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THE WAR LIBRARY
His enemies were not twenty feet away
when ke turned,
They saw the two revolvers that were
thrust into their faces with the scout’s defi-
ce.
Theirown weapons went up, but Mountain
Carl was too quick for them.
Three men reeled from as many saddles al-
most at the same instant!
“Come on, Captain Busby!” shouted the
scout, sending a look of triumph toward the
man who led the restof his pursuers. ‘‘ Come
alittle nearer, if you want me to cheat Wel-
don Drake out of his revenge!” .
Several carbine and pistol shots constituted
the guerrilla’s reply, and, when Busby reach-
ed the spot where the trio in butternut had
fallen, he reined in his horse and sent an oath
after the fleeing scout. .
“We'll see him later, boys!’’ he hissed,
showing 2 maddened countenance to his
men. “Ye gods! if we had but known that
Mountain Carl was within our lines!”
The scout did not halt until, skirting the
Confederate right, he rode round a part of
the base of Carter’s Hill and gained the
Union ranks.
“Just in time!’ were the words that
eeted him as he dismounted and left his
allant horse to take care of himself. “B
ove! Mountain Carl, we’re having a_toug.
time of it up yonder,’’ and the powder-be-
grimed Tennessean pointed to the smoke-en-
veloped crest of the Union position.
‘Where does the old Eighth fight?’ asked
the scout.
“T don’t know. I’ve been fighting on my
own hook. Opdycke has just gone forward
with his brigade.” _
“Then [ll fighs with Opdycke, ejaculated
the scouf, and the next moment he was hur-
rying toward the spot where one of the most
desperate conflicts of the whole war was
raging.
He soon found the bluecoats fighting with
Hood’s veterans for possession of the par-
apet.
Mie threw himself like a lion into the con-
The flashes of muskets and pistols showed
him the foe. :
Suddenly he saw a Union officer fall before
a number of Confederates, who rushed upon
him with victorious yells.
Mountain Carl dashed among them and
beat them back with clubbed musket.
. The strength of an Ajax seemed in his
arms.
When he had driven the officer’s assailants
off, he turned to inquire into his condition.
“‘T knew it must be you, when I saw you
drive them off,” said the officer. ‘*A thou-
sand thanks, Carl.’’
*“* Major Webster !’’ exclaimed the scout.
“Yes; where is Weldon?” .
“Safe, I guess.”
‘That doesn’t satisfy me.”
Major Webster clutched the scout’s arm as
he spoke. . -
“Give me a positive answer, Carl,’”’ hesaid.
“Remember that my daughter loves the
young man.”
Before Mountain Carl could reply, the
Confederates charged the parapet again.
Webster uttered a cry and started back,
“They will win or die this time!” he said.
“Itis Granberry’s brigade!”
The onslaught of the Confederates was, for
a time, resistless. | .
They seemed to sweep everything before
them.
Amid the flash of their muskets Mountain
Carl suddenly found himself confronted by
atall man who, hatless and excited, resem-
bled a madman.
“Crush them, my heroes!’’ he shouted to
the men who swarmed behind him, ‘ Drive
the Yankees into the Cumberland! We've
got the parapet at last. Hold it or die’”
Mountain Carl’s revolver had already cov-
ered this brave man, but, the moment he
spoke, the scout’s weapon was turned aside.
“Tcan’t kill him if he has broken his
oath!” he said.
CHAPTER XIV.
A CONFEDERATE LION.
The dashing leader of the Confederates
was Colonel Archy Brashear.
Four times to the parapet where death
held high carnival, had he led those brave
men in gray.
Three times had they been hurled back by
the unconquerable valor of the boys in blue.
Their dead and dying ‘almost filled the
trench; they lay stretched upon the blood-
drenched parapet itself.
It wasa useless slaughter of gallant men,
but Archy Brashear did not think of this,
much less of the oath taken in the moun-
ins.
Although relieved of his command a short
time before by the brave but unfortunate
Granberry, he had been unable to keep out
of the fight.
Where the battle raged, there he was to be
found.
He was a leader of soldiers, and, as such,
was not the man to servein the ranks and
obey.
e did not know that General Hood him-
self had ordered Granberry to relieve him.
he Confederate general dreaded to have
Brashear captured, since he was bound by
an oath which he (Hood) considered sacrea.
“T can’t afford to lose my best men in that
disgraceful manner,’ Hood said to himself,
shortly after dismissing Brashear, and then
he sent the order, which, as we have seen,
the Tennessee colonel refused to obey.
Granberry had fallen at the head of his
brigade, and his soldiers’ blood Was hot for
revenge.
If Mountain Carl had not recognized
Colonel Brashear the moment he did, spite
of the loss of his elegant beard, his life
would probably have ended then and there.
With the words “I can’t kill him if he has
violated his oath,’ the Union scout turned
his revolver aside and immediately found
himself confronted by three Confederate
soldiers who sprung at him with theferocity
of tigers.
The scout defended himself as best he
UW
He shot one of his assailants dead and
wounded another, but the third knocked
down his pistol arm and came at him with
glittering bayonet.
In all probability, the scout’s doom would
have been sealed ifa Confederate officer, run
through with a bayonet, had not fallen
against his opponent, pushing him aside, and
giving Mountain Carl time for recovery.
It was a second’s breathing space, but it
was enough.
The Union scout was ready for a renewal
of the struggle, but the foe who had him at
his mercy a moment before, was shot down
before they could close again.
Such is the fortune of battle.
Mountain Carl now looked for Colonel
Brashear, who, a minute before, was seen at
the head of his men cheering them on to
prodigies of valor, and animating them by
is own fearless example.
