The Shades of the Wilderness by Joseph A. Altsheler

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THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS
A STORY OF LEE'S GREAT STAND

by JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER

FOREWORD

"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh volume of the Civil War
Series, of which the predecessors have been "The Guns of Bull Run,"
"The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam",
"The Star of Gettysburg" and "The Rock of Chickamauga." The romance
in this story reverts to the Southern side and deals with the fortunes
of Harry Kenton and his friends. It takes them on the retreat from
Gettysburg, gives the hero a short period of social life in Richmond,
describes the great battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and
ends with the deadlock in the trenches before Petersburg.

THE CIVIL WAR SERIES

VOLUMES IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES

THE GUNS OF BULL RUN.
THE GUNS OF SHILOH.
THE SCOUTS OF STONEWALL.
THE SWORD OF ANTIETAM.
THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG.
THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.
THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS.
THE TREE OF APPOMATTOX.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR SERIES

HARRY KENTON, A Lad Who Fights on the Southern Side.
DICK MASON, Cousin of Harry Kenton, Who Fights on the Northern Side.
COLONEL GEORGE KENTON, Father of Harry Kenton.
MRS. MASON, Mother of Dick Mason.
JULIANA, Mrs. Mason's Devoted Colored Servant.
COLONEL ARTHUR WINCHESTER, Dick Mason's Regimental Commander.
COLONEL LEONIDAS TALBOT, Commander of the Invincibles,
a Southern Regiment.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL HECTOR ST. HILAIRE, Second in Command of the
Invincibles.
ALAN HERTFORD, A Northern Cavalry Leader.
PHILIP SHERBURNE, A Southern Cavalry Leader.
WILLIAM J. SHEPARD, A Northern Spy.
DANIEL WHITLEY, A Northern Sergeant and Veteran of the Plains.
GEORGE WARNER, A Vermont Youth Who Loves Mathematics.
FRANK PENNINGTON, A Nebraska Youth, Friend of Dick Mason.
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, A Native of Charleston, Friend of Harry Kenton.
TOM LANGDON, Friend of Harry Kenton.
GEORGE DALTON, Friend of Harry Kenton.
BILL SKELLY, Mountaineer and Guerrilla.
TOM SLADE, A Guerrilla Chief.
SAM JARVIS, The Singing Mountaineer.
IKE SIMMONS, Jarvis' Nephew.
AUNT "SUSE," A Centenarian and Prophetess.
BILL PETTY, A Mountaineer and Guide.
JULIEN DE LANGEAIS, A Musician and Soldier from Louisiana.
JOHN CARRINGTON, Famous Northern Artillery Officer.
DR. RUSSELL, Principal of the Pendleton School.
ARTHUR TRAVERS, A Lawyer.
JAMES BERTRAND, A Messenger from the South.
JOHN NEWCOMB, A Pennsylvania Colonel.
JOHN MARKHAM, A Northern Officer.
JOHN WATSON, A Northern Contractor.
WILLIAM CURTIS, A Southern Merchant and Blockade Runner.
MRS. CURTIS, Wife of William Curtis.
HENRIETTA CARDEN, A Seamstress in Richmond.
DICK JONES, A North Carolina Mountaineer.
VICTOR WOODVILLE, A Young Mississippi Officer.
JOHN WOODVILLE, Father of Victor Woodville.
CHARLES WOODVILLE, Uncle of Victor Woodville.
COLONEL BEDFORD, A Northern Officer.
CHARLES GORDON, A Southern Staff Officer.
JOHN LANHAM, An Editor.
JUDGE KENDRICK, A Lawyer.
MR. CULVER, A State Senator.
MR. BRACKEN, A Tobacco Grower.
ARTHUR WHITRIDGE, A State Senator.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Southern Confederacy.
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Member of the Confederate Cabinet.
U. S. GRANT, Northern Commander.
ROBERT B. LEE, Southern Commander.
STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General.
PHILIP H. SHERIDAN, Northern General.
GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of Chickamauga."
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General.
A. P. HILL, Southern General.
W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General.
GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General.
AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, Northern General.
TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry Leader.
J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader.
JOSEPH HOOKER, Northern General.
RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern General.
JUBAL EARLY, Southern General.
WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, Northern General.
SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, Southern General.
LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop.
BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General.
NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader.
JOHN MORGAN, Southern Cavalry Leader.
GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General.
DON CARLOS BUELL, Northern General.
W. T. SHERMAN, Northern 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. THE SOUTHERN RETREAT

