It carried news, the news from America!
We started, all of us. I saw Colonel Sheraton half look up as he stood,
bent over the bed. Thus, stunned by horror as we were, we waited. It was
a long time, an interminable time, moments, minutes, it seemed to me,
until there must have been thrice time for the repetition of the signal,
if there was to be one.
There was no second sound. The signal was alone, single; ominous.
"Thank God! Thank God!" cried Colonel Sheraton; swinging his hands
aloft, tears rolling down his old gray cheeks. "_It is war_! Now we may
find forgetfulness!"
CHAPTER XLIII
THE RECKONING
So it was war. We drew apart into hostile camps. By midwinter South
Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, had
withdrawn from the Union. There arose two capitals, each claiming a
government, each planning war: Washington and Richmond.
As for me, I had seen the flag on our far frontiers, in wide, free
lands. It was a time when each must choose for himself. I knew with whom
my own lot must be cast. I pledged myself to follow the flag of the
frontier, wherever it might go.
During the winter I busied myself, and when the gun of Sumpter came on
that sad day of April, I was ready with a company of volunteers who had
known some months of drill, at least, and who had been good enough to
elect me for their captain.
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