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

back at the fort with your little sisters?"
    "N-no," Todd said slowly.
    "There, you see?" Mike countered. "Our Union forces will soon lick the Rebs, the war will be over, and we'll return home with a row of medals across our chests."
    Todd had to smile. "All right, Mike. If you say so." He licked the end of his pencil and began to write.

    Mike leaned over Todd's shoulder. "That's the second letter to your ma this week."
    Todd grinned. 'There's not much else to do but write letters or play cards, is there? And Ma'd have a fit if I so much as picked up a deck of cards."
    Mike set to his own letter-writing, bragging to Danny about the upcoming battle and the way they were going to defeat those Rebs.
    On Saturday evening, July 20, the one-armed, tough, and courageous Union General Sweeny commanded twelve hundred men who had been assembled in a mix of infantry, cavalry, and artillery to break up a camp of secessionists at the small southern Missouri town of Forsyth. Mike was among the assembled men; Todd was among those who stayed behind.
    Among the soldiers, Mike sloshed along roads that rain had turned into beds of mud. His forage cap, protected by an oilskin cover, remained dry, but the rest of his clothes were soaked by the rain. This is it, he thought. This is what Fve been waiting for. Close to Captain Dawes's side, ready to send any order through his drum calls, Mike envisioned himself helping to guide the men through the fight.
    It took two days to cover the forty-five miles of hilly, rugged countryside between Springfield and Forsyth, and the rain changed to a hot dry sun that seemed to beckon every biting, flying bug in the county. The stink of drying wool and sweating bodies overpowered the cleaner fragrances of wet earth and washed meadow grasses.
    Riders on horseback brought the conunand to a halt. Word swept down the line faster than a grass fire. A handful of Rebs had challenged General Sweeny's mounted advance guard, but the guard had captured two of them instead.
    General Sweeny directed Captain Stanley of the cavalry to take his two companies and the mounted Kansans and surround the town. The artillery and infantry were to follow.

    To Mike's disappointment, the battle was over before the Second Kansas Infantry arrived, and on July 24 he found himself back in Springfield. "Wasn't much to it," he complained to Todd. "There were only a hundred and fifty state guards, headquartered in the courthouse. They fired on the mounted troopers as they rode into town, but when the troopers fired back, the Rebs fled into the hills, hiding in the trees and underbrush. The artillery flushed them out of those woods like a covey of quail."
    Todd looked hopeful. "Maybe the rest of the Rebs will run off, too."
    "Sure," Mike said, puffing out his chest and looking wise. "All we have to do is throw a scare into them."
    "I wish it had been like that at Bull Run," Todd said, and Mike saw the worry in Todd's eyes and a drawn, frightened look on his face.
    "What's Bull Run?" Mike asked, wishing he hadn't been so full of his own story that he hadn't seen that something terrible was bothering his friend. "What are you talking about?"
    "You didn't hear the news?" Todd answered. "Our Union forces took a terrible beating from the Confederates at what they're calling the Battle of Bull Run, near Manassas, Virginia. A woman spy for the Confederacy told them the Union Army's plans. We should have won, but instead there were many . . . many Union soldiers killed."
    Mike tried to swallow. His mouth was dry, and his throat tightened with fear. "Captain Taylor and your pa, Todd . . . they would have been there, wouldn't they? Do you know if they . . . ?" Mike couldn't continue.
    Todd's eyes filmed with pain as he shook his head.
    Mike clenched and unclenched his clammy hands. "I have to know. I'll ask Captain Dawes how we can flnd out."
    "You aren't going to teU him about Captain Taylor adopting you, are you?"

    "No," Mike said. "There has to be