A Lieutenant at Eighteen Part 12

The three wounded men were not severely injured, and only one was disabled.

Deck sent Sergeant Knox to Captain Gordon with the information of the approaching cavalry force which was now the great matter of interest.

He sent Life and Milton as scouts, to ascertain "their politics," as the sergeant put it. His eyes were very sharp, and always looking about him, like the skilful seaman when he comes on deck. He reported that he had seen the force descending a hill more than a mile distant, disappearing in a few minutes in the valley below. Life and Milton started off at a gallop, and had soon pa.s.sed out of sight.

"What does that report mean, Captain Gordon?" inquired Colonel Halliburn, as soon as the two scouts had dashed down the column.

"I am sure I don't know; but if I should infer anything from the appearance of a force at this time, it would be that it was another company of Confederate cavalry," replied the captain. "Can any intelligence of our movements have reached the enemy to the eastward of us, Colonel?"

"It is more than possible that some one going across by the private road pa.s.sing my brother's mansion may have carried the news of what has been going on at Breedings, and on the road from Millersville to Harrison, but not to Jamestown, for the great wood lies in the route, and no one travels that way."

"It is probable, then, that the force approaching is Confederate, on its way either to forage or to retrieve the disasters to that side in the affairs of yesterday; and all we have to do is to prepare to fight another engagement. I believe the dead and wounded have all been removed by this time. I see that the sharpshooters have a.s.sisted my men in this work."

"I sent an order to them to that effect," added Colonel Halliburn.

"I thank you for doing so; and all the more that we are threatened by another force of the enemy," continued the captain. "Your men, especially the riflemen, have rendered very important service in this action, and I shall report it to Major Lyon when the squadron is reunited. The rest of your men have been very useful to us, not only in guarding the wagons, but in the fight with the second platoon. I think you had better send an orderly to Lieutenant Ripley with an order that he remain where he is by the woods; for if we engage another company of the enemy, the riflemen will be needed to act as sharpshooters, and to render the same service as before, though they will probably not be driven back again beyond rifle-shot distance from the road."

"As the enemy approach they will see the hospitals on their left, and that will apprise them that a battle has been fought here."

"We have not time to remove these hospitals, and put everything as it was at the beginning of the engagement; but I shall fight this encounter so far as possible on the same plan as before, for it worked admirably; and we owe the result as much to our fortunate position as to anything else, for it enabled me to place your riflemen where they did the most effective work of the morning."

Captain Gordon had already despatched messengers to his two lieutenants, instructing them to move their platoons back to the side of the hill to the positions they had occupied before the action; and this order was now in process of being executed. Dr. Barlow, though he had been a fighting man at the beginning of the engagement, was now attending to the wounded, a.s.sisted by some men he had selected from his own company.

"I think you had better take possession of the house of this Secesh farmer for the wounded. He would have spoiled the morning's work if he had escaped, for he would have warned the enemy of their danger from a superior force."

The captain approved the idea, and instructed the colonel to effect the removal with his own force. The riflemen were also directed to remove the dead into the forest until there was time to dispose of them. The ground was still strewn with the dead, as they had fallen under the destructive fire of the sharpshooters. With the exception of the Confederate hospital, which was near the foot of the hill,--for their own surgeon had chosen the location by the side of a flowing brook, in the shadow of some mighty walnuts,--the hill presented the same appearance as when the enemy came in sight of it, and had been lured on to their defeat by the deceptive silence of the locality; for not a sound or a moving thing betrayed the peril that surrounded them.

Life Knox and Milton had run their horses to the utmost extent of their ability for over half a mile. When the tramp of the horses was heard, they halted and concealed themselves at the side of the road, at a bend of it; but they had hardly done so before the sound of the horses' feet ceased to be heard, and it looked as though the force had halted. Life dismounted, and climbed a tree not less than a hundred feet in height, which enabled him to see into the low ground on the other side of a slight elevation.

The cavalry were extended along a brook, watering their horses on both sides of it. The trees overtopped the stream so that it was quite dark on its banks, and the distance was so great that Life could not make out whether the men wore the blue or the gray, especially as he had made up his mind that the force was an enemy, and the trees half hid them from his view. He descended from his perch, and waited on the ground till he heard the clatter of a couple of horses near his hiding-place. He obtained a view of these men, and they wore blue uniforms.

"All right!" exclaimed Life. "They wear the blue."

He waited no longer, but darted into the road, followed by Milton. The two men, who were scouting in advance of the company, brought their carbines to the shoulder.

"I reckon you needn't shoot, Keene," said the sergeant quietly.

"Sergeant Knox!" cried the chief scout. "How came you here? Where is your company?"

