His men heard him and everyone was smiling.
The Union Army retreated to the other side once more. Leroy knew this would not deter them completely. They wouldn’t give up that easily. Their superiors wouldn't let them. Still the fact that they had relieved them of part of their supplies made Leroy content, and he could hear the discontent from across the river. His plan was working perfectly. Already the Union Army was becoming frustrated, if not by his men, by the rain itself.
He watched them with his spyglass as they tried to get things done in the rain. The unexpected downpour brought stickiness to the air that fought against them. Still Leroy wasn’t complaining.
This same activity went on for days, the Yanks trying to ferry their goods, and not making the mark. Not once did they try something different. The Texans had managed to pick some of them off with each attempt. None got across, alive.
The rain created another hardship, mud. The Yanks seemed dispirited after a week of trying to cross and no success. The weight of the wagons made it near impossible to move them in the mud. After losing five wagons, they stopped moving anything. The troop that had invaded the Anderson farm was now joining them and it was still going to be a raging battle until they surrendered the attempts.
Now Leroy was worried. He knew he had squashed their attempts, but he also knew they would try something else. The new troops were not frustrated, they would fight. Something like attacking them first and then try to get their supplies over. The only thing on the Texas side was the fact that they were all the best turkey shooters in the land. They’d have a battle with that, he decided. Even heavily outnumbered, his men didn’t falter.
The Yanks had supplies and woke to a fife and drum, soldier style. Leroy’s men had ill advantage. The Yanks had better rations, and Leroy felt bad for his men. After nearly two weeks of constant battling they were growing weary, tired, and hungry.
For two more weeks they battled, taking only one day to rest.
Leroy had never been prouder of his men. The proof of their work lay on the bloody ground days later when they had successfully defeated the Yanks, at least this time.
As they confiscated a lot of supplies left in their hasty retreat, they were fortunate enough to find corn meal and sorghum. But the really welcome surprise was the coffee.
A cannon was saved and one wagon of guns that they just left behind had made it all worth the effort.
Leroy reported a successful campaign to his Captain a week later as they marched against the eastern borders of Louisiana and Texas.
"I’ll need you working your way down to Sabine Pass now. We’ve been informed a large Union troop is gathering in New Orleans. We feel they will try to recapture the pass. If they get in, they will hold parts of Texas. We can’t let that happen. This is the largest attack yet. Your troops must keep them forever moving back. Report to me often. It is highly important. If the North cannot get the cotton, we can help destroy their industry. Which in turn, will help destroy the North, as we know it. Therefore, your job is to slowly work your way to the Sabine Pass, disrupting any plantation invasions, or crossings of the border. We must keep them out of Texas, understood? No matter the cost."
"Yes sir." He saluted his superior, then shook hands with him and smiled.
He only hoped his men would hold up through the skirmishes. The marching alone could do some of them in. Although they were a small troop, they were a strong bunch and he was very proud of his men. The one casualty being the man shot in the arm.
Even though Leroy felt positive about his men’s accomplishment, he continued to miss home, and Josey. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. He often wondered if she ever thought of him. Then one rainy morning before they began their march, Leroy sat down to write Josey.
He planned on keeping things general, for he didn’t know how her heart laid and he didn’t want to impose upon her. However, her importance to him had grown each day. She had grown into not only a beauty, but also a strong young woman. He could see her soft brown eyes, shyly smiling into his and it warmed his heart. If only he could claim her. But time played against them and the war. His task would not be easy and he might not return alive, so he couldn't ask Josey to wait for him. Not yet at least.
Mrs. Anderson was also on his mind. He had come to think the world of the old woman and her strength. He only wished he could be home to help the girls as the bad times came, and they would come, for the look on Mrs. Anderson's face told him that. He asked about Hank. He wanted to know the condition of the farm. He signed the letter, Always Remember, Leroy.
