Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 | Page 8

what the battle is to be, and
you know how to fight it. The whole point with the infantry is to fold
around the enemy's right, go in upon it concentrically, smash it, and roll
up their line. The cavalry will watch against the infantry being flanked,
and when the latter have seized the hill, will charge for prisoners. The
artillery will reply to the enemy's guns with shell, and fire grape at any
offensive demonstration. You all know your duties, now, gentlemen.
Go to your commands, and march!"
The colonels saluted and started off at a gallop. In a few minutes
twenty-five hundred men were in simultaneous movement. Five
companies of cavalry wheeled into column of companies, and advanced
at a trot through the fields, seeking to gain the shelter of the forest. The
six infantry regiments slid up alongside of each other, and pushed on in
six parallel columns of march, two on the right of the road and four on
the left. The artillery, which alone left the highway, followed at a
distance of two or three hundred yards. The remaining cavalry made a
wide detour to the right as if to flank the enemy's left.
It was a mile and a quarter--it was a march of fully twenty minutes--to
the edge of the woodland, the proposed cover of the column. Ten
minutes before this point was reached a tiny puff of smoke showed on
the brow of the hostile ridge; then, at an interval of several seconds,
followed the sound of a distant explosion; then, almost immediately,
came the screech of a rifled shell. Every man who heard it swiftly

asked himself, "Will it strike me?" But even as the words were thought
out it had passed, high in air, clean to the rear, and burst harmlessly. A
few faces turned upward and a few eyes glanced backward, as if to see
the invisible enemy. But there was no pause in the column; it flowed
onward quietly, eagerly, and with business-like precision; it gave forth
no sound but the trampling of feet and the muttering of the officers,
"Steady, men! Forward, men!"
The Confederates, however, had got their range. A half minute later
four puffs of smoke dotted the ridge, and a flight of hoarse humming
shrieks tore the air. A little aureole cracked and splintered over the First,
followed by loud cries of anguish and a brief, slight confusion. The
voice of an officer rose sharply out of the flurry, "Close up, Company
A! Forward, men!" The battalion column resumed its even formation in
an instant, and tramped unitedly onward, leaving behind it two
quivering corpses and a wounded man who tottered rearward.
Then came more screeches, and a shell exploded over the highroad,
knocking a gunner lifeless from his carriage. The brigade commander
glanced anxiously along his batteries, and addressed a few words to his
chief of artillery. Presently the four Napoleons set forward at a gallop
for the wood, while the four Parrotts wheeled to the right, deployed,
and advanced across the fields, inclining toward the left of the enemy.
Next, Taylor's regiment (the Eighth) halted, fronted, faced to the right,
and filed off in column of march at a double-quick until it had gained
the rear of the Parrotts, when it fronted again, and pushed on in support.
A quarter of a mile further on these guns went into battery behind the
brow of a little knoll, and opened fire. Four companies of the Eighth
spread out to the right as skirmishers, and commenced stealing toward
the ridge, from time to time measuring the distance with rifle-balls. The
remainder of the regiment lay down in line between the Parrotts and the
forest. Far away to the right, five companies of cavalry showed
themselves, manoeuvring as if they proposed to turn the left flank of
the Southerners. The attack on this side was in form and in operation.
Meantime the Confederate fire had divided. Two guns pounded away at
Taylor's feint, while two shelled the main column. The latter was struck

repeatedly; more than twenty men dropped silent or groaning out of the
hurrying files; but the survivors pushed on without faltering and
without even caring for the wounded. At last a broad belt of green
branches rose between the regiments and the ridge; and the rebel
gunners, unable to see their foe, dropped suddenly into silence.
Here it appeared that the road divided. The highway traversed the forest,
mounted the slope beyond and dissected the enemy's position, while a
branch road turned to the left and skirted the exterior of the long curve
of wooded hillocks. At the fork the battery of Napoleons had halted,
and there it was ordered to remain for the present in quiet. There, too,
the Fourteenth filed in among