t Beworadd Yada
Bellefonte, Pa., April 18, 1913.
i
i
Shenandoah.
[Continued from page 6, Col. 4.]
the Intolerable ennui of captivity and |
to bring a passing flush of excitement |
to wan cheeks—and that was about nil |
A warm brotherly affection had |
sprung up between Captain Ralph
Hunt. the weak but courageous con
sumptive, and Lieutenant Frank Rel
loe. the youthful spirit of that sad com
munity. who was more or less a mys |
tery to his closest comrades. yet whe |
bore a sort of “daredevil” reputation |
even among those who knew him bn |
slightly or not at all. Bedloe fairly |
burned to he free and fighting amin, |
and he lost sleep straining at the iden |
of escape. He had been in every for i
Jorn hope of the kind since his arrival
and was under special surveillance,’
perhaps on this account, perhaps at!
the instance of a certain Confederate
secret service officer, Thornton by
name. |
Other Union prisoners in Libby were
allowed occasional visitors and receiv: |
ed presents of food and clothing from |
home. No such remembrances ever)
reached Lieutenant Bedloe. No letters |
came to him, nor was he known tc!
write any. It was even uncertain tc’
what state he belonged, and If be bad
a home, relatives or friends he never
made any allusion to them. War was
war, not a picnic, he said. Once 8
soldier, it was “all off” with other ties
His one object was to win military
distinction, meaning rapid promotion
for conspicuous gallantry. i
Precisely the opposite of this fierce
and somber obsession was the char
acter of Ralph Hunt—frank, gentle.’
confiding, childlike in some qualities
as well as in some weaknesses. But
he loved Bedloe, and his own ambi
tions, as the tide of a blighted life
slowly but surely ebbed, merged into
one grand desire to do something for
the strong, high spirited, dashing com-
rade who had contributed so much to
cheer the horrible gloom of prison ex-
istence.
The opportunity came in an odd and
unexpected way. Hunt's kind southern
friends had the happy thought to re-
place his dilapidated uniform with a
new suit of clothes—citizen's clothes,
of course, and of the good homely ma-
terial known as “butternut” As a
matter of fact, tee whole Confederate
army, especially after the first year of
the war, was sprinkled with butternut
of various shades. The “uniforms”
were anything but uniform. A gray
coat, a gray pair of trousers, or a gray
hat, sufficed to mark the followers of
Lee and Jackson, and some soldiers
went through all the campaigns clad
in their home garb as farmers or
mountaineers, A supreme service was
devised for Ralph Hunt's new suit the
very day it arrived. i
“You are the man to get away with
it, Frank,” insisted the owner of the
clothes. “The opportunity is wasted
on me.”
“Ralph is right” declared Captain
Cox, “You can make as good use of
your liberty as any officer here, Lieu-
tenant Bedloe. No, don't think of me.
1 have something else in view for my-
self.”
S80 It came about that one morning
when Captain Warner had been replac-
ed by a subordinate named Turner as
acting commissary and the guard for
the Potomac room had been newly
changed, a gawky youth in butternuts
(Frank had contrived to shave off his
beard and mustache) slipped out be-
hind the officer who had perfunctorily
counted the prisoners and in a twin-,
kling was mixed up with the free south-
erners who lounged about the place on
one pretext or another, though he was
still on the wrong side of the railing
that coustituted the dead line, Here
Turner was stationed, sitting at a desk
just within the pale. '
“Hello, cap—do they keep you busy?”
drawled the youth {in butternuts,
matching bis clothes with the assumed
accent of a North Caroline tarheel.
“Who the devil are you?’ demanded
the official. glancing up from his rec-|
ords, “and what are you doing here?’ |
“I'm from No'th Ca’liny, and I fol |
lowed the gyard in so’s as to git a look
at them ‘ere Yankee prisoners. I'm
goin’ to the front tomorrow an’ |
thought before | went I'd like to see
what these Yanks looked like.” i
“Go to the front and be cursed, and
there you'll see more Yanks than you
want to. Now, get out of here and stay
out.”
“All right, cap, you needn't be so
sassy abaout it,” retorted the supposed
tarheel as he lurched out through the
wicket and made for the door, where,
rolling a quid of tobacco in his cheek. |
he winked at the armed guard and
passed out.
Here was where Lieutenant Frank
Bedloe. daredevil, demonstrated his old
self again. Instead of disappearing
with all possible celerity, as any man
of ordinary nerve would have done.
once escaped from Libby prison. be
deliberately crossed the street to the
vacant lot opposite and stood there a
minute or two with his hands in his
pockets, gazing up at the barred front
windows of the big brick building to
see if any of his late comrades in cap-
tivity had ventured across the dead
line to catch a glimpse of his actual
departure for “God's country.”
