Chapter 13
"He is acting just now as aide to General Jackson. You have been all this while with General Magruder on the Peninsula?"
"Yes, until lately. We missed Mana.s.sas." He stood beside the garden wall, his gauntleted hand on the gatepost. A creeper bearing yet a few leaves hung from a tree above, and one of the crimson points touched his grey cap. "I am now on General Loring's staff. Where he goes at present I go. And where General Jackson goes, apparently we all go! Heigho! How do you like war, Miss Miriam?"
Miriam regarded him with her air of a brown and gold gilliflower. She thought him very handsome, and oh, she liked the gold-braided cap and the fine white gauntlet! "There is something to be said on both sides,"
she stated sedately. "I should like it very much did not you all run into danger."
Stafford looked at her, amused. "But some of us run out again--Ah!"
Cleave came from the house and down the path to the gate, moving in a red sunset glow, beneath trees on which yet hung a few russet leaves. He greeted his mother and sister, then turned with courtesy to Stafford.
"Sandy Pendleton told me you were in town. From General Loring, are you not? You low-countrymen are gathering all our mountain laurels! Gauley River and Greenbriar and to-day, news of the Allegheny engagement--"
"You seem to be bent," said Stafford, "on drawing us from the Monterey line before we can gather any more! We will be here next week."
"You do not like the idea?"
The other shrugged. "I? Why should I care? It is war to go where you are sent. But this weather is much too good to last, and I fail to see what can be done to the northward when winter is once let loose! And we leave the pa.s.ses open. There is nothing to prevent Rosecrans from pus.h.i.+ng a force through to Staunton!"
"That is the best thing that could happen. Draw them into the middle valley and they are ours."
Stafford made a gesture. "_Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame!_ Mrs. Cleave, there is no help for it! We are bewitched--and all by a stone wall in an old cadet cap!"
Cleave laughed. "No, no! but it is, I think, apparent--You will not go in? I will walk with you, then, as far as the hotel."
Margaret Cleave held out her hand. "Good-bye, Major Stafford. We think day and night of all you soldiers. G.o.d bless you all, wherever you may be!"
In the sunset light the two men turned their faces toward the Taylor House. "It is a good thing to have a mother," said Stafford. "Mine died when I was a little boy.--Well, what do you think of affairs in general?"
"I think that last summer we won a Pyrrhic victory."
"I share your opinion. It was disastrous. How confident we are with our 'One to Four,' our 'Quality, not Quant.i.ty,' our contempt for 'Brute Ma.s.s'! To listen to the newspapers one would suppose that the fighting animal was never bred north of the Potomac--Maryland, alone, an honourable exception! France and England, too! They'll be our active allies not a minute later than April Fool's Day!"
"You are bitter."
"It is the case, is it not?"
"Yes," said Cleave gravely. "And the blockade is daily growing more effective, and yet before we are closed in a ring of fire we do not get our cotton out nor our muskets in! Send the cotton to Europe and sell it and so fill the treasury with honest gold!--not with this delusion of wealth, these sheafs of Promises to Pay the Government is issuing. Five million bales of cotton idle in the South! With every nerve strained, with daring commensurate to the prize, we could get them out--even now!
To-morrow it will be too late. The blockade will be complete, and we shall rest as isolated as the other side of the moon. Well! Few countries or men are wise till after the event."
"You are not bitter."
Cleave shook his head. "I do not believe in bitterness. And if the government is not altogether wise, so are few others. The people are heroic. We will see what we will see. I had a letter from the Peninsula the other day. Fauquier Cary is there with his legion. He says that McClellan will organize and organize and organize again until springtime. It's
They approached the old colonnaded hotel. Stafford's horse stood at the rack. A few soldiers were about the place and down the street, in the warm dusk a band was playing. "You ride up the valley to-night?" said Cleave. "When you return to Winchester you must let me serve you in any way I can."
"You are very good. How red the sunsets are! Look at that bough across the sky!"
"Were you," asked Cleave, "were you in Albemarle this autumn?"
"Yes. For one day in October. The country looked its loveliest. The old ride through the woods, by the mill--"
"I remember," said Cleave. "My cousins were well?"
"Quite well. Enchanted princesses guarded by the sable Julius. The old place was all one drift of red and yellow leaves."
They reached the hotel. Cleave spoke abruptly. "I am to report presently at headquarters, so I will say good-bye here." The two touched hands. "A pleasant gallop! You'll have a moon and the road is good. If you see Randolph of Taliaferro's, tell him to bring that book of mine he has."
He walked away, stalwart in the afterglow. Stafford watched him from the porch. "Under other circ.u.mstances," he thought, "I might have liked you well enough. Now I do not care if you lead your mad general's next mad charge."
