ONCE there stood a lone1 blackjack tree, taller than its companions and larger than any near it. From this tree the town of Lone Jack2, in the eastern portion of Jackson County, was named. On the afternoon of the 13th of August clouds were seen gathering3 there. These clouds were cavalrymen. Succoring5 recruits in every manner possible, and helping6 them on to rendezvous7 by roads, or lanes, or water courses, horsemen acquainted with the country kept riding continuously up and down. A company of these on the evening of the 15th were in the village of Lone Jack.
Major Emory L. Foster, doing active scouting8 duty in the region round about Lexington, had his headquarters in the town. The capture of Independence had been like a blow upon the cheek; he would avenge9 it. He knew how to fight. There was dash about him; he had enterprise. Prairie life had enlarged his vision and he did not see the war like a martinet10; he felt within him the glow of generous ambition; he loved his uniform for the honor it had; he would see about that Independence business—about that Quantrell living there between the two Blues11 and raiding the West—about those gray recruiting folks riding up from the South—about the tales of ambuscades that were told eternally of Jackson County, and of all the toils12 spread for the unwary Jayhawkers. He had heard, too, of the85 company which halted a moment in Lone Jack as it passed through, and of course it was Quantrell.
COLE YOUNGER GOING TO INDEPENDENCE
It was six o’clock when the Confederates were there, and eight o’clock when the Federal colonel, Colonel Foster, marched in, leading nine hundred and eighty-five cavalrymen, with two pieces of Rabb’s Indiana battery—a battery much celebrated13 for tenacious14 gunners and accurate firing. Cockrell, who was in command, knew Foster well; the other Confederates knew nothing of him. He was there, however, and that was positive proof enough that he wanted to fight. Seven hundred Confederates—armed with shotguns, horse pistols, squirrel rifles, regulation guns, and what not—attacked nine hundred and eighty-five Federal cavalrymen in a town for a position, and armed with Spencer rifles and Colt’s revolvers, dragoon size. There was also the artillery15. Lone Jack sat quietly in the green of emerald prairie, its orchards16 in fruit and its harvests goodly. On the west was timber, and in this timber a stream ran musically along. To the east the prairies stretched, their glass waves crested18 with sunshine. On the north there were groves19 in which birds abounded20. In some even the murmuring of doves was heard, and an infinite tremor21 ran over all the leaves as the wind stirred the languid pulse of summer into fervor22.
In the center of the town a large hotel made a strong fortification. The house from being a tavern,87 had come to be a redoubt. From the top the Stars and Stripes floated proudly—a tricolor that had upon it then more of sunshine than of blood. Later the three colors had become as four.
On the verge23 of the prairie nearest the town a hedge row stood as a line of infantry24 dressed for battle. It was plumed25 on the sides with tawny26 grass. The morning broke upon it and upon armed men crouching27 there, with a strange barred banner and with guns at trail. Here they waited, eager for the signal.
Joining Hays on the left was Cockrell and the detachments of Hays, Rathburn and Bohannon. Their arms were as varied28 as their uniforms. It was a duel29 they were going into and each man had the gun he could best handle. From the hedgerow, from the green growing corn, from the orchards and the groves, soldiers could not see much save the flag flying skyward on the redoubt on the Cave House.
At five o’clock a solitary30 gunshot aroused camp and garrison31, and all the soldiers stood face to face with imminent32 death. No one knew thereafter how the fight commenced. It was Missourian against Missourian—neighbor against neighbor—the rival flags waved over each and the killing33 went on. This battle had about it a strange fascination34. The combatants were not numerous, yet they fought as men seldom fight in detached bodies. The same fury extended to an army would have ended in annihilation. A tree88 was a fortification. A hillock was an ambush35. The cornfields, from being green, became lurid36. Dead men were in the groves. The cries of the wounded came in from the apple orchards. All the houses in the town were garrisoned37. It was daylight upon the prairies, yet there were lights in the windows—the light of musket38 flashes.
