"What a wonderful thing these inventions are!" thought Sam, as he tied his horse to a tree and advanced crouching toward the battery. The lieutenant pointed out to him the position of the brigadier-general, some distance back on the right under cover of the jungle, and told him of a path that would take him there. Sam was not slow to follow his directions, for just then a sh.e.l.l exploded close by. He soon found the general surrounded by his staff on a partially wooded hill, from which, however, they could command the field with their gla.s.ses.
Bullets were flying about them, and an occasional sh.e.l.l sailed over their heads, but the general seemed perfectly at home. He took the orders, opened them and read them.
"That"s strange," said he. "Last night I understood that I was to make for that pa.s.s between the hills there on the left, and now I"m ordered to take the first turning to the right. I don"t understand it. Do you know anything about it?"
"No, sir."
"Well, he must have changed his mind. Or else it was a bluff to keep his plans from leaking out. Tell the general that I will carry out his orders at once."
Sam inquired of the members of the staff where he would be likely to find the 43d Volunteers, to whose colonel his other orders were directed, but they had no information, except that in the morning that regiment had been stationed farther over on the right. Sam started out again, guiding himself as best he could by a compa.s.s which he had in his pocket. He selected the paths which seemed most promising, but the jungle between was impenetrable on horseback. The firing on the extreme right seemed to be farther in the rear, and he made his way in that direction. Again he came out at the edge of the woods, and to his surprise saw a battalion of the enemy at a short distance from him. He turned his horse, stuck his spurs into him, and went back along the path to the rear at a full run, while a shower of bullets fell around him. He still kept on working to the right in the direction of the firing which he heard in front of him. At last in a hollow of the jungle he came upon a Red Cross station, one of those advance temporary relief posts where the wounded who are too much injured to be taken at once to the rear are treated. Twenty or thirty men were lying in a row, some of them on their coats, others on the bare ground. Two surgeons were doing what they could in the line of first aid to the injured, binding up arms and legs, dressing wounds, and trying to stop the flow of blood from arteries. Two soldiers were lifting a wounded man on a stretcher so that he might be carried to the rear, and he was groaning with agony. Every one of the patients was blotched in one place or another with blood, and some of them were lying in pools of the crimson fluid. Sam felt a little sick at his stomach. Two men came in with another stretcher, bringing a wounded man from the front. The man gave a convulsive start as they set him down.
"A bullet"s just hit him in the head," said one of the men. "I"m glad it wasn"t me."
One of the doctors looked at the wounded man.
"He"s dead," he said. "d.a.m.n you, what do you mean by bringing dead men here?"
The two bearers took up their load again and dropped it out of sight in the bushes. Sam did not like to interrupt the doctors, who were overtasked, so he dismounted and tried to find a wounded man well enough to answer his questions. One man at the end of the row looked less pale than the rest, and he asked him where he could find the 43d.
"That"s my regiment, sir," he replied, as a twig, cut off by a bullet, fell on his face. "You"d better lie down here, sir; you"ll be shot if you don"t. A lot of the wounded have been hit here again."
Sam sat down by his side.
"Our regiment is over that way," he said, pointing in the direction of the firing. "I don"t know where the colonel is. We haven"t seen him for hours. The lieutenant-colonel is down with fever. I think the major"s in command. You ought to find him at the front. We"ve been falling back, and the firing sounds nearer than it did. I"m afraid the enemy will catch us here."
Sam did not wait to hear anything further, but, leaving his horse tied to a tree, he ran toward the front. He found many soldiers skulking along the path, and they directed him to the major. He discovered him sitting on the ground behind a stone wall.
"Here, major, are your orders. I understand you"re in command."
"Not much," said the major. "The colonel"s in command. You"d better find him."
"Where is he?"
"I"m sure I don"t know. I haven"t seen him since six o"clock."
"But this is your regiment, isn"t it?"
"Well, yes. It"s part of it."
Just then a young captain came running up from the front, and cried out to his major:
"Major, we"re having a hard time of it there. Won"t you come up and take charge? I"m afraid they"ll force us back."
"No," said the major, "I won"t. I"m going back there to that last village. It"s a much better place to defend. Besides I"m not feeling well. You fellows can stay here if you like. I shan"t order the regiment back, but I"ll go back and get ready for them there. We ought to have trenches there, you know," and he got up and walked rapidly off down the road. The captain turned to Sam.
"I beg your pardon, captain," said he, "but what are we to do? Our officers have given out, and we"re a new regiment and haven"t any experience. Won"t you take command?"
Sam was by no means satisfied in his mind that he would behave much better than the major, but here was an opportunity that he could not afford to lose.
"I"ll see what I can do," said he. "Let"s see what the orders are."
He opened the doc.u.ment and saw that it was a direction to keep on to the front until they arrived before the town of San Diego, which they were to a.s.sault and capture.
"Show me where your men are," said Sam. "Who have you got there?"
"We"ve got our own regiment, the 43d, and six or eight companies of the 72d--I don"t know where they came from; and then there"s a battery, and perhaps some others."
They hastened along the road together, urging the stragglers to join them, which many of them did. The way became more and more enc.u.mbered with men, and the bullets came thicker. Sam was thoroughly scared. He could feel his legs waver at the knee, and it seemed as if a giant hand had grasped him by the spine. They pa.s.sed several musicians of the band.
