“You didn’t hear about that, Miss Leah?” the guard asked. “She was the one that made the South win the Battle of Bull Run.”
Leah stared at him. “How could that be?”
“Why, she found out the North’s plans, and she got the news back to President Davis. That’s how the South knew exactly what we were going to do. Oh, she’s a smart one all right. No telling how much damage she done us.”
Dan shook his head sadly. “I hate to see a woman in a place like this, though. What about the little girl?”
“I hear she’s going to stay with her.”
“Oh! That’s awful!” Leah said. “A little girl like that in a place like this!”
The guard looked a bit embarrassed. “Yes, I guess it is, Miss Leah. But Mrs. Greenhow, she wouldn’t have it no other way.”
Leah and her father spoke for a while to the guard, but he knew little else about the woman. Later they found out that the head of the Federal Secret Service, Allen Pinkerton, had captured Mrs. Greenhow personally.
Leah said little, but when she talked about it later before bed, she said, “You know, I’m going to try to get to see Mrs. Greenhow and especially that little girl. She’s bound to be scared, don’t you think, Pa?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. That would be a good thing to do.”
The next day Leah found a doll in one of the shops in Washington. It was not a new doll, but she bought it and wrapped it up in a piece of red paper. When she got to the prison, she asked for permission to see the little girl.
Lieutenant Simpkins glared at her as usual. “What do you want to see her for? So you can carry messages out to help the Rebels again?”
Leah was accustomed to his surly manner. “No, Lieutenant. You can search me all you want to. I just feel sorry for her little girl. I brought her a doll.”
“Let me see that!” Simpkins looked at the doll, felt its soft body for messages, then handed it back. “Well, I guess it’ll be all right. This time.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
Mrs. Greenhow, she discovered, was on the second floor, and Leah was admitted at once. As soon as she was inside she said, “Mrs. Greenhow, my name is Leah Carter. My father is a sutler, but we visit the prisoners here.”
“Are you a Southern sympathizer?” the woman asked. She was an attractive woman, but there was suspicion in her eyes. “Why would you visit Rebel prisoners?”
Leah explained that one of the prisoners had been a neighbor back in Kentucky, and then she smiled. “I thought you wouldn’t mind if I would come and visit with your daughter. I brought her a present.”
“A present?” Mrs. Greenhow’s eyes softened. She turned to look at her daughter. “Isn’t that nice, Rose?”
The child had held back. Now she reached out and took the parcel that Leah offered her. She opened it silently, but when she saw the doll, she cried, “Oh, Mama! It’s just like the one I used to have back home!” She hugged the doll and looked at Leah. “Thank you.”
“I had a doll like that too, when I was your age,” Leah said. “Look—I brought some material too. Maybe we can make some clothes for her.”
Leah sat down and for the next hour occupied herself with making doll clothes.
Mrs. Greenhow sat at a table watching. When Leah got up to leave, she put her hand out. “I’m poor in everything except thanks, Leah,” she said. “I appreciate your coming. Will you come back again?”
“Oh, yes, my father and I come several times a week. Can I bring you anything, Mrs. Greenhow?”
Mrs. Greenhow looked at her carefully, then said, “The only thing would be some paper and something to write with.”
“Oh, yes, we sell those to the soldiers all the time,” Leah said. “As a matter of fact, I have some left over here.” She rummaged in her bag and brought out a small package of paper, a pen, and a bottle of ink.
“I can’t pay you for these.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” Leah said quickly with a smile. “Just think of it as a late Christmas present.” She put her things together, then left.
When she made her visit to Lieutenant Majors, Leah found that everyone was very interested in the woman.
“I’m surprised that Lieutenant Simpkins let you see her,” Jeff’s father remarked.
“Well, he did search the doll I took to her little girl.” Leah grinned. “I think he was ashamed to. I think they’re all ashamed of keeping a woman in a prison like this.”
One of the prisoners who had been sitting close enough to overhear said, “Some talk about hanging her.”
“Oh, they wouldn’t do that!” Leah cried out.
“No, I don’t think they would. That would be too terrible,” Nelson Majors agreed. He looked at Leah and said, “You better be a little bit careful though. They’re going to be watching everyone that comes to see Mrs. Greenhow. She’s a famous person.”
His warning alerted Leah, but during the next week she came to the prison several times, each time stopping by to see the woman and the little girl.
Every time, Lieutenant Simpkins searched her bags before she went in and as she left. Once he said, “I don’t understand you. That woman’s an enemy of your country.”
Leah thought he was a sad-looking young man, rather sour and bitter. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I do know she’s not young anymore, and I don’t think little Rose is an enemy to anybody’s country.”
“That’s what you think!” Simpkins said. “I tried to be nice to her the other day, and you know what that child said?” A look of disgust crossed his face. “She said, ‘You’ve got one of the blamedest little Rebels here you ever saw.”’ Simpkins shook his head in disgust. “What can you expect though with a mother like that?”
Leah did not argue with the lieutenant but made her way back to camp. When she got there she was met by her father.
“Come in and get warm, Pet.”
She removed her heavy coat and hugged the little cookstove he had set up in the tent.
