A Rebellion in Dixie

by Harry Castlemon

It was the occasion of no little difficulty for the Confederate officers to rally their men, and the trouble was that those who belonged to the right and left wings reported that it was impossible to flank the Union position. Those on the right said that there was a swamp in which many men had been killed in their efforts to get around it, and the men who belonged on the left reported that there was the river there, and that any attempt to get by it would be useless. General Lowery began to see that the Union men were not to be easily whipped, but he used all his eloquence and authority to induce them to make an effort to carry the centre of the line. He dismounted some of his men with instructions to go and throw down the breastworks, and the rebel cavalry was to be close behind them and go in at the openings they had made. This was the plan that General Lee decided on when he made the attempt to split Grant’s lines by his assault on Fort Steadman. He had half his army in that exploit, but his effort ended just as General Lowery’s did to split the Union lines here. The second attempt was grandly made, and the fight lasted a little longer than it did at first; but the dismounted men were quickly picked off, the cavalry began dropping here and there, and finally, without a word from anybody, they all took to their heels. This time there was nothing said about pursuit, for the Union men had their blood up, and nobody could have controlled them. By the time the rebels were in the woods the Union men had mounted their horses and started after them. Leon was in this exploit, and his father did not tell him to stay behind. He didn’t find any Confederates on the way, but he assisted in making some noise, so he did just as much as anybody.

This was the last attempt that was made to break up the Jones-county Confederacy. The rebels saw that the Union men were in earnest and they gave it up as a bad job. A week afterward a big wagon-train was captured and taken to their place of refuge on the island, and after that the Union men breathed a good deal easier. They were going to have grub enough to support them, no matter what happened. About this time, too, some more men began to come in, and Leon saw the army grow from one thousand men to more than twenty thousand. Of course with such an army as that the Confederates wouldn’t try to whip them. They minded their own business, going out whenever they thought that their provisions were getting low, and picking up wagon-trains and taking them where they would do the most good. Of course, too, these parties when they went out always captured some papers, which were read until they almost crumbled to pieces. When the rebels were defeated at Vicksburg and Gettysburg the Union men drew a long breath of relief, for they thought that the war was almost ended and that they could go home; but there were some severe battles to be fought before their flag could wave over the entire country. One day, long months after this, when Leon had got so tired of being a soldier that he wished that the Confederacy would sink or do something else that would wipe it out of existence, he was out with a party of skirmishers, when they ran plump onto a rebel soldier who had a gun on his shoulder, and acted as though he was going somewhere. In an instant Bud McCoy’s pistol was aimed at his breast.

“Put up your revolver, young man!” said the rebel, who did not seem at all abashed by finding himself in the company of Union men. “You belong down in Jones county, don’t you? Well, I want to say that you are behind the times. General Lee has surrendered!”

Bud and the rest were so astonished that they could not say a word.

“It’s a fact,” continued the rebel. “I wasn’t there, because I was in our Western army, but I heard of it, and more than five thousand of us escaped that night. The Confederacy has gone up!”

“I tell you I am glad of it,” replied Leon. “Why didn’t you surrender when you got whipped at Gettysburg?”

“A good many men said it ought to have been done,” answered the rebel, “but I wasn’t at the head of affairs. You had better let me go, for I want to reach home and see my wife. I haven’t seen her since I went into the service.”

The foragers were only too glad to let him go. They would have passed anybody who brought such news as that; and, furthermore, they wheeled their horses and went back to Ellisville with much more speed than they had shown in coming out. There was joy on the island when they told what the rebel had said to them, and some of the men fired off their guns in ecstacy; but Mr. Knight said that the rebels had so long been accustomed to lying that they didn’t know when they spoke the truth, and suggested that it would be better for them if they sent a couple of men down to Mobile to see what was going on there. Any number of men offered themselves, but two were promptly sent, and while they were gone the refugees hardly knew what to do with themselves. In due time the men came back, and, better than all, they swung a paper over their heads.

“It’s a Yankee paper, and now we’ll get at the truth of the matter,” said one of the messengers. “Yes, sir, Lee has surrendered; that whole army has surrendered, and the fortifications down at Mobile are just black with Yankees!”

Cheers long and loud rent the air at this announcement, so that it was a long time before Mr. Sprague could read what the paper said in regard to Lee’s surrender. When he read it, the cheers once more broke out afresh.