilton, with a 
 curl of her lip. " We know at least I know the girl ! 
 What we heard, or at least I heard, a week ago was 
 that you that they, that oh, I can t explain I can t 
 go on ! " she said, and now burning blushes, to his 
 amaze, suffused her face and she covered it with her 
 hands. 
 
 Then voices were heard below stairs the doctor 
 showing the major from Jack s room to the door, cere 
 monious and courtly even when aggrieved. 
 
 " He will wish to see me perhaps you, too at 
 once," suddenly exclaimed Miss Chilton, starting im 
 pulsively forward. " I just want to know that that 
 what I now believe is true, and to be able to say so 
 
132 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 confidently to father and perhaps to to others. You 
 had not thought of trying to escape so long as you 
 were with us?" And for an instant the dark, glorious 
 eyes looked full into his face, then fell before the inten 
 sity of his. 
 
 " On my word, Miss Chilton no ! " 
 
 " Then then," she vehemently cried, " I don t 
 care how soon you do try now!" and with that 
 she darted past him to her own room and presently 
 the doctor s slow step was heard ascending the 
 stairs. 
 
 It was late that night and the moon had dipped be 
 yond the Blue Ridge when, after a family talk in Jack s 
 room, they separated. Not another chance had Benton 
 to speak to Rosalie, but for good and sufficient reason 
 he had found her actions of most unusual interest. Pale 
 and silent, absorbed in thought, she had taken little part 
 in the conference. Twice she stole softly to the win 
 dow, drew aside the curtain and peered through to outer 
 darkness; then, while her father was earnestly talking, 
 she seated herself close to the curtains, and Benton, 
 watching her with devouring eyes, saw that she was 
 listening intently for sounds, signals, something from 
 without and paying little heed to what was said within. 
 Then, he could not be mistaken, there came a low tap, 
 tap on the pane. Rosalie quickly, silently drew the 
 shade aside enough to enable her to give one answering 
 tap, and a moment later she stole quietly out of the 
 room, while the doctor was still talking, and, when she 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 133 
 
 returned nearly half an hour later, there were drops of 
 water on her rippling hair. 
 
 By this time between the Chiltons, father and son, it 
 had been determined that every influence should at once 
 be brought to bear at Richmond to bring about Ben- 
 ton s exchange Fred himself agreeing to write urgent 
 letters to friends in front of Washington. Already quite 
 a number of officers and men had been returned from 
 Libby, the first small boat-load having gone to the 
 Capital and been welcomed by the President himself 
 before the winter s snows were swept entirely from the 
 Virginia mountains. " Just one thing I fear," said the 
 doctor, " that the same influence that dogged you here 
 and led to the order for your delivery there, may pursue 
 you at Richmond." 
 
 " And will you tell me what that is and why it should 
 be so bitter?" asked Benton. 
 
 The doctor glanced uncertainly at the thinned face, 
 flushing faintly even through the pallor of this long con 
 finement, then turned to Rosalie. Quickly she again 
 left her chair, hurried to the window and threw open the 
 curtain as though to look forth into the night where all 
 was apparently dark as Erebus. 
 
 " It is a family jah, suh. I hardly understand it my 
 self. But I m bound to say that Major Lounsberry has 
 fohfeited any claim he may have had upon my friend 
 ship. Now I must look to that bandage again before 
 you retiah, suh." And thus closed the conference. 
 
 Not half an hour later young Pomp was nervously 
 
134 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 fidgetting about the room, on the customary plea of 
 helping Marse Benton undress, when he rolled his big 
 eyes thrice to the west window and finally said, with a 
 chuckle : 
 
 " Marse Jack never thought nuthin of swingin out 
 of that winder when dis was his room fo de wah." 
 
 " Rather a high jump for a heavy man," suggested 
 Benton, wondering to what this conversation might 
 lead. 
 
 " Lawd, Marse Benton, you done fo got de lightnin 
 rawd!" 
 
 Stepping to the window the lieutenant peered forth 
 into the moist and windy night. The clouds were sail 
 ing swiftly overhead, alternately hiding and revealing 
 the few peeping stars. A warm wet breeze was sway 
 ing the boughs of the big oak at the back of the garden 
 and the branches of the locusts along the unpaved side 
 street. Not a glimmer of light came from any of the 
 scattered houses; not a sound was heard save the sweep 
 and rustle of the gentle gale. A few heavy drops still 
 pattered from the eaves and splashed upon the sill be 
 side him drops such as shone on Rosalie s wavy hair. 
 Putting forth his hand he could feel, just to the left of 
 the window, the stout, thick iron rod that Pomp had 
 described Jack s means of egress in wild university 
 days not so long gone by. 
 
 Slowly, thoughtfully he closed the shade and returned 
 to the dressing-table where stood the single candle. 
 Pomp had vanished, but there, pinned to the cushion 
 
LIBBY OR LIBERTY 135 
 
 was the mate to the strange little billet he had found 
 at the gate. Even the handwriting was the same. 
 
 " Horses, guide and everything you need waiting back of the barn. 
 Lose not a moment ! Choose between the mountains for a day or two 
 or Libby for the rest of the war. Burn this, too." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 QUEEN ROSALIE 
 
 For ten minutes after reading that strange missive 
 Benton stood absorbed in deep, even painful, thought. 
 The alternative presented was a trying one. From what 
 Dr. Chilton had said in the course of the evening s con 
 ference the prospect of long imprisonment seemed as 
 sured. Lounsberry was a man of influence, even a 
 power, at Richmond, and he could be relied on to exert 
 it against Benton because " because," said the doctor, 
 as he was rearranging the bandages on Benton s arm, 
 " he is no longer kindly disposed toward my house 
 hold, suh," and Fred reasoned that Rosalie could, if 
 she would, give further and more explicit information. 
 
 " I have been fearing this for several days, suh," said 
 Chilton. " Several of my patients, who are loyal Vir 
 ginians and fully in accord with the stand of their State, 
 suh, have nevertheless been loyal in their friendship to 
 me. They believe in fair play. They honor a chivalric 
 enemy, and they know how you protected and aided me. 
 From three or four sources, therefore, these warnings 
 came, and and other stories that I prefer not to men 
 tion. I refused to believe all until Major Lounsberry 
 practically confirmed the truth that is the truth of 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 137 
 
 those referring to him, to-day. But I shall write to 
 Longstreet to-night, suh, and to Jeb Stuart and to 
 General Lee. They will have influence with the Presi 
 dent, Mr. Benton, and meanwhile," here both the kindly 
 voice and the gentle hand seemed to tremble, " I I 
 would give almost anything I own to to stop your 
 being sent to Libby, suh, but, I see no way I see no 
 way." 
 
 And soon thereafter, leaving young Pomp to assist 
 his soldier patient, the doctor had withdrawn to his study 
 on the ground floor, promising to be with him again 
 about five. 
 
 It was just after eleven o clock by Benton s watch as 
 he roused himself from the spell of anxious thought and 
 looked about him. There was significance in Pomp s 
 disappearance. It was evident that the youngster had 
 been carefully " coached " to point out the lightning rod 
 as the best means to leave the house unseen, unheard. 
 That Benton was confidently expected to make the at 
 tempt was obvious. Otherwise Pomp would have re 
 mained to help him off with his boots and uniform. 
 Even to his watch, purse, spurs and boots not an item 
 of his personal equipment had been taken by his captors. 
 His sword had been stricken from his hand during the 
 melee at the stone house and his revolver was gone, but 
 that was all. A year later everything would have be 
 come legitimate spoil of war. 
 
 Peering from his window Benton saw, or fancied he 
 saw, the dim light as of a lantern flitting about the barn. 
 
138 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Evidently they were even then waiting for him. Evi 
 dently he was expected to " lose not a moment." Yet 
 who were they? Surely not his venerable host and 
 helper for Dr. Chilton could not lend himself to any 
 scheme for the escape of the prisoner without breaking 
 faith with the Confederate Government. Surely not 
 Jack, his wounded son, for court-martial and dismissal 
 in disgrace would follow even circumstantial evidence 
 that he had aided or suggested the escape. Surely not 
 Rosalie! She had shown such deep abhorrence of the 
 plot to speed his going that, even after her impulsive 
 outbreak early in the evening, he could not but feel it 
 would be treachery to her and to those she held dear, 
 were he now to make the attempt, notwithstanding the 
 fact that transfer to Libby stared him in the face. 
 
 Pomp s complicity it was easy to explain. The ne 
 groes, as a rule, were glad to help the " Lincum sol 
 diers," and, where they were hesitant, a bribe soon 
 settled the matter. Then Pomp s suggestion of the 
 lightning rod was still further proof that outsiders, not 
 Chiltons, were at the bottom of the plan, for, did the 
 household favor it, they would never have sent a one- 
 armed man swinging into space when the back stairs 
 and the back door were unguarded, and guards or sen 
 tries of any kind there had been none, so sacred was 
 the word of a Chilton. No; as he still pondered over 
 the question, the hands of his watch crept to half-past 
 eleven, and a horse, somewhere out in what appeared 
 to be a lane or alley behind the barn, neighed impa- 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 139 
 
 tiently; and, surely as he could hear the tick of his watch, 
 the beating of his own heart, Benton caught the sound 
 of a low, gruff voice almost directly underneath his 
 window, and then the dull, sudden tramp of hoofs on 
 rain-soaked sod. Then then there were two horses 
 or two parties one in the dark lane, one here almost 
 at his feet. 
 
 " Lose not a moment," said the note he had crumpled 
 in his hand, yet here had he lost twenty in childish hesi 
 tancy. Again he read the clearly pencilled lines. Again 
 he recalled Rosalie s eagerness to see the previous note, 
 and her contemptuous confidence as to its authorship. 
 " Burn this, too," said the second missive; and, in honor, 
 was he not bound to shield one who so eagerly, un 
 selfishly sought to aid or rescue him? Yet Rosalie 
 wished to see, and good God, how he longed once 
 more to see her and satisfy himself that she would ap 
 prove, condone, forgive if he seized this chance of es 
 cape! to satisfy himself, moreover, that she no longer 
 held him as she had in rank disfavor> that possibly 
 possibly But that thought was madness ! 
 
 And then, though his door stood a trifle ajar and he 
 had been listening, listening for any sound that would 
 tell of her presence near him that he might, even at so 
 late an hour, have one word with her; though not the 
 whisper of a foofall had reached his ears, something, 
 light as down and barely audible even to him, was softly, 
 stealthily tapping on the panel. 
 
 Marvelling, he tiptoed to the door, and a little scrap of 
 
140 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 paper waved before his eyes. Not a ringer even was 
 visible. He took the paper with his one unfettered 
 hand ; threw open the door by a quick twist of the foot, 
 and something with long, dusky masses of hair trailing 
 behind it sped away in the dim light from the lower 
 hall. A board or two creaked. There was a faint swish 
 of skirts, a whiff of fragrance like that of the wild violet, 
 but that was all. On the floor below the hall lamp still 
 burned, and the doctor, busy in his sanctum, hemmed 
 loudly and stirred as though to hail or speak. A door 
 closed across the wide landing her door as Benton 
 could judge by the sound, and then he was alone with 
 this second note. 
 
 Bearing it to the dressing-table, he read : 
 
 " Precious time wasted ! Go or it may be too late. Rely implicitly 
 on first guide you find." 
 
 And this, at least, was not from the hand that pencilled 
 the others ! 
 
 Again that sound of horses hoofs beneath the win 
 dow, and low-toned, rebukeful, yet almost imploring 
 remonstrance. A darkey s voice surely. 
 
 " Cain t yo keep him still?" it asked, and Benton 
 crept to the open window and peered down into the 
 dim depths below, and then came the soft hail in tones 
 he felt sure he knew Black Dan s Dan whom he 
 had heard singing and doing chores about the sheds 
 and gardens for days past: " Fo Gawd, Marse Benton, 
 f you doan come quick dis horse ll spile de whole busi- 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 141 
 
 Then another voice a mere whisper, half drowned by 
 the sweep of the wind in the trees Pomp s quavering 
 tenor. " Yo doan need fetch nawthin , Marse Ben- 
 ton. We ve got everythin hyuh." 
 
 And then he heard the doctor closing his study door 
 and tramping across the lower hall to take a good-night 
 look at his boy, after which he would doubtless retire 
 to his own room adjoining the study and well away from 
 the garden side of the house. It was high time it was 
 good time to be moving, still Benton hung irresolute, 
 persuading himself that his longing for one look at that 
 lovely face, for five words from those exquisite lips, was 
 really reluctance to take a step that might compromise 
 this generous and hospitable household even while in 
 his hand he still held the words that bade him go. 
 
 Then came a sudden scurry without, for, midway to 
 the barn a soft, low whistle sounded, and almost in 
 stantly Benton heard the sound of hoofs again. They 
 were hurriedly leading a horse or two horses away. 
 A lantern swung impatiently at the corner of the barn. 
 Somebody was surely signalling. Something prompted 
 him by way of answer to blow out his candle, to thrust 
 the notes both scraps of paper into a convenient 
 pocket, then to kneel by the window and watch and 
 listen. 
 
 Almost instantly the lantern disappeared, and there 
 were five minutes of silence. Then, as he knelt and 
 watched and waited and all was still without and his 
 darkey aides-de-camp made no further hail, suddenly he 
 
142 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 heard the creak behind him of door cautiously opening, 
 and, looking over his shoulder in the dim ghostly light 
 sifting through the balustrade from the floor below, he 
 was able to discern a tall, slender form coming noise 
 lessly, cautiously, straight to his now wide-open 
 door. Rosalie beyond a doubt, and she believed him 
 gone! 
 
 Go then he must! Athlete that he had been, ever 
 since boyhood, it was no trick at all to swing, even one- 
 handed, on so thick a rod. His heavy gauntlet was al 
 ready on, and, just as he reached forth to grasp the 
 iron, his practised ear caught the stealthy tread of 
 spurred boots on the path below coming from the 
 back gate the way to the barn. Another moment and, 
 distinctly, in a sudden lull of the breeze, he heard a low, 
 cautious voice in half murmur, half whisper. Words 
 were indistinguishable, but he knew the tones Louns- 
 berry beyond question, and Lounsberry hailing in ex 
 pectation of finding there an accomplice. 
 
 Not a second could he lose now! To go would be 
 to meet the death of escaping prisoner or, at best, 
 justifiable imprisonment behind the bars. To stay where 
 he was might involve her might at least so startle as 
 to force from her a cry of alarm. Quick, light and lithe 
 as a panther he sprang to his feet and met her just out 
 side the door. No time for explanation! 
 
 " Silence! " he whispered, almost savagely. " Louns 
 berry is there," and then, defiant even of her wrath, he 
 wrapped that one strong arm about her, for (this at 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 143 
 
 least, long after, was his one excuse) he thought she 
 would fall, so sudden was the shock and start, so wildly 
 beat the little heart once more fluttering on his breast. 
 For a moment she was too dazed to use her strength, 
 then, through her set teeth, savagely as he had spoken, 
 she hissed at him, while slender fingers tore at his mus 
 cular hand: 
 
 " Let me go, instantly! " 
 
 And when he had released her, she again seemed like 
 to fall, and he again essayed to hold her, but now with 
 clinching little fists she fairly beat him off. Then, 
 springing past him, reeling a bit, but desperate and 
 determined, flew to the window, knelt and listened, leav 
 ing him faltering one moment at the door. Only a mo 
 ment, though; for, casting aside all scruple, he followed 
 and knelt beside her. Shrinking from him, with her 
 white hands pressed to her temples; amaze, indignation, 
 then triumph in her face, though he could not see it, she 
 seemed listening absorbed. Again it was Lounsberry s 
 voice, and Lounsberry had found his fellow spy, and 
 with amazing confidence and fluency was Pomp reply 
 ing. Oh, what glibness of guile! 
 
 " Ye-as, suh. I don tole him so. He cum down the 
 back stayuhs an outen de back do* mos an hour ago, 
 an fo we could show him de way, suh, Miss Rosalie 
 come tay in after him, an draw d him back into de house 
 again! " 
 
 Benton could feel, although only a fold of her gown 
 touched his knee, that the girl beside him was fairly 
 
144 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 quivering at that bare-faced whopper, but quivering with 
 wrath or delight he knew not which. 
 
 " You imp of hell ! If you are lying I ll skin you alive ! 
 Whose horses were those in the side lot as I came up? " 
 demanded Lounsberry. 
 
 " Fo* Gawd, Captain, / do know ! Dey wasn t ouhs 
 ouhs is in de bahn, suh. Take de key and see fo yo - 
 self. Hyuh s the dochtuh now, suh! " 
 
 A stream of mellow light had shot suddenly forth as a 
 door in the north wing was thrown open, and, lantern 
 in hand, out came the head of the house, angering, bare 
 headed. 
 
 " What are you doing here at this hour, you black 
 rascal, and with whom are you talking? Major Louns 
 berry! " and with amaze and dismay in his voice the old 
 Virginian faced his unlooked-for visitor. 
 
 "I do not wonder at your surprise, Doctor," promptly 
 replied the staff officer, stepping forward into the little 
 circle of light. " I had thought to be at Gordonsville 
 before this, but strange things are happening, strange 
 stories are afloat. It came to my ears while on the way 
 that your servants had been bribed to enable Lieutenant 
 Benton to escape this night. I returned at once, and 
 two of my escort declare that two horsemen rode away 
 from your side yard yonder barely ten minutes ago. 
 You can hear their story, or satisfy yourself and me, if 
 you will, that that our prisoner is still here." 
 
 " Still here, Major Lounsberry," answered the doctor, 
 with grave dignity. " Though I warn you now that 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 145 
 
 since your order was issued remanding him to Libby I 
 no longer assume responsibility. I know that he is still 
 here, but do you prefer to search in person, suh?" 
 
 In an instant Rosalie was on her feet. Only a second 
 or two she stood there, quivering with excitement, then 
 seized him by the arm. " Quick! Follow me," she whis 
 pered. Out into the broad landing she rushed, and to 
 Benton s amaze, struck a light, threw open the lid of 
 an old colonial desk that stood with its back against 
 the wall between the doors of her own and her aunt s 
 room, plumped him down into a chair, and scattered 
 paper and envelopes in front of him. " Be writing your 
 letters," she whispered command. Then away she sped, 
 closed her door behind her just as the doctor s voice 
 was again heard in the hall below. 
 
 Two minutes later, lantern bearing, the master of 
 the house came slowly up the stairs, followed by the 
 clinking boots of Major Lounsberry. Feigning sur 
 prise at such interruption, the Union officer rose delib 
 erately from his seat and confronted the two. They 
 stopped short, and for a moment were speechless; 
 then 
 
 " As I told you, suh," said Dr. Chilton, with a bow of 
 mock deference, to his unwelcome follower. 
 
 " As I should have known," said Major Lounsberry, 
 in prompt though unpalatable acceptance of the situa 
 tion. 
 
 " The major, suh," said Dr. Chilton, to his guest, in 
 pardonably magniloquent enjoyment of the situation, 
 
146 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " required ocular demonstration that you had not taken 
 unto yourself wings. I rejoice that we didn t have to 
 disturb you in bed. Are you satisfied now, Major 
 Lounsberry? " 
 
 " Perfectly, Dr. Chilton." Then to Benton : " Since 
 you do not care to sleep, sir, perhaps it will not incom 
 mode you to start at five." 
 
 " It would incommode the household, not me," an 
 swered Benton, calmly, yet wondering what he would 
 do if ordered searched at the moment, for both those 
 little tell-tale notes were now crumpled together in his 
 hand. " Breakfast is ordered at five-thirty, but I am 
 entirely at your service." Then placidly he turned and 
 resumed his seat and pen. Once more the doctor 
 ushered his visitor to the front door, ceremoniously 
 bowed him out, regretting, he said, inability to offer him 
 the hospitalities of his roof, for every room was taken, 
 and then, tremulous with wrath, returned to Benton. 
 
 " I cannot fathom this, suh," said he. " That man 
 gave me to understand he would be at Gawd nsville to 
 night, and here at midnight comes prowling around 
 my place like he was layin a trap, suh. Mr. Benton, if 
 there were any way in my power, suh, to get you out of 
 that fella s clutches, I believe I d do it hyuh an now! " 
 and the gray-haired physician sank into a chair. 
 
 " You can best serve me, Doctor, by getting to bed 
 and resting," was Benton s reply. i( You need it, sir." 
 And then, to the surprise of both, Rosalie s door opened 
 and forth she came, candle in hand, her lustrous hair fall- 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 147 
 
 ing in ebony waves all down her back, her face pale but 
 beautiful, and with quiet force she led the passive doctor 
 from his seat to the stairway; escorted him to his room; 
 talked with him quietly, soothingly a moment, and then, 
 bidding him affectionate good night, came tripping 
 lightly up the stairs. 
 
 But it was a transmogrified face that now met Ben- 
 ton s gaze. Flushed, eager, brimful of wrath and deter 
 mination, she came straight to his side, for one moment 
 too excited to speak, again the girl who had dared every 
 peril the night she donned Confederate uniform for the 
 sake of what? 
 
 " I owe everything to your quickness of wit," Benton 
 began. " I should never have thought of this. I was 
 going to jump into my blankets." 
 
 " And spoil everything ! " said she, in deep disdain of 
 such stupidity. " He would have seen and suspected 
 at once. You, with your boots in bed ! Listen, now. 
 They are riding away," and as she spoke the clanking 
 of sabres and the squashing of hoofs in the soft, muddy 
 side street told that Lounsberry s aggressive party was 
 really on the move. She ran to a window and glanced 
 out after them. Then, when they were surely out of 
 earshot and the sound had died away on the night, once 
 more she came to him, her eyes ablaze, her cheeks afire. 
 
 " And now if I had any compunction," she murmured 
 fast, " it is gone ! Of course I had striven that you 
 should never suspect we aided you ; and, had you gone 
 at once, you never could have known. No, don t ! " 
 
148 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 For here, with protestation on his lips and eager, 
 outstretched hand, he stepped impulsively forward. 
 " No no ! Listen, for there is no second to spare. 
 The horses your horses will be back in a moment. 
 Go without question ! You should have been miles up 
 toward the mountains now. I simply took a leaf out 
 of that man s book. He planned to lure you to attempt 
 to escape, with creatures of his own waiting back of 
 the barn. Then he was to overtake and arrest you, or 
 they might have shot I do not know. But they would 
 have been badly fooled. They bribed Pomp to bring 
 you his her note, and he had to give it first to me. 
 They were to wait beyond the barn, but we had horses 
 right under your window. Then you delayed. They 
 became impatient. Pomp gave warning in time to get 
 the horses away. You know the rest. Now, are you 
 ready?" And the brave eyes looked one instant glori 
 ously into his. 
 
 "Ready?" he cried. "Ready but for one thing," 
 and again and with burning eagerness and longing he 
 sprang forward, and again she recoiled, her hand up 
 lifted ; but he would not be denied. " You shall hear 
 me, Rosalie," he murmured, hoarsely. " You must 
 hear ! " and one strong hand had seized the white, slen 
 der wrist. " I bless you and thank you, but more than 
 all I love yr 
 
 " Hush ! Silence ! " she cried, adding imperative 
 stamp of her little foot. 
 
 From the window of his room there came a pleading 
 
QUEEN ROSALIE 149 
 
 voice. In the soft glow of the candle light two rolling 
 eyeballs and a double row of gleaming teeth were seen. 
 It was Pomp, simian-like sealer of the lightning " rawd." 
 " Miss Rosalie/ he panted, " the horses is hyuh ! The 
 sojers done gone ! " 
 
 " Now, Lieutenant Benton," she cried, though her 
 voice her very form was shaking. " If you mean to 
 make a try for freedom, it s now or never! " 
 
 And when at dawn Lounsberry s guard came ham 
 mering at the door, they came too late the bird had 
 flown. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 " IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE " 
 
 Once more the Badger-Hoosier brigade was swing 
 ing away southwestward. For the sixth time in less 
 than a year the men of the " Black Hats " at the head of 
 column had picked their way over the stone-ribbed pike, 
 saying opprobious things of Virginia path-masters. An 
 impudent lot were these fellows in the imitation " Kos- 
 suths." Marvellously snappy and precise in drill, steady 
 on parade, enduring on the march and reasonably re 
 spectful toward their own officers (who were the only 
 ones in the division to don and habitually wear the full- 
 dress headgear of the regular service), the rank and 
 file were blessed with not a little soldier skepticism as 
 to the value or stability of other commands in and out 
 of the brigade, and a calmly critical attitude toward offi 
 cers other than those of their selection. They had not 
 been over well content with their original field and 
 staff, and, for lack of leaders of that rank, had become 
 somewhat split up at first Bull Run, fighting sturdily 
 all the same by company or squad to the fag end, and 
 never knowing they were whipped when finally 
 " herded " off the field. Now, however, they had men 
 at their head colonel, lieutenant-colonel and major by 
 
"IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE" 151 
 
 whom they positively swore and on whose skill and 
 valor they would have banked their last cent. Yet, 
 with all their regard for these, their honored leaders, it 
 must be owned the Black Hats gave them lots of trou 
 ble. They would guy the rest of the brigade and lord 
 it generally over the whole division, only one other 
 regiment of which had as yet faced the foe in battle. 
 They had a curious defect of vision when " outside " 
 officers happened along, and were forever being com 
 plained of as failing to " render honors," whereat they 
 were heard on more than one occasion unblushingly to 
 declare they saw, but didn t suppose the strangers could 
 be officers. They were preternaturally keen sighted as 
 sentries toward men of other regiments " running 
 guard " or smuggling contraband of war, and were 
 correspondingly blind when the culprit was of their own 
 complexion. They prided themselves on their regi 
 mental knowledge of guard duty, and had won wide 
 spread fame and deserved malediction by the exploit of 
 relieving every mother s son of the sentries of one of 
 Baldy Smith s pet regiments, replacing each in turn by 
 a duly authenticated yet entirely unauthorized guards 
 man of their own choosing, who promptly deserted post 
 and sneaked off home, while the luckless relief itself was 
 headed away through the darkness, a ship without a 
 rudder, a squad of twelve without a commander, and 
 left to its own devices to pitch and flounder and curse 
 through ditches until brought up standing by a stone 
 wall and the discovery that there was no corporal. 
 
152 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Preceding, as did these Badgers, the regular relief by 
 only five minutes and provided with the same counter 
 sign, dress and equipment, there was really nothing par 
 ticularly brilliant or hazardous in their accomplishment 
 of this feat. It was the sublime impudence of the thing 
 that made it remarkable. They were probably the best 
 drilled and positively the worst hated regiment in the 
 whole division and relished one distinction quite as 
 much as the other when they were marching this third 
 time on Manassas, and the little West Pointer in saddle 
 at their head thanked God that at last he had them 
 where, with work against a common foe, there was pos 
 sibility of keeping them out of mischief. 
 
 Centreville had been passed, Bull Run recrossed, and 
 Bristoe reached a point beyond their previous explo 
 rations. Then back had they to go to meet a threat 
 ened raid on their railway communications, and, that 
 matter settled, again were they trudging through the 
 well-remembered wood roads when, as a turn of the 
 way brought their foremost company in full view of the 
 fine sweep of country off to the west, the gray-bearded 
 colonel, for the time commanding the brigade, reined 
 out to the right for a look at his men, and his tall, born- 
 soldier of an adjutant rode alongside the black-bearded, 
 dark-featured, stocky little leader of the Black Hats, 
 pointed with his gauntletted hand to the blue curtain of 
 the Bull Run range and remarked : " I d give a good 
 deal to know just what that fellow Jackson s doing be 
 hind that screen to-day." 
 
"IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE" 153 
 
 "Why so?" asked O Connor, shortly. " Shields 
 licked him well at Kernstown. Banks has turned his 
 whole force back there. Blenker s big division has gone 
 to reinforce them. Why, we ve got enough men there 
 to eat em alive Jackson and all." 
 
 " First catch your rabbit," said the adjutant, mus 
 ingly. " Old Stonewall knows every footpath in the 
 valley every path through the mountains. He ll trick 
 Banks and Fremont, sure s your born, colonel. Then 
 we ll have a shy at him." 
 
 " May the Lord grant it," was the pious answer, as 
 the colonel looked wistfully away toward the little rift 
 in the dark ridge where, ten miles distant, lay Thor 
 oughfare Gap, the best and shortest route to the Shen- 
 andoah the Gap through which four months later this 
 same much-discussed and as yet little-known Jackson 
 was with such fatal effect to pour his columns on the 
 Union flank and rear. How little the speaker dreamed 
 what that day was to bring forth ! 
 
 It was a moist afternoon. The sun at intervals 
 streamed hotly on the spongy earth. Little wreaths of 
 vapor here and there drifted slowly into space. The 
 men in the marching column, heavily burdened with 
 bulging knapsack and double blanket and the long 
 Springfield over their burly shoulders, whipped off 
 their hats and swept the coat-sleeve over their dripping 
 brows, peering curiously at the old colonel sitting sturd 
 ily in saddle and watching their array. He had but 
 scant retinue, this acting brigadier, and had sent his 
 
154 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 right bower ahead to show the Black Hats where to 
 camp for the night, while he studied the wearying regi 
 ments as they issued from the wood. The march had 
 been long and heavy. The men, despite much recent 
 tramping to and fro, were still a trifle soft from the 
 months of comparative inaction. He had seen fellows 
 in better physical trim in the Mexican War days, but 
 none that gave better promise of splendid work when 
 once they settled down to business. A grim smile stole 
 over his grizzled face as his own old battalion came strid 
 ing forth in the wake of the " Scoffing Second." Then 
 the kindly eyes clouded with something like displeasure 
 at sight of a tall, rather lanky civilian on a decrepit 
 gray, riding with the lieutenant-colonel commanding. 
 He had seen the man before many a mile from the spot 
 and more than a week away. " How came you here ? " 
 he asked, as the civilian ambled out of the column and 
 touched his worn hat-brim. 
 
 " My place is just over yahnduh, Colonel. P haps 
 you doan remember my comin to you with a pass, back 
 o Fairfax," and the tall stranger looked confidingly into 
 the grizzled, sun-burned face. " Been in to Alexandria, 
 yo know, for supplies. Wagon went sho ht cut by 
 stone bridge." 
 
 " I know," said the colonel, gloomily, " and that s the 
 way you should have gone. What are you doing here 
 at Manassas ? " 
 
 "Mo* supplies, Colonel," grinned he of the gray mount. 
 * The commissary gave me n ohdah for sugah and cof- 
 
"IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE" ^5 
 
 fee from hyuh. I was just passing the time o* day with 
 the colonel when I caught sight o you, suh," and con 
 ciliation beamed in the native s artless face. 
 
 " Then you ll be asking for somebody to help you 
 * tote it over to the stone house, I suppose. You 
 told me that was your place," growled the colonel, in 
 manifest dissatisfaction." 
 
 " Oh, no, Colonel ! We ain t stoppin there now. Th 
 old place is too leaky for one thing, an we re livin way 
 over near Hopewell so long s this fightin s goin on. I 
 reckon I ll stop hyuh at the Junction to-night an go 
 on to-mawrrow." 
 
 " I reckon that s just what you ll have to do, sir," said 
 the colonel, shortly, " as this brigade camps here, and 
 you d get into trouble with our pickets if you rode out." 
 
 " Lawd love you, Colonel ! I d just as lief spend a 
 week with you if t want that I d promised to get a lot 
 of truck over to old Judge Armistead at Hopewell." 
 Then keenly studying the veteran s face, he suddenly 
 added : " Ain t Colonel Bayard s cavalry out there ? " 
 
 " Ask me no questions, my friend, and I ll tell you no 
 lies," was the wary answer. " General McDowell s pass 
 Compels me to let you ride along with the column, but 
 doesn t require me to post you as to our movements. 
 You know too much now to be travelling toward Jack 
 son s people, and have you shown that pass to the 
 division commander ? " 
 
 " Why, it was he who got it for me," answered the 
 Virginian, placidly. " It was I that took him Lieu- 
 
156 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 tenant Benton s pistol and told him of his capture. 
 What s more, I m specting to get further news of the 
 lieutenant. Why, hyuh comes the general now, and f 
 you don t mind, Colonel, I reckon I ll ride with him a 
 piece." 
 
 Graybeard glanced half angrily over his shoulder. A 
 few yards north of the road there was a barren little 
 eminence, on the crest of which there had suddenly 
 appeared the division commander with two of his staff. 
 Unslinging their field-glasses, they seemed for a mo 
 ment studying the westward lowlands, then came trot 
 ting swiftly toward the column. With soldierly salute, 
 the colonel faced the party as though he knew that 
 orders were in the wind, and his intuition proved cor 
 rect. 
 
 " Colonel, there are scattered parties of cavalry out 
 there coming swift this way, too out north of Bristoe 
 between that and Gainesville. They don t seem to be 
 watching the column either. Send one regiment out 
 along the Gainesville road as far as Bethlehem Church 
 and let them throw out skirmishers. Halt the rest of 
 the brigade here. Good afternoon, Mr. Jennings," he 
 continued, in civil acknowledgment of the Virginian s 
 salutation. " I thought you were home by this 
 time." 
 
 " I sent the wagon that way, General," was the 
 prompt answer, " but I looked to see some kinsfolk 
 hereabouts, and the wagon won t go beyond Groveton 
 if there s trouble ahead. Those niggers are more scared 
 
"IN THE TEETH OP THE BRIGADE" 157 
 
 o shootin than they are of ghosts. Yet, I d hoped to 
 reach Judge Armistead s to-night." 
 
 " Better think twice ! If those troopers are some of 
 Stuart s scouting they might hold you for examina 
 tion." But the general s eyes were following the column 
 as he spoke. Evidently he was more interested in the 
 choice of the regiment to be sent to the right front than 
 in the fortunes of the Virginian. A smile crossed his 
 face as a moment later the Sixth turned out of column, 
 and silently he reined his horse to the right and, fol 
 lowed by a party of six, all told, including orderlies, rode 
 away on the flank. Jennings, finding himself unhin 
 dered, ambled in their tracks until, half a mile out, they 
 reached the fork of the road. Northward lay the dun 
 colored route to the s-tone house and Sudley Springs ; 
 westward, or a little north of west, the winding roadway 
 to Gainesville and the Gaps. For a moment the tall civi- 
 ian sat irresolute, then clapped his heels into his lean 
 charger s ribs and went sputtering after the chief. 
 
 " General," said he, coming alongside, " I want to say 
 one thing, suh, and it s this that young gentleman of 
 your staff was so kind to Dr. Chilton that it completely 
 staggered the doctor to have him knocked down and 
 captured. He s bound to take the best of cayuh of him 
 till he s well enough to take cayuh of himself an 
 then " 
 
 " Well, and then, Mr. Jennings ? " asked the general, 
 impatiently, for he was eager to get on ahead. 
 
158 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 f< You look out for his turning up any day ! If he 
 ain t exchanged, I m bettin somethin else will happen." 
 
 " My understanding is that Dr. Chilton has made 
 himself personally responsible for Mr. Benton s safe 
 keeping so long as he s allowed to remain with 
 
 V 
 
 " That s true, I reckon," answered Jennings. " But," 
 and here his lantern jaws relaxed in whimsical grin, 
 " the doctor ain t the only brainy one in that family, 
 General. The girl that planned young Ladue s escape 
 from your fellows at Henry house may play it on 
 EwelFs folks at Gawd nsville just as easy." 
 
 " So you know Ewell s at Gordonville ! " said the 
 general, whirling suddenly on the speaker. " And you 
 know the lady who got Mr. Ferguson into his scrape, 
 do you ? " 
 
 " Gettin another fella out o one yes, suh," an 
 swered Jennings, unflinchingly. " And she made a big 
 play that night to get still another out of a bad fix 
 less I m mistaken. Why, General, you jus ought to 
 heuh Judge Armistead talk about that girl. He says 
 half the men in Albemarle, university and all, were in 
 love with her when the war broke out, and the judge has 
 a mighty pretty daughter of his own, too. I rather 
 hoped some of our cavalry might be pushin out toward 
 Hopewell to-night. Ain t Colonel Bayard somewhere 
 out that way? Hullo! There s a shot !" 
 
 Not one shot alone, but two, three, in quick succes 
 sion. Somewhere ahead among the patches and thick- 
 
"IN THE TEETH OP THE BRIGADE" 159 
 
 ets of scrub oak and pine the scattering advance-guard 
 had suddenly met swift galloping lads in gray. Then 
 came the distant sound of half a dozen shots, carbines, 
 and the answering sputter of a ragged volley. At long 
 range, as yet, Badger afoot and Virginian in saddle, 
 were saluting each other, and the men, trudging by 
 fours along the winding roadway, threw up their heads 
 and picked up their heels, a thrill of excitement quiver 
 ing through the column. Well out to the front a bugle 
 sounded some lively call, and, spurring full gallop from 
 the rear, the tall adjutant went bending and twisting 
 away among the trees until out of sight ahead, and then 
 his powerful voice came ringing back : " This way, Cap 
 tain lively ! Double quick ! " 
 
 Evidently Haskell had sighted some of the quarry 
 and closer at hand than those ahead along the roadway, 
 for there came a crackle of shots, the bark of the cav 
 alry weapon, the saucy pop of a revolver somewhere 
 among the thickets to the left of the column; then a 
 shrill burst of cheers from the deploying blue-coats on 
 the westward flank. All on a sudden, scrambling 
 through the bushes they had tumbled over a little squad 
 of troopers in gray, making heroic effort to carry off 
 a helpless comrade. The general and his aides had 
 spurred in with the skirmishers, and were just in time 
 to see two riderless horses tearing away among the 
 trees across an open glade, while half a dozen daring, 
 devoted fellows in saddle were stoutly interposing be 
 tween the forward rush of the excited Badgers and 
 
160 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 three of their number surrounding and supporting a tall 
 officer who had been lifted sideways to the back of a 
 plunging, snorting, frightened steed, but who seemed 
 fainting and powerless to help himself or them. 
 "Halt!" "Halt!" "Dismount!" "Surrender!" rang 
 the hoarse shouts of the dozen bluecoats, dashing in pur 
 suit. Bang! Bang! came the defiant response of the 
 few defenders. Bang! Bang! bellowed a brace of 
 Springfields in reply, ill aimed, God be praised, in the 
 thrilling excitement of the moment. It seemed cruel 
 savage to shoot down such gallant fellows in their hope 
 less deed of devotion. " Don t shoot ! " " Hold your 
 fire!" yelled the general. "Don t shoot!" "Don t 
 shoot ! " echoed the staff, for the luckless cavalier, reel 
 ing in his seat, went sliding into the arms of his loyal 
 followers, while the devil of a horse whirled round, tug 
 ging, straining at the reins and striving to break away. 
 " Dismount ! " " Down with you ! " " Off with you ! " 
 cried the pursuers, officer and man, as another terrified 
 horse tore, wildly neighing, in chase of the foremost. 
 It was a desperate effort on part of the grays. Their 
 comrade troopers were too far off to help them, even 
 could they drive through the stout skirmish line already 
 far flung across the field beyond. With a last wave 
 of his white hand, the officer seemed ordering his de 
 fenders to save themselves, and those in saddle, with 
 parting shots and defiant yells one of them even hurl 
 ing in rage his emptied revolver at the tall adjutant, 
 the foremost man in the rush darted away, bending 
 
" IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE " IQI 
 
 low over the streaming manes, with the bullets of half 
 a score of Springfields whizzing past their ears, and only 
 a sad-faced, silent little trio knelt about the fallen soldier 
 as, panting and triumphant, the boys in blue came 
 thronging round them. 
 
 The adjutant was off his big, raw-boned bay in an in 
 stant and, bending over the fainting man, unscrewed the 
 cap of his flask and held it to the pale lips beneath the 
 sweeping mustache. "A major, hey?" he said, as he 
 noted the brilliant braids of gold lace on the handsome 
 uniform frock. " What is a major doing out here with 
 only a squad of you boys ? " and something like pity 
 shone in his kindling eyes, as he looked up at the beard 
 less, clear-cut, young face of the captured trooper near 
 est him. Two of the three could not have been more 
 than seventeen, but never a word of complaint did they 
 utter not a syllable did either speak in reply. 
 
 "What have you, Haskell?" inquired the black- 
 bearded general, riding in through the group of eager, 
 almost sympathetic soldier faces. 
 
 " Don t know yet, General," was the answer, as a 
 faint quiver ran through the prostrate form. " He can t 
 speak for himself, and these young veterans 
 won t." 
 
 "Is he wounded?" asked the chief. "Surely you 
 can tell us that," he added, presently, as he glanced at 
 the two silent striplings in gray. Then at last one of 
 them faced the commander. 
 
 " Horse fell, suh rolled on him broke his leg," said 
 
162 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 he, with a salute that told unerringly of soldier teach 
 ing; so, too, did the speaker s pose. Instinctively he 
 was standing at attention. He knew the rank betrayed 
 by that yellow sash. 
 
 " Give this young gentleman a sip from your flask, 
 
 Haskell ; I fear he s Why, my lad, you re wounded ! 
 
 Look to him, some of you ! " cried the general, for the 
 boy had grown ashen pale and was reeling when strong 
 arms caught and lowered him. 
 
 " Sure, General. He s shot through the breast," said 
 a bearded soldier, tearing aside the trooper s jacket and 
 displaying a blood-wet shirt beneath. 
 
 " And wouldn t show it," answered the general. 
 " That s the way with them. Send for a surgeon, Cap 
 tain." And then the general, too, was off his horse and 
 bending over the stricken lad. " Do you know his name 
 and home ? " he asked of the pale-faced young Vir 
 ginian, standing trembling a bit with excitement beside 
 him. The lad flushed, looked distressed, embarrassed, 
 but seemed to believe it his soldier duty to give no in 
 formation whatever to the enemy. It was Jennings 
 who spoke, his voice breaking harshly, somehow, on 
 the silence of the surrounding group, as he elbowed a 
 way through the curious circle and caught sight of the 
 swooning boy. 
 
 " I know him, General. He s one of our best, suh," 
 and now Jennings, too, had thrown himself upon his 
 knees. " It s Floyd Pelham, suh, of Charlottesville. 
 It ll break his mother s heaht, suh, if he s done for." 
 
"IN THE TEETH OF THE BRIGADE" 153 
 
 The wail in the Virginian s voice seemed to catch the 
 ear and rouse the faculties of the reviving officer. 
 
 "Who s that done for?" he faintly asked. "Not 
 Floyd Pelham ? " And bracing his hands upon the turf, 
 he struggled to a sitting posture, while Jennings sprang 
 to his feet and stared. 
 