The night fell, mild as milk, with a great white moon above the treetops. It made like mother-of-pearl the small grey house with pointed windows occupied, this December, by Stonewall Jackson. A clock in the hall was striking nine as Cleave lifted the knocker. An old negro came to the door. "Good-evening, Jim. Will you tell the general--"
Some one spoke from down the hall. "Is that Captain Cleave? Come here, sir."
Pa.s.sing an open door through which could be seen a clerk writing and an aide with his hands behind him studying an engraving of Was.h.i.+ngton crossing the Delaware, Cleave went on to the room whence the voice had issued. "Come in, and close the door," it said again.
The room was small, furnished with a Spartan simplicity, but with two good lamps and with a log of hickory burning on the hearth. A table held a number of outspread maps and three books--the Bible, a dictionary, and Napoleon's "Maxims." General Jackson was seated on a small, rush-bottomed chair beside the table. By the window stood a soldier in nondescript grey attire, much the worse for mud and brambles. "Captain Cleave," said the general, "were you ever on the Chesapeake and Ohio Ca.n.a.l?"
"No, sir."
"Do you know the stretch of the Potomac north of us?"
"I have ridden over the country between Harper's Ferry and Bath."
"Do you know where is Dam No. 5?"
"Yes, sir."
"Come nearer, Gold," said the general. "Go on with your report."
"I counted thirty boats going up, general," said Allan. "All empty.
There's a pretty constant stream of them just now. They'll get the coal at c.u.mberland and turn back toward Was.h.i.+ngton in about ten days. It is estimated that a thousand tons a day will go down the ca.n.a.l--some of it for private use in Was.h.i.+ngton, but the greater part for the wars.h.i.+ps and the factories. The flatboats carry a large amount of forage. The Yankees are using them, too, to transport troops. There is no attempt to rebuild the section of the Baltimore and Ohio that we destroyed. They seem willing to depend upon the ca.n.a.l. But if Dam No. 5 were cut it would dry that ca.n.a.l like a bone for miles. The river men say that if any considerable breach were made it could not be mended this winter. As for the troops on the other side of the river--" He drew out a slip of paper and read from it: "'Yankees upon the Maryland side of the Potomac from Point of Rocks to Hanc.o.c.k--say thirty-five hundred men. Two thirds of this force above Dam No. 4. At Williamsport Colonel Leonard with three regiments and several guns. At Four Locks a troop. At Dam No. 5 several companies of infantry encamped. At Hanc.o.c.k a considerable force--perhaps two regiments. A detachment at Clear Spring. Cavalry over against Sleepy Creek, Cherry Run, and Sir John's Run. Concentration easy at any point up and down the river. A system of signals both for the other side and for any of their scouts who may have crossed to this. Troops reported below Point of Rocks and at the mouth of the Monocacy. The remainder of General Banks's division--perhaps fifteen thousand men--in winter quarters at Frederick City.'--That is all I have to report, general."
"Very good," said Jackson. "Give me your memorandum. Captain Cleave--"
"Yes, sir."
Stonewall Jackson rose from the rush-bottomed chair and walked with his slow stiff stride to the mantelpiece. From behind a china vase he took a saucer holding a lemon which had been cut in two, then, standing very rigidly before the fire, he slowly and meditatively sucked the lemon.
Cleave, beside the table, had a whimsical thought. The general, about to open slightly the door of reticence and impart information, was stimulating himself to the effort. He put the lemon down and returned to the table. "Captain Cleave, while I am waiting for General Loring, I propose to break this dam--Dam No. 5."
"Yes, sir."
"I shall go almost immediately to Martinsburg, taking with me General Garnett's brigade and two of the Rockbridge guns. It will be necessary to cover the operation. The work may take several days. By the time the dam is broken General Loring will be up."
His eyes moved toward the mantel. Allan Gold stepped noiselessly across the room and brought back the saucer with the lemon, setting it on the table. "Thank you," said Jackson gently, and sucked the acid treasure.
"With this reinforcement I am going against Kelly at Romney. If G.o.d gives us the victory there, I shall strike past Kelly at Rosecrans."
"I hope that He will give it, sir. That part of Virginia is worth making an effort for."
"That is my opinion, sir. While I march toward Romney the government at Was.h.i.+ngton may thrust General Banks across the Potomac. I do not want him in my rear, nor between me and General Johnston." He again sucked the lemon. "The Secretary of War writes that our spies report a clamour at Was.h.i.+ngton for some movement before spring. It is thought at Richmond that General Banks has been ordered to cross the Potomac as soon as practicable, effecting if possible a junction with Kelly and descending upon Winchester; General McClellan at the same time to advance against General Johnston at Mana.s.sas. Maybe it is so, maybe not. Of one thing I am sure--General McClellan will not move until General Banks is on this side of the river. Yesterday Colonel Ashby captured a courier of Kelly's bearing a letter to Banks. The letter, which demands an answer, asks to know explicitly what are Banks's instructions from Was.h.i.+ngton."