Chapter III.

When another night came, the columns, changed to purple streaks, filed

across two pontoon bridges. A glaring fire wine-tinted the waters of

the river. Its rays, shining upon the moving masses of troops, brought

forth here and there sudden gleams of silver or gold. Upon the other

shore a dark and mysterious range of hills was curved against the sky.

The insect voices of the night sang solemnly.

After this crossing the youth assured himself that at any moment they

might be suddenly and fearfully assaulted from the caves of the

lowering woods. He kept his eyes watchfully upon the darkness.

But his regiment went unmolested to a camping place, and its soldiers

slept the brave sleep of wearied men. In the morning they were routed

out with early energy, and hustled along a narrow road that led deep

into the forest.

It was during this rapid march that the regiment lost many of the marks

of a new command.

The men had begun to count the miles upon their fingers, and they grew

tired. “Sore feet an’ damned short rations, that’s all,” said the loud

soldier. There was perspiration and grumblings. After a time they began

to shed their knapsacks. Some tossed them unconcernedly down; others

hid them carefully, asserting their plans to return for them at some

convenient time. Men extricated themselves from thick shirts. Presently

few carried anything but their necessary clothing, blankets,

haversacks, canteens, and arms and ammunition. “You can now eat and

shoot,” said the tall soldier to the youth. “That’s all you want to

do.”

There was sudden change from the ponderous infantry of theory to the

light and speedy infantry of practice. The regiment, relieved of a

burden, received a new impetus. But there was much loss of valuable

knapsacks, and, on the whole, very good shirts.

But the regiment was not yet veteranlike in appearance. Veteran

regiments in the army were likely to be very small aggregations of men.

Once, when the command had first come to the field, some perambulating

veterans, noting the length of their column, had accosted them thus:

“Hey, fellers, what brigade is that?” And when the men had replied that

they formed a regiment and not a brigade, the older soldiers had

laughed, and said, “O Gawd!”

Also, there was too great a similarity in the hats. The hats of a

regiment should properly represent the history of headgear for a period

of years. And, moreover, there were no letters of faded gold speaking

from the colors. They were new and beautiful, and the color bearer

habitually oiled the pole.

Presently the army again sat down to think. The odor of the peaceful

pines was in the men’s nostrils. The sound of monotonous axe blows rang

through the forest, and the insects, nodding upon their perches,

crooned like old women. The youth returned to his theory of a blue

demonstration.

One gray dawn, however, he was kicked in the leg by the tall soldier,

and then, before he was entirely awake, he found himself running down a

wood road in the midst of men who were panting from the first effects

of speed. His canteen banged rythmically upon his thigh, and his

haversack bobbed softly. His musket bounced a trifle from his shoulder

at each stride and made his cap feel uncertain upon his head.

He could hear the men whisper jerky sentences: “Say—what’s all

this—about?” “What th’ thunder—we—skedaddlin’ this way fer?”

“Billie—keep off m’ feet. Yeh run—like a cow.” And the loud soldier’s

shrill voice could be heard: “What th’ devil they in sich a hurry for?”

The youth thought the damp fog of early morning moved from the rush of

a great body of troops. From the distance came a sudden spatter of

firing.

He was bewildered. As he ran with his comrades he strenuously tried to

think, but all he knew was that if he fell down those coming behind

would tread upon him. All his faculties seemed to be needed to guide

him over and past obstructions. He felt carried along by a mob.

The sun spread disclosing rays, and, one by one, regiments burst into

view like armed men just born of the earth. The youth perceived that

the time had come. He was about to be measured. For a moment he felt in

the face of his great trial like a babe, and the flesh over his heart

seemed very thin. He seized time to look about him calculatingly.

But he instantly saw that it would be impossible for him to escape from

the regiment. It inclosed him. And there were iron laws of tradition

and law on four sides. He was in a moving box.

As he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never wished

to come to the war. He had not enlisted of his free will. He had been

dragged by the merciless government. And now they were taking him out

to be slaughtered.

The regiment slid down a bank and wallowed across a little stream. The

mournful current moved slowly on, and from the water, shaded black,

some white bubble eyes looked at the men.

As they climbed the hill on the farther side artillery began to boom.

Here the youth forgot many things as he felt a sudden impulse of

curiosity. He scrambled up the bank with a speed that could not be

exceeded by a bloodthirsty man.

He expected a battle scene.

There were some little fields girted and squeezed by a forest. Spread

over the grass and in among the tree trunks, he could see knots and

waving lines of skirmishers who were running hither and thither and

firing at the landscape. A dark battle line lay upon a sunstruck

clearing that gleamed orange color. A flag fluttered.