 " Major Lounsberry ! Good God, suh, you wounded, 
 too? Why, I d no idea " 
 
 " No idea, I suppose," interposed the major, with cut 
 ting, sarcastic emphasis, " that your friends, the Chil- 
 tons, had turned that Yankee lieutenant loose. Well, 
 you needn t rejoice, gentlemen, we ve got him again 
 and right in the teeth of his own brigade ! " 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 
 
 Long as he lives Fred Benton will never forget that 
 night ride from the Chiltons and the thrilling days that 
 followed. Imperiously had Queen Rosalie dismissed 
 him. Impulsively had she turned away, refusing further 
 look, touch or word. Her door closed behind her, and 
 he well knew she meant her mandate to be final. " Not 
 a second to lose ! " Even now he should have been far 
 up toward the mountains. Yet the doctor was again 
 stirring uneasily about his room below. The light 
 burned dimly in the lower hall. Pomp had disappeared 
 from the window small task was it for that agile imp 
 to climb a lightning " rawd" ! But, groping back to his 
 room, Benton heard again the stamp of hoofs beneath 
 the window and muttered words and a sound as of 
 straining over some unresponsive, inanimate burden. 
 Then something heaved up through the dim starlight 
 and lightly tapped against the clapboards below the sill, 
 and something black came " swarming " up the other 
 something Pomp again, and Pomp chuckled at sound 
 of Benton s whispered hail. 
 
 " We ve got a ladder dis time, suh. Didn t dass try 
 it befo wid dem sojus at de bahn," and by ladder, not by 
 
RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 165 
 
 lightning rod, was the descent accomplished. Dusky 
 hands helped the crippled soldier into saddle. Dusky 
 hands waved him good-by and good luck. Darky voices 
 muttered blessings for the astonishing feel of gold in 
 dusky palms for Benton would not ride until he had 
 rewarded and then, never knowing until long, long 
 after what chattel it was that aided Pomp in aiding him 
 to mount, never seeking to know until the dawn whose 
 was the dusky hand that took his bridle rein and led 
 him cautiously away through the darkness, Benton lifted 
 up his brave heart in brief, silent prayer for heaven s 
 blessing on those that dwelt within that house, for 
 heaven s guidance on his way, and gave himself un 
 questioning to him whom she, his imperious queen, had 
 appointed as his guide, and together they rode forth into 
 the murmuring night. 
 
 Through leafy lanes, until clear of the village, across 
 a broad high-road into dark depths beyond, over a slop 
 ing pasture where, studying the stars on high, Benton 
 first took note that they were heading westward again, 
 twisting and turning through winding woodpath, ever 
 accompanied by the clamor of watch-dogs not yet recon 
 ciled to night patrols. Twice compelled to let down bars 
 and squeeze through half-opened barnyard gates, his 
 silent conductor led on and Benton followed, until even 
 the dogs of the suburbs were left behind and they, the 
 fugitives, had found the open country. Then at last his 
 escort turned and said: " Kin you stand a little canter, 
 Marstuh ? " and Benton recognized the voice of Dusky 
 
166 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Dan, and " stood " accordingly. They forded, some 
 where toward two o clock, a little branch, a tributary of 
 the rushing Rivanna, and were still heading westward 
 when Fred s darky guide left him with both horses at 
 the edge of a grove, while he went forward afoot and 
 reconnoitred. Presently he came back rejoiceful. " Dey 
 ain t a soul a lookin out fo de bridge, suh. Dey s all 
 over Gawd nsville way. We save nigh onto five miles 
 hyuh," and so led on again, the hoof-beats sounding 
 hollow on the planking of some old-time truss across a 
 swift, exuberant mountain stream, running bank full and, 
 far and near, said Dan, unfordable. Still on through 
 whispering aisles of forest trees, through squashy cross 
 country bridle paths, far from pike or toll road; only 
 at rare intervals, now, stirring the challenge of some 
 farmer s dog, and never seeing habitation of any kind 
 until, just as the dawn was faintly lighting the placid 
 eastern sky, clean swept of every cloud, old Daniel led 
 his soldier charge from the beaten track, and turning 
 square to the left began a tortuous climb that brought 
 them presently into an open pasture, half way up a 
 line of wooded heights, and there, faintly visible at 
 the upper side of the clearing, were two little cabins 
 with an outlying shed and some ramshackle fences, and 
 here, while Benton was made comfortable in his blanket 
 with his feet to a fire, Dan held converse with other un 
 seen occupants, giving explicit directions, faintly audible 
 in the hiss of frying bacon and the bubble of boiling 
 coffee. Benton heard vaguely, drowsily, the words 
 
RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 167 
 
 " Swift Run Gap, Sperryville, Ohleans, Hedgman 
 River " and when he roused himself in response to vig 
 orous yet regretful prodding, he knew not how long 
 thereafter, a new voice sounded on his sleepy senses. 
 Another guardian bent over him in the shape of a negro 
 with wrinkled face and gray-white, kinky hair, but a 
 world of sympathy and interest in his sombre eyes. 
 Marstuh s breakfast was spoiling and it was time that 
 they were moving. Where was Daniel ? " Daniel had 
 to go back to Marse Chilton s. Miss Rosalie done fixed 
 all dat." 
 
 And so, while Benton drank a huge tin of steaming 
 coffee and ate hungrily at the rashers and " aigs " pro 
 vided for him, his new attendant explained the situation. 
 For years he had belonged to Marse Chilton, but when 
 he married a lass on the Lounsberry place, and by and 
 by the chil luns began to grow, Marse Chilton found 
 him of less use than ever and swapped him off. And 
 then he d been Marse Lounsberry s coachman, and then 
 was put in charge of Marse Pelham s " stawk," and 
 finally he and his ole woman were moved up here into 
 the mountains to take care of the cattle of certain fan 
 ciers who had prudently shifted their Jerseys and Ayr- 
 shires to the hills rather than see them requisitioned by 
 a commissariat that already had begun to find its limi 
 tations in the matter of fresh beef. His big boy Hector 
 was " groomin hawses," and from this point would 
 lead him on up the east face of the range until near the 
 Hedgman. He knew that country well, whereas old 
 
168 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Dan did not, and the latter had to hurry home so that 
 he might show about the Chilton place as usual. Miss 
 Rosalie had ordered that, too. They would do anything 
 in the world for her or for the doctor. 
 
 But Mars r ought to have been beyond the Gap road 
 Swift Run Gap before sun-up and now twas long 
 after, but Hector knew the Ridge and a host of places 
 to hide if need be. Hector had a sweetheart on 
 the Hazel whom he greatly longed to see for whose 
 sake more than thrice had he run the gauntlet to her 
 welcoming arms, and so, once more, but in broad day 
 light now, and well up along the heights, with magnifi 
 cent vistas of eastward Virginia almost every hour, they 
 came at last in view of the twisting mountain road that 
 pierced the range Jackson s runway from the Shenan- 
 doah down to Gordonsville and here again Fred lurked 
 in hiding, while Hector scrambled down afoot to try the 
 pass. 
 
 Thus far the danger had been slight. Between Rock- 
 fish and Swift Run Gaps there lay few roads through 
 which scouting parties would be apt to come. Brown s 
 and Powell s Gaps were then but little used. The Blue 
 Ridge served as a screen or barrier to their left. The 
 line of communication of the Southern army was far 
 over along the railway to the east. Jackson and his 
 nimble-footed brigades were still some distance down 
 the Shenandoah to the north, but Hector had heard 
 " old Stonewall " was retiring before overwhelming 
 /lumbers, and that a lot of his soldiers were already at 
 
RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 169 
 
 work over on the west side, throwing up fortifications, 
 and couriers kept coming and going between him and 
 " Marse " Ewell down at " Gawd nsville." Benton still 
 wore the uniform coat and riding breeches in which he 
 had been captured, though a sleeve was slit and a shoul 
 der-strap had been ripped off. His forage cap, too, a 
 jaunty affair of the McClellan type, had been missing 
 since the fight at the stone house, and he was sporting 
 a black, broad-brimmed felt hat that had done duty in 
 Jack Chilton s university days. Horse, horse equip 
 ments, Grimsley valise, and all items attached to the 
 saddle, of course, were gone, but he still had his field- 
 glass. A pair of the doctor s old saddle-bags slung on 
 his horse seemed bulging with sundries he had not yet 
 had time to inspect. A blanket and poncho, " treasure 
 trove " of Manassas the First, were strapped on the 
 spare horse, together with a canteen marked U. S., and 
 that canteen Hector had replenished at a mountain 
 brook only an hour agone. With their bits slipped and 
 their fore feet hoppled, the horses were placidly brows 
 ing among the bushes close at hand, and there for over 
 an hour this sunshiny April morning the lonely Union 
 soldier watched and waited, and over and again mar 
 velled at the generalship of the girl who had managed 
 every detail connected with his escape. Only that one 
 evening did she have in which to prepare, yet saddle 
 bags were secured and packed, blanket and poncho pro 
 vided, horses " borrowed " by Black Dan, with the con 
 nivance of a colored retainer, from the Pelham pasti e 
 
170 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 
 within pistol shot of the varsity grounds (to take their 
 
 own would have lent too much color to the theory that 
 the doctor connived), their very route mapped out and 
 determined, and all this by a Virginia maid yet in her 
 teens, already the planner of Paul Ladue s escape al 
 ready the heroine of a perilous midnight masquerade 
 the object of which was still wrapped in tormenting 
 mystery. 
 
 If she would but condescend if he could but induce 
 her to account for that, what might it not mean to Ben- 
 ton! Only once had he ventured to begin to suggest 
 that explanation was something due to herself, when she 
 lifted up her eyes and then her queenly little head, and 
 just looked at him, and that ended further questioning. 
 
 Ten o clock had come, so said his watch, before Hec 
 tor reappeared, big-eyed, panting. There were two 
 hundred soldiers to the west of the Gap digging forts, 
 a squad in every farmhouse along the road, and about 
 as much chance of a Yankee officer crossing in daylight 
 as there was " of a needle s eye a-gittin into heaven." 
 Hector had been piously taught at some time in his life 
 and now he looked at the blue and the brass buttons 
 in dismay. 
 
 Benton thought it over. The guard were to come for 
 him at six, and long ere this had discovered his escape. 
 Pursuit and search would of course be made. " Any 
 body own bloodhounds around Charlottesville ? " he 
 asked, and Hector said " No." Still Dan had gone 
 back, Dan might be lashed and tortured until he re- 
 
RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 171 
 
 vealed what he knew such things had happened and 
 the sooner Benton reached the upper waters of the Rap- 
 pahannock and secure hiding places back of Warrenton, 
 known to Hector, the better it would be for him 
 for all. He doubted not that by noon couriers would 
 come galloping out from Gordonsville telling of his es 
 cape and ordering guards and sentries on the lookout 
 everywhere along the Gap. 
 
 " Not a second to lose ! " He sprang to the saddle 
 bags and began a search. What had occurred to him 
 would probably have occurred to her, and it was Miss 
 Rosalie, Dan affirmed, who packed them. With eager 
 hands Benton pulled at the contents of the nearmost a 
 flask of brandy from the doctor s store, towel, handker 
 chiefs, sponge, soap, comb and brush, socks, shirt and 
 underwear Jack s, of course, and probably a tight fit; 
 small tin boxes containing ground coffee, sugar and 
 other things no time to examine now! an extra sling 
 and bandage for his arm; boot hooks! Think of a 
 woman who would think of them ! Then came a shout 
 from Hector, rummaging on the other side, and over 
 the broad back of Marse Pelham s old Pyramus came a 
 worn gray sack coat and waistcoat, of Richmond make, 
 and pinned to the lapel a scrap of paper on which in 
 pencil appeared in Roman characters, not script, these 
 words : " Map and spectacles in coat pocket. Small 
 pistol also. Look out for Federals about Warrenton. 
 Strip gold cord." 
 
 Gold cord? Why, yes, that meant the narrow gold 
 
172 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 braid worn in the war days on the seam of the trousers 
 by general and staff officers. Small compliment to him 
 was it that she should think it necessary to remind him 
 of that. Yet, how sweet how sweet it was to see how 
 she planned and thought for him ! 
 
 In less than half an hour, a tall, pale-faced, studious- 
 looking young man in spectacles, slouch hat and worn 
 sack coat of gray thrown loosely over a slung right 
 arm with a dark-brown horse, a doctor s saddle-bags 
 and a darky follower on a nondescript nag, turned de 
 liberately from a mountain path and took the highway 
 to the eastward, for all the world as though he were 
 bound for Stanardsville or beyond. A few rods further 
 the road twisted to the left and brought him in view of 
 a mountain cabin, close to a watering trough where a 
 squad of soldiers in queer-looking frock coats of dingy 
 gray were filling their canteens. Another of their num 
 ber, sick and dejected, was squatting on the steps, his 
 sallow face the picture of woe. " Gawt any physic that 
 will cure the cawlic, dawktuh ? " drawled a sun-tanned 
 young fellow in sergeant s stripes, and the doctor reined 
 in, studied the patient attentively one moment, then 
 swung out of saddle and stepped to his side. Asking no 
 questions, he gravely felt the pulse and glanced at the 
 coated tongue, smiled quietly to himself and, while Hec 
 tor held the horses, fumbled a minute at the saddle-bags, 
 stirred a compound into a stone china cup that stood 
 by the trough a compound whereof powdered sugar, 
 spring water and Spiritus Vini Gallici were the sole in- 
 
RIVANNA TO RAPIDAN 173 
 
 gradients, and in three minutes had the satisfaction of 
 seeing the light of reviving interest in life in the dull eyes 
 of the invalid and receiving the plaudits of half a dozen 
 would-be patients. Gladly would they have held him, 
 though from no hostile intent, as, with apparent serenity 
 yet with thumping heart, he rode away. He had heard 
 enough to make it expedient that he should move at 
 once. 
 
 " You re the first dawktuh we ve seen since we left 
 home, cept those in the army, suh," said the young ser 
 geant. " Guess they need em all." 
 
 " You re not Virginian, then," hazarded Benton, as 
 he was mounting. 
 
 " No, suh Fifteenth Alabama, Trimble s brigade, 
 suh. We b long down at Gawd nsville, but they sent a 
 few companies out this way last night." 
 
 "Know any of the Eleventh?" queried Benton, 
 rashly, yet thinking it not unwise to display some knowl 
 edge of the Southern service " Lieutenant Ladue, of 
 Mobile ? " he continued at a venture. 
 
 " Not many, suh. They re all with General Long- 
 street and Anderson down toward Yohktown." 
 
 " Lieutenant Ladue ain t ! " said the sick man, uplift 
 ing his sallow face. " He s on General Ewell s staff 
 made me ride his hawse this mornin an he ain t a mile 
 away this minute." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE 
 
 Late that evening two tired steeds were painfully 
 struggling up a stony, winding pathway among the 
 heights at the headwaters of the Hazel. Dodging ham 
 lets and settlements, fording branch after branch of the 
 Rapidan, keeping ever to the wood-path and by-ways, 
 Fred s black guide at last had landed him in a sheltered 
 nook among the hills, just as darkness settled down over 
 the wild beauty of the woodland scenery, and the twink 
 ling stars came peeping into the eastward sky. Here in 
 a little amphitheatre of rock and cedar and stunted pine, 
 Hector sprang from his dejected beast, whose drooping 
 head and jaded withers told of the trials of the day, 
 helped Benton to alight, whipped off the saddles and set 
 to work to build a little fire in a blackened corner, evi 
 dently often put to similar use in the past. The beasts 
 had had their fill of water when they forded the Hazel 
 and were soon rolling in infinite relief on the scanty turf. 
 Then the battered tin was filled from the canteen and 
 set to boil for coffee. Some pine boughs were shaken 
 down, and Fred s blanket spread. Then away went Hec 
 tor to refill the canteen and get such news as he could. 
 It was late, near nine o clock, when he came back laden 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OP THE FOE 175 
 
 oats for the horses, corn dodgers for their riders and 
 big news for Fred. The Yankees were pushing forward 
 in heavy columns along the Rappahannock, moving per 
 haps on Culpeper. Yankee troopers had been scouting 
 that morning about Fauquier Springs and Waterloo, 
 barely fifteen miles away. If all went well and the 
 horses weren t lame in the morning, they could be off 
 at dawn and feel their way round back of the Cross 
 Roads and Washington Coht House, cross the North 
 Fork the Hedgman way up among the hills, and then 
 work eastward until they fell in with the Yankee cavalry 
 that ought to be out on the right flank of McDowell s 
 advance. Hector had a friend who could " baw " a mule 
 and meet them at the ford of the Thornton back of 
 Sperryville, and show a way to the Hedgman. After 
 that if Hector was to go back, Benton would have to 
 shift for himself. 
 
 If only Stuart s fellows, now, or some other Southern 
 cavalry weren t scouting the lower fords and wood- 
 roads, interposing between them and the Yankee out 
 posts at Warrenton, all might go well. 
 
 And so, wearied yet refreshed and full of hope, Fred 
 Benton slept until aroused by the din of dogs among 
 the farms below them. It was just at the chill of the 
 earliest dawn. A whip-poor-will was piping his weird 
 chant in the thickets on the northward side, and from 
 that day until long years thereafter he could never hear 
 the harmless, mournful plaint without a thrill of anxiety, 
 if not dismay, for from far down among the scattered 
 
!76 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 settlements there came floating to him on the still, 
 morning air, quick, stirring and spirited the soft trumpet 
 notes of the cavalry reveille, played just as he had 
 heard it played four successive mornings on that ambu 
 lance journey to the railway, and he knew these were 
 not the blue-jackets of Bayard, but beyond doubt the 
 grays. The plumes of Stuart might have been wafted 
 away to meet the new danger along the York, but Ben- 
 ton had heard enough at the Chiltons to know that 
 skilled leaders of horse, with hosts of daring fellows, 
 were still close at hand, Turner Ashby in the Valley or 
 Beverly Robertson in front of Ewell at Gordonsville. 
 Now, what could this mean but that the squadron had 
 bivouacked far out on their flank, far north, too, of the 
 Confederate positions below the Rapidan,and was scout 
 ing these mountain by-paths, perhaps in search of him? 
 To Robertson and men of his rank the game might not 
 be worth the candle, but there was that strangely vin 
 dictive fellow Lounsberry, armed with power to order 
 hither and yon. The dawn came in with rose and 
 gold and royal purple, but the day looked dark for 
 Benton. 
 
 Rousing Hector, who still slept the sleep of the just 
 and the weary, he told him of the new danger, and the 
 darky s eyes bulged in their sockets. He was up and 
 well scared in less than no time and, taking Benton s 
 glass, disappeared among the rocks and trees up the 
 hillside to the west. There was a lookout, he said, in 
 the branches of an oak, from which much of the country 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE 177 
 
 could be seen to the southeast. It was full twenty 
 minutes later and just after Benton had heard the dis 
 tant signal " boots and saddles " from the same trumpet, 
 when he came scrambling down. No time for coffee, 
 no time for feeding or rubbing the horses, he said. Like 
 as not these troopers would be out searching every by 
 path. He had seen them doing that after the first Bull 
 Run when a dozen Yankee prisoners broke away from 
 the cars at night and skipped for the mountains. They 
 had all but two of them back inside of twelve hours. 
 Hurriedly saddling, Hector then aided his charge to 
 mount; then again led the way, crooked and devious, 
 through all manner of scrub and tangle ; threading ra 
 vines, skirting clearings and creeping ever higher to 
 ward the crest until the foothills at last were left far 
 below, and by the edge of a little brook that furnished 
 cool and abundant water for man and beast they stopped 
 for breakfast coffee, cold corn dodgers, and slices of 
 bacon frizzled on the point of a stick for the masters 
 and the last of the oats for the four-footed slaves. Then 
 on again northward, and, so tortuous was their way, so 
 many were the halts, making on a bee line little more 
 than a mile an hour, they bored through the wilderness 
 until, late in the afternoon, from a bare projecting ledge, 
 they obtained their first unimpeded view to the east 
 ward, and saw the North Fork, the Hedgman, like a sil 
 ver thread, winding away southeastward through copses 
 and clearings, and among the wooded heights toward 
 Warrenton, and all the lovely rural landscape of Fau- 
 
178 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 quier spread before them like a map. Who now were 
 masters there the Blue or the Gray? 
 
 That night the moon, half full but brilliant, stood high 
 toward the zenith as the whip-poor-wills began their 
 vesper Miserere. By midnight it would sink behind the 
 Blue Ridge, and Benton ordered " forward " while the 
 faint light lasted, despite Hector s demurrer. He didn t 
 know the Hedgman fords, he said, and they d find cav 
 alry everywhere along the stream. They wouldn t waste 
 so many horsemen looking for one man, said Benton, 
 but Hector could tell the time when as many as two 
 hundred were out after one poor nigger, though he 
 failed to say what the fugitive had done to make him 
 so generally sought. Hector declared they " might 
 treat Marse Benton decent enough if they cotched him," 
 but what concerned Hector most, and not unnaturally, 
 was the treatment that would be meted out to Benton s 
 colored guide and helper. Hector had heard terrific 
 tales of what had befallen certain of his color and condi 
 tion that had aided Ossawatomie Brown at Harper s 
 Ferry exaggerated tales, no doubt, yet not contra 
 dicted because it might be just as well to let the darkies 
 know the penalty of lending aid to the enemy. " Dey d 
 flog me to death, suh, or burn my eyes out," he pleaded. 
 But Benton was firm. They must try to cross the 
 Hedgman while the moon served, then hide in the 
 woods on the further shore until the dawn of another 
 day. 
 
 A scrambly ride was that to the lowlands, but toward 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE 179 
 
 ten o clock they struck a wood-path, and began to stir 
 the dogs of scattered homesteads in the foot-hills. No 
 main travelled roads were to be found in this region, 
 but even the bridle paths might be guarded by cavalry, 
 andjust as the moon was sinking behind the ridge and 
 they fancied they could hear the soothing murmur of 
 swift waters, a sudden turn of the path brought them 
 to the edge of a cleared field and in view of a scattered 
 shed or two. Then came double challenge. First the 
 impudent snarl and dash of a brace of back country 
 mongrels ; then the stern " Halt thar ! Dismount ! " of 
 a cavalry vedette, starting from the shadow of a clump 
 of stunted trees, not fifty feet away. 
 
 Before Hector, limp and trembling, could slip to 
 earth in obedience to the order, Benton s hand was on 
 his arm, lugging him back into saddle, while his heels 
 made vigorous play. " Stoop low, you fool, and fol 
 low ! " he swore between his set teeth as he whirled his 
 horse about and at plunging gallop tore westward again 
 by the way they came. A shot rang out on the night. 
 A bullet went whizzing into the shrubbery, but before 
 the solitary sentry could reload, or the men from the 
 picket reach him, Benton and Hector were four hun 
 dred yards away back along the wood-path and heading 
 through the darkness for the higher refuge of the hills. 
 Unwittingly they struck a northward-bending path at an 
 unseen fork, and there, as no sound of pursuit reached 
 them, Benton bade Hector cease his terrific heeling of 
 his horse s ribs, and gladly enough the half-blown beasts 
 
180 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 came down to heaving walk. The ill luck that had led 
 them into the maw of the outermost picket of the Con 
 federate force turned to blessing when, near midnight, 
 they found themselves at an unguarded reach of this 
 far-away branch of the Rappahannock, and the thirsting 
 horses, eager for drink, found their own ford to the 
 other shore. 
 
 Then came a night of broken sleep ; then a long day 
 of cautious prowling toward the line of heights to the 
 eastward the Bull Run mountains, as Benton s map 
 declared them. They did not faint or starve, for scat 
 tered field hands brought them pone and " poke " and 
 buttermilk at sight of Hector s silver. Some of them 
 had not seen a dime since Christmas of a year gone by. 
 They brought them further tidings of Yankee horsemen 
 in blue, hundreds of them, scouting all round here two 
 days ago, and then riding away to Warrenton, and then 
 of small parties of gray-coated gentlemen the very next 
 day popping across the Hedgman at every ford and 
 bridge, picking up Yankee stragglers and running them 
 off to Gawd nsville, and of a tall, fine-looking gentleman, 
 with lots of buttons and gold lace and beautiful sword 
 and sash and spurs " didn t look lak he d been doin 
 any hahd fightin " and he and his people were asking 
 everywhere for such a gentleman as this with Hector. 
 Then Lounsberry was still between him and the Union 
 lines ! 
 
 That night they slept, or rather waked, in a barn some 
 distance south of Salem, hidden by friendly darkies, for 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OP THE FOE 181 
 
 now Hector feared to return. He felt sure that his con 
 nection with Benton s escape was known, and that dire 
 punishment awaited him. He would unite his fortunes 
 with those of his new master, and be his groom and 
 hostler for the rest of his days. Union cavalry had been 
 trotting to and fro on the pike between the two Gaps, 
 Manassas and Thoroughfare, until yesterday, whispered 
 their darky entertainers who stole cheerfully from lar 
 der and kitchen of the nearest farmers in order to min 
 ister to their wants but now, unaccountably, it was all 
 " Secesh " again, though there were only a few. A 
 young negro promised to fetch a mule at four in the 
 morning and guide them over the hills toward New 
 Baltimore, eastward, they dare not try the roads, or 
 Thoroughfare Gap and from New Baltimore, once 
 across the Warrenton Pike, Benton hoped to be able to 
 reach the Union lines. True to his word and his hopes 
 of reward, the young fellow roused them an hour before 
 the dawn and had them clear of the valley roads before 
 sun-up. Then from the heights back of the Warrenton 
 pike Benton scoured the low ground toward Manassas 
 with his glasses, and only far south of Broad Run could 
 he see sign of cavalry of any kind, and so, bidding their 
 latest guide adieu, he and his faithful Hector rode hope 
 fully yet slowly, for the beasts were leg weary down 
 from the wooded range toward the long seam through 
 the open country, the once well-travelled high-road to 
 the lovely old county seat of Fauquier. They were look 
 ing for abandoned shack, cabin or barn where they could 
 
182 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 hide until twilight, then, with fairly level country to 
 traverse and the moon to light the way, they might 
 cross the pike unseen and, skirting Broad Run for a dis 
 tance, reach the pickets about Bristoe or Manassas be 
 fore another sun. 
 
 And so, while still well up above the level of the low 
 lands, they were baiting their horses and having a frugal 
 lunch in an old cowshed, when toward noon their 
 startled ears caught the sound of hoof-beats on the hill 
 side, and there came shambling into sight a wild-eyed 
 negro, one of their friends of the night before, on a 
 remonstrant mule. " Run, Marse ! " he cried, at sight 
 of Benton. " Run, fo Gawd s sake ! Dey s a hundred 
 sojers huntin every house an bahn just over the hill, 
 suh, and comin dis way ! " There was nothing for it 
 now but mount and away a stern chase was a long one, 
 anyhow. 
 
 Then came a ride almost for life. Down through 
 winding lanes to the farms below, out to the pike itself, 
 with many a backward glance at the low line of heights 
 behind them and expectant ever of seeing gray-jacketted 
 horsemen heading them off in front, they trotted on 
 until they came in view of some mill buildings, a mile 
 before them Buckland s, doubtless, said Benton, after 
 a glance at his map, and more than likely there would 
 be cavalry there if anywhere east of the Bull Run range. 
 They turned into a lane leading away southeastward be 
 tween desolate fields; halted to "blow" their panting, 
 reeking horses at a little clump of trees near a south- 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE 183 
 
 ward sweep of the mill stream Broad Run then Ben- 
 ton unslung his glass and took deliberate survey of the 
 distant mills, then of the country over which they had 
 come, and, spurring like mad down a slope of the 
 heights, barely three miles back of them, came a dozen 
 gray horsemen. " They ve seen us," said he, as quietly 
 as he could, and Hector s trembling hands helped him 
 again to mount. Then away dashed the pair for the 
 first ford of the stream, only to see as they rode out 
 dripping on the opposite bank that the distant fringe of 
 the Manassas woods looked far away as ever. Oh, for 
 a sight of Union flankers now ! 
 
 A long half hour they rode, fast as jaded steed could 
 bear them, but Hector s horse was nearly done. The 
 spare oak openings, the scattered copses, now were only 
 half a mile ahead, but southward, cutting them off from 
 Bristoe, galloped a jaunty half dozen, following the lead 
 of a dashing rider. Behind them, still beyond carbine 
 range but slowly gaining, full twenty troopers were 
 spreading out over the open fields, " turning " them, as 
 it were, from the left. The soil was growing loose and 
 soft and spongy now that they had left the lanes, and 
 every now and then they plunged through holes, deep 
 and treacherous, but still they lashed ahead, Hector s 
 poor brute groaning staggering with every stride. 
 Presently the ground began slowly rising and the woods 
 grew thick. If only they could reach them ! Surely the 
 Union pickets must be close at hand, and now, as they 
 drove in among the clumps of stunted trees, they lost 
 
184 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 sight of the troopers to the south. Now the yells of 
 those in rear became exultant, and still there came no 
 shot. Then, as they struggled through a boggy slough, 
 with sickening groan Hector s exhausted horse went 
 down and floundered helpless in the mud, his wretched 
 rider dragging himself from underneath, and, limping 
 to the foot of a tree, fell gasping and terrified. " Oh, 
 Gawd, don t leave me, Marse Benton ! " he pleaded in 
 agony. " Doan leave me or dey ll kill me, suah." 
 With one glance at the cheering chase, one longing look 
 at the eastward slopes, Benton sprang from saddle, and 
 with firm-set lips and flashing eyes, with only one arm, 
 one weapon, to oppose to these thronging and exultant 
 foes, proud, protecting and defiant, he planted himself 
 between the yelling troopers and the prostrate, helpless, 
 humble friend, and like gentleman and soldier stood to 
 his ground, looking fate in the face. 
 
 Bursting through the trees, the foremost riders drove 
 straight at him. " Down with that pistol ! " shouted a 
 voice in stern command. " Don t shoot, men ; he s 
 wounded ! Drop your pistol, suh. We re ten to one ! " 
 And realizing the hopelessness of fight, Fred Benton 
 tossed his puny weapon away. 
 
 But what meant that sudden shot to the southward? 
 what that sputtering volley, that burst of cheers ? " The 
 major ! " " The Yanks ! " " Come on, come on ! " were 
 the shouts. Away darted half the mud-spattered group, 
 and then, sudden as the shot, in spurred a breathless 
 young officer. " Mount, suh, instantly ! Help him, 
 
THROUGH THE MESH OF THE FOE 185 
 
 corporal. Up with you, suh ! We haven t a moment." 
 Rough, powerful hands fairly lifted him into saddle. 
 Another hand seized the reins of his horse. " Come on 
 now, lively ! " was the order. " Get him back out o 
 range. We ve run slap into a brigade, general and all. 
 Off with you to Buckland, you two ! The rest of you 
 come with me to the major. What ll we do with the 
 nigguh? Damn the nigguh we ve no time to bother 
 with him ! " 
 
 Daring and devoted, away went the young gallants to 
 the support of their chief, only to meet the riderless 
 horses tearing through the glade, only to see a dis 
 ciplined skirmish line come dancing out into the open, 
 the slanting sunbeams flashing on their glistening -rifles, 
 only to see that their major was beyond all possibility 
 of rescue, only to realize that the ardor of the chase 
 had carried him and them very much too far, for, as 
 though riding to the sound of the shots, there came 
 galloping into line platoon after platoon of a blue- 
 jacketted squadron, the first of a column issuing from 
 the southward woods, and now the tables turned in 
 desperate earnest, for, with blown and exhausted 
 mounts, what hope had they of escape? "Charge as 
 foragers," rang the distant trumpets, as the leader s 
 eyes swept over the scene and saw the pitiful few in his 
 front, and, with a wild burst of cheers, and sabres flash 
 ing on high, the long line sprang forward, fan-like; then, 
 every man for himself, came tearing northward across 
 the field. 
 
136 THE IR ON BRIGADE 
 
 An hour later, defiant and superbly disdainful of his 
 surroundings, Major Lounsberry was being interro 
 gated by Captain Carver of the division staff, while 
 three or four other officers in blue hovered about the 
 little frame farmhouse to which the prisoner had been 
 conducted. 
 
 " You may spare yourself the trouble of questioning 
 me, suh," said he with appropriate hauteur. " I decline 
 to answer. Wait till you see Dr. Chilton," he added, 
 with sneering triumph, " if he isn t already hanged for 
 a traitor. You ve seen the last of your friend Benton, 
 I reckon. Perhaps he could have told you." 
 
 " I reckon he could," said Carver imperturbably, as 
 he glanced toward the door at Lounsberry s back. 
 " How is it, Benton, is Ewell at Gordonsville ? " 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 LINCOLN S DILEMMA 
 
 " The President desires to see Lieutenant Benton of 
 your staff," wrote the adjutant general, three weeks 
 later, to the division commander and, just at a time 
 when he hated to go, for there seemed a prospect of a 
 forward dash on Gordonsville, the aide-de-camp found 
 himself en route from the Stafford heights opposite 
 Fredericksburg to the steamer landing on the Potomac. 
 The big division had made a sudden swoop from Cat- 
 lett s on the Orange railway down to the lower Rappa- 
 hannock. A Confederate cavalry picket had been cut off 
 and captured. Another young gallant, painfully 
 wounded, had been brought in, and now, in charge of 
 Benton, was being escorted to Washington. He had 
 refused parole. He would rather share the fate of 
 Lounsberry, said he, if his wounds speedily healed, or 
 of poor Floyd Pelham, still languishing in hospital, if 
 the wounds proved baffling. He knew both gentlemen, 
 it seems, and had served with one of the detachments 
 in pursuit of Benton. It was strange, indeed, to find 
 himself now a prisoner in the hands of the recently pur 
 sued, and, with no little curiosity in his eyes, had he 
 watched the stalwart aide who had come each day to 
 
188 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 the field hospital at Falmouth to talk with and cheer 
 him. Distant and offish in manner at first, as he and 
 his comrades had considered it their role to appear, this 
 young soldier had melted under the kindness shown him 
 by the enemy. " We heard stories that led us to expect 
 the opposite," said he, and so, before the doctor de 
 clared him well enough to be sent further to the rear, 
 had told of things of vivid interest to him who so lately 
 had himself been prisoner within the hostile lines. How 
 much those fellows seemed to know of everything tran 
 spiring within the Union divisions ! Just what had been 
 done with Lounsberry and Pelham just where they 
 were confined and everything connected with their cap 
 ture was all told at Charlottesville almost as soon as at 
 Washington. How little, until long weeks after, as a 
 rule, did our generals know of the daily doings beyond 
 the picket posts along the front ! With sorrow and anx 
 iety inexpressible Benton heard that in spite of Dr. 
 Chilton s long years of kindness and generosity among 
 his townsfolk in spite of Rosalie s acknowledged 
 queendom, an almost bitter feeling now existed, and 
 there was talk of arrest and incarceration at Richmond. 
 Not until he had studied Benton for several days did 
 young Winston admit all this and more. He had 
 heard it through officers at Robertson s headquarters. 
 He had known the Chiltons well when he was a junior 
 at the Varsity. He had often seen Lounsberry and 
 had heard much of his standing and influence had 
 heard, moreover, that he had been a devotee of Miss 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 189 
 
 Rosalie s. " However," with a quick glance at Ben- 
 ton s face, which colored instantly, even under its coat 
 of tan and sunburn, " Lounsberry didn t seem to find 
 favor." There was some trouble, he didn t know what, 
 and Maud Pelham had " had a flare up " with Rosalie, 
 and that was something people didn t understand, for 
 Jack Chilton was as much smitten with her as Louns 
 berry had been with Miss Chilton. " Don t s pose you 
 heard much about it," said he in the confidence bred 
 of the unlooked-for kindness with which he had been 
 treated, but adding, with an apologetic laugh, " they do 
 say at Charlottesville that Miss Rosalie just ruled every 
 body about her like she was a bohn queen." And then 
 did Mr. Winston admit that possibly something of the 
 bitterness now displayed was due to this fact, and to 
 the envy or malice of those who had felt her imper 
 ious sway in the past. At all events, and here was 
 what so troubled Benton, it was held that the doctor, 
 or at least Miss Rosalie, had taken active part in Ben- 
 ton s escape and had thereby been false to the cause 
 of Virginia and the South. The doctor contented him 
 self with saying the escape was all a surprise to him, 
 though he would not say that he deplored it. He frankly 
 owned his obligation to his former captive and his re 
 joicing that the young fellow was spared the fate of a 
 prisoner at Libby. As for Miss Rosalie, " she was too 
 proud to say a word," said Winston. It was Jack who 
 really suffered most, for he had incurred the suspicion 
 of war-office magnates, who had sent surgeons to ex- 
 
190 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 amine and say whether, if exchanged, he would be fit 
 to restime duty a proceeding that set him back six 
 weeks on the road to recovery, so ugly was the fever 
 into which he fretted himself. Indeed, Jack was criti 
 cally ill, said Winston, when last he heard of him. Then 
 Lounsberry s people wouldn t speak to Dr. Chilton. 
 Squire Pelham had publicly denounced him as the cause 
 of the desperate plight of his own brave boy. Old Black 
 Dan had been arrested by soldiers sent by Ewell, and 
 taken to Gordonsville, and as for Pomp, he had totally 
 disappeared. All this had Lieutenant Winston heard 
 just before he rode forth on his latest scout and had 
 been pounced upon, while his horses were unsaddled 
 and feeding, by a troop of the " Harris Light " Kilpat- 
 rick s boasted command and so swept in to the divis 
 ion camp opposite quaint old Fredericksburg. 
 
 Therefore was Benton at this moment most unwilling 
 to leave the front, for there were indications of brisk 
 work and a forward movement that might relieve the 
 situation. Letters from home had showered him with 
 blessings and congratulations on his escape. The squire 
 was now full of a scheme to come on to Washington, 
 bringing Elinor with him, but, much as she longed to 
 see her brother, the girl was now loth to leave home 
 Mrs. Ladue was swiftly failing and seemed to need her 
 gentle nurse more and more with every day. Mr. La- 
 due, more and more apathetic and resigned, seemed to 
 do nothing but sit long hours in an easy rocking-chair, 
 watching the gambols of the children s kittens and tak- 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 191 
 
 ing little heed of other mundane matters. McKinnon, 
 wrote certain townsfolk to Fred s general, had so lost 
 caste in the community that he had determined on a 
 war record to rehabilitate himself, and was now seeking 
 the lieutenant-colonelcy of a new regiment being raised 
 in their midst. The general urged at once, and instead, 
 that the field officers of such new regiments should be 
 chosen from those officers who, with a year s experience 
 at the front, had demonstrated their fitness for com 
 mand. " There are candidates right here in the brigade," 
 said he, but what influence have soldiers at the front as 
 compared with that of State senators at the rear? 
 
 When the President said he wished to see an officer, 
 however, it meant that the officer indicated must stand 
 not upon the order of his going, and Fred in saddle, with 
 young Winston in the ambulance and Hector in a broad 
 grin on the steps thereof, set out from Falmouth on a 
 mild May morning just about the time that Jackson 
 was beginning those wondrous cross-country dashes of 
 his in the Shenandoah, scattering our already scattered 
 divisions in astonishing style. What with bad news 
 from Schenck and Milroy, falling back on Fremont 
 after a thrashing at the Bull Pasture, a deep disappoint 
 ment over McClellan s being held an entire month in 
 front of Yorktown and a feeling that we were getting 
 rather the worst of the grapple on the Peninsula, the 
 atmosphere about the War Department was gloomy 
 enough the day the young officer arrived. He had had 
 no time to replace, as yet, the handsome equipments 
 
192 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 sacrificed in his escape. (What had Queen Rosalie done, 
 for instance, with that beautiful soft silken sash that he 
 left in his room?) He had hoped to do so before re 
 porting, but at the hospital where he left his prisoner, 
 with a lingering hand clasp and promise of a later call, 
 there awaited him a note saying the adjutant-general, 
 despite the early hour, desired his presence without de 
 lay. There in the ante-room, with officers, orderlies and 
 mesengers grouped about or coming and going, sat the 
 long, lanky and phenomenally solemn Virginian he had 
 first seen that night at the stone house on the Warren- 
 ton pike. Jennings knew the newcomer at a glance 
 and, springing up, shook him effusively by the hand. 
 A moment later an officer appeared at another door and 
 beckoned Benton to enter. " What do you know about 
 that man ? " was the very first question propounded the 
 instant the door closed behind him. 
 
 " Nothing," said Benton, " except that he was at the 
 stone house, in trouble with some of our brigade the 
 first time I saw him seemed to be well known to Dr. 
 Chilton and other Virginians, and later he was with the 
 Sixth Wisconsin the afternoon they captured Major 
 Lounsberry." 
 
 " But how about papers information concerning 
 our forces that he received that night? You were cap 
 tured while grappling with the cavalry officer who 
 brought them." 
 
 " I ? " cried Benton. " Good heavens ! " And then 
 stood dumb, for all on a sudden it flashed over him. 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 193 
 
 Rosalie ! Rosalie, who had so inexplicably donned La- 
 due s uniform, ventured down through the darkness to 
 the pike, seeking some one at the stone house. Rosalie, 
 who had refused to tell what influence prompted that 
 apparently reckless escapade! Papers? Information 
 concerning our movements? Why, what sense was 
 there in her taking all that risk when at that very mo 
 ment our pickets were falling back before Stuart s tri 
 umphant advance when all but a few of the guard 
 had already disappeared from the Henry place when 
 by midnight or at the latest at dawn she was almost 
 sure to be again in touch with her own friends and 
 kindred? Aye, but did she know that? Might it not 
 be that there had been papers maps memoranda in 
 the pockets of Ladue s uniform that she deemed of vital 
 importance to the cause she loved, and so had sought 
 what she deemed the surest, quickest way to get them 
 to him? Ladue was to go, if possible, to Hopewell and 
 the Armisteads. Jennings, if at the stone house, could 
 take the packet thither. At all events it would then be 
 in safe hands if it proved, indeed, of value safe beyond 
 possibility of being taken by the Union soldiers and used 
 to the injury of her wounded brother. Perhaps that 
 was why she had fought so furiously when he grappled 
 with that supple, slender form. Perhaps after his cap 
 ture she had given it to Jennings. All this and more 
 flashed through his mind as he stood there in the dark 
 little office, with his interrogator impatiently facing him, 
 and two other officials looking up at him from a paper- 
 
194 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 littered table, much impressed, evidently, by the sig 
 nificance of his silence and embarrassment. 
 
