The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's CrisisAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's Crisis
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
It was not yet noon and McClellan's army began to go into camp at
Frederick. Dick and Pennington got a chance to stroll about a little,
and they picked up much gossip. Young women, with strong Southern
proclivities, looked with frowning eyes upon their blue uniforms, but
the frank and pleasant smiles of the two lads disarmed them. Older women
of the same proclivities did not melt so easily, but continued to regard
them with a hard and burning gaze.
But there were men strongly for the Union, and the two friendly lads
picked up many details from them. They showed them a grove in which Lee,
Jackson, Longstreet and D. H. Hill had all been camped at once. People
had gone there daily for a glimpse of these famous men.
They also showed the boys the very spot where Stonewall Jackson had
come near to making an ignominious end of his great career. His faithful
horse, Little Sorrel, had been worn out by incessant marchings and must
rest for a while. The people gave him a splendid horse, but one that had
not been broken well. The first time he mounted it a band happened
to begin playing, the horse sprang wildly, the saddle girth broke and
Jackson was thrown heavily to the ground.
“You'd better believe there was excitement then,” said the narrator,
a clerk in one of the stores. “Everybody ran forward to pick up the
general. He had been thrown so hard that he was stunned and had big
bruises. That horse did him more damage than all the armies of the
North have done. I can tell you there was alarm for a while among the
Johnnies, but they say he was all over it before he left.”
They wandered back toward their own command and the obliging guide
pointed out to them a house which the Confederate generals had made
their headquarters. They saw Colonel Winchester entering it, and
thanking the clerk, followed him.
Union officers were already in the house looking with curiosity at the
chairs and tables that Jackson and Lee and Longstreet had occupied. Dick
caught sight of a small package lying on one of the tables, but another
man picked it up first. As he did so he looked at Dick and said in
triumph:
“Three good cigars that the rebels have left behind. Have one, Mason?”
“Thanks, but I don't smoke.”
“All right, I'll find someone else who does.”
He pulled off a piece of paper wrapped around them, threw it on the
floor and put the cigars in his pocket. Dick was about to turn away when
he happened to glance at the wrapping lying on the floor.
His eyes were caught by the words written in large letters:
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF NORTH--
Something seemed to shoot through his brain. It was like a flash of
warning or command and he obeyed at once. He picked up the paper and
smoothed it out in his hand. The full line read like the headline in a
newspaper:
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
September 9, 1862.
Then with eyes bulging in his head he read:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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