The Rock of Chickamauga, Joseph A. Altsheler [best book club books txt] 📗

the

opportunity to strike at Forrest. He must give his horses a short rest,

and then Dick and the sergeant should guide him at speed to the ford

where the opposing forces stood.

 

"It's twenty-five miles, you tell me?" said Grierson to Dick.

 

"As nearly as I can calculate, sir. It's through swampy country, but I

think we ought to be there in three or four hours."

 

"Then lead the way," said Grierson. "Like your colonel, I'll be glad to

have a try at Forrest."

 

Sergeant Whitley rode in advance. A lumberman first and then a soldier

of the plains, he had noted even in the darkness every landmark and he

could lead the way back infallibly. But he warned Grierson that such a

man as Forrest would be likely to have out scouts, even if they had to

swim the river. It was likely that they could not get nearer by three or

four miles to Colonel Winchester without being seen.

 

"Then," said Grierson, who had the spirit of a Stuart or a Forrest,

"we'll ride straight on, brushing these watchers out of our way, and if

by any chance their whole force should cross, we'll just meet and fight

it."

 

"The little river is falling fast," said the sergeant. "It's likely that

it'll be fordable almost anywhere by noon."

 

"Then," said Grierson, "it'll be all the easier for us to get at the

enemy."

 

Dick, just behind Grierson, heard these words and he liked them. Here

was a spirit like Colonel Winchester's own, or like that of the great

Southern cavalry leaders. The Southerners were born on horseback, but

the Northern men were acquiring the same trick of hard riding. Dick

glanced back at the long column. Armed with carbine and saber the men

were riding their trained horses like Comanches. Eager and resolute

it was a formidable force, and his heart swelled with pride and

anticipation. He believed that they were going to give Forrest all he

wanted and maybe a little more.

 

Up rose the sun. Hot beams poured over forest and field, but the

cavalrymen still rode fast, the scent of battle in their nostrils. Dick

knew that these Southern streams, flooded by torrents of rain, rose fast

and also fell fast.

 

"How much further now, sergeant?" asked Grierson, as they turned from a

path into the deep woods.

 

"Not more than three miles, sir."

 

"And they know we're coming. Listen to that!"

 

Several rifles cracked among the trees and bullets whizzed by them.

Forrest's skirmishers and scouts were on the south side of the stream.

As they had foreseen, the river had sunk so much that it was fordable

now at many points. Dick was devoutly grateful that they had found

Grierson. Otherwise the Winchester regiment would have been flanked, and

its destruction would have followed.

 

Skirmishers were detached from Grierson's command and drove off the

Southern riflemen. Dick heard the rattling fire of their rifles in the

deep wood, but he seldom saw a figure. Then he heard another fire, heavy

and continuous, in their front, coming quite clearly on a breeze that

blew toward them.

 

"Your whole regiment is engaged," exclaimed Grierson. "Forrest must have

forded the river elsewhere!"

 

He turned and shook aloft his saber.

 

"Forward, lads!" he shouted. "Gallant men of our own army will be

overwhelmed unless we get up in time!"

 

The whole force broke into a gallop through the woods, the fire in their

front rapidly growing heavier. In ten minutes they would be there, but

rifles suddenly blazed from the forest on their flank and many saddles

were emptied. Nothing upsets like surprise, and for a few moments the

whole command was in disorder. It was evident that Forrest was attacking

Winchester with only a part of his force, while he formed an ambush for

Grierson.

 

But the Northern cavalrymen had not learned in vain through disaster and

experience. Grierson quickly restored order and drew his men back into

the forest. As the enemy followed the Northern carbines began to flash

fast. The troopers in gray were unable to flank them or drive them back.

Grierson, sure of his superior numbers, pushed on toward Winchester,

while fighting off the foe at the same time.

 

Dick and the sergeant kept in the van, and presently they came within

sight of Colonel Winchester's men, who, dismounted, were holding off as

best they could the overwhelming attack of Forrest. The Southern leader,

after sending the majority of his men to a new crossing lower down had

forced the ford before the Winchester regiment, and would have crushed

it if it had not been for the opportune arrival of Grierson.

 

But a tremendous cheer arose as the Northern cavalry leader, who was

already proving his greatness, charged into the battle with his grim

troopers. The men in blue were now more numerous, and, fighting with the

resolve to win or die, they gradually forced back Forrest. Dick began to

foresee a victory won over the great Southern cavalryman.

 

But the astute Forrest, seeing that the odds were now heavily against

him, ordered a retreat. The trumpets sang the recall and suddenly

the Southern horsemen, carrying their dead with them, vanished in the

forest, where the Northern cavalry, fearful of ambushes and new forces,

did not dare to pursue.

 

But Winchester and Grierson were shaking hands, and Winchester thanked

the other in brief but emphatic words.

 

"Say no more, colonel," exclaimed Grierson. "We're all trying to serve

our common country. You'd help me just the same if we had the chance,

and I think you'll find the road clear to Grant. While the siege of

Vicksburg was determined on long ago, as you know, I believe that he is

now moving toward Grand Gulf. You know he has to deal with the armies of

Johnston and Pemberton."

 

"We'll find him," said Winchester.

