A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Avary Myrta Lockett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ found it so, though they got there eventually.

      The cavalry, as usual, were on the wing first. General Rooney (W. H. F.) Lee’s division was sent to Fredericksburg in November, I think. My husband, of course, went with it. I was to go to Richmond and wait until I heard whether it would be safe for me to join him.

      From Richmond I ran over to Petersburg, saw many old friends and ran back to Richmond again, fearful lest a message should come from Dan and I should miss it. I looked for a telegram every day, and kept my trunk packed. It was well that I did.

      One morning my door was burst open unceremoniously and Dan rushed in.

      “Ready to go, Nell?”

      “Yes.”

      “Come. Now.”

      I put on my bonnet, caught up my satchel, stuffed brush, tooth-brush, and comb into it and was ready. Dan had stepped into the hall to call a porter to take the trunk down. We followed it, jumped into the omnibus, and it rolled off – all this in about five minutes from the time he burst my door open. On the omnibus, among other passengers, was a gentleman who had a brother in Dan’s command. This gentleman had so many questions to ask about the army, and so many messages to send his brother that Dan and I hardly exchanged a dozen sentences before we were at the depot. He established me in my seat, got my baggage checked, sat down, and then exclaiming:

      “Good gracious! I forgot that bundle for General Lee. It’s on top of the omnibus, Nell. I’ll be back in a minute,” and darted off.

      At the next station, when the conductor came for my ticket, I said:

      “See my husband, please. He must be in the smoking-car.”

      A gentleman across the aisle remarked:

      “Excuse me, madam, but I think the gentleman who came in with you got left. I saw him get off the omnibus with a bundle in his hand and run after the car, but he missed it.”

      “Then I don’t know what to do,” I said in despair to the conductor. “I haven’t a ticket, and I haven’t any money.”

      “Where are you going?” he asked kindly.

      “I don’t know!” I gasped.

      The conductor looked blank. I explained the manner of my starting to him.

      “Do you know where your husband’s command is stationed?”

      “No, I don’t know that either. You see,” I explained, “as he belongs to the cavalry it is much harder to keep up with his whereabouts than if he were in the infantry.”

      “What division is he in?”

      “General Rooney Lee’s.”

      “Do you know what brigade?”

      “Chambliss’s.”

      “All right. I know what to do with you, then. You stop at Milford. Your husband will come on the freight this afternoon – at least, that’s what I expect him to do. Your best plan is to wait at Milford for him.”

      When we reached Milford the conductor took me out and introduced me to the landlord of the tavern, and I was shown into what I suppose might be called by grace the reception-room. It was literally on the ground floor, being built on native brown earth. The ceiling was low, the room was full of smoke, and rough-looking men sat about with pipes in their mouths. I asked for a private room, and was shown into one upstairs, but this was so cold that I went out into the porch which overhung the street and walked up and down in the sun to keep myself warm. Very soon the gong sounded for dinner. I went down, sat with a rough crowd around a long table, swallowed what I could, and went back to my promenade on the porch. After a time an ambulance drove up and stopped under the porch, and an orderly sang out:

      “Adjutant of the Thirteenth here?”

      I leaned over the railing.

      “I am his wife,” I said.

      He saluted. “Can you tell me where the adjutant is, ma’am?”

      “He will be here on the next train.”

      “That might be midnight, ma’am, or it might be to-morrow. My orders were to meet the adjutant here about this time.”

      “The adjutant got left by the regular passenger. But a freight was to leave Richmond soon after the passenger, and the adjutant will come on that.”

      “The freight?” the orderly looked doubtful. “Maybe so.”

      “What do you mean?” I asked.

      “Well, ma’am, all trains are uncertain, and freight trains more so. And sometimes freight trains are mighty pertickular about what kind of freight they carry.”

      I laughed, but the orderly did not see the point. Dan’s body-servant was to drive the ambulance back, so the orderly, turning it over to a man whom he picked up in the tavern, went back to camp according to instructions. As soon as he was out of sight I began to repent. If Dan shouldn’t come on that freight, what would I do with myself and that strange man and the ambulance and the mules? It was getting late when the welcome sound of a whistle broke upon my ear and the freight came creeping in. On the engine beside the engineer stood my husband, with that abominable little bundle of General Lee’s in his hand.

      “Josh got left somewhere,” Dan said of his servant, “the man will have to drive.”

      At last we were off, Dan and I sitting comfortably back in the ambulance. I was very cold when I first got in, but he wrapped me up well in the blanket and I snuggled up against him, and began to tell him how nice and warm he was, and how thankful I was that there was no possibility of his getting left from me between here and camp.

      “I had a time of it to come on that freight,” he said.

      “The orderly said you would.” I repeated the orderly’s remark, and Dan laughed.

      “He told the truth. I had to do more swearing to the square inch than I have been called upon to do for some time. I knew you didn’t even know where you were going, and that I must get here to-night. As soon as I heard about the freight, I went to the conductor. He said passengers couldn’t be taken on the freight, it was against orders. ‘I belong to the army as you see,’ I urged, ‘I am an officer and it is important for me to rejoin my command.’ He insisted still that I couldn’t go, that it was against orders. I told him that it was a bundle for General Lee that had got me left, and I pictured your predicament in moving colors. He was obdurate. ‘If the freights begin to take passengers,’ he said, ‘there would soon be no room for any other sort of freight on them.’ I felt like kicking him. It was then that I told him that orders were not made for fools to carry out, and the swearing began. I threatened to report him. He looked uneasy and was ready to make concessions which politeness had not been able to win, but I walked off. Evidently, like a mule, he respected me more for cursing him. I had my plan laid. Just as the train moved out of the station I swung on to the engine, and politely introduced myself to the engineer. He had overheard my conversation with the conductor – the first part of it, not the part where the swearing came in – and he invited me to get off the engine. While we were debating the engine was traveling. I saw that he was about to stop it.

      “Quick as a flash I had my pistol at his head.

      “‘Now,’ СКАЧАТЬ