II. THE NORTHERN SPY

III. THE FLOODED RIVER

IV. A HERALD TO LEE

V. THE DANGEROUS ROAD

VI. TESTS OF COURAGE

VII. IN THE WAGON

VIII. THE CROSSING

IX. IN SOCIETY

X. THE MISSING PAPER

XI. A VAIN PURSUIT

XII. IN WINTER QUARTERS

XIII. THE COMING OF GRANT

XIV. THE GHOSTLY RIDE

XV. THE WILDERNESS

XVI. SPOTTSYLVANIA

THE SHADES OF THE WILDERNESS

CHAPTER I

THE SOUTHERN RETREAT

A train of wagons and men wound slowly over the hills in the darkness and
rain toward the South. In the wagons lay fourteen or fifteen thousand
wounded soldiers, but they made little noise, as the wheels sank suddenly
in the mud or bumped over stones. Although the vast majority of them
were young, boys or not much more, they had learned to be masters of
themselves, and they suffered in silence, save when some one, lost in
fever, uttered a groan.

But the chief sound was a blended note made by the turning of wheels,
and the hoofs of horses sinking in the soft earth. The officers gave
but few orders, and the cavalrymen who rode on either flank looked
solicitously into the wagons now and then to see how their wounded
friends fared, though they seldom spoke. The darkness they did not mind,
because they were used to it, and the rain and the coolness were a relief,
after three days of the fiercest battle the American continent had ever
known, fought in the hottest days that the troops could recall.

Thus Lee's army drew its long length from the fatal field of Gettysburg,
although his valiant brigades did not yet know that the clump of trees
upon Cemetery Hill had marked the high tide of the Confederacy. All that
memorable Fourth of July, following the close of the battle they had lain,
facing Meade and challenging him to come on, confident that while the
invasion of the North was over they could beat back once more the
invasion of the South.

They had no word of complaint against their great commander, Lee.
The faith in him, which was so high, remained unbroken, as it was
destined to remain so to the last. But men began to whisper to one
another, and say if only Jackson had been there. They mourned anew
that terrible evening in the Wilderness when Lee had lost his mighty
lieutenant, his striking arm, the invincible Stonewall. If the man in
the old slouch hat had only been with Lee on Seminary Ridge it would now
be the army of Meade retreating farther into the North, and they would be
pursuing. That belief was destined to sink deep in the soul of the South,
and remain there long after the Confederacy was but a name.

The same thought was often in the mind of Harry Kenton, as he rode near
the rear of the column, whence he had been sent by Lee to observe and
then to report. It was far after midnight now, and the last of the
Southern army could not leave Seminary Ridge before morning. But Harry
could detect no sign of pursuit. Now and then, a distant gun boomed,
and the thunder muttered on the horizon, as if in answer. But there
was nothing to indicate that the Army of the Potomac was moving from
Gettysburg in pursuit, although the President in Washington, his heart
filled with bitterness, was vainly asking why his army would not reap the
fruits of a victory won so hardly. Fifty thousand men had fallen on the
hills and in the valleys about Gettysburg, and it seemed, for the time,
that nothing would come of such a slaughter. But the Northern army had
suffered immense losses, and Lee and his men were ready to fight again
if attacked. Perhaps it was wiser to remain content upon the field with
their sanguinary success. At least, Meade and his generals thought so.

Harry, toward morning came upon St. Clair and Langdon riding together.
Both had been wounded slightly, but their hurts had not kept them from
the saddle, and they were in cheerful mood.

"You've been further back than we, Harry," said St. Clair. "Is Meade hot
upon our track? We hear the throb of a cannon now and then."

"It doesn't mean anything. Meade hasn't moved. While we didn't win we
struck the Yankees such a mighty blow that they'll have to rest, and
breathe a while before they follow."

"And I guess we need a little resting and breathing ourselves," said
Langdon frankly. "There were times when I thought the whole world had
just turned itself into a volcano of fire."

"But we'll come back again," said St. Clair. "We'll make these
Pennsylvania Dutchmen take notice of us a second time."