 " Yes," sharply repeated the first speaker, " papers 
 and, doubtless, valuable information. You saw them 
 pass to Jennings, as he calls himself, did you not ? " 
 
 " I saw nothing of the kind ! " answered Benton, inex 
 pressibly relieved that as yet, at least, he had had no 
 occasion to speak of her to reveal the fact that the 
 daring young Southerner with whom he had grappled 
 was no officer at all, yet what a soldier ! What a leader 
 of men ! What a conqueror and commander ! " In 
 deed," he went on eagerly, " I was too busy trying to 
 get out of the scrape to think of Jennings at all. I 
 made a jump for my horse and was in a hand-to-hand 
 fight in two seconds. I never knew what became of 
 Jennings." 
 
 " You remember Sergeant Miller, do you not ? " 
 
 " I remember a sergeant an Indiana sergeant, and 
 a very keen one who was there, but I feared he and his 
 party were killed or captured." 
 
 " Some of them were," said the examining officer 
 grimly, " but Miller dove into the bushes, made his way 
 through the darkness and escaped. He declares he saw 
 the young rebel officer toss the packet to Jennings and 
 heard him cry, For General Armistead to-night 
 sure ! And now here is Jennings begging to be al 
 lowed to see two prisoners Major Lounsberry and the 
 young Virginian, Pelham, who was wounded protecting 
 him the day you were rescued. He brings a note from 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 195 
 
 the President. Look here ! " and taking a scrap of 
 paper from his desk the staff officer held it forth for 
 Benton s inspection. It was brief and to the point : 
 
 " The bearer, Mr. Jennings, has been of service and asks to see two 
 friends prisoners Major Lounsberry and Trooper Pelham. I shall be 
 glad if opportunity can be given him. 
 
 (Signed) "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 Benton read and looked up inquiringly. " I, too 
 should like to see them Lounsberry, at least," said he, 
 with eyes that kindled and lips that set, " but not as a 
 prisoner. I have a score to settle with that gentleman. 
 When does Mr. Jennings go?" 
 
 " Can t say. The Secretary said no emphatically 
 not until matters were explained. It was thought you 
 might settle it one way or another before we questioned 
 him." And the officer was manifestly disappointed, and 
 still he persisted. "You heard nothing about him? 
 Dr. Chilton never spoke of him while you were at 
 Charlottesville ? " 
 
 " I cannot recall his ever doing so except casually. 
 But Judge Armistead, not the general, was there at 
 Gainesville. My belief is that General Armistead was 
 not near Manassas when I was taken. Miller must have 
 misunderstood." 
 
 Yet how could Miller misunderstand those clear, 
 vibrant tones ? The very thought of them thrilled Ben- 
 ton to the heart. And how could he now, her lover, 
 her infinite debtor, drag her name into the investigation 
 so long as there was no need? As yet no one at the 
 
196 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 War Department seemed to know of Rosalie Chilton s 
 share in that stirring night s adventure. What good 
 end would be attained by the telling of it? 
 
 " Well," said the officer, finally, " I m sorry we had to 
 trouble you, but the Secretary thought you would know 
 more of this suspected stranger. General McDowell 
 trusted him, we fear, too much, and as you are to see 
 the President we thought you might open his eyes if 
 the fellow were playing a double game. I dare say you 
 know people sometimes impose on the President," and 
 here the captain smiled, whimsically, " and that s why 
 when he could issue these things as an order, he won t. 
 He thinks it wiser to let the Secretary handle matters 
 of the kind. Now, your general, Mr. Benton, is being 
 accused of having Southern leanings because he has 
 been protecting Southern property there about Fred- 
 ericksburg." 
 
 " Some defenceless women, left all alone, asked for 
 guards and got them," answered Benton, stoutly. " I 
 shouldn t wonder if their lords and masters are secesh, 
 but we re not warring on women, I take it." 
 
 " As yet no," was the thoughtful reply, " and may 
 God forbid our having to come to it. But, my young 
 friend, if you knew half that we know, and we don t 
 begin to know half that those brainy, daring, scheming, 
 smiling Southern women are doing all around us, you 
 might think the time close at hand when they, too, 
 would have to be made amenable to the laws of war. It 
 isn t a week since one of them ran off with one of our 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 197 
 
 prisoners here, and you know what a trick was played 
 by Dr. Chilton s daughter." 
 
 And now indeed did Benton s face begin to burn, a 
 thing the captain and the silent listeners were quick to 
 note. 
 
 " You have your receipt for your prisoner, I presume. 
 Then I ll not detain you further, only come this way. 
 We ve got to question your friend Jennings next," and 
 so saying the captain led his visitor through a second 
 room where at crowded desks a score of clerks were 
 writing. " When do you go to the White House ? " he 
 suddenly asked. 
 
 " I don t know. I expected to learn here. But I 
 hoped to have time to get freshened up a bit, and I 
 need new " 
 
 " Nonsense ! You look as though you d just stepped 
 out of a bandbox in that uniform. Ask Mr. Stone to 
 come here," he added, to a statuesque soldier at the 
 door. 
 
 " The uniform may be all right, but what I need is 
 sash and side arms," said Benton, still weighted with 
 the traditions of his " regular " regiment. 
 
 " Never mind them ! The President never notices 
 what a man wears or knows what he himself has on. I 
 suppose he wants to hear what you saw and heard and 
 something about the Chiltons, for they seem to be in hot 
 water. Ah, Mr. Stone, what time was Mr. Benton to 
 report to the White House ? " 
 
 " I was to bring him over as soon as he arrived, sir. 
 
198 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Is this the gentleman ? " And a young man in civilian 
 garb bowed courteously. Then, with a promise to re 
 turn, as there were matters on which General Thomas 
 wished to question him, Benton hurried away. 
 
 It was not yet nine o clock, but already half a dozen 
 carriages were halted along the semi-circular drive in 
 front of the mansion, and a number of pallid, anxious 
 women and grave-visaged men were gathered about the 
 beautiful, colonnaded portico. Through the waiting 
 group the messenger swiftly led his charge ; through the 
 massive doorway and up the stairs to the left, past offi 
 cers chatting in low tones along the broad corridor, past 
 the desks of badgered secretaries, striving to answer the 
 questions of a dozen importunates at once. Many 
 glanced up curiously, at the tall young soldier, striding 
 in the wake of his well-known guide, and many a man 
 questioned, " Who is that? " as, with a whispered word 
 to a door-keeper, the two disappeared beyond green 
 baize portals that swung quickly shut through another 
 large, airy room from whose windows one saw a lovely 
 vista of the placid river and wooded Virginia shores, 
 and even here some half a dozen elders, gray-haired, 
 important-looking men privileged characters, evidently 
 were awaiting the coming of the great head of an anx 
 ious and distracted people. Through still another door 
 way they passed and into a smaller room, where stood 
 a long table in the middle and smaller desks at the sides, 
 whereat two silent secretaries were writing. One of 
 these looked up, nodded and pointed with the tip of his 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 199 
 
 pen to a door across the little room. Mr. Stone led 
 Benton to a long window facing the river and the 
 heights of Arlington beyond, left him there and dis 
 appeared. A moment or two later that door opened, 
 and the two secretaries did not even rise or discontinue 
 their work. A tall, bony, black-robed, black-haired and 
 bearded man, with deep-set, black-browed eyes and 
 brown, sunken cheeks came striding in, one great hand 
 grasping a batch of papers, the other being grasped by 
 both the sturdy paws of a merry-eyed, ruddy-cheeked 
 urchin who, lifting his booted feet clear of the carpet, 
 was being swung through space like some animated 
 hopper at the end of the traversing jib of tall, traveling 
 crane. Benton knew them at a glance the chief magis 
 trate of a mighty nation and the darling of the father s 
 great, fond, over-burdened heart little Tad. 
 
 Down went the batch of papers on the table; out 
 stretched the freed hand to greet the young soldier at 
 the window; a winsome, welcoming smile shone like 
 sunbeam through wintry cloud, illumining the kind, 
 homely face. " Glad to see you, Lieutenant," said he, 
 with cordial hand-clasp, as the little scamp, still swing 
 ing at his side, now encircled the black-garbed lower 
 limbs with his own sturdy legs. " Tad, my boy, this is 
 Lieutenant Benton just back from Dixie. Now, he s 
 got a darky worth having in your show. Take a chair, 
 Lieutenant," and the lean, sinewy arm, long accustomed 
 to the sweep of a Mississippi trading scow, or the long- 
 handled axe of the rail-splitter, whirled the nearest chair 
 
200 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 round toward the window. Then, switching his tangling 
 coat tails out of the way with that same brawny hand 
 and, never striving to pull loose from the determined 
 grasp of the youngster now straddling his knee, the 
 President unhinged somewhere about the middle and 
 dropped on the edge of the table. " You see," he con 
 tinued, " in these busy times I have to do several things 
 at once. McClellan wants forty thousand more men 
 for a side-show and Tad four boys for a nigger minstrel 
 performance " 
 
 " You promised ! " burst in Tad, emphasizing his de 
 mand with strenuous thumps at the parental ribs. 
 
 " That s what McClellan says," whimsically responded 
 the President, " and, Mr. Benton, it begins to look as 
 though we couldn t get down to business until both are 
 supplied. We have a session in the cabinet room on 
 the first issue in five minutes and have been at odds on 
 the second since before I was out of bed. In both 
 cases there are objections on part of the the house 
 keeper, but, Mr. Stone, will you go with this young 
 showman and arrange the matter with his mother? I 
 surrender ! " 
 
 Whereupon did Tad, in a rapture, tear away to tell 
 of the victory, and the President, laying that long, lean 
 hand on Benton s knee, bent earnestly toward him. " I 
 need to know all you can tell me about Dr. Chilton and 
 his family," said he. " Some of our vehement, war-to- 
 the-hilt people are practically demanding the arrest of 
 a Southern family here to be dealt with in precisely the 
 
LINCOLN S DILEMMA 
 
 same way certain Virginians propose to deal with the 
 doctor and that spirited daughter of his. No harm as 
 yet," for here the young soldier s face had blanched and 
 his eyes filled with dread and anguish. " No harm, that 
 is - Have we further news this morning? " he turned 
 and asked the busy secretary at the nearest desk, tilting 
 the while one long leg over the other and clasping the 
 bony knee with both hands. " Your general gave us 
 the particulars of your escape so far as you had told 
 him, and it is noted that you in no way reveal the names 
 of those who aided you, but now - What is it, Mr. 
 Nicolay?" for with solemn face, the confidential secre 
 tary, holding an open letter in his hand, now stood at 
 the President s elbow. Mr. Lincoln took the paper, 
 knitted his brows and began to read. 
 
 " It came from the secret service, Mr. President, not 
 ten minutes ago," said the secretary. " Colonel Baker, 
 I believe, is in the ante-room." 
 
 Benton felt himself gripping the arms of his chair, 
 for the room seemed swimming as the President looked 
 quickly up. " Not so bad," said he, " if we can only 
 take care of them here. They have simply banished 
 them father and daughter, both." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 " STONEWALL " IN AMBUSH 
 
 From Arlington to Bull Run, from Bull Run to Alex 
 andria, from Alexandria to Catlett s, from Catlett s to 
 Falmouth, from Falmouth to Guiney s, from Guiney s 
 to Belle Plaine, from Belle Plaine to Front Royal one 
 hundred miles up and one hundred miles down, from 
 Stafford to Culpeper, then back to the Hedgman, with 
 Jackson and Longstreet prodding the march, through 
 .dust and heat, through mud and rain, through storm and 
 sunshine, through ford and field, through May and June, 
 July and August, hither and yon, to and fro, no wonder 
 they called it the " Pendulum Division " by the time 
 that arch-optimist of the war days, the new commander 
 of the newly named Army of Virginina, John Pope, of 
 blessed memory, recoiled from his victory at Cedar 
 Mountain, drawing the shattered foe after him " on to 
 Manassas " (from the other side) and a meeting with 
 those other victorious corps reshipped from the Penin 
 sula to the succor of Washington. Resting from his ill- 
 starred Chickahominy campaign, McClellan watched 
 with presumably sympathetic eyes the stirring exploits 
 of his rival, who, halting a bit for breath at the Hedg 
 man and greeting with scant courtesy the first aid to 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 203 
 
 reach him from the Army of the Potomac, sent our 
 friends of the Pendulum four brigades now up stream 
 to watch Jackson at Sulphur Springs when that agile 
 leader was already crossing still farther west, and, 
 with Benton s old friends, the Bull Run Mountains, for 
 a screen, was sprinting round our right flank, only to 
 come bursting through the very gap the swarthy little 
 colonel of the " Black Hats " and the tall adjutant of the 
 comrade Sixth had studied with their glasses that April 
 afternoon, little dreaming it was to afford the grand 
 entree of the rebel host in August. 
 
 The next heard of " Old Jack " he was at Manassas 
 Junction square between the headquarters in the sad 
 dle and those on the steamboat between Pope at War- 
 renton and Mac at Alexandria between the victorious 
 retreat of the Army of Virginia and the half-hearted, 
 half-halting advance of that of the Potomac, twenty- 
 five thousand with him, probably two hundred thousand 
 encompassing him round about, and there, despite his 
 perilous position did he linger long enough to refit, re- 
 clothe, re-shoe large share of his ragged, whole-souled, 
 half-soled followers and to feast them all at Uncle Sam s 
 expense. Then, burning the thousands of barrels and 
 bales that he couldn t use, retired by night toward 
 Washington while Pope, facing about, advanced ad 
 vanced behind, as before to " bag the whole crowd," 
 to sprinkle salt on the tail of a swift, to batter a flea with 
 a flail. 
 
 A hot, yet sweet and placid August afternoon spent 
 
204 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Jackson and most of his wiry men (did ever one suspect 
 our languid Southern brethren of such phenomenal 
 powers of self-propulsion ?) snoozing in the leafy woods 
 behind the screen of that unfinished railway embank 
 ment, their left at Sudley Springs, their right reaching 
 to a point a little northwest of Groveton, yet curving 
 gently back, well clear of the pike and thinning out into 
 mere scattered squads of Stuart s troopers, keeping 
 touch, as it were, with Longstreet s coming host just 
 bristling through the gaps of Thoroughfare and Hope- 
 well beyond, making John Buford, with his handful of 
 horse, show his teeth at the lower gap, while Ricketts, 
 sore wounded the previous year on Henry house hill 
 and a prisoner perforce long months at Libby, deploy 
 his brigades cross country to compel Longstreet to do 
 likewise, and so delay his march until the rest of the 
 army should encircle Manassas from south, southwest, 
 west, northwest and north, make but a mouthful of Jack 
 and his saucy divisions his famous Foot Cavalry and 
 so, sleep with satisfied stomachs on the choicest game 
 of the season. 
 
 But, as had said that far-sighted adjutant that April 
 afternoon when, not a mile from the now ruined, smok 
 ing, devastated supply depot at the Junction, " first catch 
 your hare." The plan was a gem, the bag was a big 
 one, the feast was a joy if only the hare had consented 
 to stay. When Pope reached the spot of his prospec 
 tive banquet the quarry had vanished, no man could say 
 where. 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 205 
 
 In bivouac the night before beyond Buckland Mills, 
 Benton had again told to his general and some of the 
 staff the story of his ride across the Bull Run Moun 
 tains, and the dash for life and liberty to the distant 
 woods about Manassas. Hector, too, had his circle of 
 eager listeners, but all men were too wearied from in 
 cessant marching to care to go exploring beyond that 
 western range, even had daylight lasted. True to the 
 traditions of the War Department, no cavalry could be 
 had to scout for the corps commander. John Buford, 
 with a puny brigade, had felt his way through Thor 
 oughfare the evening previous, but there was no one 
 to reach out westward on McDowell s left and learn 
 the actual truth that Longstreet s whole corps was 
 trudging swiftly northward, turning east at Salem on 
 the trail of Jackson and making, doubtless, for that 
 famous Gap. The division commander, worn with days 
 and nights of sleepless vigil and still suffering from ill 
 ness, had gone early to his blankets on the bare ground, 
 while Benton and Carver, sitting by their little fire, 
 puffed at their pipes and chatted of the strange vicis 
 situdes of fortune that had befallen those with whom 
 the young soldier s life had been so closely linked. The 
 Ladues what sorrowful fate had not been theirs? the 
 mother, sleeping peacefully at last beneath the shades 
 of Forest Home ; the father living a second childhood, 
 bereft of all its buoyancy ; the children the care of kindly 
 neighbors ; Paul serving somewhere, if still alive, with 
 Ewell s division, perhaps at that moment visiting the 
 
206 TH E IRON BRIGADE 
 
 outposts over yonder in those dark woods beyond which 
 the dull glow in the skies told of the havoc wrought 
 by Jackson s men. Would they meet him on the mor 
 row? was the thought in Benton s breast. 
 
 Then there were the Chilton s, his other Southern 
 friends the gentle-natured sire, the gallant son and that 
 daring, wilful, imperious girl what had been their for 
 tune ? Ostracised at home by some, at least, of those 
 he had longest loved, the doctor had accepted almost 
 as a release the mandate of a citizens committee bid 
 ding him and his to leave Charlottesville forthwith. 
 Richmond was in a turmoil at the time, but the doctor 
 would go there, hoping to redress his wrongs, and wear 
 ing himself out, body and soul, with nervous anxiety 
 and sense of utter injustice. Not for a day would Ro 
 salie leave him, though Jack was now a stricken lad 
 indeed, in rough field hospital at Gordonsville. 
 
 McClellan s guns were thundering almost at the gates 
 of the Confederate capital when sorrowing, sympathetic 
 kinsfolk took the Chiltons to their hearth and home and 
 strove to soothe the wrathful old man. The city filled 
 up fast with wounded. Every house was a hospital, 
 and then, when by his devotion and professional skill, 
 the good doctor might soon have rehabilitated himself, 
 he was taken sorely ill. When he was well enough, 
 or at least so pronounced, to move at all, the crisis at 
 the capital was over. McClellan was gone. The seat of 
 war had shifted to the north. Jack, exchanged and re 
 leased, was again in saddle, and, how it was arranged 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 207 
 
 Fred never heard until long after, father and daughter 
 had been sent to Newport News with the wounded and 
 exchanged, and thence had gone to the roof of the doc 
 tor s devoted sister in Washington. Once again had 
 the great-hearted President sent for the general s aide- 
 de-camp, and this time bade him go, meet the Chiltons 
 and see them safely to their destination. 
 
 But that meeting had not made our Badger boy too 
 happy. The doctor was aging fast and apparently 
 breaking. Rosalie was stern and strange. Squire Ben- 
 ton, with Elinor, as he had long planned, hastened on to 
 Washington when notified by wire that Fred had a 
 week s leave from the front, and Fred s earnest, yet 
 almost humble plea that he should be allowed to bring 
 his father to see Dr. Chilton his sister to see her 
 Rosalie had almost curtly refused. Then she had fairly 
 stunned him by saying, " If you really wish to do me a 
 favor, Mr. Benton, there is one man I d like to meet, 
 and that is Major Lounsberry." Benton should have 
 known by the flash in her eye, the fire in her manner, 
 the fury in her tone that for no sweet assurance did she 
 so desire to see that distinguished Virginian, now every 
 moment expectant of exchange, but in her nervous, 
 fitful, wrathful state when not needed at her father s 
 side, Rosalie s wondrous face had an almost unearthly 
 beauty, and in Benton s deep and passionate, yet seem 
 ingly helpless, hopeless love, he was consumed with 
 unreasoning jealousy, and went back to the front sore- 
 hearted. Yet it was through his planning, after all, 
 
208 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 that they met the blue-eyed sister who so surely had 
 read her brother s secret the dark-eyed, charing, fit 
 ful, fuming Virginia beauty who so surely held it. 
 Women at least will know with what veiled scrutiny 
 they searched each other s faces, studied each other s 
 every point and pose and gesture, and they had ample 
 time, for sea air had been ordered for Dr. Chilton; 
 Washington was torrid and unwholesome; and just be 
 fore Fred hurried back to the division he had brief con 
 ference with his father. The Chiltons would surely 
 need money, said he, and as surely refuse it if tendered 
 by them. Neither the doctor nor Rosalie began to 
 know until long months thereafter that the ample means 
 so readily supplied by the doctor s widowed sister came 
 (as she did not know not too readily) from that hard- 
 headed, hard-fisted Western lawyer who, though well- 
 to-do, had earned his wealth but slowly, and whose next 
 move was to Cape May with Elinor : there was little 
 he could now deny that boy of whom the President 
 himself had so highly spoken (proud indeed was Fred 
 of that!), and there were they still recuperating at 
 the Atlantic seaboard, the fathers already friends, the 
 daughters still " on guard " at the very moment when 
 Jack Chilton, scouting with the advance of FitzHugh 
 Lee s brigade, and Paul Ladue, riding the dim picket 
 lines of Ewell s grim veterans, and Fred Benton, here at 
 Buckland s, closing in with that strong, disciplined divis 
 ion, were dreaming not ten miles apart of what the mor 
 row might bring forth. 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 209 
 
 Not until the shadows grew long across the stubble 
 fields that lovely August evening came the first fierce 
 grapple of that devoted brigade. Marching at dawn 
 through Buckland s, they found the pike toward 
 Gainesville crowded with Sigel s trains and teamsters 
 (brought along, said McDowell, in spite of orders), 
 through which they slowly forced a way, for, far in the 
 eastward distance little snowball puffs, bursting sudden 
 into view above the treetops, then drifting into vapor 
 ous nothing, told the shells were flying fast ahead, while 
 similar, fleecy cloudlets against the dark background 
 of the Bull Run Range told equally of other fighting 
 to their left and rear. Twas there that Buford strove 
 to bar the road, and soldierly McDowell, looking thither 
 with anxious eyes, turned Ricketts out of column, and 
 sent him back with his whole division to hold that pass. 
 Reynolds, with his "decimated relic" of the Pennsylvania 
 Reserves, had gone on ahead in the wake of Sigel s 
 Corps, but all were out of sight and touch when the 
 corps commander, with his one division, dove into the 
 winding wood roads toward Manassas until brought 
 up standing after two P.M. by disconcerting news from 
 Pope that the hare had not waited for the bag, that 
 swift-footed Jackson had given them the slip, and wasn t 
 where they looked for him at all. In point of fact, hav 
 ing no cavalry to do his looking for him, Pope didn t 
 know where Jackson was. 
 
 It is three hours later when, bidding his biggest di 
 vision obey its new orders, just received, McDowell, 
 
210 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 deep laden with that commodity which paves so many 
 squares of Sheol the best intentions in the world 
 rides away to find his chieftain Pope and show him the 
 field. Thereby he loses Pope, loses touch with his di 
 visions, loses all chance of usefulness in the battle that 
 is to close the day loses, in fact, himself, for he can 
 not find his way to his own command over the field he 
 knew so well the year before, even when signalled by 
 the guiding thunder of the heaviest cannonade, the sul 
 len crashing of the fiercest volleying, those tangled 
 woods have ever heard. At five or thereabouts comes 
 staff officer from Pope with these astounding tidings : 
 Jackson is located. Jackson has dared to cross Bull 
 Run and march in the teeth of the coming corps of the 
 Army of the Potomac. Reno and Kearny have fol 
 lowed his rear guard Hill s Light Division straight to 
 Centerville. Where is General McDowell? Here! 
 Well, General Pope s orders are for this, McDowell s 
 Corps, to retrace its steps to the Warrenton Pike, then 
 turn eastward and march forthwith on Centerville, 
 whither Jackson, with all hands, has shifted his colors, 
 and where Pope now proposes to apply the sack. Fur 
 ther orders will meet the corps on the way. 
 
 Now there is but one division to obey the order, but 
 loud ring the bugles through the leafy woods. Up 
 spring the men of the old brigade, refreshed by three 
 hours rest, with coffee and hardtack to comfort them 
 ere starting, and, as the heads of columns reach the 
 Pike again and turn sturdily away eastward, some level- 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 211 
 
 headed band leader signals to his men, and the Black 
 Hats set up a shout as the woods ring to the rollicking 
 strains of " Ain t I glad to git out o de Wilderness ! " 
 Four brigades in solid column they swing along the 
 broad, dry thoroughfare, full six thousand boys in blue. 
 Those in the lead, at least those now under Hatch and 
 Gibbon who have been long in the division are stanch 
 and seasoned men; those that follow under Doubleday, 
 three Eastern regiments, for some reason not under 
 stood, seem straggling and dispirited. The colonel com 
 manding the Seventy-sixth New York ruefully says he 
 can muster only one hundred and eighty men with the 
 colors, the rest having fallen out, " exhausted by the se 
 verity of the march." Doubleday s brigade seems, there 
 fore, little bigger than one of Gibbon s stalwart Western 
 regiments. Rearmost of all, far back toward Gaines 
 ville, comes Patrick, with his presumably well-con 
 ditioned command, but he and they enter not into what 
 follows, their leader claiming later that he " had no 
 orders," and so contented himself with looking on when 
 by pitching in on the exposed flank he could have rolled 
 the Confederate line upon itself and turned the struggle 
 into splendid victory. 
 
 But if Jackson s real movements are unknown to our 
 generals, rest you sure the eyes of his army have not 
 been left behind. Early that very morning Old Jack has 
 had that enterprising young brigade commander, Brad 
 ley Johnson, scouting out toward Gainesville, and John 
 son sends young Gaither with his gray-clad troop spier- 
 
212 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ing still further, dodging Sigel and Reynolds, inter 
 posing betwixt them and McDowell, and when our 
 confident courier comes galloping along with McDow 
 ell s despatch to these others to Sigel and Reynolds 
 telling them just what is planned for the day, Gaither 
 gathers him in, sends the much-appreciated programme 
 to Johnson, who grins with delight, and passes it on to 
 Old Jack himself, away off toward Sudley Springs, 
 snoozing with his division commanders Ewell and 
 Taliaferro, on their soldier pillows saddles in the 
 snake-fence corner, and Jackson wakes to read and to 
 sudden rejoicing. Here is the chance of a lifetime ! 
 Sigel has already gone on through Groveton and off 
 over Henry house hill. Reynolds, sparring awhile 
 with Bradley Johnson, has dived into the woods, going 
 southward from Groveton. Somewhere, therefore, 
 still to the west, must be two of McDowell s divisions, 
 alone. And, even while he is rousing his right and left 
 bowers, Ewell and Taliaferro, there comes word from 
 Stuart that Ricketts has gone out to Thoroughfare, 
 and McDowell, with one isolated division is marching 
 eastward from Gainesville. Now, " Up guards and at 
 em!" Up Ewell and Taliaferro! Up guns and bri 
 gades batteries three and brigades just five for John 
 son has done his share for the day, and away they go 
 at the edge of the sheltering woods until nearly three 
 miles out to the southwest, and there they halt and the 
 skirmish lines are thrown forward, half across the open 
 fields toward the Pike, and the dusty, grimy, gray bri- 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 213 
 
 gades, that have fought and won all over eastward Vir 
 ginia, lie down in massed double columns and wait for 
 the coming of that devoted division. Famous fellows 
 are these, the younger Taliaferro commanding what is 
 eventually the right brigade the men of Alabama and 
 Virginia then Baylor, with the unrivalled " Stone 
 wall," Jackson s own all Virginian; then Stark with his 
 Pelicans, the lads from Louisiana; then Lawton with 
 his Georgians, and finally, farthest east, our old Gor- 
 donsville acquaintance Trimble, with five regiments 
 from various States. Between them and on the east 
 ward flank are the guns of Poague, Wooding and Car 
 penter, and now crouching, confident, devil-may-care 
 these pets of Old Jack, though their battalions average 
 not more than two hundred and fifty, under leaders 
 true and tried, sprawl in the shelter of the trees they, 
 the veterans of a score of hard-fought fields, wherein 
 they have seldom been denied, waiting to pounce upon 
 a Yankee command only two of whose regiments have 
 yet been in battle. No wonder Ewell, grins at the pros 
 pect and Taliaferro smiles with confidence. These are 
 the fellows that thrashed Schenck and Milroy in the 
 valley, sent Banks spinning out of it, sickened Fre 
 mont of his command, swooped down from the Shen- 
 andoah to the Chickahominy when McClellan seemed 
 sure of the capital, trounced Fitzjohn Porter soundly 
 at Gaines s Mill, drove the Union army from the York 
 to the James and hurled themselves with fruitless dar 
 ing on the guns at Malvern Hill. Then, as McClellan 
 
THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 took to his boats, turned again in their tracks away to 
 the Rapidan, pounded Banks once more at Cedar 
 Mountain, doubled Pope on the Rappahannock, and 
 now, with serene confidence in the result, prepare to 
 swallow with their supper that Pendulum Division of 
 McDowell s Corps. 
 
 Off to the right front, half-way to that westward 
 grove is a cosey farm-house with shaded lawn and dot 
 ting fruit trees and promise of eggs and butter, even 
 of buttermilk and apple-jack, and Ewell lets his wide 
 awakes go sampling, and signifies approval and takes a 
 hearty sip, as a dark-eyed young aide-de-camp rides up 
 with a dripping canteen of the soothing white fluid. 
 " Thanks, Mr. Ladue," says he. " That s most refresh 
 ing. By the way, you know some of these fellows we re 
 expecting out yonder, don t you ? " and the general 
 points southward, to where the line of the pike stretches 
 from the little hamlet of Groveton in the hollow of 
 Young s Branch, up over higher ground, hidden here 
 and there by groves that cover half a dozen acres each, 
 but is generally in full view almost all the way to 
 Gainesville, lying in the low ground to the west. Ladue 
 follows the gesture of his commander, and then, his 
 eyes, dark, mournful and apprehensive, fix upon that 
 vehement soldier face. "Wisconsin?" he falters. "I 
 felt I knew it must come sometime." 
 
 " Yes, sir, and John Gibbon commands that brigade 
 now, they say. I ve known him years. To think of 
 his being there and he a Tar Heel ! " And here his 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 215 
 
 kindling eyes turn to where Trimble s men are 
 stretched upon the turf North Carolina closed on 
 Alabama. 
 
 Even as Paul Ladue, dismounting, is wondering if 
 after all it should be the will of the god of battles that 
 David should meet Jonathan, Damon be arrayed 
 against Pythias, he and Fred Benton brought face to 
 face in the opposing lines, there is sound of stir and 
 excitement down toward the right. " Coming ! " 
 "They re coming!" "See!" are the excited whis 
 pers, and young officers spring forward and peer over 
 the low crest in front. Poague, that year-old, yet vet 
 eran, gunner, has flipped a hand to his bugler, and low 
 and muffled " Attention ! " is sounded. Low and muf 
 fled, it is repeated still more faintly farther off to the 
 east, where the horses of Wooding and Carpenter 
 are grazing on the scanty turf, and drivers and can 
 noneers spring to their posts. Officers and sergeants 
 swing into saddle. No need of such precaution, 
 though. From far over to the southwest, where the al 
 most horizontal rays of the setting sun flash on thick 
 sheaves of gleaming, slanting, dancing gun-barrels 
 they can t be anything else there come floating over 
 the open fields the merry strains of a fine brass band, 
 ringing out the jolly notes of a popular soldier song, 
 and here and there in the sprawling ranks bearded 
 men or laughing boys take up the jovial chorus : 
 
 " Johnny stole a ha-a-am 
 And didn t care a da-a-a-m: " 
 
216 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 and then, triumphantly, and all together : 
 
 1 Ain t I glad to git out o de Wilderness 
 Down in Alaba-a-a-m." 
 
 " Down in Alabam, indeed ! " grins Ewell. " There s 
 more than a few of you ll be on the way there to-night, 
 or I m no prophet," and then, for the last time in many 
 a day, he mounts his ready horse. He will never stand 
 on two feet again. 
 
 But Old Jack gives no sign. He, too, is waiting and 
 watching. He, too, is there in saddle at the edge of 
 the trees, indistinguishable in the gathering gloom 
 from across the more than mile-wide stretch of open, 
 undulating fields. He waits until the leading brigade 
 of the long column is clear of the eastward of the two 
 groves. He lets it go until it drops into the low ground 
 about Groveton until its advance is at the Sudley 
 Springs road, well to the eastward until the head of the 
 second brigade in column, marching in splendid order, 
 with full and well-closed ranks, comes swinging out be 
 hind that now famous patch of timber, then nods to 
 Ewell and the ball begins. Out on a sudden from the 
 left of the massed lines, Poague s lean horses and gaunt, 
 sinewy gunners spring to their work. Six black-muz 
 zled barkers are whirled round in battery. The iron- 
 shod " trails " drop with sullen thud on the turf. The 
 loosened limbers, with dragging traces, circle back in 
 position. The rammers whirl in air and there is a wheeze 
 at the vents as the sponge heads slide home, a low 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 217 
 
 thump, thumping as the cartridge bags are rammed 
 to the base. There is a moment of sighting and squint 
 ing and low-muttered orders, then a leaping aside, and 
 one two three, quick bellowing, with vengeful spit 
 of flame and sulphur smoke, the nearest battery hurls 
 its screaming challenge across the field, and in spite 
 and fury the black shells burst in whistling hail 
 over the startled heads of the second brigade. Out be 
 yond the first battery trot Wooding and Carpenter, 
 forming " action front " on the slope a little to the 
 northwest of Groveton, and so three batteries are sud 
 denly hurling their swift fire upon the now halted 
 column. " Now see em take to cover ! " shout the 
 seasoned ones by the gun-side, as the left half battery 
 echoes the right, and all the front of Starke s Brigade 
 is now covered by flashing guns, bellowing in chorus, 
 the men, leaping in and out to reload, dimly seen 
 through the billowing battery smoke, and still, scream 
 ing and shrieking the shells sail high across the rolling 
 earth sea. " See em take to cover," indeed ! Well 
 might they do so, for just beyond the pike the woods 
 lie thick and unbroken, but, sudden as the shot, each 
 regiment has " fronted " to its left. The steel ramrods 
 of the foremost are seen flashing in air. The shrill 
 voice of Old Graybeard, spurring back to his colors, 
 has yelled the order to load at will, and not until 
 they ve bitten and poured and rammed and capped 
 does he follow that with " Lie down ! " The right of 
 their line is flat on its belly at the edge of the field, 
 
21$ THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 while spurring, lashing and bounding, cannoneers rac 
 ing alongside like mad, a well-handled battery Gib 
 bon s own, as Poague and Ewell more than suspect 
 the beloved of the brigade, comes thundering up the 
 pike, comes galloping out on the field, comes " front 
 into line " at a breakneck pace, whirls without halt 
 ing its bronze beauties about, and in another moment 
 the loud-ringing " light twelves " are out-bellowing 
 the trio of batteries blazing there northwest of Grove- 
 ton, sweeping their sections with " spherical case." 
 Five, ten, fifteen minutes the duel of death goes on. 
 Gibbon s gunners are all regulars, lords of their trade, 
 and old Ewell sees it and knows it. " Limber up, 
 Poague! Back all of you! They are too heavy for 
 our guns ! " is the order, and Paul Ladue spurs to 
 carry it. Out of the way, gentlemen gunners! It s our 
 time now, goes the word from Starke s eager ranks, and 
 so on down the long line. Into their saddles leap field, 
 staff and commanders. The sun has gone down; the 
 dusk is at hand; the night must not come until that stub 
 born brigade has been swept from the earth. Who 
 shall do it, Ewell or Taliaferro ? 
 
 From the westward now, from the far right flank, a 
 daring battery whips out on the field and unlimbers 
 where its guns can enfilade Gibbon s triumphant boom 
 ers, and young Taliaferro s little brigade, till now held 
 in rear, goes striding off behind its fellows, and so on to 
 the extreme right as though in support. And still it is 
 a battle of guns and gunners, for Jackson holds his 
 
STONEWALL IN AMBUSH 219 
 
 hounds in leash, " down charged " at heel, crouched at 
 the edge of the woods. 
 
 And then comes the surprise of the day, the event of 
 the hour, the marvel of the campaign. Even as Ewell 
 and Taliaferro are deciding that the moment has come 
 for attack, lo! to the amaze of the men of the Stonewall 
 Brigade, still the extreme right of the line, there is a 
 glint of steel in the opposite grove and a dark column 
 bursts from the depths of the wood. Nimbly a swarm 
 of skirmishers leap from their covert and come dancing 
 out over the sward. Straight for the guns drives the 
 daring blue line, backed by eight solid companies, closed 
 on the colors and marching abreast. Fancy the canary 
 defying the cat! Fancy the terrier bearding the tiger! 
 Fancy the lamb assailing the butcher, and you have the 
 sensation that thrills the waiting divisions as a grizzled 
 Georgia colonel slaps down his field-glass and turns to 
 his men with delight in his eye and five words on his 
 tongue : " The Black Hats by Goad ! " 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 
 
 Over at the southwest, half way to that second grove 
 in the shelter of which the rearmost brigade has halted, 
 stand that little orchard and nearby farm-house, a barn 
 or two, with some fences and a decrepit wall of jagged 
 rocks. Half way to this one peaceful spot, to the right 
 front of these crouching, staring, incredulous lads of 
 the " Stonewall," the threatened guns are thundering, 
 the gray cannoneers leaping in and out through the 
 billowing clouds of sulphur smoke. Half way toward 
 that eastward grove, which conceals most of the second 
 in column of the blue brigades, this solitary battalion in 
 the feathered black hats and the wake of its skirmishers, 
 is jauntily proceeding to show its comrades back on the 
 pike how Bull Run veterans take a battery. Half way 
 between the two groves, halted in the road and watch 
 ing the scene are Doubleday s three battalions, all three 
 not as strong as a fair-sized regiment. Gibbon, chief 
 of the second brigade, has led the Black Hats through 
 the wood, then, halting at the edge has bid them go in, 
 their swarthy little colonel waving his hand in glad 
 acceptance of the trust the last salute of his soldier 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 221 
 
 life. Almost all of the blue division can be seen from 
 the north by the men of the South; almost nothing of 
 the gray divisions can be seen from the south by the 
 men of the North. Gazing through their binoculars, 
 the Union commander and staff note not a sign of the 
 foe, save these venturesome batteries, the one her 
 directly to the north, the others slowly trotting off to 
 the northeast beyond the range of Gibbon s guns. Yet 
 there are a few mounted officers or orderlies spurring 
 swiftly along that far-away skirt of woods, and one of 
 these horsemen carries the order from Taliaferro, chief 
 of division, to Taliaferro, chief of brigade, to move into 
 line on the right of Baylor the " Stonewall." Others 
 are darting from Old Jack to Ewell and Taliaferro, both, 
 with the word to pitch in. 
 
 And one of these riders, galloping down the line, 
 is little Ladue, brought face to face, as he dreamed, here 
 on the field of battle with the men he had known as a 
 lad in the West, and though his heart is throbbing hard, 
 his dark eyes are burning with excitement, his " soul in 
 arms and eager for the fray," something like soldier 
 sympathy and sorrow stirs him to the core, as with 
 laughing confidence, the men of the " Stonewall " spring 
 to their feet, the little red battle flags are lifted on high, 
 and forward goes the brigade, sweeping in three slender 
 lines to the low crest in front, as their far-forward skir 
 mishers leap from the grass and volley their challenge 
 at the coming foe. Then Georgia and Louisiana and 
 the men at the guns hold their breath and watch to see 
 
222 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Virginia send those impudent Yanks whirling back to 
 
 the woods, or else 
 
 Then, wonder of wonders! So far from scurrying at 
 sight of the " Stonewall," the flower of Virginia, the 
 boast of the South, that sombre, black-crested line halts 
 short at sudden word of command; the rifle-butts leap to 
 the shoulders; a crashing volley, driving point blank up 
 the gentle rise, sends its storm of murderous lead square 
 in the " Stonewall s " face. Down go two battle flags. 
 Down goes Neff, colonel commanding the Thirty-Third. 
 Down go dozens in the foremost rank, and to the amaze 
 of Starke and Lawton, the " Stonewall " fairly staggers. 
 " Forward ! " is one hoarse-shouted order, " Fire ! " 
 another; and with the skirmishers crouching, crawling, 
 rolling away to right and left, Virginia blazes at Wis 
 consin now ramming fresh cartridges into the smoking 
 tubes, and with never a thought of retreat. So far from 
 sweeping the field the " Stonewall " is brought to a halt 
 and gets another fierce volley, followed by rasping fire by 
 file that is far more effective than the downward aim of 
 the command, schooled rather to charge than to shoot. 
 For some unfathomed reason the Virginians stand and 
 fire instead of advancing at the double, perhaps because 
 so many leaders are felled by the first deadly volleys of 
 those insolent Badgers, fighting alone and doubtless un 
 conscious of the unseen odds against them. Taliaferro, 
 division chief, spurs angrily forward and through the 
 thick haze of the battle smoke his voice can be heard 
 ordering Starke into line with Baylor, for, off to the 
 
The rifle-butts leap to 
 the shoulders. Page 222. 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 223 
 
 right and left, beyond the dense veil through which the 
 red fires are spitting, men shout of the coming of other 
 blue lines. Sol Meredith s Hoosiers, cheering with long- 
 pent enthusiasm, in full double rank aligned on their 
 colors, are sweeping at double quick straight from the 
 pike at the west of the grove. Arms at the trail, at the 
 shoulder or anyhow, all eyes to the front, all hearts on 
 the jump, Indiana is heading straight for the left of 
 Wisconsin, and in five minutes more its long front is 
 hidden in its own fire-flashing cloud, and it is high time 
 for young Taliaferro, rushing his Third brigadesmen 
 round the right rear of the " Stonewall " to make a try 
 for that farm-house. Another five minutes and he and 
 Meredith are clinched at the corner; another brigade is 
 in line for the South, another battalion for the Union, 
 and still not a man has thought of retreat save only 
 the thick stream of wounded hobbling painfully back 
 for the rear. Then Starke, too, comes swiftly, buoy 
 antly striding over the low rolling plain and dips into 
 the smoke bank that floats from the west, ranging 
 alongside the " Stonewall " just as a third Yankee regi 
 ment, filing from the woods, fronts to its left and, with 
 machine-like precision, " playing at parade at the edge 
 of the grave," says Ewell, comes forward, guide centre, 
 its color-bearer out to the front, its right and left gen 
 eral guides on the line, its captains sprung to the outer 
 flanks of their companies, for all the world as though 
 they were calmly doing battalion drill at Belle Plaine. 
 Its " dandy " lieutenant-colonel is in command, he of 
 
224: THE IRON BRIGAD^ 
 
 the famous name, for already its colonel and major have 
 been helped to the rear, shot almost as they issued from 
 the wood. Already little O Connor, heroic leader of 
 the Black Hats, mortally stricken, is lying gasping in 
 rear of his wrathful, swift-thinning ranks. Then gal 
 lant May, major of the cheering Hoosiers, he whom we 
 saw the dark night at Centerville, drops from his 
 wounded horse to the arms of his men, his soldier spirit 
 flitting away with the close of the day. Already, far on 
 the right, old Graybeard Cutler marches the Sixth 
 straight forward past Gibbon s smoking guns, halts his 
 companies on the line with Hamilton s stalwart Seventh, 
 and, all four regiments now, the men of the West are 
 blazing red against the black background of the distant 
 woods, for night and hell seem to come down together. 
 In the fiercest attack of the hot campaign, Ewell and 
 Taliaferro, five to one in point of brigades, two to one in 
 point of numbers, one to one in point of result, bear 
 down on the ranks of that gallant command, supple as 
 steel as it leaps to the fight, rigid as rock as it counters 
 the blow, yielding never a foot to that splendid advance. 
 " Shall iron break the Northern iron or steel? " mut 
 ters Old Jack, in the words of the prophet, his eyes filled 
 with trouble, his teeth firm set as once again the cheer 
 ing, banner-waving, fire-flashing ranks of his devoted 
 battalions sweep down the gentle slope until almost lost 
 in the smoke of the opposite lines, then slowly settle 
 to a halt, astounded, for though full half of its left wing 
 seems shot out of line, and the Hoosiers and Black Hats 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 5 
 
 are shrunk to half their original strength ; there, 
 shoulder to shoulder, daring, defiant, indomitable stands 
 the brigade, the swart faces of the men lit by the flash of 
 their guns, and Ewell, grim old soldier, borne to the rear 
 with a shattered thigh, groans to his mournful aides that 
 at last the division has met its match. 
 
