



Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed
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By Homer Greene


  A LINCOLN CONSCRIPT. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50.

  COAL AND THE COAL MINES. In Riverside Library for Young People.
    Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.


HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

Boston and New York




                          A LINCOLN CONSCRIPT




[Illustration: “MY BOY, OF SUCH STUFF ARE PATRIOTS AND HEROES MADE.”]




                               A LINCOLN
                               CONSCRIPT

                            BY HOMER GREENE

                    ILLUSTRATED BY T. DE THULSTRUP


                            [Illustration]


                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
                       BOSTON AND NEW YORK : THE
                      RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE
                                 1909




                   COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY HOMER GREENE

                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


                        _Published April 1909_




CONTENTS


    I. “THE SINS OF THE FATHERS”      1
   II. NEWS FROM GETTYSBURG          27
  III. A LOVER OF LINCOLN            52
   IV. THE DRAFTED COPPERHEAD        77
    V. AN UNEXPECTED BREAKFAST      100
   VI. A DESPERATE DECISION         122
  VII. OFF TO THE WAR               143
 VIII. A LETTER FROM THE FRONT      166
   IX. WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN         191
    X. FIGHTING FOR THE FLAG        215
   XI. THE GREAT TRAGEDY            238
  XII. THE WELCOME HOME             260




ILLUSTRATIONS


 “_My boy, of such stuff are patriots and heroes made_”
                                    (_page 244_)    Frontispiece

 “_I’m no traitor_”                                           12

 “_This isn’t fair play_”                                     54

 “_I’ve discovered a way to get rid of these men_”           108

 “_Well, what’s your case?_”                                 154

 _Lincoln laid his hand on Bannister’s knee_                 202

 “_Father, what does it mean?_”                              218

 _He faced his fellow townsmen_                              274




A LINCOLN CONSCRIPT




CHAPTER I

“THE SINS OF THE FATHERS”


On the second day of July in the year 1863 the Civil War in America
was at its height. Late in the preceding month Lee had turned his
face northward, and, with an army of a hundred thousand Confederate
soldiers at his back, had marched up into Pennsylvania. There was
little to hinder his advance. Refraining, by reason of strict orders,
from wanton destruction of property, his soldiers nevertheless lived on
the rich country through which they passed. York and Carlisle were in
their grasp. Harrisburg was but a day’s march away, and now, on this
second day of July, flushed with fresh victories, they had turned and
were giving desperate battle, through the streets and on the hills of
Gettysburg, to the Union armies that had followed them.

The old commonwealth was stirred as she had not been stirred before
since the fall of Sumter. Every town and village in the state
responded quickly to the governor’s call for emergency troops to
defend the capital city. Mount Hermon, already depleted by generous
early enlistments, and by the draft of 1862, gathered together the
bulk of the able-bodied men left in the village and its surroundings,
and sent them forth in defense of the commonwealth. Not that Mount
Hermon was in especial danger from Lee’s invasion, far from it. Up
in the northeastern corner of the state, on a plateau of one of the
low foot-hills of the Moosic range, sheltered by the mountains at its
back, it was well protected, both by reason of distance and location,
from the advancing foe. But Mount Hermon was intensely patriotic. In
the days preceding the Revolution the sturdy pioneers from Connecticut
had met the equally sturdy settlers from the domain of Penn, and on
this plateau they had fought out their contentions and settled their
differences; the son of the Pennamite had married the daughter of the
Yankee; and the new race, with love of country tingeing every drop
of its blood a deeper red, had stayed on and possessed the land. So,
on this July day, when the armies of North and South were striving
and struggling with each other in bloody combat back and forth across
the plain and up the hills of Gettysburg, Mount Hermon’s heart beat
fast. But it was not for themselves that these people were anxious. It
was for the fathers, husbands, sons, lovers in that army with which
Meade, untried and unproven, was endeavoring to match the strategy and
strength of Lee. News of the first day’s skirmishing had reached the
village, and it was felt that a great battle was imminent. In the early
evening, while the women were still busy at their household tasks,
the men gathered at the post-office and the stores, eager for late
news, anxious to discuss the situation as they had learned it. In the
meantime the boys of the town had congregated on the village green to
resume the military drills which, with more or less frequency, they
had carried on during the summer. These drills were not wholly without
serious intent. It was play, indeed; but, out of the ranks of these
boys, three of the older ones had already gone to the front to fight
real battles; and it was felt, by the men of the town, that the boys
could not be too thoroughly imbued with the military spirit. So, on
this July evening, wakened into new ardor by the news from Gettysburg,
they had gathered to resume their nightly work--and play.

There were thirty-three of them, ranging in years all the way from
eight to eighteen. They were eager and enthusiastic. And the light
of the low sun, shining red