“He has met his fate!’’ ejaculated the
scout. ‘He did not go back with his beaten
men, but lies somewhere among the dead.”
At that moment, and while the last word
still quivered on his lips, the loyal scout was
undeceived. :
“At them again, boys! . For the honor of
the South and Tennessee!”
Mountain Carl turned.
That man bears a charmed life!” he ex-
claimed, recognizing the voice just heard.
It was the fifth gallant charge of 2 part of
Granberry’s brigade headed by Archy Brash-
ear.
His aspect was that of a wild man.
He had lost his hat, and waved aloft a
broken sword, and led his men through a
erfect storm of bullets, not one of which
ouched him.
The Confederates rushed up to the very
parapet and engaged the Unionists hand to
and over the bloody barrier.
They scaled the works, and with shouts
and yells that rose above the din of the noc-
turnal battle, grappled with the Union
soldiers on their own side.
Colonel Brashear was among the first to
scale the rampart. His fearless followers
poured over after him spite of the leaden
rain and the resistance of Union bayonets.
‘“*Drive them to Franklin!’ he shouted.
“We must sleep in the town to-night. Hur-
rah for the Confederacy!”
Who would not follow such a leader?
Mountain Carl could not but admire this
man whom he saw almost constantly by the
tiashes of the guns.
He saw a dozen Union soldiers dart at the
Tennessee colonel.
“Take himif you can, boys, but kill him
if you must!” said the leader of the dozen
to his men. ‘Ife has broken an oath of
honor. We can have a hanging after the
battle.”
The Union scout starteds
How did the soldier know that Archy
Brashear had violated his oath? .
The next moment the man with the broken
syvord received the onset of the boys in
blue.
“A dozen to one is my delight!’ he shout-
edatthem. “No man shall ever say that
Archy Brashear isa coward. Comeon and
let us have it out here. Ah! some of you
are East Tennesseans. I’m glad of that!
I’m a Tennessean myself.”
The Unionists answered with a shout and
arush that forced the Confederate colonel
back a foot or two toward the parapet.
t He used his heavy sword with terrible ef-
ect.
If it was broken, it was not useless.
One of the best swordsmen in the Confed-
erate army, he now exhibited his mastery of
the jreapon.
The Union soldiers were compelled to fall
back before him. He was a maddened lion
let loose.
It was for a moment only that the blue-
coats recoiled.
hey came again to the charge, forced
Brashear back, and with their bayonets at
his breast, called upon him to surrender.
The next moment the Confederate was
tripped by a wounded Union soldier lyin
at his feet, and he went backward, but no
without a shout of defiance for the summons
to surrender.
The Unionists rushed upon him before he
could rise.
“Run him through!’? was the cry, and
two bayonets were placed at his breast.
At that moment a man leaped between the
Union bayonets and the menaced Confeder-
ate.
“Back!” he shouted, threateningly. ‘This
man’s life belongs to me!”*
“Who are you?” cried the leader of the
Unionists.
“They call me Mountain Carl.”
“T thought so.”
Meanwhile the excited soldiery did not
stay their efforts to bayonet their fallen foe.
‘Back, Tsay! By Heaven! if I can pre-
vent, you shall not bayonet this man.”
“You ought to be the last man to inter-
fere, Carl “Thatcher,” growled one of the
men—au East Tennessean.
. “I judge for myself in some matters,”
was the scout’s reply, and the man who had
just spoken found his musket knocked aside
with a force that sent a stinging sensation
through his hands,
_ The mountain scout was not to be balked
in his efforts to save Archy Brashear’s life.
He faced the enraged soldiers with the
courage and determination of a lion.
Swordless, and without a single weapon
left him for defense, the Tennessee colonel
regained his feet, and stared speechless at
the scene visible before him.
“JT will answer for this man!” exclaimed
Montain Carl, pointing to the half dazed
Brashear. ‘You are needed yonder. Go
and help the rebels out of Franklin. Your
colors are over there. You can’t have this
soldier. Isayso!” | .
That was enough.
Mountain Carl was too well known in the
Union army to be crossed after his three
last words.
Discomfited and deprived of their pray,
the Unionists left Mountain Carl and Archy
Brashear alone.
“Well, sir?” began the fighting colonel.
“To whom am I indebted for this——”
He paused abruptly, for at that moment,
the Union scout turned upon him, and was
recognized. :
“What! is it you, Mountain Carl?” he
continued.
“Ttis I. You haye broken your oath!”
was the answer. ‘
“That oath wasn’t binding.”
“T hold that it was, Archy Brashear. The
general will share my opinon if you should
be brought before him. I don‘t want you
WwW.
jibe Confederate’s answer was a strange
start
“Go back over the parapet!’ And the
scout pointed to a place where the wall for a
moment was clear,
“You grant me life when you have no
authority to grant anything,” flashed Brash-
ear, ‘Mountain Carl, ’m your bitter foe.
We must always be enemies. That infa-
mous oath rankles in my bosom like a poi-
soned wound. Blood alone can wipe out the
disgrace of it. Fight me! Letussettlemat-
ters here forever,”
Colonel Brashear stooped for a moment.
When he rose again, he held in his right,
hand a sword, not the broken blade which’
he had waved so proudly before his gallant
men, but one whose steel from hilt to point
was already bloody.
Te made a rapid pass in front of the
scout’s face as he advanced a stride.
“Fight me!” he shouted, with the voice of
ademon. “Carl Thatcher, ‘traitor to Ten-
nessec, and poltroon! stand before meif you‘
dare!’
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