 Jackson s pale face is rigid as he himself bends over 
 his loyal second in command, and his lips move in 
 prayer, never in imprecation, ere they issue their next 
 order, " Try again." And this time, Trimble, too, drives 
 in with Lawton, only to see that machinelike regiment 
 to the east of the Black Hats, despite the numbers 
 dropping in their tracks and dribbling away from the 
 extreme right under the deluge of shrapnel from the 
 Southern guns, doing more fancy drill in front of the 
 foe, changing front forward by company under com 
 mand of that gamecock of a lieutenant-colonel, and then 
 pouring withering fire into the left of the Louisiana 
 men. " Try again," says Jack, and try they do, man 
 fully, loyally but heavens, what can human valor win 
 against iron resolution? Two of Doubleday s bat 
 talions, one a mere skeleton like most of those of Bay 
 lor s and Taliaferro s, have ranged up in the gaps of the 
 Union brigade, a shadowy fabric now, visible only in 
 the flash of the guns, but as Paul Ladue trots through 
 the groups where surgeons and stretchermen are trying 
 to care for the vast numbers of wounded, he looks in 
 vain for a division commander to whom to deliver Jack 
 son s last order and the news that Ewell is down. Talia- 
 
226 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ferro, too, has been borne to the rear, and Ladue rides 
 on after Starke to bid him take command. Gods, what a 
 sight, what a shambles, he finds at the rear of that line ! 
 dead, dying and crippled by scores of the "Stonewalls." 
 Three colonels, Neff, Grisby and Botts have been 
 shot from their steeds, two of them straight to their 
 graves; four majors are down of the Virginia command, 
 and Walker, colonel of Taliaferro s Tenth. Full half 
 the fighting force of the Second and Fourth Virginia 
 are stretched on the field, as, for the last time, they close 
 in on the centre in front of the now almost invisible line 
 of their foes, and with strength, cartridges, hope all 
 spent and gone, they drop their useless rifle butts to 
 earth and lean exhausted on the hot, black muzzles. At 
 least they hold the ground. 
 
 So, too, does that stern, silent, iron command across 
 those fifty yards of smoking void, " with obstinate deter 
 mination," writes Old Jack, in rueful admission of the 
 stubborn valor of his foe. And after all what has he 
 accomplished? What has he not done this night but 
 blunder? All he had to do was to remain there in con 
 cealment beyond that unfinished railway grade, resting 
 in the shady woods, and, all unconscious of his presence, 
 the Union brigades would have passed him by. The 
 division commander had no cavalry to scout for him. 
 The few flankers thrown out to the north by Hatch 
 found nothing, until, looking back from the low ground 
 about Groveton, they saw the batteries trot out on the 
 open slope. Left unmolested to obey its orders that 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 227 
 
 fine division would have gone clear on to Centreville, 
 leaving Ricketts far in rear to be cut off, crushed or 
 captured. But the sight of six thousand Yankees 
 marching along almost parallel to his front, all unsup 
 ported, was too much for even such piety as Jackson s. 
 Ordinarily he had done wonders with a dozen regiments 
 nearly as small as these. To-night he sends in twice 
 that number to assail a smaller force, and is fought to 
 a stand within the hour. He has gained nothing. He has 
 lost one-third of his best and bravest his Virginians. 
 He has betrayed his position to the enemy, for Sigel, 
 away to the southeast, has heard the sound of battle, 
 and McLean, brave leader of one of his few American 
 brigades, watches the desperate struggle from Ladue s 
 old lookout at the Henry house, and Pope, skillfully 
 directing his diverging columns to trap Jackson at 
 Centreville, hears over the left shoulder, far over 
 Bull Run, the furious cannonade a long league behind 
 him, the storm of a battle that only dies out at 
 nine, but that tells him the tale of one more trick 
 of Jackson s the time-honored tale of the Irishman s 
 flea. 
 
 But it opens Pope s otherwise blinded eyes, changes 
 in toto his plans for the morrow, and bids him turn his 
 columns on Groveton. Jackson s blunder has taken 
 much from his own fame, added much to those of 
 another, and given the Badgers and Hoosiers the title 
 they rejoice in ever thereafter the name of the Iron 
 Brigade. 
 
228 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Sore times are these, this black, moonless night, as, 
 within hailing distance of each other, officers and men 
 of the opposing forces go groping about with glimmer 
 ing lights, looking for friends among the slain. Sad 
 hearts are these beating in the bosoms of the group of 
 Union generals in the fence corner back of the moaning 
 wood, for it is full of wounded. The regimental com 
 manders are slowly withdrawing their wearied men to 
 the line of the pike, leaving strong pickets to protect 
 the surgeons and their stretcher-bearers at the front. 
 It is a dramatic scene when that dark-eyed soldier, com 
 mander of the Seventh, rides in to report to his brigade 
 chief concerning the regiment that caustic " regular " 
 has sometimes misjudged. " What do you think of the 
 Seventh now? " is the irrepressible question just before 
 the colonel slips, fainting, from his saddle, and then and 
 not until then permits it to be known that all the time 
 as he held his men to their desperate work, he sat his 
 horse, pierced through both thighs by Enfield bullet, 
 his boots running over with blood. Old Graybeard of 
 the Sixth, too, is shot through the leg, and Gibbon has 
 borrowed his right-hand man, the tall, brainy adjutant, 
 and the Sixth feels bereft, though it, too, falls into 
 soldier hands. But the Black Hats and Hoosiers have 
 lost more than all. 
 
 At nine o clock, as the last scattering shots are fired 
 out to the northwest, where some of Stuart s fellows 
 have stumbled on the Hoosier pickets in the darkness, 
 the division general sends an aide with brief note to 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 229 
 
 Ricketts, telling him of the battle, and saying he means 
 to hold the ground despite the fact that prisoners report 
 old Stonewall sixty thousand strong. He sends other 
 staff officers in search of McDowell, his corps com 
 mander, with similar report and the request that Rick 
 etts be ordered to close in and support him. Mc 
 Dowell s own engineer officer is with him, a deeply 
 interested witness, coming up with Hatch s brigade, 
 which, hurriedly recalled, had faced about and marched 
 eagerly back, hoping to be of use, but reaching the field 
 only as darkness settled on the line. So the engineer 
 stays to hear the reports and views of the various com 
 manders before going himself in search of his chief, 
 stays long enough to give his opinion that the division 
 must move off the pike to the right or suffer demolition 
 at dawn, and this, too, is the opinion of Hatch and Gib 
 bon, sitting with their division commander, and it is 
 urgently given by both. 
 
 Four hours longer they watch and wait, hoping for 
 tidings from Pope or McDowell, looking for the coming 
 of Ricketts from the west, but nothing comes, not a line, 
 not a word from superior authority, only a hint from 
 superior force, for a daring, dashing Virginia captain, 
 riding blindly into a Badger picket north of the grove, 
 is dragged from under his dying horse he had striven 
 to dash away and he laughs at our missing a much 
 bigger prize Old Jackson himself, not a moment be 
 fore, was with him just in front of that very point, he 
 says, and Longstreet is coming at dawn. Ricketts, 
 
230 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 driven in before his overwhelming advance, is halted at 
 Gainesville, while Stuart s patrols sweep the fields to the 
 north and keep up touch between these two wing com 
 manders. There is nothing for it then, urge the brig 
 adiers, but slip off southeastward in hopes of support, 
 and Fred Benton, riding out to the left front with orders 
 to bring in the pickets, finds those venturesome 
 Hoosiers crawling forward on hands and knees, beyond 
 the original line 
 
 " There was a horse battery came out there just be 
 fore dusk," explains a young sergeant, " and it just 
 rained shrapnel on us. Some of Stuart s fellows gal 
 loped down to slice off our left. We gave em a hot 
 volley and they sheered away, but tried it twice again 
 after dark. We ve sent in all our wounded, but 
 our boys swear they hear faint cries for help out 
 yonder." 
 
 They are right! Presently they come drifting in, 
 four wearied soldiers, bearing a wounded trooper on a 
 blanket. Benton is busy giving orders to the subaltern 
 in charge and does not hear at first the words of the 
 sergeant. " He says he was carrying orders and his 
 horse fell and rolled on him. His leg s broken, I think, 
 but he d never have whimpered only he thought we 
 were friends." 
 
 "What 11 we do with him if I m to fall back?" asks 
 the lieutenant. " He s an officer." 
 
 Benton turns to the dim group, slowly bearing their 
 burden with them. 
 
HOW THE BRIGADE WINS ITS NAME 31 
 
 " Better carry him to the grove," he says. " Take 
 him where your wounded officers are." Whereupon he 
 in the blanket feebly pipes, "Hello, Benton! Got a 
 mouthful of drink?" 
 
 " Good God, Chilton! Have we caught you again? " 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE HEART OF LINCOLN 
 
 Solemn days are these that follow. Losing over a 
 third of its force engaged in this furious initial battle, 
 the brigade shares the lot of the rest of the army and, 
 after two days more of fruitless fighting is ordered to 
 fall back on Washington. Many of the wounded 
 officers have been sent in ahead, without discrimination 
 as to friend or foe, and Benton s general, broken down 
 by illness and exhaustion, is borne by ambulance to the 
 capital, and bids Fred go in search of his prisoner 
 friend. How the tables of war are turned! Four 
 months ago that young Virginian lay in clover at Char- 
 lottesville, petted and soothed by the prettiest girls to 
 be found in the court of Queen Rosalie, while Benton, a 
 prisoner patient, moped in huffy dignity and merited 
 semi-neglect. Now the Virginian lies in splints and a 
 stuffy room in parboiled Washington, far from the 
 pretty girls of Albemarle, yet assiduously cared for by 
 their Queen. Washington is now one vast hospital, 
 whose walls echo night and day the moan of fevered suf 
 ferer, the dull thunder of distant guns, the rumble of 
 rolling cannon, the tramp of soldier hosts, for Lee has 
 leaped the Potomac and gone careering northward to- 
 
THE HEART OF LINCOLN 233 
 
 ward the Pennsylvania line. Pope, McDowell and Sigel 
 have retired in favor of McClellan, Hooker and Porter, 
 the little chief again called to the fore, while the man 
 ager of the sack campaign sits down to figure out the 
 twistings, turnings and doublings of the hare that 
 wouldn t be caught until there were hares enough to 
 smother the hounds. Many and ingenious are the ex 
 planations of failure: generals ordered to march who 
 chose rather to sleep, of generals ordered to find the 
 corps of Jackson who couldn t find their own, generals 
 ordered to stand who never got the order, and who 
 would have been crushed if they had, generals ordered 
 to bar Jackson s retreat when he never thought of 
 retreating, generals ordered to bar Longstreet s join 
 ing when he had already joined, orders sent by staff 
 officers who never could thereafter be found, orders 
 declared sent to division generals, since admitted sent 
 not at all. It is a fortnight of fruitless recrimination, 
 of pushing for place and not for the foe, of intrigue and 
 slander, of loyal victims and disloyal triumph. It is a 
 fortnight in which the fortunes of the Union seem drift 
 ing to the lowest ebb, with all the mud and slime and 
 wreckage and putrescence hitherto hidden in the surg 
 ing tide of the campaign, now revealed to public gaze, a 
 stench to public nostrils. It is a fortnight of funerals. 
 Ah, what hundreds of gallant boys have we to mourn, 
 what scores of noble names on both sides! Wrung 
 to the uttermost is the great, lonely, pitying heart of 
 him now day and night striving to bring order out of 
 
234 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 chaos, hope out of the slough of despond, victory from 
 dire and persistent defeat. Small wonder is it that in the 
 contemplation of the tremendous peril that confronts 
 the nation, Lincoln can find little time to listen to innu 
 merable personal appeals, to individual claims presented 
 by insistent senators, to the stories of self-seeking, self- 
 sufficient patriots demanding the doing of this, the un 
 doing of that. It is a fortnight in which Stanton, at the 
 war office, is overwhelmed with work and worry, and 
 grows even more testy and imperious. It is a fortnight 
 in which, despite orders and precautions, swarms of 
 officers who should be with their commands are buzzing 
 about Congress and the caravanserais, when every man 
 is needed at the front and thousands are skulking at the 
 rear, when the regiments of the Army of the Potomac 
 and of Virginia that marched forth in the springtide in 
 such splendid array, with such crowded ranks, are 
 silently, shabbily slipping through the outskirts, mere 
 ragged shadows of their former selves, yet to their 
 everlasting credit be it said, loyal and subordinate still, 
 and confident in their faith that they can yet whip Lee. 
 It is a fortnight in which many and many a sad-faced 
 soldier comes away from the War Department, even 
 from the White House, denied a favor that at any other 
 time would have been accorded as by right, and one 
 September evening, Benton and the Squire, summoned 
 to accompany their senator to the President, are wit 
 nesses to a scene that wrings their very hearts. 
 
 The Squire has been long enough near Washington 
 
THE HEART OF LINCOLN 235 
 
 to become an ardent administration man. Only twice 
 in the past has he seen the plain, unassuming Western 
 lawyer, the humorous M. C. who had not reputation 
 enough to command an audience when in 59 he came to 
 speak at the Squire s home city, but later, when they 
 met at the Tremont in Chicago, was the rival of the little 
 giant, Douglas, in joint debate. Now, just as Douglas 
 had held the hat of the victorious Lincoln during his 
 inaugural address, so would Squire Benton go to any 
 length to back this inspired, and, as Benton is now be 
 ginning to believe, God-given leader. More troops 
 must be had without delay is the burden of what the 
 senator says. Will Benton go West at once and use 
 his utmost influence? Benton will. He has only come, 
 he says, to assure himself that Fred is safe to see 
 Elinor, now scorning the sea-breezes of Cape May and 
 insisting on her right to be useful as a nurse among the 
 hospitals. Then the Squire will start within the day. 
 Meantime, says the senator, we must see the President, 
 and then there is a further muttered conversation that 
 Fred cannot hear, nor does he care to. His one 
 thought, after seeing that Jack Chilton lacks nothing 
 after one little word, perhaps, with Jack s no longer im 
 perious sister is to rejoin the division as it comes 
 through with the now reorganizing corps. But, mean 
 while, it is the senator s wish they should both go with 
 him to the White House, and there, amidst the throng 
 of importunates in the ante-room, Fred is startled to see 
 the colonel of a regiment in the First Brigade holding 
 
236 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 low-toned conversation with a portly, dignified man in 
 black swallow-tailed coat, high stock and silken waist 
 coat, to whom their Western statesman bows with 
 deference and then whispers to them his name. Then 
 the colonel turns and Benton is more startled to see 
 how sad, sorrow-stricken and haggard he looks. The 
 matter is soon explained, though the colonel speaks 
 with choking voice. His son, a lieutenant in the Fifth 
 New York Duryea s Zouaves had been down with 
 Chickahominy fever at Newport News, so ill that the 
 mother had hastened thither, nursed him through and 
 then stayed and cared for dozens of poor boys whose 
 mothers could not possibly reach them, and so, sapped 
 her own strength and finally succumbed, and now her 
 coffined body lies here at the wharf. Their sympathetic 
 general had given the bereaved soldier permission to 
 turn over the command of the regiment temporarily and 
 to seek at Stanton s hands a four days leave just time 
 enough to take the beloved and honored dust back to 
 the home where weeping younger children await it. 
 Then, the last sad rites performed, though the wife of 
 his youth, his manhood, his maturer years, the love of 
 his heart and life is laid away, he will return instantly to 
 his duty, his command. Impossible will it be for them 
 to catch Lee within that time. No battle can occur that 
 will involve the old division, but Stanton sternly says no; 
 bids him ship the remains that night if need be, but re 
 join his regiment before the morning. 
 
 " The brigade is marching through this moment," 
 
THE HEART OF LINCOLN 237 
 
 says the colonel, with quivering lips, " but the Senator 
 brought me here to the President. I have tele 
 graphed to a brother to come if I must go," and the 
 haggard eyes look in dumb appeal across the room 
 where looms the equally haggard face of Lincoln, now 
 turned in mute patience toward an impetuous, persistent 
 little woman, who, backed by certain friends at court, is 
 demanding that the President reverse the decision of the 
 adjutant-general and send a soldier son to duty nearer 
 home than with Butler in New Orleans where surely 
 he ll catch the yellow fever and die. The whole room 
 can hear her. The President is the only man, not of 
 her immediate retinue, that does not show impatience. 
 It may be here and now he thinks of the famous story 
 he tells at another time, the story of the good old lady 
 who, when the St. Lawrence steamer was shooting the 
 Lachine rapids and the captain stood absorbed in the 
 duty of guiding his ship and living cargo safely through, 
 startled every one by a cry of " Stop, and lower a boat 
 my little boy s lost his apple." Not for worlds will even 
 that worn, heart-wrung, nerve-racked leader say the 
 word to wound a mother. But, oh, the infinite sadness 
 of the smile with which he speaks, his voice so low and 
 gentle only those about him can hear, and she is finally 
 led away with a card to the " house-keeper," the best 
 the President can do, he says, " for I don t seem to have 
 much influence with this administration." Then he 
 gives hand and greeting to the great senator from New 
 York, another to the colonel, hurriedly presented, and 
 
238 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 inclines that ever-patient ear to both, as again the sad, 
 pathetic tale is told. Oh, the pity and sorrow and sym 
 pathy in the deep-set, sombre eyes, the anguish in the 
 rugged features as he hears the final words, " Stanton 
 says no, because the brigade is marching through this 
 moment." 
 
 For an instant the strong hands are clenched and up 
 lifted almost as though in appeal to heaven, but though 
 the deep voice breaks and trembles, though the pallid 
 lips twitch with pain, the answer comes inflexibly: 
 
 " And no it must be! Not a man, not a musket, can 
 we spare. It may be the very crisis of the war, and I 
 should be false to my trust if I did not hold myself and 
 every soldier to the duty of the hour. Let the dead 
 bury their dead. I cannot rob a regiment of its leader 
 at such a time." 
 
 And the two men, the sorely grieving colonel, the 
 sorely-tried commander-in-chief, look one instant into 
 each other s swimming eyes. There is a soldier salute 
 but utter silence, and the colonel turns away. 
 
 " You don t need me here," gulps Fred a moment 
 later. " I am going to see if I can help the colonel. 
 There s no one with him. I ll come to you, father, later 
 at Willard s. 
 
 And so it happens that, riding at the earliest dawn to 
 catch the division, Benton passes a carriage at the out 
 skirts of Georgetown, preceded by a cavalry sergeant 
 who speaks a word to sentries or patrols of the provost 
 guard to the end that the vehicle, with its attendant 
 
THE HEART OF LINCOLN 239 
 
 brace of troopers, meets no detention, whereas he, an 
 aide-de-camp going on duty, has to account for himself 
 every few blocks. " Some belated general," thinks he 
 as, once clear of the streets, he spurs swiftly up the 
 Rockville pike. He has had his few cheering words 
 with Jack. He has found Elinor, his sister, vying with 
 Rosalie, his queen, in attention to the captive. He 
 could wish that sister elsewhere, for not a word has he 
 alone with the girl who holds his heart. (It is doubtful 
 if he would have had other luck had Elinor been away.) 
 So, perhaps, like the girls at Charlottesville, his sister 
 had fallen under the sway of the stronger nature. He 
 has been with that silent, grief-stricken soldier colonel 
 until, between them, they have seen the coffined relics 
 safely stored in a sexton s charge. Then, with long 
 hand clasp he leaves him with his dead and goes to say 
 farewell to his father. It is long past midnight now, but 
 Washington still wakes, and finally, just as the pallid 
 light is creeping into the eastward sky Benton reins in 
 at the challenge of a sentry and the sight of a tented 
 field. Behind him, in the lower ground, feebly glow the 
 night lights of Georgetown. Beyond them lies the 
 great, straggling city. Here, close at hand, a sentry 
 paces slowly by the roadway, recognizes the aide-de 
 camp at once and bids him advance. A dim light burns 
 in a nearby wall tent. " Yes, sir, the colonel got back 
 soon after three," is the answer to his question, as, 
 swinging out of saddle, Benton throws the reins over a 
 fence post and scratches at the tent flap. 
 
240 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Tis I, Colonel only Benton. I stopped to see " 
 
 But the tent flap is thrown back from within and a 
 voice bids him enter. " I ve been writing to my poor 
 motherless babies/ chokes the colonel, and then at last 
 breaks down, bows his humbled head upon his arm on 
 the rude camp table that shakes with the sobs wrung 
 from an almost bursting heart. Who can picture, much 
 less soothe, a grief like this ? Benton has seen him time 
 and again, ever alert, ready, vigorous on the march, 
 cheery and cordial in all manner of wind and weather, 
 inspiring, commanding, magnificent in battle, God-like, 
 almost, in his superb dominion over men. But it is the 
 strong and soldierly and virile that love the deepest and 
 that suffer most when robbed of the heart s idol and de 
 light. " The bravest are the tenderest. The loving 
 are the daring." And in wordless sympathy Benton can 
 only lay his hand upon the massive shoulder while the 
 teardrops well from his own brimming eyes. 
 
 And then there are voices, low and deep, without the 
 tent, and then a footfall close at hand, and a tall, dark 
 form, enveloped in a cloak, looms between them and the 
 gathering dawn, and Benton, staring and only half cred 
 ulous, stammers the question, "Who is it?" Then 
 both men stand erect and face the newcomer at the 
 first sound of his deep yet trembling voice. 
 
 " It is I Abraham Lincoln." (Can it ever be written 
 save in reverence?) " I I have come to you because 
 all night long since you left I could think of nothing 
 else. I have not slept. I have been pacing the floor 
 
THE HEART OP LINCOLN 241 
 
 until I could stand it no longer. You came to me last 
 night in your bitter sorrow, and I treated you like a 
 dog. That noble woman died after giving new life to a 
 host of stricken soldiers, after giving back to the nation 
 scores of sorely needed men, and now, when it pleases 
 God to call her home to him I forbid the poor honor of 
 escort to the man she most loved. Forgive me, colonel. 
 Go to her. Take her back to your children, and when 
 you have laid her away and comforted them, then 
 return to us. Go, sir it is my order," and, wringing 
 the soldier s hands, the President turns again to the 
 cares and trials, the cruel anxieties of another day, but 
 the deep-lined face, uplifted to the glory of the dawn, 
 shines transfigured with a radiance indescribable, with 
 who can say what infinite cheer and comfort and bless 
 ing from on High. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 
 
 "How are the mighty fallen!" at least in point of 
 numbers. Still under the leadership of sharp-eyed, 
 sharp-tongued Gibbon, the brigade has trudged away 
 to South Mountain, conscious that it is now the ob 
 served of many observers, and feeling not a little cocky 
 in its new name. Manfully again has it grasped the hot 
 end of the poker, being sent into the very jaws of 
 Turner s Gap with Colquitt and his Georgians directly 
 confronting it, and Evans raking the doubled line from 
 the hill on the right. Again does the Seventh catch it 
 hard from the flank, losing more than a third of its men. 
 Again do the Black Hats sail in with their accustomed 
 saucy vim and vigor, tieing the Hoosiers in the 
 total of losses. Again are the big " Napoleons," the 
 pets of Battery " B," lugged into line, side by side with 
 the " Foot," and mightily do they bellow and roar in 
 this resounding amphitheatre the eastward slope of the 
 ridge. It is the second fierce fight in which these pow 
 erful guns, manned by picked men from the brigade, take 
 their share of hard knocks with the four battalions; but 
 a fiercer fight is yet to follow only three days away 
 one which welds the battery still more firmly to its sup- 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 343 
 
 ports. On the far right flank, in front of Sharpsburg, 
 across the sleepy Antietam, it comes in for its hardest 
 pounding of all the stirring campaign. 
 
 But by this time, mid September, as Lee s daring, 
 determined followers halt on the heights of the old 
 Maryland town, with the Potomac encircling them from 
 northwest to south, the winding Antietam protecting 
 their front, how cruelly are they, too, reduced in num 
 bers ! Our old opponents, the " Stonewalls/ in their 
 entire array can barely muster five hundred men. Regi 
 ments are commanded by captains, companies by ser 
 geants, and as it is with Jackson so it is with Long- 
 street, whose brigades, like those of Kemper and 
 Pickett, are cut to shreds, while some battalions are 
 reduced to the front of a platoon. Yet these are the fel 
 lows, less than forty thousand all told, who, backed up 
 to the great river, with all their trains and all their 
 wounded to care for, still confidently look to Lee and 
 serenely face McClellan, whose force in men and guns 
 is more than twice their own. 
 
 With what intensity of interest and anxiety do we in 
 Washington await the result of that inevitable grapple 
 beyond the Blue Ridge. Hopeful tales we hear of cap 
 tured despatches that betray the plans of those confed 
 erates of Confederates the army and corps com 
 manders of the South yet it has cost McClellan heavily 
 to force a way through the Gaps. What may it not cost 
 to assault in a chosen position so plucky an adversary! 
 The old division, now first in the new First Corps, goes 
 
244 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 in under its third commander in three weeks, for Fred s 
 old general has been sent home on sick leave. Hatch, 
 his gallant second, is severely wounded at South Moun 
 tain. Doubleday it is who now takes the lead and, 
 crossing the Antietam on the afternoon of the sixteenth, 
 bears down from the extreme flank upon the silent, 
 waiting foe. 
 
 First in column as it circles the front, the old division 
 moves in to the morning attack at the right of Hooker s 
 embattled line, and right of the line of the old division 
 is the doubled rank of the old the Iron brigade. It 
 is the dawn of a dreadful day. 
 
 In their front as they issue from the sheltering wood, 
 not a mile away and to the west of the broad turnpike, 
 gleam, at the crest of a gradual rise, the white walls of 
 the old Dunker church, outlined against the foliage of 
 a thick grove the West Wood. Over that gentle slope 
 extends a great broad cornfield, its ungarnered crop ripe 
 and yellowing, the brown tassels stirring in the morning 
 breeze that drifts downward from the lofty heights across 
 the Maryland stream. Another cornfield, not so large, 
 stretches westward from the highway opposite the 
 northward end of the first. A farm-house in a shaded 
 enclosure stands on the east of the pike between the 
 advancing blue lines and the yellow green of the waving 
 corn. A barn and out-buildings face it on the opposite 
 side of the pike. Other groves bound the cornfields 
 toward the Potomac, backed by a ridge where Stuart s 
 restless horsemen and Pelham s ready guns are lurking, 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 245 
 
 hidden from our view. So are the crouching guardians 
 of the groves and fields to the south. Again is the great 
 organizer shoving his infantry in to the attack of an 
 army in position, over ground unsearched by cavalry, 
 though cavalry are with him in abundance, eager to be 
 of service, but he knows not how to use them. East of 
 the big cornfield, to their left front as they march, is 
 still another grove, the East Wood, and in long, thin 
 line, at right angles to the pike, stretching through the 
 woods, through the cornfield, silently awaiting their 
 coming foe, are aligned the very men they fought so 
 savagely at sunset of that August evening barely three 
 weeks back. Then as the sun went down behind the 
 Bull Run range, Badger and Hoosier were clinched in 
 deadly grapple with Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia. 
 Now, ere the sun comes peeping over the Blue Ridge 
 to the east, Badger and Hoosier, side by side, are strid 
 ing straight up to the waiting lines of the same old 
 commands. Ewell and Taliaferro, as we have seen, 
 were shot out of saddle in the previous clinch. Lawton 
 and Jones now lead in their stead, destined further to 
 follow their lead ere half the day is done. Strange fatal 
 ity it is, indeed, that of all the fifty brigades of McClel- 
 lan s fighting force within range at the dawn of the day, 
 it is the Iron Brigade, the one exclusively Western brig 
 ade, that is to again encounter the flower of the South 
 ern array, the " Stonewall " and its comrade brigades of 
 Jackson s heroic corps. 
 And, just as before, not a man of the hostile line is 
 
24G THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 seen when the guns begin the battle. Off to the left 
 front, near the East Wood, a Southern battery spies 
 the blue battalions issuing from the skirt of the north 
 ward wood nearly a mile away, dressed on their waving 
 colors, the skirmishers trotting well out to the front. 
 Then loud bellow the guns and shriek the shells as line 
 upon line, brigade on brigade, Hooker sends his new 
 command, the new-born First Corps, in to its bloody 
 baptism. The Confederate flank is covered by Stuart 
 and his dashing horse batteries, and there is abundant 
 room and more than abundant need for similar troops 
 between Doubleday s right and the river, but not so 
 much as a squadron rides where it may be of such in 
 finite service. McClellan holds his horses east of the 
 dividing stream, for again, as on the Peninsula, are his 
 forces thus bestowed. Watching the scene from the 
 Pry house, beyond the Antietam, with his telescope 
 trained on the Miller fields a good two miles away, 
 Little Mac observes from an easy chair. Tis the army 
 that goes in a-straddle. 
 
 Full five hundred yards, almost due south, march the 
 doubled lines in blue, Meade s little division of Pennsyl- 
 vanians alongside and east of Doubleday s. Hatch s 
 old brigade is on the left of Gibbon s, Patrick in its rear, 
 in support, and for a time the Sixth Wisconsin, at the 
 post of honor, has the Hagerstown road on its right for 
 a guide. But now comes a thin patch of woods and a 
 turn only a slight turn in the line of the pike, and 
 here, little by little, through pressure from the centre, the 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 347 
 
 first company begins to edge out over the highway, the 
 second follows, and by the time they are bursting through 
 the barnyards and farm enclosures at Miller s, and the 
 shells have changed to shrapnel and men are dropping 
 fast, the entire right wing of the Sixth is across the pike 
 and wading through that westward field, tall, many of 
 them, as the waving corn, and despite the vicious spat 
 ter of lead, just about as unbending. Still southward 
 goes the long line of the corps, four brigades in the 
 foremost rank, four coming up in their rear, and still 
 those bellowing batteries alone appear in front. No 
 infantry is visible. Then up the pike, just as at Gaines 
 ville, comes galloping Battery " B," and into the farm 
 yard it turns, and there, whirling the guns in line to 
 the south, delivers its resonant answer. Telling talkers 
 are these boomers of Campbell s in this fiery debate. 
 The infantry lines are well forward now, the left just 
 breasting the cornfield, so that the " spherical case " 
 goes whistling over their heads and bursting among 
 the Southern guns. The Sixth is just striding out from 
 the cornfield and into the woods to the west of the road 
 when, sudden as a thunderbolt, there bursts on the ear 
 the crash of an infantry volley, and from front and right 
 flank, so close that the smoke jets forth in their faces, 
 a low-aimed lead storm shrieks through their ranks and 
 down goes half the wing, many, too many, biting the 
 dust. Then blaze the whole West Wood and the hedge 
 row south of the cornfield, and all from an unseen foe! 
 Flesh and blood cannot stand such a gale in the open. 
 
248 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Ducking, bending double, rolling, crawling, but turning 
 to fire fast as they can reload, the survivors swing back 
 to the highway, rallying instantly at the edge of the field, 
 and there, flat on their faces, they, too, take vigorous 
 hand in the fight, while Patrick s men, close at their 
 heels, rush in to prolong the line to the right and fill 
 the gaps at the front. Five minutes and both woods, 
 east and west, and the intervening cornfields are in 
 dense clouds of sulphur smoke, for Ricketts, too, has 
 come up with his division on the left of the corps, and 
 a battle of giants is on. 
 
 But vain are the efforts of Hooker s brave men. 
 Three fine, disciplined divisions he has led to the field, 
 thinking to turn an exposed left flank, while Mansfield, 
 with his new Twelfth Corps, supports the attack, and the 
 main army, advancing in force from the line of the An- 
 tietam, covers and holds the long Confederate front 
 extending far to the south of the town. Just whom to 
 blame nobody will say, but, not until Hooker s right 
 division is swept by lapping fires and flattened out by 
 the fierce storm of lead; not until Meade and Ricketts, 
 farther to the east, have charged again in line with 
 Doubleday s left; not until the cornfields are slashed 
 as though with giant sickle and leveled to earth, and 
 strewn thick with the dead and the dying; not until 
 Doubleday, not whipped, but brought to a stand, is 
 fairly battling for breath, do the brigades of Mansfield 
 appear at the east, coming late into action, and even 
 then by no means prepared. Closed in mass and with 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 949 
 
 crowded intervals, they stride from the woods and strive 
 to deploy. But many battalions are new and unskilled, 
 and before the brigade can be brought into line, gallant, 
 gray-headed old Mansfield drops dying from his horse. 
 Williams succeeds to command ; but before Hooker half 
 finishes giving his orders, he, too, commanding all 
 troops at that moment west of the stream, is stricken 
 and borne from the field, stripping it thereby of both 
 corps commanders, and leaving the right to the care of 
 men ignorant of McClellan s plans, and confronted by 
 the best fighters in the Southern host. 
 
 Oh the pity of it ! Half the horses of Battery " B " are 
 stretched on the field in front of the farm-house. Full 
 a third of the gunners are down. Campbell, the captain, 
 is shot from his saddle. Half the right wing of the Sixth 
 is gone. Half the commanders are now killed or 
 wounded. Not a lieutenant-colonel is left in the Iron 
 Brigade. Allen, Bragg and Bachman are borne from 
 the line, the last named to his soldier grave. The lone 
 effort is fruitless, save for its glories and the fierce pun 
 ishment given the foemen in front. There, indeed, is 
 destruction equal to this in the cornfields and along the 
 Hagerstown pike. No wonder Old Jack bows his head 
 in grief and supplication. Again he has lost both di 
 vision commanders, Lawton and Jones being wounded. 
 Again, as at Gainesville, has Starke taken command 
 when his chief is borne to the rear, and now dies at his 
 post in less than the hour, shot through by three bullets. 
 So, too, falls Douglas, heading Lawton s brigade, and 
 
250 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 with almost breaking heart Jackson sends word to his 
 beloved general that half the commands of Lawton and 
 Hays and fully one-third of Trimble s are killed or 
 wounded, as are all regimental commanders but two. 
 Thank God, tis their last fight with the Iron Brigade! 
 
 With the rest of the battle we have nothing to do. 
 Before breakfast is over at the Pry house, where sit 
 Little Mac and the big staff, Hooker s fight on the right 
 flank is over and done. Then another is started in front 
 of the East Wood, and later others occur along the line 
 to the south, and wherever a corps is sent in to attack, 
 Lee scrapes up a corps to meet and repell it. Con 
 certed action might have given the Union a needed, a 
 much needed, victory, but concert there is none. One 
 splendid and disciplined corps has been held in reserve, 
 and when toward the last the serene young general-in- 
 chief, never excited or hurried, never able to see flaw 
 in his own dispositions, seemed yielding to pressure and 
 about sending them in, he hearkens to the words of their 
 brilliant commander, so said veteran regulars at the 
 time: " Remember, General, I command the last reserve 
 of the Army of the Potomac." 
 
 And so night settles down and Lee s little army, 
 superbly led, has beaten back in succession the scat 
 tered attacks of McClellan s overwhelming force, sent 
 in, so many at a time, to the end that, in spite of hard 
 fighting and devoted courage on part of officers and 
 men, the day is a failure and the field something fearful 
 to see. All through the hours of darkness the surgeons 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OF THE GUNS 251 
 
 are at work with the thousands of wounded. All 
 through the following day Lee waits for renewal of the 
 battle, but McClellan has had enough. With the com 
 ing of another night, therefore, gathering up his 
 wounded and prisoners, sending his trains ahead, the 
 great Virginian silently moves his columns down to the 
 fords of the Potomac, and by dawn of the nineteenth 
 all are safely across. Lee has slipped away. 
 
 No wonder the President s sombre eyes are clouded 
 as he sadly studies the dread list of the slain. No won 
 der he scans the bearded faces of the generals sum 
 moned to meet him the day he closes his memorable 
 visit to the field. Is there none among them who can 
 take this splendid army and do something with it against 
 these skilled fencers of the South? Men in overwhelm 
 ing number, guns the best that money can buy, supplies 
 in abundance of every kind, all these have been lavished 
 on our leaders and to what end! No wonder, as he 
 drives away, his face lined with care. 
 
 There is significance in the greeting accorded the little 
 soldier still in supreme command when he rides his lines 
 a day after the battle. The corps of Porter, held 
 throughout the combat in safe reserve, swings its caps 
 and cheers with great enthusiasm. The corps of Sumner 
 shouts with modified rejoicing. The men of Mansfield 
 rise and salute in silence. The thinned battalions of the 
 First Corps make no sign whatever. 
 
 Witnessing this sight, Fred Benton contrasts it with 
 another which it was his privilege to note the previous 
 
252 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 day. Still serving at division headquarters, acting as 
 inspector-general, he and other officers had been sent 
 under flag of truce within the picket lines of the South 
 ern army, to seek the wounded and to render aid. All 
 about the barn and buildings of the Miller farm, where 
 the brigade had rallied and hung so long, lay scores of 
 stricken men for whom the surgeons were doing their 
 best, but so very many seemed past help. Along the 
 pike the Georgians, too, lay thick, and gray uniformed 
 officers moved to and fro among them, or conversed in 
 low tones, curiously scanning from time to time the two 
 or three staff officials in blue who followed the surgeons, 
 pencil and notebook in hand. Suddenly the talking 
 ceased, for, issuing from a narrow roadway that trended 
 westward from the pike, there came a tall, commanding- 
 looking officer, gray-bearded, yet alert, a soldier who 
 acknowledged with grave courtesy the salutes that 
 greeted him on every hand. Men sprang to their feet 
 and gazed at him almost in adoration. Even the 
 wounded strove to rise. Some few hailed him with 
 feeble, childish voices. As for Benton and his two as 
 sociates, they needed not the little group of staff and 
 orderlies to confirm them in their belief. They knew 
 him at a glance the great Virginia leader and Benton, 
 instantly, the others following, stepped forward and 
 stood at salute. Lee saw it, and turning so as to half 
 face the Northeners, with punctilious courtesy lifted his 
 hat, then quickly reined back as a dust-covered, battle- 
 stained battery came jingling out from the lane and, 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OP THE GUNS 253 
 
 turning into the highway, pulled wearily on to where 
 the spires of the Maryland town pierced the blue be 
 yond the southward wood. Jaded and worn were the 
 horses, black and powder-stained the men, and of a sud 
 den one of these, a slender stripling, jogging along be 
 side his gun, caught sight of the group of horsemen, 
 darted from his place to where the commanding general, 
 the picture of the soldier and the gentleman, sat in sad 
 dle at the roadside, and there, with boyish laugh, held 
 forth a grimy hand. " It s Bob," he cried. " Don t you 
 know me, father?" And Lee, the cavalier, bent low 
 and with love and tenderness, with who can say what 
 pride and rejoicing, clasped the hand of the private sol 
 dier in the Rockbridge Artillery, his gallant younger 
 son. In what other army would one see the like of 
 that! 
 
 Then the general rode on toward the Dunker church, 
 where still the men of Jackson lay in readiness, and then 
 uprose rank after rank with mighty shout that marked 
 his onward going adown the weary yet intenselj loyal 
 line until lost within the distant walls of Sharpsburg. 
 Despite the dire carnage of the day of battle, there beat 
 no soldier heart in all the Southern host that was not 
 true to Lee. 
 
 Presently, as the time accorded for their sad mission 
 had well nigh expired, Benton was aware of a young 
 officer, in the uniform of the horse artillery, who had 
 been chatting with comrades across the way, and now, 
 
254 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 dismounting, stepped briskly toward him, lifting a jaunty 
 forage cap. 
 
 " Your pardon, sir," he courteously spoke. " Is this 
 Captain Benton who visited Charlottesville not long 
 ago? My name is Pelham," and there was just the 
 suspicion of a smile in the keen young face. 
 
 " Captive, but not captain," answered Benton, with 
 responsive grin, though the mention of the name was 
 something that put him on his guard. What was it 
 young Winston had said about Maud Pelham and Rosa 
 lie? This must be the boy captain of the name, of whom 
 he had heard so much Jeb Stuart s crack light gunner. 
 
 " Yes, I have cousins there," continued Pelham, as 
 though reading Benton s thoughts. " But it is long 
 since we met. You are the man, as I happen to know, 
 who showed so much courtesy to Lieutenant Winston, 
 as well as to Jack Chilton. Now you can do me a favor 
 if you should see Dr. Chilton, and that is, tell him for 
 me that the men at the front utterly disapprove the 
 doings of that self-styled citizens committee at the rear. 
 Those people," he went on disdainfully, " are too old or 
 too feeble-minded to fight like men. They stab like 
 women." 
 