"That's the right spirit," said Langdon. "Arthur had nearly all of his
fine uniform shot off him, but he's managed to fasten the pieces together,
and ride on, just as if it were brand new."

But Harry was silent. The prescient spirit of his famous great
grandfather, Henry Ware, had descended upon his valiant great grandson.
Hope had not gone from him, but it did not enter his mind that they
should invade Pennsylvania again.

"I'm glad to leave Gettysburg," he said. "More good men of ours have
fallen there than anywhere else."

"That's true," said St. Clair, "but Marse Bob will win for us, anyhow.
You don't think any of these Union generals here in the East can whip our
Lee, do you?"

"Of course not!" said Happy Tom. "Besides, Lee has me to help him."

"How are Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire?" asked Harry.

"Sound asleep, both of 'em," replied St. Clair. "And it's a strange
thing, too. They were sitting in a wagon, having resumed that game
of chess which they began in the Valley of Virginia, but they were so
exhausted that both fell sound asleep while playing. They are sitting
upright, as they sleep, and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire's thumb and
forefinger rest upon a white pawn that he intended to move."

"I hope they won't be jarred out of their rest and that they'll sleep on,"
said Harry. "Nobody deserves it more."

He waved a hand to his friends and continued his ride toward the rear.
The column passed slowly on in silence. Now and then gusts of rain
lashed across his face, but he liked the feeling. It was a fillip to his
blood, and his nerves began to recover from the tremendous strain and
excitement of the last four days.

Obeying his orders he rode almost directly back toward the field of
Gettysburg from which the Southern forces were still marching. A
friendly voice from a little wood hailed him, and he recognized it at
once as that of Sherburne, who sat his horse alone among the trees.

"Come here, Harry," he said.

"Glad to find you alive, Sherburne. Where's your troop?"

"What's left of it is on ahead. I'll join the men in a few minutes.
But look back there!"

Harry from the knoll, which was higher than he had thought, gazed upon a
vast and dusky panorama. Once more the field of Gettysburg swam before
him, not now in fire and smoke, but in vapors and misty rain. When he
shut his eyes he saw again the great armies charging on the slopes,
the blazing fire from hundreds of cannon and a hundred thousand rifles.
There, too, went Pickett's brigades, devoted to death but never
flinching. A sob burst from his throat, and he opened his eyes again.

"You feel about it as I do," said Sherburne. "We'll never come back into
the North."

"It isn't merely a feeling within me, I know it."

"So do I, but we can still hold Virginia."

"I think so, too. Come, we'd better turn. There goes the field of
Gettysburg. The rain and mist have blotted it out."

The panorama, the most terrible upon which Harry had ever looked,
vanished in the darkness. The two rode slowly from the knoll and into
the road.

"It will be daylight in an hour," said Sherburne, "and by that time the
last of our men will be gone."

"And I must hasten to our commander-in-chief," said Harry.

"How is he?" asked Sherburne. "Does he seem downcast?"

"No, he holds his head as high as ever, and cheers the men. They say
that Pickett's charge was a glorious mistake, but he takes all the blame
for it, if there is any. He doesn't criticize any of his generals."

"Only a man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's
because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will
follow him to the death."

"Good-by, Sherburne," said Harry. "Hope I'll see you again soon."

He urged his horse into a faster gait, anxious to overtake Lee and report
that all was well with the rear guard. He noticed once more, and with
the greatest care that long line of the wounded and the unwounded,
winding sixteen miles across the hills from Gettysburg to Chambersburg,
and his mind was full of grave thoughts. More than two years in the very
thick of the greatest war, then known, were sufficient to make a boy a
man, at least in intellect and responsibility.

Harry saw very clearly, as he rode beside the retreating but valiant
army that had failed in its great attempt, that their role would be the
defensive. For a little while he was sunk in deep depression. Then
invincible youth conquered anew, and hope sprang up again. The night
was at the darkest, but dawn was not far away. Fugitive gusts of wind
drenched him once more, but he did not mind it, nor did he pay any
attention to the occasional growl of a distant gun. He was strong in the
belief that Meade would not pursue--at least not yet. A general who had
just lost nearly one-third of his own army was not in much condition to
follow his enemy.

