Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/redbadge.zip/FILE22.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-14 | 11KB | 167 lines

                           CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

          When the woods again began to pour forth the dark-hued masses
     of the enemy the youth felt serene self-confidence. He smiled
     briefly when he saw men dodge and duck at the long screechings of
     shells that were thrown in giant handfuls over them. He stood,
     erect and tranquil, watching the attack begin against a part of the
     line that made a blue curve along the side of an adjacent hill. His
     vision being unmolested by smoke from the rifles of his companions,
     he had opportunities to see parts of the hard fight. It was a
     relief to perceive at last from whence came some of these noises
     which had been roared into his ears.
          Off a short way he saw two regiments fighting a little
     separate battle with two other regiments. It was in a cleared
     space, wearing a set-part look. They were blazing as if upon a
     wager, giving and taking tremendous blows. The firings were
     incredibly fierce and rapid. These intent regiments apparently were
     oblivious of all larger purposes of war, and were slugging each
     other as if at a matched game.
          In another direction he saw a magnificent brigade going with
     the evident intention of driving the enemy from a wood. They passed
     in out of sight and presently there was a most awe-inspiring racket
     in the wind. The noise was unspeakable. Having stirred this
     prodigious uproar, and, apparently, finding it too prodigious, the
     brigade, after a little time, came marching airily out again with
     its fine formation in nowise disturbed. There were no traces of
     speed in its movements. The brigade was jaunty and seemed to point
     a proud thumb at the yelling wood.
          On a slope to the left there was a long row of guns, gruff and
     maddened, denouncing the enemy, who, down through the woods, were
     forming for another attack in the pitiless monotony of conflicts.
     The round red discharges from the guns made a crimson flare and a
     high, thick smoke. Occasional glimpses could be caught of groups of
     the toiling artillery-men. In the rear of this row of guns stood a
     house, calm and white, amid bursting shells. A congregation of
     horses, tied to a long railing, were tugging frenziedly at their
     bridles. Men were running hither and thither.
          The detached battle between the four regiments lasted for some
     time. There chanced to be no interference, and they settled their
     dispute by themselves. They struck savagely and powerfully at each
     other for a period of minutes, and then the lighter-hued regiments
     faltered and drew back, leaving the dark-blue lines shouting. The
     youth could see the two flags shaking with laughter amid the smoke
     remnants.
          Presently there was a stillness, pregnant with meaning. The
     blue lines shifted and changed a trifle and stared expectantly at
     the silent woods and fields before them. The hush was solemn and
     church-like, save for a distant battery that, evidently unable to
     remain quiet, sent a faint rolling thunder over the ground. It
     irritated like the noises of unimpressed boys. The men imagined
     that it would prevent their perched ears from hearing the first
     words of the new battle.
          Of a sudden the guns on the slope roared out a message of
     warning. A spluttering sound had begun in the woods. It swelled
     with amazing speed to a profound clamor that involved the earth in
     noises. The splitting crashes swept along the lines until an
     interminable roar was developed. To those in the midst of it, it
     became a din fitted to the universe. It was the whirring and
     thumping of gigantic machinery, complications among the smaller
     stars. The youth's ears were filled up. They were incapable of
     hearing more.
          On an incline over which a road wound he saw wild and
     desperate rushes of men perpetually backward and forward in riotous
     surges. These parts of the opposing armies were two long waves that
     pitched upon each other madly at dictated points. To and fro they
     swelled. Sometimes, one side by its yells and cheers would proclaim
     decisive blows, but a moment later the other side would be all
     yells and cheers. Once the youth saw a spray of light forms go in
     hound-like leaps toward the waving blue lines. There was much
     howling, and presently it went away with a vast mouthful of
     prisoners. Again, he saw a blue wave dash with such thunderous
     force against a gray obstruction that it seemed to clear the earth
     of it and leave nothing but trampled sod. And always in their swift
     and deadly rushes to and fro the men screamed and yelled like
     maniacs.
          Particular pieces of fence or secure positions behind
     collections of trees were wrangled over, as gold thrones or pearl
     bedsteads. There were desperate lunges at these chosen spots
     seemingly every instant, and most of them were bandied like light
     toys between the contending forces. The youth could not tell from
     the battle flags flying like crimson foam in many directions which
     color of cloth was winning.
