Show 14 11 P JIN haf I 1 r on A STORY OF THE ARMY als OV of THE POTOMAC by GEN CHARLES KING author all noan no an ho holt 1 t 1 vaugh vaugher tr tott rort bryn i ian te un ism by 0 W dillingham co 00 CHAPTER well well said the colonel they have been prompt you can get to acquiat acquia by noon cant you not it if lie goes back by way of old Sc Scoffer scoffers offers 8 remarked a field ofil officer eer thoughtfully fred dont you imagine the chief lef wants to smooth things a bit before you tell stanton all about it dont go bade back benton just let lum him sweat make him more dioro civil another time began an impe impetuous t boue comrade but stopped short at sight ot of the cloud in bensons dentons Den tons eyes the tha anxious lookin look in the colonels fine soldierly face it was the latter lattur who spoke poke again and without interruption lo 10 for r already he had won the falth faith 0 of f evan ven much martial iconoclasts as the black hats this means something more than it a mere difference terence dit due to ill temper said lie be you are wanted lor for a purpose benton it is about ladue do you think fred had already risen 1 I be surprised he answered thinking uncontrollably of 0 the words of his washington informant god help the man that baa tp bump up against stan yet ha rodo rode back to headquarters head arid and burely enough found ills ahlet ahle there chafing and Wf tats stanton want of jou you lie he blurted tat jf you you make a row about what I 1 said monday night did you we were all orn prof then af ft ti my pst colSIn T nai lt you bad to look me up and so ao got lost 1 I have certainly written to a friend at washington asking for other duty sir air gal said d denton firmly though his anger lad had vanished and given place to sadness and anxiety 1 I did not get lost however I 1 obeyed orders and under similar circumstances should do 10 lo so BO again ive told you I 1 understand the matter at the time or I 1 have said perhaps what I 1 did broke it youre going to start in ou on your army career with the idea that youre never going to got get hauled over the coals youve mistaken your profession sion scoffer knew he had been in the wrong lie he wanted to undo the wrong ile he simply know how and denton help him and so BO they parted enemies it if any thing and preceded by the story of old Sc offers vehement assertion en barged of course in transit that he had more friends in the south than in the army benton reported the following day at the war department and was shown into the presence of the angering secretary for a moment each studied the other and the menace in stanton St antona frown roused the spirit of fight in bentons bensons Ben tons not too pacific temperament what business has a man to look at me as aig though he thought I 1 ought to be hanged no matter if he is war secretary was the question uppermost in the Mad badgers gers mind ills his father the squire had once trounced a brother in law tor for less the bump of insubordination was rising even before the secre first question how came you so late sir or and the bump wap wa in his throat as flushing to the brows the badger answered was an hour outside sir air St antons veins seemed to swell to thrice their natural size and his strong face fringed by the iron gray beard turned almost purple you will be wise to keep yo your ur temper young sir air it if you wish to keep your comm commission assion you owe your escape from rebel hands I 1 am told to certain members of dr Chil chiltons tons family of charlottesville charlottes Char lottes alle no answer nt it Is so la Is it not one member only sir air ladue was was your intimate friend at home I 1 believe stanton was tapping tits tha desk with a long ruler an ominous sign said they who linew knew him he was sir air was waa it to square accounts with tho the cutone you sought to chiald mm him T 1 hide haven had bad to afield him in no way sr sir fla hafl had been brought here before I 1 coult see him again Stait stanza Vrn actually ismil smiled but the smile ova s grim os as any scowl ther it t was by helping yunk cliffton chitton WHO wal it and the professional cross ajner tapped more on the lable ubbe nud and his eyes fairly fadly blazed the lie spectacles lit bantou niton vas boiling over avor now 1 I nevet heard beard until an all hour ago that hat lie ho had bad got cot away sir vin im ig glad I 1 mars say said the secre tary with avith sarcastic force we heard as much of oc boti yoland and more then sudden as a leoel eel trap what did you do with the you received rece tved from haduo La duo tittle time allro tim 0 was no mistaking bensons bentons Ben tona tons start aa 0 minayo lo ito 10 was wag kneeling by poor vallis side aide in n the tha hospital tent when with treble nerveless hand the boy had lad a little packet to him and faintly whispered hla his re quest what tia you do with them demanded S Sf milton inton rod now tile the officered ofil offic cera erEt standing at the tha side ut out tho the room seemed to hold their breathe nothing as yet was the unlocked for or reply then you wit atall hava hair those papers papera and stanton seemed rising lising from his chair yes sir cad and bentum seemed seamed ready to spring to lo meet lilo with fight in every line of lite bla face here and stanton had