He urged his horse to increased speed, and pressed on toward the head of
the column. The rain ceased and cool puffs of wind came out of the east.
Then the blackness there turned to gray, which soon deepened into silver.
Through the silver veil shot a bolt of red fire, and the sun came over
the hills.

Although the green world had been touched with brown by the hot sun of
July it looked fresh and beautiful to Harry. The brown in the morning
sunlight was a rosy red, and the winds of dawn were charged with life.
His horse, too, felt the change and it was easy now to force him into a
gallop toward a fire on a low hill, which Harry felt sure had been built
to cook breakfast for their great commander.

As he approached he saw Lee and his generals standing before the blaze,
some eating, and others drinking. An orderly, near by, held the
commander's famous horse, Traveller, and two or three horses belonging to
the other generals were trying to find a little grass between the stony
outcrops of the hills. Harry felt an overwhelming curiosity, but he kept
it in restraint, dismounting at a little distance, and approaching on
foot.

He could not observe much change in the general's appearance. His
handsome gray suit was as neat as ever, and the three stars, the only
marks of his rank that he wore, shone untarnished upon his collar.
The dignified and cheerful manner that marked him before Gettysburg
marked him also afterward. To Harry, so young and so thoroughly charged
with the emotions of his time and section, he was a figure to be
approached with veneration.

He saw the stalwart and bearded Longstreet and other generals whom he
knew, among them the brilliant Stuart in his brilliant plumage, but
rather quiet and subdued in manner now, since he had not come to
Gettysburg as soon as he was needed. Harry hung back a little, fearing
lest he might be regarded as thrusting himself into a company so much
his superior in rank, but Lee saw him and beckoned to him.

"I sent you back toward Gettysburg to report on our withdrawal,
Lieutenant Kenton," he said.

"Yes, sir. I returned all the way to the field. The last of our troops
should be leaving there just about now. The Northern army had made no
preparation for immediate pursuit."

"Your report agrees with all the others that I have received. How long
have you been without sleep?"

"I don't know, sir," he said at last. "I can't remember. Maybe it has
been two or three days."

Stuart, who held a cup of coffee in his hand, laughed. "The times have
been such that there are generals as well as lieutenants," he said,
"who can't remember when they've slept."

"You're exhausted, my lad," said Lee gravely and kindly, "and there's
nothing more you can do for us just now. Take some breakfast with us,
and then you must sleep in one of the wagons. An orderly will look after
your horse."

Lee handed him a cup of coffee with his own hand, and Harry, thanking him,
withdrew to the outer fringe of the little group, where he took his
breakfast, amazed to find how hungry he was, although he had not thought
of food before. Then without a word, as he saw that the generals were
engrossed in a conference, he withdrew.

"You'll find Lieutenant Dalton of the staff in the covered wagon over
there," said the orderly who had taken his horse. "The general sent him
to it more'n two hours ago."

"Then I'll be inside it in less than two minutes," said Harry.

But with rest in sight he collapsed suddenly. His head fell forward of
its own weight. His feet became lead. Everything swam before his eyes.
He felt that he must sleep or die. But he managed to drag himself to the
wagon and climbed inside. Dalton lay in the center of it so sound asleep
that he was like one dead. Harry rolled him to one side, making room for
himself, and lay down beside him. Then his eyes closed, and he, too,
slept so soundly that he also looked like one dead.

He was awakened by Dalton pulling at him. The young Virginian was
sitting up and looking at Harry with curiosity. He clapped his hands
when the Kentuckian opened his eyes.

"Now I know that you're not dead," he said. "When I woke up and found
you lying beside me I thought they had just put your body in here for
safekeeping. As that's not the case, kindly explain to me and at once
what you're doing in my wagon."

"I'm waking up just at present, but for an hour or two before that I was
sleeping."

"Hour or two? Hour or two? Hear him! An orderly who I know is no liar
told me that you got in here just after dawn. Now kindly lift that
canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see."

Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape
still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as
it was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now
instead of the east.

"See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day
has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of
everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve hours
General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he has
got this far, Heaven alone knows."

"It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can
hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop
the forthcoming Yankee invasion."

"They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry."

"Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout
soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of
Virginia, when we were with Jackson."

He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of Jackson,
until long afterward, without something rising in his throat.