A few pale faces could be dimly dis
cerned within. To these Frank waved
a parting salute, murmuring, “Goodby:
Lake we'll meet agnin somewhere
Then he slouched off in the direction
of the Rocketts. down the bend of the
James river.
ns
CHAPTER X.
Lights and Shadows.
E Federal army had been re
! pulsed from Richmond. but the
i southern capital was still it
objective. The Confederate
forces in the meantime could play
| their trump card and by menacing
Washington draw McClellan's formida
ble army away from the banks of the
James.
The setback of McClellan prompled
Mr. Lincoln in the first place to gather
up the armies which “Stonewall” Jack
son had scattered in the valley and put
them all under the command of one
officer. who should be charged with the
protection of Washington, and. second
| ly. to fortify his own council by the
appointment of a supreme military ad
viser. who should he commander in
chief of all the Federal armies.
For the first named commission
swept plain in heroic but futile at
tempts to scale the Marve Heights, un-
til the field a= far as eye could reach
was covered with Union dead and
wounded. among which the survivors
ran to and fro. their ranks decimated
by the most withering fire that ever
brave troops charged upon undannted.
In vain. alas! Again bad Lee and
Jackson, Stuart and Longstreet fought
a defensive battle to the finish and
won with absolute ease at compara-
tively little cost Rurnside recrossed
the Rappahannock at night under
cloak of a violent storm. with a loss of
more than 12.000 of the superb soldiers
of the Army of the Potomac.
The spring of 1863 approached with
brighter prospects for the Army of
' Northern Virginia than those which
bad confronted it a year previously.
| The victories of Cold Harbor. Cedar
Major General John Pope was the un-
fortunate choice. For the second
Maior General Henry W Halleck was
brought out of the west, and the whole
land force of the United Ntates was
saddled with a bureaucrat whose own
soldiers could nut lelp vidiculing the
bombastic dechmuations from his
“headquarters in the saddie” enjoin-
ing the troops who followed him to
take no account of strong positions,
lines of retreat or bases of supply. but
to keep always on the lank of the en-
emy, of whom thus far he had seen
nothing but their backs.
He saw their faces presently at Ce-
dar Run, where Jackson administered
a signal defeat, and later in Augusta,
when Lee and Jackson and Longstreet,
who had taken his measure from the
start. finished him at Manassas on the
old battlefield of Bull Run in a series
of quick actions.
Antietam's day of carnage passed
into history as a drawn battle, because
on the day following neither side felt
Copyright by Patriot Publishing company.
“General H. W, Malleck was brought
out of the west.”
strong enough to renew the struggle.
It really amounted to a disaster to the
Confederate army, having abruptly
checked what bad looked like a vie-
torious invasion and demonstrated
Lee's present resources were eotirely
inadequate for offensive operations.
Three days after the withdrawal of
the southern army from Maryland
President Lincoln issued his proclama-
tion of emancipation to the negro
slaves. This measure. in its war re-
lation, was expected to fan reactionary
flames in the south and so ald the Fed-
eral arms in crushing the rebellion.
Its immediate result was to precipi-
tate heated political discussion at the
north.
General McClellan's suggestion to his
army that the remedy for past errors
was at the polls in the pext presiden-
tial election naturally aggravated the
growing breach between bim and the
Washington administration. The final
outcome was that early in November
McClellan was relieved from the com-
mand of the Army of the Potomac. to
be succeeded by Major General Am-
brose BE. Burnside, fourth successive
commander in the field of the Union
forces in Virginia, third to bead the
superb Army of the Potomac organized
by McClellan hardly more than a year
previous.
Burnside conceived the idea of con-
centrating his army on the Rappabau-
nock river, opposite the historic Vir-
ginia town of Fredericksburg.
Lee ordered Jackson and Longstreet
to Fredericksburg and intrenched his
army on the heights back of the town,
on the same (right) bank of the river,
knowing that the enemy, changing his
line of communication with his base of
supplies, would require time before as-
suming the offensive. The plans of
Burnside were Indeed unfathomable,
but the calculations of the Confederate |
chieftain were fulfilled to a nicety.
On the morning of Dec. 13, having
brought his army across the Rappa-
hannock on pontoons directly in Lee's
front, Burnside opened attack with
misdirected valor upon an impregnable
position. strong by nature and made
doubly so by impeccable military art.
