“They are all right,” replied the captain, soothingly, “don’t think anything about them at present. What you need now is quiet and sleep.”
“Where am I?” the wounded man next asked, and then, without waiting for a reply, he continued, “Did we whip them or did they whip us?”
“There, there,” said the captain, gently, “you have a bad wound. Don’t disturb yourself by trying to think. Go to sleep now, and I will tell you all about the affair in the morning.”
“Very kind of you, stranger, I am sure,” said Horton. “I have had all the sleep I care for. I must now join my regiment.” As he said this he tried to arise from the cot. Both Hugh and Captain Osborn had all they could do to prevent him from doing so. They persuaded him to believe that the physician had forbidden undue exertion. The wounded man lay back on his cot, exhausted from his effort, and looked at his attendants in half anger, while his eyes lighted up with the fire of a soldier.
“My duty as a soldier,” he protested, “outranks the order of the hospital physician. As civilians, you, perhaps, cannot understand this, but it is imperative that I join my regiment, the Twenty-ninth, immediately.”
Hugh started to speak, but the old captain motioned him to silence. “He is badly out of his head,” thought he, “and I must handle him by strategy.” Perhaps Captain Osborn remembered the gallant services of the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts regiment, of which he had been the colonel, and was pardonably proud of his achievements while defending the flag during the war.
“The Twenty-ninth is all right, comrade,” observed the captain. “Officers and men behaved like heroes.”
“A glorious report!” cried the wounded man, enthusiastically. “That repays me for this painful wound on my head, and lying around in the hospital insensible for I know not how many hours. It was a grand charge our men made,—right in the face of bristling bayonets, shot and shell from the ‘gray coats.’ Our captain commanded the right wing, the second lieutenant the left, while I occupied the central position, and, in the doublequick charge that we were making, something struck me on the head, just as our boys crossed over a little brook, and then—well, I knew nothing more until just now, when I came to my senses in this improvised hospital.” As he concluded, he let his eyes wander about the small, dimly-lighted room.
The captain looked at Hugh, and shook his head doubtfully.
“Perhaps you would like to send a report to the commander of your brigade, comrade?”