Chapter II: Preface

“Defending His Flag” relates the adventures of two boys, or rather young men, during the first campaign of our great Civil War. At the call to arms, one enlists in the infantry of the North while the other throws in his fortunes with the cavalry of the South. Personally the two are warm friends, yet they become bitter foes on the battlefield. One marches to Washington, to defend the Capitol, and the other rides to Manassas, where the Confederates were gathering. Both fight at the bloody battle of Bull Run, and then take part in that stirring Campaign of the Peninsula and before Richmond.

In writing this work I have had but one object in view, and that was to give a faithful picture of a part of the Civil War as seen from both sides of that never-to-be-forgotten conflict. During the war, and for years afterward, grown folk and young people were treated to innumerable books on the conflict, all written either from the Northern or the Southern point of view, thoroughly biased, and calculated to do more harm than good. In some of these bits of ill-advised literature the enemy never gained a victory, the other side simply “falling back to a better point from which to make another attack.”

I think the time has come when the truth, and the whole truth at that, can be told, and when it will do positive good. Since the Spanish-American War, when some of the gallant Southern officers and men made such records for themselves under Old Glory, the old lines have been practically wiped out. The reconstructed South is as firm a part of our Nation as was the old South during the first half of the last century, and it has a perfect right to honor the memories of those who, while wearing the gray and marching under the stars and bars, fought so gallantly for what they considered was right and true.

This story ran as a serial under the title, “In Defence of His Flag,” in that popular monthly, _The American Boy_. As a serial it created a demand for its publication in book form, hence the present volume. The story has been somewhat revised but not materially altered. The purely historical portions are based on the United States records and the records of the Confederacy.

Once again I thank the thousands and thousands of boys, not only in this country but also in other lands, who take so much interest in what I have written for them. May the present volume please you in every way and do you good.

EDWARD STRATEMEYER.

_May 15, 1907._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. SIGNS OF WAR 1

II. IN A HOSTILE NEIGHBORHOOD 16

III. A DISCOVERY AND A SURPRISE 29

IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE UPRISING 42

V. OFF FOR WASHINGTON 57

VI. THE VOLUNTEERS AT THE CAPITOL 69

VII. ANDY OFF FOR MANASSAS 85

VIII. ANDY ON THE BREASTWORKS 97

IX. THE ADVANCE TO BULL RUN 110

X. A MEETING AND A RETREAT 125

XI. LOUIS’S PERILOUS ESCAPE 141

XII. ANDY IS TAKEN PRISONER 153

XIII. THE STORY OF A STOLEN HORSE 164

XIV. A CHASE AND A CAPTURE 176

XV. OFF FOR THE PENINSULA 189

XVI. THE LANDING--ON TO YORKTOWN 202

XVII. THE CAPTURE OF A SPY 215

XVIII. ACROSS THE POTOMAC ONCE MORE 228

XIX. ANDY GOES TO YORKTOWN 244

XX. THE EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN 261

XXI. AT THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG 277

XXII. IN CAMP AT WHITE HOUSE 289

XXIII. THE LIVING WALL AT FAIR OAKS 303

XXIV. WHEN RICHMOND WAS BESIEGED 319

XXV. ANDY AND THE UNION PICKETS 332

XXVI. AN ADVENTURE IN THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL 345

XXVII. LOUIS AS A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER 357

XXVIII. LOUIS AND ANDY MEET AGAIN 373

XXIX. LOUIS VISITS GENERAL MCCLELLAN 383

XXX. ADVENTURES DURING THE SEVEN DAYS’ BATTLES 396

XXXI. BETWEEN THE LINES 407

XXXII. MALVERN HILL--CONCLUSION 418

ILLUSTRATIONS

THEN HE SAW LOUIS CATCH HOLD OF THE BAYONET AND
THRUST IT ASIDE (_Page 133_) _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

“STAND WHERE YOU ARE OR I WILL FIRE AT YOU!” SAID ANDY 94

LOUIS GAZED AT THE FACE, WONDERING IF HE HAD NOT
SEEN THE MAN BEFORE 222

THE MARCH TO THIS PRISON WAS ONE LOUIS NEVER FORGOT 324

AWAY ANDY TROTTED AT A BRISK PACE 340

“KEEP ON AS YOU HAVE STARTED, AND WHO KNOWS BUT THAT YOU
WILL ONE DAY BE WEARING A GENERAL’S SHOULDER-STRAPS?” 386

THEN ON SWEPT THE UNION LINE, YELLING WITH A VOICE
THAT IS NEVER HEARD ANYWHERE BUT ON THE BATTLEFIELD 400

“I’LL DIE WITH HIM BEFORE I’LL DO IT!” 426

DEFENDING HIS FLAG