CHAPTER XV
BACK WITH GRANT
Despite the inevitable hostility of the people their stay at Winchesterwas pleasant and fruitful. All three of the new young captainsexperienced a mental growth, and their outlook upon the enemy wastempered greatly. They had been through so many battles and they hadmeasured their strength and courage against the foe so often that allhatred and malice had departed. North and South, knowing too little ofeach other before the war, had now learned mutual respect upon thefield of combat. And Dick, Warner and Pennington, feeling certain thatthe end was at hand, could understand the loss and sorrow of the South,and sympathize with the fallen. Their generous young hearts did notexult over a foe whom they expected soon to conquer.
Late in January of the fateful year 1865 Dick was walking through thestreets of Winchester one cold day. The wind from the mountains had afierce edge, and, as he bent his head to protect his face from it, hedid not see a stout, heavily built man of middle age coming toward him,and did not stop until the stranger, standing squarely in his way,hailed him.
"Does the fact that you've become a captain keep you from seeinganything in your path, Mr. Mason?" asked the man in a deep bass, butwholly good-natured voice.
Dick looked up in surprise, because the tones were familiar. He saw aruddy face, with keen, twinkling eyes and a massive chin, a face inwhich shrewdness and a humorous view of the world were combined. Hehesitated a moment, then he remembered and held out his hand.
"It's Mr. Watson, the contractor," he said.
"So it is, lad," said John Watson, grasping the outstretched hand andshaking it heartily. "Don't mind my calling you lad, even if you are acaptain. All things are comparative, and to me, a much older man,you're just a lad. I've heard of your deed in the mountains, in fact,I keep track of all of you, even of General Sheridan himself. It's mybusiness to know men and what they do."
"I hope you're still making money," said Dick, smiling.
"I am. That's part of a merchant's duty. If he doesn't make money heoughtn't to be a merchant. Oh, I know that a lot of you soldiers lookdown upon us traders and contractors."
"I don't and I never did, Mr. Watson."
"I know it, Captain Mason, because you're a lad of intelligence. Thefirst time I saw you I noticed that the reasoning quality was strong inyou, and that was why I made you an offer to enter my employ after thewar. That offer is still open and will remain open at all times."
"I thank you very much, Mr. Watson, but I can't accept it, as I haveother ambitions."
"I was sure you wouldn't take it, but I like to feel it's alwayswaiting for you. It's well to look ahead. This war, vast and terribleas it has been, will be over before the year is. Two or three millionmen who have done nothing but fighting for four years will be out ofemployment. Vast numbers of them will not know which way to turn. Theywill be wholly unfit, until they have trained themselves anew, for thepursuits of peace. Captains, majors, colonels and, yes, generals, willbe besieging me for jobs, as zealously as they're now besieging Lee'sarmy in the trenches before Petersburg, and with as much cause. Whenthe war is over the soldier will not be of so much value, and the manof peace will regain his own. I hope you've thought of these things,Captain Mason."
"I've thought of them many times, Mr. Watson, and I've thought of themoftener than ever this winter. My comrades and I have agreed that assoon as the last battle is fought we'll plunge at once into the task ofrebuilding our country. We amount to little, of course, in such amultitude, but one can do only what one can."
"That's so, but if a million feel like you and push all together, theycan roll mountains away."
"You're not a man to come to Winchester for nothing. You've been doingbusiness with the army?"
"I've been shoeing, clothing and bedding you. I deliver within twoweeks thirty thousand pairs of shoes, thirty thousand uniforms, andsixty thousand blankets. They are all honest goods and the price isnot too high, although I make the solid and substantial profit to whichI am entitled. You soldiers on the battle line don't win a war alone.We who feed and clothe you achieve at least half. I regret again,Captain Mason, that you can't join me later. Mine's a noble calling.It's a great thing to be a merchant prince, and it's we, as much as anyother class of people, who spread civilization over the earth."
"I know it," said Dick earnestly. "I'm not blind to the great arts ofpeace. Now, here come my closest friends, Captain Warner and CaptainPennington, who have understanding. I want you to meet them."