"They ain't fur from here. Are you piloting the second company of the Riverlawn Cavalry, Keene?"

"Fox and me are treading down the mud for the company."

"All right; we uns will fall back and report to Major Lyon," said Life, and he galloped back to the main body of the company.

The commander of the squadron was riding at the head of the second company, and appeared to be absorbed in his own thoughts. He had learned a great deal about the situation in Pulaski, Russell, and Adair Counties, where the Confederate foragers had raided to secure supplies for the main army, and where, as in many other parts of the State, the independent partisan bands had conducted operations on their own responsibility. A spur of the c.u.mberland Mountains extended through the eastern part of the first-named county, and most of the region between this range and Virginia was mountainous. It was not so rich in supplies for an army as the territory to the west of it, to which the raiders had confined their depredations.

Major Lyon, like a good soldier, occasionally cast his eyes around him to take in the condition and topography of the country through which he was pa.s.sing; and he discovered the two scouts as they approached the head of the company. His first supposition was that the first company had fallen into trouble, and that the two scouts had been sent forward to hurry up the other company; for the two, as it had been arranged by the major, were to come together at Harrison, twenty-five miles from Millersville.

Life Knox rode forward in advance of Milton, and the commander of the squadron promptly recognized the tall, gaunt form of the sergeant; and his thoughts dwelt upon the occasion that had brought him this visit.

Life approached the major to within a rod of him, when he stopped his horse, and saluted him with his usual deference to his superiors.

"Good-morning, Life," said the commander. "I hope no misfortune has brought you in this direction. Are you escaping from an enemy that has overwhelmed the first company?"

"Nothin' of the sort, Major Lyon," replied Life, a broad smile lighting up his face. "We have met an enemy, and they'd run away if we'd let 'em."

This reply removed the burden of anxiety which had fallen upon the mind of the major when he discovered the scouts, and he smiled in his placid manner with the sergeant.

"Where is your company, Life?" he asked.

"I reckon it ain't more'n half a mile from here," replied the scout.

"I suppose you have news for me," continued the commander.

"Lots on't; but I can say that Captain Gordon, whether he is to meet a friend or an enemy in the cavalry, is comin' down this road. I don't reckon he's worryin' about it; but he may just be a bit anxious to know whether or not he is to fight you. If you don't object, Major Lyon, I'll let Milton ride back and tell the cap'n he won't have to fight no more just yet."

"Send him at once, Life;" and in a minute more the other scout was galloping his horse in the direction of the hill where the first company were posted. "What have you been doing, sergeant?"

"The fust company has fit into three scrimmages, and cleaned out a gang of gorillas," replied Life, as though he realized that he had a good report to make in answer to the question.

"You have been busy; and that explains the reason why I did not find you at Harrison as I expected," replied the major. "Tell me all about it; and as Captain Gordon is not in need of a re-enforcement, we will walk the horses, and listen to your story. Captain Truman, let the men walk the horses."

"Company--attention!" shouted the captain, wheeling his horse.

"Walk--March!"

"Place yourself on the left of Sergeant Knox, and listen to his story."

Life saluted the captain, who said he was glad to see him, and took the place to which he was a.s.signed.

"We had not gone two miles from Columbia before a messenger came to us and said that a cavalry force was moving down on Breedings," Life observed. "The captain took the second platoon under Lieutenant Belthorpe, and rushed over to Breedings. Lieutenant Lyon was ordered to march with his platoon and the baggage-wagons towards Millersville,"

added Life.

"Dexter with an independent command!" exclaimed the young man's father; for he seemed to regard him still as a small boy, and said so.

"He was; but the oldest officer in the squadron couldn't a done it no better," replied Life with enthusiasm; and he proceeded to tell about the appearance of Grace Morgan in the field, and gave a hurried account of the manner in which the guerillas had been trapped and captured.

Then came the battle with the force which had escaped from Breedings, the march to Millersville, the re-enforcement of the Home Guard, and the fight at the hill. The major asked a great many questions, for the sergeant had been obliged to hurry his narrative, and Life answered them.

As they approached the hill, the head of the first company were marching down the descent; for Milton had reported his message to Captain Gordon, who was a little startled when he saw the private returning without the sergeant, fearful that something had happened to him.

The news brought by the new recruit was immediately circulated through the company and that of Colonel Halliburn. The riflemen were called from the forest, and came to the road mounted, with their weapons slung on their backs. The whole force was formed on the slope of the hill; and when the second company marched up the declivity, with Major Lyon at the head of it, they presented arms, and then indulged in a vigorous cheer.

CHAPTER XII

A NEW COMPANY OF MOUNTED RIFLEMEN