The Young Lieutenant Part 6

At that instant, the sharp crack of a single rifle was heard, and Somers observed a slight jerk in the brim of the captain's felt hat.

"Bravo!" exclaimed Captain de Banyan as he took off his hat, and pointed to a hole through which the rifle-ball had sped its way. "I'll bet a month's pay that fellow couldn't do that again without making a hole through my head. But that's a singular coincidence. That's precisely the place where the first bullet went through my hat at Solferino. At Magenta--ah! I see him," added the captain, as he took a musket from the hands of one of his men. "I'll bet another month's pay that reb has fired his last shot."

As he spoke, he raised the gun to his shoulder, and fired up into one of the trees. A cras.h.i.+ng of boughs, a rattling of leaves followed; and a heavy body was heard to strike the ground.

"You owe me a month's pay, Somers," continued Captain de Banyan, as he handed the musket back to the soldier.

"I think not," replied the lieutenant, trying to be as cool as his companion. "I never bet."

"Just so. I forgot that you were an exceedingly proper young man."

The skirmish-line, which had paused a moment for an observation to be taken, now moved forward again. The rebel skirmishers were discovered, and the order was given to fire at will. The enemy's sharpshooters were posted in the trees, and they began to pour in a galling fire upon a portion of the line.

"Steady, my men!" said Somers, when the firing commenced. "Gunpowder's expensive; don't waste it."

"Not a single grain of it, Leftenant Somers," added Sergeant Hapgood.

"There, uncle!--up in that tree!" said Somers, pointing to a grayback, who was loading his rifle, about twenty feet from the ground.

"I see him!" replied the sergeant as he leveled his piece, and fired.

The rebel was wounded, but he did not come down; and the captain of the company ordered his men to move forward. From the thunder of the artillery and the rattle of musketry, it was evident that heavy work was in progress on the right and left.

"Forward, men!" said Somers, repeating the order of Captain Benson.

The men were scattered along an irregular line, and firing into the bushes, which partially concealed the rebel skirmishers. Somers's platoon advanced a little more rapidly than the rest of the line, being favored with a few rods of dry ground. He had urged them forward for the purpose of dislodging three sharpshooters perched in a large tree.

"Come down, rebs!" shouted Somers, as he reached the foot of the tree, and told half a dozen of his men to point their guns towards them.

"What d'ye say, Yank?" demanded one of them.

"Will you come down head first, or feet first? Take your choice quick!"

replied the lieutenant.

"As you seem to be in arnest, we'll come down the nateral way."

They did come down without a more pressing invitation, and were disarmed, ready to be sent to the rear.

CHAPTER VI

THE REBEL SHARPSHOOTERS

"Lieutenant Somers, I don't think I can stand it much longer," said Phineas Deane, a private, who had joined the regiment a few days before the battle, as he saluted his officer.

"Can't stand what?"

"The fact on't is, lieutenant, I'm sick. I haven't felt well for two or three days. I come out here to fight for my country, and I want to do some good. I might help take them prisoners back, if you say so."

"Sick, are you? What's the matter?"

"I've got a bad pain in the bowels," replied Phineas, as he placed himself on the right side of a tree, and glanced uneasily in the direction of the rebel skirmish line. "I'm subject to sich turns, but allus git over 'em if I have a chance to lay down for a few hours."

"Oh, well, you can lie down here!" added Somers, who understood the case pretty well.

"What! down here in the mud and water? Wal, that would be rather steep for a sick man," said Phineas, with a ghastly smile, as he glanced again towards the enemy.

"I will get some medicine for you. Here, uncle, let me have one of your powders," continued the lieutenant, addressing old Hapgood.

"Sartin; they've done me heaps of good, and I'm sure they're just the thing for that man."

Somers took one of the powders, and opened the paper.

"Now, my man, open your mouth, and let me give you this medicine," he added.

"What kind of medicine is it?"

"It'll make you kinder sick to the stomach; but it'll cure you in less'n half an hour."

"Well, lieutenant, I don't know as I want to take any medicine," answered poor Phineas, who was not prepared for this active treatment; though he would have taken it quick enough if he could be sent to the rear. "I guess I don't keer about takin' on it."

"You needn't, if you don't want to get well."

"I only want to go back to camp, and lay down for a spell."

"We can't spare you just yet, Phineas; but, if you don't stir yourself, you will lie down here somewhere, and never get up again," added Somers, as a shower of bullets pa.s.sed over their heads. "Forward, boys!"

The captain detailed a couple of men to conduct the prisoners to the rear, and the company pressed forward. The rebel sharpshooters were dislodged from the trees; a few prisoners were captured; but the heavy fighting and the heavy losses fell upon other portions of the line. The rebels had been forced back, and the movement seemed to be a success.

Half the regiment moved out of the woods, while the rest remained under the trees; when a halt was ordered. Somers found himself near an old house, behind which a number of rebel sharpshooters had concealed themselves for the purpose of picking off the Union soldiers.

The firing in the immediate vicinity had diminished, though the din of battle resounded on both sides. The boys were rather nervous, as men are when standing idle under fire; but it was the nervousness of restrained enthusiasm, not of fear, unless it was in the case of invalid Phineas, and a very few others whose physical health had not been completely established.

"Well, Somers, my dear boy, how do you get on?" asked Captain de Banyan, as he sauntered leisurely up to the lieutenant, whose command stood next to his own.

"First-rate; only I should like to have something a little more active than standing here."

"It takes considerable experience to enable a man to stand still under fire. When I was at the battle of Alma, I learned that lesson to a charm.

We stood up for forty-two hours under a fierce fire of grape and canister, to say nothing of musketry."

"Forty-two hours!" exclaimed Somers. "I should think you would all have been killed off before that time."

"In our regiment, only one man was killed; and he got asleep, and walked in his dreams over towards the enemy's line."

"Captain, you can tell a bigger story than any other man in the army,"

said Somers, laughing.