Spake As a Dragon (5 page)

From his vantage point high upon
Cemetery Ridge, Major General George Meade addresses his orderly,
“My glass, please.” The captain quickly opens the telescope pouch
and hands the spyglass to General Meade. It is three o’clock; the
cannonade had ceased from the rebel forces.

General Meade is mounted on his
white-faced horse Old Baldy. Soldiers are not the only ones that
can be war heroes Old Baldy qualifies too. From the height of Old
Baldy’s back General Meade, peering through the lenses of his field
telescope could see clearly General Lee and Traveller. As General
Meade watches the head of the Southern army ride across the front
of his army, an army all primed and ready for a fight, he thinks he
has never seen such a magnificent sight. Up and down the length of
the rebel forces dozens upon dozens of the Star and Bars battle
flags flutter in the breeze. A shiver goes up General Meade’s spine
– the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He recalls a Bible
verse:

And I looked, and behold a pale
horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed
with him.
(Rev 6:8)

Chapter Seven

ATTACK!

General Lee, unaware he is being so
closely watched, continues down the line of soldiers until he
reaches General Longstreet.

Luke, who is following the General,
hears every word spoken.

“
Sir,” says General Lee
returning the salute of General Longstreet. The Commander of the
Army of Northern Virginia, without waiting, issues his order,
“Attack General, attack!”

General Longstreet still does not
believe an attack on the center of the firmly entrenched Union Army
can be successful. Reluctantly, without speaking, salutes, turns
his horse and slowly rides away from General Lee.

Luke turned quickly and began running
through the line of rebel soldiers, “We’re attacking! We’re
attacking!” He yells as he runs. The announcement comes as no
surprise; most of the men simply take another chew of tobacco or
fire up their pipes and await the inevitable. General Longstreet,
as does his men, know attacking the Union defenses across that mile
of open space is going to be hopeless. The veterans have enough
battle experience to have come to this conclusion also. They are
not blind, but they will attack – they know of no other way to
fight than to follow orders.

Running from one confederate company
to another, Luke inquiries about his father and brother Matthew. No
one has seen either of them since the battle of
yesterday.

“
Luke! Luke!” A voice
rings out from the rear of one of the Companies of men. Luke turns
to the sound. Peering through the throng of soldiers, he spies an
old friend from back home, Private Carl Saint. Carl, Robert, Luke
and Matthew, all enlisted at the same time in 1862. Once they
arrived in Nashville, Robert and Luke remained with ‘E’ Company;
however, Carl went to the 49
^th
Alabama. At this time,
Matthew was pulled from the Infantry and assigned to the staff of
General “Stonewall’ Jackson.

Carl is trying his hardest to get Luke
to hear him. At the edge of the woods, Napoleon cannons are being
un-limbered and on the move. The men are all talking at once,
horses whining, and officers bellowing orders. Luke hears enough to
begin pushing his way through the group of soldiers toward Carl;
finally, they reach each other.

“
Carl! Carl! It is good to
see you after yesterday’s battle. I am so glad you survived.”
Before giving Carl time to answer Luke continued, “Have you seen
anything of Father – he was badly injured yesterday, and I have no
news of him, and brother Matthew, do you have information of
him?”

“
A bit of news, Luke – yer
brother Matt he’s doin’ fine – I seed him a little while ago, back
yonder in yer ‘E’ Company area.”

“
That’s great news, Carl,
I have not been back to my Company yet. I have been going up and
down the line seeking word on Father and Matthew. What news on
Father, Carl?”

“
I seed him being bared
away from the field on a blanket. I don’t know where they took him
tho’.”

“
Was he alive?”

“
Luke, I can’t say yea or
nay. I was only close enough to catch a glimpse of hiz face, I’m
sorrie, but I couldn’t tell ye if he be livin’ or not. All I knows
is his eyes wuz shut.”

