The wildest rumors flew from parched tongue to throbbing ear.
An army of a hundred thousand fresh troops had fallen on their tired, b.l.o.o.d.y ranks. They were led by Jeb Stuart at the head of four thousand Black Horse Cavalry. If a single man escaped alive it would be for one reason, only they could outrun them. It was a crime for officers to try to round them up for a ma.s.sacre. That"s all it was--a ma.s.sacre! With each mad thought of the rushing mob the panic grew. They cut the traces of horses from guns and left them on the field. The frantic mob engulfed the buggies and carriages of the Congressmen and picnickers from Washington who had come out to see the Rebellion put down at a single blow. The road became a ma.s.s of neighing, plunging horses, broken and tangled wagons, ambulances and riderless artillery teams. Horses neighed in terror more abject than that which filled the hearts of men. Men once had reason--the poor horse had never claimed it. The blockades on the road formed no barrier to the flying men on foot. They streamed around and overflowed into the woods and fields and pressed on with new terror. G.o.d in Heaven! They pitied the poor fools engulfed in those ma.s.ses of maddened plunging brutes and smashing wagons. It was only a question of a few minutes when Stuart"s sabres would split every skull.
John Vaughan was swept to the rear on the crest of this wave of terror.
Up to the moment it began he had scarcely thought of danger. After the first few minutes of nerve tension under fire his spirit had risen as the combat raged and deepened. It didn"t seem real, the falling of men around him. He had no time to realize that they were being torn to pieces by shot and sh.e.l.l and the hail of lead that whistled from those long sheets of flaming smoke-banks before him.
And then the panic had seized him. He had caught its mad unreasoning terror from the men who surged about him. And it was every man for himself. The change was swift, abject, complete from utter unconsciousness of fear to the blindest terror. Some ran mechanically, with their eyes set in front as if stiff with fear, expecting each moment to be struck dead, knowing it was useless to try but going on and on because involuntary muscles were carrying them.
A fat man caught hold of John"s coat and held on for half a mile before he could shake him off. He begged piteously for help.
"Don"t leave me, partner!" he panted. "I"m a sinful man. I ain"t fit to die. You"re young and strong--save me!"
The dead weight was pulling him down and John shook the fellow off with an angry jerk.
"To h.e.l.l with you!"
They suddenly came to a lot of horses hid in the woods, rearing and plunging and neighing madly.
John swerved out of their way and an officer rushed up to him crying:
"Why don"t you take a horse?"
He looked at him in a dazed way before he could realize his meaning.
"Take a horse!" he yelled. "The rebels will get "em if you don"t----"
The men were too intent on running to try to save horses. Horses would have to look out for themselves.
It suddenly occurred to John that a horse might go faster. Funny he hadn"t thought of it at once. He turned, seized one, mounted, and galloped on. There was a quick halt. A panting mob came surging back over the way they had just fled. A ford in front had been blocked, and in the scramble the cry was raised that Stuart"s cavalry were on them and cutting every soul down in his tracks at the crossing.
John leaped from his horse, turned, and ran straight for the woods. He didn"t propose to be captured by Stuart"s cavalry, that was sure. He turned to look back and ran into a tree. He climbed it. If he could only get to the top before they saw him. He had been an expert climber when a boy in Missouri and he thanked G.o.d now for this. He never paused for breath until he had reached the very top, where he drew the swaying branches close about his body to hide from the coming foe. The sun was yet hanging over the trees in the woods--a ball of sullen red fire lighting up the hiding place of the last poor devil for the eyes of the avenging hosts who were sweeping on. If it were night it would be all right. But this was no place for a man with an ounce of sense in broad daylight. The sharpshooters would see him in that tall tree sure. They couldn"t take him prisoner up there--they would shoot him like a squirrel just to see him tumble and, by the Lord Harry, they would do it, too!
He got down from the tree faster than he climbed up and from the edge of the woods spied a dense swamp. He never stopped until he reached the centre of it, and dropped flat on his stomach.
"Thank G.o.d, at last!" he sighed.
The Northern army fleeing for Washington had left on the field twenty-eight guns, four thousand muskets, nine regimental flags, four hundred and eighty-one dead, a thousand and eleven wounded and fourteen hundred captured. The road to the rear was literally sown with pistols, knapsacks, blankets, haversacks, wagons, tools and hospital stores.
And saddest of all the wreck, lay the bright new handcuffs with coils of hang-man"s rope scattered everywhere.
