The Rock of Chickamauga | Page 2

General. JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General. P. G. T.
BEAUREGARD, Southern General. WILLIAM L. YANCEY,
Alabama Orator. JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards
President of the United States.
And many others
IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR
SERIES
BULL RUN KERNSTOWN CROSS KEYS WINCHESTER PORT
REPUBLIC THE SEVEN DAYS MILL SPRING FORT DONELSON
SHILOH PERRYVILLE STONE RIVER THE SECOND
MANASSAS ANTIETAM FREDERICKSBURG
CHANCELLORSVILLE GETTYSBURG CHAMPION HILL
VICKSBURG CHICKAMAUGA MISSIONARY RIDGE THE
WILDERNESS SPOTTSYLVANIA COLD HARBOR FISHER'S
HILL CEDAR CREEK APPOMATTOX

CONTENTS
I. AT BELLEVUE
II. FORREST
III. GRANT MOVES
IV. DICK'S MISSION
V. HUNTED
VI. A BOLD ATTACK
VII. THE LITTLE CAPITAL
VIII. CHAMPION HILL
IX. THE OPEN DOOR

X. THE GREAT ASSAULT
XI. THE TAKING OF VICKSBURG
XII. AN AFFAIR OF THE MOUNTAINS
XIII. THE RIVER OF DEATH
XIV. THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA
XV. BESIDE THE BROOK

THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA


CHAPTER I
AT BELLEVUE
"You have the keenest eyes in the troop. Can you see anything ahead?"
asked Colonel Winchester.
"Nothing living, sir," replied Dick Mason, as he swept his powerful
glasses in a half-curve. "There are hills on the right and in the center,
covered with thick, green forest, and on the left, where the land lies low,
the forest is thick and green too, although I think I catch a flash of
water in it."
"That should be the little river of which our map tells. And you, Warner,
what do your eyes tell you?"
"The same tale they tell to Dick, sir. It looks to me like a wilderness."
"And so it is. It's a low-lying region of vast forests and thickets, of slow
deep rivers and creeks, and of lagoons and bayous. If Northern troops
want to be ambushed they couldn't come to a finer place for it. Forrest
and five thousand of his wild riders might hide within rifle shot of us in
this endless mass of vegetation. And so, my lads, it behooves us to be
cautious with a very great caution. You will recall how we got cut up
by Forrest in the Shiloh time."
"I do, sir," said Dick and he shuddered as he recalled those terrible

moments. "This is Mississippi, isn't it?"
Colonel Winchester took a small map from his pocket, and, unfolding it,
examined it with minute care.
"If this is right, and I'm sure it is," he replied, "we're far down in
Mississippi in the sunken regions that border the sluggish tributaries of
the Father of Waters. The vegetation is magnificent, but for a home
give me higher ground, Dick."
"Me too, sir," said Warner. "The finest state in this Union is Vermont. I
like to live on firm soil, even if it isn't so fertile, and I like to see the
clear, pure water running everywhere, brooks and rivers."
"I'll admit that Vermont is a good state for two months in the year,"
said Dick.
"Why not the other ten?"
"Because then it's frozen up, solid and hard, so I've heard."
The other boys laughed and kept up their chaff, but Colonel Winchester
rode soberly ahead. Behind him trailed the Winchester regiment, now
reorganized and mounted. Fresh troops had come from Kentucky, and
fragments of old regiments practically destroyed at Perryville and
Stone River had been joined to it.
It was a splendid body of men, but of those who had gone to Shiloh
only about two hundred remained. The great conflicts of the West, and
the minor battles had accounted for the others. But it was perhaps one
of the reliefs of the Civil War that it gave the lads who fought it little
time to think of those who fell. Four years crowded with battles, great
and small, sieges and marches absorbed their whole attention.
Now two men, the dreaded Forrest and fierce little Joe Wheeler,
occupied the minds of Winchester and his officers. It was impossible to
keep track of these wild horsemen here in their own section. They had a
habit of appearing two or three hundred miles from the place at which

they were expected.
But the young lieutenants while they watched too for their redoubtable
foes had an eye also for the country. It was a new kind of region for all
of them. The feet of their horses sank deep in the soft black soil, and
there was often a sound of many splashings as the regiment rode across
a wide, muddy brook.
Dick noted with interest the magnolias and the live oaks, and the great
stalks of the sunflower. Here in this Southern state, which bathed its
feet in the warm waters of the Gulf, spring was already far along,
although snows still lingered in the North.
The vegetation was extravagant in its luxuriance and splendor. The
enormous forest was broken by openings like prairies, and in