Defending his flag

“He wrote he would most likely be back on that, if he could get away from Washington. He said everything was in such a state of excitement it was impossible to talk business.”

It was the intention of the mountaineers to duck Louis in the icy water of the horse trough. Sam Jacks had dilated upon what the Northern youth had said, and all hands had agree...

As Andy Arlington--whose full name, by the way, was, Andrew Jackson Arlington--had said, the trouble between the Northern and the Southern States had been brewing for a long tim...

“Fetch a rope, boys, and we’ll bind him,” were Jacks’s next words, and this order was speedily obeyed, and in spite of a desperate struggle Louis was made a prisoner.

It would be hard to put Louis’s feelings into words when he found himself alone once more. Here he was bound hands and feet to a corner post of the old mill, robbed of his valua...

“Golly, who is yo’?” There was a crashing through the woods and presently a tall darky, weighing all of two hundred pounds, blocked up the entrance to the mill. “Golly, yere’s a...

“Now, then, who is the next volunteer? Come, gentlemen and fellow citizens, you have read our worthy President’s proclamation; you know how urgent is the call; you know that the...

The men who had come so unexpectedly upon Louis and Harry Bingham were noble-looking fellows, all well-built and past middle age. Their trappings were of the finest, and by his...

“Hurrah! hurrah, father, the Yankees are whipped! Fort Sumter is taken! Didn’t I tell you they couldn’t stand up against our fellows? My, but don’t I just wish I had been in Cha...

At home Andy had never experienced any difficulty with his father’s slaves, for the colored people were well cared for and were too happy to create any disturbances. To be sure,...

The excitement around the hotel was for a time intense, and not only the Zouaves, but also the Goreville Volunteers had all they could do to restore order and thus prevent furth...

The forces under General Beauregard at the battle of Bull Run consisted of some twenty regiments of infantry and a number of cavalry companies and sections of light artillery. I...

To be pulled down in such an unceremonious fashion was a surprise in itself, but to find himself face to face with his enemy, the mountaineer, astonished Louis beyond measure. F...

It was Jerry Rowe who spoke. The youth sat on the top of a nail keg in the warehouse. He had been sleeping for a matter of ten hours, and his dreams, resulting from the shocks o...

For a quarter of an hour Andy listened to the shooting in the distance and worked upon his bonds at the same time. No one had remained to watch him, and if there was any way by...

Such were the bitter words which arose to Andy’s lips as he burst into the shed. He did not remain in the rickety building long. A single bound took him to the opposite doorway,...

As previously mentioned, General McClellan, on taking charge of the Army of the Potomac and, later on, charge of the whole Federal forces, found affairs in Washington in a truly...

It was Louis who spoke. The Goreville Volunteers, after landing at the government wharf at Fortress Monroe, had crossed the bridge leading to Hampton, marched through that semi-...

For the instant, after making his important discovery, Louis knew not what to do. That the fellow who was advancing so cautiously was an enemy there could be no doubt. That bein...

To go back to Andy at the time he was slowly recovering from a bullet wound in his shoulder, inflicted by a Union soldier at the time of his capture during the battle of Ball’s...

When Andy came to his senses, he found himself lying on a cot in a farmhouse, quarter of a mile from where he had crossed the Potomac. The farmhouse was being used as a rebel he...

Having found the enemy strongly entrenched at, or rather before, Yorktown, General McClellan determined to lay siege to the place, and in the meantime endeavor to obtain more tr...

All of the Confederates, upon withdrawing from Yorktown, did not go up the peninsula towards Richmond. Many of them took to the York River, and following this and the Pamunkey R...

It was one of the boys in blue who uttered the cry. He had forded the little stream and now his friends came after him. Rifle shots were sounding out up and down the water-cours...

“We’re off for Richmond, now!” cried Harry, enthusiastically, as they stood at parade rest, while waiting for their turn to fall in with the advancing column. “If everything goe...

In the meantime, Louis was fighting as he had never fought before. The Goreville Volunteers were posted, after the first attack, at a point an eighth of a mile south of the batt...

The young Confederate realized without much thought that he was in a perilous position. Six rifles were pointed at him, and the owner of each weapon seemed both willing to bring...

After the battle of Fair Oaks, the Union army moved forward from a quarter to three-quarters of a mile and there entrenched itself in the position it occupied very nearly during...

Moving along as if in deep thought, the clerk of the store reached the very spot where Louis was in hiding, behind a number of loose shelving boards standing upright under the c...

At this question Firefly halted and looked at Louis as though he would like very much to talk. The bullet wound made the beast quiver with pain, and the youth stroked him affect...

Louis’s heart gave a bound. He was to visit the great commander-in-chief of the Army of the Potomac! He had seen General McClellan before, of course, for the general was very po...

It was a clear, warm day. It had not rained now for more than ten days, and the high ground around the camp was beginning to show signs of dust. On every side activity prevailed...

Louis felt he was in one of the most trying situations of his life. The Confederate picket had drawn a bead upon him, and unless he answered promptly he would undoubtedly be sho...

Malvern Hill was a small elevation, not over sixty feet high at its topmost point, on the north bank of the James River. The plateau above was nearly large enough for the entire...