dropped the ruler ond and gripped taft arm ot of his bib chair here and benton himl the touch if you dare look of a bulldog bull dog watching a bone you may deliver than to maj thorpe said stanton as though tho the matter were settled and tho the major accordingly but uncertainly advanced a step or two lie he bras wag fifty years of age anti and benton was barely halt hla his years epars but the older elder little liked the look of 0 the youngers youn gera eyes 1 I may not mr secretary lk and despite his bis wrath something almost like a smile of amusement played about the corners of Den dentone dentons tons firm sot set lips those letters concern only two people on earth ladue and my sister you yon may have my resignation this minute but not her letters CHAP CHAPTER cart CAPT DUNTON BENTON YOURE A A spy in camp was what the brigade said gaff when it heard tiie the story that ahat camo came front from washington and hopping mad was the brigade its fur had been rubbed the wrong way by the little flings of rivals prompted by the pitiable envy that seems seema inseparable from any profession whose t 74 1 WELCOME reward is mainly reputation it its sense of 0 subordination too had been tried by tales of sneering remarks made by gen tula or col that and it firmly believed that much of fred dentone bentons Ben Den tons present trouble was due to the fact that he ha stand hearing them abused belittled or maligned in greatly exaggerated form the rumor of ills his disagreements with ills his fellow staff officers and his row with old scoffer bad gone the round of tho the regiments to the end that fred was now looked aponas upon as a liero hero and a champion even by the bla black ck tints hats who rarely saw heroism in anybody who scouted the idea of needing a cham champion plon and who pronounced one general of the army of the potomac at least a consummate ass they were mad clear through when told he had declared benton disloyal dla loyal had more friends in the south than in the army only a few weeks previous they had been pulling denton benton to pieces among themselves because of his apparent neglect of them and preference for hla his new associates now they were all afire at the idea of any one abusing nat mm and there was wrath and wonder in camp when it was learned earned that by order of stanton him self fred benton was wag held in ili close arrest with the prospect said rumor of being sent to that so called bartilo of the tha war days fort lafayette oh a beautiful cise case was this worked up capt fred denton benton A D C it if the rumors from the rear could abul d bo be bell belle eyed and strange it was indeed that in the midst of all the wrath and despond in all ranks there should appear at the camps of the iron brigade shaking hands with brother officers and soldiers that very able talker and genial fellow citizen maj intaj and mao mac had lots to toll growlers prowlers and most moat roen men were prowlers growlers grow grosy lers that wo wd tul ful christmastide along the stafford heights who asked him why he with ith h ills a regiment were told that he was still oo on chirt martial duty ditty but court hod had adjourned over christinas ChrI Grow lera at first only growled when mckannon McI tInnon began to talk about benton and ladue but later thoy they moat men artea will ivill and when he ro returned turned three days later to life court at tile the capital and li made little report ti t i certain olinden ital officers tit at the department it must lie admitted that though hough lie tools took buck back with him tar fer less lesa of com compromising prom ang character voner ning denton than tie lie expected and hoped lie he leti left a lot behind liam aud and all this time thero there lay at the old capitol prison awaiting weeded needed evidence to prove him a spy a very luckless young soldier paul 1 ledue ad it e all tilts flits time there umed and eAta chafee chafed fed conti fied in arrest to the limits of 0 greble barracks and the adjoining square in which were tho the officers 1 quart ert capt fred kenton benton A D C well nigh fori for i bidden to be seen by anybody save service specimens detailed for the purpose all this there was vas a man mall that could have thrown light on oil the situation but most unaccountably had he disappeared jennings was again at large and tile the department declared it know knew not whither he hati had gone lie he had been released was the explanation well because it would appear that ho he had only done what humanity dieta dictated ted helped and nursed a halt half arow drowned nea halt half fever burned halt half then the squire camo came out from the west and that flint lusty patriot happened to be at odds with state officials over some regimental appointment thu tho great president was now confronted by now and direful problems burnside had demanded the dismissal of several of hla his generals oi 01 else alaa ills his own anew A new chief of the army had to be chosen at this flits crisis of its it history no wonder tho mighty captain could not anchor ills craft in the th rush of tile tho rapids and lower it a boat for the little boys apple no wonder he had no time to personally investigate the case of Ben bensons bentons tons beloved son eon the new neav housekeeper lie he said would quit