A Rebellion in Dixie by Harry Castlemon (best books to read in life .TXT) 📕

330“Now, two of the men must make room for these boys,” said the colonel. “Forward!”

Dan and Cale were quickly provided with places to ride behind two of the cavalrymen, the adjutant shouted “Forward!” with all the strength of his lungs, and Leon stood at one side of the road and watched the men as they marched by. He had heard a good deal about Texas, and he finally came to the conclusion that all the soldiers were from that region. They were all long-haired, and many of them were unacquainted with combs, but there were some among them who were dressed like his cowboy, with handkerchiefs around their necks, broad tarpaulins on their heads and fine boots on their feet. A good many of them had a word to say to Ballard and his prisoner, and they were not of the kind that was calculated to encourage Leon. When Leon wasn’t looking Ballard raised his pistol and took a deliberate aim at his head—a proceeding that was welcomed by shouts from all the men who saw it.

“That’s the way; shoot him down!” shouted 331one of the soldiers. “There will be one less Yank for us left to fight, anyway.”

“Now, sonny, I guess all the men have passed,” said Ballard. “Take the middle of the road and travel ahead as if you were going for the doctor. Mobile is a long ways from here.”

Leon accordingly took to the road and plodded along at his best pace; but he was wearied, and his hands hurt him so that he was on the point of urging his captor to untie them for a little while, so that he could stretch his arms and get the kinks out of them. He walked along until he had got around the first bend, out of sight of the cavalrymen, and then Ballard, after looking all around and up and down the road, to make sure that there was nobody in sight, leaned forward and whispered to him:

“Say, sonny, go into the woods.”

Leon turned around and faced him. He had heard that was one way the Confederates had of getting rid of their prisoners, namely, to take them into the woods and “lose” them. They would shoot them down and leave them 332there. Leon couldn’t help himself if Ballard had decided to lose him, for his hands were tied.

“What will I go in there for?” he asked, and one wouldn’t suppose that his life was in danger, to hear him talk.

“Go into the woods quick!” said Ballard. “I’m Union.”

The revulsion of feeling was so great that Leon staggered and would have fallen to the ground if Ballard had not ridden up and caught him by the collar.

“Go in there quick before some one sees you!” said Ballard, looking up and down the road as he spoke. “I wouldn’t hurt the hair of your head. I’ve wanted to get with those Jones county people ever since I have been here, and now I have got a chance at last. Go into the woods quick as you can walk. I’ll untie your hands in there.”

Leon waited to hear no more, but dived straight into the bushes, and he never stopped until he had gone half a mile from the road. But fast as he went, Ballard was close behind him. When he stopped his captor dismounted 333and pulled a big bowie-knife from his boot. One blow was enough, and Leon’s arms were free.

“Ballard, I never shall forget you!” said Leon, and his voice was somewhat husky as he spoke. “I have been wondering how I should get away, but I never thought that you would help me. You are a friend indeed. But first I want to know if you have anything to eat in your haversack? I haven’t had a bite since yesterday.”

Ballard at once unslung his haversack, and while Leon was regaling himself on the corn-bread and bacon, which tasted wonderfully good to him, he told Leon how he happened to go into the service, while he knew that the South was going to be utterly impoverished. He owned a fine cattle-ranch in Texas, and when the Southern men around him began to talk of going into her service he found that he had to go, too, or run the risk of stretching hemp.

“I didn’t want to go for a long time,” said Ballard, “and when I found that my neighbors were all giving in their names, and began 334to look cross-eyed at me and make remarks that people who were not for us were against us, I saw it was high time I was doing something; so I got an Englishman to take care of my place, and here I am. I tell you, there is a lot of men in the rebel army that think just the same as I do.”

“Let them come over into our county and we’ll treat them right,” said Leon. “Father says we will have at least ten thousand men by-and-by, and it is going to take more than double that number of men to whip us. Now, Ballard, I am much obliged to you for this breakfast, and I am now able to go on. Are you going to take your horse with you?”

“Oh, I couldn’t think of going anywhere without that horse,” said Ballard, hastily. “I’ll warrant that if the rebels went by within ten feet of us he wouldn’t say a word.”

Leon at once stepped out at his old pace, and Ballard kept close behind him. The woods were so thick that they couldn’t stop to do much talking, and by the time it began to grow dark they were on the banks of the creek.

335“Now, we are half way home,” said Leon. “I would like to know just how that cavalry came out in attacking our men. I’ve listened every once in a while, but I didn’t hear any sound of rifles or carbines.”

“Probably they are too far away for us to hear them,” said Ballard. “If your men will fight—”

“Oh, they will fight, and there are some of them with us who have repeatedly declared that they won’t take any prisoners. If they drive our men back to the swamp they are whipped, sure. By gracious! what’s that? It sounds like a couple of horses coming through the woods.”

Ballard took his horse by the bridle to hold his head down in case he wanted to call to them and listened intently. Soon the measured tread of the horses could be heard coming through the woods, and in a few minutes a couple of rebels appeared on the opposite bank of the creek and but a short distance above them. One of the Confederates had no hat on, his left arm was hanging loose by his side and his companion was holding him on 336his horse. They paused for a few moments, as if they didn’t know what to do with the creek in front of them, and then the uninjured one urged the horses in, and in a few strokes of the hoofs they were safe across.

“I’ll tell you what’s the matter with our side,” said Ballard, as soon as the two rebels had disappeared in the bushes. “We have been whipped!”

“Do you mean to say that our fellows have whipped the cavalry?” inquired Leon, and he was surprised and delighted to hear it.

“That is just what I mean. If the cavalry had been successful they would have kept to the road and taken some prisoners with them; but their being scattered in this way makes me think that they have been worsted. You saw that man who was being held on his horse? Well, he was wounded.”

“We have got to swim the creek before we can get over,” said Leon. “I am impatient to see how my father came out. Take off your clothes and hold them above your head. I’ll carry your carbine for you.”

Leon worked in earnest now, for his father 337had been in danger and he was not there to share it. In hardly less time than it takes to tell it he was on the other side of the bayou and pulling on his clothes. Ballard was not very far behind him, and seeing how impatient Leon was he donned his uniform with all possible haste, after which they struck out for Ellisville.