The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Echo Of Antietam, by Edward Bellamy

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Title: An Echo Of Antietam
1898

Author: Edward Bellamy

Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22702]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

AN ECHO OF ANTIETAM

By Edward Bellamy

1898

I

The air was tremulous with farewells. The regiment, recruited within
sight of the steeples of Waterville, and for three months in camp just
outside the city, was to march the next morning. A series of great
battles had weakened the Federal armies, and the authorities at
Washington had ordered all available men to the front.

The camp was to be broken up at an early hour, after which the regiment
would march through the city to the depot to take the cars. The streets
along the route of the march were already being decorated with flags and
garlands. The city that afternoon was full of soldiers enjoying their
last leave of absence. The liquor shops were crowded with parties of
them drinking with their friends, while others in threes and fours, with
locked arms, paraded the streets singing patriotic songs, sometimes in
rather maudlin voices, for to-day in every saloon a soldier might enter,
citizens vied for the privilege of treating him to the best in the
house. No man in a blue coat was suffered to pay for anything.

For the most part, however, the men were sober enough over their
leave-taking. One saw everywhere soldiers and civilians, strolling in
pairs, absorbed in earnest talk. They are brothers, maybe, who have
come away from the house to be alone with each other, while they talk of
family affairs and exchange last charges and promises as to what is to
be done if anything happens. Or perhaps they are business partners, and
the one who has put the country's business before his own is giving his
last counsels as to how the store or the shop shall be managed in his
absence. Many of the blue-clad men have women with them, and these are
the couples that the people oftenest turn to look at. The girl who has
a soldier lover is the envy of her companions to-day as she w