"Kincaid's Battery hell! You get those ladies out o' this as fast as them mules can skedaddle."
By and by ambulances and then open wagons began to jolt21 and tilt22 past them full of ragged23, grimy, bloody24 men wailing25 and groaning26, no one heeding27 the entreaties28 of the three ladies to be taken in as nurses. Near a cross-road before them they saw on a fair farmhouse29 the yellow flag, and a vehicle or two at its door, yet no load of wounded turned that way. Out of it, instead, excited men were hurrying, some lamely30, feebly, afoot, others at better speed on rude litters, but all rearward across the plowed31 land. Two women stepped out into a light trap and vanished behind a lane hedge before Constance could call the attention of her companions.
"Why, Nan, if we didn't know she was in New Orleans I'd stand the world down that that was Flora32!"
There was no time for debate. All at once, in plain sight, right at hand, along a mask of young willows33 in the near left angle of the two roads, from a double line of gray infantry whose sudden apparition34 had startled Anna and Miranda, rang a long volley. From a fringe of woods on the far opposite border the foe35's artillery pealed36, and while the Callenders' mules went into agonies of fright the Federal shells began to stream and scream across the space and to burst before and over the gray line lying flat in the furrows37 and darting38 back fire and death. With their quaking equipage hugging the farther side of the way the veiled ladies leaned out to see, but drew in as a six-mule wagon4 coming from the front at wild speed jounced and tottered39 by them. It had nearly passed when with just a touch of hubs it tossed them clear off the road, smashing one of their wheels for good and all. Some one sprang and held their terrified mules and they alighted on a roadside bank counting themselves already captured.
"Look out, everybody," cried a voice, "here come our own guns, six of 'em, like hell to split!" and in a moment the way was cleared.
A minute before this, down the cross-road, southward a quarter of a mile or so, barely out of sight behind fence-rows, the half of a battalion40 of artillery had halted in column, awaiting orders. With two or three lesser41 officers a general, galloping by it from behind, had drawn42 up on a slight rise at the southwest corner of the fire-swept field, taken one glance across it and said, "Hilary, can your ladies' men waltz into action in the face of those guns?"
"They can dance the figure, General."
"Take them in."
Bartleson, watching, had mounted drivers and cannoneers before Kincaid could spur near enough to call, "Column, forward!" and turn again toward the General and the uproar43 beyond. The column had barely stretched out when, looking back on it as he quickened pace, Hilary's cry was, "Battery, trot44, march!" So the six guns had come by the general: first Hilary, sword out, pistols in belt; then his adjutant; then bugler45 and guidon, and then Bartleson and the boys; horses striding out--ah, there were the Callenders' own span!--whips cracking, carriages thumping46 and rumbling47, guns powder-blackened and brown, their wheels, trails, and limbers chipped and bitten, and their own bronze pock-pitted by the flying iron and lead of other fights, and the heroes in saddle and on chests--with faces as war-worn as the wood and metal and brute48 life under them--cheering as they passed. Six clouds of dust in one was all the limping straggler had seen when he called his glad warning, for a tall hedge lined half the cross-road up which the whirlwind came; but a hundred yards or so short of the main way the whole battery, still shunning49 the field because of spongy ground, swept into full view at a furious gallop8. Yet only as a single mass was it observed, and despite all its thunder of wheels was seen only, not heard. Around the Callenders was a blindfold50 of dust and vehicles, of shouting and smoke, and out in the field the roar of musketry and howling and bursting of shell. Even Flora, in her ambulance close beyond both roads, watching for the return of a galloping messenger and seeing Hilary swing round into the highway, low bent51 over his charger at full run, knew him only as he vanished down it hidden by the tempest of hoofs52, wheels, and bronze that whirled after him.
At Anna's side among the rearing, trembling teams a mounted officer, a surgeon, Flora's messenger, was commanding and imploring53 her to follow Constance and Miranda into the wagon which had wrecked54 their conveyance55. And so, alas56! all but trampling57 her down, yet unseeing and unseen though with her in every leap of his heart, he who despite her own prayers was more to her than a country's cause or a city's deliverance flashed by, while in the dust and thunder of the human avalanche58 that followed she stood asking whose battery was this and with drowned voice crying, as she stared spell-bound, "Oh, God! is it only Bartleson's? Oh, God of mercy! where is Hilary Kincaid?" A storm of shell burst directly overhead. Men and beasts in the whirling battery, and men and beasts close about her wailed59, groaned60, fell. Anna was tossed into the wagon, the plunging61 guns, dragging their stricken horses, swept out across the field, the riot of teams, many with traces cut, whipped madly away, and still, thrown about furiously in the flying wagon, she gazed from her knees and mutely prayed, but saw no Hilary because while she looked for a rider his horse lay fallen.