His men were writing letters home too and he knew he wasn’t the only one to miss his family. Mail call always ignited interest to the troops. Every man showed up for that, even though some never got anything. They hoped, and their faces reflected the dying hope when it didn't come. Word from home always perked the boys up and Leroy wished every one of them would get mail, just to see the smiles on their faces, afterwards. Of course occasionally, mail brought bad news, but most of the time it was uplifting.
However, Leroy was surprised a few days later when he had a letter from Mrs. Anderson.
Dear Leroy,
Hope this finds you well, as we are all fine. Glad to let you know we haven’t seen neither hide nor hair of those Union boys, since you left. And glad of it. Hope you are well. By now I guess Josey told you about my health. Please do not be concerned as the Lord calls us all home, sooner or later. You probably know that as well as I do.
I’ve left the farm to Josey, as she is the only one to carry on with the responsibility. Even though she is my youngest, she is by far the most capable of handling it. I’ve asked her to look after Rose, as Rose doesn’t have the good sense to, as you well know.
I’m also freeing Jacob. I hope he chooses to stay with us, but I would understand if he doesn’t. I’m telling you all this because unless I’m seeing things wrong you still got interest in my family and I still think of you as part of mine. In such hopes that someday this will be true.
Josey went over to your ma’s place, all is well there, and she let her know you’d been through and was all right. She shore was glad to know it. Two of your brothers joined the Union Army but we don’t know where they are. Sorry but I guess that’s the way war is.
I wanted to tell you everything is fine. But that might be stretching the truth some. I’ve about run out of quinine for healing things up around here, got a little castor oil and blue mass. That’s about all the medicine we got left except for a few roots I tend to boil.
The farm is holdin’ up. Had too much rain this summer, so the crops aren’t as good, corn is nearly intolerable. We are beginning to feel funny running barefoot about the place. To save their shoes I’ve told them all unless they are out working not to wear their shoes no more. And land sakes what I would give for some coffee. Every now and then the dry goods in town will have some hickory nut, or sweet potato peels, but nothing like real coffee. I’ll bet your boys would love to have some too. I can imagine getting up before dawn without it is hard.
Made Josey the last dress they’ll be gettin’ for a while too, but she don’t have no fancy dresses and I figure she needs at least one, so we can all celebrate when we win the war.
We are winning, aren’t we? Is the effort worth it, Leroy? It's been a long time since you been home, and we all miss you. Your letters are few and far between sometimes.
Storms tore a couple of trees down, but that didn’t hurt any. Jacob got those cut up in no time.
Hope everything is going all right. I don’t get much news of the war, but you can write me and let me know how things are goin’. I know you well enough to know you are doin’ all you can. Don’t take any extra chances as I think Josey is anxious to see you again.
She done growed up on me and I reckon you noticed that too. She talks about you endlessly. She works so hard. Trying to take the burden of work from me. I know she’s worried and I can’t seem to make her understand that I’m ready to mee
t my maker. I’m at peace about it, Leroy, and if you come home and I’m not here, see if you can make her understand.
I’ll close this letter now, in hopes you’ll soon be home with us. Stay well, we love ya boy. Your second Ma, Mrs. Anderson.
Leroy smiled at the way she included him in her family, a tear fell down his cheek, but it was a happy tear. His ma never learned to write, so it was extra special to hear from someone who had seen her. He reread the letter several times carrying it in his shirt pocket near his heart along with the memory of Josey, wishing he’d had a lock of her hair, or a picture even.
Some of the boys had pictures and they took better care of the pictures than their own rifles.
Every day they practiced their shooting and everyday they got better. Leroy knew he had some good shooters. The traveling through the wilds of the borders of Texas was rough going sometimes. The mosquitoes were bad. Leroy was concerned because yellow fever had been going up and down the swamplands of Louisiana and Galveston had been hit hard according to his commander. “The Yellow Jacket” is coming was the buzz along the coast of Texas. The Union Army had defeated old Fort Sabine and occupied it for three months, but food was scarce and the fever was enough to drive most of them away again. Trouble was many of the townspeople fled too, and they never returned.
