The Guns of Shiloh

it had been won! Young as he was Dick knew that fortune had been with the North until the very closing hour. He did not yet know how it had been done. He did not know how the Northern charge

my had been defeated and wa

y, was in the depths of a bitterness and despair reached by few of those around him. The Union, the Republic, had appealed to him as the most glorious of experiments. He c

usand strong with a hundred guns were hot upon their heels. A short, powerful man, with a voice like the roar of thunder, bade him hush or he would feel a rifle barrel across his back. Dick had noticed this man, a sergeant named Whit

Most of the men were raw, but they did some mighty good fightin', while the regulars an' the cava

mingled dust, sweat, and burned gunpowder. The thunder of the Southern cannon behind them filled him with humiliation. Every bone in him ached after such fierce exertion, and his eyes were dim w

ed Whitley. "Into it, my lad!

of his comrades was pressing hard upon him, and he only had time to thrust his face into the water and to pour it over his ne

reports of panic and terror. But the regiments were forming again into a cohesive force, and behind them the regulars and cavalry in firm array still challenged pursuit. Heavy f

es and grass. The river of Bull Run and the field of Manassas were gone from sight, and the echo of the last cannon shot died solemnly on the Southern horizon. An hour later the brigade stopped in the wood, and the exhau

n him, and he threw himself upon the ground by the side of his new friend, Sergeant

recovered their courage. The terrible scenes of the battle were hid from their eyes, and the cannon no longer menaced on

d by the moonlight and the fires scanned the country about them with discerning eye. Dick looked at him with renewed interest. He was a man of middle years, but with all the strength and elasticity of youth. Despite his thick coat of tan

followers and grass-green men are all the way there by now, tellin' Abe Lincoln an' ev

ck again drew courage and cheerfulness fr

asked Dick. "I thought almost to the very

ll live to overcome it. I've been through a heap of hardships in my life, Dick, but I always remember that s

between the slopes, and probably emptying miles further on into Bull Run. Already it was lined by hundreds of soldiers, mostly boys, who were bath

ecks, and arms abundantly they were allowed to take off their sh

near to Heaven," said Dick as he sat on the b

ffee, which I now smell most appetizin'. Hard work gives a fellow a ragin' appetite, an' I reckon fightin' is the hardest of all

ked in the

myself, there wasn't a man in all Wisconsin, or Michigan either, who could swing

ck more than ever. They were great mas

wonders when I was a boy, an' when you add to that years an' years with the axe, an' with liftin' an' rollin' big logs I've got what I reckon is th

n his animal brain, broke his tether and came charging among the troops. Whitley made one leap, seized him by

d three years on horseback in the regular army, fightin' the Indians. Good fighters they are, too. Mighty hard to put your hand on 'em. Now they're there an' now they ain't. Now you see 'em before you

d that, so Sergeant Whitley told Dick, was better just now than technical discipline. The Northern army had gone to Bull Run with ample supplies, and now

e, because his nervous system had received a tremendous wrench that day. He closed his eyes and the battle passed again before them. He remembered, too, a lightning glimpse of a face,

rode high and there was a great stir and movement, as the brigade was forming for its continued retreat on the capital. The boy

een. Scouts in the night had brought back reports that the Southern troops were on the northern side of Bull Run, but not in grea

der the blazing sun, but Whitley, who seemed insensibl

boys talk about a hundred thousand rebels jumpin' on 'em, an' some felt as if they was a million, but they weren't any more than we was, maybe not as many, an' when they are all stove up themselves how can the

ch was pale despite the Virginia sun. But it was the pallor of indoor life, not of fear, as the countenance was good and strong, long, narrow, the chin pointed, the nose large

whipped by the rebels, but it follows with arithmetical certainty that if we keep on fighting long enough we will whip them in time. Let x equal time and y equal

t him in amazeme

said, "an' then, too, you bring 'em out so nice an' s

began teaching a district school when I was sixteen years old, and I would be teaching now, if it were not