Never again came there to that band of New Orleans boys such an hour of glory as this at Champion's Hill. For two years more, by the waning62 light of a doomed63 cause, they fought on, won fame and honor; but for blazing splendor--of daring, skill, fortitude64, loss and achievement which this purblind65 world still sees plainest in fraternal slaughter--that was the mightiest66 hour, the mightiest ten minutes, ever spent, from 'Sixty-one to 'Sixty-five, by Kincaid's Battery.
Right into the face of death's hurricane sprang the ladies' man, swept the ladies' men. "Battery, trot, walk. Forward into battery! Action front!" It was at that word that Kincaid's horse went down; but while the pieces trotted67 round and unlimbered and the Federal guns vomited68 their fire point-blank and blue skirmishers crackled and the gray line crackled back, and while lead and iron whined69 and whistled, and chips, sand and splinters flew, and a dozen boys dropped, the steady voice of Bartleson gave directions to each piece by number, for "solid shot," or "case" or "double canister." Only one great blast the foe's artillery got in while their opponents loaded, and then, with roar and smoke as if the earth had burst, Kincaid's Battery answered like the sweep of a scythe70. Ah, what a harvest! Instantly the guns were wrapped in their own white cloud, but, as at Shiloh, they were pointed71 again, again and again by the ruts of their recoil72, Kincaid and Bartleson each pointing one as its nine men dwindled73 to five and to four, and in ten minutes nothing more was to be done but let the gray line through with fixed74 bayonets while Charlie, using one of Hilary's worn-out quips, stood on Roaring Betsy's trunnion-plates and cursed out to the shattered foe, "Bricks, lime and sand always on hand!--,--,--!"
Yet this was but a small part of the day's fight, and Champion's Hill was a lost battle. Next day the carnage was on Baker's Creek75 and at Big Black Bridge, and on the next Vicksburg was invested.
点击收听单词发音
1 reins | |
感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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2 infantry | |
n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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3 ordnance | |
n.大炮,军械 | |
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4 wagon | |
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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5 wagons | |
n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 );铁路货车;小手推车 | |
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6 zigzags | |
n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7 galloping | |
adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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8 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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9 cavalry | |
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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10 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
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11 stifling | |
a.令人窒息的 | |
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12 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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13 puffing | |
v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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14 resound | |
v.回响 | |
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15 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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16 shuffling | |
adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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17 clattering | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式) | |
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18 peal | |
n.钟声;v.鸣响 | |
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19 hurrahing | |
v.好哇( hurrah的现在分词 ) | |
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20 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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21 jolt | |
v.(使)摇动,(使)震动,(使)颠簸 | |
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22 tilt | |
v.(使)倾侧;(使)倾斜;n.倾侧;倾斜 | |
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23 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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24 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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25 wailing | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的现在分词 );沱 | |
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26 groaning | |
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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27 heeding | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
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28 entreaties | |
n.恳求,乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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29 farmhouse | |
n.农场住宅(尤指主要住房) | |
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30 lamely | |
一瘸一拐地,不完全地 | |
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31 plowed | |
v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 );犁耕;费力穿过 | |
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32 flora | |
n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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33 willows | |
n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
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34 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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35 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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36 pealed | |
v.(使)(钟等)鸣响,(雷等)发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 furrows | |
n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 );(脸上的)皱纹v.犁田,开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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38 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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39 tottered | |
v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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40 battalion | |
n.营;部队;大队(的人) | |
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41 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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42 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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43 uproar | |
n.骚动,喧嚣,鼎沸 | |
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44 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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45 bugler | |
喇叭手; 号兵; 吹鼓手; 司号员 | |
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46 thumping | |
adj.重大的,巨大的;重击的;尺码大的;极好的adv.极端地;非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词);狠打;怦怦地跳;全力支持 | |
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47 rumbling | |
n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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48 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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49 shunning | |
v.避开,回避,避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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50 blindfold | |
vt.蒙住…的眼睛;adj.盲目的;adv.盲目地;n.蒙眼的绷带[布等]; 障眼物,蒙蔽人的事物 | |
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51 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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52 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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53 imploring | |
恳求的,哀求的 | |
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54 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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55 conveyance | |
n.(不动产等的)转让,让与;转让证书;传送;运送;表达;(正)运输工具 | |
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56 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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57 trampling | |
踩( trample的现在分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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58 avalanche | |
n.雪崩,大量涌来 | |
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59 wailed | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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61 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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62 waning | |
adj.(月亮)渐亏的,逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡 | |
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63 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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64 fortitude | |
n.坚忍不拔;刚毅 | |
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65 purblind | |
adj.半盲的;愚笨的 | |
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66 mightiest | |
adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 );巨大的;强有力的;浩瀚的 | |
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67 trotted | |
小跑,急走( trot的过去分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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68 vomited | |
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69 whined | |
v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 );哀诉,诉怨 | |
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70 scythe | |
n. 长柄的大镰刀,战车镰; v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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71 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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72 recoil | |
vi.退却,退缩,畏缩 | |
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73 dwindled | |
v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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75 creek | |
n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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