A dense fog overhung the river, town
and plain until after 9 o'clock. when
the sunlight burst through, revealing
in terrible splendor the spectacle of
100,000 men in line of battle, their
bristling bayonets gleaming through
the mist, while the roar of 300 cannon
shook the earth and sent red meteors
flashing along the sky.
“It is well that war is so dreadful.”
said General Lee as he looked upon the
unparalleled pageant from his position
on Telegraph hill. “else we should be-
come too fond of it.”
On came the lines of blue, the golden
harp flag of Meagher's Irish brigade in
the van. charging across an artillery
Run. the second Manassas and Fred.
erickshurg had Inspired new enthu- |
slasm. In Virginia two years of bard
struggle had passed. and still the Fed-
eral armies held no ground below the |
Rappahaznock.
The Confederales lay intrenched
along the southern banks of that river,
their long lines of pickets on the qui
vive to give warning that any attempt
to cross would be met as Burnside's
had been in December. Meanwhile
Burnside had been replaced in the com-
mand of the Union forces by General
Joseph Hooker, sometimes called
“Fighting Joe.”
Hooker's well conceived plan for the
spring campaign was to flank the Con-
federate left with four of his seven
army corps at Chancellorsville, some |
eight or ten miles up the Rappahan- |
nock west of Fredericksburg. while the
remaining three corps crossed the river
in Lee's front. a la Burnside, at Fred- |
ericksburg. and Stoueman's cavalry |
made a wide detour around the south- |
arn left and rear. throwing 10.000 sa-
bers between Lee and Richmond, cut- |
|
i
I
i
i
i
i
| General A. E. Burnside.
i {
ting his communications, stopping his
supplies, and being in a position to ob- |
struct the Confederate retreat while
Hooker administered the coup de grace.
“Don't stop him,” sald Lee to Jack- |
son. “When the enemy is busy making
a blunder. be must not under any cir- |
cumstances be interrupted.” |
They readily perceived that with
Hooker at Chancellorsville and Sedg-
wick three miles below Fredericksburg
the two wings of the great Federal
army would be thirteen miles apart,
with Lee's army directly between
them. |
Op May 1 Hooker, having crossed to
the south of the Rappahannock, start-'
ed to hur! his army of four divisions on
the enemy's flank, but Lee was too
quick for him, and after a sharp en- |
counter at Tabernacle church, halfway
between Chancellorsville and Frreder- |
fcksburg, Hooker was forced back into
| @ by Review of Reviews company.
The Stone Wall at Fredericksburg.
the woods, there to adopt the defensive
tactics that were to lead to his destruc:
tion. For then and there the Confed-
erates conceived the bold idea of turn- |
ing the tables upon him by flanking his
right. Jackson was to march with near-
ly 80,000 troops along the entire trout |
of the enemy, and in close proximity
to their lines, without being discov-
ered—to make his way by unfrequent-
ed roads and through dense thickets
to their flank and rear, there to attack
the force of General Hooker, three
times outnumbering his own.
General Lee meanwhile was to hold
Hooker's front with only 14,000 men.
Such was the bold strategy of the Con-
federates at Chancellorsville.
+ At 8 o'clock in the afternoon Jack-
son's van had-safely reached the plank
road three miles to the west of Chan-
cellorsville. The march had been ob-
sgrved by the Federals, but owing to
the roundabout direction it had pur-|
_ completed his work by surrounding the
A —
posely taken they supposed it was a re- |
treat, not an advance.
Toward 6 o'clock in the evening all
was In readiness, and Jackson ordered |
advance. Like an avalanche the |
Confederate rush descended upon the
Union line. driving everything before |
it, capturing cannon before they could
be reversed to fire. rolling up whole di- |
visions and burling them back upon
the enemy's center until the Wilder-
ness was an inferno of smoke and:
flame, of roaring guns and trees crasb- |
ing down, rideriess horses and men!
without arms running about frantic. |
ally: mules carrying ammunition that!
' exploded as they fled: guns. caissons.
forges, ambulances and wagons tmm-
bled in a mad. terrified scramble ux it|
became apparent that the brilliant tac |
tics of Lee and the dashing execution
of Jackson had succeeded and Hook-
er's right had been irresistibly forced
back upon his center.
“If only | had another hour of day-
flight!” cried lackson. He wonid have
enemy's army in the tangled woods and
cutting off its retreat to the fords of
the Rappahannock. As it was, the
Federals finally checked their flying
columns and made a stand at Chancel-
lorsville, where they were pouring an
appalling artillery fire of double canis-
ter up the line of the plank road. Dark-
ness or no darkness, flight or resistance,
the fury of battle was unchained in
Jackson's soul, and his cry was still
Press on!”
[Continued next week.)
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