 

A quarter of an hour later his regiment was galloping toward Grant,

while Grierson's command rode eastward to deal with other forces of the

Confederacy.

CHAPTER III. GRANT MOVES

 

The Winchester regiment had not suffered greatly. A dozen men who had

fallen were given speedy burial, and all the wounded were taken away on

horseback by their friends. Dick rejoiced greatly at their escape from

Forrest, and the daring and skill of Grierson. He felt anew that he was

in stronger hands in the West than he had been in the East. In the East

things seemed to go wrong nearly always, and the West they seemed to

go right nearly always. It could not be chance continued so long. He

believed in his soul that it was Grant, the heroic Thomas, and the great

fighting powers of the western men, used to all the roughness of life

out-of-doors and on the border.

 

They turned their course toward the Mississippi and that afternoon they

met a Union scout who told them that Grant, now in the very heart of the

far South, was gathering his forces for a daring attack upon Grand

Gulf, a Confederate fortress on the Mississippi. In the North and at

Washington his venture was regarded with alarm. There was a telegram

to him to stop, but it was sent too late. He had disappeared in the

Southern wilderness.

 

But Dick understood. He had both knowledge and intuition. Colonel

Winchester on his long and daring scout had learned that the Confederate

forces in the South were scattered and their leaders in doubt. Grant,

taking a daring offensive and hiding his movements, had put them on the

defensive, and there were so many points to defend that they did not

know which to choose. Joe Johnston, just recovered from his wound at

Fair Oaks the year before, and a general of the first rank, was coming,

but he was not yet here.

 

Meanwhile Pemberton held the chief command, but he seemed to lack energy

and decision. There were forces under other generals scattered along the

river, including eight thousand commanded by Bowen, who held Grand Gulf,

but concert of action did not exist among them.

 

This knowledge was not Dick's alone. It extended to every man in

the regiment, and when the colonel urged them to greater speed they

responded gladly.

 

"If we don't ride faster," he said, "we won't be up in time for the

taking of Grand Gulf."

 

No greater spur was needed and the Winchester regiment went forward as

fast as horses could carry them.

 

"I take it that Grant means to scoop in the Johnnies in detail," said

Warner.

 

"It seems so," said Pennington. "This is a big country down here, and we

can fight one Confederate army while another is mired up a hundred miles

away.

 

"That's General Grant's plan. He doesn't look like any hero of romance,

but he acts like one. He plunges into the middle of the enemy, and if he

gets licked he's up and at 'em again right away."

 

Night closed in, and they stopped at an abandoned plantation--it seemed

to Dick that the houses were abandoned everywhere--where they spent the

night. The troopers would have willingly pushed on through the darkness,

but the horses were so near exhaustion that another hour or two would

have broken them down permanently. Moreover, Colonel Winchester did not

feel much apprehension of an attack now. Forrest had certainly turned

in another direction, and they were too close to the Union lines to be

attacked by any other foe.

 

The house on this plantation was not by any means so large and fine as

Bellevue, but, like the other, it had broad piazzas all about it, and

Dick, in view of his strenuous experience, was allowed to take his

saddle as a pillow and his blankets and go to sleep soon after dark in a

comfortable place against the wall.

 

Never was slumber quicker or sweeter. There was not an unhealthy tissue

in his body, and most of his nerves had disappeared in a life amid

battles, scoutings, and marchings. He slept heavily all through the

night, inhaling new strength and vitality with every breath of the

crisp, fresh air. There was no interruption this time, and early in the

morning the regiment was up and away.

 

They descended now into lower grounds near the Mississippi. All around

them was a vast and luxuriant vegetation, cut by sluggish streams and

bayous. But the same desolation reigned everywhere. The people had fled

before the advance of the armies. Late in the afternoon they saw pickets

in blue, then the Mississippi, and a little later they rode into a Union

camp.

 

"Dick," said Colonel Winchester, "I shall want you to go with the senior

officers and myself to report to General Grant on the other side of the

Mississippi. You rode on that mission to Grierson and he may want to ask

you questions."

 

Dick was glad to go with them. He was eager to see once more the man who

had taken Henry and Donelson and who had hung on at Shiloh until Buell

came. The general's tent was in a grove on a bit of high ground, and he

was sitting before it on a little camp stool, smoking a short cigar, and

gazing reflectively in the direction of Grand Gulf.

 

He greeted the three officers quietly but with warmth and then he

listened to Colonel Winchester's detailed account of what he had seen

and learned in his raid toward Jackson. It was a long narrative, showing

how the Southern forces were scattered, and, as he listened, Grant's

face began to show satisfaction.

 

But he seldom interrupted.

 

"And you think they have no large force at Jackson?" he said.

 

"I'm quite sure of it," replied Colonel Winchester.

 

Grant chewed his cigar a little while and then said:

 

"Grierson is doing well. It was an achievement for you and him to beat

off Forrest. It will raise the prestige of our cavalry, which needs it.

I believe it was you, Lieutenant Mason, who brought Grierson."

 

"It was chiefly, sir, a sergeant named Whitley. I rode with him and

outranked him, but he is a veteran of the plains, and it was he who did

the real work."

 

The general's stern features were lightened by a smile.

 

"I'm glad you give the sergeant credit," he said. "Not many officers

would do it."

 

He listened a while longer and then the three were