The Star of Gettysburg | Page 5

leafy ground beside the log.
"Very little when I finish," replied St. Clair, examining his work with a
critical eye. "Of course I can't pass the uniform off as wholly new. It's
been a long time since I've seen a new one in our army, but it will be a
lot above the average."
"I admire your care of your clothes, Arthur, even if I can't quite imitate
it. I've concluded that good clothes give a certain amount of moral
courage, and if you get killed you make a much more decent body."
"But Arthur St. Clair, of Charleston, sir, has no intention of getting

killed," said Happy Tom Langdon, who was also resting upon the earth.
"He means after this war is over to go back to his native city, buy the
most magnificent uniforms that were ever made, and tell the girls how
Lee and Jackson turned to him for advice at the crisis of every great
battle."
"We surely needed wisdom and everything else we could get at
Antietam-- leadership, tenacity and the willingness to die," said Dalton,
the sober young Virginia Presbyterian. "Boys, we were in the deepest
of holes there, and we had to lift ourselves out almost by our own boot
straps."
Harry's face clouded. The field of Antietam often returned to him,
almost as real and vivid as on that terrible day, when the dead lay
heaped in masses around the Dunkard church and the Southern army
called forth every ounce of courage and endurance for its very
salvation.
"Antietam is a month away," he said, "and I still shudder at the name.
We didn't think McClellan would come up and attack Lee while
Jackson was away at Harper's Ferry, but he did. How did it happen?
How did he know that our army was divided?"
"I've heard a strange story," said Dalton. "It's come through some
Union prisoners we've taken. They say that McClellan found a copy of
General Lee's orders in Frederick, and learned from them exactly where
all our troops were and what they intended. Then, of course, he
attacked."
"A strange tale, as you say, a most extraordinary chance," said Harry.
"Do you think it's true, George?"
"I've no doubt it fell out that way. The same report comes from other
sources."
"At any rate," said Happy Tom, "it gave us a chance to show how less
than fifty thousand men could stand off nearly ninety thousand. Besides,
we didn't lose any ground. We went over into Maryland to give the

Marylanders a chance to rise for the South. They didn't rise worth a
cent. I suppose we didn't get more than five hundred volunteers in that
state. 'The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland,' and it
can stay on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland, if that's the way you
treat us. I feel a lot more at home here in Virginia."
"It is fine," said Harry, stirring comfortably on the leaves and looking
down at the clear stream of the Opequon. "One can't fight all the time. I
feel as if I had been in a thousand battles, and two or three months of
the year are left. It's fine to lie here by the water, and breathe pure air
instead of dust."
"I've heard that every man eats a peck of dirt in the course of his life,"
said Happy Tom, "but I know that I've already beat the measure a
dozen times over. Why, I took in a bushel at least at the Second
Manassas, but I still live, and here I am, surveying this peaceful
domestic scene. Arthur is mending his best uniform, Harry stretched on
the leaves is resting and dreaming dreams, George is wondering how he
will get a new pair of shoes for the season, and the army is doing its
autumn washing."
Harry glanced up and down the stream, and he smiled at the homely
sight. Thousands of soldiers were washing their ragged clothes in the
little river and the equally ragged clothes of many others were drying
on the banks or on the bushes. The sun-browned lads who skylarked
along the shores or in the water, playing pranks on one another, bore
little resemblance to those who had charged so fiercely and so often
into the mouths of the cannon at Antietam.
Harry marvelled at them and at himself. It seemed scarcely possible
that human nature could rush to such violent extremes within so short a
space. But youth conquered all. There was very little gloom in this
great army which disported itself in the water or in the shade.
Thousands of wounded, still pale, but with returning strength, lay on
the October leaves and looked forward to the day when they could join
their comrades in either games