The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 42, April, 1861: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 42, April, 1861: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Casting our eye over the field, we cannot realize that there are such
hosts of men under arms about us, till a military guide by our side
points out their distribution to us.
"Look there!" says General H., pointing to an orchard beneath. "Under
those trees they are swarming thick as bees. There are ten thousand men,
at least, in that spot alone."
With an opera-glass we can distinctly scan the walls of Capua, and
observe that they are not yet manned. But the besieged are throwing out
troops by thousands into the field before our lines. We remark one large
body drawn up in the shelter of the shadow cast by a large building.
Every now and then, from out this shadow, a piercing ray of light is
shot, reflected from the helm or sword-case of the commanding officer,
who is gallantly riding up and down before his men, and probably
haranguing them in preparation for the expected conflict. All these
things strike the attention with a force and meaning far different from
the impression produced by the holiday pageantry of mimic war.
The Commander-in-Chief is now disengaged, and our party approach him
to pay their respects. By the advice of General J---n, we proffer our
medical services for the day; and we receive a pressure of the hand, a
genial look, and a bind acknowledgment of the offer. But we are told
there will be no general action to-day. Our report of these words, as
we rejoin our companions, is the first intimation given that the
bombardment is deferred. But, though, there is some disappointment,
their surprise is not extreme. For Garibaldi never informs even his
nearest aide-de-camp what he is about to do. In fact, he quaintly says,
"If his shirt knew his plans, he would take it off and burn it." Some
half-hour later, having descended from the eminence, we take our last
look of Garibaldi. He has retired with a single servant to a sequestered
place upon the mount, whither he daily resorts, and where his mid-day
repast is brought to him. Here he spends an hour or two secure from
interruption. What thoughts he ponders in his solitude the reader may
perhaps conjecture as well as his most intimate friend. But for us, with
the holy associations of a very high mountain before our mind, we can
but trust that a prayer, "uttered or unexpressed," invokes the divine
blessing upon the work to which Garibaldi devotes himself,--the
political salvation of his country.
* * * * *
TWO OR THREE TROUBLES.
[Concluded.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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