The Confederate authorities, taking advantage of the lull in the storm of battle in the East, sent General Longstreet and his corps to the West, which being understood in Washington, the eleventh and twelfth corps of the army of the Potomac were despatched, under command of General Hooker, to counteract this addition to the force of the rebels.
Captain Somers had impatiently watched the progress of events in the East and in the West, and mourned over the necessity which compelled him to remain inactive. He had attended to his health, and felt that he was completely restored, even before his stubborn physician would acknowledge the fact. But in the month of September, when he had been nearly a year off duty, the doctor gave him a “clean bill of health.” He had employed much of his time, since his strength would permit, in athletic exercises—in rowing, in gymnastics, and in hard labor in the garden. He was heavier and stronger than he had ever been before, and he was ashamed to remain any longer in idleness when the country needed his arm. He wrote to the general again, just as the stalwart hero was on the point of starting for the West.
Three days after, Somers received a reply, informing him that in a short time he would receive a commission as a captain in the regular army, and an appointment on his staff as senior aid-de-camp. To this agreeable intelligence was added the hardly less agreeable fact that Major de Banyan and Captain Barkwood would also be members of his military family.
“Glory, hallelujah!” shouted Somers, as he rushed into the humble cottage at Pinchbrook.
“What on airth is the matter now, Thomas?” asked his mother, dropping the wet dish-cloth on the floor in her astonishment.
“Read that, mother!” shouted the captain.
“I hain’t got my glasses, Thomas. What is it?”
“A captain in the regular army! A soldier for life. What will Lilian say to that?”
“Dear me! Well, that is news,” added Mrs. Somers, who, however, was not very clear in regard to the distinction between a regular and a volunteer officer. “I suppose the gal will think you are a pretty smart boy. I hope it won’t make you proud and vain, Thomas.”
“I’m proud, mother; but I guess it won’t make me vain. I tell you what, it’s no small thing to be a captain in the regular army. I think Lilian won’t like me any less for this.”