Lost Cause (24 page)

“That’s not our intention, sir.” Jack said
curtly asked.

“You’re a wearin’ a uniform ain’t you?”

“That’s right. Confederate gray. This is
Confederate territory, mister.”

“Blue, gray, that don’t mean nothin’ to us.
This war should have never happened. We ain’t got no business
killin’ each other. Hell, ain’t we all Americans?” Jack smoothed
his hair in frustration.

“Look, I just need to know if you’ve seen any
Union troops moving around the area,” he said.

“Over by White’s Ranch. ‘Bout a week ago.
Calvary they was, bout fifty of ‘em I’d say.”

Jack thanked the man and they joined the rest
of the troops on the bluffs above the town. “We going after them?”
Campbell asked.

Jack nodded. “We’re gonna take a look
anyway.”

“How far is it to White’s Ranch?”

“Ten miles or so.”

They arrived at White’s Ranch two hours later
and set up a small camp to prepare a meal and to scout out the land
around the ranch. There was indication that Union troops had been
there, but none of the scouts were able to locate any of them in or
around the ranch property. Campbell found an old Mexican man
feeding goats and asked him about the Yankee presence. “Si, I seen
‘em. They say they was going to Palmito Hill.”

“How long a go?” asked Campbell.

“Maybe dos dias, uh, two days.”

“How many men?”

“Forty-one. I count them. They wanted my
goats for food. But I would not sell them. They are my
friends.”

Campbell thanked the old man and went to find
Jack. They discussed the information for a while and decided to
ride on to Port Isabel to find their captain.

Chapter 38

There was much excitement around Palmito Hill
when Jack and his men arrived later that evening. Scouts from
Caldwell’s unit had come across a contingent of union infantry a
few miles south on the banks of the Rio Grand and had engaged them
in a small but fierce battle. The Yankees called in reinforcements
and the confederate forces had withdrawn back to Palmito Ranch to
await the arrival of Colonel Ford and his two companies to bolster
Captain Caldwell’s troops. It would appear that the Yankees were
mounting another hard push northward to disrupt the westerly trade
routes into Mexico.

Colonel Ford arrived early the next morning
and immediately formed the three companies into a single brigade.
He sent out scouts to gage the number and position of the union
forces and ordered the other men to eat a good breakfast and be
prepared to move out on a moments notice.

Jack and Campbell shared a breakfast of beef
jerky and corn meal mush washed down with brew that was more
chicory than coffee. “Looks like we might be doing some fighting
later on,” Campbell said picking his remaining teeth with a match
stick.

“Yep,” Jack said.

“Reckon it’ll be today?”

“I expect so. The scouts said there was a
whole brigade of Yanks gathered up around Palmito Ranch. The
colonel’s resolved to stop them from moving any further north.”

“Lord but I’m tired of fightin’, Jack. Aren’t
you?” Jack thought for a very long time before saying,

“I think I’m most tired of fighting
myself.”

On the afternoon of May 13th 1865, Colonel
and his brigade marched south by southeast to engage the Yankees at
Palmito Ranch. They encountered their first resistance at the
western end of Palmito Hill where the 34th Indiana volunteers had
dug in. Jack and his company formed up near the west side of the
Yankee line and waited until the artillery men had their Napoleons
in position on a little hill a few yards behind the brigade.
Colonel Ford ordered them to fire and all five of the cannons fired
off twelve pounds balls into the heart of the Yankee line. Then the
order was given for the infantry to attack and Jack and the other
men in his company charged through the switch grass and black
bramble until they reached the far left side of the battered union
line. A furious skirmish began and soon the smoke was so thick Jack
couldn’t tell if he firing at the enemy or a stone or even one of
his own men. He fired into the thick smoke until he heard Captain
Caldwell calling for retreat. They wanted to move the cannons to
the center of the union line and had to get their men clear so they
would be safe from the effects of the shelling.