 " It will comfort them or rather the doctor to get 
 such a message from you, Captain Pelham," answered 
 Benton, almost eagerly, " and I shall see that he does 
 get it. I shall write at once. You can do me a favor, 
 too, if you will. An old school friend of mine, Paul 
 
KILLED IN FRONT OP THE GUNS 255 
 
 Ladue, is a staff officer in Ewell s division. Give him 
 a greeting for me, will you? " 
 
 " Ladue," said Pelham, his fine features clouding in 
 stantly. " I fear I heard Oh, Captain Lamar," he 
 called, " what Lieutenant Ladue was it brought that 
 note Wednesday morning to General Stuart? " 
 
 " Paul Ladue, Eleventh Alabama," was the prompt 
 answer. " Killed right here in front of the battery not 
 half an hour afterwards." 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 
 
 The autumn, the wasted autumn has gone, " the win 
 ter of our discontent " indeed has come. For weeks 
 the army hangs there inert and chafing along the Poto 
 mac, while Lee and his bronzed veterans saunter away 
 through the Shenandoah, " feeding on the fat of the 
 land." Marveling at the inaction of McClellan, Stuart 
 rides back with some eighteen hundred horse and two 
 light guns and, of course, Pelham ; and, just as he did a 
 few months earlier down on the Peninsula, jogs con 
 temptuously clear round the bewildered and indignant 
 divisions, laughing at the effort of Pleasanton to catch 
 or others to head him. McClellan says his cavalry is 
 too wearied and broken down to accomplish anything, 
 and the President mildly asks what it has been doing 
 to so fatigue it. Another correspondence of complaints 
 begins, and finally ends at Warrenton, when the order 
 comes early in November that severs once and for all 
 McClellan s connection with the Army of the Potomac. 
 He had done much to make it, God knows. He was 
 great as an organizer and instructor. He had the faith 
 and regard of most of the officers and the love of all the 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 257 
 
 men. It was in battle and campaign that he failed them, 
 not they him, for mortal man had never deeper devotion 
 than was accorded Little Mac until he took the field. 
 Even now, this sad November day, there are scores of 
 officers and soldiers whose faces are furrowed with tears 
 as they see him ride away. There are many commands 
 that would gladly recall him. There are regiments that 
 could not be made to cheer him after Antietam that 
 mourn his going now, even in the hard-used First Corps. 
 There are men right here in the Iron Brigade who de 
 plore the ordered separation, but there is a higher power, 
 a higher duty still, and, no matter what may be the 
 sorrow of this parting, the Army of the Potomac would 
 be faithless to McClellan and his teachings were it not 
 loyal to the commander-in-chief, the President of the 
 United States. Even in the bitterness of heart that must 
 accompany submission to his soldier fate, McClellan 
 himself strikes the keynote of that undimmed, unshaken 
 spirit of loyalty above all things when he bids his old 
 comrades farewell, and, in so doing, bids them be as true 
 to his successor as they had ever been to him. 
 
 Changes, too, have occurred in many a minor grade. 
 The Fifth Corps mourns the loss of the brilliant, gifted, 
 handsome soldier whose head is demanded as one result 
 of the woful mismanoeuvers about Manassas. Old 
 names appear at the head of grand divisions, as Burn- 
 side calls the doubled corps. New names, compara 
 tively, appear at corps headquarters. New brigadiers, 
 a full crop, ride up from the roster of field officers, and 
 17 
 
258 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 not so many now hail from the ranks of influential but 
 unskilled civilians. New regiments have been grafted 
 on old brigades; new blood injected into old and tough 
 ening veins. It is high time our friends of the Iron 
 name had reinforcement, for, despite Wisconsin s praise 
 worthy course of recruiting veteran commands as well 
 as raising new ones, their ranks are wofully thin; so, 
 as neither Badger nor Hoosier regiment comes to 
 swell the Army of the Potomac, there is assigned to 
 the old brigade, thereby assuring its distinctive Western 
 character, a brand new, ambitious and, as it turns out, 
 most pugnacious and rightful array of Wolverines, " all 
 teeth and toe-nails," say the Badgers, who take them 
 under advisement, and so the much-vaunted menagerie 
 is complete again. 
 
 Changes, too, have come to the staff, and, to Benton s 
 blushing delight, he is called upon at Catlett s to " wet " 
 a new commission, recommended by his old general 
 and heartily approved by the new. It is Captain Ben- 
 ton, additional aide-de-camp now, and he rides for the 
 time being with a division commander famous for stay 
 ing qualities, if not for urbanity, a man who is of the 
 fight-to-a-finish mold, and would hang every rebel from 
 Maine to Mexico. He is a fighter who knows neither 
 fear nor forgiveness and who takes it amiss that one 
 of his staff should mourn much over the fate of a rebel 
 in arms, especially one who serves that arch-rebel Ewell 
 and has no earthly excuse for fighting at all. We have 
 had few as yet of these vehement patriots in high places. 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 359 
 
 We have had far too many, storms Stanton in Washing 
 ton, of those who would handle treason with gloves, 
 furnish guards for the homesteads of hard-fighting 
 chiefs on the Southern side, hold commerce and com 
 munion through flags of truce with former comrades 
 across the lines. "We must stop it, by heaven! " says 
 Stanton, splitting a table top with one blow of his fist. 
 " We must drumhead and shoot em," says Fred s new 
 commander, " and I ll hang the first man of my staff 
 that I catch." It must be owned that the general fights 
 hard as he swears, which is saying a good deal, and 
 means no doubt very much of what he says. He has 
 heard much of Benton as a gallant staff officer, eager, 
 reliable, tireless, a fellow that never wears out. The one 
 thing against him is his training under " that soft-sided 
 senior of his" (Fred s original chief), and his own known 
 weakness for certain folks in rebellion. " He ought to 
 be thankful Ladue s dead and buried," says this new 
 leader of an old division. " And as for his Charlottes- 
 ville friends, he d better steer clear of em all if he 
 doesn t court trouble with me" 
 
 " The winter of our discontent " indeed! With gloomy 
 heart and sad anticipation Benton rides away through 
 the leafless woods to the old familiar scenes about Fred- 
 ericksburg. Word from Washington has brought him 
 little comfort. Rumor of his commander s sayings has 
 filled him with foreboding. Dr. Chilton, to whom he 
 had written on almost any provocation and who had 
 gratefully and promptly answered his Sharpsburg mis- 
 
260 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 sive, giving young Pelham s message, now wrote not 
 at all. " He seems sad and brooding," said Jack, in the 
 one letter that young gentleman had managed to send 
 through since his incarceration. Jack was well enough 
 to resume duty and most eager for exchange, but nego 
 tiations hung fire unaccountably, so said he, and Benton 
 thought he knew the reason why. Lounsberry had been 
 back again in Richmond over six weeks now, exchanged 
 and restored to his old and influential post in the War 
 Department. Lounsberry could be counted on to lose 
 no chance to injure the Chiltons, father or son, and so 
 long as it was possible he would block all plan to ex 
 change Jack Chilton, thereby lending color to the stories 
 spread abroad in Virginia that poor Jack rather tried 
 to be caught and to stay caught, such hard fighting as 
 his fellow Virginians had to do being little to his taste. 
 It would have burned his heart out with fury had he 
 known it, but few of us begin to realize the half of 
 what is whispered to our detriment, else there would be 
 deportation of sensitive souls or deserved destruction 
 in the army of detractors. Jack was nearly mad with 
 misery when told of Stuart s impudent dash at Cham- 
 bersburg and the second circling of the Army of the 
 Potomac. He was then just beginning to stump around 
 quite comfortably. Elinor and the Squire had returned 
 to the West, the former with red-rimmed eyes and 
 pallid cheeks. No one knew how she had sorrowed 
 over the sad news about Ladue. It was that, though, 
 that seemed to break the ice of Rosalie s reserve, for 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 261 
 
 now, for the first time, the Virginia girl read the secret 
 of her Wisconsin would-be friend, and melted to her 
 instantly. It was that, though they rarely spoke his 
 name, that led to the letters now passing frequently be 
 tween them. It was through that correspondence the 
 sisterhood began that, despite trial and trouble, proved 
 eventually so sure an alliance in time of need. 
 
 But though Elinor wrote in many a page of her 
 brother, and in only a few referred to Paul and then 
 only as " he " or " him " Rosalie would write only of 
 the latter. Ordinarily this would have led to resent 
 ment and a breach. Now it did not, for what Rosalie 
 had to say was stirring new hope into the sombre cur 
 rent of the Western girl s monotonous life. Rosalie 
 had amazed and rejoiced her, about the end of October, 
 by the assurance that she believed Captain Lamar to be 
 totally mistaken. It was true, she admitted, that Paul 
 Ladue had not been seen with Ewell s division, but 
 neither had Ewell, as yet for the latter had not become 
 accustomed to a cork leg yet she had tidings from 
 " friends " who, she would not say that Paul Ladue 
 was still alive when borne from the awful front of Gib 
 bon s guns, then belching canister in double rounds. 
 " More dead than alive he looked," said her informant, 
 but while she had no tidings of his present whereabouts, 
 neither was there any record of his death. 
 
 All this was presently sent to Fred on the Rappahan- 
 nock, and made him the more eager to communicate 
 with some one across that modern Rubicon some one 
 
262 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 who could speak advisedly. But though there were 
 places near the fords up stream where the cavalry ve 
 dettes sat long hours in saddle, facing, and often within 
 hailing distance of each other, the orders against com 
 munication of any kind had become exacting, for it was 
 evident that Burnside was marshaling his grand divi 
 sions for a move. 
 
 In the early summer time, when he hated to leave the 
 front and longed to push on to Richmond or Charlottes- 
 ville, Benton had been summoned to Washington. Now, 
 when he longed to go to Washington, there was pros 
 pect of a midwinter dash across the Rappahannock. 
 News of the Chiltons was sorely disquieting. Rosalie 
 would not write. Jack, in prison camp, could not, ex 
 cept to kindred, and the doctor evidently shrank from 
 writing. It was a winter of courts-martial at the Capi 
 tal, and several such tribunals were in session, trying 
 officers of various grades. Many new regiments had 
 come and were held about the city until suitably drilled 
 and disciplined. As a consequence the avenues again 
 were alive with uniforms, the hotels crowded, and many 
 thrifty households were " coining " money taking board 
 ers. Mention has been made of Dr. Chilton s sister, 
 with whom they were again dwelling after their return 
 from the summer at the seashore. Being only moder 
 ately well-to-do, and besieged with applications, she 
 had yielded to pressure and let two of her rooms to 
 officers sojourning in the city. Then one of these, or 
 dered West, begged leave to present a successor, a 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 263 
 
 major of a new regiment, who, being a " smart " lawyer, 
 had been assigned to duty as judge advocate of a 
 court for the trial of officers of rank in the volunteers. 
 When the Squire wrote that McKinnon had been ap 
 pointed major of a newly raised regiment and ordered 
 with it to Annapolis, Fred Benton felt, so great was his 
 antipathy, a vague sensation of annoyance and chagrin. 
 
 Three weeks later when Colonel Goff, of the teenth, 
 
 came down to pay the Iron Brigade a two-days visit, the 
 young staff officer was confounded to hear that Major 
 McKinnon had just found domicile under the same roof 
 that shielded Dr. Chilton and the lady of his love. It 
 meant mischief and Benton knew it. Yet, how could 
 McKinnon, though he hated his former partner, the 
 Squire, hated Elinor for her scorn of him, hated La- 
 due for the preference she had ever shown that dreamy, 
 sweet-natured fellow, and presumably hated him, Fred, 
 How could McKinnon injure him or those he loved? 
 
 A strange, uncanny freak of fortune, he tried to 
 teach himself to regard it, and nothing more, but 
 stranger still were the freaks not yet unfolded. Fred 
 Benton was by no means the first nor by any manner 
 of means the last soldier to learn that the presence of 
 a secret and insidious foe, whether in camp or court, in 
 the department of love or that of war, works untold in 
 jury to the absent, and there is no foe more bitter than 
 he who deals the original wrong. 
 
 One bleak December morning Benton had ridden 
 with his general down the river bank on the Stafford side 
 
264 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 and sat watching the work of the engineers. The pon 
 toon wagons were being run to the front, and many an 
 officer and man looked at the heavy, ungainly boats and 
 the long loads of balk and chess, then studied the dis 
 tant line of heights across the stream, saying little but 
 thinking much. Whoever sought to storm that crest 
 had a precious job on hand, was an expurgation of the 
 way in which the average veteran expressed his indi 
 vidual views. Most of the generals and the staff were 
 comparatively strange to our Badger regular. Most of 
 them were Eastern men, and not quite so ready as he 
 to think the Western brigade the peer of any in the 
 army. He had kept his views to himself, as a rule, but 
 had felt bound on a few occasions to take up the cudgels 
 in defense of his comrades when he found them the 
 butts for little shafts of malice or mischief at camp fire 
 or mess table. The social atmosphere was far from 
 being as congenial as in the little military family with 
 which he entered service. He sorely missed the com 
 panionship and guidance of Carver, especially. He 
 sometimes sat in silence, marveling much at the con 
 trast between the tone of talk in the old staff and this 
 in the new. Under his own general, as he still thought 
 of him, there was no such thing as criticism of superiors 
 or condemnation of equals. Here in his new environ 
 ment there was little else. The new division com 
 mander, to whose service he was assigned, had confi 
 dence, apparently, in the skill and judgment of but few 
 men above him in grade, and of none that gave promise 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 265 
 
 of rising to equal or higher rank. He fairly suffered at 
 the sound of a word of praise for other generals deeds 
 or methods, and Benton had enthusiastic liking for as 
 many as ten, and this exceeded his commander s list by 
 nine exactly. Brave, bumptious and vain, the chief was 
 forever sneering or swearing at his fellows, and scowl 
 ing on such of his staff as presumed to even favorably 
 mention another leader. It had caused more than one 
 unpleasantness at table. It had intensified the general s 
 faint dislike for Benton ; for, unlike the rest of the staff, 
 the young fellow would not sit and swallow whole the 
 chieftain s scathing comments on other chiefs whom he 
 had known, and thereby Benton showed how easy it was, 
 with greater knowledge to have less wisdom. In fine, 
 " the ^winter of our discontent " was wearing on our 
 young staff officer in a dozen different ways, and one 
 that hurt him much was that, when he most longed to 
 spend his leisure hours with old friends of the Iron Bri 
 gade, he could not, because it seemed to irritate the 
 chief. Then they in turn seemed to feel the consequent 
 defection, and twitted him with neglect of them because 
 he d " got so high." Take if all in all, thought Benton, 
 promotion had brought him anything but bliss ; and now, 
 when he would have given worlds to get to Washington, 
 not for worlds could he ask for even a week of leave. 
 Burnside was planning an assault in force. Those pon 
 toon trains, at half a dozen hidden points along the Staf 
 ford shore, unerringly told the story. 
 
 And while seated in saddle, shivering a bit in the raw 
 
266 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 wind blowing from the distant Chesapeake, and wishing 
 the chief would quit his comments on the orders of the 
 corps commander and trot home to dinner, Benton 
 caught sight of a little column of cavalry riding deject 
 edly in from the far left flank. Horses looked jaded, 
 men disgusted, and three or four prisoners in their wake 
 looked worst of all. " Where d ye s pose those dam- 
 fools have come from?" asked the general, cheerfully. 
 " Captain," he cried, hailing the officer in command, 
 " what you got there? " 
 
 The officer touched his cap, turned out of column, so 
 as not to halt the methodical march, rode up toward the 
 general and said: " Prisoners, sir, taken by one of our 
 scouting parties a few miles down, and sent in by us, 
 for most of these horses with me have to be shod." 
 
 By this time the greater part of the troop, in their 
 ugly light blue overcoats, had plodded by, and the squad 
 of prisoners came footing it wearily after. Foremost 
 of these a tall, thin-faced, ungainly specimen, dressed in 
 one of those self-same cavalry overcoats, glanced curi 
 ously at the general from under his broad-brimmed 
 slouch hat; threw a look over the blue-nosed, watery- 
 eyed pair of orderlies at his back, and then on Benton 
 and a brother aide, sitting a few yards aside; then in 
 stantly a flash of recognition shot over his face, and he 
 called aloud : 
 
 " There, Captain. There s a gentleman who will vouch 
 for what I say. Ask Captain Benton." 
 
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE 267 
 
 It was our friend Jennings, he of the stone house and 
 the Warrenton pike, and Jennings would not be denied. 
 He plunged into a voluble story to the listening chief, 
 despite the efforts of an Irish trooper to prod him for 
 ward. 
 
 " D you know him? " asked the general, shortly, as he 
 turned to Benton. " He says you do." 
 
 " I saw him once or twice, sir," was the guarded an 
 swer. " I do not know him further than that he held 
 General McDowell s pass and went in and out of our 
 lines at will last summer." 
 
 "And I m just as loyal as I was then," protested 
 Jennings, " only they caught me down here trying to 
 help some folks of mine that were sick and nigh starv- 
 ing " 
 
 But the general shut him off impatiently. He was 
 giving ear to the words of the captain, who had ridden 
 closer. 
 
 " Colonel Hammond ordered his arrest, sir, because 
 of papers in his possession, showing he was mixed up 
 in the aiding of Confederates officers across the 
 Potomac. They got one of em too weak to ride. He s 
 in that ambulance yonder," and the dragoon pointed to 
 the yellow-painted vehicle coming bouncing among the 
 ruts and ridges of the frozen roadway. A faint moan 
 issued from beneath the canvas cover as the driver 
 reined up, and Benton, moved by compassion, urged his 
 horse past the silent, passive column and peered in 
 
268 THE IR ON BRIGADE 
 
 through the opening at the back. The next instant he 
 was out of saddle, and the rear spring bent under his 
 weight as he leaped upon the steps. Then they heard 
 his voice in tones of mingled grief, joy and amaze: 
 "Paul! Paul! Dear old boy, don t you know me?" 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 
 
 Over the useless slaughter of the field of Fredericks- 
 burg it were best to draw the veil. Far down at the left 
 flank the old brigade groped its way through dripping 
 fog and lay in line of battle, having little to do but wait 
 orders, and catching only occasional shots from the 
 Southern guns along the heights. Old hands under fire, 
 the veterans officers and men lay close and kept still. 
 Their rifles could effect nothing against an enemy uphill 
 and behind entrenchments. New hands, not yet used 
 to battle, were not so quiet, and the gallant colonel of 
 the great battalion of Wolverines, big almost as the rest 
 of the brigade, thought it necessary to ride up and down 
 his line, exhorting his men to steadiness in loud and 
 powerful voice. " It lets em know I m here/ said he, 
 to the expostulant commander of the next door regi 
 ment. " I see," said the latter, as a volley flashed down 
 from Early s fellows along the crest, " and it also lets the 
 enemy. Your men will be steadier without the telling," 
 which reasoning the colonel pondered over and ac 
 cepted. He and his thoroughbreds were spoiling for a 
 chance to show their neighbors from the adjoining 
 States that they were quite as valiant as the vaunted 
 
270 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 old brigade. " Give us half a chance," said he, " and 
 then you look out for the Wolverines." 
 
 But neither Fredericksburg, nor Chancellorsville, nor 
 Virginia, nor even Maryland afforded the longed-for 
 opportunity. Not until the desperate clinch far up on 
 Pennsylvania soil not until the midsummer morning 
 of the first day at Gettysburg did their time come, but 
 when it came it proved a test the like of which had 
 never been met before, even in that hard-fighting, hard- 
 hammered command. 
 
 Meanwhile, what had not befallen other actors in our 
 story notably the Damon and Pythias of the ante 
 bellum days, Benton and Paul Ladue. 
 
 " Seems to have bout as many friends among the rebs 
 as he has on our side of the line," had the division com 
 mander remarked of Benton, though in a moment of 
 exaggerated biliousness, the day after the retreat from 
 the Southern shore. Everybody was in evil temper at 
 the time. The repeated assaults on that entrenched 
 and commanding line had cost fearfully. The army 
 had fought and bled with all its old hopeless devotion. 
 Even Burnside s fiercest critics had battled bravely for 
 him on the field, but he had heard the hard things said 
 of him by some, at least, of their number, and the army 
 was to have another shaking up in consequence. Then 
 Fred s new general had come in for a rasping from the 
 corps commander, because the leading brigade took 
 the wrong road in the rain and darkness, going back to 
 the pontoon bridge, and so delayed matters over an hour. 
 
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 271 
 
 It happened that Benton had guided the division to its 
 first position on the field; that he had been sent to find 
 General Franklin; that when he returned with a mes 
 sage from this latter officer, the division was in motion, 
 and the commander had ridden off to speak with Gibbon 
 or somebody else, and Benton followed, of course, in 
 search of his chief, instead of staying with the head of 
 column. Finding himself rebuked, the general repri 
 manded Benton in the presence and hearing of officers 
 and men. Benton s heart and temper being both sore 
 and tried, he had replied with much spirit, if not subordi 
 nation, to the effect that the message he was charged 
 to deliver admitted of no delay; that if the general had 
 been where he belonged there would have been no de 
 lay; and that sooner than submit to such injustice he 
 would ask to be relieved from staff duty forthwith, and 
 wrote that very night to his old friend and general, then 
 a member of an important military tribunal at Wash 
 ington, begging his advice and intervention, and telling 
 him, of course, the story of poor Ladue. 
 
 But, being coupled with another, that story was now 
 almost an old one at the capital, for thither had the 
 poor lad been sent and Jennings with him; Paul look 
 ing, indeed, " more dead than alive," for a strange, 
 eventful history had been his ever since the dreadful 
 morning north of Sharpsburg that stretched him sense 
 less in front of Gibbon s furious guns. " Killed," said 
 Lamar and other officers who saw him borne away in 
 a blanket. " Mortally wounded," said the hospital at- 
 
272 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 tendants who first ministered to him, back of the Dunker 
 church, where reigned confusion inexpressible owing to 
 the appalling number of those needing surgical aid. 
 How he got there or beyond, Paul never knew until long 
 thereafter. Stunned, as General Jones had been, by the 
 explosion of a shell just over his head, and gashed 
 across the breast by a whirling fragment of iron, La- 
 due only recovered consciousness four days after the 
 fight, when they told him he was in safe hands and the 
 house of a farmer not three miles out of Shepherdstown. 
 The ambulance team, frightened by a bursting shell, had 
 toppled the driver out of his seat and run away, capsiz 
 ing the crazy vehicle and distributing the human load 
 along a country lane. That was the last of Paul Ladue 
 for six long weeks, and when he came to the verge of 
 recovery his comrades had gone long miles away. Union 
 soldiers were on every side. Tender-hearted Virginians 
 had carried him to their loft and there concealed and 
 cared for him until he was well enough to move about, 
 and in November, when he begged to be aided to rejoin 
 his comrades, every pass and road southward was held 
 and guarded. Odd as it may seem, the easiest, most 
 practicable way for Southern soldier to go from the 
 Potomac to his own people was by way of the North. 
 The young men of the family were in Jackson s Corps. 
 The old father was permitted to go to and fro, market 
 ing at Martinsburg nearby, or Hagerstown over in 
 Maryland. His wife and her younger sister, whose 
 husband rode with Stuart, had relatives at Chambers- 
 
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 273 
 
 burg and Baltimore. Through these kind souls, civilian 
 clothing was bought for their interesting captive, in 
 whose welfare they had now an almost sentimental in 
 terest, and by mid November Paul was safely under the 
 roof of a well-to-do and most active Southern sympa 
 thizer in the Monumental City. He and his were only 
 too proud and happy to serve an officer of the Eleventh 
 Alabama, and royally they entertained him and most 
 skilfully planned his further movements, for go he 
 would to resume duty; this, too, despite the pallor and 
 lassitude that told he was still far from strong. 
 
 These were details which Ladue could not reveal at 
 the time. He had revived sufficiently to recognize Ben- 
 ton and to speak feebly a few moments; but that very 
 night, in the fog and darkness, was begun the building 
 of the bridges, the crossing of the left grand division, 
 and Fred could only leave his poor friend with the sur 
 geons and hasten back to his duty. Four days later, 
 when he would have ridden to the hospital camp in 
 search of him, it was too late. Urgent orders had come 
 from Stanton himself, the great and growing War Secre 
 tary, to send the prisoner patient thither as soon as he 
 could be moved. Jennings had already gone under 
 strong guard, and all Benton could learn at the moment 
 was that there had been a break from prison camp ; that, 
 aided by residents of Baltimore and of Charles County, 
 some Confederate officers had escaped to the Potomac ; 
 and, while some of the party had succeeded in cross 
 ing, one boat had been fired on and swamped. Two of 
 18 
 
274 THB J RON BRIGADE 
 
 the officers had been captured, one being poor Paul, 
 who had been nearly drowned, and was found in a fisher 
 man s hut not far from Mathias Point. Two of the 
 party were still at large. Arrests of suspected civilians 
 had been made, both in Washington and Baltimore, and 
 certain secret service officials had been summarily dis 
 charged by order of the Secretary, as being unworthy to 
 hold positions of such trust and responsibility. 
 
 " Stanton is a terror," said Fred s informant, a staff 
 officer just from Washington. " He insisted on shutting 
 out McClellan, just as Little Mac was getting a good 
 hold and learning how to fight. He insisted on putting 
 in Burnside, who loved McClellan and didn t want the 
 command didn t think himself fit for it. He insisted on 
 Burnside fighting, and Burnside bumped us up against 
 a stone wall where we butted our brains out, and things 
 have gone crooked every which way. God help the man 
 that has to bump up against Stanton just now ! " 
 
 This was the Wednesday following the furious storm 
 of that Monday night of mid December, under cover of 
 which the honest, loyal, but almost broken-hearted sol 
 dier had withdrawn his silent army across the stream, 
 with twelve thousand of its number sacrificed to the in 
 sane demand to fight and satisfy the people that the 
 Army of the Potomac could fight. It was now some 
 thirty-six hours after Fred s serious difference with his 
 division commander. He had sent the morning previous 
 that urgent appeal to his old general to be set free from 
 further contact with these things he almost loathed. 
 
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 275 
 
 He looked for answer within the week, and, taking ad 
 vantage of the permission, coldly accorded him by the 
 chief of staff, to be absent over night, he had gone, 
 heavy-hearted, to his old friends of the Iron Brigade, 
 and sought at their hands the sympathy and consolation 
 to be expected of men who had themselves felt that the 
 official atmosphere was frigid where once it had been 
 so fair. And it was here, on Thursday morning, while 
 breakfasting with the genial commander of the Black 
 Hats and listening to his philosophic advice to " take 
 things coolly " and that " all would come right," he was 
 surprised by the coming of a cavalry orderly, splashed 
 with mud, who bore a missive addressed by the adjutant- 
 general of the division and marked " Immediate." With 
 a word of apology to Colonel Fairchild and his officers, 
 Benton tore it open, and two papers fell out. One read: 
 
 "CAPTAIN BENTON: Enclosed just received. The general says you 
 better come this way where the necessary orders will meet you, and you 
 can get what luggage you need. There will be steamers going all the 
 evening. 
 
 41 [Signed] BREWSTER, A. A. G." 
 
 The second was a telegram to the Commanding 
 General, th Division, th Corps, and bore singular 
 resemblance to one received on almost the same ground 
 some seven months previous: 
 
 "Secretary of War desires to see Captain Benton of your staff at 
 once. Take first boat. Intermediate commanders notified. No delay. 
 
 "L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General" 
 
 "Well, well," said the colonel, "they have been 
 prompt! You can get to Acquia by noon, can t you? " 
 
276 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Not if he goes back by way of Old Scoffer s," re 
 marked a field officer, thoughtfully. " Fred, don t you 
 imagine the chief wants to smooth things a bit before 
 you tell Stanton all about it?" 
 
 " Don t go back, Benton. Just let him sweat. It ll 
 make him more civil another time," began an impetuous 
 comrade, but stopped short at sight of the cloud in Ben- 
 ton s eyes, the anxious look in the colonel s fine, clear- 
 cut, soldierly face. It was the latter who spoke again, 
 and without interruption, for already he had won the 
 faith of even such martial iconoclasts as the Black Hats. 
 " This means something more than a mere difference 
 due to ill temper," said he. " You are wanted for a pur 
 pose, Benton. Is it about Ladue, do you think? " 
 
 Fred had already risen. " I shouldn t be surprised," 
 he answered, thinking uncontrollably of the words of 
 his Washington informant, " God help the man that has 
 to bump up against Stanton just now! " 
 
 Yet he rode back to headquarters and, surely enough, 
 found his chief there, chafing and suspicious. " What s 
 Stanton want of you?" he blurted out. " You haven t 
 you didn t make a row about what I said Monday 
 night, did you? We were all cross-grained then, and I 
 didn t happen to think you had to look me up and so 
 got lost." 
 
 " I have certainly written to a friend at Washington 
 asking for other duty, sir," said Benton firmly, though 
 his anger had vanished and given place to sadness and 
 anxiety. " I did not get lost, however. I obeyed or- 
 
BEARDING- THE LION IN HIS DEN 277 
 
 ders, and under similar circumstances should do so 
 again." 
 
 " I ve told you I didn t understand the matter at the 
 time or I shouldn t have said, perhaps, what I did," 
 broke in Old Scoffer, both hurt and troubled. " If 
 you re going to start in on your army career with the 
 idea that you re never going to get hauled over the 
 coals, you ve mistaken your profession." Scoffer knew 
 he had been in the wrong. He wanted to undo the 
 wrong. He simply didn t know how, and Benton 
 wouldn t help him. 
 
 " You say * perhaps, General, and that implies a lin 
 gering doubt. So long as you think there was the 
 slightest justification for your reprimand, there is not 
 the slightest use of my trying to serve you." And so 
 they parted enemies, if anything, and, preceded by the 
 story of Old Scoffer s vehement assertion, enlarged, of 
 course, in transit, that he " had more friends in the 
 South than in the army," and without having taken the 
 first boat or having opportunity to take counsel with 
 his former chief, Benton reported the following day at 
 the War Department, and, after an hour s wait and 
 worry, was shown into the presence of the angering 
 Secretary. 
 
 It was a dull December morning. The rain had been 
 pattering for hours. The streets were deep in mud. 
 The flags hung limp and lifeless. The fog wreaths clung 
 to roof and cornice and drifted low about the crowded 
 portico without, and followed the splashed and dripping 
 
278 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 men, boring their insistent way into the depths of the 
 dingy old edifice. It was a day of gloom and despond. 
 It followed close on the heels of dire disaster ; and, with 
 the stories rushing in upon him of contention, disloyalty, 
 and disruption at the front, the Iron Secretary was stung 
 and goaded by the evidences of triumphant plot and 
 treason all about him and among the cities safeguarded 
 at the rear. Two prominent households within easy 
 rifle-shot of his desk were now shown to have been in 
 constant correspondence with leaders of the rebel cause 
 at Richmond. Two families in Baltimore, hitherto un- 
 watched, were found to have been connected with the 
 recent escape of closely-guarded Confederate officers 
 from a prison camp almost within sight of the flag at 
 Federal Hill. One gallant staff officer, scion of a well- 
 known and loyal supporter of the administration, stood 
 accused of intimate acquaintance with several of the 
 parties to the plot and of further knowledge of their de 
 signs, and the heart of the Secretary was hot within him 
 and hardened against this young staff officer of a fight 
 ing corps, who, ushered into the severe and repellent 
 presence, stood silently at guard, glanced one instant 
 at the grave, bearded faces of the three officers in at 
 tendance, and then, blue and unflinching, his eyes fixed 
 almost in challenge on the massive, spectacled, glower 
 ing front of the great patriot and statesman the force 
 ful, dominant, War Democrat, Stanton. 
 
 For a moment each studied the other, and the menace 
 in Stanton s frown roused the spirit of fight in Benton s 
 
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 279 
 
 not too pacific temperament. " What business has a 
 man to look at me as though he thought I ought to be 
 hanged, no matter if he is War Secretary ? " was the 
 question uppermost in the Badger s mind. His father, 
 the Squire, had once trounced a brother-in-law for less. 
 The bump of insubordination was rising even before the 
 Secretary s first question. 
 
 " How came you so late, sir? " 
 
 And the bump was in his throat, as, flushing to the 
 brows, the Badger answered: 
 
 " Possibly because I was kept waiting an hour outside, 
 sir." 
 
 Stanton s veins seemed to swell to thrice their natural 
 size, and his strong face, fringed by the iron-gray beard, 
 turned almost purple. 
 
 " You will be wise to keep your temper, young sir, 
 if you wish to keep your commission. You owe your 
 escape from rebel hands, I am told, to certain members 
 of Dr. Chilton s family, of Charlottesville." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "It is so, is it not?" 
 
 " One member only, sir." 
 
 " Lieutenant Ladue was your intimate friend at home, 
 I believe." Stanton was tapping the desk with a long 
 ruler now an ominous sign, said they who knew him. 
 
 " He was, sir." 
 
 " Was it to square accounts with the Chiltons you 
 sought to shield him? " 
 
280 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " I have had to shield him in no way, sir. He had 
 been brought here before I could see him again." 
 
 Stanton actually smiled, but the smile was grim as 
 any scowl. 
 
 Then it was by helping young Chilton, was it?" 
 And the professional cross-examiner tapped more 
 swiftly on the table, and his eyes fairly blazed through 
 the spectacles. 
 
 Benton was boiling over now. 
 
 " I never heard until an hour ago that he had got 
 away, sir. I m g " 
 
 " Glad, I dare say," said the Secretary, with sarcastic 
 force. " We heard as much of you and more." Then, 
 sudden as a steel trap, " What did you do with the 
 papers you received from Ladue ? " 
 
 This time there was no mistaking Benton s start of 
 amaze. He was kneeling by poor Paul s side in the 
 hospital tent, when with feeble, nerveless hand the boy 
 had passed a little packet to him and faintly whispered 
 his request. 
 
 "What did you do with them?" demanded Stanton, 
 and now the officers standing at the side of the room 
 seemed to hold their breath. 
 
 " Nothing, as yet," was the unlooked for reply. 
 
 "Then you still have those papers?" and Stanton 
 seemed rising from his chair. 
 
 "Yes, sir," and Benton seemed ready to spring to 
 meet him, with fight in every line of his face. 
 
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN 281 
 
 "Here?" and Stanton had dropped the ruler and 
 gripped the arm of his chair. 
 
 " Here," and Benton had the " touch-if-you-dare " 
 look of a bull-dog watching a bone. 
 
 " You may deliver them to Major Thorpe," said Stan- 
 ton, as though the matter were settled, and the major 
 accordingly, but uncertainly, advanced a step or two. 
 He was fifty years of age, and Benton was barely half 
 his years, but the elder little liked the look of the 
 younger s eyes. 
 
 " I may not, Mr. Secretary," and despite his wrath, 
 something almost like a smile of amusement played 
 about the corners of Benton s firm set lips. " Those 
 letters concern only two people on earth, Ladue and 
 .my sister. You may have my resignation this minute, 
 but not her letters." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 " CAPTAIN BENTON, YOT/RE A COWARD ! " 
 
 " A spy in camp," was what the brigade said, when it 
 heard the story that came from Washington, and " hop 
 ping mad " was the brigade. Its fur had been rubbed 
 the wrong way by the little flings of rivals, prompted 
 by the pitiable envy that seems inseparable from any 
 profession whose reward is mainly reputation. Its sense 
 of subordination, too, had been tried by tales of sneer 
 ing remarks made by General This or Colonel That, 
 and it firmly believed that much of Fred Benton s pres 
 ent trowble was due to the fact that he wouldn t stand 
 hearing them abused, belittled, or maligned. In greatly 
 exaggerated form, the rumor of his disagreements with 
 his fellow staff officers and his " row with Old Scoffer " 
 had gone the round of the regiments, to the end that 
 Fred was now looked upon as a hero and a champion, 
 even by the Black Hats, who rarely saw heroism in any 
 body, who scouted the idea of needing a champion and 
 who pronounced one general of the Army of the Poto 
 mac, at least, a consummate ass. They were mad clear 
 through when told he had declared Benton disloyal 
 " had more friends in the South than in the army." 
 Only a few weeks previous they had been pulling Ben- 
 
"CAPTAIN BBNTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 283 
 
 ton to pieces among themselves, because of his ap 
 parent neglect of them and preference for his new as 
 sociates. Now they were all afire at the idea of any 
 one abusing him, and there was wrath and wonder in 
 camp when it was learned that by order of Stanton him 
 self Fred Benton was held in close arrest, with the pros 
 pect, said rumor, of being sent to that so-called Bastile 
 of the war days Fort Lafayette. 
 
 Why not? Was not a gallant general officer who had 
 organized the first defense of the National Capital al 
 ready there, vainly pleading to be heard against the ac 
 cusations of unknown, even anonymous, foes? stripped 
 of command and mured in that Chateau d lf of the New 
 York Narrows, because there had been, a disaster, and 
 some " pipe-inspired " private told a newspaper tale of 
 having seen the general communing with rebels the day 
 previous? Were not commissioned officers of the regu 
 lar army who had fought superbly in battle after battle, 
 suddenly and summarily dismissed the service by that 
 imperious will, without so much as a chance to confront 
 and confound the accuser, because of some story 
 brought to the secretarial ear that roused the secretarial 
 ire? Small comfort was it to the victim that the order 
 of dismissal was later revoked. There to this day stands 
 the unmerited blot on the record to the end that, long 
 years after, it could be truthfully said by a journal de 
 sirous of creating adverse feeling, " This officer was 
 summarily dismissed the service in 186 ." 
 
 And if generals and graduates could be thus con- 
 
284 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 demned and confined without trial or hearing, what 
 could a lone lieutenant expect, who had confessedly 
 been the intimate friend of one Confederate officer, held 
 to be a spy because caught in civilian dress after long 
 weeks of domicile; who had visited that officer, held 
 private converse with him, received important papers at 
 his hands and refused to surrender them; who had, fur 
 thermore, confessed that he had given material aid and 
 comfort to another enemy, Lieutenant J. Bankheacl 
 Chilton, when a prisoner in his charge after the affair 
 of Gainesville; who had previously aided to escape one 
 Dr. Chilton, father of the same, a resident of Charlottes- 
 ville and supporter of the rebellion, then in possession 
 of valuable information as to our forces and movements 
 (no mention here, of course, of McDowell s authority); 
 and who, having spent much time as a guest of the Chil 
 ton family at Charlottesville, had been by them, through 
 their influence at Richmond, sent back to our lines in 
 order, doubtless, that he might obtain and furnish more 
 treasonable information. 
 
 Oh, a beautiful case was this worked up against Cap 
 tain Fred Benton, A. D. C, if the rumors from the 
 rear could be believed, and strange it was, indeed, 
 that in the midst of all the wrath and despond in all 
 ranks, there should appear at the camps of the Iron 
 Brigade, shaking hands with brother officers and sol 
 diers, that very able talker and genial fellow-citizen, 
 Major McKinnon, and Mac had lots to tell. Growlers 
 and most men were growlers that woful Christmas- 
 
"CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 285 
 
 tide along the Stafford Heights who asked him why 
 he wasn t with his regiment, were told that he was 
 still on court-martial duty, but court had adjourned 
 over Christmas. Growlers at first only growled when 
 McKinnon tentatively began to talk about Benton and 
 Ladue, but later they listened most men will and 
 when he returned three days later to his court at the 
 Capital and made report to certain confidential officers 
 at the Department, it must be admitted that, though he 
 took back with him far less of compromising character 
 concerning Benton than he expected and hoped, he left 
 a lot behind him. 
 
 But then came the " mud march " in which even the 
 elements joined forces with the disaffected of the gen 
 erals, as well as the enemy, against that most unhappy 
 soldier at the head of the army, and in the overwhelming 
 slough of despond, McKinnon s mud slinging might 
 have been forgotten. The weather had been fine up to 
 the moment Burnside essayed his move; then came the 
 deluge; and when the old brigade got back to its camps 
 and scraped off the tons of sacred soil still clinging to its 
 boots, there was no one having other weight who could 
 go to Washington and tell the great War Secretary he 
 was utterly mistaken as to Benton. For far less than 
 that temerity had men been exiled to Santa Rosa or 
 Ship Island. Fred s first general was a stranger to Stan- 
 ton, and his appeal for speedy justice for his former 
 aide-de-camp was ignored, as coming, so McKinnon 
 said, from the man that guarded rebel property and 
 
286 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 abandoned positions that he was bidden to hold. 
 McKinnon, of course, could not be expected to know 
 the real truth or to tell it if he did. 
 
 And all this time there lay at the Old Capitol prison, 
 awaiting needed evidence to prove him a spy, a very 
 luckless young soldier, Paul Ladue. All this time there 
 fumed and chafed, confined in arrest to the limits of 
 Greble Barracks and the adjoining square in which were 
 the officers quarters, Captain Fred Benton, A. D. C, 
 forbidden to see Ladue, and well-nigh forbidden to be 
 seen by anybody save secret service specimens detailed 
 for the purpose. All this time, persisted the brigade in 
 saying, there must have been a spy on Benton s words 
 and deeds while with the division, and who could be the 
 spy? All this time there came no tidings of that other 
 escaped prisoner of war, Jack Chilton. All this time 
 not once did Dr. Chilton and his devoted and sorrowing 
 daughter step forth for air or sunshine that they were 
 not " shadowed." All this time there was a man that 
 could have thrown light on the situation, but most un 
 accountably had he disappeared Jennings, he of the old 
 stone house, captured by cavalry near Mathias Point in 
 the act of succoring or aiding escaping prisoners, and 
 sent, with Ladue, almost in shackles, to Washington. 
 Jennings was again at large, and the Department de 
 clared it knew not whither he had gone. He had been 
 released, was the explanation well because it would 
 appear that he had only done what humanity dictated 
 
"CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 287 
 
 helped and nursed a half drowned, half fever-burned, 
 half dying man. 
 
 Then the Squire came out from the West, and that 
 lusty patriot happened to be at odds with State officials 
 over some regimental appointment. A hot correspond 
 ence had led to a coldness between him and a certain 
 senator. The great President was now confronted by 
 new and direful problems Burnside had demanded the 
 dismissal of several of his generals or else his own. A 
 new chief of the army had to be chosen at this crisis of 
 its history. A great corps commander, McClellan s 
 stanchest friend and supporter, had been sentenced by 
 court-martial of his peers to be cashiered and forever 
 disqualified. Two others, inimical to Burnside, the 
 President was asked to disgrace, together with generals 
 of minor grade. The very climax of Lincoln s cares 
 seemed to have come. No wonder the mighty captain 
 could not anchor his craft in the rush of the rapids, and 
 lower a boat for the little boy s apple. No wonder he 
 had no time to personally investigate the case of Ben- 
 ton s beloved son. " The new housekeeper," he said, 
 " would quit without notice rather than submit to inter 
 ference." With sorrowing, suffering, anxious heart he 
 let Burnside go, and set Burnside s fiercest critic, himself 
 to lose his head a few weeks later, in Burnside s place, 
 and then the great, loyal, triple-tried army went in again, 
 with overwhelming numbers, to round up that thin gray 
 line along the southward heights. Again the fords were 
 ribboned with the pale blue columns, as a dozen great 
 
988 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 divisions circled the Confederate left. Again did Jack 
 son dare to drop everything at the front, swing clear 
 round the outermost line and come crushing in on an 
 astonished and bewildered flank. " Never," say the Con 
 federates, and God knows they know, " did the Yanks 
 fight harder than at Chancellorsville " that is, those 
 who fought at all, for only a fourth of their entire array 
 were given a chance, but again "Back to the fords!" 
 was the order, and, cursing their luck and praying for 
 a fair fight and no favor, back the fourth time went the 
 army. Then came the summer, the race for the Poto 
 mac, and the rush at last to the high-water mark of 
 rebellion on the shores of the Susquehanna. 
 