There is not much to say about the fight in the way of description. The Federals were in Lone Jack; the Confederates had to get them out. House fighting and street fighting are always desperate. The hotel became a hospital, later a holocaust39, and over all rose and shone a blessed sun while the airy fingers of the breeze ruffled40 the oak leaves and tuned41 the swaying branches to the sound of a psalm42.
The graycoats crept nearer. On east, west, north or south. Hays, Cockrell, Tracy, Jackman, Rathburn or Hunter gained ground. Farmer lads in their first battle began gawkies and ended grenadiers. Old plug hats rose and fell as the red fight ebbed43 and flowed; the shotgun’s heavy boom made clearer still the rifle’s sharp crack. An hour passed, the struggle had lasted since daylight.
Foster fought his men splendidly. Wounded once, he did not make complaint; wounded again, he kept his place; wounded a third time he stood with his men until courage and endurance only prolonged a sacrifice. Once Haller, commanding thirty of Quantrell’s89 old men, swept up to the guns and over them, the play of their revolvers being as the play of the lightning in a summer cloud. He could not hold them, brave as he was. Then Jackman rushed at them again and bore them backward twenty paces or more. Counter-charged, they hammered his grip loose and drove him down the hill. Then Hays and Hunter—with the old plug hats and wheezy rifles—finished the throttling44; the lions were done roaring.
Tracy had been wounded. Hunter wounded. Hays wounded, Captains Bryant and Bradley killed, among the Confederates, together with thirty-six others and one hundred and thirty-four wounded. Among the Federals, Foster, the commander, was nigh unto death; his brother, Captain Foster, mortally shot, died afterwards. One hundred and thirty-six dead lay about the streets and houses of the town, and five hundred and fifty wounded made up the aggregate45 of a fight, numbers considered, as desperate and bloody46 as any that ever crimsoned47 the annals of a civil war. A few more than two hundred breaking through the Confederate lines on the south, where they were weakest, rushed furiously into Lexington, Haller in pursuit as some beast of prey48, leaping upon everything which attempted to make a stand between Lone Jack and Wellington. Captain Trow, who was in this battle, narrates49 that at one time during the battle, “I was forced to lie down and roll across the street to save my scalp.”
90 A mighty50 blow seemed impending51. Commanders turned pale, and lest this head or that head felt the trip-hammer, all the heads kept wagging and dodging52. Burris got out of Cass County; Jennison hurried into Kansas; the Guerrillas kept a sort of open house; and the recruits—drove after drove and mostly unarmed—hastened southward. Then the Federal wave, which had at first receded53 beyond all former boundaries, flowed back again and inundated54 Western Missouri. Quantrell’s nominal55 battalion56, yielding to the exodus57, left him only the old guard as a rallying point. It was necessary again to reorganize.
After the Guerrillas had reorganized they stripped themselves for steady fighting. Federal troops were everywhere, infantry at the posts, cavalry4 on the war paths. The somber58 defiance59 mingled60 with despair did not come until 1864; in 1862 the Guerrillas laughed as they fought. And they fought by streams and bridges, where roads crossed and forked and where trees or hollows were. They fought from houses and hay stacks; on foot and on horseback; at night when the weird61 laughter of owls62 could be heard in the thickets63; in daylight, when the birds sang as they found sweet rest. The black flag was being woven, but it had not yet been unfurled.
Breaking suddenly out of Jackson County, Quantrell raided Shawneetown, Kansas, and captured its garrison of fifty militia64. Then at Olathe, Kansas, the91 next day, the right hand did what the left one finished so well at Shawneetown; seventy-five Federals surrendered there. Each garrison was patrolled and set free save seven from Shawneetown; these were Jennison’s Jayhawkers and they had to die. A military execution is where one man kills another; it is horrible. In battle, one does not see death. He is there, surely—he is in that battery’s smoke, on the crest17 of that hill fringed with the fringe of pallid65 faces, under the hoofs66 of the horses, yonder where the blue or the gray line creeps onward67 trailing ominous68 guns—but his cold, calm eyes look at no single victim.