Dick eagerly. "Why, there was a Warner who struck h

is Union, and although I don't know much except to teach school I'm going to put in a little one to help s

and this long and mathematical Vermont lad were going to be fri

ls, so if I was to get x an' y together they might land me about ten thousand miles from where I wanted to be. But a fellow can bend too

s the chance of disease as well as here. At home you may fall from a cliff, you may be drowned in a creek or river while bathing, a tree may fall on you, a horse may throw you and break your neck, or you may be caught in a winter storm and freeze to death. But even if none of these things happens to

s hand upon Wa

ings to come, but you can prove by arithmetic, algebra an' every other kind of mathe

able to demonstrate by my own hearing and imagination that a hundred thousand rebels could fire a million bullets a min

at him again w

out a few a foot long or so. But I reckon a lot of others felt the way you did, though they won't admit it now. Look, w

ournalists and public men met them, and Dick now learned how the truth about Bull Run had come to the capital. The news of defeat had been the more bitter, because already they had been rejoicing there over success. As late

ng into it by every train from the north and west. All they needed was leadership and discipline. Bull Run had stung, but it did not daunt them and they asked to be led again against the enemy. They heard that Lincoln had received the

y a rail-splitter," said Whitley, "but I heard him two or three tim

mean to be proud of him. He'll have support,

pouring into the capital never ceased. He now saw men, and many boys, too, like himself, from every state north of the Ohio River and from some sou

hty struggle. Here in the capital, resolution was hardening into a fight to the finish, and he knew from his relatives when he left Kentucky that the South wa

rance pass down Pennsylvania Avenue. He would have caught the attention of anybody, owing to his great height and splendid hea

Feathers his very s

of the War of 1812 and the great commander who had carried the brilliant campaign into the capital of Mexico. He had been the first commander-in-chief of the Northern army, and, forese

was too old for another chance. But he knew that the present cloud would soon p

y. "He's the young fellow who has been winning successes i

st. The President was elderly, of great height, his head surmounted by a high silk hat which made him look yet taller, while his face wa

President's shoulder. He was redolent of youth and self confidence. It showed in his quick, eager gestu

it. McClellan's too young to handle the great armies that are going into the fi

over the world when he was o

I never heard of any other Napoleon.

ey entered the White House and disappeared within its doors. Dick and his friends were in the crowd that followed, although they did not join in the cheers, not because they lacked

be than I did at 'Little Mac.' Did you ever think, boys, what it is to have a big war on your hands, wi

hat the South will soon have a quarter of a million troops in the field. Her position on the defensive is perhaps worth as many more men to her. Hence let x equal he

ely we'll need nigh on to a

the giant struggle was over the South would have tripled her defensive quart

ry and defeat were about equal. The boys had shown so much zeal and ability in learning soldierly duties that they were made orderlies by their colonel, John Newcomb, a taciturn Pennsylvanian, a rich miner who had raised a regiment partly at his own

ess had shown the greatest courage, meeting on the very day that the news of Bull Run had come, and resolving to fight the war to a successful end, no matter what happ

Union. Monarchy and privileged classes everywhere rejoiced at the disaster threatening the great republic, and now that it was safe to do

fact of our existence was the threat and the threat has increased with our years and growth. Europe is for the South, but the reason for it is one of the simplest problems in mathematics. Ten per

l have to try all the harder to keep them from

the Northern camp, and officers with powerful glasses inspected the So

y. "Colonel Newcomb has promised me that he will tak

er. He felt an extraordinary thrill when the ropes were allowed to slide and the balloon was slowly going almost straight upward. The sensation was somewhat similar to that which shook him when he went into

le before him. The green of summer, the green that had been stained so fearfully at Bull Run, was gone. The grass was now brown from th

us brooks and creeks that cut the country. Groves, still heavy and dark with foliage, hung on the hills, or filled some v

w the broad band of the Potomac, and beyond it the white dome of the Capitol and the roof of Washington. But his gaze turned again to the South, where his absorbing interest lay, and once more he viewed t

, Dick," said Colonel Newcomb

ising on the west, then blurring in the distance into a solid black rampart. In the south he saw a long curving line of rising blue plumes. It did not need Colonel N

y, the defiance was justified, and those fires might come nearer yet. Dick, catching the tone of older men who shared his views, had not believed at

es. Then he remembered the two lines of railroad that met on the battlefield, giving it its other name, Manas

es back to Colonel Newcomb, and then the colonel

e of the generals. "I hear that arms and provisions are coming by

ght in making elaborate preparations and long drills before moving upon the e

rs had the sam

hardest students I have ever known. The boys laughed at him when he first came, but they soon stopped. He had a funny way of studying, standing up with his book on a shelf, instead of sitting down at a desk. S

my history, but I've an impression that when Cromwell, the Ironsides, old Praise-God-Barebones, and the rest knelt, said a few words to their God,

ghly in his God, who is not afraid to die, who, in fact, rathe

said Colonel Newcomb. "We have at least a

as slowly pulled down. Dick, grateful for his experie