Home of the Brave

by Jeffry Hepple

  “I asked Marina to take me but she wouldn’t. Now I’m asking you,” Abraham said, avoiding Yank’s eyes.

  “Why in God’s name would you want to go to war?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve hardly been off this place since the day I was born.”

  “Well if you have wanderlust, take a vacation. Wars are loud, unpleasant and unhealthy. If you can’t afford a vacation I’ll give you the money.”

  “Money.” Abraham shook his head. “Everybody always wants to give me golldanged money.”

  Yank walked around in front of the horse so he could see Abraham. “Is something eating you, Abe?”

  “Yes.” He turned to look at Yank. “I know I’m a servant but…”

  “Wait, wait.” Yank raised his hand. “Don’t say that. You’re not a servant. You’re part of my family and if I insulted you by offering you money, I apologize.”

  “If I’m part of your family you ought to let me go with you to war.”

  Yank walked closer to him. “You don’t understand, Abe. Most of the southern officers and many northern generals have slaves. If you were with me, you’d be treated like a slave and I’d constantly be defending you. It’s a distraction I don’t need and pain that you don’t want. Trust me. The only thing worse than being a slave is being a free man treated like a slave.”

  “You mean there are no free Blacks in the army?”

  “There are many free black soldiers, but none in staff positions for white officers.”

  “Who takes care of your horses?”

  “I usually hire a local farm-boy as a groom, wherever I am. I don’t have a permanent staff or any servants.” Yank went back to the task of horse-drying.

  “Are you going to Mexico on a ship?”

  “Yes.”

  Abraham patted the big, black war-horse. “Are you gonna take Beelzebub on the ship with you?”

  “Yes. Beelzebub and the gray. Maybe that bay too, if you think he’s sound.”

  “Beelzebub’s gonna to be real hard to handle. He doesn’t take kindly to most folks.”

  “I’ll see to him myself.”

  “Why are you takin’ him?”

  “He’s probably the last colt out of my father’s warhorse that’ll have any real blood link to the old stud.” He shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know. You’re right; he’s going to be more trouble than he’s worth. I suppose I’m getting soft and sentimental in my old age, but I want something of my father’s with me during my last battle.”

  Abraham smiled. “I like that idea.”

  “Do we have three slings?”

  “Everything we have is too old to be trustworthy. We’ll need to order new ones. And some of those coconut mats for you to take along so the horses don’t get laminitis. They should have carrots too. It helps to keep them healthy when they can’t get enough exercise.”

  “If you went with me, who would take care of this place?” Yank asked.

  “My sister Ginger and my son Samuel do as much as I do any more.”

  “Let me think about it some more. If you really want to go with me, there might be a way.”

  “No.” Abraham shook his head. “You’re right. I’d do more harm than good. Until you explained it, I didn’t know that the other officers had slaves.”

  “I know you’re longing to see it, but it’s a cruel world out there, Abe.”

  “Marina says that Negroes can’t be citizens of Texas.”

  “That’s got to change now that Texas has become a state.”

  “Will it be a free or slave state?”

  “Slave. But there’s bound to be a fight about that before all’s said and done. Maybe a fight bigger than Texas.”

  “I miss everybody,” Abraham said after a minute of silence. “If you and Marina move to Texas with Thomas, Jane and Anna, Robert won’t come back and I’ll be alone here forever.”

  “Marina and I haven’t discussed moving to Texas.”

  “She told me she was going to stay there after the war.”

  “Maybe she’s planning to stay there without me.”

  “I wish things didn’t have to change. Everything was simple when I was a boy.”

  “Except Uncle Thomas yelling at ‘that damn kid’ all the time,” Yank chuckled.

  Abraham smiled. “He didn’t mean it. He was my best friend.”

  Yank looked surprised. “Really?”

  “He taught me to read, write, ride, fish, hunt and everything valuable that Granny Sally wasn’t able to teach me. I miss him every day.”

  “Too bad you never knew your father.”

  “I know him, all right. He’s Jacob Andres.”

  Yank almost dropped the towel. “Why didn’t I know that?”

  “Nobody knew except my mother and my grandmother. My grandmother told me as she was dying. I’ve never told anyone before now.”

  “Does Jacob know?”

  Abraham shrugged. “What does it matter?”

  “I don’t know. It just seems like it does. Like you two should know each other. A father should know his son and a son his father.”

  “You never knew your father.”

  “That’s true. Oddly enough though, I miss him.”

  “You must be cold. Go on up to the house and get into some dry clothes. I’ll take care of this big, bad boy for you.”

  “Thank you. I am cold.”

  “Oh. I better warn you. Nancy Vreeland’s staying in the guest room.”

  “Trouble at home?”

  Abraham shrugged. “She didn’t say and I didn’t ask. Hope you don’t mind.”

  Yank shook his head. “Of course not. She’s almost like one of my children.”

  October 19, 1846

  Van Buskirk Point, New Jersey

  Yank was sitting at the kitchen table reading and drinking coffee as Nancy Vreeland, wearing a housecoat, staggered in. “Good morning.” He marked his place and closed his book.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have gotten up to make you breakfast but I didn’t get back to sleep until the sun was coming up.”

