Si Klegg, Book 6: Si and Shorty, with Their Boy Recruits, Enter on the Atlanta CampaignMcElroy, John
History
Si Klegg, Book 6: Si and Shorty, with Their Boy Recruits, Enter on the Atlanta Campaign
McElroy, John
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; War stories
"Orderly," said Si a little later, "we've got Jim Humphreys's grave dug.
Will you take the things out of his pockets to send to his folks? and
then we'll bury him."
"Better wait till the Captain comes back and gives the orders," said
the Orderly. "I don't want to touch his pockets without the Captain's
orders. Then, we ought to have his blanket to bury him in. You go ahead
and dig Bob Willis's grave, and I'll take a detail back and bring up the
blankets and things."
Shorty had pushed his unavailing search for little Pete far past the
point where he remembered to have seen the boy, in the midst of the
fighting. He had torn his hands and worn out his strength in tearing
aside the brush to expose every possible place that the dying boy or
his dead body might be concealed. He had reached the further side of the
obstruction, and sat down on a stump, in despair of heart and exhaustion
of body.
Those with him, more intent on getting something to eat, had pushed on
back to where their haversacks and canteens and blankets had been left.
Presently Shorty heard a call across the little valley:
"Cor--po--ral Ell--iott. Cor--po--ral Ell--iott!"
"Well, what is it?" Shorty called back, crustily.
"Lit--tle--Pete--and--Sandy--Ba--ker--is--o--ver--here," came back upon
the bright Spring air.
Shorty sprang up electrified, and tore across the intervening space
at the double-quick. He found Pete and Sandy Baker standing soberly on
guard over the line of the company's blankets and belongings.
"Great Jehosephat, you little brats, how did you git here?" he
exclaimed, snatching little Pete up and hugging him.
"Why shouldn't we be here?" asked Pete, as soon as he could get breath.
"Didn't the Captain order us to stay here? Me and Sandy follered you
fellers until you jumped inside the works, and the rebels was a runnin'.
We stood on top o' the bank and shot at the rebels as fast as we could
load our guns. We kept shootin' at 'em till they got clean down to the
road. Then we saw the Captain lookin' over our way, and we thought he
was comin' over there to skin us alive for leaving the things, and we
ducked down behind the bank and run back here as fast as we could fetch
it. You ain't goin' to tell the Captain on us, and have us tied up by
the thumbs, are you, Corporal? Everything's safe. Nothing's gone. You
won't tell, will you?"
"O, you worthless little scamp," said Shorty, with tears of joy in his
eyes. "You ain't worth the powder that'd blow you up. I could pound you
for the worry you've given me in the last hour. But you ain't hurt a
bit, are you?"
"Nope," answered Pete. "But we both got awfully scratched runnin'
through that brush. Say, wasn't the way the boys jumped the works and
waded into them sardines just grand?"
The Orderly-Sergeant and his detail came back for the things, and Shorty
and the boys, picking up those belonging to the squad, made their way to
the company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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