Tree of Appomattox — Ch 17: Appomattox, part 2

Dick saw Lee come out of the house, mount Traveler and, followed by Colonel Marshall, ride back toward his own men who already had divined the occurrences in the house.

The army saluted him with undivided affection, the troops crowding around him, cheering him, and, whenever they had a chance, shaking his hand.

The demonstration became so great that Lee was moved deeply and showed it.

The water rose in his eyes and his voice trembled as he said, though with pride: "My lads, we have fought through the war together.

I have done the best I could for you.

My heart is too full to say more."

He could not be induced to speak further, although the great demonstration continued, but rode in silence to his headquarters in a wood, where he entered his tent and sat alone, no one ever knowing what his thoughts were in that hour.

Twenty-six thousand men who were left of the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered the next day, and the blue and the gray fraternized.

The Union soldiers did not wait for the rations ordered by Grant, but gave of their own to the starved men who were so lately their foes.

Dick and his friends hastened at once to find Harry Kenton and his comrades, and presently they saw them all sitting together on a log, thin and pale, but with no abatement of pride.

Harry rose nevertheless, and received his cousin joyfully.

"Dick," he said as their hands met, "the war is over, and over forever.

But you and I were never enemies."

"That's so, Harry," said Dick Mason, "and the thing for us to do now is to go back to Kentucky, and begin life where we left it off."

"But you don't start this minute," said Warner.

"There is a small matter of business to be transacted first.

We know all of you, but just the same we've brought our visiting cards with us."

"I don't understand," said Harry.

"We'll show you.

Frank Pennington, remove that large protuberance from beneath your blouse.

Behold it!

A small ham, my friends, and it's for you.

That's Frank's card.

And here I take from my own blouse the half of a cheese, which I beg you to accept with my compliments.

Dick, you rascal, what's that you have under your arm?"

"It's a jar of prime bacon that I've brought along for the party, George."

"I thought so.

We're going to have the pleasure of dining with our friends here.

We've heard, Captain Kenton, that you people haven't eaten anything for a month."

"It's not that bad," laughed Harry.

"We had parched corn yesterday."

"Well, parched corn is none too filling, and we're going to prepare the banquet at once.

A certain Sergeant Whitley will arrive presently with a basket of food, such as you rebels haven't tasted since you raided our wagon trains at the Second Manassas, and with him will come one William Shepard, whom you have met often, Mr. Kenton."

"Yes," said Harry, "we've met often and under varying circumstances, but we're going to be friends now."

"Will you tell me, Captain St. Clair," said Dick, "what has become of the two colonels of your regiment, which I believe you call the Invincibles?"

St. Clair led them silently to a little wood, and there, sitting on logs, Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel Hector St. Hilaire were bent intently over the chess board that lay between them.

"Now that the war is over we'll have a chance to finish our game, eh, Hector?"

said Colonel Talbot.

"A just observation, Leonidas.

It's a difficult task to pursue a game to a perfect conclusion amid the distractions of war, but soon I shall checkmate you in the brilliant fashion in which General Lee always snares and destroys his enemy."

"But General Lee has yielded, Hector."

"Pshaw, Leonidas!

General Lee would never yield to anybody.

He has merely quit!"

"Ahem!"

said Harry loudly, and, as the colonels glanced up, they saw the little group looking down at them.

"Our friends, the enemy, have come to pay you their respects," said Harry.

The two colonels rose and bowed profoundly.

"And to invite you to a banquet that is now being prepared not far from here," continued Harry.

"It's very tempting, ham, cheese, and other solids, surrounded by many delicacies."

The two colonels looked at each other, and then nodded approval.

"You are to be the personal guests of our army," said Dick, "and we act as the proxies of General Grant."

"I shall always speak most highly of General Grant," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.

"His conduct has been marked by the greatest humanity, and is a credit to our common country, which has been reunited so suddenly."

"But reunited with our consent, Leonidas," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire.

"Don't forget that I, for one, am tired of this war, and so is our whole army.

It was a perfect waste of life to prolong it, and with the North reannexed, the Union will soon be stronger and more prosperous than ever."

"Well spoken, Hector!

Well spoken.

It is perhaps better that North and South should remain together.

I thought otherwise for four years, but now I seem to have another point of view.

Come, lads, we shall dine with these good Yankee boys and we'll make them drink toasts of their own excellent coffee to the health and safety of our common country."

The group returned to a little hollow, in which Sergeant Whitley and Shepard had built a fire, and where they were already frying strips of bacon and slices of ham over the coals.

