The Long Roll

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The Long Roll, by Mary Johnston

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Title: The Long Roll
Author: Mary Johnston
Release Date: July 13, 2007 [EBook #22066]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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By Mary Johnston
THE LONG ROLL. The first of two books dealing with the war between the States. With Illustrations in color by N. C. WYETH.
LEWIS RAND. With Illustrations in color by F. C. YOHN.
AUDREY. With Illustrations in color by F. C. YOHN.
PRISONERS OF HOPE. With Frontispiece.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD. With 8 Illustrations by HOWARD PYLE, E. B. THOMPSON, A. W. BETTS, and EMLEN MCCONNELL.
THE GODDESS OF REASON. A Drama.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK

[Illustration: STONEWALL JACKSON]

THE LONG ROLL
BY MARY JOHNSTON
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY N. C. WYETH
[Illustration: publishers icon]
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK:
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE
1911

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY MARY JOHNSTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published May 1911

To the Memory of
JOHN WILLIAM JOHNSTON
MAJOR OF ARTILLERY, C. S. A.
AND OF
JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHNSTON
GENERAL, C. S. A.

TO THE READER
To name the historians, biographers, memoir and narrative writers, diarists, and contributors of but a vivid page or two to the magazines of Historical Societies, to whom the writer of a story dealing with this period is indebted, would be to place below a very long list. In lieu of doing so, the author of this book will say here that many incidents which she has used were actual happenings, recorded by men and women writing of that through which they lived. She has changed the manner but not the substance, and she has used them because they were "true stories" and she wished that breath of life within the book. To all recorders of these things that verily happened, she here acknowledges her indebtedness and gives her thanks.

CONTENTS
I. THE BOTETOURT RESOLUTIONS
II. THE HILLTOP
III. THREE OAKS
IV. GREENWOOD
V. THUNDER RUN
VI. BY ASHBY'S GAP
VII. THE DOGS OF WAR
VIII. A CHRISTENING
IX. WINCHESTER
X. LIEUTENANT MCNEIL
XI. AS JOSEPH WAS A-WALKING
XII. "THE BATH AND ROMNEY TRIP"
XIII. FOOL TOM JACKSON
XIV. THE IRON-CLADS
XV. KERNSTOWN
XVI. RUDE'S HILL
XVII. CLEAVE AND JUDITH
XVIII. MCDOWELL
XIX. THE FLOWERING WOOD
XX. FRONT ROYAL
XXI. STEVEN DAGG
XXII. THE VALLEY PIKE
XXIII. MOTHER AND SON
XXIV. THE FOOT CAVALRY
XXV. ASHBY
XXVI. THE BRIDGE AT PORT REPUBLIC
XXVII. JUDITH AND STAFFORD
XXVIII. THE LONGEST WAY ROUND
XXIX. THE NINE-MILE ROAD
XXX. AT THE PRESIDENT'S
XXXI. THE FIRST OF THE SEVEN DAYS
XXXII. GAINES'S MILL
XXXIII. THE HEEL OF ACHILLES
XXXIV. THE RAILROAD GUN
XXXV. WHITE OAK SWAMP
XXXVI. MALVERN HILL
XXXVII. A WOMAN
XXXVIII. CEDAR RUN
XXXIX. THE FIELD OF MANASSAS
XL. A GUNNER OF PELHAM'S
XLI. THE TOLLGATE
XLII. SPECIAL ORDERS, NO. 191
XLIII. SHARPSBURG
XLIV. BY THE OPEQUON
XLV. THE LONE TREE HILL
XLVI. FREDERICKSBURG
XLVII. THE WILDERNESS
XLVIII. THE RIVER

ILLUSTRATIONS
STONEWALL JACKSON Frontispiece
THE LOVERS
THE BATTLE
THE VEDETTE
From drawings by N. C. Wyeth.

THE LONG ROLL
CHAPTER I
THE BOTETOURT RESOLUTIONS
On this wintry day, cold and sunny, the small town breathed hard in its excitement. It might have climbed rapidly from a lower land, so heightened now were its pulses, so light and rare the air it drank, so raised its mood, so wide, so very wide the opening prospect. Old red-brick houses, old box-planted gardens, old high, leafless trees, out it looked from its place between the mountain ranges. Its point of view, its position in space, had each its value--whether a lesser value or a greater value than other points and positions only the Judge of all can determine. The little town tried to see clearly and to act rightly. If, in this time so troubled, so obscured by mounting clouds, so tossed by winds of passion and of prejudice, it felt the proudest assurance that it was doing both, at least that self-infatuation was shared all around the compass.
The town was the county-seat. Red brick and white pillars, set on rising ground and encircled by trees, the court house rose like a guidon, planted there by English stock. Around it gathered a great crowd, breathlessly listening. It listened to the reading of the Botetourt Resolutions, offered by the President of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and now delivered in a solemn and a ringing voice. The season was December and the year, 1860.
* * * * *
The people of Botetourt County, in general meeting assembled, believe it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth, in the present alarming condition of our country, to give some expression of their opinion upon the threatening aspect of public affairs....
In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the effort of the latter to tax the Colonies without their consent, it was Virginia who, by the resolution against the Stamp Act, gave the example of the first authoritative