Dick's hearty introduction was enough to recommend the contractor tohis comrades, but Warner already knew him well by reputation.
"I've heard of you often from some of our officers, Mr. Watson," hesaid. "You deliver good goods and you're a New Englander, like myself.Ten years from now you'll be an extremely rich man, a millionaire,twenty years from now you'll be several times a millionaire. Aboutthat time I'll become president of Harvard, and we'll need money--agreat university always needs money--and I'll come to you for adonation of one hundred thousand dollars to Harvard, and you'll give itto me promptly."
John Watson looked at him fixedly, and slowly a look of greatadmiration spread over his face.
"Of course you're a New Englander," he said. "It was not necessary foryou to say so. I could have told it by looking at you and hearing youtalk. But from what state do you come?"
"Vermont."
"I might have known that, too, and I'm glad and proud to meet you,Captain Warner. I'm glad and proud to know a young man who looks aheadtwenty years. Nothing can keep you from being president of Harvard,and that hundred thousand dollars is as good as given. Your handagain!"
The hands of the two New Englanders met a second time in the touch ofkinship and understanding. Theirs was the clan feeling, and they hadsupreme confidence in each other. Neither doubted that the promisewould be fulfilled, and fulfilled it was and fourfold more.
"You New Englanders certainly stand together," said Dick.
"Not more than you Kentuckians," replied the contractor. "I was inKentucky several times before the war, and you seemed to be one bigfamily there."
"But in the war we've not been one big family," said Dick, somewhatsadly. "I suppose that no state has been more terribly divided thanKentucky. Nowhere has kin fought more fiercely against kin."
"But you'll come together again after the war," said Watson cheerfully."That great bond of kinship will prove more powerful than anythingelse."
"I hope so," said Dick earnestly.
They had the contractor to dinner with them, and he opened new worldsof interest and endeavor for all of them. He was a mighty captain ofindustry, a term that came into much use later, and mentally theyfollowed him as he led the way into fields of immense industrialachievement. They were fascinated as he talked with truthful eloquenceof what the country could become, the vast network of railroads to bebuilt, the limitless fields of wheat and corn to be grown, the mines ofthe richest mineral continent to be opened, and a trade to be acquired,that would spread all over the world. They forgot the war while hetalked, and their souls were filled and stirred with the romance ofpeace.
"I leave for Washington tonight," said the contractor, when the dinnerwas finished. "My work here is done. Our next meeting will be inRichmond."
All three of the young men took it as prophetic and when John Watsonstarted north they waved him a friendly farewell. Another long waitfollowed, while the iron winter, one of the fiercest in the memory ofman, still gripped both North and South. But late in February therewas a great bustle, portending movement. Supplies were gathered,horses were examined critically, men looked to their arms andammunition, and the talk was all of high anticipation. An electricthrill ran through the men. They had tasted deep of victory since theprevious summer, and they were eager to ride to new triumphs.
"It's to be an affair of cavalry altogether," said Warner, who obtainedthe first definite news. "We're to go toward Staunton, where Early andhis rem
nants have been hanging out, and clean 'em up. Although it's tobe done by cavalry alone, as I told you, it'll be the finest cavalryyou ever saw."
And when Sheridan gathered his horsemen for the march Warner's wordscame true. Ten thousand Union men, all hardy troopers now, were in thesaddle, and the great Sheridan led them. The eyes of Little Philglinted as he looked upon his matchless command, bold youths who hadlearned in the long hard training of war itself, to be the equals ofStuart's own famous riders. And the eyes of Sheridan glinted againwhen they passed over the Winchesters, the peerless regiment, thebravest of the brave, with the colonel and the three youthful captainsin their proper places.
The weather was extremely cold, but they were prepared for it, and whenthey swung up the valley, and forty thousand hoofs beat on the hardroad, giving back a sound like thunder, their pulses leaped, and theytook with delight deep draughts of the keen frosty air.
