the two armies lie frowning at each other.
si was awakened the next morning by the rain dashing down squarely on his upturned face. he was lying on the flat of his back, sleeping the sleep of the utterly outworn, and he got the full force of the shower.
"plague take it, shorty," said he, kicking his snoring partner, "you're at your old tricks again scrougin' me out o' the tent while i'm asleep. why can't you lay still, like a white man?"
"it's you, dod rot you," grumbled shorty, half-awakening. "you're at your old tricks o' kickin' the tent down. you need a 10-acre lot to sleep in, and then you'd damage the fence-corners."
they were both awake by this time, and looked around in amazement.
"we went to sleep nice and comfortable, under a wagon last night," said shorty, slowly recalling the circumstances. "the two lieutenants and the orderly had the upper berth, and we slept on the ground-floor."
"yes," assented si; "and someone's come along, hitched mules to our bedroom and snaked it off."
"just the way in the condemned army," grumbled shorty, his ill-humor asserting itself as he sat up and looked out over the rain-soaked fields. "never kin git hold of a good thing but somebody yanks it94 away. s'pose they thought that it was too good for a private soldier, and they took it away for some major-general to sleep under."
a disagreeable awakening for shorty and si. 94
"well, i wonder what we're goin' to do for grub?" said si, as his athletic appetite began to assert itself.
"our own wagons, that we had such a time guarding, are over there in the cedars, and the rebels are filling themselves up with the stuff that we were so good to bring up for them."
"it makes me jest sizzle," said shorty, "to think of all we went through to git them condemned wagons up where they'd be handiest for them."
si walked down the line toward where the regimental headquarters were established under a persimmon tree, and presently came back, saying:
"they say there's mighty small chance of gettin' any grub to-day. wheeler burnt three or four miles of our wagons yesterday, and's got possession of the road to nashville. we've got to fight the battle out on empty stomachs, and drive these whelps away before we kin get a square meal."
jan. 1, 1863, was an exceedingly solemn, unhappy new year's day for the union soldiers on the banks of stone river. of the 44,000 who had gone into the line on the evening of dec. 30, nearly 9,000 had been killed or wounded and about 2,000 were prisoners. the whole right wing of the army had been driven back several miles, to the nashville pike. cannon, wagon-trains, tents and supplies had been captured by the rebel cavalry, which had burned miles of wagons, and the faint-hearted ones murmured that the army would have to surrender or starve.
there was not ammunition enough to fight an other battle. the rebel army had suffered as heavily in killed and wounded, but it was standing on its own ground, near its own supplies, and had in addition captured great quantities of ours.96
the mutual slaughter of the two armies had been inconceivably awful inexpressibly ghastly, shuddering, sickening. they had pounded one another to absolute exhaustion, and all that sullen, lowering, sky-weeping winter's day they lay and glared at one another like two huge lions which had fanged and torn each other until their strength had been entirely expended, and breath and strength were gone. each was too spent to strike another blow, but each too savagely resolute to think of retreating.
all the dogged stubbornness of his race was now at fever point in si's veins. those old pioneers and farmers of the wabash from whom he sprang were not particularly handsome to look at, they were not glib talkers, nor well educated. but they had a way of thinking out rather slowly and awkwardly it might be just what they ought to do, and then doing it or dying in the effort which made it very disastrous for whoever stood in their way. those who knew them best much preferred to be along with them rather than against them when they set their square-cornered heads upon accomplishing some object.
si might be wet, hungry, and the morass of mud in which the army was wallowing uncomfortable and discouraging to the last degree, but there was not the slightest thought in his mind of giving up the fight as long as there was a rebel in sight. he and shorty were not hurt yet, and until they were, the army was still in good fighting trim.
the line of the 200th ind. was mournfully shorter than it was two days before, but there were still several hundred boys of si's stamp gathered resolutely97 around its flag, the game little colonel's voice rang out as sharply as ever, and the way the boys picked up their guns and got into line whenever a sputter of firing broke out anywhere must have been very discouraging to gen. bragg and his officers, who were anxiously watching the union lines through their glasses for signs of demoralization and retreat.
"we licked 'em yesterday, every time they come up squarely in front o' the 200th ind.," si said to shorty and those who stood around gazing anxiously on the masses of brown men on the other side of the field. "we can do it again, every time. the only way they got away with us was by sneakin' around through the cedars and takin' us in the rear. we're out in the open ground now, an' they can't get around our flanks." and he looked to the extreme right, where every knoll was crowned with a battery of frowning guns.
"they got their bellies full o' fightin' yesterday," added shorty, studying the array judicially. "they hain't none o' the brashness they showed yesterday mornin', when they were jumpin' us in front, right, left and rear at the same minute. they're very backward about comin' forward acrost them fields for us to-day. i only wish they'd try it on."
but the forenoon wore away without the rebels showing any disposition to make an assault across the muddy fields. si's vigilant appetite took advantage of the quiet to assert its claims imperiously.
"shorty," said he, "there must be something to eat somewhere around here. i'm goin' to look for it."
"you'll have just about as much chance of findin' it," said shorty dolefully, "among that mob o' 98famished suckers as you would o' findin' a straw-stack in the infernal regions. but i'll go 'long with you. we can't lose the regiment in the day time."
"by the way, shorty," said si, happening to glance at the sleeves of the overcoats which he had picked up, "we both seem to be sergeants."
"that's so," assented shorty. "both these are sergeant's overcoats. we'll take our guns along, and play that we are on duty. it may help us out somewhere."
things looked so quiet in front that the captain gave them permission, and off they started. it seemed a hopeless quest. everywhere men were ravenous for food. they found one squad toasting on their rammers the pieces of a luckless rabbit they had cornered in a patch of briars. another was digging away at a hole that they alleged contained a woodchuck. a third was parching some corn found in a thrown-away feed box, and congratulating themselves upon the lucky find.
finally they came out upon the banks of stone river at the place to which si had wandered during the night. si recognized it at once, and also the voices that came from behind a little thicket of paw paws as those of the men with whom he had had the squabble.
si motioned to shorty to stop and keep silent, while he stepped up closer, parted the bushes a little, looked through, and listened.
two men were standing by a fire, which was concealed from the army by the paw-paws. four others had just come up, carrying rolled in a blanket what seemed to be a dead body. they flung it down99 by the fire, with exclamations of relief, and unrolled it. it was the carcass of a pig so recently killed that it was still bleeding.
"hello," exclaimed the others joyfully; "where did you get that?"
"why," exclaimed one of the others, "we were poking around down there under the bank, and we happened to spy a nigger cabin on the other side of the river, hid in among the willers, where nobody could see it. we thought there might be something over there, so we waded across. there wasn't any thing to speak of in the cabin, but we found this pig in the pen. jim bayoneted it, and then we wrapped it up in our blanket, as if we wuz taking a boy back to the surgeon's, and fetched it along. we couldn't 've got a hundred yards through that crowd if they'd dreamed what we had. jerusalem, but it was heavy, though. we thought that pig weighed a thousand pounds before we got here."
"bully boys," said the others gleefully. "we'll have enough to eat, no matter how many wagons the rebels burn. i always enjoyed a dinner of fresh pork more on new year's day than any other time."
si turned and gave shorty a wink that conveyed more to that observant individual than a long telegram would have done. he winked back approvingly, brought up his gun to a severely regulation "carry arms," and he and si stepped briskly through the brush to the startled squad.
"here," said si, with official severity; "you infernal stragglers, what regiments do you belong to? sneaking out here, are you, and stealin' hogs instead of being with your companies. wrap that pig up100 again, pick it up, and come along with us to headquarters."
for a minute it looked as if the men would fight. but si had guessed rightly; they were stragglers, and had the cowardice of guilty consciences. they saw the chevrons on si's arms, and his positive, commanding air finished them. they groaned, wrapped up the pig again, and si mercifully made the two who had waited by the fire carry the heaviest part.
si started them back toward the 200th ind., and he and shorty walked along close to them, maintaining a proper provost-guard-like severity of countenance and carriage.
the men began to try to beg off, and make advances on the basis of sharing the pork. but si and shorty's official integrity was incorruptible.
"shut up and go on," they would reply to every proposition. "we ain't that kind of soldiers. our duty's to take you to headquarters, and to headquarters you are going."
they threaded through the crowds for some time, and as they were at last nearing the regiment a battery of artillery went by at as near a trot as it could get out of the weary horses in that deep mire. the squad took advantage of the confusion to drop their burden and scurry out of sight in the throng.
"all right; let 'em go," grinned si. "i wuz jest wonderin' how we'd get rid o' 'em. i'd thought o' takin' them into the regiment and then givin' them a chunk o' their pork, but then i'd get mad at the way they talked about the 200th ind. last night, and want to stop and lick 'em. it's better as it is. we need all that pig for the boys."101
si and shorty picked up the bundle and carried it up to the regiment. when they unrolled it the boys gave such lusty cheers that the rebels beyond the field rushed to arms, expecting a charge, and one of our impulsive cannoneers let fly a shell at them.
si and shorty cut off one ham for themselves and their particular cronies, carried the other ham, with their compliments, to the colonel, and let the rest be divided up among the regiment.
one of their chums was lucky enough to have saved a tin box of salt, and after they had toasted and devoured large slices of the fresh ham they began to feel like new men, and be anxious for some thing farther to happen.
but the gloomy, anxious day dragged its slow length along with nothing more momentous than fitful bursts of bickering, spiteful firing, breaking out from time to time on different parts of the long line, where the men's nerves got wrought up to the point where they had to do something to get the relief of action.
away out in front of the regiment ran a little creek, skirting the hill on which the rebels were massed. in the field between the hill and the creek was one of our wagons, which had mired there and been abandoned by the driver in the stampede of the day before. it seemed out of easy rifle-shot of the rebels on the hill.
si had been watching it for some time. at length he said:
"shorty, i believe that wagon's loaded with hard tack."
"it's certainly a commissary wagon," said shorty, after studying it a little.102
"yes, i'm sure that it's one o' them wagons we was guardin', and i recollect it was loaded with hard tack."
the mere mention of the much-abused crackers made both their mouths water.
"seems to me i recognize the wagon, too," said shorty.
"shorty, it'd be a great thing if we could sneak along up the creek, behind them bushes, until we come opposite the wagon, then make, a rush acrost the field, snatch up a box o' hardtack apiece, and then run back. we'd get enough to give each o' the boys a cracker apiece. the wagon'd shelter us comin' and goin', and we wouldn't get a shot."
"it might be," said shorty, with visions of distributing hardtack to the hungry boys warping his judgment. "the fellers right back o' the wagon couldn't shoot to any advantage, and them to the right and left are too fur off. if you say so, it's a go."
"if the boys could only have one hardtack apiece," said si, as his last hesitation vanished, "they'd feel ever so much better, and be in so much better shape for a fight. come on, let's try it."
the rest overheard their plan, and began to watch them with eager interest. they made a circle to the right, got into the cover of the brush of the creek, and began making their way slowly and carefully up to a point opposite the wagon. they reached this without attracting notice, parted the bushes in front of them carefully, and took a good survey of the wagon and the hill beyond.
the wagon was a great deal nearer the hill than had appeared to be the case from where the103 regiment lay, and even where they stood they were in easy range of the rebels on the hill. but the latter were utterly unsuspicious of them. they were crouching down around fires, with their guns stacked, and the cannoneers of a couple of guns were at some distance from their pieces, under a brush shelter, before which a fire smoldered in the rain.
"it's awful short range," said si dubiously. "if they were lookin' they'd tear us and the wagon all to pieces. but our boys is a-watchin' us, and i don't want to go back without a shy at it. them fellers seem so busy tryin' to keep warm that we may get there without their noticin' us."
"i never wanted hardtack so much in my life as i do this minute," said shorty. "i don't care to live forever, anyway. let's chance it."
they pulled off their overcoats, carefully tied up their shoes, shifted around so as to be completely behind the wagon, and then started on a rush through the mud.
for several hundred steps nothing happened, and they began to believe that they would reach the wagon unnoticed. then a few shots rang out over their heads, followed a minute later by a storm of bullets that struck in the mud and against the wagon. but they reached the wagon, and sat down, exhausted, on the tongue, sidling up close to the bed to protect them from the bullets.
si recovered his breath first, caught hold of the front board and raised himself up, saw the boxes of coveted hardtack, and was just putting his hand on one of them when a shell struck the rear end and tore the canvas cover off. si sank back again104 beside shorty, when another shell burst under the wagon, and filled the air with pieces of wheels, bed, cracker-boxes and hardtack.
"i don't want no hardtack; i want to find the bank o' that crick," yelled shorty, starting back on the jump, with si just six inches behind.
the bullets spattered in the mud all around them as they ran, but they reached the creek bank with out being struck. they were in such a hurry that they did not stop to jump, but fell headlong into the water.
"them hardtack wuz spiled, anyway," said shorty, as they fished themselves out, found their overcoats, and made their way back to the regiment.
they received the congratulations of their comrades on their escape, and someone fished out all the consolation that the regiment could offer a couple of brierwood pipes filled with fragrant kinnikinnick. they sat down, smoked these, and tried to forget their troubles.
the cheerless night drew on. no fires were allowed, and the men huddled together on the wet ground, to get what comfort they could from the warmth of each other's bodies.
the temper of the rebels became nastier as the day wore away, and under the cover of the dark ness they pushed out here and there and opened worrying fires on the union line. suddenly a battery opened up on the 200th ind. from a bare knoll in front. the rebels had evidently calculated the range during daylight, and the shells struck around them in the most annoying way. they threw up showers of mud, scattered the groups, and kept105 everybody nervous and alarmed. the regiment stood this for some time, when an idea occurred to si and shorty. they went up to the colonel and explained:
"colonel, we've studied the ground out there purty carefully, and we know that the knoll where that battery is is in close range o' that crick where we went up this afternoon. if you'll let a few of us go out there we kin stop them cannoneers mighty soon."
"sure of that?" said the colonel alertly.
"dead sure."
"very well, then," said the colonel promptly. "i've been thinking of the same thing. i'll take the whole regiment out. put yourselves at the head, and lead the way."
the regiment was only too eager for the movement. it marched rapidly after si and shorty up the creek bed, and in a very few minutes found itself on the flank of the obnoxious battery, which was still banging away into the line which the 200th ind. had occupied. it was scarcely 200 yards away, and the men's hearts burned with a fierce joy at the prospect of vengeance. with whispered orders the colonel lined up the regiment carefully on the bank, and waited until the battery should fire again, to make sure of the aim. every man cocked his gun, took good aim, and waited for the order. they could distinctly hear the orders of the battery officers directing the shelling. three cannon were fired at once, and as their fierce lights flashed out the colonel gave the order to fire. a terrible simoon of death from the rifles of the 200th ind. struck down everything in and around the battery.
"that dog's cured o' suckin' aigs," said shorty, as the colonel ordered the regiment to about face and march back.
the 200th ind. heard no more from that battery that night.