“How was Mrs. Greenhow and little Rose?”
“Oh, about as usual. So sad their being there! I wish they could leave.”
“Well, I expect they’ll be released and sent South one of these days,” he said. “How about Nelson?”
“He looked fairly well,” Leah said, holding out her hands to warm the numb fingers.
“Well, I’ve got something for you.”
He held out an envelope, and when Leah saw the handwriting, she cried out, “It’s from Jeff!” She ripped it open and stared at the single sheet of paper. When she had read it, she then read it aloud to her father.
Dear Leah and Mr. Carter,
I find myself well and hope that you are the same. I trust that things have been going well with my father. I can’t tell you how much Tom and I appreciate what you’ve done for him. I really don’t think he would have made it if you hadn’t been there.
We haven’t done much soldiering here during the winter. It’s too cold, I suppose. I think a lot about Esther. Tom and I both would like to see her. I want to get back to Kentucky as quick as I can. Of course, Tom wants to go too, but I think you know someone he wants to see just as much as he wants to see Esther.
Thanks for the long letters you’ve written me. I look forward to them. I think a lot about the birds’ nest collection and wonder if we’ll ever get one of those downy woodpecker eggs. Remember how hard we looked for that one last summer? And how you fell out of the tree, right on top of me? I didn’t know you were so heavy until you lit right on top of my head.
Well, that’s about all I have time for now. I will write again when I get your letter.
Yours sincerely,
Jefferson Majors
“A nice letter,” Dan Carter said. “You can tell the boy’s lonesome—but that’s only natural.”
Leah looked at him with a light in her eyes. “That’s not all the letter,” she said mysteriously. “It’s not? Is there more on the other side?”
“No
, but we’ve got a secret code. Look here, Pa.” Leah held the paper near the flame that burned in the small stove.
“Why, you’re going to burn it up, Daughter!” her father protested.
But she only shook her head. Carefully she held the letter close to the heat until it grew warm to the touch. She bent over, peering at it, then cried, “That’s it!”
“That’s what?” he asked in bewilderment. “Look, Pa!” Leah held up the letter, and he pulled out his spectacles. Putting them on his nose, he leaned forward. “Why, what’s that between the lines?”
“That’s our secret code. It’s written in lemon juice, and when you heat it, it comes out all nice and brown. See?”
“Well, I never heard the like of that! What does it say?”
Leah had to peer closely to read the secret writing.
Leah, me and Tom will be leaving soon. We’re going to some place called Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Word is here that some Yankee general, somebody called Grant, is going to try to take it, and we’re going to have to stop him. Don’t tell anybody about this. I guess we’ll be in fighting, so if you want to pray for me and Tom, it’ll be all right. We’re still the best of friends.
Leah looked up and whispered, “We can’t tell anybody about this, Pa, or we’d be spies.”
“No, and I guess you better burn that letter.”
“No, I won’t do that, but I’ll hide it so nobody will ever find it.” Leah clutched the letter tightly and whispered, “Fort Donelson—I don’t even know where that is.”
“Well, I do. It’s on a river in Tennessee, and it’s not good for us.”
“Why not, Pa?”
“Because, Pet, that’s where your brother, Royal, has been sent, him and some of the troops to reinforce General Grant.”
Leah looked startled. “Oh, that’s awful! Why, that could mean that Royal and Tom could be shooting at each other.”
“That’s what it means, all right. We’re going to have to trust God to keep them from doing that.”
8
General Forrest
Saves the Day
By the time the Richmond troops arrived at Fort Donelson, Jeff and Tom were worn out. They had ridden part of the way on flat cars but walked the last forty miles. Now, as they sat wearily around a campfire, hugging it for warmth, Jeff said with chattering teeth, “I don’t see why we had to come all the way down here, Tom. Seems to me there’d be plenty of fighting going on around Richmond.”
“I reckon this is more important than you know, Jeff.”
Jeff stared at the old crumbling fort perched on the banks of the Tennessee River. “It don’t look like much to me. What’s so all-fired important about it?”
Tom blew on his hands, then held them close to the flickering yellow flames. “Well, look here …” Picking up a stick, he began to draw in the dirt. “You see, right here—this is the Confederate line. Here it comes across bluegrass country and all the way across Missouri and on to Indian Territory, several hundred miles long. Now all this is under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston.”
“I’ve heard of him!” Jeff exclaimed. “They say President Davis puts a lot of stock in him.”
“That’s right. He said once he didn’t know about other generals but he knew he had one, and that was Albert Sidney Johnston.”
“He ain’t as good as Robert E. Lee, I bet,” Jeff said loyally. He looked around again. “What about this fort?”
Tom drew more wavy lines. “Well, here’s the Tennessee River, and here’s the Cumberland. You see, they run side by side until they come toward the Ohio. Now, right here at the Ohio the Union gunboats have been a threat to our line.”
“I don’t see what difference that makes. A few gunboats couldn’t whip all of us Confederates stretching across here, could they?”
“No, but here’s what happens. You see this area here—here’s where we been getting our supplies. Our armies can’t fight if they don’t have food and guns and ammunition. Things have been coming to us up this river, and Fort Donelson here is the fort that’s supposed to keep us from controlling the supply line.”