While they carried food for the entire march, the rest of theirequipment was light, four cannon, ammunition wagons, some ambulancesand pontoon boats. Dick thought they would make fast time, but fortunefor awhile was against them. The very morning the great column startedthe weather rapidly turned warmer, and then a heavy rain began to fall.The hard road upon which the forty thousand hoofs had beat theirmarching song turned to mud, and forty thousand hoofs made a new sound,as they sank deep in it, and were then pulled out again.
"If it keeps us from going fast," said the philosophical sergeant,"it'll keep them that we're goin' after from gettin' away. We're asgood mud horses as they are."
"Do you think we'll go through to Staunton?" asked Dick of Warner.
"I've heard that we will, and that we'll go on and take Lynchburg too.Then we're to curve about and in North Carolina join Sherman who hassmashed the Confederacy in the west."
"I don't like the North Carolina part," said Dick. "I hope we'll go toGrant and march with him on Richmond, because that's where the deathblow will be dealt, if it's dealt at all."
"And that it will be dealt we don't doubt, neither you, nor I nor anyof us."
"Yes, that's so."
While mud and rain could impede the progress of the great column theycould not stop it. Neither could they dampen the spirits of the youngtroopers who rode knee to knee, and who looked forward to newvictories. Through the floods of rain the ten thousand, scouts andskirmishers on their flanks, swept southward, and they encountered nofoe. A few Southern horsemen would watch them at a great distance andthen ride sadly away. There was nothing in the valley that couldoppose Sheridan.
Dick's leggings, and his overcoat with an extremely high collar, kepthim dry and warm and he was too seasoned to mind the flying mud whichthousands of hoofs sent up, and which soon covered them. The swiftmovement and the expectation of achieving something were exhilaratingin spite of every hardship and obstacle.
That night they reached the village of Woodstock, and the next day theycrossed the north fork of the Shenandoah, already swollen by the heavyrains. The engineers rapidly and dexterously made a bridge of thepontoon boats, and the ten thousand thundered over in safety.
The next night they were at a little place called Lacy's Springs, sixtymiles from Winchester, a wonderful march for two days, considering theheavy rains and deep mud, and they had not yet encountered an enemy.How different it would have been in Stonewall Jackson's time! Then,not a mile of the road would have been safe for them. It was ampleproof of the extremities to which the Confederacy was reduced. Lee, atPetersburg, could not reinforce Early, and Early, at Staunton, couldnot reinforce Lee!
They intended to move on the next day, and they heard that night thatRosser, a brave Confederate general, had gathered a small Confederateforce and was hastening forward to burn all the bridges over the middlefork of the Shenandoah, in order that he might impede Sheridan'sprogress. Then it was the call of the trumpet and boots and saddlesearly in the morning in order that they might beat Rosser to thebridges.
"I hope for their own sake that they won't try to fight us," said Dick.
"I'm with you on that," said Pennington. "They can't be more than afew hundreds, and it would take thousands, even with a river to help,to stop an army like ours."
It was not raining now and the roads growing dryer thundered with thehoofs of ten thousand horses. The Winchesters had an honored place inthe van, and, as they approached the middle fork of the Shenandoah, thethree young captains raised themselves in their saddles to see if thebridge yet stood. It was there, but on the other side of the stream asmall body of cavalrymen in gray were galloping forward, and some hadalready dismounted for the attempt to destroy it. The arrival of thetwo forces was almost simultaneous, but the Union army, overwhelming innumbers, exulting in victory, swept forward to the call of the trumpets.
"They're not more than five or six hundred over there," said Warner,"too few to put up a fight against us. I feel sorry for 'em, and wishthey'd go away."
The Southerners nevertheless were sweeping the narrow bridge with aheavy rifle fire, and Sheridan drew back his men for a few minutes.Then followed a series of mighty splashes, as two West Virginiaregiments sent their horses into the river, swam it, and, as theyemerged dripping on the farther shore, charged the little Confederateforce in flank, compelling it to retreat so swiftly that it left behindprisoners and its wagons.
