Crossing (26 page)

There was a long heavy silence, finally broken by Becky. “I suppose we all knew something like this would happen, considering what’s been going on in the last few months. I just suppose we didn’t expect it quite so soon. And somehow I thought that maybe the cadets at the institute might be spared unless it was some kind of last resort.”

Yancy merely looked at her, a tinge of regret shadowing his feelings.

Daniel said in a low voice, “You would volunteer, wouldn’t you? If you hadn’t been called up?”

“Yes, sir,” he answered without hesitation. “And depending on the nature of our duty in Richmond—and what Major Jackson does—I still may.”

Zemira sighed heavily, almost a moan. “I could see it in you, Yancy. I knew. I saw that you’d decided to be a soldier. And we always told you that we would respect your decisions, and we do. But I have to tell you that it grieves me, it truly does.”

“I’m sorry,” Yancy said lamely.

“Don’t be sorry,” Becky said, though she sounded sad. “Of course no one wants loved ones in a war. But as your grandmother said, Yancy, we respect your decisions. And I for one am very proud of you. You’ve grown to be a strong man this last year. You made a promise to us and yourself and you’ve kept it. The Lord honors those who keep their word and turn from their mistakes. I’ll pray that He will bless you, watch over you, protect you, and bring you back to us safe and sound.”

“Please, all of you pray for me, every day,” Yancy said slowly. “I know I’m going to need it.”

“We will, son,” Daniel said. “Always.”

Yancy nodded and rose. “I can’t stay. We all have a lot to do. We’re moving out tomorrow afternoon. Can I go say good night to Callie Jo and David? I won’t wake them.”

“Of course, you must,” Becky said. “Go on up.”

Quietly Yancy went up to the nursery. Callie Jo looked like a little doll as she slept with her thumb stuck in her mouth. He bent over and kissed her forehead. She stirred just a little but didn’t wake up.

David had turned one last Christmas Eve. Yancy took one of his tiny fists, and in his sleep David wrapped his hand around one finger. “Be good, brother,” Yancy whispered.

Then he hesitated, because he realized that what he had really been doing was telling his brother and sister good-bye. It hit him then that he may not see them again, and he drew in a sharp breath. For a moment he felt a deep searing fear. But then he bowed his head and prayed silently.
Lord, help me overcome this fear. Please help me to know the right thing to do. Help me find courage. And help me find You.

Major Jackson went to the institute before dawn to help with the preparations, to prepare his cadets for their first march. It was still early morning when he rode back home, but he stopped at First Presbyterian Church and sent his pastor, Dr. White, to the barracks to pray for his young soldiers. Then he went home and had a late breakfast with Anna.

After breakfast he and Anna went into the parlor and sat close together on the settee. “Let’s read the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians,” he said.

It was one of Anna’s favorite passages. Together, from memory, they said in unison, “ ‘For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’”

Thomas read the entire chapter aloud, and then he prayed. Humbly he entreated God for peace, for his country and countrymen and cadets, for Anna and their home and the servants.

And then, as soldiers must do, he left to go to war.

J
ackson led his cadets into Richmond. Wearing his old dusty blue uniform, he rode into town on his shambling gray gelding, Cerro Gordo. Following him as color bearers, Yancy rode Midnight and Peyton Stevens rode his showy palomino, Senator. The contrast between Jackson’s humble appearance and his sharp-dressed and trim cadets was striking, but as always, Jackson had a marshal air of authority and competence, so there was no doubt who was in command.

Jackson installed the cadets into a small camp at the fairgrounds, about a mile from the center of the city. Then he called Yancy and Peyton aside. “Until we get settled in and find out exactly what is required of us here, I want you two to be my aides-de-camp and couriers. Right now I’m going to the capitol to speak with Governor Letcher, and you’ll accompany me.”

“Yes, sir!” they answered, at stiff attention.

They rode back into town, to the Virgina State capitol, situated on Shockoe Hill, overlooking the James River. It was a graceful building, said to be designed by Thomas Jefferson. Modeled after a simplified Roman temple, with soaring columns and an airy porch, it was dignified and stately.

But on this day it more resembled a kicked-over anthill tha na peaceful temple. Horses and carriages surrounded the building on all sides. Men, some dressed as gentlemen and some dressed as soldiers and some dressed as laborers, hurried in and out. More groups of men crowded the front in groups of threes and fours and more, and the timbre of their loud conversations could be said to be almost frantic. Young boys, presumably couriers, ran to and fro, weaving nimbly among the crowds, their piping voices calling for their addressees.

The milling crowd of wagons, carriages, and horses around the building made it impossible for them to tether the horses anywhere. Jackson dismounted and told Yancy, “Just stay out of the way as much as you can. I’m going to try to wade through all this to-do and see if I can get an audience with Governor Letcher. Wait here, and try not to get stampeded.”

Yancy’s Midnight and Peyton’s Senator were big, spirited horses and could easily make their own way through a crowd, because other horses shied away from their high-stepping, aggressive gaits. “Let’s put old Gordo between them,” Yancy said, almost shouting at Peyton in the din of the throng. “Then I think we can get them to crowd out those two carts and those saddle horses and get them hitched up there by the watering trough.”

Peyton didn’t even try to answer. He just nodded.

