Lieut. Bowersox left the road with his detachment and made his way across the fields, over ditches, ravines and creeks, through the thickets and the brush, and at last came out on top of Missionary Ridge at the north side of Rossville Gap.
With eager eyes they scanned the landscape of billowy mountains and hills to the east and south.
A fog obscured all the lowlands, but far out columns of thin smoke rising lazily on the still air showed where 150,000 men were marshaling for b.l.o.o.d.y conflict.
"That Major I spoke to," said Lieut. Bowersox, as Si and Shorty looked anxiously in his face, "is on the corps staff, and he says the whole infernal Southern Confederacy is out there for blood. They jumped us yesterday like a pack of famished wolves. But Rosecrans had just got his army together in time, though some of the divisions had to march till their tongues were hanging out. All the boys were dead game, though, and they stood the rebels off everywhere in great shape. He hasn"t the faintest idea where the 200th Ind. is. The divisions and brigades have been jumped around from one end of the line to the other till he has but little more idea where any regiment is than if it was in the moon. The only way for us is to make our way as fast as we can to the front, where they need every man, and trust to luck to find the regiment. We"ll probably not find it, but we"ll find a place where they need us badly."
"Le"s go ahead, then," said Si firmly, "as fast as we can. We"d much rather be with the regiment, but we"ll take whatever comes wherever it comes, and do our level best."
"I know you will, Sergeant," answered the Lieutenant. "Take another look over your men. See that they"ve all cartridges, and caution them to keep cool, stay together, whatever happens, and listen to orders."
Si felt a new and keener solicitude than he had ever before experienced.
Hitherto his only thoughts were as to his own safety and to do himself credit in the discharge of his duty. Now he felt a heavy responsibility for every man in the detachment.
He walked slowly down the front of the line, and looked into every man"s face. They appeared anxious but resolute. The face of Wat Burnham, the Englishman, had settled into more of a bull-dog look than ever. The Irishmen seemed eager. Abel Waite, the boy on the left, was as excited as if a game of foot-ball was to come off. He called out:
"Say, Sergeant, I hain"t got but 10 cartridges. Will that be enough?"
"It"ll have to be enough for the present," answered Si. "Be careful of "em. Don"t waste none. Be sure o" your man, aim low, git under his belt, an" be careful to ketch your hind-sight before you pull the trigger. If we need more cartridges we"ll have to find more somewhere."
From away beyond the green and yellow waves of hills came the crash of the reopened battle. The ripping noise of regiments firing by volley was hoa.r.s.ely punctuated by the deep boom of the field-pieces.
"Attention, company! Forward March!" shout ed Lieut. Bowersox.
They swept down the mountain-side, over the next eminence, and so onward. At every crest that they raised the uproar of the battle became louder, the crash of musketry and the thunder of the can non more continuous. The roads were so filled with teams being urged forward or backward that they could not follow them, but had to make their way through the woods and occasional fields, only keeping such direction as would bring them quickest to some part of the stormy firing-line.
The Lieutenant and Si and Shorty tried to make themselves believe that the noise was receding, showing that the rebels were being driven. At times it certainly was so, and then again it would burst out,
"Nearer, clearer, deadlier than before," and their hearts would sink again. A little past noon they came upon a hight, and there met a sight which, for the moment, froze their blood. To their right front the whole country was filled with men flying in the wildest confusion. All semblance of regimental order was lost in the awful turmoil. Cannon, sometimes drawn by two or three horses, sometimes by only one, were plunging around amid the mob of infantrymen. Mounted officers were wildly galloping in all directions. Colors were carried to crests and ridges, and for a moment groups of men would gather around them, only to melt again into the mob of fugitives. From far behind came the yells of the exultant rebels, and a storm of shot and sh.e.l.l into the disorganized ma.s.s.
The boys" hearts sickened with the thought that the whole army was in utter rout. For a minute or two they surveyed the appalling sight in speech less despair. Then a gleam of hope shot into Si"s mind.
"Listen," he said; "the firing is heavier than ever over there toward the center and left, and you can see that men are goin" up instid o"
runnin" away. It"s Stone River over again. McCook"s bin knocked to pieces, just as he always is, but old Pap Thomas is standing there like a lion, just as he did at Stone River, and he"s holding Crittenden with him."
"You"re right, Si," shouted the Lieutenant and Shorty. "Hip, hip, hooray for the Army o" the c.u.mberland and old Pap Thomas!"
They deflected to the left, so as to avoid being tangled up in the ma.s.s of fugitives, and pushed forward more determinedly, if possible, than ever. They kept edging to the right, for they wanted to reach Thomas"s right as nearly as possible, as that was the natural position of their regiment.
