164

VIRGINIA SCENES IN ’61.

up a single, very dirty, soldier with his arm in a sling. What a lieaven-send he was, if only as an escape-valve for our pent-up sympathies! We seizedhim, we washed him, we cried over him, we glorified him until the man wasfairly bewildered. Our best endeavors could only develop a pin-scratch of awound on his right hand; but when our hero had laid in a substantial mealof bread and meat, we plied him with trembling questions, each asking newsof some staff or regiment orcompany. It has since oc-curred to me that he was ahumorist in disguise. Hisinvariable reply, as he lookedfrom one to the other of his

satellites, was : “ The-

Virginia, inarm? Why, ofcoase. They warn’t no'twoways o’ thinkin’ ’bout that arreg’ment. They just kiveredtharselves with glory! ”

A little later two wagon-loads of slightly woundedclaimed our care, and withthem came authentic newsof the day. Most of us re-ceived notes on paper tornfrom a soldier’s pocket-book and grimed with gunpowder, containingassurance of the safety of our own. At nightfall a train carrying morewounded to the hospitals at Culpeper made a halt at Bristoe; and, precededby men holding lanterns, we went in among the stretchers with milk, food,and water to the sufferers. One of the first discoveries I made, bending overin that fitful light, was a young officer whom I knew to be a special object ofsolicitude with one of my comrades in the search; but he was badly hurt, andneither he nor she knew the other was near until the train had moved on.The next day, and the next, were full of burning excitement over the impend-ing general engagement, which people then said would decide the fate of theyoung Confederacy. Fresh troops came by with every train, and we lived onlyto turn from one scene to another of welcome and farewell. On Saturday even-ing arrived a message from General Beauregard, saying that early on Sundayan engine and car would be put at our disposal, to take us to some point moreremote from danger. We looked at one another, and, tacitly agreeing the gal-lant general had sent not an order but a suggestion, declined his kind proposal.

Another unspeakably long day, full of the straining anguish of suspense.Dawning bright and fair, it closed under a sky darkened by cannon-smoke.The roar of guns seemed never to cease. First, a long sullen boom; then asharper rattling fire, painfully distinct; then stragglers from the field, withvarying rumors; at last, the news of victory; and, as before, the wounded,to force our numbed faculties into service. One of our group, the mother of

vim

ill

»7 / -1

LISTENING FOR THE FIRST GUN.

W!