The big cannons opened up on the Yankee
center and soon the men in blue began to fall back toward the
river. The artillery continued to pound them to prevent them from
regrouping and mounting a counter attack. Jack and his men picked
off the stragglers one by one as they staggered across the shifting
sand of the river bank. Within minuets, it was all over. What was
left of the union brigade retreated back across the Rio Grande and
set up breastworks to fend off the counter attack they knew was
coming. The attack never happened, however. Colonel Ford ordered
his men back toward Brownsville to protect the road to Laredo.

They traveled through the night and arrived
in Laredo at nine o’clock the next morning. Jack was anxious to see
Marie, but his orders were to stay put on the south side of town
and watch the road for any Yankees that might get through.

Just before noon, Colonel Ford and a Calvary
troop rode up the road from Palmito Hill and stopped with some news
that took Jack and Campbell completely by surprise. “The war’s over
boys,” the colonel said plainly. “General Lee surrendered up in
Virginia over a month ago. I just now got the word from a courier
out of Galveston.” Campbell couldn’t believe the news.

“The war’s over?”

“Been over for a month,” the colonel
said.

“So we fought them Yankees yesterday for
nothing then?”

“Look’s that way, Corporal. You men might as
well go on back to camp. We’ll get the discharge procedure going
post haste.”

The colonel rode off and Jack and Campbell
looked at each other in disbelief as the realization that the
battle at Palmito Ranch had been the last official battle of the
American Civil War.

Chapter 39

Marie had a hard time believing that the war
was over and Jack would be a civilian soon and they could have
their baby and move somewhere far away from the memory of blood and
war and misery and live happily thereafter. They were in the lobby
of a rooming house on Lyon Street negotiating the price for a
month’s stay. Jack thought the two rooms would be fine, but Marie,
thinking of the baby wished for more comfortable accommodations.
Jack held firm, however and paid for the room for a month with U.S.
script. A young black boy took Marie’s cases and Jack’s haversack
up to the suite and waited patiently for Marie to enter. She was
not a happy woman.

“I don’t like it, Jack.”

“Do we have to argue about it now?”

“Give the boy some money, please.”

Jack passed the young man a quarter and he
smiled broadly and closed the door behind him when he left.

“The green carpet’s nice,” Jack said with a
conciliatory tone. “And the mirrors are very attractive too.”

“I don’t know how a room like this would be
for the baby. It will be strange waking up in the morning with all
this mirrored glass.”

“But it’s really a fine room, right?”

“It’ll do.”

“How are you feeling, hon? You look a little
peaked.”

“I only feel hungry. I get very hungry
sometimes. The baby and all.”

“You’re not going to get fat on me, are
you?”

“Jack Saylor! How dare you.”

“You’re a fine simple girl,” Jack said
smiling. “I’ll take you the way you are. Fat ankles and all.”

“I am a simple girl. No one has ever
understood that but you. And, my ankles are not fat.”

“Once, when I first met you, I spent some
time thinking how we should go to San Antonio together and walk
along the river front and how nice that would be.”

“That’s awfully romantic for a ruffian like
you,” she said. “Like I told you, I’m a simple girl, with simple
expectations.”

“I always thought you were very complicated.
And a little crazy.”

“I haven’t confused you have I, Mister
Saylor?”

“That’s Sergeant Saylor. At least for another
day or two.”

“Alright, Sergeant soon to be Mister Saylor,
do I? Do I confuse you?”

“I was confused the moment I laid eyes on
you,” Jack said. “I suppose love can be a confusing thing.”

“So, you love me do you?”

“Of course I do. I married you, didn’t
I?”

“The aristocracy in Europe enter into
loveless marriages all the time,” she said cocking her head
thoughtfully.”

“Well, we’re not aristocrats, and we’re
certainly not in Europe,” Jack said. “So I don’t see your point. I
love you, Mrs. Saylor. It’s as simple as that, you simple girl.”
She smiled coyly and smoothed the wrinkles from the lame
bedspread.

“I suppose I shall have to get used to being
married to a man who thinks I’m not only complicated, but crazy as
well.”

“And beautiful.”

“Ah ha.”

“How’s the little one?” he asked. She touched
her stomach briefly and said,

“She doesn’t move as much lately.”

