Yankee Belles in Dixie (7 page)

“Things are kind of upside down. Someday, though, they'll be all right, at least that's what we're praying for, me and Leah,” Jeff told him.

Tom looked at his younger brother with a warm expression on his face. “I'm glad to hear that. It's going to take prayer to get this thing seen to.”

The two sat for a long time, then finally rolled up in their blankets. Jeff lay awake listening to an owl calling from somewhere far away. It made a plaintive sound. He remembered what he had promised Leah and, just before he went to sleep, he prayed for his father and for Tom and for Royal and for all the family.

* * *

   The battle of Cheat Mountain was a disaster from the very beginning. The Confederate force had lost many of its fighting men with measles and typhoid fever. The North Carolina Sixteenth Regiment had two-thirds of its men down, and Jackson's Brigade was not much better.

On the third morning of their march, Jeff had just pulled his drum over his shoulder as the men were falling in, when he heard Charlie Bowers say, “Look! There comes General Lee!”

The general was walking along, leading his horse, stopping to talk to soldiers here and there.

“Ain't he the finest-looking man you ever saw?” Charlie said warmly, “And the best soldier too. Lincoln tried to get him to be commander of the whole army of the North, but he wouldn't do it.”

Jeff watched avidly as General Lee approached and was somewhat taken aback when he stopped directly in front of their squad.

“Good morning, men,” he said. He had a bluff, reddish face and didn't look as tall as he did when he was mounted on his horse. Tom had told him, “He's got short legs, but he's tall from the waist up.”

Now Jeff nodded and muttered with the rest of them, “Good morning, General.”

Lee studied the faces of the two younger boys. “How old are you two soldiers?”

“I'm thirteen, General Lee, going on fourteen,” Charlie Bowers said.

Jeff said, almost as if in an echo, “I'm almost fifteen, General.”

Lee smiled and nodded his head. “We're glad to have two fine young men like you to help us in our campaign. I trust you'll come through the battle safely.” He looked down the line at the other soldiers, who were listening eagerly, and said, “We must do our best, men. The South is depending on us.”

“We will, General don't you worry, General Lee. We'll whip 'em.”

Cries went out up and down the line, and Lee took off his hat and waved it, saying, “I know you'll do your best.” Then he turned and led his horse along, talking to other men down the line.

“I feel like we can't lose with a man like that. Don't you, Jeff?” Charlie said.

“Sure do! He's something, isn't he!”

The meeting with General Lee was the high point of the campaign as far as Jeff was concerned. He never forgot it.

And then it began to rain. One time Jeff saw a mule slide twenty feet down a wet, slippery slope, and the soldiers exhausted themselves trying to get it back up the mountainside.

“I never saw as much rain as this,” Tom complained. “Rains every day. Every time you yell ‘hello' you get a shower. Then some of the men had to shoot their guns to get the loads out. That brought on a regular flood.”

Somehow they made their way forward but ran into such bad terrain that the cannon had to be abandoned. They spent their nights in the cold mountains. The rain spoiled their rations, the muskets were wet, and the gunpowder was ruined. The troops were forbidden to light fires.

Jeff wrote a letter to his father. “We tried to sleep, but the rain poured so and the torrents ran down the mountains with such a flood of water, we'd have been drowned if we'd laid down on the ground.”

Finally, however, General Lee got his forces into position. He sent out scouts, among them his son, Rooney, and a colonel named Washington. The colonel was killed, and Rooney and his riders barely escaped.

Yet it was not the rain that cost the South the battle, but the behavior of a man called Colonel Rust. When he captured some Federal pickets, they told him such tales of Federal strength that he simply gave up.

On the night of October 6, the Confederates heard wheels rumbling and thought that the enemy was about to attack. Jeff and Tom stood close
together, drenched through, and Jeff said, “I guess they're coming, don't you reckon?”

“I don't see how they could attack in a rain like this. Not one musket in ten would go off with the powder wet,” Tom answered.

When at last daylight came, Lee discovered that the Federals were gone. The Cheat Mountain campaign was over. Lee stayed on for a few days, but the weather was now so bitter that there was little to do.

