“He was the most determined man I ever met in my life. He was killed in the charge, poor fellow; but he had filled his bugle so full of wind, that the music did not cease till full five minutes after he was stone-dead.”
“Come, come, captain! that’s a little too bad,” said Somers seriously.
“Too bad? Well, I should not be willing to take oath that the time was just five minutes after the bugler died. I did not take out my watch, and time it; and, of course, I can only give you my judgment as to the precise number of minutes.”
“You are worse than Baron Munchausen, who told a story something like that; only his was the more reasonable of the two.”
“Somers, my boy! you have got a villainously bad habit of discrediting the statements of a brother-officer and a gentleman,” said Captain de Banyan seriously.
“And you have got a bad habit of telling the most abominable stories that ever proceeded from the mouth of any man.”
“We’ll drop the subject, Somers; for such discussions lead to unpleasant results. Do you see that rebel battery?” added the captain, pointing to a road a mile off, where the enemy had taken position to shell the Union line.
“I see it.”
The rebel battery opened fire, which was vigorously answered by the other side. The scene began to increase in interest as the cannonade extended along the whole line; and, through the entire day, there raged the most furious artillery conflict of the war. The rebel masses were hurled time after time against the Union line; but it maintained its position like a wall of iron, while thousands of the enemy were recklessly sacrificed in the useless assault. General M—— had probably drunk more than his usual quantity of whiskey; and, though he was as brave as a lion, hundreds of his men paid the penalty with their lives of his rashness and indiscretion.
Night came again upon a victorious field, while hundreds of weeping mothers in the neighboring city sighed for the sons who would return no more to their arms; and while mothers wept, fathers groaned and sisters moaned, the grand army of the Confederacy had been beaten, and the proud rulers of an infatuated people were trembling for their own safety in the presence of the ruin with which defeat threatened them.