"Start up a tune!" cried Sam. "Play something and follow us." At the same time he instinctively thrust his hand into his breast pocket and felt for his traveling Lares and Penates, namely, his tin soldier, his photographs of East Point, one of Marian, and her last letter.
Meanwhile the band began to play and the ba.s.s-drummer wielded his huge drumstick with all his might. Sam began to feel happier, and so did the men about him. One of the musicians suddenly fell, struck dead by a bullet, and just then a sh.e.l.l burst over them and two or three men went down. With one accord the soldiers began to curse and swear in the most frightful manner and to insist on speedy vengeance. Sam was surprised to find himself enjoying the oaths. They just expressed his feelings, and he hurried on to the edge of the woods. In front of them they saw a line of their own men lying on the ground behind stones and logs, shooting at the enemy, whose line could be distinguished hardly more than a third of a mile away.
"They"re nearer than they were," whispered the captain. "We must push them back or they"ll have us. The men on the firing line are getting scared."
"We must scare them behind more than the enemy does in front," said Sam, drawing his revolver. "Here you, sir, get back into your place."
A man in the ranks, who was beginning to creep back, saw the revolver and dropped back in his position with an oath.
"Forward!" cried Sam, now thoroughly in the spirit of the occasion.
"Come up to the front, all of you, and extend our line there to the right. Lie down and take careful aim with every shot."
The men did as they were told, and Sam took up his position behind the line with the captain, both of them standing in a perfect gale of bullets, while all the rest were lying down.
"Lie down," said Sam to the captain. "You"ve no business to risk your life like that."
"How about yours, sir?" said the captain, as he obeyed.
"I"ll take care of myself, if you"ll be good enough to let me,"
answered Sam.
The presence of a staff officer gave new courage to the men, and their marksmanship began to have effect on the enemy, who were seen to be gradually falling back. Sam took this opportunity to move his line forward, and he sent a lieutenant to direct the battery to cover his men when they should charge on the enemy"s line. He moved his line forward in this way successively three or four times, and the troops were now thoroughly encouraged, and some of them even asked to be allowed to charge. Sam, however, postponed this final act as long as he could. It was not until he saw the captain whom he had met in the woods mangled and instantly killed by a piece of sh.e.l.l that he became so angry that he could restrain himself no longer. He gave the order to fix bayonets, and with a yell the men rose from their lairs and rushed over the intervening ground to the enemy"s position. The Cubapinos did not wait for them, but turned and ran precipitously. Sam and his men followed them for at least a mile, when they made a stand again.
"They"re in the trenches now that they were in this morning," explained a lieutenant.
Here the same tactics were renewed, and in another half-hour Sam ordered his men to charge again. This time the enemy waited longer, and many of the attacking party fell, but before they reached the trenches the Cubapinos took flight, and Sam saw his soldiers bayonet the last two or three of them in the back. There were a good many dead in the trenches, all of them shot through the head. It was a proud moment for Sam when he stood on the edge of the trench and planted Old Gory there while the men cheered. A wounded Cubapino lay just before him, and one of the soldiers kicked him in the head and killed him. Sam noticed it, and was a little startled to find that it seemed all right to him.
"I"ve half a mind to kick the next wounded man I see," he thought. "It must be rather good sport"; but he did not do it.
The rest of the fight was in the nature of a procession. They pursued the flying Cubapinos as fast as they could, but were unable to come up with them. In a native village through which they pa.s.sed, Sam asked an old man, who had been too weak to get away, how far off San Diego was, and learned that it was five miles away to the left. He could not understand this, but still he kept on in that direction. As they left the village it burst into flames, for the last soldiers had set it on fire. Sam thought of the old man perishing in his hut, and it seemed to him a fine thing and quite natural. On their way they came across other bodies of troops who joined them, and it so happened that no one came forward of superior rank to Sam, and consequently he retained the command. Before they came in sight of San Diego he had quite a brigade under him. He halted them in front of the town and sent out a scouting party. There was no sound of firing now except in the distance. In an hour the scouting party came back and reported that the place had been vacated by the enemy, who for some reason had been seized by a panic.
Sam ordered the advance to be resumed, and late in the afternoon found himself in possession of San Diego. He began to take measures at once to fortify the place, when the brigadier-general whom he had seen in the morning marched in with his brigade and took over the command from him, congratulating him on his success, which was already the talk of the army. Sam turned over the command to him with much grace and dignity, and, borrowing a horse, set off for the old headquarters which he had left in the morning, for he learned that, altho the enemy were completely defeated and scattered, still the general would not move his headquarters forward to the front till the following day.
The general received him with great cordiality.
"Everything turned out just as I planned it," he said, "but, Captain, you helped us out at a critical point there on the right. I shall mention you in despatches. You may depend on being promoted and given a good post. You ought to have a regiment at least."
Sam was taking his supper when Cleary came in, hot and grimy.
"Well, you"re a great fellow," he said, "to get away from me the way you did this morning. But didn"t I tell you, you were the stuff? Why, you won the battle. Do you know that you turned their left flank?"