          His emaciated regiment bustled forth with undiminished
     fierceness when its time came. When assaulted again by bullets, the
     men burst out in a barbaric cry of rage and pain. They bent their
     heads in aims of intent hatred behind the projected hammers of
     their guns. Their ramrods clanged loud with fury as their eager
     arms pounded the cartridges into the rifle barrels. The front of
     the regiment was a smoke-wall penetrated by the flashing points of
     yellow and red.
          Wallowing in the fight, they were in an astonishingly short
     time resmudged. They surpassed in stain and dirt all their previous
     appearances. Moving to and fro with strained exertion, jabbering
     the while, they were, with their swaying bodies, black faces, and
     glowing eyes, like strange and ugly friends jigging heavily in the
     smoke.
          The lieutenant, returning from a tour after a bandage,
     produced from a hidden receptacle of his mind new and portentous
     oaths suited to the emergency. Strings of expletives he swung lash-
     like over the backs of his men, and it was evident that his
     previous efforts had in nowise impaired his resources.
          The youth, still the bearer of the colors, did not feel his
     idleness. He was deeply absorbed as a spectator. The crash and
     swing of the great drama made him lean forward, intent-eyed, his
     face working in small contortions. Sometimes he prattled, words
     coming unconsciously from him in grotesque exclamations. He did not
     know that he breathed; that the flag hung silently over him, so
     absorbed was he.
          A formidable line of the enemy came within dangerous range.
     They could be seen plainly---tall, gaunt men with excited faces
     running with long strides toward a wandering fence.
          At sight of this danger the men suddenly ceased their cursing
     monotone. There was an instant of strained silence before they
     threw up their rifles and fired a plumping volley at the foes.
     There had been no order given; the men, upon recognizing the
     menace, had immediately let drive their flock of bullets without
     waiting for word of command.
          But the enemy were quick to gain the protection of the
     wandering line of fence. They slid down behind it with remarkable
     celerity, and from this position they began briskly to slice up the
     blue men.
          These latter braced their energies for a great struggle.
     Often, white clinched teeth shone from the dusky faces. Many heads
     surged to and fro, floating upon a pale sea of smoke. Those behind
     the fence frequently shouted and yelped in taunts and gibe-like
     cries, but the regiment maintained a stressed silence. Perhaps, at
     this new assault the men recalled the fact that they had been named
     mud-diggers, and it made their situation thrice bitter. They were
     breathlessly intent upon keeping the ground and thrusting away the
     rejoicing body of the enemy. They fought swiftly and with a
     despairing savageness denoted in their expressions.
          The youth had resolved not to budge whatever should happen.
     Some arrows of scorn that had buried themselves in his heart had
     generated strange and unspeakable hatred. It was clear to him that
     his final and absolute revenge was to be achieved by his dead body
     lying, torn and glittering, upon the field. This was to be a
     poignant retaliation upon the officer who had said "mule drivers,"
     and later "mud-diggers," for in all the wild graspings of his mind
     for a unit responsible for his sufferings and commotions he always
     seized upon the man who had dubbed him wrongly. And it was his
     idea, vaguely formulated, that his corpse would be for those eyes
     a great and salt reproach.
          The regiment bled extravagantly. Grunting bundles of blue
     began to drop. The orderly sergeant of the youth's company was shot
     through the cheeks. Its supports being injured, his jaw hung afar
     down, disclosing in the wide cavern of his mouth a pulsing mass of
     blood and teeth. And with it all he made attempts to cry out. In
     his endeavor there was a dreadful earnestness, as if he conceived
     that one great shriek would make him well.
          The youth saw him presently go rearward. His strength seemed
     in nowise impaired. He ran swiftly, casting wild glances for
     succor.
          Others fell down about the feet of their companions. Some of
     the wounded crawled out and away, but many lay still, their bodies
     twisted into impossible shapes.
          The youth looked once for his friend. He saw a vehement young
     man, powder-smeared and frowzled, whom he knew ta be him. The
     lieutenant, also, was unscathed in his position at the rear. He had
     continued to curse, but it was now with the air of a man who was
     using his last box of oaths.
          For the fire of the regiment had begun to wane and drip. The
     robust voice, that had come strangely from the thin ranks, was
     growing rapidly weak.