 But meantime there had been a scene or two at Wash 
 ington, never mentioned in the chronicles of the day and 
 in the midst of alarms and distractions such as Washing 
 ton had never known before. Such matters as the pub 
 lic cowhiding of an army officer almost in front of the 
 White House would be " scare-headed " from Maine to 
 Manila to-day, but the papers had no space for it then. 
 Squire Benton had touched up McKinnon s new uniform 
 to the tune of thirty lashes before the police could step 
 in and spoil the sport, and only in a local journal and 
 one or two in the far West was the affair referred to. 
 
 Paul Ladue, convalescent, had been twice subjected to 
 rigid questioning with the hope of establishing the guilty 
 connivance in his escape of a certain Baltimore house 
 hold, as well as a certain Union officer, and with the 
 result of establishing nothing beyond the fact that even 
 
"CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 289 
 
 in his weakness he had more strength and " sand " than 
 the prosecution. Then he was tendered release on 
 parole, for long investigation had failed to unearth a 
 thing to warrant detention as a spy. 
 
 A romantic turn in the tide of affairs had come when 
 a certain senator called on the Secretary and offered to 
 show that the incriminating papers which Benton had 
 refused to surrender and which Miss Benton now would 
 be willing to show, if necessary to save the prisoner s 
 life, were personal letters and nothing more. Stanton 
 knew this, probably, as well as the senator, but was 
 wroth that any one else should know it, and furious 
 that an officer should dare refuse to surrender them, 
 no matter what or whose they were. Then Ladue s 
 Baltimore friends had sent word across the line that 
 Ladue was to be tried as a spy and hanged whether 
 convicted or not, and an Alabama brigade declared in 
 reply that they would hang the first Yankee lieutenant 
 they caught if a hair of Paul s head were injured. 
 
 One thing, it was said, that had made Stanton so 
 forceful a prosecutor in the past was the ease with 
 which he could always persuade himself of a prisoner s 
 guilt, the jury following as the night the day. Some 
 thing had to be done, he had said, to stop this whole 
 sale transmission of state and military secrets to the 
 enemy, and a victim was demanded. He had mured 
 this Confederate officer, caught in civilian dress, in 
 Old Capitol prison, and if he wasn t a spy, then he 
 ." must have neglected his opportunities and deserved 
 19 
 
290 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 to be hanged." What made Stanton so hot against 
 Ladue was that so many women, clergymen, church 
 people, and others took to pleading for the lad. Then 
 it was that McKinnon began to find favor at the 
 War Department. Then it was that Captain Benton s 
 limits were restricted instead of being enlarged. Then 
 it was that soft-hearted surgeons at the Old Capitol 
 hospital were replaced by men of sterner stuff. Then it 
 was that the Chiltons were notified that they must leave 
 Washington forthwith, and the Squire, bursting with 
 wrath at being forbidden to see the doctor and his 
 daughter, had had brief conference with Fred, now al 
 most fretting his heart out at the barracks; had learned 
 through an officer of rank in the regular service that 
 beyond possibility of doubt Major McKinnon was at the 
 bottom of all these new and most oppressive orders; 
 had gone to the White House with a demand to see the 
 President; had been promised an opportunity immedi 
 ately after cabinet meeting that afternoon; had met 
 McKinnon sauntering down the avenue in company 
 with a fellow soldier-lawyer, and had hurled himself 
 upon him then and there, to the end that the major was 
 picked up and carried to Willard s, the Squire escorted 
 to the police station, and the interview didn t come off. 
 It is recorded of the President that when told of the in 
 cident that evening, his sad face brightened for the first 
 time in a week. " I wonder if the Squire would let me 
 make him a general," said he. " At least he fights." 
 
"CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 291 
 
 That night a soldier of the regular service did a thing 
 that, had Stanton known it at the time and it s a won 
 der he didn t would doubtless have sent that soldier to 
 close arrest, if not to a cell. He was an officer of rank, a 
 gentleman of gentlemen, and a fellow beloved of his fel 
 low men. Entrusted with an order to see that Dr. 
 Chilton and daughter were safely sent to the steamer 
 for Old Point Comfort, a suitable guard going with 
 them, he had called on the kindly old Virginian late in 
 the afternoon. He knew something of the Chiltons and 
 much of their story, and was not the man Stanton would 
 have sent to work his will. Already their few prepara 
 tions were complete. The order for their removal had 
 been sent the previous day. A revulsion of feeling, such 
 as young Pelham had predicted after Antietam, had 
 surely set in at Charlottesville, for many a wounded lad 
 from the front had had his say against the croakers and 
 scandal-mongers at home, and it was believed that now 
 the doctor would be glad to go. Moreover, it was 
 known to just two officers at Greble Barracks, not three 
 squares from the modest roof that had given shelter 
 to the doctor and his fair, sad-faced daughter, that a 
 sum in gold sufficient for their needs had been placed 
 in the doctor s hands through the sister already men 
 tioned. But, so far from being glad to go, both doctor 
 and daughter had shown grave embarrassment at the 
 tidings, and this despite evident effort. There could be 
 but one explanation of that Jack Chilton was still 
 North, unable possibly to travel, and concealed by faith- 
 
292 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 ful friends. So long, therefore, as he was this side of 
 the now closely-patrolled Potomac, the Chiltons could 
 not bear to go. 
 
 There had been a brief, courteous talk. The officer 
 deeply regretted, he said, to have to be the means of 
 carrying out the order, but he would call with a carriage 
 at 8.30. Was there anything he or his wife could do for 
 Miss Chilton? 
 
 " There is, sir," answered a voice at the folding doors, 
 behind which two voices women s had been heard in 
 earnest, almost excited conversation, and with cheeks 
 flushing through their pallor and eyes that flashed de 
 spite evidence of recent tears, Rosalie Chilton swept 
 quickly into the room. " We hear that Mr. Benton 
 Squire Benton too, has been arrested and my aunt 
 will not admit of anything but I feel that it is to him 
 we are indebted for most generous aid. Major, I wish 
 to see him, to thank him, to tell him something as 
 his daughter is not here. Can that be arranged before 
 we go? " 
 
 " If a possible thing," said the major, well knowing 
 the Squire was out on bail by this time, and would cer 
 tainly come in person. All the same, he told his wife 
 at dinner of Miss Chilton s request and, what had not 
 that keen-witted army woman already known or sur 
 mised? 
 
 " He cannot leave barracks," said she, on the spot, 
 "but you can invite him here to your quarters; then 
 
"CAPTAIN BENTON, YOU RE A COWARD" 293 
 
 bring them here on the way to the boat and leave the 
 rest to me." 
 
 "He cannot leave! Why, my dear, he isn t in bar 
 racks. The police " begins the major, obtusely. 
 
 " Major! You ask Captain Benton here and and 
 no questions," interposes madame with severe and 
 superior wisdom. " Then bring her to me." And 
 light begins to dawn on the master and he obeys. 
 
 That evening it was late in winter and keen a car 
 riage whirled past the guarded gateway of the barrack 
 square and drew up at the quarters of the commanding 
 officer, a rented, furnished house across the street. The 
 major stepped forth, tendered his hand to an agile, slen 
 der girl who stopped one instant to kiss the gray-haired 
 gentleman beside her, then followed her soldier escort 
 to the doorway, where, with eyes that shone and cheeks 
 that colored and lips that puckered and hands that 
 clasped in sympathy and compassion unspeakable, a 
 warm-hearted wife and mother met the motherless girl 
 and drew her in. The major went back to the doctor; 
 the lady led her guest to the parlor door and ushered 
 her into the dimly-lighted, cosily-warmed and closely- 
 curtained room; then vanished, and, for the first time 
 since that night at Charlottesville, Fred Benton stood 
 face to face, alone, with the girl he so fondly and so 
 sadly loved. 
 
 And when he, in infinite yearning and love, stepped 
 eagerly toward her, his eyes shining, his hands out 
 stretched, the furred hood fell back from her flushing 
 
294 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 face, revealing it in all its dark and queenly beauty. 
 Her eyes, too, flashed, as in amaze, and then in anger 
 unspeakable she recoiled. One instant she glared at 
 him, then spoke : 
 "Captain Benton, you you re a coward!" 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 GETTYSBURG 
 
 The spring had come and gone, the flowers were in 
 blossom and bloom, but the voice of the turtle had not 
 yet been heard in the land. The sword of Lee led again 
 to the border. The spirit of Jackson had fled to the 
 skies. Grimmer than ever, old Ewell now ruled at the 
 head of the famous " Foot Cavalry " Corps, foremost in 
 the dash for the Susquehanna. All Washington, as so 
 frequently happened, was in turmoil, all Richmond in 
 transports of joy. Under the same tried and trusted 
 leaders, save that Jackson was gone, the arms of the 
 South swept on to invasion. Under the new, sore-tried 
 and little-trusted leaders the arms of the North were 
 reversed in pursuit. Hooker had quit, as he said, in 
 disgust, declaring no man could plan and fight with a 
 string to his shirt-tail and Stanton and Halleck a-pull 
 at the string. Reynolds, calm and sagacious, soldier 
 and fighter, had been tendered command, and politely 
 declined. Meade, his subordinate, stepped over his 
 head, since Reynolds would none of it, and with prayer 
 and misgiving picked up the reins dropped by Hooker 
 in sight of the Maryland shore. And the same hard 
 fighting, hard marching, hard swearing, hard used old 
 
296 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 army hove in sight of the stream that had given it its 
 name, and one corps, at least, had lost nothing by the 
 change. The First Corps, the fellows now wearing the 
 ball on their caps, were well content with their leaders. 
 With Reynolds to command them, and the men they best 
 knew at the head of divisions and brigades, they asked 
 no favor beyond a fair fight, and none were more eager, 
 hopeful, urgent than they of the First Brigade of the 
 First Division they who wore the red disk and of 
 these were our impudent friends of the Black Hats, still 
 topped by the feathered felt and breeched with the dark 
 blue and ready as ever to pick a fight with the foe or 
 flaws in the armor of less favored battalions. 
 
 A shout had gone up one day on the Rappahannock 
 when the word went the rounds that Fred Benton was 
 back. Suddenly had he appeared in their midst just 
 before Chancellorsville, and royal was the welcome 
 they gave him. Sad, pale, careworn, aged as he looked, 
 he was there, " on deck " again, and they hailed him as 
 one who had stood their friend and defender, who had 
 suffered much on their account, and most magnani 
 mously did they agree to forget that they had ever 
 maligned him not so easy a thing to do as it may ap 
 pear at first sight, it being a frailty of the average post- 
 adamite to feel bound to make good a calumny. 
 
 But Benton had changed, said they, as a result of the 
 first week of watching. He had grown silent and stern, 
 if not sour. He seemed filled with restless, feverish en 
 ergy, and no sooner was the main army back from 
 
GETTYSBURG 297 
 
 Hooker s first essay as chief in command, than he sought 
 and obtained permission to go scouting with a small 
 force of cavalry among the by-roads and lanes of the 
 down-stream counties. More than the limit of the law, 
 the prescribed forty days, had the orders of the War 
 Secretary held him in limbo, all the time clamoring for 
 a hearing, a trial by court-martial anything to enable 
 him to face his accusers and put an end to that military 
 lettre de cachet business then, and sometimes thereafter, 
 the resort of the powers martial when witnesses weak 
 ened. Released and ordered to resume duty with that 
 military modification of the Scotch verdict, " Not guilty, 
 but don t do it again," Benton came back to the front, 
 burning with wrath at the foe at the rear a foe per 
 sonal, official and professional, whom he felt must be 
 McKinnon. He was not allowed to know at the time, 
 nor to see until long after, the extent of McKinnon s 
 intrigue against him or of its reaction on McKinnon 
 himself. Only one officer witnessed the scene, a 
 week after the Chiltons, father and daughter, had been 
 returned to the Southern lines, when Stanton de 
 manded of the major that he prove his case or there 
 after hold his peace. He had " fooled away a whole 
 month," said the Secretary, " filled it with vague charges 
 and failed on the specifications." They sent him away, 
 ostensibly to straighten out a legal tangle in Kentucky, 
 not yet blessed with the benefits of martial law; then, 
 when McKinnon was beyond reach, sent for Benton. 
 Of course he did not see the Secretary. A placid, 
 
298 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 baa-lamb, soft-spoken staff officer had been told what 
 to say. Benton s associations had been ah unfort 
 unately compromising, and, while his conduct on duty 
 had not been called into question, at a time of such 
 public peril the Department held that its officers should 
 be ah be above suspicion, or at least show a disposition 
 to relieve themselves from blame, and Captain Benton s 
 ah refusal to surrender papers confessedly given him 
 by a Confederate officer had added much to the gravity 
 of the case against him. "What case?" demanded 
 Benton, fiercely. " Well, perhaps that was putting it 
 rather ah strenuously," said the officer. " What is 
 
 meant " "Oh, damn it!" burst in Benton, most 
 
 improperly, " what is meant is that you know I ve 
 been accused without rhyme and reason that you dare 
 not let me meet my accusers, and you won t give me 
 fair hearing," and for this inappropriate outburst he de 
 clined to apologize. For another week, therefore, it 
 looked as though, after all, he might get a trial; but it 
 ended in his being ordered to quit Washington forth 
 with, and to report for duty to his old general at York- 
 town, where he fumed and fretted till April, when sent 
 to Annapolis with prisoners. Then, a battle being im 
 minent, he was permitted to report to the general com 
 manding the Army of the Potomac, and thither he went, 
 and, so far as the battle was concerned, might better 
 have stayed and fought it out in the rear, for his corps 
 was held in leash, had little to do, and that left Benton 
 more savage than ever. 
 
GETTYSBURG 299 
 
 In heart, in pride, in spirit he had been sorely hurt. 
 In heart by Rosalie Chilton s astounding accusation and 
 the impossibility of getting the faintest explanation. 
 After her impetuous outburst she had whirled about and 
 rushed to the waiting carriage, demanding of the aston 
 ished major that he take her at once to the boat and, 
 even in captivity, it seems, her imperial highness was 
 wont be obeyed. From that day to this no word had 
 come from her, even through Elinor, now mournfully 
 writing that poor Mr. Ladue seemed lapsing into passive 
 imbecility, happily indifferent to any fate that might be 
 fall his son, and Elinor was grieving her heart out, 
 though she would not say it, at thought of Paul still 
 mured in military prison. 
 
 In pride, professionally, Benton had been stung to the 
 quick; for in spite of the fact that so much of his heart 
 had gone to the South, his duty, his sword, his spirit, 
 mind and will were all sworn to the service of the Union, 
 and most faithfully, even brilliantly at times, had he dis 
 charged himself of every detail entrusted to him. It 
 was his old general at Yorktown who strove to set him 
 right, who had urgently written in his behalf to officers 
 at court, and, when there seemed no prospect of stirring 
 service in that neighborhood, had suggested his transfer 
 to the staff of a fighting division at the front. In this 
 way had the order been obtained; and then, on his join 
 ing at army headquarters, Benton, at his own request, 
 had been sent to duty with the latest commander of the 
 old division, which was how he again got in touch 
 
300 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 with the Black Hats, and came to be with the grand old 
 brigade the day they " had the time of their lives " in 
 almost desperate battle over their beloved boomers, the 
 guns of Battery "B." Then and there, most heartily, was 
 the right to full fellowship with their veteran comrades 
 accorded the Michigan men. Most gloriously was it 
 won. From this time on Badger and Wolverine stood 
 on the same plane. 
 
 O what a day was that first of July ! warm, soft, sun 
 shiny, the roads still puddly in places as from recent 
 rains no dust to choke the hurrying columns, no thick 
 clay mud to clog the wheels or load the worn brogans. 
 Through the radiant, smiling, peaceful Pennsylvania 
 country side, so deep a contrast to battle-scarred Vir 
 ginia, along graded roads, past pretty cottage home 
 steads and wide slopes of ripened grain and tempting 
 orchards and cattle-dotted fields and fallows; past run 
 ning brooks and rock-bedded streams, whence the can 
 teens were lifted brimming and sparkling with fluid sel 
 dom seen in the runs and branches that gully the " Sa 
 cred Soil," past cool spring houses and darksome wells 
 where the one black feature of the stirring march 
 thrifty, low Dutch farmers stood scowling, exacting trib 
 ute of a dime a dipper from the thirsting men, and so 
 fattening on the need of their defenders. Halting now 
 only for catnaps by the roadside, with their brave, bril 
 liant Reynolds ever spurring on in the lead, they of the 
 First Corps swept northward in the wake of the cavalry, 
 listening eagerly for the distant booming that should 
 
GETTYSBURG 301 
 
 tell that Buford had fanged the quarry and was holding 
 on till they, the hunters, should come to give the coup 
 de grace. 
 
 Even before the earliest sunbeams came glinting 
 through the eastward wood, Reynolds had called on his 
 men; and, rousing from their bivouacs along the Em- 
 mittsburg pike, they rolled their blankets; swallowed 
 their steaming, soldier coffee; formed ranks along the 
 roadside, and presently went tramping away northward 
 between moist, smiling fields and orchards, heading for 
 the distant towers and steeples of the quaint, placid 
 little Pennsylvania town, nestling between the wooded 
 hills that seemed to hem it in. Somewhere up that 
 charming valley their leaders knew John Buford to be, 
 for he and his sun-tanned troopers had been thrown 
 ahead to cover the advance and find the army of Lee, 
 well known by this time to be concentrating to meet 
 them. 
 
 Years and experience have taught the leaders of the 
 Army of the Potomac something of the true use of 
 cavalry, and there is no more of the blind groping of the 
 old days. They know that Longstreet s whole corps is 
 camping about Chambersburg, across the South Moun 
 tain range to the west. They know that Hill is between 
 him and Cashtown, the first village of importance to the 
 west of Gettysburg. They know that Swell s foremost 
 divisions have struck the line of the Susquehanna, only 
 to be recalled to meet the spirited northward sweep of 
 Meade s far-spreading corps. They know that these 
 
302 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 men of Reynolds lead the van of the main army, and will 
 doubtless be the first to reach and back the cavalry 
 when those searching horsemen find and tackle the foe. 
 What they do not know is, that from west, northwest, 
 north and northeast these converging columns are all 
 headed for that same little Pennsylvania town, march 
 ing to concentrate on Gettysburg, and that this, the 
 First Corps of the Army of the Potomac, is destined 
 within three hours to be thrust square in between those 
 swift-closing jaws, and compelled, as Buford says to his 
 own men, to u fight like the devil " until the rest of the 
 army can reach it in support. The Eleventh Corps is 
 not far behind them; the Twelfth is away, over a dozen 
 miles to the eastward, along the Baltimore pike; the 
 Fifth and Sixth still farther to the southeast, a long 
 day s march at least; the Third is down by Taneytown, 
 ten miles behind. It is to be a First Corps fight, then, 
 unless the Eleventh can help, if they happen to run foul 
 of Johnny Reb this July morning, and that Johnny is near 
 they learn from Buford s couriers, galloping back with 
 news for Meade. A whole swarm of shoe-hunting Con 
 federates had come through Cashtown the day before, 
 bound for a raid on the Gettysburg shops, but fell back 
 at sight of an apparition in the valley to the south 
 strong squadrons of Union Horse trotting up the Em- 
 mittsburg pike, bent on being first at the fair. Petti- 
 grew, Confederate commander, knows his slim ranks are 
 no match in point of numbers for Buford s sturdy dra 
 goons, backed by their batteries of horse artillery, the 
 
GETTYSBURG 303 
 
 pride of the cavalry corps, and wisely he waits for morn 
 ing and the support of Heth s whole division. Then 
 they ll give the troopers a whirl that will remind them of 
 a year back in Virginia. 
 
 In far better fettle and discipline is Lee s brave army 
 than when it tried the conversion of Maryland ten 
 months before. Only in two points is it less to be 
 feared Stonewall Jackson is dead and Stuart s cavalry 
 is as good, or bad, as lost. For once in his life that 
 brilliant and daring leader of Horse is of no use to his 
 commander. Through some error of judgment he has 
 gone far to the east and has been cut off from commu 
 nication. When he reaches the Susquehanna he finds 
 Ewell has fled, so pushes on to Carlisle in the Cumber 
 land valley, and thus for two long days, the first two 
 days of the great and decisive battle of the war, he and 
 his hard-riding troopers are lost to Lee. For once 
 the Army of the Potomac has its eyes and its wits at 
 the front when the eyes, at least, of the Army of Vir 
 ginia are away to the rear. At breakfast time in 
 Gettysburg, this morn of the first of July, Heth s di 
 vision of A. P. Hill s corps of the Army of the South 
 comes " bulging " ahead, without the accustomed 
 screen of cavalry skirmishers, and is brought up stand 
 ing by the challenge of Calef s light guns, planted 
 squarely in the middle of the Cashtown pike, and the 
 simultaneous uprising of squadron on squadron north 
 and south of the road Devin s and Gamble s gallant 
 brigades of famous John Buford s division, and there, 
 like a bull dog Buford holds them two mortal hours, 
 
304 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 until Reynolds, with his foremost men, comes spurring 
 up the eastward face of the ridge, joins Buford at the old 
 Lutheran Seminary, and notes that the main lines of 
 Heth s Division, north and south of the pike, are just 
 forming for advance to the attack in force, all that pre 
 ceded having been the work of strong skirmish lines; 
 and now begins in grim earnest the greatest and most 
 momentous battle of American history. 
 
 First to reach the field in support of Buford s hard- 
 fighting Horse is the First Division of the First Corps 
 of the old Army of the Potomac, and the first brigade 
 to come swarming up the slope is led by old graybeard 
 Cutler, whom we saw at the head of the Sixth Wisconsin 
 in its maiden battle on the Warrenton pike, while, fol 
 lowing close at the heels of the foremost and, obedient 
 to Reynold s orders, breasting the height to the south 
 of the Seminary, stride the five battalions of the Iron 
 Brigade, the biggest not quite five hundred, the others 
 barely three hundred strong. White-haired Wadsworth 
 rides at the head of the little division. That s all there 
 is of it, these two brigades, led by those two far 
 Western brigadiers, barring the batteries that ever go 
 with them but the blue-blooded old Gothamite in com 
 mand swears he wouldn t swap it, small as it is, for the 
 strongest division in the whole army and he means it. 
 
 It is a sight never to be forgotten, that which greets 
 their eyes as the Black Hats come popping up over the 
 ridge. The seminary grounds and the farm enclosures 
 along the line of heights are quite thickly wooded, but, 
 to the west of them, the fields are cleared and cultivated. 
 
GETTYSBURG 305 
 
 Another ridge, not quite so distinct, rises in front of 
 them, perhaps five hundred yards away, and the two 
 ridges seem to converge at a wooded cone to the north, 
 Oak Hill they call it, while beyond that low rise to the 
 west the ground falls away rapidly into the valley of a 
 swift little stream, Willoughby Run, bordered on the 
 east, squarely in front of the Iron Brigade, by a grove of 
 sturdy young trees, the only screen between their swift 
 advance and the long line of forest half a mile away to 
 the west, stretching north, almost to the Cashtown pike, 
 and south to the Hagerstown road, and that westward 
 forest is all alive with flashing bayonets aligned on the 
 little red battle flags, the division of Heth in battle array, 
 reaching almost from pike to pike, with one brigade 
 thrown out " in the air " to the north, and pushing dar 
 ingly forward to sweep the stubborn troopers, fighting 
 dismounted, out of the way. It is barely quarter past 
 ten, as Reynolds for the last time looks at his watch; bids 
 Doubleday, who has galloped forward for orders, to 
 " back " Wadsworth at the seminary and extend his line 
 to the right; then, calling on Meredith, points to that 
 forward grove at the brook side, " Seize it," he says, 
 " before the rebels can reach it! " Then with the Sixth 
 in reserve, with a full-lunged shout in its throat and fire 
 in its eye, the old brigade breaks into a run, Fairchild 
 with the Black Hats in the van a five-hundred-yard 
 race for the goal field, staff and commanders cheer 
 ing them on, and Reynolds noble Reynolds spurring 
 swift in the lead, riding down to his soldier fate. 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 
 
 Of Heth s division, we have said, are these at the front 
 fellows that never yet have happened to " sample " 
 this Western command Heth s division, with the bri 
 gades of Archer and Davis in the foremost line. The 
 former has started his Tennesseeans down the slope, 
 Alabama supporting, and is feeling his way to the front, 
 for that wood looks ominous. Skirmishers say Gamble s 
 dismounted troopers, who have held it two hours against 
 their best shooting, are strengthened now by infantry, 
 thrown forward by old Cutler s first line, which can be 
 seen stretching out over the pike, relieving Devin s worn 
 men, and letting them scurry back to their waiting 
 horses. But Archer sees that in so doing, Cutler has 
 thrust its right flank " into the air," that Davis, with 
 his Mississippi battalions, is sweeping upon and around 
 it, and is already in turn far in advance of his own 
 fellows; so, most eagerly, Archer orders forward, for 
 ward, and the gray lines leap at the word. Beautifully 
 the battle opens for the cause of the South. Cutler s 
 men, in their eagerness to relieve Buford s thinned and 
 wearied defense, have rushed full six hundred yards out 
 into the open, and Davis catches them in flank with 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 307 
 
 his yelling Southerners; wheels his Mississippians to 
 their right, Cutler barely having time to slip his skir 
 mishers out of the clutch, then onward come the 
 Johnnies, full tilt for the guns of Hall, unlimbered in 
 place of Calef, on the Cashtown pike. Then two won 
 derful things happen and two new feathers go to the 
 cap of the Iron Brigade. 
 
 It is Fred Benton s luck this day of days to be riding 
 with Reynolds as the corps commander spurs to the 
 front. His own staff is scattered all over the field, some 
 gone to hurry up Howard and Sickles, some to lead 
 Doubleday s brigade through the tangle of lanes at the 
 foot of the ridge, some out to the right where Cutler s 
 New Yorkers are most sensibly falling back toward the 
 ridge at the rear. So Reynolds has borrowed an aide, 
 and Benton, burning with joy and excitement, rides after 
 him into the grove, just in time to see Archer s foremost 
 line come gallantly sweeping down the opposite slope, 
 straight at the shivering wood, for under their volleys 
 leaves and twigs are showering the heads of the few 
 defenders, and these latter are nervously squinting 
 about them in search of supports. "Hang on, men! 
 Keep up your fire! Meredith s right behind you!" 
 shouts Reynolds, as he darts swiftly in among the trees. 
 " Hang on, men ! " goes the word from center to flank, 
 but things look risky out there to the right where Cut 
 ler s ranks are drifting back, and the crash of Mississippi 
 volleys, enfilading the front, and the shells shrieking 
 from the slope of Oak Hill echo the volleys of Archer s 
 
308 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 quick-firing, fast-coming lines. Through the thick veil 
 of sulphur smoke, pierced by red flashes, grim faces are 
 peering square into the wood, and eager young captains 
 are urging onward their men, and in all the crackle of 
 shots and the hoarse-shouted commands, no wonder 
 they hear not the dull, muffled sound of the dancing foot 
 falls, as, fourteen hundred strong, the charging ranks of 
 the Iron Brigade come on with a rush. The east edge 
 of the wood is reached by the leaders on the right of the 
 line, just as the Southern force bursts through the battle 
 smoke and into the brook; but even as these latter reach 
 the wood, and Archer is cheering them forward, he is 
 amazed to see his wing reeling back, and a blue-capped, 
 blue-bodied human wave curving round the southward 
 end of the straggling timber, rolling over, engulfing, 
 sweeping before it in amaze and confusion by tens, 
 twenties, and then all together the right of the line. 
 Before he can issue an order or strengthen a single bat 
 talion, Fairchild and the Black Hats have burst through 
 the sheltering grove in his front, and sprung like tigers 
 on his halted and astonished line; while Badger, Hoosier 
 and Wolverine, swinging round him from the south, com 
 plete the demolition of the brigade. He and his men 
 are swamped in a twinkling. He anft half his force, six 
 hundred at least, are prisoners of war, while the rest are 
 chased to the rear by Meredith s men. First facer for 
 Heth as he glares from the opposite woods, where Petti- 
 grew and Brockenbrough are aligned in support. For 
 him, however, there is comfort to the north of the pike, 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 309 
 
 for there has Davis swept the field and is bearing down 
 on the Union guns. Now is the time to support him, 
 but Wadsworth is too quick. Archer disposed of; the 
 Iron Brigade halted and reforming under Reynolds sown 
 eyes in grim business fashion, too, as though the gath 
 ering in of six hundred Johnnies was not much of an 
 exploit with Meredith fronted now to stand off Heth, 
 should his second line sweep to the aid of the first, the 
 general commanding turns to succor the right. He has 
 seen the trouble in a single glance; has seen, too, the 
 way out of it; and as Fowler, with the old Brooklyn 
 Fourteenth, they that kept up with the cavalry on the 
 first forced march to Fredericksburg, now changes 
 front under fierce fire and faces the new attack from the 
 north, Fred Benton, all athrill with excitement, goes 
 spurring over to where the Sixth Wisconsin stands in 
 reserve, and in another minute, obedient to orders, that 
 stalwart battalion, at his charger s heels, is " double- 
 quicking " away over the fields to its right in support 
 of the men from the City of Churches, now in sore need, 
 for those lank Mississippians have swept forward into 
 the long cut of the unfinished railway, and, flat on their 
 bellies against the southward slope, are pouring their 
 fire into Fowler s men, hoping to crush them as they 
 have well nigh exterminated Harney s New Yorkers 
 the I47th before help can come. 
 
 A fatally good place is a railway cut to shelter a line, 
 when the foe stands fast and contents himself simply 
 with shooting. A fatally bad place it is when the foe 
 
310 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 won t stand at bay, but comes charging full tilt in spite 
 of the fire, and that, to the amaze of Davis, is just what 
 these infamous Badgers are doing this day. With an 
 onward rush no mere muzzle loaders can possibly check 
 when firing " oblique," the Sixth comes sprinting down 
 the slope from the southeast, its right companies swing 
 ing out, so as to sweep the cut from end to end, taking 
 the Mississippians in turn square in the flank, its left 
 striking at the eastward half of the line, and between 
 them, almost in a twinkling, doubling up and driving 
 together, huddled, helpless, sheep-like, one astonished 
 battalion. Then, what with blazing down from the 
 southward bank, charging home from the eastward 
 mouth, driving in with butt, bayonet and brawny arms, 
 while the Brooklynites rush, cheering, to finish the work 
 to the west, Davis s fighters are fairly trapped. Down 
 go the red battle-flags. Down go the rifles in answer 
 to shouts of surrender. There s nothing else left them. 
 They can t fight where they are. They can t force their 
 way out of the cut. Some dozen, perhaps, bending 
 double and ducking, manage to scurry off to the west. 
 Some few crawl back to their fellow battalions to the 
 north, but General Joe Davis has lost two of his colors 
 and all but a few men of two misguided regiments; 
 and here, too, has the Iron Brigade done more than its 
 full share. Wadsworth is almost weeping with joy 
 at the sudden stem of the torrent and the magnificent 
 stand of his little division, while Doubleday, seldom 
 given to praise, is wringing that veteran s hand in hearty 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 311 
 
 fashion, as he reins in a moment at the west front of the 
 seminary. Doubleday s own men now are fast hurrying 
 up in support of the First Division, Rowley and Roy 
 Stone sending in their brigades straight for the halted 
 line and the rescued guns to the north and along the 
 smoking fringe of wood, and there is soldier triumph 
 mingled with no little anxiety, as these war-tried leaders 
 scan the westward fields and note through their glasses 
 the long columns in gray stretching far back toward the 
 horizon and along the Cashtown pike, all telling the 
 coming of supporting thousands. Gladly they welcome 
 the sight of the waving colors of Howard s corps, press 
 ing northward in the valley behind them, and Doubleday 
 laughingly greets his fellow West Pointer, the crest 
 fallen Archer, just brought back under guard, and Roy 
 Stone s jubilant voice rings out the watchword of the 
 Second Division, "We ve come to stay, boys!" in an 
 swer to the shout of the Iron Brigade, " Hold the woods 
 to the last? Where ll you find men to do it, if we can t?" 
 and Private Pat Maloney, " G " Company, of the Black 
 Hats, who had personally nabbed the Confederate briga 
 dier, gets his own word of commendation ere he goes 
 back to his own gallant death. And all seems hopeful, 
 brave and buoyant despite the heavy losses of the fore 
 most regiments upon the field, when a cavalry officer 
 comes galloping in from the right, whither Devin s 
 brigade has been sent to guard the flank of the line. 
 "Where is General Reynolds?" he asks. "Whole di 
 visions are coming there to the north!" Where, in- 
 
312 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 deed, is General Reynolds? An aide-de-camp is spur 
 ring at swift trot through the maze of unlimbering 
 batteries. His face is white, his lips are pale beneath the 
 grimy mustache. Men cease their excited chatter at 
 sight of him, but he has word for none until, reaching the 
 little group where stand the division commanders, he 
 springs from his saddle, turns loose his wearied horse, 
 and they read ill news in his haggard eyes ere, with 
 soldier salute, he briefly says : " General Doubleday, you 
 command, sir General Reynolds is dead." 
 
 Dead! Shot down in the moment of triumph and 
 victory! picked off by a sharpshooter bent on aveng 
 ing the facer to Heth ; falling stark in his tracks, without 
 sign or sound; killed instantly, never knowing probably 
 whence came the blow, there in the McPherson wood 
 lies the hero of heroes of this first day s fight, his grief- 
 stricken officers gathering about the senseless clay. 
 Dazed for the moment, they can only kneel, these men 
 of his sorrowing staff, and lift the grand head from the 
 ground and gaze imploringly into the sightless eyes. 
 All effort vain! In the lull of the fight that follows the 
 catastrophe of the day, they bear the honored body 
 sadly to the rear and place it in the waiting ambulance 
 at the Seminary. Then some one says that Howard 
 must be told that he is the senior general up with the 
 army and Doubleday orders one of his own aides to 
 go in search of him. At 10.30 all was triumph and re 
 joicing in the gallant line of the First Division. Cutler s 
 men, far out on the right, were cheering " Tommy " 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 313 
 
 Devin s troopers, and being cheered in return. Down 
 by the Run, I^lack Hats and Hoosiers were swapping 
 chaff and congratulation with the Wolverines, but a 
 pall has dropped on the smoking field. With the death 
 of their heroic leader comes the turn of the tide. 
 
 Short hours of respite have the men of the West. 
 Heth has had quite enough for the present. With four 
 brigades at the front he has been hurled back by two, 
 and wisely he waits for the coming of comrade divisions, 
 now deploying far to his rear and slowly advancing to 
 restore the day. Nine fresh brigades are these thus 
 sighted, as the midday sun beats hotly down on Double- 
 day s lines, and he hasn t a man to send in support. 
 
 And now, far out to the right and rear, while two bri 
 gades of Robinson s Division prolong Cutler s line to 
 ward Oak Hill, the boom of cannon grows incessant, 
 and signal men in the Seminary tower are flagging des 
 perately. More men are needed! More men are 
 needed! Howard s corps, the Eleventh, is once more, 
 at one o clock, facing the very same veterans that swept 
 it from the field at Chancellorsville, and that seem bent 
 on doing the same thing here. Leaving Von Steinwehr 
 with his little division to occupy as a " rallying point " 
 the heights to the south of the town and Howard 
 seems to have felt it in his bones that such a point would 
 be needed the one-armed general has pushed on 
 through Gettysburg, sent Schurz and Barlow out to the 
 north, with orders to hold Ewell in check Ewell, who is 
 bearing down upon them from northwest, north and 
 
314 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 northeast, from the Carlisle, Harrisburg and York 
 roads, leading Jackson s old Foot Cavalry, the corps 
 that hardly knows what it is to stop for anything. And 
 now, even as Doubleday s thin lines are bracing for the 
 shock of Hill s fresh attack and the westering sun be 
 gins to shine in the faces of the men that so superbly 
 battled through the morning, and Heth is gathering up 
 his beaten brigades and herding them into the sheltering 
 woods to the west of the Run, there come direful tidings 
 from the right of the line, yes, even the right rear, that 
 Schurz is losing his hold on the northward front; 
 that his foreign-born, foreign-bred brigadiers are giving 
 way before the natives sweeping down upon them in 
 those long gray lines. Just as at Chancellorsville, one 
 sturdy O hio brigade McLean s command now led by 
 Ames is making stanch but futile stand against the 
 onward rush of Early and Gordon, for everything in 
 blue between them and the right of the First Corps, a 
 mile to the west, is going adrift. Every command in 
 Schurz s division is now in full retreat. In yelling 
 charge, five Georgia battalions have burst through to 
 the left of the Buckeye line, and Dole s brigade is now 
 between them and the town. Not only does Ames find 
 that he must fight two ways at once, but brigade after 
 brigade is now pushing for that huge gap in the Union 
 line. There is no earthly help for it, the right flank 
 of the hard-fighting First Corps must swing back, hing 
 ing on the left of Paul, the gallant little general blinded 
 for life by a single bullet as he gathers in his sturdy men. 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 315 
 
 The torrent of Ewell s fierce attack has breached the 
 flimsy bulwark of Howard s left defense, the foreign 
 legion, and, carrying all before it, is sweeping on, re 
 sistless, toward the panic-stricken town. 
 
 Then comes the crisis of the day for the men of the 
 Iron Brigade. Nine field batteries, unlimbered on the 
 slope beyond the Run, are shelling the westward front 
 of Seminary Ridge. Nine brigades have been deployed 
 cross country, and extending far to the north, so as to 
 join hands with Ewell s right near Oak Hill, and far to 
 the south as the Hagerstown road, are now, at three 
 o clock, bearing down to envelope the grim " stayers " 
 of Doubleday. Here, about the McPherson wood where 
 Reynolds fell, raging old Meredith and gallant Roy 
 Stone hang desperately to their ground, fighting with all 
 the mettle there is in them and their indomitable men. 
 But Roy Stone is soon terribly wounded. Wistar, who 
 springs to his sword, is shot in the face. Meredith is 
 crushed under his falling horse. Fairchild s arm is 
 smashed at the elbow; and Stevens, his lieutenant- 
 colonel, is instantly killed; so Mansfield, the major, 
 takes hold of the Black Hats. Morrow, heroic colonel 
 of the Wolverines, with every one of his field and staff 
 officers, sooner or later, is shot. One after another 
 five Michigan sergeants are killed while keeping aloft 
 the sacred colors. Hoosiers, too, and the Seventh 
 Wisconsin are fearfully pelted. Chapman Biddle s 
 brigade, on their left, is hurled back. Baxter is fairly 
 swamped out to their right, and, farther still to the 
 
316 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 north, Ramseur, Rodes and O Neal, with a triumphant 
 host of yelling Confederates, have doubled Robin 
 son s desperately battling division; have broken its 
 back and swept its fragments away; and, with despair 
 in his heart, Howard realizes that the day is lost, that 
 only by the fiercest righting and the best of luck can he 
 hope to save the remnant of Reynolds s left wing that 
 all the morning held so grandly, and so spurs away to 
 Steinwehr to halt and reform the broken Eleventh at 
 that natural line of defense on the heights to the south 
 of the town, leaving to Doubleday the stern duty of 
 drawing off his men. 
 
 Then it is that the Iron Brigade, still clinging to the 
 McPherson wood, gets the word to fall back to its right 
 rear, covering the Cashtown pike. There it is that their 
 blessed boomers have been unlimbered, and under " old 
 man Stewart s " eye are still blazing defiance at the 
 swinging battle-flags coming triumphantly forward 
 down the road. There it is that they find their com 
 rades of the Sixth Wisconsin sternly facing the coming 
 storm despite the fact that everything seems sweeping 
 away beyond them; and Dawes, their acting colonel, 
 pointing backward into the low ground, shows to the 
 brigade commander s astonished gaze that even Gettys 
 burg is practically lost, and through that town lies their 
 line of retreat the only way to save those precious 
 guns. 
 
 Four o clock, and still the batteries of Hall and Stew 
 art, with three hard-pounded brigades, hold their ground 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 317 
 
 on the ridge, while the valley behind them is fast filling 
 with Ewell s madly exultant men, driving Howard s 
 beaten divisions before them. To hang on longer is 
 simply madness. Beginning at the right, therefore, 
 stern and silent, the devoted brigades give ground 
 slowly, still facing the foe, still firing low and well. 
 There is no shaking the nerve or discipline of these fel 
 lows of Doubleday. The crush comes as the streams 
 of wounded thicken at the outskirts of the town, merg 
 ing with the fugitives of the Eleventh Corps, and the 
 roads and streets are blocked by batteries, ambulances, 
 stray caissons and ammunition wagons, all in full re 
 treat. The pinch of the fight, the crowning hour of the 
 day, the bloodiest battle of all the forty hours of thrill 
 ing combat, is here on the slope to the north of the 
 Seminary, where, from the teeth of the foe, from the 
 midst of their slaughtered horses, the men of the West 
 essay to drag and save their pets, their comrades in 
 every fight and field, the black-mouthed, smoking, 
 heated, still thundering guns of Battery " B." 
 