Word came that the Confederates had recaptured Galveston in early 1863, but the Union Army was still undaunted hoping to capture, Sabine Pass, Beaumont, and Orange. The commanding officers of the Confederates knew the Federals wanted the cotton, steamboats, and schooners in port, and they planned to starve Galveston Island into complete surrender.
Leroy felt an inner rage at the thought of starving the people of Texas.
Under Captain F.H. Odlum, Company F of the 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, Leroy and some of his best sharpshooters were able to break up the blockade by using two old cotton clad gunboats, The Uncle Ben and Josiah Belle. After a sea chase the Union boats, The Morning Light and Velocity were captured.
Leroy was talking to the commander in charge later that week. "Fine job, Lieutenant, fine job. Nevertheless, of course this puts General Butler out greatly and I expect retaliation any time for his embarrassment. He’d be out there right now, but he don’t have the gunboats he needs. What disturbs me more is that General Magruder is reducing the Confederate forces at Sabine Pass, when he knows that as soon as Vicksburg is taken, they’ll have the kind of boats to come at us again. Unfortunately, several of Speight’s Battalion was transferred to Louisiana. So we are gonna be shorthanded around here for a while. Right now, there is a plan to send Colonel Griffin to Sabine Pass with his men."
"That’s good news at least," Leroy commented.
"Yes…with any luck things will straighten out. There are plans for Fort Griffin to be built." Leroy nodded.
"Above all, Leroy, Sabine Pass is one of the key points of Texas. We cannot let her fall into enemy hands again. It would be detrimental to Texas in every way. For they want Galveston and it’s shipyards to take all our cotton, sugar and other commodities to the North." He paused and rubbed the beard on his chin as though it itched. "As if coffee weren’t enough. Oh what I would give…Anyway, if they get Sabine Pass and the railroad, we are in high water then. So at all costs, Sabine Pass must stay fortified. Thanks to the commanding officers we are spread too thin, so I want you and your men drilling for target practice. I want accuracy and I don’t want those Yankees to get through."
"Yes sir…neither do I." Leroy nodded.
Stationed in Beaumont, Leroy met with Lieutenant Chasteen’s troops. The men were ever anxious to get back to Sabine Pass, feeling an attack was imminent. They wanted to be where the action was.
Even though Colonel Griffin arrived, and Major Kellersberg was to redesign and build the new fort, things went awry from the beginning. Most everything had been destroyed a year earlier by the Yankees themselves. Major Kellersberg had to decide what to use from the past. However, this time they would not succeed.
Leroy knew that wars were often won by strategy rather than manpower alone. In Texas that had proved true too many times. A handful of Texans defending a place was good enough most times.
One of Leroy’s men informed him of two thirty-two pound long iron guns buried before the fort had been taken by the Federals. It seemed a long shot, but Leroy encouraged Major Kellerberg to check it out. The major found the artillery with a good supply of cannon balls. Leroy shook his head, how fortunate could they get.
Heavily damaged Kellerberg said he doubted he could salvage the cannons. However, Leroy hated scrapping the weapons when there was even a slim possibility they could be restored. He assigned a couple of men to help the major with the work. If they weren’t successful, Kellerberg’s whole career as an engineer would be on the line.
Leroy saw his problem, and offered help. They would have to mold sixteen inch rings and stretch them over the barrels while heated. Then make a groove one-half inch deep and one-half inch wide and twist it into each barrel, over the threaded wrought-iron rings. Leroy knew that boring the grooves was the biggest task, if too deep it would weaken the barrel’s ability to withstand the concussions, and they would explode and possibly kill the one that manned the gun.
Whether they would work or not was yet to be tested. And there was no time left. The cannons were loaded. Leroy only prayed they would work. Lieutenant Dowling manned the guns himself that’s how much faith he had in Kellerberg getting this job done. Leroy wanted to help Dowling, for he knew the lieutenant would risk life and limb for the men at the fort. It prided Leroy greatly that so many men in Texas were willing to go the extra way to save others.
