Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862

Henry Morford

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• Publié par: fouc
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 31
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shoulder-Straps, by Henry Morford
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Title: Shoulder-Straps
A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862
Author: Henry Morford
Release Date: August 3, 2009 [EBook #29583]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHOULDER-STRAPS ***
Produced by David Edwards, Graeme Mackreth and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)SHOULDER-STRAPS
By
Henry Morford
T.B. PETERSON & BROS.
PHILADELPHIA.
SHOULDER-STRAPS.
A
NOVEL
OFNEW YORK AND THE ARMY,
1862.
By HENRY MORFORD.
PHILADELPHIA:
T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS,
306 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1863, by
T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
TO
DR. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE,
WHO
HAS ALREADY RECEIVED SO MANY DEDICATIONS,
THAT THEY HAVE BECOME
AN OLD, OLD STORY,—
THIS VOLUME IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
HIS GRATEFUL FRIEND AND CO-LABORER,THE AUTHOR.
New York City, July, 1863.
PREFACE.
Several months have necessarily elapsed since the commencement of this
narration. Within that time many and rapid changes have occurred, both in
national situation and in private character. As a consequence, there may be
several words, in earlier portions of the story, that would not have been written
a few months later. The writer has preferred not to make any changes in
original expression, but to set down, instead, in references, the dates at which
certain portions of the work were written. In one instance important assistance
has been derived from a writer of ability and much military experience; and that
assistance is thankfully acknowledged in a foot-note to one of the appropriate
chapters. Some readers may be disappointed not to find a work more
extensively military, under such a title and at this time; but the aim of the writer,
while giving glances at one or two of our most important battles, has been
chiefly to present a faithful picture of certain relations in life and society which
have grown out, as side-issues, from the great struggle. At another time and
under different circumstances, the writer might feel disposed to apologize for
the great liberty of episode and digression, taken with the story; but in the days
of Victor Hugo and Charles Reade, and at a time when the text of the preacher
in his pulpit, and the title of a bill in a legislative body, are alike made the
threads upon which to string the whole knowledge of the speaker upon every
subject,—such an apology can scarcely be necessary. It should be said, in
deference to a few retentive memories, that two chapters of this story, now
embraced in the body of the work, were originally written for and published in
the Continental Monthly, last fall, the publication of the whole work through that
medium, at first designed, being prevented by a change of management and a
contract mutually broken.
New York City, July, 1863.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Two Friends—Walter Lane Harding and Tom Leslie—Merchant and Journalist
—A Torn Dress and a Stalwart Champion—Tom Leslie's Story of Dexter
Ralston—Three Meetings—An Incident on the Potomac—The Inauguration of
Lincoln—A Warning of the Virginia Secession—Governmental Blindness—
Friend or Foe to the Union?
CHAPTER II.
Richard Crawford and Josephine Harris—The Invalid and the Wild Madonna—
An Odd Female Character and a Temptation—Discouragement and
Consolation—Miss Joe Harris on the Character of Colonel Egbert Crawford—A
Suggestion of Hatred and Murder—A New Agony for the Invalid—A Lady withan Attachment to Cerise Ribbon.
CHAPTER III.
A Scene at Judge Owen's—Mother and Daughter—Pretty Emily with One
Lover Too Many—Emily's Determination, and Judge Owen's Ultimatum—A
Pompous Judge playing Grand Signeur in his own Family—Aunt Martha to the
Rescue—Her Story of Marriage without Love, Wedded Misery and Outrage—
How Old is Colonel John Boadley Bancker, and what is the Character of Frank
Wallace?
CHAPTER IV.
Harding and Leslie make Discoveries on Prince Street—Secesh Flags and
Emblems of the Golden Circle—What do they mean?—Tom Leslie takes a
Climb and a Tumble—The Red Woman—A Carriage Chase Up-town—A
Mysterious House—Amateur Detectives under a Door-step, and what they saw
and heard.
CHAPTER V.
Who was the Red Woman?—Tom Leslie's Strange Story of Parisian Life and
Fortune-telling—The 20th of December, 1860—An Hour in the Rue la Reynie
Ogniard—The Vision of the White Mist—The Secession of South Carolina
seen across the Atlantic—Was the Sorceress in America?