“Oh! So this is where we have to stop the Yankees. Is that right?”
“That’s right.” Tom looked out across the fading daylight to where the river purled past the old fort. “If they control the Mississippi, I don’t think we can win. And right here at this little place called Donelson, that’s where it’s going to be settled. If they whip us here, they can take the whole river.”
“Well, who’s going to be our commanding officer now that we’re here? I wish we could have brought General Lee with us.”
“Reckon he’s got all he can do back in Richmond. From what I hear, McClellan’s going to be there soon with about a hundred thousand soldiers. That’s why we gotta stop ’em here quick so we can get back to help him.”
After only a few days, word came that the Northern general, Grant, had taken Fort Henry just a few miles away.
“I reckon they’ll be coming to get us now for sure,” Tom said dubiously. “I wish we were anywhere except here. I don’t like the generals we’ve got.”
The two generals in charge were General Pillow and General Floyd. When the Federal attack came, these generals held out for two days, but then they caved in.
The first that Jeff heard of the bad news was when Tom came in, his mouth hard. “Well, they’ve done it! They’re gonna surrender.”
“Surrender! Why, they can’t do that!”
“They’re arguing about it now, but the word is that those two are gonna quit.”
“What about us, all of us here?”
“We’ll wind up in a prison camp, that’s what! I had a bad feeling about this all the time, Jeff. Now it looks like I was right.”
“We’ve got to get out of here! We can’t stay here. I couldn’t stand it in one of those prison camps, and you couldn’t either, Tom.”
“I know it.” Tom’s shoulders sagged, and he said grimly, “But I just don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”
* * *
Inside the officers’ tent, an argument was going on. The two generals Pillow and Floyd were so discouraged they could do little but moan. Another general, Buckner, tried to encourage them, but they would have none of it.
“You stay here, General Buckner—Pillow and I will leave.”
There was a fourth officer in the tent—General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was a tall, stronglooking man with a full beard and fierce eyes. He had listened to the defeatist talk of Pillow and Floyd and protested that there was still a way out. He could lead the men through the swamp and across the river, through the enemy lines. “I can get us all out, if you’ll just listen!”
But General Floyd shook his head. “No, it’s hopeless. You can’t do it, Forrest. You’ll have to surrender your command.”
General Forrest glared at him. “I didn’t come to this place to surrender my command. You can do what you want, but I am leading my men out of here.” He turned and left the tent.
General Forrest went to where his cavalry troop was stationed. The men gathered around to hear him. Tom and Jeff had made friends with one of the troopers, and they looked up at the big general.
Forrest said, “Men, they’re going to surrender, but not me. I’m getting out of here if I have to die doing it. Anybody who wants to come is welcome.”
At once the cavalrymen let out a shrill yelp and began hurriedly saddling their horses.
Tom nudged Jeff in the ribs. “This is our chance. I’m going to get out of here with General Forrest.”
“But we don’t have any horses.”
“I don’t care. We’ll swim out if we have to. Come on now.”
Tom led the way to where the general was issuing orders. He waited until he was free and then said, “General?”
Forrest turned his dark eyes on him. “Yes? What is it?”
“My brother and I, we don’t relish going to a Yankee prison camp. Take us with you.”
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“I don’t have any horses to spare.”
“We’ll swim—anything. I’d rather die than go to one of those prison camps.”
“Me too, General,” Jeff piped up. “Our pa’s in a prison camp himself. All three of us can’t go there.”
Forrest hesitated only a moment. “All right, I’ll see what I can do.” He looked around. “Lieutenant Simon, put these two fellows behind a couple of our troopers. They can ride double.”
“Yes, sir!” the lieutenant snapped. Then, as the general turned away, he said, “Come on, fellows! We’ve got to get out of here. I’ll find you somebody to ride with.”
An hour later General Forrest’s troop rode out. Jeff and Tom rode behind two of the cavalrymen. The icy river came up as high as the horses’ bellies, and they held their feet up. The water was cold enough to numb the toes.
The lean cavalryman Jeff was holding onto turned and grinned. “A little bit cold, ain’t it?”
“I don’t care,” Jeff said instantly. “I’ll do anything to get out of that place.”
“Well, you ought to join the cavalry. It’s the only way to fight a war.”
Jeff never forgot that ride through the rising, freezing river. A few of the men didn’t make it across, but most of them did.
When he and Tom had gotten safely away, Tom thanked the general. “Sir, I guess we better get on back to Richmond. Our outfit’s there.”
General Forrest nodded. “From what I hear, McClellan’s bringing a pretty big bunch out of Washington, headed for Richmond. If I didn’t have to stay here and help clean up this mess, I’d go with you.”
“We’ll never forget what you’ve done for us, General Forrest,” Tom said. “Thanks a lot!”
Forrest was a stern man, but he grinned. “Remember this—if you get there first with the most, you’ll always whup ’em.”
He turned and galloped away, and Tom said, “Now, there’s one real soldier!”
“He sure is.” Jeff nodded with admiration. “I wish we had a hundred just like him!”
9
God Will
Take Care of Us
Yankee Belles in Dixie Page 6