  “Don’t be silly.” He gestured toward the stove. “The coffee’s hot.”

  She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from him. “I hope you don’t mind me staying here.”

  “We covered that subject last night. Make yourself at home and stay as long as you want. I don’t think any of the family will be here again for some time.”

  “I had a fight with my mother.”

  He nodded.

  “I have my own money – from my grandmother. I was thinking about buying one of those old brownstones in Manhattan.”

  “They’re expensive now.”

  “Don’t you own one?”

  “Technically, yes. But some of my grandmother’s family still lives there. I don’t think they know it’s not theirs.”

  “So you just let them stay there rent free?”

  He nodded. “My grandmother left me more money than I can spend. I think this is the way she’d like things to be.”

  Nancy smiled. “I remember visiting her with Anna one summer when we were teenagers. She was a force of nature.”

  He nodded. “She was indeed.”

  Nancy looked at him over the rim of her cup.

  “What?”

  She put the cup down and shook her head. “It seems odd to be sitting here talking to you like an adult. You were always Anna’s occasional father.”

  He sighed. “Yes. I regret not having spent more time with my children.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. Your homecomings were special events that were counted down on the calendar. The whole family, me included, looked forward to your coming and wept after you were gone.”

  Yank sipped his coffee to cover his emotional reaction to her words.

  “Could I ask your advice about something?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m going to shock you.”

  “I doubt it.”

  Nancy took a deep bre
ath. “I’m in love with another woman.”

  “Was that the cause of the fight with your mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, the only advice I can offer is to tell no one else.”

  She looked surprised.

  “What?”

  “I expected your condemnation.”

  He chuckled. “Maybe you wanted it so you could defend yourself.”

  “Maybe.” She hesitated. “So you don’t disapprove?”

  He shrugged. “I disapprove of bad behavior and even of bad choices that some people make. Loving someone isn’t a choice. It just happens.”

  “Should I tell Anna?”

  “No.”

  “She’s my best friend. I’ve never kept a secret from her.”

  “You asked my advice, Nancy. You certainly don’t have to take it.”

  “Do you think Anna would disapprove?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s possible that she would be jealous.”

  “Jealous?”

  “You were very close as little girls and she loves you more than anyone. She might see this as you choosing another woman over her.”

  “What I’m talking about isn’t the same kind of love.”

  “Can you explain that in a letter?”

  She considered his words for some time. “Maybe not.”

  “The best advice I can offer is to live your life with your lady friend privately.”

  “You sound as if you speak from experience.”

  “I do in a way. You may recall when I was badly wounded during the surrender of Fort Detroit.”

  She nodded.

  “A woman there nursed me back to health and we formed a bond that’s continued all these years. It’s platonic and Marina knows about her but I keep it as private as I can to avoid hurting anyone.”

  “Oh, you mean Annabelle Priest,” Nancy said. “Anna hates her. Or she did for some time.”

  He nodded. “Anna can be very judgmental and when she makes up her mind reasoning with her is simply impossible. That’s why I advised you to keep your secret.”

  “Yes.” Nancy sighed. “It would break my heart if she turned her back on me the way she did to you.” She got up, retrieved the coffee pot and refilled their cups. “Are you going to see her before you go?”

  “Who?”

  “Annabelle.” She took the pot back to the stove.

  “I should,” he said, after a moment.

  “Yes.” Nancy sat back down. “You’re going back to war. If things go wrong she should have something to hold onto.”

  He nodded. “You’re right. She and her brother will be in Washington at the end of the month. I’ll go say goodbye.”

  “Oh dear, no. Not goodbye.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t know why I said that.”

  October 27, 1846

  Washington, District of Columbia

  Annabelle watched Yank as he came into her hotel suite and took off his hat. “You’re going to war.”

  He nodded and sat down on the couch beside her. “You could come with me.”

  She shook her head. “I draw the line at camp following.”

  “I can’t think of anything to say.”

  “Don’t say anything.” She took his hand and drew his arm around her shoulders. “I’ll be sleeping in your suite with you until you leave.”

  He chuckled. “You should have made that decision several years ago.”

  “Why?”

  “Well,” He looked uncomfortable. “I’m too old.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just know.”

  “I prefer to discover that for myself.”

  “You’re setting yourself up for a disappointment.”

  “No I’m not. If I can only sleep beside you I’ll be perfectly satisfied.”

  “What will your brother say?”

  “He’ll pretend not to notice.”

  “Why now?” he asked after several long seconds. “Why after all these years?”

  “We both know that this is our last time together, my love.”

  November 20, 1846

  Monterrey, Mexico

  Marina was reading a letter while Thomas and Josiah Whipple waited for her to tell them what it said. “Your father has joined Win Scott’s staff and will be with the expeditionary force when it arrives next year,” Marina said to Thomas.

  “He’s much too old,” Thomas grumbled.

  “He knows what he’s doing,” Marina replied. But then after a few seconds of deliberation she added, “Jack and Robert are going to be there with him in case he gets in over his head.”