The Southern army had lost three hundred and eighty-seven killed, including two brigadier generals, Bee and Barton, and fifteen hundred wounded. They were so completely scattered and demoralized by their marvellous and overwhelming victory that any systematic pursuit of their foe was impossible.
The strange silent figure on the little sorrel horse turned his blue eyes toward Washington from the last hilltop as darkness fell, lifted his head suddenly toward the sky, and cried:
"Ten thousand fresh troops and I"d be in Washington to-morrow night!"
The troops were not to be had, and Stonewall Jackson ordered his men to bivouac for the night and sent out his details to bury the dead and care for the wounded of both armies.
Monday morning dawned black and lowering and before the sun rose the rain poured in steady torrents. Through every hour of this desolate sickening day the weary, terror-stricken stragglers trailed through the streets of Washington--their gorgeous plumes soaked and drooping, the Scotch bonnets dripping the rain straight down their necks and across their dirty foreheads, the Garibaldi shirts, the blue and grey, the black and yellow and gold and blazing Zouave uniforms rain-soaked and mud-smeared.
Betty Winter bought out a peddler"s cake and lemonade stand on the main line of this ghastly procession and through every bitter hour from sunrise until dark stood there cheering and serving the men without money and without price, while the tears slowly rolled down her flushed cheeks.
CHAPTER IX
VICTORY IN DEFEAT
The President had risen at daylight on the fateful Sunday morning. He was sorry this first action must be fought on Sunday. It seemed a bad omen. The preachers from his home town of Springfield, Illinois, had issued a manifesto against his election without regard to their party affiliations on account of his supposed hostility to religion. It had hurt and stung his pride more than any single incident in the campaign.
His nature was profoundly religious. He was not a church member because his religion had the unique quality of a personal faith which refused from sheer honesty to square itself with the dogmas of any sect. The preachers had not treated him fairly, but he cherished no ill will. He knew their sterling worth to the Republic and he meant to use them in the tremendous task before him. He had hoped the battle would not be joined until Monday. But he knew at dawn that a clash was inevitable.
At half past ten o"clock, though keenly anxious for the first news from the front, he was ready to accompany Mrs. Lincoln to church. The breeze was from the South--a hot, lazy, midsummer heavy air.
The Commander-in-Chief bent his giant figure over a war map, spread on his desk, fixed the position of each army by colored pins, studied them a moment and quietly walked with his wife to the Presbyterian Church to hear Dr. Gurley preach. He sat in reverent silence through the service, his soul hovering over the distant hills.
Before midnight the panic stricken Congressmen began to drop into the White House, each with his story of unparalleled disaster. At one o"clock the President stood in the midst of a group of excited, perspiring statesmen who had crowded into the executive office, the one cool, shrewd, patient, self-possessed courageous man among them. He reviewed their stories quietly and with no sign of excitement, to say nothing of panic.
They marvelled at his dull intellect.
He was listening in silence, shaping the big new policy of his administration.
He spent the entire night calmly listening to all these stories, speaking a word of good cheer where it would be of service.
Mr. Seward entered as he had just finished a light breakfast.
The Secretary"s hair was disheveled, his black string tie under his ear, and he was taking two pinches of snuff within the time he usually took one.
In thirty minutes the outlines of his message to Congress and his new proclamation were determined. Mr. Seward left with new courage and a growing sense of reliance on the wisdom, courage and intellectual power of the Chief he had thought to supplant without a struggle.
At eight o"clock the man with a grievance made his first appearance. His wrath was past the boiling point, in spite of the fact that his handsome uniform was still wet from the night"s wild ride.
He went straight to the point. He was a volunteer patriot of high standing in his community. As a citizen of the Republic, wearing its uniform, he represented its dignity and power. He had been grossly insulted by a military martinet from West Point and he proposed to test the question whether an American citizen had any rights such men must respect.
The President lifted his calm, deep eyes to the flushed angry face, glanced at the gold marks of his rank, and said:
"What can I do for you, Captain?"
"I"ve come to ask you, Mr. President," he began with subdued intensity, "whether a volunteer officer of this country, a man of culture and position, is to be treated as a dog or a human being?"
The quiet man at the desk slipped his gla.s.ses from his ears, polished them with his handkerchief, readjusted them, and looked up again with kindly interest:
"What"s the trouble?"
"A discussion arose in our regiment on the day we were ordered into battle over the expiration of our enlistment. I held, as a lawyer, sir, that every day of rotten manual labor we had faithfully performed for our country should be counted in our three months military service. Our time had expired and I demanded that we be discharged then and there----"
"On the eve of a battle?"