Spake As a Dragon (41 page)

“
It would be an honor Mr.
Davis, but Sir you are standing in the midst of a long ago
battlefield, you see, a pitched battle occurred here and afterwards
my great-grandfather was hanged underneath this very
tree.”

“
I say,” said President
Davis, “those Yankee rascals hung your great-grandfather during our
recent unpleasantries?”

“
No Sir, defending liberty
during the Revelountary War.”

“
So,” said Mr. Davis,
sitting down upon the bench, “I favor you are against
war?’

“
Yes sir, but being
against it doesn’t mean you can avoid it.”

“
Did you serve, Sir?”
President Davis said cutting into a big, red apple with his
pocketknife.

“
Yes sir, 48
^th
Alabama Infantry, got captured during Pickett’s Charge at
Gettysburg.”

“
Oh, I see, that was a bad
one, and your family?” He said, taking a bite of an apple
slice.

“
My father Robert Scarburg
and my brother Matthew were with me at Gettysburg, both were
wounded, but since then we have not heard a word from them. My
mother is still alive and wants to journey to Gettysburg, maybe she
thinks it will satisfy her mind just to see the place where they
were hurt.”

“
As you probably can guess
I do not have much influence left but,” calling Colonel Forley,
“write out a pass for Luke Scarburg for safe passage.” Turning back
to Luke, “If you take your mother to Pennsylvania, many of our
young men do not take our surrender to heart and still wish to
fight on. If, perchance, you run afoul of them maybe this pass will
help.”

For another hour or so Luke sits
casually talking with the past President of Confederate States of
America. Mr. Davis explained his role in the War and the causes and
effects that it created. Luke tells him the horrors of the
battlefield and what the cruel consequences it had on
families.

“
Mr. President! Mr.
President! We must go, riders are coming...they are about a mile
back,” yells the Colonel.

Within seconds, rifle fire is heard
coming from the advancing riders. Luke yells to all his men, “Into
the Mill! Get inside behind the stone foundation, it will be
safer.”

Colonel Forley removes his pistol from
his holster and fires one shot into the air. “Now Sir, let it be
said I fired the first shot and I fired the last shot of this War
of Southern Independence.”

The group of Confederate soldiers
guarding President Davis offered no further resistance and are
quickly surrounded by a unit of the 4
^th
Michigan
cavalry.

As he begins to step back into his
carriage President Davis, removes his hat, looks at Luke and
remarks, “Son, I thank you and your family for their service, not
only to the Confederacy but earlier to their sacrifice to the
United States. The Confederate States of America are no more – we
are all now just Americans. Good luck to you and your family.

Chapter
Fifty-Two

THE PROMISE

The mill is back in partial operation,
Sam is doing a fine job managing the Mill, Jethro, Rubin and Daniel
have done a splendid job refurbishing the machinery and they seem
to grind from sunup to sundown. Some days they even run well past
dark. The Mill is beginning to become a thriving
enterprise.

Back at Scarlett the women folk have
been busy too. With most of the men working at the Mill they have
in all respects, become the foremen of the workers in the
fields.

Since spring a large garden of
vegetables has been planted, the orchard has been pruned and
fertilized with manure from the stables; fruit is hanging on the
limbs in abundance.

Bolls of white cotton and leaves of
green tobacco are maturing in the hot summer sun. Another large
field of corn gives every indication it can be harvested any day
now. Malinda stands on the porch of the guesthouse and surveys all
they have accomplished since arriving in the spring. Wiping her
brow with her apron, she wonders how much longer it will be before
all the fruits of their labor are harvested. She wants, no she
needs, to get moving toward that little town in Pennsylvania –
Gettysburg.
Luke has promised he will take me
, she thinks,
and I am going to hold him to it.