It was all over in a few minutes, and the whole army, crossing theriver, moved steadily on toward Staunton, where Early had been in camp,and where Sheridan hoped to find him. The little victory did not bringDick any joy. He knew that the Confederacy could now make no stand inthe Valley of Virginia, and it was like beating down those who werealready beaten. He sincerely hoped that Early would not await them atStaunton or anywhere else, but would take his futile forces out of thevalley and join Lee.
The heavy rains began again. Winter was breaking up and its transitioninto spring was accompanied by floods. The last snow on the mountainsmelted and rushed down in torrents. The roads, already ruined by war,became vast ruts of mud, but Sheridan was never daunted by physicalobstacles. The great army of cavalry, scarcely slacking speed, pressedforward continually, and Dick knew that Early did not have the shadowof a chance to withstand such an army.
The next day they entered Staunton, another of the neat little Virginiacities devoted solidly and passionately to the Southern cause. Here,they were faced again by blind doors and windows, but Early and hisforce were gone. Shepard brought news that he had prepared for a standat Waynesborough, although he had only two thousand men.
"Our general will attack him at once," said Warner, when he heard ofit. "He sweeps like a hurricane."
"He is surely the general for us at such a time," said Pennington, whobegan to feel himself a military authority.
"It's humane, at least," said Dick. "The quicker it's over the smallerthe toll of ruin and death."
Nor had they judged Sheridan wrongly. His men advanced with speed,hunting Early, and they found him fortified with his scanty forces on aridge near the little town of Waynesborough. The daring young leader,Custer, and Colonel Winchester, riding forward, found his flankexposed, and it was enough for Sheridan. He formed his plan withrapidity and executed it with precision. The Custer and Winchester menwere dismounted and assailed the exposed flank at once, while theremainder of the army made a direct and violent charge in front.
It seemed to Dick that Early was swept away in an instant, and theattack was so swift and overwhelming that there was but little loss oflife on either side. Four fifths of the Southern men and their cannonwere captured, while Early, several of his generals and a few hundredsoldiers escaped to the woods. His army, however, had ceased to exist,and Sheridan and his muddy victors rode on to the ancient town ofCharlottesville, which, having no forces to defend it, the mayor andthe leading citizens surrendered.
Dick, Warner and Pennington walked through the silent halls of theUniversity of Virginia, the South's most famous institution oflearning, founded by Thomas Jefferson, one
of the republic's greatestmen.
"I hope they will re-open it next year," said Warner generously, "andthat it will grow and grow, until it becomes a rival of Harvard. Wewant to defeat the South, but not to destroy it. Since it is to be apart of the Union again, and loyal forever I hope and believe, we wantit strong and prosperous."
"I'm with you in that," said Dick, "and I feel it with particularstrength while I am here. There have been many great Virginians and Ihope there'll be many more."
They also visited Monticello, the famous colonial mansion which thegreat Jefferson had built, and in which he had lived and planned forthe republic. They trod there with light steps, feeling that hisspirit was still present. Virginia was the greatest of the borderstates, but it seemed to Dick that here he was in the very heart of theSouth. Virginia was the greatest of the Southern fighting states too,and it had furnished most of the great Southern leaders, at least twoof her sons ranking among the foremost military geniuses of moderntimes. For nearly four years they had barred the way to every Northernadvance, and had won great victories over numbers, but Dick was sure ashe stood on a portico at Monticello, in the very heart of valiantVirginia, that the fate of the South was sealed.
They did not stay long at Charlottesville and Monticello, but a portionof the army, including the Winchester men, went on, tearing up therailroad, while another column demolished a canal used for militarypurposes. Then the two forces united at a town called New Market, butthey could go no farther. The heavy rains and the melting snows hadswollen the rivers enormously, all the bridges before them weredestroyed, and their own pontoons proved inadequate in face of thegreat rushing streams. Then they turned back.
