Fighting for the Right, Oliver Optic [easy novels to read .txt] 📗

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY—AFLOAT Two colors cloth   Emblematic Dies   Illustrated
Price per volume $1.50 TAKEN BY THE ENEMY
WITHIN THE ENEMY'S LINES
ON THE BLOCKADE
STAND BY THE UNION
FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT
A VICTORIOUS UNION THE BLUE AND THE GRAY—ON LAND Two colors cloth   Emblematic Dies   Illustrated
Price per volume $1.50 BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER
IN THE SADDLE
A LIEUTENANT AT EIGHTEEN
ON THE STAFF
AT THE FRONT
AN UNDIVIDED UNION *   *   *   Any Volume Sold Separately   *   *   * LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS BOSTON

The Blue and the Gray Series Fighting for the Right BY OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE
GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE STORIES" "THE STARRY FLAG
SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB SERIES" "THE ONWARD AND UPWARD
SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE LAKE SHORE SERIES"
"THE RIVERDALE STORIES" "THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES"
"TAKEN BY THE ENEMY" "WITHIN THE ENEMY'S LINES"
"ON THE BLOCKADE" "STAND BY THE UNION"
"A MISSING MILLION" "A MILLIONAIRE
AT SIXTEEN" ETC., ETC., ETC. BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1892, by Lee and Shepard All rights reserved. Fighting for the Right Type-Setting and Electrotyping by
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston To MY GRAND NEPHEW RICHARD LABAN ADAMS This Book IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 7 PREFACE

"Fighting for the Right" is the fifth and last but one of "The Blue and the Gray Series." The character of the operations in connection with the war of the Rebellion, and the incidents in which the interest of the young reader will be concentrated, are somewhat different from most of those detailed in the preceding volumes of the series, though they all have the same patriotic tendency, and are carried out with the same devotion to the welfare of the nation as those which deal almost solely in deeds of arms.

Although the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy of the Union won all the honors gained in the field of battle or on the decks of the national ships, and deserved all the laurels they gathered by their skill and bravery in the trying days when the republic was in peril, they were not the only actors in the greatest strife of the nineteenth century. Not all the labor of "saving 8 the Union" was done in the trenches, on the march, on the gun deck of a man-of-war, or in other military and naval operations, though without these the efforts of all others would have been in vain. Thousands of men and women who never "smelled gunpowder," who never heard the booming cannon, or the rattling musketry, who never witnessed a battle on sea or land, but who kept their minds and hearts in touch with the holy cause, labored diligently and faithfully to support and sustain the soldiers and sailors at the front.

If all those who fought no battles are not honored like the leaders and commanders in the loyal cause, if they wear no laurels on their brows, if no monuments are erected to transmit their memory to posterity, if their names and deeds are not recorded in the Valhalla of the redeemed nation, they ought not to be disregarded and ignored. It was not on the field of strife alone in the South that the battle was fought and won. The army and the navy needed a moral, as well as a material support, which was cheerfully rendered by the great army of the people who never buckled on a sword, or shouldered a musket. Their work can 9 not be summed up in deeds, for there was little or nothing that was brilliant and dazzling in their career. They need no monuments; but their work was necessary to the final and glorious result of the most terrible war of modern times.

No apology is necessary for placing the hero of the story and his skilful associate in a position at a distance from the actual field of battle. They were working for the salvation of the Union as effectively as they could have done in the din of the strife. They were "Fighting for the Right," as they understood it, though it is not treason to say, thirty years later, that the people of the South were as sincere as those of the North; and they could hardly have fought and suffered to the extent they did if it had been otherwise.

The incidents of the volume are more various than in the preceding stories, which were so largely a repetition of battle scenes; but the hero is still as earnest as ever in the cause he loves. He attains a high position without any ambition to win it; for, like millions of others who gave the best years of their lives to sustain the Union, who suffered the most terrible hardships and privations, so many hundreds of thousands giving their lives to 10 their country, Christy fought and labored for the cause, and not from any personal ambition. It is the young man's high character, his devotion to duty, rather than the incidents and adventures in which he is engaged, that render him worthy of respect, and deserving of the honors that were bestowed upon him. The younger participants in the war of the Rebellion, Christy Passford among the number, are beginning to be grizzled with the snows of fifty winters; but they are still rejoicing in "A Victorious Union."

William T. Adams.

Dorchester, April 18, 1892.

"Christy seized him by the collar with both hands." (Page 75)

11 CONTENTS page CHAPTER I. A Conference at Bonnydale 15 CHAPTER II. A Complicated Case 26 CHAPTER III. The Departure of the Chateaugay 37 CHAPTER IV. Monsieur Gilfleur explains 48 CHAPTER V. An Abundance of Evidence 59 CHAPTER VI. The Boarding of the Ionian 70 CHAPTER VII. A Bold Proposition 81 CHAPTER VIII. A Notable Expedition 92 CHAPTER IX. The Frenchman in Bermuda 103 CHAPTER X. 12 Important Information obtained 114 CHAPTER XI. An Unexpected Rencontre 125 CHAPTER XII. As Impracticable Scheme 136 CHAPTER XIII. At the End of the Chase 147 CHAPTER XIV. An Easy Victory 158 CHAPTER XV. The Gentleman with a Grizzly Beard 169 CHAPTER XVI. Among the Bahamas 180 CHAPTER XVII. The Landing at New Providence 191 CHAPTER XVIII. An Affray in Nassau 202 CHAPTER XIX. An Old Acquaintance 213 CHAPTER XX. A Band of Ruffians 224 CHAPTER XXI. A Question of Neutrality 235 CHAPTER XXII. 13 On Board of the Snapper 246 CHAPTER XXIII. The Chateaugay in the Distance 257 CHAPTER XXIV. The Tables turned 268 CHAPTER XXV. Captain Flanger in Irons 279 CHAPTER XXVI. A Visit to Tampa Bay 290 CHAPTER XXVII. Among the Keys of Tampa 302 CHAPTER XXVIII. The Surrender of the Reindeer 313 CHAPTER XXIX. Bringing out the Prize 324 CHAPTER XXX. A Very Important Service 335 CHAPTER XXXI. An Undesired Promotion 346 15 FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT CHAPTER I A CONFERENCE AT BONNYDALE

"Well, Christy, how do you feel this morning?" asked Captain Passford, one bright morning in April, at Bonnydale on the Hudson, the residence of the former owner of the Bellevite, which he had presented to the government.

"Quite well, father; I think I never felt any better in all my life," replied Lieutenant Passford, of the United States Navy, recently commander of the little gunboat Bronx, on board of which he had been severely wounded in an action with a Confederate fort in Louisiana.

"Do you feel any soreness at the wound in your arm?" inquired the devoted parent with some anxiety.

"Not a particle, father."

16 "Or at the one in your thigh?"

"Not the slightest bit of soreness. In fact, I have been ready to return to my duty at any time within the last month," replied Christy very cheerfully. "It would be a shame for me to loiter around home any longer, when I am as able to