The Scouts of Stonewall: The Story of the Great Valley CampaignAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Scouts of Stonewall: The Story of the Great Valley Campaign
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
Winchester suddenly shot up from the dust and smoke. The battle went on
in the town more fiercely than ever. Torrents of shell and bullets swept
the narrow streets, but many of the women did not hesitate to appear at
the windows and shout amid all the turmoil and roar of battle cheers and
praise for those whom they considered their deliverers. Over all rose
the roar and flame of a vast conflagration where Banks had set his
storehouses on fire, but the women cheered all the more when they saw
it.
Harry did his best to keep up with his general, but Jackson still seemed
to be aflame with excitement. He was in the very front of the attack and
he cried to his men incessantly to push on. It was not enough to take
Winchester. They must follow the beaten army to the Potomac.
Harry had a vision of flame-swept streets, of the whizzing of bullets
and shell, of men crowded thick between the houses, and of the faces of
women at windows, handkerchiefs and veils in their hands. Before him was
a red mist sown with sparks, but every minute or two the mist was rent
open by the blast of a cannon, and then the fragments of shell whistled
again about his ears. He kept his eyes on Jackson, endeavoring to follow
him as closely as possible.
He heard suddenly a cry behind him. He saw Dalton's horse falling, and
then Dalton and the horse disappeared. He felt a catch at the heart,
but it was not a time to remember long. The Southern troops were still
pouring forward driving hard on the Northern resistance.
He heard a moment or two later a voice by his side and there was Dalton
again mounted.
“I thought you were gone!” Harry shouted.
“I was gone for a minute but it was only my horse that stayed. He was
shot through the heart but I caught another--plenty of riderless ones
are galloping about--and here I am.”
The houses and the narrow streets offered some support to the defense
of Banks, but he was gradually driven through the town and out into
the fields beyond. Then the women, careless of bullets, came out of the
houses and weeping and cheering urged on the pursuit. It always seemed
to Harry that the women of this section hated the North more than the
men did, and now it was in very fact and deed the fierce women of the
South cheering on their men.
He came in the fields into contact with the Invincibles. St. Clair was
on foot, his horse killed, but Langdon was still riding, although there
was a faint trickle of blood from his shoulder. Some grim demon seized
him as he saw Harry.
“We said we were coming back to Winchester,” he shouted in his comrade's
ear, “and we have come, but we don't stay. Harry, how long does Old Jack
expect us to march and fight without stopping?”
“Until you get through.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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