Gallant Boys of Gettysburg Read Online Free PDF Page B

left the next day with their supply wagons filled.
    Not all Pennsylvania towns were as receptive to the invasion as York, however. In Harrisburg everything was bedlam. The railroad station was crowded with trunks, boxes, bundles, and packages. Mobs rushed here and there in a frantic manner, shouting, screaming as if the Rebels were about to dash into town and lay it in ashes. The railroads were removing their cars and engines. The merchants were packing up their goods. Housewives were secreting their silver, and everywhere there was a scene of mad excitement and despair.
    At noon the following day, Jeff and his company were marching along the dusty road through a little town called Greencastle. There was almost a holiday air about the march. Soldiers shouted at one another and sang marching songs, and as they passed through the small town the band played “Dixie.”
    They were just going by a vine-covered house when a young girl no more than twelve rushed out onto the front porch. She was waving, Jeff saw, a United States flag. He was almost even with the house when she cried out, “Traitors! Traitors! Come and take this flag, the man of you who dares!”
    Gen. George Pickett happened to be riding past at the time. He pulled his coal black stallion to a halt and took off his hat. He bowed to the girl and saluted her flag, then turned to look at the troops. Jeff and every other man in sight of the girl raised his cap and cheered her till the air rang with the noise of their voices.
    The girl was taken aback. She lowered her flag and stared at the ragged soldiers in front of her. Finally, tears came into her eyes, and she called out, “Oh, I wish I had a Rebel flag. I’d wave that too!”
    The unit marched all day, and that night Jeff’s squad feasted. General Lee had put out an order that no food was to be stolen or taken by force from the citizens, but somehow Pete Simmons had managed to “liberate” a young pig. He brought it back, and, despite a stern lecture from Sergeant Henry Mapes, the pig had been butchered, and soon the air was filled with the delicious smell of fresh pork cooking. Other soldiers had purchased fresh buttermilk from some local farmers and freshly baked bread from one of the bakeries in the small town.
    The squad sat around eating, and afterward Jeff leaned back and listened to a group of soldiers singing down the line. They sang a familiar ballad called “Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground.” It was one of the most popular songs on both sides. Its appeal was so strong that officers had to restrain their men from singing it at night because theywould give away their positions on the field. Sleepy and tired, Jeff listened to the words floating over the landscape.
    After the voices of the singers died down, Tom began to talk of what lay ahead. “Sooner or later we’re gonna run into more blue-bellies than any of us ever saw,” he said quietly. He seemed moody, poking the fire with a stick, and Jeff knew he was thinking of Sarah Carter.
    Pete Simmons had no worries, however. He laughed and slapped Tom on the shoulder. “You just wait, Tom,” he said. “We’ll give ’em fits this time.”
    Jed Hawkins, small, lean, and with his sharp features looking more like a fox than anything else, shook his head. “Some of us won’t be coming back from this trip,” he murmured.
    “That’s right. Don’t do no harm to think of that,” Charlie said. He was the smallest of the group—and perhaps the most fervent Christian. He had been converted in a camp meeting, led to the Lord by no less than Gen. Stonewall Jackson. He looked around and said, “Hope all you fellers are ready to meet the Lord.”
    Most of the men in the squad were Christians, but Pete Simmons kicked at the ground in disgust, raising a puff of dust. “I don’t want to hear no sermons,” he said grumpily. “I hear enough out of that chaplain that keeps nagging at me.”
    Chaplain Finias Rawlings was indeed a man to keep after