Other regiments floundered up the bank. The brigade was formed in line

of battle, and after a pause started slowly through the woods in the

rear of the receding skirmishers, who were continually melting into the

scene to appear again farther on. They were always busy as bees, deeply

absorbed in their little combats.

The youth tried to observe everything. He did not use care to avoid

trees and branches, and his forgotten feet were constantly knocking

against stones or getting entangled in briers. He was aware that these

battalions with their commotions were woven red and startling into the

gentle fabric of softened greens and browns. It looked to be a wrong

place for a battle field.

The skirmishers in advance fascinated him. Their shots into thickets

and at distant and prominent trees spoke to him of tragedies—hidden,

mysterious, solemn.

Once the line encountered the body of a dead soldier. He lay upon his

back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish

brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to

the thinness of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the dead

foot projected piteously. And it was as if fate had betrayed the

soldier. In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life

he had perhaps concealed from his friends.

The ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse. The invulnerable dead

man forced a way for himself. The youth looked keenly at the ashen

face. The wind raised the tawny beard. It moved as if a hand were

stroking it. He vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and

stare; the impulse of the living to try to read in dead eyes the answer

to the Question.

During the march the ardor which the youth had acquired when out of

view of the field rapidly faded to nothing. His curiosity was quite

easily satisfied. If an intense scene had caught him with its wild

swing as he came to the top of the bank, he might have gone roaring on.

This advance upon Nature was too calm. He had opportunity to reflect.

He had time in which to wonder about himself and to attempt to probe

his sensations.

Absurd ideas took hold upon him. He thought that he did not relish the

landscape. It threatened him. A coldness swept over his back, and it is

true that his trousers felt to him that they were no fit for his legs

at all.

A house standing placidly in distant fields had to him an ominous look.

The shadows of the woods were formidable. He was certain that in this

vista there lurked fierce-eyed hosts. The swift thought came to him

that the generals did not know what they were about. It was all a trap.

Suddenly those close forests would bristle with rifle barrels. Ironlike

brigades would appear in the rear. They were all going to be

sacrificed. The generals were stupids. The enemy would presently

swallow the whole command. He glared about him, expecting to see the

stealthy approach of his death.

He thought that he must break from the ranks and harangue his comrades.

They must not all be killed like pigs; and he was sure it would come to

pass unless they were informed of these dangers. The generals were

idiots to send them marching into a regular pen. There was but one pair

of eyes in the corps. He would step forth and make a speech. Shrill and

passionate words came to his lips.

The line, broken into moving fragments by the ground, went calmly on

through fields and woods. The youth looked at the men nearest him, and

saw, for the most part, expressions of deep interest, as if they were

investigating something that had fascinated them. One or two stepped

with overvaliant airs as if they were already plunged into war. Others

walked as upon thin ice. The greater part of the untested men appeared

quiet and absorbed. They were going to look at war, the red animal—war,

the blood-swollen god. And they were deeply engrossed in this march.

As he looked the youth gripped his outcry at his throat. He saw that

even if the men were tottering with fear they would laugh at his

warning. They would jeer him, and, if practicable, pelt him with

missiles. Admitting that he might be wrong, a frenzied declamation of

the kind would turn him into a worm.

He assumed, then, the demeanor of one who knows that he is doomed alone

to unwritten responsibilities. He lagged, with tragic glances at the

sky.

He was surprised presently by the young lieutenant of his company, who

began heartily to beat him with a sword, calling out in a loud and

insolent voice: “Come, young man, get up into ranks there. No skulking

’ll do here.” He mended his pace with suitable haste. And he hated the

lieutenant, who had no appreciation of fine minds. He was a mere brute.

After a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a forest.

The busy skirmishers were still popping. Through the aisles of the wood

could be seen the floating smoke from their rifles. Sometimes it went

up in little balls, white and compact.

During this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny hills in

front of them. They used stones, sticks, earth, and anything they

thought might turn a bullet. Some built comparatively large ones, while

others seemed content with little ones.

This procedure caused a discussion among the men. Some wished to fight

like duelists, believing it to be correct to stand erect and be, from

their feet to their foreheads, a mark. They said they scorned the

devices of the cautious. But the others scoffed in reply, and pointed

to the veterans on the flanks who were digging at the ground like

terriers. In a short time there was quite a barricade along the

regimental fronts. Directly, however, they were ordered to withdraw

from that place.

This astounded the youth. He forgot his stewing over the advance

movement. “Well, then, what did they march us out here for?” he

demanded of the tall soldier. The latter with calm faith began a heavy

explanation, although he had been compelled to leave a little

protection of stones and dirt to which he had devoted much care and

skill.

