A Yankee Girl at Shiloh

by Alice Turner Curtis

Later on, when Berry attempted to repeat to her father and mother what General Sherman had said to her, she found that all she could remember was that he had called her “a brave little Yankee girl,” and, when Colonel Peabody summoned a tall young soldier to go to the outskirts of the camp with the girls, that each one of the great generals had clasped her hand and smiled upon her and repeated General Sherman’s words.

The late April twilight had begun to fade when Mr. and Mrs. Arnold from their seats on the cabin porch heard the sound of a clear whistle, three times repeated, Berry’s signal, and started to their feet to see Berry, with Lily close behind her, running toward the cabin. And when the little girl told the story of her night watch in Shiloh woods, her journey to the Union camp, and all that had so quickly followed, her mother and father listened in amazement. There was no word of blame for the girl who had been intent only on being of service to the cause for which her brother was fighting.

“We have two soldiers in the family!” her father declared proudly, as she finished the story of her adventures.

“I tole Missie Berry yo’d know I’d tek keer ob her,” said the smiling Lily, as Mrs. Arnold said to the faithful girl that she had been sure Lily had followed her young mistress.

“Len Bragg is at home,” said Mr. Arnold; “he was wounded, but not seriously, in the fight along Corinth road, and carried to the cabin. I have just returned from there, and must go down again to-morrow morning.”

CHAPTER XIX
GENERAL GRANT

The sunny April days brought many blossoms along the Tennessee ravines near Shiloh; trillium and butterwort, arbutus and violets were to be found, and masses of dogwood bloomed along the slopes, where only a few weeks earlier the fierce Battle of Shiloh had raged. The Union fleet had moved down the Tennessee; Beauregard, convinced that the campaign was lost, was about to leave Corinth in the possession of Grant’s army, and it was felt that the Union cause would soon triumph.

In the Arnolds’ cabin the little household had returned to the peaceful occupations of the days before the two armies had come so near to them. Berry’s garden flourished; Lily was becoming a well-trained servant, and Mr. Arnold was rapidly gaining strength. Within two weeks after Beauregard’s defeat Steve Bragg had appeared at his cabin, and was as warmly welcomed as if he had been a brave soldier returned from war. It was soon evident, however, that a change had come over Mr. Bragg, for he at once began to work steadily. He enlarged the garden; cut logs with which he built a shelter for the calf that Mr. Arnold gave him; made repairs on the old cabin, and was so praised by his wife and children for his industry that he firmly resolved that in the future no one should ever again truthfully speak of him as “Shiftless Steve.” When he looked at his wounded soldier son Mr. Bragg also made many other excellent resolves.

It was late in May when Mr. Arnold made his first trip since the preceding autumn to Corinth, and brought back the long-hoped-for letter from Francis, who was with the Union forces in Virginia, and wrote that he was well. But it seemed to Berry that her father had other good news; he smiled so often, she noticed, and Berry had been quick to see that, whatever it was, her mother was in the secret.

“Maybe it is about going back to Vermont this summer,” she decided, for Berry knew that her father and mother were both hopeful that a return to their New England home might soon be possible, and when Mrs. Arnold announced that she was going to have a party, Berry was convinced that she was right in her conclusions.