Chapter 68
"I have a plan to entrap the Confederacy, and end this doomed rebellion at one stroke. Do you mark that long train of army wagons down there near my quarters?"
"Yes," says I, nervously.
"Well, then, my nice little boy," says the general, cautiously, "I'll tell you what the plan is. These wagons contain the rations of our troops. It is my purpose to induce the celebrated Confederacy to capture these wagons and attempt to eat those rations. If the Confederacy will only do that," says the general, fiercely, "it will be taken sick on the spot, and we shall capture it alive."
I could not but feel shocked at this inhuman artifice, my boy. The Southerners have indeed acted in away to forfeit all ordinary mercy, but still, we should abstain from any retaliatory act savoring of demoniac malignity. Our foes are at least human beings.
Suppressing my horror, however, I a.s.sumed a practical aspect, and says I:
"But how are the Mackerel warriors to subsist, my Napoleon, if you allow the rations to go?"
"Thunder!" says the general, handing me a paper from his pocket. "They are to subsist exclusively on the enemy. Just peruse this doc.u.ment, which I have just fulminated."
Taking the paper, I found it to be the following
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, The matter of provisions is a great expense to the United States of America, besides offering inducements for unexpected raids on the part of the famis.h.i.+ng foeman; the Mackerel Brigade is hereby directed to live entirely upon the Southern Confederacy, eating him alive wherever found, and partaking of no other food.
The Brigade will not be permitted to take any clothing with it on the march, being required henceforth to dress exclusively in the habiliments of captured Confederacies.
We have done with retrograde movements. No more lines of retreat will be kept open, and henceforth the Mackerel Brigade is to make nothing but great captures.
By order of THE GENERAL OF THE MACKEREL BRIGADE.
[Green Seal.]
This able doc.u.ment, my boy, pleased me greatly as an evidence that the war had indeed commenced in earnest; and though at that moment, I beheld some half a dozen Confederacies ransacking the tent where the general kept his mortgages, his bank account, and other Government property, I felt that our foes were about to be summarily dealt with at last.
An orderly having finally given notice to the Confederacies rummaging within our lines to get to their proper places, in order that the battle might begin, the Anatomical Cavalry, under Captain Samyule Sa-mith, made a headlong charge upon a body of foes who were destroying a bridge near the middle of the field, and succeeded in obliging them to remain there. This brilliant movement was the signal for a general engagement, and a regiment of Confederacies at once advanced within our lines and inquired the way to Was.h.i.+ngton.
Having given them the desired information, and allowed a number of other similar regiments to take a position between the Mackerels and the capital, the general gave orders for the Conic Section and the Orange County Howitzers to fall cautiously back, in order that the remaining Confederacies might get between us and Richmond.
You will perceive that by this movement, my boy, we cut the enemy's force completely in two, thus compelling him to attack us either in
You may remember, my boy, that it has heretofore been our misfortune to fight on the circ.u.mference of a circle, while the Confederacy had the inside, and this great strategic scheme was intended to produce a result _vice versa_.
It was a great success, my boy--a great success; and our troops presently found themselves inside the most complete circle on record.
Villiam Brown not only charged into the wood, but staid there; and when one of the Orange County Howitzers was discharged with great precision at a reporter who was caught sneaking into our lines, the report was heard by the Venerable Gammon at Was.h.i.+ngton, causing that revered man to telegraph to all the papers, that no one need feel alarmed, as he was perfectly safe, and that our victory was very complete.
What particular danger the Venerable Gammon had incurred, I can't say, my boy; nor what he knew about the battle; but his dispatch caused renewed confidence all over the country, and was a great comfort to his friends.
Having got the Confederacies just where he wanted them, the General of the Mackerel Brigade now dispatched ten veterans under Sergeant O'Pake to attack a few hundred foes who had intrenched themselves in an unseemly manner right among our wagons. The Mackerels were well received as prisoners of war, and paroled on the spot; a proceeding which so greatly pleased the idolized general, that he at once issued this second
PROCLAMATION.
It must be understood, that in his recent proclamation directing the Mackerel Brigade to dine exclusively upon Southern Confederacies, the general commanding did not intend that such dining should take place without the free consent of aforesaid Confederacies.
It must not be understood that the order concerning the confiscation of Confederate garments is intended to authorize a forcible confiscation of such costume, in opposition to the free will of the wearers.
By "no lines of retreat being kept open," is meant: no lines of which the general commanding was at that time cognizant.
THE GENERAL OF THE MACKEREL BRIGADE.
This admirable order, my boy, produced great enthusiasm in the ranks, as no Confederacies had yet been caught, and there was some danger of starvation in the _corps_.
And now, my boy, occurred that magnificent piece of generals.h.i.+p which is destined to live forever on the annals of fame, and convince the world that our military leaders possess a genius eminently fitting every one of them for the next Presidency, or any other peaceful office. By skillful manoeuvring, the gifted General of the Mackerel Brigade had succeeded in cutting the enemy's force to pieces, the pieces being mixed up with our own army. Then came the words: "Forward, double-quick!"
Facing toward Was.h.i.+ngton, our vanguard forced the Confederacies before them to move right ahead. Swiftly following the vanguard, and evidently fancying that it was flying before them, came a regiment of Confederacies. Pursuing the latter, as though in triumph, appeared the Conic Section, Mackerel Brigade; closely succeeded in its turn by a regiment of Confederacies in charge of our baggage-wagons; racing after whom was a regiment of Mackerels; and so on to the end of the line.
You may ask me, my boy, with which side rested the victory in this remarkable movement?
That question, my boy, cannot be decided yet, as the whole procession has scarcely reached Was.h.i.+ngton; but the answer may be said to depend very much upon whether the last regiment coming in is Mackerel or Confederate.
The contest, my boy, has a.s.sumed a profound metaphysical aspect, and the development of a little more military genius on our own side will tend to utterly confound our enemies and--everybody else.
Yours, ponderingly, ORPHEUS C. KERR.
LETTER LXVIII.
INTRODUCING ONCE MORE THE COSMOPOLITAN CLUB, WITH A CURIOUS "LAMENT," AND A STORY FROM THE SPANISH MEMBER.
WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., September 9th, 1862.
You may remember, my boy, that some months ago there was a trespa.s.s of depraved burglarious chaps at Wheatland, the seat of Ex-President Buchanan. The matter might have slipped my own mind, had not the British member of the Cosmopolitan, last night, read aloud the following memorandum of the thing, found in a deserted Confederate camp on the Rappahannock. The Briton waved his hand for silence, and says he:
LAMENT.
BY A CHEVALIER D'INDUSTRIE
It really seems as if the trick Of this here game, secession, Was bound to bring disgrace upon Each wirtuous profession.
The days of chivalry are gone, When gentlemen wos plucky, And sooner'd starve than lower themselves To make their swag and lucky.
Why, when I wos a little prig, And took the junior branches, We all looked down upon the chap That traveled vulgar ranches.
It wos beneath a gentleman To stoop to vulgar stealin's; And when I see how things is changed, It really hurts my feelin's.
We had some dignity, you see, And upper circles knew it; For if a thing wos wicious mean, We wos too proud to do it!
The crib that wos respectable Among the higher cla.s.ses, We cracked in style, like gentlemen.
And took the spoons and gla.s.ses.
But when a crib wos something low-- An author's, or a preacher's-- We had too much of self-respect To recognize the creatures.