Shepard and Harry shook hands.

"I may as well tell you now, Mr. Kenton," said Shepard, "that Miss Henrietta Carden, whom you met in Richmond, is my sister, and that it was she who hid in the court at the Curtis house and took the map.

Then it was I who gave you the blow."

"It was done in war," said Harry, "and I have no right to complain.

It was clever and I hope that I shall be able to give your sister my compliments some day.

Now, if you don't mind, I'll take a strip of that wonderful bacon.

It is bacon, isn't it?

It's so long since I've seen any that I'm not sure of its identity, but whatever it is its odor is enticing."

"Bacon it surely is, Mr. Kenton.

Here are three pieces that I broiled myself and a broad slice of bread for them.

Go ahead, there's plenty more.

And see this dark brown liquid foaming in this stout tin pot!

Smell it!

Isn't it wonderful!

Well, that's coffee!

You've heard of coffee, and maybe you remember it."

"I do remember tasting it some years ago and finding it good.

I'd like to try it again.

Yes, thank you.

It's fine."

"Here's another cup, and try the ham also."

Harry tried it, not once but several times.

Langdon sat on the ground before the fire, and his delight was unalloyed and unashamed.

"We have raided a Yankee wagon train again," he said, "and the looting is splendid.

Arthur, I thought yesterday that I should never eat again.

Food and I were such strangers that I believed we should never know each other, any more, or if knowing, we could never assimilate.

And yet we seem to get on good terms at once."

While they talked a tall thin youth of clear dark complexion, carrying a long bundle under his arm, approached the fire and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire welcomed him with joy.

"Julien!

Julien de Langeais, my young relative!"

he cried.

"And you are indeed alive!

I thought you lost!"

"I'm very much alive, sir," said young De Langeais, "but I'm starved."

"Then this is the place to come," said Dick, putting before him food, which he strove to eat slowly, although the effort at restraint was manifestly great.

Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire introduced him to the Union men, and then asked him what was the long black bag that he carried under his arm.

"That, sir," replied De Langeais, smiling pathetically, "is my violin.

I've no further use for my rifle and sword, but now that peace is coming I may be able to earn my bread with the fiddle."

"And so you will!

You'll become one of the world's great musicians.

And as soon as we've finished with General Grant's hospitality, which will be some time yet, you shall play for us."

De Langeais looked affectionately at the black bag.

"You're very good to me, sir," he said, "to encourage me at such a time, and, if you and the others care for me to play, I'll do my best."

"Paganini himself could do no more, but, for the present, we must pay due attention to the hospitality of General Grant.

He would not like it, if it should come to his ears that we did not show due appreciation, and since, in the course of events, and in order to prevent the mutual destruction of the sections, it became necessary for General Lee to arrange with someone to stop this suicidal war, I am glad the man was General Grant, a leader whose heart does him infinite credit."

"General Grant is a very great man, and he has never proved it more fully than today," said Dick, who sat near the colonels--his first inclination had been to smile, but he restrained it.

"Truly spoken, young sir," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot.

"General Lee and General Grant together could hold this continent against the world, and, now that we have quit killing one another, America is safe in their hands.

Harry, do you think I've eaten too much?

I wouldn't go beyond the exploits of a gentleman, but this food has a wonderful savor, and I can't say that I have dined before in months."

"Not at all, sir, you have just fairly begun.

As Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire pointed out, General Grant would be displeased if we didn't fully appreciate his hospitality and prove it by our deeds.

Here are some sardines, sir.

You haven't tasted 'em yet, but you'll find 'em wonderfully fine."

Colonel Leonidas Talbot took the sardines, and then he and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire rose suddenly and simultaneously to their feet, a look of wonder and joy spreading over their faces.

"Is it really he?"

exclaimed Colonel Talbot.

"It's he and none other," said Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire.

A tall, powerfully built, gray-haired man was coming toward them, his hands extended.

Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire stepped forward, and each grasped a hand.

"Good old John!"

"Why, John, it's worth a victory to shake your hand again!"

"Leonidas, I've been inquiring, an hour or two, for you and Hector."

"John Carrington, you've fulfilled your promise and more.

We always said at West Point that you'd become the greatest artilleryman in the world, and in this war you've proved it on fifty battle fields.

We've often watched your work from the other side, and we've always admired the accuracy with which you sent the shells flying about us.

It was wonderful, John, wonderful, and it did more than anything else to save the North from complete defeat!"