When the regiment was aligned in another position each man’s regard for

his safety caused another line of small intrenchments. They ate their

noon meal behind a third one. They were moved from this one also. They

were marched from place to place with apparent aimlessness.

The youth had been taught that a man became another thing in battle. He

saw his salvation in such a change. Hence this waiting was an ordeal to

him. He was in a fever of impatience. He considered that there was

denoted a lack of purpose on the part of the generals. He began to

complain to the tall soldier. “I can’t stand this much longer,” he

cried. “I don’t see what good it does to make us wear out our legs for

nothin’.” He wished to return to camp, knowing that this affair was a

blue demonstration; or else to go into a battle and discover that he

had been a fool in his doubts, and was, in truth, a man of traditional

courage. The strain of present circumstances he felt to be intolerable.

The philosophical tall soldier measured a sandwich of cracker and pork

and swallowed it in a nonchalant manner. “Oh, I suppose we must go

reconnoitering around the country jest to keep ’em from getting too

close, or to develop ’em, or something.”

“Huh!” said the loud soldier.

“Well,” cried the youth, still fidgeting, “I’d rather do anything ’most

than go tramping ’round the country all day doing no good to nobody and

jest tiring ourselves out.”

“So would I,” said the loud soldier. “It ain’t right. I tell you if

anybody with any sense was a-runnin’ this army it—”

“Oh, shut up!” roared the tall private. “You little fool. You little

damn’ cuss. You ain’t had that there coat and them pants on for six

months, and yet you talk as if—”

“Well, I wanta do some fighting anyway,” interrupted the other. “I

didn’t come here to walk. I could ’ave walked to home—’round an’ ’round

the barn, if I jest wanted to walk.”

The tall one, red-faced, swallowed another sandwich as if taking poison

in despair.

But gradually, as he chewed, his face became again quiet and contented.

He could not rage in fierce argument in the presence of such

sandwiches. During his meals he always wore an air of blissful

contemplation of the food he had swallowed. His spirit seemed then to

be communing with the viands.

He accepted new environment and circumstance with great coolness,

eating from his haversack at every opportunity. On the march he went

along with the stride of a hunter, objecting to neither gait nor

distance. And he had not raised his voice when he had been ordered away

from three little protective piles of earth and stone, each of which

had been an engineering feat worthy of being made sacred to the name of

his grandmother.

In the afternoon, the regiment went out over the same ground it had

taken in the morning. The landscape then ceased to threaten the youth.

He had been close to it and become familiar with it.

When, however, they began to pass into a new region, his old fears of

stupidity and incompetence reassailed him, but this time he doggedly

let them babble. He was occupied with his problem, and in his

desperation he concluded that the stupidity did not greatly matter.

Once he thought he had concluded that it would be better to get killed

directly and end his troubles. Regarding death thus out of the corner

of his eye, he conceived it to be nothing but rest, and he was filled

with a momentary astonishment that he should have made an extraordinary

commotion over the mere matter of getting killed. He would die; he

would go to some place where he would be understood. It was useless to

expect appreciation of his profound and fine sense from such men as the

lieutenant. He must look to the grave for comprehension.

The skirmish fire increased to a long clattering sound. With it was

mingled far-away cheering. A battery spoke.

Directly the youth could see the skirmishers running. They were pursued

by the sound of musketry fire. After a time the hot, dangerous flashes

of the rifles were visible. Smoke clouds went slowly and insolently

across the fields like observant phantoms. The din became crescendo,

like the roar of an oncoming train.

A brigade ahead of them and on the right went into action with a

rending roar. It was as if it had exploded. And thereafter it lay

stretched in the distance behind a long gray wall, that one was obliged

to look twice at to make sure that it was smoke.

The youth, forgetting his neat plan of getting killed, gazed spell

bound. His eyes grew wide and busy with the action of the scene. His

mouth was a little ways open.

Of a sudden he felt a heavy and sad hand laid upon his shoulder.

Awakening from his trance of observation he turned and beheld the loud

soldier.

“It’s my first and last battle, old boy,” said the latter, with intense

gloom. He was quite pale and his girlish lip was trembling.

“Eh?” murmured the youth in great astonishment.

“It’s my first and last battle, old boy,” continued the loud soldier.

“Something tells me—”

“What?”

“I’m a gone coon this first time and—and I w-want you to take these

here things—to—my—folks.” He ended in a quavering sob of pity for

himself. He handed the youth a little packet done up in a yellow

envelope.

“Why, what the devil—” began the youth again.

But the other gave him a glance as from the depths of a tomb, and

raised his limp hand in a prophetic manner and turned away.