She has been studying the map; the
distance to Gettysburg is a little over five hundred miles, which
will take at least a month to get there. She figured once she
arrives it will take a couple of weeks to research on and about the
battlefield, and another month to return - the trip will take the
better part of three months. She further thinks to avoid getting
caught in the snows of winter they should leave Scarlett no later
than the first of September. They should be home sometime in
November. This year most of her family is going to be together and
she wants a real Christmas; although, she knows Robert and Matthew
will probably never return. Then her mind returns to Gettysburg,
maybe she can find some clue as to their final resting
place.

Sary walks out on the porch and takes
Malinda’s hand in hers. “What ’ya thinkin’ ‘bout Missy? Your man
Mister Robert and your boy Matthew?” Malinda nods, tears beginning
to form. “That’s what I figured. Listen when you and Luke go up
there to that Gettysburg place there ain’t no tellin’ what y’all
might find. Now Missy you done keep yer hopes up till you done seed
their graves, yer hear?”

Supper was finishing as Luke said to
Sary, “Would you mind putting Sam and Nate a plate in the oven –
they’ll be home soon as they finish up with that last load of corn.
It seems like everyone in the valley has corn to grind.”

“
Are you complaining,”
grinned Malinda.

“
Shucks no! The Mill is
doing fine Mother. We couldn’t have hoped for better.”

“
Bring your cup of coffee
out on the porch, we need to talk.”

Sitting down, Luke asks, “What’s on
your mind Mother?”

“
Gettysburg! It’s August
already and the harvesting has already started. I would like for
you and me to be on the road to Gettysburg no later than the last
of next month. It that possible?”

“
Mother, you’re still not
thinking about going to Gettysburg, are you? I just believe it will
be a long, wasted trip for no reason. Mother we are not going to
find out anything about Father or Matthew.”

“
You may be right son, but
I know I’ll never know sitting here at Scarlett. At least I can see
for myself at Gettysburg, and remember you did promise.”

“
You’re right Mother. I
did promise, and I will never break a promise to you. I’ll begin to
get the Mill and farm ready and then you and me, God willing, will
start for Gettysburg. I figure I can have everything ready by the
middle of September, how’s that?”

Chapter
Fifty-Three

SWAMP FEVER

The remainder of August and the first
two weeks of September passes quickly. Walking into the house one
afternoon Luke says to his mother, “I’m getting the wagon ready,
pack whatever you think we will need and I believe we can get
started early Monday morning. Is that all right with
you?”

“
No, it not
Luke.”

“
What? I thought you were
anxious to get started?”

“
I am, but we’re not going
in the wagon, it’s too slow and cumbersome, we’ll just take Blaze
your Big Red, a pack mule and a couple of extra horses.”

“
But Mother, the wagon
will be much more comfortable for you.”

“
Luke Scarburg I can sit a
horse as good as any man, better than most, so we will ride, we’ll
make better time. I’ll load up the saddlebags and pack what we need
on the mule and we’ll be set.” Luke had learned long ago not to
argue with his mother. First, she didn’t allow it, and second he
would never win.

Early Monday morning the dew was still
on the grass, the whip-o-wills were beginning to echo their names
as Luke walked Blaze and Old Red from the barn to the house.
Malinda walked out, Luke had to do a double take, was that his
mother? Malinda was dressed for riding, she had a black Stetson
tied underneath her chin, a leather vest, a six-gun strapped to her
waist and a full-length skirt that reached all the way to the black
pair of high-heel cowboy boots with jangling silver spurs. She
carried a riding crop in her hand and with the other hand
straightens the bandana around her neck as she approached the horse
she was to ride.

“
Say there hombre, what’d
you do with my mother?” Luke said laughing.

“
Oh hush! And get on Old
Red, we’ve got a long way to go.”

The entire family was gathered in the
yard wishing them a safe trip as Luke and Malinda rode out of sight
down the road and once again away from Scarlett. Catherine had been
convinced that she would be of more service staying at Scarlett,
besides she did not believe she could endure the long ride to
Gettysburg on horseback.

