The Lost Army

by Thomas Wallace Knox

It seems that a drove of half-wild pigs had come out of the forest, on the lookout for something to eat. In the southern states pigs generally run at large, being called up occasionally by means of a horn, to be fed and selected for slaughter or other purposes. As they are always fed when summoned by the horn, they soon learn to come to its call; but sometimes, when the summonses are infrequent, they grow so wild that they do not heed the sound. Then they have to be chased up, and the work of driving them in is no small affair.

Very often they remain in the woods during the day and come around at night to the neighborhood of the dwellings in search of food. The southern pigs are like those of any other part of the country, or of the world, for that matter, as they are gifted with free appetites and are not over particular about their food as long as it is something edible.

In their nocturnal ramble this drove under consideration had come upon the sleeping-place of our young friends. Having scented the oats which the boys had taken to sleep upon, the animals rushed in without ceremony and proceeded to devour the succulent grain without asking permission of those who were then in possession. The assault of two of the pigs upon the bundles which formed the pillows of Harry and Jack gave the impression that the marauders were seeking to reach the throats of their victims, and their forms in the darkness were not unlike those of men stooping forward to attack the slumberers. Two of the pigs paid for the assault with their lives, and formed a material addition to the bill of fare of the men whose slumbers they had broken. There was little sleep in the group for the rest of the night, their hearty laughter over the incident, and speculations as to whether the rest of the pigs would come back, having effectually driven sleep from their eyelids.

The presence of the pigs having been discovered, a horn was blown the next morning and turned to good advantage. Pigs to the number of a hundred or more came trooping out of the forest, and were enticed into a yard which had been hastily constructed by some of the soldiers. When they ceased coming the yard was closed, and the soldiers said afterwards that pork roasted over a campfire formed an excellent substitute for other articles of food when the others could n't be had.

The rumor of the granting of free-papers to the negroes who had been working on the fortifications or helped to fell timber to obstruct the march of the army was rapidly spread about Clarendon, and in a few hours the colored population for miles around seemed to have gathered there. All declared they had been doing the forbidden work, and all, as far as it was possible to grant them in the limited time, received their papers.

“If we had only known it,” said Harry to Jack, when they learned the state of affairs, “you and I would have tried to get through to bring news to the fleet, and we would have got through somehow. We might have taken a skiff and paddled down in the night, and we would have rigged it up like a log, so that it would have required very sharp eyes to discover that it was anything else than an ordinary log drifting with the current. But there's no use crying over spilt milk, as the old saw has it, and so we need n't waste the time over planning for past performances. But I'd have given a good deal to have known of this in time.”

Jack agreed with him, and after a very brief talk on the subject they turned their attention to other matters.

There was no alternative for the army but to make the best of its way to Helena, on the Mississippi, sixty or sixty-five miles away. The tenth of July was spent at Clarendon, and at four o'clock on the morning of the eleventh General Washburne, with two thousand five hundred cavalry and six mountain howitzers, started on a forced march for the banks of the great river. They followed the old military road between Little Rock and Helena. It proved to be a very good road, though there were several bad places at the crossings of small streams. With a few exceptions, and those doing no harm, not a shot was fired at them along the whole of the route, all the forces of the enemy having been withdrawn to the defense of the White river or to points further back in the interior of the state.

Harry and Jack were allowed to accompany General Washburne's advance, as it was thought they might be useful in case there was any scouting to be done or any foraging for provisions, but as the march was a forced one there was no time for anything of the sort, and they had nothing to do but stick to the column and keep their horses in the road.

About nine o'clock in the forenoon of the twelfth the foremost of the soldiers rose in their stirrups and gave a loud cheer, which was speedily carried along the whole line. Cheer upon cheer followed, no one being told the cause, but everybody realizing that the end of the long march was near. The spires of the churches of Helena were soon afterward in full view, and beyond them gleamed the waters of the Mississippi, reflecting the rays of the summer sun.