CHAPTER VI.
Colonel Egbert Crawford and Miss Bell Crawford—Miss Harris entering upon
the Spy-System—Some Dissertations thereon, as practised in the Army and
Elsewhere—What McDowell knew before Bull Run—Colonel Crawford's
Affectionate Care of his Sick Cousin—Josephine Harris behind a Glass Door—
What she overheard about Cousin Mary and the Rich Uncle at West Falls—
Colonel Crawford trying his Hand at Doctoring—A Suspicious Bandage, and
what the Watcher thought of it
CHAPTER VII.
Introduction of the Contraband—What He Was and What He Is—Three Months
Earlier—Colonel Egbert Crawford in Thomas Street—Aunt Synchy, the Obi
Woman—How a Man who is only half evil can be tempted to murder—The
Black Paste of the Obi Poison
CHAPTER VIII.
Colonel John Boadley Bancker and Frank Wallace at Judge Owen's—A
Pouting Lover and a Satisfied Rival—The Philosophy of Male and Female
Jealousy—Frank Wallace doing the Insulting—A Bit of a Row—A Smash-up in
the Streets, and a True Test of Relative Courage
CHAPTER IX.
The First Week of July—News of the Reverses before Richmond—Painful
Feeling of the Whole Country—How a Nation weeps Tears of Blood—The
Estimation of McClellan—The Curse of Absenteeism—Public Abhorrence ofthe Shoulder-strapped Heroes on Broadway—A Scene at the World Corner,
and a Hero in Disguise
CHAPTER X.
Leslie and Harding following up the Prince-Street Mystery—A Call upon
Superintendent Kennedy—How Tom Leslie wished to play Detective—A Bit of
a Rebuff—A Massachusetts Regiment going to the War—Miss Joe Harris and
Bell Crawford in a Street Difficulty—A Rescue and a Recognition—A Trip into
Taylor's Saloon
CHAPTER XI.
The True Characters of Men and of Houses—Fifth Avenue and the Swamp—
Gilded Vice, and Vice without Ornament—The Progress of Temptation—The
Legends of the Lurline and the Frozen Hand—Dangers of Fashionable
Restaurants—Scenes at Taylor's Saloon—Tom Leslie, Joe Harris and Bell
Crawford at Lunch—The Fortune-teller selected by Miss Harris for a Visit—
Wanted, a Knight for Two Distressed Damsels—Tom Leslie enlists, and goes
after his Armor
CHAPTER XII.
A Glance at Fortune-telling and other Delusions—Our Domestic and Personal
Superstitions—Omens and their Origin—The Witch of Endor, Hamlet and
Macbeth—One Strange Illustration of Prophecy in Dreams—The Fortune-
tellers of New York, Boston and Washington
CHAPTER XIII.
Ten Minutes at a Costumer's—Among the Robes of Queens and the Rags of
Beggars—How Tom Leslie suddenly grew to Sixty, and changed Clothes
accordingly—Josephine Harris and Bell Crawford still at Lunch, with a
Dissertation upon One Pair of Eyes—An Unwarrantable Intrusion, and a
Decided Sensation at Taylor's
CHAPTER XIV.
Necromancy in a Thunder-storm—How Tom Leslie and his Female
Companions called upon Madame Elise Boutell, from Paris, in Prince Street—
A New Way of Gambling for Precedence—Bell Crawford takes her Turn—A
very improper Joining of Hands in the Outer Apartment—About Chances,
Accidents and Little Things—The Change in Bell Crawford's Eyes—Eyes that
have looked within—Two Pictures in the Old Dusseldorf Gallery—Joe Harris
Undergoing the Ordeal—A Thunder-clap and a Shriek of Terror—What Tom
Leslie saw in the Apartment of the Red Woman—A Mask removed, and one
more Temptation
CHAPTER XV.
Camp Lyon, and Colonel Egbert Crawford's Two Hundredth Regiment—
Recruiting Discipline in the Summer of 1862—What Smith and Brown saw—
Lager-beer, Cards and the Dice-box—An Adjutant who obeys Orders—A Dress
Parade a la mode—How Seven Hundred Men may be squeezed into ThreeCHAPTER XVI.
A Few Words on the Two Modern Modes of