Presently, on mounting a roll of the ground, they saw sloping down from them a few rods away, and running obliquely to their right, a small "deadening," made by the shiftless farmer for his scanty corn crop. A mob of fugitives flying through had trampled the stalks to the ground.
Si and Shorty had seen some of them and yelled at them to come up and form on them, but the skedaddlers either would not or could not hear.
Beyond the "deadening" came a horde of pursuing rebels, firing and yelling like demons. The sight and sound swelled the boys" hearts with the rage of battle.
"Lieutenant," suggested Si, "there"s no need o" goin" any further just now for a fight. We can have just as nice a one right here as we can find anywhere. I move that we line up back here and wait for them rebels to come on, an" then git "em on the flank with an enfilade that"ll salivate "em in a holy minute."
"The same idea has occurred to me," said the Lieutenant; "though I"ve felt all along that we should not be diverted by anything from making our way as fast as possible up to the main line. What do you think, Shorty?"
"My idee is to down a rebel whenever you git a good chance," said Shorty. ""Do the work nearest thy hand," I once heard an old preacher say. Le"s jump these hounds right here."
"All right," a.s.sented the Lieutenant quite willingly. "Form the men just back of the edge of the woods. Keep them out of sight, and caution them not to shoot till they get the order. We must wait till we get the rebels just right."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THEY POSTED THE MEN BEHIND THE TREES. 197]
Si and Shorty hurriedly posted the men behind trees and rocks, cautioned them to wait for orders, and fire low, and then stationed themselves, one at the right, and the other at the left of the irregular line.
They had scarcely done so when the rebels came surging through the "deadening" in a torrent. They were urged on by two mounted officers wear ing respectively the silver stars of a Colonel and a Major.
"The feller on the bay hoss"s my meat," shouted Shorty from the left.
"All right," answered Si. "I"ll take the chap on the roan."
"Wait a little," cautioned the Lieutenant. "We"ll get more of them if you do. Now, let them have it. Ready Aim FIRE!"
Down went the Colonel and Major and fully 50 of their men. The Indiana recruits might be green as to tactics, but they knew how to level a gun.
The startled rebels ceased yelling, and looked around in amazement in the direction whence the unexpected fire came. A few began firing that way, but the majority started to run back across the "deadening" to the sheltering woods. Groups gathered around the fallen officers to carry them back.
"Load as fast as you can, boys," commanded the Lieutenant. "That was a good one. Give them an other."
The young Irishmen were wild with excitement, and wanted to rush down and club the rebels, but the Lieutenant restrained them, though he could not get them to reload their guns. As Si was bringing down his gun he noticed the Englishman aiming at the groups about the officers.
"Don"t shoot them. Fire at the others," Si called out, while he himself aimed at a man who was try ing to rally his comrades.
"W"y the b.l.o.o.d.y "ell shouldn"t Hi shoot them the same has the hothers?"
snarled the Englishman, firing into the group. "They"re all b.l.o.o.d.y rebels."
By the time the second round was fired the "deadening" was clear of all the rebels but those who had been struck. The others were re-forming on the knoll beyond, and a field-piece was hurried up to their a.s.sistance, which threw a sh.e.l.l over at the line.
"We had better move off," said the Lieutenant. "They"re forming out there to take us in flank, and we can"t hold them back. We have done all that we can here, and a mighty good job, too. We have saved a lot of our men and salted a good bagful of rebels. Attention! File left March!"
"That was a mighty good introduction for the boys," said Si to Shorty as they moved on through the woods. "They begin to see how the thing"s done; and didn"t they act splendidly? I"m proud of Injianny."
"Sergeant, didn"t I do well?" asked Abel Waite, in the tone that he would have inquired of his teacher about a recitation. "I done just as you told me. I kep" my eye on the tall feller in front, who was wavin"
his gun and yellin" at the rest to come on. I aimed just below his belt, an" he went down just like I"ve seen a beef when pap shot him."
"Good boy," said Si, patting him on the shoul der. "You"re a soldier already."
CHAPTER XVI. THE TERRIFIC STRUGGLE
THE END OF THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
LIEUT. Bowersox, Si, Shorty and the recruits left the woods and entered a large clearing, in the midst of which was a log cabin, with a few rude outbuildings. Over it flew the yellow flag of the hospital service, and beyond could be seen the parked trains and other evidences of the line-of-battle.
The roar of the battle would have told them as much, for it was now deafening. The earth seemed to throb and the trees shake with the awful shocks. As they pa.s.sed the hospital they saw a grewsome pile of amputated legs and arms, while the ground around about was filled with wounded, whose groans pierced through the roar of battle.
James Bradshaw and Simeon Wheelwright, the two tall, stalwart men who had stood on the right and who had shown great coolness during the fight, gave one look at the dismembered limbs, turned pale as death, gasped, and fell in a faint.