“Is, is , that a problem? Or something?”

“No. Indigestion, I suppose. What should we
name our child, Jack?” Jack shrugged and sat beside her on the bed,
still a little worried about the baby in her womb.

“We should name her after your mother if it’s
a girl,” he said with forced levity. “Or after your father, if it’s
a boy of course.”

“My mother and father are both dead,” she
said calmly.

“Oh. Sorry. My condolences.”

“What about your parents?”

“Same thing. There’s nobody left but Granny.
Her name is Myrtle. Doesn’t have a very good ring to it, does
it?”

“How about Jackie? Or Jacqueline?”

“Marie.”

“Jacqueline sounds nice.”

“Marie.”

“Yes my dear?”

“I’m so very happy I married you.”

On the morning of the third day after
returning to Laredo Jack was formally mustered out and discharged
from the Confederate States Army. The Provost Officer paid him
thirty dollars mustering out pay, half in gold, and wrote him a
letter of introduction and recommendation in case he wanted to look
for work in the area.

Marie continued to complain about the rooms,
but Jack was adamant that they stay close to the town.

“We have to be near the hospital on account
of the baby.”

“I’m only six months along, Jack.”

“Doesn’t matter You said you’ve been having
some pain. It’s best we stay close to the doctors.”

“But the suite, it’s so small.”

“We can put the little one in the smaller
room when it comes,” Jack said.

“Which one? They’re both so small And she’s
not an it.”

“Marie, I don’t want to discuss it anymore.
Just please do what I say.”

“You talk to me as if I were your child.”

“No, but you are my wife.”

“I’m older than you, you know. You should
respect your elders.”

“I love you. That covers everything,
including respect.”

While Jack went to look for work at the rail
yard, Marie went up to the suite to rest and pout for awhile. It
had begun to rain again and there was a chill in the air that made
her shiver, though she was dressed in a cotton dress and Jack’s
thick over blouse. Nevertheless, she sat by the window and looked
out on a wet rear garden with a stone wall topped by a snarl of
ivy. Across the street was a dress shop with a mint green gown made
of chiffon and lace prominently displayed in the front window. She
sighed and stroked her swollen stomach with a dry, chilled hand.
“Will I ever fit into something that beautiful again?” she said
aloud.

Jack returned a short time later saying they
weren’t hiring at the rail yard but he might be able to land a job
over in Edinburg in the stockyards processing the horses turned
over by the army. Marie, reticent and feeling blue said,

“You know what I have to get.”

“What?”

“Baby clothes. We have to have something for
little Jacqueline to wear when she arrives.”

“Most women folk I ever knew made their own,”
Jack said absently.

“I don’t have anything to sew with. Besides,
I’m not all that domesticated.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to learn,” said
Jack. “It looks like we may be moving to Edinberg.”

“Aw, Jack.”

“I thought you didn’t like it here in
Laredo.”

“I don’t. But. . .”

“But what?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Marie, don’t say but like that and then just
clam up. What is it?”

“It’s just, it’s my stomach. The baby, I
can’t feel her move any longer. And this morning. . .”

“What about this morning?”

“There was a little blood on my petticoat
this morning,” she said refusing to meet his concerned gaze.

“What does that mean?” Jack demanded.

“Maybe nothing.”

“You need to see a doctor.”

“No, Jack. They charge a fee and we don’t
have much money left. We should save it to pay the hospital when
Jacqueline comes.”

“Bullshit, you’re seeing a doctor.”

“No! Will you listen to me just once, Jack! I
know my body, everything will be alright.”

“Well, you ought to know. You were a
nurse.”

“Why do you want to hurt me? What have I
done?”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then come over to the bed.”

“All right.” He went over and sat on the
bed.

“I know I’m no fun for you right now,” she
said softly. “It’s just so much has happened so quickly. The baby,
the war being over. You. . .you being here now. I know you must
find me unattractive, I’m as big as a house. It’s all too much
sometimes.”

“You’re not unattractive, Marie. You’re
beautiful just the way you are.”