  “Dad, Jack and Robert all there together; you and I, here,” Thomas chuckled. “War’s our family business.”

  “Well some of y’all might wanna look for another business,” Whipple suggested. “Seems like President James Polk’s done took most of Zach Taylor’s army and sent ‘em back down to Port Isabel to wait for Winfield Scott.”

  “What does General Taylor say about that, Mother?” Thomas asked.

  “He thinks that President Polk is trying to deprive him of any new military success that might aid him in his campaign for the presidency,” Marina replied.

  “What do you think about that, Mother? Is it true?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” she said unpleasantly.

  “Why are you here?” Thomas asked.

  “Your father must have told me a dozen stories about battles where Indians tried to surrender but were cut down because no one understood them. I don’t want that to happen to Mexican boys.”

  “Whose side are you on, Mother?”

  “Neither. If I had my way the whole thing would stop and we’d all go home.”

  “Now there’s a idea nobody else ever had, Marina,” Whipple said sarcastically.

  She gave him a malevolent look.

  “Better figure out where you stand, Marina,” Whipple persisted. “Otherwise you just might not make it through this.”

  February 21, 1847

  Saltillo, Mexico

  Although General Zachery Taylor’s orders from President Polk were to remain in occupation of Monterrey, he chose to ignore them, and in early February, he had marched south and captured Saltillo. Also in direct defiance of Polk’s orders, Taylor called back John E. Wool’s Center Division to Saltillo from the Chihuahua Expedition, thus bringing his forces to nearly five thousand.

  When Antonio López de Santa Anna heard that the bulk of Taylor’s army had been moved to the coast, he set out from San Luis Potosí toward Saltillo with a force of twenty-five thousand, intent upon destroying Taylor.

  Taylor reacted to word of Santa Anna’s movement by sending two companies of Major Ben McCulloch’s Texas Ranger Division to scout the Mexican army while Taylor advanced the rest of his army twenty miles south of Saltillo to Agua Nueva.

  Sarah Borginnes, never one to miss an opportunity, had left the American House in Matamoros in the care of an American soldier who had lost a leg in the Battle of Matamoros. She then followed Taylor’s camp to Saltillo where she had established a restaurant called The Great Western.

  On the morning of the 22nd, when Sarah came to open the restaurant, she found Captain Josiah Whipple, sleeping in the doorway. “If you’ll move your carcass so as I can get in, Josiah, I’ll make y’ a dozen eggs,” she said.

  Whipple got to his feet with a groan. “‘Mornin’, Sarah.”

  She unlocked the door, opened it and pushed him inside. “What’re you doing here so early and bedraggled?”

  “We been ridin’ for three straight days and nights, stealin’ horses all the way. We got to camp before dawn and when Ben McCulloch went to report to Zach Taylor, I walked on over here fer breakfast. When I seen you wasn’t open yet, I decided this was as good a place as any to catch up on some sleep.”

  “Sit you down and I’ll get a fire up.”

  “Thank ye, kindly. It’s warmer in here than out there, even without no fires.” He sa
t at a table and took off his hat.

  “Guess y’all found Santa Anna then,” she said as she shook down the stove.

  “Yup. He’s about sixty miles south of Agua Nueva and comin’ fast as he can.”

  “Does he really have twenty-five thousand in his army, or is that a fish story?”

  “He prob’bly started with that many but he’s lost two or three thousand from desertions, sickness and whatnot.”

  “So he’s still got more ‘n twenty thousand?”

  “Yup. Column’s so long it takes near an hour to watch it go by.”

  “What’s General Taylor gonna do?”

  “Look for better ground, I’d reckon. This sure ain’t the place for a big fight.”

  “Where at?”

  “The pass through them mountains at Buena Vista, would be my guess.”

  “Why?”

  “Comin’ through that narrow little pass Santa Anna’s front can’t get no wider than maybe five hundred men. The rest have to stack up behind ‘em. Our artillery should be able t’ chew ‘em up. Leastways I can’t think o’ no place else near here that’s gonna offer no better chance for four or five thousand against more ‘n twenty-thousand.”

  “How soon y’ reckon ‘till he pulls out?”

  “Zach? He’s prob’bly gone by now.”

  “Shit. I ain’t ready.”

  “Might be best if you just stayed here.”

  She gave him an evil glance. “If it’s gonna be bad they’ll need my nursin’.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. Then I’ll help y’ pack yer wagon as quick as you get somebody here to watch the place.”

  “Did Marina already pull out? Do you know?”

  “I don’t know nothin’ fer sure. But if Zach’s gone you can guess Marina is too.”

  They both jumped in alarm as the front door banged open and a tattered soldier ran in. “Santayana done whipped General Taylor and he’s skedaddled north,” the man shouted. “Pass the word. Folks need to get out before they’s butchered.”

  Sarah looked questioningly at Whipple.

  “There ain’t been no gunfire nor cannons,” Whipple said to her, shaking his head. “This boy is either a coward and tryin’ to cover it up by spreadin’ panic. Or might be he’s trying to run people off so as he can do some lootin’.”