Chapter 105
"'DEAR SIR,--The safety of this Army depends entirely upon its immediate reenforcement by all the troops at Was.h.i.+ngton, as my plan is entirely different from your plan, and your plan differs somewhat from my plan. The importance of saving Was.h.i.+ngton by your plan, is as nothing when compared with the opposite tenor of my plan; which might, after all, be the saving of Was.h.i.+ngton by my plan, though my plan does not agree with your plan. I will stay with this army, and die with it, if need be, by my plan.
"'THE GENERAL OF THE MACKEREL BRIGADE.'
"Both plans were put in force, and during the period elapsing between this date and the middle of November, the troops were busily occupied in fortifying themselves--against the inclemency of the weather. Arrangements being made and completed for the decent interment of such troops as should die of old age before the next great movement took place, the General of the Mackerel Brigade had just opened a correspondence with his family on the subject of the Presidency of the United States in 1865, when he received the appended note:
"'GENERAL,--You will feel immediately relieved upon receiving this, and will report immediately to your wife at Hoboken.
Colonel Wobert Wobinson is hereby ordered to take command of the Mackerel Brigade.
"'ADJUTANT.'
"Upon the a.s.sumption of command by General Wobinson, it was immediately observed that he possessed a great deal of Shape. He crossed Duck Lake on his Shape, and in pursuance of the plan of his predecessor, opened an instant attack upon Paris. Shortly after the attack, the whole Brigade was back across Duck Lake again, and the new General sent his resignation to Was.h.i.+ngton. It was refused, as unnecessary; and the General then devised a plan for startling the whole country, by organizing the Anatomical Cavalry upon an equestrian basis, and making a raid upon some Confederate oats known to be somewhere in the daily journals. The secret of this movement was confided to but three parties,--the Honest Abe, the Southern Confederacy, and the public; but before the move could take place it was divulged and frustrated. The General then sent in his resignation, which was refused as unnecessary. It was subsequent to this that a third great movement was arranged, when a shower came up suddenly, and it had to be abandoned. It was upon this occasion that the General sent in his resignation, when it was refused as unnecessary. Simultaneously, as it were, the officer popularly known as the Grim Old Fighting c.o.x, was appointed to the command, and here our exciting tale ends for the present.
"If the above record of a year of the war presents some discouraging features, it also offers many seeds of hope for the future, inasmuch as it would appear utterly impossible for the future to be less fruitful of national triumphs than the past has been. The greatness of our nation is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that we are spending two millions of dollars per day; and as soon as the present rebellion shall have been crushed, the final defeat of the celebrated Southern Confederacy will become a mere question of time, and we shall be prepared to commit immediate a.s.sault upon combined Europe.
"V. GAMMON."
Alas! my boy, what can we say to such a revelation of national strategy? I was thinking over its developments as I wandered listlessly amongst the deserted Mackerel fortifications this side of Mana.s.sas on Thursday,--I was thinking about it, I say, when my attention was attracted by a soldier's grave located in the very midst of the dismantled earthworks. It bore a rude monument of pine-board, on which the companions of the strategic deceased had written the following inscription with chalk.
As I read this simple inscription, I could not help thinking how many Mackerels, like this poor fifer, had rushed from their homes to the war, panting for victory or honorable death, only to be slowly consumed by national strategy, and die of inglorious fortification and indigestion.
MUGGY JIM,
A MACKEREL FIFER,
LATE OF THE NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT; TAKEN SICK OF INDIGESTION, HE COMMENCED TO THROW UP FORTIFICATIONS, AND DIED OF STRATEGY.
_Hic Jacet._ 1..5-4.
0....4....1....2....8,
0....4....1....2....0;
0....2...80....8,
0....2...45....4.
It needs no Champollion's hieroglyphical skill to read the beautiful little verse of the fifer's epitaph, though that verse had to be inscribed figuratively, in order to get it all upon the narrow monument. In all its praise of that quiet sleep in which there are no antic.i.p.ations to
"HERE LIES
ONE FIFER:
Nought for one to wait, Nought for one to sigh-for; Nought too weighty ate, Nought to fortify-for."
The Mackerel poet who wrote those lines, my boy, may have been no rhetorician; but his theme was an inspiration giving him more than ordinary mastery of the figures of speech.
Yours, gravely,
ORPHEUS C. KERR.
LETTER XCII.
IN WHICH OUR ENTHUSIASTIC CORRESPONDENT SURPa.s.sES aeSCHYLUS IN THE WAY OF AN INVOCATION; AND DESCRIBES REAR ADMIRAL HEAD'S GREAT NAVAL DEMONSTRATION AGAINST FORT PIANO.
WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C., April 20th, 1863.
Stand aside, my boy, and realize your own civilian insignificance, while I invoke all the G.o.ds of Old Olympus to aid me with their inspiration, in the tale of naval grandeur it is my duty to unfold.