The seven men rode into Missouri from Shawneetown puzzled; when the heavy timber along the Big Blue was reached and a halt made, they were praying. Quantrell sat upon his horse looking at the Kansans. His voice was unmoved, his countenance69 perfectly70 indifferent as he ordered: “Bring ropes; four on one tree, three on another.” All of a sudden death stood in the midst of them, and was recognized. One poor fellow gave a cry as piercing as the neighing of a frightened horse. Two trembled, and trembling is the first step towards kneeling. They had not talked any save among themselves up to this time, but when they saw Blunt busy with some ropes, one spoke71 up to Quantrell: “Captain, just a word: the pistol before the rope; a soldier’s before a dog’s death. As for me, I’m92 ready.” Of all the seven this was the youngest—how brave he was.
The prisoners were arranged in line, the Guerrillas opposite to them. They had confessed to belonging to Jennison, but denied the charge of killing and burning. Quantrell hesitated a moment. His blue eyes searched each face from left to right and back again, and then he ordered: “Take six men, Blunt, and do the work. Shoot the young man and hang the balance.”
The oldest man there, some white hair was in his beard, prayed audibly. Some embraced. Silence and twilight72, as twin ghosts, crept up the river bank together. Blunt made haste, and before Quantrell had ridden far he heard a pistol shot. He did not even look up; it affected73 him no more than the tapping of a woodpecker. At daylight the next morning a wood-chopper going early to work saw six stark74 figures swaying in the river breeze. At the foot of another tree was a dead man and in his forehead a bullet hole—the old mark.
QUANTRELL HANGS SIX MEN ON THE SNI
“After Quantrell hanged these men, the only time I was ever scared during the war,” relates Captain Trow, “I had left camp one night to visit a lady friend of mine, and a company of Federals got after me, and in the chase I took to the woods and it was at the place where Quantrell had hanged these men. My saddle93 girth broke right there, but I held on to my horse. I thought the devil and all his angels were after me, but I made it to the camp.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
lone
|
|
| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
jack
|
|
| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
succoring
|
|
| v.给予帮助( succor的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
rendezvous
|
|
| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
scouting
|
|
| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
avenge
|
|
| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
martinet
|
|
| n.要求严格服从纪律的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
blues
|
|
| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
toils
|
|
| 网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
tenacious
|
|
| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
orchards
|
|
| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
crest
|
|
| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
crested
|
|
| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
groves
|
|
| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
abounded
|
|
| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
tremor
|
|
| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
fervor
|
|
| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
verge
|
|
| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
infantry
|
|
| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
plumed
|
|
| 饰有羽毛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
tawny
|
|
| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
duel
|
|
| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
garrison
|
|
| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
imminent
|
|
| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
fascination
|
|
| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
ambush
|
|
| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
lurid
|
|
| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
garrisoned
|
|
| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
musket
|
|
| n.滑膛枪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
holocaust
|
|
| n.大破坏；大屠杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
ruffled
|
|
| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
tuned
|
|
| adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
psalm
|
|
| n.赞美诗，圣诗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
ebbed
|
|
| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
throttling
|
|
| v.扼杀( throttle的现在分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
aggregate
|
|
| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
bloody
|
|
| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
crimsoned
|
|
| 变为深红色（crimson的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
narrates
|
|
| v.故事( narrate的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
dodging
|
|
| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
receded
|
|
| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
inundated
|
|
| v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
nominal
|
|
| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
battalion
|
|
| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
exodus
|
|
| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
somber
|
|
| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
weird
|
|
| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
owls
|
|
| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
thickets
|
|
| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
militia
|
|
| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
pallid
|
|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
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 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
onward
|
|
| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
ominous
|
|
| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
stark
|
|
| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |