Which Way Freedom (15 page)

He greeted Obi and Thomas, and then, leaning over the parapet, he pointed at the gunboat, now in the middle of the river. “She out there coolin' off and cleanin' her guns. We run them Rebs right off this hill.”

Obi surveyed the trees and brush on either side of the hill and the ravines above and below the fort. “I bet Rebs be all in them woods. While them flags flyin' for truce, they sneakin' closer to the fort,” he said.

“The first flag of truce just went down,” another gunner informed them, pointing to a Confederate cavalryman at the bottom of the hill, holding a white flag.

A few moments later a lieutenant climbed up the ladder. “We're not surrendering the fort. Prepare to fire!” They all cheered. Obi looked again at the cavalryman. After a few minutes, the second flag was taken down and an avalanche of Confederate soldiers fell upon the fort.

Obi and Thomas quickly climbed down and ran to the powder magazine to get more ammunition. When they reached the lower level, they stopped. Civilians and the
Union soldiers alike were racing out of the fort. Some of the soldiers had dropped their weapons and had their hands raised in surrender.

Joining the others, Thomas and Obi left the fort. Confederate soldiers were all over the hill, some yelling, “No quarter! Give them no quarter!” Smoke came from the direction of the town. There were shouts and screams from men, women, and children as the Confederate troops opened fire.

Obi and Thomas were fleeing down the hill when Thomas was hit. He fell, dropping his rifle and grabbing his leg. Obi dragged him to the hospital cabin. Three nurses—two white and one black—were still tending to the wounded.

The black nurse saw them enter and came over to them. Rolling up Thomas's trouser leg, she looked at his wound. “Looks bad, and the surgeon ain't here. Best I can do now is bandage you up. If the pain gets too bad, I try and take the ball out myself.”

Thomas groaned. The woman took some bandages off a cabinet and handed them to Obi. “Wrap him up. Stop some of that bleeding. Got a man over there worse off than he is.” She pointed to a stocky form sprawled on the floor, breathing heavily. It was Sergeant Johnson.

Obi quickly tied Thomas's wound as his friend gritted his teeth in pain.
He need a surgeon bad.
When Obi finished, Thomas said, “I can't move. You go on. Maybe you can get to the gunboat or hide in the woods. I'll be fine here.” His eyes looked dazed. “I'll only hold you back.”

Obi shook his head. “I stay with you.”

“Go, Obi,” he barely whispered. “Nurse fix me up and get me through. I know we'll get reinforcements here soon.”

“Can't leave you, Thomas.”

“Help will come. I know it. You go on. Remember that girl, Easter, is waiting for you. And that little boy.”

Obi stood up and walked to the door. He hesitated.

“Go on, Obi. Nurse will patch me up.”

Obi couldn't look back as he left the hospital. Stepping over bodies, he raced toward the woods on the river side of the fort. He felt like a disloyal coward. Thomas had been a good friend. But maybe Thomas was right. Union reinforcements would come and all would be well.

Obi found a tangle of vines and brush and hid himself from the Confederate cavalrymen who rode up and down the bluff, taking some people as prisoners and shooting others.

He made a small space so that he could see what was happening along the hillside. When things quieted down, he would escape to the river. Peering out of his shelter, he saw one of the cavalrymen on his horse motion for the little “generals” to come toward him. The boys took short, hesitant steps, and the soldier shot them point blank.

Though it could give his hiding place away, Obi aimed his rifle and fired at the soldier. The man slumped over his horse as the animal bucked and took off down the hill. There was so much noise, smoke, and confusion that Obi's action went unnoticed.

Before he could reload, he saw flames flare up near the cabin hospital. He quickly loaded his last bit of ammunition and left the shelter. He had to get Thomas out of the cabin.
Can't leave Thomas like I leave Jason,
he told himself.
Thomas would stay right there with me.

Fortunately, the thick smoke was a good cover, but he had to be careful. When he heard shouting nearby, he lay face down next to the lifeless form of another black soldier.

“He's a goner,” a voice drawled. Obi felt himself being turned over and summoned all the control he had when the man reached in his jacket and removed the pouch with his money and papers. He also took his rifle. When the man left, Obi staggered through the smoke and entered the hospital.

Heavy smoke made it almost impossible to see. There
wasn't a sound. “Thomas? Thomas?” Obi yelled and coughed. He felt around the floor where he'd left his friend. He pulled someone's arm. “Thomas?”

“Obi? That you?” a voice cried weakly. “They came in here and killed everyone. They took me for dead.”

“I gettin' you out.”

“I can't move.”

“Yes, you can.” Thomas grunted as Obi pulled him up. “Put your arm around my shoulder and hop on your good leg.”

Coughing and choking, they left the room as one of the walls caved in, consumed by fire. Moving as fast as Thomas could go on one foot, they hobbled through the confusion of soldiers, civilians, horses, and dead bodies to the wooded area where Obi had been.

The girl, the one who reminded Obi of Easter, lay face down in the dirt, her homespun dress streaked with blood. Obi led Thomas behind a fallen log. “I feel as if I just died and went to hell,” Thomas whispered.

“We wait here till dark, then we go to the river,” Obi told him. They waited, listening to the screams and gunfire, until night fell. Then Obi helped Thomas to his feet and practically carried him down the hill.

The hillside had turned into a steep graveyard. Obi couldn't tell whether a dark form was a body or a log. When they reached the riverbank, Obi eased himself and Thomas among the reeds. He prayed that the gunboat would be there in the morning and find them before the Confederate soldiers did.

Forgetting to play dead, Obi jumped when someone touched his arm. It was daylight and, in spite of the horror, birds sang. Looking up, he saw two Union sailors.

“You okay, soldier? Can you walk?” one of them asked.

Obi nodded and stood up. His legs felt weak and wobbly.

“Thomas still alive?” Obi whispered, afraid of the answer.

“Your friend here?” he asked, leaning over Thomas's still
body. He turned to the other sailor. “If he's alive, we'll put both of them on the gunboat. Otherwise, leave this one for the burial detail.”

Obi's head swam and he started to sink back down on the ground.

“Come on now, feller,” the sailor said, grabbing Obi by his waist. “We're going to take you to the hospital at Mound City.”

Obi sat on the edge of a small cot in the Mound City Hospital. He wore an old army shirt that the hospital had given him. Thomas lay on the cot, his wide eyes open and without their feverish glare. “A nurse tells me only about one hundred of us escaped,” Thomas said. “The Rebels tried to kill every living thing.” He grimaced as he tried to sit up. Obi helped him.

“The surgeon said I was lucky. The ball hit a joint and didn't shatter my bone. Otherwise he might have had to cut off my leg. You saved my life, Obi.”

“Shoot,” Obi smiled, “you ain't finish teachin' me to read an' write. Where I get a next teacher from if somethin' happen to you?”

Thomas grinned. “Why don't you come north with me when our time is up?” he asked.

“Can't do that,” Obi said.

“Want to search for your mother?”

“No. I know I had a ma, an' I know she love me. Most of us just know they was borned is all.” Obi stared for a moment at a man in the bed next to Thomas. He'd lost an arm and was moaning in his sleep. “I see all the death an' fightin'. Life get took away fast as you blink the eye. Lorena the past.”

“Come with me, then. My mother will treat you like her own son.”

“Have to find Easter an' Jason. Bring them with me if I do come.”

He checked for his pouch. “Keep forgettin' I lose my
money an' them papers with the name that ain't mine.”

“You can get new papers,” Thomas said. He stared at the ceiling. “Got an idea, Obi. This time, tell them the name
you
want.”

“Been thinkin' 'bout that. I tell them to change whatever paper they have to the name Buka. Buka say his name mean ‘firstborn.' “

“Buka,” Thomas repeated. “Guess you spell that
B-o-o-k-e-r
. I'll get a pen and paper from the nurse and write it for you,” he said. “Then you tell them when you get your new papers that you're changing your name from Jennings to Booker. Obidiah Booker.”

Obi smiled handsomely. “That suit me fine, Thomas. Obidiah Booker.”

All of the characters in
Which Way Freedom?
are fictional. However, the massacre at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, was an actual event. Detailed interviews of Union soldiers who survived the slaughter at the fort can be read in the Fort Pillow Massacre Report #65, Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, April 20, 1864.

The First South Carolina Volunteers was one of the original black regiments to be mustered into the Union Army. Colonel T. W. Higginson, commander of the regiment, said: “The fate of the Confederacy was decided by Sherman's march to the sea.… Next to the merit of those who made the march was that of those who held open the door. That service will always remain among the laurels of the black regiments.”

Black soldiers were involved in the intense fighting in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia. The Twenty-fifth Corps was the first army corps composed entirely of black regiments, of which there were thirty-two. Some
200,000
blacks fought in the Civil War.

I hope this book gives the reader a deeper understanding of African American participation in that period of American history.

TEETONCEY
       71024-2/$3.50 US/$4.25 Can Ben O'Neal searched the darkened shore for survivors from the ship wrecked by the angry surf. He spotted the body on the sand—a girl of about ten or eleven; almost his own age—half drowned, more dead than alive. The tiny stranger he named Teetoncey would change everything about the way Ben felt about himself.

TEETONCEY AND BEN O'NEAL
       71025-0/$3.50 US/$4.25 Can Teetoncey, the little girl Ben O'Neal rescued from the sea after the shipwreck of the
Malta Empress,
had not spoken a word in the month she had lived with Ben and his mother. But then the silence ends and Teetoncey reveals a secret about herself and the
Malta Empress
that will change all their lives forever.

THE ODYSSEY OF BEN O'NEAL
       71026-9/$3.50 US/$4.25 Can At thirteen, Ben O'Neal is about to begin his lifelong dream—to go to sea. But before Ben sails, he receives an urgent message from Teetoncey, saying she's in trouble. And somehow Ben knows that means trouble for him.

HENRY HUGGINS
     70912-0 ($3.50 US/$4.25 Can)

HENRY AND BEEZUS
     70914-7 ($3.50 US/$4.25 Can)