Returning to his Company’s assembly
area, Luke searches for Matthew. His Company of 230 men has been
decimated by the previous days fight, finding his brother Matt is
not difficult, only about half of his Company remains.

“
Matthew!” Grabbing his
brother by his shoulder – Matt turns.

“
Luke, I thought you were
dead, thank God you are alive.

They continue to hug each other
tightly. “I am so happy to see you Matt, tell me about Father, what
happened to him? Is he alive?”

“
I’m sorry Luke, I could
not stay and find out. As I hid behind a boulder, the command was
given for the Company to fall back and regroup for another assault
on the Yanks. I could not remain any longer I had to follow the
Captain’s order; however, just before I was leaving a Union
hospital orderly arrived and began abating the flow of blood from
Father’s wounds. I asked him his name, I will never forget it if I
live to be a hundred, this Yankee boy’s name was Charles Babb. If
and I mean
IF
, Father survived he saved his life. This Babb
feller told me he would get some stretcher bearing to come get
Father. After the battle, what was left of our Company
force-marched from the area of the Devil’s Den to this place we now
occupy. I’m truly sorry Luke, I let you and Father down! I didn’t
get a chance to look for him again.”

“
Do not worry Matt, you
did all that was possible. You certainly have nothing for which to
be ashamed.”

Matthew tells Luke today’s rumor is
the Rebels are to attack the Union forces occupying the far hill
toward the west.

Luke confirmed the rumor of the
impending attack, telling Matthew he heard it personally from
General Lee. He told Matthew about the encounter with Bobby Lee and
how he was so close he had overheard the conversation between
General Lee and General Longstreet.

Unable to finish orders were being
given:
“Fall In! Line of Battle, Fall In
,” yelled Company
‘E’s commanding officer Captain Leake. The Captain draws his sword
from its scabbard, swings it wildly over his head as his flag
bearer falls in line beside him. The Confederate soldier, hardly
past his sixteenth birthday, tightly grips his tattered Stars and
Bars - a torn and dirty flag bearing the scars of dozens of
previous battles. Remnants of previous battles such as
‘Cedar
Run
,’
‘2
^nd
Manassas’
and
‘Sharpsburg’
had been sewed on the red and blue pendant;
although, ragged and shredded these names of horrible places were
still readable. Grabbing their muskets, the soldiers hurry into a
line of battle preparing for the attack, an attack that will add
the name
‘Gettysburg’
to their proud banner.

Luke stands beside Matthew. Matthew
withdraws a black ostrich plume. “Mama said this black feather
belonged to Pappy Scarburg. He wore it at the Battle of Scarburg
Mill and gave it to Grandfather Thomas. This, I wear in their
honor,” he said sticking in into his cap.

He turns and looks to his left – as
far as he can see are four lines of soldiers with another four
immediately behind them. Dozens upon dozens of Stars and Bars
flutter in the breeze, turning to his right the same scene is
repeated. Standing at the edge of the trees, he sees Traveller and
his stately rider General Robert E. Lee. Lee is sitting his saddle
as though watching a parade, his grey, bearded face
emotionless.

Luke, for the first time, turns his
attention from his side of the field of battle to the enemy on the
far side. He can see the Stars and Stripes flapping all along the
Union line. He can also see the Union soldiers behind a low rock
wall. This is the December ’62, Battle of Fredericksburg all over
again – except this time the South will be the force attacking an
imbedded enemy.

At Fredericksburg, the Confederate
forces occupied the high ground behind a short stonewall. The Union
attackers, under the command of General Ambrose Burnside, mounted a
futile frontal assault on these entrenched, seasoned, veterans of
General Stonewall Jackson. The Yankees were cut to shreds,
suffering 13,300 casualties. Luke knows the table is turned today.
The battle of Fredericksburg was like lambs being led to slaughter.
Now Luke and thousands of his fellow Southerners were to be the
lambs.

