The Guns of Shiloh

he moonlight. When he secured his own horse he had noticed that all the empty stalls were now filled, no doubt by the ho

d, warm, and strong after food, rest, and sleep, he felt equal to any emergency. He had everything with him. The stout saddle bags were lying a

s from joining it-he sent his great horse straight ahead at a good pace for a long time, the road being fa

e mercury was far below zero, he dismounted, looped the reins over his arms, and walked a while. For further preca

al miles. He passed two brooks and a creek, all frozen over so solidly that the horse passed on them without breaking the ice. I

itality at either. The night was now far advanced and he wished to put many

and he had no comrade. The loneliness of the winter night in a country full of dangers was appalling. It seemed to him, as his heart sank, that all things had consp

y and by he skirted for a while the banks of a small river, which he knew flowed southward into the Cumberland, a

ned somewhat but lightened again as the dawn began to come. The red but cold edge of the sun

ate heartily of the cold bread and meat in his knapsack. Pitying his horse he searched until he foun

aring between them. By night he should be beyond the last low swell of the mountains and into the hill region proper. As he calculated distanc

rry out with his life the task that Thomas had assigned to him,

him, and they all knew, too, that he was in the service of the North. How could he pass by without being seen and what might h

lf and probably believing it. He heard that a small Southern force was to the southward, probably marching toward Bowling Green, where a great Confedera

nd others of wood, all with wide porticos, supported by white pillars. It looked smiling and prospe

ho cared nothing for any errand upon which he might be riding. He slept, too, without dream

now that he could obtain all he needed at houses as he passed. Receiving the good wishes of his hosts he rode on through the hills. Th

his heavy clothing kept him warm and comfortable. His great horse s

te from his saddle bags as he rode on. He did not wish to waste time, and, moreover, he had taken his

Kentuckians he was a great horseman, and with Harry Kenton and other lads of his

come. Others would know him, and he did not wish to be seen when he rode on such an errand. He had been saving his horse in the afternoon, but now he pushed him

was nearly midnight when he stopped on a high hill, free of forest, and looked down upon Pendleton. The wonderful clearness of th

throbbed hard as he looked. He saw the steeples of the churches, the white pillars of the court house, and off to one side the academy in which he and Harry Kenton had g

But he knew that it would be so. It was a low house, and the evergreens about it, the pines and cedars would hide it a

the main road into a narrower one that led by the low house among the evergreens. Yet he was a boy of powerful will, and despite his eagerness, he restrained

great pulse in his throat leaped so hard that it was almost unbearable. He reached the edge of the l

horse upon the lawn, hitching him between two pines

ing the great intelligent head. "Nobody wil

where he stood in the shadow of a pillar. He saw the light clearly now. It shone from a window of the low second story. It came from her window and her room. Doubtless she wa

t against the window. He knew that she was brave and would respond, but waiting

of a beautiful woman, framed in thick, silken yellow hair, the eyes deep blue, and the skin of the wonderful fairness so oft

low voice as he stepped fro

moments to wait. Her swift feet brought her from the room, down the stairway, and along the

e exclaimed. "You were here under my window,

undly. Dick loved his beautiful young mother devoutly, and

in many ways, mother," he replied, "by tra

come her

er saw, and he's tied now between two of the pine trees. Come, we must go in the house. It

en you went away, and how sunburned and weather-beaten you are, too! Oh, Dicky,

red so much so far. I was at Bull Run, where we lost, an

ome back to stay,"

here to see you, but I couldn't go on without a few min

nother faithful soul on guard that night. In the dusky hail loomed a

Dick?"

med. "How did you kn

' I hears her run down the hail. An' then I dresses an' comes an' sees

rt inhabited exactly the right spot in her huge anatomy. She drew mother and son into the sitting-room, where low coals still burned on the hearth. Then she went up to Mrs. Mas

n stay such a little w

e. It is to go to General Buell, and it has to do with the gathering of the Union troops in the western and southern parts of our state, and i

oh, Dicky, won't this t

, mother. It's sc

o the coals. The great negress, Juliana

is awful that our people should be arrayed so against one another. Th

e to face in the smoke. But it was only for an instant. Then the smoke

son shu

ery good. He left orders with his people to watch over us here. Pendleton is strongly Southern

Dick, as he also sat staring into the coals, wondered why pe

ust have been nearly a hundred. She knew your ancestor and mine, the famous and learned Paul Cotter, from whom you and I are descen

str

un, stopped at the same house, and when she first saw him she only looked into the far past. She thoug

artling co

such a queer fashion it's bound to make you think. When Harry's paths and mine cross in su

ay

with a little laugh, "w

who had crept out of the room. Now she returned, bearing food upon a

y until morni

ford to be seen here. I

it is near

patches not only tell of the gathering of our own troops, but they contain invaluable information concerning the Confederate co

did not seek again to

been glad if you had stayed at home, Dick, but since you have chosen to be a soldier, I am rejoiced that you have risen in the esteem of y

d Dick, "and now it's ti

been here onl

ourney of mine time means a lot. I mus

horse was hitched between the two big pines. Mrs. Mason patted t

, mother?" said Dick proudly. "

sed her more than once, sprang into th

yet happy that he had come, went slowly back into the house

man suspected his neighbor, and it remained for force alone to tell to which side the region belonged. But the extreme delicacy of the tension came to D

and he learned that in the country into which he had now come the Union sympathizers were more numerous than the Conf

troops from the three states just across the Ohio River the hardy lumbermen and pioneers were pouring down from Michigan,

s, particularly to the one under the brilliant and daring Albert Sidney Johnston, which hung a sinister menace before the Northern front. One hundred and twenty thousand troops sent to th

l's camp and of the message that he bore. Again and again he felt of that little inside pocket

before the sundown of that day the young messenger was standing before General Don Carlos Buell, one of the most puzzling characters whom he was to meet in the whole course of the war. He had

man, grim of feature, who did not ask him

ontains?" he said, wh

morize it, that I might destroy

mbers and present location of the hostile forces. Valuable information for us,

Major Hertford. They were to be sent by Gener

uld like to

please

detachment leaves here early in the morning for Elizabethtown, where it takes the train for Louisville, proceeding then

nded by Colonel Winchester. Arthur Winchester was a man of forty-one or two who lived about thirty miles north of Pendleton. He was a great l

of Pendleton, and I like to have one of the Pendleton boys in my command. If all th

rain to Louisville, going thence by steamer down the Ohio River to Cairo, at its junction with the Mississip