 " Limber to the rear! " rings the order at last, when 
 half the horses, at least, are shot. " Limber to the 
 rear ! " echoes the order along the pike, where three of 
 Hall s guns are dismounted, where Stewart, " the oft dis 
 tinguished," as Doubleday calls him, has replaced these 
 by three of his own under his junior lieutenant Davison; 
 but Davison, after sweeping with canister Scales s charg 
 ing " Tarheels," is shot from his horse and borne from 
 the field, It s all up with those guns if the Badgers 
 
318 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 can t save them! Two caissons are smashed; one is 
 blown into flinders, and as many brigades as Stewart 
 has guns are coming, yelling and crowding and volley 
 ing up the slope. Scales is hurling his North Caro 
 linians on Morrow s bleeding Wolverines, and Morrow 
 himself, while waving the colors, wrenched from the 
 dying grasp of the seventh bearer shot down, is him 
 self knocked in the head by whizzing bullet and dragged, 
 raging, from the thick of the fight. Davis and Daniel, 
 two fighting Southern brigadiers they, are riding 
 madly among their powder-stained men; driving them 
 on in the face of those stubborn wild Westerners; point 
 ing their swords at the crippled guns, where men are 
 straining at the wheels and slashing at the harness of 
 the slaughtered horses. "Get those guns!" shriek the 
 leaders. " Square accounts for the battle-flags lost in 
 the cut ! " But, between the surging rush of Carolina, 
 Mississippi and Georgia, with the supporting Virginians 
 of Brockenbrough at their back, and that battle-scarred 
 battery limping slowly away down the pike, there still 
 interposes that stern, indomitable, magnificent line in 
 blue all that is left of the Iron Brigade as, front to the 
 foe, closing ever on its colors, volleying steadily, defi 
 antly, unflinchingly into the very face of its outnumber 
 ing* yet respectful, pursuers, it backs away over the 
 ridge, leaving over a third of its membership strewing 
 its tracks, another third having already been borne 
 bleeding away toward the town, and so, as the sun goes 
 down on the tremendous day, so, slowly, steadily, 
 
THE FIGHT FOR THE GUNS 319 
 
 wrapped in clouds of its own battle smoke, the Western 
 brigade descends to the plain, the Sixth last to halt in 
 the streets of the town and to cheer to the echo the 
 cause of the flag, while the guns once more unlimber, 
 on the rise of Cemetery Hill, as though daring the foe- 
 men to come on and take them. No wonder the Bad 
 gers grip hands with the Wolverines, they that remain. 
 Almost five hundred the Michigan men went into the 
 fight by the side of the veterans. Only one hundred 
 are left in line when at last the day is done. Fully three 
 hundred have been shot down on the field; some few 
 have been captured. In officers alone their dead out 
 number those of the rest of the brigade. Of the Black 
 Hats surviving there stand now but seventy. 
 
 "And they might have cut you off entirely /* says 
 Doubleday, as he rides among the remnants, halting 
 along the wooded hillside, east of their rescued guns. 
 " Buford saw, what you couldn t see through the smoke, 
 that two brigades were > sweeping down south of the 
 Seminary to intercept you. He formed his squadrons 
 to charge. They saw it, by Jove ! and halted and formed 
 squares to resist him, and that saved you. Captain 
 Benton, I wish you would ride over and present my 
 compliments and thanks to General Buford. He s just 
 moving off past that stone farm-house yonder down in 
 the valley." And so ended the day. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 LADUE S LAST RETREAT 
 
 In the two great days that followed there was little 
 to do for the little left of the Iron Brigade. Planted 
 by Wadsworth at the point of Gulp s Hill, it grimly 
 watched the movements of Ewell s men, its old-time an 
 tagonists, and when these gentry ventured forth to feel 
 their opponents, they were received with due military 
 honors and sent back satisfied that the weak point of 
 the line was not there. Sore-hearted over the loss of 
 so many cherished comrades, yet confident that their 
 valor had not been vain, the survivors hung silently to 
 their assigned position, and awaited developments. 
 Many, most of them, indeed, slept through that sum 
 mer night like wearied children, while the scattered 
 corps, far to the south and southeast, were toiling 
 through the soft moonlight, straining every nerve to 
 reach the field in time to meet the foe on the morrow. 
 
 And, when that morrow came, Benton was early in 
 saddle and away to the left of the line in hopes of tid 
 ings of their headquarters wagon gone astray, as such 
 wagons so often would, with the mess and camp kits of 
 the general and the staff, and as Hancock s Second 
 Corps came trudging in past the Round Tops after their 
 
LADUE S LAST RETREAT 321 
 
 all-night march, it was his good fortune to meet two 
 old-time comrades, soldiers he swore by, Carver, now 
 serving with Hancock, " the superb," and Haskell, that 
 prince of adjutants, now chief of division staff and 
 through them he heard news that even in the excite 
 ment of the afternoon and the tremendous doings of the 
 following day, kept him perturbed in mind and sorely 
 troubled. He had never been reconciled to his treat 
 ment at the hands of the Secretary. He had never 
 ceased charing in spirit over the wrongs and aspersions, 
 as he persisted in regarding them, to which he had been 
 subjected. He realized that under existing conditions 
 nothing more than half-hearted acknowledgment of 
 error could be looked for, but he had determined that 
 the moment things settled down and the Department 
 had time to attend to something besides the momentous 
 affairs of the nation, he would demand justice or, as he 
 was spunky enough to say, " give them something to 
 pay for the punishment already given " to him. Mean 
 time he meant so to conduct himself in the field that 
 there, at least, he should stand above suspicion. Then 
 through men of weight he might secure attention to his 
 case. And now both Wadsworth and Doubleday had 
 spoken in heartiest praise of his behavior throughout 
 that heroic battle of the first day. So far so good. 
 What he longed for, on one hand, was a chance to square 
 accounts with McKinnpn. What he hoped for, on an 
 other, was opportunity to teach that disdainful girl how 
 deeply she had wronged, as well as affronted, him. Pas- 
 
 21 
 
322 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 sionately in love as he had been, it was a new experi 
 ence, or he could never have persuaded himself in his 
 pride and anger that her power over him was ended 
 that her queendom was gone. 
 
 He would have known better had he had time to ana 
 lyze the chagrin and pain and jealousy which possessed 
 him all the long hours that followed his morning talk 
 with these staff comrades of the Second Corps. It 
 seems that three days before, on the 2Qth of June, while 
 they of the Second were pushing cautiously northward 
 through Maryland, on the right flank of the army, they 
 were made aware that a column of cavalry was passing 
 around them from the south, passing between them 
 and Washington, and that while they were swinging 
 through Uniontown, across a little branch of the Mo- 
 nocacy, the cavalry were trotting through Westminster, 
 only five miles from their flank. " Gregg s Division, of 
 course/ said they who saw through glasses the far- 
 distant column. " Gregg, not much! " said Haskell, who 
 had ridden out toward Union Mills on a scout of his 
 own. " It s Jeb Stuart with his whole outfit and not 
 a little of ours. He must have been helping himself 
 every mile of his way from the Potomac." And this, 
 indeed, proved to be the case; for, as they lay in the 
 fields about Uniontown that night, there reached them 
 a rueful, crestfallen little party of officers, gathered in 
 by Stuart at the crossing of the Baltimore pike. Two 
 were field officers who from convalescent hospital were 
 striving to overtake their regiments; the third was 
 
LADUE S LAST RETREAT 333 
 
 Major McKinnon, ordered to report without delay to 
 the commanding general, Army of the Potomac; and 
 McKinnon, it seems, had also been convalescing in 
 Baltimore, but not from wounds. These three, with 
 their light luggage, had been pounced upon at a wayside 
 tavern by a roistering troop of Stuart s flankers, and 
 dragged before this cavalry commander, who, seated 
 on the porch of a pretty homestead in the heart of the 
 village, was watching his booty-laden columns as they 
 jogged on northward, and receiving the reports of m s 
 scouts. One of these parties presented the three cap 
 tured officers just as another, represented by an eager 
 subaltern, was finishing his description of the Union 
 force about Uniontown. At a gesture from Stuart, the 
 young officer ceased and stood in silence as, very cour 
 teously, Stuart invited his captives to be seated while an 
 aide took their names, regiments, etc., and as McKinnon 
 gave his there was sudden sensation. The young cav 
 alryman sprang forward, seized McKinnon s hand, 
 shook it effusively, and, to the amaze of every one pres 
 ent, exclaimed : " General Stuart, I am sure, sir, you will 
 treat this gentleman with every possible consideration. 
 It was he, sir, who so nobly defended my father at 
 Washington when Secretary Stanton would have sent 
 him to Fort Warren and Rosalie, too, for that matter. 
 It was Major McKinnon, sir, who pleaded their cause 
 with the Secretary and had. them returned to Charlottes- 
 ville. It was he, sir, who in other ways most generously 
 aided them." 
 
324 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " I am glad to hear it, Jack," said the bearded general, 
 evidently warming toward the Westerner who had so 
 befriended his kith and kin. " Of course you re sure 
 of it?" 
 
 "Sure of it, sir? I had it from father and Rosalie 
 both! They had supposed that they were indebted 
 or rather that their helper was a very different person, 
 a man whom they had befriended; but that all turned 
 out to be an error." And the upshot of it all was, said 
 Haskell, " that Stuart sent the three to our lines, es 
 corted by Captain Winston, the two other officers pa 
 roled until exchanged, but McKinnon, by Jove, released 
 with Stuart s compliments, and it s my candid belief, 
 damn him, that Mac would a heap rather be in Wash 
 ington on parole than out here on duty. Shouldn t 
 wonder if Stuart took his measure before he let him 
 slide." Manifestly Haskell didn t fancy McKinnon. 
 
 One thing for Benton to ponder over, therefore, was 
 the question how on earth had McKinnon in so short 
 a time been able, even though he had the run of the 
 house, to persuade that usually clear-sighted girl to the 
 belief that he had used such powerful influence in their 
 behalf, and was really their lavish benefactor. 
 
 But there was still another thing to add to his chagrin 
 and perplexity. There had been little conference be 
 tween McKinnon and the two Badger staff officers 
 both knew and neither trusted him but Colonel Ken- 
 nard, one of the paroled pair, talked frankly with them, 
 told all he had seen of Stuart and his devil-may-care 
 
LADUB S LAST RETREAT 325 
 
 command, and much about this young Confederate offi 
 cer Chilton, " Because," said Kennard, " I heard Chil- 
 ton say to McKinnon he was praying that he might yet 
 meet Captain Benton. There was a Union man he d 
 shoot on sight! And Winston said Amen!" " Now, 
 Fred," said Haskell, as he called for his horse, " I ve 
 got to ride the lines and get the reports; but, we ve got 
 McKinnon up with the army at last, and soon as we re 
 through with this business, we ll nail him." But evi 
 dently it was business first in Haskell s eyes. 
 
 So between being in Stanton s bad books and those 
 of these young Virginia gallants and of Rosalie herself, 
 it must be admitted that Fred Benton felt all the fates 
 were against him. He had two burning desires as, to 
 ward nine o clock, he threaded his way through the 
 swarm of arriving batteries, men and horses looking 
 worn and haggard after the all-night march, and rode 
 slowly back to Wadsworth: one was to meet McKin 
 non and brand him as the author of the slanders that 
 had so marred his prospects, personal and professional; 
 the other was in some way to wring from Chilton an 
 explanation of his violent threat. It would certainly 
 throw light on the cause of Rosalie s furious denuncia 
 tion. Little did he dream how soon he should be spared 
 the need and through what sad, strange circumstance. 
 
 All America knows the main story of that second 
 day s grapple when, but for Warren s generalship and 
 the heroism of Weed, Vincent and their fellows of the 
 Fifth Corps, the fierce fighters of Hood would have 
 
326 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 gained their lodgment on the Round Tops and the en 
 filade of the Union line. That, like Pickett s tremen 
 dous assault on the third day, overshadowed everything 
 occurring at the flanks. But for this there were deeds 
 done along the stony, wooded, northward slope of 
 Gulp s, and far out in the open fields beyond Wolf Hill, 
 that would be ringing in song and story to this very day, 
 for Ewell made desperate attempt to gain the heights 
 and the Baltimore pike behind them; and Stuart, miss 
 ing until after sundown of the second day, strove as hard 
 to make up for lost time in his splendidly conceived 
 cavalry dash on our right and rear, just as Pickett led his 
 mighty Virginians to wedge the Union center the 
 grand crowning effort of the closing day. Had Ewell 
 won the heights, Gettysburg would have been written 
 in the catalogue of disaster. Had Stuart swept in 
 among the ammunition trains, battery wagons, field 
 hospitals and reserves at the rear while Pickett was 
 piercing the front, nothing could have restored the field. 
 But again the tide had turned. Ewell left scores of his 
 best and bravest under the muzzles of the Springfields 
 along the boulder-strewn slope. Stuart was snared and 
 trapped, engulfed, overwhelmed, and finally swept bodily 
 from the field, never again to charge on Northern soil. 
 Between the twilight of the second of July that wit 
 nessed Swell s bloody assault and the dawning of that 
 black Friday of the Lost Cause the third day some 
 thing had happened to give new heart to Jackson s old 
 men. The " Stonewall " brigade was there still, almost 
 
LADUE S LAST RETREAT 327 
 
 at the extreme point of the long fish-hook of the Con 
 federate line, lurking in the woods down in the low 
 ground between the rocky point, where crouched the 
 survivors of Wadsworth s division, and the forest-cov 
 ered heights off to the eastward, where cavalry guidons 
 Union cavalry had been flashing in the last rays of 
 the setting sun. Somewhere out in the dim fields to 
 the north and northeast there was stir and excitement 
 even in the wearied bivouacs of Ewell; and, under the 
 starlight, eager to satisfy his general s restless desire to 
 know what it all meant, Fred Benton had crept out to 
 the front, taking a leaf from Haskell s primer, and hop 
 ing for a side scout of his own. But everywhere he 
 found the same conditions: whispering officers, com 
 manding the foremost line, pointed out that they were 
 bent back like a hoop, connecting with the left of 
 Greene s division of the Twelfth Corps, and that, as 
 though in a ring, the defenders of the hill were utterly 
 hemmed in, save to the southwest, by lines of unseen, 
 wary, vigilant Johnnies, for every man that ventured 
 down in hopes of filling his canteen at the running 
 stream at the foot of the slope, had failed to return. 
 They were nearly surrounded, yet safe so long as they 
 stayed where they were. Early was planning, evidently, 
 an assault at dawn. 
 
 By half-past ten, however, comparative silence reigned 
 at the right flank. The famous conference Meade with 
 his corps commanders had been held in the Leisler 
 farm-house in rear of the center. The word had gone 
 
328 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 the rounds, to the joy of every soldier heart, that the 
 new commander meant to stand and fight, and if Lee 
 could muster no more men than these already thrown 
 in, he might hammer the lines in vain. They did not 
 know, perhaps, that, away over in the woods back of 
 Willoughby Run, Heth s whole division was still nurs 
 ing the wounds received in the first day s battle but 
 would be ready on the morrow, and that Pickett s mag 
 nificent command of Virginians would all be there to 
 strengthen the lines to .the west. Now, if only Stuart 
 and his pet brigades would but stay lost, so that no fear 
 need be felt for the far right flank, all would indeed be 
 well! 
 
 But would Stuart stay lost? Could he have got 
 so far away as not to be found and by this time returned 
 to the army; and when he came, would it not be from 
 the north, and thus bring him in on the very flank they 
 were now defending? Tired as he was Benton could 
 not sleep for thinking of the disclosures made through 
 Haskell. Twice he had crawled from his grassy bed, 
 underneath an ambulance, and gone out along the front, 
 crouching among the watchful pickets. There was no 
 change in conditions, they whispered. The slopes were 
 still covered with the lurking enemy, though no moving 
 thing could be seen. Toward half-past two a staff offi 
 cer from Meade stumbled in and roused the general 
 wanted to know if anything had been heard of large 
 bodies of cavalry out to the north, and Wadsworth was 
 
LADUE S LAST RETREAT 
 
 compelled to report that it had been found impossible 
 to ascertain. 
 
 But, when the aide left, Benton could stand it no 
 longer. Alone and afoot, after a word with his gray- 
 haired chief, he slipped out of the circle and away to the 
 Baltimore pike. This he followed southeasterly nearly 
 half a mile, greeted occasionally by low-toned challenge 
 of sentry; but other officers were hurrying swiftly to and 
 fro, and there was little detention. As early as three 
 o clock he found himself following a patrol down a rocky 
 pathway toward the creek, and, learning from outlying 
 sentry there that no force seemed to be in his immediate 
 front only a few pickets, Benton explained that he 
 wished to crawl out far enough to be beyond the sound 
 of trampling hoof and rumbling wheel at the pike, that 
 he might listen the better. The sentries demurred, but 
 finally decided to take the chances and let him go. And, 
 creeping from bush to bush to avoid the moonlit spaces, 
 less than half an hour before the dawn he had succeeded 
 in gaining fully four hundred yards out toward the 
 northeast, and there low voices warned him to lie still 
 and listen. He was either on or within the Confederate 
 picket line, and had much to learn and little time. 
 
 And then, hardly breathing, as he crouched close to 
 the trunk of a spreading tree, somewhere among the 
 leafy shades along the slopes of Wolf Hill a whip-poor- 
 will began his farewell hymn to the flitting night and, 
 just as on that April morning among the heights of the 
 Hedgeman, faint and sweet, soft yet stirring, so far out 
 
330 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 to the north that the performer doubtless thought it be 
 yond the range of inimical ears, a cavalry trumpet began 
 to sound the martial reveille, stilling the mournful plaint 
 of the feathered herald of the dawn, and stirring some 
 nearby watcher to instant, even profane, remonstrance. 
 " Damn that infernal dash-dashed idiot," stormed a low, 
 half-choked voice. " He ll tell the whole dash-dashed 
 Yankee army our fellows have come! Go back there, 
 sergeant, and tell our trumpeter if he dares to toot a 
 horn I ll murder him." 
 
 Then somebody rustled off through the bushes, and 
 somebody else spoke. " Some of Hampton s crowd, I 
 reckon. How long d the general want us to stay out 
 hyuh?" 
 
 " Till Ewell attacks at dawn. Then we ll mount and 
 look out for Gregg. His people are out here to the 
 east of us. Stuart ll get after them, you bet, as soon 
 as it s light." 
 
 "We haven t got a horse that can more n stagger. 
 All worn out, I tell you," protested the second voice. 
 
 " No more n theirs are. Jennings met us back there 
 on the Hanover pike, and I heard him tell Fitz Lee 
 Gregg s horses were all played out " 
 
 " Jennings be damned! " broke in a third voice, im 
 petuously, and Benton started at the sound. It was 
 Chilton s beyond shadow of a doubt. Chilton again 
 with his old regiment, and these with him were doubt 
 less officers of Fitz Lee s brigade, scouting, probably, 
 well in front of the cavalry lines, yet proving that Stuart 
 
LADUE S LAST RETREAT 331 
 
 was there at last, and could be counted on to make 
 things lively in the morning. And Jack disapproved of 
 Jennings, did he ? Small blame to him ! And Jennings 
 was way up here in Pennsylvania, playing informant for 
 both forces again, and doubtless getting big pay from 
 ours ! It was high time to slip back and give warning, 
 but getting back was slow and tedious, even perilous 
 work. The dawn was breaking when, in bedraggled 
 garb, Benton made his way across the plateau to the 
 farm-house on the Taneytown road, where officers and 
 orderlies were thickly grouped, and where he found his 
 own gray-headed general in the circle about the com 
 mander. Before Benton had time to whisper half his 
 explanation, Wadsworth s tired eyes flamed with eager 
 light. 
 
 " Here s the very news to prove it, General ! " he 
 cried. " Captain Benton, of my staff, is just in from 
 that front. Stuart is there and Ewell means to at 
 tack " 
 
 " How do you know Stuart is there ? " demanded 
 Meade, whirling sharply on the young officer. The 
 most courteous and polished of gentlemen at other 
 times, Meade was irascible in the extreme in battle. 
 
 " I heard voices, sir, one that I well knew, an officer 
 of the First Virginia, heard them say that Fitz Lee 
 was there, and that Stuart would settle Gregg, and that 
 
 Ewell would attack at dawn " But even as he spoke 
 
 came confirmation of his words. In the dim light of the 
 dawn, the guns of Greene and Geary had suddenly 
 
332 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 opened on shadowy gray lines, issuing from the opposite 
 woods, and Wadsworth sprang for his horse. But the 
 commander signalled Benton to remain. " You have 
 done a gallant deed, Captain, and have brought me most 
 valuable information," were his words a moment later; 
 " It shall not be forgotten." 
 
 Yet Benton was surprised late that afternoon when, 
 after the din of the most terrific cannonade ever heard 
 on this continent, and, after daring and determined at 
 tack, Pickett, Ewell and Stuart all had been repulsed, 
 Pickett with dreadful loss, there came a message 
 summoning the aide-de-camp to Meade s headquarters. 
 He was faint with the fearsome sights encountered on 
 the way, for all the field was one vast hospital. A sym 
 pathetic staff officer gave him a nip from his flask, and 
 then pointed to where a little group of prisoners were 
 gathered back of the farm-house. Several were slightly 
 wounded. All were sad and weary, but there was none 
 he knew. An orderly led him toward a rude wagon- 
 shed beneath which knelt four officers, surrounding a 
 prostrate figure. " He asked for you," said a surgeon, 
 briefly, and one glance at the face of the stricken soldier 
 was enough. Never heeding the others of the group, 
 never even seeing them, with a cry, half stifled, of 
 mingled anguish and amaze, Benton threw himself on 
 his knees, and clasped the cold, nerveless hand, feebly 
 lifted to greet him. The failing eyes lighted up one 
 moment in love, recognition and relief, then closed in 
 agony, as a spasm of dreadful torment seized the fragile 
 
Benton thrust his left arm 
 
 under the fallen head. Page 333. 
 
LADUB S LAST RETREAT 333 
 
 form. " Paul Paul my God ! " was all that Benton 
 could murmur, for a great sob choked his utterance, 
 and a surgeon hurriedly brushed before him and held 
 a little silver cup to the twitching lips of his patient. 
 " Mortal, yes," was his whisper, as the poor lad, ex 
 hausted, lay for a moment in a deathlike swoon. Then 
 the stimulant seemed to revive him a bit. The dark 
 eyes slowly opened and fixed on Benton s quivering 
 face. A flicker of setting sunbeam, breaking through 
 the smoke still drifting over the field, threw for an in 
 stant almost a halo of rosy light about the dark, damp 
 hair, and gave a touch of warmth to the sweet, yet pite 
 ous little smile that played, oh, so short a moment, about 
 the almost girlish lips, and then they moved : " Bless 
 you, old boy ! " and every whisper seemed to come 
 with a gasp " I heard I knew you d never give up 
 her letters. Where s McKinnon?" And here the 
 poor lad seemed drifting away again. Benton thrust 
 his left arm under the fallen head and strove to raise it, 
 while once more the surgeon placed the cup to the 
 parted lips; and, noting the name, a staff officer turned 
 quickly and said a word to a waiting soldier. It was 
 another minute before the swooning lad reopened his 
 eyes. The end was swift coming, for their light had 
 fled. Two other forms had joined the silent group, un 
 covering in the awful presence. But Benton saw noth 
 ing but the loved face heard nothing but the labored 
 breathing of his friend and comrade whose young life 
 had known such cruel sorrows, whose early death was 
 
334 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 so surely due to the malign influences that had turned 
 him, all unwilling, against the flag that once at least he 
 had loved so loyally. And now, in spite of soldier reso 
 lution, big tears fell from Benton s brimming eyes and 
 plashed on the fragile hand still fondly clasped in his 
 own. It seemed to rouse the dying boy. He looked 
 yearningly up into the face of his sorrowing friend, just 
 as somewhere down the field to the south, noting the 
 disappearing sun, some bugler had softly begun to play, 
 slowly and solemnly, the vesper hymn of the army, the 
 salute to the departing day, the soldier signal to repair 
 to quarters and to set the watchers for the night the 
 stately call known the wide world over as the " retreat." 
 
 One moment poor Paul seemed to listen, his breath 
 coming fast and painfully ; then some one, well meaning, 
 yet mistaken, bent and questioned : " You asked for 
 Major McKinnon. Did you wish to speak " 
 
 " McKinnon ! " whispered Paul. " McKinnon? " and 
 now a shudder seemed to seize the wasting form. " Tell 
 him for me I know he stole my letters. Tell him I told 
 Rosalie every word he said of you was a cowardly 
 lie." 
 
 And not until the dead hand in his was cold and stif 
 fening did Benton know what caused the strange move 
 ment and sensation in that silent, awe-stricken group as 
 Ladue s last words were spoken. Almost inaudible, 
 they had reached the straining ears of four who bent 
 to listen, and of one who, standing, would gladly have 
 been deaf to them. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 
 
 Once again had Lee s valiant army slowly retired to 
 the Potomac and leisurely recrossed, superb even in de 
 feat. Just as after Antietam, the cabinet, the committee 
 on the conduct of the war (that remarkable annex to our 
 military system) and countless critics all over the North, 
 stormed at the Army of the Potomac because it seemed 
 to follow at respectful distance, content to let the erring 
 brethren go in peace. The man who felt it most that 
 the beaten enemy should again succeed in getting away 
 was the one who said the least Lincoln had no rebuke 
 for Meade who, smarting and sensitive under the lash 
 of Halleck and Stanton, asked in his turn to be relieved 
 of that vexatious command, but could not be accom 
 modated. "The plum was so ripe," was all that the 
 patient President could say, " it seemed a pity not to 
 seize it." But no one save those that tried it knew the 
 cost of seizing Confederate plums. Stern and defiant 
 the disciplined ranks in gray turned and faced every es 
 say to moiest them, and another winter closed in on the 
 armies in Virginia, with the same old stream the Rapi- 
 dan for their dividing line. 
 
 For a time the tide of war swept to other fields, and 
 
336 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 all eyes were focused on the West. Matters in the im 
 mediate front of Washington seemed to stagnate, while 
 within they seethed. A curious state of affairs existed, 
 a condition of divided responsibilities that resulted in 
 Lee s being allowed to detach a third of his force under 
 Longstreet to help crush the Army of the Cumberland 
 at Chickamauga, and so set us back another six months 
 on the road to victory. Then came the final resolution 
 of the great War President, that as he and Halleck and 
 Stanton had long tried, without success, the business of 
 " bossing " armies in the field, it was time to turn the 
 whole thing over to a single stage manager. Then came 
 Grant and the beginning of the end. 
 
 Meantime, how fared it with Fred Benton and his 
 fellow workers in the war drama ? Gettysburg, with all 
 its solemn triumph, had left them sore at heart. The 
 old brigade had trudged back to its former fields along 
 the Rappahannock, bereft of many a loved and honored 
 comrade, and in the relic of one regiment, at least, there 
 was genuine sorrow over the death of him who wore 
 the gray. There was comfort in the Sixth that it was in 
 front of Geary s line, not theirs, that Ewell s fated young 
 aide-de-camp should meet his mortal wounds. There 
 were eyes that blinked beneath the worn visors of the 
 caps of faded blue, in sympathy with the grief in Ben- 
 ton s haggard face. All that was mortal of Paul Ladue 
 they laid away on the bank of the little stream by which 
 he fell, soldiers of the Sixth his pall-bearers, officers 
 and men his mourners, and the Montgomerys from the 
 

 WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 337 
 
 old home city, his funeral escort, though they could 
 hardly muster a squad. The few papers and memo 
 randa in his possession, his watch and forage-cap and 
 sword, were placed in Benton s charge Benton who had 
 stooped and kissed the peaceful, up-turned face ere they 
 lowered it from sight of all, and had reverently clipped 
 away a lock of the dark, wavy hair for that anxious- 
 hearted girl at home, praying, all unconscious of her 
 new sorrow. The three volleys flashed over the slender, 
 wasted form. No soldier honors were omitted because 
 of the garb he wore. They knew well that but for the 
 treachery of one, and the unreasoning violence of others 
 of their own people, this might never have been, and, 
 whether or no, it was all ended now: rancor, enmity 
 and strife forgotten in the contemplation of the wrongs 
 dealt his name both North and South. Yet only to a 
 limited few was it told that, after all, that soldier death 
 was mercy. The doctors said it saved him from long 
 months of suffering that he could hardly have lived 
 another year. Distress of mind, confinement and illness 
 had so racked the fragile body that he was a doomed 
 man the day they sent him back, exchanged, to Newport 
 News, to rejoin his one-legged old division leader in 
 time for his last essay on Northern soil. 
 
 And there at Gettysburg he slept, awaiting the ending 
 of the war, while the clouds lowered thicker and thicker 
 about the heads of those whom he had so loved. Fred 
 Benton, twice named in official reports for most gallant 
 conduct on the field, and recommended for the brevet 
 
338 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 of major, found himself again summoned to Washing 
 ton, this time a witness before a military commission 
 for the trial of one Peter Jennings, civilian, for whose 
 apprehension with a whole skin the First Virginia Cav 
 alry stood ready to pay a round sum and the " Stone 
 wall " to supplement it with another, each claiming prior 
 right to perforate or sear that skin at sight. The Vir 
 ginians swore he was a double-dyed traitor, informer 
 and spy that he sold information to the Federals, and 
 had betrayed Ladue of the Eleventh Alabama into their 
 hands, even while Stanton and others at the War De 
 partment were ready to swear the tall Virginian s life 
 away to the charge of giving information to the rebels 
 of the plans, movements and numbers of the Union 
 forces. Now, What, asked Benton, could they want of 
 him? 
 
 Among the papers in poor Ladue s possession was the 
 original draft of the report he had written the com 
 manding officer of the Eleventh Alabama of his flight 
 across the Potomac and capture by Union cavalry near 
 Mathias Point. Not until he reached a certain farm 
 house near Port Tobacco did he know who were the 
 officers escaped from prison camp near Annapolis, and 
 his joy was great when Jack Chilton appeared among 
 them Chilton mad with eagerness to make the cross 
 ing, the others disappointed that the boats provided 
 were so pitifully small Ladue, suffering from some 
 kind of ague, with remittent fever, now almost too weak 
 and ill to make the attempt at all, yet determined to go 
 
WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 33$ 
 
 on. He and Chilton were ferried over on a dark, wintry 
 night, and landed at a fisherman s house t hree miles 
 below the Point, and there, to his infinite concern, Paul 
 found that he had lost his pocket memorandum book, 
 well nigh filled with notes concerning the troops about 
 Shepherdstown, Hagerstown, Chambersburg and so on 
 round to Baltimore, also certain sketch maps of field 
 fortifications and the like, all of which he felt confident 
 would be of value to General Lee. Then there were 
 private papers in the book of vast importance to him 
 if to no one else. A racking chill had come on as the 
 result of exposure to the raw night wind, and Jack and 
 the fisherman secreted him in a barn, rolled blankets 
 about him and poured Virginia peach brandy down his 
 throat. Then Chilton deliberately went back to Mary 
 land in search of the missing property, sorely against 
 his better judgment, but he could not permit Paul to 
 go in his weakened state, and going himself seemed the 
 only way. Thereby he escaped capture by the cavalry 
 piloted by Jennings, as they since had grown to believe, 
 though, sanctimonious and sorrowful, the long Vir 
 ginian had arrived an hour ahead of them and, claiming 
 to be a doctor, was taken to Ladue s sanctuary in the 
 hayloft, and was there captured ( ?) with him. When 
 searched, Ladue was found to have no incriminating 
 papers about him a disappointment to his captors and 
 obviously a puzzle to Jennings for Ladue heard him 
 whispering with the officer in command. The last Paul 
 had seen of Chilton was that December night, but later 
 
340 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 he learned that he had been compelled to remain in hid 
 ing many weeks in Charles County before the vigilance 
 of the Federals was again relaxed and he could finally 
 effect his escape. Ladue never dreamed they were 
 again within hailing distance of each other just before 
 the last sunrise of his own dreamy, gentle, sorrow-laden 
 life. Then there was a letter, unfinished, for Elinor, 
 which Fred had sealed and sent to her, and it was 
 through her, four weeks later, that he learned that Paul 
 well knew he had not long to live, and had really hoped 
 to meet a soldier s death in front of the charging line. 
 One longing he had, he owned, that would probably 
 never be gratified that of branding McKinnon as a liar 
 and a thief, for young Larry OToole, he that used to 
 sweep out and sprinkle the store and had enlisted as a 
 drummer in the Montgomerys after Paul s banishment, 
 had strayed in search of forbidden luxuries just before 
 Chancellorsville, his pockets filled with poker winnings, 
 and Stuart s men had nabbed him and run him off to 
 Richmond where Ladue was sent to tell the story of 
 his experiences, and here was favored with O Toole s 
 account of McKinnon s bribing him to purloin those St. 
 Louis letters. With this confirmation of his theories 
 burning within him, Paul had gone to Charlottesville, 
 spending one day with the Chiltons and hearing from 
 the doctor a strange story of McKinnon s generosity to 
 them and kindness to the imperiled son. Rosalie had 
 listened in silent acquiescence until Paul burst in with 
 vehement denunciation of the whole story told them 
 
WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 341 
 
 of McKinnon s treachery to him and his hatred of the 
 Bentons, told them of Fred s devoted friendship, and 
 then came a strange part of the letter. Elinor copied 
 it verbatim : 
 
 " Miss Chilton grew more and more excited as I talked, and finally 
 whirled on me with How can you speak of devoted friendship on 
 part of a man who planned to capture you both and was only balked by 
 by Jack s going back for your old note book! Then she rushed out of 
 the room, and I had to go right on to Gordonsville and could only write 
 to her that, that too, was probably one of McKinnon s slanders, and there 
 wasn t a word of truth in it that no one was more amazed than Fred 
 when they brought me in. I ve not yet heard from her, but I shall, and 
 Jack shall know the moment I can find him." 
 
 " Was it not strange that that same old notebook, which she risked so 
 much to send to me that night Fred caught her at the stone house, 
 should later have been the means of saving Jack ? She found it in the 
 breast pocket of my new uniform coat at Henry s, and glancing through 
 the pages saw the sketches and memoranda I had even then been 
 making ; supposed it was of vast importance, something that we ought 
 to have and, fearing it would fall into the enemy s hands, bethought 
 her of Jennings and Judge Armistead; slipped into my uniform, and 
 Fred has probably told you the rest." 
 
 So there it was at last: the story of her daring and 
 devotion unnecessary, perhaps, and misdirected, but 
 daring none the less and Benton, had he but opened 
 hi^ heart to Paul in the few days they were together 
 at the Chiltons, might have known it all! There then 
 was that mystery solved, and McKinnon, furthermore, 
 had been unmasked, and was even more of a black 
 guard than they had deemed him. Now, at least, must 
 Rosalie know how utterly in her wrath she had wronged 
 the man whose devotion to her she surely could not fail 
 to realize, yet not a line from her had found its way to 
 
342 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 Elinor. There was some comfort in the belief that now 
 she knew, but how he longed to get at McKinnon for 
 further comfort ! That, however, was out of the ques 
 tion. Major McKinnon had gone with the Twelfth 
 Corps to Chattanooga ; had indeed left the Army of the 
 Potomac with despatches, it was said, and certainly with 
 despatch, within two hours of Ladue s dying accusa 
 tion. It was no place for him about Meade s headquar 
 ters after that. 
 
 And now that queer customer, Jennings, was also 
 under the ban, was he ? And they needed Benton s evi 
 dence Benton whose brevet hung fire for reasons he 
 could not understand Benton who didn t love the war 
 office and who well knew he had found no favor in the 
 grim, deep-set eyes behind those comprehensive spec 
 tacles. There was little he could really tell of Jennings, 
 though he had never forgotten that story about the 
 Indiana sergeant seeing Rosalie toss the packet to him 
 in the rush and excitement at the stone house. If that 
 story were true she must have thought him faithful at 
 the time at least. That fateful notebook, filled with 
 Paul s clever topographical sketches and his daily 
 memoranda what had not Rosalie dared in her effort to 
 send it to safe hands ! What sacrifice had not Chilton 
 made in recrossing the Potomac that wintry night in 
 hopes of recovering it ! Yet, had not that very crossing 
 prevented, not procured, his recapture? That note 
 book, as Ladue had written, had really been "the 
 means of saving Jack." Where was it now? thought 
 
WHAT A LETTER REVEALED 343 
 
 Benton, as once again he caught sight of the unfinished 
 dome of the great white capitol. A very valuable bit 
 of property the little volume might be to Southern chief 
 tain again invading Maryland with an army at his back 
 and a very dangerous one for Southern officer to be 
 caught with if alone ! 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 
 
 Gettysburg had thinned the grand old First Corps 
 into the proportions of a small division. Consolidation 
 became the watchword, and, with Reynolds dead and his 
 successors devoid of influence, it had none in power to 
 preserve its autonomy. The Second, Fifth and Sixth 
 Corps retained their badges and their name. The Elev 
 enth and Twelfth, sent to the West, were " telescoped " 
 and called the Twentieth. The Third had lost its grip, 
 with Sickles s leg, at Gettysburg, its way, with 
 French s head, at Mine Run, and finally its place and 
 name, being distributed to fill the gaps in other organi 
 zations. As for what was left of the First, most of it, 
 under gray-headed Wadsworth, went as the Fourth Di 
 vision to the Fifth Corps, our old friends of the Iron 
 Brigade ruefully shedding the blood-red disk and deck 
 ing their caps with the Maltese cross. And so, faithful 
 to the end, they hewed their way through the Wilder 
 ness, hard hit many a time, but ever landing, catlike, on 
 their feet, even though so many of the old leaders were 
 gone. Brave, silver-haired Wadsworth, after heroic ef 
 fort against Longstreet, died at their head in the crash 
 of the sixth of May, Cutler taking the division, and 
 
LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 345 
 
 Bragg, another graduate of the Sixth, the brigade, and 
 holding it longest of all. Few they were when they 
 readied the James, mourning with all their hearts for 
 Haskell, killed in command of his new Badger regiment 
 in the awful attack at Cold Harbor. With Warren they 
 rounded the gray line at Five Forks, Hallon Richard 
 son, heading the Seventh, receiving the shot meant for 
 their major general, and finally, bursting from the 
 southward woods below Appomattox, they helped to 
 bar the last gateway of Lee s beaten army. Then they 
 marched back to droop their riddled, crape-laden colors 
 for the last time before the head of the nation in the 
 grand review at Washington and, with final handclasp 
 from Hoosiers and Wolverines at the parting of the 
 ways, went home to lay those tattered flags within the 
 walls of their own white capitol, with never a stain or 
 shadow on the record of their defenders. 
 
 But the story of several who set forth with them was 
 still unfinished. Fred Benton, who had ridden with 
 their battling line on many a bloody day, came not 
 homeward with the few survivors. A strange fortune 
 had been his after Wadsworth fell. There had been 
 many a reason, as has been told, for believing that the 
 tall Virginian, Jennings, had played a double game from 
 first to last that he had served the purposes of several 
 officers of the Confederate government even while re 
 ceiving the pay and protection of the United States; 
 and, though it was he that revealed to the secret service 
 the fact that two young officers, Chilton and Ladue of 
 
346 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 the Confederate Army, could be captured by sending 
 cavalry to the fisher s hut below Mathias Point, and 
 though it was through this information that Ladue had 
 been caught, Stanton had abundant ground for suspect 
 ing the guide, had had him watched and later arrested. 
 Benton s evidence had little helped the prosecution, 
 however, and when the young officer was again sum 
 moned to the War Department and again questioned 
 as to his relations with the Chiltons, he finally " fired 
 up," as the President himself expressed it later, and de 
 clared the line of inquiry a reflection on his loyalty and 
 integrity. Stanton so hated the rebellion that he seemed 
 to hold no officer above suspicion who did not hate 
 everything connected with it, and Benton could not be 
 made to hate the Chiltons any of them or to look 
 with anything less than love on the memory of Paul 
 Ladue. 
 
 So he came back from Washington in time for the 
 Mine Run affair, boiling over again with wrath at the 
 way he had been badgered. Stanton as much as inti 
 mated that Benton knew Jennings to be false to his obli 
 gations, and was shielding him as had striven to de 
 fend the Chiltons and Ladue. " No man can serve two 
 masters, young sir," said the stern Secretary, " and you 
 can t properly serve your country and shield those in 
 rebellion against it. I ve seen too much of this disposi 
 tion on your part, and if I see any more of it I ll break 
 you!" 
 
LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 347 
 
 Words were these to be well remembered in the light 
 of later events. 
 
 No wonder Benton was aflame with indignation, and 
 narrowly did he escape court-martial for the hot wrath 
 f his reply. He demanded a court of inquiry but to 
 no purpose. There was little evidence but his own. 
 He continued to serve with Wadsworth, who, from hav 
 ing been more than half inclined at one time to share 
 Stanton s views, had now reasons of his own for differ 
 ing radically with that Tremendous Power, and took 
 up the cudgels for Fred in his vehement fashion, and 
 might have gotten into serious trouble of his own had 
 it not been for the shot that ended it all that bitter day 
 in the Wilderness. Then Benton was transferred for a 
 time to the headquarters of the cavalry corps, and rode 
 with Sheridan to Yellow Tavern, where the plumes of 
 Stuart went down at last, and the brilliant leader of the 
 Southern Horse was borne away to die within the walls 
 of the weeping city, and here it was, after Yellow Tav 
 ern, Fred Benton had one of the oddest, yet most oppor 
 tune, meetings of the war. 
 
 It was a soft, moonlit night in May. The dead and 
 wounded still lay in numbers on the field of the stirring 
 fight. The lines had surged hither and yon during the 
 late afternoon. Three Confederate officers, unhorsed 
 and captured, had been brought to Sheridan s camp fire 
 near the Richmond road, and in one of these Benton 
 instantly recognized young Winston, wearing now the 
 braid of a major of cavalry. The recognition was mu- 
 
348 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 tual, and Benton s well-filled flask was brought into re 
 quisition at the instant. Soldiers sink their enmity at 
 such a time. The blue and the gray were soon in 
 cordial chat, but Benton saw the Virginian was in deep 
 chagrin. A question as to Lounsberry s whereabouts 
 was all that was needed, and Winston launched at once 
 into a tirade. There never was such infernal luck, he 
 said. For months three men had been hounding that 
 fellow to get an accounting from him on a matter that 
 that well, Pelham s sister had been engaged at least 
 believed herself engaged to Lounsberry ever since 
 early in the war, yet in January came the announcement 
 of his approaching marriage to a widow of wealth and 
 social position in Charleston. He had tricked Maud 
 most damnably, said Winston, and Floyd Pelham, the 
 very young fellow who was so nearly killed trying to 
 save Lounsberry out there near Gainesville, a captain 
 now and only twenty, had been trying to get a fight 
 out of him, and so had Jack Chilton, but Floyd had the 
 best claim, and now Lounsberry had actually been 
 nailed. He had come to Stuart with despatches and 
 Pelham had slashed him in the face with his gauntlet. 
 A meeting had been arranged for to-morrow morning. 
 He, Winston, was Pelham s second, and would almost 
 give his parole, were such a thing possible to an officer 
 of Stuart s cavalry, to get back to the Confederate lines 
 and bring that fellow to book. 
 
