A Dangerous Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon Read Free Book Online Page A

"General Lyon is our commanding officer. Even though it's hard to find a man who likes him, it's not for me to speak my mind about him."
    Mike looked away so Harley couldn't catch his grin. The turns Harley went through to avoid saying he disliked the man!
    But when Mike finally encountered the general, he didn't grin. Though the general wasn't exceptionally tall, his features were forbidding: deep-set eyes, a long narrow nose, and dark thick hair and beard.
    It wasn't only the general's appearance that was intimidating. As he strode back and forth in front of the temporary headquarters and expounded in an angry voice that hurt Mike's ears, Mike was glad he wouldn't have any direct dealings with the man.
    "I have requested over and over that I be sent more troops. At least half my strength of over seven thousand

    men are three-month volunteers whose time will soon be up."
    That wasn't news to Mike. He'd heard much the same from Harley, but he perked up when General Lyon said, "My spies inform me that Confederate generals Ben McCulloch and N. Bart Pearce are planning to bring their Arkansas troops to join General Sterling Price and his Missouri State Guard. That will mean the massing of at least eleven thousand Confederate officers and soldiers just below Springfield. If they attack us and we are unable to repel them, we will lose Missouri."
    Mike choked down the lump that rose in his throat. Lose Missouri? That couldn't be!
    Without waiting for a reply from his officers, Lyon continued, his voice becoming even more tense: "Our men have not been paid, and the condition of their uniforms is deplorable! They are badly off for clothing, and the want of shoes makes them unfit for marching."
    Mike well remembered the uniforms of cheap wool shoddy that a crooked clothing supplier had sent to Fort Leavenworth. What had gone wrong that the Union Army had not enough men and not enough proper supphes?
    Soon word spread among the soldiers that Union General Sigel's regiment had been beaten in a skirmish at Carthage. Mike wasn't the only soldier who was disheartened by the news of a Confederate win and felt eager to even the score by supporting General Sigel's troops. But Sigel had retreated to Springfield, and General Lyon decided to join him there. Major Sturgis's battalion set up camp at Pond Springs, a few miles west of Springfield, to wait for further orders.
    Ben sighed loudly. "More walkin'."
    "Take it like a man," Harley told him. "You don't hear the boys complainin', do you?" He winked at Mike, and Mike smiled at the praise.

    Then after all their struggles and uncertainty, good news came at last. Arriving in Pond Springs on July 13, the battalion learned of a Union victory on July 11 at the Battle of Rich Mountain in western Virginia.
    While cheers went up, Mike nearly burst with pride. Captain Taylor was in Virginia! He and his company had probably fought at Rich Mountain. And they had won!
    Soon, Mike was sure, he, too, would be involved in a Union victory. Those Confederates, swarming in great numbers up from Arkansas into southern Missouri, would turn tail and go running back!
    Although there were plenty of duties to keep Mike busy, he noticed that he wasn't the only one who was restless. Why should they have such a long wait? The Confederates were within a day's march, ready to strike.
    "If I were General Lyon, I wouldn't wait for those Rebs to take action. I'd strike first," Mike told Todd as they sat by a campfire one evening, both of them with paper and envelopes on their lap, ready to write again to their families.
    "The general has spies and scouts. He knows what's going on, which is more than you do," Todd snapped. Todd had never spoken that way to Mike, and his words cut like a bayonet.
    For an instant Todd looked stricken, too. "Sorry, Mike," he murmured. "It's hard to think about going into battle. Just between you and me, sometimes I wish we hadn't joined up."
    "Would you have wanted to sit out the war, safely