A smile passed over John Carrington's strong face, and he patted his old comrade on the shoulder.

"It's good to know, Leonidas, that neither you nor Hector has been killed," he said, "and that we can dine together again."

"Truly, truly, John!

Sit down!

It's the hospitality of your own general that you share when you join us.

General Lee would never make terms with men like McClellan, Burnside and Hooker.

No, sir, he preferred to defeat them, much as it cost our Union in blood and treasure, but with a man of genius like General Grant he could agree.

Really great souls always recognize one another.

Is it not so, John?"

"Beyond a doubt, Leonidas.

We fully admit the greatness and lofty character of General Lee, as you admit the greatness and humanity of General Grant.

One nation is proud to have produced two such men."

"I agree with you, John.

All of us agree with you.

The soldiers of General Lee's army who are here today will never dispute what you say.

Now fall on, and join us at this board which, though rustic, is indeed a most luxurious and festive one.

As I remember at West Point, you were a first-class trencherman."

"And I am yet," said John Carrington, as he took his share.

They were joined a little later by a gallant young Southern colonel, Philip Sherburne, who had led in many a cavalry attack, and then the equally gallant Northern colonel, Alan Hertford, came also, and as everybody was introduced to everybody else the good feeling grew.

At last the hunger that had been increasing so long was satisfied, and as they leaned back, Lieutenant Colonel St. Hilaire turned to Julien de Langeais: "Julien," he said, "take out your violin.

There is no more fitting time than this to play.

Julien, John, is a young relative of mine from Louisiana who has a gift.

He is a great musician who is going to become much greater.

Perhaps it was wrong to let a lad of his genius enter this war, but at any rate he has survived it, and now he will show us what he can do."

De Langeais, after modest deprecations, took out his violin and played.

Upon his sensitive soul the war had made such a deep impression that his spirit spoke through his instrument.

He had never before played so well.

His strings sang of the march, the camp, of victory and defeat, and defeat and victory, and as he played he became absorbed in his music.

The people around him, although they were rapidly increasing in numbers, were not visible to him.

Yet he played upon their hearts.

There was not one among them who did not see visions and dream dreams as he listened.

At last his bow turned into the old and ever young, "Home Sweet Home."

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain, Oh!

give me my lowly, thatched cottage again.

Into the song he poured all his skill and all his heart, and as he played he saw the house in which he was born on the far Louisiana plantation.

And those who listened saw also, in spirit, the homes which many of them had not seen in fact for four years.

Stern souls were softened, and water rose to eyes which had looked fearlessly and so often upon the charging bayonets of the foe.

He stopped suddenly and put away his violin.

There was a hush, and then a long roll of applause, not loud, but very deep.

"I hear Pendleton calling," said Harry to Dick.

"So do I," said Dick.

"I wonder what they're doing there.

Have you heard from your father?"

"Not for several months.

I think he's in North Carolina with Johnston, and I mean to go home that way.

I've a good horse, and he'll carry me through the mountains.

I think I'll find father there.

An hour or two ago, Dick, I felt like a man and I was a man, but since De Langeais played I've become a boy again, and I'm longing for Pendleton, and its green hills, and the little river in which we used to swim."

"So am I, Harry, and it's likely that I'll go with you.

The war is over and I can get leave at once.

I want to see my mother."

They stayed together until night came over Appomattox and its famous apple tree, and a few days later Harry Kenton was ready to start on horseback for Kentucky.

But he was far from being alone.

The two colonels, St. Clair, Langdon, Dick, De Langeais, Colonel Winchester and Sergeant Whitley were to ride with him.

Warner was to go north and Pennington west as soon as they were mustered out.

Dick wrung their hands.

"Good-by, George!

Good-by, Frank!

Old comrades!"

he said.

"But remember that we are to see a good deal of one another all through our lives!"

"Which I can reduce to a mathematical problem and demonstrate by means of my little algebra here," said Warner, fumbling for his book to hide his emotion.

"I may come through Kentucky to see you and Harry," said Pennington, "when I start back to Nebraska."

"Be sure to come," said Dick with enthusiasm, "and remember that the latch string is hanging out on both doors."

Then, carrying their arms, and well equipped with ammunition, food and blankets, the little party rode away.

They knew that the mountains were still extremely unsettled, much infested by guerrillas, but they believed themselves strong enough to deal with any difficulty, and, as the April country was fair and green, their hearts, despite everything, were light.

CHAPTER XVIII