Fired with the soul to hail my country great, and write her honors endless to the world, full to the sun I wave the eager pen, invoking all the lightning of the G.o.ds. Descend on me, Olympian dews, descend!
that this tired brain, where oft the new-born thought hath died unblossomed in the fainting soil, may catch fresh vigor from the grateful balm, and teem thrice glorious in a n.o.bler youth. By all the fire that glows in Homer's song, to make all ages flame anew with Troy; by all the music stirred in Virgil's lay, to make aeneas ever march the world; by all the heav'nly fury of the theme, aeschylus-taken, picturing G.o.ds to men; by all the Art o'er nature raised sublime, and unto Xenophon revealed by night, to make Ten Thousand n.o.bler in Retreat than thrice ten thousand by a Caesar led; by All that unto All hath been their All, I charge thee, oh, thou impulse of the G.o.ds! grand as the storm and chainless as the wind, descend on me! as lightning from the cloud descends to beacon what the storm makes dark. That I may write, in words of thunder born, such deeds as strengthen while they shake the world; that I may write, in lines to trumpets tuned, such acts as make men brothers to the G.o.ds; that I may write, in notes to mock the lute, such feats of cunning as lull Fate to sleep; that I may dip th'
immortalizing pen in bright Pactolus' ever golden stream, and write, in language sweeter to the ear than Hymet's honey to soft Dion's lips, glories of arms to first make Nature crouch--then leap to something higher than herself!
(If any man objects to that sort of thing, my boy, may he be whipped to death by the aged maidens of the Confederacy, and utterly perish _per flagellationem extremam_.)
And now I feel the Homeric inspiration in all my veins as I dip the impatient quill into the Black Republican ink, and hasten to record the deathless honors recently reaped by the Mackerel Iron-plated Squadron in a deathless attack upon Fort Piano.
You may remember, my boy, that the construction of a pier on Duck Lake by some shameless Confederacies, and the erection on the end thereof of Fort Piano, was first made known to our n.o.ble old sea-dog, Rear Admiral Head, whilst he sat on the quarter deck of his original iron-plated squadron fis.h.i.+ng for ba.s.s, by the accidental knocking of the squadron against the end of the pier. His back being turned at the time, he had not noticed the building of the terrible fortification; and when the horrible jar of the collision caused him to look that way, he found six villanous horse-pistols so planted by the disrespectful Confederacies as to exactly command his fish-basket and box of bait. You may also remember my boy, how our glorious old Neptune subsequently caused the stanch "Secretary Welles" to run the blockade of the fort, to thoroughly test the invulnerability of the iron-clad principle; and how the result of that test satisfactorily proved the iron-clad principle to be entirely testaceous.
Since then, you have heard about the building of the new Mackerel iron-plated squadron, the "Shockingbadhat," with Rear Admiral Head's newly improved turret and reversed swivel-gun; but you have not yet heard, my boy, anything at all about the unique manufacture of six additional iron-plated squadrons, to partic.i.p.ate with the "Shockingbadhat" in the recent severe attack on Fort Piano. You have not heard of these six new monsters before, my boy, and respect for the really decent families of the inventors forbids that I should tell you anything descriptive about them now, save their names.
It was intended that the name of the first should be something full of significance to perfidious England, and, at the same time, something never used in England. Hence, she was christened the "Aitch."
The second was to bear a name signifying the power of bending without breaking; and so she was called after that elastic tree, the "Yew."
In the name of the third, the Government wished to pay a complimentary tribute to Rear Admiral Head; and, in honor of his daughter, Emma, the squadron was named the "Em."
The fourth iron-plated invulnerable Mackerel monster it was deemed proper to decorate with a name expressive of industry coupled with a power to sting; and so she was called the "Bee."
There was some discussion about the proper t.i.tle for the fifth patent iron-clad, each member of the generous Mackerel Naval Committee saying to the other: "Why can't she be named after you?" So, it was at length decided, to happily compromise the matter by calling her the "You."
By common consent the sixth invincible iron monster was adjudged to be known by the first of General George B. McClellan's initials, and was ent.i.tled the "Gee."
Add these new national champions of the deep, my boy, to the "Shockingbadhat," and you will have some idea of the glorious naval pageant prepared to administer wholesome correction to the irreverent Confederacies of Fort Piano, and teach the world that worn-out cooking-stoves can be sold to the sagacious Government of the United States of America for something better than old iron.
The "Shockingbadhat" was the flag-s.h.i.+p; and, on the morning of the attack, the h.o.a.ry Rear Admiral Head repaired to the top of her turret with his umbrella, fis.h.i.+ng-rod, and pocket-microscope, taking with him the Mackerel crew to work the improved swivel-gun, which was also up there; and giving orders to another unconquerable Mackerel to locate himself amids.h.i.+ps with a quart measure, for the purpose of measuring the number of bushels of shots striking the turret during the first two seconds of the approaching sea-fight.
Ranged along the right sh.o.r.e of Duck Lake, my boy, to witness the battle and lend l.u.s.tre to the landscape, was a land-force of virtuous Mackerels, under command of the venerable grandmother of Rear Admiral Head; and she was the one whose appearance gave rise to that rumor amongst the Confederacies in the Fort, that Secretary Welles was reviewing the troops in person.
On the opposite sh.o.r.e of the Lake was a delegation of European chaps, come to behold the engagement; including Fatti O'Murphy, candidate for the vacant throne of Greece; the Hon. Mr. New Troloppe, of England; and le Marquis Non Puebla, French Minister to Mexico.
At the head of the Lake, my boy, I stood myself, with my bit of smoked gla.s.s in my hand; and around me were the reporters of all the reliable and excellent morning journals, spitting on their hands, preparatory to writing their exciting descriptions of personal danger.
Precisely at noon the Mackerels of the land force raised their umbrellas, the Mackerel crews got aboard their respective squadrons, and exercises were commenced by the singing of--