 " You owe him a grudge as well as Maud Pelham s 
 kinsmen," said he. " Sooner or later he s got to fight 
 
LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 349 
 
 or funk. I can t be there to second Pelham, and now 
 there s no telling when any of us can get at him." 
 
 "Why not Chilton?" asked Fred. 
 
 " Chilton ! " and Winston flushed with embarrass 
 ment. " Chilton has just been sent away on other 
 duty." 
 
 " With his wounded leader and kinsman to Rich 
 mond?" hazarded Fred. 
 
 " No o," was the halting reply. In fact Winston 
 could not say whither he had gone. 
 
 It seemed long indeed before any of those who owed 
 Lounsberry a grudge were enabled to " get at him." 
 But there came a time, and not to those that wore the 
 gray, but to Benton, still serving with Sheridan, still 
 wearing the blue, still praying for a break in the strain 
 ing lines that circled the still defiant Capital, a break 
 that would permit him to ride again to Charlottesville 
 where he had left the silken sash, to say nothing of his 
 heart, in the hands of that proud, impulsive Virginia 
 girl. Even through Elinor, neither word nor sign had 
 come from her in all these long months. 
 
 Grant had crossed the James and invested Petersburg, 
 when to shake him loose, if possible, by the old device 
 of scaring Washington, Early was sent down the Shen- 
 andoah Valley, with twelve thousand men and orders 
 to stir up Maryland. Stir accordingly he did, until the 
 arrival of the Sixth Corps from the James and the ap 
 proach of the Nineteenth warned him he could not too 
 soon drop it all and scurry back. He had come close 
 
350 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 enough to sight the spires of the Capital City and put 
 Stanton into a fume. He had displayed remarkable 
 knowledge of all our works and ways, and had found 
 time to substantially reward certain farm people near 
 Shepherdstown and to shake hands with not a few en 
 thusiastic sympathizers who came flocking out from 
 Baltimore to meet him. No wonder Stanton was wroth ! 
 Then Early harked back, leaving just a few of his men 
 cut off by a sudden rush of Union cavalry, one of these 
 a young captain of his own staff, an almost invaluable 
 officer. It seems that he had dared to ride too far to 
 visit and thank certain people Who had won his grati 
 tude on a previous and more extended visit. This time 
 it was not so easy to get away across the Potomac. He 
 was still in hiding when Grant sent Sheridan to put a 
 stop to further use of the Shenandoah Valley as the 
 highroad to invasion of the North. Stanton growled 
 at the order. Sheridan was too young, said he, for so 
 important a command, but the President had seen 
 enough of the policy of interference at the rear with 
 the fighters at the front. Grant s choice was sustained, 
 and. speedily justified itself. With Sheridan went Fred 
 Benton. 
 
 The Sixth Corps had followed Early across and fought 
 him sharply in the Blue Ridge. Some of the wounded 
 were still lying in farm-houses, and sorrowful women 
 were busily caring for these as best they could, for most 
 of their medical men had gone with the army. One 
 warm August evening, as Benton came riding down 
 
LOUNSBERRY S LAST STING 351 
 
 from a scout among the beautiful heights that border 
 the valley on the east, he stopped to water his horse at 
 the public trough in front of a village tavern, and while 
 his half dozen troopers were resetting saddles and ex 
 changing laughing, low-toned comment over the dis 
 favor in the few feminine faces visible, his quick eye 
 caught a glimpse of three forms that, coming suddenly 
 from a leafy side street, had stopped short at sight of 
 the blue-jackets and, after a moment s hesitation, had 
 turned back the way they came. One, an elderly clergy 
 man, gave his arm to a gentlewoman, evidently bowed 
 with care and sorrow. The third form was that of a 
 girl, slender, graceful, and in her walk there was some 
 thing vaguely familiar to Benton s eyes, even before he 
 noted that she wore a drab felt hat, broad-brimmed and 
 feathered. There seemed no houses in the little hamlet 
 that warranted the presence of people of such evident 
 station, and Benton followed to the corner, saw the trio 
 hold brief conference, saw the young lady bow her head 
 as though in acquiescence, then enter the gateway of an 
 unpretentious little home, while the other two walked 
 slowly on. He had seen just enough to rouse both 
 memory and interest. Quickly he crossed the street, 
 followed along a hedge of rose bushes, turned sharply 
 through the gate, and face to face at the trellised porch 
 met the girl whom he had first seen sauntering along 
 that leafy side street at Charlottesville in the spring of 
 62. Bearded, bronzed and stalwart as he was to-day, 
 she saw nothing to remind her of the pallid prisoner 
 
352 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 of the Chiltons, and only indignation at his intrusion 
 blazed in her cheeks and eyes, but, in spite of gallant ef 
 fort, she struck her colors at his very first word, when, 
 with uphtted torage-cap he bowed and calmly addressed 
 her: 
 
 " Miss Pelham, I believe, whom I had the pleasure 
 of seeing at Charlottesville. I hope your brother is not 
 wounded and here." 
 
 Then he repented him of his cruelty when he saw her 
 sway and stretch forth her hand for the support of the 
 railing at the steps. " Pardon me," he continued, his 
 blue eyes fixed on her almost ashen face, " but nothing 
 less could have brought you here, and, pardon me 
 again, but I must enter," and he moved as though to 
 pass her by. Instantly, almost in terror, she grasped 
 his arm. 
 
 " No ! Oh, no ! " she cried. " I give you my word ! 
 My brother is not here ! " 
 
 " Then I am more than glad," said Benton, for it all 
 seemed to flash over him in the instant, and, despite her 
 clinging hands and almost frantic appeal, he sprang up 
 the steps and into the open doorway. There was a 
 simple little country parlor, furnished with round center 
 table and horsehair sofa and chairs, with those old- 
 fashioned worsted mats upon the table and the little 
 mantel-shelf, supporting ornaments of painted china 
 and a gothic wooden clock. Beyond this parlor lay a 
 little inner room, a bedroom, as he could easily see, with 
 a window opening on the vines and berry bushes in the 
 
LOUNSBBRRY S LAST STING 353 
 
 back yard, and on the bed, gaunt, fever-stricken, and 
 gazing up at the startled, colored mammy, acting as 
 nurse, and then into the face of the blue-uniformed in 
 truder, lay the wreck of the one personal enemy Fred 
 Benton was aware of in all Virginia all that was left 
 of Scott Lounsberry. 
 
 And as the soldier paused there at the doorway, in 
 utter silence the eyes of the two men met, Benton s 
 blazing blue fire, Lounsberry s glaring with fever and 
 hate. Then, throwing aside her feathered hat and the 
 light wrap that she carried on her arm, Maud Pelham 
 sprang past the Union officer and stood almost defiantly 
 facing him. 
 
 " You shall not take him touch him ! " she cried, in 
 tones intense and low. " He is terribly wounded. He 
 has done you no wrong ! " 
 
 Benton looked upon her in blended wonderment and 
 pity. If what Winston said were true, what was she 
 doing here? Instinctively he had removed his cap and 
 stood before her bare-headed. At least she had been 
 Rosalie s friend and playmate in the days before those 
 cruel complications had arisen before this now stricken 
 man, actuated by who knows what passion of pique and 
 longing for revenge, had broken up that friendship. 
 Almost in sadness Benton began to speak. 
 
 " He tried hard to harm me and he made you the in 
 strument," he said. " Did you not know that note was 
 meant to lure me into a trap? Did you not know that 
 his men were waiting there to seize or possibly to kill 
 me?" 23 
 
354 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 From the bed there came a feeble yet almost fiendish 
 cackle of horrid laughter, and the girl s wild, dilated 
 eyes that at Benton s words were staring at him, turned 
 in sudden anguish and alarm to the fevered man, whose 
 voice quavered in a sneer of mingled hate and triumph. 
 
 " You got away, thanks to her, and her meddling, but 
 he won t by God he won t! They ve got Jack Chil- 
 ton hard and fast this time a spy with a hatful of in 
 formation and they ll hang him within the week ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 SURRENDER 
 
 The fever that followed the serious wounds received 
 by Major Lounsberry was in itself sufficient to end the 
 earthly career of even a stronger man. Two days after 
 Benton found him that fever was gone, but so was the 
 last atom of his strength. Those two days he tossed in 
 delirium, watched by one unhappy, but devoted girl and 
 that faithful old Mammy, and visited at such intervals 
 as her own failing strength would permit by his heart 
 broken mother. Word of his peril had reached Char- 
 lottesville soon after the sharp fight at Snicker s Gap. 
 Early s retreating force had striven to bring him along, 
 but, between the torment caused him by the jolting of 
 the ambulance and the persistent attacks of Union cav 
 alry, they had had to leave him by the way. Mrs. 
 Lounsberry and the venerable rector of their church 
 started within six hours of the receipt of the news, by 
 which time all Charlottesville had heard of it, and al 
 most the first to come to the stricken mother was the 
 girl her son had wronged. A strange meeting was that, 
 and stranger still was one but half an hour later when 
 Rosalie Chilton appeared, and two Virginia girls who 
 had not exchanged a word since the first days of the 
 
356 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 war, and neither of whom had been a visitor at the 
 Lounsberrys for many a moon, buried their differences 
 with that sorrow-laden mother, and set their own quar 
 rel aside that they might be of service to her and to a 
 soldier of the South in the hour of such affliction. More 
 over it was in Dr. Chilton s old carriage, with Dr. Chil- 
 ton s old horses and driven by Black Dan, that the 
 journey to the distant front was made. This was no 
 time to speak of the cruel things said by the Louns- 
 berrys of Dr. Chilton and Rosalie after Benton s escape. 
 The grave had closed over the proud, impetuous head 
 of that now doubly bereaved household. Ill fortune 
 had followed the father s death, and much of his little 
 estate had been sold under the hammer. Small comfort 
 had the handsome prodigal proved himself at that or 
 any other time, but much had he promised as the result 
 of his approaching marriage. There had been a memor 
 able interview between the mother and that wronged 
 and trusting girl when at last Maud Pelham s forebod 
 ings were realized. There had in fact been a violent 
 scene, for Mrs. Lounsberry had sought to shield her 
 son and at Maud s expense. But that, too, was all ig 
 nored now. The other engagement had been broken 
 summarily two weeks after Yellow Tavern, for one of 
 Wade Hampton s staff, sent home wounded, had told at 
 Charleston how Floyd Pelham had struck Lounsberry 
 and why. There had been weeks in which Maud Pel- 
 ham would have met Lounsberry only with scorn and 
 contempt, but that was before his comrades sent him 
 
SURRENDER 357 
 
 to Coventry, and never again after news of his serious 
 wound. Though all Gharlottesville knew that he had 
 been false to her, she went to his mother the instant she 
 heard the tidings, and with her on the anxious journey 
 that followed. 
 
 They were searching the impoverished little village 
 under the heights, hoping somewhere to find ice to allay 
 that burning fever, when the sight of blue-jacket cavalry 
 sent them back and Benton followed. They, who over 
 and again had forgotten and forgiven the sins of the 
 stricken man, were amazed when, early next morning, 
 a Federal officer drove over from the distant camps be 
 yond the foaming Shenandoah and unloaded at their 
 humble doorway, not the expected and hated guards, 
 but a box of ice, packed in sawdust, and certain supplies 
 from the commissariat. Then, while a brace of soldiers 
 were attending to these, a gifted young physician on 
 Sheridan s staff was gravely studying the tossing pa 
 tient. Nor did dharity end here but details are un 
 necessary. The mother accepted all with wondering 
 and tearful gratitude, the almost hopeless girl with 
 humbled and sorrowing spirit, and even the doomed 
 soldier himself, when consciousness returned, was too 
 weak to resent or to refuse, and so childlike and broken 
 that he could only bury his haggard face in the poor 
 mother s breast and sob out the story of his shame and 
 contrition. 
 
 It was through Sheridan s lines and Benton s help 
 they bore him away to his last resting place when the 
 
358 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 solemn struggle was over. It was at Charlottesville 
 again that Maud Pelham and Rosalie met beside the 
 grave, and that later, on her knees, her face buried in 
 the lap of the once imperious queen, a poor, humbled, 
 heart-broken girl sobbed out in turn her own sad story 
 and Lounsberry s confession, little dreaming that it 
 would send still another to her knees, praying not alone 
 for mercy for the repentant dead, not alone for the 
 rescue, the safety, of a beloved brother, but even for 
 heaven s blessing on an enemy to Virginia and the 
 sacred cause the soldier she had so cruelly wronged. 
 
 " He s past prayin for, bedad ! " said the captain 6f 
 the Montgomerys, of Benton, about this time, the cap 
 tain and most of his men being at home on veteran fur 
 lough. " Ould Stanton s got the devil s own grudge agin 
 him fur turnin up in time to spoil a hangin all on ac 
 count av Ladue that s dead." It was hardly a felicitious, 
 yet surely a concise, way of settling the story. At no 
 time during his incumbency was the great War Secretary 
 in so evil a mood as during that summer of 64. Grant 
 and Sherman had both pushed southward in the face of 
 furious fighting, yet gold had soared to flights hitherto 
 unknown, so had the list of casualties, and a great 
 political party, having pronounced the war a failure, set 
 perhaps the greatest failure of the war at the head of 
 their ticket and started a campaign to down the Presi 
 dent beloved of the people. Then the conduct of affairs 
 in the field had slipped from Stanton s hands. A greater 
 than Halleck or he was now in calm, masterful, imper- 
 
SURRENDER 359 
 
 turbable control, while the head of the Department of 
 War had perforce to be content with managing matters 
 at the rear, where, it must be t&wned, enemies were al 
 most as active as over the line. Many a military head 
 he hit that summer and fall summarily dismissing even 
 regulars without the form of a trial sometimes im 
 prisoning " suspects " without sign of a warrant, some 
 times sending whole families into exile, and at all times 
 being as overcharged with explosive shock as a bulging 
 thundercloud sailing in search of object at which to 
 launch a bolt. The illimitable humor and patience of 
 the President, coupled with the unalterable conviction 
 of the Secretary himself that ruin would follow were he 
 to resign, stood between the latter and open rupture 
 with his incomparable chief. He would have hanged 
 Jack Chilton before the end of the August moon if it 
 had not been for Lincoln s restraining hand. Proof? 
 What more proof was wanting? Had he not a second 
 time and both times in disguise visited notorious 
 Southern sympathizers within our lines? Was not the 
 notebook found in his possession filled with memoranda, 
 sketches, etc., of our field works and forces in Mary 
 land? What if he did say he never penciled a line of 
 them ? Anybody would say that ! The President, said 
 he, was " soft-hearted as a summer squash in Septem 
 ber." The President wanted to see young Benton 
 again, did he ? What was this story about Benton s ap 
 pealing to Sheridan for safe conduct through the lines 
 for rebel families with rebel dead? Stanton was quite 
 
360 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 in the mood to carry out his threat of " breaking " Ben- 
 ton then and there, but rather ruefully was he realizing 
 that he would have to take back another order, dismiss 
 ing summarily a most gallant young regular, and Stan- 
 ton hated to take back anything, right or wrong. How 
 ever, he refused to order Benton to Washington, saying 
 that a battle was imminent, that Sheridan needed every 
 man of his staff, and meekly the President succumbed till 
 the fight was over and then it was Sheridan, not Stan- 
 ton, who sent in our aide-de-camp, with hearty praise 
 for his pluck and a shot through the shoulder. Win 
 chester settled the matter for good and all. The Presi 
 dent shook the other hand of the tall, bearded Badger 
 and offered him two weeks leave and a chance to go 
 home until his arm was out of the sling. Benton begged 
 instead for a chance to see Chilton, and the charges 
 against him, and that very day drove Stanton to the 
 verge of apoplexy, for when shown the fatal note-book 
 he said he knew it well and could swear it was all the 
 work of Paul Ladue and not that of Jack Chilton. Ben- 
 ton could not lift the gate of Lafayette, whither poor 
 Jack had been sent, but he shattered all chance of their 
 lifting the prisoner at the loop of a rope, and this news, 
 too, went by devious, but still speedy ways to Char- 
 lottesville, where again, on her knees, by her father s 
 bedside, with her arms about that father s neck, Rosalie 
 Chilton thanked God for his mercies, and then found it 
 harder than ever to begin the letter she had long meant 
 
SURRENDER 361 
 
 to write to Elinor Benton, even though now the sending 
 of it might be impossible. 
 
 One more ride had Benton near the Iron Brigade, 
 after long months of separation from them, after many 
 and many a day and night in saddle, mud and rain, in 
 sleet and snow, up the Shenandoah, down the James 
 River Canal, around Richmond, and then, amidst volleys 
 of chaff and catcalls, around the rear of the entrenched 
 Army of the Potomac and out into the dripping woods 
 about Dinwiddie. One vehement, relentless, resistless 
 day and night ride there followed, along a tormented 
 flank, and then, that soft, sunshiny April morning, after 
 the weeks of gloom and rain, the curtaining cavalry 
 drew aside, revealing to the now hopeless eyes of the 
 great Confederate leader the barrier ranks of the Fifth 
 Corps the Iron Brigade in their midst. And then, the 
 historic surrender ended, while the blue columns 
 tramped leisurely northward past the scenes of their 
 fiercest endeavor, one command, following the line of 
 the old Virginia Central, found itself, late in April, 
 marching sturdily into Gordonsville, long time the 
 abiding place of grim, unrepentant old wardog Ewell 
 and their veteran antagonists of Jackson s famous corps. 
 Some of these fellows, in worn gray uniforms, were at 
 the station even now, two of them shaking hands with 
 a tall staff officer in blue. " We hoped to have Jack here 
 by this time, Major," said Winston. " His release was 
 ordered soon as General Grant got back to Washing 
 ton, but he had to stay because of other matters," and 
 
362 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 a flush of deep embarrassment burned on the Southern 
 er s cheek. Even then they could not without grief and 
 shame refer to the great tragedy that stilled even the 
 joy of dawning peace, and hushed forever the voice of 
 him who, with malice toward none, had never failed in 
 boundless charity for all. Jack, though given his liberty, 
 found himself still in need of War Department clearance 
 papers that, in all the horror of those mid April days 
 and the excitement of the chase for fugitives, were pos 
 sibly inadvertently withheld. And so it happened that, 
 with other sorrow-stricken Virginians, he was still under 
 detention at Washington, while every nook of the river 
 counties was being searched, and that it should be his 
 lot to encounter still further annoy. A steamer from 
 down the Potomac brought in three wounded men, vic 
 tims of a possibly avoidable affray between a searching 
 party and certain fisher people whose huts and sheds 
 had been too suddenly visited in the darkness that pre 
 cedes the dawn. Shots had been exchanged, due, it 
 was claimed, to the confusion and excitement; but the 
 tall, lank, woe-begone civilian who guided the party and 
 got three serious wounds as his share of the casualties, 
 swore he had been singled out for vengeance because 
 he had been the means of breaking up more than one 
 well-planned escape of Confederate prisoners. It was 
 Jennings, and Jennings before breathing his last wished 
 to see Captain Chilton, who swallowed his repugnance 
 and went; for, in common with most of his people he 
 believed the stricken man a two-faced spy and the seller 
 
SURRENDER 363 
 
 of information which he probably was, yet hoped to 
 play his game to the last and induce Chilton now to be 
 lieve it was the dead and defenseless Lounsberry that 
 threw the cavalry on Ladue that night below Mathias. 
 
 It was Southern lead, however, that ended Jennings s 
 career, and he, at least, had he lived, could never have 
 set foot again on Virginia soil. 
 
 These things they told Fred Benton that soft April 
 evening on the way up to Charlottesville, as the sun was 
 sinking behind the Ragged Mountains, and the Rivanna, 
 bank full, came rushing and foaming down from the 
 beautiful Blue Ridge. They led him from the wreck of 
 a railway, through bowered streets, to the gate of an old 
 Virginia homestead, where leafy trees clung thick and 
 protecting about the columned portico and the wide- 
 spreading eaves. There these two war-trained young 
 cavaliers, still wearing their uniforms of gray, left him 
 for a brief hour, and went their way to answer many a 
 question, doubtless, from the lips of loved ones, not so 
 entirely absorbed in their own bliss as to feel no interest 
 in the possibilities of another affair. Every girl in Char 
 lottesville had at least one lover in the war. Some had 
 many more than one. Some, alas, had lost the only one. 
 Was it like that Queen Rosalie should care for none? 
 Queen Rosalie she was again in the hearts of many of 
 her old coterie, but imperious, wilful, domineering no 
 longer changed to one and all, as all could see. 
 
 The trees and shrubbery were ringing with a riot of 
 melody as Benton softly closed the gate behind him and 
 
364 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 stood a moment, waiting for his heart to cease the 
 violence of its throbbing. Blue birds, wrens and orioles 
 were piping in final frolic before the close of day. The 
 hedge rows and the lofty boughs alike seemed thrilling 
 with life and ecstasy and song. Only the old white 
 mansion was still. The broad doorway to the lower 
 hall stood invitingly open. An easy chair, cushioned, 
 stood close beside it, and other chairs, with a footstool 
 or hassock, an old gray traveling shawl and a book or 
 two were scattered about. A venerable horse, wheezy 
 and sedate, was cropping the grass and switching at 
 gnats under the blossoming fruit trees on the southward 
 side. The locusts drooped over the old fence along the 
 cross street, where that feathered, drab felt hat first 
 caught Benton s weary eyes. But on this lovely, breath 
 less evening no human form appeared, no human voice 
 was heard in concert with the vesper hymn of the myriad 
 songsters of the air. Purposely had Benton given no 
 hint of his coming. Indeed, to whom should he send 
 word? Why should he send to any one? Why, in 
 deed, should he have come at all? 
 
 Three years before, this very month, he had escaped 
 in the darkness of midnight from these surroundings, 
 and it was Rosalie who pointed the way. Two years 
 before, this very month, she had driven him forth from 
 her presence, or turned from him in a fury of disdain, 
 with insult on her lips, with wrath and contempt in her 
 flashing eyes. Surely, encouragement he had none ; yet, 
 the moment military duty would permit, here again he 
 
SURRENDER 365 
 
 stood, the knight, the champion, the lover she had 
 spurned, and never again even by faintest sign had 
 summoned. 
 
 He wished her not to know of his coming. Men who 
 deeply love and deeply long for answering symptom 
 throw to the winds their every chance in coming her 
 alded, for the fondest woman, given time and warning, 
 is a consummate dissembler. The warmest heart will 
 coat itself with ice impenetrable. No, he meant to take 
 her by surprise as completely as Gordon s fellows had 
 amazed the men of the Eighth Corps that dark dawn 
 under the shadows of old Massanutten, and only to Win 
 ston at Richmond had he spoken of the possibility of his 
 stopping over a day at Charlottesville. Half a dozen 
 girls, however, knew of the presence of the invader be 
 fore Rosalie Chilton, but none learned it in just such a 
 way. 
 
 A few minutes Benton stood there in silent reconnois- 
 sance. He might have seized the old-fashioned brass 
 knocker at the door and brought somebody in answer 
 to the summons, but that would have spoiled the sur 
 prise. He bethought him of that old arbor in the gar 
 den, and wondered if he could pass the windows and 
 the kitchen without attracting notice. Then, looking 
 about him, and drawing closer to the shelter of the vine- 
 shaded portico, he saw that the placidly grazing horse 
 had uplifted his venerable head, and, with ears on end, 
 was regarding, evidently, some approaching object ; 
 then, with low and welcoming whinney, moved slowly 
 
366 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 through the fruit trees as though to meet some one still 
 beyond the field of the soldier s vision. Then it was that 
 Benton for the first time realized that this was old 
 Pyramus, the horse that three years before had safely 
 borne him through the woods and by-roads to the moun 
 tain cabin, thence on to the gaps of the Blue Ridge, on 
 from Rivanna to the Rapidan, and again to Bucklands 
 and the final rescue north of Bristoe, only to be turned 
 loose and abandoned to the pursuing gray-coats when 
 poor Hector sank exhausted, crippled, and begging not 
 to be left to the vengeance of the foe. Pelham s friends 
 must have restored the old horse to his owners, yet now 
 the veteran was being made at home here at the Chil- 
 tons . How came that? 
 
 Fred would have gone instantly to renew acquaintance 
 and reward his old four-footed friend with caress and 
 praise, but someone else was crossing the lawn, with a 
 white hand extended, palm uppermost, before her some 
 one in white dimity, though Benton didn t know it from 
 damask, and cared nothing what it was, save that the 
 waist, at least, clung to the queenly form he was so 
 thrilled to see. The voluminous skirt was doing its best 
 to balloon without the aid of a " skeleton"; for crinoline, 
 being the height of fashion, was contraband of war, 
 scarce hi the South as cinchona; but these were details 
 of which Benton took no note. There had been a time 
 when he fully intended that, not so much for what she 
 had said in her wrath as for what she must have be 
 lieved of him, this proud, imperious, wilful girl should 
 
SURRENDER 367 
 
 be made to feel that he, too, could rebuke, but at sight 
 of her and the weariness and lassitude with which she 
 moved, all this seemed vanished into the air. All that 
 he now saw, heard, felt, knew, was that it was she, 
 Rosalie, who, only half a dozen rods away, lovely as ever 
 in her dark beauty, yet pathetically changed, had thrown 
 one arm about that scrawny, grizzled, equine neck, and 
 stood softly stroking the lean old head, softly murmur 
 ing to the unheeding ear and nestling the warm velvet 
 of her cheek upon that unresponsive jowl all that 
 sweetness thrown away upon a superannuated steed that, 
 ignoring sweets incomparable, nuzzled about her 
 rounded neck and arms in quest of lump sugar, long 
 since a forgotten luxury. Rosalie s back was toward 
 the intruder in blue, as, no longer hesitant, he went 
 striding under the trees until almost within arms length 
 of her, Pyramus, the while, regarding him with mute 
 and placid curiosity, with neither hope nor fear. And 
 here the soldier stood and looked on hungrily a moment 
 at priceless caresses, for any touch of which he could 
 almost sell his soul, and listening to low, murmurous 
 words of tenderness and affection that, lavished on him, 
 would have turned grief or suffering to instant ecstasy. 
 The sight thrilled him, even while it fired his soul with 
 envious greed. And then, and then came further mur 
 mured words, at sound of which his heart stormed at its 
 heaving bars, and fairly leaped in mad delight and pas 
 sionate, rejoiceful love. Gracious heaven, could he be 
 lieve his senses! 
 
368 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 " Dear old fellow dear old fellow ! Did anybody 
 think I d let him be sold to strangers, after all he d done 
 for me and mine ? Good old Pyramus ! Good old 
 boy ! " And all this with petting, patting hands, with 
 that soft cheek still nestled against the long, brown, 
 bony muzzle. " He d do it all over again, wouldn t he ? 
 He d bring him back back to me if only I hadn t " 
 And then both white arms were clasped about that pre 
 posterous neck, and the dark tresses of the girl were 
 bowed against and mingled with the grizzled, tangled 
 mane of her one confidant. The lovely face was hidden 
 from the worshipping eyes of blue, but only for an in 
 stant. In daring and delight and overmastering love, 
 with caution thrown to the winds, and pride and resolu 
 tion totally forgotten, Benton sprang forward, one low 
 cry of " Rosalie " on his lips; seized; tore loose the clasp 
 of the clinging arms, and, despite amaze and struggle 
 and breathless protest, just as on that wondrous night 
 at the old stone house, he strained the slender, panting, 
 swaying form to his breast; and just as he did not then 
 do, rained kiss after kiss on the velvet of that flushed, 
 tear-wet, astonished cheek ; yes, dared even in his 
 strength and glory and delight to turn the now furiously 
 resisting head upon his breast until the wild, dilated eyes 
 were staring into his ; until the rosy, panting mouth was 
 so close to his quivering lips that denial seemed utterly 
 in vain ; then down he swooped upon the prize. But 
 with one superb, supreme effort, she tore herself from 
 his embrace ; stood one instant, panting, speechless, with 
 
SURRENDER 369 
 
 hands uplifted against him, waving him back ; with eyes 
 that flashed and commanded and refused to melt even 
 at sight of the passion and pleading and bewilderment 
 in his face. 
 
 " I could not help it," he began. " You must know 
 how I love you, and when I heard " 
 
 " Heard ! " and up went the hands in impotent wrath 
 and protest. "How dare you listen? Oh! Don t I 
 know what " but then the torrent of her words was 
 stemmed by the sight of the changing light in the deep 
 blue eyes, and all in a second she saw them clouding 
 again as in pain and amaze they had clouded the bitter 
 night of her impetuous, inexcusable attack two years 
 agone. Yes, and his face was paling, his lips setting. 
 He was seeing her again as time and again in mind s 
 eye he must have seen her unjust, ungrateful, unrea 
 soning, in face of all that he had done and endured for 
 her and for those she loved. And then O heaven! 
 with pain, disappointment, yet with conviction convic 
 tion that she was after all not the Rosalie he had loved 
 and worshiped in spite of herself, but the Rosalie she 
 really was proud, passionate, ungrateful, unjust; yes, 
 utterly unworthy he had dropped his strong hands and 
 was slowly turning surely turning away. Now he 
 would go and never know how she had suffered for 
 the sin. Now he would go and never dream how 
 she had prayed for forgiveness and for him and for 
 the time when she could tell him all. And now he 
 he had come all unannounced and had startled and 
 24 
 
370 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 stunned her, and heard heard her weak, unmaidenly 
 words, and, ah, there was the rub! would think, would 
 surely think that she knew he was there, and so was 
 only acting a part to lure him back. Oh, the shame, 
 the bitter shame of it ! But none the less was he 
 going, and this time it might be for good and all. It 
 was more than she could bear. It was the last and 
 cruelest stroke of the evil fate that had so long hounded 
 and pursued her. It broke the last prop of her stub 
 born womanly pride, her long-tried, failing strength, 
 and for the first time in her daring, fearless, resolute life, 
 Queen Rosalie threw out nerveless, groping hands for 
 aid, and, sudden as the stroke of heaven, went crashing 
 down. 
 
 O blessed sun that sank behind the Ridge and would 
 not see! O blessed songsters that, trilling their last 
 good-night, would suffer no other sound. O wise old 
 Pyramus to wander off beneath the blossoming trees 
 and give place to him who sprang, too late to seize ; who 
 knelt and, defiant of hygienic laws, lifted the bonnie, 
 swooning head; clasped again the now pliant, yielding 
 form, pressed kiss after kiss upon the soft, unresponsive 
 but unresenting lips, and plead and prayed and called 
 on heaven and on her until, with faint sigh, the fluttering 
 breath returned, and then the dark eyes slowly opened, 
 and one moment seemed ready again to blaze with the 
 battle fire of the South, but that presently took refuge 
 beneath the white flag of their own, long-lashed lids, and 
 
SURRENDER 371 
 
 with another sigh, with a soft glow stealing slowly up 
 over rounded throat and cheek and even to the snowy 
 brow, the beautiful, humbled face turned fairly toward 
 him and buried itself in the blue of the broad shoulder. 
 Like that of Appomattox, it was the surrender of utter 
 exhaustion. 
 
 They were standing two hours later in the dusk of 
 the old portico. There had been a blessed, yet almost 
 solemn, meeting at the bedside of the aging father, and 
 all the story of that lamentable month two years earlier, 
 with many a tear had been told. With the Squire and 
 Elinor returned to the West there was no one to warn 
 them against McKinnon, who from the very first had 
 seemed to gain the guileless doctor s confidence. It 
 was Chilton s childlike belief that every well-mannered 
 man was a gentleman until proved otherwise, and it was 
 not long before McKinnon knew all about them and all 
 about Jack. It had been Rosalie s growing belief that 
 her aunt must have had help, and that Squire Benton 
 or his son was the helper; but at the last her father 
 amazed her with the admission that he had given his 
 personal note to McKinnon for money to be sent to Jack, 
 and for other needs. Little by little her intuitive aver 
 sion to the man had given way before his apparently 
 unobtrusive courtesies. He had never hinted at such 
 a thing as a quarrel with the Bentons, father or son. 
 He never referred to them except guardedly until La- 
 due s recapture and Jack s narrow escape. Then he 
 
372 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 had told her aunt, to whom he had been kindness and 
 helpfulness itself, that the plan was known to the Secret 
 Service, that Benton and Ladue had been still in covert 
 correspondence; that Ladue wished to make it appear 
 that he was striving to rejoin his regiment, while in 
 point of fact he planned to be again captured and con 
 fined where he could escape the dangers of the battle 
 field, and the expedition to capture him and Jack was 
 guided by information furnished by Benton himself 
 Benton, who had been under a cloud and hoped by the 
 capture of Confederate officers to win his way back to 
 favor. Rosalie had indignantly refused to believe at 
 first ; had even had a fierce verbal affray with the major, 
 who brought the Virginian, Jennings, to prove a truth 
 that, as McKinnon put it, he " never thought could 
 reach her ears or it should never have escaped these 
 lips." An eloquent man was McKinnon, and music was 
 in his voice and mischief in his soul. Benton had 
 planned, he said, to capture Jack, and Jennings there 
 stood ready to swear to it. Then, before she had time 
 to recover herself, she had been ushered into that cosey 
 parlor, and had come face to face with the man who filled 
 her thoughts. It all looked like design on his part, and 
 in her wrath and doubt and bitter trouble, she had 
 hurled her accusation and fled. But, long before La- 
 due s visit to Charlottesville, she had begun to suspect 
 both McKinnon and Jennings. After his coming she 
 had known no moment of peace, yet, how could she 
 write or tell him whom she had so outraged? Of what 
 
SURRENDER 373 
 
 use was it? He would forget it and her in course of 
 time 
 
 " Does this look like it? " asked Benton. 
 
 They were standing by the open doorway. She had 
 brought down to him the beautiful sash he had left with 
 her when he rode away, for this very night he must re 
 turn to Gordonsville and join his chief for the morning s 
 march. Meantime he had been winding it about her, 
 the silken folds clinging to the dainty white dimity, and 
 now, having thrown the tasseled ends over his arm, had 
 seized her soft hands and was looking down fondly, won- 
 deringly, in that almost unrealizing, unbelieving bliss of 
 newly requited love. 
 
 " Does this look like it that for two years I should 
 have been making every effort to reach you, only to 
 be stormed at as if I had sinned past pardon in hav 
 ing clasped you here ? " and raising her little hands 
 he held them firmly upon his breast, the creamy white 
 upon the dusky blue. Then, one hand being quite big 
 enough for that purpose, he stole his right arm round 
 her and drew her closer. The sound of slow, meas 
 ured footfalls and soft voices could be faintly heard 
 along the shaded street. Some of her coterie were 
 surely coming to scout the approaches if not actually 
 to seek the presence of their erstwhile queen. Not 
 that they would interrupt for worlds ! They only wished 
 to see. And through the summerlike stillness of the 
 night, afar down at the railway station, the sputtering 
 hiss of steam told that the iron horse was waiting im- 
 
374 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 patient for the start. " It may be weeks before I can 
 hope to reach you again," he murmured, "and isn t 
 that Georgia Scott s voice ? " A swift upward glance of 
 the soft, dark eyes said yes, and though for an instant 
 they fell again, it was but for an instant ; there was 
 something so compelling in the glow of his. 
 
 " Then " said he, speaking and bending lower. 
 
 " Then what ? " she murmured, persistingly insistent 
 on being told, though her head drooped again. 
 
 " Then it s time for some token of surrender, is it 
 not ? " And now, loosing the little hands, leaving them 
 self-clasping on his breast, he wound the other arm 
 about and drew her closer still. 
 
 " I don t quite " she dimpled, her soft cheek sink 
 ing on her own hands, her tiny ear catching the loud 
 beating of his heart, a vagrant tress fluttering in the 
 breath from her parted lips. 
 
 " You do, I think," he answered, half smiling. 
 " When a soldier surrenders he gives up his sword. 
 When a girl surrenders she should give up her lips," 
 and holding her more firmly, he bent yet lower, seeking 
 with wordless eagerness the sweet symbol that he 
 craved. But she nestled closer still where he could not 
 see her glowing face, and the answer camej half stifled, 
 after a moment of shy silence : 
 
 " You re not magnanimous like your commander. 
 He would not touch the sword of General Lee." 
 
 "I see!" and this very slowly, " and you prefer 
 that I should be like General Grant?" 
 
SURRENDER 375 
 
 No answer, verbal at least. Even queens are women 
 and would be wooed. He should be made to know this, 
 even when both heart and lips said yield. But the fates 
 were against her. Silvery laughter and soft voices 
 sounded close at hand now. Ah, some were happy, 
 even in the shadow of the great surrender, since there 
 were still loved ones left for the sweet home-coming. 
 
 " It is Georgia," whispered Benton, " and, as I live, 
 Kate Falconer! They ll be here in a minute and I ll 
 be gone. Rosalie, do you remember that night three 
 years ago when you said now or never ? " 
 
 One moment of fluttering heartbeat of latent, 
 still smouldering rebellion, then at last surrender. 
 Slowly and with down-cast eyes the queenly head was 
 raised. One swift look into his glowing face, and the 
 white arms stole about his neck ; the rosy mouth uplifted 
 and, meeting the fervent pressure of those bearded, 
 eager lips, in its own sweet way, gave answer. 
 
 LENVOI 
 
 Three years later, in the early spring of 68, we were 
 steaming back through Mississippi Sound, en route for 
 New Orleans by way of the Rigolets. It was an exquisite 
 morning, and the land breeze was laden with the fra 
 grance of the magnolias and soft with the balsam of the 
 Southern pine. The steamer darted swiftly through the 
 placid blue waters, bearing among other passengers a 
 little party of officers and ladies, returning from a brief 
 
376 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 visit to Mobile. Carver was there, captain and brevet 
 lieutenant-colonel in the regular service, and still with 
 Hancock, who was then commanding the Department 
 of the Gulf. Benton was there, holding like rank with 
 his old friend of the staff; and with Benton, seated on 
 the upper deck, was Rosalie, looking fondly into his 
 face at times, then again, with earnest interest, on an 
 other pair, talking in low tone together at the bows. It 
 had been a solemn pilgrimage, this mission to Mobile. 
 They had gone thither to lay away all that was mortal 
 of Paul Ladue, transferred from the rocky banks of the 
 little stream in far-away Pennsylvania to the shady nook 
 where, all night long in the moonlight, the mocking bird 
 sang in this land of his boyhood and his devoted love. 
 Gathered about his final resting place were few indeed 
 of his kith and kin, but the tempered sunshine fell on 
 fair women and brave men of both North and South 
 the blue and the gray all enmity stilled, please God, 
 forever. And of those who stood with tear-dimmed 
 eyes, as a bugler of the old Eleventh Alabama sounded 
 the soldier s lullaby over the fresh-heaped mound, Eli 
 nor Benton had laid a little spray of lilies of the valley 
 on the lowering casket. It was a gray-sleeved arm, for 
 the old uniform was seen on one or two veterans, that 
 drew her gently away and led her, bowed and reverent, 
 from the burial of her earliest love. It was the same 
 arm on which she was leaning now, as she stood gazing 
 down upon the dancing waters under the forefoot, and 
 it was on these two, Elinor and brother Jack, that 
 
SURRENDER 377 
 
 Queen Rosalie looked with brimming eyes ; then, ques 
 tioning, up into her stalwart husband s face. 
 
 But for whom did not Queen Rosalie scheme and 
 plan? Was it not she who, when the Pelhams had to 
 part with old Pyramus, sold a precious ring to buy him ? 
 Was it not she who found place after place among the 
 officers for young Pomp, well nigh spoiled in the ex 
 altation of being his own master ? Was it not she who 
 pleaded for Hector, faithful to her husband through 
 many scenes, yet sometimes lax in duty through the 
 fascinations of New Orleans? The old home at Char- 
 lottesville had gone to other hands after the doctor s 
 peaceful death in 66. Jack had previously settled down 
 to hard work in New Orleans and, like many another 
 manful young Southron, was winning his own way in 
 the paths of peace. Life seemed vested with new inter 
 est to him, however, since the coming, early in the win 
 ter, of Aunt Elinor to stand sponsor on a very interest 
 ing occasion, and if Rosalie Benton had a wish still 
 ungratified it was one that bade fair soon to be num 
 bered with others of the past. Her soldier Fred was 
 proud and happy in his profession, a success, despite all 
 prophesies of Stanton to the contrary and all pleadings 
 of the Squire to quit and learn the law. Her baby boy 
 had no peer in army circles in the South. Her brother, 
 after one serious illness during the yellow fever the pre 
 vious autumn, was in the best of health and the height 
 of hope and spirits. Always a frequent visitor at their 
 bright army home at the old barracks, he had become 
 
378 THE IRON BRIGADE 
 
 practically a day boarder, as he expressed it, since the 
 advent of Aunt Elinor. The war, that left its scars on 
 so many a soldier frame, seemed to have bequeathed no 
 bitterness to the men who battled in the field. They 
 that fought so manfully in the smoke-shrouded ranks, 
 either blue or gray, had no stomach for the post-bellum 
 warfare waged in Congress and convention by unter- 
 rified orators of the McKinnon type men so seldom 
 heard of on the fighting line that only when the war was 
 over did we begin to realize the valorous zeal that 
 burned unquenchable in their breasts. McKinnon had 
 gone no more to the old home city. He scored bril 
 liantly a while in Georgia after the war, prominent in 
 the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned 
 Lands, then went to Congress on the carpet-bag 
 ticket, but only for a term. We heard of him in Mexico 
 in 69, head of some colonization scheme that soon 
 dwindled into smoke, then lost track of him entirely. 
 
 As for the old brigade, the few remaining forms are 
 bent ; the beards are thinned and grizzled ; the old and 
 honored leaders have almost all been gathered to their 
 fathers; only one or two of those that, rising with it, 
 won and wore the star of command, still move and 
 have their being. But as year follows year, the few 
 survivors gather to tell again the tales of Gainesville, 
 Gettsyburg and the awful Wilderness, and to crown with 
 love and loyalty the names of those that made them and 
 led and lived with them through all that heroic struggle 
 for national life, there rings ever a sentiment second 
 
SURRENDER 379 
 
 only to the faith and fealty they owe the Flag : Bound 
 less is their belief in the men that wore the blue ; bound 
 less, also, is their soldier admiration for the men that 
 wore the gray. 
 
 THE END