The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly turned
a rubicund and smiling face upon them.

"Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked
back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two gen'rals
wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you would roll
over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. Pow'ful good
sleepers you are."

"Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers."

"I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as hard
as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand Sleepers."

Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again.
The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of Northern
Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike again and
again, as hard as ever.

"It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide awake
now as ever, Mr. Driver."

"My name ain't Driver," said the man.

"Then what is it?"

"Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name."

"Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying."

"I reckon so. Leastways, I've never wanted to change it. I'm from No'th
Calliny, an' I've been followin' Bobby Lee a pow'ful long distance from
home. Fine country up here in Pennsylvany, but I'd ruther be back in
them No'th Calliny mountains. You two young gen'rals may think it's an
easy an' safe job drivin' a wagon loaded with ammunition. But s'pose you
have to drive it right under fire, as you most often have to do, an' then
if a shell or somethin' like it hits your wagon the whole thing goes off
kerplunk, an' whar are you?"

"It's a sudden an' easy death," said Dalton, philosophically.

"Too sudden an' too easy. I don't mind tellin' you that seein' men
killed an' wounded is a spo't that's beginnin' to pall on me. Reckon
I've had enough of it to last me for the next thousand years. I've
forgot, if I ever knowed, what this war wuz started about. Say, young
fellers, I've got a wife back thar, a high-steppin', fine-lookin' gal not
more'n twenty years old--I'm just twenty-five myself, an' we've got a
year-old baby the cutest that wuz ever born. Now, when I wuz lookin' at
that charge of Pickett's men, an' the whole world wuz blazin' with fire,
an' all the skies wuz rainin' steel and lead, an' whar grass growed
before, nothin' but bayonets wuz growin' then, do you know what I seed
sometimes?"

"What was it?" asked Harry.

"Fur a secon' all that hell of fire an' smoke an' killin' would float
away, an' I seed our mountain, with the cove, an' the trees, an' the
green grass growin' in it, an' the branch, with the water so clear you
could see your face in it, runnin' down the center, an' thar at the head
of the cove my cabin, not much uv a buildin' to look at, no towerin'
mansion, but just a stout two-room log cabin that the snows an' hails of
winter can't break into, an' in the door wuz standin' Mary with the hair
flyin' about her face, an' her eyes shinin', with the little feller in
her arms, lookin' at me 'way off as I come walkin' fast down the cove
toward 'em, returnin' from the big war."

There was a moment's silence, and Dalton said gruffly to hide his
feelings:

"Dick Jones, by the time this war is over, and you go walking down the
cove toward your home, a man with mustache and side whiskers will come
forward to meet you, and he'll be that son of yours."

But Dick Jones cheerfully shook his head.

"The war ain't goin' to last that long," he said confidently, "an' I
ain't goin' to git killed. What I saw will come true, 'cause I feel it
so strong."

"There ought to be a general law forbidding a man with a young wife and
baby to go to a war," said Harry.

"But they ain't no sich law," said Dick Jones, in his optimistic tone,
"an' so we needn't worry 'bout it. But if you two gen'rals should happen
along through the mountains uv western No'th Calliny after the war I'd
like fur you to come to my cabin, an' see Mary an' the baby an' me.
Our cove is named Jones' Cove, after my father, an' the branch that runs
through it runs into Jones' Creek, an' Jones' Creek runs into the Yadkin
River an' our county is Yadkin. Oh, you could find it plumb easy,
if two sich great gen'rals as you wuzn't ashamed to eat sweet pertaters
an' ham an' turkey an' co'n pone with a wagon driver like me."

Harry saw, despite his playful method of calling them generals, that he
was thoroughly in earnest, and he was more moved than he would have been
willing to confess.

"Too proud!" he said. "Why, we'd be glad!"

"Mebbe your road will lead that way," said Jones. "An' ef you do,
jest remember that the skillet's on the fire, an' the latch string is
hangin' outside the do'."

The allusion to the mountains made Harry's mind travel far back, over
an almost interminable space of time now, it seemed, when he was yet a
novice in war, to the home of Sam Jarvis, deep in the Kentucky mountains,
and the old, old woman who had said to him as he left: "You will come
again, and you will be thin and pale, and in rags, and you will fall at
the door. I see you coming with these two eyes of mine."

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