United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Harry Glen's first feeling when he found the battle was really over,
was that of elation that the crisis to which he had looked forward
with so much apprehension, had passed without his receiving any
bodily harm. This was soon replaced by regret that the long-coveted
opportunity had been suffered to pass unimproved, and still another
strong sentiment--that keen sense of disappointment which comes
when we have braced ourselves up to encounter an emergency, and it
vanishes. There is the feeling of waste of valuable accumulated
energy, which is as painful as that of energy misapplied.
Still farther, he felt sadly that the day of his vindication had
been again postponed over another weary period of probation.
All around was intense enthusiasm, growing stronger every instant.
It was the first battle tha the victors had been engaged in, and
they felt the tumultuous joy that the first triumph brings to young
soldiers. It was the first encounter upon the soil of Kentucky;
it was the first victory between the Cumberland Mountains and the
Mississippi River, and the loss of the victors was insignificant,
compared with that of the vanquished.
The cold drench from the skies, the dreary mud--even the dead and
wounded--were forgotten in the jubilation at the sight of the lately
insolent foe flying in confusion down the mountain side, recking
for nothing so much as for personal safety.
The band continued to play patriotic airs, and the cannon to thunder
long after the last Rebel had disappeared in the thick woods at
the bottom of the gloomy gorge.
A detail of men and some wagons were sent back after the regiment's
baggage, and the rest of the boys, after a few minutes survey of
the battle-field, were set to work building fires, cooking rations
and preparing from the branches and brush such shelter as could be
made to do substitute duty for the tents left behind.
Little as was Harry's normal inclination to manual labor, it was
less than ever now, with these emotions struggling in his mind,
and leaving his comrades hard at work, he wandered off to where
Hoosier Knob, a commanding eminence on the left of the battle-field
seemed to offer the best view of the retreat of the forces of
Zollicoffer. Arriving there, he pushed on down the slope to where
the enemy's line had stood, and where now were groups of men in
blue uniforms, searching for trophies of the fight. In one place
a musket would be found; in another a cap with a silver star, or a
canteen quaintly fashioned from alternate staves of red and white
cedar. Each “find” was proclaimed by the discoverer, and he was
immediately surrounded by a group to earnestly inspect and discuss
it. It was still the first year of the war; the next year “trophies”
were left to rot unnoticed on the battle-fields they covered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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