Riding up next to Luke Malinda asked
how many miles could they make in a day. Luke responds that he and
Nate made between ten to fifteen miles, but they had to be careful
of enemy soldiers and outlaws. He figures they will not have any
trouble getting fifteen. “I think we can go through North Carolina
into the western end of Virginia, go up the Shenandoah Valley to
Maryland, then Pennsylvania and Gettysburg will be just a
hop-skip-and-jump away.”

For the first couple of weeks, the
days and nights passed un-eventful. It is the morning of the
17
^th
day on the road after just passing Roanoke,
Virginia a day or so earlier. All day yesterday and most of the
present day Malinda and Luke have trudged through low, swampland.
The footing is terrible and once or twice their horses stumbled and
dumped them into the slimy, muddy water. To make matters even worse
are the bugs and mosquitoes even at this late time of the year. At
times, they are so thick they appear as smoke. “Luke, how much
farther do you suppose we have to travel in this swamp?”

“
I’m not sure Mother, but
I believe in a couple more miles we should be back on dry
land.”

“
Luke!” cried Malinda,
“Luke!”

“
I’m sorry Mother, but
that is about the best I can do.”

“
No, Luke! Look ahead, up
there on the left. Isn’t that a young woman?”

Luke turns to Malinda and asks her to
remain where she is. He will ride ahead and check out the
situation. “This is a ploy highwaymen sometimes use to draw
unsuspecting wayfarers into a trap.” Luke rides ahead dismounts and
begins to talk to the young woman.

He motions Malinda to join them. The
girl is hysterical and makes no sense with her screaming and
incoherent talk. Malinda speaks to her softly, “Slow down young
lady. We can’t understand what you are saying, slow down now and
tell us what is happening.”

They finally discover the girl is
trying to get help for her mother, father and brother. They are
back at their cabin sick. She says she is afraid they are dying.
“Take us to your cabin,” says Luke.

A mile or so back in the woods they
find an old cabin. From the looks of the animal skins hanging on
some wooden poles outside Luke guesses, the man of the house must
be a trapper.

“
Let me go in first, we
don’t know what’s inside,” Luke says pulling the .44 Colt from its
holster. Using its barrel he cautiously pushes open the door and
the sunlight illuminates the interior of a small room, smelling of
dampness, mold and death. Before the War Luke would have laughed at
the thought of death having a smell, but now it was as recognizable
as the scent of the pine trees outside.

“
Hello! Hello, is anyone
in here?”

As his eyes became used to the
darkness, he could see more details – he was standing next to a
small pot-bellied stove, a little wooden table with three chairs
was over in the corner. In the other corner was an old iron
bedstead and he could make out the outline of three bodies on the
bed.

“
Mother, you two stay
outside. There are three bodies in the bed.”

“
Move aside Luke, let me
have a look at them.”

Speaking softly, “Mother, I believe
they are all dead!”

Disregarding Luke Malinda marches in
and straight over to the bed. Luke is partially right, there are
three people in the bed alright, but two were not dead. They were
alive, barely. The third, a young boy in his teens was indeed
dead.

“
Luke, run out to my horse
and look in the saddlebag. Bring me the bottle of quinine pills.
These folks have typhoid!”

“
Oh, that’s bad, we had
plenty of fellers with that ‘swamp fever’ in the Army. Most of ’em
didn’t make it tho’.”

“
Well, Luke this girl’s
folks are going to live if you and I have anything to say about it.
First, we need to get some fresh air in this cabin, and get it
cleaned up.” Turning to the girl, “What’s your name
Miss?”

“
Ma’am I’m Susan, Susan B.
Anthony, but before we start cleaning do you have anything to eat.
I haven’t eaten in two days! I have been gone for two weeks. I know
it sounds funny to you all, but I was visiting my aunt Lucy Stone,
we’ve been working on woman’s suffrage at the Women’s Right
Convention, and when I returned I found them this way, I didn’t
know what to do. I thought Ma’ma, Pa and Johnny were all
dead!”