Evening star., 1901-02-23

l Re0nS must care LOT VHeIQ now. Oue DdCh-
| ward glance Enyart gives toward the COM
manders. Harker is springing into saddle.
| Sheridan, far from storming out orders
| to stop it. is certainly swinging his hat;
and facing front once more, Colonel Bob
sees his adjutant long strides ahead of the
nearmost. breasttng the slope, high waving
the flag and loudly shouting Come onT
And then away ito the right, away to the
left whole battalions scramble up from the
pits and spring for the heights, Sheridan's
center the guide of the line. Out to the
front leap the ocoiors. Up into saddles
for nimble feet are far in the lead sounding
their own rataplan. This is no generals
planning. This Is no startled assault It's
the line! Up from the lowlands sweep the
battalions, cheering like mad Officers,
swinging their caps on the points of their
swords. rush out or ride out in front Of
their men. who heed not-who need not
This is their benefit. This is their own
battle. The bayonets flash over the third
line of works, midway up the RISE and now
all the long hillside Is Streaked and scanned
with blue, waving sagging, yet ever NOV
ing onward and upward; and the grim COM
mander of the united armies stares speech
less at them from the rocky. wooded knoll
far to the rear, and at last demands of
Thomas: who ordered that charger Who
ordered it. The brain Of the American SOL
dier. The horse sense of thinking bayonets,
for now they are away up the slope, crash
ing in among the batteries, straddiing log
parapets, volleying into the very face OF
the defenders, shooting down the opposing
battle flags. and. never halting. never
swerving, straight they go, Wood and
Sheridan, Baird and Johnson almost
aligned, but Sheridan hitting square at the
center, driving Bragg, Breckenridge and
dozen of brilliant staff and general officers
from their last covert at the summit of the
ridge, waving over captured guns, redoubts
and even ranl after rank of bewildered,
gray-clad infantry, cut off from all possi-
biity of escape, the brilliant hues of the
old and beloved flag.
Then at last, just one vivid, thrilling hour
from the sound of the first gun that sig
nailed the advance, as they range up at the
crest, monarchs of all they survey, Ohio
and Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky are
cheering each other, cheering their officers.
cheering themselves-aye, in their soldier
rejoicing, cheering the grimF, crestfalIen
"Johnnies' in the nearest trenches. And
over near Bragg's vacated headquarters.
where the generals are fast gathering for
mutual congratulatfon, tumultuous. throng
of Buckeyes and Kentuckians surges about
a little group, where Colonel Bob bleeding
from a bullet wound he had hardly noticed,
is still in saddle. waving those precious
colors above his handsome head while
Sheridan, once more afoot, is clasping the
hand of Kentuckys gallant adjutant, who,
faint from exertion and loss Of blood, is
propped against the Flagstaff, while the
surgeon binds an ugly cash in his side-a
bayonet thrust that well nigh cost Norman
Holt his life-but that could not stop him.
as foremost of all, he burst through the
W2yering line OF Oe1enQeFS ana, SldSnlQS the
hailards with his keen sword, brought tiut-
tering to earth the flag of the south
Chickamauga was avenged!
CHAPTER XVII
Then followed glorious days in the field
and solemn hours in the hospitals about
Chattanooga. Great had been the Union
victory of Mission Ridge, but that enforced
halt at the foot of the slope had cost the
Cumberlands dear. For two days, and with
four divisions, the Te1inessees had battered
long about Tunnel Hill, losing some 1850
men and gaining little nothing while
Sheridan and Wood with the men de
moraliZed by Chickamauga,' in their two
divisions alone and in a single hour had
lost in killed and Wounded-not a man
missing-S00 more than Sherman's whole
array of casualties, and, in spite of such
heavy loss had refused to be checked, had
stormed Bragg's center captured forty can
non 6opo stands of arms and 5000 prison
ers; split up the whole corps and driven it
every which way. However, it was Sher-
man with his famous. marchers who was
sent in pursuit, while the Cum mberlands
were divided up some going northeast after
Longstreet, some southeast after Bragg
some into hospital, and among these Bob
Enyart again. with the brevet of brigadier
general for brilliant service and bullet
in the leg With Shin. m oreover. for brief
fortnight, at ieast,awas his gallant young
adjutant. with thar tong gasn In MS SIDE
that would have made him major before
he was month older-but for another gov
ernor.
And during that month spite of all that
could be done by the skill of surgeons and
the devoted nursing of mother and sister,
Theodore's feeble life flickered away. He
seemed conscious to the last. contrite,
"humble as a little child Death was. per-
haps merciful solution of vexed and
serious problem. But what mother could
be made to think so? Unstable as water,
swayed by every passing whim or fancy;
his tastes and inclinations early vltiated by
evil company abroad and unwise manage
ment at home, the lad was SO far started
on the downhill path that 1t was doubtful
If he could have been rescued. But the
mother ever fondly cherished the faith that
he could and would, had it pleased God to
spare him to her rather than to take him
unto himself-for all that was good and
gentle and dependent in the boy came to
the surface in that final fortnight He was
| her blessed baby, her darling once again.
and the world and sin were forgotten. Yet
there was Jealous pain for her even in the
| contemplation Of his ebbing life, for more
than ever before the lad seemed now to
| lean on Norman Holt. to need him. to cling
| to him at the last. Though weak and in
much pain from his wound, Norman was
able to be about. and through the influence
of Enyalt, the efforts of Major Lane and
| the favor Of the commanding general.
Theodore had been borne from the field
| hospital and lodged beneath the roof where
| lay these wounded officers, and Norman,
| swiftly mending, could sit by the boys bed
side often for hours, to the neglect Of his
| own colonel and to the end that by the
| time that first detachment of anxious Wo-
men-mothers, wives and sisters-reached
Chattanooga. the young Kentuckian was
| practically Indispensable to the dying boy.
| Lane saw 1t and surrendered to it, and
| though Norman purposely absented him
| self the afternoon of the mothers arrival,
| it could not be for long. Theodore fegged
| for him. begged his parents help him undo
| the wrong he had done, begged Daisy to
| forget the wild accusations he had made
| In the mad moment of his arrest, and Mai
Lane went in searcr Of Norman, and found
| hlm-his superior officer-notffied that hour
| OF his commission as lieutenant colonel of
Kentucky cavalry "for daring and daunt-
| less leadership in battle at Stone river and
| missionary Ridge" The governor had seen
| "Shurdn's bet" Gaffney put it, land
| gone him wan betther"
Then. too, 1t transpired presently that
| While Theodore wanted Norman even after
| the coming of the women folk. Enyart
didn't want him at ALL The need for nurses
afar back along the Ohio was not what it
| had been after Perryville and Stone river.
1t was urgent now on the Tennessee. where
| many brave lads lay sorely wounded. In
the same patchwork train to Tullahoma
with the Lanes came Bob's devoted mother.
1