without notice rather than submit to interference with borrowing suffering anxious ligart heart he lot burnside Burnsl de go and set burnsides Burnsl dea fiercest critic himself to lose losa ills hla head a few weeks later in Durn burnsides sIdes place and then the great loyal triple tried army went in again with overwhelming numbers to round up that thin gray line along tile the southward heights again the fords were wera rib boned with the pole pale blue columns as aa a dozen great divisions circled the con confederate confider feder ate left again did jackson fare dare to drop everything at the front swing clear round the outermost line and come crushing in on an astonished and bewildered hank flank never say the confederates and lod cod knows they know did the yanks fight harder than at chancellors ville valle that is those who fought at all for or only a fourth of their entire arro got a change chance but again back to the fjords cards was the order and cursing their luck a and nd praying tor for a fair fight and no favor back the ilia tot bourth irth time went the army then came the summer tho the race tor for tile the Poto rune and tit tho rush at last to the high water marl marh i ot rebellion on the aharen a of 0 th tha SUB sua y M dut but meantime afeie here lad been S fcc in or i two at washington never in men en tinned in the chronicles of the day and in the of 0 alarms and anddie dis diw aa had never anoa knoch before such matters as the public of an army officer almost in front of the white house would be scare headed fron from maine Manilla to today to day but the papers had no for or it then squire ilen up n ton had touched up mckinnons ney navy uniform to the tha tune of 30 lashes before the police could step in and spoil the sport and only in a local journal and one or two lit in the far west was the affair referred to paul ladue convalescent had been twice subjected to rigid questioning hope of establishing the guilty connivance in his escape of a certain baltimore household as well as a certain union ofil and with wi th the result of establishing nothing beyond the fact that even in his weakness he had bad more strength and sand than the prosecution tion then he was waa tendered release on parole for long investigation had tailed failed to unearth a thing to warrant detention as a spy A romantic turn in the tide of affairs had come when a certain senator called on the secretary anti and offered to show that the incriminating papers which benton had refused to surrender and which miss benton now would be willing to show allow if necessary to save the prisoners life wore were personal letters lettera and nothing more stanton knew this probably as well as the bellat senator or but was waa wroth that any one else should dinow 6 w it and furious that an officer should dare refuse to surrender them no matter what or whose chos e they were then ladues baltimore friends had sent word across the line that ladue ladua was to be tried as aa a spy and hanged whether convicted or not and an alabama brigade declared in reply that they would hang bang the first liati benant they caught it if a hair of pauls head were injured one thing it was said that had made stanton so forceful a prosecutor in the past was the ease case with which he could always persuade himself ot n i prisoners guilt the jury following as the night the day something had to be done he had said to stop this wholesale transmission of state aj and d military secrets to the enemy and a victim was demanded ile he had aured this confederate officer caught in civilian dress in old capitol prison and if he be a spy then he must have neglected his opportunities and deserved to be hanged what made stanton so hot against ladue was that so many women clergymen church people and others took to floading for the lad then it was that Alc mckinnon Kinnon I 1 begas bega to find favor at the war de apartment part ment then it was that capt Den dentone dentons tons limits were restricted instead of being enlarged then it was tl ut t I 1 surl awona Mons at tile tho old cap dp attil hospital were replaced by nimi nian ol of I 1 sterner stuff then it was that tile tho cheltona were notified that they must imd washington forthwith an ami tile tho squire bur bursting ting wit elili wrath tit it belua forbidden forb iddon to see the lie doctor and ills his da tighter had find hal brief with fred now fretting ilia hta fie hert rt out at the hargrav hiir raps s had teamed learned through 01 on all of rank ill n tho the regular service that hat beyond possibility ot of doubt maj AICH mckannon wua wits at the tha bottom of 0 all these now new and most moat alyo orders had gone cone to the whito witt I 1 u dl demand land to see the preal dent had ben been prom laed an upp tuu ity immediately after cabinet meeting that afternoon attorn oon hod had met inet sauntering down the avenue in coin pany with a fellow soldier lawyer and had hurled himself upon him then and there to tile the end that the major was waa picked up ill anti and carried to willards willarda tho the squire escorted to tile the police station and the interview conic come ott off it Is recorded of 0 the president that thai when told old of tile ho incident that hat even evening ing ilia his sad face brightened for the first |