They maneuvered the horses around with some trouble, but once Midnight and Senator picked up the scent of the water, they practically shoved everyone and everything aside to get to the trough. They were thirsty, and all three horses had good, long drinks. There was about one foot left of a hitching post, and they tethered the horses. Then Peyton and Yancy went to stand in the shade of the capitol, keeping in sight of the horses.

Though it was April, the sun was hot and bright, and they were very warm in their formal uniforms. They watched the crowds coming and going. All of the streets of Richmond had been just as busy and buzzing.

Peyton finally commented, “This city looks like bedlam.”

Yancy agreed. “So far everywhere we’ve seen has been like everyone’s gone mad. The only difference here at the capitol is that there’s no ladies. I couldn’t believe the way the ladies were crowding the streets talking. I’ve never seen that before.” It was extremely rare to see Southern women gathered together on the streets.

Peyton smiled, a lazy, thoroughly charming, boyish grin. “I was glad to see that, you know. There are some very beautiful ladies in Richmond.” Peyton’s family owned an enormous mansion on the banks of the James River.

Slyly Yancy said, “Might know you’d have noticed that, Peyton. But you better be a proper gentleman or Old Blue Light will tan your hide, no mistake.”

“Don’t I know it, and there’s no way I’d take that chance. I’m not missing out on this war for anything,” Peyton said with uncharacteristic passion. “And I’m going to do whatever it takes to stay with Major Jackson, even if I have to get my father to pull some strings and appoint me personally to him.”

Yancy considered this. “You know they’re going to activate him, probably soon. So you’re saying you’d resign your commission to the institute and join the army?”

“Yes, I will,” Peyton answered sturdily. “What about you, Yancy? Have you thought about it?”

“No, this month has been so crazy that I guess I hadn’t looked that far in the future. But I’m sure going to think about it.”

Peyton sighed and wiped sweat from his aristocratic brow. “You might have plenty of time to do that now. There’s no telling how long Major Jackson may have to wait to see the governor.”

But he was wrong. Jackson returned just a few minutes later. Wordlessly he mounted up and motioned Yancy and Preston to do the same. They made their way through the city and back to the fairgrounds. Jackson didn’t speak until they reached the camp, and then he ordered them to muster the men.

When they were assembled, he addressed them with his typical lack of drama. But he was an intense man, and Yancy could sense his purpose and will and drive as a soldier. The cadets didn’t make a sound as he spoke.

“Cadets, I’ve just met with Governor Letcher. The Virginia Volunteers are men and boys from all walks of life. They are dedicated and loyal and want to serve Virginia and the Confederacy, but they have no training. Some of the commanding officers assigned to them have a military background; some have not. It’s been decided that you men have the best training available, so you will be assigned as drill masters. You will teach them the orders, the march, the formations, and the small-arms drill.”

There was some murmuring then among the cadets, most of them smiling with satisfaction. Yancy knew, indeed, that they had received the best education and training available in the South.

Jackson allowed them a few minutes to digest this, and then he continued, “Tomorrow you will receive your assignments. I know that all of you will do your duty to the utmost of your abilities; and I know that the men you train will benefit to a great extent from your knowledge.” He made a half turn, his hands behind his back as if to leave, but then he turned, and even the cadets in the back rows could surely see the unearthly light in his fiery blue eyes. “I’m proud of you all. Very proud. Dismissed.”

Basically, the cadets were snatched up. In two days they were drilling men in every vacant lot and little-used back street in Richmond. This left Major Jackson with very little to do, because the cadets were so expert and so disciplined that they had no need of oversight. Still, he visited each drill team every day. And though he was staying with friends in town, he came to the camp at the fairgrounds every night to get updates on the status of the volunteers the cadets were training. Each drill team had been assigned a captain, and each captain gave Jackson a daily report.

Yancy had been appointed captain of a drill team which included his friends, Peyton Stevens, Sandy Owens, and Charles Satterfield. On the second night he reported to Major Jackson in his officer’s tent which had been established, though he was staying in town. Standing at strict attention he said, “Sir, I have learned more about the company that I have been assigned to, Raphine Company. Almost all of the men are from that little town in Rockbridge County. They were recruited and organized by Captain Reese Gilmer, whom you met yesterday. Since he formed the company, sir, they elected him as their captain, and he was confirmed by Secretary of War Walker when they reported for duty.”

Jackson, seated at his camp desk with a single candle for light, nodded and muttered, “Good, good. And how do you find Captain Gilmer?”

“Sir?” Yancy asked, mystified.

“How do you find him? As a man, as a soldier, as an officer?”

“But sir, I don’t know the man. I only met him yesterday. And—and—he is my superior officer. He’s a captain.”

Jackson gave Yancy a cold, appraising look, and those ice blue eyes made him straighten and stand even more stiffly. “You, sir, are a drill team captain, and even though this does not outrank an army captain, in this peculiar situation you are his teacher and he is your student. And, Cadet, you are going to have to learn to be a judge of men. Not to judge them for their sins—no, no, no man ever has that right—but to see them, to instinctively know if they are honest and true and men of their word, and to try and estimate their intentions and abilities. In war, this is not only important, but it is crucial, both in summing up your allies and your enemies. And so give me your first impressions of Captain Gilmer.”