Even though the cannons were restored, all was still not well. An unexpected catastrophe rained down on Griffin’s men when news hit that the Comanche were raiding the men’s homes and families up in Ft. Worth. A near riot broke out that no one could put a stop to. There was also a rumor that Griffin’s tight control of his men caused the riot and threats of mutiny. No one knew for sure which problem changed things. The men wanted to go home and defend their families. Because of the riots and the men’s rebellion, Colonel Griffin reported to General Magruder, and Magruder sent five company troops to Ft. Worth. Leaving Sabine Pass mostly in the hands of officers and forty-four men, part of which were the Davis Guard, a hearty group of Irishmen. Leroy wasn’t in command, but some of his men were the best gunners and sharp shooters there so invaluable to the attack.
At the time there were only about forty-nine men at Ft. Griffin to defend the pass. However, Lieutenant Robert Dowling was determined not to let the Yanks break through, and Leroy backed his decision with his life.
So on September 7, all their suspicions came true, four Union gunboats entered the pass and shot off twenty shells or more at the fort. Dowling ordered all the men to not aim until they were sure they could hit the 1,200 mark that Kellerberg had already measured in the water for their guns. Everyone hid in the underground bomb cellar, and waited till much later in the day to return any fire. So it looked very much as though Ft. Griffin had been abandoned. That’s what Dowling wanted the enemy to think. That edge was all they had working for them now.
When Dowling finally ordered the men to man the guns, he told Leroy it was important that they hit their target and not be gun-happy. Precision would ensure a victory. Major Kellerburg’s marks in the water were a blessing, he figured. Leroy assured him they were up to task.
As the firing began, they were right on the mark, and after only a couple of shots of the cannons, the Sachem started spurting steam. Soldiers trapped on the boat screamed so loud it echoed to the fort. The ship was hit in the drum and the way the steam spurted it was obvious the men were scalded to death. The Clifton took a direct hit. Both boats were done in. Leroy wanted to shout out the pride he felt for their achievements. There was still too much work to be done, as they repeatedly fired. After only half an hour, both boats were incapable of movement, and clung to the sandbars. One on the Louisiana s
ide, one on the Texas side. The other ships made a hasty retreat, not to be seen again, but they lost a lot of supplies in the process when over two hundred horses all tied together drown.
Still there was danger, because if the enemy found out that Ft. Griffin only had a few men they might come back with more reinforcements. Nevertheless, Dowling personally went down to make the arrest of the captured Union officers.
The smell of human skin cooking invaded, as the hot steam filtered over everything, the incredible damage done to the ships had even Dowling’s men sympathizing.
Lieutenant Chasteen came round the bend with the Roebuck, to help dislodge the ships and bring them to port.
Several well-known ladies of the area brought food for the hungry soldiers while Dowling and Leroy marched the Union soldiers to the fort. It was a glorious day for the South and for Texas.
Chapter Ten
Josey had gone to town to get the mail and pick up a few supplies that they could afford. When she got the letter from Leroy, she clutched it to her chest savoring the thought that his hands had been there. She sighed wishing she could open and read it at that moment, but she knew better.
Stopping off at the dry goods, she gave the list to the owner and he filled it for her. "So…any news about the war?" she asked Mr. Phillips.
"Heard tell there was a big ruckus down at Sabine Pass the other day. Don’t know how much truth there is to this story, but the story I got was that less than fifty Confederates got over two hundred prisoners and sunk two ships while they was at it. Sounds a little farfetched but as long as they keep them Yanks on the other side its fine with me." Mr. Phillips replied with a smile.
Josey gasped. "Do you reckon that is true?"
"Well…" He scratched the back of his head. "When them fellers at the Alamo held off them Mexicans, no body believed it. But it was true. So I guess it is possible. I guess they shouldn’t have made ‘em mad." Mr. Phillips laughed. "Shore would have liked to seen that though."
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