Dick and his comrades were secretly glad. The rising of the waters hadprevented them from going into North Carolina and joining Sherman.Hence, they deduced that so active a man as Sheridan would march for ajunction with Grant, and that was where they wanted to go. They didnot believe that the Confederacy was to be finished in North Carolina,but at Richmond. They knew that Lee's army yet stood between Grant andthe Southern capital, and, there, would be the heart of great affairs.
Spring was now opening and Sheridan's army marched eastward. Men andhorses were covered with mud, but they still had the flush of victorieswon, and the incentive of others expected. They were even yet worn byhard marching and some fighting, but it was a healthy leanness, makingtheir muscles as tough as whipcord, while their eyes were keen likethose of hawks.
Dick did not rejoice now in the work they were doing, although he sawits need. Theirs was a task of destruction. For a distance of morethan fifty miles they ruined a canal important to the Confederacy.Boats, locks, everything went, and they also made cuts by which theswollen James poured into the canal, flooding it and thrusting it outof its banks. They met no resistance save a few distant shots, andSheridan rejoiced over his plan to join the Army of the Potomac,although he had not yet been able to send word of it to Grant.
But the omens remained propitious. They saw now that there were nowalls in the rear of the Confederacy and they had little to do butmarch. The heavy rains followed them, roads disappeared, and it seemedto the young captains that they lived in eternal showers of mud.Horses and riders alike were caked with it, and they ceased to make anyeffort to clean themselves.
"This is not a white army," said Warner, looking down a long column,"it's brown, although it would be hard to name the shade of brown."
"It's not always brown," said Pennington. "Lots of the Virginia mud isa rich, ripe red. Bet you anything that before tomorrow night we willhave turned to some hue of scarlet."
"We won't take the wager," said Dick, "because you bet on a certainty."
That afternoon the scouts surprised a telegraph station on therailroad, and found in it a dispatch from General Early. To the greatamazement of Sheridan, Early was not far away. He had only two hundredmen, but with them the grim old fighter prepared to attack the Unionarmy. Sheridan himself felt a certain pity for his desperate opponent,but he promptly sent Custer in search of him. The young cavalrymanquickly found him and scattered or captured the entire band.
Early escaped from the fight with a lone orderly as his comrade, andthe next day the general who had lost all through no fault of his own,rode into Richmond with his single companion, and from him JeffersonDavis, President of the Confederacy, heard the full tale of Southerndisaster in the Valley of Virginia.
Meanwhile Sheridan and his victorious army rode on to a place calledWhite House, where they found plenty of stores, and where they haltedfor a long rest, and also to secure new mounts, if they could. Theirhorses were worn out completely by the great campaign and were whollyunfit for further service. But it was hard to obtain fresh ones andthe delay was longer than the general had intended. Nevertheless histroops profited by it. They had not realized until they stopped hownear they too had come to utter exhaustion, and for several days theywere in a kind of physical torpor while their strength came backgradually.
"I think I've removed the last trace of the Virginia mud from myclothes and myself," said Warner on the morning of the second day, "butI've had to work hard to do it, as time seemed to have made it almost apart of my being."
"I've spent most of my time learning to walk again, and getting thebows out of my legs," said Dick. "I've been a-horse so long that Ifelt like a sailor coming ashore from a three years' cruise."
"Agreed with me pretty well, all except the mud, since I was born onhorseback," said Pennington. "But I don't like to ride in a brownplaster suit of armor. What do you think is ahead, boys?"
"Junction with General Grant," said Dick. "They say, also, thatGeneral Sherman, after completing his great work in Georgia and NorthCarolina, is coming to join them too. It will be a great meeting, thatof the three successful generals who have destroyed the Confederacy,because there's nothing of it left now but Lee's army, and that theysay is mighty small."
It was in reality a triumphant march that they began after they leftWhite House, refreshed, remounted and ready for new conquests. Theysoon came into touch with the Army of the Potomac, and the greatmeeting between Grant, Sherman and Sheridan took place, Sherman havingcome north especially for the purpose. Then Sheridan's force becameattached to the Army of the Potomac, and his cavalry columns advancedinto the marshes about Petersburg. All fear that they would be sent tocooperate with Sherman passed, and Dick knew that the Winchester menwould be in the final struggle with Lee, a struggle the success ofwhich he felt assured.