His eyes return to the red, white and
blue colors of the Stars and Stripes waving on the far hillside.
They are as tattered and war-worn as his own Stars and Bars.
Glancing from left to right along the Union line, the multitude of
American flags seems innumerable. For a brief second, his
allegiance to the Confederacy is forgotten. He thinks of the dozens
of times he has heard the tale of his great-grandfather fighting
the British and how he had received a wound to his leg at the
Battle of Scarburg Mill. He remembered how the British had hanged
his other great-grandfather, Pappy Scarburg, during the
Revolutionary War for simply being a humanitarian. And his great
uncle Charles, who also fought for the American side, but was never
heard from again. He thought of his grandfather Thomas, fighting on
the American side in the War of 1812, and he remembered his own
father Robert Steven fighting with the United States army against
the Seminole Indians. His whole family, for generations, had
defended those same Stars and Stripes sacrificing everything, home,
life and limb, now he is being ordered to defeat the very symbol
his forefather’s fought and died so hard to defend — the American
flag!

Chapter Eight

ALABAMA OR BUST

After Robert’s grandfather Pappy John
had been hanged, his father Thomas re-opened the mill when he
returned from the War of 1812. During the war, for heroic action,
he had received a battlefield promotion and was discharged as a
Captain. He operated it until his death in 1848. From that date to
the present, Robert’s brother Isaac carried on the milling
tradition. Since the current war started, the Mill was still
operating; however, most of the local corn and flour was being
impressed into the Southern cause. What the Confederates didn’t
purchase, the home guard confiscated or just plain stole. Sometimes
small groups of Yankee soldiers would come through the area and
pillage what they could carry off.

Fortunately, Robert made a trip to the
Mill a couple of weeks before he left for the army. He had returned
with a few large sacks of flour and some bags of cornmeal. That was
over a year ago, but Malinda had been frugal, and still had meal
and flour even after sharing with her close neighbors.

Today, Malinda is using part of
Robert’s flour to bake fresh bread. Mattie Ann gets a whiff of a
tantalizing aroma drifting out the kitchen window across the yard
to her playhouse. She jumps up and runs to the back door. She has
already concocted a reason for coming back into the house – in
hopes of getting a slice of the fresh bread. “Mama, tell me some
more old tales about Granny Scarburg and when y’all lived in
Caroline,” she pleads opening the oven door to check the bread as
little Millie joins them.

“
Shut that door child, and
be careful, don’t you let my bread fall!” Turning back to Mattie
Ann, “So you want to hear about the old days, huh? All right you
two pull up a chair, that bread won’t bake any faster with you
watching.”

She began with her Grandfather Ingram
and their life in Virginia. She explained how they moved from a
comfortable, civilized life to an unsettled wilderness in South
Carolina. Mattie Ann sits with her elbows on the table, her head
resting in her hands. She was set to absorb every word. The story
of the red-tailed hawk was good; she believed there must be more
tales left to tell. Lizzie is more occupied with her doll than
hearing stories of the old days.

“
Now I’ve already told you
Granny Scarburg was full-blood Indian, I was told Pocahontas was
somehow related to her.”

“
Poco...who?”

“
Later, I’ll tell you
about Pocahontas, now I am going to tell about your Granny. I know
she did not want to leave her family in Virginia, but her father
said a wife’s duty was to be with her husband.”

She explained that their father
inherited Scarlett from Thomas, their grandfather. Malinda told the
two girls when Grandfather Thomas died he had thirty slaves working
on Scarlett. Their father never approved of owning slaves, and one
of the first things he did after taking possession of the
plantation was to officially grant all the slaves their freedom. He
said God never intended people to be chained, beaten or
owned.

“
Your Daddy and I were
married the 25
^th
of July in the year 1831. I was
seventeen and your Daddy was just eighteen. Robert was never
satisfied on the plantation. The slaves remained as freedmen, with
a working salary, but Robert could not shake off the guilt of the
many years bonded men worked to make Scarlett into the showplace it
was.”