On the way back to Richmond the men grumbled, but when they got there they discovered that the story of the so-called battle had preceded them, and it was General Lee who took the criticism. Newspapers were calling him “Granny Lee,” saying he didn't have what it took to be a general.

But Jeff learned what a real leader was like, for when General Lee addressed the troops, he showed no sign of disappointment. He encouraged them by telling them they had done their best. “You men proved yourselves as soldiers,” he said. “I'm proud of you, for you did all that men could do, and we will fight again.”

Later, as Jeff and Tom took up their quarters in Richmond, Jeff said, “Well, that wasn't much of a fight, was it? I feel sorry for General Lee.”

Tom shook his head, “He didn't have a chance. All those other generals messed it up. But you'll see we haven't heard the last of General Robert E. Lee.”

M
y, it's cold out here, Pa!” Leah drew her wool coat closer around her and looked up at the sky. “It's going to snow again tonight, I believe.”

It was the first day of January 1862, and the weather had already been harsh. The sound of the horses' hooves was muffled by the snow underfoot as Mr. Carter drove them quickly.

Her father agreed. “Well, starting out a new year with snow is as good a way as any.”

They arrived at the prison, and he tied the horse to the rail. “We'll have to make two trips this time, Leah.”

“No, we can take it all, Pa. Here, pile it up high on my arms.”

He grinned with stiff lips. “All right, let's see if we can.” The two of them stacked the packages of food and clothing and blankets they had brought and were admitted almost at once.

The guard spoke to them like an old friend. “Looks like you brought those Rebs lots of good stuff this time. How ‘bout us poor Yankees?”

Leah smiled at him. “I did bring you a cake, believe it or not, Tommy. Let me get it.” She fished in one of the sacks, pulled out a smaller package wrapped in brown paper, and handed it to him with a smile. “There, don't say I never gave you anything.”

The guard whipped open the package and took a huge mouthful from the wedge of gingerbread that was inside. “Hoo-eee, this is good. Thanks a lot, Miss Leah, and you too, Mr. Carter. Go right on in. Those fellows will be glad to see you.”

The guard was not wrong, for when the two with all their gifts were admitted into the small room, the prisoners crowded around them.

“Looks like Christmas isn't over yet,” Jeff's father said. He had risen to greet them and take the thick, blue sweater that Leah handed him. “This ought to keep me warm enough, all right.” He grinned.

“We tried to get something for each of you,” her father said, handing out garments to the soldiers. “Nothing will fit, I suppose.”

“Aw, that don't matter, Mr. Carter. We sure appreciate it, Miss Leah.” A tall, redheaded soldier was buttoning up a wool coat that was at least two sizes too small. He hugged it to himself. “This will shore help on these cold nights.”

The soldiers had learned to look forward to the visits of Daniel and Leah. It brightened their gloomy existence, for the Capitol Prison was a dismal place. Lice and bedbugs abounded, and spider webs decorated the soiled whitewash of the walls. The usual food was rank-tasting pork and beef, half-boiled beans, and musty rice. Over all was the stench of the open toilet situated behind the cookhouse in the yard.

After speaking with the men a while, Leah said, “I'm going to take some of this food down to Sergeant Chaffee.”

She had made a friend of one of the men in another room and left to find him. As she was walking down the hall, she met an unusual sight—a tall
woman, whose smoothly parted hair was threaded with gray, was being ushered along by a civilian. She held the hand of a young girl no more than seven or eight, whose eyes were frightened.

Leah stepped back to let them pass, and the little girl watched her carefully. When they were gone, Leah continued on down to give the food to the sergeant and his friends. Later, when she and her father were leaving, they stopped to talk to the guard who had eaten the gingerbread.

“Did you see Mrs. Greenhow?” he asked, his eyes bright with excitement.

“I saw a lady and a little girl,” Leah answered.

“Well, you know who she was, don't you?” Tommy demanded. “That's Mrs. Greenhow, the famous Rebel spy!”

Dan Carter looked up, interest on his face. “So that's Mrs. Greenhow! I've heard quite a bit about her.”

