Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-06-01
Behind the Sweet Peas
A STORY OF GRIN WAR
BY DAVID LOWRY.

gam her self-command. The clamor OF
battle filled the summer air.
Infantry, cavalry. artillery, swarned
over the open space back Of the woods.
They occupied all the ground: a vast
multitude blurred the slope. And
away below her "a long, thin line of
faint blue stretched far beyond the viii
lage. The line moved. but it re-
manned unbroken. 1t passed fences,
swept through orchards, crossed the
rum. Its movements reminded the wild
ow of the ripple a strong breeze makes
in growing grass. The blue line seemed
TO bow gracefully here and there as
grass dips n lifts its head again.
There was a faint simmer IN the blu
line. AS ii came nearer, ii, too, paused
near a road behind a fence Then 1t
tipped with fire. The sharp rattle of
musketry was borne TO the widows
ears.
From that moment on the air vas
filled, the widows ears were ~deafened,
with the merciless rain of lea and iron
hail that poured steadily, increasingly,
all that afternoon apo the ranks of
men SWaying, advancing and retreat
ing as they commended over four miles
of ground that drank their blood
greedily.
Out of the dimness and VaguenesS of
confused masses twisting in tangled
ines wherever she looked the widow
slowly discerned a stream of wagons re-
turning with the federal wounded. They
moved slowly at first; so slow that the
road became blocked. Then the csies
and oaths of the suffering, the awful
groans m moanS of the dying drove
the widow into the farthest part of her
spring Gus in an ecstacy of fear and
horror.
But the imagination of a terror
stricken woman is greater than con-
temptation of actual suffering. Soon
the widow emerged from the spring
house again. Gods sunlight, stained
as it was, Gods beautiful earth,
blasted, torn ruthlessly as it was by
wicked men, was a blessed relief from
the sensations she experienced while
seeking refuge in the earth.
So, standing there In the door of her
spring house with the never ending
chill of fear at her heart now, the Wild
ow Lacy looked and listened like one
in a day dream more frightful thar a
nightmare.
She could hear ard distinguish voices
now as question and answer followed.
Vague apprehensions of defeat COM
municated themselves to the throng of
men gathered on the roadway near her
house. A single expression aroused
her-"Battery b." With strained ear
she hung on the response hat followed.
Captain Lacy's battery will be here
in an hour. Our orders are to remain
here and support him"
rs Lacy all right"
The widow clinched her hands. oh,
for the strength to pierce that crowd Of
men and horses.
He was all right fifteen minutes
ago."
Jack-her son Jack was alive!
Suddenly a cannon shot fairly cut its
way through the throng, leaving a
quivering mass lying on the ground
where sturdy, brave men stood a mo-
ment before.
h widow was shading her eyes
with her hands trying to Danish the
horrible vision when the earth trem-
bled under the sound of horses hoofs,
and a battery crossed the slope like a
whirlwind, to be checked behind her
bank of sweet peas.
An officer rode rapidly along the edge
of the broad road. The way was now
clear. What e~Xpostulations and plead
ing and threats has failed to accom-
plish was accomplished only too well by
the shot that manned and killed scores.
The distance was not great. The wild
ow beheld her son.
While the horses paved and snorted
the battery that had leaped up the hill
behind the sweet peas as If sped there
by love sent shell after shell into the
very midst of the confederates.
But long before the earth rocked I'M
der Battery b the widows flying feet
carried her swiftly toward her son. A
trailing vine-or was it a re~in?-caught
her foot, and she stumbled and fell.
When she sat up and looked around
her, she was shielded by a huge bowl
der. It's gray face rose out of the en-
erald green sward like a wall, behind
which she now covered, trembling.
quivering in every nerve.
The tops of distant hills were all
crowned with batteries. In every d.
rection as far as the eye could reach
the woods were fiecked with flashes.
They leaped from the haze of low lying
smokelike lightning. Straight across
great fields long lines of men moved I'M
til the guns on the top of the hills vom-
tied fire. Then the lines wavered,
Swayed uncertainty and disappeared in
the woods from which they had
emerged.
They came out OF the woods In even
lines; they sought cover again in rag
ged, disordered masses. Sometimes
they came out again, advanced, were
torn apart and melted away in a haze.
The battle ragged all around her. AS
far as the eye could see the flash and
sound of bursting shells met the eye
and smote the ear. Gazing now wild
Eyed at the rain of missiles that filled
| inc air, SNIlflhlIB, Sllll6lHS W tIiC IOCh
In the midst of that chaos of terror
spreading sounds unparalleled in his
tory, the widow stared as one Tho
saw not. who heard not; like n to
whom all sounds were a terror.
The struggle had been in progress
FIVE mortal hours when a mass of men
and horses emerged from a fringe OF
woods just below her. The guns near
the widows house belched fire, the
mase Of men and horses advanced
steadily. Another and another mass
came after them until the entire slope
was covered. An arc of fire from the
batteries above them smote the seeth-
ing, surging waves of humanity; men
and animals dashed against each other
in wild dismay, and the declining sun,
| seen through a veil of smoke. seemed to
hang motionless in the west as the wa
vering, mutilated lines of assault faded
away in a mist.
Then a silence. a grim silence as
fearful as the uproar of all the battle
sounds, fell on the scene. The stiffness
was oppressive. Birds notes were
hushed, the shrilling of insects ceased.
All the earth was as silent as a burned
out planet,
AS far as the eye could see the widow
looked on broker fences, crushed wag-
ons, horses lying In uncouth shapes.
vague specks hat looked like broken
and twisted fence posts. These last lay
singly and In groups far apart from
each other and at all angles. They
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