April was not far away. The fierce winter was broken up completely,but the spring rains were uncommonly heavy and much of the low countryabout Petersburg was flooded, making it difficult for cavalry andimpossible for infantry. Nevertheless the army of Grant, with Sheridannow as a striking arm, began to close in on the beleaguered men ingray. Lee had held the trenches before Petersburg many months, keepingat bay a resolute and powerful army, led by an able and tenaciousgeneral, but it was evident now that he could not continue to holdthem. Sheridan's victorious force on his flank made it impossible.
The Winchester men were in a skirmish or two, but for a few days mostof their work was maneuvering, that is, they were continually riding insearch of better positions. At times, the rain still poured, but thethree young captains were so full of expectancy that they scarcelynoticed it. Dick often heard the trumpets singing across the marshes,and now and then he saw the Confederate skirmishers and the roofs ofPetersburg. He beheld too with his own eyes the circle of steelclosing about the last hope of the Confederacy, and he felt every day,with increasing strength, that the end was near.
But the outside world did not realize that the great war was to closeso suddenly. It had raged with the utmost violence for four years andit seemed the normal condition in America. Huge battles had beenfought, and they had ended in nothing. Three years before, McClellanhad been nearer to Richmond than Grant now was, and yet he had beendriven away. Lee and Jackson had won brilliant victories or had heldthe
Union numbers to a draw, and to those looking from far away the endseemed as distant as ever. At that very moment, they were saying inEurope that the Confederacy was invincible, and that it was strongerthan it had been a year or two years earlier.
Dick, all unconscious of distant opinion, watched the tightening of thesteel belt, and helped in the task. He and his comrades never doubted.They knew that Sherman had crushed the Southeast, and that Thomas, thatstern old Rock of Chickamauga, had annihilated the Southern army ofHood at Nashville. Dick was glad that the triumph there had gone toThomas, whom he always held in the greatest respect and admiration.
He often saw Grant in those days, a silent, resolute man, thinner thanof old and stooped a little with care and responsibility. Dick, likethe others, felt with all the power of conviction that Grant wouldnever go back, and Shepard, who had entered Petersburg twice at theimminent risk of his life, assured him that Lee's force was wearingaway. There was left only a fraction of the great Army of NorthernVirginia that had fought so brilliantly at Chancellorsville,Gettysburg, the Wilderness and on many another battlefield.
"Only we who are here and who can see with our own eyes know what isabout to happen," said the spy. "Even our own Northern states, so longdeluded by false hopes, can't yet believe, but we know."
"Did you hear anything of the Invincibles when you were in Petersburg?"asked Dick.
"I heard of them, and I also saw them, although they did not know I wasnear. I suppose Harry Kenton could scarcely have contained himself hadhe known it was my sister who filched that map from the Curtis house inRichmond and that it was to me she gave it."
"But he was all right? He escaped unhurt from the Valley?"
"Yes, or if he took a hurt it was but a slight one, from which he soonrecovered. He and his comrades, Dalton, St. Clair and Langdon, and thetwo Colonels, Talbot and St. Hilaire, are back with Lee, and they'veorganized another regiment called the Invincibles, which Talbot and St.Hilaire lead, although your cousin and Dalton are on Lee's staff again."
"I suppose we'll come face to face again, and this time at the verylast," said Dick. "I hope they'll be reasonable about it, and won'tinsist on fighting until they're all killed. Have you heard anythingof those two robbers and murderers, Slade and Skelly?"
"Not a thing. But I didn't expect it. They'd never leave themountains. Instead they'll go farther into 'em."
That night many messengers rode with dispatches, and the lines of theNorthern army were tightened. Dick saw all the signs that portended agreat movement, signs with which he had long since grown familiar. Thebig batteries were pushed forward, and heavy masses of infantry weremoved closer to the Confederate trenches. He felt quite sure that thefinal grapple was at hand.