“Who is she, Pa?”

“She was a very prominent social lady in Washington. She married a doctor. She's a widow now.”

“What's she doing in jail? This is no place for a woman,” Leah said.

“You didn't hear about that, Miss Leah?” the guard asked. “She was the one that made the South win the Battle of Bull Run.”

Leah stared at him. “How could that be?”

“Why, she found out the North's plans, and she got the news back to President Davis. That's how the South knew exactly what we were going to do. Oh, she's a smart one all right. No telling how much damage she done us.”

Dan shook his head sadly. “I hate to see a woman in a place like this, though. What about the little girl?”

“I hear she's going to stay with her.”

“Oh! That's awful!” Leah said. “A little girl like that in a place like this!”

The guard looked a bit embarrassed. “Yes, I guess it is, Miss Leah. But Mrs. Greenhow, she wouldn't have it no other way.”

Leah and her father spoke for a while to the guard, but he knew little else about the woman. Later they found out that the head of the Federal Secret Service, Allen Pinkerton, had captured Mrs. Greenhow personally.

Leah said little, but when she talked about it later before bed, she said, “You know, I'm going to try to get to see Mrs. Greenhow and especially that little girl. She's bound to be scared, don't you think, Pa?”

“I wouldn't be surprised. That would be a good thing to do.”

The next day Leah found a doll in one of the shops in Washington. It was not a new doll, but she bought it and wrapped it up in a piece of red paper. When she got to the prison, she asked for permission to see the little girl.

Lieutenant Simpkins glared at her as usual. “What do you want to see her for? So you can carry messages out to help the Rebels again?”

Leah was accustomed to his surly manner. “No, Lieutenant. You can search me all you want to. I just feel sorry for her little girl. I brought her a doll.”

“Let me see that!” Simpkins looked at the doll, felt its soft body for messages, then handed it back. “Well, I guess it'll be all right.
This
time.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Mrs. Greenhow, she discovered, was on the second floor, and Leah was admitted at once. As soon as she was inside she said, “Mrs. Greenhow, my name is Leah Carter. My father is a sutler, but we visit the prisoners here.”

“Are you a Southern sympathizer?” the woman asked. She was an attractive woman, but there was suspicion in her eyes. “Why would you visit Rebel prisoners?”

Leah explained that one of the prisoners had been a neighbor back in Kentucky, and then she smiled. “I thought you wouldn't mind if I would come and visit with your daughter. I brought her a present.”

“A present?” Mrs. Greenhow's eyes softened. She turned to look at her daughter. “Isn't that nice, Rose?”

The child had held back. Now she reached out and took the parcel that Leah offered her. She opened it silently, but when she saw the doll, she cried, “Oh, Mama! It's just like the one I used to have back home!” She hugged the doll and looked at Leah. “Thank you.”

“I had a doll like that too, when I was your age,” Leah said. “Look—I brought some material too. Maybe we can make some clothes for her.”

Leah sat down and for the next hour occupied herself with making doll clothes.

Mrs. Greenhow sat at a table watching. When Leah got up to leave, she put her hand out. “I'm poor in everything except thanks, Leah,” she said. “I appreciate your coming. Will you come back again?”

“Oh, yes, my father and I come several times a week. Can I bring you anything, Mrs. Greenhow?”

Mrs. Greenhow looked at her carefully, then said, “The only thing would be some paper and something to write with.”

“Oh, yes, we sell those to the soldiers all the time,” Leah said. “As a matter of fact, I have some left over here.” She rummaged in her bag and brought out a small package of paper, a pen, and a bottle of ink.

“I can't pay you for these.”

“Oh, that's all right,” Leah said quickly with a smile. “Just think of it as a late Christmas present.” She put her things together, then left.

When she made her visit to Lieutenant Majors, Leah found that everyone was very interested in the woman.

“I'm surprised that Lieutenant Simpkins let you see her,” Jeff's father remarked.

“Well, he did search the doll I took to her little girl.” Leah grinned. “I think he was ashamed to. I think they're all ashamed of keeping a woman in a prison like this.”