The Clansman.
by Thomas Dixon.
Book I--The a.s.sa.s.sination
CHAPTER I
THE BRUISED REED
The fair girl who was playing a banjo and singing to the wounded soldiers suddenly stopped, and, turning to the surgeon, whispered:
"What"s that?"
"It sounds like a mob----"
With a common impulse they moved to the open window of the hospital and listened.
On the soft spring air came the roar of excited thousands sweeping down the avenue from the Capitol toward the White House. Above all rang the cries of struggling newsboys screaming an "Extra." One of them darted around the corner, his shrill voice quivering with excitement:
"_Extra! Extra! Peace! Victory!_"
Windows were suddenly raised, women thrust their heads out, and others rushed into the street and crowded around the boy, struggling to get his papers. He threw them right and left and s.n.a.t.c.hed the money--no one asked for change. Without ceasing rose his cry:
"_Extra! Peace! Victory! Lee has surrendered!_"
At last the end had come.
The great North, with its millions of st.u.r.dy people and their exhaustless resources, had greeted the first shot on Sumter with contempt and incredulity. A few regiments went forward for a month"s outing to settle the trouble. The Thirteenth Brooklyn marched gayly Southward on a thirty days" jaunt, with pieces of rope conspicuously tied to their muskets with which to bring back each man a Southern prisoner to be led in a noose through the streets on their early triumphant return! It would be unkind to tell what became of those ropes when they suddenly started back home ahead of the scheduled time from the first battle of Bull Run.
People from the South, equally wise, marched gayly North, to whip five Yankees each before breakfast, and encountered unforeseen difficulties.
Both sides had things to learn, and learned them in a school whose logic is final--a four years" course in the University of h.e.l.l--the scream of eagles, the howl of wolves, the bay of tigers, the roar of lions--all locked in Death"s embrace, and each mad scene lit by the glare of volcanoes of savage pa.s.sions!
But the long agony was over.
The city bells began to ring. The guns of the forts joined the chorus, and their deep steel throats roared until the earth trembled.
Just across the street a mother who was reading the fateful news turned and suddenly clasped a boy to her heart, crying for joy. The last draft of half a million had called for him.
The Capital of the Nation was shaking off the long nightmare of horror and suspense. More than once the city had shivered at the mercy of those daring men in gray, and the reveille of their drums had startled even the President at his desk.
Again and again had the destiny of the Republic hung on the turning of a hair, and in every crisis, Luck, Fate, G.o.d, had tipped the scale for the Union.
A procession of more than five hundred Confederate deserters, who had crossed the lines in groups, swung into view, marching past the hospital, indifferent to the tumult. Only a nominal guard flanked them as they shuffled along, tired, ragged, and dirty. The gray in their uniforms was now the colour of clay. Some had on blue pantaloons, some, blue vests, others blue coats captured on the field of blood. Some had pieces of carpet, and others old bags around their shoulders. They had been pa.s.sing thus for weeks. n.o.body paid any attention to them.
"One of the secrets of the surrender!" exclaimed Doctor Barnes. "Mr.
Lincoln has been at the front for the past weeks with offers of peace and mercy, if they would lay down their arms. The great soul of the President, even the genius of Lee could not resist. His smile began to melt those gray ranks as the sun is warming the earth to-day."
"You are a great admirer of the President," said the girl, with a curious smile.
"Yes, Miss Elsie, and so are all who know him."
She turned from the window without reply. A shadow crossed her face as she looked past the long rows of cots, on which rested the men in blue, until her eyes found one on which lay, alone among his enemies, a young Confederate officer.
The surgeon turned with her toward the man.
"Will he live?" she asked.
"Yes, only to be hung."
"For what?" she cried.
"Sentenced by court-martial as a guerilla. It"s a lie, but there"s some powerful hand back of it--some mysterious influence in high authority. The boy wasn"t fully conscious at the trial."
"We must appeal to Mr. Stanton."
"As well appeal to the devil. They say the order came from his office."
"A boy of nineteen!" she exclaimed. "It"s a shame. I"m looking for his mother. You told me to telegraph to Richmond for her."
"Yes, I"ll never forget his cries that night, so utterly pitiful and childlike. I"ve heard many a cry of pain, but in all my life nothing so heartbreaking as that boy in fevered delirium talking to his mother. His voice is one of peculiar tenderness, penetrating and musical. It goes quivering into your soul, and compels you to listen until you swear it"s your brother or sweetheart or sister or mother calling you. You should have seen him the day he fell. G.o.d of mercies, the pity and the glory of it!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "YOUR BROTHER SPRANG FORWARD AND CAUGHT HIM IN HIS ARMS."]
"Phil wrote me that he was a hero and asked me to look after him. Were you there?"
"Yes, with the battery your brother was supporting. He was the colonel of a shattered rebel regiment lying just in front of us before Petersburg.
Richmond was doomed, resistance was madness, but there they were, ragged and half starved, a handful of men, not more than four hundred, but their bayonets gleamed and flashed in the sunlight. In the face of a murderous fire he charged and actually drove our men out of an entrenchment. We concentrated our guns on him as he crouched behind this earthwork. Our own men lay outside in scores, dead, dying, and wounded. When the fire slacked, we could hear their cries for water.
"Suddenly this boy sprang on the breastwork. He was dressed in a new gray colonel"s uniform that mother of his, in the pride of her soul, had sent him.
"He was a handsome figure--tall, slender, straight, a gorgeous yellow sash ta.s.selled with gold around his waist, his sword flashing in the sun, his slouch hat c.o.c.ked on one side and an eagle"s feather in it.
"We thought he was going to lead another charge, but just as the battery was making ready to fire he deliberately walked down the embankment in a hail of musketry and began to give water to our wounded men.
"Every gun ceased firing, and we watched him. He walked back to the trench, his naked sword flashed suddenly above that eagle"s feather, and his grizzled ragam.u.f.fins sprang forward and charged us like so many demons.
"There were not more than three hundred of them now, but on they came, giving that h.e.l.lish rebel yell at every jump--the cry of the hunter from the hilltop at the sight of his game! All Southern men are hunters, and that cry was transformed in war into something unearthly when it came from a hundred throats in chorus and the game was human.
"Of course, it was madness. We blew them down that hill like chaff before a hurricane. When the last man had staggered back or fallen, on came this boy alone, carrying the colours he had s.n.a.t.c.hed from a falling soldier, as if he were leading a million men to victory.
"A bullet had blown his hat from his head, and we could see the blood streaming down the side of his face. He charged straight into the jaws of one of our guns. And then, with a smile on his lips and a dare to death in his big brown eyes, he rammed that flag into the cannon"s mouth, reeled, and fell! A cheer broke from our men.
"Your brother sprang forward and caught him in his arms, and as we bent over the unconscious form, he exclaimed: "My G.o.d, doctor, look at him! He is so much like me I feel as if I had been shot myself!" They were as much alike as twins--only his hair was darker. I tell you, Miss Elsie, it"s a sin to kill men like that. One such man is worth more to this nation than every negro that ever set his flat foot on this continent!"
The girl"s eyes had grown dim as she listened to the story.