Campaigns of a Non-Combatant | Page 7

died before the troops removed,
and a sutler, under pretence of securing their passage to the North,
disappeared with the little they had saved. They were quite destitute
now, but looked to the future with no foreboding, and huddled together
in the straw, made a picture of domestic felicity that impressed me
greatly with the docility, contentment, and unfailing good humor of
their dusky tribe. The eyes of the children were large and lustrous, and
they revealed the clear pearls beneath their lips as they clung bashfully
to their mother's lap. The old lady was smoking a clay pipe; the man

running over some castaway jackets and boots. I remarked particularly
the broad shoulders and athletic arms of the woman, whose many
childbirths had left no traces upon her comeliness. She asked me,
wistfully: "Masser, how fur to de nawf?"
"A long way," said I, "perhaps two hundred miles."
"Lawd!" she said, buoyantly--"is dat all? Why, Jeems, couldn't we foot
it, honey?"
"You a most guv out before, ole 'oman," he replied; "got a good ruff
over de head now. Guess de white massar won't let um starve."
I tossed some coppers to the children and gave each a sandwich.
"You get up dar, John Thomas!" called the man vigorously; "you tank
de gentleman, Jefferson, boy! I wonda wha your manners is. Tank you,
massar! know'd you was a gentleman, sar! Massar, is your family from
ole Virginny?"
It was five o'clock when I rejoined S., and the greater part of our
journey had yet to be made. I went at his creeping pace until courtesy
yielded to impatience, when spurring my Pegasus vigorously, he fell
into a bouncing amble and left the attaché far behind. My pass was
again demanded above Langley's by a man who ate apples as he
examined it, and who was disposed to hold a long parley. I entered a
region of scrub timber further on, and met with nothing human for four
miles, at the end of which distance I reached Difficult Creek, flowing
through a rocky ravine, and crossed by a military bridge of logs.
Through the thick woods to the right, I heard the roar of the Potomac,
and a finger-board indicated that I was opposite Great Falls. Three or
four dead horses lay at the roadside beyond the stream, and I recalled
the place as the scene of a recent cavalry encounter. A cartridge-box
and a torn felt hat lay close to the carcasses: I knew that some soul had
gone hence to its account.
The road now kept to the left obliquely, and much of my ride was made
musical by the stream. Darkness closed solemnly about me, with seven

miles of the journey yet to accomplish, and as, at eight o'clock, I turned
from the turnpike into a lonesome by-road, full of ruts, pools, and
quicksands, a feeling of delicious uneasiness for the first time
possessed me. Some owls hooted in the depth of the woods, and wild
pigs, darting across the road, went crashing into the bushes. The
phosphorescent bark of a blasted tree glimmered on a neighboring knoll,
and as I halted at a rivulet to water my beast, I saw a solitary star
floating down the ripples. Directly I came upon a clearing where the
moonlight shone through the rents of a crumbling dwelling, and from
the far distance broke the faint howl of farm dogs. A sense of insecurity
that I would not for worlds have resigned, now tingled, now chilled my
blood. At last, climbing a stony hill, the skies lay beneath me reddening
with the flame of camps and flaring and falling alternately, like the
beautiful Northern lights. I heard the ring of hoofs as I looked
entranced, and in a twinkling, a body of horsemen dashed past me and
disappeared. A little beyond, the road grew so thick that I could see
nothing of my way; but trusting doubtfully to my horse, a deep
challenge came directly from the thicket, and I saw the flash of a sabre,
as I stammered a reply. Led to a cabin close at hand, my pass was
examined by candle-light, and I learned that the nearest camp of the
Reserves was only a mile farther on, and the regiment of which I was in
quest about two miles distant. After another half hour, I reached Ord's
brigade, whose tents were pitched in a fine grove of oaks; the men
talking, singing, and shouting, around open air fires; and a battery of
brass Napoleons unlimbered in front, pointing significantly to the West
and South. For a mile and a half I rode by the light of continuous camps,
reaching at last the quarters of the ----th, commanded by a former
newspaper associate of mine, with whom I had gone