FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  
Richmond, where they joined in the work, to which the whole of the ladies of the town and neighborhood devoted themselves, of attending to the wounded, of whom, while the fighting was going on, long trains arrived every day at the city. Vincent himself had taken no active part in the fighting. Magruder's division had not been engaged in the first attack upon McClellan's force; and although it had taken a share in the subsequent severe fighting, Vincent had been occupied in carrying messages from the general to the leaders of the other divisions, and had only once or twice come under the storm of fire to which the Confederates were exposed as they plunged through the morasses to attack the enemy. As soon as it was certain that the attack was finally abandoned, and that McClellan's troops were being withdrawn to strengthen Pope's army, Vincent resigned his appointment as aid-de-camp, and was appointed to the 7th Virginia Cavalry, stationed at Orange, where it was facing the Federal cavalry. Major Ashley had fallen while protecting the passage of Jackson's division, when hard pressed by one of the Federal armies in West Virginia. No action in the war had been more brilliant than the manner in which Stonewall Jackson had baffled the two armies--each greatly superior in force to his own--that had been specially appointed to destroy him if possible, or at any rate to prevent his withdrawing from the Shenandoah Valley and marching to aid in the defense of the Confederate capital. His troops had marched almost day and night, without food, and depending entirely upon such supplies as they could obtain from the scattered farmhouses they passed. Although Richmond was for the present safe, the prospect of the Confederates was by no means bright. New Orleans had been captured; the blockade of the other ports was now so strict that it was difficult in the extreme for a vessel to make her way in or out; and the Northerners had placed flotillas of gunboats on the rivers, and by the aid of these were gradually making their way into the heart of several of the States. "Are you thinking of going out to the Orangery again soon, mother?" Vincent asked on the evening before setting out on the march north. "I think not, Vincent. There is so much to do in the hospitals here that I cannot leave. I should be ashamed to be living in luxury at the Orangery with the girls while other women are giving up their whole time nursing the woun
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Vincent
 

attack

 

fighting

 
Jackson
 

McClellan

 

Confederates

 

Richmond

 

Federal

 

armies

 

division


Orangery

 
appointed
 

Virginia

 
troops
 
bright
 

difficult

 

extreme

 

vessel

 

strict

 

captured


blockade

 

Orleans

 

farmhouses

 

marched

 

capital

 
Confederate
 

Shenandoah

 

withdrawing

 

Valley

 

marching


defense

 

depending

 
passed
 

Although

 

present

 

scattered

 

obtain

 

supplies

 

prospect

 

making


hospitals
 
ashamed
 

living

 

nursing

 

giving

 
luxury
 

gradually

 
prevent
 
rivers
 

Northerners